quotes_apr20_2021.htm

“Hold out your arm. Well your sleeplessness hasn’t ruined your muscle; and what a thick hide it is!
Might as well try to inject a buffalo subcutaneously.”

This is from “At the End of the Passage” in Life’s Handicap. A young assistant engineer in a remote station cannot sleep, and the doctor is doing what he can to help him. It doesn’t help, and they later find him terror-stricken and dead.

” Was it all right ?” said he over the bulwarks.
“Vaccination ain’t in it. She’s took beautiful. But where’s 267, Sir?” ‘.

This is from “Their Lawful Occasions” in Traffics and Discoveries. 267 is a small torpedo boat, unexpectedlyly given licence to rove during naval manoeuvres, which has just registered success in ‘torpedoing’ a massive cruiser of the rival fleet.

In the language of the State, they had “manifested a strong objection to all prophylactic measures,” had “forcibly detained the vaccinator,” and “were on the point of neglecting or evading their tribal obligations.”

A vaccinator has been sent out to inject a wild jungle tribe of Bhils against snall pox, and they have panicked. Fortunately John Chinn, an young officer whose grandfather was a legendary father-figure to the Bhils, is able to persuade them that the vaccination is safe and a good idea.