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Jowala Singh knows and takes care to avoid the three or four ghoul-haunted fields on the outskirts of the village; but he is not urged by millions of devils to run about all day in the sun and swear that his plowshares are the best in the Punjab; nor does Purun Dass fly forth in an ekka more than once or twice a year, and he knows, on a pinch, how to use the railway and the telegraph as well as any son of Israel in Chicago.
The ekka horses, too, had brought our heavy luggage all the way from Abbotabad over a shocking road in the most admirable manner, and we had every reason to congratulate ourselves on having entrusted the arrangement of the whole business the "bandobast" in native parlance to our henchman Sabz Ali, who had thus proved himself an energetic and trustworthy organiser, and saving financier to the extent of some twenty rupees.
Tweed said tae Till: 'What gars ye rin sae still? Till said tae Tweed: 'Though ye rin wi' speed An' I rin slaw Yet where ye droon ae man I droon twa. There is no getting over the river to-night, Sahib. They say that a bullock-cart has been washed down already, and the ekka that went over a half hour before you came has not yet reached the far side. Is the Sahib in haste?
He said: "Nonsense or nonsense, I'm going to the Canal now at once. I don't feel easy." Then he thought for a minute, and said: "Can you lie?" "You know best," I answered. "It's my profession." "Very well," said the Major; "you must come out with me now at once in an ekka to the Canal to shoot black-buck. Go and put on shikar-kit quick and drive here with a gun."
There's a man in my company now asked me for leave to go back to cantonments to pay a debt he'd forgotten. I was so taken by the idea I let him go, and he jingled off in an ekka as pleased as Punch. Ten miles to pay a debt! Wonder what it was really?" "If you'll drive me home I think I can show you," I said.
Officers innumerable, who had stayed in Kashmir until the limit of their leave, were struggling vainly to get on, and had got to Baramula only to find all transport in the hands of the State officials. Some few had, by fair means or foul, got hold of an ekka or two and hidden them; others had seized ponies, but nothing to harness them to.
The Tehsildhar produced one ekka with great pomp, as earnest of what he could and would do later on. During the afternoon the landau turned up from Srinagar, and at 6 P.M. one of my myrmidons rushed in to say that two ekkas had arrived at the dâk bungalow. It was but a few yards away, and in a couple of minutes I was on the spot.
Presently a stray ekka, drawn by a sorely weary-looking mule, appeared on the scene, and we seized upon it instantly, loaded it up with most of the baggage, and despatched coolies with the rest. After the storm came a holy calm, and we settled down to a light but welcome lunch before starting down the long slope into the valley.
There is no getting over the river to-night, Sahib. They say that a bullock-cart has been washed down already, and the ekka that went over a half hour before you came, has not yet reached the far side. Is the Sahib in haste? I will drive the ford-elephant in to show him. Ohe, mahout there in the shed! Bring out Ram Pershad, and if he will face the current, good.
And while he flayed and rent and blistered, and wiped the floor with them, and while they looked for hiding-places and found none on that floor, I remembered the up-ending of 'Dolly' Macshane at Dalhousie, which came perilously near a court-martial on Second-Lieutenant Corkran; the burning of Captain Parmilee's mosquito-curtains on a hot Indian dawn, when the captain slept in his garden, and Lieutenant Corkran, smoking, rode by after a successful whist night at the club; the introduction of an ekka pony, with ekka attached, into a brother captain's tent on a frosty night in Peshawur, and the removal of tent, pole, cot, and captain all wrapped in chilly canvas; the bath that was given to Elliot-Hacker on his own verandah his lady-love saw it and broke off the engagement, which was what the Mess intended, she being an Eurasian and the powdering all over of Elliot-Hacker with flour and turmeric from the bazaar.
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