"
"I think so, sir; but if - if they should accidentally put an -
make asses of 'emselves - they might, you know - I hope you'll
represent that they were only frightened. There isn't an ounce of
real vice in 'em, and I should never forgive myself if any one of
- of my name got them into trouble."
The Colonel nodded, but said nothing.
Chinn and Bukta departed at once. Bukta did not say that, ever
since the official vaccinator had been dragged into the hills by
indignant Bhils, runner after runner had skulked up to the lines,
entreating, with forehead in the dust, that Jan Chinn should come
and explain this unknown horror that hung over his people.
The portent of the Clouded Tiger was now too clear. Let Jan Chinn
comfort his own, for vain was the help of mortal man. Bukta toned
down these beseechings to a simple request for Chinn's presence.
Nothing would have pleased the old man better than a rough-and-tumble
campaign against the Satpuras, whom he, as an "unmixed" Bhil,
despised; but he had a duty to all his nation as Jan Chinn's
interpreter; and he devoutly believed that forty plagues would fall
on his village if he tampered with that obligation.
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