After all, the pay out here is quite as high, in comparison with the
ordinary rate of earning of a peasant, as it is in England. It is
never the pay that tempts soldiers. Among young men there are always
great numbers who prefer the life to that of a peasant, working
steadily from daylight to dark, and I don't know that I altogether
blame them."
"Then you think, Uncle, there is no doubt whatever that there will be
war?"
"Not a shadow of doubt, Dick--indeed, it may be said to have begun
already; and, like the last, it is largely due to the incapacity of
the government of Madras."
"I have just received a message from Arcot," the Rajah said, two
months later, "and I must go over and see the Nabob."
"I thought," Mrs. Holland said, "that Tripataly was no longer subject
to him. I understood that our father was made independent of Arcot?"
"No, Margaret, not exactly that. The Nabob had involved himself in
very heavy debts, during the great struggle. The Company had done
something to help him, but were unable to take all his debts on their
shoulders; and indeed, there was no reason why they should have done
so, for although during most of the war he was their ally, he was
fighting on his own behalf, and not on theirs.
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