Colonel Roberts, after several
years away from his son, was delighted to see that the thin chest was
indeed filling out, and the shoulders throwing back.
"Do you think you can stand India, now, my lad?" he asked.
"Why not, sir?" replied the boy briefly.
"Then I think that the East India Company's service is the place for you."
Colonel Roberts himself had been connected with this great company, which
was the forerunner of the Government in India--and he was right in
thinking that its service offered many chances of advancement.
Accordingly the boy was entered in the Company's own military school, at
Addiscombe; and in less than two years had become a second lieutenant in
the Bengal Artillery--a military company maintained as part of this huge
commercial enterprise.
In 1852, in his twentieth year, he received his first marching orders.
They were to report for duty. He set sail by way of Suez, but there was
no canal in those days to make possible an all-water journey. Instead,
at Alexandria he changed to a small inland steamer going by canal and
river to Cairo. Thence a hot dusty trek across the desert was necessary,
in order to reach Suez.
Once in Calcutta, the young subaltern lost no time in proving that he was
not a mollycoddle. He began by riding every horse in the battery, or
"troop," as it was called in those days.
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