Melrose's Distinctive 
 New Novels. 
 
 THE BEGINNING AND THE 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 GIFT OF 
 HORACE W. CARPENTIER 
 
THE LEOPARD'S 
 LEAP 
 
 I 
 
 A Story of Burma 
 
 BY 
 
 BOXWALLAH 
 
 Author of An pastern backwater 
 
 LONDON : ANDREW MELROSE, LTD. 
 
 3 YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C. 
 1919 
 
LOAN STACK 
 
£7 TO 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 III 
 
 IV 
 
 VI 
 
 VII 
 
 VIII 
 
 IX 
 
 In which the Characters are all at 
 Sea 
 
 Illustrates the Dangers of Beer and 
 of Skittles ..... 
 
 Shows how Safety does not always 
 lie in Avoiding the Obvious 
 
 Shows how a Sceptic may be a Fatalist 
 and how Unbelievers are Yoked 
 evenly Together .... 
 
 In which Love teaches Self-denial 
 and the Colonel Lectures on Bald- 
 ness 
 
 Helen Learns that the Achievement 
 of a Virtuous Purpose may be as 
 Disappointing as a Successful Ex- 
 periment in Sin .... 
 
 In which Venus and Mars are in Oppo- 
 sition ...... 
 
 The Shadow of Coming Events and 
 some Reflections .... 
 
 Deals chiefly with Evil Spirits that 
 claim Worship .... 
 
 5 
 
 PAGE 
 7 
 24 
 46 
 
 58 
 76 
 
 88 
 107 
 132 
 *55 
 
 627 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 X Hilda Discourses of Golf in Rangoon 
 
 and Miracles in the Shan States . 175 
 
 XI Of the Vanity of Human Wishes and 
 
 Eurasian Journalism . . .197 
 
 XII Describes a Picnic and a Symposium . 216 
 
 XIII Chiefly concerning Lake-Dwellers 240 
 
 XIV Illustrates the Last Line of Lamar- 
 
 tine's Poem " Le Lac " . . . 264 
 
 XV Hilda Visits the Leopard's Leap for 
 
 the Last Time . . . .281 
 
 XVI In which Helen Writes a Letter . 302 
 
 XVII In which Tracy Follows Hilda . 308 
 
 XVIII Extract from an Offic^l Letter 
 Written by Colonel Barton to the 
 Chief Secretary to the Local 
 Government — Extract from a Let- 
 ter WRITTEN BY BERYL ROYLE TO 
 
 Mrs. Allbut — Extract from ^a 
 Letter written by Helen Whitham 
 to Mrs. Jeune .... 315 
 
CHAPTER I 
 In which the Characters are all at Sea 
 
 THE good ship Devonshire of the County 
 Line was making her way with sober haste 
 through the tepid waters of the Red Sea. It was 
 ten o'clock of an October night and the heat was 
 tempered by a southerly breeze. The after- 
 dinner promenaders had ceased their uneasy 
 effort to get exercise without colliding with each 
 other or with the chairs that strewed the deck, 
 and had settled down to cards, conversation or 
 the knitting of mufflers for the Indian troops in 
 France. A few passengers here and there leaned 
 over the side to watch the phosphorescent waters 
 rolling like liquid silver from the ship's dark 
 bows, or to admire the graceful proportions of 
 the Unicorn, which they fondly believed, on the 
 assurance of a waggish officer, to be the Southern 
 Cross. Loud bursts of laughter from the smoke- 
 room on the boat deck indicated the whereabouts 
 
 7 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 of the Ceylon planters and commercial assistants 
 who had brought forty pounds on board for the 
 incidental expenses of the voyage, and the methods 
 they were adopting to spend that sum. In the 
 corners of the promenade deck or under the 
 boats were snugly stored the chairs of those 
 young couples for whom the sea-voyage and the 
 soft, tropical nights had not yet lost their glamour, 
 and whose conversation was carried on in under- 
 tones. The remainder, officials and merchants 
 returning from leave, wives returning to their 
 husbands with the memory of prattling baby 
 lips and soft little embraces still clutching at 
 their hearts, thought only of the end of the 
 voyage and of those left behind, or discussed the 
 thousand and one discomforts of sea travel and 
 the barbarity of being forced to share a cabin 
 as big as a small-sized dog kennel with two 
 disagreeable people whom one had never seen 
 before. Mrs. Allbut, a matronly little woman of 
 great energy and uncertain age, known to her 
 friends as Queen Anne, on account of her distinct 
 resemblance to Her deceased Majesty's portraits, 
 was especially trenchant in her remarks on the 
 lack of discipline amongst the stewards and the 
 inattention of the stewardess. 
 8 
 
THE CHARACTERS ARE ALL AT SEA 
 
 " It is the most uncomfortable trip I have ever 
 made ! " she declared. 
 
 It was her second voyage and she had spent 
 in the interval three years as first lady in an up- 
 country station where the only other members 
 of her own sex were the country-bred wives of 
 subordinate officials, who by their deference to 
 her greatly stimulated the development of the 
 queenly manner which had somewhat languished 
 in the suburban home whence her husband had 
 carried her off as his bride to India. 
 
 The exciting discussion of the all-absorbing 
 topics was interrupted by a sudden explosion from 
 a shady corner under the lee of a boat on the port 
 side. Here Colonel White, a cheery, large, red- 
 faced soldier of fifty-two, had taken up his posi- 
 tion with pretty Mrs. Tomson, who was returning 
 to Mandalay with her husband, a captain in the 
 Garwhali Rifles. The Colonel's bluff manner — 
 his candid friends said it was all bluff — -and his 
 big voice had been worth many hundreds of 
 rupees per month to him throughout his career ; 
 and by the deceptive appearance of strength of 
 character which it lent him had secured for him 
 lucrative political or staff billets in which his 
 metal had never been really tested. But it was 
 9 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 not a voice adapted for flirtation, and the half- 
 repressed protest, " How dare you ! " which 
 burst from the angry lady's lips was drowned in a 
 stage whisper, quite audible to the group of which 
 Mrs. Allbut formed the centre. 
 
 " Forgive me, dear lady ! You mustn't be 
 angry — I really did not mean anything. But I 
 always feel that I must make love to some one 
 in the Red Sea ! " 
 
 The incident aroused the most transient interest 
 in the little audience ; the most ingenuous 
 amongst them had already become inured to 
 the greater freedom of manners aboard ship. 
 But it started a train of thought in the mind of 
 Mrs. Jeune, a widow, globe-trotting ostensibly 
 to escape the English winter, and she appealed 
 to an American missionary for confirmation of 
 her conclusions. 
 
 "In a country where everybody retires at an 
 age when an Englishman is supposed to be in his 
 prime, the people one meets must seem much 
 younger than they do at home. Burma is a 
 young country, and it must be for Europeans a 
 country of young men and young women. Am I 
 right ? " 
 
 " Not quite," replied the Rev. Josiah Hatton, 
 
 10 
 
THE CHARACTERS ARE ALL AT SEA 
 
 a smile lighting up his thin shrewd face. " I 
 thought so when I first came out East. I had 
 come from an Eastern State, where we hustle 
 some and a man is too old at forty, so I was pre- 
 pared to take hold and run the Mission right 
 away. Two members of the Executive Board, 
 both nearer sixty than fifty, met me in Rangoon, 
 and when I asked which field I was posted to, 
 they said, ' Young man, you can sit down for a 
 couple of years and study the language and cus- 
 toms of the people : then maybe we'll be able to 
 make some use of you/ I tell you, madam, I 
 fell with a sickening thud. There are plenty of 
 young men in the country, but the oligarchy 
 that runs it is an oligarchy of terribly middle- 
 aged men." 
 
 " I understand that ' middle-aged,' like 
 1 elderly,' is a term of reproach," said Mrs. Jeune. 
 " Don't you think the country prospers fairly 
 well under the rule of this oligarchy ? I have 
 always heard it spoken of as the richest and 
 happiest province of the Empire." 
 
 " Oh, it prospers right enough, but prosperity 
 
 is not progress, as you can see for yourself if 
 
 you look around on the prosperous men in your 
 
 own circle of friends. No, for progress we must 
 
 11 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 look to the young or the old ; men like Roberts, 
 Chamberlain, Gladstone, Kitchener, all did their 
 best work after sixty. From thirty-five to sixty 
 a man is a slave to precedent, a worshipper of 
 things as they are." 
 
 " That's a bit rough on you, sir ! " laughed 
 Royle, a civilian of ten years' service, addressing 
 Colonel White, who with Mrs. Tomson had joined 
 the group of gossips after an interval intended to 
 persuade the onlookers that there had been no 
 " breeze " in the lee of the life-boat. 
 
 " Not a bit ! ". retorted the Colonel ; "lam one 
 of the progressives, not the prosperous. Hard 
 work, plain living and high thinking, you know. 
 Devotion to duty and a vegetarian diet — or 
 nearly vegetarian ! " 
 
 "I see ! Murghi when you can't get beef. 
 Progress at fifteen stone is not a winner, Colonel. 
 Now I should have suggested Omar's formula as 
 your rule of fife, with a footnote on the unwisdom 
 of eating too much bread and the dangers of eye- 
 strain." 
 
 " Cease this frivolity ! " commanded Mrs. 
 Tomson, who in spite of a high degree of self- 
 love and self-possession amongst the constituents 
 of her character was beginning to feel uncomfort- 
 12 
 
THE CHARACTERS ARE ALL AT SEA 
 
 able under the mocking gaze of Mrs. Jeune, and 
 was moved to defend herself by attacking the 
 enemy. " Have you made any converts to-day, 
 Mrs. Jeune ? " 
 
 Mrs. Jeune's hobby was Christian Science, 
 that strange structure erected on a weak founda- 
 tion of scientific fact and cemented with credulity 
 and superstition. She had had some success in 
 her missionary efforts on board by persuading 
 sea-sick women that their illness was quite 
 imaginary, and when, after the usual interval, 
 they were able to get down to the saloon for 
 meals, they were ready to believe that Christian 
 Science had worked a miracle. The mere man 
 who overcame his attack of the same distressing 
 disorder by refusing to be beaten, sticking to 
 his cheroot and eating large quantities of pickled 
 walnuts at every meal, she ignored as a brutal 
 scoffer instead of a crucial instance. On the 
 wrong side of forty, she still possessed a graceful 
 figure and a soft voice, and was credited with 
 the intention of marrying again if she could find 
 a husband to give her the position she sought. 
 Her ambition was to lead a small coterie and to 
 wield influence over a kind that makes and un- 
 makes Cabinets ; failing that she was content 
 13 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 to pull wires in an Indian province, and following 
 Caesar's maxim that it is better to be first in Gaul 
 than second in Rome, she was making a cold 
 weather tour in the province where the com- 
 petition was reputed to be least keen. If her 
 knowledge of Christian scientific methods enabled 
 her to hypnotise the man on whom her choice 
 should fall into a belief that the colour of her 
 belts and ribbons suited her, and that her clothes 
 had been fitted on, not thrown at her, it seemed 
 possible that she might achieve her ends. 
 
 Her challenger was of a lighter and more 
 frivolous nature, quick-witted and sharp-tongued, 
 fond of dancing, bridge and riding, the favourite 
 pastimes of Anglo-Indian women, without serious 
 interests or deep convictions, except for the 
 belief in a husband whom she imagined to be a 
 military genius waiting only for the opportunity 
 afforded by a great war to eclipse all rivals. Her 
 dark eyes and the blue gleam in her black hair 
 suggested descent on one side from Spanish 
 ancestors, and that impression was deepened by 
 the vivacity of her manner. On occasions she 
 could be demure and play the listener's part with 
 perfect skill, but the repression of her natural 
 animation made her wit the more deadly when her 
 
 14 
 
THE CHARACTERS ARE ALL AT SEA 
 
 opportunity arrived. She had discomfited and 
 utterly routed the wealthiest and most aggressive 
 of the rice-lords on board when he tried to im- 
 press her with stories of business "■ deals," in 
 which his own acuteness and skill were demon- 
 strated. After, listening to the end of an inter- 
 minable story with what her tormenter took for 
 admiration and awe, she pensively remarked : 
 " I perceive that there are no morals in business, 
 only methods." 
 
 Mrs. Jeune, therefore, mindful of her position 
 as a future grande dame of Burma, and feeling 
 her dignity as helpless against her antagonist's 
 wit as a Piccadilly flaneur against a street drab 
 armed with a handful of London mud, and no 
 policeman in sight, declined the challenge, and 
 with a forced smile replied, " I am afraid the fine 
 weather here is against me. But if we get the 
 tail end of the monsoon after we pass Sokotra, 
 I quite expect to have more opportunities of 
 converting even some of the most hardened 
 unbelievers." 
 
 11 Try the Colonel," suggested Royle. "He's 
 a fine example of the triumph of matter over 
 mind. See if you can reverse the results of 
 twenty years' suppression of the higher instincts." 
 
 15 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 " I've seen too much of the system," objected 
 White in the stentorian voice in which he ordered 
 his breakfast or lunch at his Club. " There was 
 a subaltern in my own regiment who tried to 
 persuade himself that a bad attack of malaria was 
 merely a diseased imagination and refused to 
 take quinine at the doctor's request. I offered 
 him the choice between quinine and a court- 
 martial for mutinous conduct, and we had him 
 on his legs again in a couple of days." 
 
 " Did that cure him of his beliefs too ? " 
 maliciously inquired Mrs. Tomson. 
 
 " Not quite. But a few weeks afterwards he 
 got a bad toss at polo from trying to hit a ball 
 between his pony's forelegs and pitched on his 
 shoulder, snapping the collar-bone. We set 
 it for him in spite of his protests. Two days 
 later he went on furlough, and after being jolted 
 for twenty-two hours in the train between Magmyo 
 and Rangoon he was a rational being again." 
 
 " Then I am not rational ? " pouted Mrs. Jeune. 
 
 " You are charming, madam, which is much 
 better." 
 
 " Many thanks, but the age of chivalry, when 
 women were treated as children or pets, is dead. 
 Jane Austen's heroines were the last of that 
 16 
 
THE CHARACTERS ARE ALL AT SEA 
 
 type. This is the age of Meredith and Wells." 
 " Never heard of the firm : is it in Oxford 
 Street ? " 
 
 Mrs. Jeune turned with a shrug of her shoulders 
 to Royle, who belonged to a comparatively rare 
 species, the Irish civilian. She found him an 
 interesting study by reason of the inconsistency 
 of his many strong convictions. Like most 
 Irishmen one meets abroad, he was English, by 
 descent from the colonists who were intended 
 to Anglicize Ireland but became Hibernians 
 themselves. He was a violent nationalist and an 
 admirer of Shavian paradox, for he had , never 
 heard or did not believe Shaw's assertion that, 
 like Swift, he was a Yorkshireman. As Mr. 
 Gladstone through a long life of mental develop- 
 ment in political questions contrived to keep 
 intact as if in a water-tight compartment his 
 inherited prejudices on religious matters, so 
 Royle managed to reconcile in practice the most 
 extreme Radical views on self-government with 
 ultramontane ideas in religion, and remained a 
 devout worshipper in the Roman Church, which, 
 with the history of France, Italy and Portugal 
 to guide it, now begins to wonder if Home Rule 
 was not the wrong line to take, though that 
 
 17 B 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 course enabled the Church to pose as the leader 
 of national aspirations. He had yielded to a 
 momentary fascination and married a pretty 
 Eurasian girl, daughter of a country-bred engin- 
 eer, because his Irish blood, his fear of Mother 
 Church, and an outburst of activity on the part 
 of the Lieutenant-Governor in the matter of 
 confidential circulars during the early days of 
 his service, had deterred him from tiding over the 
 dangerous period of early manhood by means of 
 the customary liaison. Thereby he had greatly 
 impaired his chance of future promotion. For a 
 man with a Burmese wife may rise to the highest 
 positions if she is content not to push herself 
 in European society; and a mistress may be 
 pensioned off and forgotten. But a Eurasian 
 wife demands an equality with Anglo-Indian 
 ladies and calls herself Anglo-Indian in these 
 days. 
 
 Beryl Royle was neither aggressive nor unduly 
 submissive ; she was a natural, simple girl with 
 the limited ideas of her class. Bred in a convent 
 school in the hills amongst unworldly and un- 
 imaginative nuns, she was, before her marriage, 
 profoundly ignorant of English ways of thought 
 and of the hundred little taboos, concealments 
 18 
 
THE CHARACTERS ARE ALL AT SEA 
 
 and affectations that constitute " good form " 
 especially amongst the middle-class English- 
 women who dominate Society in the East. Even 
 the women who liked her felt that her fluent 
 command of Burmese and Hindustani, which 
 seven years devoted to convent French had not 
 impaired, and her intimate knowledge of bazaar 
 prices and the tricks of native servants, were 
 unladylike. They resented these advantages, 
 which Mrs. Royle was too innocent or too proud 
 to conceal, as the Englishman resents a good 
 French accent in one of his own kind. Had she 
 ignored her European descent and adopted Bur- 
 mese costume, she would have been judged by 
 different standards, and as an English-speaking 
 Burmese lady would have been the pet of every 
 station she lived in. Legally in India the most 
 remote descent from European ancestors justifies 
 a claim to the title " European." The law never 
 forgets the drop of European blood, however 
 diluted. Society in revenge never overlooks 
 the slightest native strain. 
 
 " You promised to tell me something of Ran- 
 goon, Mr. Royle," said Mrs. Jeune, turning a 
 plump, matronly back on Colonel White. " You 
 know the letters of your friends never tell you 
 19 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 anything you want to know. It is all so much 
 a matter of course to .them. I have heard that 
 it is the third port in India, though I forget what 
 the other two are, that it contains the Sheve 
 Dagon Pagoda and numerous mills, and that 
 although it is the capital of Burma it has very 
 few Burman inhabitants." 
 
 " That is all quite true," replied Royle, " but 
 you are going to live in Cantonments, not in the 
 port ; and from that point of view Rangoon is 
 a suburb of Glasgow with a sprinkling of English 
 and German residents. The latter are at present 
 the guests of the Government of India in Ahmed- 
 nagar, so you will not need to brush up your 
 German before landing." 
 
 " Is Society very Scotch, then ? " 
 
 " So much so that you will probably be asked, 
 not whether you came from England or Scotland, 
 but from what part of Scotland you come. You 
 will live down in time the misfortune of your 
 English descent, provided you don't call a scone 
 a scone, but a ' sconn,' and never confuse St. 
 Andrew's Day with All Saints' Day. You will 
 find the residents very hospitable, though they 
 do not keep open house to the same extent as in 
 India." 
 
 20 
 
THE CHARACTERS ARE ALL AT SEA 
 
 " Is St. Andrew's Day always celebrated in 
 Scotch fashion in Rangoon ? " 
 
 " It is indeed. Every Scotchman is permitted 
 to forget himself On that day, and many others 
 recall towards the end of November a remote 
 connexion with the Land o' Cakes, but not too 
 remote to win them admission to a dinner in 
 which haggis and whisky are the chief elements. 
 The first of December is a sad day in Rangoon." 
 
 " Somebody told me that the dinner was to be 
 dropped this year." 
 
 " I heard something to that effect, too. The 
 fact is that certain gentlemen with Scotch names 
 but very sunburnt complexions have been claim- 
 ing admission to the annual dinner and there is 
 discord between Cantonments and the Fringe, as 
 we call it. Last year's president of the dinner 
 declined to take the chair this year on the pretext 
 that he did not get home after the last dinner 
 till half-past seven in the morning, and then he 
 had a fight in the ditch near his house with a 
 gentleman to whom he had never been intro- 
 duced, but who asked for a lift in his car." 
 
 " How very primitive ! Rangoon is still in 
 the eighteenth century, then ? " 
 
 " It lapses occasionally. It is a curious fact 
 21 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 that in a new country men revert to the habits 
 and vices of their ancestors, just as they do in 
 the mining camps and ranches of Western America. 
 But that stage soon passes. You will find Burma 
 quite civilized now, except in one or two out- 
 of-the-way places where only planters and pros- 
 pectors for oil and wolfram are settled. It is 
 but seldom that Rangoon tries to recover its 
 lost youth." 
 
 Just then Mrs. Royle, who had been vainly 
 endeavouring to interest herself in the discourse 
 of David Allbut on the genius of one Thomas 
 Carlyle, of whom she had scarcely heard the 
 name before, came up. 
 
 " I am going down, dear. The kulassis are 
 letting down the purdahs to screen the ladies' 
 sleeping place on the other side, so you had better 
 get off this deck. Lights will be out presently. 
 It's half -past ten." 
 
 " Very well. Come along, Colonel, and have a 
 night-cap before you turn in." 
 
 As the pair turned into the smoke-room they 
 met Dick Whitham^ a junior judge of the Chief 
 Court, just coming out. He passed them with 
 a cheery " Good-night ! " and made his way to 
 the main deck. 
 
 22 
 
THE CHARACTERS ARE ALL AT SEA 
 
 "You know Whitham fairly well, Colonel, 
 don't you ? What kind of man is he ? " asked 
 Royle. 
 
 " Not at all a bad sort if you don't offend his 
 dignity. Narrow and bigoted, perhaps, but very 
 straight and unsuspicious. A regular old Tory 
 with the faults and virtues of his tribe. " 
 
 " It might be worth his while to keep his eye 
 on his wife. Like her namesake of Troy, Helen 
 Whitham has a taste for good-looking young 
 men." 
 
 " Oh, she won't come to any harm. She 
 wants amusement and old Dick gives her her 
 head. He knows she's safe." 
 
 " Well, it's his trouble, and I'm an interfering 
 Hibernian. What's your poison ? " 
 
 23 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 Illustrates the Dangers of Beer and of 
 Skittles 
 
 DICK WHITHAM belonged to a class which 
 yearly decreases in numbers as the more 
 remote parts of the Empire are brought nearer 
 to England by improved communications, and as 
 the advantages conferred by birth and high con- 
 nexions are diminished. The middle classes have 
 entered upon their inheritance in India and the 
 Dominions overseas, and competition is keen. 
 Birth without brains is at a discount. Not that 
 Whitham was without brains, but he was of little 
 more than mediocre ability and would have 
 starved at the English Bar. In the East, how- 
 ever, he had succeeded in reaching a seat on the 
 Bench long before he was fifty. Educated at 
 Winchester and New College, he divided men 
 roughly into four classes : first, those who like 
 himself had been at Winchester and New College, 
 u Old Wykehamists " with a full and valid title ; 
 24 
 
THE DANGERS OF BEER AND SKITTLES 
 
 second, those who had been either at Winchester 
 or New College, but not both ; third, other public 
 schools and 'Varsity men ; fourth, the vulgar 
 herd. He had taken a degree in third-class hon- 
 ours and had been called to the Bar. After 
 waiting some years in London for briefs which 
 did not come, he embarked on a P. & O. mail 
 boat for Bombay and thence proceeded to Cal- 
 cutta. By carefully cultivating those members of 
 the Government who belonged to the first three 
 of the classes to which he assigned mankind, he 
 had held various minor legal appointments which 
 members of his profession with reasonably large 
 practices had disdained, and so when a vacancy 
 occurred on the Bench of the Chief Court in 
 Rangoon, he had been sent to fill it. For a 
 judgeship in the East is not, as in England, a 
 position of comparative leisure and much dignity 
 to which a successful barrister may aspire at the 
 end of a lucrative career in the Courts, and in 
 which he may pleasantly spend the evening of 
 his days. Such a man leaves the East long before 
 he attains the age at which an English judge 
 assumes the ermine. A moderately paid appoint- 
 ment in a tropical climate has few attractions for 
 one who can afford to retire, and there is so 
 25 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 little of dignity attaching to the judicial office 
 that no consolation is offered for the loss of 
 emoluments which any thriving advocate would 
 suffer for giving up his practice for a seat on the 
 Bench. So the High Courts of India form one of 
 the remaining refuges for men of moderate ability, 
 inherited integrity and influential connexions. 
 Interesting situations are from time to time 
 created by the consciousness, common to both 
 judges and counsel engaged, that the latter have 
 proved in forensic competition their superiority 
 to the judge who is empowered to decide the case 
 they are contesting. Thus Mr. Justice Whitham, 
 on an occasion when his interpretation of the 
 statute bearing on a difficult point was disputed 
 by a barrister of much greater experience and 
 learning, remarked testily, " I fear, Mr. Jones, 
 that you regard me as an utter fool." 
 
 " Well, your Honour/' demurred Jones, with 
 carefully calculated hesitation, " I wouldn't go 
 quite so far as that ! " 
 
 In contrast with her husband's somewhat 
 pompous manner and lack of humour, his portly 
 figure and his slightly bald head, Helen Whitham 
 was slim and active, vivacious and witty. She 
 had married her husband at twenty-one, he being 
 26 
 
THE DANGERS OF BEER AND SKITTLES 
 
 more than twice her age, without even consider- 
 ing whether she was in love with him. She had 
 met him in Calcutta, where she was spending 
 the cold weather with her aunt, the wife of a 
 Colonel in the Indian Medical Service ; and having 
 decided that India was a good country to live 
 in and her value in the matrimonial market 
 there much higher than it had ever appeared 
 in England, she determined to marry and settle 
 in the East. Accordingly when Whitham, with 
 the offer of the judgeship in his pocket, looked 
 round for a wife, and laid his heart and his newly 
 added dignity at the feet of the fair Helen, she 
 accepted without hesitation. That was seven 
 years ago, and the marriage had been to all out- 
 ward appearances a happy one. If Helen Whit- 
 ham ever regretted the absence of children's 
 prattle and pattering feet from the big bungalow 
 at Rangoon, she concealed her regrets, and her 
 numerous engagements, tennis, dancing and golf, 
 seemed to fill all her time. In the early days of 
 their marriage she had watched very carefully 
 for any signs of jealousy on her husband's part ; 
 then finding that his own confidence in himself 
 and a strong vein of indolence rendered him 
 proof against that common and distressing mascu- 
 27 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 line weakness, she proceeded to indulge to the 
 full her taste for flirtation. Her very candour 
 disarmed suspicion, and by establishing at once 
 a reputation as a coquette, she was enabled to 
 behave with impunity in a manner which would 
 undoubtedly have compromised any less popular 
 woman in so scandalous a country as Burma. 
 
 Still Dick Whitham could not fail to be aware 
 that if ever scandal arose in connexion with his 
 wife's audacious escapades, the difference be- 
 tween their ages would lend force and verisimil- 
 itude to the tales of gossips. Accordingly his 
 age was his- sore point, and if Helen, prompted 
 by a devil of mischief, in one of the little matri- 
 monial tiffs that disturb even the most perfectly 
 peaceful menages, so much as caressed, in passing 
 his chair, the tonsure that crowned his head, he 
 understood the allusion, and, roused to a white 
 heat of fury, would flee from the room to save 
 his dignity. 
 
 But Helen was far too wise a woman to touch 
 too often on a sore subject, and did all she could 
 to keep her husband in a good humour so long 
 as her own amusements were not interrupted. 
 
 " You must not settle down to your book so 
 soon after breakfast, Dick," she said one morn- 
 28 
 
THE DANGERS OF BEER AND SKITTLES 
 
 ing as the ship was leaving the Gulf of Aden. 
 " It's bad for your liver. Come and have a look 
 at Sokotra, and then we will take a little exercise 
 round the boat-deck." 
 
 "I see ; you will walk me about till I've had 
 enough exercise, then see me safely ensconced in 
 my long chair with a pipe and a book, and run 
 away and leave me till lunch time." 
 
 " Yes, it's an awful bore, but what can one do ? 
 There is the heat in the skittle tournament to 
 be played off at eleven, some songs to be prac- 
 tised with various Carusos and Tetrazzinis who 
 are to sing at the concert to-morrow night, and a 
 match at deck quoits to be finished before one 
 o'clock. So I shall be very busy." 
 
 " Well, don't blame me if I fall a victim to 
 Mrs. Allbut's fascinations in your absence or 
 entangle myself in a flirtation with the Merry 
 Widow." 
 
 " The Dowdy One ! I have no fears. Do 
 you know, dear, I suspect that her dowdiness 
 is a sheer affectation ? She shows evidence of 
 quite good taste at times. It used to be said 
 that a certain royal personage always wore last 
 season's hats and badly fitting dresses to show 
 her superiority to mere fashion. And I some- 
 29 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 times think Mrs. Jeune puts her clothes on so 
 badly to show her contempt for neat people like 
 myself." 
 
 "She has not hypnotised you, then? Well, 
 run away, I'm going to sit down and enjoy my 
 pipe while I can. In a few days it will be too 
 hot for anything but cheroots." 
 
 " Morning, Judge ! " and the Reverend Josiah 
 Hatton dragged up a campstool and seated him- 
 self alongside Whitham's deck chair. " I guess 
 the British Empire don't raise much corn on 
 that slab of rock we're just passing." 
 
 " No, it's not much use to us, but it would be 
 very useful to the Germans, especially in these 
 times." 
 
 " Well, it can't be much worse to live- on than 
 some parts of the Irawadi basin in the neighbour- 
 hood of the oil wells. Jenangyat is just about 
 as like Sokotra as one pea is to another, if only 
 Sokotra had a few red-painted oil-tanks scattered 
 up and down." 
 
 " I've not seen that part of Upper Burma," 
 said the judge. 
 
 " Don't want to, then," advised the mission- 
 ary. " I struck there about the toughest case 
 I've ever met. He was an oil-driller, and a man 
 30 
 
THE DANGERS OF BEER AND SKITTLES 
 
 of some considerable brains and some education. 
 He had no vice but one — drunkenness. As soon 
 as ever his week's work was finished he used to 
 get drunk and remain drunk till it was time to 
 get back to duty again. Then he sobered up and 
 kept sober till he was off duty once more. I 
 argued with him and prayed over him, but it 
 was useless. He had one reply which he con- 
 sidered irrefutable. ' It's the quickest way,' 
 he said, ' out of Jenangyat ! ' " 
 
 " Poor devil ! I don't blame him. After 
 all, it's not the only form of excess. I have 
 known few total abstainers who did not eat too 
 much, and they had not even the excuse of the 
 drunkard that he pursued a mental not a physical 
 pleasure." 
 
 Here Royle joined in the conversation. 
 
 " On the old topic, padre ? Has it ever struck 
 you that Ireland, which consumes more spirits 
 per head than any country in the world, is the 
 most virtuous, and her neighbour and rival in 
 whisky drinking, Scotland, is perhaps the least 
 virtuous country in Europe ? " 
 
 What do you mean me to infer from that ? " 
 asked the American. 
 
 " Why, that drink is not the root of all evil, 
 3i 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 as you total abstainers try to make out. The 
 two instances I have given you seem to show that 
 it has no connexion with vice." 
 
 The missionary felt that the Irishman was 
 defending his own weakness, and, careful to 
 avoid a personal reference, merely replied, " There 
 are two replies to that view : that Ireland is a 
 special case, for she has been dragooned into 
 sexual purity ; and that a country may avoid 
 impurity and yet be rotten to the core." 
 
 So unorthodox a view from a missionary and so 
 bold an attack on Ireland's greatest pride quite 
 took Royle's breath away. But a missionary 
 with an open mind — and such men, though rare, 
 are not quite non-existent — is apt to become a 
 trifle unorthodox, and learns to give to virtue a 
 wider connotation than it assumes in most 
 Christian countries. As a Protestant, Hatton 
 objected to the laxity of the Roman teaching 
 with regard to alcohol, while in the East he had 
 learned to view with more than ordinary toler- 
 ance sins against chastity. Royle was indeed a 
 typical instance of the evils of the view to which 
 Hatton was opposed. His hasty marriage to an 
 entirely unsuitable mate was very similar to the 
 thousands of improvident marriages contracted 
 32 
 
THE DANGERS OF BEER AND SKITTLES 
 
 in Ireland every year, whereby that country 
 purchases a reputation for chastity at the cost 
 of economic ruin and all its attendant evils. 
 His fondness for whisky, acquired in early youth 
 in a cold wet climate, where the results of indul- 
 gence are not so marked, and unchecked by Holy 
 Church, had developed in a tropical country until 
 it already formed the greatest obstacle to any 
 tolerable solution of his matrimonial difficulties, 
 and endangered his whole career. After ten 
 years' service he had been side-tracked to the 
 judicial branch, as being likely to do less harm 
 there than in an executive charge, and already 
 the Burman was telling stories of the mad thakin's 
 freaks whenever his excesses brought him to the 
 verge of delirium. His wife's affection for him 
 was a hindrance rather than a help to his reform. 
 She wept over his shortcomings when he was 
 drunk, and condoned them when he became 
 sober. Neither her religious nor her social 
 training had taught her that excessive drinking 
 was in itself vicious, and she regretted only its 
 consequences to herself and her husband's official 
 progress. She tried tears and persuasion where 
 only blistering scorn could have been at all effect- 
 ive, and merely succeeded in rousing a drunk- 
 33 c 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 ard's sudden anger where she should have awak- 
 ened his sense of shame. The love she had felt 
 for him was at first heightened by her wonder at 
 the condescension of a " Heavenborn " in stoop- 
 ing to ask for the hand of an Eurasian, but the 
 truth that lies in wine had gradually revealed to 
 her the motives that had impelled her husband 
 to marry her, and little was left of her affection 
 though the habit of loyalty and a trace of her old 
 respect for the denizen of a higher social sphere 
 still remained to guide her. 
 
 The retort that Royle's Irish wit would no doubt 
 have instantly shaped was lost, for at that 
 moment Beryl ran up and in an excited voice, 
 which emphasized the high-pitched staccato of 
 her race, exclaimed, " Ooh, James ! Do come 
 and see the whale ! He is spouting, I think you 
 call it, on the other side." 
 
 And seizing her unwilling husband by the arm 
 she dragged him off, growling like a dog disap- 
 pointed in the hope of a fight. 
 
 " What will be the end of that man ? " the 
 missionary asked the judge. " What a pity to 
 see a man of his ability a slave to such a 
 habit." 
 
 " Nothing very tragic usually happens in 
 34 
 
THE DANGERS OF BEER AND SKITTLES 
 
 these cases," placidly replied Whitham. " Royle's 
 outbursts are not very frequent, and in the inter- 
 vals he does good work. Unless he gets much 
 worse, he will finish his service as divisional 
 judge." 
 
 " Does the Government never cashier a man 
 of that type ? " 
 
 " Not a civilian. At the worst he is reduced 
 to the first grade of Assistant Commissionerships, 
 and kept at headquarters under the eye of his 
 superiors." 
 
 " He must be a bad example to the Burman," 
 mused the padre. 
 
 " That of course is your special concern," 
 commented the judge. " When you begin to 
 discuss the private conduct of public men you 
 enter upon a very large field with very ill-defined 
 boundaries, and no Government has ever yet 
 dared to make rules. It only acts when public 
 opinion compels action. And in the East a 
 public opinion that enforces action against a 
 white man is, quite wrongly of course, thought to 
 savour of disloyalty to one's class, colour and 
 race." 
 
 A loud burst of cheering from the skittle alley, 
 the great resource of actively disposed passen- 
 35 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 gers on the ships of the County Line, caused the 
 two men to move to the forward rail of the hurri- 
 cane deck, whence a glimpse could be obtained, 
 between the rail and awning of the promenade 
 deck below, of the group of passengers collected 
 near the saloon bulkhead on the main deck, ab- 
 sorbed in a closely contested game of skittles. 
 The struggle was between two teams of four, 
 three men and one lady, the opposing ladies 
 being Mrs. Tomson and Mrs. Whitham, and the 
 rivalry incidental to the game was heightened by 
 the inevitable competition between two wpmen, 
 both young, both clever, and both attractive 
 confined within the narrow limits of the same 
 ship for a month's voyage. Protesting voices 
 were beginning to make themselves heard through 
 the cheers, and gradually the cheering died down, 
 leaving the protests alone audible. Helen Whit- 
 ham's second ball had removed the last skittle 
 of the ten, and the kulassi had already begun to 
 set up the skittles again, when the opposing side 
 objected that the throw was a "No-ball," be- 
 cause the bowler's foot had crossed the base line 
 before the skittle fell. A malicious chance had 
 drawn Captain Tomson on Mrs. Whitham 's side 
 and he stoutly resisted the claim of his opponents, 
 36 
 
THE DANGERS OF BEER AND SKITTLES 
 
 amongst whom his own wife was not the least 
 assertive. Hilda Tomson was becoming puzzled 
 and angry with her husband's strenuous support 
 of her rival ; being a woman, she could not easily 
 comprehend the strength of the temporary and 
 limited bond that unites players of the same 
 team, and was inclined to regard his attitude 
 as due to personal motives. It was bad form, 
 she decided, on his part openly to support his 
 side against his wife, especially when the side 
 included her rival. The umpire, a harmless 
 youth who had not taken part in the tournament 
 and was selected for his onerous position as being 
 unbiassed, found himself confidently invoked by 
 both teams, headed by the now flushed and 
 excited ladies. He had to admit that he had 
 taken his eye off the line when the ball left the 
 player's hand and followed its course up the deck. 
 Mentally he resolved never again to be arbiter 
 in any game or any dispute wherein ladies were 
 concerned, and thus added one valuable item to 
 his stock of worldly wisdom. His explanation 
 gave Helen Whitham time to grasp the situation 
 and its bearings on her own favourite amusement, 
 flirtation. Noting Hilda's warmth she suddenly 
 executed a strategic retreat. 
 37 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 " Mrs. Tomson is quite right. See ! Here is 
 the place where my foot must have slipped over 
 the line ; the chalk is rubbed off." 
 
 The onlookers applauded Mrs. Whitham's 
 honesty. Mrs. Tomson felt like a man who, hav- 
 ing braced himself up for an effort and hurled 
 himself against a locked and bolted door, finds 
 it suddenly opened and collapses with the vio- 
 lence of his own assault. Mrs. Whitham experi- 
 enced the glow of satisfaction which accompanies 
 an immoral victory, and not a man present, least 
 of all Tomson, appreciated her craft. The ladies 
 watching the game with an eye mainly to its social 
 possibilities revelled in anticipation of a serious 
 struggle between the two rival ladies, and noted 
 that Helen Whitham had scored the first point. 
 Hilda herself was quick to perceive the fact, and 
 her anger waxed the hotter for being baffled. 
 The soft answer is responsible for many enmities. 
 Only those who have lived in a small station, 
 meeting the same people day by day, or made a 
 long voyage with the same set of passengers can 
 understand what ridiculous importance the most 
 trivial incident may assume and how cordially 
 people learn to hate each other even without 
 reason. Fortunately a brief separation serves 
 
 38 
 
THE DANGERS OF BEER AND SKITTLES 
 
 to obliterate the dislike as effectually as it often 
 kills friendship. 
 
 The game continued in outward harmony, 
 and Mrs. Tomson's side ran out winners by five 
 points, but the victory gave her no joy. She 
 resented her rival's skilful use of the situation 
 and could see the effect on her husband of the 
 transparent pretence of a sudden discovery and 
 an honest avowal. She could not accuse Helen 
 of trickery, for she herself had loudly claimed the 
 " No-ball," and her husband would have roundly 
 accused her of an endeavour to win the game by 
 paltry cheating. Her real grievance, that Helen 
 had yielded the point from no honest motive, 
 but merely to gain credit for an unfeminine spirit 
 of fairness likely to appeal to the other sex, was 
 one that would not bear stating in words, but 
 it was none the less real, and rankled. Her self- 
 love was wounded and there grew up between 
 the two women a temporary hostility that con- 
 cealed itself under a careful observance of the 
 proprieties and a punctilious politeness. Tom- 
 son thought the incident was forgotten and was 
 confirmed in his opinion by the additional 
 warmth which Mrs. Whitham threw into her 
 greetings of him, and of Hilda too if he were 
 
 39 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 present. Helen found added to the joys of flirta- 
 tion, which had almost become with her a mere 
 bad habit, the sense of annoying another 
 woman and a spice of danger. 
 
 Tracy Tomson had that indefinable but clearly 
 perceived masculine quality of character that 
 appeals to all women, even to those who resent 
 the attraction they feel. A little over the average 
 height, well made, and good looking without 
 being handsome in the orthodox sense, he was 
 not less popular with women than with men, 
 who for the most part have little admiration for 
 the type that women describe as " handsome." 
 He was a good soldier, keen on his profession, 
 and worked hard. The need of money to enable 
 him to marry had sent him to the Indian Army, 
 and he still regretted the necessity which had 
 forced him out of his British regiment. Though 
 he was too good a soldier not to understand the 
 high standard of the work done in the Indian 
 regiments and how seriously both men and officers 
 regarded their duties, he had a secret hankering 
 for the parade and glitter, the display and pomp, 
 of a " swagger " British cavalry regiment. None 
 knew better than he that lack of money and 
 plenty of brains characterized the Indian Army 
 40 
 
THE DANGERS OF BEER AND SKITTLES 
 
 officer, while a superfluity of money and a lack 
 of ability drove men into the Guards' Brigade. 
 Yet he could never quite overcome the boyish 
 feeling that an officer in the Guards was a superior 
 being, living in a different and higher sphere, and 
 not to be measured by the same standards as 
 the efficient adjutant of a workmanlike regiment 
 of Punjab Light Infantry. 
 
 He had another weakness not uncommon 
 amongst Englishmen, an intense dislike for 
 demonstrative affection. He never kept a dog 
 that could not control his feelings and refrain 
 from canine caperings and adulation, and he 
 admired the thorough unscrupulous selfishness 
 of cats. His terrier never followed him beyond 
 the door of the bungalow when he was setting 
 out for the parade ground, and when he returned 
 for breakfast welcomed him with a perfunctory 
 wag of a stumpy tail and lay down on the mat, 
 whence he could observe his master's movements 
 at a respectful distance. He distinguished be- 
 tween Tracy and other men by totally ignoring 
 the latter, and always waited for an invitation 
 before accompanying his master in his walks. 
 
 Had Tomson been asked whether he was still 
 in love with his wife, and had he condescended 
 4i 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 to answer so impertinent an inquiry, he would 
 undoubtedly have affirmed his unchanged 
 affection. He was probably unconscious of any 
 change in the course of three years of married 
 life, but the change had taken place. Beyond 
 the waning of desire that follows achievement, 
 there was in his attitude to Hilda a faint degree 
 of contempt for a woman who accepted his views 
 without question, and never attempted to conceal 
 her fondness and her pride in the possession of 
 him. He had so far contrived to avoid hurting 
 her by spoken remonstrances, but he could not 
 hide his aversion for her evident admiration or 
 rather for the display of it. He was not free 
 from masculine vanity, but liked adulation of a 
 subtler form than his wife's. She could not fail 
 to perceive his indifference and restiveness under 
 her treatment, but her love for him blinded her 
 to its true cause. Acute in her dealings with 
 other men and women, she lacked insight into 
 her husband's character, and instead of assuming 
 an indifference equal to his own she endeavoured 
 to revive his waning affection by continued 
 deference and almost obsequious attention to 
 his comfort. She consoled herself with the 
 thought that the change in him was one which 
 42 
 
THE DANGERS OF BEER AND SKITTLES 
 
 marriage produces in most men, and that at any 
 rate she had no rival to contend against. 
 
 The attempt to trace to its origin an infatuation, 
 a love affair, even a strong friendship, is an inter- 
 esting research. Lo,ye at first sight, even friend- 
 ship at first sight, is probably an invention of 
 romance. It is nearly always possible to recall 
 the moment when an indifferent person became 
 interesting or a repellent person tolerable, and 
 the interest or tolerance can be traced step by 
 step to its final development as love or lasting 
 friendship. At each stage in the journey there 
 is a choice of action, and no step appears to be 
 final, though gradually a precedent is established 
 and a bias in one direction. Tomson's first 
 impressions of Helen Whitham were unfavourable. 
 She had arrived at Birkenhead on a wet day in 
 October in a costume quite unsuited to any part 
 of England outside the four-mile radius, and he 
 saw her nearly sprain her ankle by trying to 
 mount a slippery gangway in high-heeled boots. 
 His lack of interest in her, which he took no pains 
 to conceal, and which was in strong contrast with 
 the attitude of other men of her acquaintance, 
 piqued her, and she had waited for an oppor- 
 tunity of adding him to her circle of admirers. 
 43 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 She knew that any evident attempt to attract 
 him would defeat its object, but the chances of 
 the draw for the skittle tournament seemed to 
 offer an opening, and Tomson gradually was 
 made to feel that he had done a charming woman 
 an injustice. The amazing intimacy of life 
 aboard a crowded ship, with its forcing effect 
 on the growth of loves and hates, accelerated 
 the change from dislike to tolerance, from toler- 
 ance to interest, and from interest to liking. 
 Helen amused and stimulated but never bored 
 him. If she was fond of flirtation, and all the 
 world agreed that she was, it was a pastime to 
 save her from intolerable ennui with a pompous, 
 heavy-minded mate ; and if Rangoon was full 
 of young fools who danced attendance on her, 
 well, it was not entirely her fault. " She is 
 clever, too," he added to himself. He found her 
 reading Browning's Pauline one morning on deck, 
 and seeing the title of the book, remarked, 
 " That's rather solid stuff for a voyage, isn't it, 
 Mrs. Whitham ? " 
 
 "By no means, Captain Tomson. Browning 
 could be as lucid as Tennyson when he liked and 
 is always better reading. I wonder what you 
 will think of this ? " 
 
 44 
 
THE DANGERS OF BEER AND SKITTLES 
 
 And she read the passage ending : 
 
 " though music wait for me 
 
 And fair eyes and bright wine, laughing like Sin 
 Which steals back softly on a soul half -saved." 
 
 
 45 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 Shows how Safety does not always lie in 
 Avoiding the Obvious 
 
 MINI KOI lay astern, and preparations were 
 afoot for the fancy dress dance which 
 invariably takes place on East-bound liners the 
 night before Colombo is reached. There is the 
 parting of the ways for travellers to Madras, 
 Calcutta, Ceylon, China or Australia, and the 
 ships of the County Line carry a much reduced and 
 greatly subdued company of passengers over the 
 last thousand miles to Burma. The thought that 
 to-morrow one will part for ever with travelling 
 companions with whom one has spent several 
 weeks in the close intimacy inseparable from life 
 at sea, softens animosities and adds a touch of 
 sentiment to the most shallow friendships. You 
 are grateful to the man whose presence in your 
 cabin has been an unmitigated nuisance from the 
 moment the ship left her moorings in London or 
 Liverpool, when you see his preparations to 
 46 
 
AVOIDING THE OBVIOUS 
 
 vacate, and you feel quite willing to hold his hand 
 and sing " Auld Lang Syne " in the smoke-room. 
 There are few more unsuitable places for dancing 
 than the deck of a ship. It is hard and spring- 
 less, generally unsteady, and strewn with dan- 
 gerous obstacles like ventilators, companion 
 ladders and stays. The impromptu dances 
 arranged at intervals whenever the weather is 
 propitious attract only the most ardent terpsi- 
 choreans on board, but the final fancy-dress dance 
 is always something of a carnival and well 
 attended. Etiquette forbids the use of elaborate 
 costumes brought out from home, and the making 
 of ingenious disguises from materials purchased 
 at Port Said or borrowed from the stewardess 
 affords opportunities for much discussion and 
 elaborate concealment of plans that must not be 
 prematurely divulged. The tedium of the long 
 weary voyage from Port Said to Colombo is thus 
 relieved for the ladies who find little entertain- 
 ment in the daily round of shipboard amusements. 
 When the great night arrives, costumes must be 
 worn at dinner, and the descent of the saloon 
 stairs is achieved under a fire of criticism, punctu- 
 ated with occasional cheers, from the people 
 already seated at table. The carnival spirit is 
 47 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 abroad, and secure in the knowledge that to-night 
 sees the end of the acquaintance begun a few short 
 weeks before, the least enterprising man and the 
 most puritanical maid are prepared to make the 
 most of their opportunities. To encourage such 
 as these the chief engineer of the Devonshire had 
 rigged up several kala jagahs, or retreats, by 
 screening off the corners of the hurricane deck 
 with canvas and flags. In each retreat he had 
 placed two chairs, and overhead shone a small 
 electric lamp, so arranged that when the chairs 
 were occupied the lamp was extinguished and 
 the sole illumination was the subdued light from 
 the deck lamps filtered through the bunting. 
 
 As if to prove that temptation is less a matter 
 of circumstances than of character, David Allbut 
 escorted Mrs. Jeune to one of the kala jagahs 
 and there discussed with Carlylean emphasis the 
 widow's pet superstition, to the unconcealed 
 disgust of young couples who were forced to sit 
 out in the open, feeling that the intentions of the 
 kind-hearted engineer were being basely frustrated. 
 Argument always excited Allbut 's lowland Scotch 
 blood and aggravated his rasping Glasgow accent. 
 He was audible far down the deck as he wound up 
 his indictment of Christian Science with what was 
 48 
 
AVOIDING THE OBVIOUS 
 
 intended for a crushing epigram formed on 
 Buff on 's famous criticism of the dictionary 
 definition of a crab. 
 
 " In short, my dear lady, Christian Science 
 suffers from two inherent defects. It is not 
 Science and it is not Christianity." 
 
 " Like a Welsh rabbit, in fact," replied the 
 widow, " which is neither a rabbit nor pecu- 
 liarly Welsh." 
 
 " Exactly," assented the civilian, wishing he 
 had thought of the more vulgar but more con- 
 temptuous parallel himself. 
 
 " But is nevertheless extremely good," added 
 Mrs. Jeune, rising from her seat, so as to give 
 her opponent no chance of a reply, and making 
 her way out on to the deck. 
 
 And the fourth officer, waiting outside for an 
 opportunity to explain to a girl making her first 
 voyage the engineer's clever device, groaned in 
 spirit. 
 
 " What a subject for conversation with a woman 
 on a calm moonlight night in the Indian Ocean ! " 
 
 Meanwhile Captain Tomson and Mrs. Whitham, 
 with a fastidious scorn for the obvious and com- 
 monplace, had retreated to the deserted promen- 
 ade deck and were standing together in the for- 
 49 d 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 ward corner on the starboard side silently admir- 
 ing the effect of the moon on the water and 
 yielding themselves without resistance to the 
 charm of a tete-d-tete. Tomson now admitted to 
 himself Helen's fascination, and a sense of guilt 
 had made him for some days past more than 
 usually careful of Hilda's feelings. He had pur- 
 posely avoided being alone with Helen, who had 
 not failed to notice his scruples and assigned them 
 to their true cause. Her interest in him was 
 increased by her perception of his difficulty, and 
 she felt it was fortunate for him that the voyage 
 was so nearly at an end. Flirt though she was, 
 she was not cruel to her own sex, and had no 
 deliberate intention of wounding Hilda. Secure 
 in her own strength and experience, and aware how 
 much a few days ashore may modify impressions 
 received at sea, she gave herself up entirely to the 
 enjoyment of the passing moment. The intimacy 
 of the silence drew them unconsciously closer, and 
 Tomson began to utter what was in his mind, as 
 if talking to himself rather than to his companion. 
 " I hear that the regiment is likely to come to 
 Rangoon to relieve the Dogras who have been 
 warned for service in East Africa. I hope that 
 is a sign we are the next for the front. I should 
 50 
 
AVOIDING THE OBVIOUS 
 
 have joined two months ago, but an attack of 
 malaria laid me out. Hilda refused to stay at 
 home since it was uncertain where we should be 
 sent. I don't think I shall like Rangoon." Then 
 after a slight hesitation : " But you will be 
 there." 
 
 Obeying a sudden impulse he touched her hand 
 which was resting on the rail. She delayed ior an 
 infinitesimal moment the removal of her hand. 
 Instinct as well as experience taught her that 
 safety lay in regarding the touch as accidental and 
 ignoring it ; but the wisest occasionally yield to 
 the temptation of trifling with danger, and she 
 could not forbear the momentary enjoyment 
 of the thrill caused by her perception of a strong 
 and intensely masculine personality. By that 
 moment's delay she " lost the game," as she 
 would have phrased it to herself before she had 
 talked with Tracy Tomson. In her dealings with 
 men she had acquired the habit of studying her- 
 self and them from the point of view of the on- 
 looker, and was always conscious of possessing 
 the dual character of spectator as well as player. 
 The habit of abstraction persisted even in the 
 moment of fierce joy which accompanied the act 
 of self-abandonment to a temptation long resisted, 
 5i 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 and her thoughts ran swiftly and disjointedly in 
 an undercurrent of criticism. 
 
 " So this is the real end and object of all 
 flirtation, the search for Man the Master. Why 
 do I put my arms around his neck ? ' Ah 
 the little more and how much it is ! ' But 
 Browning was wrong. He should have said, 
 ' How a touch can quicken content to bliss ! ' 
 He said too, • The moth's kiss first ' ; but this 
 is the bee's kiss, ■ so all is rendered up.' How 
 shall you meet Dick now, Helen ? " 
 
 Dick in the meantime was seated in the smoke- 
 room with Allbut, listening to the latter 's tren- 
 chant criticisms of the administration of justice 
 and the corruption of the native magistracy in 
 Burma, a topic which Whitham felt was hardly in 
 good taste. The pungency of the civilian's 
 remarks was heightened by his personal disap- 
 pointment at his failure to reach a seat on the 
 bench. His capacity was unquestioned, and his 
 twenty-five years' experience of the province had 
 taught him the vagaries of the native character. 
 But, under an administration that indolently 
 refrains from disturbing the slumber of sleeping 
 dogs, his incapacity to brook abuses and his 
 tendency to criticize Government even more 
 52 
 
AVOIDING THE OBVIOUS 
 
 caustically than he would have criticized it 
 had he been less closely connected with it, did 
 not make for worldly success and rapid upward 
 progress. Neither the Chief Secretary who stops 
 the promotion of restless spirits at the point 
 when it is safe to do so without the risk of 
 questions in Parliament, nor AUbut himself 
 had ever read Newman's definition of a true 
 gentleman as one who " carefully avoids what- 
 ever may cause a jar or a jolt in the minds 
 of those with whom he is cast ; all clashing 
 of opinion or collision of feelings." The one 
 would have approved it as a definition in part of 
 an efficient official, the other would have scorned 
 it as a description of the weaklings who perpe- 
 tuate the authority of a despotic priesthood. 
 Whitham was not disposed to defend his own 
 service, partly from laziness and indifference, 
 partly from a vague sense that the best thing the 
 ordinary man can do in India is to carry out his 
 own allotted task as efficiently as he can, without 
 troubling himself over much about the total 
 effect of the British system. He was, in spite 
 of his vanity and pomposity, free from the vul- 
 garity, only too common amongst Anglo-Indians, 
 of depreciating another man's service or depart- 
 53 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 ment to his face. He therefore yawned over the 
 other's Carlylean invective until Helen's face 
 appeared at the port-hole and he was rescued 
 from death by boredom. 
 
 " Dick, come out ! It's a shame to spend a 
 lovely evening like this in that stuffy smoke- 
 room." 
 
 If he noticed a certain excitement and breath- 
 lessness in her manner Whitham ascribed it to 
 the exertions and stimulus of dancing. When he 
 reached the deck she had withdrawn into the 
 shade of one of the boats, and stood there gazing 
 at the stars for a few moments in silence. Then 
 taking his arm she walked slowly towards the 
 stern of the ship away from the dancers who 
 crowded the deck near the bridge. She had 
 obeyed a sudden blind impulse and fled from 
 Tracy Tomson to her husband. The one repre- 
 sented the disturbing element, the other the 
 normal course of life, and she fled for refuge to 
 the settled order. Like all women she had a 
 strong feline aversion from radical change, and 
 she felt that the incident which still, in spite of 
 herself, filled her thoughts, was pregnant with all 
 kinds of changes. Had it been merely a slip on 
 the part of an ardent youngster who did not 
 54 
 
AVOIDING THE OBVIOUS 
 
 understand " the rules of the game," she would 
 have rebuked him, then laughed at him and 
 rendered herself secure against any further 
 offence on his part. But Tomson was not a boy, 
 nor was he in the least degree given to philander- 
 ing. She tried in vain to dismiss the matter from 
 her mind as a trivial folly arising out of the 
 exceptional conditions of shipboard life and 
 tropical moonlight. She had released herself 
 gently from his arms and without a word hastily 
 left him. Her silence and her haste convicted 
 her to herself. Thereby she admitted the im- 
 mense importance of what she had done, while 
 she hotly resented it. What she had done ; for 
 she was too clear-sighted and too frank with 
 herself to pretend that she had been merely the 
 passive victim of another's sudden impulse. The 
 impulse was sudden, true ; but it had been a 
 simultaneous impulse, and her lips had met 
 Tracy's in the utter self-abandonment of her first 
 kiss of love. Her first ? She blushed from head 
 to foot at the thought, but she could not deny 
 it. The fleeting desire to seek safety in confession 
 had passed before she had found Dick ; for she 
 realized that she owed a duty to Tracy, though 
 not a word had been spoken. If so she knew that 
 55 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 she would fail in her duty. To see him some- 
 times, be near him, thrill in the consciousness of 
 his personality — these joys she meant to seize, 
 if she could, and leave the rest to Fate. Certainly 
 it was her duty to keep secret from all the world 
 the eternal moment when her spirit had encoun- 
 tered his. Then she thought of pretty Hilda 
 Tomson, whose wit and devotion had not been 
 able to retain Tracy's love ; and she thought of 
 " poor old Dick " — he was already that in her 
 thoughts — and shivered. 
 
 The shiver roused Dick, who felt her hand 
 tremble on his arm. " You have taken cold, I 
 fear. This land breeze is not good when you are 
 heated with dancing. Don't you think it would 
 be a good thing to turn in ? We shall be in 
 Colombo quite early, and you won't be able to 
 sleep after we enter the harbour." 
 
 She assented. " Yes, I am a little tired. I 
 think I shall cut the rest of the dance and go to 
 my cabin. Luckily they are not on the lower 
 deck dancing just over my head. I shall not 
 hear the noise down there." 
 
 She disappeared down the companion ladder 
 by the nursery-hatch as Tomson appeared at the 
 head of the ladder, near the smoke-room verandah. 
 
 56 
 
AVOIDING THE OBVIOUS 
 
 Whitham turning met him half way down the 
 deck and accosted him. 
 
 " Haven't you had enough of this frivolity, 
 Tomson ? Come and be sober for ten minutes 
 and have a drink." 
 
 "I'm rather tired, thanks. Just going to 
 turn in." 
 
 " Nonsense ! Your wife is still dancing hard 
 and you can't go to bed just yet. Just one wee 
 one." y 
 
 So saying he put his arm through Tomson 's 
 and felt the irrepressible shudder which ran 
 through him. 
 
 " Why, you're as bad as my wife ! Been 
 dancing with her ? I believe she's taken a chill, 
 and you're shivering. Have something to warm 
 you up." 
 
 Tomson with difficulty restrained the desire to 
 wrench his arm from his unconscious torturer's 
 grasp, until they reached the smoke-room. Then 
 with an effort he controlled his perturbation, and 
 as he took the nearest seat, replied, " I think 
 you may be right. I'll have a brandy and a small 
 soda." 
 
 57 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 Shows how a Sceptic may be a Fatalist 
 and how Unbelievers are yoked evenly 
 together. 
 
 AT daybreak on the following morning 
 Ceylon was twenty miles away, with 
 Adam's Peak, usually veiled in cloud, for once 
 clearly visible, a huge grey mass in the far 
 distance, dominating the green hills in the fore- 
 ground. It was broad day when the Devonshire 
 stopped to await the arrival of the pilot, and the 
 passengers who thronged the deck, some already 
 dressed and eager to get ashore, others in various 
 degrees of deshabille, pointed out to one another 
 the lighthouse, the massive breakwaters, the 
 forts, the Galle Face Hotel, and the long line of 
 surf backed by palm trees that makes the stretch 
 of coast from Colombo to Mount Lavinia the most 
 characteristic piece of scenery in the island. In 
 a few minutes the pilot's launch was alongside 
 and the pilot came aboard ; the engine-room 
 
 58 
 
HOW A SCEPTIC MAY BE A FATALIST 
 
 telegraph rang, the screws churned and the 
 Devonshire steamed through the narrow entrance. 
 Inside, a powerful, busy-looking tug, appro- 
 priately named Samson, with low broad hull and 
 buffer-armed bow, was waiting to butt her round 
 to her mooring-buoy ; but the graceful liner, as 
 if she felt that the credit of her builders, her 
 owners and her captain was at stake, swung round 
 slowly with helm hard over and starboard engines 
 reversed, and turning scornfully on her heel 
 stopped dead with her nose three feet short of 
 the buoy. 
 
 " What do you think of that ? " asked the 
 skipper, gleefully rubbing his hands. " She's 
 the twentieth ship Harland & Wolff have built 
 for us in the Belfast yards, each a bit bigger than 
 the last, and the biggest as handy, aye, handier 
 than the smallest. This is the Devonshire's 
 maiden voyage, and her engines run as sweetly 
 as if they were a twelvemonth old." 
 
 "I'll not deny she's a bonny ship," replied the 
 pilot. " They're eager to have a look at her in 
 Colombo. I've no doubt you'll have the agents 
 of the P. & O. and the Orient Line aboard to 
 examine her. They've heard a good deal of 
 your new patent davits that swing the boats out 
 59 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 in half a minute, your double set of auxiliary 
 engines and your single berth top-deck cabins." 
 
 " Let 'em all come ! " laughed the skipper. 
 " Here's the port health officer and the agent's 
 launch close behind him, so we'll know very soon 
 how long we're going to stay here." 
 
 A few minutes sufficed for the ship's doctor 
 to convince the health officer that the ship was 
 free from infectious disease, and the agent came 
 aboard. A consultation took place between the 
 captain, the agent and the first officer concerning 
 the landing of cargo, the loading of fresh cargo 
 for Rangoon and the difficulty of obtaining 
 lighter-men and coolies. Finally it was decided 
 to fix the sailing of the ship for noon on the day 
 but one following, and the usual notice was posted 
 at the head of the saloon companion-way. 
 
 The passengers for Rangoon at once flocked 
 to the notice board and read the announcement 
 with fervent expressions of relief. " Thank 
 Heaven ! We shall have two full days ashore 
 and be able to get some decent tea and stretch 
 our legs a bit." 
 
 The Whithams had not yet put in an appear- 
 ance, but Tomson and Hilda were amongst the 
 passengers who were preparing to go ashore by 
 60 
 
HOW A SCEPTIC MAY BE A FATALIST 
 
 the first launch at eight o'clock. Hilda was not 
 by nature jealous ; she was too sure of herself, 
 but she had noticed the growing intimacy between 
 Helen and Tracy, and had suggested that, if the 
 steamer reached Colombo early and stayed two 
 full days there, they should run up to Kandy by 
 the morning train and spend a couple of nights 
 in the cool air of the hills, away from the fatiguing 
 mob of their fellow-passengers. Tracy had 
 agreed, partly from a genuine desire to get away 
 from Helen and think things out for himself, 
 partly because his conscience pricked him for the 
 wrong he had done Hilda. So he tried to salve 
 it by assenting at once to her proposal. A dress- 
 ing case and a suit-case were quickly packed and 
 put on board the launch, which soon after eight 
 o'clock was threading her way through the 
 shipping that in spite of the war crowded the 
 port. The agent pointed to a row of steamers 
 moored on the east side of the harbour. 
 
 " Those are foreign steamers seized as prizes 
 since the outbreak of the war. Most of them put 
 in here during the first week of August, blissfully 
 ignorant of what had happened. You see they 
 are all tramps and not fitted with wireless. The 
 others were warned in time by a German wireless 
 61 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 installation that has since been discovered and 
 dismantled. Spies ? Hundreds of 'em ! Old 
 Fritz, the manager of the Cecil Hotel, was the best 
 spy the Germans had in the East. Unfortunately 
 he got away. Yes, the port's fairly full ; but you 
 should have seen it when the Emden was knocking 
 about the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea ! 
 Some ships had to anchor outside because there 
 was no room inside. Fortunately the monsoon 
 was not blowing very hard just then." 
 
 At the landing stage a Tamil boy seized their 
 baggage and piloted them to the Customs, where 
 a brief, perfunctory examination of the suit case 
 was made, then led them to the Grand Oriental 
 Hotel, familiarly and affectionately known as 
 the G. O. H., up the red-paved incline which 
 Hilda said absurdly reminded her of the sea-sick 
 old lady who was so glad to find herself once more 
 upon terra cotta. 
 
 " It must have been a road like this she landed 
 on. Anyhow I sympathize with her. It is a 
 joy to be able to move about freely and to know 
 that you are going to sleep once more in a bed 
 that is not like a coffin and that will not roll about 
 all night." 
 
 The hotel was crowded with travellers, for the 
 62 
 
HOW A SCEPTIC MAY BE A FATALIST 
 
 P. & O. Intermediate mail for Calcutta, an Orient 
 boat bound for Australia, and a homeward P. & 
 O. liner from Singapore were lying in the harbour, 
 and their passengers had escaped for a few hours 
 from the imprisonment which to habitual travel- 
 lers is the outstanding feature of a sea- voyage. 
 After they had visited Thos. Cook & Son, and 
 made all arrangements for their journey, Tomson 
 and Hilda spent an idle hour in observing the 
 stream of men and women that passed along the 
 hotel corridors, inspecting the bookstall, fingering 
 the oriental silks and curios exhibited for sale 
 at the shop inside the entrance, or admiring and 
 coveting the precious stones for which Ceylon is 
 famous. It amused them to try and distinguish 
 by subtle differences in style of topees and cut 
 of clothes the Indian official, the Ceylon^ planter, 
 the Hong Kong merchant and the Australian 
 on a holiday to the homeland. The only differ- 
 ence which the war seemed to have made in 
 the character of the crowd consisted in a total 
 absence of the Germans and Americans who in 
 ordinary years overrun the hotels of Colombo, 
 the Redhill of the East as Port Said is its Clapham 
 Junction. 
 At breakfast Tomson surveyed the room with 
 6j 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 an interest he with difficulty concealed, but saw 
 no signs of Helen or Whitham. He had sat 
 before breakfast where he could command a 
 view of both entrances to the hotel and watched 
 in vain for her, so unless she had arrived at the 
 hotel while he was negotiating with Thos. Cook 
 and gone to her room, she must, he inferred, have 
 put up at the Galle Face on the western beach. 
 Already his repentance was wearing thin and he 
 regretted his prompt assent to Hilda's suggestion 
 that they should visit Kandy. The lake and the 
 temple of Buddha's tooth would be less interest- 
 ing than his new relation to Helen, and he drove 
 to the station after breakfast in a gloomy mood. 
 He had, however, long ago ceased to make any 
 effort out of mere politeness towards Hilda to 
 hide his moods, and she attached no importance 
 to his depression. Even when the sight of 
 Whitham and Helen on the railway platform 
 chased the cloud from his brow, it was possible 
 to regard the change as merely the observance of 
 ordinary rules of courtesy, and Hilda was slow 
 to make any deduction unflattering to herself, 
 though she began to wonder if everything was 
 quite as it should be. 
 By a process of thought identical with Tom- 
 64 
 
HOW A SCEPTIC MAY BE A FATALIST 
 
 son's, Helen had reached a similar conclusion, 
 and carried off Dick after breakfast on board to 
 catch the morning train to Kandy. After the 
 first greetings and expressions of surprise had 
 been uttered, explanations were exchanged. 
 Helen had obtained a new insight into Tracy's 
 ways of thought, born of the new and sudden 
 sympathy between them, and she grasped intui- 
 tively the reasons which had induced him to fall 
 in with a proposal that had no doubt emanated 
 from Hilda. " How stupid of me," she thought, 
 94 not to have foreseen this move." Aloud she 
 contented herself with a banality concerning 
 coincidences and the tendency of great minds to 
 think alike. With the fatalism common to lovers 
 of both sexes she began to suspect that once the 
 Spirit of Mischief determines to bring together 
 two human beings for their mutual injury or 
 benefit, it is useless to struggle. She knew that 
 as a human being with a freedom of choice she 
 ought to refuse to be the sport of circumstances, 
 and to avoid Tracy's society for the sake of her 
 own peace of mind and his, and in the interest 
 of the other two unoffending people most nearly 
 concerned. But the human mind is capable of 
 unlimited self -deception, and standing in the glare 
 65 E 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 of a hot tropical forenoon on the grimy platform 
 of a railway station, thronged with noisy natives, 
 Helen persuaded herself that her weakness had 
 been the outcome of idleness and the glamour of 
 a tropical moon. Such infatuation, she argued, 
 for it is nothing more, is most easily cured by free 
 association with the object that inspires it- 
 Familiarity brings disillusion. To elevate a 
 passing and momentary weakness to the dignity 
 of a sin tends to concentrate thought on what is 
 best forgotten, and ultimately to make the sin 
 attractive. With such sophistries she entangled 
 herself while she thought she was brushing aside 
 imaginary difficulties and resuming a sane view 
 of facts. The immediate outcome of her rapid 
 reflections was an increased cheerfulness for 
 which the unexpected arrival of Colonel White 
 and Mrs. Jeune provided an excuse. The entry 
 of the Colonel into a drawing-room before dinner 
 was like a fresh breeze from the moor ; if his 
 wife, who had formed herself on her husband's 
 model and developed his loud cheery voice, 
 accompanied him, the effect resembled a tornado 
 and people instinctively clutched their hair or 
 smoothed it with their hands. 
 " Good morning, gentles all ! " bellowed the 
 66 
 
HOW A SCEPTIC MAY BE A FATALIST 
 
 Colonel. " Are you too bound for Kandy and the 
 Temple of the Tooth, or are you intending to pay 
 a flying visit to the lofty heights of Nuwara 
 Eliya ? " 
 
 " Kandy is our destination," replied Hilda, 
 welcoming the diversion caused by the arrival 
 of the newcomers, for she was uncomfortably 
 conscious of the rivalry with Helen that had 
 sprung up on the Devonshire. " Are you coming 
 too, Mrs. Jeune ? " 
 
 "I am. Colonel White says I must not miss 
 the chance of seeing so famous and so beautiful 
 a spot, and when he offered to be my guide I 
 determined at once to seize the opportunity. We 
 tried to get the Reverend Josiah to join the 
 expedition, but he refused. He pretended he 
 could not countenance heathen superstitions, but 
 I know that was only a pretext for loafing in 
 Colombo. He is not one of the narrow-mincled 
 type of missionaries." 
 
 " Not a bit ! " laughed the Colonel. " He got 
 into the most terrible hot water with the Mis- 
 sionary Board of Administration for having said 
 that so long as a Buddhist was a good Buddhist 
 he was not deeply concerned to convert him into 
 an inferior Christian. Old Hatton is a sound 
 fellow." 
 
 67 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 Tracy meanwhile was studying with Helen the 
 intricacies of the time-table of the Ceylon Govern- 
 ment railway. The last shreds of his repentance 
 had disappeared, melting like mist before her 
 sunny presence. His indolence in most matters 
 outside his profession prevented him from feeling 
 the slight resentment that is aroused in many 
 minds by the thwarting of a purpose, however 
 disagreeable ; and he enjoyed wholeheartedly the 
 double satisfaction which is the reward of those 
 who are prevented by circumstances from per- 
 forming an odious duty. " Kismet ! " he thought, 
 and carefully lighted a cigarette. While he 
 involved himself in the tangles of an inscrutable 
 time-table and jested lightly about the dark ways 
 of Colonial Governments, the undercurrent of his 
 thoughts was an ardent question, " Surely you 
 remember ? " Once as they traced together the 
 devious path of a train down the columns, past 
 junctions where it seemed to disappear entirely, 
 his hand touched Helen's, and in her confusion 
 and the sudden flush which mounted to her cheek 
 he found his answer. 
 
 His self-love gratified for the time being, 
 Tracy was enabled to endure the railway journey 
 without showing by word or look a degree of 
 68 
 
HOW A SCEPTIC MAY BE A FATALIST 
 
 interest in Helen that could rouse Hilda's sus- 
 picions. On the contrary, by pointing out to 
 her the gradual changes in the vegetation as the 
 line ascended and calling her attention to the 
 beautiful glimpses of sea and plain through the 
 gaps in the forest as the train wound its way 
 round the hills, he greatly soothed Hilda's 
 incipient alarm. Colonel White's boisterous 
 gaiety, which passed like a steam-roller over the 
 surface of the conversation, obliterating all traces 
 of irritation that might otherwise have been 
 evident, was in itself a great factor making for 
 peace. Mrs. Jeune was frankly - interested and 
 pleased by everything she saw, and bombarded 
 the others with questions. The change in tem- 
 perature between Colombo and Kandy was an 
 appreciable relief , and when the travellers alighted 
 they were in a distinctly more cheerful frame of 
 mind than when they stood waiting on the sultry 
 platform at Colombo, and quite prepared to make 
 the best of each other for the next thirty-six hours. 
 By general consent there was no proposal to do 
 anything more that evening than admire the lake 
 before dinner and the moonlight after dinner, 
 and the company dispersed early to meet before 
 breakfast for a visit to the Temple of the Tooth. 
 
 6 9 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 As luck would have it, Colonel White picked up 
 in the smoke-room of the hotel a book on Ceylon 
 and its antiquities, and arrived on the scene the 
 following morning primed with picturesque and 
 doubtful details of the Tooth's history. 
 
 There was a crisp freshness in the air doubly 
 welcome to travellers just arrived from the hot 
 moisture-laden atmosphere of the Indian Ocean, 
 and the expedition set out to the temple in high 
 spirits. Fortune still favoured the gallant 
 Colonel, for on arriving at the shrine he found a 
 group of pilgrims from Burma — chiefly monks — 
 and amongst them a well-known Shan princess 
 whose acquaintance he had made during a tour 
 of the Southern Shan States as Intelligence 
 Officer. The merry little lady claimed his 
 acquaintance at once and chattered volubly in 
 Burmese, which she spoke as fluently as her 
 native Shan, and the Colonel introducing the rest 
 of the party appointed himself interpreter as 
 well as guide. For the benefit of the true believers 
 from Burma the guardians of the Tooth were to 
 unveil it that morning, and the princess prevailed 
 upon the monks to allow her English friends the 
 privilege of a glimpse of the sacred relic. When 
 the lid of the casket was removed and a shaft of 
 70 
 
HOW A SCEPTIC MAY BE A FATALIST 
 
 yellow ivory like a young elephant's tusk — as no 
 doubt it was — met the gaze of the devout wor- 
 shippers, they uttered half-repressed exclama- 
 tions of awe and admiration. Their attitude was 
 so ridiculous, in spite of its pathos, that only the 
 fear of offending the princess, whose guests they 
 were in some degree, enabled the English to 
 check their laughter, and they moved away. 
 
 Outside, the Colonel, assuming the air of a 
 Cook's guide, delivered the little lecture he had 
 committed to memory the previous evening. 
 " This, ladies and gentlemen, is by no means an 
 ordinary tooth, as you may observe. But 
 Buddha was no ordinary man. Infidels and 
 scoffers have suggested that this is a tooth he 
 wore in his incarnation- as an elephant, the last 
 before he attained perfection. The truth of the 
 matter is that the tooth has not yet ceased grow- 
 ing ; it has indeed already produced two off- 
 shoots, both of which were sent to Burma. One 
 was deposited in Pegu about the time when 
 William the Conqueror was a boy, and the other 
 in Pagau when Elizabeth was coyly dallying with 
 the matrimonial proposals of Philip of Spain. 
 The Portuguese claim to have destroyed the 
 original tooth in the year 1568, when the viceroy 
 71 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 of Goa had it calcined and reduced to powder, 
 following those mediaeval methods of persuading 
 the heathen to abandon his heathendom which 
 made Portuguese so popular in the East. If 
 their boast is correct, the relic we have just seen 
 is either a fraud or a miracle." 
 
 " How easy it must be to impose upon these 
 wretched people," interrupted Mrs. Jeune. 
 " How can they believe such rubbish ? " 
 
 " Have you never read Mark Twain's calcula- 
 tion of the amount of timber and nails that went 
 to the building of the true Cross, based on esti- 
 mates made during a tour of Southern Europe ? " 
 asked Whitham. 
 
 " Have you never seen the Irish pilgrims setting 
 out for Lourdes — and returning ? " Tomson 
 inquired. 
 
 " That is different," objected Mrs. Jeune. 
 ", We Christian Scientists know that cures are 
 effected by faith." 
 
 " Yes, indeed," assented Hilda. " I saw an 
 account in an American Christian Science journal 
 of a case where a decayed tooth that had baffled 
 the dentist grew an entirely new crown. So why 
 should not Buddha's tooth grow baby teeth ! " 
 
 This levelling up of superstitions disconcerted 
 72 
 
HOW A SCEPTIC MAY BE A FATALIST 
 
 the widow, and the Colonel gallantly tried to 
 cover her confusion. 
 
 " It is a matter of faith that cannot be argued. 
 Now if Mr. Allbut were here he would show you 
 in five minutes with emphatic lucidity the division 
 of mankind into two classes ; those who agree 
 with him, for convenience sake styled sensible 
 people, and the rest, known for short as fools, 
 sometimes with an adjective." 
 
 " The greatest triumph of faith I have wit- 
 nessed," said Helen, following up Tomson's 
 question, " is the conviction of the wretched 
 Irish pilgrims, returning from Lourdes with 
 their crutches still in use, that they are cured." 
 
 The princess joined the group. " Well, Sitbo 
 thakin," she asked, " what do you think of 
 it ?" 
 
 "It's a very fine tooth indeed, princess. But 
 tell me, do you really think it is Buddha's tooth ? " 
 replied the Colonel. 
 
 The little woman's eyes twinkled ; she had the 
 reputation of being a very worldly person indeed. 
 " Who knows ? At least I shall be safe if I make 
 a tour of all the great shrines. So when I die I 
 shall be a princess in the Nat country." 
 
 " What does she say ? " inquired Whitham, 
 73 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 whose acquaintance with Burmese was very 
 slight. 
 
 The Colonel translated. 
 
 " Impossible ! " laughed Whitham. " She 
 might have been reading Blaise Pascal ! " 
 
 The judge's laughter aroused the princess's 
 curiosity, and she turned an inquiring gaze upon 
 the Colonel. 
 
 *• The judge thinks that in a previous incarna- 
 tion you must have been a French priest," he 
 explained ; whereat the princess laughed so 
 merrily that her example was followed by the" 
 rest. 
 
 " Them that are of the household of the 
 faith! " thought Mrs. Jeune. " It seems to me 
 that the bond of disbelief is a closer one ! " 
 
 So near did a very orthodox and superstitious 
 woman come to the discovery that the appeal to 
 an instinct, strongly marked in childhood and 
 only partly concealed in manhood, for smashing 
 things, is one of the chief assets of the party of 
 reform 1 . Carrie Nation's hammer weighed more 
 than many philosophical arguments. The oppor- 
 tunity of wrecking an effete institution rouses 
 men to a pitch of enthusiasm strong enough to 
 overcome even the natural indolence of the race, 
 74 
 
HOW A SCEPTIC MAY BE A FATALIST 
 
 but the wrecking finished they slink away and 
 leave the toilsome task of reconstruction to 
 the few with a genuine desire for progress. In- 
 deed the fear of being called upon to help in the 
 constructive process is strong enough to deter 
 many who would gladly take part in the destruc- 
 tion. And the interested worshippers of Things- 
 as-they-are have discovered that the awful ques- 
 tion, " But what will you put in its place ? " will 
 often paralyze the hand outstretched to tear down 
 the parasitic growths that strangle civilization. 
 Some day men will learn that a time comes when 
 the cripple's crutches must be forcibly abstracted 
 if he resists, and burned ; and the doctor will 
 have the courage to inform the patient that it 
 is not necessary to put anything in the place of 
 the goitre he intends to remove. In that day 
 the people will reply : " We intend to build 
 nothing to replace this tumble-down, moss-grown 
 ruin. We shall make an open space and let in the 
 air of Heaven." 
 
 75 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 In which Love teaches Self-denial and the 
 Colonel Lectures on Baldness 
 
 FOR nearly thirty-six hours Tracy and Helen 
 had by mutual consent avoided each other. 
 True they had been members of the same group 
 of sightseers, but they had circumspectly refused 
 to avail themselves of the frequent occasions 
 when they might have enjoyed a few minutes' 
 tete-a-tete. Tracy's virtuous satisfaction was 
 marred by an undercurrent of curiosity and 
 pique. That he should have successfully man- 
 oeuvred so as to shield himself from Helen's 
 fascination by keeping the rest of the party 
 within earshot was one thing ; to find Helen 
 unostentatiously but skilfully backing his purpose 
 was another. It is distinctly annoying to brace 
 oneself for an effort and then to find the effort 
 superfluous, and he was almost disposed to con- 
 sider himself aggrieved and entitled to an explana- 
 tion. Abstract from his feelings so much vexa- 
 76 
 
LOVE TEACHES SELF-DENIAL 
 
 tion as was due to ruffled masculine vanity, of 
 which he had not an inordinate share, and the 
 remainder represents with tolerable accuracy 
 Helen's frame of mind when the gong sounded for 
 dinner. An easy victory may be the prelude to 
 a crushing defeat, and in the relaxed vigilance 
 that immediately follows a successful resistance 
 the enemy finds his account. The pendulum 
 swings both ways. Desire, attainment, disillu- 
 sion ; such is the process even when the object 
 of desire is a worthy one. 
 
 The outcome of Helen's reflections as she stood 
 •before her mirror adjusting her necklace, while 
 the last tones of the gong rumbled along the hotel 
 corridor, was a resolve to have speech with Tracy 
 before she slept. Another convenient oppor- 
 tunity might not offer. The Devonshire sailed 
 the following noon, and between Colombo and 
 Rangoon the diminished number of the ship's 
 passengers and the waning of interest in the 
 tedious pastimes that add to the terrors of a 
 sea-voyage would leave her proceedings more 
 open to observation by curious and unfriendly 
 eyes. Her fears were perhaps the outcome of a 
 guilty conscience, but they were not entirely 
 unreasonable. At least it was fair to seize any 
 77 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 chance that presented itself of an explanation 
 which after all was surely due. It was essential 
 to see Tracy alone, even if only to try and con- 
 vince him that nothing serious had occurred, 
 and so obviate the risk of further incident. At 
 Rangoon they must part and an explanation by 
 letter was not to be thought of. Prudence 
 would have advised her to avoid explanation and 
 leave Tracy to form what opinion of her he liked ; 
 but her mind did not pause to consider that 
 suggestion. It merely pitched on disconnected 
 and often inconsistent reasons for doing what she 
 had already determined to do. 
 
 Circumstances favoured her. Hilda was learn- 
 ing by experience that a vertical sun is a deadly 
 foe even on a cool cloudy day, and a severe head- 
 ache had driven her to her room immediately 
 after dinner. The Colonel was entertaining Mrs. 
 Jeune with fragments of information picked up 
 from the Guide to Ceylon, which he had stumbled 
 upon the previous evening, and anecdotes of the 
 merry little Shan princess whom they had met 
 at the Temple. Tracy was leaning against a 
 post of the verandah talking to Dick, who had 
 stretched himself in a long chair and with a fat 
 Burman cheroot in his mouth appeared to be 
 
 78 
 
LOVE TEACHES SELF-DENIAL 
 
 settled for the evening. As Helen came down- 
 stairs after finding aspirin and eau de cologne for 
 Hilda, she marked with a shudder the contrast 
 between Tracy's trim, soldier-like outlines and 
 her husband's corpulence and baldness, and her 
 resolution hardened. She checked a desire to 
 communicate to Dick her sense of the contrast 
 by stroking his polished crown, knowing what an 
 effect it would surely have on his temper, and 
 leaned on the rail of the verandah to contemplate 
 the view. The lake sparkled in trie light of the 
 moon, which ever and anon was veiled in drifting 
 clouds, and the white road flecked with patches 
 of shade from the tall trees along its edge beckoned 
 invitingly. 
 
 " It's a shame to spend such a night indoors," 
 she said. " Who's for a stroll in the moonlight ? 
 Come along, Dick ! " 
 
 " Don't be restless, deaF," replied Dick. "I'm 
 far too comfortable to risk any change. Take 
 Captain Tomson ; a little exercise will do him 
 good. But look out for snakes." 
 
 " That absolves me from all responsibility for 
 the consequences," thought Tracy, as he followed 
 Helen down the steps. 
 
 She chattered of their visit to the temple, of 
 79 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 the princess, of the last stage of the journey, 
 which began on the morrow, of anything except 
 what lay at her heart, in the vain hope of dis- 
 sembling her nervousness and postponing the 
 explanation she had come out to seek. Her 
 companion replied in monosyllables, but noted 
 her repressed excitement and fear and drew his 
 own inferences. At last, when she paused for a 
 moment at a loss for something to say, he remarked 
 abruptly — 
 
 " You did not bring me out to talk trivialities." 
 
 " I came out to enjoy the cool air and the 
 moonlight and talked from mere force of habit. 
 I did not bring you ; it was you who volunteered 
 to escort me." 
 
 Tracy was too shrewd to continue the frontal 
 attack. 
 
 " The last time we watched the moonlight on 
 the water was the night of the dance." 
 
 "It is permissible to forget what happens 
 aboardship. You know that engagements made 
 at sea require confirmation ashore." 
 
 " Want of occupation, ennui, a tropical night, 
 
 induce vertigo in the foolish and inexperienced. 
 
 But you, forgive me for saying so, are neither 
 
 foolish nor inexperienced. You would not have 
 
 80 
 
LOVE TEACHES SELF-DENIAL 
 
 me believe you to be unscrupulous or " He 
 
 stopped. 
 
 " Or what ? Continue." 
 
 " What is the use ? The words that were on 
 my lips do not and never could apply to you. 
 Why should I pain you by uttering them ? " 
 
 Helen was fully conscious of the dilemma. 
 She had not the moral courage to pretend that 
 she had accepted Tracy's kiss from sheer love of 
 conquest or lightness of character. She dared 
 not lower herself in his esteem. Therefore her 
 " honour rooted in dishonour " forced an admis- 
 sion of the claim which he urged by implication. 
 There was still a way of escape, to admit Tracy's 
 view of the situation but refuse at all costs to 
 admit any further obligation and plead Dick's 
 prior and exclusive rights to her undivided 
 loyalty. She had served a probation of seven 
 years as Dick's wife and now she had awakened 
 to the unspeakable weariness and horror of it. 
 Being a woman she contemplated an indefinite 
 prolongation of her present existence with disgust 
 but without faltering or open rebellion. Still 
 she could not make up her mind to dismiss Tracy 
 from her life, if not from her thoughts. She 
 imagined too that she detected in him a fas- 
 81 F 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 tidiousness of taste that would serve them both 
 as a better safeguard than high professions of 
 orthodox morality. She was silent for a moment ; 
 Tracy, speaking with obvious difficulty and 
 struggling with strong emotion, continued, " You 
 must care. I can't believe the alternative." 
 
 Helen boldly acknowledged and grappled with 
 the situation. " Dear, there is no need to believe 
 anything but what your own heart and my lips 
 have told you. But be merciful. Life will be 
 very hard for both of us hereafter ; but much 
 harder if we sacrifice others and desecrate our 
 
 love." 
 
 She spoke in a low voice charged with feeling, 
 and Tracy rose for the moment to her level. 
 They stood in the shadow of the trees by the edge 
 of the lake quite alone in the night, but he re- 
 sisted the desire to snatch Helen to his heart. 
 Bending low, he kissed her right hand reverently 
 while she gently laid the other on his head as if 
 blessing him. Then they turned homeward in 
 silence. 
 
 The demon who presides over the department 
 
 of small irritations, puts crumpled rose leaves in 
 
 the beds of the prosperous and flies in precious 
 
 ointment, and inspires the corn-crake to build 
 
 82 
 
LOVE TEACHES SELF-DENIAL 
 
 his nest and utter his harsh call wherever the 
 nightingale tunes his lay, arranged that when 
 they reached the hotel verandah the Colonel 
 should be discoursing in his loud voice to Mrs. 
 Jeune on baldness, with an entire disregard of 
 Whitham's feelings on the subject. 
 
 "It's curious that nobody has ever discussed 
 baldness, except the proprietors of quack medi- 
 cines. So many people have discussed beards 
 and moustaches. Grey hair is a surer proof of 
 age than baldness, yet few people object to grey 
 hair. One speaks of a great soldier or politician 
 growing grey in his country's service and dilates 
 upon honourable grey hairs. But who ever 
 heard of an honourable bald head ? " ' - 
 
 The widow laughed in spite of herself, and 
 Whitham moved uneasily. As the Colonel, 
 resumed, Helen, unable to endure his trivialities, 
 quietly withdrew. 
 
 " Yet a bald head may make a man as well as 
 mar him. I think it is the nakedness of it that 
 makes him ashamed. Detectives assert that a 
 criminal who shaves off his moustache or beard 
 to escape capture can generally be recognized 
 by a shrinking shyness of demeanour, as if he had 
 appeared on the street in pyjamas. That same 
 83 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 feeling afflicts some men to the extent of recon- 
 ciling them to the horror of wigs and skull caps. 
 Most men in the East go bald below the crown. 
 It is said they rub the hair thin by the habit of 
 lolling too much in long chairs. An Anglo-Indian 
 may often be known by that indication. A bald 
 crown with a clean-shaven face and a mild eye 
 gives its owner a saintly appearance, also of 
 innocence, that marks him for high judicial 
 office. Look at our friend Whitham, for instance. 
 On the other hand, baldness that spreads too far 
 from the crown and is fringed with long hair 
 suggests nothing so much as an overblown sun- 
 flower. If the hair disappears from the crown 
 and the dome, leaving a wisp at the front which 
 usually takes the form and appearance of a 
 moustache, your imagination invariably fills in 
 eyes, nose and mouth, and you get a second face 
 such as foreign circus clowns often wear painted 
 on their wigs. Frontal baldness with a broad 
 forehead and a massive dome gives an impression 
 of great mental power. Bismarck, Plato, and 
 many of the great Roman emperors were men of 
 that type, as well as our great king Edward the 
 Seventh. A round head, bald from front to 
 back with a low dome and small features indicates 
 
 8 4 
 
LOVE TEACHES SELF-DENIAL 
 
 benevolence and geniality. Baldness of this type 
 with sharp features and a sloping forehead may 
 be accompanied by every shade .of character from 
 the aquiline to the vulturine, the predominating 
 trait being always rapacity. I knew two mer- 
 chants in Rangoon who stood one at each end 
 of the scale in this variety ; the one had been 
 brought up at Eton and Cambridge, the other in 
 Glasgow. Another who was described to me as a 
 shrewd business man — a common euphemism in 
 Burma — had varied the type by adding a pair 
 of projecting tusks and looked like nothing so 
 much as a scalded ferret." 
 
 " Stop, stop ! " cried the widow. " Really, 
 Colonel, you will leave poor Rangoon not a shred 
 of character. I can't believe it is worse than 
 other commercial cities." 
 
 " Call it a commercial suburb and you will get 
 nearer the exact shade. In affairs of business 
 its standards are frankly commercial : its social 
 tone is as frankly suburban : a combination of 
 Golder's Green and the Stock Exchange. No 
 doubt you are quite right, and I only disparage 
 it because I have seen too much of it. At home 
 one does not see barristers touting for business in 
 the bar of one's club. There are times and places 
 
 85 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 where the pursuit of the gold mother is tabooed." 
 " Don't listen to him, Mrs. Jeune," cried 
 Whitham. " It's not half a bad place. I've 
 seen many worse — Calcutta, for instance. Wait 
 till all the big concerns of Rangoon are in the 
 hands of natives and the Bar is recruited mainly 
 from Bengal. Then you may have reason to 
 complain ! " 
 
 " We have a few cute Indians there now," 
 rejoined the Colonel. " A friend of mine was 
 sued by a tradesman for a bill in which many of 
 the items were wrong. The creditor refused to 
 correct them and took the matter into court. 
 My friend engaged a native advocate to save 
 himself the time and trouble of fighting the case 
 and showed him exactly the errors in the account. 
 The case was tried in due course and the lawyer 
 proudly informed his client that he had got the 
 whole claim against him dismissed. When the 
 latter inquired with some surprise why he had 
 contested the correct items and how he had 
 succeeded, the advocate replied, ' I got four 
 witnesses to prove an alibi ! ' " 
 
 Mrs. Jeune looked inquiringly at the judge and 
 he laughed. 
 
 "It's all right ; these are Small Cause Court 
 86 
 
LOVE TEACHES SELF-DENIAL 
 
 cases ; the Colonel is not casting reflections on the 
 unstained integrity and perfect wisdom of the 
 Chief Court. He has criticized my appearance 
 but not my character. Well, it's time to turn 
 in ; the train leaves early in the morning. Where's 
 Helen ? What have you done with my wife, 
 Tomson ? " 
 
 " She said she was tired and I imagine she has 
 gone to her room, the Colonel's heavy artillery 
 covering her retirement." 
 
 So the travellers dispersed, Mrs. Jeune taking 
 the opportunity of saying to Tomson, " You 
 look tired too, Captain Tomson. Some people 
 say that moonlight is as dangerous as sun in the 
 tropics. Take care not to disturb your wife." 
 
 " Nov/ what the devil does the woman mean ? " 
 muttered Tomson to himself as he went off. 
 
 8 7 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 Helen learns that the Achievement of a 
 Virtuous Purpose maybe as Disappoint- 
 ing as a Successful Experiment in Sin 
 
 r I ^HE next day began the last weary stage of 
 -*• the outward voyage. After the break 
 of two days at Colombo the resumption of the 
 journey with a nearly empty ship, combined 
 with the knowledge that the holiday is really 
 over and the dreary round of duty in an unpleas- 
 ant climate is about to recommence, produces an 
 air of deep depression that infects even the 
 " griffin " on his first voyage and full of joyous 
 expectation. Fortunately it is a short stage, and 
 the four days are filled with the packing and 
 re-packing of trunks, discussion and conjectures 
 of the fate awaiting civil and military officers 
 returning to duty, and the picking up of the 
 threads of the old life by reminiscence and 
 anticipation. The solitude of a crowd was 
 lacking ; Helen and Tracy fortunately found no 
 88 
 
A VIRTUOUS PURPOSE 
 
 opportunity for intimate discussion and neither 
 sought to make one. The glamour of their semi- 
 tragic silent compact at Kandy was still upon 
 them. They were dwelling in the clouds, the 
 descent to earth had yet to be made. Both had 
 been sunk in the spiritual torpor that follows 
 naturally upon marriage between average man 
 and average woman. Their present state resem- 
 bled that state between sleeping and waking when 
 the beauty of a dream mingling with sensation 
 acquires an illusive reality. Alas, that it 
 should be so transitory ! They had still to learn 
 that only to the very young and inexperienced 
 is romance all-sufficing ; to the old, platonic 
 attachment is possible, but the ordinary man and 
 woman who have tasted passion can never 
 entirely exclude it from any relation worthy of 
 the name of love. 
 
 Thus Mrs. Jeune's sharp eyes found nothing 
 to strengthen the suspicion implied in her parting 
 shot at the Kandy Hotel. After dinner she 
 produced a mandolin adorned with ribbons, 
 regimental and naval colours of a goodly propor- 
 tion of His Majesty's naval and military forces — 
 her scalps, she called them — and played rag-time 
 or plantation melodies on the deck. For want of 
 
 8 9 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 other attractions the idle section of the passengers 
 gathered round her, and she noticed that Helen 
 or Tracy or both were always to be found among 
 the group. Hilda's fears, too, were lulled, and it 
 was an unusually amicable group that assembled 
 on deck one Saturday morning to watch the 
 river-pilot come on board. 
 
 The new-comers looked with some perplexity 
 at the pilot brig, a light-ship a couple of miles 
 off on the port bow, and the turbid yellow water 
 that lapped the Devonshire's sides ; all evidences 
 of the nearness of land, though not a glimpse of 
 it was to be had in any direction. 
 
 " Four hours to the landing stage ! " ex- 
 claimed Colonel White, rubbing his hands. 
 
 " Really ? " said Mrs. Jeune. " Are we so 
 near as that ? How is it we do not see land ? " 
 
 " The land here is only mangrove swamps and 
 mud banks. When the mist lifts you will just 
 be able to see the trees on the horizon about ten 
 miles away." 
 
 " What a disappointing landfall ! There is 
 nothing at all to suggest the romance of Burma." 
 
 " Oh, but wait till you get into the river, Mrs. 
 Jeune," interrupted Beryl Royle, who gained 
 self-confidence as she approached Burma, even 
 90 
 
A VIRTUOUS PURPOSE 
 
 as the earth-born giants regained strength by 
 contact with the earth from which they sprang. 
 " You will see the Syrian pagoda and then the 
 beautiful Sheve Dagon pagoda standing on the 
 hill that overlooks Rangoon." 
 
 r. 
 
 At that moment Royle came up waving a 
 newspaper which he had obtained from the pilot 
 who had just come on board. " Have you seen 
 the news, Colonel ? The Etnden's sunk ! " 
 
 The discussion which this announcement pro- 
 voked diverted the attention from the ship's 
 progress, and she was passing Elephant Point 
 signal station at the entrance to the Rangoon 
 river before the excited passengers turned their 
 thoughts again to the country they were about 
 to land in. Soon the Syrian pagoda came in 
 sight, gleaming golden in the bright sun and 
 standing above and aloof from the countless 
 vermilion oil tanks and the tall chimneys of the 
 oil factories that now occupy the site of the once 
 prosperous port where a Portuguese adventurer 
 all but succeeded in establishing himself as king 
 of Lower Burma. In these days Rangoon was a 
 village of huts on a tidal creek marking the landing 
 place for the most sacred shrine of Buddhism in 
 the world. Now the river is crowded with ship- 
 91 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 ping ; tall warehouses, mills, workshops and dock- 
 yards line both banks ; the smoke of burning 
 paddy-husk hangs in a cloud that rivals the 
 smoke-pall of Howrah on the Hoogly ; and a 
 polyglot population, the sweepings of half the 
 nations of the East, has almost driven the Burman 
 out. But the Sheve Dagon is still the first object 
 to catch the traveller's eye as he enters the port, 
 and the last to fade from his sight as his ship 
 drops down to the sea. It compensates him for the 
 disappointment of the mud flats which first greet 
 his eager eye, making him wonder if this land can 
 really be the Golden Chersonese, the magnet 
 that drew English merchants and Venetian 
 jewellers across illimitable seas; and when, the 
 years of his manhood expended, the Anglo- 
 Burman goes down with the ebb for the last time, 
 it is to his tear-blinded gaze an epitome of all 
 that the country means to him. A graceful, 
 glistening shaft of gold rises from a leafy emerald 
 bed, its height and mass dwarfed at first view by 
 its perfect proportions. Imposing in its majestic 
 beauty it dominates Rangoon, viewing the city's 
 efforts towards the rapid acquisition of wealth 
 and the attainment of commercial greatness with 
 the same unruffled calm with which it beheld 
 92 
 
A VIRTUOUS PURPOSE 
 
 the struggles of Talaing and Burman and the 
 advent of the sacrilegious British, who a century 
 ago mounted their heavy guns in its shadow for 
 the slaughter of its devout worshippers. The 
 Great Teacher whose memory it honours and 
 perpetuates passed twenty-five centuries ago 
 to a heaven where no echo of human joy or 
 suffering impinges on his awful tranquillity. But 
 the pagoda has absorbed from countless genera- 
 tions of pilgrims something of sympathy with 
 men's affairs. To the young Briton, arriving 
 full of hope and generous ambitions to perform 
 his part as a member of the great imperial admin- 
 istration that rules a fifth of the human race, 
 it extends a grave welcome. When thirty years 
 later he departs, the account of his successes and 
 failures made up and the balance struck, his 
 health broken and his day's work finished, it 
 seems to remind him that " all is illusion, imper- 
 manence, sorrow," but that the good survives 
 and what he achieved will endure when the 
 consequences of his failures have worked them- 
 selves out. 
 
 A few Europeans, acquainted by bitter experi- 
 ence with the shortcomings of the Rangoon 
 hotels, had braved the sun of a tropical forenoon 
 93 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 in order to meet their friends on the Sule Pagoda 
 wharf and, rescuing them from the grip of the 
 hotel tout, carry them off, with the hospitality 
 that characterizes Burma only in a less degree 
 than India, to their own bungalows. Others, 
 less disposed to trust the information received 
 from the shipping agents as to the time of the 
 steamer's arrival, and averse from risking a 
 tedious wait on the wharf, had sent notes by 
 Madrasi boys-of-all-work, Mahomedan bearers or 
 belted chuprassis to welcome colleagues and 
 acquaintances back and offer them food and 
 house-room until they made their own arrange- 
 ments. The white dress of Eurasian custom- 
 house officers and Indian servants was relieved by 
 the blue turbans of the police, the scarlet waist- 
 cloth and silver belts of the Coringhi coolies, the 
 red, gold or orange of the chuprassis' belts with 
 their polished brass badges, or the gay sunshades 
 of the few European ladies who stood back from 
 the crowd in the shade of the goods-sheds. But 
 in the capital of the province the Burman was 
 conspicuous by his almost total absence. A 
 portly Burman magistrate, swathed in a pink 
 silk pasoh, whose ample folds increased the 
 rotundity of his form, had taken advantage of the 
 94 
 
A VIRTUOUS PURPOSE 
 
 court holiday to drive down in order to pay his 
 respects to the Hon'ble Mr. Justice Whitham on 
 his arrival ; and Maung Tun Hlaing (Brother 
 Bright Wave) Royle's lugale, with his dainty and 
 demure looking wife Ma Hla Pyu (Miss Pretty 
 and Fair), both wearing the coloured silk longyi 
 and white jacket that forms the usual gala dress 
 of Lower Burma, had come to meet Mr. and Mrs. 
 Royle. On catching sight of them Royle waved 
 his hand, and his servant responded with the 
 usual Burmese obeisance. Ma Hla Pyu, with 
 a pat to her glossy black tresses and a nervous 
 tug at the pale green silk scarf on her shoulders, 
 tried to efface herself in the background. A few 
 minutes later the gangway was lowered and the 
 gaily coloured, many-tongued crowd thronged 
 aboard. 
 
 " Well, Tun Hlaing, what news ? " asked 
 Royle. " Have you gfct a staff of servants for 
 me all ready ? " 
 
 " Hman ba pay ah. Yes, sir, I have engaged a 
 cook, syce and Khit mutgar ; the other servants, 
 waterman, dhobi and sweeper we shall get at 
 Rathemyo where I hear master is posted." 
 
 Mrs. Royle, speaking Burmese more fluently 
 than her husband, engaged in friendly conversa- 
 95 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 tion with Ma Hla Pyu, who smilingly assured her 
 of the wellbeing of her children, and turned to 
 admire little Kitty Royle, rising three years. 
 His baby-girl was Royle's chief compensation in 
 a marriage that was not entirely unhappy, but 
 which he felt to be a mistake and a handicap 
 socially. Kitty was hanging back, uncertain 
 whether she knew Ma Hla Pyu or not, and clutch- 
 ing the hand of her Karen ayah. The latter, 
 daughter of a race which the Burman affects to 
 despise, showed by an air of easy condescension 
 towards the Burmese woman that her voyage to 
 England with her mistress had placed her in a 
 position of superiority to a mere stay-at-home, 
 who had never seen the sea and thought that 
 London was synonymous with England and not 
 much bigger than Rangoon. Dawning recollec- 
 tion and a sudden rush of confidence precipitated 
 Kitty into Ma Hla Pyu's outstretched arms, and 
 the Burmese girl's complacency was restored by 
 her little triumph over the Karen. 
 
 At that moment a Secretariat chuprassi made 
 his way to the spot where the little family group 
 was standing, and salaaming profoundly, handed 
 to Royle an official letter. The civilian tore open 
 the envelope and quickly read the contents, while 
 
 9 6 
 
A VIRTUOUS PURPOSE 
 
 a slight frown gathered on his face. Beryl was 
 watching him and noted his vexation. 
 
 " What is it, dear ? Bad news ? " 
 
 " No," was the curt answer, then after a pause, 
 " I'm posted to Rathemyo as district judge. 
 Perhaps we'd better catch the night mail and let 
 Cook send on what baggage we can't clear to-day '> 
 unless of course you have anything special to do 
 in Rangoon. In that case we can stay until 
 Monday night." 
 
 " I would rather get away, I think," replied 
 Beryl, remembering the temptations to a man 
 just arrived from England of the Gymkhana 
 Club. 
 
 - Mrs. Allbut bustled up. " What's this I hear, 
 Mrs. Royle ? Is it true that you are posted to 
 Rathmeyo ? My husband is to go there as 
 Deputy Commissioner, so we shall see something 
 of you. I am so glad." 
 
 The kind-hearted little woman was sincere. 
 She knew, as did every one else in the province, 
 the details of the Royle menage and sympathized 
 with the unhappy Eurasian wife. So long as her 
 position as chief lady in the station gave her the 
 right to patronize Beryl ever so little, she was 
 eager to help her. 
 
 97 G 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 " Yes; we axe going up to-night. Shall we meet 
 you on the train ? " 
 
 " I think .not," replied M|rs. Allbut, adding, 
 with an air of importance : " The Commissioner 
 wishes to talk over certain questions with my 
 husband before he takes over charge of the 
 district, and we shall spend the week end at his 
 house in Rangoon." 
 
 Before noon the last of the passengers had left 
 the ship, though agents, custom-house officials 
 and servants were still busy with the baggage. 
 Hatches were open, awnings down, winches were 
 working and derricks rigged over the hold ; 
 coolies swarmed all over the main deck and the 
 ship's officers had already lost their spick and span 
 sailor-like appearance. Hot and begrimed with 
 dust and sweat, they were racking their brains for 
 that stock of Hindustani invective without which 
 the management of Coringhi coolies is a virtual 
 impossibility. The Devonshire, which a few hours 
 before had danced over the waves of the Gulf of 
 Martaban, her snow-white awnings and upper 
 decks contrasting with her dark hull and tall red 
 funnel, looked in her disarray little better than a 
 " tramp." 
 
 " The liner, she's a lady ! " sings Kipling ; but 
 98 
 
A VIRTUOUS PURPOSE 
 
 it takes no long time to convert her into a bedrag- 
 gled slut. 
 
 Dick Whitham and Helen had let their house 
 furnished when they went on leave and so found 
 everything ready for their return. Colonel White 
 sent off his baggage to the Pegu Club, where he 
 had engaged a room, and drove off to the Brigade 
 office in a tikka-gharri to report himself for duty. 
 Tomson accompanied him, leaving Hilda to the 
 care of the Whithams until he ascertained what 
 his orders were. Mrs. Jeune, whose late husband 
 was a distant cousin of the Bishop's wife, had 
 found the Bishop's chaplain awaiting her arrival 
 and was carried off in the episcopal motor car 
 to Bishop's Court. There she determined to 
 make her headquarters for the cold weather 
 campaign in Lower Burma, postponing operations 
 against the outlying hill stations till the spring 
 made Rangoon uncomfortably hot. 
 
 The Station Staff officer had sufficiently grave 
 news to impart to his comrades in arms. The 
 hill tribes in the unadministered tract of territory 
 on the Chinese frontier had raided a military 
 police outpost, and a punitive expedition of 
 Indian troops and military police combined had 
 been sent off to suppress the rising before it 
 99 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 assumed a serious aspect. No danger was appre- 
 hended, but it was inconvenient to have large 
 bodies of troops detached and sent to the frontier 
 while the whole country was in an unsettled state. 
 The British regulars had all been despatched to 
 Europe and their places taken by Territorial 
 regiments, good material but new to the country 
 and not fully trained. There were rumours of 
 disaffection amongst the Mahomedan traders 
 in the bazaars, where German agents had been 
 busy before war broke out, spreading the report 
 that the Kaiser was a Mussulman and circulating 
 photographs of German troops with texts from 
 the Koran embroidered on their uniforms. The 
 disaffection had spread to certain Mahomedan 
 companies of one of the native infantry regiments, 
 and the company officers reported that the order 
 to proceed to France or East Africa to fight 
 against German troops would precipitate a mutiny. 
 The discontented troops were recruited from 
 frontier tribes of doubtful loyalty, and they had 
 made a grievance out of the promotion of a 
 Punjabi Subadar to the post of Subadar major, 
 to which they believed their own Subadar had a 
 stronger claim. 
 
 " It's your own regiment, the 200 th, Tomson. 
 100 
 
A VIRTUOUS PURPOSE 
 
 We've ordered them down here for disciplinary 
 measures and the Dogras proceed to Mandalay to 
 relieve them and supply reinforcements if neces- 
 sary for the Kachin hills expedition. The Dogras 
 are jolly sick at having their orders counter- 
 manded just when they were about to sail for 
 East Africa. You had better stay here and 
 report yourself to Colonel Patterson on Tuesday, 
 when the regiment is due to arrive. You, 
 Colonel White, are to remain here too as Colonel 
 on the staff for the present." 
 
 Tomson understood from the particulars given 
 by the Station Staff officer that his own company 
 was amongst the mutinous ones, and the news 
 wounded his professional pride. In a depressed 
 frame of mind he returned to the Pegu Club with 
 Colonel White, and after lunch walked on to 
 Whitham's bungalow. He found Whitham in the 
 verandah with a cheroot in his mouth and a tall 
 glass by his side. 
 
 " Have you had tiffin ? " the judge inquired. 
 " We did not wait for you. The ladies have 
 retired to cool off a bit." 
 
 " Thanks, I had a little lunch with Colonel 
 White at the Club. But I should like a lime- 
 squash." 
 
 IOI 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 The drink was brought, the ice clinking against 
 the side of the tumbler, and Tomson stretched 
 himself in a long chair to think over the news he 
 had heard. 
 
 Whitham waited in silence for a time, then, as 
 Tomson did not speak, he asked, " What are your 
 orders ? " 
 
 Tracy told him what he had heard at the 
 Brigade office, adding, "It sounds pretty seri- 
 ous ; don't you think so ? " 
 
 " Far too serious to be pleasant. However, 
 it's clear that your officers are wide awake and 
 there is no risk of repeating the blunders of '57, 
 when every regimental commander and company 
 officer was prepared to stake his life on the 
 fidelity of his men." 
 
 At tea time the ladies appeared, and a very 
 carefully censored version of the news was 
 imparted to them. Helen's instincts of hospital- 
 ity were aroused and she insisted on Tracy and 
 Hilda staying where they were until the regiment 
 arrived in Rangoon and bungalows in Canton- 
 ment were allotted. She saw from Tracy's 
 absorption that he was troubled in mind, and she 
 was shrewd enough not to connect his trouble 
 with herself. It cost her a little pang to admit 
 102 
 
A VIRTUOUS PURPOSE 
 
 that his profession had, momentarily at any rate, 
 taken precedence of her in his thoughts, but the 
 insight she obtained into his character was useful 
 to her later. No doubt she would hear in good 
 time what his preoccupation ' was. Meanwhile, 
 she was his hostess and Hilda's. 
 
 The following Monday Tracy escorted Hilda 
 and Helen to the Gymkhana for the usual after- 
 noon dancing which begins at half-past six on 
 alternate evenings throughout the cold weather. 
 Dick had gone out for a round of golf, but pro- 
 mised to join them at the Gymkhana later. 
 Common courtesy prescribed that Tracy should 
 ask his hostess for a Two-step and that .she 
 should grant his request. Both were good 
 dancers and the delight of perfectly harmonized 
 motion and physical contact fanned into flame 
 the passion that had smouldered for a week. 
 Towards the end of the dance Tracy, fearful that 
 his emotion should betray him to the eyes of 
 Hilda or curious strangers, drew Helen to the 
 door of the ball-room and passing through the 
 group of " station-cats " seated in basket chairs 
 in the vestibule, made his way to the lawn, where 
 he found a couple of chairs far away from the 
 glare of the arc-lamp and the lights in the bar. 
 x °3 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 " Helen ! " he burst out, " I can't endure it ! 
 The touch of your hand, the scent of your hair 
 maddens me. Against the wild desire to seize 
 you in my arms no consideration seems to have 
 any weight at all ! " He bent forward and 
 touched her hand. She shivered and quietly 
 withdrew it. 
 
 * Think of Hilda," she whispered. 
 
 " Oh, I do ! And I feel what a brute I am to 
 repay her affection and faith with neglect. But 
 I am powerless. Why should duty be always so 
 difficult and painful ? " 
 
 " There would be no praise for it if it were 
 easy. But there is no need to make it impossible. 
 You must -avoid me and I you." 
 
 " Ah ! Not that ! " he implored. 
 
 " Remember at least that Hilda is my guest, 
 and we could never forgive ourselves for any 
 treachery to her now." 
 
 Seeing him still rebellious she added, " The 
 regiment arrives to-morrow, and there will be 
 sterner work for you than making love to another 
 man's wife." 
 
 The cruelty and crudeness of the last phrase 
 hurt her as much as it hurt Tracy. She had the 
 additional pain of seeing him brace himself and 
 104 
 
A VIRTUOUS PURPOSE 
 
 set his shoulders like a brave man facing mortal 
 peril. She had once more tided over a dangerous 
 crisis, but at the cost of proving to herself that 
 love was " of man's life a thing apart." 
 
 The knowledge that she could appeal with a 
 certainty of response to Tracy's professional 
 pride was a bitter satisfaction to her. Something 
 within her, some primitive baser instinct, cried 
 out against the sacrifice of love to duty, and she 
 felt that one day she would be weak enough to 
 welcome failure and rejoice when Tracy brushed 
 aside all appeals to his nobler feelings and crushed 
 her against his breast. Meanwhile she tried to 
 extract some compensation from the thought 
 that an appeal from her lips had an additional 
 force and that his obedience to her guiding really 
 showed the strength of his love for her — his love 
 
 as distinct from mere passion. But still So 
 
 her mind travelled an unending circle. 
 
 Revolving these thoughts she had risen from 
 her chair and was walking towards the Club when 
 Dick, who had come in from the links and found 
 Hilda at the door of the ball-room, met her. 
 
 " Where have you left Captain Tomson ? " he 
 asked. " I thought he was out here with you." 
 
 " He stopped behind to light a cigarette. I 
 105 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 was in a hurry to get back for the next dance and 
 could not wait." 
 
 Following the masculine custom of doing trivial 
 things in a crisis, Tracy was in fact busy trying 
 to get a light out of the execrable matches which 
 our Japanese allies supply to the whole of the 
 East at prices that forbid competition. The 
 flare of a match lit up his features, showing their 
 stern, set expression, and Hilda looked curiously 
 at Helen for an explanation. In the dim light 
 reflected from the Club it was difficult to see 
 anything that should give support to her suddenly 
 re-awakened suspicions, but she imagined she 
 detected a tremor in Helen's voice. Conscious 
 of her goodwill towards Hilda, Helen me* her 
 without embarrassment and they returned to the 
 ballroom together, chatting amicably while Dick 
 joined Tracy on the lawn and called for a couple 
 of cocktails. 
 
 " I suppose if one is suspicious, proof is always 
 to be found," thought Hilda ; "lam developing 
 a mean spirit. Nevertheless, I shall keep my 
 eyes open." 
 
 106 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 In which Venus and Mars are in 
 Opposition 
 
 IT was a shrewd guess that Helen had made. 
 Sterner work was indeed waiting for Tracy, 
 as well as for his brother officers and the Staff. 
 Strange rumours were abroad in the Rangoon 
 Clubs that evening of a serious outbreak while 
 the 200th was entraining at Mandalay, and the 
 death of several officers. The following morning 
 telegrams modified the reports very considerably, 
 but the truth was bad enough. A Waziri sepoy 
 had stabbed the second in command of the regi- 
 ment, who was believed to have supported the 
 claims of the newly promoted Subadar Major. 
 The murder had taken place at the station and 
 it was impossible to detect the murderer in the 
 crowd that thronged the platform. The whole 
 company had therefore been brought to Rangoon 
 under arrest and marched to the jail, where they 
 were confined. 
 
 107 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 Confronted with a situation of this kind, Cap- 
 tain Tomson resolutely thrust Helen out of his 
 thoughts and set to work to investigate the con- 
 dition of his own company. He questioned them 
 individually and privately, but learned little from 
 most of them except that they were vaguely 
 discontented and unwilling to be sent to the 
 front. A few of the older men whom he knew well 
 were more frank than the rest. From their 
 candour he inferred with absolute certainty the 
 activity of German agents. 
 
 " Listen," he said; " you know me and I know 
 you. Tell me what is troubling you all. Ask 
 me any questions you please and I will give you 
 truthful answers." 
 
 " About this war, Sahib. Are we to be sent 
 to fight against the Germans in Europe or East 
 Africa ? " 
 
 " There are no orders. If the order comes you 
 will go. Why should you not ? " 
 
 " But, Sahib, the Germans are Mussulmans like 
 ourselves ; is that not so ? " 
 
 " Most certainly not. What child's tale is 
 this ? " 
 
 " No child's tale, Sahib. The Kaiser has been 
 a Mussulman for many years, and now he has 
 108 
 
VENUS AND MARS IN OPPOSITION 
 
 made his soldiers also abjure Christianity and 
 worship the true God." 
 
 Tomson could not refrain from smiling, though 
 it was with grim humour, as he thought of the 
 Major lying dead, a far-off result of the Kaiser's 
 Damascus speech just sixteen years before. He 
 saw however that the man was serious and said 
 quite gravely, " I give you my word of honour 
 that this is all an invention. There is not the 
 slightest foundation for such a story." 
 
 " Now, Sahib, I know that you are saying what 
 is not true in order to deceive us for the good of 
 the British Raj. Here are my proofs." And 
 diving into the pocket of his uniform coat he 
 produced a bundle of prints from photographs 
 in which the German Emperor appeared dressed 
 in a Turkish uniform, and pictures of German 
 soldiers wearing armlets on which were embroid- 
 ered texts from the Koran. Tomson shrugged 
 his shoulders and gave up the struggle. 
 
 " These are no proofs. They are tricks meant 
 to take in children and fools. If you believe 
 these, you are no better than children. And 
 remember the King expects you to be true 'to 
 your oaths." 
 
 Fortunately the efforts of the company officers 
 109 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 had more result amongst the men recruited from 
 the Punjab, and all except the three or four 
 companies made up chiefly of frontier levies 
 stood fast. But mutiny was brewing. The 
 prompt and determined action of the authorities 
 in imprisoning the whole of the company to 
 which the murderer belonged had checked the 
 outbreak, but only momentarily. The treatment 
 of their comrades was now an additional grievance 
 to the disaffected troops. Information as to 
 their plans had leaked out, and there were not 
 wanting loyal soldiers who kept their officers 
 acquainted with the doings of the conspirators. 
 On the Saturday following the arrival of the 
 regiment, a few excitable young sepoys, who had 
 heard fresh rumours that the regiment was 
 warned for active service, were unable to repress 
 their feelings even on parade, and called out as 
 Colonel Patterson rode down the line on his 
 inspection, " We won't go to Africa ! We won't 
 fight the German Mussulmans ! " 
 
 Beyond a sharp request for silence in the ranks, 
 the Colonel took no notice of the incident, but 
 passed on with a heavy heart. It ,was no fault 
 of his that the regiment had been ruined by the 
 introduction of credulous, ignorant tribesmen 
 no 
 
VENUS AND MARS IN OPPOSITION 
 
 from the borders of Afghanistan, but he felt the 
 dishonour of the regiment as his own personal 
 dishonour, and the steps which he saw clearly to be 
 necessary meant possibly its disbandment. 
 
 A council of war was held that evening at the 
 General's house and immediate action was 
 resolved upon. The Colonel of the West Down- 
 shire Territorials, stationed in Rangoon, Colonel 
 Patterson, Colonel White and the Colonel and 
 Adjutant of the Volunteer Rifles alone were 
 aware of the arrangements made. At midnight 
 so many of the Volunteers as could easily be 
 reached by telephone calls or summoned by 
 messengers from the headquarters guard were 
 roused and ordered to assemble at headquarters, 
 and before one o'clock more than two hundred 
 men were ready to receive instructions. Mean- 
 while the Territorials had been assembled in the 
 barrack square and were marching on the native 
 infantry barracks. While they surrounded the 
 barracks, seized the rifles in the racks, put a 
 guard on ftie magazine and turned the dazed 
 sepoys out unarmed on to the maidan, the 
 Volunteers marched up to Government House, 
 where they disarmed the guard and replaced 
 them by a detachment of their own corps. Then 
 ill 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 the main body escorted the prisoners to the native 
 infantry lines and handed them over to the West 
 Downshires. At daybreak the loyal companies 
 were separated from the mutineers and dismissed. 
 The prisoners, to the number of over two hundred, 
 were marched down to the harbour, embarked 
 at once on board a Royal Indian Marine ship 
 lying at anchor with steam up, and taken out 
 to sea. The whole day and most of the night 
 the court-martial sat taking evidence and endeav- 
 ouring to pick out the ringleaders. Finally 
 two native officers, one of them the Subadar 
 whose disappointment had been one of the 
 immediate causes of the outbreak, and six 
 sepoys were condemned to death, while others 
 were sentenced to transportation for life or im- 
 prisonment for various terms of years. Weary, 
 haggard and broken, the officers rose from their 
 seats at three o'clock in the morning and sought 
 their cabins, where sheer exhaustion brought 
 them a brief rest from the last act of the painful 
 tragedy. Before sunrise the doomed men were 
 landed near the forts commanding the river 
 entrance. The two officers, standing at the edge 
 of the grave dug by the six condemned sepoys, 
 now reprieved, faced a file of artillerymen with 
 
 112 
 
VENUS AND MARS IN OPPOSITION 
 
 loaded rifles. Three words of command followed 
 by a sharp volley, the thud of falling earth tossed 
 with feverish haste into the trench to hide the 
 blood that stained the honour of a regiment, and 
 the grisly task was ended. 
 
 Tomson had been on the court-martial and of 
 his company practically nothing remained. His 
 men were Waziris and Mahsuds, and with very 
 few exceptions had been implicated in the abort- 
 ive mutiny. He was too good a soldier and too 
 brave a man to shrink from his duty, but the 
 trial and condemnation of men he had known and 
 trusted, the execution in the soft golden light of 
 a tropical winter dawn, and the dispersal of the 
 company in whose smartness and efficiency he 
 had taken such pride, left him disheartened and 
 weary of spirit as well as fatigued. The steamer 
 put him ashore at the Commissariat Wharf, and 
 forgetting the arrangement by which he and 
 Hilda were to move on Monday into their own 
 bungalow, he directed the gharri-wallah to drive 
 to Judge Whitham's house. 
 
 Hilda had ascertained as soon as the regiment 
 
 arrived which house they were to inhabit, and 
 
 had worked hard throughout the week to get 
 
 furniture installed, curtains made and everything 
 
 113 H 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 prepared for their occupation. She had looked 
 forward to getting Tracy all to herself once more, 
 though his absorption in his work had lulled her 
 suspicions with regard to Helen's attraction for 
 him. Whatever alarm she had felt when Tracy, 
 in obedience to a message from his Colonel, 
 donned his uniform and buckled on his sword 
 and revolver at midnight on Saturday, was 
 dissipated when over a score of late Sunday 
 breakfast tables, of which Helen Whitham's was 
 one, members of the Volunteer Rifles, proud of 
 having justified their existence, described the 
 proceedings of the early morning, which they 
 characterized as " a great jest." By noon on 
 Sunday she was in possession of some facts and 
 many fanciful details. She knew Tracy was safe 
 and would certainly be back on Sunday night 
 or Monday morning. Accordingly she adhered 
 to her original plan and after chota hazri on 
 Monday installed herself in her new home, where 
 she busied herself putting the finishing touches 
 to the rooms in order to pass the time till her 
 husband's arrival. So it came about that at 
 half-past ten when Tracy drove up to the door, 
 Helen, having seen Dick off and interviewed the 
 cook, was sitting alone at her little writing-table 
 114 
 
VENUS AND MARS IN OPPOSITION 
 
 in the drawing-room. Tracy dismissed his gharri 
 and walked in. Helen was unable to repress a 
 movement of glad surprise, but she said, " You 
 have come for Hilda ? She went over to Cheape 
 Road quite early, expecting you to go there as 
 soon as you came back." 
 
 Tracy made a vague gesture of annoyance at 
 his own forgetfulness. Helen noted the disap- 
 pointment and weariness written in every line 
 of his face, and the maternal feeling which was a 
 large constituent of her love for him surged up 
 irresistibly. This maternal element, an element 
 in every true woman's love for the man of her 
 choice, was the stronger in her because Tracy 
 was her senior by only two years, while she had 
 been married seven years and no child had been 
 given to her to provide an outlet for her motherly 
 instincts. Her fondness for flirtation was in 
 great part a diversion of that affection for young 
 things which in most childless women is perverted 
 into a mania for useless and malodorous animal 
 pets. 
 
 Under stress of her sympathy for his evident 
 suffering she rose and laid her hands on his 
 shoulders. 
 
 " My poor boy ! How tired you look ! Have 
 IJ 5 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 you had breakfast ? No ? Let me call for a 
 peg for you." 
 
 Tracy hardly heard her words ; he merely saw 
 the affection in her eyes, heard the thrill in her 
 voice and felt the trust implied in her unconscious 
 gesture. He misread her as men have misread 
 women from the beginning of time and will 
 continue to do while women retain the faculty 
 of adapting themselves to the masculine point 
 of view and sinking their own personality. The 
 strain of the past week was over, his vigilant 
 watch on himself was relaxed ; he was physically 
 and mentally weary and in his trouble he turned 
 naturally towards Helen for comfort. His response 
 was to put his arms round her and drawing her 
 close to him in a tender embrace, kissed her hair, 
 her neck, her lips. For a few seconds Helen 
 yielded herself to the delirious joy of passion, 
 then gently put him away from her. 
 
 " Darling, be kind to me. Don't make life 
 impossible for both of us. See, sit here and tell 
 me what you have been doing ; then you must 
 go to Hilda. I will drop you there on my way 
 to town. I must do some shopping." 
 
 She pressed an electric bell and the khansamah 
 appeared. 
 
 116 
 
VENUS AND MARS IN OPPOSITION 
 
 " Bring brandy and soda," she said, " and tell 
 the driver I want the car in ten minutes." 
 
 With the help of the stimulant Tracy roused 
 himself and was able to give her a brief outline 
 of the events of the previous forty-eight hours. 
 " And now," he concluded, " Heaven alone knows 
 what will happen to the remnant of the regiment 
 or to me. There are less than six hundred men 
 left, and my company is wiped out. I shall apply 
 for service with another regiment under orders for 
 France." 
 
 The car rolled up to the verandah, and after 
 the delay necessary for the donning of a hat and 
 gloves, Helen stepped in, followed by Tracy. 
 The bold course was the wisest course to take, 
 but when the car reached the Tomsons' bungalow 
 and Tracy alighted, Hilda, who had come forward 
 expecting to find him descending from a taxi, 
 hardly concealed her surprise. Helen explained 
 lightly, " I have brought your husband, Mrs. 
 Tomson. He had forgotten you were to move 
 over to-day and came up to us, so I drove him 
 round at once knowing how eager you must be 
 to see him. I can't stay. Good-bye ! " 
 
 She waved her hand, and the car, with a grind- 
 ing of gears that changed the throbbing of the 
 117 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 engine to a purring hum, disappeared through 
 the gateway. The incident was quite natural, 
 but jealous suspicion is, in medical phraseology, 
 a " cumulative poison." Hilda was learning that 
 every dubious circumstance, however plausible 
 an explanation offered itself at the time, lurks 
 in the mind of a jealous woman ready to offer 
 its support to the next incident that seems to 
 call for explanation. A series of trivial occur- 
 rences, each of which has been plausibly cleared 
 up, may in sum amount to almost conclusive 
 evidence of guilt. The common motive assigned 
 by the jealous mind wields the separate links into 
 an unbroken chain. And when suspicion is once 
 awakened the most innocent and unimportant 
 actions are distorted into corroborative testimony. 
 Thus Hilda's jealous fears, awakened once more, 
 paraded before the eye of memory an array of 
 facts which seemed to have a common origin. 
 With her jealousy was combined a defiant deter- 
 mination to hold against all women the husband 
 she loved. She had not lost her confidence in 
 herself, and her cool brain worked quickly, 
 reminding her that she had nothing tangible with 
 which to tax Tracy. She stifled her warring 
 passions and forced a smile to her lips. Putting 
 118 
 
VENUS AND MARS IN OPPOSITION 
 
 her arm through her husband's she led him into 
 the drawing-room, saying, " Come and see how 
 busy I have been while you were away. When 
 you have admired my handiwork you can come 
 and have breakfast." 
 
 Tomson admired the arrangement of the furni- 
 ture and the draping of the curtains without much 
 enthusiasm. As they stood together, love, pride 
 of possession, resentment of Helen's intrusion 
 suddenly filled Hilda's breast and she turned to 
 face her husband. 
 
 "It is good to be alone again together in our 
 own house after the voyage out with that mob. 
 And I have missed you, my husband. I'm so 
 glad to have you back. Say you're glad 
 too." 
 
 She placed her hands on his shoulders as Helen 
 had done, partly forgetting his dislike to demon- 
 strative affection and partly from a dimly felt 
 intuition that so she should learn the truth antf 
 confirm or finally destroy her suspicions. For 
 the second time that morning Tracy's physical 
 weariness betrayed him. He was not yet inured 
 to duplicity, and with Helen's kiss on his lips he 
 felt that to meet his wife's advance would be a 
 profanation. So he shrank from Hilda's caress 
 119 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 and put her from him hastily, even roughly. She 
 flushed with pain and anger and he realized his 
 blunder at once. 
 
 " Of course I'm glad, old girl," he replied 
 with a forced laugh ; " but I'm very tired and 
 very hungry. Give me five minutes to get into 
 mufti and 111 be with you." 
 
 He dashed upstairs, leaving his wife leisure 
 to recover her normal equanimity, and on his 
 return found her outwardly composed. But she 
 had noticed his shrinking and assigned it to 
 something like its true cause. Her vague uneasi- 
 ness had crystallized into something far more 
 definite, and she had formed a working theory 
 into which she could fit future happenings. 
 Fortunately for her peace of mind she was far 
 from imagining the whole truth. She knew 
 Helen's weakness, or hobby, and only mildly 
 disapproved of it, but she was determined that, 
 if she could prevent it, Tracy should not form one 
 of the coterie of Helen's admirers. She saw that 
 he was already greatly attracted, and his attitude 
 alarmed her the more because he had not pre- 
 viously shown any liking for flirtation and so 
 was not proof by inoculation against the wiles 
 of a clever coquette. She determined to keep a 
 
 120 
 
VENUS AND MARS IN OPPOSITION 
 
 careful watch for the future without rousing his 
 distrust. 
 
 At breakfast she displayed no trace of annoy- 
 ance or resentment, and questioned him on the 
 events of the last two days. He told her as much 
 as he could without divulging military secrets 
 and mentioned his intention of applying for 
 transfer to another regiment for active service. 
 
 " I shall see Colonel White this evening perhaps 
 at the Gymkhana. He ought to be able to do 
 something for me." 
 
 He did in fact foregather with that exuberant 
 officer toying with a glass and lost in admiration 
 of the carved teak screen dividing the bar from 
 the billiard-room, which so much resembles a 
 reredos that a clerical wag suggested an inscrip- 
 tion for the scroll surrounding the top of the 
 arch : " Here do the wild asses quench their 
 thirst." 
 
 " Hello, my Tomson ! " exclaimed the Colonel 
 in his usual stentorian tones. " Come and sit 
 down and drown dull care. Have you made up 
 any of your arrears of sleep to-day ? " 
 
 " Thanks, I'll have a small peg. But I want 
 to talk shop to you for a few miputes if you don't 
 mind, sir. The facts you know. My company 
 121 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 is mostly under sentence in connexion with this 
 ghastly mutiny, and it seems to me the regiment 
 could well spare me. Couldn't I be attached to 
 some regiment going to the front ? They'll want 
 a reserve of officers if casualties continue at the 
 rate at which they are occurring just now." 
 
 The Colonel thought for a moment. "I'll 
 mention your name to the Brigadier-General 
 and do what I can for you. But it's unlikely that 
 any more regiments will be sent from Burma at 
 present. This little outbreak on top of the 
 Kachin raid has made the local Government a bit 
 nervous. It is rumoured too that a few of the 
 200th deserted and got away out of Rangoon 
 before the clever coup of Saturday last, and have 
 been busy trying to corrupt the loyalty of the 
 military police." 
 
 " I can't volunteer for active service. The 
 C. in C. has forbidden that peremptorily. So I 
 hope you won't forget me, sir." 
 
 The conversation drifted on to the latest war 
 news and local topics. Presently the Colonel 
 suggested a tour of the ballroom. 
 
 " Little Mrs. Jackson is going to teach some of 
 the super-nuts the latest variations on the Tango, 
 I hear. You know, of course, that she did some- 
 
 122 
 
VENUS AND MARS IN OPPOSITION 
 
 thing of the kind professionally before she met 
 Jackie." 
 
 " Really ? I'm not surprised. I have often 
 felt thankful, as I watched some of the Rangoon 
 ladies turning in the mazes of a dreamy waltz, 
 that I was not married to them." 
 
 " Better to be the husband's friend than the 
 husband ? I thought only bachelors uttered 
 those scandalous sentiments. But we're both 
 married and can exchange the augurs' wink." 
 
 " There's no more sickening cant to my mind," 
 replied Tomson, " than the cant of the married 
 man who affects never to have been a bachelor 
 of the ordinary type or pretends that he under- 
 went a spiritual regeneration by having had a 
 rather disgusting service read over him." 
 
 " I agree ! " laughed the Colonel. 
 
 " ' To-night ye stopped a story broad 
 An' stopped it wi' a curse. 
 Last night ye told the tale yersel' 
 And capped it wi' a worse.' " 
 
 In the vestibule they found Mrs. Jeune, who 
 welcomed them with her wide smile. 
 
 " I'll save you the trouble of asking me how I 
 like Rangoon. I love it. The lakes are delight- 
 ful ; and the dear Sheve Dagon Pagoda ! Do I 
 123 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 pronounce it properly ? But it's very warm 
 isn't it, for an evening in winter ? " And she 
 watched with some interest an embryo merchant 
 princeling, resplendent in snowy flannels and a 
 very tall collar which had melted in the heat 
 produced by his exertions, making his way to the 
 side verandah. 
 
 The Colonel followed her eye and caught her 
 train of thought. 
 
 " No, this is our usual so-called cold weather. 
 You wait till the next dance but one and you'll 
 see that young blood furbished anew and ready 
 for further prodigies of terpsichorean grace." 
 
 " Where is he going now ? In search of liquid 
 refreshment ? " 
 
 " Haven't you learned the system yet ? There 
 are seven dances, and the best, the very best and 
 most rllbertian nuts, dance three, change their 
 clothes in the dressing-room during the fourth, 
 and dance the last three." 
 
 " What a toilsome business ! " 
 
 " They do it for exercise, my dear lady. Besides, 
 one can't attain to eminence even in this kind of 
 thing without effort. Now think what a public 
 benefactor you would be if you could bring your 
 Christian Science to bear and convince them that 
 124 
 
VENUS AND MARS IN OPPOSITION 
 
 they were not really hot ! Think of the saving 
 in dhoWs bills ! " 
 
 A thermometer that persistently stands at 
 eighty Fahrenheit on a November evening is a 
 tough argument, and Mrs. Jeune evaded the 
 discussion. 
 
 " I haven't seen Mrs. Tomson this evening ? 
 Is she not here ? " 
 
 " She has calls to pay," replied Tracy, " and 
 promised to pick me up here later. She may be 
 sitting out on the lawn. I think I shall look for 
 her there." 
 
 Mentally blessing the widow for the opening 
 he made off, and she resumed her conversation 
 with Colonel White. 
 
 " Don't you think Captain Tomson seems a 
 little distrait?" she asked. "I hope. he is not 
 worried about anything. He has these strange 
 moods. Do you remember the trip to Kandy ? " 
 
 The Colonel refused to take the bait, if indeed 
 he saw it, and replied, " Sixteen hours on a court- 
 martial and a front seat at an execution before 
 sunrise after three hours' sleep are enough to 
 depress even a Mark Tapley, I should think." 
 
 " I have heard strange stories and wondered if 
 they are true. Do tell me all about it." 
 125 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 " There is hardly time now, and it would be a 
 breach of professional etiquette. Besides, I am 
 dining with you at Bishop's Court to-night, and 
 Corporal Elslie of the Volunteer Rifles will be 
 there too. He'll tell you all about it — more than 
 all." 
 
 As it chanced Mr. Elslie sat at dinner on Mrs. 
 Jeune's right in one of the seats near the middle 
 of the table allotted to bachelors, boxwallahs, 
 members of the educational service, and others of 
 no importance. The Bishop's chaplain, a cadav- 
 erous, dark-haired young man with a very blue 
 chin and a pronounced ecclesiastical drawl, 
 marshalled the guests according to the rules of the 
 Table of Precedence printed in the Quarterly 
 Civil List, or Civilians' Bible — when he could 
 remember them or had the energy to refer to 
 them. In doubtful cases he classified people 
 according to their frequency of attendance at 
 church or his own personal opinion of them. Mr. 
 Elslie was a person of some repute at the local 
 bar, but he was a young bachelor and sadly 
 irregular in his attendance at church. An ardent 
 volunteer, he was to be seen most evenings after 
 drill, in a soiled khaki shirt, " shorts " and puttees, 
 lounging in the bar of the Pegu Club. He pro- 
 126 
 
VENUS AND MARS IN OPPOSITION 
 
 f essed an eager desire to go to the front, though he 
 took a pessimistic view of the progress and prob- 
 able result of the war. But like many others of 
 his class he exhibited patriotism of the " limited 
 liability " type, and wished to guarantee himself 
 against pecuniary loss from enlistment in case 
 he should survive. He was only too willing to 
 gratify Mrs. Jeune's curiosity. 
 
 " Was I called out on Saturday night ? Rather ! 
 It was a great show ; though why on earth the 
 sentries at Government House didn't fire on us 
 beats me ! We did not stalk them, or rush them, 
 or even surround them. We walked boldly up 
 to them and when we were challenged our captain 
 called out to them in rather a squeaky voice to 
 ground arms. The sentries ought to have fired 
 on him, but they didn't because they knew from 
 his bad Hindustani that he was a white man. I 
 was more afraid of the man behind me, who knows 
 precious little about his rifle and was fumbling 
 about \vith a cartridge clip trying to load. I 
 persuaded him that for night attacks the bayonet 
 was the orthodox weapon and took the cartridges 
 from him. T 1 hen I felt easier in my mind. We 
 tramped all over the kitchen garden in the search 
 for the guard house, and wakened the Government 
 127 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 House party without disturbing the guard. They 
 gave me a prisoner to fetch back. I wanted him 
 to walk in front within easy reach of my bayonet, 
 but they said that was not etiquette. I had to 
 walk in front with my rifle at the slope, then 
 behind me came the great strapping Waziri, and 
 after him the man whose cartridges I had com- 
 mandeered. I didn't like it a 'bit. If the Waziri 
 had taken it into his head to grip my throat from 
 behind I should have been done for." 
 
 " But what about the court-martial ? Have 
 you heard anything about that ? " 
 
 " I should think so ! They sat all night and 
 tried two or three hundred men, condemned 
 twenty to death and sentenced the rest to trans- 
 portation for life. They reprieved ten of the 
 twenty, though I set them to dig graves for the 
 other ten, whom they shot. But it's all useless. 
 The Indian Army is honeycombed with sedition, 
 thanks to German gold, and we are expecting a 
 raid on the Pegu Club any night from the Military 
 Police Lines just across the road. German 
 agents are all over the country. Unless the 
 people at home waken up and turn out Lloyd 
 George, Churchill and Co. very soon we shall be 
 
 in the soup." 
 
 128 
 
VENUS AND MARS IN OPPOSITION 
 
 " Don't you think the Government has done 
 rather well ? " 
 
 " Indeed no. There are German spies in all 
 the coast towns and stores of oil for their sub- 
 marines at convenient hiding places along the 
 English Channel. When we begin to move our 
 new armies across to France the transports will 
 be torpedoed in scores." 
 
 " But I thought quite a large number of troops 
 had been carried across the Channel without 
 accident." 
 
 " The new German submarines were not ready, 
 and they are waiting for the big movements in 
 the spring." 
 
 " It's a poor prospect for us all then, Mr. 
 Elslie ? We shall all be ruined together." 
 
 " Yes, I'm afraid there's not much hope unless 
 a miracle happens, such as a crushing Russian 
 victory." 
 
 " I hear you are eager to get to the front your- 
 self ? " 
 
 " Yes, but I can't spare more than six months 
 or so. I'm afraid my practice would go to pieces 
 while I was away. There is not much work going 
 and I can't afford to throw away what I've 
 got" 
 
 12^ I 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 Mrs. Jeune pondered the last remark for some 
 time. Then as the Bishop's wife caught her eye 
 and the ladies rose, she turned to Elslie and with 
 a whimsical smile said, " Thank you for the last 
 remark, Mr. Elslie. It's most reassuring, I 
 suppose you are still investing in English 
 stocks ? " 
 
 Colonel White had observed the course of this 
 rather one-sided conversation, and when the 
 ladies had all left the room he leant forward and 
 called to Elslie, " You've been having your leg 
 pulled, young man ! " 
 
 Elslie was not aware in fact of any inconsist- 
 ency between his opinions and his plans. He 
 was one of the class, especially numerous in our 
 tropical dependencies, who form their views of 
 life in general and the political situation in parti- 
 cular during the early morning hours when a 
 bilious gloom broods over the face of nature, but 
 contrive during their hours of toil to work on the 
 assumption that the British Empire will last a 
 few years longer in spite of the efforts of the 
 Liberal party. When " the sun is over the yard 
 arm ' ' and the conventional restriction on the 
 use of alcohol is removed they air their pessimism 
 
 and condemn their political opponents with a 
 130 
 
VENUS AND MARS IN OPPOSITION 
 
 cheerful vigour which suggests that a combina- 
 tion of pessimism and whiskey is to some natures 
 as bountiful a source of happiness as optimism is 
 to the mass of mankind. 
 
 131 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 The Shadow of Coming Events and some 
 Reflections 
 
 RATHEMYO stands on a bend of the Irawaddy 
 at a point where the river many centuries 
 ago forced its way through a spur of the " Joma " 
 or mountain range that divides Arakan from the 
 rest of Burma. The vagaries of Indian rivers 
 are well known. The village which in March is 
 an important calling place for the steamers of 
 the Irawaddy Flotilla Company may in November, 
 when the monsoon has come and gone and the 
 river has risen forty feet and fallen again, find 
 itself several hundred yards from the river bank. 
 Or it may have disappeared into the flood which 
 cuts away great stretches of paddy fields and 
 deposits them as silt to form huge sandbanks 
 at some other point in its course. The right 
 bank of the river opposite Rathemyo consists 
 of rugged limestone hills covered with dense 
 jungle, except where that has been cleared to 
 132 
 
THE SHADOW OF COMING EVENTS 
 
 make room for the custard apple which thrives 
 on the sunny slopes. The current deflected from 
 the rocky rampart has eaten away the land on 
 the left bank above the town, forming a great 
 lagoon-like expanse of water over which the 
 south-western monsoon bears the heavily laden 
 river boats with their huge bellying square sails 
 like gigantic swans. 
 
 Near the town, however, the mighty stream 
 encounters a low headland whose base is protected 
 by sloping shelves of stone which have withstood 
 for ages the efforts even of that resistless torrent 
 to undermine it. In flood- time the yellow waters 
 beat in vain against the cliff, and with a swirl 
 and a roar turn sharp west, then south, seeking 
 an entrance on the western face. But here their 
 attack is baffled by a long groin of rock that at 
 low water lies like the back of some antedi- 
 luvian monster guarding the little town. Hurled 
 back into its bed the river rushes past, while in 
 the placid harbour inside the natural breakwater 
 a whole fleet of steamers, launches, boats and 
 canoes find safe anchorage. 
 
 On this rocky point in bygone ages primitive 
 princelings established themselves, and diplomatic- 
 ally employing the jealousies of the powerful 
 133 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 kings to south and north of them won by alternate 
 homage and defiance a domain of their own. On 
 the lower ground behind grew up the town of 
 Rathemyo, stretching away from the bend behind 
 the headland, past the hill on which stands the 
 great gilded pagoda, the goal of many a thousand 
 pilgrimages yearly, and southward along the 
 river till it meets the paddy fields and the teak 
 forests. Round the pagoda, as round the Sheve 
 Dagon, Briton and Burman fought before they 
 settled down amicably to occupy the land side by 
 side, as rulers and ruled ; and the ghost of a 
 British officer who was killed in the fighting there 
 appears occasionally to his descendants to remind 
 them of the price that was paid. 
 
 On the extreme edge of the promontory the 
 little church gazes down calmly upon the river. 
 Next to it stands the house of the deputy com- 
 missioner, then the Government offices and the 
 little club, with its tennis court on the road side 
 and its verandah built out over the rocks, which 
 the river covers during the rains. Here in the 
 breathless heat of April and May come the pale- 
 faced English residents to catch the breeze from 
 the river, discuss their little interests and scandals, 
 and pray for the monsoon. Below the club is the 
 134 
 
THE SHADOW OF COMING EVENTS 
 
 steamer ghat, reached by a short branch line 
 from the railway station half a mile away. Along 
 the river front runs a white road, the sole promen- 
 ade for residents of all colours, and lying back 
 from the road in shady compounds are the houses 
 of a few officials. Near to the railway station 
 stands the hill on which the pagoda is built, 
 continued southward in a long ridge covered with 
 scrub jungle. Here and there a great wide-, 
 spreading banyan tree, the reputed home of 
 powerful Nats or nature-spirits, towers above the 
 undergrowth and dwarf shrubs. At one end of 
 the ridge a clearing has been made and houses 
 built for the district and divisional judges and 
 the agents and assistants of Rangoon firms 
 interested in the teak trade. 
 
 In one of these houses lived James Royle and 
 Beryl with their daughter Kitty and her Karen 
 ayah, Ma Dun Aung. Tun Hlaing, the lugale, 
 was permitted to dwell in the town with his 
 wife, Ma Hla Pyu, who made a fair income by 
 the manufacture of cheroots and could therefore 
 afford to disdain the godowns with which the rest 
 of the servants and their wives, Indians or Kalahs, 
 as Ma Hla Pyu contemptuously called them, 
 were perforce content. The short cold weather 
 135 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 of Lower Burma was over. As Royle facetiously 
 remarked, " It begins on Boxing Day and ends 
 on the second of January." March was in with 
 its glaring sun and its gusts of wind that raised 
 " sand-devils " along the dusty roads, and 
 Beryl had misgivings and a premonition of coming 
 trouble. Kitty was languid and pale, with an 
 occasional touch of fever and restless nights. 
 " Teeth," the civil surgeon said. " She'll be all 
 right, Mrs. Royle. Keep her out of the sun and 
 don't let her have heating food." 
 
 James, too, was a source of anxiety, though 
 since their return to Rathemyo he had displayed 
 little tendency to relapse into his old habits. 
 David Allbut, the deputy commissioner, had 
 exercised a steadying influence, and his wife, by 
 her unwavering support of Beryl, for whom she 
 exacted that social consideration which she was 
 entitled to claim as the wife of a civilian of twelve 
 years' standing, had done much to reconcile 
 Royle to his marriage. He had attributed to that 
 marriage rather than his habits the fact that he 
 had been drafted into the judicial service, for 
 which he had no special aptitude or liking, and he 
 had hoped and asked that he might on his return 
 from leave be put in charge of a district. His 
 136 
 
THE SHADOW OF COMING EVENTS 
 
 disappointment threatened at one time to bring 
 on a drinking-bout, but the danger was tided over 
 by the tact and kindness of Mrs. and Mr. Allbut, 
 who saw Beryl's plight and kept in constant 
 touch with her during the critical period. So for 
 four months there had been peace in the house- 
 hold and for Beryl some approach to happiness. 
 She ascribed her sudden apprehensions to the 
 trying weather, and wondered if it would be 
 possible to carry Kitty of! to the hills for a little 
 time. The fear of leaving James to his own 
 devices caused her to dismiss the idea at once. 
 He himself, however, suggested it one unusually 
 hot morning in March as they sat at breakfast. 
 
 " This heat is detestable. Punkah tano ! " 
 
 The punkah- wallah jerked the rope spasmodic- 
 ally half a dozen times, then relapsed into the old 
 monotonous ineffective rhythm. 
 
 " Kitty seems to me to be looking more peaked 
 than ever. What sort of a night had she ? " 
 
 " Not very good, I'm afraid," replied Beryl. 
 " I had to get up several times to soothe her. 
 Dun Aung seemed unable to get her to sleep." 
 
 " How would it be to take the mail steamer up 
 to Mandalay on Thursday and go on to Magmyo 
 for a little ? The dak-bungalow at any rate will 
 137 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 be available until you find other quarters." 
 
 " I had thought of it, but it seems selfish to 
 leave you alone here, dear. We'll see how Kitty 
 is on Thursday. To-day is only Monday." 
 
 " Don't you worry about me ; I'm all right. 
 And after all Rathemyo can't be as bad as Ran- 
 goon. You heard what Mrs. Allbut said last 
 night ? " 
 
 " That Mrs. Tomson was coming to stay for a 
 little time with her ? Yes ; you see] this is a 
 drier heat than the delta and some people prefer 
 it. I feel it more than the moist heat my- 
 self." 
 
 " Naturally ; you're less used to it," said her 
 husband, thinking of Moulmein, with its two 
 hundred and fifty inches of rain, the home of the 
 " county families" of Burma, where Beryl had 
 spent the years of her girlhood before she was 
 sent to the convent in the Indian hills. 
 
 " Where is Captain Tomson ? Isn't he coming 
 too ? " 
 
 " No. He was attached to the Kachin Hills 
 Expedition soon after that trouble in Rangoon, 
 and they haven't returned yet. I don't know 
 whether there is any fear of further trouble on 
 the frontier with the Chinese, or whether they are 
 138 
 
THE SHADOW OF COMING EVENTS 
 
 trying to get a little shooting and postpone their 
 return to the plains till the rains break." 
 
 " I don't wonder then that Mrs. Tomson finds 
 things dull in Rangoon and wants a change. 
 But there's more in the way of amusement 
 there." 
 
 " Yes, nobody could call Rathemyo exciting, 
 but it is a change," assented Royle. " Well, I 
 must be off and get somebody hanged or jailed 
 for the good of the country. Keep an eye on 
 Kitty." 
 
 Hilda was in fact restless and unhappy, and 
 found the usual round of Rangoon gaieties little 
 solace to her malaise. During the fortnight that 
 elapsed between Tracy's conversation with Colonel 
 White and his orders to report himself to the 
 Colonel in charge of the operations against the 
 Kachins at Myitkyina, she had observed many 
 signs that seemed to show a secret understanding 
 between her husband and Helen Whitham. If 
 one has the clue the signs are not difficult of 
 detection. A tone, a phrase, a gesture will 
 betray to eyes watching of set purpose the 
 intimacy that is born of kisses exchanged and love 
 confessed. Tracy had gone off willingly enough, 
 since he knew there was no chance of service in 
 139 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 France or Africa. At least it was active service, 
 and away from the woman he loved and the 
 woman who loved him he would have time and 
 opportunity to view things in proper perspective 
 and perhaps determine some course of action. 
 Hilda's first feeling was one of relief, in spite of 
 her regret at parting with her husband. She 
 was released from the self-imposed task of 
 scrutinizing his demeanour towards Helen when- 
 ever they met and from the jealous suspicion that 
 they might have opportunities of meeting when 
 social engagements kept her from Tracy's side. 
 Only after he had gone did the thought occur to 
 her that letters would probably be exchanged 
 between them. . For a time she made shift with 
 bridge, tennis, dancing and golf to pass the long 
 hours of the Indian day, short as it appears to the 
 men with work to do, but these palled and she 
 became morbid and distrait. She began to 
 observe Helen, and if she found her more than 
 usually alert and bright she at once suspected her 
 of having that day received a letter from Tracy. 
 She always imagined Helen to be looking especi- 
 ally happy on the days when the post brought in 
 mails from the expeditionary column. The idea 
 so obsessed her that she felt she must leave 
 140 
 
THE SHADOW OF COMING EVENTS 
 
 Rangoon if only to get away from her rival. A 
 cleverly worded letter purporting ta be a budget 
 of Rangoon gossip insinuated her craving for 
 change of scene and brought from the kind-hearted 
 Mrs. Allbut the desired invitation. 
 
 The Friday before she left for Rathemyo she 
 met Helen as usual in the dancing-room at the 
 Gymkhana, and saw that she had not taken a 
 partner for the first two dances. In the interval 
 she spoke to her. 
 
 " You are not dancing to-night, Mrs. Whit- 
 ham ? " 
 
 " No, I am feeling the heat rather. You too 
 seem to have felt it. I hear you are going to stay 
 with the Allbuts for a few days." 
 
 " Yes, I think the dry climate suits me better." 
 
 She let the conversation drop and made as if 
 she watched the dancing for a time. Helen 
 followed her example but gradually became 
 absorbed in her own thoughts and looked on at 
 the prancing couples with unseeing eyes. Hilda 
 watching her saw the smile die away and an 
 expression of pain and distress take its place. 
 The vision was momentary but quite definite. 
 A would-be partner spoke to her and the polite 
 smile returned. Presently she^rose and moved 
 141 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 away and Hilda, closely observant of her figure 
 and movements, suddenly leapt to a conclusion. 
 
 " Heavens ! I never dreamed of that ! Now 
 why on earth should she look so worried about a 
 perfectly natural event ? 
 
 The most discreditable explanation of Helen's 
 trouble was one which Hilda had the justice to 
 reject summarily, but she failed to understand 
 that Tracy was indirectly the cause. It was not 
 because she had not sufficient fineness of character 
 to appreciate Helen's distress if the correct 
 solution had suggested itself ; we rarely, however, 
 attribute to others our own finer feelings and 
 subtler modes of thought. So she dismissed the 
 subject from her mind with the reflection that 
 Helen was most unnecessarily perturbed over a 
 somewhat trivial interruption of the ordinary 
 course of her life, though she was unable to 
 prevent the image of Helen's face from recurring 
 to her mind at intervals, demanding, as it were, a 
 more satisfactory interpretation before it could 
 be laid to rest. The key was to be furnished later 
 by Tracy, on whom Helen had only too accurately 
 calculated the effect of the news when it should 
 reach him. 
 
 Hilda after a hot uncomfortable night in the 
 142 
 
THE SHADOW OF COMING EVENTS 
 
 train felt too weary on her arrival to face the 
 ordeal of meeting a number of strangers, mostly 
 uninteresting, at the little club in the evening, 
 even after an afternoon's rest in a darkened room 
 under a gently pulled punkah. Accordingly s.he 
 drove with Mrs. Allbut along the one road in 
 Rathemyo, leaving cards on the ladies, and sent 
 the sais up the hill to put cards into the box of 
 Mrs. Royle, whom they had seen on the tennis 
 court as they drove past. Duty done, the two 
 ladies ensconced themselves in comfortable chairs 
 on the grass in front of the house where they could 
 hear the river lapping the rocks below and see 
 the sun dip behind the hills on the western 
 shore, changing their bright green to deep blue 
 shadow against a sky of rose, palest green and 
 amethyst. 
 
 " You have already seen the extent of our 
 resources here," said Mrs. Allbut. " I hope you 
 won't expire of boredom within the week." 
 
 " I think I shall survive," laughed Mrs. Tom- 
 son. " The heat here does not seem so enervating 
 as in Rangoon. And I shall at least not spend the 
 long days alone, waiting for the evening to come 
 and let me out of my prison. I miss my husband. 
 His work was generally finished by one o'clock 
 143 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 and I had his company during the worst part of 
 the day." 
 
 " I can usually find something to fill the time 
 till my husband comes in from office. Still I 
 confess I like the camping season better when he 
 works near me in the bungalow in the afternoons 
 instead of sitting in a hot stuffy court trying 
 cases." 
 
 " I have learned during these last three or 
 four months to hate my bungalow," said Hilda. 
 " I regard it as a prison and the sun as my jailer. 
 I can only get out when he disappears. Do you 
 know I think with positive affection of a London 
 fog and look forward with joy to the grey sunless 
 days of the average English summer." 
 
 " Well, it will be pleasant to find somebody at 
 home who can take an optimistic view of the 
 English climate ! " 
 
 " But can't you appreciate the point of view 
 of the Anglo-Indian landing at Tilbury after 
 thirty years' service in Northern India with little 
 leave, and inhaling the thick atmosphere with 
 resolute cheerfulness while he exclaims, ' In 
 England, thank Heaven ! You can see what 
 you're breathing ' ? " 
 
 "There may be something in discontent with 
 144 
 
THE SHADOW OF COMING EVENTS 
 
 the East, after all. But I think you feel the 
 discomforts more in Rangoon, where you have so 
 much to suggest without entirely replacing the 
 conveniences of home. In the mofussil you feel 
 that you are in the jungle, and you adapt your 
 mode of life, your dress and your point of view to 
 the conditions. You learn even to put up with 
 the Burman cook." 
 
 "Is he worse than the Madrasi ? Did I ever 
 tell you the story of the rebuke administered to 
 Tracy by a Madrasi cook ? " 
 
 " No, it sounds amusing ; tell me." 
 " He rejoiced in the name of Ariavalu, and 
 was quite a good chef when he was sober, so we 
 endured his occasional ' attacks of fever,' as he 
 called them. One night when we had been dining 
 out, the pony shied at something lying in the 
 ditch just as we turned in at the gate of the 
 compound. We pulled up and my husband got 
 down to see what it was. It turned out to be 
 Ariavalu, helplessly drunk, and dressed in Tracy's 
 best suit of mufti, with which he had no doubt 
 been cutting a dash in the bazaar. With the 
 bearer's help Tracy took the clothes off him and 
 gave him half a dozen cuts with a riding switch 
 before he sent him off to his godown. After 
 145 K 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 breakfast the following morning, the cook, 
 obviously still suffering from the effects of his 
 late excesses but immaculately arrayed in snow- 
 white coat and dhoti with a gold-edged turban, 
 presented himself before us and offered his 
 resignation on the spot. This rather astonished 
 us since his tone showed that he considered him- 
 self the aggrieved party. Out of curiosity Tracy 
 asked his reason for wanting to leave us. He 
 replied with dignity, ' I not caring to work 
 for master. I'm a Christian. God forgiving 
 seventy times seven ; Master not forgiving even 
 once.' " 
 
 " A priceless story ! I must tell that to David. 
 But we had better dress. I have asked the 
 Royles to meet you at dinner, and Mr. Milsom, 
 the Divisional Judge. He's rather a curiosity." 
 
 Arthur John Milsom was a member of the 
 aristocracy of intellect which on the strength of 
 success at a competitive examination of callow 
 youths in dead languages and obsolete philosophy 
 is entitled to rule one fifth of the human race and 
 to despise the remainder. The wheels of the 
 administrative machine at home work smoothly 
 and noiselessly. Until a man appears in the list 
 of New Year's or Birthday honours, his name is 
 146 
 
THE SHADOW OF COMING EVENTS 
 
 never heard. In India every adjustment is 
 carried out with much creaking and groaning, 
 every cog in the mechanism complaining of the 
 excessive load and the little honour allotted to it. 
 Milsom had special and personal attributes. He 
 was large, corpulent and vain. His excessive 
 bulk was the source of some annoyance to him, 
 but in every other respect he was supremely 
 self-satisfied. He had tried various dietaries 
 in the hope of reducing his weight, but he had not 
 grasped the simple fact that there is nothing in 
 the body but that which has been, put there by 
 the process of digestion, nil est in corpore quod 
 non prinserat in ventre, and the only safe and 
 certain cure is self-restraint in the matter of 
 eating. He was a great admirer of the Burmese 
 and he had an extensive acquaintance with the 
 qualities of the race on the distaff-side. This 
 admiration led him in his judicial work to display 
 an extreme leniency in dealing with criminals, 
 and to give the accused the benefit of the doubt 
 where no doubt existed. His name was conse- 
 quently anathema to the law officials of Govern- 
 ment, who found their best efforts wasted, and 
 constantly recommended appeals to the Chief 
 Court from his acquittals. It was his boast that 
 *47 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 in ten years as a judicial officer he had never 
 passed sentence of death. 
 
 When they sat down to dinner Hilda congratu- 
 lated herself that the length of the table separated 
 them. 
 
 After the usual inanities the conversation 
 inevitably turned on the war. The forcing of the 
 Dardanelles had begun and the German blockade 
 of the British seas by submarines was in progress. 
 Milsom defended the German policy. 
 
 " War is not a game like football or glove 
 fighting ; it is the negation of civilization. The 
 most brutal methods are the kindest in the long 
 run, for war is soonest ended by ruthless measures. 
 Now the Burmans " 
 
 Allbut interrupted. " We know all about 
 Burman methods ; their dacoits practise them 
 to this day on helpless women and innocent 
 children. You don't surely advocate Mongolian 
 barbarities in European war ? " 
 
 " Is anything the Burmans ever did worse than 
 the horrible mutilations caused by shells ? " 
 
 " That is not a fair argument, Mr. Milsom," 
 
 said Hilda. " Shells are used against combatants 
 
 and fortified places. The Germans, following no 
 
 doubt what I gather was the Burmese custom, 
 
 148 
 
THE SHADOW OF COMING EVENTS 
 
 make war on women and children, on armed and 
 unarmed alike. But they are the first to make 
 such an innovation in modern Europe." 
 
 Royle tried to create a diversion. " At any 
 rate there seems to be some chance of getting 
 the unspeakable Turk finally out of Europe. 
 That will be something to the good." 
 
 " We hope so," said Allbut* " but the Balkan 
 Christian has not shown himself much better in 
 war or peace than the Mahomedan Turk." 
 
 " No," agreed Milsom. " After the war in 
 1912 they behaved like a lot of brigands and 
 fought over the spoil. I shall be sorry to see the 
 Turk go myself." 
 
 Beryl was shocked but only exclaimed, " Oh, 
 Mr. Milsom ! " 
 
 Her husband felt it his duty to stand up for the 
 Church and protested. " At any rate, you'll 
 admit that Christian rule is better than Maho- 
 medan rule anywhere." 
 
 " German rule, for instance ? " asked Hilda. 
 " His most Christian Majesty William the Second, 
 King of Prussia and Emperor of the Germans, 
 seems to share Mr. Milsom's preference for the 
 Mahomedans." 
 
 "There were other Christian majesties too," 
 149 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 said Allbut, " if I remember my history rightly, 
 whose subjects did unspeakable things to the 
 Mahomedan and to each other at a time when the 
 Mahomedan was the sole patron of the arts and 
 sciences in Europe." 
 
 Mrs. Allbut felt that the discussion was drifting 
 into dangerous channels, and boldly though not 
 very dexterously wrenched it into safer waters. 
 " I forgot to ask how little Kitty is." 
 The move was a sound one. Both Beryl and 
 her husband forgot the scornful allusions to 
 Mother Church as soon as the baby's name was 
 mentioned. Allbut could not fail to understand 
 his wife's intention and deferred to her judgment 
 though with a mute protest. Why, he would 
 argue, should I hold my peace on religion and 
 politics ? They are admittedly the most import- 
 ant topics of discussion and ought to be discussed. 
 You will listen to a curate of twenty-seven talking 
 what I consider arrant nonsense because he is 
 orthodox and does what he is paid to do. If I 
 state my views you lift your hands in amazed 
 horror and say, " These things were settled long 
 ago and we can't discuss them." But they have 
 been settled so many times in so many different 
 ways, by Confucius, by Buddha, by Plato, by the 
 150 
 
THE SHADOW OF COMING EVENTS 
 
 Bible, by the Koran, but always on a basis of 
 ignorance and therefore of superstition. Now 
 that we have attained some degree of knowledge it 
 is time to unsettle them and leave them unsettled. 
 That will mean less work for bishops, but there 
 will always be plenty of work for the parish 
 priest with a human heart and a sane dislike of 
 dogma. Abolish dogma and the hierarchy goes 
 with it. 
 
 From the trend of Hilda's contributions to the 
 brief discussion he felt that she was to some 
 extent in sympathy with his views and he covered 
 his retreat with an aside to her. " Did you see 
 the decision of the Primate on the Kikuyu con- 
 troversy ? " 
 
 " We call it the Hitchy-Koo controversy in 
 Rangoon ! Yes, I read it." 
 
 " Can you conceive that the nation pays a man 
 fifteen thousand a year for doing that sort of 
 thing when a Cabinet Minister or a Judge of the 
 High Court of Appeal draws five thousand ? I 
 wonder if the Bishops ever pray for blessings on 
 the heretics. Without them their occupation 
 would be gone." 
 
 Hilda laughed. " But where would you be 
 without the criminal ? Or the doctor without 
 I5i 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 the microbe ? By the way, you are a barrister, 
 are you not ? " 
 
 Allbut assented. "I ate my dinners — very 
 excellent dinners they were too — and was duly 
 called." 
 
 " Well, then, perhaps you can explain to me why 
 a criminal who murders an old woman for her 
 money and shoots the policeman who tries to 
 arrest him is allowed the services of a barrister 
 free of charge ; whereas an innocent man slan- 
 dered by a penny-a-line journalist in search of a 
 sensational headline can only get his character 
 cleared at a cost which may mean financial ruin." 
 
 " On the same principle that a man danger- 
 ously injured in a street accident can get the 
 best treatment available free of cost at a big 
 hospital, but if he wants a lot of bad teeth pain- 
 lessly extracted and a new set provided he must 
 pay." 
 
 " I don't think the analogy is perfect. Tracy 
 says — you know Tracy has brains, although you 
 civilians never give a soldier credit for any — 
 Tracy says that the legal profession is the closest 
 ring in the world ; lawyers make the laws to 
 trap the layman, and then when he is fast in the 
 toils they hold him to ransom." 
 152 
 
THE SHADOW OF COMING EVENTS 
 
 " You're a dangerous opponent, Mrs. Tomson. 
 I shall make an ally of you. As an earnest of good 
 faith, I will admit now that the Workmen's Com- 
 pensation Act and the Employers' Liability Bill 
 set hundreds of poor struggling lawyers on their 
 feet." 
 
 " Then you pray for lots of legislation and 
 plenty of briefs as the soldier used to drink to 
 war, red war, and rapid promotion. They don't 
 drink that toast any more," she added sadly as 
 she thought of the countless young Englishmen 
 sleeping their last long sleep in France. 
 
 The guests departed early. Beryl was anxious 
 still about Kitty and wished to be near her, and 
 she 'guessed that Hilda was tired in spite of her 
 vivacity ; so she carried her husband off and Mr. 
 Milsom followed. They stopped the trap at the 
 foot of the hill in order to walk and ease the pony 
 up the ascent, and Milsom overtaking them, 
 joined them. He discussed the Burman beliefs 
 in Nats and pointed out a large banyan tree near 
 the entrance to the compound of Royle's house. 
 "In that tree," he said, " lives the most powerful 
 of the Nats on this hill. You see the candles 
 burning at the foot of the tree and the little 
 offerings to propitiate him." 
 
 r53 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 His tone was so matter of fact that Beryl said, 
 " Surely, Mr. Milsom, you don't believe in such 
 things ? " 
 
 He evaded the question. " There are many 
 things the Burmans know which we have for- 
 gotten. Ask your husband whether he believes 
 in the Banshee, Mrs. Rpyle." 
 
 Royle muttered some inaudible reply. He 
 combined the credulity of the Roman Catholic 
 with the Irishman's fear of saying anything dis- 
 respectful about the " Little People " or any 
 other unseen power, and in spite of his education 
 he would have hesitated to deny the possibility 
 even of Nats at that hour of the night and in that 
 place. But Beryl did not press for any expression 
 of opinion. 
 
 154 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 Deals chiefly with Evil Spirits that 
 Claim Worship 
 
 AT half-past five on Tuesday evening Mr. 
 Milsom, dressed in the tussore silk suit 
 which is the orthodox substitute in the hot season 
 for the regulation blue serge worn in the cold 
 weather, entered the Rathemyo Civil Club. In 
 spite of the lightness of his attire he was bathed 
 in perspiration, for he had carried down the hill 
 on foot his two hundred and twenty pounds of 
 solid flesh in the hope of reducing his burden, 
 and the thermometer stood at ninety-eight. 
 The members of the Club had discussed the pro- 
 priety of active sympathy with the crusade on 
 behalf of total abstinence which was at that 
 time agitating England, but decided that, the 
 conditions of life in a tropical climate being 
 essentially different from those prevailing in 
 England, they should merely pledge themselves 
 155 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 for the period of the war to take whisky in modera- 
 tion. Mr. Milsom was not therefore debarred 
 from the customary " chota peg " with which 
 he revived his exhausted frame after the exer- 
 tions of walking half a mile down hill and half a 
 mile on the flat." He had just completed his 
 survey of the day's news as it appeared in the 
 Rangoon Gazette and drained his glass, when Mrs. 
 Allbut and Mrs. Tomson entered the verandah. 
 With an effort he raised his bulky person out of 
 the long chair in which he lay and greeted the 
 ladies with an attempt at courtly grace. 
 
 " Good evening, Mr. Milsom. No tennis this 
 evening, I see. I suppose we shall have bridge 
 afterwards ; Mrs. Tomson would like a game, 1 
 know." 
 
 " I can exist without it, if necessary," and Hilda 
 smiled. 
 
 " I hope we'll get a game," replied the Judge. 
 " But I don't think the Royles will be here, and 
 the doctor is sure to be late." 
 
 " I hope little Kitty is not worse," said both 
 ladies together. 
 
 " I think she must be, because I met Captain 
 Taylor on his way up the hill, and he said the 
 lugale, Maung Tun Hlaing, had come down for 
 
 156 
 
DEALS CHIEFLY WITH EVIL SPIRITS 
 
 him in great haste, and declared that the child 
 was unconscious." 
 
 " I am so sorry. I hope she will be well enough 
 to be taken away by the up mail on Thursday." 
 
 The few people in the station dropped in to 
 the Club one by one ; hearing the news they 
 expressed sympathy for the Royles and immedi- 
 ately passed on to other topics with a facility 
 bred of long residence in a land where plague, 
 pestilence and famine, murder and sudden death 
 are matters of daily routine. At seven o'clock, 
 when the air inside the club building had cooled 
 sufficiently to make bridge and billiards possible, 
 if barely tolerable, under a punkah, most of 
 the company went in and settled down to their 
 evening game. Captain Taylor came in soon 
 afterwards. 
 
 " Hello, Sawbones ! " shouted a voice from 
 the billiard-room. " Come and take a cue at 
 snookers." 
 
 " Not to-night," replied the Civil Surgeon. 
 " Kitty Royle is dead and I promised Mrs. Royle 
 I would see about the arrangements for the 
 funeral at half-past seven to-morrow morning. 
 I hope some of you will put in an appearance." 
 
 The players stopped their games for a time 
 157 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 to inquire details and find how Royle and his 
 wife were bearing the blow, then continued 
 playing. In a land where a man apparently in 
 full health may die and be buried within twenty- 
 four hours, it does not do to dwell too much on 
 the terror of death, and they are no more to be 
 blamed for levity than the soldier who plays 
 football within some hundreds of yards of the 
 trenches where ' his comrades were shot a few 
 hours before. 
 
 The doctor had found Kitty unconscious, with 
 a temperature already high and steadily mounting. 
 He at once despatched a servant to meet the 
 train due at Rangoon at six o'clock, with a letter 
 to the station-master asking him to commandeer 
 all the ice available on the train and send it up 
 without delay. Meanwhile the little patient was 
 wrapped in wet sheets and the punkah coolie 
 stimulated to unwonted energy. The doctor 
 anxiously looked at his watch and listened for 
 the whistle of the train, already overdue. He 
 knew that the chance was a slight one, and unless 
 the ice came quickly the hot little limbs and the 
 flushed face would soon be pale and cold in 
 death. From time to time he took away the 
 clinical thermometer and examined it with evi- 
 
 158 
 
DEALS CHIEFLY WITH EVIL SPIRITS 
 
 dent perturbation. At half-past six he heard 
 the train rumble into the station. How the 
 minutes dragged : Her life was ebbing fast ; 
 the thermometer relentlessly mounted and her 
 heart fluttered ever more rapidly and more 
 faintly. At last he heard the servant urging on 
 two weary coolies panting up the hill under their 
 creaking burden. He began to give his directions 
 quickly in a tone that betrayed his keen anxiety, 
 with a hand still on the hot little wrist. The 
 pulse leapt suddenly under his fingers and the 
 tormented little body quivered once and was 
 still. Turning to the lugale he told him to go 
 out and bid the servants and coolies to be silent. 
 He bent down to listen with his ear against 
 Kitty's breast, then shook his head. '■ Never 
 mind now. It's too late, Mrs. Royle. Poor little 
 Kitty ! " 
 
 Beryl's grief was unrestrained and found vent 
 in floods of tears, but her husband sat silent in 
 a chair near the bed with his eyes fixed on the 
 dead child's face. For hours he remained there 
 motionless, but finally allowed himself to be 
 led away. Before he left Captain Taylor had 
 given Tun Hlaing instructions to remove out 
 of his master's way anything that could remind 
 '59 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 him of his besetting vice, but Royle made no 
 attempt to seek his usuaLsolace. He seemed 
 benumbed and dazed by the sudden calamity 
 and did not even go into the child's room again. 
 During the night Beryl twice turned up the 
 lamp to see if he was sleeping, but found him 
 lying with eyes wide open staring into the dark- 
 ness. It was not until he stood in the little 
 churchyard and heard the earth ring dully on 
 the little coffin that he awoke from his torpor 
 and broke into a fit of dry sobbing that wrung 
 the hearts of those gathered round the grave. 
 
 Mrs. Allbut and Hilda spent much time with 
 Beryl during the days that followed. Hilda's 
 own trouble was initiating her into that free- 
 masonry of sorrow which enables men and women 
 all over the world to recognize their fellow-sufferers 
 who have passed through the valley of tribulation. 
 Beryl, quiet, unsophisticated and modest, had 
 conceived a great admiration for Hilda, who 
 requited her with genuine affection. As she 
 pieced together from Beryl's desultory confidences 
 the history of her marriage, of her husband's 
 weakness, and of the restraining influence of his 
 love for baby Kitty, she began to wonder if 
 she were not now paying the penalty of her 
 I , 160 
 
DEALS CHIEFLY WITH EVIL SPIRITS 
 
 ready acquiescence in Tracy's view that a junior 
 captain cannot afford children. She thought of 
 Sir Edwin Arnold's lines : 
 
 " The thoughts ye cannot stay with brazen chains 
 A girl's hair lightly binds " ; 
 
 and asked herself whether the sunlit locks of a 
 baby girl might not have chained Tracy's affec- 
 tions to his own home and his own wife. She 
 tasted the bitterness of futile regret and 'made 
 an equally futile, belated resolve. 
 
 She was wise enough, however, to betray no- 
 thing of her reflections in her weekly letter to 
 her husband. She described the death of the 
 child, whom he no doubt remembered seeing 
 on the Devonshire, and discussed the effect of 
 their loss on the parents. 
 
 " You would be sincerely sorry for little Mrs. 
 Royle and forget your dislike of the Eurasian," 
 she wrote. " In her sorrow she is just a natural 
 woman without self-consciousness of any kind. 
 She seems to feel instinctively that her grief 
 gives her a claim to the sympathy of her sex, 
 and that all our petty distinctions are cancelled 
 by what is to her an overwhelming calamity. 
 So she takes her place amongst us with that 
 perfect simplicity and confidence that constitute 
 161 L 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 good breeding. The effect on her husband is 
 different. He is too absorbed in his own affliction 
 to see the change in his wife, and he is said 
 to be drinking heaVily. He sits late on the bench 
 and, naturally, does not frequent the Club, so 
 that one rarely sees him. The Burmans in the 
 place are spreading a curious story of a new 
 ' Nat,' which they say has taken up its abode 
 in one of the banyan trees on the ridge. They 
 believe that it is a re-incarnation of the spirit 
 of poor little Kitty Royle, and therefore a being 
 to be propitiated. It is one of their superstitions 
 that children dying young, especially if they meet 
 a violent or sudden end, become Nats with a 
 great capacity for mischief unless they are treated 
 with due respect. Tun Hlaing, the lugale, ex- 
 plained all this at great length to Mrs. Royle 
 yesterday, and gave instances. ' When King 
 Mindon built the fort at Mandalay/ he said, 
 • four children were killed and buried, one at 
 each corner of the fort, to guard it against enemies. 
 They became four powerful Nats, the protectors 
 of the royal palace and the fort that enclosed 
 it.' If you object that they failed to keep out 
 the British, no doubt Tun Hlaing would reply 
 that the Burmese king voluntarily surrendered 
 162 
 
DEALS CHIEFLY WITH EVIL SPIRITS 
 
 Mandalay, so they had to fall in with his arrange- 
 ments." 
 
 This story was the topic of much discussion 
 at the Club, Milsom, as usual, defending the Bur- 
 mese point of view, Allbut criticizing it. " What 
 a fraud the Burman is ! " said the latter. " He 
 professes an abstract philosophic creed which 
 wins the admiration even of Christians, yet he 
 is really as credulous as a West African negro 
 and has as many deities as the Hindu. His 
 creed too is entirely selfish and individualist." 
 
 " Why, charity is one of the cardinal Buddhist 
 virtues," objected Milsom, " and if the Buddhist 
 admits that he practises charity for the sake of 
 his own salvation, he is only more candid than 
 the average Christian. As for his belief in Nats, 
 can you blame him ? The ordinary human 
 being requires something more than a cold 
 philosophy ; he needs a belief in some Power 
 that interests itself in his affairs. Even Sir 
 Oliver Lodge had to invent another world behind 
 the veil and people it with his own friends, Myers 
 and the rest." 
 
 " I give you Sir Oliver Lodge. He is a shock- 
 ing example of the ease with which scientists, 
 accustomed to experiments where the element 
 
 163 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 of fraud is absent, fall victims to charlatans." 
 
 " You can explain his attitude as you please ; 
 he still proves, or at any rate illustrates my point. 
 The Burman is in many ways a child and the 
 Nats are to him what the Brownies are to the 
 Scotch, the Little People to the Irish, and fairies 
 to children of all ages in every part of the world. 
 You would not dream of bringing up children, 
 I imagine, on hard facts, like Mr. Gradgrind ? ' ' 
 
 " No, and I never met anybody who would, 
 except the Seventh Day Adventists, who profess 
 to teach nothing but hard fact. Their definition 
 of fact, however, is loose enough to include the 
 rather gruesome stories of the Old Testament." 
 
 " One of the things I chiefly admire in the 
 Burman," said Milsom, " is his unfailing cheerful- 
 ness. Have you ever seen the paintings of the 
 Buddhist hells in the pagoda at Pyapon ? They 
 are worse than anything the Calvinist or even 
 the early Fathers imagined, yet they do not 
 seem to weigh on his mind as the uncertainty 
 of his future weighed on a great mind like Dr. 
 Johnson's." 
 
 " I think Johnson was an exceptional case, 
 just because 'he had a powerful intellect. He 
 was too logical to modify truth, as he conceived 
 164 
 
DEALS CHIEFLY WITH EVIL SPIRITS 
 
 it, in his own favour. The ordinary sinner, on 
 the other hand, persuades himself that hell is an 
 invention of the priest to frighten him, or at 
 least that its climate is much maligned. It is 
 only when he is assured of salvation that he 
 holds fast to a belief in hell — for the benefit of 
 others." 
 
 '* I have met some curious instances of the 
 matter-of-fact attitude of the Burman towards 
 re-incarnation," said Milsom. " You remember 
 the shooting of Tufnell, the military police officer, 
 by dacoits a dozen years ago ? He was believed 
 by the Burmans to have re-incarnated at once 
 as a Burmese boy born a few months later, who 
 seemed to know every detail of Tufnell's life and 
 described the village where he was shot, though 
 he had never seen it. Mrs. Tufnell asked a friend 
 of her husband's to interview this youth when 
 he was about ten years old. You remember 
 him, I dare say — Mitchell of the Intelligence 
 Department, who spoke the language like a 
 native ? He assured me that the boy's knowledge 
 of Tufnell was as full as his own, and that the 
 youngster gravely discussed * his widow's ' 
 re- marriage and said he had no objections." 
 
 " I could guess who coached the boy," jeered 
 
 165 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 the incredulous Allbut. " Did you ever read 
 the famous Tichborne case ? The claimant's 
 mother had been a housemaid in the Tichborne 
 family and knew the deceased baronet most inti- 
 mately, so that she was able to give her son all 
 kinds of details as to the house and the life of 
 the real heir, who was drowned at sea." 
 
 In his reply to Hilda's letter Tracy described 
 another curious instance of the prevalent belief 
 in re-incarnation and the matter-of-fact attitude 
 of the native towards it. " Your story about the 
 Nat in the banyan tree reminds me of an extra- 
 ordinary thing that happened here the other 
 day. Twenty-five years ago, it seems, two 
 Kachin chiefs were killed in a petty tribal squabble. 
 The same day, in a village not far from the 
 scene of the fight, a woman gave birth to twins, 
 who both bore the imprint of an arrow-head on 
 their shoulders. The Kachins without hesitation 
 accepted the birth-mark as proof that the two 
 slain chiefs had re-incarnated at once. The 
 twins grew up together ; both were much below 
 the average height and very thick set, dwarfs 
 in fact, but in no way deformed. One of them 
 has worked for six or seven years past as servant 
 to Hart, the political officer attached to this 
 166 
 
DEALS CHIEFLY WITH EVIL SPIRITS 
 
 expedition. Hart knows the story and has seen 
 the arrow mark on the man's shoulder. About 
 a week ago we bivouacked one evening near a 
 Kachin village, and at dinner time the lugale 
 was absent. Hart's orderly informed him that 
 the man had gone off to see his wife, who lived 
 in the village. ' But he left his wife in Myit- 
 kyina,' objected Hart. ' I mean his wife in former 
 days when he was a chief,' calmly explained the 
 orderly. Full of curiosity Hart procured a guide 
 and went off alone to look for his servant. He 
 found him sitting in the house indicated by the 
 guide, cheerfully conversing with an old woman, 
 the chief's widow, who accepted him a« her 
 former husband, and surrounded by men and 
 women older than himself, who had no doubt 
 at all that he was their father." 
 
 A few nights later Allbut was working alone 
 in his study after dinner, in order to dispose of 
 certain urgent and important work that had been 
 sent over to him from the office. There had 
 been a heavy thunderstorm in the afternoon, 
 the first of the season, and myriads of reptiles 
 and winged pests of all kinds seemed suddenly 
 to have sprung to life. In the ditches the bull- 
 frogs boomed, and the crickets chirped in the 
 167 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 trees above them. Great beetles hummed through 
 the air or, drawn by the light of the lamps into 
 the house, blindly beat their foolish heads against 
 the wall and fell helpless on the floor. Centipedes 
 driven out of their holes in the ground infested 
 the paths, and scorpions had been killed in the 
 dining-room during dinner by the alert khit- 
 mutgar ; while flies innumerable of countless 
 varieties made life for the moment an almost 
 intolerable burden. The rain, had temporarily 
 cooled the air, but the brief respite only served 
 to emphasize the oppressiveness of the steamy 
 heat that followed. The Deputy Commissioner, 
 after an interval of hesitation, had decided that 
 the heat of a closed room mitigated by a punkah 
 was more endurable than the plague of flying 
 things, and had bolted and barred doors and 
 windows. But in that interval swarms of the 
 noxious creatures had invaded the room, attracted 
 by the lamp on his table, and every swing of the 
 punkah-frill swept them down on to his papers, 
 into his hair or down his neck. The heat and 
 smell of the lamp in the closed room added to 
 his discomfort, but he struggled on through the 
 mass of files before him. From the stage at 
 which that favourite line of Tennyson's springs 
 168 
 
DEALS CHIEFLY WITH EVIL SPIRITS 
 
 to the lips of Britons exiled to the tropics, 
 " Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of 
 Cathay," he rapidly passed to deep profanity. 
 He had just extricated from under his shirt- 
 band — his collar had gone long ago — one of the 
 peculiarly malodorous insects known to the 
 Englishman as the " skunk-bug," and nauseated 
 and exasperated had sprung to his feet with a 
 curse, sweeping an armful of papers into the 
 waste-paper basket, when a couple of shots rang 
 out in rapid succession. 
 
 " The jail alarm ! Or can the Military Police 
 have broken out at last ? " He rang the telephone 
 bell violently. " Hello ! Hello ! Put me on 
 to the Military Police Guard." 
 
 After some delay the connexion was made. 
 " Kon hai ? Who is it ? Oh, it's you, havildar 
 sahib. Everything is all right with you ? Good ! 
 Where was the firing ? Not from the jail ? 
 Very well. Salaam ! havildar sahib." 
 
 He rang up Frost, the District Superintendent 
 of Police, whose house was on the river bank 
 near the steamer ghat, and Frost reported : "I 
 have rung up the jail and found all quiet there. 
 The shots came from the hill behind the railway 
 station, I think. I'll ring up the nearest police 
 169 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 station and have a patrol sent out. Very well, 
 sir, I'll meet you near the Club if you wish to 
 go with us." 
 
 Allbut threw open the door of his study and 
 went out. Mrs. Allbut and Hilda had retired 
 to their rooms earlier in the evening to seek 
 refuge from the plague of flies under their mos- 
 quito-curtains, but as David turned into his dress- 
 ing-room to take his revolver his wife appeared 
 at the opposite door in a dressing-gown. 
 
 " What is it, David ? I heard the telephone 
 bell several times, and I think I heard shots — 
 or did I dream it ? " 
 
 " Nothing serious, anyhow. The jail and the 
 Military Police lines are all right. Probably one 
 of these youngsters in Moore Bros, is trying to 
 shoot the crows in their sleep. Go to bed. I 
 shan't be long away." 
 
 He called the durwan, who preceded him down 
 the path with a lamp. He had not gone many 
 yards down the road when he saw a slight figure 
 hurrying towards him. 
 
 At sight of him the figure stopped. " Thank 
 God ! Oh, Mr. Allbut, do come to him ! " 
 
 " Why, it's Mrs. Royle ! Come to whom ? 
 What is the matter ? " 
 
 170 
 
DEALS CHIEFLY WITH EVIL SPIRITS 
 
 " It's James. He is out on the hill with a 
 gun. Tun Hlaing says he is mad and has run 
 for the police. It is terrible." 
 
 She wrung her hands in despair. Allbut 
 passed her arm through his own and tried to 
 soothe her as best he could. He gathered from 
 her disconnected utterances that Royle had been 
 drinking all day at home and inferred that he 
 was on the verge of delirium. When they met 
 Frost he instructed him to call Taylor and bring 
 him along up the hill. " And tell him not to 
 forget his hypodermic syringe," he added in an 
 undertone. 
 
 The police officer and the Civil Surgeon over- 
 took the Deputy Commissioner and Beryl before 
 they reached the foot of the hill. Near the rail- 
 way station the little party met Tun Hlaing with 
 two Burmese police constables and a sergeant. 
 These Frost dismissed, and having reprimanded 
 the lugale for his officiousness told him to go 
 on ahead and attend to his master. When they 
 reached the house they found Royle sitting 
 huddled up in a chair with eyes bloodshot and 
 staring, hair tumbled and mouth distorted. He 
 was dressed in a shirt open at the neck, trousers 
 and Burmese slippers. By his side was a double- 
 171 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 barrelled shot gun, which he reached and clutched 
 apprehensively as Taylor advanced towards him. 
 
 " Hello, Royle ! What's the matter ? " the 
 Civil Surgeon asked with as natural an air as 
 he could assume. 
 
 Royle put down the gun. " Oh, it's you, 
 Taylor ? I thought it was that damned Nat 
 again. I'll shoot him yet ! " And he shook his 
 fist. 
 
 " What's this about a Nat ? Let me feel 
 your pulse, old man. You've got a touch of 
 fever." 
 
 " Why, the Nat that lives in the banyan tree 
 and pretends he is little Kitty's spook. These 
 damned silly Burmans believe him too. Here ! 
 Maung Tun Hlaing, don't you believe that the 
 Nat in the banyan tree is the spirit of the thakin- 
 ma-gale ? " 
 
 " Hman ba pay ah ! That is true, your honour," 
 replied the Burman gravely. 
 
 " Well, it's too late to discuss that now," 
 said Taylor. " What you want is sleep." 
 
 His assured manner controlled the other's 
 
 will and Royle allowed him to bare his arm and 
 
 insert the morphia syringe without appearing 
 
 to feel it. The drug soon took effect, and with 
 
 172 
 
DEALS CHIEFLY WITH EVIL SPIRITS 
 
 Tun Hlaing's assistance the doctor got the 
 unhappy man to bed. 
 
 " That will keep him quiet for ten or twelve 
 hours, Mrs. Royle. I'll look in to-morrow morn- 
 ing and give him some more if necessary. We 
 must keep him quiet till the poison has worked 
 itself out. You had better pack up and get him 
 away by Sunday's mail steamer. I'll take the 
 • responsibility of ordering him off on medical 
 leave urgent, and arrange with the Government." 
 
 The Civil Surgeon was as good as his word. 
 He obtained the consent of the Government 
 by telegraph to his action and in a confidential 
 letter to the Secretary gave such details as were 
 essential. He established an ascendancy over 
 Royle that enabled him to overcome or brush 
 aside any objections and saw him off at eight 
 o'clock on Sunday morning in charge of Beryl 
 and the faithful Tun Hlaing. Ma Dun Aung 
 accompanied them as lady's maid. They were 
 to spend a month up in the hills at Maymyo, 
 and on their return, so the Secretary said, Royle 
 would be transferred to a place without the pain- 
 ful associations of Rathemyo. Hilda went down 
 to say good-bye to Beryl on board the steamer. 
 The perception of the little r Eurasian lady's 
 173 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 courage in face of a greater trouble than her 
 own gave Hilda encouragement. An infatuation 
 for another woman was after all less of a slight 
 to the injured wife than a degraded taste for 
 alcohol. The one is curable too, the other prob- 
 ably incurable, though Beryl was still hopeful. 
 If Royle could understand the change wrought 
 in Beryl, and the enhanced esteem in which she 
 was held by the wives of his colleagues in virtue 
 of her natural simplicity and candour and her 
 new dignity of sorrow, one cause at any rate of 
 his weakness would be removed. For the ordi- 
 nary man marries for love, that is for passion, 
 and the permanence of his love depends on his 
 friends' approval of his choice. 
 
 174 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 Hilda Discourses of Golf in Rangoon and 
 Miracles in the Shan States 
 
 THE advent of the monsoon put an end to 
 operations in the Kachin hills and calmed 
 the turbulent mind of the tribesmen, but there 
 was much to be done before the column finally 
 made its way down to the plains and the various 
 units dispersed. So July was half spent and 
 the dreary rainy season well established before 
 Tomson was told to report himself for orders in 
 Rangoon. The remnant of his regiment had not 
 distinguished itself in Africa, whither it had been 
 sent for service, and had finally been disbanded. 
 The officers had been transferred to other corps, 
 and Tomson had been gazetted to a regiment 
 stationed on the border of the Waziri country in 
 anticipation of a frontier rising, but had been 
 allowed to continue his service in the Burma 
 Military Police. There was apparently no pro- 
 spect of active service in Europe. If an opportu- 
 175 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 nity arose, he reflected, he would be more easily 
 spared from a junior appointment in the police 
 than from the command of a company engaged 
 on the North-West frontier. Besides, Helen 
 was in Rangoon and he was eager to see her. 
 So he was well content with the orders he received 
 at Myitkyina and hastened back to Rangoon, 
 where Hilda awaited him in the little bungalow 
 in Cheape Road. N 
 
 Helen's letters had been rarer of late and more 
 brief. He found them, if not cold, at any rate 
 constrained. He acquitted her in his own mind 
 of the design to keep his love for her alive by 
 feigning an indifference she did not feel, and he 
 knew his own letters to her had given no ground 
 for suspicion of decreasing ardour. He was 
 curious rather than uneasy, but the certainty 
 of an early solution of the riddle was a distinct 
 relief. So it was in a cheerful frame of mind 
 that he greeted Hilda on the station platform 
 where the Mandalay mail train deposited him at 
 half-past eight one morning in the latter half 
 of July. 
 
 " Well, old girl ! How are you, and how is 
 the little house getting on ? Have you been 
 very lonely ? " 
 
 176 
 
HILDA DISCOURSES OF GOLF 
 
 " A little, dear. But then, what can a soldier's 
 wife expect in these days ? It might be very 
 much worse. I have been thankful you were 
 comparatively safe every time I have seen a 
 casualties list in the papers." 
 
 " Is that my new orderly ? I'll just show him 
 my kit and then leave him to the boys to fetch 
 it up. You can drive me up now. After forty- 
 eight hours of the Burma railways I crave a 
 bath and such luxuries as a razor, clean clothes 
 and breakfast." 
 
 A batch of letters awaited Tracy at the bunga- 
 low, and he opened them after breakfast, passing 
 across to Hilda any he thought she would be 
 interested in. Amongst hers was one from Beryl 
 Royle which she tossed over to him. 
 
 " Read that, and tell me if you would recog- 
 nize the writer." 
 
 " Hello ! Mrs. Royle, eh ? How is the tippling 
 husband ? " 
 
 " Very much better of late. His wife says he 
 has been induced to take to golf and is really 
 keen on it." 
 
 " Is that supposed to be a cure for a tendency 
 to alcohol ? " 
 
 " I don't know," mused Hilda. " It may be, 
 177 M 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 on the principle of substituting one obsession for 
 another." 
 
 " That's rather strong surely ? " laughed 
 Tracy. "It's a bad craze with some people, I 
 know, but to most of them it's only relaxation." 
 
 " So I used to think until I spent the afternoon 
 with Mr. and Mrs. Grayson at Mingaladon and 
 dined with them there. All through dinner they 
 sat and gloomed at each other and me, speaking 
 in monosyllables. When the dessert came on 
 Mrs. Grayson helped herself reflectively to choco- 
 lates, and half addressing herself, said, ' I played 
 a rotten game this afternoon ! ' 'So did I,' 
 said her husband, and they sighed together. 
 After an old brandy he roused himself sufficiently 
 to explain why he played badly, and she followed 
 his example. That was almost worse than their 
 silence." 
 
 " What a jolly dinner ! " commented Tracy. 
 
 " We drove home together in their car, and Mrs. 
 Grayson remarked, 'I'm surprised you don't 
 take up golf, Mrs. Tomson.' I replied, ' Life is 
 sad enough without making trouble for oneself.' 
 I don't think they quite saw my allusion, but I 
 determined never to risk the infatuation for such 
 a peace-destroying game." 
 178 
 
HILDA DISCOURSES OF GOLF 
 
 " Well, I never found time for it myself." 
 
 " Thank goodness ! " exclaimed Hilda fer- 
 vently. " Every real sport leaves its mark on 
 a man. A cricketer, a footballer, a polo-player, 
 an oarsman, is always well set up and athletic 
 looking, but the golfer has no distinguishing mark, 
 unless it is a slouch. You could not tell James 
 Braid — if that is the champion's name — from a 
 ping-pong expert." 
 
 " Oh ! Come, Hilda ! Half the business men 
 in Rangoon declare that golf keeps them fit as 
 nothing else has ever done. And you must 
 remember that it is the pastime of a very serious- 
 minded nation — the Scotch." 
 
 ' Yes, I've thought all that out. It is a pas- 
 time, not a sport, and the invention of a nation 
 whose two real hobbies were Calvinism and 
 whiskey. Golf provided them with occupation 
 enough to divert their thoughts from the one and 
 exercise enough to promote a thirst for the other." 
 
 " Really you move me to try it. ' Almost 
 thou persuadest me to be ' — a golfer." 
 
 " At your peril ! Dare to touch a golf club 
 and I will take you out to the Mingaladon links 
 on a competition day and show you the two 
 players with the plus handicap." 
 179 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 " You think that would choke me off ? " 
 
 " I think so, when you saw the qualities of 
 mind and body that expert skill in golf either 
 develops or demands. One of them, I am sure, 
 is the corpulent little merchant whom Colonel 
 White described to you at Kandy as a scalded 
 ferret ; the other is a weedy, cadaverous-looking 
 civilian, whose every movement is one of intensely 
 self-complacent deliberation." 
 
 " I may infer then that all your friends are 
 inferior players, that is, if they play at all." 
 
 " You may. It's a terrible thing to be success- 
 ful in a game that requires such ' deleebera- 
 tion ' ! " 
 
 " You are too good in the saddle and the ball- 
 room to appreciate the ancient and royal game," 
 laughed Tracy. '■■ I suppose you and Mrs. Whit- 
 ham are still in great request on dance nights 
 at the Gymkhana ? " 
 
 The easy reference to Helen was almost clever 
 enough to deceive even so shrewd a woman as 
 Hilda, and the insouciance of her reply was equal 
 to her husband's. 
 
 " Mrs. Whitham ? Poor dear I She's been 
 limited for the last three months or so to carriage 
 exercise." 
 
 180 
 
HILDA DISCOURSES OF GOLF 
 
 " Why is that ? Has she been ill ? I had not 
 heard anything about it." 
 
 " No, silly ! Did you never read of the Almost 
 Inevitable Consequences ? " 
 
 Hilda's meaning dawned slowly upon him. 
 She had not noticed, or she had chosen to ignore, 
 both the anxiety in his tone when he suggested 
 illness, or the implication that he ought to have 
 been told about it. But she could not fail to see 
 the effect of her sudden light-hearted announce- 
 ment, though he made a tremendous effort to 
 conceal the blow he had received, a blow of 
 which he himself did not fully understand the 
 nature. To Hilda his stupefaction was even 
 less comprehensible. The first wild conjecture 
 was dismissed at once from her mind as baseless. 
 His ignorance of the impending event was proof 
 of his innocence. That his infatuation for Helen 
 might be cured she conceived quite possible, 
 and indeed hoped for such an issue. But his 
 suffering implied jealousy or a more complicated 
 feeling. The human mind, especially the mascu- 
 line mind, has a curious capacity for accepting 
 facts without recognizing the necessary infer- 
 ences. The difference between the ages of Helen 
 and Whitham, their childless union, the almost 
 181 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 paternal attitude of the husband, all combined 
 to enable Tracy to forget entirely the detailed 
 obligations of the married state, specified with 
 such crudity in the Prayer-book. His relations 
 to Helen had never been marred by jealousy of 
 Dick. The sudden realization of marital privi- 
 leges and wifely duties forced upon him by this 
 news, stunned him. For the first time he really 
 understood that Whitham was an obstacle in the 
 way of his half-acknowledged purposes. 
 
 To Hilda's feminine and more practical intelli- 
 gence his attitude was a complete surprise, and 
 only after long thought did she reach an approxi- 
 mately true solution. Even then she inferred 
 wrongly a probable cooling of Tracy's passion. 
 If it is true that the feminine mind in debate 
 reaches intuitively right conclusions, it is none 
 the less true that in action it envisages the means 
 to an end, and grasps in detail the bearings of 
 a fact. Qui veut la fin veut les moyens is a maxim 
 that would be superfluous in a world of women. 
 The woman who has fixed her heart on an object 
 does not shrink from the means to attaining her 
 purpose. Man, like a nervous horse, starts back 
 from an obstacle that woman takes in her stride. 
 Macbeth's ambition was no less than his wife's, 
 182 
 
HILDA DISCOURSES OF GOLF 
 
 but she it was who pressed the dagger into his 
 hand and urged him by taunt to action. So men 
 accuse women of being less scrupulous than them- 
 selves. They are merely more logical, more 
 uncompromising. Happily for mankind they 
 are more conscientious than men in their aims, 
 just because their clearer sight enables them to 
 perceive every step to the goal. Men are apt 
 to follow the example of Philip of Macedon and 
 choose their ends after dinner, postponing the 
 consideration of means till they are in a more 
 sober mood. Hence countless abortive purposes. 
 Women see the means and the end as parts of 
 one whole and do not select the one without the 
 other. The French nation displays this relent- 
 less feminine logic in action, while the English 
 adopt practical and irritating compromises. The 
 consequences are in the one case rapid revolu- 
 tions and frequent reactions ; in the other slow, 
 steady development. The Englishman makes 
 fewer political blunders than the Frenchman but 
 he rarely adopts an entirely just course with the 
 fine Gallic disregard of consequences. 
 
 Helen knew from Tracy's letters that he was 
 still unaware of her condition, but she felt that 
 I lilda was sure to inform him either by accident 
 
 183 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 or design before many hours had passed. She 
 understood how the news would affect him and 
 surmised that he would make no effort to see 
 her. In any event she was resolved not to see 
 him at home, and from the day before his arrival 
 denied herself to all callers except a few intimates. 
 Innocent of all offence she could not help feeling 
 herself guilty towards the man she loved. In 
 these days she had fallen somewhat under the 
 influence of Mrs. ■ Jeune and was inclined to 
 mystical views of life, to which the state of her 
 health predisposed her. She felt sure that her 
 coming motherhood after seven years of child- 
 less marriage was in some mysterious way con- 
 nected with her love for Tracy, her first real love, 
 and she derived a secret joy from the conviction 
 that he was inexplicably but none the less truly 
 the spiritual father of her unborn child. She 
 thought constantly of him, and endeavoured by 
 concentrating her mind upon his image to make 
 her babe resemble him. She did not despair, 
 if her design should prove successful, of converting 
 him one day to her own belief and so of lessening 
 the resentment which she knew he must feel 
 now. Of her husband she hardly thought at 
 all. He was unable to decide whether he was 
 184 
 
HILDA DISCOURSES OF GOLF 
 
 proud of his paternity or vexed at the prospective 
 invasion of his home and the disturbance of his 
 daily routine. He was certainly discontented 
 with the probability that Helen would find it 
 necessary to go home in the following spring. 
 
 It was not long before Hilda perceived that 
 she had miscalculated the effect of her announce- 
 ment upon Tracy. It is true he made no effort 
 to see Helen, but he was preoccupied and listless, 
 and almost totally indifferent to his wife's presence. 
 When he met Whitham he inquired with formal 
 politeness after Mrs. Whitham and heard unmoved 
 the hesitating statement that she was not receiv- 
 ing callers at present. When she thought he 
 would have somewhat accustomed himself to 
 the changed situation, Helen wrote to him. 
 
 " Do not think hardly of me," the letter said. 
 " I cannot see you now, nor do I think you desire 
 to see me ; yet I want you more than I have 
 ever wanted you. It is hard to know that you 
 are so near and yet to forego the joy of your dear 
 presence. I think of you always with an earnest- 
 ness and depth of feeling that you would not 
 understand. Nothing that has happened or 
 that will happen should come between us. To 
 me it has made no" difference. You are in all 
 
 ' 185 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 this far more than you can possibly guess just 
 now. One day perhaps I shall be able to make 
 things clear to you and to repay you for what 
 I know you are enduring." 
 
 The letter left him not a little puzzled, but he 
 seized on the hope held out in the last sentence 
 and tried to look forward beyond the troubled 
 days that lay immediately ahead. Much that 
 was vague and undefined before in his views and 
 purposes had crystallized suddenly under the 
 shock he had received. He began to regard 
 Helen definitely as his by right of their love, and 
 Hilda and Dick as hindrances to be removed or 
 circumvented. Deprived of Helen's controlling 
 influence, and of all communication with her 
 beyond an occasional brief note, he developed 
 his ideas unchecked without considering how 
 far Helen's notions would coincide with his own. 
 He could not realize how profoundly her outlook 
 might be modified by the mere fact of maternity. 
 
 In his work, which in the Rangoon battalion 
 consisted mainly of dreary office routine, he found 
 no pleasure or solace, and as Helen's time drew 
 near he became impatient and restive. His 
 adjutant noted his mood and decided that a man 
 of Tomson's ability^and energy fretted in Rangoon 
 186 
 
HILDA DISCOURSES OF GOLF 
 
 for want of congenial occupation. " Young 
 Bailey," he thought, " would be perfectly happy 
 here. He is content to spend six hours in office 
 if he can get to the Gymkhana every evening. 
 He is fond of polo and racing and he is popular 
 with the ladies. I'll tell the Colonel to exchange 
 him with Tomson. He would love the freedom 
 and active life of a charge in the Shan hills where 
 there's no end of sport, and Mrs. Tomson looks 
 as if a year in the hills wouid do her no harm." 
 So to the joy of both Hilda and Tracy he was 
 warned to relieve Bailey at Fort Barnard and at 
 the end of September they left Rangoon. From 
 the terminus of the railway, which penetrated 
 only a little way into the plateau, they had a 
 march of ten days to their destination. Bailey 
 had sent down police transport mules and an 
 escort of sowars to meet them, and the durwans 
 at the dak-bungalow along the road had been 
 warned of their coming, so that the discomforts 
 of jungle travel were alleviated and the journey 
 was entirely delightful. The road ran across 
 the parallel ranges that divide the high-lying 
 valleys of the tableland, now rising, now fallings 
 winding through dense forests which echoed the 
 loud screams of the parrot or rang with the 
 187 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 whooping of troops of monkeys, or anon crossing 
 a stretch of open down that invited the travellers 
 to set their ponies at a gallop. The bright cool 
 air and the occasional light showers of rain after 
 the continual downpour and the hothouse atmo- 
 sphere of the monsoon season in Lower Burma 
 banished depression, and Hilda, seeing Tracy's 
 increased cheerfulness and feeling her own spirits 
 mounting, began to wonder if their troubles were 
 not after all imaginary, or at any rate a fungus 
 growth that would perish in the clear light and 
 the dry air of the mountains. She was learning 
 by experience that unhappiness is impossible 
 to a human being in perfect health, just as happi- 
 ness is impossible to a sick man, no matter what 
 the moral philosophers may say to the contrary. 
 So all our teaching of the terrible Christian dogma 
 fails to destroy the equanimity of the normal 
 healthy child, to whom death is a very remote 
 contingency indeed and a perfect digestion a 
 matter of course. 
 
 One morning they had started at sunrise to 
 cross a low range of hills and descend to the next 
 halting place in the valley below. As they reached 
 the crest the sun just topped the lofty peaks of 
 the next range to the eastward, dispersing the 
 188 
 
HILDA DISCOURSES OF GOLF 
 
 — — — ■ — ' 1 — 
 
 thin wreaths of vapour that floated about the 
 heights, but the valley beneath them lay veiled 
 in blue mist, from which the mountains rose like 
 rocky islands from a tranquil sea. Their road 
 a rough, narrow mule track cut into the hillside, 
 wound down in sinuous curves and soon dis- 
 appeared from view round a rocky bluff. As 
 Hilda reined up her pony at the top of the ascent 
 to drink in the beauty of the scene with silent 
 wonder, the tinkling of bells was heard and soon 
 a caravan of pack-bullocks appeared toiling up 
 the steep path. With patient eyes they gazed 
 at the ponies and their riders, hesitated a little, 
 then stepping aside as far as the width of the 
 road permitted, quickened their pace and hurried 
 nervously past one by one. Behind them a 
 couple of Panthay drivers with pigtails and little 
 red-studded blue caps trudged along, patient 
 as their bullocks, and smiled in sheer friendliness 
 at the English officer and his wife. 
 
 " We must descend slowly, sahib," said the 
 orderly. " I will go first." 
 
 Where the road met the bluff a huge triangular 
 slab of stone had been blasted out of the face of 
 the hill to make a passage. The rock above over- 
 hung the road, while below it fell sheer five 
 189 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 hundred feet to the bed of a mountain stream. 
 The surface of the track had been levelled in 
 rough fashion by the picks of the engineer's 
 gang, but the hard quartz polished by the hoofs 
 of innumerable beasts of burden made dangerous, 
 slippery going for all except the most sure-footed 
 animals. Hilda had noted how the track always 
 followed the outer edge of the narrow pathways 
 for so only could the laden mules and oxen get 
 clearance for their packs and avoid striking them 
 against the face of the cliff. The ponies, without 
 the same reason for shunning the inner side, 
 followed instinctively the smooth beaten path 
 made by the pack animals. And Hilda, gazing 
 across the valleys, as her pony picked his way 
 cautiously down the winding road, would suddenly 
 become aware of vacancy beneath her feet, which 
 actually overhung the precipice, and unconsciously 
 leaning inwards, vainly try to make the self- 
 willed pony take the middle of the roadway. 
 So when they drew near the dangerous looking 
 bend, Tracy, who was riding next the sowar, 
 called out to Hilda — 
 
 " We'd better get down here and walk a bit." 
 Throwing his leg over the pony's neck he slid 
 off and turned to hold Hilda's animal while she 
 190 
 
HILDA DISCOURSES OF GOLF 
 
 dismounted. Then leading the ponies they came 
 to the corner and peered over the edge of the 
 cliff. Above them a tree in appearance like the 
 mountain-ash had found foothold in the crevices 
 of the rock and overhung their heads just out of 
 reach. 
 
 " There's not much to break a man's fall if 
 he went over there." 
 
 Hilda shivered and laughed nervously. " A 
 goose walked over my grave," she explained; then 
 looking up at the tree she continued. " Even 
 the tree seems to be interested in what is down 
 below. It looks lovely up there. I'm sure the 
 Burmans would invent a story about a Nat 
 living in a solitary tree in such a position." 
 
 " Has there ever been an accident here ? " 
 Tracy asked the sowar. 
 
 " None, sahib, except that a leopard one night 
 sprang out upon the last of a string of baggage- 
 mules and both fell over the khud and were 
 dashed to pieces." 
 
 " Thus doth greed defeat itself. Take warning, 
 Hilda ! Did I not hear something of tickets last 
 May in the Calcutta Derby Sweep ? " 
 
 " I only risked my ten rupees. I did not plunge 
 and stake my little all like the leopard." 
 191 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 V Your defence resembles the plea of the man 
 who was only a moderate drunkard." 
 
 " That reminds me. Let us walk down this 
 nasty piece of road — we shall get on quicker so 
 — while I beguile the journey with a story I 
 heard in Rangoon of Mr. Tomlinson, the Secretary. 
 Henry, as his wife calls him, is a placid, mild- 
 mannered, benevolent-looking old gentleman, 
 who dearly loves to spin a yarn after dinner over 
 a glass with a friend. One night recently he 
 met at the Gymkhana a colleague of his own year 
 down from Upper Burma on a flying visit to 
 Rangoon to see the dentist, and insisted on carry- 
 ing him off home just as he was to pot- luck. 
 After dinner Mrs. Tomlinson excused herself 
 and went off to bed soon after ten. The guest 
 • took the hint and after a short interval rose to 
 go. • Sit down,' said Mr. Tomlinson, ' I'm not 
 going to bed yet. Boy, peg las ! ' A quarter 
 of an hour later Mrs. Tomlinson's voice was 
 heard up above. ' Henry ! Come to bed ! ' 
 ' Yes, my dear ! ' replied her spouse in the bland- 
 est manner, and the guest again rose to go. 
 ' Sit down ! ' said his host, ' I'm not going to 
 bed for a long time yet. Boy, peg las ! ' A 
 second and a third time Mrs. Tomlinson in stern 
 192 
 
HILDA DISCOURSES OF GOLF 
 
 accents summoned her husband to rest, and 
 received the same obedient reply. But the fourth 
 time Henry, braced with alcohol, electrified both 
 his guest and his better half by answering her 
 peremptory command, though still in the most 
 courteous tone, with, ' Jane, my dear, I'll be 
 damned if I do ! ' " 
 
 " Dutch courage ! " laughed Tracy. " Or 
 the truth that lies in wine ! " 
 
 " They are different stages of the same process. 
 From one you proceed to the other. The road 
 is not so steep here — do you think we might 
 mount ? " 
 
 Soon they debouched from the wooded hills 
 into an open plain, across which the track ran 
 straight for several miles. Paddy was ripening 
 in the fields while on the higher ground bullocks 
 and buffaloes were feeding in charge of diminutive 
 Shan children, to whose capricious commands, 
 enforced with a bamboo twig, the unwieldy 
 beasts yielded implicit obedience. The travellers 
 seized the opportunity to let the ponies out and 
 cantered a couple of miles, drawing rein when a 
 couple of buffalo cows with calves blocked their 
 path and seemed inclined to dispute the right of 
 way. 
 
 193 N 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 " You can never tell wi^h a buffalo whether 
 it is truculence or mere curiosity," remarked 
 Tracy; " if you ride at him, in ninety-nine cases 
 out of a hundred he will turn tail just before you 
 reach him. In the odd case, especially if he is 
 a she and a she with a calf, she waits for you 
 and opens up your pony's flanks with a swing 
 of those terrible horns of hers. Just look at the 
 tremendous head and neck behind them ! We 
 must try to frighten them." 
 
 They advanced at a walk and Tracy shouted 
 and waved his arms, but the buffaloes remained 
 immovable, planted across the path. Just then 
 a tiny, dirty child of five or six years appeared 
 from amongst the tall ears of paddy, and with 
 shrill cries headed off the animals from the fields 
 of grain towards which they were making 
 their way. They swung round and lumbered 
 off at. a slow trot to a grassy • ridge, pur- 
 sued by the mannikin brandishing his slender 
 stick. 
 
 " How ridiculous ! " exclaimed Hilda. " Ima- 
 gine being saved from injury and possibly death 
 by a baby ! Doesn't that remind you of Mr. 
 Allbut ? " 
 
 . " Which of them ? " inquired Tracy. " I 
 194 
 
HILDA DISCOURSES OF GOLF 
 
 did not notice the resemblance. Was it in looks 
 or gait ? " 
 
 " Don't be absurd ! Merely one of his favourite 
 quotations from his favourite author, Thomas 
 Carlyle: 'Discipline is at all times a miracle 
 and works by faith.' If the day of miracles were 
 really over, we might not have troubled much 
 about breakfast this morning. But I never 
 expected to see Carlyle illustrated by a little 
 Shan sans-culotte." 
 
 "Who said breakfast? Let us push on. 
 This early rising and exercise in mountain air 
 gives one a tremendous appetite." 
 
 When they reached the dak-bungalow they 
 found the invaluable Tun Hlaing, who had left 
 the last halting-place after dinner the night 
 before with a couple of mules carrying the essentials 
 for breakfast and a change of clothing. After 
 a bath they did justice to the meal awaiting them 
 and ensconced themselves in long chairs with a 
 book each to await the next event, which was the 
 arrival of the remaining mules with their baggage. 
 That day they went no farther, but on the morrow 
 they pushed on to Koilaw by means of a sixteen 
 mile march over a steep and rugged ascent with 
 an almost precipitous drop on the other side. 
 *95 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 Bailey was awaiting their arrival and gave them 
 a hearty welcome. The baggage mules followed 
 by an easier but longer route and arrived late in 
 the afternoon. Hilda spent the day inspecting 
 the furniture which they proposed to take over 
 from Bailey and planning the arrangement 
 of the little bungalow which was to be their 
 home for many months to come. In the evening 
 their host showed them the sights — the house of 
 the engineer, their only white neighbour, who 
 was out on tour, the golf links he had laid out. 
 the native village, and the jhil where snipe and 
 wild duck were to be found. It was not a great 
 wealth of resources, but the dry winter season was 
 setting in and they had the long tours and the 
 freedom of camp life to look forward to, and 
 neither of them looked back with regret on the 
 stale pleasures of Rangoon which excited in 
 Mr. Bailey such fervid anticipation. 
 
 196 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 Of the Vanity of Human Wishes and 
 Eurasian Journalism 
 
 IT was Thackeray who discovered that the 
 real troubles of life are the small ones. 
 Hilda in her little bungalow at Koilaw, with its 
 compound gay with English flowers, or touring 
 with Tracy in the heart of the Shan hills, was 
 learning that happiness is made up of trifless 
 One is never consciously happy, but only con- 
 scious of having been happy. The happy days 
 are not those on which some great good fortune 
 befalls, but those on which pleasant duties 
 are followed by trivial joys. It is on such day 
 that memory loves to dwell. Tracy too was 
 learning the effect of mere bodily removal from 
 the cause of his trouble. He thought less con- 
 stantly of Helen ; his work and his amusements 
 occupied him more continually, and he found 
 Hilda's companionship more than tolerable. 
 One event disturbed the even tenour of their 
 
 197 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 days. The news that Helen Whitham's brother 
 had been killed in Belgium during a night attack 
 on the German trenches was followed soon after- 
 wards by an announcement in the Rangoon 
 papers that her baby was still-born. The 
 shock of her brother's death was in the doctor's 
 opinion the cause of the mishap, which left' 
 Helen weak and depressed. Whitham was re- 
 lieved, after it became certain that Helen was 
 out of danger, because the threatened disturbance 
 of his usual routine was no longer a contingency 
 to be dreaded. The state of Helen's health made 
 a change of air and scene advisable, but the doctor 
 recommended the hills rather than England 
 in the winter. Accordingly Helen accepted an 
 invitation to stay with Mrs. Barton, wife of Colonel 
 Barton, Superintendent and Political Officer 
 of the Shan States, at Kangale. She had made a 
 journey home once with Mrs. Barton and the 
 friendship begun on board had been confirmed 
 ashore. The two formed a curious contrast 
 both in appearance and character. Mrs. Barton 
 was short and inclined to matronly stoutness, 
 invariably cheerful and placid, energetic and a 
 capable manager. She was devoted to her husband 
 and her numerous children, and her one sorrow 
 198 
 
THE VANITY OF HUMAN WISHES 
 
 was that she had to divide her time between 
 them, since the children had all reached the school- 
 going age and had to be left in England. Colonel 
 Barton had been seconded for Civil duty in the 
 days following the annexation and had remained 
 in the Commission ever since. He professed an 
 intense dislike for work, especially c of a judicial 
 * nature, but he was a born administrator and in 
 dealing with the semi-civilized tribes of the hills 
 he had earned and received more than once the 
 thanks of an appreciative Government. 
 
 Accordingly in December, when Helen was 
 able to travel, Muriel Barton met the train which 
 carried Helen into the hills and drove her in her 
 car over the forty miles of undulating road that 
 lay between the terminus and Kangale. 
 
 The death of the unborn babe was a relief to 
 
 M 
 
 Tracy. To Hilda, whose womanly sympathy 
 with Helen in her trouble was aroused, it was a 
 grief from the point of view of her own purpose 
 also. The constant reminder of facts which 
 Tracy was capable of forgetting would no longer 
 exist. For the moment, however, his relief 
 made life brighter for both of them, and Hilda 
 deliberately shut her eyes to the fact that his 
 greater cheerfulness was a boon for which she 
 199 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 might be called upon to pay later. She wrote to 
 Helen a letter inspired by genuine good feeling, 
 and Helen, as soon as she was able, replied with 
 equal cordiality. The trip to the Shan States 
 had not then been arranged and it was not 
 mentioned in her letter. 
 
 The first hint of Helen's plan came in a letter 
 from Muriel Barton. " I have asked Helen 
 Whitham to stay with me," she wrote. " I 
 believe you came out with her. I should like 
 you to come too, but I suppose it is useless to 
 ask you to leave your husband during the camping 
 season. I know how fond you are of the jungle 
 life and how unwilling you will be to leave him. 
 However if you should tire of the jungle and feel 
 a craving for something like civilization, let me 
 know you are coming and don't wait for a second 
 invitation." 
 
 Hilda passed the letter to Tracy. The same 
 thought was running through the mind of each. 
 Helen was to spend some weeks, or even months, 
 within sixty miles of their home, but it was im- 
 probable they would meet her. There are no 
 Christmas festivities at Kangale. By the end of 
 DecembermosU of Jthejofficials are many miles 
 away from headquarters, and the best they can 
 200 
 
THE VANITY OF HUMAN WISHES 
 
 do is to arrange, if possible, that their itiner- 
 aries may cross about Christmas Day, and eat 
 a plum-pudding — canned — together. 
 
 Hilda obeyed the dictates of formal politeness. 
 " I should like to meet her again. But I suppose 
 there is no chance of it." 
 
 " Very little," her husband replied. " Accord- 
 ing to my programme we shall be far away from 
 Kangale all the time she is there. There is 
 just the chance that she may go to the Lake 
 Festival with the Bartons in January. Barton 
 asked me to arrange my tours so as to meet him 
 there." 
 
 The possibility was so remote that it left Hilda 
 unmoved, and both husband and wife felt better 
 for the little piece of social ritual they had per- 
 formed before the door of the cupboard in which 
 their skeleton lay hidden. Great is the power of 
 ritual, that degenerate and almost inevitable 
 stage of all customary observances. Each genera- 
 tion is impeded in its development by the poverty- 
 stricken attempt to adapt the cast-off garments 
 of its grandsire to its own needs and to obey the 
 commands of generations that have left the earth 
 and should have no voice in its affairs. In time 
 the youthful curiosity that prompts challenging 
 201 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 inquiry is blunted, and the mass of mankind con- 
 form to the silly maxims they have been taught 
 in infancy. When children are trained in dis- 
 respect for their elders and a sceptical attitude 
 towards traditional manners, progress in the 
 right direction may be expected. For consider 
 the divorce of ritual etiquette from good breeding. 
 Jones, an officer and a gentleman — the expression 
 is not tautological — would blush with shame 
 if he were convicted of the solecism of leaving 
 one card instead of two when he called on a 
 married lady ; but he does not hesitate to 
 appear in the station club followed by his three 
 quarrelsome, dirty mongrel terriers in violation 
 of the club rules and to the annoyance of the other 
 members. Mrs. Brown goes to church twice on 
 Sundays, and refuses to know Robinson, who is 
 suspected of being a Rationalist ; but she draws 
 her carriage up at the entrance to the Gymkhana 
 Club in order to talk to a friend on the steps, 
 compelling others to descend in the wet outside 
 the porch ; and when the outbreak of war threat- 
 ened a scarcity of stores and an increase of prices 
 she wrote to the secretary of the club at Janpore, 
 where her husband was Commissioiler, asking 
 him to send up all the stores the club had in 
 stock for the needs of its members. 
 202 
 
THE VANITY OF HUMAN WISHES 
 
 The principle that underlies all true morality 
 and good breeding is unselfishness. Ritual, 
 whether it is practised in Ashanti or Mayfair, 
 enables its devotees to cultivate a high degree 
 of selfishness under the appearance of a strict 
 observance of the moral law. 
 
 With a distinct sense of relief Tracy turned 
 to the remainder of his letters which had arrived 
 by the weekly mail to Koilaw. These finished 
 he tore the wrappers off various newspapers 
 and glanced through their contents. One flimsy, 
 badly-printed journal seemed to demand a closer 
 attention than the rest. 
 
 " Hello ! " he exclaimed. " Here's a page 
 that will interest you. Royle has been trans- 
 ferred to Bagyipore and the local rag has printed 
 a garbled account of the Rathemyo affair by 
 way of welcome. Of course it does not mention 
 him by name, but there's no mistaking who is 
 meant." 
 
 " What a shame ! What paper is that ? " 
 
 " The Burma Barnacle, a paper printed and 
 edited by Eurasians for Eurasians and on Eura- 
 sian lines." 
 
 " But how are they interested in Mr. Royle's 
 misfortunes ? " 
 
 203 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 Tracy laughed. " My dear girl, it is in the 
 servants' hall that scandals are spread. Kipling 
 says somewhere that there is no hatred like the 
 ' hatred of the Eurasian for his brother-in-law. 
 If by his brother-in-law he meant the white 
 man who marries the Eurasian's sister, he was 
 right. Scandalous tales about a society from 
 which he is excluded are the breath of his life 
 to the well-to-do Eurasian." 
 
 " Still, I should not have thought there were 
 enough of them in Bagyipore to support a paper 
 which dished up garbage for them." 
 
 " There are other means of attracting sub- 
 scribers. Every English-speaking clerk and sub- 
 ordinate official in the division is requested to 
 subscribe. If he neglects the hint he is soon 
 pilloried and a copy of the libellous paragraph 
 is posted to his official superior." 
 
 " How disgusting ! Now I understand Mr. 
 Whitham's remark that it was not the Eurasian's 
 colour but his mental habits that were objection- 
 able." 
 
 " Quite true. He's a difficult and noisome 
 problem." 
 
 " I wonder that his Church has done so little 
 for him," Hilda murmured almost to herself. 
 204 
 
THE VANITY OF HUMAN WISHES 
 
 "They are nearly all Roman Catholics and quite 
 under the thumb of their priests." 
 
 Tracy sneered. " When did the Roman Church 
 seriously interfere with the conduct of its wor- 
 shippers so long as their professions were 
 strictly orthodox and their subscriptions regular ? 
 My experience of the East, at any rate, has taught 
 me that, if it is not true to say that a Roman 
 Catholic is generally a ' crook,' at any rate a 
 ' crook ' is generally a Roman Catholic." 
 
 " Then you think the editor of the Burma 
 Barnacle is probably a Roman Catholic ? But 
 so is Mr. Royle." 
 
 " His creed will not protect him if there is money 
 in the article that slanders him. Besides, Royle 
 is a case in point. He is brother-in-law to the 
 Eurasian." 
 
 "I see ; but Mr. Royle is probably a larger 
 subscriber to Church funds than the Eurasian 
 editor. Will not that give him an advantage ? " 
 
 " It may give the editor's ghostly adviser an 
 opportunity for squeezing a penitential money 
 offering out of him, that's all." 
 
 It has been remarked by amateurs of cheap 
 epigram that nothing is so certain as the unex- 
 pected. In proof of the truth of this saying it 
 205 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 fell out quite naturally that Providence or 
 Chance took the direction of affairs out of Hilda's 
 hands and arranged a meeting between Tracy 
 and Helen without the restraint of Hilda's 
 presence. The resolution that Hilda had formed 
 at Prome but had postponed to a more convenient 
 season was now to be carried out without reference 
 to her convenience. The spirit of perversity 
 that inspires the Power that controls human 
 affairs delights to grant the wishes of mortals 
 to their undoing, perhaps for their enlightenment 
 and ultimate benefit. 
 
 When Tracy began to make preparations for 
 a long tour beginning early in December Hilda 
 was forced to confess that the state of her health 
 made it inadvisable for her to travel in the 
 jungle or to be far away from medical advice 
 and assistance. She had written, she said, to 
 Mrs. Barton and accepted the invitation to join 
 her at Kangale where she proposed to stay at 
 least until Tracy returned from his tour. 
 
 The news filled Tracy with an entirely unjusti- 
 fiable but perfectly natural resentment. His 
 was not a well-disciplined character and he chafed 
 at every tie that bound him and restricted his 
 freedom. One obstacle between him and his 
 206 
 
THE VANITY OF HUMAN WISHES 
 
 desire had disappeared only to be replaced by 
 another of a similar nature and equally formidable. 
 He remembered how the news of Helen's condi- 
 tion had perturbed him, and argued that the 
 announcement Hilda was certain to make would 
 have a similar effect upon her. He did not 
 allow for the clearer sight and the different 
 view-point of women. The news lacked for 
 Helen the unexpected character which had added 
 so much to his anger, and she was inclined to 
 welcome any event that tended to keep her life 
 within the safe groove of conventionality, for the 
 present, at any rate. , 
 
 No effort he could make quite concealed from 
 Hilda the depth of her husband's resentment. 
 Some irritation she expected, arising out of his 
 masculine objection to a disturbance of his plans, 
 but this, she anticipated, would be short-lived 
 and would give way to the perception of a new 
 bond between them and to natural concern for her 
 welfare. She had no conception of the extent to 
 which his sudden passion for Helen had under- 
 mined his self-control and warped his view of 
 facts. She had forgotten his dismay when she 
 enlightened him, on his return to Rangoon, 
 as to the reason for Helen's seclusion. Now she 
 207 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 remembered it and sought to find the connexion 
 between his attitude then and now. The true 
 explanation was so unflattering both to herself 
 and to him and so subversive to all her hopes 
 that she dismissed it abruptly. But the sugges- 
 tion recurred from time to time and indeed became 
 stronger as she reflected on the facts without 
 Tracy's presence to disturb her. It was clear 
 that a separation for the time being was likely 
 to be helpful, and she departed for Kangale with 
 less unwillingness than she had foreseen. 
 
 Tracy escorted her to the end of the second 
 stage of her journey, past the dangerous bend 
 which he had named " Leopard's Leap " from 
 the sowar's story, and so to the beginning of 
 the metalled road. There he left her and turned 
 southward along the primitive and prehistoric 
 track down the valley, while she pursued her 
 journey westward along the white road that 
 climbed the hill facing the bungalow. To save 
 her a toilsome journey Mrs. Barton had sent the 
 car to meet her, thus converting the three days' 
 march into a pleasant ride of three hours. The 
 village turned out to see the start of the " magic 
 car " as they called it. A few of the more ad- 
 venturous spirits had travelled as far as Kangale 
 208 
 
THE VANITY OF HUMAN WISHES 
 
 and had seen the old-fashioned noisy machine 
 that carried the mails to and from the railway, but 
 none had before seen the long, graceful, silent 
 Napier that started at the touch of a pedal like 
 a thing endowed with life. The mail car they 
 could comprehend vaguely, though they could not 
 explain it ; for it resembled the steam-roller to 
 which even the village buffaloes had become 
 accustomed. But this was something different. 
 
 When they saw it climb the hill, eating up the 
 road along which they painfully toiled with their 
 sad-eyed pack-bullocks, they were almost willing to 
 believe the Burman driver's boastful airy talk 
 about reaching the Irrawadi river, where the long 
 road ended, in a couple of days. To them the 
 Irrawadi valley was ultima Thule, the country 
 of the plain dwellers which their roving ancestors 
 had subdued long ages ago and abandoned 
 because it was less desirable than their native 
 hills. 
 
 The parting between husband and wife was a 
 sad one. Hilda thought mournfully of the hopes 
 which had filled her heart the last time they had 
 passed through the village, and of the peaceful 
 two months at Koilaw where Tracy seemed 
 restored to his allegiance, or at any rate recon- 
 209 o 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 ciled to his fate. Now his restlessness had re- 
 turned and the cause of it was the very event 
 on which she had based her hopes. A half- 
 remembered quotation haunted her memory : 
 " In the history of human life the saddest chapter 
 is the one entitled ' Fulfilled Desires.' " 
 
 On his side Tracy reproached himself for an 
 unreasonable discontent which he was powerless 
 to overcome. Use counts for much in human 
 affairs, and he looked forward gloomily to a lonely 
 tour without his usual companion. He mentally 
 compared Hilda with Helen and was forced to 
 confess that his wife lost nothing by the com- 
 parison. But there was some purely feminine 
 quality in Helen's character that appealed to 
 the male in him. He could even conceive that the 
 adoration of Helen would not weary him as 
 Hilda's unconcealed affection had done. Satiety, 
 the bane of married life, the poisoned cup of 
 Circe that transforms the lover into the husband' 
 seemed far removed from Helen. But then three 
 years ago he had not conceived the possibility 
 of tiring of Hilda, whom others at least found as 
 attractive as Helen. He criticized himself as 
 faithless and irrational, but made no resolve to 
 reform. Was he exceptional, he asked himself, 
 210 
 
THE VANITY OF HUMAN WISHES 
 
 or could it be true, as some asserted, that sexually 
 all men are rogues ? Out of sheer weariness 
 he gave up the problem, and as he cantered down 
 the grassy track he let his thoughts dwell on 
 Helen. 
 
 The Napier car bore Hilda swiftly along the 
 windings of the undulating road. From the fir- 
 clad hill top it dived into the mist that shrouded 
 the valley, rolled across the bridge that spanned 
 the rapid stream and breasted the next ascent 
 without slackening speed. The sense.of physical 
 well-being, the cold bracing air that beat against 
 her face and the soft sunlight filtered through the 
 morning haze affected her in spite of herself 
 and her spirits mounted rapidly as she neared 
 Kangale. She began to look forward with posi- 
 tive pleasure to her visit, and when the car slowed 
 down in the traffic that thronged the long narrow 
 street through the town, she found herself tak- 
 ing a keen interest in the sights that met her 
 gaze. 
 
 It was bazaar- day and from every village for 
 miles around the people had brought their wares 
 for sale or come to buy. Shans, with their jaunty 
 air and gaily coloured turbans, Karens and 
 Taungthers, whose women wore a cloak made of 
 
 211 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 two strips of cloth with a hole at the seam for their 
 heads to pass through; Burmans from the 
 plains, Panthay muleteers from China with pigtails 
 and little blue caps ; Sikh and Mahomedan 
 traders, following as always in the train of the 
 British raj ; even Gurkhas from far Nepaul 
 were there, intent on purchases to supplement 
 their military police rations. 
 
 The colour and movement was to Hilda's 
 eyes a pleasing change from the sylvan dullness 
 of Koilaw, and forgetting her own troubles she 
 became absorbed in the busy scene. She scanned 
 the quaint shops with their curious signboards 
 and laughed aloud at, " Foo Long, licensed to be 
 drunk or removed from the premises." A few 
 yards farther on the boastful notice, " English 
 coffin and hurse for hire," filled her for a moment 
 with regretful wonder that British barbarity 
 of taste should make a stronger appeal to the 
 Asiastic than such virtues and excellences as the 
 ruling race possesses, but her momentary gloom 
 was dispelled by the glimpse of a tablet nailed on 
 to a post at the foot of a long flight of stairs 
 leading to the pagoda. '• Foot wearing pro- 
 hibited ! " the stern warning read. The words 
 conjured up a picture of dignified and reverend 
 212 
 
THE VANITY OF HUMAN WISHES 
 
 old men at a meeting of pagoda trustees, accus- 
 tomed to a concrete and intractable tongue as 
 expounded by some trader whose business took 
 him occasionally to Rangoon, and finally after 
 much spiritual agony bringing forth the tremen- 
 dous prohibition. To this succeeded the image of 
 crowds of willing worshippers severing their 
 legs at the ankle in the painless and bloodless 
 manner suggested by George Morrow's drawings, 
 and stumping up the long stairs to the imperturb- 
 able gilded image at the top under its canopy 
 of corrugated galvanized iron — another mon- 
 strosity adopted from Europe. 
 
 So it was a cheerful smiling face that greeted 
 Mrs. Barton as the car drove up at the steps 
 of the Residency. She was seated with hei 
 guest just inside the entrance hall whence they 
 could see the terraced slopes stretching down 
 to the little brook at the bottom of the garden. 
 Unconsciously, perhaps, Helen and her hostess 
 had so placed their chairs that the doorway 
 framed a picture from which every suggestion 
 of a tropical climate was excluded. The flowers 
 that bordered the lawns in gaily coloured pro- 
 fusion were all reminiscent of home, and the grass- 
 covered hills that filled the background recalled 
 213 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 the downs of Sussex or Berkshire. The light 
 and air were the light and air of a perfect English 
 June day. What exile in the East does not 
 know that the haunting memories stirred by the 
 perfection of an Indian winter's morning are often 
 harder to bear than the discomforts and hardships 
 of the hot weather and the wet monsoon ? There 
 was something pensive in Helen's enjoyment of 
 the scene, and she had fallen into a reverie with 
 a book on her lap. But for the distant sound 
 of a drum from the police parade ground and the 
 occasional crack of a rifle from the range behind 
 the hills she might have imagined herself far 
 away in that England which she had once thought 
 so dull and tame. The sound of wheels and the 
 racing of the engine as the car stopped roused her 
 from her dreams and she followed Mrs. Barton 
 to the door. 
 
 " Welcome to Kangale ! I hope you have had 
 a pleasant drive and no trouble with the car." 
 Mrs. Barton took Hilda's hand and after a mo- 
 ment's hesitation acknowledged the news Hilda 
 had sent her in her letter with a maternal kiss. 
 Helen greeted her in a totally unaffected manner. 
 Her attitude towards Tracy had been so far 
 modified by the birth of her own child and the 
 214 
 
THE VANITY OF HUMAN WISHES 
 
 expectation of Hilda's that she could meet Hilda 
 without embarrassment. 
 
 " I envy you the Shan States, Mrs. Tomson. 
 Don't you prefer being up here ? Or do you miss 
 the gaieties of Rangoon ? " 
 
 " Not a bit ! " laughed Hilda. " Rangoon is 
 like a bad habit — it is quite enjoyable as long 
 as you stick to it, but once you get rid of it you 
 feel what a burden you are relieved from." 
 
 " Yes, it's a paltry place. The social atmo- 
 sphere, like the physical, is hot and enervating/' 
 
 " I observe that Rangoon people always run 
 down the place to each other when they get away 
 from it, but defend it against outside criticism. 
 You'll have plenty of time to criticize it later on, 
 and I'll join in and put you on the defensive. 
 The order of the day now is breakfast. Come 
 along and I'll show you your room, Mrs. Tomson." 
 
 215 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 Describes a Picnic and a Symposium 
 
 TIME passed quickly for the three ladies 
 at the Residency. One day followed 
 another in unbroken tranquillity, and the weeks 
 sped by like the flow of a deep, rapid stream. The 
 officers of the military police battalion, with the 
 occasional addition of a civilian officer in from the 
 jungle for a few days, furnished the masculine 
 portion of the society which assembled for tennis 
 and bridge at the little club in the evening. So 
 the boredom of an Adamless Eden was avoided. 
 Christmas and New Year came and went. The 
 few Sahib-log left at headquarters dined with 
 Mrs. Barton on Christmas Day, and there was a 
 station breakfast at the club to inaugurate the 
 New Year — the Year of Peace as they called it, 
 hopefully, pledging one another. These enter- 
 tainments and a Christmas Tree at the little 
 Mission School, to which Christian children of 
 every shade of colour were invited, broke the 
 216 
 
A PICNIC AND A SYMPOSIUM 
 
 pleasant monotony of the crisp, sunny days. 
 Then the ladies settled down again to their 
 routine of walking, motoring, letter-writing, 
 books and work for the troops. 
 
 One morning Hilda found Mrs. Barton before 
 breakfast in the garden carefully examining a 
 twig of a tree that stood near the foot of the 
 stone steps leading from the terrace to the 
 lawn. 
 
 " Good morning ! " she cried. " What have 
 you got there that is so absorbing? " 
 
 Mrs. Barton turned round smiling. " This 
 day week we will have a picnic breakfast at the 
 pagoda on the top of the Crags, and I will show 
 you a sight that people travel from Europe to 
 Japan to see." 
 
 So on the appointed day the three set out in 
 the brisk morning air by the path that crossed 
 the face of the rocky hill behind the Residency, 
 slowly ascending till it turned the shoulder and 
 Kangale was lost to view. Steadily climbing 
 they crossed the reverse face of the rock, from 
 which Hilda traced the ribbon of road that led 
 to Koilaw. Here and there it was lost round a 
 bend to reappear farther on, finally melting into 
 soft grey-blue haze which at this early hour filled 
 217 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 the valley ; but she imagined that she caught 
 a white gleam where the sun which had not long 
 overtopped the high range bounding the Koilaw 
 valley, was reflected from the limestone track 
 as it crossed the crest. Her thoughts travelled 
 on to the Leopard's Leap on the other side of the 
 range, and she shivered. 
 
 Soon they emerged on to the little plateau on 
 which the pagoda stood. There they found the 
 servants, who had ascended by the shorter, 
 steeper path used by the forest rangers, busily 
 engaged in preparations for breakfast. South- 
 ward a broad valley flanked by noble hills 
 stretched away to the Karen country. An 
 exclamation broke from Helen's lips. 
 
 " How exactly like one of Turner's Italian 
 landscapes ! You only want a few broken 
 temple columns in the foreground to make the 
 resemblance perfect." 
 
 " I am glad you noticed the likeness." Mrs. 
 Barton beamed upon her. " I never tire of this 
 view. When the air is exceptionally clear after 
 rain and the sun is low in the west, you can catch 
 a glimpse of a bright silver thread below the 
 sunset. That is the lake at Meikkla, a hundred 
 miles away by the road." 
 218 
 
A PICNIC AND A SYMPOSIUM 
 
 " But where is Kangale ? " cried Hilda. 
 " Surely we ought to see it from here ? " 
 
 " Ah ! That is my surprise which I am saving 
 for you till after breakfast. In my younger days 
 I have risen at two in the morning and climbed 
 for hours to see the sun rise over a snow-clad 
 Alpine peak, and I know how much hunger spoils 
 one's enjoyment of the most perfect scenery 
 in the world. When your baser appetites are 
 gratified you will be better able to appreciate 
 what I brought you up here to see. The crag 
 rises so abruptly that you do not see the little 
 town close to its base until you stand on the 
 extreme edge, there where you see the cairn of 
 stones, the survey mark." 
 
 " I suppose we may not interfere with the show- 
 woman," laughed Helen as they seated them- 
 selves on the rugs which the servants had spread 
 on the short grass, and turned their attention 
 to breakfast. 
 
 " I have still another surprise for you. My 
 husband will be in this evening." 
 
 " How delightful ! " exclaimed Helen and 
 Hilda together. Helen added, " I thought he 
 was not coming in for another month." 
 
 " That was the arrangement, but he says the 
 219 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 Commissioner of Excise is coming up unexpectedly 
 in connexion with certain cases of smuggling 
 opium into Burma and wishes to see him. So he 
 sent a messenger in to warn me two days ago." 
 
 " I hope he will be able to stay a long time," 
 said Hilda. 
 
 u That is impossible this time of year. How- 
 ever, he says he expects to be detained two or 
 three days by his work with the Commissioner, 
 and it will not be worth while to go on tour 
 again till he sets out for the lake festival a week 
 hence. So we shall have a week of his society 
 at any rate." 
 
 " And the Excise Commissioner too ! " said 
 Hilda. " What a windfall ! Two men at once ! 
 I hope your visitor is entertaining." 
 
 " I don't know him," replied Mrs. Barton. 
 " I suppose you have met him, Mrs. Whitham ? " 
 • " Yes, at dinner. He is a little official and talks 
 down to the level of the inferior sex. But when 
 he forgets his importance and you forget his 
 Yorkshire accent he can be quite amusing." 
 
 Breakfast over they rose, and leaving the ser- 
 vants to pack up and take back the impedimenta 
 at their leisure, strolled along the narrow ridge 
 connecting the little plateau with the crag on 
 220 
 
A PICNIC AND A SYMPOSIUM 
 
 which the survey cairn had been erected. The 
 sight which met their eyes more than justified 
 Mrs. Barton's promise of a scene of exceptional 
 beauty. Kangale, were it not for a fragment of 
 grey roof or a pagoda spire visible here and there 
 like islets in a rocky inlet, lay drowned in a sea 
 of cherry blossom. The red brick and gal- 
 vanized iron of the bazaar and shops of the 
 native quarter, which recalled pictures of Johan- 
 nesburg in its early unregenerate days, were 
 hidden by the bend of the road leading down to 
 the valley. No false note marred the harmony 
 of colour. Their gaze travelled down the soft 
 green border formed by the dense woods covering 
 the steep hillside, rested in supreme joy on the 
 waves of pink that filled the valley, then passed 
 across to the grassy slope that formed the further 
 shore of the sea of flowers. Through a gap in 
 the hills the waters of the great lake, low lying 
 in the valley to the west, gleamed in the sun- 
 shine. 
 
 The three gazed long in silence while the sadness 
 that is inspired by the vision of perfect beauty 
 filled Hilda's heart and she unconsciously sighed. 
 The spell was broken and Mrs. Barton recalled 
 their thoughts to mundane affairs, at the same 
 221 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 time dissipating the cloud that had fallen over 
 Hilda's face. 
 
 " Away beyond the lake where the mountains 
 melt into the clouds is the pagoda near which 
 the festival is to be celebrated at the end of the 
 month. It looks quite close, but the journey 
 takes three days by road and water if you travel 
 comfortably." 
 
 " How romantic it looks ! " exclaimed Helen. 
 " I should love to see it." 
 
 " Why not ? " replied her hostess. " Jim's 
 unexpected return is providential. He can take 
 you down and bring you back quite easily within 
 ten days. The festival lasts only three days." 
 
 In this haphazard manner did Providence 
 arrange that Tracy and Helen should meet again. 
 Hilda, busy with her own thoughts and absorbed 
 in the vague longing for peace and some higher, 
 better existence which the scene had aroused in 
 her mind, hardly heeded what was said. Led 
 by Mrs. Barton, they followed the forest track 
 that zigzagged down the steep face of the 
 hill. 
 
 After their morning's exertions an adjournment 
 for repose, letter-writing or reading was voted 
 unanimously and they separated till tea-time. 
 
 222 
 

 A PICNIC AND A SYMPOSIUM 
 
 They had gathered again round the tea-table when 
 Colon Barton rode up to the door and slid 
 off his pony in the fashion common amongst men 
 who do much travelling on horseback. He crossed 
 the stirrups through the reins and the sturdy 
 little beast walked sedately off to his stall before 
 the orderly had time to catch his bridle. 
 
 " Ah ! there you are ! " exclaimed his wife, 
 rising as the Colonel came up the steps. Her 
 manner was quiet and restrained, but there was 
 no mistake about the gladness in her tone and 
 the joy that danced in her bright eyes. Her 
 husband's manner was equally undemonstrative, 
 but pleasure at meeting his wife again radiated 
 from every line of his face and shone in his 
 glance. He turned at once to welcome the guests 
 whom his wife presented to him. Tall, spare, 
 loose limbed, with merry brown eyes and grizzled 
 hair, his lined, sunburnt face marked with a white 
 band showing where his chin-strap had rested. 
 Jim Barton was the typical energetic military 
 administrator of an outlying province of the 
 Empire. Like many of his kind he affected a 
 dislike for work. In practice he displayed an 
 aversion for devious official methods and all that 
 savoured of red tape going to the root of the 
 223 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 business in hand and cutting out all unnecessary 
 formalities. 
 
 Hilda noted the meeting of husband and wife, 
 the evidences of perfect understanding and good 
 comradeship, and with a sigh of envy and regret 
 contrasted her own troubles with their peace. 
 She wondered whether the Bartons had passed 
 through a period of passion and stress before they 
 reached this perfect accord, or whether the advent 
 of their children had established a harmony and 
 community of interests at once before the ebbing 
 of passion had left the road open for the intrusion 
 of other and dangerous preoccupations. 
 
 " I saw Captain Tomson on my way in two 
 days ago," said the Colonel. " He sent his love 
 to you. Are you coming down to the festival 
 on the lake next week with me?" 
 
 His wife interposed. " Mrs. Tomson and I 
 are going to stay here, but if you will offer Mrs. 
 Whitham your escort, I daresay she will accept. 
 She is eager to see the Shan on a holiday." 
 
 Barton was too long married to risk indiscreet 
 questions and fell in at once with his wife's 
 proposal, knowing that he would receive the 
 explanation in due course. 
 
 " I shall be delighted. We will leave next 
 224 
 
A PICNIC AND A SYMPOSIUM 
 
 Friday week, Mrs. Whitham. Take as little 
 as you can possibly do with. The accommoda- 
 tion is rough and anything better than khaki 
 drill will be wasted. Now I'll go and get rid 
 of the dust of the road and join you at tea in a 
 few minutes." 
 
 " I suppose Mr. Earnshaw, the Excise Commis- 
 sioner, will be here in time for dinner ? " Mrs. 
 Barton asked her husband a few minutes later. 
 
 " Yes, the durwan of the Circuit House will 
 come up as soon as he arrives and let us know. 
 He is coming up in the mail car." 
 
 " I wish we had another man for dinner, but 
 everybody is out." 
 
 " I saw from my window a man with a fair 
 curly beard riding along the road an hour ago," 
 said Hilda. 
 
 The Colonel considered. " Beards are excep- 
 tional. Now the men who wear them are of 
 three kinds : first, forest officers on a long tour 
 in the cold weather ; second, settlement officers 
 on field operations; third, Irishmen." 
 
 " Please explain," laughed Helen, " why only 
 these ? And why should these defy the authority 
 of Frank Richardson ? " 
 
 " The first two," answered Barton, in the 
 225 p 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 tone of a lecturer expounding a new and import- 
 ant discovery, " because for long periods they 
 dwell in tents in the jungle, cut off from all 
 intercourse with men of their own race, rising 
 before dawn to set out to their work and returning 
 weary when the mid-day sun drives them under 
 cover. So these have neither time, energy nor 
 necessity for shaving. The Irishman, unless 
 he is in the Army, is lazy and careless of appear- 
 ances and grows a beard to save trouble. Now 
 in Kangale we have no Irishmen and no Settle- 
 ment. Therefore, by a process of exhaustion, 
 it is clear . that the gentleman you saw is Mr. 
 Frewen, the forest officer, returned to headquarters 
 for a few days." 
 
 " I wonder," said Mrs. Barton, " do you think 
 I might send a note over and ask him to dinner 
 on the off chance of your argument being sound ? " 
 
 " You may do so with safety, O woman of 
 little faith ! I saw him myself a few minutes 
 ago from my window." 
 
 "It is the mark of a prudent philosopher to 
 verify his conclusions by experiment before he 
 expounds his theory," commented Hilda, imitat- 
 ing her host's sententious delivery of his views. 
 
 Accordingly Mr. Frewen, already shorn of 
 226 
 
A PICNIC AND A SYMPOSIUM 
 
 his fair beard, took Hilda in to dinner that evening. 
 Opposite her sat Helen with Barton on her left 
 and Earnshaw on her right. The Excise Commis- 
 sioner was a stout, unhealthy-looking man of 
 forty-five, with a long nose, a heart-shaped patch 
 of baldness on the crown, and a shrewd face that 
 led observant people to discount the heartiness 
 displayed in his loud voice and boisterous laugh 
 and the impression of frankness conveyed by 
 his Yorkshire burr and unconventional manners. 
 Dwellers in the north are well aware that the 
 suggestion of rustic honesty insinuated by lack of 
 polish is not seldom as effective a cloak for 
 crafty self-seeking as the most successful assump- 
 tion of courtesy. Earnshaw was a man of 
 undoubted ability, but the views he expressed 
 were consistently orthodox. His promotion had 
 been rapid and uninterrupted and he was openly 
 designated by popular opinion as the next 
 Lieutenant Governor. ^ i 
 
 Jim Frewen was a contrast in every way to his 
 vis-a-vis, tall and well made, an aristocrat by 
 birth and training, in perfect physical condition 
 On his long solitary tours he found time for much 
 solid reading and reflection, and could maintain 
 in argument the most advanced opinions on 
 227 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 political and social topics though he abstained 
 from committing himself to any definite line of 
 thought. 
 
 " Somebody gave me a message of remembrance 
 to you, Mrs. Tomson," said Earnshaw as they 
 took their places at dinner. " I can't remember 
 who it was." He was silent for a moment, 
 searching his memory. " I have it ! It was 
 little Mrs. Royle. I met them the last time I 
 visited Bagyipore." 
 
 " She writes to me occasionally," replied 
 Hilda, " but I have not heard from her since their 
 transfer, so I suppose she is quite comfort- 
 able. Letter-writing is always a bore to happy 
 people." 
 
 M She seemed to be very cheery, but I have no 
 
 doubt she grieves for the loss of her baby girl." 
 
 " How is Royle getting on ? " inquired the 
 
 Colonel. 
 
 Earnshaw of course understood the question. 
 
 " He seems to be quite a reformed character 
 
 these days. But I doubt whether a man who 
 
 has gone so far as he has on several occasions 
 
 is ever permanently cured." 
 
 " Has Mrs. Jeune ever tried her hand on him ?" 
 innocently asked Helen. 
 228 
 
A PICNIC AND A SYMPOSIUM 
 
 Hilda laughed and Frewen looked at her, 
 awaiting an explanation. 
 
 " You have not met Mrs. Jeune, the leader 
 of the Christian Scientists in Rangoon ? " 
 
 " No," he said. " Is that Rangoon's latest 
 fashion ? " 
 
 " Why not ? " interposed Colonel Barton. 
 " It's full of fraud, and Mrs. Eddy has shown that 
 there's money in it for the promoters." 
 
 " Isn't that very severe on Rangoon ? " 
 objected Helen. 
 
 Mrs. Barton smiled. " I knew you would 
 defend Rangoon when it was attacked, though 
 you were one of its severest critics." 
 
 The Colonel assumed an air of deep reflection. 
 " I seem to remember a ten-column judgment 
 by one Mr. Justice Whitham in a recent commer- 
 cial case. The head clerk of a certain firm was 
 accused of fraudulently making false entries in 
 his account books. The judge decided that the 
 element of fraud was absent because the principals 
 of the firm were aware of what he was doing. 
 Yet I have not heard that the principals have been 
 socially punished in any way." 
 
 " People cannot all be judged by the same 
 standard," urged Helen, somewhat half-heartedly. 
 229 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 " As the commercial standard is to the other 
 standards of honour, so is the commercial standard 
 of the East to the commercial standards of 
 Europe," mocked Hilda. 
 
 " What an opportunity for Christian Science ! " 
 exclaimed Earnshaw. 
 
 " But how ? " asked Mrs. Barton. 
 
 " Deny the existence of evil and it ceases to 
 exist. Is not that the theory ? " 
 
 " The truth is," Frewen philosophized, " that 
 every man and every class make their own 
 standards and the world accepts them. The 
 proverb says that one man may steal a horse 
 where another may not look over the wall. 
 That is because the one began by horse-stealing 
 in his early youth while the other never looked 
 awry. Now if the Colonel or Mr. Earnshaw here 
 were the hero of any such escapade as poor Mr. 
 Royle's latest, he would be reduced at once and 
 run every risk of dismissal from the service." 
 
 " What a pity it is that the alcoholic taint 
 cannot be detected and dealt with as, for instance, 
 tuberculosis is," said Earnshaw, diverting the 
 conversation from the personal line it was taking. 
 
 " I thought our modern doctors were equal to 
 that," Helen remarked. 
 
 230 
 
A PICNIC AND A SYMPOSIUM 
 
 " It can hardly be said that there is such a 
 thing as hereditary alcoholism," Frewen explained. 
 " There is merely an hereditary abnormality 
 which may produce either a genius or a drunkard. 
 Its erratic manifestations are seen in different 
 generations or in different individuals in the 
 same generation. Perhaps I need not remind 
 you that the genius is not infrequently a drunk- 
 ard also." 
 
 " Then you cannot really forecast the character 
 of a child from a knowledge of his ancestry ? " 
 inquired Mrs. Barton 
 
 Frewen shook his head. 
 
 ' It is less profitable, no doubt, but more 
 amusing," said Hilda, " to divine the character 
 of the parents from the behaviour of the children. " 
 
 Frewen regarded her with interest but said 
 nothing. Helen demanded an explanation. 
 
 " I mean that a grown-up has learned to conceal 
 his real feelings and very often his real opinions, 
 and the character he displayed in everyday life 
 is not his real character but the particular affecta- 
 tion that his class and the age approve. In a 
 crisis he may show his true self, but we don't get 
 a crisis every day. Children are quite frank and 
 exhibit all their little faults and virtues with 
 231 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 perfect candour until they are taught to conceal 
 them. If you study the child you will often 
 find the clue to many things that puzzled you 
 in the parent." ' 
 
 " That is quite true," and Frewen nodded 
 approval. "In a similar way one can see 
 illustrated by the priests of a childlike, primitive 
 race, such as the Shan or the Burman, the eccle- 
 siastic arrogance which, in Protestant countries at 
 any rate, the parson endeavours to conceal until 
 he reaches the rank of a minor canon at least." 
 
 This statement made Earnshaw uneasy. He 
 remembered the Yorkshire rectory in which he 
 had been brought up and that atmosphere of 
 unnatural piety which makes the parson's son, 
 by a natural reaction, notorious in English schools 
 as the ringleader in mischief and revolt against 
 authority. But as the senior Government offi- 
 cial present Earnshaw felt it his duty to uphold 
 orthodoxy. In his characteristic manner he 
 looked down his long nose, moved in his chair with 
 a rolling motion and. lapsed into his native dialect. 
 
 " There aw doan't agree with yer," he said. 
 " The clergy of England are as a class hard-work- 
 ing and unassuming and we could ill spare them. 
 The amount of social work they do is enormous ; 
 232 
 
A PICNIC AND A SYMPOSIUM 
 
 they are the interpreters of the middle class to 
 the working classes and so prevent social unrest, 
 if yer know what aw mean." 
 
 He breathed a sigh of relief, feeling that 
 he had done his duty. But Hilda supported 
 Frewen's contention. 
 
 M I think Mr. Frewen would exempt most of 
 the parish priests from his condemnation. But 
 surely there is ground for criticism when the 
 Pope declares that as Vicar of Heaven he must 
 remain neutral and cannot denounce the sinking 
 of the Lusitania ; when the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury attempts to justify his God by fixing 
 the responsibility of this war upon the Devil ; 
 and when an Anglican bishop from his lair in 
 East Africa solemnly excommunicates his brother 
 in England, as if the world had no more seri- 
 ous business in hand than to discuss points of 
 dogma." 
 
 Helen was inclined to the orthodox point of 
 view. " No doubt the leaders of the Churches 
 have made themselves utterly ridiculous by pre- 
 tending they know what no man can possibly 
 know. The picture of God as helpless but inno- 
 cent, is grotesque. But there is another side 
 to the war. There are accounts of a great 
 233 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 religious revival in France and of earnest wor- 
 shippers at the services in the fighting lines." 
 
 " Yes/' remarked Barton ; " and we must not 
 forget the intense piety and reliance on Divine 
 assistance professed by the Kaiser and his generals 
 and advisers. But after all one can easily exag- 
 gerate the importance of these symptoms. You 
 must remember the story of the curate in the 
 storm ? " 
 
 " No, tell it to us," entreated Helen, eager to 
 make a jest the opportunity for getting conver- 
 sation back to less controversial topics. 
 
 " A curate was travelling in a ship which 
 encountered a heavy gale. He was nervous and 
 asked the captain if the danger was serious. 
 1 Come for'ard with me to the foc'sle,' said the 
 skipper, and led him across the waist of the ship 
 to the men's quarters under the foredeck. There 
 they listened for a few minutes to the oath-strewn 
 conversation of the sailors. ' Do you think,' the 
 skipper asked, ' that men who knew they were 
 in imminent danger of death would indulge in 
 blood-curdling language of that sort ? ' Reassured, 
 the curate returned to his cabin. In the night 
 the storm grew worse, and shortly after midnight 
 the curate was seen again making his way to 
 234 
 
A PICNIC AND A SYMPOSIUM 
 
 the foc'sle. When he arrived there he stood for 
 a little time hanging on to a wire stay and listen- 
 ing intently to the conversation of the watch. 
 At last he exclaimed fervently, ' Thank God ! 
 they are still swearing ! ' When the war is over 
 we may expect the praying to stop and the 
 swearing to recommence." 
 
 " Don't you think," said Frewen, reverting 
 to the previous discussion, " that we punish the 
 offence of the man with a clean record more 
 severely than the other because he reflects greater 
 discredit on the respectable section of society, 
 in which we include ourselves ? " 
 
 " Surely poor Mr. Royle's repeated follies 
 discredit all of us ? " objected Mrs. Barton. 
 
 4 " To a certain extent, yes ; but we recognize 
 him as an exceptional case, and expect the native 
 to regard him in the same light. Moreover our 
 consciences do not prick us and make us exclaim 
 with Richard Baxter, ' There, but for the Grace 
 of God, go I ! ' " 
 
 " But why should the sudden vagaries of a 
 man with a clean record make our consciences 
 prick us ? " inquired Helen. 
 
 " Because every man who is honest with him- 
 self knows that he has at some time or other 
 235 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 been within very little of committing the gravest 
 folly. He may have actually done so but escaped 
 detection. He knows that the moral difference 
 between himself and the unfortunate man who 
 has smirched a clean record is very slight indeed, 
 and that Richard Baxter's famous exclamation 
 is in no sense an exaggeration." 
 
 Helen wondered if she herself was really much 
 better than the heroine of the latest Rangoon' 
 scandal. But she forced a laugh and said, 
 " What an uncomfortable belief ! Are we to 
 rebuke ourselves for loss of faith in our fellow- 
 creatures by the reflection that we are no better 
 than they ? And are we to take refuge from self- 
 condemnation in the thought that our neighbours 
 are as bad as ourselves ? " 
 
 " I suggest," said Mrs. Barton, who combined 
 considerable shrewdness with a large degree of 
 tolerance, " that a man who has taken the right 
 turning, even by accident, may travel safely along 
 the high road to the end of his journey." She 
 rose as she spoke. " We shall discuss lighter 
 topics in the drawing-room till you have finished 
 your cheroots." 
 
 Earnshaw had observed a discreet silence 
 during the later phase of the discussion. None 
 236 
 
A PICNIC AND A SYMPOSIUM 
 
 knew better than he that the first condition of 
 success under a bureaucratic Government like 
 the Government of India is to express none but 
 orthodox views on debatable topics, to conceal 
 your opinions if you hold any, and to reply to 
 all questions from your superiors in the manner 
 likely to be most pleasing to the questioner. To 
 a man with a breezy disregard for convention and 
 a genuine love for freedom of thought and freedom 
 of speech, the official and social atmosphere of 
 India is stifling. It is the need for some outlet 
 for repressed opinions that gives circulation to 
 the Burma Barnacle and similar papers, which 
 the man who condemns their invective in public 
 chuckles over in private. The editor who is sent 
 to jail for a criminal libel on the Government 
 loses no atom of popular respect or affection, and 
 his paper benefits in the way of increased sales 
 and more advertisements. 
 
 Barton's mind was still running on Royle and 
 the veiled attack on him in the Barnacle. " I 
 suppose the Government will not allow Royle to 
 prosecute the editor of that rag that libelled 
 him ? " 
 
 " Of course not," answered Earnshaw. " The 
 spectacle is not edifying of a Government official 
 237 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 trying to prove to a jury that an account of the 
 outrageous proceedings of a fictitious person 
 agreed so closely with a disgraceful incident in 
 his own career as to make the article libellous." 
 
 " It's a pity the law can't touch a newspaper 
 that lives by attacking persons instead of prin- 
 ciples," said Barton. " There is no attempt in 
 this case to show that Royle is unfit to be a judge 
 or to hold any official position whatsoever ; it 
 is mere mockery of a fellow-creature's misfortune." 
 
 " Law can only deal with generalities," com- 
 mented Earnshaw. " The best defence in most 
 actions is not a denial of the alleged facts but a 
 refutation of the assertion that they fall within 
 the scope of the law." 
 
 " And so the guilty man aided by a cleverer 
 lawyer escapes while the morally innocent man 
 is convicted," said Frewen. " Lawyers maintain 
 that the law is merely codified common-sense. 
 If that is so, the application of the code must be 
 very faulty." 
 
 " That is true," said the Colonel. " Legality 
 tends to supersede justice as ritual supersedes 
 religion. The law lags a generation behind the 
 best public opinion. The drastic measures of 
 the last few months are merely a necessary effort 
 238 
 
A PICNIC AND A SYMPOSIUM 
 
 to bring legislation up to date in order tp cope 
 with a crisis. We shall have more of it before 
 the war ends." 
 
 Earnshaw remembered his official orthodoxy. 
 " I hope this interference with the rights of 
 property will not educate popular opinion in 
 the direction of Socialism, but be regarded as 
 very exceptional and purely temporary legis- 
 lation." 
 
 " I hope not," echoed Frewen, so fervently 
 that Earnshaw looked curiously at him, wonder- 
 ing whether the young forest officer dared to 
 express open disagreement with the views of a 
 man who might very soon be the head of the 
 Local Government, and was merely concurring. 
 
 Their host had a shrewd suspicion of Frewen's 
 intention and cut the debate short. " Let us 
 join the ladies," he said. 
 
 239 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 Chiefly concerning Lake -Dwellers 
 
 THE freedom with which Hilda had given 
 utterance to most unorthodox views in- 
 trigued Frewen, and he took the chair next to hers 
 as soon as he entered the verandah where the 
 ladies were sitting. He knew that woman is 
 by nature conservative and that the happily 
 married woman is even more apt to develop what 
 Stevenson calls " fatty degeneration of the moral 
 being " than the happily married man. Hilda's 
 naturally acute and somewhat cynical mind 
 perceived the many anomalies, injustices and 
 outworn superstitions on which the social system 
 is based, and her recent suffering made her more 
 prone to express her thoughts freely even in 
 orthodox circles. She felt herself in sympathy 
 with Frewen' s outlook, and he had little difficulty 
 in continuing the conversation begun at dinner. 
 He plunged at once into the subjects they had 
 240 
 
CONCERNING LAKE-DWELLERS 
 
 been discussing. " I claim you as a fellow- 
 rebel." 
 
 Hilda smiled. " Am I a rebel ? Perhaps you 
 are right. I do not hold that all is for the best 
 in this best of all possible worlds, certainly." 
 
 " You belong to a class which is fortunately 
 becoming more numerous every day. Mrs. 
 Grundy is the typical married woman of the old 
 school, the adherent of shibboleths and the oppo- 
 nent of reform. The new woman is scorned and 
 ridiculed but she is the great hope of the next 
 generation." 
 
 " I fear I shocked Mr. Earnshaw ! " 
 
 " Only in his official capacity. He is too shrewd 
 not to see facts as they are. But he is paid to 
 keep them so." 
 
 Hilda reflected. " That, I suppose, is why 
 reform so often means revolution." 
 
 " The prayer of the official classes is ' Peace 
 in our time, O Lord ! ' After a short seven years 
 of Lord Curzon's reforming energies every Govern- 
 ment in India was protesting that it required a 
 period of rest for consolidation. A huge bureau- 
 cratic machine resists innovation. Jt reminds 
 me of the gyroscope which, as you know, keeps 
 the torpedo on a rigidly straight path." 
 
 241 Q 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 " Your views are quite refreshing, but very 
 unlikely to meet with the approval of your 
 superiors. Have you ever thought of that ? " 
 
 Frewen smiled. " Yes, I've worked it all out. 
 My own service is one of the administrative 
 branches, and a reputation for eccentricity is not 
 so damaging to me as it would be to an executive 
 officer. No doubt if, in years to come, I were 
 considered for the highest posts, my habit of 
 criticism would injure my chances of promotion. 
 But it is worth a few hundred rupees a month to 
 be able to say what one thinks." 
 
 " One would have thought it was the duty of 
 any Government servant to advise Government 
 to the best of his ability and tell the truth, how- 
 ever unpleasant." 
 
 " The men at the top of the tree are tired and 
 find their ordinary routine work enough without 
 reforms. Twenty years as a cog in the machine 
 destroys most men's desire to push things on." 
 
 " Then what is the remedy ? " 
 
 " That is hard to say. Perhaps if every Pro- 
 vince had a Governor appointed from England 
 the hope of reaching the highest post in the 
 Government would cease to tempt men to suppress 
 their opinions and gloss over difficulties." 
 242 
 
CONCERNING LAKE-DWELLERS 
 
 " Kipling has another prescription, you know," 
 Hilda objected. " Make your peace with the 
 women and the men will make you L. G." 
 
 ° Kipling knew that women, especially of the 
 class to which Anglo-Indians belong, are the 
 most devout worshippers at the shrine of Mrs. 
 Grundy, the goddess of Things-as-they-are. They 
 share the Government's feline love of comfort. 
 There's nothing like marriage for steadying a 
 man and bringing him into line. It has been 
 the official salvation of many a heretic. A dis- 
 creet marriage may even be an efficient substitute 
 for hard work." 
 
 " I have heard that before," laughed Hilda. 
 " My husband had a schoolfellow who, without 
 any private means or any regular occupation, 
 was always immaculately dressed and always 
 seemed prosperous. His occasional contributions 
 to the press could not possibly maintain him, and 
 we used to wonder when the crash would come. 
 For some years he dropped out of sight and we 
 thought he had emigrated ; but Tracy ran across 
 him one day in Piccadilly looking as prosperous 
 as ever. He greeted Tracy effusively and asked 
 him to lunch at the Junior Constitutional Club. 
 After lunch Tracy said, ' Well, what are you 
 243 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 doing now ? Have you found a gold mine some- 
 where or are you editing a halfpenny paper ? ■ 
 ' Neither,' he replied in a matter-of-fact tone, 
 ' I'm married.' " 
 
 Frewen greeted the story with hearty laughter. 
 " I can't cap that, I fear. But I have no doubt 
 you have heard of the famous beautiful sisters, 
 known as the Three Graces, who came to Simla 
 some years ago ? Two of them married men in 
 Government service, who have found snug billets 
 ever since and enjoy that distinction which is 
 properly the reward of hard work. The fortune 
 that favours the audacious has spared them the 
 usual troubles of marriage in the East, for both 
 are childless and have never realized the bitter- 
 ness of the old definition of marriage in India, 
 ' Five hundred a year for a letter a week.' It is 
 roses all the way ; a progress by pleasant paths 
 to a pension." 
 
 At this point Mr. Earnshaw's loud voice was 
 heard in cheerful reply to a suggestion from Mrs. 
 Barton that he should sing something. 
 
 " Yes, aw doan't mind if aw do," and he lurched 
 
 forward in a nautical manner to the piano in 
 
 the corner. For twenty minutes his not unpleas- 
 
 ing baritone voice rolled out the ballads made 
 
 244 
 
CONCERNING LAKE-DWELLERS 
 
 popular by the war, drowning all conversation, 
 and when at last he sat down, feeling that he 
 had earned his dinner, the conversation became 
 general. When Colonel Barton considered that 
 it was time to go to bed, he gave his guests the 
 usual hint by calling for whiskies and sodas. 
 
 This was the first of many talks which Hilda 
 enjoyed in the course of the week following the 
 dinner. Frewen's frank criticism of life as he 
 viewed it was not marred by any trace of 
 pessimism. He professed himself an incurable 
 optimist and argued that pessimism was a sure 
 symptom of morbid self-love. In tirades against 
 the numerous evils of society, especially Anglo- 
 Indian society, Hilda found vent for her discon- 
 tent with her own lot and she frankly welcomed 
 Frewen whenever he sought her out at the club 
 and encouraged her to talk. His clearness of 
 vision and frankness of speech were a relief and 
 a contrast to the tinge of snobbishness which 
 she had begun to resent in Tracy's character 
 since she had iearned to be dissatisfied with him. 
 Frewen on his side was candidly interested in 
 this pretty, clever woman with the courage to 
 hold opinions counter to those current in the 
 very Philistine society in which her life was 
 245 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 spent. For Anglo-India lays claim to no width 
 or depth of view, but merely to a tolerance of 
 elasticity in morals. He was entirely free from 
 the cant that regards every woman who belongs 
 to the party of reform as the victim of some 
 disappointment, usually of a matrimonial nature ; 
 but he felt that in Hilda's strictures on men and 
 things there was a trace of personal bitterness, 
 and his pity was awakened. He showed his 
 sympathy but carefully avoided anything 
 approaching a personal reference in their most 
 intimate converse, and covertly warned her 
 against the dangers of open rebellion. 
 
 "It is quite possible that breach of the law 
 may involve no moral guilt," he argued ; " but 
 it is always dangerous for an individual to decide 
 on his own case and defy the law. Society can 
 only lay down general rules and appoint judges 
 to decide on principles of equity which may 
 justly be regarded as exceptions. Where infrac- 
 tions of moral law or social conventions are 
 concerned, Society itself is the judge and it 
 must obviously be cautious in admitting excep- 
 tions, In practice convention is rigidly enforced. 
 The innocent man who incurs social isolation for 
 a technical offence against society naturally 
 246 
 
CONCERNING LAKE-DWELLERS 
 
 tends to become an anarchist at heart. But he 
 should have remembered in time the maxim, 
 ' Obey the law with your body, but disobey 
 it with your mind.' " 
 
 " I can imagine that the normal man would 
 find little solid satisfaction in that," retorted 
 Hilda. " ' Stone walls do not a prison make 
 nor iron bars a cage ' is not a quotation that makes 
 a strong appeal to a convict." 
 
 When Friday came and Helen set out for the 
 Lake Festival under the escort of Colonel Barton 
 and Mr. Frewen, Hilda felt that life had suddenly 
 become very flat, and she strove in vain to shake 
 off a feeling of deep depression. She tried to 
 dispel the cloud by analysing its causes, but in 
 vain. The thought of the meeting between Helen 
 and Tracy after an interval of many months 
 filled her with jealous apprehension. The warmth 
 of welcome which Tracy might have extended 
 to her after a solitary tour in the hills, in spite 
 of their recent alienation, would now merely add 
 to his joy in meeting her rival. She knew that, 
 stated in words, her grounds for jealousy would 
 sound trivial and ludicrous. She admitted even 
 to herself that Helen's attitude had been friendly 
 and sympathetic and that she found pleasure in 
 247 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 her society. But as the car carried off the three 
 travellers down the long road that wound its 
 way to the head of the lake, where the baggage 
 mules with their camp equipment awaited them, 
 she felt a sense of deep resentment against the 
 injustice of fate. Her trouble was deepened by 
 the sudden withdrawal of Frewen's support. 
 And when she remembered that the sole cir- 
 cumstance which prevented her from joining 
 the trio in the long grey Napier was the fulfil- 
 ment of her own desire, her exasperation became 
 intense. 
 
 Meanwhile Helen was speculating on her 
 meeting with Tracy, but without anxiety. Her 
 stay in the cold bracing air of Kangale had 
 restored her nerves to their proper pitch and she 
 felt the confidence of physical well-being to face 
 any situation likely to arise. Her own troubles 
 had strengthened and deepened the maternal 
 side of her nature, and she persuaded herself 
 without much difficulty that her passion for 
 Tracy had lost its intensity but gained depth, 
 until it was the strong self-sacrificing love of a 
 woman for a wayward boy. No fears marred 
 her perfect enjoyment of the ride. 
 
 The car sped swiftly over the three miles of 
 248 
 
CONCERNING LAKE-DWELLERS 
 
 road that led to the edge of the Kangale" ridge. 
 There they halted for a few minutes to drink in 
 the beauty of the scene before they began the 
 descent. Behind them rose the crags from which 
 they had contemplated a few days ago the picture 
 of a Japanese springtime. To the south the 
 lake could be seen faintly gleaming through the 
 mist that lay in the valley. The road that 
 disappeared from their view a furlong away, 
 following the contour of the hillside down which 
 it wound like a huge white snake, reappeared 
 more than a hundred feet below them and darted 
 straight as an arrow across the fields of golden 
 stubble till it was lost finally in the tortuous 
 hollows of the next ridge. The air was filled with 
 the fresh scent of wild cherry, wild apple, almond, 
 peach and many a flowering shrub. The creak- 
 ing of the bullock-carts that, leaving the camping- 
 ground at the foot of the ascent before daylight, 
 were now nearing the crest, added the human 
 note that is essential to natural beauty. Not 
 all the magnificent grandeur of the Himalayas 
 can arouse such intensity of admiration as the 
 contemplation of Monte Rosa and Mount Cervin, 
 whose austerity is relieved by the far away gleam 
 of a little green Alp, the pasture of an invisible 
 249 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 herd whose bells tinkle faintly across miles of 
 cold limpid air. 
 
 The near approach of the leading cart recalled 
 Colonel Barton's thoughts to the journey before 
 them. He released the brakes and the car glided 
 smoothly down the sinuous track, hooting loudly 
 to warn the carts that seemed to be lying in wait 
 round every bend and always on the wrong side. 
 For some time the management of brake, horn 
 and clutch occupied all his attention and it was 
 not till they reached the foot of the hill that he 
 could resume the performance of his duties as 
 host and guide. By that time romance had 
 melted from his mind and the practical adminis- 
 trator emerged. 
 
 " All this rich paddy land," he said, pointing 
 to the fields of stubble traversed by the road- 
 embankment, " is only a few feet above the level 
 of the lake at high flood, when its feeder streams 
 are swollen with rain. Not many years ago, as 
 years are numbered in the world's history, the 
 lake must have been many times its present size, 
 but it has slowly silted up. If a canal ten feet 
 deep were cut at its ^southern end, nothing of it 
 would be left except a narrow river bed bordered 
 by rich low-lying arable land." 
 250 
 
CONCERNING LAKE-DWELLERS 
 
 " Vandal ! " laughed Helen, " I suppose you 
 are thinking of the land revenue. You remind 
 me of an old friend of mine who can never see a 
 gorgeous Macclesfield pigeon without thinking 
 how delightfully his rich crimson legs would 
 harmonize with a background of crisp brown 
 pastry." 
 
 Frewen intervened. " Be reassured, Mrs. Whit- 
 ham. There is no urgency about the scheme. 
 The land available can support many more 
 millions without being crowded. But I confess 
 a weakness for ordered scenery. A river threading 
 trim pastures or corn lands, or a carefully con- 
 served forest appeals to me more strongly than 
 uncultivated beauty. No doubt my professional 
 instincts warp my views." 
 
 " Who shall decide on questions of taste ? " 
 Helen replied. " A Public Works engineer who 
 travelled part of the way in the train with me 
 confessed that he had never noticed the beauties 
 of the old cart road, though he greatly admired 
 the scenery along the railway. The road had 
 been to him simply the material of his labours 
 and a possibility of mileage on a motor cycle." 
 
 Soon they had left the main road and were 
 bumping along an ill-repaired track by the side 
 251 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 of the canal connecting the lake with the high- 
 road. At the bungalow, three miles from the 
 road- junction, the car stopped. 
 
 " Beyond this the road is impossible," said 
 Barton. " The boys will give us breakfast here 
 and then go on to the Sawbwa's rest-house at the 
 head of the lake. There are ponies here and we 
 can ride the remaining four miles in the after- 
 noon. The Sawbwa has spent so much money 
 on the canal, his pet hobby, that he has none 
 left to keep his roads in order." 
 
 " The old man has had rather a chequered 
 history, hasn't he ? " inquired Helen. 
 
 " Yes," said the Colonel. " He was expelled 
 from the state in consequence of a family quarrel, 
 and his brother was chief for many years. That 
 was before the British occupation, and the exile 
 took refuge at the Burmese court in Mandalay. 
 The Burmese king gave him shelter, but he was 
 not so lavish in his hospitality as we were to the 
 exiled Bourbons, and the young chief was often 
 very hard pressed. I have heard from men whose 
 business took them to Mandalay in those days 
 that he was often glad of the loan of a few rupees. 
 When we annexed Upper Burma and turned 
 greedy colonizing eyes towards the Shan States, 
 252 
 
CONCERNING LAKE-DWELLERS 
 
 the usurper forestalled his brother's plans by 
 inviting the British up here and allying himself 
 with them. As a reward for his services he was 
 naturally confirmed in his chiefdom, but the 
 exile was also cared for and on his brother's 
 death, which took place nearly twenty years ago, 
 he came to his own again." 
 
 "It is curious that his misfortunes have not 
 soured him," remarked Frewen. 
 
 The Colonel assented. " He is a charming old 
 gentleman, courteous and genuinely kind-hearted, 
 and a loyal friend of the British. He recognizes 
 that they did the best thing for him in the cir- 
 cumstances. To revive the old dispute and 
 remove the usurper would have only caused 
 useless bloodshed and made the new chief's 
 position difficult." 
 
 In the evening they came to the little rest- 
 house on the lake. There they learned that the 
 Sawbwa had already left for the pagoda at the 
 far end of the lake to supervise the final prepara- 
 tions for the festival. 
 
 ' We need not hurry," the Colonel said. " The 
 
 festival does not really begin until the day after 
 
 to-morrow, and I want to show you the traces 
 
 of the British post half-way down the lake. You 
 
 252 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 shall see a Marechal Niel rose tree that completely 
 smothers a one-storied bungalow and Poinsettias 
 growing taller and denser than the biggest 
 rhododendrons you ever saw. I cannot help 
 smiling when I see the little sickly single stems 
 of Poinsettia standing about in pots at home and 
 watched by their owners with great pride and 
 solicitude." 
 
 " I received quite a shock a couple of years 
 ago," laughed Frewen. " I was on leave and I 
 spent the early summer on the Italian lakes. I 
 stayed some days at Bellagio and paid a visit 
 to the boasted tropical garden at Tremezzo. 
 It was interesting, of course, to see palms growing 
 in the open, but when I made my way to the 
 very centre of the garden and found the great 
 attraction was a plantain tree — they called it 
 a banana — I fled. It was like running across a 
 cabbage in the middle of an orchid-house." 
 
 Early the following morning three long narrow 
 canoes with awnings of bamboo matting were 
 moored near the bungalow and soon after seven 
 o'clock a start was made. In two of the canoes 
 servants and baggage were disposed, while the 
 third was prepared for the travellers with a 
 bottom grating of springy, woven bamboos on 
 254 
 
CONCERNING LAKE-DWELLERS 
 
 which rugs were spread. A low deck-chair was 
 provided for Helen but the two men stretched 
 themselves on the rugs in Eastern fashion. In 
 the bows of each canoe stood four powerful- 
 looking men who plied long paddles in the style 
 characteristic of the lake- dwellers. The top of 
 the paddle was gripped with one hand and the 
 leg on the same side was twisted round the shaft. 
 Balancing himself on the other leg the rower 
 dropped the broad blade into the water and threw 
 the whole weight of his body forward, and under 
 the powerful thrust of the four paddles the slim 
 craft slipped through the water at a surprising 
 speed. 
 
 The air was cool with the crisp feeling of an 
 English September, day. From the margin of 
 the shallow lake rose wooded hills ending in bare 
 precipitous rocky ridges. The water shone 
 silver in the soft diffused light, for the sun had 
 not yet topped the eastern heights. For a*time 
 Helen feasted her eyes on the beauty of the scene 
 and revelled half unconsciously in the sense of 
 mere physical well-being. After a while her 
 attention wandered to the curious rhythmic 
 action of the boatmen. Gradually a puzzled 
 frown puckered her forehead. 
 255 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 " No, I do not understand." She shook her 
 head. " Kindly explain, O guide, philosopher 
 and friend." She turned to the Colonel awaiting 
 a reply. 
 
 " Your turn, Frewen," said Barton, who was 
 busy filling a pipe for the most delicious smoke 
 of the day. 
 
 Frewen willingly 'assumed the duties of guide. 
 "It is as natural as any other process of 
 evolution ; the mere adaptation of an animal 
 to its environment. The causes are two ; the 
 lake-dweller is a man of sturdy independence 
 and the bottom of the lake is covered with 
 weeds." 
 
 " Your explanation is most illuminating," 
 commented Helen. 
 
 " Well, look to your left," said Frewen, point- 
 ing in the direction indicated. 
 
 Helen obeyed and saw a number of small 
 fragile canoes each of which held one occupant 
 only. In his left hand and leg he held the long 
 paddle with which he drove his boat along, in 
 the right a long slender spear. Occasionally he 
 stopped to beat the water or the side of his 
 canoe with the blade of the paddle. Then he 
 drove the spear hard down into the water. As 
 256 
 
CONCERNING LAKE-DWELLERS 
 
 Helen gazed, one of them, recovering his spear, 
 drew off the barbed point a small fish. 
 
 " They are spearing fish ! " she exclaimed. 
 " But why do they make all that noise by beating 
 the boat or the water with their paddles ? Does 
 it not frighten the fish ? " 
 
 " It frightens them out of their hiding-places 
 under the weeds. Now you understand why the 
 fisherman must use an arm and a leg to row with 
 so as to leave a hand free for the spear." 
 
 "It is wonderful ! To me it appears nothing 
 less than an acrobatic feat for a man merely to 
 stand upright on one of those floating matches 
 without upsetting it. But why do they use 
 such a difficult method for catching fish ? Have 
 they no nets ? " 
 
 " That is where the weeds come in ; they make 
 netting impossible. And the sturdy indepen- 
 dence of the race makes the fisherman paddle 
 his canoe as well as catch his own fish, rather 
 than take a partner to paddle while he spears 
 his prey." 
 
 Helen watched the fishermen with interest 
 
 until she descried at last a canoe with two men, 
 
 one of whom paddled in ordinary Indian fashion, 
 
 seated in the stern, while his companion stood 
 
 257 R 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 in the bow with spear poised to strike. She 
 cried out triumphantly to her companions, 
 " What about your theory now ? Look there ! " 
 
 Frewen looked and assumed an injured expres- 
 sion. 
 
 " 1 might of course discuss freaks, sports and 
 exceptions. I might tell you that the man in 
 the bow is teaching his son in the stern his 
 profession. I might even argue that the greater 
 security of life and property under the British 
 Raj is breaking down the old suspicious attitude 
 of independence and encouraging co-operation — 
 but I shan't. If you choose to play the Jesuit 
 Father to my Charles Darwin, I shall just sulk 
 and smoke." , 
 
 " Peace, my children ! " cried the Colonel. 
 " Mrs. Whitham, I regret to find you so lacking 
 in tact as to hurl facts at a philosopher with a 
 theory. Surely you know that a philosopher 
 abhors facts ? Or perhaps you were unaware 
 that our Forest Officer was a philosopher ? " 
 
 " I admit my error and crave forgiveness. It 
 was wrong, especially before breakfast." 
 
 " That reminds me — the old Cantonment 
 can't be far away now. I sent round mules 
 with the breakfast outfit overnight by the road," 
 258 
 
CONCERNING LAKE-DWELLERS 
 
 said Barton. " We shall get breakfast as soon 
 as we land and avoid further risk of dispute." 
 
 Soon after nine the canoes drew alongside an 
 old stone causeway built out into the lake for 
 the purpose of discharging stores from boats in 
 the days when the headquarters of the Shan 
 Hills column were pitched there. A gradual 
 ascent of nearly a mile along an old military 
 road brought them to the bungalow embowered 
 in Marechal Niel roses with two immense Poin- 
 settias blooming on the hillside opposite. Helen 
 admitted the justice of the Colonel's boast. 
 
 There was a mournful air of past glories about 
 the old Cantonment. The dak-bungalow was 
 the only house left to show that barely ten years 
 before the hills had echoed to the sound of 
 British bugles and rung with all the busy life, 
 the gaiety and laughter of a military station. 
 Here and there on the slopes cleared and levelled 
 spaces marked former house-sites and the foun- 
 dations could still be traced. The chimney of 
 one house had by some quaint accident alone 
 been left standing and thrust itself grotesquely 
 into the view from the dak-bungalow against 
 the background of the silver lake. Like the 
 ruin of some sea-work on a southern English 
 259 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 beach that crumbles and sinks into the maw of 
 the devouring sea, ifr marked the limit of imperial 
 rule before' the tide swept on two hundred miles 
 to the mighty barrier of the Mekong. 
 
 In the cool of the evening the three travellers 
 roamed over the almost obliterated roads that 
 threaded the former military station, while the 
 Colonel, who had served as subaltern with the 
 first column that entered the Shan hills, recounted 
 memories of former days. 
 
 " The route by which we made our way to 
 the plateau was the old caravan route from Man- 
 dalay to the Central States. It was in places 
 very steep and after rain very slippery. We 
 were struggling painfully up the very worst part 
 of it when a British private stopped to mop his 
 brow and remarked to his neighbour : ' We're 
 climbin' on to wot they calls the Shan table- 
 land, ain't we ? ' * The other grunted assent. 
 ' Ah ! Then I suppose now we're goin' up one 
 of the bally legs ? " But the change from the 
 heat of the plains was worth even that arduous 
 ascent. Curiously enough I never saw the 
 Cantonment here. I was transferred to the civil 
 side before building operations began and I 
 never returned to these parts till after the aban - 
 260 / 
 
CONCERNING LAKE-DWELLERS 
 
 donment of the station. So the place is now 
 almost exactly as it was when first I saw it nearly 
 thirty years ago." He sighed for the lost years 
 as even the man sighs who is most impatiently 
 looking forward to his pension. 
 
 Their way next morning lay through one of 
 the lake-villages where the head man came 
 alongside in a canoe to pay his duty to the Poli- 
 tical Officer. The quaint little houses built entirely 
 of bamboo on posts formed of clusters of bamboos 
 driven deep into the bottom of the shallow lake 
 excited Helen's curiosity and wonder. " It 
 surely can't be healthy to live over the water 
 like this ? " 
 
 u I'll ask the old man," said the Colonel, and 
 interpreted her query. The headman smiled, 
 and replied — 
 
 " He says they are very little troubled with 
 sickness so long as they do not sleep ashore," 
 the Colonel translated. 
 
 " But aren't they afraid of their children 
 falling of! the verandah and being drowned ? " 
 
 Again the Colonel interpreted and the old man's 
 amusement at the question was obvious. 
 
 " They can swim as soon as they can walk," 
 he replied, " and if they can't swim they squeak 
 261 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 and we fish them out. Now if they fell off the 
 verandah of a house ashore, they would break 
 their necks." 
 
 " He is right," the Colonel commented. " The 
 malaria mosquito can breed only at the margin 
 of the lake. Here the fish destroy the larvae- 
 And the villagers are wise enough to fetch all 
 their drinking water from the middle of the lake, 
 where the current that flows from north to south 
 keeps the water pure. Well, we must push on 
 to the end of our journey before the sun gets 
 hot." 
 
 He dismissed the villagers and the boatmen 
 resumed their grotesque toil. An hour's journey 
 from the village brought them to the landing 
 place at the foot of the hill on which the great 
 pagoda stood.. Here Tomson met them. His 
 surprise at finding Helen one of the party was 
 great and unfeigned. He had subconsciously 
 hoped that she might come but had never thought 
 it probable. At the sight of her and the touch 
 of her hand, as he helped her out of the boat, 
 all the comparative peace of the past months 
 was broken up as the apparently hard and safe 
 crust of lava is broken up by the outburst of 
 the fires underneath. To Helen at any rate his 
 262 
 
CONCERNING LAKE-DWELLERS 
 
 emotion was evident, and something of it was 
 communicated to her. She began to doubt her 
 wisdom in facing a meeting with him in reliance 
 upon the feeling of security born of her mater- 
 nity. She even felt guilty of duplicity towards 
 Hilda, her genuine friendliness for whom now 
 appeared retrospectively treacherous in the light 
 of her reviving passion. Hilda's far-sighted anti- 
 cipation was realized ; for Tracy's joy in meeting 
 Helen was strengthened by the pleasure which 
 he would have felt at sight of any woman of his 
 own race and class after a solitary tour amongst 
 the jungle tribes. The irritating thought of 
 his unborn child had weakened instead of confirm- 
 ing Hilda's hold upon his duty and affection, 
 and he was ready to throw every scruple to the 
 winds if he might only obtain possession of the 
 woman he craved. But who of full-blooded 
 men ever found pale duty's insistent small voice 
 audible above the clamorous appeal of passionate 
 love ? 
 
 263 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 Illustrates the Last Line of Lamartine's Poem 
 " Le Lac " 
 
 TO eyes accustomed to the scattered popula- 
 tion and the scanty villages dotted about 
 the Shan plateau, the shore of the lake at Hto- 
 daung presented an amazing spectacle. For 
 the purposes of the great feast the little hamlet 
 of fifty houses had grown into a densely populated 
 town. From the circle of white stones near 
 the hill-top, which marked the boundary of the 
 consecrated precinct, many rows of booths, 
 constructed of grass and bamboo, radiated to 
 the water's edge in unbroken lines, save where 
 openings had been left for the transverse paths 
 joining the long straight streets. Half-way up 
 the slope were the little stalls of the traders who 
 had brought their wares for sale. Here were 
 found filigree silver ear-rings, hair-combs of wood 
 or bone, Shan sheath-knives with chased silver 
 or ivory handles, cotton cloth of fawn and beauti- 
 264 
 
LAMARTINE'S POEM " LE LAC" 
 
 ful rose-madder, dyed with the native dyes, pale 
 green, pink, or white silk from the lake villages, 
 lacquer bowls and boxes of every description 
 and shoulder-bags of all kinds from simple 
 striped cotton articles for everyday use to elabo- 
 rate silk and silver receptacles adorned with white 
 seeds and intended for the use of chiefs or the 
 delectation of curio hunters ; dak-blades and 
 primitive utensils of native manufacture jostled 
 cheap knives, nails, screws and hinges from Bir- 
 mingham or Hamburg. Along the edge of the 
 lake a long row of huge earthenware jars big 
 enough to hide the Forty Thieves, propped on 
 slabs of stone over wood fires, were crowned with 
 wicker baskets, wherein snow-white rice was 
 cooking in the steam that rose from the water 
 bubbling merrily within, to feed the hungry 
 crowds so bent" on holiday-making that they had 
 no time for domestic worries. Up and down the 
 hill moved a merry but orderly multitude of 
 Shans, Taungthus, Karens, Danus, Inthas and 
 Burmans, all wearing their distinctive national 
 dress and speaking a perplexing variety of 
 dialects. 
 
 A little apart and on the border of the lake 
 stood three substantial teak rest-houses which 
 26 5 , 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 had been reserved for the Sawbwa's guests and 
 fitted with bamboo screens, curtains of native 
 cotton cloth, and a few simple articles of furni- 
 ture provided by a wealthy Shan trader who 
 indulged a taste for European style by superfluous 
 purchases from the Rangoon shops. One of 
 these houses was assigned to Helen, one to Colonel 
 Barton and the third was occupied by Tomson, 
 who was to share his abode with Frewen. The 
 Sawbwa himself occupied a spacious temporary 
 palace on a level patch of ground near the top 
 of the hill. Thither his visitors bent their steps 
 to pay a formal call as soon as they had estab- 
 lished themselves in their temporary quarters, 
 mindful of the respect due to a native potentate 
 in his own territory and surrounded by his own 
 people. They found him in the hall of audience, 
 open on three sides, which formed 'the larger half 
 of his palace. Behind lay his private apart- 
 ments, to which he retired when he was weary 
 of the duties and formalities attaching to his 
 princely state. He was dressed in his state robes 
 heavy with gold brocade and wore a high jewelled 
 crown, resembling the papal tiara. His throne 
 was a massive high-backed chair, heavily gilded, 
 standing on a dais which raised it some two feet 
 266 
 
LAMARTINE'S POEM " LE LAC" 
 
 from the ground. Around him in a semi-circle 
 knelt his ministers and a number of petty chiefs, 
 with folded hands, in the respectful attitude 
 enforced by court etiquette, while at the entrance 
 and along the sides of the hall were stationed a 
 score of retainers whose swords and scarlet 
 turbans marked them out as the chief's body- 
 guard. 
 
 At the entrance the party of visitors stopped 
 for a moment, and Helen gazed fascinated on 
 the strange sight before her. 
 
 " How exactly like an image he looks, sur- 
 rounded by devout worshippers ! " she exclaimed 
 in a whisper, as if afraid to disturb the religious 
 solemnity of the scene. 
 
 Apparently the Sawbwa's endurance of the 
 weight of his robes and the tedium of ceremony 
 had reached the limit, for catching sight of his 
 visitors he terminated the audience, and beckon- 
 ing to an attendant commanded him to place 
 chairs for the newcomers near the dais. After 
 a few words of greeting he begged them to excuse 
 him for a little, and moving heavily under the 
 burden of rustling brocade retired to his apart- 
 ment. < In a few minutes he emerged dressed 
 in his ordinary costume of silk trousers, linen 
 267 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 jacket and silk turban, a good-natured old 
 gentleman radiant with bonhomie and with delight 
 at meeting his guests. Helen was presented 
 to him and he entered at once into conversation 
 with her through the medium of Colonel Barton, 
 who interpreted. She expressed her surprise 
 and admiration at the provision made for housing 
 the worshippers that flocked to the festival. 
 
 "A simple matter," the chief replied. " Some 
 enterprising people came down here a week 
 beforehand and ran up a number of light shelters 
 for which they levy a small rent on the occupants. 
 Others build their own as they come in. Others 
 come only for the great day and do not spend 
 a night here." 
 
 * How many do you expect to attend the 
 festival ? " Helen inquired. 
 
 " Between thirty and 'forty thousand on the 
 big day." 
 
 " Is it not difficult to keep order in such huge 
 crowds ? " 
 
 " No," the chief replied ; " my bodyguard 
 of twenty men find themselves able to manage 
 it." 
 
 " In England we should require a couple of 
 hundred policemen at least. What is the secret ? " 
 268 
 
LAMARTINE'S POEM " LE LAC" 
 
 The chief smiled. " No liquor. It is forbidden 
 to bring any kind of intoxicant to the festival." 
 
 " But suppose it is brought in secretly ? " 
 
 " Well, if we find it we destroy it. As for 
 the owner, or any who use it, we truss them up 
 and teach them a lesson," he added grimly. 
 
 The Sawbwa's ministers and bodyguard mean- 
 while were waiting to accompany him to - the 
 pagoda, where he was to worship publicly and 
 burn many hundreds of the diminutive candles 
 used for religious purposes. He suggested that 
 his guests might like to accompany him, and they 
 agreed. It was characteristic of the extreme 
 tolerance of the Buddhist creed that, hatted and 
 booted, they should be admitted to the sacred 
 enclosure, and provided with chairs, while the 
 worshippers left their footwear outside and knelt 
 on the hard pavement. A large crowd joined 
 the chief's devotions, and amongst them the four- 
 year-old son of a minor chief lent a comic touch 
 to the ceremony by conscientiously imitating 
 and unconsciously parodying the Sawbwa's pro- 
 ceedings. When he attempted to set fire to a 
 whole packet of candles, paper wrappings and 
 all, the Sawbwa interrupted his prayers and 
 quietly removed the child to a safe position out 
 269 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 of reach of the candles, then resumed his devotions 
 with the greatest sangfroid. Helen suppressed 
 her laughter with difficulty, though she could 
 not help admiring the perfect self-possession of 
 the Sawbwa. 
 
 When he reached the last bead on his rosary 
 the chief rose and the party strolled round the 
 pagoda platform. On the side opposite to the 
 lake the hill descended steeply, and on this side 
 had been thrown vast quantities of fruit, which 
 lay rotting in the sun. 
 
 " What sinful waste ! " Helen exclaimed. 
 
 " Offerings which the priests cannot consume," 
 Frewen explained, adding cynically : "It reminds 
 one of the contributions to foreign missions." 
 
 During the descent of the hill, Tomson by 
 skilful manoeuvring contrived to detach Helen 
 from the rest of the party. 
 
 " When can I see you and talk to you ? " he 
 asked. 
 
 " Well, what are you doing now ? " she replied 
 with forced flippancy. 
 
 " You know what I mean. Think how many 
 long months have passed since I have had the 
 opportunity of speaking to you or even seeing 
 you ! Don't be cruel." 
 
 270 
 
LAMARTINE'S POEM " LE LAC" 
 
 His attraction had lost none of its strength 
 for Helen, and she realized that she was less strong 
 and less secure than she had hoped. She yielded 
 to his entreaties even while she blamed her own 
 weakness. 
 
 " I shall be alone this afternoon if you can come 
 to see me about three o'clock. But now you must 
 be discreet. Let us join the others." 
 
 Accordingly at three o'clock Tomson left Frewen 
 occupied with office papers and crossed the score 
 of yards of grass-grown path that separated the 
 two bungalows. He found Helen seated with 
 an open book before her, but it was evident that 
 she was anxious and expectant and the book had 
 by no means occupied her attention. She rose 
 to meet him and instinctively hold out her hand. 
 As he took it all his meditated appeals and all 
 Helen's arguments and resolutions vanished and 
 were forgotten, dissolved by the flame of longing 
 that blazed up at the touch of warm flesh. He 
 spoke no word, but his eyes gazed fiercely into 
 hers, and as the colour rose in her cheeks and her 
 eyes faltered before his, he drew her unresistingly 
 into his arms and their lips met in the long kiss 
 of complete surrender. 
 
 Helen awoke as if from a swoon and passed 
 271 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 her hand across her forehead. The conquest was 
 complete, and she did not even resent the air of 
 triumph in Tracy's manner as she released herself 
 and faced him with one hand resting on the 
 table beside her. The dominant chord in the 
 strain of conflicting sensations that swept like 
 mad Bacchanalian music through her mind was 
 made up of joy in her first love, gladness in sur- 
 render and peace from torturing doubts and hesi- 
 tation. The future could take care of itself. 
 For the present, the present was sufficient. 
 A descent to the commonplace was the only 
 possible sequel to the climax of intense feeling 
 through which both were passing, and by a 
 mutual impulse they sat down and began to discuss 
 the events of the interval since they had parted 
 in Rangoon, avoiding all reference to Hilda and 
 Dick, who seemed to have dropped entirely 
 out of their world. The Great War, however, re- 
 fused to be set aside and thrust itself into their 
 converse as it did into every discussion in those 
 days. 
 
 " They are accepting volunteers from the 
 
 Military Police for service at the front. Numbers 
 
 of ex-sepoys are clamouring to go and we are 
 
 selecting as many as we can spare from the most 
 
 272 
 
LAMARTINE'S POEM " LE LAC" 
 
 suitable men. I have registered my name in 
 case any British officers are allowed to accompany 
 them. I hear there is a distinct chance." 
 
 " Where are they sending them ? " Helen 
 inquired. 
 
 " To France chiefly, I hear. But some are 
 going to Mesopotamia." 
 
 The thought of losing Tracy almost immediately 
 struck a chill into Helen's heart, but she dismissed 
 the thought with a prayer that the calamity might 
 be averted and said, " Is it unkind to hope that 
 you may not be accepted ? " 
 
 He thrilled at the tacit admission and the soft 
 caressing tone in which it was uttered. The 
 half-unconscious thought crossed his mind that 
 here was a woman whose love would never pall. 
 
 The voice of Helen's bearer was heard outside, 
 asking if he might come in. He had finished 
 his afternoon sleep and now had come to remind 
 his mistress that tea was ready in the Colonel's 
 bungalow, which was also the mess-house for 
 the party. Helen dismissed him with a message 
 that she was coming at once and rose to carry 
 out her promise. 
 
 Tracy rising also, with a quick glance behind 
 him to make sure that the bearer had disappeared, 
 273 s 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 stretched out his arms and made a step forward. 
 " One kiss ! " he pleaded. 
 
 Helen thrust her palms outward, arms rigid, 
 her body quivering. " Ah no ! " she said in a low 
 voice, " I could not bear it ! " 
 
 At the tea-table plans for the evening were 
 discussed. In the middle of the discussion the 
 Sawbwa was announced. Attended by his body- 
 guard he had come to return formally the call 
 which the Political Officer had paid in the morning. 
 His advice was demanded to settle their pro- 
 gramme. 
 
 " There will be three pives," he said. "I am 
 indifferent which I attend. Do you make your 
 choice." 
 
 Colonel Barton left the decision to Helen. 
 " They are of three different kinds : the usual 
 dramatic performance, with little action and much 
 dialogue that none of us will understand ; the 
 ba\\et-pive, with little dialogue, much dancing and 
 more throaty singing ; and the marionette 
 performance, which is very amusing to watch 
 even though one does not follow the dialogue." 
 
 Helen chose the marionettes. Accordingly 
 at nine o'clock they set out from the rest-house 
 with an escort of the Sawbwa's bodyguard and 
 274 
 
LAMARTINE'S POEM " LE LAC" 
 
 ascended the hill. The light of the lanterns 
 which their servants carried and the oil-lamps 
 that hung at the entrance to every booth shone 
 lurid against the moonlight that flooded the 
 thronged hill-side. The crowds flocking to the 
 various entertainments gave way before the 
 warning shouts of the guards, who occasionally 
 prodded the dilatory with the staffs they carried, 
 and so in dignified manner they at last reached 
 the rude theatre where the Sawbwa awaited them. 
 He placed Helen in the chair on his right and 
 Tracy promptly took the next seat. The per- 
 formance had already begun and from the audi- 
 ence that stood closely packed on the slope 
 below the tiny stage arose occasional murmurs 
 of subdued laughter that evidenced their enjoy- 
 ment of the antics and speeches of the marionettes. 
 For a time the mere absurdity of the contrast 
 between the stentorian voices of the performers 
 behind the screen and the diminutive appearance 
 of the dolls they were manipulating, together 
 with the grotesque stilted action, as they pranced 
 across the boards or bowed to the audience, 
 provided amusement enough for the onlookers 
 who could not follow the dialogue. When 
 Helen grew weary of this she found that the audi- 
 275 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 ence itself provided no lack of entertainment. 
 And beneath all ran a deep undercurrent of joy 
 and satisfaction springing from the mere presence 
 of Tracy at her side, though she spoke little to 
 him. He for his part was content to fall in with 
 her mood and watched with keen pleasure the 
 play of her features and the happiness that shone - 
 unchecked from her eyes whenever she turned 
 to him. He had not studied women deeply and 
 he found it difficult to understand the change 
 in her attitude. Why had she held him off so 
 long if she meant to surrender so completely ? 
 Had she really surrendered ? Was she capable 
 of coquetry after all ? He could not image the 
 slow sapping of a woman's power of resistance 
 by her own constant thought and mistook the 
 crumbling of the surface for a sudden upheaval. 
 The puzzle did not occupy his mind for long. 
 Speculation was foreign to his nature ; he dis- 
 missed the question and let himself drift along 
 the current of circumstance. 
 
 At eleven o'clock Colonel Barton spoke. " The 
 play goes on till dawn. Since we can't see the end 
 of it, it matters little when we leave. Mrs. 
 Whitham has had a long day and she must be 
 tired." 
 
 276 
 
LAMARTINE'S POEM " LE LAC" 
 
 Helen protested that she was quite fresh and 
 willing to stay as long as the others pleased, but 
 nobody except Tracy was loth to go, and he wisely 
 refrained from expressing any opinion. They 
 said good- night to their host and descended the 
 hill to the lake. Tracy lingered for a moment by 
 Helen's side when the party broke up. 
 
 " Good-night, beloved," he whispered. " I 
 find it hard to leave you." 
 
 He had expressed Helen's own unspoken 
 thought and she lifted to him a pale face. Her 
 smile had vanished and her lips trembled while her 
 eyes shone in the moonlight with unshed tears. 
 She tried to speak, but deep emotion stilled her 
 voice and she turned silently into the bungalow. 
 
 Sleep was far from Tracy, and after bidding 
 Frewen good- night he threw himself into a long 
 chair and took up a book. But his turbulent 
 thoughts refused to compose themselves into 
 attention, and the book fell from his hand. 
 He lay for a long time motionless in deep abstrac- 
 tion, then rose and went to the window over- 
 looking the lake. On that side all was silent. 
 The water lay black in the shade of the trees that 
 fringed the shore, but beyond the shadows the 
 night- breeze dimpled the moonlit surface into 
 277 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 countless spangles of silver. On the other side 
 of the light bamboo screen that separated his 
 quarters from Frewen's, he heard the deep breath- 
 ing that told him his companion was already 
 asleep. He stepped softly to the landward side 
 of the house and looked out. Up the hill the 
 light still gleamed and the murmur of the 
 multitude was faintly audible, but the path that 
 skirted the lake and passed in front of the house 
 was quite deserted. He looked and listened 
 long, then, walking like one in a dream, descended 
 the steps into the road. 
 
 Helen meanwhile had sought relief and dis- 
 traction from thoughts that disturbed and pro- 
 blems that perplexed in the details of her toilet. 
 She spent a long hour brushing the soft hair 
 that rippled to her waist, ceasing at last from sheer 
 fatigue. Then taking advantage of her weariness 
 she threw herself on her bed, letting her long 
 tresses spread in a dark cloud over the pillow, 
 and fell into a dream-haunted slumber. The 
 longing which her will and her bodily weariness 
 had kept at bay returned as sleep relaxed the one 
 and repaired the other, and visions of Tracy 
 filled her restless brain. A creaking stair dis- 
 turbed her for an instant, but her dreams quickly 
 278 
 
LAMARTINE'S POEM " LE LAC" 
 
 returned. Now Tracy's arms were round her 
 again and his lips pressed to hers. Why had she 
 refused him a second kiss ? There was no fear 
 — no resistance now. She smiled without any 
 trace of dread. Strange how sleep removed all 
 obstacles ! What was there to prevent them 
 from loving one another without restraint ? Was 
 she asleep or waking ? Why had she let Tracy 
 go without a word ? If only he jvere here now ! 
 
 Through a gap where the wind had torn a 
 shingle from the roof a moonbeam fell across 
 her bed and showed the curve of her white breast 
 gleaming through the open lace of her night-dress. 
 Slowly it crept upward past her firm throat and 
 parted lips that moved and smiled as her dream 
 took its fantastic course. At length it reached 
 her eyelids and seemed to linger there, bidding 
 her open them and see what joy the soft tropical 
 night might hold for her in these wilds far re- 
 moved from the conventions and taboos of her 
 narrow world. 
 
 She moved slightly and passed her hand over 
 her eyelids as if to brush away the disturbing 
 ray ; then slowly her eyes opened. How real 
 her dream seemed ! There stood Tracy by her 
 bedside just as she had parted from him hours 
 279 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 ago, his gaze bent appealingly upon her. With a 
 little glad cry of welcome she stretched out her 
 hands to the vision. 
 
 Tracy knelt beside her and her arms closed 
 round his neck while he buried his face between 
 her neck and shoulder and inhaled deeply the 
 maddening scent of her warm flesh and fragrant 
 hair. 
 
 So Helen awoke. 
 
 280 
 
 IV. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 Hilda Visits the Leopard's Leap for the 
 Last Time 
 
 HELEN and Colonel Barton returned to 
 Kangale. Jim Frewen proceeded south- 
 ward down the lake, while Tracy continued his 
 tour of the outposts in his charge, and was to 
 make his way to Kangale early in February to 
 escort Hilda back to Koilaw. He had ascer- 
 tained from Helen that she would still be in 
 Kangale when he arrived, though she made a 
 mental reservation permitting herself to find 
 urgent need for an early return to Rangoon if 
 she felt unequal to the ordeal of meeting Tracy 
 in Hilda's presence. She was learning only 
 slowly that sin and sorrow, like joy, are very 
 much less in realization than anticipation. She 
 had been amazed to find that there was no diffi- 
 dence or self-consciousness to mar the perfect 
 freedom of her intercourse with Tracy, and she 
 met Hilda with a feeling of increased sympathy 
 281 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 only faintly tinged with regret. She had a fatal- 
 istic sense of the inevitableness of what had 
 happened, and out in those wild hills far away 
 from the conventions and restrictions of Western 
 civilization the natural issue of mutual love 
 appeared to give no cause for repentance or any 
 other feeling than a sense of completeness and 
 satisfaction. 
 
 The masculine mind of Tracy was less sensitive 
 and less prone to introspection, but during the 
 three weeks that followed the Lake festival 
 his thoughts became more self-centred than 
 before. Behind the feeling of satisfaction in an 
 experience completed and rounded off there was a 
 vague elusive uneasiness. His attempts to focus 
 and identify the ghost that flitted across the 
 background of his day-long meditations on Helen 
 were for a long time vain, but early one morning 
 as he lay in the semi-conscious state between 
 sleeping and waking he had a clear perception 
 of the mysterious phantom that disturbed his 
 peace. As the subliminal consciousness slipped 
 away carrying the vision with it his waking mind 
 with a sudden effort of volition seized and held it 
 long enough to identify the intruder as Hilda's 
 child. How had he forgotten it so long ? From 
 282 
 
HILDA VISITS THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 that time onwards he brooded on it without 
 ceasing. It reminded him of what he wanted 
 to forget and what he would have Helen forget. 
 It was an epitome of all the obstacles that kept 
 them apart, and alone it seemed to him a more 
 formidable barrier than all the rest. In attribut- 
 ing to Helen feelings similar to his own he made 
 the common mistake of all men in their interpre- 
 tation of women. Yet it was for her sake chiefly 
 that he began to fret and chafe under the burden 
 of his new responsibility and to feel a growing 
 resentment against Hilda as its chief cause. 
 
 So it was that when he met Hilda again at 
 Kangale there was a trace of reserve and awkward 
 ness in his attitude which a wife's eye could not 
 fail to notice. Her old fears were aroused, for 
 how could she guess that his manner was the 
 outcome, not of conscious guilt, but of smoulder- 
 ing wrath against herself ? She had been denied 
 the experience through which Helen had passed, 
 and had interpreted Helen's unchanged and 
 clearly unaffected friendliness as a proof that all 
 was as it should be. Could Helen be merely 
 a clever actress after all? She determined to 
 watch her when Tracy was near. 
 
 Contrary to her expectation and to the teaching 
 283 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 of her childhood, there was no evidence of guilt 
 in the face of either when they met. Their 
 joy at meeting again was suppressed and sub- 
 dued into the semblance of mere pleasure in 
 renewing an old acquaintance. Hilda was 
 puzzled, but light soon dawned on her from 
 another quarter. The encounter had taken place 
 in the drawing-room of the Residency at Kangale 
 before dinner, and while Hilda was scrutinizing 
 her husband with slightly puckered brows and 
 compressed lips Mrs. Barton's voice was heard. 
 
 " Dinner is served. Captain Tomson, will you 
 take in Mrs. Whitham, since you are nearest ? 
 We will follow without ceremony." 
 
 Helen put her arm through Tracy's with an un- 
 conscious air of possession and complete intimacy 
 that almost startled Hilda into an exclama- 
 tion. Not the most careful watch on words and 
 actions can prevent the subtle manifestation 
 of the mutual understanding that pervades 
 the ordinary intercourse of a pair of lovers be- 
 tween whom the last. barrier is down. 
 
 Hilda marked the change from the ill-concealed 
 
 restraint that had marked Tracy's previous 
 
 conversations with Helen in public to the easy 
 
 familiarity of their present footing. He was 
 
 284 
 
HILDA VISITS THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 inquiring how they had fared on the return jour- 
 ney to Kangale after the festival. 
 
 " We did not return direct," she replied. 
 " Colonel Barton took me with him on a visit to 
 Pantara with Mr. Frewen as escort." 
 
 " What did you think of the country ? " 
 
 "It is splendid. It reminded me of the 
 Sussex Downs or of Berkshire in the neighbour- 
 hood of Wantage. It is quite unlike anything 
 I have seen in any other part of India." 
 
 " Isn't it a pity that such fine country with 
 such a climate should lie fallow and scarcely 
 inhabited for want of a few good roads to make 
 farming profitable ? " 
 
 " I hardly considered that point. I was 
 interested in the scenery and the people. The 
 young chief of Pantara — I forget what he is 
 called — he is not a Sawbwa " 
 
 " I know ; a most impossible word beginning 
 with Ng and ending in a sound like the lowing 
 of a cow. Don't injure your throat by trying 
 to pronounce it." 
 
 Helen laughed and continued. " Well, he 
 was quite pleased to see us and showed us his 
 three wives, of whom he seemed immensely 
 proud." 
 
 285 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 " Three is not a bad allowance for a minor 
 chief." 
 
 " No, but his pride in them was a little subdued 
 because, as he told us lugubriously, all three were 
 on the sick list." 
 
 " He was learning the wisdom of Bacon's 
 observation that the man who has a wife and 
 children has given hostages to fortune. How 
 true that must be of a man with three wives ! " 
 
 " Or three hundred, like Solomon ! " 
 
 Tracy smiled, and Hilda, who had been listen- 
 ing in silence to the conversation, made an effort 
 to conceal her growing anxiety and joined in 
 the bantering discussion with something of her 
 usual ironical humour. 
 
 " Can't you imagine a dialogue in the style 
 of Landor between Bacon and Solomon on the 
 question of marriage ? " 
 
 " If there is a heaven and if people retain their 
 human characters, there will be some strange 
 meetings. St. Paul and the ascetics will surely 
 refuse to associate with Solomon," said the 
 Colonel. 
 
 " Your ' ifs ' remind me of the Frenchman's 
 prayer which I saw quoted in a newspaper the 
 other day," commented Helen. " It ran like 
 286 
 
HILDA VISITS THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 this : ■ O God, if there be a God, save my soul, if 
 I have a soul ! ' " 
 
 " That was Pascal, surely ? " said Hilda. 
 " I was reminded rather of Queen Victoria's 
 very clearly expressed determination that she 
 would not know King David." 
 
 " Who ? The lady who travelled out with us 
 in the Devonshire ? " Helen inquired in all good 
 faith. 
 
 " That was Queen Anne. I think my wife 
 means her late Imperial Majesty," Tracy ex- 
 plained. 
 
 " It would have come almost equally well 
 from the other," Hilda added. 
 
 Mrs. Barton smiled. " It's a shame to laugh. 
 She is a virtuous Englishwoman." 
 
 " Yes ! " sighed Hilda, " that is her f only 
 fault." 
 
 " You are incorrigible ! " rebuked Mrs. Barton 
 with mock severity. "lam afraid Mr. Fre wen's 
 influence has not been for good either." 
 
 " By the way, when does Frewen come in, 
 sir ? " asked Tracy. 
 
 " He's due in now according to his programme," 
 answered the Colonel, " but some thoughtless 
 Shans have been cutting trees in his reserved 
 287 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 forests out towards the Salween and interfering 
 with his fire-lines, and he's gone raging down the 
 road after the miscreant's blood." 
 
 The conversation drifted back into the usual 
 channels, the ladies discussing the absurdity 
 of the new English fashions, and the men airing 
 their pet grievances, each hurling his stone at 
 Government with all the more zest because he 
 formed part of it. Hilda observed the demean- 
 our of her host and hostess to see whether they 
 showed by any look or sign that they noticed the 
 intimacy between Helen and Tracy. But she 
 could detect nothing. The Bartons were slow 
 to suspect ill of anybody. But then the Bartons 
 were unaware of the change in Tracy's attitude 
 towards Helen, for they had not seen them 
 together before Helen's arrival in Kangale. 
 
 For the two days that intervened before her 
 departure with Tracy for Koilaw Hilda noted 
 every trivial happening that could throw light 
 on the problem. She had to confess that the 
 incidents on which she built up her argument 
 were indeed trivial, and stated to any other 
 person would have sounded ludicrous. But 
 then nobody else was sufficiently interested 
 to mark the innumerable little indications of 
 288 
 
HILDA VISITS THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 a close understanding between her husband and 
 Helen, or held the clue to their meaning. To 
 a casual observer the unconcealed pleasure 
 which Tracy showed in Helen's society and her 
 frank smile of welcome whenever he joined her 
 might have argued merely a candid friendship. 
 But Hilda had detected a gleam of more than 
 friendship in Helen's smile and Tracy's gaze. 
 Something had happened to change their relation 
 to one another. — What was it ? Looking back 
 on the past few months and recalling her sus- 
 picious fears alternately aroused and allayed she 
 felt sure that those fears had been well grounded. 
 The change might be due to the passing of a 
 mere fleeting desire and the growth of a real 
 friendship. Against that explanation stood 
 Tracy's indifference to herself, which she could 
 not attribute solely to her physical state, and the 
 half avowed estrangement of which she had not 
 yet dared to demand the cause. She was forced 
 to the conclusion that Helen had accepted Tracy 
 as her lover, but she could not be certain whether 
 there had been more than a mutual confession. 
 Evidently there was no sense of guilt, for that 
 would have surely betrayed itself in an uneasiness 
 and self-consciousness of manner when they met 
 289 T 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 in the presence of others. But would not the 
 knowledge of a mutual confession, which was 
 equivalent to a promise of complete surrender, 
 have produced such a sense of guilt in people 
 nourished in orthodox creeds ? 
 
 By a sudden intuition Hilda reached the truth. 
 She saw that two people newly absorbed in a 
 mutual passion might create a little world for 
 themselves in which their love was the supreme 
 law. Then so long as they did not prove false 
 to their love, they would be unconscious of sin 
 and face the world with clear open brows and 
 perhaps a shade of supercilious contempt for the 
 mass of mankind still in slavery to social pre- 
 judices and antediluvian conventions. There was 
 less difficulty in attributing this attitude to Tracy 
 than to Helen, for to a woman convention stands 
 for far more than to a man, and Hilda could not 
 be aware of the effect upon her rival of uncivil- 
 ized surroundings and the glamour of moonlight 
 on the lake ; nor had she learned that the early 
 morning hours may undermine other qualities 
 than courage, and that to awake suddenly face 
 to face with a great temptation and meet it 
 with body alert and mind still drowsed with sleep 
 is a trial beyond the strength of mortals. 
 290 
 
HILDA VISITS THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 Accordingly she set out with Tracy for Koilaw 
 fully convinced of his disloyalty. Some day or 
 other she would tax him with it, but not yet. 
 Every consideration of prudence bade her con- 
 ceal her conviction, but when they found them- 
 selves alone in the Napier car slipping rapidly 
 down the long slope of the eastward road she 
 felt her resentment burn fiercely within her and 
 kept silence with an effort. Fortunately con- 
 versation was made difficult by the wind that 
 swept past as they glided swiftly along, and Tracy 
 showed no inclination to talk. Wrapped in 
 gloomy thought they arrived all too soon at the 
 bungalow where the road ended and the mule 
 track began. Here their servants awaited them 
 with breakfast, and the ponies stood ready 
 saddled for the climb up the hill and the steep 
 drop past the Leopard's Leap, which were to 
 form the afternoon's stage of their journey. 
 
 The valley in which the bungalow stood was 
 close on two thousand feet below Kangale, and 
 when the car stopped, the heat of the sun, which 
 was nearing the zenith, felt oppressive. Tracy 
 uttered an exclamation of disgust. 
 
 " It's going to be too hot for an early start. 
 How close the air is down here ! We had better 
 291 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 wait till four o'clock. The mules and the ser- 
 vants can go on after breakfast. We can follow 
 when it is cool. If we push on and take advan- 
 tage of the flat piece at the end of the stage we 
 shall get in soon after six." 
 
 Hilda assented and climbed the steps leading 
 into the bungalow, while Tracy followed the 
 orderly into the stable and superintended the 
 unsaddling of the ponies. When he joined Hilda 
 indoors breakfast was already on the table. 
 
 " I'm rather hungry after that long drive," 
 said Tracy, assuming an air of cheerfulness in 
 order to disperse the gloom which had hung 
 over them all morning. " No wonder ! " he 
 added, looking at his watch. "It's eleven 
 o'clock." 
 
 '" We must hurry and let the servants get away," 
 said Hilda, and they seated themselves at the 
 table. 
 
 For some minutes the silence was unbroken, 
 till Hilda, feeling the position intolerable, began 
 to talk and unhappily seized the topic which 
 at that moment lay uppermost in her mind. 
 
 "This, I suppose, will be my last journey 
 
 along the road until " She checked herself 
 
 suddenly, remembering the effect on Tracy the 
 292 
 
HILDA VISITS THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 first time she had spoken to him of her coming 
 motherhood. 
 
 " Until what ? " asked Tracy in an absent- 
 minded manner. 
 
 Hilda's silence answered him, and as he real- 
 ized the tenor of her thoughts an angry flush 
 rose to his forehead in spite of himself. 
 
 Wrath begets wrath, and suddenly the sense 
 of cruel wrong and bitter injustice blazed forth 
 in Hilda's heart. The child was his and she was 
 his wife. What right had he to resent its advent ? 
 Was it not enough that he had been unfaithful 
 to her ? Surely he owed her more than ordinary 
 care and consideration, yet he refused to her 
 even such comfort as the most callous of husbands 
 would offer his wife under similar circumstances. 
 Controlling herself with an effort, she spoke 
 deliberately and slowly, her face white and set, 
 her dark eyes burning with righteous anger. 
 
 " Why should any reference to my child — 
 our child — make you so angry ? It is unreason- 
 able, foolish — nay more — it is cruelty to me who 
 have to bear the pain and the burden." 
 
 Criticism from his wife was a new experience and 
 Tracy was startled. But he by no means ad- 
 mitted the justice of her reproaches, for he had 
 293 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 nursed this grievance of his until he was per- 
 suaded that he had a real cause for complaint. 
 
 " You know as well as I do what a drag children 
 are on a man in my position." 
 
 The lameness of the excuse irritated Hilda 
 and unchained her tongue. Tracy had never 
 yet felt the sting of her sarcasm. His first taste 
 of it was such as would have goaded the least 
 sensitive of lovers to fury. 
 
 " In your position ! Yes ! The married man 
 who dandles after another man's wife is a pitiable 
 creature at any time ; but when he leaves a baby 
 at home while he goes out on his amorous adven- 
 tures, he is an object of ridicule and contempt." 
 
 How much had she guessed? Tracy asked 
 himself, and for the first time caught a glimpse 
 of his conduct as it might appear to others and 
 less interested spectators than his wife. " What 
 do you mean ? " he faltered, shaken by this 
 unexpected attack, yet pale with anger. 
 
 His tone confirmed Hilda's suspicions, if indeed 
 they needed any confirmation. Her revolt against 
 her husband was as sudden and violent as her 
 compliance had hitherto been consistent and 
 thorough. She felt her love for him change to 
 scorn and hatred and her anger die down. In a 
 294 
 
HILDA VISITS THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 tone of the deepest contempt, with a faint touch 
 of weariness she answered him after a pause. 
 
 " What should I mean except that I am per- 
 fectly aware Helen Whitham is your mistress ? " 
 
 The charge had not at all the effect Hilda 
 anticipated. The momentary realization of his 
 position as others might view it had vanished 
 from Tracy's mind, and he judged things only 
 by the law of his lawless love. Helen was 
 attacked, her conduct and his called in question. 
 That the charge was true affected the issue not 
 a jot. It mattered even less that it was a woman, 
 sick in mind and body, who made it. He rose 
 from the table and moved towards Hilda. 
 
 " How dare you ? " he whispered hoarsely. 
 " How dare you ? " 
 
 But Hilda heard him not. She had slipped 
 from her chair fainting. He picked her up in 
 his arms with a pang of regret and a feeling of 
 wonder that such a storm should have broken in 
 so suddenly upon their peace. Manlike, he 
 would not recognize that he himself had alone 
 brought about the disaster which threatened to 
 involve so many lives. 
 
 Calling to the boy to fetch the flask of brandy 
 from his holster, he carried Hilda into the bedroom 
 295 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 and laid her on the bed. She quickly recovered 
 consciousness and opened her eyes. 
 
 " What is it ? " she asked confusedly ; then 
 after a pause, " Ah ! I remember." 
 
 '* Never mind that now. Lie down and rest. 
 We had better stay here to-night and go on to- 
 morrow." 
 
 However, Hilda seemed so much better an 
 hour later and was so eager to get away from the 
 scene of their late quarrel that it was decided to 
 adhere to the original plan, and the baggage- 
 mules were despatched in charge of the servants. 
 Hilda deemed it wise to remain in the bedroom 
 until four o'clock, the hour fixed for their de- 
 parture, and so avoid any chance of renewing 
 the hateful dissension. From sheer mental ex- 
 haustion she dozed away the hours while Tracy 
 lay in a long chair or paced restlessly the shady 
 space beneath the bungalow and consumed many 
 cheroots in the vain endeavour to guess what 
 would be the upshot of Hilda's discovery. 
 
 At four o'clock the ponies were brought round 
 to the door and they mounted and set out. A 
 mile from the village the ascent began. Here 
 the track narrowed and they were compelled to 
 proceed in single file, Hilda leading and the orderly 
 296 
 
HILDA VISITS THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 bringing up the rear. So they were left to their 
 own thoughts and were not obliged to make con- 
 versation to conceal their embarrassment. 
 
 When they reached the crest of the hill they 
 stopped for a moment to breathe the ponies, 
 then began the descent towards the Leopard's 
 Leap. This was Hilda's third journey along the 
 road, and neither Tracy nor the orderly suggested 
 that it would be better to dismount. 
 
 " Shall I go first, Sahib, as usual, to see that 
 the road is clear ? " inquired the Sikh. 
 
 '* Very well, Jaswant Singh," was the reply, 
 and the orderly urged his pony ahead of the 
 others. v 
 
 Cautiously the sure-footed little animals picked 
 their way down the steep track, avoiding the 
 loose stones. Jaswant Singh had turned the 
 dangerous corner and was out of sight before 
 Hilda reached it. Tracy followed five yards 
 behind. At the bend she took a firm grip of 
 the pony's bridle in order to steady him if he 
 stumbled on the smooth rock. As she did so a 
 rustling in the tree that overhung the rock 
 attracted her attention and she glanced upwards, 
 unconsciously tightening the reins as she did 
 so. The pony threw up his head and turned 
 297 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 half round, facing the wall of rock. He slipped 
 backwards and his hoofs beat rapidly against 
 the polished surface as he tried to recover his 
 grip. Tracy, petrified with dread, saw the 
 struggling animal's hind feet slip over the edge 
 of the precipice. His own pony had instinctively 
 stopped just out of Hilda's reach. Feeling her 
 pony's hind-quarters sink she turned in terror 
 to Tracy and shrieked, " Help me, Tracy ! " 
 
 Had he responded by driving his heels into his 
 pony's flanks and urged it forward with a bound 
 to where Hilda's pony made a last vain effort 
 to keep its foothold on the slippery road, he 
 would only have been precipitated over the edge. 
 But he sat motionless and spell-bound, gazing 
 on Hilda's panic-stricken face. It was all over 
 in an instant, yet in that brief instant he saw 
 that she had misread his inaction. The fear in 
 her face changed to unspeakable horror, and with 
 one reproachful cry of " Tracy ! " she fell head- 
 long backwards over the precipice. Over and 
 over turned the bodies of the pony and the 
 unhappy woman, but their fall was inaudible 
 above the murmuring of the torrent in its rocky 
 bed far below. 
 
 Then at last Tracy shook himself free of the 
 298 
 
HILDA VISITS THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 nightmare that held him in its grip and slipped 
 from the saddle. The orderly, turning back at 
 Hilda's cry, found him lying prone on the jutting 
 edge, peering into the dim depths of the ravine 
 and calling wildly, " Hilda ! Hilda ! Not that ! 
 I am innocent of that ! " A spasm of convulsive 
 sobbing rent him and he muttered brokenly, 
 " She is dead ! And she believed that I murdered 
 her!" 
 
 The sun had set and the brief tropical twilight 
 was fast fading before Jaswant Singh succeeded 
 in inducing his master to mount and suffer his 
 pony to be led down the hill. Not till they were 
 clear of the mountains and traversing the stretch 
 of level ground that lay between the foot of the 
 ridge and the bungalow did he mount his own 
 pony. So an hour after nightfall they reached 
 their halting- place. Tracy sat huddled up like 
 a man bowed down with age and sickness and 
 spoke not a word. When his pony stopped at 
 the entrance to the compound he dismounted and 
 walked unsteadily into the bungalow. Jaswant 
 Singh hurriedly explained what had happened, 
 and enjoining the servants to keep a watchful 
 eye on their master rode of! through the darkness 
 at the best pace his tired pony could, carry him. 
 299 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 Two hours later he reached Koilaw and reported 
 himself to the native officer in charge of the 
 outpost. Then after a hurried meal he saddled 
 a fresh pony and returned with all possible speed 
 to Tracy. Meanwhile the Subadar, accompanied 
 by a signaller, had climbed the hill overlooking 
 Koilaw and after a time succeeded in calling up 
 the signalling station on the top of the crags 
 at Kangale. When the answering flash of the 
 lamp showed that their signals had been noticed, 
 they spelt out with dot and dash the terrible 
 tidings. The message was carried off at once 
 to the Commandant, who immediately conveyed 
 it to Colonel Barton. 
 
 The Superintendent was sitting alone in his 
 study when the Commandant was shown in. Mrs. 
 Barton and Helen had already retired. He heard 
 the news in awe-stricken silence, then took an 
 immediate resolve. 
 
 " Keep this quiet for twenty-four hours. Mrs. 
 Whitham leaves us to-morrow early, and I want 
 to spare her the shock. My wife will write to 
 her as soon as she has gone and break it to her 
 as gently as possible. She and Mrs. Tomson 
 were great friends, you know. You had better 
 set out to-morrow for Koilaw and see whether 
 300 
 
HILDA VISITS THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 Tomson is fit to carry on till he is relieved. Send 
 search parties of Shans up the valley ; though 
 I doubt whether you will find very much." 
 
 And so indeed it proved. The saddle with 
 broken girths and some fragments of torn cloth- 
 ing were found caught in a tree that overhung 
 the stream. The pony's carcass was cast ashore 
 on a rocky ledge some miles below the precipice 
 and mangled by wild beasts. But Hilda's fan- 
 body with her unborn babe swept onward in 
 the torrent to find a resting place in the sands 
 of the broad Salween. 
 
 301 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 In which Helen writes a Letter 
 
 r T^RACY had refused to ask for leave and 
 -*■ begged that he might not be transferred. 
 In work he found the surest refuge from his 
 thoughts. To the stupor caused by the first 
 shock of Hilda's tragic death succeeded a period 
 of morbid self-accusation. He wrote to Helen 
 a short account of the accident, but said nothing 
 of the quarrel, the only serious quarrel in their 
 three years of married life, that had preceded it. 
 It seemed at first a sacrilege to write of such 
 things even to Helen. He only remembered the 
 quarrel now to reproach himself for having been 
 the cause of it. After all, was he not guilty of 
 constructive murder ? If he had cared for Hilda 
 as he cared for Helen, would he have allowed her 
 to ride round the dangerous bend, even though 
 others did it daily ? And Hilda had gone to her 
 death believing that he had refused to help her, 
 either from cowardice or because he willed her 
 302 
 
HELEN WRITES A LETTER 
 
 death, in order to remove one obstacle from his 
 path, the path that led to Helen. Was she very 
 far from the truth after all ? Had he not in his 
 secret heart wished her, if not dead, at least out 
 of the way ? And for what reason ? No wife 
 could have been more loyal than she. Indeed, 
 her only fault was her too great affection for him 
 which jarred on his undemonstrative nature. 
 
 Helen had written a short note of sympathy, 
 omitting all reference to their personal relations. 
 Back again under her husband's roof and sur- 
 rounded by the conventional society in which 
 she had been brought up, shaken too by the 
 terrible news of Hilda's death, whom she had 
 never regarded as a rival but only as a friend, 
 she began to see her conduct, unpremeditated 
 and impulsive as it was, not in its true colours, 
 perhaps, but as others would regard it. Shame, 
 regret, loyalty to her dead friend combined to 
 strengthen her against the temptation to write 
 frankly to Tracy and offer him such consolation 
 as the assurance of her love could give. She 
 guessed too that Tracy would be passing through 
 a period of self-castigation and would prefer 
 not to be reminded of the wrong he had put upon 
 his dead wife. 
 
 303 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 So two months passed away and Tracy, feeling 
 that he must seek relief by unburdening himself 
 of his secret trouble, turned to Helen for sympathy 
 and help. He described in detail their journey 
 on that ill-omened morning from Kangale, the 
 quarrel at the bungalow and Hilda's sudden 
 collapse. He omitted nothing that might tend 
 to show him in an unfavourable light, and laid 
 before her all the accusations which his conscience 
 in the hours of his bitterest self-reproach had 
 hurled at him. 
 
 " Am I guilty of her death ? " he asked finally. 
 " Tell me the truth and do not spare me." 
 
 The description of the quarrel of which she 
 had been the cause, with its almost brutal ending, 
 caused in Helen's mind a great revulsion. Not 
 till she had pondered the matter for many days 
 and reached at length a final resolution did she 
 sit down to reply to Tracy's letter, and the pain 
 of suspense filled him with a foreboding that 
 another blow was about to fall. At length the 
 dak-runner delivered to him one morning at the 
 beginning of May a letter in Helen's handwriting. 
 
 " You ask me to tell you quite frankly whether 
 I think the blame for Hilda's death lies at your 
 door. I answer without hesitation, no. Guilt 
 304 
 
HELEN WRITES A LETTER 
 
 implies intention. I do not think you can rightly 
 accuse yourself of any desire, much less any 
 intention in that direction. But if you asked 
 me whether you were indirectly the cause of her 
 death, or did anything to bring it about, I should 
 be compelled to answer, yes. Yet what action 
 of ours is there, even the most trivial, that does 
 not contribute something to some tremendous 
 events ? It would be easy to show that, unless 
 a particular event is predestined, the omission 
 of the smallest link in the chain of causes would 
 prevent its occurrence, and therefore each person 
 whose actions form any portion of that chain is 
 in a sense directly responsible for the final result. 
 Nobody, however, would dream of making the 
 smith who forged the knife responsible for its 
 use in the hands of a murderer. You are inclined 
 to blame yourself too severely for what occurred, 
 even if your actions could be regarded as directly 
 contributing to this terrible result, for you had 
 no power to foresee the issue. 
 
 " But all that brings little consolation to you 
 and to me, for we are both to blame in a very 
 great measure for what has happened. I believe 
 that in this I can see more clearly than you just 
 because I am a woman and because I have loved. 
 305 u 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 I think I have seen into Hilda's mind and under- 
 stand ; and I know, though I could not explain 
 to you why, that she felt she had lost your love 
 and hoped that a child would bring you back to 
 her. We women argue in that way. She had 
 her wish fulfilled, and so she could not join you 
 on your tour or form one of the party at the 
 lake festival. Had she done so or had I stayed 
 away, all that has happened would have been 
 prevented. So you see that I am, even more 
 than you are, to blame. 
 
 " Our love was lawless, for we persuaded our- 
 selves, as many others have done, that love is 
 above the law. But even so, we were wrong; 
 for had Hilda's love no claim to urge against 
 ours ? Many others have defied our narrow laws 
 and conventions, but what lover can claim the 
 right to trample on love ? That is our guilt 
 and we must pay the penalty. In a measure 
 Fate has taken the decision out of our hands 
 and clearly points the way. 
 
 " Dick has been ill during the past two months, 
 and the doctors have ordered him home. It is 
 very doubtful whether he will be able to return. 
 I shall do all in my power to persuade him to 
 retire from the service and settle in England. 
 306 
 
HELEN WRITES A LETTER 
 
 You and I must never see each other again. The 
 spirit of Hilda will always stand between us. 
 That reparation at least we can make to her. 
 We shall suffer, you and I ; but consider how 
 much intense pain was crowded into that last 
 day of her life. 
 
 " I love you and I shall never cease to love 
 you. That is my only claim to forgiveness for 
 the misery I have caused. Our joy was brief, 
 but no pain that I must endure shall ever make 
 me regret it. Do not dream that I can ever 
 forget. Before this year is ended I shall have, 
 I trust, your child to console me and to keep 
 you ever in my mind. Farewell." 
 
 307 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 In which Tracy follows Hilda 
 
 THE last sentence in Helen's letter brought 
 home to Tracy the full extent of the 
 punishment to which she condemned herself 
 and him. But he could not dispute the justice 
 of her decision, nor did he make any attempt 
 to shake her resolve. He felt helpless before 
 the absolute finality which Hilda's death seemed 
 to stamp upon the consequences of his fault, 
 and he realized for the first time the awful power 
 of the dead. He lived from day to day without 
 thought for the future, carrying out his duties 
 with mechanical efficiency. Not till the rains 
 were well advanced did he begin to rouse himself 
 from the lethargy that had settled upon him and 
 to long for a more active and less solitary life. 
 Then he bethought himself of the application he 
 had made to have his name considered if it should 
 seem good to the military authorities to send 
 308 
 
TRACY FOLLOWS HILDA 
 
 any British officer in charge of a draft of volun- 
 teers from the Military police for active service 
 at the front. He wrote to Colonel Barton, and 
 the latter used such influence as he possessed 
 to further his request, pointing out that the pecu- 
 liar circumstances of Captain Tomson's position, 
 as well as his personal qualifications, marked 
 him out as a suitable choice. Several officers 
 of the Military Police had already gone to the 
 front and in September Captain Tomson was 
 warned to hold himself ready for transfer on 
 active service. 
 
 Not since that terrible day in February had he 
 passed again along the road to the west of Koilaw. 
 His work had taken him east or south till the 
 rains came in June and touring ceased. Mean- 
 while strange stories were spreading among the 
 credulous Shans and some fragments of these 
 reached Tracy's ears through his Subadar, who 
 had lived many years among the Shans and 
 enjoyed their confidence. Bit by bit the legend 
 grew. First of all a benighted wayfarer had 
 heard a wild shriek as he turned the corner at 
 Leopard's Leap and had seen a white form float- 
 ing in the trees on the hillside. Mist, no doubt, 
 and the shrieking of an owl, suggested the incre- 
 309 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 dulous. Then there were more circumstantial 
 stories consonant with the popular belief concern- 
 ing those who came to a violent end. The spirit 
 of the " Thakinma " (white lady) had become a 
 powerful Nat and in the shape of a great rock 
 python swung down from the tree overhanging 
 the fatal bend of the road and caught up travellers, 
 who never were seen again. 
 
 Tracy at first ridiculed these stories, but his 
 mind constantly reverted to them. He recalled 
 too the incident at Rathemyo and how even edu- 
 cated Burmans living in a busy modern town with 
 mills, machinery, trains and steamers endorsed 
 the common belief with regard to the destination 
 of little Kitty Royle's spirit. Hart, the Deputy- 
 Commissioner at Myit kyina, had refrained from 
 expressing any views on the story of his Kachin 
 servant, but the very fact that he had not jeered 
 at it showed that, if he did not fully accept the 
 Kachin view, at least he kept an open mind. His 
 solitary life and much brooding over Hilda's 
 death gradually undermined Tracy's stout dis- 
 belief in what he could not understand, and he 
 caught himself wondering sometimes whether 
 after all uncivilized men might not capture by 
 instinct fragments of truth and glimpses into the 
 310 
 
TRACY FOLLOWS HILDA 
 
 unseen world that were denied to more civilized 
 men living by the light of reason. 
 
 From these vague, dreamy speculations he 
 was awakened early in October by orders to 
 proceed to Rangoon, there to take charge of a 
 draft of volunteers from the Military Police pro- 
 ceeding to the Persian Gulf. In the bustle of 
 preparation for his departure he recovered his 
 old energy and forgot his troubles. Three days 
 of strenuous work followed the arrival of his 
 orders, then he handed over charge of the post 
 to a subaltern detached from Kangale" to relieve 
 him and on the morning of the fourth he set out. 
 His servants had left the night before and he 
 was to overtake them at the end of the first stage. 
 In the afternoon he intended to push on past the 
 Leopard's Leap and spend the night at the bunga- 
 low where he had quarrelled with Hilda. There 
 a motor car awaited him, and by starting at day- 
 light he hoped to reach the terminus of the rail- 
 way in time for the down train for Rangoon. 
 
 The relief afforded by action had raised his 
 depressed spirits, and it was in a comparatively 
 cheerful frame of mind that he completed the 
 first part of his journey. Breakfast over he 
 despatched the servants and baggage-mules on 
 3ii 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 their journey and settled down in a long chair 
 with a book to while away the tedious hours 
 until it was time to set out again. 
 
 In the afternoon clouds began to gather, and 
 it soon became evident that one of the heavy 
 thunderstorms that mark the change of the mon- 
 soon was brewing. Over the hills to the cast 
 and north the sky grew inky black and flashes 
 of lightning rent the dark clouds at short inter- 
 vals. The faint rumbling of thunder showed that 
 the tempest was still far distant, but little puffs 
 of wind which from time to time rustled in the 
 tree tops and stirred the still oppressive air 
 presaged the oncoming violence. ' A deep fore- 
 boding of evil fell upon his spirit in sympathy 
 with the gloomy aspect of nature, and in the hope 
 of shaking off his depression and perhaps escaping 
 the impending storm, he summoned Jaswant 
 Singh to saddle the ponies and set out earlier 
 than he had intended. He covered the two miles 
 of level road between the bungalow and the foot 
 of the hill at an easy canter, then when the ascent 
 began he allowed the pony to fall into a walk. 
 He was still a mile below the fatal bluff when 
 the storm burst upon him. The wind tore shriek- 
 ing through the trees on the steep hillside, and 
 312 
 
TRACY FOLLOWS HILDA 
 
 tearing down branches and strewing them along 
 the narrow track. Rain fell in torrents and 
 countless streams gushed forth across the road. 
 The lightning played without cessation, flash 
 following flash till they seemed one continuous 
 blinding glare, while the thunder crashed and 
 echoed with a roar as of heavy guns along the 
 deep winding ravine. 
 
 The struggle with the wind and driving rain 
 absorbed all Tracy's thoughts and energies — 
 not until he actually reached the Leopard's Leap 
 did the terrible scene he had witnessed there 
 recur to his mind. Then it surged up with such 
 force that he seemed to see the whole tragedy 
 enacted again before his eyes, and he reined up 
 his pony right underneath the overhanging crag, as 
 if to watch the dread spectacle. Jaswant Singh's 
 pony, pacing close behind, halted in obedience to 
 his leader's example, and his rider following with 
 body bent to meet the fury of the storm raised 
 his head to learn the reason of the halt. Seeing 
 his captain gazing fixedly ahead and recognizing 
 the accursed spot he felt a sudden prey to super- 
 stitious fear and cried out in terror. " Push 
 forward, Sahib, and take care ! " 
 
 At that instant a vivid flash rent the heavens, 
 
 313 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 followed immediately by a deafening crash. The 
 tree that crowned the crag and leaned out over 
 the road was struck by the lightning and torn 
 from its roots. Tracy's pony started suddenly 
 forward to avoid the falling mass, slipped on the 
 smooth rock now glistening with the rain, missed 
 his footing, and struggling in vain to recover his 
 grip, even as Hilda's pony had struggled, was 
 hurled with his rider, who sat rigid like one in 
 a trance, down, down into the roaring torrent 
 far below. Was that a woman's shriek the Sikh 
 heard or only the screaming spirit of the gale ? 
 From the torn roots of the tree he watclied a 
 huge rock-python slip down to the road and glide 
 off round the bend, moving rapidly. He sat spell- 
 bound for a brief interval, then turned and galloped 
 madly back down the hill. 
 
 Tossed on high by the flood, or again sucked 
 down into the eddies, now floating swiftly down 
 a smooth reach, now dashed against the jagged 
 rocks of a roaring gorge, Tracy's torn, lifeless body 
 sped on its mad course down the ravine to its 
 resting place in the deep pool of the swift Salween 
 where Hilda's bones lay bleaching. 
 
 314 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 Extract from an Official Letter- written by 
 Colonel Barton to the Chief Secretary to 
 the Local Government 
 
 BY the death of Captain Tomson the Military 
 Police loses a capable and energetic officer. 
 The fatal coincidence by which he lost his life 
 at the same spot and in the same manner as his 
 wife a few months previously has had a profound 
 effect on the natives. The Shan caravans have 
 entirely forsaken the Government road and now 
 travel by the old bullock track over the crest of 
 the hill. The mule drivers of the police battalion 
 use the same route, and it has been found neces- 
 sary to survey a new alignment for this section 
 of the road. The work of clearing and levelling 
 has been put in hand and the road wilLbe open 
 before the end of the year." 
 
 315 
 
THE LEOPARD'S LEAP 
 
 Extract from a Letter written by Beryl 
 Royle to Mrs. Allbut 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 " You have heard of course about Captain 
 Tomson. .The Burmans here are all talking about 
 it. Ma Hla Pyu says gravely that the Nats 
 very often punish those who refuse to believe in 
 them. I have asked Jim if that can be true, 
 but he only tells me not to bother my head about 
 such things. I think he half believes what the 
 Burmans say. Dun Aung, being a Christian 
 Karen, merely shakes her head when I ask her 
 what she thinks about it and says, ' I don't 
 
 know.' " 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 Extract from a Letter written by Helen 
 Whitham to Mrs. Jeune 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 " Your letter has remained long unanswered, 
 and I see, on referring to my diary, that this is 
 the anniversary of poor Hilda Tomson's death. 
 I do not know what to say in reply to your sug- 
 gestion that in the wild hill country unseen powers 
 may still hold sway that have been driven from 
 civilized lands. Is that not rather like the 
 mediaeval notion of the heathen gods and goddesses 
 316 
 
EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS 
 
 being driven from their thrones and locked up 
 in underground caves ? You remember the 
 Venusberg, of course ? But you have studied 
 the mystic side of life and I have not. Life holds 
 so many mysteries that I have given up the 
 attempt to solve them. Is not this terrible 
 dragging war as great a mystery as any ? 
 
 " We have settled down here in Tunbridge 
 Wells, which suits Dick very well, and we find 
 all our time fully occupied. We both have our 
 various war committees, and I have my baby 
 boy. He was born the day after we received 
 the terrible news of Captain Tomson's death, 
 so he is now three months old. I find in him a 
 refuge from all puzzling questions. With him 
 and Dick to look after, I shall not lack occu- 
 pation." 
 
 ♦ * ♦ * * 
 
 Printed by Butler & Tanner, Frome and London 
 
IB 32226