his was being done, I worked away hard at writing, and getting
interested, continued at it till an early hour of the morning; I got
tired at last, and, wrapping myself up in my blanket, I soon went to
sleep next to a heap of stones piled up by the cautious Chanden Sing.

"Sahib," had been his warning, "there are many hungry dogs about. If they
come, here are a few missiles ready for them!" and he pointed at the
ammunition.

"All right; good-night."

The wisdom of this was soon apparent, for I had not slept long when I was
aroused by the hollow sound of lip-smacking, apparently arising from more
than one mouth, accompanied by the movement of the stretched canvas bed
on which I was lying. Jumping to my feet, I alighted upon a living mass
of unwelcome guests; but before I even realised what had been going on,
they had scampered away, the brutes! carrying between their
tightly-closed jaws a last mouthful of my dainties.

The ammunition at my disposal was quickly used up--a poor revenge, even
when I heard the yell of a dog I happened to hit in the dark. On striking
a match, I found the large brass bowls emptied, the rice and flour
scattered all over the tent, and the sheep practically vanished.

I determined not to be done out of this piece of indulgence, which now
seemed desirable beyond words, although I crawled back into my blanket,
and found for a while oblivion in sleep. I was no sooner up in the
morning than I planned a new banquet. But in the nick of time, Mr. G.,
who had gone a march farther, returned with his escort of policemen,
_moonshees_, pundits, and chaprassis.

"Never mind, Landor," said he kindly, when I had told him of my trouble,
"you come and dine with me. These chaps shall get you up a special dinner
in their own way."

My stores were put under tribute, instead of the native Bunyas, and we
had a very excellent meal indeed. We had Bovril soup and Irish stew,
roast mutton, potted tongue, roast chicken, gigantic swan eggs poached on
anchovy toast, jam omelette, chow-chow preserves, ginger biscuits, boiled
rhubarb, and I must not forget, by the way, an excellent plum cake of no
small dimensions, crammed full of raisins and candy, which I had brought
from Mrs. G. at Almora to her husband, and to which we did, with
blessings for her, the fullest justice.

[Illustration: SHOKA HOUSE WITH STRANGE LADDER]

Thanks to Mr. G. and also to the fortunate coincidence of receiving a
batch of letters from parent