Rung Ho! A Novel

The ringed wolf glared the circle round Through baleful, blue-lit eye, Not unforgetful of his debt. “Now, heed ye how ye draw the net.” Quoth he: “I'll do some damage yet Or ere...

The trapped wolf bared his fangs and swore, “But set me this time free, And I will hunt thee never more! By ear and eye and jungle law, I'll starve--I'll faint--I'll die before...

Did he swear with his leg in a spring-steel trap And a tongue dry-cracked from thirst? Or down on his knees at his lady's lap With the lady's lips to his own, mayhap, And his he...

Howrah City bows the knee More or less to masters three, King, and Prince, and Siva. Howrah City pays in pain Taxes which the royal twain Give to priests, to give again (More or...

AT Howrah, while Mahommed Gunga was employing each chance circumstance to test the pluck and decision and reliability of Cunningham at almost every resting-place along the Grand...

Now, fifteen hundred, horse and man, Reel at the word of one! Loosed by the brazen trumpet's peal-- Knee to knee and toe on heel-- Troop on troop the squadrons wheel Outbrazenin...

I take no man at rumor's price, Nor as the gossips cry him. A son may ride, and stride, and stand; His father's eye--his father's hand-- His father's tongue may give command; Bu...

Against all fear; against the weight of what, For lack of worse name, men miscall the Law; Against the Tyranny of Creed; against the hot, Foul Greed of Priest, and Superstition'...

Now, God give good going to master o' mine, God speed him, and lead him, and nerve him; God give him a lead of a length in the line, And,--God let him boast that I serve him!

JAIMIHR was not the only man who would have dearly liked to know of the whereabouts of Mahommed Gunga. It had been reported to Maharajah Howrah, by his spies, that the redoubtab...

Sons of the sons of war we be, Sabred and horsed, and whole and free; One is the caste, and one degree,-- One law,--one code decreed us. Who heads wolves in the dawning day? Who...

Quoth little red jackal, famishing, “Lo, Yonder a priest and a soldier go; You can see farthest, and you ought to know,-- Which shall I wander with, carrion crow?” The crow cawe...

NOT many yards from where the restless elephants stood lined under big brick arches--in an age-old courtyard, three sides of which were stone-carved splendor and the fourth a ty...

Now, because it was impregnable to almost anything except a yet-to-be-invented air-ship, the Alwa-sahib owned a fortress still, high-perched on a crag that overlooked a glitteri...

What found ye, then? Why heated ye the pot? What useful metal down the channels ran? Gold? Steel for making weapons? Iron? What? Nay. Out from the fire we kindled strode a man!

Ye may go and lay your praise At a shrine of other days By the tomb of him who gat, and her who bore me; My plan is good--my way-- The sons of kings obey-- But, I'm reaping wher...

Achilles had a tender spot That even guarding gods forgot, When clothing him in armor; And I have proved this charge o' mine For fear, and sloth, and vice, and wine, But clear f...

Ha! my purse may be lean, but my 'scutcheon is clean, And I'm backed by a dozen true men; I've a sword to my name, and a wrist for the same; Can a king frown fear into me, then?

RALPH CUNNINGHAM reached Peshawur at last with no less than nine tigers to his gun, and that in itself would have been sufficient to damn him in the eyes of more than half of th...

Sabres and spurs and jingling bits-- (Ho! But the food to feed them!) Sinews and eyes and ears and wits-- (Hey! But the troopers need them!) Sahib, mount! Thy chargers fling Foa...

NOW it may seem unimaginable that two Europeans could be cooped in Howrah, not under physical restraint, and yet not able to communicate with any one who could render them assis...

HE landed, together with about a dozen other newly gazetted subalterns and civil officers, cramped, storm-tossed, snubbed, and then disgorged from a sailing-ship into a port tha...

There is war to the North should I risk and ride forth, And a fight to the South, too, I'm thinking; There is war in the East, and one battle at least In the West between eating...

RALPH CUNNINGHAM said good-by to Brigadier-General Byng (Byng the Brigadier) with more feeling of regret and disappointment than he cared to show. A born soldier, he did his har...

HEMMED in amid the stifling stench and babel of the caravansary, secluded by the very denseness of the many-minded swarm, five other Rajputs and Mahommed Gunga--all six, accordi...

For service truly rendered, and for duty dumbly done--For men who neither tremble nor forget--There is due reward, my henchman. There is honor to be won. There is watch and ward...

The freed wolf limped home to his lair, And lay to lick his sore. With wrinkled lip and fangs agnash-- With back-laid ear and eyes aflash-- “Twas something rather more than rash...

BESIDE the reeking bear's cage in which Ali Partab stood and swore was a dark, low corner space in which at one time and another sacks and useless impedimenta had been tossed, t...

ON the morning after Mahommed Gunga's daring experiment with Cunningham's nervous system he was anxious to say the least of it; and that is only another way of saying that he wa...

“You have failed!” whispered Fate, and a weary civilian Threw up his task as a matter of course. “Failed?” said the soldier. He knew a million Chances untackled yet. “Get me a h...

Now, secrets and things of the Councils of Kings Are deucid expensive to buy, For it wouldn't look nice if a Councillor's price Were anything other than high. Be advised, though...

OH, duck and run--the hornets come! Oh, jungli! Clear the way! The nest's ahum--the hornets come! The sharp-stinged, harp-winged hornets come! Nay, jungli! When the hornets come...

Howrah City bows the knee (More or less) to masters three, King, and Prince, and Siva. Howrah City comes and goes-- Buys and sells--and never knows Which is friend, and which ar...

Friends I have sought me of varying nations, Men of all ranks and of different stations; Some are in jail now, and some are deceased. Two, though, I found to be experts at sunde...