338 THE EASTERN HUNTERS. 



He snorted with rage, and his thin moustache 

 stuck out like the hair on the back of an angry cat, 

 as he aimed a blow at Baloo ; but that agile youth 

 was perfectly prepared. He put down the plate of 

 meat on a box, avoided the blow, and then dodging 

 round the box, ran off laughing. 



Sheik Hussein, however, unable at once to check 

 both the violence of his onset, and the impetus 

 given by the missing of his blow, struck his shin 

 against the edge of the box, fell sprawling over it, 

 and on to the dish of meat which Baloo had just 

 deposited there. 



He recovered himself with some difficulty, and 

 when he saw with what he had been in contact, and 

 the pollution his person had undergone, started off in 

 a frenzy of rage. He commenced tearing off his long 

 frock-like apparel ; but suddenly calming himself, 

 as he saw the impossibility of taking present venge- 

 ance on his active enemy, walked away with as 

 much stateliness as he could on the moment assume, 

 to cleanse himself from the pollution he had under- 

 gone. 



Baloo, however, for some time took especial care 

 not to come within reach of the enraged old fellow. 



