"That was in the bad-water shop where I played when we came here. The boy who would not sell me the mynah for six annas told me that a one-eyed man had come there and drunk the bad waters and gone mad. He broke bedsteads. They hit him with a bamboo till he fell senseless, and, fearing he was dead, they nursed him on milk like a little baba. When I was playing first with the cow's child I asked Beshakl if he were that man, and he said no. But I knew, because many wood-cutters asked him whether his head were whole now."
"But why," I interrupted, "did Beshakl tell lies?"
"Oh! he is a low-caste man, and desired consideration. Now he is a witness in a great law-case, and men will go to the jailkhana on his account. It was to give trouble and obtain notice."
"Was it all lies?" said Strickland,
"Ask him," said Adam, cheerily, through the mango-juice.
Strickland passed through the door; there was a howl of despair in the servants' quarters up the hill, and he returned with the one-eyed groom.
"Now," said Strickland, "it is known. Declare!" "Beshakl," said Adam, while the man gasped. "Imam Din has caught four men, and there are some more at Peshawur. Bus! Bus! Bus! Tell about the mare and how she rolled."
"Thou didst get drunk by the wayside, and didst make a false case
to cover it. Speak!"
Like many other men, Strickland, in possession of a few facts, was irresistible. The groom groaned.