How could she tell him? But women are quicker and more natural in deception than men, and he never doubted her answer. "He was angry because he thought that I believed he had stolen Lady Pilth's diamonds," she said. "Please go. I want to be alone." wish, so once again he was forced to shoulder a responsibility that went against his will. Joan Conliffe, left alone with her homicidal husband, crouched on the floor sobbing and shivering with the reaction. At last, with an effort, she regained her self-control. Dully, almost automatically, she rose. She adjusted her sleeping husband more comfortably upon the couch, placed a cushion behind his head, and looked round upon the disorder of the room. Almost gladly she busied herself with the task of getting In the face of her desire so plainly put there was nothing for Peter Brown to do but leave her. He saw that she was quite determined to stay with her husband, brute though he was, and he could not bring himself to put her story before the captain against her own it to its normal condition. (To be continued.) ON JUNGLE TRAILS IN CEYLON. 66 "MAK! Mak! Pita! Wijja a game-watcher, together with -Ha-a-ak!" It is almost im- a small boy I found in camp possible to transliterate the early one morning, who, on noises made by the bullock- being asked what he was doing, drivers as, perched on the poles said that Master's cook had of their carts, they urged the engaged him to catch prawns panting, swaying bullocks for Master's curry. I sugthrough the sticky mud of gested that if we went on at the so-called jungle road." this rate we should soon have It was early in January, after the entire jungle population the N.E. Monsoon rains had at our heels; but the Revenue filled the tanks which now Officer, who has a weakness spilled across our track, and for prawn curry, refused to made travelling in this part of interfere. He said that we had the district very difficult. a large supply of rice, and was out on a tour with the that with our rifles and guns, district Revenue Officer, and even such bad shot as myself a hard time we had of it to ought to be able to find food get our baggage-carts along. for our servants" in the We pushed, and shouted en- wild parts to which we were couragement to the bullocks, bound. (The R.O. is apt to as the carts sank axle - deep put things in an unnecessarily into the mud, while the mon- unpleasant way in the early keys overhead in the trees morning; I am not a good gibbered at us and mocked our shot, never pretended to beefforts. but still) However, to return to our journey. We had started out with a modest retinue, consisting of a boy, a cook, a peon, and two baggage-carts. As we were travelling through a little known district where white men seldom go, and even the Revenue Officer visits only occasionally, the dwellers in the scattered villages through which we passed took considerable interest in us, and by the time we had been three days on the march our "tail" had increased by the addition of a dhoby, a milk-boy with two cows, two trackers, and After four hours' very severe struggling, the carts were pushed and hauled on to higher ground, where the "going" was a bit better. The R.O. and myself were splashed with mud; but the carts could now be left to themselves, so we walked on ahead to the R.O.'s "circuit bungalow," where we were to have our midday breakfast. We had to wait some time before the carts arrived, and a heavy thunderstorm had come up before they reached the (com parative) shelter of the bungalow compound. Eventually we sat down to breakfast at about 2 P.M. The meal was a composite one, beginning with delicious omelette, and progressing through snipe cooked to a turn and the above-mentioned prawn curry, to wind up with toast and nutmeg jelly. In the middle of it, in walked quite unexpectedly the Policeman, accompanied by a Planter, who had come on a shooting trip. The Planter said he had meant to write to the R.O.-in fact, he thought that he had written-to say that he was coming, and having heard at district headquarters that the R.O. had left, he started in pursuit, knowing that if he travelled light," with luck he should be able to overtake us. "By travelling light, I suppose you mean that I shall have to rig you out with clothes," commented the R.O. that the best way to get to know the jungle man is by going out shooting and fishing with him. You meet him as man to man, and he talks naturally to you. If you get him up before you, even for a very informal palaver, and are surrounded by clerks, interpreters, and such gentlemen, you never get at him. I always say: Go among the people yourself, and a gun and rod will be a far better introduction than an interpreter "Now he's off on his hobby!" jeered the Planter. "Why you can't call your Tours of Inspection' shooting - trips, as honestly they should be called, I don't know." The Pipes and cheroots by this time had been lighted. The storm still continued. company, after the heavy meal, was inclined to somnolence, when something splashed upon the Policeman's head. "There's that roof leaking! he grumbled, pulling his chair a yard or two farther along the floor. "Thought you'd had it mended." "It was mended all right," said the R.O. drowsily, "but the elephants won't leave it alone. The keeper is getting quite sick about it. They come round here about once a week and strip the thatch off." "Beastly nuisance these wild elephants," said the Policeman. "Did you hear of the one in India who went for a walk along the road, saw a milestone, didn't approve of it, picked it up, and carried it along with him till he came to another-then dropped it and picked up the next, and so on for miles, till he'd upset the whole road mileage system of the Punjab ?" Milestones certainly seem to annoy them." The R.O. shifted his chair to escape a trickle from the roof. "There's a milestone near here which one of the elephants simply can't stand. Whenever he comes round this way he pulls it up, so at last they've propped it against a tree, off the road. He doesn't seem to mind it there." "You never can tell what will get on an elephant's nerves," said the Planter. "I was staying with Cook last month; he took no end of trouble making a tennis-court, and now he's got it, he can't ever have a game on it, because an old elephant who is generally prowling about in the neighbourhood doesn't fancy the look of the tennis posts, and tears them up whenever he sees them. The elephant took huff at the weathercock he erected in his compound, and bent the pin at right angles to the staff. Cook had it put straight, and the elephant bent it down again on his next visit, so at last Cook gave in, and let the elephant have it the way he liked." There was a silence in which the steady hiss of the rain resounded, till the Planter asked suddenly, "There was nothing to be done about poor old Lee ! " The Policeman shook his head. "Every man in the bazaar knows how it was done and who did it, but there's no way of bringing it home. Lee died after a few hours' illness," he explained, turning to me, "and the doctors could not make out what it wassaid it might be some very malignant form of fever. The 'gup' is that it was poison, and that his boy had rubbed it on the starting handle of his motor-car." "Why?" I asked. "No one knows," said the Policeman. "I suppose the natives use drugs unknown to European doctors?" "Yes, and I believe some of them are absolutely beastly -a baby's brain powdered fine, and that sort of thing— but they use real poisons as well. There's a family of hereditary poisoners in this district, and one of them is credited with having helped an old headman to get rid of as many relatives as Cæsar Borgia." "I had a queer case of poisoning brought up before me not long ago," said the R.O. "The headman of a remote jungle village sent in a report to say that a certain boy had attempted to poison all the pilgrims who attended an annual festival at a little jungle temple not far from here. The gist of the report was this : As soon as a large crowd had collected, the boy produced a small box from his waistcloth, and let the wind scatter the contents into the air, whereupon four or five persons were thrown down insensible, and blood gushed from their noses and ears. To quote the words of the Court Translator, They were not recovered for several hours, then only after recourse to diabolical treatment.' When When the Police Magistrate got the report, he treated it as I did -exaggeration coupled with a case or two of sunstroke. However, as evidence against the boy, the box was produceda very small tin box, about the size of a pin-box. In it were some dried flowers of areca-nut, and a little-a very little-white powder. The box and its contents were sealed up solemnly with the Court seals, and despatched to the Government Analyst. He reported that he tried the stuff on guinea-pigs without result; then he heated some of it slightly, and tried again, and a guinea-pig promptly succumbed, and he himself was taken very ill." "What happened?" I asked, as the R.O. came to a stop. stepfather had an enemy in the crowd." The conversation then turned upon spells and charms. The Policeman told us how he had received a petition from a villager whose wife was supposed to be bewitched. After a series of ceremonies performed at a certain temple, at great expense to the petitioner, the priest, "with the assistance of the deity," discovered that an evil spell had been cast upon the woman, by means of a magical object concealed in a tree which he indicated. The tree was examined, and the object discovered. At this stage intervened the village headman, who had an old feud with the petitioner, and took possession of the "charm," on the pretext that no permit had been obtained from the authorities for the rites. The petitioner contended that "in this case where there was no music," a licence was not required, and begged for an order for the return of the charm, "without which," as the petition-drawer phrased it, "he could not get the said balance ceremonies performed towards the relief of his wife." Το this the scribe had added a parenthesis ("the faith on such being so great to people of petitioner's standing and knowledge"). "I saw the petitioner and his wife. She was very illsomething like epilepsy-regularly possessed of the devil, to all appearances! Her husband had taken her to hospital, and |