269 



CHAPTER XXVII. 



IN AN INDIAN FOREST RESERVE. 



In my rambles in the hills, some seven or eight 

 miles round my station, I came upon an antique 

 gateway of Hindoo architecture forming the centre 

 of a battlemented wall. I pushed my Arab up the 

 much-broken paved roadway which led to it. The 

 gates which had closed it were long since gone, and 

 the walls were broken and undermined in a dozen 

 places by the numerous trees, now in all their 

 greenness under the influence of the summer rains. 

 On the gateway itself and the wall adjoining half 

 a score of pea - fowl were sunning themselves. On 

 my left as I entered was a peaked rock, which was 

 connected at each side with the masonry enceinte. 

 As I proceeded through the grove, which pointed to 

 the existence of water higher up the valley, I be- 

 came aware that the place I had entered must in 

 other days have been a fortress of great strength. 

 The gorge was, or rather had been, completely closed 

 by the wall through which I had entered, and the 

 steep hills each side were also crowmed with masonry. 

 Presently a bend in the road revealed one of those 

 Indian views which are so effective in the distance 

 and so disappointing when approached near. On a 



