Snake and Sword - A Novel by Percival Christopher Wren
page 288 of 312 (92%)
page 288 of 312 (92%)
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bullock-cart, from which he looted the bottom-boards, which were
planks six feet long, laid upon, but not fastened to, the framework of the body of the cart. From the compound of the place (an ancient and rarely-visited dak-bungalow, probably the most outlying and deserted in India) he procured a bamboo pole that had once supported a lamp, the long leg-rests of an old chair, and two or three sticks, more or less serviceable for his purpose. Returning to the camel, he ascended to where his passenger and pupil awaited him. Over his shoulder he bore the planks, pole and sticks that the contemptuous but invaluable camel had borne to a point a few yards below the scene of the tragedy. "Good egg," observed the younger man. "We'll do him up in those like a mummy." "Yes," returned the Colonel, "then carry him to the oont and bind him along one side of the saddle, and then lead the beast down. Easily sling him on to the machine, and there we are. Lucky we've got the coil of cord. Fine demonstration for the Kot Ghazi fellers! Show that the thing can be done, even without the proper kind of 'plane and surgical outfit. What luck we spotted him--or that he fell just in our return track!" "Doubtless he was born to that end," observed the Captain, who was apt to get a little peevish when hungry and tired. And when the Army Aeroplane _Hawk_ returned from its "ground-scouring for casualties" trip, lo, it bore, beneath and beside the pilot and passenger, a real casualty slung in a kind of crude coffin-cradle of |
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