Chapter 5 Summary

Living under false pretenses is normal for Flashy and soon he is thinking in Urdu. Gulam Beg, Ilderim's cousin, accepts his story but suspects prior military service, as does his Colonel, who does not care. Flashy takes the oath and is issued uniform and weapons. When he menaces the property clerk who rebukes him for testing the action on his new Enfield musket, Flashy attains a reputation in the troop. He settles well into barrack life, having to guard against the thousands of tiny behavioral details that could give him away and opting to act as surly as possible so people will avoid him. Life is boring as he excels at everything and envies the nearby British officers' comforts. Only the memory of Ignatieff keeps Flashy at Meerut.

Barracks talk shows religious anger running high. Muslims and Hindus both believe that the whites...