to look about for my bagman. By George, not a
sign of him in his room, not a sign of him anywhere. I thought to
myself, this is peculiar, and I went over to the stable to try whether
there was anything to be heard of him.

The first thing I saw was that the "Doctor's" stall was empty.

"How's this?" I said to the groom; "where's Mr. Leggett's horse?"

"The sahib has taken him away this morning."

I began to have some notion then of what my I.O.U. was worth.

"The sahib has left his grass-cutter and his pony," said the _sais_, who
probably had as good a notion of what was up as I had.

"All right, send for the grass-cutter," I said.

The fellow came up, in a blue funk evidently, and I couldn't make
anything of him. Sahib this, and sahib that, and salaaming and general
idiotcy--or shamming--I couldn't tell which. I didn't know a nigger then
as well as I do now.

"This is a very fishy business," I thought to myself, "and I think it's
well on the cards the grass-cutter will be out of this to-night on his
pony. No, by Jove, I'll see what the pony's good for before he does
that. Is the grass-cutter's pony there?" I said to the _sais_.

"He is there, sahib, but he is only a _kattiawa tattoo_," which is the
name for a common kind of mountain pony.

I had him out, and he certainly was a wretched-looking little brute, dun
with a black stripe down his back, like all that breed, and all bony and
ragged and starved.

"Indeed, he is a _gareeb kuch kam ki nahin_," said the _sais_, meaning
thereby a miserable beast, in the most intensified form, "and not fit to
stand in the sahib's stable."

All the same, just for the fun of the thing, I put the grass-cutter up
on him, and told him to trot him up and down. By George! the pony went
like a flash of lightning! I had him galloped next; same thing--fellow
could hardly hold him. I opened my eyes, I can tell you, but no matter
what way I looked at him I couldn't see where on earth he got his pace
from. It was there anyhow, there wasn't a doubt about that. "That'll
do," I said, "put him up. And you just stay here," I said to the
grass-cutter; "till I hear from Mr. Leggett where you're to go to. Don't
leave Delhi till you get orders from me."

It got about during the day that the bagman had disappeared, and had had
a soft thing of it as far as I was concerned. The 112th were dining with
us that night, and they all set to work to draw me after dinner about
the business--thought t