They took me from my sheets when they saw that I was too lively and
gave me medicines for one week, and I survived successfully. Then they sent me
by rail from my place to Okara Station, with a man to take care of me; and at
Okara Station we met two other men, and they conducted we three on camels, in
the night, from Okara Station to this place, and they propelled me from the
top to the bottom, and the other two succeeded, and I have been here ever
since two and a half years. Once I was Brahmin and proud man, and now I eat
crows."
"There is no way of getting out?"
"None of what kind at all. When I first came I made experiments frequently and
all the others also, but we have always succumbed to the sand which is
precipitated upon our heads."
"But surely," I broke in at this point, "the river-front is open, and it is
worth while dodging the bullets; while at night"--I had already matured a
rough plan of escape which a natural instinct of selfishness forbade me
sharing with Gunga Dass. He, however, divined my unspoken thought almost as
soon as it was formed; and, to my intense astonishment, gave vent to a long
low chuckle of derision--the laughter, be it understood, of a superior or at
least of an equal.
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