Soldiers Three

The first publication of a collection of seven stories called "Soldiers Three" was as No 1 of A.H. Wheeler & Co.’s Indian Railway Library, a slim volume of 97 pages printed at the “Pioneer” Press, Allahabad in 1888 called "Soldiers Three: a collection of stories setting forth certain passages in the lives and adventures of Privates Terence Mulvaney, Stanley Ortheris and John Learoyd
done into type and edited by Rudyard Kipling". In 1899, it became part of the book "Soldiers Three and Other Stories", known to most people by the simpler title "Soldiers Three". It is this collection whose contents are listed here. To the original "Soldiers Three" were added nos 2 and 3 of the Indian Railway Library, "The Story of the Gadsbys", which is written in dramatic form, and "In Black and White", looking more at the native Indians than the British. Both of these were also published in 1888. (The phrase 'Soldiers Three' may be used in writings about Kipling to group the three heroes of this collection: see Learoyd, Mulvaney and Ortheris.)

"Soldiers Three" (in the Indian Railway Library edition) became the second collection of short stories by Rudyard Kipling to be published, after Plain Tales from the Hills (in which the 'Three Soldiers' also appear). Like it, it was collected from some of the fiction he had published in journals; but while "Plain Tales" was mostly collected from the "Civil and Military Gazette", this was "Reprinted in chief from the "Week’s news", an Allahabad paper.

The 1899 edition contains:

*in the section Soldiers Three, which has the sub-title "A Collection of Stories:::Setting forth certain passages in the lives and adventures of Privates Terence Mulvaney, Stanley Ortheris, and John Learoyd
**'The God from the Machine'
**'Private Learoyd's Story'
**'The Big Drunk Draf''
**'The Solid Muldoon (Kipling story)'
**'With the Main Guard'
**'In the Matter of a Private'
**'Black Jack (Kipling story)'

*The section The Story of the Gadsbys: A Tale without a Plot (first published as no. 2 in the Indian railway library: eight 'stories' in dramatic form, with a final poem in four verses
**'Poor Dear Mamma'
**'The World Without'
**'The Tents of Kedar'
**'With any Amazement'
**'The Garden of Eden (Kipling story)'
**'Fatima (Kipling story)'
**'The Valley of the Shadow (Kipling story)'
**'The Swelling of Jordan'
**'L'Envoi (to 'The Story of the Gadsbys')' (a poem)

*The section In Black and White:
**'Dray Wara Yow Dee'
**'The Judgement of Dungara'
**'At Howli Thana'
**'Gemini (Kipling Story)'
**'At Twenty-Two'
**'In Flood Time'
**'The Sending of Dana Dee'
**'On the City Wall'