Then no water can hurt. When does the
Lord Sahib come to open the bridge?"
"In three months, when the weather is cooler."
"Ho! ho! He is like the Burra Malum. He sleeps below while the
work is being done. Then he comes upon the quarter-deck and touches
with his finger, and says: 'This is not clean! Dam jibboonwallah!'"
"But the Lord Sahib does not call me a dam jibboonwallah, Peroo."
"No, Sahib; but he does not come on deck till the work is all
finished. Even the Burra Malum of the Nerbudda said once at
Tuticorin -"
"Bah! Go! I am busy."
"I, also!" said Peroo, with an unshaken countenance. "May I take
the light dinghy now and row along the spurs?"
"To hold them with thy hands? They are, I think, sufficiently
heavy."
"Nay, Sahib. It is thus. At sea, on the Black Water, we have room
to be blown up and down without care. Here we have no room at all.
Look you, we have put the river into a dock, and run her between
stone sills."
Findlayson smiled at the " we."
"We have bitted and bridled her. She is not like the sea, that can
beat against a soft beach. She is Mother Gunga - in irons." His
voice fell a little.
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