"We reached back in the Bolan just as the sun was straight over our heads. By the raji that was still in my gullet I was tired; so was the young Sahib, for when I knelt down, and he slipped quickly from my back, he spun round and round like a box that has broken loose, and came to the ground in haste. Just as he fell, Dera Khan caught him, and lifted him up; then he and the Healer went to the tent where was his friend Jack. And I heard my Master, Dera, say afterward, that the little Sahib never slept while it was twice dark and twice light; that was until the Healer said the stricken one, Jack, the Burra-Sahib, was again free of the Black Death."
"I think it is a true tale," remarked Adjutant, putting down his left leg and taking up his right. "I have seen much of this Black Death in my forty years of life, and the Men of the White-kind take great care of each other. Now, those of the Black-kind get the Man-fear which Hathi has spoken of, in their eyes, and flee fast from this terrible sickness, crying aloud that their livers have turned to water. I, myself, though I am a bird of little speech, could tell tales of both methods."
"But what became of you, Unt?" queried Magh; "did you catch this sickness and die?"
"No," replied Camel, solemnly, not noticing the sarcasm; "the little Sahib took me from Dera Khan by a present of silver, and kept me to ride on, and in the end I was sent here to Sa'-zada."
"It's bed-time," broke in the Keeper; "let each one go quickly to his cage or corral."
Tenth Night
The Story of Big Tusk, the Wild Boar
