He would not contest his own
evidence. Otherwise, I know the law of evidence well enough.
"So then we went to Dupe, and while Bulaki Ram waited among the
Angari men, 'I ran to see our Sahib in bed. His eyes were very
bright, and his mouth was full of upside-down orders, but the old
woman had not loosened her hair for death. The Hajji said: 'Be
quick with my trial. I am not Job!' The Hajji was a learned man.
We made the trial swiftly to a sound of soothing voices round the
bed. Yet--yet, because no man can be sure whether a Sahib of that
blood sees, or does not see, we made it strictly in the manner of
the forms of the English Law. Only the witnesses and the slaves
and the prisoner we kept without for his nose's sake."
"Then he did not see the prisoner?" said Strickland.
"I stood by to shackle up an Angari in case he should demand it,
but by God's favour he was too far fevered to ask for one. It is
quite true he signed the papers. It is quite true he saw the
money put away in the safe--two hundred and ten English pounds
and it is quite true that the gold wrought on him as a strong
cure.
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