leep, and in the morning were so pleased to find our throats were
not slit.

When Captain Kirke and Lieutenant Carter came round later, I had to
thank them for their Bundabust, and casually inquired if the last
resident in the bungalow was known to be still alive; for the bedroom
was so bloody! "Why--Baines!" they said, "of course; he was here two
nights! you saw him yesterday at the Club--the man with his hands
bandaged; that's Baines; he's always getting into pickles--he nearly
bled to death! We had a farewell evening at the Club, and in the night
he got up for soda water, the bottle burst and cut his hands, then he
cut his feet on the broken glass going to the bathroom to bandage his
hands, got into bed, and the bandages came off in the night, and in the
morning he was found in a faint--therefore the blood on the mattress."
_The mystery_ was explained--And there had nearly been a tragedy.

These deputy hosts of the Deputy-Commissioner, after so kindly relieving
our minds, drove us to the polo grounds in their brake, behind unbroken
ponies, along a half-made road, which was highly exhilarating--but we
feared nothing after our late escape--were we not each a neck to the
good?

The Maidan was pretty--a pleasant plain of green grass, beautifully
framed with distant jungle and mountains. G. and I made the audience at
first, with two or three dozen Burmans and Sikhs. Then General Macleod
and Mrs Macleod came, and his aide-de-camp (the General is on an
inspection round, of the military police stations), and Mr and Mrs Algy
of the Civil Police, a man whose name I can't remember, and that was all
the gallery, so there was little to take away from the interest of the
game, which was fast, and the turf perfection.

In the evening a delightful dinner-party, the above two deputies
entertaining the aforesaid company in the Fort.

CHAPTER XXXIII

7th February.--To-day a young soldier and an artist conclude that they
both had their fill of exercise yesterday.

We started at break of day and didn't get home till after sunset and
then had to dine at the old Fort and witness a Kachin Pwe in the
moonlight till the small hours.

I confess I was tired after the day's shoot, but so was Carter and he
was in the pink of condition, which consoled me. It was a memorable day
amongst my sporting days, because of the novelty of surroundings, not on
account of the bag of snipe.

We turned out before daybreak, which was neither n