“Mrs. Croker’s seven little tales of native India are such very quick and easy reading that many persons will probably overlook the skill to which the result is due. The authoress evidently knows both what a short story ought to be, and how to make one.”--_Graphic._ “Brilliant pictures of Indian life and manners. Mrs. Croker possesses the pen of a ready writer united to the imagination of a true artist.”--_Liberal._ “The tales are simple in themselves and plainly told, with an unmistakable atmosphere of truth and reality about them.”--_Guardian._ “The quality of Mrs. Croker’s work is at this time sufficiently well known, and it is enough to say that in her last volume are to be found all those qualities which have secured for its predecessors a welcome at the hands of the public.”--_Tablet._ [Illustration: HER BLACK EYES BLAZED WITH EXCITEMENT.] JUNGLE TALES BY B. M. CROKER _Author of_ ‘_Pretty Miss Neville_,’ ‘_Diana Barrington_,’ ‘_The Spanish Necklace_,’ ‘_In Old Madras_,’ _etc._ A NEW IMPRESSION WITH A FRONTISPIECE BY JOHN CHARLTON LONDON HOLDEN & HARDINGHAM 1913 “Ah! what a warning for thoughtless man, Could field or grove, could any spot of earth, Show to his eye an image of the pangs Which it hath witnessed!” Wordsworth. THESE TALES ARE INSCRIBED TO OLD FRIENDS IN THE CENTRAL AND NORTH-WEST PROVINCES IN MEMORY OF MANY PLEASANT HOURS IN CAMP AND CANTONMENT. B. M. C. CONTENTS. PAGE A Free-Will Offering 1 “The Missus.” A Dog Tragedy 37 The Betrayal of Shere Bahadur 63 “Proven or not Proven?” The True Story of Naim Sing, Rajpoot 96 An Outcast of the People 124 An Appeal to the Gods 146 Two Little Travellers 166 VILLAGE TALES AND JUNGLE TRAGEDIES. A FREE-WILL OFFERING.