"
He lifted his foot, and to the little toe there clung the head of the half-
killed snake, firm fixed in the agony of death.
"I come of land-holding stock," said Bahadur Khan, rocking where he stood. "It
were a disgrace for me to go to the public scaffold, therefore I take this way.
Be it remembered that the sahib's shirts are correctly enumerated, and that
there is an extra piece of soap in his washbasin. My child was bewitched, and I
slew the wizard. Why should you seek to slay me? My honor is saved, and--and--I
die."
At the end of an hour he died as they die who are bitten by the little kariat,
and the policeman bore him and the thing under the table-cloth to their
appointed places. They were needed to make clear the disappearance of Imray.
"This," said Strickland, very calmly, as he climbed into bed, "is called the
nineteenth century. Did you hear what that man said?"
"I heard," I answered. "Imray made a mistake."
"Simply and solely through not knowing the nature and coincidence of a little
seasonal fever. Bahadur Khan has been with him for four years."
I shuddered. My own servant had been with me for exactly that length of time.
When I went over to my own room I found him waiting, impassive as the copper
head on a penny, to pull off my boots.
Pages:
1283
1284
1285
1286
1287
1288
1289
1290
1291
1292
1293
1294
1295
1296
1297
1298
1299
1300
1301
1302
1303
1304
1305
1306
1307