was always worse in the hot weather than at
any other season of the year. Captain
Bulstrade, of the artillery, was talking to
Major Wallchaffe, of the light (Bengal)
cavalry, concerning a fly-trap, which he had
that morning invented; a gingerbeer, or sodawater
bottle, half-filled with soap-suds, and
the opening besmeared with honey, or
moistened sugar. Captain Dundriffe, was
recommending Captain Nolens to buy some beer
which a native merchant had recently
imported into the station. Lieutenant Blade,
of the dragoons, was playing at odd and even,
with his fingers, on honour, with Lieutenant
Theston, of the same regiment; and, with a
pretence of being ready to take notes of the
proceedings of the court martial, each, pen
in right hand, was keeping an account of the
score. Blade used to boast of being the
inventor of this simple game; but there were
officers in India who declared that it owed its
existence to a late Commander-in-Chief of the
forces; and who invented it at school, when he
had been shut up in a dark room, (with another
boy, as fond of gambling as himself,) as a
punishment for card playing, and other
games of chance requiring light to see what
was going on. Nothing could possibly be
simpler than the game, and played as it was,
on honour, nothing could be fairer. Blade
lost thirty pounds on the first day of the
court martial, but won the greater part of it
back on the day following. Of course it would
not do to play at this game with strangers,
or promiscuous acquaintances. Lieutenant
Belterton of the regiment, was making use
of the pens, ink, and paper, by sketching
the President and several others who had
somewhat prominent noses; and young
Lofter was trying to rival him in this amusement.
My own friend was very busy writing;
and, from the serious expression on
his countenance, you might have fancied he
was composing a sermon, or writing a letter
of advice to a refractory son, he folded up the
paper, and passed it round till at last it
reached me. I open it, and read as
follows:— " We shall be here till four. Take
the buggy and drive up to the bungalow,
and tell the khidmutghar to bring down the
ice-basket, also Mr. Belterton's ice-basket,
with a plentiful supply of soda water from
our mess; for they are rather short here,
and can't stand a heavy run upon them. Tell
him also to bring several bottles of our
Madeira, for theirs I do not like, and won't
drink. It has not age, and has not
travelled sufficiently. Cigars, also. I am
literally bathed in perspiration, and so I
fancy are most of us at this end of the table,
for the punkah is too far distant to admit of
our receiving any benefit therefrom. This is
an awful business."

In compliance with the request contained
in the above note, I left the Court, drove off
as rapidly as possible, and communicated my
friend's wishes to his servant, who immediately
hastened to fulfil them. By the time I
returned to the Court the first witness was
under examination. Such a waste of time!
Such a trial to the temper of all present!
Instead of allowing the Senior Captain to
state the facts— and he would have done so
in less than three minutes—and then take
them down on paper, each question was
written on a slip of paper, and submitted to
the President, by the Deputy-Judge-Advocate,
who showed it to the officers sitting on
either side of him, who nodded assent.
The question was then read aloud to the
witness:—

"Were you present on the night of the
tenth of April, at the mess-table of her
Majesty's—Regiment of Foot?"

The Captain replied, " I was."

The question and answer were then copied
into " the book," and the slip of paper on
which the question was originally written
was torn up.  This occupied, (for the
Deputy-Judge-Advocate was not a rapid writer, and
was apparently in no particular hurry, being
a man of very equable termperament) eight
minutes. The second question was put in
precisely the same way, the same ceremonies
having been gone through. The second
question was:—

"Were the prisoners present on that
occasion ?"

"They were," replied the Captain.

Again the copying process went on, slowly
and methodically, and Blade, who was still
playing odd and even, called out in a loud
voice, to make it appear he was giving
up his mind entirely to the investigation:—

"What was the, answer? I did not hear it
distinctly; be so good as to request the
witness to speak up."

"He said, ' They were,' " returned the
Deputy- Judge-Advocate-General.

"Oh! ' They were,' " repeated Blade;
writing down a mark, signifying that he had
just lost four rupees.

Twenty minutes had now elapsed, and the
above was all that had been elicited from the
first witness, who was seemingly as
impatient as most of the members of the Court.
The Deputy-Judge-Advocate-General,
however, had patience enough for all present, and
so had Blade, and his adversary at odd and
even. My friend having scowled at Blade for
putting his question, and thus prolonging
the inquiry, that aggravating officer now
periodically spoke to the Deputy-Judge-
Advocate-General, who invariably put down
his pen to answer him; just as if he could
not possibly speak with that instrument in
his hand. It was a quarter past two when
the examination in chief was concluded. It
began at twelve precisely; so that two hours
and fifteen minutes had been consumed in
taking down the following, and no more:—

"I was present on the night in question,
and placed the prisoners under an arrest, for
giving each other the lie in an offensive and