WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR
laws governing the liberty of the subject; the pink-shirted Eurasian begging leave to see his mother, who happened to be dying some three miles away: "Only verree, verree short leave of absence, and will presently return, sar—"; the two constables, armed with staves, bringing up the rear; and Faiz Ullah, a Mohammedan's contempt for all Hindoos and foreigners in every line of his face, explaining to the drivers that though Scott Sahib was a man to be feared on all fours, he, Faiz Ullah, was Authority Itself.
The procession creaked past Hawkins's camp—three stained tents under a clump of dead trees, behind them the famine-shed, where a crowd of hopeless ones tossed their arms around the cooking-kettles.
"'Wish to Heaven William had kept out of it," said Scott to himself, after a glance. "We 'll have cholera, sure as a gun, when the Rains break."
But William seemed to have taken kindly to the operations of the Famine Code, which, when famine is declared, supersede the workings of the ordinary law. Scott saw her, the centre of a mob of weeping women, in a calico riding-habit, and a blue-grey felt hat with a gold puggaree.
"I want fifty rupees, please. I forgot to ask Jack before he went away. Can you lend it me? It 's for condensed-milk for the babies," said she.
Scott took the money from his belt, and handed it over without a word. " For goodness sake, take care of yourself," he said.
"Oh, I shall be all right. We ought to get the milk in two days. By the way, the orders are, I was to tell you,
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