“Of course I am, when you are good and attentive to me. Is my rifle ready?”
“Yes, sahib. Dost afraid for his lord.”
I laughed at him, though I felt touched, as I grasped what he seemed to mean.
“You coward!” I said. “Do you think the first tiger I see will get into my howdah and maul me?”
He nodded his head, and looked more nervous than before.
“And that I shall be a job for Dr Danby, and you will have to nurse me?”
He bowed his head again.
“Then you would like me to stop, and not go to the tiger-hunt?”
“No, no, sahib,” he cried excitedly, and I smiled again at him, as I thought that it was very doubtful whether Ny Deen and his other men were in such anxiety about Barton.
Dost hung about me with the greatest of solicitude as, fully equipped at last, I made my way to where the buggies and their attendants were in waiting. It was very dark, and it was only by the light of the lanterns that I made out who was there, and saw Brace, the doctor, and a quiet gentlemanly lieutenant of ours named Haynes.