"And I," said Miaow, lifting up her voice, "I am the horror and
haunter of the night season. When I pass like the night wind over
the roofs of the houses men shudder in their beds and tremble.
When they hear my voice as I creep stealthily along their balconies
they cry to their gods for succor. They arise, and from their
windows they offer me their priceless household treasures--the
sacred vessels dedicated to their great god Shiv--which they call
'Shivin Mugs'--the Kloes Brosh, the Boo-jak, urging me to fly them!
And yet," said Miaow mournfully, "it is but my love-song! Think ye
what they would do if I were on the war-path."

Another dead silence fell on the pool. Then arose that strange,
mysterious, indefinable Thing, known as "The Scent." The animals
sniffed.

"It heralds the approach of the Stalkies--the most famous of
British Skool Boaz," said the Moo Kow. "They have just placed a
decaying guinea-pig, two white mice in an advanced state of
decomposition, and a single slice of Limburger cheese in the bed of
their tutor. They had previously skillfully diverted the drains so
that they emptied into the drawing-room of the head-master. They
have just burned down his house in an access of noble zeal, and are
fighting among themselves for the spoil. Hark! do ye hear them?"

A wild medley of shrieks and howls had arisen, and an irregular mob
of strange creatures swept out of the distance toward the pool.
Some were like pygmies, some had bloody noses. Their talk
consisted of feverish, breathless ejaculations,--a gibberish in
which the words "rot," "oach," and "giddy" were preeminent. Some
were exciting themselves by chewing a kind of "bhang" made from the