232 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR 



dead silence. My cartman jumped out and ran 

 back and I followed him. One of the carts lay 

 upset on its side, wheels off, all the boxes and 

 luggage strewn about, and two men lying as if they 

 were dead, having been shot off the top of the 

 loaded cart on which they had been perched, on to 

 the rough rocks. Several other men were scrambling 

 on to their legs and the oxen apparently were none 

 the worse. The jumble of broken cart, overturned 

 kit and disabled men made a sad weird picture 

 among the black rocks and under the shadow of 

 trees. 



I went up to one man who was lying very still 

 and saw that it was poor old Jiwan. I spoke to 

 him and it was a great relief to hear him able to 

 give an answer; he half tried to rise when I came, 

 but could not move, and I told him to lie still. He 

 said he had been thrown from the top of the cart 

 on to his side and hip and that his back was broken. 

 He looked desperately pale and ghastly in the 

 moonlight that showed in flecks through the trees. 

 The sepoy was the other man that was hurt, he was 

 lying against a rock with a big box across his legs 

 and was groaning now and then. None of the 

 cartmen were much hurt, they had been running 

 with the cart and trying to hold it back. We were 

 fortunately near a village and the men went up to 

 fetch a charpai to carry Jiwan there. We lifted him 

 on to it; his back was not broken, but he could 

 scarcely move. He was taken up and laid on a 

 bed of straw in the veranda of the kotwal's house; 

 and the charpai went back for the sepoy, as it was 



