One day, not long after the mysterious affair, I met the sais who had charge of the horses. He knew me very well. I questioned him. I told him he knew what ailed the horses, and wished him to tell me. He hesitated. I urged. At length he said, “Sahib, if you will promise me upon your honor never to report me I will tell you.” I promised. He replied, “When my sahib was taking leave he told me it would cost him a great deal to go to Wilayat and back, that there was now a very big income tax, and that the rupee was very bimar, that there were taxes on everything, and more to follow, he didn’t know on what next; it might be on his wife and children, so that he couldn’t afford to allow more than one seer of grain a day for each horse, and that he would give me so many rupees, and that would be so many anas a day, while he was away, and that I must not spend more than that, or he would cut it from my talab, and I knew he would do just what he said. When he is here he strikes me with his whip, when I am within reach, or, if not, he hurls a brick, or anything he can get, at my head.” “But about the horses?” I asked. He replied, “The grass, as you know, all dried up, the price of grain doubled in the bazar, and as I had only so many anas a day for each horse until the sahib returned, I had to cut down the feed until it was scarcely more than a child could eat, and that is what was the matter, the horses died for want of feed.” “But why didn’t you tell me, and I would have given the feed?” I asked, quite indignant. “Yes,” he continued, “and when my sahib returned he would get to know of it, and I would be thrashed, my pay cut or be dismissed. I know my sahib too well to think that he would be willing to have any one know that he had left his horses to starve. I was sorry for them, and often cried, but what could I do? It was either I or the horses, and I preferred to save myself, for he is brother to a donkey who will not try to keep his own skin on his back.” As the sais has gone to a place from which he will never be dismissed, and though he may not be flogged by a sahib, he will have to meet the ghosts of those starved horses, so let him be happy if he can. As I had promised on my honor, though an Eurasian is not credited with much of that, I never told the story until now, and the learned vet, and the distinguished Government committee, can have the free and full benefit of my information. It was a strange case, very. I will not point a moral to this incident, for if any one has been so slighted by nature as not to have the ability to see it, all pointing would be superfluous. It would be like having to explain one of my own jokes, and that always gives me a mental twist. This reminds me of the reply of a Scotchman, when asked to explain, “A body canna be expectit baith to mak the joke an’ to see’t; na, that would be doin’ twa fowk’s wark.” CHAPTER XXII.