"I go -- I go," clucked the old man. Night was falling, and at any moment Jan Chinn might whistle up his dreaded steed from the darkening scrub. Now for the first time in a long life Bukta disobeyed a lawful command and deserted his leader; for he did not come back, but pressed to the flat table-top of the hill, and called softly. Men stirred all about him - little trembling men with bows and arrows who had watched the two since noon. "Where is he?" whispered one. "At his own place. He bids you come," said Bukta. "Now?" "Now." "Rather let him loose the Clouded Tiger upon us. We do not go." "Nor I, though I bore him in my arms when he was a child in this his life. Wait here till the day." "But surely he will be angry." "He will be very angry, for he has nothing to eat. But he has said to me many times that the Bhils are his children. By sunlight I believe this, but - by moonlight I am not so sure. What folly have ye Satpura pigs compassed that ye should need him at all?" "One came to us in the name of the Government with little ghost-knives and a magic calf, meaning to turn us into cattle by the cutting off of our arms. We were greatly afraid, but we did not kill the man. He is here, bound - a black man; and we think he comes from the west. He said it was an order to cut us all with knives - especially the women and the children. We did not hear that it was an order, so we were afraid, and kept to our hills. Some of our men have taken ponies and bullocks from the plains, and others pots and cloths and ear-rings." "Are any slain?" "By our men? Not yet. But the young men are blown to and fro by many rumours like flames upon a hill. I sent runners asking for Jan Chinn lest worse should come to us. It was this fear that he foretold by the sign of the Clouded Tiger. He says it is otherwise," said Bukta; and he repeated, with amplifications, all that young Chinn had told him at the conference of the wicker chair. "Think you," said the questioner, at last, "that the Government will lay hands on us?" "Not I," Bukta rejoined. "Jan Chinn will give an order, and ye will obey. The rest is between the Government and Jan Chinn. I myself know something of the ghost-knives and the scratching. It is a charm against the Small-pox. But how it is done I cannot tell. Nor need that concern you." "If he stands by us and before the anger of the Government we will most strictly obey Jan Chinn, except - except we do not go down to that place to-night." They could hear young Chinn below them shouting for Bukta; but they cowered and sat still, expecting the Clouded Tiger. The tomb had been holy ground for nearly half a century. If Jan Chinn chose to sleep there, who had better right? But they would not come within eyeshot of the place till broad day.