parish of Westminster. One by
one they fell away, sore and angry, to compare stripes with each other
at the ends of the uneasy earth. Even so the Gihon Hunt, like Abu
Hussein in the old days, did not understand. Then it reached
them through the Press that they habitually flogged to death good
revenue-paying cultivators who neglected to stop earths; but that
the few, the very few who did not die under hippohide whips soaked in
copperas, walked about on their gangrenous ankle-bones, and were known
in derision as the Mudir's Cranes. The charges were vouched for in
the House of Commons by a Mr. Lethabie Groombride, who had formed a
Committee, and was disseminating literature: The Province groaned; the
Inspector--now an Inspector of Inspectors--whistled. He had forgotten
the gentleman who sputtered in people's faces.

"He shouldn't have looked so like Beagle-boy!" was his sole defence when
he met the Governor at breakfast on the steamer after a meet.

"You shouldn't have joked with an animal of that class," said Peter the
Governor. "Look what Farag has brought me!"

It was a pamphlet, signed on behalf of a Committee by a lady secretary,
but composed by some person who thoroughly understood the language of
the Province. After telling the tale of the beatings, it recommended
all the beaten to institute criminal proceedings against their Governor,
and, as soon as might be, to rise against English oppression and
tyranny. Such documents were new in Ethiopia in those days.

The Inspector read the last half page. "But--but," he stammered, "this
is impossible. White men don't write this sort of stuff."

"Don't they, just?" said the Governor. "They get made Cabinet Ministers
for doing it too. I went home last year. I know."

"It'll blow over," said the Inspector weakly.

"Not it. Groombride is coming down here to investigate the matter in a
few days."

"For himself?"

"The Imperial Government's behind him. Perhaps you'd like to look t my
orders." The Governor laid down an uncoded cable. The whiplash to it
ran: "You will afford Mr. Groombride every facility for his inquiry,
and will be held responsible that no obstacles are put in his way to
the fullest possible examination of any witnesses which he may consider
necessary. He will be accompanied by his own interpreter, who must not
be tampered with."

"That's to me--Governor of the Province!" said Peter the Governor.

"It seems about enough," the Inspector answered.

Fa