brake three across the top with a stick. The other two men
ran away. Also the guns would not shoot.'

I had seen the equipment of the infantry. One-third of it was an old
muzzle-loading fowling-piece, with a ragged rust-hole where the
nipples should have been, one-third a wire-bound match-lock with a
worm-eaten stock, and one-third a four-bore flint duck-gun without a
flint.

'But it is to be remembered,' said the King, reaching out for the
bottle, 'that he is a very expert log-snatcher and a man of a merry
face. What shall I do to him, Sahib?'

This was interesting. The timid hill-folk would as soon have refused
taxes to their King as revenues to their Gods.

'If it be the King's permission,' I said, 'I will not strike my tents
till the third day and I will see this man. The mercy of the King is
God-like, and rebellion is like unto the sin of witchcraft. Moreover,
both the bottles and another be empty.'

'You have my leave to go,' said the King.

Next morning a crier went through the State proclaiming that there
was a log-jam on the river and that it behoved all loyal subjects to
remove it. The people poured down from their villages to the moist,
warm valley of poppy-fields; and the King and I went with them.
Hundreds of dressed deodar-logs had caught on a snag of rock, and the
river was bringing down more logs every minute to complete the
blockade. The water snarled and wrenched and worried at the timber,
and the population of the State began prodding the nearest logs with
a pole in the hope of starting a general movement. Then there went up
a shout of 'Namgay Doola! Namgay Doola!' and a large red-haired
villager hurried up, stripping off his clothes as he ran.

'That is he. That is the rebel,' said the King. 'Now will the dam be
cleared.'

'But why has he red hair?' I asked, since red hair among hill-folks
is as common as blue or green.

'He is an outlander,' said the King. 'Well done! Oh, well done!'

Namgay Doola had scrambled out on the jam and was clawing out the
butt of a log with a rude sort of boat-hook. It slid forward slowly
as an alligator moves, three or four others followed it, and the
green water spouted through the gaps they had made. Then the
villagers howled and shouted and scrambled across the logs, pulling
and pushing the obstinate timber, and the red head of Namgay Doola
was chief among them all. The logs swayed and chafed and groaned as
fresh consignments from upstream battered the n