Dear list members,
In “The Man Who would be King”, Dravot blamed Carnehan (when they escaped to Bashkai with Billy Fish):
“’It’s your fault,’ says he, ‘for not looking after your Army better. There was mutiny in the midst, and you didn’t know—you damned engine-driving, plate-laying, missionary’s-pass-hunting hound!’ He sat upon a rock and called me every foul name he could lay tongue to.
Can anyone advise on the meaning of “missionary’s-pass-hunting”?
It is not unlikely to make no sense at all: Carnehan says above that “Dan began to go mad in his head from that hour.” On the other hand, “engine-driving” and “plate-laying” refers to previous professions of them both: “We have been boiler-fitters, engine-drivers, petty contractors, and all that,”; and “pass” in this respect may allude to Bolan Pass: “...like Billy Fish that drove the big tank-engine at Mach on the Bolan in the old days.
Many thanks in advance,
Yan Shapiro
, Dravot blamed Carnehan (when they escaped to Bashkai with Billy Fish):
“’It’s your fault,’ says he, ‘for not looking after your Army better. There was mutiny in the midst, and you didn’t know—you damned engine-driving, plate-laying, missionary’s-pass-hunting hound!’ He sat upon a rock and called me every foul name he could lay tongue to.
Can anyone advise on the meaning of this “missionary’s-pass-hunting”?
It is not unlikely to make no sense at all: Carnehan says above that “Dan began to go mad in his head from that hour.” On the other hand, “engine-driving” and “plate-laying” refers to previous professions of them both: “We have been boiler-fitters, engine-drivers, petty contractors, and all that,”; and “pass” in this respect may allude to Bolan Pass: “...like Billy Fish that drove the big tank-engine at Mach on the Bolan in the old days.
Many thanks in advance,
Yan Shapiro
|