The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-11-12


life" he grinned, looking up inquiring-
ly at the bird who lowered above him.
And not once, mark you, did he thinl;
fit to tell me where a morsel might
have been left along the banks. Yet
/ have told him hundred times of
good things wallowing downstream.
How true is the saying: All the world |
forgets the jackAl aud the barber when
the news has been toldr Now he is
going to sleep. Arrh!"
How can q jacl;al hunt with mug
ger?" said the adjutant, coolly. big
thief and little thief; it is easy to say
who gets the pickings."
The jaclal turned, whining impa-
tiently, and was going to curl himself
up under the tree trunk, when he sud-
denly covered and looked up through
the draggled branches at the bridge al
most above his head
"What now?" said the adjutant,
opening his wings uneasily.
wait till we sec. The wind blows
from us to them, but they are not look
ing for us--those two men,"
Men, is it? My Office protects me.
All India knows / am holy" The ad-
jutant, being frst-class scavenger, is
allowed to go where he pleases, and
so tins one never ilinchcd.
81 am not worth a blow from any
thing greater than an old shoe" said
the jaclial, and listened again. "TIark
to that footfall" he went on. THAT
was no country leather, but the shod
foot Of a whiteface. Listen again!
Iron hits iron up there. 1t is gun.
Friend, those heavy-footed, foolish
English are coming to speak with the
mugger."
Warn him, then. He was called
Protector Of the Poor by some one not
unlike starving jackal but little
time ago"
Let my cousin protect his own hide.
He has told me again and again there
is nothing to fear from the whitefaces.
They must be whitefaces. Not vii
lager of Mugger-Ghaut would dare to
come after him. See! I said it was
gun. Now, with good luck, we shall
feed before daylight. He cannot hear
well out of water, and-this time it is
not woman!"
A shiny barrel glitteFed for a minute
in the moonlight on the girders. The
mugger was lying on the sandbar us
still as his own shadow, his forefect
spread out little, his head dropped
between them, snorting like a-mugger.
A voice'on the bridge whispered: TITS
an odd shot-straight down almost
but as safe Us houses. Better try behind
the neck. Golly, what q brute! The
villagers will be wild if he's shot,
though. He's the deota (godling) of
these parts.
Don't care rep," another voice an
swered. "He took about fifteen Of my
best coolies while the bridge was build
ing, and it's about time he was put q
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
goes!"
There was roar like the sound OF o
small cannon (the biggest sort Of ele-
phant-rifc is not very different from
some artillery, and double streak Of
flame, followed by the singing crack
of Martini, whose long bullet makes
nothing Of a crocodile's plates. But the
explosive bullets did the work. One of
them struck just behind the mugger's
neck, hands breadth to the left of the
backbone, while the other burst o
little lower down, at the beginning Of
the tail. In ninety-nine cases out Of q
hundred mortally wounded crocodile
can scramble off for deep water and get
away; but the mugger of Mugger-
Ghaut was literally broken into three
pieces. He hardly moved his head be-
fore the life went out of him, and he
Ady us iut dS INC JLcikul'
Thunder and lightning! Lightning
and thunder" said that miserable lit
tie beast. Has the thing that pulls
the covered carts over the bridge tum-
bled at last?"
1T is no more than gun," said the
adjutant, though his very tail-feathers
quivered. Nothing more than gun.
He is certainly dead. Here come the
white-faces."
The two Englishmen had hurried
down from the bridge and across to the
sandbar, where they stood admiring
the length of tho mugger. Then ma.
tive with an AK cut off the big head
and four men dragged it across the
spit.
'The last time that had my hand ir
n mugger's mouth" said one Of the
Englishmen, STOPPING down Che was thc
man who had built the BRIDGE, ut wa,
when was about five years old-Icosh
ing down the river by boat to Monghyr
was mutiny baby, y know. Pool
mother was in the boat, too, and she
often told me how she fired dads ole
pistol at the beasts head"
swell, you've certainly had your re
venge on the chief of the clan-even i
my gun has mad~ yUaf nose bleed Iii
you boatmenl Haul that head up tht
bank and we'll boil 1t for the skull. TIL,
skins too knocked about to keep. Come
along to bed now. This was worth sit
ting up all night for, wasn't it?"
Curiously enough, the jackal and th,
adjutant made the very same rcmarl