Page:Soldiers Three - Kipling (1890).djvu/23

 "The lights av the thraps people comin' from the Gaff was showin' acrost the parade ground, an', by this an' that, the way thim two women worked at the bundles an' thrunks was a caution! I was dyin' to help, but, seein' I didn't want to be known, I sat wid the blanket roun' me an' coughed an' thanked the Saints there was no moon that night.

"Whin all was in the house again, I niver asked for bukshish but dhruv tremenjus in the opp'site way from the other carr'ge an' put out my lights. Presintly, I saw a naygur man wallowin' in the road. I slipped down before I got to him, for I suspicioned Providence was wid me all through that night. 'Twas Jungi, his nose smashed in flat, all dumb sick as you please. Dennis's man must have tilted him out av the thrap. Whin he came to, 'Hutt!' sez I, but he began to howl.

You black lump av dirt,' I sez, 'is this the way you dhrive your gharri? That tikka has been owin an' fere-owin all over the bloomin' country this whole bloomin' night, an' you as mut-walla as Davey's sow. Get up, you hog!' sez I, louder, for I heard the wheels av a thrap in the dark; 'get up an' light your lamps, or you'll be run into!' This was on the road to the Railway Station.

Fwhat the divil's this?' sez the Capt'n's voice in the dhark, an' I could judge he was in a lather av rage.

Gharri dhriver here, dhrunk, Sorr,' sez I; 'I've found his gharri sthrayin' about cantonmints, an' now I've found him.'

Oh!' sez the Capt'n; 'fwhat's his name?' I stooped down an' pretended to listen.

He sez his name's Jungi,' Sorr, sez I.

Hould my harse,' sez the Capt'n to his man, an' wid that he gets down wid the whip an' lays into Jungi, just mad wid rage an' swearin' like the scutt he was.

"I thought, afther a while, he wud kill the man, so I sez:—'Stop, Sorr, or you'll murdher him!' That dhrew all his fire on me, an' he cursed me into Blazes, an' out again.