288 RIFLE AND ROMANCE 



picturing their journey. Did they arrive from some un- 

 known concealed covert in the neighbourhood, or yet 

 how was it possible for them to travel in a few hours from 

 those distant hills ? 



Since I had penetrated the secret of Jhapoo, it was 

 hardly to be expected that my present vigil would be so 

 full of surprises or of the unexpected as its predecessor ; 

 yet, as I sat on silently in that deserted place, a portion of 

 the uncomfortable sensations induced by the extraordinary 

 character of the stuffed man and his uncanny appurten- 

 ances gradually forced their return. Solitude in lonely 

 places by night usually succeeds in arousing, even be it 

 faintly, a sense of the elemental in our composition. The 

 primitive in us is temporarily revived, the artificial retires, 

 and we find ourselves less proof against the deeply seated 

 though hidden acknowledgment of the supernatural. 



The motionless reclining of the body in a relaxed 

 posture had to some extent relieved the feeling of over- 

 powering heat. A gentle stirring of the air had set up 

 a slight cooling of the temperature. And after a lapse of 

 some hours it became more difficult to combat the sleepi- 

 ness that was insidiously obtaining possession of me. 

 Sliding gradually into a more recumbent position, I had 

 slipped my folded hands behind my head and thus I 

 must have passed from drowsy consciousness to a light 

 doze, which, broken at first by temporary wakings to listen 

 awhile, no doubt merged gradually into sounder sleep. . . . 



What was that ? 



For an instant the brain roused instantly from slumber 

 finds a difficulty in locating itself and things in general 

 then I am wondering what loud sound it was that had 

 caused so sudden an upspringing. Could it have been the 

 crash of thunder? and yet a grating scream seemed to 

 linger ringing in my ear. The whole sky was now littered 

 with thick fat clouds that came sailing ponderously to- 

 gether to a rendezvous close above the old fort hill, and the 



