ay they be seen feeding voraciously upon the filthiest carrion
of animals; and not unfrequently upon a human body in a state of
putrefaction--the corpse of some deluded victim to the superstition of
Juggernaut--which has been thrown into the so-styled _sacred_ river, to
be washed back on the beach, an object of contention between _pariah_
dogs, vultures, and these gigantic cranes of the Ganges!

CHAPTER FIFTY SEVEN.

The standing sleepers.

The advent of the adjutants produced a vivid impression on the minds of
all three of our adventurers--more vivid, perhaps, upon Ossaroo than
either of the others. To him they seemed like old friends who had come
to visit him in his prison; and though it never occurred to the
shikaree, that they could be in any way instrumental in obtaining his
release, still the impression produced was one of a pleasant nature. He
saw before him two creatures whose forms, however uncouth, were
associated with the scenes of his earliest childhood; and he could not
help a passing fancy, that the pair, that had thus unexpectedly made
their appearance, might be the same old cock and hen he had so often
seen roosted on the branches of a huge banyan tree, that overshadowed
the bungalow in which he was born.

Of course this could be only fancy on the part of Ossaroo. Out of the
thousands of storks, that annually make their migration from the plains
of Hindostan to the northward of the Himalaya Mountains, it would have
been a rare coincidence if the two that for years had performed the
office of scavengers in the shikaree's native village, should be
identical with those now hovering above his head--for it was while they
were yet upon the wing that Ossaroo had indulged in this pleasant
speculation. Though scarce serious in his thought--and only
entertaining it for an instant--he was nevertheless gratified by the
sight of the two storks, for he knew they must have come from his native
plains--from the banks of that glorious river in whose waters he longed
once more to wet his feet.

The sight of the huge birds suggested to Caspar a different train of
thought. As he beheld their immense wings, extended in slow but easy
flight, it occurred to him that one or other of the great creatures
might have the power to perform that task which had proved too much for
the bearcoot; and for which the "kite" had been "flyed" in vain.

"Oh!" exclaimed he, as the idea came across his mind, "don't you think,
Kar