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Kipling, Rudyard, 1865-1936

"From Mine Own People"

Is that enough, my friend?"
"It is enough," answered Otis, very solemnly.
He was silent for a long time, redreaming the dreams that he had dreamed eight
years ago, but through them all ran, as sheet-lightning through golden cloud,
the light of Mrs. Hauksbee's violet eyes.
Curious and impenetrable are the mazes of Simla life--the only existence in
this desolate land worth the living. Gradually it went abroad among men and
women, in the pauses between dance, play and Gymkhana, that Otis Yeere, the
man with the newly-lit light of self-confidence in his eyes, had "done
something decent" in the wilds whence he came. He had brought an erring
Municipality to reason, appropriated the funds on his own responsibility, and
saved the lives of hundreds, He knew more about the Gullals than any living
man. Had a vast knowledge of the aboriginal tribes; was, in spite of his
juniority, the greatest authority on the aboriginal Gullals. No one quite knew
who or what the Gullals were till The Mussuck, who had been calling on Mrs.
Hauksbee, and prided himself upon picking people's brains, explained they were
a tribe of ferocious hillmen, somewhere near Sikkim, whose friendship even the
Great Indian Empire would find it worth her while to secure.


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