cowering as the wind took him. "Let me go to the temple, and I
will pray there."

"Son of a pig, pray here! Is there no return for salt fish and
curry powder and dried onions? Call aloud! Tell Mother Gunga
we have had enough. Bid her be still for the night. I cannot
pray, but I have been serving in the Kumpani's boats, and when
men did not obey my orders I -" A flourish of the wire-rope
colt rounded the sentence, and the priest, breaking free from his
disciple, fled to the village.

"Fat pig!" said Peroo. "After all that we have done for him!
When the flood is down I will see to it that we get a new guru.
Finlinson Sahib, it darkens for night now, and since yesterday
nothing has been eaten. Be wise, Sahib. No man can endure
watching and great thinking on an empty belly. Lie down, Sahib.
The river will do what the river will do."

"The bridge is mine; I cannot leave it."

"Wilt thou hold it up with thy hands, then?" said Peroo, laughing.
"I was troubled for my boats and sheers before the flood came. Now
we are in the hands of the Gods. The Sahib will not eat and lie
down? Take these, then. They are meat and good toddy together,
and they kill all weariness, besides the fever that follows the
rain. I have eaten nothing else to-day at all."

He took a small tin tobacco-box from his sodden waistbelt and
thrust it into Findlayson's hand, saying " Nay, do not be afraid.
It is no more than opium - clean Malwa opium!"