The Huttig news., 1911-07-15

 wink deliberately at Amber the while he broadly sketched for him his ancestry and the manner of his life at home and abroad
 Thunderstruck, Amber caught him self just as he was on the point of at tempting to drag the driver from his seat and beat him into a more endur- able frame of mind. He swallowed the hint and gave up the contest.
 "Oh, very well" be conceded. "I presume you're trying to say there isn't another tonga to be had and it can't be helped; but I don't like your tone. However. there doesn't seem to be anything to do but take you How much for the two of us?"
 Your servant sahib? He caunot ride in this tonga" asserted the driv- CT impressively.
 He can't. Why not?"
 You can see there is room for but two, and I have yet another passen- ger"
 Where" ?"
 "At the first dak bungalow, schib. where the mail tonga broke down last night. This tonga. which l say is an excellent tonga, an aram tonga a ton ga for ease. is sent to take its place. More than this. l am bidden to go in haste; therefore there is little time for you to decide whether or not you will go with me alone. As for your servant, he can follow by this after. noon's mail tonga
 Upon this ultimatum he stood. i'm movable; neither threats nor bribery availed. It was an order. he said; he had no choice other than to obey. Shsbash, Would the sahib be pleased to make up his mind quickly?
 Perforce the sshib yielded It'll be Labertonche: he's arranged this he told himself That loafer said he'd gone on ahead of us" And comforted he issued his orders to Doggott. who received and acceded to them with all the i'll grace imagin able. He was to remain and follow to Kuttarpur by the afternoons tonga.
 Climbing aboard, the Virginian set tied himself against the endless dis comforts of the ride which he fore saw; the tonga was anything but "an aram tonga-a tonga for ease:' there was no shade and no breeze, and the face of the land crawled with heat Srcd5 haze
 To a crisp cracking of the whip lash over the backs of the two sturdy, shaggy. fea-bitten ponies, the tonga swept away from the station swift as hunted fox with dusty plume.
 Amber leaned forward. watching the drivers face. Your name. tonga wallah?" be enquired.
 Ram Nath, sahib." The man spoke without moving his head, attending diligently to the management of his ponies.
 And this other passenger, who awaits us at the dak-bungalow, Ram Mathis he. perchance. one known both to you and to me?'
 Ram Nath licked the fagging ponies How should I know?" he re- turned brusquely
 "One." persisted Amber. ''who
 
 say, Pink Satin?'
 What manner of talk is thisr" de manded Ram Nath. q am no child to be amused by a riddle. l know naught of your Pink Satin He bent forward, shortening his grasp upon the reins, as if to signify that the interview was at an end.
 h0r hoc hu fellows impudence yet sensitive to suspicion that Ram Nath was playing his part better than his passenger, that the rebuke was merited by one who had ventured to speak of secret things in a land whose very stones have ears. For all that he could say their every move was watched by in strewn waste through which they sped might well harbor a hidden legion. But perhaps, after all, Ram Nath had nothing whatever to do with Labertouche. Undeniab,e as had been his wink. 1t might well have been nothing more than an i'm pertinence.
 MtdHW Diic tue tou6d iOShCu anu bounded fiendishly over an infamous parody of a road, turning and twist ing between huge bouders and in and out of pebbly nulahs, Ram Nath tool ing it along with the hand of mas ter. But all his attention was of ne eessity centered upon the ponies, and presently his tulwar slipped from his knees and clattered upon the floor of he tonga Amber saw his chance and put his foot upon it.
 Ram Nath,'' he asked gently, have you no other arms?'
 ''I were a fool had I not" The man did not deign to glance round. He hath need of weapons who doth traf- fc with the Chosen of the Voice. sahib''
 "Ah, that voice!" cried Amber in evaporation. ''I grow weary of the word. Ram Nath."
 That may well be" returned the man, imperturbable. None the less 1 1t were we'll for you to have care l how you fondle the revolver in your pocket, sahib. Should it by chance go off and the bullet find lodgment in