Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-11-10

hands between the teeth of the mugger of
Mugger-Ghaut, and lived to make a story of
IL. My Fate has been very kind, but that
plaques me sometimes in my dreams-the
thought OF the little white child in the bows
OF that boat" He yawned and closed his
jaws. And now l will rest and think. Keep
SILENT my children, and respect the aged"
He turned stiffly, and shuffied to the top
or the sand bar. while the jackal drew back
with the adjutant to the shelter of a tree
stranded on the end nearest the railway
bridge.
THAT was a pleasant and profitable life,"
ne grinned, looking up inquiringly at the
bird, who lowered above him. And not
once. mark you, did he think fit to tell me
where a morsel might have been left along
the banks. Yet 1 have told him hundred
times of good things wallowing down
stream. How true is the saying, All the
wcrld forgets the jackal and the barber
when the news has been told! Now he is
going to sleep. Arrl.'
How can a jackal hunt with a mugger?"
said the adjutant coolly. big thief and lit
tie thief, 1t is easy to say who gets the
pickings."
The jackal turned. whining impatiently
and was going to curl himself up under
the tree trunk when he suddenly covered
and looked up through the draggled branches
at the bridge almost above his head.
What now?" said the adjutant. opening
his wings uneasly.
wait till we see. The wind blows from
us to them. but they are not looking for US
those two men,"
Men, is it? My Office protects me- All
India knows / am sacred" The adjutaut
being a first-class scayenger, is allowed to
go where he. pleases, and SO this one never
f1inehed.
Il am not worth blow from anything
greater than an old shoe," said the jaclxal
and listened again. "fiark to that footfall!'
he went on. THAT was no country leather
but the shod foot of white face. Listen
again! Iron hits iron up there 1t is a gun
Friend fhnSa hea -fn0fad foolish
are coming to speak with the mugger."
Warn him, then He was called Protector
OF the Poor by some one not unlike a starv-
Ing jackal but a little time ago."
Let my cousin protect his own hide. He
has told me again and again that there Is
nothing to fear from the white faces. They
must be white faces. Not a vilager of the
ghaut would dare to come after him. See,
/ said it was a gun. Now, with good luck,
we shall feed before daylight He cannot
hear well out of water. and-this time 1t is
not a woman"
A shiny barrel glittered for a moment In
the moonlight on the Orders. The mugger
was lying on the sand bar as still as his
own shadow. his forefeet spread out lit
tie, his head dropped between them, snort
ing like a-mugger.
A voice on the bridge whispered: ITS an
odd shot-straight down, almost-but as
safe as houses. Better try behind the neck.
Golly, what a brute! The villagers will be
wild IL he's shot, though. He's the deota
(godling) of these parts"
Don't care a rap" another voice an
swered. He took about fifteen of my best
coolies while the bridge was building, and
it's about time he was put a stop to. I've
been after him in boat for weeks Stand
by with the Martini as soon as I've given
him both barrels of this"
Mind the kick. then. A double four
bore's no joke"
That's for him to decide. Here goesp
There was a rom like the sound of a small
cannon (the biggest sort of elephant rifle is
not very different from artillery and
double streak of flame, followed by the
singing crack of Martini whose long bull
let makes nothing of a crocodile's plates.
But the explosive bullets did the work. One
of them struck Just behind the muggers
neck. hands breadth to the left of the
backbone, while the other burst a little
lower dow.., at the beginning of the tail. In
ninety-nine cases out of a hundred NOR
tally wounded crocodile can scramble off
for deep water and get away: but the mug
ger of Mugger-Ghaut was literally broken
into three pieces. He hardly moved his
head before the life went out of him, and
he lay as fiat as the jackal.
Thunder and lightning! Lightning and
thunder!" said that miserable little beast.
Has the thing that pulls the covered carts
over the bridge tumbled at last?"
"It is no more than gum said the ad-
jutant, though mis- very tail feathers quiv-
cred. Nothing more than gun. He Is
certainly dead. Here come the white
faces"
from the bridge and across to the sand bar.
where they stood admiring the length of the
mugger. Then a native with cut off
the big head, and four men dragged 4.
across the spit.
1.-The last time that had my hand In
muggers mouth said one of the English
men, STOPPING down Che was the man who
had built the BRIDGE, 1T was when L was
about five years old-coming down the river
by boat to Monghyr. I was mutiny baby,
y'know. Poor mother was in the boat, too,
and she often told me how she fired dads
old pistol at the beasts head"
"Well, you've certainly had your revenge
on the chief of the clan-even If my gun
has made your nose bleed. Hi, you boat
men! Haul that head up the bank and
we'll boil It for the skull. The skins too
knocked about to keep. Come along to
bed now. This was worth sitting up all
nighc for, WASH it?'
Curiously enough, the 5ackal and the ad-
jutant made the very same remark not
three minutes after the men had left