Our new station staff officer, my good friend Major Stone, got a dak gharry for Lizzie and two ekkas for me, and we started off on our respective routes on the same day; Lizzie started in the morning and I in the evening, she making for India proper, and I for Shakkote, at the foot of the hills on which Cherat is situated. It was not without a pang on each side that we parted, and we exchanged locks of hair, pulled from our respective bushes. I have hers still and never look at its now somewhat faded curl but that the delicious days and nights I spent in her fair arms at Nowshera come back to my memory with a force that, if she only knew it, adds to the happiness I feel every time I recall the joys I experienced so keenly between her delightful and voluptuous thighs; and my Louie does not lose, I can assure you, by my having been unfaithful with Lizzie!

I took Soubratie with me, leaving 'Mrs Soubratie' to look after my luggage for which her husband was to return when he had seen me safe as far as Shakkote. I heard that she proved the delight of the gallant officers at Nowshera during her husband's absence, and that she brought a big bag full of rupees with her to Cherat, where her charms enabled her to add a good many more to the stock earned by her active and diligent cunt.

Of my journey, of my arrival at Cherat and of the two lovely maidens I found there, who as yet had not known a man, but to whom it was my most happy privilege to communicate the thrilling sensations of soft desire and voluptuous sentiment, I must tell my readers in the chapters which follow.

CHAPTER TWO

I never in my life journeyed in such an uncomfortable conveyance as an ekka, and I only hope that none of my fair readers may be subjected to such aches and pains as I had to suffer. But what is an ekka? some of my fair readers may ask. I will tell you. It is a two-wheeled conveyance much used in northern India. It has no springs. It has a platform of but three square feet on which you sit as best you can. It is drawn by a small pony. The shafts generally rise so the platform on which you sit generally slopes back. The driver sits on the shafts, and if, as is very likely, he is highly odoriferous, you get the benefit of his evil smell. But that is not all about the ekka. It has its good points. It can go almost anywhere. It is light and strong. Many and many a time I have seen one carrying half a dozen natives, who can squat with ease where one European cannot find half room enough for himself. It is a cheap conveyance, and it is generally a most gorgeous one to behold, for from every one of its four corners there rises a pillar of white carved with all the cunning of the Indian carpenter's art. Over this is a dome, generally surmounted by some brass ornament, and the entire ekka is painted in the most brilliant colours and ornamented with quaint patterns cut out of brass and hung with little tinkling bells and, in fact, presents the sort of barbaric appearance which pleases the native eye and fancy so much.

Amongst the European soldiers and their wives the ekka is known as a jingling Johnnie, a name which perfectly describes the noise it makes when in motion, for it does nothing but jingle, thus adding to the civilised ear as much torment as its uncomfortable shape and motion do to other parts of his anatomy. Altogether it is not the kind of carriage which I can recommend as forming one of the comforts of Indian travel.

Added to the great discomfort the ekka afforded were several others. First the road had been cut to pieces by the thousands of men and carts of all descriptions, including artillery, light and heavy, which for the last two or three years had been constantly pouring along it, over all the road, to and from Afghanistan. It was consequently inches deep in dust as fine as flour. This dust rose during the day and did not settle for hours; it formed a perfect fog which choked the driver, dried up his mouth and filled his eyes and ears, besides covering me from head to foot. Again, how many camels died on the march? I believe they numbered tens, even twenties of thousands. Judging from the stench which hardly without break filled the air between the outskirts of Nowshera and Publi, there must have been a fair proportion of those deceased camels all along the road. As fast as possible the carcasses were either burnt or buried, but enough were left above ground to sicken even the strongest stomach.

I fell fast asleep and did not wake until the ekka stopped and I found myself in a little grove of trees close to which was the last military outpost with its guard of native infantry; here I was told I had to dismount as I was at Shakkote.

Towering high above me and looking perfectly unclimbable was a lofty range of mountains whose torn sides testified to the violence with which the rain dashed upon them in its hurry to reach the lower level. Cherat, I was told, was on the very summit, and was some four and half thousand feet above where I stood; that is higher than Snowdon, the highest mountain I had yet ascended, and these mountains seemed twice as steep. A couple of ponies stood at the door of the shanty, one had a saddle on, the other not. I asked whose ponies these were, and hearing that they had been sent down to meet an officer expected with baggage, I asked no more questions, but at once claimed my right to them, which fortunately was not contested. Mounted on my pony and directing Soubratie to be quick to strap my portmanteau as best he could on the other animal, I told the syce or groom who was in charge of my beast to proceed, and show me the way, which the half-naked savage did.

At last, after a perilous ascent, my pony staggering with immense fatigue and the fearful strain the terrible climb had cost him, we reached the top. The pony's trot soon died down into a quiet walk along a very good, well-made path, some five or six feet broad, which followed the edge of the valley, across which I saw facing me a pretty cottage, and good heavens! quite a sweet-looking English lassie, walking with a child, evidently taking her early-morning walk. I therefore encouraged my pony to put on his best paces, and almost as soon as I had caught sight of her, the unknown girl seemed to see me too, for she stopped in her walk and stood looking towards me. I soon got within twenty or thirty yards of her, for the path rounded the end of the valley, at the head of which was the cottage.

The first view I had of her close up, showed me that she was a really pretty girl – not exactly beautiful in the sense that Lizzie Wilson was, but more like my own beloved Louie, sweet, feminine, pretty in every sense. Her cheeks, rounded with health, were coloured like the rose, showing that the climate of Cherat certainly agreed with her. Her skin was perfectly clear; and her lips, those dear lips which were in days yet to come to be so often joined to mine in passionate ecstasy, were of the brightest red, that red that only belongs on the lips of the young, and which my experience has shown me is a sign of a nature tender, passionate and voluptuous. Her throat was beautifully formed, round and full, and her figure was that of a maiden passing from the stage of girlhood to that of womanhood. I could see that although her bosom was not yet fully developed, it was already adorned with two charming little mounds; it was certainly not a pair of empty stays which formed the slight hemispheres on either side, but good, sound, solid flesh. Her waist, though not so tapering as Lizzie's, was sweetly small, and her hips had that generous breadth which announces a fine, beautifully shaped belly, fit couch for any man to repose upon! Repose! Can a man be said to repose when he lies between the thighs of his darling, and fucks her with movements so full of sweetness, of joy, of ardent rapture for both him and her? I know not! – but no matter – my maiden showed two well-shaped little feet and ankles beneath her petticoat, as she stood watching my approach, and a smile began making her eyes alive with a kind expression of welcome, and two bewitching dimples began to form which gave her lovely face the appearance of great sweetness, just such a look as might well take any man by storm who saw it for the first time.