CHAPTER I.


A merry party were sitting in the verandah of one of the largest and
handsomest bungalows of Poonah. It belonged to Colonel Hastings, colonel
of a native regiment stationed there, and at present, in virtue of
seniority, commanding a brigade. Tiffin was on, and three or four
officers and four ladies had taken their seats in the comfortable cane
lounging chairs which form the invariable furniture of the verandah of a
well-ordered bungalow. Permission had been duly asked, and granted by
Mrs. Hastings, and the cheroots had just begun to draw, when Miss
Hastings, a niece of the colonel, who had only arrived the previous week
from England, said,--

"Uncle, I am quite disappointed. Mrs. Lyons showed me the bear she has
got tied up in their compound, and it is the most wretched little thing,
not bigger than Rover, papa's retriever, and it's full-grown. I thought
bears were great fierce creatures, and this poor little thing seemed so
restless and unhappy that I thought it quite a shame not to let it go."

Colonel Hastings smiled rather grimly.

"And yet, small and insignificant as that bear is, my dear, it is a
question whether he is not as dangerous an animal to meddle with as a
man-eating tiger."

"What, that wretched little bear, Uncle?"