es. Our trouble will
be choppin' 'em in cover. I've got a list of the only villages entitled
to any remission. What d'you call this flat-sided, blue-mottled beast
with the jowl?"

"Beagle-boy. I have my doubts about him. Do you think we can get two
days a week?"

"Easy; and as many byes as you please. The Sheikh of this village here
tells me that his barley has failed, and he wants a fifty per cent
remission."

"We'll begin with him to-morrow, and look at his crops as we go. Nothing
like personal supervision," said the Governor.

They began at sunrise. The pack flew off the barge in every direction,
and, after gambols, dug like terriers at Abu Hussein's many earths. Then
they drank themselves pot-bellied on Gihon water while the Governor and
the Inspector chastised them with whips. Scorpions were added; for May
Queen nosed one, and was removed to the barge lamenting. Mystery (a
puppy, alas!) met a snake, and the blue-mottled Beagle-boy (never a
dainty hound) ate that which he should have passed by. Only Royal, of
the Belvoir tan head and the sad, discerning eyes, made any attempt to
uphold the honour of England before the watching village.

"You can't expect everything," said the Governor after breakfast.

"We got it, though--everything except foxes. Have you seen May Queen's
nose?" said the Inspector.

"And Mystery's dead. We'll keep 'em coupled next time till we get well
in among the crops. I say, what a babbling body-snatcher that Beagle-boy
is! Ought to be drowned!"

"They bury people so damn casual hereabouts. Give him another chance,"
the Inspector pleaded, not knowing that he should live to repent most
bitterly.

"Talkin' of chances," said the Governor, "this Sheikh lies about his
barley bein' a failure. If it's high enough to hide a hound at this time
of year, it's all right. And he wants a fifty per cent remission, you
said?"

"You didn't go on past the melon patch where I tried to turn Wanderer.
It's all burned up from there on to the desert. His other water-wheel
has broken down, too," the Inspector replied.

"Very good. We'll split the difference and allow him twenty-five per
cent off. Where'll we meet to-morrow?"

"There's some trouble among the villages down the river about their
land-titles. It's good goin' ground there, too," the Inspector said.

The next meet, then, was some twenty miles down the river, and the pack
were not enlarged till they were fairly among the fields. Abu Hussein