*III.*
In the spring the natives grew restless.
"They’re stretching themselves after a long sleep," said a youngsubaltern, knowingly.
"They’re planning mutiny," said the Colonel to himself, and he orderedout a band of men for investigating the neighborhood.
The little band was delayed seven hours over the extremest limit set forits return.
When it came it bore a dead man back to the Station. The man had been aBriton and of the regiment.
Then the grim spirit of the military station rose, as the gray, stillsea rises at the onsweep of the gale.
War had come.