A Little North Of Normality

MR OLIVER AN ANGLO_INDIAN teacher.was returning to his school late one night on the outskirts of the hill station of Simla.From before Kipling's time, the school had been run on English public school lines and the boys,most of them from wealthy Indian families,wore blazers caps and ties.Life magazine,in a feature on India had once called it the "Eton of The east".Mr.Oliver had been teaching in the school for several years.The Simla Bazaar with its cinemas and restaurants was about three miles from the school and Mr.Oliver a bachelor usually strolled into the town in the evening,returning after dark,when he would take a short cut through the pine forest.When there was a strong wind the pine trees made sad eerie sounds that kept most people to the main road .But for Mr.Oliver was not a nervous or a imaginative man.He carried a torch and its gleam -the batteries were running down-moved fitfully down the narrow forest path.When its flickering light fell on the figure of a boy