had vanished into the jungle like a shadow. Juggins had missed her, he was
always a shocking bad shot, but we did not trouble about her. We just threw
ourselves upon the grave, and dug at it with our hands until the baby lay in my
arms. It was cold and stiff, and putrefaction had already begun its work. I forced
open its mouth, and saw something that I expected. The tip of its tongue was
missing. It had been bitten off by a set of very bad teeth, for the edge of it was
like a saw.
'"The thing is quite dead," I said to Juggins.
'"But it cried! it cried!" sobbed Juggins, "I can hear it now. Oh to think that we
let that hag kill it."
'Juggins sat down with his head in his hands. He was utterly unmanned. Now
that the fright was over, I was beginning to be quite brave again. It is a way I
have.
'"Never mind," I said. "Here is your specimen if you want it." I had put the thing
down, and now pointed at it from a distance. It was not pleasant to touch. But
Juggins only shuddered.
'"Bury it in Heaven's name!" he said. "I would not have it for all the world.
Besides it was alive. I saw and heard it."'
'Well, we put it back in the grave, and next day we left the Sâkai country. We
had seen quite as much of it as we wanted for a bit, I tell you.
'Juggins and I swore one another to secrecy, as neither of us fancied being told
we were drunk or lying. You, however, know something of the uncanny things
of the East, and to-night I have told the story to you. Now I am going to turn in.
Do not give me away.'
Young Middleton went off to bed, and last year he died of fever and dysentery
somewhere up country. His name was not Middleton, of course, so I am not
really 'giving him away,' as he called it, even now. As for his companion, though
he is still alive, I have called him Juggins, and, since the family is a large one, he
will not, perhaps, be identified.
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