our losses in dead or that had fallen during the past year it was a very wet night and i remember that we sang with our feet in the cup and our heads among the stars and swore that we were all dear the phantom friends then some of us went away and and some tried to open up the and were opened up by in that cruel outside and some found stars and and some were married which was bad and some did other things which were worse and the others of us stayed in our chains and strove to make money on insufficient experiences began the night with and drank champagne steadily up to then raw with all the strength of took with his coffee four or five and to improve his pool strokes beer and bones at half past two winding up with old brandy consequently when he came out at half past three in the morning into fourteen degrees of fi he was very angry with his horse for and tried to into the saddle the horse broke away and went to his stables so and i formed a guard of to take home our road lay through the close to a little temple of the monkey god who is a leading divinity worthy of respect all gods have good points just as have all priests personally i attach much importance to and am kind to his people � the great gray of the hills one never knows when one may want a friend the mark of the beast there was a light in the temple and as we passed we could hear voices of men hymns in a native temple the priests rise at all hours of the night to do honour to their god before we could stop him dashed up the steps patted two priests on the back and was gravely grinding the ashes of his cigar butt into the forehead of the red stone image of tried to drag him out but he sat down and said solemnly that mark of the b made it t it fine in half a minute the temple was alive and noisy and who knew what came of gods said that things might occur he by virtue of his official position long residence in the country and weakness for going among the natives was known to the priests and he felt unhappy sat on the ground and refused to move he said that good old made a very soft pillow then without any warning a silver man came out of a recess behind the image of the god he was perfectly naked in that bitter bitter cold and his body shone like silver for he was what the bible calls a as white as snow also he had no face because he was a er of some years standing and his disease was heavy upon him we two stooped to haul up and the phantom the temple was and filling with folk who seemed to spring from the earth when the silver man ran in under our arms making a noise exactly like the of an caught round the body and dropped his head on s breast before we could him away then he retired to a comer and at while the crowd blocked all the doors the priests were very angry until the silver man touched that seemed to sober them at the end of a few minutes silence one of the priests came to and said in perfect english take your friend away he has done with but has not done with him the crowd gave room and we carried into the road was very angry he said that we might all three have been and that should thank his stars that he had escaped without injury thanked no one he said that he wanted to go to bed he was drunk we moved on silent and until was taken with violent shivering fits and he said that the smells of the were overpowering and he wondered were permitted so near english can t you smell the blood said � the mark of the beast we put him to bed at last just as the dawn was breaking and invited me to have another and while we were drinking he talked of the trouble in the temple and admitted that it baffled him completely hates being by natives because his business in life is to them with their own weapons he has not yet succeeded in doing this but in fifteen or twenty years he will have made some small progress they should have us he said instead of at us i wonder what they meant i don t like it one little bit i said that the managing committee of the temple would in all probability bring a criminal action against us for insulting their religion there was a section of the indian code which exactly met s offence said he only hoped and prayed that they would do this before i left i looked into s room and saw him lying on his right side scratching his left breast then i went to bed cold depressed and unhappy at seven o clock in the morning at one o clock i rode over to s house to inquire after s head i imagined that it would be a sore one was and seemed his temper was gone for he was the cook for not supplying him with an chop a man who can eat raw meat the phantom after a wet is a curiosity i tc d this and he laughed you breed queer in these be said i ve been bitten to pieces but only in one place let s have a look at the bite said it may have gone down since this morning while the were being cooked opened his shirt and showed us just over his left breast a 