Lifes Handicap | Page 9

and Suket Singh's beard was
pulled, and Suket Singh's wife went to live with her mother and took
away the children. 'That's all right,' said Athira; and Suket Singh said,
'Yes, that's all right.'
So there was only Madu left in the hut that looks across the valley to
Donga Pa; and, since the beginning of time, no one has had any
sympathy for husbands so unfortunate as Madu.
He went to Juseen Daze, the wizard-man who keeps the Talking
Monkey's Head.
'Get me back my wife,' said Madu.
'I can't,' said Juseen Daze, 'until you have made the Sutlej in the valley
run up the Donga Pa.'
'No riddles,' said Madu, and he shook his hatchet above Juseen Daze's
white head.
'Give all your money to the headmen of the village,' said Juseen Daze;
'and they will hold a communal Council, and the Council will send a

message that your wife must come back.'
So Madu gave up all his worldly wealth, amounting to twenty-seven
rupees, eight annas, three pice, and a silver chain, to the Council of
Kodru. And it fell as Juseen Daze foretold.
They sent Athira's brother down into Suket Singh's regiment to call
Athira home. Suket Singh kicked him once round the Lines, and then
handed him over to the Havildar, who beat him with a belt.
'Come back,' yelled Athira's brother.
'Where to?' said Athira.
'To Madu,' said he.
'Never,' said she.
'Then Juseen Daze will send a curse, and you will wither away like a
barked tree in the springtime,' said Athira's brother. Athira slept over
these things.
Next morning she had rheumatism. 'I am beginning to wither away like
a barked tree in the springtime,' she said. 'That is the curse of Juseen
Daze.'
And she really began to wither away because her heart was dried up
with fear, and those who believe in curses die from curses. Suket Singh,
too, was afraid because he loved Athira better than his very life. Two
months passed, and Athira's brother stood outside the regimental Lines
again and yelped, 'Aha! You are withering away. Come back.'
'I will come back,' said Athira.
'Say rather that WE will come back,' said Suket Singh.
'Ai; but when?' said Athira's brother.
'Upon a day very early in the morning,' said Suket Singh; and he
tramped off to apply to the Colonel Sahib Bahadur for one week's
leave.
'I am withering away like a barked tree in the spring,' moaned Athira.
'You will be better soon,' said Suket Singh; and he told her what was in
his heart, and the two laughed together softly, for they loved each other.
But Athira grew better from that hour.
They went away together, travelling third-class by train as the
regulations provided, and then in a cart to the low hills, and on foot to
the high ones. Athira sniffed the scent of the pines of her own hills, the
wet Himalayan hills. 'It is good to be alive,' said Athira.
'Hah!' said Suket Singh. 'Where is the Kodru road and where is the

Forest Ranger's house?'...
'It cost forty rupees twelve years ago,' said the Forest Ranger, handing
the gun.
'Here are twenty,' said Suket Singh, 'and you must give me the best
bullets.'
'It is very good to be alive,' said Athira wistfully, sniffing the scent of
the pine-mould; and they waited till the night had fallen upon Kodru
and the Donga Pa. Madu had stacked the dry wood for the next day's
charcoal-burning on the spur above his house. 'It is courteous in Madu
to save us this trouble,' said Suket Singh as he stumbled on the pile,
which was twelve foot square and four high. 'We must wait till the
moon rises.'
When the moon rose, Athira knelt upon the pile. 'If it were only a
Government Snider,' said Suket Singh ruefully, squinting down the
wire- bound barrel of the Forest Ranger's gun.
'Be quick,' said Athira; and Suket Singh was quick; but Athira was
quick no longer. Then he lit the pile at the four corners and climbed on
to it, re-loading the gun.
The little flames began to peer up between the big logs atop of the
brushwood. 'The Government should teach us to pull the triggers with
our toes,' said Suket Singh grimly to the moon. That was the last public
observation of Sepoy Suket Singh.
Upon a day, early in the morning, Madu came to the pyre and shrieked
very grievously, and ran away to catch the Policeman who was on tour
in the district.
'The base-born has ruined four rupees' worth of charcoal wood,' Madu
gasped. 'He has also killed my wife, and he has left a letter which I
cannot read, tied to a pine bough.'
In the stiff, formal hand taught in the regimental