Lifes Handicap | Page 3

one than thou. But what of the book?' said he.
'It will be born in due season if it is so ordained.'
'I would I could see it,' said the old man, huddling beneath his quilt.
'But that will not be. I die three days hence, in the night, a little before
the dawn. The term of my years is accomplished.'
In nine cases out of ten a native makes no miscalculation as to the day
of his death. He has the foreknowledge of the beasts in this respect.
'Then thou wilt depart in peace, and it is good talk, for thou hast said
that life is no delight to thee.'
'But it is a pity that our book is not born. How shall I know that there is
any record of my name?'
'Because I promise, in the forepart of the book, preceding everything
else, that it shall be written, Gobind, sadhu, of the island in the river
and awaiting God in Dhunni Bhagat's Chubara, first spoke of the book,'
said I.
'And gave counsel--an old man's counsel. Gobind, son of Gobind of the
Chumi village in the Karaon tehsil, in the district of Mooltan. Will that
be written also?'
'That will be written also.'

'And the book will go across the Black Water to the houses of your
people, and all the Sahibs will know of me who am eighty years old?'
'All who read the book shall know. I cannot promise for the rest.'
'That is good talk. Call aloud to all who are in the monastery, and I will
tell them this thing.'
They trooped up, faquirs, sadhus, sunnyasis, byragis, nihangs, and
mullahs, priests of all faiths and every degree of raggedness, and
Gobind, leaning upon his crutch, spoke so that they were visibly filled
with envy, and a white-haired senior bade Gobind think of his latter
end instead of transitory repute in the mouths of strangers. Then
Gobind gave me his blessing and I came away.
These tales have been collected from all places, and all sorts of people,
from priests in the Chubara, from Ala Yar the carver, Jiwun Singh the
carpenter, nameless men on steamers and trains round the world,
women spinning outside their cottages in the twilight, officers and
gentlemen now dead and buried, and a few, but these are the very best,
my father gave me. The greater part of them have been published in
magazines and newspapers, to whose editors I am indebted; but some
are new on this side of the water, and some have not seen the light
before.
The most remarkable stories are, of course, those which do not appear--
for obvious reasons.

CONTENTS
THE LANG MEN O' LARUT
REINGELDER AND THE GERMAN FLAG
THE WANDERING JEW
THROUGH THE FIRE
THE FINANCES OF THE GODS
THE AMIR'S HOMILY
JEWS IN SHUSHAN
THE LIMITATIONS OF PAMBE SERANG
LITTLE TOBRAH
BUBBLING WELL ROAD
'THE CITY OF DREADFUL NIGHT'
GEORGIE PORGIE
NABOTH

THE DREAM OF DUNCAN PARRENNESS
THE INCARNATION OF KRISHNA MULVANEY
THE COURTING OF DINAH SHADD
ON GREENHOW HILL
THE MAN WHO WAS
THE HEAD OF THE DISTRICT
WITHOUT BENEFIT OF CLERGY
AT THE END OF THE PASSAGE
THE MUTINY OF THE MAVERICKS
THE MARK OF THE BEAST
THE RETURN OF IMRAY
NAMGAY DOOLA
BERTRAN AND BIMI
MOTI GUJ--MUTINEER

THE LANG MEN O' LARUT [Footnote: Copyright, 1891, by
MACMILLAN & CO.]
The Chief Engineer's sleeping suit was of yellow striped with blue, and
his speech was the speech of Aberdeen. They sluiced the deck under
him, and he hopped on to the ornamental capstan, a black pipe between
his teeth, though the hour was not seven of the morn.
'Did you ever hear o' the Lang Men o' Larut?' he asked when the Man
from Orizava had finished a story of an aboriginal giant discovered in
the wilds of Brazil. There was never story yet passed the lips of teller,
but the Man from Orizava could cap it.
'No, we never did,' we responded with one voice. The Man from
Orizava watched the Chief keenly, as a possible rival.
'I'm not telling the story for the sake of talking merely,' said the Chief,
'but as a warning against betting, unless you bet on a perrfect certainty.
The Lang Men o' Larut were just a certainty. I have had talk wi' them.
Now Larut, you will understand, is a dependency, or it may be an
outlying possession, o' the island o' Penang, and there they will get you
tin and manganese, an' it mayhap mica, and all manner o' meenerals.
Larut is a great place.'
'But what about the population?' said the Man from Orizava.
'The population,' said the Chief slowly, 'were few but enorrmous. You
must understand that, exceptin' the tin-mines, there is no special

inducement to Europeans to reside