had one or two brushes with the Dacoits, but I was not out on either
occasion. However, there was plenty of shooting, and a good many pigs
about, so we had very good fun. Of course, as a raw hand, I was very hot
for it, and as the others had both passed the enthusiastic age, except
for pig-sticking and big game, I could always get away. I was supposed
not to go far from camp, because, in the first place, I might be wanted;
and, in the second, because of the Dacoits; and Norworthy, who was in
command, used to impress upon me that I ought not to go beyond the sound
of a bugle. Of course we both knew that if I intended to get any sport
I must go further afoot than this; but I merely used to say 'All right,
sir, I will keep an ear to the camp,' and he on his part never
considered it necessary to ask where the game which appeared on the
table came from. But in point of fact, I never went very far, and my
servant always had instructions which way to send for me if I was
wanted; while as to the Dacoits I did not believe in their having the
impudence to come in broad daylight within a mile or two of our camp. I
did not often go down the face of the Ghauts. The shooting was good, and
there were plenty of bears in those days, but it needed a long day for
such an expedition, and in view of the Dacoits who might be scattered
about, was not the sort of thing to be undertaken except with a strong
party. Norworthy had not given any precise orders about it, but I must
admit that he said one day:--

"'Of course you won't be fool enough to think of going down the Ghauts,
Hastings?' But I did not look at that as equivalent to a direct
order--whatever I should do now," the colonel put in, on seeing a
furtive smile on the faces of his male listeners.

"However, I never meant to go down, though I used to stand on the edge
and look longingly down into the bush and fancy I saw bears moving