The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1899-04-21
= .-..'THE..-.
8 PHANTOM RlCKSHAM.
6
d .-.BY.-@.
s
s RUDYARp KlpLyNG.
6
May NO ill dreams disturb my rest
Nor powers of darkness me modest!

Evening
One of the few advantages that India
has over England is great knowabili-
ty. After five years service a man is
directly or indirectly acquainted with
900 or 800 civilians in his province, all
the messes of 10 or 12 regiments and
batteries and some 1900 other people
of the nonofficial caste. In ten years
his knowledge should be doubled, and
at the end of 90 he knows, or knows
something about, every Engishman in
the empire and may travel anywhere
and everywhere without paying hotel
bills.
Globe trotters who exnect entertain
menu as rlgnJ nave, even wlInln my
memory, blunted this open heartedness,
but none the less today, if you belong
to the inner circle and are neither a
bear nor black sheep, all houses are
open to you. and our small world is
very, very kind and helpful
Rickett of Kamartha staid with
Folder of Kumaon some is years ago.
He meant to stay two nights, but was
knocked down by rheumatic fever, and
for six weeks disorganized Folders es-
Enlistment, stopped Folders work. and
nearly died in Folder bedroom Folder
behaves as though he had been placed
under eternal obligation by Rickett
and yearly sends the little Ricketts,
box CT presents and toys. 1t is the same
everywhere. The men who do not take
the trouble to conceal from you their
opinion that you are an incompetent
ass and the women who blacken your
character and misunderstood your
wife's amusements will work them
selves to the bone in your behalf if you
fall sick or into serious trouble
Heatherlegh. the doctor, kept in adj
dition to his regular practice hospital
on his private account arrangement
of loose boxes for incurables, his friend
called it-but it was really sort of fit
ting up shed for craft that had bedn
damaged by stress of weather The
weather in India is often sultry, and
since the tale of bricks is alwaysa fixed
quantity and the only liberty allowed
is permission to work overtime and get
no thanks men occasionally break down
and become as mixed as the metaphors
in this sentence.
Heatherlegh is the dearest doctor
that ever was, and his invariable pre-
scription to all his patients is, ellie
low, go slow and keep cool. I" He says
that more men are killed by overwcrls
than the Importance of this world jus
titles. He maintains that overwork slew
Pansay, who died under his hands
about three years ago. He has, of
course the right to speak authorita-
lively. and he laughs at my theory that
there was crack in Pansay's head and
a little bit of the dark world came
through and pressed him to death
"Pansay went off the handle" says
Heatherlegh. .safter the stimulus of
long leave at home. He may or he may
not have behaved like a BLACKBOARD to
Mrs. Keith Washington. My notion is
that the work of the Katabundi settle
ment ran him off his legs, and that he
took to brooding and making much of
an ordinary p and o. Irritation. He
certainly was engaged to Miss Manner
ing, and she certainly broke off the
engagement. Then he took feverish
chill, and all that nonsense about ghosts
developed Overwork started his illness.
kept it alight and killed him, poor
devil! Write him off to the system
one man to take the work of two and a
half men. i"
do not believe this. l used to sit
up with Pansay sometimes when Heath
erlegh was called out to patients, and |
happened to be within claim. The man
would make me most unhappy by de-
scribing in low, even voice the pro-
cession that was always passing at the
bottom of his bed. He had sick mans
command of language. When he recov-
cred, | suggested that he should write
out the whole affair from beginning to
end, knowing that ink might assist him
to ease his mind. When little boys
have learned new bad word, they are
never happy till they have chalked it
up on a door And this also is liter
ature.
He was in high fever while he was
writing, and the blood and thunder
magazine diction he adopted did not
calm him Two months afterward he
Hds iSlloItcu NJ lOI uuIy, DuG III SplIe
OF the fact that he was urgently needed
to help an undermined commission
stagger through deficit he preferred
to die, vowing at the last that he was
bag ridden. got his manuscript before
he died, and this is his version Of the
affair, dated 1885
My doctor tells me that need rest
and change of air. 1t is not improbable
that | shall get both ere long-rest that
neither the relocated messenger nor the
midday gun can break, and change of
air far beyond that which any home
ward bound steamer can give me- In
the meantime | am resolved to stay
where am and, in fiat defiance of my
doctor s orders, to take all the world into
my confidence. You shall learn for
yourselves the precise nature of my
malady and shall. too, judge for your
selves whether any man born of woman
on this weary earth was ever SO tor
mented as l.
Speaking now as condemned Grim
inal might speak ere the drop bolts are