We accepted the invitation. We climbed--I,
the engineer, and the ship's boy. About half an hour later the fog
cleared entirely; except for the half of the boat away in the offing,
there was neither stick nor string on the sea to show that the _Hespa_
had been cut down."
'And what do you think of that now?' said the man from Saigon.
PRIVATE LEAROYD'S STORY
And he told a tale.
--_Chronicles of Gautama Buddha._
FAR from the haunts of Company Officers who insist upon kit-inspections,
far from keen-nosed Sergeants who sniff the pipe stuffed into the
bedding-roll, two miles from the tumult of the barracks, lies the Trap.
It is an old dry well, shadowed by a twisted _pipal_ tree and fenced
with high grass. Here, in the years gone by, did Private Ortheris
establish his depot and menagerie for such possessions, dead and living,
as could not safely be introduced to the barrack-room. Here were
gathered Houdin pullets, and fox-terriers of undoubted pedigree and
more than doubtful ownership, for Ortheris was an inveterate poacher
and pre-eminent among a regiment of neat-handed dog-stealers.
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