Daily Kennebec journal., 1895-01-18

has been very kind, but that plaques
me sometimes in my dreams
thought OF the little white child in the
bows of that boat" He yawned and
closed his jaws. "And now viii rest
and think. Keep silent, my children,
and respect the aged"
He turned stiffly and shuffled to the
top of the sandbar, while the iackal
drew back with the adjutant to the
shelter OF tree stranded on the end
nearest the railway-bridge.
That was pleasant and profitable
life" he grinned, looking up inquiring-
" 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
l have told him hundred times of
good things wallowing downstream.
How true is the saying: AN the world
forgets the iackal and the barber when
the news has been toldr Now he is
going to sleep. Arrh!''
''How can a jaclSal hunt with mug
ger?" said the adiutant, coolly. Big
thief and little thief; it is easy to say
who gets the picl1ings."
The jackal 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 see. 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 l am holy" The al
jutant, being frst-class scavenger, is
allowed to go where he pleases, and
so this one never fiinched.
Il am not worth blow from any,
thing greater than an old SHOE" said
the jackal, and listened again. 'Hark
to that footfallY' he went on. "That
was no country leather, hut the shod
foot of whiteface. Listen again!
Iron hits iron up there. 1t is gun.
Friend, those heavyfooted, foolish
English are coming to speak with the
mugger."
WARN him, then. He was called
Protector of the Poor by some one not
unlike a starving jacl1al but a 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 viii
lager of Mugger-Ghaut would dare to
come after him. See! 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 wonarw
A shiny barrel glittered for minute
il the moonlight on the girders. The
mug~cr was lying on the sandbar as
still as his own shadow, his forefect
spread out a little. his head dropped
between them, snorting like a--mugrcr,
A voice'on the bridge whispered: TITS
IN odd shot--Gtrairht down almost
but as safe as houses. Better try behind
the neck. Golly, what 4 brute. The
Villagers will be wild if he's shot,
though Hes the dcota (godling) of
these parts
Don't care a rap" another voice an
swered. "Ilc took about fifteen Of my
best coolies while the bridge was build
ing, and it's about time he was pat
stop to. I've been after him in boat
fer weeks. Stand by with the Martini
as soon as I've given him both barrels
OF this"
"NIind the kick, then. A double four
bore's no joke"
That's for him to decide. Here
gocsr'
There was a roar like the sound of
small cannon (the biggest sort of ele-
phant-rific 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 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 Il
little lower down, at the beginning Of
the tail. In ninety-nine cases out of o
hundred q mortally wounded crocodile
can scramble off for deep water and get
away; but the mugger of Mugger-
Ghaut was literally broken into three
pieces. lie hardly moved his head be-
fore the life went out of him, and he
lay as fat as the iacllal.
Thunder and lightning! Lightning
and thunder." said that miserable lit
tie beast Has the thing that pulls
the covered carts over the bridge tum-
blcd at last?"
at 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
The two Englishmen had hurried
down from the bridge and across to the
sandbar, where they stood admiring
the length of the mugger. Then a 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 In
a muggers month";" said one of the
Englishmen. STOPPING down Che was the
man who had built the BRIDGE, sit was
,vlen was about five years old-com-