VENGEANCE OF JHAPOO THE GOND 285 



unearthly with which " medicine-men " all the world over 

 are wont to shroud the so-called "secrets" of Nature, 

 which, in death as well as in life, the cunning old G6nd 

 had employed to earn himself a lasting notoriety all now 

 became patent, unfolded, transparent I had penetrated 

 a secret of the jungle tribes, the mysterious "talisman" 

 of the Gonds was mine, the hidden spring of their success 

 as hunters of the great carnivores. That was all ! 



But I should keep the knowledge to myself. And how 

 I should amuse myself with it ! What a puzzle in the 

 tiger-shooting line should it afford my perplexed and 

 despairing friends ! Old Jhapoo and his narrow abode 

 should now indeed disappear and that right early, the 

 old humbug ; there should be no more absurd journeyings 

 to and fro of a mystic chest, no special seances for the 

 benefit of old women; but the germ of fatal attraction con- 

 tained in that bamboo phial, the grey paste that should 

 remain, handy, compact, a faithful servant. 



Plunging a hand in my pocket, I jingled my bunch of 

 keys and a box of matches. The tigers were being re- 

 moved to the shade of a tree by a chattering crowd, and 

 the village chamdrs had already arrived with their skinning 

 knives. 



I slipped into the patch of jungle once more, reached my 

 destination, stooped, unlocked, and raised the lid. 



Jhapoo as of yore, evil-smelling, greasy, glabrous but 

 the bamboo tube vanished ! 



And now for the first time I became aware that the 

 inner surface of the cover was scored with a number of 

 deep scratches disposed in rude lines, and ranging in 

 periods from old to comparatively recent. The last two 

 had been but freshly marked. I idly counted the total. 



The tally of the five " khandis " was all but complete ! 



Since all guesswork had now been swept away and 

 enlightenment had come as to the foundation of this jungle 

 " mumbo-jumbo," it was plain enough that a crisis was. 



