102 RIFLE AND ROMANCE 



myself free, blind with a furious fear, I impaled the dead 

 body, and pinned it to the bank again and again. Then 

 I crawled under the lashing trees and disappeared in 

 driving sheets of rain. 



Seat yourself on that rock, sahib, and let your gaze 

 wander over my forests spread out below. That distant 

 mist rising beyond those low grey-blue hills marks the 

 deep-sunk valley of the Tapti ; before you the rolling sea 

 of jungle stretches unbroken to the horizon, and beyond it 

 to the sources of the Narbada ; while at your feet the 

 bamboo-tangled mountain-side descends well-nigh sheer to 

 that broad, shingly river-bed two thousand feet below, 

 rising again to those lofty flat-topped sentinels beyond. 

 The untiring voice of the green barbet floats up from the 

 valley " Koturu kotiiru !" A jungle-cock sends his five 

 clear notes into the calm evening air. The warm sky is 

 full of the sunset gold. 



And here I leave you. Farewell! and "Dhdnk!" 



