and infernal music
rolled and maddened round red fires, while singers sang songs of the
ancient times, and danced peculiar dances. The aboriginal liquors are
very potent, and Chinn was compelled to taste them often, but, unless
the stuff had been drugged, how came he to fall asleep suddenly, and to
waken late the next day--half a march from the village?

"The Sahib was very tired. A little before dawn he went to sleep," Bukta
explained. "My people carried him here, and now it is time we should go
back to cantonments."

The voice, smooth and deferential, the step, steady and silent, made
it hard to believe that only a few hours before Bukta was yelling and
capering with naked fellow-devils of the scrub.

"My people were very pleased to see the Sahib. They will never forget.
When next the Sahib goes out recruiting, he will go to my people, and
they will give him as many men as we need."

Chinn kept his own counsel, except as to the shooting of the tiger,
and Bukta embroidered that tale with a shameless tongue. The skin was
certainly one of the finest ever hung up in the mess, and the first of
many. When Bukta could not accompany his boy on shooting-trips, he took
care to put him in good hands, and Chinn learned more of the mind
and desire of the wild Bhil in his marches and campings, by talks at
twilight or at wayside pools, than an uninstructed man could have come
at in a lifetime.

Presently his men in the regiment grew bold to speak of their
relatives--mostly in trouble--and to lay cases of tribal custom before
him. They would say, squatting in his verandah at twilight, after the
easy, confidential style of the Wuddars, that such-and-such a bachelor
had run away with such-and-such a wife at a far-off village. Now, how
many cows would Chinn Sahib consider a just fine? Or, again, if written
order came from the Government that a Bhil was to repair to a walled
city of the plains to give evidence in a law-court, would it be wise to
disregard that order? On the other hand, if it were obeyed, would the
rash voyager return alive?

"But what have I to do with these things?" Chinn demanded of Bukta,
impatiently. "I am a soldier. I do not know the law."

"Hoo! Law is for fools and white men. Give them a large and loud order,
and they will abide by it. Thou art their law."

"But wherefore?"

Every trace of expression left Bukta's countenance. The idea might have
smitten him for the first time. "How can I say?" he repli