Page:Quartette - Kipling (1885).djvu/70

 to his own, and would supply me with as much dried grass for bedding as he could spare. "Very well, Gunga Dass," I replied; "to the first terms I cheerfully agree; but, as there is nothing on earth to prevent my strangling you as you sit here and taking everything you have" (I thought of the two invaluable crows at the time), "I flatly refuse to give you my boots, and shall occupy whichever den I please!"

The stroke was a bold one, and I was more glad than I can say when I saw that it had succeeded. Gunga Dass changed his tone immediately, and disavowed all intention of asking for my boots. At the time it did not strike me as at all strange that I, a Civil Engineer, a man of thirteen years' standing in the service, and I trust an English gentleman, should thus calmly threaten murder and violence against the man who had, for a consideration it is true, taken me under his wing. But I was as certain then as I am now of my own existence, that in the accursed settlement there was no law save that of the strongest; that the living dead men had thrown behind them every canon of the world which had cast them out; and that I, Morrowbie Jukes, had to depend for my own life on my strength and vigilance alone. The crew of the ill-fated Mignonette are the only men who would understand my frame of mind. "At present," I argued to myself, "I am strong and a match for six of these wretches. It is imperatively necessary that I should, for my own sake, keep both health and strength until the hour of my release comes—if it ever does."

Fortified with these resolutions, I ate and drank as much as I could, and made Gunga Dass understand that I intended to be his master, and that the least sign of insubordination on his part would be visited with the only punishment I had it in my power to inflict, that of sudden and violent death. Shortly after this I went to bed. That is to say, Gunga Dass gave me a double armful of dried bents which I thrust down the mouth of the lair to the right of his, and followed it myself feet foremost; the hole running about nine feet into the sand with a slight downward inclination, and being neatly shored with timbers. From my den, which faced the river front, I was able to watch the waters of the Sutlej flowing past in the light of a young moon, and compose myself to sleep as best I might.

The horrors of that night I shall never forget. My den was nearly as narrow as a coffin, and the sides had been worn