Asahib has got to act like a sahib; he has got to appear resolute, to know his own mind and do definite things. to come all that way, rifle in hand, with two thousand people marching at my heels, and then to trail feebly away, having done nothing — no, that was impossible. the crowd would laugh at me. and my whole life, every white man's life in the east, was one long struggle not to be laughed at.