Evening star., 1925-06-07

of l0. 900 murderers," / murmured 10
myself. Unhappy creature" But as
l looked closely at her, as she returned
our bow | could see no marks of dis
content Rather she had the Dir of
one to whom life has been good-very
good.
A T the door of the governors man
a sion A great white parrot screamed
an unfriendly greeting. Several In
dian servants met US and led US
through a long hall, hung with queer
bows and arrows. TO a library It's
windows overlooked the great red
prison across the little bay. | Won
dered what sort of man ruled over
this colony of turbulent convicts.
created a lion-like figure with bold
features and hard eyes.
The door opened and, instead, there
came toward us a short, stopped, mid
| dle-aged man, the type one sees, book
in hand, wandering under the elms of
! a college campus. He said in the low
voice OF the cultured Englishman, n,
Welcome TO the Andamans, gentle
men,"
This was Col. Beadon. with al
most despotic powers. With II hand
full of whites and a company or so
of soldiery, he rules over the thou
allowed to live quite freely In vii
lagos of their own. The prison
across the bay was used only for the
most desperate characters and sedi-
tionists and new prisoners.
This bookiSh governor seemed to
take the convicts as matter of
course, but even he appeared gripped
by the mystery of a race of pigmies
who Inhabited the jungle. One tribe.
he said, roamed the forest only few
miles from the colony, but could not
be captured or hardly seen.
The only sign the colony ever had
of them was when sometimes al night
they crept out of the jungle. killed a
few convicts and escaped back into
their impenetra BILE wilderness. When
the governor spoke of these queer
little jungle people. his voice lost a
little of its tone of semi boredom.
But I was much more interested
just then in the life of these whites
had seen walking unarmed among
the murderer convicts. So / asked
for more information. Are all these
Indians wandering around, apparent
ly quite freely, really murderers?"
He smiled. Not quite all" he
answered. We have some famous
dacoits (bandits) and few political
prisoners, but the majority are muir
ferers." He pointed at the musty
row of files which lined one side
of the room. In those books" he
said, are the records of enough
romances to keep dozen storywrit-
ers at work for life But perhaps the
for they all have the same tragic
climax killing and then exile to
this place"
But if all these men are mur-
derers. isn't there great danger for
you whites walking about unarmed?"
The governor looked up as if a little
surprised. why, no. There are a
few-er-accidents now and then,
but no real danger. No"
The accidents to which he referred
are of the kind that happened to a
viceroy of India who visited the
island one Winter many years ago. 1t
was a Mohammedan convict who
stabbed him to death in the midst of
his retinue.
1 found this same attitude among
all the white rulers of this strange
place. This little group-not more
than so in all-after the fashion of
the English took their bizarre sur
roundings as the most natural thing
in the world. Instead of worrying
about either convicts or savages, they
we had met the major-when half
a dozen Englishmen settle anywhere
they must have a club.
X x y
THIS club was delight with card
billiard and 1ounging rooms Part
of the sea which washed up to its
doors was fenced off from sharks 10
make an enormous outdoor swimming
pool. A tennis court was nearby and
wonder of wonders, a golf course.
These rulers lived in spacious bunga-
lows on the hills. Big windows opened
on every side with the sea breeZeS
ever blowing through. They had liter
ally swarms of servants. And the
servants had one peculiarity-they
were all murderers.
This I did not know until one dark
night Cooper and l went to dine with
an officer and his wife who live on the
mainland on a hill above the convict
villages. 1t was pitch-black when we
landed, and we could just make out by
torchlight a carriage drawn by six
brown fellows. naked except for loin-
cloths. We got in and our human
horses started up a winding road
We could see nothing but the glim
mer of the lantern on the naked brown
backs before us. We stopped at last
before a brilliantly lighted two-story
bungalowlike house. Half a dozen
servants, dressed in bright colors,
were drawn up at the door. In front
of these was standing our host.
After a dinner served by an Indian
butler with numerous aides, as we
were sitting in the many-windowed
drawing room, having coffee, | re-
marked to our hostess that she did
not seem to be bothered by the serv-
ant problem.
well, I do manage to get enough
of them" she replied.
"AH convicts, 1 suppose said /.
Yes, indeed" said she, smiling.
II don't suppose you ever take in
any murderers, l remarked.
mo murderers"' she answered In