Traffics and Discoveries eBook

  In Memory of
  WALTER DECIES CORBYN
  Late Captain 141st Punjab Cavalry

  The Gurgaon Rissala, that is.  Go on, Sahib.

  Treacherously shot near this place by
  The connivance of the late
  HENDRIK DIRK UYS
  A Minister of God
  Who thrice took the oath of neutrality
  And Piet his son,
  This little work

Aha!  This is the first jest.  The Sahib should see this little work!

  Was accomplished in partial
  And inadequate recognition of their loss
  By some men who loved him

  Si monumentum requiris circumspice

That is the second jest.  It signifies that those who would desire to behold a proper memorial to Kurban Sahib must look out at the house.  And, Sahib, the house is not there, nor the well, nor the big tank which they call dams, nor the little fruit-trees, nor the cattle.  There is nothing at all, Sahib, except the two trees withered by the fire.  The rest is like the desert here—­or my hand—­or my heart.  Empty, Sahib—­all empty!

“THEIR LAWFUL OCCASIONS”

THE WET LITANY

  When the water’s countenance
  Blurrs ’twixt glance and second glance;
  When the tattered smokes forerun
  Ashen ’neath a silvered sun;
  When the curtain of the haze
  Shuts upon our helpless ways—­
       Hear the Channel Fleet at sea;
       Libera nos domine!

  When the engines’ bated pulse
  Scarcely thrills the nosing hulls;
  When the wash along the side
  Sounds, a sudden, magnified
  When the intolerable blast
  Marks each blindfold minute passed.

  When the fog-buoy’s squattering flight
  Guides us through the haggard night;
  When the warning bugle blows;
  When the lettered doorways close;
  When our brittle townships press,
  Impotent, on emptiness.

  When the unseen leadsmen lean
  Questioning a deep unseen;
  When their lessened count they tell
  To a bridge invisible;
  When the hid and perilous
  Cliffs return our cry to us.

  When the treble thickness spread
  Swallows up our next-ahead;
  When her siren’s frightened whine
  Shows her sheering out of line;
  When, her passage undiscerned,
  We must turn where she has turned—­
       Hear the Channel Fleet at sea;
       Libera nos Domine!

“THEIR LAWFUL OCCASIONS”

PART I

  ...  “And a security for such as pass on the seas upon
  their lawful occasions.”—­Navy Prayer.

Disregarding the inventions of the Marine Captain, whose other name is Gubbins, let a plain statement suffice.