He never
gave a thought to it, but ate what was brought to him, sitting his
horse most likely, and chewing something as he rode among the men,
and saw that they filled their bellies properly. He had made up his
mind to march on Harumpore, and to take over the five-hundred-strong
contingent there. Then he could swoop down on any of a dozen other
points, in any one of which a blow would tell.
He was handicapped by knowing almost too much. He had watched so
long, and had suspected for so long that some sort of rebellion was
brewing that, now that it had come, his brain was busy with the tail-ends
of a hundred scraps of plans. He was so busy wondering what might
be happening to all the other men subordinate to him, who would have
to be acting on their own initiative, that his own plans lacked
something of directness. But there was no lack of decision, and no
time was lost. The men marched, and marched their swiftest, in the
dust-laden Indian heat. And he marched with them, in among them,
and ate what the cook brought him, without a thought but for the
best interests of the government he served.
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