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Chapter four. Black Magic |
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compounder returns; back to Kharasom; smallpox in Lai-yi |
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We were still at Jessami when the compounder returned, which he did after an unexpectedly quick journey - expedited, perhaps, by a Civil Surgeon who knew him. After a day or two longer, to give Jessami the benefit of the new supplies, we turned back to the south and trailed laboriously once more along the ridge to Kharasom. When, tired and hungry, we came out of the woods to it, we found the village shut and barred against us. When a headman was at last produced to parley, we heard that smallpox had broken out at Lai-yi, our next halt, and that every village for miles had closed its gates. (36) Day after day Lai-yi had sent messengers to know if we were back; and, when Kharasom drove them away, they left a scrawled letter begging us to come and save them. |
