VENGEANCE OF JHAPOO THE GOND 273 



foot noiselessly as they do, have a most exasperating habit 

 of attracting attention by means of a hollow cough. 



" What is it, then ? " I growled testily. 



" Be pleased to condone the fault," stammered the man, 

 " but your honour's syce reports that the mare has dropped 

 a shoe, and he will, having caused shoeing to be performed 

 quickly, return from cantonments within a few days, 

 and " 



" What ! " I exclaimed, having looked at the mare's feet 

 only that evening, and knowing the excuse to be false. 



" and also it has become known that in the house of 

 your slave there is sudden great sickness, so I too " 



" No ! " I shouted angrily, " No ! Begone ! And tell the 

 syce that if that shoe be not present when I come with 

 shoeing hammer and nails at morn, there shall be fining 

 and worse ! And see ! " I went on, as he slowly with- 

 drew, " that hag remove her ! " 



* She hath gone, haztir? came the resigned but fore- 

 boding voice. 



" What the devil ails them all ? " I wondered, relighting 

 my cheroot and picking up a book. 



But I could not read long that night. It may have 

 been the annoyance of those untimely applications for 

 leave foolish requests that they must have known could 

 not be granted or the irritatingly untruthful excuses that 

 had been put forward in support. I pushed away the 

 volume before me, and smoked on in silence. Away from 

 the circle of yellow light shed by the lamp the quiet night 

 was lit by the soft splendour of an Indian moon, under 

 whose rays the deserted and lifeless walls of the old fort 

 stood out grey-blue or softly black. A few sacred champa 

 trees raised their bare sweet - flowering arms vaguely 

 against the pale sky, near the distant crenelations of the 

 outer battlements, where a nightjar was tapping out his 

 rapid and ceaseless "Chuckoo chuckoo chuckoo" It was 

 a typical Indian moonlit night, and the temperature 

 T 



