170 IN THE SWAMPS 



small collection of common or garden parapher- 

 nalia, which considerably enlarged my equipment. 

 My first thought considered accidental mixing of 

 dunnage during the voyage, my next, that Cheeta 

 had been making purchases; but there was a too 

 self-satisfied air about Cheeta to be explained by 

 aggrandizement of such conventional character. 

 To my direct question, " Are they ours?" he re- 

 plied " Yes," and then " No " to my further in- 

 quiries of " Did you buy them? were they given 

 us?" Finally, nonplussed, I asked point blank 

 where he did get them ; and then he let me under- 

 stand, in his subtle way, that he had outwitted the 

 other master's servants, who had tried to steal 

 from my kit all the way from Singapore. 



The dressing down I gave him appeared abso- 

 lutely incomprehensible to Cheeta, the only im- 

 pression remaining with him being of my ingrat- 

 itude in return for his ever alert efforts on my 

 behalf. This was the beginning of a faithful ser- 

 vice that kept me in almost constant terror lest 

 he steal something and not tell me. He was the 

 most inveterate and most successful thief I ever 

 encountered, yet never stole from me ; though con- 

 tinuously bringing me things he had stolen from 

 other masters, under the very eyes of their ser- 

 vants, which he exhibited with unmistakable pride 

 in his cleverness, calling my attention at the same 



