Page:Quartette - Kipling (1885).djvu/104

 sort of fancy I call it; but I've got to do what the mem-sahib tells me. Would you believe that the man she hired it from tells me that all four of the men—they were bhais—died of cholera on the way to Hardwár, poor devils, and the 'rickshaw has been broken up by the man himself. Told me he never used a dead mem-sahib's 'rickshaw. Spoilt his luck. Queer notion, wasn't it? Fancy poor little Mrs. Wessington spoiling any one's luck except her own!" I laughed aloud at this point; and my laugh jarred on me as I uttered it. So there were ghosts of 'rickshaws after all, and ghostly employments in the other world! How much did Mrs. Wessington give her men? What were their hours? Where did they go? And for a visible answer to my last question I saw the infernal Thing blocking my path in the twilight. Les morts vont vite, and by pugdundies unknown to ordinary coolies. I laughed aloud a second time and checked my laughter suddenly, for I was afraid I was going mad. Mad to a certain extent I must have been, for I recollect that I reined in my horse at the head of the 'rickshaw, and politely wished Mrs. Wessington "Good-evening." Her answer was one I knew only too well. I listened to the end; and replied that I had heard it all before, but should be delighted if she had anything further to say. Some malignant devil stronger than I must have entered into me that evening, for I have a dim recollection of talking the commonplaces of the day for five minutes to the Thing in front of me.

"Mad as a hatter, poor devil—or drunk. Max, try and get him to come home." Surely that was not Mrs. Wessington's voice! The two men had overheard me speaking to the empty air, and had returned to look after me. They were very kind and considerate, and from their words evidently gathered that I was extremely drunk. I thanked them confusedly and cantered away to my hotel, there changed, and arrived at the Mannerings ten minutes late. I pleaded the darkness of the night as an excuse; was rebuked, sotto voce, by Kitty for my unloverlike tardiness; and sat down. The conversation had already become general; and under cover of it, I was addressing some tender small talk to my sweetheart when I was aware that, at the further end of the table, a short red-whiskered man was describing with much unction and fervour his encounter with a mad unknown that evening. A few sentences convinced me that he was describing the incident of half an hour ago. In the middle of the story he looked round for