Between Snow and Fire — page 234: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

* * 7, a * =" , 4 . ” 226 ‘TWEEN SNOW AND FIRE, had been treated fairly well by his captors. They were sav- ages, smarting under a sense of defeat and loss. They might have put him to death amid cruel torments; instead of which they had given him his liberty. For the said lib- erty he had yet to pay—to pay pretty smartly, too, but this was only fair and might be looked upon in the light of ran- som. “He was not guing to give any information to their detriment merely because, under a doubtfully administered system of organization, they had taken up arms against the Colony. Besides, as a matter of fact, it was doubtful whether he had any information to give. So his entertainers were disappointed. Everyone who accosted him upon the objectionable topic was disappointed. He became unpopular. The infinitesimal intellect of the community felt slighted. The far from infinitesimal sense of self-importance of the said community was wounded to the core. Here was a man who had passed through strange and startling experl- ences which everyone else was dying to share—at second hand. Yet he kept them to himself. Who was he, indeed, they would like to know? Other men, had they gone through the same experiences, would have had them on tap all day long, for the benefit of all comers, good measure and brimming over. This one, on the contrary, was as close as death itself. Who was he that he should affect a sin- gularity ? When a man is unpopular in a small community, he is pretty sure before long to be made aware of that fact. In this instance there were not wanting individuals the in- genuity of whose inventive powers was equa! to the occa- sion. No wonder Milne was reticent as to what he had gone through—hinted these—for it was almost certainly not to his credit. It was a singular thing that he should have emerged from the ordeal unhurt and smiling, while poor Tom Carhayes had been mercilessly butchered. It looked fishy—uncommonly so. The more you looked at it, the more it began to take on the aspect of a put-up job. Indeed it would not be surprising if it turned out that the expedition across the Bashi was a cunningly devised trap, not originating with the Kafirs either. The escape of Hoste and Payne was part of the programme—no motive existing why these two should be put out of the way. Motive? Motive for desiring Tom Carhayes’ death ? GComilicbooks (E (6) m