men grew laboriously polite and hinted that the cantonments were not
big enough for themselves and their enemy, and that there would be
more space for one of the two in another Place.

It may have been the Devil who arranged the thing, but the fact of the
case is that Losson had for a long time been worrying Simmons in an
aimless way. It gave him occupation. The two had their cots side by
side, and would sometimes spend a long afternoon swearing at each
other; but Simmons was afraid of Losson and dared not challenge him
to a fight. He thought over the words in the hot still nights, and
half the hate he felt towards Losson he vented on the wretched
punkah-coolie.

Losson bought a parrot in the bazar, and put it into a little cage,
and lowered the cage into the cool darkness of a well, and sat on the
well-curb, shouting bad language down to the parrot. He taught it to
say: 'Simmons, ye _so-oor_,' which means swine, and several other
things entirely unfit for publication. He was a big gross man, and he
shook like a jelly when the parrot had the sentence correctly. Simmons,
however, shook with rage, for all the room were laughing at him--the
parrot was such a disreputable puff of green feathers and it looked
so human when it chattered. Losson used to sit, swinging his fat legs,
on the side of the cot, and ask the parrot what it thought of Simmons.
The parrot would answer: 'Simmons, ye _so-oor_.' 'Good boy,' Losson
used to say, scratching the parrot's head; 'ye 'ear that, Sim?' And
Simmons used to turn over on his stomach and make answer: 'I 'ear.
Take 'eed _you_ don't 'ear something one of these days.'

In the restless nights, after he had been asleep all day, fits of blind
rage came upon Simmons and held him till he trembled all over, while