Besides, Jan
Chinn knew all things, and he rode the Clouded Tiger.
They covered thirty miles a day on foot and pony, raising the blue
wall-like line of the Satpuras as swiftly as might be. Bukta was
very silent.
They began the steep climb a little after noon, but it was near
sunset ere they reached the stone platform clinging to the side of
a rifted, jungle-covered hill, where Jan Chinn the First was laid,
as he had desired, that he might overlook his people. All India
is full of neglected graves that date from the beginning of the
eighteenth century - tombs of forgotten colonels of corps long
since disbanded; mates of East India men who went on shooting
expeditions and never came back; factors, agents, writers, and
ensigns of the Honourable the East India Company by hundreds and
thousands and tens of thousands. English folk forget quickly, but
natives have long memories, and if a man has done good in his life
it is remembered after his death. The weathered marble four-square
tomb of Jan Chinn was hung about with wild flowers and nuts,
packets of wax and honey, bottles of native spirits, and infamous
cigars, with buffalo horns and plumes of dried grass.
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