The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1899-05-30

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I crammed his head into the mouth Of
the burrow. kicked the rest of him in.
and. sitting down. covered my face
with my hunds.
At the end Of few minutes l heard
rustic and creak. then Gunga Dass
in sobbing. choking whisper speaking
to himself. then soft thud-and I'M
covered my eyes.
The dry sand had turned the corpse
intrusted to its keeping into yellow
brown mummy told Gunga Dass to
stand off while examined it. The body
clad in an olive green hunting suit
much stained and worn. with leather
pads on the shoulders-was that of a
man between 30 and 40, above middle
height. with light, sandy hair. long
mustache and rough, unkempt beard.
The left canine Of the upper jaw. was
missing. and a portion of the lobe of the
right ear was gone. On the second fin
ger OF the left hand was ring-a shield
shaped bloodstone set in gold. with a
monogram that might have been either
'B. K. or .B. L. On the third fin
ger of the right hand was a silver ring
in the shape of coiled cobra. much
worn and furnished. Gunga Dass de-
posted a handful of trif1es he had tick
ed out of the burrow at my feet. and.
covering the face of the body with my
handkerchief l turned to examine these.
l give the full list in the hope that it
rlay lead to the Identification of the I'M
fortunate man
I. Bowl of brier wood pipe, serrated
at the edge, much worn and blackened.
bound with string at the screw.
@ Two patent lever keys. wards OF
both broken.
g. Tortoise shell handled penknife.
silver or nickel name plate. marked
with monogram "B. X
4. Envelope. postmark undecipher-
able. bearing Victorian stamp, ad-
dressed to miss Mon Crest illegi-
ble)-''ham INT"
B. Imitation crocodile skin notebook
with pencil. First 40 pages blank, AZ
illegible. Is other filled with private
memoranda relating chiefly to three
persons-a Mrs. L. Singleton, abbrevi-
ated several times to "Lot Single,
"Mrs. S. May and "Garmison. !" re-
ferred to in places as GERRY" or
"Jack."
g. Handle of small sized hunting
knife. Blade snapped short. Bucks
horn. diamond cut, with swivel and
ring on the butt fragment of cotton
cord attached.
1t must not be supposed that inven-
toried all these things on the spot as
fully as have here written them down.
The notebook first attracted my atten-
ton. and put it in my pocket with a
view to studying it later on. The rest
of the articles l conveyed to my bur
row for safety sake. and there being
methodical man, inventoried them.
/ then returned to the corpse and or
dered Gunga Dass to help me to carry
it out to the river front While we
We're engaged in this the exploded shell
of an old brown cartridge dropped out
Of one Of the pockets and rolled at my
feet. Gunga Dass had not seen it, and
l fell to thinking that man does not
carry exploded cartridge cases, espe-
cially browns. which will not bear
loading twice. about with him when
shooting In other words, that cartridge
case had been fired inside the crater.
Consequently there must be gun some
where. was on the verge of asking
Gunga Dass. but checked myself, know
ing that he would lie. We laid the body
down on the edge of the quicksand by
the tussocks. 1t was my intention to
push it out and let it be swallowed up,
the only possible mode of burial that
l could think Of ordered Gunga Dass
to go away.
Then l gingerly put the corpse out
on the quicksand. In doing so-it was
lying face downward-I tore the frail
and rotten khaki shooting coat open.
disclosing hideous cavity in the back.
l have already told you that the dry
sand had. as it were. mummified the
body. A moments glance showed that
the gaping hole had been caused by q
gunshot wound. The gun must have
been fired with the muzzle almost
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being intact. had been drawn over the
body after death. which must have been
instantaneous. The secret of the poor
wretch's death was plain to me in a
fash. Some one of the crater. presum-
ably Gunga Dass. must have shot him
with his own gun-the shot that fitted
the brown cartridges. He had never at
tempted to escape in the face of the
rifle fire from the boat.
pushed the corpse out hastily and
saw it sink from sight literally in a
few seconds. shuddered as watched
In dazed. half conscious way turned
to peruse the notebook. A stained and
discolored slip of paper had been insert
ed between the binding and the back
and dropped out as I opened the pages.
This is what it contained: "Four out
from crow clump; left; 8 out;
right; back; 2 left; IA out; left; Z
ont; left; back; Q right; 6 back; 4
right; 7 back. The paper had been
burned and charred at the edges. What
it meant could not understand. l sat
down on the dried bents, turning it