The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-07-20

make nei. her head nor tail of it, and was
proportionately impressed; for he fancied
that his friend had become . fifth
rounder." When Q man is fifth
rounder" he can do more than Slade and
Houdin combined.
Lone sahib read the letter in five differ
ent fashions, and was beginning sixth in
terpretation when his bearer dashed in
with the news that there was cat on the
bed. Now, If there was one thing that
Lone Sahib hated more than another it
was a cat He rated the bearer for not
turning 1t out OF the house. The bearer
said that he was afraid. all the doors OF
the bedroom had been shut throughout
the morning, and no real cat could posi-
bly, have entered the ROOM He would pre-
fer not to NEEDLE with the creature.
Lone Sahib entered the room gingerly,
and there, on the pillow OF his bed,
sprawled and whimpered q wee white kit
ten, not jumpsome, risky little beast.
but slug-like crawler, with its eyes barely
opened, and its laws lacking strength
direcGion--a kitten that ought to have been
caught il by the scruff of its neck, handed
it over to the sweeper to be drowned. and
fined the bearer four annas.
That evening as he was reading In his
room, he fancied that he saw something
moving about on the hearth rug, outside
the circle of light from his reading lamp.
When the thing began to myowi he real
lied that it was q kitten-a wee white kit
ten, nearly blind and very miserable. He
was seriously angry, and spoke bitterly to
his beaten, who said that there was no kit
ten in the room when he brought in the
lamp, and real kittens Of tender age gener.
ally had mother cats in attendance.
"If the presence will go out into the
veranda and listen,n said the bearer, "he
will hear no cats. How, therefore, can the
kitten on the bed and the kitten on the
hearth rug be real kittens?'
Lone Sahib went out to listen, and the
bearer followed him, but there was no
sound of Rachel mewing for her children.
He returned to his room, having hurled
the kitten down the hillside, and wrote out
the incidents of the day for the benefit OF
his co-religionists. These people were so
absolutely free from superstition that
they escribed anything little out OF the
common to agencies. As 1t was their bus
mess to know all about the agencies. they
were on terms of almost indecent familiar
ity with manifestations of every kind.
Their letters dropped from the ceiling
unstamped-and spirits used to squatter
up and down their staircases all night.
But they had never come into contact with
kittens. Lone Sahib wrote out the facts,
noting the hour and the minute, as every
psychical observer is bound to do. and ap-
pending the Englishman's letter because it
was the most mysterious document, and
might have had bearing upon anything
In this world or the next. An outsider
would have translated ali the tangle thus:
Look outi You laughed at me once and
now am going to make you sit up"
Lone Sahib's co-religionists found that
meaning in it; but their translation was
refined and full of four-syllable words.
They held a sederunt, and were filed with
tremendous joy, for, in spite of their IA
miiiarity with all the other worlds and
cycles, they had a very human awe of
things sent from ghostland. They met in
Lone Sahib's room in shrOuded and sepul-
chral gloom, and their conclave was broken
up by a ciinking among the photo frames
on the mantelpiecp. A wee white kitten,
nearly blind, was looping and writhing
itself between the clock and the candle
sticks. That stopped all investigations or
doubtings. Here was the manifestation in
the flesh. 1t was, so far as could be seen,
devoid of purpose, but it was manifesta-
ton OF undoubted authenticity.
They drafted a round robin to the Eng
Iishman, the backslider of old days, adjur-
ing him in the interests Of the Creed to ex-
plain whether there was any connection
between the embodiment of some Egyptian
god or other (I have forgotten the name)
and his communication. They called the
kitten Ra, or 10th, or Shem, or Noah, or
something; and when Lone Sahib con-
fessed that the first one had, at his most
misguided instance, been drowned by the
sweeper, they said consolingly that in his
next life he would be 'bounder," and not
even a FOUNDER of the lowest grade.
These words may not be quite correct, but
they express the sense of the house accu-
rately.
When the Englishman received the
round robin--it came by post-he was
startled and bewildered: He sent into the
bazaar for Dana Da, who read the letter
and laughed. '.That is my sending" said
he. 81 told you would work well. Now
give me another 10 rupees"
"But what in the world is this gibberish
about Egyptian gods9" asked the English
man.
'Cats," said Dana Da with a hiccough,
for he had discovered the Englishman's
whisky bottle. u Cats. and cats. and cats !!
Never was such q sending. A hundred of
cats. Now give me ten smore rupees and
write as / dictate"
Dana Da's letter was curiosity. It bore
the Engiishman's signature, and limited at
cats-at a sending of cats. The mere
words on paper were creepy and uncanny
to behold.
"What have you done, though 2" said the
Englishman; II am as much in the dark
as ever Do you mean to say that you can
about2"
Judge for yourself" said Dana Da.
"What does this letter mean? In little
time they will all be at my feet and yours,
and l, Q Glory, viii be drugged or drunk
all day long,"
Dana Da knew his people.
When a man who hates cats wakes up in
the morning and finds little squirmng
kitten on his breast, or puts his hand into
his ulster pocket and finds little half-dead
kitten where his gloves should be. or opens
his trunk and finds vile kitten among his
dress shirts, or goes for long ride with his
macintosh strapped on his saddle bow
and shakes out little squawling
kitten from its folds, when he opens
il and goes out to dinner and finds
q little blind kitten under his chair, or
STAYS at home and finds a writhing kitten
under the quilt. or wriggling among his
boots. or hanging head downward in his
tobacco jar, or being mangled by his terrier
in the veranda-when such man finds
one kitten, neither more nor less, once a
day IN a place where no kitten rightly
could or should be. he is naturally upset.
When he dare not murder his daily trove
because he believes it to be a manifesto.
tion, an emissary, an embodiment
and half dozen other things all
out of the regular course of nature, he
is more than upset. He is actually dis
tressed. Some of Lone Sahib's co-relig-
ionists thought that he was q highly ia
vored individual, but many said that If he
had treated the first kitten with proper re-
spect-as suited Toth-Ra-Tam-Sennac
rib embodiment-all this trouble would
have been averted. They compared him to
the Ancient Mariner, but none the less
they were proud of him and proud of the
Englishman who had sent the manifesto
ton. They did not call it a sending be-
cause Icelandic magic was not in their pro-
gramme.
Alter sixteen kittens, that is to say after