say! Na na!" and getting up gave me a friendly slap on the back, which I suppose must nearly have chased my lungs up into my larynx, for I coughed violently. I like people to be pleased to see me, but not to emphasise it by disturbing my anatomy. Shortly afterwards we got into conversation with an archæologist, who with a young friend had just arrived in Guatemala for the purpose of studying the buried cities, of which there were many. He was was asking us about travelling in this country, and we gave him what information we could. In this way the time passed pleasantly, and we were soon gliding into the terminus of Guatemala City. The train came to a standstill. The archæologist pulled down the window. Dozens of eager hands were stretched out to take our baggage. He took up his black attache-case, and handed it to the first pair of outstretched hands nearest our window. I sat aghast. I jumped up, and was out of the carriage in a jiffy. There was an awful crowd of people, and every one hated me as I elbowed my way unceremoniously along the platform, but the Indian with the black attache-case was gone. I came back to the carriage. The archæologist was slowly collecting his things with perfect equanimity. "What's the matter?" said that gentleman, whose mind apparently dwelt in the past and ignored the present. "Have you lost anything?" No," I replied, "but you have. Your attache-case," suggested. 66 Oh, that's all right. It was a porter I gave it to." "Was it?" I murmured in amazement. Well, at any rate the fellow wanted to take it." "He's got it," I gasped. I think it then began to dawn on him. I was, however, speechless, and sat down mopping my brow. My word, the tragic humour of these coun "Your night clothes? I tries, I mused. People always suggested tentatively. seemed to be doing funny things. "Oh no, that's got all my money and credentials in it." (To be continued.) THE BUTCHER OF BERINNIS. BY A. G. C. PARKINSON-SMYTHE was efficient. People who knew him used to say, "Smart fellow Parkinson-Smythe," and then add by way of qualification, "He's devilish efficient." It was an excellent description; smartness and efficiency were his outstanding characteristics. He came to the Egyptian Army from a good British battalion and ought to have been a success. As a matter of fact he was a success up to a certain point and then he crashed. It wasn't his fault that he crashed, he had hard luck. Unfortunately for Parkinson Smythe the incident made a good story, and the army laughed. He wasn't accustomed to being laughed at, so he resigned. Perhaps it is just as as well that he went when he did. He would have been a nasty fellow to serve under. He hadn't done enough regimental duty as a subaltern. He arrived in Khartoum at the height of the tourist season: a trying time for those in those in authority who, already overburdened with their ordinary duties, have an added load of responsibility in the presence of these birds of passage. Kings, princes and their retinues have to be provided with special accommodation; unaccustomed sportsmen must have facilities for the pursuit of dangerous game without undue danger; ladies must be allowed to see the sights without making spectacles of themselves, and the native population must be guarded from the effects of that irresponsible familiarity which, too often, breeds contempt. All this needs tact. Parkinson-Smythe had been A.D.C. to a Colonial Administrator and could, when he liked, be the very essence of tact. The Governor of Khartoum, harassed at the moment by the presence of a semi-official European notable, seized upon the new arrival as unscrupulously as a quartermaster absorbs an unexplained surplus, and, by a special mandate from the highest authority, diverted him from the southern battalion for which he was intended and attached him to headquarters as an extra Inspector in the Civil Administration. As a temporary social bulwark to the Governor he was an immense success, the outstanding figure of an unusually gay season. He dined with dowagers, drank with heavy fathers, and danced with their daughters. He was all things to all tourists, and the work of the province went on unhindered. But his activities were not by any means confined to this social welfare work. In spite of his decorative a kindly though critical eye. appearance he had an inquiring The occasion is a cheerful one, mind which absorbed infor- for the Governor looks upon mation and statistics with amazing facility. His brain was like a handbook, and he used his knowledge as an entrenching tool. With the onset of the hot weather the tourists vanished, the leave season began, but Parkinson-Smythe remained. He remained three years. He ceased to be a social bulwark, and became an apostle of efficiency. Now I don't want to be hard on Parkinson-Smythe. He was all right, except that he could never leave well alone. He had to be organising something or changing something all the time. It wasn't enough for him to know that a thing was being done, it had to be done in the most efficient way; the means were as important as the end. An uncomfortable fellow to live with. He made everybody work. He would have had more appreciation of the value of a quiet life if he had not been away from his regiment for so long when he was a youngster. At the end of three years he was transferred to Berinnis as a Junior Inspector, and it was in Berinnis that he crashed. The weekly inspection of the town of Berinnis by the Governor and his staff is an institution of long standing. The parade falls in at 6.30 on Thursday mornings and rides through the streets, inspecting the shops, markets, and other municipal establishments with the town as his child, and has a parent's leniency for the petty irregularities of his offspring. The spotless cleanliness of the streets at these inspections bears witness to the cooperation of the inhabitants, but it is well not to examine too closely lest the illusion be dispelled—a schoolboy with a shining morning face often conceals a grimy neck beneath his snow-white collar. The wise schoolmaster knows this and accepts the compromise. Accompanying the Governor on these inspections are the Junior Inspector of the district, the Senior Medical Officer, the Officer in charge of Public Works, the Mamur or native police officer, and various sheiks and other headmen of the town mounted mounted on donkeys. The cavalcade is therefore quite an imposing one, and delights such of the pot-bellied, roundeyed children as can elude the vigilance of their mothers and escape into the streets. A few days after ParkinsonSmythe's arrival in Berinnis the Governor had to leave the station on a visit to a neighbouring village. Thus it came about that the new Inspector was in charge of the weekly parade on the following Thursday. The season was unpropitious, and the morning gave promise of one of the sweltering dusty days which precede the early rains. As he cantered across the maidan Parkinson-Smythe felt that he have it done. was not going to like his new billet. He had been bitten by sandflies during the night, and he hated the thought of having to sleep in a mosquito curtain; there were no tennis courts; there were only enough people to get three a side at polo; there was no ice; his pony was looking wretched; his syce complained that the local forage was poor-in fact everything was beastly. At this point two lean yellow pie-dogs joined him, yapping and snarling at his pony's heels. The animal, a well-bred Syrian Arab imported from Khartoum, resented their attentions and, after lashing out at them viciously, tried to bolt. Parkinson-Smythe, who was a fair, though rather fussy, horseman, regained control by brute force, but it was a wildeyed pony and an exasperated rider that received the salute of the group of officials waiting outside the police station. The new Inspector, hampered though he was by the pony's desire to turn his back on the assembly, carried off the situation remarkably well. After bidding the officers good-morning, he turned to the Mamur. "Abdulla Effendi," he said, "are all these dogs registered? I saw two just now that did not seem to have any collars." I agree with you, Abdulla Effendi. One will then be able to deal more efficiently with stray animals— less danger of hydrophobia and that sort of thing, eh, doctor? The Inspector turned to the Senior Medical Officer. "I daresay you're right," returned Bimbashi M'William, "though I've never considered that there was much danger. We've always had the stray dogs caught and killed up to this as soon as they became troublesome, but we've never had a register." "Rather haphazard, don't you think?" suggested Parkinson-Smythe, with a smile; "I fancy we had better try to get things on to a more efficient basis. Will you see to it please, Abdulla Effendi ?" "Very good, sir," replied the police officer, with mental reservations. The tour of inspection began. Greek and Syrian merchants at the doors of their little shops salaamed politely to the newcomer, and answered his questions with voluble eagerness. The Inspector appeared to have an amazing grasp of wholesale and retail prices, and could calculate with staggering ease the cost of carrying a camel-load of sugar from Khartoum to Berinnis, and knew in a moment how much this extra transport should add to the price per ras. ialised knowledge amazed the simple-minded Officer of Works; the far-seeing M'William shook a doubtful head, Such spec B and the merchants seemed less eager. Pleased with himself, Parkinson-Smythe rode on. Iron workers, fashioning rude hoes and spearheads under little straw shelters; shoe makers, with countless rows of red slippers hanging outside their stalls; tailors, saddlers, and sellers of earthenware pots; all these were passed in review. A slight clash with M'William over the efficiency of the filter at the soda-water factory, and with the Officer of Works as to the employment of mud bricks in the local buildings, left these two gentlemen on the defensive and a trifle shaken, but it was not until the slaughterhouse was reached that the new broom raised a cloud of dust-no bigger than a man's hand, and giving no hint of the coming storm, but charged nevertheless with lightning. The visit to the slaughterhouse was always the most popular item of the weekly inspection. The building lies about half a mile to the west of the town across a level stretch of firm sand, and it is probably this opportunity for a gallop which gives the routine visit such importance, though M'William insists that the smell of blood is the attraction, and he ought to know. On this particular morning, as the cavalcade pulled up after its gallop, a courtly figure emerged from the door and salaamed to the acting Governor and his staff. This was the sheik of the butchers, a person of con sequence, responsible to the authorities for the cleanliness and good behaviour of all who used the building and the market in the town, where the meat was exposed for sale. Parkinson - Smythe acknowledged the salute punctiliously and, dismounting from his pony, glanced sharply about him. All traces of the grisly business of the early hours had been removed, and it seemed impossible that the most carping of critics could find any fault. Abdulla Effendi smiled confidently and greeted the sheik, who, having welcomed the constituted authority in a becoming manner, now made obeisance to the more immediate arbiter of his fortunes by touching his forehead and laying both hands upon his heart. Their salutations were cut short by the voice of the constituted authority," whose critical eye, finding no fault in the building, had fallen on the personnel. 66 |