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Wire for leave, if necessary. Hummil looked very uncomfortable. 'I can hold on till the Rains, he said evasively. 'You can't. Wire to headquarters for Burkett. 'I won't. If you want to know why, particularly, Burkett is married, and his wife's just had a kid, and she's up at Simla, in the cool, and Burkett has a very nice billet that takes him into Simla from Saturday to Monday.
Hummil turned on his heel to face the echoing desolation of his bungalow, and the first thing he saw standing in the verandah was the figure of himself. He had met a similar apparition once before, when he was suffering from overwork and the strain of the hot weather. 'This is bad, already, he said, rubbing his eyes.
There must be three millions at least in jewels and coin under his palace, said Hummil. 'Catch a native king disturbing the family treasure! The priests forbid it except as the last resort. Old Timbersides has added something like a quarter of a million to the deposit in his reign. 'Where the mischief does it all come from? said Mottram. 'The country.
Let go of my arm, and I'll see if there's anything in my cigarette-case to suit your complaint. Spurstow hunted among his day-clothes, turned up the lamp, opened a little silver cigarette-case, and advanced on the expectant Hummil with the daintiest of fairy squirts. 'The last appeal of civilisation, said he, 'and a thing I hate to use. Hold out your arm.
'Pack your pillows, said the doctor sharply, as he saw Hummil preparing to lie down at full length. The night-light was trimmed; the shadow of the punkah wavered across the room, and the 'flick' of the punkah-towel and the soft whine of the rope through the wall-hole followed it. Then the punkah flagged, almost ceased. The sweat poured from Spurstow's brow.
'There isn't enough excitement in it, and it's foolish. He crossed over to the worn and battered little camp-piano, wreckage of a married household that had once held the bungalow, and opened the case. 'It's used up long ago, said Hummil. 'The servants have picked it to pieces.
'Take TWO pills, said Spurstow; 'that's tortured liver. 'The usually placid Hummil is in a vile bad temper. I'm sorry for his coolies to-morrow, said Lowndes, as the servants brought in the lights and prepared the table for dinner.
They were all under thirty years of age, which is too soon for any man to possess that knowledge. 'Pilsener? said Spurstow, after the second rubber, mopping his forehead. 'Beer's out, I'm sorry to say, and there's hardly enough soda-water for to-night, said Hummil. 'What filthy bad management! Spurstow snarled. 'Can't help it.
There was no cholera near Hummil's section. Even fever gives a man at least a week's grace, and sudden death generally implied self-slaughter. 'I judge no man this weather, said Hummil. 'He had a touch of the sun, I fancy; for last week, after you fellows had left, he came into the verandah and told me that he was going home to see his wife, in Market Street, Liverpool, that evening.
The others pleaded the urgency of their several duties next day, and, saddling up, departed together, Hummil begging them to come next Sunday. As they jogged off, Lowndes unbosomed himself to Mottram ... And I never felt so like kicking a man at his own table in my life. He said I cheated at whist, and reminded me I was in debt! 'Told you you were as good as a liar to your face!
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