Published: Civil and Military Gazette, 12 October 1886.

Attribution: In Scrapbook 3 (28/3, p. 5)

Text: Civil and Military Gazette.

Note: The occasion of this fantasy is obviously some official demand for secrecy, but what in particular is meant I do not know. Perhaps it was about ‘the flashing point of kerosine’.

‘An Official Secret’ has been reprinted in the Martindell–Ballard pamphlets and in Harbord, ii, 1107–10.

It was night – thick night on the Capuan Hills. In a secluded cave known only to the leopard, the bear and the members of the Legislative Council, were gathered the eight leading men of the Indian Empire, and by the unsteady torch light they discussed and attempted to read their notes on a Measure. The V—y, jauntily seated on a powder barrel, with a lighted cigarette between his lips, took no part in the debate, but watched the mouth of the cave, and from time to time shifted the butt of his army revolver within easy reach of his hand. Press Correspondents were bold and daring, and under cover of the darkness might trifle with the Secrets of the Empire.

The debate was a short one, for the cave was cold, and each member, himself armed to the teeth, laboured under the fear that his own or his neighbour's weapons might “go off.” In a quarter of an hour all was over, and His Excellency got off the powder barrel. “We are agreed then” said he “that the flashing point of—,” but here his voice died away in a sepulchral murmur, and the rest of the sentence was inaudible save to the knot of men clustered round the Viceregal lips. The Bill was passed into law with the usual oaths of secrecy, and the members separated after giving the grip and the password, which was:– “A little before the light.” The Viceroy looked relieved, and, disguised in the blanket and felt headpiece of a pahari, made his way home by devious pugdandies.