166 AUGUST 



either a cutlah or a rooe. It is difficult to say 

 which. 



24th. Everybody awakened this morning by 

 hearing some tremendous cracking noises, four in 

 succession, quite close. The rain was coming 

 down in cataracts, and had done so all night. My 

 first impression was that the verandah was giving 

 way. Then when I was thoroughly awake I knew 

 it was a little farther off, at the end of the garden. 

 We got the glasses and looked, and behind the 

 others we could distinguish a great tree down, 

 sprawling, full length, over the pathway by the 

 south wall fernery and the Chamber of Horrors. 

 There was not a breath of wind, so that it had 

 simply stood still and fallen down, with the sheer 

 weight of water. 



" My palms ! " exclaimed the Burra Sahib in 

 despair, "all smashed; they must be, the tree is 

 right across the tubs." 



" My fernery," I sighed, " and it was looking so 

 nice and I did not want to have to do it again for 

 four years." We dressed ourselves in mackintoshes 

 and top boots, and went out into the pouring rain 

 to know the worst at once. It was indeed a scene 



