The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1899-06-09

out D,4- ,..y .e., you are dead and
buried
At irregular intervals supplies of
food, ! was toll. were dropped down
from ! g !e into the amphithea.
ter al The inhabitants fought for
them like wild beasts When a man
felt his death coming on, he retreated
to his lair and died there The body
was sometimes dragged ont of the hole
and thrown On to the sand or allowed
to rot where it lay
The phrase thrown on to the sand
caught my attention and asked Gunga
Dass whether this sort of thing was not
likely to breed pestilence
That, said he, with another Of his
wheezy chucl:les, "you may see for your
self subsequently. You will have much
time to make observations "
Whereat, to his great delight, !
WINGED once more and hastily continued
the conversation "And how do you
live here from day to day. What do
you dor The question elected exactly
the same answer as before, coupled
with the information that "this place
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 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 a sahib, a representative of
the dominant race, helpless as child
snd completely at the mercy Of his ma
tive neighbors In a deliberate. lazy
way he set himself to torture me as a
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 a rabe The burden of
his conversation was that there was no
escape ''of no kind whatever. and that
should stay here till l 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. l 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 ravs 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 a glance in my
| direction. About o. clock. as far as |
could Judge, Gunga Dass rose and dived
| into his lair for moment, emerging
with live crow in his hands The
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 a smooth
| patch of sand 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 q
few seconds the clamor had attracted
the attention of bevy Of wild crow:
on a shoal few hundred yards away.
where they We're discussing something
that looked like corpse. Half a dozer
crows flew over at once to see what was
going on and also as it proved, to at
ta"L tho nininned bird
THE END.