Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1899-06-01
Continued from last week. }

"That, said he, with another of his
wheezy chuckles, "you may see for your.
self subsequently. You will have much
time TO make observations T"
Whereat, to his great delight,
WINGED once more and hastily continued
| the conversations "And how do you
live here from day to dayf What dc
you do?" The question elected exactly
the same answer as before, coupled
with the information that "this plsce
is like your European heaven. There is
neither marrying nor giving in mar
riage
Gunga Dass had been educated at a
mission school and as he himself adj
mitted, had he only changed his reli-
gion like a wise man, might have
avoided the living grave which was
now his portion. But as long as l was
with him | fancy he was happy.
Here was sahib, a representative Of
the dominant race helpless as a child
and completely at the mercy Of his ma
tive neighbors In a deliberate, lazy
way he set himself to torture me as
schoolboy would devote a rapturous
half hour TO watching the agonies of an
impaled beetle or as ferret in blind
burrow might glue himself comfortably
to the neck of rabbit The burden of
his conversation was that there was no
escape "of no kind whatever, and that
l should stay here till / died and was
"thrown on to the sand. If it were
possible to forejudge the conversation Of
the damned ON the advent of a new soul
in their abode, / should say that they
would speak as Dunga Dass did to me
throughout that long afternoon / was
powerless to protest or answer, all my
energies being devoted TO a struggle
against the inexplicable terror that
threatened to overwhelm me again and
again. | can compare the feeling to
nothing except the struggles of man
against the overpowering nausea of the
channel passage-only my agony was
of the spirit and infinitely more terri
BILE.
As the day wore on the inhabitants
began to appear in full strength to catch
the rays of the afternoon sun, which
were now sloping in at the mouth Of
the crater. They assembled in little
knots and talked among themselves
without even throwing glance in my
direction About 4 o. clock, as far as
could Judge. Gunga Dass rose and dived
into his lair for moment. emerging
,,,;th live craxt, IN bis hands Tho
wretched bird was in most draggled
and deplorable condition, but seemed to
be in no way afraid of its master. Ad
vancing cautiously to the river front
Gunga Dass stepped from tussock to
tussock until he had reached smooth
patch of sanS directly in the line of the
boats fire. The occupants of the boat
took no notice Here he stopped and,
with couple Of dexterous turns of the
wrist, pegged the bird on its back with
outstretched wings, As was only nat
ural, the crow began to shrek at once
and beat the air with its claws In a
few seconds the clamor had attracted
the attention Of bevy Of wild crows
on a shoal few hundred yards away.
where they were discussing something
that looked like corpse Half dozen
crows flew over at once to see what was
going on, and also, as it proved to at
tack the pinioned bird.
Gunga Dass who had lain down on a
tussock, motioned to me TO be quiet.
though | fancy this was a needless pre-
caution. In a moment. and before
could see how il happened, wild crow
who had grappled with the shrieking
and helpless bird was entangled in the
latter's claws, swiftly disengaged by
Gunga Dass and pegged down beside
its companion in adversely. Curiosity.
il seemed. overpowered the rest Of the
flock aud almost before Gunga Dass
and had time 10 withdraw TO the tus-
sock two more captives were struggling
in the upturned claws Of the decoys
SO the chase-if can give il so digni-
fled ame-continued until Gunga
Dass had captured seven crows. Five Of
them he throttled at once. reserving
two for further operations another day
was a good deal impressed by this. to
me lNNtA utAnhu u srtNEluE LoNu anu
complimented Gunga Dass on his skill
ut is nothing to do. said he ITO
morrow you must do it for me You
are stronger than | am.
This calm assumption Of superiority
upset me not a little. and answered
peremptorily Indeed, you old ruffianl
What do You think | have given you
money for
VERY well. was the unmoved re-
ply Perhaps not tomorrow nor the
day after nor subsequently. but in the
end and for many years. You viii catch
crows and eat crows and You win
thank your European God that you
have crows 70 catch and eat =
/ could have cheerfully strangled him
for this, but judged it best under the
circumstances TO smother my resent
ment An hour later ! was eating one
Of the crows and. as Gunga Dass had
said. thanking my God that I had a
crow to eat Never as long as | live
shall forget that evening meal The
whole population were squatting on the
t =