364 RIFLE AND ROMANCE 



the month of March saw a little wisp of dust crossing the 

 blazing and parched face of the country, some hundred 

 and eighty miles by rail and dak from our starting-point. 

 As it drew nearer, the tinkling of bells and rumbling 

 of wheels indicated a species of travelling caravan, and 

 shortly four ringhis jolted past in dust and glare. In 

 the first there reclined a sahib t a man of parts, as the 

 complaining wooden axles plainly testified ; next came 

 your humble servant, deriving certain consolations from 

 a cunningly - disposed horsehair mattress and a large 

 cheroot ; ringhis numbers three and four contained various 

 packages and bundles, surmounted respectively by lusty 

 Karamat Khan as much as could be seen of him through 

 a voluminous rtimdl and by a bilious-looking and long- 

 suffering individual named Chinnaswamy. A " squawk " of 

 protest, half smothered in dust, seemed to suggest that 

 the latter had found a tolerably comfortable seat on the 

 hen-coop. 



And so we rumbled on. 



Night succeeded day, and day night ; but still the word 

 was " forward." Bullocks were changed ; carts collapsed, 

 and were mended ; mango groves were dimly aware of 

 nightly phantoms that paused to masticate a meal by the 

 flicker of a hasty fire ; the change of drivers made itself 

 known, even in the slumbrous hours, by the varying pecu- 

 liarities of their individual "savours." The feathery tama- 

 rind tree knew us by the empty " army ration " tin ; the 

 broiling stretch of sand and trickle of shrunken stream by 

 the staccato objurgations of the frenzied gdri-wdla. On the 

 third day dawn found us in the midst of a mighty forest, 

 and hard by a forest post and hut. A short while pre- 

 viously a bull bison had found an unusual kind of grave in 

 a well a few hundred yards away. " What was the water 

 like ? " we asked. " Well," replied the custodian, " perhaps 

 the sahibs might not like it, but it's very sweet ! " 



Some ten miles more of the densest jungle and bamboo 



