Gunga Dass, indeed, when he had banked the embers
of his fire with sand, was at some pains to throw half a cupful of fetid water
over my head, an attention for which I could have fallen on my knees and
thanked him, but he was laughing all the while in the same mirthless, wheezy
key that greeted me on my first attempt to force the shoals. And so, in a
semi-comatose condition, I lay till noon.
Then, being only a man after all, I felt hungry, and intimated as much to
Gunga Dass, whom I had begun to regard as my natural protector. Following the
impulse of the outer world when dealing with natives, I put my hand into my
pocket and drew out four annas. The absurdity of the gift struck me at once,
and I was about to replace the money.
Gunga Dass, however, was of a different opinion. "Give me the money," said he;
"all you have, or I will get help, and we will kill you!" All this as if it
were the most natural thing in the world!
A Briton's first impulse, I believe, is to guard the contents of his pockets;
but a moment's reflection convinced me of the futility of differing with the
one man who had it in his power to make me comfortable; and with whose help it
was possible that I might eventually escape from the crater.
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