2 9 2 RIFLE AND ROMANCE 



of her tormentor at leisure, or whether the wild beast had, 

 after all, been forced to " drop it " and permit Mrs. Jhapoo 

 to attempt the transportation of her long-defunct spouse 

 to his native Bakajhan, such matters are without the pale 

 of knowledge but within the confines of conjecture. For 

 there still obtains a dreadful superstition among the inhabi- 

 tants of the riverine villages of those tracts, to a few of 

 whom, one grey morning after an unprecedented fall of 

 rain during the ensuing monsoon season, was vouchsafed 

 the unspeakable spectacle of a glassy-eyed horror the 

 rain-bleached mother-naked figure of a man, that, squatted 

 cork-high on the swirling flood, and blown skimming feather- 

 light hither and thither over its tawny surface one hand 

 raised as if to compel attention, the other depending slack- 

 wristed after the fashion of the restful dusky peoples 

 passed hurrying onwards to the great and distant sea. 



