` For my own part , I wish our reports had been sent back from Hilas , or even Leh . ' ` The English post is better and safer . Remember we are given all facilities -- and Name of God ! -- they give them to us too ! Is it unbelievable stupidity ? ' ` It is pride -- pride that deserves and will receive punishment . ' ` Yes ! To fight a fellow-Continental in our game is something . There is a risk attached , but these people -- bah ! It is too easy . ' ` Pride -- all pride , my friend . ' ` Now what the deuce is good of Chandernagore being so close to Calcutta and all , ' said Hurree , snoring open-mouthed on the sodden moss , ` if I can not understand their French ? They talk so particularly fast ! It would have been much better to cut their beastly throats . ' When he presented himself again he was racked with a headache -- penitent , and volubly afraid that in his drunkenness he might have been indiscreet . He loved the British Government -- it was the source of all prosperity and honour , and his master at Rampur held the very same opinion . Upon this the men began to deride him and to quote past words , till step by step , with deprecating smirks , oily grins , and leers of infinite cunning , the poor Babu was beaten out of his defences and forced to speak -- truth . When Lurgan was told the tale later , he mourned aloud that he could not have been in the place of the stubborn , inattentive coolies , who with grass mats over their heads and the raindrops puddling in their footprints , waited on the weather . All the Sahibs of their acquaintance -- rough-clad men joyously returning year after year to their chosen gullies -- had servants and cooks and orderlies , very often hillmen . These Sahibs travelled without any retinue .
Therefore they were poor XXXXX , and ignorant ; for no Sahib in his senses would follow a Bengali 's advice .
Babu Chandernagore English French Lurgan Sahibs coolies deuce hillmen leers