es waiting to be
turned into portmanteau, dressing-case, or shoes.

Cuxson's method and brain were rather like his gait; as he had said in
Rockham cove, he was _slow_! He could not and never had, even at
Harrow, been able to run a hundred yards without becoming most
uncomfortably blown; but he could walk anyone to death at a set
plodding steady tramp, accomplishing twenty miles without turning a
hair; while after a series of terrific spurts, and enforced periods of
rest, his companions would give up dishevelled, sweating, and
unpleasantly mortified miles away from the desired goal.

Problems, mathematical or medical, were treated in just the same way.
The more brilliant of his fellow-students would seize upon a pen, fill
reams of paper and slap the result down triumphantly at the end of an
hour, to find themselves later, and again with mortification at the
bottom of the list, or not on it at all; whereas Cuxson, after hours of
searching here and there in the convolutions of his grey matter, would
light on a thread, a grain or a speck of dust which he would proceed to
turn inside out, or tear to pieces; the outcome of which process would
be printed at length in the _Lancet_ or some such-enlivening journal.

So he lay on the long chair in the corner reserved for sahibs, and was
not too uncomfortable, nor in any way uneasy as to the result of his
investigations, although all that he had to build his hopes upon was
the word of a native, and a piece of orange silk picked out in silver
with the dust of a sundri breather adhering, which lay in his
pocketbook with a ring of seaweed, and some glistening strands of tawny
hair.

The serang, meanwhile, parleyed with certain gatherers of _golaputtah_
which is a special palm leaf growing in the Sunderbunds for the express
purpose of thatching boats and _suapatti_ huts; and having discussed
the ins and outs, and pros and cons of the situation with every male
upon the boat, had transferred the sahib with his guide and coolie to a
native boat, after a gratifying give and take in silver rupees which
are so much nicer to handle than dirty notes.

And an old priest made sacrifice of a black kid unto his god, having
been apprised in the mysterious native way of the approaching arrival
of the last person on earth he wished to see.

CHAPTER XXXVI

"What hath night to do with sleep?"--_Milton_.

"What a nuisance!"

Leonie turned on her bed and frowned through the chick at