174 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR 



down. We waited, and a passing cart was stopped 

 and the driver said he would lend his bullocks to go 

 the short distance if I gave him baksheesh. I gave 

 up counting how often we changed the bullocks; 

 and I wondered if they would ever get sorted right 

 and given back to their respective owners on their 

 homeward way. 



At last we came out on the high-road and found 

 there were only four more miles to do. We had to 

 change raw bullocks for other raw bullocks even 

 there, and travelled at the rate of something less 

 than one mile an hour for those four miles. Of 

 course we had missed the morning train. We at 

 last arrived at the station at three in the afternoon. 

 I looked forward to a bath in the waiting-room bath- 

 room, forgetting that the railway was only just 

 being made; the station was a small hut about as 

 big as a match-box, just big enough to buy a ticket 

 from ; but there was a very good station-master, who 

 helped to get up the small tent and got water from 

 the engine for a bath. The train was in, and there 

 were only third-class carriages on it, but he had one 

 carriage swept out and said I could get in at once 

 and sleep in it. 



The train started at no particular time next day, 

 but it did start, and travelled at the rate of ten miles 

 an hour, which felt like the wildest express after the 

 last four miles of cart. There was not far to go to 

 the main line, perhaps a hundred miles. I had run 

 out of food, so had the servants, and I hoped to 

 arrive at the Gondia Refreshment Room in time for 

 some dinner; everything seemed plain sailing, such 



