understood as well as English, viz., Urdu, and posed as a _Hukeem_ from
India impelled by a spirit of benevolence to visit unknown lands for
the sake of caring the ailments of his fellew creatures. Had he
attempted to talk Pushtoo, his foreign intonation would have been
detected, while his knowledge of that tongue enabled him to detect the
drift of any conversation that was carried on in his presence. Once, we
believe, he was in imminent danger, a proposal having been set on foot
to put an end to the wanderings of the _Hukeem_, as an English spy. A
rapid change of quarters averted the danger, and he afterwards fell in
with the people he came to see, viz., the Kafirs, who whether,
descending from Alexander's Greeks or not, received him kindly. We
believe the _Hukeem_ was aided in his researches by a big book supposed
to contain medical receipts, but which was in reality a box of
surveying instruments, its outside covered with cabalistic signs
bearing a family resemblance to a plane-table! The _Hukeem_ was much
given to solitary meditation, and generally sought mountain peaks for
that purpose. On such occasions the plane-table afforded him invaluable
assistance.

But we have said almost enough of poor McNair's adventure. On his
return he was ordered to Simla and officially reprimanded by the
Viceroy, Lord Ripon, for disobedience of orders! He was consoled,
however, by being told by the same nobleman at a private interview that
his pluck was admired, while his fast friend, Sir Charles McGregor,
received him with open arms. Such was the bright opening of a career
that was so soon to be cut short at Mussooree by typhoid fever.

McNair was a favourite with both sexes. By the men he was adored on the
cricket-field, where his bowling was most effective, while the girls,
who always possess second sight in the way of detecting a good fellow