100 JUNE 



from the outskirts, when they would inevitably pass 

 this house. They were said to be armed with sticks 

 6 or 8 feet long, and were destroying and looting 

 as they came. We hardly believed it; but suppos- 

 ing they reached as far as this before they were 

 stopped, it would not be impossible for them to 

 enter this house, and, at any rate, try to do some 

 damage. There was no shutter to the front glass- 

 door ; and all the bricks and rubbish lying about 

 in heaps would make fine missiles. The entrance 

 gate of wood had been on its last legs for years. 

 Every year I had been promised a new one, but it 

 never arrived. It was tied here and there by bits 

 of string, and fastened with tin tacks, to make it 

 hold together sufficiently for the door-keeper to 

 open and shut it once a day. 



"Now," I said to the Burra Sahib, sorrow- 

 fully, " if only we had got that new gate, we should 

 be safe. As for this, the smallest push will stave 

 it in." 



"Oh, that's all right," said he, "they will never 

 be allowed to get as far as this. The regiment 

 from the lines will put a stop to them before they 

 get half-way here." 



