Gwadlipichee overflowed its banks, a thing it did every now and then when
the rains were unduly prolonged, and the lower part of the house and all
the out-buildings were submerged. We managed to get the ponies loose in
time, and the syce swam the whole lot of them off to the nearest rising
ground. A goat or two, the chief goat-herd, the chief goat-herd's wife,
and several of their babies came to anchorage in the verandah. All the
rest of the available space was filled up with wet, bedraggled-looking
hens and chickens; one never really knows how many fowls one possesses
till the servants' quarters are flooded out. Of course, I had been
through something of the sort in previous floods, but never before had I
had a houseful of goats and babies and half-drowned hens, supplemented by
a Bishop with whom I was hardly on speaking terms."

"It must have been a trying experience," commented Annabel.

"More embarrassments were to follow. I wasn't going to let a mere
ordinary flood wash out the memory of that Crown Derby dessert service,
and I intimated to the Bishop that his large bedroom, with a writing
table in it, and his small bath-room, with a sufficiency of cold-water
jars in it, was his share of the premises, and that space was rather
congested under the existing circumstances. However, at about three
o'clock in the afternoon, when he had awakened from his midday sleep, he
made a sudden incursion into the room that was normally the drawing-room,
but was now dining-room, store-house, saddle-room, and half a dozen other
temporary premises as well. From the condition of my guest's costume he
seemed to think it might also serve as his dressing-room.

"'I'm afraid there is nowhere for you to sit,' I said coldly; 'the
verandah is full of goats.'

"'There is a goat in my bedroom,' he observed with equal coldness, and
more than a suspicion of sardonic reproach.

"'Really,' I said, 'another survivor? I thought all the other goats were
done for.'

"'This particular goat is quite done for,' he said, 'it is being devoured
by a leopard at the present moment. That is why I left the room; some
animals resent being watched while they are eating.'

"The leopard, of course, was easily explained; it had been hanging round
the goat sheds when the flood came, and had clambered up by the outside
staircase leading to the Bishop's bath-room, thoughtfully bringing a goat
with it. Probably it found the bath-room too damp and shut-i