CHAMBA 27 



Several years afterwards I was staying in the same 

 house as a lady who was, I think, a spirit medium, 

 and on one occasion she happened to be writing 

 automatically. I might mention that she had never 

 been in India. I said suddenly, apropos of nothing : 



" What happened to Blaze ? " 



Her hand tore along the paper and wrote : " Taken 

 away by a panther/' She lifted her hand from the 

 paper rather angrily, and said : 



" Look here ! if you are going to write such stuff 

 as this, I won't go on any more. Write sense or not 

 at all." 



" Oh, do go on just for a minute and see what is 

 written," I said. 



Rather unwillingly, she put her hand down again, 

 and I asked where Blaze was taken, in my own mind 

 picturing the front veranda by the steps. 



The pencil scribbled the answer : " From the back 

 of the bungalow, close to the window where the 

 padre always sits." 



There was a tiny room at the back that my husband 

 used for his office and he always sat there. 



Then I asked the writer : 



" What do you think Blaze is? " 



" Oh, I don't know; I thought it was a racehorse, 

 if I did think at all." 



As well as I remember there was a racehorse called 

 St. Blaise who won the Derby, so I suppose she was 

 thinking of that. 



To go back to the bear after this long digression. 

 In a very short time Fuffia and the coolie reappeared 

 from I don't know where. Then I heard some one 



