s that his trunk was a good deal worn, and he
would have been better for some more silver leaf, but that was no fault
of the Englishman.

Beyond the dead city was a jhil, full of snipe and duck, winding in and
out of the hills; and beyond the jhil, hidden altogether among the
hills, was Boondi. The nearer to the city the viler grew the road and
the more overwhelming the curiosity of the inhabitants. But what befel
at Boondi must be reserved for another chapter.

XVI

THE COMEDY OF ERRORS AND THE EXPLOITATION OF BOONDI. THE CASTAWAY OF THE
DISPENSARY AND THE CHILDREN OF THE SCHOOLS. A CONSIDERATION OF THE
SHIELDS OF RAJASTHAN AND OTHER TRIFLES.

It is high time that a new treaty were made with Maha Rao Raja Ram
Singh, Bahadur, Raja of Boondi. He keeps the third article of the old
one too faithfully, which says that he "shall not enter into
negotiations with any one without the consent of the British
Government." He does not negotiate at all. Arrived at Boondi Gate, the
Englishman asked where he might lay his head for the night, and the
Quarter Guard with one accord said: "The Sukh Mahal, which is beyond the
city," and the tonga went thither through the length of the town till it
arrived at a pavilion on a lake--a place of two turrets connected by an
open colonnade. The "house" was open to the winds of heaven and the
pigeons of the Raj; but the latter had polluted more than the first
could purify. A snowy-bearded _chowkidar_ crawled out of a place of
tombs, which he seemed to share with some monkeys, and threw himself
into Anglo-Saxon attitudes. He was a great deal worse than Ram Baksh,
for he said that all the Officer Sahibs of Deoli came to the Sukh Mahal
for _shikar_ and--never went away again, so pleased were they. The Sahib
had brought the Honour of his Presence, and he was a very old man, and
without a written permit could do nothing. Then he fell deeply asleep
without warning; and there was a pause, of one hour only, which the
Englishman spent in seeing the lake. It, like the jhils on the road,
wound in and out among the hills, and, on the bund side, was bounded by
a hill of black rock crowned with a _chhatri_ of grey stone. Below the
bund was a garden as fair as eye could wish, and the shores of the lake
were dotted with little temples. Given a habitable house,--a mere
dak-bungalow,--it would be a delightful spot to rest in. Warned by some
bitter experiences in the past, the Englishman knew that he was