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(notes edited by John McGivering) |
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Publication
The story was first published in the first Indian edition of Plain Tales from the Hills in 1888, and in subsequent editions of that collection.
The Story
A tragic story of a young man who had had a sheltered upbringing, and cannot handle life as a subaltern in India. He quarrels with his fellow officers, falls into debt, takes his colonel's rebuke too much to heart, and shoots himself. He is found by the narrator and one of the majors. They concoct a letter to his people at home announcing his death - 'of cholera' - and attend to his very private funeral.
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