The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1940-05-02
CHAPTER XIV

Norwood sat in his tent and
checked Stoddart's survey figures.
found a couple of mistakes, correct
ed them, admonis.led Stoddart and
gave the sergeant Instructions for
the following day. Nervously he
walked the distance between the
horse line and his tent.
After the third of his pacings to
and fro, he sat at the table in his
tent and wrote a letter to LYNN
Harding, tore it up, and made sew
eral more attempts. He tore up
the last one, gathered all the scraps
of paper into one heap, carried
them to cook-fre and burned the
lot.
He returned to his tent, scraped
out pipe, wrote another letter to
Lynn Harding and tore up that one.
1t was getting on toward dark. The
Kadur River was splurge of Grim.
son. He heard the hoof-beats of
O'Leary's horse at about the hour
when he had first seen Lynn Hard
ing in the Maharanee's carriage.
Norwood's servant came and light
ed the lamp in the tent.
BY the time O'Leary reached the
tent, Norwood was in an easy camp
chair, cutting the pages of new
book and smoking as if there were
nothing on earth to be troubled
about.
THAT lamp amt fit to read by"
said O'Leary. You'll ruin your
eyes. The only kind O. engineer that
can look after himself has a cou-
pie O. fingers missing, along O. hav-
ing learned what engineering Isl Let
me turn it out. I'll fix it later."
"Come in. Sit down."
O'Leary blew out the lamp. Then
he sat. 1t was not yet night out
side, but it was too dark in the tent
for them to see each others faces.
Meaning you'll" said O'Leary. "I
could have picked you off against
that lamplight from a hundred
yards away, aye and no one know
who done it"
"Talk," said Norwood.
"I'm dry O. talking. I've a throat
like bakers oven"
"You shall have drink present
ly."
"Said the devil to the sinner! That
Bengali Doctors sore at someone.
He's scared. He's rolled. He's up
to mischief. Like all them Bengal
is, he's a mixture of too many diff
ferent kinds of education. He's as
full of spite as a scalded cat. He
has imagination like the toothache
What he needs is an umbrella, tc
! keep worry off with"
did he talk to you?"
"Did he!-Time to post the SEN
tries?"
"Stoddart is doing it now. Can't
you hear him?"
"Yeh, but I know Stoddart."
'Stoddart has his orders. ] will
go the rounds presently. What did
the Bengal doctor tell you? Come
on now, out with it."
"The way managed him was
this" said O'Leary. 81 was looking
in on Mrs. Harding, cracking on I'd
come to fix the plumbing, on ac-
count O. my hearing her raising hell.
She was doing a better job of that
than you or l could. I understand
she's a widow. I don't blame her
husband for taking a chance on the
mex world. She has her things pref
ty near packed, in about lorry-
load O. trunks on the veranda. She
was cussing out the servants until
the doctor turned up, and then she
turned her guns on him. She de-
manded her bill, and he remarked
she didn't owe him nothing. So ]
knew right then, there was a cock
roach in somebody's butter. I stuck
around, outrageous.
what she said to that Bengali
doctor, mind you, wouldn't say to
thief. He was trying to persuade
her to take some physic for her
stomach. And she wouldn't. He
said it 'ud make her stomach easy,
and she'd be fit to travel. He of
fered to swallow some of it him
self, to prove it was harmless. But
she said he could swallow the bot
tie, for all o. her. He said he was
tr-inc to sceed- the parting guest,