The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1899-06-09
The SIrQRge Ride Of
NNI0NbIG JUAeS.
BY RUDYARD KIPLING.
CONTINUED.

CONTINUED.
rancied that / was delirious until
handful of sand fell at my feet. Then /
looked up and saw head peering down
into the phitheater-th head Of
Dunnoo my dog boy, who attended to
my collies. As soon as he had attracted
my attention he held up his hand and
showed rope motioned, staggering
to and fro the while. that he should
leather punkah ropes knotted together,
with loop at one end. | slipped the
loop over my head and under my arms
heard Dunnoo urge something forward +;
was conscious that | was being drag
ged, face downward, up the steep sand
slope, and the next instant found my
self cholSed and half fainting on the
sand hills overlooking the crater. Dun
moo with his face ashy gray in the
moonlight, implored me not to stay,
but to get back to my tent at once.
1t seems that he had tracked Pornic' 8
footprints IA miles across the sands to
the crater; had returned and told my
servants, who fatty refused to NEEDLE
with any one. white or black, once
fallen into the hideous village of the
dead, whereupon Dunnoo had taken
one of my ponies and couple of punkah
ropes, returned to the crater and hauled
me out as have described.
To cut Il long story short, Dunnoo is
now my personal servant on gold
mohur month, a sum which l still
think far too little for the services he
has rendered. Nothing on earth will in
duce me to 20 near that deviish spot
again or to reveal its whereabouts more
clearly than / have done, OF Gunga
Dass have never found trace, nor dc
| wish to do so. My sole motive in Civ
ing this to be published is the hope that
some one may possibly identify, from
the details and the inventory which l
have given above, the corpse Of the
man in the olive green hunting suit
The nature of the reeking village
was made llain now, and all that l had
known or read Of the grotesque and the
horrible paled before the fact just com
municated by the exBrahman. Sixteen
1
bay. | had been told by wandering
Armenian of the existence, somewhere in
India, of place to which such Hindoos
as had the misfortune to recover from
trance or catalepsy were conveyed and
kept, and recollect laughing heartily
at what | was then pleased to consider
a traveller tale. Sitting at the bottom
g h., 90 n =.
son $ hotel, with its swinging punkahs,
white robed attendants and the sallow
faced Armenian. rose up in my mind as
wildly as a photograph, and burst in
to IA loud fit of laughter. The contrast
was too absurd
Gunga Dass. as he bent over the I'M.
clean bird. watched me curiously. Hin
docs seldom laugh, and his surround
ings were not such as to move Gunga
Dass to any undue excess of hilarity
He removed the crow solemnly from the
wooden spit and as solemnly devourcG
it. Then he continued his story, which
give in his own words;
''In epidemics of the cholera you are
carried to be burned almost before you
are dead. When you come to the river
side, the cold air perhaps makes You
alive. and then, if you are only little
alive, mud is put on your nose anC
mouth and you die conclusively, If you
are rather more alive, more mud is put
but if you are too lively they let yor
go and take you away. was too lively
and made protestation with anger
against the indignities that they en-
deavored to press upon me, In thos'
days | was Brahman and proud man
Now am dead man and eat here h,
eyed the well gnawed breastbone will
the first sign of emotion that l had seei
in him since we met-"crows and 9th
er things They took me from my sheet
when they saw that | was too livel!
and gave me medicines for one week
and l survived successfully Then the!
/ l.. L. a.