Harold Lamb

“ The doctor had managed to scare Anim Dass stiff, and the babu, after finding Dixon laid neatly to sleep, had run after us.
"Good, Smithy!" nodded Carnie. "But how did he come to run off the khud?"
I didn't say anything because guessing isn't my long suit. I had seen a healthy man walk into a chasm that he knew was there. Outside of suicide, what explanation was there? And it was a cinch that Cobden and Anim Dass had not decided to commit suicide at the same spot within a couple of weeks. ”

“ Moorcroft, having a mania against white men who intruded on native no-trespassing ground, had managed to dump Cobden down the chimney; Anim Dass knew what had happened, pretty well, but was keeping his mouth shut, and was probably being paid to do it. The fact that there were several versions of how Cobden had died proved that someone was lying. ”

“ When we came to consider it, neither of us had seen the hunters after Anim Dass jumped down the chimney. Arnold had an explanation that fitted in pretty well with my theory. During our absence the hillmen from Chitral had visited the camp to stage a demonstration in revenge for the felling of a tree in the sacred grove. They must have put our men to flight because Dixon had been dead to the world at the time. ”

“ It seemed like a whole minute later that I saw the last of the babu whirling down the face of the cliff half a mile below.
WE WENT back to the camp in the grove and found it dark. After lighting the stove and a small lantern in the girl's tent she asked us to find Larry Dixon and tell him what had happened. Gordon was a little shaken by the fall of the overseer, still she did not make a wild fuss the way some women do when anything unpleasant has happened. ”

“ This restlessness must have been on account of the heights all around us, also because of the elevation of the grove itself. Six or eight thousand feet above sea level always affects a man a bit; the blood doesn't run normally. ”

“ As soon as this was done the trunk was worked to the edge of the steep slope with skids and tackle and shoved off. It crashed down, crushing the undergrowth, and boomed off a ledge of rock. By the time it reached the valley bed it looked the size of a match and it was split in two parts. ”