THE WATER-SUPPLY ENDANGERED 105 



bandstand, to the great distress of her husband, a 

 gallant Major. 



" Oh ! if you don't put that thing away, I shall 

 get out of the carriage," he exclaimed. " You are 

 pointing it straight at me. Sit upon it ! Sit upon 

 it!" 



A very serious side of the matter might have 

 occurred, had the rioters succeeded in their fiendish 

 endeavour to injure the pumping- station, whence 

 we derive our supply of filtered water. Hundreds 

 of them besieged the station all night, in order to 

 get in and wreck the engines. Think of that, in 

 such a climate, and in such heat ! It would not 

 have affected themselves, as they prefer the muddy 

 river and stagnant pond-water to drink, after having 

 washed themselves in it; but to us who are not 

 inured to it, it would have meant an immediate 

 outbreak of cholera. Fortunately the station had 

 brave defenders, who at last beat off the attacking 

 party, and the disaster was averted. 



The plague regulations displeased all the natives 

 very much. Two rules they would not give in 

 to : segregation, and the entering into the Zenana 

 by the Inspector in search of plague patients who 



