Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1940-02-22
CHAPTER xIv-Continued

| CildlI, CuLLlIlS IIlS pages VI uCW
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 cou-
pie O. fingers missing, along O. hav-
ing learned what engineering is! 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. II
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. Eve throat
like bakers oven"
"You shall have a drink present
ly."
"Said the devil to the sinner! That
Bengal 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 scalded cat. He
has Imagination like the toothache.
What he needs is an umbrella, to
keep worry off with"
''Did he talk to your"
''Did he!-Time to post the SEN
tries?"
''Stoddart is doing it now. Can't
you hear hin?'
"Yeh, but l know Stoddart."
''Stoddart has his orders. I will
60 the rounds presently. What did
the Bengal doctor tell you? Come
on now, out with it."
''The way l managed. him was
this" said O'Leary. 81 was looking
in on Mrs. Harding, cracking on I'd
come to fix the plumbing, on &C.
count O. my hearing her raising hell.
She was doing better job of that
than you or could. l understand
she's widow. l don't blame her
husband for taking a chance on the
mex world. She has her things pref
ty near packed, in about a 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. l stuck
around, outrageous.
"What she said to that Bengal
doctor, mind you, wouldn't say to
a 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
trying to speed the parting guest,
and she said she didn't need no
speedin'.
.'I showed up, suitable respect
full, cracking on l hadn't heard moth
ing. And l said l was Captain
Norwood's private servant and had
the Captain left his pipe on the
veranda when he called this after
noon? You should have heard that
female talk, and what she said about
you! She said she wouldn't put it
past you to have smoked your pipe
on her veranda, but if you had done
it she'd have kicked the Sinking
thing into the bushes. Long and
short O. it, she don't like you. She
pitched a hundred-rupee note at the
doctor for his fee, and he let it lie
there. l followed the Bengal.
overlook him where it was quiet.
and no shrubbery where folks could
scratch their noses poking into 9TH
er peoples business. spoke re-
proachful.
81 asked him: Doctor sahib, did
you tell that woman what she said
you told her about Captain Nor
wood?' He came back at me with:
Are you genuinely Captain Nor
woods servant?' And l said if I'm
not genuine, there's less than six.
teen annas to rupee. And when
he'd thought bit he answered:
Yes, l told her. l repeated rumor.
should not have done it, He acted
nervous. And after a minute, he
pulled out five rupees and gave em
to me. looked noncommittal, so
he gave me five more. Then he
said to me: Will you be seeing Cap.
tain Norwood? How soon? Tell him,
but don't say who told you, that his
life is in danger-tonight! Warn him
that his enemies have heard about
that bride, and they will try to kill
him. Let him look to himself
'He don't care damn about you.
But he's scared stiff O. what might
happen if they killed a British Off
Ger in Kadur. l figured out the
meaning O. that, quicker than you'd
take snapshot He's up to some.
thing crafty. No knowing what. But
he figures he can get away with it
all right if nothing happens, like the
killing of a British officer, that would
bring British investigation on the
scene"