Glyn Severns Schooldays | Page 7

believe
he'll lick me easily. But, as I said before, I shall pretty well tire him out,
and then you being the reserve, he'll come at you, and then he'll find
out his mistake. And I say, Singhy, old chap, I do hope that my eyes
won't be so closed that I can't see. Now then, come up to our room. It's
a holiday, and the rules won't count to-day. Come on, and we'll talk it
over."
"But--" began Singh.
"Now, don't be obstinate. You promised father you'd try and give way
to me over English matters. Now, didn't you?"
"Well," said the lad hesitatingly, "I suppose I did."
"Come on, then. You see war's begun, and we have got to settle our
plan of campaign."

The young Maharajah nodded his head and smiled.
"Yes," he said, "come up to our room. We ought to dress, oughtn't we,
to see the procession? I say, I don't know how it is, I always like
fighting against any one who tries to bully. I am not sorry that war has
begun."
"Neither am I," said the English lad quietly, "for things have been very
unpleasant ever since we came here, and when we've got this over
perhaps we shall be at peace."
CHAPTER THREE.
THE PRINCE'S REGALIA.
The bedroom shared by Glyn Severn and Singh was one of a series,
small and particularly comfortable, in the new annexe the Doctor had
built expressly for lecture-room and dormitories when his
establishment began to increase.
The comfortably furnished room just sufficed for two narrow beds and
the customary furniture; and as soon as the two lads had entered, Singh
hurried to his chest of drawers, unlocked one, took out a second bunch
of keys to that he carried in his pocket, and was then crossing to a
sea-going portmanteau standing in one corner, when Glyn, who was
looking very thoughtful and abstracted, followed, and as Singh knelt
down and threw open the travelling-case, laid his hand upon the lad's
shoulder. "What are you going to do?" he said shortly. "Only look out
two or three things that there's not room for in the drawer."
"What for?"
"Why, to dress for the procession."
"Stuff and nonsense! You are quite right as you are," cried Glyn
half-mockingly. "You must learn to remember that you are in England,
where nobody dresses up except soldiers. Why, what were you going to
do?"

"I was going to put on a white suit and belt."
"Nonsense!" cried Glyn. "This isn't India, but Devonshire. Why, if you
were to come down dressed like that the boys would all laugh at you,
and the crowd out in the road shout and cheer."
"Well, of course," said Singh; "they'd see I was a prince."
"Oh, what a rum fellow you are!" cried Glyn, gripping his companion's
shoulders and laughingly shaking him to and fro. "I thought that I had
made you understand that now we are over here you were to dress just
the same as an English boy. Why, don't you know that when we had a
king in England he used to dress just like any ordinary gentleman, only
sometimes he would wear a star on his breast."
"Oh, but surely," began Singh, in a disappointed tone, "he must have--"
"Yes, yes, yes; sometimes," cried Glyn. "I know what you mean. On
state occasions, or when he went to review troops, he would wear grand
robes or a field-marshal's uniform."
"But didn't he wear his crown?"
"No," cried Glyn, bursting out laughing. "That's only put on for a little
while when he's made king."
"What does he do with it, then, at other times?"
"Nothing," cried Glyn merrily. "It's kept shut up in a glass case at the
Tower, for people to go and see."
"England seems a queer place," said Singh quietly.
"Very," cried Glyn drily. "You never want those Indian clothes, and
you ought to have done as I told you--left them behind."
"But the Colonel didn't say so," replied the boy warmly. "He said that
some day he might take me with him to Court. It was when I asked him
for the emeralds."

"What do you mean--the belt?" said Glyn quickly.
"Yes."
"You never told me that you had got them."
"No; the Colonel said that I was not to make a fuss about them nor
show them to people, but keep them locked up in the case. Here they
are," cried the boy; and, thrusting down one hand, he drew from
beneath some folded garments a small flat scarlet morocco case, which
he opened by pressing a spring, and drew out from where it lay neatly
doubled, a gold-embroidered waistbelt of some soft yellow leather,
whose fastening was formed of a gold clasp covered by a large flat
emerald,