86 RIFLE AND ROMANCE 



appearance of the Oriental under defeat never yet failed 

 to exercise the most dangerously homicidal feelings in my 

 breast. But to-night it was different. The cheroot with its 

 glowing eye and soft wreaths of soothing smoke soon 

 wafted all such feelings away ; and shortly we sprang up, 

 refreshed. Once more we ghoomed. 



Turning northward this time, it was the eastern portion 

 of the plateau that we faced, rather rougher country than 

 on the side we had lately traversed, and where the terraced 

 woods are nearer the edge of the plateau, and the inter- 

 vening grassland less wide in consequence. A little deep- 

 cut miniature glen took us through dark trees awhile, and 

 we then emerged once more on the flat. Again the eyes 

 became aware of that extraordinary kind of moon-blindness, 

 when the sleeping landscape seemed to shimmer and fade, 

 reappear and fade again, rocks to resemble wandering bears, 

 ghostly tree-trunks the chest of some intently watchful tiger 

 or panther. The pointers of the Great Bear now lay 

 below the level of the pole star, and pointed upward, the 

 lower of the two stars being almost hidden by the line of 

 dark trees. It must therefore have been about an hour 

 before dawn, that mysterious time of night when the most 

 nocturnal of creatures seem to pause awhile and slumber, 

 when even night-birds are silent, and mankind, with all his 

 world, is wrapped in the most intense and death-like sleep, 

 all Nature at her very feeblest ebb, her breathing scarcely 

 audible. An intense longing for sleep became almost over- 

 powering in its peremptoriness, a desire to sink down any- 

 where and curl one's self up without delay. But we are 

 nearing the end of our moonlight prowling now. Not far 

 ahead is the grove of indigo-black trees below the village 

 itself; there is a well there, and wild creatures often seek 

 a drink at the little puddle which is fed by the drainings 

 of the women's waterpots as they visit the well at sundown. 

 One look at the well therefore after that a short nap till 

 sunrise. And so we push forward on the last of our ghoom. 



