the highest compliment one human being could pay another an hour later scott was under way the threatening him with the of the law for that he a member of the subordinate medical department had been and bound against his will and all william the conqueror laws governing the liberty of the subject the begging leave to see his mother who happened to be dying some three miles away only short leave of absence and will presently return the two armed with bringing up the rear and a s contempt for all and foreigners in every line of his face explaining to the drivers that though scott was a man to be feared on all he was authority itself the procession s three stained tents under a of dead trees behind them the famine shed where a crowd of hopeless ones tossed their arms the cooking wish to heaven william had kept out of it said scott to himself after a glance we u have sure as a gun when the ra ns break but william seemed to ive taken kindly to the operations of the famine code which when famine is declared the workings of the ordinary law scott saw her the centre of a mob of weeping women in a riding habit and a blue grey felt hat with a gold i want fifty please i forgot to ask jack before he went away can you lend it me it s for milk for the babies said she scott took the money from his belt and handed it over without a word for goodness sake take care of yourself he said oh i shall be all right we ought to get the milk in two days by the way the orders are i was to tell you william the conqueror that you re to take one of sir jim s horses there s a gi y here that i thought would be just your style so i ve said you d take him was that right that s awfully good of you we can t either of us talk much about style i am afraid scott was in a weather stained shooting very white at the and a little at the wrists william regarded him thoughtfully from his to his ankle boots you look very nice i think are you sure you ve everything you u need � and so on think so said scott patting three or four of his shooting pockets as he mounted and rode alongside his good bye he cried good bye and good luck said william i m awfully obliged for the money she turned on a heel and disappeared into the tent while the carts pushed on past the famine sheds past the roaring lines of the thick fat fires down to the baked of the south part n so let melt and make no noise no tear nor sigh move t were of onr joys to tell the our love a it was work even though he travelled by night and by day but within the limits of his vision there was no man whom scott could call master he was as free as in fact for the government held the head of the famine tied neatly to a telegraph wire and if had ever regarded seriously the death rate of that famine would have been much higher than it was at the end of a few days crawling scott learned something of the size of the india which he served and it astonished him his carts as you know were loaded with wheat and good food only a little grinding but the people to whom he brought the life giving were rice they could rice in their but they knew nothing of the heavy stone of the north and less of the material that the white man so laboriously they for william the conqueror such as they were accustomed to� and when they found that there was none broke away weeping from the sides of the cart what was the use of these strange hard that choked their throats they would die and then and there very many of them kept their word others took and enough to feed a man through a week for a few of rotten rice saved by some less unfortunate a few put their shares into the rice it and made a with foul water but they were very few scott dimly that many people in the india of the south ate rice as a rule but he had spent his service in a grain province had seldom seen rice in the blade or ear and least of all would have believed that in time of deadly need men could die at arm s length of plenty sooner than touch food they did not know in vain the interpreted in vain his two showed in vigorous what should be done the starving crept away to their bark and weeds leaves and clay and left the open untouched but sometimes the women laid their of children at scott s feet looking back as they staggered away it was the will of god that these foreigners should die and it remained only to give orders to bum the dead none the less there was no reason why the should lack his comforts and a of experience had picked up a few lean and had added them to the procession that they might give milk for the morning meal he was feeding them on the good grain that these william the conqueror rejected yes said if the thought fit a little milk might be given to some of the babies but as the well knew babies were cheap and for his own part held that there was no government order as to babies scott spoke to and the two and bade them capture where they could find them this they most joyfully did for it was a and 