Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1899-06-17
THE STRANGE RIDE
OF
MORROWBIE JUKES.
BY RUDYARD KIPLING.
cS1ceoVctec WcecWCWc vCV q
BY RUDYARD KIPLING.

all these horrors for 1S months and the
final agony of dying like rat in hole
with a bullet wound in the stomach.
Gunga Dass fancied / was going to kill
him and howled pitifully. The rest Of
the population, in the plethora that
follows a full flesh meal, watched US
without stirring
go inside. Gunga Dass, said l,
land fetch it out. -
was feeling sick and faint with
horror now Gunga Dass nearly rolled
off the platform and howled aloud.
But | am Brahman, sahib-a high
caste Brahman By your soul, by your
fathers soul, do not make me do this
thing
"Brahman or no Brahman, by my soul
and by my fathers soul, in you go!' /
said, and. Selling him by the shoulders,
| crammed his head into the mouth of
the burrow. kicked the rest of him in,
and, sitting down. covered my face
with my hands.
At the end Of few minutes l heard
a rustic and creak, then Gunga Dass
in a sobbing, choking whisper speaking
to himself, then a soft thud-and I'M
covered my eyes,
The dry sand had turned the corpse
Entrusted 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 80 and 40 above middle
height with light sandy hair, long
mustache and a,rough, unkempt beard.
The left canine of the upper jaw was
missing, and 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 a coiled cobra, much
worn and furnished Gunga Dass de-
posted handful of trifes he had pick
ed out of the burrow at my feet, and,
covering the face Of the body with my
handkerchief, | turned to examine these.
Il
may lead to the Identification of the un'
fortunate man
1. Bowl Of brieR wood pipe, serrated
at the edge, much worn and bIackened,
bound with string at the screw.
2 Two patent lever keys, wards of
both broken.
Tortoise shell handled penknife,
silver Or nickel name plate marked
with monogram 81. K.
4 Envelope postmark undecipher-
able bearing a Victorian stamp, ad-
dressed to Miss Mon '-(rest illegi-
ble)--''ham - Mt.
5. Imitation crocodile skin notebook
with pencil First 45 pages blank, AZ
illegible, IS other filed 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 Jerry 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 l 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 I conveyed to my bur
row for safety's sake, and there, being
o methodical man, I inventoried them
I then returned to the corpse and Or
dered Gunga Dass to help me to carry
it out to the river front While we
were 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
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
could think Of / ordered Gunga Dass
to 60 away.
Then 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
have already told you that the dry
sand had, as it were, mummifed the
body A moments glance showed that |
the gaping hole had been caused by a
gunshot wound The gun must have
been fired with the muzzle almost |
touching the back. The shooting coat, |
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
fash. Some one of the crater, presum-
ably Gunga Dass, must have shot him
with his own gun-the shot that fitted
tho broxy,, oortrid0os Ha bod ,,o1or 81