"Why?"

"In case of need, sahib. That tiger killed a woman yesterday at dawn
and was driven off his kill; he was not likely to be an easy mark for an
untried hunter."

"Why did you enter without knocking?"

The ex-risaldar said nothing.

"I see that you have shoes on."

"The scorpions, sahib--"

"Would you be pleased, Mahommed Gunga, if I entered your house with my
hat on and without knocking or without permission?"

"Sahib, I--"

"Be good enough to have that brute's carcass dragged out and skinned,
and--ah--leave me to sleep, will you?"

Mahommed Gunga bowed, and growled an order; another man passed the order
on, and the tom-tom thundering began again as a dozen villagers pattered
in to take away the tiger.

"Tell them, please," commanded Cunningham, "that that racket is to
cease. I want to sleep."

Again Mahommed Gunga bowed, without a smile or a tremor on his face;
again a growled order was echoed and re-echoed through the dark. The
drumming stopped.

"Is there oil in the bahadur's lamp?" asked Mahommed Gunga.

"Probably not," said Cunningham.

"I will command that--"

"You needn't trouble, thank you, risaldar-sahib. I sleep better in the
dark. I'll be glad to see you after breakfast as usual--ah--without your
shoes, unless you come in uniform. Good night."

The Rajput signed to the others and withdrew with dignity. Cunningham
reloaded his rifle in the dark and lay down. Within five minutes
the swinging of the punka and the squeaking of the rope resumed, but
regularly this time; Mahommed Gunga had apparently unearthed a man who
understood the business. Reaction, the intermittent coolth, as the
mat fan swung above his face, the steady, evenly timed squeak and
movement--not least, the calm of well-asserted dignity--all joined to
have one way, and Chota-Cunnigan-bahadur slept, to dream of fire-eyed
tigers dancing on tombstones laid on the roof of hell, and of a
grandfather in full general's uniform, who said: "Well done, bahadur!"

But outside, by a remade camp-fire, Mahommed Gunga sat and chuckled to
himself, and every now and then grew eloquent to the bearded men who sat
beside him.

"Aie! Did you hear him reprimand me? By the beard of God's prophet, that
is a man of men! So was his father! Now I will tell Alwa and the others
that I bring a man to them! By the teeth of God and my own honor I will
swear to it! His first tiger--he had never seen a tiger!--in the dark,
and unexpected--caught