copyright 1895 by Rudyard Kipling with "First Edition" stated on copyright page; date 1936 on title page; illustrated by Lionel Edwards, R.I.; Doubleday, Doran & Company publishers, New York; smaller hardbound; wonderful color and b/w illustrations; polo players and horses embossed on front cover (hard to see in pic); very good condition with unmarked pages; boards a little faded/mottled (pic); no dust jacket.
 
"THE MALTESE CAT" [p.9] -
THEY had good reason to be proud, and better reason to be afraid, all twelve of them; for though they had fought their way, game by game, up the teams entered for the polo tournament, they were meeting the Archangels that afternoon in the final match; and the Archangels men were playing with half a dozen ponies apiece. As the game was divided into six quarters of eight minutes each, that meant a fresh pony after every halt. The Skidars' team, even supposing there were no accidents, could only supply one pony for every other change; and two to one is heavy odds. Again, as Shiraz, the grey Syrian, pointed out, they were meeting the pink and pick of the polo-ponies of Upper India, ponies that had cost from a thousand rupees each, while they themselves were a cheap lot gathered, often from country-carts, by their masters, who belonged to a poor but honest native infantry regiment...