This looked bad, too, for old Cockey Wax--as he was known to everybody in the Hill districts but himself--wasn't given to thinking.
I guessed the cause and told him so.
"Yes," he said wearily, "you are right! It's the old story.
Mulledwiney, Bleareyed, and Otherwise are at it again,--drink followed by Clink.

Even now two corporals and a private are sitting on Mulledwiney's head to keep him quiet, and Bleareyed is chained to an elephant." "Perhaps," I suggested, "you are unnecessarily severe." "Do you really think so?
Thank you so much! I am always glad to have a civilian's opinion on military matters--and vice versa--it broadens one so! And yet--am I severe?
I am willing, for instance, to overlook their raid upon a native village, and the ransom they demanded for a native inspector! I have overlooked their taking the horses out of my carriage for their own use.

I am content also to believe that my fowls meekly succumb to jungle fever and cholera.

But there are some things I cannot ignore.

The carrying off of the great god Vishnu from the Sacred Shrine at Ducidbad by The Three for the sake of the priceless opals in its eyes"-- "But I never heard of THAT," I interrupted eagerly.