CHAPTER II 



INDIAN REMINISCENCES 



SOLDIERING in India fifty or sixty years 

 ago was probably nothing like so strenuous 

 as it is at the present time, and I recall with 

 pleasure the two and a half years I had the privi- 

 lege of serving with my regiment at Mhow, Central 

 I ndia. 



The first few months were spent in learning drill, 

 instruction in the riding school, etc. The Adjutant, 

 who was a great sportsman, instructed me in jungle 

 craft as well as in professional detail, and as a con- 

 sequence we became great friends. A most vivid 

 recollection comes to my mind of his untimely 

 end. 



About a week before the tragedy I am about to 

 relate he and I had gone out to shoot quail. The 

 Adjutant was driving the tonga, the most primitive 

 vehicle possible — really a board on two wheels 

 attached to a couple of ponies. He and I were 

 in front, a man with a gun and spaniel behind. 

 We had left the road, making for a clump of 

 trees to obtain shelter from a storm. Just as we 

 bumped over a small watercourse a terrific clap 



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