Page:Heroes of the hour- Mahatma Gandhi, Tilak Maharaj, Sir Subramanya Iyer.djvu/189

 have been the solace that all Indians of noble lives feel that they can meet their nearest and dearest, if they only cboose, in a better more developed life of the future. To Mr. Tilak the disappearance of such a trusted and worthy comrade during forced absence from home must have been a matter for considerable pain. But the very High Power in which Mr. Tilak always trusts along with all his real Hindu brethren had willed it so. And that Will must be obeyed.

Mr. Tilak had to serve out full six years. He had not the advantages of special remissions in jail. The mercy extended to the ordinary criminal at the coronation or the Delhi Durbar was not extended to political prisoners in general, much less to Mr. Tilak. In the usual course he could not be kept in jail beyond the end of July 1914.

He had not long been out of jail before the present great world-war broke out. By the time he turned his attention to public work once more, the war was in full swing. Germany had rushed into Belgium and England had thrown its weight on behalf of the smaller state to protect the interests of the weak and uphold the liberty of nations. An open