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 CHAPTER XXIV

THE HUT IN THE FOREST

short dusk of the tropics lay, like a soft coverlet, over the hot face of the land; and in the interior of the hut, under the high-pitched roof of thatch, it was already dark.

In the mud fireplace at the back, pots stood above the flames, supported on flat stones, blackened by wood-smoke. Two or three women busied themselves with the cooking, and a little group of children of both sexes squatted near them, occasionally scolding or striking at a couple of lean cats which prowled about, restless and expectant. On a palm-leaf mat near the low doorway, from which a ladder of untrimmed wood led to the littered space before the hut, Slat, now a very old and feeble man, was seated, chewing his betel-quid mechanically. At a little distance from him, Sud and Muth, grown heavier with years, squatted placidly in bovine silence.

Through the uneven oblong of the door, and beneath the ragged fringe of thatch above it,