mshankers of his kidney
patronising the finest service in India."

"Get Richardson to give him a taste of the swimming-bath, in his mess
kit, when the cold weather comes!" Desmond suggested with a laugh. "I've
known that knock the nonsense out of some of 'em."

Lenox nodded thoughtfully.

"I'm not over-partial to that form of argument," said he. "But in this
case, I believe I should rather enjoy it."

Then the voice of the driver requested the Heaven-borne to return to
their seats: and they were off again, full clatter, half a dozen pariahs
speeding their progress. Honor, by her own choice, shared the back seat
with her husband in comparative comfort. His enclosing arm shielded her,
as far as might be, from the incessant jolting; and from time to time, in
utter weariness, her head sank upon his shoulder, and she slept, while
the two men smoked and talked fitfully in undertones.

Such primitive journeyings are fast becoming obsolete in the India of
to-day, where the railway stretches its antennae in all directions, and
the horn of the motor has been heard beyond Chaman. Yet, for all their
obvious discomforts, they possessed their own peculiar flavour of
interest and charm.

Dawn showed them the Indus at last: a sheet of tarnished silver, five
miles wide, sprawling over the colourless country, its normal banks
submerged by the rush of water from the hills: and behind them day sprang
out of the east, 'a tyrant with a flaming sword.'

Through eight blazing hours that sword hung bared above them. For their
ferry-boat was a native barge, persuaded rather than propelled in any
given direction by oars as long as punt poles; and set with one unwieldy
sail that could neither be tacked nor furled; but which provided them,
for a time, with a patch of burning shadow, by no means to be despised.
In it they smoked and picnicked, and made merry with cards and dogs, to
the best of their ability; while erratic currents bore them from sandbank
to sandbank; each collision involving an interlude of shouting, shoving,
coaxing, and upbraiding on the part of four assiduous boatmen; and when,
by the mercy of God and the river, they managed to run aground on the
farther side, it was nearing four o'clock in the afternoon.

Here were more tongas awaiting their prey: and this time the travellers
hailed them gratefully: for the swollen river had almost invaded the
gardens of outlying bungalows; and a short gallop brought them at last