"I don't like turning my back on the place," he went on, as they
turned their horses' heads to the south; for Savandroog was the
farthest north of the forts they were to visit. "It seems to me that,
even now, my father may be there."
"How can that be, Dick?" Surajah said in surprise. "Nothing could be
more straightforward than the governor seemed to be. I thought that he
was even rash, in speaking as frankly as he did to us."
"I think he saw there was no fear of our repeating what he said,
Surajah. He is a frank, outspoken old soldier, and has evidently been
so disgusted at the treatment of the prisoners that he could not mince
his words; and yet, you know, he did not absolutely say that he had no
prisoners."
"No; I noticed that he did not reply directly to your question."
"On the contrary, he distinctly hesitated before he spoke. Now, why
should he have done that? He might just as well have said, 'No, I have
no prisoners. They are only sent up here for execution.' That would
have been his natural answer. Instead of that he hesitated, and then
began, 'I don't want any of them here; batches are sent up sometimes
from Bangalore.' Now, why did he shirk the question? If it had been
any other subject, I might not have noticed that he had not really
answered it, but of course, as it was so important a one, I was
listening most anxiously for his reply, and noticed his hesitation at
once, and that he gave no direct answer at all.
Pages:
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369