went on:

"If the Satpura Bhils ask the meaning of the sign, tell them that Jan
Chinn would see how they kept their old promises of good living. Perhaps
they have plundered; perhaps they mean to disobey the orders of the
Government; perhaps there is a dead man in the jungle; and so Jan Chinn
has come to see."

"Is he, then, angry?"

"Bah! Am I ever angry with my Bhils? I say angry words, and threaten
many things. Thou knowest, Bukta. I have seen thee smile behind the
hand. I know, and thou knowest. The Bhils are my children. I have said
it many times."

"Ay. We be thy children," said Bukta.

"And no otherwise is it with Jan Chinn, my father's father. He would see
the land he loved and the people once again. It is a good ghost, Bukta.
I say it. Go and tell them. And I do hope devoutly," he added, "that it
will calm 'em down." Flinging back the tiger-skin, he rose with a long,
unguarded yawn that showed his well-kept teeth.

Bukta fled, to be received in the lines by a knot of panting inquirers.

"It is true," said Bukta. "He wrapped him-self in the skin, and spoke
from it. He would see his own country again. The sign is not for us;
and, indeed, he is a young man. How should he lie idle of nights? He
says his bed is too hot and the air is bad. He goes to and fro for the
love of night-running. He has said it."

The grey-whiskered assembly shuddered.

"He says the Bhils are his children. Ye know he does not lie. He has
said it to me."

"But what of the Satpura Bhils? What means the sign for them?"

"Nothing. It is only night-running, as I have said. He rides to see if
they obey the Government, as he taught them to do in his first life."

"And what if they do not?"

"He did not say."

The light went out in Chinn's quarters.

"Look," said Bukta. "Now he goes away. None the less it is a good ghost,
as he has said. How shall we fear Jan Chinn, who made the Bhil a man?
His protection is on us; and ye know Jan Chinn never broke a protection
spoken or written on paper. When he is older and has found him a wife he
will lie in his bed till morning."

A commanding officer is generally aware of the regimental state of mind
a little before the men; and this is why the Colonel said, a few days
later, that some one had been putting the Fear of God into the Wuddars.
As he was the only person officially entitled to do this, it distressed
him to see such unanimous virtue. "It's too good to last," he said. "I
only wish