Chapter IV. 
THE KING 
COBRA. 
THE weather is getting 
very warm. This is 
perhaps not expressive 
enough. What I mean 
is that the atmosphere is 
getting like that which 
we may imagine to prevail under a pie-crust when the pie 
is in the oven. Of course I am writing from the coast. 
Up-country, on the plains of the Deccan, the atmosphere 
of the oven outside of the pie furnishes a better illus- 
tration. This is just the difference between the two 
