Calcutta, nor even London, will be any more for me. 'How shall I be
sure,' I said, that the Gods to whom I pray will abide at all?' This
I thought, and the Rewah dropped her nose as a hammer falls, and all
the sea came in and slid me backwards along the fo'c'sle and over
the break of the fo'c'sle, and I very badly bruised my shin against
the donkey-engine: but I did not die, and I have seen the Gods.
They are good for live men, but for the dead . . . They have spoken
Themselves. Therefore, when I come to the village I will beat the
guru for talking riddles which are no riddles. When Brahm ceases to
dream the Gods go."

"Look up-stream. The light blinds. Is there smoke yonder?"

Peroo shaded his eyes with his hands. "He is a wise man and quick.
Hitchcock Sahib would not trust a rowboat. He has borrowed the
Rao Sahib's steam launch, and comes to look for us. I have always
said that there should have been a steam-launch on the bridge works
for us."

The territory of the Rao of Baraon lay within ten miles of the
bridge; and Findlayson and Hitchcock had spent a fair portion of
their scanty leisure in playing billiards and shooting black-buck
with the young man. He had been bear-led by an English tutor of
sporting tastes for some five or six years, and was now royally
wasting the revenues accumulated during his minority by the Indian
Government. His steam-launch, with its silverplated rails, striped
silk awning, and mahogany decks, was a new toy which Findlayson
had found horribly in the way when the Rao came to look at the
bridge works.