When we reached the _abattis_, we passed down the winding path through it and stopped at the edge of the ditch. For, in order to give the General a good idea of the strength of our defences, I had ordered that the gates should be closed and the drawbridges raised. On a board above the gateway were painted the words "Fort Bower," the name given by the sepoys to the post in honour of our inspecting officer. Having allowed our visitors time to be suitably impressed by the formidable stockade and the grim-looking _panjis_ in the ditch, I called to the sentry hidden forty feet above us in a tree: "Open the gate!" The invisible doorkeeper pulled a string to inform the guard in the bastion. Then the heavy drawbridge fell across the ditch, the gate was raised and held up in position by the supporting forked poles. "That is very ingenious," said the General as he entered the fort. The men's huts were first inspected; and then we proceeded to the officer's quarters on the main street. We showed the General the cosy little two-roomed cottage he was to occupy, and pointed out the name painted on it, "The Bower." "Captain Humphreys' quarters are next door," we told him. "They gave us more trouble to find a title for. When we thought that the brigade major, Major Hutchinson, was to accompany you, the name suggested itself--we'd have called it 'The Hutch.' But when we heard that Humphreys was coming instead we were puzzled--until the idea occurred to us to name it 'The 'Ump.'" The General seemed to appreciate the mild joke more than his staff officer did. I pulled up the cane blind on the door of "The Bower" and invited the General to enter and see his jungle abode. "Here, sir, is your hat-rack," I said, showing a bamboo pole stuck in the flooring, its top split open into several points held apart by a cone of wood, thus providing a number of pegs. I drew his attention to an ingeniously-made writing-table with pigeon-holes and drawers. Then we passed into the inner room. Here a comfortable bed had been formed by driving the ends of six forked sticks, arranged in a parallelogram, into the earth. In the forks four light poles had been laid and fastened, making the head, foot and sides of the bedstead. Then across from side to side were tied split bamboos, which formed a bottom as elastic as steel springs. On it was laid a grass mat, three inches thick, as a mattress. The best bed ever turned out by Maple's could not have been more comfortable. Against the walls stood a bamboo dressing-table and a washstand. On the latter was an enamelled iron basin, the only article I could not replace from the jungle. But above it hung a length of hollow bamboo filled with water and pierced near the bottom by a hole now plugged. I withdrew the plug; and the water poured down into the basin. The General gazed around admiringly.