The Writings in Prose and Verse of Rudyard Kipling Volume 22 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1904 edition. Excerpt: ...main road, white under the noon sun, lay broad before us, running north to Linghurst. We slowed and looked anxiously for a side track. "And now," said I, "I want to see your authority." "The badge of your ratin' '?" Pyecroft added. "I'm a constable," he said, and kicked. Indeed, his boots would have bewrayed him across half a county's plough; but boots are not legal evidence. "I want your authority," I repeated coldly; "some evidence that you are not a common, drunken tramp." It was as I had expected. He had forgotten or mislaid his badge. He had neglected to learn the outlines of the work for which he received money and consideration; and he expected me, the taxpayer, to go to infinite trouble to supplement his deficiencies. "If you don't believe me, come to Linghurst," was the burden of his almost national anthem. "But I can't run all over Sussex every time a blackmailer jumps up and says he is a policeman." "Why, it's quite close," he persisted. "'Twont be--soon," said HinchclifFe. "None of the other people ever made any trouble. To be sure, they was gentlemen," he cried. "All I can say is, it may be very funny, but it ain't fair." I laboured with him in this dense fog, but to no end. He had forgotten his badge, and we were villains for that we did not cart him to the pub or barracks where he had left it. Pyecroft listened critically as we spun along the hard road. "If he was a concentrated Boer, he couldn't expect much more," he observed. "Now, suppose I'd been a lady in a delicate state o' health--you'd ha' made me very ill with your doings." "I wish I 'ad. 'Ere 'Elp 'Elp Hi " The man had seen a constable in uniform fifty yards ahead, where a lane ran into the road, and would have said more but that Hinchcliffe jerked her up that...