WILD DOGS 159 



It was very pleasant, though, being out in India 

 once more, and again in camp, and seeing the little 

 striped squirrels, that Ned used to call " hairy 

 lizards/' running up and down the trees, chirruping, 

 the seven sisters birds, perhaps of the thrush 

 persuasion, and about that size squabbling away 

 together in a bush, and the small lizards running 

 up and down the wall catching flies and insects, 

 and sometimes tumbling down on the ground with 

 a smack, on their little stomachs. A rat, too, came 

 at night : the sound of a tin soap-dish rattling and 

 then a splashing woke me, and I got up to catch 

 the burglar, which I found to be a wretched little 

 rat swimming round and round in the washhand 

 basin. It had very bright eyes and said so many little 

 squeaky things, seeming so anxious to live, and as 

 it had not eaten any of my soap I tipped it out and 

 gave it a push or two with the candlestick to get it 

 away. I thought I heard the same sort of noise 

 again during the night when I was only half 

 awake. I never thought, however, it could be fool 

 enough to go back, but in the morning its foolish 

 little body was in the basin again, and this time 

 drowned. 



I moved on and stayed in the camp of a young 

 Raja and his brother who had kindly invited me 

 to go to their shoot. I had to go some little way by 

 rail, and went to a very wayside station to get the 

 train. The station-master was very attentive 

 indeed, quite officious, so much so that I began to 

 wonder what he could want. He helped to move 

 the luggage, and told me that as there was so much 



