CHAPTER V. 



BLUE BULL STALKING. 



THE worst of the Indian summer was over ; the rains 

 had cooled the air a little, and brought back the green 

 to the trees and dusty plains. Personally I would 

 rather have had the dry heat continue, even with a 

 higher thermometer, the damp heat being more trying 

 and far less healthy. Cholera rarely makes its appear- 

 ance till after the rains. For the rest, life was as dull 



at pore as it surely can only be in the Indian 



plains in the hot weather. Of the score and a half of 

 brother officers, whose names appeared in the Army 

 List, half-a-dozen were in England, and of the rest 

 half were up in the hills, dancing and flirting at Simla 

 or Mussoorie, or shooting in Cashmere or even 

 Thibet. Consequently those left in mess, perhaps 

 eight or nine without the married men, got rather sick 

 of each other's company, and looked eagerly forward 

 to the Sundays and Thursdays, which brought some 

 change by enabling them to get away from their 

 station for the day. Especially did the sporting 

 contingent, not just then very strongly represented in 



