ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 113 



metal, as some were, he might burn to the bone. That was 

 common enough, and happened within our own knowledge, 

 when a police constable was the brutal instigator, and his 

 dismissal followed sharp on the heels of detection, though 

 F. had no direct jurisdiction here. 



The same sort of thing may sometimes be going on under 

 your very nose. 



A little girl, the child of one of our makes (gardeners), was 

 accused of stealing a bangle of mine. Part of her work 

 was to change the plants and flowers in the rooms, taking 

 away pots of fern and bringing in others, as arranged by 

 her father. I had been writing on the verandah, and the 

 heat being too great for me to stand even the weight of a 

 bangle unnecessarily, I slipped it off my wrist and left it 

 on the blotting-book for a moment while I went indoors. 

 On returning very soon after I missed it directly, and asked 

 the servants, who were always in attendance, if they had 

 seen it. Of course, no one had seen it. No one but Chowry, 

 the gardener's child, had anything to do there just then, 

 they said, though that she had not been anywhere near 

 during my absence I was quite sure. Saying that I would 

 go away for half an hour, and should expect to find the 

 bangle put back where I had left it by the end of that time, 

 in which case no further questions would be asked, I went 

 indoors again ; but the plan, though carried out, produced 

 no result. 



When F. heard about it he said that whoever had taken 

 the bangle would be the busiest in finding the thief ; and 

 so it turned out. 



The next morning I missed the mdlee's child. ' Oh ! she 

 was only with her mother/ The next day it was again the 

 same story, but on the third day I saw her, far away, stand- 

 ing by her father ; she had her cloth round her head and 

 ears, covering her hands, too, which seemed to be them- 

 selves wrapped up. This was not her habit, and as these 



H 



