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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/14087-0.txt b/14087-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e7a5ae3 --- /dev/null +++ b/14087-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8250 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14087 *** + +THE JUNGLE GIRL + +by + +GORDON CASSERLY + +Author of _The Elephant God_, etc. + +New York + +1922 + + + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +I. THE GREY BOAR +II. YOUTH CALLS TO YOUTH +III. THE LOVE-SONG OF HAR DYAL +IV. A CROCODILE INTERVENES +V. SENTENCE OF EXILE +VI. A BORDER OUTPOST +VII. IN THE TERAI JUNGLE +VIII. A GIRL OF THE FOREST +IX. TIGER LAND +X. A POLITICAL OFFICER IN THE MAKING +XI. TRAGEDY +XII. "ROOTED IN DISHONOUR" +XIII. THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE +XIV. THE DEVIL DANCERS OF TUNA +XV. A STRANGE RESCUE + + + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE GREY BOAR + + Youth's daring courage, manhood's fire, + Firm seat and eagle eye, + Must he acquire who doth aspire + To see the grey boar die. + + --_Indian Pigsticking Song_. + + +Mrs. Norton looked contentedly at her image in the long mirror which +reflected a graceful figure in a well-cut grey habit and smart long +brown boots, a pretty face and wavy auburn hair under the sun-helmet. +Then turning away and picking up her whip she left the dressing-room +and, passing the door of her husband's bedroom where he lay still +sleeping, descended the broad marble staircase of the Residency to the +lofty hall, where an Indian servant in a long red coat hurried to open +the door of the dining-room for her. + +Almost at that moment a mile away Raymond, the adjutant of the 180th +Punjaub Infantry, looked at his watch and called out loudly: + +"Hurry up, Wargrave; it's four o'clock and the ponies will be round in +ten minutes. And it's a long ride to the Palace." + +He was seated at a table on the verandah of the bungalow which he +shared with his brother subaltern in the small military cantonment near +Rohar, the capital of the Native State of Mandha in the west of India. +Dawn had not yet come; and by the light of an oil lamp Raymond was +eating a frugal breakfast of tea, toast and fruit, the _chota hazri_ or +light meal with which Europeans in the East begin the day. He was +dressed in an old shooting-jacket, breeches and boots; and as he ate his +eyes turned frequently to a bundle of steel-headed bamboo spears leaning +against the wall near him. For he and his companion were going as the +guests of the Maharajah of Mandha for a day's pigsticking, as hunting +the wild boar is termed in India. + +He had finished his meal and lit a cheroot before Wargrave came yawning +on to the verandah. + +"Sorry for being so lazy, old chap," said the newcomer. "But a year's +leave in England gets one out of the habit of early rising." + +He pulled up a chair to the table on which his white-clad Mussulman +servant, who had come up the front steps of the verandah, laid a tray +with his tea and toast. And while he ate Raymond lay back smoking in a +long chair and looked almost affectionately at him. They had been +friends since their Sandhurst days, and during the past twelve months of +his comrade's absence on furlough in Europe the adjutant had sorely +missed his cheery companionship. Nor was he the only one in their +regiment who had. + +Frank Wargrave was almost universally liked by both men and women, and, +while unspoilt by popularity, thoroughly deserved it. He was about +twenty-six years of age, above medium height, with a lithe and graceful +figure which the riding costume that he was wearing well set off. +Fair-haired and blue-eyed, with good though irregular features, he was +pleasant-faced and attractive rather than handsome. The cheerful, +good-tempered manner that he displayed even at that trying early hour +was a true indication of a happy and light-hearted disposition that made +him as liked by his brother officers as by other men who did not know +him so well. In his regiment all the native ranks adored the young +sahib, who was always kind and considerate, though just, to them, and +looked more closely after their interests than he did his own. For, like +most young officers in the Indian Army, he was seldom out of debt; but +soldierly hospitality and a hand ever ready to help a friend in want +were the causes rather than deliberate extravagance on his own account. +Taking life easily and never worrying over his own troubles he was +always generous and sympathetic to others, and prompter to take up +cudgels on their behalf than on his own. His being a good sportsman and +a smart soldier added to his popularity among men; while all women were +partial to the pleasant, courteous subaltern whom they felt to have a +chivalrous regard and respect for them and who was as polite and +attentive to an old lady as he was to the prettiest girl. + +While admiring and liking the other sex Wargrave had hitherto been too +absorbed in sport and his profession to have ever found time to lose his +heart to any particular member of it, while his innate respect for, and +high ideal of, womankind had preserved him from unworthy intrigues with +those ready to meet him more than half-way. Even in the idleness of the +year's furlough in England from which he had returned the previous day +he had remained heart-whole; although several charming girls had been +ready to share his lot and more than one pretty pirate had sought to +make him her prize. But he had been blind to them all; for he was too +free from conceit to believe that any woman would concern herself with +him unasked. He had dined and danced with maid and young matron in +London, ridden with them in the Row and Richmond Park, punted them down +backwaters by Goring, Pangbourne and the Cleveden Woods, and flirted +harmlessly with them in country houses after days with the Quorn and the +Pytchley, and yet come back to India true to his one love, his regiment. + +As Raymond watched him the fear of the feminine dangers in England for +his friend suddenly pricked; and he blurted out anxiously: + +"I say, old chap, you haven't got tangled up with any woman at home, +have you? Not got engaged or any silly thing like that, I hope?" + +Wargrave laughed. + +"No fear, old boy," he replied, pouring out another cup of tea. "Far too +hard up to think of such an expensive luxury as a wife. Been too busy, +too, to see much of any particular girl." + +"You had some decent sport, hadn't you?" asked his friend, with a +feeling of relief in his heart. + +"Rather. I told you I'd learnt to fly and got my pilot's certificate, +for one thing. Good fun, flying. I wish I could afford a 'bus of my own. +Then I had some yachting on the Solent and a lot of boating on the +Thames. I put in a month in Switzerland, skiing and skating." + +"Did you get any hunting?" + +"Yes, at my uncle's place near Desford in Leicestershire. He gave me +some shooting, too. It was all very well; but I was very envious when +the regiment came here and you wrote and told me of the pigsticking you +were getting. I've always longed for it. It's great sport, isn't it?" + +"The best I know," cried Raymond enthusiastically. "Beats hunting +hollow. You're not following a wretched little animal that runs for its +life, but a game brute that will turn on you as like as not and make +you fight for yours." + +"It must be ripping. I do hope we'll have the luck to find plenty of pig +to-day." + +"Oh, we're sure to. The Maharajah told me yesterday they have marked +down a _sounder_--that is, a herd--of wild pig in a _nullah_ about seven +miles the other side of the city, which is two miles away, so we have a +ride of nine to the meet." + +"That will make it a very hard day for our ponies, won't it?" asked +Wargrave anxiously. "Eighteen miles there and back and the runs as +well." + +"Oh, that's all right. The Maharajah mounts us at the meet. We'll find +his horses waiting there for us. Rawboned beasts with mouths like iron, +as a rule; but good goers and staunch to pig." + +"By Jove! The Maharajah must be a real good chap." + +"One of the best," replied Raymond. "He is a man for whom I've the +greatest admiration. He rules his State admirably. He commanded his own +Imperial Service regiment in the war and did splendidly. He is very good +to us here." + +"So it seems. From what I gathered at Mess last night he appears to +provide all our sport for us." + +"Yes; he arranges his shoots and the pigsticking meets for days on which +the officers of the regiment are free to go out with him. When we can +travel by road he sends his carriages for us, lends us horses and has +camels to follow us with lunch, ice and drinks wherever we go." + +"What a good fellow he must be!" exclaimed Wargrave. "I am glad we get +pigsticking here. I've always longed for it, but never have been +anywhere before where there was any, as you know." + +"It's lucky for us that the sport here is good; for without it life in +Rohar would be too awful to contemplate. It's the last place the Lord +made." + +"It's the hardest place to reach I've ever known," said Wargrave. "It +was a shock to learn that, after forty-eight hours in the train, I had +two more days to travel after leaving the railway." + +"How did you like that forty miles in a camel train over the salt +desert? That made you sit up a bit, eh?" + +"It was awful. The heat and the glare off the sand nearly killed me. You +say there is no society here?" + +"Society? The only Europeans here or in the whole State, besides those +of us in the regiment, are the Resident and his wife." + +"What is a Resident, exactly?" + +"A Political Officer appointed by the Government of India to be a sort +of adviser to a rajah and to keep a check on him if he rules his State +badly. I shouldn't imagine that our fellow here, Major Norton, would be +much good as an adviser to anybody. The only thing he seems to know +anything about is insects. He's quite a famous entomologist. Personally +he's not a bad sort, but a bit of a bore." + +"What's his wife like?" + +"Oh, very different. Much younger and fond of gaiety, I think. Not that +she can get any here. She's a decidedly pretty woman. I haven't seen +much of her; for she has been away most of the time, that the regiment +has been here. She has relatives in Calcutta and stays a lot with them." + +"I don't blame her," said Wargrave, laughing. "Rohar must be a very +deadly place for a young woman. No amusements. No dances. No shops. And +the only female society the wives of the Colonel and the Doctor." + +"Luckily for Mrs. Norton she is rather keen on sport and is a good +rider. You'll probably meet her to-day; for she generally comes out +pigsticking with us, though she doesn't carry a spear. I've promised to +take her shooting with us the next time we go. Hullo! here are the +ponies at last. Are you ready, Frank?" + +The two officers rose, as their _syces_, or native grooms, came up +before the bungalow leading two ponies, a Waler and an Arab. Raymond +walked over to the bundle of spears and selected one with a leaf-shaped +steel head. + +"Try this, Frank," he said. "See if it suits you. You don't want too +long a spear." + +His companion balanced it in his hand. + +"Yes, it seems all right. I say, old chap, how does one go for the pig? +Do you thrust at him?" + +"No; just ride hard at him with the spear pointed and held with +stiffened arm. Your impetus will drive the steel well home into him." + +Mounting their ponies they started, the _syces_ carrying the spears and +following them at a steady run as they trotted down the sandy road +leading to the city, where at the Palace they were to meet the Maharajah +and the other sportsmen. The sky was paling fast at the coming of the +dawn; and they could discern the dozen bungalows and the Regimental +Lines, or barracks, comprising the little cantonment, above which +towered the dark mass of a rocky hill crowned by the ruined walls of an +old native fort. On either side of their route the country was flat and +at first barren. But, as they neared the capital, they passed through +cultivation and rode by green fields irrigated from deep wells, by +hamlets of palm-thatched mud huts where no one yet stirred, and on to +where the high embrasured walls of the city rose above the plain. Under +the vaulted arch of the old gateway the ponies clattered, along through +the narrow, silent streets of gaily-painted, wooden-balconied houses, at +that hour closely shuttered, until the Palace was reached as the rising +sun began to flush the sky with rose-pink. + +The guard of sepoys at the great gate saluted as the two officers rode +into the wide, paved courtyard lined by high, many-windowed buildings. +In the centre of it a group of horsemen, nobles of the State or +officials of the Palace in gay dresses and bright-coloured _puggris_, or +turbans, with gold or silver-hilted swords hanging from their belts, sat +on their restless animals behind the Maharajah, a pleasant-faced, +athletic man in a white flannel coat, riding-breeches and long, soft +leather boots, mounted on a tall Waler gelding. He was chatting with +four or five other officers of the Punjaubis and raised his hand to his +forehead as the newcomers rode up and lifted their hats to him. + +"Good morning, Your Highness," said Raymond. "I hope we're not late. Let +me present Mr. Wargrave of our regiment, who has just returned from +England." + +With a genial smile the Maharajah leant forward and held out his hand. + +"I am glad to make your acquaintance, Mr. Wargrave," he said, "and very +pleased to see you out with us to-day. Are you fond of pigsticking?" + +"I've never had the chance of doing any before, Your Highness," replied +Frank, shaking his hand. "I'm awfully anxious to try it; but, being a +novice, I'm afraid I'll only be in the way." + +"I'm sure you won't," said the Maharajah courteously. His command of +English was perfect. "Pigsticking is not at all difficult; and I hear +that you are a good rider." + +He looked at his watch and then, turning in the saddle, addressed +another officer of the regiment who was chaffing Raymond for being late: + +"Are we all here now, Captain Ross?" + +"Yes, sir. These two lazy fellows are the last," replied Ross +laughingly. + +"Very well, gentlemen, we'll start." + +He waved his hand; and at the signal two black-bearded _sowars_, or +soldiers of his cavalry regiment, dashed by him and out through the +Palace gates at a hard-gallop, leading the way past the guard, who +turned out and presented arms as the Maharajah and the British officers, +together with the crowd of nobles, officials and mounted attendants, +followed at a smart pace. The city was now waking to life. From their +windows the sleepy inhabitants stared at the party, mostly too stupefied +at that hour to recognise and salute their ruler. Pot-bellied naked +brown babies waddled on to the verandahs to gaze thumb in mouth at the +riders. Pariah dogs, nosing at the gutters and rubbish-heaps that +scented the air, bolted out of the way of the horses' hoofs. + +As the sportsmen passed out of the city gates the sun was rising above +the horizon, the terrible Hot Weather sun of India, whose advent ushers +in the long hours of gasping, breathless heat. For a mile or so the +route lay through fertile gardens and fields. Then suddenly the +cultivation ended abruptly on the edge of a sandy desert that, seamed +with _nullahs_, or deep, steep-sided ravines, and dotted with tall +clumps of thorny cactus, stretched away to the horizon. The road became +a barely discernible track; but the two _sowars_ cantered on, +confidently heading for the spot where the fresh horses awaited the +party. + +Over the sand the riders swept, past a slow-plodding elephant lumbering +back to the city with a load of fodder, by groups of tethered camels. +Hares started up in alarm and bounded away, grey partridges whirred up +and yellow-beaked _minas_ flew off chattering indignantly. The slight +morning coolness soon vanished; and Wargrave, soft and somewhat out of +condition after his weeks of shipboard life, wiped his streaming face +often before the guiding _sowars_ threw up their hands in warning and +vanished slowly from sight as their sure-footed horses picked their way +down a steep _nullah_. This was the ravine in which the quarry hid. One +after another of the riders followed the leaders down the narrow track, +trotted across the sandy, rock-strewn river-bed and climbed up the far +side to where the fresh horses and a picturesque mob of wild-looking +beaters stood awaiting them. + +Among the animals Wargrave noticed a smart grey Arab pony with a +side-saddle. + +"I see Mrs. Norton intends coming out with us," observed the Maharajah +looking at the pony. "We must wait for her." + +"It won't be for long, sir," said Raymond, pointing to a rising trail of +dust on the track by which they had come. "I'll bet that is she." + +All turned to watch the approaching rider draw near, until they could +see that it was a lady galloping furiously over the sand. + +"By Jove, she can ride!" exclaimed Wargrave admiringly. "I hope she'll +see the _nullah_. She's heading straight for it." + +A shouted warning caused her to pull up almost on the brink; and in a +few minutes she joined the waiting group. Wargrave looked with interest +at her, as she sat on her panting horse talking to the Maharajah and the +other officers, who had dismounted. + +Mrs. Norton was a decidedly graceful and pretty woman. The rounded +curves of her shapely figure were set off to advantage by her +riding-costume. Her eyes were especially attractive, greenish-grey eyes +fringed by long black lashes under curved dark brows contrasting with +the warm auburn tint of the hair that showed under her sunhat. Her +complexion was dazzlingly fair. Her mouth was rather large and +voluptuous with full red lips and even white teeth. Bewitching dimples +played in the pink cheeks. Even from a man like Wargrave, fresh from +England and consequently more inclined to be critical of female beauty +than were his comrades, who for many months had seen so few white women, +Mrs. Norton's good looks could justly claim full meed of admiration and +approval. + +Accepting Captain Ross's aid she slipped lightly from her saddle to the +ground and on foot looked as graceful as she did when mounted. Raymond +brought his friend to her and introduced him. + +Holding out a small and shapely hand in a dainty leather gauntlet she +said in a frank and pleasant manner: + +"How do you do, Mr. Wargrave? You are a fortunate person to have been in +England so lately. I haven't seen it for nearly three years. Weren't you +sorry to leave it?" + +"Not in the least, Mrs. Norton. I'd far sooner be doing this," he waved +his hand towards the horses and the open desert, "than fooling about +Piccadilly and the Park." + +"Oh, but don't you miss the gaieties of town, the theatres, the dances? +And then the shops and the new fashions--but you're a man, and they'd +mean nothing to you." + +The Maharajah broke in: + +"Mrs. Norton, I think we had better mount. The beaters are going in; and +the _shikaris_ (hunters) tell me that the _nullah_ swarms with pig. +There are at least half a dozen rideable boar in it." + +In pigsticking only well-grown boars are pursued, sows and immature +boars being unmolested. + +Ross started forward to help Mrs. Norton on to her fresh pony; but +Wargrave refused to surrender the advantage of his proximity to her. So +it was into his hand she put her small foot in its well-made riding-boot +and was swung up by him. + +The saddles of the rest of the party had been changed on to the horses +that the Maharajah had provided. The beaters streamed down the steep +bank into the ravine which some distance away was filled with dense +scrub affording good cover for the quarry. Forming line they moved +through it with shrill yells, the blare of horns, the beating of +tom-toms and a spluttering fire of blank cartridges from old muskets. +The riders mounted and, spear in hand, eagerly watched their progress +through the jungle. Wargrave found himself beside Mrs. Norton; but, +after exchanging a few words, he forgot her presence as, his heart +beating fast with a true sportsman's excitement, he strained his eyes +for the first sight of a wild boar. + +Suddenly, several hundred yards away, he saw a squat, dark animal emerge +from the tangled scrub and, climbing up the _nullah_ on their side, +stride away over the sand with a peculiar bounding motion that reminded +Wargrave of a rocking-horse. All eyes were turned towards the +Maharajah, who would decide whether the animal were worthy of pursuit or +not. He gazed after it for a few moments, then raised his hand. + +At the welcome signal all dashed off after the boar at a furious gallop, +opening out as they went to give play for their spears. Wild with +excitement, Wargrave struck spurs to his horse, which needed no urging, +being as filled with the lust of the chase as was the man on its back. +Like a cavalry charge the riders thundered in a mad rush behind His +Highness, whose faster mount carried him at once ahead of the rest. He +soon overtook the boar. Lowering his spear-point the Maharajah bent +forward in the saddle; but at the last moment the pig "jinked," that is, +turned sharply at right angles to his former course, and bounded away +untouched, while the baffled sportsman was carried on helplessly by his +excited horse. + +Wargrave, following at some distance to the Maharajah's right rear, saw +to his mingled joy and trepidation the boar only a short way in front of +him. + +"Ride, ride hard!" cried Mrs. Norton almost alongside him. + +Frank drove his spurs in; and the gaunt, raw-boned countrybred under him +sprang forward. But just as it had all but reached the quarry, the +latter jinked again and Wargrave was borne on, tugging vainly at the +horse's iron jaws. But the boar had short shrift. With a rush Ross +closed on it and before it could swerve off sent his spear deep into its +side and, galloping on, turned his hand over, drawing out the lance. The +pig was staggered by the shock but started to run on. Before it could +get up speed one of the Indian nobles dashed at it with wild yells and +speared it again. + +The thrust this time was mortal. The boar staggered on a few steps, then +stumbled and fell heavily to the ground. The hunters reined in their +sweating horses and gathered round it. + +"Not a big animal," commented the Maharajah, scrutinising it with the +eye of an expert. "About thirty-four inches high, I think. But the tusks +are good. They're yours, Captain Ross, aren't they?" + +"Yes, Your Highness, I think so," replied Ross. + +Pigsticking law awards the trophy to the rider whose spear first +inflicts a wound on the boar. + +"Better luck next time, Mr. Wargrave," said Mrs. Norton, riding up to +him. "I thought you were sure of him when he jinked away from the +Maharajah." + +"To be quite candid I was rather relieved that I didn't get the chance, +Mrs. Norton," replied the subaltern. "As I've never been out after pig +before I didn't quite know what to do. However, I've seen now that it +isn't very difficult; so I hope I'll get an opportunity later." + +"You are sure to, Mr. Wargrave," remarked the Maharajah. "There are +several boars left in cover; and the men are going in again." + +The tatterdemalion mob of beaters was descending into the _nullah_; and +soon the wild din broke out once more. A gaunt grey boar with long and +gleaming tusks was seen to emerge from the scrub and climb the far bank +of the ravine, where he stood safely out of reach but in full view of +the tantalised hunters. But a string of laden camels passing over the +desert scared him back again; and while the riders watched in eager +excitement, he slowly descended into the _nullah_, crossed it and came +up on the near side some hundreds of yards away. + +The Maharajah raised his spear. + +"Ride!" he cried. + +"Go like the devil, Frank!" shouted Raymond, as the scurrying horsemen +swept in a body over the sand and he found himself for a moment beside +his friend. "He's a beauty. Forty inches, I'll swear. Splendid tusks." + +Wargrave crouched like a jockey in the saddle as the riders raced madly +after the boar. The Indians among them, wildly excited, brandished their +lances and uttered fierce cries as they galloped along. Their +Maharajah's speedier mount again took the lead; but even in India sport +is democratic and his nobles, attendants and soldiers all tried to +overtake and pass him. The white men, as is their wont, rode in silence +but none the less keenly excited. Over sand and stones, past tall, +prickly cactus-plants, in hot pursuit all flew at racing speed. + +It was a long chase; for the old grey boar was speedy, cunning, and a +master of wiles. First one pursuer, then another, then a third and a +fourth, found himself almost upon the quarry and bent down with +outstretched, eager spear only to be baffled by a swift jink and carried +on helplessly, pulling vainly at the reins. + +At length a sudden turn threw out all the field except the Maharajah, +who had foreseen it and ridden off to intercept the now tiring boar. +Overtaking it he bent forward and wounded it slightly. The brute +instantly swung in upon his horse, and with a fierce grunt dashed under +it and leapt up at it with a toss of the head that gave an upward thrust +to the long, curved tusk. In an instant the horse was ripped open and +brought crashing to the ground, pinning its rider's leg to the earth +beneath it. The boar turned again, marked the prostrate man, and with a +savage gleam in its little eyes charged the Maharajah, its gleaming +ivory tusks, six inches long, as sharp and deadly as an Afridi's knife. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +YOUTH CALLS TO YOUTH + + +But at that moment a shout made the boar hesitate, and Raymond dashed in +on it at racing speed, driving his spear so deeply into its side that, +as he swept on, the tough bamboo broke like match-wood. The stricken +beast tottered forward a yard or two, then turned and stood undauntedly +at bay, as a _sowar_ rode at it. But before his steel could touch its +hide it shuddered and sank to the ground dead. + +The dying horse was lifted off the Maharajah who, with the courage of +his race, had remained calm in the face of the onrushing death. He was +assisted to rise, but was so severely shaken and bruised that at first +he was unable to stand without support. Leaning on the arm of one of his +nobles he held out his hand to Raymond, when the latter rode up, and +thanked him gratefully for his timely aid. Then the exhausted but +gallant prince sat down on the sand to recover himself. But he assured +everyone that he was not hurt and, insisting that the sport should go +on, gave orders for the beat to continue. + +Wargrave had chanced to dismount to tighten the girth of Mrs. Norton's +horse, when a fresh boar broke from cover and was instantly pursued by +all the others of the hunt. The subaltern ruefully accepted the lady's +apologies and hurriedly swung himself up into the saddle again to +follow, when his companion cried: + +"Look! Look, Mr. Wargrave! There's another. Come, we'll have him all to +ourselves." + +And striking her pony with her gold-mounted whip she dashed off at a +gallop after a grey old boar that had craftily kept close in cover and +crept out quietly after the beaters had passed. Wargrave, filled with +excitement, struck spurs to his mount and raced after her, soon catching +up and passing her. Over the sand pitted with holes and strewn with +loose stones they raced, the boar bounding before them with rocking +motion and leading them in a long, stern chase. Again and again the +beast swerved; but at last with a fierce thrill Wargrave felt the steel +head of the spear strike home in the quarry. As he was carried on past +it he withdrew the weapon, then pulled his panting horse round. The boar +was checked; but the wound only infuriated him and aroused his fighting +ardour. He dashed at Mrs. Norton; but, as Frank turned, the game brute +recognised the more dangerous adversary, and with a fierce grunt charged +savagely at him. Wargrave plunged his spurs into his horse, which sprang +forward, just clearing the boar's snout, as the rider leant well out and +speared the pig through the heart. Then with a wild, exultant whoop the +subaltern swung round in the saddle and saw the animal totter forward +and collapse on the sand. Only a sportsman could realise his feeling of +triumph at the fall of his first boar. + +Mrs. Norton was almost as excited as he, her sparkling eyes and face +flushed a becoming pink, making her even prettier in his eyes as she +rode up and congratulated him. + +"Well done, Mr. Wargrave!" she cried, trotting up to where he sat on his +panting horse over the dead boar. "You did that splendidly! And the very +first time you've been out pigsticking, too!" + +"It was just luck," replied the subaltern modestly, not ill-pleased at +her praise. + +"What a glorious run he gave us!" she continued. "And we had it all to +ourselves, which made it better. I'm always afraid of the Maharajah's +followers, for in a run they ride so recklessly and carry their spears +so carelessly that it's a wonder they don't kill someone every time. +Will you help me down, please? I must give Martian a rest after that +gallop." + +With Wargrave's aid she dropped lightly to the ground; and he remarked +again with admiration the graceful lines and rounded curves of her +figure as she walked to the dead boar and touched the tusks. + +"What a splendid pair! You are lucky," she exclaimed. "The biggest +anyone has got yet this season." + +"I hope you'll allow me to offer them to you," said Wargrave generously, +although it cost him a pang to surrender the precious trophy. "You +deserve them, for you rode so well after the boar and I believe you'd +have got him if you'd carried a spear." + +"No, indeed, Mr. Wargrave; I wouldn't dream of taking them," she +replied, laughing; "but I appreciate the nobility of your self-denial. +This is your first pig; and I know what that means to a man. Now we must +find a _sowar_ to get the coolies to bring the boar in. But I wonder +where we are. Where is everyone?" + +Wargrave looked about him and for the first time realised that they were +far out in the desert without a landmark to guide them. On every side +the sand stretched away to the horizon, its flat expanse broken only by +clumps of bristling cactus or very rarely the tall stem of a palm tree. +Of the others of the party there was no sign. His companion and he +seemed to be alone in the world; and he began to wonder apprehensively +if they were destined to undergo the unpleasant experience of being lost +in the desert. The sun high overhead afforded no help; and Wargrave +remembered neither the direction of the city nor where lay the ravine in +which the beat had taken place. + +"You don't happen to know where we are, I suppose, Mrs. Norton?" he +asked his companion. + +"I haven't the least idea. It looks as if we're lost," she replied +calmly. "We had better wait quietly where we are instead of wandering +about trying to find our way. When we are missed the Maharajah will +probably send somebody to look for us." + +"I daresay you're right," said Wargrave. "You know more about the desert +than I do. By Jove, I'd give anything to come across the camel that +Raymond tells me brings out drinks and ice. My throat is parched. Aren't +you very thirsty?" + +"Terribly so. Isn't the heat awful?" she exclaimed, trying to fan +herself with the few inches of cambric and lace that represented a +handkerchief. + +"Awful. The blood seems to be boiling in my head," gasped the subaltern. +"I've never felt heat like this anywhere else in India. But, thank +goodness, it seems to be clouding over. That will make it cooler." + +Mrs. Norton looked around. A dun veil was being swiftly drawn up over +sun and sky and blotting out the landscape. + +"Good gracious! There's worse trouble coming. That's a sandstorm," she +cried, for the first time exhibiting a sign of nervousness. + +"Good heavens, how pleasant! Are we going to be buried under a mound of +sand, like the pictures we used to have in our schoolbooks of caravans +overwhelmed in the Sahara?" + +Mrs. Norton smiled. + +"Not quite as bad as that," she answered. "But unpleasant enough, I +assure you. If only we had any shelter!" + +Wargrave looked around desperately. He had hitherto no experience of +desert country; and the sudden darkness and the grim menace of the +approaching black wall of the sandstorm seemed to threaten disaster. He +saw a thick clump of cactus half a mile away. + +"We'd better make for that," he said, pointing to it. "It will serve to +break the force of the wind if we get to leeward of it. Let's mount." + +He put her on her horse and then swung himself up into the saddle. +Together they raced for the scant shelter before the dark menace +overspreading earth and sky. The sun was now hidden; but that brought no +relief, for the heat was even more stifling and oppressive than before. +The wind seemed like a blast of hot air from an opened furnace door. + +Pulling up when they reached the dense thicket of cactus with its broad +green leaves studded with cruel thorns, Wargrave jumped down and lifted +Mrs. Norton from the saddle. The horses followed them instinctively, as +they pressed as closely as they could to the shelter of the inhospitable +plant. The animals turned their tails towards the approaching storm and +instinctively huddled against their human companions in distress. +Wargrave took off his jacket and spread it around Mrs. Norton's head, +holding her to him. + +With a shrill wail the dark storm swept down upon them, and a million +sharp particles of sand beat on them, stinging, smothering, choking +them. The horses crowded nearer to the man, and the woman clung tighter +to him as he wrapped her more closely in the protecting cloth. He felt +suffocated, stifled, his lungs bursting, his throat burning, while every +breath he drew was laden with the irritating sand. It penetrated through +all the openings of his clothing, down his collar, inside his shirt, +into his boots. The heat was terrific, unbearable, the darkness intense. +Wargrave began to wonder if his first apprehensions were not justified, +if they could hope to escape alive or were destined to be buried under +the stifling pall that enveloped them. He felt against him the soft body +of the woman clinging desperately to him; and the warm contact thrilled +him. A feeling of pity, of tenderness for her awoke in him at the +thought that this young and attractive being was fated perhaps to perish +by so awful a death. And instinctively, unconsciously, he held her +closer to him. + +For minutes that seemed hours the storm continued to shriek and roar +over and around them. But at length the choking waves began to diminish +in density and slowly, gradually, the deadly, smothering pall was lifted +from them. The black wall passed on and Wargrave watched it moving away +over the desert. The storm had lasted half an hour, but the subaltern +believed its duration to have been hours. The fine grit had penetrated +into the case of his wrist-watch and stopped it. A cool, refreshing +breeze sprang up. Pulling his jacket off Mrs. Norton's head, Wargrave +said: + +"It's all over at last." + +"Oh, thank God!" she exclaimed fervently, standing erect and drawing a +deep breath of cool air into her labouring lungs. "I thought I was going +to be smothered." + +"It was a decidedly unpleasant experience and one I don't want to try +again. My throat is parched; I must have swallowed tons of sand. And +look at the state I'm in!" + +He was powdered thick with it, clothes, hair, eyebrows, grey with it. It +had caked on his face damp with perspiration. + +"Thanks to your jacket I've escaped pretty well, although I was almost +suffocated," she said. "Well, now that it is over surely someone will +come to look for us." + +"Then we had better get up on our horses and move out into the open. +We'll be more visible," said Wargrave. + +Yet he felt a strange reluctance to quit the spot; for the thought came +to him that their unpleasant experience in it would henceforth be a link +between them. A few hours before he had not known of this woman's +existence! and now he had held her to his breast and tried to protect +her against the forces of Nature. The same idea seemed born in her mind +at the same time; for, when he had brushed the dust off her saddle and +lifted her on to it, she turned to look with interest at the spot as +they rode away from it. + +They had not long to wait out in the open before they saw three or four +riders spread over the desert apparently looking for them, so they +cantered towards them. As soon as they were seen by the search party a +_sowar_ galloped to meet them and, saluting, told them that the +Maharajah and the rest had taken refuge from the storm in a village a +couple of miles away. Then from the _kamarband_, or broad cloth +encircling his waist like a sash, he produced two bottles of soda-water +which he opened and gave to them. The liquid was warm, but nevertheless +was acceptable to their parched throats. + +They followed their guide at a gallop and soon were being welcomed by +the rest of the party in a small village of low mud huts. A couple of +kneeling camels, bubbling, squealing and viciously trying to bite +everyone within reach, were being unloaded by some of the Maharajah's +servants. Other attendants were spreading a white cloth on the ground by +a well under a couple of tall palm-trees and laying on it an excellent +cold lunch for the Europeans, with bottles of champagne standing in +silver pails filled with ice. + +As soon as his anxiety on Mrs. Norton's account was relieved by her +arrival, His Highness, who as an orthodox Hindu could not eat with his +guests, begged them to excuse him and, being helped with difficulty on +his horse, rode slowly off, still shaken and sorely bruised by his fall. +His nobles and officials accompanied him. + +After lunch all went to inspect the heap of slain boars laid on the +ground in the shade of a hut. Wargrave's kill had been added to it. Much +to the subaltern's delight its tusk proved to be the longest and finest +of all; and he was warmly congratulated by the more experienced +pigstickers on his success. Shortly afterwards the beaters went into the +_nullah_ again; and a few more runs added another couple of boars to the +bag. Then, after iced drinks while their saddles were being changed back +on to their own horses, the Britishers mounted and started on their +homeward journey. + +Without quite knowing how it happened Wargrave found himself riding +beside Mrs. Norton behind the rest of the party. On the way back they +chatted freely and without restraint, like old friends. For the +incidents of the day had served to sweep away formality between them and +to give them a sense of long acquaintanceship and mutual liking. And, +when the time came for Mrs. Norton to separate from the others as she +reached the spot where the road to the Residency branched off, the +subaltern volunteered to accompany her. + +It had not taken them long to discover that they had several tastes in +common. + +"So you like good music?" she said after a chance remark of his. "It is +pleasant to find a kindred spirit in this desolate place. The ladies and +the other officers of your regiment are Philistines. Ragtime is more in +their line than Grieg or Brahms. And the other day Captain Ross asked me +if Tschaikowsky wasn't the Russian dancer at the Coliseum in town." + +Wargrave laughed. + +"I know. I became very unpopular when I was Band President and made our +band play Wagner all one night during Mess. I gave up trying to elevate +their musical taste when the Colonel told me to order the bandmaster to +'stop that awful rubbish and play something good, like the selection +from the last London _revue_.'" + +"Are you a musician yourself?" she asked. + +"I play the violin." + +"Oh, how ripping! You must come often and practise with me. I've an +excellent piano; but I rarely touch it now. My husband takes no interest +in music--or indeed, in anything else I like. But, then, I am not +thrilled by his one absorbing passion in life--insects. So we're quits, +I suppose." + +Their horses were walking silently over the soft sand; and Wargrave +heard her give a little sigh. Was it possible, he wondered, that the +husband of this charming woman did not appreciate her and her +attractions as he ought? + +She went on with a change of manner: + +"When are you coming to call on me? I am a Duty Call, you know. All +officers are supposed to leave cards on the Palace and the Residency." + +"The call on you will be a pleasure, I assure you, not a mere duty, Mrs. +Norton," said the subaltern with a touch of earnestness. "May I come +to-morrow?" + +"Yes, please do. Come early for tea and bring your violin. It will be +delightful to have some music again. I have not opened my piano for +months; but I'll begin to practise to-night. I have one or two pieces +with violin _obligato_." + +So, chatting and at every step finding something fresh to like in each +other, they rode along down sandy lanes hemmed in by prickly aloe +hedges, by deep wells and creaking water-wheels where patient bullocks +toiled in the sun to draw up the gushing water to irrigate the green +fields so reposeful to the eye after the glaring desert. They passed by +thatched mud huts outside which naked brown babies sprawled in the dust +and deer-eyed women turned the hand-querns that ground the flour for +their household's evening meal. Stiff and sore though Wargrave was after +these many hours of his first day in the saddle for so long, he +thoroughly enjoyed his ride back with so attractive a companion. + +When they reached the Residency, a fine, airy building of white stone +standing in large, well-kept grounds, he felt quite reluctant to part +with her. But, declining her invitation to enter, he renewed his promise +to call on the following day and rode on to his bungalow. + +When he was alone he realised for the first time the effects of fatigue, +thirst and the broiling heat of the afternoon sun. But Mrs. Norton was +more in his thoughts than the exciting events of the day as he trotted +painfully on towards his bungalow. + +The house was closely shut and shuttered against the outside heat, and +Raymond was asleep, enjoying a welcome _siesta_ after the early start +and hard exercise. Wargrave entered his own bare and comfortless +bedroom, and with the help of his "boy"--as Indian body-servants are +termed--proceeded to undress. Then, attired in a big towel and slippers, +he passed into the small, stone-paved apartment dignified with the title +of bathroom which opened off his bedroom. + +After his ablutions Wargrave lay down on his bed and slept for an hour +or two until awakened by Raymond's voice bidding him join him at tea. +Strolling in pyjamas and slippers into the sitting-room which they +shared the subaltern found his comrade lying lazily in a long chair and +attired in the same cool costume. The outer doors and windows of the +bungalow were still closed against the brooding heat outside. Inside the +house the temperature was little cooler despite the _punkah_ which +droned monotonously overhead. + +Over their tea the two young soldiers discussed the day's sport, +recalling every incident of each run and kill, until the servants came +in to throw open the doors and windows in hope of a faint breath of +evening coolness. The _punkah_ stopped, and the coolie who pulled it +shuffled away. + +After tea Raymond took his companion to inspect the cantonment, which +Wargrave had not yet seen, for he had not reached it until after dusk +the previous day. It consisted only of the Mess, the Regimental Office, +and about ten bungalows for the officers, single-storied brick or +rubble-walled buildings, thatched or tiled. Some of them were unoccupied +and were tumbling in ruins. There was nothing else--not even the +"general shop" usual in most small cantonments. Not a spool of thread, +not a tin of sardines, could be purchased within a three days' journey. +Most of the food supplies and almost everything else had to be brought +from Bombay. Around the bungalow the compounds were simply patches of +the universal sands surrounded by mud walls. No flowers, no trees, not +even a blade of grass, relieved the dull monotony. Altogether the +cantonment of Rohar was an unlovely and uninteresting place. Yet it is +but an example of many such stations in India, lonely and +soul-deadening, some of which have not even its saving grace of sport to +enliven existence in them. + +After a visit to the Lines--the rows of single-storied detached brick +buildings, one to a company, that housed the native ranks of the +regiment--where the Indian officers and sepoys (as native infantry +soldiers are called) rushed out to crowd round and welcome back their +popular officer, Wargrave and Raymond strolled to the Mess. Here in the +anteroom other British officers of the corps, tired out after the day's +sport, were lying in easy chairs, reading the three days' old Bombay +newspaper just arrived and the three weeks' old English journals until +it was time to return to their bungalows and dress for dinner. + +Early on the following afternoon Wargrave borrowed Raymond's bamboo cart +and pony--for he had sold his own trap and horses before going on leave +to England and had not yet had time to buy new ones--and drove to the +Residency. When he pulled up before the hall-door and in Anglo-Indian +fashion shouted "Boy!" from his seat in the vehicle, a tall, stately +Indian servant in a long, gold-laced red coat reaching below the knees +and embroidered on the breast with the Imperial monogram in gold, came +out and held a small silver tray to him. Wargrave placed a couple of his +visiting cards on it, and the gorgeous apparition (known as a +_chuprassi_) retired into the building with them. While he was gone +Wargrave looked with pleasure at the brilliant flower-beds, green lawn +and tall plants and bushes glowing with colour of the carefully-tended +and well-watered Residency garden, which contrasted strikingly with the +dry, bare compounds of the cantonment. + +In a minute or two the _chuprassi_ returned and said: + +"Salaam!" + +Wargrave, hooking up the reins, climbed down from the trap, leaving +Raymond's _syce_ in charge of the pony, and entered the grateful +coolness of the lofty hall. Here another _chuprassi_ took his hat and, +holding out a pen for him, indicated the red-bound Visitor's Book, in +which he was to inscribe his name. Then one of the servants led the way +up the broad staircase into a large and well-furnished drawing-room +extending along the whole front of the building. Here Wargrave found +Mrs. Norton awaiting him. She looked very lovely in a cool white dress +of muslin--but muslin shaped by a master-hand of Paris. She welcomed him +gaily and made him feel at once on the footing of an old friend. + +She was genuinely glad to see him again. To this young and attractive +woman, full of the joy of living, hardly more than a girl, yet married +to a much older man, sober-minded, stolid and uncongenial to her, and +buried in this dull and lonely station, Wargrave had appealed instantly. +Youth calls to youth, and she hailed his advent into her monotonous life +as a child greets the coming of a playfellow. With the other two ladies +in Rohar she had nothing in common. Both were middle-aged, serious and +spiteful. To them her youth and beauty were an offence; and from the +first day of their acquaintance with her they had disliked her. As for +the other officers of the regiment none of them attracted her; for, good +fellows as they were, none shared any of her tastes except her love of +sport. But in Wargrave she had already recognised a companion, a +playmate, one to whom music, art and poetry appealed as they did to her. + +On his side Frank, heart-whole but fond of the society of the opposite +sex, was at once attracted by this charming member of it who had tastes +akin to his own. Her beauty pleased his beauty-loving eye; and he would +not have been man if her readiness to meet him on a footing of +friendship had not flattered him. He had thought that a great drawback +to life in Rohar would be the lack of feminine companionship; for the +ladies of his regiment were not at all congenial, although he did not +dislike them. But it was delightful to find in this desert spot this +pretty and cultured woman, who would have been deemed attractive in +London and who appeared trebly so in a dull and lonely Indian station. +He had thought much of her since their meeting on the previous day; and +although it never occurred to him to lose his heart to her or even +attempt to flirt with her, yet he felt that her friendship would +brighten existence for him in Rohar. Nor did the thought strike him +that possibly he might come to mean more to Mrs. Norton than she to him. +For, while he had his work, his duties, the goodfellowship of the Mess +and the friendship of his comrades to fill his life, she had nothing. +She was utterly without interests, occupation or real companionship in +Rohar. Her husband and she had nothing in common. No child had come +during the five years of their marriage to link them together. And in +this solitary place where there were no gaieties, no distractions such +as a young woman would naturally long for, she was lonely, very lonely +indeed. + +It was little wonder that she snatched eagerly at the promise of an +interesting friendship. Wargrave stood out and apart from the other +officers of the regiment; and his companionship during the uncomfortable +incident of the sandstorm bulked unaccountably large in her mind. It +seemed to denote that he was destined to introduce a new element into +her life. + +As they talked it was with increasing pleasure that she learnt they had +so many tastes in common. She found that he played the violin well and +was, moreover, the possessor of a voice tuneful and sympathetic, even if +not perfectly trained. This made instant appeal to her and would have +disposed her to regard him with favour even if she had not been already +prepared to like him. + +The afternoon passed all too quickly for both of them. Violet Norton +had never enjoyed any hours in Rohar so much as these; and when, as she +sat at the piano while Frank played an _obligato_, a servant came to +enquire if she wished her horse or a carriage got ready for her usual +evening ride or drive, she impatiently ordered him out of the room. When +the time came for Wargrave to return to his bungalow to dress for dinner +she begged him to stay and dine with her. + +"I shall be all alone; and it would be a charitable act to take pity on +my solitude," she said. "My husband is dining at your Mess to-night." + +"Thank you very much for asking me," replied the subaltern. "I should +have loved to accept your invitation; but it is our Guest Night and the +Colonel likes all of us to be present at Mess on such evenings." + +"Oh, I forgot!" she exclaimed. "I ought to have remembered; for Mr. +Raymond told me the same thing only last week when I invited him +informally. Well, you must come some other night soon." + +Reluctant to part with her new playmate she accompanied him to the door +and, to the scandal of the stately _chuprassis_, stood at it to watch +him drive away and to wave him a last goodbye as he looked back when the +pony turned out of the gate. + +India is a land of lightning friendships between men and women. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE LOVE-SONG OF HAR DYAL + + +The bugler was sounding the second mess-call as the Resident's carriage +drew up before the steps of the Mess verandah on which stood all the +officers of the regiment, dressed in the white drill uniform worn at +dinner in India during the hot weather. From the carriage Major Norton, +a stout, middle-aged man in civilian evening dress, descended stiffly +and shook hands with the Commandant of the battalion, Colonel Trevor, +who had come down the steps to meet him and whose guest he was to be. + +On the verandah Wargrave was introduced to him by the Colonel and took +his outstretched hand with reluctance; for Frank felt stirring in him a +faint jealousy of the man who was Violet's legal lord and an indefinite +hostility to him for not appreciating his charming wife as he ought. And +while the Resident was shaking hands with the others Wargrave looked at +him with interest. + +Major Norton was a very ordinary-looking man, more elderly in appearance +than his years warranted. He was bald and clean-shaved but for scraps of +side-whiskers that gave him a resemblance to the traditional +stage-lawyer of amateur theatricals, a likeness increased by his heavy +and prosy manner. It was hard to believe that he had ever been a young +subaltern, though such had once been the case, for the Indian Political +Department is recruited chiefly from officers of the Indian Army. But he +was never the gay and light-hearted individual that most junior subs. +are at the beginning of their career. Even then he had been a sober and +serious individual, favourably noted by his superiors as being earnest +and painstaking. And now he was well thought of by the Heads of his +Department; for his plodding and methodical disposition and his slavish +adherence to rules and regulations had earned him the reputation of +being an eminently "safe" man. How such a gay, laughter-loving, +coquettish and attractive woman as Violet Dering came to marry one so +entirely her opposite puzzled everyone who did not know the inner +history of a girl, one of a large family of daughters, given "her chance +in life" by being sent out to relatives in Calcutta for one season, with +a definite warning not to return home unmarried under penalty of being +turned out to face the world as a governess or hospital nurse. And +Violet liked comfort and hated work. + +During dinner Wargrave found himself instinctively criticising Norton's +manner and conversation, and rapidly arrived at the conclusion that +Raymond had described him accurately. The Resident, though a very worthy +individual, was undoubtedly a bore; and Colonel Trevor, beside whom he +sat, strove in vain to appear interested in his conversation. For he had +heard his opinions on every subject on which Norton had any opinions +over and over again. As the Resident was the only other European in the +station he dined regularly at the Mess on the weekly Guest Night with +one or other of the officers. He was not popular among them, but they +considered it their duty to be victimised in turn to uphold the +regiment's reputation for hospitality; and in consequence each resigned +himself to act as his host. + +After dinner, as the Resident played neither cards nor billiards, the +Colonel sat out on the verandah with him, all the while longing to be at +the bridge-table inside; and, as his guest was a strict teetotaller, he +did not like to order a drink for himself. So he tried to keep awake and +hide his yawns while listening to a prosy monologue on insects until the +Residency carriage came to take Major Norton away. + +When his guest had left, the Colonel entered the anteroom heaving a sigh +of relief. + +"Phew! thank God that's over!" he exclaimed piously. "Really, Norton +becomes more of a bore every day. I'm sick to death of hearing the +life-story of every Indian insect for the hundredth time. I'll dream of +_coleoptera_ and Polly 'optera and other weird beasties to-night." + +The other officers looked up and laughed. Ross rose from the +bridge-table and said: + +"Come and take my place, sir; we've finished the rubber. Have a drink; +you want something to cheer you up after that infliction. Boy! +whiskey-soda Commanding Sahib _ke wasté lao_. (Bring a whiskey and soda +for the Commanding officer.)" + +"You've my entire sympathy, Colonel," said Major Hepburn, the Second in +Command. "It's my turn to ask the Resident to dinner next. I feel +tempted to go on the sick-list to escape it." + +"I say, sir, I've got a good idea," said an Irish subaltern named Daly, +who was seated at the bridge-table. "Couldn't we pass a resolution at +the next Mess meeting that in future no guests are ever to be asked to +dinner? That will save us from our weekly penance." + +The others laughed; but the Colonel, whose sense of humour was not his +strong point, took the suggestion as being seriously meant. + +"No, no; we couldn't do that," he said in an alarmed tone. "The Resident +would be very offended and might mention it to the General when he comes +here on his annual inspection." + +The remark was very characteristic of Colonel Trevor, who was a man who +dreaded responsibility and whose sole object in life was to reach safely +the time when, his period of command being finished, he could retire on +his full pension. He was always haunted by the dread that some +carelessness or mistake on his part or that of any of his subordinates +might involve him in trouble with his superiors and prevent that happy +consummation of his thirty years of Indian service. This fear made him +merciless to anyone under him whose conduct might bring the censure of +the higher authorities on the innocent head of the Commanding Officer +who was in theory responsible for the behaviour of his juniors. It was +commonly said in the regiment that he would cheerfully give up his own +brother to be hanged to save himself the mildest official reprimand. +Perhaps he was not altogether to blame; for he was not his own master in +private life. It was hinted that Colonel Trevor commanded the battalion +but that Mrs. Trevor commanded him. And unfortunately there was no doubt +that this lady interfered privately a good deal in regimental matters, +much to the annoyance of the other officers. + +Now, relieved of the incubus that had hitherto spoiled his enjoyment of +the evening, the Colonel gratefully drank the whiskey and soda brought +him by Ross's order and sat down cheerfully to play bridge. He always +liked dining in the Mess, where he was a far more important person than +he was in his own house. + +It did not take Wargrave long to settle down again into the routine of +regimental life and the humdrum existence of a small Indian station. But +he had never before been quartered in so remote and dull a spot as +Rohar. The only distractions it offered besides the shooting and +pigsticking were two tennis afternoons weekly, one at the Residency, the +other at the Mess. Here the dozen or so Europeans, who knew every line +of each other's faces by heart gathered regularly from sheer boredom +whether the game amused them or not. Neither Mrs. Trevor nor her +bosom-friend Mrs. Baird, the regimental surgeon's better half, ever +attempted it; but they invariably attended and sat together, usually +talking scandal of Mrs. Norton as she played or chatted with the men. +Mrs. Trevor's chief grievance against her was that the General +Commanding the Division, when he came to inspect the battalion, took the +younger woman in to dinner, for, as her husband the Resident was the +Viceroy's representative, she could claim precedence over the wife of a +mere regimental commandant. No English village is so full of petty +squabbles and malicious gossip as a small Indian station. + +Like everyone else in the land Wargrave hated most those terrible hours +of the hot weather between nine in the morning and five in the +afternoon. He and Raymond passed them, like so many thousands of their +kind elsewhere, shut up in their comfortless bungalow, which was +darkened and closely shuttered to exclude the awful heat and the +blinding glare outside. Too hot to read or write, almost to smoke, they +lay in long cane chairs, gasping and perspiring freely, while the +whining _punkah_ overhead barely stirred the heated air. One exterior +window on the windward side of the bungalow was filled with a thick mat +of dried and odorous _kuskus_ grass, against which every quarter of an +hour the _bheestie_ threw water to wet it thoroughly so that the hot +breeze that swept over the burning sand outside might enter cooled by +the evaporation of the water. + +But Frank found alleviation and comfort in frequent visits to the +Residency, where Mrs. Norton and he spent the baking hours of the +afternoon absorbed in making music or singing duets. For Violet had a +well-trained voice which harmonised well with his. No thought of sex +seemed to obtrude itself on them. They were just playmates, comrades, +nothing more. + +Yet it was only natural that the woman's vanity should be flattered by +the man's eagerness to seek her society and by his evident pleasure in +it. And it was delightful to have at last a sympathetic listener to all +her little grievances, one who seemed as interested in her petty +household worries or the delinquencies of her London milliner in failing +to execute her orders properly as in her greater complaint against the +fate that condemned a woman of her artistic and gaiety-loving nature to +existence in the wilds and to the society of persons so uncongenial to +her as were the majority of the white folk of Rohar. + +To a man the rôle of confidant to a pretty woman is pleasant and +flattering; and Wargrave felt that he was highly favoured by being made +the recipient of her confidences. It never occurred to him that there +might be danger in the situation. He regarded her only as a friend in +need of sympathy and help. His chivalry was up in arms at the thought +that she was not properly appreciated by her husband, who, he began to +suspect, was inclined to neglect her and treat her as a mere chattel. +The suspicion angered him. True, Violet had never definitely told him +so; but he gathered as much from her unconscious admissions and revered +her all the more for her bravery in endeavouring to keep silent on the +subject. + +Certainly Major Norton did not seem to him to be a man capable of +understanding and valuing so sweet and rare a woman as this. After their +introduction in the Mess Frank's next meeting with him was at his own +table at the Residency, when in due course Wargrave was invited to +dinner after his duty call. Raymond was asked as well; and the two +subalterns were the only guests. + +Their hostess looked very lovely in a Paris-made gown of a green shade +that suited her colouring admirably. England did not seem to the young +soldiers so very far away when this charming and exquisitely-dressed +woman received them in her large drawing-room from which all trace of +the East in furniture and decoration was carefully excluded. For the +English in India try to avoid in their homes all that would remind them +of the Land of Exile in which their lot is cast. + +Major Norton came into the room after his guests, muttering an +unintelligible apology. He shook hands with them with an abstracted air +and failed to recall Wargrave's name. At table he asked Frank a few +perfunctory questions and then wandered off into his inevitable subject, +entomology, but finding him ignorant of and uninterested in it he +engaged in a desultory conversation with Raymond. He soon tired of this +and for the most part ate his dinner in silence. He never addressed his +wife; and Wargrave, watching them, pitied her if her husband was as +little companionable at meal-times when they were alone. He pictured her +sitting at table every day with this abstracted and uncommunicative man, +whose thoughts seemed far from his present company and surroundings and +who was scarcely likely to exert himself to talk to and entertain his +wife when he made so little effort to do so to his guests. + +Determined that on this occasion at least his hostess should be amused +Frank did his best to enliven the meal. He described to her as well as +he could all that he remembered of the latest fashions in England, told +her the plots of the newest plays at the London theatres, repeated a +few laughable stories to make her smile and provoked Raymond, who had a +dry humour of his own, to a contest of wit. Between them the two +subalterns brightened up what had threatened to be a dull evening. Mrs. +Norton laughed gaily and helped to keep the ball rolling; and even the +host in his turn woke up and actually attempted to tell a humorous +story. It certainly lacked point; but he seemed satisfied that it was +funny, so his guests smiled as in duty bound. But Wargrave noted Mrs. +Norton's look of astonishment at this new departure on the part of her +husband and thought that there was something very pathetic in her +surprise. When the meal was ended she laughingly declined to leave the +men over their wine and stayed to smoke a cigarette with them. + +When they all quitted the dining-room the Resident asked his guests to +excuse him for returning to his study, pleading urgent and important +work; and his wife led the subalterns up to the drawing-room and out on +to the verandah that ran alongside its French windows. Here easy chairs +and a table with a big lamp had been placed for them. As soon as they +were seated one of the stately _chuprassis_ brought coffee, while +another proffered cigars and cigarettes and held a light from a silver +spirit-lamp. Then both the solemn servitors departed noiselessly on bare +feet. + +After some conversation Mrs. Norton said to the adjutant: + +"Do you remember, Mr. Raymond, that you have promised to take me out +shooting one day?" + +"I haven't forgotten," he replied; "but I was not able to arrange it, as +the Maharajah had pigsticking meets fixed up for all our free days. But +I don't think we'll have another for some time; for I hear that His +Highness is laid up from the effects of his fall. So we might go out +some day soon." + +"Good. When shall we go?" asked Wargrave. "Let's fix it up now." + +"What about next Thursday?" said his friend, turning to Mrs. Norton. + +"Yes; that will suit me. Where shall we go?" + +"There are a lot of partridge and a few hares, I'm told, near the tank +at Marwa, where there is a good deal of cultivation," answered Raymond. +Then turning to his friend he continued: + +"You are not very keen on small game shooting, Frank; so you can bring +your rifle and try for _chinkara_. I saw a buck and a couple of doe +there not very long ago. A little venison would be very acceptable in +Mess." + +"The tank is about eight miles away, isn't it?" said the hostess. "I'll +write to the Maharajah and ask him to lend us camels to take us out. My +cook will put up a good cold lunch for us." + +She rose from her chair and continued: + +"Now, Mr. Wargrave, come and sing something. I've been trying over +those new songs of yours to-day." + +She led the way into the drawing-room and Raymond was left alone on the +verandah to smoke and listen for the rest of the evening, while the +others forgot him as they played and sang. + +Suddenly he sat up in his chair and with a queer little pang of jealousy +in his heart stared through the open window at the couple at the piano. +He watched his friend's face turned eagerly towards his hostess. +Wargrave was gazing intently at her as in a voice full of feeling and +pathos, a voice with a plaintive little tone in it that thrilled him +strangely, she sang that haunting melody "The Love Song of Har Dyal." +Wistfully, sadly, she uttered the sorrowful words that Kipling puts into +the mouth of the lovelorn Pathan maiden: + + "My father's wife is old and harsh with years, + And drudge of all my father's house am I. + My bread is sorrow and my drink is tears, + Come back to me, Beloved, or I die! + Come back to me, Beloved, or I die!" + +And the singer looked up into the eager eyes bent on her and sighed a +little as she struck the final chords. Out on the verandah Raymond +frowned as he watched them and wondered if this woman was to come +between them and take his friend from him. Just then the bare-footed +servants entered the room, carrying silver trays on which stood the +whiskies and sodas that are the stirrup-cups, the hints to guests that +the time of departure has come, of dinner-parties in India. + +As the two subalterns drove home in Raymond's trap through the hot +Indian night under a moon shining with a brilliance that England never +knows, Wargrave hummed "The Love Song of Har Dyal." + +Suddenly he said: + +"She's wonderful, Ray, isn't she? Fancy such a glorious woman buried in +this hole and married to a dry old stick like the Resident! Doesn't it +seem a shame?" + +The adjutant mumbled an incoherent reply behind his lighted cheroot. + +Arrived in their bungalow they undressed in their rooms and in pyjamas +and slippers came out into the compound, where on either side of a table +on which was a lighted lamp stood their bedsteads, the mattress of each +covered with a thin strip of soft China matting. For in the hot weather +in many parts of India this must be used to lie upon instead of a linen +sheet, which would become saturated with perspiration. Looking carefully +at the ground over which they passed for fear of snakes they reached and +lay down on their beds, over each of which a _punkah_ was suspended from +a cross-beam supported by two upright posts sunk in the ground. One rope +moved both _punkahs_, and the motive power was supplied by a coolie +who, salaaming to the sahibs and seating himself on the ground, picked +up the end of the rope and began to pull. Raymond put out the lamp. + +Wargrave stared up at the moon for a while. Then he said: + +"I say, Ray; didn't Mrs. Norton look lovely to-night? Didn't that dress +suit her awfully well?" + +"Oh, go to sleep, old man. We've got to get up in a few hours for this +confoundedly early parade. Goodnight," growled the adjutant, turning on +his side and closing his eyes. + +But he listened for some time to his friend humming "The Love Song of +Har Dyal" again! and not until Frank was silent did he doze off. An hour +later he woke up suddenly, bathed in perspiration and devoured by +mosquitoes; for the _punkahs_ were still--the coolie had gone to sleep. +He called to the man and aroused him, then before shutting his eyes +again he looked at his companion. The moon shone full on Wargrave's +face. He was sleeping peacefully and smiling. Raymond stared at him for +a few minutes. Then he muttered inconsequently: + +"Confound the woman!" + +And closing his eyes resolutely he fell asleep. + +In the days that elapsed before the shoot at Marwa, Wargrave rode every +afternoon to the Residency with the _syce_ carrying his violin case, +except when tennis was to be played. In their small community this +could not escape notice and comment--not that it occurred to him to try +to avoid either. The Resident did not object to the frequency of his +visits; and Frank saw no harm in his friendship with Mrs. Norton. But +others did; and the remarks of the two ladies of his regiment on the +subject were venomously spiteful. But their censure was reserved for the +one they termed "that shameless woman"; for like everyone else they were +partial to Wargrave and held him less to blame. + +His brother officers, although being men they were not so quick to nose +out a scandal, could not help noticing his absorption in Mrs. Norton's +society. One afternoon his Double Company Commander, Major Hepburn, +walked into the compound of Raymond's bungalow and on the verandah +shouted the usual Anglo-Indian caller's demand: + +"Boy! _Koi hai_?" (Is anyone there?) + +A servant hurried out and salaaming answered: + +"_Adjitan Sahib hai_." (The adjutant is here). + +"Oh, come in, Major," cried Raymond, rising from the table at which he +was seated drinking his tea. + +"Don't get up," said Hepburn, entering the room. "Is Wargrave in?" + +"No, sir; he went out half an hour ago." + +"Confound it, it seems impossible ever to find him in the afternoon +nowadays," said the major petulantly. "I wanted him to get up a hockey +match against No. 3 Double Company to-day. He used to be very keen on +playing with the men; but since he came back from England he never goes +near them. Where is he? Poodlefaking at the Residency, as usual?" + +This is the term contemptuously applied in India to the paying of calls +and other social duties that imply dancing attendance on the fair sex. + +"I didn't see him before he went out, sir," was Raymond's equivocal +reply. He loyally evaded a direct answer. + +Hepburn shook his head doubtfully. + +"I'm sorry about it. I hope the boy doesn't get into mischief. Look +here, Raymond, you're his pal. Keep your eye on him. He's a good lad; +and it would be a pity if he came to grief." + +The adjutant did not answer. The major put on his hat. + +"Well, I suppose I'll have to see to the hockey myself." + +He left the bungalow with a curt nod to Raymond, who watched him pass +out through the compound gate. Then the adjutant walked over to +Wargrave's writing-table and stood up again in its place a large +photograph of Mrs. Norton which he had hurriedly laid face downwards +when he heard Hepburn's voice outside. He looked at it for a minute, +then turned away frowning. + +When the morning of the shooting party arrived Wargrave and Raymond, +having sent their _syces_ on ahead with their guns, rode at dawn to the +Residency. In front of the building a group of camels lay on the ground, +burbling, blowing bubbles, grumbling incessantly and stretching out +their long necks to snap viciously at anyone but their drivers that +chanced to come near them. At the hall-door Mrs. Norton stood, dressed +in a smart and attractive costume of khaki drill, consisting of a +well-cut long frock coat and breeches, with the neatest of cloth gaiters +and dainty but serviceable boots. To their surprise her husband was with +her and evidently prepared to accompany them. For he wore an old coat, +knickerbockers and putties, from a strap over his shoulder hung a +specimen box, and he was armed with all the requisite appliances for the +capture and slaughter of many insects. + +Avoiding the camels' vicious teeth the party mounted after exchanging +greetings. Mrs. Norton and Wargrave rode the same animal; and Frank, +unused to this form of locomotion, took a tight grip as the long-legged +beast rose from the ground in unexpected jerks and set off at a jolting +walk that shook its riders painfully. Then it broke into a trot equally +disconcerting but finally settled into an easy canter that was as +comfortable a motion as its previous paces had been spine-dislocating. +The route lay at first over a space of desert which was unpleasant, for +the sand was blown in clouds by a high wind, almost a gale. But the +camels were fast movers and it did not take very long before they were +passing through scrub jungle and finally reached the wide stretch of +cultivation near Marwa. + +The tank, as lakes are called in India, lay in the centre of a shallow +depression, the rim of which all round was about four hundred yards from +the water which, now half a mile across, evidently filled the whole +basin in the rainy season. The strong breeze churned its surface into +little waves and piled up masses of froth and foam against the bending +reeds at one end of the tank, where, about fifty yards from the water's +edge stood a couple of thorny trees, offering almost the only shade to +be found for a long distance around. In the shallows were many yellow +egrets, while a _sarus_ crane stalked solemnly along the far bank, and +everywhere bird-life, rare elsewhere in the State, abounded. The land +all about was green, a refreshing change from the usual sandy and +parched character of most of the country. + +But beyond the tank the fields stretched away out of sight. At the edge +of the cultivation the camels were halted and the party dismounted from +them and separated. Mrs. Norton, who was a fair shot and carried a light +12-bore gun, started to walk up the partridges with Raymond, while her +husband went to search the reeds and the borders of the lake for strange +insects. Wargrave armed with a sporting Mannlicher rifle, set off on a +long tramp to look for _chinkara_, which are pretty little antelope with +curving horns. The wind, which was freshening, prevented the heat from +being excessive. + +The sport was fairly good. When lunch-time came the adjutant and Mrs. +Norton had got quite a respectable bag of partridges and a few hares. +The entomologist was in high spirits, for he had secured two rare +specimens; and Wargrave had shot a good buck. So in a contented frame of +mind all gathered under the trees near the end of the tank, where lunch +was laid by a couple of the Residency servants on a white cloth spread +on the ground. As they ate their _tiffin_ (lunch) the members of the +party chatted over the incidents of the morning; and each related the +story of his or her sport. + +After the meal Mrs. Norton decided to rest; for the ride and the long +walk with her gun had tired her. The servants spread a rug for her under +the trees and placed a camel saddle for her to recline against. Then +carrying away the empty dishes, plates, glasses and cutlery they retired +out of sight. + +"Are you sure you don't mind being left alone, Mrs. Norton?" asked +Wargrave. + +"Not in the least. Do go and shoot again," she replied, smiling up at +him. "I'm very comfortable and I'm glad to have a good rest before +undertaking that tiresome ride back. It's very pleasant here. The wind +comes so cool and fresh off the water. Isn't it strong, though?" + +The breeze had freshened to a gale and under the trees the temperature +was quite bearable. The Resident had already gone out of sight over the +rim of the basin, having exhausted the neighbourhood of the tank and +being desirous of searching farther afield. Wargrave and Raymond now +followed him but soon separated, the latter making for the cultivation +again, while his friend set off for the open plain. Ordinarily the heat +would have been intense, for the hours after noon up to three o'clock or +later are the hottest of the day in India; but the gale made it quite +cool. + +To Wargrave, tramping about unsuccessfully this time, came frequently +the sound of Raymond's gun. + +"Ray seems to be having all the luck," he thought, as through his +field-glasses he scanned the plain without seeing anything. "I'm getting +fed up." + +At last in despair he shouldered his rifle and turned back. After a long +walk he came in sight of the adjutant standing near the edge of the +fields talking to Norton. When Frank reached them he found that his +friend had increased his bag very considerably. + +"Well done, old boy, you'd better luck than I had," he said. Then +turning to the Resident he continued: "How have you done, sir?" + +"Nothing of any value," replied Norton "Have you finished? We're +thinking of going back now." + +"Yes, sir; I'm through. By Jove, I'm thirsty. I could do with a drink, +couldn't you, Ray?" + +"Rather. My throat's like a lime-kiln. We'll join Mrs. Norton and then +have an iced drink while the camels are being saddled." + +They strolled towards the lake, which was hidden from their view by the +rim of the basin. As they reached the slight ridge that this made all +three stopped dead and gazed in amazement. + +"What's happened to the tank?" exclaimed Raymond. "The water's almost up +to the trees." + +"Good God; My wife! Look! Look!" cried the Resident. + +They stood appalled. The wide body of water had swept up to within a few +yards of the trees under which Mrs. Norton lay fast asleep. And +stealthily emerging from it a large crocodile was slowly, cautiously, +crawling towards the unconscious woman. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A CROCODILE INTERVENES + + +Major Norton opened his mouth to cry a warning; but Wargrave grasped his +arm and said hurriedly: + +"Don't shout, sir! Don't wake her! She'd be too confused to move." + +Then he thrust his field-glasses into the adjutant's hand. + +"Watch for the strike of my bullet, Ray," he said. + +He threw himself at full length on the ground and pressed a cartridge +into the breech of his rifle. His companions stood over him as he cast a +hurried glance forward and adjusted his sight, muttering: + +"Just about four hundred yards." + +The crocodile was nearly broadside on to him; and even at that distance +he could see the scaly armour covering head, back and sides, that would +defy any bullet. The unprotected spot behind the shoulder was hidden +from him; the only vulnerable part was the neck. Wargrave laid his cheek +to the butt and sighted on this. + +The crocodile crept on inch by inch, dragging its limbs forward with the +slow, stealthy movement of its kind when stalking their prey on land. +The horrified watchers saw that the terrible snout with its protruding +fangs was barely a yard from Mrs. Norton's feet. Raymond's hands holding +the glasses to his eyes trembled violently. The Resident shook as with +the palsy; and he stared in horror at the crawling death that threatened +the sleeping woman. + +Wargrave fired. + +As the rifle rang out the creeping movement ceased. + +"You've hit him, I'll swear," cried Raymond. "I didn't see the bullet +strike the ground." + +Wargrave rapidly worked the bolt of his rifle, jerking out the empty +case and pushing a fresh cartridge into the chamber. He fired again. + +"That's got him! That _must_ have got him!" exclaimed Raymond. + +The crocodile lay still. Frank leapt to his feet and, rifle in hand, +dashed down the incline. At that moment Mrs. Norton awoke, turned on her +side, raised her body a little and suddenly saw the horrible reptile. +She sat up rigid with terror and stared at it. The brute slowly opened +its huge mouth and disclosed the cruel, gapped teeth. Then the iron jaws +clashed together. With a shriek the woman sprang to her feet, but stood +trembling, unable to move away. + +"Run! Run!" shouted Wargrave, springing down the slope towards her. + +Behind him raced Raymond, while her husband, who was unable to run +fast, followed far behind. + +Mrs. Norton seemed rooted to the spot. But she turned to Wargrave with +outstretched arms and gasped: + +"Save me, Frank! Save me!" + +With a bound he reached her, and, as she clung to him convulsively, +panted out: + +"It's all right, dear. You're safe now." + +He pushed her behind him, and bringing the rifle to his shoulder, faced +the crocodile. The brute opened and shut its great jaws, seeming to gasp +for air, while a strange whistling sound came from its throat. Its body +appeared to be paralysed. + +"It can't move. You've broken its spine," cried Raymond, as he reached +them. "Your first shot it must have been. Look! Your second's torn its +throat." + +He pointed to the neck and went round to the other side. From a jagged, +gaping wound where the expanding bullet had torn the throat, the blood +spurted and air whistled out with a shrill sound. + +Wargrave turned to Violet and took the terrified woman, who seemed on +the point of fainting, in his arms. + +"All right, little girl. It's all right. The brute's done for." + +She pulled herself together with an effort and looked nervously at the +crocodile. Then she released herself from Frank's clasp and said, +smiling feebly: + +"What a coward I am! I'm ashamed of myself. Where's John? Oh, here he +is. Doesn't he look funny?" + +The Resident, very red-faced and out of breath, had slowed down into a +shambling walk and was puffing and blowing like a grampus. As he came up +to them he spluttered: + +"Is it safe? Is it dead?" + +"It's harmless now, sir," answered Raymond. "It's still living but it +can't move. The spine's broken, I think." + +The Resident turned to his wife. The poor man had been in agony while +she was in danger; but now that the peril had passed he could only +express his relief in irritable scolding: + +"How could you be so foolish, Violet?" he asked crossly. "The idea of +going to sleep near the tank! Most unwise! You might have been eaten +alive." + +His wife smiled bitterly and glanced at the grumbling man with a +contemptuous expression on her face. + +"Yes, John, very inconsiderate of me, I daresay. But how was I to know +that there was a _mugger_ (crocodile) in the tank?" + +Then for the first time she realised the nearness of the water. + +"Good gracious! I thought I was much farther--how did I get so close to +it? Did I slip down in my sleep?" + +"No; there are the trees," said Raymond. "It's extraordinary. The whole +tank seems to have shifted." + +The Resident was mopping his bald scalp and lifted his hat to let the +gusty wind cool his head. A sudden squall blew the big pith sun-helmet +out of his hand. Wargrave caught it in the air and returned it to its +owner. + +"By Jove! it's a regular gale," he said. "I think I know what's +happened. This wind's so strong that it's blown the water of the tank +before it and actually shifted the whole mass thirty or forty yards this +way." + +"Yes, I've known that to occur before with shallow ponds," said Raymond. +"I've heard the passage of the Red Sea by the Israelites and the +drowning of Pharaoh's Army explained in the same way. It's said that the +crossing really took place at one extremity of the Bitter Lake through +which the Suez Canal passes." + +Major Norton was staring at the far end of the tank now left bare. + +"There may be some interesting insects stranded on the bottom uncovered +by the receding water," he said, abstractedly, and was moving away to +search for them when Wargrave said disgustedly: + +"Don't you think, sir, that, as Mrs. Norton has had such a shock, the +sooner we get off the better?" + +"Yes, yes. Very true. But you can order the camels to be saddled while +I'm having a look," replied the enthusiastic collector. "I really must +go and see. There may be some very interesting specimens there." + +And he hurried away. His wife smiled rather bitterly as he went. Then +she turned to the two subalterns. + +"But tell me what happened? How did the _mugger_ come here? How was I +saved?" + +Raymond rapidly narrated what had taken place. Violet looked at Wargrave +with glistening eyes and held out her hands to him. + +"So you saved my life. How can I thank you?" she said gratefully. Her +lips trembled a little. + +Frank took her hands in his but answered lightly: + +"Oh, it was nothing. Anyone else would have done the same. I happened to +be the only one with a rifle." + +Raymond turned away quickly and walked over to the crocodile. Neither of +them took any notice of him. Violet gazed fondly at Wargrave. + +"I owe you so much, Frank, so very much," she murmured in a low voice. +"You've made my life worth living; and now you make me live." + +He was embarrassed but he pressed the hands he held in his. Then he +released them and tried to speak lightly. + +"Shall I have the _mugger_ skinned and get a dressing-bag made out of +his hide for you?" he said, smiling. "That'd be a nice souvenir of the +brute." + +She shuddered. + +"I don't want to remember him," she cried, turning to glance at the +crocodile. "Horrid beast! I can't bear the sight of him." + +The _mugger_ certainly looked a most repulsive brute as it lay stretched +on the ground, its jaws occasionally opening and shutting spasmodically, +the blood from its wounded throat spreading in a pool on the sun-baked +earth. It was evidently an old beast; and skull and back were covered +with thick horny plates and bosses through which no bullet could +penetrate. The big teeth studded irregularly in the cruel jaws were +yellow and worn, as were the thick nails tipping the claws at the ends +of the powerful limbs. + +"The devil's not dead yet. Shall I put another bullet into him?" said +Wargrave. + +"It's only wasting a cartridge," replied his friend. "He can't do any +more harm. When the men come we'll have him cut open and see what he's +got inside him." + +Violet shuddered. + +"Oh, do you think he has ever eaten any human being?" she asked, gazing +with loathing at the huge reptile. + +"Judging from the way he stalked you I should think he has," answered +Raymond. "Hullo! here comes one of the camel-drivers with some of the +villagers. They'll be able to tell us about him." + +On the rim of the basin appeared a group of natives moving in their +direction. Suddenly they caught sight of the crocodile, stopped and +pointed to it and began to talk excitedly. One of the local peasants ran +back shouting. The rest hurried down for a closer view of the reptile. A +chorus of wonder rose from them as they stood round it. The Mahommedan +camel-driver exclaimed in Hindustani: + +"_Ahré, bhai! Kiya janwar! Pukka shaitan!_ (Ah, brother! What an animal! +A veritable devil!)" + +As the villagers spoke only the dialect of the State, Raymond used this +man as interpreter and questioned them about the crocodile. They +asserted that it had inhabited the tank for many years--hundreds, said +one man. It had, to their certain knowledge, killed several women +incautiously bathing or drawing water from the tank. As women are not +valued highly by the poorer Hindus this did not make the _mugger_ very +unpopular. But early in that very year it had committed the awful crime +of dragging under water and devouring a Brahmini bull, an animal devoted +to the Gods and held sacrosanct. + +By this time the crocodile had breathed its last. Raymond measured it +roughly and found it to be over twelve feet in length. The peasants +turned the great body on its back. Wargrave saw that the skin +underneath was too thick to be made into leather, so he bade them cut +the belly open. The stomach contained many shells of freshwater crabs +and crayfish, as well as a surprising amount of large pebbles, either +taken for digestive purposes or swallowed when the fish were being +scooped up off the bottom. But further search resulted in the finding of +several heavy brass or copper anklets and armlets, such as are worn by +Indian women. Some had evidently been a long time in the reptile's +interior. + +When the camels had come and the party was preparing to mount and start +back home, a crowd of villagers, led by their old priest, bore down upon +them. Learning that Frank was the slayer of the sacrilegious crocodile +the holy man hung a garland of marigolds round his neck and through the +interpreter offered him the thanks of gods and men for his good deed. +And to a chorus of blessings and compliments he rode away with his +companions. + +So ended the incident--apparently. But consequences undreamed of by any +of the actors in it flowed from it. For imperceptibly it brought a +change into the relations between Mrs. Norton and Wargrave and +eventually altered them completely. At first it merely seemed to +strengthen their friendship and increase the feeling of intimacy. To +Violet--they were Violet and Frank to each other now--the saving of her +life constituted a bond that could never be severed. He had preserved +her from a horrible death and she owed Wargrave more than gratitude. + +Hitherto she had often toyed with the idea of him as a lover, and the +thought had been a pleasant one. But it had hardly occurred to her to be +in love with him in return. In all her life up to now she had never +known what it was to really love. She had married without affection. Her +girlhood had been passed without the mildest flirtation; for she had +been brought up in a quiet country village where there never seemed to +be any bachelors of her own class between the ages of seventeen and +fifty. Even the curate was grey-haired and married. She had made up for +this deprivation during the voyage out to India and her season in +Calcutta; but, although she had found many men ready to flirt with her, +Norton's proposal was the only serious one that she had had and she +accepted him in desperation. She had never felt any love for him. She +did not realise that he had any for her; for, although he really +entertained a sincere affection of a kind for her, it was so seldom and +so badly expressed that she was never aware of its existence. Since her +marriage she had had several careless flirtations during her visits to +her relatives in Calcutta; but her heart was not seriously affected. + +She never acknowledged to herself that any gratitude or loyalty was due +from her to her husband. On the contrary she felt that she owed him, as +well as Fate, a grudge. She was young, warmblooded, of a passionate +temperament, yet she found herself wedded to a man who apparently needed +a housekeeper, not a wife. Her husband did not appear to realise that a +woman is not essentially different to a man, that she has feelings, +desires, passions, just as he has--although by a polite fiction the +prudish Anglo-Saxon races seem to agree to regard her as of a more +spiritual, more ethereal and less earthly a nature. Yet it is only a +fiction after all. Violet was a living woman, a creature of flesh and +blood who was not content to be a chattel, a household ornament, a piece +of furniture. It was not to be wondered at that she longed to enter into +woman's kingdom, to exercise the power of her sex to sway the other and +to experience the thrill of the realisation of that power. Often in her +loneliness she pined to see eyes she loved look with love into hers. She +was not a marble statue. It was but natural that she should long for +Love, a lover, the clasp of strong arms, the pressure of a man's broad +chest against her bosom, the feel of burning kisses on her lips, the +glorious surrender of her whole being to some adored one to whom she was +the universe, who lived but for her. + +Now for the first time in her life her errant dreams took concrete +shape. At last she began to feel the companionship of a particular man +necessary for her happiness. She had never before realised the +pleasure, the joy, to be derived from the presence of one of the +opposite sex who was in sympathy, in perfect harmony with her nature. + +In her lonely hours--and they were many--she thought constantly of +Wargrave; his face was ever before her, his voice sounding in her ears. +She usually saw her husband--absorbed in his work and studies--only at +meals; and as she looked across the table at him then she could not help +contrasting the heavy, unattractive man sitting silent, usually reading +a book while he ate, with the good-looking, laughter-loving playfellow +who had come into her life. She learned to day-dream of Wargrave, to +watch for his coming and hate his going, to enjoy every moment of his +presence. He had brought a new interest into her hitherto purposeless +life, the life that he had preserved and that consequently seemed to +belong to him. New feelings awakened in her. The world was a brighter, +happier place than it had been. It pleased her to realise what it all +meant, to know that the novel sensations, the fluttering hopes and +fears, the strange, delightful thrills, were all symptoms of that +longed-for malady that comes sooner or later to all women. She knew at +last that she loved Wargrave and gloried in the knowledge. And she never +doubted that he loved her in return. + +Did he? It was hard to tell. To a man the thought of Love in the +abstract seldom occurs; and the realisation of the concrete fact that +he is in love with some particular woman generally comes somewhat as a +shock. He is by nature a lover of freedom and in theory at least resents +fetters, even silken ones. And Wargrave had never thought of analysing +his feelings towards Violet. He was not a professional amorist and, +although not a puritan, would never set himself deliberately to make +love to a married woman under her husband's roof. He was fond of Mrs. +Norton--as a sister, he thought. She was a delightful friend, a real +pal, so understanding, so companionable, he said to himself frequently. +It had not occurred to him that his feelings for her might be love. He +had often before been on terms of friendship with women, married and +single; but none of them had ever attracted him as much as she did. He +had never felt any desire to be married; domesticity did not appeal to +him. But now, as he watched Violet moving about her drawing-room or +playing to him, he found himself thinking that it would be pleasant to +return to his bungalow from parade and find a pretty little wife waiting +to greet him with a smile and a kiss--and the wife of his dreams always +had Violet's face, wore smart well-cut frocks like Violet's, and showed +just such shapely, silken-clad legs and ankles and such small feet in +dainty, silver-buckled, high-heeled shoes. And he thought with an inward +groan that such a luxury was not for a debt-ridden subaltern like him, +that his heavily-mortgaged pay would not run to expensive gowns, silk +stockings and costly footwear. + +Yet it never occurred to him that Violet cared for him nor did it enter +his mind to try to win her love. But he felt that he would do much to +make her happy, that saving her life made him in a way responsible for +it in future; and he knew that she was not a contented woman. His +sympathy went out to her for what he guessed she must suffer from her +ill-assorted union. + +But soon he had no need to surmise it; for before long Violet began to +confide all her sorrows to him and the recital made his heart bleed for +one so young and beautiful mated to a selfish wretch who was as blind to +her suffering as he was to her charm. The younger man's chivalry was up +in arms, and he felt that such a boor did not deserve so bright a jewel. +At times Frank was tempted to confront the callous husband and force him +to open his dulled eyes to the bravely-borne misery of his neglected +wife and realise how fortunate he ought to consider himself in being the +owner of such a transcendent being. But the next moment the infatuated +youth was convinced that Norton was incapable of appreciating so rare a +woman, that only a nature like his own could understand or do full +justice to the perfections of hers. Such is a young man's conceit. He +rejoiced to know that his poor sympathy could help in a measure to make +up to Violet for the happiness that she declared that she had missed in +life. And so he gladly consented to play the consoler; and she, for the +pleasure of being consoled, continued to pour out her griefs to him. + +But if Frank was unconscious of the danger of his post as sympathising +confidant to another man's young and pretty wife, others were not. Her +husband, of course, was as blind as most husbands seem to be in +Anglo-Indian society. For in that land of the Household of Three, the +Eternal Triangle, it is almost a recognised principle that every married +woman who is at all attractive is entitled to have one particular +bachelor always in close attendance on her, to be constantly at her beck +and call, to ride with her, to drive her every afternoon to tennis or +golf or watch polo, then on to the Club and sit with her there. His +duty, a pleasant one, no doubt, is to cheer up her otherwise solitary +dinner in her bungalow on the nights when her neglectful husband is +dining out _en garçon_. No _cavaliere servente_ of Old Italy ever had so +busy a time as the Tame Cat of the India of to-day. And the husband +allows it, nay seems, as Major Norton did, to hail his presence with +relief, as it eases the conscience of the selfish lord and master who +leaves his spouse much alone. + +But if the Resident saw no harm or danger in the young officer +constantly seeking the society of his pretty wife others did. At first +Frank's well-wishers tried to hint to him that there was likelihood of +his friendship with her being misunderstood. But he laughed at +Raymond's badly-expressed warning and rather resented Major Hepburn's +kindly advice when on one occasion his Company Commander spoke plainly, +though tactfully, to him on the subject. Then Violet's enemies took a +hand in the game. Mrs. Trevor, having failed to decoy him to her +bungalow for what she called "a quiet tea and a motherly little chat," +cornered him one afternoon when he was on his way to the Residency and +spoke very openly to him of the risk he ran of being entangled in the +coils of such an outrageous coquette as "that Mrs. Norton," as she +termed her. Frank was so indignant at her abuse of his friend that for +the first time in his life he was rude to a woman and snubbed Mrs. +Trevor so severely that she went in a rage to her husband and insisted +on his taking immediate steps to arrest the progress of a scandal that, +she declared, would attract the unfavourable attention of the higher +military authorities to the regiment. + +"Do you realise, William, that you will be the one to suffer?" said the +angry woman. "If anything happens, if Major Norton complains, if that +shameless creature succeeds in making that foolish young man run away +with her, you will be blamed. You can't afford it. You know that the +General's confidential report on you last year was not too favourable." + +"It wasn't really bad, my dear; it only hinted that I lacked decision," +pleaded the hen-pecked man. + +"Exactly. You are not firm enough," persisted his domestic tyrant. "They +will say that you should have put your foot down at once and stopped +this disgraceful affair." + +"But what can I do?" asked the Colonel helplessly. + +"Someone ought to speak to Major Norton at once." + +"Oh, my dear Jane, I couldn't. I daren't." + +"For two pins I'd do it myself. Mrs. Baird said the other day that it +was our duty as respectable women." + +"No, no, no, Jane. You mustn't think of it," exclaimed the alarmed man. +"I forbid you. You mustn't mix yourself up in the affair. It would be +committing me." + +"Then send that impertinent young man away," said Mrs. Trevor firmly. No +General would have accused _her_ of lack of decision. "I used to have a +high opinion of him once; but after his insolence to me I believe him to +be nearly as bad as that woman." + +"Where can I send him?" asked the worried Colonel. "He has done all the +courses and passed all the classes and examinations he can." + +"You know you have only to write confidentially to the Staff and inform +them that young Wargrave's removal to another station is absolutely +necessary to prevent a scandal; and they'll send him off somewhere else +at once." + +Her husband nodded his head. He was well aware of the fact that the Army +in India looks closely after the behaviour and morals of its officers, +that a colonel has only to hint that the transfer of a particular +individual under his command is necessary to stop a scandal--and without +loss of time that officer finds himself deported to the other side of +the country. + +One morning, a week after Mrs Trevor's conversation with her husband, +Wargrave, superintending the musketry of his Double Company on the rifle +range, was given an official note from the adjutant informing him that +the Commanding Officer desired to see him at once in the Orderly Room. +As Major Hepburn was not present Frank handed the men over to the senior +Indian company commander and rode off to the Regimental Office, +wondering as he went what could be the reason of the sudden summons. +Reaching the building he found Raymond on the watch for him, while +ostensibly engaged in criticising to the battalion _durzi_ (tailor) the +fit of the new uniforms of several recruits. + +"I say, Ray, what's up?" asked his friend cheerily, as he swung himself +out of the saddle. + +The adjutant nodded warningly towards the Orderly Room and dropped his +voice as he replied: + +"I don't know, old chap. The C.O.'s said nothing to me; but he's in +there with Hepburn trying to work himself up into a rage so that he can +bully-rag you properly. You'd better go in and get it over." + +Wargrave entered the big, colour-washed room. The Colonel was seated at +his desk, frowning at a paper before him, and did not look up. Major +Hepburn was standing behind his chair and glanced commiseratingly at the +subaltern. + +Frank stood to attention and saluted. + +"Good morning, sir," he said. "You wanted to see me?" + +Colonel Trevor did not reply, but turning slightly in his chair, said: + +"Major Hepburn, call in the adjutant, please." + +As the Second in Command went out on the verandah and summoned Raymond, +Wargrave's heart misgave him. He had no idea of what the matter was; but +the Colonel's manner and the presence of the Second in Command were +ominous signs. He wondered what crime he was going to be charged with. + +"Shut the doors, Raymond," said the Commanding Officer curtly, as the +adjutant entered. The latter did so and sat down at his writing-table, +glancing anxiously at his friend. + +Colonel Trevor's lips were twitching nervously; and he seemed to +experience a difficulty in finding his voice. At last he took up a +paper from his desk and said: + +"Mr. Wargrave, this is a telegram just received from Western Army Head +Quarters. It says 'Lieutenant Wargrave is appointed to No. 12 Battalion, +Frontier Military Police. Direct him to proceed forthwith to report to +O.C. Detachment, Ranga Duar, Eastern Bengal.'" + + + + +CHAPTER V + +SENTENCE OF EXILE + + +At the words of the telegram Raymond started and Frank stared in +bewilderment at the Colonel. + +"But I never asked for the Military Police, sir," he exclaimed. "I----" + +The Colonel licked his dry lips and, working himself up into a passion, +shouted: + +"No, you didn't. But I did. I applied for you to be sent to it. I asked +for you to be transferred from this station. You can ask yourself the +reason why. I will not tolerate conduct such as yours, sir. I will not +have an officer like you under my command." + +Frank flushed deeply. + +"I beg your pardon, sir. I don't understand. I really don't know what +I've done. I should----" + +But the Colonel burst in furiously: + +"He says he doesn't know what he's done, Major Hepburn. Listen to that! +He does not know what he's done"; and the speaker pounded on the desk +with his clenched fist, working himself up into a rage, as a weak man +will do when he has to carry out an unpleasant task. + +"But, sir, surely I have a right----," began Wargrave, clenching his +hands until the nails were almost driven into his palms in an effort to +keep his temper. + +"I cannot argue the question with you, Wargrave," said the Colonel +loftily. "You have got your orders. Headquarters approve of my action. I +have discussed the matter with my Second in Command, and he agrees with +me. You can go. Raymond, make out the necessary warrants for Mr. +Wargrave's journey and give him an advance of a month's pay. He will +leave to-morrow. Tell the Quartermaster to make the necessary +arrangements." + +Frank bit his lip. His years of discipline and the respect for authority +engrained in him since his entrance to Sandhurst kept the mutinous words +back. He saluted punctiliously and, turning about smartly walked out of +the Orderly Room. In the glaring sunshine he strode out of the compound +and down the white, dusty road to his bungalow, his brain in a whirl, +blind to everything, seeing neither the sepoys saluting him nor his +_syce_ hurrying after him and dragging the pony by the bridle. + +When he reached his house he entered the sitting-room and dropped into a +chair. His "boy" approached salaaming and asked if he should go to the +Mess to order the Sahib's breakfast to be got ready. Wargrave waved him +away impatiently. + +He sat staring unseeingly at the wall. He could not think coherently. He +felt dazed. His bewildered brain seemed to be revolving endlessly round +the thought of the telegram from Headquarters and the Colonel's words "I +will not have an officer like you under my command." What was the +meaning of it all? What had he done? A pang shot through him at the +sudden remembrance of Colonel Trevor's assertion that Major Hepburn +agreed with him. Frank held the Second in Command in high respect, for +he knew him to be an exceptionally good soldier and a gentleman in every +sense of the word. Had he so disgraced himself then that Hepburn +considered the Colonel's action justified? But how? + +He shifted uneasily in his chair and his eyes fell on Mrs. Norton's +portrait. At the sight of it his Company Commander's advice to him about +her and Mrs. Trevor's spiteful remarks flashed across his mind. Could +Violet be mixed up in all this? Was his friendship with her perhaps the +cause of the trouble? He dismissed the idea at once. There was nothing +to be ashamed of in their relations. + +A figure darkened the doorway. It was Raymond. Wargrave sprang up and +rushed to him. + +"What in Heaven's name is it all about, Ray?" he cried. "Is the Colonel +mad?" + +The adjutant took off his helmet and flung it on the table. + +"Well, tell me. What the devil have I done?" said his friend +impatiently. + +Raymond tried to speak but failed. + +"Go on, man. What is it?" cried Wargrave, seizing his arm. + +The adjutant burst out: + +"It's a damned shame, old man. I'm sorry." + +"But what is it? What is it, I say?" cried Wargrave, shaking him. + +The adjutant nodded his head towards the big photograph on the +writing-table. + +"It's Mrs. Norton," he said. + +"Mrs. Norton?" echoed his friend. "What the--what's she got to do with +it?" + +Raymond threw himself into a chair. + +"Someone's been making mischief. The C.O.'s been told that there might +be a scandal so he's got scared lest trouble should come to him." + +Frank stared blankly at the speaker, then suddenly turned and walked out +of the bungalow. The pony was standing huddled into the patch of shade +at the side of the house, the _syce_ squatting on the ground at its head +and holding the reins. Wargrave sprang into the saddle and galloped out +of the compound. Raymond ran to the verandah and saw him thundering down +the sandy road that led to the residency. + +Arrived at the big white building Frank pulled up his panting pony on +its haunches and dismounting threw the reins over its head and left it +unattended. + +Walking to the hall door he cried: + +"_Koi hai_?" + +A drowsy _chuprassi_ at the back of the hall sprang up and hurried to +receive him. + +"_Memsahib hai_? (Is the mistress in?)" + +"_Hai, sahib_. (Yes, sir)" said the servant salaaming. + +Wargrave was free of the house and, taking off his hat, went into the +cool hall and walked up the great staircase. He entered the +drawing-room. After the blinding glare outside the closely-shuttered +apartment seemed so dark that at first it was difficult for him to see +if it were tenanted or not. But it was empty; and he paced the floor +impatiently, frowning in chaotic thought. + +"Good morning, Frank. You are early to-day. And what a bad temper you +seem to be in!" exclaimed a laughing voice; and Mrs. Norton, looking +radiant and delightfully cool in a thin white Madras muslin dress, +entered the room. + +He went to her. + +"They're sending me away, Violet," he said. + +"Sending you away?" she repeated in an astonished tone. "Sending you +where?" + +"To hell, I think," he cried. "Oh, I beg your pardon. I mean--yes, +they're sending me away from Rohar, from you. Sending me to the other +side of India." + +The blood slowly left her face as she stared uncomprehendingly at him. + +"Sending you away? Why?" she asked. + +"Because--because we're friends, little girl." + +"Because we're friends," she echoed. "What do you mean? But you mustn't +go." + +"I must. I can't help it. I've got to go." + +Pale as death Violet stared at him. + +"Got to go? To leave me?" + +Then with a choking cry she threw her arms about his neck and sobbed. + +"You mustn't. You mustn't leave me. I can't live without you. I love +you. I love you. I'll die if you go from me." + +Frank started and tried to hold her at arm's length to look into her +face. But the woman clung frenziedly to him, while convulsive sobs shook +her body. His arms went round her instinctively and, holding her to his +breast, he stared blankly over the beautiful bowed head. It was true, +then. She loved him. Without meaning it he had won her heart. He whose +earnest wish it had been to save her from pain, to console her, to +brighten her lonely life, had brought this fresh sorrow on her. To the +misery of a loveless marriage he had added a heavier cross, an unhappy, +a misplaced affection. No exultant vanity within him rejoiced at the +knowledge that, unsought, she had learned to care for him. Only regret, +pity for her, stirred in him. He was aware now as always that his +feeling for her was not love. But she must not realise it. He must save +her from the bitter mortification of learning that she had given her +heart unasked. His must have been the fault; he it must be to bear the +punishment. She should never know the truth. He bent down and +reverently, tenderly, kissed the tear-stained face--it was the first +time that his lips had touched her. + +"Dearest, we will go together. You must come with me," he said. + +Violet started and looked wildly up at him. + +"Go with you? What do you mean? How can I?" + +"I mean that you must come away with me to begin a new life--a happier +one--together. I cannot leave you here with a man who neglects you, who +does not appreciate you, who cannot understand you." + +"Do you mean--run away with you?" she asked. + +"Yes; it is the only thing to do." + +She slowly loosed her clasp of him and released herself from his arms. + +"But I don't understand at all. Why are you going? And where?" + +He briefly told her what had happened. His face flushed darkly as he +repeated the Colonel's words. + +"'He wouldn't have an officer like me under his command,' he said. He +treated me like a criminal. I don't value his opinion much. But Major +Hepburn agrees with him. That hurts. I respect him." + +"But where is this place they're sending you to?" she asked. + +"Ranga Duar? I don't know. Eastern Bengal, I believe." + +"Bengal. What? Anywhere near Calcutta?" + +"No; it must be somewhere up on the frontier. Otherwise they wouldn't +send Military Police to garrison it." + +"But what is it like? Is it a big station?" she persisted. + +"I can't tell you. But it's sure not to be. No; it must be a small place +up in the hills or in the jungle. There's only a detachment there." + +"But what have I got to do with your being sent there?" she asked in +perplexity. + +"Don't you understand? Someone's been making mischief," he replied. +"Those two vile-minded women have been talking scandal of us to the +Colonel." + +"What? Talking about you and me? Oh!" she exclaimed. + +His words brought home to her the fact that these bitter-tongued women +whom she despised had dared to assail her--her, the _Burra Mem_, the +Great Lady of their little world. Had dared to? She could not silence +them. And what would they say of her, how their tongues would wag, if +she ran away from her husband! And they would have a right to talk +scandal of her then. The thought made her pause. + +"But how could I go with you to this place in Bengal? Where could I +live?" she asked. + +"You'd live with me." + +"Oh! In your bungalow? How could I? And how would I get there?" she +continued. "I haven't any money. I don't suppose I've got a ten-rupee +note. And I couldn't ask my husband." + +"Of course not. I would----" He paused. "By Jove! I never thought of +that." It had not occurred to him that elopements must be carried out on +a cash basis. He had forgotten that money was necessary. And he had +none. He was heavily in debt. The local _shroffs_--the native +money-lenders--would give him no more credit when they knew that he was +going away. All that he would have would be the one month's advance of +pay--probably not enough for Violet's fare and expenses across +India--the Government provided his--and certainly not enough to support +them for long. He frowned in perplexity. Running away with another man's +wife did not seem so easy after all. + +Violet was the first to recover her normal calm. + +"Sit down and let us talk quietly," she said. "One of the servants may +come in. Or my husband--if people are talking scandal of us." + +She touched the switch of an overhead electric fan--the Government of +India housed its Political Officer in Rohar much more luxuriously than +the military ones--and sat down under it. Wargrave began to pace the +room impatiently. + +"Come, Frank, stop walking about like a tiger in a cage and let's +discuss things properly." + +With an effort he pulled himself together and took a chair near her. The +woman was the more self-possessed of the two. The shock of suddenly +finding herself up against the logical outcome of her desires had +sobered her; and, faced with the prospect of an immediate flight +involving the abdication of her assured social position and the +surrender of a home, she was able to visualise the consequences of her +actions. The most sobering reflection was the thought that by so doing +she would be casting herself to the female wolves of her world--and she +knew the extent of their mercy. There were others of her acquaintance +besides Mrs. Trevor who would howl loud with triumph over her downfall. +The thought has saved many a woman from social ruin. + +Thinking only of what she had so often told him of the misery of living +with a man as unsympathetic as her husband, Frank pleaded desperately +with a conviction that he was far from feeling. The hard fact of the +lack of sufficient money to pay for her travelling expenses, the +difficulty of getting off together from this out-of-the-way station, +were not to be got over. Then the impossibility of knowing whether she +could remain with him when he was on frontier duty and of supporting her +away from him, the realisation of the fact that they would have to face +the Divorce Court with its heavy costs and probably crushing damages, +all made the situation seem hopeless. In despair he sprang up and +resumed his nervous pacing of the room. + +At last Violet said: + +"All I can see, dearest, is that we must wait. It will be harder for me +than for you. You at least will not have to live with anyone uncongenial +to you. But I must. Yet I can bear it for your sake." + +He stopped before her and looked at her in admiration of her courageous +and self-sacrificing spirit. Then he bent down and kissed her tenderly. +Sitting beside her he discussed the situation more calmly than he had +hitherto done. It was finally agreed that he was to go alone to his new +station, save all that he could to pay off his debts--he would receive a +higher salary in the Military Police and his expenses would be less--and +when he was free and had made a home for her Violet would sacrifice +everything for love and come to him. With almost tears in his eyes as he +thought of her nobility he strained her to his heart. When the time came +for parting the woman broke down completely and wept bitterly as she +clung to him. He kissed her passionately, then with an effort put her +from him and almost ran from the room, while she flung herself on a +lounge and sobbed convulsively. + +One of the Residency _syces_ had taken charge of the pony; and Wargrave, +mounting it, galloped madly back to his bungalow, his heart torn with +anguish for the unhappiness of the broken-hearted woman that he was +leaving behind. + +When he arrived home he found that Raymond and his own "boy" and +sword-orderly (his native soldier-servant) had begun his packing for +him, for his heavy baggage had to be despatched that afternoon. The +bungalow was crowded with his brother-officers waiting to see him. He +had intended to avoid them, for he felt disgraced by the Colonel's +censure which it was evident the Commanding Officer had not kept secret, +though the whole matter should have been treated as confidential. But +they made light of his scruples and showed him that he had their +sympathy. He had meant to dine alone in his room that night; but his +comrades insisted on his coming to the Mess, where they were to give him +an informal farewell dinner. They would take no refusal. + +Daly, who was the Acting Quartermaster of the battalion, told him that +the arrangements for his journey had been made. He was to leave at dawn +and drive sixty miles in a _tonga_--a two-wheeled native conveyance +drawn by a pair of ponies--to a village called Basedi on the shores of a +narrow gulf or deep inlet of the sea which formed the eastern boundary +of the State of Mandha. Here he would have to spend the night in a +dâk-bungalow--or rest-house--and cross the water in a steam-launch next +morning. After that, five days more of travel by various routes and +means awaited him. + +Before dinner that night a few minutes apart with Hepburn made Frank +happier than he had been all day. For his Company Commander told him +that he had only agreed with the Colonel's action because he believed +that it would be for the subaltern's own good, not because he considered +that the latter had done anything to disgrace him. Hepburn added that if +he was given command of the regiment in two years' time--as should +happen in the ordinary course of events--he would be glad to have +Wargrave back again in the battalion then. Frank, with a guilty feeling +when he remembered his compact with Violet, thanked him gratefully, and +with a lightened heart went to the very festive meal that was to be his +last for some long time, at least with his old corps. + +The Colonel had refused to agree to his being invited formally to be the +guest of the regiment; and neither he nor the other married man, the +Doctor, were present. If they slept that night they were the only two +officers in the Cantonment that did; for none of the others, not even +senior major, Hepburn, left the Mess until it was time to escort their +departing comrade to his bungalow to change for the journey. And, as the +_tonga_-ponies rattled down the road and bore him away, Frank's last +sight of his old comrades was the group of white-clad figures in the +dawn waving frantically and cheering vociferously from the gateway of +his bungalow. + +The memory of it rejoiced him throughout the terrible hours of the long +journey in the baking heat and blinding glare of the Hot Weather day. +The worse moments were the stops every ten miles to change ponies, when +he had to wait in the blazing sunshine. His "boy," who sat on the front +seat of the vehicle beside the driver, produced from a basket packed +with wet straw cooled bottles of soda-water, without which Wargrave felt +that he would have died of sunstroke. + +Then on after each halt; and the endless strip of white road again +unrolled before him, while the never-ceasing clank of the iron-shod bar +coupling the ponies maddened his aching head with its monotonous rhythm. + +As the weary miles slid past him his thoughts were with Violet, so +beautiful, so patient and brave in her self-denying endurance. And he +cursed himself for having added to her pain, and inwardly vowed that +some day he would atone to her for it. + +At last the _tonga_ rattled into the bare compound of the Basedi +dâk-bungalow standing on a high stone plinth. The untidy +_khansamah_--the custodian of the rest-home--hurried on to the verandah +to greet the unexpected visitor and show his "boy" where to put the +sahib's bedding and baggage in a bleak room with a cane-bottomed wooden +bed hung with torn mosquito-curtains. + +From a glass case in the sitting-room containing a scanty store of +canned provisions the _khansamah_ provided a meal with such ill-assorted +ingredients as Somebody's desiccated soup lukewarm, a tin of sardines +and sweet biscuits to eat with them, and a bottle of beer to wash it +down with. Wargrave was too choked with dust, too sickened with the heat +and glare, to have any appetite. After a smoke he dragged his weary body +to bed and in spite of the mosquitoes that flocked joyously through the +holes in the gauze curtains to feast on him slept the profound sleep of +utter exhaustion. + +He was up at daybreak; for the tide served in the early morning and only +at its height could the launch approach the shore, which at low water +was bordered with the filthy slime of mangrove swamps. + +Landed at the other side of the gulf he had even a worse experience of +travel before him than on the previous day. For the next stage of the +journey was forty miles across a salt desert in a tram drawn by a camel. +The car was open on all sides and covered by a cardboard roof; and its +wooden seats were uncomfortably hard for long hours of sitting. The heat +was appalling. It struck up from the baked ground and seemed to scorch +the body through the clothes. The glare from the white sand and even +whiter patches of salt was blinding and penetrated through the closed +eyelids. A hot wind blew over the hazy, shimmering desert, setting the +whirling dust-devils dancing and striking the face like the touch of a +heated iron. Wargrave's small store of ice and mineral water was +exhausted, and he felt that he was likely to die of thirst. For in the +villages where they changed camels cholera was raging; and he dared not +drink the water from their wells. + +The tram slid easily along the shining rails that stretched away out of +sight over the monotonous plain, the camel loping lazily along, its +soft, sprawling feet falling noiselessly on the sand. The last ten miles +of the way lay through less sterile country; and the tram passed herds +of black buck--the pretty, spiral-horned antelope. Used to its daily +passage, the graceful animals, which were protected by the game-laws of +the native State through which the line ran, barely troubled to move out +of its way. They stood about in hundreds, staring lazily at it, some not +ten yards off, the bucks turning their heads away to scratch their sides +with the points of their horns or rubbing their noses with dainty hoofs. + +That night Wargrave slept at a dâk-bungalow near the terminus in a +little native town with a small branch-railway connecting it with a main +line. Then for four days he travelled across the scorching plains of +India, shut up in stuffy carriages with violet-hued glass windows and +Venetian wooden shutters meant to exclude the heat and glare. Over bare +plains broken by sudden flat-topped rocky hills, through +closely-cultivated fields and stretches of scrub-jungle, by mud-walled +villages, he journeyed day and night. The train crossed countless wide +river-beds in which the streams had shrunk to mean rivulets; but when it +clattered over the Ganges at Allahabad the sacred flood rolled a broad +and sluggish current under the bridge on its way to the far-distant Bay +of Bengal. + +On the fourth night Wargrave slept on a bench in the waiting-room of a +small junction, Niralda, from which a narrow-gauge railway branched off +to the north from the main line through Eastern Bengal. At an early hour +next morning he took his seat in the one first-class carriage of the toy +train, which journeyed through typical Bengal scenery by mud-banked +rice-fields, groves of tall, feathery bamboos and hamlets of pretty +palm-thatched huts, their roofs hidden by the broad green leaves of +sprawling creepers. Soon across the sky to the north a dark, blurred +line rose, stretching out of sight east and west. It grew clearer as the +train sped on, more distinct. It was the great northern rampart of +India, the Himalayas. Then, seeming to float in air high above the +highest of the dark mountain peaks and utterly detached from them, the +white crests of the Eternal Snows shone fairy-like against the blue sky. + +As Wargrave gazed enraptured, suddenly hills and plain were shut out +from his sight as the train plunged from the dazzling sunlight into the +deep shadows of a tropical forest. And the subaltern recognised with a +thrill of delight that he was entering the wonderful Terai Jungle, the +marvelous belt of woodland that stretches for hundreds of miles along +the foot of the Himalayas through Assam and Bengal to the far Siwalik +range, clothing their lower slopes or scaling their steep sides into +Nepal and Bhutan. Deep in its recesses the rhinoceros, bison and buffalo +hide, herds of wild elephants roam, tigers prey on the countless deer, +and the great mountain bears descend to prowl in it for food. Frank had +learned on the way that Ranga Duar was practically situated in it; and +the knowledge almost consoled him for his exile in the promise of sport +that kings might envy. + +At a small wayside station in a clearing in the forest his railway +journey ended. Beside the one small stone building two elephants were +standing, incessantly swinging their trunks, flapping their ears and +shifting their weight restlessly from leg to leg. Frank, on getting out +of his carriage, learned with pleasure from their salaaming _mahouts_ +(drivers) that these animals were to be his next means of transport, a +novel one that harmonised with the surroundings. On the back of each +great beast was a massive, straw-filled pad secured by a rope passing +surcingle-wise around its body. + +Each _mahout_ carried a gun, one a heavy rifle, the other a +double-barrelled fowling-piece, which they offered to Wargrave. + +"_Huzoor_!" (the Presence--a polite mode of address in Hindustani), said +one man, "the _Burra_ Sahib (the Political Sahib) sends salaams and +lends you these, as you might see something to shoot on the way." + +"Oh, the Political Officer. Very kind of him, I'm sure," remarked the +subaltern. "What is his name?" + +"Durro-Mut Sahib." + +"What a curious name!" thought Frank. For in the vernacular "_durro +mut_!" means, "Do not be afraid!" He concluded that it was a nickname. + +"Why is he called that?" he asked in Hindustani. + +"Because the Sahib is a very brave sahib," replied the man. "Where he is +there no one need fear." + +The other _mahout_ nodded assent, then said: + +"The Commanding Sahib has sent Your Honour from the Mess a basket with +food and drink. I have put it on the table in the _babu's_ (clerk's) +office in the station." + +Frank blessed his new C.O. for his thoughtfulness and made a welcome +meal while he watched his baggage being loaded on to one of the +elephants. + +"_Buth_!" (Lie down) cried the _mahout_; and the obedient animal slowly +sank to its knees and stretched out its legs before and behind. Frank's +"boy" mounted timorously when the luggage had been strapped on to the +pad. When the subaltern was ready the second elephant was ordered to +kneel down for him; and he clambered up awkwardly and clung on tightly +when the _mahout_, getting astride of the great neck, made it rise. + +Along a broad road cut through the forest the huge beasts lumbered with +a plunging, swaying stride that was very tiring to a novice. Holding +both guns Frank glanced continually ahead, aside and behind him with a +delicious feeling of excited hope that at any moment some dangerous wild +beast might appear. On either hand the dense undergrowth of great, +flower-covered bushes and curving fan-shaped palms, restricted the view +to a few yards. From its dense tangle rose the giant trunks of huge +trees, their leafy crowns striving to push through the thick canopy of +vegetation overhead into the life-giving air and sunshine. + +But no wild animal appeared to cheer Wargrave on the long way; and as +hour after hour went by his whole body ached with the strain of sitting +upright without a support to his back and being jolted violently at +every step of the elephant. At last they reached a clearing in the +forest where stood the _mahout's_ huts and a tall, wooden building, the +_peelkhana_, or elephant stables. It lay at the foot of the mountains; +and from here the road wound upwards among the lower hills, under steep +cliffs, by the brink of precipices and beside deep ravines down which +brawling streams tumbled. + +As the party mounted higher and ever higher the big trees fell away +behind them until Frank could look down on a sea of foliage stretching +away out of sight east and west but bounded on the south by the Plains +of India seen vaguely through the shimmering heat-haze. Up, up they +climbed, until far above him he caught glimpses of buildings dotted +about among jungle-clad knolls and spurs jutting out from the dark face +of the mountains. And at last as evening shadows began to lengthen they +reached a lovely recess in the hills, a deep horse-shoe; and in it an +artificially-levelled parade-ground, a rifle-range running up a gully, a +few bungalows dotted about among the trees and lines of single-storied +barracks enclosed by a loopholed stone wall told Wargrave that he had +come to his journey's end. This was his place of exile--this was Ranga +Duar. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +A BORDER OUTPOST + + +"What a beautiful spot!" thought Frank as he gazed entranced at the +scenery. "I've never seen anything like it. It looks like Heaven after +the ugliness of Rohar. And how delightfully cool it is, too, up in the +mountains! Well, with this climate and good shooting in the forest below +life won't be as dreadful as I thought. I wish poor Violet were here out +of the heat and glare. How she'd love all this beauty, these trees, +these gardens, the glorious mountains!" + +He sighed as he thought of the woman who was so far away. + +"_Huzoor_, that is the Mess" broke in the voice of his _mahout_, as he +pointed to a long, red-tiled building half-hidden among the trees a few +hundred feet above them. To reach it they had to pass a large, +well-built stone bungalow, two-storied, unlike all the others and +standing in a lovely garden glowing with the vivid hues of the flowers, +the flaming red of huge bushes of bougainvillea and poinsettia. Frank, +glancing towards it, was about to ask the _mahout_ who lived in it when +he started in horror and cried to the man: + +"Stop! Stop your animal! Look there!" + +And he snatched at his rifle. For on the farther side of the house a +huge tusker elephant in the garden stood over a little European boy +about four years old, who was sprawling almost under the huge feet. And +high above its head the brute held in its curved trunk a younger child, +a girl with long golden curls, as if about to dash it to the ground. + +As Frank grasped the rifle the _mahout_, who had turned at his cry, +seized the barrel and said with a smile: + +"_Durro mut_, Sahib! Do not fear, sir. Those are Durro Mut Sahib's +babies and the elephant is their playmate." + +And as he spoke Wargrave saw the elder child spring up from the ground +and beat the great animal's legs with his tiny hands, crying: + +"_Mujh-ko bhi_, Badshah! _Mujh-ko bhi! Uth! Uth!_ (Me too, Badshah! Me +too! Take me up!)" + +And the baby held aloft was crowing in glee and kicking its fat little +legs frantically. The elephant lowered it tenderly to the ground and +picked up the boy in its stead and lifted him into the air, while he +laughed and clapped his hands. The two _mahouts_ raised their palms +respectfully to their foreheads and cried to their animals: + +"_Salaam kuro_! (Salute!)" + +And the two trunks were lifted together in the _Salaamut_, the royal +salute given to Kings and Viceroys. + +Frank's _mahout_ explained. + +"_Gharib Parwar_ (Protector of the Poor), the pagan ignorant Hindus +around here say that the elephant is a god. Aye, and that his master, +Durro Mut Sahib, is one too. _That's_ like enough. Well, Allah alone +knows the truth of everything. But those two are more than mere man and +animal, that is certain. _Mul, Moti_! (Go on, Pearl!)" + +And he kicked his elephant under the ears with his bare feet to quicken +her pace. But Frank bade him stop. Despite the man's optimism he could +not believe it wise to allow tiny tots like that to play with such a +huge, clumsy animal. He was sure that their mother would be horrified if +she knew it. He loved children, and felt that it was madness to allow +these babies to continue their dangerous pastime. + +"Have they a mother?" he asked the _mahout_. + +"Yes, _Huzoor_. The _mem-Sahib_ (lady) is doubtless within the house." + +"I want to dismount," said Frank; and he grasped the surcingle rope as +the elephant sank jerkily to its knees. Then sliding down from the pad +he entered the gate and passed up through the garden towards the +bungalow. As he did so a dainty little figure in white, a charmingly +pretty girl with golden hair and blue eyes, came out on the verandah. +Seeing him she walked down the steps to meet him and held out her hand, +saying in a pleasant, musical voice: + +"You are Mr. Wargrave, of course? Welcome to Ranga Duar." + +Frank, uncomfortably conscious of his dishevelled appearance and +travel-stained attire, almost blushed as he took off his hat and +quickened his steps to meet her, wondering who this delightful young +girl--she looked about nineteen--could be. Possibly an elder sister of +the children outside. But as they shook hands she said: + +"I am the wife of the Political Officer here. My husband, Colonel +Dermot, has just gone up to the Mess to see your C.O., Major Hunt." + +Frank was astonished. This pretty young girl, scarcely more than a child +herself, the mother of the two chubby babies! Touched by her kind manner +he shook her hand warmly and said: + +"Thank you very much for your welcome, Mrs. Dermot. It's awfully good of +you, and I--I assure you I appreciate it a lot just now. I was coming to +tell you--I wonder do you know that your babies--I suppose they _are_ +yours--are playing what seems to me rather a dangerous game with an +elephant at the side of the house." + +Mrs. Dermot smiled; and the dimples that came with the smile carried his +mind back for an instant to Violet. + +"Yes, they are my chicks," she said. "I left them in Badshah's charge." + +Frank was not altogether reassured. The young mother evidently did not +know what was happening. + +"But--pardon me--is it quite safe? I was a bit scared when I saw them. +The animal was tossing them up in the air." + +"You needn't be alarmed, Mr. Wargrave--though it's very good of you to +be concerned and come to tell me," she replied. "But Badshah--that's the +elephant's name--is a most careful nurse and I know that my babies are +quite safe when they are in his care. He has looked after them since +they were able to crawl. Come and be introduced to him. I must tell you +that he is a very exceptional animal. Indeed, we almost forget that he +is an animal. He has saved our lives, my husband's and mine, on more +than one occasion. Next to the children and me I think that Kevin loves +him better than anyone or anything else in the world. And after my +chicks and Kevin and my brother I believe I do, too. As for the babies, +I'm not sure that he doesn't come first with them." + +She led the way round the house, and in spite of her assurances Wargrave +felt a little nervous when they came in sight of the strange nurse and +its charges. The tiny girl was seated on the ground tightly clasping one +huge foreleg; while the boy was beating the other with his little fists, +crying: + +"_Mujk-ko uth! Pir! Pir!_ (Lift me up! Again! Again!)" + +When he saw his mother he ran to her and said: + +"Mummie, bad, naughty Badshah won't lift me up." + +He suddenly caught sight of the stranger and paused shyly. + +"Brian darling, this is a new friend," said his mother, bending down to +him. "Won't you shake hands with him?" + +The child conquered his shyness with an effort and walked over to Frank, +holding out his little hand. + +"How do you do?" he said politely. + +The subaltern gravely shook the proffered hand. The little girl +scrambled to her fat little legs and finger in mouth, surveyed him +solemnly. Then satisfied with her inspection she toddled forward to him +and said: + +"Tiss me." + +Frank laughed joyously. + +"With all my heart, you darling," he cried. + +This delightful welcome in the dreaded place of exile was inexpressibly +cheering. He swung the dainty mite up in his arms and kissed her. She +put her arms around his neck and hugged him. + +"Me like 'oo," she said. + +"You little flirt, Eileen," exclaimed her mother laughing. "Now it's +Badshah's turn." + +She walked to the elephant, a splendid specimen of its race, though it +had only one tusk, the right. She held out her hand to it. The long +trunk shot out, brushed her fingers and then her cheek with a light +touch that was almost a caress. She stroked the trunk affectionately. + +"Now, Badshah, this is a new Sahib." + +Frank, with the baby girl seated on his shoulder, stepped forward and +extended his hand. The animal smelt it and then laid its trunk for a +moment on his free shoulder. + +"Badshah accepts you, Mr. Wargrave," said Mrs. Dermot seriously. "And +there are few whom he takes to readily." + +Eileen, with one arm around Frank's neck, stretched out the other to the +elephant. + +"Me love Badshah," she said. + +The snake-like trunk lingered caressingly on her golden head. The baby +caught and kissed it. + +"Now then, chickies, time for bed," said their mother. "Say goodnight to +Badshah." + +The little boy ran to the great animal and hugged its leg tightly, while +the snaky trunk touched the child's face affectionately. + +"Come along, Brian. Let him go now"; and at his mother's bidding the boy +released his clasp and ran to her. + +"Goodnight, Badshah. _Salaam_!" said Mrs. Dermot, waving her hand to the +mammoth, while her little daughter on Wargrave's shoulder imitated her. + +The big animal raised its trunk in salute and, turning, walked with +swaying stride out of sight behind the bungalow. + +"By Jove, what a splendid beast!" exclaimed Frank. "And how wonderfully +well trained he is. I'm not surprised now that you let the kiddies play +with him." + +Mrs. Dermot smiled. + +"You would be even less so if you knew his story," she said. "He is my +husband's private property now. The Government of India presented him to +Kevin. Now come back to the house and have tea. Oh, no, after your long +ride you'll prefer a whiskey and soda." + +"I'd really rather have the tea, I think, Mrs. Dermot. I don't feel +thirsty up in this deliciously cool air. It's awful down in the Plains +now. But what about my elephants and baggage?" + +"Tell the _mahouts_ to go to the Mess. You are to have a room there." + +Frank did so; and the two animals lumbered away up the hill after the +_mahouts_ had brought the Colonel's guns into the bungalow. + +Mrs. Dermot led the way into the house. The little boy had possessed +himself of Wargrave's free hand, the other one being engaged in holding +Eileen, who was perched on the subaltern's shoulder. Mrs. Dermot found +it difficult to separate the children from their new friend when at +last she bore them off to bed. + +Left to himself, Frank examined with deep interest and admiring envy the +splendid display of Colonel Dermot's trophies of big game shooting that +filled the bungalow. From the walls many heads of bison and buffalo, of +_sambhur_ and _barasingh_, those fine Indian stags, looked mildly at him +with their glass eyes; while tigers, bears and panthers snarled at him +from the ground. Long elephant-tusks leaned in corners, smoking and +liqueur-tables made up from the mammoths' legs and feet stood about, and +crossed from ceiling to floor; on the walls were the skins of enormous +snakes such as Frank had never seen or imagined. He had thought a +six-foot cobra or an eight-foot python long--here were reptiles sixteen +or eighteen feet in length, and he hoped that he would never meet their +equals alive in the jungle. + +While he was gazing with admiration at the fine collection of trophies +Mrs. Dermot returned. + +"What a magnificent lot of heads and skins you've got here!" he +exclaimed. "All your husband's, I suppose?" + +She laughed as she glanced round the room, while pouring out the tea +that her butler had brought. + +"I'm afraid they make the house rather like a museum of natural +history," she answered. "Yes, they are all Kevin's, or nearly all. +There are a few of mine among them." + +He looked at her in open admiration. + +"Oh, you shoot? How splendid!" he said. "Have you ever got a tiger?" + +"A couple," she replied, smiling. + +"I envy you awfully," he said. "I've never even seen one--out of a +cage." + +"Well, if you are keen on shooting, Mr. Wargrave, you ought to have +little difficulty in bagging a tiger or two before long," she said. + +"I'd love to have the chance of going after big game. I'm hoping for it +here. Shall I? I've never had any, although I've shot a panther or two +and a few black buck and _chinkara_." + +"You will have every opportunity of good sport here. Neither of the +other two Europeans, your Commanding Officer and the doctor of your +detachment, go in for it, the latter because his sight is very bad, +Major Hunt because he doesn't care for it. I'm sure my husband will be +glad to take you out with him; and nobody in the whole Terai knows more +about big game than he." + +"By Jove; how ripping," exclaimed Frank eagerly. "Would he?" + +"I'm sure he would. He'll be only too delighted to have someone for +company. I used to go with him always, until my babies came. Now Kevin +has no one but Badshah." + +"Badshah? Oh, yes, that ripping elephant. I don't know much about those +animals, but isn't it unusual for him to have only a single tusk?" + +"Yes; Badshah is what the natives call a 'Gunesh.' You know that Gunesh +is the Hindu God of Wisdom and is represented as having an elephant's +head with only the right tusk? Consequently any of these animals born +with a single tusk, and that the right, is considered sacred and looked +upon as a god." + +"One of the _mahouts_ said that the Hindus here regard your husband as +one, too," said Frank, "and he seemed inclined to believe it himself. I +like the name they've given Colonel Dermot--Durro Mut Sahib, Fear Not +Sahib." + +A look of pride came in the young wife's eyes as she repeated the name +softly to herself. + +"Fear Not Sahib. Yes, it suits him." Then aloud she continued: + +"I think you'll like my husband, Mr. Wargrave. All men do. He's a man's +man. The hill and jungle people worship him. He understands them. Ah! +here he is, I think." + +Her face brightened, and Frank saw the light of love shine in her eyes +as she turned expectantly to the door. He sprang up as a tall man with +handsome, clear-cut features, dark complexion and eyes, and +close-cropped black hair touched at the temples with grey, entered the +room. With a pleasant smile the newcomer walked towards the subaltern +with outstretched hand, saying in a friendly voice: + +"Glad to welcome you to Ranga Duar, Wargrave." + +"Thank you very much, sir," replied Frank gripping his hand and greatly +taken at once by the Political Officer's appearance and friendly manner. +"It was very kind of you to send those guns for me. But I had no luck. +We saw nothing on the way." + +After greeting him Colonel Dermot bent over his wife and kissed her +fondly. It was obvious to the subaltern that after their five years of +married life they were lovers still. Frank looked at them a little +enviously. He wondered would it be so with Violet and him after the same +lapse of time; for the sight of their happiness sent his thoughts flying +to the woman who loved him. + +"Are you keen on shooting, Wargrave?" said the Colonel. + +"Oh, yes, he is, Kevin," broke in his wife. "I told him that I was sure +you'd be glad to take him with you into the jungle sometimes." + +"I'll be happy to do so, if you care to come with me, Wargrave," said +the Colonel. + +"I'd love to, sir. It would be awfully good of you," replied the +subaltern eagerly. "But I've only a Mannlicher rifle." + +"Ah, you'll need a bigger bore than that. But I can lend you a .470 high +velocity cordite weapon. You want something with great hitting power +for dangerous game," said Dermot. + +He went on to speak of the jungle and its denizens; and his conversation +was so interesting that Wargrave forgot the flight of time until his +hostess reminded him that he had to report his arrival to his commanding +officer and find his new quarters. Her husband volunteered to show him +the way to the Mess and introduce him to Major Hunt. + +As Wargrave shook hands with Mrs. Dermot, she said: + +"I wanted to ask you to dinner this evening; but Kevin thought you might +prefer to spend your first night with your brother officers. But we +shall expect you to-morrow, when they are coming, too." + +On their way up the steep road from his bungalow the Political Officer +spoke of the great forest below them and the sport to be found in it. +Then he said: + +"It's lucky you like shooting, Wargrave, for Ranga Duar is very isolated +and life in it dull to a person who has no resources. Still, it has its +advantages, and chief among them is the climate. It's delightful in the +cold weather and pleasant in the hot." + +"By Jove, it is indeed, sir! It's like Heaven after the heat in the +Plains below. I don't know how I lived through it coming across India." + +"The rainy season is the hardest to bear. We have five months of it and +over three hundred inches of rain during them. One never sees a strange +face then--not that we ever do have many visitors here at any time. +Still, you'll like your C.O., and Burke the doctor is a capital fellow. +Here we are." + +He turned in through a narrow gate leading to a pretty though neglected +garden in which stood the Mess, a long, single-storied building raised +on piles. On the broad wooden verandah to which a flight of steps led +from the ground two men were reclining in long chairs reading old +newspapers. On seeing Dermot and his companion they rose, and the +Colonel introduced Frank. They shook hands with him and gave him a +hearty welcome, which, coming on the top of the Dermot's, cheered the +subaltern exceedingly and for the time made him forget the circumstances +of his coming. + +"It's mighty glad I am to see you here, Wargrave," said Burke, the +doctor, in a mellow brogue, "aven av it's only to have someone living in +the Mess wid me. The Major there lives in solitary state in his little +bungalow; and I'm all alone here at night wid _shaitans_ (devils) and +wild beasts walking on the verandah." + +"What? Has that panther been prowling round the Mess again?" asked the +Political Officer. + +"Faith! and he has that. Sure, I heard him sniffing at me door last +night. I wish to the Powers ye'd shoot him, sir." + +"I can't get him. I've tried often enough." + +"Troth! and it's waking up one fine morning I'll be to find he's made a +meal av me. Keep your door shut at night, Wargrave. Merrick, who lived +in the room you'll have, forgot to do it once and the divil nearly had +him." + +"Is that really a fact?" asked Frank, delighted at the thought of having +come to a place with such possibilities of sport. + +"Yes; we're plagued by a brute of a panther that prowls about the +station at night, jumps the wall of the Fort and carries off the sepoys' +dogs, and has actually entered rooms here in the Mess. He has killed +several Bhuttia children on the hills around here. Nobody can ever get a +shot at him. He's too cunning. Will you have a drink, Colonel?" said +Hunt. + +The Political Officer thanked him but declined, and, reminding them all +of his wife's invitation for the morrow, bade them goodnight. + +"That's one av the finest men in India," exclaimed Burke, as they +watched Dermot's figure receding down the road. The doctor had a +pleasant, ugly face and wore spectacles. + +"He is, indeed. He keeps the whole Bhutan border in order," said the +commandant, Major Hunt, a slight, grey-haired man with a quiet and +reserved manner. "The Bhuttias are more afraid of a cross look from him +than of all our rifles and machine-guns. Have a drink, Wargrave? Yes? +And you, Burke? Hi, boy!" + +A Gurkha servant with the ugly, cheery face of his race appeared and was +ordered to bring three whiskeys and sodas. + +"Ranga's not a bad place if you can stand the loneliness," continued the +Major. "Are you fond of shooting." + +"Yes, sir, awfully." + +"Hooray! That's good," cried Burke. "Now we'll have someone to go down +to the jungle and shoot for the Mess. We want a change from tinned Army +rations and the tough ould hins that these benighted haythins call +chickens." + +"Yes, you'll be a Godsend to us if you're a good shot, Wargrave," added +the Commandant. "We never get meat here unless someone shoots a stag or +a buck in the jungle; and for that we generally have to rely on Dermot. +But he is away such a lot, wandering along the frontier, keeping an eye +on the peace of the Border. Now we'll be able to look to you. We have +three transport elephants with the detachment, all steady to shoot +from." + +Frank was delighted. + +"I'd love to go into the jungle if you'd let me, sir." + +"Yes, I'll be glad if you do. There's not much work for you here; and +this is a dull place for a youngster unless he's keen on sport. I'm not, +myself; and Burke's as blind as a bat. But you can always have an +elephant when they aren't wanted to bring up supplies from the railway." + +The subaltern thanked him gratefully and inwardly decided that his new +commanding officer was a great improvement on Colonel Trevor. + +"Now, Burke, I'm off to my bungalow. Show Wargrave his quarters," said +the Major rising. "See you at dinner." + +Burke showed the subaltern his room, one of the four into which the Mess +was divided. Like the doctor's quarters, it was at one end of the +building, the centre apartment being the officers' anteroom and +dining-room. Frank found that his "boy," with the ready deftness of +Indian servants, had unpacked his trunks, hung up his clothes and stowed +his various belongings about the scantily-furnished room. He had stood +Violet's photo on the one rickety table and laid out his Master's white +mess uniform on the small iron cot. + +Major Hunt, Wargrave learned, lived in a bungalow a few hundred yards +away, but, being unmarried, took his meals in the Mess. The Indian +officers and sepoys of the detachment were quartered in barracks in the +Fort. + +Frank dressed and entered the anteroom or officers' sitting-room, from +which a door led into the messroom. Both apartments were poorly +furnished, but the walls were adorned with the skulls and skins of many +beasts of the jungle, presented by Colonel Dermot, as Frank learned. +Shelves filled with books ran across one end of the anteroom. + +As the interior of the Mess was rather hot at that time of year--though +to Wargrave it seemed very cool after Rohar--the dinner-table was laid +on the verandah; and while the officers sat at their meal the pleasant +mountain breeze played about them. Frank thought with gratitude of his +escape from the burning heat which at that moment was tormenting the +hundreds of millions in the furnace of the Plains of India stretching +away from the foot of the cool hills. + +The meal was not luxurious, for it consisted almost exclusively of +tinned provisions, fresh meat being unprocurable in Ranga Duar--except +fowls of exceeding toughness--and vegetables and bread being rare +dainties. + +During dinner Wargrave learned how completely isolated his new station +was. Their only European neighbours were the planters on tea-gardens +scattered about in the great forest below, the nearest thirty miles off. +The few visitors that Ranga Duar saw in the year were the General on his +annual inspection, an occasional official of the Indian Civil Service, +the Public Works or the Forest Department, or some planter friend of the +Dermots. + +The reason of the existence of this outpost and its garrison was the +guarding of the _duars_, or passes, through the Himalayas against +raiders from Bhutan, that little-known independent State lying between +Tibet and the Bengal border. Its frontier was only two miles from, and a +few thousand feet above, Ranga Duar. + +"You are just in time for our one yearly burst of gaiety, Wargrave," +said the Commandant, "the visit of the Deb Zimpun." + +"What on earth is that, sir?" asked the subaltern. + +"Sounds like a new disease, doesn't it?" said Burke laughing. "But it +isn't. The Deb Zimpun is a gintleman av high degree, the Heridithary Cup +Bearer to the Deb Raja." + +"To the what?" demanded the bewildered Frank. + +Major Hunt smiled. + +"Bhutan is supposed to be ruled by a temporal monarch called the Deb +Raja and also by a spiritual one, known in India as the Durma Raja. In +reality it is under the sway of the most powerful of the several great +feudal lords of the land, the Tongsa Penlop or Chief of Tongsa, whom we +regard as the Maharajah of Bhutan. He has placed himself, as far only as +the foreign relations of the country go, under the suzerainty of the +Government of India; and in return we grant him a subsidy of a _lakh_ of +rupees a year. It used to be fifty thousand, but the sum was doubled +years ago. To get the money one of the State Council comes every year. +He is an official called the Deb Zimpun." + +"Faith! he's a rum old beggar, Wargrave," broke in Burke. "Looks like +the Pope av Rome in his thriple crown, for he wears a high gold-edged +cap and a flowing red robe av Chinese silk, out av which sticks a pair +av hairy bare legs." + +"The Political Officer receives him in _durbar_; and we furnish a Guard +of Honour. The Colonel gives a dinner to him and us, and we have another +spread in the Mess. That reminds me. I suppose Dermot will be going into +the jungle soon to shoot for the pot, as the _durbar_ is next week. +You'd better get him to take you. You can have one of our elephants and +provide for our larder." + +"Thanks very much, Major," said the delighted subaltern. "The Colonel +promised to let me accompany him and lend me a rifle." + +When he went to his room that night the subaltern turned up the oil lamp +that lighted it and before he undressed sat down before Violet's +photograph. As he looked at it he thought affectionately and a little +sadly of the lonely woman so far away from him now. He pitied her for +the isolation in which she lived, an isolation far completer than his +own, for she had few friends, no intimates, and a husband worse than a +stranger in his lack of understanding of her. Surely it would be only +right to take her from such a man, right to give her a fresh chance of +finding the happiness that she had missed; for the warm-hearted, +intelligent and artistic-natured woman would be far happier with him in +this beautiful spot, remote from the world though it was. And his new +comrades would appeal to her, Dermot, strong, capable, one who would +always stand out from his fellows; Hunt grave, kindly, well-read; Burke +witty, clever and good-hearted. And, little though Violet cared for her +own sex, as a rule, surely in Mrs. Dermot she would find a friend. This +happy wife, this loving mother, was so sweet and sympathetic that she +would win the older woman's liking, while the two delightful children +would take her heart by storm. Poor, lonely Violet, so beautiful, so +ill-fated! Frank sighed as he took up her portrait and kissed it. + +When he extinguished the lamp and lay down in bed it was pleasant, after +the heat in Rohar, to find it so cool that he was obliged to pull a +blanket over him. Only those who have endured the torment of hot nights +in the tropics can appreciate his thankfulness as in the silence broken +only by the monotonous cry of the nightjars he drowsed contentedly to +sleep. Already he was reconciled to Ranga Duar. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +IN THE TERAI JUNGLE + + +In the pleasant light of the morning the little outpost looked as +charming to Wargrave as it had done on the previous evening. Above Ranga +Duar the mountains towered to the pale blue sky, while below it the +foot-hills fell in steps to the broad sea of foliage of the great forest +stretching away to the distant plains seen vaguely through the haze. The +horse-shoe hollow in which the tiny station was set was bowered in +vegetation. The gardens glowed with the varied hues of flowers, and were +bounded by hedges of wild roses. The road and paths were bordered by the +tall, graceful plumes of the bamboo and shaded by giant mango and banyan +trees, their boughs clothed with orchids. + +Frank had noticed the previous day that the Fort, barracks and bungalows +were all newly built, and he learned that during the great war which had +raged along the frontiers of India five years before, the post had been +fiercely attacked by an army of Chinese and Bhutanese and the little +station practically wiped out of existence, although victory had finally +rested with the few survivors of the garrison. + +From the first the subaltern took a great liking to the tall Punjaubi +Mahommedan and hook-nosed, fair-skinned Pathan native officers and +sepoys of the detachment. The work was light and scarcely required two +British officers; and Frank soon found that Major Hunt, who seemed +driven by a demon of quiet energy, preferred to do most of it himself. +Frank got the impression that to the elder man occupation was an anodyne +for some secret sorrow. Although the subaltern had no wish to shirk his +duty he could not but be glad that his superior officer seemed always +ready to dispense with his aid, for thus he would find it easier to get +permission to go shooting. + +His first excursion into the jungle was arranged at dinner at the +Dermots' house on his second evening in Ranga Duar. The Colonel proposed +to take him out on the following Monday, for on the next day the _Deb +Zimpun_ would arrive. + +"He always brings a big train of Bhuttias with him, eighty swordsmen as +an escort to the small army of coolies necessary to carry a hundred +thousand silver rupees in boxes over the Himalayan passes. I like to +give them the flesh of a few _sambhur_ stags as a treat," said the +Colonel. + +"Hiven hilp ye av ye bring any _sambhur_ flesh to the Mess, Wargrave," +said Burke. "We want something we can get our teeth into. No, we expect +a _khakur_ from you." + +"What's a _khakur_?" asked Frank. + +"It's the _muntjac_ or barking deer," replied Dermot. "You wouldn't know +it if you haven't shot in forests. It gets its English name from its +call, which is not unlike a dog's bark." + +"Whin ye hear one saying '_Wonk! Wonk!_' in the jungle, Wargrave, get up +the nearest tree; for the _khakur_ is warning all whom it may concern +that there's a tiger in the immajit vicinity." + +Frank had already learned to distrust most of Burke's statements on +sport, for the doctor was an inveterate joker. So he looked to the +Political Officer for confirmation. + +"Yes, it's supposed to be the case," agreed the Colonel. "And I've more +than once heard a tiger loudly express his annoyance when a _khakur_ +barked as he was trying to sneak by unnoticed. There's a barking-deer." +He pointed to the well-mounted head of a small deer on the wall of the +dining-room. + +"Whom do you expect up for the Durbar, Mrs. Dermot?" asked Major Hunt. + +"Only Mr. Carter, the Sub-divisional Officer, and probably Mr. Benson." + +"Eh--is--isn't Miss Benson coming too?" asked the doctor in a hesitating +manner so unlike his usual cheery and assured self that Frank looked at +him. It seemed to him that Burke was blushing. + +"Oh, yes, I hope so," replied Mrs. Dermot. + +"Er--haven't you heard from her?" persisted the doctor anxiously. + +"I had a letter this afternoon brought by a coolie. Muriel wrote to say +that they were in the Buxa Reserve but hoped to get here in time. I'm +looking forward to her coming immensely. It's four months since I saw +her." + +Frank could not help noticing that Burke seemed to hang on Mrs. Dermot's +words; and he began to wonder if the unknown lady held the doctor's +heart. + +"It's rather hard on a girl like Miss Benson to have to lead such a +lonely life and rough it constantly in the jungle as she does," remarked +Major Hunt. "At her age she must want gaiety and amusement." + +"Muriel doesn't mind it," replied the hostess. "She loves jungle life. +And she thinks that her father couldn't get on without her." + +"Sure, she's right there, Mrs. Dermot," cried Burke. "The dear ould +boy'ud lose his head av he hadn't her to hould it on for him. She does +most av his work. It's a sight to see that slip av a girl bossing all +the forest guards and _habus_ and giving them their ordhers." + +Wargrave was anxious to hear more of this girl, in whom it appeared to +him Burke was very much interested; but Colonel Dermot broke in: + +"Talking of orders, have you any for the butcher's man, Noreen?" he +asked, smiling at his wife. + +"Yes, dear; will you please bring me a _khakur_ and some jungle fowl? +And if you can manage it a brace of _Kalej_ pheasants," said the good +housewife seriously. + +"Well, Wargrave, we've both got our orders and know what to bring back +from the jungle," said the Colonel, turning to Frank, who was sitting +beside him. Then the conversation between them drifted into sporting +channels until all adjourned outside for coffee on the verandah. + +Next afternoon the subaltern, passing down the road, was hailed from the +Dermots' garden by an imperious small lady with golden curls and big +blue bows and ordered to play with her. Her brother and Badshah had to +join in the game, too. Frank, chasing the dainty mite round and round +the elephant, began to think himself in the Garden of Eden. + +But that same evening he found that his Himalayan Paradise was not +without its serpent. The three officers of the detachment were seated at +dinner on the Mess verandah, Major Hunt with his back to the rough stone +wall of the building. A swinging oil lamp with a metal shade threw the +light downward and left the ceiling and upper part of the wall in +shadow. + +When dinner was ended the Commandant, lighting a cheerot, tilted his +chair on its back legs until his head nearly touched the wall. Frank, +talking to him, chanced to look up at the roof. He stared into the +shadows for a moment, then, suddenly grasping the astonished major by +the collar, jerked him out of his chair. And as he did so a snake, a +deadly hill-viper, which had been trying to climb up the rough face of +the wall, slipped and dropped on to the Commandant's chair, slid to the +floor and glided across the verandah and down into the garden before +anyone could find a stick with which to attack it. + +Major Hunt, his sallow face a little paler than usual, looked up at the +wall to see if any more reptiles were likely to follow, then sat down +again calmly. + +"Thank you, Wargrave," he said quietly. "But for you that brute would +have got me. And his bite is death. Ranga's full of snakes, like all +these places in the hills. We've killed several in the Mess since I've +been here; but no one's had such a close shave as this. I'll stand you a +drink for that. Hi, boy!" + +But for all this quiet manner of taking it Frank had made a staunch +friend that night by his prompt action. + +As Burke took the filled glass that the Gurkha mess-servant brought him +at the Major's order he said: + +"I hate snakes worse than the Divil hates holy wather. They're the only +things in life I'm afraid av. I never go to bed without looking under +the pillow nor put on my boots in the morning without first turning them +up and shaking them. I wish St. Pathrick had made a trip to India and +dhriven the sarpints out av the counthry the same as he did in +Ireland." + +"We've the worst snake in the world, I believe, here in the Terai, +Wargrave," said Major Hunt. "Look out for it when you're in the jungle. +It's the hamadryad or king-cobra. Have you heard of it?" + +"I saw the skin of one sixteen feet long in a Bombay museum, sir," +replied the subaltern. + +"It's the only snake in Asia that will attack human beings unprovoked; +it's deadly poisonous, unlike all other big snakes, and they say it +moves so fast that it can overtake a man on a pony. Benson, the Forest +Officer of the district, tells me there are many of them in the jungles +here." + +"One av the divils chased Dermot's elephant once and turned on the +Colonel when he interfered. It got its head blown off for its pains," +put in the doctor. + +"Don't tell me any more, Burke," exclaimed Wargrave laughing, "or I +won't be able to sleep to-night." + +He pushed back his chair as the Commandant rose from the table and, +saying goodnight to the two junior officers, picked up from the verandah +and lit a hurricane lantern and walked down the Mess steps with it on +his way home to his bungalow. Europeans in India do not care to move +about at night without a lamp lest in the darkness they might tread on a +snake. + +Early on the following Monday morning Wargrave, dressed in khaki +knickerbockers, shirt and puttees, and wearing besides his pith helmet +a "spine protector"--a quilted cloth pad buttoned to the back--as a +guard against sunstroke, went down to the Dermots' bungalow. In the +garden the Colonel, also prepared for their shooting expedition, stood +talking to his wife, while their children were trying to climb up +Badshah's legs. The elephant was equipped with a light pad provided with +large pockets into which were thrust Thermos flasks, packets of +sandwiches and of cartridges. Close by two servants were holding guns. + +"Good morning, Wargrave," said the Colonel, as the subaltern greeted him +and his wife. "You're in good time." + +Eileen, deserting Badshah, ran to Frank and demanded to be lifted up and +kissed. When he had obeyed the small tyrant, he said: + +"I haven't brought a rifle, sir." + +"That's right. I have one and a ball-and-shot gun for you. We'll walk +down to the _peelkhana_ by a short cut through the hills to look for +_kalej_ pheasant on the way. Take the gun with you and load one barrel +with shot; but put a bullet in the other, for you never know what we may +meet. Badshah will go down by the road, as well as one of the servants +to bring the rifles and tell the _mahouts_ to get a detachment elephant +ready. It will follow us in the jungle to carry any animals we kill, +while we'll ride Badshah." + +Kissing his wife and children the Colonel led the way down the road, +followed by Frank and the servant, Badshah walking unattended behind +them. + +"Good sport, Mr. Wargrave!" called out Mrs. Dermot, as the subaltern +turned at the gate to take off his hat in a farewell salute; and the +little coquette beside her kissed her tiny hand to him. + +After they had gone half a mile the two officers, carrying their +fowling-pieces, turned off along a footpath through the undergrowth, +leaving the servant and the elephant to continue down the road. The +track led steeply down the mountain-side, at first between high, +closely-matted bushes, and then through scrub-jungle dotted with small +trees, among the foliage of which gleamed the yellow fruit of the limes +and the plantain's glossy drooping leaves and long curving stalks from +which the nimble fingers of wild monkeys had plucked the ripe bananas. +Here and there the ground was open; and the path following a natural +depression in the hills gave down the gradually widening valley a view +of the panorama of forest and plain lying below. + +As they passed a clump of tangled bushes a rustle and a pattering over +the dry leaves under them caught the Colonel's ear. + +"Look out! _Kalej_," he whispered, picking up a stone and throwing it +into the cover. A large speckled black and white bird whirred out; and +Wargrave brought it down. + +"Good shot! There's another," called out Dermot, and fired with equal +success. "We're lucky," he continued. "As a rule they won't break, but +scuttle along under the bushes, so that one often has to shoot them +running." + +Frank picked up the birds and examined them with interest before the +Colonel stuffed them into his game bag and moved on down the path, which +was growing steeper. The trees became more numerous and larger as they +descended nearer the forest. Out of another clump of bushes the +sportsmen succeeded in getting a second brace of pheasants. Lower down +they passed through a belt of bamboos, where in one spot the long +feathery boughs were broken off or twisted in wild confusion for a space +of fifty yards' radius. + +"Wild elephants," said the Political Officer briefly and pointed to a +patch of dust in which was the round imprint of a huge foot. + +Frank was a little startled; for he felt that against these great +animals the bullets in their guns would be useless. + +"Are they dangerous, sir?" he asked. + +"Not as a rule when they are in a herd, although cow-elephants with +calves may be so, fearing peril for their young. But sometimes a bull +takes to a solitary life, becomes vicious and develops into a dangerous +rogue. It probably happens that, finding crops growing near a jungle +village and raiding them, he is driven off by the cultivators, turns +savage and kills some of them. Then he usually seems to take a hatred to +all human beings and attacks them on sight. Hallo! here we are at the +_peelkhana_ at last." + +They had reached the high wooden building which housed the three +transport elephants of the detachment. In the clearing before it Badshah +and another animal were standing, a group of _mahouts_ and coolies near +them. + +"We'll mount and start at once," said Colonel Dermot, beckoning to his +elephant, which came to him. "Get up, Wargrave." + +The subaltern looked up doubtfully at the pad on Badshah's back. + +"How can I, sir? Isn't he going to kneel?" he asked. + +"Put your foot on his trunk when he crooks it and grab hold of his ears. +He'll lift you up then." + +The understanding elephant at once curled its trunk invitingly and +cocked its great ears forward. Frank did as he was directed and found +himself raised in the air until he was able to get on to the elephant's +head and from it scrambled on to the pad. Dermot followed and seated +himself astride the huge neck. + +"_Mul_! (Go on!)" he ejaculated. + +With a swaying, lurching stride Badshah at once moved across the +clearing, followed by the transport elephant, on to which a _mahout_ and +a coolie had climbed, and plunged into the dense undergrowth which was +so high that it nearly closed over the riders' heads. The sudden change +from the blinding glare of the sun to the enchanting green gloom of the +forest, from the intense heat to the refreshing coolness of the shade, +was delightful. + +Beyond the clearing the vegetation was tangled and rank, high grass +concealing thorny shrubs, tall matted bushes covered with large, white, +bell-shaped flowers, all so dense that men on foot could not push their +way through. But it divided like water before the leading elephant's +weight and strength. The trees were now not the lesser growths of +bamboo, lime and sago-palm that covered the foot-hills. They were the +great forest giants, enormous teak, _sal_ and _simal_ trees, towering up +bare of branches for a good height above the ground, rising to the green +canopy overhead and thrusting their leafy crowns through it, seeking +their share of the sunlight. Their massive branches were matted thick +with the glossy green leaves of orchid-plants and draped with long +trails of the beautiful mauve and white blossoms of the exotic flowers. +Hanging from the highest branches or swinging between the massive boles +creepers of every kind rioted in bewildering confusion, a chaos of +natural cordage, of festooned _lianas_ thick as a liner's hawser, some +twisting around each other, others coiling about the tree-trunks, biting +deep into the bark or striving to strangle them in a cruel grip. Not +even the elephants' weight and strength could burst through the stout +network of these creepers in places. While they tore at the obstructions +with their trunks it was necessary for their drivers to hack through the +creepers with their sharp _kukris_--the heavy curved knives carried in +their belts and similar to the Gurkha's favourite weapon. + +Here and there the party came upon glades free from undergrowth, where +in the cool shade of the great trees the ground was knee-deep in +bracken. In one such spot Wargrave's eye was caught by a flash of bright +colour, and his rifle went half-way to his shoulder, only to be lowered +again when he saw two _sambhur_ hinds, graceful animals with glossy +chestnut hides, watching the advancing elephants curiously but without +fear. For, used to seeing wild ones, they did not realise that Badshah +and his companion carried human beings. Their sex saved them from the +hunters who, leaving them unscathed, passed on and plunged into the +dense undergrowth on the far side of the clearing. + +The elephants fed continually as they moved along. Sweeping up great +bunches of grass, tearing down trails of leafy creepers, breaking off +branches from the trees, they crammed them all impartially into their +mouths. Picking up twigs in their trunks they used them to beat their +sides and legs to drive off stinging insects or, snuffing up dust from +the ground, blew clouds of it along their bellies for the same purpose. + +Suddenly the Colonel stopped Badshah and whispered: + +"There's a _sambhur_ stag, Wargrave. There, to your left in the +undergrowth. Have a shot at him." + +The subaltern looked everywhere eagerly, but in the dense tangle could +not discern the animal. Like all novices in the jungle he directed his +gaze too far away; and suddenly a dark patch of deep shadow in the +undergrowth close by materialised itself into the black hide of a stag +only as it dashed off. It had been standing within fifteen paces of the +elephants, knowing the value of immobility as a shield. At last its +nerve failed it; and it revealed itself by breaking away. But as it fled +Colonel Dermot's rifle spoke; and the big deer crumpled up and fell +crashing through the vegetation to the ground. The second elephant's +_mahout_, a grey-bearded Mahommedan, slipped instantly to the earth and, +drawing his _kukri_, struggled through the arresting creepers and +undergrowth to where the stag lay feebly moving its limbs. Seizing one +horn he performed the _hallal_, that is, he cut its throat to let blood +while there was still life in the animal, muttering the short Mussulman +creed as he did so. For his religion enjoins this hygienic +practice--borrowed by the Prophet from the Mosaic law--to guard against +long-dead carrion being eaten. At the touch of the Colonel's hand +Badshah sank to its knees; and Wargrave, very annoyed with himself for +his slowness in detecting the deer, forced his way through the +undergrowth to examine it. The stag was a fine beast fourteen hands +high, with sharp brow antlers and a pair of thick, stunted horns +branching at the ends into two points. + +Leaving the elephants to graze freely the _mahout_ and his coolie +disembowelled the _sambhur_ and hacked off the head with their heavy +_kukris_. Aided by the Political Officer and Wargrave they skinned the +animal and then with the skill of professional butchers proceeded to cut +up the carcase into huge joints. While they were thus engaged the +Colonel went to a small, straight-stemmed tree common in the jungle and, +clearing away a patch of the outer mottled bark, disclosed a white inner +skin, which he cut off in long strips. With these, which formed +unbreakable cordage, they fastened the heavy joints to the pad of the +transport elephant. + +When this was done Wargrave, looking at his hands covered with blood and +grime, said ruefully: + +"How on earth are we to get clean, sir? Is there any water in the +jungle? We haven't seen any." + +The Political Officer, looking about him, pointed to a thick creeper +with withered-seeming bark and said with a laugh: + +"There's your water, Wargrave. Lots of it on tap. See here." + +He cut off a length of the _liana_, which contained a whitish, pulpy +interior. From the two ends of the piece water began to drip steadily +and increased to a thin stream. + +"By George, sir, that's a plant worth knowing," said Frank. + +"It's a most useful jungle product," said the Colonel, holding it up so +that his companion, using clay as soap, could wash his hands. "It's +called the _pani bel_--water-creeper. One need never die of thirst in a +forest where it is found. Try the water in it." + +He raised it so that the clear liquid flowed into the subaltern's mouth. +It was cool, palatable and tasteless. + +"By George, sir, that's good," exclaimed Wargrave, examining the plant +carefully. "Now let me hold it for you." + +After Dermot and the two natives had cleansed their hands and arms the +party moved on, the transport elephant looking like an itinerant +butcher's shop as it followed Badshah. Again the undergrowth parted +before the great animals like the sea cleft by the bows of a ship and +closed similarly behind them when they had passed. Of its own volition +the leader swerved one side or the other when it was necessary to avoid +a tree-trunk or too dense a tangle of obstructing creepers. But once +Dermont touched and turned it sharply out of its course to escape what +seemed a very large lump of clay adhering to the under side of an +overhanging bough in their path. + +"A wild bees' nest," said the Colonel, pointing to it. "It wouldn't do +to risk hitting against that and being stung to death by its occupants." + +A few minutes later he suddenly arrested Badshah at the edge of a +fern-carpeted glade and whispered: + +"Look out! There's a barking-deer. Get him!" + +Across the glade a graceful little buck with a bright chestnut coat +stepped daintily, followed at a respectful distance by his doe. Their +restless ears pointed incessantly this way and that for every warning +sound as they moved; but neither saw the elephants hidden in the +undergrowth. Raising his rifle Frank took a quick aim at the buck's +shoulder and fired. The deer pitched forward and fell dead, while its +startled mate swung round and leapt wildly away. + +"A good shot of yours, Wargrave," remarked Colonel Dermot, when Badshah +had advanced to the prostrate animal. "Broke its shoulder and pierced +the heart." + +Frank looked down pityingly at the pretty little deer stretched lifeless +among the ferns. + +"It seems a shame to slaughter a harmless thing like that," he said. + +"Yes; I always feel the same myself and never kill except for food," +replied the Political Officer. "Unless of course it's a dangerous beast +like a tiger. Well, the _khakur_ is too dead to _hallal_; but that +doesn't matter, as we're going to eat it ourselves and not give it to +the sepoys." + +The _mahout_ and the coolie were already cleaning the deer and, without +troubling to cut it up, bound its legs together with _udal_ fibre and +tied it to the pad of their elephant; and the party moved on again. + +Half a mile further on the silence of the forest was broken by the loud +crowing of a cock, taken up and answered defiantly by others. + +"Hallo! are we near a village, sir?" asked Wargrave, surprised at the +familiar sounds so far in the heart of the wild. + +"No; those are jungle-fowl," whispered the Political Officer. "Get your +gun ready." + +He halted the elephant and picked up his fowling-piece. Frank hurriedly +substituted a shot cartridge for the one loaded with ball in his gun. He +heard a pattering on the dry leaves under the trees and into a fairly +open space before them stalked a pretty little bantam cock with red comb +and wattles and curving green tail-feathers, followed by four or five +sober brown hens, so like in every respect to domestic fowl that +Wargrave hesitated to shoot. But suddenly the birds whirred up into the +air; and, as the Colonel gave them both barrels, Frank did the same. The +cock and three of his wives dropped. The _mahout_ urged his elephant +forward and made the reluctant animal pick up the crumpled bunches of +blood-stained feathers in its curving trunk and pass them to him. + +Colonel Dermont searched the jungle for some distance around but could +not find the other jungle-cocks that had answered the dead one's +challenge. Looking at his watch he suggested a halt for lunch, which +Wargrave, whose back was beginning to ache with fatigue, gladly agreed +to. Dismounting, they sat on the ground and ate and drank the contents +of the pockets of Badshah's pad, but with loaded rifles beside them lest +their meal should be disturbed by any dangerous denizen of the jungle. +The two natives sat down some distance away and, turning their backs on +each other, drew out cloths in which their midday repast of _chupatis_, +or thick pancakes, with curry and an onion or two was tied up. The +elephants left to themselves grazed close by and did not attempt to +wander away. + +Their meal and a smoke finished the party mounted again and moved on. +But luck seemed to have deserted them. Much to the Political Officer's +disappointment they wandered for miles without adding anything to the +bag. He had calculated on getting another couple of _sambhur_ stags to +present to the _Deb Zimpun_ as food for his hungry followers. The route +that they were now taking led circuitously back towards the _peelkhana_, +which they wished to reach before sundown. They had got within a mile of +it and were close to the foot of the hills when Badshah stopped suddenly +and smelt the ground. Colonel Dermot leaned over the huge head and +stared down intently at something invisible to his young companion. + +"What is it, sir?" asked Wargrave in a whisper. + +"Bison. Badshah's pointing for us. We can't shoot them here, for we're +in Government jungle where the killing of elephants, bison and rhino is +forbidden unless they attack you. But the track leads north towards the +mountains and at their foot the Government Forest ends. That's only half +a mile away and we can bag them there. Load your rifle with solid-nosed +bullets. This is the _pug_ (footprint) of a bull, I think." + +The two natives had seen the tracks by this and were wildly excited. +Badshah without urging moved swiftly through the trees and soon brought +his riders to the hills and into sight of the sky once more. The +mountains stood out clear and distinct in the slanting rays of the +setting sun. Suddenly a loud though distant, almost musical bellow +sounded, seeming to come from a bamboo jungle about a mile away. + +"That's a cow-bison calling," said Dermot in a low voice. "There's a +herd somewhere about; but the '_pugs_' we're following up are those of a +solitary bull. We're in free forest now; so with luck you may get your +first bison. It's very steep here; we'll dismount, leave the elephants +and go on foot." + +The subaltern was wildly excited, and his heart thumped at a rate that +was not caused by the steep slope up which he followed Dermot. The +Colonel tracked the bull unhesitatingly, although to Wargrave there was +no mark to be seen on the ground. + +They were creeping cautiously through bamboo cover on a hill when +Dermot, who was leading, suddenly threw himself on his face, lay still +for a minute or two, then, motioning to his companion to halt, crawled +forward like a snake. A few paces on he stopped and beckoned to +Wargrave, and, when the latter reached him, pointed down into the gully +below. They were almost on the edge of a descent precipitous enough to +be called a cliff. Immediately underneath by a small stream was a +massive black bull-bison, eighteen hands--six feet--high, with short, +square, head, broad ears and horizontal rounded horns. The only touches +of colour were on the forehead and the legs below the knees, which were +whitish. The animal, with head thrown back, was staring vacantly with +its large, slatey-blue eyes. + +Wargrave trembled with excitement and his heart beat so violently that +the rifle shook as he brought it to his shoulder and gently pushed the +muzzle through the stiff, dry grass at the edge of the cliff. But for +the one necessary instant he became rigidly steady and without a tremor +pressed the trigger. Then the rifle barrels danced again before his +eyes, when he saw the great bull collapse on the ground, its fore-legs +twitching violently, the hind ones motionless. + +"Good shot. You've broken his spine," exclaimed Dermot, springing to his +feet and sliding, scrambling, jumping down the steep descent. The +excited subaltern outstripped him; but before he reached the bull it +lay motionless, dead. + +"You're a lucky young man, Wargrave. A splendid bison on your first day +in the jungle. Those horns are six feet from tip to tip I bet," and the +Political Officer held out his hand. + +Frank shook it heartily as he said gratefully: + +"I've only you to thank for it, sir. It was ripping of you to let me +have first shot; and you gave me such a sitter that I couldn't miss. +Thank you awfully, Colonel." + +Dermot gave a piercing whistle and stood waiting, while the overjoyed +subaltern walked round and round the dead bison, marvelling at its size +and exclaiming at his own good fortune. + +When in a few minutes Badshah appeared, followed by the panting men, +Colonel Dermot sent the _mahout_ on his elephant to the stable to fetch +other men to cut up and bring in the bison. Then he and Wargrave on +Badshah made for the road to Ranga Duar. + +It was dark long before they reached the little station. The Colonel +brought his companion in for a drink after the three thousand feet +climb, most of which they had done on foot. Mrs. Dermot met them in the +hall; and, after she had heard the result of the day's sport, warmly +congratulated Wargrave on his good luck. Loud whispers and a scuffle +over their heads attracted the attention of all three elders, and on +the broad wooden staircase they saw two small figures, one in pyjamas, +the other in a pretty, trailing nightdress daintily tied with blue bows, +looking imploringly down at their mother. She smiled and nodded. There +was a whirlwind rush down the stairs, and the mites were caught up in +their father's arms. Then Frank came in for his share of caresses from +them before they were sternly ordered back to bed again. And as he +passed out into the darkness he carried away with him an enchanting +picture of the charming babes climbing the stairs hand in hand and +turning to blow kisses to the tall man who stood below with a strong arm +around his pretty wife, gazing fondly up at his children. + +And the picture stayed with him when, after dinner at which he was +congratulated by his brother officers, he went to his room and found a +letter overlooked in his rush to dress for Mess. It was from Violet, the +first that had come from her since his arrival in Ranga Duar. It +breathed passion and longing, discontent and despair, in every line. As +he laid his face on his arm to shut out the light where he sat at the +table he felt that he was nearer to loving the absent woman than he had +ever been. For the vision of the Dermots' married happiness, of the deep +affection linking husband and wife, of the children climbing the stair +and smiling back at their parents, came vividly to him. And it haunted +him in his sleep when in dreams tiny arms were clasped around his neck +and baby lips touched his lovingly. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +A GIRL OF THE FOREST + + +From the frontier of Bhutan, six thousand feet up on the face of the +mountains, a line of men wound down the serpentining track that led to +Ranga Duar. At their head walked a stockily-built man with cheery +Mongolian features, wearing a white cloth garment, _kimono_-shaped and +kilted up to give freedom to the sturdy bare thighs and knees--the legs +and feet cased in long, felt-soled boots. It was the _Deb Zimpun_, the +Envoy of the independent Border State of Bhutan. Behind him came a tall +man in khaki tunic, breeches, puttees and cap, his breast covered with +bright-coloured ribbons. His uniform was similar to the British; but his +face was unmistakeably Chinese, as were those of the twenty tall, +khaki-clad soldiers armed with magazine rifles at his heels. They were +followed by three or four score Bhutanese swordsmen, thick-set and not +unlike Gurkhas in feature, with bare heads, legs and feet, and clad only +in a single garment similar to their leader's and kilted up by a cord +around the waist, from which hung a _dah_, a short sword or long knife. +In rear of them trudged a number of coolies, some laden with bundles, +others with baskets of fruit. + +Where the track came out on the bare shoulder of a spur free from the +small trees and undergrowth clothing the mountains the _Deb Zimpun_ +pointed to the roofs of the buildings in the little station a thousand +feet below them and hitherto invisible to them. + +"That is Ranga Duar," he said briefly. The Chinaman behind him looked +down at it. + +"It seems a very small and weak place to have stopped our invading +troops in the war," he said in Bhutanese. "So here lives the Man." + +"The Man? Yes, perhaps he is a man. But many, very many, there be that +think him a god or devil. They say he can call up a horde of demons in +the form of elephants. With such he trampled your army into the earth. + +"Devils? Leave such tales to lamas and the ignorant fools that believe +their teaching. But if even a part of what I have heard about this man +be true he is more dangerous than many devils. He stands in China's way, +and he who does shall be swept aside." + +"He is my friend," said the _Deb Zimpun_ shortly, and tramped on in +silence. + +Before they reached the station they were met by two of the Political +Officer's men, Bhuttias resident in British territory, detailed to +receive and guide them to the Government Dâk Bungalow in which the _Deb +Zimpun_ and as many of his followers as could crowd into it were to +reside during their stay. Arrived at it the long line filed into the +compound. + +Half a mile away down the hill Colonel Dermot and Wargrave watched them +through their field-glasses. + +"Who is that fellow in khaki uniform, sir?" asked the subaltern. + +The Political Officer lowered his binoculars and laughed. + +"A gentlemen I've been very anxious to meet. He's the Chinese +_Amban_--we call him an Envoy of the Republic of China to Bhutan. But +the Chinese themselves prefer to regard him as a representative of the +suzerainty they pretend to exercise over the country. I'm curious to see +him. He is a product of the times, an example of the modern Celestial, +educated at Heidelberg University and Oxford, speaking German, French +and English. He has been specially chosen by his Government to come to a +Buddhist land, as he is a son of the abbot of the Yellow Lama Temple in +Pekin and so might have influence with the Bhutanese by reason of his +connection with their religion." + +"But what have the Chinese to do with Bhutan?" + +"Nothing now. But they've been intriguing for years to re-establish the +suzerainty they once had over it. This _Amban_, Yuan Shi Hung by name, +is a clever, unscrupulous and particularly dangerous individual." + +"You seem to know a lot about him, Colonel." + +"It's my business to do so. There is no apparent reason for his coming +here with the _Deb Zimpun_, nor has he a right to. But I won't object, +for I want to study and size him up. By the way, the Envoy will make his +official call on me this morning. Would you like to be present?" + +"Very much indeed. I'm always interested in seeing the various races of +India and learning all I can about them. I'd love a job like yours, sir, +going into out-of-the-way places and dealing with strange peoples." + +"Would you?" The Political Officer looked at him thoughtfully. "Are you +good at picking up native languages?" + +"Fairly so. I got through my Lower and Higher Standard Hindustani first +go and have passed in Marathi and taken the Higher Standard, Persian." + +Colonel Dermot regarded him critically and then said abruptly: + +"Come to my office a few minutes before eleven. That's the hour I've +fixed for the _Deb Zimpun's_ visit." + +Punctually at the time named Wargrave reached the Dermots' bungalow, on +the road outside which, a Guard of Honour of fifty sepoys under an +Indian officer was drawn up. Passing along the verandah he entered the +office and saluted the Colonel who, seated at his desk, looked up and +nodded for him to be seated and then returned to the despatch that he +was writing. + +In a few minutes a confused murmur drew nearer down the road and was +stilled by the sharp words of command to the Guard of Honour and by the +ring of rifles brought to the present in salute. Over the low wall of +the garden appeared the heads and shoulders of the Envoy and his Chinese +companion, followed by a train of attendants and swordsmen. They passed +in through the gate. The Political Officer rose as the _Deb Zimpun_, +removing his cap, entered the office and rushed towards him. The +bullet-headed, cheery old gentleman beamed with pleasure as they shook +hands and greeted each other in Bhutanese. Wargrave marvelled at the +ease and fluency with which Colonel Dermot spoke the language. The +_Amban_ now entered the room and was formally presented by the _Deb +Zimpun_. + +Speaking in excellent English but with an accent that showed that he had +first acquired it in Germany, he said: + +"I am very pleased to meet you, Colonel. I have heard much of you in +Bhutan." + +"It gives me equal pleasure to make Your Excellency's acquaintance and +to welcome you to India," replied Dermot with a bow. + +Then in his turn Wargrave was presented to the two Asiatics, and the +Envoy, calling an attendant in, took from him two white scarves of +Chinese silk and placed one round each officer's neck in the custom +known as "_khattag_". All sat down and the Envoy plunged into an +animated conversation with Colonel Dermot, first producing a metal box +and taking betel-nut from it to chew, while the attendant placed a +spittoon conveniently near him. + +Yuan Shi Hung chatted in English with Wargrave, who was astonished to +find him a well-educated man of the world and thoroughly conversant with +European politics, art and letters. But for the inscrutable yellow face +the subaltern could have believed himself to be talking to an able +Continental diplomat. The contrast between the semi-savage Bhutanese +official and his companion, in whom the most modern civilised +gentleman's manners were successfully grafted on the old-time courtesy +of the Chinese aristocrat, was very striking. The old Envoy was a frank +barbarian. He laughed loudly and clapped his hands in glee when Colonel +Dermot presented him with a gramophone--which, it appeared, he had +longed for ever since seeing one on a previous visit to India--and +taught him how to work it. He showed his betel-stained teeth in an +ecstatic grin when a record was turned on and from the trumpet came the +Political Officer's familiar voice addressing him by name and in his own +language with many flourishes of Oriental compliment. + +Towards the termination of their call the _Deb Zimpun_ called in two +attendants with large baskets of fine blood oranges and walnuts from +Bhutan and presented them in return. A number of coolies were needed to +carry off the royal gift of the flesh of the bison, the sight of which +made the Envoy's eyes glisten. He shook Wargrave's hand warmly when he +learned to whose rifle he owed it. Then he and his Chinese companion +took their leave, and with their followers passed up the hilly road. +Wargrave, gazing after them, came to the conclusion that of the pair he +preferred the savage to the ultra-cultivated Celestial. + +Having thanked the Colonel for permitting him to be present at the +interview, which had interested him greatly, the subaltern was about to +leave when Mrs. Dermot appeared at the office door. + +"May I come in, Kevin?" she began. "Oh, good morning, Mr. Wargrave. I +was just sending a _chit_ (letter) to you and Captain Burke asking you +to tea this afternoon. A coolie has arrived from the _peelkhana_ to say +that Mr. and Miss Benson and Mr. Carter are on their way up and will be +here soon. So you'll meet them at tea. You will like Miss Benson. She's +a dear girl." + +"Thanks very much, Mrs. Dermot. I'll be delighted to come, if you'll +forgive me should I be a little late. I've got to take the signallers' +parade this afternoon. I'll tell Burke when I get to the Mess. I'm going +straight there now." + +"Thank you. That will save me writing. _Au revoir_." + +Half-way up the road to the Mess Wargrave looked back and saw an +elephant heave into sight around a bend below the Dermots' house and +plod heavily up to their gate. On the _charjama_--the passenger-carrying +contrivance of wooden seats on the pad with footboards hanging by short +ropes--sat a lady and two European men holding white umbrellas up to +keep off the vertical rays of the noonday sun. When the animal sank to +its knees in front of the bungalow Wargrave saw the girl--it could only +be Miss Benson--spring lightly to the ground before either of her +companions could dismount and offer to help her. Her big sunhat hid her +face, and at that distance Wargrave could only see that she was small +and slight, as she walked up the garden path. + +When the signallers' afternoon practice was over the subaltern passed +across the parade ground to the Political Officer's house. When he +entered the pretty drawing-room, bright with the gay colours of chintz +curtains and cushions, he found the strangers present, one man talking +to Mrs. Dermot at her tea-table, the other chatting with the Colonel, +while Burke was installed beside a girl seated in a low cane chair and +dressed in a smart, hand-embroidered Tussore silk dress, _suede_ shoes +and silk stockings. Little Brian stood beside her with one arm +affectionately round her neck, while Eileen was perched in her lap. But +when Frank appeared the mite wriggled down to the floor and rushed to +him. + +The subaltern was presented to Miss Benson, her father and Carter, the +Sub-Divisional Officer or Civil Service official of the district. When +he sat down Eileen clambered on to his knee and seriously interfered +with his peaceful enjoyment of his tea; but while he talked to her he +was watching Miss Benson over the small golden head. She was +astonishingly pretty, with silky black hair curving in natural waves, +dark-bordered Irish grey eyes fringed with long, thick lashes, a +rose-tinted complexion, a pouting, red-lipped mouth and a small nose +with the most fascinating, provoking suspicion of a tip-tilt. She was as +small and daintily-fashioned as her hostess; and Wargrave thought it +marvellous that their forgotten outpost on the face of the mountains +should hold two such pretty women at the same time. His comrade Burke +was evidently acutely conscious of Muriel Benson's attractions, and, his +pleasantly ugly face aglow with a happy smile, he was flirting as openly +and outrageously with her as she with him. + +"Sure, it's a cure for sore eyes ye are, Miss Flower Face," he said. +"That's the name I christened her with the first moment I saw her, +Wargrave. Doesn't it fit her?" Then turning to the girl again, he +continued, "Aren't you ashamed av yourself for laving me to pine for a +sight av ye all these weary months?" + +Miss Benson could claim to be Irish on her mother's side and so was a +ready-witted match for the doctor's Celtic exuberance; though to +Wargrave watching it seemed that Burke's easy banter cloaked a deeper +feeling. + +Drawn into their conversation Frank found the girl to be natural and +unaffected, without a trace of conceit, gifted with a keen sense of +humour and evidently as full of the joy of living as a school-boy. He +thought her laugh delightfully musical, and it was frequently and +readily evoked by Burke's droll remarks or the quaint oracular sayings +from the self-possessed elf on Wargrave's knee. Her admiration of and +genuine affection for Mrs. Dermot was very evident when Noreen joined +their group. + +The subaltern, covertly and critically observing her, could hardly +believe the tales which their hostess had previously told him of the +courage and ability that this small and dainty girl had frequently +shown. But only a few minutes' conversation with her father convinced +Frank that he was an amiably weak and incompetent individual, more +fitted to be a recluse and a bookworm than a roamer in wild jungles +where his work brought him in contact with strange peoples and constant +danger. It was evident that the reputation which his large section of +the Terai Forest bore as being well managed and efficiently run was not +due to him and that somebody more capable had the handling of the work. +Hardly had Wargrave come to this conclusion and begun to believe that +the stories that he had heard of the daughter's business ability and +powers of organisation were true when he was given a very convincing +proof of her courage and coolness in danger. + +After tea, as the sun was nearing its setting and a deliciously cool +breeze blew down from the mountains, a move was made to the garden, +where the party sat in a circle and chatted. When evening came and the +dusk rose up from the world below, blotting out the light lingering on +the hills, Mrs. Dermot made her children say goodnight to the company +and bore them reluctant away to their beds. As the darkness deepened the +servants brought out a small table and placed a lamp on it, and by its +light carried round drinks to the men of the party. Miss Benson was +leaning back in a cane chair and chatting lazily with Burke, who sat +beside her. She had one shapely silk-clad leg crossed over the other, +and a small foot resting on the grass. Opposite her sat Colonel Dermot +and Wargrave. As the brilliant tropic stars came out in the velvety +blackness of the sky occasional silences fell on the party. A tale of +Burke's was interrupted by the Political Officer's voice, saying in a +quiet forceful tone: + +"Miss Benson, please do not move your foot. Remain perfectly still. A +snake is passing under your chair. Steady, Burke! Keep still!" + +There was a terror-stricken hush. Frank looked across in horror. The +lamplight barely showed in the shadow under the chair a deadly +hill-viper writhing its way out within a few inches of the small foot +firmly planted in its dainty, high-heeled shoe. He looked at the +motionless girl. Less pale than the men about her she sat quietly, +smiling faintly and apparently not frightened by the Death almost +touching her. One pink hand lay without a tremor in her lap, but the +other rested on the arm of her chair and the knuckles showed white as +the fingers gripped the bamboo tightly. She did not even glance down. +But the men, frozen with dread, watched the shadowy writhing line +passing her foot slowly, all too slowly, until it had wriggled out into +the centre of the circle of motionless beings. Then Colonel Dermot +sprang up. Seizing his light bamboo chair in his powerful grip he +whirled it aloft and brought it crashing down on the viper, shattering +the chair but smashing the reptile's spine in half a dozen places. + +The other men had risen from their seats; but the girl remained seated +and said quietly: + +"Thank you very much, Colonel, for warning me. I might easily have moved +my foot and trodden on the snake. I've seen so many of the horrid things +in camp lately. Now, Captain Burke, I'm sorry that the interruption +spoiled your story. Please go on with it." + +Her coolness silenced the men, who were breaking into exclamations of +relief and congratulation. Even her father sat down again calmly. + +But Burke's enthusiastic admiration of her courage found an outlet at +Mess that night when he recounted the adventure to Major Hunt and +appealed to Wargrave for confirmation of the story of her plucky +behaviour. Later in his room as he was going to bed Frank smiled at the +recollection of the Irishman's exuberant expressions; but he confessed +to himself that the girl's calm courage was worthy of every praise. + +"She is certainly brave," he thought. "I'm not surprised at old Burke's +infatuation. She is decidedly pretty. What lovely eyes she's got--and +what a provokingly attractive little nose! Well, the doctor's a lucky +man if she marries him. She seems awfully nice. Violet will certainly +have two very charming women friends in the station if she hits it off +with them." + +But as his eyes rested on her pictured face his heart misgave him; for +he remembered that she had little liking for her own sex. And then, he +told himself, these two would probably refuse to know a woman who had +run away from her husband to another man. When he had turned out the +light and jumped into bed he lay awake a long time puzzling over the +tangle into which the threads of her life and his seemed to have got. +Time alone could unravel it. + +He tossed uneasily on his bed, unable to sleep, and presently a slight +noise on the verandah outside caught his ear. He lay still and listened; +and it seemed to him that soft footfalls of a large animal's pads +sounded on the wooden flooring. Then suddenly he heard a beast sniffing +at his closed door. "A stray dog," he thought. But suddenly he +remembered Burke's account of the panther that haunted the Mess; and a +thrill of excitement ran through him and drove all his unhappy thoughts +away. He sprang out of bed and rushed across the room to get his rifle, +but in the darkness overturned a chair which fell with a crash to the +ground. This scared the animal; for there was a sudden scurry outside, +and by the time Wargrave had found the rifle and groped for a couple of +cartridges there was nothing to be seen on the verandah when he threw +open the door. It was a brilliant star-lit night. Burke called to him +from his room and when Wargrave went to him said that he too had heard +the animal, which was undoubtedly the panther. + +Returning to bed Frank was dropping off to sleep half an hour later when +he was startled by a shrill, agonised shriek coming from a distance. +Rifle in hand he rushed out on to the verandah again and heard faint +shouts coming from a small group of Bhuttia huts on a shoulder of the +hills hundreds of feet above the Mess. He called out but got no answer; +and after listening for some time and hearing nothing further he +returned to bed and at last fell asleep. In the morning he learned that +the panther had made a daring raid on a hut and carried off a Bhuttia +wood-cutter's baby from its sleeping mother's side, and had devoured it +in the jungle not two hundred yards away. + +The Durbar, or official ceremony of the public reception of the Bhutan +Envoy and the paying over to him of the annual subsidy of a hundred +thousand rupees, was held in a marquee on the parade ground in the +afternoon. There was a Guard of Honour of a hundred sepoys to salute, +first the Political Officer and afterwards the _Deb Zimpun_ when he +arrived on a mule at the head of his swordsmen and coolies. The +solemnity of his dignified greeting to Colonel Dermot was somewhat +spoiled by shrieks of delight and loud remarks from Eileen (who was +seated beside her mother in the marquee) at the stately appearance of +the Envoy. He was attired in a very voluminous red Chinese silk robe +embroidered in gold and wearing a peculiar gold-edged cap shaped like a +papal tiara. + +The Political Officer's official dinner took place that evening at his +bungalow. Besides the officers and the three European visitors the _Deb +Zimpun_ and the _Amban_ were present. The latter wore conventional +evening dress cut by a London tailor, with the stars and ribands of +several orders. But the old Envoy in his flowing red silk robe +completely outshone the two ladies, although Miss Benson was wearing her +most striking frock. + +"Sure, don't we look like a State Banquet at Buckingham Palace or a +charity dinner at the Dublin Mansion House?" said Burke, looking around +the company gathered about the oval dining-table. He was seated beside +Miss Benson, who was on the host's right and facing the _Amban_ on his +left. + +At the Durbar Wargrave had noticed that the Chinaman stared all the time +at the girl, and now during the meal he seemed to devour her with an +unpleasant gaze, gloating over the beauties of her bared shoulders and +bosom until she became uncomfortably conscious of it herself. The +unveiled flesh of a white woman is peculiarly attractive to the Asiatic, +the better-class females of whose race are far less addicted to the +public exposure of their charms than are European ladies. While the _Deb +Zimpun_ touched nothing but water the _Amban_ drank champagne, port and +liqueurs freely--even the untravelled Chinaman is partial to European +liquors--yet they seemed not to affect him. But his slanted eyes burned +all the more fiercely as their gaze was fixed on the girl opposite him. + +He endeavoured to engage her in conversation across the table, and +appeared ready to resent anyone else intervening in the talk as he +dilated on the gaieties and pleasures of life in London, Berlin and +Paris, where he had been attached to the Chinese Embassies. He glared at +Burke when the doctor persisted in mentioning the panther's visit during +the previous night, for the conversation at their end of the table then +turned on sport. A chance remark of Miss Benson on tiger-shooting made +Wargrave ask: + +"Have you shot tigers, too, like Mrs. Dermot? And I've never seen one +outside a cage!" + +The girl smiled, and the Colonel answered for her. + +"Miss Benson has got at least six. Seven, is it? More than my wife has. +And among them was the famous man-eater of Mardhura, which had killed +twenty-three persons. The natives of the district call her 'The Tiger +Girl.'" + +"Troth, my name for you is a prettier one, Miss Benson," said Burke +laughing. + +She made a _moue_ at him, but said to the subaltern: + +"Cheer up, Mr. Wargrave, you've lots of time before you yet. You +oughtn't to complain--you've only been a few days here and you've +already got a splendid bison. And they're rare in these parts." + +"We'll have to find him a tiger, Muriel," said their host. "When you +hear of a kill anywhere conveniently near, let me know and we'll arrange +a beat for him." + +"With pleasure, Colonel. We're soon going to the southern fringe of the +forest; and, as you know, there are usually tigers to be found in the +_nullahs_ on the borders of the cultivated country. I'll send you +_khubber_ (news)." + +"Thank you very much," said Wargrave. "I do want to get one." + +All through the conversation the girl felt the Chinaman's bold eyes +seeming to burn her flesh, and she was glad when the Political Officer +spoke to him and engaged his attention. And she was still more relieved +when dinner ended and Mrs. Dermot rose to leave the table. When the men +joined them later on the verandah Burke and Wargrave made a point of +hemming her in on both sides and keeping the _Amban_ off; for even the +short-sighted doctor had become cognisant of the Chinaman's offensive +stare. + +When he and the _Deb Zimpun_ had left the bungalow she said to the two +officers: + +"I'm so glad you didn't let that awful man come near me. He makes me +afraid. There's something so evil about him that I shudder when he looks +at me." + +"The curse av the crows on the brute!" exclaimed Burke hotly. "Don't ye +be afraid. We won't let the divil come next or nigh ye, will we, +Wargrave?" + +And on the following day when the visitors were entertained by athletic +sports of the detachment on the parade ground and an interesting archery +competition between excited teams of the _Deb Zimpun's_ followers and +of local Bhuttias, they allowed the _Amban_ no opportunity of +approaching her. During the sports Wargrave noticed on one occasion that +he seemed to be speaking of her to the commander of his escort of +Chinese soldiers, a tall, evil-faced Manchu, pock-marked and blind of +the right eye, who stared at her fixedly for some time. At the dinner at +the Mess that night the two ladies wore frocks that were very little +_décolleté_. Burke, as Mess President, had arranged the table so that +the _Amban_ was as far away from them as possible; and Wargrave and he +mounted guard over Miss Benson when the meal was ended. + +The _Deb Zimpun_ had fixed his departure for an early hour on the +following morning and was to be accompanied by the Political Officer, +who was going to visit the Maharajah of Bhutan. In the course of the day +the Chinese _Amban_ had announced to Colonel Dermot that he did not wish +to leave so soon and desired to remain longer in Ranga Duar; but the +Political Officer courteously but very firmly told him that he must go +with the Envoy. + +Early next morning, while Noreen Dermot was occupied with her children, +and her husband was completing his preparations for departure, Muriel +Benson went out into the garden. Badshah, pad strapped on ready for the +road, was standing at one side of the bungalow swinging his trunk and +shifting from foot to foot as he patiently awaited his master. The girl +greeted and petted him, then went to gather flowers and cut bunches of +bright-coloured leaves from high bushes of bougainvillea and poinsettia +that hid her from view from the house. + +Suddenly a harsh voice sounded in her ears. + +"I have tried to speak to you alone, but those fools were ever in my +way. Do not cry out. You must listen to me." + +She started violently and turned to find the _Amban_, dressed in khaki +and ready to march, behind her. Courageous as she usually was the +extraordinary repulsion and terror with which he inspired her kept her +silent as he continued: + +"I want you, and I shall take you sooner or later. Listen! I am one of +the richest men in all China. One day I shall be President--and then +Emperor the next; and when I rule my country shall no longer be the +effete, despised land torn with dissension that it is now. I can give +you everything that the heart of a woman, white or yellow, can +desire--take you from your dull, poverty-stricken life to raise you to +power and immense wealth. I shall return for you one day. Will you come +to me?" + +The girl drew back, pale as death and unable to cry out. He glanced +around. The tall, red-leaved bushes hid them; there was no one or +nothing within sight, except the elephant shifting restlessly. + +"Answer me!" he said almost menacingly. + +She was silent. He sprang forward and seized her roughly. + +"Speak! You must answer," he said. + +The girl shrank at his touch and struggled in vain in his powerful +grasp. + +Then suddenly she cried out: + +"Badshah!" + +The Chinaman thrust his face, inflamed with passion and desire, close to +hers. + +"You must, you shall, come to me--by force, if not willingly," he +growled. "By all the gods or devils----." + +But at that instant he was plucked from her by a resistless force and +hurled violently to the ground. Dazed and half-stunned he looked up and +saw the elephant standing over him with one colossal foot poised over +his prostrate body, ready to crush him to pulp. Brave as the Chinaman +was he trembled with terror at the imminent, awful death. + +But a quiet voice sounded clear through the garden. + +"_Jané do_! (Let him go!)" + +The elephant brought the threatening foot to the ground but stood, with +curled trunk and ears cocked forward, ready to annihilate him if the +invisible speaker gave the word. The girl shrank against the great +animal, clinging to it and looking with horror at the prostrate man. The +_Amban_ slowly dragged his bruised body from the ground and staggered +shaken and dizzy out of the garden. + +Muriel kissed the soft trunk and laid her cheek against it, and it +curved to touch her hair with a gentle caress. Then she fled into the +bungalow to find Colonel Dermot on the verandah grimly watching the +Chinaman stumbling blindly up the steep road. His wife beside him opened +her arms to the shaken girl. + +"He shall pay for that some day, Muriel," said the Political Officer +sternly. "But not yet." + +An hour later the two women watched the snaking line crawl up the steep +face of the mountains, and through field-glasses they could distinguish +Badshah with his master on his neck, the _Deb Zimpun_ and his followers +and the tall form of the Chinaman, until all vanished from sight in the +trees clothing the upper hills. + +Benson and Carter left that afternoon, Muriel remaining to spend a +longer time with her friend and, as she told Wargrave, to try and regain +the affections of the children which he had stolen from her. + +Frank was thinking of her next day as he was standing on the Mess +verandah after tea, cleaning his fowling-piece, when on a wooded spur +running down from the mountains and sheltering the little station on the +west he heard a jungle-cock crowing in the undergrowth not four hundred +yards away. Seizing a handful of cartridges he loaded his gun and, +running down the steps and across the garden, plunged into the jungle. +He walked cautiously, his rope-soled boots enabling him to move +silently, and stopped occasionally to listen for the bird's crow or the +telltale pattering over the dried leaves. Peering into the undergrowth +and searching the ground he crept quietly forward. Suddenly his heart +seemed to leap to his throat. In a patch of dust he saw the unmistakable +_pug_ (footprint) of a large panther. One claw had indented a new-fallen +leaf, showing that the animal had very recently passed. Wargrave halted +and thought hard. He had only his shotgun, but the sun was near its +setting and if he returned to the Mess to get his rifle--which was taken +to pieces and locked up in its case--darkness would probably fall before +he could overtake the panther, which was possibly moving on ahead of +him. So he resolved not to turn back, but opened the breech of his gun +and extracted the cartridges. With his knife he cut their thick cases +almost through all round at the wad, dividing the powder from the shot. +For he knew that thus treated and fired the whole upper portion of the +cartridges would be shot out of the barrels like solid bullets and carry +forty yards without breaking up and scattering the shot. + +Reloading he advanced cautiously, frequently losing and refinding the +trail. Creeping through a clump of thin bushes he stopped suddenly, +frozen with horror and dread. + +In an open patch of woodland the two Dermot children stood by a tree, +the girl huddled against the trunk, while the little boy had placed +himself in front of her and, with a small stick in his hand, was bravely +facing in her defence an animal crouching on the ground not twenty yards +away. It was a large panther. Belly to earth, tail lashing from side to +side, it was crawling slowly, imperceptibly nearer its prey. With ears +flattened against the skull and lips drawn back to bare the gleaming +fangs in a devilish grin it snarled at the brave child whose dauntless +attitude doubtless puzzled it. + +"Don't cry, Eileen. I won't let it hurt you," said the little boy +encouragingly. "Go 'way, nasty dog!" + +He raised his little stick above his head. A boy should always protect a +girl, his father had often said, so he was not going to let the beast +harm his tiny sister. The panther crouched lower. The watcher in the +bushes saw the powerful limbs gathering under the spotted body for the +fatal spring. Every muscle and sinew was tense for the last rush and +leap, as the subaltern raised his gun. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +TIGER LAND + + +Wargrave fired. His shot struck the panther rather far back, wounding +but not disabling it. It swung round to face its assailant. Seeing Frank +it promptly charged. The second cartridge took it in front of the +shoulder and raked its body from end to end. Coughing blood the beast +rolled over and over, biting its paws, clawing savagely at the earth, +trying to rise and falling back in fury, while Frank rapidly reloaded +and stepped between it and the children. But the convulsions became +fewer and less violent, the limbs stiffened, the beautiful black and +yellow body sank inert to the ground. The tail twitched a little. A few +tremors shook the panther. Then it lay still. + +The subaltern turned eagerly to the children. + +"It's Frank. Look, Eileen, it's Frank," cried Brian. "He's killed the +nasty dog." + +The little girl, who had sunk to the ground, struggled to her feet and +with her brother was swept up in a joyous embrace by the subaltern. +Then, bidding the boy hold on to the sleeve of the arm carrying the gun, +Wargrave started back with Eileen perched on his shoulder. As they +passed the panther's body she looked down at it and clapped her hands. + +"He's deaded. Nasty, bad dog!" she cried. + +Striking a path through the undergrowth the subaltern climbed down the +steep ravine that lay between the hill and the Political Officer's +bungalow. As he struggled up the steep side of the _nullah_ he heard +their mother calling the children with a note of inquietude in her +voice; and he answered her with a reassuring shout. Coming up on the +level behind the low stone wall of the garden he found Mrs. Dermot and +Muriel anxiously awaiting him. + +"Mumsie! Hallo, Mumsie! Here's me. Fwank shooted bad dog," cried Eileen, +waving her arms and kicking her bearer violently in her excitement. + +"Yes, Mumsie, Frank killded the nasty dog that wanted to eat us," added +Brian. + +Wargrave passed the children over the wall into the anxious arms +outstretched for them, then vaulted into the garden. + +"What has happened, Mr. Wargrave?" asked Mrs. Dermot, pressing her +children to her nervously. "What is this about your shooting a dog?" + +The subaltern told the story briefly. + +"Oh, my babies! My babies!" cried the mother with tears in her eyes, +clasping the mites to her breast and kissing them frantically. The +little woman who had many times faced death undauntedly at her husband's +side broke down utterly at the thought of her children's peril. + +She overwhelmed Wargrave with her thanks, while Muriel complimented him +on his promptness and presence of mind and then scolded the urchins for +their disobedience in wandering away from the garden by themselves. But +the unrepentant pair smiled genially at her from the shelter of their +mother's arms and assured her that "Fwankie" would always take care of +them. Their mother, even when she grew more composed, could not be +severe after so nearly losing them; but although unwilling to terrify +them by a recital of the awful fate from which the subaltern had saved +them by the merest chance, she impressed upon them again and again her +oft-repeated warning that they must never leave the garden alone. + +But they were not awed; so, bidding them thank and kiss him, she bore +them off to bed, her eyes still full of tears. + +Wargrave sent a servant to fetch his orderly and the detachment _mochi_, +or cobbler, to skin the panther, the news of the death of which soon +spread. So Major Hunt and Burke joined Miss Benson and the subaltern +when they went to look at its body, and numbers of sepoys streamed up +from the Fort to view the animal, which had long been notorious in the +station. Lamps had to be brought to finish the skinning of it; and the +hide, when taken off, was carried in triumph to the Mess compound to be +cured. + +On the following afternoon on the tennis-court in a corner of the +parade ground Miss Benson was left with Burke and Wargrave when Mrs. +Dermot had taken her children home at sunset. + +"You've completely won her heart," the girl said to the subaltern, +pointing with her racquet to the disappearing form of her friend. +"Nothing's too good for you for saving these precious mites. But she'll +never let them out of her sight again until their big nurse returns." + +"You mean their elephant? Well, of course he's a marvellously +well-trained animal; but is he really so reliable that he can always be +trusted to look after those children?" + +"Badshah is something very much more than a well-trained animal. Perhaps +some time out in the jungle you may understand why the natives regard +him as sacred and call Colonel Dermot the 'God of the Elephants.' You +don't know Badshah as we do." + +"Well, old Burke here has told me some strange yarns about him. But, as +he's always pulling my leg, I never know when to believe him." + +The doctor grinned. + +"We won't waste words on him, Captain Burke," said the girl. "It's time +to go home now." + +They escorted her to the Dermots' bungalow, where the doctor lingered +for a few more minutes in her society, while Wargrave climbed up to the +Mess and went to look at the panther's skin pegged out on the ground +under a thick coating of ashes and now as hard as a board after a day's +exposure to the burning sun. + +A few days later Miss Benson left the station to rejoin her father in +one of the three or four isolated wooden bungalows built to accommodate +the Forest Officer in different parts of his district, each one lost and +lonely in the silent jungle. For days after her departure Burke was +visibly depressed; and Wargrave, too, missed the bright and attractive +girl who had enlivened the quiet little station during her stay. + +A fortnight later Colonel Dermot returned from Bhutan; and his gratitude +to the subaltern for the rescue of his children was sincere and +heart-felt. He was only too glad to take the young man out into the +jungle on every possible occasion and continue his instruction in the +ways of the forest. This companionship and the sport were particularly +beneficial to Wargrave just then. For they served to take him out of +himself and raise him from the state of depression into which he was +falling, thanks to Violet's letters, the tone of which was becoming more +bitter each time she wrote. + +Her reply to his long and cheery epistle describing Ranga Duar's unusual +burst of gaiety during the Envoy's visit and his own rescue of the +children was as follows: + + "You do not seem to miss me much among your new friends. While I am + leading a most unhappy and miserable life here you appear to be + enjoying yourself and giving little thought to me. You are lucky to + have two such very beautiful ladies to make much of you; and I + daresay they think you a wonderful hero for saving the little brats + who, if they are like most children, would not be much loss. Their + mother seems extremely friendly to you for such a devoted wife as + you try to make her out to be. Or perhaps it is the girl you admire + most; this marvellous young lady who shoots tigers and apparently + manages the whole Terai Forest. You say you love me; but you don't + seem to be pining very much for me. While each day that comes since + you left me is a fresh agony to me, you appear to contrive to be + quite happy without me." + +This letter stung Wargrave like the lash of a whip across the face. To +do Violet justice no sooner had she sent it than she regretted it. But +deeply hurt as he was by the bitter words he forgave her; for he felt +that her life was indeed miserable and that he was unconsciously in a +great measure to blame for its being so. But it maddened him to realise +his present helplessness to alter matters. He was more than willing to +sacrifice himself to help her; but it would be a long time before he +could hope to save enough to pay his debts and make a home for her. +Whether it was wicked or not to take away another man's wife did not +occur to him; all that he knew was that a woman was unhappy and he alone +could help her. It seemed to him that the sin--if sin there were--was +the husband's, who starved her heart and rendered her miserable. + +In his distress work and sport proved his salvation. He threw himself +heart and soul into his duty, and whenever there was nothing for him to +do with the detachment Major Hunt encouraged him to go with the +Political Officer into the jungle. For little as he suspected it the +senior guessed the young man's trouble and watched him sympathisingly. + +One never-to-be-forgotten day as Wargrave was returning from afternoon +parade Colonel Dermot called to him from his gate and showed him a +telegram. It ran: "Tiger marked down. Come immediately _dâk_ bungalow, +Madpur Duar. Muriel." + +As the subaltern perused it with delight the Colonel said: + +"Ask your C.O. for leave. Then, if he gives it, get something +substantial to eat in the Mess and be ready to start at once. Madpur +Duar is thirty odd miles away; and we'll have to travel all night. Come +to my bungalow as soon as you can." + +Half an hour later the two were trudging down the road to the +_peelkhana_ carrying their rifles. Badshah, with a _howdah_ roped on to +his pad, plodded behind them; for it is far more comfortable to walk +down a steep descent than be carried down it by an elephant. At the foot +of the hills they mounted and were borne away into the gathering shadows +of the long road through the forest. As they proceeded their talk was +all of tigers; for in India, though there be bigger and more splendid +game in the land, its traditional animal never fails to interest, and +to Wargrave on his way to his first tiger-shoot all other topics were +insignificant. + +The sun went down and darkness settled on the forest. The talk died away +and no sound was heard but the soft padding of their elephant's huge +feet in the dust of the road. The subaltern soon found the _howdah_ +infinitely more trying than a seat on the pad when Badshah was in +motion; for the plunging gait of the animal jerked him backwards and +forwards and threw him against the wooden rails if he forgot to hold +himself at arm's length from them. The discomfort spoiled his +appreciation of the strange, attractive experience of being borne by +night through the sleepless forest, where in the dark hours only the +bird and the monkey repose; and even to them the creeping menace of the +climbing snake affrights the one and the wheeling shapes of the +night-flying birds of prey scare the other. But on the ground all are +awake. The glimmering whiteness of the road was occasionally blotted by +the scurrying forms of animals, hunted and hunters, dashing across it. +Once a tiny shriek in the distance broke the silence of the jungle. + +"A wild elephant," said Colonel Dermot. + +Then followed the loud crashing of rending boughs and falling trees. + +"That's a herd feeding. They graze until about ten o'clock and then +sleep on well into the small hours, wake and begin to feed again at +dawn," continued the Political Officer. + +Once a wild, unearthly wailing cry that seemed to come from every +direction at once startled the subaltern: + +"Good Heavens! what's that?" he exclaimed, gripping his rifle and trying +to pierce the darkness around them. + +"Only a Giant Owl," was the reply. "It's an uncanny noise. There!" + +Right over their heads it rang out again; and the stars above them were +blotted out for a moment by a dark, circling shape above the tree-tops. + +Hour after hour went by as they were borne along through the night; and +Wargrave bruised and battered by the _howdah_-rails, fell constantly +against them, so overcome with sleep was he. At last to his relief his +companion called a halt for a few hours' rest; and they brought the +elephant to his knees, dismounted and stripped him of _howdah_ and pad. +Sitting on the latter they supped on sandwiches and coffee from Thermos +flasks, and then stretched themselves to sleep, while Badshah standing +over them grazed on the grasses and branches within reach. Wargrave was +dropping off to sleep when he was roused by the sharp, _staccato_ bark +of a _khakur_ buck repeated several times. The tired man lost +consciousness and was sunk in profound slumber when the silence of the +forest was shattered by a snorting, braying roar that rang through the +jungle with alarming suddenness. + +Wargrave sprang up and groped for his rifle. But his companion lay +tranquilly on the pad. + +"It's all right. It's only a tiger that's missed his spring and is angry +about it," he said sleepily. "Lie down again." + +"Only a tiger, sir?" repeated Wargrave. "But it sounded close by." + +"Yes, but Badshah will look after us. Don't worry"; and the Colonel +turned over and fell asleep. + +It was a little time, however, before Frank followed his example, and he +had his rifle under his hand when he did. But the dark bulk of the +elephant towering over them comforted him as he sank to sleep. + +A couple of hours later they were on their way again. It was broad +daylight before they emerged from the jungle. It seemed strange to be +out once more in the wide-stretching, open and cultivated plains and to +look back on the great forest and, beyond it, to the mountains towering +to the sky. Before them lay the flat expanse of the hedgeless, fertile +fields dotted here and there with clusters of trimly-built huts or thick +groves of bamboos and seamed with the lines of deep _nullahs_, the tops +of the trees in them barely showing above the level and marking their +winding course. + +The _dâk_ bungalow at Madpur Duar was soon reached, a single-storied +building with a couple of trees shading the well behind it and a group +of elephants and their _mahouts_. On the verandah Benson and his +daughter were standing, the girl dressed in a khaki drill coat and skirt +over breeches and soft leather gaiters, and waving a welcome to +Badshah's riders. + +After a hurried breakfast the latter were ready to start for the day's +sport. By then a line of ten female elephants, the tallest carrying a +_howdah_, the rest only their pads, was drawn up before the bungalow; +and at a word from their _mahouts_ their trunks went up in the air and +the animals trumpeted in salute as the party came out on the verandah. + +"We borrowed Mr. Carter's and the Settlement Officer's elephants for the +beat," said Miss Benson, as, wearing a big pith sunhat and carrying a +double-barrelled .400 cordite rifle, she led the way down the verandah +steps. + +It had been arranged that she was to take Wargrave with her in her +_howdah_, while her father accompanied Colonel Dermot on Badshah. Her +big elephant knelt down and a ladder was laid against its side, up which +she climbed, followed by the subaltern. When all were mounted she led +the way across the plain. Although the ground was everywhere level and +just there uncultivated the elephants tailed off in single file as is +the habit of their kind, wild or domesticated, each stepping with +precise care into the footprints of the one in front of it. Here in the +Plains the heat was intense; and Wargrave, shading his eyes from the +blinding glare, thought enviously of the coolness up in the mountains +that he had left. As they moved along Muriel explained to him how the +beat was to be conducted. + +Where the southern fringe of the Terai Jungle borders the cultivated +country it is a favourite haunt of tigers, which from its shelter carry +on war against the farmers' cattle. Creeping down the ravines seaming +the soft soil and worn by the streams that flow through the forest from +the hills they pull down the cows grazing or coming to drink in the +_nullahs_, which are filled with small trees and scrubs affording good +cover. A tiger, when it has killed, drags the carcase of its prey into +shade near water, eats a hearty meal of about eighty pounds of flesh, +drinks and then sleeps until it is ready to feed again. If disturbed it +retreats up the ravine to the forest. + +So, beating for one with elephants here, the sportsmen place themselves +on their _howdah_-bearing animals between the jungle and the spot where +the tiger is known to be lying up, and the beater elephants enter the +scrub from the far side and shepherd him gently towards the guns. + +Pointing to a distant line of tree-tops showing above the level plain +she said: + +"There is the _nullah_ in which, about a mile farther on, a cow was +killed yesterday. I hope the tiger is still lying up in it. We'll soon +see." + +They reached the ravine, which was twenty or thirty feet deep and +contained a little stream flowing through tangled scrub, and moved along +parallel to it and about a couple of hundred yards away. Presently the +girl pointed to a tall tree growing in it and a quarter of a mile ahead +of them. Its upper branches were bending under the weight of numbers of +foul-looking bald-headed vultures, squawking, huddled together, jostling +each other on their perches and pecking angrily at their neighbours with +irritable cries. Some circled in the air and occasionally swooped down +towards the ground only to rocket up again affrightedly to the sky; for +the tiger lay by its kill and resented the approach of any daring bird +that aspired to share the feast. Muriel hurriedly explained how the +conduct of the birds indicated the beast's presence. + +"If he were not there they'd be down tearing the carcase to pieces," she +said, as she held up her hand and halted the file behind her. + +"The beater elephants had better stop here, Colonel," she called out to +Dermot. "There is a way down and across the _nullah_, by which you can +take Badshah to the far side. We will remain on this." + +The Political Officer, who had seen and realised the significance of the +vultures, waved his hand and moved off at once. Muriel called up the +_mahouts_ and bade them enter the ravine and begin the beat in about ten +minutes, then told her driver to go on. Half a mile beyond the tree she +ordered him to halt and take up a position close to the edge of the +_nullah_, into which they could look down. Below them the bottom was +clear of scrub which ended fifty yards away. Dermot stopped opposite; +and both elephants were turned to face towards the spot where the tiger +was judged to be. + +"Mr Wargrave, get to the front of the _howdah_ and be ready," she said +in a low tone. + +The subaltern protested chivalrously against taking the best place. + +"Oh, it's all right. We've brought you out to get the tiger; so you must +do as you're told. If he breaks out this side take the first shot," she +said peremptorily. + +He submitted and took up his position with cocked rifle. As the _nullah_ +wound a good deal the tops of the trees in it prevented them from seeing +if the beater-elephants had gone in; but in a few minutes they heard +distant shouts and the crashing of the undergrowth as the big animals +forced their way through the scrub. + +"Be ready, Mr. Wargrave," whispered the girl. "Sometimes a tiger starts +on the run at the first sound." + +His nerves a-quiver and his heart beating violently the subaltern held +his rifle at the ready, as the noise of the beaters drew nearer. Again +and again he brought the butt to his shoulder, only to lower it when he +realised that it was a false alarm. The sounds of the beat grew louder +and closer, and still there was no sign of the tiger. Frank's heart +sank. He saw the vultures stir uneasily and some rise into the air as +the elephants passed under them. + +At last through the trees he began to catch occasional glimpses of the +_mahouts_, and he lost hope. But suddenly from the scrub below them in +the _nullah_ a number of small birds flew up; and the next instant the +edge of the bushes nearest them was parted stealthily and a tiger slunk +cautiously out in the bottom of the ravine. + +Wargrave's rifle went up to his shoulder; and he fired. A startled roar +from the beast told that it was hit; but it bounded in a flash across +the ravine and up the steep bank on their side not forty yards from +them. As it scrambled swiftly over the edge it caught sight of the +elephant and with a deep "wough!" charged straight at it. + +Frank fired again, and his bullet struck up the dust, missing the +swift-rushing animal by a couple of feet. The next moment with a roar +the tiger sprang at the elephant. With one leap it landed with its hind +paws on the elephant's head, its fore-feet on the front rail of the +_howdah_, standing right over the _mahout_ who crouched in terror on the +neck. The savage, snarling, yellow-and-black mask was thrust almost +into Wargrave's face, and from the open red mouth lined with fierce +white fangs he could feel the hot breath on his cheek as he tugged +frantically at the under-lever of his rifle to open the breech and +re-load. In another moment the tiger would have been on top of them in +the _howdah_ when a gun-barrel shot past the subaltern and pushed him +aside. The muzzle of Muriel's rifle was pressed almost against the +brute's skull as she fired. + +Frank hardly heard the report. All he knew was that the snarling face +disappeared as quickly as it had come. The whole thing was an affair of +seconds. Shot through the brain the tiger dropped back to the ground +with a heavy thud and fell dead beside the staunch elephant which had +never moved all through the terrible ordeal. + +A cry of relief and a prayer to Allah burst from the grey-bearded +Mahommedan _mahout_, as he straightened himself; and Wargrave turned +with glowing face and outstretched hand to the girl. + +"Oh, well done! Splendidly done!" he cried. "You saved me from being +lugged bodily out of the _howdah_ or at least from being mauled. This +lever jammed and I couldn't re-load." + +Her eyes shining and face beaming with excitement she shook his hand. + +"Wasn't it thrilling? I thought he'd have got both of us." Then to the +_mahout_ she continued in Urdu, "Gul Dad, are you hurt?" + +The man was solemnly feeling himself all over. He stared at a rent in +the shoulder of his coat, torn by the tiger's claw. It was the only +injury that he had suffered. He put his finger on it and grumbled: + +"Missie-_baba_, the _shaitan_ (devil) has torn my coat." + +In the reaction from the strain the girl and Wargrave went off in peals +of laughter at his words. + +"But are you not wounded?" Miss Benson repeated. "Has it not clawed +you?" + +The _mahout_ shook his head. + +"No, missie-_baba_; but it was my new coat," he insisted.[1] + + [1] A similar incident occurred in real life near Alipur Duar in + Eastern Bengal to a lady and an officer on a female elephant named + Dundora during a beat. But in this case it was the man that killed + the tiger with his second rifle when it was standing on the + elephant's head with its fore-paws on the _howdah_-rail. I can + personally testify to Dundora's immobility when facing a charging + tiger.--THE AUTHOR. + +Frank looked down at the tiger stretched motionless on the yellow grass. + +"By George, you shot him dead enough, Miss Benson!" he exclaimed. + +She stared down at the animal. + +"Yes; but it's well to be careful. I've seen a tiger look as dead as +that and yet spring up and maul a man who approached it incautiously," +she said. + +She raised her rifle and covered the prostrate animal. + +"Throw something at it," she continued. + +Wargrave took out a couple of heavy, copper-cased cartridges and flung +them one by one at the tiger's head, striking it on the jaw and in the +eye. The animal did not move. + +"Seems dead enough," said the girl, lowering her rifle. "Here come the +beaters." + +The other elephants had now burst out in line through the scrub. Their +_mahouts_ shouted enquiries to Gul Dad and when they heard of the +tiger's death cheered gleefully, for it meant _backsheesh_ to them. +Badshah was seen to be searching for a way down into the nullah and in a +few minutes brought his passengers up alongside Miss Benson and the +subaltern. Her father and Dermot congratulated the girl warmly; and the +latter, having made Badshah kick the tiger to make certain that it was +dead, dismounted and examined it. + +"Here's your shot, Wargrave," he said, pointing to a hole in the belly. +"A bit too low, but it made a nasty wound that would have killed the +beast eventually." + +"I'm so ashamed of missing it with my second barrel, sir," said the +subaltern. "But for Miss Benson I'd have been a gone coon." + +"Yes, it certainly looked exciting enough from our side of the +_nullah_," said the Colonel, smiling; "so what must it have been like +from where you were? Well, anyhow it's your tiger." + +"Oh, nonsense, sir; it's Miss Benson's. I ought to be kicked for being +such a muff." + +"Jungle law, Mr. Wargrave," said the girl, laughing "You hit it first, +so it's your beast." + +"You needn't be ashamed of missing it," added the Colonel. "A charging +tiger coming full speed at you is not an easy mark. No; the skin is +yours; and Muriel has so many that she can spare it." + +"Well, Miss Benson, I accept it as a gift from you; but I won't +acknowledge that I have earned it," said the subaltern. + +"Now, we'd better pad it and see about getting back," said Dermot, +looking at his watch. + +The other elephants had now found their way up the bank and joined +Badshah and his companion. When their _mahouts_ heard from Gul Dad the +story of the tiger's death they exclaimed in amazement and admiration: + +"_Ahré, Chai_! (Oh, brother!) Truly the missie-_baba_ is a wonder. She +will be the death of many tigers, indeed," they said. + +Then each in turn brought his elephant up to the prostrate animal and +made her smell and strike it with her trunk in order to inspire her with +contempt for tigers. Colonel Dermot measured it with a tape and found it +to be nine feet six inches from nose to tip of tail. It was a young, +fully-grown male in splendid condition. Then came the troublesome +business of "padding" it, that is, hoisting it on to the pad of one of +the elephants to bring it back to the bungalow to be skinned. It was not +an easy matter. For the tiger weighed nearly three hundred and fifty +pounds; and to raise the limp carcase, which sagged like a feather bed +at every spot where there was not a man to support it, was a difficult +task. But it was achieved at last; and with the tiger roped firmly on a +pad the elephants started back in single file. + +As they went over the plain in the burning sun Wargrave looked back to +where the striped body was borne along with stiff, dangling legs. + +"By Jove, it's been great, Miss Benson," he exclaimed. "Some people say +tiger shooting's not exciting. They ought to have been with us to-day. I +am lucky to have got a bison already and now to have seen this. With +luck I'll be having a shot at an elephant next." + +The girl replied in a serious tone: + +"Don't say that to Colonel Dermot. Elephants are his especial friends. +Besides, you are only allowed to shoot rogues; and since he's been here +there have been none in these jungles which formerly swarmed with them. +There's no doubt that he has a wonderful, uncanny control over even wild +elephants. Do you know that once a rajah tried to have him killed in his +palace by a mad tusker, which had just slaughtered several men, and the +moment the brute got face to face with him it was cowed and obeyed him +like a dog?" + +"Good gracious, is that so?" + +"Yes, I could tell you even more extraordinary things about his power +over elephants; but some day when you're in the jungle with him you may +see it for yourself. Oh, isn't it hot? I do wish we were home." + +Arrived at the _dâk_ bungalow the tiger's carcase was lowered to the +ground and given over to the knives of the flayers summoned from the +_bazaar_ of Madpur Duar a mile away. As soon as the news was known in +the small town crowds of Hindu women streamed to the bungalow compound, +where with their _saris_ (shawls) pulled modestly across their brown +faces by rounded arms tinkling with glass bangles they squatted on the +ground and waited patiently until the skin was drawn clear off the raw +red carcase. Then they crowded around a couple of the older _mahouts_ +who, first cutting off all the firm white fat of the well-fed cattle +thief to be melted down for oil (esteemed to be a sovereign remedy for +rheumatism), hacked the flesh into chunks which they threw into the +eager hands of the women. These took the meat home to cook for their +husbands to eat to instil into them the spirit and vigour of a tiger. +The skin, spread out and pegged to the ground, was covered with wood +ashes and left to dry. Little of the animal was left but the bones, to +the disappointment of the wheeling, whistling kites waiting on soaring +wings in the sky above. + +After tea the two officers took their leave with many expressions of +gratitude from the younger man to the girl for her kindness in arranging +the beat for him. Hours afterwards, as they halted in the forest for a +rest in the middle of the night, Colonel Dermot said: + +"You told me once that you'd like a job like mine, Wargrave. Would you +care for frontier political work here?" + +"I'd love it, sir," exclaimed the subaltern enthusiastically. "Would it +be possible to get it?" + +"Well, I've been thinking for some time of applying to the Government of +India for an assistant political officer who would help me and take over +if I went on leave, but I'd want to train my own man and not merely +accept any youngster who was pitchforked into the Department just +because he had a father or an uncle with a pull at Simla. Now, if you +like I'll apply for you, on condition that you'll work at Bhutanese and +the frontier dialects. I'll teach them to you." + +"I'd like nothing better, sir. I'm not bad at languages." + +"Yes, I've noticed that your Hindustani is very good and idiomatic. I've +been watching you and I like your manner with natives. One must be +sympathetic, kind and just, but also firm with them. Well, I'll try +you. The rainy season will be on us very soon, and then all outdoor work +and sport will be impossible. One dare not go into the jungle--it's too +full of malaria and blackwater fever. The planters and Forest Officers +have to cage themselves in wire gauze 'mosquito houses.' During the +rains you'll have plenty of time to work at the languages." + +"Thank you very much, Colonel. I promise you I'll go at them hard." + +"You'll have a fellow-student for part of the time. Miss Benson's coming +to stay with us during the Monsoons for a bit; and she has asked me to +teach her Bhutanese, too. She wants it, as she has to deal with Bhuttia +woodcutters and hill folk generally. Well, that's fixed. Goodnight." + +"Goodnight, sir," answered the subaltern, as he lay down on the pad and +stared at the stars. He was overjoyed at Colonel Dermot's offer, and as +he dropped asleep it was with a thrill of pleasure that he realised he +would see something more of the girl who had been his companion that +day. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +A POLITICAL OFFICER IN THE MAKING + + +The lightning spattered the heavens and tore the black sky into a +thousand fragments, the thunder crashed in appalling peals of terrifying +sound which echoed again and again from the invisible mountains. The +rain fell in ropes of water that sent the brown, foam-flecked torrents +surging full-fed down every gully and ravine in the mist-wrapped hills. +The single, steep road of Ranga Duar was now the rocky bed of a racing +flood inches deep that swirled and raged round Wargrave's high rubber +boots as he waded up towards the Mess clad in an oilskin coat, off which +the rain splashed. He was glad to arrive at the garden gate, turn in +through it, climb the verandah steps, and reach his door. Here he flung +aside his coat and kicked off the heavy boots. + +Entering his room he pulled on his slippers, filled his pipe with +tobacco from a lime-dried bottle and sat down at his one rickety table +at the window. Then he took out of his pocket and laid before him a +manuscript book filled with notes on the frontier dialects taken at the +lesson with Colonel Dermot from which he had just come. He opened it +mechanically but did not even glance at it. His thoughts were elsewhere. + +Months had elapsed since the day on which he had seen his first tiger +killed. Not long afterwards the Rains had come to put a stop to descents +into the jungle. But his interest in the preparation for his new work +compensated him for the imprisonment within walls by the terrible +tropical storms and the never-ceasing downpour. He had flung himself +enthusiastically into the study of the frontier languages, of which +Colonel Dermot proved to be a painstaking and able teacher. Miss Benson, +who had returned to Ranga Duar and remained there longer than she had +originally intended, owing to fever contracted in the jungle, joined him +in these studies and astonished her fellow-pupil by her aptitude and +quickness of apprehension. But her presence proved disastrous to him. +Thrown constantly together as they were, spending hours every day side +by side, the subaltern realised to his dismay that he was falling in +love with the girl. + +It would have been strange had it been otherwise so pretty and +attractive was she. Often Mrs. Dermot, peeping into her husband's office +and seeing the dark and the fair head bent close together over a book, +smiled to herself, well-pleased at the thought of her favourites being +mutually attracted. To her husband the thought never occurred. Men are +very dull in these matters. + +But to Wargrave the realisation of the truth was unbearable. He was +pledged to another woman, whose heart he had won even if unconsciously, +who was willing for love of him to give up everything and face the +world's censure and scorn. He could not play her false. He had given her +his word. He could not now be disloyal to her without utterly wrecking +all her chances of happiness in life and dishonouring himself for ever +in his own eyes. Muriel Benson had left the station ten days ago to +rejoin her father; and Wargrave had instantly felt that he dared not see +her again until he was irrevocably and openly bound to Violet. So he had +written to her on the morrow of the girl's departure and, without giving +her the real reason for his action, begged her to come to him at once, +enclosing, as he was now able to do, a cheque for her expenses. It +seemed to him that only by her presence could he be saved from being a +traitor to his word. + +As soon as he had sent the letter he went to his Commanding Officer and +told him everything. It was not until he was actually explaining his +conduct that he realised that he should have obtained his permission +before inviting Violet to come, for Major Hunt, as Commandant of the +Station, had the power to forbid her residing in or even entering it. + +The senior officer listened in silence. When the subaltern had finished +he said: + +"I've known about this matter since you came, Wargrave. Your Colonel +wrote me--as your new C.O.--what I considered an unnecessary and unfair +letter giving me the reason of your being sent here. But Hepburn, whom +I know slightly, discovered I was here and also wrote explaining matters +more fully and, I think, more justly." + +The subaltern looked at him in surprise; but his face brightened at the +knowledge of his former commander's kindness. + +"Now, Wargrave, we've got on very well together so far, you and I. I +have always been satisfied with your work, and was glad to help you by +agreeing to Colonel Dermot's application for you. I believe that you +will make a good political officer, otherwise I wouldn't have done +so--even though I'm your debtor for saving me from that snake----." + +"Oh, Major, that was nothing," broke in the subaltern. "Anyone would +have done it." + +"Yes, I know. But it happened that you were the anyone. Now, I'm going +to talk to you as your friend and not as your commanding officer. +Frankly, I am very sorry for what you have just told me. I was hoping +that Time and separation were curing you--and the lady--of your folly. +Believe me, only unhappiness and misery can come to you both from it." + +"Perhaps so, sir; but I'm bound in honour." + +The older man shook his head sadly. + +"Is honour the word for it? I'll make a confession to you, Wargrave. You +consider me a bachelor. Well, I'm not married now; but I was. When I was +a young subaltern I was thrown much with a married woman older than +myself. I was flattered that she should take any notice of me, for she +was handsome and popular with men, while I was a shy, awkward boy. She +said she was 'being a mother' to me--you know what a married woman +'mothering' boys leads to in India. She used to tell me how +misunderstood she was, neglected, mated to a clown and all that." (Frank +grew red at certain memories.) "Women have a regular formula when +they're looking for sympathy they've no right to. I pitied her. I felt +that her husband ought to be shot. Looking back now I see that he was +just the ordinary, easy-going, indifferent individual that most husbands +become; but then I deemed him a tyrant and a brute. Well, I ran away +with her." + +He paused and passed his hand wearily across his brow. + +"There was the usual scandal, divorce, damages and costs that plunged me +into debt I'm not out of yet. We married. In a year we were heartily +sick of each other--hated, is nearer the truth. She consoled herself +with other men. I protested, we quarrelled again and again. At last we +agreed to separate; and I insisted on her going to England and staying +there. I couldn't trust her in India. Living in lodgings and Bayswater +boarding-houses wasn't amusing--she got bored, but I wouldn't have her +back. She took to drinking and ran up debts that I had to pay. +Then--and I selfishly felt glad, but it was a happy release for +both--she died. Drank herself to death. Now you know why I'd be sorry +that another man should follow the path I trod." + +He was silent. Wargrave felt an intense sympathy for this quiet, kindly +man whose life had been a tragedy. He had guessed from the first that +his senior officer had some ever-present grief weighing on his soul. He +would have given much to be able to utter words of consolation, but he +did not know what to say. + +Major Hunt spoke again. + +"You must dree your own weird, Wargrave. If the lady wishes to come +here--well, I shall not prevent her; but the General, when he knows of +it, will not permit her to remain. But you have to deal with Colonel +Dermot. You had better tell him. You might go now." + +Without a word the subaltern left the bungalow. He went straight to the +Political Officer and repeated his story. Colonel Dermot did not +interrupt him, but, when he had finished, said: + +"I have no right and no wish to interfere with your private life, +Wargrave, nor to offer you advice as to how to lead it. Your work is all +that I can claim to criticise. Of course I see, with Major Hunt, the +difficulty that will arise over the lady's remaining in this small +station, where her presence must become known to the Staff. If you are +both resolved on taking the irretrievable step it would be wiser to +defer it until you were elsewhere. I don't offer to blame either of you; +for I don't know enough to judge." + +"Well, sir, I--perhaps you won't want me under you--and Mrs. Dermot--you +mightn't wish me to----," stammered the subaltern, standing miserably +before him. + +"Oh, yes; you'll make a good political officer none the less," said the +Colonel smiling. "And you need not be afraid of my wife turning away +from you with horror. If she can be a friend to the lady she will. As +for you, well, you saved our children, Wargrave"--he laid his hand on +the young man's shoulder--"you are our friend for life. I shall not +repeat your story to my wife. Perhaps some day you may like to tell it +to her yourself." + +Wargrave tried to thank him gratefully, but failed, and, picking up his +hat, went out into the rain. + +That was days ago; and no answer had come from Violet, so that the +subaltern lived in a state of strain and anxious expectation. Indeed, +some weeks had passed since her last letter, as usual an unhappy one; +and, sitting staring out into the grey world of falling rain turned to +flame every minute by the vivid lightning, he racked his brains to guess +the reason of her silence. + +A jangle of bells sounded through the storm. Glancing out Wargrave saw +a curiously grotesque figure climb the verandah steps from the garden +and stand shaking itself while the water poured from it. It was an +almost naked man, squat and sturdy-limbed, with glistening wet brown +skin, an oilskin-covered package on his back, a short spear hung with +bells in his hand. It was the postman. For a miserable pittance he +jogged up and down the mountains in fine weather or foul, carrying His +Majesty's Mails, passing fearlessly through the jungle in peril of wild +beats, his ridiculous weapon, the bells of which were supposed to +frighten tigers, his only protection. + +Wargrave opened the door and went out to him. The man grinned, unslung +and opened his parcel. From it he took out a bundle of letters, handed +them to the subaltern, and went on to knock at Burke's door with his +correspondence. Frank returned to his room with the mail which contained +the official letters for the detachment, of which he was still acting as +adjutant. He threw them aside when he saw an envelope with Violet's +handwriting on it. He tore it open eagerly. + +To his surprise the letter was addressed from a hotel in Poona, the +large and gay military and civil station in the West of India, a few +hours' rail journey inland from Bombay. He skimmed through it rapidly. + +She wrote that, utterly weary of the dullness of Rohar, she had gone to +Poona to spend part of the festive and fashionable season there and was +now revelling in the many dances, dinners, theatricals and other +gaieties of the lively station. Everybody was very kind to her, +especially the men. She was invited to the private entertainments at +Government House, and His Excellency the Governor always danced with +her. Her programme was crowded at every ball; and she had been asked to +take one of the leading parts in "The Country Girl" to be produced by +the Amateur Dramatic Society. She had two excellent ponies with which to +hunt and to join in _gymkhanas_. She wished Frank could be with her; but +probably he was enjoying himself more with his wild beasts and Tiger +Girls. As to his proposal that she should go to him at once in that +little station he must have been mad when he made it. For had they not +discussed the matter thoroughly and decided that they must wait? She +presumed that he had not suddenly come into a fortune. From his +description of Ranga Duar and its inhabitants it could be no place for +her under the circumstances. No; there was nothing to do but to wait. +Besides, it was so very jolly now at Poona. Frank must not be an +impatient boy; and she sent him all her love. His cheque she had torn +up. + +The subaltern whistled, read the letter again very carefully, folded and +put it away. What had come to Violet? This was so unlike her. Still, he +had to confess to himself that he was relieved at not yet having to +cross the Rubicon. Perhaps she was right; it might be better to wait. He +was glad to know that for a time at least she was away from the +uncongenial surroundings of Rohar and again enjoying life. He went +through the official correspondence, shoved it in his pocket, put on +coat and boots and splashed through the water down the road to the +Commanding Officer's bungalow. When they had discussed the official +letters and drafted answers to them Wargrave told Major Hunt of the gist +of Violet's reply. The senior officer nodded, but said nothing about it +and went on to talk of other matters. + +Next day the subaltern informed Colonel Dermot, who made no comment and +did not refer to the matter again. His wife, ignorant of Mrs. Norton's +existence, delighted to talk to Wargrave about Muriel, a topic always +interesting to him, dangerous though it was to his peace of mind. His +thoughts were constantly with the girl, and he sought eagerly for news +of her when occasional letters came to Mrs. Dermot from her, touring +their wide forest district with her father. + +Frank had never been able to fathom Burke's feelings towards her. The +Irishman's manner to her in public was always light-hearted and +cheerfully friendly; but the subaltern suspected that it concealed a +deeper, warmer feeling. He betrayed no jealousy of Frank's constant +companionship with her when she took part in his studies; and his +friendly regard for his younger brother officer never altered. On her +side the girl showed openly that she shared the universal liking that +the kindly, pleasant-natured doctor inspired. + +The weary months of the rainy season dragged by; but the subaltern spent +them to advantage under Colonel Dermot's tuition and, possessing the +knack of readily acquiring foreign languages, made rapid progress with +Bhutanese, Tibetan and the frontier dialects, his good ear for music +helping him greatly in getting the correct accent. Another +accomplishment of his, a talent for acting, was of service; for the +Political Officer wished him to be capable of penetrating into Bhutan in +disguise if need be. So he taught him how to be a merchant, peasant, +nobleman's retainer or a lama Red or Yellow, of the country--but always +a man of Northern Bhutan and the Tibetan borderland, for his height and +blue eyes were not unusual there, though seldom or never seen in the +south. Frank was carefully instructed in the appropriate manners, +customs and expressions of each part that he played, how to eat and +behave in company, how to walk, sit and sleep. But he specialised as a +lama, for in that character he would meet with the least interference in +the priest-ridden country. He was taught the Buddhist chants and how to +drone them, how to carry his praying-wheel and finger a rosary to the +murmured "_Om mani padmi hung_" of the Tibetans, and--for he was +something of an artist--how to paint the Buddhist pictorial Wheel of +Life, the _Sid-pa-i Khor-lô_ or Cycle of Existence that the gentle +Gautama, the Buddha, himself first drew and that hangs in the vestibule +of every lamasery to teach priest and layman the leading law of their +religion, Re-birth. + +Colonel Dermot was helped in his instruction of his pupil by his chief +spy and confidential messenger, an ex-monk from a great monastery in +Punaka, the capital of Bhutan. This man, Tashi, before he wearied of the +cloistered life and fled to India, had been always one of the principal +actors in the great miracle plays and Devil Dances of his lamasery, for +he was gifted with considerable histrionic talent. He delighted in +teaching Wargrave to play his various _rôles_, for he found the +subaltern an apt pupil. + +As soon as the rains ended the Political Officer began to take his +disciple with him on his tours and patrols along the frontier. Alone +they roamed on Badshah among the mountains on which the border ran in a +confusedly irregular line. Sometimes with or without Tashi they crossed +into Bhutan in disguise and wandered among the steep, forest-clad hills +and deep, unhealthy valleys seamed with rivers prone to sudden floods +that rose in a few hours thirty or forty feet. Wargrave marvelled at the +engineering skill of the inhabitants who with rude and imperfect +appliances had thrown cantilever bridges over the deep gorges of this +mountainous southern zone. Among the dull-witted peasants in the +villages he practised the parts that he had learned, speaking little at +first and taking care to mingle Tibetan and Chinese words with the +language of Bhutan to keep up the fable of his northern birth. He soon +promised to be in time as skilfull in disguise as his tutor. + +Colonel Dermot was anxious to investigate the activities of the Chinese +_Amban_, reputed to reach their height in the territory just across the +Indian border ruled by the Tuna Penlop and lying west of the Black +Mountain range that divides Bhutan. This great feudal chieftain was +reputed to be completely under the influence of Yuan Shi Hung and both +anti-British and disloyal to his overlord the Maharajah or Tongsa +Penlop. The close watch that his myrmidons kept on the stretch of +frontier between his territories and India prevented Dermot from +learning what went on behind the screen; for the spies of the Political +Officer's Secret Service could not penetrate it and bring back news. + +Wargrave was present when the last sturdy-limbed Bhuttia emissary +reported his failure to cross the line. As the man withdrew the Colonel +turned to Frank and said: + +"We'll go ourselves. I wanted to avoid it if possible; for it wouldn't +do for me to be caught. Not only because it would cause political +complications, for I'm not supposed to trespass on Bhutanese territory +uninvited, but also because fatal accidents might happen to us if Yuan +Shi Hung and his friends get hold of us. I'm not anxious to die yet. Be +ready to start at midnight." + +"Do you really think we'll be able to get through, sir?" queried the +subaltern. "How shall we do it?" + +"Wait and see," was the curt reply. + +Before the sun rose next day Badshah was deep in the forest, bearing the +two officers and Tashi on his back. He moved rapidly along animal paths +through the jungle in a direction parallel with the mountains. Jungle +fowl whirred up from under his feet, deer crashed away through the +undergrowth as he passed; but never a shot was fired at them, though +rifles and guns were in the riders' hands. Little brown monkeys peeped +down at them from the tree-tops or leapt away along the air lanes among +the leafy branches, swinging by hand or foot, springing across the +voids, the babies clutching fast to their mothers' bodies in the dizzy +flights. + +In the afternoon a distant crashing, which told of trees falling before +the pressure of great heads and the weight of huge bodies, made Wargrave +ask: + +"Wild elephants, sir?" + +Dermot nodded. + +"Sounds as if they were right in our path. Shall we see them?" + +"Yes. Don't touch that!" said the Colonel sharply; for the excited +subaltern, who had never yet seen a wild herd, was reaching for his +rifle. Wargrave obeyed, remembering Miss Benson's remark on the +Political Officer's love of the great animals. + +Soon unmistakable signs showed that they were on the track of a herd; +and presently Frank caught sight of a slate-coloured body in the +undergrowth, then another and another. As he was wondering how the +animals would receive them Badshah emerged on an open glade filled with +elephants of all ages and sizes, from new-born woolly calves a bare +three feet at the shoulder to splendid tuskers nine feet ten inches in +height and lean, ragged-eared old animals a hundred and thirty years of +age. All were regarding the newcomer and their trunks were raised to +point towards him, while from their throats came a low purring sound, +which appeared to the subaltern to have more of pleasure than menace in +it. Instead of seeming hostile or alarmed they behaved as though they +had expected and were welcoming their domesticated brother. This was so +evident that Frank felt no fear even when they closed in on Badshah and +touched him with their trunks. + +Dermot, smiling at his companion's amazement, said: + +"This is Badshah's old herd, Wargrave, and they're used to him and me. +I've come in search of them, for it is by their aid that I propose to +enter Bhutan." + +And the subaltern was still more surprised when the animals, which +numbered over a hundred, fell in behind Badshah--cows with calves +leading, tuskers in rear--and followed him submissively in single file +as he headed for the mountains. When night fell they were climbing above +the foot-hills under the vivid tropic stars. + +A couple of hours before midnight the leader halted, and the line behind +him scattered to feed on the bamboos and the luscious grasses, though +the younger calves nuzzled their mothers' breasts. Badshah sank to his +knees to allow his passengers to dismount and relieve him of his pad. +The three men ate and then wrapped themselves in their blankets, for it +was very cold high up in the mountains, and stretched themselves to +sleep, as the great animals around them ceased to feed and rested. +Badshah lowered himself cautiously to the ground and lay down near his +men. + +Before Wargrave lost consciousness he marvelled at Dermot's uncanny +power over the huge beasts around them--a power that could make these +shy mammoths thus subservient to his purposes. He began to understand +why his companion was regarded as a demigod by the wild jungle-folk and +hill-dwellers. + +When at daybreak the herd moved on again, climbing ever higher in the +mountains, the three men lay flat on Badshah's back and covered +themselves with their grey blankets lest vigilant watchers on the peaks +around might espy them. Thus do the _mahouts_ of the _koonkies_, or +trained female elephants employed in hunting and snaring wild tuskers, +conceal themselves during the chase. + +But darkness shielded them effectively when the herd swept at length +through a rocky pass on the frontier-line between India and Bhutan, and +with cries of fear and dismay armed men seated around watch-fires fled +in panic before the earth-shaking host. The screen was penetrated. + +Daylight found them on the banks of a broad, swift-flowing river in a +valley between the range of mountains through which they had passed and +a line of still more formidable and snow-clad peaks. The elephants swam +the wide and rushing water, for of all land animals their kind are the +best swimmers. The tiniest babies were supported by the trunks of their +mothers, on to whose backs older calves climbed and were thus carried +across. Without stopping the herd plunged into the awful passes of the +next range, of which they were not clear until the evening of the +following day. Then they halted in dense forest. + +Next morning Dermot took from the pockets of Badshah's pad the dresses +and other things that they needed for their disguises, and instead of +replacing the pad concealed it carefully. Then he said: + +"We'll leave our escort here, Wargrave, and carry on by ourselves; for +we are not far from inhabited and cultivated country, and indeed fairly +near the _Jong_ (castle) of our enemy the Penlop of Tuna." + +The wild elephants were feeding all around, paying no heed to them. The +Colonel turned to Badshah and pointing to the ground said one word: + +"_Raho_! (Remain!)" + +Then he continued to Wargrave: + +"We'll find them, or they'll find us, whenever we return." + +An hour later two elderly lamas in soiled yellow robes and horn-rimmed +spectacles, followed by a lame coolie carrying their scanty possessions, +emerged, rosary and praying-wheel in hand, from the forest into the +cultivated country. + +For some weeks they wandered unsuspected through the Tuna Penlop's +dominions and even penetrated into his own _jong_, where they were +entertained and their prayers solicited by his cut-throat retainers. +They learned enough to realise that the _Amban_ was endeavouring by the +free supply of arms and military instructors to form here the nucleus of +a trained force to be employed eventually against India, backed up by +reinforcements of Chinese troops and contingents from other parts of +Bhutan. + +Their investigations completed they returned safely to the forest in +which they had left the herd; and, much to Wargrave's relief, they had +not been many hours camped on the spot where they had parted with them +when Badshah and his wild companions appeared. The spies returned to +India as they had come, unseen and unsuspected. + +This excursion was but the first of many that Wargrave made with the +Colonel and the herd; and he soon began to know almost every member of +it and make friends, not only with the solemn but friendly little +calves, but even with their less trusting mothers. He was now thoroughly +at home in the jungle and no longer needed a tutor in sport. His one +room in the Mess began to be overcrowded with trophies of his skill with +the rifle. Other tiger-skins had joined the first; and, although he had +not secured a second bison, several good heads of _sambhur_, _khakur_ +and _cheetul_, or spotted deer, hung on his whitewashed stone walls. + +Thus with sport and work more fascinating than sport Wargrave found the +months slipping by. From Raymond he learned that Violet had returned to +Rohar before she wrote herself. When she did she seemed to be in a +brighter and more affectionate, as well as calmer, mood than she had +been before her visit to Poona. But gradually her letters became less +and less frequent; and Frank began to wonder--with a little sense of +guilty, shamed hope--if she were beginning to forget him. + +Christmas came; and with its coming Ranga Duar woke again to life. +Besides the Bensons and Carter, who now brought his wife, Mrs. Dermot's +brother--a subaltern in an Indian cavalry regiment--and five planters, +old friends of his from the district in which he had once been a planter +himself, came to spend Christmas in the small station. Major Hunt's +bungalow and the Mess took in the overflow from the Political Officer's +house. + +Brian and Eileen had the gayest, happiest time of their little lives. +Presents were heaped on them. Muriel and Frank initiated them into all +the delights of their first Christmas tree, and Burke introduced them to +a real Punch and Judy Show. On Christmas Day Badshah, his neck encircled +with a garland of flowers procured from the Plains, was led up solemnly +by his seldom-seen _mahout_ to present Colonel Dermot with a gilded lime +and receive in return a present of silver rupees which passed into the +possession of the said _mahout_. Then he was fed with dainties by the +children; and Eileen insisted on being tossed aloft by the curving +trunk, to the detriment of her starched party frock. + +The weather was appropriate to the season, cold and bright, and although +no snow fell so low down, it froze at night, so that the Europeans could +indulge in the luxury--in India--of gathering around blazing wood fires +after dinner. + +All, young and old, thoroughly enjoyed this almost English-like +Christmas--all except one. Burke's attentions to Muriel became more +marked and more full of meaning than they had ever been before; and it +was patent that he intended to put his fate to the touch during this +visit of hers. He did so without success, it seemed; for before she left +there was an evident sense of constraint between them and they tried to +avoid sitting beside each other or being left alone together, even for a +moment. Shortly after the departure of the visitors Burke contrived to +effect an exchange to another station, to the regret of all in the +little outpost, and he was replaced by a young Scots surgeon, named +Macdonald, his opposite in every way. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +TRAGEDY + + +The annual Durbar for the reception of the Bhutan Envoy and the payment +of the subsidy had come and gone again. The _Deb Zimpun_, who had not +been accompanied by the Chinese _Amban_ on this occasion, had departed; +and of the few European visitors only Muriel Benson remained. Colonel +Dermot had been called away to Simla, to confer with officials of the +Foreign Department on matters of frontier policy. Major Hunt was ill +with fever, leaving Wargrave, who was still nominally attached to the +Military Police, in command of the detachment. + +It was delicious torture to Frank to be in the same place again with +Muriel, to see her from the parade ground or the Mess verandah playing +in the garden with the children, to meet her every day and talk to her +and yet be obliged to school his lips and keep them from uttering the +words that trembled on them. + +A few nights after the Durbar he dined with Mrs. Dermot and Muriel and +was sitting on the verandah of the Political Officer's house with them +after dinner. He was wearing white mess uniform. The evening was warm +and very still, and whenever the conversation died away, no sound save +the monotonous note of the nightjars or the sudden cry of a +barking-deer, broke the silence since the echoes of the "Lights Out" +bugle call had died away among the hills. + +Wargrave looked at his watch. + +"It's past eleven o'clock," he said. "I'd no idea it was so late. I +ought to get up and say goodnight; but I'm so comfortable here, Mrs. +Dermot." + +His hostess smiled lazily at him but made no reply. Again a peaceful +hush fell on them. + +With startling suddenness it was broken. From the Fort four hundred +yards away a rifle-shot rang out, rending the silence of the night and +reverberating among the hills around. Wargrave sprang to his feet as +shouts followed and a bugle shrilled out the soul-gripping "Alarm," the +call that sends a thrill through every soldier's frame. For always it +tells of disaster. Heard thus at night in barracks swift following on a +shot it spoke of crime, of murder, the black murder of a comrade. + +The two women had risen anxiously. + +"What is it? Oh, what is it?" they asked. + +The subaltern spoke lightly to re-assure them. + +"Nothing much, I expect. Some man on guard fooling with his rifle let it +off by accident," he said quietly. "Excuse me. I'd better stroll across +to the Fort and see." + +But Mrs. Dermot stopped him. + +"Wait a moment please, Mr. Wargrave," she said, running into the house. +She returned immediately with her husband's big automatic pistol and +handed it to him. In her left hand she held a smaller one. "Take this +with you. It's loaded," she said. + +Frank thanked her, said goodnight to both calmly, and walked down the +garden path; but the anxious women heard him running swiftly across the +parade ground. + +"What is it, Noreen? What does it mean?" asked the girl nervously. + +"A sepoy running amuck, I'm afraid," replied her friend. "He's shot +someone----." + +She swung round, pistol raised. + +"_Kohn hai_? (Who's that?)" she called out. + +A man had come noiselessly on to the shadowed end of the verandah. + +"It is I, _mem-sahib_," answered Sher Afzul, her Punjaubi Mahommedan +butler. He had been in her service for five years and was devoted to her +and hers. He was carrying a rifle, for his master at his request had +long ago given him arms to protect his _mem-sahib_. Before her marriage +he had once fought almost to the death to defend her when her brother's +bungalow had been attacked by rebels during a rising. + +"It would be well to go into the house and put out the lights, +_mem-sahib_," he said quietly in Hindustani. "There is danger to-night." + +As he spoke he extinguished the lamp on the verandah and closed the +doors of the house. A second armed servant came quietly on to the +verandah and the butler melted into the darkness of the garden; but they +heard him go to the gate as if to guard it. + +"You had better go inside, Muriel," said Mrs. Dermot, but made no move +to do so herself. + +The girl did not appear to hear her. She was listening intently for any +sound from the Fort. But silence had fallen on it. + +"Muriel, won't you go into the house?" repeated her hostess. + +"Eh? What? No, I couldn't. I must stay here," replied Miss Benson +impatiently. In the black darkness the other woman could not see her; +but she felt that the girl's every sense was alert and strained to the +utmost. She moved to her and put her arm about her. Against it she could +feel Muriel's heart beating violently. + +Suddenly from the Fort came the noise of heavy blows and a crash, +instantly followed by a shot and then fierce cries. + +"Oh, my God! What is happening?" murmured the girl, her hand on her +heart. + +Presently there came the sound of running feet, and heavy boots +clattered up the rocky road towards the Mess past the gate. + +Then the butler's voice rang out in challenge: + +"_Kohn jatha_? (Who goes there?)" + +A panting voice answered: + +"Wargrave Sahib _murgya_. Doctor Sahib _ko bulana ko jatha_"--(Wargrave +Sahib is killed. I go to call the Doctor Sahib)--and the sepoy ran on in +the darkness. + +"O God! O God!" cried the girl, and tried to break from her friend's +clasp. "Let me go! Let me go!" + +"Where to?" asked Noreen, holding the frenzied girl with all her +strength. + +"To him. He's dead. Didn't you hear? He's dead. I must go to him." + +She struggled madly and beat fiercely at the hands that held her. + +"Let me go! Let me go! Oh, he's dead," she wailed. "Dead. And I loved +him so. Oh, be merciful! Let me go to him!" and suddenly her strength +gave way and she collapsed into Noreen's arms, weeping bitterly. + +They heard the clattering steps meet others coming down the hill and a +hurried conversation ensue. Noreen recognised one of the voices. Then +both men came running down. + +"It's the doctor," said Mrs. Dermot. "Come to the gate and we'll ask him +what has happened." + +"Mr. Macdonald! Mr. Macdonald!" she cried as the hurrying footsteps drew +near. + +"Who's that? Mrs. Dermot? For God's sake get into the house. There's a +man running amuck. Wargrave's killed. I'm wanted"; and the doctor, +taking no thought of danger to himself when there was need of his skill, +ran on into the darkness. + +"I must--I will go!" cried Muriel. + +"Very well. Perhaps it's not true. We must know. We may be able to +help," replied her friend. + +And with a word to Sher Afzul to guard her babies from danger she seized +Muriel's hand, and the two girls ran towards the Fort in the track that +Wargrave had followed to his death, it seemed. + + * * * * * + +Pistol in hand Wargrave had raced across the parade ground. At the gate +of the Fort he was challenged; and when he answered an Indian officer +came out of the darkness to him. + +"Sahib," he said hurriedly. "Havildar Mahommed Ashraf Khan has been shot +in his bed in barracks. The sentry over the magazine is missing with his +rifle." + +Wargrave entered the Fort. Opposite the guard-room the detachment was +falling in rapidly, the men carrying their rifles and running up from +their barrack-rooms in various stages of undress. By the flickering +light of a lantern held up for him a non-commissioned officer was +calling the roll, and his voice rumbled along in monotonous tones. The +guard were standing under arms. + +"Put out that lamp!" cried the subaltern sharply. It would only serve to +light up other marks for the invisible assassin if, like most men who +run _amôk_, he meant to keep on killing until slain himself. "No; take +it into the guard-room and shut the door." + +In the darkness the silence was intense, broken only by the heavy +breathing of the unseen men and the clattering of the feet of some +late-comer. Suddenly there rang out through the night the most appalling +sound that had ever assailed Wargrave's ears. It was as the cry of a +lost soul in all the agony of the damned, an eerie, unearthly wail that +froze the blood in the listeners' veins. In the invisible ranks men +shuddered and clutched at their neighbours. + +"_Khuda ke Nam men, kiya hai?_ (In the Name of God, what is that?)" +gasped the subaltern. + +The Indian officer at his side answered in a low voice: + +"It is Ashraf Khan crying out in pain, Sahib. He is not yet dead." + +"_Subhedar_ sahib, come with me," said Wargrave. "Let your _jemadar_ +(lieutenant) take the men one by one into the guard-room and examine the +rifles to see if any have been fired. We don't know yet if the missing +sentry did the deed." + +The _Subhedar_ (company commander) gave the order to his subordinate and +followed Wargrave to the barrack-room in which the crime had been +committed. The sight that met the subaltern's eyes was one that he was +not easily to forget. + +The high-roofed chamber was in darkness save at one end where a small +lamp cast weird shadows on the walls and vaulting ceiling. At this end +and under the flickering light a group of figures stood round a bed on +which a man was writhing in agony. He was struggling in delirious frenzy +to hurl himself to the stone floor, and was only held down by the united +efforts of three men. From a bullet wound in his bared chest the +life-blood welled with every movement of his tortured body. He had been +shot in the back as he lay asleep. The lips covered with a bloody froth +were drawn back tightly over the white teeth clenched in agony, and red +foam lay on the black beard. Out of the sweat-bathed, ghastly face the +eyes glared in frenzy. The features were contorted with pain. Again and +again the wild shrieks like the howl of a mad thing rang through the +long room and out into the night. + +With tear-filled eyes and heart torn with pity Wargrave looked down at +him in silence. Ashraf Khan was one of his best men. "But where is the +doctor sahib?" he asked the native officer suddenly. + +The _subhedar_ stared and shook his head. In the excitement no one had +thought of sending for the medical officer. Wargrave turned to one of +the men around the bed. + +"Mahbub Khan, run hard to the Mess and call the doctor sahib. Here, +stop!" He remembered that Macdonald did not possess a revolver. For all +one knew he might encounter the murderer on his way. Wargrave thrust +Mrs. Dermot's pistol into the sepoy's hand, saying, "Give the sahib +that." + +The man, who was barefoot, ran out of the chamber and went to his own +barrack-room for his shoes, for the road was rocky and covered with +sharp stones. The subaltern turned away with a sigh from the bedside of +his poor comrade. He could do nothing now but avenge him. As he walked +away from the group he trod on an empty cartridge case and picked it up. +It had recently been fired. It told its tale; for it showed that the +assassin had reloaded over his victim and intended that the killing +should not end there. If he were the missing sentry then he had nine +more cartridges left--nine human lives in his blood-stained hand. And as +the subaltern crossed the verandah outside the barrack-room the +_jemadar_ met him and reported that all the rifles of the detachment had +been examined and found clean except the missing weapon of the sentry, a +young Pathan sepoy called Gul Mahommed. It was remembered that the dying +_havildar_ (sergeant) had reprimanded him hotly on the previous day for +appearing on parade with accoutrements dirty. So little a cause was +needed to send a man to his death! + +The first thing to be done now was to hunt for the murderer. While he +went free no one's life was safe. Wargrave shuddered at the thought of +danger coming to Muriel or her friend, and he hoped that they were +safely shut in their house. It was a difficult problem to know where to +begin the search. The Fort was full of hiding-places, especially at +night. And already the assassin might have escaped over the low wall +surrounding it. As Wargrave stood perplexed another Indian officer ran +up, accompanied by two men with rifles. + +"Sahib! Sahib!" he whispered excitedly. "The murderer is in my room, the +one next that in which Ashraf Kahn was shot. I left the door wide open +when I ran out. It is now shut and bolted from the inside and someone is +moving about in it." + +The subaltern went along the verandah to the door and tried it. It was +firmly fastened. + +"Here, sahib!" cried a sepoy who ran up with a comrade carrying a heavy +log. + +"_Shahbash_! (Well done!) Break in the door," said Wargrave. + +Other men, who had come up, seized the long log and dashed it violently +against the door. The bolt held, but the frail hinges gave way and the +door fell in. + +"Stand back!" cried Wargrave. + +It seemed certain death to enter the room in which a murderer lurked in +darkness, armed with a rifle and fixed bayonet and resolved to sell his +life dearly. But the subaltern did not hesitate. He was the only sahib +there and of course it was his duty to go in. He could not ask his men +to risk a danger that he shirked himself. That is not the officer's +way, whose motto must ever be "Follow where I lead." + +Wargrave sprang into the room unarmed. He was outlined against the faint +light outside. A spurt of flame lit the darkness; and the subaltern, as +he tripped over the raised threshold, felt that he was shot. He +staggered on. A rifle lunged forward and the bayonet stabbed him in the +side; but with a desperate effort he closed with his unseen assailant +and grappled fiercely with him. Struggling to overpower the assassin +before his ebbing strength left him he fought madly. The Indian officers +and sepoys blocking up the doorway could see nothing; but they could +hear the choking gasps, the panting breaths, the muttered curses and the +stamping feet of the combatants locked in the death-grapple. They could +not interfere, they dared not fire. In impotent fury they shouted: + +"Bring lamps! Bring lamps!" + +Then, groaning in their powerlessness to aid their beloved officer, they +listened, as a light danced over the stones from a lantern in the hand +of a running sepoy. The moment it came and lit up the scene they rushed +on the murderer wrestling fiercely with Wargrave and dragged him off as +the subaltern collapsed and fell to the ground. The glare of the lantern +shone on his white face. + +"The sahib is dead!" cried a sepoy, and sprang at the murderer who was +struggling in the grip of the two powerfully-built Indian officers. +Others followed him, and his captors had to fight hard and use all their +authority to keep the prisoner from being killed by the bare hands of +his maddened comrades. Only the arrival of the armed men of the guard +saved him. + +Frenzied with grief the sepoys bent over their officer lying motionless +and apparently dead on the stone floor. They loved him. Many of them +wept openly and unashamed. The _subhedar_ knelt beside him and opened +his shirt. The blood had soaked through the white mess-jacket that +Wargrave wore. + +The native officer looked up into the ring of brown faces bent over him. +Suddenly he cried angrily: + +"Mahbub Khan, why hast thou not gone for the doctor sahib as thou wert +told, O Son of an Owl?" + +The face staring in horror between the heads of the sepoys was hurriedly +withdrawn, and Mahbub Khan, who had lingered to see the end of the +tragedy, turned and pushed his way out of the crowd. + +Macdonald found the subaltern lying to all appearances dead on the +broken door out in the open, where they had gently carried him. + +"Hold a light here," he cried as he knelt down beside the body. + +By now a dozen lanterns or more lit up the scene. The doctor laid his +ear against Wargrave's chest and held a polished cigarette case to his +lips. Then he pulled back the shirt to examine his injuries. + +"Oh, is he dead? Is he dead?" cried a trembling voice. + +The doctor, looking up angrily, found Miss Benson and Mrs. Dermot +standing over him. The sepoys had silently made way for them. + +"You shouldn't be here, ladies," he said with justifiable annoyance. +"This is no place for you. No; he's not dead. And I hope and think that +he won't die." + +"Oh, thank God!" cried the two women. + +The sepoys crowding round and hanging on the doctor's verdict could not +understand the words but saw the look of joyous relief on their faces +and guessed the truth. A wild, confused cheer went up to the stars. + +"Mr. Macdonald," said Mrs. Dermot bending over him again. "Will you +bring him to my house? There is no accommodation for him in your little +hospital, you know; and he'd have no one to look after him in the Mess. +I can nurse him." + +The doctor straightened himself on his knee and looked down at the +unconscious man. + +"Yes, Mrs. Dermot, it's a good idea," he replied. "There is nowhere else +where he'd get any attention. My hands are full with Major Hunt. He's +taken a turn for the worse. His temperature went up dangerously high +to-night; and he was almost delirious." + +He stood up. + +"I can't examine Wargrave properly here. He seems to be wounded in two +places. But I hope it's not--I mean, I think he'll pull through. His +pulse is getting stronger. I've put a first dressing on; and I think we +can move him. Hi! stretcher _idher lao_. (Bring the stretcher here!)" + +Suddenly Wargrave opened his eyes and looked up in the doctor's face. + +"Is that you, Macdonald?" he asked dreamily. "Never mind me; I'm all +right. Go to poor Ashraf Khan. If he must die, at least give him +something to put him out of his misery. I can wait." + +His voice trailed off, and he relapsed into unconsciousness. Ordering +him to be carried away the doctor, after a word with the Indian +officers, entered the barrack-room. It was useless. Ashraf Khan had just +died. + +The crowd fell back in a wide circle to let the two hospital orderlies +bring up the stretcher for Wargrave and, as they did, left a group of +men standing isolated in the centre. All of these were armed, except one +whose hands were pinioned behind his back. His head was bare, his face +bruised and bleeding, and his uniform nearly torn off his body. It +needed no telling that he was the murderer. + +Miss Benson walked up to him with fierce eyes. + +"You dog!" she cried bitterly in Urdu. + +The man who had smiled defiantly when the hands of his raging comrades +were seeking to tear the life out of his body and had shouted out his +crime in their faces, cowered before the anger in the flaming eyes of +this frail girl. He shrank back between his guards. The sepoys looking +on howled like hungry wolves and, as Mrs. Dermot drew the girl back, +made a rush for the murderer. The men of the guard faced them with +levelled bayonets and ringed their prisoner round; and the sepoys fell +back sullenly. + +Suddenly a shrill voice cried in Hindustani: + +"Make way! Make way there! What has happened?" + +The circle of men gapped and through the opening came Major Hunt, +white-faced, wasted, shaking with fever and clad only in pyjamas and a +great coat and with bare feet thrust into unlaced shoes. He staggered +feebly in among them, revolver in hand. + +"Heaven and Earth! Is Wargrave dead?" he cried and tottered towards the +stretcher. + +Suddenly the pistol dropped from his shaking hand and he fell forward on +the stones before Macdonald could catch him. + +"This is madness," muttered the doctor. "It may kill him. I hoped he +wouldn't hear the alarm." + +"Bring him to my house too," said Mrs. Dermot. + +Another stretcher was fetched, the Major lifted tenderly into it, and +the sad procession started, the sepoys falling back silently to make +way. + +Major Hunt having been put to bed in one of the guest-rooms of the +Political Officer's house, Macdonald, with the aid of the subaltern's +servant, undressed Wargrave and examined his injuries, Noreen holding a +basin for him while Muriel, shuddering, carried away the blood-tinged +water and brought fresh. The shot-wound, though severe, was not +necessarily dangerous, and the bullet had not lodged in him. The doctor +was relieved to find that the bayonet had not penetrated deeply but had +only glanced along a rib, tearing the intercostal muscles and inflicting +a long, jagged but superficial wound which bled freely. Indeed, the most +serious matter was the great loss of blood, which had weakened the +subaltern considerably. + +Wargrave did not recover consciousness until early morning. When he +opened his eyes they fell on Muriel sitting by his bed. He showed no +surprise and the girl, scarce daring to believe that he was awake and +knew her, did not venture to move. But as he continued to look steadily +at her she gently laid her hand on his where it lay on the coverlet. + +Then in a weak voice he said: + +"Dearest, I mustn't love you, I mustn't. I'm bound in honour--bound to +another woman and I must play the game. It's hard sometimes. But if I +die I want you to know I loved you, only you." + +Her heart seemed to stop suddenly, then beat again with redoubled force. +Was he conscious? Was he speaking to her? Did he know what his words +meant? She waited eagerly for him to continue; but his hand closed on +hers in a weak grip and, shutting his eyes, he seemed to sleep. The girl +sank on her knees beside the bed and stared at the pale face that in +those few hours had grown so hollow and haggard. Did he really love her? +The thought was joy--until the damning memory of his other words +recurred to her and a sharp pain pierced her heart. There was another +woman then--one who held his promise. Who was she? He could not be +secretly married, surely; no, it must be that he was engaged to some +other girl. But he loved her--her, Muriel. He wanted to say so, he had +said so, though he strove to hold back, in honour bound. He would play +the game--ah! that he would do at any cost to himself. For she knew his +chivalrous nature. But he loved her--she was sure of it. Then the doubts +came again--did he know what he was saying? Was it perhaps only delirium +that spoke, the fever of his wounds? The girl suffered an agony worse +than death as she knelt beside the bed, her forehead on his hand. And +Noreen, entering softly an hour later, found her still crouched there, +weeping bitterly but silently. + +Shortly after sunrise Macdonald entered the house, wan and haggard, for +he had not been to bed all night. Besides the hours that he had spent +with his patients he had been busy in the Fort all night. He had to make +an autopsy of the dead man, and, as the only officer available, +investigate the crime, examine the witnesses and the prisoner who calmly +confessed his guilt, and telegraph the news of the occurrences to +Regimental, Divisional and Army Headquarters. He found Major Hunt +sleeping peacefully; but Wargrave woke as he tiptoed into the room and +looked up at him, at first not seeing the women. He was fully conscious +and asked eagerly for an account of what had happened. Noreen and Muriel +shuddered at the delight with which he heard of the murderer's capture; +for they were too tender-hearted to understand his passionate desire to +avenge the cruel slaying of one of his men. When he turned away from +Macdonald and saw Muriel his eyes shone eagerly for a moment, then +seemed to dull as memory returned to him. He begged Mrs. Dermot to +forgive him for upsetting her domestic arrangements by his intrusion +into the house. + +Later in the morning Noreen was sitting alone with him, having sent +Muriel to lie down for a couple of hours. She had not been to bed +herself, but after a bath and a change of clothing had given her +children their breakfast and bidden them make no noise, because their +beloved "Fwankie" was lying ill in the house. Yet she could not forbear +to smile when she saw the portentous gravity with which Eileen tiptoed +out into the garden to tell Badshah the news and order him to be very +quiet. + +Now, looking fresh and bright, she sat beside Wargrave's bed. Since the +doctor had left him he had lain thinking. He felt that Violet must be +informed at once that he had been hurt but was in no danger, lest she +might learn of the occurrence through another source and believe him to +be worse than he really was. As he looked at Mrs. Dermot the desire to +ask her instead of Macdonald if she would be the one to communicate with +Mrs. Norton grew overwhelming, and he felt that he wanted to confide to +her the whole story, sure that she would understand. And she could tell +Muriel--for he had been quite conscious when he had spoken to the girl +in the morning. It was only right that she should know the truth, but he +shrank from telling it to her himself. + +So he opened his heart to Noreen; and the understanding little woman +listened sympathisingly and made no comment, and undertook to explain +the situation to Muriel. So, an hour or two later, when Macdonald was +again with the subaltern, she went to her friend's room and told her the +whole story. + +The girl's first feeling was anger at the thought of Frank making love +to a married woman. + +"Seems to me it's the married woman who made it to him, from what I can +gather," said Noreen, a little annoyed with Muriel for her way of +receiving the story. "He did not say so, but it was easy to guess the +truth. Now, my dear, don't be absurd. Men are not angels; and if a +pretty woman flings herself at the head of one of them it's hard for +him to keep her at arm's length. And you've seen yourself in Darjeeling +how some of them, the married ones especially, do chase them." Her eyes +grew hard as she continued, "I remember how Kevin once was----." Then +she stopped. + +"But Frank! How could he? Oh, how could he? And he loved her," sobbed +the girl. + +"Don't be silly, Muriel. I tell you I don't believe he ever did. He +loves you now." + +"Oh, do you think he does? What am I to do?" + +"Nothing. Merely go along as you've been doing. Just be friendly. And +don't be hard on him. He's had a bad time. I've always felt that there +was something troubling him. Now I know; and I'm not going to let him +ruin himself and throw away his happiness for a woman who's not worth +it. He's the nicest, cleanest-minded man I've known after Kevin and my +brother. He saved my babies, and for that I'd do anything for him. I +feel almost as if he were one of my children; and I'll stand by him if +you won't." + +"Oh, but I will, I will," cried the girl. "But how can I help him?" + +"As I said, by acting as if nothing had happened and just keeping on +being friends. It oughtn't to be hard. See how he's suffering and think +how brave he's been. Remember, he loves you; and you do care for him, +don't you? I've an idea that he hopes that this woman is tiring of him +and may set him free. Of course he didn't say as much, but----." She +nodded sagely. Her intuition had told her more of his feelings in a +minute than Frank had dared to acknowledge to himself in many months. +"Anything I can do to help to bring that about I will." + +The days went by; and Wargrave, aided by his clean living, the devoted +nursing that he received, and the cool, healthy mountain air, began to +mend. Major Hunt had recovered and returned to duty, relieving the +officer sent from Headquarters to command during his illness. Colonel +Dermot had come back from Simla with Frank's appointment to the +Political Department as his assistant in his pocket. The murdered man +had long ago been laid to rest by his comrades; but his slayer still sat +fettered in the one cell of the Fort awaiting the assembling of the +General Court Martial for his trial, and seeing from his barred window +the even routine of the life that had been his for three years still +going on, but with no place in it for him. + +The period of Wargrave's convalescence was a very happy time for him. +Muriel had remained a whole month after the eventful night; for Mrs. +Dermot declared that, with the care of her house and children, she had +no time to nurse the subaltern, and the girl must stay to do it while he +was in any danger. So she lingered in the station to do him willing +service, wait on him, chat or read to him, give him her arm when he was +first allowed to leave his room, and did it all with the bright, +cheerful kindness of a friend, no more. She never alluded to his words +to her; but her patient somehow guessed that she had not been angered by +the revelation of the state of his feelings towards her. And from the +tenderness of her manner to him, the unconscious jealousy that she +displayed if anyone but she did any service for him, he began to half +hope, half fear, that she cared a little for him in return. But even as +he thought this he realised that he must not allow her to do so. + +At last the time came when she had to return to her father down in the +vast forest; and bravely as she said goodbye to everyone--and most of +all to Frank--the tears blinded her as she sat on the back of the +elephant that bore her away and saw the hills close in and shut from her +gaze the little station that held her heart. + +Wargrave, however, was not left to pine in loneliness after her +departure. All day long, if they were allowed, the children stayed with +him, Eileen smothering him with caresses at regular intervals. They told +him their doings, confided their dearest secrets to him and demanded +stories. And "Fwankie" racked his brains to recall the fairy tales of +his own childhood to repeat to the golden-haired mites perched on his +bed and gazing at him in awed fascination, the girl uttering little +shrieks at all the harrowing details of the wicked deeds of Giant +Blunderbore and the cruel deceit of the wolf that devoured Red +Ridinghood. + +But the subaltern, had a grimmer visitor one day. The orders came at +last for Gul Mahommed to be sent to Calcutta to stand his trial without +waiting for Wargrave's recovery, the latter's evidence being taken on +commission. The prisoner begged that he might be allowed to see the +wounded officer before he left; and, Frank having consented, he was +brought to the subaltern's bedroom when he was marched out of the Fort +on the first stage of his journey to the gallows. + +It was a dramatic scene. The stalwart young Pathan in uniform with his +wrists handcuffed stood with all the bold bearing of his race by the +bedside of the man that he had tried to kill, while two powerful sepoys +armed with drawn bayonets hemmed him in, their hands on his shoulders. + +The prisoner looked for a moment at the pale face of the wounded man, +then his bold eyes suffused with tears as he said: + +"_Huzoor_! (The Presence!) I am sorry. Had I known that night it was +Your Honour I would not have lifted my rifle against you. The Sahib has +always been good to me, to all of us. My enemy I slew, as we of the +_Puktana_ must do to all who insult us. That deed I do not regret." + +Wargrave looked up sorrowfully at the splendidly-built young +fellow--barely twenty-one--who had only done as he had been taught to do +from his cradle. Among Pathans blood only can wash away the stain of an +insult. The officer felt no anger against him for his own injuries and +regretted that false notions of honour had led him to kill a comrade and +were now sending him to a shameful death. + +"I am sorry, Gul Mahommed, very sorry," he said. "You were always a good +soldier, and now you must die." + +The Pathan drew himself up with all the haughty pride of his race. + +"I do not fear death, Sahib. They will give me the noose. But my father +can spare me. He has five other sons to fight for him. If only the Sahib +would forgive----." + +Wargrave, much moved, held out his hand to him. The prisoner touched it +with his manacled ones, then raised his fingers to his forehead. + +"For your kindness, Sahib, _salaam_!" + +Then he turned and walked proudly out of the room and Wargrave heard the +tramp of heavy feet on the rocky road outside as the prisoner was +marched away on the long trail to the gallows. Two months later Gul +Mahommed was hanged in the courtyard of Alipur jail in Calcutta before +detachments of all the regiments garrisoning the city. + +The subaltern had long chafed at the restraint of an invalid before +Macdonald took him off the sick-list and he was free to wander again +with Colonel Dermot in the forest and among the mountains. Before the +hot weather ended Raymond came to spend three weeks with him and be +initiated into the delights of sport in the great jungle. + +When the long imprisonment of the rains came Wargrave began to suffer in +health; for his wounds had sapped his strength more than he knew and +Macdonald shook his head over him. Nor was he the only invalid; for +little Brian grew pale and listless in the mists that enveloped the +outpost constantly now, until finally the doctor decreed that his +mother, much as she hated parting from her husband and her home, must +take the children to Darjeeling. And he ordered the subaltern to go too. +Frank did not repine, after Mrs. Dermot had casually intimated that +Muriel Benson was arranging to join her at the railway station and +accompany her on a long visit to Darjeeling. + +It was Wargrave's first introduction to a hill-station; and everything +was a delightful novelty to him, from the quaint little train that +brought them up the seven thousand feet to their destination in the +pretty town of villas, clubs and hotels in the mountains, to the +glorious panorama of the Eternal Snows and Kinchinjunga's lofty crests +that rise like fairyland into the sky at early dawn and under the +brilliant Indian moon. + +As Mrs. Dermot could not often leave her children it was Muriel, who +knew Darjeeling well, who became his guide. Together every day they set +out from their hotel, together they scaled the heights of Jalapahar or +rode down to watch the polo on the flat hill-top of Lebong, a thousand +feet below. Together they explored the fascinating bazaar and bought +ghost-daggers and turquoises in the quaint little shops. Together they +went on picnics down into the deep valleys on the way to Sikkhim. They +played tennis, rinked or danced together at the Amusement Club; and the +ladies at the tea-tables in the great lounge smiled significantly and +whispered to each other as the good-looking fair man and the pretty, +dark-haired girl came in together when the light was fading on the +mountains. Frank forgot cares. He ceased to brood unhappily--for it had +come to that--on Violet, who, as her rare letters told him, had spent +the Hot Weather in the Bombay hill-station of Mahableshwar and was now +enjoying life during the Rains in gay Poona. She seldom wrote, and then +but scrappily; and it seemed to him certain that she was forgetting him. +And he felt ashamed at the joy which filled him at the thought. Was he +always destined to be only the friend of the girl he loved, the lover of +the woman to whom he wished to be a friend? + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +"ROOTED IN DISHONOUR" + + +Government House, Ganeshkind, outside Poona, the residence of the +Governor of Bombay during the Rains, was blazing with light and gay with +the sound of music; for His Excellency was giving a fancy dress ball. +Motors and carriages were still rolling up in a long line to the +entrance where the gorgeously-clad Indian Cavalry soldiers of the +Governor's Bodyguard--tall and stately back-bearded men in long scarlet +tunics, white breeches and high black boots, their heads swathed in +gaudy _loongies_ (turbans) with tails streaming down their backs, +holding steel-headed bamboo lances with red and white pennons in their +white-gauntleted right hands--lined the approach. Inside, the splendid +ballroom, ablaze with electric lights, was crowded with gaily-dressed +figures in costumes beautiful or bizarre. The good-looking, middle-aged +baron who was the King's representative in the Bombay Presidency was +standing, dressed as Charles II., beside his plain but pleasant-featured +wife in the garb of Amy Robsart, receiving the last of their guests, +while already the dancing had begun. + +Later in the evening a group of officers in varied costumes stood near +one of the entrances criticising the dresses and the company. + +"By George, that's a magnificent kit," said a Garrison Gunner just +arrived on short leave from Bombay. "What's it supposed to be?" + +"A Polish hussar, I think," replied a subaltern in Wellesley's Rifles. + +"No, he's Murat, Napoleon's cavalry leader," said an Indian Lancer +captain. + +The wearer of the costume alluded to was passing them in a waltz. He was +a young man in a splendid old-time hussar uniform, a scarlet dolman +thick-laced with gold, a fur-trimmed slung pelisse, tight scarlet +breeches embroidered down the front of the thighs in gold, and long red +Russian leather boots with gold tassels. He was good-looking, but not in +an English way, and the swarthiness of his complexion and a slight kink +in his dark hair seemed to hint a trace of coloured blood. He was +plainly Israelite in appearance; and the large nose with the +unmistakable racial curved nostril would become bulbous with years, the +firm cheeks flabby and the plump chin double. + +"That dress cost some money, I'll bet," said the Gunner, cheaply attired +as a Pierrot. "Just look at the gold lace. I say, he's got glass +buttons." + +"Glass be hanged, Fergie, they're diamonds. Real diamonds, honour +bright, Murat wore diamonds. He was buckin' about them in the Club +to-night," said a captain in a British infantry regiment quartered in +Poona. "That's Rosenthal of the 2nd Hussars from Bangalore. Son of old +Rosenthal the South African multi-millionaire. A Sheeny, of course." + +"Who's the woman he's dancing with?" asked the Gunner. "Jolly +good-looking she is." + +"That's Mrs. Norton, wife of a Political somewhere in the Presidency. +Rosenthal's always in her pocket since he met her at Mahableshwar." + +As the dance ended the many couples streamed out of the ballroom and +made for the _kala juggas_--the "black places," as the sitting-out spots +are appropriately termed in India from the carefully-arranged lack of +light in them. Mrs. Norton, looking very lovely as Mary, Queen of Scots, +and her partner crossed the verandah and went out into the unlit garden +in search of seats. The first few they stumbled on were already +occupied, a fact that the darkness prevented them from realising until +they almost sat down on the occupants. At last in a retired corner of +the garden Rosenthal found a bench in a recess in the wall. As they +seated themselves he blurted out roughly: + +"I'm sick of all this, Vi. When do you mean to give me your answer? I'm +damned if I'm going to hang on waiting much longer. I'm fed up with +India and the Army. I mean to cut it all." + +"Well, Harry, what do you want?" asked his companion, smiling in the +darkness at his vehemence. + +"Want? You. And you know it. I want to take you away from this rotten +country. What's all this----," he waved his hand towards the lighted +ballroom, "compared to Paris, Monte Carlo, Cairo, Ostend when the races +are on? Let's go where life is worth living. This is stagnation." + +"Oh, I find it amusing. You forget, we women have a better time in India +than in Europe. There are too many of us there, so you don't value us." + +"Better time. Oh, Law! What rot!" He laughed rudely. "You've never lived +yet, dear. Look here, Vi. My father's one of the three richest men in +South Africa; and all he's got will come to me some day. As it is he +gives me an allowance bigger than those of all the other men in the +regiment put together. I hate the Service and its idiotic discipline. I +want to be free--to go where money counts. Damn India!" + +"Doesn't it count everywhere?" she asked, fanning herself lazily. His +rough, almost boorish, manner amused her always. She felt as if she were +playing with a caged tiger. "Doesn't it here?" + +"No; in the Army they seem to think more of some damned pauper who comes +of a 'county family,' as they call it, than of a fellow like me who +could buy up a dozen of them. I hate them all. And I mean to chuck it. +But I want you to come with me, Vi. And, what's more, I mean to have +you." + +"But your father wishes you to stay in the Service. You told me so +yourself. Will he like it if you leave--and will he continue your +allowance?" + +"Oh, I'll get round him. He's only got me. He's no one else to leave his +money to. It'd be all right, Vi. Answer me. I mean to get you." + +He grasped her wrist and tried to drag her towards him. She laughed and +held him off. + +"Take care, my dear boy. Darkness has ears. We're not alone in the +garden, please remember. If you can't behave prettily I'm going back to +the ballroom. Come, there's the music beginning again." + +He tried to seize her in his arms, but she eluded his grasp with a +dexterity that argued practice, and, rising, moved across the grass. He +followed sulkily, dominated by her cool and careless indifference. When +they reached the verandah one of the Government House aides-de-camp +rushed up to her. + +"Oh, Mrs. Norton, I've been hunting for you everywhere. I've a message +from His Excellency. He wants you to come to his table at supper and +save him from the Members of Council's awful wives." + +"Oh, thanks, Captain Gardner, I'll come with pleasure," she answered, +smiling prettily on him. An A.D.C. is always worth cultivating. + +"I say, is it hopeless asking you for a dance now?" he said. "We poor +devils of the Staff don't get a chance at the beginning of the evening, +as we're so busy introducing people to Their Excellencies." + +She looked at her programme. + +"You can have this, if you like. It's only with some Indian Civilian in +spectacles; and I hate the Heaven Born. They're such bores." She smiled +and sailed off on the A.D.C.'s arm to the disgust of Rosenthal, calmly +abandoned. But he could not help being amused when a round-faced young +man dressed as an ancient Greek with gig-lamp spectacles rushed up to +overtake Mrs. Norton before she entered the ballroom, and stopped in +dismay to gaze after her open-mouthed and peer at his programme. + +But the Hussar drove her back from Government House to Poona in his +particularly luxurious Rolls-Royce with an English chauffeur and would +hardly let her go when the car drew up before the door of the Munster +Hotel where she was staying. Laughing, crushed and dishevelled, she +broke from him and jumped out of the automobile, ran up the verandah +steps and turned to wave to him as the chauffeur started off to take him +to his quarters in the Club of Western India. + +Still smiling Violet stumbled up the unlighted stairs and reached her +sitting-room. When she turned up the lamp a letter lying on the table +caught her eyes. She picked it up indifferently; but when she saw that +it bore the handwriting of one of her Calcutta cousins and the +Darjeeling postmark she tore it open eagerly and ran her eye rapidly +down the pages. She came to the lines: + + "I have seen the man you asked me about. He is always with a girl + called Benson, rather a pretty little thing. She is popular with all + the men; but Mr. Wargrave seems to be the favourite. They are + staying at the same hotel; and everyone says they are engaged." + +Then the writer went on to talk of family matters. But Violet read no +more. Her eyes flamed with anger as she crumpled the paper up, flung it +on the floor and stamped it under foot. She paced the room angrily, +tearing the lace handkerchief she held in her hands to shreds. This, +then, was Frank's loyalty to her, this was how he consoled himself for +her absence. With this chit of a girl, with whom he probably laughed at +her, Violet's readiness to give up reputation, good fame, home, for him. +She almost sobbed with jealous rage at the idea. She forgot her own +infidelities and want of remembrance and felt herself to be a deceived +and much-abused woman. But she would not bear such treatment meekly. +Frank was hers; no other woman had a right to him, should ever have him. +She was resolved on that. She stopped and, picking up the letter, +smoothed it out and re-read it. Then, frowning, she passed into her +bedroom and tore off her costume. Not for an instant did she sleep +during the remainder of the night, but tossed on her bed, revolving +plans of vengeance. + +Next day she was seated in the train on her way to Darjeeling, a +journey that would take days. She had telegraphed fruitlessly for a room +at the Oriental Hotel at which she knew from his letters that Frank was +staying; but she had secured one at the larger Eastern Palace where her +Calcutta relatives were residing. Only on the second day of her journey +did she wire to Wargrave, bidding him meet her on her arrival. + +As the train carried her across India her heart was still filled with +anger, jealousy and almost hate of the man whom she had favoured above +all others and who spurned her, dared to be faithless to her, it seemed. +She did not know how much love she had left for him; for his image had +grown dim in the flight of time and among the distractions of gayer +stations than Rohar. Certainly she had flirted herself, flirted +recklessly; but that was a different matter to his faithlessness. She +might do it; but he must not. Did she want him? She hardly knew. But she +was not going to be put aside for this tiger-killing young person, this +jungle girl, who must be taught not to trespass on Violet's property. + +Then her mind went back to Rosenthal; and in the solitude of the ladies' +compartment she laughed aloud at the thought of the shock that his +self-sufficiency must have received when he learned of her sudden and +mysterious disappearance from Poona. For she had left him no word. It +would do him good; he needed a lesson, for he was too sure of her. She +had never troubled to analyse her feelings for him and did not know +whether she liked or hated him most. She saw his faults clearly, his +blatant conceit, his irritating belief in the supremacy of money, his +arrogance, his bad manners. She knew that men deemed him a bounder. But +his very boorishness, his savage outbreaks against conventionality, +attracted her. Under the thin veneer of civilisation, he was simply an +animal; she knew it and it appealed to her baser nature, the sensual +strain in her. That he was beast, and wild beast at that, did not +affright her; she felt that she could always dominate him when she +would. Once or twice the beast had come out into the open; but she had +driven it back with a whip--and she believed that she could always do +it. The wealth, the life of luxury that he offered, appealed to her +strongly; but she kept her head and remembered that he was dependent on +his father's bounty, and she had no intention of compromising herself +irretrievably under such circumstances. If he had the disposal of the +old man's immense riches then the temptation might be over-powering; but +until he had she would wait. And ever the memory of Wargrave obtruded +itself, rather to her annoyance; but angry as she was with him she could +not pretend to herself that she was indifferent to him. + +Up in Darjeeling on the very day that she left Poona Frank sat with +Miss Benson under a massive, orchid-clad tree in the lovely Botanical +Gardens, gazing moodily down into the depths of the valley far below +them. Turning suddenly he found his companion looking at him. Something +in her eyes moved him strongly and he forgot his caution. + +"Muriel, you know how it is with, me," he said impetuously. "I oughtn't +to say anything; but--well, all the men here run after you, and I can't +bear it. I'm a fool, I know, but I can't help being jealous. I'm always +afraid that some one of them will take you from me. The other woman +seems to be forgetting me completely. She hasn't written to me for +weeks, months. Surely she's tiring of me. I don't suppose she ever +really cared for me--just was bored in that dull station. If--if she +sets me free would you--could you ever like me well enough to marry me?" + +The girl looked away over the valley and a little smile crept into her +eyes. Then she turned to him and laid her hand on his. + +"Dear boy, if you were free I would," she answered. + +They were all alone, no one to see them; and his arms went out to her. +But she drew back. + +"Not yet, dear. You're another woman's property still," she said. + +He bit his lip. + +"Yes, you're right, sweetheart. But--well, even if I weren't, I haven't +much to offer you. I'm still in debt; and I'd be only condemning you to +pass all your existence in the jungle." + +"There'd be no hardship in that, dear. I love the forest better than +anywhere else in the world. Life in it is happiness to me." + +"But would you be content to live as Mrs. Dermot does?" + +"Content? I'd love it better than anything else, if I were with you." + +Then he forgot her reproof and she her high-minded resolves as his arms +went round her and he drew her to him until their lips met in a long, +passionate kiss. Afterwards they sat hand in hand and talked of what the +future would hold for them if only Fate were kind. And Mrs. Norton, +speeding across India to shatter their dream-world, smiled a little +grimly as she pictured to herself her meeting with Frank. + +Next day the blow fell. Wargrave was sitting at lunch with Mrs. Dermot +and Muriel in the hotel dining-room when Violet's telegram was handed to +him. His companions could see that he had received bad news; but he +pulled himself together and said nothing about it until he was alone +with Mrs. Dermot in her private sitting-room after _tiffin_. Then he +exclaimed suddenly, handing her the telegram: + +"She's on her way here." + +Noreen understood even before she looked at the paper. When she read +the message she asked: + +"What's she coming here for?" + +"I don't know. I haven't had a letter from her for a long time," he +replied wearily. + +"What are you going to do about her?" + +"What can I?" he said with a gesture of despair. "It's for her to +decide. If she wishes it I must keep my word." + +"But Muriel? What of her? You know she cares for you. Has she no right +to be considered?" demanded her friend impatiently. "Are you going to +ruin her life as well as yours? This woman will only drag you down. She +can't really be fond of you or she wouldn't forget you as she's been +doing. You don't love her. Don't you see what it will all mean to +you?--to be pilloried in the Divorce Court, made to pay enormous costs, +perhaps heavy damages as well. And even now you say you're in debt. And +then to be chained for life to a woman you don't care about while you're +in love with another. Oh, Mr. Wargrave, do be sensible. Tell her the +truth. Tell her you can't go on with it." + +"I've given her my word," he said simply. + +She pleaded with him passionately, but to no avail. At last, as Muriel +entered the room, she rose, saying: + +"Tell her. I'll not mention the subject again." + +And she walked indignantly into her bedroom and shut the door almost +with a bang; for the little woman was furious with him for what she +deemed his crass stupidity. + +"What's the matter with Noreen?" asked the girl in surprise. + +Without a word he gave her the telegram. + +"Oh Frank!" she gasped, and sank overwhelmed into a chair, letting the +fatal paper flutter to the floor. + +He did not go to her but stood by the window, the image of despair, +gazing out with unseeing eyes. + +"What am I to do?" he asked miserably. + +"You must keep your word if she wishes it," answered the girl bravely. + +But the next moment she broke down and, burying her face in her hands, +wept bitterly. He made no move to her; and she rose and went quietly +back to her own room. + +In the interval that elapsed before Violet's arrival Mrs. Dermot did not +abandon hope, and in spite of her words she attacked Wargrave +persistently, trying to shake his resolution. But to her despair Muriel +sided with him and declared that he was right. So finally Noreen gave it +up and vowed that she would wash her hands of the whole affair. + +When Violet reached Darjeeling Wargrave met her at the railway station. +Face to face with him her anger died and something of the attraction he +had had for her revived. So she greeted him effusively and all but +embraced him on the platform. Other men seeing the meeting wondered why +he looked so miserable when such a lovely woman evinced her delight at +seeing him so plainly. She passed her arm through his with an air of +possession and chatted volubly while he watched his servant help hers to +collect her luggage. When she took her seat in the _dandy_, or chair +carried on the shoulders of coolies, and was being conveyed towards her +hotel she behaved as though they had not been parted a week, rattled on +gaily about her doings in Poona and Mahableshwar and, with all the +glories of the Himalayas about her, declared that the Bombay +hill-station was far lovelier than Darjeeling. Wargrave was relieved +that she showed no desire to be sentimental and gladly responded to her +mood, detailing the forthcoming gaieties and promising to take her to +them all. + +When they reached the Eastern Palace Hotel and were shown up into her +private sitting-room she put her hands on his shoulders as soon as they +were alone and said: + +"Let me look at you, Frank. You have improved. You've grown handsomer, I +think. Aren't you going to kiss me?" + +He did it with so little fervour that she made a grimace and thought +"It's quite time that I came to bring him to heel. Not much loving +ardour about that. I wonder if he kisses the jungle girl as coldly." +Aloud she said: + +"Now let's go down to _tiffin_. I'm starving. Will you please secure a +table and I'll follow you in a few minutes?" + +During the meal she chattered gaily, criticised the dresses and +appearance of the other women in the dining-room and, chaffing him +merrily on his want of appetite, ate a substantial meal herself. Mrs. +Dermot, anxious to befriend him, had thought that she could help him by +inviting him to bring Mrs. Norton to tea with her that afternoon. When +during _tiffin_ he hesitatingly conveyed the invitation Violet said: + +"Oh, I don't want to be bothered with women, my dear boy. Take me out +and show me the place and the shops and the _Gymkhana_--what do you call +it here? Oh, the Amusement Club. No, stop a minute. Mrs. Dermot is your +dear friend from Ranga Duar, isn't she? So she's here. And the other, +the jungle girl, where is she?" + +Frank flushed as he replied: + +"I suppose you mean Miss Benson? She's with Mrs. Dermot." + +"So you're all staying at the same hotel. How very nice for you! But, my +dear Frank, doesn't it strike you that it'll be rather dull for me +staying by myself here? You'll have to change to this hotel." + +"I asked about rooms here; but they told me they're full up now." + +"I'll see if I can't get round the manager and make him find a corner +for you. Well, now for this tea-party. Yes; on second thoughts I'll go. +I'd like to see the ladies who've been consoling you for my absence." + +"Oh, nonsense, Violet. They haven't. They're just friends, that's all," +he said irritably. + +"Of course, dear; I know. Well, tell me what these 'just friends' are +like." + +She certainly derived little idea of them from Wargrave's lame attempt +at description. And when later she and he were shown into Mrs. Dermot's +sitting-room at tea-time Noreen and Muriel found his picture of her as a +meek, long-suffering, neglected wife very unlike the radiant, +condescending lady who patronised them from the start. She showed a +tendency to address most of her conversation to the girl, despite the +latter's evident disinclination to talk, or perhaps because of it; for +the older woman seemed to take an impish delight in teasing her about +her friendship with Wargrave and their relations as nurse and patient, +although it was apparent that her malicious humour made the others +uncomfortable. She paraded her authority over Frank and treated him like +a hen-pecked husband. When finally she bore him away to escort her to the +Amusement Club she left the two girls speechless behind her. But not +for the same reason. Noreen was furious. + +"What a hateful woman!" she exclaimed as soon as her visitor departed. +"And I pitied her as a poor neglected wife! What do you think of her?" + +Muriel only shook her head, as she sat looking despondent and thoroughly +miserable. Mrs. Norton's malice affected her little, but her undoubted +loveliness had made her despair. How could an insignificant little +person like herself, she thought, hope to win affection from any man +whom this radiant beauty deigned to favour? Frank could not help adoring +so attractive a woman. He must have loved her in Rohar, although he said +that he had not. Muriel felt that she could have resigned herself more +easily to his keeping his word to Violet, if the latter had been less +good-looking. + +Mrs. Dermot broke in on her miserable thoughts. + +"Come, dear, we'll take the children for their walk and then go on later +to the Amusement Club." + +"I couldn't go to the Club this evening, Noreen. I really couldn't. We'd +only see that woman again--with Frank." + +"Well, what of it? We're not going to let her think we're afraid to face +her. I've no patience with Mr. Wargrave. Whatever he can see in her I +can't think. You're worth twenty of her, darling. Shallow, conceited. +She neglected? She badly treated? My sympathy is with her husband now. +What fools men are!" And Noreen swept indignantly from the room. + +Every moment of the hour that they spent in the Club that evening was a +lifetime of torture to Muriel. She had faced a charging tiger with less +dread than she did the crowd at the tea-tables in the rink. She fancied +that every woman who looked at her was laughing in her sleeve at her, +that every man who bowed or spoke to her was pitying her. Suddenly her +heart seemed to stop beating, for she saw Frank sitting with Mrs. Norton +and two other ladies, her Calcutta cousins, as well as a couple of men +in the British Infantry regiment at Lebong. They were looking at her; +and she felt that Violet was pointing her out as the deserted maiden. +She tried to smile bravely when her rival waved her hand and called out +a cheery "good evening" to her and Noreen, who answered the greeting +with an almost defiant air of unconcern. + +For days afterwards she saw practically nothing of Wargrave, who was +obliged to be in constant attendance on Mrs. Norton. Violet had induced +the manager of her hotel to find a room for him; and he was forced to +transfer himself and his belongings to the Eastern Palace. She +monopolised him, insisted on his taking her shopping in the mornings, +calling in the afternoons or to Lebong to watch the polo, or else +playing tennis with her at the Amusement Club. He dined with her every +evening and escorted her to the dances, concerts or theatricals that +filled the nights during the Season. He hardly recognised her in the gay +social butterfly with seemingly never a care in the world; and she made +him wonder every day if she had any love left for him or wanted him to +have any for her. For she showed no desire to be sentimental and treated +him very much as she had in the early days of their acquaintance. She +never discussed their future. He had not the moral courage to ask her +outright if she still wanted to come to him. She gave no indication of +being happy only in his company; for she soon began to release him from +attendance on her on occasions in favour of some one or other of the new +men friends that she rapidly made. He took advantage of this to see +something of Muriel again. + +But this did not suit Mrs. Norton. Even if she did not want Frank +herself that was no reason why the girl should have him. She tried being +jealous and insisted on his breaking off the friendship; but, although +he hated the scenes that ensued, he resolutely refused to do so. Then +Violet adopted another plan. She pretended to be convinced by his +assurances that it meant nothing and declared that she wished to be +friends with Muriel. She went out of her way to be nice to the girl when +they met in public and at last invited her to tea at the Eastern Palace +Hotel on an afternoon on which she knew Mrs. Dermot to be engaged. +Muriel accepted because she did not know very well how to refuse. + +When she was shown into Mrs. Norton's private sitting-room she found +Wargrave already there with her hostess, who received her very amiably. +During tea the conversation flowed in safe channels at first. But +suddenly Violet startled her guests by saying: + +"Now, Miss Benson, that we three are alone I think it a good opportunity +to speak very plainly about Frank's relations with you. I've just been +giving him a serious talking to about the way he has behaved to you." + +The girl drew herself up haughtily. + +"What do you mean, Mrs. Norton," she said. "The way Mr. Wargrave has +behaved----? I don't understand you." + +"Oh yes, you do. It's best to speak plainly. I'm afraid Frank has been +leading you to believe that he's in love with you----." + +"Violet!" broke in Wargrave angrily. "Please don't go on. You've no +right to say such things." + +She smiled sweetly on him. + +"Yes, I have, Frank. You know, my dear boy, that you've got pretty ways +with women--I fear he's rather a flirt, Miss Benson--that you are apt to +make some of them think you mean more than you do." + +"What absurd nonsense!" he cried, more angrily still. "Please stop, I +beg of you." + +"No, Frank, it is only right that I should warn Miss Benson." She +turned to the girl. "He hasn't told you, I'm sure, that he's not free to +marry you or any other girl." + +Wargrave sprang up. + +"I've told her everything about us, Violet," he protested. "I ask you as +a favour to drop the subject." + +The girl sat as if turned to stone while Mrs. Norton went on: + +"You are young, my dear, and can't know much about men. I suppose you've +lived in the jungle all your life. Now, a little bird has told me you've +let yourself get too fond of Frank--oh, he's very charming, I know, and +this playing at nursing a poor wounded hero is a dangerous game. But I'm +going to tell you plainly that Frank is pledged to me. He has asked me +to leave my husband for him, and I've consented; so there's no use your +trying to catch him, my dear. You're too late." + +The girl sprang indignantly to her feet. + +"I've done nothing of the sort, Mrs. Norton. How dare you say so? You've +no right to speak to me as you're doing." + +The older woman sat back coolly in her chair and laughed; but her eyes +grew hard. + +"Oh yes, I have, my dear girl. You two were the talk of Darjeeling +before I came. Of course you're angry, naturally, at failing to catch +him, but I'm going to put a stop to your trying, here and now. He has +got to break with you." + +"You are a wicked woman," began the girl; and then indignation choked +her. + +Mrs. Norton leant forward in her chair. + +"Can you deny that you're in love with him?" she asked. + +Wargrave tried to interpose; but the girl waved him aside and faced her +rival. + +"I'll answer you. I am. I love him as you could never do. I was willing +to give him up to you--for he loves me, not you--so that he should not +be false to his word. I didn't know what you were like, then. But now I +don't believe you'd ever make him happy. You don't love him--you haven't +got it in you. You wouldn't be content with any one man. I've watched +you. You're absolutely heartless; and you'd only make Frank miserable. +You're willing to disgrace him as well as yourself. You don't mind if +you ruin him. Frank----" + +She turned towards Wargrave. + +"You said you loved me. Is it true?" + +He answered firmly: + +"Yes, I do." + +"Then will you marry me? This woman will only wreck your life. Choose +between us." + +He turned in desperation to Mrs. Norton. + +"Violet, you don't really want me, do you? You don't love me. I've felt +for a long time that you're forgetting me. I love Muriel and she loves +me. If you ever cared for me release me from my promise." + +Mrs. Norton lay back calmly in her chair and looked with a smile from +one to the other. Then she said deliberately: + +"This morning I wrote to my husband and told him that I was never +returning to him, that I was going to you, Frank. That is why I asked +this girl here to-day to tell you before her that now I'm going to ask +you to keep your promise. Will you?" + +The girl looked at him appealingly and stretched out her hands to him. + +"Frank, for your own sake, if not for mine, don't listen to her." + +He stood irresolute, torn by conflicting emotions. Then with an effort +he replied: + +"Muriel, I must. I can't break my word." + +Mrs. Norton gave a mocking laugh. The girl shrank from him and hid her +face in her hands for a moment. Then she looked up and said, desperately +calm: + +"Very well, be it so. You've decided and there's nothing more to be +said. You've shamed me before this woman; and I never want to see you +again." + +She turned and walked out of the room. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE + + +As Muriel passed through the door Wargrave started to follow her; but +Violet cried peremptorily: + +"Frank, stay here. Please realise that I come first now. Sit down." + +He obeyed mechanically. She went on petulantly: + +"These emotional scenes are rather exhausting. Do you mind calling the +hotel 'boy' and ordering a cocktail for me? You ought to have one +yourself. I suppose, like all men, you hate scenes. Then you should be +grateful to me for saving you from that spiteful little jungle cat." + +Going to the verandah outside the room he called a hotel servant and +gave him the order, then returned to his chair and sat down wearily. He +stared at the floor in silence. He had sent the girl that he loved away +utterly humiliated; and he knew that, with her proud spirit, the shame +of his rejection of her would cut her to the heart. He cursed himself +for bringing this pain to her. It was all his fault. Not only had he had +no right to speak of love to her while he was bound to another woman, +but he ought never to have sought her society as he had done, never +striven to gain her friendship, for by doing so he had unconsciously won +her love. The harm was done long before he spoke to her of his feelings. +What a selfish brute he was to thus cause two women to suffer! + +Presently he remembered that his moodiness, his silence, were +uncomplimentary, cruel, to Violet. She was right in saying that she came +first. Indeed she was the only one to be considered now. The other had +passed out of his life. It might be that they should meet again some day +in their restricted world, but while he could he must try to avoid her. +There was only Violet left. + +He looked up to find his companion's eyes fixed on him with an +undefinable expression. He roused himself with an effort that was not +lost on the woman watching him. + +"So you have told your husband," he said. "Well, now we must arrange +what we are going to do." + +"We won't discuss our plans at this moment," replied Violet. "I'm not in +the mood for it." Then after a pause she added bitterly, "I must give +you time to recover from the shock of the abrupt ending to your little +jungle romance." + +Before he could reply the servant appeared with a tray. + +"Ah, thank goodness, here are the cocktails. There's only one. Aren't +you having one, too? It will do you good. No?" + +She sipped her cocktail slowly. When she had finished it she got up +from her chair, saying: + +"I'll get ready to go to the Amusement Club. Will you wait for me here? +You needn't change--we won't play tennis to-day; for we've got this +dinner and dance on to-night and I don't want to tire myself. I shan't +be long." + +As she passed his chair she tapped his cheek and said: + +"Don't look so miserable, my dear boy. You'll soon get over the loss of +your jungle girl. There, you may kiss my hand as a sign of your return +to your allegiance." + +But when she entered her bedroom she did not at once proceed to get +ready to go out, but unlocked her dressing-case and, taking out of it a +letter, sat down to read it for the tenth time since she had received it +that morning. Yet it was short and concise. It was from Rosenthal and +addressed from the Mess of the 2nd (Duke's Own) Hussars in Bangalore; +for, as it told her, he had returned to his regiment as his leave had +expired. It was the first that had come from him since she had left +Poona, although, as he said in it, he had obtained her new address from +the Goanese clerk in the Munster Hotel office on the day of her flight, +thanks to the persuasive powers of a fifty-rupee note. + +He told her that although her abrupt departure had puzzled him and he +could not understand why she had tried to conceal her whereabouts from +him, he wished her to realise that if it were an attempt to escape from +him it was useless. He could bide his time, for sooner or later he would +get her. + +Violet smiled as she read his confident words, although they caused a +little shiver of fear to run through her. Then she rose, locked the +letter away and put on her hat. + +Not until after lunch next day was Wargrave able to find time to go to +the Oriental Hotel, not to see Muriel, he sternly told himself, but to +pay a visit to Mrs. Dermot. When he was shown up to her sitting-room he +had to wait for some time before Noreen entered; and he was struck at +once by the coldness of her greeting. It was evident that she was very +displeased with him. She said no word about Muriel; and Wargrave felt +curiously averse to mentioning her name. + +At last he summed up courage to ask her. With as near an approach to +frigidity of manner as she could show to a man to whom she was so +indebted Noreen replied: + +"Muriel has left Darjeeling." + +"Left Darjeeling? Where for? Where has she gone?" he exclaimed in +surprise. + +"To her father." + +"But why? She wasn't to have left for weeks yet," said Wargrave. + +Mrs. Dermot looked at him angrily. + +"Why? Need you ask? I should have thought commonsense would have told +you. I don't think we'll talk about it, please. As I said before, I've +washed my hands of the whole affair." + +Further conversation on the subject was rendered impossible by the +irruption of her children, who rushed at Wargrave and reproached him for +not being to see them lately. + +During the next few days Violet baffled every attempt that Frank made to +discuss their future course of action. The constant succession of +gaieties, the balls, theatricals, concerts, races, _gymkhanas_, that +filled every afternoon and evening of the Darjeeling Season, took up all +her time. Whenever he tried to talk matters over with her she invariably +replied that there was no hurry, even when he pointed out that Major +Norton might arrive any day in consequence of her letter. That he had +not already done so was inexplicable to Wargrave; and the subaltern +could only believe her assurance that her husband accepted her loss with +equanimity. It never occurred to Frank to doubt that she had written the +letter. + +But one morning matters came to a crisis. When Violet and Wargrave +returned to the hotel from their ride before breakfast a telegram was +handed to the latter. He found it to be an official message from Colonel +Dermot, which ran: + + "Please return forthwith to Ranga Duar. I start for Europe on sick + leave to-day." + +Frank stared at it in surprise. He had heard nothing of his superior +officer being ill. It must be something very serious to necessitate his +being sent to Europe. The news was an unpleasant shock to him; for he +genuinely liked and respected the Political Officer. + +Then it occurred to him that this order to return brought everything to +a head. Violet saw that he was perturbed. + +"What is it, Frank?" she asked. + +"I'll tell you upstairs, dear," he said. + +In her sitting-room he handed her the telegram. + +"I must leave to-day. Will you be ready to come with me?" he asked. + +"What? To-day? My dear boy, it's impossible," she replied. + +"But I must go. You see, it's imperative. The Colonel's already gone." + +"Yes, I see you must. But--well, I simply couldn't be ready," said +Violet calmly. "Besides, I'm singing at the concert to-morrow night; and +there's the dance at Government House the night after. I must follow you +later." + +"But that means your travelling alone," he argued. "Wouldn't it be much +pleasanter for you to come with me?" + +"Don't worry about me for goodness' sake, Frank. I'm not a helpless +person. I came across India by myself to get here; and surely I'll be +able to manage to do a twenty-four hours' journey alone." + +"Very well, dear," he replied with an inward, unacknowledged feeling of +relief that the decisive step had not to be taken yet. "I'll come down +from Ranga Duar with an elephant to meet you at the railway station when +you arrive. Now, while you're changing for breakfast, I'll rush round to +the Oriental and see if Mrs. Dermot has more news." + +When he reached the hotel he found Noreen busily packing. She was pale +and evidently deeply distressed, although outwardly calm and collected. + +"You have heard?" she asked, as he entered her sitting-room. + +"Only that your husband is starting for England on sick leave and that +I'm to return at once. What's the matter? I hope it's not serious." + +"Mr. Macdonald wires that Kevin must go at once to England for an +operation. He says I'm not to worry, as there is no immediate danger. +But of course I can't help being alarmed. It's all so sudden. I didn't +know that Kevin was ill. Mr. Macdonald is travelling with him to the +junction on the main line where the children and I are to meet them. +Isn't it kind of him? I'm so glad to know my husband will have someone +with him until I come." + +"We'll meet at the railway station after lunch, then," said Wargrave. +"We'll be together as far as the junction." + +Mrs. Dermot hesitated. + +"Are you travelling alone?" she asked. + +Frank flushed as he replied: + +"Yes. She--Violet is to follow later." + +Noreen made no comment; and having learned all that he could he returned +to his hotel. + +He dreaded the ordeal of the parting with Mrs. Norton, but when the time +came for it he found his fear of a distressing scene quite uncalled for. +She said goodbye to him in a pleasantly friendly, though somewhat +casual, manner, and did not offer to accompany him to the station as she +had a previous engagement. And long before the little train had +zig-zagged down the seven thousand feet to the foot of the Himalayas she +had dismissed him from her mind. + +The truth was that the gay and admired Mrs. Norton, caught up in the +whirlwind of social amusement in a lively hill-station, was not the +woman who passed weary days of _ennui_ in the company of a dull and +unattractive husband in a small, dead-and-alive station. Nor was the +dejected man who so plainly showed that he was pining for someone else +the good-looking, heart-whole subaltern who had fascinated her in the +boredom of existence in Rohar. Was he worth incurring social damnation +for? Would his companionship--for she knew that she had not his +love--make up for a life of loneliness, debt and poverty in a frontier +outpost? If she were resolved on giving up her present assured +position--and Violet felt that existence with Norton would be more than +ever unendurable after the exciting pleasures of Poona and +Darjeeling--would it not be wiser to do so for someone who could amply +compensate her for the sacrifice? Love in a cottage--or its Indian +equivalent, a subaltern's comfortless bungalow--did not appeal to her. +Her statement that she had written to tell her husband that she was +leaving for Wargrave was false. It had served the purpose for which it +was made, and that was the defeat of her rival. So now, content with her +victory, she put all burdensome thought from her and dined, danced and +flirted to her heart's content in the gaieties of the Darjeeling Season. + +When Wargrave reached Ranga Duar the little outpost seemed strangely +forlorn without the Dermots and their children. Major Hunt and Macdonald +welcomed him warmly. The latter informed him that he had insisted on the +Colonel going to England for his operation because the Political Officer +had not been out of India for seven years and needed the change, and +besides he would receive more care and attention in a London +nursing-home than in an Indian hospital. The trouble was intestinal but +there was no immediate danger to his life. + +Another familiar figure was missing. Before departing Dermot had +released Badshah and left him to wander in freedom in the jungle, +unwilling that his faithful companion of years should be servant to +anyone else and confident that the elephant would come back to him when +he returned to the Terai. Major Hunt placed one of the detachment +elephants at Wargrave's disposal whenever he required it to take him on +his tours along the frontier. And Frank needed it constantly. For, as +soon as the news of Colonel Dermot's departure spread, the lawless +spirits that for fear of him had not ventured for five years to disturb +the peace of the Border, began to show signs of restlessness. The +Political Officer's strong personality and the reputation of divinity +that he enjoyed had kept them in check. But now that he was gone they +thought that they could defy with impunity the young sahib who replaced +him. + +So the Assistant had not long to wait for an opportunity to show his +mettle. Dermot had not been gone a fortnight before one or two raids +were attempted on British villages by lawless mountaineers from across +the Bhutan frontier. Wargrave soon proved that the mantle of Colonel +Dermot had not fallen on unworthy shoulders. Single-handed he +intercepted and faced a party of Bhutanese swordsmen swooping down from +the hills on a tea-garden in search of loot, shot the leader and two of +his followers and put the rest to flight. With a handful of sepoys of +the Military Police he surprised a Bhuttia village in the No Man's Land +along the border-line and captured a notorious outlaw who had plundered +in Indian territory and had sent him a defiant challenge. + +Wargrave was glad of the excitement and the occupation, for they kept +him from brooding over his troubles and worrying about the future. He +had not time to puzzle over Violet's silence. She had not written to him +since their parting. As a matter of fact she seldom thought of him, so +engrossed was she in the pursuit of pleasure. Admittedly the prettiest +woman in Darjeeling that season she received enough attention and +admiration to turn any woman's head; and she enjoyed it all to the full. +Although she had answered Rosenthal's letter from Bangalore he had not +written again; but she felt that he was not forgetting her. She thought +oftener of him than of Wargrave; for the vision of the great riches that +she might one day share with him fascinated her. It haunted her dreams +sleeping and waking. Often she let her fancy stray to the existence that +he had promised would be hers when he was the possessor of his father's +fortune, a life of luxury in the gayest cities of the world with all +that immense wealth could bestow, a life infinitely better worth living +than her present one. Would she ever be given the chance of it? + +The question was speedily and unexpectedly answered. One morning after +breakfast she received a telegram from Rosenthal. It said: + + "My father is dead. I sail from Bombay for South Africa on Friday to + settle up his affairs. Will you come?" + +She stared at the paper almost uncomprehendingly for a few moments. Then +the meaning of the message dawned on her. She sat down at her +writing-table and thought hard. She had little time in which to make up +her mind; for if she wished to reach Bombay before Rosenthal sailed she +would have to leave Darjeeling that afternoon. What should she do? +Should she go? She found a pencil and a telegraph form and addressed the +latter to the Hussar. Then she hesitated. But she was not long in coming +to a decision. With a firm hand she wrote the one word "Yes" and signed +her name. Then she rose from the table, called a hotel servant, +despatched the telegram and went to her bedroom to pack. And the same +train that took her away from Darjeeling carried a letter from her to +Wargrave. + +But the subaltern did not receive it until more than a week afterwards, +when he returned to Ranga Duar with Tashi after chasing back across the +Border a mongrel pack of _dácoits_--brigands--who had been harrying +Bhuttia villages in British territory. The letter lay on the table in +the room which he still occupied in the Mess, although he was no longer +an officer of the detachment, together with a pile of correspondence +that had accumulated during his absence. Recognising Violet's writing on +the envelope he tore it open anxiously. He rapidly scanned the first +page, stared at it incredulously, read it again carefully and then +finished the letter. It ran: + + "My dear Frank, + + "I am going to relieve your mind of a great weight and send you into + the seventh heaven of delight by giving you the glad news that you + are never likely to see me again. Before the week is ended I shall + have left India for ever with someone who can give me all I want and + not condemn me to a poverty-stricken existence in a wretched little + jungle station, which is all that you had to offer me. I know it was + not your fault and you are really a dear boy. I was very fond of + you; but you did not love me and we would have been very miserable + together. For you would be always pining for your jungle girl and I + would have hated you for it. Now we part good friends and she is + welcome to you. I ought to tell you that I did not really write to + my husband as I said I did. + + "I wish you luck--won't you wish me the same? + + "Yours affectionately, + + "VIOLET." + +When he had thoroughly grasped the meaning of this extraordinary letter +he forgave her everything in the joy of knowing that she had set him +free. He did not speculate as to the man with whom she was going; his +thoughts flew at once to Muriel. But his delight was tempered by the +fear that his liberty had come too late to be of service to him with +her. Would she ever forgive him? His heart sank when he remembered her +indignation, her bitter words when they parted. Surely no woman who had +been so humiliated could pardon the man who had brought such shame upon +her. Yet how could he have acted otherwise? It was natural that the girl +should blame him; but how could he have been false to his plighted word +and desert the one who held his promise? If only he could see Muriel and +plead with her. Perhaps in time she might bring herself to forgive him. +But how was he to meet her? Now that Mrs. Dermot had gone to England, +the girl would not come again to Ranga Duar. She was, he knew, +accompanying her father in his tour of the forests of the districts in +his charge. How could he go to their camp or lonely bungalow in the +jungle and force his presence on her? What was he to do? + +Longing for someone to confide in, someone to advise him, he went to +Major Hunt and told him the whole story. The older man rejoiced in +learning of the subaltern's release from his entanglement, but, knowing +Miss Benson well, shook his head doubtfully over the chances of her +forgiving Wargrave. Nevertheless, unwilling to kill the young man's +hope, he affected a confidence that he was far from feeling and bade him +take courage. He advised him to arrange a few days' shooting in the +neighbourhood of the Bensons when he could spare the time from his +duties. The father would be sure to offer him hospitality and the +daughter could not well avoid him. In the meantime he might write and +plead his cause on paper. + +Wargrave sat up half the night composing a letter to Muriel. Sheet after +sheet was torn up in disgust before he was even tolerably satisfied. But +the laboured result was never sent. Next morning after breakfast as he +sat smoking in the Mess with Major Hunt and the doctor his servant +entered to tell him that a forest guard wanted to see him. A wild hope +flashed through his mind that perhaps Muriel had sent him a message. But +on going out to the back verandah where the man awaited him he was +handed an envelope "On His Majesty's Service," addressed in a strange +handwriting. He opened it and glanced carelessly at the letter, but the +first lines riveted his attention. + + "Forest Officer's Bungalow, + Barwana Section. + + "From + the District Superintendent of Police, + Bengal Civil Police. + + "To + the Assistant Political Officer, + Ranga Duar. + + "Sir, + + "Three days ago a party of Chinamen attacked and severely injured the + Deputy Conservator of Forests, Mr. Benson, in this bungalow, and + abducted his daughter. They were ten or twelve in number and well + armed, and over-awed the servants and forest employees. They have + been tracked towards the Bhutan Frontier and, I fear, have crossed + it by this. There was, unfortunately, much delay in the information + reaching me while I was touring the district south of the forest; + and I have only just arrived here. I hasten to acquaint you with the + occurrence as I am powerless if the ruffians have crossed into + Bhutan. Please request the Officer Commanding Military Police + Detachment to send out parties to try to cut off the raiders from + the passes through the mountains, although I fear it is too late. + Can you meet me here and confer with me? Please bring the Medical + Officer of the detachment with you, as Mr. Benson is in a bad state + and no civil surgeon is available for a great distance from here. + + "Your obedient servant, + Edward Lawrence. + D.S.P." + +Horror-stricken, Wargrave questioned the forest guard. The man had not +been at the bungalow at the time of the outrage and could not greatly +supplement the information contained in the letter. The story that he +had learned from the servants was to the effect that a party of Chinamen +had arrived at Mr. Benson's bungalow and asked for employment as +carpenters. There was nothing unusual in this, as Chinese from the +Southern Provinces frequently make their way on foot through Tibet and +Bhutan over the mountains in search of work on the tea-gardens or in +Calcutta. Apparently they had suddenly struck the old man down and +surprised Miss Benson before she could offer any resistance. Producing +fire-arms they had terrified the servants. They had a mule hidden in the +jungle and on this the girl was placed and led off. Long after they had +disappeared some of the forest guards had timidly followed their track +for some distance and found that it led towards the Bhutan Frontier. + +When Wargrave had extracted from the man all the information that he +could he rushed into the Mess and acquainted the two officers in it with +the terrible news. Like him they were horrified at the outrage. Major +Hunt went at once to the Fort to order out parties of the detachment in +accordance with the District Superintendent's request; and Macdonald got +ready to proceed to the Forest Officer's bungalow forty miles away. + +The Assistant Political Officer despatched a cipher telegram to the +Foreign Department, Government of India, at Simla, informing them of the +occurrence and of his intention to investigate the affair personally, +and, if possible, rescue Miss Benson. He knew that the Heads of the +Department, although they would not sanction or approve officially of +his crossing the frontier in pursuit of the raiders, as it would be +contrary to the Treaty with the Bhutanese Government, would not enquire +too closely into his movements. But whether they liked it or not he +intended to follow the abductors if necessary into the heart of Bhutan, +Treaty or no Treaty. + +His first step was to send for Tashi and order him to prepare the +disguise that he intended to use. His rifle he left behind, but armed +himself with a brace of long-barrelled automatic pistols to which their +wooden holsters clipped on to form butts, thus converting them into +carbines accurate up to a range of a hundred and fifty or two hundred +yards. He found a third for Tashi in Colonel Dermot's armoury, which was +at his disposal. + +Night had fallen long before the detachment elephant that bore Wargrave, +Macdonald, Tashi and the forest guard as well as its own _mahout_, +reached the bungalow where the District Superintendent of Police awaited +them. The doctor found Benson suffering from a wound in the head, with +concussion and fever. Frank interrogated the servants carefully and +elicited from them one fresh fact about the outrage that shed a flood of +light on its motive and its author. It was that the leader of the party +was pock-marked and blind in the right eye; and this at once confirmed +Frank's suspicion that the instigator of Muriel's abduction was the +Chinese _Amban_, whose parting threat to the girl had thus materialised. + +At daybreak Wargrave and Tashi started on foot accompanied by a forest +guard to put them on the track of the gang. This led up towards the +Bhutan Frontier, which runs among the hills at an average elevation of +six thousand feet above the sea. As the Assistant Political Officer +anticipated, the party had headed for the portion of the border under +the control of the _Amban's_ friend, the Penlop of Tuna. Enquiries among +the inhabitants of the mountain villages resulted in several of them +coming forward with the information that they had seen a small body of +armed Chinese escorting a cloaked and shrouded figure on a mule and +climbing up towards Bhutan. Two of the Government Secret Service agents +among these Bhuttias had followed them cautiously to the frontier and +seen them received there by a party of the Tuna Penlop's armed +retainers. These men reported that the watch on all the passes into +Bhutan was stricter than ever, and, as one of them phrased it, not even +a rat could creep through unobserved. + +This discouraging intelligence was a further proof of _Amban's_ guilt. +But Frank realised that it would not be sufficient to justify the +Government of India claiming redress from the Republic of China; and, +indeed, diplomatic procedure was much too slow to be of any use in the +rescue of the girl. An appeal to the Maharajah of Bhutan would be +equally fruitless; for his powerful vassal the Tuna Penlop was +practically in rebellion against him and defied his authority. The sole +hope of saving Muriel lay in Wargrave's prompt action. + +Yet try as the subaltern would, he and Tashi were unable at any point to +pierce the cordon of guards along the frontier. Generally they got away +unseen; but on one occasion they were discovered and had to flee back +into British territory under a shower of arrows. Fortunately fire-arms +are scarce in Bhutan; and the Tuna Penlop's soldiers possessed only +bows. + +It was imperative that Wargrave and his follower should be circumspect +in their movements, and by day they hid in caves or in the jungle +clothing the slopes of the higher hills, to escape observation by +Bhutanese spies. When they had exhausted the food that they had brought +with them and failed to procure any more from their Secret Service +agents in the villages, Tashi gathered bananas, dug up edible tubers +like the _charpattia_ or _charlong_, and snared jungle-fowl and Monal +pheasants. Having obtained a bow and a sheaf of arrows from a village he +sometimes succeeded in killing a _gooral_, the active little wild goat +found in the lower hills, the flesh of which is excellent. + +As day after day went by and found them no nearer success in crossing +the frontier Wargrave began to lose heart. He was harassed by anxiety +over Muriel's fate and feared that he would never be able to rescue her. +At times he grew desperate and but for his companion's remonstrances +would have tried to fight his way through the border guards, although in +his saner moments he knew that it would be sheer madness. + +Besides danger from human enemies the two men were menaced by peril from +wild beasts as well. Panthers prowled among the hills, great Himalayan +bears, a blow from the paw of one of which would crack a man's skull, +wandered on the jungle-clad slopes and, though not carnivorous, were +always ready to attack human beings. Herds of wild elephants, which had +scaled the mountains into Bhutan at the beginning of the Monsoon to +reach the northern face of the Himalayas and escape the heavy rains that +deluge the southern slopes and also to avoid the insects that plague +them in the jungle at that season, were commencing to return to the +Terai. Often Wargrave and Tashi had to climb trees to let a herd go by; +and each time as he watched them the subaltern thought longingly of +Colonel Dermot and Badshah. If he had them to help him how easily he +could burst the barrier between him and the land that held the girl whom +he loved and who needed him so! + +Late one afternoon, as the two men were making their way through bamboo +jungle at the foot of high cliffs close to a pass into Ghutan which they +had not yet attempted, they blundered into the middle of a herd of +elephants feeding. There was no tree in which they could take refuge, +and before they were able to make their escape they found themselves +surrounded on every side. A number of cow-elephants, which, having young +calves with them, were very savage, pressed threateningly towards the +men, who tried to force their way into the dense growths of the bamboos +and so put a frail barrier between themselves and the menacing beasts. +They knew that their pistols would be useless, and they had already +given themselves up for lost when the huge animals which were apparently +about to charge them, suddenly stopped and drew aside to allow a +monstrous bull-elephant to pass through. It was a single-tusker, and it +advanced steadily towards the men. Frank stared at it incredulously. +Could it be----? Yes, it was. He was sure of it. It was Badshah. + +And the elephant knew him and came towards him. In the sudden revulsion +of feeling and his relief at knowing that they were safe Frank almost +lost his head. A mad hope surged through him. He stretched out his arms +imploringly to the great beast and cried impulsively: + +"Oh, Badshah! _Hum-ko madad do_! (Help us!)" + +To his amazement the animal seemed to understand. It sank slowly to its +knees as though inviting him to mount it. + +"Sahib! Sahib! He offers us his aid," cried Tashi excitedly, and he +scrambled up after Wargrave who had climbed on to the broad shoulders. + +The subaltern leaned forward and, touching the huge forehead, pointed in +the direction of Bhutan. Badshah turned and moved off towards the pass +through the mountains, while the herd followed; and Frank thrilled with +the hope that at last he was about to break through the barrier of foes +between him and the girl he loved. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE DEVIL DANCERS OF TUNA + + +Flat-roofed, arcaded buildings terraced one above the other, with gaily +painted walls from which covered wooden verandahs and box-like, latticed +windows jutted out, surrounded a paved courtyard, its rough flagstones +hidden by shifting, many-coloured throngs of gorgeously vestmented +priests, mitred bishops, hideous demons, skeletons with grinning skulls +and weird creatures with _papier maché_ heads of bears, tigers, dragons +and even stranger beasts. Wild but not inharmonious music from +shaven-headed members of an orchestra of weird instruments--gongs, +shawns, cymbals, long silver trumpets--deafened the ears. Crowds of +gaily-clad spectators covered the flat roofs of the building and +arcades, thronged the verandahs, filled the windows and squatted around +the courtyard--these last kept in order by bullet-headed lamas with +whips. + +It was the annual ceremony of the Devil Dance of the great Buddhist +monastery of Tuna, one of the fantastic Mystery Plays, the now almost +meaningless functions into which the ideal faith preached by Gautama, +the Buddha, the high-souled reformer, has degenerated. + +From all parts of Bhutan west of the dividing line of the great Black +Mountain Range, from Tibet, even from far-distant Ladak, the faithful +had made pilgrimage to be present at the great festival in this most +famous and sacred _gompa_ of the land. Red lamas from Western Tibet +and yellow from Lhassa, abbots and monks from little-known monasteries +lost among the rugged mountains, nuns with close-cropped hair from the +convents of Thimbu, Paro and Punaka, robber chiefs of the Hah-pa and +graziers from Sipchu, townsfolk from the capital and peasants from the +fever-laden Himalayan valleys--all had gathered there. For all who +attended the sacred festival could gain indulgences that would save them +a century or two's sojourn in the hot or cold hells of their religion. + +In a gallery adorned with artistic wooden carvings and hung with +brocaded silk and gold embroideries sat a fat, bare-legged man with +close-cropped hair and scanty beard, wearing an ample, red silk gown +ornamented with Chinese designs worked in gold thread. He was the Penlop +of Tuna, the great feudal lord of the province, whose high-walled +_jong_, or castle, crowned the rocky hill on which the monastery and the +town were built. Behind him stood his officers and attendants clad in +silk or woollen kimono-like garments bound at the waist by gaily-worked +leather belts from which hung handsome swords with elaborately-wrought +silver hilts inlaid with coral and turquoises and with gold-washed +silver scabbards. + +The courtyard was gay with fluttering prayer-flags, the poles of which +as well as the wooden pillars of the arcades were hung with the +beautiful banners artistically worked with countless pieces of coloured +silks and brocades and needlework pictures of Buddhist gods and saints +for which the monasteries of Bhutan are justly famed. From the blue sky +the sun blazed on the riot of mingled hues of the decorations and the +dresses of spectators and performers. + +Especially gorgeous were the robes of the high priests in the spectacle. +They strongly resembled Catholic bishops in their gold-embroidered +mitres, copes and vestments as, carrying pastoral crooks or sprinkling +holy water, they moved around the courtyard in solemn procession behind +acolytes carrying sacred banners, swinging censers and intoning +harmonious chants. Troops of baffled demons fled at their approach +howling in diabolic despair. Shuddering wretches clad in scanty rags, +groping blindly as in the dark, wailing miserably and uttering weird, +long-drawn whistling notes, shrank aside from the fleeing devils and +stretched out their hands in supplication to the saintly prelates. They +were intended to represent the spirits of dead men straying in the +period of _Bardo_--the forty-nine days after death--during which the +soul released from the body is doomed to wander in search of its next +incarnation. In its journeyings it is assailed and terrified by demons, +who can only be defeated by the prayers of pious lamas to Chenresi the +Great Pitier. + +The whole purpose of these representations is to familiarise during life +the devout Buddhists with the awful aspect of the many demons that will +obstruct their souls after death and try to lead them astray when they +are searching for the right path to the next world in which they are to +begin a fresh existence. + +On this strange, bewildering spectacle an English girl looked down from +a small balcony not twenty feet above the courtyard. And the sight of +her caused the attention of many of the spectators to wander from the +Mystery Play. The fat old Penlop frequently looked across the quadrangle +at her from his gallery and as often uttered some coarse jest about her +to his grinning followers, while he raised a chased silver goblet filled +with _murwa_, the native liquor, to his lips. + +It was Muriel Benson. For weeks she had been a prisoner in the lamasery, +cloistered in a suite of well-furnished rooms and waited on by a +close-cropped nun. She had been surprised in the bungalow and +overpowered by three of the Chinamen before she realised her danger or +could seize a weapon with which to defend herself. Had she been able to +snatch up a revolver she would have made a desperate fight for freedom. +But with fettered hands, a helpless captive, she had been carried away +on a mule. From the first she had recognised the pock-marked, one-eyed +leader of the gang as the _Amban's_ officer, and so had known who was +the author and cause of her abduction. For days she had been borne along +up the rough track over the mountains, through narrow, high-walled +passes, down deep valleys and across rushing torrents, closely guarded +but always treated with respect. Her captors used broken Tibetan and +Bhutanese when they desired to communicate with her, but they answered +none of her questions. She had dreaded reaching their destination, where +she expected to find Yuan Shi Hung awaiting her; and once, in fear of +it, she had tried to throw herself down a precipice along the brink of +which the path ran. After that she had been roped to a big, powerful +Manchu. + +On her arrival at the monastery she learned from her garrulous +nun-attendant that the _Amban_ had been summoned to Pekin, where a +revolution had taken place and his friends there hoped to make him +President, which he regarded as a step towards the Imperial throne. The +monks of the monastery were his faithful allies on account of his +relationship to the powerful Abbott of the Yellow Lama Temple in the +Chinese capital. They had agreed to guard his prisoner, if his men +succeeded in capturing her, until he returned or sent for her. + +At first the girl, relieved of the dread of falling at once into his +hands, lived in the hope of a speedy rescue. It was unfortunate, she +thought, that Colonel Dermot, with his extraordinary knowledge of and +influence over the Bhutanese, had left India. But even without him the +power of the British Empire would be set at once in motion to avenge +this outrage on an Englishwoman. Dermot's understudy, the Assistant +Political Officer, faithless lover though he was, would do all he could +to save her. Assuredly she would not have long to wait. + +But as the days dragged by and she still remained a prisoner her heart +sank. She needed all her courage not to lose hope and give way to +despair. For she had always hanging over her the dread of Yuan Shi +Hung's return. But she had resolved to kill herself rather than fall +into his hands, and for that purpose had bribed her cheery, good-natured +attendant to procure a dagger for her. She pretended that she wanted it +as a protection in the lamasery, for the door of her apartments was +without a fastening. Even on the outside there was neither lock nor +bolt, for escape was considered impossible for her. If she got out of +the monastery she would be captured at once in the town. + +She was not interfered with and saw no one but her nun. Once or twice +she ventured to creep down to the great temple of the monastery, drawn +by curiosity and the sound of harmonious Buddhist chants intoned by the +lamaic choir. But for her anxiety about her father and her dread of the +_Amban's_ return her worst trial would have been the monotony of her +captivity, were it not that the memory of Wargrave and her unhappy love +caused her many a sleepless night. + +With nothing to occupy her mind she hailed the festival of the Devil +Dance as a welcome distraction. Not even the impertinent curiosity of +the spectators could drive her from her balcony. She followed the many +phases with interest, although she could not understand the meaning of +them. For the performance was a curious mixture of religion and +blasphemous mockery, of horse-play and coarse humour as well as a +strange impressiveness. A comic interlude would follow the most solemn +act. Troops of devils burlesqued the sacred rites of the faith, and +bands of comic masks filled the arena at times and delighted the +audience by playing practical jokes on the spectators and each other. +The solitary white woman attracted their clownish humour, and they +danced in front of her balcony, shouting out rude witticisms that caused +much amusement to the lookers-on. Fortunately the girl's command of the +language, fairly good though it was, was insufficient to enable her to +understand their coarse jests. But their intention to insult her became +obvious. The leaping, howling mob of strangely apparelled performers +threatened to storm her balcony. Some climbed on each other's shoulders +to get nearer her, others even began to swarm up the pillars supporting +her balcony. To the delight of the audience the noisy mob eventually +clambered up to the railing of the balcony and, jesting, laughing, +uttering weird cries, perched on it and shouted and jeered at her. + +Her face flaming, the girl drew back and was about to retire into her +room when suddenly she stopped, rigid with surprise. For above the +shouts of the maskers, the roars of the spectators and the din of the +clashing cymbals and braying trumpets, she heard her name spoken +distinctly. Incredulous she stood rooted to the ground and stared at the +yelling clowns perched on the railing. The uproar redoubled; but again +she distinguished one word above it all: + +"Muriel!" + +A wild hope flashed into her heart. Pretending to be amused at the +antics of the performers she advanced laughingly towards them. They +gesticulated and shouted more furiously than ever. But in the medley of +strange sounds she distinctly heard the words: + +"It's I, Frank. Don't be afraid." + +They seemed to come from the _papier maché_ head of a grotesque serpent +worn by a man who was foremost among her tormentors and wildest in his +frenzied gestures. Smiling the girl stood her ground even when some of +the maskers, encouraged by her attitude, climbed down from the rail and +surrounded her, dancing, hallooing, leaping. The snake-headed one was +the wildest in his antics and shrieked and shouted loudest of them all. +But mixed up with incoherent cries and sounds she caught the words: + +"Are you guarded?" A wild yell followed. "Can you get out?" Then he +yelled like a mad jackal. + +With wildly-beating heart the girl pretended to repulse the advances of +the maskers good-humouredly and spoke to all in English, telling them to +leave her balcony and cease to molest her. But with her laughing +remonstrances she mingled the words: + +"I am not guarded. I can leave my room. I will go down to the temple and +wait behind the statue of Buddha." + +Then the serpent-headed one, aided by another with dragon mask, both +uttering fiendish yells, pushed his companions back to the railing, just +as the Penlop spoke to one of his officials who shouted across to them +an angry command to leave the white woman alone. The scared maskers +tumbled over each other in their hurry to quit the balcony. + +Thrilled with delight the girl watched them go and then, when the entry +of a fresh body of mummers into the courtyard distracted the attention +of the spectators from her, she withdrew quietly to her room. She was +alone, the nun having gone long ago to witness the Devil Dance from +among the crowd. Muriel opened the door leading to a broad stone +staircase and peered cautiously out. There was no one to be seen. All +the inhabitants of the monastery were gathered in the courtyard. She +stole carefully down to a side door of the lamasery chapel. + +This temple was a large and lofty building richly ornamented with fine +wood carvings, rich brocades and elaborately embroidered banners and +hangings. The pillars supporting the roof were covered with copper +plates beaten into beautiful patterns and the altars were of silver, the +chief one, as in all Bhutanese chapels, being adorned by a splendid pair +of elephant's tusks. Idols abounded. There was a central seated figure +of Buddha thirty feet high, heavily gilt and studded with turquoises and +precious stones, with a canopy and background of golden lotus leaves. On +either side were attendant female figures; and images of Buddhist gods, +larger than life size, stood in double rows. + +Muriel concealed herself behind the colossal statue of Buddha and had +not long to wait before from her hiding-place she saw two maskers, the +Snake and the Dragon, enter the Temple cautiously. The latter remained +on guard at the door while his companion, who carried a bundle, advanced +furtively towards the great idol. As he drew near he opened the jaws of +the mask and said in a low tone: + +"Muriel! Muriel! Are you here?" + +At the sound of the well-remembered voice the girl trembled violently. +Her heart beat quickly as she came out from behind the statue. When he +beheld her the masker lifted the snake's head off; and Muriel saw that +the face revealed, disguised and stained a dull yellow, was that of her +lover. At the sight of it she forgot the painful past, forgot her +grievance against him, forgot the other woman, the sorrow that he had +caused her. As he sprang towards her with outstretched arms she cried: + +"Oh, thank God you've come, dear!" + +Frank caught her in his eager embrace. Then under the image of the Great +Dreamer who taught that Love is Illusion, that Affection is Error, that +Desire but binds closer to the revolving Wheel they kissed fondly, +passionately, like two faithful lovers met again after a lifetime of +parting. And the grotesque Devil-Gods around glared fiercely at them. +But the Lord Buddha looked mildly down, on his sculptured face the +ineffable calm of _Nirvana_, the peace of freedom from all Desire +attained at last. But, heedless of gods or devils, the man strained the +woman to his heart and rained kisses on her lips, her eyes, her hair. + +There was little time for dalliance. Danger encompassed them. Wargrave +produced from the bundle that he carried a mask and a costume with a +pair of high, felt-soled boots, which effectively disguised Muriel. Then +they joined Tashi; and the three passed out into the vestibule only just +in time, for here they found a group of lamas and peasants from a +distant part of the country stopping for a moment to look at the great +pictured Cycle of Existence painted on the wall before they entered the +temple. The vestibule opened on to a courtyard lined with the cells of +the monks of the monastery and, as this led to the great quadrangle in +which the Miracle Play was being performed, a stream of mummers, lamas +and laymen was passing through it, mostly going to the spectacle, +although a few were coming away from it. With Muriel clinging closely to +him Wargrave followed Tashi as he pushed his way through the crowd, +exchanging jokes and careless banter as he went. + +The rabbit-warren of steep lanes, flights of steps and bridges over +ravines through the town built on the precipitous slopes of the hill was +almost deserted, for most of the inhabitants had flocked to the Devil +Dance. So, unmolested and unnoticed, they reached the caravanserai in +which the two men had lodged for several days before the festival. Here +they hurriedly changed their costumes. When they emerged from it Muriel, +her hair cropped almost to the scalp and her face stained a yellowish +tint, was garbed as a boy-novice of a lamasery in the priestly dress, +with a great rosary round her neck. In one hand she held a begging-bowl +while with the other she guided the feeble steps of the aged lama whose +disciple she was supposed to be. Behind them limped a lame lay-brother +of their monastery. + +In this disguise the fugitives met with no hindrance as they quitted the +town for the open country, heading towards the south. Only when well +clear of the houses did Frank and Muriel venture to converse in their +own language. Wargrave narrated all that had happened to him since they +had parted. Anyone watching them beyond earshot would have wondered at +the joy that shone in the face of the young _chela_ (disciple) clasping +the hand of the old priest and gazing affectionately at him as they went +along; for Frank was telling the girl of Violet's letter which had set +him free. He described his many fruitless attempts to cross the +frontier, his fortunate meeting with Badshah and the marvellous way in +which the wonderful animal had helped him. Safely inside Bhutan he and +Tashi had parted with the elephants in what appeared to be the same +forest as the one in which Colonel Dermot and they had left the herd on +their previous entry into the country. Frank had tried to imitate his +chief in ordering Badshah to meet them there again; but he was very +doubtful of the result. + +They had not found it difficult to follow the trail left by Muriel's +abductors, for once inside the border the Chinamen had not tried to +hide themselves. At every village along the rough road Tashi had learned +of their passing with their captive, so the two had followed them +without difficulty to Tuna, where they soon discovered where the girl +was imprisoned. The festival had offered them an unhoped-for opportunity +of rescuing her. Tashi, once a star performer in similar devil dances in +his own monastery, procured costumes and taught his companion what to +do. As the number of those taking part in the performances ran to +hundreds it was easy to slip in unobserved among them. + +Then Muriel told of her adventures. But, far more interesting to both +than the details of these mere happenings, each revealed to the other +the longings, the love, the hopes and fears, that had filled his and her +heart during the unhappy period of their estrangement. + +Now began a wonderful odyssey that, but for the dread of pursuit and +capture would have seemed a journey in Fairyland to the re-united +lovers. Indeed, as they travelled on day after day and danger seemed +left behind, they forgot everything in the joy of being together once +more, their vows exchanged, their faith pledged, the Future a long vista +of golden days of delight. It was well that Tashi was with them to be on +the watch, for the lovers walked with their heads in the clouds. + +And certainly theirs was an interesting pilgrimage. Bhutan is perhaps +the least-known country in Asia, the last that has kept its cherished +seclusion since Anglo-Indian troops burst the barrier of Tibet and +flaunted the Union Jack in the streets of the fabled city of Lhassa. But +Bhutan is still a secret, a mysterious, land. Only a few British Envoys, +from Bogle in the latter half of the 18th Century to Claude White and +Bell in the beginning of this, and their companions, had intruded on its +privacy before Colonel Dermot. So that for the lovers it had all the +fascination of the unknown. + +Sometimes, among the ice-clad peaks of the giant ranges of the +Himalayas, they crossed snowy passes fourteen thousand feet above the +sea, and did not neglect to throw a stone upon the _obos_--the cairns +that pious and superstitious travellers erect to propitiate the spirits +of the passes. Sometimes the path led under beautiful cliffs of pure +white crystalline limestone that in the brilliant sunlight shone like +the finest marble. Often they journeyed through a lovely land of +gently-sloping hills, of grassy uplands, of deep valleys giving +delightful vistas of snow-clad mountains far away. They walked through +pinewoods, through forests of maple, silver fir, and larch, and miles of +huge bushes of flowering rhododendrons. They toiled up a rough and stony +track over bare and desolate land that was an old moraine and under +moraine terraces one above another, forming giant spurs of the rugged +hills. There were dark and fearsome ravines, so deep that they could +scarcely hear the roar of the foaming torrents rushing among the great +boulders below as they crossed on swaying suspension bridges of iron +chains. These had been built hundreds of years before by long-forgotten +Chinese engineers. Three chains on one level supported the bamboo or +plank footway, while one on either side served as a hand-rail, and a +bamboo or grass lattice-work between them and the roadbearers hid from +sight the deep gorge below. Often these bridges were only of ropes of +twisted withes or grass and swung and swayed in terrifying fashion with +the motion of the traveller. There were broad rivers over the eddying, +swirling waters of which strong cantilever bridges of stout wooden beams +were pushed out from the steep banks. + +Truly a beautiful land Bhutan, at its loveliest perhaps in spring, when +the hills and upland meadows where the yaks graze, ten thousand feet +above the sea, blaze with the mingled colours of anemones blue and +white, of yellow pansies and mauve and white irises, of large white +roses and small yellow ones, of giant yellow primulas with six tiers of +flowers, when the oaks and the chestnuts are clothed in young green, and +the apricot, pear and orange trees are in bloom, when large and lovely +blossoms cover that little-known tree that the Bhutanese call _chape_, +when the bright green of the young grass runs up to the white +snowfields. The woods are full of a pretty ground orchid, beautiful +trailing blossoms of others droop from the boughs of the great trees, +and on the magnesium limestone hills one of the rarest orchids grows in +profusion. + +But to the two pilgrims of Love the land seemed beautiful even now that +the winter was not far distant. In the silent woods, hidden from prying +eyes, they sat hand in hand and whispered to each other over and over +again the oldest, sweetest story that the Earth has known. Strange to +hear words of love from the lips of such a weird-looking couple; yet +Muriel in her quaint disguise with her silky hair cropped to the scalp +was as beautiful in her lover's eyes as when he had seen her in her +prettiest frocks. And she thought the yellow-skinned, wrinkled old lama +infinitely more attractive than the gay young subaltern of Ranga +Duar--for he was her own now. Such is Love's glamour. Muriel had +forgiven royally. + +Bhutan is a Buddhist-ruled land, therefore slaying for sport and fishing +in the rivers is prohibited; nay, more, the Maharajah sometimes forbids +the killing of even domestic animals for food. So wild life abounds. The +fugitives often saw flocks of burhel--called _nao_ in Bhutan--feeding on +the precipitous slopes of the higher hills. Once Frank and Muriel +excitedly watched a snow-leopard stalking one of these big-horned sheep +sixteen thousand feet above the sea-level. And in these heights they +even saw an occasional lynx or wolf, generally only to be found in the +highest elevations bordering on Tibet. Silver-haired _langur_ apes, the +white fringes around their black faces giving them a comic resemblance +to aged negroes, awoke the echoes of the mountains with their deep +booming cry; while in the lower valleys little brown monkeys mopped and +mowed from the trees at the fugitives as they passed. On one occasion +Muriel, exhilarated by the keen, life-giving air, ran gaily on ahead of +the others in a wood--and came on a tiger enjoying its midday siesta. +But the striped brute only uttered a startled "Wough! Wough!" like a big +dog and dashed away through the undergrowth. Another time they disturbed +a red bear feeding on the carcase of a strange beast that seemed a +mixture of goat, donkey and deer--Tashi called it a _serao_. And at a +lower elevation they blundered on two black bears--not flesh-eaters +these, yet more dangerous--grubbing for roots, and on another occasion +saw one climbing a tree in search of wild bees' nests. + +In a dense jungle early one morning a beautiful black panther with a +skin like watered silk glided stealthily by them, showing its white +fangs and red mouth in an angry snarl as it went. And deep down in a +valley they espied a rhinoceros feeding a thousand feet below them. But +they came across no elephants; and Frank noted the fact despairingly as +rendering even less probable a meeting with Badshah and his herd. + +Bird-life abounded, from the snow partridges that flew in the hills +eighteen thousand feet high to pigeons of every kind: birds of all +sizes, from great eagles to the little quails that hid in the +cornfields; lammergeiers that were fed on human bodies, the dead of +families of high degree, exposed on a flat rock of slate with head and +shoulders tied to a wooden axle that stretched the corpse like a rack. +In Bhutan ordinary folk are cremated. + +On their journey the fugitives met with wayfarers of every rank and +class. On a steep mountain track they stood aside to let a high official +go by. He was sitting pickaback in a cloth on a powerfully-built +servant, the ends of the cloth knotted on the man's forehead. Behind +trudged an escort of bare-legged swordsmen with leather shields and +shining steel helmets. Coolies, male and female, followed, carrying the +great man's baggage in baskets placed in the crutch of forked sticks +tied on their backs. Sometimes they passed a rival lama glaring with +jealous eye at them. Often they met groups of raiyats, sturdy peasants, +thick-limbed, bare-footed, bare-headed, the women clear-eyed, +deep-bosomed, but uglier than the males. These did reverence to the holy +men and put their modest offerings of copper coins or food into Muriel's +begging-bowl. + +Another time it was a family group at food, eating by the wayside. The +group consisted of a stout, ruddy-faced woman with close-cropped hair, +hung with many necklaces of coral and turquoise, and waited on by her +three meek and submissive husbands, all brothers--for this is a land of +polyandry. She invited the fugitives to share their meal, and bade her +dutiful spouses serve the supposed lamas. They proffered cooked rice +coloured with saffron and other food in the excellent Bhutanese baskets +woven with very finely split cane. These are made in two circular parts +with rounded top and bottom pieces fitting so well that water can +actually be carried in them. From sealed wicker-covered bamboos the +hosts filled _choongas_ (bamboo mugs) with _murwa_, the beer of the +country, and _chang_, the native spirit. Frank and Muriel refused the +liquor; but Tashi drank their share as well as his, to give the pious +peasants an opportunity of acquiring merit. And wife and husbands +thought themselves amply rewarded by a muttered blessing. + +A very different figure was that of a man lame of the right leg and +limping painfully down a steep hill in front of the fugitives. Muriel, +full of pity, whispered to her lover after they had passed him: "Oh, the +poor wretch! Did you see, dear, he had lost the right hand as well?" But +she shuddered when she learned that the cripple was a murderer punished +by the severing of the tendons of the leg and the loss of the hand that +struck the fatal blow. + +In the cultivated valleys, where barley, buckwheat and mustard grew, +there were everywhere evidences of the religious feeling of the Western +Bhutanese. Every hill was crowned with a _gompa_ or chapel, _chortens_ +and praying-wheels stood beside the road, and _mendongs_ or +praying-walls, a mile long, their stones engraved with sacred words, +were built near habitations. + +In the villages the disguised fugitives were well treated. Food and +lodging were offered them freely in the cabins as in the great houses of +officials and rich folks, where they spent hours watching the skilled +artisans among the feudal retainers of their hosts weaving silk, making +woollen and cotton garments, brocade and embroideries, or hammering +artistic designs on silver or copper plates backed with lac. None +suspected the three of being other than they seemed. The Buddhism of +Bhutan and Tibet to-day has but one article of faith--"Acquire merit by +feeding and paying the lamas and they will win salvation for you." So +rich and poor vied in giving their best to the holy wayfarers, and +sought not to intrude on the meditations or privacy of lama and _chela_, +and welcomed the cheery company of the more worldly lay brother who +could crack a joke or empty a mug with any man and pitch the stone +quoits or shoot an arrow in the archery contests better than the village +champion. + +Thus, contentedly and free from care, the three fugitives wandered on +towards the south where on the frontier they expected their troubles to +begin. One day when passing a hamlet by the roadside they tarried to +look on at a wedding at which a buxom country maid was being married to +a family of six brothers. The village headman performed the simple +ceremony, which consisted of offering a bowl of _murwa_ to the gods, +then presenting a cupful to the bride and eldest bridegroom, blessing +them, and expressing a hope that the union might be a fruitful one. The +rest, after the usual presents had been given to the bride's relatives, +was simply a matter of feasting everyone. The stranger lamas were +invited to join; but Frank refused and dragged away the convivial Tashi, +who was anxious to accept the invitation. Wargrave with difficulty led +him aside and was so occupied in arguing with his discontented guide +that he did not notice that Muriel had not followed. + +A sudden cry from her and his name shrieked out wildly made him turn in +alarm. To his horror he saw the girl struggling in the grasp of a +Chinaman, while another on a mule and holding the bridle of a second +animal was calling on the villagers in the Penlop's name to assist his +comrade. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +A STRANGE RESCUE + + +Neither Muriel, absorbed in watching the wedding, nor the two men +engrossed in their dispute had noticed the Chinese come riding along the +road and pulling up when they saw the peasants gathered together. One of +them had been about to question the villagers from his saddle when his +eyes fell on the disguised girl standing apart from the crowd. He stared +at her for a few moments. Then he spoke hurriedly to his companions, +and, springing from the mule's back seized Muriel in a rough grasp. + +At her cry Frank ran back, forgetting his disguise. He recognised in her +assailant the pock-marked officer of the _Amban_. The man, seeing him +coming, drew a revolver; but Wargrave whipped out his pistol quicker and +without hesitation shot him through the heart. The Chinaman collapsed to +the ground and in his fall dragged the girl down. His comrade fired at +his slayer and, missing him, wheeled his mule round and galloped off. +Tashi returned the shot while Frank ran to Muriel. He fired several +times and the rider was apparently hit; for he fell forward on the neck +of his animal; but he recovered himself and, crouching low, was still +in the saddle when a turn in the road hid him from sight. + +The startled villagers scattered and fled in terror at the tragedy +suddenly enacted in their midst, the six cowardly husbands deserting +their new-made wife and leaving her to follow as they ran away, which +she did at her utmost speed. + +Frank freed Muriel from the stiffened grasp of the dead man and helped +her to her feet; then the three hurried from the fatal spot, so lately +filled by a cheerful crowd of merrymakers and now tenanted only by the +corpse that lay with sightless eyes staring up at the blue sky. They +made for the shelter of jungle-clad hills that rose a couple of miles +away. + +From now onwards, for two or three weeks, the fugitives led the lives of +hunted rats. They travelled generally only by night, avoiding villages +and farms, and keeping away from the road as much as possible. They were +in the southern zone of Bhutan lying nearest the Indian frontier, a +region of precipitous hills ten or twelve thousand feet high, their +sides clothed with dense vegetation, of deep, fever-laden valleys of +awe-inspiring gorges, of rivers liable to sudden floods and rising in a +few hours thirty or forty feet. + +Tashi in various disguises occasionally visited villages in search of +food and information; while the lovers awaited his return in some hidden +spot, Frank holding the anxious girl in his arms and trying to calm her +fears. In one excursion the ex-lama got the first definite news of the +pursuit. He learned that the _Amban_ had returned unexpectedly to Tuna, +the plot in his favour in Pekin having failed. He was not satisfied by +the tales told by the monks of the lamasery to account for Muriel's +mysterious disappearance, which was that she had been carried off by +devils. He insisted on a search being made for her along the road to the +Indian border and sent his own Chinese guards to direct the pursuit. The +companion of the pock-marked man had got back to Tuna and told of their +recognition of her. Yuan Shi Hung, furious at the death of his officer +but overjoyed at the discovery of the girl, set out at once with his +personal followers and a body of the Penlop's soldiers to take up the +chase. + +The fugitives, hotly pursued, had several hair-breadth escapes. Once +they almost blundered into a bivouac of their enemies at night. They +succeeded at last in reaching the great forest in which Wargrave and the +ex-lama had parted from the elephants, the forest which ran along the +foot and clothed the northern slopes of the second-last range of +mountains between them and the frontier. But alas! there was no trace of +Badshah's herd; yet this was not surprising, for they found themselves +in a part unknown to them. Through this vast jungle they travelled by +day, until one evening they reached a deep gorge that pierced the range +and seemed to promise a passage through the mountains. + +They camped for the night by its mouth, intending to enter it at +sunrise. Dawn found them breaking their fast on a scanty meal of dried +mutton and bananas. Suddenly Tashi stopped eating and held up a warning +hand. His companions drew their pistols, Frank having given his second +weapon to Muriel. Presently they heard the faint sounds of an animal's +approach on their track. Just as they had risen silently to their feet +three gigantic dogs appeared, scenting their trail. They were Tibetan +mastiffs, such as are to be seen chained in the court yards of +lamaseries. At sight of them the huge brutes stopped, crouched for an +instant, showing their fangs in a fierce snarl, and then rushed at them. + +Without hesitation the three fired. One of the dogs dropped dead; but +the others, though wounded, came on. One bounded at Muriel. Frank threw +himself in front of her, firing rapidly at it. Several bullets struck +it, but the savage brute sprang at his throat. He grappled with it, +striving by main strength to hold it off. Muriel rushed to his aid and +putting her pistol to the mastiff's head shot it dead. Tashi meantime +had killed the third. + +Knowing that their pursuers must be close behind the dogs they fled into +the gorge. On either hand stupendous cliffs towered up two thousand feet +above them, scarcely a hundred yards apart, seeming to meet overhead +and shut off the sky. Here and there the giant walls were split from top +to bottom in slits opening off the main passage. As the fugitives ran on +the gorge narrowed until it was scarcely fifty yards wide, and they +began to fear that it might prove only a _cul-de-sac_ in which they +would be hopelessly trapped. They heard cries behind them, strangely +echoed by the rocky walls. Breathless, panting, their tired limbs giving +way under them, they staggered blindly on. + +The pass turned sharply to the right. As they approached the bend they +became aware of a dull rumbling, and the ground, which suddenly began to +slope steeply down, shook violently under their feet. Wondering what new +danger, what fresh horror, awaited them they stumbled on, turned the +corner and stopped short in dismayed despair. + +From side to side the gorge was filled with a tumultuous, racing flood +of foam-flecked water, a rushing river that poured out of a natural +tunnel in the steeply sloping rocky bottom of the pass as from a sluice. +It surged against the precipitous cliffs, leaping up against the walls +that hemmed it in, sweeping in mad onset of white-topped waves and +eddying whirlpools flinging spray high in air. The stoutest swimmer +would be tossed about helplessly in it, rolled over and over, choked, +suffocated, sucked under, the life beaten out of him. + +For one wild moment Frank thought of seizing Muriel in his arms and +springing into the raging flood, but the sheer hopelessness of escape +that way checked him. It was certain death. Better to turn and face +their pursuers. There was more chance of life in battling with a score +or two of Bhutanese swordsmen than with the tumbling, tossing waters. + +So, pistol in hand, the three retraced their steps, looking everywhere +for a suitable spot to make a stand. But on either hand the cliffs rose +sheer, their faces seamed here and there with cracks, but with never a +crevice big enough to shelter them. They passed the bend; and a few +hundred yards beyond it some large rocks fallen from the cliff on one +side lay close against its base. + +Frank resolved to take their stand here. It was the only cover visible. +They fitted the holster-stocks to their pistols, converting them into +carbines which could be fired from the shoulder, enabling them to aim +more accurately at a longer range. Then while Tashi crept cautiously +along the pass to scout, the subaltern and the girl examined the +position for defence. Thus occupied they were startled by shots ringing +out, echoing down the vast canyon. Taking cover they saw their companion +running back followed by a body of men, a few mounted, the majority on +foot. Some had fire-arms, others bows, the rest swords. + +Wargrave and Muriel opened on the pursuers with their automatic weapons +and checked them. Tashi was about a hundred yards from shelter when a +shot struck him. He stumbled and fell, while a howl of delight rose from +his foes. As he tried to struggle up bullets kicked up the dust round +him and several arrows dropped near. + +"Muriel, loose off as many cartridges as you can to cover me," said +Wargrave, laying his pistol beside her. + +Before the girl realised his meaning he had sprung out from the rocks +and was running towards Tashi. For a moment the pursuers were puzzled by +his action and then fired their rifles and matchlocks and shot arrows at +him. But unscathed he reached the wounded man who had been so faithful a +comrade to him. Raising him on his back he staggered towards the rocks, +while Muriel pumped lead at the enemy and succeeded in keeping down +their fire somewhat. As Wargrave laid the ex-lama on the ground in +shelter Tashi seized his hand and touched it with his lips and forehead +in silent gratitude. Frank hurriedly examined and bandaged the wound +made by a large-calibre bullet, which had passed through the leg below +the knee, lacerating the muscles but not injuring the bone. Then he took +up his post again, while Tashi dragged himself up behind a rock and +opened fire on their foes. + +These were for the most part Bhutanese, but there were several Chinese +among them. + +"Look! Look, Frank! There's the _Amban_," cried Muriel excitedly, +pointing to a man who rode into sight along the pass on a white mule. + +She fired at him. The bullet missed him but apparently went unpleasantly +close, for Yuan Shi Hung galloped back into shelter behind a projecting +buttress of the cliffs. + +The attackers numbered sixty or eighty. They were apparently staggered +by the rapid fire poured into them, which killed or wounded several of +them. Some tried to find shelter by huddling against the side of the +pass and others flung themselves on the ground behind boulders; but the +leaders urged them on. + +There could be little doubt as to the issue of the fight. The bullets +from the Chinamen's rifles and the Bhutanese matchlocks spattered the +rocks or the face of the cliff; but the archers began to shoot almost +vertically into the air from their strong bamboo bows, and several +iron-tipped, four-feathered arrows dropped behind the cover, one missing +Wargrave by a hand's breadth. + +Fearing for Muriel he tried to shield her with his body. + +"What's the use, dearest?" she said. "If you are killed I don't want to +live. Indeed, we must both die now. I shall not be taken alive. Kiss me +and tell me once more that you love me." + +He held her to his heart in a passionate embrace and kissed her fondly. + +"They are coming now, sahib," said Tashi. "And I have only a few +cartridges left." + +The lovers paid no heed. + +"Goodbye, my dear, dear love," whispered Muriel, "I'm happier dying with +you than living without you." + +Frank kissed her, solemnly now, for the last time. Then they turned to +face the enemy. The swordsmen were massing for a charge. Crouching low +they held their shields before them and waved their long-bladed _dahs_ +above their heads, uttering fierce yells. + +Suddenly the _Amban_ and other mounted men who had been sheltering out +of sight dashed into view and rode madly into the rear ranks, knocking +down and trampling on anyone in their way. The men on foot looked behind +and broke into a run, coming on in a disordered mob. But it was not a +charge--it was more like a panic. For with wild cries of frantic terror +they fled past the defenders who, fearing a trick, fired their last +cartridges into them, dropping several, some of whom tried to rise and +drag themselves on in dread of something terrible behind. + +Then into sight came a vast herd of wild elephants, filling the gorge +from cliff to cliff and moving at a slow trot. A huge bull led them, +lines of other tuskers behind him, crowds of females and calves +bringing up the rear. The onset of the mass of great monsters was +terrifying. It was appalling, irresistible. + +Muriel cried out: + +"It's Badshah! Frank, it's Badshah! Look at the leader! Don't you see?" + +Tashi stared at the oncoming herd. Then he quietly unfixed his pistol +and put it away in the holster. + +"We are saved, sahib," he said with the calm fatalism of the East. "The +God of the Elephants has sent them." + +And he limped out from behind the rocks. The two Europeans followed him. +Their foes had disappeared, all but the dead and wounded. + +Badshah--for it was he--swerved out of his course and came to them, +while the herd went on, opening out to pass him as he sank to his knees +before the humans. Tashi, despite his wound, climbed on to his neck, +while Wargrave mounted behind him and Muriel took her seat on the broad +back, clinging to her lover. Then the tusker rose and moved swiftly +after the herd. + +As he rounded the bend a strange sight met the eyes of those he carried. +Their enemies were huddled together in terror near the brink of the +tunnel from which the surging water rushed out. Some endeavoured to +pluck up courage to throw themselves into the river, while the majority +had turned to face the elephants. But they were paralysed with fright. A +few tried to discharge their fire-arms or loosed their arrows with +trembling hands. As the elephants, quickening their pace, rushed on in +an irresistible mass some of the men, crazed with fright, ran to meet +them. Others flung themselves to the ground where they were. + +But over both the great monsters passed, treading them to pulp under the +ponderous feet. The animals of the mounted men, as terrified as their +riders, swung about and sprang headlong into the river. Many of the men +on foot did the same. The heads of animals and men appeared and +disappeared, bobbing up and down, then their bodies were rolled over and +over, tossed up on the waves and sucked under. One by one they +disappeared. + +A few of the panic-stricken mob had tried to climb the precipitous +cliffs in vain. One, however, getting his hands into a narrow, slanting +crack, dragged himself up a few feet. + +It was the _Amban_. Frank drew his pistol; but Muriel clung to his arm +and cried: + +"Oh, spare the poor wretch!" + +Tashi had no scruples, but his magazine was empty and he searched in +vain for a cartridge. + +But Yuan Shi Hung's time had come. Badshah's trunk shot out and caught +the climber's ankle. The Chinaman was plucked from the face of the cliff +and hurled to the ground. A frenzied shriek burst from him as the tusk +was driven into his shuddering body, which in an instant was trodden to +a bloody pulp. Muriel hid her face against her lover, but the agony of +the wretch's dying yell rang in her ears. + +Not one of their enemies was left alive. Then the elephants one by one +slid and slithered down into the rushing water which was very little +below the brink. The mothers supported the youngest calves with their +trunks, the less immature climbing on to their backs. Tashi checked +Badshah as he was about to follow the herd into the river and, lame as +he was, slid down to the ground. He searched the crushed and mangled +corpses of his fellow-countrymen and collected their girdles until he +had enough to knot and plait into two ropes, one to go about Badshah's +neck, the other around the great body. More girdles sufficed to join +these together and supply cords by which the men and the woman on his +back could tie themselves on to the ropes and to each other securely. +When this was done Badshah slid into the river. As elephants do he sank +in the water until only the upper part of his head and the tip of his +upraised trunk were above it. Without the precaution that Tashi had +taken his riders would have been instantly swept away. + +Only elephants could have battled successfully with that raging torrent. +The upflung spray and leaping waves hid the herd from the fugitives as +they clung desperately to the ropes and to each other. + + * * * * * + +Eighteen months had gone by. In the garden of the Political Agent's +bungalow in Ranga Duar Colonel Dermot, completely restored to health, +and his wife stood with his Assistant, Major Hunt and Macdonald. They +were watching Mrs. Wargrave who, with Brian and Eileen clinging to her, +was holding out her two months' old baby to a great elephant with a +single tusk. The animal raised its trunk as though in salute, then, +lowering it, gently touched with its sensitive tip the laughing infant +whose tiny hand instinctively clutched it and held it fast. + +With a smile Muriel turned her head and looked at her husband. + +"Badshah has accepted him. Your son is free of the herd," said Colonel +Dermot. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14087 *** diff --git a/14087-h/14087-h.htm b/14087-h/14087-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4993f71 --- /dev/null +++ b/14087-h/14087-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,9836 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Jungle Girl, by Gordon Casserly</title> +<style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[*/ + <!-- + body { margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%; } + p { text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: .75em; + font-size: 100%; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { text-align: center; } + hr { width: 50%; } + hr.full { width: 100%; } + .foot { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 85%; } + .poem { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left; } + .poem .stanza { margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em; } + .poem p { margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em; } + .poem p.i4 { margin-left: 4em; } + .poem p.i6 { margin-left: 6em; } + .quote { margin-left: 8%; margin-right: 8%; text-indent: 0em; font-size: 90%; } + .toc { margin-left: 15%; font-size: 80%; margin-bottom: 0em;} + center { padding: 0.8em;} + a:link {color:#0000ff; + text-decoration:none} + link {color:#0000ff; + text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:#0000ff; + text-decoration:none} + a:hover {color:#ff0000} + pre {font-size: 8pt; + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 5%; } +/*]]>*/ + // --> +</style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14087 ***</div> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Jungle Girl, by Gordon Casserly</h1> +<hr class="full" /> +<div style="height: 8em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h1> + THE JUNGLE GIRL +</h1> +<center><b> +BY GORDON CASSERLY +</b> +<br /> +<small>AUTHOR OF <i>THE ELEPHANT GOD</i>, ETC.</small> +</center> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<center><small> +NEW YORK<br /> +1922 +</small></center> + +<hr /> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CONTENTS +</h2> + +<p class="toc">CHAPTER</p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0001"> +I. THE GREY BOAR</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0002"> +II. YOUTH CALLS TO YOUTH</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0003"> +III. THE LOVE-SONG OF HAR DYAL</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0004"> +IV. A CROCODILE INTERVENES</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0005"> +V. SENTENCE OF EXILE</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0006"> +VI. A BORDER OUTPOST</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0007"> +VII. IN THE TERAI JUNGLE</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0008"> +VIII. A GIRL OF THE FOREST</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0009"> +IX. TIGER LAND</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0010"> +X. A POLITICAL OFFICER IN THE MAKING</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0011"> +XI. TRAGEDY</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0012"> +XII. "ROOTED IN DISHONOUR"</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0013"> +XIII. THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0014"> +XIV. THE DEVIL DANCERS OF TUNA</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0015"> +XV. A STRANGE RESCUE</a></p> + +<p> </p><p> </p> + +<hr /> + +<a name="h2HCH0001" id="h2HCH0001"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER I +</h2> +<h3> + THE GREY BOAR +</h3> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i4"> Youth's daring courage, manhood's fire</p> +<p class="i6"> Firm seat and eagle eye</p> +<p class="i4"> Must he acquire who doth aspire</p> +<p class="i6"> To see the grey boar die</p> +<p style="text-align:right;"> —<i>Indian Pigsticking Song</i></p> +</div> +</div> + + + +<p> +Mrs. Norton looked contentedly at her image in the long mirror which +reflected a graceful figure in a well-cut grey habit and smart long +brown boots, a pretty face and wavy auburn hair under the sun-helmet. +Then turning away and picking up her whip she left the dressing-room +and, passing the door of her husband's bedroom where he lay still +sleeping, descended the broad marble staircase of the Residency to the +lofty hall, where an Indian servant in a long red coat hurried to open +the door of the dining-room for her. +</p> +<p> +Almost at that moment a mile away Raymond, the adjutant of the 180th +Punjaub Infantry, looked at his watch and called out loudly: +</p> +<p> +"Hurry up, Wargrave; it's four o'clock and the ponies will be round in +ten minutes. And it's a long ride to the Palace." +</p> +<p> +He was seated at a table on the verandah of the bungalow which he +shared with his brother subaltern in the small military cantonment near +Rohar, the capital of the Native State of Mandha in the west of India. +Dawn had not yet come; and by the light of an oil lamp Raymond was +eating a frugal breakfast of tea, toast and fruit, the <i>chota hazri</i> or +light meal with which Europeans in the East begin the day. He was +dressed in an old shooting-jacket, breeches and boots; and as he ate his +eyes turned frequently to a bundle of steel-headed bamboo spears leaning +against the wall near him. For he and his companion were going as the +guests of the Maharajah of Mandha for a day's pigsticking, as hunting +the wild boar is termed in India. +</p> +<p> +He had finished his meal and lit a cheroot before Wargrave came yawning +on to the verandah. +</p> +<p> +"Sorry for being so lazy, old chap," said the newcomer. "But a year's +leave in England gets one out of the habit of early rising." +</p> +<p> +He pulled up a chair to the table on which his white-clad Mussulman +servant, who had come up the front steps of the verandah, laid a tray +with his tea and toast. And while he ate Raymond lay back smoking in a +long chair and looked almost affectionately at him. They had been +friends since their Sandhurst days, and during the past twelve months of +his comrade's absence on furlough in Europe the adjutant had sorely +missed his cheery companionship. Nor was he the only one in their +regiment who had. +</p> +<p> +Frank Wargrave was almost universally liked by both men and women, and, +while unspoilt by popularity, thoroughly deserved it. He was about +twenty-six years of age, above medium height, with a lithe and graceful +figure which the riding costume that he was wearing well set off. +Fair-haired and blue-eyed, with good though irregular features, he was +pleasant-faced and attractive rather than handsome. The cheerful, +good-tempered manner that he displayed even at that trying early hour +was a true indication of a happy and light-hearted disposition that made +him as liked by his brother officers as by other men who did not know +him so well. In his regiment all the native ranks adored the young +sahib, who was always kind and considerate, though just, to them, and +looked more closely after their interests than he did his own. For, like +most young officers in the Indian Army, he was seldom out of debt; but +soldierly hospitality and a hand ever ready to help a friend in want +were the causes rather than deliberate extravagance on his own account. +Taking life easily and never worrying over his own troubles he was +always generous and sympathetic to others, and prompter to take up +cudgels on their behalf than on his own. His being a good sportsman and +a smart soldier added to his popularity among men; while all women were +partial to the pleasant, courteous subaltern whom they felt to have a +chivalrous regard and respect for them and who was as polite and +attentive to an old lady as he was to the prettiest girl. +</p> +<p> +While admiring and liking the other sex Wargrave had hitherto been too +absorbed in sport and his profession to have ever found time to lose his +heart to any particular member of it, while his innate respect for, and +high ideal of, womankind had preserved him from unworthy intrigues with +those ready to meet him more than half-way. Even in the idleness of the +year's furlough in England from which he had returned the previous day +he had remained heart-whole; although several charming girls had been +ready to share his lot and more than one pretty pirate had sought to +make him her prize. But he had been blind to them all; for he was too +free from conceit to believe that any woman would concern herself with +him unasked. He had dined and danced with maid and young matron in +London, ridden with them in the Row and Richmond Park, punted them down +backwaters by Goring, Pangbourne and the Cleveden Woods, and flirted +harmlessly with them in country houses after days with the Quorn and the +Pytchley, and yet come back to India true to his one love, his regiment. +</p> +<p> +As Raymond watched him the fear of the feminine dangers in England for +his friend suddenly pricked; and he blurted out anxiously: +</p> +<p> +"I say, old chap, you haven't got tangled up with any woman at home, +have you? Not got engaged or any silly thing like that, I hope?" +</p> +<p> +Wargrave laughed. +</p> +<p> +"No fear, old boy," he replied, pouring out another cup of tea. "Far too +hard up to think of such an expensive luxury as a wife. Been too busy, +too, to see much of any particular girl." +</p> +<p> +"You had some decent sport, hadn't you?" asked his friend, with a +feeling of relief in his heart. +</p> +<p> +"Rather. I told you I'd learnt to fly and got my pilot's certificate, +for one thing. Good fun, flying. I wish I could afford a 'bus of my own. +Then I had some yachting on the Solent and a lot of boating on the +Thames. I put in a month in Switzerland, skiing and skating." +</p> +<p> +"Did you get any hunting?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, at my uncle's place near Desford in Leicestershire. He gave me +some shooting, too. It was all very well; but I was very envious when +the regiment came here and you wrote and told me of the pigsticking you +were getting. I've always longed for it. It's great sport, isn't it?" +</p> +<p> +"The best I know," cried Raymond enthusiastically. "Beats hunting +hollow. You're not following a wretched little animal that runs for its +life, but a game brute that will turn on you as like as not and make +you fight for yours." +</p> +<p> +"It must be ripping. I do hope we'll have the luck to find plenty of pig +to-day." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, we're sure to. The Maharajah told me yesterday they have marked +down a <i>sounder</i>—that is, a herd—of wild pig in a <i>nullah</i> about seven +miles the other side of the city, which is two miles away, so we have a +ride of nine to the meet." +</p> +<p> +"That will make it a very hard day for our ponies, won't it?" asked +Wargrave anxiously. "Eighteen miles there and back and the runs as +well." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, that's all right. The Maharajah mounts us at the meet. We'll find +his horses waiting there for us. Rawboned beasts with mouths like iron, +as a rule; but good goers and staunch to pig." +</p> +<p> +"By Jove! The Maharajah must be a real good chap." +</p> +<p> +"One of the best," replied Raymond. "He is a man for whom I've the +greatest admiration. He rules his State admirably. He commanded his own +Imperial Service regiment in the war and did splendidly. He is very good +to us here." +</p> +<p> +"So it seems. From what I gathered at Mess last night he appears to +provide all our sport for us." +</p> +<p> +"Yes; he arranges his shoots and the pigsticking meets for days on which +the officers of the regiment are free to go out with him. When we can +travel by road he sends his carriages for us, lends us horses and has +camels to follow us with lunch, ice and drinks wherever we go." +</p> +<p> +"What a good fellow he must be!" exclaimed Wargrave. "I am glad we get +pigsticking here. I've always longed for it, but never have been +anywhere before where there was any, as you know." +</p> +<p> +"It's lucky for us that the sport here is good; for without it life in +Rohar would be too awful to contemplate. It's the last place the Lord +made." +</p> +<p> +"It's the hardest place to reach I've ever known," said Wargrave. "It +was a shock to learn that, after forty-eight hours in the train, I had +two more days to travel after leaving the railway." +</p> +<p> +"How did you like that forty miles in a camel train over the salt +desert? That made you sit up a bit, eh?" +</p> +<p> +"It was awful. The heat and the glare off the sand nearly killed me. You +say there is no society here?" +</p> +<p> +"Society? The only Europeans here or in the whole State, besides those +of us in the regiment, are the Resident and his wife." +</p> +<p> +"What is a Resident, exactly?" +</p> +<p> +"A Political Officer appointed by the Government of India to be a sort +of adviser to a rajah and to keep a check on him if he rules his State +badly. I shouldn't imagine that our fellow here, Major Norton, would be +much good as an adviser to anybody. The only thing he seems to know +anything about is insects. He's quite a famous entomologist. Personally +he's not a bad sort, but a bit of a bore." +</p> +<p> +"What's his wife like?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, very different. Much younger and fond of gaiety, I think. Not that +she can get any here. She's a decidedly pretty woman. I haven't seen +much of her; for she has been away most of the time, that the regiment +has been here. She has relatives in Calcutta and stays a lot with them." +</p> +<p> +"I don't blame her," said Wargrave, laughing. "Rohar must be a very +deadly place for a young woman. No amusements. No dances. No shops. And +the only female society the wives of the Colonel and the Doctor." +</p> +<p> +"Luckily for Mrs. Norton she is rather keen on sport and is a good +rider. You'll probably meet her to-day; for she generally comes out +pigsticking with us, though she doesn't carry a spear. I've promised to +take her shooting with us the next time we go. Hullo! here are the +ponies at last. Are you ready, Frank?" +</p> +<p> +The two officers rose, as their <i>syces</i>, or native grooms, came up +before the bungalow leading two ponies, a Waler and an Arab. Raymond +walked over to the bundle of spears and selected one with a leaf-shaped +steel head. +</p> +<p> +"Try this, Frank," he said. "See if it suits you. You don't want too +long a spear." +</p> +<p> +His companion balanced it in his hand. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, it seems all right. I say, old chap, how does one go for the pig? +Do you thrust at him?" +</p> +<p> +"No; just ride hard at him with the spear pointed and held with +stiffened arm. Your impetus will drive the steel well home into him." +</p> +<p> +Mounting their ponies they started, the <i>syces</i> carrying the spears and +following them at a steady run as they trotted down the sandy road +leading to the city, where at the Palace they were to meet the Maharajah +and the other sportsmen. The sky was paling fast at the coming of the +dawn; and they could discern the dozen bungalows and the Regimental +Lines, or barracks, comprising the little cantonment, above which +towered the dark mass of a rocky hill crowned by the ruined walls of an +old native fort. On either side of their route the country was flat and +at first barren. But, as they neared the capital, they passed through +cultivation and rode by green fields irrigated from deep wells, by +hamlets of palm-thatched mud huts where no one yet stirred, and on to +where the high embrasured walls of the city rose above the plain. Under +the vaulted arch of the old gateway the ponies clattered, along through +the narrow, silent streets of gaily-painted, wooden-balconied houses, at +that hour closely shuttered, until the Palace was reached as the rising +sun began to flush the sky with rose-pink. +</p> +<p> +The guard of sepoys at the great gate saluted as the two officers rode +into the wide, paved courtyard lined by high, many-windowed buildings. +In the centre of it a group of horsemen, nobles of the State or +officials of the Palace in gay dresses and bright-coloured <i>puggris</i>, or +turbans, with gold or silver-hilted swords hanging from their belts, sat +on their restless animals behind the Maharajah, a pleasant-faced, +athletic man in a white flannel coat, riding-breeches and long, soft +leather boots, mounted on a tall Waler gelding. He was chatting with +four or five other officers of the Punjaubis and raised his hand to his +forehead as the newcomers rode up and lifted their hats to him. +</p> +<p> +"Good morning, Your Highness," said Raymond. "I hope we're not late. Let +me present Mr. Wargrave of our regiment, who has just returned from +England." +</p> +<p> +With a genial smile the Maharajah leant forward and held out his hand. +</p> +<p> +"I am glad to make your acquaintance, Mr. Wargrave," he said, "and very +pleased to see you out with us to-day. Are you fond of pigsticking?" +</p> +<p> +"I've never had the chance of doing any before, Your Highness," replied +Frank, shaking his hand. "I'm awfully anxious to try it; but, being a +novice, I'm afraid I'll only be in the way." +</p> +<p> +"I'm sure you won't," said the Maharajah courteously. His command of +English was perfect. "Pigsticking is not at all difficult; and I hear +that you are a good rider." +</p> +<p> +He looked at his watch and then, turning in the saddle, addressed +another officer of the regiment who was chaffing Raymond for being late: +</p> +<p> +"Are we all here now, Captain Ross?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, sir. These two lazy fellows are the last," replied Ross +laughingly. +</p> +<p> +"Very well, gentlemen, we'll start." +</p> +<p> +He waved his hand; and at the signal two black-bearded <i>sowars</i>, or +soldiers of his cavalry regiment, dashed by him and out through the +Palace gates at a hard-gallop, leading the way past the guard, who +turned out and presented arms as the Maharajah and the British officers, +together with the crowd of nobles, officials and mounted attendants, +followed at a smart pace. The city was now waking to life. From their +windows the sleepy inhabitants stared at the party, mostly too stupefied +at that hour to recognise and salute their ruler. Pot-bellied naked +brown babies waddled on to the verandahs to gaze thumb in mouth at the +riders. Pariah dogs, nosing at the gutters and rubbish-heaps that +scented the air, bolted out of the way of the horses' hoofs. +</p> +<p> +As the sportsmen passed out of the city gates the sun was rising above +the horizon, the terrible Hot Weather sun of India, whose advent ushers +in the long hours of gasping, breathless heat. For a mile or so the +route lay through fertile gardens and fields. Then suddenly the +cultivation ended abruptly on the edge of a sandy desert that, seamed +with <i>nullahs</i>, or deep, steep-sided ravines, and dotted with tall +clumps of thorny cactus, stretched away to the horizon. The road became +a barely discernible track; but the two <i>sowars</i> cantered on, +confidently heading for the spot where the fresh horses awaited the +party. +</p> +<p> +Over the sand the riders swept, past a slow-plodding elephant lumbering +back to the city with a load of fodder, by groups of tethered camels. +Hares started up in alarm and bounded away, grey partridges whirred up +and yellow-beaked <i>minas</i> flew off chattering indignantly. The slight +morning coolness soon vanished; and Wargrave, soft and somewhat out of +condition after his weeks of shipboard life, wiped his streaming face +often before the guiding <i>sowars</i> threw up their hands in warning and +vanished slowly from sight as their sure-footed horses picked their way +down a steep <i>nullah</i>. This was the ravine in which the quarry hid. One +after another of the riders followed the leaders down the narrow track, +trotted across the sandy, rock-strewn river-bed and climbed up the far +side to where the fresh horses and a picturesque mob of wild-looking +beaters stood awaiting them. +</p> +<p> +Among the animals Wargrave noticed a smart grey Arab pony with a +side-saddle. +</p> +<p> +"I see Mrs. Norton intends coming out with us," observed the Maharajah +looking at the pony. "We must wait for her." +</p> +<p> +"It won't be for long, sir," said Raymond, pointing to a rising trail of +dust on the track by which they had come. "I'll bet that is she." +</p> +<p> +All turned to watch the approaching rider draw near, until they could +see that it was a lady galloping furiously over the sand. +</p> +<p> +"By Jove, she can ride!" exclaimed Wargrave admiringly. "I hope she'll +see the <i>nullah</i>. She's heading straight for it." +</p> +<p> +A shouted warning caused her to pull up almost on the brink; and in a +few minutes she joined the waiting group. Wargrave looked with interest +at her, as she sat on her panting horse talking to the Maharajah and the +other officers, who had dismounted. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Norton was a decidedly graceful and pretty woman. The rounded +curves of her shapely figure were set off to advantage by her +riding-costume. Her eyes were especially attractive, greenish-grey eyes +fringed by long black lashes under curved dark brows contrasting with +the warm auburn tint of the hair that showed under her sunhat. Her +complexion was dazzlingly fair. Her mouth was rather large and +voluptuous with full red lips and even white teeth. Bewitching dimples +played in the pink cheeks. Even from a man like Wargrave, fresh from +England and consequently more inclined to be critical of female beauty +than were his comrades, who for many months had seen so few white women, +Mrs. Norton's good looks could justly claim full meed of admiration and +approval. +</p> +<p> +Accepting Captain Ross's aid she slipped lightly from her saddle to the +ground and on foot looked as graceful as she did when mounted. Raymond +brought his friend to her and introduced him. +</p> +<p> +Holding out a small and shapely hand in a dainty leather gauntlet she +said in a frank and pleasant manner: +</p> +<p> +"How do you do, Mr. Wargrave? You are a fortunate person to have been in +England so lately. I haven't seen it for nearly three years. Weren't you +sorry to leave it?" +</p> +<p> +"Not in the least, Mrs. Norton. I'd far sooner be doing this," he waved +his hand towards the horses and the open desert, "than fooling about +Piccadilly and the Park." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, but don't you miss the gaieties of town, the theatres, the dances? +And then the shops and the new fashions—but you're a man, and they'd +mean nothing to you." +</p> +<p> +The Maharajah broke in: +</p> +<p> +"Mrs. Norton, I think we had better mount. The beaters are going in; and +the <i>shikaris</i> (hunters) tell me that the <i>nullah</i> swarms with pig. +There are at least half a dozen rideable boar in it." +</p> +<p> +In pigsticking only well-grown boars are pursued, sows and immature +boars being unmolested. +</p> +<p> +Ross started forward to help Mrs. Norton on to her fresh pony; but +Wargrave refused to surrender the advantage of his proximity to her. So +it was into his hand she put her small foot in its well-made riding-boot +and was swung up by him. +</p> +<p> +The saddles of the rest of the party had been changed on to the horses +that the Maharajah had provided. The beaters streamed down the steep +bank into the ravine which some distance away was filled with dense +scrub affording good cover for the quarry. Forming line they moved +through it with shrill yells, the blare of horns, the beating of +tom-toms and a spluttering fire of blank cartridges from old muskets. +The riders mounted and, spear in hand, eagerly watched their progress +through the jungle. Wargrave found himself beside Mrs. Norton; but, +after exchanging a few words, he forgot her presence as, his heart +beating fast with a true sportsman's excitement, he strained his eyes +for the first sight of a wild boar. +</p> +<p> +Suddenly, several hundred yards away, he saw a squat, dark animal emerge +from the tangled scrub and, climbing up the <i>nullah</i> on their side, +stride away over the sand with a peculiar bounding motion that reminded +Wargrave of a rocking-horse. All eyes were turned towards the +Maharajah, who would decide whether the animal were worthy of pursuit or +not. He gazed after it for a few moments, then raised his hand. +</p> +<p> +At the welcome signal all dashed off after the boar at a furious gallop, +opening out as they went to give play for their spears. Wild with +excitement, Wargrave struck spurs to his horse, which needed no urging, +being as filled with the lust of the chase as was the man on its back. +Like a cavalry charge the riders thundered in a mad rush behind His +Highness, whose faster mount carried him at once ahead of the rest. He +soon overtook the boar. Lowering his spear-point the Maharajah bent +forward in the saddle; but at the last moment the pig "jinked," that is, +turned sharply at right angles to his former course, and bounded away +untouched, while the baffled sportsman was carried on helplessly by his +excited horse. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave, following at some distance to the Maharajah's right rear, saw +to his mingled joy and trepidation the boar only a short way in front of +him. +</p> +<p> +"Ride, ride hard!" cried Mrs. Norton almost alongside him. +</p> +<p> +Frank drove his spurs in; and the gaunt, raw-boned countrybred under him +sprang forward. But just as it had all but reached the quarry, the +latter jinked again and Wargrave was borne on, tugging vainly at the +horse's iron jaws. But the boar had short shrift. With a rush Ross +closed on it and before it could swerve off sent his spear deep into its +side and, galloping on, turned his hand over, drawing out the lance. The +pig was staggered by the shock but started to run on. Before it could +get up speed one of the Indian nobles dashed at it with wild yells and +speared it again. +</p> +<p> +The thrust this time was mortal. The boar staggered on a few steps, then +stumbled and fell heavily to the ground. The hunters reined in their +sweating horses and gathered round it. +</p> +<p> +"Not a big animal," commented the Maharajah, scrutinising it with the +eye of an expert. "About thirty-four inches high, I think. But the tusks +are good. They're yours, Captain Ross, aren't they?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, Your Highness, I think so," replied Ross. +</p> +<p> +Pigsticking law awards the trophy to the rider whose spear first +inflicts a wound on the boar. +</p> +<p> +"Better luck next time, Mr. Wargrave," said Mrs. Norton, riding up to +him. "I thought you were sure of him when he jinked away from the +Maharajah." +</p> +<p> +"To be quite candid I was rather relieved that I didn't get the chance, +Mrs. Norton," replied the subaltern. "As I've never been out after pig +before I didn't quite know what to do. However, I've seen now that it +isn't very difficult; so I hope I'll get an opportunity later." +</p> +<p> +"You are sure to, Mr. Wargrave," remarked the Maharajah. "There are +several boars left in cover; and the men are going in again." +</p> +<p> +The tatterdemalion mob of beaters was descending into the <i>nullah</i>; and +soon the wild din broke out once more. A gaunt grey boar with long and +gleaming tusks was seen to emerge from the scrub and climb the far bank +of the ravine, where he stood safely out of reach but in full view of +the tantalised hunters. But a string of laden camels passing over the +desert scared him back again; and while the riders watched in eager +excitement, he slowly descended into the <i>nullah</i>, crossed it and came +up on the near side some hundreds of yards away. +</p> +<p> +The Maharajah raised his spear. +</p> +<p> +"Ride!" he cried. +</p> +<p> +"Go like the devil, Frank!" shouted Raymond, as the scurrying horsemen +swept in a body over the sand and he found himself for a moment beside +his friend. "He's a beauty. Forty inches, I'll swear. Splendid tusks." +</p> +<p> +Wargrave crouched like a jockey in the saddle as the riders raced madly +after the boar. The Indians among them, wildly excited, brandished their +lances and uttered fierce cries as they galloped along. Their +Maharajah's speedier mount again took the lead; but even in India sport +is democratic and his nobles, attendants and soldiers all tried to +overtake and pass him. The white men, as is their wont, rode in silence +but none the less keenly excited. Over sand and stones, past tall, +prickly cactus-plants, in hot pursuit all flew at racing speed. +</p> +<p> +It was a long chase; for the old grey boar was speedy, cunning, and a +master of wiles. First one pursuer, then another, then a third and a +fourth, found himself almost upon the quarry and bent down with +outstretched, eager spear only to be baffled by a swift jink and carried +on helplessly, pulling vainly at the reins. +</p> +<p> +At length a sudden turn threw out all the field except the Maharajah, +who had foreseen it and ridden off to intercept the now tiring boar. +Overtaking it he bent forward and wounded it slightly. The brute +instantly swung in upon his horse, and with a fierce grunt dashed under +it and leapt up at it with a toss of the head that gave an upward thrust +to the long, curved tusk. In an instant the horse was ripped open and +brought crashing to the ground, pinning its rider's leg to the earth +beneath it. The boar turned again, marked the prostrate man, and with a +savage gleam in its little eyes charged the Maharajah, its gleaming +ivory tusks, six inches long, as sharp and deadly as an Afridi's knife. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0002" id="h2HCH0002"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER II +</h2> +<h3> + YOUTH CALLS TO YOUTH +</h3> +<p> +But at that moment a shout made the boar hesitate, and Raymond dashed in +on it at racing speed, driving his spear so deeply into its side that, +as he swept on, the tough bamboo broke like match-wood. The stricken +beast tottered forward a yard or two, then turned and stood undauntedly +at bay, as a <i>sowar</i> rode at it. But before his steel could touch its +hide it shuddered and sank to the ground dead. +</p> +<p> +The dying horse was lifted off the Maharajah who, with the courage of +his race, had remained calm in the face of the onrushing death. He was +assisted to rise, but was so severely shaken and bruised that at first +he was unable to stand without support. Leaning on the arm of one of his +nobles he held out his hand to Raymond, when the latter rode up, and +thanked him gratefully for his timely aid. Then the exhausted but +gallant prince sat down on the sand to recover himself. But he assured +everyone that he was not hurt and, insisting that the sport should go +on, gave orders for the beat to continue. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave had chanced to dismount to tighten the girth of Mrs. Norton's +horse, when a fresh boar broke from cover and was instantly pursued by +all the others of the hunt. The subaltern ruefully accepted the lady's +apologies and hurriedly swung himself up into the saddle again to +follow, when his companion cried: +</p> +<p> +"Look! Look, Mr. Wargrave! There's another. Come, we'll have him all to +ourselves." +</p> +<p> +And striking her pony with her gold-mounted whip she dashed off at a +gallop after a grey old boar that had craftily kept close in cover and +crept out quietly after the beaters had passed. Wargrave, filled with +excitement, struck spurs to his mount and raced after her, soon catching +up and passing her. Over the sand pitted with holes and strewn with +loose stones they raced, the boar bounding before them with rocking +motion and leading them in a long, stern chase. Again and again the +beast swerved; but at last with a fierce thrill Wargrave felt the steel +head of the spear strike home in the quarry. As he was carried on past +it he withdrew the weapon, then pulled his panting horse round. The boar +was checked; but the wound only infuriated him and aroused his fighting +ardour. He dashed at Mrs. Norton; but, as Frank turned, the game brute +recognised the more dangerous adversary, and with a fierce grunt charged +savagely at him. Wargrave plunged his spurs into his horse, which sprang +forward, just clearing the boar's snout, as the rider leant well out and +speared the pig through the heart. Then with a wild, exultant whoop the +subaltern swung round in the saddle and saw the animal totter forward +and collapse on the sand. Only a sportsman could realise his feeling of +triumph at the fall of his first boar. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Norton was almost as excited as he, her sparkling eyes and face +flushed a becoming pink, making her even prettier in his eyes as she +rode up and congratulated him. +</p> +<p> +"Well done, Mr. Wargrave!" she cried, trotting up to where he sat on his +panting horse over the dead boar. "You did that splendidly! And the very +first time you've been out pigsticking, too!" +</p> +<p> +"It was just luck," replied the subaltern modestly, not ill-pleased at +her praise. +</p> +<p> +"What a glorious run he gave us!" she continued. "And we had it all to +ourselves, which made it better. I'm always afraid of the Maharajah's +followers, for in a run they ride so recklessly and carry their spears +so carelessly that it's a wonder they don't kill someone every time. +Will you help me down, please? I must give Martian a rest after that +gallop." +</p> +<p> +With Wargrave's aid she dropped lightly to the ground; and he remarked +again with admiration the graceful lines and rounded curves of her +figure as she walked to the dead boar and touched the tusks. +</p> +<p> +"What a splendid pair! You are lucky," she exclaimed. "The biggest +anyone has got yet this season." +</p> +<p> +"I hope you'll allow me to offer them to you," said Wargrave generously, +although it cost him a pang to surrender the precious trophy. "You +deserve them, for you rode so well after the boar and I believe you'd +have got him if you'd carried a spear." +</p> +<p> +"No, indeed, Mr. Wargrave; I wouldn't dream of taking them," she +replied, laughing; "but I appreciate the nobility of your self-denial. +This is your first pig; and I know what that means to a man. Now we must +find a <i>sowar</i> to get the coolies to bring the boar in. But I wonder +where we are. Where is everyone?" +</p> +<p> +Wargrave looked about him and for the first time realised that they were +far out in the desert without a landmark to guide them. On every side +the sand stretched away to the horizon, its flat expanse broken only by +clumps of bristling cactus or very rarely the tall stem of a palm tree. +Of the others of the party there was no sign. His companion and he +seemed to be alone in the world; and he began to wonder apprehensively +if they were destined to undergo the unpleasant experience of being lost +in the desert. The sun high overhead afforded no help; and Wargrave +remembered neither the direction of the city nor where lay the ravine in +which the beat had taken place. +</p> +<p> +"You don't happen to know where we are, I suppose, Mrs. Norton?" he +asked his companion. +</p> +<p> +"I haven't the least idea. It looks as if we're lost," she replied +calmly. "We had better wait quietly where we are instead of wandering +about trying to find our way. When we are missed the Maharajah will +probably send somebody to look for us." +</p> +<p> +"I daresay you're right," said Wargrave. "You know more about the desert +than I do. By Jove, I'd give anything to come across the camel that +Raymond tells me brings out drinks and ice. My throat is parched. Aren't +you very thirsty?" +</p> +<p> +"Terribly so. Isn't the heat awful?" she exclaimed, trying to fan +herself with the few inches of cambric and lace that represented a +handkerchief. +</p> +<p> +"Awful. The blood seems to be boiling in my head," gasped the subaltern. +"I've never felt heat like this anywhere else in India. But, thank +goodness, it seems to be clouding over. That will make it cooler." +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Norton looked around. A dun veil was being swiftly drawn up over +sun and sky and blotting out the landscape. +</p> +<p> +"Good gracious! There's worse trouble coming. That's a sandstorm," she +cried, for the first time exhibiting a sign of nervousness. +</p> +<p> +"Good heavens, how pleasant! Are we going to be buried under a mound of +sand, like the pictures we used to have in our schoolbooks of caravans +overwhelmed in the Sahara?" +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Norton smiled. +</p> +<p> +"Not quite as bad as that," she answered. "But unpleasant enough, I +assure you. If only we had any shelter!" +</p> +<p> +Wargrave looked around desperately. He had hitherto no experience of +desert country; and the sudden darkness and the grim menace of the +approaching black wall of the sandstorm seemed to threaten disaster. He +saw a thick clump of cactus half a mile away. +</p> +<p> +"We'd better make for that," he said, pointing to it. "It will serve to +break the force of the wind if we get to leeward of it. Let's mount." +</p> +<p> +He put her on her horse and then swung himself up into the saddle. +Together they raced for the scant shelter before the dark menace +overspreading earth and sky. The sun was now hidden; but that brought no +relief, for the heat was even more stifling and oppressive than before. +The wind seemed like a blast of hot air from an opened furnace door. +</p> +<p> +Pulling up when they reached the dense thicket of cactus with its broad +green leaves studded with cruel thorns, Wargrave jumped down and lifted +Mrs. Norton from the saddle. The horses followed them instinctively, as +they pressed as closely as they could to the shelter of the inhospitable +plant. The animals turned their tails towards the approaching storm and +instinctively huddled against their human companions in distress. +Wargrave took off his jacket and spread it around Mrs. Norton's head, +holding her to him. +</p> +<p> +With a shrill wail the dark storm swept down upon them, and a million +sharp particles of sand beat on them, stinging, smothering, choking +them. The horses crowded nearer to the man, and the woman clung tighter +to him as he wrapped her more closely in the protecting cloth. He felt +suffocated, stifled, his lungs bursting, his throat burning, while every +breath he drew was laden with the irritating sand. It penetrated through +all the openings of his clothing, down his collar, inside his shirt, +into his boots. The heat was terrific, unbearable, the darkness intense. +Wargrave began to wonder if his first apprehensions were not justified, +if they could hope to escape alive or were destined to be buried under +the stifling pall that enveloped them. He felt against him the soft body +of the woman clinging desperately to him; and the warm contact thrilled +him. A feeling of pity, of tenderness for her awoke in him at the +thought that this young and attractive being was fated perhaps to perish +by so awful a death. And instinctively, unconsciously, he held her +closer to him. +</p> +<p> +For minutes that seemed hours the storm continued to shriek and roar +over and around them. But at length the choking waves began to diminish +in density and slowly, gradually, the deadly, smothering pall was lifted +from them. The black wall passed on and Wargrave watched it moving away +over the desert. The storm had lasted half an hour, but the subaltern +believed its duration to have been hours. The fine grit had penetrated +into the case of his wrist-watch and stopped it. A cool, refreshing +breeze sprang up. Pulling his jacket off Mrs. Norton's head, Wargrave +said: +</p> +<p> +"It's all over at last." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, thank God!" she exclaimed fervently, standing erect and drawing a +deep breath of cool air into her labouring lungs. "I thought I was going +to be smothered." +</p> +<p> +"It was a decidedly unpleasant experience and one I don't want to try +again. My throat is parched; I must have swallowed tons of sand. And +look at the state I'm in!" +</p> +<p> +He was powdered thick with it, clothes, hair, eyebrows, grey with it. It +had caked on his face damp with perspiration. +</p> +<p> +"Thanks to your jacket I've escaped pretty well, although I was almost +suffocated," she said. "Well, now that it is over surely someone will +come to look for us." +</p> +<p> +"Then we had better get up on our horses and move out into the open. +We'll be more visible," said Wargrave. +</p> +<p> +Yet he felt a strange reluctance to quit the spot; for the thought came +to him that their unpleasant experience in it would henceforth be a link +between them. A few hours before he had not known of this woman's +existence! and now he had held her to his breast and tried to protect +her against the forces of Nature. The same idea seemed born in her mind +at the same time; for, when he had brushed the dust off her saddle and +lifted her on to it, she turned to look with interest at the spot as +they rode away from it. +</p> +<p> +They had not long to wait out in the open before they saw three or four +riders spread over the desert apparently looking for them, so they +cantered towards them. As soon as they were seen by the search party a +<i>sowar</i> galloped to meet them and, saluting, told them that the +Maharajah and the rest had taken refuge from the storm in a village a +couple of miles away. Then from the <i>kamarband</i>, or broad cloth +encircling his waist like a sash, he produced two bottles of soda-water +which he opened and gave to them. The liquid was warm, but nevertheless +was acceptable to their parched throats. +</p> +<p> +They followed their guide at a gallop and soon were being welcomed by +the rest of the party in a small village of low mud huts. A couple of +kneeling camels, bubbling, squealing and viciously trying to bite +everyone within reach, were being unloaded by some of the Maharajah's +servants. Other attendants were spreading a white cloth on the ground by +a well under a couple of tall palm-trees and laying on it an excellent +cold lunch for the Europeans, with bottles of champagne standing in +silver pails filled with ice. +</p> +<p> +As soon as his anxiety on Mrs. Norton's account was relieved by her +arrival, His Highness, who as an orthodox Hindu could not eat with his +guests, begged them to excuse him and, being helped with difficulty on +his horse, rode slowly off, still shaken and sorely bruised by his fall. +His nobles and officials accompanied him. +</p> +<p> +After lunch all went to inspect the heap of slain boars laid on the +ground in the shade of a hut. Wargrave's kill had been added to it. Much +to the subaltern's delight its tusk proved to be the longest and finest +of all; and he was warmly congratulated by the more experienced +pigstickers on his success. Shortly afterwards the beaters went into the +<i>nullah</i> again; and a few more runs added another couple of boars to the +bag. Then, after iced drinks while their saddles were being changed back +on to their own horses, the Britishers mounted and started on their +homeward journey. +</p> +<p> +Without quite knowing how it happened Wargrave found himself riding +beside Mrs. Norton behind the rest of the party. On the way back they +chatted freely and without restraint, like old friends. For the +incidents of the day had served to sweep away formality between them and +to give them a sense of long acquaintanceship and mutual liking. And, +when the time came for Mrs. Norton to separate from the others as she +reached the spot where the road to the Residency branched off, the +subaltern volunteered to accompany her. +</p> +<p> +It had not taken them long to discover that they had several tastes in +common. +</p> +<p> +"So you like good music?" she said after a chance remark of his. "It is +pleasant to find a kindred spirit in this desolate place. The ladies and +the other officers of your regiment are Philistines. Ragtime is more in +their line than Grieg or Brahms. And the other day Captain Ross asked me +if Tschaikowsky wasn't the Russian dancer at the Coliseum in town." +</p> +<p> +Wargrave laughed. +</p> +<p> +"I know. I became very unpopular when I was Band President and made our +band play Wagner all one night during Mess. I gave up trying to elevate +their musical taste when the Colonel told me to order the bandmaster to +'stop that awful rubbish and play something good, like the selection +from the last London <i>revue</i>.'" +</p> +<p> +"Are you a musician yourself?" she asked. +</p> +<p> +"I play the violin." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, how ripping! You must come often and practise with me. I've an +excellent piano; but I rarely touch it now. My husband takes no interest +in music—or indeed, in anything else I like. But, then, I am not +thrilled by his one absorbing passion in life—insects. So we're quits, +I suppose." +</p> +<p> +Their horses were walking silently over the soft sand; and Wargrave +heard her give a little sigh. Was it possible, he wondered, that the +husband of this charming woman did not appreciate her and her +attractions as he ought? +</p> +<p> +She went on with a change of manner: +</p> +<p> +"When are you coming to call on me? I am a Duty Call, you know. All +officers are supposed to leave cards on the Palace and the Residency." +</p> +<p> +"The call on you will be a pleasure, I assure you, not a mere duty, Mrs. +Norton," said the subaltern with a touch of earnestness. "May I come +to-morrow?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, please do. Come early for tea and bring your violin. It will be +delightful to have some music again. I have not opened my piano for +months; but I'll begin to practise to-night. I have one or two pieces +with violin <i>obligato</i>." +</p> +<p> +So, chatting and at every step finding something fresh to like in each +other, they rode along down sandy lanes hemmed in by prickly aloe +hedges, by deep wells and creaking water-wheels where patient bullocks +toiled in the sun to draw up the gushing water to irrigate the green +fields so reposeful to the eye after the glaring desert. They passed by +thatched mud huts outside which naked brown babies sprawled in the dust +and deer-eyed women turned the hand-querns that ground the flour for +their household's evening meal. Stiff and sore though Wargrave was after +these many hours of his first day in the saddle for so long, he +thoroughly enjoyed his ride back with so attractive a companion. +</p> +<p> +When they reached the Residency, a fine, airy building of white stone +standing in large, well-kept grounds, he felt quite reluctant to part +with her. But, declining her invitation to enter, he renewed his promise +to call on the following day and rode on to his bungalow. +</p> +<p> +When he was alone he realised for the first time the effects of fatigue, +thirst and the broiling heat of the afternoon sun. But Mrs. Norton was +more in his thoughts than the exciting events of the day as he trotted +painfully on towards his bungalow. +</p> +<p> +The house was closely shut and shuttered against the outside heat, and +Raymond was asleep, enjoying a welcome <i>siesta</i> after the early start +and hard exercise. Wargrave entered his own bare and comfortless +bedroom, and with the help of his "boy"—as Indian body-servants are +termed—proceeded to undress. Then, attired in a big towel and slippers, +he passed into the small, stone-paved apartment dignified with the title +of bathroom which opened off his bedroom. +</p> +<p> +After his ablutions Wargrave lay down on his bed and slept for an hour +or two until awakened by Raymond's voice bidding him join him at tea. +Strolling in pyjamas and slippers into the sitting-room which they +shared the subaltern found his comrade lying lazily in a long chair and +attired in the same cool costume. The outer doors and windows of the +bungalow were still closed against the brooding heat outside. Inside the +house the temperature was little cooler despite the <i>punkah</i> which +droned monotonously overhead. +</p> +<p> +Over their tea the two young soldiers discussed the day's sport, +recalling every incident of each run and kill, until the servants came +in to throw open the doors and windows in hope of a faint breath of +evening coolness. The <i>punkah</i> stopped, and the coolie who pulled it +shuffled away. +</p> +<p> +After tea Raymond took his companion to inspect the cantonment, which +Wargrave had not yet seen, for he had not reached it until after dusk +the previous day. It consisted only of the Mess, the Regimental Office, +and about ten bungalows for the officers, single-storied brick or +rubble-walled buildings, thatched or tiled. Some of them were unoccupied +and were tumbling in ruins. There was nothing else—not even the +"general shop" usual in most small cantonments. Not a spool of thread, +not a tin of sardines, could be purchased within a three days' journey. +Most of the food supplies and almost everything else had to be brought +from Bombay. Around the bungalow the compounds were simply patches of +the universal sands surrounded by mud walls. No flowers, no trees, not +even a blade of grass, relieved the dull monotony. Altogether the +cantonment of Rohar was an unlovely and uninteresting place. Yet it is +but an example of many such stations in India, lonely and +soul-deadening, some of which have not even its saving grace of sport to +enliven existence in them. +</p> +<p> +After a visit to the Lines—the rows of single-storied detached brick +buildings, one to a company, that housed the native ranks of the +regiment—where the Indian officers and sepoys (as native infantry +soldiers are called) rushed out to crowd round and welcome back their +popular officer, Wargrave and Raymond strolled to the Mess. Here in the +anteroom other British officers of the corps, tired out after the day's +sport, were lying in easy chairs, reading the three days' old Bombay +newspaper just arrived and the three weeks' old English journals until +it was time to return to their bungalows and dress for dinner. +</p> +<p> +Early on the following afternoon Wargrave borrowed Raymond's bamboo cart +and pony—for he had sold his own trap and horses before going on leave +to England and had not yet had time to buy new ones—and drove to the +Residency. When he pulled up before the hall-door and in Anglo-Indian +fashion shouted "Boy!" from his seat in the vehicle, a tall, stately +Indian servant in a long, gold-laced red coat reaching below the knees +and embroidered on the breast with the Imperial monogram in gold, came +out and held a small silver tray to him. Wargrave placed a couple of his +visiting cards on it, and the gorgeous apparition (known as a +<i>chuprassi</i>) retired into the building with them. While he was gone +Wargrave looked with pleasure at the brilliant flower-beds, green lawn +and tall plants and bushes glowing with colour of the carefully-tended +and well-watered Residency garden, which contrasted strikingly with the +dry, bare compounds of the cantonment. +</p> +<p> +In a minute or two the <i>chuprassi</i> returned and said: +</p> +<p> +"Salaam!" +</p> +<p> +Wargrave, hooking up the reins, climbed down from the trap, leaving +Raymond's <i>syce</i> in charge of the pony, and entered the grateful +coolness of the lofty hall. Here another <i>chuprassi</i> took his hat and, +holding out a pen for him, indicated the red-bound Visitor's Book, in +which he was to inscribe his name. Then one of the servants led the way +up the broad staircase into a large and well-furnished drawing-room +extending along the whole front of the building. Here Wargrave found +Mrs. Norton awaiting him. She looked very lovely in a cool white dress +of muslin—but muslin shaped by a master-hand of Paris. She welcomed him +gaily and made him feel at once on the footing of an old friend. +</p> +<p> +She was genuinely glad to see him again. To this young and attractive +woman, full of the joy of living, hardly more than a girl, yet married +to a much older man, sober-minded, stolid and uncongenial to her, and +buried in this dull and lonely station, Wargrave had appealed instantly. +Youth calls to youth, and she hailed his advent into her monotonous life +as a child greets the coming of a playfellow. With the other two ladies +in Rohar she had nothing in common. Both were middle-aged, serious and +spiteful. To them her youth and beauty were an offence; and from the +first day of their acquaintance with her they had disliked her. As for +the other officers of the regiment none of them attracted her; for, good +fellows as they were, none shared any of her tastes except her love of +sport. But in Wargrave she had already recognised a companion, a +playmate, one to whom music, art and poetry appealed as they did to her. +</p> +<p> +On his side Frank, heart-whole but fond of the society of the opposite +sex, was at once attracted by this charming member of it who had tastes +akin to his own. Her beauty pleased his beauty-loving eye; and he would +not have been man if her readiness to meet him on a footing of +friendship had not flattered him. He had thought that a great drawback +to life in Rohar would be the lack of feminine companionship; for the +ladies of his regiment were not at all congenial, although he did not +dislike them. But it was delightful to find in this desert spot this +pretty and cultured woman, who would have been deemed attractive in +London and who appeared trebly so in a dull and lonely Indian station. +He had thought much of her since their meeting on the previous day; and +although it never occurred to him to lose his heart to her or even +attempt to flirt with her, yet he felt that her friendship would +brighten existence for him in Rohar. Nor did the thought strike him +that possibly he might come to mean more to Mrs. Norton than she to him. +For, while he had his work, his duties, the goodfellowship of the Mess +and the friendship of his comrades to fill his life, she had nothing. +She was utterly without interests, occupation or real companionship in +Rohar. Her husband and she had nothing in common. No child had come +during the five years of their marriage to link them together. And in +this solitary place where there were no gaieties, no distractions such +as a young woman would naturally long for, she was lonely, very lonely +indeed. +</p> +<p> +It was little wonder that she snatched eagerly at the promise of an +interesting friendship. Wargrave stood out and apart from the other +officers of the regiment; and his companionship during the uncomfortable +incident of the sandstorm bulked unaccountably large in her mind. It +seemed to denote that he was destined to introduce a new element into +her life. +</p> +<p> +As they talked it was with increasing pleasure that she learnt they had +so many tastes in common. She found that he played the violin well and +was, moreover, the possessor of a voice tuneful and sympathetic, even if +not perfectly trained. This made instant appeal to her and would have +disposed her to regard him with favour even if she had not been already +prepared to like him. +</p> +<p> +The afternoon passed all too quickly for both of them. Violet Norton +had never enjoyed any hours in Rohar so much as these; and when, as she +sat at the piano while Frank played an <i>obligato</i>, a servant came to +enquire if she wished her horse or a carriage got ready for her usual +evening ride or drive, she impatiently ordered him out of the room. When +the time came for Wargrave to return to his bungalow to dress for dinner +she begged him to stay and dine with her. +</p> +<p> +"I shall be all alone; and it would be a charitable act to take pity on +my solitude," she said. "My husband is dining at your Mess to-night." +</p> +<p> +"Thank you very much for asking me," replied the subaltern. "I should +have loved to accept your invitation; but it is our Guest Night and the +Colonel likes all of us to be present at Mess on such evenings." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, I forgot!" she exclaimed. "I ought to have remembered; for Mr. +Raymond told me the same thing only last week when I invited him +informally. Well, you must come some other night soon." +</p> +<p> +Reluctant to part with her new playmate she accompanied him to the door +and, to the scandal of the stately <i>chuprassis</i>, stood at it to watch +him drive away and to wave him a last goodbye as he looked back when the +pony turned out of the gate. +</p> +<p> +India is a land of lightning friendships between men and women. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0003" id="h2HCH0003"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER III +</h2> +<h3> + THE LOVE-SONG OF HAR DYAL +</h3> +<p> +The bugler was sounding the second mess-call as the Resident's carriage +drew up before the steps of the Mess verandah on which stood all the +officers of the regiment, dressed in the white drill uniform worn at +dinner in India during the hot weather. From the carriage Major Norton, +a stout, middle-aged man in civilian evening dress, descended stiffly +and shook hands with the Commandant of the battalion, Colonel Trevor, +who had come down the steps to meet him and whose guest he was to be. +</p> +<p> +On the verandah Wargrave was introduced to him by the Colonel and took +his outstretched hand with reluctance; for Frank felt stirring in him a +faint jealousy of the man who was Violet's legal lord and an indefinite +hostility to him for not appreciating his charming wife as he ought. And +while the Resident was shaking hands with the others Wargrave looked at +him with interest. +</p> +<p> +Major Norton was a very ordinary-looking man, more elderly in appearance +than his years warranted. He was bald and clean-shaved but for scraps of +side-whiskers that gave him a resemblance to the traditional +stage-lawyer of amateur theatricals, a likeness increased by his heavy +and prosy manner. It was hard to believe that he had ever been a young +subaltern, though such had once been the case, for the Indian Political +Department is recruited chiefly from officers of the Indian Army. But he +was never the gay and light-hearted individual that most junior subs. +are at the beginning of their career. Even then he had been a sober and +serious individual, favourably noted by his superiors as being earnest +and painstaking. And now he was well thought of by the Heads of his +Department; for his plodding and methodical disposition and his slavish +adherence to rules and regulations had earned him the reputation of +being an eminently "safe" man. How such a gay, laughter-loving, +coquettish and attractive woman as Violet Dering came to marry one so +entirely her opposite puzzled everyone who did not know the inner +history of a girl, one of a large family of daughters, given "her chance +in life" by being sent out to relatives in Calcutta for one season, with +a definite warning not to return home unmarried under penalty of being +turned out to face the world as a governess or hospital nurse. And +Violet liked comfort and hated work. +</p> +<p> +During dinner Wargrave found himself instinctively criticising Norton's +manner and conversation, and rapidly arrived at the conclusion that +Raymond had described him accurately. The Resident, though a very worthy +individual, was undoubtedly a bore; and Colonel Trevor, beside whom he +sat, strove in vain to appear interested in his conversation. For he had +heard his opinions on every subject on which Norton had any opinions +over and over again. As the Resident was the only other European in the +station he dined regularly at the Mess on the weekly Guest Night with +one or other of the officers. He was not popular among them, but they +considered it their duty to be victimised in turn to uphold the +regiment's reputation for hospitality; and in consequence each resigned +himself to act as his host. +</p> +<p> +After dinner, as the Resident played neither cards nor billiards, the +Colonel sat out on the verandah with him, all the while longing to be at +the bridge-table inside; and, as his guest was a strict teetotaller, he +did not like to order a drink for himself. So he tried to keep awake and +hide his yawns while listening to a prosy monologue on insects until the +Residency carriage came to take Major Norton away. +</p> +<p> +When his guest had left, the Colonel entered the anteroom heaving a sigh +of relief. +</p> +<p> +"Phew! thank God that's over!" he exclaimed piously. "Really, Norton +becomes more of a bore every day. I'm sick to death of hearing the +life-story of every Indian insect for the hundredth time. I'll dream of +<i>coleoptera</i> and Polly 'optera and other weird beasties to-night." +</p> +<p> +The other officers looked up and laughed. Ross rose from the +bridge-table and said: +</p> +<p> +"Come and take my place, sir; we've finished the rubber. Have a drink; +you want something to cheer you up after that infliction. Boy! +whiskey-soda Commanding Sahib <i>ke wasté lao</i>. (Bring a whiskey and soda +for the Commanding officer.)" +</p> +<p> +"You've my entire sympathy, Colonel," said Major Hepburn, the Second in +Command. "It's my turn to ask the Resident to dinner next. I feel +tempted to go on the sick-list to escape it." +</p> +<p> +"I say, sir, I've got a good idea," said an Irish subaltern named Daly, +who was seated at the bridge-table. "Couldn't we pass a resolution at +the next Mess meeting that in future no guests are ever to be asked to +dinner? That will save us from our weekly penance." +</p> +<p> +The others laughed; but the Colonel, whose sense of humour was not his +strong point, took the suggestion as being seriously meant. +</p> +<p> +"No, no; we couldn't do that," he said in an alarmed tone. "The Resident +would be very offended and might mention it to the General when he comes +here on his annual inspection." +</p> +<p> +The remark was very characteristic of Colonel Trevor, who was a man who +dreaded responsibility and whose sole object in life was to reach safely +the time when, his period of command being finished, he could retire on +his full pension. He was always haunted by the dread that some +carelessness or mistake on his part or that of any of his subordinates +might involve him in trouble with his superiors and prevent that happy +consummation of his thirty years of Indian service. This fear made him +merciless to anyone under him whose conduct might bring the censure of +the higher authorities on the innocent head of the Commanding Officer +who was in theory responsible for the behaviour of his juniors. It was +commonly said in the regiment that he would cheerfully give up his own +brother to be hanged to save himself the mildest official reprimand. +Perhaps he was not altogether to blame; for he was not his own master in +private life. It was hinted that Colonel Trevor commanded the battalion +but that Mrs. Trevor commanded him. And unfortunately there was no doubt +that this lady interfered privately a good deal in regimental matters, +much to the annoyance of the other officers. +</p> +<p> +Now, relieved of the incubus that had hitherto spoiled his enjoyment of +the evening, the Colonel gratefully drank the whiskey and soda brought +him by Ross's order and sat down cheerfully to play bridge. He always +liked dining in the Mess, where he was a far more important person than +he was in his own house. +</p> +<p> +It did not take Wargrave long to settle down again into the routine of +regimental life and the humdrum existence of a small Indian station. But +he had never before been quartered in so remote and dull a spot as +Rohar. The only distractions it offered besides the shooting and +pigsticking were two tennis afternoons weekly, one at the Residency, the +other at the Mess. Here the dozen or so Europeans, who knew every line +of each other's faces by heart gathered regularly from sheer boredom +whether the game amused them or not. Neither Mrs. Trevor nor her +bosom-friend Mrs. Baird, the regimental surgeon's better half, ever +attempted it; but they invariably attended and sat together, usually +talking scandal of Mrs. Norton as she played or chatted with the men. +Mrs. Trevor's chief grievance against her was that the General +Commanding the Division, when he came to inspect the battalion, took the +younger woman in to dinner, for, as her husband the Resident was the +Viceroy's representative, she could claim precedence over the wife of a +mere regimental commandant. No English village is so full of petty +squabbles and malicious gossip as a small Indian station. +</p> +<p> +Like everyone else in the land Wargrave hated most those terrible hours +of the hot weather between nine in the morning and five in the +afternoon. He and Raymond passed them, like so many thousands of their +kind elsewhere, shut up in their comfortless bungalow, which was +darkened and closely shuttered to exclude the awful heat and the +blinding glare outside. Too hot to read or write, almost to smoke, they +lay in long cane chairs, gasping and perspiring freely, while the +whining <i>punkah</i> overhead barely stirred the heated air. One exterior +window on the windward side of the bungalow was filled with a thick mat +of dried and odorous <i>kuskus</i> grass, against which every quarter of an +hour the <i>bheestie</i> threw water to wet it thoroughly so that the hot +breeze that swept over the burning sand outside might enter cooled by +the evaporation of the water. +</p> +<p> +But Frank found alleviation and comfort in frequent visits to the +Residency, where Mrs. Norton and he spent the baking hours of the +afternoon absorbed in making music or singing duets. For Violet had a +well-trained voice which harmonised well with his. No thought of sex +seemed to obtrude itself on them. They were just playmates, comrades, +nothing more. +</p> +<p> +Yet it was only natural that the woman's vanity should be flattered by +the man's eagerness to seek her society and by his evident pleasure in +it. And it was delightful to have at last a sympathetic listener to all +her little grievances, one who seemed as interested in her petty +household worries or the delinquencies of her London milliner in failing +to execute her orders properly as in her greater complaint against the +fate that condemned a woman of her artistic and gaiety-loving nature to +existence in the wilds and to the society of persons so uncongenial to +her as were the majority of the white folk of Rohar. +</p> +<p> +To a man the rôle of confidant to a pretty woman is pleasant and +flattering; and Wargrave felt that he was highly favoured by being made +the recipient of her confidences. It never occurred to him that there +might be danger in the situation. He regarded her only as a friend in +need of sympathy and help. His chivalry was up in arms at the thought +that she was not properly appreciated by her husband, who, he began to +suspect, was inclined to neglect her and treat her as a mere chattel. +The suspicion angered him. True, Violet had never definitely told him +so; but he gathered as much from her unconscious admissions and revered +her all the more for her bravery in endeavouring to keep silent on the +subject. +</p> +<p> +Certainly Major Norton did not seem to him to be a man capable of +understanding and valuing so sweet and rare a woman as this. After their +introduction in the Mess Frank's next meeting with him was at his own +table at the Residency, when in due course Wargrave was invited to +dinner after his duty call. Raymond was asked as well; and the two +subalterns were the only guests. +</p> +<p> +Their hostess looked very lovely in a Paris-made gown of a green shade +that suited her colouring admirably. England did not seem to the young +soldiers so very far away when this charming and exquisitely-dressed +woman received them in her large drawing-room from which all trace of +the East in furniture and decoration was carefully excluded. For the +English in India try to avoid in their homes all that would remind them +of the Land of Exile in which their lot is cast. +</p> +<p> +Major Norton came into the room after his guests, muttering an +unintelligible apology. He shook hands with them with an abstracted air +and failed to recall Wargrave's name. At table he asked Frank a few +perfunctory questions and then wandered off into his inevitable subject, +entomology, but finding him ignorant of and uninterested in it he +engaged in a desultory conversation with Raymond. He soon tired of this +and for the most part ate his dinner in silence. He never addressed his +wife; and Wargrave, watching them, pitied her if her husband was as +little companionable at meal-times when they were alone. He pictured her +sitting at table every day with this abstracted and uncommunicative man, +whose thoughts seemed far from his present company and surroundings and +who was scarcely likely to exert himself to talk to and entertain his +wife when he made so little effort to do so to his guests. +</p> +<p> +Determined that on this occasion at least his hostess should be amused +Frank did his best to enliven the meal. He described to her as well as +he could all that he remembered of the latest fashions in England, told +her the plots of the newest plays at the London theatres, repeated a +few laughable stories to make her smile and provoked Raymond, who had a +dry humour of his own, to a contest of wit. Between them the two +subalterns brightened up what had threatened to be a dull evening. Mrs. +Norton laughed gaily and helped to keep the ball rolling; and even the +host in his turn woke up and actually attempted to tell a humorous +story. It certainly lacked point; but he seemed satisfied that it was +funny, so his guests smiled as in duty bound. But Wargrave noted Mrs. +Norton's look of astonishment at this new departure on the part of her +husband and thought that there was something very pathetic in her +surprise. When the meal was ended she laughingly declined to leave the +men over their wine and stayed to smoke a cigarette with them. +</p> +<p> +When they all quitted the dining-room the Resident asked his guests to +excuse him for returning to his study, pleading urgent and important +work; and his wife led the subalterns up to the drawing-room and out on +to the verandah that ran alongside its French windows. Here easy chairs +and a table with a big lamp had been placed for them. As soon as they +were seated one of the stately <i>chuprassis</i> brought coffee, while +another proffered cigars and cigarettes and held a light from a silver +spirit-lamp. Then both the solemn servitors departed noiselessly on bare +feet. +</p> +<p> +After some conversation Mrs. Norton said to the adjutant: +</p> +<p> +"Do you remember, Mr. Raymond, that you have promised to take me out +shooting one day?" +</p> +<p> +"I haven't forgotten," he replied; "but I was not able to arrange it, as +the Maharajah had pigsticking meets fixed up for all our free days. But +I don't think we'll have another for some time; for I hear that His +Highness is laid up from the effects of his fall. So we might go out +some day soon." +</p> +<p> +"Good. When shall we go?" asked Wargrave. "Let's fix it up now." +</p> +<p> +"What about next Thursday?" said his friend, turning to Mrs. Norton. +</p> +<p> +"Yes; that will suit me. Where shall we go?" +</p> +<p> +"There are a lot of partridge and a few hares, I'm told, near the tank +at Marwa, where there is a good deal of cultivation," answered Raymond. +Then turning to his friend he continued: +</p> +<p> +"You are not very keen on small game shooting, Frank; so you can bring +your rifle and try for <i>chinkara</i>. I saw a buck and a couple of doe +there not very long ago. A little venison would be very acceptable in +Mess." +</p> +<p> +"The tank is about eight miles away, isn't it?" said the hostess. "I'll +write to the Maharajah and ask him to lend us camels to take us out. My +cook will put up a good cold lunch for us." +</p> +<p> +She rose from her chair and continued: +</p> +<p> +"Now, Mr. Wargrave, come and sing something. I've been trying over +those new songs of yours to-day." +</p> +<p> +She led the way into the drawing-room and Raymond was left alone on the +verandah to smoke and listen for the rest of the evening, while the +others forgot him as they played and sang. +</p> +<p> +Suddenly he sat up in his chair and with a queer little pang of jealousy +in his heart stared through the open window at the couple at the piano. +He watched his friend's face turned eagerly towards his hostess. +Wargrave was gazing intently at her as in a voice full of feeling and +pathos, a voice with a plaintive little tone in it that thrilled him +strangely, she sang that haunting melody "The Love Song of Har Dyal." +Wistfully, sadly, she uttered the sorrowful words that Kipling puts into +the mouth of the lovelorn Pathan maiden: +</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i4"> "My father's wife is old and harsh with years</p> +<p class="i6"> And drudge of all my father's house am I</p> +<p class="i4"> My bread is sorrow and my drink is tears</p> +<p class="i6"> Come back to me, Beloved, or I die!</p> +<p class="i6"> Come back to me, Beloved, or I die!"</p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> +And the singer looked up into the eager eyes bent on her and sighed a +little as she struck the final chords. Out on the verandah Raymond +frowned as he watched them and wondered if this woman was to come +between them and take his friend from him. Just then the bare-footed +servants entered the room, carrying silver trays on which stood the +whiskies and sodas that are the stirrup-cups, the hints to guests that +the time of departure has come, of dinner-parties in India. +</p> +<p> +As the two subalterns drove home in Raymond's trap through the hot +Indian night under a moon shining with a brilliance that England never +knows, Wargrave hummed "The Love Song of Har Dyal." +</p> +<p> +Suddenly he said: +</p> +<p> +"She's wonderful, Ray, isn't she? Fancy such a glorious woman buried in +this hole and married to a dry old stick like the Resident! Doesn't it +seem a shame?" +</p> +<p> +The adjutant mumbled an incoherent reply behind his lighted cheroot. +</p> +<p> +Arrived in their bungalow they undressed in their rooms and in pyjamas +and slippers came out into the compound, where on either side of a table +on which was a lighted lamp stood their bedsteads, the mattress of each +covered with a thin strip of soft China matting. For in the hot weather +in many parts of India this must be used to lie upon instead of a linen +sheet, which would become saturated with perspiration. Looking carefully +at the ground over which they passed for fear of snakes they reached and +lay down on their beds, over each of which a <i>punkah</i> was suspended from +a cross-beam supported by two upright posts sunk in the ground. One rope +moved both <i>punkahs</i>, and the motive power was supplied by a coolie +who, salaaming to the sahibs and seating himself on the ground, picked +up the end of the rope and began to pull. Raymond put out the lamp. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave stared up at the moon for a while. Then he said: +</p> +<p> +"I say, Ray; didn't Mrs. Norton look lovely to-night? Didn't that dress +suit her awfully well?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, go to sleep, old man. We've got to get up in a few hours for this +confoundedly early parade. Goodnight," growled the adjutant, turning on +his side and closing his eyes. +</p> +<p> +But he listened for some time to his friend humming "The Love Song of +Har Dyal" again! and not until Frank was silent did he doze off. An hour +later he woke up suddenly, bathed in perspiration and devoured by +mosquitoes; for the <i>punkahs</i> were still—the coolie had gone to sleep. +He called to the man and aroused him, then before shutting his eyes +again he looked at his companion. The moon shone full on Wargrave's +face. He was sleeping peacefully and smiling. Raymond stared at him for +a few minutes. Then he muttered inconsequently: +</p> +<p> +"Confound the woman!" +</p> +<p> +And closing his eyes resolutely he fell asleep. +</p> +<p> +In the days that elapsed before the shoot at Marwa, Wargrave rode every +afternoon to the Residency with the <i>syce</i> carrying his violin case, +except when tennis was to be played. In their small community this +could not escape notice and comment—not that it occurred to him to try +to avoid either. The Resident did not object to the frequency of his +visits; and Frank saw no harm in his friendship with Mrs. Norton. But +others did; and the remarks of the two ladies of his regiment on the +subject were venomously spiteful. But their censure was reserved for the +one they termed "that shameless woman"; for like everyone else they were +partial to Wargrave and held him less to blame. +</p> +<p> +His brother officers, although being men they were not so quick to nose +out a scandal, could not help noticing his absorption in Mrs. Norton's +society. One afternoon his Double Company Commander, Major Hepburn, +walked into the compound of Raymond's bungalow and on the verandah +shouted the usual Anglo-Indian caller's demand: +</p> +<p> +"Boy! <i>Koi hai</i>?" (Is anyone there?) +</p> +<p> +A servant hurried out and salaaming answered: +</p> +<p> +"<i>Adjitan Sahib hai</i>." (The adjutant is here). +</p> +<p> +"Oh, come in, Major," cried Raymond, rising from the table at which he +was seated drinking his tea. +</p> +<p> +"Don't get up," said Hepburn, entering the room. "Is Wargrave in?" +</p> +<p> +"No, sir; he went out half an hour ago." +</p> +<p> +"Confound it, it seems impossible ever to find him in the afternoon +nowadays," said the major petulantly. "I wanted him to get up a hockey +match against No. 3 Double Company to-day. He used to be very keen on +playing with the men; but since he came back from England he never goes +near them. Where is he? Poodlefaking at the Residency, as usual?" +</p> +<p> +This is the term contemptuously applied in India to the paying of calls +and other social duties that imply dancing attendance on the fair sex. +</p> +<p> +"I didn't see him before he went out, sir," was Raymond's equivocal +reply. He loyally evaded a direct answer. +</p> +<p> +Hepburn shook his head doubtfully. +</p> +<p> +"I'm sorry about it. I hope the boy doesn't get into mischief. Look +here, Raymond, you're his pal. Keep your eye on him. He's a good lad; +and it would be a pity if he came to grief." +</p> +<p> +The adjutant did not answer. The major put on his hat. +</p> +<p> +"Well, I suppose I'll have to see to the hockey myself." +</p> +<p> +He left the bungalow with a curt nod to Raymond, who watched him pass +out through the compound gate. Then the adjutant walked over to +Wargrave's writing-table and stood up again in its place a large +photograph of Mrs. Norton which he had hurriedly laid face downwards +when he heard Hepburn's voice outside. He looked at it for a minute, +then turned away frowning. +</p> +<p> +When the morning of the shooting party arrived Wargrave and Raymond, +having sent their <i>syces</i> on ahead with their guns, rode at dawn to the +Residency. In front of the building a group of camels lay on the ground, +burbling, blowing bubbles, grumbling incessantly and stretching out +their long necks to snap viciously at anyone but their drivers that +chanced to come near them. At the hall-door Mrs. Norton stood, dressed +in a smart and attractive costume of khaki drill, consisting of a +well-cut long frock coat and breeches, with the neatest of cloth gaiters +and dainty but serviceable boots. To their surprise her husband was with +her and evidently prepared to accompany them. For he wore an old coat, +knickerbockers and putties, from a strap over his shoulder hung a +specimen box, and he was armed with all the requisite appliances for the +capture and slaughter of many insects. +</p> +<p> +Avoiding the camels' vicious teeth the party mounted after exchanging +greetings. Mrs. Norton and Wargrave rode the same animal; and Frank, +unused to this form of locomotion, took a tight grip as the long-legged +beast rose from the ground in unexpected jerks and set off at a jolting +walk that shook its riders painfully. Then it broke into a trot equally +disconcerting but finally settled into an easy canter that was as +comfortable a motion as its previous paces had been spine-dislocating. +The route lay at first over a space of desert which was unpleasant, for +the sand was blown in clouds by a high wind, almost a gale. But the +camels were fast movers and it did not take very long before they were +passing through scrub jungle and finally reached the wide stretch of +cultivation near Marwa. +</p> +<p> +The tank, as lakes are called in India, lay in the centre of a shallow +depression, the rim of which all round was about four hundred yards from +the water which, now half a mile across, evidently filled the whole +basin in the rainy season. The strong breeze churned its surface into +little waves and piled up masses of froth and foam against the bending +reeds at one end of the tank, where, about fifty yards from the water's +edge stood a couple of thorny trees, offering almost the only shade to +be found for a long distance around. In the shallows were many yellow +egrets, while a <i>sarus</i> crane stalked solemnly along the far bank, and +everywhere bird-life, rare elsewhere in the State, abounded. The land +all about was green, a refreshing change from the usual sandy and +parched character of most of the country. +</p> +<p> +But beyond the tank the fields stretched away out of sight. At the edge +of the cultivation the camels were halted and the party dismounted from +them and separated. Mrs. Norton, who was a fair shot and carried a light +12-bore gun, started to walk up the partridges with Raymond, while her +husband went to search the reeds and the borders of the lake for strange +insects. Wargrave armed with a sporting Mannlicher rifle, set off on a +long tramp to look for <i>chinkara</i>, which are pretty little antelope with +curving horns. The wind, which was freshening, prevented the heat from +being excessive. +</p> +<p> +The sport was fairly good. When lunch-time came the adjutant and Mrs. +Norton had got quite a respectable bag of partridges and a few hares. +The entomologist was in high spirits, for he had secured two rare +specimens; and Wargrave had shot a good buck. So in a contented frame of +mind all gathered under the trees near the end of the tank, where lunch +was laid by a couple of the Residency servants on a white cloth spread +on the ground. As they ate their <i>tiffin</i> (lunch) the members of the +party chatted over the incidents of the morning; and each related the +story of his or her sport. +</p> +<p> +After the meal Mrs. Norton decided to rest; for the ride and the long +walk with her gun had tired her. The servants spread a rug for her under +the trees and placed a camel saddle for her to recline against. Then +carrying away the empty dishes, plates, glasses and cutlery they retired +out of sight. +</p> +<p> +"Are you sure you don't mind being left alone, Mrs. Norton?" asked +Wargrave. +</p> +<p> +"Not in the least. Do go and shoot again," she replied, smiling up at +him. "I'm very comfortable and I'm glad to have a good rest before +undertaking that tiresome ride back. It's very pleasant here. The wind +comes so cool and fresh off the water. Isn't it strong, though?" +</p> +<p> +The breeze had freshened to a gale and under the trees the temperature +was quite bearable. The Resident had already gone out of sight over the +rim of the basin, having exhausted the neighbourhood of the tank and +being desirous of searching farther afield. Wargrave and Raymond now +followed him but soon separated, the latter making for the cultivation +again, while his friend set off for the open plain. Ordinarily the heat +would have been intense, for the hours after noon up to three o'clock or +later are the hottest of the day in India; but the gale made it quite +cool. +</p> +<p> +To Wargrave, tramping about unsuccessfully this time, came frequently +the sound of Raymond's gun. +</p> +<p> +"Ray seems to be having all the luck," he thought, as through his +field-glasses he scanned the plain without seeing anything. "I'm getting +fed up." +</p> +<p> +At last in despair he shouldered his rifle and turned back. After a long +walk he came in sight of the adjutant standing near the edge of the +fields talking to Norton. When Frank reached them he found that his +friend had increased his bag very considerably. +</p> +<p> +"Well done, old boy, you'd better luck than I had," he said. Then +turning to the Resident he continued: "How have you done, sir?" +</p> +<p> +"Nothing of any value," replied Norton "Have you finished? We're +thinking of going back now." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, sir; I'm through. By Jove, I'm thirsty. I could do with a drink, +couldn't you, Ray?" +</p> +<p> +"Rather. My throat's like a lime-kiln. We'll join Mrs. Norton and then +have an iced drink while the camels are being saddled." +</p> +<p> +They strolled towards the lake, which was hidden from their view by the +rim of the basin. As they reached the slight ridge that this made all +three stopped dead and gazed in amazement. +</p> +<p> +"What's happened to the tank?" exclaimed Raymond. "The water's almost up +to the trees." +</p> +<p> +"Good God; My wife! Look! Look!" cried the Resident. +</p> +<p> +They stood appalled. The wide body of water had swept up to within a few +yards of the trees under which Mrs. Norton lay fast asleep. And +stealthily emerging from it a large crocodile was slowly, cautiously, +crawling towards the unconscious woman. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0004" id="h2HCH0004"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER IV +</h2> +<h3> + A CROCODILE INTERVENES +</h3> +<p> +Major Norton opened his mouth to cry a warning; but Wargrave grasped his +arm and said hurriedly: +</p> +<p> +"Don't shout, sir! Don't wake her! She'd be too confused to move." +</p> +<p> +Then he thrust his field-glasses into the adjutant's hand. +</p> +<p> +"Watch for the strike of my bullet, Ray," he said. +</p> +<p> +He threw himself at full length on the ground and pressed a cartridge +into the breech of his rifle. His companions stood over him as he cast a +hurried glance forward and adjusted his sight, muttering: +</p> +<p> +"Just about four hundred yards." +</p> +<p> +The crocodile was nearly broadside on to him; and even at that distance +he could see the scaly armour covering head, back and sides, that would +defy any bullet. The unprotected spot behind the shoulder was hidden +from him; the only vulnerable part was the neck. Wargrave laid his cheek +to the butt and sighted on this. +</p> +<p> +The crocodile crept on inch by inch, dragging its limbs forward with the +slow, stealthy movement of its kind when stalking their prey on land. +The horrified watchers saw that the terrible snout with its protruding +fangs was barely a yard from Mrs. Norton's feet. Raymond's hands holding +the glasses to his eyes trembled violently. The Resident shook as with +the palsy; and he stared in horror at the crawling death that threatened +the sleeping woman. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave fired. +</p> +<p> +As the rifle rang out the creeping movement ceased. +</p> +<p> +"You've hit him, I'll swear," cried Raymond. "I didn't see the bullet +strike the ground." +</p> +<p> +Wargrave rapidly worked the bolt of his rifle, jerking out the empty +case and pushing a fresh cartridge into the chamber. He fired again. +</p> +<p> +"That's got him! That <i>must</i> have got him!" exclaimed Raymond. +</p> +<p> +The crocodile lay still. Frank leapt to his feet and, rifle in hand, +dashed down the incline. At that moment Mrs. Norton awoke, turned on her +side, raised her body a little and suddenly saw the horrible reptile. +She sat up rigid with terror and stared at it. The brute slowly opened +its huge mouth and disclosed the cruel, gapped teeth. Then the iron jaws +clashed together. With a shriek the woman sprang to her feet, but stood +trembling, unable to move away. +</p> +<p> +"Run! Run!" shouted Wargrave, springing down the slope towards her. +</p> +<p> +Behind him raced Raymond, while her husband, who was unable to run +fast, followed far behind. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Norton seemed rooted to the spot. But she turned to Wargrave with +outstretched arms and gasped: +</p> +<p> +"Save me, Frank! Save me!" +</p> +<p> +With a bound he reached her, and, as she clung to him convulsively, +panted out: +</p> +<p> +"It's all right, dear. You're safe now." +</p> +<p> +He pushed her behind him, and bringing the rifle to his shoulder, faced +the crocodile. The brute opened and shut its great jaws, seeming to gasp +for air, while a strange whistling sound came from its throat. Its body +appeared to be paralysed. +</p> +<p> +"It can't move. You've broken its spine," cried Raymond, as he reached +them. "Your first shot it must have been. Look! Your second's torn its +throat." +</p> +<p> +He pointed to the neck and went round to the other side. From a jagged, +gaping wound where the expanding bullet had torn the throat, the blood +spurted and air whistled out with a shrill sound. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave turned to Violet and took the terrified woman, who seemed on +the point of fainting, in his arms. +</p> +<p> +"All right, little girl. It's all right. The brute's done for." +</p> +<p> +She pulled herself together with an effort and looked nervously at the +crocodile. Then she released herself from Frank's clasp and said, +smiling feebly: +</p> +<p> +"What a coward I am! I'm ashamed of myself. Where's John? Oh, here he +is. Doesn't he look funny?" +</p> +<p> +The Resident, very red-faced and out of breath, had slowed down into a +shambling walk and was puffing and blowing like a grampus. As he came up +to them he spluttered: +</p> +<p> +"Is it safe? Is it dead?" +</p> +<p> +"It's harmless now, sir," answered Raymond. "It's still living but it +can't move. The spine's broken, I think." +</p> +<p> +The Resident turned to his wife. The poor man had been in agony while +she was in danger; but now that the peril had passed he could only +express his relief in irritable scolding: +</p> +<p> +"How could you be so foolish, Violet?" he asked crossly. "The idea of +going to sleep near the tank! Most unwise! You might have been eaten +alive." +</p> +<p> +His wife smiled bitterly and glanced at the grumbling man with a +contemptuous expression on her face. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, John, very inconsiderate of me, I daresay. But how was I to know +that there was a <i>mugger</i> (crocodile) in the tank?" +</p> +<p> +Then for the first time she realised the nearness of the water. +</p> +<p> +"Good gracious! I thought I was much farther—how did I get so close to +it? Did I slip down in my sleep?" +</p> +<p> +"No; there are the trees," said Raymond. "It's extraordinary. The whole +tank seems to have shifted." +</p> +<p> +The Resident was mopping his bald scalp and lifted his hat to let the +gusty wind cool his head. A sudden squall blew the big pith sun-helmet +out of his hand. Wargrave caught it in the air and returned it to its +owner. +</p> +<p> +"By Jove! it's a regular gale," he said. "I think I know what's +happened. This wind's so strong that it's blown the water of the tank +before it and actually shifted the whole mass thirty or forty yards this +way." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I've known that to occur before with shallow ponds," said Raymond. +"I've heard the passage of the Red Sea by the Israelites and the +drowning of Pharaoh's Army explained in the same way. It's said that the +crossing really took place at one extremity of the Bitter Lake through +which the Suez Canal passes." +</p> +<p> +Major Norton was staring at the far end of the tank now left bare. +</p> +<p> +"There may be some interesting insects stranded on the bottom uncovered +by the receding water," he said, abstractedly, and was moving away to +search for them when Wargrave said disgustedly: +</p> +<p> +"Don't you think, sir, that, as Mrs. Norton has had such a shock, the +sooner we get off the better?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, yes. Very true. But you can order the camels to be saddled while +I'm having a look," replied the enthusiastic collector. "I really must +go and see. There may be some very interesting specimens there." +</p> +<p> +And he hurried away. His wife smiled rather bitterly as he went. Then +she turned to the two subalterns. +</p> +<p> +"But tell me what happened? How did the <i>mugger</i> come here? How was I +saved?" +</p> +<p> +Raymond rapidly narrated what had taken place. Violet looked at Wargrave +with glistening eyes and held out her hands to him. +</p> +<p> +"So you saved my life. How can I thank you?" she said gratefully. Her +lips trembled a little. +</p> +<p> +Frank took her hands in his but answered lightly: +</p> +<p> +"Oh, it was nothing. Anyone else would have done the same. I happened to +be the only one with a rifle." +</p> +<p> +Raymond turned away quickly and walked over to the crocodile. Neither of +them took any notice of him. Violet gazed fondly at Wargrave. +</p> +<p> +"I owe you so much, Frank, so very much," she murmured in a low voice. +"You've made my life worth living; and now you make me live." +</p> +<p> +He was embarrassed but he pressed the hands he held in his. Then he +released them and tried to speak lightly. +</p> +<p> +"Shall I have the <i>mugger</i> skinned and get a dressing-bag made out of +his hide for you?" he said, smiling. "That'd be a nice souvenir of the +brute." +</p> +<p> +She shuddered. +</p> +<p> +"I don't want to remember him," she cried, turning to glance at the +crocodile. "Horrid beast! I can't bear the sight of him." +</p> +<p> +The <i>mugger</i> certainly looked a most repulsive brute as it lay stretched +on the ground, its jaws occasionally opening and shutting spasmodically, +the blood from its wounded throat spreading in a pool on the sun-baked +earth. It was evidently an old beast; and skull and back were covered +with thick horny plates and bosses through which no bullet could +penetrate. The big teeth studded irregularly in the cruel jaws were +yellow and worn, as were the thick nails tipping the claws at the ends +of the powerful limbs. +</p> +<p> +"The devil's not dead yet. Shall I put another bullet into him?" said +Wargrave. +</p> +<p> +"It's only wasting a cartridge," replied his friend. "He can't do any +more harm. When the men come we'll have him cut open and see what he's +got inside him." +</p> +<p> +Violet shuddered. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, do you think he has ever eaten any human being?" she asked, gazing +with loathing at the huge reptile. +</p> +<p> +"Judging from the way he stalked you I should think he has," answered +Raymond. "Hullo! here comes one of the camel-drivers with some of the +villagers. They'll be able to tell us about him." +</p> +<p> +On the rim of the basin appeared a group of natives moving in their +direction. Suddenly they caught sight of the crocodile, stopped and +pointed to it and began to talk excitedly. One of the local peasants ran +back shouting. The rest hurried down for a closer view of the reptile. A +chorus of wonder rose from them as they stood round it. The Mahommedan +camel-driver exclaimed in Hindustani: +</p> +<p> +"<i>Ahré, bhai! Kiya janwar! Pukka shaitan!</i> (Ah, brother! What an animal! +A veritable devil!)" +</p> +<p> +As the villagers spoke only the dialect of the State, Raymond used this +man as interpreter and questioned them about the crocodile. They +asserted that it had inhabited the tank for many years—hundreds, said +one man. It had, to their certain knowledge, killed several women +incautiously bathing or drawing water from the tank. As women are not +valued highly by the poorer Hindus this did not make the <i>mugger</i> very +unpopular. But early in that very year it had committed the awful crime +of dragging under water and devouring a Brahmini bull, an animal devoted +to the Gods and held sacrosanct. +</p> +<p> +By this time the crocodile had breathed its last. Raymond measured it +roughly and found it to be over twelve feet in length. The peasants +turned the great body on its back. Wargrave saw that the skin +underneath was too thick to be made into leather, so he bade them cut +the belly open. The stomach contained many shells of freshwater crabs +and crayfish, as well as a surprising amount of large pebbles, either +taken for digestive purposes or swallowed when the fish were being +scooped up off the bottom. But further search resulted in the finding of +several heavy brass or copper anklets and armlets, such as are worn by +Indian women. Some had evidently been a long time in the reptile's +interior. +</p> +<p> +When the camels had come and the party was preparing to mount and start +back home, a crowd of villagers, led by their old priest, bore down upon +them. Learning that Frank was the slayer of the sacrilegious crocodile +the holy man hung a garland of marigolds round his neck and through the +interpreter offered him the thanks of gods and men for his good deed. +And to a chorus of blessings and compliments he rode away with his +companions. +</p> +<p> +So ended the incident—apparently. But consequences undreamed of by any +of the actors in it flowed from it. For imperceptibly it brought a +change into the relations between Mrs. Norton and Wargrave and +eventually altered them completely. At first it merely seemed to +strengthen their friendship and increase the feeling of intimacy. To +Violet—they were Violet and Frank to each other now—the saving of her +life constituted a bond that could never be severed. He had preserved +her from a horrible death and she owed Wargrave more than gratitude. +</p> +<p> +Hitherto she had often toyed with the idea of him as a lover, and the +thought had been a pleasant one. But it had hardly occurred to her to be +in love with him in return. In all her life up to now she had never +known what it was to really love. She had married without affection. Her +girlhood had been passed without the mildest flirtation; for she had +been brought up in a quiet country village where there never seemed to +be any bachelors of her own class between the ages of seventeen and +fifty. Even the curate was grey-haired and married. She had made up for +this deprivation during the voyage out to India and her season in +Calcutta; but, although she had found many men ready to flirt with her, +Norton's proposal was the only serious one that she had had and she +accepted him in desperation. She had never felt any love for him. She +did not realise that he had any for her; for, although he really +entertained a sincere affection of a kind for her, it was so seldom and +so badly expressed that she was never aware of its existence. Since her +marriage she had had several careless flirtations during her visits to +her relatives in Calcutta; but her heart was not seriously affected. +</p> +<p> +She never acknowledged to herself that any gratitude or loyalty was due +from her to her husband. On the contrary she felt that she owed him, as +well as Fate, a grudge. She was young, warmblooded, of a passionate +temperament, yet she found herself wedded to a man who apparently needed +a housekeeper, not a wife. Her husband did not appear to realise that a +woman is not essentially different to a man, that she has feelings, +desires, passions, just as he has—although by a polite fiction the +prudish Anglo-Saxon races seem to agree to regard her as of a more +spiritual, more ethereal and less earthly a nature. Yet it is only a +fiction after all. Violet was a living woman, a creature of flesh and +blood who was not content to be a chattel, a household ornament, a piece +of furniture. It was not to be wondered at that she longed to enter into +woman's kingdom, to exercise the power of her sex to sway the other and +to experience the thrill of the realisation of that power. Often in her +loneliness she pined to see eyes she loved look with love into hers. She +was not a marble statue. It was but natural that she should long for +Love, a lover, the clasp of strong arms, the pressure of a man's broad +chest against her bosom, the feel of burning kisses on her lips, the +glorious surrender of her whole being to some adored one to whom she was +the universe, who lived but for her. +</p> +<p> +Now for the first time in her life her errant dreams took concrete +shape. At last she began to feel the companionship of a particular man +necessary for her happiness. She had never before realised the +pleasure, the joy, to be derived from the presence of one of the +opposite sex who was in sympathy, in perfect harmony with her nature. +</p> +<p> +In her lonely hours—and they were many—she thought constantly of +Wargrave; his face was ever before her, his voice sounding in her ears. +She usually saw her husband—absorbed in his work and studies—only at +meals; and as she looked across the table at him then she could not help +contrasting the heavy, unattractive man sitting silent, usually reading +a book while he ate, with the good-looking, laughter-loving playfellow +who had come into her life. She learned to day-dream of Wargrave, to +watch for his coming and hate his going, to enjoy every moment of his +presence. He had brought a new interest into her hitherto purposeless +life, the life that he had preserved and that consequently seemed to +belong to him. New feelings awakened in her. The world was a brighter, +happier place than it had been. It pleased her to realise what it all +meant, to know that the novel sensations, the fluttering hopes and +fears, the strange, delightful thrills, were all symptoms of that +longed-for malady that comes sooner or later to all women. She knew at +last that she loved Wargrave and gloried in the knowledge. And she never +doubted that he loved her in return. +</p> +<p> +Did he? It was hard to tell. To a man the thought of Love in the +abstract seldom occurs; and the realisation of the concrete fact that +he is in love with some particular woman generally comes somewhat as a +shock. He is by nature a lover of freedom and in theory at least resents +fetters, even silken ones. And Wargrave had never thought of analysing +his feelings towards Violet. He was not a professional amorist and, +although not a puritan, would never set himself deliberately to make +love to a married woman under her husband's roof. He was fond of Mrs. +Norton—as a sister, he thought. She was a delightful friend, a real +pal, so understanding, so companionable, he said to himself frequently. +It had not occurred to him that his feelings for her might be love. He +had often before been on terms of friendship with women, married and +single; but none of them had ever attracted him as much as she did. He +had never felt any desire to be married; domesticity did not appeal to +him. But now, as he watched Violet moving about her drawing-room or +playing to him, he found himself thinking that it would be pleasant to +return to his bungalow from parade and find a pretty little wife waiting +to greet him with a smile and a kiss—and the wife of his dreams always +had Violet's face, wore smart well-cut frocks like Violet's, and showed +just such shapely, silken-clad legs and ankles and such small feet in +dainty, silver-buckled, high-heeled shoes. And he thought with an inward +groan that such a luxury was not for a debt-ridden subaltern like him, +that his heavily-mortgaged pay would not run to expensive gowns, silk +stockings and costly footwear. +</p> +<p> +Yet it never occurred to him that Violet cared for him nor did it enter +his mind to try to win her love. But he felt that he would do much to +make her happy, that saving her life made him in a way responsible for +it in future; and he knew that she was not a contented woman. His +sympathy went out to her for what he guessed she must suffer from her +ill-assorted union. +</p> +<p> +But soon he had no need to surmise it; for before long Violet began to +confide all her sorrows to him and the recital made his heart bleed for +one so young and beautiful mated to a selfish wretch who was as blind to +her suffering as he was to her charm. The younger man's chivalry was up +in arms, and he felt that such a boor did not deserve so bright a jewel. +At times Frank was tempted to confront the callous husband and force him +to open his dulled eyes to the bravely-borne misery of his neglected +wife and realise how fortunate he ought to consider himself in being the +owner of such a transcendent being. But the next moment the infatuated +youth was convinced that Norton was incapable of appreciating so rare a +woman, that only a nature like his own could understand or do full +justice to the perfections of hers. Such is a young man's conceit. He +rejoiced to know that his poor sympathy could help in a measure to make +up to Violet for the happiness that she declared that she had missed in +life. And so he gladly consented to play the consoler; and she, for the +pleasure of being consoled, continued to pour out her griefs to him. +</p> +<p> +But if Frank was unconscious of the danger of his post as sympathising +confidant to another man's young and pretty wife, others were not. Her +husband, of course, was as blind as most husbands seem to be in +Anglo-Indian society. For in that land of the Household of Three, the +Eternal Triangle, it is almost a recognised principle that every married +woman who is at all attractive is entitled to have one particular +bachelor always in close attendance on her, to be constantly at her beck +and call, to ride with her, to drive her every afternoon to tennis or +golf or watch polo, then on to the Club and sit with her there. His +duty, a pleasant one, no doubt, is to cheer up her otherwise solitary +dinner in her bungalow on the nights when her neglectful husband is +dining out <i>en garçon</i>. No <i>cavaliere servente</i> of Old Italy ever had so +busy a time as the Tame Cat of the India of to-day. And the husband +allows it, nay seems, as Major Norton did, to hail his presence with +relief, as it eases the conscience of the selfish lord and master who +leaves his spouse much alone. +</p> +<p> +But if the Resident saw no harm or danger in the young officer +constantly seeking the society of his pretty wife others did. At first +Frank's well-wishers tried to hint to him that there was likelihood of +his friendship with her being misunderstood. But he laughed at +Raymond's badly-expressed warning and rather resented Major Hepburn's +kindly advice when on one occasion his Company Commander spoke plainly, +though tactfully, to him on the subject. Then Violet's enemies took a +hand in the game. Mrs. Trevor, having failed to decoy him to her +bungalow for what she called "a quiet tea and a motherly little chat," +cornered him one afternoon when he was on his way to the Residency and +spoke very openly to him of the risk he ran of being entangled in the +coils of such an outrageous coquette as "that Mrs. Norton," as she +termed her. Frank was so indignant at her abuse of his friend that for +the first time in his life he was rude to a woman and snubbed Mrs. +Trevor so severely that she went in a rage to her husband and insisted +on his taking immediate steps to arrest the progress of a scandal that, +she declared, would attract the unfavourable attention of the higher +military authorities to the regiment. +</p> +<p> +"Do you realise, William, that you will be the one to suffer?" said the +angry woman. "If anything happens, if Major Norton complains, if that +shameless creature succeeds in making that foolish young man run away +with her, you will be blamed. You can't afford it. You know that the +General's confidential report on you last year was not too favourable." +</p> +<p> +"It wasn't really bad, my dear; it only hinted that I lacked decision," +pleaded the hen-pecked man. +</p> +<p> +"Exactly. You are not firm enough," persisted his domestic tyrant. "They +will say that you should have put your foot down at once and stopped +this disgraceful affair." +</p> +<p> +"But what can I do?" asked the Colonel helplessly. +</p> +<p> +"Someone ought to speak to Major Norton at once." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, my dear Jane, I couldn't. I daren't." +</p> +<p> +"For two pins I'd do it myself. Mrs. Baird said the other day that it +was our duty as respectable women." +</p> +<p> +"No, no, no, Jane. You mustn't think of it," exclaimed the alarmed man. +"I forbid you. You mustn't mix yourself up in the affair. It would be +committing me." +</p> +<p> +"Then send that impertinent young man away," said Mrs. Trevor firmly. No +General would have accused <i>her</i> of lack of decision. "I used to have a +high opinion of him once; but after his insolence to me I believe him to +be nearly as bad as that woman." +</p> +<p> +"Where can I send him?" asked the worried Colonel. "He has done all the +courses and passed all the classes and examinations he can." +</p> +<p> +"You know you have only to write confidentially to the Staff and inform +them that young Wargrave's removal to another station is absolutely +necessary to prevent a scandal; and they'll send him off somewhere else +at once." +</p> +<p> +Her husband nodded his head. He was well aware of the fact that the Army +in India looks closely after the behaviour and morals of its officers, +that a colonel has only to hint that the transfer of a particular +individual under his command is necessary to stop a scandal—and without +loss of time that officer finds himself deported to the other side of +the country. +</p> +<p> +One morning, a week after Mrs Trevor's conversation with her husband, +Wargrave, superintending the musketry of his Double Company on the rifle +range, was given an official note from the adjutant informing him that +the Commanding Officer desired to see him at once in the Orderly Room. +As Major Hepburn was not present Frank handed the men over to the senior +Indian company commander and rode off to the Regimental Office, +wondering as he went what could be the reason of the sudden summons. +Reaching the building he found Raymond on the watch for him, while +ostensibly engaged in criticising to the battalion <i>durzi</i> (tailor) the +fit of the new uniforms of several recruits. +</p> +<p> +"I say, Ray, what's up?" asked his friend cheerily, as he swung himself +out of the saddle. +</p> +<p> +The adjutant nodded warningly towards the Orderly Room and dropped his +voice as he replied: +</p> +<p> +"I don't know, old chap. The C.O.'s said nothing to me; but he's in +there with Hepburn trying to work himself up into a rage so that he can +bully-rag you properly. You'd better go in and get it over." +</p> +<p> +Wargrave entered the big, colour-washed room. The Colonel was seated at +his desk, frowning at a paper before him, and did not look up. Major +Hepburn was standing behind his chair and glanced commiseratingly at the +subaltern. +</p> +<p> +Frank stood to attention and saluted. +</p> +<p> +"Good morning, sir," he said. "You wanted to see me?" +</p> +<p> +Colonel Trevor did not reply, but turning slightly in his chair, said: +</p> +<p> +"Major Hepburn, call in the adjutant, please." +</p> +<p> +As the Second in Command went out on the verandah and summoned Raymond, +Wargrave's heart misgave him. He had no idea of what the matter was; but +the Colonel's manner and the presence of the Second in Command were +ominous signs. He wondered what crime he was going to be charged with. +</p> +<p> +"Shut the doors, Raymond," said the Commanding Officer curtly, as the +adjutant entered. The latter did so and sat down at his writing-table, +glancing anxiously at his friend. +</p> +<p> +Colonel Trevor's lips were twitching nervously; and he seemed to +experience a difficulty in finding his voice. At last he took up a +paper from his desk and said: +</p> +<p> +"Mr. Wargrave, this is a telegram just received from Western Army Head +Quarters. It says 'Lieutenant Wargrave is appointed to No. 12 Battalion, +Frontier Military Police. Direct him to proceed forthwith to report to +O.C. Detachment, Ranga Duar, Eastern Bengal.'" +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0005" id="h2HCH0005"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER V +</h2> +<h3> + SENTENCE OF EXILE +</h3> +<p> +At the words of the telegram Raymond started and Frank stared in +bewilderment at the Colonel. +</p> +<p> +"But I never asked for the Military Police, sir," he exclaimed. "I——" +</p> +<p> +The Colonel licked his dry lips and, working himself up into a passion, +shouted: +</p> +<p> +"No, you didn't. But I did. I applied for you to be sent to it. I asked +for you to be transferred from this station. You can ask yourself the +reason why. I will not tolerate conduct such as yours, sir. I will not +have an officer like you under my command." +</p> +<p> +Frank flushed deeply. +</p> +<p> +"I beg your pardon, sir. I don't understand. I really don't know what +I've done. I should——" +</p> +<p> +But the Colonel burst in furiously: +</p> +<p> +"He says he doesn't know what he's done, Major Hepburn. Listen to that! +He does not know what he's done"; and the speaker pounded on the desk +with his clenched fist, working himself up into a rage, as a weak man +will do when he has to carry out an unpleasant task. +</p> +<p> +"But, sir, surely I have a right——," began Wargrave, clenching his +hands until the nails were almost driven into his palms in an effort to +keep his temper. +</p> +<p> +"I cannot argue the question with you, Wargrave," said the Colonel +loftily. "You have got your orders. Headquarters approve of my action. I +have discussed the matter with my Second in Command, and he agrees with +me. You can go. Raymond, make out the necessary warrants for Mr. +Wargrave's journey and give him an advance of a month's pay. He will +leave to-morrow. Tell the Quartermaster to make the necessary +arrangements." +</p> +<p> +Frank bit his lip. His years of discipline and the respect for authority +engrained in him since his entrance to Sandhurst kept the mutinous words +back. He saluted punctiliously and, turning about smartly walked out of +the Orderly Room. In the glaring sunshine he strode out of the compound +and down the white, dusty road to his bungalow, his brain in a whirl, +blind to everything, seeing neither the sepoys saluting him nor his +<i>syce</i> hurrying after him and dragging the pony by the bridle. +</p> +<p> +When he reached his house he entered the sitting-room and dropped into a +chair. His "boy" approached salaaming and asked if he should go to the +Mess to order the Sahib's breakfast to be got ready. Wargrave waved him +away impatiently. +</p> +<p> +He sat staring unseeingly at the wall. He could not think coherently. He +felt dazed. His bewildered brain seemed to be revolving endlessly round +the thought of the telegram from Headquarters and the Colonel's words "I +will not have an officer like you under my command." What was the +meaning of it all? What had he done? A pang shot through him at the +sudden remembrance of Colonel Trevor's assertion that Major Hepburn +agreed with him. Frank held the Second in Command in high respect, for +he knew him to be an exceptionally good soldier and a gentleman in every +sense of the word. Had he so disgraced himself then that Hepburn +considered the Colonel's action justified? But how? +</p> +<p> +He shifted uneasily in his chair and his eyes fell on Mrs. Norton's +portrait. At the sight of it his Company Commander's advice to him about +her and Mrs. Trevor's spiteful remarks flashed across his mind. Could +Violet be mixed up in all this? Was his friendship with her perhaps the +cause of the trouble? He dismissed the idea at once. There was nothing +to be ashamed of in their relations. +</p> +<p> +A figure darkened the doorway. It was Raymond. Wargrave sprang up and +rushed to him. +</p> +<p> +"What in Heaven's name is it all about, Ray?" he cried. "Is the Colonel +mad?" +</p> +<p> +The adjutant took off his helmet and flung it on the table. +</p> +<p> +"Well, tell me. What the devil have I done?" said his friend +impatiently. +</p> +<p> +Raymond tried to speak but failed. +</p> +<p> +"Go on, man. What is it?" cried Wargrave, seizing his arm. +</p> +<p> +The adjutant burst out: +</p> +<p> +"It's a damned shame, old man. I'm sorry." +</p> +<p> +"But what is it? What is it, I say?" cried Wargrave, shaking him. +</p> +<p> +The adjutant nodded his head towards the big photograph on the +writing-table. +</p> +<p> +"It's Mrs. Norton," he said. +</p> +<p> +"Mrs. Norton?" echoed his friend. "What the—what's she got to do with +it?" +</p> +<p> +Raymond threw himself into a chair. +</p> +<p> +"Someone's been making mischief. The C.O.'s been told that there might +be a scandal so he's got scared lest trouble should come to him." +</p> +<p> +Frank stared blankly at the speaker, then suddenly turned and walked out +of the bungalow. The pony was standing huddled into the patch of shade +at the side of the house, the <i>syce</i> squatting on the ground at its head +and holding the reins. Wargrave sprang into the saddle and galloped out +of the compound. Raymond ran to the verandah and saw him thundering down +the sandy road that led to the residency. +</p> +<p> +Arrived at the big white building Frank pulled up his panting pony on +its haunches and dismounting threw the reins over its head and left it +unattended. +</p> +<p> +Walking to the hall door he cried: +</p> +<p> +"<i>Koi hai</i>?" +</p> +<p> +A drowsy <i>chuprassi</i> at the back of the hall sprang up and hurried to +receive him. +</p> +<p> +"<i>Memsahib hai</i>? (Is the mistress in?)" +</p> +<p> +"<i>Hai, sahib</i>. (Yes, sir)" said the servant salaaming. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave was free of the house and, taking off his hat, went into the +cool hall and walked up the great staircase. He entered the +drawing-room. After the blinding glare outside the closely-shuttered +apartment seemed so dark that at first it was difficult for him to see +if it were tenanted or not. But it was empty; and he paced the floor +impatiently, frowning in chaotic thought. +</p> +<p> +"Good morning, Frank. You are early to-day. And what a bad temper you +seem to be in!" exclaimed a laughing voice; and Mrs. Norton, looking +radiant and delightfully cool in a thin white Madras muslin dress, +entered the room. +</p> +<p> +He went to her. +</p> +<p> +"They're sending me away, Violet," he said. +</p> +<p> +"Sending you away?" she repeated in an astonished tone. "Sending you +where?" +</p> +<p> +"To hell, I think," he cried. "Oh, I beg your pardon. I mean—yes, +they're sending me away from Rohar, from you. Sending me to the other +side of India." +</p> +<p> +The blood slowly left her face as she stared uncomprehendingly at him. +</p> +<p> +"Sending you away? Why?" she asked. +</p> +<p> +"Because—because we're friends, little girl." +</p> +<p> +"Because we're friends," she echoed. "What do you mean? But you mustn't +go." +</p> +<p> +"I must. I can't help it. I've got to go." +</p> +<p> +Pale as death Violet stared at him. +</p> +<p> +"Got to go? To leave me?" +</p> +<p> +Then with a choking cry she threw her arms about his neck and sobbed. +</p> +<p> +"You mustn't. You mustn't leave me. I can't live without you. I love +you. I love you. I'll die if you go from me." +</p> +<p> +Frank started and tried to hold her at arm's length to look into her +face. But the woman clung frenziedly to him, while convulsive sobs shook +her body. His arms went round her instinctively and, holding her to his +breast, he stared blankly over the beautiful bowed head. It was true, +then. She loved him. Without meaning it he had won her heart. He whose +earnest wish it had been to save her from pain, to console her, to +brighten her lonely life, had brought this fresh sorrow on her. To the +misery of a loveless marriage he had added a heavier cross, an unhappy, +a misplaced affection. No exultant vanity within him rejoiced at the +knowledge that, unsought, she had learned to care for him. Only regret, +pity for her, stirred in him. He was aware now as always that his +feeling for her was not love. But she must not realise it. He must save +her from the bitter mortification of learning that she had given her +heart unasked. His must have been the fault; he it must be to bear the +punishment. She should never know the truth. He bent down and +reverently, tenderly, kissed the tear-stained face—it was the first +time that his lips had touched her. +</p> +<p> +"Dearest, we will go together. You must come with me," he said. +</p> +<p> +Violet started and looked wildly up at him. +</p> +<p> +"Go with you? What do you mean? How can I?" +</p> +<p> +"I mean that you must come away with me to begin a new life—a happier +one—together. I cannot leave you here with a man who neglects you, who +does not appreciate you, who cannot understand you." +</p> +<p> +"Do you mean—run away with you?" she asked. +</p> +<p> +"Yes; it is the only thing to do." +</p> +<p> +She slowly loosed her clasp of him and released herself from his arms. +</p> +<p> +"But I don't understand at all. Why are you going? And where?" +</p> +<p> +He briefly told her what had happened. His face flushed darkly as he +repeated the Colonel's words. +</p> +<p> +"'He wouldn't have an officer like me under his command,' he said. He +treated me like a criminal. I don't value his opinion much. But Major +Hepburn agrees with him. That hurts. I respect him." +</p> +<p> +"But where is this place they're sending you to?" she asked. +</p> +<p> +"Ranga Duar? I don't know. Eastern Bengal, I believe." +</p> +<p> +"Bengal. What? Anywhere near Calcutta?" +</p> +<p> +"No; it must be somewhere up on the frontier. Otherwise they wouldn't +send Military Police to garrison it." +</p> +<p> +"But what is it like? Is it a big station?" she persisted. +</p> +<p> +"I can't tell you. But it's sure not to be. No; it must be a small place +up in the hills or in the jungle. There's only a detachment there." +</p> +<p> +"But what have I got to do with your being sent there?" she asked in +perplexity. +</p> +<p> +"Don't you understand? Someone's been making mischief," he replied. +"Those two vile-minded women have been talking scandal of us to the +Colonel." +</p> +<p> +"What? Talking about you and me? Oh!" she exclaimed. +</p> +<p> +His words brought home to her the fact that these bitter-tongued women +whom she despised had dared to assail her—her, the <i>Burra Mem</i>, the +Great Lady of their little world. Had dared to? She could not silence +them. And what would they say of her, how their tongues would wag, if +she ran away from her husband! And they would have a right to talk +scandal of her then. The thought made her pause. +</p> +<p> +"But how could I go with you to this place in Bengal? Where could I +live?" she asked. +</p> +<p> +"You'd live with me." +</p> +<p> +"Oh! In your bungalow? How could I? And how would I get there?" she +continued. "I haven't any money. I don't suppose I've got a ten-rupee +note. And I couldn't ask my husband." +</p> +<p> +"Of course not. I would——" He paused. "By Jove! I never thought of +that." It had not occurred to him that elopements must be carried out on +a cash basis. He had forgotten that money was necessary. And he had +none. He was heavily in debt. The local <i>shroffs</i>—the native +money-lenders—would give him no more credit when they knew that he was +going away. All that he would have would be the one month's advance of +pay—probably not enough for Violet's fare and expenses across +India—the Government provided his—and certainly not enough to support +them for long. He frowned in perplexity. Running away with another man's +wife did not seem so easy after all. +</p> +<p> +Violet was the first to recover her normal calm. +</p> +<p> +"Sit down and let us talk quietly," she said. "One of the servants may +come in. Or my husband—if people are talking scandal of us." +</p> +<p> +She touched the switch of an overhead electric fan—the Government of +India housed its Political Officer in Rohar much more luxuriously than +the military ones—and sat down under it. Wargrave began to pace the +room impatiently. +</p> +<p> +"Come, Frank, stop walking about like a tiger in a cage and let's +discuss things properly." +</p> +<p> +With an effort he pulled himself together and took a chair near her. The +woman was the more self-possessed of the two. The shock of suddenly +finding herself up against the logical outcome of her desires had +sobered her; and, faced with the prospect of an immediate flight +involving the abdication of her assured social position and the +surrender of a home, she was able to visualise the consequences of her +actions. The most sobering reflection was the thought that by so doing +she would be casting herself to the female wolves of her world—and she +knew the extent of their mercy. There were others of her acquaintance +besides Mrs. Trevor who would howl loud with triumph over her downfall. +The thought has saved many a woman from social ruin. +</p> +<p> +Thinking only of what she had so often told him of the misery of living +with a man as unsympathetic as her husband, Frank pleaded desperately +with a conviction that he was far from feeling. The hard fact of the +lack of sufficient money to pay for her travelling expenses, the +difficulty of getting off together from this out-of-the-way station, +were not to be got over. Then the impossibility of knowing whether she +could remain with him when he was on frontier duty and of supporting her +away from him, the realisation of the fact that they would have to face +the Divorce Court with its heavy costs and probably crushing damages, +all made the situation seem hopeless. In despair he sprang up and +resumed his nervous pacing of the room. +</p> +<p> +At last Violet said: +</p> +<p> +"All I can see, dearest, is that we must wait. It will be harder for me +than for you. You at least will not have to live with anyone uncongenial +to you. But I must. Yet I can bear it for your sake." +</p> +<p> +He stopped before her and looked at her in admiration of her courageous +and self-sacrificing spirit. Then he bent down and kissed her tenderly. +Sitting beside her he discussed the situation more calmly than he had +hitherto done. It was finally agreed that he was to go alone to his new +station, save all that he could to pay off his debts—he would receive a +higher salary in the Military Police and his expenses would be less—and +when he was free and had made a home for her Violet would sacrifice +everything for love and come to him. With almost tears in his eyes as he +thought of her nobility he strained her to his heart. When the time came +for parting the woman broke down completely and wept bitterly as she +clung to him. He kissed her passionately, then with an effort put her +from him and almost ran from the room, while she flung herself on a +lounge and sobbed convulsively. +</p> +<p> +One of the Residency <i>syces</i> had taken charge of the pony; and Wargrave, +mounting it, galloped madly back to his bungalow, his heart torn with +anguish for the unhappiness of the broken-hearted woman that he was +leaving behind. +</p> +<p> +When he arrived home he found that Raymond and his own "boy" and +sword-orderly (his native soldier-servant) had begun his packing for +him, for his heavy baggage had to be despatched that afternoon. The +bungalow was crowded with his brother-officers waiting to see him. He +had intended to avoid them, for he felt disgraced by the Colonel's +censure which it was evident the Commanding Officer had not kept secret, +though the whole matter should have been treated as confidential. But +they made light of his scruples and showed him that he had their +sympathy. He had meant to dine alone in his room that night; but his +comrades insisted on his coming to the Mess, where they were to give him +an informal farewell dinner. They would take no refusal. +</p> +<p> +Daly, who was the Acting Quartermaster of the battalion, told him that +the arrangements for his journey had been made. He was to leave at dawn +and drive sixty miles in a <i>tonga</i>—a two-wheeled native conveyance +drawn by a pair of ponies—to a village called Basedi on the shores of a +narrow gulf or deep inlet of the sea which formed the eastern boundary +of the State of Mandha. Here he would have to spend the night in a +dâk-bungalow—or rest-house—and cross the water in a steam-launch next +morning. After that, five days more of travel by various routes and +means awaited him. +</p> +<p> +Before dinner that night a few minutes apart with Hepburn made Frank +happier than he had been all day. For his Company Commander told him +that he had only agreed with the Colonel's action because he believed +that it would be for the subaltern's own good, not because he considered +that the latter had done anything to disgrace him. Hepburn added that if +he was given command of the regiment in two years' time—as should +happen in the ordinary course of events—he would be glad to have +Wargrave back again in the battalion then. Frank, with a guilty feeling +when he remembered his compact with Violet, thanked him gratefully, and +with a lightened heart went to the very festive meal that was to be his +last for some long time, at least with his old corps. +</p> +<p> +The Colonel had refused to agree to his being invited formally to be the +guest of the regiment; and neither he nor the other married man, the +Doctor, were present. If they slept that night they were the only two +officers in the Cantonment that did; for none of the others, not even +senior major, Hepburn, left the Mess until it was time to escort their +departing comrade to his bungalow to change for the journey. And, as the +<i>tonga</i>-ponies rattled down the road and bore him away, Frank's last +sight of his old comrades was the group of white-clad figures in the +dawn waving frantically and cheering vociferously from the gateway of +his bungalow. +</p> +<p> +The memory of it rejoiced him throughout the terrible hours of the long +journey in the baking heat and blinding glare of the Hot Weather day. +The worse moments were the stops every ten miles to change ponies, when +he had to wait in the blazing sunshine. His "boy," who sat on the front +seat of the vehicle beside the driver, produced from a basket packed +with wet straw cooled bottles of soda-water, without which Wargrave felt +that he would have died of sunstroke. +</p> +<p> +Then on after each halt; and the endless strip of white road again +unrolled before him, while the never-ceasing clank of the iron-shod bar +coupling the ponies maddened his aching head with its monotonous rhythm. +</p> +<p> +As the weary miles slid past him his thoughts were with Violet, so +beautiful, so patient and brave in her self-denying endurance. And he +cursed himself for having added to her pain, and inwardly vowed that +some day he would atone to her for it. +</p> +<p> +At last the <i>tonga</i> rattled into the bare compound of the Basedi +dâk-bungalow standing on a high stone plinth. The untidy +<i>khansamah</i>—the custodian of the rest-home—hurried on to the verandah +to greet the unexpected visitor and show his "boy" where to put the +sahib's bedding and baggage in a bleak room with a cane-bottomed wooden +bed hung with torn mosquito-curtains. +</p> +<p> +From a glass case in the sitting-room containing a scanty store of +canned provisions the <i>khansamah</i> provided a meal with such ill-assorted +ingredients as Somebody's desiccated soup lukewarm, a tin of sardines +and sweet biscuits to eat with them, and a bottle of beer to wash it +down with. Wargrave was too choked with dust, too sickened with the heat +and glare, to have any appetite. After a smoke he dragged his weary body +to bed and in spite of the mosquitoes that flocked joyously through the +holes in the gauze curtains to feast on him slept the profound sleep of +utter exhaustion. +</p> +<p> +He was up at daybreak; for the tide served in the early morning and only +at its height could the launch approach the shore, which at low water +was bordered with the filthy slime of mangrove swamps. +</p> +<p> +Landed at the other side of the gulf he had even a worse experience of +travel before him than on the previous day. For the next stage of the +journey was forty miles across a salt desert in a tram drawn by a camel. +The car was open on all sides and covered by a cardboard roof; and its +wooden seats were uncomfortably hard for long hours of sitting. The heat +was appalling. It struck up from the baked ground and seemed to scorch +the body through the clothes. The glare from the white sand and even +whiter patches of salt was blinding and penetrated through the closed +eyelids. A hot wind blew over the hazy, shimmering desert, setting the +whirling dust-devils dancing and striking the face like the touch of a +heated iron. Wargrave's small store of ice and mineral water was +exhausted, and he felt that he was likely to die of thirst. For in the +villages where they changed camels cholera was raging; and he dared not +drink the water from their wells. +</p> +<p> +The tram slid easily along the shining rails that stretched away out of +sight over the monotonous plain, the camel loping lazily along, its +soft, sprawling feet falling noiselessly on the sand. The last ten miles +of the way lay through less sterile country; and the tram passed herds +of black buck—the pretty, spiral-horned antelope. Used to its daily +passage, the graceful animals, which were protected by the game-laws of +the native State through which the line ran, barely troubled to move out +of its way. They stood about in hundreds, staring lazily at it, some not +ten yards off, the bucks turning their heads away to scratch their sides +with the points of their horns or rubbing their noses with dainty hoofs. +</p> +<p> +That night Wargrave slept at a dâk-bungalow near the terminus in a +little native town with a small branch-railway connecting it with a main +line. Then for four days he travelled across the scorching plains of +India, shut up in stuffy carriages with violet-hued glass windows and +Venetian wooden shutters meant to exclude the heat and glare. Over bare +plains broken by sudden flat-topped rocky hills, through +closely-cultivated fields and stretches of scrub-jungle, by mud-walled +villages, he journeyed day and night. The train crossed countless wide +river-beds in which the streams had shrunk to mean rivulets; but when it +clattered over the Ganges at Allahabad the sacred flood rolled a broad +and sluggish current under the bridge on its way to the far-distant Bay +of Bengal. +</p> +<p> +On the fourth night Wargrave slept on a bench in the waiting-room of a +small junction, Niralda, from which a narrow-gauge railway branched off +to the north from the main line through Eastern Bengal. At an early hour +next morning he took his seat in the one first-class carriage of the toy +train, which journeyed through typical Bengal scenery by mud-banked +rice-fields, groves of tall, feathery bamboos and hamlets of pretty +palm-thatched huts, their roofs hidden by the broad green leaves of +sprawling creepers. Soon across the sky to the north a dark, blurred +line rose, stretching out of sight east and west. It grew clearer as the +train sped on, more distinct. It was the great northern rampart of +India, the Himalayas. Then, seeming to float in air high above the +highest of the dark mountain peaks and utterly detached from them, the +white crests of the Eternal Snows shone fairy-like against the blue sky. +</p> +<p> +As Wargrave gazed enraptured, suddenly hills and plain were shut out +from his sight as the train plunged from the dazzling sunlight into the +deep shadows of a tropical forest. And the subaltern recognised with a +thrill of delight that he was entering the wonderful Terai Jungle, the +marvelous belt of woodland that stretches for hundreds of miles along +the foot of the Himalayas through Assam and Bengal to the far Siwalik +range, clothing their lower slopes or scaling their steep sides into +Nepal and Bhutan. Deep in its recesses the rhinoceros, bison and buffalo +hide, herds of wild elephants roam, tigers prey on the countless deer, +and the great mountain bears descend to prowl in it for food. Frank had +learned on the way that Ranga Duar was practically situated in it; and +the knowledge almost consoled him for his exile in the promise of sport +that kings might envy. +</p> +<p> +At a small wayside station in a clearing in the forest his railway +journey ended. Beside the one small stone building two elephants were +standing, incessantly swinging their trunks, flapping their ears and +shifting their weight restlessly from leg to leg. Frank, on getting out +of his carriage, learned with pleasure from their salaaming <i>mahouts</i> +(drivers) that these animals were to be his next means of transport, a +novel one that harmonised with the surroundings. On the back of each +great beast was a massive, straw-filled pad secured by a rope passing +surcingle-wise around its body. +</p> +<p> +Each <i>mahout</i> carried a gun, one a heavy rifle, the other a +double-barrelled fowling-piece, which they offered to Wargrave. +</p> +<p> +"<i>Huzoor</i>!" (the Presence—a polite mode of address in Hindustani), said +one man, "the <i>Burra</i> Sahib (the Political Sahib) sends salaams and +lends you these, as you might see something to shoot on the way." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, the Political Officer. Very kind of him, I'm sure," remarked the +subaltern. "What is his name?" +</p> +<p> +"Durro-Mut Sahib." +</p> +<p> +"What a curious name!" thought Frank. For in the vernacular "<i>durro +mut</i>!" means, "Do not be afraid!" He concluded that it was a nickname. +</p> +<p> +"Why is he called that?" he asked in Hindustani. +</p> +<p> +"Because the Sahib is a very brave sahib," replied the man. "Where he is +there no one need fear." +</p> +<p> +The other <i>mahout</i> nodded assent, then said: +</p> +<p> +"The Commanding Sahib has sent Your Honour from the Mess a basket with +food and drink. I have put it on the table in the <i>babu's</i> (clerk's) +office in the station." +</p> +<p> +Frank blessed his new C.O. for his thoughtfulness and made a welcome +meal while he watched his baggage being loaded on to one of the +elephants. +</p> +<p> +"<i>Buth</i>!" (Lie down) cried the <i>mahout</i>; and the obedient animal slowly +sank to its knees and stretched out its legs before and behind. Frank's +"boy" mounted timorously when the luggage had been strapped on to the +pad. When the subaltern was ready the second elephant was ordered to +kneel down for him; and he clambered up awkwardly and clung on tightly +when the <i>mahout</i>, getting astride of the great neck, made it rise. +</p> +<p> +Along a broad road cut through the forest the huge beasts lumbered with +a plunging, swaying stride that was very tiring to a novice. Holding +both guns Frank glanced continually ahead, aside and behind him with a +delicious feeling of excited hope that at any moment some dangerous wild +beast might appear. On either hand the dense undergrowth of great, +flower-covered bushes and curving fan-shaped palms, restricted the view +to a few yards. From its dense tangle rose the giant trunks of huge +trees, their leafy crowns striving to push through the thick canopy of +vegetation overhead into the life-giving air and sunshine. +</p> +<p> +But no wild animal appeared to cheer Wargrave on the long way; and as +hour after hour went by his whole body ached with the strain of sitting +upright without a support to his back and being jolted violently at +every step of the elephant. At last they reached a clearing in the +forest where stood the <i>mahout's</i> huts and a tall, wooden building, the +<i>peelkhana</i>, or elephant stables. It lay at the foot of the mountains; +and from here the road wound upwards among the lower hills, under steep +cliffs, by the brink of precipices and beside deep ravines down which +brawling streams tumbled. +</p> +<p> +As the party mounted higher and ever higher the big trees fell away +behind them until Frank could look down on a sea of foliage stretching +away out of sight east and west but bounded on the south by the Plains +of India seen vaguely through the shimmering heat-haze. Up, up they +climbed, until far above him he caught glimpses of buildings dotted +about among jungle-clad knolls and spurs jutting out from the dark face +of the mountains. And at last as evening shadows began to lengthen they +reached a lovely recess in the hills, a deep horse-shoe; and in it an +artificially-levelled parade-ground, a rifle-range running up a gully, a +few bungalows dotted about among the trees and lines of single-storied +barracks enclosed by a loopholed stone wall told Wargrave that he had +come to his journey's end. This was his place of exile—this was Ranga +Duar. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0006" id="h2HCH0006"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER VI +</h2> +<h3> + A BORDER OUTPOST +</h3> +<p> +"What a beautiful spot!" thought Frank as he gazed entranced at the +scenery. "I've never seen anything like it. It looks like Heaven after +the ugliness of Rohar. And how delightfully cool it is, too, up in the +mountains! Well, with this climate and good shooting in the forest below +life won't be as dreadful as I thought. I wish poor Violet were here out +of the heat and glare. How she'd love all this beauty, these trees, +these gardens, the glorious mountains!" +</p> +<p> +He sighed as he thought of the woman who was so far away. +</p> +<p> +"<i>Huzoor</i>, that is the Mess" broke in the voice of his <i>mahout</i>, as he +pointed to a long, red-tiled building half-hidden among the trees a few +hundred feet above them. To reach it they had to pass a large, +well-built stone bungalow, two-storied, unlike all the others and +standing in a lovely garden glowing with the vivid hues of the flowers, +the flaming red of huge bushes of bougainvillea and poinsettia. Frank, +glancing towards it, was about to ask the <i>mahout</i> who lived in it when +he started in horror and cried to the man: +</p> +<p> +"Stop! Stop your animal! Look there!" +</p> +<p> +And he snatched at his rifle. For on the farther side of the house a +huge tusker elephant in the garden stood over a little European boy +about four years old, who was sprawling almost under the huge feet. And +high above its head the brute held in its curved trunk a younger child, +a girl with long golden curls, as if about to dash it to the ground. +</p> +<p> +As Frank grasped the rifle the <i>mahout</i>, who had turned at his cry, +seized the barrel and said with a smile: +</p> +<p> +"<i>Durro mut</i>, Sahib! Do not fear, sir. Those are Durro Mut Sahib's +babies and the elephant is their playmate." +</p> +<p> +And as he spoke Wargrave saw the elder child spring up from the ground +and beat the great animal's legs with his tiny hands, crying: +</p> +<p> +"<i>Mujh-ko bhi</i>, Badshah! <i>Mujh-ko bhi! Uth! Uth!</i> (Me too, Badshah! Me +too! Take me up!)" +</p> +<p> +And the baby held aloft was crowing in glee and kicking its fat little +legs frantically. The elephant lowered it tenderly to the ground and +picked up the boy in its stead and lifted him into the air, while he +laughed and clapped his hands. The two <i>mahouts</i> raised their palms +respectfully to their foreheads and cried to their animals: +</p> +<p> +"<i>Salaam kuro</i>! (Salute!)" +</p> +<p> +And the two trunks were lifted together in the <i>Salaamut</i>, the royal +salute given to Kings and Viceroys. +</p> +<p> +Frank's <i>mahout</i> explained. +</p> +<p> +"<i>Gharib Parwar</i> (Protector of the Poor), the pagan ignorant Hindus +around here say that the elephant is a god. Aye, and that his master, +Durro Mut Sahib, is one too. <i>That's</i> like enough. Well, Allah alone +knows the truth of everything. But those two are more than mere man and +animal, that is certain. <i>Mul, Moti</i>! (Go on, Pearl!)" +</p> +<p> +And he kicked his elephant under the ears with his bare feet to quicken +her pace. But Frank bade him stop. Despite the man's optimism he could +not believe it wise to allow tiny tots like that to play with such a +huge, clumsy animal. He was sure that their mother would be horrified if +she knew it. He loved children, and felt that it was madness to allow +these babies to continue their dangerous pastime. +</p> +<p> +"Have they a mother?" he asked the <i>mahout</i>. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, <i>Huzoor</i>. The <i>mem-Sahib</i> (lady) is doubtless within the house." +</p> +<p> +"I want to dismount," said Frank; and he grasped the surcingle rope as +the elephant sank jerkily to its knees. Then sliding down from the pad +he entered the gate and passed up through the garden towards the +bungalow. As he did so a dainty little figure in white, a charmingly +pretty girl with golden hair and blue eyes, came out on the verandah. +Seeing him she walked down the steps to meet him and held out her hand, +saying in a pleasant, musical voice: +</p> +<p> +"You are Mr. Wargrave, of course? Welcome to Ranga Duar." +</p> +<p> +Frank, uncomfortably conscious of his dishevelled appearance and +travel-stained attire, almost blushed as he took off his hat and +quickened his steps to meet her, wondering who this delightful young +girl—she looked about nineteen—could be. Possibly an elder sister of +the children outside. But as they shook hands she said: +</p> +<p> +"I am the wife of the Political Officer here. My husband, Colonel +Dermot, has just gone up to the Mess to see your C.O., Major Hunt." +</p> +<p> +Frank was astonished. This pretty young girl, scarcely more than a child +herself, the mother of the two chubby babies! Touched by her kind manner +he shook her hand warmly and said: +</p> +<p> +"Thank you very much for your welcome, Mrs. Dermot. It's awfully good of +you, and I—I assure you I appreciate it a lot just now. I was coming to +tell you—I wonder do you know that your babies—I suppose they <i>are</i> +yours—are playing what seems to me rather a dangerous game with an +elephant at the side of the house." +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Dermot smiled; and the dimples that came with the smile carried his +mind back for an instant to Violet. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, they are my chicks," she said. "I left them in Badshah's charge." +</p> +<p> +Frank was not altogether reassured. The young mother evidently did not +know what was happening. +</p> +<p> +"But—pardon me—is it quite safe? I was a bit scared when I saw them. +The animal was tossing them up in the air." +</p> +<p> +"You needn't be alarmed, Mr. Wargrave—though it's very good of you to +be concerned and come to tell me," she replied. "But Badshah—that's the +elephant's name—is a most careful nurse and I know that my babies are +quite safe when they are in his care. He has looked after them since +they were able to crawl. Come and be introduced to him. I must tell you +that he is a very exceptional animal. Indeed, we almost forget that he +is an animal. He has saved our lives, my husband's and mine, on more +than one occasion. Next to the children and me I think that Kevin loves +him better than anyone or anything else in the world. And after my +chicks and Kevin and my brother I believe I do, too. As for the babies, +I'm not sure that he doesn't come first with them." +</p> +<p> +She led the way round the house, and in spite of her assurances Wargrave +felt a little nervous when they came in sight of the strange nurse and +its charges. The tiny girl was seated on the ground tightly clasping one +huge foreleg; while the boy was beating the other with his little fists, +crying: +</p> +<p> +"<i>Mujk-ko uth! Pir! Pir!</i> (Lift me up! Again! Again!)" +</p> +<p> +When he saw his mother he ran to her and said: +</p> +<p> +"Mummie, bad, naughty Badshah won't lift me up." +</p> +<p> +He suddenly caught sight of the stranger and paused shyly. +</p> +<p> +"Brian darling, this is a new friend," said his mother, bending down to +him. "Won't you shake hands with him?" +</p> +<p> +The child conquered his shyness with an effort and walked over to Frank, +holding out his little hand. +</p> +<p> +"How do you do?" he said politely. +</p> +<p> +The subaltern gravely shook the proffered hand. The little girl +scrambled to her fat little legs and finger in mouth, surveyed him +solemnly. Then satisfied with her inspection she toddled forward to him +and said: +</p> +<p> +"Tiss me." +</p> +<p> +Frank laughed joyously. +</p> +<p> +"With all my heart, you darling," he cried. +</p> +<p> +This delightful welcome in the dreaded place of exile was inexpressibly +cheering. He swung the dainty mite up in his arms and kissed her. She +put her arms around his neck and hugged him. +</p> +<p> +"Me like 'oo," she said. +</p> +<p> +"You little flirt, Eileen," exclaimed her mother laughing. "Now it's +Badshah's turn." +</p> +<p> +She walked to the elephant, a splendid specimen of its race, though it +had only one tusk, the right. She held out her hand to it. The long +trunk shot out, brushed her fingers and then her cheek with a light +touch that was almost a caress. She stroked the trunk affectionately. +</p> +<p> +"Now, Badshah, this is a new Sahib." +</p> +<p> +Frank, with the baby girl seated on his shoulder, stepped forward and +extended his hand. The animal smelt it and then laid its trunk for a +moment on his free shoulder. +</p> +<p> +"Badshah accepts you, Mr. Wargrave," said Mrs. Dermot seriously. "And +there are few whom he takes to readily." +</p> +<p> +Eileen, with one arm around Frank's neck, stretched out the other to the +elephant. +</p> +<p> +"Me love Badshah," she said. +</p> +<p> +The snake-like trunk lingered caressingly on her golden head. The baby +caught and kissed it. +</p> +<p> +"Now then, chickies, time for bed," said their mother. "Say goodnight to +Badshah." +</p> +<p> +The little boy ran to the great animal and hugged its leg tightly, while +the snaky trunk touched the child's face affectionately. +</p> +<p> +"Come along, Brian. Let him go now"; and at his mother's bidding the boy +released his clasp and ran to her. +</p> +<p> +"Goodnight, Badshah. <i>Salaam</i>!" said Mrs. Dermot, waving her hand to the +mammoth, while her little daughter on Wargrave's shoulder imitated her. +</p> +<p> +The big animal raised its trunk in salute and, turning, walked with +swaying stride out of sight behind the bungalow. +</p> +<p> +"By Jove, what a splendid beast!" exclaimed Frank. "And how wonderfully +well trained he is. I'm not surprised now that you let the kiddies play +with him." +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Dermot smiled. +</p> +<p> +"You would be even less so if you knew his story," she said. "He is my +husband's private property now. The Government of India presented him to +Kevin. Now come back to the house and have tea. Oh, no, after your long +ride you'll prefer a whiskey and soda." +</p> +<p> +"I'd really rather have the tea, I think, Mrs. Dermot. I don't feel +thirsty up in this deliciously cool air. It's awful down in the Plains +now. But what about my elephants and baggage?" +</p> +<p> +"Tell the <i>mahouts</i> to go to the Mess. You are to have a room there." +</p> +<p> +Frank did so; and the two animals lumbered away up the hill after the +<i>mahouts</i> had brought the Colonel's guns into the bungalow. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Dermot led the way into the house. The little boy had possessed +himself of Wargrave's free hand, the other one being engaged in holding +Eileen, who was perched on the subaltern's shoulder. Mrs. Dermot found +it difficult to separate the children from their new friend when at +last she bore them off to bed. +</p> +<p> +Left to himself, Frank examined with deep interest and admiring envy the +splendid display of Colonel Dermot's trophies of big game shooting that +filled the bungalow. From the walls many heads of bison and buffalo, of +<i>sambhur</i> and <i>barasingh</i>, those fine Indian stags, looked mildly at him +with their glass eyes; while tigers, bears and panthers snarled at him +from the ground. Long elephant-tusks leaned in corners, smoking and +liqueur-tables made up from the mammoths' legs and feet stood about, and +crossed from ceiling to floor; on the walls were the skins of enormous +snakes such as Frank had never seen or imagined. He had thought a +six-foot cobra or an eight-foot python long—here were reptiles sixteen +or eighteen feet in length, and he hoped that he would never meet their +equals alive in the jungle. +</p> +<p> +While he was gazing with admiration at the fine collection of trophies +Mrs. Dermot returned. +</p> +<p> +"What a magnificent lot of heads and skins you've got here!" he +exclaimed. "All your husband's, I suppose?" +</p> +<p> +She laughed as she glanced round the room, while pouring out the tea +that her butler had brought. +</p> +<p> +"I'm afraid they make the house rather like a museum of natural +history," she answered. "Yes, they are all Kevin's, or nearly all. +There are a few of mine among them." +</p> +<p> +He looked at her in open admiration. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, you shoot? How splendid!" he said. "Have you ever got a tiger?" +</p> +<p> +"A couple," she replied, smiling. +</p> +<p> +"I envy you awfully," he said. "I've never even seen one—out of a +cage." +</p> +<p> +"Well, if you are keen on shooting, Mr. Wargrave, you ought to have +little difficulty in bagging a tiger or two before long," she said. +</p> +<p> +"I'd love to have the chance of going after big game. I'm hoping for it +here. Shall I? I've never had any, although I've shot a panther or two +and a few black buck and <i>chinkara</i>." +</p> +<p> +"You will have every opportunity of good sport here. Neither of the +other two Europeans, your Commanding Officer and the doctor of your +detachment, go in for it, the latter because his sight is very bad, +Major Hunt because he doesn't care for it. I'm sure my husband will be +glad to take you out with him; and nobody in the whole Terai knows more +about big game than he." +</p> +<p> +"By Jove; how ripping," exclaimed Frank eagerly. "Would he?" +</p> +<p> +"I'm sure he would. He'll be only too delighted to have someone for +company. I used to go with him always, until my babies came. Now Kevin +has no one but Badshah." +</p> +<p> +"Badshah? Oh, yes, that ripping elephant. I don't know much about those +animals, but isn't it unusual for him to have only a single tusk?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes; Badshah is what the natives call a 'Gunesh.' You know that Gunesh +is the Hindu God of Wisdom and is represented as having an elephant's +head with only the right tusk? Consequently any of these animals born +with a single tusk, and that the right, is considered sacred and looked +upon as a god." +</p> +<p> +"One of the <i>mahouts</i> said that the Hindus here regard your husband as +one, too," said Frank, "and he seemed inclined to believe it himself. I +like the name they've given Colonel Dermot—Durro Mut Sahib, Fear Not +Sahib." +</p> +<p> +A look of pride came in the young wife's eyes as she repeated the name +softly to herself. +</p> +<p> +"Fear Not Sahib. Yes, it suits him." Then aloud she continued: +</p> +<p> +"I think you'll like my husband, Mr. Wargrave. All men do. He's a man's +man. The hill and jungle people worship him. He understands them. Ah! +here he is, I think." +</p> +<p> +Her face brightened, and Frank saw the light of love shine in her eyes +as she turned expectantly to the door. He sprang up as a tall man with +handsome, clear-cut features, dark complexion and eyes, and +close-cropped black hair touched at the temples with grey, entered the +room. With a pleasant smile the newcomer walked towards the subaltern +with outstretched hand, saying in a friendly voice: +</p> +<p> +"Glad to welcome you to Ranga Duar, Wargrave." +</p> +<p> +"Thank you very much, sir," replied Frank gripping his hand and greatly +taken at once by the Political Officer's appearance and friendly manner. +"It was very kind of you to send those guns for me. But I had no luck. +We saw nothing on the way." +</p> +<p> +After greeting him Colonel Dermot bent over his wife and kissed her +fondly. It was obvious to the subaltern that after their five years of +married life they were lovers still. Frank looked at them a little +enviously. He wondered would it be so with Violet and him after the same +lapse of time; for the sight of their happiness sent his thoughts flying +to the woman who loved him. +</p> +<p> +"Are you keen on shooting, Wargrave?" said the Colonel. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, yes, he is, Kevin," broke in his wife. "I told him that I was sure +you'd be glad to take him with you into the jungle sometimes." +</p> +<p> +"I'll be happy to do so, if you care to come with me, Wargrave," said +the Colonel. +</p> +<p> +"I'd love to, sir. It would be awfully good of you," replied the +subaltern eagerly. "But I've only a Mannlicher rifle." +</p> +<p> +"Ah, you'll need a bigger bore than that. But I can lend you a .470 high +velocity cordite weapon. You want something with great hitting power +for dangerous game," said Dermot. +</p> +<p> +He went on to speak of the jungle and its denizens; and his conversation +was so interesting that Wargrave forgot the flight of time until his +hostess reminded him that he had to report his arrival to his commanding +officer and find his new quarters. Her husband volunteered to show him +the way to the Mess and introduce him to Major Hunt. +</p> +<p> +As Wargrave shook hands with Mrs. Dermot, she said: +</p> +<p> +"I wanted to ask you to dinner this evening; but Kevin thought you might +prefer to spend your first night with your brother officers. But we +shall expect you to-morrow, when they are coming, too." +</p> +<p> +On their way up the steep road from his bungalow the Political Officer +spoke of the great forest below them and the sport to be found in it. +Then he said: +</p> +<p> +"It's lucky you like shooting, Wargrave, for Ranga Duar is very isolated +and life in it dull to a person who has no resources. Still, it has its +advantages, and chief among them is the climate. It's delightful in the +cold weather and pleasant in the hot." +</p> +<p> +"By Jove, it is indeed, sir! It's like Heaven after the heat in the +Plains below. I don't know how I lived through it coming across India." +</p> +<p> +"The rainy season is the hardest to bear. We have five months of it and +over three hundred inches of rain during them. One never sees a strange +face then—not that we ever do have many visitors here at any time. +Still, you'll like your C.O., and Burke the doctor is a capital fellow. +Here we are." +</p> +<p> +He turned in through a narrow gate leading to a pretty though neglected +garden in which stood the Mess, a long, single-storied building raised +on piles. On the broad wooden verandah to which a flight of steps led +from the ground two men were reclining in long chairs reading old +newspapers. On seeing Dermot and his companion they rose, and the +Colonel introduced Frank. They shook hands with him and gave him a +hearty welcome, which, coming on the top of the Dermot's, cheered the +subaltern exceedingly and for the time made him forget the circumstances +of his coming. +</p> +<p> +"It's mighty glad I am to see you here, Wargrave," said Burke, the +doctor, in a mellow brogue, "aven av it's only to have someone living in +the Mess wid me. The Major there lives in solitary state in his little +bungalow; and I'm all alone here at night wid <i>shaitans</i> (devils) and +wild beasts walking on the verandah." +</p> +<p> +"What? Has that panther been prowling round the Mess again?" asked the +Political Officer. +</p> +<p> +"Faith! and he has that. Sure, I heard him sniffing at me door last +night. I wish to the Powers ye'd shoot him, sir." +</p> +<p> +"I can't get him. I've tried often enough." +</p> +<p> +"Troth! and it's waking up one fine morning I'll be to find he's made a +meal av me. Keep your door shut at night, Wargrave. Merrick, who lived +in the room you'll have, forgot to do it once and the divil nearly had +him." +</p> +<p> +"Is that really a fact?" asked Frank, delighted at the thought of having +come to a place with such possibilities of sport. +</p> +<p> +"Yes; we're plagued by a brute of a panther that prowls about the +station at night, jumps the wall of the Fort and carries off the sepoys' +dogs, and has actually entered rooms here in the Mess. He has killed +several Bhuttia children on the hills around here. Nobody can ever get a +shot at him. He's too cunning. Will you have a drink, Colonel?" said +Hunt. +</p> +<p> +The Political Officer thanked him but declined, and, reminding them all +of his wife's invitation for the morrow, bade them goodnight. +</p> +<p> +"That's one av the finest men in India," exclaimed Burke, as they +watched Dermot's figure receding down the road. The doctor had a +pleasant, ugly face and wore spectacles. +</p> +<p> +"He is, indeed. He keeps the whole Bhutan border in order," said the +commandant, Major Hunt, a slight, grey-haired man with a quiet and +reserved manner. "The Bhuttias are more afraid of a cross look from him +than of all our rifles and machine-guns. Have a drink, Wargrave? Yes? +And you, Burke? Hi, boy!" +</p> +<p> +A Gurkha servant with the ugly, cheery face of his race appeared and was +ordered to bring three whiskeys and sodas. +</p> +<p> +"Ranga's not a bad place if you can stand the loneliness," continued the +Major. "Are you fond of shooting." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, sir, awfully." +</p> +<p> +"Hooray! That's good," cried Burke. "Now we'll have someone to go down +to the jungle and shoot for the Mess. We want a change from tinned Army +rations and the tough ould hins that these benighted haythins call +chickens." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, you'll be a Godsend to us if you're a good shot, Wargrave," added +the Commandant. "We never get meat here unless someone shoots a stag or +a buck in the jungle; and for that we generally have to rely on Dermot. +But he is away such a lot, wandering along the frontier, keeping an eye +on the peace of the Border. Now we'll be able to look to you. We have +three transport elephants with the detachment, all steady to shoot +from." +</p> +<p> +Frank was delighted. +</p> +<p> +"I'd love to go into the jungle if you'd let me, sir." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I'll be glad if you do. There's not much work for you here; and +this is a dull place for a youngster unless he's keen on sport. I'm not, +myself; and Burke's as blind as a bat. But you can always have an +elephant when they aren't wanted to bring up supplies from the railway." +</p> +<p> +The subaltern thanked him gratefully and inwardly decided that his new +commanding officer was a great improvement on Colonel Trevor. +</p> +<p> +"Now, Burke, I'm off to my bungalow. Show Wargrave his quarters," said +the Major rising. "See you at dinner." +</p> +<p> +Burke showed the subaltern his room, one of the four into which the Mess +was divided. Like the doctor's quarters, it was at one end of the +building, the centre apartment being the officers' anteroom and +dining-room. Frank found that his "boy," with the ready deftness of +Indian servants, had unpacked his trunks, hung up his clothes and stowed +his various belongings about the scantily-furnished room. He had stood +Violet's photo on the one rickety table and laid out his Master's white +mess uniform on the small iron cot. +</p> +<p> +Major Hunt, Wargrave learned, lived in a bungalow a few hundred yards +away, but, being unmarried, took his meals in the Mess. The Indian +officers and sepoys of the detachment were quartered in barracks in the +Fort. +</p> +<p> +Frank dressed and entered the anteroom or officers' sitting-room, from +which a door led into the messroom. Both apartments were poorly +furnished, but the walls were adorned with the skulls and skins of many +beasts of the jungle, presented by Colonel Dermot, as Frank learned. +Shelves filled with books ran across one end of the anteroom. +</p> +<p> +As the interior of the Mess was rather hot at that time of year—though +to Wargrave it seemed very cool after Rohar—the dinner-table was laid +on the verandah; and while the officers sat at their meal the pleasant +mountain breeze played about them. Frank thought with gratitude of his +escape from the burning heat which at that moment was tormenting the +hundreds of millions in the furnace of the Plains of India stretching +away from the foot of the cool hills. +</p> +<p> +The meal was not luxurious, for it consisted almost exclusively of +tinned provisions, fresh meat being unprocurable in Ranga Duar—except +fowls of exceeding toughness—and vegetables and bread being rare +dainties. +</p> +<p> +During dinner Wargrave learned how completely isolated his new station +was. Their only European neighbours were the planters on tea-gardens +scattered about in the great forest below, the nearest thirty miles off. +The few visitors that Ranga Duar saw in the year were the General on his +annual inspection, an occasional official of the Indian Civil Service, +the Public Works or the Forest Department, or some planter friend of the +Dermots. +</p> +<p> +The reason of the existence of this outpost and its garrison was the +guarding of the <i>duars</i>, or passes, through the Himalayas against +raiders from Bhutan, that little-known independent State lying between +Tibet and the Bengal border. Its frontier was only two miles from, and a +few thousand feet above, Ranga Duar. +</p> +<p> +"You are just in time for our one yearly burst of gaiety, Wargrave," +said the Commandant, "the visit of the Deb Zimpun." +</p> +<p> +"What on earth is that, sir?" asked the subaltern. +</p> +<p> +"Sounds like a new disease, doesn't it?" said Burke laughing. "But it +isn't. The Deb Zimpun is a gintleman av high degree, the Heridithary Cup +Bearer to the Deb Raja." +</p> +<p> +"To the what?" demanded the bewildered Frank. +</p> +<p> +Major Hunt smiled. +</p> +<p> +"Bhutan is supposed to be ruled by a temporal monarch called the Deb +Raja and also by a spiritual one, known in India as the Durma Raja. In +reality it is under the sway of the most powerful of the several great +feudal lords of the land, the Tongsa Penlop or Chief of Tongsa, whom we +regard as the Maharajah of Bhutan. He has placed himself, as far only as +the foreign relations of the country go, under the suzerainty of the +Government of India; and in return we grant him a subsidy of a <i>lakh</i> of +rupees a year. It used to be fifty thousand, but the sum was doubled +years ago. To get the money one of the State Council comes every year. +He is an official called the Deb Zimpun." +</p> +<p> +"Faith! he's a rum old beggar, Wargrave," broke in Burke. "Looks like +the Pope av Rome in his thriple crown, for he wears a high gold-edged +cap and a flowing red robe av Chinese silk, out av which sticks a pair +av hairy bare legs." +</p> +<p> +"The Political Officer receives him in <i>durbar</i>; and we furnish a Guard +of Honour. The Colonel gives a dinner to him and us, and we have another +spread in the Mess. That reminds me. I suppose Dermot will be going into +the jungle soon to shoot for the pot, as the <i>durbar</i> is next week. +You'd better get him to take you. You can have one of our elephants and +provide for our larder." +</p> +<p> +"Thanks very much, Major," said the delighted subaltern. "The Colonel +promised to let me accompany him and lend me a rifle." +</p> +<p> +When he went to his room that night the subaltern turned up the oil lamp +that lighted it and before he undressed sat down before Violet's +photograph. As he looked at it he thought affectionately and a little +sadly of the lonely woman so far away from him now. He pitied her for +the isolation in which she lived, an isolation far completer than his +own, for she had few friends, no intimates, and a husband worse than a +stranger in his lack of understanding of her. Surely it would be only +right to take her from such a man, right to give her a fresh chance of +finding the happiness that she had missed; for the warm-hearted, +intelligent and artistic-natured woman would be far happier with him in +this beautiful spot, remote from the world though it was. And his new +comrades would appeal to her, Dermot, strong, capable, one who would +always stand out from his fellows; Hunt grave, kindly, well-read; Burke +witty, clever and good-hearted. And, little though Violet cared for her +own sex, as a rule, surely in Mrs. Dermot she would find a friend. This +happy wife, this loving mother, was so sweet and sympathetic that she +would win the older woman's liking, while the two delightful children +would take her heart by storm. Poor, lonely Violet, so beautiful, so +ill-fated! Frank sighed as he took up her portrait and kissed it. +</p> +<p> +When he extinguished the lamp and lay down in bed it was pleasant, after +the heat in Rohar, to find it so cool that he was obliged to pull a +blanket over him. Only those who have endured the torment of hot nights +in the tropics can appreciate his thankfulness as in the silence broken +only by the monotonous cry of the nightjars he drowsed contentedly to +sleep. Already he was reconciled to Ranga Duar. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0007" id="h2HCH0007"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER VII +</h2> +<h3> + IN THE TERAI JUNGLE +</h3> +<p> +In the pleasant light of the morning the little outpost looked as +charming to Wargrave as it had done on the previous evening. Above Ranga +Duar the mountains towered to the pale blue sky, while below it the +foot-hills fell in steps to the broad sea of foliage of the great forest +stretching away to the distant plains seen vaguely through the haze. The +horse-shoe hollow in which the tiny station was set was bowered in +vegetation. The gardens glowed with the varied hues of flowers, and were +bounded by hedges of wild roses. The road and paths were bordered by the +tall, graceful plumes of the bamboo and shaded by giant mango and banyan +trees, their boughs clothed with orchids. +</p> +<p> +Frank had noticed the previous day that the Fort, barracks and bungalows +were all newly built, and he learned that during the great war which had +raged along the frontiers of India five years before, the post had been +fiercely attacked by an army of Chinese and Bhutanese and the little +station practically wiped out of existence, although victory had finally +rested with the few survivors of the garrison. +</p> +<p> +From the first the subaltern took a great liking to the tall Punjaubi +Mahommedan and hook-nosed, fair-skinned Pathan native officers and +sepoys of the detachment. The work was light and scarcely required two +British officers; and Frank soon found that Major Hunt, who seemed +driven by a demon of quiet energy, preferred to do most of it himself. +Frank got the impression that to the elder man occupation was an anodyne +for some secret sorrow. Although the subaltern had no wish to shirk his +duty he could not but be glad that his superior officer seemed always +ready to dispense with his aid, for thus he would find it easier to get +permission to go shooting. +</p> +<p> +His first excursion into the jungle was arranged at dinner at the +Dermots' house on his second evening in Ranga Duar. The Colonel proposed +to take him out on the following Monday, for on the next day the <i>Deb +Zimpun</i> would arrive. +</p> +<p> +"He always brings a big train of Bhuttias with him, eighty swordsmen as +an escort to the small army of coolies necessary to carry a hundred +thousand silver rupees in boxes over the Himalayan passes. I like to +give them the flesh of a few <i>sambhur</i> stags as a treat," said the +Colonel. +</p> +<p> +"Hiven hilp ye av ye bring any <i>sambhur</i> flesh to the Mess, Wargrave," +said Burke. "We want something we can get our teeth into. No, we expect +a <i>khakur</i> from you." +</p> +<p> +"What's a <i>khakur</i>?" asked Frank. +</p> +<p> +"It's the <i>muntjac</i> or barking deer," replied Dermot. "You wouldn't know +it if you haven't shot in forests. It gets its English name from its +call, which is not unlike a dog's bark." +</p> +<p> +"Whin ye hear one saying '<i>Wonk! Wonk!</i>' in the jungle, Wargrave, get up +the nearest tree; for the <i>khakur</i> is warning all whom it may concern +that there's a tiger in the immajit vicinity." +</p> +<p> +Frank had already learned to distrust most of Burke's statements on +sport, for the doctor was an inveterate joker. So he looked to the +Political Officer for confirmation. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, it's supposed to be the case," agreed the Colonel. "And I've more +than once heard a tiger loudly express his annoyance when a <i>khakur</i> +barked as he was trying to sneak by unnoticed. There's a barking-deer." +He pointed to the well-mounted head of a small deer on the wall of the +dining-room. +</p> +<p> +"Whom do you expect up for the Durbar, Mrs. Dermot?" asked Major Hunt. +</p> +<p> +"Only Mr. Carter, the Sub-divisional Officer, and probably Mr. Benson." +</p> +<p> +"Eh—is—isn't Miss Benson coming too?" asked the doctor in a hesitating +manner so unlike his usual cheery and assured self that Frank looked at +him. It seemed to him that Burke was blushing. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, yes, I hope so," replied Mrs. Dermot. +</p> +<p> +"Er—haven't you heard from her?" persisted the doctor anxiously. +</p> +<p> +"I had a letter this afternoon brought by a coolie. Muriel wrote to say +that they were in the Buxa Reserve but hoped to get here in time. I'm +looking forward to her coming immensely. It's four months since I saw +her." +</p> +<p> +Frank could not help noticing that Burke seemed to hang on Mrs. Dermot's +words; and he began to wonder if the unknown lady held the doctor's +heart. +</p> +<p> +"It's rather hard on a girl like Miss Benson to have to lead such a +lonely life and rough it constantly in the jungle as she does," remarked +Major Hunt. "At her age she must want gaiety and amusement." +</p> +<p> +"Muriel doesn't mind it," replied the hostess. "She loves jungle life. +And she thinks that her father couldn't get on without her." +</p> +<p> +"Sure, she's right there, Mrs. Dermot," cried Burke. "The dear ould +boy'ud lose his head av he hadn't her to hould it on for him. She does +most av his work. It's a sight to see that slip av a girl bossing all +the forest guards and <i>habus</i> and giving them their ordhers." +</p> +<p> +Wargrave was anxious to hear more of this girl, in whom it appeared to +him Burke was very much interested; but Colonel Dermot broke in: +</p> +<p> +"Talking of orders, have you any for the butcher's man, Noreen?" he +asked, smiling at his wife. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, dear; will you please bring me a <i>khakur</i> and some jungle fowl? +And if you can manage it a brace of <i>Kalej</i> pheasants," said the good +housewife seriously. +</p> +<p> +"Well, Wargrave, we've both got our orders and know what to bring back +from the jungle," said the Colonel, turning to Frank, who was sitting +beside him. Then the conversation between them drifted into sporting +channels until all adjourned outside for coffee on the verandah. +</p> +<p> +Next afternoon the subaltern, passing down the road, was hailed from the +Dermots' garden by an imperious small lady with golden curls and big +blue bows and ordered to play with her. Her brother and Badshah had to +join in the game, too. Frank, chasing the dainty mite round and round +the elephant, began to think himself in the Garden of Eden. +</p> +<p> +But that same evening he found that his Himalayan Paradise was not +without its serpent. The three officers of the detachment were seated at +dinner on the Mess verandah, Major Hunt with his back to the rough stone +wall of the building. A swinging oil lamp with a metal shade threw the +light downward and left the ceiling and upper part of the wall in +shadow. +</p> +<p> +When dinner was ended the Commandant, lighting a cheerot, tilted his +chair on its back legs until his head nearly touched the wall. Frank, +talking to him, chanced to look up at the roof. He stared into the +shadows for a moment, then, suddenly grasping the astonished major by +the collar, jerked him out of his chair. And as he did so a snake, a +deadly hill-viper, which had been trying to climb up the rough face of +the wall, slipped and dropped on to the Commandant's chair, slid to the +floor and glided across the verandah and down into the garden before +anyone could find a stick with which to attack it. +</p> +<p> +Major Hunt, his sallow face a little paler than usual, looked up at the +wall to see if any more reptiles were likely to follow, then sat down +again calmly. +</p> +<p> +"Thank you, Wargrave," he said quietly. "But for you that brute would +have got me. And his bite is death. Ranga's full of snakes, like all +these places in the hills. We've killed several in the Mess since I've +been here; but no one's had such a close shave as this. I'll stand you a +drink for that. Hi, boy!" +</p> +<p> +But for all this quiet manner of taking it Frank had made a staunch +friend that night by his prompt action. +</p> +<p> +As Burke took the filled glass that the Gurkha mess-servant brought him +at the Major's order he said: +</p> +<p> +"I hate snakes worse than the Divil hates holy wather. They're the only +things in life I'm afraid av. I never go to bed without looking under +the pillow nor put on my boots in the morning without first turning them +up and shaking them. I wish St. Pathrick had made a trip to India and +dhriven the sarpints out av the counthry the same as he did in +Ireland." +</p> +<p> +"We've the worst snake in the world, I believe, here in the Terai, +Wargrave," said Major Hunt. "Look out for it when you're in the jungle. +It's the hamadryad or king-cobra. Have you heard of it?" +</p> +<p> +"I saw the skin of one sixteen feet long in a Bombay museum, sir," +replied the subaltern. +</p> +<p> +"It's the only snake in Asia that will attack human beings unprovoked; +it's deadly poisonous, unlike all other big snakes, and they say it +moves so fast that it can overtake a man on a pony. Benson, the Forest +Officer of the district, tells me there are many of them in the jungles +here." +</p> +<p> +"One av the divils chased Dermot's elephant once and turned on the +Colonel when he interfered. It got its head blown off for its pains," +put in the doctor. +</p> +<p> +"Don't tell me any more, Burke," exclaimed Wargrave laughing, "or I +won't be able to sleep to-night." +</p> +<p> +He pushed back his chair as the Commandant rose from the table and, +saying goodnight to the two junior officers, picked up from the verandah +and lit a hurricane lantern and walked down the Mess steps with it on +his way home to his bungalow. Europeans in India do not care to move +about at night without a lamp lest in the darkness they might tread on a +snake. +</p> +<p> +Early on the following Monday morning Wargrave, dressed in khaki +knickerbockers, shirt and puttees, and wearing besides his pith helmet +a "spine protector"—a quilted cloth pad buttoned to the back—as a +guard against sunstroke, went down to the Dermots' bungalow. In the +garden the Colonel, also prepared for their shooting expedition, stood +talking to his wife, while their children were trying to climb up +Badshah's legs. The elephant was equipped with a light pad provided with +large pockets into which were thrust Thermos flasks, packets of +sandwiches and of cartridges. Close by two servants were holding guns. +</p> +<p> +"Good morning, Wargrave," said the Colonel, as the subaltern greeted him +and his wife. "You're in good time." +</p> +<p> +Eileen, deserting Badshah, ran to Frank and demanded to be lifted up and +kissed. When he had obeyed the small tyrant, he said: +</p> +<p> +"I haven't brought a rifle, sir." +</p> +<p> +"That's right. I have one and a ball-and-shot gun for you. We'll walk +down to the <i>peelkhana</i> by a short cut through the hills to look for +<i>kalej</i> pheasant on the way. Take the gun with you and load one barrel +with shot; but put a bullet in the other, for you never know what we may +meet. Badshah will go down by the road, as well as one of the servants +to bring the rifles and tell the <i>mahouts</i> to get a detachment elephant +ready. It will follow us in the jungle to carry any animals we kill, +while we'll ride Badshah." +</p> +<p> +Kissing his wife and children the Colonel led the way down the road, +followed by Frank and the servant, Badshah walking unattended behind +them. +</p> +<p> +"Good sport, Mr. Wargrave!" called out Mrs. Dermot, as the subaltern +turned at the gate to take off his hat in a farewell salute; and the +little coquette beside her kissed her tiny hand to him. +</p> +<p> +After they had gone half a mile the two officers, carrying their +fowling-pieces, turned off along a footpath through the undergrowth, +leaving the servant and the elephant to continue down the road. The +track led steeply down the mountain-side, at first between high, +closely-matted bushes, and then through scrub-jungle dotted with small +trees, among the foliage of which gleamed the yellow fruit of the limes +and the plantain's glossy drooping leaves and long curving stalks from +which the nimble fingers of wild monkeys had plucked the ripe bananas. +Here and there the ground was open; and the path following a natural +depression in the hills gave down the gradually widening valley a view +of the panorama of forest and plain lying below. +</p> +<p> +As they passed a clump of tangled bushes a rustle and a pattering over +the dry leaves under them caught the Colonel's ear. +</p> +<p> +"Look out! <i>Kalej</i>," he whispered, picking up a stone and throwing it +into the cover. A large speckled black and white bird whirred out; and +Wargrave brought it down. +</p> +<p> +"Good shot! There's another," called out Dermot, and fired with equal +success. "We're lucky," he continued. "As a rule they won't break, but +scuttle along under the bushes, so that one often has to shoot them +running." +</p> +<p> +Frank picked up the birds and examined them with interest before the +Colonel stuffed them into his game bag and moved on down the path, which +was growing steeper. The trees became more numerous and larger as they +descended nearer the forest. Out of another clump of bushes the +sportsmen succeeded in getting a second brace of pheasants. Lower down +they passed through a belt of bamboos, where in one spot the long +feathery boughs were broken off or twisted in wild confusion for a space +of fifty yards' radius. +</p> +<p> +"Wild elephants," said the Political Officer briefly and pointed to a +patch of dust in which was the round imprint of a huge foot. +</p> +<p> +Frank was a little startled; for he felt that against these great +animals the bullets in their guns would be useless. +</p> +<p> +"Are they dangerous, sir?" he asked. +</p> +<p> +"Not as a rule when they are in a herd, although cow-elephants with +calves may be so, fearing peril for their young. But sometimes a bull +takes to a solitary life, becomes vicious and develops into a dangerous +rogue. It probably happens that, finding crops growing near a jungle +village and raiding them, he is driven off by the cultivators, turns +savage and kills some of them. Then he usually seems to take a hatred to +all human beings and attacks them on sight. Hallo! here we are at the +<i>peelkhana</i> at last." +</p> +<p> +They had reached the high wooden building which housed the three +transport elephants of the detachment. In the clearing before it Badshah +and another animal were standing, a group of <i>mahouts</i> and coolies near +them. +</p> +<p> +"We'll mount and start at once," said Colonel Dermot, beckoning to his +elephant, which came to him. "Get up, Wargrave." +</p> +<p> +The subaltern looked up doubtfully at the pad on Badshah's back. +</p> +<p> +"How can I, sir? Isn't he going to kneel?" he asked. +</p> +<p> +"Put your foot on his trunk when he crooks it and grab hold of his ears. +He'll lift you up then." +</p> +<p> +The understanding elephant at once curled its trunk invitingly and +cocked its great ears forward. Frank did as he was directed and found +himself raised in the air until he was able to get on to the elephant's +head and from it scrambled on to the pad. Dermot followed and seated +himself astride the huge neck. +</p> +<p> +"<i>Mul</i>! (Go on!)" he ejaculated. +</p> +<p> +With a swaying, lurching stride Badshah at once moved across the +clearing, followed by the transport elephant, on to which a <i>mahout</i> and +a coolie had climbed, and plunged into the dense undergrowth which was +so high that it nearly closed over the riders' heads. The sudden change +from the blinding glare of the sun to the enchanting green gloom of the +forest, from the intense heat to the refreshing coolness of the shade, +was delightful. +</p> +<p> +Beyond the clearing the vegetation was tangled and rank, high grass +concealing thorny shrubs, tall matted bushes covered with large, white, +bell-shaped flowers, all so dense that men on foot could not push their +way through. But it divided like water before the leading elephant's +weight and strength. The trees were now not the lesser growths of +bamboo, lime and sago-palm that covered the foot-hills. They were the +great forest giants, enormous teak, <i>sal</i> and <i>simal</i> trees, towering up +bare of branches for a good height above the ground, rising to the green +canopy overhead and thrusting their leafy crowns through it, seeking +their share of the sunlight. Their massive branches were matted thick +with the glossy green leaves of orchid-plants and draped with long +trails of the beautiful mauve and white blossoms of the exotic flowers. +Hanging from the highest branches or swinging between the massive boles +creepers of every kind rioted in bewildering confusion, a chaos of +natural cordage, of festooned <i>lianas</i> thick as a liner's hawser, some +twisting around each other, others coiling about the tree-trunks, biting +deep into the bark or striving to strangle them in a cruel grip. Not +even the elephants' weight and strength could burst through the stout +network of these creepers in places. While they tore at the obstructions +with their trunks it was necessary for their drivers to hack through the +creepers with their sharp <i>kukris</i>—the heavy curved knives carried in +their belts and similar to the Gurkha's favourite weapon. +</p> +<p> +Here and there the party came upon glades free from undergrowth, where +in the cool shade of the great trees the ground was knee-deep in +bracken. In one such spot Wargrave's eye was caught by a flash of bright +colour, and his rifle went half-way to his shoulder, only to be lowered +again when he saw two <i>sambhur</i> hinds, graceful animals with glossy +chestnut hides, watching the advancing elephants curiously but without +fear. For, used to seeing wild ones, they did not realise that Badshah +and his companion carried human beings. Their sex saved them from the +hunters who, leaving them unscathed, passed on and plunged into the +dense undergrowth on the far side of the clearing. +</p> +<p> +The elephants fed continually as they moved along. Sweeping up great +bunches of grass, tearing down trails of leafy creepers, breaking off +branches from the trees, they crammed them all impartially into their +mouths. Picking up twigs in their trunks they used them to beat their +sides and legs to drive off stinging insects or, snuffing up dust from +the ground, blew clouds of it along their bellies for the same purpose. +</p> +<p> +Suddenly the Colonel stopped Badshah and whispered: +</p> +<p> +"There's a <i>sambhur</i> stag, Wargrave. There, to your left in the +undergrowth. Have a shot at him." +</p> +<p> +The subaltern looked everywhere eagerly, but in the dense tangle could +not discern the animal. Like all novices in the jungle he directed his +gaze too far away; and suddenly a dark patch of deep shadow in the +undergrowth close by materialised itself into the black hide of a stag +only as it dashed off. It had been standing within fifteen paces of the +elephants, knowing the value of immobility as a shield. At last its +nerve failed it; and it revealed itself by breaking away. But as it fled +Colonel Dermot's rifle spoke; and the big deer crumpled up and fell +crashing through the vegetation to the ground. The second elephant's +<i>mahout</i>, a grey-bearded Mahommedan, slipped instantly to the earth and, +drawing his <i>kukri</i>, struggled through the arresting creepers and +undergrowth to where the stag lay feebly moving its limbs. Seizing one +horn he performed the <i>hallal</i>, that is, he cut its throat to let blood +while there was still life in the animal, muttering the short Mussulman +creed as he did so. For his religion enjoins this hygienic +practice—borrowed by the Prophet from the Mosaic law—to guard against +long-dead carrion being eaten. At the touch of the Colonel's hand +Badshah sank to its knees; and Wargrave, very annoyed with himself for +his slowness in detecting the deer, forced his way through the +undergrowth to examine it. The stag was a fine beast fourteen hands +high, with sharp brow antlers and a pair of thick, stunted horns +branching at the ends into two points. +</p> +<p> +Leaving the elephants to graze freely the <i>mahout</i> and his coolie +disembowelled the <i>sambhur</i> and hacked off the head with their heavy +<i>kukris</i>. Aided by the Political Officer and Wargrave they skinned the +animal and then with the skill of professional butchers proceeded to cut +up the carcase into huge joints. While they were thus engaged the +Colonel went to a small, straight-stemmed tree common in the jungle and, +clearing away a patch of the outer mottled bark, disclosed a white inner +skin, which he cut off in long strips. With these, which formed +unbreakable cordage, they fastened the heavy joints to the pad of the +transport elephant. +</p> +<p> +When this was done Wargrave, looking at his hands covered with blood and +grime, said ruefully: +</p> +<p> +"How on earth are we to get clean, sir? Is there any water in the +jungle? We haven't seen any." +</p> +<p> +The Political Officer, looking about him, pointed to a thick creeper +with withered-seeming bark and said with a laugh: +</p> +<p> +"There's your water, Wargrave. Lots of it on tap. See here." +</p> +<p> +He cut off a length of the <i>liana</i>, which contained a whitish, pulpy +interior. From the two ends of the piece water began to drip steadily +and increased to a thin stream. +</p> +<p> +"By George, sir, that's a plant worth knowing," said Frank. +</p> +<p> +"It's a most useful jungle product," said the Colonel, holding it up so +that his companion, using clay as soap, could wash his hands. "It's +called the <i>pani bel</i>—water-creeper. One need never die of thirst in a +forest where it is found. Try the water in it." +</p> +<p> +He raised it so that the clear liquid flowed into the subaltern's mouth. +It was cool, palatable and tasteless. +</p> +<p> +"By George, sir, that's good," exclaimed Wargrave, examining the plant +carefully. "Now let me hold it for you." +</p> +<p> +After Dermot and the two natives had cleansed their hands and arms the +party moved on, the transport elephant looking like an itinerant +butcher's shop as it followed Badshah. Again the undergrowth parted +before the great animals like the sea cleft by the bows of a ship and +closed similarly behind them when they had passed. Of its own volition +the leader swerved one side or the other when it was necessary to avoid +a tree-trunk or too dense a tangle of obstructing creepers. But once +Dermont touched and turned it sharply out of its course to escape what +seemed a very large lump of clay adhering to the under side of an +overhanging bough in their path. +</p> +<p> +"A wild bees' nest," said the Colonel, pointing to it. "It wouldn't do +to risk hitting against that and being stung to death by its occupants." +</p> +<p> +A few minutes later he suddenly arrested Badshah at the edge of a +fern-carpeted glade and whispered: +</p> +<p> +"Look out! There's a barking-deer. Get him!" +</p> +<p> +Across the glade a graceful little buck with a bright chestnut coat +stepped daintily, followed at a respectful distance by his doe. Their +restless ears pointed incessantly this way and that for every warning +sound as they moved; but neither saw the elephants hidden in the +undergrowth. Raising his rifle Frank took a quick aim at the buck's +shoulder and fired. The deer pitched forward and fell dead, while its +startled mate swung round and leapt wildly away. +</p> +<p> +"A good shot of yours, Wargrave," remarked Colonel Dermot, when Badshah +had advanced to the prostrate animal. "Broke its shoulder and pierced +the heart." +</p> +<p> +Frank looked down pityingly at the pretty little deer stretched lifeless +among the ferns. +</p> +<p> +"It seems a shame to slaughter a harmless thing like that," he said. +</p> +<p> +"Yes; I always feel the same myself and never kill except for food," +replied the Political Officer. "Unless of course it's a dangerous beast +like a tiger. Well, the <i>khakur</i> is too dead to <i>hallal</i>; but that +doesn't matter, as we're going to eat it ourselves and not give it to +the sepoys." +</p> +<p> +The <i>mahout</i> and the coolie were already cleaning the deer and, without +troubling to cut it up, bound its legs together with <i>udal</i> fibre and +tied it to the pad of their elephant; and the party moved on again. +</p> +<p> +Half a mile further on the silence of the forest was broken by the loud +crowing of a cock, taken up and answered defiantly by others. +</p> +<p> +"Hallo! are we near a village, sir?" asked Wargrave, surprised at the +familiar sounds so far in the heart of the wild. +</p> +<p> +"No; those are jungle-fowl," whispered the Political Officer. "Get your +gun ready." +</p> +<p> +He halted the elephant and picked up his fowling-piece. Frank hurriedly +substituted a shot cartridge for the one loaded with ball in his gun. He +heard a pattering on the dry leaves under the trees and into a fairly +open space before them stalked a pretty little bantam cock with red comb +and wattles and curving green tail-feathers, followed by four or five +sober brown hens, so like in every respect to domestic fowl that +Wargrave hesitated to shoot. But suddenly the birds whirred up into the +air; and, as the Colonel gave them both barrels, Frank did the same. The +cock and three of his wives dropped. The <i>mahout</i> urged his elephant +forward and made the reluctant animal pick up the crumpled bunches of +blood-stained feathers in its curving trunk and pass them to him. +</p> +<p> +Colonel Dermont searched the jungle for some distance around but could +not find the other jungle-cocks that had answered the dead one's +challenge. Looking at his watch he suggested a halt for lunch, which +Wargrave, whose back was beginning to ache with fatigue, gladly agreed +to. Dismounting, they sat on the ground and ate and drank the contents +of the pockets of Badshah's pad, but with loaded rifles beside them lest +their meal should be disturbed by any dangerous denizen of the jungle. +The two natives sat down some distance away and, turning their backs on +each other, drew out cloths in which their midday repast of <i>chupatis</i>, +or thick pancakes, with curry and an onion or two was tied up. The +elephants left to themselves grazed close by and did not attempt to +wander away. +</p> +<p> +Their meal and a smoke finished the party mounted again and moved on. +But luck seemed to have deserted them. Much to the Political Officer's +disappointment they wandered for miles without adding anything to the +bag. He had calculated on getting another couple of <i>sambhur</i> stags to +present to the <i>Deb Zimpun</i> as food for his hungry followers. The route +that they were now taking led circuitously back towards the <i>peelkhana</i>, +which they wished to reach before sundown. They had got within a mile of +it and were close to the foot of the hills when Badshah stopped suddenly +and smelt the ground. Colonel Dermot leaned over the huge head and +stared down intently at something invisible to his young companion. +</p> +<p> +"What is it, sir?" asked Wargrave in a whisper. +</p> +<p> +"Bison. Badshah's pointing for us. We can't shoot them here, for we're +in Government jungle where the killing of elephants, bison and rhino is +forbidden unless they attack you. But the track leads north towards the +mountains and at their foot the Government Forest ends. That's only half +a mile away and we can bag them there. Load your rifle with solid-nosed +bullets. This is the <i>pug</i> (footprint) of a bull, I think." +</p> +<p> +The two natives had seen the tracks by this and were wildly excited. +Badshah without urging moved swiftly through the trees and soon brought +his riders to the hills and into sight of the sky once more. The +mountains stood out clear and distinct in the slanting rays of the +setting sun. Suddenly a loud though distant, almost musical bellow +sounded, seeming to come from a bamboo jungle about a mile away. +</p> +<p> +"That's a cow-bison calling," said Dermot in a low voice. "There's a +herd somewhere about; but the '<i>pugs</i>' we're following up are those of a +solitary bull. We're in free forest now; so with luck you may get your +first bison. It's very steep here; we'll dismount, leave the elephants +and go on foot." +</p> +<p> +The subaltern was wildly excited, and his heart thumped at a rate that +was not caused by the steep slope up which he followed Dermot. The +Colonel tracked the bull unhesitatingly, although to Wargrave there was +no mark to be seen on the ground. +</p> +<p> +They were creeping cautiously through bamboo cover on a hill when +Dermot, who was leading, suddenly threw himself on his face, lay still +for a minute or two, then, motioning to his companion to halt, crawled +forward like a snake. A few paces on he stopped and beckoned to +Wargrave, and, when the latter reached him, pointed down into the gully +below. They were almost on the edge of a descent precipitous enough to +be called a cliff. Immediately underneath by a small stream was a +massive black bull-bison, eighteen hands—six feet—high, with short, +square, head, broad ears and horizontal rounded horns. The only touches +of colour were on the forehead and the legs below the knees, which were +whitish. The animal, with head thrown back, was staring vacantly with +its large, slatey-blue eyes. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave trembled with excitement and his heart beat so violently that +the rifle shook as he brought it to his shoulder and gently pushed the +muzzle through the stiff, dry grass at the edge of the cliff. But for +the one necessary instant he became rigidly steady and without a tremor +pressed the trigger. Then the rifle barrels danced again before his +eyes, when he saw the great bull collapse on the ground, its fore-legs +twitching violently, the hind ones motionless. +</p> +<p> +"Good shot. You've broken his spine," exclaimed Dermot, springing to his +feet and sliding, scrambling, jumping down the steep descent. The +excited subaltern outstripped him; but before he reached the bull it +lay motionless, dead. +</p> +<p> +"You're a lucky young man, Wargrave. A splendid bison on your first day +in the jungle. Those horns are six feet from tip to tip I bet," and the +Political Officer held out his hand. +</p> +<p> +Frank shook it heartily as he said gratefully: +</p> +<p> +"I've only you to thank for it, sir. It was ripping of you to let me +have first shot; and you gave me such a sitter that I couldn't miss. +Thank you awfully, Colonel." +</p> +<p> +Dermot gave a piercing whistle and stood waiting, while the overjoyed +subaltern walked round and round the dead bison, marvelling at its size +and exclaiming at his own good fortune. +</p> +<p> +When in a few minutes Badshah appeared, followed by the panting men, +Colonel Dermot sent the <i>mahout</i> on his elephant to the stable to fetch +other men to cut up and bring in the bison. Then he and Wargrave on +Badshah made for the road to Ranga Duar. +</p> +<p> +It was dark long before they reached the little station. The Colonel +brought his companion in for a drink after the three thousand feet +climb, most of which they had done on foot. Mrs. Dermot met them in the +hall; and, after she had heard the result of the day's sport, warmly +congratulated Wargrave on his good luck. Loud whispers and a scuffle +over their heads attracted the attention of all three elders, and on +the broad wooden staircase they saw two small figures, one in pyjamas, +the other in a pretty, trailing nightdress daintily tied with blue bows, +looking imploringly down at their mother. She smiled and nodded. There +was a whirlwind rush down the stairs, and the mites were caught up in +their father's arms. Then Frank came in for his share of caresses from +them before they were sternly ordered back to bed again. And as he +passed out into the darkness he carried away with him an enchanting +picture of the charming babes climbing the stairs hand in hand and +turning to blow kisses to the tall man who stood below with a strong arm +around his pretty wife, gazing fondly up at his children. +</p> +<p> +And the picture stayed with him when, after dinner at which he was +congratulated by his brother officers, he went to his room and found a +letter overlooked in his rush to dress for Mess. It was from Violet, the +first that had come from her since his arrival in Ranga Duar. It +breathed passion and longing, discontent and despair, in every line. As +he laid his face on his arm to shut out the light where he sat at the +table he felt that he was nearer to loving the absent woman than he had +ever been. For the vision of the Dermots' married happiness, of the deep +affection linking husband and wife, of the children climbing the stair +and smiling back at their parents, came vividly to him. And it haunted +him in his sleep when in dreams tiny arms were clasped around his neck +and baby lips touched his lovingly. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0008" id="h2HCH0008"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER VIII +</h2> +<h3> + A GIRL OF THE FOREST +</h3> +<p> +From the frontier of Bhutan, six thousand feet up on the face of the +mountains, a line of men wound down the serpentining track that led to +Ranga Duar. At their head walked a stockily-built man with cheery +Mongolian features, wearing a white cloth garment, <i>kimono</i>-shaped and +kilted up to give freedom to the sturdy bare thighs and knees—the legs +and feet cased in long, felt-soled boots. It was the <i>Deb Zimpun</i>, the +Envoy of the independent Border State of Bhutan. Behind him came a tall +man in khaki tunic, breeches, puttees and cap, his breast covered with +bright-coloured ribbons. His uniform was similar to the British; but his +face was unmistakeably Chinese, as were those of the twenty tall, +khaki-clad soldiers armed with magazine rifles at his heels. They were +followed by three or four score Bhutanese swordsmen, thick-set and not +unlike Gurkhas in feature, with bare heads, legs and feet, and clad only +in a single garment similar to their leader's and kilted up by a cord +around the waist, from which hung a <i>dah</i>, a short sword or long knife. +In rear of them trudged a number of coolies, some laden with bundles, +others with baskets of fruit. +</p> +<p> +Where the track came out on the bare shoulder of a spur free from the +small trees and undergrowth clothing the mountains the <i>Deb Zimpun</i> +pointed to the roofs of the buildings in the little station a thousand +feet below them and hitherto invisible to them. +</p> +<p> +"That is Ranga Duar," he said briefly. The Chinaman behind him looked +down at it. +</p> +<p> +"It seems a very small and weak place to have stopped our invading +troops in the war," he said in Bhutanese. "So here lives the Man." +</p> +<p> +"The Man? Yes, perhaps he is a man. But many, very many, there be that +think him a god or devil. They say he can call up a horde of demons in +the form of elephants. With such he trampled your army into the earth. +</p> +<p> +"Devils? Leave such tales to lamas and the ignorant fools that believe +their teaching. But if even a part of what I have heard about this man +be true he is more dangerous than many devils. He stands in China's way, +and he who does shall be swept aside." +</p> +<p> +"He is my friend," said the <i>Deb Zimpun</i> shortly, and tramped on in +silence. +</p> +<p> +Before they reached the station they were met by two of the Political +Officer's men, Bhuttias resident in British territory, detailed to +receive and guide them to the Government Dâk Bungalow in which the <i>Deb +Zimpun</i> and as many of his followers as could crowd into it were to +reside during their stay. Arrived at it the long line filed into the +compound. +</p> +<p> +Half a mile away down the hill Colonel Dermot and Wargrave watched them +through their field-glasses. +</p> +<p> +"Who is that fellow in khaki uniform, sir?" asked the subaltern. +</p> +<p> +The Political Officer lowered his binoculars and laughed. +</p> +<p> +"A gentlemen I've been very anxious to meet. He's the Chinese +<i>Amban</i>—we call him an Envoy of the Republic of China to Bhutan. But +the Chinese themselves prefer to regard him as a representative of the +suzerainty they pretend to exercise over the country. I'm curious to see +him. He is a product of the times, an example of the modern Celestial, +educated at Heidelberg University and Oxford, speaking German, French +and English. He has been specially chosen by his Government to come to a +Buddhist land, as he is a son of the abbot of the Yellow Lama Temple in +Pekin and so might have influence with the Bhutanese by reason of his +connection with their religion." +</p> +<p> +"But what have the Chinese to do with Bhutan?" +</p> +<p> +"Nothing now. But they've been intriguing for years to re-establish the +suzerainty they once had over it. This <i>Amban</i>, Yuan Shi Hung by name, +is a clever, unscrupulous and particularly dangerous individual." +</p> +<p> +"You seem to know a lot about him, Colonel." +</p> +<p> +"It's my business to do so. There is no apparent reason for his coming +here with the <i>Deb Zimpun</i>, nor has he a right to. But I won't object, +for I want to study and size him up. By the way, the Envoy will make his +official call on me this morning. Would you like to be present?" +</p> +<p> +"Very much indeed. I'm always interested in seeing the various races of +India and learning all I can about them. I'd love a job like yours, sir, +going into out-of-the-way places and dealing with strange peoples." +</p> +<p> +"Would you?" The Political Officer looked at him thoughtfully. "Are you +good at picking up native languages?" +</p> +<p> +"Fairly so. I got through my Lower and Higher Standard Hindustani first +go and have passed in Marathi and taken the Higher Standard, Persian." +</p> +<p> +Colonel Dermot regarded him critically and then said abruptly: +</p> +<p> +"Come to my office a few minutes before eleven. That's the hour I've +fixed for the <i>Deb Zimpun's</i> visit." +</p> +<p> +Punctually at the time named Wargrave reached the Dermots' bungalow, on +the road outside which, a Guard of Honour of fifty sepoys under an +Indian officer was drawn up. Passing along the verandah he entered the +office and saluted the Colonel who, seated at his desk, looked up and +nodded for him to be seated and then returned to the despatch that he +was writing. +</p> +<p> +In a few minutes a confused murmur drew nearer down the road and was +stilled by the sharp words of command to the Guard of Honour and by the +ring of rifles brought to the present in salute. Over the low wall of +the garden appeared the heads and shoulders of the Envoy and his Chinese +companion, followed by a train of attendants and swordsmen. They passed +in through the gate. The Political Officer rose as the <i>Deb Zimpun</i>, +removing his cap, entered the office and rushed towards him. The +bullet-headed, cheery old gentleman beamed with pleasure as they shook +hands and greeted each other in Bhutanese. Wargrave marvelled at the +ease and fluency with which Colonel Dermot spoke the language. The +<i>Amban</i> now entered the room and was formally presented by the <i>Deb +Zimpun</i>. +</p> +<p> +Speaking in excellent English but with an accent that showed that he had +first acquired it in Germany, he said: +</p> +<p> +"I am very pleased to meet you, Colonel. I have heard much of you in +Bhutan." +</p> +<p> +"It gives me equal pleasure to make Your Excellency's acquaintance and +to welcome you to India," replied Dermot with a bow. +</p> +<p> +Then in his turn Wargrave was presented to the two Asiatics, and the +Envoy, calling an attendant in, took from him two white scarves of +Chinese silk and placed one round each officer's neck in the custom +known as "<i>khattag</i>". All sat down and the Envoy plunged into an +animated conversation with Colonel Dermot, first producing a metal box +and taking betel-nut from it to chew, while the attendant placed a +spittoon conveniently near him. +</p> +<p> +Yuan Shi Hung chatted in English with Wargrave, who was astonished to +find him a well-educated man of the world and thoroughly conversant with +European politics, art and letters. But for the inscrutable yellow face +the subaltern could have believed himself to be talking to an able +Continental diplomat. The contrast between the semi-savage Bhutanese +official and his companion, in whom the most modern civilised +gentleman's manners were successfully grafted on the old-time courtesy +of the Chinese aristocrat, was very striking. The old Envoy was a frank +barbarian. He laughed loudly and clapped his hands in glee when Colonel +Dermot presented him with a gramophone—which, it appeared, he had +longed for ever since seeing one on a previous visit to India—and +taught him how to work it. He showed his betel-stained teeth in an +ecstatic grin when a record was turned on and from the trumpet came the +Political Officer's familiar voice addressing him by name and in his own +language with many flourishes of Oriental compliment. +</p> +<p> +Towards the termination of their call the <i>Deb Zimpun</i> called in two +attendants with large baskets of fine blood oranges and walnuts from +Bhutan and presented them in return. A number of coolies were needed to +carry off the royal gift of the flesh of the bison, the sight of which +made the Envoy's eyes glisten. He shook Wargrave's hand warmly when he +learned to whose rifle he owed it. Then he and his Chinese companion +took their leave, and with their followers passed up the hilly road. +Wargrave, gazing after them, came to the conclusion that of the pair he +preferred the savage to the ultra-cultivated Celestial. +</p> +<p> +Having thanked the Colonel for permitting him to be present at the +interview, which had interested him greatly, the subaltern was about to +leave when Mrs. Dermot appeared at the office door. +</p> +<p> +"May I come in, Kevin?" she began. "Oh, good morning, Mr. Wargrave. I +was just sending a <i>chit</i> (letter) to you and Captain Burke asking you +to tea this afternoon. A coolie has arrived from the <i>peelkhana</i> to say +that Mr. and Miss Benson and Mr. Carter are on their way up and will be +here soon. So you'll meet them at tea. You will like Miss Benson. She's +a dear girl." +</p> +<p> +"Thanks very much, Mrs. Dermot. I'll be delighted to come, if you'll +forgive me should I be a little late. I've got to take the signallers' +parade this afternoon. I'll tell Burke when I get to the Mess. I'm going +straight there now." +</p> +<p> +"Thank you. That will save me writing. <i>Au revoir</i>." +</p> +<p> +Half-way up the road to the Mess Wargrave looked back and saw an +elephant heave into sight around a bend below the Dermots' house and +plod heavily up to their gate. On the <i>charjama</i>—the passenger-carrying +contrivance of wooden seats on the pad with footboards hanging by short +ropes—sat a lady and two European men holding white umbrellas up to +keep off the vertical rays of the noonday sun. When the animal sank to +its knees in front of the bungalow Wargrave saw the girl—it could only +be Miss Benson—spring lightly to the ground before either of her +companions could dismount and offer to help her. Her big sunhat hid her +face, and at that distance Wargrave could only see that she was small +and slight, as she walked up the garden path. +</p> +<p> +When the signallers' afternoon practice was over the subaltern passed +across the parade ground to the Political Officer's house. When he +entered the pretty drawing-room, bright with the gay colours of chintz +curtains and cushions, he found the strangers present, one man talking +to Mrs. Dermot at her tea-table, the other chatting with the Colonel, +while Burke was installed beside a girl seated in a low cane chair and +dressed in a smart, hand-embroidered Tussore silk dress, <i>suede</i> shoes +and silk stockings. Little Brian stood beside her with one arm +affectionately round her neck, while Eileen was perched in her lap. But +when Frank appeared the mite wriggled down to the floor and rushed to +him. +</p> +<p> +The subaltern was presented to Miss Benson, her father and Carter, the +Sub-Divisional Officer or Civil Service official of the district. When +he sat down Eileen clambered on to his knee and seriously interfered +with his peaceful enjoyment of his tea; but while he talked to her he +was watching Miss Benson over the small golden head. She was +astonishingly pretty, with silky black hair curving in natural waves, +dark-bordered Irish grey eyes fringed with long, thick lashes, a +rose-tinted complexion, a pouting, red-lipped mouth and a small nose +with the most fascinating, provoking suspicion of a tip-tilt. She was as +small and daintily-fashioned as her hostess; and Wargrave thought it +marvellous that their forgotten outpost on the face of the mountains +should hold two such pretty women at the same time. His comrade Burke +was evidently acutely conscious of Muriel Benson's attractions, and, his +pleasantly ugly face aglow with a happy smile, he was flirting as openly +and outrageously with her as she with him. +</p> +<p> +"Sure, it's a cure for sore eyes ye are, Miss Flower Face," he said. +"That's the name I christened her with the first moment I saw her, +Wargrave. Doesn't it fit her?" Then turning to the girl again, he +continued, "Aren't you ashamed av yourself for laving me to pine for a +sight av ye all these weary months?" +</p> +<p> +Miss Benson could claim to be Irish on her mother's side and so was a +ready-witted match for the doctor's Celtic exuberance; though to +Wargrave watching it seemed that Burke's easy banter cloaked a deeper +feeling. +</p> +<p> +Drawn into their conversation Frank found the girl to be natural and +unaffected, without a trace of conceit, gifted with a keen sense of +humour and evidently as full of the joy of living as a school-boy. He +thought her laugh delightfully musical, and it was frequently and +readily evoked by Burke's droll remarks or the quaint oracular sayings +from the self-possessed elf on Wargrave's knee. Her admiration of and +genuine affection for Mrs. Dermot was very evident when Noreen joined +their group. +</p> +<p> +The subaltern, covertly and critically observing her, could hardly +believe the tales which their hostess had previously told him of the +courage and ability that this small and dainty girl had frequently +shown. But only a few minutes' conversation with her father convinced +Frank that he was an amiably weak and incompetent individual, more +fitted to be a recluse and a bookworm than a roamer in wild jungles +where his work brought him in contact with strange peoples and constant +danger. It was evident that the reputation which his large section of +the Terai Forest bore as being well managed and efficiently run was not +due to him and that somebody more capable had the handling of the work. +Hardly had Wargrave come to this conclusion and begun to believe that +the stories that he had heard of the daughter's business ability and +powers of organisation were true when he was given a very convincing +proof of her courage and coolness in danger. +</p> +<p> +After tea, as the sun was nearing its setting and a deliciously cool +breeze blew down from the mountains, a move was made to the garden, +where the party sat in a circle and chatted. When evening came and the +dusk rose up from the world below, blotting out the light lingering on +the hills, Mrs. Dermot made her children say goodnight to the company +and bore them reluctant away to their beds. As the darkness deepened the +servants brought out a small table and placed a lamp on it, and by its +light carried round drinks to the men of the party. Miss Benson was +leaning back in a cane chair and chatting lazily with Burke, who sat +beside her. She had one shapely silk-clad leg crossed over the other, +and a small foot resting on the grass. Opposite her sat Colonel Dermot +and Wargrave. As the brilliant tropic stars came out in the velvety +blackness of the sky occasional silences fell on the party. A tale of +Burke's was interrupted by the Political Officer's voice, saying in a +quiet forceful tone: +</p> +<p> +"Miss Benson, please do not move your foot. Remain perfectly still. A +snake is passing under your chair. Steady, Burke! Keep still!" +</p> +<p> +There was a terror-stricken hush. Frank looked across in horror. The +lamplight barely showed in the shadow under the chair a deadly +hill-viper writhing its way out within a few inches of the small foot +firmly planted in its dainty, high-heeled shoe. He looked at the +motionless girl. Less pale than the men about her she sat quietly, +smiling faintly and apparently not frightened by the Death almost +touching her. One pink hand lay without a tremor in her lap, but the +other rested on the arm of her chair and the knuckles showed white as +the fingers gripped the bamboo tightly. She did not even glance down. +But the men, frozen with dread, watched the shadowy writhing line +passing her foot slowly, all too slowly, until it had wriggled out into +the centre of the circle of motionless beings. Then Colonel Dermot +sprang up. Seizing his light bamboo chair in his powerful grip he +whirled it aloft and brought it crashing down on the viper, shattering +the chair but smashing the reptile's spine in half a dozen places. +</p> +<p> +The other men had risen from their seats; but the girl remained seated +and said quietly: +</p> +<p> +"Thank you very much, Colonel, for warning me. I might easily have moved +my foot and trodden on the snake. I've seen so many of the horrid things +in camp lately. Now, Captain Burke, I'm sorry that the interruption +spoiled your story. Please go on with it." +</p> +<p> +Her coolness silenced the men, who were breaking into exclamations of +relief and congratulation. Even her father sat down again calmly. +</p> +<p> +But Burke's enthusiastic admiration of her courage found an outlet at +Mess that night when he recounted the adventure to Major Hunt and +appealed to Wargrave for confirmation of the story of her plucky +behaviour. Later in his room as he was going to bed Frank smiled at the +recollection of the Irishman's exuberant expressions; but he confessed +to himself that the girl's calm courage was worthy of every praise. +</p> +<p> +"She is certainly brave," he thought. "I'm not surprised at old Burke's +infatuation. She is decidedly pretty. What lovely eyes she's got—and +what a provokingly attractive little nose! Well, the doctor's a lucky +man if she marries him. She seems awfully nice. Violet will certainly +have two very charming women friends in the station if she hits it off +with them." +</p> +<p> +But as his eyes rested on her pictured face his heart misgave him; for +he remembered that she had little liking for her own sex. And then, he +told himself, these two would probably refuse to know a woman who had +run away from her husband to another man. When he had turned out the +light and jumped into bed he lay awake a long time puzzling over the +tangle into which the threads of her life and his seemed to have got. +Time alone could unravel it. +</p> +<p> +He tossed uneasily on his bed, unable to sleep, and presently a slight +noise on the verandah outside caught his ear. He lay still and listened; +and it seemed to him that soft footfalls of a large animal's pads +sounded on the wooden flooring. Then suddenly he heard a beast sniffing +at his closed door. "A stray dog," he thought. But suddenly he +remembered Burke's account of the panther that haunted the Mess; and a +thrill of excitement ran through him and drove all his unhappy thoughts +away. He sprang out of bed and rushed across the room to get his rifle, +but in the darkness overturned a chair which fell with a crash to the +ground. This scared the animal; for there was a sudden scurry outside, +and by the time Wargrave had found the rifle and groped for a couple of +cartridges there was nothing to be seen on the verandah when he threw +open the door. It was a brilliant star-lit night. Burke called to him +from his room and when Wargrave went to him said that he too had heard +the animal, which was undoubtedly the panther. +</p> +<p> +Returning to bed Frank was dropping off to sleep half an hour later when +he was startled by a shrill, agonised shriek coming from a distance. +Rifle in hand he rushed out on to the verandah again and heard faint +shouts coming from a small group of Bhuttia huts on a shoulder of the +hills hundreds of feet above the Mess. He called out but got no answer; +and after listening for some time and hearing nothing further he +returned to bed and at last fell asleep. In the morning he learned that +the panther had made a daring raid on a hut and carried off a Bhuttia +wood-cutter's baby from its sleeping mother's side, and had devoured it +in the jungle not two hundred yards away. +</p> +<p> +The Durbar, or official ceremony of the public reception of the Bhutan +Envoy and the paying over to him of the annual subsidy of a hundred +thousand rupees, was held in a marquee on the parade ground in the +afternoon. There was a Guard of Honour of a hundred sepoys to salute, +first the Political Officer and afterwards the <i>Deb Zimpun</i> when he +arrived on a mule at the head of his swordsmen and coolies. The +solemnity of his dignified greeting to Colonel Dermot was somewhat +spoiled by shrieks of delight and loud remarks from Eileen (who was +seated beside her mother in the marquee) at the stately appearance of +the Envoy. He was attired in a very voluminous red Chinese silk robe +embroidered in gold and wearing a peculiar gold-edged cap shaped like a +papal tiara. +</p> +<p> +The Political Officer's official dinner took place that evening at his +bungalow. Besides the officers and the three European visitors the <i>Deb +Zimpun</i> and the <i>Amban</i> were present. The latter wore conventional +evening dress cut by a London tailor, with the stars and ribands of +several orders. But the old Envoy in his flowing red silk robe +completely outshone the two ladies, although Miss Benson was wearing her +most striking frock. +</p> +<p> +"Sure, don't we look like a State Banquet at Buckingham Palace or a +charity dinner at the Dublin Mansion House?" said Burke, looking around +the company gathered about the oval dining-table. He was seated beside +Miss Benson, who was on the host's right and facing the <i>Amban</i> on his +left. +</p> +<p> +At the Durbar Wargrave had noticed that the Chinaman stared all the time +at the girl, and now during the meal he seemed to devour her with an +unpleasant gaze, gloating over the beauties of her bared shoulders and +bosom until she became uncomfortably conscious of it herself. The +unveiled flesh of a white woman is peculiarly attractive to the Asiatic, +the better-class females of whose race are far less addicted to the +public exposure of their charms than are European ladies. While the <i>Deb +Zimpun</i> touched nothing but water the <i>Amban</i> drank champagne, port and +liqueurs freely—even the untravelled Chinaman is partial to European +liquors—yet they seemed not to affect him. But his slanted eyes burned +all the more fiercely as their gaze was fixed on the girl opposite him. +</p> +<p> +He endeavoured to engage her in conversation across the table, and +appeared ready to resent anyone else intervening in the talk as he +dilated on the gaieties and pleasures of life in London, Berlin and +Paris, where he had been attached to the Chinese Embassies. He glared at +Burke when the doctor persisted in mentioning the panther's visit during +the previous night, for the conversation at their end of the table then +turned on sport. A chance remark of Miss Benson on tiger-shooting made +Wargrave ask: +</p> +<p> +"Have you shot tigers, too, like Mrs. Dermot? And I've never seen one +outside a cage!" +</p> +<p> +The girl smiled, and the Colonel answered for her. +</p> +<p> +"Miss Benson has got at least six. Seven, is it? More than my wife has. +And among them was the famous man-eater of Mardhura, which had killed +twenty-three persons. The natives of the district call her 'The Tiger +Girl.'" +</p> +<p> +"Troth, my name for you is a prettier one, Miss Benson," said Burke +laughing. +</p> +<p> +She made a <i>moue</i> at him, but said to the subaltern: +</p> +<p> +"Cheer up, Mr. Wargrave, you've lots of time before you yet. You +oughtn't to complain—you've only been a few days here and you've +already got a splendid bison. And they're rare in these parts." +</p> +<p> +"We'll have to find him a tiger, Muriel," said their host. "When you +hear of a kill anywhere conveniently near, let me know and we'll arrange +a beat for him." +</p> +<p> +"With pleasure, Colonel. We're soon going to the southern fringe of the +forest; and, as you know, there are usually tigers to be found in the +<i>nullahs</i> on the borders of the cultivated country. I'll send you +<i>khubber</i> (news)." +</p> +<p> +"Thank you very much," said Wargrave. "I do want to get one." +</p> +<p> +All through the conversation the girl felt the Chinaman's bold eyes +seeming to burn her flesh, and she was glad when the Political Officer +spoke to him and engaged his attention. And she was still more relieved +when dinner ended and Mrs. Dermot rose to leave the table. When the men +joined them later on the verandah Burke and Wargrave made a point of +hemming her in on both sides and keeping the <i>Amban</i> off; for even the +short-sighted doctor had become cognisant of the Chinaman's offensive +stare. +</p> +<p> +When he and the <i>Deb Zimpun</i> had left the bungalow she said to the two +officers: +</p> +<p> +"I'm so glad you didn't let that awful man come near me. He makes me +afraid. There's something so evil about him that I shudder when he looks +at me." +</p> +<p> +"The curse av the crows on the brute!" exclaimed Burke hotly. "Don't ye +be afraid. We won't let the divil come next or nigh ye, will we, +Wargrave?" +</p> +<p> +And on the following day when the visitors were entertained by athletic +sports of the detachment on the parade ground and an interesting archery +competition between excited teams of the <i>Deb Zimpun's</i> followers and +of local Bhuttias, they allowed the <i>Amban</i> no opportunity of +approaching her. During the sports Wargrave noticed on one occasion that +he seemed to be speaking of her to the commander of his escort of +Chinese soldiers, a tall, evil-faced Manchu, pock-marked and blind of +the right eye, who stared at her fixedly for some time. At the dinner at +the Mess that night the two ladies wore frocks that were very little +<i>décolleté</i>. Burke, as Mess President, had arranged the table so that +the <i>Amban</i> was as far away from them as possible; and Wargrave and he +mounted guard over Miss Benson when the meal was ended. +</p> +<p> +The <i>Deb Zimpun</i> had fixed his departure for an early hour on the +following morning and was to be accompanied by the Political Officer, +who was going to visit the Maharajah of Bhutan. In the course of the day +the Chinese <i>Amban</i> had announced to Colonel Dermot that he did not wish +to leave so soon and desired to remain longer in Ranga Duar; but the +Political Officer courteously but very firmly told him that he must go +with the Envoy. +</p> +<p> +Early next morning, while Noreen Dermot was occupied with her children, +and her husband was completing his preparations for departure, Muriel +Benson went out into the garden. Badshah, pad strapped on ready for the +road, was standing at one side of the bungalow swinging his trunk and +shifting from foot to foot as he patiently awaited his master. The girl +greeted and petted him, then went to gather flowers and cut bunches of +bright-coloured leaves from high bushes of bougainvillea and poinsettia +that hid her from view from the house. +</p> +<p> +Suddenly a harsh voice sounded in her ears. +</p> +<p> +"I have tried to speak to you alone, but those fools were ever in my +way. Do not cry out. You must listen to me." +</p> +<p> +She started violently and turned to find the <i>Amban</i>, dressed in khaki +and ready to march, behind her. Courageous as she usually was the +extraordinary repulsion and terror with which he inspired her kept her +silent as he continued: +</p> +<p> +"I want you, and I shall take you sooner or later. Listen! I am one of +the richest men in all China. One day I shall be President—and then +Emperor the next; and when I rule my country shall no longer be the +effete, despised land torn with dissension that it is now. I can give +you everything that the heart of a woman, white or yellow, can +desire—take you from your dull, poverty-stricken life to raise you to +power and immense wealth. I shall return for you one day. Will you come +to me?" +</p> +<p> +The girl drew back, pale as death and unable to cry out. He glanced +around. The tall, red-leaved bushes hid them; there was no one or +nothing within sight, except the elephant shifting restlessly. +</p> +<p> +"Answer me!" he said almost menacingly. +</p> +<p> +She was silent. He sprang forward and seized her roughly. +</p> +<p> +"Speak! You must answer," he said. +</p> +<p> +The girl shrank at his touch and struggled in vain in his powerful +grasp. +</p> +<p> +Then suddenly she cried out: +</p> +<p> +"Badshah!" +</p> +<p> +The Chinaman thrust his face, inflamed with passion and desire, close to +hers. +</p> +<p> +"You must, you shall, come to me—by force, if not willingly," he +growled. "By all the gods or devils——." +</p> +<p> +But at that instant he was plucked from her by a resistless force and +hurled violently to the ground. Dazed and half-stunned he looked up and +saw the elephant standing over him with one colossal foot poised over +his prostrate body, ready to crush him to pulp. Brave as the Chinaman +was he trembled with terror at the imminent, awful death. +</p> +<p> +But a quiet voice sounded clear through the garden. +</p> +<p> +"<i>Jané do</i>! (Let him go!)" +</p> +<p> +The elephant brought the threatening foot to the ground but stood, with +curled trunk and ears cocked forward, ready to annihilate him if the +invisible speaker gave the word. The girl shrank against the great +animal, clinging to it and looking with horror at the prostrate man. The +<i>Amban</i> slowly dragged his bruised body from the ground and staggered +shaken and dizzy out of the garden. +</p> +<p> +Muriel kissed the soft trunk and laid her cheek against it, and it +curved to touch her hair with a gentle caress. Then she fled into the +bungalow to find Colonel Dermot on the verandah grimly watching the +Chinaman stumbling blindly up the steep road. His wife beside him opened +her arms to the shaken girl. +</p> +<p> +"He shall pay for that some day, Muriel," said the Political Officer +sternly. "But not yet." +</p> +<p> +An hour later the two women watched the snaking line crawl up the steep +face of the mountains, and through field-glasses they could distinguish +Badshah with his master on his neck, the <i>Deb Zimpun</i> and his followers +and the tall form of the Chinaman, until all vanished from sight in the +trees clothing the upper hills. +</p> +<p> +Benson and Carter left that afternoon, Muriel remaining to spend a +longer time with her friend and, as she told Wargrave, to try and regain +the affections of the children which he had stolen from her. +</p> +<p> +Frank was thinking of her next day as he was standing on the Mess +verandah after tea, cleaning his fowling-piece, when on a wooded spur +running down from the mountains and sheltering the little station on the +west he heard a jungle-cock crowing in the undergrowth not four hundred +yards away. Seizing a handful of cartridges he loaded his gun and, +running down the steps and across the garden, plunged into the jungle. +He walked cautiously, his rope-soled boots enabling him to move +silently, and stopped occasionally to listen for the bird's crow or the +telltale pattering over the dried leaves. Peering into the undergrowth +and searching the ground he crept quietly forward. Suddenly his heart +seemed to leap to his throat. In a patch of dust he saw the unmistakable +<i>pug</i> (footprint) of a large panther. One claw had indented a new-fallen +leaf, showing that the animal had very recently passed. Wargrave halted +and thought hard. He had only his shotgun, but the sun was near its +setting and if he returned to the Mess to get his rifle—which was taken +to pieces and locked up in its case—darkness would probably fall before +he could overtake the panther, which was possibly moving on ahead of +him. So he resolved not to turn back, but opened the breech of his gun +and extracted the cartridges. With his knife he cut their thick cases +almost through all round at the wad, dividing the powder from the shot. +For he knew that thus treated and fired the whole upper portion of the +cartridges would be shot out of the barrels like solid bullets and carry +forty yards without breaking up and scattering the shot. +</p> +<p> +Reloading he advanced cautiously, frequently losing and refinding the +trail. Creeping through a clump of thin bushes he stopped suddenly, +frozen with horror and dread. +</p> +<p> +In an open patch of woodland the two Dermot children stood by a tree, +the girl huddled against the trunk, while the little boy had placed +himself in front of her and, with a small stick in his hand, was bravely +facing in her defence an animal crouching on the ground not twenty yards +away. It was a large panther. Belly to earth, tail lashing from side to +side, it was crawling slowly, imperceptibly nearer its prey. With ears +flattened against the skull and lips drawn back to bare the gleaming +fangs in a devilish grin it snarled at the brave child whose dauntless +attitude doubtless puzzled it. +</p> +<p> +"Don't cry, Eileen. I won't let it hurt you," said the little boy +encouragingly. "Go 'way, nasty dog!" +</p> +<p> +He raised his little stick above his head. A boy should always protect a +girl, his father had often said, so he was not going to let the beast +harm his tiny sister. The panther crouched lower. The watcher in the +bushes saw the powerful limbs gathering under the spotted body for the +fatal spring. Every muscle and sinew was tense for the last rush and +leap, as the subaltern raised his gun. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0009" id="h2HCH0009"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER IX +</h2> +<h3> + TIGER LAND +</h3> +<p> +Wargrave fired. His shot struck the panther rather far back, wounding +but not disabling it. It swung round to face its assailant. Seeing Frank +it promptly charged. The second cartridge took it in front of the +shoulder and raked its body from end to end. Coughing blood the beast +rolled over and over, biting its paws, clawing savagely at the earth, +trying to rise and falling back in fury, while Frank rapidly reloaded +and stepped between it and the children. But the convulsions became +fewer and less violent, the limbs stiffened, the beautiful black and +yellow body sank inert to the ground. The tail twitched a little. A few +tremors shook the panther. Then it lay still. +</p> +<p> +The subaltern turned eagerly to the children. +</p> +<p> +"It's Frank. Look, Eileen, it's Frank," cried Brian. "He's killed the +nasty dog." +</p> +<p> +The little girl, who had sunk to the ground, struggled to her feet and +with her brother was swept up in a joyous embrace by the subaltern. +Then, bidding the boy hold on to the sleeve of the arm carrying the gun, +Wargrave started back with Eileen perched on his shoulder. As they +passed the panther's body she looked down at it and clapped her hands. +</p> +<p> +"He's deaded. Nasty, bad dog!" she cried. +</p> +<p> +Striking a path through the undergrowth the subaltern climbed down the +steep ravine that lay between the hill and the Political Officer's +bungalow. As he struggled up the steep side of the <i>nullah</i> he heard +their mother calling the children with a note of inquietude in her +voice; and he answered her with a reassuring shout. Coming up on the +level behind the low stone wall of the garden he found Mrs. Dermot and +Muriel anxiously awaiting him. +</p> +<p> +"Mumsie! Hallo, Mumsie! Here's me. Fwank shooted bad dog," cried Eileen, +waving her arms and kicking her bearer violently in her excitement. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, Mumsie, Frank killded the nasty dog that wanted to eat us," added +Brian. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave passed the children over the wall into the anxious arms +outstretched for them, then vaulted into the garden. +</p> +<p> +"What has happened, Mr. Wargrave?" asked Mrs. Dermot, pressing her +children to her nervously. "What is this about your shooting a dog?" +</p> +<p> +The subaltern told the story briefly. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, my babies! My babies!" cried the mother with tears in her eyes, +clasping the mites to her breast and kissing them frantically. The +little woman who had many times faced death undauntedly at her husband's +side broke down utterly at the thought of her children's peril. +</p> +<p> +She overwhelmed Wargrave with her thanks, while Muriel complimented him +on his promptness and presence of mind and then scolded the urchins for +their disobedience in wandering away from the garden by themselves. But +the unrepentant pair smiled genially at her from the shelter of their +mother's arms and assured her that "Fwankie" would always take care of +them. Their mother, even when she grew more composed, could not be +severe after so nearly losing them; but although unwilling to terrify +them by a recital of the awful fate from which the subaltern had saved +them by the merest chance, she impressed upon them again and again her +oft-repeated warning that they must never leave the garden alone. +</p> +<p> +But they were not awed; so, bidding them thank and kiss him, she bore +them off to bed, her eyes still full of tears. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave sent a servant to fetch his orderly and the detachment <i>mochi</i>, +or cobbler, to skin the panther, the news of the death of which soon +spread. So Major Hunt and Burke joined Miss Benson and the subaltern +when they went to look at its body, and numbers of sepoys streamed up +from the Fort to view the animal, which had long been notorious in the +station. Lamps had to be brought to finish the skinning of it; and the +hide, when taken off, was carried in triumph to the Mess compound to be +cured. +</p> +<p> +On the following afternoon on the tennis-court in a corner of the +parade ground Miss Benson was left with Burke and Wargrave when Mrs. +Dermot had taken her children home at sunset. +</p> +<p> +"You've completely won her heart," the girl said to the subaltern, +pointing with her racquet to the disappearing form of her friend. +"Nothing's too good for you for saving these precious mites. But she'll +never let them out of her sight again until their big nurse returns." +</p> +<p> +"You mean their elephant? Well, of course he's a marvellously +well-trained animal; but is he really so reliable that he can always be +trusted to look after those children?" +</p> +<p> +"Badshah is something very much more than a well-trained animal. Perhaps +some time out in the jungle you may understand why the natives regard +him as sacred and call Colonel Dermot the 'God of the Elephants.' You +don't know Badshah as we do." +</p> +<p> +"Well, old Burke here has told me some strange yarns about him. But, as +he's always pulling my leg, I never know when to believe him." +</p> +<p> +The doctor grinned. +</p> +<p> +"We won't waste words on him, Captain Burke," said the girl. "It's time +to go home now." +</p> +<p> +They escorted her to the Dermots' bungalow, where the doctor lingered +for a few more minutes in her society, while Wargrave climbed up to the +Mess and went to look at the panther's skin pegged out on the ground +under a thick coating of ashes and now as hard as a board after a day's +exposure to the burning sun. +</p> +<p> +A few days later Miss Benson left the station to rejoin her father in +one of the three or four isolated wooden bungalows built to accommodate +the Forest Officer in different parts of his district, each one lost and +lonely in the silent jungle. For days after her departure Burke was +visibly depressed; and Wargrave, too, missed the bright and attractive +girl who had enlivened the quiet little station during her stay. +</p> +<p> +A fortnight later Colonel Dermot returned from Bhutan; and his gratitude +to the subaltern for the rescue of his children was sincere and +heart-felt. He was only too glad to take the young man out into the +jungle on every possible occasion and continue his instruction in the +ways of the forest. This companionship and the sport were particularly +beneficial to Wargrave just then. For they served to take him out of +himself and raise him from the state of depression into which he was +falling, thanks to Violet's letters, the tone of which was becoming more +bitter each time she wrote. +</p> +<p> +Her reply to his long and cheery epistle describing Ranga Duar's unusual +burst of gaiety during the Envoy's visit and his own rescue of the +children was as follows: +</p> +<p class="quote"> + "You do not seem to miss me much among your new friends. While I am + leading a most unhappy and miserable life here you appear to be + enjoying yourself and giving little thought to me. You are lucky to + have two such very beautiful ladies to make much of you; and I + daresay they think you a wonderful hero for saving the little brats + who, if they are like most children, would not be much loss. Their + mother seems extremely friendly to you for such a devoted wife as + you try to make her out to be. Or perhaps it is the girl you admire + most; this marvellous young lady who shoots tigers and apparently + manages the whole Terai Forest. You say you love me; but you don't + seem to be pining very much for me. While each day that comes since + you left me is a fresh agony to me, you appear to contrive to be + quite happy without me." +</p> +<p> +This letter stung Wargrave like the lash of a whip across the face. To +do Violet justice no sooner had she sent it than she regretted it. But +deeply hurt as he was by the bitter words he forgave her; for he felt +that her life was indeed miserable and that he was unconsciously in a +great measure to blame for its being so. But it maddened him to realise +his present helplessness to alter matters. He was more than willing to +sacrifice himself to help her; but it would be a long time before he +could hope to save enough to pay his debts and make a home for her. +Whether it was wicked or not to take away another man's wife did not +occur to him; all that he knew was that a woman was unhappy and he alone +could help her. It seemed to him that the sin—if sin there were—was +the husband's, who starved her heart and rendered her miserable. +</p> +<p> +In his distress work and sport proved his salvation. He threw himself +heart and soul into his duty, and whenever there was nothing for him to +do with the detachment Major Hunt encouraged him to go with the +Political Officer into the jungle. For little as he suspected it the +senior guessed the young man's trouble and watched him sympathisingly. +</p> +<p> +One never-to-be-forgotten day as Wargrave was returning from afternoon +parade Colonel Dermot called to him from his gate and showed him a +telegram. It ran: "Tiger marked down. Come immediately <i>dâk</i> bungalow, +Madpur Duar. Muriel." +</p> +<p> +As the subaltern perused it with delight the Colonel said: +</p> +<p> +"Ask your C.O. for leave. Then, if he gives it, get something +substantial to eat in the Mess and be ready to start at once. Madpur +Duar is thirty odd miles away; and we'll have to travel all night. Come +to my bungalow as soon as you can." +</p> +<p> +Half an hour later the two were trudging down the road to the +<i>peelkhana</i> carrying their rifles. Badshah, with a <i>howdah</i> roped on to +his pad, plodded behind them; for it is far more comfortable to walk +down a steep descent than be carried down it by an elephant. At the foot +of the hills they mounted and were borne away into the gathering shadows +of the long road through the forest. As they proceeded their talk was +all of tigers; for in India, though there be bigger and more splendid +game in the land, its traditional animal never fails to interest, and +to Wargrave on his way to his first tiger-shoot all other topics were +insignificant. +</p> +<p> +The sun went down and darkness settled on the forest. The talk died away +and no sound was heard but the soft padding of their elephant's huge +feet in the dust of the road. The subaltern soon found the <i>howdah</i> +infinitely more trying than a seat on the pad when Badshah was in +motion; for the plunging gait of the animal jerked him backwards and +forwards and threw him against the wooden rails if he forgot to hold +himself at arm's length from them. The discomfort spoiled his +appreciation of the strange, attractive experience of being borne by +night through the sleepless forest, where in the dark hours only the +bird and the monkey repose; and even to them the creeping menace of the +climbing snake affrights the one and the wheeling shapes of the +night-flying birds of prey scare the other. But on the ground all are +awake. The glimmering whiteness of the road was occasionally blotted by +the scurrying forms of animals, hunted and hunters, dashing across it. +Once a tiny shriek in the distance broke the silence of the jungle. +</p> +<p> +"A wild elephant," said Colonel Dermot. +</p> +<p> +Then followed the loud crashing of rending boughs and falling trees. +</p> +<p> +"That's a herd feeding. They graze until about ten o'clock and then +sleep on well into the small hours, wake and begin to feed again at +dawn," continued the Political Officer. +</p> +<p> +Once a wild, unearthly wailing cry that seemed to come from every +direction at once startled the subaltern: +</p> +<p> +"Good Heavens! what's that?" he exclaimed, gripping his rifle and trying +to pierce the darkness around them. +</p> +<p> +"Only a Giant Owl," was the reply. "It's an uncanny noise. There!" +</p> +<p> +Right over their heads it rang out again; and the stars above them were +blotted out for a moment by a dark, circling shape above the tree-tops. +</p> +<p> +Hour after hour went by as they were borne along through the night; and +Wargrave bruised and battered by the <i>howdah</i>-rails, fell constantly +against them, so overcome with sleep was he. At last to his relief his +companion called a halt for a few hours' rest; and they brought the +elephant to his knees, dismounted and stripped him of <i>howdah</i> and pad. +Sitting on the latter they supped on sandwiches and coffee from Thermos +flasks, and then stretched themselves to sleep, while Badshah standing +over them grazed on the grasses and branches within reach. Wargrave was +dropping off to sleep when he was roused by the sharp, <i>staccato</i> bark +of a <i>khakur</i> buck repeated several times. The tired man lost +consciousness and was sunk in profound slumber when the silence of the +forest was shattered by a snorting, braying roar that rang through the +jungle with alarming suddenness. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave sprang up and groped for his rifle. But his companion lay +tranquilly on the pad. +</p> +<p> +"It's all right. It's only a tiger that's missed his spring and is angry +about it," he said sleepily. "Lie down again." +</p> +<p> +"Only a tiger, sir?" repeated Wargrave. "But it sounded close by." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, but Badshah will look after us. Don't worry"; and the Colonel +turned over and fell asleep. +</p> +<p> +It was a little time, however, before Frank followed his example, and he +had his rifle under his hand when he did. But the dark bulk of the +elephant towering over them comforted him as he sank to sleep. +</p> +<p> +A couple of hours later they were on their way again. It was broad +daylight before they emerged from the jungle. It seemed strange to be +out once more in the wide-stretching, open and cultivated plains and to +look back on the great forest and, beyond it, to the mountains towering +to the sky. Before them lay the flat expanse of the hedgeless, fertile +fields dotted here and there with clusters of trimly-built huts or thick +groves of bamboos and seamed with the lines of deep <i>nullahs</i>, the tops +of the trees in them barely showing above the level and marking their +winding course. +</p> +<p> +The <i>dâk</i> bungalow at Madpur Duar was soon reached, a single-storied +building with a couple of trees shading the well behind it and a group +of elephants and their <i>mahouts</i>. On the verandah Benson and his +daughter were standing, the girl dressed in a khaki drill coat and skirt +over breeches and soft leather gaiters, and waving a welcome to +Badshah's riders. +</p> +<p> +After a hurried breakfast the latter were ready to start for the day's +sport. By then a line of ten female elephants, the tallest carrying a +<i>howdah</i>, the rest only their pads, was drawn up before the bungalow; +and at a word from their <i>mahouts</i> their trunks went up in the air and +the animals trumpeted in salute as the party came out on the verandah. +</p> +<p> +"We borrowed Mr. Carter's and the Settlement Officer's elephants for the +beat," said Miss Benson, as, wearing a big pith sunhat and carrying a +double-barrelled .400 cordite rifle, she led the way down the verandah +steps. +</p> +<p> +It had been arranged that she was to take Wargrave with her in her +<i>howdah</i>, while her father accompanied Colonel Dermot on Badshah. Her +big elephant knelt down and a ladder was laid against its side, up which +she climbed, followed by the subaltern. When all were mounted she led +the way across the plain. Although the ground was everywhere level and +just there uncultivated the elephants tailed off in single file as is +the habit of their kind, wild or domesticated, each stepping with +precise care into the footprints of the one in front of it. Here in the +Plains the heat was intense; and Wargrave, shading his eyes from the +blinding glare, thought enviously of the coolness up in the mountains +that he had left. As they moved along Muriel explained to him how the +beat was to be conducted. +</p> +<p> +Where the southern fringe of the Terai Jungle borders the cultivated +country it is a favourite haunt of tigers, which from its shelter carry +on war against the farmers' cattle. Creeping down the ravines seaming +the soft soil and worn by the streams that flow through the forest from +the hills they pull down the cows grazing or coming to drink in the +<i>nullahs</i>, which are filled with small trees and scrubs affording good +cover. A tiger, when it has killed, drags the carcase of its prey into +shade near water, eats a hearty meal of about eighty pounds of flesh, +drinks and then sleeps until it is ready to feed again. If disturbed it +retreats up the ravine to the forest. +</p> +<p> +So, beating for one with elephants here, the sportsmen place themselves +on their <i>howdah</i>-bearing animals between the jungle and the spot where +the tiger is known to be lying up, and the beater elephants enter the +scrub from the far side and shepherd him gently towards the guns. +</p> +<p> +Pointing to a distant line of tree-tops showing above the level plain +she said: +</p> +<p> +"There is the <i>nullah</i> in which, about a mile farther on, a cow was +killed yesterday. I hope the tiger is still lying up in it. We'll soon +see." +</p> +<p> +They reached the ravine, which was twenty or thirty feet deep and +contained a little stream flowing through tangled scrub, and moved along +parallel to it and about a couple of hundred yards away. Presently the +girl pointed to a tall tree growing in it and a quarter of a mile ahead +of them. Its upper branches were bending under the weight of numbers of +foul-looking bald-headed vultures, squawking, huddled together, jostling +each other on their perches and pecking angrily at their neighbours with +irritable cries. Some circled in the air and occasionally swooped down +towards the ground only to rocket up again affrightedly to the sky; for +the tiger lay by its kill and resented the approach of any daring bird +that aspired to share the feast. Muriel hurriedly explained how the +conduct of the birds indicated the beast's presence. +</p> +<p> +"If he were not there they'd be down tearing the carcase to pieces," she +said, as she held up her hand and halted the file behind her. +</p> +<p> +"The beater elephants had better stop here, Colonel," she called out to +Dermot. "There is a way down and across the <i>nullah</i>, by which you can +take Badshah to the far side. We will remain on this." +</p> +<p> +The Political Officer, who had seen and realised the significance of the +vultures, waved his hand and moved off at once. Muriel called up the +<i>mahouts</i> and bade them enter the ravine and begin the beat in about ten +minutes, then told her driver to go on. Half a mile beyond the tree she +ordered him to halt and take up a position close to the edge of the +<i>nullah</i>, into which they could look down. Below them the bottom was +clear of scrub which ended fifty yards away. Dermot stopped opposite; +and both elephants were turned to face towards the spot where the tiger +was judged to be. +</p> +<p> +"Mr Wargrave, get to the front of the <i>howdah</i> and be ready," she said +in a low tone. +</p> +<p> +The subaltern protested chivalrously against taking the best place. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, it's all right. We've brought you out to get the tiger; so you must +do as you're told. If he breaks out this side take the first shot," she +said peremptorily. +</p> +<p> +He submitted and took up his position with cocked rifle. As the <i>nullah</i> +wound a good deal the tops of the trees in it prevented them from seeing +if the beater-elephants had gone in; but in a few minutes they heard +distant shouts and the crashing of the undergrowth as the big animals +forced their way through the scrub. +</p> +<p> +"Be ready, Mr. Wargrave," whispered the girl. "Sometimes a tiger starts +on the run at the first sound." +</p> +<p> +His nerves a-quiver and his heart beating violently the subaltern held +his rifle at the ready, as the noise of the beaters drew nearer. Again +and again he brought the butt to his shoulder, only to lower it when he +realised that it was a false alarm. The sounds of the beat grew louder +and closer, and still there was no sign of the tiger. Frank's heart +sank. He saw the vultures stir uneasily and some rise into the air as +the elephants passed under them. +</p> +<p> +At last through the trees he began to catch occasional glimpses of the +<i>mahouts</i>, and he lost hope. But suddenly from the scrub below them in +the <i>nullah</i> a number of small birds flew up; and the next instant the +edge of the bushes nearest them was parted stealthily and a tiger slunk +cautiously out in the bottom of the ravine. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave's rifle went up to his shoulder; and he fired. A startled roar +from the beast told that it was hit; but it bounded in a flash across +the ravine and up the steep bank on their side not forty yards from +them. As it scrambled swiftly over the edge it caught sight of the +elephant and with a deep "wough!" charged straight at it. +</p> +<p> +Frank fired again, and his bullet struck up the dust, missing the +swift-rushing animal by a couple of feet. The next moment with a roar +the tiger sprang at the elephant. With one leap it landed with its hind +paws on the elephant's head, its fore-feet on the front rail of the +<i>howdah</i>, standing right over the <i>mahout</i> who crouched in terror on the +neck. The savage, snarling, yellow-and-black mask was thrust almost +into Wargrave's face, and from the open red mouth lined with fierce +white fangs he could feel the hot breath on his cheek as he tugged +frantically at the under-lever of his rifle to open the breech and +re-load. In another moment the tiger would have been on top of them in +the <i>howdah</i> when a gun-barrel shot past the subaltern and pushed him +aside. The muzzle of Muriel's rifle was pressed almost against the +brute's skull as she fired. +</p> +<p> +Frank hardly heard the report. All he knew was that the snarling face +disappeared as quickly as it had come. The whole thing was an affair of +seconds. Shot through the brain the tiger dropped back to the ground +with a heavy thud and fell dead beside the staunch elephant which had +never moved all through the terrible ordeal. +</p> +<p> +A cry of relief and a prayer to Allah burst from the grey-bearded +Mahommedan <i>mahout</i>, as he straightened himself; and Wargrave turned +with glowing face and outstretched hand to the girl. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, well done! Splendidly done!" he cried. "You saved me from being +lugged bodily out of the <i>howdah</i> or at least from being mauled. This +lever jammed and I couldn't re-load." +</p> +<p> +Her eyes shining and face beaming with excitement she shook his hand. +</p> +<p> +"Wasn't it thrilling? I thought he'd have got both of us." Then to the +<i>mahout</i> she continued in Urdu, "Gul Dad, are you hurt?" +</p> +<p> +The man was solemnly feeling himself all over. He stared at a rent in +the shoulder of his coat, torn by the tiger's claw. It was the only +injury that he had suffered. He put his finger on it and grumbled: +</p> +<p> +"Missie-<i>baba</i>, the <i>shaitan</i> (devil) has torn my coat." +</p> +<p> +In the reaction from the strain the girl and Wargrave went off in peals +of laughter at his words. +</p> +<p> +"But are you not wounded?" Miss Benson repeated. "Has it not clawed +you?" +</p> +<p> +The <i>mahout</i> shook his head. +</p> +<p> +"No, missie-<i>baba</i>; but it was my new coat," he +insisted.<a href="#note-1" name="noteref-1"><small>[1]</small></a> +</p> +<p> +Frank looked down at the tiger stretched motionless on the yellow grass. +</p> +<p> +"By George, you shot him dead enough, Miss Benson!" he exclaimed. +</p> +<p> +She stared down at the animal. +</p> +<p> +"Yes; but it's well to be careful. I've seen a tiger look as dead as +that and yet spring up and maul a man who approached it incautiously," +she said. +</p> +<p> +She raised her rifle and covered the prostrate animal. +</p> +<p> +"Throw something at it," she continued. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave took out a couple of heavy, copper-cased cartridges and flung +them one by one at the tiger's head, striking it on the jaw and in the +eye. The animal did not move. +</p> +<p> +"Seems dead enough," said the girl, lowering her rifle. "Here come the +beaters." +</p> +<p> +The other elephants had now burst out in line through the scrub. Their +<i>mahouts</i> shouted enquiries to Gul Dad and when they heard of the +tiger's death cheered gleefully, for it meant <i>backsheesh</i> to them. +Badshah was seen to be searching for a way down into the nullah and in a +few minutes brought his passengers up alongside Miss Benson and the +subaltern. Her father and Dermot congratulated the girl warmly; and the +latter, having made Badshah kick the tiger to make certain that it was +dead, dismounted and examined it. +</p> +<p> +"Here's your shot, Wargrave," he said, pointing to a hole in the belly. +"A bit too low, but it made a nasty wound that would have killed the +beast eventually." +</p> +<p> +"I'm so ashamed of missing it with my second barrel, sir," said the +subaltern. "But for Miss Benson I'd have been a gone coon." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, it certainly looked exciting enough from our side of the +<i>nullah</i>," said the Colonel, smiling; "so what must it have been like +from where you were? Well, anyhow it's your tiger." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, nonsense, sir; it's Miss Benson's. I ought to be kicked for being +such a muff." +</p> +<p> +"Jungle law, Mr. Wargrave," said the girl, laughing "You hit it first, +so it's your beast." +</p> +<p> +"You needn't be ashamed of missing it," added the Colonel. "A charging +tiger coming full speed at you is not an easy mark. No; the skin is +yours; and Muriel has so many that she can spare it." +</p> +<p> +"Well, Miss Benson, I accept it as a gift from you; but I won't +acknowledge that I have earned it," said the subaltern. +</p> +<p> +"Now, we'd better pad it and see about getting back," said Dermot, +looking at his watch. +</p> +<p> +The other elephants had now found their way up the bank and joined +Badshah and his companion. When their <i>mahouts</i> heard from Gul Dad the +story of the tiger's death they exclaimed in amazement and admiration: +</p> +<p> +"<i>Ahré, Chai</i>! (Oh, brother!) Truly the missie-<i>baba</i> is a wonder. She +will be the death of many tigers, indeed," they said. +</p> +<p> +Then each in turn brought his elephant up to the prostrate animal and +made her smell and strike it with her trunk in order to inspire her with +contempt for tigers. Colonel Dermot measured it with a tape and found it +to be nine feet six inches from nose to tip of tail. It was a young, +fully-grown male in splendid condition. Then came the troublesome +business of "padding" it, that is, hoisting it on to the pad of one of +the elephants to bring it back to the bungalow to be skinned. It was not +an easy matter. For the tiger weighed nearly three hundred and fifty +pounds; and to raise the limp carcase, which sagged like a feather bed +at every spot where there was not a man to support it, was a difficult +task. But it was achieved at last; and with the tiger roped firmly on a +pad the elephants started back in single file. +</p> +<p> +As they went over the plain in the burning sun Wargrave looked back to +where the striped body was borne along with stiff, dangling legs. +</p> +<p> +"By Jove, it's been great, Miss Benson," he exclaimed. "Some people say +tiger shooting's not exciting. They ought to have been with us to-day. I +am lucky to have got a bison already and now to have seen this. With +luck I'll be having a shot at an elephant next." +</p> +<p> +The girl replied in a serious tone: +</p> +<p> +"Don't say that to Colonel Dermot. Elephants are his especial friends. +Besides, you are only allowed to shoot rogues; and since he's been here +there have been none in these jungles which formerly swarmed with them. +There's no doubt that he has a wonderful, uncanny control over even wild +elephants. Do you know that once a rajah tried to have him killed in his +palace by a mad tusker, which had just slaughtered several men, and the +moment the brute got face to face with him it was cowed and obeyed him +like a dog?" +</p> +<p> +"Good gracious, is that so?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I could tell you even more extraordinary things about his power +over elephants; but some day when you're in the jungle with him you may +see it for yourself. Oh, isn't it hot? I do wish we were home." +</p> +<p> +Arrived at the <i>dâk</i> bungalow the tiger's carcase was lowered to the +ground and given over to the knives of the flayers summoned from the +<i>bazaar</i> of Madpur Duar a mile away. As soon as the news was known in +the small town crowds of Hindu women streamed to the bungalow compound, +where with their <i>saris</i> (shawls) pulled modestly across their brown +faces by rounded arms tinkling with glass bangles they squatted on the +ground and waited patiently until the skin was drawn clear off the raw +red carcase. Then they crowded around a couple of the older <i>mahouts</i> +who, first cutting off all the firm white fat of the well-fed cattle +thief to be melted down for oil (esteemed to be a sovereign remedy for +rheumatism), hacked the flesh into chunks which they threw into the +eager hands of the women. These took the meat home to cook for their +husbands to eat to instil into them the spirit and vigour of a tiger. +The skin, spread out and pegged to the ground, was covered with wood +ashes and left to dry. Little of the animal was left but the bones, to +the disappointment of the wheeling, whistling kites waiting on soaring +wings in the sky above. +</p> +<p> +After tea the two officers took their leave with many expressions of +gratitude from the younger man to the girl for her kindness in arranging +the beat for him. Hours afterwards, as they halted in the forest for a +rest in the middle of the night, Colonel Dermot said: +</p> +<p> +"You told me once that you'd like a job like mine, Wargrave. Would you +care for frontier political work here?" +</p> +<p> +"I'd love it, sir," exclaimed the subaltern enthusiastically. "Would it +be possible to get it?" +</p> +<p> +"Well, I've been thinking for some time of applying to the Government of +India for an assistant political officer who would help me and take over +if I went on leave, but I'd want to train my own man and not merely +accept any youngster who was pitchforked into the Department just +because he had a father or an uncle with a pull at Simla. Now, if you +like I'll apply for you, on condition that you'll work at Bhutanese and +the frontier dialects. I'll teach them to you." +</p> +<p> +"I'd like nothing better, sir. I'm not bad at languages." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I've noticed that your Hindustani is very good and idiomatic. I've +been watching you and I like your manner with natives. One must be +sympathetic, kind and just, but also firm with them. Well, I'll try +you. The rainy season will be on us very soon, and then all outdoor work +and sport will be impossible. One dare not go into the jungle—it's too +full of malaria and blackwater fever. The planters and Forest Officers +have to cage themselves in wire gauze 'mosquito houses.' During the +rains you'll have plenty of time to work at the languages." +</p> +<p> +"Thank you very much, Colonel. I promise you I'll go at them hard." +</p> +<p> +"You'll have a fellow-student for part of the time. Miss Benson's coming +to stay with us during the Monsoons for a bit; and she has asked me to +teach her Bhutanese, too. She wants it, as she has to deal with Bhuttia +woodcutters and hill folk generally. Well, that's fixed. Goodnight." +</p> +<p> +"Goodnight, sir," answered the subaltern, as he lay down on the pad and +stared at the stars. He was overjoyed at Colonel Dermot's offer, and as +he dropped asleep it was with a thrill of pleasure that he realised he +would see something more of the girl who had been his companion that +day. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0010" id="h2HCH0010"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER X +</h2> +<h3> + A POLITICAL OFFICER IN THE MAKING +</h3> +<p> +The lightning spattered the heavens and tore the black sky into a +thousand fragments, the thunder crashed in appalling peals of terrifying +sound which echoed again and again from the invisible mountains. The +rain fell in ropes of water that sent the brown, foam-flecked torrents +surging full-fed down every gully and ravine in the mist-wrapped hills. +The single, steep road of Ranga Duar was now the rocky bed of a racing +flood inches deep that swirled and raged round Wargrave's high rubber +boots as he waded up towards the Mess clad in an oilskin coat, off which +the rain splashed. He was glad to arrive at the garden gate, turn in +through it, climb the verandah steps, and reach his door. Here he flung +aside his coat and kicked off the heavy boots. +</p> +<p> +Entering his room he pulled on his slippers, filled his pipe with +tobacco from a lime-dried bottle and sat down at his one rickety table +at the window. Then he took out of his pocket and laid before him a +manuscript book filled with notes on the frontier dialects taken at the +lesson with Colonel Dermot from which he had just come. He opened it +mechanically but did not even glance at it. His thoughts were elsewhere. +</p> +<p> +Months had elapsed since the day on which he had seen his first tiger +killed. Not long afterwards the Rains had come to put a stop to descents +into the jungle. But his interest in the preparation for his new work +compensated him for the imprisonment within walls by the terrible +tropical storms and the never-ceasing downpour. He had flung himself +enthusiastically into the study of the frontier languages, of which +Colonel Dermot proved to be a painstaking and able teacher. Miss Benson, +who had returned to Ranga Duar and remained there longer than she had +originally intended, owing to fever contracted in the jungle, joined him +in these studies and astonished her fellow-pupil by her aptitude and +quickness of apprehension. But her presence proved disastrous to him. +Thrown constantly together as they were, spending hours every day side +by side, the subaltern realised to his dismay that he was falling in +love with the girl. +</p> +<p> +It would have been strange had it been otherwise so pretty and +attractive was she. Often Mrs. Dermot, peeping into her husband's office +and seeing the dark and the fair head bent close together over a book, +smiled to herself, well-pleased at the thought of her favourites being +mutually attracted. To her husband the thought never occurred. Men are +very dull in these matters. +</p> +<p> +But to Wargrave the realisation of the truth was unbearable. He was +pledged to another woman, whose heart he had won even if unconsciously, +who was willing for love of him to give up everything and face the +world's censure and scorn. He could not play her false. He had given her +his word. He could not now be disloyal to her without utterly wrecking +all her chances of happiness in life and dishonouring himself for ever +in his own eyes. Muriel Benson had left the station ten days ago to +rejoin her father; and Wargrave had instantly felt that he dared not see +her again until he was irrevocably and openly bound to Violet. So he had +written to her on the morrow of the girl's departure and, without giving +her the real reason for his action, begged her to come to him at once, +enclosing, as he was now able to do, a cheque for her expenses. It +seemed to him that only by her presence could he be saved from being a +traitor to his word. +</p> +<p> +As soon as he had sent the letter he went to his Commanding Officer and +told him everything. It was not until he was actually explaining his +conduct that he realised that he should have obtained his permission +before inviting Violet to come, for Major Hunt, as Commandant of the +Station, had the power to forbid her residing in or even entering it. +</p> +<p> +The senior officer listened in silence. When the subaltern had finished +he said: +</p> +<p> +"I've known about this matter since you came, Wargrave. Your Colonel +wrote me—as your new C.O.—what I considered an unnecessary and unfair +letter giving me the reason of your being sent here. But Hepburn, whom +I know slightly, discovered I was here and also wrote explaining matters +more fully and, I think, more justly." +</p> +<p> +The subaltern looked at him in surprise; but his face brightened at the +knowledge of his former commander's kindness. +</p> +<p> +"Now, Wargrave, we've got on very well together so far, you and I. I +have always been satisfied with your work, and was glad to help you by +agreeing to Colonel Dermot's application for you. I believe that you +will make a good political officer, otherwise I wouldn't have done +so—even though I'm your debtor for saving me from that snake——." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Major, that was nothing," broke in the subaltern. "Anyone would +have done it." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I know. But it happened that you were the anyone. Now, I'm going +to talk to you as your friend and not as your commanding officer. +Frankly, I am very sorry for what you have just told me. I was hoping +that Time and separation were curing you—and the lady—of your folly. +Believe me, only unhappiness and misery can come to you both from it." +</p> +<p> +"Perhaps so, sir; but I'm bound in honour." +</p> +<p> +The older man shook his head sadly. +</p> +<p> +"Is honour the word for it? I'll make a confession to you, Wargrave. You +consider me a bachelor. Well, I'm not married now; but I was. When I was +a young subaltern I was thrown much with a married woman older than +myself. I was flattered that she should take any notice of me, for she +was handsome and popular with men, while I was a shy, awkward boy. She +said she was 'being a mother' to me—you know what a married woman +'mothering' boys leads to in India. She used to tell me how +misunderstood she was, neglected, mated to a clown and all that." (Frank +grew red at certain memories.) "Women have a regular formula when +they're looking for sympathy they've no right to. I pitied her. I felt +that her husband ought to be shot. Looking back now I see that he was +just the ordinary, easy-going, indifferent individual that most husbands +become; but then I deemed him a tyrant and a brute. Well, I ran away +with her." +</p> +<p> +He paused and passed his hand wearily across his brow. +</p> +<p> +"There was the usual scandal, divorce, damages and costs that plunged me +into debt I'm not out of yet. We married. In a year we were heartily +sick of each other—hated, is nearer the truth. She consoled herself +with other men. I protested, we quarrelled again and again. At last we +agreed to separate; and I insisted on her going to England and staying +there. I couldn't trust her in India. Living in lodgings and Bayswater +boarding-houses wasn't amusing—she got bored, but I wouldn't have her +back. She took to drinking and ran up debts that I had to pay. +Then—and I selfishly felt glad, but it was a happy release for +both—she died. Drank herself to death. Now you know why I'd be sorry +that another man should follow the path I trod." +</p> +<p> +He was silent. Wargrave felt an intense sympathy for this quiet, kindly +man whose life had been a tragedy. He had guessed from the first that +his senior officer had some ever-present grief weighing on his soul. He +would have given much to be able to utter words of consolation, but he +did not know what to say. +</p> +<p> +Major Hunt spoke again. +</p> +<p> +"You must dree your own weird, Wargrave. If the lady wishes to come +here—well, I shall not prevent her; but the General, when he knows of +it, will not permit her to remain. But you have to deal with Colonel +Dermot. You had better tell him. You might go now." +</p> +<p> +Without a word the subaltern left the bungalow. He went straight to the +Political Officer and repeated his story. Colonel Dermot did not +interrupt him, but, when he had finished, said: +</p> +<p> +"I have no right and no wish to interfere with your private life, +Wargrave, nor to offer you advice as to how to lead it. Your work is all +that I can claim to criticise. Of course I see, with Major Hunt, the +difficulty that will arise over the lady's remaining in this small +station, where her presence must become known to the Staff. If you are +both resolved on taking the irretrievable step it would be wiser to +defer it until you were elsewhere. I don't offer to blame either of you; +for I don't know enough to judge." +</p> +<p> +"Well, sir, I—perhaps you won't want me under you—and Mrs. Dermot—you +mightn't wish me to——," stammered the subaltern, standing miserably +before him. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, yes; you'll make a good political officer none the less," said the +Colonel smiling. "And you need not be afraid of my wife turning away +from you with horror. If she can be a friend to the lady she will. As +for you, well, you saved our children, Wargrave"—he laid his hand on +the young man's shoulder—"you are our friend for life. I shall not +repeat your story to my wife. Perhaps some day you may like to tell it +to her yourself." +</p> +<p> +Wargrave tried to thank him gratefully, but failed, and, picking up his +hat, went out into the rain. +</p> +<p> +That was days ago; and no answer had come from Violet, so that the +subaltern lived in a state of strain and anxious expectation. Indeed, +some weeks had passed since her last letter, as usual an unhappy one; +and, sitting staring out into the grey world of falling rain turned to +flame every minute by the vivid lightning, he racked his brains to guess +the reason of her silence. +</p> +<p> +A jangle of bells sounded through the storm. Glancing out Wargrave saw +a curiously grotesque figure climb the verandah steps from the garden +and stand shaking itself while the water poured from it. It was an +almost naked man, squat and sturdy-limbed, with glistening wet brown +skin, an oilskin-covered package on his back, a short spear hung with +bells in his hand. It was the postman. For a miserable pittance he +jogged up and down the mountains in fine weather or foul, carrying His +Majesty's Mails, passing fearlessly through the jungle in peril of wild +beats, his ridiculous weapon, the bells of which were supposed to +frighten tigers, his only protection. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave opened the door and went out to him. The man grinned, unslung +and opened his parcel. From it he took out a bundle of letters, handed +them to the subaltern, and went on to knock at Burke's door with his +correspondence. Frank returned to his room with the mail which contained +the official letters for the detachment, of which he was still acting as +adjutant. He threw them aside when he saw an envelope with Violet's +handwriting on it. He tore it open eagerly. +</p> +<p> +To his surprise the letter was addressed from a hotel in Poona, the +large and gay military and civil station in the West of India, a few +hours' rail journey inland from Bombay. He skimmed through it rapidly. +</p> +<p> +She wrote that, utterly weary of the dullness of Rohar, she had gone to +Poona to spend part of the festive and fashionable season there and was +now revelling in the many dances, dinners, theatricals and other +gaieties of the lively station. Everybody was very kind to her, +especially the men. She was invited to the private entertainments at +Government House, and His Excellency the Governor always danced with +her. Her programme was crowded at every ball; and she had been asked to +take one of the leading parts in "The Country Girl" to be produced by +the Amateur Dramatic Society. She had two excellent ponies with which to +hunt and to join in <i>gymkhanas</i>. She wished Frank could be with her; but +probably he was enjoying himself more with his wild beasts and Tiger +Girls. As to his proposal that she should go to him at once in that +little station he must have been mad when he made it. For had they not +discussed the matter thoroughly and decided that they must wait? She +presumed that he had not suddenly come into a fortune. From his +description of Ranga Duar and its inhabitants it could be no place for +her under the circumstances. No; there was nothing to do but to wait. +Besides, it was so very jolly now at Poona. Frank must not be an +impatient boy; and she sent him all her love. His cheque she had torn +up. +</p> +<p> +The subaltern whistled, read the letter again very carefully, folded and +put it away. What had come to Violet? This was so unlike her. Still, he +had to confess to himself that he was relieved at not yet having to +cross the Rubicon. Perhaps she was right; it might be better to wait. He +was glad to know that for a time at least she was away from the +uncongenial surroundings of Rohar and again enjoying life. He went +through the official correspondence, shoved it in his pocket, put on +coat and boots and splashed through the water down the road to the +Commanding Officer's bungalow. When they had discussed the official +letters and drafted answers to them Wargrave told Major Hunt of the gist +of Violet's reply. The senior officer nodded, but said nothing about it +and went on to talk of other matters. +</p> +<p> +Next day the subaltern informed Colonel Dermot, who made no comment and +did not refer to the matter again. His wife, ignorant of Mrs. Norton's +existence, delighted to talk to Wargrave about Muriel, a topic always +interesting to him, dangerous though it was to his peace of mind. His +thoughts were constantly with the girl, and he sought eagerly for news +of her when occasional letters came to Mrs. Dermot from her, touring +their wide forest district with her father. +</p> +<p> +Frank had never been able to fathom Burke's feelings towards her. The +Irishman's manner to her in public was always light-hearted and +cheerfully friendly; but the subaltern suspected that it concealed a +deeper, warmer feeling. He betrayed no jealousy of Frank's constant +companionship with her when she took part in his studies; and his +friendly regard for his younger brother officer never altered. On her +side the girl showed openly that she shared the universal liking that +the kindly, pleasant-natured doctor inspired. +</p> +<p> +The weary months of the rainy season dragged by; but the subaltern spent +them to advantage under Colonel Dermot's tuition and, possessing the +knack of readily acquiring foreign languages, made rapid progress with +Bhutanese, Tibetan and the frontier dialects, his good ear for music +helping him greatly in getting the correct accent. Another +accomplishment of his, a talent for acting, was of service; for the +Political Officer wished him to be capable of penetrating into Bhutan in +disguise if need be. So he taught him how to be a merchant, peasant, +nobleman's retainer or a lama Red or Yellow, of the country—but always +a man of Northern Bhutan and the Tibetan borderland, for his height and +blue eyes were not unusual there, though seldom or never seen in the +south. Frank was carefully instructed in the appropriate manners, +customs and expressions of each part that he played, how to eat and +behave in company, how to walk, sit and sleep. But he specialised as a +lama, for in that character he would meet with the least interference in +the priest-ridden country. He was taught the Buddhist chants and how to +drone them, how to carry his praying-wheel and finger a rosary to the +murmured "<i>Om mani padmi hung</i>" of the Tibetans, and—for he was +something of an artist—how to paint the Buddhist pictorial Wheel of +Life, the <i>Sid-pa-i Khor-lô</i> or Cycle of Existence that the gentle +Gautama, the Buddha, himself first drew and that hangs in the vestibule +of every lamasery to teach priest and layman the leading law of their +religion, Re-birth. +</p> +<p> +Colonel Dermot was helped in his instruction of his pupil by his chief +spy and confidential messenger, an ex-monk from a great monastery in +Punaka, the capital of Bhutan. This man, Tashi, before he wearied of the +cloistered life and fled to India, had been always one of the principal +actors in the great miracle plays and Devil Dances of his lamasery, for +he was gifted with considerable histrionic talent. He delighted in +teaching Wargrave to play his various <i>rôles</i>, for he found the +subaltern an apt pupil. +</p> +<p> +As soon as the rains ended the Political Officer began to take his +disciple with him on his tours and patrols along the frontier. Alone +they roamed on Badshah among the mountains on which the border ran in a +confusedly irregular line. Sometimes with or without Tashi they crossed +into Bhutan in disguise and wandered among the steep, forest-clad hills +and deep, unhealthy valleys seamed with rivers prone to sudden floods +that rose in a few hours thirty or forty feet. Wargrave marvelled at the +engineering skill of the inhabitants who with rude and imperfect +appliances had thrown cantilever bridges over the deep gorges of this +mountainous southern zone. Among the dull-witted peasants in the +villages he practised the parts that he had learned, speaking little at +first and taking care to mingle Tibetan and Chinese words with the +language of Bhutan to keep up the fable of his northern birth. He soon +promised to be in time as skilfull in disguise as his tutor. +</p> +<p> +Colonel Dermot was anxious to investigate the activities of the Chinese +<i>Amban</i>, reputed to reach their height in the territory just across the +Indian border ruled by the Tuna Penlop and lying west of the Black +Mountain range that divides Bhutan. This great feudal chieftain was +reputed to be completely under the influence of Yuan Shi Hung and both +anti-British and disloyal to his overlord the Maharajah or Tongsa +Penlop. The close watch that his myrmidons kept on the stretch of +frontier between his territories and India prevented Dermot from +learning what went on behind the screen; for the spies of the Political +Officer's Secret Service could not penetrate it and bring back news. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave was present when the last sturdy-limbed Bhuttia emissary +reported his failure to cross the line. As the man withdrew the Colonel +turned to Frank and said: +</p> +<p> +"We'll go ourselves. I wanted to avoid it if possible; for it wouldn't +do for me to be caught. Not only because it would cause political +complications, for I'm not supposed to trespass on Bhutanese territory +uninvited, but also because fatal accidents might happen to us if Yuan +Shi Hung and his friends get hold of us. I'm not anxious to die yet. Be +ready to start at midnight." +</p> +<p> +"Do you really think we'll be able to get through, sir?" queried the +subaltern. "How shall we do it?" +</p> +<p> +"Wait and see," was the curt reply. +</p> +<p> +Before the sun rose next day Badshah was deep in the forest, bearing the +two officers and Tashi on his back. He moved rapidly along animal paths +through the jungle in a direction parallel with the mountains. Jungle +fowl whirred up from under his feet, deer crashed away through the +undergrowth as he passed; but never a shot was fired at them, though +rifles and guns were in the riders' hands. Little brown monkeys peeped +down at them from the tree-tops or leapt away along the air lanes among +the leafy branches, swinging by hand or foot, springing across the +voids, the babies clutching fast to their mothers' bodies in the dizzy +flights. +</p> +<p> +In the afternoon a distant crashing, which told of trees falling before +the pressure of great heads and the weight of huge bodies, made Wargrave +ask: +</p> +<p> +"Wild elephants, sir?" +</p> +<p> +Dermot nodded. +</p> +<p> +"Sounds as if they were right in our path. Shall we see them?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes. Don't touch that!" said the Colonel sharply; for the excited +subaltern, who had never yet seen a wild herd, was reaching for his +rifle. Wargrave obeyed, remembering Miss Benson's remark on the +Political Officer's love of the great animals. +</p> +<p> +Soon unmistakable signs showed that they were on the track of a herd; +and presently Frank caught sight of a slate-coloured body in the +undergrowth, then another and another. As he was wondering how the +animals would receive them Badshah emerged on an open glade filled with +elephants of all ages and sizes, from new-born woolly calves a bare +three feet at the shoulder to splendid tuskers nine feet ten inches in +height and lean, ragged-eared old animals a hundred and thirty years of +age. All were regarding the newcomer and their trunks were raised to +point towards him, while from their throats came a low purring sound, +which appeared to the subaltern to have more of pleasure than menace in +it. Instead of seeming hostile or alarmed they behaved as though they +had expected and were welcoming their domesticated brother. This was so +evident that Frank felt no fear even when they closed in on Badshah and +touched him with their trunks. +</p> +<p> +Dermot, smiling at his companion's amazement, said: +</p> +<p> +"This is Badshah's old herd, Wargrave, and they're used to him and me. +I've come in search of them, for it is by their aid that I propose to +enter Bhutan." +</p> +<p> +And the subaltern was still more surprised when the animals, which +numbered over a hundred, fell in behind Badshah—cows with calves +leading, tuskers in rear—and followed him submissively in single file +as he headed for the mountains. When night fell they were climbing above +the foot-hills under the vivid tropic stars. +</p> +<p> +A couple of hours before midnight the leader halted, and the line behind +him scattered to feed on the bamboos and the luscious grasses, though +the younger calves nuzzled their mothers' breasts. Badshah sank to his +knees to allow his passengers to dismount and relieve him of his pad. +The three men ate and then wrapped themselves in their blankets, for it +was very cold high up in the mountains, and stretched themselves to +sleep, as the great animals around them ceased to feed and rested. +Badshah lowered himself cautiously to the ground and lay down near his +men. +</p> +<p> +Before Wargrave lost consciousness he marvelled at Dermot's uncanny +power over the huge beasts around them—a power that could make these +shy mammoths thus subservient to his purposes. He began to understand +why his companion was regarded as a demigod by the wild jungle-folk and +hill-dwellers. +</p> +<p> +When at daybreak the herd moved on again, climbing ever higher in the +mountains, the three men lay flat on Badshah's back and covered +themselves with their grey blankets lest vigilant watchers on the peaks +around might espy them. Thus do the <i>mahouts</i> of the <i>koonkies</i>, or +trained female elephants employed in hunting and snaring wild tuskers, +conceal themselves during the chase. +</p> +<p> +But darkness shielded them effectively when the herd swept at length +through a rocky pass on the frontier-line between India and Bhutan, and +with cries of fear and dismay armed men seated around watch-fires fled +in panic before the earth-shaking host. The screen was penetrated. +</p> +<p> +Daylight found them on the banks of a broad, swift-flowing river in a +valley between the range of mountains through which they had passed and +a line of still more formidable and snow-clad peaks. The elephants swam +the wide and rushing water, for of all land animals their kind are the +best swimmers. The tiniest babies were supported by the trunks of their +mothers, on to whose backs older calves climbed and were thus carried +across. Without stopping the herd plunged into the awful passes of the +next range, of which they were not clear until the evening of the +following day. Then they halted in dense forest. +</p> +<p> +Next morning Dermot took from the pockets of Badshah's pad the dresses +and other things that they needed for their disguises, and instead of +replacing the pad concealed it carefully. Then he said: +</p> +<p> +"We'll leave our escort here, Wargrave, and carry on by ourselves; for +we are not far from inhabited and cultivated country, and indeed fairly +near the <i>Jong</i> (castle) of our enemy the Penlop of Tuna." +</p> +<p> +The wild elephants were feeding all around, paying no heed to them. The +Colonel turned to Badshah and pointing to the ground said one word: +</p> +<p> +"<i>Raho</i>! (Remain!)" +</p> +<p> +Then he continued to Wargrave: +</p> +<p> +"We'll find them, or they'll find us, whenever we return." +</p> +<p> +An hour later two elderly lamas in soiled yellow robes and horn-rimmed +spectacles, followed by a lame coolie carrying their scanty possessions, +emerged, rosary and praying-wheel in hand, from the forest into the +cultivated country. +</p> +<p> +For some weeks they wandered unsuspected through the Tuna Penlop's +dominions and even penetrated into his own <i>jong</i>, where they were +entertained and their prayers solicited by his cut-throat retainers. +They learned enough to realise that the <i>Amban</i> was endeavouring by the +free supply of arms and military instructors to form here the nucleus of +a trained force to be employed eventually against India, backed up by +reinforcements of Chinese troops and contingents from other parts of +Bhutan. +</p> +<p> +Their investigations completed they returned safely to the forest in +which they had left the herd; and, much to Wargrave's relief, they had +not been many hours camped on the spot where they had parted with them +when Badshah and his wild companions appeared. The spies returned to +India as they had come, unseen and unsuspected. +</p> +<p> +This excursion was but the first of many that Wargrave made with the +Colonel and the herd; and he soon began to know almost every member of +it and make friends, not only with the solemn but friendly little +calves, but even with their less trusting mothers. He was now thoroughly +at home in the jungle and no longer needed a tutor in sport. His one +room in the Mess began to be overcrowded with trophies of his skill with +the rifle. Other tiger-skins had joined the first; and, although he had +not secured a second bison, several good heads of <i>sambhur</i>, <i>khakur</i> +and <i>cheetul</i>, or spotted deer, hung on his whitewashed stone walls. +</p> +<p> +Thus with sport and work more fascinating than sport Wargrave found the +months slipping by. From Raymond he learned that Violet had returned to +Rohar before she wrote herself. When she did she seemed to be in a +brighter and more affectionate, as well as calmer, mood than she had +been before her visit to Poona. But gradually her letters became less +and less frequent; and Frank began to wonder—with a little sense of +guilty, shamed hope—if she were beginning to forget him. +</p> +<p> +Christmas came; and with its coming Ranga Duar woke again to life. +Besides the Bensons and Carter, who now brought his wife, Mrs. Dermot's +brother—a subaltern in an Indian cavalry regiment—and five planters, +old friends of his from the district in which he had once been a planter +himself, came to spend Christmas in the small station. Major Hunt's +bungalow and the Mess took in the overflow from the Political Officer's +house. +</p> +<p> +Brian and Eileen had the gayest, happiest time of their little lives. +Presents were heaped on them. Muriel and Frank initiated them into all +the delights of their first Christmas tree, and Burke introduced them to +a real Punch and Judy Show. On Christmas Day Badshah, his neck encircled +with a garland of flowers procured from the Plains, was led up solemnly +by his seldom-seen <i>mahout</i> to present Colonel Dermot with a gilded lime +and receive in return a present of silver rupees which passed into the +possession of the said <i>mahout</i>. Then he was fed with dainties by the +children; and Eileen insisted on being tossed aloft by the curving +trunk, to the detriment of her starched party frock. +</p> +<p> +The weather was appropriate to the season, cold and bright, and although +no snow fell so low down, it froze at night, so that the Europeans could +indulge in the luxury—in India—of gathering around blazing wood fires +after dinner. +</p> +<p> +All, young and old, thoroughly enjoyed this almost English-like +Christmas—all except one. Burke's attentions to Muriel became more +marked and more full of meaning than they had ever been before; and it +was patent that he intended to put his fate to the touch during this +visit of hers. He did so without success, it seemed; for before she left +there was an evident sense of constraint between them and they tried to +avoid sitting beside each other or being left alone together, even for a +moment. Shortly after the departure of the visitors Burke contrived to +effect an exchange to another station, to the regret of all in the +little outpost, and he was replaced by a young Scots surgeon, named +Macdonald, his opposite in every way. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0011" id="h2HCH0011"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XI +</h2> +<h3> + TRAGEDY +</h3> +<p> +The annual Durbar for the reception of the Bhutan Envoy and the payment +of the subsidy had come and gone again. The <i>Deb Zimpun</i>, who had not +been accompanied by the Chinese <i>Amban</i> on this occasion, had departed; +and of the few European visitors only Muriel Benson remained. Colonel +Dermot had been called away to Simla, to confer with officials of the +Foreign Department on matters of frontier policy. Major Hunt was ill +with fever, leaving Wargrave, who was still nominally attached to the +Military Police, in command of the detachment. +</p> +<p> +It was delicious torture to Frank to be in the same place again with +Muriel, to see her from the parade ground or the Mess verandah playing +in the garden with the children, to meet her every day and talk to her +and yet be obliged to school his lips and keep them from uttering the +words that trembled on them. +</p> +<p> +A few nights after the Durbar he dined with Mrs. Dermot and Muriel and +was sitting on the verandah of the Political Officer's house with them +after dinner. He was wearing white mess uniform. The evening was warm +and very still, and whenever the conversation died away, no sound save +the monotonous note of the nightjars or the sudden cry of a +barking-deer, broke the silence since the echoes of the "Lights Out" +bugle call had died away among the hills. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave looked at his watch. +</p> +<p> +"It's past eleven o'clock," he said. "I'd no idea it was so late. I +ought to get up and say goodnight; but I'm so comfortable here, Mrs. +Dermot." +</p> +<p> +His hostess smiled lazily at him but made no reply. Again a peaceful +hush fell on them. +</p> +<p> +With startling suddenness it was broken. From the Fort four hundred +yards away a rifle-shot rang out, rending the silence of the night and +reverberating among the hills around. Wargrave sprang to his feet as +shouts followed and a bugle shrilled out the soul-gripping "Alarm," the +call that sends a thrill through every soldier's frame. For always it +tells of disaster. Heard thus at night in barracks swift following on a +shot it spoke of crime, of murder, the black murder of a comrade. +</p> +<p> +The two women had risen anxiously. +</p> +<p> +"What is it? Oh, what is it?" they asked. +</p> +<p> +The subaltern spoke lightly to re-assure them. +</p> +<p> +"Nothing much, I expect. Some man on guard fooling with his rifle let it +off by accident," he said quietly. "Excuse me. I'd better stroll across +to the Fort and see." +</p> +<p> +But Mrs. Dermot stopped him. +</p> +<p> +"Wait a moment please, Mr. Wargrave," she said, running into the house. +She returned immediately with her husband's big automatic pistol and +handed it to him. In her left hand she held a smaller one. "Take this +with you. It's loaded," she said. +</p> +<p> +Frank thanked her, said goodnight to both calmly, and walked down the +garden path; but the anxious women heard him running swiftly across the +parade ground. +</p> +<p> +"What is it, Noreen? What does it mean?" asked the girl nervously. +</p> +<p> +"A sepoy running amuck, I'm afraid," replied her friend. "He's shot +someone——." +</p> +<p> +She swung round, pistol raised. +</p> +<p> +"<i>Kohn hai</i>? (Who's that?)" she called out. +</p> +<p> +A man had come noiselessly on to the shadowed end of the verandah. +</p> +<p> +"It is I, <i>mem-sahib</i>," answered Sher Afzul, her Punjaubi Mahommedan +butler. He had been in her service for five years and was devoted to her +and hers. He was carrying a rifle, for his master at his request had +long ago given him arms to protect his <i>mem-sahib</i>. Before her marriage +he had once fought almost to the death to defend her when her brother's +bungalow had been attacked by rebels during a rising. +</p> +<p> +"It would be well to go into the house and put out the lights, +<i>mem-sahib</i>," he said quietly in Hindustani. "There is danger to-night." +</p> +<p> +As he spoke he extinguished the lamp on the verandah and closed the +doors of the house. A second armed servant came quietly on to the +verandah and the butler melted into the darkness of the garden; but they +heard him go to the gate as if to guard it. +</p> +<p> +"You had better go inside, Muriel," said Mrs. Dermot, but made no move +to do so herself. +</p> +<p> +The girl did not appear to hear her. She was listening intently for any +sound from the Fort. But silence had fallen on it. +</p> +<p> +"Muriel, won't you go into the house?" repeated her hostess. +</p> +<p> +"Eh? What? No, I couldn't. I must stay here," replied Miss Benson +impatiently. In the black darkness the other woman could not see her; +but she felt that the girl's every sense was alert and strained to the +utmost. She moved to her and put her arm about her. Against it she could +feel Muriel's heart beating violently. +</p> +<p> +Suddenly from the Fort came the noise of heavy blows and a crash, +instantly followed by a shot and then fierce cries. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, my God! What is happening?" murmured the girl, her hand on her +heart. +</p> +<p> +Presently there came the sound of running feet, and heavy boots +clattered up the rocky road towards the Mess past the gate. +</p> +<p> +Then the butler's voice rang out in challenge: +</p> +<p> +"<i>Kohn jatha</i>? (Who goes there?)" +</p> +<p> +A panting voice answered: +</p> +<p> +"Wargrave Sahib <i>murgya</i>. Doctor Sahib <i>ko bulana ko jatha</i>"—(Wargrave +Sahib is killed. I go to call the Doctor Sahib)—and the sepoy ran on in +the darkness. +</p> +<p> +"O God! O God!" cried the girl, and tried to break from her friend's +clasp. "Let me go! Let me go!" +</p> +<p> +"Where to?" asked Noreen, holding the frenzied girl with all her +strength. +</p> +<p> +"To him. He's dead. Didn't you hear? He's dead. I must go to him." +</p> +<p> +She struggled madly and beat fiercely at the hands that held her. +</p> +<p> +"Let me go! Let me go! Oh, he's dead," she wailed. "Dead. And I loved +him so. Oh, be merciful! Let me go to him!" and suddenly her strength +gave way and she collapsed into Noreen's arms, weeping bitterly. +</p> +<p> +They heard the clattering steps meet others coming down the hill and a +hurried conversation ensue. Noreen recognised one of the voices. Then +both men came running down. +</p> +<p> +"It's the doctor," said Mrs. Dermot. "Come to the gate and we'll ask him +what has happened." +</p> +<p> +"Mr. Macdonald! Mr. Macdonald!" she cried as the hurrying footsteps drew +near. +</p> +<p> +"Who's that? Mrs. Dermot? For God's sake get into the house. There's a +man running amuck. Wargrave's killed. I'm wanted"; and the doctor, +taking no thought of danger to himself when there was need of his skill, +ran on into the darkness. +</p> +<p> +"I must—I will go!" cried Muriel. +</p> +<p> +"Very well. Perhaps it's not true. We must know. We may be able to +help," replied her friend. +</p> +<p> +And with a word to Sher Afzul to guard her babies from danger she seized +Muriel's hand, and the two girls ran towards the Fort in the track that +Wargrave had followed to his death, it seemed. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +Pistol in hand Wargrave had raced across the parade ground. At the gate +of the Fort he was challenged; and when he answered an Indian officer +came out of the darkness to him. +</p> +<p> +"Sahib," he said hurriedly. "Havildar Mahommed Ashraf Khan has been shot +in his bed in barracks. The sentry over the magazine is missing with his +rifle." +</p> +<p> +Wargrave entered the Fort. Opposite the guard-room the detachment was +falling in rapidly, the men carrying their rifles and running up from +their barrack-rooms in various stages of undress. By the flickering +light of a lantern held up for him a non-commissioned officer was +calling the roll, and his voice rumbled along in monotonous tones. The +guard were standing under arms. +</p> +<p> +"Put out that lamp!" cried the subaltern sharply. It would only serve to +light up other marks for the invisible assassin if, like most men who +run <i>amôk</i>, he meant to keep on killing until slain himself. "No; take +it into the guard-room and shut the door." +</p> +<p> +In the darkness the silence was intense, broken only by the heavy +breathing of the unseen men and the clattering of the feet of some +late-comer. Suddenly there rang out through the night the most appalling +sound that had ever assailed Wargrave's ears. It was as the cry of a +lost soul in all the agony of the damned, an eerie, unearthly wail that +froze the blood in the listeners' veins. In the invisible ranks men +shuddered and clutched at their neighbours. +</p> +<p> +"<i>Khuda ke Nam men, kiya hai?</i> (In the Name of God, what is that?)" +gasped the subaltern. +</p> +<p> +The Indian officer at his side answered in a low voice: +</p> +<p> +"It is Ashraf Khan crying out in pain, Sahib. He is not yet dead." +</p> +<p> +"<i>Subhedar</i> sahib, come with me," said Wargrave. "Let your <i>jemadar</i> +(lieutenant) take the men one by one into the guard-room and examine the +rifles to see if any have been fired. We don't know yet if the missing +sentry did the deed." +</p> +<p> +The <i>Subhedar</i> (company commander) gave the order to his subordinate and +followed Wargrave to the barrack-room in which the crime had been +committed. The sight that met the subaltern's eyes was one that he was +not easily to forget. +</p> +<p> +The high-roofed chamber was in darkness save at one end where a small +lamp cast weird shadows on the walls and vaulting ceiling. At this end +and under the flickering light a group of figures stood round a bed on +which a man was writhing in agony. He was struggling in delirious frenzy +to hurl himself to the stone floor, and was only held down by the united +efforts of three men. From a bullet wound in his bared chest the +life-blood welled with every movement of his tortured body. He had been +shot in the back as he lay asleep. The lips covered with a bloody froth +were drawn back tightly over the white teeth clenched in agony, and red +foam lay on the black beard. Out of the sweat-bathed, ghastly face the +eyes glared in frenzy. The features were contorted with pain. Again and +again the wild shrieks like the howl of a mad thing rang through the +long room and out into the night. +</p> +<p> +With tear-filled eyes and heart torn with pity Wargrave looked down at +him in silence. Ashraf Khan was one of his best men. "But where is the +doctor sahib?" he asked the native officer suddenly. +</p> +<p> +The <i>subhedar</i> stared and shook his head. In the excitement no one had +thought of sending for the medical officer. Wargrave turned to one of +the men around the bed. +</p> +<p> +"Mahbub Khan, run hard to the Mess and call the doctor sahib. Here, +stop!" He remembered that Macdonald did not possess a revolver. For all +one knew he might encounter the murderer on his way. Wargrave thrust +Mrs. Dermot's pistol into the sepoy's hand, saying, "Give the sahib +that." +</p> +<p> +The man, who was barefoot, ran out of the chamber and went to his own +barrack-room for his shoes, for the road was rocky and covered with +sharp stones. The subaltern turned away with a sigh from the bedside of +his poor comrade. He could do nothing now but avenge him. As he walked +away from the group he trod on an empty cartridge case and picked it up. +It had recently been fired. It told its tale; for it showed that the +assassin had reloaded over his victim and intended that the killing +should not end there. If he were the missing sentry then he had nine +more cartridges left—nine human lives in his blood-stained hand. And as +the subaltern crossed the verandah outside the barrack-room the +<i>jemadar</i> met him and reported that all the rifles of the detachment had +been examined and found clean except the missing weapon of the sentry, a +young Pathan sepoy called Gul Mahommed. It was remembered that the dying +<i>havildar</i> (sergeant) had reprimanded him hotly on the previous day for +appearing on parade with accoutrements dirty. So little a cause was +needed to send a man to his death! +</p> +<p> +The first thing to be done now was to hunt for the murderer. While he +went free no one's life was safe. Wargrave shuddered at the thought of +danger coming to Muriel or her friend, and he hoped that they were +safely shut in their house. It was a difficult problem to know where to +begin the search. The Fort was full of hiding-places, especially at +night. And already the assassin might have escaped over the low wall +surrounding it. As Wargrave stood perplexed another Indian officer ran +up, accompanied by two men with rifles. +</p> +<p> +"Sahib! Sahib!" he whispered excitedly. "The murderer is in my room, the +one next that in which Ashraf Kahn was shot. I left the door wide open +when I ran out. It is now shut and bolted from the inside and someone is +moving about in it." +</p> +<p> +The subaltern went along the verandah to the door and tried it. It was +firmly fastened. +</p> +<p> +"Here, sahib!" cried a sepoy who ran up with a comrade carrying a heavy +log. +</p> +<p> +"<i>Shahbash</i>! (Well done!) Break in the door," said Wargrave. +</p> +<p> +Other men, who had come up, seized the long log and dashed it violently +against the door. The bolt held, but the frail hinges gave way and the +door fell in. +</p> +<p> +"Stand back!" cried Wargrave. +</p> +<p> +It seemed certain death to enter the room in which a murderer lurked in +darkness, armed with a rifle and fixed bayonet and resolved to sell his +life dearly. But the subaltern did not hesitate. He was the only sahib +there and of course it was his duty to go in. He could not ask his men +to risk a danger that he shirked himself. That is not the officer's +way, whose motto must ever be "Follow where I lead." +</p> +<p> +Wargrave sprang into the room unarmed. He was outlined against the faint +light outside. A spurt of flame lit the darkness; and the subaltern, as +he tripped over the raised threshold, felt that he was shot. He +staggered on. A rifle lunged forward and the bayonet stabbed him in the +side; but with a desperate effort he closed with his unseen assailant +and grappled fiercely with him. Struggling to overpower the assassin +before his ebbing strength left him he fought madly. The Indian officers +and sepoys blocking up the doorway could see nothing; but they could +hear the choking gasps, the panting breaths, the muttered curses and the +stamping feet of the combatants locked in the death-grapple. They could +not interfere, they dared not fire. In impotent fury they shouted: +</p> +<p> +"Bring lamps! Bring lamps!" +</p> +<p> +Then, groaning in their powerlessness to aid their beloved officer, they +listened, as a light danced over the stones from a lantern in the hand +of a running sepoy. The moment it came and lit up the scene they rushed +on the murderer wrestling fiercely with Wargrave and dragged him off as +the subaltern collapsed and fell to the ground. The glare of the lantern +shone on his white face. +</p> +<p> +"The sahib is dead!" cried a sepoy, and sprang at the murderer who was +struggling in the grip of the two powerfully-built Indian officers. +Others followed him, and his captors had to fight hard and use all their +authority to keep the prisoner from being killed by the bare hands of +his maddened comrades. Only the arrival of the armed men of the guard +saved him. +</p> +<p> +Frenzied with grief the sepoys bent over their officer lying motionless +and apparently dead on the stone floor. They loved him. Many of them +wept openly and unashamed. The <i>subhedar</i> knelt beside him and opened +his shirt. The blood had soaked through the white mess-jacket that +Wargrave wore. +</p> +<p> +The native officer looked up into the ring of brown faces bent over him. +Suddenly he cried angrily: +</p> +<p> +"Mahbub Khan, why hast thou not gone for the doctor sahib as thou wert +told, O Son of an Owl?" +</p> +<p> +The face staring in horror between the heads of the sepoys was hurriedly +withdrawn, and Mahbub Khan, who had lingered to see the end of the +tragedy, turned and pushed his way out of the crowd. +</p> +<p> +Macdonald found the subaltern lying to all appearances dead on the +broken door out in the open, where they had gently carried him. +</p> +<p> +"Hold a light here," he cried as he knelt down beside the body. +</p> +<p> +By now a dozen lanterns or more lit up the scene. The doctor laid his +ear against Wargrave's chest and held a polished cigarette case to his +lips. Then he pulled back the shirt to examine his injuries. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, is he dead? Is he dead?" cried a trembling voice. +</p> +<p> +The doctor, looking up angrily, found Miss Benson and Mrs. Dermot +standing over him. The sepoys had silently made way for them. +</p> +<p> +"You shouldn't be here, ladies," he said with justifiable annoyance. +"This is no place for you. No; he's not dead. And I hope and think that +he won't die." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, thank God!" cried the two women. +</p> +<p> +The sepoys crowding round and hanging on the doctor's verdict could not +understand the words but saw the look of joyous relief on their faces +and guessed the truth. A wild, confused cheer went up to the stars. +</p> +<p> +"Mr. Macdonald," said Mrs. Dermot bending over him again. "Will you +bring him to my house? There is no accommodation for him in your little +hospital, you know; and he'd have no one to look after him in the Mess. +I can nurse him." +</p> +<p> +The doctor straightened himself on his knee and looked down at the +unconscious man. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, Mrs. Dermot, it's a good idea," he replied. "There is nowhere else +where he'd get any attention. My hands are full with Major Hunt. He's +taken a turn for the worse. His temperature went up dangerously high +to-night; and he was almost delirious." +</p> +<p> +He stood up. +</p> +<p> +"I can't examine Wargrave properly here. He seems to be wounded in two +places. But I hope it's not—I mean, I think he'll pull through. His +pulse is getting stronger. I've put a first dressing on; and I think we +can move him. Hi! stretcher <i>idher lao</i>. (Bring the stretcher here!)" +</p> +<p> +Suddenly Wargrave opened his eyes and looked up in the doctor's face. +</p> +<p> +"Is that you, Macdonald?" he asked dreamily. "Never mind me; I'm all +right. Go to poor Ashraf Khan. If he must die, at least give him +something to put him out of his misery. I can wait." +</p> +<p> +His voice trailed off, and he relapsed into unconsciousness. Ordering +him to be carried away the doctor, after a word with the Indian +officers, entered the barrack-room. It was useless. Ashraf Khan had just +died. +</p> +<p> +The crowd fell back in a wide circle to let the two hospital orderlies +bring up the stretcher for Wargrave and, as they did, left a group of +men standing isolated in the centre. All of these were armed, except one +whose hands were pinioned behind his back. His head was bare, his face +bruised and bleeding, and his uniform nearly torn off his body. It +needed no telling that he was the murderer. +</p> +<p> +Miss Benson walked up to him with fierce eyes. +</p> +<p> +"You dog!" she cried bitterly in Urdu. +</p> +<p> +The man who had smiled defiantly when the hands of his raging comrades +were seeking to tear the life out of his body and had shouted out his +crime in their faces, cowered before the anger in the flaming eyes of +this frail girl. He shrank back between his guards. The sepoys looking +on howled like hungry wolves and, as Mrs. Dermot drew the girl back, +made a rush for the murderer. The men of the guard faced them with +levelled bayonets and ringed their prisoner round; and the sepoys fell +back sullenly. +</p> +<p> +Suddenly a shrill voice cried in Hindustani: +</p> +<p> +"Make way! Make way there! What has happened?" +</p> +<p> +The circle of men gapped and through the opening came Major Hunt, +white-faced, wasted, shaking with fever and clad only in pyjamas and a +great coat and with bare feet thrust into unlaced shoes. He staggered +feebly in among them, revolver in hand. +</p> +<p> +"Heaven and Earth! Is Wargrave dead?" he cried and tottered towards the +stretcher. +</p> +<p> +Suddenly the pistol dropped from his shaking hand and he fell forward on +the stones before Macdonald could catch him. +</p> +<p> +"This is madness," muttered the doctor. "It may kill him. I hoped he +wouldn't hear the alarm." +</p> +<p> +"Bring him to my house too," said Mrs. Dermot. +</p> +<p> +Another stretcher was fetched, the Major lifted tenderly into it, and +the sad procession started, the sepoys falling back silently to make +way. +</p> +<p> +Major Hunt having been put to bed in one of the guest-rooms of the +Political Officer's house, Macdonald, with the aid of the subaltern's +servant, undressed Wargrave and examined his injuries, Noreen holding a +basin for him while Muriel, shuddering, carried away the blood-tinged +water and brought fresh. The shot-wound, though severe, was not +necessarily dangerous, and the bullet had not lodged in him. The doctor +was relieved to find that the bayonet had not penetrated deeply but had +only glanced along a rib, tearing the intercostal muscles and inflicting +a long, jagged but superficial wound which bled freely. Indeed, the most +serious matter was the great loss of blood, which had weakened the +subaltern considerably. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave did not recover consciousness until early morning. When he +opened his eyes they fell on Muriel sitting by his bed. He showed no +surprise and the girl, scarce daring to believe that he was awake and +knew her, did not venture to move. But as he continued to look steadily +at her she gently laid her hand on his where it lay on the coverlet. +</p> +<p> +Then in a weak voice he said: +</p> +<p> +"Dearest, I mustn't love you, I mustn't. I'm bound in honour—bound to +another woman and I must play the game. It's hard sometimes. But if I +die I want you to know I loved you, only you." +</p> +<p> +Her heart seemed to stop suddenly, then beat again with redoubled force. +Was he conscious? Was he speaking to her? Did he know what his words +meant? She waited eagerly for him to continue; but his hand closed on +hers in a weak grip and, shutting his eyes, he seemed to sleep. The girl +sank on her knees beside the bed and stared at the pale face that in +those few hours had grown so hollow and haggard. Did he really love her? +The thought was joy—until the damning memory of his other words +recurred to her and a sharp pain pierced her heart. There was another +woman then—one who held his promise. Who was she? He could not be +secretly married, surely; no, it must be that he was engaged to some +other girl. But he loved her—her, Muriel. He wanted to say so, he had +said so, though he strove to hold back, in honour bound. He would play +the game—ah! that he would do at any cost to himself. For she knew his +chivalrous nature. But he loved her—she was sure of it. Then the doubts +came again—did he know what he was saying? Was it perhaps only delirium +that spoke, the fever of his wounds? The girl suffered an agony worse +than death as she knelt beside the bed, her forehead on his hand. And +Noreen, entering softly an hour later, found her still crouched there, +weeping bitterly but silently. +</p> +<p> +Shortly after sunrise Macdonald entered the house, wan and haggard, for +he had not been to bed all night. Besides the hours that he had spent +with his patients he had been busy in the Fort all night. He had to make +an autopsy of the dead man, and, as the only officer available, +investigate the crime, examine the witnesses and the prisoner who calmly +confessed his guilt, and telegraph the news of the occurrences to +Regimental, Divisional and Army Headquarters. He found Major Hunt +sleeping peacefully; but Wargrave woke as he tiptoed into the room and +looked up at him, at first not seeing the women. He was fully conscious +and asked eagerly for an account of what had happened. Noreen and Muriel +shuddered at the delight with which he heard of the murderer's capture; +for they were too tender-hearted to understand his passionate desire to +avenge the cruel slaying of one of his men. When he turned away from +Macdonald and saw Muriel his eyes shone eagerly for a moment, then +seemed to dull as memory returned to him. He begged Mrs. Dermot to +forgive him for upsetting her domestic arrangements by his intrusion +into the house. +</p> +<p> +Later in the morning Noreen was sitting alone with him, having sent +Muriel to lie down for a couple of hours. She had not been to bed +herself, but after a bath and a change of clothing had given her +children their breakfast and bidden them make no noise, because their +beloved "Fwankie" was lying ill in the house. Yet she could not forbear +to smile when she saw the portentous gravity with which Eileen tiptoed +out into the garden to tell Badshah the news and order him to be very +quiet. +</p> +<p> +Now, looking fresh and bright, she sat beside Wargrave's bed. Since the +doctor had left him he had lain thinking. He felt that Violet must be +informed at once that he had been hurt but was in no danger, lest she +might learn of the occurrence through another source and believe him to +be worse than he really was. As he looked at Mrs. Dermot the desire to +ask her instead of Macdonald if she would be the one to communicate with +Mrs. Norton grew overwhelming, and he felt that he wanted to confide to +her the whole story, sure that she would understand. And she could tell +Muriel—for he had been quite conscious when he had spoken to the girl +in the morning. It was only right that she should know the truth, but he +shrank from telling it to her himself. +</p> +<p> +So he opened his heart to Noreen; and the understanding little woman +listened sympathisingly and made no comment, and undertook to explain +the situation to Muriel. So, an hour or two later, when Macdonald was +again with the subaltern, she went to her friend's room and told her the +whole story. +</p> +<p> +The girl's first feeling was anger at the thought of Frank making love +to a married woman. +</p> +<p> +"Seems to me it's the married woman who made it to him, from what I can +gather," said Noreen, a little annoyed with Muriel for her way of +receiving the story. "He did not say so, but it was easy to guess the +truth. Now, my dear, don't be absurd. Men are not angels; and if a +pretty woman flings herself at the head of one of them it's hard for +him to keep her at arm's length. And you've seen yourself in Darjeeling +how some of them, the married ones especially, do chase them." Her eyes +grew hard as she continued, "I remember how Kevin once was——." Then +she stopped. +</p> +<p> +"But Frank! How could he? Oh, how could he? And he loved her," sobbed +the girl. +</p> +<p> +"Don't be silly, Muriel. I tell you I don't believe he ever did. He +loves you now." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, do you think he does? What am I to do?" +</p> +<p> +"Nothing. Merely go along as you've been doing. Just be friendly. And +don't be hard on him. He's had a bad time. I've always felt that there +was something troubling him. Now I know; and I'm not going to let him +ruin himself and throw away his happiness for a woman who's not worth +it. He's the nicest, cleanest-minded man I've known after Kevin and my +brother. He saved my babies, and for that I'd do anything for him. I +feel almost as if he were one of my children; and I'll stand by him if +you won't." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, but I will, I will," cried the girl. "But how can I help him?" +</p> +<p> +"As I said, by acting as if nothing had happened and just keeping on +being friends. It oughtn't to be hard. See how he's suffering and think +how brave he's been. Remember, he loves you; and you do care for him, +don't you? I've an idea that he hopes that this woman is tiring of him +and may set him free. Of course he didn't say as much, but——." She +nodded sagely. Her intuition had told her more of his feelings in a +minute than Frank had dared to acknowledge to himself in many months. +"Anything I can do to help to bring that about I will." +</p> +<p> +The days went by; and Wargrave, aided by his clean living, the devoted +nursing that he received, and the cool, healthy mountain air, began to +mend. Major Hunt had recovered and returned to duty, relieving the +officer sent from Headquarters to command during his illness. Colonel +Dermot had come back from Simla with Frank's appointment to the +Political Department as his assistant in his pocket. The murdered man +had long ago been laid to rest by his comrades; but his slayer still sat +fettered in the one cell of the Fort awaiting the assembling of the +General Court Martial for his trial, and seeing from his barred window +the even routine of the life that had been his for three years still +going on, but with no place in it for him. +</p> +<p> +The period of Wargrave's convalescence was a very happy time for him. +Muriel had remained a whole month after the eventful night; for Mrs. +Dermot declared that, with the care of her house and children, she had +no time to nurse the subaltern, and the girl must stay to do it while he +was in any danger. So she lingered in the station to do him willing +service, wait on him, chat or read to him, give him her arm when he was +first allowed to leave his room, and did it all with the bright, +cheerful kindness of a friend, no more. She never alluded to his words +to her; but her patient somehow guessed that she had not been angered by +the revelation of the state of his feelings towards her. And from the +tenderness of her manner to him, the unconscious jealousy that she +displayed if anyone but she did any service for him, he began to half +hope, half fear, that she cared a little for him in return. But even as +he thought this he realised that he must not allow her to do so. +</p> +<p> +At last the time came when she had to return to her father down in the +vast forest; and bravely as she said goodbye to everyone—and most of +all to Frank—the tears blinded her as she sat on the back of the +elephant that bore her away and saw the hills close in and shut from her +gaze the little station that held her heart. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave, however, was not left to pine in loneliness after her +departure. All day long, if they were allowed, the children stayed with +him, Eileen smothering him with caresses at regular intervals. They told +him their doings, confided their dearest secrets to him and demanded +stories. And "Fwankie" racked his brains to recall the fairy tales of +his own childhood to repeat to the golden-haired mites perched on his +bed and gazing at him in awed fascination, the girl uttering little +shrieks at all the harrowing details of the wicked deeds of Giant +Blunderbore and the cruel deceit of the wolf that devoured Red +Ridinghood. +</p> +<p> +But the subaltern, had a grimmer visitor one day. The orders came at +last for Gul Mahommed to be sent to Calcutta to stand his trial without +waiting for Wargrave's recovery, the latter's evidence being taken on +commission. The prisoner begged that he might be allowed to see the +wounded officer before he left; and, Frank having consented, he was +brought to the subaltern's bedroom when he was marched out of the Fort +on the first stage of his journey to the gallows. +</p> +<p> +It was a dramatic scene. The stalwart young Pathan in uniform with his +wrists handcuffed stood with all the bold bearing of his race by the +bedside of the man that he had tried to kill, while two powerful sepoys +armed with drawn bayonets hemmed him in, their hands on his shoulders. +</p> +<p> +The prisoner looked for a moment at the pale face of the wounded man, +then his bold eyes suffused with tears as he said: +</p> +<p> +"<i>Huzoor</i>! (The Presence!) I am sorry. Had I known that night it was +Your Honour I would not have lifted my rifle against you. The Sahib has +always been good to me, to all of us. My enemy I slew, as we of the +<i>Puktana</i> must do to all who insult us. That deed I do not regret." +</p> +<p> +Wargrave looked up sorrowfully at the splendidly-built young +fellow—barely twenty-one—who had only done as he had been taught to do +from his cradle. Among Pathans blood only can wash away the stain of an +insult. The officer felt no anger against him for his own injuries and +regretted that false notions of honour had led him to kill a comrade and +were now sending him to a shameful death. +</p> +<p> +"I am sorry, Gul Mahommed, very sorry," he said. "You were always a good +soldier, and now you must die." +</p> +<p> +The Pathan drew himself up with all the haughty pride of his race. +</p> +<p> +"I do not fear death, Sahib. They will give me the noose. But my father +can spare me. He has five other sons to fight for him. If only the Sahib +would forgive——." +</p> +<p> +Wargrave, much moved, held out his hand to him. The prisoner touched it +with his manacled ones, then raised his fingers to his forehead. +</p> +<p> +"For your kindness, Sahib, <i>salaam</i>!" +</p> +<p> +Then he turned and walked proudly out of the room and Wargrave heard the +tramp of heavy feet on the rocky road outside as the prisoner was +marched away on the long trail to the gallows. Two months later Gul +Mahommed was hanged in the courtyard of Alipur jail in Calcutta before +detachments of all the regiments garrisoning the city. +</p> +<p> +The subaltern had long chafed at the restraint of an invalid before +Macdonald took him off the sick-list and he was free to wander again +with Colonel Dermot in the forest and among the mountains. Before the +hot weather ended Raymond came to spend three weeks with him and be +initiated into the delights of sport in the great jungle. +</p> +<p> +When the long imprisonment of the rains came Wargrave began to suffer in +health; for his wounds had sapped his strength more than he knew and +Macdonald shook his head over him. Nor was he the only invalid; for +little Brian grew pale and listless in the mists that enveloped the +outpost constantly now, until finally the doctor decreed that his +mother, much as she hated parting from her husband and her home, must +take the children to Darjeeling. And he ordered the subaltern to go too. +Frank did not repine, after Mrs. Dermot had casually intimated that +Muriel Benson was arranging to join her at the railway station and +accompany her on a long visit to Darjeeling. +</p> +<p> +It was Wargrave's first introduction to a hill-station; and everything +was a delightful novelty to him, from the quaint little train that +brought them up the seven thousand feet to their destination in the +pretty town of villas, clubs and hotels in the mountains, to the +glorious panorama of the Eternal Snows and Kinchinjunga's lofty crests +that rise like fairyland into the sky at early dawn and under the +brilliant Indian moon. +</p> +<p> +As Mrs. Dermot could not often leave her children it was Muriel, who +knew Darjeeling well, who became his guide. Together every day they set +out from their hotel, together they scaled the heights of Jalapahar or +rode down to watch the polo on the flat hill-top of Lebong, a thousand +feet below. Together they explored the fascinating bazaar and bought +ghost-daggers and turquoises in the quaint little shops. Together they +went on picnics down into the deep valleys on the way to Sikkhim. They +played tennis, rinked or danced together at the Amusement Club; and the +ladies at the tea-tables in the great lounge smiled significantly and +whispered to each other as the good-looking fair man and the pretty, +dark-haired girl came in together when the light was fading on the +mountains. Frank forgot cares. He ceased to brood unhappily—for it had +come to that—on Violet, who, as her rare letters told him, had spent +the Hot Weather in the Bombay hill-station of Mahableshwar and was now +enjoying life during the Rains in gay Poona. She seldom wrote, and then +but scrappily; and it seemed to him certain that she was forgetting him. +And he felt ashamed at the joy which filled him at the thought. Was he +always destined to be only the friend of the girl he loved, the lover of +the woman to whom he wished to be a friend? +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0012" id="h2HCH0012"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XII +</h2> +<h3> + "ROOTED IN DISHONOUR" +</h3> +<p> +Government House, Ganeshkind, outside Poona, the residence of the +Governor of Bombay during the Rains, was blazing with light and gay with +the sound of music; for His Excellency was giving a fancy dress ball. +Motors and carriages were still rolling up in a long line to the +entrance where the gorgeously-clad Indian Cavalry soldiers of the +Governor's Bodyguard—tall and stately back-bearded men in long scarlet +tunics, white breeches and high black boots, their heads swathed in +gaudy <i>loongies</i> (turbans) with tails streaming down their backs, +holding steel-headed bamboo lances with red and white pennons in their +white-gauntleted right hands—lined the approach. Inside, the splendid +ballroom, ablaze with electric lights, was crowded with gaily-dressed +figures in costumes beautiful or bizarre. The good-looking, middle-aged +baron who was the King's representative in the Bombay Presidency was +standing, dressed as Charles II., beside his plain but pleasant-featured +wife in the garb of Amy Robsart, receiving the last of their guests, +while already the dancing had begun. +</p> +<p> +Later in the evening a group of officers in varied costumes stood near +one of the entrances criticising the dresses and the company. +</p> +<p> +"By George, that's a magnificent kit," said a Garrison Gunner just +arrived on short leave from Bombay. "What's it supposed to be?" +</p> +<p> +"A Polish hussar, I think," replied a subaltern in Wellesley's Rifles. +</p> +<p> +"No, he's Murat, Napoleon's cavalry leader," said an Indian Lancer +captain. +</p> +<p> +The wearer of the costume alluded to was passing them in a waltz. He was +a young man in a splendid old-time hussar uniform, a scarlet dolman +thick-laced with gold, a fur-trimmed slung pelisse, tight scarlet +breeches embroidered down the front of the thighs in gold, and long red +Russian leather boots with gold tassels. He was good-looking, but not in +an English way, and the swarthiness of his complexion and a slight kink +in his dark hair seemed to hint a trace of coloured blood. He was +plainly Israelite in appearance; and the large nose with the +unmistakable racial curved nostril would become bulbous with years, the +firm cheeks flabby and the plump chin double. +</p> +<p> +"That dress cost some money, I'll bet," said the Gunner, cheaply attired +as a Pierrot. "Just look at the gold lace. I say, he's got glass +buttons." +</p> +<p> +"Glass be hanged, Fergie, they're diamonds. Real diamonds, honour +bright, Murat wore diamonds. He was buckin' about them in the Club +to-night," said a captain in a British infantry regiment quartered in +Poona. "That's Rosenthal of the 2nd Hussars from Bangalore. Son of old +Rosenthal the South African multi-millionaire. A Sheeny, of course." +</p> +<p> +"Who's the woman he's dancing with?" asked the Gunner. "Jolly +good-looking she is." +</p> +<p> +"That's Mrs. Norton, wife of a Political somewhere in the Presidency. +Rosenthal's always in her pocket since he met her at Mahableshwar." +</p> +<p> +As the dance ended the many couples streamed out of the ballroom and +made for the <i>kala juggas</i>—the "black places," as the sitting-out spots +are appropriately termed in India from the carefully-arranged lack of +light in them. Mrs. Norton, looking very lovely as Mary, Queen of Scots, +and her partner crossed the verandah and went out into the unlit garden +in search of seats. The first few they stumbled on were already +occupied, a fact that the darkness prevented them from realising until +they almost sat down on the occupants. At last in a retired corner of +the garden Rosenthal found a bench in a recess in the wall. As they +seated themselves he blurted out roughly: +</p> +<p> +"I'm sick of all this, Vi. When do you mean to give me your answer? I'm +damned if I'm going to hang on waiting much longer. I'm fed up with +India and the Army. I mean to cut it all." +</p> +<p> +"Well, Harry, what do you want?" asked his companion, smiling in the +darkness at his vehemence. +</p> +<p> +"Want? You. And you know it. I want to take you away from this rotten +country. What's all this——," he waved his hand towards the lighted +ballroom, "compared to Paris, Monte Carlo, Cairo, Ostend when the races +are on? Let's go where life is worth living. This is stagnation." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, I find it amusing. You forget, we women have a better time in India +than in Europe. There are too many of us there, so you don't value us." +</p> +<p> +"Better time. Oh, Law! What rot!" He laughed rudely. "You've never lived +yet, dear. Look here, Vi. My father's one of the three richest men in +South Africa; and all he's got will come to me some day. As it is he +gives me an allowance bigger than those of all the other men in the +regiment put together. I hate the Service and its idiotic discipline. I +want to be free—to go where money counts. Damn India!" +</p> +<p> +"Doesn't it count everywhere?" she asked, fanning herself lazily. His +rough, almost boorish, manner amused her always. She felt as if she were +playing with a caged tiger. "Doesn't it here?" +</p> +<p> +"No; in the Army they seem to think more of some damned pauper who comes +of a 'county family,' as they call it, than of a fellow like me who +could buy up a dozen of them. I hate them all. And I mean to chuck it. +But I want you to come with me, Vi. And, what's more, I mean to have +you." +</p> +<p> +"But your father wishes you to stay in the Service. You told me so +yourself. Will he like it if you leave—and will he continue your +allowance?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, I'll get round him. He's only got me. He's no one else to leave his +money to. It'd be all right, Vi. Answer me. I mean to get you." +</p> +<p> +He grasped her wrist and tried to drag her towards him. She laughed and +held him off. +</p> +<p> +"Take care, my dear boy. Darkness has ears. We're not alone in the +garden, please remember. If you can't behave prettily I'm going back to +the ballroom. Come, there's the music beginning again." +</p> +<p> +He tried to seize her in his arms, but she eluded his grasp with a +dexterity that argued practice, and, rising, moved across the grass. He +followed sulkily, dominated by her cool and careless indifference. When +they reached the verandah one of the Government House aides-de-camp +rushed up to her. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Mrs. Norton, I've been hunting for you everywhere. I've a message +from His Excellency. He wants you to come to his table at supper and +save him from the Members of Council's awful wives." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, thanks, Captain Gardner, I'll come with pleasure," she answered, +smiling prettily on him. An A.D.C. is always worth cultivating. +</p> +<p> +"I say, is it hopeless asking you for a dance now?" he said. "We poor +devils of the Staff don't get a chance at the beginning of the evening, +as we're so busy introducing people to Their Excellencies." +</p> +<p> +She looked at her programme. +</p> +<p> +"You can have this, if you like. It's only with some Indian Civilian in +spectacles; and I hate the Heaven Born. They're such bores." She smiled +and sailed off on the A.D.C.'s arm to the disgust of Rosenthal, calmly +abandoned. But he could not help being amused when a round-faced young +man dressed as an ancient Greek with gig-lamp spectacles rushed up to +overtake Mrs. Norton before she entered the ballroom, and stopped in +dismay to gaze after her open-mouthed and peer at his programme. +</p> +<p> +But the Hussar drove her back from Government House to Poona in his +particularly luxurious Rolls-Royce with an English chauffeur and would +hardly let her go when the car drew up before the door of the Munster +Hotel where she was staying. Laughing, crushed and dishevelled, she +broke from him and jumped out of the automobile, ran up the verandah +steps and turned to wave to him as the chauffeur started off to take him +to his quarters in the Club of Western India. +</p> +<p> +Still smiling Violet stumbled up the unlighted stairs and reached her +sitting-room. When she turned up the lamp a letter lying on the table +caught her eyes. She picked it up indifferently; but when she saw that +it bore the handwriting of one of her Calcutta cousins and the +Darjeeling postmark she tore it open eagerly and ran her eye rapidly +down the pages. She came to the lines: +</p> +<p class="quote"> + "I have seen the man you asked me about. He is always with a girl + called Benson, rather a pretty little thing. She is popular with all + the men; but Mr. Wargrave seems to be the favourite. They are + staying at the same hotel; and everyone says they are engaged." +</p> +<p> +Then the writer went on to talk of family matters. But Violet read no +more. Her eyes flamed with anger as she crumpled the paper up, flung it +on the floor and stamped it under foot. She paced the room angrily, +tearing the lace handkerchief she held in her hands to shreds. This, +then, was Frank's loyalty to her, this was how he consoled himself for +her absence. With this chit of a girl, with whom he probably laughed at +her, Violet's readiness to give up reputation, good fame, home, for him. +She almost sobbed with jealous rage at the idea. She forgot her own +infidelities and want of remembrance and felt herself to be a deceived +and much-abused woman. But she would not bear such treatment meekly. +Frank was hers; no other woman had a right to him, should ever have him. +She was resolved on that. She stopped and, picking up the letter, +smoothed it out and re-read it. Then, frowning, she passed into her +bedroom and tore off her costume. Not for an instant did she sleep +during the remainder of the night, but tossed on her bed, revolving +plans of vengeance. +</p> +<p> +Next day she was seated in the train on her way to Darjeeling, a +journey that would take days. She had telegraphed fruitlessly for a room +at the Oriental Hotel at which she knew from his letters that Frank was +staying; but she had secured one at the larger Eastern Palace where her +Calcutta relatives were residing. Only on the second day of her journey +did she wire to Wargrave, bidding him meet her on her arrival. +</p> +<p> +As the train carried her across India her heart was still filled with +anger, jealousy and almost hate of the man whom she had favoured above +all others and who spurned her, dared to be faithless to her, it seemed. +She did not know how much love she had left for him; for his image had +grown dim in the flight of time and among the distractions of gayer +stations than Rohar. Certainly she had flirted herself, flirted +recklessly; but that was a different matter to his faithlessness. She +might do it; but he must not. Did she want him? She hardly knew. But she +was not going to be put aside for this tiger-killing young person, this +jungle girl, who must be taught not to trespass on Violet's property. +</p> +<p> +Then her mind went back to Rosenthal; and in the solitude of the ladies' +compartment she laughed aloud at the thought of the shock that his +self-sufficiency must have received when he learned of her sudden and +mysterious disappearance from Poona. For she had left him no word. It +would do him good; he needed a lesson, for he was too sure of her. She +had never troubled to analyse her feelings for him and did not know +whether she liked or hated him most. She saw his faults clearly, his +blatant conceit, his irritating belief in the supremacy of money, his +arrogance, his bad manners. She knew that men deemed him a bounder. But +his very boorishness, his savage outbreaks against conventionality, +attracted her. Under the thin veneer of civilisation, he was simply an +animal; she knew it and it appealed to her baser nature, the sensual +strain in her. That he was beast, and wild beast at that, did not +affright her; she felt that she could always dominate him when she +would. Once or twice the beast had come out into the open; but she had +driven it back with a whip—and she believed that she could always do +it. The wealth, the life of luxury that he offered, appealed to her +strongly; but she kept her head and remembered that he was dependent on +his father's bounty, and she had no intention of compromising herself +irretrievably under such circumstances. If he had the disposal of the +old man's immense riches then the temptation might be over-powering; but +until he had she would wait. And ever the memory of Wargrave obtruded +itself, rather to her annoyance; but angry as she was with him she could +not pretend to herself that she was indifferent to him. +</p> +<p> +Up in Darjeeling on the very day that she left Poona Frank sat with +Miss Benson under a massive, orchid-clad tree in the lovely Botanical +Gardens, gazing moodily down into the depths of the valley far below +them. Turning suddenly he found his companion looking at him. Something +in her eyes moved him strongly and he forgot his caution. +</p> +<p> +"Muriel, you know how it is with, me," he said impetuously. "I oughtn't +to say anything; but—well, all the men here run after you, and I can't +bear it. I'm a fool, I know, but I can't help being jealous. I'm always +afraid that some one of them will take you from me. The other woman +seems to be forgetting me completely. She hasn't written to me for +weeks, months. Surely she's tiring of me. I don't suppose she ever +really cared for me—just was bored in that dull station. If—if she +sets me free would you—could you ever like me well enough to marry me?" +</p> +<p> +The girl looked away over the valley and a little smile crept into her +eyes. Then she turned to him and laid her hand on his. +</p> +<p> +"Dear boy, if you were free I would," she answered. +</p> +<p> +They were all alone, no one to see them; and his arms went out to her. +But she drew back. +</p> +<p> +"Not yet, dear. You're another woman's property still," she said. +</p> +<p> +He bit his lip. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, you're right, sweetheart. But—well, even if I weren't, I haven't +much to offer you. I'm still in debt; and I'd be only condemning you to +pass all your existence in the jungle." +</p> +<p> +"There'd be no hardship in that, dear. I love the forest better than +anywhere else in the world. Life in it is happiness to me." +</p> +<p> +"But would you be content to live as Mrs. Dermot does?" +</p> +<p> +"Content? I'd love it better than anything else, if I were with you." +</p> +<p> +Then he forgot her reproof and she her high-minded resolves as his arms +went round her and he drew her to him until their lips met in a long, +passionate kiss. Afterwards they sat hand in hand and talked of what the +future would hold for them if only Fate were kind. And Mrs. Norton, +speeding across India to shatter their dream-world, smiled a little +grimly as she pictured to herself her meeting with Frank. +</p> +<p> +Next day the blow fell. Wargrave was sitting at lunch with Mrs. Dermot +and Muriel in the hotel dining-room when Violet's telegram was handed to +him. His companions could see that he had received bad news; but he +pulled himself together and said nothing about it until he was alone +with Mrs. Dermot in her private sitting-room after <i>tiffin</i>. Then he +exclaimed suddenly, handing her the telegram: +</p> +<p> +"She's on her way here." +</p> +<p> +Noreen understood even before she looked at the paper. When she read +the message she asked: +</p> +<p> +"What's she coming here for?" +</p> +<p> +"I don't know. I haven't had a letter from her for a long time," he +replied wearily. +</p> +<p> +"What are you going to do about her?" +</p> +<p> +"What can I?" he said with a gesture of despair. "It's for her to +decide. If she wishes it I must keep my word." +</p> +<p> +"But Muriel? What of her? You know she cares for you. Has she no right +to be considered?" demanded her friend impatiently. "Are you going to +ruin her life as well as yours? This woman will only drag you down. She +can't really be fond of you or she wouldn't forget you as she's been +doing. You don't love her. Don't you see what it will all mean to +you?—to be pilloried in the Divorce Court, made to pay enormous costs, +perhaps heavy damages as well. And even now you say you're in debt. And +then to be chained for life to a woman you don't care about while you're +in love with another. Oh, Mr. Wargrave, do be sensible. Tell her the +truth. Tell her you can't go on with it." +</p> +<p> +"I've given her my word," he said simply. +</p> +<p> +She pleaded with him passionately, but to no avail. At last, as Muriel +entered the room, she rose, saying: +</p> +<p> +"Tell her. I'll not mention the subject again." +</p> +<p> +And she walked indignantly into her bedroom and shut the door almost +with a bang; for the little woman was furious with him for what she +deemed his crass stupidity. +</p> +<p> +"What's the matter with Noreen?" asked the girl in surprise. +</p> +<p> +Without a word he gave her the telegram. +</p> +<p> +"Oh Frank!" she gasped, and sank overwhelmed into a chair, letting the +fatal paper flutter to the floor. +</p> +<p> +He did not go to her but stood by the window, the image of despair, +gazing out with unseeing eyes. +</p> +<p> +"What am I to do?" he asked miserably. +</p> +<p> +"You must keep your word if she wishes it," answered the girl bravely. +</p> +<p> +But the next moment she broke down and, burying her face in her hands, +wept bitterly. He made no move to her; and she rose and went quietly +back to her own room. +</p> +<p> +In the interval that elapsed before Violet's arrival Mrs. Dermot did not +abandon hope, and in spite of her words she attacked Wargrave +persistently, trying to shake his resolution. But to her despair Muriel +sided with him and declared that he was right. So finally Noreen gave it +up and vowed that she would wash her hands of the whole affair. +</p> +<p> +When Violet reached Darjeeling Wargrave met her at the railway station. +Face to face with him her anger died and something of the attraction he +had had for her revived. So she greeted him effusively and all but +embraced him on the platform. Other men seeing the meeting wondered why +he looked so miserable when such a lovely woman evinced her delight at +seeing him so plainly. She passed her arm through his with an air of +possession and chatted volubly while he watched his servant help hers to +collect her luggage. When she took her seat in the <i>dandy</i>, or chair +carried on the shoulders of coolies, and was being conveyed towards her +hotel she behaved as though they had not been parted a week, rattled on +gaily about her doings in Poona and Mahableshwar and, with all the +glories of the Himalayas about her, declared that the Bombay +hill-station was far lovelier than Darjeeling. Wargrave was relieved +that she showed no desire to be sentimental and gladly responded to her +mood, detailing the forthcoming gaieties and promising to take her to +them all. +</p> +<p> +When they reached the Eastern Palace Hotel and were shown up into her +private sitting-room she put her hands on his shoulders as soon as they +were alone and said: +</p> +<p> +"Let me look at you, Frank. You have improved. You've grown handsomer, I +think. Aren't you going to kiss me?" +</p> +<p> +He did it with so little fervour that she made a grimace and thought +"It's quite time that I came to bring him to heel. Not much loving +ardour about that. I wonder if he kisses the jungle girl as coldly." +Aloud she said: +</p> +<p> +"Now let's go down to <i>tiffin</i>. I'm starving. Will you please secure a +table and I'll follow you in a few minutes?" +</p> +<p> +During the meal she chattered gaily, criticised the dresses and +appearance of the other women in the dining-room and, chaffing him +merrily on his want of appetite, ate a substantial meal herself. Mrs. +Dermot, anxious to befriend him, had thought that she could help him by +inviting him to bring Mrs. Norton to tea with her that afternoon. When +during <i>tiffin</i> he hesitatingly conveyed the invitation Violet said: +</p> +<p> +"Oh, I don't want to be bothered with women, my dear boy. Take me out +and show me the place and the shops and the <i>Gymkhana</i>—what do you call +it here? Oh, the Amusement Club. No, stop a minute. Mrs. Dermot is your +dear friend from Ranga Duar, isn't she? So she's here. And the other, +the jungle girl, where is she?" +</p> +<p> +Frank flushed as he replied: +</p> +<p> +"I suppose you mean Miss Benson? She's with Mrs. Dermot." +</p> +<p> +"So you're all staying at the same hotel. How very nice for you! But, my +dear Frank, doesn't it strike you that it'll be rather dull for me +staying by myself here? You'll have to change to this hotel." +</p> +<p> +"I asked about rooms here; but they told me they're full up now." +</p> +<p> +"I'll see if I can't get round the manager and make him find a corner +for you. Well, now for this tea-party. Yes; on second thoughts I'll go. +I'd like to see the ladies who've been consoling you for my absence." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, nonsense, Violet. They haven't. They're just friends, that's all," +he said irritably. +</p> +<p> +"Of course, dear; I know. Well, tell me what these 'just friends' are +like." +</p> +<p> +She certainly derived little idea of them from Wargrave's lame attempt +at description. And when later she and he were shown into Mrs. Dermot's +sitting-room at tea-time Noreen and Muriel found his picture of her as a +meek, long-suffering, neglected wife very unlike the radiant, +condescending lady who patronised them from the start. She showed a +tendency to address most of her conversation to the girl, despite the +latter's evident disinclination to talk, or perhaps because of it; for +the older woman seemed to take an impish delight in teasing her about +her friendship with Wargrave and their relations as nurse and patient, +although it was apparent that her malicious humour made the others +uncomfortable. She paraded her authority over Frank and treated him like +a hen-pecked husband. When finally she bore him away to escort her to the +Amusement Club she left the two girls speechless behind her. But not +for the same reason. Noreen was furious. +</p> +<p> +"What a hateful woman!" she exclaimed as soon as her visitor departed. +"And I pitied her as a poor neglected wife! What do you think of her?" +</p> +<p> +Muriel only shook her head, as she sat looking despondent and thoroughly +miserable. Mrs. Norton's malice affected her little, but her undoubted +loveliness had made her despair. How could an insignificant little +person like herself, she thought, hope to win affection from any man +whom this radiant beauty deigned to favour? Frank could not help adoring +so attractive a woman. He must have loved her in Rohar, although he said +that he had not. Muriel felt that she could have resigned herself more +easily to his keeping his word to Violet, if the latter had been less +good-looking. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Dermot broke in on her miserable thoughts. +</p> +<p> +"Come, dear, we'll take the children for their walk and then go on later +to the Amusement Club." +</p> +<p> +"I couldn't go to the Club this evening, Noreen. I really couldn't. We'd +only see that woman again—with Frank." +</p> +<p> +"Well, what of it? We're not going to let her think we're afraid to face +her. I've no patience with Mr. Wargrave. Whatever he can see in her I +can't think. You're worth twenty of her, darling. Shallow, conceited. +She neglected? She badly treated? My sympathy is with her husband now. +What fools men are!" And Noreen swept indignantly from the room. +</p> +<p> +Every moment of the hour that they spent in the Club that evening was a +lifetime of torture to Muriel. She had faced a charging tiger with less +dread than she did the crowd at the tea-tables in the rink. She fancied +that every woman who looked at her was laughing in her sleeve at her, +that every man who bowed or spoke to her was pitying her. Suddenly her +heart seemed to stop beating, for she saw Frank sitting with Mrs. Norton +and two other ladies, her Calcutta cousins, as well as a couple of men +in the British Infantry regiment at Lebong. They were looking at her; +and she felt that Violet was pointing her out as the deserted maiden. +She tried to smile bravely when her rival waved her hand and called out +a cheery "good evening" to her and Noreen, who answered the greeting +with an almost defiant air of unconcern. +</p> +<p> +For days afterwards she saw practically nothing of Wargrave, who was +obliged to be in constant attendance on Mrs. Norton. Violet had induced +the manager of her hotel to find a room for him; and he was forced to +transfer himself and his belongings to the Eastern Palace. She +monopolised him, insisted on his taking her shopping in the mornings, +calling in the afternoons or to Lebong to watch the polo, or else +playing tennis with her at the Amusement Club. He dined with her every +evening and escorted her to the dances, concerts or theatricals that +filled the nights during the Season. He hardly recognised her in the gay +social butterfly with seemingly never a care in the world; and she made +him wonder every day if she had any love left for him or wanted him to +have any for her. For she showed no desire to be sentimental and treated +him very much as she had in the early days of their acquaintance. She +never discussed their future. He had not the moral courage to ask her +outright if she still wanted to come to him. She gave no indication of +being happy only in his company; for she soon began to release him from +attendance on her on occasions in favour of some one or other of the new +men friends that she rapidly made. He took advantage of this to see +something of Muriel again. +</p> +<p> +But this did not suit Mrs. Norton. Even if she did not want Frank +herself that was no reason why the girl should have him. She tried being +jealous and insisted on his breaking off the friendship; but, although +he hated the scenes that ensued, he resolutely refused to do so. Then +Violet adopted another plan. She pretended to be convinced by his +assurances that it meant nothing and declared that she wished to be +friends with Muriel. She went out of her way to be nice to the girl when +they met in public and at last invited her to tea at the Eastern Palace +Hotel on an afternoon on which she knew Mrs. Dermot to be engaged. +Muriel accepted because she did not know very well how to refuse. +</p> +<p> +When she was shown into Mrs. Norton's private sitting-room she found +Wargrave already there with her hostess, who received her very amiably. +During tea the conversation flowed in safe channels at first. But +suddenly Violet startled her guests by saying: +</p> +<p> +"Now, Miss Benson, that we three are alone I think it a good opportunity +to speak very plainly about Frank's relations with you. I've just been +giving him a serious talking to about the way he has behaved to you." +</p> +<p> +The girl drew herself up haughtily. +</p> +<p> +"What do you mean, Mrs. Norton," she said. "The way Mr. Wargrave has +behaved——? I don't understand you." +</p> +<p> +"Oh yes, you do. It's best to speak plainly. I'm afraid Frank has been +leading you to believe that he's in love with you——." +</p> +<p> +"Violet!" broke in Wargrave angrily. "Please don't go on. You've no +right to say such things." +</p> +<p> +She smiled sweetly on him. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I have, Frank. You know, my dear boy, that you've got pretty ways +with women—I fear he's rather a flirt, Miss Benson—that you are apt to +make some of them think you mean more than you do." +</p> +<p> +"What absurd nonsense!" he cried, more angrily still. "Please stop, I +beg of you." +</p> +<p> +"No, Frank, it is only right that I should warn Miss Benson." She +turned to the girl. "He hasn't told you, I'm sure, that he's not free to +marry you or any other girl." +</p> +<p> +Wargrave sprang up. +</p> +<p> +"I've told her everything about us, Violet," he protested. "I ask you as +a favour to drop the subject." +</p> +<p> +The girl sat as if turned to stone while Mrs. Norton went on: +</p> +<p> +"You are young, my dear, and can't know much about men. I suppose you've +lived in the jungle all your life. Now, a little bird has told me you've +let yourself get too fond of Frank—oh, he's very charming, I know, and +this playing at nursing a poor wounded hero is a dangerous game. But I'm +going to tell you plainly that Frank is pledged to me. He has asked me +to leave my husband for him, and I've consented; so there's no use your +trying to catch him, my dear. You're too late." +</p> +<p> +The girl sprang indignantly to her feet. +</p> +<p> +"I've done nothing of the sort, Mrs. Norton. How dare you say so? You've +no right to speak to me as you're doing." +</p> +<p> +The older woman sat back coolly in her chair and laughed; but her eyes +grew hard. +</p> +<p> +"Oh yes, I have, my dear girl. You two were the talk of Darjeeling +before I came. Of course you're angry, naturally, at failing to catch +him, but I'm going to put a stop to your trying, here and now. He has +got to break with you." +</p> +<p> +"You are a wicked woman," began the girl; and then indignation choked +her. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Norton leant forward in her chair. +</p> +<p> +"Can you deny that you're in love with him?" she asked. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave tried to interpose; but the girl waved him aside and faced her +rival. +</p> +<p> +"I'll answer you. I am. I love him as you could never do. I was willing +to give him up to you—for he loves me, not you—so that he should not +be false to his word. I didn't know what you were like, then. But now I +don't believe you'd ever make him happy. You don't love him—you haven't +got it in you. You wouldn't be content with any one man. I've watched +you. You're absolutely heartless; and you'd only make Frank miserable. +You're willing to disgrace him as well as yourself. You don't mind if +you ruin him. Frank——" +</p> +<p> +She turned towards Wargrave. +</p> +<p> +"You said you loved me. Is it true?" +</p> +<p> +He answered firmly: +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I do." +</p> +<p> +"Then will you marry me? This woman will only wreck your life. Choose +between us." +</p> +<p> +He turned in desperation to Mrs. Norton. +</p> +<p> +"Violet, you don't really want me, do you? You don't love me. I've felt +for a long time that you're forgetting me. I love Muriel and she loves +me. If you ever cared for me release me from my promise." +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Norton lay back calmly in her chair and looked with a smile from +one to the other. Then she said deliberately: +</p> +<p> +"This morning I wrote to my husband and told him that I was never +returning to him, that I was going to you, Frank. That is why I asked +this girl here to-day to tell you before her that now I'm going to ask +you to keep your promise. Will you?" +</p> +<p> +The girl looked at him appealingly and stretched out her hands to him. +</p> +<p> +"Frank, for your own sake, if not for mine, don't listen to her." +</p> +<p> +He stood irresolute, torn by conflicting emotions. Then with an effort +he replied: +</p> +<p> +"Muriel, I must. I can't break my word." +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Norton gave a mocking laugh. The girl shrank from him and hid her +face in her hands for a moment. Then she looked up and said, desperately +calm: +</p> +<p> +"Very well, be it so. You've decided and there's nothing more to be +said. You've shamed me before this woman; and I never want to see you +again." +</p> +<p> +She turned and walked out of the room. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0013" id="h2HCH0013"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XIII +</h2> +<h3> + THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE +</h3> +<p> +As Muriel passed through the door Wargrave started to follow her; but +Violet cried peremptorily: +</p> +<p> +"Frank, stay here. Please realise that I come first now. Sit down." +</p> +<p> +He obeyed mechanically. She went on petulantly: +</p> +<p> +"These emotional scenes are rather exhausting. Do you mind calling the +hotel 'boy' and ordering a cocktail for me? You ought to have one +yourself. I suppose, like all men, you hate scenes. Then you should be +grateful to me for saving you from that spiteful little jungle cat." +</p> +<p> +Going to the verandah outside the room he called a hotel servant and +gave him the order, then returned to his chair and sat down wearily. He +stared at the floor in silence. He had sent the girl that he loved away +utterly humiliated; and he knew that, with her proud spirit, the shame +of his rejection of her would cut her to the heart. He cursed himself +for bringing this pain to her. It was all his fault. Not only had he had +no right to speak of love to her while he was bound to another woman, +but he ought never to have sought her society as he had done, never +striven to gain her friendship, for by doing so he had unconsciously won +her love. The harm was done long before he spoke to her of his feelings. +What a selfish brute he was to thus cause two women to suffer! +</p> +<p> +Presently he remembered that his moodiness, his silence, were +uncomplimentary, cruel, to Violet. She was right in saying that she came +first. Indeed she was the only one to be considered now. The other had +passed out of his life. It might be that they should meet again some day +in their restricted world, but while he could he must try to avoid her. +There was only Violet left. +</p> +<p> +He looked up to find his companion's eyes fixed on him with an +undefinable expression. He roused himself with an effort that was not +lost on the woman watching him. +</p> +<p> +"So you have told your husband," he said. "Well, now we must arrange +what we are going to do." +</p> +<p> +"We won't discuss our plans at this moment," replied Violet. "I'm not in +the mood for it." Then after a pause she added bitterly, "I must give +you time to recover from the shock of the abrupt ending to your little +jungle romance." +</p> +<p> +Before he could reply the servant appeared with a tray. +</p> +<p> +"Ah, thank goodness, here are the cocktails. There's only one. Aren't +you having one, too? It will do you good. No?" +</p> +<p> +She sipped her cocktail slowly. When she had finished it she got up +from her chair, saying: +</p> +<p> +"I'll get ready to go to the Amusement Club. Will you wait for me here? +You needn't change—we won't play tennis to-day; for we've got this +dinner and dance on to-night and I don't want to tire myself. I shan't +be long." +</p> +<p> +As she passed his chair she tapped his cheek and said: +</p> +<p> +"Don't look so miserable, my dear boy. You'll soon get over the loss of +your jungle girl. There, you may kiss my hand as a sign of your return +to your allegiance." +</p> +<p> +But when she entered her bedroom she did not at once proceed to get +ready to go out, but unlocked her dressing-case and, taking out of it a +letter, sat down to read it for the tenth time since she had received it +that morning. Yet it was short and concise. It was from Rosenthal and +addressed from the Mess of the 2nd (Duke's Own) Hussars in Bangalore; +for, as it told her, he had returned to his regiment as his leave had +expired. It was the first that had come from him since she had left +Poona, although, as he said in it, he had obtained her new address from +the Goanese clerk in the Munster Hotel office on the day of her flight, +thanks to the persuasive powers of a fifty-rupee note. +</p> +<p> +He told her that although her abrupt departure had puzzled him and he +could not understand why she had tried to conceal her whereabouts from +him, he wished her to realise that if it were an attempt to escape from +him it was useless. He could bide his time, for sooner or later he would +get her. +</p> +<p> +Violet smiled as she read his confident words, although they caused a +little shiver of fear to run through her. Then she rose, locked the +letter away and put on her hat. +</p> +<p> +Not until after lunch next day was Wargrave able to find time to go to +the Oriental Hotel, not to see Muriel, he sternly told himself, but to +pay a visit to Mrs. Dermot. When he was shown up to her sitting-room he +had to wait for some time before Noreen entered; and he was struck at +once by the coldness of her greeting. It was evident that she was very +displeased with him. She said no word about Muriel; and Wargrave felt +curiously averse to mentioning her name. +</p> +<p> +At last he summed up courage to ask her. With as near an approach to +frigidity of manner as she could show to a man to whom she was so +indebted Noreen replied: +</p> +<p> +"Muriel has left Darjeeling." +</p> +<p> +"Left Darjeeling? Where for? Where has she gone?" he exclaimed in +surprise. +</p> +<p> +"To her father." +</p> +<p> +"But why? She wasn't to have left for weeks yet," said Wargrave. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Dermot looked at him angrily. +</p> +<p> +"Why? Need you ask? I should have thought commonsense would have told +you. I don't think we'll talk about it, please. As I said before, I've +washed my hands of the whole affair." +</p> +<p> +Further conversation on the subject was rendered impossible by the +irruption of her children, who rushed at Wargrave and reproached him for +not being to see them lately. +</p> +<p> +During the next few days Violet baffled every attempt that Frank made to +discuss their future course of action. The constant succession of +gaieties, the balls, theatricals, concerts, races, <i>gymkhanas</i>, that +filled every afternoon and evening of the Darjeeling Season, took up all +her time. Whenever he tried to talk matters over with her she invariably +replied that there was no hurry, even when he pointed out that Major +Norton might arrive any day in consequence of her letter. That he had +not already done so was inexplicable to Wargrave; and the subaltern +could only believe her assurance that her husband accepted her loss with +equanimity. It never occurred to Frank to doubt that she had written the +letter. +</p> +<p> +But one morning matters came to a crisis. When Violet and Wargrave +returned to the hotel from their ride before breakfast a telegram was +handed to the latter. He found it to be an official message from Colonel +Dermot, which ran: +</p> +<p class="quote"> + "Please return forthwith to Ranga Duar. I start for Europe on sick + leave to-day." +</p> +<p> +Frank stared at it in surprise. He had heard nothing of his superior +officer being ill. It must be something very serious to necessitate his +being sent to Europe. The news was an unpleasant shock to him; for he +genuinely liked and respected the Political Officer. +</p> +<p> +Then it occurred to him that this order to return brought everything to +a head. Violet saw that he was perturbed. +</p> +<p> +"What is it, Frank?" she asked. +</p> +<p> +"I'll tell you upstairs, dear," he said. +</p> +<p> +In her sitting-room he handed her the telegram. +</p> +<p> +"I must leave to-day. Will you be ready to come with me?" he asked. +</p> +<p> +"What? To-day? My dear boy, it's impossible," she replied. +</p> +<p> +"But I must go. You see, it's imperative. The Colonel's already gone." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I see you must. But—well, I simply couldn't be ready," said +Violet calmly. "Besides, I'm singing at the concert to-morrow night; and +there's the dance at Government House the night after. I must follow you +later." +</p> +<p> +"But that means your travelling alone," he argued. "Wouldn't it be much +pleasanter for you to come with me?" +</p> +<p> +"Don't worry about me for goodness' sake, Frank. I'm not a helpless +person. I came across India by myself to get here; and surely I'll be +able to manage to do a twenty-four hours' journey alone." +</p> +<p> +"Very well, dear," he replied with an inward, unacknowledged feeling of +relief that the decisive step had not to be taken yet. "I'll come down +from Ranga Duar with an elephant to meet you at the railway station when +you arrive. Now, while you're changing for breakfast, I'll rush round to +the Oriental and see if Mrs. Dermot has more news." +</p> +<p> +When he reached the hotel he found Noreen busily packing. She was pale +and evidently deeply distressed, although outwardly calm and collected. +</p> +<p> +"You have heard?" she asked, as he entered her sitting-room. +</p> +<p> +"Only that your husband is starting for England on sick leave and that +I'm to return at once. What's the matter? I hope it's not serious." +</p> +<p> +"Mr. Macdonald wires that Kevin must go at once to England for an +operation. He says I'm not to worry, as there is no immediate danger. +But of course I can't help being alarmed. It's all so sudden. I didn't +know that Kevin was ill. Mr. Macdonald is travelling with him to the +junction on the main line where the children and I are to meet them. +Isn't it kind of him? I'm so glad to know my husband will have someone +with him until I come." +</p> +<p> +"We'll meet at the railway station after lunch, then," said Wargrave. +"We'll be together as far as the junction." +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Dermot hesitated. +</p> +<p> +"Are you travelling alone?" she asked. +</p> +<p> +Frank flushed as he replied: +</p> +<p> +"Yes. She—Violet is to follow later." +</p> +<p> +Noreen made no comment; and having learned all that he could he returned +to his hotel. +</p> +<p> +He dreaded the ordeal of the parting with Mrs. Norton, but when the time +came for it he found his fear of a distressing scene quite uncalled for. +She said goodbye to him in a pleasantly friendly, though somewhat +casual, manner, and did not offer to accompany him to the station as she +had a previous engagement. And long before the little train had +zig-zagged down the seven thousand feet to the foot of the Himalayas she +had dismissed him from her mind. +</p> +<p> +The truth was that the gay and admired Mrs. Norton, caught up in the +whirlwind of social amusement in a lively hill-station, was not the +woman who passed weary days of <i>ennui</i> in the company of a dull and +unattractive husband in a small, dead-and-alive station. Nor was the +dejected man who so plainly showed that he was pining for someone else +the good-looking, heart-whole subaltern who had fascinated her in the +boredom of existence in Rohar. Was he worth incurring social damnation +for? Would his companionship—for she knew that she had not his +love—make up for a life of loneliness, debt and poverty in a frontier +outpost? If she were resolved on giving up her present assured +position—and Violet felt that existence with Norton would be more than +ever unendurable after the exciting pleasures of Poona and +Darjeeling—would it not be wiser to do so for someone who could amply +compensate her for the sacrifice? Love in a cottage—or its Indian +equivalent, a subaltern's comfortless bungalow—did not appeal to her. +Her statement that she had written to tell her husband that she was +leaving for Wargrave was false. It had served the purpose for which it +was made, and that was the defeat of her rival. So now, content with her +victory, she put all burdensome thought from her and dined, danced and +flirted to her heart's content in the gaieties of the Darjeeling Season. +</p> +<p> +When Wargrave reached Ranga Duar the little outpost seemed strangely +forlorn without the Dermots and their children. Major Hunt and Macdonald +welcomed him warmly. The latter informed him that he had insisted on the +Colonel going to England for his operation because the Political Officer +had not been out of India for seven years and needed the change, and +besides he would receive more care and attention in a London +nursing-home than in an Indian hospital. The trouble was intestinal but +there was no immediate danger to his life. +</p> +<p> +Another familiar figure was missing. Before departing Dermot had +released Badshah and left him to wander in freedom in the jungle, +unwilling that his faithful companion of years should be servant to +anyone else and confident that the elephant would come back to him when +he returned to the Terai. Major Hunt placed one of the detachment +elephants at Wargrave's disposal whenever he required it to take him on +his tours along the frontier. And Frank needed it constantly. For, as +soon as the news of Colonel Dermot's departure spread, the lawless +spirits that for fear of him had not ventured for five years to disturb +the peace of the Border, began to show signs of restlessness. The +Political Officer's strong personality and the reputation of divinity +that he enjoyed had kept them in check. But now that he was gone they +thought that they could defy with impunity the young sahib who replaced +him. +</p> +<p> +So the Assistant had not long to wait for an opportunity to show his +mettle. Dermot had not been gone a fortnight before one or two raids +were attempted on British villages by lawless mountaineers from across +the Bhutan frontier. Wargrave soon proved that the mantle of Colonel +Dermot had not fallen on unworthy shoulders. Single-handed he +intercepted and faced a party of Bhutanese swordsmen swooping down from +the hills on a tea-garden in search of loot, shot the leader and two of +his followers and put the rest to flight. With a handful of sepoys of +the Military Police he surprised a Bhuttia village in the No Man's Land +along the border-line and captured a notorious outlaw who had plundered +in Indian territory and had sent him a defiant challenge. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave was glad of the excitement and the occupation, for they kept +him from brooding over his troubles and worrying about the future. He +had not time to puzzle over Violet's silence. She had not written to him +since their parting. As a matter of fact she seldom thought of him, so +engrossed was she in the pursuit of pleasure. Admittedly the prettiest +woman in Darjeeling that season she received enough attention and +admiration to turn any woman's head; and she enjoyed it all to the full. +Although she had answered Rosenthal's letter from Bangalore he had not +written again; but she felt that he was not forgetting her. She thought +oftener of him than of Wargrave; for the vision of the great riches that +she might one day share with him fascinated her. It haunted her dreams +sleeping and waking. Often she let her fancy stray to the existence that +he had promised would be hers when he was the possessor of his father's +fortune, a life of luxury in the gayest cities of the world with all +that immense wealth could bestow, a life infinitely better worth living +than her present one. Would she ever be given the chance of it? +</p> +<p> +The question was speedily and unexpectedly answered. One morning after +breakfast she received a telegram from Rosenthal. It said: +</p> +<p class="quote"> + "My father is dead. I sail from Bombay for South Africa on Friday to + settle up his affairs. Will you come?" +</p> +<p> +She stared at the paper almost uncomprehendingly for a few moments. Then +the meaning of the message dawned on her. She sat down at her +writing-table and thought hard. She had little time in which to make up +her mind; for if she wished to reach Bombay before Rosenthal sailed she +would have to leave Darjeeling that afternoon. What should she do? +Should she go? She found a pencil and a telegraph form and addressed the +latter to the Hussar. Then she hesitated. But she was not long in coming +to a decision. With a firm hand she wrote the one word "Yes" and signed +her name. Then she rose from the table, called a hotel servant, +despatched the telegram and went to her bedroom to pack. And the same +train that took her away from Darjeeling carried a letter from her to +Wargrave. +</p> +<p> +But the subaltern did not receive it until more than a week afterwards, +when he returned to Ranga Duar with Tashi after chasing back across the +Border a mongrel pack of <i>dácoits</i>—brigands—who had been harrying +Bhuttia villages in British territory. The letter lay on the table in +the room which he still occupied in the Mess, although he was no longer +an officer of the detachment, together with a pile of correspondence +that had accumulated during his absence. Recognising Violet's writing on +the envelope he tore it open anxiously. He rapidly scanned the first +page, stared at it incredulously, read it again carefully and then +finished the letter. It ran: +</p> +<p class="quote"> + "My dear Frank, +</p> +<p class="quote"> + "I am going to relieve your mind of a great weight and send you into + the seventh heaven of delight by giving you the glad news that you + are never likely to see me again. Before the week is ended I shall + have left India for ever with someone who can give me all I want and + not condemn me to a poverty-stricken existence in a wretched little + jungle station, which is all that you had to offer me. I know it was + not your fault and you are really a dear boy. I was very fond of + you; but you did not love me and we would have been very miserable + together. For you would be always pining for your jungle girl and I + would have hated you for it. Now we part good friends and she is + welcome to you. I ought to tell you that I did not really write to + my husband as I said I did. +</p> +<p class="quote"> + "I wish you luck—won't you wish me the same? +</p> +<p class="quote"> + "Yours affectionately, +</p> +<p class="quote"> + "VIOLET." +</p> +<p> +When he had thoroughly grasped the meaning of this extraordinary letter +he forgave her everything in the joy of knowing that she had set him +free. He did not speculate as to the man with whom she was going; his +thoughts flew at once to Muriel. But his delight was tempered by the +fear that his liberty had come too late to be of service to him with +her. Would she ever forgive him? His heart sank when he remembered her +indignation, her bitter words when they parted. Surely no woman who had +been so humiliated could pardon the man who had brought such shame upon +her. Yet how could he have acted otherwise? It was natural that the girl +should blame him; but how could he have been false to his plighted word +and desert the one who held his promise? If only he could see Muriel and +plead with her. Perhaps in time she might bring herself to forgive him. +But how was he to meet her? Now that Mrs. Dermot had gone to England, +the girl would not come again to Ranga Duar. She was, he knew, +accompanying her father in his tour of the forests of the districts in +his charge. How could he go to their camp or lonely bungalow in the +jungle and force his presence on her? What was he to do? +</p> +<p> +Longing for someone to confide in, someone to advise him, he went to +Major Hunt and told him the whole story. The older man rejoiced in +learning of the subaltern's release from his entanglement, but, knowing +Miss Benson well, shook his head doubtfully over the chances of her +forgiving Wargrave. Nevertheless, unwilling to kill the young man's +hope, he affected a confidence that he was far from feeling and bade him +take courage. He advised him to arrange a few days' shooting in the +neighbourhood of the Bensons when he could spare the time from his +duties. The father would be sure to offer him hospitality and the +daughter could not well avoid him. In the meantime he might write and +plead his cause on paper. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave sat up half the night composing a letter to Muriel. Sheet after +sheet was torn up in disgust before he was even tolerably satisfied. But +the laboured result was never sent. Next morning after breakfast as he +sat smoking in the Mess with Major Hunt and the doctor his servant +entered to tell him that a forest guard wanted to see him. A wild hope +flashed through his mind that perhaps Muriel had sent him a message. But +on going out to the back verandah where the man awaited him he was +handed an envelope "On His Majesty's Service," addressed in a strange +handwriting. He opened it and glanced carelessly at the letter, but the +first lines riveted his attention. +</p> +<p class="quote"> + "Forest Officer's Bungalow, + Barwana Section. +</p> +<p class="quote"> + "From + the District Superintendent of Police, + Bengal Civil Police. +</p> +<p class="quote"> + "To + the Assistant Political Officer, + Ranga Duar. +</p> +<p class="quote"> + "Sir, +</p> +<p class="quote"> + "Three days ago a party of Chinamen attacked and severely injured the + Deputy Conservator of Forests, Mr. Benson, in this bungalow, and + abducted his daughter. They were ten or twelve in number and well + armed, and over-awed the servants and forest employees. They have + been tracked towards the Bhutan Frontier and, I fear, have crossed + it by this. There was, unfortunately, much delay in the information + reaching me while I was touring the district south of the forest; + and I have only just arrived here. I hasten to acquaint you with the + occurrence as I am powerless if the ruffians have crossed into + Bhutan. Please request the Officer Commanding Military Police + Detachment to send out parties to try to cut off the raiders from + the passes through the mountains, although I fear it is too late. + Can you meet me here and confer with me? Please bring the Medical + Officer of the detachment with you, as Mr. Benson is in a bad state + and no civil surgeon is available for a great distance from here. +</p> +<p class="quote"> + "Your obedient servant, + Edward Lawrence. + D.S.P." +</p> +<p> +Horror-stricken, Wargrave questioned the forest guard. The man had not +been at the bungalow at the time of the outrage and could not greatly +supplement the information contained in the letter. The story that he +had learned from the servants was to the effect that a party of Chinamen +had arrived at Mr. Benson's bungalow and asked for employment as +carpenters. There was nothing unusual in this, as Chinese from the +Southern Provinces frequently make their way on foot through Tibet and +Bhutan over the mountains in search of work on the tea-gardens or in +Calcutta. Apparently they had suddenly struck the old man down and +surprised Miss Benson before she could offer any resistance. Producing +fire-arms they had terrified the servants. They had a mule hidden in the +jungle and on this the girl was placed and led off. Long after they had +disappeared some of the forest guards had timidly followed their track +for some distance and found that it led towards the Bhutan Frontier. +</p> +<p> +When Wargrave had extracted from the man all the information that he +could he rushed into the Mess and acquainted the two officers in it with +the terrible news. Like him they were horrified at the outrage. Major +Hunt went at once to the Fort to order out parties of the detachment in +accordance with the District Superintendent's request; and Macdonald got +ready to proceed to the Forest Officer's bungalow forty miles away. +</p> +<p> +The Assistant Political Officer despatched a cipher telegram to the +Foreign Department, Government of India, at Simla, informing them of the +occurrence and of his intention to investigate the affair personally, +and, if possible, rescue Miss Benson. He knew that the Heads of the +Department, although they would not sanction or approve officially of +his crossing the frontier in pursuit of the raiders, as it would be +contrary to the Treaty with the Bhutanese Government, would not enquire +too closely into his movements. But whether they liked it or not he +intended to follow the abductors if necessary into the heart of Bhutan, +Treaty or no Treaty. +</p> +<p> +His first step was to send for Tashi and order him to prepare the +disguise that he intended to use. His rifle he left behind, but armed +himself with a brace of long-barrelled automatic pistols to which their +wooden holsters clipped on to form butts, thus converting them into +carbines accurate up to a range of a hundred and fifty or two hundred +yards. He found a third for Tashi in Colonel Dermot's armoury, which was +at his disposal. +</p> +<p> +Night had fallen long before the detachment elephant that bore Wargrave, +Macdonald, Tashi and the forest guard as well as its own <i>mahout</i>, +reached the bungalow where the District Superintendent of Police awaited +them. The doctor found Benson suffering from a wound in the head, with +concussion and fever. Frank interrogated the servants carefully and +elicited from them one fresh fact about the outrage that shed a flood of +light on its motive and its author. It was that the leader of the party +was pock-marked and blind in the right eye; and this at once confirmed +Frank's suspicion that the instigator of Muriel's abduction was the +Chinese <i>Amban</i>, whose parting threat to the girl had thus materialised. +</p> +<p> +At daybreak Wargrave and Tashi started on foot accompanied by a forest +guard to put them on the track of the gang. This led up towards the +Bhutan Frontier, which runs among the hills at an average elevation of +six thousand feet above the sea. As the Assistant Political Officer +anticipated, the party had headed for the portion of the border under +the control of the <i>Amban's</i> friend, the Penlop of Tuna. Enquiries among +the inhabitants of the mountain villages resulted in several of them +coming forward with the information that they had seen a small body of +armed Chinese escorting a cloaked and shrouded figure on a mule and +climbing up towards Bhutan. Two of the Government Secret Service agents +among these Bhuttias had followed them cautiously to the frontier and +seen them received there by a party of the Tuna Penlop's armed +retainers. These men reported that the watch on all the passes into +Bhutan was stricter than ever, and, as one of them phrased it, not even +a rat could creep through unobserved. +</p> +<p> +This discouraging intelligence was a further proof of <i>Amban's</i> guilt. +But Frank realised that it would not be sufficient to justify the +Government of India claiming redress from the Republic of China; and, +indeed, diplomatic procedure was much too slow to be of any use in the +rescue of the girl. An appeal to the Maharajah of Bhutan would be +equally fruitless; for his powerful vassal the Tuna Penlop was +practically in rebellion against him and defied his authority. The sole +hope of saving Muriel lay in Wargrave's prompt action. +</p> +<p> +Yet try as the subaltern would, he and Tashi were unable at any point to +pierce the cordon of guards along the frontier. Generally they got away +unseen; but on one occasion they were discovered and had to flee back +into British territory under a shower of arrows. Fortunately fire-arms +are scarce in Bhutan; and the Tuna Penlop's soldiers possessed only +bows. +</p> +<p> +It was imperative that Wargrave and his follower should be circumspect +in their movements, and by day they hid in caves or in the jungle +clothing the slopes of the higher hills, to escape observation by +Bhutanese spies. When they had exhausted the food that they had brought +with them and failed to procure any more from their Secret Service +agents in the villages, Tashi gathered bananas, dug up edible tubers +like the <i>charpattia</i> or <i>charlong</i>, and snared jungle-fowl and Monal +pheasants. Having obtained a bow and a sheaf of arrows from a village he +sometimes succeeded in killing a <i>gooral</i>, the active little wild goat +found in the lower hills, the flesh of which is excellent. +</p> +<p> +As day after day went by and found them no nearer success in crossing +the frontier Wargrave began to lose heart. He was harassed by anxiety +over Muriel's fate and feared that he would never be able to rescue her. +At times he grew desperate and but for his companion's remonstrances +would have tried to fight his way through the border guards, although in +his saner moments he knew that it would be sheer madness. +</p> +<p> +Besides danger from human enemies the two men were menaced by peril from +wild beasts as well. Panthers prowled among the hills, great Himalayan +bears, a blow from the paw of one of which would crack a man's skull, +wandered on the jungle-clad slopes and, though not carnivorous, were +always ready to attack human beings. Herds of wild elephants, which had +scaled the mountains into Bhutan at the beginning of the Monsoon to +reach the northern face of the Himalayas and escape the heavy rains that +deluge the southern slopes and also to avoid the insects that plague +them in the jungle at that season, were commencing to return to the +Terai. Often Wargrave and Tashi had to climb trees to let a herd go by; +and each time as he watched them the subaltern thought longingly of +Colonel Dermot and Badshah. If he had them to help him how easily he +could burst the barrier between him and the land that held the girl whom +he loved and who needed him so! +</p> +<p> +Late one afternoon, as the two men were making their way through bamboo +jungle at the foot of high cliffs close to a pass into Ghutan which they +had not yet attempted, they blundered into the middle of a herd of +elephants feeding. There was no tree in which they could take refuge, +and before they were able to make their escape they found themselves +surrounded on every side. A number of cow-elephants, which, having young +calves with them, were very savage, pressed threateningly towards the +men, who tried to force their way into the dense growths of the bamboos +and so put a frail barrier between themselves and the menacing beasts. +They knew that their pistols would be useless, and they had already +given themselves up for lost when the huge animals which were apparently +about to charge them, suddenly stopped and drew aside to allow a +monstrous bull-elephant to pass through. It was a single-tusker, and it +advanced steadily towards the men. Frank stared at it incredulously. +Could it be——? Yes, it was. He was sure of it. It was Badshah. +</p> +<p> +And the elephant knew him and came towards him. In the sudden revulsion +of feeling and his relief at knowing that they were safe Frank almost +lost his head. A mad hope surged through him. He stretched out his arms +imploringly to the great beast and cried impulsively: +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Badshah! <i>Hum-ko madad do</i>! (Help us!)" +</p> +<p> +To his amazement the animal seemed to understand. It sank slowly to its +knees as though inviting him to mount it. +</p> +<p> +"Sahib! Sahib! He offers us his aid," cried Tashi excitedly, and he +scrambled up after Wargrave who had climbed on to the broad shoulders. +</p> +<p> +The subaltern leaned forward and, touching the huge forehead, pointed in +the direction of Bhutan. Badshah turned and moved off towards the pass +through the mountains, while the herd followed; and Frank thrilled with +the hope that at last he was about to break through the barrier of foes +between him and the girl he loved. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0014" id="h2HCH0014"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XIV +</h2> +<h3> + THE DEVIL DANCERS OF TUNA +</h3> +<p> +Flat-roofed, arcaded buildings terraced one above the other, with gaily +painted walls from which covered wooden verandahs and box-like, latticed +windows jutted out, surrounded a paved courtyard, its rough flagstones +hidden by shifting, many-coloured throngs of gorgeously vestmented +priests, mitred bishops, hideous demons, skeletons with grinning skulls +and weird creatures with <i>papier maché</i> heads of bears, tigers, dragons +and even stranger beasts. Wild but not inharmonious music from +shaven-headed members of an orchestra of weird instruments—gongs, +shawns, cymbals, long silver trumpets—deafened the ears. Crowds of +gaily-clad spectators covered the flat roofs of the building and +arcades, thronged the verandahs, filled the windows and squatted around +the courtyard—these last kept in order by bullet-headed lamas with +whips. +</p> +<p> +It was the annual ceremony of the Devil Dance of the great Buddhist +monastery of Tuna, one of the fantastic Mystery Plays, the now almost +meaningless functions into which the ideal faith preached by Gautama, +the Buddha, the high-souled reformer, has degenerated. +</p> +<p> +From all parts of Bhutan west of the dividing line of the great Black +Mountain Range, from Tibet, even from far-distant Ladak, the faithful +had made pilgrimage to be present at the great festival in this most +famous and sacred <i>gompa</i> of the land. Red lamas from Western Tibet +and yellow from Lhassa, abbots and monks from little-known monasteries +lost among the rugged mountains, nuns with close-cropped hair from the +convents of Thimbu, Paro and Punaka, robber chiefs of the Hah-pa and +graziers from Sipchu, townsfolk from the capital and peasants from the +fever-laden Himalayan valleys—all had gathered there. For all who +attended the sacred festival could gain indulgences that would save them +a century or two's sojourn in the hot or cold hells of their religion. +</p> +<p> +In a gallery adorned with artistic wooden carvings and hung with +brocaded silk and gold embroideries sat a fat, bare-legged man with +close-cropped hair and scanty beard, wearing an ample, red silk gown +ornamented with Chinese designs worked in gold thread. He was the Penlop +of Tuna, the great feudal lord of the province, whose high-walled +<i>jong</i>, or castle, crowned the rocky hill on which the monastery and the +town were built. Behind him stood his officers and attendants clad in +silk or woollen kimono-like garments bound at the waist by gaily-worked +leather belts from which hung handsome swords with elaborately-wrought +silver hilts inlaid with coral and turquoises and with gold-washed +silver scabbards. +</p> +<p> +The courtyard was gay with fluttering prayer-flags, the poles of which +as well as the wooden pillars of the arcades were hung with the +beautiful banners artistically worked with countless pieces of coloured +silks and brocades and needlework pictures of Buddhist gods and saints +for which the monasteries of Bhutan are justly famed. From the blue sky +the sun blazed on the riot of mingled hues of the decorations and the +dresses of spectators and performers. +</p> +<p> +Especially gorgeous were the robes of the high priests in the spectacle. +They strongly resembled Catholic bishops in their gold-embroidered +mitres, copes and vestments as, carrying pastoral crooks or sprinkling +holy water, they moved around the courtyard in solemn procession behind +acolytes carrying sacred banners, swinging censers and intoning +harmonious chants. Troops of baffled demons fled at their approach +howling in diabolic despair. Shuddering wretches clad in scanty rags, +groping blindly as in the dark, wailing miserably and uttering weird, +long-drawn whistling notes, shrank aside from the fleeing devils and +stretched out their hands in supplication to the saintly prelates. They +were intended to represent the spirits of dead men straying in the +period of <i>Bardo</i>—the forty-nine days after death—during which the +soul released from the body is doomed to wander in search of its next +incarnation. In its journeyings it is assailed and terrified by demons, +who can only be defeated by the prayers of pious lamas to Chenresi the +Great Pitier. +</p> +<p> +The whole purpose of these representations is to familiarise during life +the devout Buddhists with the awful aspect of the many demons that will +obstruct their souls after death and try to lead them astray when they +are searching for the right path to the next world in which they are to +begin a fresh existence. +</p> +<p> +On this strange, bewildering spectacle an English girl looked down from +a small balcony not twenty feet above the courtyard. And the sight of +her caused the attention of many of the spectators to wander from the +Mystery Play. The fat old Penlop frequently looked across the quadrangle +at her from his gallery and as often uttered some coarse jest about her +to his grinning followers, while he raised a chased silver goblet filled +with <i>murwa</i>, the native liquor, to his lips. +</p> +<p> +It was Muriel Benson. For weeks she had been a prisoner in the lamasery, +cloistered in a suite of well-furnished rooms and waited on by a +close-cropped nun. She had been surprised in the bungalow and +overpowered by three of the Chinamen before she realised her danger or +could seize a weapon with which to defend herself. Had she been able to +snatch up a revolver she would have made a desperate fight for freedom. +But with fettered hands, a helpless captive, she had been carried away +on a mule. From the first she had recognised the pock-marked, one-eyed +leader of the gang as the <i>Amban's</i> officer, and so had known who was +the author and cause of her abduction. For days she had been borne along +up the rough track over the mountains, through narrow, high-walled +passes, down deep valleys and across rushing torrents, closely guarded +but always treated with respect. Her captors used broken Tibetan and +Bhutanese when they desired to communicate with her, but they answered +none of her questions. She had dreaded reaching their destination, where +she expected to find Yuan Shi Hung awaiting her; and once, in fear of +it, she had tried to throw herself down a precipice along the brink of +which the path ran. After that she had been roped to a big, powerful +Manchu. +</p> +<p> +On her arrival at the monastery she learned from her garrulous +nun-attendant that the <i>Amban</i> had been summoned to Pekin, where a +revolution had taken place and his friends there hoped to make him +President, which he regarded as a step towards the Imperial throne. The +monks of the monastery were his faithful allies on account of his +relationship to the powerful Abbott of the Yellow Lama Temple in the +Chinese capital. They had agreed to guard his prisoner, if his men +succeeded in capturing her, until he returned or sent for her. +</p> +<p> +At first the girl, relieved of the dread of falling at once into his +hands, lived in the hope of a speedy rescue. It was unfortunate, she +thought, that Colonel Dermot, with his extraordinary knowledge of and +influence over the Bhutanese, had left India. But even without him the +power of the British Empire would be set at once in motion to avenge +this outrage on an Englishwoman. Dermot's understudy, the Assistant +Political Officer, faithless lover though he was, would do all he could +to save her. Assuredly she would not have long to wait. +</p> +<p> +But as the days dragged by and she still remained a prisoner her heart +sank. She needed all her courage not to lose hope and give way to +despair. For she had always hanging over her the dread of Yuan Shi +Hung's return. But she had resolved to kill herself rather than fall +into his hands, and for that purpose had bribed her cheery, good-natured +attendant to procure a dagger for her. She pretended that she wanted it +as a protection in the lamasery, for the door of her apartments was +without a fastening. Even on the outside there was neither lock nor +bolt, for escape was considered impossible for her. If she got out of +the monastery she would be captured at once in the town. +</p> +<p> +She was not interfered with and saw no one but her nun. Once or twice +she ventured to creep down to the great temple of the monastery, drawn +by curiosity and the sound of harmonious Buddhist chants intoned by the +lamaic choir. But for her anxiety about her father and her dread of the +<i>Amban's</i> return her worst trial would have been the monotony of her +captivity, were it not that the memory of Wargrave and her unhappy love +caused her many a sleepless night. +</p> +<p> +With nothing to occupy her mind she hailed the festival of the Devil +Dance as a welcome distraction. Not even the impertinent curiosity of +the spectators could drive her from her balcony. She followed the many +phases with interest, although she could not understand the meaning of +them. For the performance was a curious mixture of religion and +blasphemous mockery, of horse-play and coarse humour as well as a +strange impressiveness. A comic interlude would follow the most solemn +act. Troops of devils burlesqued the sacred rites of the faith, and +bands of comic masks filled the arena at times and delighted the +audience by playing practical jokes on the spectators and each other. +The solitary white woman attracted their clownish humour, and they +danced in front of her balcony, shouting out rude witticisms that caused +much amusement to the lookers-on. Fortunately the girl's command of the +language, fairly good though it was, was insufficient to enable her to +understand their coarse jests. But their intention to insult her became +obvious. The leaping, howling mob of strangely apparelled performers +threatened to storm her balcony. Some climbed on each other's shoulders +to get nearer her, others even began to swarm up the pillars supporting +her balcony. To the delight of the audience the noisy mob eventually +clambered up to the railing of the balcony and, jesting, laughing, +uttering weird cries, perched on it and shouted and jeered at her. +</p> +<p> +Her face flaming, the girl drew back and was about to retire into her +room when suddenly she stopped, rigid with surprise. For above the +shouts of the maskers, the roars of the spectators and the din of the +clashing cymbals and braying trumpets, she heard her name spoken +distinctly. Incredulous she stood rooted to the ground and stared at the +yelling clowns perched on the railing. The uproar redoubled; but again +she distinguished one word above it all: +</p> +<p> +"Muriel!" +</p> +<p> +A wild hope flashed into her heart. Pretending to be amused at the +antics of the performers she advanced laughingly towards them. They +gesticulated and shouted more furiously than ever. But in the medley of +strange sounds she distinctly heard the words: +</p> +<p> +"It's I, Frank. Don't be afraid." +</p> +<p> +They seemed to come from the <i>papier maché</i> head of a grotesque serpent +worn by a man who was foremost among her tormentors and wildest in his +frenzied gestures. Smiling the girl stood her ground even when some of +the maskers, encouraged by her attitude, climbed down from the rail and +surrounded her, dancing, hallooing, leaping. The snake-headed one was +the wildest in his antics and shrieked and shouted loudest of them all. +But mixed up with incoherent cries and sounds she caught the words: +</p> +<p> +"Are you guarded?" A wild yell followed. "Can you get out?" Then he +yelled like a mad jackal. +</p> +<p> +With wildly-beating heart the girl pretended to repulse the advances of +the maskers good-humouredly and spoke to all in English, telling them to +leave her balcony and cease to molest her. But with her laughing +remonstrances she mingled the words: +</p> +<p> +"I am not guarded. I can leave my room. I will go down to the temple and +wait behind the statue of Buddha." +</p> +<p> +Then the serpent-headed one, aided by another with dragon mask, both +uttering fiendish yells, pushed his companions back to the railing, just +as the Penlop spoke to one of his officials who shouted across to them +an angry command to leave the white woman alone. The scared maskers +tumbled over each other in their hurry to quit the balcony. +</p> +<p> +Thrilled with delight the girl watched them go and then, when the entry +of a fresh body of mummers into the courtyard distracted the attention +of the spectators from her, she withdrew quietly to her room. She was +alone, the nun having gone long ago to witness the Devil Dance from +among the crowd. Muriel opened the door leading to a broad stone +staircase and peered cautiously out. There was no one to be seen. All +the inhabitants of the monastery were gathered in the courtyard. She +stole carefully down to a side door of the lamasery chapel. +</p> +<p> +This temple was a large and lofty building richly ornamented with fine +wood carvings, rich brocades and elaborately embroidered banners and +hangings. The pillars supporting the roof were covered with copper +plates beaten into beautiful patterns and the altars were of silver, the +chief one, as in all Bhutanese chapels, being adorned by a splendid pair +of elephant's tusks. Idols abounded. There was a central seated figure +of Buddha thirty feet high, heavily gilt and studded with turquoises and +precious stones, with a canopy and background of golden lotus leaves. On +either side were attendant female figures; and images of Buddhist gods, +larger than life size, stood in double rows. +</p> +<p> +Muriel concealed herself behind the colossal statue of Buddha and had +not long to wait before from her hiding-place she saw two maskers, the +Snake and the Dragon, enter the Temple cautiously. The latter remained +on guard at the door while his companion, who carried a bundle, advanced +furtively towards the great idol. As he drew near he opened the jaws of +the mask and said in a low tone: +</p> +<p> +"Muriel! Muriel! Are you here?" +</p> +<p> +At the sound of the well-remembered voice the girl trembled violently. +Her heart beat quickly as she came out from behind the statue. When he +beheld her the masker lifted the snake's head off; and Muriel saw that +the face revealed, disguised and stained a dull yellow, was that of her +lover. At the sight of it she forgot the painful past, forgot her +grievance against him, forgot the other woman, the sorrow that he had +caused her. As he sprang towards her with outstretched arms she cried: +</p> +<p> +"Oh, thank God you've come, dear!" +</p> +<p> +Frank caught her in his eager embrace. Then under the image of the Great +Dreamer who taught that Love is Illusion, that Affection is Error, that +Desire but binds closer to the revolving Wheel they kissed fondly, +passionately, like two faithful lovers met again after a lifetime of +parting. And the grotesque Devil-Gods around glared fiercely at them. +But the Lord Buddha looked mildly down, on his sculptured face the +ineffable calm of <i>Nirvana</i>, the peace of freedom from all Desire +attained at last. But, heedless of gods or devils, the man strained the +woman to his heart and rained kisses on her lips, her eyes, her hair. +</p> +<p> +There was little time for dalliance. Danger encompassed them. Wargrave +produced from the bundle that he carried a mask and a costume with a +pair of high, felt-soled boots, which effectively disguised Muriel. Then +they joined Tashi; and the three passed out into the vestibule only just +in time, for here they found a group of lamas and peasants from a +distant part of the country stopping for a moment to look at the great +pictured Cycle of Existence painted on the wall before they entered the +temple. The vestibule opened on to a courtyard lined with the cells of +the monks of the monastery and, as this led to the great quadrangle in +which the Miracle Play was being performed, a stream of mummers, lamas +and laymen was passing through it, mostly going to the spectacle, +although a few were coming away from it. With Muriel clinging closely to +him Wargrave followed Tashi as he pushed his way through the crowd, +exchanging jokes and careless banter as he went. +</p> +<p> +The rabbit-warren of steep lanes, flights of steps and bridges over +ravines through the town built on the precipitous slopes of the hill was +almost deserted, for most of the inhabitants had flocked to the Devil +Dance. So, unmolested and unnoticed, they reached the caravanserai in +which the two men had lodged for several days before the festival. Here +they hurriedly changed their costumes. When they emerged from it Muriel, +her hair cropped almost to the scalp and her face stained a yellowish +tint, was garbed as a boy-novice of a lamasery in the priestly dress, +with a great rosary round her neck. In one hand she held a begging-bowl +while with the other she guided the feeble steps of the aged lama whose +disciple she was supposed to be. Behind them limped a lame lay-brother +of their monastery. +</p> +<p> +In this disguise the fugitives met with no hindrance as they quitted the +town for the open country, heading towards the south. Only when well +clear of the houses did Frank and Muriel venture to converse in their +own language. Wargrave narrated all that had happened to him since they +had parted. Anyone watching them beyond earshot would have wondered at +the joy that shone in the face of the young <i>chela</i> (disciple) clasping +the hand of the old priest and gazing affectionately at him as they went +along; for Frank was telling the girl of Violet's letter which had set +him free. He described his many fruitless attempts to cross the +frontier, his fortunate meeting with Badshah and the marvellous way in +which the wonderful animal had helped him. Safely inside Bhutan he and +Tashi had parted with the elephants in what appeared to be the same +forest as the one in which Colonel Dermot and they had left the herd on +their previous entry into the country. Frank had tried to imitate his +chief in ordering Badshah to meet them there again; but he was very +doubtful of the result. +</p> +<p> +They had not found it difficult to follow the trail left by Muriel's +abductors, for once inside the border the Chinamen had not tried to +hide themselves. At every village along the rough road Tashi had learned +of their passing with their captive, so the two had followed them +without difficulty to Tuna, where they soon discovered where the girl +was imprisoned. The festival had offered them an unhoped-for opportunity +of rescuing her. Tashi, once a star performer in similar devil dances in +his own monastery, procured costumes and taught his companion what to +do. As the number of those taking part in the performances ran to +hundreds it was easy to slip in unobserved among them. +</p> +<p> +Then Muriel told of her adventures. But, far more interesting to both +than the details of these mere happenings, each revealed to the other +the longings, the love, the hopes and fears, that had filled his and her +heart during the unhappy period of their estrangement. +</p> +<p> +Now began a wonderful odyssey that, but for the dread of pursuit and +capture would have seemed a journey in Fairyland to the re-united +lovers. Indeed, as they travelled on day after day and danger seemed +left behind, they forgot everything in the joy of being together once +more, their vows exchanged, their faith pledged, the Future a long vista +of golden days of delight. It was well that Tashi was with them to be on +the watch, for the lovers walked with their heads in the clouds. +</p> +<p> +And certainly theirs was an interesting pilgrimage. Bhutan is perhaps +the least-known country in Asia, the last that has kept its cherished +seclusion since Anglo-Indian troops burst the barrier of Tibet and +flaunted the Union Jack in the streets of the fabled city of Lhassa. But +Bhutan is still a secret, a mysterious, land. Only a few British Envoys, +from Bogle in the latter half of the 18th Century to Claude White and +Bell in the beginning of this, and their companions, had intruded on its +privacy before Colonel Dermot. So that for the lovers it had all the +fascination of the unknown. +</p> +<p> +Sometimes, among the ice-clad peaks of the giant ranges of the +Himalayas, they crossed snowy passes fourteen thousand feet above the +sea, and did not neglect to throw a stone upon the <i>obos</i>—the cairns +that pious and superstitious travellers erect to propitiate the spirits +of the passes. Sometimes the path led under beautiful cliffs of pure +white crystalline limestone that in the brilliant sunlight shone like +the finest marble. Often they journeyed through a lovely land of +gently-sloping hills, of grassy uplands, of deep valleys giving +delightful vistas of snow-clad mountains far away. They walked through +pinewoods, through forests of maple, silver fir, and larch, and miles of +huge bushes of flowering rhododendrons. They toiled up a rough and stony +track over bare and desolate land that was an old moraine and under +moraine terraces one above another, forming giant spurs of the rugged +hills. There were dark and fearsome ravines, so deep that they could +scarcely hear the roar of the foaming torrents rushing among the great +boulders below as they crossed on swaying suspension bridges of iron +chains. These had been built hundreds of years before by long-forgotten +Chinese engineers. Three chains on one level supported the bamboo or +plank footway, while one on either side served as a hand-rail, and a +bamboo or grass lattice-work between them and the roadbearers hid from +sight the deep gorge below. Often these bridges were only of ropes of +twisted withes or grass and swung and swayed in terrifying fashion with +the motion of the traveller. There were broad rivers over the eddying, +swirling waters of which strong cantilever bridges of stout wooden beams +were pushed out from the steep banks. +</p> +<p> +Truly a beautiful land Bhutan, at its loveliest perhaps in spring, when +the hills and upland meadows where the yaks graze, ten thousand feet +above the sea, blaze with the mingled colours of anemones blue and +white, of yellow pansies and mauve and white irises, of large white +roses and small yellow ones, of giant yellow primulas with six tiers of +flowers, when the oaks and the chestnuts are clothed in young green, and +the apricot, pear and orange trees are in bloom, when large and lovely +blossoms cover that little-known tree that the Bhutanese call <i>chape</i>, +when the bright green of the young grass runs up to the white +snowfields. The woods are full of a pretty ground orchid, beautiful +trailing blossoms of others droop from the boughs of the great trees, +and on the magnesium limestone hills one of the rarest orchids grows in +profusion. +</p> +<p> +But to the two pilgrims of Love the land seemed beautiful even now that +the winter was not far distant. In the silent woods, hidden from prying +eyes, they sat hand in hand and whispered to each other over and over +again the oldest, sweetest story that the Earth has known. Strange to +hear words of love from the lips of such a weird-looking couple; yet +Muriel in her quaint disguise with her silky hair cropped to the scalp +was as beautiful in her lover's eyes as when he had seen her in her +prettiest frocks. And she thought the yellow-skinned, wrinkled old lama +infinitely more attractive than the gay young subaltern of Ranga +Duar—for he was her own now. Such is Love's glamour. Muriel had +forgiven royally. +</p> +<p> +Bhutan is a Buddhist-ruled land, therefore slaying for sport and fishing +in the rivers is prohibited; nay, more, the Maharajah sometimes forbids +the killing of even domestic animals for food. So wild life abounds. The +fugitives often saw flocks of burhel—called <i>nao</i> in Bhutan—feeding on +the precipitous slopes of the higher hills. Once Frank and Muriel +excitedly watched a snow-leopard stalking one of these big-horned sheep +sixteen thousand feet above the sea-level. And in these heights they +even saw an occasional lynx or wolf, generally only to be found in the +highest elevations bordering on Tibet. Silver-haired <i>langur</i> apes, the +white fringes around their black faces giving them a comic resemblance +to aged negroes, awoke the echoes of the mountains with their deep +booming cry; while in the lower valleys little brown monkeys mopped and +mowed from the trees at the fugitives as they passed. On one occasion +Muriel, exhilarated by the keen, life-giving air, ran gaily on ahead of +the others in a wood—and came on a tiger enjoying its midday siesta. +But the striped brute only uttered a startled "Wough! Wough!" like a big +dog and dashed away through the undergrowth. Another time they disturbed +a red bear feeding on the carcase of a strange beast that seemed a +mixture of goat, donkey and deer—Tashi called it a <i>serao</i>. And at a +lower elevation they blundered on two black bears—not flesh-eaters +these, yet more dangerous—grubbing for roots, and on another occasion +saw one climbing a tree in search of wild bees' nests. +</p> +<p> +In a dense jungle early one morning a beautiful black panther with a +skin like watered silk glided stealthily by them, showing its white +fangs and red mouth in an angry snarl as it went. And deep down in a +valley they espied a rhinoceros feeding a thousand feet below them. But +they came across no elephants; and Frank noted the fact despairingly as +rendering even less probable a meeting with Badshah and his herd. +</p> +<p> +Bird-life abounded, from the snow partridges that flew in the hills +eighteen thousand feet high to pigeons of every kind: birds of all +sizes, from great eagles to the little quails that hid in the +cornfields; lammergeiers that were fed on human bodies, the dead of +families of high degree, exposed on a flat rock of slate with head and +shoulders tied to a wooden axle that stretched the corpse like a rack. +In Bhutan ordinary folk are cremated. +</p> +<p> +On their journey the fugitives met with wayfarers of every rank and +class. On a steep mountain track they stood aside to let a high official +go by. He was sitting pickaback in a cloth on a powerfully-built +servant, the ends of the cloth knotted on the man's forehead. Behind +trudged an escort of bare-legged swordsmen with leather shields and +shining steel helmets. Coolies, male and female, followed, carrying the +great man's baggage in baskets placed in the crutch of forked sticks +tied on their backs. Sometimes they passed a rival lama glaring with +jealous eye at them. Often they met groups of raiyats, sturdy peasants, +thick-limbed, bare-footed, bare-headed, the women clear-eyed, +deep-bosomed, but uglier than the males. These did reverence to the holy +men and put their modest offerings of copper coins or food into Muriel's +begging-bowl. +</p> +<p> +Another time it was a family group at food, eating by the wayside. The +group consisted of a stout, ruddy-faced woman with close-cropped hair, +hung with many necklaces of coral and turquoise, and waited on by her +three meek and submissive husbands, all brothers—for this is a land of +polyandry. She invited the fugitives to share their meal, and bade her +dutiful spouses serve the supposed lamas. They proffered cooked rice +coloured with saffron and other food in the excellent Bhutanese baskets +woven with very finely split cane. These are made in two circular parts +with rounded top and bottom pieces fitting so well that water can +actually be carried in them. From sealed wicker-covered bamboos the +hosts filled <i>choongas</i> (bamboo mugs) with <i>murwa</i>, the beer of the +country, and <i>chang</i>, the native spirit. Frank and Muriel refused the +liquor; but Tashi drank their share as well as his, to give the pious +peasants an opportunity of acquiring merit. And wife and husbands +thought themselves amply rewarded by a muttered blessing. +</p> +<p> +A very different figure was that of a man lame of the right leg and +limping painfully down a steep hill in front of the fugitives. Muriel, +full of pity, whispered to her lover after they had passed him: "Oh, the +poor wretch! Did you see, dear, he had lost the right hand as well?" But +she shuddered when she learned that the cripple was a murderer punished +by the severing of the tendons of the leg and the loss of the hand that +struck the fatal blow. +</p> +<p> +In the cultivated valleys, where barley, buckwheat and mustard grew, +there were everywhere evidences of the religious feeling of the Western +Bhutanese. Every hill was crowned with a <i>gompa</i> or chapel, <i>chortens</i> +and praying-wheels stood beside the road, and <i>mendongs</i> or +praying-walls, a mile long, their stones engraved with sacred words, +were built near habitations. +</p> +<p> +In the villages the disguised fugitives were well treated. Food and +lodging were offered them freely in the cabins as in the great houses of +officials and rich folks, where they spent hours watching the skilled +artisans among the feudal retainers of their hosts weaving silk, making +woollen and cotton garments, brocade and embroideries, or hammering +artistic designs on silver or copper plates backed with lac. None +suspected the three of being other than they seemed. The Buddhism of +Bhutan and Tibet to-day has but one article of faith—"Acquire merit by +feeding and paying the lamas and they will win salvation for you." So +rich and poor vied in giving their best to the holy wayfarers, and +sought not to intrude on the meditations or privacy of lama and <i>chela</i>, +and welcomed the cheery company of the more worldly lay brother who +could crack a joke or empty a mug with any man and pitch the stone +quoits or shoot an arrow in the archery contests better than the village +champion. +</p> +<p> +Thus, contentedly and free from care, the three fugitives wandered on +towards the south where on the frontier they expected their troubles to +begin. One day when passing a hamlet by the roadside they tarried to +look on at a wedding at which a buxom country maid was being married to +a family of six brothers. The village headman performed the simple +ceremony, which consisted of offering a bowl of <i>murwa</i> to the gods, +then presenting a cupful to the bride and eldest bridegroom, blessing +them, and expressing a hope that the union might be a fruitful one. The +rest, after the usual presents had been given to the bride's relatives, +was simply a matter of feasting everyone. The stranger lamas were +invited to join; but Frank refused and dragged away the convivial Tashi, +who was anxious to accept the invitation. Wargrave with difficulty led +him aside and was so occupied in arguing with his discontented guide +that he did not notice that Muriel had not followed. +</p> +<p> +A sudden cry from her and his name shrieked out wildly made him turn in +alarm. To his horror he saw the girl struggling in the grasp of a +Chinaman, while another on a mule and holding the bridle of a second +animal was calling on the villagers in the Penlop's name to assist his +comrade. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0015" id="h2HCH0015"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XV +</h2> +<h3> + A STRANGE RESCUE +</h3> +<p> +Neither Muriel, absorbed in watching the wedding, nor the two men +engrossed in their dispute had noticed the Chinese come riding along the +road and pulling up when they saw the peasants gathered together. One of +them had been about to question the villagers from his saddle when his +eyes fell on the disguised girl standing apart from the crowd. He stared +at her for a few moments. Then he spoke hurriedly to his companions, +and, springing from the mule's back seized Muriel in a rough grasp. +</p> +<p> +At her cry Frank ran back, forgetting his disguise. He recognised in her +assailant the pock-marked officer of the <i>Amban</i>. The man, seeing him +coming, drew a revolver; but Wargrave whipped out his pistol quicker and +without hesitation shot him through the heart. The Chinaman collapsed to +the ground and in his fall dragged the girl down. His comrade fired at +his slayer and, missing him, wheeled his mule round and galloped off. +Tashi returned the shot while Frank ran to Muriel. He fired several +times and the rider was apparently hit; for he fell forward on the neck +of his animal; but he recovered himself and, crouching low, was still +in the saddle when a turn in the road hid him from sight. +</p> +<p> +The startled villagers scattered and fled in terror at the tragedy +suddenly enacted in their midst, the six cowardly husbands deserting +their new-made wife and leaving her to follow as they ran away, which +she did at her utmost speed. +</p> +<p> +Frank freed Muriel from the stiffened grasp of the dead man and helped +her to her feet; then the three hurried from the fatal spot, so lately +filled by a cheerful crowd of merrymakers and now tenanted only by the +corpse that lay with sightless eyes staring up at the blue sky. They +made for the shelter of jungle-clad hills that rose a couple of miles +away. +</p> +<p> +From now onwards, for two or three weeks, the fugitives led the lives of +hunted rats. They travelled generally only by night, avoiding villages +and farms, and keeping away from the road as much as possible. They were +in the southern zone of Bhutan lying nearest the Indian frontier, a +region of precipitous hills ten or twelve thousand feet high, their +sides clothed with dense vegetation, of deep, fever-laden valleys of +awe-inspiring gorges, of rivers liable to sudden floods and rising in a +few hours thirty or forty feet. +</p> +<p> +Tashi in various disguises occasionally visited villages in search of +food and information; while the lovers awaited his return in some hidden +spot, Frank holding the anxious girl in his arms and trying to calm her +fears. In one excursion the ex-lama got the first definite news of the +pursuit. He learned that the <i>Amban</i> had returned unexpectedly to Tuna, +the plot in his favour in Pekin having failed. He was not satisfied by +the tales told by the monks of the lamasery to account for Muriel's +mysterious disappearance, which was that she had been carried off by +devils. He insisted on a search being made for her along the road to the +Indian border and sent his own Chinese guards to direct the pursuit. The +companion of the pock-marked man had got back to Tuna and told of their +recognition of her. Yuan Shi Hung, furious at the death of his officer +but overjoyed at the discovery of the girl, set out at once with his +personal followers and a body of the Penlop's soldiers to take up the +chase. +</p> +<p> +The fugitives, hotly pursued, had several hair-breadth escapes. Once +they almost blundered into a bivouac of their enemies at night. They +succeeded at last in reaching the great forest in which Wargrave and the +ex-lama had parted from the elephants, the forest which ran along the +foot and clothed the northern slopes of the second-last range of +mountains between them and the frontier. But alas! there was no trace of +Badshah's herd; yet this was not surprising, for they found themselves +in a part unknown to them. Through this vast jungle they travelled by +day, until one evening they reached a deep gorge that pierced the range +and seemed to promise a passage through the mountains. +</p> +<p> +They camped for the night by its mouth, intending to enter it at +sunrise. Dawn found them breaking their fast on a scanty meal of dried +mutton and bananas. Suddenly Tashi stopped eating and held up a warning +hand. His companions drew their pistols, Frank having given his second +weapon to Muriel. Presently they heard the faint sounds of an animal's +approach on their track. Just as they had risen silently to their feet +three gigantic dogs appeared, scenting their trail. They were Tibetan +mastiffs, such as are to be seen chained in the court yards of +lamaseries. At sight of them the huge brutes stopped, crouched for an +instant, showing their fangs in a fierce snarl, and then rushed at them. +</p> +<p> +Without hesitation the three fired. One of the dogs dropped dead; but +the others, though wounded, came on. One bounded at Muriel. Frank threw +himself in front of her, firing rapidly at it. Several bullets struck +it, but the savage brute sprang at his throat. He grappled with it, +striving by main strength to hold it off. Muriel rushed to his aid and +putting her pistol to the mastiff's head shot it dead. Tashi meantime +had killed the third. +</p> +<p> +Knowing that their pursuers must be close behind the dogs they fled into +the gorge. On either hand stupendous cliffs towered up two thousand feet +above them, scarcely a hundred yards apart, seeming to meet overhead +and shut off the sky. Here and there the giant walls were split from top +to bottom in slits opening off the main passage. As the fugitives ran on +the gorge narrowed until it was scarcely fifty yards wide, and they +began to fear that it might prove only a <i>cul-de-sac</i> in which they +would be hopelessly trapped. They heard cries behind them, strangely +echoed by the rocky walls. Breathless, panting, their tired limbs giving +way under them, they staggered blindly on. +</p> +<p> +The pass turned sharply to the right. As they approached the bend they +became aware of a dull rumbling, and the ground, which suddenly began to +slope steeply down, shook violently under their feet. Wondering what new +danger, what fresh horror, awaited them they stumbled on, turned the +corner and stopped short in dismayed despair. +</p> +<p> +From side to side the gorge was filled with a tumultuous, racing flood +of foam-flecked water, a rushing river that poured out of a natural +tunnel in the steeply sloping rocky bottom of the pass as from a sluice. +It surged against the precipitous cliffs, leaping up against the walls +that hemmed it in, sweeping in mad onset of white-topped waves and +eddying whirlpools flinging spray high in air. The stoutest swimmer +would be tossed about helplessly in it, rolled over and over, choked, +suffocated, sucked under, the life beaten out of him. +</p> +<p> +For one wild moment Frank thought of seizing Muriel in his arms and +springing into the raging flood, but the sheer hopelessness of escape +that way checked him. It was certain death. Better to turn and face +their pursuers. There was more chance of life in battling with a score +or two of Bhutanese swordsmen than with the tumbling, tossing waters. +</p> +<p> +So, pistol in hand, the three retraced their steps, looking everywhere +for a suitable spot to make a stand. But on either hand the cliffs rose +sheer, their faces seamed here and there with cracks, but with never a +crevice big enough to shelter them. They passed the bend; and a few +hundred yards beyond it some large rocks fallen from the cliff on one +side lay close against its base. +</p> +<p> +Frank resolved to take their stand here. It was the only cover visible. +They fitted the holster-stocks to their pistols, converting them into +carbines which could be fired from the shoulder, enabling them to aim +more accurately at a longer range. Then while Tashi crept cautiously +along the pass to scout, the subaltern and the girl examined the +position for defence. Thus occupied they were startled by shots ringing +out, echoing down the vast canyon. Taking cover they saw their companion +running back followed by a body of men, a few mounted, the majority on +foot. Some had fire-arms, others bows, the rest swords. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave and Muriel opened on the pursuers with their automatic weapons +and checked them. Tashi was about a hundred yards from shelter when a +shot struck him. He stumbled and fell, while a howl of delight rose from +his foes. As he tried to struggle up bullets kicked up the dust round +him and several arrows dropped near. +</p> +<p> +"Muriel, loose off as many cartridges as you can to cover me," said +Wargrave, laying his pistol beside her. +</p> +<p> +Before the girl realised his meaning he had sprung out from the rocks +and was running towards Tashi. For a moment the pursuers were puzzled by +his action and then fired their rifles and matchlocks and shot arrows at +him. But unscathed he reached the wounded man who had been so faithful a +comrade to him. Raising him on his back he staggered towards the rocks, +while Muriel pumped lead at the enemy and succeeded in keeping down +their fire somewhat. As Wargrave laid the ex-lama on the ground in +shelter Tashi seized his hand and touched it with his lips and forehead +in silent gratitude. Frank hurriedly examined and bandaged the wound +made by a large-calibre bullet, which had passed through the leg below +the knee, lacerating the muscles but not injuring the bone. Then he took +up his post again, while Tashi dragged himself up behind a rock and +opened fire on their foes. +</p> +<p> +These were for the most part Bhutanese, but there were several Chinese +among them. +</p> +<p> +"Look! Look, Frank! There's the <i>Amban</i>," cried Muriel excitedly, +pointing to a man who rode into sight along the pass on a white mule. +</p> +<p> +She fired at him. The bullet missed him but apparently went unpleasantly +close, for Yuan Shi Hung galloped back into shelter behind a projecting +buttress of the cliffs. +</p> +<p> +The attackers numbered sixty or eighty. They were apparently staggered +by the rapid fire poured into them, which killed or wounded several of +them. Some tried to find shelter by huddling against the side of the +pass and others flung themselves on the ground behind boulders; but the +leaders urged them on. +</p> +<p> +There could be little doubt as to the issue of the fight. The bullets +from the Chinamen's rifles and the Bhutanese matchlocks spattered the +rocks or the face of the cliff; but the archers began to shoot almost +vertically into the air from their strong bamboo bows, and several +iron-tipped, four-feathered arrows dropped behind the cover, one missing +Wargrave by a hand's breadth. +</p> +<p> +Fearing for Muriel he tried to shield her with his body. +</p> +<p> +"What's the use, dearest?" she said. "If you are killed I don't want to +live. Indeed, we must both die now. I shall not be taken alive. Kiss me +and tell me once more that you love me." +</p> +<p> +He held her to his heart in a passionate embrace and kissed her fondly. +</p> +<p> +"They are coming now, sahib," said Tashi. "And I have only a few +cartridges left." +</p> +<p> +The lovers paid no heed. +</p> +<p> +"Goodbye, my dear, dear love," whispered Muriel, "I'm happier dying with +you than living without you." +</p> +<p> +Frank kissed her, solemnly now, for the last time. Then they turned to +face the enemy. The swordsmen were massing for a charge. Crouching low +they held their shields before them and waved their long-bladed <i>dahs</i> +above their heads, uttering fierce yells. +</p> +<p> +Suddenly the <i>Amban</i> and other mounted men who had been sheltering out +of sight dashed into view and rode madly into the rear ranks, knocking +down and trampling on anyone in their way. The men on foot looked behind +and broke into a run, coming on in a disordered mob. But it was not a +charge—it was more like a panic. For with wild cries of frantic terror +they fled past the defenders who, fearing a trick, fired their last +cartridges into them, dropping several, some of whom tried to rise and +drag themselves on in dread of something terrible behind. +</p> +<p> +Then into sight came a vast herd of wild elephants, filling the gorge +from cliff to cliff and moving at a slow trot. A huge bull led them, +lines of other tuskers behind him, crowds of females and calves +bringing up the rear. The onset of the mass of great monsters was +terrifying. It was appalling, irresistible. +</p> +<p> +Muriel cried out: +</p> +<p> +"It's Badshah! Frank, it's Badshah! Look at the leader! Don't you see?" +</p> +<p> +Tashi stared at the oncoming herd. Then he quietly unfixed his pistol +and put it away in the holster. +</p> +<p> +"We are saved, sahib," he said with the calm fatalism of the East. "The +God of the Elephants has sent them." +</p> +<p> +And he limped out from behind the rocks. The two Europeans followed him. +Their foes had disappeared, all but the dead and wounded. +</p> +<p> +Badshah—for it was he—swerved out of his course and came to them, +while the herd went on, opening out to pass him as he sank to his knees +before the humans. Tashi, despite his wound, climbed on to his neck, +while Wargrave mounted behind him and Muriel took her seat on the broad +back, clinging to her lover. Then the tusker rose and moved swiftly +after the herd. +</p> +<p> +As he rounded the bend a strange sight met the eyes of those he carried. +Their enemies were huddled together in terror near the brink of the +tunnel from which the surging water rushed out. Some endeavoured to +pluck up courage to throw themselves into the river, while the majority +had turned to face the elephants. But they were paralysed with fright. A +few tried to discharge their fire-arms or loosed their arrows with +trembling hands. As the elephants, quickening their pace, rushed on in +an irresistible mass some of the men, crazed with fright, ran to meet +them. Others flung themselves to the ground where they were. +</p> +<p> +But over both the great monsters passed, treading them to pulp under the +ponderous feet. The animals of the mounted men, as terrified as their +riders, swung about and sprang headlong into the river. Many of the men +on foot did the same. The heads of animals and men appeared and +disappeared, bobbing up and down, then their bodies were rolled over and +over, tossed up on the waves and sucked under. One by one they +disappeared. +</p> +<p> +A few of the panic-stricken mob had tried to climb the precipitous +cliffs in vain. One, however, getting his hands into a narrow, slanting +crack, dragged himself up a few feet. +</p> +<p> +It was the <i>Amban</i>. Frank drew his pistol; but Muriel clung to his arm +and cried: +</p> +<p> +"Oh, spare the poor wretch!" +</p> +<p> +Tashi had no scruples, but his magazine was empty and he searched in +vain for a cartridge. +</p> +<p> +But Yuan Shi Hung's time had come. Badshah's trunk shot out and caught +the climber's ankle. The Chinaman was plucked from the face of the cliff +and hurled to the ground. A frenzied shriek burst from him as the tusk +was driven into his shuddering body, which in an instant was trodden to +a bloody pulp. Muriel hid her face against her lover, but the agony of +the wretch's dying yell rang in her ears. +</p> +<p> +Not one of their enemies was left alive. Then the elephants one by one +slid and slithered down into the rushing water which was very little +below the brink. The mothers supported the youngest calves with their +trunks, the less immature climbing on to their backs. Tashi checked +Badshah as he was about to follow the herd into the river and, lame as +he was, slid down to the ground. He searched the crushed and mangled +corpses of his fellow-countrymen and collected their girdles until he +had enough to knot and plait into two ropes, one to go about Badshah's +neck, the other around the great body. More girdles sufficed to join +these together and supply cords by which the men and the woman on his +back could tie themselves on to the ropes and to each other securely. +When this was done Badshah slid into the river. As elephants do he sank +in the water until only the upper part of his head and the tip of his +upraised trunk were above it. Without the precaution that Tashi had +taken his riders would have been instantly swept away. +</p> +<p> +Only elephants could have battled successfully with that raging torrent. +The upflung spray and leaping waves hid the herd from the fugitives as +they clung desperately to the ropes and to each other. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +Eighteen months had gone by. In the garden of the Political Agent's +bungalow in Ranga Duar Colonel Dermot, completely restored to health, +and his wife stood with his Assistant, Major Hunt and Macdonald. They +were watching Mrs. Wargrave who, with Brian and Eileen clinging to her, +was holding out her two months' old baby to a great elephant with a +single tusk. The animal raised its trunk as though in salute, then, +lowering it, gently touched with its sensitive tip the laughing infant +whose tiny hand instinctively clutched it and held it fast. +</p> +<p> +With a smile Muriel turned her head and looked at her husband. +</p> +<p> +"Badshah has accepted him. Your son is free of the herd," said Colonel +Dermot. +</p> +<h3> +THE END. +</h3> +<hr /> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p class="foot"> +<u>1</u> (<a name="note-1" href="#noteref-1">return</a>)<br /> +A similar incident occurred in real life near Alipur Duar in + Eastern Bengal to a lady and an officer on a female elephant named + Dundora during a beat. But in this case it was the man that killed + the tiger with his second rifle when it was standing on the + elephant's head with its fore-paws on the <i>howdah</i>-rail. I can + personally testify to Dundora's immobility when facing a charging + tiger.—THE AUTHOR. +</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14087 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..89dc11c --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #14087 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14087) diff --git a/old/14087-8.txt b/old/14087-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0aa5b1c --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14087-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8640 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Jungle Girl, by Gordon Casserly + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Jungle Girl + +Author: Gordon Casserly + +Release Date: November 18, 2004 [eBook #14087] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE JUNGLE GIRL*** + + +E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, David Garcia, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +THE JUNGLE GIRL + +by + +GORDON CASSERLY + +Author of _The Elephant God_, etc. + +New York + +1922 + + + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +I. THE GREY BOAR +II. YOUTH CALLS TO YOUTH +III. THE LOVE-SONG OF HAR DYAL +IV. A CROCODILE INTERVENES +V. SENTENCE OF EXILE +VI. A BORDER OUTPOST +VII. IN THE TERAI JUNGLE +VIII. A GIRL OF THE FOREST +IX. TIGER LAND +X. A POLITICAL OFFICER IN THE MAKING +XI. TRAGEDY +XII. "ROOTED IN DISHONOUR" +XIII. THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE +XIV. THE DEVIL DANCERS OF TUNA +XV. A STRANGE RESCUE + + + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE GREY BOAR + + Youth's daring courage, manhood's fire, + Firm seat and eagle eye, + Must he acquire who doth aspire + To see the grey boar die. + + --_Indian Pigsticking Song_. + + +Mrs. Norton looked contentedly at her image in the long mirror which +reflected a graceful figure in a well-cut grey habit and smart long +brown boots, a pretty face and wavy auburn hair under the sun-helmet. +Then turning away and picking up her whip she left the dressing-room +and, passing the door of her husband's bedroom where he lay still +sleeping, descended the broad marble staircase of the Residency to the +lofty hall, where an Indian servant in a long red coat hurried to open +the door of the dining-room for her. + +Almost at that moment a mile away Raymond, the adjutant of the 180th +Punjaub Infantry, looked at his watch and called out loudly: + +"Hurry up, Wargrave; it's four o'clock and the ponies will be round in +ten minutes. And it's a long ride to the Palace." + +He was seated at a table on the verandah of the bungalow which he +shared with his brother subaltern in the small military cantonment near +Rohar, the capital of the Native State of Mandha in the west of India. +Dawn had not yet come; and by the light of an oil lamp Raymond was +eating a frugal breakfast of tea, toast and fruit, the _chota hazri_ or +light meal with which Europeans in the East begin the day. He was +dressed in an old shooting-jacket, breeches and boots; and as he ate his +eyes turned frequently to a bundle of steel-headed bamboo spears leaning +against the wall near him. For he and his companion were going as the +guests of the Maharajah of Mandha for a day's pigsticking, as hunting +the wild boar is termed in India. + +He had finished his meal and lit a cheroot before Wargrave came yawning +on to the verandah. + +"Sorry for being so lazy, old chap," said the newcomer. "But a year's +leave in England gets one out of the habit of early rising." + +He pulled up a chair to the table on which his white-clad Mussulman +servant, who had come up the front steps of the verandah, laid a tray +with his tea and toast. And while he ate Raymond lay back smoking in a +long chair and looked almost affectionately at him. They had been +friends since their Sandhurst days, and during the past twelve months of +his comrade's absence on furlough in Europe the adjutant had sorely +missed his cheery companionship. Nor was he the only one in their +regiment who had. + +Frank Wargrave was almost universally liked by both men and women, and, +while unspoilt by popularity, thoroughly deserved it. He was about +twenty-six years of age, above medium height, with a lithe and graceful +figure which the riding costume that he was wearing well set off. +Fair-haired and blue-eyed, with good though irregular features, he was +pleasant-faced and attractive rather than handsome. The cheerful, +good-tempered manner that he displayed even at that trying early hour +was a true indication of a happy and light-hearted disposition that made +him as liked by his brother officers as by other men who did not know +him so well. In his regiment all the native ranks adored the young +sahib, who was always kind and considerate, though just, to them, and +looked more closely after their interests than he did his own. For, like +most young officers in the Indian Army, he was seldom out of debt; but +soldierly hospitality and a hand ever ready to help a friend in want +were the causes rather than deliberate extravagance on his own account. +Taking life easily and never worrying over his own troubles he was +always generous and sympathetic to others, and prompter to take up +cudgels on their behalf than on his own. His being a good sportsman and +a smart soldier added to his popularity among men; while all women were +partial to the pleasant, courteous subaltern whom they felt to have a +chivalrous regard and respect for them and who was as polite and +attentive to an old lady as he was to the prettiest girl. + +While admiring and liking the other sex Wargrave had hitherto been too +absorbed in sport and his profession to have ever found time to lose his +heart to any particular member of it, while his innate respect for, and +high ideal of, womankind had preserved him from unworthy intrigues with +those ready to meet him more than half-way. Even in the idleness of the +year's furlough in England from which he had returned the previous day +he had remained heart-whole; although several charming girls had been +ready to share his lot and more than one pretty pirate had sought to +make him her prize. But he had been blind to them all; for he was too +free from conceit to believe that any woman would concern herself with +him unasked. He had dined and danced with maid and young matron in +London, ridden with them in the Row and Richmond Park, punted them down +backwaters by Goring, Pangbourne and the Cleveden Woods, and flirted +harmlessly with them in country houses after days with the Quorn and the +Pytchley, and yet come back to India true to his one love, his regiment. + +As Raymond watched him the fear of the feminine dangers in England for +his friend suddenly pricked; and he blurted out anxiously: + +"I say, old chap, you haven't got tangled up with any woman at home, +have you? Not got engaged or any silly thing like that, I hope?" + +Wargrave laughed. + +"No fear, old boy," he replied, pouring out another cup of tea. "Far too +hard up to think of such an expensive luxury as a wife. Been too busy, +too, to see much of any particular girl." + +"You had some decent sport, hadn't you?" asked his friend, with a +feeling of relief in his heart. + +"Rather. I told you I'd learnt to fly and got my pilot's certificate, +for one thing. Good fun, flying. I wish I could afford a 'bus of my own. +Then I had some yachting on the Solent and a lot of boating on the +Thames. I put in a month in Switzerland, skiing and skating." + +"Did you get any hunting?" + +"Yes, at my uncle's place near Desford in Leicestershire. He gave me +some shooting, too. It was all very well; but I was very envious when +the regiment came here and you wrote and told me of the pigsticking you +were getting. I've always longed for it. It's great sport, isn't it?" + +"The best I know," cried Raymond enthusiastically. "Beats hunting +hollow. You're not following a wretched little animal that runs for its +life, but a game brute that will turn on you as like as not and make +you fight for yours." + +"It must be ripping. I do hope we'll have the luck to find plenty of pig +to-day." + +"Oh, we're sure to. The Maharajah told me yesterday they have marked +down a _sounder_--that is, a herd--of wild pig in a _nullah_ about seven +miles the other side of the city, which is two miles away, so we have a +ride of nine to the meet." + +"That will make it a very hard day for our ponies, won't it?" asked +Wargrave anxiously. "Eighteen miles there and back and the runs as +well." + +"Oh, that's all right. The Maharajah mounts us at the meet. We'll find +his horses waiting there for us. Rawboned beasts with mouths like iron, +as a rule; but good goers and staunch to pig." + +"By Jove! The Maharajah must be a real good chap." + +"One of the best," replied Raymond. "He is a man for whom I've the +greatest admiration. He rules his State admirably. He commanded his own +Imperial Service regiment in the war and did splendidly. He is very good +to us here." + +"So it seems. From what I gathered at Mess last night he appears to +provide all our sport for us." + +"Yes; he arranges his shoots and the pigsticking meets for days on which +the officers of the regiment are free to go out with him. When we can +travel by road he sends his carriages for us, lends us horses and has +camels to follow us with lunch, ice and drinks wherever we go." + +"What a good fellow he must be!" exclaimed Wargrave. "I am glad we get +pigsticking here. I've always longed for it, but never have been +anywhere before where there was any, as you know." + +"It's lucky for us that the sport here is good; for without it life in +Rohar would be too awful to contemplate. It's the last place the Lord +made." + +"It's the hardest place to reach I've ever known," said Wargrave. "It +was a shock to learn that, after forty-eight hours in the train, I had +two more days to travel after leaving the railway." + +"How did you like that forty miles in a camel train over the salt +desert? That made you sit up a bit, eh?" + +"It was awful. The heat and the glare off the sand nearly killed me. You +say there is no society here?" + +"Society? The only Europeans here or in the whole State, besides those +of us in the regiment, are the Resident and his wife." + +"What is a Resident, exactly?" + +"A Political Officer appointed by the Government of India to be a sort +of adviser to a rajah and to keep a check on him if he rules his State +badly. I shouldn't imagine that our fellow here, Major Norton, would be +much good as an adviser to anybody. The only thing he seems to know +anything about is insects. He's quite a famous entomologist. Personally +he's not a bad sort, but a bit of a bore." + +"What's his wife like?" + +"Oh, very different. Much younger and fond of gaiety, I think. Not that +she can get any here. She's a decidedly pretty woman. I haven't seen +much of her; for she has been away most of the time, that the regiment +has been here. She has relatives in Calcutta and stays a lot with them." + +"I don't blame her," said Wargrave, laughing. "Rohar must be a very +deadly place for a young woman. No amusements. No dances. No shops. And +the only female society the wives of the Colonel and the Doctor." + +"Luckily for Mrs. Norton she is rather keen on sport and is a good +rider. You'll probably meet her to-day; for she generally comes out +pigsticking with us, though she doesn't carry a spear. I've promised to +take her shooting with us the next time we go. Hullo! here are the +ponies at last. Are you ready, Frank?" + +The two officers rose, as their _syces_, or native grooms, came up +before the bungalow leading two ponies, a Waler and an Arab. Raymond +walked over to the bundle of spears and selected one with a leaf-shaped +steel head. + +"Try this, Frank," he said. "See if it suits you. You don't want too +long a spear." + +His companion balanced it in his hand. + +"Yes, it seems all right. I say, old chap, how does one go for the pig? +Do you thrust at him?" + +"No; just ride hard at him with the spear pointed and held with +stiffened arm. Your impetus will drive the steel well home into him." + +Mounting their ponies they started, the _syces_ carrying the spears and +following them at a steady run as they trotted down the sandy road +leading to the city, where at the Palace they were to meet the Maharajah +and the other sportsmen. The sky was paling fast at the coming of the +dawn; and they could discern the dozen bungalows and the Regimental +Lines, or barracks, comprising the little cantonment, above which +towered the dark mass of a rocky hill crowned by the ruined walls of an +old native fort. On either side of their route the country was flat and +at first barren. But, as they neared the capital, they passed through +cultivation and rode by green fields irrigated from deep wells, by +hamlets of palm-thatched mud huts where no one yet stirred, and on to +where the high embrasured walls of the city rose above the plain. Under +the vaulted arch of the old gateway the ponies clattered, along through +the narrow, silent streets of gaily-painted, wooden-balconied houses, at +that hour closely shuttered, until the Palace was reached as the rising +sun began to flush the sky with rose-pink. + +The guard of sepoys at the great gate saluted as the two officers rode +into the wide, paved courtyard lined by high, many-windowed buildings. +In the centre of it a group of horsemen, nobles of the State or +officials of the Palace in gay dresses and bright-coloured _puggris_, or +turbans, with gold or silver-hilted swords hanging from their belts, sat +on their restless animals behind the Maharajah, a pleasant-faced, +athletic man in a white flannel coat, riding-breeches and long, soft +leather boots, mounted on a tall Waler gelding. He was chatting with +four or five other officers of the Punjaubis and raised his hand to his +forehead as the newcomers rode up and lifted their hats to him. + +"Good morning, Your Highness," said Raymond. "I hope we're not late. Let +me present Mr. Wargrave of our regiment, who has just returned from +England." + +With a genial smile the Maharajah leant forward and held out his hand. + +"I am glad to make your acquaintance, Mr. Wargrave," he said, "and very +pleased to see you out with us to-day. Are you fond of pigsticking?" + +"I've never had the chance of doing any before, Your Highness," replied +Frank, shaking his hand. "I'm awfully anxious to try it; but, being a +novice, I'm afraid I'll only be in the way." + +"I'm sure you won't," said the Maharajah courteously. His command of +English was perfect. "Pigsticking is not at all difficult; and I hear +that you are a good rider." + +He looked at his watch and then, turning in the saddle, addressed +another officer of the regiment who was chaffing Raymond for being late: + +"Are we all here now, Captain Ross?" + +"Yes, sir. These two lazy fellows are the last," replied Ross +laughingly. + +"Very well, gentlemen, we'll start." + +He waved his hand; and at the signal two black-bearded _sowars_, or +soldiers of his cavalry regiment, dashed by him and out through the +Palace gates at a hard-gallop, leading the way past the guard, who +turned out and presented arms as the Maharajah and the British officers, +together with the crowd of nobles, officials and mounted attendants, +followed at a smart pace. The city was now waking to life. From their +windows the sleepy inhabitants stared at the party, mostly too stupefied +at that hour to recognise and salute their ruler. Pot-bellied naked +brown babies waddled on to the verandahs to gaze thumb in mouth at the +riders. Pariah dogs, nosing at the gutters and rubbish-heaps that +scented the air, bolted out of the way of the horses' hoofs. + +As the sportsmen passed out of the city gates the sun was rising above +the horizon, the terrible Hot Weather sun of India, whose advent ushers +in the long hours of gasping, breathless heat. For a mile or so the +route lay through fertile gardens and fields. Then suddenly the +cultivation ended abruptly on the edge of a sandy desert that, seamed +with _nullahs_, or deep, steep-sided ravines, and dotted with tall +clumps of thorny cactus, stretched away to the horizon. The road became +a barely discernible track; but the two _sowars_ cantered on, +confidently heading for the spot where the fresh horses awaited the +party. + +Over the sand the riders swept, past a slow-plodding elephant lumbering +back to the city with a load of fodder, by groups of tethered camels. +Hares started up in alarm and bounded away, grey partridges whirred up +and yellow-beaked _minas_ flew off chattering indignantly. The slight +morning coolness soon vanished; and Wargrave, soft and somewhat out of +condition after his weeks of shipboard life, wiped his streaming face +often before the guiding _sowars_ threw up their hands in warning and +vanished slowly from sight as their sure-footed horses picked their way +down a steep _nullah_. This was the ravine in which the quarry hid. One +after another of the riders followed the leaders down the narrow track, +trotted across the sandy, rock-strewn river-bed and climbed up the far +side to where the fresh horses and a picturesque mob of wild-looking +beaters stood awaiting them. + +Among the animals Wargrave noticed a smart grey Arab pony with a +side-saddle. + +"I see Mrs. Norton intends coming out with us," observed the Maharajah +looking at the pony. "We must wait for her." + +"It won't be for long, sir," said Raymond, pointing to a rising trail of +dust on the track by which they had come. "I'll bet that is she." + +All turned to watch the approaching rider draw near, until they could +see that it was a lady galloping furiously over the sand. + +"By Jove, she can ride!" exclaimed Wargrave admiringly. "I hope she'll +see the _nullah_. She's heading straight for it." + +A shouted warning caused her to pull up almost on the brink; and in a +few minutes she joined the waiting group. Wargrave looked with interest +at her, as she sat on her panting horse talking to the Maharajah and the +other officers, who had dismounted. + +Mrs. Norton was a decidedly graceful and pretty woman. The rounded +curves of her shapely figure were set off to advantage by her +riding-costume. Her eyes were especially attractive, greenish-grey eyes +fringed by long black lashes under curved dark brows contrasting with +the warm auburn tint of the hair that showed under her sunhat. Her +complexion was dazzlingly fair. Her mouth was rather large and +voluptuous with full red lips and even white teeth. Bewitching dimples +played in the pink cheeks. Even from a man like Wargrave, fresh from +England and consequently more inclined to be critical of female beauty +than were his comrades, who for many months had seen so few white women, +Mrs. Norton's good looks could justly claim full meed of admiration and +approval. + +Accepting Captain Ross's aid she slipped lightly from her saddle to the +ground and on foot looked as graceful as she did when mounted. Raymond +brought his friend to her and introduced him. + +Holding out a small and shapely hand in a dainty leather gauntlet she +said in a frank and pleasant manner: + +"How do you do, Mr. Wargrave? You are a fortunate person to have been in +England so lately. I haven't seen it for nearly three years. Weren't you +sorry to leave it?" + +"Not in the least, Mrs. Norton. I'd far sooner be doing this," he waved +his hand towards the horses and the open desert, "than fooling about +Piccadilly and the Park." + +"Oh, but don't you miss the gaieties of town, the theatres, the dances? +And then the shops and the new fashions--but you're a man, and they'd +mean nothing to you." + +The Maharajah broke in: + +"Mrs. Norton, I think we had better mount. The beaters are going in; and +the _shikaris_ (hunters) tell me that the _nullah_ swarms with pig. +There are at least half a dozen rideable boar in it." + +In pigsticking only well-grown boars are pursued, sows and immature +boars being unmolested. + +Ross started forward to help Mrs. Norton on to her fresh pony; but +Wargrave refused to surrender the advantage of his proximity to her. So +it was into his hand she put her small foot in its well-made riding-boot +and was swung up by him. + +The saddles of the rest of the party had been changed on to the horses +that the Maharajah had provided. The beaters streamed down the steep +bank into the ravine which some distance away was filled with dense +scrub affording good cover for the quarry. Forming line they moved +through it with shrill yells, the blare of horns, the beating of +tom-toms and a spluttering fire of blank cartridges from old muskets. +The riders mounted and, spear in hand, eagerly watched their progress +through the jungle. Wargrave found himself beside Mrs. Norton; but, +after exchanging a few words, he forgot her presence as, his heart +beating fast with a true sportsman's excitement, he strained his eyes +for the first sight of a wild boar. + +Suddenly, several hundred yards away, he saw a squat, dark animal emerge +from the tangled scrub and, climbing up the _nullah_ on their side, +stride away over the sand with a peculiar bounding motion that reminded +Wargrave of a rocking-horse. All eyes were turned towards the +Maharajah, who would decide whether the animal were worthy of pursuit or +not. He gazed after it for a few moments, then raised his hand. + +At the welcome signal all dashed off after the boar at a furious gallop, +opening out as they went to give play for their spears. Wild with +excitement, Wargrave struck spurs to his horse, which needed no urging, +being as filled with the lust of the chase as was the man on its back. +Like a cavalry charge the riders thundered in a mad rush behind His +Highness, whose faster mount carried him at once ahead of the rest. He +soon overtook the boar. Lowering his spear-point the Maharajah bent +forward in the saddle; but at the last moment the pig "jinked," that is, +turned sharply at right angles to his former course, and bounded away +untouched, while the baffled sportsman was carried on helplessly by his +excited horse. + +Wargrave, following at some distance to the Maharajah's right rear, saw +to his mingled joy and trepidation the boar only a short way in front of +him. + +"Ride, ride hard!" cried Mrs. Norton almost alongside him. + +Frank drove his spurs in; and the gaunt, raw-boned countrybred under him +sprang forward. But just as it had all but reached the quarry, the +latter jinked again and Wargrave was borne on, tugging vainly at the +horse's iron jaws. But the boar had short shrift. With a rush Ross +closed on it and before it could swerve off sent his spear deep into its +side and, galloping on, turned his hand over, drawing out the lance. The +pig was staggered by the shock but started to run on. Before it could +get up speed one of the Indian nobles dashed at it with wild yells and +speared it again. + +The thrust this time was mortal. The boar staggered on a few steps, then +stumbled and fell heavily to the ground. The hunters reined in their +sweating horses and gathered round it. + +"Not a big animal," commented the Maharajah, scrutinising it with the +eye of an expert. "About thirty-four inches high, I think. But the tusks +are good. They're yours, Captain Ross, aren't they?" + +"Yes, Your Highness, I think so," replied Ross. + +Pigsticking law awards the trophy to the rider whose spear first +inflicts a wound on the boar. + +"Better luck next time, Mr. Wargrave," said Mrs. Norton, riding up to +him. "I thought you were sure of him when he jinked away from the +Maharajah." + +"To be quite candid I was rather relieved that I didn't get the chance, +Mrs. Norton," replied the subaltern. "As I've never been out after pig +before I didn't quite know what to do. However, I've seen now that it +isn't very difficult; so I hope I'll get an opportunity later." + +"You are sure to, Mr. Wargrave," remarked the Maharajah. "There are +several boars left in cover; and the men are going in again." + +The tatterdemalion mob of beaters was descending into the _nullah_; and +soon the wild din broke out once more. A gaunt grey boar with long and +gleaming tusks was seen to emerge from the scrub and climb the far bank +of the ravine, where he stood safely out of reach but in full view of +the tantalised hunters. But a string of laden camels passing over the +desert scared him back again; and while the riders watched in eager +excitement, he slowly descended into the _nullah_, crossed it and came +up on the near side some hundreds of yards away. + +The Maharajah raised his spear. + +"Ride!" he cried. + +"Go like the devil, Frank!" shouted Raymond, as the scurrying horsemen +swept in a body over the sand and he found himself for a moment beside +his friend. "He's a beauty. Forty inches, I'll swear. Splendid tusks." + +Wargrave crouched like a jockey in the saddle as the riders raced madly +after the boar. The Indians among them, wildly excited, brandished their +lances and uttered fierce cries as they galloped along. Their +Maharajah's speedier mount again took the lead; but even in India sport +is democratic and his nobles, attendants and soldiers all tried to +overtake and pass him. The white men, as is their wont, rode in silence +but none the less keenly excited. Over sand and stones, past tall, +prickly cactus-plants, in hot pursuit all flew at racing speed. + +It was a long chase; for the old grey boar was speedy, cunning, and a +master of wiles. First one pursuer, then another, then a third and a +fourth, found himself almost upon the quarry and bent down with +outstretched, eager spear only to be baffled by a swift jink and carried +on helplessly, pulling vainly at the reins. + +At length a sudden turn threw out all the field except the Maharajah, +who had foreseen it and ridden off to intercept the now tiring boar. +Overtaking it he bent forward and wounded it slightly. The brute +instantly swung in upon his horse, and with a fierce grunt dashed under +it and leapt up at it with a toss of the head that gave an upward thrust +to the long, curved tusk. In an instant the horse was ripped open and +brought crashing to the ground, pinning its rider's leg to the earth +beneath it. The boar turned again, marked the prostrate man, and with a +savage gleam in its little eyes charged the Maharajah, its gleaming +ivory tusks, six inches long, as sharp and deadly as an Afridi's knife. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +YOUTH CALLS TO YOUTH + + +But at that moment a shout made the boar hesitate, and Raymond dashed in +on it at racing speed, driving his spear so deeply into its side that, +as he swept on, the tough bamboo broke like match-wood. The stricken +beast tottered forward a yard or two, then turned and stood undauntedly +at bay, as a _sowar_ rode at it. But before his steel could touch its +hide it shuddered and sank to the ground dead. + +The dying horse was lifted off the Maharajah who, with the courage of +his race, had remained calm in the face of the onrushing death. He was +assisted to rise, but was so severely shaken and bruised that at first +he was unable to stand without support. Leaning on the arm of one of his +nobles he held out his hand to Raymond, when the latter rode up, and +thanked him gratefully for his timely aid. Then the exhausted but +gallant prince sat down on the sand to recover himself. But he assured +everyone that he was not hurt and, insisting that the sport should go +on, gave orders for the beat to continue. + +Wargrave had chanced to dismount to tighten the girth of Mrs. Norton's +horse, when a fresh boar broke from cover and was instantly pursued by +all the others of the hunt. The subaltern ruefully accepted the lady's +apologies and hurriedly swung himself up into the saddle again to +follow, when his companion cried: + +"Look! Look, Mr. Wargrave! There's another. Come, we'll have him all to +ourselves." + +And striking her pony with her gold-mounted whip she dashed off at a +gallop after a grey old boar that had craftily kept close in cover and +crept out quietly after the beaters had passed. Wargrave, filled with +excitement, struck spurs to his mount and raced after her, soon catching +up and passing her. Over the sand pitted with holes and strewn with +loose stones they raced, the boar bounding before them with rocking +motion and leading them in a long, stern chase. Again and again the +beast swerved; but at last with a fierce thrill Wargrave felt the steel +head of the spear strike home in the quarry. As he was carried on past +it he withdrew the weapon, then pulled his panting horse round. The boar +was checked; but the wound only infuriated him and aroused his fighting +ardour. He dashed at Mrs. Norton; but, as Frank turned, the game brute +recognised the more dangerous adversary, and with a fierce grunt charged +savagely at him. Wargrave plunged his spurs into his horse, which sprang +forward, just clearing the boar's snout, as the rider leant well out and +speared the pig through the heart. Then with a wild, exultant whoop the +subaltern swung round in the saddle and saw the animal totter forward +and collapse on the sand. Only a sportsman could realise his feeling of +triumph at the fall of his first boar. + +Mrs. Norton was almost as excited as he, her sparkling eyes and face +flushed a becoming pink, making her even prettier in his eyes as she +rode up and congratulated him. + +"Well done, Mr. Wargrave!" she cried, trotting up to where he sat on his +panting horse over the dead boar. "You did that splendidly! And the very +first time you've been out pigsticking, too!" + +"It was just luck," replied the subaltern modestly, not ill-pleased at +her praise. + +"What a glorious run he gave us!" she continued. "And we had it all to +ourselves, which made it better. I'm always afraid of the Maharajah's +followers, for in a run they ride so recklessly and carry their spears +so carelessly that it's a wonder they don't kill someone every time. +Will you help me down, please? I must give Martian a rest after that +gallop." + +With Wargrave's aid she dropped lightly to the ground; and he remarked +again with admiration the graceful lines and rounded curves of her +figure as she walked to the dead boar and touched the tusks. + +"What a splendid pair! You are lucky," she exclaimed. "The biggest +anyone has got yet this season." + +"I hope you'll allow me to offer them to you," said Wargrave generously, +although it cost him a pang to surrender the precious trophy. "You +deserve them, for you rode so well after the boar and I believe you'd +have got him if you'd carried a spear." + +"No, indeed, Mr. Wargrave; I wouldn't dream of taking them," she +replied, laughing; "but I appreciate the nobility of your self-denial. +This is your first pig; and I know what that means to a man. Now we must +find a _sowar_ to get the coolies to bring the boar in. But I wonder +where we are. Where is everyone?" + +Wargrave looked about him and for the first time realised that they were +far out in the desert without a landmark to guide them. On every side +the sand stretched away to the horizon, its flat expanse broken only by +clumps of bristling cactus or very rarely the tall stem of a palm tree. +Of the others of the party there was no sign. His companion and he +seemed to be alone in the world; and he began to wonder apprehensively +if they were destined to undergo the unpleasant experience of being lost +in the desert. The sun high overhead afforded no help; and Wargrave +remembered neither the direction of the city nor where lay the ravine in +which the beat had taken place. + +"You don't happen to know where we are, I suppose, Mrs. Norton?" he +asked his companion. + +"I haven't the least idea. It looks as if we're lost," she replied +calmly. "We had better wait quietly where we are instead of wandering +about trying to find our way. When we are missed the Maharajah will +probably send somebody to look for us." + +"I daresay you're right," said Wargrave. "You know more about the desert +than I do. By Jove, I'd give anything to come across the camel that +Raymond tells me brings out drinks and ice. My throat is parched. Aren't +you very thirsty?" + +"Terribly so. Isn't the heat awful?" she exclaimed, trying to fan +herself with the few inches of cambric and lace that represented a +handkerchief. + +"Awful. The blood seems to be boiling in my head," gasped the subaltern. +"I've never felt heat like this anywhere else in India. But, thank +goodness, it seems to be clouding over. That will make it cooler." + +Mrs. Norton looked around. A dun veil was being swiftly drawn up over +sun and sky and blotting out the landscape. + +"Good gracious! There's worse trouble coming. That's a sandstorm," she +cried, for the first time exhibiting a sign of nervousness. + +"Good heavens, how pleasant! Are we going to be buried under a mound of +sand, like the pictures we used to have in our schoolbooks of caravans +overwhelmed in the Sahara?" + +Mrs. Norton smiled. + +"Not quite as bad as that," she answered. "But unpleasant enough, I +assure you. If only we had any shelter!" + +Wargrave looked around desperately. He had hitherto no experience of +desert country; and the sudden darkness and the grim menace of the +approaching black wall of the sandstorm seemed to threaten disaster. He +saw a thick clump of cactus half a mile away. + +"We'd better make for that," he said, pointing to it. "It will serve to +break the force of the wind if we get to leeward of it. Let's mount." + +He put her on her horse and then swung himself up into the saddle. +Together they raced for the scant shelter before the dark menace +overspreading earth and sky. The sun was now hidden; but that brought no +relief, for the heat was even more stifling and oppressive than before. +The wind seemed like a blast of hot air from an opened furnace door. + +Pulling up when they reached the dense thicket of cactus with its broad +green leaves studded with cruel thorns, Wargrave jumped down and lifted +Mrs. Norton from the saddle. The horses followed them instinctively, as +they pressed as closely as they could to the shelter of the inhospitable +plant. The animals turned their tails towards the approaching storm and +instinctively huddled against their human companions in distress. +Wargrave took off his jacket and spread it around Mrs. Norton's head, +holding her to him. + +With a shrill wail the dark storm swept down upon them, and a million +sharp particles of sand beat on them, stinging, smothering, choking +them. The horses crowded nearer to the man, and the woman clung tighter +to him as he wrapped her more closely in the protecting cloth. He felt +suffocated, stifled, his lungs bursting, his throat burning, while every +breath he drew was laden with the irritating sand. It penetrated through +all the openings of his clothing, down his collar, inside his shirt, +into his boots. The heat was terrific, unbearable, the darkness intense. +Wargrave began to wonder if his first apprehensions were not justified, +if they could hope to escape alive or were destined to be buried under +the stifling pall that enveloped them. He felt against him the soft body +of the woman clinging desperately to him; and the warm contact thrilled +him. A feeling of pity, of tenderness for her awoke in him at the +thought that this young and attractive being was fated perhaps to perish +by so awful a death. And instinctively, unconsciously, he held her +closer to him. + +For minutes that seemed hours the storm continued to shriek and roar +over and around them. But at length the choking waves began to diminish +in density and slowly, gradually, the deadly, smothering pall was lifted +from them. The black wall passed on and Wargrave watched it moving away +over the desert. The storm had lasted half an hour, but the subaltern +believed its duration to have been hours. The fine grit had penetrated +into the case of his wrist-watch and stopped it. A cool, refreshing +breeze sprang up. Pulling his jacket off Mrs. Norton's head, Wargrave +said: + +"It's all over at last." + +"Oh, thank God!" she exclaimed fervently, standing erect and drawing a +deep breath of cool air into her labouring lungs. "I thought I was going +to be smothered." + +"It was a decidedly unpleasant experience and one I don't want to try +again. My throat is parched; I must have swallowed tons of sand. And +look at the state I'm in!" + +He was powdered thick with it, clothes, hair, eyebrows, grey with it. It +had caked on his face damp with perspiration. + +"Thanks to your jacket I've escaped pretty well, although I was almost +suffocated," she said. "Well, now that it is over surely someone will +come to look for us." + +"Then we had better get up on our horses and move out into the open. +We'll be more visible," said Wargrave. + +Yet he felt a strange reluctance to quit the spot; for the thought came +to him that their unpleasant experience in it would henceforth be a link +between them. A few hours before he had not known of this woman's +existence! and now he had held her to his breast and tried to protect +her against the forces of Nature. The same idea seemed born in her mind +at the same time; for, when he had brushed the dust off her saddle and +lifted her on to it, she turned to look with interest at the spot as +they rode away from it. + +They had not long to wait out in the open before they saw three or four +riders spread over the desert apparently looking for them, so they +cantered towards them. As soon as they were seen by the search party a +_sowar_ galloped to meet them and, saluting, told them that the +Maharajah and the rest had taken refuge from the storm in a village a +couple of miles away. Then from the _kamarband_, or broad cloth +encircling his waist like a sash, he produced two bottles of soda-water +which he opened and gave to them. The liquid was warm, but nevertheless +was acceptable to their parched throats. + +They followed their guide at a gallop and soon were being welcomed by +the rest of the party in a small village of low mud huts. A couple of +kneeling camels, bubbling, squealing and viciously trying to bite +everyone within reach, were being unloaded by some of the Maharajah's +servants. Other attendants were spreading a white cloth on the ground by +a well under a couple of tall palm-trees and laying on it an excellent +cold lunch for the Europeans, with bottles of champagne standing in +silver pails filled with ice. + +As soon as his anxiety on Mrs. Norton's account was relieved by her +arrival, His Highness, who as an orthodox Hindu could not eat with his +guests, begged them to excuse him and, being helped with difficulty on +his horse, rode slowly off, still shaken and sorely bruised by his fall. +His nobles and officials accompanied him. + +After lunch all went to inspect the heap of slain boars laid on the +ground in the shade of a hut. Wargrave's kill had been added to it. Much +to the subaltern's delight its tusk proved to be the longest and finest +of all; and he was warmly congratulated by the more experienced +pigstickers on his success. Shortly afterwards the beaters went into the +_nullah_ again; and a few more runs added another couple of boars to the +bag. Then, after iced drinks while their saddles were being changed back +on to their own horses, the Britishers mounted and started on their +homeward journey. + +Without quite knowing how it happened Wargrave found himself riding +beside Mrs. Norton behind the rest of the party. On the way back they +chatted freely and without restraint, like old friends. For the +incidents of the day had served to sweep away formality between them and +to give them a sense of long acquaintanceship and mutual liking. And, +when the time came for Mrs. Norton to separate from the others as she +reached the spot where the road to the Residency branched off, the +subaltern volunteered to accompany her. + +It had not taken them long to discover that they had several tastes in +common. + +"So you like good music?" she said after a chance remark of his. "It is +pleasant to find a kindred spirit in this desolate place. The ladies and +the other officers of your regiment are Philistines. Ragtime is more in +their line than Grieg or Brahms. And the other day Captain Ross asked me +if Tschaikowsky wasn't the Russian dancer at the Coliseum in town." + +Wargrave laughed. + +"I know. I became very unpopular when I was Band President and made our +band play Wagner all one night during Mess. I gave up trying to elevate +their musical taste when the Colonel told me to order the bandmaster to +'stop that awful rubbish and play something good, like the selection +from the last London _revue_.'" + +"Are you a musician yourself?" she asked. + +"I play the violin." + +"Oh, how ripping! You must come often and practise with me. I've an +excellent piano; but I rarely touch it now. My husband takes no interest +in music--or indeed, in anything else I like. But, then, I am not +thrilled by his one absorbing passion in life--insects. So we're quits, +I suppose." + +Their horses were walking silently over the soft sand; and Wargrave +heard her give a little sigh. Was it possible, he wondered, that the +husband of this charming woman did not appreciate her and her +attractions as he ought? + +She went on with a change of manner: + +"When are you coming to call on me? I am a Duty Call, you know. All +officers are supposed to leave cards on the Palace and the Residency." + +"The call on you will be a pleasure, I assure you, not a mere duty, Mrs. +Norton," said the subaltern with a touch of earnestness. "May I come +to-morrow?" + +"Yes, please do. Come early for tea and bring your violin. It will be +delightful to have some music again. I have not opened my piano for +months; but I'll begin to practise to-night. I have one or two pieces +with violin _obligato_." + +So, chatting and at every step finding something fresh to like in each +other, they rode along down sandy lanes hemmed in by prickly aloe +hedges, by deep wells and creaking water-wheels where patient bullocks +toiled in the sun to draw up the gushing water to irrigate the green +fields so reposeful to the eye after the glaring desert. They passed by +thatched mud huts outside which naked brown babies sprawled in the dust +and deer-eyed women turned the hand-querns that ground the flour for +their household's evening meal. Stiff and sore though Wargrave was after +these many hours of his first day in the saddle for so long, he +thoroughly enjoyed his ride back with so attractive a companion. + +When they reached the Residency, a fine, airy building of white stone +standing in large, well-kept grounds, he felt quite reluctant to part +with her. But, declining her invitation to enter, he renewed his promise +to call on the following day and rode on to his bungalow. + +When he was alone he realised for the first time the effects of fatigue, +thirst and the broiling heat of the afternoon sun. But Mrs. Norton was +more in his thoughts than the exciting events of the day as he trotted +painfully on towards his bungalow. + +The house was closely shut and shuttered against the outside heat, and +Raymond was asleep, enjoying a welcome _siesta_ after the early start +and hard exercise. Wargrave entered his own bare and comfortless +bedroom, and with the help of his "boy"--as Indian body-servants are +termed--proceeded to undress. Then, attired in a big towel and slippers, +he passed into the small, stone-paved apartment dignified with the title +of bathroom which opened off his bedroom. + +After his ablutions Wargrave lay down on his bed and slept for an hour +or two until awakened by Raymond's voice bidding him join him at tea. +Strolling in pyjamas and slippers into the sitting-room which they +shared the subaltern found his comrade lying lazily in a long chair and +attired in the same cool costume. The outer doors and windows of the +bungalow were still closed against the brooding heat outside. Inside the +house the temperature was little cooler despite the _punkah_ which +droned monotonously overhead. + +Over their tea the two young soldiers discussed the day's sport, +recalling every incident of each run and kill, until the servants came +in to throw open the doors and windows in hope of a faint breath of +evening coolness. The _punkah_ stopped, and the coolie who pulled it +shuffled away. + +After tea Raymond took his companion to inspect the cantonment, which +Wargrave had not yet seen, for he had not reached it until after dusk +the previous day. It consisted only of the Mess, the Regimental Office, +and about ten bungalows for the officers, single-storied brick or +rubble-walled buildings, thatched or tiled. Some of them were unoccupied +and were tumbling in ruins. There was nothing else--not even the +"general shop" usual in most small cantonments. Not a spool of thread, +not a tin of sardines, could be purchased within a three days' journey. +Most of the food supplies and almost everything else had to be brought +from Bombay. Around the bungalow the compounds were simply patches of +the universal sands surrounded by mud walls. No flowers, no trees, not +even a blade of grass, relieved the dull monotony. Altogether the +cantonment of Rohar was an unlovely and uninteresting place. Yet it is +but an example of many such stations in India, lonely and +soul-deadening, some of which have not even its saving grace of sport to +enliven existence in them. + +After a visit to the Lines--the rows of single-storied detached brick +buildings, one to a company, that housed the native ranks of the +regiment--where the Indian officers and sepoys (as native infantry +soldiers are called) rushed out to crowd round and welcome back their +popular officer, Wargrave and Raymond strolled to the Mess. Here in the +anteroom other British officers of the corps, tired out after the day's +sport, were lying in easy chairs, reading the three days' old Bombay +newspaper just arrived and the three weeks' old English journals until +it was time to return to their bungalows and dress for dinner. + +Early on the following afternoon Wargrave borrowed Raymond's bamboo cart +and pony--for he had sold his own trap and horses before going on leave +to England and had not yet had time to buy new ones--and drove to the +Residency. When he pulled up before the hall-door and in Anglo-Indian +fashion shouted "Boy!" from his seat in the vehicle, a tall, stately +Indian servant in a long, gold-laced red coat reaching below the knees +and embroidered on the breast with the Imperial monogram in gold, came +out and held a small silver tray to him. Wargrave placed a couple of his +visiting cards on it, and the gorgeous apparition (known as a +_chuprassi_) retired into the building with them. While he was gone +Wargrave looked with pleasure at the brilliant flower-beds, green lawn +and tall plants and bushes glowing with colour of the carefully-tended +and well-watered Residency garden, which contrasted strikingly with the +dry, bare compounds of the cantonment. + +In a minute or two the _chuprassi_ returned and said: + +"Salaam!" + +Wargrave, hooking up the reins, climbed down from the trap, leaving +Raymond's _syce_ in charge of the pony, and entered the grateful +coolness of the lofty hall. Here another _chuprassi_ took his hat and, +holding out a pen for him, indicated the red-bound Visitor's Book, in +which he was to inscribe his name. Then one of the servants led the way +up the broad staircase into a large and well-furnished drawing-room +extending along the whole front of the building. Here Wargrave found +Mrs. Norton awaiting him. She looked very lovely in a cool white dress +of muslin--but muslin shaped by a master-hand of Paris. She welcomed him +gaily and made him feel at once on the footing of an old friend. + +She was genuinely glad to see him again. To this young and attractive +woman, full of the joy of living, hardly more than a girl, yet married +to a much older man, sober-minded, stolid and uncongenial to her, and +buried in this dull and lonely station, Wargrave had appealed instantly. +Youth calls to youth, and she hailed his advent into her monotonous life +as a child greets the coming of a playfellow. With the other two ladies +in Rohar she had nothing in common. Both were middle-aged, serious and +spiteful. To them her youth and beauty were an offence; and from the +first day of their acquaintance with her they had disliked her. As for +the other officers of the regiment none of them attracted her; for, good +fellows as they were, none shared any of her tastes except her love of +sport. But in Wargrave she had already recognised a companion, a +playmate, one to whom music, art and poetry appealed as they did to her. + +On his side Frank, heart-whole but fond of the society of the opposite +sex, was at once attracted by this charming member of it who had tastes +akin to his own. Her beauty pleased his beauty-loving eye; and he would +not have been man if her readiness to meet him on a footing of +friendship had not flattered him. He had thought that a great drawback +to life in Rohar would be the lack of feminine companionship; for the +ladies of his regiment were not at all congenial, although he did not +dislike them. But it was delightful to find in this desert spot this +pretty and cultured woman, who would have been deemed attractive in +London and who appeared trebly so in a dull and lonely Indian station. +He had thought much of her since their meeting on the previous day; and +although it never occurred to him to lose his heart to her or even +attempt to flirt with her, yet he felt that her friendship would +brighten existence for him in Rohar. Nor did the thought strike him +that possibly he might come to mean more to Mrs. Norton than she to him. +For, while he had his work, his duties, the goodfellowship of the Mess +and the friendship of his comrades to fill his life, she had nothing. +She was utterly without interests, occupation or real companionship in +Rohar. Her husband and she had nothing in common. No child had come +during the five years of their marriage to link them together. And in +this solitary place where there were no gaieties, no distractions such +as a young woman would naturally long for, she was lonely, very lonely +indeed. + +It was little wonder that she snatched eagerly at the promise of an +interesting friendship. Wargrave stood out and apart from the other +officers of the regiment; and his companionship during the uncomfortable +incident of the sandstorm bulked unaccountably large in her mind. It +seemed to denote that he was destined to introduce a new element into +her life. + +As they talked it was with increasing pleasure that she learnt they had +so many tastes in common. She found that he played the violin well and +was, moreover, the possessor of a voice tuneful and sympathetic, even if +not perfectly trained. This made instant appeal to her and would have +disposed her to regard him with favour even if she had not been already +prepared to like him. + +The afternoon passed all too quickly for both of them. Violet Norton +had never enjoyed any hours in Rohar so much as these; and when, as she +sat at the piano while Frank played an _obligato_, a servant came to +enquire if she wished her horse or a carriage got ready for her usual +evening ride or drive, she impatiently ordered him out of the room. When +the time came for Wargrave to return to his bungalow to dress for dinner +she begged him to stay and dine with her. + +"I shall be all alone; and it would be a charitable act to take pity on +my solitude," she said. "My husband is dining at your Mess to-night." + +"Thank you very much for asking me," replied the subaltern. "I should +have loved to accept your invitation; but it is our Guest Night and the +Colonel likes all of us to be present at Mess on such evenings." + +"Oh, I forgot!" she exclaimed. "I ought to have remembered; for Mr. +Raymond told me the same thing only last week when I invited him +informally. Well, you must come some other night soon." + +Reluctant to part with her new playmate she accompanied him to the door +and, to the scandal of the stately _chuprassis_, stood at it to watch +him drive away and to wave him a last goodbye as he looked back when the +pony turned out of the gate. + +India is a land of lightning friendships between men and women. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE LOVE-SONG OF HAR DYAL + + +The bugler was sounding the second mess-call as the Resident's carriage +drew up before the steps of the Mess verandah on which stood all the +officers of the regiment, dressed in the white drill uniform worn at +dinner in India during the hot weather. From the carriage Major Norton, +a stout, middle-aged man in civilian evening dress, descended stiffly +and shook hands with the Commandant of the battalion, Colonel Trevor, +who had come down the steps to meet him and whose guest he was to be. + +On the verandah Wargrave was introduced to him by the Colonel and took +his outstretched hand with reluctance; for Frank felt stirring in him a +faint jealousy of the man who was Violet's legal lord and an indefinite +hostility to him for not appreciating his charming wife as he ought. And +while the Resident was shaking hands with the others Wargrave looked at +him with interest. + +Major Norton was a very ordinary-looking man, more elderly in appearance +than his years warranted. He was bald and clean-shaved but for scraps of +side-whiskers that gave him a resemblance to the traditional +stage-lawyer of amateur theatricals, a likeness increased by his heavy +and prosy manner. It was hard to believe that he had ever been a young +subaltern, though such had once been the case, for the Indian Political +Department is recruited chiefly from officers of the Indian Army. But he +was never the gay and light-hearted individual that most junior subs. +are at the beginning of their career. Even then he had been a sober and +serious individual, favourably noted by his superiors as being earnest +and painstaking. And now he was well thought of by the Heads of his +Department; for his plodding and methodical disposition and his slavish +adherence to rules and regulations had earned him the reputation of +being an eminently "safe" man. How such a gay, laughter-loving, +coquettish and attractive woman as Violet Dering came to marry one so +entirely her opposite puzzled everyone who did not know the inner +history of a girl, one of a large family of daughters, given "her chance +in life" by being sent out to relatives in Calcutta for one season, with +a definite warning not to return home unmarried under penalty of being +turned out to face the world as a governess or hospital nurse. And +Violet liked comfort and hated work. + +During dinner Wargrave found himself instinctively criticising Norton's +manner and conversation, and rapidly arrived at the conclusion that +Raymond had described him accurately. The Resident, though a very worthy +individual, was undoubtedly a bore; and Colonel Trevor, beside whom he +sat, strove in vain to appear interested in his conversation. For he had +heard his opinions on every subject on which Norton had any opinions +over and over again. As the Resident was the only other European in the +station he dined regularly at the Mess on the weekly Guest Night with +one or other of the officers. He was not popular among them, but they +considered it their duty to be victimised in turn to uphold the +regiment's reputation for hospitality; and in consequence each resigned +himself to act as his host. + +After dinner, as the Resident played neither cards nor billiards, the +Colonel sat out on the verandah with him, all the while longing to be at +the bridge-table inside; and, as his guest was a strict teetotaller, he +did not like to order a drink for himself. So he tried to keep awake and +hide his yawns while listening to a prosy monologue on insects until the +Residency carriage came to take Major Norton away. + +When his guest had left, the Colonel entered the anteroom heaving a sigh +of relief. + +"Phew! thank God that's over!" he exclaimed piously. "Really, Norton +becomes more of a bore every day. I'm sick to death of hearing the +life-story of every Indian insect for the hundredth time. I'll dream of +_coleoptera_ and Polly 'optera and other weird beasties to-night." + +The other officers looked up and laughed. Ross rose from the +bridge-table and said: + +"Come and take my place, sir; we've finished the rubber. Have a drink; +you want something to cheer you up after that infliction. Boy! +whiskey-soda Commanding Sahib _ke wasté lao_. (Bring a whiskey and soda +for the Commanding officer.)" + +"You've my entire sympathy, Colonel," said Major Hepburn, the Second in +Command. "It's my turn to ask the Resident to dinner next. I feel +tempted to go on the sick-list to escape it." + +"I say, sir, I've got a good idea," said an Irish subaltern named Daly, +who was seated at the bridge-table. "Couldn't we pass a resolution at +the next Mess meeting that in future no guests are ever to be asked to +dinner? That will save us from our weekly penance." + +The others laughed; but the Colonel, whose sense of humour was not his +strong point, took the suggestion as being seriously meant. + +"No, no; we couldn't do that," he said in an alarmed tone. "The Resident +would be very offended and might mention it to the General when he comes +here on his annual inspection." + +The remark was very characteristic of Colonel Trevor, who was a man who +dreaded responsibility and whose sole object in life was to reach safely +the time when, his period of command being finished, he could retire on +his full pension. He was always haunted by the dread that some +carelessness or mistake on his part or that of any of his subordinates +might involve him in trouble with his superiors and prevent that happy +consummation of his thirty years of Indian service. This fear made him +merciless to anyone under him whose conduct might bring the censure of +the higher authorities on the innocent head of the Commanding Officer +who was in theory responsible for the behaviour of his juniors. It was +commonly said in the regiment that he would cheerfully give up his own +brother to be hanged to save himself the mildest official reprimand. +Perhaps he was not altogether to blame; for he was not his own master in +private life. It was hinted that Colonel Trevor commanded the battalion +but that Mrs. Trevor commanded him. And unfortunately there was no doubt +that this lady interfered privately a good deal in regimental matters, +much to the annoyance of the other officers. + +Now, relieved of the incubus that had hitherto spoiled his enjoyment of +the evening, the Colonel gratefully drank the whiskey and soda brought +him by Ross's order and sat down cheerfully to play bridge. He always +liked dining in the Mess, where he was a far more important person than +he was in his own house. + +It did not take Wargrave long to settle down again into the routine of +regimental life and the humdrum existence of a small Indian station. But +he had never before been quartered in so remote and dull a spot as +Rohar. The only distractions it offered besides the shooting and +pigsticking were two tennis afternoons weekly, one at the Residency, the +other at the Mess. Here the dozen or so Europeans, who knew every line +of each other's faces by heart gathered regularly from sheer boredom +whether the game amused them or not. Neither Mrs. Trevor nor her +bosom-friend Mrs. Baird, the regimental surgeon's better half, ever +attempted it; but they invariably attended and sat together, usually +talking scandal of Mrs. Norton as she played or chatted with the men. +Mrs. Trevor's chief grievance against her was that the General +Commanding the Division, when he came to inspect the battalion, took the +younger woman in to dinner, for, as her husband the Resident was the +Viceroy's representative, she could claim precedence over the wife of a +mere regimental commandant. No English village is so full of petty +squabbles and malicious gossip as a small Indian station. + +Like everyone else in the land Wargrave hated most those terrible hours +of the hot weather between nine in the morning and five in the +afternoon. He and Raymond passed them, like so many thousands of their +kind elsewhere, shut up in their comfortless bungalow, which was +darkened and closely shuttered to exclude the awful heat and the +blinding glare outside. Too hot to read or write, almost to smoke, they +lay in long cane chairs, gasping and perspiring freely, while the +whining _punkah_ overhead barely stirred the heated air. One exterior +window on the windward side of the bungalow was filled with a thick mat +of dried and odorous _kuskus_ grass, against which every quarter of an +hour the _bheestie_ threw water to wet it thoroughly so that the hot +breeze that swept over the burning sand outside might enter cooled by +the evaporation of the water. + +But Frank found alleviation and comfort in frequent visits to the +Residency, where Mrs. Norton and he spent the baking hours of the +afternoon absorbed in making music or singing duets. For Violet had a +well-trained voice which harmonised well with his. No thought of sex +seemed to obtrude itself on them. They were just playmates, comrades, +nothing more. + +Yet it was only natural that the woman's vanity should be flattered by +the man's eagerness to seek her society and by his evident pleasure in +it. And it was delightful to have at last a sympathetic listener to all +her little grievances, one who seemed as interested in her petty +household worries or the delinquencies of her London milliner in failing +to execute her orders properly as in her greater complaint against the +fate that condemned a woman of her artistic and gaiety-loving nature to +existence in the wilds and to the society of persons so uncongenial to +her as were the majority of the white folk of Rohar. + +To a man the rôle of confidant to a pretty woman is pleasant and +flattering; and Wargrave felt that he was highly favoured by being made +the recipient of her confidences. It never occurred to him that there +might be danger in the situation. He regarded her only as a friend in +need of sympathy and help. His chivalry was up in arms at the thought +that she was not properly appreciated by her husband, who, he began to +suspect, was inclined to neglect her and treat her as a mere chattel. +The suspicion angered him. True, Violet had never definitely told him +so; but he gathered as much from her unconscious admissions and revered +her all the more for her bravery in endeavouring to keep silent on the +subject. + +Certainly Major Norton did not seem to him to be a man capable of +understanding and valuing so sweet and rare a woman as this. After their +introduction in the Mess Frank's next meeting with him was at his own +table at the Residency, when in due course Wargrave was invited to +dinner after his duty call. Raymond was asked as well; and the two +subalterns were the only guests. + +Their hostess looked very lovely in a Paris-made gown of a green shade +that suited her colouring admirably. England did not seem to the young +soldiers so very far away when this charming and exquisitely-dressed +woman received them in her large drawing-room from which all trace of +the East in furniture and decoration was carefully excluded. For the +English in India try to avoid in their homes all that would remind them +of the Land of Exile in which their lot is cast. + +Major Norton came into the room after his guests, muttering an +unintelligible apology. He shook hands with them with an abstracted air +and failed to recall Wargrave's name. At table he asked Frank a few +perfunctory questions and then wandered off into his inevitable subject, +entomology, but finding him ignorant of and uninterested in it he +engaged in a desultory conversation with Raymond. He soon tired of this +and for the most part ate his dinner in silence. He never addressed his +wife; and Wargrave, watching them, pitied her if her husband was as +little companionable at meal-times when they were alone. He pictured her +sitting at table every day with this abstracted and uncommunicative man, +whose thoughts seemed far from his present company and surroundings and +who was scarcely likely to exert himself to talk to and entertain his +wife when he made so little effort to do so to his guests. + +Determined that on this occasion at least his hostess should be amused +Frank did his best to enliven the meal. He described to her as well as +he could all that he remembered of the latest fashions in England, told +her the plots of the newest plays at the London theatres, repeated a +few laughable stories to make her smile and provoked Raymond, who had a +dry humour of his own, to a contest of wit. Between them the two +subalterns brightened up what had threatened to be a dull evening. Mrs. +Norton laughed gaily and helped to keep the ball rolling; and even the +host in his turn woke up and actually attempted to tell a humorous +story. It certainly lacked point; but he seemed satisfied that it was +funny, so his guests smiled as in duty bound. But Wargrave noted Mrs. +Norton's look of astonishment at this new departure on the part of her +husband and thought that there was something very pathetic in her +surprise. When the meal was ended she laughingly declined to leave the +men over their wine and stayed to smoke a cigarette with them. + +When they all quitted the dining-room the Resident asked his guests to +excuse him for returning to his study, pleading urgent and important +work; and his wife led the subalterns up to the drawing-room and out on +to the verandah that ran alongside its French windows. Here easy chairs +and a table with a big lamp had been placed for them. As soon as they +were seated one of the stately _chuprassis_ brought coffee, while +another proffered cigars and cigarettes and held a light from a silver +spirit-lamp. Then both the solemn servitors departed noiselessly on bare +feet. + +After some conversation Mrs. Norton said to the adjutant: + +"Do you remember, Mr. Raymond, that you have promised to take me out +shooting one day?" + +"I haven't forgotten," he replied; "but I was not able to arrange it, as +the Maharajah had pigsticking meets fixed up for all our free days. But +I don't think we'll have another for some time; for I hear that His +Highness is laid up from the effects of his fall. So we might go out +some day soon." + +"Good. When shall we go?" asked Wargrave. "Let's fix it up now." + +"What about next Thursday?" said his friend, turning to Mrs. Norton. + +"Yes; that will suit me. Where shall we go?" + +"There are a lot of partridge and a few hares, I'm told, near the tank +at Marwa, where there is a good deal of cultivation," answered Raymond. +Then turning to his friend he continued: + +"You are not very keen on small game shooting, Frank; so you can bring +your rifle and try for _chinkara_. I saw a buck and a couple of doe +there not very long ago. A little venison would be very acceptable in +Mess." + +"The tank is about eight miles away, isn't it?" said the hostess. "I'll +write to the Maharajah and ask him to lend us camels to take us out. My +cook will put up a good cold lunch for us." + +She rose from her chair and continued: + +"Now, Mr. Wargrave, come and sing something. I've been trying over +those new songs of yours to-day." + +She led the way into the drawing-room and Raymond was left alone on the +verandah to smoke and listen for the rest of the evening, while the +others forgot him as they played and sang. + +Suddenly he sat up in his chair and with a queer little pang of jealousy +in his heart stared through the open window at the couple at the piano. +He watched his friend's face turned eagerly towards his hostess. +Wargrave was gazing intently at her as in a voice full of feeling and +pathos, a voice with a plaintive little tone in it that thrilled him +strangely, she sang that haunting melody "The Love Song of Har Dyal." +Wistfully, sadly, she uttered the sorrowful words that Kipling puts into +the mouth of the lovelorn Pathan maiden: + + "My father's wife is old and harsh with years, + And drudge of all my father's house am I. + My bread is sorrow and my drink is tears, + Come back to me, Beloved, or I die! + Come back to me, Beloved, or I die!" + +And the singer looked up into the eager eyes bent on her and sighed a +little as she struck the final chords. Out on the verandah Raymond +frowned as he watched them and wondered if this woman was to come +between them and take his friend from him. Just then the bare-footed +servants entered the room, carrying silver trays on which stood the +whiskies and sodas that are the stirrup-cups, the hints to guests that +the time of departure has come, of dinner-parties in India. + +As the two subalterns drove home in Raymond's trap through the hot +Indian night under a moon shining with a brilliance that England never +knows, Wargrave hummed "The Love Song of Har Dyal." + +Suddenly he said: + +"She's wonderful, Ray, isn't she? Fancy such a glorious woman buried in +this hole and married to a dry old stick like the Resident! Doesn't it +seem a shame?" + +The adjutant mumbled an incoherent reply behind his lighted cheroot. + +Arrived in their bungalow they undressed in their rooms and in pyjamas +and slippers came out into the compound, where on either side of a table +on which was a lighted lamp stood their bedsteads, the mattress of each +covered with a thin strip of soft China matting. For in the hot weather +in many parts of India this must be used to lie upon instead of a linen +sheet, which would become saturated with perspiration. Looking carefully +at the ground over which they passed for fear of snakes they reached and +lay down on their beds, over each of which a _punkah_ was suspended from +a cross-beam supported by two upright posts sunk in the ground. One rope +moved both _punkahs_, and the motive power was supplied by a coolie +who, salaaming to the sahibs and seating himself on the ground, picked +up the end of the rope and began to pull. Raymond put out the lamp. + +Wargrave stared up at the moon for a while. Then he said: + +"I say, Ray; didn't Mrs. Norton look lovely to-night? Didn't that dress +suit her awfully well?" + +"Oh, go to sleep, old man. We've got to get up in a few hours for this +confoundedly early parade. Goodnight," growled the adjutant, turning on +his side and closing his eyes. + +But he listened for some time to his friend humming "The Love Song of +Har Dyal" again! and not until Frank was silent did he doze off. An hour +later he woke up suddenly, bathed in perspiration and devoured by +mosquitoes; for the _punkahs_ were still--the coolie had gone to sleep. +He called to the man and aroused him, then before shutting his eyes +again he looked at his companion. The moon shone full on Wargrave's +face. He was sleeping peacefully and smiling. Raymond stared at him for +a few minutes. Then he muttered inconsequently: + +"Confound the woman!" + +And closing his eyes resolutely he fell asleep. + +In the days that elapsed before the shoot at Marwa, Wargrave rode every +afternoon to the Residency with the _syce_ carrying his violin case, +except when tennis was to be played. In their small community this +could not escape notice and comment--not that it occurred to him to try +to avoid either. The Resident did not object to the frequency of his +visits; and Frank saw no harm in his friendship with Mrs. Norton. But +others did; and the remarks of the two ladies of his regiment on the +subject were venomously spiteful. But their censure was reserved for the +one they termed "that shameless woman"; for like everyone else they were +partial to Wargrave and held him less to blame. + +His brother officers, although being men they were not so quick to nose +out a scandal, could not help noticing his absorption in Mrs. Norton's +society. One afternoon his Double Company Commander, Major Hepburn, +walked into the compound of Raymond's bungalow and on the verandah +shouted the usual Anglo-Indian caller's demand: + +"Boy! _Koi hai_?" (Is anyone there?) + +A servant hurried out and salaaming answered: + +"_Adjitan Sahib hai_." (The adjutant is here). + +"Oh, come in, Major," cried Raymond, rising from the table at which he +was seated drinking his tea. + +"Don't get up," said Hepburn, entering the room. "Is Wargrave in?" + +"No, sir; he went out half an hour ago." + +"Confound it, it seems impossible ever to find him in the afternoon +nowadays," said the major petulantly. "I wanted him to get up a hockey +match against No. 3 Double Company to-day. He used to be very keen on +playing with the men; but since he came back from England he never goes +near them. Where is he? Poodlefaking at the Residency, as usual?" + +This is the term contemptuously applied in India to the paying of calls +and other social duties that imply dancing attendance on the fair sex. + +"I didn't see him before he went out, sir," was Raymond's equivocal +reply. He loyally evaded a direct answer. + +Hepburn shook his head doubtfully. + +"I'm sorry about it. I hope the boy doesn't get into mischief. Look +here, Raymond, you're his pal. Keep your eye on him. He's a good lad; +and it would be a pity if he came to grief." + +The adjutant did not answer. The major put on his hat. + +"Well, I suppose I'll have to see to the hockey myself." + +He left the bungalow with a curt nod to Raymond, who watched him pass +out through the compound gate. Then the adjutant walked over to +Wargrave's writing-table and stood up again in its place a large +photograph of Mrs. Norton which he had hurriedly laid face downwards +when he heard Hepburn's voice outside. He looked at it for a minute, +then turned away frowning. + +When the morning of the shooting party arrived Wargrave and Raymond, +having sent their _syces_ on ahead with their guns, rode at dawn to the +Residency. In front of the building a group of camels lay on the ground, +burbling, blowing bubbles, grumbling incessantly and stretching out +their long necks to snap viciously at anyone but their drivers that +chanced to come near them. At the hall-door Mrs. Norton stood, dressed +in a smart and attractive costume of khaki drill, consisting of a +well-cut long frock coat and breeches, with the neatest of cloth gaiters +and dainty but serviceable boots. To their surprise her husband was with +her and evidently prepared to accompany them. For he wore an old coat, +knickerbockers and putties, from a strap over his shoulder hung a +specimen box, and he was armed with all the requisite appliances for the +capture and slaughter of many insects. + +Avoiding the camels' vicious teeth the party mounted after exchanging +greetings. Mrs. Norton and Wargrave rode the same animal; and Frank, +unused to this form of locomotion, took a tight grip as the long-legged +beast rose from the ground in unexpected jerks and set off at a jolting +walk that shook its riders painfully. Then it broke into a trot equally +disconcerting but finally settled into an easy canter that was as +comfortable a motion as its previous paces had been spine-dislocating. +The route lay at first over a space of desert which was unpleasant, for +the sand was blown in clouds by a high wind, almost a gale. But the +camels were fast movers and it did not take very long before they were +passing through scrub jungle and finally reached the wide stretch of +cultivation near Marwa. + +The tank, as lakes are called in India, lay in the centre of a shallow +depression, the rim of which all round was about four hundred yards from +the water which, now half a mile across, evidently filled the whole +basin in the rainy season. The strong breeze churned its surface into +little waves and piled up masses of froth and foam against the bending +reeds at one end of the tank, where, about fifty yards from the water's +edge stood a couple of thorny trees, offering almost the only shade to +be found for a long distance around. In the shallows were many yellow +egrets, while a _sarus_ crane stalked solemnly along the far bank, and +everywhere bird-life, rare elsewhere in the State, abounded. The land +all about was green, a refreshing change from the usual sandy and +parched character of most of the country. + +But beyond the tank the fields stretched away out of sight. At the edge +of the cultivation the camels were halted and the party dismounted from +them and separated. Mrs. Norton, who was a fair shot and carried a light +12-bore gun, started to walk up the partridges with Raymond, while her +husband went to search the reeds and the borders of the lake for strange +insects. Wargrave armed with a sporting Mannlicher rifle, set off on a +long tramp to look for _chinkara_, which are pretty little antelope with +curving horns. The wind, which was freshening, prevented the heat from +being excessive. + +The sport was fairly good. When lunch-time came the adjutant and Mrs. +Norton had got quite a respectable bag of partridges and a few hares. +The entomologist was in high spirits, for he had secured two rare +specimens; and Wargrave had shot a good buck. So in a contented frame of +mind all gathered under the trees near the end of the tank, where lunch +was laid by a couple of the Residency servants on a white cloth spread +on the ground. As they ate their _tiffin_ (lunch) the members of the +party chatted over the incidents of the morning; and each related the +story of his or her sport. + +After the meal Mrs. Norton decided to rest; for the ride and the long +walk with her gun had tired her. The servants spread a rug for her under +the trees and placed a camel saddle for her to recline against. Then +carrying away the empty dishes, plates, glasses and cutlery they retired +out of sight. + +"Are you sure you don't mind being left alone, Mrs. Norton?" asked +Wargrave. + +"Not in the least. Do go and shoot again," she replied, smiling up at +him. "I'm very comfortable and I'm glad to have a good rest before +undertaking that tiresome ride back. It's very pleasant here. The wind +comes so cool and fresh off the water. Isn't it strong, though?" + +The breeze had freshened to a gale and under the trees the temperature +was quite bearable. The Resident had already gone out of sight over the +rim of the basin, having exhausted the neighbourhood of the tank and +being desirous of searching farther afield. Wargrave and Raymond now +followed him but soon separated, the latter making for the cultivation +again, while his friend set off for the open plain. Ordinarily the heat +would have been intense, for the hours after noon up to three o'clock or +later are the hottest of the day in India; but the gale made it quite +cool. + +To Wargrave, tramping about unsuccessfully this time, came frequently +the sound of Raymond's gun. + +"Ray seems to be having all the luck," he thought, as through his +field-glasses he scanned the plain without seeing anything. "I'm getting +fed up." + +At last in despair he shouldered his rifle and turned back. After a long +walk he came in sight of the adjutant standing near the edge of the +fields talking to Norton. When Frank reached them he found that his +friend had increased his bag very considerably. + +"Well done, old boy, you'd better luck than I had," he said. Then +turning to the Resident he continued: "How have you done, sir?" + +"Nothing of any value," replied Norton "Have you finished? We're +thinking of going back now." + +"Yes, sir; I'm through. By Jove, I'm thirsty. I could do with a drink, +couldn't you, Ray?" + +"Rather. My throat's like a lime-kiln. We'll join Mrs. Norton and then +have an iced drink while the camels are being saddled." + +They strolled towards the lake, which was hidden from their view by the +rim of the basin. As they reached the slight ridge that this made all +three stopped dead and gazed in amazement. + +"What's happened to the tank?" exclaimed Raymond. "The water's almost up +to the trees." + +"Good God; My wife! Look! Look!" cried the Resident. + +They stood appalled. The wide body of water had swept up to within a few +yards of the trees under which Mrs. Norton lay fast asleep. And +stealthily emerging from it a large crocodile was slowly, cautiously, +crawling towards the unconscious woman. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A CROCODILE INTERVENES + + +Major Norton opened his mouth to cry a warning; but Wargrave grasped his +arm and said hurriedly: + +"Don't shout, sir! Don't wake her! She'd be too confused to move." + +Then he thrust his field-glasses into the adjutant's hand. + +"Watch for the strike of my bullet, Ray," he said. + +He threw himself at full length on the ground and pressed a cartridge +into the breech of his rifle. His companions stood over him as he cast a +hurried glance forward and adjusted his sight, muttering: + +"Just about four hundred yards." + +The crocodile was nearly broadside on to him; and even at that distance +he could see the scaly armour covering head, back and sides, that would +defy any bullet. The unprotected spot behind the shoulder was hidden +from him; the only vulnerable part was the neck. Wargrave laid his cheek +to the butt and sighted on this. + +The crocodile crept on inch by inch, dragging its limbs forward with the +slow, stealthy movement of its kind when stalking their prey on land. +The horrified watchers saw that the terrible snout with its protruding +fangs was barely a yard from Mrs. Norton's feet. Raymond's hands holding +the glasses to his eyes trembled violently. The Resident shook as with +the palsy; and he stared in horror at the crawling death that threatened +the sleeping woman. + +Wargrave fired. + +As the rifle rang out the creeping movement ceased. + +"You've hit him, I'll swear," cried Raymond. "I didn't see the bullet +strike the ground." + +Wargrave rapidly worked the bolt of his rifle, jerking out the empty +case and pushing a fresh cartridge into the chamber. He fired again. + +"That's got him! That _must_ have got him!" exclaimed Raymond. + +The crocodile lay still. Frank leapt to his feet and, rifle in hand, +dashed down the incline. At that moment Mrs. Norton awoke, turned on her +side, raised her body a little and suddenly saw the horrible reptile. +She sat up rigid with terror and stared at it. The brute slowly opened +its huge mouth and disclosed the cruel, gapped teeth. Then the iron jaws +clashed together. With a shriek the woman sprang to her feet, but stood +trembling, unable to move away. + +"Run! Run!" shouted Wargrave, springing down the slope towards her. + +Behind him raced Raymond, while her husband, who was unable to run +fast, followed far behind. + +Mrs. Norton seemed rooted to the spot. But she turned to Wargrave with +outstretched arms and gasped: + +"Save me, Frank! Save me!" + +With a bound he reached her, and, as she clung to him convulsively, +panted out: + +"It's all right, dear. You're safe now." + +He pushed her behind him, and bringing the rifle to his shoulder, faced +the crocodile. The brute opened and shut its great jaws, seeming to gasp +for air, while a strange whistling sound came from its throat. Its body +appeared to be paralysed. + +"It can't move. You've broken its spine," cried Raymond, as he reached +them. "Your first shot it must have been. Look! Your second's torn its +throat." + +He pointed to the neck and went round to the other side. From a jagged, +gaping wound where the expanding bullet had torn the throat, the blood +spurted and air whistled out with a shrill sound. + +Wargrave turned to Violet and took the terrified woman, who seemed on +the point of fainting, in his arms. + +"All right, little girl. It's all right. The brute's done for." + +She pulled herself together with an effort and looked nervously at the +crocodile. Then she released herself from Frank's clasp and said, +smiling feebly: + +"What a coward I am! I'm ashamed of myself. Where's John? Oh, here he +is. Doesn't he look funny?" + +The Resident, very red-faced and out of breath, had slowed down into a +shambling walk and was puffing and blowing like a grampus. As he came up +to them he spluttered: + +"Is it safe? Is it dead?" + +"It's harmless now, sir," answered Raymond. "It's still living but it +can't move. The spine's broken, I think." + +The Resident turned to his wife. The poor man had been in agony while +she was in danger; but now that the peril had passed he could only +express his relief in irritable scolding: + +"How could you be so foolish, Violet?" he asked crossly. "The idea of +going to sleep near the tank! Most unwise! You might have been eaten +alive." + +His wife smiled bitterly and glanced at the grumbling man with a +contemptuous expression on her face. + +"Yes, John, very inconsiderate of me, I daresay. But how was I to know +that there was a _mugger_ (crocodile) in the tank?" + +Then for the first time she realised the nearness of the water. + +"Good gracious! I thought I was much farther--how did I get so close to +it? Did I slip down in my sleep?" + +"No; there are the trees," said Raymond. "It's extraordinary. The whole +tank seems to have shifted." + +The Resident was mopping his bald scalp and lifted his hat to let the +gusty wind cool his head. A sudden squall blew the big pith sun-helmet +out of his hand. Wargrave caught it in the air and returned it to its +owner. + +"By Jove! it's a regular gale," he said. "I think I know what's +happened. This wind's so strong that it's blown the water of the tank +before it and actually shifted the whole mass thirty or forty yards this +way." + +"Yes, I've known that to occur before with shallow ponds," said Raymond. +"I've heard the passage of the Red Sea by the Israelites and the +drowning of Pharaoh's Army explained in the same way. It's said that the +crossing really took place at one extremity of the Bitter Lake through +which the Suez Canal passes." + +Major Norton was staring at the far end of the tank now left bare. + +"There may be some interesting insects stranded on the bottom uncovered +by the receding water," he said, abstractedly, and was moving away to +search for them when Wargrave said disgustedly: + +"Don't you think, sir, that, as Mrs. Norton has had such a shock, the +sooner we get off the better?" + +"Yes, yes. Very true. But you can order the camels to be saddled while +I'm having a look," replied the enthusiastic collector. "I really must +go and see. There may be some very interesting specimens there." + +And he hurried away. His wife smiled rather bitterly as he went. Then +she turned to the two subalterns. + +"But tell me what happened? How did the _mugger_ come here? How was I +saved?" + +Raymond rapidly narrated what had taken place. Violet looked at Wargrave +with glistening eyes and held out her hands to him. + +"So you saved my life. How can I thank you?" she said gratefully. Her +lips trembled a little. + +Frank took her hands in his but answered lightly: + +"Oh, it was nothing. Anyone else would have done the same. I happened to +be the only one with a rifle." + +Raymond turned away quickly and walked over to the crocodile. Neither of +them took any notice of him. Violet gazed fondly at Wargrave. + +"I owe you so much, Frank, so very much," she murmured in a low voice. +"You've made my life worth living; and now you make me live." + +He was embarrassed but he pressed the hands he held in his. Then he +released them and tried to speak lightly. + +"Shall I have the _mugger_ skinned and get a dressing-bag made out of +his hide for you?" he said, smiling. "That'd be a nice souvenir of the +brute." + +She shuddered. + +"I don't want to remember him," she cried, turning to glance at the +crocodile. "Horrid beast! I can't bear the sight of him." + +The _mugger_ certainly looked a most repulsive brute as it lay stretched +on the ground, its jaws occasionally opening and shutting spasmodically, +the blood from its wounded throat spreading in a pool on the sun-baked +earth. It was evidently an old beast; and skull and back were covered +with thick horny plates and bosses through which no bullet could +penetrate. The big teeth studded irregularly in the cruel jaws were +yellow and worn, as were the thick nails tipping the claws at the ends +of the powerful limbs. + +"The devil's not dead yet. Shall I put another bullet into him?" said +Wargrave. + +"It's only wasting a cartridge," replied his friend. "He can't do any +more harm. When the men come we'll have him cut open and see what he's +got inside him." + +Violet shuddered. + +"Oh, do you think he has ever eaten any human being?" she asked, gazing +with loathing at the huge reptile. + +"Judging from the way he stalked you I should think he has," answered +Raymond. "Hullo! here comes one of the camel-drivers with some of the +villagers. They'll be able to tell us about him." + +On the rim of the basin appeared a group of natives moving in their +direction. Suddenly they caught sight of the crocodile, stopped and +pointed to it and began to talk excitedly. One of the local peasants ran +back shouting. The rest hurried down for a closer view of the reptile. A +chorus of wonder rose from them as they stood round it. The Mahommedan +camel-driver exclaimed in Hindustani: + +"_Ahré, bhai! Kiya janwar! Pukka shaitan!_ (Ah, brother! What an animal! +A veritable devil!)" + +As the villagers spoke only the dialect of the State, Raymond used this +man as interpreter and questioned them about the crocodile. They +asserted that it had inhabited the tank for many years--hundreds, said +one man. It had, to their certain knowledge, killed several women +incautiously bathing or drawing water from the tank. As women are not +valued highly by the poorer Hindus this did not make the _mugger_ very +unpopular. But early in that very year it had committed the awful crime +of dragging under water and devouring a Brahmini bull, an animal devoted +to the Gods and held sacrosanct. + +By this time the crocodile had breathed its last. Raymond measured it +roughly and found it to be over twelve feet in length. The peasants +turned the great body on its back. Wargrave saw that the skin +underneath was too thick to be made into leather, so he bade them cut +the belly open. The stomach contained many shells of freshwater crabs +and crayfish, as well as a surprising amount of large pebbles, either +taken for digestive purposes or swallowed when the fish were being +scooped up off the bottom. But further search resulted in the finding of +several heavy brass or copper anklets and armlets, such as are worn by +Indian women. Some had evidently been a long time in the reptile's +interior. + +When the camels had come and the party was preparing to mount and start +back home, a crowd of villagers, led by their old priest, bore down upon +them. Learning that Frank was the slayer of the sacrilegious crocodile +the holy man hung a garland of marigolds round his neck and through the +interpreter offered him the thanks of gods and men for his good deed. +And to a chorus of blessings and compliments he rode away with his +companions. + +So ended the incident--apparently. But consequences undreamed of by any +of the actors in it flowed from it. For imperceptibly it brought a +change into the relations between Mrs. Norton and Wargrave and +eventually altered them completely. At first it merely seemed to +strengthen their friendship and increase the feeling of intimacy. To +Violet--they were Violet and Frank to each other now--the saving of her +life constituted a bond that could never be severed. He had preserved +her from a horrible death and she owed Wargrave more than gratitude. + +Hitherto she had often toyed with the idea of him as a lover, and the +thought had been a pleasant one. But it had hardly occurred to her to be +in love with him in return. In all her life up to now she had never +known what it was to really love. She had married without affection. Her +girlhood had been passed without the mildest flirtation; for she had +been brought up in a quiet country village where there never seemed to +be any bachelors of her own class between the ages of seventeen and +fifty. Even the curate was grey-haired and married. She had made up for +this deprivation during the voyage out to India and her season in +Calcutta; but, although she had found many men ready to flirt with her, +Norton's proposal was the only serious one that she had had and she +accepted him in desperation. She had never felt any love for him. She +did not realise that he had any for her; for, although he really +entertained a sincere affection of a kind for her, it was so seldom and +so badly expressed that she was never aware of its existence. Since her +marriage she had had several careless flirtations during her visits to +her relatives in Calcutta; but her heart was not seriously affected. + +She never acknowledged to herself that any gratitude or loyalty was due +from her to her husband. On the contrary she felt that she owed him, as +well as Fate, a grudge. She was young, warmblooded, of a passionate +temperament, yet she found herself wedded to a man who apparently needed +a housekeeper, not a wife. Her husband did not appear to realise that a +woman is not essentially different to a man, that she has feelings, +desires, passions, just as he has--although by a polite fiction the +prudish Anglo-Saxon races seem to agree to regard her as of a more +spiritual, more ethereal and less earthly a nature. Yet it is only a +fiction after all. Violet was a living woman, a creature of flesh and +blood who was not content to be a chattel, a household ornament, a piece +of furniture. It was not to be wondered at that she longed to enter into +woman's kingdom, to exercise the power of her sex to sway the other and +to experience the thrill of the realisation of that power. Often in her +loneliness she pined to see eyes she loved look with love into hers. She +was not a marble statue. It was but natural that she should long for +Love, a lover, the clasp of strong arms, the pressure of a man's broad +chest against her bosom, the feel of burning kisses on her lips, the +glorious surrender of her whole being to some adored one to whom she was +the universe, who lived but for her. + +Now for the first time in her life her errant dreams took concrete +shape. At last she began to feel the companionship of a particular man +necessary for her happiness. She had never before realised the +pleasure, the joy, to be derived from the presence of one of the +opposite sex who was in sympathy, in perfect harmony with her nature. + +In her lonely hours--and they were many--she thought constantly of +Wargrave; his face was ever before her, his voice sounding in her ears. +She usually saw her husband--absorbed in his work and studies--only at +meals; and as she looked across the table at him then she could not help +contrasting the heavy, unattractive man sitting silent, usually reading +a book while he ate, with the good-looking, laughter-loving playfellow +who had come into her life. She learned to day-dream of Wargrave, to +watch for his coming and hate his going, to enjoy every moment of his +presence. He had brought a new interest into her hitherto purposeless +life, the life that he had preserved and that consequently seemed to +belong to him. New feelings awakened in her. The world was a brighter, +happier place than it had been. It pleased her to realise what it all +meant, to know that the novel sensations, the fluttering hopes and +fears, the strange, delightful thrills, were all symptoms of that +longed-for malady that comes sooner or later to all women. She knew at +last that she loved Wargrave and gloried in the knowledge. And she never +doubted that he loved her in return. + +Did he? It was hard to tell. To a man the thought of Love in the +abstract seldom occurs; and the realisation of the concrete fact that +he is in love with some particular woman generally comes somewhat as a +shock. He is by nature a lover of freedom and in theory at least resents +fetters, even silken ones. And Wargrave had never thought of analysing +his feelings towards Violet. He was not a professional amorist and, +although not a puritan, would never set himself deliberately to make +love to a married woman under her husband's roof. He was fond of Mrs. +Norton--as a sister, he thought. She was a delightful friend, a real +pal, so understanding, so companionable, he said to himself frequently. +It had not occurred to him that his feelings for her might be love. He +had often before been on terms of friendship with women, married and +single; but none of them had ever attracted him as much as she did. He +had never felt any desire to be married; domesticity did not appeal to +him. But now, as he watched Violet moving about her drawing-room or +playing to him, he found himself thinking that it would be pleasant to +return to his bungalow from parade and find a pretty little wife waiting +to greet him with a smile and a kiss--and the wife of his dreams always +had Violet's face, wore smart well-cut frocks like Violet's, and showed +just such shapely, silken-clad legs and ankles and such small feet in +dainty, silver-buckled, high-heeled shoes. And he thought with an inward +groan that such a luxury was not for a debt-ridden subaltern like him, +that his heavily-mortgaged pay would not run to expensive gowns, silk +stockings and costly footwear. + +Yet it never occurred to him that Violet cared for him nor did it enter +his mind to try to win her love. But he felt that he would do much to +make her happy, that saving her life made him in a way responsible for +it in future; and he knew that she was not a contented woman. His +sympathy went out to her for what he guessed she must suffer from her +ill-assorted union. + +But soon he had no need to surmise it; for before long Violet began to +confide all her sorrows to him and the recital made his heart bleed for +one so young and beautiful mated to a selfish wretch who was as blind to +her suffering as he was to her charm. The younger man's chivalry was up +in arms, and he felt that such a boor did not deserve so bright a jewel. +At times Frank was tempted to confront the callous husband and force him +to open his dulled eyes to the bravely-borne misery of his neglected +wife and realise how fortunate he ought to consider himself in being the +owner of such a transcendent being. But the next moment the infatuated +youth was convinced that Norton was incapable of appreciating so rare a +woman, that only a nature like his own could understand or do full +justice to the perfections of hers. Such is a young man's conceit. He +rejoiced to know that his poor sympathy could help in a measure to make +up to Violet for the happiness that she declared that she had missed in +life. And so he gladly consented to play the consoler; and she, for the +pleasure of being consoled, continued to pour out her griefs to him. + +But if Frank was unconscious of the danger of his post as sympathising +confidant to another man's young and pretty wife, others were not. Her +husband, of course, was as blind as most husbands seem to be in +Anglo-Indian society. For in that land of the Household of Three, the +Eternal Triangle, it is almost a recognised principle that every married +woman who is at all attractive is entitled to have one particular +bachelor always in close attendance on her, to be constantly at her beck +and call, to ride with her, to drive her every afternoon to tennis or +golf or watch polo, then on to the Club and sit with her there. His +duty, a pleasant one, no doubt, is to cheer up her otherwise solitary +dinner in her bungalow on the nights when her neglectful husband is +dining out _en garçon_. No _cavaliere servente_ of Old Italy ever had so +busy a time as the Tame Cat of the India of to-day. And the husband +allows it, nay seems, as Major Norton did, to hail his presence with +relief, as it eases the conscience of the selfish lord and master who +leaves his spouse much alone. + +But if the Resident saw no harm or danger in the young officer +constantly seeking the society of his pretty wife others did. At first +Frank's well-wishers tried to hint to him that there was likelihood of +his friendship with her being misunderstood. But he laughed at +Raymond's badly-expressed warning and rather resented Major Hepburn's +kindly advice when on one occasion his Company Commander spoke plainly, +though tactfully, to him on the subject. Then Violet's enemies took a +hand in the game. Mrs. Trevor, having failed to decoy him to her +bungalow for what she called "a quiet tea and a motherly little chat," +cornered him one afternoon when he was on his way to the Residency and +spoke very openly to him of the risk he ran of being entangled in the +coils of such an outrageous coquette as "that Mrs. Norton," as she +termed her. Frank was so indignant at her abuse of his friend that for +the first time in his life he was rude to a woman and snubbed Mrs. +Trevor so severely that she went in a rage to her husband and insisted +on his taking immediate steps to arrest the progress of a scandal that, +she declared, would attract the unfavourable attention of the higher +military authorities to the regiment. + +"Do you realise, William, that you will be the one to suffer?" said the +angry woman. "If anything happens, if Major Norton complains, if that +shameless creature succeeds in making that foolish young man run away +with her, you will be blamed. You can't afford it. You know that the +General's confidential report on you last year was not too favourable." + +"It wasn't really bad, my dear; it only hinted that I lacked decision," +pleaded the hen-pecked man. + +"Exactly. You are not firm enough," persisted his domestic tyrant. "They +will say that you should have put your foot down at once and stopped +this disgraceful affair." + +"But what can I do?" asked the Colonel helplessly. + +"Someone ought to speak to Major Norton at once." + +"Oh, my dear Jane, I couldn't. I daren't." + +"For two pins I'd do it myself. Mrs. Baird said the other day that it +was our duty as respectable women." + +"No, no, no, Jane. You mustn't think of it," exclaimed the alarmed man. +"I forbid you. You mustn't mix yourself up in the affair. It would be +committing me." + +"Then send that impertinent young man away," said Mrs. Trevor firmly. No +General would have accused _her_ of lack of decision. "I used to have a +high opinion of him once; but after his insolence to me I believe him to +be nearly as bad as that woman." + +"Where can I send him?" asked the worried Colonel. "He has done all the +courses and passed all the classes and examinations he can." + +"You know you have only to write confidentially to the Staff and inform +them that young Wargrave's removal to another station is absolutely +necessary to prevent a scandal; and they'll send him off somewhere else +at once." + +Her husband nodded his head. He was well aware of the fact that the Army +in India looks closely after the behaviour and morals of its officers, +that a colonel has only to hint that the transfer of a particular +individual under his command is necessary to stop a scandal--and without +loss of time that officer finds himself deported to the other side of +the country. + +One morning, a week after Mrs Trevor's conversation with her husband, +Wargrave, superintending the musketry of his Double Company on the rifle +range, was given an official note from the adjutant informing him that +the Commanding Officer desired to see him at once in the Orderly Room. +As Major Hepburn was not present Frank handed the men over to the senior +Indian company commander and rode off to the Regimental Office, +wondering as he went what could be the reason of the sudden summons. +Reaching the building he found Raymond on the watch for him, while +ostensibly engaged in criticising to the battalion _durzi_ (tailor) the +fit of the new uniforms of several recruits. + +"I say, Ray, what's up?" asked his friend cheerily, as he swung himself +out of the saddle. + +The adjutant nodded warningly towards the Orderly Room and dropped his +voice as he replied: + +"I don't know, old chap. The C.O.'s said nothing to me; but he's in +there with Hepburn trying to work himself up into a rage so that he can +bully-rag you properly. You'd better go in and get it over." + +Wargrave entered the big, colour-washed room. The Colonel was seated at +his desk, frowning at a paper before him, and did not look up. Major +Hepburn was standing behind his chair and glanced commiseratingly at the +subaltern. + +Frank stood to attention and saluted. + +"Good morning, sir," he said. "You wanted to see me?" + +Colonel Trevor did not reply, but turning slightly in his chair, said: + +"Major Hepburn, call in the adjutant, please." + +As the Second in Command went out on the verandah and summoned Raymond, +Wargrave's heart misgave him. He had no idea of what the matter was; but +the Colonel's manner and the presence of the Second in Command were +ominous signs. He wondered what crime he was going to be charged with. + +"Shut the doors, Raymond," said the Commanding Officer curtly, as the +adjutant entered. The latter did so and sat down at his writing-table, +glancing anxiously at his friend. + +Colonel Trevor's lips were twitching nervously; and he seemed to +experience a difficulty in finding his voice. At last he took up a +paper from his desk and said: + +"Mr. Wargrave, this is a telegram just received from Western Army Head +Quarters. It says 'Lieutenant Wargrave is appointed to No. 12 Battalion, +Frontier Military Police. Direct him to proceed forthwith to report to +O.C. Detachment, Ranga Duar, Eastern Bengal.'" + + + + +CHAPTER V + +SENTENCE OF EXILE + + +At the words of the telegram Raymond started and Frank stared in +bewilderment at the Colonel. + +"But I never asked for the Military Police, sir," he exclaimed. "I----" + +The Colonel licked his dry lips and, working himself up into a passion, +shouted: + +"No, you didn't. But I did. I applied for you to be sent to it. I asked +for you to be transferred from this station. You can ask yourself the +reason why. I will not tolerate conduct such as yours, sir. I will not +have an officer like you under my command." + +Frank flushed deeply. + +"I beg your pardon, sir. I don't understand. I really don't know what +I've done. I should----" + +But the Colonel burst in furiously: + +"He says he doesn't know what he's done, Major Hepburn. Listen to that! +He does not know what he's done"; and the speaker pounded on the desk +with his clenched fist, working himself up into a rage, as a weak man +will do when he has to carry out an unpleasant task. + +"But, sir, surely I have a right----," began Wargrave, clenching his +hands until the nails were almost driven into his palms in an effort to +keep his temper. + +"I cannot argue the question with you, Wargrave," said the Colonel +loftily. "You have got your orders. Headquarters approve of my action. I +have discussed the matter with my Second in Command, and he agrees with +me. You can go. Raymond, make out the necessary warrants for Mr. +Wargrave's journey and give him an advance of a month's pay. He will +leave to-morrow. Tell the Quartermaster to make the necessary +arrangements." + +Frank bit his lip. His years of discipline and the respect for authority +engrained in him since his entrance to Sandhurst kept the mutinous words +back. He saluted punctiliously and, turning about smartly walked out of +the Orderly Room. In the glaring sunshine he strode out of the compound +and down the white, dusty road to his bungalow, his brain in a whirl, +blind to everything, seeing neither the sepoys saluting him nor his +_syce_ hurrying after him and dragging the pony by the bridle. + +When he reached his house he entered the sitting-room and dropped into a +chair. His "boy" approached salaaming and asked if he should go to the +Mess to order the Sahib's breakfast to be got ready. Wargrave waved him +away impatiently. + +He sat staring unseeingly at the wall. He could not think coherently. He +felt dazed. His bewildered brain seemed to be revolving endlessly round +the thought of the telegram from Headquarters and the Colonel's words "I +will not have an officer like you under my command." What was the +meaning of it all? What had he done? A pang shot through him at the +sudden remembrance of Colonel Trevor's assertion that Major Hepburn +agreed with him. Frank held the Second in Command in high respect, for +he knew him to be an exceptionally good soldier and a gentleman in every +sense of the word. Had he so disgraced himself then that Hepburn +considered the Colonel's action justified? But how? + +He shifted uneasily in his chair and his eyes fell on Mrs. Norton's +portrait. At the sight of it his Company Commander's advice to him about +her and Mrs. Trevor's spiteful remarks flashed across his mind. Could +Violet be mixed up in all this? Was his friendship with her perhaps the +cause of the trouble? He dismissed the idea at once. There was nothing +to be ashamed of in their relations. + +A figure darkened the doorway. It was Raymond. Wargrave sprang up and +rushed to him. + +"What in Heaven's name is it all about, Ray?" he cried. "Is the Colonel +mad?" + +The adjutant took off his helmet and flung it on the table. + +"Well, tell me. What the devil have I done?" said his friend +impatiently. + +Raymond tried to speak but failed. + +"Go on, man. What is it?" cried Wargrave, seizing his arm. + +The adjutant burst out: + +"It's a damned shame, old man. I'm sorry." + +"But what is it? What is it, I say?" cried Wargrave, shaking him. + +The adjutant nodded his head towards the big photograph on the +writing-table. + +"It's Mrs. Norton," he said. + +"Mrs. Norton?" echoed his friend. "What the--what's she got to do with +it?" + +Raymond threw himself into a chair. + +"Someone's been making mischief. The C.O.'s been told that there might +be a scandal so he's got scared lest trouble should come to him." + +Frank stared blankly at the speaker, then suddenly turned and walked out +of the bungalow. The pony was standing huddled into the patch of shade +at the side of the house, the _syce_ squatting on the ground at its head +and holding the reins. Wargrave sprang into the saddle and galloped out +of the compound. Raymond ran to the verandah and saw him thundering down +the sandy road that led to the residency. + +Arrived at the big white building Frank pulled up his panting pony on +its haunches and dismounting threw the reins over its head and left it +unattended. + +Walking to the hall door he cried: + +"_Koi hai_?" + +A drowsy _chuprassi_ at the back of the hall sprang up and hurried to +receive him. + +"_Memsahib hai_? (Is the mistress in?)" + +"_Hai, sahib_. (Yes, sir)" said the servant salaaming. + +Wargrave was free of the house and, taking off his hat, went into the +cool hall and walked up the great staircase. He entered the +drawing-room. After the blinding glare outside the closely-shuttered +apartment seemed so dark that at first it was difficult for him to see +if it were tenanted or not. But it was empty; and he paced the floor +impatiently, frowning in chaotic thought. + +"Good morning, Frank. You are early to-day. And what a bad temper you +seem to be in!" exclaimed a laughing voice; and Mrs. Norton, looking +radiant and delightfully cool in a thin white Madras muslin dress, +entered the room. + +He went to her. + +"They're sending me away, Violet," he said. + +"Sending you away?" she repeated in an astonished tone. "Sending you +where?" + +"To hell, I think," he cried. "Oh, I beg your pardon. I mean--yes, +they're sending me away from Rohar, from you. Sending me to the other +side of India." + +The blood slowly left her face as she stared uncomprehendingly at him. + +"Sending you away? Why?" she asked. + +"Because--because we're friends, little girl." + +"Because we're friends," she echoed. "What do you mean? But you mustn't +go." + +"I must. I can't help it. I've got to go." + +Pale as death Violet stared at him. + +"Got to go? To leave me?" + +Then with a choking cry she threw her arms about his neck and sobbed. + +"You mustn't. You mustn't leave me. I can't live without you. I love +you. I love you. I'll die if you go from me." + +Frank started and tried to hold her at arm's length to look into her +face. But the woman clung frenziedly to him, while convulsive sobs shook +her body. His arms went round her instinctively and, holding her to his +breast, he stared blankly over the beautiful bowed head. It was true, +then. She loved him. Without meaning it he had won her heart. He whose +earnest wish it had been to save her from pain, to console her, to +brighten her lonely life, had brought this fresh sorrow on her. To the +misery of a loveless marriage he had added a heavier cross, an unhappy, +a misplaced affection. No exultant vanity within him rejoiced at the +knowledge that, unsought, she had learned to care for him. Only regret, +pity for her, stirred in him. He was aware now as always that his +feeling for her was not love. But she must not realise it. He must save +her from the bitter mortification of learning that she had given her +heart unasked. His must have been the fault; he it must be to bear the +punishment. She should never know the truth. He bent down and +reverently, tenderly, kissed the tear-stained face--it was the first +time that his lips had touched her. + +"Dearest, we will go together. You must come with me," he said. + +Violet started and looked wildly up at him. + +"Go with you? What do you mean? How can I?" + +"I mean that you must come away with me to begin a new life--a happier +one--together. I cannot leave you here with a man who neglects you, who +does not appreciate you, who cannot understand you." + +"Do you mean--run away with you?" she asked. + +"Yes; it is the only thing to do." + +She slowly loosed her clasp of him and released herself from his arms. + +"But I don't understand at all. Why are you going? And where?" + +He briefly told her what had happened. His face flushed darkly as he +repeated the Colonel's words. + +"'He wouldn't have an officer like me under his command,' he said. He +treated me like a criminal. I don't value his opinion much. But Major +Hepburn agrees with him. That hurts. I respect him." + +"But where is this place they're sending you to?" she asked. + +"Ranga Duar? I don't know. Eastern Bengal, I believe." + +"Bengal. What? Anywhere near Calcutta?" + +"No; it must be somewhere up on the frontier. Otherwise they wouldn't +send Military Police to garrison it." + +"But what is it like? Is it a big station?" she persisted. + +"I can't tell you. But it's sure not to be. No; it must be a small place +up in the hills or in the jungle. There's only a detachment there." + +"But what have I got to do with your being sent there?" she asked in +perplexity. + +"Don't you understand? Someone's been making mischief," he replied. +"Those two vile-minded women have been talking scandal of us to the +Colonel." + +"What? Talking about you and me? Oh!" she exclaimed. + +His words brought home to her the fact that these bitter-tongued women +whom she despised had dared to assail her--her, the _Burra Mem_, the +Great Lady of their little world. Had dared to? She could not silence +them. And what would they say of her, how their tongues would wag, if +she ran away from her husband! And they would have a right to talk +scandal of her then. The thought made her pause. + +"But how could I go with you to this place in Bengal? Where could I +live?" she asked. + +"You'd live with me." + +"Oh! In your bungalow? How could I? And how would I get there?" she +continued. "I haven't any money. I don't suppose I've got a ten-rupee +note. And I couldn't ask my husband." + +"Of course not. I would----" He paused. "By Jove! I never thought of +that." It had not occurred to him that elopements must be carried out on +a cash basis. He had forgotten that money was necessary. And he had +none. He was heavily in debt. The local _shroffs_--the native +money-lenders--would give him no more credit when they knew that he was +going away. All that he would have would be the one month's advance of +pay--probably not enough for Violet's fare and expenses across +India--the Government provided his--and certainly not enough to support +them for long. He frowned in perplexity. Running away with another man's +wife did not seem so easy after all. + +Violet was the first to recover her normal calm. + +"Sit down and let us talk quietly," she said. "One of the servants may +come in. Or my husband--if people are talking scandal of us." + +She touched the switch of an overhead electric fan--the Government of +India housed its Political Officer in Rohar much more luxuriously than +the military ones--and sat down under it. Wargrave began to pace the +room impatiently. + +"Come, Frank, stop walking about like a tiger in a cage and let's +discuss things properly." + +With an effort he pulled himself together and took a chair near her. The +woman was the more self-possessed of the two. The shock of suddenly +finding herself up against the logical outcome of her desires had +sobered her; and, faced with the prospect of an immediate flight +involving the abdication of her assured social position and the +surrender of a home, she was able to visualise the consequences of her +actions. The most sobering reflection was the thought that by so doing +she would be casting herself to the female wolves of her world--and she +knew the extent of their mercy. There were others of her acquaintance +besides Mrs. Trevor who would howl loud with triumph over her downfall. +The thought has saved many a woman from social ruin. + +Thinking only of what she had so often told him of the misery of living +with a man as unsympathetic as her husband, Frank pleaded desperately +with a conviction that he was far from feeling. The hard fact of the +lack of sufficient money to pay for her travelling expenses, the +difficulty of getting off together from this out-of-the-way station, +were not to be got over. Then the impossibility of knowing whether she +could remain with him when he was on frontier duty and of supporting her +away from him, the realisation of the fact that they would have to face +the Divorce Court with its heavy costs and probably crushing damages, +all made the situation seem hopeless. In despair he sprang up and +resumed his nervous pacing of the room. + +At last Violet said: + +"All I can see, dearest, is that we must wait. It will be harder for me +than for you. You at least will not have to live with anyone uncongenial +to you. But I must. Yet I can bear it for your sake." + +He stopped before her and looked at her in admiration of her courageous +and self-sacrificing spirit. Then he bent down and kissed her tenderly. +Sitting beside her he discussed the situation more calmly than he had +hitherto done. It was finally agreed that he was to go alone to his new +station, save all that he could to pay off his debts--he would receive a +higher salary in the Military Police and his expenses would be less--and +when he was free and had made a home for her Violet would sacrifice +everything for love and come to him. With almost tears in his eyes as he +thought of her nobility he strained her to his heart. When the time came +for parting the woman broke down completely and wept bitterly as she +clung to him. He kissed her passionately, then with an effort put her +from him and almost ran from the room, while she flung herself on a +lounge and sobbed convulsively. + +One of the Residency _syces_ had taken charge of the pony; and Wargrave, +mounting it, galloped madly back to his bungalow, his heart torn with +anguish for the unhappiness of the broken-hearted woman that he was +leaving behind. + +When he arrived home he found that Raymond and his own "boy" and +sword-orderly (his native soldier-servant) had begun his packing for +him, for his heavy baggage had to be despatched that afternoon. The +bungalow was crowded with his brother-officers waiting to see him. He +had intended to avoid them, for he felt disgraced by the Colonel's +censure which it was evident the Commanding Officer had not kept secret, +though the whole matter should have been treated as confidential. But +they made light of his scruples and showed him that he had their +sympathy. He had meant to dine alone in his room that night; but his +comrades insisted on his coming to the Mess, where they were to give him +an informal farewell dinner. They would take no refusal. + +Daly, who was the Acting Quartermaster of the battalion, told him that +the arrangements for his journey had been made. He was to leave at dawn +and drive sixty miles in a _tonga_--a two-wheeled native conveyance +drawn by a pair of ponies--to a village called Basedi on the shores of a +narrow gulf or deep inlet of the sea which formed the eastern boundary +of the State of Mandha. Here he would have to spend the night in a +dâk-bungalow--or rest-house--and cross the water in a steam-launch next +morning. After that, five days more of travel by various routes and +means awaited him. + +Before dinner that night a few minutes apart with Hepburn made Frank +happier than he had been all day. For his Company Commander told him +that he had only agreed with the Colonel's action because he believed +that it would be for the subaltern's own good, not because he considered +that the latter had done anything to disgrace him. Hepburn added that if +he was given command of the regiment in two years' time--as should +happen in the ordinary course of events--he would be glad to have +Wargrave back again in the battalion then. Frank, with a guilty feeling +when he remembered his compact with Violet, thanked him gratefully, and +with a lightened heart went to the very festive meal that was to be his +last for some long time, at least with his old corps. + +The Colonel had refused to agree to his being invited formally to be the +guest of the regiment; and neither he nor the other married man, the +Doctor, were present. If they slept that night they were the only two +officers in the Cantonment that did; for none of the others, not even +senior major, Hepburn, left the Mess until it was time to escort their +departing comrade to his bungalow to change for the journey. And, as the +_tonga_-ponies rattled down the road and bore him away, Frank's last +sight of his old comrades was the group of white-clad figures in the +dawn waving frantically and cheering vociferously from the gateway of +his bungalow. + +The memory of it rejoiced him throughout the terrible hours of the long +journey in the baking heat and blinding glare of the Hot Weather day. +The worse moments were the stops every ten miles to change ponies, when +he had to wait in the blazing sunshine. His "boy," who sat on the front +seat of the vehicle beside the driver, produced from a basket packed +with wet straw cooled bottles of soda-water, without which Wargrave felt +that he would have died of sunstroke. + +Then on after each halt; and the endless strip of white road again +unrolled before him, while the never-ceasing clank of the iron-shod bar +coupling the ponies maddened his aching head with its monotonous rhythm. + +As the weary miles slid past him his thoughts were with Violet, so +beautiful, so patient and brave in her self-denying endurance. And he +cursed himself for having added to her pain, and inwardly vowed that +some day he would atone to her for it. + +At last the _tonga_ rattled into the bare compound of the Basedi +dâk-bungalow standing on a high stone plinth. The untidy +_khansamah_--the custodian of the rest-home--hurried on to the verandah +to greet the unexpected visitor and show his "boy" where to put the +sahib's bedding and baggage in a bleak room with a cane-bottomed wooden +bed hung with torn mosquito-curtains. + +From a glass case in the sitting-room containing a scanty store of +canned provisions the _khansamah_ provided a meal with such ill-assorted +ingredients as Somebody's desiccated soup lukewarm, a tin of sardines +and sweet biscuits to eat with them, and a bottle of beer to wash it +down with. Wargrave was too choked with dust, too sickened with the heat +and glare, to have any appetite. After a smoke he dragged his weary body +to bed and in spite of the mosquitoes that flocked joyously through the +holes in the gauze curtains to feast on him slept the profound sleep of +utter exhaustion. + +He was up at daybreak; for the tide served in the early morning and only +at its height could the launch approach the shore, which at low water +was bordered with the filthy slime of mangrove swamps. + +Landed at the other side of the gulf he had even a worse experience of +travel before him than on the previous day. For the next stage of the +journey was forty miles across a salt desert in a tram drawn by a camel. +The car was open on all sides and covered by a cardboard roof; and its +wooden seats were uncomfortably hard for long hours of sitting. The heat +was appalling. It struck up from the baked ground and seemed to scorch +the body through the clothes. The glare from the white sand and even +whiter patches of salt was blinding and penetrated through the closed +eyelids. A hot wind blew over the hazy, shimmering desert, setting the +whirling dust-devils dancing and striking the face like the touch of a +heated iron. Wargrave's small store of ice and mineral water was +exhausted, and he felt that he was likely to die of thirst. For in the +villages where they changed camels cholera was raging; and he dared not +drink the water from their wells. + +The tram slid easily along the shining rails that stretched away out of +sight over the monotonous plain, the camel loping lazily along, its +soft, sprawling feet falling noiselessly on the sand. The last ten miles +of the way lay through less sterile country; and the tram passed herds +of black buck--the pretty, spiral-horned antelope. Used to its daily +passage, the graceful animals, which were protected by the game-laws of +the native State through which the line ran, barely troubled to move out +of its way. They stood about in hundreds, staring lazily at it, some not +ten yards off, the bucks turning their heads away to scratch their sides +with the points of their horns or rubbing their noses with dainty hoofs. + +That night Wargrave slept at a dâk-bungalow near the terminus in a +little native town with a small branch-railway connecting it with a main +line. Then for four days he travelled across the scorching plains of +India, shut up in stuffy carriages with violet-hued glass windows and +Venetian wooden shutters meant to exclude the heat and glare. Over bare +plains broken by sudden flat-topped rocky hills, through +closely-cultivated fields and stretches of scrub-jungle, by mud-walled +villages, he journeyed day and night. The train crossed countless wide +river-beds in which the streams had shrunk to mean rivulets; but when it +clattered over the Ganges at Allahabad the sacred flood rolled a broad +and sluggish current under the bridge on its way to the far-distant Bay +of Bengal. + +On the fourth night Wargrave slept on a bench in the waiting-room of a +small junction, Niralda, from which a narrow-gauge railway branched off +to the north from the main line through Eastern Bengal. At an early hour +next morning he took his seat in the one first-class carriage of the toy +train, which journeyed through typical Bengal scenery by mud-banked +rice-fields, groves of tall, feathery bamboos and hamlets of pretty +palm-thatched huts, their roofs hidden by the broad green leaves of +sprawling creepers. Soon across the sky to the north a dark, blurred +line rose, stretching out of sight east and west. It grew clearer as the +train sped on, more distinct. It was the great northern rampart of +India, the Himalayas. Then, seeming to float in air high above the +highest of the dark mountain peaks and utterly detached from them, the +white crests of the Eternal Snows shone fairy-like against the blue sky. + +As Wargrave gazed enraptured, suddenly hills and plain were shut out +from his sight as the train plunged from the dazzling sunlight into the +deep shadows of a tropical forest. And the subaltern recognised with a +thrill of delight that he was entering the wonderful Terai Jungle, the +marvelous belt of woodland that stretches for hundreds of miles along +the foot of the Himalayas through Assam and Bengal to the far Siwalik +range, clothing their lower slopes or scaling their steep sides into +Nepal and Bhutan. Deep in its recesses the rhinoceros, bison and buffalo +hide, herds of wild elephants roam, tigers prey on the countless deer, +and the great mountain bears descend to prowl in it for food. Frank had +learned on the way that Ranga Duar was practically situated in it; and +the knowledge almost consoled him for his exile in the promise of sport +that kings might envy. + +At a small wayside station in a clearing in the forest his railway +journey ended. Beside the one small stone building two elephants were +standing, incessantly swinging their trunks, flapping their ears and +shifting their weight restlessly from leg to leg. Frank, on getting out +of his carriage, learned with pleasure from their salaaming _mahouts_ +(drivers) that these animals were to be his next means of transport, a +novel one that harmonised with the surroundings. On the back of each +great beast was a massive, straw-filled pad secured by a rope passing +surcingle-wise around its body. + +Each _mahout_ carried a gun, one a heavy rifle, the other a +double-barrelled fowling-piece, which they offered to Wargrave. + +"_Huzoor_!" (the Presence--a polite mode of address in Hindustani), said +one man, "the _Burra_ Sahib (the Political Sahib) sends salaams and +lends you these, as you might see something to shoot on the way." + +"Oh, the Political Officer. Very kind of him, I'm sure," remarked the +subaltern. "What is his name?" + +"Durro-Mut Sahib." + +"What a curious name!" thought Frank. For in the vernacular "_durro +mut_!" means, "Do not be afraid!" He concluded that it was a nickname. + +"Why is he called that?" he asked in Hindustani. + +"Because the Sahib is a very brave sahib," replied the man. "Where he is +there no one need fear." + +The other _mahout_ nodded assent, then said: + +"The Commanding Sahib has sent Your Honour from the Mess a basket with +food and drink. I have put it on the table in the _babu's_ (clerk's) +office in the station." + +Frank blessed his new C.O. for his thoughtfulness and made a welcome +meal while he watched his baggage being loaded on to one of the +elephants. + +"_Buth_!" (Lie down) cried the _mahout_; and the obedient animal slowly +sank to its knees and stretched out its legs before and behind. Frank's +"boy" mounted timorously when the luggage had been strapped on to the +pad. When the subaltern was ready the second elephant was ordered to +kneel down for him; and he clambered up awkwardly and clung on tightly +when the _mahout_, getting astride of the great neck, made it rise. + +Along a broad road cut through the forest the huge beasts lumbered with +a plunging, swaying stride that was very tiring to a novice. Holding +both guns Frank glanced continually ahead, aside and behind him with a +delicious feeling of excited hope that at any moment some dangerous wild +beast might appear. On either hand the dense undergrowth of great, +flower-covered bushes and curving fan-shaped palms, restricted the view +to a few yards. From its dense tangle rose the giant trunks of huge +trees, their leafy crowns striving to push through the thick canopy of +vegetation overhead into the life-giving air and sunshine. + +But no wild animal appeared to cheer Wargrave on the long way; and as +hour after hour went by his whole body ached with the strain of sitting +upright without a support to his back and being jolted violently at +every step of the elephant. At last they reached a clearing in the +forest where stood the _mahout's_ huts and a tall, wooden building, the +_peelkhana_, or elephant stables. It lay at the foot of the mountains; +and from here the road wound upwards among the lower hills, under steep +cliffs, by the brink of precipices and beside deep ravines down which +brawling streams tumbled. + +As the party mounted higher and ever higher the big trees fell away +behind them until Frank could look down on a sea of foliage stretching +away out of sight east and west but bounded on the south by the Plains +of India seen vaguely through the shimmering heat-haze. Up, up they +climbed, until far above him he caught glimpses of buildings dotted +about among jungle-clad knolls and spurs jutting out from the dark face +of the mountains. And at last as evening shadows began to lengthen they +reached a lovely recess in the hills, a deep horse-shoe; and in it an +artificially-levelled parade-ground, a rifle-range running up a gully, a +few bungalows dotted about among the trees and lines of single-storied +barracks enclosed by a loopholed stone wall told Wargrave that he had +come to his journey's end. This was his place of exile--this was Ranga +Duar. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +A BORDER OUTPOST + + +"What a beautiful spot!" thought Frank as he gazed entranced at the +scenery. "I've never seen anything like it. It looks like Heaven after +the ugliness of Rohar. And how delightfully cool it is, too, up in the +mountains! Well, with this climate and good shooting in the forest below +life won't be as dreadful as I thought. I wish poor Violet were here out +of the heat and glare. How she'd love all this beauty, these trees, +these gardens, the glorious mountains!" + +He sighed as he thought of the woman who was so far away. + +"_Huzoor_, that is the Mess" broke in the voice of his _mahout_, as he +pointed to a long, red-tiled building half-hidden among the trees a few +hundred feet above them. To reach it they had to pass a large, +well-built stone bungalow, two-storied, unlike all the others and +standing in a lovely garden glowing with the vivid hues of the flowers, +the flaming red of huge bushes of bougainvillea and poinsettia. Frank, +glancing towards it, was about to ask the _mahout_ who lived in it when +he started in horror and cried to the man: + +"Stop! Stop your animal! Look there!" + +And he snatched at his rifle. For on the farther side of the house a +huge tusker elephant in the garden stood over a little European boy +about four years old, who was sprawling almost under the huge feet. And +high above its head the brute held in its curved trunk a younger child, +a girl with long golden curls, as if about to dash it to the ground. + +As Frank grasped the rifle the _mahout_, who had turned at his cry, +seized the barrel and said with a smile: + +"_Durro mut_, Sahib! Do not fear, sir. Those are Durro Mut Sahib's +babies and the elephant is their playmate." + +And as he spoke Wargrave saw the elder child spring up from the ground +and beat the great animal's legs with his tiny hands, crying: + +"_Mujh-ko bhi_, Badshah! _Mujh-ko bhi! Uth! Uth!_ (Me too, Badshah! Me +too! Take me up!)" + +And the baby held aloft was crowing in glee and kicking its fat little +legs frantically. The elephant lowered it tenderly to the ground and +picked up the boy in its stead and lifted him into the air, while he +laughed and clapped his hands. The two _mahouts_ raised their palms +respectfully to their foreheads and cried to their animals: + +"_Salaam kuro_! (Salute!)" + +And the two trunks were lifted together in the _Salaamut_, the royal +salute given to Kings and Viceroys. + +Frank's _mahout_ explained. + +"_Gharib Parwar_ (Protector of the Poor), the pagan ignorant Hindus +around here say that the elephant is a god. Aye, and that his master, +Durro Mut Sahib, is one too. _That's_ like enough. Well, Allah alone +knows the truth of everything. But those two are more than mere man and +animal, that is certain. _Mul, Moti_! (Go on, Pearl!)" + +And he kicked his elephant under the ears with his bare feet to quicken +her pace. But Frank bade him stop. Despite the man's optimism he could +not believe it wise to allow tiny tots like that to play with such a +huge, clumsy animal. He was sure that their mother would be horrified if +she knew it. He loved children, and felt that it was madness to allow +these babies to continue their dangerous pastime. + +"Have they a mother?" he asked the _mahout_. + +"Yes, _Huzoor_. The _mem-Sahib_ (lady) is doubtless within the house." + +"I want to dismount," said Frank; and he grasped the surcingle rope as +the elephant sank jerkily to its knees. Then sliding down from the pad +he entered the gate and passed up through the garden towards the +bungalow. As he did so a dainty little figure in white, a charmingly +pretty girl with golden hair and blue eyes, came out on the verandah. +Seeing him she walked down the steps to meet him and held out her hand, +saying in a pleasant, musical voice: + +"You are Mr. Wargrave, of course? Welcome to Ranga Duar." + +Frank, uncomfortably conscious of his dishevelled appearance and +travel-stained attire, almost blushed as he took off his hat and +quickened his steps to meet her, wondering who this delightful young +girl--she looked about nineteen--could be. Possibly an elder sister of +the children outside. But as they shook hands she said: + +"I am the wife of the Political Officer here. My husband, Colonel +Dermot, has just gone up to the Mess to see your C.O., Major Hunt." + +Frank was astonished. This pretty young girl, scarcely more than a child +herself, the mother of the two chubby babies! Touched by her kind manner +he shook her hand warmly and said: + +"Thank you very much for your welcome, Mrs. Dermot. It's awfully good of +you, and I--I assure you I appreciate it a lot just now. I was coming to +tell you--I wonder do you know that your babies--I suppose they _are_ +yours--are playing what seems to me rather a dangerous game with an +elephant at the side of the house." + +Mrs. Dermot smiled; and the dimples that came with the smile carried his +mind back for an instant to Violet. + +"Yes, they are my chicks," she said. "I left them in Badshah's charge." + +Frank was not altogether reassured. The young mother evidently did not +know what was happening. + +"But--pardon me--is it quite safe? I was a bit scared when I saw them. +The animal was tossing them up in the air." + +"You needn't be alarmed, Mr. Wargrave--though it's very good of you to +be concerned and come to tell me," she replied. "But Badshah--that's the +elephant's name--is a most careful nurse and I know that my babies are +quite safe when they are in his care. He has looked after them since +they were able to crawl. Come and be introduced to him. I must tell you +that he is a very exceptional animal. Indeed, we almost forget that he +is an animal. He has saved our lives, my husband's and mine, on more +than one occasion. Next to the children and me I think that Kevin loves +him better than anyone or anything else in the world. And after my +chicks and Kevin and my brother I believe I do, too. As for the babies, +I'm not sure that he doesn't come first with them." + +She led the way round the house, and in spite of her assurances Wargrave +felt a little nervous when they came in sight of the strange nurse and +its charges. The tiny girl was seated on the ground tightly clasping one +huge foreleg; while the boy was beating the other with his little fists, +crying: + +"_Mujk-ko uth! Pir! Pir!_ (Lift me up! Again! Again!)" + +When he saw his mother he ran to her and said: + +"Mummie, bad, naughty Badshah won't lift me up." + +He suddenly caught sight of the stranger and paused shyly. + +"Brian darling, this is a new friend," said his mother, bending down to +him. "Won't you shake hands with him?" + +The child conquered his shyness with an effort and walked over to Frank, +holding out his little hand. + +"How do you do?" he said politely. + +The subaltern gravely shook the proffered hand. The little girl +scrambled to her fat little legs and finger in mouth, surveyed him +solemnly. Then satisfied with her inspection she toddled forward to him +and said: + +"Tiss me." + +Frank laughed joyously. + +"With all my heart, you darling," he cried. + +This delightful welcome in the dreaded place of exile was inexpressibly +cheering. He swung the dainty mite up in his arms and kissed her. She +put her arms around his neck and hugged him. + +"Me like 'oo," she said. + +"You little flirt, Eileen," exclaimed her mother laughing. "Now it's +Badshah's turn." + +She walked to the elephant, a splendid specimen of its race, though it +had only one tusk, the right. She held out her hand to it. The long +trunk shot out, brushed her fingers and then her cheek with a light +touch that was almost a caress. She stroked the trunk affectionately. + +"Now, Badshah, this is a new Sahib." + +Frank, with the baby girl seated on his shoulder, stepped forward and +extended his hand. The animal smelt it and then laid its trunk for a +moment on his free shoulder. + +"Badshah accepts you, Mr. Wargrave," said Mrs. Dermot seriously. "And +there are few whom he takes to readily." + +Eileen, with one arm around Frank's neck, stretched out the other to the +elephant. + +"Me love Badshah," she said. + +The snake-like trunk lingered caressingly on her golden head. The baby +caught and kissed it. + +"Now then, chickies, time for bed," said their mother. "Say goodnight to +Badshah." + +The little boy ran to the great animal and hugged its leg tightly, while +the snaky trunk touched the child's face affectionately. + +"Come along, Brian. Let him go now"; and at his mother's bidding the boy +released his clasp and ran to her. + +"Goodnight, Badshah. _Salaam_!" said Mrs. Dermot, waving her hand to the +mammoth, while her little daughter on Wargrave's shoulder imitated her. + +The big animal raised its trunk in salute and, turning, walked with +swaying stride out of sight behind the bungalow. + +"By Jove, what a splendid beast!" exclaimed Frank. "And how wonderfully +well trained he is. I'm not surprised now that you let the kiddies play +with him." + +Mrs. Dermot smiled. + +"You would be even less so if you knew his story," she said. "He is my +husband's private property now. The Government of India presented him to +Kevin. Now come back to the house and have tea. Oh, no, after your long +ride you'll prefer a whiskey and soda." + +"I'd really rather have the tea, I think, Mrs. Dermot. I don't feel +thirsty up in this deliciously cool air. It's awful down in the Plains +now. But what about my elephants and baggage?" + +"Tell the _mahouts_ to go to the Mess. You are to have a room there." + +Frank did so; and the two animals lumbered away up the hill after the +_mahouts_ had brought the Colonel's guns into the bungalow. + +Mrs. Dermot led the way into the house. The little boy had possessed +himself of Wargrave's free hand, the other one being engaged in holding +Eileen, who was perched on the subaltern's shoulder. Mrs. Dermot found +it difficult to separate the children from their new friend when at +last she bore them off to bed. + +Left to himself, Frank examined with deep interest and admiring envy the +splendid display of Colonel Dermot's trophies of big game shooting that +filled the bungalow. From the walls many heads of bison and buffalo, of +_sambhur_ and _barasingh_, those fine Indian stags, looked mildly at him +with their glass eyes; while tigers, bears and panthers snarled at him +from the ground. Long elephant-tusks leaned in corners, smoking and +liqueur-tables made up from the mammoths' legs and feet stood about, and +crossed from ceiling to floor; on the walls were the skins of enormous +snakes such as Frank had never seen or imagined. He had thought a +six-foot cobra or an eight-foot python long--here were reptiles sixteen +or eighteen feet in length, and he hoped that he would never meet their +equals alive in the jungle. + +While he was gazing with admiration at the fine collection of trophies +Mrs. Dermot returned. + +"What a magnificent lot of heads and skins you've got here!" he +exclaimed. "All your husband's, I suppose?" + +She laughed as she glanced round the room, while pouring out the tea +that her butler had brought. + +"I'm afraid they make the house rather like a museum of natural +history," she answered. "Yes, they are all Kevin's, or nearly all. +There are a few of mine among them." + +He looked at her in open admiration. + +"Oh, you shoot? How splendid!" he said. "Have you ever got a tiger?" + +"A couple," she replied, smiling. + +"I envy you awfully," he said. "I've never even seen one--out of a +cage." + +"Well, if you are keen on shooting, Mr. Wargrave, you ought to have +little difficulty in bagging a tiger or two before long," she said. + +"I'd love to have the chance of going after big game. I'm hoping for it +here. Shall I? I've never had any, although I've shot a panther or two +and a few black buck and _chinkara_." + +"You will have every opportunity of good sport here. Neither of the +other two Europeans, your Commanding Officer and the doctor of your +detachment, go in for it, the latter because his sight is very bad, +Major Hunt because he doesn't care for it. I'm sure my husband will be +glad to take you out with him; and nobody in the whole Terai knows more +about big game than he." + +"By Jove; how ripping," exclaimed Frank eagerly. "Would he?" + +"I'm sure he would. He'll be only too delighted to have someone for +company. I used to go with him always, until my babies came. Now Kevin +has no one but Badshah." + +"Badshah? Oh, yes, that ripping elephant. I don't know much about those +animals, but isn't it unusual for him to have only a single tusk?" + +"Yes; Badshah is what the natives call a 'Gunesh.' You know that Gunesh +is the Hindu God of Wisdom and is represented as having an elephant's +head with only the right tusk? Consequently any of these animals born +with a single tusk, and that the right, is considered sacred and looked +upon as a god." + +"One of the _mahouts_ said that the Hindus here regard your husband as +one, too," said Frank, "and he seemed inclined to believe it himself. I +like the name they've given Colonel Dermot--Durro Mut Sahib, Fear Not +Sahib." + +A look of pride came in the young wife's eyes as she repeated the name +softly to herself. + +"Fear Not Sahib. Yes, it suits him." Then aloud she continued: + +"I think you'll like my husband, Mr. Wargrave. All men do. He's a man's +man. The hill and jungle people worship him. He understands them. Ah! +here he is, I think." + +Her face brightened, and Frank saw the light of love shine in her eyes +as she turned expectantly to the door. He sprang up as a tall man with +handsome, clear-cut features, dark complexion and eyes, and +close-cropped black hair touched at the temples with grey, entered the +room. With a pleasant smile the newcomer walked towards the subaltern +with outstretched hand, saying in a friendly voice: + +"Glad to welcome you to Ranga Duar, Wargrave." + +"Thank you very much, sir," replied Frank gripping his hand and greatly +taken at once by the Political Officer's appearance and friendly manner. +"It was very kind of you to send those guns for me. But I had no luck. +We saw nothing on the way." + +After greeting him Colonel Dermot bent over his wife and kissed her +fondly. It was obvious to the subaltern that after their five years of +married life they were lovers still. Frank looked at them a little +enviously. He wondered would it be so with Violet and him after the same +lapse of time; for the sight of their happiness sent his thoughts flying +to the woman who loved him. + +"Are you keen on shooting, Wargrave?" said the Colonel. + +"Oh, yes, he is, Kevin," broke in his wife. "I told him that I was sure +you'd be glad to take him with you into the jungle sometimes." + +"I'll be happy to do so, if you care to come with me, Wargrave," said +the Colonel. + +"I'd love to, sir. It would be awfully good of you," replied the +subaltern eagerly. "But I've only a Mannlicher rifle." + +"Ah, you'll need a bigger bore than that. But I can lend you a .470 high +velocity cordite weapon. You want something with great hitting power +for dangerous game," said Dermot. + +He went on to speak of the jungle and its denizens; and his conversation +was so interesting that Wargrave forgot the flight of time until his +hostess reminded him that he had to report his arrival to his commanding +officer and find his new quarters. Her husband volunteered to show him +the way to the Mess and introduce him to Major Hunt. + +As Wargrave shook hands with Mrs. Dermot, she said: + +"I wanted to ask you to dinner this evening; but Kevin thought you might +prefer to spend your first night with your brother officers. But we +shall expect you to-morrow, when they are coming, too." + +On their way up the steep road from his bungalow the Political Officer +spoke of the great forest below them and the sport to be found in it. +Then he said: + +"It's lucky you like shooting, Wargrave, for Ranga Duar is very isolated +and life in it dull to a person who has no resources. Still, it has its +advantages, and chief among them is the climate. It's delightful in the +cold weather and pleasant in the hot." + +"By Jove, it is indeed, sir! It's like Heaven after the heat in the +Plains below. I don't know how I lived through it coming across India." + +"The rainy season is the hardest to bear. We have five months of it and +over three hundred inches of rain during them. One never sees a strange +face then--not that we ever do have many visitors here at any time. +Still, you'll like your C.O., and Burke the doctor is a capital fellow. +Here we are." + +He turned in through a narrow gate leading to a pretty though neglected +garden in which stood the Mess, a long, single-storied building raised +on piles. On the broad wooden verandah to which a flight of steps led +from the ground two men were reclining in long chairs reading old +newspapers. On seeing Dermot and his companion they rose, and the +Colonel introduced Frank. They shook hands with him and gave him a +hearty welcome, which, coming on the top of the Dermot's, cheered the +subaltern exceedingly and for the time made him forget the circumstances +of his coming. + +"It's mighty glad I am to see you here, Wargrave," said Burke, the +doctor, in a mellow brogue, "aven av it's only to have someone living in +the Mess wid me. The Major there lives in solitary state in his little +bungalow; and I'm all alone here at night wid _shaitans_ (devils) and +wild beasts walking on the verandah." + +"What? Has that panther been prowling round the Mess again?" asked the +Political Officer. + +"Faith! and he has that. Sure, I heard him sniffing at me door last +night. I wish to the Powers ye'd shoot him, sir." + +"I can't get him. I've tried often enough." + +"Troth! and it's waking up one fine morning I'll be to find he's made a +meal av me. Keep your door shut at night, Wargrave. Merrick, who lived +in the room you'll have, forgot to do it once and the divil nearly had +him." + +"Is that really a fact?" asked Frank, delighted at the thought of having +come to a place with such possibilities of sport. + +"Yes; we're plagued by a brute of a panther that prowls about the +station at night, jumps the wall of the Fort and carries off the sepoys' +dogs, and has actually entered rooms here in the Mess. He has killed +several Bhuttia children on the hills around here. Nobody can ever get a +shot at him. He's too cunning. Will you have a drink, Colonel?" said +Hunt. + +The Political Officer thanked him but declined, and, reminding them all +of his wife's invitation for the morrow, bade them goodnight. + +"That's one av the finest men in India," exclaimed Burke, as they +watched Dermot's figure receding down the road. The doctor had a +pleasant, ugly face and wore spectacles. + +"He is, indeed. He keeps the whole Bhutan border in order," said the +commandant, Major Hunt, a slight, grey-haired man with a quiet and +reserved manner. "The Bhuttias are more afraid of a cross look from him +than of all our rifles and machine-guns. Have a drink, Wargrave? Yes? +And you, Burke? Hi, boy!" + +A Gurkha servant with the ugly, cheery face of his race appeared and was +ordered to bring three whiskeys and sodas. + +"Ranga's not a bad place if you can stand the loneliness," continued the +Major. "Are you fond of shooting." + +"Yes, sir, awfully." + +"Hooray! That's good," cried Burke. "Now we'll have someone to go down +to the jungle and shoot for the Mess. We want a change from tinned Army +rations and the tough ould hins that these benighted haythins call +chickens." + +"Yes, you'll be a Godsend to us if you're a good shot, Wargrave," added +the Commandant. "We never get meat here unless someone shoots a stag or +a buck in the jungle; and for that we generally have to rely on Dermot. +But he is away such a lot, wandering along the frontier, keeping an eye +on the peace of the Border. Now we'll be able to look to you. We have +three transport elephants with the detachment, all steady to shoot +from." + +Frank was delighted. + +"I'd love to go into the jungle if you'd let me, sir." + +"Yes, I'll be glad if you do. There's not much work for you here; and +this is a dull place for a youngster unless he's keen on sport. I'm not, +myself; and Burke's as blind as a bat. But you can always have an +elephant when they aren't wanted to bring up supplies from the railway." + +The subaltern thanked him gratefully and inwardly decided that his new +commanding officer was a great improvement on Colonel Trevor. + +"Now, Burke, I'm off to my bungalow. Show Wargrave his quarters," said +the Major rising. "See you at dinner." + +Burke showed the subaltern his room, one of the four into which the Mess +was divided. Like the doctor's quarters, it was at one end of the +building, the centre apartment being the officers' anteroom and +dining-room. Frank found that his "boy," with the ready deftness of +Indian servants, had unpacked his trunks, hung up his clothes and stowed +his various belongings about the scantily-furnished room. He had stood +Violet's photo on the one rickety table and laid out his Master's white +mess uniform on the small iron cot. + +Major Hunt, Wargrave learned, lived in a bungalow a few hundred yards +away, but, being unmarried, took his meals in the Mess. The Indian +officers and sepoys of the detachment were quartered in barracks in the +Fort. + +Frank dressed and entered the anteroom or officers' sitting-room, from +which a door led into the messroom. Both apartments were poorly +furnished, but the walls were adorned with the skulls and skins of many +beasts of the jungle, presented by Colonel Dermot, as Frank learned. +Shelves filled with books ran across one end of the anteroom. + +As the interior of the Mess was rather hot at that time of year--though +to Wargrave it seemed very cool after Rohar--the dinner-table was laid +on the verandah; and while the officers sat at their meal the pleasant +mountain breeze played about them. Frank thought with gratitude of his +escape from the burning heat which at that moment was tormenting the +hundreds of millions in the furnace of the Plains of India stretching +away from the foot of the cool hills. + +The meal was not luxurious, for it consisted almost exclusively of +tinned provisions, fresh meat being unprocurable in Ranga Duar--except +fowls of exceeding toughness--and vegetables and bread being rare +dainties. + +During dinner Wargrave learned how completely isolated his new station +was. Their only European neighbours were the planters on tea-gardens +scattered about in the great forest below, the nearest thirty miles off. +The few visitors that Ranga Duar saw in the year were the General on his +annual inspection, an occasional official of the Indian Civil Service, +the Public Works or the Forest Department, or some planter friend of the +Dermots. + +The reason of the existence of this outpost and its garrison was the +guarding of the _duars_, or passes, through the Himalayas against +raiders from Bhutan, that little-known independent State lying between +Tibet and the Bengal border. Its frontier was only two miles from, and a +few thousand feet above, Ranga Duar. + +"You are just in time for our one yearly burst of gaiety, Wargrave," +said the Commandant, "the visit of the Deb Zimpun." + +"What on earth is that, sir?" asked the subaltern. + +"Sounds like a new disease, doesn't it?" said Burke laughing. "But it +isn't. The Deb Zimpun is a gintleman av high degree, the Heridithary Cup +Bearer to the Deb Raja." + +"To the what?" demanded the bewildered Frank. + +Major Hunt smiled. + +"Bhutan is supposed to be ruled by a temporal monarch called the Deb +Raja and also by a spiritual one, known in India as the Durma Raja. In +reality it is under the sway of the most powerful of the several great +feudal lords of the land, the Tongsa Penlop or Chief of Tongsa, whom we +regard as the Maharajah of Bhutan. He has placed himself, as far only as +the foreign relations of the country go, under the suzerainty of the +Government of India; and in return we grant him a subsidy of a _lakh_ of +rupees a year. It used to be fifty thousand, but the sum was doubled +years ago. To get the money one of the State Council comes every year. +He is an official called the Deb Zimpun." + +"Faith! he's a rum old beggar, Wargrave," broke in Burke. "Looks like +the Pope av Rome in his thriple crown, for he wears a high gold-edged +cap and a flowing red robe av Chinese silk, out av which sticks a pair +av hairy bare legs." + +"The Political Officer receives him in _durbar_; and we furnish a Guard +of Honour. The Colonel gives a dinner to him and us, and we have another +spread in the Mess. That reminds me. I suppose Dermot will be going into +the jungle soon to shoot for the pot, as the _durbar_ is next week. +You'd better get him to take you. You can have one of our elephants and +provide for our larder." + +"Thanks very much, Major," said the delighted subaltern. "The Colonel +promised to let me accompany him and lend me a rifle." + +When he went to his room that night the subaltern turned up the oil lamp +that lighted it and before he undressed sat down before Violet's +photograph. As he looked at it he thought affectionately and a little +sadly of the lonely woman so far away from him now. He pitied her for +the isolation in which she lived, an isolation far completer than his +own, for she had few friends, no intimates, and a husband worse than a +stranger in his lack of understanding of her. Surely it would be only +right to take her from such a man, right to give her a fresh chance of +finding the happiness that she had missed; for the warm-hearted, +intelligent and artistic-natured woman would be far happier with him in +this beautiful spot, remote from the world though it was. And his new +comrades would appeal to her, Dermot, strong, capable, one who would +always stand out from his fellows; Hunt grave, kindly, well-read; Burke +witty, clever and good-hearted. And, little though Violet cared for her +own sex, as a rule, surely in Mrs. Dermot she would find a friend. This +happy wife, this loving mother, was so sweet and sympathetic that she +would win the older woman's liking, while the two delightful children +would take her heart by storm. Poor, lonely Violet, so beautiful, so +ill-fated! Frank sighed as he took up her portrait and kissed it. + +When he extinguished the lamp and lay down in bed it was pleasant, after +the heat in Rohar, to find it so cool that he was obliged to pull a +blanket over him. Only those who have endured the torment of hot nights +in the tropics can appreciate his thankfulness as in the silence broken +only by the monotonous cry of the nightjars he drowsed contentedly to +sleep. Already he was reconciled to Ranga Duar. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +IN THE TERAI JUNGLE + + +In the pleasant light of the morning the little outpost looked as +charming to Wargrave as it had done on the previous evening. Above Ranga +Duar the mountains towered to the pale blue sky, while below it the +foot-hills fell in steps to the broad sea of foliage of the great forest +stretching away to the distant plains seen vaguely through the haze. The +horse-shoe hollow in which the tiny station was set was bowered in +vegetation. The gardens glowed with the varied hues of flowers, and were +bounded by hedges of wild roses. The road and paths were bordered by the +tall, graceful plumes of the bamboo and shaded by giant mango and banyan +trees, their boughs clothed with orchids. + +Frank had noticed the previous day that the Fort, barracks and bungalows +were all newly built, and he learned that during the great war which had +raged along the frontiers of India five years before, the post had been +fiercely attacked by an army of Chinese and Bhutanese and the little +station practically wiped out of existence, although victory had finally +rested with the few survivors of the garrison. + +From the first the subaltern took a great liking to the tall Punjaubi +Mahommedan and hook-nosed, fair-skinned Pathan native officers and +sepoys of the detachment. The work was light and scarcely required two +British officers; and Frank soon found that Major Hunt, who seemed +driven by a demon of quiet energy, preferred to do most of it himself. +Frank got the impression that to the elder man occupation was an anodyne +for some secret sorrow. Although the subaltern had no wish to shirk his +duty he could not but be glad that his superior officer seemed always +ready to dispense with his aid, for thus he would find it easier to get +permission to go shooting. + +His first excursion into the jungle was arranged at dinner at the +Dermots' house on his second evening in Ranga Duar. The Colonel proposed +to take him out on the following Monday, for on the next day the _Deb +Zimpun_ would arrive. + +"He always brings a big train of Bhuttias with him, eighty swordsmen as +an escort to the small army of coolies necessary to carry a hundred +thousand silver rupees in boxes over the Himalayan passes. I like to +give them the flesh of a few _sambhur_ stags as a treat," said the +Colonel. + +"Hiven hilp ye av ye bring any _sambhur_ flesh to the Mess, Wargrave," +said Burke. "We want something we can get our teeth into. No, we expect +a _khakur_ from you." + +"What's a _khakur_?" asked Frank. + +"It's the _muntjac_ or barking deer," replied Dermot. "You wouldn't know +it if you haven't shot in forests. It gets its English name from its +call, which is not unlike a dog's bark." + +"Whin ye hear one saying '_Wonk! Wonk!_' in the jungle, Wargrave, get up +the nearest tree; for the _khakur_ is warning all whom it may concern +that there's a tiger in the immajit vicinity." + +Frank had already learned to distrust most of Burke's statements on +sport, for the doctor was an inveterate joker. So he looked to the +Political Officer for confirmation. + +"Yes, it's supposed to be the case," agreed the Colonel. "And I've more +than once heard a tiger loudly express his annoyance when a _khakur_ +barked as he was trying to sneak by unnoticed. There's a barking-deer." +He pointed to the well-mounted head of a small deer on the wall of the +dining-room. + +"Whom do you expect up for the Durbar, Mrs. Dermot?" asked Major Hunt. + +"Only Mr. Carter, the Sub-divisional Officer, and probably Mr. Benson." + +"Eh--is--isn't Miss Benson coming too?" asked the doctor in a hesitating +manner so unlike his usual cheery and assured self that Frank looked at +him. It seemed to him that Burke was blushing. + +"Oh, yes, I hope so," replied Mrs. Dermot. + +"Er--haven't you heard from her?" persisted the doctor anxiously. + +"I had a letter this afternoon brought by a coolie. Muriel wrote to say +that they were in the Buxa Reserve but hoped to get here in time. I'm +looking forward to her coming immensely. It's four months since I saw +her." + +Frank could not help noticing that Burke seemed to hang on Mrs. Dermot's +words; and he began to wonder if the unknown lady held the doctor's +heart. + +"It's rather hard on a girl like Miss Benson to have to lead such a +lonely life and rough it constantly in the jungle as she does," remarked +Major Hunt. "At her age she must want gaiety and amusement." + +"Muriel doesn't mind it," replied the hostess. "She loves jungle life. +And she thinks that her father couldn't get on without her." + +"Sure, she's right there, Mrs. Dermot," cried Burke. "The dear ould +boy'ud lose his head av he hadn't her to hould it on for him. She does +most av his work. It's a sight to see that slip av a girl bossing all +the forest guards and _habus_ and giving them their ordhers." + +Wargrave was anxious to hear more of this girl, in whom it appeared to +him Burke was very much interested; but Colonel Dermot broke in: + +"Talking of orders, have you any for the butcher's man, Noreen?" he +asked, smiling at his wife. + +"Yes, dear; will you please bring me a _khakur_ and some jungle fowl? +And if you can manage it a brace of _Kalej_ pheasants," said the good +housewife seriously. + +"Well, Wargrave, we've both got our orders and know what to bring back +from the jungle," said the Colonel, turning to Frank, who was sitting +beside him. Then the conversation between them drifted into sporting +channels until all adjourned outside for coffee on the verandah. + +Next afternoon the subaltern, passing down the road, was hailed from the +Dermots' garden by an imperious small lady with golden curls and big +blue bows and ordered to play with her. Her brother and Badshah had to +join in the game, too. Frank, chasing the dainty mite round and round +the elephant, began to think himself in the Garden of Eden. + +But that same evening he found that his Himalayan Paradise was not +without its serpent. The three officers of the detachment were seated at +dinner on the Mess verandah, Major Hunt with his back to the rough stone +wall of the building. A swinging oil lamp with a metal shade threw the +light downward and left the ceiling and upper part of the wall in +shadow. + +When dinner was ended the Commandant, lighting a cheerot, tilted his +chair on its back legs until his head nearly touched the wall. Frank, +talking to him, chanced to look up at the roof. He stared into the +shadows for a moment, then, suddenly grasping the astonished major by +the collar, jerked him out of his chair. And as he did so a snake, a +deadly hill-viper, which had been trying to climb up the rough face of +the wall, slipped and dropped on to the Commandant's chair, slid to the +floor and glided across the verandah and down into the garden before +anyone could find a stick with which to attack it. + +Major Hunt, his sallow face a little paler than usual, looked up at the +wall to see if any more reptiles were likely to follow, then sat down +again calmly. + +"Thank you, Wargrave," he said quietly. "But for you that brute would +have got me. And his bite is death. Ranga's full of snakes, like all +these places in the hills. We've killed several in the Mess since I've +been here; but no one's had such a close shave as this. I'll stand you a +drink for that. Hi, boy!" + +But for all this quiet manner of taking it Frank had made a staunch +friend that night by his prompt action. + +As Burke took the filled glass that the Gurkha mess-servant brought him +at the Major's order he said: + +"I hate snakes worse than the Divil hates holy wather. They're the only +things in life I'm afraid av. I never go to bed without looking under +the pillow nor put on my boots in the morning without first turning them +up and shaking them. I wish St. Pathrick had made a trip to India and +dhriven the sarpints out av the counthry the same as he did in +Ireland." + +"We've the worst snake in the world, I believe, here in the Terai, +Wargrave," said Major Hunt. "Look out for it when you're in the jungle. +It's the hamadryad or king-cobra. Have you heard of it?" + +"I saw the skin of one sixteen feet long in a Bombay museum, sir," +replied the subaltern. + +"It's the only snake in Asia that will attack human beings unprovoked; +it's deadly poisonous, unlike all other big snakes, and they say it +moves so fast that it can overtake a man on a pony. Benson, the Forest +Officer of the district, tells me there are many of them in the jungles +here." + +"One av the divils chased Dermot's elephant once and turned on the +Colonel when he interfered. It got its head blown off for its pains," +put in the doctor. + +"Don't tell me any more, Burke," exclaimed Wargrave laughing, "or I +won't be able to sleep to-night." + +He pushed back his chair as the Commandant rose from the table and, +saying goodnight to the two junior officers, picked up from the verandah +and lit a hurricane lantern and walked down the Mess steps with it on +his way home to his bungalow. Europeans in India do not care to move +about at night without a lamp lest in the darkness they might tread on a +snake. + +Early on the following Monday morning Wargrave, dressed in khaki +knickerbockers, shirt and puttees, and wearing besides his pith helmet +a "spine protector"--a quilted cloth pad buttoned to the back--as a +guard against sunstroke, went down to the Dermots' bungalow. In the +garden the Colonel, also prepared for their shooting expedition, stood +talking to his wife, while their children were trying to climb up +Badshah's legs. The elephant was equipped with a light pad provided with +large pockets into which were thrust Thermos flasks, packets of +sandwiches and of cartridges. Close by two servants were holding guns. + +"Good morning, Wargrave," said the Colonel, as the subaltern greeted him +and his wife. "You're in good time." + +Eileen, deserting Badshah, ran to Frank and demanded to be lifted up and +kissed. When he had obeyed the small tyrant, he said: + +"I haven't brought a rifle, sir." + +"That's right. I have one and a ball-and-shot gun for you. We'll walk +down to the _peelkhana_ by a short cut through the hills to look for +_kalej_ pheasant on the way. Take the gun with you and load one barrel +with shot; but put a bullet in the other, for you never know what we may +meet. Badshah will go down by the road, as well as one of the servants +to bring the rifles and tell the _mahouts_ to get a detachment elephant +ready. It will follow us in the jungle to carry any animals we kill, +while we'll ride Badshah." + +Kissing his wife and children the Colonel led the way down the road, +followed by Frank and the servant, Badshah walking unattended behind +them. + +"Good sport, Mr. Wargrave!" called out Mrs. Dermot, as the subaltern +turned at the gate to take off his hat in a farewell salute; and the +little coquette beside her kissed her tiny hand to him. + +After they had gone half a mile the two officers, carrying their +fowling-pieces, turned off along a footpath through the undergrowth, +leaving the servant and the elephant to continue down the road. The +track led steeply down the mountain-side, at first between high, +closely-matted bushes, and then through scrub-jungle dotted with small +trees, among the foliage of which gleamed the yellow fruit of the limes +and the plantain's glossy drooping leaves and long curving stalks from +which the nimble fingers of wild monkeys had plucked the ripe bananas. +Here and there the ground was open; and the path following a natural +depression in the hills gave down the gradually widening valley a view +of the panorama of forest and plain lying below. + +As they passed a clump of tangled bushes a rustle and a pattering over +the dry leaves under them caught the Colonel's ear. + +"Look out! _Kalej_," he whispered, picking up a stone and throwing it +into the cover. A large speckled black and white bird whirred out; and +Wargrave brought it down. + +"Good shot! There's another," called out Dermot, and fired with equal +success. "We're lucky," he continued. "As a rule they won't break, but +scuttle along under the bushes, so that one often has to shoot them +running." + +Frank picked up the birds and examined them with interest before the +Colonel stuffed them into his game bag and moved on down the path, which +was growing steeper. The trees became more numerous and larger as they +descended nearer the forest. Out of another clump of bushes the +sportsmen succeeded in getting a second brace of pheasants. Lower down +they passed through a belt of bamboos, where in one spot the long +feathery boughs were broken off or twisted in wild confusion for a space +of fifty yards' radius. + +"Wild elephants," said the Political Officer briefly and pointed to a +patch of dust in which was the round imprint of a huge foot. + +Frank was a little startled; for he felt that against these great +animals the bullets in their guns would be useless. + +"Are they dangerous, sir?" he asked. + +"Not as a rule when they are in a herd, although cow-elephants with +calves may be so, fearing peril for their young. But sometimes a bull +takes to a solitary life, becomes vicious and develops into a dangerous +rogue. It probably happens that, finding crops growing near a jungle +village and raiding them, he is driven off by the cultivators, turns +savage and kills some of them. Then he usually seems to take a hatred to +all human beings and attacks them on sight. Hallo! here we are at the +_peelkhana_ at last." + +They had reached the high wooden building which housed the three +transport elephants of the detachment. In the clearing before it Badshah +and another animal were standing, a group of _mahouts_ and coolies near +them. + +"We'll mount and start at once," said Colonel Dermot, beckoning to his +elephant, which came to him. "Get up, Wargrave." + +The subaltern looked up doubtfully at the pad on Badshah's back. + +"How can I, sir? Isn't he going to kneel?" he asked. + +"Put your foot on his trunk when he crooks it and grab hold of his ears. +He'll lift you up then." + +The understanding elephant at once curled its trunk invitingly and +cocked its great ears forward. Frank did as he was directed and found +himself raised in the air until he was able to get on to the elephant's +head and from it scrambled on to the pad. Dermot followed and seated +himself astride the huge neck. + +"_Mul_! (Go on!)" he ejaculated. + +With a swaying, lurching stride Badshah at once moved across the +clearing, followed by the transport elephant, on to which a _mahout_ and +a coolie had climbed, and plunged into the dense undergrowth which was +so high that it nearly closed over the riders' heads. The sudden change +from the blinding glare of the sun to the enchanting green gloom of the +forest, from the intense heat to the refreshing coolness of the shade, +was delightful. + +Beyond the clearing the vegetation was tangled and rank, high grass +concealing thorny shrubs, tall matted bushes covered with large, white, +bell-shaped flowers, all so dense that men on foot could not push their +way through. But it divided like water before the leading elephant's +weight and strength. The trees were now not the lesser growths of +bamboo, lime and sago-palm that covered the foot-hills. They were the +great forest giants, enormous teak, _sal_ and _simal_ trees, towering up +bare of branches for a good height above the ground, rising to the green +canopy overhead and thrusting their leafy crowns through it, seeking +their share of the sunlight. Their massive branches were matted thick +with the glossy green leaves of orchid-plants and draped with long +trails of the beautiful mauve and white blossoms of the exotic flowers. +Hanging from the highest branches or swinging between the massive boles +creepers of every kind rioted in bewildering confusion, a chaos of +natural cordage, of festooned _lianas_ thick as a liner's hawser, some +twisting around each other, others coiling about the tree-trunks, biting +deep into the bark or striving to strangle them in a cruel grip. Not +even the elephants' weight and strength could burst through the stout +network of these creepers in places. While they tore at the obstructions +with their trunks it was necessary for their drivers to hack through the +creepers with their sharp _kukris_--the heavy curved knives carried in +their belts and similar to the Gurkha's favourite weapon. + +Here and there the party came upon glades free from undergrowth, where +in the cool shade of the great trees the ground was knee-deep in +bracken. In one such spot Wargrave's eye was caught by a flash of bright +colour, and his rifle went half-way to his shoulder, only to be lowered +again when he saw two _sambhur_ hinds, graceful animals with glossy +chestnut hides, watching the advancing elephants curiously but without +fear. For, used to seeing wild ones, they did not realise that Badshah +and his companion carried human beings. Their sex saved them from the +hunters who, leaving them unscathed, passed on and plunged into the +dense undergrowth on the far side of the clearing. + +The elephants fed continually as they moved along. Sweeping up great +bunches of grass, tearing down trails of leafy creepers, breaking off +branches from the trees, they crammed them all impartially into their +mouths. Picking up twigs in their trunks they used them to beat their +sides and legs to drive off stinging insects or, snuffing up dust from +the ground, blew clouds of it along their bellies for the same purpose. + +Suddenly the Colonel stopped Badshah and whispered: + +"There's a _sambhur_ stag, Wargrave. There, to your left in the +undergrowth. Have a shot at him." + +The subaltern looked everywhere eagerly, but in the dense tangle could +not discern the animal. Like all novices in the jungle he directed his +gaze too far away; and suddenly a dark patch of deep shadow in the +undergrowth close by materialised itself into the black hide of a stag +only as it dashed off. It had been standing within fifteen paces of the +elephants, knowing the value of immobility as a shield. At last its +nerve failed it; and it revealed itself by breaking away. But as it fled +Colonel Dermot's rifle spoke; and the big deer crumpled up and fell +crashing through the vegetation to the ground. The second elephant's +_mahout_, a grey-bearded Mahommedan, slipped instantly to the earth and, +drawing his _kukri_, struggled through the arresting creepers and +undergrowth to where the stag lay feebly moving its limbs. Seizing one +horn he performed the _hallal_, that is, he cut its throat to let blood +while there was still life in the animal, muttering the short Mussulman +creed as he did so. For his religion enjoins this hygienic +practice--borrowed by the Prophet from the Mosaic law--to guard against +long-dead carrion being eaten. At the touch of the Colonel's hand +Badshah sank to its knees; and Wargrave, very annoyed with himself for +his slowness in detecting the deer, forced his way through the +undergrowth to examine it. The stag was a fine beast fourteen hands +high, with sharp brow antlers and a pair of thick, stunted horns +branching at the ends into two points. + +Leaving the elephants to graze freely the _mahout_ and his coolie +disembowelled the _sambhur_ and hacked off the head with their heavy +_kukris_. Aided by the Political Officer and Wargrave they skinned the +animal and then with the skill of professional butchers proceeded to cut +up the carcase into huge joints. While they were thus engaged the +Colonel went to a small, straight-stemmed tree common in the jungle and, +clearing away a patch of the outer mottled bark, disclosed a white inner +skin, which he cut off in long strips. With these, which formed +unbreakable cordage, they fastened the heavy joints to the pad of the +transport elephant. + +When this was done Wargrave, looking at his hands covered with blood and +grime, said ruefully: + +"How on earth are we to get clean, sir? Is there any water in the +jungle? We haven't seen any." + +The Political Officer, looking about him, pointed to a thick creeper +with withered-seeming bark and said with a laugh: + +"There's your water, Wargrave. Lots of it on tap. See here." + +He cut off a length of the _liana_, which contained a whitish, pulpy +interior. From the two ends of the piece water began to drip steadily +and increased to a thin stream. + +"By George, sir, that's a plant worth knowing," said Frank. + +"It's a most useful jungle product," said the Colonel, holding it up so +that his companion, using clay as soap, could wash his hands. "It's +called the _pani bel_--water-creeper. One need never die of thirst in a +forest where it is found. Try the water in it." + +He raised it so that the clear liquid flowed into the subaltern's mouth. +It was cool, palatable and tasteless. + +"By George, sir, that's good," exclaimed Wargrave, examining the plant +carefully. "Now let me hold it for you." + +After Dermot and the two natives had cleansed their hands and arms the +party moved on, the transport elephant looking like an itinerant +butcher's shop as it followed Badshah. Again the undergrowth parted +before the great animals like the sea cleft by the bows of a ship and +closed similarly behind them when they had passed. Of its own volition +the leader swerved one side or the other when it was necessary to avoid +a tree-trunk or too dense a tangle of obstructing creepers. But once +Dermont touched and turned it sharply out of its course to escape what +seemed a very large lump of clay adhering to the under side of an +overhanging bough in their path. + +"A wild bees' nest," said the Colonel, pointing to it. "It wouldn't do +to risk hitting against that and being stung to death by its occupants." + +A few minutes later he suddenly arrested Badshah at the edge of a +fern-carpeted glade and whispered: + +"Look out! There's a barking-deer. Get him!" + +Across the glade a graceful little buck with a bright chestnut coat +stepped daintily, followed at a respectful distance by his doe. Their +restless ears pointed incessantly this way and that for every warning +sound as they moved; but neither saw the elephants hidden in the +undergrowth. Raising his rifle Frank took a quick aim at the buck's +shoulder and fired. The deer pitched forward and fell dead, while its +startled mate swung round and leapt wildly away. + +"A good shot of yours, Wargrave," remarked Colonel Dermot, when Badshah +had advanced to the prostrate animal. "Broke its shoulder and pierced +the heart." + +Frank looked down pityingly at the pretty little deer stretched lifeless +among the ferns. + +"It seems a shame to slaughter a harmless thing like that," he said. + +"Yes; I always feel the same myself and never kill except for food," +replied the Political Officer. "Unless of course it's a dangerous beast +like a tiger. Well, the _khakur_ is too dead to _hallal_; but that +doesn't matter, as we're going to eat it ourselves and not give it to +the sepoys." + +The _mahout_ and the coolie were already cleaning the deer and, without +troubling to cut it up, bound its legs together with _udal_ fibre and +tied it to the pad of their elephant; and the party moved on again. + +Half a mile further on the silence of the forest was broken by the loud +crowing of a cock, taken up and answered defiantly by others. + +"Hallo! are we near a village, sir?" asked Wargrave, surprised at the +familiar sounds so far in the heart of the wild. + +"No; those are jungle-fowl," whispered the Political Officer. "Get your +gun ready." + +He halted the elephant and picked up his fowling-piece. Frank hurriedly +substituted a shot cartridge for the one loaded with ball in his gun. He +heard a pattering on the dry leaves under the trees and into a fairly +open space before them stalked a pretty little bantam cock with red comb +and wattles and curving green tail-feathers, followed by four or five +sober brown hens, so like in every respect to domestic fowl that +Wargrave hesitated to shoot. But suddenly the birds whirred up into the +air; and, as the Colonel gave them both barrels, Frank did the same. The +cock and three of his wives dropped. The _mahout_ urged his elephant +forward and made the reluctant animal pick up the crumpled bunches of +blood-stained feathers in its curving trunk and pass them to him. + +Colonel Dermont searched the jungle for some distance around but could +not find the other jungle-cocks that had answered the dead one's +challenge. Looking at his watch he suggested a halt for lunch, which +Wargrave, whose back was beginning to ache with fatigue, gladly agreed +to. Dismounting, they sat on the ground and ate and drank the contents +of the pockets of Badshah's pad, but with loaded rifles beside them lest +their meal should be disturbed by any dangerous denizen of the jungle. +The two natives sat down some distance away and, turning their backs on +each other, drew out cloths in which their midday repast of _chupatis_, +or thick pancakes, with curry and an onion or two was tied up. The +elephants left to themselves grazed close by and did not attempt to +wander away. + +Their meal and a smoke finished the party mounted again and moved on. +But luck seemed to have deserted them. Much to the Political Officer's +disappointment they wandered for miles without adding anything to the +bag. He had calculated on getting another couple of _sambhur_ stags to +present to the _Deb Zimpun_ as food for his hungry followers. The route +that they were now taking led circuitously back towards the _peelkhana_, +which they wished to reach before sundown. They had got within a mile of +it and were close to the foot of the hills when Badshah stopped suddenly +and smelt the ground. Colonel Dermot leaned over the huge head and +stared down intently at something invisible to his young companion. + +"What is it, sir?" asked Wargrave in a whisper. + +"Bison. Badshah's pointing for us. We can't shoot them here, for we're +in Government jungle where the killing of elephants, bison and rhino is +forbidden unless they attack you. But the track leads north towards the +mountains and at their foot the Government Forest ends. That's only half +a mile away and we can bag them there. Load your rifle with solid-nosed +bullets. This is the _pug_ (footprint) of a bull, I think." + +The two natives had seen the tracks by this and were wildly excited. +Badshah without urging moved swiftly through the trees and soon brought +his riders to the hills and into sight of the sky once more. The +mountains stood out clear and distinct in the slanting rays of the +setting sun. Suddenly a loud though distant, almost musical bellow +sounded, seeming to come from a bamboo jungle about a mile away. + +"That's a cow-bison calling," said Dermot in a low voice. "There's a +herd somewhere about; but the '_pugs_' we're following up are those of a +solitary bull. We're in free forest now; so with luck you may get your +first bison. It's very steep here; we'll dismount, leave the elephants +and go on foot." + +The subaltern was wildly excited, and his heart thumped at a rate that +was not caused by the steep slope up which he followed Dermot. The +Colonel tracked the bull unhesitatingly, although to Wargrave there was +no mark to be seen on the ground. + +They were creeping cautiously through bamboo cover on a hill when +Dermot, who was leading, suddenly threw himself on his face, lay still +for a minute or two, then, motioning to his companion to halt, crawled +forward like a snake. A few paces on he stopped and beckoned to +Wargrave, and, when the latter reached him, pointed down into the gully +below. They were almost on the edge of a descent precipitous enough to +be called a cliff. Immediately underneath by a small stream was a +massive black bull-bison, eighteen hands--six feet--high, with short, +square, head, broad ears and horizontal rounded horns. The only touches +of colour were on the forehead and the legs below the knees, which were +whitish. The animal, with head thrown back, was staring vacantly with +its large, slatey-blue eyes. + +Wargrave trembled with excitement and his heart beat so violently that +the rifle shook as he brought it to his shoulder and gently pushed the +muzzle through the stiff, dry grass at the edge of the cliff. But for +the one necessary instant he became rigidly steady and without a tremor +pressed the trigger. Then the rifle barrels danced again before his +eyes, when he saw the great bull collapse on the ground, its fore-legs +twitching violently, the hind ones motionless. + +"Good shot. You've broken his spine," exclaimed Dermot, springing to his +feet and sliding, scrambling, jumping down the steep descent. The +excited subaltern outstripped him; but before he reached the bull it +lay motionless, dead. + +"You're a lucky young man, Wargrave. A splendid bison on your first day +in the jungle. Those horns are six feet from tip to tip I bet," and the +Political Officer held out his hand. + +Frank shook it heartily as he said gratefully: + +"I've only you to thank for it, sir. It was ripping of you to let me +have first shot; and you gave me such a sitter that I couldn't miss. +Thank you awfully, Colonel." + +Dermot gave a piercing whistle and stood waiting, while the overjoyed +subaltern walked round and round the dead bison, marvelling at its size +and exclaiming at his own good fortune. + +When in a few minutes Badshah appeared, followed by the panting men, +Colonel Dermot sent the _mahout_ on his elephant to the stable to fetch +other men to cut up and bring in the bison. Then he and Wargrave on +Badshah made for the road to Ranga Duar. + +It was dark long before they reached the little station. The Colonel +brought his companion in for a drink after the three thousand feet +climb, most of which they had done on foot. Mrs. Dermot met them in the +hall; and, after she had heard the result of the day's sport, warmly +congratulated Wargrave on his good luck. Loud whispers and a scuffle +over their heads attracted the attention of all three elders, and on +the broad wooden staircase they saw two small figures, one in pyjamas, +the other in a pretty, trailing nightdress daintily tied with blue bows, +looking imploringly down at their mother. She smiled and nodded. There +was a whirlwind rush down the stairs, and the mites were caught up in +their father's arms. Then Frank came in for his share of caresses from +them before they were sternly ordered back to bed again. And as he +passed out into the darkness he carried away with him an enchanting +picture of the charming babes climbing the stairs hand in hand and +turning to blow kisses to the tall man who stood below with a strong arm +around his pretty wife, gazing fondly up at his children. + +And the picture stayed with him when, after dinner at which he was +congratulated by his brother officers, he went to his room and found a +letter overlooked in his rush to dress for Mess. It was from Violet, the +first that had come from her since his arrival in Ranga Duar. It +breathed passion and longing, discontent and despair, in every line. As +he laid his face on his arm to shut out the light where he sat at the +table he felt that he was nearer to loving the absent woman than he had +ever been. For the vision of the Dermots' married happiness, of the deep +affection linking husband and wife, of the children climbing the stair +and smiling back at their parents, came vividly to him. And it haunted +him in his sleep when in dreams tiny arms were clasped around his neck +and baby lips touched his lovingly. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +A GIRL OF THE FOREST + + +From the frontier of Bhutan, six thousand feet up on the face of the +mountains, a line of men wound down the serpentining track that led to +Ranga Duar. At their head walked a stockily-built man with cheery +Mongolian features, wearing a white cloth garment, _kimono_-shaped and +kilted up to give freedom to the sturdy bare thighs and knees--the legs +and feet cased in long, felt-soled boots. It was the _Deb Zimpun_, the +Envoy of the independent Border State of Bhutan. Behind him came a tall +man in khaki tunic, breeches, puttees and cap, his breast covered with +bright-coloured ribbons. His uniform was similar to the British; but his +face was unmistakeably Chinese, as were those of the twenty tall, +khaki-clad soldiers armed with magazine rifles at his heels. They were +followed by three or four score Bhutanese swordsmen, thick-set and not +unlike Gurkhas in feature, with bare heads, legs and feet, and clad only +in a single garment similar to their leader's and kilted up by a cord +around the waist, from which hung a _dah_, a short sword or long knife. +In rear of them trudged a number of coolies, some laden with bundles, +others with baskets of fruit. + +Where the track came out on the bare shoulder of a spur free from the +small trees and undergrowth clothing the mountains the _Deb Zimpun_ +pointed to the roofs of the buildings in the little station a thousand +feet below them and hitherto invisible to them. + +"That is Ranga Duar," he said briefly. The Chinaman behind him looked +down at it. + +"It seems a very small and weak place to have stopped our invading +troops in the war," he said in Bhutanese. "So here lives the Man." + +"The Man? Yes, perhaps he is a man. But many, very many, there be that +think him a god or devil. They say he can call up a horde of demons in +the form of elephants. With such he trampled your army into the earth. + +"Devils? Leave such tales to lamas and the ignorant fools that believe +their teaching. But if even a part of what I have heard about this man +be true he is more dangerous than many devils. He stands in China's way, +and he who does shall be swept aside." + +"He is my friend," said the _Deb Zimpun_ shortly, and tramped on in +silence. + +Before they reached the station they were met by two of the Political +Officer's men, Bhuttias resident in British territory, detailed to +receive and guide them to the Government Dâk Bungalow in which the _Deb +Zimpun_ and as many of his followers as could crowd into it were to +reside during their stay. Arrived at it the long line filed into the +compound. + +Half a mile away down the hill Colonel Dermot and Wargrave watched them +through their field-glasses. + +"Who is that fellow in khaki uniform, sir?" asked the subaltern. + +The Political Officer lowered his binoculars and laughed. + +"A gentlemen I've been very anxious to meet. He's the Chinese +_Amban_--we call him an Envoy of the Republic of China to Bhutan. But +the Chinese themselves prefer to regard him as a representative of the +suzerainty they pretend to exercise over the country. I'm curious to see +him. He is a product of the times, an example of the modern Celestial, +educated at Heidelberg University and Oxford, speaking German, French +and English. He has been specially chosen by his Government to come to a +Buddhist land, as he is a son of the abbot of the Yellow Lama Temple in +Pekin and so might have influence with the Bhutanese by reason of his +connection with their religion." + +"But what have the Chinese to do with Bhutan?" + +"Nothing now. But they've been intriguing for years to re-establish the +suzerainty they once had over it. This _Amban_, Yuan Shi Hung by name, +is a clever, unscrupulous and particularly dangerous individual." + +"You seem to know a lot about him, Colonel." + +"It's my business to do so. There is no apparent reason for his coming +here with the _Deb Zimpun_, nor has he a right to. But I won't object, +for I want to study and size him up. By the way, the Envoy will make his +official call on me this morning. Would you like to be present?" + +"Very much indeed. I'm always interested in seeing the various races of +India and learning all I can about them. I'd love a job like yours, sir, +going into out-of-the-way places and dealing with strange peoples." + +"Would you?" The Political Officer looked at him thoughtfully. "Are you +good at picking up native languages?" + +"Fairly so. I got through my Lower and Higher Standard Hindustani first +go and have passed in Marathi and taken the Higher Standard, Persian." + +Colonel Dermot regarded him critically and then said abruptly: + +"Come to my office a few minutes before eleven. That's the hour I've +fixed for the _Deb Zimpun's_ visit." + +Punctually at the time named Wargrave reached the Dermots' bungalow, on +the road outside which, a Guard of Honour of fifty sepoys under an +Indian officer was drawn up. Passing along the verandah he entered the +office and saluted the Colonel who, seated at his desk, looked up and +nodded for him to be seated and then returned to the despatch that he +was writing. + +In a few minutes a confused murmur drew nearer down the road and was +stilled by the sharp words of command to the Guard of Honour and by the +ring of rifles brought to the present in salute. Over the low wall of +the garden appeared the heads and shoulders of the Envoy and his Chinese +companion, followed by a train of attendants and swordsmen. They passed +in through the gate. The Political Officer rose as the _Deb Zimpun_, +removing his cap, entered the office and rushed towards him. The +bullet-headed, cheery old gentleman beamed with pleasure as they shook +hands and greeted each other in Bhutanese. Wargrave marvelled at the +ease and fluency with which Colonel Dermot spoke the language. The +_Amban_ now entered the room and was formally presented by the _Deb +Zimpun_. + +Speaking in excellent English but with an accent that showed that he had +first acquired it in Germany, he said: + +"I am very pleased to meet you, Colonel. I have heard much of you in +Bhutan." + +"It gives me equal pleasure to make Your Excellency's acquaintance and +to welcome you to India," replied Dermot with a bow. + +Then in his turn Wargrave was presented to the two Asiatics, and the +Envoy, calling an attendant in, took from him two white scarves of +Chinese silk and placed one round each officer's neck in the custom +known as "_khattag_". All sat down and the Envoy plunged into an +animated conversation with Colonel Dermot, first producing a metal box +and taking betel-nut from it to chew, while the attendant placed a +spittoon conveniently near him. + +Yuan Shi Hung chatted in English with Wargrave, who was astonished to +find him a well-educated man of the world and thoroughly conversant with +European politics, art and letters. But for the inscrutable yellow face +the subaltern could have believed himself to be talking to an able +Continental diplomat. The contrast between the semi-savage Bhutanese +official and his companion, in whom the most modern civilised +gentleman's manners were successfully grafted on the old-time courtesy +of the Chinese aristocrat, was very striking. The old Envoy was a frank +barbarian. He laughed loudly and clapped his hands in glee when Colonel +Dermot presented him with a gramophone--which, it appeared, he had +longed for ever since seeing one on a previous visit to India--and +taught him how to work it. He showed his betel-stained teeth in an +ecstatic grin when a record was turned on and from the trumpet came the +Political Officer's familiar voice addressing him by name and in his own +language with many flourishes of Oriental compliment. + +Towards the termination of their call the _Deb Zimpun_ called in two +attendants with large baskets of fine blood oranges and walnuts from +Bhutan and presented them in return. A number of coolies were needed to +carry off the royal gift of the flesh of the bison, the sight of which +made the Envoy's eyes glisten. He shook Wargrave's hand warmly when he +learned to whose rifle he owed it. Then he and his Chinese companion +took their leave, and with their followers passed up the hilly road. +Wargrave, gazing after them, came to the conclusion that of the pair he +preferred the savage to the ultra-cultivated Celestial. + +Having thanked the Colonel for permitting him to be present at the +interview, which had interested him greatly, the subaltern was about to +leave when Mrs. Dermot appeared at the office door. + +"May I come in, Kevin?" she began. "Oh, good morning, Mr. Wargrave. I +was just sending a _chit_ (letter) to you and Captain Burke asking you +to tea this afternoon. A coolie has arrived from the _peelkhana_ to say +that Mr. and Miss Benson and Mr. Carter are on their way up and will be +here soon. So you'll meet them at tea. You will like Miss Benson. She's +a dear girl." + +"Thanks very much, Mrs. Dermot. I'll be delighted to come, if you'll +forgive me should I be a little late. I've got to take the signallers' +parade this afternoon. I'll tell Burke when I get to the Mess. I'm going +straight there now." + +"Thank you. That will save me writing. _Au revoir_." + +Half-way up the road to the Mess Wargrave looked back and saw an +elephant heave into sight around a bend below the Dermots' house and +plod heavily up to their gate. On the _charjama_--the passenger-carrying +contrivance of wooden seats on the pad with footboards hanging by short +ropes--sat a lady and two European men holding white umbrellas up to +keep off the vertical rays of the noonday sun. When the animal sank to +its knees in front of the bungalow Wargrave saw the girl--it could only +be Miss Benson--spring lightly to the ground before either of her +companions could dismount and offer to help her. Her big sunhat hid her +face, and at that distance Wargrave could only see that she was small +and slight, as she walked up the garden path. + +When the signallers' afternoon practice was over the subaltern passed +across the parade ground to the Political Officer's house. When he +entered the pretty drawing-room, bright with the gay colours of chintz +curtains and cushions, he found the strangers present, one man talking +to Mrs. Dermot at her tea-table, the other chatting with the Colonel, +while Burke was installed beside a girl seated in a low cane chair and +dressed in a smart, hand-embroidered Tussore silk dress, _suede_ shoes +and silk stockings. Little Brian stood beside her with one arm +affectionately round her neck, while Eileen was perched in her lap. But +when Frank appeared the mite wriggled down to the floor and rushed to +him. + +The subaltern was presented to Miss Benson, her father and Carter, the +Sub-Divisional Officer or Civil Service official of the district. When +he sat down Eileen clambered on to his knee and seriously interfered +with his peaceful enjoyment of his tea; but while he talked to her he +was watching Miss Benson over the small golden head. She was +astonishingly pretty, with silky black hair curving in natural waves, +dark-bordered Irish grey eyes fringed with long, thick lashes, a +rose-tinted complexion, a pouting, red-lipped mouth and a small nose +with the most fascinating, provoking suspicion of a tip-tilt. She was as +small and daintily-fashioned as her hostess; and Wargrave thought it +marvellous that their forgotten outpost on the face of the mountains +should hold two such pretty women at the same time. His comrade Burke +was evidently acutely conscious of Muriel Benson's attractions, and, his +pleasantly ugly face aglow with a happy smile, he was flirting as openly +and outrageously with her as she with him. + +"Sure, it's a cure for sore eyes ye are, Miss Flower Face," he said. +"That's the name I christened her with the first moment I saw her, +Wargrave. Doesn't it fit her?" Then turning to the girl again, he +continued, "Aren't you ashamed av yourself for laving me to pine for a +sight av ye all these weary months?" + +Miss Benson could claim to be Irish on her mother's side and so was a +ready-witted match for the doctor's Celtic exuberance; though to +Wargrave watching it seemed that Burke's easy banter cloaked a deeper +feeling. + +Drawn into their conversation Frank found the girl to be natural and +unaffected, without a trace of conceit, gifted with a keen sense of +humour and evidently as full of the joy of living as a school-boy. He +thought her laugh delightfully musical, and it was frequently and +readily evoked by Burke's droll remarks or the quaint oracular sayings +from the self-possessed elf on Wargrave's knee. Her admiration of and +genuine affection for Mrs. Dermot was very evident when Noreen joined +their group. + +The subaltern, covertly and critically observing her, could hardly +believe the tales which their hostess had previously told him of the +courage and ability that this small and dainty girl had frequently +shown. But only a few minutes' conversation with her father convinced +Frank that he was an amiably weak and incompetent individual, more +fitted to be a recluse and a bookworm than a roamer in wild jungles +where his work brought him in contact with strange peoples and constant +danger. It was evident that the reputation which his large section of +the Terai Forest bore as being well managed and efficiently run was not +due to him and that somebody more capable had the handling of the work. +Hardly had Wargrave come to this conclusion and begun to believe that +the stories that he had heard of the daughter's business ability and +powers of organisation were true when he was given a very convincing +proof of her courage and coolness in danger. + +After tea, as the sun was nearing its setting and a deliciously cool +breeze blew down from the mountains, a move was made to the garden, +where the party sat in a circle and chatted. When evening came and the +dusk rose up from the world below, blotting out the light lingering on +the hills, Mrs. Dermot made her children say goodnight to the company +and bore them reluctant away to their beds. As the darkness deepened the +servants brought out a small table and placed a lamp on it, and by its +light carried round drinks to the men of the party. Miss Benson was +leaning back in a cane chair and chatting lazily with Burke, who sat +beside her. She had one shapely silk-clad leg crossed over the other, +and a small foot resting on the grass. Opposite her sat Colonel Dermot +and Wargrave. As the brilliant tropic stars came out in the velvety +blackness of the sky occasional silences fell on the party. A tale of +Burke's was interrupted by the Political Officer's voice, saying in a +quiet forceful tone: + +"Miss Benson, please do not move your foot. Remain perfectly still. A +snake is passing under your chair. Steady, Burke! Keep still!" + +There was a terror-stricken hush. Frank looked across in horror. The +lamplight barely showed in the shadow under the chair a deadly +hill-viper writhing its way out within a few inches of the small foot +firmly planted in its dainty, high-heeled shoe. He looked at the +motionless girl. Less pale than the men about her she sat quietly, +smiling faintly and apparently not frightened by the Death almost +touching her. One pink hand lay without a tremor in her lap, but the +other rested on the arm of her chair and the knuckles showed white as +the fingers gripped the bamboo tightly. She did not even glance down. +But the men, frozen with dread, watched the shadowy writhing line +passing her foot slowly, all too slowly, until it had wriggled out into +the centre of the circle of motionless beings. Then Colonel Dermot +sprang up. Seizing his light bamboo chair in his powerful grip he +whirled it aloft and brought it crashing down on the viper, shattering +the chair but smashing the reptile's spine in half a dozen places. + +The other men had risen from their seats; but the girl remained seated +and said quietly: + +"Thank you very much, Colonel, for warning me. I might easily have moved +my foot and trodden on the snake. I've seen so many of the horrid things +in camp lately. Now, Captain Burke, I'm sorry that the interruption +spoiled your story. Please go on with it." + +Her coolness silenced the men, who were breaking into exclamations of +relief and congratulation. Even her father sat down again calmly. + +But Burke's enthusiastic admiration of her courage found an outlet at +Mess that night when he recounted the adventure to Major Hunt and +appealed to Wargrave for confirmation of the story of her plucky +behaviour. Later in his room as he was going to bed Frank smiled at the +recollection of the Irishman's exuberant expressions; but he confessed +to himself that the girl's calm courage was worthy of every praise. + +"She is certainly brave," he thought. "I'm not surprised at old Burke's +infatuation. She is decidedly pretty. What lovely eyes she's got--and +what a provokingly attractive little nose! Well, the doctor's a lucky +man if she marries him. She seems awfully nice. Violet will certainly +have two very charming women friends in the station if she hits it off +with them." + +But as his eyes rested on her pictured face his heart misgave him; for +he remembered that she had little liking for her own sex. And then, he +told himself, these two would probably refuse to know a woman who had +run away from her husband to another man. When he had turned out the +light and jumped into bed he lay awake a long time puzzling over the +tangle into which the threads of her life and his seemed to have got. +Time alone could unravel it. + +He tossed uneasily on his bed, unable to sleep, and presently a slight +noise on the verandah outside caught his ear. He lay still and listened; +and it seemed to him that soft footfalls of a large animal's pads +sounded on the wooden flooring. Then suddenly he heard a beast sniffing +at his closed door. "A stray dog," he thought. But suddenly he +remembered Burke's account of the panther that haunted the Mess; and a +thrill of excitement ran through him and drove all his unhappy thoughts +away. He sprang out of bed and rushed across the room to get his rifle, +but in the darkness overturned a chair which fell with a crash to the +ground. This scared the animal; for there was a sudden scurry outside, +and by the time Wargrave had found the rifle and groped for a couple of +cartridges there was nothing to be seen on the verandah when he threw +open the door. It was a brilliant star-lit night. Burke called to him +from his room and when Wargrave went to him said that he too had heard +the animal, which was undoubtedly the panther. + +Returning to bed Frank was dropping off to sleep half an hour later when +he was startled by a shrill, agonised shriek coming from a distance. +Rifle in hand he rushed out on to the verandah again and heard faint +shouts coming from a small group of Bhuttia huts on a shoulder of the +hills hundreds of feet above the Mess. He called out but got no answer; +and after listening for some time and hearing nothing further he +returned to bed and at last fell asleep. In the morning he learned that +the panther had made a daring raid on a hut and carried off a Bhuttia +wood-cutter's baby from its sleeping mother's side, and had devoured it +in the jungle not two hundred yards away. + +The Durbar, or official ceremony of the public reception of the Bhutan +Envoy and the paying over to him of the annual subsidy of a hundred +thousand rupees, was held in a marquee on the parade ground in the +afternoon. There was a Guard of Honour of a hundred sepoys to salute, +first the Political Officer and afterwards the _Deb Zimpun_ when he +arrived on a mule at the head of his swordsmen and coolies. The +solemnity of his dignified greeting to Colonel Dermot was somewhat +spoiled by shrieks of delight and loud remarks from Eileen (who was +seated beside her mother in the marquee) at the stately appearance of +the Envoy. He was attired in a very voluminous red Chinese silk robe +embroidered in gold and wearing a peculiar gold-edged cap shaped like a +papal tiara. + +The Political Officer's official dinner took place that evening at his +bungalow. Besides the officers and the three European visitors the _Deb +Zimpun_ and the _Amban_ were present. The latter wore conventional +evening dress cut by a London tailor, with the stars and ribands of +several orders. But the old Envoy in his flowing red silk robe +completely outshone the two ladies, although Miss Benson was wearing her +most striking frock. + +"Sure, don't we look like a State Banquet at Buckingham Palace or a +charity dinner at the Dublin Mansion House?" said Burke, looking around +the company gathered about the oval dining-table. He was seated beside +Miss Benson, who was on the host's right and facing the _Amban_ on his +left. + +At the Durbar Wargrave had noticed that the Chinaman stared all the time +at the girl, and now during the meal he seemed to devour her with an +unpleasant gaze, gloating over the beauties of her bared shoulders and +bosom until she became uncomfortably conscious of it herself. The +unveiled flesh of a white woman is peculiarly attractive to the Asiatic, +the better-class females of whose race are far less addicted to the +public exposure of their charms than are European ladies. While the _Deb +Zimpun_ touched nothing but water the _Amban_ drank champagne, port and +liqueurs freely--even the untravelled Chinaman is partial to European +liquors--yet they seemed not to affect him. But his slanted eyes burned +all the more fiercely as their gaze was fixed on the girl opposite him. + +He endeavoured to engage her in conversation across the table, and +appeared ready to resent anyone else intervening in the talk as he +dilated on the gaieties and pleasures of life in London, Berlin and +Paris, where he had been attached to the Chinese Embassies. He glared at +Burke when the doctor persisted in mentioning the panther's visit during +the previous night, for the conversation at their end of the table then +turned on sport. A chance remark of Miss Benson on tiger-shooting made +Wargrave ask: + +"Have you shot tigers, too, like Mrs. Dermot? And I've never seen one +outside a cage!" + +The girl smiled, and the Colonel answered for her. + +"Miss Benson has got at least six. Seven, is it? More than my wife has. +And among them was the famous man-eater of Mardhura, which had killed +twenty-three persons. The natives of the district call her 'The Tiger +Girl.'" + +"Troth, my name for you is a prettier one, Miss Benson," said Burke +laughing. + +She made a _moue_ at him, but said to the subaltern: + +"Cheer up, Mr. Wargrave, you've lots of time before you yet. You +oughtn't to complain--you've only been a few days here and you've +already got a splendid bison. And they're rare in these parts." + +"We'll have to find him a tiger, Muriel," said their host. "When you +hear of a kill anywhere conveniently near, let me know and we'll arrange +a beat for him." + +"With pleasure, Colonel. We're soon going to the southern fringe of the +forest; and, as you know, there are usually tigers to be found in the +_nullahs_ on the borders of the cultivated country. I'll send you +_khubber_ (news)." + +"Thank you very much," said Wargrave. "I do want to get one." + +All through the conversation the girl felt the Chinaman's bold eyes +seeming to burn her flesh, and she was glad when the Political Officer +spoke to him and engaged his attention. And she was still more relieved +when dinner ended and Mrs. Dermot rose to leave the table. When the men +joined them later on the verandah Burke and Wargrave made a point of +hemming her in on both sides and keeping the _Amban_ off; for even the +short-sighted doctor had become cognisant of the Chinaman's offensive +stare. + +When he and the _Deb Zimpun_ had left the bungalow she said to the two +officers: + +"I'm so glad you didn't let that awful man come near me. He makes me +afraid. There's something so evil about him that I shudder when he looks +at me." + +"The curse av the crows on the brute!" exclaimed Burke hotly. "Don't ye +be afraid. We won't let the divil come next or nigh ye, will we, +Wargrave?" + +And on the following day when the visitors were entertained by athletic +sports of the detachment on the parade ground and an interesting archery +competition between excited teams of the _Deb Zimpun's_ followers and +of local Bhuttias, they allowed the _Amban_ no opportunity of +approaching her. During the sports Wargrave noticed on one occasion that +he seemed to be speaking of her to the commander of his escort of +Chinese soldiers, a tall, evil-faced Manchu, pock-marked and blind of +the right eye, who stared at her fixedly for some time. At the dinner at +the Mess that night the two ladies wore frocks that were very little +_décolleté_. Burke, as Mess President, had arranged the table so that +the _Amban_ was as far away from them as possible; and Wargrave and he +mounted guard over Miss Benson when the meal was ended. + +The _Deb Zimpun_ had fixed his departure for an early hour on the +following morning and was to be accompanied by the Political Officer, +who was going to visit the Maharajah of Bhutan. In the course of the day +the Chinese _Amban_ had announced to Colonel Dermot that he did not wish +to leave so soon and desired to remain longer in Ranga Duar; but the +Political Officer courteously but very firmly told him that he must go +with the Envoy. + +Early next morning, while Noreen Dermot was occupied with her children, +and her husband was completing his preparations for departure, Muriel +Benson went out into the garden. Badshah, pad strapped on ready for the +road, was standing at one side of the bungalow swinging his trunk and +shifting from foot to foot as he patiently awaited his master. The girl +greeted and petted him, then went to gather flowers and cut bunches of +bright-coloured leaves from high bushes of bougainvillea and poinsettia +that hid her from view from the house. + +Suddenly a harsh voice sounded in her ears. + +"I have tried to speak to you alone, but those fools were ever in my +way. Do not cry out. You must listen to me." + +She started violently and turned to find the _Amban_, dressed in khaki +and ready to march, behind her. Courageous as she usually was the +extraordinary repulsion and terror with which he inspired her kept her +silent as he continued: + +"I want you, and I shall take you sooner or later. Listen! I am one of +the richest men in all China. One day I shall be President--and then +Emperor the next; and when I rule my country shall no longer be the +effete, despised land torn with dissension that it is now. I can give +you everything that the heart of a woman, white or yellow, can +desire--take you from your dull, poverty-stricken life to raise you to +power and immense wealth. I shall return for you one day. Will you come +to me?" + +The girl drew back, pale as death and unable to cry out. He glanced +around. The tall, red-leaved bushes hid them; there was no one or +nothing within sight, except the elephant shifting restlessly. + +"Answer me!" he said almost menacingly. + +She was silent. He sprang forward and seized her roughly. + +"Speak! You must answer," he said. + +The girl shrank at his touch and struggled in vain in his powerful +grasp. + +Then suddenly she cried out: + +"Badshah!" + +The Chinaman thrust his face, inflamed with passion and desire, close to +hers. + +"You must, you shall, come to me--by force, if not willingly," he +growled. "By all the gods or devils----." + +But at that instant he was plucked from her by a resistless force and +hurled violently to the ground. Dazed and half-stunned he looked up and +saw the elephant standing over him with one colossal foot poised over +his prostrate body, ready to crush him to pulp. Brave as the Chinaman +was he trembled with terror at the imminent, awful death. + +But a quiet voice sounded clear through the garden. + +"_Jané do_! (Let him go!)" + +The elephant brought the threatening foot to the ground but stood, with +curled trunk and ears cocked forward, ready to annihilate him if the +invisible speaker gave the word. The girl shrank against the great +animal, clinging to it and looking with horror at the prostrate man. The +_Amban_ slowly dragged his bruised body from the ground and staggered +shaken and dizzy out of the garden. + +Muriel kissed the soft trunk and laid her cheek against it, and it +curved to touch her hair with a gentle caress. Then she fled into the +bungalow to find Colonel Dermot on the verandah grimly watching the +Chinaman stumbling blindly up the steep road. His wife beside him opened +her arms to the shaken girl. + +"He shall pay for that some day, Muriel," said the Political Officer +sternly. "But not yet." + +An hour later the two women watched the snaking line crawl up the steep +face of the mountains, and through field-glasses they could distinguish +Badshah with his master on his neck, the _Deb Zimpun_ and his followers +and the tall form of the Chinaman, until all vanished from sight in the +trees clothing the upper hills. + +Benson and Carter left that afternoon, Muriel remaining to spend a +longer time with her friend and, as she told Wargrave, to try and regain +the affections of the children which he had stolen from her. + +Frank was thinking of her next day as he was standing on the Mess +verandah after tea, cleaning his fowling-piece, when on a wooded spur +running down from the mountains and sheltering the little station on the +west he heard a jungle-cock crowing in the undergrowth not four hundred +yards away. Seizing a handful of cartridges he loaded his gun and, +running down the steps and across the garden, plunged into the jungle. +He walked cautiously, his rope-soled boots enabling him to move +silently, and stopped occasionally to listen for the bird's crow or the +telltale pattering over the dried leaves. Peering into the undergrowth +and searching the ground he crept quietly forward. Suddenly his heart +seemed to leap to his throat. In a patch of dust he saw the unmistakable +_pug_ (footprint) of a large panther. One claw had indented a new-fallen +leaf, showing that the animal had very recently passed. Wargrave halted +and thought hard. He had only his shotgun, but the sun was near its +setting and if he returned to the Mess to get his rifle--which was taken +to pieces and locked up in its case--darkness would probably fall before +he could overtake the panther, which was possibly moving on ahead of +him. So he resolved not to turn back, but opened the breech of his gun +and extracted the cartridges. With his knife he cut their thick cases +almost through all round at the wad, dividing the powder from the shot. +For he knew that thus treated and fired the whole upper portion of the +cartridges would be shot out of the barrels like solid bullets and carry +forty yards without breaking up and scattering the shot. + +Reloading he advanced cautiously, frequently losing and refinding the +trail. Creeping through a clump of thin bushes he stopped suddenly, +frozen with horror and dread. + +In an open patch of woodland the two Dermot children stood by a tree, +the girl huddled against the trunk, while the little boy had placed +himself in front of her and, with a small stick in his hand, was bravely +facing in her defence an animal crouching on the ground not twenty yards +away. It was a large panther. Belly to earth, tail lashing from side to +side, it was crawling slowly, imperceptibly nearer its prey. With ears +flattened against the skull and lips drawn back to bare the gleaming +fangs in a devilish grin it snarled at the brave child whose dauntless +attitude doubtless puzzled it. + +"Don't cry, Eileen. I won't let it hurt you," said the little boy +encouragingly. "Go 'way, nasty dog!" + +He raised his little stick above his head. A boy should always protect a +girl, his father had often said, so he was not going to let the beast +harm his tiny sister. The panther crouched lower. The watcher in the +bushes saw the powerful limbs gathering under the spotted body for the +fatal spring. Every muscle and sinew was tense for the last rush and +leap, as the subaltern raised his gun. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +TIGER LAND + + +Wargrave fired. His shot struck the panther rather far back, wounding +but not disabling it. It swung round to face its assailant. Seeing Frank +it promptly charged. The second cartridge took it in front of the +shoulder and raked its body from end to end. Coughing blood the beast +rolled over and over, biting its paws, clawing savagely at the earth, +trying to rise and falling back in fury, while Frank rapidly reloaded +and stepped between it and the children. But the convulsions became +fewer and less violent, the limbs stiffened, the beautiful black and +yellow body sank inert to the ground. The tail twitched a little. A few +tremors shook the panther. Then it lay still. + +The subaltern turned eagerly to the children. + +"It's Frank. Look, Eileen, it's Frank," cried Brian. "He's killed the +nasty dog." + +The little girl, who had sunk to the ground, struggled to her feet and +with her brother was swept up in a joyous embrace by the subaltern. +Then, bidding the boy hold on to the sleeve of the arm carrying the gun, +Wargrave started back with Eileen perched on his shoulder. As they +passed the panther's body she looked down at it and clapped her hands. + +"He's deaded. Nasty, bad dog!" she cried. + +Striking a path through the undergrowth the subaltern climbed down the +steep ravine that lay between the hill and the Political Officer's +bungalow. As he struggled up the steep side of the _nullah_ he heard +their mother calling the children with a note of inquietude in her +voice; and he answered her with a reassuring shout. Coming up on the +level behind the low stone wall of the garden he found Mrs. Dermot and +Muriel anxiously awaiting him. + +"Mumsie! Hallo, Mumsie! Here's me. Fwank shooted bad dog," cried Eileen, +waving her arms and kicking her bearer violently in her excitement. + +"Yes, Mumsie, Frank killded the nasty dog that wanted to eat us," added +Brian. + +Wargrave passed the children over the wall into the anxious arms +outstretched for them, then vaulted into the garden. + +"What has happened, Mr. Wargrave?" asked Mrs. Dermot, pressing her +children to her nervously. "What is this about your shooting a dog?" + +The subaltern told the story briefly. + +"Oh, my babies! My babies!" cried the mother with tears in her eyes, +clasping the mites to her breast and kissing them frantically. The +little woman who had many times faced death undauntedly at her husband's +side broke down utterly at the thought of her children's peril. + +She overwhelmed Wargrave with her thanks, while Muriel complimented him +on his promptness and presence of mind and then scolded the urchins for +their disobedience in wandering away from the garden by themselves. But +the unrepentant pair smiled genially at her from the shelter of their +mother's arms and assured her that "Fwankie" would always take care of +them. Their mother, even when she grew more composed, could not be +severe after so nearly losing them; but although unwilling to terrify +them by a recital of the awful fate from which the subaltern had saved +them by the merest chance, she impressed upon them again and again her +oft-repeated warning that they must never leave the garden alone. + +But they were not awed; so, bidding them thank and kiss him, she bore +them off to bed, her eyes still full of tears. + +Wargrave sent a servant to fetch his orderly and the detachment _mochi_, +or cobbler, to skin the panther, the news of the death of which soon +spread. So Major Hunt and Burke joined Miss Benson and the subaltern +when they went to look at its body, and numbers of sepoys streamed up +from the Fort to view the animal, which had long been notorious in the +station. Lamps had to be brought to finish the skinning of it; and the +hide, when taken off, was carried in triumph to the Mess compound to be +cured. + +On the following afternoon on the tennis-court in a corner of the +parade ground Miss Benson was left with Burke and Wargrave when Mrs. +Dermot had taken her children home at sunset. + +"You've completely won her heart," the girl said to the subaltern, +pointing with her racquet to the disappearing form of her friend. +"Nothing's too good for you for saving these precious mites. But she'll +never let them out of her sight again until their big nurse returns." + +"You mean their elephant? Well, of course he's a marvellously +well-trained animal; but is he really so reliable that he can always be +trusted to look after those children?" + +"Badshah is something very much more than a well-trained animal. Perhaps +some time out in the jungle you may understand why the natives regard +him as sacred and call Colonel Dermot the 'God of the Elephants.' You +don't know Badshah as we do." + +"Well, old Burke here has told me some strange yarns about him. But, as +he's always pulling my leg, I never know when to believe him." + +The doctor grinned. + +"We won't waste words on him, Captain Burke," said the girl. "It's time +to go home now." + +They escorted her to the Dermots' bungalow, where the doctor lingered +for a few more minutes in her society, while Wargrave climbed up to the +Mess and went to look at the panther's skin pegged out on the ground +under a thick coating of ashes and now as hard as a board after a day's +exposure to the burning sun. + +A few days later Miss Benson left the station to rejoin her father in +one of the three or four isolated wooden bungalows built to accommodate +the Forest Officer in different parts of his district, each one lost and +lonely in the silent jungle. For days after her departure Burke was +visibly depressed; and Wargrave, too, missed the bright and attractive +girl who had enlivened the quiet little station during her stay. + +A fortnight later Colonel Dermot returned from Bhutan; and his gratitude +to the subaltern for the rescue of his children was sincere and +heart-felt. He was only too glad to take the young man out into the +jungle on every possible occasion and continue his instruction in the +ways of the forest. This companionship and the sport were particularly +beneficial to Wargrave just then. For they served to take him out of +himself and raise him from the state of depression into which he was +falling, thanks to Violet's letters, the tone of which was becoming more +bitter each time she wrote. + +Her reply to his long and cheery epistle describing Ranga Duar's unusual +burst of gaiety during the Envoy's visit and his own rescue of the +children was as follows: + + "You do not seem to miss me much among your new friends. While I am + leading a most unhappy and miserable life here you appear to be + enjoying yourself and giving little thought to me. You are lucky to + have two such very beautiful ladies to make much of you; and I + daresay they think you a wonderful hero for saving the little brats + who, if they are like most children, would not be much loss. Their + mother seems extremely friendly to you for such a devoted wife as + you try to make her out to be. Or perhaps it is the girl you admire + most; this marvellous young lady who shoots tigers and apparently + manages the whole Terai Forest. You say you love me; but you don't + seem to be pining very much for me. While each day that comes since + you left me is a fresh agony to me, you appear to contrive to be + quite happy without me." + +This letter stung Wargrave like the lash of a whip across the face. To +do Violet justice no sooner had she sent it than she regretted it. But +deeply hurt as he was by the bitter words he forgave her; for he felt +that her life was indeed miserable and that he was unconsciously in a +great measure to blame for its being so. But it maddened him to realise +his present helplessness to alter matters. He was more than willing to +sacrifice himself to help her; but it would be a long time before he +could hope to save enough to pay his debts and make a home for her. +Whether it was wicked or not to take away another man's wife did not +occur to him; all that he knew was that a woman was unhappy and he alone +could help her. It seemed to him that the sin--if sin there were--was +the husband's, who starved her heart and rendered her miserable. + +In his distress work and sport proved his salvation. He threw himself +heart and soul into his duty, and whenever there was nothing for him to +do with the detachment Major Hunt encouraged him to go with the +Political Officer into the jungle. For little as he suspected it the +senior guessed the young man's trouble and watched him sympathisingly. + +One never-to-be-forgotten day as Wargrave was returning from afternoon +parade Colonel Dermot called to him from his gate and showed him a +telegram. It ran: "Tiger marked down. Come immediately _dâk_ bungalow, +Madpur Duar. Muriel." + +As the subaltern perused it with delight the Colonel said: + +"Ask your C.O. for leave. Then, if he gives it, get something +substantial to eat in the Mess and be ready to start at once. Madpur +Duar is thirty odd miles away; and we'll have to travel all night. Come +to my bungalow as soon as you can." + +Half an hour later the two were trudging down the road to the +_peelkhana_ carrying their rifles. Badshah, with a _howdah_ roped on to +his pad, plodded behind them; for it is far more comfortable to walk +down a steep descent than be carried down it by an elephant. At the foot +of the hills they mounted and were borne away into the gathering shadows +of the long road through the forest. As they proceeded their talk was +all of tigers; for in India, though there be bigger and more splendid +game in the land, its traditional animal never fails to interest, and +to Wargrave on his way to his first tiger-shoot all other topics were +insignificant. + +The sun went down and darkness settled on the forest. The talk died away +and no sound was heard but the soft padding of their elephant's huge +feet in the dust of the road. The subaltern soon found the _howdah_ +infinitely more trying than a seat on the pad when Badshah was in +motion; for the plunging gait of the animal jerked him backwards and +forwards and threw him against the wooden rails if he forgot to hold +himself at arm's length from them. The discomfort spoiled his +appreciation of the strange, attractive experience of being borne by +night through the sleepless forest, where in the dark hours only the +bird and the monkey repose; and even to them the creeping menace of the +climbing snake affrights the one and the wheeling shapes of the +night-flying birds of prey scare the other. But on the ground all are +awake. The glimmering whiteness of the road was occasionally blotted by +the scurrying forms of animals, hunted and hunters, dashing across it. +Once a tiny shriek in the distance broke the silence of the jungle. + +"A wild elephant," said Colonel Dermot. + +Then followed the loud crashing of rending boughs and falling trees. + +"That's a herd feeding. They graze until about ten o'clock and then +sleep on well into the small hours, wake and begin to feed again at +dawn," continued the Political Officer. + +Once a wild, unearthly wailing cry that seemed to come from every +direction at once startled the subaltern: + +"Good Heavens! what's that?" he exclaimed, gripping his rifle and trying +to pierce the darkness around them. + +"Only a Giant Owl," was the reply. "It's an uncanny noise. There!" + +Right over their heads it rang out again; and the stars above them were +blotted out for a moment by a dark, circling shape above the tree-tops. + +Hour after hour went by as they were borne along through the night; and +Wargrave bruised and battered by the _howdah_-rails, fell constantly +against them, so overcome with sleep was he. At last to his relief his +companion called a halt for a few hours' rest; and they brought the +elephant to his knees, dismounted and stripped him of _howdah_ and pad. +Sitting on the latter they supped on sandwiches and coffee from Thermos +flasks, and then stretched themselves to sleep, while Badshah standing +over them grazed on the grasses and branches within reach. Wargrave was +dropping off to sleep when he was roused by the sharp, _staccato_ bark +of a _khakur_ buck repeated several times. The tired man lost +consciousness and was sunk in profound slumber when the silence of the +forest was shattered by a snorting, braying roar that rang through the +jungle with alarming suddenness. + +Wargrave sprang up and groped for his rifle. But his companion lay +tranquilly on the pad. + +"It's all right. It's only a tiger that's missed his spring and is angry +about it," he said sleepily. "Lie down again." + +"Only a tiger, sir?" repeated Wargrave. "But it sounded close by." + +"Yes, but Badshah will look after us. Don't worry"; and the Colonel +turned over and fell asleep. + +It was a little time, however, before Frank followed his example, and he +had his rifle under his hand when he did. But the dark bulk of the +elephant towering over them comforted him as he sank to sleep. + +A couple of hours later they were on their way again. It was broad +daylight before they emerged from the jungle. It seemed strange to be +out once more in the wide-stretching, open and cultivated plains and to +look back on the great forest and, beyond it, to the mountains towering +to the sky. Before them lay the flat expanse of the hedgeless, fertile +fields dotted here and there with clusters of trimly-built huts or thick +groves of bamboos and seamed with the lines of deep _nullahs_, the tops +of the trees in them barely showing above the level and marking their +winding course. + +The _dâk_ bungalow at Madpur Duar was soon reached, a single-storied +building with a couple of trees shading the well behind it and a group +of elephants and their _mahouts_. On the verandah Benson and his +daughter were standing, the girl dressed in a khaki drill coat and skirt +over breeches and soft leather gaiters, and waving a welcome to +Badshah's riders. + +After a hurried breakfast the latter were ready to start for the day's +sport. By then a line of ten female elephants, the tallest carrying a +_howdah_, the rest only their pads, was drawn up before the bungalow; +and at a word from their _mahouts_ their trunks went up in the air and +the animals trumpeted in salute as the party came out on the verandah. + +"We borrowed Mr. Carter's and the Settlement Officer's elephants for the +beat," said Miss Benson, as, wearing a big pith sunhat and carrying a +double-barrelled .400 cordite rifle, she led the way down the verandah +steps. + +It had been arranged that she was to take Wargrave with her in her +_howdah_, while her father accompanied Colonel Dermot on Badshah. Her +big elephant knelt down and a ladder was laid against its side, up which +she climbed, followed by the subaltern. When all were mounted she led +the way across the plain. Although the ground was everywhere level and +just there uncultivated the elephants tailed off in single file as is +the habit of their kind, wild or domesticated, each stepping with +precise care into the footprints of the one in front of it. Here in the +Plains the heat was intense; and Wargrave, shading his eyes from the +blinding glare, thought enviously of the coolness up in the mountains +that he had left. As they moved along Muriel explained to him how the +beat was to be conducted. + +Where the southern fringe of the Terai Jungle borders the cultivated +country it is a favourite haunt of tigers, which from its shelter carry +on war against the farmers' cattle. Creeping down the ravines seaming +the soft soil and worn by the streams that flow through the forest from +the hills they pull down the cows grazing or coming to drink in the +_nullahs_, which are filled with small trees and scrubs affording good +cover. A tiger, when it has killed, drags the carcase of its prey into +shade near water, eats a hearty meal of about eighty pounds of flesh, +drinks and then sleeps until it is ready to feed again. If disturbed it +retreats up the ravine to the forest. + +So, beating for one with elephants here, the sportsmen place themselves +on their _howdah_-bearing animals between the jungle and the spot where +the tiger is known to be lying up, and the beater elephants enter the +scrub from the far side and shepherd him gently towards the guns. + +Pointing to a distant line of tree-tops showing above the level plain +she said: + +"There is the _nullah_ in which, about a mile farther on, a cow was +killed yesterday. I hope the tiger is still lying up in it. We'll soon +see." + +They reached the ravine, which was twenty or thirty feet deep and +contained a little stream flowing through tangled scrub, and moved along +parallel to it and about a couple of hundred yards away. Presently the +girl pointed to a tall tree growing in it and a quarter of a mile ahead +of them. Its upper branches were bending under the weight of numbers of +foul-looking bald-headed vultures, squawking, huddled together, jostling +each other on their perches and pecking angrily at their neighbours with +irritable cries. Some circled in the air and occasionally swooped down +towards the ground only to rocket up again affrightedly to the sky; for +the tiger lay by its kill and resented the approach of any daring bird +that aspired to share the feast. Muriel hurriedly explained how the +conduct of the birds indicated the beast's presence. + +"If he were not there they'd be down tearing the carcase to pieces," she +said, as she held up her hand and halted the file behind her. + +"The beater elephants had better stop here, Colonel," she called out to +Dermot. "There is a way down and across the _nullah_, by which you can +take Badshah to the far side. We will remain on this." + +The Political Officer, who had seen and realised the significance of the +vultures, waved his hand and moved off at once. Muriel called up the +_mahouts_ and bade them enter the ravine and begin the beat in about ten +minutes, then told her driver to go on. Half a mile beyond the tree she +ordered him to halt and take up a position close to the edge of the +_nullah_, into which they could look down. Below them the bottom was +clear of scrub which ended fifty yards away. Dermot stopped opposite; +and both elephants were turned to face towards the spot where the tiger +was judged to be. + +"Mr Wargrave, get to the front of the _howdah_ and be ready," she said +in a low tone. + +The subaltern protested chivalrously against taking the best place. + +"Oh, it's all right. We've brought you out to get the tiger; so you must +do as you're told. If he breaks out this side take the first shot," she +said peremptorily. + +He submitted and took up his position with cocked rifle. As the _nullah_ +wound a good deal the tops of the trees in it prevented them from seeing +if the beater-elephants had gone in; but in a few minutes they heard +distant shouts and the crashing of the undergrowth as the big animals +forced their way through the scrub. + +"Be ready, Mr. Wargrave," whispered the girl. "Sometimes a tiger starts +on the run at the first sound." + +His nerves a-quiver and his heart beating violently the subaltern held +his rifle at the ready, as the noise of the beaters drew nearer. Again +and again he brought the butt to his shoulder, only to lower it when he +realised that it was a false alarm. The sounds of the beat grew louder +and closer, and still there was no sign of the tiger. Frank's heart +sank. He saw the vultures stir uneasily and some rise into the air as +the elephants passed under them. + +At last through the trees he began to catch occasional glimpses of the +_mahouts_, and he lost hope. But suddenly from the scrub below them in +the _nullah_ a number of small birds flew up; and the next instant the +edge of the bushes nearest them was parted stealthily and a tiger slunk +cautiously out in the bottom of the ravine. + +Wargrave's rifle went up to his shoulder; and he fired. A startled roar +from the beast told that it was hit; but it bounded in a flash across +the ravine and up the steep bank on their side not forty yards from +them. As it scrambled swiftly over the edge it caught sight of the +elephant and with a deep "wough!" charged straight at it. + +Frank fired again, and his bullet struck up the dust, missing the +swift-rushing animal by a couple of feet. The next moment with a roar +the tiger sprang at the elephant. With one leap it landed with its hind +paws on the elephant's head, its fore-feet on the front rail of the +_howdah_, standing right over the _mahout_ who crouched in terror on the +neck. The savage, snarling, yellow-and-black mask was thrust almost +into Wargrave's face, and from the open red mouth lined with fierce +white fangs he could feel the hot breath on his cheek as he tugged +frantically at the under-lever of his rifle to open the breech and +re-load. In another moment the tiger would have been on top of them in +the _howdah_ when a gun-barrel shot past the subaltern and pushed him +aside. The muzzle of Muriel's rifle was pressed almost against the +brute's skull as she fired. + +Frank hardly heard the report. All he knew was that the snarling face +disappeared as quickly as it had come. The whole thing was an affair of +seconds. Shot through the brain the tiger dropped back to the ground +with a heavy thud and fell dead beside the staunch elephant which had +never moved all through the terrible ordeal. + +A cry of relief and a prayer to Allah burst from the grey-bearded +Mahommedan _mahout_, as he straightened himself; and Wargrave turned +with glowing face and outstretched hand to the girl. + +"Oh, well done! Splendidly done!" he cried. "You saved me from being +lugged bodily out of the _howdah_ or at least from being mauled. This +lever jammed and I couldn't re-load." + +Her eyes shining and face beaming with excitement she shook his hand. + +"Wasn't it thrilling? I thought he'd have got both of us." Then to the +_mahout_ she continued in Urdu, "Gul Dad, are you hurt?" + +The man was solemnly feeling himself all over. He stared at a rent in +the shoulder of his coat, torn by the tiger's claw. It was the only +injury that he had suffered. He put his finger on it and grumbled: + +"Missie-_baba_, the _shaitan_ (devil) has torn my coat." + +In the reaction from the strain the girl and Wargrave went off in peals +of laughter at his words. + +"But are you not wounded?" Miss Benson repeated. "Has it not clawed +you?" + +The _mahout_ shook his head. + +"No, missie-_baba_; but it was my new coat," he insisted.[1] + + [1] A similar incident occurred in real life near Alipur Duar in + Eastern Bengal to a lady and an officer on a female elephant named + Dundora during a beat. But in this case it was the man that killed + the tiger with his second rifle when it was standing on the + elephant's head with its fore-paws on the _howdah_-rail. I can + personally testify to Dundora's immobility when facing a charging + tiger.--THE AUTHOR. + +Frank looked down at the tiger stretched motionless on the yellow grass. + +"By George, you shot him dead enough, Miss Benson!" he exclaimed. + +She stared down at the animal. + +"Yes; but it's well to be careful. I've seen a tiger look as dead as +that and yet spring up and maul a man who approached it incautiously," +she said. + +She raised her rifle and covered the prostrate animal. + +"Throw something at it," she continued. + +Wargrave took out a couple of heavy, copper-cased cartridges and flung +them one by one at the tiger's head, striking it on the jaw and in the +eye. The animal did not move. + +"Seems dead enough," said the girl, lowering her rifle. "Here come the +beaters." + +The other elephants had now burst out in line through the scrub. Their +_mahouts_ shouted enquiries to Gul Dad and when they heard of the +tiger's death cheered gleefully, for it meant _backsheesh_ to them. +Badshah was seen to be searching for a way down into the nullah and in a +few minutes brought his passengers up alongside Miss Benson and the +subaltern. Her father and Dermot congratulated the girl warmly; and the +latter, having made Badshah kick the tiger to make certain that it was +dead, dismounted and examined it. + +"Here's your shot, Wargrave," he said, pointing to a hole in the belly. +"A bit too low, but it made a nasty wound that would have killed the +beast eventually." + +"I'm so ashamed of missing it with my second barrel, sir," said the +subaltern. "But for Miss Benson I'd have been a gone coon." + +"Yes, it certainly looked exciting enough from our side of the +_nullah_," said the Colonel, smiling; "so what must it have been like +from where you were? Well, anyhow it's your tiger." + +"Oh, nonsense, sir; it's Miss Benson's. I ought to be kicked for being +such a muff." + +"Jungle law, Mr. Wargrave," said the girl, laughing "You hit it first, +so it's your beast." + +"You needn't be ashamed of missing it," added the Colonel. "A charging +tiger coming full speed at you is not an easy mark. No; the skin is +yours; and Muriel has so many that she can spare it." + +"Well, Miss Benson, I accept it as a gift from you; but I won't +acknowledge that I have earned it," said the subaltern. + +"Now, we'd better pad it and see about getting back," said Dermot, +looking at his watch. + +The other elephants had now found their way up the bank and joined +Badshah and his companion. When their _mahouts_ heard from Gul Dad the +story of the tiger's death they exclaimed in amazement and admiration: + +"_Ahré, Chai_! (Oh, brother!) Truly the missie-_baba_ is a wonder. She +will be the death of many tigers, indeed," they said. + +Then each in turn brought his elephant up to the prostrate animal and +made her smell and strike it with her trunk in order to inspire her with +contempt for tigers. Colonel Dermot measured it with a tape and found it +to be nine feet six inches from nose to tip of tail. It was a young, +fully-grown male in splendid condition. Then came the troublesome +business of "padding" it, that is, hoisting it on to the pad of one of +the elephants to bring it back to the bungalow to be skinned. It was not +an easy matter. For the tiger weighed nearly three hundred and fifty +pounds; and to raise the limp carcase, which sagged like a feather bed +at every spot where there was not a man to support it, was a difficult +task. But it was achieved at last; and with the tiger roped firmly on a +pad the elephants started back in single file. + +As they went over the plain in the burning sun Wargrave looked back to +where the striped body was borne along with stiff, dangling legs. + +"By Jove, it's been great, Miss Benson," he exclaimed. "Some people say +tiger shooting's not exciting. They ought to have been with us to-day. I +am lucky to have got a bison already and now to have seen this. With +luck I'll be having a shot at an elephant next." + +The girl replied in a serious tone: + +"Don't say that to Colonel Dermot. Elephants are his especial friends. +Besides, you are only allowed to shoot rogues; and since he's been here +there have been none in these jungles which formerly swarmed with them. +There's no doubt that he has a wonderful, uncanny control over even wild +elephants. Do you know that once a rajah tried to have him killed in his +palace by a mad tusker, which had just slaughtered several men, and the +moment the brute got face to face with him it was cowed and obeyed him +like a dog?" + +"Good gracious, is that so?" + +"Yes, I could tell you even more extraordinary things about his power +over elephants; but some day when you're in the jungle with him you may +see it for yourself. Oh, isn't it hot? I do wish we were home." + +Arrived at the _dâk_ bungalow the tiger's carcase was lowered to the +ground and given over to the knives of the flayers summoned from the +_bazaar_ of Madpur Duar a mile away. As soon as the news was known in +the small town crowds of Hindu women streamed to the bungalow compound, +where with their _saris_ (shawls) pulled modestly across their brown +faces by rounded arms tinkling with glass bangles they squatted on the +ground and waited patiently until the skin was drawn clear off the raw +red carcase. Then they crowded around a couple of the older _mahouts_ +who, first cutting off all the firm white fat of the well-fed cattle +thief to be melted down for oil (esteemed to be a sovereign remedy for +rheumatism), hacked the flesh into chunks which they threw into the +eager hands of the women. These took the meat home to cook for their +husbands to eat to instil into them the spirit and vigour of a tiger. +The skin, spread out and pegged to the ground, was covered with wood +ashes and left to dry. Little of the animal was left but the bones, to +the disappointment of the wheeling, whistling kites waiting on soaring +wings in the sky above. + +After tea the two officers took their leave with many expressions of +gratitude from the younger man to the girl for her kindness in arranging +the beat for him. Hours afterwards, as they halted in the forest for a +rest in the middle of the night, Colonel Dermot said: + +"You told me once that you'd like a job like mine, Wargrave. Would you +care for frontier political work here?" + +"I'd love it, sir," exclaimed the subaltern enthusiastically. "Would it +be possible to get it?" + +"Well, I've been thinking for some time of applying to the Government of +India for an assistant political officer who would help me and take over +if I went on leave, but I'd want to train my own man and not merely +accept any youngster who was pitchforked into the Department just +because he had a father or an uncle with a pull at Simla. Now, if you +like I'll apply for you, on condition that you'll work at Bhutanese and +the frontier dialects. I'll teach them to you." + +"I'd like nothing better, sir. I'm not bad at languages." + +"Yes, I've noticed that your Hindustani is very good and idiomatic. I've +been watching you and I like your manner with natives. One must be +sympathetic, kind and just, but also firm with them. Well, I'll try +you. The rainy season will be on us very soon, and then all outdoor work +and sport will be impossible. One dare not go into the jungle--it's too +full of malaria and blackwater fever. The planters and Forest Officers +have to cage themselves in wire gauze 'mosquito houses.' During the +rains you'll have plenty of time to work at the languages." + +"Thank you very much, Colonel. I promise you I'll go at them hard." + +"You'll have a fellow-student for part of the time. Miss Benson's coming +to stay with us during the Monsoons for a bit; and she has asked me to +teach her Bhutanese, too. She wants it, as she has to deal with Bhuttia +woodcutters and hill folk generally. Well, that's fixed. Goodnight." + +"Goodnight, sir," answered the subaltern, as he lay down on the pad and +stared at the stars. He was overjoyed at Colonel Dermot's offer, and as +he dropped asleep it was with a thrill of pleasure that he realised he +would see something more of the girl who had been his companion that +day. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +A POLITICAL OFFICER IN THE MAKING + + +The lightning spattered the heavens and tore the black sky into a +thousand fragments, the thunder crashed in appalling peals of terrifying +sound which echoed again and again from the invisible mountains. The +rain fell in ropes of water that sent the brown, foam-flecked torrents +surging full-fed down every gully and ravine in the mist-wrapped hills. +The single, steep road of Ranga Duar was now the rocky bed of a racing +flood inches deep that swirled and raged round Wargrave's high rubber +boots as he waded up towards the Mess clad in an oilskin coat, off which +the rain splashed. He was glad to arrive at the garden gate, turn in +through it, climb the verandah steps, and reach his door. Here he flung +aside his coat and kicked off the heavy boots. + +Entering his room he pulled on his slippers, filled his pipe with +tobacco from a lime-dried bottle and sat down at his one rickety table +at the window. Then he took out of his pocket and laid before him a +manuscript book filled with notes on the frontier dialects taken at the +lesson with Colonel Dermot from which he had just come. He opened it +mechanically but did not even glance at it. His thoughts were elsewhere. + +Months had elapsed since the day on which he had seen his first tiger +killed. Not long afterwards the Rains had come to put a stop to descents +into the jungle. But his interest in the preparation for his new work +compensated him for the imprisonment within walls by the terrible +tropical storms and the never-ceasing downpour. He had flung himself +enthusiastically into the study of the frontier languages, of which +Colonel Dermot proved to be a painstaking and able teacher. Miss Benson, +who had returned to Ranga Duar and remained there longer than she had +originally intended, owing to fever contracted in the jungle, joined him +in these studies and astonished her fellow-pupil by her aptitude and +quickness of apprehension. But her presence proved disastrous to him. +Thrown constantly together as they were, spending hours every day side +by side, the subaltern realised to his dismay that he was falling in +love with the girl. + +It would have been strange had it been otherwise so pretty and +attractive was she. Often Mrs. Dermot, peeping into her husband's office +and seeing the dark and the fair head bent close together over a book, +smiled to herself, well-pleased at the thought of her favourites being +mutually attracted. To her husband the thought never occurred. Men are +very dull in these matters. + +But to Wargrave the realisation of the truth was unbearable. He was +pledged to another woman, whose heart he had won even if unconsciously, +who was willing for love of him to give up everything and face the +world's censure and scorn. He could not play her false. He had given her +his word. He could not now be disloyal to her without utterly wrecking +all her chances of happiness in life and dishonouring himself for ever +in his own eyes. Muriel Benson had left the station ten days ago to +rejoin her father; and Wargrave had instantly felt that he dared not see +her again until he was irrevocably and openly bound to Violet. So he had +written to her on the morrow of the girl's departure and, without giving +her the real reason for his action, begged her to come to him at once, +enclosing, as he was now able to do, a cheque for her expenses. It +seemed to him that only by her presence could he be saved from being a +traitor to his word. + +As soon as he had sent the letter he went to his Commanding Officer and +told him everything. It was not until he was actually explaining his +conduct that he realised that he should have obtained his permission +before inviting Violet to come, for Major Hunt, as Commandant of the +Station, had the power to forbid her residing in or even entering it. + +The senior officer listened in silence. When the subaltern had finished +he said: + +"I've known about this matter since you came, Wargrave. Your Colonel +wrote me--as your new C.O.--what I considered an unnecessary and unfair +letter giving me the reason of your being sent here. But Hepburn, whom +I know slightly, discovered I was here and also wrote explaining matters +more fully and, I think, more justly." + +The subaltern looked at him in surprise; but his face brightened at the +knowledge of his former commander's kindness. + +"Now, Wargrave, we've got on very well together so far, you and I. I +have always been satisfied with your work, and was glad to help you by +agreeing to Colonel Dermot's application for you. I believe that you +will make a good political officer, otherwise I wouldn't have done +so--even though I'm your debtor for saving me from that snake----." + +"Oh, Major, that was nothing," broke in the subaltern. "Anyone would +have done it." + +"Yes, I know. But it happened that you were the anyone. Now, I'm going +to talk to you as your friend and not as your commanding officer. +Frankly, I am very sorry for what you have just told me. I was hoping +that Time and separation were curing you--and the lady--of your folly. +Believe me, only unhappiness and misery can come to you both from it." + +"Perhaps so, sir; but I'm bound in honour." + +The older man shook his head sadly. + +"Is honour the word for it? I'll make a confession to you, Wargrave. You +consider me a bachelor. Well, I'm not married now; but I was. When I was +a young subaltern I was thrown much with a married woman older than +myself. I was flattered that she should take any notice of me, for she +was handsome and popular with men, while I was a shy, awkward boy. She +said she was 'being a mother' to me--you know what a married woman +'mothering' boys leads to in India. She used to tell me how +misunderstood she was, neglected, mated to a clown and all that." (Frank +grew red at certain memories.) "Women have a regular formula when +they're looking for sympathy they've no right to. I pitied her. I felt +that her husband ought to be shot. Looking back now I see that he was +just the ordinary, easy-going, indifferent individual that most husbands +become; but then I deemed him a tyrant and a brute. Well, I ran away +with her." + +He paused and passed his hand wearily across his brow. + +"There was the usual scandal, divorce, damages and costs that plunged me +into debt I'm not out of yet. We married. In a year we were heartily +sick of each other--hated, is nearer the truth. She consoled herself +with other men. I protested, we quarrelled again and again. At last we +agreed to separate; and I insisted on her going to England and staying +there. I couldn't trust her in India. Living in lodgings and Bayswater +boarding-houses wasn't amusing--she got bored, but I wouldn't have her +back. She took to drinking and ran up debts that I had to pay. +Then--and I selfishly felt glad, but it was a happy release for +both--she died. Drank herself to death. Now you know why I'd be sorry +that another man should follow the path I trod." + +He was silent. Wargrave felt an intense sympathy for this quiet, kindly +man whose life had been a tragedy. He had guessed from the first that +his senior officer had some ever-present grief weighing on his soul. He +would have given much to be able to utter words of consolation, but he +did not know what to say. + +Major Hunt spoke again. + +"You must dree your own weird, Wargrave. If the lady wishes to come +here--well, I shall not prevent her; but the General, when he knows of +it, will not permit her to remain. But you have to deal with Colonel +Dermot. You had better tell him. You might go now." + +Without a word the subaltern left the bungalow. He went straight to the +Political Officer and repeated his story. Colonel Dermot did not +interrupt him, but, when he had finished, said: + +"I have no right and no wish to interfere with your private life, +Wargrave, nor to offer you advice as to how to lead it. Your work is all +that I can claim to criticise. Of course I see, with Major Hunt, the +difficulty that will arise over the lady's remaining in this small +station, where her presence must become known to the Staff. If you are +both resolved on taking the irretrievable step it would be wiser to +defer it until you were elsewhere. I don't offer to blame either of you; +for I don't know enough to judge." + +"Well, sir, I--perhaps you won't want me under you--and Mrs. Dermot--you +mightn't wish me to----," stammered the subaltern, standing miserably +before him. + +"Oh, yes; you'll make a good political officer none the less," said the +Colonel smiling. "And you need not be afraid of my wife turning away +from you with horror. If she can be a friend to the lady she will. As +for you, well, you saved our children, Wargrave"--he laid his hand on +the young man's shoulder--"you are our friend for life. I shall not +repeat your story to my wife. Perhaps some day you may like to tell it +to her yourself." + +Wargrave tried to thank him gratefully, but failed, and, picking up his +hat, went out into the rain. + +That was days ago; and no answer had come from Violet, so that the +subaltern lived in a state of strain and anxious expectation. Indeed, +some weeks had passed since her last letter, as usual an unhappy one; +and, sitting staring out into the grey world of falling rain turned to +flame every minute by the vivid lightning, he racked his brains to guess +the reason of her silence. + +A jangle of bells sounded through the storm. Glancing out Wargrave saw +a curiously grotesque figure climb the verandah steps from the garden +and stand shaking itself while the water poured from it. It was an +almost naked man, squat and sturdy-limbed, with glistening wet brown +skin, an oilskin-covered package on his back, a short spear hung with +bells in his hand. It was the postman. For a miserable pittance he +jogged up and down the mountains in fine weather or foul, carrying His +Majesty's Mails, passing fearlessly through the jungle in peril of wild +beats, his ridiculous weapon, the bells of which were supposed to +frighten tigers, his only protection. + +Wargrave opened the door and went out to him. The man grinned, unslung +and opened his parcel. From it he took out a bundle of letters, handed +them to the subaltern, and went on to knock at Burke's door with his +correspondence. Frank returned to his room with the mail which contained +the official letters for the detachment, of which he was still acting as +adjutant. He threw them aside when he saw an envelope with Violet's +handwriting on it. He tore it open eagerly. + +To his surprise the letter was addressed from a hotel in Poona, the +large and gay military and civil station in the West of India, a few +hours' rail journey inland from Bombay. He skimmed through it rapidly. + +She wrote that, utterly weary of the dullness of Rohar, she had gone to +Poona to spend part of the festive and fashionable season there and was +now revelling in the many dances, dinners, theatricals and other +gaieties of the lively station. Everybody was very kind to her, +especially the men. She was invited to the private entertainments at +Government House, and His Excellency the Governor always danced with +her. Her programme was crowded at every ball; and she had been asked to +take one of the leading parts in "The Country Girl" to be produced by +the Amateur Dramatic Society. She had two excellent ponies with which to +hunt and to join in _gymkhanas_. She wished Frank could be with her; but +probably he was enjoying himself more with his wild beasts and Tiger +Girls. As to his proposal that she should go to him at once in that +little station he must have been mad when he made it. For had they not +discussed the matter thoroughly and decided that they must wait? She +presumed that he had not suddenly come into a fortune. From his +description of Ranga Duar and its inhabitants it could be no place for +her under the circumstances. No; there was nothing to do but to wait. +Besides, it was so very jolly now at Poona. Frank must not be an +impatient boy; and she sent him all her love. His cheque she had torn +up. + +The subaltern whistled, read the letter again very carefully, folded and +put it away. What had come to Violet? This was so unlike her. Still, he +had to confess to himself that he was relieved at not yet having to +cross the Rubicon. Perhaps she was right; it might be better to wait. He +was glad to know that for a time at least she was away from the +uncongenial surroundings of Rohar and again enjoying life. He went +through the official correspondence, shoved it in his pocket, put on +coat and boots and splashed through the water down the road to the +Commanding Officer's bungalow. When they had discussed the official +letters and drafted answers to them Wargrave told Major Hunt of the gist +of Violet's reply. The senior officer nodded, but said nothing about it +and went on to talk of other matters. + +Next day the subaltern informed Colonel Dermot, who made no comment and +did not refer to the matter again. His wife, ignorant of Mrs. Norton's +existence, delighted to talk to Wargrave about Muriel, a topic always +interesting to him, dangerous though it was to his peace of mind. His +thoughts were constantly with the girl, and he sought eagerly for news +of her when occasional letters came to Mrs. Dermot from her, touring +their wide forest district with her father. + +Frank had never been able to fathom Burke's feelings towards her. The +Irishman's manner to her in public was always light-hearted and +cheerfully friendly; but the subaltern suspected that it concealed a +deeper, warmer feeling. He betrayed no jealousy of Frank's constant +companionship with her when she took part in his studies; and his +friendly regard for his younger brother officer never altered. On her +side the girl showed openly that she shared the universal liking that +the kindly, pleasant-natured doctor inspired. + +The weary months of the rainy season dragged by; but the subaltern spent +them to advantage under Colonel Dermot's tuition and, possessing the +knack of readily acquiring foreign languages, made rapid progress with +Bhutanese, Tibetan and the frontier dialects, his good ear for music +helping him greatly in getting the correct accent. Another +accomplishment of his, a talent for acting, was of service; for the +Political Officer wished him to be capable of penetrating into Bhutan in +disguise if need be. So he taught him how to be a merchant, peasant, +nobleman's retainer or a lama Red or Yellow, of the country--but always +a man of Northern Bhutan and the Tibetan borderland, for his height and +blue eyes were not unusual there, though seldom or never seen in the +south. Frank was carefully instructed in the appropriate manners, +customs and expressions of each part that he played, how to eat and +behave in company, how to walk, sit and sleep. But he specialised as a +lama, for in that character he would meet with the least interference in +the priest-ridden country. He was taught the Buddhist chants and how to +drone them, how to carry his praying-wheel and finger a rosary to the +murmured "_Om mani padmi hung_" of the Tibetans, and--for he was +something of an artist--how to paint the Buddhist pictorial Wheel of +Life, the _Sid-pa-i Khor-lô_ or Cycle of Existence that the gentle +Gautama, the Buddha, himself first drew and that hangs in the vestibule +of every lamasery to teach priest and layman the leading law of their +religion, Re-birth. + +Colonel Dermot was helped in his instruction of his pupil by his chief +spy and confidential messenger, an ex-monk from a great monastery in +Punaka, the capital of Bhutan. This man, Tashi, before he wearied of the +cloistered life and fled to India, had been always one of the principal +actors in the great miracle plays and Devil Dances of his lamasery, for +he was gifted with considerable histrionic talent. He delighted in +teaching Wargrave to play his various _rôles_, for he found the +subaltern an apt pupil. + +As soon as the rains ended the Political Officer began to take his +disciple with him on his tours and patrols along the frontier. Alone +they roamed on Badshah among the mountains on which the border ran in a +confusedly irregular line. Sometimes with or without Tashi they crossed +into Bhutan in disguise and wandered among the steep, forest-clad hills +and deep, unhealthy valleys seamed with rivers prone to sudden floods +that rose in a few hours thirty or forty feet. Wargrave marvelled at the +engineering skill of the inhabitants who with rude and imperfect +appliances had thrown cantilever bridges over the deep gorges of this +mountainous southern zone. Among the dull-witted peasants in the +villages he practised the parts that he had learned, speaking little at +first and taking care to mingle Tibetan and Chinese words with the +language of Bhutan to keep up the fable of his northern birth. He soon +promised to be in time as skilfull in disguise as his tutor. + +Colonel Dermot was anxious to investigate the activities of the Chinese +_Amban_, reputed to reach their height in the territory just across the +Indian border ruled by the Tuna Penlop and lying west of the Black +Mountain range that divides Bhutan. This great feudal chieftain was +reputed to be completely under the influence of Yuan Shi Hung and both +anti-British and disloyal to his overlord the Maharajah or Tongsa +Penlop. The close watch that his myrmidons kept on the stretch of +frontier between his territories and India prevented Dermot from +learning what went on behind the screen; for the spies of the Political +Officer's Secret Service could not penetrate it and bring back news. + +Wargrave was present when the last sturdy-limbed Bhuttia emissary +reported his failure to cross the line. As the man withdrew the Colonel +turned to Frank and said: + +"We'll go ourselves. I wanted to avoid it if possible; for it wouldn't +do for me to be caught. Not only because it would cause political +complications, for I'm not supposed to trespass on Bhutanese territory +uninvited, but also because fatal accidents might happen to us if Yuan +Shi Hung and his friends get hold of us. I'm not anxious to die yet. Be +ready to start at midnight." + +"Do you really think we'll be able to get through, sir?" queried the +subaltern. "How shall we do it?" + +"Wait and see," was the curt reply. + +Before the sun rose next day Badshah was deep in the forest, bearing the +two officers and Tashi on his back. He moved rapidly along animal paths +through the jungle in a direction parallel with the mountains. Jungle +fowl whirred up from under his feet, deer crashed away through the +undergrowth as he passed; but never a shot was fired at them, though +rifles and guns were in the riders' hands. Little brown monkeys peeped +down at them from the tree-tops or leapt away along the air lanes among +the leafy branches, swinging by hand or foot, springing across the +voids, the babies clutching fast to their mothers' bodies in the dizzy +flights. + +In the afternoon a distant crashing, which told of trees falling before +the pressure of great heads and the weight of huge bodies, made Wargrave +ask: + +"Wild elephants, sir?" + +Dermot nodded. + +"Sounds as if they were right in our path. Shall we see them?" + +"Yes. Don't touch that!" said the Colonel sharply; for the excited +subaltern, who had never yet seen a wild herd, was reaching for his +rifle. Wargrave obeyed, remembering Miss Benson's remark on the +Political Officer's love of the great animals. + +Soon unmistakable signs showed that they were on the track of a herd; +and presently Frank caught sight of a slate-coloured body in the +undergrowth, then another and another. As he was wondering how the +animals would receive them Badshah emerged on an open glade filled with +elephants of all ages and sizes, from new-born woolly calves a bare +three feet at the shoulder to splendid tuskers nine feet ten inches in +height and lean, ragged-eared old animals a hundred and thirty years of +age. All were regarding the newcomer and their trunks were raised to +point towards him, while from their throats came a low purring sound, +which appeared to the subaltern to have more of pleasure than menace in +it. Instead of seeming hostile or alarmed they behaved as though they +had expected and were welcoming their domesticated brother. This was so +evident that Frank felt no fear even when they closed in on Badshah and +touched him with their trunks. + +Dermot, smiling at his companion's amazement, said: + +"This is Badshah's old herd, Wargrave, and they're used to him and me. +I've come in search of them, for it is by their aid that I propose to +enter Bhutan." + +And the subaltern was still more surprised when the animals, which +numbered over a hundred, fell in behind Badshah--cows with calves +leading, tuskers in rear--and followed him submissively in single file +as he headed for the mountains. When night fell they were climbing above +the foot-hills under the vivid tropic stars. + +A couple of hours before midnight the leader halted, and the line behind +him scattered to feed on the bamboos and the luscious grasses, though +the younger calves nuzzled their mothers' breasts. Badshah sank to his +knees to allow his passengers to dismount and relieve him of his pad. +The three men ate and then wrapped themselves in their blankets, for it +was very cold high up in the mountains, and stretched themselves to +sleep, as the great animals around them ceased to feed and rested. +Badshah lowered himself cautiously to the ground and lay down near his +men. + +Before Wargrave lost consciousness he marvelled at Dermot's uncanny +power over the huge beasts around them--a power that could make these +shy mammoths thus subservient to his purposes. He began to understand +why his companion was regarded as a demigod by the wild jungle-folk and +hill-dwellers. + +When at daybreak the herd moved on again, climbing ever higher in the +mountains, the three men lay flat on Badshah's back and covered +themselves with their grey blankets lest vigilant watchers on the peaks +around might espy them. Thus do the _mahouts_ of the _koonkies_, or +trained female elephants employed in hunting and snaring wild tuskers, +conceal themselves during the chase. + +But darkness shielded them effectively when the herd swept at length +through a rocky pass on the frontier-line between India and Bhutan, and +with cries of fear and dismay armed men seated around watch-fires fled +in panic before the earth-shaking host. The screen was penetrated. + +Daylight found them on the banks of a broad, swift-flowing river in a +valley between the range of mountains through which they had passed and +a line of still more formidable and snow-clad peaks. The elephants swam +the wide and rushing water, for of all land animals their kind are the +best swimmers. The tiniest babies were supported by the trunks of their +mothers, on to whose backs older calves climbed and were thus carried +across. Without stopping the herd plunged into the awful passes of the +next range, of which they were not clear until the evening of the +following day. Then they halted in dense forest. + +Next morning Dermot took from the pockets of Badshah's pad the dresses +and other things that they needed for their disguises, and instead of +replacing the pad concealed it carefully. Then he said: + +"We'll leave our escort here, Wargrave, and carry on by ourselves; for +we are not far from inhabited and cultivated country, and indeed fairly +near the _Jong_ (castle) of our enemy the Penlop of Tuna." + +The wild elephants were feeding all around, paying no heed to them. The +Colonel turned to Badshah and pointing to the ground said one word: + +"_Raho_! (Remain!)" + +Then he continued to Wargrave: + +"We'll find them, or they'll find us, whenever we return." + +An hour later two elderly lamas in soiled yellow robes and horn-rimmed +spectacles, followed by a lame coolie carrying their scanty possessions, +emerged, rosary and praying-wheel in hand, from the forest into the +cultivated country. + +For some weeks they wandered unsuspected through the Tuna Penlop's +dominions and even penetrated into his own _jong_, where they were +entertained and their prayers solicited by his cut-throat retainers. +They learned enough to realise that the _Amban_ was endeavouring by the +free supply of arms and military instructors to form here the nucleus of +a trained force to be employed eventually against India, backed up by +reinforcements of Chinese troops and contingents from other parts of +Bhutan. + +Their investigations completed they returned safely to the forest in +which they had left the herd; and, much to Wargrave's relief, they had +not been many hours camped on the spot where they had parted with them +when Badshah and his wild companions appeared. The spies returned to +India as they had come, unseen and unsuspected. + +This excursion was but the first of many that Wargrave made with the +Colonel and the herd; and he soon began to know almost every member of +it and make friends, not only with the solemn but friendly little +calves, but even with their less trusting mothers. He was now thoroughly +at home in the jungle and no longer needed a tutor in sport. His one +room in the Mess began to be overcrowded with trophies of his skill with +the rifle. Other tiger-skins had joined the first; and, although he had +not secured a second bison, several good heads of _sambhur_, _khakur_ +and _cheetul_, or spotted deer, hung on his whitewashed stone walls. + +Thus with sport and work more fascinating than sport Wargrave found the +months slipping by. From Raymond he learned that Violet had returned to +Rohar before she wrote herself. When she did she seemed to be in a +brighter and more affectionate, as well as calmer, mood than she had +been before her visit to Poona. But gradually her letters became less +and less frequent; and Frank began to wonder--with a little sense of +guilty, shamed hope--if she were beginning to forget him. + +Christmas came; and with its coming Ranga Duar woke again to life. +Besides the Bensons and Carter, who now brought his wife, Mrs. Dermot's +brother--a subaltern in an Indian cavalry regiment--and five planters, +old friends of his from the district in which he had once been a planter +himself, came to spend Christmas in the small station. Major Hunt's +bungalow and the Mess took in the overflow from the Political Officer's +house. + +Brian and Eileen had the gayest, happiest time of their little lives. +Presents were heaped on them. Muriel and Frank initiated them into all +the delights of their first Christmas tree, and Burke introduced them to +a real Punch and Judy Show. On Christmas Day Badshah, his neck encircled +with a garland of flowers procured from the Plains, was led up solemnly +by his seldom-seen _mahout_ to present Colonel Dermot with a gilded lime +and receive in return a present of silver rupees which passed into the +possession of the said _mahout_. Then he was fed with dainties by the +children; and Eileen insisted on being tossed aloft by the curving +trunk, to the detriment of her starched party frock. + +The weather was appropriate to the season, cold and bright, and although +no snow fell so low down, it froze at night, so that the Europeans could +indulge in the luxury--in India--of gathering around blazing wood fires +after dinner. + +All, young and old, thoroughly enjoyed this almost English-like +Christmas--all except one. Burke's attentions to Muriel became more +marked and more full of meaning than they had ever been before; and it +was patent that he intended to put his fate to the touch during this +visit of hers. He did so without success, it seemed; for before she left +there was an evident sense of constraint between them and they tried to +avoid sitting beside each other or being left alone together, even for a +moment. Shortly after the departure of the visitors Burke contrived to +effect an exchange to another station, to the regret of all in the +little outpost, and he was replaced by a young Scots surgeon, named +Macdonald, his opposite in every way. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +TRAGEDY + + +The annual Durbar for the reception of the Bhutan Envoy and the payment +of the subsidy had come and gone again. The _Deb Zimpun_, who had not +been accompanied by the Chinese _Amban_ on this occasion, had departed; +and of the few European visitors only Muriel Benson remained. Colonel +Dermot had been called away to Simla, to confer with officials of the +Foreign Department on matters of frontier policy. Major Hunt was ill +with fever, leaving Wargrave, who was still nominally attached to the +Military Police, in command of the detachment. + +It was delicious torture to Frank to be in the same place again with +Muriel, to see her from the parade ground or the Mess verandah playing +in the garden with the children, to meet her every day and talk to her +and yet be obliged to school his lips and keep them from uttering the +words that trembled on them. + +A few nights after the Durbar he dined with Mrs. Dermot and Muriel and +was sitting on the verandah of the Political Officer's house with them +after dinner. He was wearing white mess uniform. The evening was warm +and very still, and whenever the conversation died away, no sound save +the monotonous note of the nightjars or the sudden cry of a +barking-deer, broke the silence since the echoes of the "Lights Out" +bugle call had died away among the hills. + +Wargrave looked at his watch. + +"It's past eleven o'clock," he said. "I'd no idea it was so late. I +ought to get up and say goodnight; but I'm so comfortable here, Mrs. +Dermot." + +His hostess smiled lazily at him but made no reply. Again a peaceful +hush fell on them. + +With startling suddenness it was broken. From the Fort four hundred +yards away a rifle-shot rang out, rending the silence of the night and +reverberating among the hills around. Wargrave sprang to his feet as +shouts followed and a bugle shrilled out the soul-gripping "Alarm," the +call that sends a thrill through every soldier's frame. For always it +tells of disaster. Heard thus at night in barracks swift following on a +shot it spoke of crime, of murder, the black murder of a comrade. + +The two women had risen anxiously. + +"What is it? Oh, what is it?" they asked. + +The subaltern spoke lightly to re-assure them. + +"Nothing much, I expect. Some man on guard fooling with his rifle let it +off by accident," he said quietly. "Excuse me. I'd better stroll across +to the Fort and see." + +But Mrs. Dermot stopped him. + +"Wait a moment please, Mr. Wargrave," she said, running into the house. +She returned immediately with her husband's big automatic pistol and +handed it to him. In her left hand she held a smaller one. "Take this +with you. It's loaded," she said. + +Frank thanked her, said goodnight to both calmly, and walked down the +garden path; but the anxious women heard him running swiftly across the +parade ground. + +"What is it, Noreen? What does it mean?" asked the girl nervously. + +"A sepoy running amuck, I'm afraid," replied her friend. "He's shot +someone----." + +She swung round, pistol raised. + +"_Kohn hai_? (Who's that?)" she called out. + +A man had come noiselessly on to the shadowed end of the verandah. + +"It is I, _mem-sahib_," answered Sher Afzul, her Punjaubi Mahommedan +butler. He had been in her service for five years and was devoted to her +and hers. He was carrying a rifle, for his master at his request had +long ago given him arms to protect his _mem-sahib_. Before her marriage +he had once fought almost to the death to defend her when her brother's +bungalow had been attacked by rebels during a rising. + +"It would be well to go into the house and put out the lights, +_mem-sahib_," he said quietly in Hindustani. "There is danger to-night." + +As he spoke he extinguished the lamp on the verandah and closed the +doors of the house. A second armed servant came quietly on to the +verandah and the butler melted into the darkness of the garden; but they +heard him go to the gate as if to guard it. + +"You had better go inside, Muriel," said Mrs. Dermot, but made no move +to do so herself. + +The girl did not appear to hear her. She was listening intently for any +sound from the Fort. But silence had fallen on it. + +"Muriel, won't you go into the house?" repeated her hostess. + +"Eh? What? No, I couldn't. I must stay here," replied Miss Benson +impatiently. In the black darkness the other woman could not see her; +but she felt that the girl's every sense was alert and strained to the +utmost. She moved to her and put her arm about her. Against it she could +feel Muriel's heart beating violently. + +Suddenly from the Fort came the noise of heavy blows and a crash, +instantly followed by a shot and then fierce cries. + +"Oh, my God! What is happening?" murmured the girl, her hand on her +heart. + +Presently there came the sound of running feet, and heavy boots +clattered up the rocky road towards the Mess past the gate. + +Then the butler's voice rang out in challenge: + +"_Kohn jatha_? (Who goes there?)" + +A panting voice answered: + +"Wargrave Sahib _murgya_. Doctor Sahib _ko bulana ko jatha_"--(Wargrave +Sahib is killed. I go to call the Doctor Sahib)--and the sepoy ran on in +the darkness. + +"O God! O God!" cried the girl, and tried to break from her friend's +clasp. "Let me go! Let me go!" + +"Where to?" asked Noreen, holding the frenzied girl with all her +strength. + +"To him. He's dead. Didn't you hear? He's dead. I must go to him." + +She struggled madly and beat fiercely at the hands that held her. + +"Let me go! Let me go! Oh, he's dead," she wailed. "Dead. And I loved +him so. Oh, be merciful! Let me go to him!" and suddenly her strength +gave way and she collapsed into Noreen's arms, weeping bitterly. + +They heard the clattering steps meet others coming down the hill and a +hurried conversation ensue. Noreen recognised one of the voices. Then +both men came running down. + +"It's the doctor," said Mrs. Dermot. "Come to the gate and we'll ask him +what has happened." + +"Mr. Macdonald! Mr. Macdonald!" she cried as the hurrying footsteps drew +near. + +"Who's that? Mrs. Dermot? For God's sake get into the house. There's a +man running amuck. Wargrave's killed. I'm wanted"; and the doctor, +taking no thought of danger to himself when there was need of his skill, +ran on into the darkness. + +"I must--I will go!" cried Muriel. + +"Very well. Perhaps it's not true. We must know. We may be able to +help," replied her friend. + +And with a word to Sher Afzul to guard her babies from danger she seized +Muriel's hand, and the two girls ran towards the Fort in the track that +Wargrave had followed to his death, it seemed. + + * * * * * + +Pistol in hand Wargrave had raced across the parade ground. At the gate +of the Fort he was challenged; and when he answered an Indian officer +came out of the darkness to him. + +"Sahib," he said hurriedly. "Havildar Mahommed Ashraf Khan has been shot +in his bed in barracks. The sentry over the magazine is missing with his +rifle." + +Wargrave entered the Fort. Opposite the guard-room the detachment was +falling in rapidly, the men carrying their rifles and running up from +their barrack-rooms in various stages of undress. By the flickering +light of a lantern held up for him a non-commissioned officer was +calling the roll, and his voice rumbled along in monotonous tones. The +guard were standing under arms. + +"Put out that lamp!" cried the subaltern sharply. It would only serve to +light up other marks for the invisible assassin if, like most men who +run _amôk_, he meant to keep on killing until slain himself. "No; take +it into the guard-room and shut the door." + +In the darkness the silence was intense, broken only by the heavy +breathing of the unseen men and the clattering of the feet of some +late-comer. Suddenly there rang out through the night the most appalling +sound that had ever assailed Wargrave's ears. It was as the cry of a +lost soul in all the agony of the damned, an eerie, unearthly wail that +froze the blood in the listeners' veins. In the invisible ranks men +shuddered and clutched at their neighbours. + +"_Khuda ke Nam men, kiya hai?_ (In the Name of God, what is that?)" +gasped the subaltern. + +The Indian officer at his side answered in a low voice: + +"It is Ashraf Khan crying out in pain, Sahib. He is not yet dead." + +"_Subhedar_ sahib, come with me," said Wargrave. "Let your _jemadar_ +(lieutenant) take the men one by one into the guard-room and examine the +rifles to see if any have been fired. We don't know yet if the missing +sentry did the deed." + +The _Subhedar_ (company commander) gave the order to his subordinate and +followed Wargrave to the barrack-room in which the crime had been +committed. The sight that met the subaltern's eyes was one that he was +not easily to forget. + +The high-roofed chamber was in darkness save at one end where a small +lamp cast weird shadows on the walls and vaulting ceiling. At this end +and under the flickering light a group of figures stood round a bed on +which a man was writhing in agony. He was struggling in delirious frenzy +to hurl himself to the stone floor, and was only held down by the united +efforts of three men. From a bullet wound in his bared chest the +life-blood welled with every movement of his tortured body. He had been +shot in the back as he lay asleep. The lips covered with a bloody froth +were drawn back tightly over the white teeth clenched in agony, and red +foam lay on the black beard. Out of the sweat-bathed, ghastly face the +eyes glared in frenzy. The features were contorted with pain. Again and +again the wild shrieks like the howl of a mad thing rang through the +long room and out into the night. + +With tear-filled eyes and heart torn with pity Wargrave looked down at +him in silence. Ashraf Khan was one of his best men. "But where is the +doctor sahib?" he asked the native officer suddenly. + +The _subhedar_ stared and shook his head. In the excitement no one had +thought of sending for the medical officer. Wargrave turned to one of +the men around the bed. + +"Mahbub Khan, run hard to the Mess and call the doctor sahib. Here, +stop!" He remembered that Macdonald did not possess a revolver. For all +one knew he might encounter the murderer on his way. Wargrave thrust +Mrs. Dermot's pistol into the sepoy's hand, saying, "Give the sahib +that." + +The man, who was barefoot, ran out of the chamber and went to his own +barrack-room for his shoes, for the road was rocky and covered with +sharp stones. The subaltern turned away with a sigh from the bedside of +his poor comrade. He could do nothing now but avenge him. As he walked +away from the group he trod on an empty cartridge case and picked it up. +It had recently been fired. It told its tale; for it showed that the +assassin had reloaded over his victim and intended that the killing +should not end there. If he were the missing sentry then he had nine +more cartridges left--nine human lives in his blood-stained hand. And as +the subaltern crossed the verandah outside the barrack-room the +_jemadar_ met him and reported that all the rifles of the detachment had +been examined and found clean except the missing weapon of the sentry, a +young Pathan sepoy called Gul Mahommed. It was remembered that the dying +_havildar_ (sergeant) had reprimanded him hotly on the previous day for +appearing on parade with accoutrements dirty. So little a cause was +needed to send a man to his death! + +The first thing to be done now was to hunt for the murderer. While he +went free no one's life was safe. Wargrave shuddered at the thought of +danger coming to Muriel or her friend, and he hoped that they were +safely shut in their house. It was a difficult problem to know where to +begin the search. The Fort was full of hiding-places, especially at +night. And already the assassin might have escaped over the low wall +surrounding it. As Wargrave stood perplexed another Indian officer ran +up, accompanied by two men with rifles. + +"Sahib! Sahib!" he whispered excitedly. "The murderer is in my room, the +one next that in which Ashraf Kahn was shot. I left the door wide open +when I ran out. It is now shut and bolted from the inside and someone is +moving about in it." + +The subaltern went along the verandah to the door and tried it. It was +firmly fastened. + +"Here, sahib!" cried a sepoy who ran up with a comrade carrying a heavy +log. + +"_Shahbash_! (Well done!) Break in the door," said Wargrave. + +Other men, who had come up, seized the long log and dashed it violently +against the door. The bolt held, but the frail hinges gave way and the +door fell in. + +"Stand back!" cried Wargrave. + +It seemed certain death to enter the room in which a murderer lurked in +darkness, armed with a rifle and fixed bayonet and resolved to sell his +life dearly. But the subaltern did not hesitate. He was the only sahib +there and of course it was his duty to go in. He could not ask his men +to risk a danger that he shirked himself. That is not the officer's +way, whose motto must ever be "Follow where I lead." + +Wargrave sprang into the room unarmed. He was outlined against the faint +light outside. A spurt of flame lit the darkness; and the subaltern, as +he tripped over the raised threshold, felt that he was shot. He +staggered on. A rifle lunged forward and the bayonet stabbed him in the +side; but with a desperate effort he closed with his unseen assailant +and grappled fiercely with him. Struggling to overpower the assassin +before his ebbing strength left him he fought madly. The Indian officers +and sepoys blocking up the doorway could see nothing; but they could +hear the choking gasps, the panting breaths, the muttered curses and the +stamping feet of the combatants locked in the death-grapple. They could +not interfere, they dared not fire. In impotent fury they shouted: + +"Bring lamps! Bring lamps!" + +Then, groaning in their powerlessness to aid their beloved officer, they +listened, as a light danced over the stones from a lantern in the hand +of a running sepoy. The moment it came and lit up the scene they rushed +on the murderer wrestling fiercely with Wargrave and dragged him off as +the subaltern collapsed and fell to the ground. The glare of the lantern +shone on his white face. + +"The sahib is dead!" cried a sepoy, and sprang at the murderer who was +struggling in the grip of the two powerfully-built Indian officers. +Others followed him, and his captors had to fight hard and use all their +authority to keep the prisoner from being killed by the bare hands of +his maddened comrades. Only the arrival of the armed men of the guard +saved him. + +Frenzied with grief the sepoys bent over their officer lying motionless +and apparently dead on the stone floor. They loved him. Many of them +wept openly and unashamed. The _subhedar_ knelt beside him and opened +his shirt. The blood had soaked through the white mess-jacket that +Wargrave wore. + +The native officer looked up into the ring of brown faces bent over him. +Suddenly he cried angrily: + +"Mahbub Khan, why hast thou not gone for the doctor sahib as thou wert +told, O Son of an Owl?" + +The face staring in horror between the heads of the sepoys was hurriedly +withdrawn, and Mahbub Khan, who had lingered to see the end of the +tragedy, turned and pushed his way out of the crowd. + +Macdonald found the subaltern lying to all appearances dead on the +broken door out in the open, where they had gently carried him. + +"Hold a light here," he cried as he knelt down beside the body. + +By now a dozen lanterns or more lit up the scene. The doctor laid his +ear against Wargrave's chest and held a polished cigarette case to his +lips. Then he pulled back the shirt to examine his injuries. + +"Oh, is he dead? Is he dead?" cried a trembling voice. + +The doctor, looking up angrily, found Miss Benson and Mrs. Dermot +standing over him. The sepoys had silently made way for them. + +"You shouldn't be here, ladies," he said with justifiable annoyance. +"This is no place for you. No; he's not dead. And I hope and think that +he won't die." + +"Oh, thank God!" cried the two women. + +The sepoys crowding round and hanging on the doctor's verdict could not +understand the words but saw the look of joyous relief on their faces +and guessed the truth. A wild, confused cheer went up to the stars. + +"Mr. Macdonald," said Mrs. Dermot bending over him again. "Will you +bring him to my house? There is no accommodation for him in your little +hospital, you know; and he'd have no one to look after him in the Mess. +I can nurse him." + +The doctor straightened himself on his knee and looked down at the +unconscious man. + +"Yes, Mrs. Dermot, it's a good idea," he replied. "There is nowhere else +where he'd get any attention. My hands are full with Major Hunt. He's +taken a turn for the worse. His temperature went up dangerously high +to-night; and he was almost delirious." + +He stood up. + +"I can't examine Wargrave properly here. He seems to be wounded in two +places. But I hope it's not--I mean, I think he'll pull through. His +pulse is getting stronger. I've put a first dressing on; and I think we +can move him. Hi! stretcher _idher lao_. (Bring the stretcher here!)" + +Suddenly Wargrave opened his eyes and looked up in the doctor's face. + +"Is that you, Macdonald?" he asked dreamily. "Never mind me; I'm all +right. Go to poor Ashraf Khan. If he must die, at least give him +something to put him out of his misery. I can wait." + +His voice trailed off, and he relapsed into unconsciousness. Ordering +him to be carried away the doctor, after a word with the Indian +officers, entered the barrack-room. It was useless. Ashraf Khan had just +died. + +The crowd fell back in a wide circle to let the two hospital orderlies +bring up the stretcher for Wargrave and, as they did, left a group of +men standing isolated in the centre. All of these were armed, except one +whose hands were pinioned behind his back. His head was bare, his face +bruised and bleeding, and his uniform nearly torn off his body. It +needed no telling that he was the murderer. + +Miss Benson walked up to him with fierce eyes. + +"You dog!" she cried bitterly in Urdu. + +The man who had smiled defiantly when the hands of his raging comrades +were seeking to tear the life out of his body and had shouted out his +crime in their faces, cowered before the anger in the flaming eyes of +this frail girl. He shrank back between his guards. The sepoys looking +on howled like hungry wolves and, as Mrs. Dermot drew the girl back, +made a rush for the murderer. The men of the guard faced them with +levelled bayonets and ringed their prisoner round; and the sepoys fell +back sullenly. + +Suddenly a shrill voice cried in Hindustani: + +"Make way! Make way there! What has happened?" + +The circle of men gapped and through the opening came Major Hunt, +white-faced, wasted, shaking with fever and clad only in pyjamas and a +great coat and with bare feet thrust into unlaced shoes. He staggered +feebly in among them, revolver in hand. + +"Heaven and Earth! Is Wargrave dead?" he cried and tottered towards the +stretcher. + +Suddenly the pistol dropped from his shaking hand and he fell forward on +the stones before Macdonald could catch him. + +"This is madness," muttered the doctor. "It may kill him. I hoped he +wouldn't hear the alarm." + +"Bring him to my house too," said Mrs. Dermot. + +Another stretcher was fetched, the Major lifted tenderly into it, and +the sad procession started, the sepoys falling back silently to make +way. + +Major Hunt having been put to bed in one of the guest-rooms of the +Political Officer's house, Macdonald, with the aid of the subaltern's +servant, undressed Wargrave and examined his injuries, Noreen holding a +basin for him while Muriel, shuddering, carried away the blood-tinged +water and brought fresh. The shot-wound, though severe, was not +necessarily dangerous, and the bullet had not lodged in him. The doctor +was relieved to find that the bayonet had not penetrated deeply but had +only glanced along a rib, tearing the intercostal muscles and inflicting +a long, jagged but superficial wound which bled freely. Indeed, the most +serious matter was the great loss of blood, which had weakened the +subaltern considerably. + +Wargrave did not recover consciousness until early morning. When he +opened his eyes they fell on Muriel sitting by his bed. He showed no +surprise and the girl, scarce daring to believe that he was awake and +knew her, did not venture to move. But as he continued to look steadily +at her she gently laid her hand on his where it lay on the coverlet. + +Then in a weak voice he said: + +"Dearest, I mustn't love you, I mustn't. I'm bound in honour--bound to +another woman and I must play the game. It's hard sometimes. But if I +die I want you to know I loved you, only you." + +Her heart seemed to stop suddenly, then beat again with redoubled force. +Was he conscious? Was he speaking to her? Did he know what his words +meant? She waited eagerly for him to continue; but his hand closed on +hers in a weak grip and, shutting his eyes, he seemed to sleep. The girl +sank on her knees beside the bed and stared at the pale face that in +those few hours had grown so hollow and haggard. Did he really love her? +The thought was joy--until the damning memory of his other words +recurred to her and a sharp pain pierced her heart. There was another +woman then--one who held his promise. Who was she? He could not be +secretly married, surely; no, it must be that he was engaged to some +other girl. But he loved her--her, Muriel. He wanted to say so, he had +said so, though he strove to hold back, in honour bound. He would play +the game--ah! that he would do at any cost to himself. For she knew his +chivalrous nature. But he loved her--she was sure of it. Then the doubts +came again--did he know what he was saying? Was it perhaps only delirium +that spoke, the fever of his wounds? The girl suffered an agony worse +than death as she knelt beside the bed, her forehead on his hand. And +Noreen, entering softly an hour later, found her still crouched there, +weeping bitterly but silently. + +Shortly after sunrise Macdonald entered the house, wan and haggard, for +he had not been to bed all night. Besides the hours that he had spent +with his patients he had been busy in the Fort all night. He had to make +an autopsy of the dead man, and, as the only officer available, +investigate the crime, examine the witnesses and the prisoner who calmly +confessed his guilt, and telegraph the news of the occurrences to +Regimental, Divisional and Army Headquarters. He found Major Hunt +sleeping peacefully; but Wargrave woke as he tiptoed into the room and +looked up at him, at first not seeing the women. He was fully conscious +and asked eagerly for an account of what had happened. Noreen and Muriel +shuddered at the delight with which he heard of the murderer's capture; +for they were too tender-hearted to understand his passionate desire to +avenge the cruel slaying of one of his men. When he turned away from +Macdonald and saw Muriel his eyes shone eagerly for a moment, then +seemed to dull as memory returned to him. He begged Mrs. Dermot to +forgive him for upsetting her domestic arrangements by his intrusion +into the house. + +Later in the morning Noreen was sitting alone with him, having sent +Muriel to lie down for a couple of hours. She had not been to bed +herself, but after a bath and a change of clothing had given her +children their breakfast and bidden them make no noise, because their +beloved "Fwankie" was lying ill in the house. Yet she could not forbear +to smile when she saw the portentous gravity with which Eileen tiptoed +out into the garden to tell Badshah the news and order him to be very +quiet. + +Now, looking fresh and bright, she sat beside Wargrave's bed. Since the +doctor had left him he had lain thinking. He felt that Violet must be +informed at once that he had been hurt but was in no danger, lest she +might learn of the occurrence through another source and believe him to +be worse than he really was. As he looked at Mrs. Dermot the desire to +ask her instead of Macdonald if she would be the one to communicate with +Mrs. Norton grew overwhelming, and he felt that he wanted to confide to +her the whole story, sure that she would understand. And she could tell +Muriel--for he had been quite conscious when he had spoken to the girl +in the morning. It was only right that she should know the truth, but he +shrank from telling it to her himself. + +So he opened his heart to Noreen; and the understanding little woman +listened sympathisingly and made no comment, and undertook to explain +the situation to Muriel. So, an hour or two later, when Macdonald was +again with the subaltern, she went to her friend's room and told her the +whole story. + +The girl's first feeling was anger at the thought of Frank making love +to a married woman. + +"Seems to me it's the married woman who made it to him, from what I can +gather," said Noreen, a little annoyed with Muriel for her way of +receiving the story. "He did not say so, but it was easy to guess the +truth. Now, my dear, don't be absurd. Men are not angels; and if a +pretty woman flings herself at the head of one of them it's hard for +him to keep her at arm's length. And you've seen yourself in Darjeeling +how some of them, the married ones especially, do chase them." Her eyes +grew hard as she continued, "I remember how Kevin once was----." Then +she stopped. + +"But Frank! How could he? Oh, how could he? And he loved her," sobbed +the girl. + +"Don't be silly, Muriel. I tell you I don't believe he ever did. He +loves you now." + +"Oh, do you think he does? What am I to do?" + +"Nothing. Merely go along as you've been doing. Just be friendly. And +don't be hard on him. He's had a bad time. I've always felt that there +was something troubling him. Now I know; and I'm not going to let him +ruin himself and throw away his happiness for a woman who's not worth +it. He's the nicest, cleanest-minded man I've known after Kevin and my +brother. He saved my babies, and for that I'd do anything for him. I +feel almost as if he were one of my children; and I'll stand by him if +you won't." + +"Oh, but I will, I will," cried the girl. "But how can I help him?" + +"As I said, by acting as if nothing had happened and just keeping on +being friends. It oughtn't to be hard. See how he's suffering and think +how brave he's been. Remember, he loves you; and you do care for him, +don't you? I've an idea that he hopes that this woman is tiring of him +and may set him free. Of course he didn't say as much, but----." She +nodded sagely. Her intuition had told her more of his feelings in a +minute than Frank had dared to acknowledge to himself in many months. +"Anything I can do to help to bring that about I will." + +The days went by; and Wargrave, aided by his clean living, the devoted +nursing that he received, and the cool, healthy mountain air, began to +mend. Major Hunt had recovered and returned to duty, relieving the +officer sent from Headquarters to command during his illness. Colonel +Dermot had come back from Simla with Frank's appointment to the +Political Department as his assistant in his pocket. The murdered man +had long ago been laid to rest by his comrades; but his slayer still sat +fettered in the one cell of the Fort awaiting the assembling of the +General Court Martial for his trial, and seeing from his barred window +the even routine of the life that had been his for three years still +going on, but with no place in it for him. + +The period of Wargrave's convalescence was a very happy time for him. +Muriel had remained a whole month after the eventful night; for Mrs. +Dermot declared that, with the care of her house and children, she had +no time to nurse the subaltern, and the girl must stay to do it while he +was in any danger. So she lingered in the station to do him willing +service, wait on him, chat or read to him, give him her arm when he was +first allowed to leave his room, and did it all with the bright, +cheerful kindness of a friend, no more. She never alluded to his words +to her; but her patient somehow guessed that she had not been angered by +the revelation of the state of his feelings towards her. And from the +tenderness of her manner to him, the unconscious jealousy that she +displayed if anyone but she did any service for him, he began to half +hope, half fear, that she cared a little for him in return. But even as +he thought this he realised that he must not allow her to do so. + +At last the time came when she had to return to her father down in the +vast forest; and bravely as she said goodbye to everyone--and most of +all to Frank--the tears blinded her as she sat on the back of the +elephant that bore her away and saw the hills close in and shut from her +gaze the little station that held her heart. + +Wargrave, however, was not left to pine in loneliness after her +departure. All day long, if they were allowed, the children stayed with +him, Eileen smothering him with caresses at regular intervals. They told +him their doings, confided their dearest secrets to him and demanded +stories. And "Fwankie" racked his brains to recall the fairy tales of +his own childhood to repeat to the golden-haired mites perched on his +bed and gazing at him in awed fascination, the girl uttering little +shrieks at all the harrowing details of the wicked deeds of Giant +Blunderbore and the cruel deceit of the wolf that devoured Red +Ridinghood. + +But the subaltern, had a grimmer visitor one day. The orders came at +last for Gul Mahommed to be sent to Calcutta to stand his trial without +waiting for Wargrave's recovery, the latter's evidence being taken on +commission. The prisoner begged that he might be allowed to see the +wounded officer before he left; and, Frank having consented, he was +brought to the subaltern's bedroom when he was marched out of the Fort +on the first stage of his journey to the gallows. + +It was a dramatic scene. The stalwart young Pathan in uniform with his +wrists handcuffed stood with all the bold bearing of his race by the +bedside of the man that he had tried to kill, while two powerful sepoys +armed with drawn bayonets hemmed him in, their hands on his shoulders. + +The prisoner looked for a moment at the pale face of the wounded man, +then his bold eyes suffused with tears as he said: + +"_Huzoor_! (The Presence!) I am sorry. Had I known that night it was +Your Honour I would not have lifted my rifle against you. The Sahib has +always been good to me, to all of us. My enemy I slew, as we of the +_Puktana_ must do to all who insult us. That deed I do not regret." + +Wargrave looked up sorrowfully at the splendidly-built young +fellow--barely twenty-one--who had only done as he had been taught to do +from his cradle. Among Pathans blood only can wash away the stain of an +insult. The officer felt no anger against him for his own injuries and +regretted that false notions of honour had led him to kill a comrade and +were now sending him to a shameful death. + +"I am sorry, Gul Mahommed, very sorry," he said. "You were always a good +soldier, and now you must die." + +The Pathan drew himself up with all the haughty pride of his race. + +"I do not fear death, Sahib. They will give me the noose. But my father +can spare me. He has five other sons to fight for him. If only the Sahib +would forgive----." + +Wargrave, much moved, held out his hand to him. The prisoner touched it +with his manacled ones, then raised his fingers to his forehead. + +"For your kindness, Sahib, _salaam_!" + +Then he turned and walked proudly out of the room and Wargrave heard the +tramp of heavy feet on the rocky road outside as the prisoner was +marched away on the long trail to the gallows. Two months later Gul +Mahommed was hanged in the courtyard of Alipur jail in Calcutta before +detachments of all the regiments garrisoning the city. + +The subaltern had long chafed at the restraint of an invalid before +Macdonald took him off the sick-list and he was free to wander again +with Colonel Dermot in the forest and among the mountains. Before the +hot weather ended Raymond came to spend three weeks with him and be +initiated into the delights of sport in the great jungle. + +When the long imprisonment of the rains came Wargrave began to suffer in +health; for his wounds had sapped his strength more than he knew and +Macdonald shook his head over him. Nor was he the only invalid; for +little Brian grew pale and listless in the mists that enveloped the +outpost constantly now, until finally the doctor decreed that his +mother, much as she hated parting from her husband and her home, must +take the children to Darjeeling. And he ordered the subaltern to go too. +Frank did not repine, after Mrs. Dermot had casually intimated that +Muriel Benson was arranging to join her at the railway station and +accompany her on a long visit to Darjeeling. + +It was Wargrave's first introduction to a hill-station; and everything +was a delightful novelty to him, from the quaint little train that +brought them up the seven thousand feet to their destination in the +pretty town of villas, clubs and hotels in the mountains, to the +glorious panorama of the Eternal Snows and Kinchinjunga's lofty crests +that rise like fairyland into the sky at early dawn and under the +brilliant Indian moon. + +As Mrs. Dermot could not often leave her children it was Muriel, who +knew Darjeeling well, who became his guide. Together every day they set +out from their hotel, together they scaled the heights of Jalapahar or +rode down to watch the polo on the flat hill-top of Lebong, a thousand +feet below. Together they explored the fascinating bazaar and bought +ghost-daggers and turquoises in the quaint little shops. Together they +went on picnics down into the deep valleys on the way to Sikkhim. They +played tennis, rinked or danced together at the Amusement Club; and the +ladies at the tea-tables in the great lounge smiled significantly and +whispered to each other as the good-looking fair man and the pretty, +dark-haired girl came in together when the light was fading on the +mountains. Frank forgot cares. He ceased to brood unhappily--for it had +come to that--on Violet, who, as her rare letters told him, had spent +the Hot Weather in the Bombay hill-station of Mahableshwar and was now +enjoying life during the Rains in gay Poona. She seldom wrote, and then +but scrappily; and it seemed to him certain that she was forgetting him. +And he felt ashamed at the joy which filled him at the thought. Was he +always destined to be only the friend of the girl he loved, the lover of +the woman to whom he wished to be a friend? + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +"ROOTED IN DISHONOUR" + + +Government House, Ganeshkind, outside Poona, the residence of the +Governor of Bombay during the Rains, was blazing with light and gay with +the sound of music; for His Excellency was giving a fancy dress ball. +Motors and carriages were still rolling up in a long line to the +entrance where the gorgeously-clad Indian Cavalry soldiers of the +Governor's Bodyguard--tall and stately back-bearded men in long scarlet +tunics, white breeches and high black boots, their heads swathed in +gaudy _loongies_ (turbans) with tails streaming down their backs, +holding steel-headed bamboo lances with red and white pennons in their +white-gauntleted right hands--lined the approach. Inside, the splendid +ballroom, ablaze with electric lights, was crowded with gaily-dressed +figures in costumes beautiful or bizarre. The good-looking, middle-aged +baron who was the King's representative in the Bombay Presidency was +standing, dressed as Charles II., beside his plain but pleasant-featured +wife in the garb of Amy Robsart, receiving the last of their guests, +while already the dancing had begun. + +Later in the evening a group of officers in varied costumes stood near +one of the entrances criticising the dresses and the company. + +"By George, that's a magnificent kit," said a Garrison Gunner just +arrived on short leave from Bombay. "What's it supposed to be?" + +"A Polish hussar, I think," replied a subaltern in Wellesley's Rifles. + +"No, he's Murat, Napoleon's cavalry leader," said an Indian Lancer +captain. + +The wearer of the costume alluded to was passing them in a waltz. He was +a young man in a splendid old-time hussar uniform, a scarlet dolman +thick-laced with gold, a fur-trimmed slung pelisse, tight scarlet +breeches embroidered down the front of the thighs in gold, and long red +Russian leather boots with gold tassels. He was good-looking, but not in +an English way, and the swarthiness of his complexion and a slight kink +in his dark hair seemed to hint a trace of coloured blood. He was +plainly Israelite in appearance; and the large nose with the +unmistakable racial curved nostril would become bulbous with years, the +firm cheeks flabby and the plump chin double. + +"That dress cost some money, I'll bet," said the Gunner, cheaply attired +as a Pierrot. "Just look at the gold lace. I say, he's got glass +buttons." + +"Glass be hanged, Fergie, they're diamonds. Real diamonds, honour +bright, Murat wore diamonds. He was buckin' about them in the Club +to-night," said a captain in a British infantry regiment quartered in +Poona. "That's Rosenthal of the 2nd Hussars from Bangalore. Son of old +Rosenthal the South African multi-millionaire. A Sheeny, of course." + +"Who's the woman he's dancing with?" asked the Gunner. "Jolly +good-looking she is." + +"That's Mrs. Norton, wife of a Political somewhere in the Presidency. +Rosenthal's always in her pocket since he met her at Mahableshwar." + +As the dance ended the many couples streamed out of the ballroom and +made for the _kala juggas_--the "black places," as the sitting-out spots +are appropriately termed in India from the carefully-arranged lack of +light in them. Mrs. Norton, looking very lovely as Mary, Queen of Scots, +and her partner crossed the verandah and went out into the unlit garden +in search of seats. The first few they stumbled on were already +occupied, a fact that the darkness prevented them from realising until +they almost sat down on the occupants. At last in a retired corner of +the garden Rosenthal found a bench in a recess in the wall. As they +seated themselves he blurted out roughly: + +"I'm sick of all this, Vi. When do you mean to give me your answer? I'm +damned if I'm going to hang on waiting much longer. I'm fed up with +India and the Army. I mean to cut it all." + +"Well, Harry, what do you want?" asked his companion, smiling in the +darkness at his vehemence. + +"Want? You. And you know it. I want to take you away from this rotten +country. What's all this----," he waved his hand towards the lighted +ballroom, "compared to Paris, Monte Carlo, Cairo, Ostend when the races +are on? Let's go where life is worth living. This is stagnation." + +"Oh, I find it amusing. You forget, we women have a better time in India +than in Europe. There are too many of us there, so you don't value us." + +"Better time. Oh, Law! What rot!" He laughed rudely. "You've never lived +yet, dear. Look here, Vi. My father's one of the three richest men in +South Africa; and all he's got will come to me some day. As it is he +gives me an allowance bigger than those of all the other men in the +regiment put together. I hate the Service and its idiotic discipline. I +want to be free--to go where money counts. Damn India!" + +"Doesn't it count everywhere?" she asked, fanning herself lazily. His +rough, almost boorish, manner amused her always. She felt as if she were +playing with a caged tiger. "Doesn't it here?" + +"No; in the Army they seem to think more of some damned pauper who comes +of a 'county family,' as they call it, than of a fellow like me who +could buy up a dozen of them. I hate them all. And I mean to chuck it. +But I want you to come with me, Vi. And, what's more, I mean to have +you." + +"But your father wishes you to stay in the Service. You told me so +yourself. Will he like it if you leave--and will he continue your +allowance?" + +"Oh, I'll get round him. He's only got me. He's no one else to leave his +money to. It'd be all right, Vi. Answer me. I mean to get you." + +He grasped her wrist and tried to drag her towards him. She laughed and +held him off. + +"Take care, my dear boy. Darkness has ears. We're not alone in the +garden, please remember. If you can't behave prettily I'm going back to +the ballroom. Come, there's the music beginning again." + +He tried to seize her in his arms, but she eluded his grasp with a +dexterity that argued practice, and, rising, moved across the grass. He +followed sulkily, dominated by her cool and careless indifference. When +they reached the verandah one of the Government House aides-de-camp +rushed up to her. + +"Oh, Mrs. Norton, I've been hunting for you everywhere. I've a message +from His Excellency. He wants you to come to his table at supper and +save him from the Members of Council's awful wives." + +"Oh, thanks, Captain Gardner, I'll come with pleasure," she answered, +smiling prettily on him. An A.D.C. is always worth cultivating. + +"I say, is it hopeless asking you for a dance now?" he said. "We poor +devils of the Staff don't get a chance at the beginning of the evening, +as we're so busy introducing people to Their Excellencies." + +She looked at her programme. + +"You can have this, if you like. It's only with some Indian Civilian in +spectacles; and I hate the Heaven Born. They're such bores." She smiled +and sailed off on the A.D.C.'s arm to the disgust of Rosenthal, calmly +abandoned. But he could not help being amused when a round-faced young +man dressed as an ancient Greek with gig-lamp spectacles rushed up to +overtake Mrs. Norton before she entered the ballroom, and stopped in +dismay to gaze after her open-mouthed and peer at his programme. + +But the Hussar drove her back from Government House to Poona in his +particularly luxurious Rolls-Royce with an English chauffeur and would +hardly let her go when the car drew up before the door of the Munster +Hotel where she was staying. Laughing, crushed and dishevelled, she +broke from him and jumped out of the automobile, ran up the verandah +steps and turned to wave to him as the chauffeur started off to take him +to his quarters in the Club of Western India. + +Still smiling Violet stumbled up the unlighted stairs and reached her +sitting-room. When she turned up the lamp a letter lying on the table +caught her eyes. She picked it up indifferently; but when she saw that +it bore the handwriting of one of her Calcutta cousins and the +Darjeeling postmark she tore it open eagerly and ran her eye rapidly +down the pages. She came to the lines: + + "I have seen the man you asked me about. He is always with a girl + called Benson, rather a pretty little thing. She is popular with all + the men; but Mr. Wargrave seems to be the favourite. They are + staying at the same hotel; and everyone says they are engaged." + +Then the writer went on to talk of family matters. But Violet read no +more. Her eyes flamed with anger as she crumpled the paper up, flung it +on the floor and stamped it under foot. She paced the room angrily, +tearing the lace handkerchief she held in her hands to shreds. This, +then, was Frank's loyalty to her, this was how he consoled himself for +her absence. With this chit of a girl, with whom he probably laughed at +her, Violet's readiness to give up reputation, good fame, home, for him. +She almost sobbed with jealous rage at the idea. She forgot her own +infidelities and want of remembrance and felt herself to be a deceived +and much-abused woman. But she would not bear such treatment meekly. +Frank was hers; no other woman had a right to him, should ever have him. +She was resolved on that. She stopped and, picking up the letter, +smoothed it out and re-read it. Then, frowning, she passed into her +bedroom and tore off her costume. Not for an instant did she sleep +during the remainder of the night, but tossed on her bed, revolving +plans of vengeance. + +Next day she was seated in the train on her way to Darjeeling, a +journey that would take days. She had telegraphed fruitlessly for a room +at the Oriental Hotel at which she knew from his letters that Frank was +staying; but she had secured one at the larger Eastern Palace where her +Calcutta relatives were residing. Only on the second day of her journey +did she wire to Wargrave, bidding him meet her on her arrival. + +As the train carried her across India her heart was still filled with +anger, jealousy and almost hate of the man whom she had favoured above +all others and who spurned her, dared to be faithless to her, it seemed. +She did not know how much love she had left for him; for his image had +grown dim in the flight of time and among the distractions of gayer +stations than Rohar. Certainly she had flirted herself, flirted +recklessly; but that was a different matter to his faithlessness. She +might do it; but he must not. Did she want him? She hardly knew. But she +was not going to be put aside for this tiger-killing young person, this +jungle girl, who must be taught not to trespass on Violet's property. + +Then her mind went back to Rosenthal; and in the solitude of the ladies' +compartment she laughed aloud at the thought of the shock that his +self-sufficiency must have received when he learned of her sudden and +mysterious disappearance from Poona. For she had left him no word. It +would do him good; he needed a lesson, for he was too sure of her. She +had never troubled to analyse her feelings for him and did not know +whether she liked or hated him most. She saw his faults clearly, his +blatant conceit, his irritating belief in the supremacy of money, his +arrogance, his bad manners. She knew that men deemed him a bounder. But +his very boorishness, his savage outbreaks against conventionality, +attracted her. Under the thin veneer of civilisation, he was simply an +animal; she knew it and it appealed to her baser nature, the sensual +strain in her. That he was beast, and wild beast at that, did not +affright her; she felt that she could always dominate him when she +would. Once or twice the beast had come out into the open; but she had +driven it back with a whip--and she believed that she could always do +it. The wealth, the life of luxury that he offered, appealed to her +strongly; but she kept her head and remembered that he was dependent on +his father's bounty, and she had no intention of compromising herself +irretrievably under such circumstances. If he had the disposal of the +old man's immense riches then the temptation might be over-powering; but +until he had she would wait. And ever the memory of Wargrave obtruded +itself, rather to her annoyance; but angry as she was with him she could +not pretend to herself that she was indifferent to him. + +Up in Darjeeling on the very day that she left Poona Frank sat with +Miss Benson under a massive, orchid-clad tree in the lovely Botanical +Gardens, gazing moodily down into the depths of the valley far below +them. Turning suddenly he found his companion looking at him. Something +in her eyes moved him strongly and he forgot his caution. + +"Muriel, you know how it is with, me," he said impetuously. "I oughtn't +to say anything; but--well, all the men here run after you, and I can't +bear it. I'm a fool, I know, but I can't help being jealous. I'm always +afraid that some one of them will take you from me. The other woman +seems to be forgetting me completely. She hasn't written to me for +weeks, months. Surely she's tiring of me. I don't suppose she ever +really cared for me--just was bored in that dull station. If--if she +sets me free would you--could you ever like me well enough to marry me?" + +The girl looked away over the valley and a little smile crept into her +eyes. Then she turned to him and laid her hand on his. + +"Dear boy, if you were free I would," she answered. + +They were all alone, no one to see them; and his arms went out to her. +But she drew back. + +"Not yet, dear. You're another woman's property still," she said. + +He bit his lip. + +"Yes, you're right, sweetheart. But--well, even if I weren't, I haven't +much to offer you. I'm still in debt; and I'd be only condemning you to +pass all your existence in the jungle." + +"There'd be no hardship in that, dear. I love the forest better than +anywhere else in the world. Life in it is happiness to me." + +"But would you be content to live as Mrs. Dermot does?" + +"Content? I'd love it better than anything else, if I were with you." + +Then he forgot her reproof and she her high-minded resolves as his arms +went round her and he drew her to him until their lips met in a long, +passionate kiss. Afterwards they sat hand in hand and talked of what the +future would hold for them if only Fate were kind. And Mrs. Norton, +speeding across India to shatter their dream-world, smiled a little +grimly as she pictured to herself her meeting with Frank. + +Next day the blow fell. Wargrave was sitting at lunch with Mrs. Dermot +and Muriel in the hotel dining-room when Violet's telegram was handed to +him. His companions could see that he had received bad news; but he +pulled himself together and said nothing about it until he was alone +with Mrs. Dermot in her private sitting-room after _tiffin_. Then he +exclaimed suddenly, handing her the telegram: + +"She's on her way here." + +Noreen understood even before she looked at the paper. When she read +the message she asked: + +"What's she coming here for?" + +"I don't know. I haven't had a letter from her for a long time," he +replied wearily. + +"What are you going to do about her?" + +"What can I?" he said with a gesture of despair. "It's for her to +decide. If she wishes it I must keep my word." + +"But Muriel? What of her? You know she cares for you. Has she no right +to be considered?" demanded her friend impatiently. "Are you going to +ruin her life as well as yours? This woman will only drag you down. She +can't really be fond of you or she wouldn't forget you as she's been +doing. You don't love her. Don't you see what it will all mean to +you?--to be pilloried in the Divorce Court, made to pay enormous costs, +perhaps heavy damages as well. And even now you say you're in debt. And +then to be chained for life to a woman you don't care about while you're +in love with another. Oh, Mr. Wargrave, do be sensible. Tell her the +truth. Tell her you can't go on with it." + +"I've given her my word," he said simply. + +She pleaded with him passionately, but to no avail. At last, as Muriel +entered the room, she rose, saying: + +"Tell her. I'll not mention the subject again." + +And she walked indignantly into her bedroom and shut the door almost +with a bang; for the little woman was furious with him for what she +deemed his crass stupidity. + +"What's the matter with Noreen?" asked the girl in surprise. + +Without a word he gave her the telegram. + +"Oh Frank!" she gasped, and sank overwhelmed into a chair, letting the +fatal paper flutter to the floor. + +He did not go to her but stood by the window, the image of despair, +gazing out with unseeing eyes. + +"What am I to do?" he asked miserably. + +"You must keep your word if she wishes it," answered the girl bravely. + +But the next moment she broke down and, burying her face in her hands, +wept bitterly. He made no move to her; and she rose and went quietly +back to her own room. + +In the interval that elapsed before Violet's arrival Mrs. Dermot did not +abandon hope, and in spite of her words she attacked Wargrave +persistently, trying to shake his resolution. But to her despair Muriel +sided with him and declared that he was right. So finally Noreen gave it +up and vowed that she would wash her hands of the whole affair. + +When Violet reached Darjeeling Wargrave met her at the railway station. +Face to face with him her anger died and something of the attraction he +had had for her revived. So she greeted him effusively and all but +embraced him on the platform. Other men seeing the meeting wondered why +he looked so miserable when such a lovely woman evinced her delight at +seeing him so plainly. She passed her arm through his with an air of +possession and chatted volubly while he watched his servant help hers to +collect her luggage. When she took her seat in the _dandy_, or chair +carried on the shoulders of coolies, and was being conveyed towards her +hotel she behaved as though they had not been parted a week, rattled on +gaily about her doings in Poona and Mahableshwar and, with all the +glories of the Himalayas about her, declared that the Bombay +hill-station was far lovelier than Darjeeling. Wargrave was relieved +that she showed no desire to be sentimental and gladly responded to her +mood, detailing the forthcoming gaieties and promising to take her to +them all. + +When they reached the Eastern Palace Hotel and were shown up into her +private sitting-room she put her hands on his shoulders as soon as they +were alone and said: + +"Let me look at you, Frank. You have improved. You've grown handsomer, I +think. Aren't you going to kiss me?" + +He did it with so little fervour that she made a grimace and thought +"It's quite time that I came to bring him to heel. Not much loving +ardour about that. I wonder if he kisses the jungle girl as coldly." +Aloud she said: + +"Now let's go down to _tiffin_. I'm starving. Will you please secure a +table and I'll follow you in a few minutes?" + +During the meal she chattered gaily, criticised the dresses and +appearance of the other women in the dining-room and, chaffing him +merrily on his want of appetite, ate a substantial meal herself. Mrs. +Dermot, anxious to befriend him, had thought that she could help him by +inviting him to bring Mrs. Norton to tea with her that afternoon. When +during _tiffin_ he hesitatingly conveyed the invitation Violet said: + +"Oh, I don't want to be bothered with women, my dear boy. Take me out +and show me the place and the shops and the _Gymkhana_--what do you call +it here? Oh, the Amusement Club. No, stop a minute. Mrs. Dermot is your +dear friend from Ranga Duar, isn't she? So she's here. And the other, +the jungle girl, where is she?" + +Frank flushed as he replied: + +"I suppose you mean Miss Benson? She's with Mrs. Dermot." + +"So you're all staying at the same hotel. How very nice for you! But, my +dear Frank, doesn't it strike you that it'll be rather dull for me +staying by myself here? You'll have to change to this hotel." + +"I asked about rooms here; but they told me they're full up now." + +"I'll see if I can't get round the manager and make him find a corner +for you. Well, now for this tea-party. Yes; on second thoughts I'll go. +I'd like to see the ladies who've been consoling you for my absence." + +"Oh, nonsense, Violet. They haven't. They're just friends, that's all," +he said irritably. + +"Of course, dear; I know. Well, tell me what these 'just friends' are +like." + +She certainly derived little idea of them from Wargrave's lame attempt +at description. And when later she and he were shown into Mrs. Dermot's +sitting-room at tea-time Noreen and Muriel found his picture of her as a +meek, long-suffering, neglected wife very unlike the radiant, +condescending lady who patronised them from the start. She showed a +tendency to address most of her conversation to the girl, despite the +latter's evident disinclination to talk, or perhaps because of it; for +the older woman seemed to take an impish delight in teasing her about +her friendship with Wargrave and their relations as nurse and patient, +although it was apparent that her malicious humour made the others +uncomfortable. She paraded her authority over Frank and treated him like +a hen-pecked husband. When finally she bore him away to escort her to the +Amusement Club she left the two girls speechless behind her. But not +for the same reason. Noreen was furious. + +"What a hateful woman!" she exclaimed as soon as her visitor departed. +"And I pitied her as a poor neglected wife! What do you think of her?" + +Muriel only shook her head, as she sat looking despondent and thoroughly +miserable. Mrs. Norton's malice affected her little, but her undoubted +loveliness had made her despair. How could an insignificant little +person like herself, she thought, hope to win affection from any man +whom this radiant beauty deigned to favour? Frank could not help adoring +so attractive a woman. He must have loved her in Rohar, although he said +that he had not. Muriel felt that she could have resigned herself more +easily to his keeping his word to Violet, if the latter had been less +good-looking. + +Mrs. Dermot broke in on her miserable thoughts. + +"Come, dear, we'll take the children for their walk and then go on later +to the Amusement Club." + +"I couldn't go to the Club this evening, Noreen. I really couldn't. We'd +only see that woman again--with Frank." + +"Well, what of it? We're not going to let her think we're afraid to face +her. I've no patience with Mr. Wargrave. Whatever he can see in her I +can't think. You're worth twenty of her, darling. Shallow, conceited. +She neglected? She badly treated? My sympathy is with her husband now. +What fools men are!" And Noreen swept indignantly from the room. + +Every moment of the hour that they spent in the Club that evening was a +lifetime of torture to Muriel. She had faced a charging tiger with less +dread than she did the crowd at the tea-tables in the rink. She fancied +that every woman who looked at her was laughing in her sleeve at her, +that every man who bowed or spoke to her was pitying her. Suddenly her +heart seemed to stop beating, for she saw Frank sitting with Mrs. Norton +and two other ladies, her Calcutta cousins, as well as a couple of men +in the British Infantry regiment at Lebong. They were looking at her; +and she felt that Violet was pointing her out as the deserted maiden. +She tried to smile bravely when her rival waved her hand and called out +a cheery "good evening" to her and Noreen, who answered the greeting +with an almost defiant air of unconcern. + +For days afterwards she saw practically nothing of Wargrave, who was +obliged to be in constant attendance on Mrs. Norton. Violet had induced +the manager of her hotel to find a room for him; and he was forced to +transfer himself and his belongings to the Eastern Palace. She +monopolised him, insisted on his taking her shopping in the mornings, +calling in the afternoons or to Lebong to watch the polo, or else +playing tennis with her at the Amusement Club. He dined with her every +evening and escorted her to the dances, concerts or theatricals that +filled the nights during the Season. He hardly recognised her in the gay +social butterfly with seemingly never a care in the world; and she made +him wonder every day if she had any love left for him or wanted him to +have any for her. For she showed no desire to be sentimental and treated +him very much as she had in the early days of their acquaintance. She +never discussed their future. He had not the moral courage to ask her +outright if she still wanted to come to him. She gave no indication of +being happy only in his company; for she soon began to release him from +attendance on her on occasions in favour of some one or other of the new +men friends that she rapidly made. He took advantage of this to see +something of Muriel again. + +But this did not suit Mrs. Norton. Even if she did not want Frank +herself that was no reason why the girl should have him. She tried being +jealous and insisted on his breaking off the friendship; but, although +he hated the scenes that ensued, he resolutely refused to do so. Then +Violet adopted another plan. She pretended to be convinced by his +assurances that it meant nothing and declared that she wished to be +friends with Muriel. She went out of her way to be nice to the girl when +they met in public and at last invited her to tea at the Eastern Palace +Hotel on an afternoon on which she knew Mrs. Dermot to be engaged. +Muriel accepted because she did not know very well how to refuse. + +When she was shown into Mrs. Norton's private sitting-room she found +Wargrave already there with her hostess, who received her very amiably. +During tea the conversation flowed in safe channels at first. But +suddenly Violet startled her guests by saying: + +"Now, Miss Benson, that we three are alone I think it a good opportunity +to speak very plainly about Frank's relations with you. I've just been +giving him a serious talking to about the way he has behaved to you." + +The girl drew herself up haughtily. + +"What do you mean, Mrs. Norton," she said. "The way Mr. Wargrave has +behaved----? I don't understand you." + +"Oh yes, you do. It's best to speak plainly. I'm afraid Frank has been +leading you to believe that he's in love with you----." + +"Violet!" broke in Wargrave angrily. "Please don't go on. You've no +right to say such things." + +She smiled sweetly on him. + +"Yes, I have, Frank. You know, my dear boy, that you've got pretty ways +with women--I fear he's rather a flirt, Miss Benson--that you are apt to +make some of them think you mean more than you do." + +"What absurd nonsense!" he cried, more angrily still. "Please stop, I +beg of you." + +"No, Frank, it is only right that I should warn Miss Benson." She +turned to the girl. "He hasn't told you, I'm sure, that he's not free to +marry you or any other girl." + +Wargrave sprang up. + +"I've told her everything about us, Violet," he protested. "I ask you as +a favour to drop the subject." + +The girl sat as if turned to stone while Mrs. Norton went on: + +"You are young, my dear, and can't know much about men. I suppose you've +lived in the jungle all your life. Now, a little bird has told me you've +let yourself get too fond of Frank--oh, he's very charming, I know, and +this playing at nursing a poor wounded hero is a dangerous game. But I'm +going to tell you plainly that Frank is pledged to me. He has asked me +to leave my husband for him, and I've consented; so there's no use your +trying to catch him, my dear. You're too late." + +The girl sprang indignantly to her feet. + +"I've done nothing of the sort, Mrs. Norton. How dare you say so? You've +no right to speak to me as you're doing." + +The older woman sat back coolly in her chair and laughed; but her eyes +grew hard. + +"Oh yes, I have, my dear girl. You two were the talk of Darjeeling +before I came. Of course you're angry, naturally, at failing to catch +him, but I'm going to put a stop to your trying, here and now. He has +got to break with you." + +"You are a wicked woman," began the girl; and then indignation choked +her. + +Mrs. Norton leant forward in her chair. + +"Can you deny that you're in love with him?" she asked. + +Wargrave tried to interpose; but the girl waved him aside and faced her +rival. + +"I'll answer you. I am. I love him as you could never do. I was willing +to give him up to you--for he loves me, not you--so that he should not +be false to his word. I didn't know what you were like, then. But now I +don't believe you'd ever make him happy. You don't love him--you haven't +got it in you. You wouldn't be content with any one man. I've watched +you. You're absolutely heartless; and you'd only make Frank miserable. +You're willing to disgrace him as well as yourself. You don't mind if +you ruin him. Frank----" + +She turned towards Wargrave. + +"You said you loved me. Is it true?" + +He answered firmly: + +"Yes, I do." + +"Then will you marry me? This woman will only wreck your life. Choose +between us." + +He turned in desperation to Mrs. Norton. + +"Violet, you don't really want me, do you? You don't love me. I've felt +for a long time that you're forgetting me. I love Muriel and she loves +me. If you ever cared for me release me from my promise." + +Mrs. Norton lay back calmly in her chair and looked with a smile from +one to the other. Then she said deliberately: + +"This morning I wrote to my husband and told him that I was never +returning to him, that I was going to you, Frank. That is why I asked +this girl here to-day to tell you before her that now I'm going to ask +you to keep your promise. Will you?" + +The girl looked at him appealingly and stretched out her hands to him. + +"Frank, for your own sake, if not for mine, don't listen to her." + +He stood irresolute, torn by conflicting emotions. Then with an effort +he replied: + +"Muriel, I must. I can't break my word." + +Mrs. Norton gave a mocking laugh. The girl shrank from him and hid her +face in her hands for a moment. Then she looked up and said, desperately +calm: + +"Very well, be it so. You've decided and there's nothing more to be +said. You've shamed me before this woman; and I never want to see you +again." + +She turned and walked out of the room. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE + + +As Muriel passed through the door Wargrave started to follow her; but +Violet cried peremptorily: + +"Frank, stay here. Please realise that I come first now. Sit down." + +He obeyed mechanically. She went on petulantly: + +"These emotional scenes are rather exhausting. Do you mind calling the +hotel 'boy' and ordering a cocktail for me? You ought to have one +yourself. I suppose, like all men, you hate scenes. Then you should be +grateful to me for saving you from that spiteful little jungle cat." + +Going to the verandah outside the room he called a hotel servant and +gave him the order, then returned to his chair and sat down wearily. He +stared at the floor in silence. He had sent the girl that he loved away +utterly humiliated; and he knew that, with her proud spirit, the shame +of his rejection of her would cut her to the heart. He cursed himself +for bringing this pain to her. It was all his fault. Not only had he had +no right to speak of love to her while he was bound to another woman, +but he ought never to have sought her society as he had done, never +striven to gain her friendship, for by doing so he had unconsciously won +her love. The harm was done long before he spoke to her of his feelings. +What a selfish brute he was to thus cause two women to suffer! + +Presently he remembered that his moodiness, his silence, were +uncomplimentary, cruel, to Violet. She was right in saying that she came +first. Indeed she was the only one to be considered now. The other had +passed out of his life. It might be that they should meet again some day +in their restricted world, but while he could he must try to avoid her. +There was only Violet left. + +He looked up to find his companion's eyes fixed on him with an +undefinable expression. He roused himself with an effort that was not +lost on the woman watching him. + +"So you have told your husband," he said. "Well, now we must arrange +what we are going to do." + +"We won't discuss our plans at this moment," replied Violet. "I'm not in +the mood for it." Then after a pause she added bitterly, "I must give +you time to recover from the shock of the abrupt ending to your little +jungle romance." + +Before he could reply the servant appeared with a tray. + +"Ah, thank goodness, here are the cocktails. There's only one. Aren't +you having one, too? It will do you good. No?" + +She sipped her cocktail slowly. When she had finished it she got up +from her chair, saying: + +"I'll get ready to go to the Amusement Club. Will you wait for me here? +You needn't change--we won't play tennis to-day; for we've got this +dinner and dance on to-night and I don't want to tire myself. I shan't +be long." + +As she passed his chair she tapped his cheek and said: + +"Don't look so miserable, my dear boy. You'll soon get over the loss of +your jungle girl. There, you may kiss my hand as a sign of your return +to your allegiance." + +But when she entered her bedroom she did not at once proceed to get +ready to go out, but unlocked her dressing-case and, taking out of it a +letter, sat down to read it for the tenth time since she had received it +that morning. Yet it was short and concise. It was from Rosenthal and +addressed from the Mess of the 2nd (Duke's Own) Hussars in Bangalore; +for, as it told her, he had returned to his regiment as his leave had +expired. It was the first that had come from him since she had left +Poona, although, as he said in it, he had obtained her new address from +the Goanese clerk in the Munster Hotel office on the day of her flight, +thanks to the persuasive powers of a fifty-rupee note. + +He told her that although her abrupt departure had puzzled him and he +could not understand why she had tried to conceal her whereabouts from +him, he wished her to realise that if it were an attempt to escape from +him it was useless. He could bide his time, for sooner or later he would +get her. + +Violet smiled as she read his confident words, although they caused a +little shiver of fear to run through her. Then she rose, locked the +letter away and put on her hat. + +Not until after lunch next day was Wargrave able to find time to go to +the Oriental Hotel, not to see Muriel, he sternly told himself, but to +pay a visit to Mrs. Dermot. When he was shown up to her sitting-room he +had to wait for some time before Noreen entered; and he was struck at +once by the coldness of her greeting. It was evident that she was very +displeased with him. She said no word about Muriel; and Wargrave felt +curiously averse to mentioning her name. + +At last he summed up courage to ask her. With as near an approach to +frigidity of manner as she could show to a man to whom she was so +indebted Noreen replied: + +"Muriel has left Darjeeling." + +"Left Darjeeling? Where for? Where has she gone?" he exclaimed in +surprise. + +"To her father." + +"But why? She wasn't to have left for weeks yet," said Wargrave. + +Mrs. Dermot looked at him angrily. + +"Why? Need you ask? I should have thought commonsense would have told +you. I don't think we'll talk about it, please. As I said before, I've +washed my hands of the whole affair." + +Further conversation on the subject was rendered impossible by the +irruption of her children, who rushed at Wargrave and reproached him for +not being to see them lately. + +During the next few days Violet baffled every attempt that Frank made to +discuss their future course of action. The constant succession of +gaieties, the balls, theatricals, concerts, races, _gymkhanas_, that +filled every afternoon and evening of the Darjeeling Season, took up all +her time. Whenever he tried to talk matters over with her she invariably +replied that there was no hurry, even when he pointed out that Major +Norton might arrive any day in consequence of her letter. That he had +not already done so was inexplicable to Wargrave; and the subaltern +could only believe her assurance that her husband accepted her loss with +equanimity. It never occurred to Frank to doubt that she had written the +letter. + +But one morning matters came to a crisis. When Violet and Wargrave +returned to the hotel from their ride before breakfast a telegram was +handed to the latter. He found it to be an official message from Colonel +Dermot, which ran: + + "Please return forthwith to Ranga Duar. I start for Europe on sick + leave to-day." + +Frank stared at it in surprise. He had heard nothing of his superior +officer being ill. It must be something very serious to necessitate his +being sent to Europe. The news was an unpleasant shock to him; for he +genuinely liked and respected the Political Officer. + +Then it occurred to him that this order to return brought everything to +a head. Violet saw that he was perturbed. + +"What is it, Frank?" she asked. + +"I'll tell you upstairs, dear," he said. + +In her sitting-room he handed her the telegram. + +"I must leave to-day. Will you be ready to come with me?" he asked. + +"What? To-day? My dear boy, it's impossible," she replied. + +"But I must go. You see, it's imperative. The Colonel's already gone." + +"Yes, I see you must. But--well, I simply couldn't be ready," said +Violet calmly. "Besides, I'm singing at the concert to-morrow night; and +there's the dance at Government House the night after. I must follow you +later." + +"But that means your travelling alone," he argued. "Wouldn't it be much +pleasanter for you to come with me?" + +"Don't worry about me for goodness' sake, Frank. I'm not a helpless +person. I came across India by myself to get here; and surely I'll be +able to manage to do a twenty-four hours' journey alone." + +"Very well, dear," he replied with an inward, unacknowledged feeling of +relief that the decisive step had not to be taken yet. "I'll come down +from Ranga Duar with an elephant to meet you at the railway station when +you arrive. Now, while you're changing for breakfast, I'll rush round to +the Oriental and see if Mrs. Dermot has more news." + +When he reached the hotel he found Noreen busily packing. She was pale +and evidently deeply distressed, although outwardly calm and collected. + +"You have heard?" she asked, as he entered her sitting-room. + +"Only that your husband is starting for England on sick leave and that +I'm to return at once. What's the matter? I hope it's not serious." + +"Mr. Macdonald wires that Kevin must go at once to England for an +operation. He says I'm not to worry, as there is no immediate danger. +But of course I can't help being alarmed. It's all so sudden. I didn't +know that Kevin was ill. Mr. Macdonald is travelling with him to the +junction on the main line where the children and I are to meet them. +Isn't it kind of him? I'm so glad to know my husband will have someone +with him until I come." + +"We'll meet at the railway station after lunch, then," said Wargrave. +"We'll be together as far as the junction." + +Mrs. Dermot hesitated. + +"Are you travelling alone?" she asked. + +Frank flushed as he replied: + +"Yes. She--Violet is to follow later." + +Noreen made no comment; and having learned all that he could he returned +to his hotel. + +He dreaded the ordeal of the parting with Mrs. Norton, but when the time +came for it he found his fear of a distressing scene quite uncalled for. +She said goodbye to him in a pleasantly friendly, though somewhat +casual, manner, and did not offer to accompany him to the station as she +had a previous engagement. And long before the little train had +zig-zagged down the seven thousand feet to the foot of the Himalayas she +had dismissed him from her mind. + +The truth was that the gay and admired Mrs. Norton, caught up in the +whirlwind of social amusement in a lively hill-station, was not the +woman who passed weary days of _ennui_ in the company of a dull and +unattractive husband in a small, dead-and-alive station. Nor was the +dejected man who so plainly showed that he was pining for someone else +the good-looking, heart-whole subaltern who had fascinated her in the +boredom of existence in Rohar. Was he worth incurring social damnation +for? Would his companionship--for she knew that she had not his +love--make up for a life of loneliness, debt and poverty in a frontier +outpost? If she were resolved on giving up her present assured +position--and Violet felt that existence with Norton would be more than +ever unendurable after the exciting pleasures of Poona and +Darjeeling--would it not be wiser to do so for someone who could amply +compensate her for the sacrifice? Love in a cottage--or its Indian +equivalent, a subaltern's comfortless bungalow--did not appeal to her. +Her statement that she had written to tell her husband that she was +leaving for Wargrave was false. It had served the purpose for which it +was made, and that was the defeat of her rival. So now, content with her +victory, she put all burdensome thought from her and dined, danced and +flirted to her heart's content in the gaieties of the Darjeeling Season. + +When Wargrave reached Ranga Duar the little outpost seemed strangely +forlorn without the Dermots and their children. Major Hunt and Macdonald +welcomed him warmly. The latter informed him that he had insisted on the +Colonel going to England for his operation because the Political Officer +had not been out of India for seven years and needed the change, and +besides he would receive more care and attention in a London +nursing-home than in an Indian hospital. The trouble was intestinal but +there was no immediate danger to his life. + +Another familiar figure was missing. Before departing Dermot had +released Badshah and left him to wander in freedom in the jungle, +unwilling that his faithful companion of years should be servant to +anyone else and confident that the elephant would come back to him when +he returned to the Terai. Major Hunt placed one of the detachment +elephants at Wargrave's disposal whenever he required it to take him on +his tours along the frontier. And Frank needed it constantly. For, as +soon as the news of Colonel Dermot's departure spread, the lawless +spirits that for fear of him had not ventured for five years to disturb +the peace of the Border, began to show signs of restlessness. The +Political Officer's strong personality and the reputation of divinity +that he enjoyed had kept them in check. But now that he was gone they +thought that they could defy with impunity the young sahib who replaced +him. + +So the Assistant had not long to wait for an opportunity to show his +mettle. Dermot had not been gone a fortnight before one or two raids +were attempted on British villages by lawless mountaineers from across +the Bhutan frontier. Wargrave soon proved that the mantle of Colonel +Dermot had not fallen on unworthy shoulders. Single-handed he +intercepted and faced a party of Bhutanese swordsmen swooping down from +the hills on a tea-garden in search of loot, shot the leader and two of +his followers and put the rest to flight. With a handful of sepoys of +the Military Police he surprised a Bhuttia village in the No Man's Land +along the border-line and captured a notorious outlaw who had plundered +in Indian territory and had sent him a defiant challenge. + +Wargrave was glad of the excitement and the occupation, for they kept +him from brooding over his troubles and worrying about the future. He +had not time to puzzle over Violet's silence. She had not written to him +since their parting. As a matter of fact she seldom thought of him, so +engrossed was she in the pursuit of pleasure. Admittedly the prettiest +woman in Darjeeling that season she received enough attention and +admiration to turn any woman's head; and she enjoyed it all to the full. +Although she had answered Rosenthal's letter from Bangalore he had not +written again; but she felt that he was not forgetting her. She thought +oftener of him than of Wargrave; for the vision of the great riches that +she might one day share with him fascinated her. It haunted her dreams +sleeping and waking. Often she let her fancy stray to the existence that +he had promised would be hers when he was the possessor of his father's +fortune, a life of luxury in the gayest cities of the world with all +that immense wealth could bestow, a life infinitely better worth living +than her present one. Would she ever be given the chance of it? + +The question was speedily and unexpectedly answered. One morning after +breakfast she received a telegram from Rosenthal. It said: + + "My father is dead. I sail from Bombay for South Africa on Friday to + settle up his affairs. Will you come?" + +She stared at the paper almost uncomprehendingly for a few moments. Then +the meaning of the message dawned on her. She sat down at her +writing-table and thought hard. She had little time in which to make up +her mind; for if she wished to reach Bombay before Rosenthal sailed she +would have to leave Darjeeling that afternoon. What should she do? +Should she go? She found a pencil and a telegraph form and addressed the +latter to the Hussar. Then she hesitated. But she was not long in coming +to a decision. With a firm hand she wrote the one word "Yes" and signed +her name. Then she rose from the table, called a hotel servant, +despatched the telegram and went to her bedroom to pack. And the same +train that took her away from Darjeeling carried a letter from her to +Wargrave. + +But the subaltern did not receive it until more than a week afterwards, +when he returned to Ranga Duar with Tashi after chasing back across the +Border a mongrel pack of _dácoits_--brigands--who had been harrying +Bhuttia villages in British territory. The letter lay on the table in +the room which he still occupied in the Mess, although he was no longer +an officer of the detachment, together with a pile of correspondence +that had accumulated during his absence. Recognising Violet's writing on +the envelope he tore it open anxiously. He rapidly scanned the first +page, stared at it incredulously, read it again carefully and then +finished the letter. It ran: + + "My dear Frank, + + "I am going to relieve your mind of a great weight and send you into + the seventh heaven of delight by giving you the glad news that you + are never likely to see me again. Before the week is ended I shall + have left India for ever with someone who can give me all I want and + not condemn me to a poverty-stricken existence in a wretched little + jungle station, which is all that you had to offer me. I know it was + not your fault and you are really a dear boy. I was very fond of + you; but you did not love me and we would have been very miserable + together. For you would be always pining for your jungle girl and I + would have hated you for it. Now we part good friends and she is + welcome to you. I ought to tell you that I did not really write to + my husband as I said I did. + + "I wish you luck--won't you wish me the same? + + "Yours affectionately, + + "VIOLET." + +When he had thoroughly grasped the meaning of this extraordinary letter +he forgave her everything in the joy of knowing that she had set him +free. He did not speculate as to the man with whom she was going; his +thoughts flew at once to Muriel. But his delight was tempered by the +fear that his liberty had come too late to be of service to him with +her. Would she ever forgive him? His heart sank when he remembered her +indignation, her bitter words when they parted. Surely no woman who had +been so humiliated could pardon the man who had brought such shame upon +her. Yet how could he have acted otherwise? It was natural that the girl +should blame him; but how could he have been false to his plighted word +and desert the one who held his promise? If only he could see Muriel and +plead with her. Perhaps in time she might bring herself to forgive him. +But how was he to meet her? Now that Mrs. Dermot had gone to England, +the girl would not come again to Ranga Duar. She was, he knew, +accompanying her father in his tour of the forests of the districts in +his charge. How could he go to their camp or lonely bungalow in the +jungle and force his presence on her? What was he to do? + +Longing for someone to confide in, someone to advise him, he went to +Major Hunt and told him the whole story. The older man rejoiced in +learning of the subaltern's release from his entanglement, but, knowing +Miss Benson well, shook his head doubtfully over the chances of her +forgiving Wargrave. Nevertheless, unwilling to kill the young man's +hope, he affected a confidence that he was far from feeling and bade him +take courage. He advised him to arrange a few days' shooting in the +neighbourhood of the Bensons when he could spare the time from his +duties. The father would be sure to offer him hospitality and the +daughter could not well avoid him. In the meantime he might write and +plead his cause on paper. + +Wargrave sat up half the night composing a letter to Muriel. Sheet after +sheet was torn up in disgust before he was even tolerably satisfied. But +the laboured result was never sent. Next morning after breakfast as he +sat smoking in the Mess with Major Hunt and the doctor his servant +entered to tell him that a forest guard wanted to see him. A wild hope +flashed through his mind that perhaps Muriel had sent him a message. But +on going out to the back verandah where the man awaited him he was +handed an envelope "On His Majesty's Service," addressed in a strange +handwriting. He opened it and glanced carelessly at the letter, but the +first lines riveted his attention. + + "Forest Officer's Bungalow, + Barwana Section. + + "From + the District Superintendent of Police, + Bengal Civil Police. + + "To + the Assistant Political Officer, + Ranga Duar. + + "Sir, + + "Three days ago a party of Chinamen attacked and severely injured the + Deputy Conservator of Forests, Mr. Benson, in this bungalow, and + abducted his daughter. They were ten or twelve in number and well + armed, and over-awed the servants and forest employees. They have + been tracked towards the Bhutan Frontier and, I fear, have crossed + it by this. There was, unfortunately, much delay in the information + reaching me while I was touring the district south of the forest; + and I have only just arrived here. I hasten to acquaint you with the + occurrence as I am powerless if the ruffians have crossed into + Bhutan. Please request the Officer Commanding Military Police + Detachment to send out parties to try to cut off the raiders from + the passes through the mountains, although I fear it is too late. + Can you meet me here and confer with me? Please bring the Medical + Officer of the detachment with you, as Mr. Benson is in a bad state + and no civil surgeon is available for a great distance from here. + + "Your obedient servant, + Edward Lawrence. + D.S.P." + +Horror-stricken, Wargrave questioned the forest guard. The man had not +been at the bungalow at the time of the outrage and could not greatly +supplement the information contained in the letter. The story that he +had learned from the servants was to the effect that a party of Chinamen +had arrived at Mr. Benson's bungalow and asked for employment as +carpenters. There was nothing unusual in this, as Chinese from the +Southern Provinces frequently make their way on foot through Tibet and +Bhutan over the mountains in search of work on the tea-gardens or in +Calcutta. Apparently they had suddenly struck the old man down and +surprised Miss Benson before she could offer any resistance. Producing +fire-arms they had terrified the servants. They had a mule hidden in the +jungle and on this the girl was placed and led off. Long after they had +disappeared some of the forest guards had timidly followed their track +for some distance and found that it led towards the Bhutan Frontier. + +When Wargrave had extracted from the man all the information that he +could he rushed into the Mess and acquainted the two officers in it with +the terrible news. Like him they were horrified at the outrage. Major +Hunt went at once to the Fort to order out parties of the detachment in +accordance with the District Superintendent's request; and Macdonald got +ready to proceed to the Forest Officer's bungalow forty miles away. + +The Assistant Political Officer despatched a cipher telegram to the +Foreign Department, Government of India, at Simla, informing them of the +occurrence and of his intention to investigate the affair personally, +and, if possible, rescue Miss Benson. He knew that the Heads of the +Department, although they would not sanction or approve officially of +his crossing the frontier in pursuit of the raiders, as it would be +contrary to the Treaty with the Bhutanese Government, would not enquire +too closely into his movements. But whether they liked it or not he +intended to follow the abductors if necessary into the heart of Bhutan, +Treaty or no Treaty. + +His first step was to send for Tashi and order him to prepare the +disguise that he intended to use. His rifle he left behind, but armed +himself with a brace of long-barrelled automatic pistols to which their +wooden holsters clipped on to form butts, thus converting them into +carbines accurate up to a range of a hundred and fifty or two hundred +yards. He found a third for Tashi in Colonel Dermot's armoury, which was +at his disposal. + +Night had fallen long before the detachment elephant that bore Wargrave, +Macdonald, Tashi and the forest guard as well as its own _mahout_, +reached the bungalow where the District Superintendent of Police awaited +them. The doctor found Benson suffering from a wound in the head, with +concussion and fever. Frank interrogated the servants carefully and +elicited from them one fresh fact about the outrage that shed a flood of +light on its motive and its author. It was that the leader of the party +was pock-marked and blind in the right eye; and this at once confirmed +Frank's suspicion that the instigator of Muriel's abduction was the +Chinese _Amban_, whose parting threat to the girl had thus materialised. + +At daybreak Wargrave and Tashi started on foot accompanied by a forest +guard to put them on the track of the gang. This led up towards the +Bhutan Frontier, which runs among the hills at an average elevation of +six thousand feet above the sea. As the Assistant Political Officer +anticipated, the party had headed for the portion of the border under +the control of the _Amban's_ friend, the Penlop of Tuna. Enquiries among +the inhabitants of the mountain villages resulted in several of them +coming forward with the information that they had seen a small body of +armed Chinese escorting a cloaked and shrouded figure on a mule and +climbing up towards Bhutan. Two of the Government Secret Service agents +among these Bhuttias had followed them cautiously to the frontier and +seen them received there by a party of the Tuna Penlop's armed +retainers. These men reported that the watch on all the passes into +Bhutan was stricter than ever, and, as one of them phrased it, not even +a rat could creep through unobserved. + +This discouraging intelligence was a further proof of _Amban's_ guilt. +But Frank realised that it would not be sufficient to justify the +Government of India claiming redress from the Republic of China; and, +indeed, diplomatic procedure was much too slow to be of any use in the +rescue of the girl. An appeal to the Maharajah of Bhutan would be +equally fruitless; for his powerful vassal the Tuna Penlop was +practically in rebellion against him and defied his authority. The sole +hope of saving Muriel lay in Wargrave's prompt action. + +Yet try as the subaltern would, he and Tashi were unable at any point to +pierce the cordon of guards along the frontier. Generally they got away +unseen; but on one occasion they were discovered and had to flee back +into British territory under a shower of arrows. Fortunately fire-arms +are scarce in Bhutan; and the Tuna Penlop's soldiers possessed only +bows. + +It was imperative that Wargrave and his follower should be circumspect +in their movements, and by day they hid in caves or in the jungle +clothing the slopes of the higher hills, to escape observation by +Bhutanese spies. When they had exhausted the food that they had brought +with them and failed to procure any more from their Secret Service +agents in the villages, Tashi gathered bananas, dug up edible tubers +like the _charpattia_ or _charlong_, and snared jungle-fowl and Monal +pheasants. Having obtained a bow and a sheaf of arrows from a village he +sometimes succeeded in killing a _gooral_, the active little wild goat +found in the lower hills, the flesh of which is excellent. + +As day after day went by and found them no nearer success in crossing +the frontier Wargrave began to lose heart. He was harassed by anxiety +over Muriel's fate and feared that he would never be able to rescue her. +At times he grew desperate and but for his companion's remonstrances +would have tried to fight his way through the border guards, although in +his saner moments he knew that it would be sheer madness. + +Besides danger from human enemies the two men were menaced by peril from +wild beasts as well. Panthers prowled among the hills, great Himalayan +bears, a blow from the paw of one of which would crack a man's skull, +wandered on the jungle-clad slopes and, though not carnivorous, were +always ready to attack human beings. Herds of wild elephants, which had +scaled the mountains into Bhutan at the beginning of the Monsoon to +reach the northern face of the Himalayas and escape the heavy rains that +deluge the southern slopes and also to avoid the insects that plague +them in the jungle at that season, were commencing to return to the +Terai. Often Wargrave and Tashi had to climb trees to let a herd go by; +and each time as he watched them the subaltern thought longingly of +Colonel Dermot and Badshah. If he had them to help him how easily he +could burst the barrier between him and the land that held the girl whom +he loved and who needed him so! + +Late one afternoon, as the two men were making their way through bamboo +jungle at the foot of high cliffs close to a pass into Ghutan which they +had not yet attempted, they blundered into the middle of a herd of +elephants feeding. There was no tree in which they could take refuge, +and before they were able to make their escape they found themselves +surrounded on every side. A number of cow-elephants, which, having young +calves with them, were very savage, pressed threateningly towards the +men, who tried to force their way into the dense growths of the bamboos +and so put a frail barrier between themselves and the menacing beasts. +They knew that their pistols would be useless, and they had already +given themselves up for lost when the huge animals which were apparently +about to charge them, suddenly stopped and drew aside to allow a +monstrous bull-elephant to pass through. It was a single-tusker, and it +advanced steadily towards the men. Frank stared at it incredulously. +Could it be----? Yes, it was. He was sure of it. It was Badshah. + +And the elephant knew him and came towards him. In the sudden revulsion +of feeling and his relief at knowing that they were safe Frank almost +lost his head. A mad hope surged through him. He stretched out his arms +imploringly to the great beast and cried impulsively: + +"Oh, Badshah! _Hum-ko madad do_! (Help us!)" + +To his amazement the animal seemed to understand. It sank slowly to its +knees as though inviting him to mount it. + +"Sahib! Sahib! He offers us his aid," cried Tashi excitedly, and he +scrambled up after Wargrave who had climbed on to the broad shoulders. + +The subaltern leaned forward and, touching the huge forehead, pointed in +the direction of Bhutan. Badshah turned and moved off towards the pass +through the mountains, while the herd followed; and Frank thrilled with +the hope that at last he was about to break through the barrier of foes +between him and the girl he loved. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE DEVIL DANCERS OF TUNA + + +Flat-roofed, arcaded buildings terraced one above the other, with gaily +painted walls from which covered wooden verandahs and box-like, latticed +windows jutted out, surrounded a paved courtyard, its rough flagstones +hidden by shifting, many-coloured throngs of gorgeously vestmented +priests, mitred bishops, hideous demons, skeletons with grinning skulls +and weird creatures with _papier maché_ heads of bears, tigers, dragons +and even stranger beasts. Wild but not inharmonious music from +shaven-headed members of an orchestra of weird instruments--gongs, +shawns, cymbals, long silver trumpets--deafened the ears. Crowds of +gaily-clad spectators covered the flat roofs of the building and +arcades, thronged the verandahs, filled the windows and squatted around +the courtyard--these last kept in order by bullet-headed lamas with +whips. + +It was the annual ceremony of the Devil Dance of the great Buddhist +monastery of Tuna, one of the fantastic Mystery Plays, the now almost +meaningless functions into which the ideal faith preached by Gautama, +the Buddha, the high-souled reformer, has degenerated. + +From all parts of Bhutan west of the dividing line of the great Black +Mountain Range, from Tibet, even from far-distant Ladak, the faithful +had made pilgrimage to be present at the great festival in this most +famous and sacred _gompa_ of the land. Red lamas from Western Tibet +and yellow from Lhassa, abbots and monks from little-known monasteries +lost among the rugged mountains, nuns with close-cropped hair from the +convents of Thimbu, Paro and Punaka, robber chiefs of the Hah-pa and +graziers from Sipchu, townsfolk from the capital and peasants from the +fever-laden Himalayan valleys--all had gathered there. For all who +attended the sacred festival could gain indulgences that would save them +a century or two's sojourn in the hot or cold hells of their religion. + +In a gallery adorned with artistic wooden carvings and hung with +brocaded silk and gold embroideries sat a fat, bare-legged man with +close-cropped hair and scanty beard, wearing an ample, red silk gown +ornamented with Chinese designs worked in gold thread. He was the Penlop +of Tuna, the great feudal lord of the province, whose high-walled +_jong_, or castle, crowned the rocky hill on which the monastery and the +town were built. Behind him stood his officers and attendants clad in +silk or woollen kimono-like garments bound at the waist by gaily-worked +leather belts from which hung handsome swords with elaborately-wrought +silver hilts inlaid with coral and turquoises and with gold-washed +silver scabbards. + +The courtyard was gay with fluttering prayer-flags, the poles of which +as well as the wooden pillars of the arcades were hung with the +beautiful banners artistically worked with countless pieces of coloured +silks and brocades and needlework pictures of Buddhist gods and saints +for which the monasteries of Bhutan are justly famed. From the blue sky +the sun blazed on the riot of mingled hues of the decorations and the +dresses of spectators and performers. + +Especially gorgeous were the robes of the high priests in the spectacle. +They strongly resembled Catholic bishops in their gold-embroidered +mitres, copes and vestments as, carrying pastoral crooks or sprinkling +holy water, they moved around the courtyard in solemn procession behind +acolytes carrying sacred banners, swinging censers and intoning +harmonious chants. Troops of baffled demons fled at their approach +howling in diabolic despair. Shuddering wretches clad in scanty rags, +groping blindly as in the dark, wailing miserably and uttering weird, +long-drawn whistling notes, shrank aside from the fleeing devils and +stretched out their hands in supplication to the saintly prelates. They +were intended to represent the spirits of dead men straying in the +period of _Bardo_--the forty-nine days after death--during which the +soul released from the body is doomed to wander in search of its next +incarnation. In its journeyings it is assailed and terrified by demons, +who can only be defeated by the prayers of pious lamas to Chenresi the +Great Pitier. + +The whole purpose of these representations is to familiarise during life +the devout Buddhists with the awful aspect of the many demons that will +obstruct their souls after death and try to lead them astray when they +are searching for the right path to the next world in which they are to +begin a fresh existence. + +On this strange, bewildering spectacle an English girl looked down from +a small balcony not twenty feet above the courtyard. And the sight of +her caused the attention of many of the spectators to wander from the +Mystery Play. The fat old Penlop frequently looked across the quadrangle +at her from his gallery and as often uttered some coarse jest about her +to his grinning followers, while he raised a chased silver goblet filled +with _murwa_, the native liquor, to his lips. + +It was Muriel Benson. For weeks she had been a prisoner in the lamasery, +cloistered in a suite of well-furnished rooms and waited on by a +close-cropped nun. She had been surprised in the bungalow and +overpowered by three of the Chinamen before she realised her danger or +could seize a weapon with which to defend herself. Had she been able to +snatch up a revolver she would have made a desperate fight for freedom. +But with fettered hands, a helpless captive, she had been carried away +on a mule. From the first she had recognised the pock-marked, one-eyed +leader of the gang as the _Amban's_ officer, and so had known who was +the author and cause of her abduction. For days she had been borne along +up the rough track over the mountains, through narrow, high-walled +passes, down deep valleys and across rushing torrents, closely guarded +but always treated with respect. Her captors used broken Tibetan and +Bhutanese when they desired to communicate with her, but they answered +none of her questions. She had dreaded reaching their destination, where +she expected to find Yuan Shi Hung awaiting her; and once, in fear of +it, she had tried to throw herself down a precipice along the brink of +which the path ran. After that she had been roped to a big, powerful +Manchu. + +On her arrival at the monastery she learned from her garrulous +nun-attendant that the _Amban_ had been summoned to Pekin, where a +revolution had taken place and his friends there hoped to make him +President, which he regarded as a step towards the Imperial throne. The +monks of the monastery were his faithful allies on account of his +relationship to the powerful Abbott of the Yellow Lama Temple in the +Chinese capital. They had agreed to guard his prisoner, if his men +succeeded in capturing her, until he returned or sent for her. + +At first the girl, relieved of the dread of falling at once into his +hands, lived in the hope of a speedy rescue. It was unfortunate, she +thought, that Colonel Dermot, with his extraordinary knowledge of and +influence over the Bhutanese, had left India. But even without him the +power of the British Empire would be set at once in motion to avenge +this outrage on an Englishwoman. Dermot's understudy, the Assistant +Political Officer, faithless lover though he was, would do all he could +to save her. Assuredly she would not have long to wait. + +But as the days dragged by and she still remained a prisoner her heart +sank. She needed all her courage not to lose hope and give way to +despair. For she had always hanging over her the dread of Yuan Shi +Hung's return. But she had resolved to kill herself rather than fall +into his hands, and for that purpose had bribed her cheery, good-natured +attendant to procure a dagger for her. She pretended that she wanted it +as a protection in the lamasery, for the door of her apartments was +without a fastening. Even on the outside there was neither lock nor +bolt, for escape was considered impossible for her. If she got out of +the monastery she would be captured at once in the town. + +She was not interfered with and saw no one but her nun. Once or twice +she ventured to creep down to the great temple of the monastery, drawn +by curiosity and the sound of harmonious Buddhist chants intoned by the +lamaic choir. But for her anxiety about her father and her dread of the +_Amban's_ return her worst trial would have been the monotony of her +captivity, were it not that the memory of Wargrave and her unhappy love +caused her many a sleepless night. + +With nothing to occupy her mind she hailed the festival of the Devil +Dance as a welcome distraction. Not even the impertinent curiosity of +the spectators could drive her from her balcony. She followed the many +phases with interest, although she could not understand the meaning of +them. For the performance was a curious mixture of religion and +blasphemous mockery, of horse-play and coarse humour as well as a +strange impressiveness. A comic interlude would follow the most solemn +act. Troops of devils burlesqued the sacred rites of the faith, and +bands of comic masks filled the arena at times and delighted the +audience by playing practical jokes on the spectators and each other. +The solitary white woman attracted their clownish humour, and they +danced in front of her balcony, shouting out rude witticisms that caused +much amusement to the lookers-on. Fortunately the girl's command of the +language, fairly good though it was, was insufficient to enable her to +understand their coarse jests. But their intention to insult her became +obvious. The leaping, howling mob of strangely apparelled performers +threatened to storm her balcony. Some climbed on each other's shoulders +to get nearer her, others even began to swarm up the pillars supporting +her balcony. To the delight of the audience the noisy mob eventually +clambered up to the railing of the balcony and, jesting, laughing, +uttering weird cries, perched on it and shouted and jeered at her. + +Her face flaming, the girl drew back and was about to retire into her +room when suddenly she stopped, rigid with surprise. For above the +shouts of the maskers, the roars of the spectators and the din of the +clashing cymbals and braying trumpets, she heard her name spoken +distinctly. Incredulous she stood rooted to the ground and stared at the +yelling clowns perched on the railing. The uproar redoubled; but again +she distinguished one word above it all: + +"Muriel!" + +A wild hope flashed into her heart. Pretending to be amused at the +antics of the performers she advanced laughingly towards them. They +gesticulated and shouted more furiously than ever. But in the medley of +strange sounds she distinctly heard the words: + +"It's I, Frank. Don't be afraid." + +They seemed to come from the _papier maché_ head of a grotesque serpent +worn by a man who was foremost among her tormentors and wildest in his +frenzied gestures. Smiling the girl stood her ground even when some of +the maskers, encouraged by her attitude, climbed down from the rail and +surrounded her, dancing, hallooing, leaping. The snake-headed one was +the wildest in his antics and shrieked and shouted loudest of them all. +But mixed up with incoherent cries and sounds she caught the words: + +"Are you guarded?" A wild yell followed. "Can you get out?" Then he +yelled like a mad jackal. + +With wildly-beating heart the girl pretended to repulse the advances of +the maskers good-humouredly and spoke to all in English, telling them to +leave her balcony and cease to molest her. But with her laughing +remonstrances she mingled the words: + +"I am not guarded. I can leave my room. I will go down to the temple and +wait behind the statue of Buddha." + +Then the serpent-headed one, aided by another with dragon mask, both +uttering fiendish yells, pushed his companions back to the railing, just +as the Penlop spoke to one of his officials who shouted across to them +an angry command to leave the white woman alone. The scared maskers +tumbled over each other in their hurry to quit the balcony. + +Thrilled with delight the girl watched them go and then, when the entry +of a fresh body of mummers into the courtyard distracted the attention +of the spectators from her, she withdrew quietly to her room. She was +alone, the nun having gone long ago to witness the Devil Dance from +among the crowd. Muriel opened the door leading to a broad stone +staircase and peered cautiously out. There was no one to be seen. All +the inhabitants of the monastery were gathered in the courtyard. She +stole carefully down to a side door of the lamasery chapel. + +This temple was a large and lofty building richly ornamented with fine +wood carvings, rich brocades and elaborately embroidered banners and +hangings. The pillars supporting the roof were covered with copper +plates beaten into beautiful patterns and the altars were of silver, the +chief one, as in all Bhutanese chapels, being adorned by a splendid pair +of elephant's tusks. Idols abounded. There was a central seated figure +of Buddha thirty feet high, heavily gilt and studded with turquoises and +precious stones, with a canopy and background of golden lotus leaves. On +either side were attendant female figures; and images of Buddhist gods, +larger than life size, stood in double rows. + +Muriel concealed herself behind the colossal statue of Buddha and had +not long to wait before from her hiding-place she saw two maskers, the +Snake and the Dragon, enter the Temple cautiously. The latter remained +on guard at the door while his companion, who carried a bundle, advanced +furtively towards the great idol. As he drew near he opened the jaws of +the mask and said in a low tone: + +"Muriel! Muriel! Are you here?" + +At the sound of the well-remembered voice the girl trembled violently. +Her heart beat quickly as she came out from behind the statue. When he +beheld her the masker lifted the snake's head off; and Muriel saw that +the face revealed, disguised and stained a dull yellow, was that of her +lover. At the sight of it she forgot the painful past, forgot her +grievance against him, forgot the other woman, the sorrow that he had +caused her. As he sprang towards her with outstretched arms she cried: + +"Oh, thank God you've come, dear!" + +Frank caught her in his eager embrace. Then under the image of the Great +Dreamer who taught that Love is Illusion, that Affection is Error, that +Desire but binds closer to the revolving Wheel they kissed fondly, +passionately, like two faithful lovers met again after a lifetime of +parting. And the grotesque Devil-Gods around glared fiercely at them. +But the Lord Buddha looked mildly down, on his sculptured face the +ineffable calm of _Nirvana_, the peace of freedom from all Desire +attained at last. But, heedless of gods or devils, the man strained the +woman to his heart and rained kisses on her lips, her eyes, her hair. + +There was little time for dalliance. Danger encompassed them. Wargrave +produced from the bundle that he carried a mask and a costume with a +pair of high, felt-soled boots, which effectively disguised Muriel. Then +they joined Tashi; and the three passed out into the vestibule only just +in time, for here they found a group of lamas and peasants from a +distant part of the country stopping for a moment to look at the great +pictured Cycle of Existence painted on the wall before they entered the +temple. The vestibule opened on to a courtyard lined with the cells of +the monks of the monastery and, as this led to the great quadrangle in +which the Miracle Play was being performed, a stream of mummers, lamas +and laymen was passing through it, mostly going to the spectacle, +although a few were coming away from it. With Muriel clinging closely to +him Wargrave followed Tashi as he pushed his way through the crowd, +exchanging jokes and careless banter as he went. + +The rabbit-warren of steep lanes, flights of steps and bridges over +ravines through the town built on the precipitous slopes of the hill was +almost deserted, for most of the inhabitants had flocked to the Devil +Dance. So, unmolested and unnoticed, they reached the caravanserai in +which the two men had lodged for several days before the festival. Here +they hurriedly changed their costumes. When they emerged from it Muriel, +her hair cropped almost to the scalp and her face stained a yellowish +tint, was garbed as a boy-novice of a lamasery in the priestly dress, +with a great rosary round her neck. In one hand she held a begging-bowl +while with the other she guided the feeble steps of the aged lama whose +disciple she was supposed to be. Behind them limped a lame lay-brother +of their monastery. + +In this disguise the fugitives met with no hindrance as they quitted the +town for the open country, heading towards the south. Only when well +clear of the houses did Frank and Muriel venture to converse in their +own language. Wargrave narrated all that had happened to him since they +had parted. Anyone watching them beyond earshot would have wondered at +the joy that shone in the face of the young _chela_ (disciple) clasping +the hand of the old priest and gazing affectionately at him as they went +along; for Frank was telling the girl of Violet's letter which had set +him free. He described his many fruitless attempts to cross the +frontier, his fortunate meeting with Badshah and the marvellous way in +which the wonderful animal had helped him. Safely inside Bhutan he and +Tashi had parted with the elephants in what appeared to be the same +forest as the one in which Colonel Dermot and they had left the herd on +their previous entry into the country. Frank had tried to imitate his +chief in ordering Badshah to meet them there again; but he was very +doubtful of the result. + +They had not found it difficult to follow the trail left by Muriel's +abductors, for once inside the border the Chinamen had not tried to +hide themselves. At every village along the rough road Tashi had learned +of their passing with their captive, so the two had followed them +without difficulty to Tuna, where they soon discovered where the girl +was imprisoned. The festival had offered them an unhoped-for opportunity +of rescuing her. Tashi, once a star performer in similar devil dances in +his own monastery, procured costumes and taught his companion what to +do. As the number of those taking part in the performances ran to +hundreds it was easy to slip in unobserved among them. + +Then Muriel told of her adventures. But, far more interesting to both +than the details of these mere happenings, each revealed to the other +the longings, the love, the hopes and fears, that had filled his and her +heart during the unhappy period of their estrangement. + +Now began a wonderful odyssey that, but for the dread of pursuit and +capture would have seemed a journey in Fairyland to the re-united +lovers. Indeed, as they travelled on day after day and danger seemed +left behind, they forgot everything in the joy of being together once +more, their vows exchanged, their faith pledged, the Future a long vista +of golden days of delight. It was well that Tashi was with them to be on +the watch, for the lovers walked with their heads in the clouds. + +And certainly theirs was an interesting pilgrimage. Bhutan is perhaps +the least-known country in Asia, the last that has kept its cherished +seclusion since Anglo-Indian troops burst the barrier of Tibet and +flaunted the Union Jack in the streets of the fabled city of Lhassa. But +Bhutan is still a secret, a mysterious, land. Only a few British Envoys, +from Bogle in the latter half of the 18th Century to Claude White and +Bell in the beginning of this, and their companions, had intruded on its +privacy before Colonel Dermot. So that for the lovers it had all the +fascination of the unknown. + +Sometimes, among the ice-clad peaks of the giant ranges of the +Himalayas, they crossed snowy passes fourteen thousand feet above the +sea, and did not neglect to throw a stone upon the _obos_--the cairns +that pious and superstitious travellers erect to propitiate the spirits +of the passes. Sometimes the path led under beautiful cliffs of pure +white crystalline limestone that in the brilliant sunlight shone like +the finest marble. Often they journeyed through a lovely land of +gently-sloping hills, of grassy uplands, of deep valleys giving +delightful vistas of snow-clad mountains far away. They walked through +pinewoods, through forests of maple, silver fir, and larch, and miles of +huge bushes of flowering rhododendrons. They toiled up a rough and stony +track over bare and desolate land that was an old moraine and under +moraine terraces one above another, forming giant spurs of the rugged +hills. There were dark and fearsome ravines, so deep that they could +scarcely hear the roar of the foaming torrents rushing among the great +boulders below as they crossed on swaying suspension bridges of iron +chains. These had been built hundreds of years before by long-forgotten +Chinese engineers. Three chains on one level supported the bamboo or +plank footway, while one on either side served as a hand-rail, and a +bamboo or grass lattice-work between them and the roadbearers hid from +sight the deep gorge below. Often these bridges were only of ropes of +twisted withes or grass and swung and swayed in terrifying fashion with +the motion of the traveller. There were broad rivers over the eddying, +swirling waters of which strong cantilever bridges of stout wooden beams +were pushed out from the steep banks. + +Truly a beautiful land Bhutan, at its loveliest perhaps in spring, when +the hills and upland meadows where the yaks graze, ten thousand feet +above the sea, blaze with the mingled colours of anemones blue and +white, of yellow pansies and mauve and white irises, of large white +roses and small yellow ones, of giant yellow primulas with six tiers of +flowers, when the oaks and the chestnuts are clothed in young green, and +the apricot, pear and orange trees are in bloom, when large and lovely +blossoms cover that little-known tree that the Bhutanese call _chape_, +when the bright green of the young grass runs up to the white +snowfields. The woods are full of a pretty ground orchid, beautiful +trailing blossoms of others droop from the boughs of the great trees, +and on the magnesium limestone hills one of the rarest orchids grows in +profusion. + +But to the two pilgrims of Love the land seemed beautiful even now that +the winter was not far distant. In the silent woods, hidden from prying +eyes, they sat hand in hand and whispered to each other over and over +again the oldest, sweetest story that the Earth has known. Strange to +hear words of love from the lips of such a weird-looking couple; yet +Muriel in her quaint disguise with her silky hair cropped to the scalp +was as beautiful in her lover's eyes as when he had seen her in her +prettiest frocks. And she thought the yellow-skinned, wrinkled old lama +infinitely more attractive than the gay young subaltern of Ranga +Duar--for he was her own now. Such is Love's glamour. Muriel had +forgiven royally. + +Bhutan is a Buddhist-ruled land, therefore slaying for sport and fishing +in the rivers is prohibited; nay, more, the Maharajah sometimes forbids +the killing of even domestic animals for food. So wild life abounds. The +fugitives often saw flocks of burhel--called _nao_ in Bhutan--feeding on +the precipitous slopes of the higher hills. Once Frank and Muriel +excitedly watched a snow-leopard stalking one of these big-horned sheep +sixteen thousand feet above the sea-level. And in these heights they +even saw an occasional lynx or wolf, generally only to be found in the +highest elevations bordering on Tibet. Silver-haired _langur_ apes, the +white fringes around their black faces giving them a comic resemblance +to aged negroes, awoke the echoes of the mountains with their deep +booming cry; while in the lower valleys little brown monkeys mopped and +mowed from the trees at the fugitives as they passed. On one occasion +Muriel, exhilarated by the keen, life-giving air, ran gaily on ahead of +the others in a wood--and came on a tiger enjoying its midday siesta. +But the striped brute only uttered a startled "Wough! Wough!" like a big +dog and dashed away through the undergrowth. Another time they disturbed +a red bear feeding on the carcase of a strange beast that seemed a +mixture of goat, donkey and deer--Tashi called it a _serao_. And at a +lower elevation they blundered on two black bears--not flesh-eaters +these, yet more dangerous--grubbing for roots, and on another occasion +saw one climbing a tree in search of wild bees' nests. + +In a dense jungle early one morning a beautiful black panther with a +skin like watered silk glided stealthily by them, showing its white +fangs and red mouth in an angry snarl as it went. And deep down in a +valley they espied a rhinoceros feeding a thousand feet below them. But +they came across no elephants; and Frank noted the fact despairingly as +rendering even less probable a meeting with Badshah and his herd. + +Bird-life abounded, from the snow partridges that flew in the hills +eighteen thousand feet high to pigeons of every kind: birds of all +sizes, from great eagles to the little quails that hid in the +cornfields; lammergeiers that were fed on human bodies, the dead of +families of high degree, exposed on a flat rock of slate with head and +shoulders tied to a wooden axle that stretched the corpse like a rack. +In Bhutan ordinary folk are cremated. + +On their journey the fugitives met with wayfarers of every rank and +class. On a steep mountain track they stood aside to let a high official +go by. He was sitting pickaback in a cloth on a powerfully-built +servant, the ends of the cloth knotted on the man's forehead. Behind +trudged an escort of bare-legged swordsmen with leather shields and +shining steel helmets. Coolies, male and female, followed, carrying the +great man's baggage in baskets placed in the crutch of forked sticks +tied on their backs. Sometimes they passed a rival lama glaring with +jealous eye at them. Often they met groups of raiyats, sturdy peasants, +thick-limbed, bare-footed, bare-headed, the women clear-eyed, +deep-bosomed, but uglier than the males. These did reverence to the holy +men and put their modest offerings of copper coins or food into Muriel's +begging-bowl. + +Another time it was a family group at food, eating by the wayside. The +group consisted of a stout, ruddy-faced woman with close-cropped hair, +hung with many necklaces of coral and turquoise, and waited on by her +three meek and submissive husbands, all brothers--for this is a land of +polyandry. She invited the fugitives to share their meal, and bade her +dutiful spouses serve the supposed lamas. They proffered cooked rice +coloured with saffron and other food in the excellent Bhutanese baskets +woven with very finely split cane. These are made in two circular parts +with rounded top and bottom pieces fitting so well that water can +actually be carried in them. From sealed wicker-covered bamboos the +hosts filled _choongas_ (bamboo mugs) with _murwa_, the beer of the +country, and _chang_, the native spirit. Frank and Muriel refused the +liquor; but Tashi drank their share as well as his, to give the pious +peasants an opportunity of acquiring merit. And wife and husbands +thought themselves amply rewarded by a muttered blessing. + +A very different figure was that of a man lame of the right leg and +limping painfully down a steep hill in front of the fugitives. Muriel, +full of pity, whispered to her lover after they had passed him: "Oh, the +poor wretch! Did you see, dear, he had lost the right hand as well?" But +she shuddered when she learned that the cripple was a murderer punished +by the severing of the tendons of the leg and the loss of the hand that +struck the fatal blow. + +In the cultivated valleys, where barley, buckwheat and mustard grew, +there were everywhere evidences of the religious feeling of the Western +Bhutanese. Every hill was crowned with a _gompa_ or chapel, _chortens_ +and praying-wheels stood beside the road, and _mendongs_ or +praying-walls, a mile long, their stones engraved with sacred words, +were built near habitations. + +In the villages the disguised fugitives were well treated. Food and +lodging were offered them freely in the cabins as in the great houses of +officials and rich folks, where they spent hours watching the skilled +artisans among the feudal retainers of their hosts weaving silk, making +woollen and cotton garments, brocade and embroideries, or hammering +artistic designs on silver or copper plates backed with lac. None +suspected the three of being other than they seemed. The Buddhism of +Bhutan and Tibet to-day has but one article of faith--"Acquire merit by +feeding and paying the lamas and they will win salvation for you." So +rich and poor vied in giving their best to the holy wayfarers, and +sought not to intrude on the meditations or privacy of lama and _chela_, +and welcomed the cheery company of the more worldly lay brother who +could crack a joke or empty a mug with any man and pitch the stone +quoits or shoot an arrow in the archery contests better than the village +champion. + +Thus, contentedly and free from care, the three fugitives wandered on +towards the south where on the frontier they expected their troubles to +begin. One day when passing a hamlet by the roadside they tarried to +look on at a wedding at which a buxom country maid was being married to +a family of six brothers. The village headman performed the simple +ceremony, which consisted of offering a bowl of _murwa_ to the gods, +then presenting a cupful to the bride and eldest bridegroom, blessing +them, and expressing a hope that the union might be a fruitful one. The +rest, after the usual presents had been given to the bride's relatives, +was simply a matter of feasting everyone. The stranger lamas were +invited to join; but Frank refused and dragged away the convivial Tashi, +who was anxious to accept the invitation. Wargrave with difficulty led +him aside and was so occupied in arguing with his discontented guide +that he did not notice that Muriel had not followed. + +A sudden cry from her and his name shrieked out wildly made him turn in +alarm. To his horror he saw the girl struggling in the grasp of a +Chinaman, while another on a mule and holding the bridle of a second +animal was calling on the villagers in the Penlop's name to assist his +comrade. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +A STRANGE RESCUE + + +Neither Muriel, absorbed in watching the wedding, nor the two men +engrossed in their dispute had noticed the Chinese come riding along the +road and pulling up when they saw the peasants gathered together. One of +them had been about to question the villagers from his saddle when his +eyes fell on the disguised girl standing apart from the crowd. He stared +at her for a few moments. Then he spoke hurriedly to his companions, +and, springing from the mule's back seized Muriel in a rough grasp. + +At her cry Frank ran back, forgetting his disguise. He recognised in her +assailant the pock-marked officer of the _Amban_. The man, seeing him +coming, drew a revolver; but Wargrave whipped out his pistol quicker and +without hesitation shot him through the heart. The Chinaman collapsed to +the ground and in his fall dragged the girl down. His comrade fired at +his slayer and, missing him, wheeled his mule round and galloped off. +Tashi returned the shot while Frank ran to Muriel. He fired several +times and the rider was apparently hit; for he fell forward on the neck +of his animal; but he recovered himself and, crouching low, was still +in the saddle when a turn in the road hid him from sight. + +The startled villagers scattered and fled in terror at the tragedy +suddenly enacted in their midst, the six cowardly husbands deserting +their new-made wife and leaving her to follow as they ran away, which +she did at her utmost speed. + +Frank freed Muriel from the stiffened grasp of the dead man and helped +her to her feet; then the three hurried from the fatal spot, so lately +filled by a cheerful crowd of merrymakers and now tenanted only by the +corpse that lay with sightless eyes staring up at the blue sky. They +made for the shelter of jungle-clad hills that rose a couple of miles +away. + +From now onwards, for two or three weeks, the fugitives led the lives of +hunted rats. They travelled generally only by night, avoiding villages +and farms, and keeping away from the road as much as possible. They were +in the southern zone of Bhutan lying nearest the Indian frontier, a +region of precipitous hills ten or twelve thousand feet high, their +sides clothed with dense vegetation, of deep, fever-laden valleys of +awe-inspiring gorges, of rivers liable to sudden floods and rising in a +few hours thirty or forty feet. + +Tashi in various disguises occasionally visited villages in search of +food and information; while the lovers awaited his return in some hidden +spot, Frank holding the anxious girl in his arms and trying to calm her +fears. In one excursion the ex-lama got the first definite news of the +pursuit. He learned that the _Amban_ had returned unexpectedly to Tuna, +the plot in his favour in Pekin having failed. He was not satisfied by +the tales told by the monks of the lamasery to account for Muriel's +mysterious disappearance, which was that she had been carried off by +devils. He insisted on a search being made for her along the road to the +Indian border and sent his own Chinese guards to direct the pursuit. The +companion of the pock-marked man had got back to Tuna and told of their +recognition of her. Yuan Shi Hung, furious at the death of his officer +but overjoyed at the discovery of the girl, set out at once with his +personal followers and a body of the Penlop's soldiers to take up the +chase. + +The fugitives, hotly pursued, had several hair-breadth escapes. Once +they almost blundered into a bivouac of their enemies at night. They +succeeded at last in reaching the great forest in which Wargrave and the +ex-lama had parted from the elephants, the forest which ran along the +foot and clothed the northern slopes of the second-last range of +mountains between them and the frontier. But alas! there was no trace of +Badshah's herd; yet this was not surprising, for they found themselves +in a part unknown to them. Through this vast jungle they travelled by +day, until one evening they reached a deep gorge that pierced the range +and seemed to promise a passage through the mountains. + +They camped for the night by its mouth, intending to enter it at +sunrise. Dawn found them breaking their fast on a scanty meal of dried +mutton and bananas. Suddenly Tashi stopped eating and held up a warning +hand. His companions drew their pistols, Frank having given his second +weapon to Muriel. Presently they heard the faint sounds of an animal's +approach on their track. Just as they had risen silently to their feet +three gigantic dogs appeared, scenting their trail. They were Tibetan +mastiffs, such as are to be seen chained in the court yards of +lamaseries. At sight of them the huge brutes stopped, crouched for an +instant, showing their fangs in a fierce snarl, and then rushed at them. + +Without hesitation the three fired. One of the dogs dropped dead; but +the others, though wounded, came on. One bounded at Muriel. Frank threw +himself in front of her, firing rapidly at it. Several bullets struck +it, but the savage brute sprang at his throat. He grappled with it, +striving by main strength to hold it off. Muriel rushed to his aid and +putting her pistol to the mastiff's head shot it dead. Tashi meantime +had killed the third. + +Knowing that their pursuers must be close behind the dogs they fled into +the gorge. On either hand stupendous cliffs towered up two thousand feet +above them, scarcely a hundred yards apart, seeming to meet overhead +and shut off the sky. Here and there the giant walls were split from top +to bottom in slits opening off the main passage. As the fugitives ran on +the gorge narrowed until it was scarcely fifty yards wide, and they +began to fear that it might prove only a _cul-de-sac_ in which they +would be hopelessly trapped. They heard cries behind them, strangely +echoed by the rocky walls. Breathless, panting, their tired limbs giving +way under them, they staggered blindly on. + +The pass turned sharply to the right. As they approached the bend they +became aware of a dull rumbling, and the ground, which suddenly began to +slope steeply down, shook violently under their feet. Wondering what new +danger, what fresh horror, awaited them they stumbled on, turned the +corner and stopped short in dismayed despair. + +From side to side the gorge was filled with a tumultuous, racing flood +of foam-flecked water, a rushing river that poured out of a natural +tunnel in the steeply sloping rocky bottom of the pass as from a sluice. +It surged against the precipitous cliffs, leaping up against the walls +that hemmed it in, sweeping in mad onset of white-topped waves and +eddying whirlpools flinging spray high in air. The stoutest swimmer +would be tossed about helplessly in it, rolled over and over, choked, +suffocated, sucked under, the life beaten out of him. + +For one wild moment Frank thought of seizing Muriel in his arms and +springing into the raging flood, but the sheer hopelessness of escape +that way checked him. It was certain death. Better to turn and face +their pursuers. There was more chance of life in battling with a score +or two of Bhutanese swordsmen than with the tumbling, tossing waters. + +So, pistol in hand, the three retraced their steps, looking everywhere +for a suitable spot to make a stand. But on either hand the cliffs rose +sheer, their faces seamed here and there with cracks, but with never a +crevice big enough to shelter them. They passed the bend; and a few +hundred yards beyond it some large rocks fallen from the cliff on one +side lay close against its base. + +Frank resolved to take their stand here. It was the only cover visible. +They fitted the holster-stocks to their pistols, converting them into +carbines which could be fired from the shoulder, enabling them to aim +more accurately at a longer range. Then while Tashi crept cautiously +along the pass to scout, the subaltern and the girl examined the +position for defence. Thus occupied they were startled by shots ringing +out, echoing down the vast canyon. Taking cover they saw their companion +running back followed by a body of men, a few mounted, the majority on +foot. Some had fire-arms, others bows, the rest swords. + +Wargrave and Muriel opened on the pursuers with their automatic weapons +and checked them. Tashi was about a hundred yards from shelter when a +shot struck him. He stumbled and fell, while a howl of delight rose from +his foes. As he tried to struggle up bullets kicked up the dust round +him and several arrows dropped near. + +"Muriel, loose off as many cartridges as you can to cover me," said +Wargrave, laying his pistol beside her. + +Before the girl realised his meaning he had sprung out from the rocks +and was running towards Tashi. For a moment the pursuers were puzzled by +his action and then fired their rifles and matchlocks and shot arrows at +him. But unscathed he reached the wounded man who had been so faithful a +comrade to him. Raising him on his back he staggered towards the rocks, +while Muriel pumped lead at the enemy and succeeded in keeping down +their fire somewhat. As Wargrave laid the ex-lama on the ground in +shelter Tashi seized his hand and touched it with his lips and forehead +in silent gratitude. Frank hurriedly examined and bandaged the wound +made by a large-calibre bullet, which had passed through the leg below +the knee, lacerating the muscles but not injuring the bone. Then he took +up his post again, while Tashi dragged himself up behind a rock and +opened fire on their foes. + +These were for the most part Bhutanese, but there were several Chinese +among them. + +"Look! Look, Frank! There's the _Amban_," cried Muriel excitedly, +pointing to a man who rode into sight along the pass on a white mule. + +She fired at him. The bullet missed him but apparently went unpleasantly +close, for Yuan Shi Hung galloped back into shelter behind a projecting +buttress of the cliffs. + +The attackers numbered sixty or eighty. They were apparently staggered +by the rapid fire poured into them, which killed or wounded several of +them. Some tried to find shelter by huddling against the side of the +pass and others flung themselves on the ground behind boulders; but the +leaders urged them on. + +There could be little doubt as to the issue of the fight. The bullets +from the Chinamen's rifles and the Bhutanese matchlocks spattered the +rocks or the face of the cliff; but the archers began to shoot almost +vertically into the air from their strong bamboo bows, and several +iron-tipped, four-feathered arrows dropped behind the cover, one missing +Wargrave by a hand's breadth. + +Fearing for Muriel he tried to shield her with his body. + +"What's the use, dearest?" she said. "If you are killed I don't want to +live. Indeed, we must both die now. I shall not be taken alive. Kiss me +and tell me once more that you love me." + +He held her to his heart in a passionate embrace and kissed her fondly. + +"They are coming now, sahib," said Tashi. "And I have only a few +cartridges left." + +The lovers paid no heed. + +"Goodbye, my dear, dear love," whispered Muriel, "I'm happier dying with +you than living without you." + +Frank kissed her, solemnly now, for the last time. Then they turned to +face the enemy. The swordsmen were massing for a charge. Crouching low +they held their shields before them and waved their long-bladed _dahs_ +above their heads, uttering fierce yells. + +Suddenly the _Amban_ and other mounted men who had been sheltering out +of sight dashed into view and rode madly into the rear ranks, knocking +down and trampling on anyone in their way. The men on foot looked behind +and broke into a run, coming on in a disordered mob. But it was not a +charge--it was more like a panic. For with wild cries of frantic terror +they fled past the defenders who, fearing a trick, fired their last +cartridges into them, dropping several, some of whom tried to rise and +drag themselves on in dread of something terrible behind. + +Then into sight came a vast herd of wild elephants, filling the gorge +from cliff to cliff and moving at a slow trot. A huge bull led them, +lines of other tuskers behind him, crowds of females and calves +bringing up the rear. The onset of the mass of great monsters was +terrifying. It was appalling, irresistible. + +Muriel cried out: + +"It's Badshah! Frank, it's Badshah! Look at the leader! Don't you see?" + +Tashi stared at the oncoming herd. Then he quietly unfixed his pistol +and put it away in the holster. + +"We are saved, sahib," he said with the calm fatalism of the East. "The +God of the Elephants has sent them." + +And he limped out from behind the rocks. The two Europeans followed him. +Their foes had disappeared, all but the dead and wounded. + +Badshah--for it was he--swerved out of his course and came to them, +while the herd went on, opening out to pass him as he sank to his knees +before the humans. Tashi, despite his wound, climbed on to his neck, +while Wargrave mounted behind him and Muriel took her seat on the broad +back, clinging to her lover. Then the tusker rose and moved swiftly +after the herd. + +As he rounded the bend a strange sight met the eyes of those he carried. +Their enemies were huddled together in terror near the brink of the +tunnel from which the surging water rushed out. Some endeavoured to +pluck up courage to throw themselves into the river, while the majority +had turned to face the elephants. But they were paralysed with fright. A +few tried to discharge their fire-arms or loosed their arrows with +trembling hands. As the elephants, quickening their pace, rushed on in +an irresistible mass some of the men, crazed with fright, ran to meet +them. Others flung themselves to the ground where they were. + +But over both the great monsters passed, treading them to pulp under the +ponderous feet. The animals of the mounted men, as terrified as their +riders, swung about and sprang headlong into the river. Many of the men +on foot did the same. The heads of animals and men appeared and +disappeared, bobbing up and down, then their bodies were rolled over and +over, tossed up on the waves and sucked under. One by one they +disappeared. + +A few of the panic-stricken mob had tried to climb the precipitous +cliffs in vain. One, however, getting his hands into a narrow, slanting +crack, dragged himself up a few feet. + +It was the _Amban_. Frank drew his pistol; but Muriel clung to his arm +and cried: + +"Oh, spare the poor wretch!" + +Tashi had no scruples, but his magazine was empty and he searched in +vain for a cartridge. + +But Yuan Shi Hung's time had come. Badshah's trunk shot out and caught +the climber's ankle. The Chinaman was plucked from the face of the cliff +and hurled to the ground. A frenzied shriek burst from him as the tusk +was driven into his shuddering body, which in an instant was trodden to +a bloody pulp. Muriel hid her face against her lover, but the agony of +the wretch's dying yell rang in her ears. + +Not one of their enemies was left alive. Then the elephants one by one +slid and slithered down into the rushing water which was very little +below the brink. The mothers supported the youngest calves with their +trunks, the less immature climbing on to their backs. Tashi checked +Badshah as he was about to follow the herd into the river and, lame as +he was, slid down to the ground. He searched the crushed and mangled +corpses of his fellow-countrymen and collected their girdles until he +had enough to knot and plait into two ropes, one to go about Badshah's +neck, the other around the great body. More girdles sufficed to join +these together and supply cords by which the men and the woman on his +back could tie themselves on to the ropes and to each other securely. +When this was done Badshah slid into the river. As elephants do he sank +in the water until only the upper part of his head and the tip of his +upraised trunk were above it. Without the precaution that Tashi had +taken his riders would have been instantly swept away. + +Only elephants could have battled successfully with that raging torrent. +The upflung spray and leaping waves hid the herd from the fugitives as +they clung desperately to the ropes and to each other. + + * * * * * + +Eighteen months had gone by. In the garden of the Political Agent's +bungalow in Ranga Duar Colonel Dermot, completely restored to health, +and his wife stood with his Assistant, Major Hunt and Macdonald. They +were watching Mrs. Wargrave who, with Brian and Eileen clinging to her, +was holding out her two months' old baby to a great elephant with a +single tusk. The animal raised its trunk as though in salute, then, +lowering it, gently touched with its sensitive tip the laughing infant +whose tiny hand instinctively clutched it and held it fast. + +With a smile Muriel turned her head and looked at her husband. + +"Badshah has accepted him. Your son is free of the herd," said Colonel +Dermot. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE JUNGLE GIRL*** + + +******* This file should be named 14087-8.txt or 14087-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/0/8/14087 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: The Jungle Girl</p> +<p>Author: Gordon Casserly</p> +<p>Release Date: November 18, 2004 [eBook #14087]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE JUNGLE GIRL***</p> +<br /><br /><h3>E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, David Garcia,<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team</h3><br /><br /> +<hr class="full" /> +<div style="height: 8em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h1> + THE JUNGLE GIRL +</h1> +<center><b> +BY GORDON CASSERLY +</b> +<br /> +<small>AUTHOR OF <i>THE ELEPHANT GOD</i>, ETC.</small> +</center> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<center><small> +NEW YORK<br /> +1922 +</small></center> + +<hr /> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CONTENTS +</h2> + +<p class="toc">CHAPTER</p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0001"> +I. THE GREY BOAR</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0002"> +II. YOUTH CALLS TO YOUTH</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0003"> +III. THE LOVE-SONG OF HAR DYAL</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0004"> +IV. A CROCODILE INTERVENES</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0005"> +V. SENTENCE OF EXILE</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0006"> +VI. A BORDER OUTPOST</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0007"> +VII. IN THE TERAI JUNGLE</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0008"> +VIII. A GIRL OF THE FOREST</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0009"> +IX. TIGER LAND</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0010"> +X. A POLITICAL OFFICER IN THE MAKING</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0011"> +XI. TRAGEDY</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0012"> +XII. "ROOTED IN DISHONOUR"</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0013"> +XIII. THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0014"> +XIV. THE DEVIL DANCERS OF TUNA</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0015"> +XV. A STRANGE RESCUE</a></p> + +<p> </p><p> </p> + +<hr /> + +<a name="h2HCH0001" id="h2HCH0001"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER I +</h2> +<h3> + THE GREY BOAR +</h3> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i4"> Youth's daring courage, manhood's fire</p> +<p class="i6"> Firm seat and eagle eye</p> +<p class="i4"> Must he acquire who doth aspire</p> +<p class="i6"> To see the grey boar die</p> +<p style="text-align:right;"> —<i>Indian Pigsticking Song</i></p> +</div> +</div> + + + +<p> +Mrs. Norton looked contentedly at her image in the long mirror which +reflected a graceful figure in a well-cut grey habit and smart long +brown boots, a pretty face and wavy auburn hair under the sun-helmet. +Then turning away and picking up her whip she left the dressing-room +and, passing the door of her husband's bedroom where he lay still +sleeping, descended the broad marble staircase of the Residency to the +lofty hall, where an Indian servant in a long red coat hurried to open +the door of the dining-room for her. +</p> +<p> +Almost at that moment a mile away Raymond, the adjutant of the 180th +Punjaub Infantry, looked at his watch and called out loudly: +</p> +<p> +"Hurry up, Wargrave; it's four o'clock and the ponies will be round in +ten minutes. And it's a long ride to the Palace." +</p> +<p> +He was seated at a table on the verandah of the bungalow which he +shared with his brother subaltern in the small military cantonment near +Rohar, the capital of the Native State of Mandha in the west of India. +Dawn had not yet come; and by the light of an oil lamp Raymond was +eating a frugal breakfast of tea, toast and fruit, the <i>chota hazri</i> or +light meal with which Europeans in the East begin the day. He was +dressed in an old shooting-jacket, breeches and boots; and as he ate his +eyes turned frequently to a bundle of steel-headed bamboo spears leaning +against the wall near him. For he and his companion were going as the +guests of the Maharajah of Mandha for a day's pigsticking, as hunting +the wild boar is termed in India. +</p> +<p> +He had finished his meal and lit a cheroot before Wargrave came yawning +on to the verandah. +</p> +<p> +"Sorry for being so lazy, old chap," said the newcomer. "But a year's +leave in England gets one out of the habit of early rising." +</p> +<p> +He pulled up a chair to the table on which his white-clad Mussulman +servant, who had come up the front steps of the verandah, laid a tray +with his tea and toast. And while he ate Raymond lay back smoking in a +long chair and looked almost affectionately at him. They had been +friends since their Sandhurst days, and during the past twelve months of +his comrade's absence on furlough in Europe the adjutant had sorely +missed his cheery companionship. Nor was he the only one in their +regiment who had. +</p> +<p> +Frank Wargrave was almost universally liked by both men and women, and, +while unspoilt by popularity, thoroughly deserved it. He was about +twenty-six years of age, above medium height, with a lithe and graceful +figure which the riding costume that he was wearing well set off. +Fair-haired and blue-eyed, with good though irregular features, he was +pleasant-faced and attractive rather than handsome. The cheerful, +good-tempered manner that he displayed even at that trying early hour +was a true indication of a happy and light-hearted disposition that made +him as liked by his brother officers as by other men who did not know +him so well. In his regiment all the native ranks adored the young +sahib, who was always kind and considerate, though just, to them, and +looked more closely after their interests than he did his own. For, like +most young officers in the Indian Army, he was seldom out of debt; but +soldierly hospitality and a hand ever ready to help a friend in want +were the causes rather than deliberate extravagance on his own account. +Taking life easily and never worrying over his own troubles he was +always generous and sympathetic to others, and prompter to take up +cudgels on their behalf than on his own. His being a good sportsman and +a smart soldier added to his popularity among men; while all women were +partial to the pleasant, courteous subaltern whom they felt to have a +chivalrous regard and respect for them and who was as polite and +attentive to an old lady as he was to the prettiest girl. +</p> +<p> +While admiring and liking the other sex Wargrave had hitherto been too +absorbed in sport and his profession to have ever found time to lose his +heart to any particular member of it, while his innate respect for, and +high ideal of, womankind had preserved him from unworthy intrigues with +those ready to meet him more than half-way. Even in the idleness of the +year's furlough in England from which he had returned the previous day +he had remained heart-whole; although several charming girls had been +ready to share his lot and more than one pretty pirate had sought to +make him her prize. But he had been blind to them all; for he was too +free from conceit to believe that any woman would concern herself with +him unasked. He had dined and danced with maid and young matron in +London, ridden with them in the Row and Richmond Park, punted them down +backwaters by Goring, Pangbourne and the Cleveden Woods, and flirted +harmlessly with them in country houses after days with the Quorn and the +Pytchley, and yet come back to India true to his one love, his regiment. +</p> +<p> +As Raymond watched him the fear of the feminine dangers in England for +his friend suddenly pricked; and he blurted out anxiously: +</p> +<p> +"I say, old chap, you haven't got tangled up with any woman at home, +have you? Not got engaged or any silly thing like that, I hope?" +</p> +<p> +Wargrave laughed. +</p> +<p> +"No fear, old boy," he replied, pouring out another cup of tea. "Far too +hard up to think of such an expensive luxury as a wife. Been too busy, +too, to see much of any particular girl." +</p> +<p> +"You had some decent sport, hadn't you?" asked his friend, with a +feeling of relief in his heart. +</p> +<p> +"Rather. I told you I'd learnt to fly and got my pilot's certificate, +for one thing. Good fun, flying. I wish I could afford a 'bus of my own. +Then I had some yachting on the Solent and a lot of boating on the +Thames. I put in a month in Switzerland, skiing and skating." +</p> +<p> +"Did you get any hunting?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, at my uncle's place near Desford in Leicestershire. He gave me +some shooting, too. It was all very well; but I was very envious when +the regiment came here and you wrote and told me of the pigsticking you +were getting. I've always longed for it. It's great sport, isn't it?" +</p> +<p> +"The best I know," cried Raymond enthusiastically. "Beats hunting +hollow. You're not following a wretched little animal that runs for its +life, but a game brute that will turn on you as like as not and make +you fight for yours." +</p> +<p> +"It must be ripping. I do hope we'll have the luck to find plenty of pig +to-day." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, we're sure to. The Maharajah told me yesterday they have marked +down a <i>sounder</i>—that is, a herd—of wild pig in a <i>nullah</i> about seven +miles the other side of the city, which is two miles away, so we have a +ride of nine to the meet." +</p> +<p> +"That will make it a very hard day for our ponies, won't it?" asked +Wargrave anxiously. "Eighteen miles there and back and the runs as +well." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, that's all right. The Maharajah mounts us at the meet. We'll find +his horses waiting there for us. Rawboned beasts with mouths like iron, +as a rule; but good goers and staunch to pig." +</p> +<p> +"By Jove! The Maharajah must be a real good chap." +</p> +<p> +"One of the best," replied Raymond. "He is a man for whom I've the +greatest admiration. He rules his State admirably. He commanded his own +Imperial Service regiment in the war and did splendidly. He is very good +to us here." +</p> +<p> +"So it seems. From what I gathered at Mess last night he appears to +provide all our sport for us." +</p> +<p> +"Yes; he arranges his shoots and the pigsticking meets for days on which +the officers of the regiment are free to go out with him. When we can +travel by road he sends his carriages for us, lends us horses and has +camels to follow us with lunch, ice and drinks wherever we go." +</p> +<p> +"What a good fellow he must be!" exclaimed Wargrave. "I am glad we get +pigsticking here. I've always longed for it, but never have been +anywhere before where there was any, as you know." +</p> +<p> +"It's lucky for us that the sport here is good; for without it life in +Rohar would be too awful to contemplate. It's the last place the Lord +made." +</p> +<p> +"It's the hardest place to reach I've ever known," said Wargrave. "It +was a shock to learn that, after forty-eight hours in the train, I had +two more days to travel after leaving the railway." +</p> +<p> +"How did you like that forty miles in a camel train over the salt +desert? That made you sit up a bit, eh?" +</p> +<p> +"It was awful. The heat and the glare off the sand nearly killed me. You +say there is no society here?" +</p> +<p> +"Society? The only Europeans here or in the whole State, besides those +of us in the regiment, are the Resident and his wife." +</p> +<p> +"What is a Resident, exactly?" +</p> +<p> +"A Political Officer appointed by the Government of India to be a sort +of adviser to a rajah and to keep a check on him if he rules his State +badly. I shouldn't imagine that our fellow here, Major Norton, would be +much good as an adviser to anybody. The only thing he seems to know +anything about is insects. He's quite a famous entomologist. Personally +he's not a bad sort, but a bit of a bore." +</p> +<p> +"What's his wife like?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, very different. Much younger and fond of gaiety, I think. Not that +she can get any here. She's a decidedly pretty woman. I haven't seen +much of her; for she has been away most of the time, that the regiment +has been here. She has relatives in Calcutta and stays a lot with them." +</p> +<p> +"I don't blame her," said Wargrave, laughing. "Rohar must be a very +deadly place for a young woman. No amusements. No dances. No shops. And +the only female society the wives of the Colonel and the Doctor." +</p> +<p> +"Luckily for Mrs. Norton she is rather keen on sport and is a good +rider. You'll probably meet her to-day; for she generally comes out +pigsticking with us, though she doesn't carry a spear. I've promised to +take her shooting with us the next time we go. Hullo! here are the +ponies at last. Are you ready, Frank?" +</p> +<p> +The two officers rose, as their <i>syces</i>, or native grooms, came up +before the bungalow leading two ponies, a Waler and an Arab. Raymond +walked over to the bundle of spears and selected one with a leaf-shaped +steel head. +</p> +<p> +"Try this, Frank," he said. "See if it suits you. You don't want too +long a spear." +</p> +<p> +His companion balanced it in his hand. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, it seems all right. I say, old chap, how does one go for the pig? +Do you thrust at him?" +</p> +<p> +"No; just ride hard at him with the spear pointed and held with +stiffened arm. Your impetus will drive the steel well home into him." +</p> +<p> +Mounting their ponies they started, the <i>syces</i> carrying the spears and +following them at a steady run as they trotted down the sandy road +leading to the city, where at the Palace they were to meet the Maharajah +and the other sportsmen. The sky was paling fast at the coming of the +dawn; and they could discern the dozen bungalows and the Regimental +Lines, or barracks, comprising the little cantonment, above which +towered the dark mass of a rocky hill crowned by the ruined walls of an +old native fort. On either side of their route the country was flat and +at first barren. But, as they neared the capital, they passed through +cultivation and rode by green fields irrigated from deep wells, by +hamlets of palm-thatched mud huts where no one yet stirred, and on to +where the high embrasured walls of the city rose above the plain. Under +the vaulted arch of the old gateway the ponies clattered, along through +the narrow, silent streets of gaily-painted, wooden-balconied houses, at +that hour closely shuttered, until the Palace was reached as the rising +sun began to flush the sky with rose-pink. +</p> +<p> +The guard of sepoys at the great gate saluted as the two officers rode +into the wide, paved courtyard lined by high, many-windowed buildings. +In the centre of it a group of horsemen, nobles of the State or +officials of the Palace in gay dresses and bright-coloured <i>puggris</i>, or +turbans, with gold or silver-hilted swords hanging from their belts, sat +on their restless animals behind the Maharajah, a pleasant-faced, +athletic man in a white flannel coat, riding-breeches and long, soft +leather boots, mounted on a tall Waler gelding. He was chatting with +four or five other officers of the Punjaubis and raised his hand to his +forehead as the newcomers rode up and lifted their hats to him. +</p> +<p> +"Good morning, Your Highness," said Raymond. "I hope we're not late. Let +me present Mr. Wargrave of our regiment, who has just returned from +England." +</p> +<p> +With a genial smile the Maharajah leant forward and held out his hand. +</p> +<p> +"I am glad to make your acquaintance, Mr. Wargrave," he said, "and very +pleased to see you out with us to-day. Are you fond of pigsticking?" +</p> +<p> +"I've never had the chance of doing any before, Your Highness," replied +Frank, shaking his hand. "I'm awfully anxious to try it; but, being a +novice, I'm afraid I'll only be in the way." +</p> +<p> +"I'm sure you won't," said the Maharajah courteously. His command of +English was perfect. "Pigsticking is not at all difficult; and I hear +that you are a good rider." +</p> +<p> +He looked at his watch and then, turning in the saddle, addressed +another officer of the regiment who was chaffing Raymond for being late: +</p> +<p> +"Are we all here now, Captain Ross?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, sir. These two lazy fellows are the last," replied Ross +laughingly. +</p> +<p> +"Very well, gentlemen, we'll start." +</p> +<p> +He waved his hand; and at the signal two black-bearded <i>sowars</i>, or +soldiers of his cavalry regiment, dashed by him and out through the +Palace gates at a hard-gallop, leading the way past the guard, who +turned out and presented arms as the Maharajah and the British officers, +together with the crowd of nobles, officials and mounted attendants, +followed at a smart pace. The city was now waking to life. From their +windows the sleepy inhabitants stared at the party, mostly too stupefied +at that hour to recognise and salute their ruler. Pot-bellied naked +brown babies waddled on to the verandahs to gaze thumb in mouth at the +riders. Pariah dogs, nosing at the gutters and rubbish-heaps that +scented the air, bolted out of the way of the horses' hoofs. +</p> +<p> +As the sportsmen passed out of the city gates the sun was rising above +the horizon, the terrible Hot Weather sun of India, whose advent ushers +in the long hours of gasping, breathless heat. For a mile or so the +route lay through fertile gardens and fields. Then suddenly the +cultivation ended abruptly on the edge of a sandy desert that, seamed +with <i>nullahs</i>, or deep, steep-sided ravines, and dotted with tall +clumps of thorny cactus, stretched away to the horizon. The road became +a barely discernible track; but the two <i>sowars</i> cantered on, +confidently heading for the spot where the fresh horses awaited the +party. +</p> +<p> +Over the sand the riders swept, past a slow-plodding elephant lumbering +back to the city with a load of fodder, by groups of tethered camels. +Hares started up in alarm and bounded away, grey partridges whirred up +and yellow-beaked <i>minas</i> flew off chattering indignantly. The slight +morning coolness soon vanished; and Wargrave, soft and somewhat out of +condition after his weeks of shipboard life, wiped his streaming face +often before the guiding <i>sowars</i> threw up their hands in warning and +vanished slowly from sight as their sure-footed horses picked their way +down a steep <i>nullah</i>. This was the ravine in which the quarry hid. One +after another of the riders followed the leaders down the narrow track, +trotted across the sandy, rock-strewn river-bed and climbed up the far +side to where the fresh horses and a picturesque mob of wild-looking +beaters stood awaiting them. +</p> +<p> +Among the animals Wargrave noticed a smart grey Arab pony with a +side-saddle. +</p> +<p> +"I see Mrs. Norton intends coming out with us," observed the Maharajah +looking at the pony. "We must wait for her." +</p> +<p> +"It won't be for long, sir," said Raymond, pointing to a rising trail of +dust on the track by which they had come. "I'll bet that is she." +</p> +<p> +All turned to watch the approaching rider draw near, until they could +see that it was a lady galloping furiously over the sand. +</p> +<p> +"By Jove, she can ride!" exclaimed Wargrave admiringly. "I hope she'll +see the <i>nullah</i>. She's heading straight for it." +</p> +<p> +A shouted warning caused her to pull up almost on the brink; and in a +few minutes she joined the waiting group. Wargrave looked with interest +at her, as she sat on her panting horse talking to the Maharajah and the +other officers, who had dismounted. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Norton was a decidedly graceful and pretty woman. The rounded +curves of her shapely figure were set off to advantage by her +riding-costume. Her eyes were especially attractive, greenish-grey eyes +fringed by long black lashes under curved dark brows contrasting with +the warm auburn tint of the hair that showed under her sunhat. Her +complexion was dazzlingly fair. Her mouth was rather large and +voluptuous with full red lips and even white teeth. Bewitching dimples +played in the pink cheeks. Even from a man like Wargrave, fresh from +England and consequently more inclined to be critical of female beauty +than were his comrades, who for many months had seen so few white women, +Mrs. Norton's good looks could justly claim full meed of admiration and +approval. +</p> +<p> +Accepting Captain Ross's aid she slipped lightly from her saddle to the +ground and on foot looked as graceful as she did when mounted. Raymond +brought his friend to her and introduced him. +</p> +<p> +Holding out a small and shapely hand in a dainty leather gauntlet she +said in a frank and pleasant manner: +</p> +<p> +"How do you do, Mr. Wargrave? You are a fortunate person to have been in +England so lately. I haven't seen it for nearly three years. Weren't you +sorry to leave it?" +</p> +<p> +"Not in the least, Mrs. Norton. I'd far sooner be doing this," he waved +his hand towards the horses and the open desert, "than fooling about +Piccadilly and the Park." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, but don't you miss the gaieties of town, the theatres, the dances? +And then the shops and the new fashions—but you're a man, and they'd +mean nothing to you." +</p> +<p> +The Maharajah broke in: +</p> +<p> +"Mrs. Norton, I think we had better mount. The beaters are going in; and +the <i>shikaris</i> (hunters) tell me that the <i>nullah</i> swarms with pig. +There are at least half a dozen rideable boar in it." +</p> +<p> +In pigsticking only well-grown boars are pursued, sows and immature +boars being unmolested. +</p> +<p> +Ross started forward to help Mrs. Norton on to her fresh pony; but +Wargrave refused to surrender the advantage of his proximity to her. So +it was into his hand she put her small foot in its well-made riding-boot +and was swung up by him. +</p> +<p> +The saddles of the rest of the party had been changed on to the horses +that the Maharajah had provided. The beaters streamed down the steep +bank into the ravine which some distance away was filled with dense +scrub affording good cover for the quarry. Forming line they moved +through it with shrill yells, the blare of horns, the beating of +tom-toms and a spluttering fire of blank cartridges from old muskets. +The riders mounted and, spear in hand, eagerly watched their progress +through the jungle. Wargrave found himself beside Mrs. Norton; but, +after exchanging a few words, he forgot her presence as, his heart +beating fast with a true sportsman's excitement, he strained his eyes +for the first sight of a wild boar. +</p> +<p> +Suddenly, several hundred yards away, he saw a squat, dark animal emerge +from the tangled scrub and, climbing up the <i>nullah</i> on their side, +stride away over the sand with a peculiar bounding motion that reminded +Wargrave of a rocking-horse. All eyes were turned towards the +Maharajah, who would decide whether the animal were worthy of pursuit or +not. He gazed after it for a few moments, then raised his hand. +</p> +<p> +At the welcome signal all dashed off after the boar at a furious gallop, +opening out as they went to give play for their spears. Wild with +excitement, Wargrave struck spurs to his horse, which needed no urging, +being as filled with the lust of the chase as was the man on its back. +Like a cavalry charge the riders thundered in a mad rush behind His +Highness, whose faster mount carried him at once ahead of the rest. He +soon overtook the boar. Lowering his spear-point the Maharajah bent +forward in the saddle; but at the last moment the pig "jinked," that is, +turned sharply at right angles to his former course, and bounded away +untouched, while the baffled sportsman was carried on helplessly by his +excited horse. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave, following at some distance to the Maharajah's right rear, saw +to his mingled joy and trepidation the boar only a short way in front of +him. +</p> +<p> +"Ride, ride hard!" cried Mrs. Norton almost alongside him. +</p> +<p> +Frank drove his spurs in; and the gaunt, raw-boned countrybred under him +sprang forward. But just as it had all but reached the quarry, the +latter jinked again and Wargrave was borne on, tugging vainly at the +horse's iron jaws. But the boar had short shrift. With a rush Ross +closed on it and before it could swerve off sent his spear deep into its +side and, galloping on, turned his hand over, drawing out the lance. The +pig was staggered by the shock but started to run on. Before it could +get up speed one of the Indian nobles dashed at it with wild yells and +speared it again. +</p> +<p> +The thrust this time was mortal. The boar staggered on a few steps, then +stumbled and fell heavily to the ground. The hunters reined in their +sweating horses and gathered round it. +</p> +<p> +"Not a big animal," commented the Maharajah, scrutinising it with the +eye of an expert. "About thirty-four inches high, I think. But the tusks +are good. They're yours, Captain Ross, aren't they?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, Your Highness, I think so," replied Ross. +</p> +<p> +Pigsticking law awards the trophy to the rider whose spear first +inflicts a wound on the boar. +</p> +<p> +"Better luck next time, Mr. Wargrave," said Mrs. Norton, riding up to +him. "I thought you were sure of him when he jinked away from the +Maharajah." +</p> +<p> +"To be quite candid I was rather relieved that I didn't get the chance, +Mrs. Norton," replied the subaltern. "As I've never been out after pig +before I didn't quite know what to do. However, I've seen now that it +isn't very difficult; so I hope I'll get an opportunity later." +</p> +<p> +"You are sure to, Mr. Wargrave," remarked the Maharajah. "There are +several boars left in cover; and the men are going in again." +</p> +<p> +The tatterdemalion mob of beaters was descending into the <i>nullah</i>; and +soon the wild din broke out once more. A gaunt grey boar with long and +gleaming tusks was seen to emerge from the scrub and climb the far bank +of the ravine, where he stood safely out of reach but in full view of +the tantalised hunters. But a string of laden camels passing over the +desert scared him back again; and while the riders watched in eager +excitement, he slowly descended into the <i>nullah</i>, crossed it and came +up on the near side some hundreds of yards away. +</p> +<p> +The Maharajah raised his spear. +</p> +<p> +"Ride!" he cried. +</p> +<p> +"Go like the devil, Frank!" shouted Raymond, as the scurrying horsemen +swept in a body over the sand and he found himself for a moment beside +his friend. "He's a beauty. Forty inches, I'll swear. Splendid tusks." +</p> +<p> +Wargrave crouched like a jockey in the saddle as the riders raced madly +after the boar. The Indians among them, wildly excited, brandished their +lances and uttered fierce cries as they galloped along. Their +Maharajah's speedier mount again took the lead; but even in India sport +is democratic and his nobles, attendants and soldiers all tried to +overtake and pass him. The white men, as is their wont, rode in silence +but none the less keenly excited. Over sand and stones, past tall, +prickly cactus-plants, in hot pursuit all flew at racing speed. +</p> +<p> +It was a long chase; for the old grey boar was speedy, cunning, and a +master of wiles. First one pursuer, then another, then a third and a +fourth, found himself almost upon the quarry and bent down with +outstretched, eager spear only to be baffled by a swift jink and carried +on helplessly, pulling vainly at the reins. +</p> +<p> +At length a sudden turn threw out all the field except the Maharajah, +who had foreseen it and ridden off to intercept the now tiring boar. +Overtaking it he bent forward and wounded it slightly. The brute +instantly swung in upon his horse, and with a fierce grunt dashed under +it and leapt up at it with a toss of the head that gave an upward thrust +to the long, curved tusk. In an instant the horse was ripped open and +brought crashing to the ground, pinning its rider's leg to the earth +beneath it. The boar turned again, marked the prostrate man, and with a +savage gleam in its little eyes charged the Maharajah, its gleaming +ivory tusks, six inches long, as sharp and deadly as an Afridi's knife. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0002" id="h2HCH0002"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER II +</h2> +<h3> + YOUTH CALLS TO YOUTH +</h3> +<p> +But at that moment a shout made the boar hesitate, and Raymond dashed in +on it at racing speed, driving his spear so deeply into its side that, +as he swept on, the tough bamboo broke like match-wood. The stricken +beast tottered forward a yard or two, then turned and stood undauntedly +at bay, as a <i>sowar</i> rode at it. But before his steel could touch its +hide it shuddered and sank to the ground dead. +</p> +<p> +The dying horse was lifted off the Maharajah who, with the courage of +his race, had remained calm in the face of the onrushing death. He was +assisted to rise, but was so severely shaken and bruised that at first +he was unable to stand without support. Leaning on the arm of one of his +nobles he held out his hand to Raymond, when the latter rode up, and +thanked him gratefully for his timely aid. Then the exhausted but +gallant prince sat down on the sand to recover himself. But he assured +everyone that he was not hurt and, insisting that the sport should go +on, gave orders for the beat to continue. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave had chanced to dismount to tighten the girth of Mrs. Norton's +horse, when a fresh boar broke from cover and was instantly pursued by +all the others of the hunt. The subaltern ruefully accepted the lady's +apologies and hurriedly swung himself up into the saddle again to +follow, when his companion cried: +</p> +<p> +"Look! Look, Mr. Wargrave! There's another. Come, we'll have him all to +ourselves." +</p> +<p> +And striking her pony with her gold-mounted whip she dashed off at a +gallop after a grey old boar that had craftily kept close in cover and +crept out quietly after the beaters had passed. Wargrave, filled with +excitement, struck spurs to his mount and raced after her, soon catching +up and passing her. Over the sand pitted with holes and strewn with +loose stones they raced, the boar bounding before them with rocking +motion and leading them in a long, stern chase. Again and again the +beast swerved; but at last with a fierce thrill Wargrave felt the steel +head of the spear strike home in the quarry. As he was carried on past +it he withdrew the weapon, then pulled his panting horse round. The boar +was checked; but the wound only infuriated him and aroused his fighting +ardour. He dashed at Mrs. Norton; but, as Frank turned, the game brute +recognised the more dangerous adversary, and with a fierce grunt charged +savagely at him. Wargrave plunged his spurs into his horse, which sprang +forward, just clearing the boar's snout, as the rider leant well out and +speared the pig through the heart. Then with a wild, exultant whoop the +subaltern swung round in the saddle and saw the animal totter forward +and collapse on the sand. Only a sportsman could realise his feeling of +triumph at the fall of his first boar. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Norton was almost as excited as he, her sparkling eyes and face +flushed a becoming pink, making her even prettier in his eyes as she +rode up and congratulated him. +</p> +<p> +"Well done, Mr. Wargrave!" she cried, trotting up to where he sat on his +panting horse over the dead boar. "You did that splendidly! And the very +first time you've been out pigsticking, too!" +</p> +<p> +"It was just luck," replied the subaltern modestly, not ill-pleased at +her praise. +</p> +<p> +"What a glorious run he gave us!" she continued. "And we had it all to +ourselves, which made it better. I'm always afraid of the Maharajah's +followers, for in a run they ride so recklessly and carry their spears +so carelessly that it's a wonder they don't kill someone every time. +Will you help me down, please? I must give Martian a rest after that +gallop." +</p> +<p> +With Wargrave's aid she dropped lightly to the ground; and he remarked +again with admiration the graceful lines and rounded curves of her +figure as she walked to the dead boar and touched the tusks. +</p> +<p> +"What a splendid pair! You are lucky," she exclaimed. "The biggest +anyone has got yet this season." +</p> +<p> +"I hope you'll allow me to offer them to you," said Wargrave generously, +although it cost him a pang to surrender the precious trophy. "You +deserve them, for you rode so well after the boar and I believe you'd +have got him if you'd carried a spear." +</p> +<p> +"No, indeed, Mr. Wargrave; I wouldn't dream of taking them," she +replied, laughing; "but I appreciate the nobility of your self-denial. +This is your first pig; and I know what that means to a man. Now we must +find a <i>sowar</i> to get the coolies to bring the boar in. But I wonder +where we are. Where is everyone?" +</p> +<p> +Wargrave looked about him and for the first time realised that they were +far out in the desert without a landmark to guide them. On every side +the sand stretched away to the horizon, its flat expanse broken only by +clumps of bristling cactus or very rarely the tall stem of a palm tree. +Of the others of the party there was no sign. His companion and he +seemed to be alone in the world; and he began to wonder apprehensively +if they were destined to undergo the unpleasant experience of being lost +in the desert. The sun high overhead afforded no help; and Wargrave +remembered neither the direction of the city nor where lay the ravine in +which the beat had taken place. +</p> +<p> +"You don't happen to know where we are, I suppose, Mrs. Norton?" he +asked his companion. +</p> +<p> +"I haven't the least idea. It looks as if we're lost," she replied +calmly. "We had better wait quietly where we are instead of wandering +about trying to find our way. When we are missed the Maharajah will +probably send somebody to look for us." +</p> +<p> +"I daresay you're right," said Wargrave. "You know more about the desert +than I do. By Jove, I'd give anything to come across the camel that +Raymond tells me brings out drinks and ice. My throat is parched. Aren't +you very thirsty?" +</p> +<p> +"Terribly so. Isn't the heat awful?" she exclaimed, trying to fan +herself with the few inches of cambric and lace that represented a +handkerchief. +</p> +<p> +"Awful. The blood seems to be boiling in my head," gasped the subaltern. +"I've never felt heat like this anywhere else in India. But, thank +goodness, it seems to be clouding over. That will make it cooler." +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Norton looked around. A dun veil was being swiftly drawn up over +sun and sky and blotting out the landscape. +</p> +<p> +"Good gracious! There's worse trouble coming. That's a sandstorm," she +cried, for the first time exhibiting a sign of nervousness. +</p> +<p> +"Good heavens, how pleasant! Are we going to be buried under a mound of +sand, like the pictures we used to have in our schoolbooks of caravans +overwhelmed in the Sahara?" +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Norton smiled. +</p> +<p> +"Not quite as bad as that," she answered. "But unpleasant enough, I +assure you. If only we had any shelter!" +</p> +<p> +Wargrave looked around desperately. He had hitherto no experience of +desert country; and the sudden darkness and the grim menace of the +approaching black wall of the sandstorm seemed to threaten disaster. He +saw a thick clump of cactus half a mile away. +</p> +<p> +"We'd better make for that," he said, pointing to it. "It will serve to +break the force of the wind if we get to leeward of it. Let's mount." +</p> +<p> +He put her on her horse and then swung himself up into the saddle. +Together they raced for the scant shelter before the dark menace +overspreading earth and sky. The sun was now hidden; but that brought no +relief, for the heat was even more stifling and oppressive than before. +The wind seemed like a blast of hot air from an opened furnace door. +</p> +<p> +Pulling up when they reached the dense thicket of cactus with its broad +green leaves studded with cruel thorns, Wargrave jumped down and lifted +Mrs. Norton from the saddle. The horses followed them instinctively, as +they pressed as closely as they could to the shelter of the inhospitable +plant. The animals turned their tails towards the approaching storm and +instinctively huddled against their human companions in distress. +Wargrave took off his jacket and spread it around Mrs. Norton's head, +holding her to him. +</p> +<p> +With a shrill wail the dark storm swept down upon them, and a million +sharp particles of sand beat on them, stinging, smothering, choking +them. The horses crowded nearer to the man, and the woman clung tighter +to him as he wrapped her more closely in the protecting cloth. He felt +suffocated, stifled, his lungs bursting, his throat burning, while every +breath he drew was laden with the irritating sand. It penetrated through +all the openings of his clothing, down his collar, inside his shirt, +into his boots. The heat was terrific, unbearable, the darkness intense. +Wargrave began to wonder if his first apprehensions were not justified, +if they could hope to escape alive or were destined to be buried under +the stifling pall that enveloped them. He felt against him the soft body +of the woman clinging desperately to him; and the warm contact thrilled +him. A feeling of pity, of tenderness for her awoke in him at the +thought that this young and attractive being was fated perhaps to perish +by so awful a death. And instinctively, unconsciously, he held her +closer to him. +</p> +<p> +For minutes that seemed hours the storm continued to shriek and roar +over and around them. But at length the choking waves began to diminish +in density and slowly, gradually, the deadly, smothering pall was lifted +from them. The black wall passed on and Wargrave watched it moving away +over the desert. The storm had lasted half an hour, but the subaltern +believed its duration to have been hours. The fine grit had penetrated +into the case of his wrist-watch and stopped it. A cool, refreshing +breeze sprang up. Pulling his jacket off Mrs. Norton's head, Wargrave +said: +</p> +<p> +"It's all over at last." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, thank God!" she exclaimed fervently, standing erect and drawing a +deep breath of cool air into her labouring lungs. "I thought I was going +to be smothered." +</p> +<p> +"It was a decidedly unpleasant experience and one I don't want to try +again. My throat is parched; I must have swallowed tons of sand. And +look at the state I'm in!" +</p> +<p> +He was powdered thick with it, clothes, hair, eyebrows, grey with it. It +had caked on his face damp with perspiration. +</p> +<p> +"Thanks to your jacket I've escaped pretty well, although I was almost +suffocated," she said. "Well, now that it is over surely someone will +come to look for us." +</p> +<p> +"Then we had better get up on our horses and move out into the open. +We'll be more visible," said Wargrave. +</p> +<p> +Yet he felt a strange reluctance to quit the spot; for the thought came +to him that their unpleasant experience in it would henceforth be a link +between them. A few hours before he had not known of this woman's +existence! and now he had held her to his breast and tried to protect +her against the forces of Nature. The same idea seemed born in her mind +at the same time; for, when he had brushed the dust off her saddle and +lifted her on to it, she turned to look with interest at the spot as +they rode away from it. +</p> +<p> +They had not long to wait out in the open before they saw three or four +riders spread over the desert apparently looking for them, so they +cantered towards them. As soon as they were seen by the search party a +<i>sowar</i> galloped to meet them and, saluting, told them that the +Maharajah and the rest had taken refuge from the storm in a village a +couple of miles away. Then from the <i>kamarband</i>, or broad cloth +encircling his waist like a sash, he produced two bottles of soda-water +which he opened and gave to them. The liquid was warm, but nevertheless +was acceptable to their parched throats. +</p> +<p> +They followed their guide at a gallop and soon were being welcomed by +the rest of the party in a small village of low mud huts. A couple of +kneeling camels, bubbling, squealing and viciously trying to bite +everyone within reach, were being unloaded by some of the Maharajah's +servants. Other attendants were spreading a white cloth on the ground by +a well under a couple of tall palm-trees and laying on it an excellent +cold lunch for the Europeans, with bottles of champagne standing in +silver pails filled with ice. +</p> +<p> +As soon as his anxiety on Mrs. Norton's account was relieved by her +arrival, His Highness, who as an orthodox Hindu could not eat with his +guests, begged them to excuse him and, being helped with difficulty on +his horse, rode slowly off, still shaken and sorely bruised by his fall. +His nobles and officials accompanied him. +</p> +<p> +After lunch all went to inspect the heap of slain boars laid on the +ground in the shade of a hut. Wargrave's kill had been added to it. Much +to the subaltern's delight its tusk proved to be the longest and finest +of all; and he was warmly congratulated by the more experienced +pigstickers on his success. Shortly afterwards the beaters went into the +<i>nullah</i> again; and a few more runs added another couple of boars to the +bag. Then, after iced drinks while their saddles were being changed back +on to their own horses, the Britishers mounted and started on their +homeward journey. +</p> +<p> +Without quite knowing how it happened Wargrave found himself riding +beside Mrs. Norton behind the rest of the party. On the way back they +chatted freely and without restraint, like old friends. For the +incidents of the day had served to sweep away formality between them and +to give them a sense of long acquaintanceship and mutual liking. And, +when the time came for Mrs. Norton to separate from the others as she +reached the spot where the road to the Residency branched off, the +subaltern volunteered to accompany her. +</p> +<p> +It had not taken them long to discover that they had several tastes in +common. +</p> +<p> +"So you like good music?" she said after a chance remark of his. "It is +pleasant to find a kindred spirit in this desolate place. The ladies and +the other officers of your regiment are Philistines. Ragtime is more in +their line than Grieg or Brahms. And the other day Captain Ross asked me +if Tschaikowsky wasn't the Russian dancer at the Coliseum in town." +</p> +<p> +Wargrave laughed. +</p> +<p> +"I know. I became very unpopular when I was Band President and made our +band play Wagner all one night during Mess. I gave up trying to elevate +their musical taste when the Colonel told me to order the bandmaster to +'stop that awful rubbish and play something good, like the selection +from the last London <i>revue</i>.'" +</p> +<p> +"Are you a musician yourself?" she asked. +</p> +<p> +"I play the violin." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, how ripping! You must come often and practise with me. I've an +excellent piano; but I rarely touch it now. My husband takes no interest +in music—or indeed, in anything else I like. But, then, I am not +thrilled by his one absorbing passion in life—insects. So we're quits, +I suppose." +</p> +<p> +Their horses were walking silently over the soft sand; and Wargrave +heard her give a little sigh. Was it possible, he wondered, that the +husband of this charming woman did not appreciate her and her +attractions as he ought? +</p> +<p> +She went on with a change of manner: +</p> +<p> +"When are you coming to call on me? I am a Duty Call, you know. All +officers are supposed to leave cards on the Palace and the Residency." +</p> +<p> +"The call on you will be a pleasure, I assure you, not a mere duty, Mrs. +Norton," said the subaltern with a touch of earnestness. "May I come +to-morrow?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, please do. Come early for tea and bring your violin. It will be +delightful to have some music again. I have not opened my piano for +months; but I'll begin to practise to-night. I have one or two pieces +with violin <i>obligato</i>." +</p> +<p> +So, chatting and at every step finding something fresh to like in each +other, they rode along down sandy lanes hemmed in by prickly aloe +hedges, by deep wells and creaking water-wheels where patient bullocks +toiled in the sun to draw up the gushing water to irrigate the green +fields so reposeful to the eye after the glaring desert. They passed by +thatched mud huts outside which naked brown babies sprawled in the dust +and deer-eyed women turned the hand-querns that ground the flour for +their household's evening meal. Stiff and sore though Wargrave was after +these many hours of his first day in the saddle for so long, he +thoroughly enjoyed his ride back with so attractive a companion. +</p> +<p> +When they reached the Residency, a fine, airy building of white stone +standing in large, well-kept grounds, he felt quite reluctant to part +with her. But, declining her invitation to enter, he renewed his promise +to call on the following day and rode on to his bungalow. +</p> +<p> +When he was alone he realised for the first time the effects of fatigue, +thirst and the broiling heat of the afternoon sun. But Mrs. Norton was +more in his thoughts than the exciting events of the day as he trotted +painfully on towards his bungalow. +</p> +<p> +The house was closely shut and shuttered against the outside heat, and +Raymond was asleep, enjoying a welcome <i>siesta</i> after the early start +and hard exercise. Wargrave entered his own bare and comfortless +bedroom, and with the help of his "boy"—as Indian body-servants are +termed—proceeded to undress. Then, attired in a big towel and slippers, +he passed into the small, stone-paved apartment dignified with the title +of bathroom which opened off his bedroom. +</p> +<p> +After his ablutions Wargrave lay down on his bed and slept for an hour +or two until awakened by Raymond's voice bidding him join him at tea. +Strolling in pyjamas and slippers into the sitting-room which they +shared the subaltern found his comrade lying lazily in a long chair and +attired in the same cool costume. The outer doors and windows of the +bungalow were still closed against the brooding heat outside. Inside the +house the temperature was little cooler despite the <i>punkah</i> which +droned monotonously overhead. +</p> +<p> +Over their tea the two young soldiers discussed the day's sport, +recalling every incident of each run and kill, until the servants came +in to throw open the doors and windows in hope of a faint breath of +evening coolness. The <i>punkah</i> stopped, and the coolie who pulled it +shuffled away. +</p> +<p> +After tea Raymond took his companion to inspect the cantonment, which +Wargrave had not yet seen, for he had not reached it until after dusk +the previous day. It consisted only of the Mess, the Regimental Office, +and about ten bungalows for the officers, single-storied brick or +rubble-walled buildings, thatched or tiled. Some of them were unoccupied +and were tumbling in ruins. There was nothing else—not even the +"general shop" usual in most small cantonments. Not a spool of thread, +not a tin of sardines, could be purchased within a three days' journey. +Most of the food supplies and almost everything else had to be brought +from Bombay. Around the bungalow the compounds were simply patches of +the universal sands surrounded by mud walls. No flowers, no trees, not +even a blade of grass, relieved the dull monotony. Altogether the +cantonment of Rohar was an unlovely and uninteresting place. Yet it is +but an example of many such stations in India, lonely and +soul-deadening, some of which have not even its saving grace of sport to +enliven existence in them. +</p> +<p> +After a visit to the Lines—the rows of single-storied detached brick +buildings, one to a company, that housed the native ranks of the +regiment—where the Indian officers and sepoys (as native infantry +soldiers are called) rushed out to crowd round and welcome back their +popular officer, Wargrave and Raymond strolled to the Mess. Here in the +anteroom other British officers of the corps, tired out after the day's +sport, were lying in easy chairs, reading the three days' old Bombay +newspaper just arrived and the three weeks' old English journals until +it was time to return to their bungalows and dress for dinner. +</p> +<p> +Early on the following afternoon Wargrave borrowed Raymond's bamboo cart +and pony—for he had sold his own trap and horses before going on leave +to England and had not yet had time to buy new ones—and drove to the +Residency. When he pulled up before the hall-door and in Anglo-Indian +fashion shouted "Boy!" from his seat in the vehicle, a tall, stately +Indian servant in a long, gold-laced red coat reaching below the knees +and embroidered on the breast with the Imperial monogram in gold, came +out and held a small silver tray to him. Wargrave placed a couple of his +visiting cards on it, and the gorgeous apparition (known as a +<i>chuprassi</i>) retired into the building with them. While he was gone +Wargrave looked with pleasure at the brilliant flower-beds, green lawn +and tall plants and bushes glowing with colour of the carefully-tended +and well-watered Residency garden, which contrasted strikingly with the +dry, bare compounds of the cantonment. +</p> +<p> +In a minute or two the <i>chuprassi</i> returned and said: +</p> +<p> +"Salaam!" +</p> +<p> +Wargrave, hooking up the reins, climbed down from the trap, leaving +Raymond's <i>syce</i> in charge of the pony, and entered the grateful +coolness of the lofty hall. Here another <i>chuprassi</i> took his hat and, +holding out a pen for him, indicated the red-bound Visitor's Book, in +which he was to inscribe his name. Then one of the servants led the way +up the broad staircase into a large and well-furnished drawing-room +extending along the whole front of the building. Here Wargrave found +Mrs. Norton awaiting him. She looked very lovely in a cool white dress +of muslin—but muslin shaped by a master-hand of Paris. She welcomed him +gaily and made him feel at once on the footing of an old friend. +</p> +<p> +She was genuinely glad to see him again. To this young and attractive +woman, full of the joy of living, hardly more than a girl, yet married +to a much older man, sober-minded, stolid and uncongenial to her, and +buried in this dull and lonely station, Wargrave had appealed instantly. +Youth calls to youth, and she hailed his advent into her monotonous life +as a child greets the coming of a playfellow. With the other two ladies +in Rohar she had nothing in common. Both were middle-aged, serious and +spiteful. To them her youth and beauty were an offence; and from the +first day of their acquaintance with her they had disliked her. As for +the other officers of the regiment none of them attracted her; for, good +fellows as they were, none shared any of her tastes except her love of +sport. But in Wargrave she had already recognised a companion, a +playmate, one to whom music, art and poetry appealed as they did to her. +</p> +<p> +On his side Frank, heart-whole but fond of the society of the opposite +sex, was at once attracted by this charming member of it who had tastes +akin to his own. Her beauty pleased his beauty-loving eye; and he would +not have been man if her readiness to meet him on a footing of +friendship had not flattered him. He had thought that a great drawback +to life in Rohar would be the lack of feminine companionship; for the +ladies of his regiment were not at all congenial, although he did not +dislike them. But it was delightful to find in this desert spot this +pretty and cultured woman, who would have been deemed attractive in +London and who appeared trebly so in a dull and lonely Indian station. +He had thought much of her since their meeting on the previous day; and +although it never occurred to him to lose his heart to her or even +attempt to flirt with her, yet he felt that her friendship would +brighten existence for him in Rohar. Nor did the thought strike him +that possibly he might come to mean more to Mrs. Norton than she to him. +For, while he had his work, his duties, the goodfellowship of the Mess +and the friendship of his comrades to fill his life, she had nothing. +She was utterly without interests, occupation or real companionship in +Rohar. Her husband and she had nothing in common. No child had come +during the five years of their marriage to link them together. And in +this solitary place where there were no gaieties, no distractions such +as a young woman would naturally long for, she was lonely, very lonely +indeed. +</p> +<p> +It was little wonder that she snatched eagerly at the promise of an +interesting friendship. Wargrave stood out and apart from the other +officers of the regiment; and his companionship during the uncomfortable +incident of the sandstorm bulked unaccountably large in her mind. It +seemed to denote that he was destined to introduce a new element into +her life. +</p> +<p> +As they talked it was with increasing pleasure that she learnt they had +so many tastes in common. She found that he played the violin well and +was, moreover, the possessor of a voice tuneful and sympathetic, even if +not perfectly trained. This made instant appeal to her and would have +disposed her to regard him with favour even if she had not been already +prepared to like him. +</p> +<p> +The afternoon passed all too quickly for both of them. Violet Norton +had never enjoyed any hours in Rohar so much as these; and when, as she +sat at the piano while Frank played an <i>obligato</i>, a servant came to +enquire if she wished her horse or a carriage got ready for her usual +evening ride or drive, she impatiently ordered him out of the room. When +the time came for Wargrave to return to his bungalow to dress for dinner +she begged him to stay and dine with her. +</p> +<p> +"I shall be all alone; and it would be a charitable act to take pity on +my solitude," she said. "My husband is dining at your Mess to-night." +</p> +<p> +"Thank you very much for asking me," replied the subaltern. "I should +have loved to accept your invitation; but it is our Guest Night and the +Colonel likes all of us to be present at Mess on such evenings." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, I forgot!" she exclaimed. "I ought to have remembered; for Mr. +Raymond told me the same thing only last week when I invited him +informally. Well, you must come some other night soon." +</p> +<p> +Reluctant to part with her new playmate she accompanied him to the door +and, to the scandal of the stately <i>chuprassis</i>, stood at it to watch +him drive away and to wave him a last goodbye as he looked back when the +pony turned out of the gate. +</p> +<p> +India is a land of lightning friendships between men and women. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0003" id="h2HCH0003"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER III +</h2> +<h3> + THE LOVE-SONG OF HAR DYAL +</h3> +<p> +The bugler was sounding the second mess-call as the Resident's carriage +drew up before the steps of the Mess verandah on which stood all the +officers of the regiment, dressed in the white drill uniform worn at +dinner in India during the hot weather. From the carriage Major Norton, +a stout, middle-aged man in civilian evening dress, descended stiffly +and shook hands with the Commandant of the battalion, Colonel Trevor, +who had come down the steps to meet him and whose guest he was to be. +</p> +<p> +On the verandah Wargrave was introduced to him by the Colonel and took +his outstretched hand with reluctance; for Frank felt stirring in him a +faint jealousy of the man who was Violet's legal lord and an indefinite +hostility to him for not appreciating his charming wife as he ought. And +while the Resident was shaking hands with the others Wargrave looked at +him with interest. +</p> +<p> +Major Norton was a very ordinary-looking man, more elderly in appearance +than his years warranted. He was bald and clean-shaved but for scraps of +side-whiskers that gave him a resemblance to the traditional +stage-lawyer of amateur theatricals, a likeness increased by his heavy +and prosy manner. It was hard to believe that he had ever been a young +subaltern, though such had once been the case, for the Indian Political +Department is recruited chiefly from officers of the Indian Army. But he +was never the gay and light-hearted individual that most junior subs. +are at the beginning of their career. Even then he had been a sober and +serious individual, favourably noted by his superiors as being earnest +and painstaking. And now he was well thought of by the Heads of his +Department; for his plodding and methodical disposition and his slavish +adherence to rules and regulations had earned him the reputation of +being an eminently "safe" man. How such a gay, laughter-loving, +coquettish and attractive woman as Violet Dering came to marry one so +entirely her opposite puzzled everyone who did not know the inner +history of a girl, one of a large family of daughters, given "her chance +in life" by being sent out to relatives in Calcutta for one season, with +a definite warning not to return home unmarried under penalty of being +turned out to face the world as a governess or hospital nurse. And +Violet liked comfort and hated work. +</p> +<p> +During dinner Wargrave found himself instinctively criticising Norton's +manner and conversation, and rapidly arrived at the conclusion that +Raymond had described him accurately. The Resident, though a very worthy +individual, was undoubtedly a bore; and Colonel Trevor, beside whom he +sat, strove in vain to appear interested in his conversation. For he had +heard his opinions on every subject on which Norton had any opinions +over and over again. As the Resident was the only other European in the +station he dined regularly at the Mess on the weekly Guest Night with +one or other of the officers. He was not popular among them, but they +considered it their duty to be victimised in turn to uphold the +regiment's reputation for hospitality; and in consequence each resigned +himself to act as his host. +</p> +<p> +After dinner, as the Resident played neither cards nor billiards, the +Colonel sat out on the verandah with him, all the while longing to be at +the bridge-table inside; and, as his guest was a strict teetotaller, he +did not like to order a drink for himself. So he tried to keep awake and +hide his yawns while listening to a prosy monologue on insects until the +Residency carriage came to take Major Norton away. +</p> +<p> +When his guest had left, the Colonel entered the anteroom heaving a sigh +of relief. +</p> +<p> +"Phew! thank God that's over!" he exclaimed piously. "Really, Norton +becomes more of a bore every day. I'm sick to death of hearing the +life-story of every Indian insect for the hundredth time. I'll dream of +<i>coleoptera</i> and Polly 'optera and other weird beasties to-night." +</p> +<p> +The other officers looked up and laughed. Ross rose from the +bridge-table and said: +</p> +<p> +"Come and take my place, sir; we've finished the rubber. Have a drink; +you want something to cheer you up after that infliction. Boy! +whiskey-soda Commanding Sahib <i>ke wasté lao</i>. (Bring a whiskey and soda +for the Commanding officer.)" +</p> +<p> +"You've my entire sympathy, Colonel," said Major Hepburn, the Second in +Command. "It's my turn to ask the Resident to dinner next. I feel +tempted to go on the sick-list to escape it." +</p> +<p> +"I say, sir, I've got a good idea," said an Irish subaltern named Daly, +who was seated at the bridge-table. "Couldn't we pass a resolution at +the next Mess meeting that in future no guests are ever to be asked to +dinner? That will save us from our weekly penance." +</p> +<p> +The others laughed; but the Colonel, whose sense of humour was not his +strong point, took the suggestion as being seriously meant. +</p> +<p> +"No, no; we couldn't do that," he said in an alarmed tone. "The Resident +would be very offended and might mention it to the General when he comes +here on his annual inspection." +</p> +<p> +The remark was very characteristic of Colonel Trevor, who was a man who +dreaded responsibility and whose sole object in life was to reach safely +the time when, his period of command being finished, he could retire on +his full pension. He was always haunted by the dread that some +carelessness or mistake on his part or that of any of his subordinates +might involve him in trouble with his superiors and prevent that happy +consummation of his thirty years of Indian service. This fear made him +merciless to anyone under him whose conduct might bring the censure of +the higher authorities on the innocent head of the Commanding Officer +who was in theory responsible for the behaviour of his juniors. It was +commonly said in the regiment that he would cheerfully give up his own +brother to be hanged to save himself the mildest official reprimand. +Perhaps he was not altogether to blame; for he was not his own master in +private life. It was hinted that Colonel Trevor commanded the battalion +but that Mrs. Trevor commanded him. And unfortunately there was no doubt +that this lady interfered privately a good deal in regimental matters, +much to the annoyance of the other officers. +</p> +<p> +Now, relieved of the incubus that had hitherto spoiled his enjoyment of +the evening, the Colonel gratefully drank the whiskey and soda brought +him by Ross's order and sat down cheerfully to play bridge. He always +liked dining in the Mess, where he was a far more important person than +he was in his own house. +</p> +<p> +It did not take Wargrave long to settle down again into the routine of +regimental life and the humdrum existence of a small Indian station. But +he had never before been quartered in so remote and dull a spot as +Rohar. The only distractions it offered besides the shooting and +pigsticking were two tennis afternoons weekly, one at the Residency, the +other at the Mess. Here the dozen or so Europeans, who knew every line +of each other's faces by heart gathered regularly from sheer boredom +whether the game amused them or not. Neither Mrs. Trevor nor her +bosom-friend Mrs. Baird, the regimental surgeon's better half, ever +attempted it; but they invariably attended and sat together, usually +talking scandal of Mrs. Norton as she played or chatted with the men. +Mrs. Trevor's chief grievance against her was that the General +Commanding the Division, when he came to inspect the battalion, took the +younger woman in to dinner, for, as her husband the Resident was the +Viceroy's representative, she could claim precedence over the wife of a +mere regimental commandant. No English village is so full of petty +squabbles and malicious gossip as a small Indian station. +</p> +<p> +Like everyone else in the land Wargrave hated most those terrible hours +of the hot weather between nine in the morning and five in the +afternoon. He and Raymond passed them, like so many thousands of their +kind elsewhere, shut up in their comfortless bungalow, which was +darkened and closely shuttered to exclude the awful heat and the +blinding glare outside. Too hot to read or write, almost to smoke, they +lay in long cane chairs, gasping and perspiring freely, while the +whining <i>punkah</i> overhead barely stirred the heated air. One exterior +window on the windward side of the bungalow was filled with a thick mat +of dried and odorous <i>kuskus</i> grass, against which every quarter of an +hour the <i>bheestie</i> threw water to wet it thoroughly so that the hot +breeze that swept over the burning sand outside might enter cooled by +the evaporation of the water. +</p> +<p> +But Frank found alleviation and comfort in frequent visits to the +Residency, where Mrs. Norton and he spent the baking hours of the +afternoon absorbed in making music or singing duets. For Violet had a +well-trained voice which harmonised well with his. No thought of sex +seemed to obtrude itself on them. They were just playmates, comrades, +nothing more. +</p> +<p> +Yet it was only natural that the woman's vanity should be flattered by +the man's eagerness to seek her society and by his evident pleasure in +it. And it was delightful to have at last a sympathetic listener to all +her little grievances, one who seemed as interested in her petty +household worries or the delinquencies of her London milliner in failing +to execute her orders properly as in her greater complaint against the +fate that condemned a woman of her artistic and gaiety-loving nature to +existence in the wilds and to the society of persons so uncongenial to +her as were the majority of the white folk of Rohar. +</p> +<p> +To a man the rôle of confidant to a pretty woman is pleasant and +flattering; and Wargrave felt that he was highly favoured by being made +the recipient of her confidences. It never occurred to him that there +might be danger in the situation. He regarded her only as a friend in +need of sympathy and help. His chivalry was up in arms at the thought +that she was not properly appreciated by her husband, who, he began to +suspect, was inclined to neglect her and treat her as a mere chattel. +The suspicion angered him. True, Violet had never definitely told him +so; but he gathered as much from her unconscious admissions and revered +her all the more for her bravery in endeavouring to keep silent on the +subject. +</p> +<p> +Certainly Major Norton did not seem to him to be a man capable of +understanding and valuing so sweet and rare a woman as this. After their +introduction in the Mess Frank's next meeting with him was at his own +table at the Residency, when in due course Wargrave was invited to +dinner after his duty call. Raymond was asked as well; and the two +subalterns were the only guests. +</p> +<p> +Their hostess looked very lovely in a Paris-made gown of a green shade +that suited her colouring admirably. England did not seem to the young +soldiers so very far away when this charming and exquisitely-dressed +woman received them in her large drawing-room from which all trace of +the East in furniture and decoration was carefully excluded. For the +English in India try to avoid in their homes all that would remind them +of the Land of Exile in which their lot is cast. +</p> +<p> +Major Norton came into the room after his guests, muttering an +unintelligible apology. He shook hands with them with an abstracted air +and failed to recall Wargrave's name. At table he asked Frank a few +perfunctory questions and then wandered off into his inevitable subject, +entomology, but finding him ignorant of and uninterested in it he +engaged in a desultory conversation with Raymond. He soon tired of this +and for the most part ate his dinner in silence. He never addressed his +wife; and Wargrave, watching them, pitied her if her husband was as +little companionable at meal-times when they were alone. He pictured her +sitting at table every day with this abstracted and uncommunicative man, +whose thoughts seemed far from his present company and surroundings and +who was scarcely likely to exert himself to talk to and entertain his +wife when he made so little effort to do so to his guests. +</p> +<p> +Determined that on this occasion at least his hostess should be amused +Frank did his best to enliven the meal. He described to her as well as +he could all that he remembered of the latest fashions in England, told +her the plots of the newest plays at the London theatres, repeated a +few laughable stories to make her smile and provoked Raymond, who had a +dry humour of his own, to a contest of wit. Between them the two +subalterns brightened up what had threatened to be a dull evening. Mrs. +Norton laughed gaily and helped to keep the ball rolling; and even the +host in his turn woke up and actually attempted to tell a humorous +story. It certainly lacked point; but he seemed satisfied that it was +funny, so his guests smiled as in duty bound. But Wargrave noted Mrs. +Norton's look of astonishment at this new departure on the part of her +husband and thought that there was something very pathetic in her +surprise. When the meal was ended she laughingly declined to leave the +men over their wine and stayed to smoke a cigarette with them. +</p> +<p> +When they all quitted the dining-room the Resident asked his guests to +excuse him for returning to his study, pleading urgent and important +work; and his wife led the subalterns up to the drawing-room and out on +to the verandah that ran alongside its French windows. Here easy chairs +and a table with a big lamp had been placed for them. As soon as they +were seated one of the stately <i>chuprassis</i> brought coffee, while +another proffered cigars and cigarettes and held a light from a silver +spirit-lamp. Then both the solemn servitors departed noiselessly on bare +feet. +</p> +<p> +After some conversation Mrs. Norton said to the adjutant: +</p> +<p> +"Do you remember, Mr. Raymond, that you have promised to take me out +shooting one day?" +</p> +<p> +"I haven't forgotten," he replied; "but I was not able to arrange it, as +the Maharajah had pigsticking meets fixed up for all our free days. But +I don't think we'll have another for some time; for I hear that His +Highness is laid up from the effects of his fall. So we might go out +some day soon." +</p> +<p> +"Good. When shall we go?" asked Wargrave. "Let's fix it up now." +</p> +<p> +"What about next Thursday?" said his friend, turning to Mrs. Norton. +</p> +<p> +"Yes; that will suit me. Where shall we go?" +</p> +<p> +"There are a lot of partridge and a few hares, I'm told, near the tank +at Marwa, where there is a good deal of cultivation," answered Raymond. +Then turning to his friend he continued: +</p> +<p> +"You are not very keen on small game shooting, Frank; so you can bring +your rifle and try for <i>chinkara</i>. I saw a buck and a couple of doe +there not very long ago. A little venison would be very acceptable in +Mess." +</p> +<p> +"The tank is about eight miles away, isn't it?" said the hostess. "I'll +write to the Maharajah and ask him to lend us camels to take us out. My +cook will put up a good cold lunch for us." +</p> +<p> +She rose from her chair and continued: +</p> +<p> +"Now, Mr. Wargrave, come and sing something. I've been trying over +those new songs of yours to-day." +</p> +<p> +She led the way into the drawing-room and Raymond was left alone on the +verandah to smoke and listen for the rest of the evening, while the +others forgot him as they played and sang. +</p> +<p> +Suddenly he sat up in his chair and with a queer little pang of jealousy +in his heart stared through the open window at the couple at the piano. +He watched his friend's face turned eagerly towards his hostess. +Wargrave was gazing intently at her as in a voice full of feeling and +pathos, a voice with a plaintive little tone in it that thrilled him +strangely, she sang that haunting melody "The Love Song of Har Dyal." +Wistfully, sadly, she uttered the sorrowful words that Kipling puts into +the mouth of the lovelorn Pathan maiden: +</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i4"> "My father's wife is old and harsh with years</p> +<p class="i6"> And drudge of all my father's house am I</p> +<p class="i4"> My bread is sorrow and my drink is tears</p> +<p class="i6"> Come back to me, Beloved, or I die!</p> +<p class="i6"> Come back to me, Beloved, or I die!"</p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> +And the singer looked up into the eager eyes bent on her and sighed a +little as she struck the final chords. Out on the verandah Raymond +frowned as he watched them and wondered if this woman was to come +between them and take his friend from him. Just then the bare-footed +servants entered the room, carrying silver trays on which stood the +whiskies and sodas that are the stirrup-cups, the hints to guests that +the time of departure has come, of dinner-parties in India. +</p> +<p> +As the two subalterns drove home in Raymond's trap through the hot +Indian night under a moon shining with a brilliance that England never +knows, Wargrave hummed "The Love Song of Har Dyal." +</p> +<p> +Suddenly he said: +</p> +<p> +"She's wonderful, Ray, isn't she? Fancy such a glorious woman buried in +this hole and married to a dry old stick like the Resident! Doesn't it +seem a shame?" +</p> +<p> +The adjutant mumbled an incoherent reply behind his lighted cheroot. +</p> +<p> +Arrived in their bungalow they undressed in their rooms and in pyjamas +and slippers came out into the compound, where on either side of a table +on which was a lighted lamp stood their bedsteads, the mattress of each +covered with a thin strip of soft China matting. For in the hot weather +in many parts of India this must be used to lie upon instead of a linen +sheet, which would become saturated with perspiration. Looking carefully +at the ground over which they passed for fear of snakes they reached and +lay down on their beds, over each of which a <i>punkah</i> was suspended from +a cross-beam supported by two upright posts sunk in the ground. One rope +moved both <i>punkahs</i>, and the motive power was supplied by a coolie +who, salaaming to the sahibs and seating himself on the ground, picked +up the end of the rope and began to pull. Raymond put out the lamp. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave stared up at the moon for a while. Then he said: +</p> +<p> +"I say, Ray; didn't Mrs. Norton look lovely to-night? Didn't that dress +suit her awfully well?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, go to sleep, old man. We've got to get up in a few hours for this +confoundedly early parade. Goodnight," growled the adjutant, turning on +his side and closing his eyes. +</p> +<p> +But he listened for some time to his friend humming "The Love Song of +Har Dyal" again! and not until Frank was silent did he doze off. An hour +later he woke up suddenly, bathed in perspiration and devoured by +mosquitoes; for the <i>punkahs</i> were still—the coolie had gone to sleep. +He called to the man and aroused him, then before shutting his eyes +again he looked at his companion. The moon shone full on Wargrave's +face. He was sleeping peacefully and smiling. Raymond stared at him for +a few minutes. Then he muttered inconsequently: +</p> +<p> +"Confound the woman!" +</p> +<p> +And closing his eyes resolutely he fell asleep. +</p> +<p> +In the days that elapsed before the shoot at Marwa, Wargrave rode every +afternoon to the Residency with the <i>syce</i> carrying his violin case, +except when tennis was to be played. In their small community this +could not escape notice and comment—not that it occurred to him to try +to avoid either. The Resident did not object to the frequency of his +visits; and Frank saw no harm in his friendship with Mrs. Norton. But +others did; and the remarks of the two ladies of his regiment on the +subject were venomously spiteful. But their censure was reserved for the +one they termed "that shameless woman"; for like everyone else they were +partial to Wargrave and held him less to blame. +</p> +<p> +His brother officers, although being men they were not so quick to nose +out a scandal, could not help noticing his absorption in Mrs. Norton's +society. One afternoon his Double Company Commander, Major Hepburn, +walked into the compound of Raymond's bungalow and on the verandah +shouted the usual Anglo-Indian caller's demand: +</p> +<p> +"Boy! <i>Koi hai</i>?" (Is anyone there?) +</p> +<p> +A servant hurried out and salaaming answered: +</p> +<p> +"<i>Adjitan Sahib hai</i>." (The adjutant is here). +</p> +<p> +"Oh, come in, Major," cried Raymond, rising from the table at which he +was seated drinking his tea. +</p> +<p> +"Don't get up," said Hepburn, entering the room. "Is Wargrave in?" +</p> +<p> +"No, sir; he went out half an hour ago." +</p> +<p> +"Confound it, it seems impossible ever to find him in the afternoon +nowadays," said the major petulantly. "I wanted him to get up a hockey +match against No. 3 Double Company to-day. He used to be very keen on +playing with the men; but since he came back from England he never goes +near them. Where is he? Poodlefaking at the Residency, as usual?" +</p> +<p> +This is the term contemptuously applied in India to the paying of calls +and other social duties that imply dancing attendance on the fair sex. +</p> +<p> +"I didn't see him before he went out, sir," was Raymond's equivocal +reply. He loyally evaded a direct answer. +</p> +<p> +Hepburn shook his head doubtfully. +</p> +<p> +"I'm sorry about it. I hope the boy doesn't get into mischief. Look +here, Raymond, you're his pal. Keep your eye on him. He's a good lad; +and it would be a pity if he came to grief." +</p> +<p> +The adjutant did not answer. The major put on his hat. +</p> +<p> +"Well, I suppose I'll have to see to the hockey myself." +</p> +<p> +He left the bungalow with a curt nod to Raymond, who watched him pass +out through the compound gate. Then the adjutant walked over to +Wargrave's writing-table and stood up again in its place a large +photograph of Mrs. Norton which he had hurriedly laid face downwards +when he heard Hepburn's voice outside. He looked at it for a minute, +then turned away frowning. +</p> +<p> +When the morning of the shooting party arrived Wargrave and Raymond, +having sent their <i>syces</i> on ahead with their guns, rode at dawn to the +Residency. In front of the building a group of camels lay on the ground, +burbling, blowing bubbles, grumbling incessantly and stretching out +their long necks to snap viciously at anyone but their drivers that +chanced to come near them. At the hall-door Mrs. Norton stood, dressed +in a smart and attractive costume of khaki drill, consisting of a +well-cut long frock coat and breeches, with the neatest of cloth gaiters +and dainty but serviceable boots. To their surprise her husband was with +her and evidently prepared to accompany them. For he wore an old coat, +knickerbockers and putties, from a strap over his shoulder hung a +specimen box, and he was armed with all the requisite appliances for the +capture and slaughter of many insects. +</p> +<p> +Avoiding the camels' vicious teeth the party mounted after exchanging +greetings. Mrs. Norton and Wargrave rode the same animal; and Frank, +unused to this form of locomotion, took a tight grip as the long-legged +beast rose from the ground in unexpected jerks and set off at a jolting +walk that shook its riders painfully. Then it broke into a trot equally +disconcerting but finally settled into an easy canter that was as +comfortable a motion as its previous paces had been spine-dislocating. +The route lay at first over a space of desert which was unpleasant, for +the sand was blown in clouds by a high wind, almost a gale. But the +camels were fast movers and it did not take very long before they were +passing through scrub jungle and finally reached the wide stretch of +cultivation near Marwa. +</p> +<p> +The tank, as lakes are called in India, lay in the centre of a shallow +depression, the rim of which all round was about four hundred yards from +the water which, now half a mile across, evidently filled the whole +basin in the rainy season. The strong breeze churned its surface into +little waves and piled up masses of froth and foam against the bending +reeds at one end of the tank, where, about fifty yards from the water's +edge stood a couple of thorny trees, offering almost the only shade to +be found for a long distance around. In the shallows were many yellow +egrets, while a <i>sarus</i> crane stalked solemnly along the far bank, and +everywhere bird-life, rare elsewhere in the State, abounded. The land +all about was green, a refreshing change from the usual sandy and +parched character of most of the country. +</p> +<p> +But beyond the tank the fields stretched away out of sight. At the edge +of the cultivation the camels were halted and the party dismounted from +them and separated. Mrs. Norton, who was a fair shot and carried a light +12-bore gun, started to walk up the partridges with Raymond, while her +husband went to search the reeds and the borders of the lake for strange +insects. Wargrave armed with a sporting Mannlicher rifle, set off on a +long tramp to look for <i>chinkara</i>, which are pretty little antelope with +curving horns. The wind, which was freshening, prevented the heat from +being excessive. +</p> +<p> +The sport was fairly good. When lunch-time came the adjutant and Mrs. +Norton had got quite a respectable bag of partridges and a few hares. +The entomologist was in high spirits, for he had secured two rare +specimens; and Wargrave had shot a good buck. So in a contented frame of +mind all gathered under the trees near the end of the tank, where lunch +was laid by a couple of the Residency servants on a white cloth spread +on the ground. As they ate their <i>tiffin</i> (lunch) the members of the +party chatted over the incidents of the morning; and each related the +story of his or her sport. +</p> +<p> +After the meal Mrs. Norton decided to rest; for the ride and the long +walk with her gun had tired her. The servants spread a rug for her under +the trees and placed a camel saddle for her to recline against. Then +carrying away the empty dishes, plates, glasses and cutlery they retired +out of sight. +</p> +<p> +"Are you sure you don't mind being left alone, Mrs. Norton?" asked +Wargrave. +</p> +<p> +"Not in the least. Do go and shoot again," she replied, smiling up at +him. "I'm very comfortable and I'm glad to have a good rest before +undertaking that tiresome ride back. It's very pleasant here. The wind +comes so cool and fresh off the water. Isn't it strong, though?" +</p> +<p> +The breeze had freshened to a gale and under the trees the temperature +was quite bearable. The Resident had already gone out of sight over the +rim of the basin, having exhausted the neighbourhood of the tank and +being desirous of searching farther afield. Wargrave and Raymond now +followed him but soon separated, the latter making for the cultivation +again, while his friend set off for the open plain. Ordinarily the heat +would have been intense, for the hours after noon up to three o'clock or +later are the hottest of the day in India; but the gale made it quite +cool. +</p> +<p> +To Wargrave, tramping about unsuccessfully this time, came frequently +the sound of Raymond's gun. +</p> +<p> +"Ray seems to be having all the luck," he thought, as through his +field-glasses he scanned the plain without seeing anything. "I'm getting +fed up." +</p> +<p> +At last in despair he shouldered his rifle and turned back. After a long +walk he came in sight of the adjutant standing near the edge of the +fields talking to Norton. When Frank reached them he found that his +friend had increased his bag very considerably. +</p> +<p> +"Well done, old boy, you'd better luck than I had," he said. Then +turning to the Resident he continued: "How have you done, sir?" +</p> +<p> +"Nothing of any value," replied Norton "Have you finished? We're +thinking of going back now." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, sir; I'm through. By Jove, I'm thirsty. I could do with a drink, +couldn't you, Ray?" +</p> +<p> +"Rather. My throat's like a lime-kiln. We'll join Mrs. Norton and then +have an iced drink while the camels are being saddled." +</p> +<p> +They strolled towards the lake, which was hidden from their view by the +rim of the basin. As they reached the slight ridge that this made all +three stopped dead and gazed in amazement. +</p> +<p> +"What's happened to the tank?" exclaimed Raymond. "The water's almost up +to the trees." +</p> +<p> +"Good God; My wife! Look! Look!" cried the Resident. +</p> +<p> +They stood appalled. The wide body of water had swept up to within a few +yards of the trees under which Mrs. Norton lay fast asleep. And +stealthily emerging from it a large crocodile was slowly, cautiously, +crawling towards the unconscious woman. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0004" id="h2HCH0004"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER IV +</h2> +<h3> + A CROCODILE INTERVENES +</h3> +<p> +Major Norton opened his mouth to cry a warning; but Wargrave grasped his +arm and said hurriedly: +</p> +<p> +"Don't shout, sir! Don't wake her! She'd be too confused to move." +</p> +<p> +Then he thrust his field-glasses into the adjutant's hand. +</p> +<p> +"Watch for the strike of my bullet, Ray," he said. +</p> +<p> +He threw himself at full length on the ground and pressed a cartridge +into the breech of his rifle. His companions stood over him as he cast a +hurried glance forward and adjusted his sight, muttering: +</p> +<p> +"Just about four hundred yards." +</p> +<p> +The crocodile was nearly broadside on to him; and even at that distance +he could see the scaly armour covering head, back and sides, that would +defy any bullet. The unprotected spot behind the shoulder was hidden +from him; the only vulnerable part was the neck. Wargrave laid his cheek +to the butt and sighted on this. +</p> +<p> +The crocodile crept on inch by inch, dragging its limbs forward with the +slow, stealthy movement of its kind when stalking their prey on land. +The horrified watchers saw that the terrible snout with its protruding +fangs was barely a yard from Mrs. Norton's feet. Raymond's hands holding +the glasses to his eyes trembled violently. The Resident shook as with +the palsy; and he stared in horror at the crawling death that threatened +the sleeping woman. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave fired. +</p> +<p> +As the rifle rang out the creeping movement ceased. +</p> +<p> +"You've hit him, I'll swear," cried Raymond. "I didn't see the bullet +strike the ground." +</p> +<p> +Wargrave rapidly worked the bolt of his rifle, jerking out the empty +case and pushing a fresh cartridge into the chamber. He fired again. +</p> +<p> +"That's got him! That <i>must</i> have got him!" exclaimed Raymond. +</p> +<p> +The crocodile lay still. Frank leapt to his feet and, rifle in hand, +dashed down the incline. At that moment Mrs. Norton awoke, turned on her +side, raised her body a little and suddenly saw the horrible reptile. +She sat up rigid with terror and stared at it. The brute slowly opened +its huge mouth and disclosed the cruel, gapped teeth. Then the iron jaws +clashed together. With a shriek the woman sprang to her feet, but stood +trembling, unable to move away. +</p> +<p> +"Run! Run!" shouted Wargrave, springing down the slope towards her. +</p> +<p> +Behind him raced Raymond, while her husband, who was unable to run +fast, followed far behind. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Norton seemed rooted to the spot. But she turned to Wargrave with +outstretched arms and gasped: +</p> +<p> +"Save me, Frank! Save me!" +</p> +<p> +With a bound he reached her, and, as she clung to him convulsively, +panted out: +</p> +<p> +"It's all right, dear. You're safe now." +</p> +<p> +He pushed her behind him, and bringing the rifle to his shoulder, faced +the crocodile. The brute opened and shut its great jaws, seeming to gasp +for air, while a strange whistling sound came from its throat. Its body +appeared to be paralysed. +</p> +<p> +"It can't move. You've broken its spine," cried Raymond, as he reached +them. "Your first shot it must have been. Look! Your second's torn its +throat." +</p> +<p> +He pointed to the neck and went round to the other side. From a jagged, +gaping wound where the expanding bullet had torn the throat, the blood +spurted and air whistled out with a shrill sound. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave turned to Violet and took the terrified woman, who seemed on +the point of fainting, in his arms. +</p> +<p> +"All right, little girl. It's all right. The brute's done for." +</p> +<p> +She pulled herself together with an effort and looked nervously at the +crocodile. Then she released herself from Frank's clasp and said, +smiling feebly: +</p> +<p> +"What a coward I am! I'm ashamed of myself. Where's John? Oh, here he +is. Doesn't he look funny?" +</p> +<p> +The Resident, very red-faced and out of breath, had slowed down into a +shambling walk and was puffing and blowing like a grampus. As he came up +to them he spluttered: +</p> +<p> +"Is it safe? Is it dead?" +</p> +<p> +"It's harmless now, sir," answered Raymond. "It's still living but it +can't move. The spine's broken, I think." +</p> +<p> +The Resident turned to his wife. The poor man had been in agony while +she was in danger; but now that the peril had passed he could only +express his relief in irritable scolding: +</p> +<p> +"How could you be so foolish, Violet?" he asked crossly. "The idea of +going to sleep near the tank! Most unwise! You might have been eaten +alive." +</p> +<p> +His wife smiled bitterly and glanced at the grumbling man with a +contemptuous expression on her face. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, John, very inconsiderate of me, I daresay. But how was I to know +that there was a <i>mugger</i> (crocodile) in the tank?" +</p> +<p> +Then for the first time she realised the nearness of the water. +</p> +<p> +"Good gracious! I thought I was much farther—how did I get so close to +it? Did I slip down in my sleep?" +</p> +<p> +"No; there are the trees," said Raymond. "It's extraordinary. The whole +tank seems to have shifted." +</p> +<p> +The Resident was mopping his bald scalp and lifted his hat to let the +gusty wind cool his head. A sudden squall blew the big pith sun-helmet +out of his hand. Wargrave caught it in the air and returned it to its +owner. +</p> +<p> +"By Jove! it's a regular gale," he said. "I think I know what's +happened. This wind's so strong that it's blown the water of the tank +before it and actually shifted the whole mass thirty or forty yards this +way." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I've known that to occur before with shallow ponds," said Raymond. +"I've heard the passage of the Red Sea by the Israelites and the +drowning of Pharaoh's Army explained in the same way. It's said that the +crossing really took place at one extremity of the Bitter Lake through +which the Suez Canal passes." +</p> +<p> +Major Norton was staring at the far end of the tank now left bare. +</p> +<p> +"There may be some interesting insects stranded on the bottom uncovered +by the receding water," he said, abstractedly, and was moving away to +search for them when Wargrave said disgustedly: +</p> +<p> +"Don't you think, sir, that, as Mrs. Norton has had such a shock, the +sooner we get off the better?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, yes. Very true. But you can order the camels to be saddled while +I'm having a look," replied the enthusiastic collector. "I really must +go and see. There may be some very interesting specimens there." +</p> +<p> +And he hurried away. His wife smiled rather bitterly as he went. Then +she turned to the two subalterns. +</p> +<p> +"But tell me what happened? How did the <i>mugger</i> come here? How was I +saved?" +</p> +<p> +Raymond rapidly narrated what had taken place. Violet looked at Wargrave +with glistening eyes and held out her hands to him. +</p> +<p> +"So you saved my life. How can I thank you?" she said gratefully. Her +lips trembled a little. +</p> +<p> +Frank took her hands in his but answered lightly: +</p> +<p> +"Oh, it was nothing. Anyone else would have done the same. I happened to +be the only one with a rifle." +</p> +<p> +Raymond turned away quickly and walked over to the crocodile. Neither of +them took any notice of him. Violet gazed fondly at Wargrave. +</p> +<p> +"I owe you so much, Frank, so very much," she murmured in a low voice. +"You've made my life worth living; and now you make me live." +</p> +<p> +He was embarrassed but he pressed the hands he held in his. Then he +released them and tried to speak lightly. +</p> +<p> +"Shall I have the <i>mugger</i> skinned and get a dressing-bag made out of +his hide for you?" he said, smiling. "That'd be a nice souvenir of the +brute." +</p> +<p> +She shuddered. +</p> +<p> +"I don't want to remember him," she cried, turning to glance at the +crocodile. "Horrid beast! I can't bear the sight of him." +</p> +<p> +The <i>mugger</i> certainly looked a most repulsive brute as it lay stretched +on the ground, its jaws occasionally opening and shutting spasmodically, +the blood from its wounded throat spreading in a pool on the sun-baked +earth. It was evidently an old beast; and skull and back were covered +with thick horny plates and bosses through which no bullet could +penetrate. The big teeth studded irregularly in the cruel jaws were +yellow and worn, as were the thick nails tipping the claws at the ends +of the powerful limbs. +</p> +<p> +"The devil's not dead yet. Shall I put another bullet into him?" said +Wargrave. +</p> +<p> +"It's only wasting a cartridge," replied his friend. "He can't do any +more harm. When the men come we'll have him cut open and see what he's +got inside him." +</p> +<p> +Violet shuddered. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, do you think he has ever eaten any human being?" she asked, gazing +with loathing at the huge reptile. +</p> +<p> +"Judging from the way he stalked you I should think he has," answered +Raymond. "Hullo! here comes one of the camel-drivers with some of the +villagers. They'll be able to tell us about him." +</p> +<p> +On the rim of the basin appeared a group of natives moving in their +direction. Suddenly they caught sight of the crocodile, stopped and +pointed to it and began to talk excitedly. One of the local peasants ran +back shouting. The rest hurried down for a closer view of the reptile. A +chorus of wonder rose from them as they stood round it. The Mahommedan +camel-driver exclaimed in Hindustani: +</p> +<p> +"<i>Ahré, bhai! Kiya janwar! Pukka shaitan!</i> (Ah, brother! What an animal! +A veritable devil!)" +</p> +<p> +As the villagers spoke only the dialect of the State, Raymond used this +man as interpreter and questioned them about the crocodile. They +asserted that it had inhabited the tank for many years—hundreds, said +one man. It had, to their certain knowledge, killed several women +incautiously bathing or drawing water from the tank. As women are not +valued highly by the poorer Hindus this did not make the <i>mugger</i> very +unpopular. But early in that very year it had committed the awful crime +of dragging under water and devouring a Brahmini bull, an animal devoted +to the Gods and held sacrosanct. +</p> +<p> +By this time the crocodile had breathed its last. Raymond measured it +roughly and found it to be over twelve feet in length. The peasants +turned the great body on its back. Wargrave saw that the skin +underneath was too thick to be made into leather, so he bade them cut +the belly open. The stomach contained many shells of freshwater crabs +and crayfish, as well as a surprising amount of large pebbles, either +taken for digestive purposes or swallowed when the fish were being +scooped up off the bottom. But further search resulted in the finding of +several heavy brass or copper anklets and armlets, such as are worn by +Indian women. Some had evidently been a long time in the reptile's +interior. +</p> +<p> +When the camels had come and the party was preparing to mount and start +back home, a crowd of villagers, led by their old priest, bore down upon +them. Learning that Frank was the slayer of the sacrilegious crocodile +the holy man hung a garland of marigolds round his neck and through the +interpreter offered him the thanks of gods and men for his good deed. +And to a chorus of blessings and compliments he rode away with his +companions. +</p> +<p> +So ended the incident—apparently. But consequences undreamed of by any +of the actors in it flowed from it. For imperceptibly it brought a +change into the relations between Mrs. Norton and Wargrave and +eventually altered them completely. At first it merely seemed to +strengthen their friendship and increase the feeling of intimacy. To +Violet—they were Violet and Frank to each other now—the saving of her +life constituted a bond that could never be severed. He had preserved +her from a horrible death and she owed Wargrave more than gratitude. +</p> +<p> +Hitherto she had often toyed with the idea of him as a lover, and the +thought had been a pleasant one. But it had hardly occurred to her to be +in love with him in return. In all her life up to now she had never +known what it was to really love. She had married without affection. Her +girlhood had been passed without the mildest flirtation; for she had +been brought up in a quiet country village where there never seemed to +be any bachelors of her own class between the ages of seventeen and +fifty. Even the curate was grey-haired and married. She had made up for +this deprivation during the voyage out to India and her season in +Calcutta; but, although she had found many men ready to flirt with her, +Norton's proposal was the only serious one that she had had and she +accepted him in desperation. She had never felt any love for him. She +did not realise that he had any for her; for, although he really +entertained a sincere affection of a kind for her, it was so seldom and +so badly expressed that she was never aware of its existence. Since her +marriage she had had several careless flirtations during her visits to +her relatives in Calcutta; but her heart was not seriously affected. +</p> +<p> +She never acknowledged to herself that any gratitude or loyalty was due +from her to her husband. On the contrary she felt that she owed him, as +well as Fate, a grudge. She was young, warmblooded, of a passionate +temperament, yet she found herself wedded to a man who apparently needed +a housekeeper, not a wife. Her husband did not appear to realise that a +woman is not essentially different to a man, that she has feelings, +desires, passions, just as he has—although by a polite fiction the +prudish Anglo-Saxon races seem to agree to regard her as of a more +spiritual, more ethereal and less earthly a nature. Yet it is only a +fiction after all. Violet was a living woman, a creature of flesh and +blood who was not content to be a chattel, a household ornament, a piece +of furniture. It was not to be wondered at that she longed to enter into +woman's kingdom, to exercise the power of her sex to sway the other and +to experience the thrill of the realisation of that power. Often in her +loneliness she pined to see eyes she loved look with love into hers. She +was not a marble statue. It was but natural that she should long for +Love, a lover, the clasp of strong arms, the pressure of a man's broad +chest against her bosom, the feel of burning kisses on her lips, the +glorious surrender of her whole being to some adored one to whom she was +the universe, who lived but for her. +</p> +<p> +Now for the first time in her life her errant dreams took concrete +shape. At last she began to feel the companionship of a particular man +necessary for her happiness. She had never before realised the +pleasure, the joy, to be derived from the presence of one of the +opposite sex who was in sympathy, in perfect harmony with her nature. +</p> +<p> +In her lonely hours—and they were many—she thought constantly of +Wargrave; his face was ever before her, his voice sounding in her ears. +She usually saw her husband—absorbed in his work and studies—only at +meals; and as she looked across the table at him then she could not help +contrasting the heavy, unattractive man sitting silent, usually reading +a book while he ate, with the good-looking, laughter-loving playfellow +who had come into her life. She learned to day-dream of Wargrave, to +watch for his coming and hate his going, to enjoy every moment of his +presence. He had brought a new interest into her hitherto purposeless +life, the life that he had preserved and that consequently seemed to +belong to him. New feelings awakened in her. The world was a brighter, +happier place than it had been. It pleased her to realise what it all +meant, to know that the novel sensations, the fluttering hopes and +fears, the strange, delightful thrills, were all symptoms of that +longed-for malady that comes sooner or later to all women. She knew at +last that she loved Wargrave and gloried in the knowledge. And she never +doubted that he loved her in return. +</p> +<p> +Did he? It was hard to tell. To a man the thought of Love in the +abstract seldom occurs; and the realisation of the concrete fact that +he is in love with some particular woman generally comes somewhat as a +shock. He is by nature a lover of freedom and in theory at least resents +fetters, even silken ones. And Wargrave had never thought of analysing +his feelings towards Violet. He was not a professional amorist and, +although not a puritan, would never set himself deliberately to make +love to a married woman under her husband's roof. He was fond of Mrs. +Norton—as a sister, he thought. She was a delightful friend, a real +pal, so understanding, so companionable, he said to himself frequently. +It had not occurred to him that his feelings for her might be love. He +had often before been on terms of friendship with women, married and +single; but none of them had ever attracted him as much as she did. He +had never felt any desire to be married; domesticity did not appeal to +him. But now, as he watched Violet moving about her drawing-room or +playing to him, he found himself thinking that it would be pleasant to +return to his bungalow from parade and find a pretty little wife waiting +to greet him with a smile and a kiss—and the wife of his dreams always +had Violet's face, wore smart well-cut frocks like Violet's, and showed +just such shapely, silken-clad legs and ankles and such small feet in +dainty, silver-buckled, high-heeled shoes. And he thought with an inward +groan that such a luxury was not for a debt-ridden subaltern like him, +that his heavily-mortgaged pay would not run to expensive gowns, silk +stockings and costly footwear. +</p> +<p> +Yet it never occurred to him that Violet cared for him nor did it enter +his mind to try to win her love. But he felt that he would do much to +make her happy, that saving her life made him in a way responsible for +it in future; and he knew that she was not a contented woman. His +sympathy went out to her for what he guessed she must suffer from her +ill-assorted union. +</p> +<p> +But soon he had no need to surmise it; for before long Violet began to +confide all her sorrows to him and the recital made his heart bleed for +one so young and beautiful mated to a selfish wretch who was as blind to +her suffering as he was to her charm. The younger man's chivalry was up +in arms, and he felt that such a boor did not deserve so bright a jewel. +At times Frank was tempted to confront the callous husband and force him +to open his dulled eyes to the bravely-borne misery of his neglected +wife and realise how fortunate he ought to consider himself in being the +owner of such a transcendent being. But the next moment the infatuated +youth was convinced that Norton was incapable of appreciating so rare a +woman, that only a nature like his own could understand or do full +justice to the perfections of hers. Such is a young man's conceit. He +rejoiced to know that his poor sympathy could help in a measure to make +up to Violet for the happiness that she declared that she had missed in +life. And so he gladly consented to play the consoler; and she, for the +pleasure of being consoled, continued to pour out her griefs to him. +</p> +<p> +But if Frank was unconscious of the danger of his post as sympathising +confidant to another man's young and pretty wife, others were not. Her +husband, of course, was as blind as most husbands seem to be in +Anglo-Indian society. For in that land of the Household of Three, the +Eternal Triangle, it is almost a recognised principle that every married +woman who is at all attractive is entitled to have one particular +bachelor always in close attendance on her, to be constantly at her beck +and call, to ride with her, to drive her every afternoon to tennis or +golf or watch polo, then on to the Club and sit with her there. His +duty, a pleasant one, no doubt, is to cheer up her otherwise solitary +dinner in her bungalow on the nights when her neglectful husband is +dining out <i>en garçon</i>. No <i>cavaliere servente</i> of Old Italy ever had so +busy a time as the Tame Cat of the India of to-day. And the husband +allows it, nay seems, as Major Norton did, to hail his presence with +relief, as it eases the conscience of the selfish lord and master who +leaves his spouse much alone. +</p> +<p> +But if the Resident saw no harm or danger in the young officer +constantly seeking the society of his pretty wife others did. At first +Frank's well-wishers tried to hint to him that there was likelihood of +his friendship with her being misunderstood. But he laughed at +Raymond's badly-expressed warning and rather resented Major Hepburn's +kindly advice when on one occasion his Company Commander spoke plainly, +though tactfully, to him on the subject. Then Violet's enemies took a +hand in the game. Mrs. Trevor, having failed to decoy him to her +bungalow for what she called "a quiet tea and a motherly little chat," +cornered him one afternoon when he was on his way to the Residency and +spoke very openly to him of the risk he ran of being entangled in the +coils of such an outrageous coquette as "that Mrs. Norton," as she +termed her. Frank was so indignant at her abuse of his friend that for +the first time in his life he was rude to a woman and snubbed Mrs. +Trevor so severely that she went in a rage to her husband and insisted +on his taking immediate steps to arrest the progress of a scandal that, +she declared, would attract the unfavourable attention of the higher +military authorities to the regiment. +</p> +<p> +"Do you realise, William, that you will be the one to suffer?" said the +angry woman. "If anything happens, if Major Norton complains, if that +shameless creature succeeds in making that foolish young man run away +with her, you will be blamed. You can't afford it. You know that the +General's confidential report on you last year was not too favourable." +</p> +<p> +"It wasn't really bad, my dear; it only hinted that I lacked decision," +pleaded the hen-pecked man. +</p> +<p> +"Exactly. You are not firm enough," persisted his domestic tyrant. "They +will say that you should have put your foot down at once and stopped +this disgraceful affair." +</p> +<p> +"But what can I do?" asked the Colonel helplessly. +</p> +<p> +"Someone ought to speak to Major Norton at once." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, my dear Jane, I couldn't. I daren't." +</p> +<p> +"For two pins I'd do it myself. Mrs. Baird said the other day that it +was our duty as respectable women." +</p> +<p> +"No, no, no, Jane. You mustn't think of it," exclaimed the alarmed man. +"I forbid you. You mustn't mix yourself up in the affair. It would be +committing me." +</p> +<p> +"Then send that impertinent young man away," said Mrs. Trevor firmly. No +General would have accused <i>her</i> of lack of decision. "I used to have a +high opinion of him once; but after his insolence to me I believe him to +be nearly as bad as that woman." +</p> +<p> +"Where can I send him?" asked the worried Colonel. "He has done all the +courses and passed all the classes and examinations he can." +</p> +<p> +"You know you have only to write confidentially to the Staff and inform +them that young Wargrave's removal to another station is absolutely +necessary to prevent a scandal; and they'll send him off somewhere else +at once." +</p> +<p> +Her husband nodded his head. He was well aware of the fact that the Army +in India looks closely after the behaviour and morals of its officers, +that a colonel has only to hint that the transfer of a particular +individual under his command is necessary to stop a scandal—and without +loss of time that officer finds himself deported to the other side of +the country. +</p> +<p> +One morning, a week after Mrs Trevor's conversation with her husband, +Wargrave, superintending the musketry of his Double Company on the rifle +range, was given an official note from the adjutant informing him that +the Commanding Officer desired to see him at once in the Orderly Room. +As Major Hepburn was not present Frank handed the men over to the senior +Indian company commander and rode off to the Regimental Office, +wondering as he went what could be the reason of the sudden summons. +Reaching the building he found Raymond on the watch for him, while +ostensibly engaged in criticising to the battalion <i>durzi</i> (tailor) the +fit of the new uniforms of several recruits. +</p> +<p> +"I say, Ray, what's up?" asked his friend cheerily, as he swung himself +out of the saddle. +</p> +<p> +The adjutant nodded warningly towards the Orderly Room and dropped his +voice as he replied: +</p> +<p> +"I don't know, old chap. The C.O.'s said nothing to me; but he's in +there with Hepburn trying to work himself up into a rage so that he can +bully-rag you properly. You'd better go in and get it over." +</p> +<p> +Wargrave entered the big, colour-washed room. The Colonel was seated at +his desk, frowning at a paper before him, and did not look up. Major +Hepburn was standing behind his chair and glanced commiseratingly at the +subaltern. +</p> +<p> +Frank stood to attention and saluted. +</p> +<p> +"Good morning, sir," he said. "You wanted to see me?" +</p> +<p> +Colonel Trevor did not reply, but turning slightly in his chair, said: +</p> +<p> +"Major Hepburn, call in the adjutant, please." +</p> +<p> +As the Second in Command went out on the verandah and summoned Raymond, +Wargrave's heart misgave him. He had no idea of what the matter was; but +the Colonel's manner and the presence of the Second in Command were +ominous signs. He wondered what crime he was going to be charged with. +</p> +<p> +"Shut the doors, Raymond," said the Commanding Officer curtly, as the +adjutant entered. The latter did so and sat down at his writing-table, +glancing anxiously at his friend. +</p> +<p> +Colonel Trevor's lips were twitching nervously; and he seemed to +experience a difficulty in finding his voice. At last he took up a +paper from his desk and said: +</p> +<p> +"Mr. Wargrave, this is a telegram just received from Western Army Head +Quarters. It says 'Lieutenant Wargrave is appointed to No. 12 Battalion, +Frontier Military Police. Direct him to proceed forthwith to report to +O.C. Detachment, Ranga Duar, Eastern Bengal.'" +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0005" id="h2HCH0005"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER V +</h2> +<h3> + SENTENCE OF EXILE +</h3> +<p> +At the words of the telegram Raymond started and Frank stared in +bewilderment at the Colonel. +</p> +<p> +"But I never asked for the Military Police, sir," he exclaimed. "I——" +</p> +<p> +The Colonel licked his dry lips and, working himself up into a passion, +shouted: +</p> +<p> +"No, you didn't. But I did. I applied for you to be sent to it. I asked +for you to be transferred from this station. You can ask yourself the +reason why. I will not tolerate conduct such as yours, sir. I will not +have an officer like you under my command." +</p> +<p> +Frank flushed deeply. +</p> +<p> +"I beg your pardon, sir. I don't understand. I really don't know what +I've done. I should——" +</p> +<p> +But the Colonel burst in furiously: +</p> +<p> +"He says he doesn't know what he's done, Major Hepburn. Listen to that! +He does not know what he's done"; and the speaker pounded on the desk +with his clenched fist, working himself up into a rage, as a weak man +will do when he has to carry out an unpleasant task. +</p> +<p> +"But, sir, surely I have a right——," began Wargrave, clenching his +hands until the nails were almost driven into his palms in an effort to +keep his temper. +</p> +<p> +"I cannot argue the question with you, Wargrave," said the Colonel +loftily. "You have got your orders. Headquarters approve of my action. I +have discussed the matter with my Second in Command, and he agrees with +me. You can go. Raymond, make out the necessary warrants for Mr. +Wargrave's journey and give him an advance of a month's pay. He will +leave to-morrow. Tell the Quartermaster to make the necessary +arrangements." +</p> +<p> +Frank bit his lip. His years of discipline and the respect for authority +engrained in him since his entrance to Sandhurst kept the mutinous words +back. He saluted punctiliously and, turning about smartly walked out of +the Orderly Room. In the glaring sunshine he strode out of the compound +and down the white, dusty road to his bungalow, his brain in a whirl, +blind to everything, seeing neither the sepoys saluting him nor his +<i>syce</i> hurrying after him and dragging the pony by the bridle. +</p> +<p> +When he reached his house he entered the sitting-room and dropped into a +chair. His "boy" approached salaaming and asked if he should go to the +Mess to order the Sahib's breakfast to be got ready. Wargrave waved him +away impatiently. +</p> +<p> +He sat staring unseeingly at the wall. He could not think coherently. He +felt dazed. His bewildered brain seemed to be revolving endlessly round +the thought of the telegram from Headquarters and the Colonel's words "I +will not have an officer like you under my command." What was the +meaning of it all? What had he done? A pang shot through him at the +sudden remembrance of Colonel Trevor's assertion that Major Hepburn +agreed with him. Frank held the Second in Command in high respect, for +he knew him to be an exceptionally good soldier and a gentleman in every +sense of the word. Had he so disgraced himself then that Hepburn +considered the Colonel's action justified? But how? +</p> +<p> +He shifted uneasily in his chair and his eyes fell on Mrs. Norton's +portrait. At the sight of it his Company Commander's advice to him about +her and Mrs. Trevor's spiteful remarks flashed across his mind. Could +Violet be mixed up in all this? Was his friendship with her perhaps the +cause of the trouble? He dismissed the idea at once. There was nothing +to be ashamed of in their relations. +</p> +<p> +A figure darkened the doorway. It was Raymond. Wargrave sprang up and +rushed to him. +</p> +<p> +"What in Heaven's name is it all about, Ray?" he cried. "Is the Colonel +mad?" +</p> +<p> +The adjutant took off his helmet and flung it on the table. +</p> +<p> +"Well, tell me. What the devil have I done?" said his friend +impatiently. +</p> +<p> +Raymond tried to speak but failed. +</p> +<p> +"Go on, man. What is it?" cried Wargrave, seizing his arm. +</p> +<p> +The adjutant burst out: +</p> +<p> +"It's a damned shame, old man. I'm sorry." +</p> +<p> +"But what is it? What is it, I say?" cried Wargrave, shaking him. +</p> +<p> +The adjutant nodded his head towards the big photograph on the +writing-table. +</p> +<p> +"It's Mrs. Norton," he said. +</p> +<p> +"Mrs. Norton?" echoed his friend. "What the—what's she got to do with +it?" +</p> +<p> +Raymond threw himself into a chair. +</p> +<p> +"Someone's been making mischief. The C.O.'s been told that there might +be a scandal so he's got scared lest trouble should come to him." +</p> +<p> +Frank stared blankly at the speaker, then suddenly turned and walked out +of the bungalow. The pony was standing huddled into the patch of shade +at the side of the house, the <i>syce</i> squatting on the ground at its head +and holding the reins. Wargrave sprang into the saddle and galloped out +of the compound. Raymond ran to the verandah and saw him thundering down +the sandy road that led to the residency. +</p> +<p> +Arrived at the big white building Frank pulled up his panting pony on +its haunches and dismounting threw the reins over its head and left it +unattended. +</p> +<p> +Walking to the hall door he cried: +</p> +<p> +"<i>Koi hai</i>?" +</p> +<p> +A drowsy <i>chuprassi</i> at the back of the hall sprang up and hurried to +receive him. +</p> +<p> +"<i>Memsahib hai</i>? (Is the mistress in?)" +</p> +<p> +"<i>Hai, sahib</i>. (Yes, sir)" said the servant salaaming. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave was free of the house and, taking off his hat, went into the +cool hall and walked up the great staircase. He entered the +drawing-room. After the blinding glare outside the closely-shuttered +apartment seemed so dark that at first it was difficult for him to see +if it were tenanted or not. But it was empty; and he paced the floor +impatiently, frowning in chaotic thought. +</p> +<p> +"Good morning, Frank. You are early to-day. And what a bad temper you +seem to be in!" exclaimed a laughing voice; and Mrs. Norton, looking +radiant and delightfully cool in a thin white Madras muslin dress, +entered the room. +</p> +<p> +He went to her. +</p> +<p> +"They're sending me away, Violet," he said. +</p> +<p> +"Sending you away?" she repeated in an astonished tone. "Sending you +where?" +</p> +<p> +"To hell, I think," he cried. "Oh, I beg your pardon. I mean—yes, +they're sending me away from Rohar, from you. Sending me to the other +side of India." +</p> +<p> +The blood slowly left her face as she stared uncomprehendingly at him. +</p> +<p> +"Sending you away? Why?" she asked. +</p> +<p> +"Because—because we're friends, little girl." +</p> +<p> +"Because we're friends," she echoed. "What do you mean? But you mustn't +go." +</p> +<p> +"I must. I can't help it. I've got to go." +</p> +<p> +Pale as death Violet stared at him. +</p> +<p> +"Got to go? To leave me?" +</p> +<p> +Then with a choking cry she threw her arms about his neck and sobbed. +</p> +<p> +"You mustn't. You mustn't leave me. I can't live without you. I love +you. I love you. I'll die if you go from me." +</p> +<p> +Frank started and tried to hold her at arm's length to look into her +face. But the woman clung frenziedly to him, while convulsive sobs shook +her body. His arms went round her instinctively and, holding her to his +breast, he stared blankly over the beautiful bowed head. It was true, +then. She loved him. Without meaning it he had won her heart. He whose +earnest wish it had been to save her from pain, to console her, to +brighten her lonely life, had brought this fresh sorrow on her. To the +misery of a loveless marriage he had added a heavier cross, an unhappy, +a misplaced affection. No exultant vanity within him rejoiced at the +knowledge that, unsought, she had learned to care for him. Only regret, +pity for her, stirred in him. He was aware now as always that his +feeling for her was not love. But she must not realise it. He must save +her from the bitter mortification of learning that she had given her +heart unasked. His must have been the fault; he it must be to bear the +punishment. She should never know the truth. He bent down and +reverently, tenderly, kissed the tear-stained face—it was the first +time that his lips had touched her. +</p> +<p> +"Dearest, we will go together. You must come with me," he said. +</p> +<p> +Violet started and looked wildly up at him. +</p> +<p> +"Go with you? What do you mean? How can I?" +</p> +<p> +"I mean that you must come away with me to begin a new life—a happier +one—together. I cannot leave you here with a man who neglects you, who +does not appreciate you, who cannot understand you." +</p> +<p> +"Do you mean—run away with you?" she asked. +</p> +<p> +"Yes; it is the only thing to do." +</p> +<p> +She slowly loosed her clasp of him and released herself from his arms. +</p> +<p> +"But I don't understand at all. Why are you going? And where?" +</p> +<p> +He briefly told her what had happened. His face flushed darkly as he +repeated the Colonel's words. +</p> +<p> +"'He wouldn't have an officer like me under his command,' he said. He +treated me like a criminal. I don't value his opinion much. But Major +Hepburn agrees with him. That hurts. I respect him." +</p> +<p> +"But where is this place they're sending you to?" she asked. +</p> +<p> +"Ranga Duar? I don't know. Eastern Bengal, I believe." +</p> +<p> +"Bengal. What? Anywhere near Calcutta?" +</p> +<p> +"No; it must be somewhere up on the frontier. Otherwise they wouldn't +send Military Police to garrison it." +</p> +<p> +"But what is it like? Is it a big station?" she persisted. +</p> +<p> +"I can't tell you. But it's sure not to be. No; it must be a small place +up in the hills or in the jungle. There's only a detachment there." +</p> +<p> +"But what have I got to do with your being sent there?" she asked in +perplexity. +</p> +<p> +"Don't you understand? Someone's been making mischief," he replied. +"Those two vile-minded women have been talking scandal of us to the +Colonel." +</p> +<p> +"What? Talking about you and me? Oh!" she exclaimed. +</p> +<p> +His words brought home to her the fact that these bitter-tongued women +whom she despised had dared to assail her—her, the <i>Burra Mem</i>, the +Great Lady of their little world. Had dared to? She could not silence +them. And what would they say of her, how their tongues would wag, if +she ran away from her husband! And they would have a right to talk +scandal of her then. The thought made her pause. +</p> +<p> +"But how could I go with you to this place in Bengal? Where could I +live?" she asked. +</p> +<p> +"You'd live with me." +</p> +<p> +"Oh! In your bungalow? How could I? And how would I get there?" she +continued. "I haven't any money. I don't suppose I've got a ten-rupee +note. And I couldn't ask my husband." +</p> +<p> +"Of course not. I would——" He paused. "By Jove! I never thought of +that." It had not occurred to him that elopements must be carried out on +a cash basis. He had forgotten that money was necessary. And he had +none. He was heavily in debt. The local <i>shroffs</i>—the native +money-lenders—would give him no more credit when they knew that he was +going away. All that he would have would be the one month's advance of +pay—probably not enough for Violet's fare and expenses across +India—the Government provided his—and certainly not enough to support +them for long. He frowned in perplexity. Running away with another man's +wife did not seem so easy after all. +</p> +<p> +Violet was the first to recover her normal calm. +</p> +<p> +"Sit down and let us talk quietly," she said. "One of the servants may +come in. Or my husband—if people are talking scandal of us." +</p> +<p> +She touched the switch of an overhead electric fan—the Government of +India housed its Political Officer in Rohar much more luxuriously than +the military ones—and sat down under it. Wargrave began to pace the +room impatiently. +</p> +<p> +"Come, Frank, stop walking about like a tiger in a cage and let's +discuss things properly." +</p> +<p> +With an effort he pulled himself together and took a chair near her. The +woman was the more self-possessed of the two. The shock of suddenly +finding herself up against the logical outcome of her desires had +sobered her; and, faced with the prospect of an immediate flight +involving the abdication of her assured social position and the +surrender of a home, she was able to visualise the consequences of her +actions. The most sobering reflection was the thought that by so doing +she would be casting herself to the female wolves of her world—and she +knew the extent of their mercy. There were others of her acquaintance +besides Mrs. Trevor who would howl loud with triumph over her downfall. +The thought has saved many a woman from social ruin. +</p> +<p> +Thinking only of what she had so often told him of the misery of living +with a man as unsympathetic as her husband, Frank pleaded desperately +with a conviction that he was far from feeling. The hard fact of the +lack of sufficient money to pay for her travelling expenses, the +difficulty of getting off together from this out-of-the-way station, +were not to be got over. Then the impossibility of knowing whether she +could remain with him when he was on frontier duty and of supporting her +away from him, the realisation of the fact that they would have to face +the Divorce Court with its heavy costs and probably crushing damages, +all made the situation seem hopeless. In despair he sprang up and +resumed his nervous pacing of the room. +</p> +<p> +At last Violet said: +</p> +<p> +"All I can see, dearest, is that we must wait. It will be harder for me +than for you. You at least will not have to live with anyone uncongenial +to you. But I must. Yet I can bear it for your sake." +</p> +<p> +He stopped before her and looked at her in admiration of her courageous +and self-sacrificing spirit. Then he bent down and kissed her tenderly. +Sitting beside her he discussed the situation more calmly than he had +hitherto done. It was finally agreed that he was to go alone to his new +station, save all that he could to pay off his debts—he would receive a +higher salary in the Military Police and his expenses would be less—and +when he was free and had made a home for her Violet would sacrifice +everything for love and come to him. With almost tears in his eyes as he +thought of her nobility he strained her to his heart. When the time came +for parting the woman broke down completely and wept bitterly as she +clung to him. He kissed her passionately, then with an effort put her +from him and almost ran from the room, while she flung herself on a +lounge and sobbed convulsively. +</p> +<p> +One of the Residency <i>syces</i> had taken charge of the pony; and Wargrave, +mounting it, galloped madly back to his bungalow, his heart torn with +anguish for the unhappiness of the broken-hearted woman that he was +leaving behind. +</p> +<p> +When he arrived home he found that Raymond and his own "boy" and +sword-orderly (his native soldier-servant) had begun his packing for +him, for his heavy baggage had to be despatched that afternoon. The +bungalow was crowded with his brother-officers waiting to see him. He +had intended to avoid them, for he felt disgraced by the Colonel's +censure which it was evident the Commanding Officer had not kept secret, +though the whole matter should have been treated as confidential. But +they made light of his scruples and showed him that he had their +sympathy. He had meant to dine alone in his room that night; but his +comrades insisted on his coming to the Mess, where they were to give him +an informal farewell dinner. They would take no refusal. +</p> +<p> +Daly, who was the Acting Quartermaster of the battalion, told him that +the arrangements for his journey had been made. He was to leave at dawn +and drive sixty miles in a <i>tonga</i>—a two-wheeled native conveyance +drawn by a pair of ponies—to a village called Basedi on the shores of a +narrow gulf or deep inlet of the sea which formed the eastern boundary +of the State of Mandha. Here he would have to spend the night in a +dâk-bungalow—or rest-house—and cross the water in a steam-launch next +morning. After that, five days more of travel by various routes and +means awaited him. +</p> +<p> +Before dinner that night a few minutes apart with Hepburn made Frank +happier than he had been all day. For his Company Commander told him +that he had only agreed with the Colonel's action because he believed +that it would be for the subaltern's own good, not because he considered +that the latter had done anything to disgrace him. Hepburn added that if +he was given command of the regiment in two years' time—as should +happen in the ordinary course of events—he would be glad to have +Wargrave back again in the battalion then. Frank, with a guilty feeling +when he remembered his compact with Violet, thanked him gratefully, and +with a lightened heart went to the very festive meal that was to be his +last for some long time, at least with his old corps. +</p> +<p> +The Colonel had refused to agree to his being invited formally to be the +guest of the regiment; and neither he nor the other married man, the +Doctor, were present. If they slept that night they were the only two +officers in the Cantonment that did; for none of the others, not even +senior major, Hepburn, left the Mess until it was time to escort their +departing comrade to his bungalow to change for the journey. And, as the +<i>tonga</i>-ponies rattled down the road and bore him away, Frank's last +sight of his old comrades was the group of white-clad figures in the +dawn waving frantically and cheering vociferously from the gateway of +his bungalow. +</p> +<p> +The memory of it rejoiced him throughout the terrible hours of the long +journey in the baking heat and blinding glare of the Hot Weather day. +The worse moments were the stops every ten miles to change ponies, when +he had to wait in the blazing sunshine. His "boy," who sat on the front +seat of the vehicle beside the driver, produced from a basket packed +with wet straw cooled bottles of soda-water, without which Wargrave felt +that he would have died of sunstroke. +</p> +<p> +Then on after each halt; and the endless strip of white road again +unrolled before him, while the never-ceasing clank of the iron-shod bar +coupling the ponies maddened his aching head with its monotonous rhythm. +</p> +<p> +As the weary miles slid past him his thoughts were with Violet, so +beautiful, so patient and brave in her self-denying endurance. And he +cursed himself for having added to her pain, and inwardly vowed that +some day he would atone to her for it. +</p> +<p> +At last the <i>tonga</i> rattled into the bare compound of the Basedi +dâk-bungalow standing on a high stone plinth. The untidy +<i>khansamah</i>—the custodian of the rest-home—hurried on to the verandah +to greet the unexpected visitor and show his "boy" where to put the +sahib's bedding and baggage in a bleak room with a cane-bottomed wooden +bed hung with torn mosquito-curtains. +</p> +<p> +From a glass case in the sitting-room containing a scanty store of +canned provisions the <i>khansamah</i> provided a meal with such ill-assorted +ingredients as Somebody's desiccated soup lukewarm, a tin of sardines +and sweet biscuits to eat with them, and a bottle of beer to wash it +down with. Wargrave was too choked with dust, too sickened with the heat +and glare, to have any appetite. After a smoke he dragged his weary body +to bed and in spite of the mosquitoes that flocked joyously through the +holes in the gauze curtains to feast on him slept the profound sleep of +utter exhaustion. +</p> +<p> +He was up at daybreak; for the tide served in the early morning and only +at its height could the launch approach the shore, which at low water +was bordered with the filthy slime of mangrove swamps. +</p> +<p> +Landed at the other side of the gulf he had even a worse experience of +travel before him than on the previous day. For the next stage of the +journey was forty miles across a salt desert in a tram drawn by a camel. +The car was open on all sides and covered by a cardboard roof; and its +wooden seats were uncomfortably hard for long hours of sitting. The heat +was appalling. It struck up from the baked ground and seemed to scorch +the body through the clothes. The glare from the white sand and even +whiter patches of salt was blinding and penetrated through the closed +eyelids. A hot wind blew over the hazy, shimmering desert, setting the +whirling dust-devils dancing and striking the face like the touch of a +heated iron. Wargrave's small store of ice and mineral water was +exhausted, and he felt that he was likely to die of thirst. For in the +villages where they changed camels cholera was raging; and he dared not +drink the water from their wells. +</p> +<p> +The tram slid easily along the shining rails that stretched away out of +sight over the monotonous plain, the camel loping lazily along, its +soft, sprawling feet falling noiselessly on the sand. The last ten miles +of the way lay through less sterile country; and the tram passed herds +of black buck—the pretty, spiral-horned antelope. Used to its daily +passage, the graceful animals, which were protected by the game-laws of +the native State through which the line ran, barely troubled to move out +of its way. They stood about in hundreds, staring lazily at it, some not +ten yards off, the bucks turning their heads away to scratch their sides +with the points of their horns or rubbing their noses with dainty hoofs. +</p> +<p> +That night Wargrave slept at a dâk-bungalow near the terminus in a +little native town with a small branch-railway connecting it with a main +line. Then for four days he travelled across the scorching plains of +India, shut up in stuffy carriages with violet-hued glass windows and +Venetian wooden shutters meant to exclude the heat and glare. Over bare +plains broken by sudden flat-topped rocky hills, through +closely-cultivated fields and stretches of scrub-jungle, by mud-walled +villages, he journeyed day and night. The train crossed countless wide +river-beds in which the streams had shrunk to mean rivulets; but when it +clattered over the Ganges at Allahabad the sacred flood rolled a broad +and sluggish current under the bridge on its way to the far-distant Bay +of Bengal. +</p> +<p> +On the fourth night Wargrave slept on a bench in the waiting-room of a +small junction, Niralda, from which a narrow-gauge railway branched off +to the north from the main line through Eastern Bengal. At an early hour +next morning he took his seat in the one first-class carriage of the toy +train, which journeyed through typical Bengal scenery by mud-banked +rice-fields, groves of tall, feathery bamboos and hamlets of pretty +palm-thatched huts, their roofs hidden by the broad green leaves of +sprawling creepers. Soon across the sky to the north a dark, blurred +line rose, stretching out of sight east and west. It grew clearer as the +train sped on, more distinct. It was the great northern rampart of +India, the Himalayas. Then, seeming to float in air high above the +highest of the dark mountain peaks and utterly detached from them, the +white crests of the Eternal Snows shone fairy-like against the blue sky. +</p> +<p> +As Wargrave gazed enraptured, suddenly hills and plain were shut out +from his sight as the train plunged from the dazzling sunlight into the +deep shadows of a tropical forest. And the subaltern recognised with a +thrill of delight that he was entering the wonderful Terai Jungle, the +marvelous belt of woodland that stretches for hundreds of miles along +the foot of the Himalayas through Assam and Bengal to the far Siwalik +range, clothing their lower slopes or scaling their steep sides into +Nepal and Bhutan. Deep in its recesses the rhinoceros, bison and buffalo +hide, herds of wild elephants roam, tigers prey on the countless deer, +and the great mountain bears descend to prowl in it for food. Frank had +learned on the way that Ranga Duar was practically situated in it; and +the knowledge almost consoled him for his exile in the promise of sport +that kings might envy. +</p> +<p> +At a small wayside station in a clearing in the forest his railway +journey ended. Beside the one small stone building two elephants were +standing, incessantly swinging their trunks, flapping their ears and +shifting their weight restlessly from leg to leg. Frank, on getting out +of his carriage, learned with pleasure from their salaaming <i>mahouts</i> +(drivers) that these animals were to be his next means of transport, a +novel one that harmonised with the surroundings. On the back of each +great beast was a massive, straw-filled pad secured by a rope passing +surcingle-wise around its body. +</p> +<p> +Each <i>mahout</i> carried a gun, one a heavy rifle, the other a +double-barrelled fowling-piece, which they offered to Wargrave. +</p> +<p> +"<i>Huzoor</i>!" (the Presence—a polite mode of address in Hindustani), said +one man, "the <i>Burra</i> Sahib (the Political Sahib) sends salaams and +lends you these, as you might see something to shoot on the way." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, the Political Officer. Very kind of him, I'm sure," remarked the +subaltern. "What is his name?" +</p> +<p> +"Durro-Mut Sahib." +</p> +<p> +"What a curious name!" thought Frank. For in the vernacular "<i>durro +mut</i>!" means, "Do not be afraid!" He concluded that it was a nickname. +</p> +<p> +"Why is he called that?" he asked in Hindustani. +</p> +<p> +"Because the Sahib is a very brave sahib," replied the man. "Where he is +there no one need fear." +</p> +<p> +The other <i>mahout</i> nodded assent, then said: +</p> +<p> +"The Commanding Sahib has sent Your Honour from the Mess a basket with +food and drink. I have put it on the table in the <i>babu's</i> (clerk's) +office in the station." +</p> +<p> +Frank blessed his new C.O. for his thoughtfulness and made a welcome +meal while he watched his baggage being loaded on to one of the +elephants. +</p> +<p> +"<i>Buth</i>!" (Lie down) cried the <i>mahout</i>; and the obedient animal slowly +sank to its knees and stretched out its legs before and behind. Frank's +"boy" mounted timorously when the luggage had been strapped on to the +pad. When the subaltern was ready the second elephant was ordered to +kneel down for him; and he clambered up awkwardly and clung on tightly +when the <i>mahout</i>, getting astride of the great neck, made it rise. +</p> +<p> +Along a broad road cut through the forest the huge beasts lumbered with +a plunging, swaying stride that was very tiring to a novice. Holding +both guns Frank glanced continually ahead, aside and behind him with a +delicious feeling of excited hope that at any moment some dangerous wild +beast might appear. On either hand the dense undergrowth of great, +flower-covered bushes and curving fan-shaped palms, restricted the view +to a few yards. From its dense tangle rose the giant trunks of huge +trees, their leafy crowns striving to push through the thick canopy of +vegetation overhead into the life-giving air and sunshine. +</p> +<p> +But no wild animal appeared to cheer Wargrave on the long way; and as +hour after hour went by his whole body ached with the strain of sitting +upright without a support to his back and being jolted violently at +every step of the elephant. At last they reached a clearing in the +forest where stood the <i>mahout's</i> huts and a tall, wooden building, the +<i>peelkhana</i>, or elephant stables. It lay at the foot of the mountains; +and from here the road wound upwards among the lower hills, under steep +cliffs, by the brink of precipices and beside deep ravines down which +brawling streams tumbled. +</p> +<p> +As the party mounted higher and ever higher the big trees fell away +behind them until Frank could look down on a sea of foliage stretching +away out of sight east and west but bounded on the south by the Plains +of India seen vaguely through the shimmering heat-haze. Up, up they +climbed, until far above him he caught glimpses of buildings dotted +about among jungle-clad knolls and spurs jutting out from the dark face +of the mountains. And at last as evening shadows began to lengthen they +reached a lovely recess in the hills, a deep horse-shoe; and in it an +artificially-levelled parade-ground, a rifle-range running up a gully, a +few bungalows dotted about among the trees and lines of single-storied +barracks enclosed by a loopholed stone wall told Wargrave that he had +come to his journey's end. This was his place of exile—this was Ranga +Duar. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0006" id="h2HCH0006"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER VI +</h2> +<h3> + A BORDER OUTPOST +</h3> +<p> +"What a beautiful spot!" thought Frank as he gazed entranced at the +scenery. "I've never seen anything like it. It looks like Heaven after +the ugliness of Rohar. And how delightfully cool it is, too, up in the +mountains! Well, with this climate and good shooting in the forest below +life won't be as dreadful as I thought. I wish poor Violet were here out +of the heat and glare. How she'd love all this beauty, these trees, +these gardens, the glorious mountains!" +</p> +<p> +He sighed as he thought of the woman who was so far away. +</p> +<p> +"<i>Huzoor</i>, that is the Mess" broke in the voice of his <i>mahout</i>, as he +pointed to a long, red-tiled building half-hidden among the trees a few +hundred feet above them. To reach it they had to pass a large, +well-built stone bungalow, two-storied, unlike all the others and +standing in a lovely garden glowing with the vivid hues of the flowers, +the flaming red of huge bushes of bougainvillea and poinsettia. Frank, +glancing towards it, was about to ask the <i>mahout</i> who lived in it when +he started in horror and cried to the man: +</p> +<p> +"Stop! Stop your animal! Look there!" +</p> +<p> +And he snatched at his rifle. For on the farther side of the house a +huge tusker elephant in the garden stood over a little European boy +about four years old, who was sprawling almost under the huge feet. And +high above its head the brute held in its curved trunk a younger child, +a girl with long golden curls, as if about to dash it to the ground. +</p> +<p> +As Frank grasped the rifle the <i>mahout</i>, who had turned at his cry, +seized the barrel and said with a smile: +</p> +<p> +"<i>Durro mut</i>, Sahib! Do not fear, sir. Those are Durro Mut Sahib's +babies and the elephant is their playmate." +</p> +<p> +And as he spoke Wargrave saw the elder child spring up from the ground +and beat the great animal's legs with his tiny hands, crying: +</p> +<p> +"<i>Mujh-ko bhi</i>, Badshah! <i>Mujh-ko bhi! Uth! Uth!</i> (Me too, Badshah! Me +too! Take me up!)" +</p> +<p> +And the baby held aloft was crowing in glee and kicking its fat little +legs frantically. The elephant lowered it tenderly to the ground and +picked up the boy in its stead and lifted him into the air, while he +laughed and clapped his hands. The two <i>mahouts</i> raised their palms +respectfully to their foreheads and cried to their animals: +</p> +<p> +"<i>Salaam kuro</i>! (Salute!)" +</p> +<p> +And the two trunks were lifted together in the <i>Salaamut</i>, the royal +salute given to Kings and Viceroys. +</p> +<p> +Frank's <i>mahout</i> explained. +</p> +<p> +"<i>Gharib Parwar</i> (Protector of the Poor), the pagan ignorant Hindus +around here say that the elephant is a god. Aye, and that his master, +Durro Mut Sahib, is one too. <i>That's</i> like enough. Well, Allah alone +knows the truth of everything. But those two are more than mere man and +animal, that is certain. <i>Mul, Moti</i>! (Go on, Pearl!)" +</p> +<p> +And he kicked his elephant under the ears with his bare feet to quicken +her pace. But Frank bade him stop. Despite the man's optimism he could +not believe it wise to allow tiny tots like that to play with such a +huge, clumsy animal. He was sure that their mother would be horrified if +she knew it. He loved children, and felt that it was madness to allow +these babies to continue their dangerous pastime. +</p> +<p> +"Have they a mother?" he asked the <i>mahout</i>. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, <i>Huzoor</i>. The <i>mem-Sahib</i> (lady) is doubtless within the house." +</p> +<p> +"I want to dismount," said Frank; and he grasped the surcingle rope as +the elephant sank jerkily to its knees. Then sliding down from the pad +he entered the gate and passed up through the garden towards the +bungalow. As he did so a dainty little figure in white, a charmingly +pretty girl with golden hair and blue eyes, came out on the verandah. +Seeing him she walked down the steps to meet him and held out her hand, +saying in a pleasant, musical voice: +</p> +<p> +"You are Mr. Wargrave, of course? Welcome to Ranga Duar." +</p> +<p> +Frank, uncomfortably conscious of his dishevelled appearance and +travel-stained attire, almost blushed as he took off his hat and +quickened his steps to meet her, wondering who this delightful young +girl—she looked about nineteen—could be. Possibly an elder sister of +the children outside. But as they shook hands she said: +</p> +<p> +"I am the wife of the Political Officer here. My husband, Colonel +Dermot, has just gone up to the Mess to see your C.O., Major Hunt." +</p> +<p> +Frank was astonished. This pretty young girl, scarcely more than a child +herself, the mother of the two chubby babies! Touched by her kind manner +he shook her hand warmly and said: +</p> +<p> +"Thank you very much for your welcome, Mrs. Dermot. It's awfully good of +you, and I—I assure you I appreciate it a lot just now. I was coming to +tell you—I wonder do you know that your babies—I suppose they <i>are</i> +yours—are playing what seems to me rather a dangerous game with an +elephant at the side of the house." +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Dermot smiled; and the dimples that came with the smile carried his +mind back for an instant to Violet. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, they are my chicks," she said. "I left them in Badshah's charge." +</p> +<p> +Frank was not altogether reassured. The young mother evidently did not +know what was happening. +</p> +<p> +"But—pardon me—is it quite safe? I was a bit scared when I saw them. +The animal was tossing them up in the air." +</p> +<p> +"You needn't be alarmed, Mr. Wargrave—though it's very good of you to +be concerned and come to tell me," she replied. "But Badshah—that's the +elephant's name—is a most careful nurse and I know that my babies are +quite safe when they are in his care. He has looked after them since +they were able to crawl. Come and be introduced to him. I must tell you +that he is a very exceptional animal. Indeed, we almost forget that he +is an animal. He has saved our lives, my husband's and mine, on more +than one occasion. Next to the children and me I think that Kevin loves +him better than anyone or anything else in the world. And after my +chicks and Kevin and my brother I believe I do, too. As for the babies, +I'm not sure that he doesn't come first with them." +</p> +<p> +She led the way round the house, and in spite of her assurances Wargrave +felt a little nervous when they came in sight of the strange nurse and +its charges. The tiny girl was seated on the ground tightly clasping one +huge foreleg; while the boy was beating the other with his little fists, +crying: +</p> +<p> +"<i>Mujk-ko uth! Pir! Pir!</i> (Lift me up! Again! Again!)" +</p> +<p> +When he saw his mother he ran to her and said: +</p> +<p> +"Mummie, bad, naughty Badshah won't lift me up." +</p> +<p> +He suddenly caught sight of the stranger and paused shyly. +</p> +<p> +"Brian darling, this is a new friend," said his mother, bending down to +him. "Won't you shake hands with him?" +</p> +<p> +The child conquered his shyness with an effort and walked over to Frank, +holding out his little hand. +</p> +<p> +"How do you do?" he said politely. +</p> +<p> +The subaltern gravely shook the proffered hand. The little girl +scrambled to her fat little legs and finger in mouth, surveyed him +solemnly. Then satisfied with her inspection she toddled forward to him +and said: +</p> +<p> +"Tiss me." +</p> +<p> +Frank laughed joyously. +</p> +<p> +"With all my heart, you darling," he cried. +</p> +<p> +This delightful welcome in the dreaded place of exile was inexpressibly +cheering. He swung the dainty mite up in his arms and kissed her. She +put her arms around his neck and hugged him. +</p> +<p> +"Me like 'oo," she said. +</p> +<p> +"You little flirt, Eileen," exclaimed her mother laughing. "Now it's +Badshah's turn." +</p> +<p> +She walked to the elephant, a splendid specimen of its race, though it +had only one tusk, the right. She held out her hand to it. The long +trunk shot out, brushed her fingers and then her cheek with a light +touch that was almost a caress. She stroked the trunk affectionately. +</p> +<p> +"Now, Badshah, this is a new Sahib." +</p> +<p> +Frank, with the baby girl seated on his shoulder, stepped forward and +extended his hand. The animal smelt it and then laid its trunk for a +moment on his free shoulder. +</p> +<p> +"Badshah accepts you, Mr. Wargrave," said Mrs. Dermot seriously. "And +there are few whom he takes to readily." +</p> +<p> +Eileen, with one arm around Frank's neck, stretched out the other to the +elephant. +</p> +<p> +"Me love Badshah," she said. +</p> +<p> +The snake-like trunk lingered caressingly on her golden head. The baby +caught and kissed it. +</p> +<p> +"Now then, chickies, time for bed," said their mother. "Say goodnight to +Badshah." +</p> +<p> +The little boy ran to the great animal and hugged its leg tightly, while +the snaky trunk touched the child's face affectionately. +</p> +<p> +"Come along, Brian. Let him go now"; and at his mother's bidding the boy +released his clasp and ran to her. +</p> +<p> +"Goodnight, Badshah. <i>Salaam</i>!" said Mrs. Dermot, waving her hand to the +mammoth, while her little daughter on Wargrave's shoulder imitated her. +</p> +<p> +The big animal raised its trunk in salute and, turning, walked with +swaying stride out of sight behind the bungalow. +</p> +<p> +"By Jove, what a splendid beast!" exclaimed Frank. "And how wonderfully +well trained he is. I'm not surprised now that you let the kiddies play +with him." +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Dermot smiled. +</p> +<p> +"You would be even less so if you knew his story," she said. "He is my +husband's private property now. The Government of India presented him to +Kevin. Now come back to the house and have tea. Oh, no, after your long +ride you'll prefer a whiskey and soda." +</p> +<p> +"I'd really rather have the tea, I think, Mrs. Dermot. I don't feel +thirsty up in this deliciously cool air. It's awful down in the Plains +now. But what about my elephants and baggage?" +</p> +<p> +"Tell the <i>mahouts</i> to go to the Mess. You are to have a room there." +</p> +<p> +Frank did so; and the two animals lumbered away up the hill after the +<i>mahouts</i> had brought the Colonel's guns into the bungalow. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Dermot led the way into the house. The little boy had possessed +himself of Wargrave's free hand, the other one being engaged in holding +Eileen, who was perched on the subaltern's shoulder. Mrs. Dermot found +it difficult to separate the children from their new friend when at +last she bore them off to bed. +</p> +<p> +Left to himself, Frank examined with deep interest and admiring envy the +splendid display of Colonel Dermot's trophies of big game shooting that +filled the bungalow. From the walls many heads of bison and buffalo, of +<i>sambhur</i> and <i>barasingh</i>, those fine Indian stags, looked mildly at him +with their glass eyes; while tigers, bears and panthers snarled at him +from the ground. Long elephant-tusks leaned in corners, smoking and +liqueur-tables made up from the mammoths' legs and feet stood about, and +crossed from ceiling to floor; on the walls were the skins of enormous +snakes such as Frank had never seen or imagined. He had thought a +six-foot cobra or an eight-foot python long—here were reptiles sixteen +or eighteen feet in length, and he hoped that he would never meet their +equals alive in the jungle. +</p> +<p> +While he was gazing with admiration at the fine collection of trophies +Mrs. Dermot returned. +</p> +<p> +"What a magnificent lot of heads and skins you've got here!" he +exclaimed. "All your husband's, I suppose?" +</p> +<p> +She laughed as she glanced round the room, while pouring out the tea +that her butler had brought. +</p> +<p> +"I'm afraid they make the house rather like a museum of natural +history," she answered. "Yes, they are all Kevin's, or nearly all. +There are a few of mine among them." +</p> +<p> +He looked at her in open admiration. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, you shoot? How splendid!" he said. "Have you ever got a tiger?" +</p> +<p> +"A couple," she replied, smiling. +</p> +<p> +"I envy you awfully," he said. "I've never even seen one—out of a +cage." +</p> +<p> +"Well, if you are keen on shooting, Mr. Wargrave, you ought to have +little difficulty in bagging a tiger or two before long," she said. +</p> +<p> +"I'd love to have the chance of going after big game. I'm hoping for it +here. Shall I? I've never had any, although I've shot a panther or two +and a few black buck and <i>chinkara</i>." +</p> +<p> +"You will have every opportunity of good sport here. Neither of the +other two Europeans, your Commanding Officer and the doctor of your +detachment, go in for it, the latter because his sight is very bad, +Major Hunt because he doesn't care for it. I'm sure my husband will be +glad to take you out with him; and nobody in the whole Terai knows more +about big game than he." +</p> +<p> +"By Jove; how ripping," exclaimed Frank eagerly. "Would he?" +</p> +<p> +"I'm sure he would. He'll be only too delighted to have someone for +company. I used to go with him always, until my babies came. Now Kevin +has no one but Badshah." +</p> +<p> +"Badshah? Oh, yes, that ripping elephant. I don't know much about those +animals, but isn't it unusual for him to have only a single tusk?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes; Badshah is what the natives call a 'Gunesh.' You know that Gunesh +is the Hindu God of Wisdom and is represented as having an elephant's +head with only the right tusk? Consequently any of these animals born +with a single tusk, and that the right, is considered sacred and looked +upon as a god." +</p> +<p> +"One of the <i>mahouts</i> said that the Hindus here regard your husband as +one, too," said Frank, "and he seemed inclined to believe it himself. I +like the name they've given Colonel Dermot—Durro Mut Sahib, Fear Not +Sahib." +</p> +<p> +A look of pride came in the young wife's eyes as she repeated the name +softly to herself. +</p> +<p> +"Fear Not Sahib. Yes, it suits him." Then aloud she continued: +</p> +<p> +"I think you'll like my husband, Mr. Wargrave. All men do. He's a man's +man. The hill and jungle people worship him. He understands them. Ah! +here he is, I think." +</p> +<p> +Her face brightened, and Frank saw the light of love shine in her eyes +as she turned expectantly to the door. He sprang up as a tall man with +handsome, clear-cut features, dark complexion and eyes, and +close-cropped black hair touched at the temples with grey, entered the +room. With a pleasant smile the newcomer walked towards the subaltern +with outstretched hand, saying in a friendly voice: +</p> +<p> +"Glad to welcome you to Ranga Duar, Wargrave." +</p> +<p> +"Thank you very much, sir," replied Frank gripping his hand and greatly +taken at once by the Political Officer's appearance and friendly manner. +"It was very kind of you to send those guns for me. But I had no luck. +We saw nothing on the way." +</p> +<p> +After greeting him Colonel Dermot bent over his wife and kissed her +fondly. It was obvious to the subaltern that after their five years of +married life they were lovers still. Frank looked at them a little +enviously. He wondered would it be so with Violet and him after the same +lapse of time; for the sight of their happiness sent his thoughts flying +to the woman who loved him. +</p> +<p> +"Are you keen on shooting, Wargrave?" said the Colonel. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, yes, he is, Kevin," broke in his wife. "I told him that I was sure +you'd be glad to take him with you into the jungle sometimes." +</p> +<p> +"I'll be happy to do so, if you care to come with me, Wargrave," said +the Colonel. +</p> +<p> +"I'd love to, sir. It would be awfully good of you," replied the +subaltern eagerly. "But I've only a Mannlicher rifle." +</p> +<p> +"Ah, you'll need a bigger bore than that. But I can lend you a .470 high +velocity cordite weapon. You want something with great hitting power +for dangerous game," said Dermot. +</p> +<p> +He went on to speak of the jungle and its denizens; and his conversation +was so interesting that Wargrave forgot the flight of time until his +hostess reminded him that he had to report his arrival to his commanding +officer and find his new quarters. Her husband volunteered to show him +the way to the Mess and introduce him to Major Hunt. +</p> +<p> +As Wargrave shook hands with Mrs. Dermot, she said: +</p> +<p> +"I wanted to ask you to dinner this evening; but Kevin thought you might +prefer to spend your first night with your brother officers. But we +shall expect you to-morrow, when they are coming, too." +</p> +<p> +On their way up the steep road from his bungalow the Political Officer +spoke of the great forest below them and the sport to be found in it. +Then he said: +</p> +<p> +"It's lucky you like shooting, Wargrave, for Ranga Duar is very isolated +and life in it dull to a person who has no resources. Still, it has its +advantages, and chief among them is the climate. It's delightful in the +cold weather and pleasant in the hot." +</p> +<p> +"By Jove, it is indeed, sir! It's like Heaven after the heat in the +Plains below. I don't know how I lived through it coming across India." +</p> +<p> +"The rainy season is the hardest to bear. We have five months of it and +over three hundred inches of rain during them. One never sees a strange +face then—not that we ever do have many visitors here at any time. +Still, you'll like your C.O., and Burke the doctor is a capital fellow. +Here we are." +</p> +<p> +He turned in through a narrow gate leading to a pretty though neglected +garden in which stood the Mess, a long, single-storied building raised +on piles. On the broad wooden verandah to which a flight of steps led +from the ground two men were reclining in long chairs reading old +newspapers. On seeing Dermot and his companion they rose, and the +Colonel introduced Frank. They shook hands with him and gave him a +hearty welcome, which, coming on the top of the Dermot's, cheered the +subaltern exceedingly and for the time made him forget the circumstances +of his coming. +</p> +<p> +"It's mighty glad I am to see you here, Wargrave," said Burke, the +doctor, in a mellow brogue, "aven av it's only to have someone living in +the Mess wid me. The Major there lives in solitary state in his little +bungalow; and I'm all alone here at night wid <i>shaitans</i> (devils) and +wild beasts walking on the verandah." +</p> +<p> +"What? Has that panther been prowling round the Mess again?" asked the +Political Officer. +</p> +<p> +"Faith! and he has that. Sure, I heard him sniffing at me door last +night. I wish to the Powers ye'd shoot him, sir." +</p> +<p> +"I can't get him. I've tried often enough." +</p> +<p> +"Troth! and it's waking up one fine morning I'll be to find he's made a +meal av me. Keep your door shut at night, Wargrave. Merrick, who lived +in the room you'll have, forgot to do it once and the divil nearly had +him." +</p> +<p> +"Is that really a fact?" asked Frank, delighted at the thought of having +come to a place with such possibilities of sport. +</p> +<p> +"Yes; we're plagued by a brute of a panther that prowls about the +station at night, jumps the wall of the Fort and carries off the sepoys' +dogs, and has actually entered rooms here in the Mess. He has killed +several Bhuttia children on the hills around here. Nobody can ever get a +shot at him. He's too cunning. Will you have a drink, Colonel?" said +Hunt. +</p> +<p> +The Political Officer thanked him but declined, and, reminding them all +of his wife's invitation for the morrow, bade them goodnight. +</p> +<p> +"That's one av the finest men in India," exclaimed Burke, as they +watched Dermot's figure receding down the road. The doctor had a +pleasant, ugly face and wore spectacles. +</p> +<p> +"He is, indeed. He keeps the whole Bhutan border in order," said the +commandant, Major Hunt, a slight, grey-haired man with a quiet and +reserved manner. "The Bhuttias are more afraid of a cross look from him +than of all our rifles and machine-guns. Have a drink, Wargrave? Yes? +And you, Burke? Hi, boy!" +</p> +<p> +A Gurkha servant with the ugly, cheery face of his race appeared and was +ordered to bring three whiskeys and sodas. +</p> +<p> +"Ranga's not a bad place if you can stand the loneliness," continued the +Major. "Are you fond of shooting." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, sir, awfully." +</p> +<p> +"Hooray! That's good," cried Burke. "Now we'll have someone to go down +to the jungle and shoot for the Mess. We want a change from tinned Army +rations and the tough ould hins that these benighted haythins call +chickens." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, you'll be a Godsend to us if you're a good shot, Wargrave," added +the Commandant. "We never get meat here unless someone shoots a stag or +a buck in the jungle; and for that we generally have to rely on Dermot. +But he is away such a lot, wandering along the frontier, keeping an eye +on the peace of the Border. Now we'll be able to look to you. We have +three transport elephants with the detachment, all steady to shoot +from." +</p> +<p> +Frank was delighted. +</p> +<p> +"I'd love to go into the jungle if you'd let me, sir." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I'll be glad if you do. There's not much work for you here; and +this is a dull place for a youngster unless he's keen on sport. I'm not, +myself; and Burke's as blind as a bat. But you can always have an +elephant when they aren't wanted to bring up supplies from the railway." +</p> +<p> +The subaltern thanked him gratefully and inwardly decided that his new +commanding officer was a great improvement on Colonel Trevor. +</p> +<p> +"Now, Burke, I'm off to my bungalow. Show Wargrave his quarters," said +the Major rising. "See you at dinner." +</p> +<p> +Burke showed the subaltern his room, one of the four into which the Mess +was divided. Like the doctor's quarters, it was at one end of the +building, the centre apartment being the officers' anteroom and +dining-room. Frank found that his "boy," with the ready deftness of +Indian servants, had unpacked his trunks, hung up his clothes and stowed +his various belongings about the scantily-furnished room. He had stood +Violet's photo on the one rickety table and laid out his Master's white +mess uniform on the small iron cot. +</p> +<p> +Major Hunt, Wargrave learned, lived in a bungalow a few hundred yards +away, but, being unmarried, took his meals in the Mess. The Indian +officers and sepoys of the detachment were quartered in barracks in the +Fort. +</p> +<p> +Frank dressed and entered the anteroom or officers' sitting-room, from +which a door led into the messroom. Both apartments were poorly +furnished, but the walls were adorned with the skulls and skins of many +beasts of the jungle, presented by Colonel Dermot, as Frank learned. +Shelves filled with books ran across one end of the anteroom. +</p> +<p> +As the interior of the Mess was rather hot at that time of year—though +to Wargrave it seemed very cool after Rohar—the dinner-table was laid +on the verandah; and while the officers sat at their meal the pleasant +mountain breeze played about them. Frank thought with gratitude of his +escape from the burning heat which at that moment was tormenting the +hundreds of millions in the furnace of the Plains of India stretching +away from the foot of the cool hills. +</p> +<p> +The meal was not luxurious, for it consisted almost exclusively of +tinned provisions, fresh meat being unprocurable in Ranga Duar—except +fowls of exceeding toughness—and vegetables and bread being rare +dainties. +</p> +<p> +During dinner Wargrave learned how completely isolated his new station +was. Their only European neighbours were the planters on tea-gardens +scattered about in the great forest below, the nearest thirty miles off. +The few visitors that Ranga Duar saw in the year were the General on his +annual inspection, an occasional official of the Indian Civil Service, +the Public Works or the Forest Department, or some planter friend of the +Dermots. +</p> +<p> +The reason of the existence of this outpost and its garrison was the +guarding of the <i>duars</i>, or passes, through the Himalayas against +raiders from Bhutan, that little-known independent State lying between +Tibet and the Bengal border. Its frontier was only two miles from, and a +few thousand feet above, Ranga Duar. +</p> +<p> +"You are just in time for our one yearly burst of gaiety, Wargrave," +said the Commandant, "the visit of the Deb Zimpun." +</p> +<p> +"What on earth is that, sir?" asked the subaltern. +</p> +<p> +"Sounds like a new disease, doesn't it?" said Burke laughing. "But it +isn't. The Deb Zimpun is a gintleman av high degree, the Heridithary Cup +Bearer to the Deb Raja." +</p> +<p> +"To the what?" demanded the bewildered Frank. +</p> +<p> +Major Hunt smiled. +</p> +<p> +"Bhutan is supposed to be ruled by a temporal monarch called the Deb +Raja and also by a spiritual one, known in India as the Durma Raja. In +reality it is under the sway of the most powerful of the several great +feudal lords of the land, the Tongsa Penlop or Chief of Tongsa, whom we +regard as the Maharajah of Bhutan. He has placed himself, as far only as +the foreign relations of the country go, under the suzerainty of the +Government of India; and in return we grant him a subsidy of a <i>lakh</i> of +rupees a year. It used to be fifty thousand, but the sum was doubled +years ago. To get the money one of the State Council comes every year. +He is an official called the Deb Zimpun." +</p> +<p> +"Faith! he's a rum old beggar, Wargrave," broke in Burke. "Looks like +the Pope av Rome in his thriple crown, for he wears a high gold-edged +cap and a flowing red robe av Chinese silk, out av which sticks a pair +av hairy bare legs." +</p> +<p> +"The Political Officer receives him in <i>durbar</i>; and we furnish a Guard +of Honour. The Colonel gives a dinner to him and us, and we have another +spread in the Mess. That reminds me. I suppose Dermot will be going into +the jungle soon to shoot for the pot, as the <i>durbar</i> is next week. +You'd better get him to take you. You can have one of our elephants and +provide for our larder." +</p> +<p> +"Thanks very much, Major," said the delighted subaltern. "The Colonel +promised to let me accompany him and lend me a rifle." +</p> +<p> +When he went to his room that night the subaltern turned up the oil lamp +that lighted it and before he undressed sat down before Violet's +photograph. As he looked at it he thought affectionately and a little +sadly of the lonely woman so far away from him now. He pitied her for +the isolation in which she lived, an isolation far completer than his +own, for she had few friends, no intimates, and a husband worse than a +stranger in his lack of understanding of her. Surely it would be only +right to take her from such a man, right to give her a fresh chance of +finding the happiness that she had missed; for the warm-hearted, +intelligent and artistic-natured woman would be far happier with him in +this beautiful spot, remote from the world though it was. And his new +comrades would appeal to her, Dermot, strong, capable, one who would +always stand out from his fellows; Hunt grave, kindly, well-read; Burke +witty, clever and good-hearted. And, little though Violet cared for her +own sex, as a rule, surely in Mrs. Dermot she would find a friend. This +happy wife, this loving mother, was so sweet and sympathetic that she +would win the older woman's liking, while the two delightful children +would take her heart by storm. Poor, lonely Violet, so beautiful, so +ill-fated! Frank sighed as he took up her portrait and kissed it. +</p> +<p> +When he extinguished the lamp and lay down in bed it was pleasant, after +the heat in Rohar, to find it so cool that he was obliged to pull a +blanket over him. Only those who have endured the torment of hot nights +in the tropics can appreciate his thankfulness as in the silence broken +only by the monotonous cry of the nightjars he drowsed contentedly to +sleep. Already he was reconciled to Ranga Duar. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0007" id="h2HCH0007"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER VII +</h2> +<h3> + IN THE TERAI JUNGLE +</h3> +<p> +In the pleasant light of the morning the little outpost looked as +charming to Wargrave as it had done on the previous evening. Above Ranga +Duar the mountains towered to the pale blue sky, while below it the +foot-hills fell in steps to the broad sea of foliage of the great forest +stretching away to the distant plains seen vaguely through the haze. The +horse-shoe hollow in which the tiny station was set was bowered in +vegetation. The gardens glowed with the varied hues of flowers, and were +bounded by hedges of wild roses. The road and paths were bordered by the +tall, graceful plumes of the bamboo and shaded by giant mango and banyan +trees, their boughs clothed with orchids. +</p> +<p> +Frank had noticed the previous day that the Fort, barracks and bungalows +were all newly built, and he learned that during the great war which had +raged along the frontiers of India five years before, the post had been +fiercely attacked by an army of Chinese and Bhutanese and the little +station practically wiped out of existence, although victory had finally +rested with the few survivors of the garrison. +</p> +<p> +From the first the subaltern took a great liking to the tall Punjaubi +Mahommedan and hook-nosed, fair-skinned Pathan native officers and +sepoys of the detachment. The work was light and scarcely required two +British officers; and Frank soon found that Major Hunt, who seemed +driven by a demon of quiet energy, preferred to do most of it himself. +Frank got the impression that to the elder man occupation was an anodyne +for some secret sorrow. Although the subaltern had no wish to shirk his +duty he could not but be glad that his superior officer seemed always +ready to dispense with his aid, for thus he would find it easier to get +permission to go shooting. +</p> +<p> +His first excursion into the jungle was arranged at dinner at the +Dermots' house on his second evening in Ranga Duar. The Colonel proposed +to take him out on the following Monday, for on the next day the <i>Deb +Zimpun</i> would arrive. +</p> +<p> +"He always brings a big train of Bhuttias with him, eighty swordsmen as +an escort to the small army of coolies necessary to carry a hundred +thousand silver rupees in boxes over the Himalayan passes. I like to +give them the flesh of a few <i>sambhur</i> stags as a treat," said the +Colonel. +</p> +<p> +"Hiven hilp ye av ye bring any <i>sambhur</i> flesh to the Mess, Wargrave," +said Burke. "We want something we can get our teeth into. No, we expect +a <i>khakur</i> from you." +</p> +<p> +"What's a <i>khakur</i>?" asked Frank. +</p> +<p> +"It's the <i>muntjac</i> or barking deer," replied Dermot. "You wouldn't know +it if you haven't shot in forests. It gets its English name from its +call, which is not unlike a dog's bark." +</p> +<p> +"Whin ye hear one saying '<i>Wonk! Wonk!</i>' in the jungle, Wargrave, get up +the nearest tree; for the <i>khakur</i> is warning all whom it may concern +that there's a tiger in the immajit vicinity." +</p> +<p> +Frank had already learned to distrust most of Burke's statements on +sport, for the doctor was an inveterate joker. So he looked to the +Political Officer for confirmation. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, it's supposed to be the case," agreed the Colonel. "And I've more +than once heard a tiger loudly express his annoyance when a <i>khakur</i> +barked as he was trying to sneak by unnoticed. There's a barking-deer." +He pointed to the well-mounted head of a small deer on the wall of the +dining-room. +</p> +<p> +"Whom do you expect up for the Durbar, Mrs. Dermot?" asked Major Hunt. +</p> +<p> +"Only Mr. Carter, the Sub-divisional Officer, and probably Mr. Benson." +</p> +<p> +"Eh—is—isn't Miss Benson coming too?" asked the doctor in a hesitating +manner so unlike his usual cheery and assured self that Frank looked at +him. It seemed to him that Burke was blushing. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, yes, I hope so," replied Mrs. Dermot. +</p> +<p> +"Er—haven't you heard from her?" persisted the doctor anxiously. +</p> +<p> +"I had a letter this afternoon brought by a coolie. Muriel wrote to say +that they were in the Buxa Reserve but hoped to get here in time. I'm +looking forward to her coming immensely. It's four months since I saw +her." +</p> +<p> +Frank could not help noticing that Burke seemed to hang on Mrs. Dermot's +words; and he began to wonder if the unknown lady held the doctor's +heart. +</p> +<p> +"It's rather hard on a girl like Miss Benson to have to lead such a +lonely life and rough it constantly in the jungle as she does," remarked +Major Hunt. "At her age she must want gaiety and amusement." +</p> +<p> +"Muriel doesn't mind it," replied the hostess. "She loves jungle life. +And she thinks that her father couldn't get on without her." +</p> +<p> +"Sure, she's right there, Mrs. Dermot," cried Burke. "The dear ould +boy'ud lose his head av he hadn't her to hould it on for him. She does +most av his work. It's a sight to see that slip av a girl bossing all +the forest guards and <i>habus</i> and giving them their ordhers." +</p> +<p> +Wargrave was anxious to hear more of this girl, in whom it appeared to +him Burke was very much interested; but Colonel Dermot broke in: +</p> +<p> +"Talking of orders, have you any for the butcher's man, Noreen?" he +asked, smiling at his wife. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, dear; will you please bring me a <i>khakur</i> and some jungle fowl? +And if you can manage it a brace of <i>Kalej</i> pheasants," said the good +housewife seriously. +</p> +<p> +"Well, Wargrave, we've both got our orders and know what to bring back +from the jungle," said the Colonel, turning to Frank, who was sitting +beside him. Then the conversation between them drifted into sporting +channels until all adjourned outside for coffee on the verandah. +</p> +<p> +Next afternoon the subaltern, passing down the road, was hailed from the +Dermots' garden by an imperious small lady with golden curls and big +blue bows and ordered to play with her. Her brother and Badshah had to +join in the game, too. Frank, chasing the dainty mite round and round +the elephant, began to think himself in the Garden of Eden. +</p> +<p> +But that same evening he found that his Himalayan Paradise was not +without its serpent. The three officers of the detachment were seated at +dinner on the Mess verandah, Major Hunt with his back to the rough stone +wall of the building. A swinging oil lamp with a metal shade threw the +light downward and left the ceiling and upper part of the wall in +shadow. +</p> +<p> +When dinner was ended the Commandant, lighting a cheerot, tilted his +chair on its back legs until his head nearly touched the wall. Frank, +talking to him, chanced to look up at the roof. He stared into the +shadows for a moment, then, suddenly grasping the astonished major by +the collar, jerked him out of his chair. And as he did so a snake, a +deadly hill-viper, which had been trying to climb up the rough face of +the wall, slipped and dropped on to the Commandant's chair, slid to the +floor and glided across the verandah and down into the garden before +anyone could find a stick with which to attack it. +</p> +<p> +Major Hunt, his sallow face a little paler than usual, looked up at the +wall to see if any more reptiles were likely to follow, then sat down +again calmly. +</p> +<p> +"Thank you, Wargrave," he said quietly. "But for you that brute would +have got me. And his bite is death. Ranga's full of snakes, like all +these places in the hills. We've killed several in the Mess since I've +been here; but no one's had such a close shave as this. I'll stand you a +drink for that. Hi, boy!" +</p> +<p> +But for all this quiet manner of taking it Frank had made a staunch +friend that night by his prompt action. +</p> +<p> +As Burke took the filled glass that the Gurkha mess-servant brought him +at the Major's order he said: +</p> +<p> +"I hate snakes worse than the Divil hates holy wather. They're the only +things in life I'm afraid av. I never go to bed without looking under +the pillow nor put on my boots in the morning without first turning them +up and shaking them. I wish St. Pathrick had made a trip to India and +dhriven the sarpints out av the counthry the same as he did in +Ireland." +</p> +<p> +"We've the worst snake in the world, I believe, here in the Terai, +Wargrave," said Major Hunt. "Look out for it when you're in the jungle. +It's the hamadryad or king-cobra. Have you heard of it?" +</p> +<p> +"I saw the skin of one sixteen feet long in a Bombay museum, sir," +replied the subaltern. +</p> +<p> +"It's the only snake in Asia that will attack human beings unprovoked; +it's deadly poisonous, unlike all other big snakes, and they say it +moves so fast that it can overtake a man on a pony. Benson, the Forest +Officer of the district, tells me there are many of them in the jungles +here." +</p> +<p> +"One av the divils chased Dermot's elephant once and turned on the +Colonel when he interfered. It got its head blown off for its pains," +put in the doctor. +</p> +<p> +"Don't tell me any more, Burke," exclaimed Wargrave laughing, "or I +won't be able to sleep to-night." +</p> +<p> +He pushed back his chair as the Commandant rose from the table and, +saying goodnight to the two junior officers, picked up from the verandah +and lit a hurricane lantern and walked down the Mess steps with it on +his way home to his bungalow. Europeans in India do not care to move +about at night without a lamp lest in the darkness they might tread on a +snake. +</p> +<p> +Early on the following Monday morning Wargrave, dressed in khaki +knickerbockers, shirt and puttees, and wearing besides his pith helmet +a "spine protector"—a quilted cloth pad buttoned to the back—as a +guard against sunstroke, went down to the Dermots' bungalow. In the +garden the Colonel, also prepared for their shooting expedition, stood +talking to his wife, while their children were trying to climb up +Badshah's legs. The elephant was equipped with a light pad provided with +large pockets into which were thrust Thermos flasks, packets of +sandwiches and of cartridges. Close by two servants were holding guns. +</p> +<p> +"Good morning, Wargrave," said the Colonel, as the subaltern greeted him +and his wife. "You're in good time." +</p> +<p> +Eileen, deserting Badshah, ran to Frank and demanded to be lifted up and +kissed. When he had obeyed the small tyrant, he said: +</p> +<p> +"I haven't brought a rifle, sir." +</p> +<p> +"That's right. I have one and a ball-and-shot gun for you. We'll walk +down to the <i>peelkhana</i> by a short cut through the hills to look for +<i>kalej</i> pheasant on the way. Take the gun with you and load one barrel +with shot; but put a bullet in the other, for you never know what we may +meet. Badshah will go down by the road, as well as one of the servants +to bring the rifles and tell the <i>mahouts</i> to get a detachment elephant +ready. It will follow us in the jungle to carry any animals we kill, +while we'll ride Badshah." +</p> +<p> +Kissing his wife and children the Colonel led the way down the road, +followed by Frank and the servant, Badshah walking unattended behind +them. +</p> +<p> +"Good sport, Mr. Wargrave!" called out Mrs. Dermot, as the subaltern +turned at the gate to take off his hat in a farewell salute; and the +little coquette beside her kissed her tiny hand to him. +</p> +<p> +After they had gone half a mile the two officers, carrying their +fowling-pieces, turned off along a footpath through the undergrowth, +leaving the servant and the elephant to continue down the road. The +track led steeply down the mountain-side, at first between high, +closely-matted bushes, and then through scrub-jungle dotted with small +trees, among the foliage of which gleamed the yellow fruit of the limes +and the plantain's glossy drooping leaves and long curving stalks from +which the nimble fingers of wild monkeys had plucked the ripe bananas. +Here and there the ground was open; and the path following a natural +depression in the hills gave down the gradually widening valley a view +of the panorama of forest and plain lying below. +</p> +<p> +As they passed a clump of tangled bushes a rustle and a pattering over +the dry leaves under them caught the Colonel's ear. +</p> +<p> +"Look out! <i>Kalej</i>," he whispered, picking up a stone and throwing it +into the cover. A large speckled black and white bird whirred out; and +Wargrave brought it down. +</p> +<p> +"Good shot! There's another," called out Dermot, and fired with equal +success. "We're lucky," he continued. "As a rule they won't break, but +scuttle along under the bushes, so that one often has to shoot them +running." +</p> +<p> +Frank picked up the birds and examined them with interest before the +Colonel stuffed them into his game bag and moved on down the path, which +was growing steeper. The trees became more numerous and larger as they +descended nearer the forest. Out of another clump of bushes the +sportsmen succeeded in getting a second brace of pheasants. Lower down +they passed through a belt of bamboos, where in one spot the long +feathery boughs were broken off or twisted in wild confusion for a space +of fifty yards' radius. +</p> +<p> +"Wild elephants," said the Political Officer briefly and pointed to a +patch of dust in which was the round imprint of a huge foot. +</p> +<p> +Frank was a little startled; for he felt that against these great +animals the bullets in their guns would be useless. +</p> +<p> +"Are they dangerous, sir?" he asked. +</p> +<p> +"Not as a rule when they are in a herd, although cow-elephants with +calves may be so, fearing peril for their young. But sometimes a bull +takes to a solitary life, becomes vicious and develops into a dangerous +rogue. It probably happens that, finding crops growing near a jungle +village and raiding them, he is driven off by the cultivators, turns +savage and kills some of them. Then he usually seems to take a hatred to +all human beings and attacks them on sight. Hallo! here we are at the +<i>peelkhana</i> at last." +</p> +<p> +They had reached the high wooden building which housed the three +transport elephants of the detachment. In the clearing before it Badshah +and another animal were standing, a group of <i>mahouts</i> and coolies near +them. +</p> +<p> +"We'll mount and start at once," said Colonel Dermot, beckoning to his +elephant, which came to him. "Get up, Wargrave." +</p> +<p> +The subaltern looked up doubtfully at the pad on Badshah's back. +</p> +<p> +"How can I, sir? Isn't he going to kneel?" he asked. +</p> +<p> +"Put your foot on his trunk when he crooks it and grab hold of his ears. +He'll lift you up then." +</p> +<p> +The understanding elephant at once curled its trunk invitingly and +cocked its great ears forward. Frank did as he was directed and found +himself raised in the air until he was able to get on to the elephant's +head and from it scrambled on to the pad. Dermot followed and seated +himself astride the huge neck. +</p> +<p> +"<i>Mul</i>! (Go on!)" he ejaculated. +</p> +<p> +With a swaying, lurching stride Badshah at once moved across the +clearing, followed by the transport elephant, on to which a <i>mahout</i> and +a coolie had climbed, and plunged into the dense undergrowth which was +so high that it nearly closed over the riders' heads. The sudden change +from the blinding glare of the sun to the enchanting green gloom of the +forest, from the intense heat to the refreshing coolness of the shade, +was delightful. +</p> +<p> +Beyond the clearing the vegetation was tangled and rank, high grass +concealing thorny shrubs, tall matted bushes covered with large, white, +bell-shaped flowers, all so dense that men on foot could not push their +way through. But it divided like water before the leading elephant's +weight and strength. The trees were now not the lesser growths of +bamboo, lime and sago-palm that covered the foot-hills. They were the +great forest giants, enormous teak, <i>sal</i> and <i>simal</i> trees, towering up +bare of branches for a good height above the ground, rising to the green +canopy overhead and thrusting their leafy crowns through it, seeking +their share of the sunlight. Their massive branches were matted thick +with the glossy green leaves of orchid-plants and draped with long +trails of the beautiful mauve and white blossoms of the exotic flowers. +Hanging from the highest branches or swinging between the massive boles +creepers of every kind rioted in bewildering confusion, a chaos of +natural cordage, of festooned <i>lianas</i> thick as a liner's hawser, some +twisting around each other, others coiling about the tree-trunks, biting +deep into the bark or striving to strangle them in a cruel grip. Not +even the elephants' weight and strength could burst through the stout +network of these creepers in places. While they tore at the obstructions +with their trunks it was necessary for their drivers to hack through the +creepers with their sharp <i>kukris</i>—the heavy curved knives carried in +their belts and similar to the Gurkha's favourite weapon. +</p> +<p> +Here and there the party came upon glades free from undergrowth, where +in the cool shade of the great trees the ground was knee-deep in +bracken. In one such spot Wargrave's eye was caught by a flash of bright +colour, and his rifle went half-way to his shoulder, only to be lowered +again when he saw two <i>sambhur</i> hinds, graceful animals with glossy +chestnut hides, watching the advancing elephants curiously but without +fear. For, used to seeing wild ones, they did not realise that Badshah +and his companion carried human beings. Their sex saved them from the +hunters who, leaving them unscathed, passed on and plunged into the +dense undergrowth on the far side of the clearing. +</p> +<p> +The elephants fed continually as they moved along. Sweeping up great +bunches of grass, tearing down trails of leafy creepers, breaking off +branches from the trees, they crammed them all impartially into their +mouths. Picking up twigs in their trunks they used them to beat their +sides and legs to drive off stinging insects or, snuffing up dust from +the ground, blew clouds of it along their bellies for the same purpose. +</p> +<p> +Suddenly the Colonel stopped Badshah and whispered: +</p> +<p> +"There's a <i>sambhur</i> stag, Wargrave. There, to your left in the +undergrowth. Have a shot at him." +</p> +<p> +The subaltern looked everywhere eagerly, but in the dense tangle could +not discern the animal. Like all novices in the jungle he directed his +gaze too far away; and suddenly a dark patch of deep shadow in the +undergrowth close by materialised itself into the black hide of a stag +only as it dashed off. It had been standing within fifteen paces of the +elephants, knowing the value of immobility as a shield. At last its +nerve failed it; and it revealed itself by breaking away. But as it fled +Colonel Dermot's rifle spoke; and the big deer crumpled up and fell +crashing through the vegetation to the ground. The second elephant's +<i>mahout</i>, a grey-bearded Mahommedan, slipped instantly to the earth and, +drawing his <i>kukri</i>, struggled through the arresting creepers and +undergrowth to where the stag lay feebly moving its limbs. Seizing one +horn he performed the <i>hallal</i>, that is, he cut its throat to let blood +while there was still life in the animal, muttering the short Mussulman +creed as he did so. For his religion enjoins this hygienic +practice—borrowed by the Prophet from the Mosaic law—to guard against +long-dead carrion being eaten. At the touch of the Colonel's hand +Badshah sank to its knees; and Wargrave, very annoyed with himself for +his slowness in detecting the deer, forced his way through the +undergrowth to examine it. The stag was a fine beast fourteen hands +high, with sharp brow antlers and a pair of thick, stunted horns +branching at the ends into two points. +</p> +<p> +Leaving the elephants to graze freely the <i>mahout</i> and his coolie +disembowelled the <i>sambhur</i> and hacked off the head with their heavy +<i>kukris</i>. Aided by the Political Officer and Wargrave they skinned the +animal and then with the skill of professional butchers proceeded to cut +up the carcase into huge joints. While they were thus engaged the +Colonel went to a small, straight-stemmed tree common in the jungle and, +clearing away a patch of the outer mottled bark, disclosed a white inner +skin, which he cut off in long strips. With these, which formed +unbreakable cordage, they fastened the heavy joints to the pad of the +transport elephant. +</p> +<p> +When this was done Wargrave, looking at his hands covered with blood and +grime, said ruefully: +</p> +<p> +"How on earth are we to get clean, sir? Is there any water in the +jungle? We haven't seen any." +</p> +<p> +The Political Officer, looking about him, pointed to a thick creeper +with withered-seeming bark and said with a laugh: +</p> +<p> +"There's your water, Wargrave. Lots of it on tap. See here." +</p> +<p> +He cut off a length of the <i>liana</i>, which contained a whitish, pulpy +interior. From the two ends of the piece water began to drip steadily +and increased to a thin stream. +</p> +<p> +"By George, sir, that's a plant worth knowing," said Frank. +</p> +<p> +"It's a most useful jungle product," said the Colonel, holding it up so +that his companion, using clay as soap, could wash his hands. "It's +called the <i>pani bel</i>—water-creeper. One need never die of thirst in a +forest where it is found. Try the water in it." +</p> +<p> +He raised it so that the clear liquid flowed into the subaltern's mouth. +It was cool, palatable and tasteless. +</p> +<p> +"By George, sir, that's good," exclaimed Wargrave, examining the plant +carefully. "Now let me hold it for you." +</p> +<p> +After Dermot and the two natives had cleansed their hands and arms the +party moved on, the transport elephant looking like an itinerant +butcher's shop as it followed Badshah. Again the undergrowth parted +before the great animals like the sea cleft by the bows of a ship and +closed similarly behind them when they had passed. Of its own volition +the leader swerved one side or the other when it was necessary to avoid +a tree-trunk or too dense a tangle of obstructing creepers. But once +Dermont touched and turned it sharply out of its course to escape what +seemed a very large lump of clay adhering to the under side of an +overhanging bough in their path. +</p> +<p> +"A wild bees' nest," said the Colonel, pointing to it. "It wouldn't do +to risk hitting against that and being stung to death by its occupants." +</p> +<p> +A few minutes later he suddenly arrested Badshah at the edge of a +fern-carpeted glade and whispered: +</p> +<p> +"Look out! There's a barking-deer. Get him!" +</p> +<p> +Across the glade a graceful little buck with a bright chestnut coat +stepped daintily, followed at a respectful distance by his doe. Their +restless ears pointed incessantly this way and that for every warning +sound as they moved; but neither saw the elephants hidden in the +undergrowth. Raising his rifle Frank took a quick aim at the buck's +shoulder and fired. The deer pitched forward and fell dead, while its +startled mate swung round and leapt wildly away. +</p> +<p> +"A good shot of yours, Wargrave," remarked Colonel Dermot, when Badshah +had advanced to the prostrate animal. "Broke its shoulder and pierced +the heart." +</p> +<p> +Frank looked down pityingly at the pretty little deer stretched lifeless +among the ferns. +</p> +<p> +"It seems a shame to slaughter a harmless thing like that," he said. +</p> +<p> +"Yes; I always feel the same myself and never kill except for food," +replied the Political Officer. "Unless of course it's a dangerous beast +like a tiger. Well, the <i>khakur</i> is too dead to <i>hallal</i>; but that +doesn't matter, as we're going to eat it ourselves and not give it to +the sepoys." +</p> +<p> +The <i>mahout</i> and the coolie were already cleaning the deer and, without +troubling to cut it up, bound its legs together with <i>udal</i> fibre and +tied it to the pad of their elephant; and the party moved on again. +</p> +<p> +Half a mile further on the silence of the forest was broken by the loud +crowing of a cock, taken up and answered defiantly by others. +</p> +<p> +"Hallo! are we near a village, sir?" asked Wargrave, surprised at the +familiar sounds so far in the heart of the wild. +</p> +<p> +"No; those are jungle-fowl," whispered the Political Officer. "Get your +gun ready." +</p> +<p> +He halted the elephant and picked up his fowling-piece. Frank hurriedly +substituted a shot cartridge for the one loaded with ball in his gun. He +heard a pattering on the dry leaves under the trees and into a fairly +open space before them stalked a pretty little bantam cock with red comb +and wattles and curving green tail-feathers, followed by four or five +sober brown hens, so like in every respect to domestic fowl that +Wargrave hesitated to shoot. But suddenly the birds whirred up into the +air; and, as the Colonel gave them both barrels, Frank did the same. The +cock and three of his wives dropped. The <i>mahout</i> urged his elephant +forward and made the reluctant animal pick up the crumpled bunches of +blood-stained feathers in its curving trunk and pass them to him. +</p> +<p> +Colonel Dermont searched the jungle for some distance around but could +not find the other jungle-cocks that had answered the dead one's +challenge. Looking at his watch he suggested a halt for lunch, which +Wargrave, whose back was beginning to ache with fatigue, gladly agreed +to. Dismounting, they sat on the ground and ate and drank the contents +of the pockets of Badshah's pad, but with loaded rifles beside them lest +their meal should be disturbed by any dangerous denizen of the jungle. +The two natives sat down some distance away and, turning their backs on +each other, drew out cloths in which their midday repast of <i>chupatis</i>, +or thick pancakes, with curry and an onion or two was tied up. The +elephants left to themselves grazed close by and did not attempt to +wander away. +</p> +<p> +Their meal and a smoke finished the party mounted again and moved on. +But luck seemed to have deserted them. Much to the Political Officer's +disappointment they wandered for miles without adding anything to the +bag. He had calculated on getting another couple of <i>sambhur</i> stags to +present to the <i>Deb Zimpun</i> as food for his hungry followers. The route +that they were now taking led circuitously back towards the <i>peelkhana</i>, +which they wished to reach before sundown. They had got within a mile of +it and were close to the foot of the hills when Badshah stopped suddenly +and smelt the ground. Colonel Dermot leaned over the huge head and +stared down intently at something invisible to his young companion. +</p> +<p> +"What is it, sir?" asked Wargrave in a whisper. +</p> +<p> +"Bison. Badshah's pointing for us. We can't shoot them here, for we're +in Government jungle where the killing of elephants, bison and rhino is +forbidden unless they attack you. But the track leads north towards the +mountains and at their foot the Government Forest ends. That's only half +a mile away and we can bag them there. Load your rifle with solid-nosed +bullets. This is the <i>pug</i> (footprint) of a bull, I think." +</p> +<p> +The two natives had seen the tracks by this and were wildly excited. +Badshah without urging moved swiftly through the trees and soon brought +his riders to the hills and into sight of the sky once more. The +mountains stood out clear and distinct in the slanting rays of the +setting sun. Suddenly a loud though distant, almost musical bellow +sounded, seeming to come from a bamboo jungle about a mile away. +</p> +<p> +"That's a cow-bison calling," said Dermot in a low voice. "There's a +herd somewhere about; but the '<i>pugs</i>' we're following up are those of a +solitary bull. We're in free forest now; so with luck you may get your +first bison. It's very steep here; we'll dismount, leave the elephants +and go on foot." +</p> +<p> +The subaltern was wildly excited, and his heart thumped at a rate that +was not caused by the steep slope up which he followed Dermot. The +Colonel tracked the bull unhesitatingly, although to Wargrave there was +no mark to be seen on the ground. +</p> +<p> +They were creeping cautiously through bamboo cover on a hill when +Dermot, who was leading, suddenly threw himself on his face, lay still +for a minute or two, then, motioning to his companion to halt, crawled +forward like a snake. A few paces on he stopped and beckoned to +Wargrave, and, when the latter reached him, pointed down into the gully +below. They were almost on the edge of a descent precipitous enough to +be called a cliff. Immediately underneath by a small stream was a +massive black bull-bison, eighteen hands—six feet—high, with short, +square, head, broad ears and horizontal rounded horns. The only touches +of colour were on the forehead and the legs below the knees, which were +whitish. The animal, with head thrown back, was staring vacantly with +its large, slatey-blue eyes. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave trembled with excitement and his heart beat so violently that +the rifle shook as he brought it to his shoulder and gently pushed the +muzzle through the stiff, dry grass at the edge of the cliff. But for +the one necessary instant he became rigidly steady and without a tremor +pressed the trigger. Then the rifle barrels danced again before his +eyes, when he saw the great bull collapse on the ground, its fore-legs +twitching violently, the hind ones motionless. +</p> +<p> +"Good shot. You've broken his spine," exclaimed Dermot, springing to his +feet and sliding, scrambling, jumping down the steep descent. The +excited subaltern outstripped him; but before he reached the bull it +lay motionless, dead. +</p> +<p> +"You're a lucky young man, Wargrave. A splendid bison on your first day +in the jungle. Those horns are six feet from tip to tip I bet," and the +Political Officer held out his hand. +</p> +<p> +Frank shook it heartily as he said gratefully: +</p> +<p> +"I've only you to thank for it, sir. It was ripping of you to let me +have first shot; and you gave me such a sitter that I couldn't miss. +Thank you awfully, Colonel." +</p> +<p> +Dermot gave a piercing whistle and stood waiting, while the overjoyed +subaltern walked round and round the dead bison, marvelling at its size +and exclaiming at his own good fortune. +</p> +<p> +When in a few minutes Badshah appeared, followed by the panting men, +Colonel Dermot sent the <i>mahout</i> on his elephant to the stable to fetch +other men to cut up and bring in the bison. Then he and Wargrave on +Badshah made for the road to Ranga Duar. +</p> +<p> +It was dark long before they reached the little station. The Colonel +brought his companion in for a drink after the three thousand feet +climb, most of which they had done on foot. Mrs. Dermot met them in the +hall; and, after she had heard the result of the day's sport, warmly +congratulated Wargrave on his good luck. Loud whispers and a scuffle +over their heads attracted the attention of all three elders, and on +the broad wooden staircase they saw two small figures, one in pyjamas, +the other in a pretty, trailing nightdress daintily tied with blue bows, +looking imploringly down at their mother. She smiled and nodded. There +was a whirlwind rush down the stairs, and the mites were caught up in +their father's arms. Then Frank came in for his share of caresses from +them before they were sternly ordered back to bed again. And as he +passed out into the darkness he carried away with him an enchanting +picture of the charming babes climbing the stairs hand in hand and +turning to blow kisses to the tall man who stood below with a strong arm +around his pretty wife, gazing fondly up at his children. +</p> +<p> +And the picture stayed with him when, after dinner at which he was +congratulated by his brother officers, he went to his room and found a +letter overlooked in his rush to dress for Mess. It was from Violet, the +first that had come from her since his arrival in Ranga Duar. It +breathed passion and longing, discontent and despair, in every line. As +he laid his face on his arm to shut out the light where he sat at the +table he felt that he was nearer to loving the absent woman than he had +ever been. For the vision of the Dermots' married happiness, of the deep +affection linking husband and wife, of the children climbing the stair +and smiling back at their parents, came vividly to him. And it haunted +him in his sleep when in dreams tiny arms were clasped around his neck +and baby lips touched his lovingly. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0008" id="h2HCH0008"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER VIII +</h2> +<h3> + A GIRL OF THE FOREST +</h3> +<p> +From the frontier of Bhutan, six thousand feet up on the face of the +mountains, a line of men wound down the serpentining track that led to +Ranga Duar. At their head walked a stockily-built man with cheery +Mongolian features, wearing a white cloth garment, <i>kimono</i>-shaped and +kilted up to give freedom to the sturdy bare thighs and knees—the legs +and feet cased in long, felt-soled boots. It was the <i>Deb Zimpun</i>, the +Envoy of the independent Border State of Bhutan. Behind him came a tall +man in khaki tunic, breeches, puttees and cap, his breast covered with +bright-coloured ribbons. His uniform was similar to the British; but his +face was unmistakeably Chinese, as were those of the twenty tall, +khaki-clad soldiers armed with magazine rifles at his heels. They were +followed by three or four score Bhutanese swordsmen, thick-set and not +unlike Gurkhas in feature, with bare heads, legs and feet, and clad only +in a single garment similar to their leader's and kilted up by a cord +around the waist, from which hung a <i>dah</i>, a short sword or long knife. +In rear of them trudged a number of coolies, some laden with bundles, +others with baskets of fruit. +</p> +<p> +Where the track came out on the bare shoulder of a spur free from the +small trees and undergrowth clothing the mountains the <i>Deb Zimpun</i> +pointed to the roofs of the buildings in the little station a thousand +feet below them and hitherto invisible to them. +</p> +<p> +"That is Ranga Duar," he said briefly. The Chinaman behind him looked +down at it. +</p> +<p> +"It seems a very small and weak place to have stopped our invading +troops in the war," he said in Bhutanese. "So here lives the Man." +</p> +<p> +"The Man? Yes, perhaps he is a man. But many, very many, there be that +think him a god or devil. They say he can call up a horde of demons in +the form of elephants. With such he trampled your army into the earth. +</p> +<p> +"Devils? Leave such tales to lamas and the ignorant fools that believe +their teaching. But if even a part of what I have heard about this man +be true he is more dangerous than many devils. He stands in China's way, +and he who does shall be swept aside." +</p> +<p> +"He is my friend," said the <i>Deb Zimpun</i> shortly, and tramped on in +silence. +</p> +<p> +Before they reached the station they were met by two of the Political +Officer's men, Bhuttias resident in British territory, detailed to +receive and guide them to the Government Dâk Bungalow in which the <i>Deb +Zimpun</i> and as many of his followers as could crowd into it were to +reside during their stay. Arrived at it the long line filed into the +compound. +</p> +<p> +Half a mile away down the hill Colonel Dermot and Wargrave watched them +through their field-glasses. +</p> +<p> +"Who is that fellow in khaki uniform, sir?" asked the subaltern. +</p> +<p> +The Political Officer lowered his binoculars and laughed. +</p> +<p> +"A gentlemen I've been very anxious to meet. He's the Chinese +<i>Amban</i>—we call him an Envoy of the Republic of China to Bhutan. But +the Chinese themselves prefer to regard him as a representative of the +suzerainty they pretend to exercise over the country. I'm curious to see +him. He is a product of the times, an example of the modern Celestial, +educated at Heidelberg University and Oxford, speaking German, French +and English. He has been specially chosen by his Government to come to a +Buddhist land, as he is a son of the abbot of the Yellow Lama Temple in +Pekin and so might have influence with the Bhutanese by reason of his +connection with their religion." +</p> +<p> +"But what have the Chinese to do with Bhutan?" +</p> +<p> +"Nothing now. But they've been intriguing for years to re-establish the +suzerainty they once had over it. This <i>Amban</i>, Yuan Shi Hung by name, +is a clever, unscrupulous and particularly dangerous individual." +</p> +<p> +"You seem to know a lot about him, Colonel." +</p> +<p> +"It's my business to do so. There is no apparent reason for his coming +here with the <i>Deb Zimpun</i>, nor has he a right to. But I won't object, +for I want to study and size him up. By the way, the Envoy will make his +official call on me this morning. Would you like to be present?" +</p> +<p> +"Very much indeed. I'm always interested in seeing the various races of +India and learning all I can about them. I'd love a job like yours, sir, +going into out-of-the-way places and dealing with strange peoples." +</p> +<p> +"Would you?" The Political Officer looked at him thoughtfully. "Are you +good at picking up native languages?" +</p> +<p> +"Fairly so. I got through my Lower and Higher Standard Hindustani first +go and have passed in Marathi and taken the Higher Standard, Persian." +</p> +<p> +Colonel Dermot regarded him critically and then said abruptly: +</p> +<p> +"Come to my office a few minutes before eleven. That's the hour I've +fixed for the <i>Deb Zimpun's</i> visit." +</p> +<p> +Punctually at the time named Wargrave reached the Dermots' bungalow, on +the road outside which, a Guard of Honour of fifty sepoys under an +Indian officer was drawn up. Passing along the verandah he entered the +office and saluted the Colonel who, seated at his desk, looked up and +nodded for him to be seated and then returned to the despatch that he +was writing. +</p> +<p> +In a few minutes a confused murmur drew nearer down the road and was +stilled by the sharp words of command to the Guard of Honour and by the +ring of rifles brought to the present in salute. Over the low wall of +the garden appeared the heads and shoulders of the Envoy and his Chinese +companion, followed by a train of attendants and swordsmen. They passed +in through the gate. The Political Officer rose as the <i>Deb Zimpun</i>, +removing his cap, entered the office and rushed towards him. The +bullet-headed, cheery old gentleman beamed with pleasure as they shook +hands and greeted each other in Bhutanese. Wargrave marvelled at the +ease and fluency with which Colonel Dermot spoke the language. The +<i>Amban</i> now entered the room and was formally presented by the <i>Deb +Zimpun</i>. +</p> +<p> +Speaking in excellent English but with an accent that showed that he had +first acquired it in Germany, he said: +</p> +<p> +"I am very pleased to meet you, Colonel. I have heard much of you in +Bhutan." +</p> +<p> +"It gives me equal pleasure to make Your Excellency's acquaintance and +to welcome you to India," replied Dermot with a bow. +</p> +<p> +Then in his turn Wargrave was presented to the two Asiatics, and the +Envoy, calling an attendant in, took from him two white scarves of +Chinese silk and placed one round each officer's neck in the custom +known as "<i>khattag</i>". All sat down and the Envoy plunged into an +animated conversation with Colonel Dermot, first producing a metal box +and taking betel-nut from it to chew, while the attendant placed a +spittoon conveniently near him. +</p> +<p> +Yuan Shi Hung chatted in English with Wargrave, who was astonished to +find him a well-educated man of the world and thoroughly conversant with +European politics, art and letters. But for the inscrutable yellow face +the subaltern could have believed himself to be talking to an able +Continental diplomat. The contrast between the semi-savage Bhutanese +official and his companion, in whom the most modern civilised +gentleman's manners were successfully grafted on the old-time courtesy +of the Chinese aristocrat, was very striking. The old Envoy was a frank +barbarian. He laughed loudly and clapped his hands in glee when Colonel +Dermot presented him with a gramophone—which, it appeared, he had +longed for ever since seeing one on a previous visit to India—and +taught him how to work it. He showed his betel-stained teeth in an +ecstatic grin when a record was turned on and from the trumpet came the +Political Officer's familiar voice addressing him by name and in his own +language with many flourishes of Oriental compliment. +</p> +<p> +Towards the termination of their call the <i>Deb Zimpun</i> called in two +attendants with large baskets of fine blood oranges and walnuts from +Bhutan and presented them in return. A number of coolies were needed to +carry off the royal gift of the flesh of the bison, the sight of which +made the Envoy's eyes glisten. He shook Wargrave's hand warmly when he +learned to whose rifle he owed it. Then he and his Chinese companion +took their leave, and with their followers passed up the hilly road. +Wargrave, gazing after them, came to the conclusion that of the pair he +preferred the savage to the ultra-cultivated Celestial. +</p> +<p> +Having thanked the Colonel for permitting him to be present at the +interview, which had interested him greatly, the subaltern was about to +leave when Mrs. Dermot appeared at the office door. +</p> +<p> +"May I come in, Kevin?" she began. "Oh, good morning, Mr. Wargrave. I +was just sending a <i>chit</i> (letter) to you and Captain Burke asking you +to tea this afternoon. A coolie has arrived from the <i>peelkhana</i> to say +that Mr. and Miss Benson and Mr. Carter are on their way up and will be +here soon. So you'll meet them at tea. You will like Miss Benson. She's +a dear girl." +</p> +<p> +"Thanks very much, Mrs. Dermot. I'll be delighted to come, if you'll +forgive me should I be a little late. I've got to take the signallers' +parade this afternoon. I'll tell Burke when I get to the Mess. I'm going +straight there now." +</p> +<p> +"Thank you. That will save me writing. <i>Au revoir</i>." +</p> +<p> +Half-way up the road to the Mess Wargrave looked back and saw an +elephant heave into sight around a bend below the Dermots' house and +plod heavily up to their gate. On the <i>charjama</i>—the passenger-carrying +contrivance of wooden seats on the pad with footboards hanging by short +ropes—sat a lady and two European men holding white umbrellas up to +keep off the vertical rays of the noonday sun. When the animal sank to +its knees in front of the bungalow Wargrave saw the girl—it could only +be Miss Benson—spring lightly to the ground before either of her +companions could dismount and offer to help her. Her big sunhat hid her +face, and at that distance Wargrave could only see that she was small +and slight, as she walked up the garden path. +</p> +<p> +When the signallers' afternoon practice was over the subaltern passed +across the parade ground to the Political Officer's house. When he +entered the pretty drawing-room, bright with the gay colours of chintz +curtains and cushions, he found the strangers present, one man talking +to Mrs. Dermot at her tea-table, the other chatting with the Colonel, +while Burke was installed beside a girl seated in a low cane chair and +dressed in a smart, hand-embroidered Tussore silk dress, <i>suede</i> shoes +and silk stockings. Little Brian stood beside her with one arm +affectionately round her neck, while Eileen was perched in her lap. But +when Frank appeared the mite wriggled down to the floor and rushed to +him. +</p> +<p> +The subaltern was presented to Miss Benson, her father and Carter, the +Sub-Divisional Officer or Civil Service official of the district. When +he sat down Eileen clambered on to his knee and seriously interfered +with his peaceful enjoyment of his tea; but while he talked to her he +was watching Miss Benson over the small golden head. She was +astonishingly pretty, with silky black hair curving in natural waves, +dark-bordered Irish grey eyes fringed with long, thick lashes, a +rose-tinted complexion, a pouting, red-lipped mouth and a small nose +with the most fascinating, provoking suspicion of a tip-tilt. She was as +small and daintily-fashioned as her hostess; and Wargrave thought it +marvellous that their forgotten outpost on the face of the mountains +should hold two such pretty women at the same time. His comrade Burke +was evidently acutely conscious of Muriel Benson's attractions, and, his +pleasantly ugly face aglow with a happy smile, he was flirting as openly +and outrageously with her as she with him. +</p> +<p> +"Sure, it's a cure for sore eyes ye are, Miss Flower Face," he said. +"That's the name I christened her with the first moment I saw her, +Wargrave. Doesn't it fit her?" Then turning to the girl again, he +continued, "Aren't you ashamed av yourself for laving me to pine for a +sight av ye all these weary months?" +</p> +<p> +Miss Benson could claim to be Irish on her mother's side and so was a +ready-witted match for the doctor's Celtic exuberance; though to +Wargrave watching it seemed that Burke's easy banter cloaked a deeper +feeling. +</p> +<p> +Drawn into their conversation Frank found the girl to be natural and +unaffected, without a trace of conceit, gifted with a keen sense of +humour and evidently as full of the joy of living as a school-boy. He +thought her laugh delightfully musical, and it was frequently and +readily evoked by Burke's droll remarks or the quaint oracular sayings +from the self-possessed elf on Wargrave's knee. Her admiration of and +genuine affection for Mrs. Dermot was very evident when Noreen joined +their group. +</p> +<p> +The subaltern, covertly and critically observing her, could hardly +believe the tales which their hostess had previously told him of the +courage and ability that this small and dainty girl had frequently +shown. But only a few minutes' conversation with her father convinced +Frank that he was an amiably weak and incompetent individual, more +fitted to be a recluse and a bookworm than a roamer in wild jungles +where his work brought him in contact with strange peoples and constant +danger. It was evident that the reputation which his large section of +the Terai Forest bore as being well managed and efficiently run was not +due to him and that somebody more capable had the handling of the work. +Hardly had Wargrave come to this conclusion and begun to believe that +the stories that he had heard of the daughter's business ability and +powers of organisation were true when he was given a very convincing +proof of her courage and coolness in danger. +</p> +<p> +After tea, as the sun was nearing its setting and a deliciously cool +breeze blew down from the mountains, a move was made to the garden, +where the party sat in a circle and chatted. When evening came and the +dusk rose up from the world below, blotting out the light lingering on +the hills, Mrs. Dermot made her children say goodnight to the company +and bore them reluctant away to their beds. As the darkness deepened the +servants brought out a small table and placed a lamp on it, and by its +light carried round drinks to the men of the party. Miss Benson was +leaning back in a cane chair and chatting lazily with Burke, who sat +beside her. She had one shapely silk-clad leg crossed over the other, +and a small foot resting on the grass. Opposite her sat Colonel Dermot +and Wargrave. As the brilliant tropic stars came out in the velvety +blackness of the sky occasional silences fell on the party. A tale of +Burke's was interrupted by the Political Officer's voice, saying in a +quiet forceful tone: +</p> +<p> +"Miss Benson, please do not move your foot. Remain perfectly still. A +snake is passing under your chair. Steady, Burke! Keep still!" +</p> +<p> +There was a terror-stricken hush. Frank looked across in horror. The +lamplight barely showed in the shadow under the chair a deadly +hill-viper writhing its way out within a few inches of the small foot +firmly planted in its dainty, high-heeled shoe. He looked at the +motionless girl. Less pale than the men about her she sat quietly, +smiling faintly and apparently not frightened by the Death almost +touching her. One pink hand lay without a tremor in her lap, but the +other rested on the arm of her chair and the knuckles showed white as +the fingers gripped the bamboo tightly. She did not even glance down. +But the men, frozen with dread, watched the shadowy writhing line +passing her foot slowly, all too slowly, until it had wriggled out into +the centre of the circle of motionless beings. Then Colonel Dermot +sprang up. Seizing his light bamboo chair in his powerful grip he +whirled it aloft and brought it crashing down on the viper, shattering +the chair but smashing the reptile's spine in half a dozen places. +</p> +<p> +The other men had risen from their seats; but the girl remained seated +and said quietly: +</p> +<p> +"Thank you very much, Colonel, for warning me. I might easily have moved +my foot and trodden on the snake. I've seen so many of the horrid things +in camp lately. Now, Captain Burke, I'm sorry that the interruption +spoiled your story. Please go on with it." +</p> +<p> +Her coolness silenced the men, who were breaking into exclamations of +relief and congratulation. Even her father sat down again calmly. +</p> +<p> +But Burke's enthusiastic admiration of her courage found an outlet at +Mess that night when he recounted the adventure to Major Hunt and +appealed to Wargrave for confirmation of the story of her plucky +behaviour. Later in his room as he was going to bed Frank smiled at the +recollection of the Irishman's exuberant expressions; but he confessed +to himself that the girl's calm courage was worthy of every praise. +</p> +<p> +"She is certainly brave," he thought. "I'm not surprised at old Burke's +infatuation. She is decidedly pretty. What lovely eyes she's got—and +what a provokingly attractive little nose! Well, the doctor's a lucky +man if she marries him. She seems awfully nice. Violet will certainly +have two very charming women friends in the station if she hits it off +with them." +</p> +<p> +But as his eyes rested on her pictured face his heart misgave him; for +he remembered that she had little liking for her own sex. And then, he +told himself, these two would probably refuse to know a woman who had +run away from her husband to another man. When he had turned out the +light and jumped into bed he lay awake a long time puzzling over the +tangle into which the threads of her life and his seemed to have got. +Time alone could unravel it. +</p> +<p> +He tossed uneasily on his bed, unable to sleep, and presently a slight +noise on the verandah outside caught his ear. He lay still and listened; +and it seemed to him that soft footfalls of a large animal's pads +sounded on the wooden flooring. Then suddenly he heard a beast sniffing +at his closed door. "A stray dog," he thought. But suddenly he +remembered Burke's account of the panther that haunted the Mess; and a +thrill of excitement ran through him and drove all his unhappy thoughts +away. He sprang out of bed and rushed across the room to get his rifle, +but in the darkness overturned a chair which fell with a crash to the +ground. This scared the animal; for there was a sudden scurry outside, +and by the time Wargrave had found the rifle and groped for a couple of +cartridges there was nothing to be seen on the verandah when he threw +open the door. It was a brilliant star-lit night. Burke called to him +from his room and when Wargrave went to him said that he too had heard +the animal, which was undoubtedly the panther. +</p> +<p> +Returning to bed Frank was dropping off to sleep half an hour later when +he was startled by a shrill, agonised shriek coming from a distance. +Rifle in hand he rushed out on to the verandah again and heard faint +shouts coming from a small group of Bhuttia huts on a shoulder of the +hills hundreds of feet above the Mess. He called out but got no answer; +and after listening for some time and hearing nothing further he +returned to bed and at last fell asleep. In the morning he learned that +the panther had made a daring raid on a hut and carried off a Bhuttia +wood-cutter's baby from its sleeping mother's side, and had devoured it +in the jungle not two hundred yards away. +</p> +<p> +The Durbar, or official ceremony of the public reception of the Bhutan +Envoy and the paying over to him of the annual subsidy of a hundred +thousand rupees, was held in a marquee on the parade ground in the +afternoon. There was a Guard of Honour of a hundred sepoys to salute, +first the Political Officer and afterwards the <i>Deb Zimpun</i> when he +arrived on a mule at the head of his swordsmen and coolies. The +solemnity of his dignified greeting to Colonel Dermot was somewhat +spoiled by shrieks of delight and loud remarks from Eileen (who was +seated beside her mother in the marquee) at the stately appearance of +the Envoy. He was attired in a very voluminous red Chinese silk robe +embroidered in gold and wearing a peculiar gold-edged cap shaped like a +papal tiara. +</p> +<p> +The Political Officer's official dinner took place that evening at his +bungalow. Besides the officers and the three European visitors the <i>Deb +Zimpun</i> and the <i>Amban</i> were present. The latter wore conventional +evening dress cut by a London tailor, with the stars and ribands of +several orders. But the old Envoy in his flowing red silk robe +completely outshone the two ladies, although Miss Benson was wearing her +most striking frock. +</p> +<p> +"Sure, don't we look like a State Banquet at Buckingham Palace or a +charity dinner at the Dublin Mansion House?" said Burke, looking around +the company gathered about the oval dining-table. He was seated beside +Miss Benson, who was on the host's right and facing the <i>Amban</i> on his +left. +</p> +<p> +At the Durbar Wargrave had noticed that the Chinaman stared all the time +at the girl, and now during the meal he seemed to devour her with an +unpleasant gaze, gloating over the beauties of her bared shoulders and +bosom until she became uncomfortably conscious of it herself. The +unveiled flesh of a white woman is peculiarly attractive to the Asiatic, +the better-class females of whose race are far less addicted to the +public exposure of their charms than are European ladies. While the <i>Deb +Zimpun</i> touched nothing but water the <i>Amban</i> drank champagne, port and +liqueurs freely—even the untravelled Chinaman is partial to European +liquors—yet they seemed not to affect him. But his slanted eyes burned +all the more fiercely as their gaze was fixed on the girl opposite him. +</p> +<p> +He endeavoured to engage her in conversation across the table, and +appeared ready to resent anyone else intervening in the talk as he +dilated on the gaieties and pleasures of life in London, Berlin and +Paris, where he had been attached to the Chinese Embassies. He glared at +Burke when the doctor persisted in mentioning the panther's visit during +the previous night, for the conversation at their end of the table then +turned on sport. A chance remark of Miss Benson on tiger-shooting made +Wargrave ask: +</p> +<p> +"Have you shot tigers, too, like Mrs. Dermot? And I've never seen one +outside a cage!" +</p> +<p> +The girl smiled, and the Colonel answered for her. +</p> +<p> +"Miss Benson has got at least six. Seven, is it? More than my wife has. +And among them was the famous man-eater of Mardhura, which had killed +twenty-three persons. The natives of the district call her 'The Tiger +Girl.'" +</p> +<p> +"Troth, my name for you is a prettier one, Miss Benson," said Burke +laughing. +</p> +<p> +She made a <i>moue</i> at him, but said to the subaltern: +</p> +<p> +"Cheer up, Mr. Wargrave, you've lots of time before you yet. You +oughtn't to complain—you've only been a few days here and you've +already got a splendid bison. And they're rare in these parts." +</p> +<p> +"We'll have to find him a tiger, Muriel," said their host. "When you +hear of a kill anywhere conveniently near, let me know and we'll arrange +a beat for him." +</p> +<p> +"With pleasure, Colonel. We're soon going to the southern fringe of the +forest; and, as you know, there are usually tigers to be found in the +<i>nullahs</i> on the borders of the cultivated country. I'll send you +<i>khubber</i> (news)." +</p> +<p> +"Thank you very much," said Wargrave. "I do want to get one." +</p> +<p> +All through the conversation the girl felt the Chinaman's bold eyes +seeming to burn her flesh, and she was glad when the Political Officer +spoke to him and engaged his attention. And she was still more relieved +when dinner ended and Mrs. Dermot rose to leave the table. When the men +joined them later on the verandah Burke and Wargrave made a point of +hemming her in on both sides and keeping the <i>Amban</i> off; for even the +short-sighted doctor had become cognisant of the Chinaman's offensive +stare. +</p> +<p> +When he and the <i>Deb Zimpun</i> had left the bungalow she said to the two +officers: +</p> +<p> +"I'm so glad you didn't let that awful man come near me. He makes me +afraid. There's something so evil about him that I shudder when he looks +at me." +</p> +<p> +"The curse av the crows on the brute!" exclaimed Burke hotly. "Don't ye +be afraid. We won't let the divil come next or nigh ye, will we, +Wargrave?" +</p> +<p> +And on the following day when the visitors were entertained by athletic +sports of the detachment on the parade ground and an interesting archery +competition between excited teams of the <i>Deb Zimpun's</i> followers and +of local Bhuttias, they allowed the <i>Amban</i> no opportunity of +approaching her. During the sports Wargrave noticed on one occasion that +he seemed to be speaking of her to the commander of his escort of +Chinese soldiers, a tall, evil-faced Manchu, pock-marked and blind of +the right eye, who stared at her fixedly for some time. At the dinner at +the Mess that night the two ladies wore frocks that were very little +<i>décolleté</i>. Burke, as Mess President, had arranged the table so that +the <i>Amban</i> was as far away from them as possible; and Wargrave and he +mounted guard over Miss Benson when the meal was ended. +</p> +<p> +The <i>Deb Zimpun</i> had fixed his departure for an early hour on the +following morning and was to be accompanied by the Political Officer, +who was going to visit the Maharajah of Bhutan. In the course of the day +the Chinese <i>Amban</i> had announced to Colonel Dermot that he did not wish +to leave so soon and desired to remain longer in Ranga Duar; but the +Political Officer courteously but very firmly told him that he must go +with the Envoy. +</p> +<p> +Early next morning, while Noreen Dermot was occupied with her children, +and her husband was completing his preparations for departure, Muriel +Benson went out into the garden. Badshah, pad strapped on ready for the +road, was standing at one side of the bungalow swinging his trunk and +shifting from foot to foot as he patiently awaited his master. The girl +greeted and petted him, then went to gather flowers and cut bunches of +bright-coloured leaves from high bushes of bougainvillea and poinsettia +that hid her from view from the house. +</p> +<p> +Suddenly a harsh voice sounded in her ears. +</p> +<p> +"I have tried to speak to you alone, but those fools were ever in my +way. Do not cry out. You must listen to me." +</p> +<p> +She started violently and turned to find the <i>Amban</i>, dressed in khaki +and ready to march, behind her. Courageous as she usually was the +extraordinary repulsion and terror with which he inspired her kept her +silent as he continued: +</p> +<p> +"I want you, and I shall take you sooner or later. Listen! I am one of +the richest men in all China. One day I shall be President—and then +Emperor the next; and when I rule my country shall no longer be the +effete, despised land torn with dissension that it is now. I can give +you everything that the heart of a woman, white or yellow, can +desire—take you from your dull, poverty-stricken life to raise you to +power and immense wealth. I shall return for you one day. Will you come +to me?" +</p> +<p> +The girl drew back, pale as death and unable to cry out. He glanced +around. The tall, red-leaved bushes hid them; there was no one or +nothing within sight, except the elephant shifting restlessly. +</p> +<p> +"Answer me!" he said almost menacingly. +</p> +<p> +She was silent. He sprang forward and seized her roughly. +</p> +<p> +"Speak! You must answer," he said. +</p> +<p> +The girl shrank at his touch and struggled in vain in his powerful +grasp. +</p> +<p> +Then suddenly she cried out: +</p> +<p> +"Badshah!" +</p> +<p> +The Chinaman thrust his face, inflamed with passion and desire, close to +hers. +</p> +<p> +"You must, you shall, come to me—by force, if not willingly," he +growled. "By all the gods or devils——." +</p> +<p> +But at that instant he was plucked from her by a resistless force and +hurled violently to the ground. Dazed and half-stunned he looked up and +saw the elephant standing over him with one colossal foot poised over +his prostrate body, ready to crush him to pulp. Brave as the Chinaman +was he trembled with terror at the imminent, awful death. +</p> +<p> +But a quiet voice sounded clear through the garden. +</p> +<p> +"<i>Jané do</i>! (Let him go!)" +</p> +<p> +The elephant brought the threatening foot to the ground but stood, with +curled trunk and ears cocked forward, ready to annihilate him if the +invisible speaker gave the word. The girl shrank against the great +animal, clinging to it and looking with horror at the prostrate man. The +<i>Amban</i> slowly dragged his bruised body from the ground and staggered +shaken and dizzy out of the garden. +</p> +<p> +Muriel kissed the soft trunk and laid her cheek against it, and it +curved to touch her hair with a gentle caress. Then she fled into the +bungalow to find Colonel Dermot on the verandah grimly watching the +Chinaman stumbling blindly up the steep road. His wife beside him opened +her arms to the shaken girl. +</p> +<p> +"He shall pay for that some day, Muriel," said the Political Officer +sternly. "But not yet." +</p> +<p> +An hour later the two women watched the snaking line crawl up the steep +face of the mountains, and through field-glasses they could distinguish +Badshah with his master on his neck, the <i>Deb Zimpun</i> and his followers +and the tall form of the Chinaman, until all vanished from sight in the +trees clothing the upper hills. +</p> +<p> +Benson and Carter left that afternoon, Muriel remaining to spend a +longer time with her friend and, as she told Wargrave, to try and regain +the affections of the children which he had stolen from her. +</p> +<p> +Frank was thinking of her next day as he was standing on the Mess +verandah after tea, cleaning his fowling-piece, when on a wooded spur +running down from the mountains and sheltering the little station on the +west he heard a jungle-cock crowing in the undergrowth not four hundred +yards away. Seizing a handful of cartridges he loaded his gun and, +running down the steps and across the garden, plunged into the jungle. +He walked cautiously, his rope-soled boots enabling him to move +silently, and stopped occasionally to listen for the bird's crow or the +telltale pattering over the dried leaves. Peering into the undergrowth +and searching the ground he crept quietly forward. Suddenly his heart +seemed to leap to his throat. In a patch of dust he saw the unmistakable +<i>pug</i> (footprint) of a large panther. One claw had indented a new-fallen +leaf, showing that the animal had very recently passed. Wargrave halted +and thought hard. He had only his shotgun, but the sun was near its +setting and if he returned to the Mess to get his rifle—which was taken +to pieces and locked up in its case—darkness would probably fall before +he could overtake the panther, which was possibly moving on ahead of +him. So he resolved not to turn back, but opened the breech of his gun +and extracted the cartridges. With his knife he cut their thick cases +almost through all round at the wad, dividing the powder from the shot. +For he knew that thus treated and fired the whole upper portion of the +cartridges would be shot out of the barrels like solid bullets and carry +forty yards without breaking up and scattering the shot. +</p> +<p> +Reloading he advanced cautiously, frequently losing and refinding the +trail. Creeping through a clump of thin bushes he stopped suddenly, +frozen with horror and dread. +</p> +<p> +In an open patch of woodland the two Dermot children stood by a tree, +the girl huddled against the trunk, while the little boy had placed +himself in front of her and, with a small stick in his hand, was bravely +facing in her defence an animal crouching on the ground not twenty yards +away. It was a large panther. Belly to earth, tail lashing from side to +side, it was crawling slowly, imperceptibly nearer its prey. With ears +flattened against the skull and lips drawn back to bare the gleaming +fangs in a devilish grin it snarled at the brave child whose dauntless +attitude doubtless puzzled it. +</p> +<p> +"Don't cry, Eileen. I won't let it hurt you," said the little boy +encouragingly. "Go 'way, nasty dog!" +</p> +<p> +He raised his little stick above his head. A boy should always protect a +girl, his father had often said, so he was not going to let the beast +harm his tiny sister. The panther crouched lower. The watcher in the +bushes saw the powerful limbs gathering under the spotted body for the +fatal spring. Every muscle and sinew was tense for the last rush and +leap, as the subaltern raised his gun. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0009" id="h2HCH0009"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER IX +</h2> +<h3> + TIGER LAND +</h3> +<p> +Wargrave fired. His shot struck the panther rather far back, wounding +but not disabling it. It swung round to face its assailant. Seeing Frank +it promptly charged. The second cartridge took it in front of the +shoulder and raked its body from end to end. Coughing blood the beast +rolled over and over, biting its paws, clawing savagely at the earth, +trying to rise and falling back in fury, while Frank rapidly reloaded +and stepped between it and the children. But the convulsions became +fewer and less violent, the limbs stiffened, the beautiful black and +yellow body sank inert to the ground. The tail twitched a little. A few +tremors shook the panther. Then it lay still. +</p> +<p> +The subaltern turned eagerly to the children. +</p> +<p> +"It's Frank. Look, Eileen, it's Frank," cried Brian. "He's killed the +nasty dog." +</p> +<p> +The little girl, who had sunk to the ground, struggled to her feet and +with her brother was swept up in a joyous embrace by the subaltern. +Then, bidding the boy hold on to the sleeve of the arm carrying the gun, +Wargrave started back with Eileen perched on his shoulder. As they +passed the panther's body she looked down at it and clapped her hands. +</p> +<p> +"He's deaded. Nasty, bad dog!" she cried. +</p> +<p> +Striking a path through the undergrowth the subaltern climbed down the +steep ravine that lay between the hill and the Political Officer's +bungalow. As he struggled up the steep side of the <i>nullah</i> he heard +their mother calling the children with a note of inquietude in her +voice; and he answered her with a reassuring shout. Coming up on the +level behind the low stone wall of the garden he found Mrs. Dermot and +Muriel anxiously awaiting him. +</p> +<p> +"Mumsie! Hallo, Mumsie! Here's me. Fwank shooted bad dog," cried Eileen, +waving her arms and kicking her bearer violently in her excitement. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, Mumsie, Frank killded the nasty dog that wanted to eat us," added +Brian. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave passed the children over the wall into the anxious arms +outstretched for them, then vaulted into the garden. +</p> +<p> +"What has happened, Mr. Wargrave?" asked Mrs. Dermot, pressing her +children to her nervously. "What is this about your shooting a dog?" +</p> +<p> +The subaltern told the story briefly. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, my babies! My babies!" cried the mother with tears in her eyes, +clasping the mites to her breast and kissing them frantically. The +little woman who had many times faced death undauntedly at her husband's +side broke down utterly at the thought of her children's peril. +</p> +<p> +She overwhelmed Wargrave with her thanks, while Muriel complimented him +on his promptness and presence of mind and then scolded the urchins for +their disobedience in wandering away from the garden by themselves. But +the unrepentant pair smiled genially at her from the shelter of their +mother's arms and assured her that "Fwankie" would always take care of +them. Their mother, even when she grew more composed, could not be +severe after so nearly losing them; but although unwilling to terrify +them by a recital of the awful fate from which the subaltern had saved +them by the merest chance, she impressed upon them again and again her +oft-repeated warning that they must never leave the garden alone. +</p> +<p> +But they were not awed; so, bidding them thank and kiss him, she bore +them off to bed, her eyes still full of tears. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave sent a servant to fetch his orderly and the detachment <i>mochi</i>, +or cobbler, to skin the panther, the news of the death of which soon +spread. So Major Hunt and Burke joined Miss Benson and the subaltern +when they went to look at its body, and numbers of sepoys streamed up +from the Fort to view the animal, which had long been notorious in the +station. Lamps had to be brought to finish the skinning of it; and the +hide, when taken off, was carried in triumph to the Mess compound to be +cured. +</p> +<p> +On the following afternoon on the tennis-court in a corner of the +parade ground Miss Benson was left with Burke and Wargrave when Mrs. +Dermot had taken her children home at sunset. +</p> +<p> +"You've completely won her heart," the girl said to the subaltern, +pointing with her racquet to the disappearing form of her friend. +"Nothing's too good for you for saving these precious mites. But she'll +never let them out of her sight again until their big nurse returns." +</p> +<p> +"You mean their elephant? Well, of course he's a marvellously +well-trained animal; but is he really so reliable that he can always be +trusted to look after those children?" +</p> +<p> +"Badshah is something very much more than a well-trained animal. Perhaps +some time out in the jungle you may understand why the natives regard +him as sacred and call Colonel Dermot the 'God of the Elephants.' You +don't know Badshah as we do." +</p> +<p> +"Well, old Burke here has told me some strange yarns about him. But, as +he's always pulling my leg, I never know when to believe him." +</p> +<p> +The doctor grinned. +</p> +<p> +"We won't waste words on him, Captain Burke," said the girl. "It's time +to go home now." +</p> +<p> +They escorted her to the Dermots' bungalow, where the doctor lingered +for a few more minutes in her society, while Wargrave climbed up to the +Mess and went to look at the panther's skin pegged out on the ground +under a thick coating of ashes and now as hard as a board after a day's +exposure to the burning sun. +</p> +<p> +A few days later Miss Benson left the station to rejoin her father in +one of the three or four isolated wooden bungalows built to accommodate +the Forest Officer in different parts of his district, each one lost and +lonely in the silent jungle. For days after her departure Burke was +visibly depressed; and Wargrave, too, missed the bright and attractive +girl who had enlivened the quiet little station during her stay. +</p> +<p> +A fortnight later Colonel Dermot returned from Bhutan; and his gratitude +to the subaltern for the rescue of his children was sincere and +heart-felt. He was only too glad to take the young man out into the +jungle on every possible occasion and continue his instruction in the +ways of the forest. This companionship and the sport were particularly +beneficial to Wargrave just then. For they served to take him out of +himself and raise him from the state of depression into which he was +falling, thanks to Violet's letters, the tone of which was becoming more +bitter each time she wrote. +</p> +<p> +Her reply to his long and cheery epistle describing Ranga Duar's unusual +burst of gaiety during the Envoy's visit and his own rescue of the +children was as follows: +</p> +<p class="quote"> + "You do not seem to miss me much among your new friends. While I am + leading a most unhappy and miserable life here you appear to be + enjoying yourself and giving little thought to me. You are lucky to + have two such very beautiful ladies to make much of you; and I + daresay they think you a wonderful hero for saving the little brats + who, if they are like most children, would not be much loss. Their + mother seems extremely friendly to you for such a devoted wife as + you try to make her out to be. Or perhaps it is the girl you admire + most; this marvellous young lady who shoots tigers and apparently + manages the whole Terai Forest. You say you love me; but you don't + seem to be pining very much for me. While each day that comes since + you left me is a fresh agony to me, you appear to contrive to be + quite happy without me." +</p> +<p> +This letter stung Wargrave like the lash of a whip across the face. To +do Violet justice no sooner had she sent it than she regretted it. But +deeply hurt as he was by the bitter words he forgave her; for he felt +that her life was indeed miserable and that he was unconsciously in a +great measure to blame for its being so. But it maddened him to realise +his present helplessness to alter matters. He was more than willing to +sacrifice himself to help her; but it would be a long time before he +could hope to save enough to pay his debts and make a home for her. +Whether it was wicked or not to take away another man's wife did not +occur to him; all that he knew was that a woman was unhappy and he alone +could help her. It seemed to him that the sin—if sin there were—was +the husband's, who starved her heart and rendered her miserable. +</p> +<p> +In his distress work and sport proved his salvation. He threw himself +heart and soul into his duty, and whenever there was nothing for him to +do with the detachment Major Hunt encouraged him to go with the +Political Officer into the jungle. For little as he suspected it the +senior guessed the young man's trouble and watched him sympathisingly. +</p> +<p> +One never-to-be-forgotten day as Wargrave was returning from afternoon +parade Colonel Dermot called to him from his gate and showed him a +telegram. It ran: "Tiger marked down. Come immediately <i>dâk</i> bungalow, +Madpur Duar. Muriel." +</p> +<p> +As the subaltern perused it with delight the Colonel said: +</p> +<p> +"Ask your C.O. for leave. Then, if he gives it, get something +substantial to eat in the Mess and be ready to start at once. Madpur +Duar is thirty odd miles away; and we'll have to travel all night. Come +to my bungalow as soon as you can." +</p> +<p> +Half an hour later the two were trudging down the road to the +<i>peelkhana</i> carrying their rifles. Badshah, with a <i>howdah</i> roped on to +his pad, plodded behind them; for it is far more comfortable to walk +down a steep descent than be carried down it by an elephant. At the foot +of the hills they mounted and were borne away into the gathering shadows +of the long road through the forest. As they proceeded their talk was +all of tigers; for in India, though there be bigger and more splendid +game in the land, its traditional animal never fails to interest, and +to Wargrave on his way to his first tiger-shoot all other topics were +insignificant. +</p> +<p> +The sun went down and darkness settled on the forest. The talk died away +and no sound was heard but the soft padding of their elephant's huge +feet in the dust of the road. The subaltern soon found the <i>howdah</i> +infinitely more trying than a seat on the pad when Badshah was in +motion; for the plunging gait of the animal jerked him backwards and +forwards and threw him against the wooden rails if he forgot to hold +himself at arm's length from them. The discomfort spoiled his +appreciation of the strange, attractive experience of being borne by +night through the sleepless forest, where in the dark hours only the +bird and the monkey repose; and even to them the creeping menace of the +climbing snake affrights the one and the wheeling shapes of the +night-flying birds of prey scare the other. But on the ground all are +awake. The glimmering whiteness of the road was occasionally blotted by +the scurrying forms of animals, hunted and hunters, dashing across it. +Once a tiny shriek in the distance broke the silence of the jungle. +</p> +<p> +"A wild elephant," said Colonel Dermot. +</p> +<p> +Then followed the loud crashing of rending boughs and falling trees. +</p> +<p> +"That's a herd feeding. They graze until about ten o'clock and then +sleep on well into the small hours, wake and begin to feed again at +dawn," continued the Political Officer. +</p> +<p> +Once a wild, unearthly wailing cry that seemed to come from every +direction at once startled the subaltern: +</p> +<p> +"Good Heavens! what's that?" he exclaimed, gripping his rifle and trying +to pierce the darkness around them. +</p> +<p> +"Only a Giant Owl," was the reply. "It's an uncanny noise. There!" +</p> +<p> +Right over their heads it rang out again; and the stars above them were +blotted out for a moment by a dark, circling shape above the tree-tops. +</p> +<p> +Hour after hour went by as they were borne along through the night; and +Wargrave bruised and battered by the <i>howdah</i>-rails, fell constantly +against them, so overcome with sleep was he. At last to his relief his +companion called a halt for a few hours' rest; and they brought the +elephant to his knees, dismounted and stripped him of <i>howdah</i> and pad. +Sitting on the latter they supped on sandwiches and coffee from Thermos +flasks, and then stretched themselves to sleep, while Badshah standing +over them grazed on the grasses and branches within reach. Wargrave was +dropping off to sleep when he was roused by the sharp, <i>staccato</i> bark +of a <i>khakur</i> buck repeated several times. The tired man lost +consciousness and was sunk in profound slumber when the silence of the +forest was shattered by a snorting, braying roar that rang through the +jungle with alarming suddenness. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave sprang up and groped for his rifle. But his companion lay +tranquilly on the pad. +</p> +<p> +"It's all right. It's only a tiger that's missed his spring and is angry +about it," he said sleepily. "Lie down again." +</p> +<p> +"Only a tiger, sir?" repeated Wargrave. "But it sounded close by." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, but Badshah will look after us. Don't worry"; and the Colonel +turned over and fell asleep. +</p> +<p> +It was a little time, however, before Frank followed his example, and he +had his rifle under his hand when he did. But the dark bulk of the +elephant towering over them comforted him as he sank to sleep. +</p> +<p> +A couple of hours later they were on their way again. It was broad +daylight before they emerged from the jungle. It seemed strange to be +out once more in the wide-stretching, open and cultivated plains and to +look back on the great forest and, beyond it, to the mountains towering +to the sky. Before them lay the flat expanse of the hedgeless, fertile +fields dotted here and there with clusters of trimly-built huts or thick +groves of bamboos and seamed with the lines of deep <i>nullahs</i>, the tops +of the trees in them barely showing above the level and marking their +winding course. +</p> +<p> +The <i>dâk</i> bungalow at Madpur Duar was soon reached, a single-storied +building with a couple of trees shading the well behind it and a group +of elephants and their <i>mahouts</i>. On the verandah Benson and his +daughter were standing, the girl dressed in a khaki drill coat and skirt +over breeches and soft leather gaiters, and waving a welcome to +Badshah's riders. +</p> +<p> +After a hurried breakfast the latter were ready to start for the day's +sport. By then a line of ten female elephants, the tallest carrying a +<i>howdah</i>, the rest only their pads, was drawn up before the bungalow; +and at a word from their <i>mahouts</i> their trunks went up in the air and +the animals trumpeted in salute as the party came out on the verandah. +</p> +<p> +"We borrowed Mr. Carter's and the Settlement Officer's elephants for the +beat," said Miss Benson, as, wearing a big pith sunhat and carrying a +double-barrelled .400 cordite rifle, she led the way down the verandah +steps. +</p> +<p> +It had been arranged that she was to take Wargrave with her in her +<i>howdah</i>, while her father accompanied Colonel Dermot on Badshah. Her +big elephant knelt down and a ladder was laid against its side, up which +she climbed, followed by the subaltern. When all were mounted she led +the way across the plain. Although the ground was everywhere level and +just there uncultivated the elephants tailed off in single file as is +the habit of their kind, wild or domesticated, each stepping with +precise care into the footprints of the one in front of it. Here in the +Plains the heat was intense; and Wargrave, shading his eyes from the +blinding glare, thought enviously of the coolness up in the mountains +that he had left. As they moved along Muriel explained to him how the +beat was to be conducted. +</p> +<p> +Where the southern fringe of the Terai Jungle borders the cultivated +country it is a favourite haunt of tigers, which from its shelter carry +on war against the farmers' cattle. Creeping down the ravines seaming +the soft soil and worn by the streams that flow through the forest from +the hills they pull down the cows grazing or coming to drink in the +<i>nullahs</i>, which are filled with small trees and scrubs affording good +cover. A tiger, when it has killed, drags the carcase of its prey into +shade near water, eats a hearty meal of about eighty pounds of flesh, +drinks and then sleeps until it is ready to feed again. If disturbed it +retreats up the ravine to the forest. +</p> +<p> +So, beating for one with elephants here, the sportsmen place themselves +on their <i>howdah</i>-bearing animals between the jungle and the spot where +the tiger is known to be lying up, and the beater elephants enter the +scrub from the far side and shepherd him gently towards the guns. +</p> +<p> +Pointing to a distant line of tree-tops showing above the level plain +she said: +</p> +<p> +"There is the <i>nullah</i> in which, about a mile farther on, a cow was +killed yesterday. I hope the tiger is still lying up in it. We'll soon +see." +</p> +<p> +They reached the ravine, which was twenty or thirty feet deep and +contained a little stream flowing through tangled scrub, and moved along +parallel to it and about a couple of hundred yards away. Presently the +girl pointed to a tall tree growing in it and a quarter of a mile ahead +of them. Its upper branches were bending under the weight of numbers of +foul-looking bald-headed vultures, squawking, huddled together, jostling +each other on their perches and pecking angrily at their neighbours with +irritable cries. Some circled in the air and occasionally swooped down +towards the ground only to rocket up again affrightedly to the sky; for +the tiger lay by its kill and resented the approach of any daring bird +that aspired to share the feast. Muriel hurriedly explained how the +conduct of the birds indicated the beast's presence. +</p> +<p> +"If he were not there they'd be down tearing the carcase to pieces," she +said, as she held up her hand and halted the file behind her. +</p> +<p> +"The beater elephants had better stop here, Colonel," she called out to +Dermot. "There is a way down and across the <i>nullah</i>, by which you can +take Badshah to the far side. We will remain on this." +</p> +<p> +The Political Officer, who had seen and realised the significance of the +vultures, waved his hand and moved off at once. Muriel called up the +<i>mahouts</i> and bade them enter the ravine and begin the beat in about ten +minutes, then told her driver to go on. Half a mile beyond the tree she +ordered him to halt and take up a position close to the edge of the +<i>nullah</i>, into which they could look down. Below them the bottom was +clear of scrub which ended fifty yards away. Dermot stopped opposite; +and both elephants were turned to face towards the spot where the tiger +was judged to be. +</p> +<p> +"Mr Wargrave, get to the front of the <i>howdah</i> and be ready," she said +in a low tone. +</p> +<p> +The subaltern protested chivalrously against taking the best place. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, it's all right. We've brought you out to get the tiger; so you must +do as you're told. If he breaks out this side take the first shot," she +said peremptorily. +</p> +<p> +He submitted and took up his position with cocked rifle. As the <i>nullah</i> +wound a good deal the tops of the trees in it prevented them from seeing +if the beater-elephants had gone in; but in a few minutes they heard +distant shouts and the crashing of the undergrowth as the big animals +forced their way through the scrub. +</p> +<p> +"Be ready, Mr. Wargrave," whispered the girl. "Sometimes a tiger starts +on the run at the first sound." +</p> +<p> +His nerves a-quiver and his heart beating violently the subaltern held +his rifle at the ready, as the noise of the beaters drew nearer. Again +and again he brought the butt to his shoulder, only to lower it when he +realised that it was a false alarm. The sounds of the beat grew louder +and closer, and still there was no sign of the tiger. Frank's heart +sank. He saw the vultures stir uneasily and some rise into the air as +the elephants passed under them. +</p> +<p> +At last through the trees he began to catch occasional glimpses of the +<i>mahouts</i>, and he lost hope. But suddenly from the scrub below them in +the <i>nullah</i> a number of small birds flew up; and the next instant the +edge of the bushes nearest them was parted stealthily and a tiger slunk +cautiously out in the bottom of the ravine. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave's rifle went up to his shoulder; and he fired. A startled roar +from the beast told that it was hit; but it bounded in a flash across +the ravine and up the steep bank on their side not forty yards from +them. As it scrambled swiftly over the edge it caught sight of the +elephant and with a deep "wough!" charged straight at it. +</p> +<p> +Frank fired again, and his bullet struck up the dust, missing the +swift-rushing animal by a couple of feet. The next moment with a roar +the tiger sprang at the elephant. With one leap it landed with its hind +paws on the elephant's head, its fore-feet on the front rail of the +<i>howdah</i>, standing right over the <i>mahout</i> who crouched in terror on the +neck. The savage, snarling, yellow-and-black mask was thrust almost +into Wargrave's face, and from the open red mouth lined with fierce +white fangs he could feel the hot breath on his cheek as he tugged +frantically at the under-lever of his rifle to open the breech and +re-load. In another moment the tiger would have been on top of them in +the <i>howdah</i> when a gun-barrel shot past the subaltern and pushed him +aside. The muzzle of Muriel's rifle was pressed almost against the +brute's skull as she fired. +</p> +<p> +Frank hardly heard the report. All he knew was that the snarling face +disappeared as quickly as it had come. The whole thing was an affair of +seconds. Shot through the brain the tiger dropped back to the ground +with a heavy thud and fell dead beside the staunch elephant which had +never moved all through the terrible ordeal. +</p> +<p> +A cry of relief and a prayer to Allah burst from the grey-bearded +Mahommedan <i>mahout</i>, as he straightened himself; and Wargrave turned +with glowing face and outstretched hand to the girl. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, well done! Splendidly done!" he cried. "You saved me from being +lugged bodily out of the <i>howdah</i> or at least from being mauled. This +lever jammed and I couldn't re-load." +</p> +<p> +Her eyes shining and face beaming with excitement she shook his hand. +</p> +<p> +"Wasn't it thrilling? I thought he'd have got both of us." Then to the +<i>mahout</i> she continued in Urdu, "Gul Dad, are you hurt?" +</p> +<p> +The man was solemnly feeling himself all over. He stared at a rent in +the shoulder of his coat, torn by the tiger's claw. It was the only +injury that he had suffered. He put his finger on it and grumbled: +</p> +<p> +"Missie-<i>baba</i>, the <i>shaitan</i> (devil) has torn my coat." +</p> +<p> +In the reaction from the strain the girl and Wargrave went off in peals +of laughter at his words. +</p> +<p> +"But are you not wounded?" Miss Benson repeated. "Has it not clawed +you?" +</p> +<p> +The <i>mahout</i> shook his head. +</p> +<p> +"No, missie-<i>baba</i>; but it was my new coat," he +insisted.<a href="#note-1" name="noteref-1"><small>[1]</small></a> +</p> +<p> +Frank looked down at the tiger stretched motionless on the yellow grass. +</p> +<p> +"By George, you shot him dead enough, Miss Benson!" he exclaimed. +</p> +<p> +She stared down at the animal. +</p> +<p> +"Yes; but it's well to be careful. I've seen a tiger look as dead as +that and yet spring up and maul a man who approached it incautiously," +she said. +</p> +<p> +She raised her rifle and covered the prostrate animal. +</p> +<p> +"Throw something at it," she continued. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave took out a couple of heavy, copper-cased cartridges and flung +them one by one at the tiger's head, striking it on the jaw and in the +eye. The animal did not move. +</p> +<p> +"Seems dead enough," said the girl, lowering her rifle. "Here come the +beaters." +</p> +<p> +The other elephants had now burst out in line through the scrub. Their +<i>mahouts</i> shouted enquiries to Gul Dad and when they heard of the +tiger's death cheered gleefully, for it meant <i>backsheesh</i> to them. +Badshah was seen to be searching for a way down into the nullah and in a +few minutes brought his passengers up alongside Miss Benson and the +subaltern. Her father and Dermot congratulated the girl warmly; and the +latter, having made Badshah kick the tiger to make certain that it was +dead, dismounted and examined it. +</p> +<p> +"Here's your shot, Wargrave," he said, pointing to a hole in the belly. +"A bit too low, but it made a nasty wound that would have killed the +beast eventually." +</p> +<p> +"I'm so ashamed of missing it with my second barrel, sir," said the +subaltern. "But for Miss Benson I'd have been a gone coon." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, it certainly looked exciting enough from our side of the +<i>nullah</i>," said the Colonel, smiling; "so what must it have been like +from where you were? Well, anyhow it's your tiger." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, nonsense, sir; it's Miss Benson's. I ought to be kicked for being +such a muff." +</p> +<p> +"Jungle law, Mr. Wargrave," said the girl, laughing "You hit it first, +so it's your beast." +</p> +<p> +"You needn't be ashamed of missing it," added the Colonel. "A charging +tiger coming full speed at you is not an easy mark. No; the skin is +yours; and Muriel has so many that she can spare it." +</p> +<p> +"Well, Miss Benson, I accept it as a gift from you; but I won't +acknowledge that I have earned it," said the subaltern. +</p> +<p> +"Now, we'd better pad it and see about getting back," said Dermot, +looking at his watch. +</p> +<p> +The other elephants had now found their way up the bank and joined +Badshah and his companion. When their <i>mahouts</i> heard from Gul Dad the +story of the tiger's death they exclaimed in amazement and admiration: +</p> +<p> +"<i>Ahré, Chai</i>! (Oh, brother!) Truly the missie-<i>baba</i> is a wonder. She +will be the death of many tigers, indeed," they said. +</p> +<p> +Then each in turn brought his elephant up to the prostrate animal and +made her smell and strike it with her trunk in order to inspire her with +contempt for tigers. Colonel Dermot measured it with a tape and found it +to be nine feet six inches from nose to tip of tail. It was a young, +fully-grown male in splendid condition. Then came the troublesome +business of "padding" it, that is, hoisting it on to the pad of one of +the elephants to bring it back to the bungalow to be skinned. It was not +an easy matter. For the tiger weighed nearly three hundred and fifty +pounds; and to raise the limp carcase, which sagged like a feather bed +at every spot where there was not a man to support it, was a difficult +task. But it was achieved at last; and with the tiger roped firmly on a +pad the elephants started back in single file. +</p> +<p> +As they went over the plain in the burning sun Wargrave looked back to +where the striped body was borne along with stiff, dangling legs. +</p> +<p> +"By Jove, it's been great, Miss Benson," he exclaimed. "Some people say +tiger shooting's not exciting. They ought to have been with us to-day. I +am lucky to have got a bison already and now to have seen this. With +luck I'll be having a shot at an elephant next." +</p> +<p> +The girl replied in a serious tone: +</p> +<p> +"Don't say that to Colonel Dermot. Elephants are his especial friends. +Besides, you are only allowed to shoot rogues; and since he's been here +there have been none in these jungles which formerly swarmed with them. +There's no doubt that he has a wonderful, uncanny control over even wild +elephants. Do you know that once a rajah tried to have him killed in his +palace by a mad tusker, which had just slaughtered several men, and the +moment the brute got face to face with him it was cowed and obeyed him +like a dog?" +</p> +<p> +"Good gracious, is that so?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I could tell you even more extraordinary things about his power +over elephants; but some day when you're in the jungle with him you may +see it for yourself. Oh, isn't it hot? I do wish we were home." +</p> +<p> +Arrived at the <i>dâk</i> bungalow the tiger's carcase was lowered to the +ground and given over to the knives of the flayers summoned from the +<i>bazaar</i> of Madpur Duar a mile away. As soon as the news was known in +the small town crowds of Hindu women streamed to the bungalow compound, +where with their <i>saris</i> (shawls) pulled modestly across their brown +faces by rounded arms tinkling with glass bangles they squatted on the +ground and waited patiently until the skin was drawn clear off the raw +red carcase. Then they crowded around a couple of the older <i>mahouts</i> +who, first cutting off all the firm white fat of the well-fed cattle +thief to be melted down for oil (esteemed to be a sovereign remedy for +rheumatism), hacked the flesh into chunks which they threw into the +eager hands of the women. These took the meat home to cook for their +husbands to eat to instil into them the spirit and vigour of a tiger. +The skin, spread out and pegged to the ground, was covered with wood +ashes and left to dry. Little of the animal was left but the bones, to +the disappointment of the wheeling, whistling kites waiting on soaring +wings in the sky above. +</p> +<p> +After tea the two officers took their leave with many expressions of +gratitude from the younger man to the girl for her kindness in arranging +the beat for him. Hours afterwards, as they halted in the forest for a +rest in the middle of the night, Colonel Dermot said: +</p> +<p> +"You told me once that you'd like a job like mine, Wargrave. Would you +care for frontier political work here?" +</p> +<p> +"I'd love it, sir," exclaimed the subaltern enthusiastically. "Would it +be possible to get it?" +</p> +<p> +"Well, I've been thinking for some time of applying to the Government of +India for an assistant political officer who would help me and take over +if I went on leave, but I'd want to train my own man and not merely +accept any youngster who was pitchforked into the Department just +because he had a father or an uncle with a pull at Simla. Now, if you +like I'll apply for you, on condition that you'll work at Bhutanese and +the frontier dialects. I'll teach them to you." +</p> +<p> +"I'd like nothing better, sir. I'm not bad at languages." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I've noticed that your Hindustani is very good and idiomatic. I've +been watching you and I like your manner with natives. One must be +sympathetic, kind and just, but also firm with them. Well, I'll try +you. The rainy season will be on us very soon, and then all outdoor work +and sport will be impossible. One dare not go into the jungle—it's too +full of malaria and blackwater fever. The planters and Forest Officers +have to cage themselves in wire gauze 'mosquito houses.' During the +rains you'll have plenty of time to work at the languages." +</p> +<p> +"Thank you very much, Colonel. I promise you I'll go at them hard." +</p> +<p> +"You'll have a fellow-student for part of the time. Miss Benson's coming +to stay with us during the Monsoons for a bit; and she has asked me to +teach her Bhutanese, too. She wants it, as she has to deal with Bhuttia +woodcutters and hill folk generally. Well, that's fixed. Goodnight." +</p> +<p> +"Goodnight, sir," answered the subaltern, as he lay down on the pad and +stared at the stars. He was overjoyed at Colonel Dermot's offer, and as +he dropped asleep it was with a thrill of pleasure that he realised he +would see something more of the girl who had been his companion that +day. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0010" id="h2HCH0010"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER X +</h2> +<h3> + A POLITICAL OFFICER IN THE MAKING +</h3> +<p> +The lightning spattered the heavens and tore the black sky into a +thousand fragments, the thunder crashed in appalling peals of terrifying +sound which echoed again and again from the invisible mountains. The +rain fell in ropes of water that sent the brown, foam-flecked torrents +surging full-fed down every gully and ravine in the mist-wrapped hills. +The single, steep road of Ranga Duar was now the rocky bed of a racing +flood inches deep that swirled and raged round Wargrave's high rubber +boots as he waded up towards the Mess clad in an oilskin coat, off which +the rain splashed. He was glad to arrive at the garden gate, turn in +through it, climb the verandah steps, and reach his door. Here he flung +aside his coat and kicked off the heavy boots. +</p> +<p> +Entering his room he pulled on his slippers, filled his pipe with +tobacco from a lime-dried bottle and sat down at his one rickety table +at the window. Then he took out of his pocket and laid before him a +manuscript book filled with notes on the frontier dialects taken at the +lesson with Colonel Dermot from which he had just come. He opened it +mechanically but did not even glance at it. His thoughts were elsewhere. +</p> +<p> +Months had elapsed since the day on which he had seen his first tiger +killed. Not long afterwards the Rains had come to put a stop to descents +into the jungle. But his interest in the preparation for his new work +compensated him for the imprisonment within walls by the terrible +tropical storms and the never-ceasing downpour. He had flung himself +enthusiastically into the study of the frontier languages, of which +Colonel Dermot proved to be a painstaking and able teacher. Miss Benson, +who had returned to Ranga Duar and remained there longer than she had +originally intended, owing to fever contracted in the jungle, joined him +in these studies and astonished her fellow-pupil by her aptitude and +quickness of apprehension. But her presence proved disastrous to him. +Thrown constantly together as they were, spending hours every day side +by side, the subaltern realised to his dismay that he was falling in +love with the girl. +</p> +<p> +It would have been strange had it been otherwise so pretty and +attractive was she. Often Mrs. Dermot, peeping into her husband's office +and seeing the dark and the fair head bent close together over a book, +smiled to herself, well-pleased at the thought of her favourites being +mutually attracted. To her husband the thought never occurred. Men are +very dull in these matters. +</p> +<p> +But to Wargrave the realisation of the truth was unbearable. He was +pledged to another woman, whose heart he had won even if unconsciously, +who was willing for love of him to give up everything and face the +world's censure and scorn. He could not play her false. He had given her +his word. He could not now be disloyal to her without utterly wrecking +all her chances of happiness in life and dishonouring himself for ever +in his own eyes. Muriel Benson had left the station ten days ago to +rejoin her father; and Wargrave had instantly felt that he dared not see +her again until he was irrevocably and openly bound to Violet. So he had +written to her on the morrow of the girl's departure and, without giving +her the real reason for his action, begged her to come to him at once, +enclosing, as he was now able to do, a cheque for her expenses. It +seemed to him that only by her presence could he be saved from being a +traitor to his word. +</p> +<p> +As soon as he had sent the letter he went to his Commanding Officer and +told him everything. It was not until he was actually explaining his +conduct that he realised that he should have obtained his permission +before inviting Violet to come, for Major Hunt, as Commandant of the +Station, had the power to forbid her residing in or even entering it. +</p> +<p> +The senior officer listened in silence. When the subaltern had finished +he said: +</p> +<p> +"I've known about this matter since you came, Wargrave. Your Colonel +wrote me—as your new C.O.—what I considered an unnecessary and unfair +letter giving me the reason of your being sent here. But Hepburn, whom +I know slightly, discovered I was here and also wrote explaining matters +more fully and, I think, more justly." +</p> +<p> +The subaltern looked at him in surprise; but his face brightened at the +knowledge of his former commander's kindness. +</p> +<p> +"Now, Wargrave, we've got on very well together so far, you and I. I +have always been satisfied with your work, and was glad to help you by +agreeing to Colonel Dermot's application for you. I believe that you +will make a good political officer, otherwise I wouldn't have done +so—even though I'm your debtor for saving me from that snake——." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Major, that was nothing," broke in the subaltern. "Anyone would +have done it." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I know. But it happened that you were the anyone. Now, I'm going +to talk to you as your friend and not as your commanding officer. +Frankly, I am very sorry for what you have just told me. I was hoping +that Time and separation were curing you—and the lady—of your folly. +Believe me, only unhappiness and misery can come to you both from it." +</p> +<p> +"Perhaps so, sir; but I'm bound in honour." +</p> +<p> +The older man shook his head sadly. +</p> +<p> +"Is honour the word for it? I'll make a confession to you, Wargrave. You +consider me a bachelor. Well, I'm not married now; but I was. When I was +a young subaltern I was thrown much with a married woman older than +myself. I was flattered that she should take any notice of me, for she +was handsome and popular with men, while I was a shy, awkward boy. She +said she was 'being a mother' to me—you know what a married woman +'mothering' boys leads to in India. She used to tell me how +misunderstood she was, neglected, mated to a clown and all that." (Frank +grew red at certain memories.) "Women have a regular formula when +they're looking for sympathy they've no right to. I pitied her. I felt +that her husband ought to be shot. Looking back now I see that he was +just the ordinary, easy-going, indifferent individual that most husbands +become; but then I deemed him a tyrant and a brute. Well, I ran away +with her." +</p> +<p> +He paused and passed his hand wearily across his brow. +</p> +<p> +"There was the usual scandal, divorce, damages and costs that plunged me +into debt I'm not out of yet. We married. In a year we were heartily +sick of each other—hated, is nearer the truth. She consoled herself +with other men. I protested, we quarrelled again and again. At last we +agreed to separate; and I insisted on her going to England and staying +there. I couldn't trust her in India. Living in lodgings and Bayswater +boarding-houses wasn't amusing—she got bored, but I wouldn't have her +back. She took to drinking and ran up debts that I had to pay. +Then—and I selfishly felt glad, but it was a happy release for +both—she died. Drank herself to death. Now you know why I'd be sorry +that another man should follow the path I trod." +</p> +<p> +He was silent. Wargrave felt an intense sympathy for this quiet, kindly +man whose life had been a tragedy. He had guessed from the first that +his senior officer had some ever-present grief weighing on his soul. He +would have given much to be able to utter words of consolation, but he +did not know what to say. +</p> +<p> +Major Hunt spoke again. +</p> +<p> +"You must dree your own weird, Wargrave. If the lady wishes to come +here—well, I shall not prevent her; but the General, when he knows of +it, will not permit her to remain. But you have to deal with Colonel +Dermot. You had better tell him. You might go now." +</p> +<p> +Without a word the subaltern left the bungalow. He went straight to the +Political Officer and repeated his story. Colonel Dermot did not +interrupt him, but, when he had finished, said: +</p> +<p> +"I have no right and no wish to interfere with your private life, +Wargrave, nor to offer you advice as to how to lead it. Your work is all +that I can claim to criticise. Of course I see, with Major Hunt, the +difficulty that will arise over the lady's remaining in this small +station, where her presence must become known to the Staff. If you are +both resolved on taking the irretrievable step it would be wiser to +defer it until you were elsewhere. I don't offer to blame either of you; +for I don't know enough to judge." +</p> +<p> +"Well, sir, I—perhaps you won't want me under you—and Mrs. Dermot—you +mightn't wish me to——," stammered the subaltern, standing miserably +before him. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, yes; you'll make a good political officer none the less," said the +Colonel smiling. "And you need not be afraid of my wife turning away +from you with horror. If she can be a friend to the lady she will. As +for you, well, you saved our children, Wargrave"—he laid his hand on +the young man's shoulder—"you are our friend for life. I shall not +repeat your story to my wife. Perhaps some day you may like to tell it +to her yourself." +</p> +<p> +Wargrave tried to thank him gratefully, but failed, and, picking up his +hat, went out into the rain. +</p> +<p> +That was days ago; and no answer had come from Violet, so that the +subaltern lived in a state of strain and anxious expectation. Indeed, +some weeks had passed since her last letter, as usual an unhappy one; +and, sitting staring out into the grey world of falling rain turned to +flame every minute by the vivid lightning, he racked his brains to guess +the reason of her silence. +</p> +<p> +A jangle of bells sounded through the storm. Glancing out Wargrave saw +a curiously grotesque figure climb the verandah steps from the garden +and stand shaking itself while the water poured from it. It was an +almost naked man, squat and sturdy-limbed, with glistening wet brown +skin, an oilskin-covered package on his back, a short spear hung with +bells in his hand. It was the postman. For a miserable pittance he +jogged up and down the mountains in fine weather or foul, carrying His +Majesty's Mails, passing fearlessly through the jungle in peril of wild +beats, his ridiculous weapon, the bells of which were supposed to +frighten tigers, his only protection. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave opened the door and went out to him. The man grinned, unslung +and opened his parcel. From it he took out a bundle of letters, handed +them to the subaltern, and went on to knock at Burke's door with his +correspondence. Frank returned to his room with the mail which contained +the official letters for the detachment, of which he was still acting as +adjutant. He threw them aside when he saw an envelope with Violet's +handwriting on it. He tore it open eagerly. +</p> +<p> +To his surprise the letter was addressed from a hotel in Poona, the +large and gay military and civil station in the West of India, a few +hours' rail journey inland from Bombay. He skimmed through it rapidly. +</p> +<p> +She wrote that, utterly weary of the dullness of Rohar, she had gone to +Poona to spend part of the festive and fashionable season there and was +now revelling in the many dances, dinners, theatricals and other +gaieties of the lively station. Everybody was very kind to her, +especially the men. She was invited to the private entertainments at +Government House, and His Excellency the Governor always danced with +her. Her programme was crowded at every ball; and she had been asked to +take one of the leading parts in "The Country Girl" to be produced by +the Amateur Dramatic Society. She had two excellent ponies with which to +hunt and to join in <i>gymkhanas</i>. She wished Frank could be with her; but +probably he was enjoying himself more with his wild beasts and Tiger +Girls. As to his proposal that she should go to him at once in that +little station he must have been mad when he made it. For had they not +discussed the matter thoroughly and decided that they must wait? She +presumed that he had not suddenly come into a fortune. From his +description of Ranga Duar and its inhabitants it could be no place for +her under the circumstances. No; there was nothing to do but to wait. +Besides, it was so very jolly now at Poona. Frank must not be an +impatient boy; and she sent him all her love. His cheque she had torn +up. +</p> +<p> +The subaltern whistled, read the letter again very carefully, folded and +put it away. What had come to Violet? This was so unlike her. Still, he +had to confess to himself that he was relieved at not yet having to +cross the Rubicon. Perhaps she was right; it might be better to wait. He +was glad to know that for a time at least she was away from the +uncongenial surroundings of Rohar and again enjoying life. He went +through the official correspondence, shoved it in his pocket, put on +coat and boots and splashed through the water down the road to the +Commanding Officer's bungalow. When they had discussed the official +letters and drafted answers to them Wargrave told Major Hunt of the gist +of Violet's reply. The senior officer nodded, but said nothing about it +and went on to talk of other matters. +</p> +<p> +Next day the subaltern informed Colonel Dermot, who made no comment and +did not refer to the matter again. His wife, ignorant of Mrs. Norton's +existence, delighted to talk to Wargrave about Muriel, a topic always +interesting to him, dangerous though it was to his peace of mind. His +thoughts were constantly with the girl, and he sought eagerly for news +of her when occasional letters came to Mrs. Dermot from her, touring +their wide forest district with her father. +</p> +<p> +Frank had never been able to fathom Burke's feelings towards her. The +Irishman's manner to her in public was always light-hearted and +cheerfully friendly; but the subaltern suspected that it concealed a +deeper, warmer feeling. He betrayed no jealousy of Frank's constant +companionship with her when she took part in his studies; and his +friendly regard for his younger brother officer never altered. On her +side the girl showed openly that she shared the universal liking that +the kindly, pleasant-natured doctor inspired. +</p> +<p> +The weary months of the rainy season dragged by; but the subaltern spent +them to advantage under Colonel Dermot's tuition and, possessing the +knack of readily acquiring foreign languages, made rapid progress with +Bhutanese, Tibetan and the frontier dialects, his good ear for music +helping him greatly in getting the correct accent. Another +accomplishment of his, a talent for acting, was of service; for the +Political Officer wished him to be capable of penetrating into Bhutan in +disguise if need be. So he taught him how to be a merchant, peasant, +nobleman's retainer or a lama Red or Yellow, of the country—but always +a man of Northern Bhutan and the Tibetan borderland, for his height and +blue eyes were not unusual there, though seldom or never seen in the +south. Frank was carefully instructed in the appropriate manners, +customs and expressions of each part that he played, how to eat and +behave in company, how to walk, sit and sleep. But he specialised as a +lama, for in that character he would meet with the least interference in +the priest-ridden country. He was taught the Buddhist chants and how to +drone them, how to carry his praying-wheel and finger a rosary to the +murmured "<i>Om mani padmi hung</i>" of the Tibetans, and—for he was +something of an artist—how to paint the Buddhist pictorial Wheel of +Life, the <i>Sid-pa-i Khor-lô</i> or Cycle of Existence that the gentle +Gautama, the Buddha, himself first drew and that hangs in the vestibule +of every lamasery to teach priest and layman the leading law of their +religion, Re-birth. +</p> +<p> +Colonel Dermot was helped in his instruction of his pupil by his chief +spy and confidential messenger, an ex-monk from a great monastery in +Punaka, the capital of Bhutan. This man, Tashi, before he wearied of the +cloistered life and fled to India, had been always one of the principal +actors in the great miracle plays and Devil Dances of his lamasery, for +he was gifted with considerable histrionic talent. He delighted in +teaching Wargrave to play his various <i>rôles</i>, for he found the +subaltern an apt pupil. +</p> +<p> +As soon as the rains ended the Political Officer began to take his +disciple with him on his tours and patrols along the frontier. Alone +they roamed on Badshah among the mountains on which the border ran in a +confusedly irregular line. Sometimes with or without Tashi they crossed +into Bhutan in disguise and wandered among the steep, forest-clad hills +and deep, unhealthy valleys seamed with rivers prone to sudden floods +that rose in a few hours thirty or forty feet. Wargrave marvelled at the +engineering skill of the inhabitants who with rude and imperfect +appliances had thrown cantilever bridges over the deep gorges of this +mountainous southern zone. Among the dull-witted peasants in the +villages he practised the parts that he had learned, speaking little at +first and taking care to mingle Tibetan and Chinese words with the +language of Bhutan to keep up the fable of his northern birth. He soon +promised to be in time as skilfull in disguise as his tutor. +</p> +<p> +Colonel Dermot was anxious to investigate the activities of the Chinese +<i>Amban</i>, reputed to reach their height in the territory just across the +Indian border ruled by the Tuna Penlop and lying west of the Black +Mountain range that divides Bhutan. This great feudal chieftain was +reputed to be completely under the influence of Yuan Shi Hung and both +anti-British and disloyal to his overlord the Maharajah or Tongsa +Penlop. The close watch that his myrmidons kept on the stretch of +frontier between his territories and India prevented Dermot from +learning what went on behind the screen; for the spies of the Political +Officer's Secret Service could not penetrate it and bring back news. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave was present when the last sturdy-limbed Bhuttia emissary +reported his failure to cross the line. As the man withdrew the Colonel +turned to Frank and said: +</p> +<p> +"We'll go ourselves. I wanted to avoid it if possible; for it wouldn't +do for me to be caught. Not only because it would cause political +complications, for I'm not supposed to trespass on Bhutanese territory +uninvited, but also because fatal accidents might happen to us if Yuan +Shi Hung and his friends get hold of us. I'm not anxious to die yet. Be +ready to start at midnight." +</p> +<p> +"Do you really think we'll be able to get through, sir?" queried the +subaltern. "How shall we do it?" +</p> +<p> +"Wait and see," was the curt reply. +</p> +<p> +Before the sun rose next day Badshah was deep in the forest, bearing the +two officers and Tashi on his back. He moved rapidly along animal paths +through the jungle in a direction parallel with the mountains. Jungle +fowl whirred up from under his feet, deer crashed away through the +undergrowth as he passed; but never a shot was fired at them, though +rifles and guns were in the riders' hands. Little brown monkeys peeped +down at them from the tree-tops or leapt away along the air lanes among +the leafy branches, swinging by hand or foot, springing across the +voids, the babies clutching fast to their mothers' bodies in the dizzy +flights. +</p> +<p> +In the afternoon a distant crashing, which told of trees falling before +the pressure of great heads and the weight of huge bodies, made Wargrave +ask: +</p> +<p> +"Wild elephants, sir?" +</p> +<p> +Dermot nodded. +</p> +<p> +"Sounds as if they were right in our path. Shall we see them?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes. Don't touch that!" said the Colonel sharply; for the excited +subaltern, who had never yet seen a wild herd, was reaching for his +rifle. Wargrave obeyed, remembering Miss Benson's remark on the +Political Officer's love of the great animals. +</p> +<p> +Soon unmistakable signs showed that they were on the track of a herd; +and presently Frank caught sight of a slate-coloured body in the +undergrowth, then another and another. As he was wondering how the +animals would receive them Badshah emerged on an open glade filled with +elephants of all ages and sizes, from new-born woolly calves a bare +three feet at the shoulder to splendid tuskers nine feet ten inches in +height and lean, ragged-eared old animals a hundred and thirty years of +age. All were regarding the newcomer and their trunks were raised to +point towards him, while from their throats came a low purring sound, +which appeared to the subaltern to have more of pleasure than menace in +it. Instead of seeming hostile or alarmed they behaved as though they +had expected and were welcoming their domesticated brother. This was so +evident that Frank felt no fear even when they closed in on Badshah and +touched him with their trunks. +</p> +<p> +Dermot, smiling at his companion's amazement, said: +</p> +<p> +"This is Badshah's old herd, Wargrave, and they're used to him and me. +I've come in search of them, for it is by their aid that I propose to +enter Bhutan." +</p> +<p> +And the subaltern was still more surprised when the animals, which +numbered over a hundred, fell in behind Badshah—cows with calves +leading, tuskers in rear—and followed him submissively in single file +as he headed for the mountains. When night fell they were climbing above +the foot-hills under the vivid tropic stars. +</p> +<p> +A couple of hours before midnight the leader halted, and the line behind +him scattered to feed on the bamboos and the luscious grasses, though +the younger calves nuzzled their mothers' breasts. Badshah sank to his +knees to allow his passengers to dismount and relieve him of his pad. +The three men ate and then wrapped themselves in their blankets, for it +was very cold high up in the mountains, and stretched themselves to +sleep, as the great animals around them ceased to feed and rested. +Badshah lowered himself cautiously to the ground and lay down near his +men. +</p> +<p> +Before Wargrave lost consciousness he marvelled at Dermot's uncanny +power over the huge beasts around them—a power that could make these +shy mammoths thus subservient to his purposes. He began to understand +why his companion was regarded as a demigod by the wild jungle-folk and +hill-dwellers. +</p> +<p> +When at daybreak the herd moved on again, climbing ever higher in the +mountains, the three men lay flat on Badshah's back and covered +themselves with their grey blankets lest vigilant watchers on the peaks +around might espy them. Thus do the <i>mahouts</i> of the <i>koonkies</i>, or +trained female elephants employed in hunting and snaring wild tuskers, +conceal themselves during the chase. +</p> +<p> +But darkness shielded them effectively when the herd swept at length +through a rocky pass on the frontier-line between India and Bhutan, and +with cries of fear and dismay armed men seated around watch-fires fled +in panic before the earth-shaking host. The screen was penetrated. +</p> +<p> +Daylight found them on the banks of a broad, swift-flowing river in a +valley between the range of mountains through which they had passed and +a line of still more formidable and snow-clad peaks. The elephants swam +the wide and rushing water, for of all land animals their kind are the +best swimmers. The tiniest babies were supported by the trunks of their +mothers, on to whose backs older calves climbed and were thus carried +across. Without stopping the herd plunged into the awful passes of the +next range, of which they were not clear until the evening of the +following day. Then they halted in dense forest. +</p> +<p> +Next morning Dermot took from the pockets of Badshah's pad the dresses +and other things that they needed for their disguises, and instead of +replacing the pad concealed it carefully. Then he said: +</p> +<p> +"We'll leave our escort here, Wargrave, and carry on by ourselves; for +we are not far from inhabited and cultivated country, and indeed fairly +near the <i>Jong</i> (castle) of our enemy the Penlop of Tuna." +</p> +<p> +The wild elephants were feeding all around, paying no heed to them. The +Colonel turned to Badshah and pointing to the ground said one word: +</p> +<p> +"<i>Raho</i>! (Remain!)" +</p> +<p> +Then he continued to Wargrave: +</p> +<p> +"We'll find them, or they'll find us, whenever we return." +</p> +<p> +An hour later two elderly lamas in soiled yellow robes and horn-rimmed +spectacles, followed by a lame coolie carrying their scanty possessions, +emerged, rosary and praying-wheel in hand, from the forest into the +cultivated country. +</p> +<p> +For some weeks they wandered unsuspected through the Tuna Penlop's +dominions and even penetrated into his own <i>jong</i>, where they were +entertained and their prayers solicited by his cut-throat retainers. +They learned enough to realise that the <i>Amban</i> was endeavouring by the +free supply of arms and military instructors to form here the nucleus of +a trained force to be employed eventually against India, backed up by +reinforcements of Chinese troops and contingents from other parts of +Bhutan. +</p> +<p> +Their investigations completed they returned safely to the forest in +which they had left the herd; and, much to Wargrave's relief, they had +not been many hours camped on the spot where they had parted with them +when Badshah and his wild companions appeared. The spies returned to +India as they had come, unseen and unsuspected. +</p> +<p> +This excursion was but the first of many that Wargrave made with the +Colonel and the herd; and he soon began to know almost every member of +it and make friends, not only with the solemn but friendly little +calves, but even with their less trusting mothers. He was now thoroughly +at home in the jungle and no longer needed a tutor in sport. His one +room in the Mess began to be overcrowded with trophies of his skill with +the rifle. Other tiger-skins had joined the first; and, although he had +not secured a second bison, several good heads of <i>sambhur</i>, <i>khakur</i> +and <i>cheetul</i>, or spotted deer, hung on his whitewashed stone walls. +</p> +<p> +Thus with sport and work more fascinating than sport Wargrave found the +months slipping by. From Raymond he learned that Violet had returned to +Rohar before she wrote herself. When she did she seemed to be in a +brighter and more affectionate, as well as calmer, mood than she had +been before her visit to Poona. But gradually her letters became less +and less frequent; and Frank began to wonder—with a little sense of +guilty, shamed hope—if she were beginning to forget him. +</p> +<p> +Christmas came; and with its coming Ranga Duar woke again to life. +Besides the Bensons and Carter, who now brought his wife, Mrs. Dermot's +brother—a subaltern in an Indian cavalry regiment—and five planters, +old friends of his from the district in which he had once been a planter +himself, came to spend Christmas in the small station. Major Hunt's +bungalow and the Mess took in the overflow from the Political Officer's +house. +</p> +<p> +Brian and Eileen had the gayest, happiest time of their little lives. +Presents were heaped on them. Muriel and Frank initiated them into all +the delights of their first Christmas tree, and Burke introduced them to +a real Punch and Judy Show. On Christmas Day Badshah, his neck encircled +with a garland of flowers procured from the Plains, was led up solemnly +by his seldom-seen <i>mahout</i> to present Colonel Dermot with a gilded lime +and receive in return a present of silver rupees which passed into the +possession of the said <i>mahout</i>. Then he was fed with dainties by the +children; and Eileen insisted on being tossed aloft by the curving +trunk, to the detriment of her starched party frock. +</p> +<p> +The weather was appropriate to the season, cold and bright, and although +no snow fell so low down, it froze at night, so that the Europeans could +indulge in the luxury—in India—of gathering around blazing wood fires +after dinner. +</p> +<p> +All, young and old, thoroughly enjoyed this almost English-like +Christmas—all except one. Burke's attentions to Muriel became more +marked and more full of meaning than they had ever been before; and it +was patent that he intended to put his fate to the touch during this +visit of hers. He did so without success, it seemed; for before she left +there was an evident sense of constraint between them and they tried to +avoid sitting beside each other or being left alone together, even for a +moment. Shortly after the departure of the visitors Burke contrived to +effect an exchange to another station, to the regret of all in the +little outpost, and he was replaced by a young Scots surgeon, named +Macdonald, his opposite in every way. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0011" id="h2HCH0011"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XI +</h2> +<h3> + TRAGEDY +</h3> +<p> +The annual Durbar for the reception of the Bhutan Envoy and the payment +of the subsidy had come and gone again. The <i>Deb Zimpun</i>, who had not +been accompanied by the Chinese <i>Amban</i> on this occasion, had departed; +and of the few European visitors only Muriel Benson remained. Colonel +Dermot had been called away to Simla, to confer with officials of the +Foreign Department on matters of frontier policy. Major Hunt was ill +with fever, leaving Wargrave, who was still nominally attached to the +Military Police, in command of the detachment. +</p> +<p> +It was delicious torture to Frank to be in the same place again with +Muriel, to see her from the parade ground or the Mess verandah playing +in the garden with the children, to meet her every day and talk to her +and yet be obliged to school his lips and keep them from uttering the +words that trembled on them. +</p> +<p> +A few nights after the Durbar he dined with Mrs. Dermot and Muriel and +was sitting on the verandah of the Political Officer's house with them +after dinner. He was wearing white mess uniform. The evening was warm +and very still, and whenever the conversation died away, no sound save +the monotonous note of the nightjars or the sudden cry of a +barking-deer, broke the silence since the echoes of the "Lights Out" +bugle call had died away among the hills. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave looked at his watch. +</p> +<p> +"It's past eleven o'clock," he said. "I'd no idea it was so late. I +ought to get up and say goodnight; but I'm so comfortable here, Mrs. +Dermot." +</p> +<p> +His hostess smiled lazily at him but made no reply. Again a peaceful +hush fell on them. +</p> +<p> +With startling suddenness it was broken. From the Fort four hundred +yards away a rifle-shot rang out, rending the silence of the night and +reverberating among the hills around. Wargrave sprang to his feet as +shouts followed and a bugle shrilled out the soul-gripping "Alarm," the +call that sends a thrill through every soldier's frame. For always it +tells of disaster. Heard thus at night in barracks swift following on a +shot it spoke of crime, of murder, the black murder of a comrade. +</p> +<p> +The two women had risen anxiously. +</p> +<p> +"What is it? Oh, what is it?" they asked. +</p> +<p> +The subaltern spoke lightly to re-assure them. +</p> +<p> +"Nothing much, I expect. Some man on guard fooling with his rifle let it +off by accident," he said quietly. "Excuse me. I'd better stroll across +to the Fort and see." +</p> +<p> +But Mrs. Dermot stopped him. +</p> +<p> +"Wait a moment please, Mr. Wargrave," she said, running into the house. +She returned immediately with her husband's big automatic pistol and +handed it to him. In her left hand she held a smaller one. "Take this +with you. It's loaded," she said. +</p> +<p> +Frank thanked her, said goodnight to both calmly, and walked down the +garden path; but the anxious women heard him running swiftly across the +parade ground. +</p> +<p> +"What is it, Noreen? What does it mean?" asked the girl nervously. +</p> +<p> +"A sepoy running amuck, I'm afraid," replied her friend. "He's shot +someone——." +</p> +<p> +She swung round, pistol raised. +</p> +<p> +"<i>Kohn hai</i>? (Who's that?)" she called out. +</p> +<p> +A man had come noiselessly on to the shadowed end of the verandah. +</p> +<p> +"It is I, <i>mem-sahib</i>," answered Sher Afzul, her Punjaubi Mahommedan +butler. He had been in her service for five years and was devoted to her +and hers. He was carrying a rifle, for his master at his request had +long ago given him arms to protect his <i>mem-sahib</i>. Before her marriage +he had once fought almost to the death to defend her when her brother's +bungalow had been attacked by rebels during a rising. +</p> +<p> +"It would be well to go into the house and put out the lights, +<i>mem-sahib</i>," he said quietly in Hindustani. "There is danger to-night." +</p> +<p> +As he spoke he extinguished the lamp on the verandah and closed the +doors of the house. A second armed servant came quietly on to the +verandah and the butler melted into the darkness of the garden; but they +heard him go to the gate as if to guard it. +</p> +<p> +"You had better go inside, Muriel," said Mrs. Dermot, but made no move +to do so herself. +</p> +<p> +The girl did not appear to hear her. She was listening intently for any +sound from the Fort. But silence had fallen on it. +</p> +<p> +"Muriel, won't you go into the house?" repeated her hostess. +</p> +<p> +"Eh? What? No, I couldn't. I must stay here," replied Miss Benson +impatiently. In the black darkness the other woman could not see her; +but she felt that the girl's every sense was alert and strained to the +utmost. She moved to her and put her arm about her. Against it she could +feel Muriel's heart beating violently. +</p> +<p> +Suddenly from the Fort came the noise of heavy blows and a crash, +instantly followed by a shot and then fierce cries. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, my God! What is happening?" murmured the girl, her hand on her +heart. +</p> +<p> +Presently there came the sound of running feet, and heavy boots +clattered up the rocky road towards the Mess past the gate. +</p> +<p> +Then the butler's voice rang out in challenge: +</p> +<p> +"<i>Kohn jatha</i>? (Who goes there?)" +</p> +<p> +A panting voice answered: +</p> +<p> +"Wargrave Sahib <i>murgya</i>. Doctor Sahib <i>ko bulana ko jatha</i>"—(Wargrave +Sahib is killed. I go to call the Doctor Sahib)—and the sepoy ran on in +the darkness. +</p> +<p> +"O God! O God!" cried the girl, and tried to break from her friend's +clasp. "Let me go! Let me go!" +</p> +<p> +"Where to?" asked Noreen, holding the frenzied girl with all her +strength. +</p> +<p> +"To him. He's dead. Didn't you hear? He's dead. I must go to him." +</p> +<p> +She struggled madly and beat fiercely at the hands that held her. +</p> +<p> +"Let me go! Let me go! Oh, he's dead," she wailed. "Dead. And I loved +him so. Oh, be merciful! Let me go to him!" and suddenly her strength +gave way and she collapsed into Noreen's arms, weeping bitterly. +</p> +<p> +They heard the clattering steps meet others coming down the hill and a +hurried conversation ensue. Noreen recognised one of the voices. Then +both men came running down. +</p> +<p> +"It's the doctor," said Mrs. Dermot. "Come to the gate and we'll ask him +what has happened." +</p> +<p> +"Mr. Macdonald! Mr. Macdonald!" she cried as the hurrying footsteps drew +near. +</p> +<p> +"Who's that? Mrs. Dermot? For God's sake get into the house. There's a +man running amuck. Wargrave's killed. I'm wanted"; and the doctor, +taking no thought of danger to himself when there was need of his skill, +ran on into the darkness. +</p> +<p> +"I must—I will go!" cried Muriel. +</p> +<p> +"Very well. Perhaps it's not true. We must know. We may be able to +help," replied her friend. +</p> +<p> +And with a word to Sher Afzul to guard her babies from danger she seized +Muriel's hand, and the two girls ran towards the Fort in the track that +Wargrave had followed to his death, it seemed. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +Pistol in hand Wargrave had raced across the parade ground. At the gate +of the Fort he was challenged; and when he answered an Indian officer +came out of the darkness to him. +</p> +<p> +"Sahib," he said hurriedly. "Havildar Mahommed Ashraf Khan has been shot +in his bed in barracks. The sentry over the magazine is missing with his +rifle." +</p> +<p> +Wargrave entered the Fort. Opposite the guard-room the detachment was +falling in rapidly, the men carrying their rifles and running up from +their barrack-rooms in various stages of undress. By the flickering +light of a lantern held up for him a non-commissioned officer was +calling the roll, and his voice rumbled along in monotonous tones. The +guard were standing under arms. +</p> +<p> +"Put out that lamp!" cried the subaltern sharply. It would only serve to +light up other marks for the invisible assassin if, like most men who +run <i>amôk</i>, he meant to keep on killing until slain himself. "No; take +it into the guard-room and shut the door." +</p> +<p> +In the darkness the silence was intense, broken only by the heavy +breathing of the unseen men and the clattering of the feet of some +late-comer. Suddenly there rang out through the night the most appalling +sound that had ever assailed Wargrave's ears. It was as the cry of a +lost soul in all the agony of the damned, an eerie, unearthly wail that +froze the blood in the listeners' veins. In the invisible ranks men +shuddered and clutched at their neighbours. +</p> +<p> +"<i>Khuda ke Nam men, kiya hai?</i> (In the Name of God, what is that?)" +gasped the subaltern. +</p> +<p> +The Indian officer at his side answered in a low voice: +</p> +<p> +"It is Ashraf Khan crying out in pain, Sahib. He is not yet dead." +</p> +<p> +"<i>Subhedar</i> sahib, come with me," said Wargrave. "Let your <i>jemadar</i> +(lieutenant) take the men one by one into the guard-room and examine the +rifles to see if any have been fired. We don't know yet if the missing +sentry did the deed." +</p> +<p> +The <i>Subhedar</i> (company commander) gave the order to his subordinate and +followed Wargrave to the barrack-room in which the crime had been +committed. The sight that met the subaltern's eyes was one that he was +not easily to forget. +</p> +<p> +The high-roofed chamber was in darkness save at one end where a small +lamp cast weird shadows on the walls and vaulting ceiling. At this end +and under the flickering light a group of figures stood round a bed on +which a man was writhing in agony. He was struggling in delirious frenzy +to hurl himself to the stone floor, and was only held down by the united +efforts of three men. From a bullet wound in his bared chest the +life-blood welled with every movement of his tortured body. He had been +shot in the back as he lay asleep. The lips covered with a bloody froth +were drawn back tightly over the white teeth clenched in agony, and red +foam lay on the black beard. Out of the sweat-bathed, ghastly face the +eyes glared in frenzy. The features were contorted with pain. Again and +again the wild shrieks like the howl of a mad thing rang through the +long room and out into the night. +</p> +<p> +With tear-filled eyes and heart torn with pity Wargrave looked down at +him in silence. Ashraf Khan was one of his best men. "But where is the +doctor sahib?" he asked the native officer suddenly. +</p> +<p> +The <i>subhedar</i> stared and shook his head. In the excitement no one had +thought of sending for the medical officer. Wargrave turned to one of +the men around the bed. +</p> +<p> +"Mahbub Khan, run hard to the Mess and call the doctor sahib. Here, +stop!" He remembered that Macdonald did not possess a revolver. For all +one knew he might encounter the murderer on his way. Wargrave thrust +Mrs. Dermot's pistol into the sepoy's hand, saying, "Give the sahib +that." +</p> +<p> +The man, who was barefoot, ran out of the chamber and went to his own +barrack-room for his shoes, for the road was rocky and covered with +sharp stones. The subaltern turned away with a sigh from the bedside of +his poor comrade. He could do nothing now but avenge him. As he walked +away from the group he trod on an empty cartridge case and picked it up. +It had recently been fired. It told its tale; for it showed that the +assassin had reloaded over his victim and intended that the killing +should not end there. If he were the missing sentry then he had nine +more cartridges left—nine human lives in his blood-stained hand. And as +the subaltern crossed the verandah outside the barrack-room the +<i>jemadar</i> met him and reported that all the rifles of the detachment had +been examined and found clean except the missing weapon of the sentry, a +young Pathan sepoy called Gul Mahommed. It was remembered that the dying +<i>havildar</i> (sergeant) had reprimanded him hotly on the previous day for +appearing on parade with accoutrements dirty. So little a cause was +needed to send a man to his death! +</p> +<p> +The first thing to be done now was to hunt for the murderer. While he +went free no one's life was safe. Wargrave shuddered at the thought of +danger coming to Muriel or her friend, and he hoped that they were +safely shut in their house. It was a difficult problem to know where to +begin the search. The Fort was full of hiding-places, especially at +night. And already the assassin might have escaped over the low wall +surrounding it. As Wargrave stood perplexed another Indian officer ran +up, accompanied by two men with rifles. +</p> +<p> +"Sahib! Sahib!" he whispered excitedly. "The murderer is in my room, the +one next that in which Ashraf Kahn was shot. I left the door wide open +when I ran out. It is now shut and bolted from the inside and someone is +moving about in it." +</p> +<p> +The subaltern went along the verandah to the door and tried it. It was +firmly fastened. +</p> +<p> +"Here, sahib!" cried a sepoy who ran up with a comrade carrying a heavy +log. +</p> +<p> +"<i>Shahbash</i>! (Well done!) Break in the door," said Wargrave. +</p> +<p> +Other men, who had come up, seized the long log and dashed it violently +against the door. The bolt held, but the frail hinges gave way and the +door fell in. +</p> +<p> +"Stand back!" cried Wargrave. +</p> +<p> +It seemed certain death to enter the room in which a murderer lurked in +darkness, armed with a rifle and fixed bayonet and resolved to sell his +life dearly. But the subaltern did not hesitate. He was the only sahib +there and of course it was his duty to go in. He could not ask his men +to risk a danger that he shirked himself. That is not the officer's +way, whose motto must ever be "Follow where I lead." +</p> +<p> +Wargrave sprang into the room unarmed. He was outlined against the faint +light outside. A spurt of flame lit the darkness; and the subaltern, as +he tripped over the raised threshold, felt that he was shot. He +staggered on. A rifle lunged forward and the bayonet stabbed him in the +side; but with a desperate effort he closed with his unseen assailant +and grappled fiercely with him. Struggling to overpower the assassin +before his ebbing strength left him he fought madly. The Indian officers +and sepoys blocking up the doorway could see nothing; but they could +hear the choking gasps, the panting breaths, the muttered curses and the +stamping feet of the combatants locked in the death-grapple. They could +not interfere, they dared not fire. In impotent fury they shouted: +</p> +<p> +"Bring lamps! Bring lamps!" +</p> +<p> +Then, groaning in their powerlessness to aid their beloved officer, they +listened, as a light danced over the stones from a lantern in the hand +of a running sepoy. The moment it came and lit up the scene they rushed +on the murderer wrestling fiercely with Wargrave and dragged him off as +the subaltern collapsed and fell to the ground. The glare of the lantern +shone on his white face. +</p> +<p> +"The sahib is dead!" cried a sepoy, and sprang at the murderer who was +struggling in the grip of the two powerfully-built Indian officers. +Others followed him, and his captors had to fight hard and use all their +authority to keep the prisoner from being killed by the bare hands of +his maddened comrades. Only the arrival of the armed men of the guard +saved him. +</p> +<p> +Frenzied with grief the sepoys bent over their officer lying motionless +and apparently dead on the stone floor. They loved him. Many of them +wept openly and unashamed. The <i>subhedar</i> knelt beside him and opened +his shirt. The blood had soaked through the white mess-jacket that +Wargrave wore. +</p> +<p> +The native officer looked up into the ring of brown faces bent over him. +Suddenly he cried angrily: +</p> +<p> +"Mahbub Khan, why hast thou not gone for the doctor sahib as thou wert +told, O Son of an Owl?" +</p> +<p> +The face staring in horror between the heads of the sepoys was hurriedly +withdrawn, and Mahbub Khan, who had lingered to see the end of the +tragedy, turned and pushed his way out of the crowd. +</p> +<p> +Macdonald found the subaltern lying to all appearances dead on the +broken door out in the open, where they had gently carried him. +</p> +<p> +"Hold a light here," he cried as he knelt down beside the body. +</p> +<p> +By now a dozen lanterns or more lit up the scene. The doctor laid his +ear against Wargrave's chest and held a polished cigarette case to his +lips. Then he pulled back the shirt to examine his injuries. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, is he dead? Is he dead?" cried a trembling voice. +</p> +<p> +The doctor, looking up angrily, found Miss Benson and Mrs. Dermot +standing over him. The sepoys had silently made way for them. +</p> +<p> +"You shouldn't be here, ladies," he said with justifiable annoyance. +"This is no place for you. No; he's not dead. And I hope and think that +he won't die." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, thank God!" cried the two women. +</p> +<p> +The sepoys crowding round and hanging on the doctor's verdict could not +understand the words but saw the look of joyous relief on their faces +and guessed the truth. A wild, confused cheer went up to the stars. +</p> +<p> +"Mr. Macdonald," said Mrs. Dermot bending over him again. "Will you +bring him to my house? There is no accommodation for him in your little +hospital, you know; and he'd have no one to look after him in the Mess. +I can nurse him." +</p> +<p> +The doctor straightened himself on his knee and looked down at the +unconscious man. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, Mrs. Dermot, it's a good idea," he replied. "There is nowhere else +where he'd get any attention. My hands are full with Major Hunt. He's +taken a turn for the worse. His temperature went up dangerously high +to-night; and he was almost delirious." +</p> +<p> +He stood up. +</p> +<p> +"I can't examine Wargrave properly here. He seems to be wounded in two +places. But I hope it's not—I mean, I think he'll pull through. His +pulse is getting stronger. I've put a first dressing on; and I think we +can move him. Hi! stretcher <i>idher lao</i>. (Bring the stretcher here!)" +</p> +<p> +Suddenly Wargrave opened his eyes and looked up in the doctor's face. +</p> +<p> +"Is that you, Macdonald?" he asked dreamily. "Never mind me; I'm all +right. Go to poor Ashraf Khan. If he must die, at least give him +something to put him out of his misery. I can wait." +</p> +<p> +His voice trailed off, and he relapsed into unconsciousness. Ordering +him to be carried away the doctor, after a word with the Indian +officers, entered the barrack-room. It was useless. Ashraf Khan had just +died. +</p> +<p> +The crowd fell back in a wide circle to let the two hospital orderlies +bring up the stretcher for Wargrave and, as they did, left a group of +men standing isolated in the centre. All of these were armed, except one +whose hands were pinioned behind his back. His head was bare, his face +bruised and bleeding, and his uniform nearly torn off his body. It +needed no telling that he was the murderer. +</p> +<p> +Miss Benson walked up to him with fierce eyes. +</p> +<p> +"You dog!" she cried bitterly in Urdu. +</p> +<p> +The man who had smiled defiantly when the hands of his raging comrades +were seeking to tear the life out of his body and had shouted out his +crime in their faces, cowered before the anger in the flaming eyes of +this frail girl. He shrank back between his guards. The sepoys looking +on howled like hungry wolves and, as Mrs. Dermot drew the girl back, +made a rush for the murderer. The men of the guard faced them with +levelled bayonets and ringed their prisoner round; and the sepoys fell +back sullenly. +</p> +<p> +Suddenly a shrill voice cried in Hindustani: +</p> +<p> +"Make way! Make way there! What has happened?" +</p> +<p> +The circle of men gapped and through the opening came Major Hunt, +white-faced, wasted, shaking with fever and clad only in pyjamas and a +great coat and with bare feet thrust into unlaced shoes. He staggered +feebly in among them, revolver in hand. +</p> +<p> +"Heaven and Earth! Is Wargrave dead?" he cried and tottered towards the +stretcher. +</p> +<p> +Suddenly the pistol dropped from his shaking hand and he fell forward on +the stones before Macdonald could catch him. +</p> +<p> +"This is madness," muttered the doctor. "It may kill him. I hoped he +wouldn't hear the alarm." +</p> +<p> +"Bring him to my house too," said Mrs. Dermot. +</p> +<p> +Another stretcher was fetched, the Major lifted tenderly into it, and +the sad procession started, the sepoys falling back silently to make +way. +</p> +<p> +Major Hunt having been put to bed in one of the guest-rooms of the +Political Officer's house, Macdonald, with the aid of the subaltern's +servant, undressed Wargrave and examined his injuries, Noreen holding a +basin for him while Muriel, shuddering, carried away the blood-tinged +water and brought fresh. The shot-wound, though severe, was not +necessarily dangerous, and the bullet had not lodged in him. The doctor +was relieved to find that the bayonet had not penetrated deeply but had +only glanced along a rib, tearing the intercostal muscles and inflicting +a long, jagged but superficial wound which bled freely. Indeed, the most +serious matter was the great loss of blood, which had weakened the +subaltern considerably. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave did not recover consciousness until early morning. When he +opened his eyes they fell on Muriel sitting by his bed. He showed no +surprise and the girl, scarce daring to believe that he was awake and +knew her, did not venture to move. But as he continued to look steadily +at her she gently laid her hand on his where it lay on the coverlet. +</p> +<p> +Then in a weak voice he said: +</p> +<p> +"Dearest, I mustn't love you, I mustn't. I'm bound in honour—bound to +another woman and I must play the game. It's hard sometimes. But if I +die I want you to know I loved you, only you." +</p> +<p> +Her heart seemed to stop suddenly, then beat again with redoubled force. +Was he conscious? Was he speaking to her? Did he know what his words +meant? She waited eagerly for him to continue; but his hand closed on +hers in a weak grip and, shutting his eyes, he seemed to sleep. The girl +sank on her knees beside the bed and stared at the pale face that in +those few hours had grown so hollow and haggard. Did he really love her? +The thought was joy—until the damning memory of his other words +recurred to her and a sharp pain pierced her heart. There was another +woman then—one who held his promise. Who was she? He could not be +secretly married, surely; no, it must be that he was engaged to some +other girl. But he loved her—her, Muriel. He wanted to say so, he had +said so, though he strove to hold back, in honour bound. He would play +the game—ah! that he would do at any cost to himself. For she knew his +chivalrous nature. But he loved her—she was sure of it. Then the doubts +came again—did he know what he was saying? Was it perhaps only delirium +that spoke, the fever of his wounds? The girl suffered an agony worse +than death as she knelt beside the bed, her forehead on his hand. And +Noreen, entering softly an hour later, found her still crouched there, +weeping bitterly but silently. +</p> +<p> +Shortly after sunrise Macdonald entered the house, wan and haggard, for +he had not been to bed all night. Besides the hours that he had spent +with his patients he had been busy in the Fort all night. He had to make +an autopsy of the dead man, and, as the only officer available, +investigate the crime, examine the witnesses and the prisoner who calmly +confessed his guilt, and telegraph the news of the occurrences to +Regimental, Divisional and Army Headquarters. He found Major Hunt +sleeping peacefully; but Wargrave woke as he tiptoed into the room and +looked up at him, at first not seeing the women. He was fully conscious +and asked eagerly for an account of what had happened. Noreen and Muriel +shuddered at the delight with which he heard of the murderer's capture; +for they were too tender-hearted to understand his passionate desire to +avenge the cruel slaying of one of his men. When he turned away from +Macdonald and saw Muriel his eyes shone eagerly for a moment, then +seemed to dull as memory returned to him. He begged Mrs. Dermot to +forgive him for upsetting her domestic arrangements by his intrusion +into the house. +</p> +<p> +Later in the morning Noreen was sitting alone with him, having sent +Muriel to lie down for a couple of hours. She had not been to bed +herself, but after a bath and a change of clothing had given her +children their breakfast and bidden them make no noise, because their +beloved "Fwankie" was lying ill in the house. Yet she could not forbear +to smile when she saw the portentous gravity with which Eileen tiptoed +out into the garden to tell Badshah the news and order him to be very +quiet. +</p> +<p> +Now, looking fresh and bright, she sat beside Wargrave's bed. Since the +doctor had left him he had lain thinking. He felt that Violet must be +informed at once that he had been hurt but was in no danger, lest she +might learn of the occurrence through another source and believe him to +be worse than he really was. As he looked at Mrs. Dermot the desire to +ask her instead of Macdonald if she would be the one to communicate with +Mrs. Norton grew overwhelming, and he felt that he wanted to confide to +her the whole story, sure that she would understand. And she could tell +Muriel—for he had been quite conscious when he had spoken to the girl +in the morning. It was only right that she should know the truth, but he +shrank from telling it to her himself. +</p> +<p> +So he opened his heart to Noreen; and the understanding little woman +listened sympathisingly and made no comment, and undertook to explain +the situation to Muriel. So, an hour or two later, when Macdonald was +again with the subaltern, she went to her friend's room and told her the +whole story. +</p> +<p> +The girl's first feeling was anger at the thought of Frank making love +to a married woman. +</p> +<p> +"Seems to me it's the married woman who made it to him, from what I can +gather," said Noreen, a little annoyed with Muriel for her way of +receiving the story. "He did not say so, but it was easy to guess the +truth. Now, my dear, don't be absurd. Men are not angels; and if a +pretty woman flings herself at the head of one of them it's hard for +him to keep her at arm's length. And you've seen yourself in Darjeeling +how some of them, the married ones especially, do chase them." Her eyes +grew hard as she continued, "I remember how Kevin once was——." Then +she stopped. +</p> +<p> +"But Frank! How could he? Oh, how could he? And he loved her," sobbed +the girl. +</p> +<p> +"Don't be silly, Muriel. I tell you I don't believe he ever did. He +loves you now." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, do you think he does? What am I to do?" +</p> +<p> +"Nothing. Merely go along as you've been doing. Just be friendly. And +don't be hard on him. He's had a bad time. I've always felt that there +was something troubling him. Now I know; and I'm not going to let him +ruin himself and throw away his happiness for a woman who's not worth +it. He's the nicest, cleanest-minded man I've known after Kevin and my +brother. He saved my babies, and for that I'd do anything for him. I +feel almost as if he were one of my children; and I'll stand by him if +you won't." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, but I will, I will," cried the girl. "But how can I help him?" +</p> +<p> +"As I said, by acting as if nothing had happened and just keeping on +being friends. It oughtn't to be hard. See how he's suffering and think +how brave he's been. Remember, he loves you; and you do care for him, +don't you? I've an idea that he hopes that this woman is tiring of him +and may set him free. Of course he didn't say as much, but——." She +nodded sagely. Her intuition had told her more of his feelings in a +minute than Frank had dared to acknowledge to himself in many months. +"Anything I can do to help to bring that about I will." +</p> +<p> +The days went by; and Wargrave, aided by his clean living, the devoted +nursing that he received, and the cool, healthy mountain air, began to +mend. Major Hunt had recovered and returned to duty, relieving the +officer sent from Headquarters to command during his illness. Colonel +Dermot had come back from Simla with Frank's appointment to the +Political Department as his assistant in his pocket. The murdered man +had long ago been laid to rest by his comrades; but his slayer still sat +fettered in the one cell of the Fort awaiting the assembling of the +General Court Martial for his trial, and seeing from his barred window +the even routine of the life that had been his for three years still +going on, but with no place in it for him. +</p> +<p> +The period of Wargrave's convalescence was a very happy time for him. +Muriel had remained a whole month after the eventful night; for Mrs. +Dermot declared that, with the care of her house and children, she had +no time to nurse the subaltern, and the girl must stay to do it while he +was in any danger. So she lingered in the station to do him willing +service, wait on him, chat or read to him, give him her arm when he was +first allowed to leave his room, and did it all with the bright, +cheerful kindness of a friend, no more. She never alluded to his words +to her; but her patient somehow guessed that she had not been angered by +the revelation of the state of his feelings towards her. And from the +tenderness of her manner to him, the unconscious jealousy that she +displayed if anyone but she did any service for him, he began to half +hope, half fear, that she cared a little for him in return. But even as +he thought this he realised that he must not allow her to do so. +</p> +<p> +At last the time came when she had to return to her father down in the +vast forest; and bravely as she said goodbye to everyone—and most of +all to Frank—the tears blinded her as she sat on the back of the +elephant that bore her away and saw the hills close in and shut from her +gaze the little station that held her heart. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave, however, was not left to pine in loneliness after her +departure. All day long, if they were allowed, the children stayed with +him, Eileen smothering him with caresses at regular intervals. They told +him their doings, confided their dearest secrets to him and demanded +stories. And "Fwankie" racked his brains to recall the fairy tales of +his own childhood to repeat to the golden-haired mites perched on his +bed and gazing at him in awed fascination, the girl uttering little +shrieks at all the harrowing details of the wicked deeds of Giant +Blunderbore and the cruel deceit of the wolf that devoured Red +Ridinghood. +</p> +<p> +But the subaltern, had a grimmer visitor one day. The orders came at +last for Gul Mahommed to be sent to Calcutta to stand his trial without +waiting for Wargrave's recovery, the latter's evidence being taken on +commission. The prisoner begged that he might be allowed to see the +wounded officer before he left; and, Frank having consented, he was +brought to the subaltern's bedroom when he was marched out of the Fort +on the first stage of his journey to the gallows. +</p> +<p> +It was a dramatic scene. The stalwart young Pathan in uniform with his +wrists handcuffed stood with all the bold bearing of his race by the +bedside of the man that he had tried to kill, while two powerful sepoys +armed with drawn bayonets hemmed him in, their hands on his shoulders. +</p> +<p> +The prisoner looked for a moment at the pale face of the wounded man, +then his bold eyes suffused with tears as he said: +</p> +<p> +"<i>Huzoor</i>! (The Presence!) I am sorry. Had I known that night it was +Your Honour I would not have lifted my rifle against you. The Sahib has +always been good to me, to all of us. My enemy I slew, as we of the +<i>Puktana</i> must do to all who insult us. That deed I do not regret." +</p> +<p> +Wargrave looked up sorrowfully at the splendidly-built young +fellow—barely twenty-one—who had only done as he had been taught to do +from his cradle. Among Pathans blood only can wash away the stain of an +insult. The officer felt no anger against him for his own injuries and +regretted that false notions of honour had led him to kill a comrade and +were now sending him to a shameful death. +</p> +<p> +"I am sorry, Gul Mahommed, very sorry," he said. "You were always a good +soldier, and now you must die." +</p> +<p> +The Pathan drew himself up with all the haughty pride of his race. +</p> +<p> +"I do not fear death, Sahib. They will give me the noose. But my father +can spare me. He has five other sons to fight for him. If only the Sahib +would forgive——." +</p> +<p> +Wargrave, much moved, held out his hand to him. The prisoner touched it +with his manacled ones, then raised his fingers to his forehead. +</p> +<p> +"For your kindness, Sahib, <i>salaam</i>!" +</p> +<p> +Then he turned and walked proudly out of the room and Wargrave heard the +tramp of heavy feet on the rocky road outside as the prisoner was +marched away on the long trail to the gallows. Two months later Gul +Mahommed was hanged in the courtyard of Alipur jail in Calcutta before +detachments of all the regiments garrisoning the city. +</p> +<p> +The subaltern had long chafed at the restraint of an invalid before +Macdonald took him off the sick-list and he was free to wander again +with Colonel Dermot in the forest and among the mountains. Before the +hot weather ended Raymond came to spend three weeks with him and be +initiated into the delights of sport in the great jungle. +</p> +<p> +When the long imprisonment of the rains came Wargrave began to suffer in +health; for his wounds had sapped his strength more than he knew and +Macdonald shook his head over him. Nor was he the only invalid; for +little Brian grew pale and listless in the mists that enveloped the +outpost constantly now, until finally the doctor decreed that his +mother, much as she hated parting from her husband and her home, must +take the children to Darjeeling. And he ordered the subaltern to go too. +Frank did not repine, after Mrs. Dermot had casually intimated that +Muriel Benson was arranging to join her at the railway station and +accompany her on a long visit to Darjeeling. +</p> +<p> +It was Wargrave's first introduction to a hill-station; and everything +was a delightful novelty to him, from the quaint little train that +brought them up the seven thousand feet to their destination in the +pretty town of villas, clubs and hotels in the mountains, to the +glorious panorama of the Eternal Snows and Kinchinjunga's lofty crests +that rise like fairyland into the sky at early dawn and under the +brilliant Indian moon. +</p> +<p> +As Mrs. Dermot could not often leave her children it was Muriel, who +knew Darjeeling well, who became his guide. Together every day they set +out from their hotel, together they scaled the heights of Jalapahar or +rode down to watch the polo on the flat hill-top of Lebong, a thousand +feet below. Together they explored the fascinating bazaar and bought +ghost-daggers and turquoises in the quaint little shops. Together they +went on picnics down into the deep valleys on the way to Sikkhim. They +played tennis, rinked or danced together at the Amusement Club; and the +ladies at the tea-tables in the great lounge smiled significantly and +whispered to each other as the good-looking fair man and the pretty, +dark-haired girl came in together when the light was fading on the +mountains. Frank forgot cares. He ceased to brood unhappily—for it had +come to that—on Violet, who, as her rare letters told him, had spent +the Hot Weather in the Bombay hill-station of Mahableshwar and was now +enjoying life during the Rains in gay Poona. She seldom wrote, and then +but scrappily; and it seemed to him certain that she was forgetting him. +And he felt ashamed at the joy which filled him at the thought. Was he +always destined to be only the friend of the girl he loved, the lover of +the woman to whom he wished to be a friend? +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0012" id="h2HCH0012"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XII +</h2> +<h3> + "ROOTED IN DISHONOUR" +</h3> +<p> +Government House, Ganeshkind, outside Poona, the residence of the +Governor of Bombay during the Rains, was blazing with light and gay with +the sound of music; for His Excellency was giving a fancy dress ball. +Motors and carriages were still rolling up in a long line to the +entrance where the gorgeously-clad Indian Cavalry soldiers of the +Governor's Bodyguard—tall and stately back-bearded men in long scarlet +tunics, white breeches and high black boots, their heads swathed in +gaudy <i>loongies</i> (turbans) with tails streaming down their backs, +holding steel-headed bamboo lances with red and white pennons in their +white-gauntleted right hands—lined the approach. Inside, the splendid +ballroom, ablaze with electric lights, was crowded with gaily-dressed +figures in costumes beautiful or bizarre. The good-looking, middle-aged +baron who was the King's representative in the Bombay Presidency was +standing, dressed as Charles II., beside his plain but pleasant-featured +wife in the garb of Amy Robsart, receiving the last of their guests, +while already the dancing had begun. +</p> +<p> +Later in the evening a group of officers in varied costumes stood near +one of the entrances criticising the dresses and the company. +</p> +<p> +"By George, that's a magnificent kit," said a Garrison Gunner just +arrived on short leave from Bombay. "What's it supposed to be?" +</p> +<p> +"A Polish hussar, I think," replied a subaltern in Wellesley's Rifles. +</p> +<p> +"No, he's Murat, Napoleon's cavalry leader," said an Indian Lancer +captain. +</p> +<p> +The wearer of the costume alluded to was passing them in a waltz. He was +a young man in a splendid old-time hussar uniform, a scarlet dolman +thick-laced with gold, a fur-trimmed slung pelisse, tight scarlet +breeches embroidered down the front of the thighs in gold, and long red +Russian leather boots with gold tassels. He was good-looking, but not in +an English way, and the swarthiness of his complexion and a slight kink +in his dark hair seemed to hint a trace of coloured blood. He was +plainly Israelite in appearance; and the large nose with the +unmistakable racial curved nostril would become bulbous with years, the +firm cheeks flabby and the plump chin double. +</p> +<p> +"That dress cost some money, I'll bet," said the Gunner, cheaply attired +as a Pierrot. "Just look at the gold lace. I say, he's got glass +buttons." +</p> +<p> +"Glass be hanged, Fergie, they're diamonds. Real diamonds, honour +bright, Murat wore diamonds. He was buckin' about them in the Club +to-night," said a captain in a British infantry regiment quartered in +Poona. "That's Rosenthal of the 2nd Hussars from Bangalore. Son of old +Rosenthal the South African multi-millionaire. A Sheeny, of course." +</p> +<p> +"Who's the woman he's dancing with?" asked the Gunner. "Jolly +good-looking she is." +</p> +<p> +"That's Mrs. Norton, wife of a Political somewhere in the Presidency. +Rosenthal's always in her pocket since he met her at Mahableshwar." +</p> +<p> +As the dance ended the many couples streamed out of the ballroom and +made for the <i>kala juggas</i>—the "black places," as the sitting-out spots +are appropriately termed in India from the carefully-arranged lack of +light in them. Mrs. Norton, looking very lovely as Mary, Queen of Scots, +and her partner crossed the verandah and went out into the unlit garden +in search of seats. The first few they stumbled on were already +occupied, a fact that the darkness prevented them from realising until +they almost sat down on the occupants. At last in a retired corner of +the garden Rosenthal found a bench in a recess in the wall. As they +seated themselves he blurted out roughly: +</p> +<p> +"I'm sick of all this, Vi. When do you mean to give me your answer? I'm +damned if I'm going to hang on waiting much longer. I'm fed up with +India and the Army. I mean to cut it all." +</p> +<p> +"Well, Harry, what do you want?" asked his companion, smiling in the +darkness at his vehemence. +</p> +<p> +"Want? You. And you know it. I want to take you away from this rotten +country. What's all this——," he waved his hand towards the lighted +ballroom, "compared to Paris, Monte Carlo, Cairo, Ostend when the races +are on? Let's go where life is worth living. This is stagnation." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, I find it amusing. You forget, we women have a better time in India +than in Europe. There are too many of us there, so you don't value us." +</p> +<p> +"Better time. Oh, Law! What rot!" He laughed rudely. "You've never lived +yet, dear. Look here, Vi. My father's one of the three richest men in +South Africa; and all he's got will come to me some day. As it is he +gives me an allowance bigger than those of all the other men in the +regiment put together. I hate the Service and its idiotic discipline. I +want to be free—to go where money counts. Damn India!" +</p> +<p> +"Doesn't it count everywhere?" she asked, fanning herself lazily. His +rough, almost boorish, manner amused her always. She felt as if she were +playing with a caged tiger. "Doesn't it here?" +</p> +<p> +"No; in the Army they seem to think more of some damned pauper who comes +of a 'county family,' as they call it, than of a fellow like me who +could buy up a dozen of them. I hate them all. And I mean to chuck it. +But I want you to come with me, Vi. And, what's more, I mean to have +you." +</p> +<p> +"But your father wishes you to stay in the Service. You told me so +yourself. Will he like it if you leave—and will he continue your +allowance?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, I'll get round him. He's only got me. He's no one else to leave his +money to. It'd be all right, Vi. Answer me. I mean to get you." +</p> +<p> +He grasped her wrist and tried to drag her towards him. She laughed and +held him off. +</p> +<p> +"Take care, my dear boy. Darkness has ears. We're not alone in the +garden, please remember. If you can't behave prettily I'm going back to +the ballroom. Come, there's the music beginning again." +</p> +<p> +He tried to seize her in his arms, but she eluded his grasp with a +dexterity that argued practice, and, rising, moved across the grass. He +followed sulkily, dominated by her cool and careless indifference. When +they reached the verandah one of the Government House aides-de-camp +rushed up to her. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Mrs. Norton, I've been hunting for you everywhere. I've a message +from His Excellency. He wants you to come to his table at supper and +save him from the Members of Council's awful wives." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, thanks, Captain Gardner, I'll come with pleasure," she answered, +smiling prettily on him. An A.D.C. is always worth cultivating. +</p> +<p> +"I say, is it hopeless asking you for a dance now?" he said. "We poor +devils of the Staff don't get a chance at the beginning of the evening, +as we're so busy introducing people to Their Excellencies." +</p> +<p> +She looked at her programme. +</p> +<p> +"You can have this, if you like. It's only with some Indian Civilian in +spectacles; and I hate the Heaven Born. They're such bores." She smiled +and sailed off on the A.D.C.'s arm to the disgust of Rosenthal, calmly +abandoned. But he could not help being amused when a round-faced young +man dressed as an ancient Greek with gig-lamp spectacles rushed up to +overtake Mrs. Norton before she entered the ballroom, and stopped in +dismay to gaze after her open-mouthed and peer at his programme. +</p> +<p> +But the Hussar drove her back from Government House to Poona in his +particularly luxurious Rolls-Royce with an English chauffeur and would +hardly let her go when the car drew up before the door of the Munster +Hotel where she was staying. Laughing, crushed and dishevelled, she +broke from him and jumped out of the automobile, ran up the verandah +steps and turned to wave to him as the chauffeur started off to take him +to his quarters in the Club of Western India. +</p> +<p> +Still smiling Violet stumbled up the unlighted stairs and reached her +sitting-room. When she turned up the lamp a letter lying on the table +caught her eyes. She picked it up indifferently; but when she saw that +it bore the handwriting of one of her Calcutta cousins and the +Darjeeling postmark she tore it open eagerly and ran her eye rapidly +down the pages. She came to the lines: +</p> +<p class="quote"> + "I have seen the man you asked me about. He is always with a girl + called Benson, rather a pretty little thing. She is popular with all + the men; but Mr. Wargrave seems to be the favourite. They are + staying at the same hotel; and everyone says they are engaged." +</p> +<p> +Then the writer went on to talk of family matters. But Violet read no +more. Her eyes flamed with anger as she crumpled the paper up, flung it +on the floor and stamped it under foot. She paced the room angrily, +tearing the lace handkerchief she held in her hands to shreds. This, +then, was Frank's loyalty to her, this was how he consoled himself for +her absence. With this chit of a girl, with whom he probably laughed at +her, Violet's readiness to give up reputation, good fame, home, for him. +She almost sobbed with jealous rage at the idea. She forgot her own +infidelities and want of remembrance and felt herself to be a deceived +and much-abused woman. But she would not bear such treatment meekly. +Frank was hers; no other woman had a right to him, should ever have him. +She was resolved on that. She stopped and, picking up the letter, +smoothed it out and re-read it. Then, frowning, she passed into her +bedroom and tore off her costume. Not for an instant did she sleep +during the remainder of the night, but tossed on her bed, revolving +plans of vengeance. +</p> +<p> +Next day she was seated in the train on her way to Darjeeling, a +journey that would take days. She had telegraphed fruitlessly for a room +at the Oriental Hotel at which she knew from his letters that Frank was +staying; but she had secured one at the larger Eastern Palace where her +Calcutta relatives were residing. Only on the second day of her journey +did she wire to Wargrave, bidding him meet her on her arrival. +</p> +<p> +As the train carried her across India her heart was still filled with +anger, jealousy and almost hate of the man whom she had favoured above +all others and who spurned her, dared to be faithless to her, it seemed. +She did not know how much love she had left for him; for his image had +grown dim in the flight of time and among the distractions of gayer +stations than Rohar. Certainly she had flirted herself, flirted +recklessly; but that was a different matter to his faithlessness. She +might do it; but he must not. Did she want him? She hardly knew. But she +was not going to be put aside for this tiger-killing young person, this +jungle girl, who must be taught not to trespass on Violet's property. +</p> +<p> +Then her mind went back to Rosenthal; and in the solitude of the ladies' +compartment she laughed aloud at the thought of the shock that his +self-sufficiency must have received when he learned of her sudden and +mysterious disappearance from Poona. For she had left him no word. It +would do him good; he needed a lesson, for he was too sure of her. She +had never troubled to analyse her feelings for him and did not know +whether she liked or hated him most. She saw his faults clearly, his +blatant conceit, his irritating belief in the supremacy of money, his +arrogance, his bad manners. She knew that men deemed him a bounder. But +his very boorishness, his savage outbreaks against conventionality, +attracted her. Under the thin veneer of civilisation, he was simply an +animal; she knew it and it appealed to her baser nature, the sensual +strain in her. That he was beast, and wild beast at that, did not +affright her; she felt that she could always dominate him when she +would. Once or twice the beast had come out into the open; but she had +driven it back with a whip—and she believed that she could always do +it. The wealth, the life of luxury that he offered, appealed to her +strongly; but she kept her head and remembered that he was dependent on +his father's bounty, and she had no intention of compromising herself +irretrievably under such circumstances. If he had the disposal of the +old man's immense riches then the temptation might be over-powering; but +until he had she would wait. And ever the memory of Wargrave obtruded +itself, rather to her annoyance; but angry as she was with him she could +not pretend to herself that she was indifferent to him. +</p> +<p> +Up in Darjeeling on the very day that she left Poona Frank sat with +Miss Benson under a massive, orchid-clad tree in the lovely Botanical +Gardens, gazing moodily down into the depths of the valley far below +them. Turning suddenly he found his companion looking at him. Something +in her eyes moved him strongly and he forgot his caution. +</p> +<p> +"Muriel, you know how it is with, me," he said impetuously. "I oughtn't +to say anything; but—well, all the men here run after you, and I can't +bear it. I'm a fool, I know, but I can't help being jealous. I'm always +afraid that some one of them will take you from me. The other woman +seems to be forgetting me completely. She hasn't written to me for +weeks, months. Surely she's tiring of me. I don't suppose she ever +really cared for me—just was bored in that dull station. If—if she +sets me free would you—could you ever like me well enough to marry me?" +</p> +<p> +The girl looked away over the valley and a little smile crept into her +eyes. Then she turned to him and laid her hand on his. +</p> +<p> +"Dear boy, if you were free I would," she answered. +</p> +<p> +They were all alone, no one to see them; and his arms went out to her. +But she drew back. +</p> +<p> +"Not yet, dear. You're another woman's property still," she said. +</p> +<p> +He bit his lip. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, you're right, sweetheart. But—well, even if I weren't, I haven't +much to offer you. I'm still in debt; and I'd be only condemning you to +pass all your existence in the jungle." +</p> +<p> +"There'd be no hardship in that, dear. I love the forest better than +anywhere else in the world. Life in it is happiness to me." +</p> +<p> +"But would you be content to live as Mrs. Dermot does?" +</p> +<p> +"Content? I'd love it better than anything else, if I were with you." +</p> +<p> +Then he forgot her reproof and she her high-minded resolves as his arms +went round her and he drew her to him until their lips met in a long, +passionate kiss. Afterwards they sat hand in hand and talked of what the +future would hold for them if only Fate were kind. And Mrs. Norton, +speeding across India to shatter their dream-world, smiled a little +grimly as she pictured to herself her meeting with Frank. +</p> +<p> +Next day the blow fell. Wargrave was sitting at lunch with Mrs. Dermot +and Muriel in the hotel dining-room when Violet's telegram was handed to +him. His companions could see that he had received bad news; but he +pulled himself together and said nothing about it until he was alone +with Mrs. Dermot in her private sitting-room after <i>tiffin</i>. Then he +exclaimed suddenly, handing her the telegram: +</p> +<p> +"She's on her way here." +</p> +<p> +Noreen understood even before she looked at the paper. When she read +the message she asked: +</p> +<p> +"What's she coming here for?" +</p> +<p> +"I don't know. I haven't had a letter from her for a long time," he +replied wearily. +</p> +<p> +"What are you going to do about her?" +</p> +<p> +"What can I?" he said with a gesture of despair. "It's for her to +decide. If she wishes it I must keep my word." +</p> +<p> +"But Muriel? What of her? You know she cares for you. Has she no right +to be considered?" demanded her friend impatiently. "Are you going to +ruin her life as well as yours? This woman will only drag you down. She +can't really be fond of you or she wouldn't forget you as she's been +doing. You don't love her. Don't you see what it will all mean to +you?—to be pilloried in the Divorce Court, made to pay enormous costs, +perhaps heavy damages as well. And even now you say you're in debt. And +then to be chained for life to a woman you don't care about while you're +in love with another. Oh, Mr. Wargrave, do be sensible. Tell her the +truth. Tell her you can't go on with it." +</p> +<p> +"I've given her my word," he said simply. +</p> +<p> +She pleaded with him passionately, but to no avail. At last, as Muriel +entered the room, she rose, saying: +</p> +<p> +"Tell her. I'll not mention the subject again." +</p> +<p> +And she walked indignantly into her bedroom and shut the door almost +with a bang; for the little woman was furious with him for what she +deemed his crass stupidity. +</p> +<p> +"What's the matter with Noreen?" asked the girl in surprise. +</p> +<p> +Without a word he gave her the telegram. +</p> +<p> +"Oh Frank!" she gasped, and sank overwhelmed into a chair, letting the +fatal paper flutter to the floor. +</p> +<p> +He did not go to her but stood by the window, the image of despair, +gazing out with unseeing eyes. +</p> +<p> +"What am I to do?" he asked miserably. +</p> +<p> +"You must keep your word if she wishes it," answered the girl bravely. +</p> +<p> +But the next moment she broke down and, burying her face in her hands, +wept bitterly. He made no move to her; and she rose and went quietly +back to her own room. +</p> +<p> +In the interval that elapsed before Violet's arrival Mrs. Dermot did not +abandon hope, and in spite of her words she attacked Wargrave +persistently, trying to shake his resolution. But to her despair Muriel +sided with him and declared that he was right. So finally Noreen gave it +up and vowed that she would wash her hands of the whole affair. +</p> +<p> +When Violet reached Darjeeling Wargrave met her at the railway station. +Face to face with him her anger died and something of the attraction he +had had for her revived. So she greeted him effusively and all but +embraced him on the platform. Other men seeing the meeting wondered why +he looked so miserable when such a lovely woman evinced her delight at +seeing him so plainly. She passed her arm through his with an air of +possession and chatted volubly while he watched his servant help hers to +collect her luggage. When she took her seat in the <i>dandy</i>, or chair +carried on the shoulders of coolies, and was being conveyed towards her +hotel she behaved as though they had not been parted a week, rattled on +gaily about her doings in Poona and Mahableshwar and, with all the +glories of the Himalayas about her, declared that the Bombay +hill-station was far lovelier than Darjeeling. Wargrave was relieved +that she showed no desire to be sentimental and gladly responded to her +mood, detailing the forthcoming gaieties and promising to take her to +them all. +</p> +<p> +When they reached the Eastern Palace Hotel and were shown up into her +private sitting-room she put her hands on his shoulders as soon as they +were alone and said: +</p> +<p> +"Let me look at you, Frank. You have improved. You've grown handsomer, I +think. Aren't you going to kiss me?" +</p> +<p> +He did it with so little fervour that she made a grimace and thought +"It's quite time that I came to bring him to heel. Not much loving +ardour about that. I wonder if he kisses the jungle girl as coldly." +Aloud she said: +</p> +<p> +"Now let's go down to <i>tiffin</i>. I'm starving. Will you please secure a +table and I'll follow you in a few minutes?" +</p> +<p> +During the meal she chattered gaily, criticised the dresses and +appearance of the other women in the dining-room and, chaffing him +merrily on his want of appetite, ate a substantial meal herself. Mrs. +Dermot, anxious to befriend him, had thought that she could help him by +inviting him to bring Mrs. Norton to tea with her that afternoon. When +during <i>tiffin</i> he hesitatingly conveyed the invitation Violet said: +</p> +<p> +"Oh, I don't want to be bothered with women, my dear boy. Take me out +and show me the place and the shops and the <i>Gymkhana</i>—what do you call +it here? Oh, the Amusement Club. No, stop a minute. Mrs. Dermot is your +dear friend from Ranga Duar, isn't she? So she's here. And the other, +the jungle girl, where is she?" +</p> +<p> +Frank flushed as he replied: +</p> +<p> +"I suppose you mean Miss Benson? She's with Mrs. Dermot." +</p> +<p> +"So you're all staying at the same hotel. How very nice for you! But, my +dear Frank, doesn't it strike you that it'll be rather dull for me +staying by myself here? You'll have to change to this hotel." +</p> +<p> +"I asked about rooms here; but they told me they're full up now." +</p> +<p> +"I'll see if I can't get round the manager and make him find a corner +for you. Well, now for this tea-party. Yes; on second thoughts I'll go. +I'd like to see the ladies who've been consoling you for my absence." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, nonsense, Violet. They haven't. They're just friends, that's all," +he said irritably. +</p> +<p> +"Of course, dear; I know. Well, tell me what these 'just friends' are +like." +</p> +<p> +She certainly derived little idea of them from Wargrave's lame attempt +at description. And when later she and he were shown into Mrs. Dermot's +sitting-room at tea-time Noreen and Muriel found his picture of her as a +meek, long-suffering, neglected wife very unlike the radiant, +condescending lady who patronised them from the start. She showed a +tendency to address most of her conversation to the girl, despite the +latter's evident disinclination to talk, or perhaps because of it; for +the older woman seemed to take an impish delight in teasing her about +her friendship with Wargrave and their relations as nurse and patient, +although it was apparent that her malicious humour made the others +uncomfortable. She paraded her authority over Frank and treated him like +a hen-pecked husband. When finally she bore him away to escort her to the +Amusement Club she left the two girls speechless behind her. But not +for the same reason. Noreen was furious. +</p> +<p> +"What a hateful woman!" she exclaimed as soon as her visitor departed. +"And I pitied her as a poor neglected wife! What do you think of her?" +</p> +<p> +Muriel only shook her head, as she sat looking despondent and thoroughly +miserable. Mrs. Norton's malice affected her little, but her undoubted +loveliness had made her despair. How could an insignificant little +person like herself, she thought, hope to win affection from any man +whom this radiant beauty deigned to favour? Frank could not help adoring +so attractive a woman. He must have loved her in Rohar, although he said +that he had not. Muriel felt that she could have resigned herself more +easily to his keeping his word to Violet, if the latter had been less +good-looking. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Dermot broke in on her miserable thoughts. +</p> +<p> +"Come, dear, we'll take the children for their walk and then go on later +to the Amusement Club." +</p> +<p> +"I couldn't go to the Club this evening, Noreen. I really couldn't. We'd +only see that woman again—with Frank." +</p> +<p> +"Well, what of it? We're not going to let her think we're afraid to face +her. I've no patience with Mr. Wargrave. Whatever he can see in her I +can't think. You're worth twenty of her, darling. Shallow, conceited. +She neglected? She badly treated? My sympathy is with her husband now. +What fools men are!" And Noreen swept indignantly from the room. +</p> +<p> +Every moment of the hour that they spent in the Club that evening was a +lifetime of torture to Muriel. She had faced a charging tiger with less +dread than she did the crowd at the tea-tables in the rink. She fancied +that every woman who looked at her was laughing in her sleeve at her, +that every man who bowed or spoke to her was pitying her. Suddenly her +heart seemed to stop beating, for she saw Frank sitting with Mrs. Norton +and two other ladies, her Calcutta cousins, as well as a couple of men +in the British Infantry regiment at Lebong. They were looking at her; +and she felt that Violet was pointing her out as the deserted maiden. +She tried to smile bravely when her rival waved her hand and called out +a cheery "good evening" to her and Noreen, who answered the greeting +with an almost defiant air of unconcern. +</p> +<p> +For days afterwards she saw practically nothing of Wargrave, who was +obliged to be in constant attendance on Mrs. Norton. Violet had induced +the manager of her hotel to find a room for him; and he was forced to +transfer himself and his belongings to the Eastern Palace. She +monopolised him, insisted on his taking her shopping in the mornings, +calling in the afternoons or to Lebong to watch the polo, or else +playing tennis with her at the Amusement Club. He dined with her every +evening and escorted her to the dances, concerts or theatricals that +filled the nights during the Season. He hardly recognised her in the gay +social butterfly with seemingly never a care in the world; and she made +him wonder every day if she had any love left for him or wanted him to +have any for her. For she showed no desire to be sentimental and treated +him very much as she had in the early days of their acquaintance. She +never discussed their future. He had not the moral courage to ask her +outright if she still wanted to come to him. She gave no indication of +being happy only in his company; for she soon began to release him from +attendance on her on occasions in favour of some one or other of the new +men friends that she rapidly made. He took advantage of this to see +something of Muriel again. +</p> +<p> +But this did not suit Mrs. Norton. Even if she did not want Frank +herself that was no reason why the girl should have him. She tried being +jealous and insisted on his breaking off the friendship; but, although +he hated the scenes that ensued, he resolutely refused to do so. Then +Violet adopted another plan. She pretended to be convinced by his +assurances that it meant nothing and declared that she wished to be +friends with Muriel. She went out of her way to be nice to the girl when +they met in public and at last invited her to tea at the Eastern Palace +Hotel on an afternoon on which she knew Mrs. Dermot to be engaged. +Muriel accepted because she did not know very well how to refuse. +</p> +<p> +When she was shown into Mrs. Norton's private sitting-room she found +Wargrave already there with her hostess, who received her very amiably. +During tea the conversation flowed in safe channels at first. But +suddenly Violet startled her guests by saying: +</p> +<p> +"Now, Miss Benson, that we three are alone I think it a good opportunity +to speak very plainly about Frank's relations with you. I've just been +giving him a serious talking to about the way he has behaved to you." +</p> +<p> +The girl drew herself up haughtily. +</p> +<p> +"What do you mean, Mrs. Norton," she said. "The way Mr. Wargrave has +behaved——? I don't understand you." +</p> +<p> +"Oh yes, you do. It's best to speak plainly. I'm afraid Frank has been +leading you to believe that he's in love with you——." +</p> +<p> +"Violet!" broke in Wargrave angrily. "Please don't go on. You've no +right to say such things." +</p> +<p> +She smiled sweetly on him. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I have, Frank. You know, my dear boy, that you've got pretty ways +with women—I fear he's rather a flirt, Miss Benson—that you are apt to +make some of them think you mean more than you do." +</p> +<p> +"What absurd nonsense!" he cried, more angrily still. "Please stop, I +beg of you." +</p> +<p> +"No, Frank, it is only right that I should warn Miss Benson." She +turned to the girl. "He hasn't told you, I'm sure, that he's not free to +marry you or any other girl." +</p> +<p> +Wargrave sprang up. +</p> +<p> +"I've told her everything about us, Violet," he protested. "I ask you as +a favour to drop the subject." +</p> +<p> +The girl sat as if turned to stone while Mrs. Norton went on: +</p> +<p> +"You are young, my dear, and can't know much about men. I suppose you've +lived in the jungle all your life. Now, a little bird has told me you've +let yourself get too fond of Frank—oh, he's very charming, I know, and +this playing at nursing a poor wounded hero is a dangerous game. But I'm +going to tell you plainly that Frank is pledged to me. He has asked me +to leave my husband for him, and I've consented; so there's no use your +trying to catch him, my dear. You're too late." +</p> +<p> +The girl sprang indignantly to her feet. +</p> +<p> +"I've done nothing of the sort, Mrs. Norton. How dare you say so? You've +no right to speak to me as you're doing." +</p> +<p> +The older woman sat back coolly in her chair and laughed; but her eyes +grew hard. +</p> +<p> +"Oh yes, I have, my dear girl. You two were the talk of Darjeeling +before I came. Of course you're angry, naturally, at failing to catch +him, but I'm going to put a stop to your trying, here and now. He has +got to break with you." +</p> +<p> +"You are a wicked woman," began the girl; and then indignation choked +her. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Norton leant forward in her chair. +</p> +<p> +"Can you deny that you're in love with him?" she asked. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave tried to interpose; but the girl waved him aside and faced her +rival. +</p> +<p> +"I'll answer you. I am. I love him as you could never do. I was willing +to give him up to you—for he loves me, not you—so that he should not +be false to his word. I didn't know what you were like, then. But now I +don't believe you'd ever make him happy. You don't love him—you haven't +got it in you. You wouldn't be content with any one man. I've watched +you. You're absolutely heartless; and you'd only make Frank miserable. +You're willing to disgrace him as well as yourself. You don't mind if +you ruin him. Frank——" +</p> +<p> +She turned towards Wargrave. +</p> +<p> +"You said you loved me. Is it true?" +</p> +<p> +He answered firmly: +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I do." +</p> +<p> +"Then will you marry me? This woman will only wreck your life. Choose +between us." +</p> +<p> +He turned in desperation to Mrs. Norton. +</p> +<p> +"Violet, you don't really want me, do you? You don't love me. I've felt +for a long time that you're forgetting me. I love Muriel and she loves +me. If you ever cared for me release me from my promise." +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Norton lay back calmly in her chair and looked with a smile from +one to the other. Then she said deliberately: +</p> +<p> +"This morning I wrote to my husband and told him that I was never +returning to him, that I was going to you, Frank. That is why I asked +this girl here to-day to tell you before her that now I'm going to ask +you to keep your promise. Will you?" +</p> +<p> +The girl looked at him appealingly and stretched out her hands to him. +</p> +<p> +"Frank, for your own sake, if not for mine, don't listen to her." +</p> +<p> +He stood irresolute, torn by conflicting emotions. Then with an effort +he replied: +</p> +<p> +"Muriel, I must. I can't break my word." +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Norton gave a mocking laugh. The girl shrank from him and hid her +face in her hands for a moment. Then she looked up and said, desperately +calm: +</p> +<p> +"Very well, be it so. You've decided and there's nothing more to be +said. You've shamed me before this woman; and I never want to see you +again." +</p> +<p> +She turned and walked out of the room. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0013" id="h2HCH0013"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XIII +</h2> +<h3> + THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE +</h3> +<p> +As Muriel passed through the door Wargrave started to follow her; but +Violet cried peremptorily: +</p> +<p> +"Frank, stay here. Please realise that I come first now. Sit down." +</p> +<p> +He obeyed mechanically. She went on petulantly: +</p> +<p> +"These emotional scenes are rather exhausting. Do you mind calling the +hotel 'boy' and ordering a cocktail for me? You ought to have one +yourself. I suppose, like all men, you hate scenes. Then you should be +grateful to me for saving you from that spiteful little jungle cat." +</p> +<p> +Going to the verandah outside the room he called a hotel servant and +gave him the order, then returned to his chair and sat down wearily. He +stared at the floor in silence. He had sent the girl that he loved away +utterly humiliated; and he knew that, with her proud spirit, the shame +of his rejection of her would cut her to the heart. He cursed himself +for bringing this pain to her. It was all his fault. Not only had he had +no right to speak of love to her while he was bound to another woman, +but he ought never to have sought her society as he had done, never +striven to gain her friendship, for by doing so he had unconsciously won +her love. The harm was done long before he spoke to her of his feelings. +What a selfish brute he was to thus cause two women to suffer! +</p> +<p> +Presently he remembered that his moodiness, his silence, were +uncomplimentary, cruel, to Violet. She was right in saying that she came +first. Indeed she was the only one to be considered now. The other had +passed out of his life. It might be that they should meet again some day +in their restricted world, but while he could he must try to avoid her. +There was only Violet left. +</p> +<p> +He looked up to find his companion's eyes fixed on him with an +undefinable expression. He roused himself with an effort that was not +lost on the woman watching him. +</p> +<p> +"So you have told your husband," he said. "Well, now we must arrange +what we are going to do." +</p> +<p> +"We won't discuss our plans at this moment," replied Violet. "I'm not in +the mood for it." Then after a pause she added bitterly, "I must give +you time to recover from the shock of the abrupt ending to your little +jungle romance." +</p> +<p> +Before he could reply the servant appeared with a tray. +</p> +<p> +"Ah, thank goodness, here are the cocktails. There's only one. Aren't +you having one, too? It will do you good. No?" +</p> +<p> +She sipped her cocktail slowly. When she had finished it she got up +from her chair, saying: +</p> +<p> +"I'll get ready to go to the Amusement Club. Will you wait for me here? +You needn't change—we won't play tennis to-day; for we've got this +dinner and dance on to-night and I don't want to tire myself. I shan't +be long." +</p> +<p> +As she passed his chair she tapped his cheek and said: +</p> +<p> +"Don't look so miserable, my dear boy. You'll soon get over the loss of +your jungle girl. There, you may kiss my hand as a sign of your return +to your allegiance." +</p> +<p> +But when she entered her bedroom she did not at once proceed to get +ready to go out, but unlocked her dressing-case and, taking out of it a +letter, sat down to read it for the tenth time since she had received it +that morning. Yet it was short and concise. It was from Rosenthal and +addressed from the Mess of the 2nd (Duke's Own) Hussars in Bangalore; +for, as it told her, he had returned to his regiment as his leave had +expired. It was the first that had come from him since she had left +Poona, although, as he said in it, he had obtained her new address from +the Goanese clerk in the Munster Hotel office on the day of her flight, +thanks to the persuasive powers of a fifty-rupee note. +</p> +<p> +He told her that although her abrupt departure had puzzled him and he +could not understand why she had tried to conceal her whereabouts from +him, he wished her to realise that if it were an attempt to escape from +him it was useless. He could bide his time, for sooner or later he would +get her. +</p> +<p> +Violet smiled as she read his confident words, although they caused a +little shiver of fear to run through her. Then she rose, locked the +letter away and put on her hat. +</p> +<p> +Not until after lunch next day was Wargrave able to find time to go to +the Oriental Hotel, not to see Muriel, he sternly told himself, but to +pay a visit to Mrs. Dermot. When he was shown up to her sitting-room he +had to wait for some time before Noreen entered; and he was struck at +once by the coldness of her greeting. It was evident that she was very +displeased with him. She said no word about Muriel; and Wargrave felt +curiously averse to mentioning her name. +</p> +<p> +At last he summed up courage to ask her. With as near an approach to +frigidity of manner as she could show to a man to whom she was so +indebted Noreen replied: +</p> +<p> +"Muriel has left Darjeeling." +</p> +<p> +"Left Darjeeling? Where for? Where has she gone?" he exclaimed in +surprise. +</p> +<p> +"To her father." +</p> +<p> +"But why? She wasn't to have left for weeks yet," said Wargrave. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Dermot looked at him angrily. +</p> +<p> +"Why? Need you ask? I should have thought commonsense would have told +you. I don't think we'll talk about it, please. As I said before, I've +washed my hands of the whole affair." +</p> +<p> +Further conversation on the subject was rendered impossible by the +irruption of her children, who rushed at Wargrave and reproached him for +not being to see them lately. +</p> +<p> +During the next few days Violet baffled every attempt that Frank made to +discuss their future course of action. The constant succession of +gaieties, the balls, theatricals, concerts, races, <i>gymkhanas</i>, that +filled every afternoon and evening of the Darjeeling Season, took up all +her time. Whenever he tried to talk matters over with her she invariably +replied that there was no hurry, even when he pointed out that Major +Norton might arrive any day in consequence of her letter. That he had +not already done so was inexplicable to Wargrave; and the subaltern +could only believe her assurance that her husband accepted her loss with +equanimity. It never occurred to Frank to doubt that she had written the +letter. +</p> +<p> +But one morning matters came to a crisis. When Violet and Wargrave +returned to the hotel from their ride before breakfast a telegram was +handed to the latter. He found it to be an official message from Colonel +Dermot, which ran: +</p> +<p class="quote"> + "Please return forthwith to Ranga Duar. I start for Europe on sick + leave to-day." +</p> +<p> +Frank stared at it in surprise. He had heard nothing of his superior +officer being ill. It must be something very serious to necessitate his +being sent to Europe. The news was an unpleasant shock to him; for he +genuinely liked and respected the Political Officer. +</p> +<p> +Then it occurred to him that this order to return brought everything to +a head. Violet saw that he was perturbed. +</p> +<p> +"What is it, Frank?" she asked. +</p> +<p> +"I'll tell you upstairs, dear," he said. +</p> +<p> +In her sitting-room he handed her the telegram. +</p> +<p> +"I must leave to-day. Will you be ready to come with me?" he asked. +</p> +<p> +"What? To-day? My dear boy, it's impossible," she replied. +</p> +<p> +"But I must go. You see, it's imperative. The Colonel's already gone." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I see you must. But—well, I simply couldn't be ready," said +Violet calmly. "Besides, I'm singing at the concert to-morrow night; and +there's the dance at Government House the night after. I must follow you +later." +</p> +<p> +"But that means your travelling alone," he argued. "Wouldn't it be much +pleasanter for you to come with me?" +</p> +<p> +"Don't worry about me for goodness' sake, Frank. I'm not a helpless +person. I came across India by myself to get here; and surely I'll be +able to manage to do a twenty-four hours' journey alone." +</p> +<p> +"Very well, dear," he replied with an inward, unacknowledged feeling of +relief that the decisive step had not to be taken yet. "I'll come down +from Ranga Duar with an elephant to meet you at the railway station when +you arrive. Now, while you're changing for breakfast, I'll rush round to +the Oriental and see if Mrs. Dermot has more news." +</p> +<p> +When he reached the hotel he found Noreen busily packing. She was pale +and evidently deeply distressed, although outwardly calm and collected. +</p> +<p> +"You have heard?" she asked, as he entered her sitting-room. +</p> +<p> +"Only that your husband is starting for England on sick leave and that +I'm to return at once. What's the matter? I hope it's not serious." +</p> +<p> +"Mr. Macdonald wires that Kevin must go at once to England for an +operation. He says I'm not to worry, as there is no immediate danger. +But of course I can't help being alarmed. It's all so sudden. I didn't +know that Kevin was ill. Mr. Macdonald is travelling with him to the +junction on the main line where the children and I are to meet them. +Isn't it kind of him? I'm so glad to know my husband will have someone +with him until I come." +</p> +<p> +"We'll meet at the railway station after lunch, then," said Wargrave. +"We'll be together as far as the junction." +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Dermot hesitated. +</p> +<p> +"Are you travelling alone?" she asked. +</p> +<p> +Frank flushed as he replied: +</p> +<p> +"Yes. She—Violet is to follow later." +</p> +<p> +Noreen made no comment; and having learned all that he could he returned +to his hotel. +</p> +<p> +He dreaded the ordeal of the parting with Mrs. Norton, but when the time +came for it he found his fear of a distressing scene quite uncalled for. +She said goodbye to him in a pleasantly friendly, though somewhat +casual, manner, and did not offer to accompany him to the station as she +had a previous engagement. And long before the little train had +zig-zagged down the seven thousand feet to the foot of the Himalayas she +had dismissed him from her mind. +</p> +<p> +The truth was that the gay and admired Mrs. Norton, caught up in the +whirlwind of social amusement in a lively hill-station, was not the +woman who passed weary days of <i>ennui</i> in the company of a dull and +unattractive husband in a small, dead-and-alive station. Nor was the +dejected man who so plainly showed that he was pining for someone else +the good-looking, heart-whole subaltern who had fascinated her in the +boredom of existence in Rohar. Was he worth incurring social damnation +for? Would his companionship—for she knew that she had not his +love—make up for a life of loneliness, debt and poverty in a frontier +outpost? If she were resolved on giving up her present assured +position—and Violet felt that existence with Norton would be more than +ever unendurable after the exciting pleasures of Poona and +Darjeeling—would it not be wiser to do so for someone who could amply +compensate her for the sacrifice? Love in a cottage—or its Indian +equivalent, a subaltern's comfortless bungalow—did not appeal to her. +Her statement that she had written to tell her husband that she was +leaving for Wargrave was false. It had served the purpose for which it +was made, and that was the defeat of her rival. So now, content with her +victory, she put all burdensome thought from her and dined, danced and +flirted to her heart's content in the gaieties of the Darjeeling Season. +</p> +<p> +When Wargrave reached Ranga Duar the little outpost seemed strangely +forlorn without the Dermots and their children. Major Hunt and Macdonald +welcomed him warmly. The latter informed him that he had insisted on the +Colonel going to England for his operation because the Political Officer +had not been out of India for seven years and needed the change, and +besides he would receive more care and attention in a London +nursing-home than in an Indian hospital. The trouble was intestinal but +there was no immediate danger to his life. +</p> +<p> +Another familiar figure was missing. Before departing Dermot had +released Badshah and left him to wander in freedom in the jungle, +unwilling that his faithful companion of years should be servant to +anyone else and confident that the elephant would come back to him when +he returned to the Terai. Major Hunt placed one of the detachment +elephants at Wargrave's disposal whenever he required it to take him on +his tours along the frontier. And Frank needed it constantly. For, as +soon as the news of Colonel Dermot's departure spread, the lawless +spirits that for fear of him had not ventured for five years to disturb +the peace of the Border, began to show signs of restlessness. The +Political Officer's strong personality and the reputation of divinity +that he enjoyed had kept them in check. But now that he was gone they +thought that they could defy with impunity the young sahib who replaced +him. +</p> +<p> +So the Assistant had not long to wait for an opportunity to show his +mettle. Dermot had not been gone a fortnight before one or two raids +were attempted on British villages by lawless mountaineers from across +the Bhutan frontier. Wargrave soon proved that the mantle of Colonel +Dermot had not fallen on unworthy shoulders. Single-handed he +intercepted and faced a party of Bhutanese swordsmen swooping down from +the hills on a tea-garden in search of loot, shot the leader and two of +his followers and put the rest to flight. With a handful of sepoys of +the Military Police he surprised a Bhuttia village in the No Man's Land +along the border-line and captured a notorious outlaw who had plundered +in Indian territory and had sent him a defiant challenge. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave was glad of the excitement and the occupation, for they kept +him from brooding over his troubles and worrying about the future. He +had not time to puzzle over Violet's silence. She had not written to him +since their parting. As a matter of fact she seldom thought of him, so +engrossed was she in the pursuit of pleasure. Admittedly the prettiest +woman in Darjeeling that season she received enough attention and +admiration to turn any woman's head; and she enjoyed it all to the full. +Although she had answered Rosenthal's letter from Bangalore he had not +written again; but she felt that he was not forgetting her. She thought +oftener of him than of Wargrave; for the vision of the great riches that +she might one day share with him fascinated her. It haunted her dreams +sleeping and waking. Often she let her fancy stray to the existence that +he had promised would be hers when he was the possessor of his father's +fortune, a life of luxury in the gayest cities of the world with all +that immense wealth could bestow, a life infinitely better worth living +than her present one. Would she ever be given the chance of it? +</p> +<p> +The question was speedily and unexpectedly answered. One morning after +breakfast she received a telegram from Rosenthal. It said: +</p> +<p class="quote"> + "My father is dead. I sail from Bombay for South Africa on Friday to + settle up his affairs. Will you come?" +</p> +<p> +She stared at the paper almost uncomprehendingly for a few moments. Then +the meaning of the message dawned on her. She sat down at her +writing-table and thought hard. She had little time in which to make up +her mind; for if she wished to reach Bombay before Rosenthal sailed she +would have to leave Darjeeling that afternoon. What should she do? +Should she go? She found a pencil and a telegraph form and addressed the +latter to the Hussar. Then she hesitated. But she was not long in coming +to a decision. With a firm hand she wrote the one word "Yes" and signed +her name. Then she rose from the table, called a hotel servant, +despatched the telegram and went to her bedroom to pack. And the same +train that took her away from Darjeeling carried a letter from her to +Wargrave. +</p> +<p> +But the subaltern did not receive it until more than a week afterwards, +when he returned to Ranga Duar with Tashi after chasing back across the +Border a mongrel pack of <i>dácoits</i>—brigands—who had been harrying +Bhuttia villages in British territory. The letter lay on the table in +the room which he still occupied in the Mess, although he was no longer +an officer of the detachment, together with a pile of correspondence +that had accumulated during his absence. Recognising Violet's writing on +the envelope he tore it open anxiously. He rapidly scanned the first +page, stared at it incredulously, read it again carefully and then +finished the letter. It ran: +</p> +<p class="quote"> + "My dear Frank, +</p> +<p class="quote"> + "I am going to relieve your mind of a great weight and send you into + the seventh heaven of delight by giving you the glad news that you + are never likely to see me again. Before the week is ended I shall + have left India for ever with someone who can give me all I want and + not condemn me to a poverty-stricken existence in a wretched little + jungle station, which is all that you had to offer me. I know it was + not your fault and you are really a dear boy. I was very fond of + you; but you did not love me and we would have been very miserable + together. For you would be always pining for your jungle girl and I + would have hated you for it. Now we part good friends and she is + welcome to you. I ought to tell you that I did not really write to + my husband as I said I did. +</p> +<p class="quote"> + "I wish you luck—won't you wish me the same? +</p> +<p class="quote"> + "Yours affectionately, +</p> +<p class="quote"> + "VIOLET." +</p> +<p> +When he had thoroughly grasped the meaning of this extraordinary letter +he forgave her everything in the joy of knowing that she had set him +free. He did not speculate as to the man with whom she was going; his +thoughts flew at once to Muriel. But his delight was tempered by the +fear that his liberty had come too late to be of service to him with +her. Would she ever forgive him? His heart sank when he remembered her +indignation, her bitter words when they parted. Surely no woman who had +been so humiliated could pardon the man who had brought such shame upon +her. Yet how could he have acted otherwise? It was natural that the girl +should blame him; but how could he have been false to his plighted word +and desert the one who held his promise? If only he could see Muriel and +plead with her. Perhaps in time she might bring herself to forgive him. +But how was he to meet her? Now that Mrs. Dermot had gone to England, +the girl would not come again to Ranga Duar. She was, he knew, +accompanying her father in his tour of the forests of the districts in +his charge. How could he go to their camp or lonely bungalow in the +jungle and force his presence on her? What was he to do? +</p> +<p> +Longing for someone to confide in, someone to advise him, he went to +Major Hunt and told him the whole story. The older man rejoiced in +learning of the subaltern's release from his entanglement, but, knowing +Miss Benson well, shook his head doubtfully over the chances of her +forgiving Wargrave. Nevertheless, unwilling to kill the young man's +hope, he affected a confidence that he was far from feeling and bade him +take courage. He advised him to arrange a few days' shooting in the +neighbourhood of the Bensons when he could spare the time from his +duties. The father would be sure to offer him hospitality and the +daughter could not well avoid him. In the meantime he might write and +plead his cause on paper. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave sat up half the night composing a letter to Muriel. Sheet after +sheet was torn up in disgust before he was even tolerably satisfied. But +the laboured result was never sent. Next morning after breakfast as he +sat smoking in the Mess with Major Hunt and the doctor his servant +entered to tell him that a forest guard wanted to see him. A wild hope +flashed through his mind that perhaps Muriel had sent him a message. But +on going out to the back verandah where the man awaited him he was +handed an envelope "On His Majesty's Service," addressed in a strange +handwriting. He opened it and glanced carelessly at the letter, but the +first lines riveted his attention. +</p> +<p class="quote"> + "Forest Officer's Bungalow, + Barwana Section. +</p> +<p class="quote"> + "From + the District Superintendent of Police, + Bengal Civil Police. +</p> +<p class="quote"> + "To + the Assistant Political Officer, + Ranga Duar. +</p> +<p class="quote"> + "Sir, +</p> +<p class="quote"> + "Three days ago a party of Chinamen attacked and severely injured the + Deputy Conservator of Forests, Mr. Benson, in this bungalow, and + abducted his daughter. They were ten or twelve in number and well + armed, and over-awed the servants and forest employees. They have + been tracked towards the Bhutan Frontier and, I fear, have crossed + it by this. There was, unfortunately, much delay in the information + reaching me while I was touring the district south of the forest; + and I have only just arrived here. I hasten to acquaint you with the + occurrence as I am powerless if the ruffians have crossed into + Bhutan. Please request the Officer Commanding Military Police + Detachment to send out parties to try to cut off the raiders from + the passes through the mountains, although I fear it is too late. + Can you meet me here and confer with me? Please bring the Medical + Officer of the detachment with you, as Mr. Benson is in a bad state + and no civil surgeon is available for a great distance from here. +</p> +<p class="quote"> + "Your obedient servant, + Edward Lawrence. + D.S.P." +</p> +<p> +Horror-stricken, Wargrave questioned the forest guard. The man had not +been at the bungalow at the time of the outrage and could not greatly +supplement the information contained in the letter. The story that he +had learned from the servants was to the effect that a party of Chinamen +had arrived at Mr. Benson's bungalow and asked for employment as +carpenters. There was nothing unusual in this, as Chinese from the +Southern Provinces frequently make their way on foot through Tibet and +Bhutan over the mountains in search of work on the tea-gardens or in +Calcutta. Apparently they had suddenly struck the old man down and +surprised Miss Benson before she could offer any resistance. Producing +fire-arms they had terrified the servants. They had a mule hidden in the +jungle and on this the girl was placed and led off. Long after they had +disappeared some of the forest guards had timidly followed their track +for some distance and found that it led towards the Bhutan Frontier. +</p> +<p> +When Wargrave had extracted from the man all the information that he +could he rushed into the Mess and acquainted the two officers in it with +the terrible news. Like him they were horrified at the outrage. Major +Hunt went at once to the Fort to order out parties of the detachment in +accordance with the District Superintendent's request; and Macdonald got +ready to proceed to the Forest Officer's bungalow forty miles away. +</p> +<p> +The Assistant Political Officer despatched a cipher telegram to the +Foreign Department, Government of India, at Simla, informing them of the +occurrence and of his intention to investigate the affair personally, +and, if possible, rescue Miss Benson. He knew that the Heads of the +Department, although they would not sanction or approve officially of +his crossing the frontier in pursuit of the raiders, as it would be +contrary to the Treaty with the Bhutanese Government, would not enquire +too closely into his movements. But whether they liked it or not he +intended to follow the abductors if necessary into the heart of Bhutan, +Treaty or no Treaty. +</p> +<p> +His first step was to send for Tashi and order him to prepare the +disguise that he intended to use. His rifle he left behind, but armed +himself with a brace of long-barrelled automatic pistols to which their +wooden holsters clipped on to form butts, thus converting them into +carbines accurate up to a range of a hundred and fifty or two hundred +yards. He found a third for Tashi in Colonel Dermot's armoury, which was +at his disposal. +</p> +<p> +Night had fallen long before the detachment elephant that bore Wargrave, +Macdonald, Tashi and the forest guard as well as its own <i>mahout</i>, +reached the bungalow where the District Superintendent of Police awaited +them. The doctor found Benson suffering from a wound in the head, with +concussion and fever. Frank interrogated the servants carefully and +elicited from them one fresh fact about the outrage that shed a flood of +light on its motive and its author. It was that the leader of the party +was pock-marked and blind in the right eye; and this at once confirmed +Frank's suspicion that the instigator of Muriel's abduction was the +Chinese <i>Amban</i>, whose parting threat to the girl had thus materialised. +</p> +<p> +At daybreak Wargrave and Tashi started on foot accompanied by a forest +guard to put them on the track of the gang. This led up towards the +Bhutan Frontier, which runs among the hills at an average elevation of +six thousand feet above the sea. As the Assistant Political Officer +anticipated, the party had headed for the portion of the border under +the control of the <i>Amban's</i> friend, the Penlop of Tuna. Enquiries among +the inhabitants of the mountain villages resulted in several of them +coming forward with the information that they had seen a small body of +armed Chinese escorting a cloaked and shrouded figure on a mule and +climbing up towards Bhutan. Two of the Government Secret Service agents +among these Bhuttias had followed them cautiously to the frontier and +seen them received there by a party of the Tuna Penlop's armed +retainers. These men reported that the watch on all the passes into +Bhutan was stricter than ever, and, as one of them phrased it, not even +a rat could creep through unobserved. +</p> +<p> +This discouraging intelligence was a further proof of <i>Amban's</i> guilt. +But Frank realised that it would not be sufficient to justify the +Government of India claiming redress from the Republic of China; and, +indeed, diplomatic procedure was much too slow to be of any use in the +rescue of the girl. An appeal to the Maharajah of Bhutan would be +equally fruitless; for his powerful vassal the Tuna Penlop was +practically in rebellion against him and defied his authority. The sole +hope of saving Muriel lay in Wargrave's prompt action. +</p> +<p> +Yet try as the subaltern would, he and Tashi were unable at any point to +pierce the cordon of guards along the frontier. Generally they got away +unseen; but on one occasion they were discovered and had to flee back +into British territory under a shower of arrows. Fortunately fire-arms +are scarce in Bhutan; and the Tuna Penlop's soldiers possessed only +bows. +</p> +<p> +It was imperative that Wargrave and his follower should be circumspect +in their movements, and by day they hid in caves or in the jungle +clothing the slopes of the higher hills, to escape observation by +Bhutanese spies. When they had exhausted the food that they had brought +with them and failed to procure any more from their Secret Service +agents in the villages, Tashi gathered bananas, dug up edible tubers +like the <i>charpattia</i> or <i>charlong</i>, and snared jungle-fowl and Monal +pheasants. Having obtained a bow and a sheaf of arrows from a village he +sometimes succeeded in killing a <i>gooral</i>, the active little wild goat +found in the lower hills, the flesh of which is excellent. +</p> +<p> +As day after day went by and found them no nearer success in crossing +the frontier Wargrave began to lose heart. He was harassed by anxiety +over Muriel's fate and feared that he would never be able to rescue her. +At times he grew desperate and but for his companion's remonstrances +would have tried to fight his way through the border guards, although in +his saner moments he knew that it would be sheer madness. +</p> +<p> +Besides danger from human enemies the two men were menaced by peril from +wild beasts as well. Panthers prowled among the hills, great Himalayan +bears, a blow from the paw of one of which would crack a man's skull, +wandered on the jungle-clad slopes and, though not carnivorous, were +always ready to attack human beings. Herds of wild elephants, which had +scaled the mountains into Bhutan at the beginning of the Monsoon to +reach the northern face of the Himalayas and escape the heavy rains that +deluge the southern slopes and also to avoid the insects that plague +them in the jungle at that season, were commencing to return to the +Terai. Often Wargrave and Tashi had to climb trees to let a herd go by; +and each time as he watched them the subaltern thought longingly of +Colonel Dermot and Badshah. If he had them to help him how easily he +could burst the barrier between him and the land that held the girl whom +he loved and who needed him so! +</p> +<p> +Late one afternoon, as the two men were making their way through bamboo +jungle at the foot of high cliffs close to a pass into Ghutan which they +had not yet attempted, they blundered into the middle of a herd of +elephants feeding. There was no tree in which they could take refuge, +and before they were able to make their escape they found themselves +surrounded on every side. A number of cow-elephants, which, having young +calves with them, were very savage, pressed threateningly towards the +men, who tried to force their way into the dense growths of the bamboos +and so put a frail barrier between themselves and the menacing beasts. +They knew that their pistols would be useless, and they had already +given themselves up for lost when the huge animals which were apparently +about to charge them, suddenly stopped and drew aside to allow a +monstrous bull-elephant to pass through. It was a single-tusker, and it +advanced steadily towards the men. Frank stared at it incredulously. +Could it be——? Yes, it was. He was sure of it. It was Badshah. +</p> +<p> +And the elephant knew him and came towards him. In the sudden revulsion +of feeling and his relief at knowing that they were safe Frank almost +lost his head. A mad hope surged through him. He stretched out his arms +imploringly to the great beast and cried impulsively: +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Badshah! <i>Hum-ko madad do</i>! (Help us!)" +</p> +<p> +To his amazement the animal seemed to understand. It sank slowly to its +knees as though inviting him to mount it. +</p> +<p> +"Sahib! Sahib! He offers us his aid," cried Tashi excitedly, and he +scrambled up after Wargrave who had climbed on to the broad shoulders. +</p> +<p> +The subaltern leaned forward and, touching the huge forehead, pointed in +the direction of Bhutan. Badshah turned and moved off towards the pass +through the mountains, while the herd followed; and Frank thrilled with +the hope that at last he was about to break through the barrier of foes +between him and the girl he loved. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0014" id="h2HCH0014"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XIV +</h2> +<h3> + THE DEVIL DANCERS OF TUNA +</h3> +<p> +Flat-roofed, arcaded buildings terraced one above the other, with gaily +painted walls from which covered wooden verandahs and box-like, latticed +windows jutted out, surrounded a paved courtyard, its rough flagstones +hidden by shifting, many-coloured throngs of gorgeously vestmented +priests, mitred bishops, hideous demons, skeletons with grinning skulls +and weird creatures with <i>papier maché</i> heads of bears, tigers, dragons +and even stranger beasts. Wild but not inharmonious music from +shaven-headed members of an orchestra of weird instruments—gongs, +shawns, cymbals, long silver trumpets—deafened the ears. Crowds of +gaily-clad spectators covered the flat roofs of the building and +arcades, thronged the verandahs, filled the windows and squatted around +the courtyard—these last kept in order by bullet-headed lamas with +whips. +</p> +<p> +It was the annual ceremony of the Devil Dance of the great Buddhist +monastery of Tuna, one of the fantastic Mystery Plays, the now almost +meaningless functions into which the ideal faith preached by Gautama, +the Buddha, the high-souled reformer, has degenerated. +</p> +<p> +From all parts of Bhutan west of the dividing line of the great Black +Mountain Range, from Tibet, even from far-distant Ladak, the faithful +had made pilgrimage to be present at the great festival in this most +famous and sacred <i>gompa</i> of the land. Red lamas from Western Tibet +and yellow from Lhassa, abbots and monks from little-known monasteries +lost among the rugged mountains, nuns with close-cropped hair from the +convents of Thimbu, Paro and Punaka, robber chiefs of the Hah-pa and +graziers from Sipchu, townsfolk from the capital and peasants from the +fever-laden Himalayan valleys—all had gathered there. For all who +attended the sacred festival could gain indulgences that would save them +a century or two's sojourn in the hot or cold hells of their religion. +</p> +<p> +In a gallery adorned with artistic wooden carvings and hung with +brocaded silk and gold embroideries sat a fat, bare-legged man with +close-cropped hair and scanty beard, wearing an ample, red silk gown +ornamented with Chinese designs worked in gold thread. He was the Penlop +of Tuna, the great feudal lord of the province, whose high-walled +<i>jong</i>, or castle, crowned the rocky hill on which the monastery and the +town were built. Behind him stood his officers and attendants clad in +silk or woollen kimono-like garments bound at the waist by gaily-worked +leather belts from which hung handsome swords with elaborately-wrought +silver hilts inlaid with coral and turquoises and with gold-washed +silver scabbards. +</p> +<p> +The courtyard was gay with fluttering prayer-flags, the poles of which +as well as the wooden pillars of the arcades were hung with the +beautiful banners artistically worked with countless pieces of coloured +silks and brocades and needlework pictures of Buddhist gods and saints +for which the monasteries of Bhutan are justly famed. From the blue sky +the sun blazed on the riot of mingled hues of the decorations and the +dresses of spectators and performers. +</p> +<p> +Especially gorgeous were the robes of the high priests in the spectacle. +They strongly resembled Catholic bishops in their gold-embroidered +mitres, copes and vestments as, carrying pastoral crooks or sprinkling +holy water, they moved around the courtyard in solemn procession behind +acolytes carrying sacred banners, swinging censers and intoning +harmonious chants. Troops of baffled demons fled at their approach +howling in diabolic despair. Shuddering wretches clad in scanty rags, +groping blindly as in the dark, wailing miserably and uttering weird, +long-drawn whistling notes, shrank aside from the fleeing devils and +stretched out their hands in supplication to the saintly prelates. They +were intended to represent the spirits of dead men straying in the +period of <i>Bardo</i>—the forty-nine days after death—during which the +soul released from the body is doomed to wander in search of its next +incarnation. In its journeyings it is assailed and terrified by demons, +who can only be defeated by the prayers of pious lamas to Chenresi the +Great Pitier. +</p> +<p> +The whole purpose of these representations is to familiarise during life +the devout Buddhists with the awful aspect of the many demons that will +obstruct their souls after death and try to lead them astray when they +are searching for the right path to the next world in which they are to +begin a fresh existence. +</p> +<p> +On this strange, bewildering spectacle an English girl looked down from +a small balcony not twenty feet above the courtyard. And the sight of +her caused the attention of many of the spectators to wander from the +Mystery Play. The fat old Penlop frequently looked across the quadrangle +at her from his gallery and as often uttered some coarse jest about her +to his grinning followers, while he raised a chased silver goblet filled +with <i>murwa</i>, the native liquor, to his lips. +</p> +<p> +It was Muriel Benson. For weeks she had been a prisoner in the lamasery, +cloistered in a suite of well-furnished rooms and waited on by a +close-cropped nun. She had been surprised in the bungalow and +overpowered by three of the Chinamen before she realised her danger or +could seize a weapon with which to defend herself. Had she been able to +snatch up a revolver she would have made a desperate fight for freedom. +But with fettered hands, a helpless captive, she had been carried away +on a mule. From the first she had recognised the pock-marked, one-eyed +leader of the gang as the <i>Amban's</i> officer, and so had known who was +the author and cause of her abduction. For days she had been borne along +up the rough track over the mountains, through narrow, high-walled +passes, down deep valleys and across rushing torrents, closely guarded +but always treated with respect. Her captors used broken Tibetan and +Bhutanese when they desired to communicate with her, but they answered +none of her questions. She had dreaded reaching their destination, where +she expected to find Yuan Shi Hung awaiting her; and once, in fear of +it, she had tried to throw herself down a precipice along the brink of +which the path ran. After that she had been roped to a big, powerful +Manchu. +</p> +<p> +On her arrival at the monastery she learned from her garrulous +nun-attendant that the <i>Amban</i> had been summoned to Pekin, where a +revolution had taken place and his friends there hoped to make him +President, which he regarded as a step towards the Imperial throne. The +monks of the monastery were his faithful allies on account of his +relationship to the powerful Abbott of the Yellow Lama Temple in the +Chinese capital. They had agreed to guard his prisoner, if his men +succeeded in capturing her, until he returned or sent for her. +</p> +<p> +At first the girl, relieved of the dread of falling at once into his +hands, lived in the hope of a speedy rescue. It was unfortunate, she +thought, that Colonel Dermot, with his extraordinary knowledge of and +influence over the Bhutanese, had left India. But even without him the +power of the British Empire would be set at once in motion to avenge +this outrage on an Englishwoman. Dermot's understudy, the Assistant +Political Officer, faithless lover though he was, would do all he could +to save her. Assuredly she would not have long to wait. +</p> +<p> +But as the days dragged by and she still remained a prisoner her heart +sank. She needed all her courage not to lose hope and give way to +despair. For she had always hanging over her the dread of Yuan Shi +Hung's return. But she had resolved to kill herself rather than fall +into his hands, and for that purpose had bribed her cheery, good-natured +attendant to procure a dagger for her. She pretended that she wanted it +as a protection in the lamasery, for the door of her apartments was +without a fastening. Even on the outside there was neither lock nor +bolt, for escape was considered impossible for her. If she got out of +the monastery she would be captured at once in the town. +</p> +<p> +She was not interfered with and saw no one but her nun. Once or twice +she ventured to creep down to the great temple of the monastery, drawn +by curiosity and the sound of harmonious Buddhist chants intoned by the +lamaic choir. But for her anxiety about her father and her dread of the +<i>Amban's</i> return her worst trial would have been the monotony of her +captivity, were it not that the memory of Wargrave and her unhappy love +caused her many a sleepless night. +</p> +<p> +With nothing to occupy her mind she hailed the festival of the Devil +Dance as a welcome distraction. Not even the impertinent curiosity of +the spectators could drive her from her balcony. She followed the many +phases with interest, although she could not understand the meaning of +them. For the performance was a curious mixture of religion and +blasphemous mockery, of horse-play and coarse humour as well as a +strange impressiveness. A comic interlude would follow the most solemn +act. Troops of devils burlesqued the sacred rites of the faith, and +bands of comic masks filled the arena at times and delighted the +audience by playing practical jokes on the spectators and each other. +The solitary white woman attracted their clownish humour, and they +danced in front of her balcony, shouting out rude witticisms that caused +much amusement to the lookers-on. Fortunately the girl's command of the +language, fairly good though it was, was insufficient to enable her to +understand their coarse jests. But their intention to insult her became +obvious. The leaping, howling mob of strangely apparelled performers +threatened to storm her balcony. Some climbed on each other's shoulders +to get nearer her, others even began to swarm up the pillars supporting +her balcony. To the delight of the audience the noisy mob eventually +clambered up to the railing of the balcony and, jesting, laughing, +uttering weird cries, perched on it and shouted and jeered at her. +</p> +<p> +Her face flaming, the girl drew back and was about to retire into her +room when suddenly she stopped, rigid with surprise. For above the +shouts of the maskers, the roars of the spectators and the din of the +clashing cymbals and braying trumpets, she heard her name spoken +distinctly. Incredulous she stood rooted to the ground and stared at the +yelling clowns perched on the railing. The uproar redoubled; but again +she distinguished one word above it all: +</p> +<p> +"Muriel!" +</p> +<p> +A wild hope flashed into her heart. Pretending to be amused at the +antics of the performers she advanced laughingly towards them. They +gesticulated and shouted more furiously than ever. But in the medley of +strange sounds she distinctly heard the words: +</p> +<p> +"It's I, Frank. Don't be afraid." +</p> +<p> +They seemed to come from the <i>papier maché</i> head of a grotesque serpent +worn by a man who was foremost among her tormentors and wildest in his +frenzied gestures. Smiling the girl stood her ground even when some of +the maskers, encouraged by her attitude, climbed down from the rail and +surrounded her, dancing, hallooing, leaping. The snake-headed one was +the wildest in his antics and shrieked and shouted loudest of them all. +But mixed up with incoherent cries and sounds she caught the words: +</p> +<p> +"Are you guarded?" A wild yell followed. "Can you get out?" Then he +yelled like a mad jackal. +</p> +<p> +With wildly-beating heart the girl pretended to repulse the advances of +the maskers good-humouredly and spoke to all in English, telling them to +leave her balcony and cease to molest her. But with her laughing +remonstrances she mingled the words: +</p> +<p> +"I am not guarded. I can leave my room. I will go down to the temple and +wait behind the statue of Buddha." +</p> +<p> +Then the serpent-headed one, aided by another with dragon mask, both +uttering fiendish yells, pushed his companions back to the railing, just +as the Penlop spoke to one of his officials who shouted across to them +an angry command to leave the white woman alone. The scared maskers +tumbled over each other in their hurry to quit the balcony. +</p> +<p> +Thrilled with delight the girl watched them go and then, when the entry +of a fresh body of mummers into the courtyard distracted the attention +of the spectators from her, she withdrew quietly to her room. She was +alone, the nun having gone long ago to witness the Devil Dance from +among the crowd. Muriel opened the door leading to a broad stone +staircase and peered cautiously out. There was no one to be seen. All +the inhabitants of the monastery were gathered in the courtyard. She +stole carefully down to a side door of the lamasery chapel. +</p> +<p> +This temple was a large and lofty building richly ornamented with fine +wood carvings, rich brocades and elaborately embroidered banners and +hangings. The pillars supporting the roof were covered with copper +plates beaten into beautiful patterns and the altars were of silver, the +chief one, as in all Bhutanese chapels, being adorned by a splendid pair +of elephant's tusks. Idols abounded. There was a central seated figure +of Buddha thirty feet high, heavily gilt and studded with turquoises and +precious stones, with a canopy and background of golden lotus leaves. On +either side were attendant female figures; and images of Buddhist gods, +larger than life size, stood in double rows. +</p> +<p> +Muriel concealed herself behind the colossal statue of Buddha and had +not long to wait before from her hiding-place she saw two maskers, the +Snake and the Dragon, enter the Temple cautiously. The latter remained +on guard at the door while his companion, who carried a bundle, advanced +furtively towards the great idol. As he drew near he opened the jaws of +the mask and said in a low tone: +</p> +<p> +"Muriel! Muriel! Are you here?" +</p> +<p> +At the sound of the well-remembered voice the girl trembled violently. +Her heart beat quickly as she came out from behind the statue. When he +beheld her the masker lifted the snake's head off; and Muriel saw that +the face revealed, disguised and stained a dull yellow, was that of her +lover. At the sight of it she forgot the painful past, forgot her +grievance against him, forgot the other woman, the sorrow that he had +caused her. As he sprang towards her with outstretched arms she cried: +</p> +<p> +"Oh, thank God you've come, dear!" +</p> +<p> +Frank caught her in his eager embrace. Then under the image of the Great +Dreamer who taught that Love is Illusion, that Affection is Error, that +Desire but binds closer to the revolving Wheel they kissed fondly, +passionately, like two faithful lovers met again after a lifetime of +parting. And the grotesque Devil-Gods around glared fiercely at them. +But the Lord Buddha looked mildly down, on his sculptured face the +ineffable calm of <i>Nirvana</i>, the peace of freedom from all Desire +attained at last. But, heedless of gods or devils, the man strained the +woman to his heart and rained kisses on her lips, her eyes, her hair. +</p> +<p> +There was little time for dalliance. Danger encompassed them. Wargrave +produced from the bundle that he carried a mask and a costume with a +pair of high, felt-soled boots, which effectively disguised Muriel. Then +they joined Tashi; and the three passed out into the vestibule only just +in time, for here they found a group of lamas and peasants from a +distant part of the country stopping for a moment to look at the great +pictured Cycle of Existence painted on the wall before they entered the +temple. The vestibule opened on to a courtyard lined with the cells of +the monks of the monastery and, as this led to the great quadrangle in +which the Miracle Play was being performed, a stream of mummers, lamas +and laymen was passing through it, mostly going to the spectacle, +although a few were coming away from it. With Muriel clinging closely to +him Wargrave followed Tashi as he pushed his way through the crowd, +exchanging jokes and careless banter as he went. +</p> +<p> +The rabbit-warren of steep lanes, flights of steps and bridges over +ravines through the town built on the precipitous slopes of the hill was +almost deserted, for most of the inhabitants had flocked to the Devil +Dance. So, unmolested and unnoticed, they reached the caravanserai in +which the two men had lodged for several days before the festival. Here +they hurriedly changed their costumes. When they emerged from it Muriel, +her hair cropped almost to the scalp and her face stained a yellowish +tint, was garbed as a boy-novice of a lamasery in the priestly dress, +with a great rosary round her neck. In one hand she held a begging-bowl +while with the other she guided the feeble steps of the aged lama whose +disciple she was supposed to be. Behind them limped a lame lay-brother +of their monastery. +</p> +<p> +In this disguise the fugitives met with no hindrance as they quitted the +town for the open country, heading towards the south. Only when well +clear of the houses did Frank and Muriel venture to converse in their +own language. Wargrave narrated all that had happened to him since they +had parted. Anyone watching them beyond earshot would have wondered at +the joy that shone in the face of the young <i>chela</i> (disciple) clasping +the hand of the old priest and gazing affectionately at him as they went +along; for Frank was telling the girl of Violet's letter which had set +him free. He described his many fruitless attempts to cross the +frontier, his fortunate meeting with Badshah and the marvellous way in +which the wonderful animal had helped him. Safely inside Bhutan he and +Tashi had parted with the elephants in what appeared to be the same +forest as the one in which Colonel Dermot and they had left the herd on +their previous entry into the country. Frank had tried to imitate his +chief in ordering Badshah to meet them there again; but he was very +doubtful of the result. +</p> +<p> +They had not found it difficult to follow the trail left by Muriel's +abductors, for once inside the border the Chinamen had not tried to +hide themselves. At every village along the rough road Tashi had learned +of their passing with their captive, so the two had followed them +without difficulty to Tuna, where they soon discovered where the girl +was imprisoned. The festival had offered them an unhoped-for opportunity +of rescuing her. Tashi, once a star performer in similar devil dances in +his own monastery, procured costumes and taught his companion what to +do. As the number of those taking part in the performances ran to +hundreds it was easy to slip in unobserved among them. +</p> +<p> +Then Muriel told of her adventures. But, far more interesting to both +than the details of these mere happenings, each revealed to the other +the longings, the love, the hopes and fears, that had filled his and her +heart during the unhappy period of their estrangement. +</p> +<p> +Now began a wonderful odyssey that, but for the dread of pursuit and +capture would have seemed a journey in Fairyland to the re-united +lovers. Indeed, as they travelled on day after day and danger seemed +left behind, they forgot everything in the joy of being together once +more, their vows exchanged, their faith pledged, the Future a long vista +of golden days of delight. It was well that Tashi was with them to be on +the watch, for the lovers walked with their heads in the clouds. +</p> +<p> +And certainly theirs was an interesting pilgrimage. Bhutan is perhaps +the least-known country in Asia, the last that has kept its cherished +seclusion since Anglo-Indian troops burst the barrier of Tibet and +flaunted the Union Jack in the streets of the fabled city of Lhassa. But +Bhutan is still a secret, a mysterious, land. Only a few British Envoys, +from Bogle in the latter half of the 18th Century to Claude White and +Bell in the beginning of this, and their companions, had intruded on its +privacy before Colonel Dermot. So that for the lovers it had all the +fascination of the unknown. +</p> +<p> +Sometimes, among the ice-clad peaks of the giant ranges of the +Himalayas, they crossed snowy passes fourteen thousand feet above the +sea, and did not neglect to throw a stone upon the <i>obos</i>—the cairns +that pious and superstitious travellers erect to propitiate the spirits +of the passes. Sometimes the path led under beautiful cliffs of pure +white crystalline limestone that in the brilliant sunlight shone like +the finest marble. Often they journeyed through a lovely land of +gently-sloping hills, of grassy uplands, of deep valleys giving +delightful vistas of snow-clad mountains far away. They walked through +pinewoods, through forests of maple, silver fir, and larch, and miles of +huge bushes of flowering rhododendrons. They toiled up a rough and stony +track over bare and desolate land that was an old moraine and under +moraine terraces one above another, forming giant spurs of the rugged +hills. There were dark and fearsome ravines, so deep that they could +scarcely hear the roar of the foaming torrents rushing among the great +boulders below as they crossed on swaying suspension bridges of iron +chains. These had been built hundreds of years before by long-forgotten +Chinese engineers. Three chains on one level supported the bamboo or +plank footway, while one on either side served as a hand-rail, and a +bamboo or grass lattice-work between them and the roadbearers hid from +sight the deep gorge below. Often these bridges were only of ropes of +twisted withes or grass and swung and swayed in terrifying fashion with +the motion of the traveller. There were broad rivers over the eddying, +swirling waters of which strong cantilever bridges of stout wooden beams +were pushed out from the steep banks. +</p> +<p> +Truly a beautiful land Bhutan, at its loveliest perhaps in spring, when +the hills and upland meadows where the yaks graze, ten thousand feet +above the sea, blaze with the mingled colours of anemones blue and +white, of yellow pansies and mauve and white irises, of large white +roses and small yellow ones, of giant yellow primulas with six tiers of +flowers, when the oaks and the chestnuts are clothed in young green, and +the apricot, pear and orange trees are in bloom, when large and lovely +blossoms cover that little-known tree that the Bhutanese call <i>chape</i>, +when the bright green of the young grass runs up to the white +snowfields. The woods are full of a pretty ground orchid, beautiful +trailing blossoms of others droop from the boughs of the great trees, +and on the magnesium limestone hills one of the rarest orchids grows in +profusion. +</p> +<p> +But to the two pilgrims of Love the land seemed beautiful even now that +the winter was not far distant. In the silent woods, hidden from prying +eyes, they sat hand in hand and whispered to each other over and over +again the oldest, sweetest story that the Earth has known. Strange to +hear words of love from the lips of such a weird-looking couple; yet +Muriel in her quaint disguise with her silky hair cropped to the scalp +was as beautiful in her lover's eyes as when he had seen her in her +prettiest frocks. And she thought the yellow-skinned, wrinkled old lama +infinitely more attractive than the gay young subaltern of Ranga +Duar—for he was her own now. Such is Love's glamour. Muriel had +forgiven royally. +</p> +<p> +Bhutan is a Buddhist-ruled land, therefore slaying for sport and fishing +in the rivers is prohibited; nay, more, the Maharajah sometimes forbids +the killing of even domestic animals for food. So wild life abounds. The +fugitives often saw flocks of burhel—called <i>nao</i> in Bhutan—feeding on +the precipitous slopes of the higher hills. Once Frank and Muriel +excitedly watched a snow-leopard stalking one of these big-horned sheep +sixteen thousand feet above the sea-level. And in these heights they +even saw an occasional lynx or wolf, generally only to be found in the +highest elevations bordering on Tibet. Silver-haired <i>langur</i> apes, the +white fringes around their black faces giving them a comic resemblance +to aged negroes, awoke the echoes of the mountains with their deep +booming cry; while in the lower valleys little brown monkeys mopped and +mowed from the trees at the fugitives as they passed. On one occasion +Muriel, exhilarated by the keen, life-giving air, ran gaily on ahead of +the others in a wood—and came on a tiger enjoying its midday siesta. +But the striped brute only uttered a startled "Wough! Wough!" like a big +dog and dashed away through the undergrowth. Another time they disturbed +a red bear feeding on the carcase of a strange beast that seemed a +mixture of goat, donkey and deer—Tashi called it a <i>serao</i>. And at a +lower elevation they blundered on two black bears—not flesh-eaters +these, yet more dangerous—grubbing for roots, and on another occasion +saw one climbing a tree in search of wild bees' nests. +</p> +<p> +In a dense jungle early one morning a beautiful black panther with a +skin like watered silk glided stealthily by them, showing its white +fangs and red mouth in an angry snarl as it went. And deep down in a +valley they espied a rhinoceros feeding a thousand feet below them. But +they came across no elephants; and Frank noted the fact despairingly as +rendering even less probable a meeting with Badshah and his herd. +</p> +<p> +Bird-life abounded, from the snow partridges that flew in the hills +eighteen thousand feet high to pigeons of every kind: birds of all +sizes, from great eagles to the little quails that hid in the +cornfields; lammergeiers that were fed on human bodies, the dead of +families of high degree, exposed on a flat rock of slate with head and +shoulders tied to a wooden axle that stretched the corpse like a rack. +In Bhutan ordinary folk are cremated. +</p> +<p> +On their journey the fugitives met with wayfarers of every rank and +class. On a steep mountain track they stood aside to let a high official +go by. He was sitting pickaback in a cloth on a powerfully-built +servant, the ends of the cloth knotted on the man's forehead. Behind +trudged an escort of bare-legged swordsmen with leather shields and +shining steel helmets. Coolies, male and female, followed, carrying the +great man's baggage in baskets placed in the crutch of forked sticks +tied on their backs. Sometimes they passed a rival lama glaring with +jealous eye at them. Often they met groups of raiyats, sturdy peasants, +thick-limbed, bare-footed, bare-headed, the women clear-eyed, +deep-bosomed, but uglier than the males. These did reverence to the holy +men and put their modest offerings of copper coins or food into Muriel's +begging-bowl. +</p> +<p> +Another time it was a family group at food, eating by the wayside. The +group consisted of a stout, ruddy-faced woman with close-cropped hair, +hung with many necklaces of coral and turquoise, and waited on by her +three meek and submissive husbands, all brothers—for this is a land of +polyandry. She invited the fugitives to share their meal, and bade her +dutiful spouses serve the supposed lamas. They proffered cooked rice +coloured with saffron and other food in the excellent Bhutanese baskets +woven with very finely split cane. These are made in two circular parts +with rounded top and bottom pieces fitting so well that water can +actually be carried in them. From sealed wicker-covered bamboos the +hosts filled <i>choongas</i> (bamboo mugs) with <i>murwa</i>, the beer of the +country, and <i>chang</i>, the native spirit. Frank and Muriel refused the +liquor; but Tashi drank their share as well as his, to give the pious +peasants an opportunity of acquiring merit. And wife and husbands +thought themselves amply rewarded by a muttered blessing. +</p> +<p> +A very different figure was that of a man lame of the right leg and +limping painfully down a steep hill in front of the fugitives. Muriel, +full of pity, whispered to her lover after they had passed him: "Oh, the +poor wretch! Did you see, dear, he had lost the right hand as well?" But +she shuddered when she learned that the cripple was a murderer punished +by the severing of the tendons of the leg and the loss of the hand that +struck the fatal blow. +</p> +<p> +In the cultivated valleys, where barley, buckwheat and mustard grew, +there were everywhere evidences of the religious feeling of the Western +Bhutanese. Every hill was crowned with a <i>gompa</i> or chapel, <i>chortens</i> +and praying-wheels stood beside the road, and <i>mendongs</i> or +praying-walls, a mile long, their stones engraved with sacred words, +were built near habitations. +</p> +<p> +In the villages the disguised fugitives were well treated. Food and +lodging were offered them freely in the cabins as in the great houses of +officials and rich folks, where they spent hours watching the skilled +artisans among the feudal retainers of their hosts weaving silk, making +woollen and cotton garments, brocade and embroideries, or hammering +artistic designs on silver or copper plates backed with lac. None +suspected the three of being other than they seemed. The Buddhism of +Bhutan and Tibet to-day has but one article of faith—"Acquire merit by +feeding and paying the lamas and they will win salvation for you." So +rich and poor vied in giving their best to the holy wayfarers, and +sought not to intrude on the meditations or privacy of lama and <i>chela</i>, +and welcomed the cheery company of the more worldly lay brother who +could crack a joke or empty a mug with any man and pitch the stone +quoits or shoot an arrow in the archery contests better than the village +champion. +</p> +<p> +Thus, contentedly and free from care, the three fugitives wandered on +towards the south where on the frontier they expected their troubles to +begin. One day when passing a hamlet by the roadside they tarried to +look on at a wedding at which a buxom country maid was being married to +a family of six brothers. The village headman performed the simple +ceremony, which consisted of offering a bowl of <i>murwa</i> to the gods, +then presenting a cupful to the bride and eldest bridegroom, blessing +them, and expressing a hope that the union might be a fruitful one. The +rest, after the usual presents had been given to the bride's relatives, +was simply a matter of feasting everyone. The stranger lamas were +invited to join; but Frank refused and dragged away the convivial Tashi, +who was anxious to accept the invitation. Wargrave with difficulty led +him aside and was so occupied in arguing with his discontented guide +that he did not notice that Muriel had not followed. +</p> +<p> +A sudden cry from her and his name shrieked out wildly made him turn in +alarm. To his horror he saw the girl struggling in the grasp of a +Chinaman, while another on a mule and holding the bridle of a second +animal was calling on the villagers in the Penlop's name to assist his +comrade. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0015" id="h2HCH0015"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XV +</h2> +<h3> + A STRANGE RESCUE +</h3> +<p> +Neither Muriel, absorbed in watching the wedding, nor the two men +engrossed in their dispute had noticed the Chinese come riding along the +road and pulling up when they saw the peasants gathered together. One of +them had been about to question the villagers from his saddle when his +eyes fell on the disguised girl standing apart from the crowd. He stared +at her for a few moments. Then he spoke hurriedly to his companions, +and, springing from the mule's back seized Muriel in a rough grasp. +</p> +<p> +At her cry Frank ran back, forgetting his disguise. He recognised in her +assailant the pock-marked officer of the <i>Amban</i>. The man, seeing him +coming, drew a revolver; but Wargrave whipped out his pistol quicker and +without hesitation shot him through the heart. The Chinaman collapsed to +the ground and in his fall dragged the girl down. His comrade fired at +his slayer and, missing him, wheeled his mule round and galloped off. +Tashi returned the shot while Frank ran to Muriel. He fired several +times and the rider was apparently hit; for he fell forward on the neck +of his animal; but he recovered himself and, crouching low, was still +in the saddle when a turn in the road hid him from sight. +</p> +<p> +The startled villagers scattered and fled in terror at the tragedy +suddenly enacted in their midst, the six cowardly husbands deserting +their new-made wife and leaving her to follow as they ran away, which +she did at her utmost speed. +</p> +<p> +Frank freed Muriel from the stiffened grasp of the dead man and helped +her to her feet; then the three hurried from the fatal spot, so lately +filled by a cheerful crowd of merrymakers and now tenanted only by the +corpse that lay with sightless eyes staring up at the blue sky. They +made for the shelter of jungle-clad hills that rose a couple of miles +away. +</p> +<p> +From now onwards, for two or three weeks, the fugitives led the lives of +hunted rats. They travelled generally only by night, avoiding villages +and farms, and keeping away from the road as much as possible. They were +in the southern zone of Bhutan lying nearest the Indian frontier, a +region of precipitous hills ten or twelve thousand feet high, their +sides clothed with dense vegetation, of deep, fever-laden valleys of +awe-inspiring gorges, of rivers liable to sudden floods and rising in a +few hours thirty or forty feet. +</p> +<p> +Tashi in various disguises occasionally visited villages in search of +food and information; while the lovers awaited his return in some hidden +spot, Frank holding the anxious girl in his arms and trying to calm her +fears. In one excursion the ex-lama got the first definite news of the +pursuit. He learned that the <i>Amban</i> had returned unexpectedly to Tuna, +the plot in his favour in Pekin having failed. He was not satisfied by +the tales told by the monks of the lamasery to account for Muriel's +mysterious disappearance, which was that she had been carried off by +devils. He insisted on a search being made for her along the road to the +Indian border and sent his own Chinese guards to direct the pursuit. The +companion of the pock-marked man had got back to Tuna and told of their +recognition of her. Yuan Shi Hung, furious at the death of his officer +but overjoyed at the discovery of the girl, set out at once with his +personal followers and a body of the Penlop's soldiers to take up the +chase. +</p> +<p> +The fugitives, hotly pursued, had several hair-breadth escapes. Once +they almost blundered into a bivouac of their enemies at night. They +succeeded at last in reaching the great forest in which Wargrave and the +ex-lama had parted from the elephants, the forest which ran along the +foot and clothed the northern slopes of the second-last range of +mountains between them and the frontier. But alas! there was no trace of +Badshah's herd; yet this was not surprising, for they found themselves +in a part unknown to them. Through this vast jungle they travelled by +day, until one evening they reached a deep gorge that pierced the range +and seemed to promise a passage through the mountains. +</p> +<p> +They camped for the night by its mouth, intending to enter it at +sunrise. Dawn found them breaking their fast on a scanty meal of dried +mutton and bananas. Suddenly Tashi stopped eating and held up a warning +hand. His companions drew their pistols, Frank having given his second +weapon to Muriel. Presently they heard the faint sounds of an animal's +approach on their track. Just as they had risen silently to their feet +three gigantic dogs appeared, scenting their trail. They were Tibetan +mastiffs, such as are to be seen chained in the court yards of +lamaseries. At sight of them the huge brutes stopped, crouched for an +instant, showing their fangs in a fierce snarl, and then rushed at them. +</p> +<p> +Without hesitation the three fired. One of the dogs dropped dead; but +the others, though wounded, came on. One bounded at Muriel. Frank threw +himself in front of her, firing rapidly at it. Several bullets struck +it, but the savage brute sprang at his throat. He grappled with it, +striving by main strength to hold it off. Muriel rushed to his aid and +putting her pistol to the mastiff's head shot it dead. Tashi meantime +had killed the third. +</p> +<p> +Knowing that their pursuers must be close behind the dogs they fled into +the gorge. On either hand stupendous cliffs towered up two thousand feet +above them, scarcely a hundred yards apart, seeming to meet overhead +and shut off the sky. Here and there the giant walls were split from top +to bottom in slits opening off the main passage. As the fugitives ran on +the gorge narrowed until it was scarcely fifty yards wide, and they +began to fear that it might prove only a <i>cul-de-sac</i> in which they +would be hopelessly trapped. They heard cries behind them, strangely +echoed by the rocky walls. Breathless, panting, their tired limbs giving +way under them, they staggered blindly on. +</p> +<p> +The pass turned sharply to the right. As they approached the bend they +became aware of a dull rumbling, and the ground, which suddenly began to +slope steeply down, shook violently under their feet. Wondering what new +danger, what fresh horror, awaited them they stumbled on, turned the +corner and stopped short in dismayed despair. +</p> +<p> +From side to side the gorge was filled with a tumultuous, racing flood +of foam-flecked water, a rushing river that poured out of a natural +tunnel in the steeply sloping rocky bottom of the pass as from a sluice. +It surged against the precipitous cliffs, leaping up against the walls +that hemmed it in, sweeping in mad onset of white-topped waves and +eddying whirlpools flinging spray high in air. The stoutest swimmer +would be tossed about helplessly in it, rolled over and over, choked, +suffocated, sucked under, the life beaten out of him. +</p> +<p> +For one wild moment Frank thought of seizing Muriel in his arms and +springing into the raging flood, but the sheer hopelessness of escape +that way checked him. It was certain death. Better to turn and face +their pursuers. There was more chance of life in battling with a score +or two of Bhutanese swordsmen than with the tumbling, tossing waters. +</p> +<p> +So, pistol in hand, the three retraced their steps, looking everywhere +for a suitable spot to make a stand. But on either hand the cliffs rose +sheer, their faces seamed here and there with cracks, but with never a +crevice big enough to shelter them. They passed the bend; and a few +hundred yards beyond it some large rocks fallen from the cliff on one +side lay close against its base. +</p> +<p> +Frank resolved to take their stand here. It was the only cover visible. +They fitted the holster-stocks to their pistols, converting them into +carbines which could be fired from the shoulder, enabling them to aim +more accurately at a longer range. Then while Tashi crept cautiously +along the pass to scout, the subaltern and the girl examined the +position for defence. Thus occupied they were startled by shots ringing +out, echoing down the vast canyon. Taking cover they saw their companion +running back followed by a body of men, a few mounted, the majority on +foot. Some had fire-arms, others bows, the rest swords. +</p> +<p> +Wargrave and Muriel opened on the pursuers with their automatic weapons +and checked them. Tashi was about a hundred yards from shelter when a +shot struck him. He stumbled and fell, while a howl of delight rose from +his foes. As he tried to struggle up bullets kicked up the dust round +him and several arrows dropped near. +</p> +<p> +"Muriel, loose off as many cartridges as you can to cover me," said +Wargrave, laying his pistol beside her. +</p> +<p> +Before the girl realised his meaning he had sprung out from the rocks +and was running towards Tashi. For a moment the pursuers were puzzled by +his action and then fired their rifles and matchlocks and shot arrows at +him. But unscathed he reached the wounded man who had been so faithful a +comrade to him. Raising him on his back he staggered towards the rocks, +while Muriel pumped lead at the enemy and succeeded in keeping down +their fire somewhat. As Wargrave laid the ex-lama on the ground in +shelter Tashi seized his hand and touched it with his lips and forehead +in silent gratitude. Frank hurriedly examined and bandaged the wound +made by a large-calibre bullet, which had passed through the leg below +the knee, lacerating the muscles but not injuring the bone. Then he took +up his post again, while Tashi dragged himself up behind a rock and +opened fire on their foes. +</p> +<p> +These were for the most part Bhutanese, but there were several Chinese +among them. +</p> +<p> +"Look! Look, Frank! There's the <i>Amban</i>," cried Muriel excitedly, +pointing to a man who rode into sight along the pass on a white mule. +</p> +<p> +She fired at him. The bullet missed him but apparently went unpleasantly +close, for Yuan Shi Hung galloped back into shelter behind a projecting +buttress of the cliffs. +</p> +<p> +The attackers numbered sixty or eighty. They were apparently staggered +by the rapid fire poured into them, which killed or wounded several of +them. Some tried to find shelter by huddling against the side of the +pass and others flung themselves on the ground behind boulders; but the +leaders urged them on. +</p> +<p> +There could be little doubt as to the issue of the fight. The bullets +from the Chinamen's rifles and the Bhutanese matchlocks spattered the +rocks or the face of the cliff; but the archers began to shoot almost +vertically into the air from their strong bamboo bows, and several +iron-tipped, four-feathered arrows dropped behind the cover, one missing +Wargrave by a hand's breadth. +</p> +<p> +Fearing for Muriel he tried to shield her with his body. +</p> +<p> +"What's the use, dearest?" she said. "If you are killed I don't want to +live. Indeed, we must both die now. I shall not be taken alive. Kiss me +and tell me once more that you love me." +</p> +<p> +He held her to his heart in a passionate embrace and kissed her fondly. +</p> +<p> +"They are coming now, sahib," said Tashi. "And I have only a few +cartridges left." +</p> +<p> +The lovers paid no heed. +</p> +<p> +"Goodbye, my dear, dear love," whispered Muriel, "I'm happier dying with +you than living without you." +</p> +<p> +Frank kissed her, solemnly now, for the last time. Then they turned to +face the enemy. The swordsmen were massing for a charge. Crouching low +they held their shields before them and waved their long-bladed <i>dahs</i> +above their heads, uttering fierce yells. +</p> +<p> +Suddenly the <i>Amban</i> and other mounted men who had been sheltering out +of sight dashed into view and rode madly into the rear ranks, knocking +down and trampling on anyone in their way. The men on foot looked behind +and broke into a run, coming on in a disordered mob. But it was not a +charge—it was more like a panic. For with wild cries of frantic terror +they fled past the defenders who, fearing a trick, fired their last +cartridges into them, dropping several, some of whom tried to rise and +drag themselves on in dread of something terrible behind. +</p> +<p> +Then into sight came a vast herd of wild elephants, filling the gorge +from cliff to cliff and moving at a slow trot. A huge bull led them, +lines of other tuskers behind him, crowds of females and calves +bringing up the rear. The onset of the mass of great monsters was +terrifying. It was appalling, irresistible. +</p> +<p> +Muriel cried out: +</p> +<p> +"It's Badshah! Frank, it's Badshah! Look at the leader! Don't you see?" +</p> +<p> +Tashi stared at the oncoming herd. Then he quietly unfixed his pistol +and put it away in the holster. +</p> +<p> +"We are saved, sahib," he said with the calm fatalism of the East. "The +God of the Elephants has sent them." +</p> +<p> +And he limped out from behind the rocks. The two Europeans followed him. +Their foes had disappeared, all but the dead and wounded. +</p> +<p> +Badshah—for it was he—swerved out of his course and came to them, +while the herd went on, opening out to pass him as he sank to his knees +before the humans. Tashi, despite his wound, climbed on to his neck, +while Wargrave mounted behind him and Muriel took her seat on the broad +back, clinging to her lover. Then the tusker rose and moved swiftly +after the herd. +</p> +<p> +As he rounded the bend a strange sight met the eyes of those he carried. +Their enemies were huddled together in terror near the brink of the +tunnel from which the surging water rushed out. Some endeavoured to +pluck up courage to throw themselves into the river, while the majority +had turned to face the elephants. But they were paralysed with fright. A +few tried to discharge their fire-arms or loosed their arrows with +trembling hands. As the elephants, quickening their pace, rushed on in +an irresistible mass some of the men, crazed with fright, ran to meet +them. Others flung themselves to the ground where they were. +</p> +<p> +But over both the great monsters passed, treading them to pulp under the +ponderous feet. The animals of the mounted men, as terrified as their +riders, swung about and sprang headlong into the river. Many of the men +on foot did the same. The heads of animals and men appeared and +disappeared, bobbing up and down, then their bodies were rolled over and +over, tossed up on the waves and sucked under. One by one they +disappeared. +</p> +<p> +A few of the panic-stricken mob had tried to climb the precipitous +cliffs in vain. One, however, getting his hands into a narrow, slanting +crack, dragged himself up a few feet. +</p> +<p> +It was the <i>Amban</i>. Frank drew his pistol; but Muriel clung to his arm +and cried: +</p> +<p> +"Oh, spare the poor wretch!" +</p> +<p> +Tashi had no scruples, but his magazine was empty and he searched in +vain for a cartridge. +</p> +<p> +But Yuan Shi Hung's time had come. Badshah's trunk shot out and caught +the climber's ankle. The Chinaman was plucked from the face of the cliff +and hurled to the ground. A frenzied shriek burst from him as the tusk +was driven into his shuddering body, which in an instant was trodden to +a bloody pulp. Muriel hid her face against her lover, but the agony of +the wretch's dying yell rang in her ears. +</p> +<p> +Not one of their enemies was left alive. Then the elephants one by one +slid and slithered down into the rushing water which was very little +below the brink. The mothers supported the youngest calves with their +trunks, the less immature climbing on to their backs. Tashi checked +Badshah as he was about to follow the herd into the river and, lame as +he was, slid down to the ground. He searched the crushed and mangled +corpses of his fellow-countrymen and collected their girdles until he +had enough to knot and plait into two ropes, one to go about Badshah's +neck, the other around the great body. More girdles sufficed to join +these together and supply cords by which the men and the woman on his +back could tie themselves on to the ropes and to each other securely. +When this was done Badshah slid into the river. As elephants do he sank +in the water until only the upper part of his head and the tip of his +upraised trunk were above it. Without the precaution that Tashi had +taken his riders would have been instantly swept away. +</p> +<p> +Only elephants could have battled successfully with that raging torrent. +The upflung spray and leaping waves hid the herd from the fugitives as +they clung desperately to the ropes and to each other. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +Eighteen months had gone by. In the garden of the Political Agent's +bungalow in Ranga Duar Colonel Dermot, completely restored to health, +and his wife stood with his Assistant, Major Hunt and Macdonald. They +were watching Mrs. Wargrave who, with Brian and Eileen clinging to her, +was holding out her two months' old baby to a great elephant with a +single tusk. The animal raised its trunk as though in salute, then, +lowering it, gently touched with its sensitive tip the laughing infant +whose tiny hand instinctively clutched it and held it fast. +</p> +<p> +With a smile Muriel turned her head and looked at her husband. +</p> +<p> +"Badshah has accepted him. Your son is free of the herd," said Colonel +Dermot. +</p> +<h3> +THE END. +</h3> +<hr /> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p class="foot"> +<u>1</u> (<a name="note-1" href="#noteref-1">return</a>)<br /> +A similar incident occurred in real life near Alipur Duar in + Eastern Bengal to a lady and an officer on a female elephant named + Dundora during a beat. But in this case it was the man that killed + the tiger with his second rifle when it was standing on the + elephant's head with its fore-paws on the <i>howdah</i>-rail. I can + personally testify to Dundora's immobility when facing a charging + tiger.—THE AUTHOR. +</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE JUNGLE GIRL***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 14087-h.txt or 14087-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/0/8/14087">https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/0/8/14087</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Jungle Girl + +Author: Gordon Casserly + +Release Date: November 18, 2004 [eBook #14087] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE JUNGLE GIRL*** + + +E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, David Garcia, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +THE JUNGLE GIRL + +by + +GORDON CASSERLY + +Author of _The Elephant God_, etc. + +New York + +1922 + + + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +I. THE GREY BOAR +II. YOUTH CALLS TO YOUTH +III. THE LOVE-SONG OF HAR DYAL +IV. A CROCODILE INTERVENES +V. SENTENCE OF EXILE +VI. A BORDER OUTPOST +VII. IN THE TERAI JUNGLE +VIII. A GIRL OF THE FOREST +IX. TIGER LAND +X. A POLITICAL OFFICER IN THE MAKING +XI. TRAGEDY +XII. "ROOTED IN DISHONOUR" +XIII. THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE +XIV. THE DEVIL DANCERS OF TUNA +XV. A STRANGE RESCUE + + + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE GREY BOAR + + Youth's daring courage, manhood's fire, + Firm seat and eagle eye, + Must he acquire who doth aspire + To see the grey boar die. + + --_Indian Pigsticking Song_. + + +Mrs. Norton looked contentedly at her image in the long mirror which +reflected a graceful figure in a well-cut grey habit and smart long +brown boots, a pretty face and wavy auburn hair under the sun-helmet. +Then turning away and picking up her whip she left the dressing-room +and, passing the door of her husband's bedroom where he lay still +sleeping, descended the broad marble staircase of the Residency to the +lofty hall, where an Indian servant in a long red coat hurried to open +the door of the dining-room for her. + +Almost at that moment a mile away Raymond, the adjutant of the 180th +Punjaub Infantry, looked at his watch and called out loudly: + +"Hurry up, Wargrave; it's four o'clock and the ponies will be round in +ten minutes. And it's a long ride to the Palace." + +He was seated at a table on the verandah of the bungalow which he +shared with his brother subaltern in the small military cantonment near +Rohar, the capital of the Native State of Mandha in the west of India. +Dawn had not yet come; and by the light of an oil lamp Raymond was +eating a frugal breakfast of tea, toast and fruit, the _chota hazri_ or +light meal with which Europeans in the East begin the day. He was +dressed in an old shooting-jacket, breeches and boots; and as he ate his +eyes turned frequently to a bundle of steel-headed bamboo spears leaning +against the wall near him. For he and his companion were going as the +guests of the Maharajah of Mandha for a day's pigsticking, as hunting +the wild boar is termed in India. + +He had finished his meal and lit a cheroot before Wargrave came yawning +on to the verandah. + +"Sorry for being so lazy, old chap," said the newcomer. "But a year's +leave in England gets one out of the habit of early rising." + +He pulled up a chair to the table on which his white-clad Mussulman +servant, who had come up the front steps of the verandah, laid a tray +with his tea and toast. And while he ate Raymond lay back smoking in a +long chair and looked almost affectionately at him. They had been +friends since their Sandhurst days, and during the past twelve months of +his comrade's absence on furlough in Europe the adjutant had sorely +missed his cheery companionship. Nor was he the only one in their +regiment who had. + +Frank Wargrave was almost universally liked by both men and women, and, +while unspoilt by popularity, thoroughly deserved it. He was about +twenty-six years of age, above medium height, with a lithe and graceful +figure which the riding costume that he was wearing well set off. +Fair-haired and blue-eyed, with good though irregular features, he was +pleasant-faced and attractive rather than handsome. The cheerful, +good-tempered manner that he displayed even at that trying early hour +was a true indication of a happy and light-hearted disposition that made +him as liked by his brother officers as by other men who did not know +him so well. In his regiment all the native ranks adored the young +sahib, who was always kind and considerate, though just, to them, and +looked more closely after their interests than he did his own. For, like +most young officers in the Indian Army, he was seldom out of debt; but +soldierly hospitality and a hand ever ready to help a friend in want +were the causes rather than deliberate extravagance on his own account. +Taking life easily and never worrying over his own troubles he was +always generous and sympathetic to others, and prompter to take up +cudgels on their behalf than on his own. His being a good sportsman and +a smart soldier added to his popularity among men; while all women were +partial to the pleasant, courteous subaltern whom they felt to have a +chivalrous regard and respect for them and who was as polite and +attentive to an old lady as he was to the prettiest girl. + +While admiring and liking the other sex Wargrave had hitherto been too +absorbed in sport and his profession to have ever found time to lose his +heart to any particular member of it, while his innate respect for, and +high ideal of, womankind had preserved him from unworthy intrigues with +those ready to meet him more than half-way. Even in the idleness of the +year's furlough in England from which he had returned the previous day +he had remained heart-whole; although several charming girls had been +ready to share his lot and more than one pretty pirate had sought to +make him her prize. But he had been blind to them all; for he was too +free from conceit to believe that any woman would concern herself with +him unasked. He had dined and danced with maid and young matron in +London, ridden with them in the Row and Richmond Park, punted them down +backwaters by Goring, Pangbourne and the Cleveden Woods, and flirted +harmlessly with them in country houses after days with the Quorn and the +Pytchley, and yet come back to India true to his one love, his regiment. + +As Raymond watched him the fear of the feminine dangers in England for +his friend suddenly pricked; and he blurted out anxiously: + +"I say, old chap, you haven't got tangled up with any woman at home, +have you? Not got engaged or any silly thing like that, I hope?" + +Wargrave laughed. + +"No fear, old boy," he replied, pouring out another cup of tea. "Far too +hard up to think of such an expensive luxury as a wife. Been too busy, +too, to see much of any particular girl." + +"You had some decent sport, hadn't you?" asked his friend, with a +feeling of relief in his heart. + +"Rather. I told you I'd learnt to fly and got my pilot's certificate, +for one thing. Good fun, flying. I wish I could afford a 'bus of my own. +Then I had some yachting on the Solent and a lot of boating on the +Thames. I put in a month in Switzerland, skiing and skating." + +"Did you get any hunting?" + +"Yes, at my uncle's place near Desford in Leicestershire. He gave me +some shooting, too. It was all very well; but I was very envious when +the regiment came here and you wrote and told me of the pigsticking you +were getting. I've always longed for it. It's great sport, isn't it?" + +"The best I know," cried Raymond enthusiastically. "Beats hunting +hollow. You're not following a wretched little animal that runs for its +life, but a game brute that will turn on you as like as not and make +you fight for yours." + +"It must be ripping. I do hope we'll have the luck to find plenty of pig +to-day." + +"Oh, we're sure to. The Maharajah told me yesterday they have marked +down a _sounder_--that is, a herd--of wild pig in a _nullah_ about seven +miles the other side of the city, which is two miles away, so we have a +ride of nine to the meet." + +"That will make it a very hard day for our ponies, won't it?" asked +Wargrave anxiously. "Eighteen miles there and back and the runs as +well." + +"Oh, that's all right. The Maharajah mounts us at the meet. We'll find +his horses waiting there for us. Rawboned beasts with mouths like iron, +as a rule; but good goers and staunch to pig." + +"By Jove! The Maharajah must be a real good chap." + +"One of the best," replied Raymond. "He is a man for whom I've the +greatest admiration. He rules his State admirably. He commanded his own +Imperial Service regiment in the war and did splendidly. He is very good +to us here." + +"So it seems. From what I gathered at Mess last night he appears to +provide all our sport for us." + +"Yes; he arranges his shoots and the pigsticking meets for days on which +the officers of the regiment are free to go out with him. When we can +travel by road he sends his carriages for us, lends us horses and has +camels to follow us with lunch, ice and drinks wherever we go." + +"What a good fellow he must be!" exclaimed Wargrave. "I am glad we get +pigsticking here. I've always longed for it, but never have been +anywhere before where there was any, as you know." + +"It's lucky for us that the sport here is good; for without it life in +Rohar would be too awful to contemplate. It's the last place the Lord +made." + +"It's the hardest place to reach I've ever known," said Wargrave. "It +was a shock to learn that, after forty-eight hours in the train, I had +two more days to travel after leaving the railway." + +"How did you like that forty miles in a camel train over the salt +desert? That made you sit up a bit, eh?" + +"It was awful. The heat and the glare off the sand nearly killed me. You +say there is no society here?" + +"Society? The only Europeans here or in the whole State, besides those +of us in the regiment, are the Resident and his wife." + +"What is a Resident, exactly?" + +"A Political Officer appointed by the Government of India to be a sort +of adviser to a rajah and to keep a check on him if he rules his State +badly. I shouldn't imagine that our fellow here, Major Norton, would be +much good as an adviser to anybody. The only thing he seems to know +anything about is insects. He's quite a famous entomologist. Personally +he's not a bad sort, but a bit of a bore." + +"What's his wife like?" + +"Oh, very different. Much younger and fond of gaiety, I think. Not that +she can get any here. She's a decidedly pretty woman. I haven't seen +much of her; for she has been away most of the time, that the regiment +has been here. She has relatives in Calcutta and stays a lot with them." + +"I don't blame her," said Wargrave, laughing. "Rohar must be a very +deadly place for a young woman. No amusements. No dances. No shops. And +the only female society the wives of the Colonel and the Doctor." + +"Luckily for Mrs. Norton she is rather keen on sport and is a good +rider. You'll probably meet her to-day; for she generally comes out +pigsticking with us, though she doesn't carry a spear. I've promised to +take her shooting with us the next time we go. Hullo! here are the +ponies at last. Are you ready, Frank?" + +The two officers rose, as their _syces_, or native grooms, came up +before the bungalow leading two ponies, a Waler and an Arab. Raymond +walked over to the bundle of spears and selected one with a leaf-shaped +steel head. + +"Try this, Frank," he said. "See if it suits you. You don't want too +long a spear." + +His companion balanced it in his hand. + +"Yes, it seems all right. I say, old chap, how does one go for the pig? +Do you thrust at him?" + +"No; just ride hard at him with the spear pointed and held with +stiffened arm. Your impetus will drive the steel well home into him." + +Mounting their ponies they started, the _syces_ carrying the spears and +following them at a steady run as they trotted down the sandy road +leading to the city, where at the Palace they were to meet the Maharajah +and the other sportsmen. The sky was paling fast at the coming of the +dawn; and they could discern the dozen bungalows and the Regimental +Lines, or barracks, comprising the little cantonment, above which +towered the dark mass of a rocky hill crowned by the ruined walls of an +old native fort. On either side of their route the country was flat and +at first barren. But, as they neared the capital, they passed through +cultivation and rode by green fields irrigated from deep wells, by +hamlets of palm-thatched mud huts where no one yet stirred, and on to +where the high embrasured walls of the city rose above the plain. Under +the vaulted arch of the old gateway the ponies clattered, along through +the narrow, silent streets of gaily-painted, wooden-balconied houses, at +that hour closely shuttered, until the Palace was reached as the rising +sun began to flush the sky with rose-pink. + +The guard of sepoys at the great gate saluted as the two officers rode +into the wide, paved courtyard lined by high, many-windowed buildings. +In the centre of it a group of horsemen, nobles of the State or +officials of the Palace in gay dresses and bright-coloured _puggris_, or +turbans, with gold or silver-hilted swords hanging from their belts, sat +on their restless animals behind the Maharajah, a pleasant-faced, +athletic man in a white flannel coat, riding-breeches and long, soft +leather boots, mounted on a tall Waler gelding. He was chatting with +four or five other officers of the Punjaubis and raised his hand to his +forehead as the newcomers rode up and lifted their hats to him. + +"Good morning, Your Highness," said Raymond. "I hope we're not late. Let +me present Mr. Wargrave of our regiment, who has just returned from +England." + +With a genial smile the Maharajah leant forward and held out his hand. + +"I am glad to make your acquaintance, Mr. Wargrave," he said, "and very +pleased to see you out with us to-day. Are you fond of pigsticking?" + +"I've never had the chance of doing any before, Your Highness," replied +Frank, shaking his hand. "I'm awfully anxious to try it; but, being a +novice, I'm afraid I'll only be in the way." + +"I'm sure you won't," said the Maharajah courteously. His command of +English was perfect. "Pigsticking is not at all difficult; and I hear +that you are a good rider." + +He looked at his watch and then, turning in the saddle, addressed +another officer of the regiment who was chaffing Raymond for being late: + +"Are we all here now, Captain Ross?" + +"Yes, sir. These two lazy fellows are the last," replied Ross +laughingly. + +"Very well, gentlemen, we'll start." + +He waved his hand; and at the signal two black-bearded _sowars_, or +soldiers of his cavalry regiment, dashed by him and out through the +Palace gates at a hard-gallop, leading the way past the guard, who +turned out and presented arms as the Maharajah and the British officers, +together with the crowd of nobles, officials and mounted attendants, +followed at a smart pace. The city was now waking to life. From their +windows the sleepy inhabitants stared at the party, mostly too stupefied +at that hour to recognise and salute their ruler. Pot-bellied naked +brown babies waddled on to the verandahs to gaze thumb in mouth at the +riders. Pariah dogs, nosing at the gutters and rubbish-heaps that +scented the air, bolted out of the way of the horses' hoofs. + +As the sportsmen passed out of the city gates the sun was rising above +the horizon, the terrible Hot Weather sun of India, whose advent ushers +in the long hours of gasping, breathless heat. For a mile or so the +route lay through fertile gardens and fields. Then suddenly the +cultivation ended abruptly on the edge of a sandy desert that, seamed +with _nullahs_, or deep, steep-sided ravines, and dotted with tall +clumps of thorny cactus, stretched away to the horizon. The road became +a barely discernible track; but the two _sowars_ cantered on, +confidently heading for the spot where the fresh horses awaited the +party. + +Over the sand the riders swept, past a slow-plodding elephant lumbering +back to the city with a load of fodder, by groups of tethered camels. +Hares started up in alarm and bounded away, grey partridges whirred up +and yellow-beaked _minas_ flew off chattering indignantly. The slight +morning coolness soon vanished; and Wargrave, soft and somewhat out of +condition after his weeks of shipboard life, wiped his streaming face +often before the guiding _sowars_ threw up their hands in warning and +vanished slowly from sight as their sure-footed horses picked their way +down a steep _nullah_. This was the ravine in which the quarry hid. One +after another of the riders followed the leaders down the narrow track, +trotted across the sandy, rock-strewn river-bed and climbed up the far +side to where the fresh horses and a picturesque mob of wild-looking +beaters stood awaiting them. + +Among the animals Wargrave noticed a smart grey Arab pony with a +side-saddle. + +"I see Mrs. Norton intends coming out with us," observed the Maharajah +looking at the pony. "We must wait for her." + +"It won't be for long, sir," said Raymond, pointing to a rising trail of +dust on the track by which they had come. "I'll bet that is she." + +All turned to watch the approaching rider draw near, until they could +see that it was a lady galloping furiously over the sand. + +"By Jove, she can ride!" exclaimed Wargrave admiringly. "I hope she'll +see the _nullah_. She's heading straight for it." + +A shouted warning caused her to pull up almost on the brink; and in a +few minutes she joined the waiting group. Wargrave looked with interest +at her, as she sat on her panting horse talking to the Maharajah and the +other officers, who had dismounted. + +Mrs. Norton was a decidedly graceful and pretty woman. The rounded +curves of her shapely figure were set off to advantage by her +riding-costume. Her eyes were especially attractive, greenish-grey eyes +fringed by long black lashes under curved dark brows contrasting with +the warm auburn tint of the hair that showed under her sunhat. Her +complexion was dazzlingly fair. Her mouth was rather large and +voluptuous with full red lips and even white teeth. Bewitching dimples +played in the pink cheeks. Even from a man like Wargrave, fresh from +England and consequently more inclined to be critical of female beauty +than were his comrades, who for many months had seen so few white women, +Mrs. Norton's good looks could justly claim full meed of admiration and +approval. + +Accepting Captain Ross's aid she slipped lightly from her saddle to the +ground and on foot looked as graceful as she did when mounted. Raymond +brought his friend to her and introduced him. + +Holding out a small and shapely hand in a dainty leather gauntlet she +said in a frank and pleasant manner: + +"How do you do, Mr. Wargrave? You are a fortunate person to have been in +England so lately. I haven't seen it for nearly three years. Weren't you +sorry to leave it?" + +"Not in the least, Mrs. Norton. I'd far sooner be doing this," he waved +his hand towards the horses and the open desert, "than fooling about +Piccadilly and the Park." + +"Oh, but don't you miss the gaieties of town, the theatres, the dances? +And then the shops and the new fashions--but you're a man, and they'd +mean nothing to you." + +The Maharajah broke in: + +"Mrs. Norton, I think we had better mount. The beaters are going in; and +the _shikaris_ (hunters) tell me that the _nullah_ swarms with pig. +There are at least half a dozen rideable boar in it." + +In pigsticking only well-grown boars are pursued, sows and immature +boars being unmolested. + +Ross started forward to help Mrs. Norton on to her fresh pony; but +Wargrave refused to surrender the advantage of his proximity to her. So +it was into his hand she put her small foot in its well-made riding-boot +and was swung up by him. + +The saddles of the rest of the party had been changed on to the horses +that the Maharajah had provided. The beaters streamed down the steep +bank into the ravine which some distance away was filled with dense +scrub affording good cover for the quarry. Forming line they moved +through it with shrill yells, the blare of horns, the beating of +tom-toms and a spluttering fire of blank cartridges from old muskets. +The riders mounted and, spear in hand, eagerly watched their progress +through the jungle. Wargrave found himself beside Mrs. Norton; but, +after exchanging a few words, he forgot her presence as, his heart +beating fast with a true sportsman's excitement, he strained his eyes +for the first sight of a wild boar. + +Suddenly, several hundred yards away, he saw a squat, dark animal emerge +from the tangled scrub and, climbing up the _nullah_ on their side, +stride away over the sand with a peculiar bounding motion that reminded +Wargrave of a rocking-horse. All eyes were turned towards the +Maharajah, who would decide whether the animal were worthy of pursuit or +not. He gazed after it for a few moments, then raised his hand. + +At the welcome signal all dashed off after the boar at a furious gallop, +opening out as they went to give play for their spears. Wild with +excitement, Wargrave struck spurs to his horse, which needed no urging, +being as filled with the lust of the chase as was the man on its back. +Like a cavalry charge the riders thundered in a mad rush behind His +Highness, whose faster mount carried him at once ahead of the rest. He +soon overtook the boar. Lowering his spear-point the Maharajah bent +forward in the saddle; but at the last moment the pig "jinked," that is, +turned sharply at right angles to his former course, and bounded away +untouched, while the baffled sportsman was carried on helplessly by his +excited horse. + +Wargrave, following at some distance to the Maharajah's right rear, saw +to his mingled joy and trepidation the boar only a short way in front of +him. + +"Ride, ride hard!" cried Mrs. Norton almost alongside him. + +Frank drove his spurs in; and the gaunt, raw-boned countrybred under him +sprang forward. But just as it had all but reached the quarry, the +latter jinked again and Wargrave was borne on, tugging vainly at the +horse's iron jaws. But the boar had short shrift. With a rush Ross +closed on it and before it could swerve off sent his spear deep into its +side and, galloping on, turned his hand over, drawing out the lance. The +pig was staggered by the shock but started to run on. Before it could +get up speed one of the Indian nobles dashed at it with wild yells and +speared it again. + +The thrust this time was mortal. The boar staggered on a few steps, then +stumbled and fell heavily to the ground. The hunters reined in their +sweating horses and gathered round it. + +"Not a big animal," commented the Maharajah, scrutinising it with the +eye of an expert. "About thirty-four inches high, I think. But the tusks +are good. They're yours, Captain Ross, aren't they?" + +"Yes, Your Highness, I think so," replied Ross. + +Pigsticking law awards the trophy to the rider whose spear first +inflicts a wound on the boar. + +"Better luck next time, Mr. Wargrave," said Mrs. Norton, riding up to +him. "I thought you were sure of him when he jinked away from the +Maharajah." + +"To be quite candid I was rather relieved that I didn't get the chance, +Mrs. Norton," replied the subaltern. "As I've never been out after pig +before I didn't quite know what to do. However, I've seen now that it +isn't very difficult; so I hope I'll get an opportunity later." + +"You are sure to, Mr. Wargrave," remarked the Maharajah. "There are +several boars left in cover; and the men are going in again." + +The tatterdemalion mob of beaters was descending into the _nullah_; and +soon the wild din broke out once more. A gaunt grey boar with long and +gleaming tusks was seen to emerge from the scrub and climb the far bank +of the ravine, where he stood safely out of reach but in full view of +the tantalised hunters. But a string of laden camels passing over the +desert scared him back again; and while the riders watched in eager +excitement, he slowly descended into the _nullah_, crossed it and came +up on the near side some hundreds of yards away. + +The Maharajah raised his spear. + +"Ride!" he cried. + +"Go like the devil, Frank!" shouted Raymond, as the scurrying horsemen +swept in a body over the sand and he found himself for a moment beside +his friend. "He's a beauty. Forty inches, I'll swear. Splendid tusks." + +Wargrave crouched like a jockey in the saddle as the riders raced madly +after the boar. The Indians among them, wildly excited, brandished their +lances and uttered fierce cries as they galloped along. Their +Maharajah's speedier mount again took the lead; but even in India sport +is democratic and his nobles, attendants and soldiers all tried to +overtake and pass him. The white men, as is their wont, rode in silence +but none the less keenly excited. Over sand and stones, past tall, +prickly cactus-plants, in hot pursuit all flew at racing speed. + +It was a long chase; for the old grey boar was speedy, cunning, and a +master of wiles. First one pursuer, then another, then a third and a +fourth, found himself almost upon the quarry and bent down with +outstretched, eager spear only to be baffled by a swift jink and carried +on helplessly, pulling vainly at the reins. + +At length a sudden turn threw out all the field except the Maharajah, +who had foreseen it and ridden off to intercept the now tiring boar. +Overtaking it he bent forward and wounded it slightly. The brute +instantly swung in upon his horse, and with a fierce grunt dashed under +it and leapt up at it with a toss of the head that gave an upward thrust +to the long, curved tusk. In an instant the horse was ripped open and +brought crashing to the ground, pinning its rider's leg to the earth +beneath it. The boar turned again, marked the prostrate man, and with a +savage gleam in its little eyes charged the Maharajah, its gleaming +ivory tusks, six inches long, as sharp and deadly as an Afridi's knife. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +YOUTH CALLS TO YOUTH + + +But at that moment a shout made the boar hesitate, and Raymond dashed in +on it at racing speed, driving his spear so deeply into its side that, +as he swept on, the tough bamboo broke like match-wood. The stricken +beast tottered forward a yard or two, then turned and stood undauntedly +at bay, as a _sowar_ rode at it. But before his steel could touch its +hide it shuddered and sank to the ground dead. + +The dying horse was lifted off the Maharajah who, with the courage of +his race, had remained calm in the face of the onrushing death. He was +assisted to rise, but was so severely shaken and bruised that at first +he was unable to stand without support. Leaning on the arm of one of his +nobles he held out his hand to Raymond, when the latter rode up, and +thanked him gratefully for his timely aid. Then the exhausted but +gallant prince sat down on the sand to recover himself. But he assured +everyone that he was not hurt and, insisting that the sport should go +on, gave orders for the beat to continue. + +Wargrave had chanced to dismount to tighten the girth of Mrs. Norton's +horse, when a fresh boar broke from cover and was instantly pursued by +all the others of the hunt. The subaltern ruefully accepted the lady's +apologies and hurriedly swung himself up into the saddle again to +follow, when his companion cried: + +"Look! Look, Mr. Wargrave! There's another. Come, we'll have him all to +ourselves." + +And striking her pony with her gold-mounted whip she dashed off at a +gallop after a grey old boar that had craftily kept close in cover and +crept out quietly after the beaters had passed. Wargrave, filled with +excitement, struck spurs to his mount and raced after her, soon catching +up and passing her. Over the sand pitted with holes and strewn with +loose stones they raced, the boar bounding before them with rocking +motion and leading them in a long, stern chase. Again and again the +beast swerved; but at last with a fierce thrill Wargrave felt the steel +head of the spear strike home in the quarry. As he was carried on past +it he withdrew the weapon, then pulled his panting horse round. The boar +was checked; but the wound only infuriated him and aroused his fighting +ardour. He dashed at Mrs. Norton; but, as Frank turned, the game brute +recognised the more dangerous adversary, and with a fierce grunt charged +savagely at him. Wargrave plunged his spurs into his horse, which sprang +forward, just clearing the boar's snout, as the rider leant well out and +speared the pig through the heart. Then with a wild, exultant whoop the +subaltern swung round in the saddle and saw the animal totter forward +and collapse on the sand. Only a sportsman could realise his feeling of +triumph at the fall of his first boar. + +Mrs. Norton was almost as excited as he, her sparkling eyes and face +flushed a becoming pink, making her even prettier in his eyes as she +rode up and congratulated him. + +"Well done, Mr. Wargrave!" she cried, trotting up to where he sat on his +panting horse over the dead boar. "You did that splendidly! And the very +first time you've been out pigsticking, too!" + +"It was just luck," replied the subaltern modestly, not ill-pleased at +her praise. + +"What a glorious run he gave us!" she continued. "And we had it all to +ourselves, which made it better. I'm always afraid of the Maharajah's +followers, for in a run they ride so recklessly and carry their spears +so carelessly that it's a wonder they don't kill someone every time. +Will you help me down, please? I must give Martian a rest after that +gallop." + +With Wargrave's aid she dropped lightly to the ground; and he remarked +again with admiration the graceful lines and rounded curves of her +figure as she walked to the dead boar and touched the tusks. + +"What a splendid pair! You are lucky," she exclaimed. "The biggest +anyone has got yet this season." + +"I hope you'll allow me to offer them to you," said Wargrave generously, +although it cost him a pang to surrender the precious trophy. "You +deserve them, for you rode so well after the boar and I believe you'd +have got him if you'd carried a spear." + +"No, indeed, Mr. Wargrave; I wouldn't dream of taking them," she +replied, laughing; "but I appreciate the nobility of your self-denial. +This is your first pig; and I know what that means to a man. Now we must +find a _sowar_ to get the coolies to bring the boar in. But I wonder +where we are. Where is everyone?" + +Wargrave looked about him and for the first time realised that they were +far out in the desert without a landmark to guide them. On every side +the sand stretched away to the horizon, its flat expanse broken only by +clumps of bristling cactus or very rarely the tall stem of a palm tree. +Of the others of the party there was no sign. His companion and he +seemed to be alone in the world; and he began to wonder apprehensively +if they were destined to undergo the unpleasant experience of being lost +in the desert. The sun high overhead afforded no help; and Wargrave +remembered neither the direction of the city nor where lay the ravine in +which the beat had taken place. + +"You don't happen to know where we are, I suppose, Mrs. Norton?" he +asked his companion. + +"I haven't the least idea. It looks as if we're lost," she replied +calmly. "We had better wait quietly where we are instead of wandering +about trying to find our way. When we are missed the Maharajah will +probably send somebody to look for us." + +"I daresay you're right," said Wargrave. "You know more about the desert +than I do. By Jove, I'd give anything to come across the camel that +Raymond tells me brings out drinks and ice. My throat is parched. Aren't +you very thirsty?" + +"Terribly so. Isn't the heat awful?" she exclaimed, trying to fan +herself with the few inches of cambric and lace that represented a +handkerchief. + +"Awful. The blood seems to be boiling in my head," gasped the subaltern. +"I've never felt heat like this anywhere else in India. But, thank +goodness, it seems to be clouding over. That will make it cooler." + +Mrs. Norton looked around. A dun veil was being swiftly drawn up over +sun and sky and blotting out the landscape. + +"Good gracious! There's worse trouble coming. That's a sandstorm," she +cried, for the first time exhibiting a sign of nervousness. + +"Good heavens, how pleasant! Are we going to be buried under a mound of +sand, like the pictures we used to have in our schoolbooks of caravans +overwhelmed in the Sahara?" + +Mrs. Norton smiled. + +"Not quite as bad as that," she answered. "But unpleasant enough, I +assure you. If only we had any shelter!" + +Wargrave looked around desperately. He had hitherto no experience of +desert country; and the sudden darkness and the grim menace of the +approaching black wall of the sandstorm seemed to threaten disaster. He +saw a thick clump of cactus half a mile away. + +"We'd better make for that," he said, pointing to it. "It will serve to +break the force of the wind if we get to leeward of it. Let's mount." + +He put her on her horse and then swung himself up into the saddle. +Together they raced for the scant shelter before the dark menace +overspreading earth and sky. The sun was now hidden; but that brought no +relief, for the heat was even more stifling and oppressive than before. +The wind seemed like a blast of hot air from an opened furnace door. + +Pulling up when they reached the dense thicket of cactus with its broad +green leaves studded with cruel thorns, Wargrave jumped down and lifted +Mrs. Norton from the saddle. The horses followed them instinctively, as +they pressed as closely as they could to the shelter of the inhospitable +plant. The animals turned their tails towards the approaching storm and +instinctively huddled against their human companions in distress. +Wargrave took off his jacket and spread it around Mrs. Norton's head, +holding her to him. + +With a shrill wail the dark storm swept down upon them, and a million +sharp particles of sand beat on them, stinging, smothering, choking +them. The horses crowded nearer to the man, and the woman clung tighter +to him as he wrapped her more closely in the protecting cloth. He felt +suffocated, stifled, his lungs bursting, his throat burning, while every +breath he drew was laden with the irritating sand. It penetrated through +all the openings of his clothing, down his collar, inside his shirt, +into his boots. The heat was terrific, unbearable, the darkness intense. +Wargrave began to wonder if his first apprehensions were not justified, +if they could hope to escape alive or were destined to be buried under +the stifling pall that enveloped them. He felt against him the soft body +of the woman clinging desperately to him; and the warm contact thrilled +him. A feeling of pity, of tenderness for her awoke in him at the +thought that this young and attractive being was fated perhaps to perish +by so awful a death. And instinctively, unconsciously, he held her +closer to him. + +For minutes that seemed hours the storm continued to shriek and roar +over and around them. But at length the choking waves began to diminish +in density and slowly, gradually, the deadly, smothering pall was lifted +from them. The black wall passed on and Wargrave watched it moving away +over the desert. The storm had lasted half an hour, but the subaltern +believed its duration to have been hours. The fine grit had penetrated +into the case of his wrist-watch and stopped it. A cool, refreshing +breeze sprang up. Pulling his jacket off Mrs. Norton's head, Wargrave +said: + +"It's all over at last." + +"Oh, thank God!" she exclaimed fervently, standing erect and drawing a +deep breath of cool air into her labouring lungs. "I thought I was going +to be smothered." + +"It was a decidedly unpleasant experience and one I don't want to try +again. My throat is parched; I must have swallowed tons of sand. And +look at the state I'm in!" + +He was powdered thick with it, clothes, hair, eyebrows, grey with it. It +had caked on his face damp with perspiration. + +"Thanks to your jacket I've escaped pretty well, although I was almost +suffocated," she said. "Well, now that it is over surely someone will +come to look for us." + +"Then we had better get up on our horses and move out into the open. +We'll be more visible," said Wargrave. + +Yet he felt a strange reluctance to quit the spot; for the thought came +to him that their unpleasant experience in it would henceforth be a link +between them. A few hours before he had not known of this woman's +existence! and now he had held her to his breast and tried to protect +her against the forces of Nature. The same idea seemed born in her mind +at the same time; for, when he had brushed the dust off her saddle and +lifted her on to it, she turned to look with interest at the spot as +they rode away from it. + +They had not long to wait out in the open before they saw three or four +riders spread over the desert apparently looking for them, so they +cantered towards them. As soon as they were seen by the search party a +_sowar_ galloped to meet them and, saluting, told them that the +Maharajah and the rest had taken refuge from the storm in a village a +couple of miles away. Then from the _kamarband_, or broad cloth +encircling his waist like a sash, he produced two bottles of soda-water +which he opened and gave to them. The liquid was warm, but nevertheless +was acceptable to their parched throats. + +They followed their guide at a gallop and soon were being welcomed by +the rest of the party in a small village of low mud huts. A couple of +kneeling camels, bubbling, squealing and viciously trying to bite +everyone within reach, were being unloaded by some of the Maharajah's +servants. Other attendants were spreading a white cloth on the ground by +a well under a couple of tall palm-trees and laying on it an excellent +cold lunch for the Europeans, with bottles of champagne standing in +silver pails filled with ice. + +As soon as his anxiety on Mrs. Norton's account was relieved by her +arrival, His Highness, who as an orthodox Hindu could not eat with his +guests, begged them to excuse him and, being helped with difficulty on +his horse, rode slowly off, still shaken and sorely bruised by his fall. +His nobles and officials accompanied him. + +After lunch all went to inspect the heap of slain boars laid on the +ground in the shade of a hut. Wargrave's kill had been added to it. Much +to the subaltern's delight its tusk proved to be the longest and finest +of all; and he was warmly congratulated by the more experienced +pigstickers on his success. Shortly afterwards the beaters went into the +_nullah_ again; and a few more runs added another couple of boars to the +bag. Then, after iced drinks while their saddles were being changed back +on to their own horses, the Britishers mounted and started on their +homeward journey. + +Without quite knowing how it happened Wargrave found himself riding +beside Mrs. Norton behind the rest of the party. On the way back they +chatted freely and without restraint, like old friends. For the +incidents of the day had served to sweep away formality between them and +to give them a sense of long acquaintanceship and mutual liking. And, +when the time came for Mrs. Norton to separate from the others as she +reached the spot where the road to the Residency branched off, the +subaltern volunteered to accompany her. + +It had not taken them long to discover that they had several tastes in +common. + +"So you like good music?" she said after a chance remark of his. "It is +pleasant to find a kindred spirit in this desolate place. The ladies and +the other officers of your regiment are Philistines. Ragtime is more in +their line than Grieg or Brahms. And the other day Captain Ross asked me +if Tschaikowsky wasn't the Russian dancer at the Coliseum in town." + +Wargrave laughed. + +"I know. I became very unpopular when I was Band President and made our +band play Wagner all one night during Mess. I gave up trying to elevate +their musical taste when the Colonel told me to order the bandmaster to +'stop that awful rubbish and play something good, like the selection +from the last London _revue_.'" + +"Are you a musician yourself?" she asked. + +"I play the violin." + +"Oh, how ripping! You must come often and practise with me. I've an +excellent piano; but I rarely touch it now. My husband takes no interest +in music--or indeed, in anything else I like. But, then, I am not +thrilled by his one absorbing passion in life--insects. So we're quits, +I suppose." + +Their horses were walking silently over the soft sand; and Wargrave +heard her give a little sigh. Was it possible, he wondered, that the +husband of this charming woman did not appreciate her and her +attractions as he ought? + +She went on with a change of manner: + +"When are you coming to call on me? I am a Duty Call, you know. All +officers are supposed to leave cards on the Palace and the Residency." + +"The call on you will be a pleasure, I assure you, not a mere duty, Mrs. +Norton," said the subaltern with a touch of earnestness. "May I come +to-morrow?" + +"Yes, please do. Come early for tea and bring your violin. It will be +delightful to have some music again. I have not opened my piano for +months; but I'll begin to practise to-night. I have one or two pieces +with violin _obligato_." + +So, chatting and at every step finding something fresh to like in each +other, they rode along down sandy lanes hemmed in by prickly aloe +hedges, by deep wells and creaking water-wheels where patient bullocks +toiled in the sun to draw up the gushing water to irrigate the green +fields so reposeful to the eye after the glaring desert. They passed by +thatched mud huts outside which naked brown babies sprawled in the dust +and deer-eyed women turned the hand-querns that ground the flour for +their household's evening meal. Stiff and sore though Wargrave was after +these many hours of his first day in the saddle for so long, he +thoroughly enjoyed his ride back with so attractive a companion. + +When they reached the Residency, a fine, airy building of white stone +standing in large, well-kept grounds, he felt quite reluctant to part +with her. But, declining her invitation to enter, he renewed his promise +to call on the following day and rode on to his bungalow. + +When he was alone he realised for the first time the effects of fatigue, +thirst and the broiling heat of the afternoon sun. But Mrs. Norton was +more in his thoughts than the exciting events of the day as he trotted +painfully on towards his bungalow. + +The house was closely shut and shuttered against the outside heat, and +Raymond was asleep, enjoying a welcome _siesta_ after the early start +and hard exercise. Wargrave entered his own bare and comfortless +bedroom, and with the help of his "boy"--as Indian body-servants are +termed--proceeded to undress. Then, attired in a big towel and slippers, +he passed into the small, stone-paved apartment dignified with the title +of bathroom which opened off his bedroom. + +After his ablutions Wargrave lay down on his bed and slept for an hour +or two until awakened by Raymond's voice bidding him join him at tea. +Strolling in pyjamas and slippers into the sitting-room which they +shared the subaltern found his comrade lying lazily in a long chair and +attired in the same cool costume. The outer doors and windows of the +bungalow were still closed against the brooding heat outside. Inside the +house the temperature was little cooler despite the _punkah_ which +droned monotonously overhead. + +Over their tea the two young soldiers discussed the day's sport, +recalling every incident of each run and kill, until the servants came +in to throw open the doors and windows in hope of a faint breath of +evening coolness. The _punkah_ stopped, and the coolie who pulled it +shuffled away. + +After tea Raymond took his companion to inspect the cantonment, which +Wargrave had not yet seen, for he had not reached it until after dusk +the previous day. It consisted only of the Mess, the Regimental Office, +and about ten bungalows for the officers, single-storied brick or +rubble-walled buildings, thatched or tiled. Some of them were unoccupied +and were tumbling in ruins. There was nothing else--not even the +"general shop" usual in most small cantonments. Not a spool of thread, +not a tin of sardines, could be purchased within a three days' journey. +Most of the food supplies and almost everything else had to be brought +from Bombay. Around the bungalow the compounds were simply patches of +the universal sands surrounded by mud walls. No flowers, no trees, not +even a blade of grass, relieved the dull monotony. Altogether the +cantonment of Rohar was an unlovely and uninteresting place. Yet it is +but an example of many such stations in India, lonely and +soul-deadening, some of which have not even its saving grace of sport to +enliven existence in them. + +After a visit to the Lines--the rows of single-storied detached brick +buildings, one to a company, that housed the native ranks of the +regiment--where the Indian officers and sepoys (as native infantry +soldiers are called) rushed out to crowd round and welcome back their +popular officer, Wargrave and Raymond strolled to the Mess. Here in the +anteroom other British officers of the corps, tired out after the day's +sport, were lying in easy chairs, reading the three days' old Bombay +newspaper just arrived and the three weeks' old English journals until +it was time to return to their bungalows and dress for dinner. + +Early on the following afternoon Wargrave borrowed Raymond's bamboo cart +and pony--for he had sold his own trap and horses before going on leave +to England and had not yet had time to buy new ones--and drove to the +Residency. When he pulled up before the hall-door and in Anglo-Indian +fashion shouted "Boy!" from his seat in the vehicle, a tall, stately +Indian servant in a long, gold-laced red coat reaching below the knees +and embroidered on the breast with the Imperial monogram in gold, came +out and held a small silver tray to him. Wargrave placed a couple of his +visiting cards on it, and the gorgeous apparition (known as a +_chuprassi_) retired into the building with them. While he was gone +Wargrave looked with pleasure at the brilliant flower-beds, green lawn +and tall plants and bushes glowing with colour of the carefully-tended +and well-watered Residency garden, which contrasted strikingly with the +dry, bare compounds of the cantonment. + +In a minute or two the _chuprassi_ returned and said: + +"Salaam!" + +Wargrave, hooking up the reins, climbed down from the trap, leaving +Raymond's _syce_ in charge of the pony, and entered the grateful +coolness of the lofty hall. Here another _chuprassi_ took his hat and, +holding out a pen for him, indicated the red-bound Visitor's Book, in +which he was to inscribe his name. Then one of the servants led the way +up the broad staircase into a large and well-furnished drawing-room +extending along the whole front of the building. Here Wargrave found +Mrs. Norton awaiting him. She looked very lovely in a cool white dress +of muslin--but muslin shaped by a master-hand of Paris. She welcomed him +gaily and made him feel at once on the footing of an old friend. + +She was genuinely glad to see him again. To this young and attractive +woman, full of the joy of living, hardly more than a girl, yet married +to a much older man, sober-minded, stolid and uncongenial to her, and +buried in this dull and lonely station, Wargrave had appealed instantly. +Youth calls to youth, and she hailed his advent into her monotonous life +as a child greets the coming of a playfellow. With the other two ladies +in Rohar she had nothing in common. Both were middle-aged, serious and +spiteful. To them her youth and beauty were an offence; and from the +first day of their acquaintance with her they had disliked her. As for +the other officers of the regiment none of them attracted her; for, good +fellows as they were, none shared any of her tastes except her love of +sport. But in Wargrave she had already recognised a companion, a +playmate, one to whom music, art and poetry appealed as they did to her. + +On his side Frank, heart-whole but fond of the society of the opposite +sex, was at once attracted by this charming member of it who had tastes +akin to his own. Her beauty pleased his beauty-loving eye; and he would +not have been man if her readiness to meet him on a footing of +friendship had not flattered him. He had thought that a great drawback +to life in Rohar would be the lack of feminine companionship; for the +ladies of his regiment were not at all congenial, although he did not +dislike them. But it was delightful to find in this desert spot this +pretty and cultured woman, who would have been deemed attractive in +London and who appeared trebly so in a dull and lonely Indian station. +He had thought much of her since their meeting on the previous day; and +although it never occurred to him to lose his heart to her or even +attempt to flirt with her, yet he felt that her friendship would +brighten existence for him in Rohar. Nor did the thought strike him +that possibly he might come to mean more to Mrs. Norton than she to him. +For, while he had his work, his duties, the goodfellowship of the Mess +and the friendship of his comrades to fill his life, she had nothing. +She was utterly without interests, occupation or real companionship in +Rohar. Her husband and she had nothing in common. No child had come +during the five years of their marriage to link them together. And in +this solitary place where there were no gaieties, no distractions such +as a young woman would naturally long for, she was lonely, very lonely +indeed. + +It was little wonder that she snatched eagerly at the promise of an +interesting friendship. Wargrave stood out and apart from the other +officers of the regiment; and his companionship during the uncomfortable +incident of the sandstorm bulked unaccountably large in her mind. It +seemed to denote that he was destined to introduce a new element into +her life. + +As they talked it was with increasing pleasure that she learnt they had +so many tastes in common. She found that he played the violin well and +was, moreover, the possessor of a voice tuneful and sympathetic, even if +not perfectly trained. This made instant appeal to her and would have +disposed her to regard him with favour even if she had not been already +prepared to like him. + +The afternoon passed all too quickly for both of them. Violet Norton +had never enjoyed any hours in Rohar so much as these; and when, as she +sat at the piano while Frank played an _obligato_, a servant came to +enquire if she wished her horse or a carriage got ready for her usual +evening ride or drive, she impatiently ordered him out of the room. When +the time came for Wargrave to return to his bungalow to dress for dinner +she begged him to stay and dine with her. + +"I shall be all alone; and it would be a charitable act to take pity on +my solitude," she said. "My husband is dining at your Mess to-night." + +"Thank you very much for asking me," replied the subaltern. "I should +have loved to accept your invitation; but it is our Guest Night and the +Colonel likes all of us to be present at Mess on such evenings." + +"Oh, I forgot!" she exclaimed. "I ought to have remembered; for Mr. +Raymond told me the same thing only last week when I invited him +informally. Well, you must come some other night soon." + +Reluctant to part with her new playmate she accompanied him to the door +and, to the scandal of the stately _chuprassis_, stood at it to watch +him drive away and to wave him a last goodbye as he looked back when the +pony turned out of the gate. + +India is a land of lightning friendships between men and women. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE LOVE-SONG OF HAR DYAL + + +The bugler was sounding the second mess-call as the Resident's carriage +drew up before the steps of the Mess verandah on which stood all the +officers of the regiment, dressed in the white drill uniform worn at +dinner in India during the hot weather. From the carriage Major Norton, +a stout, middle-aged man in civilian evening dress, descended stiffly +and shook hands with the Commandant of the battalion, Colonel Trevor, +who had come down the steps to meet him and whose guest he was to be. + +On the verandah Wargrave was introduced to him by the Colonel and took +his outstretched hand with reluctance; for Frank felt stirring in him a +faint jealousy of the man who was Violet's legal lord and an indefinite +hostility to him for not appreciating his charming wife as he ought. And +while the Resident was shaking hands with the others Wargrave looked at +him with interest. + +Major Norton was a very ordinary-looking man, more elderly in appearance +than his years warranted. He was bald and clean-shaved but for scraps of +side-whiskers that gave him a resemblance to the traditional +stage-lawyer of amateur theatricals, a likeness increased by his heavy +and prosy manner. It was hard to believe that he had ever been a young +subaltern, though such had once been the case, for the Indian Political +Department is recruited chiefly from officers of the Indian Army. But he +was never the gay and light-hearted individual that most junior subs. +are at the beginning of their career. Even then he had been a sober and +serious individual, favourably noted by his superiors as being earnest +and painstaking. And now he was well thought of by the Heads of his +Department; for his plodding and methodical disposition and his slavish +adherence to rules and regulations had earned him the reputation of +being an eminently "safe" man. How such a gay, laughter-loving, +coquettish and attractive woman as Violet Dering came to marry one so +entirely her opposite puzzled everyone who did not know the inner +history of a girl, one of a large family of daughters, given "her chance +in life" by being sent out to relatives in Calcutta for one season, with +a definite warning not to return home unmarried under penalty of being +turned out to face the world as a governess or hospital nurse. And +Violet liked comfort and hated work. + +During dinner Wargrave found himself instinctively criticising Norton's +manner and conversation, and rapidly arrived at the conclusion that +Raymond had described him accurately. The Resident, though a very worthy +individual, was undoubtedly a bore; and Colonel Trevor, beside whom he +sat, strove in vain to appear interested in his conversation. For he had +heard his opinions on every subject on which Norton had any opinions +over and over again. As the Resident was the only other European in the +station he dined regularly at the Mess on the weekly Guest Night with +one or other of the officers. He was not popular among them, but they +considered it their duty to be victimised in turn to uphold the +regiment's reputation for hospitality; and in consequence each resigned +himself to act as his host. + +After dinner, as the Resident played neither cards nor billiards, the +Colonel sat out on the verandah with him, all the while longing to be at +the bridge-table inside; and, as his guest was a strict teetotaller, he +did not like to order a drink for himself. So he tried to keep awake and +hide his yawns while listening to a prosy monologue on insects until the +Residency carriage came to take Major Norton away. + +When his guest had left, the Colonel entered the anteroom heaving a sigh +of relief. + +"Phew! thank God that's over!" he exclaimed piously. "Really, Norton +becomes more of a bore every day. I'm sick to death of hearing the +life-story of every Indian insect for the hundredth time. I'll dream of +_coleoptera_ and Polly 'optera and other weird beasties to-night." + +The other officers looked up and laughed. Ross rose from the +bridge-table and said: + +"Come and take my place, sir; we've finished the rubber. Have a drink; +you want something to cheer you up after that infliction. Boy! +whiskey-soda Commanding Sahib _ke waste lao_. (Bring a whiskey and soda +for the Commanding officer.)" + +"You've my entire sympathy, Colonel," said Major Hepburn, the Second in +Command. "It's my turn to ask the Resident to dinner next. I feel +tempted to go on the sick-list to escape it." + +"I say, sir, I've got a good idea," said an Irish subaltern named Daly, +who was seated at the bridge-table. "Couldn't we pass a resolution at +the next Mess meeting that in future no guests are ever to be asked to +dinner? That will save us from our weekly penance." + +The others laughed; but the Colonel, whose sense of humour was not his +strong point, took the suggestion as being seriously meant. + +"No, no; we couldn't do that," he said in an alarmed tone. "The Resident +would be very offended and might mention it to the General when he comes +here on his annual inspection." + +The remark was very characteristic of Colonel Trevor, who was a man who +dreaded responsibility and whose sole object in life was to reach safely +the time when, his period of command being finished, he could retire on +his full pension. He was always haunted by the dread that some +carelessness or mistake on his part or that of any of his subordinates +might involve him in trouble with his superiors and prevent that happy +consummation of his thirty years of Indian service. This fear made him +merciless to anyone under him whose conduct might bring the censure of +the higher authorities on the innocent head of the Commanding Officer +who was in theory responsible for the behaviour of his juniors. It was +commonly said in the regiment that he would cheerfully give up his own +brother to be hanged to save himself the mildest official reprimand. +Perhaps he was not altogether to blame; for he was not his own master in +private life. It was hinted that Colonel Trevor commanded the battalion +but that Mrs. Trevor commanded him. And unfortunately there was no doubt +that this lady interfered privately a good deal in regimental matters, +much to the annoyance of the other officers. + +Now, relieved of the incubus that had hitherto spoiled his enjoyment of +the evening, the Colonel gratefully drank the whiskey and soda brought +him by Ross's order and sat down cheerfully to play bridge. He always +liked dining in the Mess, where he was a far more important person than +he was in his own house. + +It did not take Wargrave long to settle down again into the routine of +regimental life and the humdrum existence of a small Indian station. But +he had never before been quartered in so remote and dull a spot as +Rohar. The only distractions it offered besides the shooting and +pigsticking were two tennis afternoons weekly, one at the Residency, the +other at the Mess. Here the dozen or so Europeans, who knew every line +of each other's faces by heart gathered regularly from sheer boredom +whether the game amused them or not. Neither Mrs. Trevor nor her +bosom-friend Mrs. Baird, the regimental surgeon's better half, ever +attempted it; but they invariably attended and sat together, usually +talking scandal of Mrs. Norton as she played or chatted with the men. +Mrs. Trevor's chief grievance against her was that the General +Commanding the Division, when he came to inspect the battalion, took the +younger woman in to dinner, for, as her husband the Resident was the +Viceroy's representative, she could claim precedence over the wife of a +mere regimental commandant. No English village is so full of petty +squabbles and malicious gossip as a small Indian station. + +Like everyone else in the land Wargrave hated most those terrible hours +of the hot weather between nine in the morning and five in the +afternoon. He and Raymond passed them, like so many thousands of their +kind elsewhere, shut up in their comfortless bungalow, which was +darkened and closely shuttered to exclude the awful heat and the +blinding glare outside. Too hot to read or write, almost to smoke, they +lay in long cane chairs, gasping and perspiring freely, while the +whining _punkah_ overhead barely stirred the heated air. One exterior +window on the windward side of the bungalow was filled with a thick mat +of dried and odorous _kuskus_ grass, against which every quarter of an +hour the _bheestie_ threw water to wet it thoroughly so that the hot +breeze that swept over the burning sand outside might enter cooled by +the evaporation of the water. + +But Frank found alleviation and comfort in frequent visits to the +Residency, where Mrs. Norton and he spent the baking hours of the +afternoon absorbed in making music or singing duets. For Violet had a +well-trained voice which harmonised well with his. No thought of sex +seemed to obtrude itself on them. They were just playmates, comrades, +nothing more. + +Yet it was only natural that the woman's vanity should be flattered by +the man's eagerness to seek her society and by his evident pleasure in +it. And it was delightful to have at last a sympathetic listener to all +her little grievances, one who seemed as interested in her petty +household worries or the delinquencies of her London milliner in failing +to execute her orders properly as in her greater complaint against the +fate that condemned a woman of her artistic and gaiety-loving nature to +existence in the wilds and to the society of persons so uncongenial to +her as were the majority of the white folk of Rohar. + +To a man the role of confidant to a pretty woman is pleasant and +flattering; and Wargrave felt that he was highly favoured by being made +the recipient of her confidences. It never occurred to him that there +might be danger in the situation. He regarded her only as a friend in +need of sympathy and help. His chivalry was up in arms at the thought +that she was not properly appreciated by her husband, who, he began to +suspect, was inclined to neglect her and treat her as a mere chattel. +The suspicion angered him. True, Violet had never definitely told him +so; but he gathered as much from her unconscious admissions and revered +her all the more for her bravery in endeavouring to keep silent on the +subject. + +Certainly Major Norton did not seem to him to be a man capable of +understanding and valuing so sweet and rare a woman as this. After their +introduction in the Mess Frank's next meeting with him was at his own +table at the Residency, when in due course Wargrave was invited to +dinner after his duty call. Raymond was asked as well; and the two +subalterns were the only guests. + +Their hostess looked very lovely in a Paris-made gown of a green shade +that suited her colouring admirably. England did not seem to the young +soldiers so very far away when this charming and exquisitely-dressed +woman received them in her large drawing-room from which all trace of +the East in furniture and decoration was carefully excluded. For the +English in India try to avoid in their homes all that would remind them +of the Land of Exile in which their lot is cast. + +Major Norton came into the room after his guests, muttering an +unintelligible apology. He shook hands with them with an abstracted air +and failed to recall Wargrave's name. At table he asked Frank a few +perfunctory questions and then wandered off into his inevitable subject, +entomology, but finding him ignorant of and uninterested in it he +engaged in a desultory conversation with Raymond. He soon tired of this +and for the most part ate his dinner in silence. He never addressed his +wife; and Wargrave, watching them, pitied her if her husband was as +little companionable at meal-times when they were alone. He pictured her +sitting at table every day with this abstracted and uncommunicative man, +whose thoughts seemed far from his present company and surroundings and +who was scarcely likely to exert himself to talk to and entertain his +wife when he made so little effort to do so to his guests. + +Determined that on this occasion at least his hostess should be amused +Frank did his best to enliven the meal. He described to her as well as +he could all that he remembered of the latest fashions in England, told +her the plots of the newest plays at the London theatres, repeated a +few laughable stories to make her smile and provoked Raymond, who had a +dry humour of his own, to a contest of wit. Between them the two +subalterns brightened up what had threatened to be a dull evening. Mrs. +Norton laughed gaily and helped to keep the ball rolling; and even the +host in his turn woke up and actually attempted to tell a humorous +story. It certainly lacked point; but he seemed satisfied that it was +funny, so his guests smiled as in duty bound. But Wargrave noted Mrs. +Norton's look of astonishment at this new departure on the part of her +husband and thought that there was something very pathetic in her +surprise. When the meal was ended she laughingly declined to leave the +men over their wine and stayed to smoke a cigarette with them. + +When they all quitted the dining-room the Resident asked his guests to +excuse him for returning to his study, pleading urgent and important +work; and his wife led the subalterns up to the drawing-room and out on +to the verandah that ran alongside its French windows. Here easy chairs +and a table with a big lamp had been placed for them. As soon as they +were seated one of the stately _chuprassis_ brought coffee, while +another proffered cigars and cigarettes and held a light from a silver +spirit-lamp. Then both the solemn servitors departed noiselessly on bare +feet. + +After some conversation Mrs. Norton said to the adjutant: + +"Do you remember, Mr. Raymond, that you have promised to take me out +shooting one day?" + +"I haven't forgotten," he replied; "but I was not able to arrange it, as +the Maharajah had pigsticking meets fixed up for all our free days. But +I don't think we'll have another for some time; for I hear that His +Highness is laid up from the effects of his fall. So we might go out +some day soon." + +"Good. When shall we go?" asked Wargrave. "Let's fix it up now." + +"What about next Thursday?" said his friend, turning to Mrs. Norton. + +"Yes; that will suit me. Where shall we go?" + +"There are a lot of partridge and a few hares, I'm told, near the tank +at Marwa, where there is a good deal of cultivation," answered Raymond. +Then turning to his friend he continued: + +"You are not very keen on small game shooting, Frank; so you can bring +your rifle and try for _chinkara_. I saw a buck and a couple of doe +there not very long ago. A little venison would be very acceptable in +Mess." + +"The tank is about eight miles away, isn't it?" said the hostess. "I'll +write to the Maharajah and ask him to lend us camels to take us out. My +cook will put up a good cold lunch for us." + +She rose from her chair and continued: + +"Now, Mr. Wargrave, come and sing something. I've been trying over +those new songs of yours to-day." + +She led the way into the drawing-room and Raymond was left alone on the +verandah to smoke and listen for the rest of the evening, while the +others forgot him as they played and sang. + +Suddenly he sat up in his chair and with a queer little pang of jealousy +in his heart stared through the open window at the couple at the piano. +He watched his friend's face turned eagerly towards his hostess. +Wargrave was gazing intently at her as in a voice full of feeling and +pathos, a voice with a plaintive little tone in it that thrilled him +strangely, she sang that haunting melody "The Love Song of Har Dyal." +Wistfully, sadly, she uttered the sorrowful words that Kipling puts into +the mouth of the lovelorn Pathan maiden: + + "My father's wife is old and harsh with years, + And drudge of all my father's house am I. + My bread is sorrow and my drink is tears, + Come back to me, Beloved, or I die! + Come back to me, Beloved, or I die!" + +And the singer looked up into the eager eyes bent on her and sighed a +little as she struck the final chords. Out on the verandah Raymond +frowned as he watched them and wondered if this woman was to come +between them and take his friend from him. Just then the bare-footed +servants entered the room, carrying silver trays on which stood the +whiskies and sodas that are the stirrup-cups, the hints to guests that +the time of departure has come, of dinner-parties in India. + +As the two subalterns drove home in Raymond's trap through the hot +Indian night under a moon shining with a brilliance that England never +knows, Wargrave hummed "The Love Song of Har Dyal." + +Suddenly he said: + +"She's wonderful, Ray, isn't she? Fancy such a glorious woman buried in +this hole and married to a dry old stick like the Resident! Doesn't it +seem a shame?" + +The adjutant mumbled an incoherent reply behind his lighted cheroot. + +Arrived in their bungalow they undressed in their rooms and in pyjamas +and slippers came out into the compound, where on either side of a table +on which was a lighted lamp stood their bedsteads, the mattress of each +covered with a thin strip of soft China matting. For in the hot weather +in many parts of India this must be used to lie upon instead of a linen +sheet, which would become saturated with perspiration. Looking carefully +at the ground over which they passed for fear of snakes they reached and +lay down on their beds, over each of which a _punkah_ was suspended from +a cross-beam supported by two upright posts sunk in the ground. One rope +moved both _punkahs_, and the motive power was supplied by a coolie +who, salaaming to the sahibs and seating himself on the ground, picked +up the end of the rope and began to pull. Raymond put out the lamp. + +Wargrave stared up at the moon for a while. Then he said: + +"I say, Ray; didn't Mrs. Norton look lovely to-night? Didn't that dress +suit her awfully well?" + +"Oh, go to sleep, old man. We've got to get up in a few hours for this +confoundedly early parade. Goodnight," growled the adjutant, turning on +his side and closing his eyes. + +But he listened for some time to his friend humming "The Love Song of +Har Dyal" again! and not until Frank was silent did he doze off. An hour +later he woke up suddenly, bathed in perspiration and devoured by +mosquitoes; for the _punkahs_ were still--the coolie had gone to sleep. +He called to the man and aroused him, then before shutting his eyes +again he looked at his companion. The moon shone full on Wargrave's +face. He was sleeping peacefully and smiling. Raymond stared at him for +a few minutes. Then he muttered inconsequently: + +"Confound the woman!" + +And closing his eyes resolutely he fell asleep. + +In the days that elapsed before the shoot at Marwa, Wargrave rode every +afternoon to the Residency with the _syce_ carrying his violin case, +except when tennis was to be played. In their small community this +could not escape notice and comment--not that it occurred to him to try +to avoid either. The Resident did not object to the frequency of his +visits; and Frank saw no harm in his friendship with Mrs. Norton. But +others did; and the remarks of the two ladies of his regiment on the +subject were venomously spiteful. But their censure was reserved for the +one they termed "that shameless woman"; for like everyone else they were +partial to Wargrave and held him less to blame. + +His brother officers, although being men they were not so quick to nose +out a scandal, could not help noticing his absorption in Mrs. Norton's +society. One afternoon his Double Company Commander, Major Hepburn, +walked into the compound of Raymond's bungalow and on the verandah +shouted the usual Anglo-Indian caller's demand: + +"Boy! _Koi hai_?" (Is anyone there?) + +A servant hurried out and salaaming answered: + +"_Adjitan Sahib hai_." (The adjutant is here). + +"Oh, come in, Major," cried Raymond, rising from the table at which he +was seated drinking his tea. + +"Don't get up," said Hepburn, entering the room. "Is Wargrave in?" + +"No, sir; he went out half an hour ago." + +"Confound it, it seems impossible ever to find him in the afternoon +nowadays," said the major petulantly. "I wanted him to get up a hockey +match against No. 3 Double Company to-day. He used to be very keen on +playing with the men; but since he came back from England he never goes +near them. Where is he? Poodlefaking at the Residency, as usual?" + +This is the term contemptuously applied in India to the paying of calls +and other social duties that imply dancing attendance on the fair sex. + +"I didn't see him before he went out, sir," was Raymond's equivocal +reply. He loyally evaded a direct answer. + +Hepburn shook his head doubtfully. + +"I'm sorry about it. I hope the boy doesn't get into mischief. Look +here, Raymond, you're his pal. Keep your eye on him. He's a good lad; +and it would be a pity if he came to grief." + +The adjutant did not answer. The major put on his hat. + +"Well, I suppose I'll have to see to the hockey myself." + +He left the bungalow with a curt nod to Raymond, who watched him pass +out through the compound gate. Then the adjutant walked over to +Wargrave's writing-table and stood up again in its place a large +photograph of Mrs. Norton which he had hurriedly laid face downwards +when he heard Hepburn's voice outside. He looked at it for a minute, +then turned away frowning. + +When the morning of the shooting party arrived Wargrave and Raymond, +having sent their _syces_ on ahead with their guns, rode at dawn to the +Residency. In front of the building a group of camels lay on the ground, +burbling, blowing bubbles, grumbling incessantly and stretching out +their long necks to snap viciously at anyone but their drivers that +chanced to come near them. At the hall-door Mrs. Norton stood, dressed +in a smart and attractive costume of khaki drill, consisting of a +well-cut long frock coat and breeches, with the neatest of cloth gaiters +and dainty but serviceable boots. To their surprise her husband was with +her and evidently prepared to accompany them. For he wore an old coat, +knickerbockers and putties, from a strap over his shoulder hung a +specimen box, and he was armed with all the requisite appliances for the +capture and slaughter of many insects. + +Avoiding the camels' vicious teeth the party mounted after exchanging +greetings. Mrs. Norton and Wargrave rode the same animal; and Frank, +unused to this form of locomotion, took a tight grip as the long-legged +beast rose from the ground in unexpected jerks and set off at a jolting +walk that shook its riders painfully. Then it broke into a trot equally +disconcerting but finally settled into an easy canter that was as +comfortable a motion as its previous paces had been spine-dislocating. +The route lay at first over a space of desert which was unpleasant, for +the sand was blown in clouds by a high wind, almost a gale. But the +camels were fast movers and it did not take very long before they were +passing through scrub jungle and finally reached the wide stretch of +cultivation near Marwa. + +The tank, as lakes are called in India, lay in the centre of a shallow +depression, the rim of which all round was about four hundred yards from +the water which, now half a mile across, evidently filled the whole +basin in the rainy season. The strong breeze churned its surface into +little waves and piled up masses of froth and foam against the bending +reeds at one end of the tank, where, about fifty yards from the water's +edge stood a couple of thorny trees, offering almost the only shade to +be found for a long distance around. In the shallows were many yellow +egrets, while a _sarus_ crane stalked solemnly along the far bank, and +everywhere bird-life, rare elsewhere in the State, abounded. The land +all about was green, a refreshing change from the usual sandy and +parched character of most of the country. + +But beyond the tank the fields stretched away out of sight. At the edge +of the cultivation the camels were halted and the party dismounted from +them and separated. Mrs. Norton, who was a fair shot and carried a light +12-bore gun, started to walk up the partridges with Raymond, while her +husband went to search the reeds and the borders of the lake for strange +insects. Wargrave armed with a sporting Mannlicher rifle, set off on a +long tramp to look for _chinkara_, which are pretty little antelope with +curving horns. The wind, which was freshening, prevented the heat from +being excessive. + +The sport was fairly good. When lunch-time came the adjutant and Mrs. +Norton had got quite a respectable bag of partridges and a few hares. +The entomologist was in high spirits, for he had secured two rare +specimens; and Wargrave had shot a good buck. So in a contented frame of +mind all gathered under the trees near the end of the tank, where lunch +was laid by a couple of the Residency servants on a white cloth spread +on the ground. As they ate their _tiffin_ (lunch) the members of the +party chatted over the incidents of the morning; and each related the +story of his or her sport. + +After the meal Mrs. Norton decided to rest; for the ride and the long +walk with her gun had tired her. The servants spread a rug for her under +the trees and placed a camel saddle for her to recline against. Then +carrying away the empty dishes, plates, glasses and cutlery they retired +out of sight. + +"Are you sure you don't mind being left alone, Mrs. Norton?" asked +Wargrave. + +"Not in the least. Do go and shoot again," she replied, smiling up at +him. "I'm very comfortable and I'm glad to have a good rest before +undertaking that tiresome ride back. It's very pleasant here. The wind +comes so cool and fresh off the water. Isn't it strong, though?" + +The breeze had freshened to a gale and under the trees the temperature +was quite bearable. The Resident had already gone out of sight over the +rim of the basin, having exhausted the neighbourhood of the tank and +being desirous of searching farther afield. Wargrave and Raymond now +followed him but soon separated, the latter making for the cultivation +again, while his friend set off for the open plain. Ordinarily the heat +would have been intense, for the hours after noon up to three o'clock or +later are the hottest of the day in India; but the gale made it quite +cool. + +To Wargrave, tramping about unsuccessfully this time, came frequently +the sound of Raymond's gun. + +"Ray seems to be having all the luck," he thought, as through his +field-glasses he scanned the plain without seeing anything. "I'm getting +fed up." + +At last in despair he shouldered his rifle and turned back. After a long +walk he came in sight of the adjutant standing near the edge of the +fields talking to Norton. When Frank reached them he found that his +friend had increased his bag very considerably. + +"Well done, old boy, you'd better luck than I had," he said. Then +turning to the Resident he continued: "How have you done, sir?" + +"Nothing of any value," replied Norton "Have you finished? We're +thinking of going back now." + +"Yes, sir; I'm through. By Jove, I'm thirsty. I could do with a drink, +couldn't you, Ray?" + +"Rather. My throat's like a lime-kiln. We'll join Mrs. Norton and then +have an iced drink while the camels are being saddled." + +They strolled towards the lake, which was hidden from their view by the +rim of the basin. As they reached the slight ridge that this made all +three stopped dead and gazed in amazement. + +"What's happened to the tank?" exclaimed Raymond. "The water's almost up +to the trees." + +"Good God; My wife! Look! Look!" cried the Resident. + +They stood appalled. The wide body of water had swept up to within a few +yards of the trees under which Mrs. Norton lay fast asleep. And +stealthily emerging from it a large crocodile was slowly, cautiously, +crawling towards the unconscious woman. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A CROCODILE INTERVENES + + +Major Norton opened his mouth to cry a warning; but Wargrave grasped his +arm and said hurriedly: + +"Don't shout, sir! Don't wake her! She'd be too confused to move." + +Then he thrust his field-glasses into the adjutant's hand. + +"Watch for the strike of my bullet, Ray," he said. + +He threw himself at full length on the ground and pressed a cartridge +into the breech of his rifle. His companions stood over him as he cast a +hurried glance forward and adjusted his sight, muttering: + +"Just about four hundred yards." + +The crocodile was nearly broadside on to him; and even at that distance +he could see the scaly armour covering head, back and sides, that would +defy any bullet. The unprotected spot behind the shoulder was hidden +from him; the only vulnerable part was the neck. Wargrave laid his cheek +to the butt and sighted on this. + +The crocodile crept on inch by inch, dragging its limbs forward with the +slow, stealthy movement of its kind when stalking their prey on land. +The horrified watchers saw that the terrible snout with its protruding +fangs was barely a yard from Mrs. Norton's feet. Raymond's hands holding +the glasses to his eyes trembled violently. The Resident shook as with +the palsy; and he stared in horror at the crawling death that threatened +the sleeping woman. + +Wargrave fired. + +As the rifle rang out the creeping movement ceased. + +"You've hit him, I'll swear," cried Raymond. "I didn't see the bullet +strike the ground." + +Wargrave rapidly worked the bolt of his rifle, jerking out the empty +case and pushing a fresh cartridge into the chamber. He fired again. + +"That's got him! That _must_ have got him!" exclaimed Raymond. + +The crocodile lay still. Frank leapt to his feet and, rifle in hand, +dashed down the incline. At that moment Mrs. Norton awoke, turned on her +side, raised her body a little and suddenly saw the horrible reptile. +She sat up rigid with terror and stared at it. The brute slowly opened +its huge mouth and disclosed the cruel, gapped teeth. Then the iron jaws +clashed together. With a shriek the woman sprang to her feet, but stood +trembling, unable to move away. + +"Run! Run!" shouted Wargrave, springing down the slope towards her. + +Behind him raced Raymond, while her husband, who was unable to run +fast, followed far behind. + +Mrs. Norton seemed rooted to the spot. But she turned to Wargrave with +outstretched arms and gasped: + +"Save me, Frank! Save me!" + +With a bound he reached her, and, as she clung to him convulsively, +panted out: + +"It's all right, dear. You're safe now." + +He pushed her behind him, and bringing the rifle to his shoulder, faced +the crocodile. The brute opened and shut its great jaws, seeming to gasp +for air, while a strange whistling sound came from its throat. Its body +appeared to be paralysed. + +"It can't move. You've broken its spine," cried Raymond, as he reached +them. "Your first shot it must have been. Look! Your second's torn its +throat." + +He pointed to the neck and went round to the other side. From a jagged, +gaping wound where the expanding bullet had torn the throat, the blood +spurted and air whistled out with a shrill sound. + +Wargrave turned to Violet and took the terrified woman, who seemed on +the point of fainting, in his arms. + +"All right, little girl. It's all right. The brute's done for." + +She pulled herself together with an effort and looked nervously at the +crocodile. Then she released herself from Frank's clasp and said, +smiling feebly: + +"What a coward I am! I'm ashamed of myself. Where's John? Oh, here he +is. Doesn't he look funny?" + +The Resident, very red-faced and out of breath, had slowed down into a +shambling walk and was puffing and blowing like a grampus. As he came up +to them he spluttered: + +"Is it safe? Is it dead?" + +"It's harmless now, sir," answered Raymond. "It's still living but it +can't move. The spine's broken, I think." + +The Resident turned to his wife. The poor man had been in agony while +she was in danger; but now that the peril had passed he could only +express his relief in irritable scolding: + +"How could you be so foolish, Violet?" he asked crossly. "The idea of +going to sleep near the tank! Most unwise! You might have been eaten +alive." + +His wife smiled bitterly and glanced at the grumbling man with a +contemptuous expression on her face. + +"Yes, John, very inconsiderate of me, I daresay. But how was I to know +that there was a _mugger_ (crocodile) in the tank?" + +Then for the first time she realised the nearness of the water. + +"Good gracious! I thought I was much farther--how did I get so close to +it? Did I slip down in my sleep?" + +"No; there are the trees," said Raymond. "It's extraordinary. The whole +tank seems to have shifted." + +The Resident was mopping his bald scalp and lifted his hat to let the +gusty wind cool his head. A sudden squall blew the big pith sun-helmet +out of his hand. Wargrave caught it in the air and returned it to its +owner. + +"By Jove! it's a regular gale," he said. "I think I know what's +happened. This wind's so strong that it's blown the water of the tank +before it and actually shifted the whole mass thirty or forty yards this +way." + +"Yes, I've known that to occur before with shallow ponds," said Raymond. +"I've heard the passage of the Red Sea by the Israelites and the +drowning of Pharaoh's Army explained in the same way. It's said that the +crossing really took place at one extremity of the Bitter Lake through +which the Suez Canal passes." + +Major Norton was staring at the far end of the tank now left bare. + +"There may be some interesting insects stranded on the bottom uncovered +by the receding water," he said, abstractedly, and was moving away to +search for them when Wargrave said disgustedly: + +"Don't you think, sir, that, as Mrs. Norton has had such a shock, the +sooner we get off the better?" + +"Yes, yes. Very true. But you can order the camels to be saddled while +I'm having a look," replied the enthusiastic collector. "I really must +go and see. There may be some very interesting specimens there." + +And he hurried away. His wife smiled rather bitterly as he went. Then +she turned to the two subalterns. + +"But tell me what happened? How did the _mugger_ come here? How was I +saved?" + +Raymond rapidly narrated what had taken place. Violet looked at Wargrave +with glistening eyes and held out her hands to him. + +"So you saved my life. How can I thank you?" she said gratefully. Her +lips trembled a little. + +Frank took her hands in his but answered lightly: + +"Oh, it was nothing. Anyone else would have done the same. I happened to +be the only one with a rifle." + +Raymond turned away quickly and walked over to the crocodile. Neither of +them took any notice of him. Violet gazed fondly at Wargrave. + +"I owe you so much, Frank, so very much," she murmured in a low voice. +"You've made my life worth living; and now you make me live." + +He was embarrassed but he pressed the hands he held in his. Then he +released them and tried to speak lightly. + +"Shall I have the _mugger_ skinned and get a dressing-bag made out of +his hide for you?" he said, smiling. "That'd be a nice souvenir of the +brute." + +She shuddered. + +"I don't want to remember him," she cried, turning to glance at the +crocodile. "Horrid beast! I can't bear the sight of him." + +The _mugger_ certainly looked a most repulsive brute as it lay stretched +on the ground, its jaws occasionally opening and shutting spasmodically, +the blood from its wounded throat spreading in a pool on the sun-baked +earth. It was evidently an old beast; and skull and back were covered +with thick horny plates and bosses through which no bullet could +penetrate. The big teeth studded irregularly in the cruel jaws were +yellow and worn, as were the thick nails tipping the claws at the ends +of the powerful limbs. + +"The devil's not dead yet. Shall I put another bullet into him?" said +Wargrave. + +"It's only wasting a cartridge," replied his friend. "He can't do any +more harm. When the men come we'll have him cut open and see what he's +got inside him." + +Violet shuddered. + +"Oh, do you think he has ever eaten any human being?" she asked, gazing +with loathing at the huge reptile. + +"Judging from the way he stalked you I should think he has," answered +Raymond. "Hullo! here comes one of the camel-drivers with some of the +villagers. They'll be able to tell us about him." + +On the rim of the basin appeared a group of natives moving in their +direction. Suddenly they caught sight of the crocodile, stopped and +pointed to it and began to talk excitedly. One of the local peasants ran +back shouting. The rest hurried down for a closer view of the reptile. A +chorus of wonder rose from them as they stood round it. The Mahommedan +camel-driver exclaimed in Hindustani: + +"_Ahre, bhai! Kiya janwar! Pukka shaitan!_ (Ah, brother! What an animal! +A veritable devil!)" + +As the villagers spoke only the dialect of the State, Raymond used this +man as interpreter and questioned them about the crocodile. They +asserted that it had inhabited the tank for many years--hundreds, said +one man. It had, to their certain knowledge, killed several women +incautiously bathing or drawing water from the tank. As women are not +valued highly by the poorer Hindus this did not make the _mugger_ very +unpopular. But early in that very year it had committed the awful crime +of dragging under water and devouring a Brahmini bull, an animal devoted +to the Gods and held sacrosanct. + +By this time the crocodile had breathed its last. Raymond measured it +roughly and found it to be over twelve feet in length. The peasants +turned the great body on its back. Wargrave saw that the skin +underneath was too thick to be made into leather, so he bade them cut +the belly open. The stomach contained many shells of freshwater crabs +and crayfish, as well as a surprising amount of large pebbles, either +taken for digestive purposes or swallowed when the fish were being +scooped up off the bottom. But further search resulted in the finding of +several heavy brass or copper anklets and armlets, such as are worn by +Indian women. Some had evidently been a long time in the reptile's +interior. + +When the camels had come and the party was preparing to mount and start +back home, a crowd of villagers, led by their old priest, bore down upon +them. Learning that Frank was the slayer of the sacrilegious crocodile +the holy man hung a garland of marigolds round his neck and through the +interpreter offered him the thanks of gods and men for his good deed. +And to a chorus of blessings and compliments he rode away with his +companions. + +So ended the incident--apparently. But consequences undreamed of by any +of the actors in it flowed from it. For imperceptibly it brought a +change into the relations between Mrs. Norton and Wargrave and +eventually altered them completely. At first it merely seemed to +strengthen their friendship and increase the feeling of intimacy. To +Violet--they were Violet and Frank to each other now--the saving of her +life constituted a bond that could never be severed. He had preserved +her from a horrible death and she owed Wargrave more than gratitude. + +Hitherto she had often toyed with the idea of him as a lover, and the +thought had been a pleasant one. But it had hardly occurred to her to be +in love with him in return. In all her life up to now she had never +known what it was to really love. She had married without affection. Her +girlhood had been passed without the mildest flirtation; for she had +been brought up in a quiet country village where there never seemed to +be any bachelors of her own class between the ages of seventeen and +fifty. Even the curate was grey-haired and married. She had made up for +this deprivation during the voyage out to India and her season in +Calcutta; but, although she had found many men ready to flirt with her, +Norton's proposal was the only serious one that she had had and she +accepted him in desperation. She had never felt any love for him. She +did not realise that he had any for her; for, although he really +entertained a sincere affection of a kind for her, it was so seldom and +so badly expressed that she was never aware of its existence. Since her +marriage she had had several careless flirtations during her visits to +her relatives in Calcutta; but her heart was not seriously affected. + +She never acknowledged to herself that any gratitude or loyalty was due +from her to her husband. On the contrary she felt that she owed him, as +well as Fate, a grudge. She was young, warmblooded, of a passionate +temperament, yet she found herself wedded to a man who apparently needed +a housekeeper, not a wife. Her husband did not appear to realise that a +woman is not essentially different to a man, that she has feelings, +desires, passions, just as he has--although by a polite fiction the +prudish Anglo-Saxon races seem to agree to regard her as of a more +spiritual, more ethereal and less earthly a nature. Yet it is only a +fiction after all. Violet was a living woman, a creature of flesh and +blood who was not content to be a chattel, a household ornament, a piece +of furniture. It was not to be wondered at that she longed to enter into +woman's kingdom, to exercise the power of her sex to sway the other and +to experience the thrill of the realisation of that power. Often in her +loneliness she pined to see eyes she loved look with love into hers. She +was not a marble statue. It was but natural that she should long for +Love, a lover, the clasp of strong arms, the pressure of a man's broad +chest against her bosom, the feel of burning kisses on her lips, the +glorious surrender of her whole being to some adored one to whom she was +the universe, who lived but for her. + +Now for the first time in her life her errant dreams took concrete +shape. At last she began to feel the companionship of a particular man +necessary for her happiness. She had never before realised the +pleasure, the joy, to be derived from the presence of one of the +opposite sex who was in sympathy, in perfect harmony with her nature. + +In her lonely hours--and they were many--she thought constantly of +Wargrave; his face was ever before her, his voice sounding in her ears. +She usually saw her husband--absorbed in his work and studies--only at +meals; and as she looked across the table at him then she could not help +contrasting the heavy, unattractive man sitting silent, usually reading +a book while he ate, with the good-looking, laughter-loving playfellow +who had come into her life. She learned to day-dream of Wargrave, to +watch for his coming and hate his going, to enjoy every moment of his +presence. He had brought a new interest into her hitherto purposeless +life, the life that he had preserved and that consequently seemed to +belong to him. New feelings awakened in her. The world was a brighter, +happier place than it had been. It pleased her to realise what it all +meant, to know that the novel sensations, the fluttering hopes and +fears, the strange, delightful thrills, were all symptoms of that +longed-for malady that comes sooner or later to all women. She knew at +last that she loved Wargrave and gloried in the knowledge. And she never +doubted that he loved her in return. + +Did he? It was hard to tell. To a man the thought of Love in the +abstract seldom occurs; and the realisation of the concrete fact that +he is in love with some particular woman generally comes somewhat as a +shock. He is by nature a lover of freedom and in theory at least resents +fetters, even silken ones. And Wargrave had never thought of analysing +his feelings towards Violet. He was not a professional amorist and, +although not a puritan, would never set himself deliberately to make +love to a married woman under her husband's roof. He was fond of Mrs. +Norton--as a sister, he thought. She was a delightful friend, a real +pal, so understanding, so companionable, he said to himself frequently. +It had not occurred to him that his feelings for her might be love. He +had often before been on terms of friendship with women, married and +single; but none of them had ever attracted him as much as she did. He +had never felt any desire to be married; domesticity did not appeal to +him. But now, as he watched Violet moving about her drawing-room or +playing to him, he found himself thinking that it would be pleasant to +return to his bungalow from parade and find a pretty little wife waiting +to greet him with a smile and a kiss--and the wife of his dreams always +had Violet's face, wore smart well-cut frocks like Violet's, and showed +just such shapely, silken-clad legs and ankles and such small feet in +dainty, silver-buckled, high-heeled shoes. And he thought with an inward +groan that such a luxury was not for a debt-ridden subaltern like him, +that his heavily-mortgaged pay would not run to expensive gowns, silk +stockings and costly footwear. + +Yet it never occurred to him that Violet cared for him nor did it enter +his mind to try to win her love. But he felt that he would do much to +make her happy, that saving her life made him in a way responsible for +it in future; and he knew that she was not a contented woman. His +sympathy went out to her for what he guessed she must suffer from her +ill-assorted union. + +But soon he had no need to surmise it; for before long Violet began to +confide all her sorrows to him and the recital made his heart bleed for +one so young and beautiful mated to a selfish wretch who was as blind to +her suffering as he was to her charm. The younger man's chivalry was up +in arms, and he felt that such a boor did not deserve so bright a jewel. +At times Frank was tempted to confront the callous husband and force him +to open his dulled eyes to the bravely-borne misery of his neglected +wife and realise how fortunate he ought to consider himself in being the +owner of such a transcendent being. But the next moment the infatuated +youth was convinced that Norton was incapable of appreciating so rare a +woman, that only a nature like his own could understand or do full +justice to the perfections of hers. Such is a young man's conceit. He +rejoiced to know that his poor sympathy could help in a measure to make +up to Violet for the happiness that she declared that she had missed in +life. And so he gladly consented to play the consoler; and she, for the +pleasure of being consoled, continued to pour out her griefs to him. + +But if Frank was unconscious of the danger of his post as sympathising +confidant to another man's young and pretty wife, others were not. Her +husband, of course, was as blind as most husbands seem to be in +Anglo-Indian society. For in that land of the Household of Three, the +Eternal Triangle, it is almost a recognised principle that every married +woman who is at all attractive is entitled to have one particular +bachelor always in close attendance on her, to be constantly at her beck +and call, to ride with her, to drive her every afternoon to tennis or +golf or watch polo, then on to the Club and sit with her there. His +duty, a pleasant one, no doubt, is to cheer up her otherwise solitary +dinner in her bungalow on the nights when her neglectful husband is +dining out _en garcon_. No _cavaliere servente_ of Old Italy ever had so +busy a time as the Tame Cat of the India of to-day. And the husband +allows it, nay seems, as Major Norton did, to hail his presence with +relief, as it eases the conscience of the selfish lord and master who +leaves his spouse much alone. + +But if the Resident saw no harm or danger in the young officer +constantly seeking the society of his pretty wife others did. At first +Frank's well-wishers tried to hint to him that there was likelihood of +his friendship with her being misunderstood. But he laughed at +Raymond's badly-expressed warning and rather resented Major Hepburn's +kindly advice when on one occasion his Company Commander spoke plainly, +though tactfully, to him on the subject. Then Violet's enemies took a +hand in the game. Mrs. Trevor, having failed to decoy him to her +bungalow for what she called "a quiet tea and a motherly little chat," +cornered him one afternoon when he was on his way to the Residency and +spoke very openly to him of the risk he ran of being entangled in the +coils of such an outrageous coquette as "that Mrs. Norton," as she +termed her. Frank was so indignant at her abuse of his friend that for +the first time in his life he was rude to a woman and snubbed Mrs. +Trevor so severely that she went in a rage to her husband and insisted +on his taking immediate steps to arrest the progress of a scandal that, +she declared, would attract the unfavourable attention of the higher +military authorities to the regiment. + +"Do you realise, William, that you will be the one to suffer?" said the +angry woman. "If anything happens, if Major Norton complains, if that +shameless creature succeeds in making that foolish young man run away +with her, you will be blamed. You can't afford it. You know that the +General's confidential report on you last year was not too favourable." + +"It wasn't really bad, my dear; it only hinted that I lacked decision," +pleaded the hen-pecked man. + +"Exactly. You are not firm enough," persisted his domestic tyrant. "They +will say that you should have put your foot down at once and stopped +this disgraceful affair." + +"But what can I do?" asked the Colonel helplessly. + +"Someone ought to speak to Major Norton at once." + +"Oh, my dear Jane, I couldn't. I daren't." + +"For two pins I'd do it myself. Mrs. Baird said the other day that it +was our duty as respectable women." + +"No, no, no, Jane. You mustn't think of it," exclaimed the alarmed man. +"I forbid you. You mustn't mix yourself up in the affair. It would be +committing me." + +"Then send that impertinent young man away," said Mrs. Trevor firmly. No +General would have accused _her_ of lack of decision. "I used to have a +high opinion of him once; but after his insolence to me I believe him to +be nearly as bad as that woman." + +"Where can I send him?" asked the worried Colonel. "He has done all the +courses and passed all the classes and examinations he can." + +"You know you have only to write confidentially to the Staff and inform +them that young Wargrave's removal to another station is absolutely +necessary to prevent a scandal; and they'll send him off somewhere else +at once." + +Her husband nodded his head. He was well aware of the fact that the Army +in India looks closely after the behaviour and morals of its officers, +that a colonel has only to hint that the transfer of a particular +individual under his command is necessary to stop a scandal--and without +loss of time that officer finds himself deported to the other side of +the country. + +One morning, a week after Mrs Trevor's conversation with her husband, +Wargrave, superintending the musketry of his Double Company on the rifle +range, was given an official note from the adjutant informing him that +the Commanding Officer desired to see him at once in the Orderly Room. +As Major Hepburn was not present Frank handed the men over to the senior +Indian company commander and rode off to the Regimental Office, +wondering as he went what could be the reason of the sudden summons. +Reaching the building he found Raymond on the watch for him, while +ostensibly engaged in criticising to the battalion _durzi_ (tailor) the +fit of the new uniforms of several recruits. + +"I say, Ray, what's up?" asked his friend cheerily, as he swung himself +out of the saddle. + +The adjutant nodded warningly towards the Orderly Room and dropped his +voice as he replied: + +"I don't know, old chap. The C.O.'s said nothing to me; but he's in +there with Hepburn trying to work himself up into a rage so that he can +bully-rag you properly. You'd better go in and get it over." + +Wargrave entered the big, colour-washed room. The Colonel was seated at +his desk, frowning at a paper before him, and did not look up. Major +Hepburn was standing behind his chair and glanced commiseratingly at the +subaltern. + +Frank stood to attention and saluted. + +"Good morning, sir," he said. "You wanted to see me?" + +Colonel Trevor did not reply, but turning slightly in his chair, said: + +"Major Hepburn, call in the adjutant, please." + +As the Second in Command went out on the verandah and summoned Raymond, +Wargrave's heart misgave him. He had no idea of what the matter was; but +the Colonel's manner and the presence of the Second in Command were +ominous signs. He wondered what crime he was going to be charged with. + +"Shut the doors, Raymond," said the Commanding Officer curtly, as the +adjutant entered. The latter did so and sat down at his writing-table, +glancing anxiously at his friend. + +Colonel Trevor's lips were twitching nervously; and he seemed to +experience a difficulty in finding his voice. At last he took up a +paper from his desk and said: + +"Mr. Wargrave, this is a telegram just received from Western Army Head +Quarters. It says 'Lieutenant Wargrave is appointed to No. 12 Battalion, +Frontier Military Police. Direct him to proceed forthwith to report to +O.C. Detachment, Ranga Duar, Eastern Bengal.'" + + + + +CHAPTER V + +SENTENCE OF EXILE + + +At the words of the telegram Raymond started and Frank stared in +bewilderment at the Colonel. + +"But I never asked for the Military Police, sir," he exclaimed. "I----" + +The Colonel licked his dry lips and, working himself up into a passion, +shouted: + +"No, you didn't. But I did. I applied for you to be sent to it. I asked +for you to be transferred from this station. You can ask yourself the +reason why. I will not tolerate conduct such as yours, sir. I will not +have an officer like you under my command." + +Frank flushed deeply. + +"I beg your pardon, sir. I don't understand. I really don't know what +I've done. I should----" + +But the Colonel burst in furiously: + +"He says he doesn't know what he's done, Major Hepburn. Listen to that! +He does not know what he's done"; and the speaker pounded on the desk +with his clenched fist, working himself up into a rage, as a weak man +will do when he has to carry out an unpleasant task. + +"But, sir, surely I have a right----," began Wargrave, clenching his +hands until the nails were almost driven into his palms in an effort to +keep his temper. + +"I cannot argue the question with you, Wargrave," said the Colonel +loftily. "You have got your orders. Headquarters approve of my action. I +have discussed the matter with my Second in Command, and he agrees with +me. You can go. Raymond, make out the necessary warrants for Mr. +Wargrave's journey and give him an advance of a month's pay. He will +leave to-morrow. Tell the Quartermaster to make the necessary +arrangements." + +Frank bit his lip. His years of discipline and the respect for authority +engrained in him since his entrance to Sandhurst kept the mutinous words +back. He saluted punctiliously and, turning about smartly walked out of +the Orderly Room. In the glaring sunshine he strode out of the compound +and down the white, dusty road to his bungalow, his brain in a whirl, +blind to everything, seeing neither the sepoys saluting him nor his +_syce_ hurrying after him and dragging the pony by the bridle. + +When he reached his house he entered the sitting-room and dropped into a +chair. His "boy" approached salaaming and asked if he should go to the +Mess to order the Sahib's breakfast to be got ready. Wargrave waved him +away impatiently. + +He sat staring unseeingly at the wall. He could not think coherently. He +felt dazed. His bewildered brain seemed to be revolving endlessly round +the thought of the telegram from Headquarters and the Colonel's words "I +will not have an officer like you under my command." What was the +meaning of it all? What had he done? A pang shot through him at the +sudden remembrance of Colonel Trevor's assertion that Major Hepburn +agreed with him. Frank held the Second in Command in high respect, for +he knew him to be an exceptionally good soldier and a gentleman in every +sense of the word. Had he so disgraced himself then that Hepburn +considered the Colonel's action justified? But how? + +He shifted uneasily in his chair and his eyes fell on Mrs. Norton's +portrait. At the sight of it his Company Commander's advice to him about +her and Mrs. Trevor's spiteful remarks flashed across his mind. Could +Violet be mixed up in all this? Was his friendship with her perhaps the +cause of the trouble? He dismissed the idea at once. There was nothing +to be ashamed of in their relations. + +A figure darkened the doorway. It was Raymond. Wargrave sprang up and +rushed to him. + +"What in Heaven's name is it all about, Ray?" he cried. "Is the Colonel +mad?" + +The adjutant took off his helmet and flung it on the table. + +"Well, tell me. What the devil have I done?" said his friend +impatiently. + +Raymond tried to speak but failed. + +"Go on, man. What is it?" cried Wargrave, seizing his arm. + +The adjutant burst out: + +"It's a damned shame, old man. I'm sorry." + +"But what is it? What is it, I say?" cried Wargrave, shaking him. + +The adjutant nodded his head towards the big photograph on the +writing-table. + +"It's Mrs. Norton," he said. + +"Mrs. Norton?" echoed his friend. "What the--what's she got to do with +it?" + +Raymond threw himself into a chair. + +"Someone's been making mischief. The C.O.'s been told that there might +be a scandal so he's got scared lest trouble should come to him." + +Frank stared blankly at the speaker, then suddenly turned and walked out +of the bungalow. The pony was standing huddled into the patch of shade +at the side of the house, the _syce_ squatting on the ground at its head +and holding the reins. Wargrave sprang into the saddle and galloped out +of the compound. Raymond ran to the verandah and saw him thundering down +the sandy road that led to the residency. + +Arrived at the big white building Frank pulled up his panting pony on +its haunches and dismounting threw the reins over its head and left it +unattended. + +Walking to the hall door he cried: + +"_Koi hai_?" + +A drowsy _chuprassi_ at the back of the hall sprang up and hurried to +receive him. + +"_Memsahib hai_? (Is the mistress in?)" + +"_Hai, sahib_. (Yes, sir)" said the servant salaaming. + +Wargrave was free of the house and, taking off his hat, went into the +cool hall and walked up the great staircase. He entered the +drawing-room. After the blinding glare outside the closely-shuttered +apartment seemed so dark that at first it was difficult for him to see +if it were tenanted or not. But it was empty; and he paced the floor +impatiently, frowning in chaotic thought. + +"Good morning, Frank. You are early to-day. And what a bad temper you +seem to be in!" exclaimed a laughing voice; and Mrs. Norton, looking +radiant and delightfully cool in a thin white Madras muslin dress, +entered the room. + +He went to her. + +"They're sending me away, Violet," he said. + +"Sending you away?" she repeated in an astonished tone. "Sending you +where?" + +"To hell, I think," he cried. "Oh, I beg your pardon. I mean--yes, +they're sending me away from Rohar, from you. Sending me to the other +side of India." + +The blood slowly left her face as she stared uncomprehendingly at him. + +"Sending you away? Why?" she asked. + +"Because--because we're friends, little girl." + +"Because we're friends," she echoed. "What do you mean? But you mustn't +go." + +"I must. I can't help it. I've got to go." + +Pale as death Violet stared at him. + +"Got to go? To leave me?" + +Then with a choking cry she threw her arms about his neck and sobbed. + +"You mustn't. You mustn't leave me. I can't live without you. I love +you. I love you. I'll die if you go from me." + +Frank started and tried to hold her at arm's length to look into her +face. But the woman clung frenziedly to him, while convulsive sobs shook +her body. His arms went round her instinctively and, holding her to his +breast, he stared blankly over the beautiful bowed head. It was true, +then. She loved him. Without meaning it he had won her heart. He whose +earnest wish it had been to save her from pain, to console her, to +brighten her lonely life, had brought this fresh sorrow on her. To the +misery of a loveless marriage he had added a heavier cross, an unhappy, +a misplaced affection. No exultant vanity within him rejoiced at the +knowledge that, unsought, she had learned to care for him. Only regret, +pity for her, stirred in him. He was aware now as always that his +feeling for her was not love. But she must not realise it. He must save +her from the bitter mortification of learning that she had given her +heart unasked. His must have been the fault; he it must be to bear the +punishment. She should never know the truth. He bent down and +reverently, tenderly, kissed the tear-stained face--it was the first +time that his lips had touched her. + +"Dearest, we will go together. You must come with me," he said. + +Violet started and looked wildly up at him. + +"Go with you? What do you mean? How can I?" + +"I mean that you must come away with me to begin a new life--a happier +one--together. I cannot leave you here with a man who neglects you, who +does not appreciate you, who cannot understand you." + +"Do you mean--run away with you?" she asked. + +"Yes; it is the only thing to do." + +She slowly loosed her clasp of him and released herself from his arms. + +"But I don't understand at all. Why are you going? And where?" + +He briefly told her what had happened. His face flushed darkly as he +repeated the Colonel's words. + +"'He wouldn't have an officer like me under his command,' he said. He +treated me like a criminal. I don't value his opinion much. But Major +Hepburn agrees with him. That hurts. I respect him." + +"But where is this place they're sending you to?" she asked. + +"Ranga Duar? I don't know. Eastern Bengal, I believe." + +"Bengal. What? Anywhere near Calcutta?" + +"No; it must be somewhere up on the frontier. Otherwise they wouldn't +send Military Police to garrison it." + +"But what is it like? Is it a big station?" she persisted. + +"I can't tell you. But it's sure not to be. No; it must be a small place +up in the hills or in the jungle. There's only a detachment there." + +"But what have I got to do with your being sent there?" she asked in +perplexity. + +"Don't you understand? Someone's been making mischief," he replied. +"Those two vile-minded women have been talking scandal of us to the +Colonel." + +"What? Talking about you and me? Oh!" she exclaimed. + +His words brought home to her the fact that these bitter-tongued women +whom she despised had dared to assail her--her, the _Burra Mem_, the +Great Lady of their little world. Had dared to? She could not silence +them. And what would they say of her, how their tongues would wag, if +she ran away from her husband! And they would have a right to talk +scandal of her then. The thought made her pause. + +"But how could I go with you to this place in Bengal? Where could I +live?" she asked. + +"You'd live with me." + +"Oh! In your bungalow? How could I? And how would I get there?" she +continued. "I haven't any money. I don't suppose I've got a ten-rupee +note. And I couldn't ask my husband." + +"Of course not. I would----" He paused. "By Jove! I never thought of +that." It had not occurred to him that elopements must be carried out on +a cash basis. He had forgotten that money was necessary. And he had +none. He was heavily in debt. The local _shroffs_--the native +money-lenders--would give him no more credit when they knew that he was +going away. All that he would have would be the one month's advance of +pay--probably not enough for Violet's fare and expenses across +India--the Government provided his--and certainly not enough to support +them for long. He frowned in perplexity. Running away with another man's +wife did not seem so easy after all. + +Violet was the first to recover her normal calm. + +"Sit down and let us talk quietly," she said. "One of the servants may +come in. Or my husband--if people are talking scandal of us." + +She touched the switch of an overhead electric fan--the Government of +India housed its Political Officer in Rohar much more luxuriously than +the military ones--and sat down under it. Wargrave began to pace the +room impatiently. + +"Come, Frank, stop walking about like a tiger in a cage and let's +discuss things properly." + +With an effort he pulled himself together and took a chair near her. The +woman was the more self-possessed of the two. The shock of suddenly +finding herself up against the logical outcome of her desires had +sobered her; and, faced with the prospect of an immediate flight +involving the abdication of her assured social position and the +surrender of a home, she was able to visualise the consequences of her +actions. The most sobering reflection was the thought that by so doing +she would be casting herself to the female wolves of her world--and she +knew the extent of their mercy. There were others of her acquaintance +besides Mrs. Trevor who would howl loud with triumph over her downfall. +The thought has saved many a woman from social ruin. + +Thinking only of what she had so often told him of the misery of living +with a man as unsympathetic as her husband, Frank pleaded desperately +with a conviction that he was far from feeling. The hard fact of the +lack of sufficient money to pay for her travelling expenses, the +difficulty of getting off together from this out-of-the-way station, +were not to be got over. Then the impossibility of knowing whether she +could remain with him when he was on frontier duty and of supporting her +away from him, the realisation of the fact that they would have to face +the Divorce Court with its heavy costs and probably crushing damages, +all made the situation seem hopeless. In despair he sprang up and +resumed his nervous pacing of the room. + +At last Violet said: + +"All I can see, dearest, is that we must wait. It will be harder for me +than for you. You at least will not have to live with anyone uncongenial +to you. But I must. Yet I can bear it for your sake." + +He stopped before her and looked at her in admiration of her courageous +and self-sacrificing spirit. Then he bent down and kissed her tenderly. +Sitting beside her he discussed the situation more calmly than he had +hitherto done. It was finally agreed that he was to go alone to his new +station, save all that he could to pay off his debts--he would receive a +higher salary in the Military Police and his expenses would be less--and +when he was free and had made a home for her Violet would sacrifice +everything for love and come to him. With almost tears in his eyes as he +thought of her nobility he strained her to his heart. When the time came +for parting the woman broke down completely and wept bitterly as she +clung to him. He kissed her passionately, then with an effort put her +from him and almost ran from the room, while she flung herself on a +lounge and sobbed convulsively. + +One of the Residency _syces_ had taken charge of the pony; and Wargrave, +mounting it, galloped madly back to his bungalow, his heart torn with +anguish for the unhappiness of the broken-hearted woman that he was +leaving behind. + +When he arrived home he found that Raymond and his own "boy" and +sword-orderly (his native soldier-servant) had begun his packing for +him, for his heavy baggage had to be despatched that afternoon. The +bungalow was crowded with his brother-officers waiting to see him. He +had intended to avoid them, for he felt disgraced by the Colonel's +censure which it was evident the Commanding Officer had not kept secret, +though the whole matter should have been treated as confidential. But +they made light of his scruples and showed him that he had their +sympathy. He had meant to dine alone in his room that night; but his +comrades insisted on his coming to the Mess, where they were to give him +an informal farewell dinner. They would take no refusal. + +Daly, who was the Acting Quartermaster of the battalion, told him that +the arrangements for his journey had been made. He was to leave at dawn +and drive sixty miles in a _tonga_--a two-wheeled native conveyance +drawn by a pair of ponies--to a village called Basedi on the shores of a +narrow gulf or deep inlet of the sea which formed the eastern boundary +of the State of Mandha. Here he would have to spend the night in a +dak-bungalow--or rest-house--and cross the water in a steam-launch next +morning. After that, five days more of travel by various routes and +means awaited him. + +Before dinner that night a few minutes apart with Hepburn made Frank +happier than he had been all day. For his Company Commander told him +that he had only agreed with the Colonel's action because he believed +that it would be for the subaltern's own good, not because he considered +that the latter had done anything to disgrace him. Hepburn added that if +he was given command of the regiment in two years' time--as should +happen in the ordinary course of events--he would be glad to have +Wargrave back again in the battalion then. Frank, with a guilty feeling +when he remembered his compact with Violet, thanked him gratefully, and +with a lightened heart went to the very festive meal that was to be his +last for some long time, at least with his old corps. + +The Colonel had refused to agree to his being invited formally to be the +guest of the regiment; and neither he nor the other married man, the +Doctor, were present. If they slept that night they were the only two +officers in the Cantonment that did; for none of the others, not even +senior major, Hepburn, left the Mess until it was time to escort their +departing comrade to his bungalow to change for the journey. And, as the +_tonga_-ponies rattled down the road and bore him away, Frank's last +sight of his old comrades was the group of white-clad figures in the +dawn waving frantically and cheering vociferously from the gateway of +his bungalow. + +The memory of it rejoiced him throughout the terrible hours of the long +journey in the baking heat and blinding glare of the Hot Weather day. +The worse moments were the stops every ten miles to change ponies, when +he had to wait in the blazing sunshine. His "boy," who sat on the front +seat of the vehicle beside the driver, produced from a basket packed +with wet straw cooled bottles of soda-water, without which Wargrave felt +that he would have died of sunstroke. + +Then on after each halt; and the endless strip of white road again +unrolled before him, while the never-ceasing clank of the iron-shod bar +coupling the ponies maddened his aching head with its monotonous rhythm. + +As the weary miles slid past him his thoughts were with Violet, so +beautiful, so patient and brave in her self-denying endurance. And he +cursed himself for having added to her pain, and inwardly vowed that +some day he would atone to her for it. + +At last the _tonga_ rattled into the bare compound of the Basedi +dak-bungalow standing on a high stone plinth. The untidy +_khansamah_--the custodian of the rest-home--hurried on to the verandah +to greet the unexpected visitor and show his "boy" where to put the +sahib's bedding and baggage in a bleak room with a cane-bottomed wooden +bed hung with torn mosquito-curtains. + +From a glass case in the sitting-room containing a scanty store of +canned provisions the _khansamah_ provided a meal with such ill-assorted +ingredients as Somebody's desiccated soup lukewarm, a tin of sardines +and sweet biscuits to eat with them, and a bottle of beer to wash it +down with. Wargrave was too choked with dust, too sickened with the heat +and glare, to have any appetite. After a smoke he dragged his weary body +to bed and in spite of the mosquitoes that flocked joyously through the +holes in the gauze curtains to feast on him slept the profound sleep of +utter exhaustion. + +He was up at daybreak; for the tide served in the early morning and only +at its height could the launch approach the shore, which at low water +was bordered with the filthy slime of mangrove swamps. + +Landed at the other side of the gulf he had even a worse experience of +travel before him than on the previous day. For the next stage of the +journey was forty miles across a salt desert in a tram drawn by a camel. +The car was open on all sides and covered by a cardboard roof; and its +wooden seats were uncomfortably hard for long hours of sitting. The heat +was appalling. It struck up from the baked ground and seemed to scorch +the body through the clothes. The glare from the white sand and even +whiter patches of salt was blinding and penetrated through the closed +eyelids. A hot wind blew over the hazy, shimmering desert, setting the +whirling dust-devils dancing and striking the face like the touch of a +heated iron. Wargrave's small store of ice and mineral water was +exhausted, and he felt that he was likely to die of thirst. For in the +villages where they changed camels cholera was raging; and he dared not +drink the water from their wells. + +The tram slid easily along the shining rails that stretched away out of +sight over the monotonous plain, the camel loping lazily along, its +soft, sprawling feet falling noiselessly on the sand. The last ten miles +of the way lay through less sterile country; and the tram passed herds +of black buck--the pretty, spiral-horned antelope. Used to its daily +passage, the graceful animals, which were protected by the game-laws of +the native State through which the line ran, barely troubled to move out +of its way. They stood about in hundreds, staring lazily at it, some not +ten yards off, the bucks turning their heads away to scratch their sides +with the points of their horns or rubbing their noses with dainty hoofs. + +That night Wargrave slept at a dak-bungalow near the terminus in a +little native town with a small branch-railway connecting it with a main +line. Then for four days he travelled across the scorching plains of +India, shut up in stuffy carriages with violet-hued glass windows and +Venetian wooden shutters meant to exclude the heat and glare. Over bare +plains broken by sudden flat-topped rocky hills, through +closely-cultivated fields and stretches of scrub-jungle, by mud-walled +villages, he journeyed day and night. The train crossed countless wide +river-beds in which the streams had shrunk to mean rivulets; but when it +clattered over the Ganges at Allahabad the sacred flood rolled a broad +and sluggish current under the bridge on its way to the far-distant Bay +of Bengal. + +On the fourth night Wargrave slept on a bench in the waiting-room of a +small junction, Niralda, from which a narrow-gauge railway branched off +to the north from the main line through Eastern Bengal. At an early hour +next morning he took his seat in the one first-class carriage of the toy +train, which journeyed through typical Bengal scenery by mud-banked +rice-fields, groves of tall, feathery bamboos and hamlets of pretty +palm-thatched huts, their roofs hidden by the broad green leaves of +sprawling creepers. Soon across the sky to the north a dark, blurred +line rose, stretching out of sight east and west. It grew clearer as the +train sped on, more distinct. It was the great northern rampart of +India, the Himalayas. Then, seeming to float in air high above the +highest of the dark mountain peaks and utterly detached from them, the +white crests of the Eternal Snows shone fairy-like against the blue sky. + +As Wargrave gazed enraptured, suddenly hills and plain were shut out +from his sight as the train plunged from the dazzling sunlight into the +deep shadows of a tropical forest. And the subaltern recognised with a +thrill of delight that he was entering the wonderful Terai Jungle, the +marvelous belt of woodland that stretches for hundreds of miles along +the foot of the Himalayas through Assam and Bengal to the far Siwalik +range, clothing their lower slopes or scaling their steep sides into +Nepal and Bhutan. Deep in its recesses the rhinoceros, bison and buffalo +hide, herds of wild elephants roam, tigers prey on the countless deer, +and the great mountain bears descend to prowl in it for food. Frank had +learned on the way that Ranga Duar was practically situated in it; and +the knowledge almost consoled him for his exile in the promise of sport +that kings might envy. + +At a small wayside station in a clearing in the forest his railway +journey ended. Beside the one small stone building two elephants were +standing, incessantly swinging their trunks, flapping their ears and +shifting their weight restlessly from leg to leg. Frank, on getting out +of his carriage, learned with pleasure from their salaaming _mahouts_ +(drivers) that these animals were to be his next means of transport, a +novel one that harmonised with the surroundings. On the back of each +great beast was a massive, straw-filled pad secured by a rope passing +surcingle-wise around its body. + +Each _mahout_ carried a gun, one a heavy rifle, the other a +double-barrelled fowling-piece, which they offered to Wargrave. + +"_Huzoor_!" (the Presence--a polite mode of address in Hindustani), said +one man, "the _Burra_ Sahib (the Political Sahib) sends salaams and +lends you these, as you might see something to shoot on the way." + +"Oh, the Political Officer. Very kind of him, I'm sure," remarked the +subaltern. "What is his name?" + +"Durro-Mut Sahib." + +"What a curious name!" thought Frank. For in the vernacular "_durro +mut_!" means, "Do not be afraid!" He concluded that it was a nickname. + +"Why is he called that?" he asked in Hindustani. + +"Because the Sahib is a very brave sahib," replied the man. "Where he is +there no one need fear." + +The other _mahout_ nodded assent, then said: + +"The Commanding Sahib has sent Your Honour from the Mess a basket with +food and drink. I have put it on the table in the _babu's_ (clerk's) +office in the station." + +Frank blessed his new C.O. for his thoughtfulness and made a welcome +meal while he watched his baggage being loaded on to one of the +elephants. + +"_Buth_!" (Lie down) cried the _mahout_; and the obedient animal slowly +sank to its knees and stretched out its legs before and behind. Frank's +"boy" mounted timorously when the luggage had been strapped on to the +pad. When the subaltern was ready the second elephant was ordered to +kneel down for him; and he clambered up awkwardly and clung on tightly +when the _mahout_, getting astride of the great neck, made it rise. + +Along a broad road cut through the forest the huge beasts lumbered with +a plunging, swaying stride that was very tiring to a novice. Holding +both guns Frank glanced continually ahead, aside and behind him with a +delicious feeling of excited hope that at any moment some dangerous wild +beast might appear. On either hand the dense undergrowth of great, +flower-covered bushes and curving fan-shaped palms, restricted the view +to a few yards. From its dense tangle rose the giant trunks of huge +trees, their leafy crowns striving to push through the thick canopy of +vegetation overhead into the life-giving air and sunshine. + +But no wild animal appeared to cheer Wargrave on the long way; and as +hour after hour went by his whole body ached with the strain of sitting +upright without a support to his back and being jolted violently at +every step of the elephant. At last they reached a clearing in the +forest where stood the _mahout's_ huts and a tall, wooden building, the +_peelkhana_, or elephant stables. It lay at the foot of the mountains; +and from here the road wound upwards among the lower hills, under steep +cliffs, by the brink of precipices and beside deep ravines down which +brawling streams tumbled. + +As the party mounted higher and ever higher the big trees fell away +behind them until Frank could look down on a sea of foliage stretching +away out of sight east and west but bounded on the south by the Plains +of India seen vaguely through the shimmering heat-haze. Up, up they +climbed, until far above him he caught glimpses of buildings dotted +about among jungle-clad knolls and spurs jutting out from the dark face +of the mountains. And at last as evening shadows began to lengthen they +reached a lovely recess in the hills, a deep horse-shoe; and in it an +artificially-levelled parade-ground, a rifle-range running up a gully, a +few bungalows dotted about among the trees and lines of single-storied +barracks enclosed by a loopholed stone wall told Wargrave that he had +come to his journey's end. This was his place of exile--this was Ranga +Duar. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +A BORDER OUTPOST + + +"What a beautiful spot!" thought Frank as he gazed entranced at the +scenery. "I've never seen anything like it. It looks like Heaven after +the ugliness of Rohar. And how delightfully cool it is, too, up in the +mountains! Well, with this climate and good shooting in the forest below +life won't be as dreadful as I thought. I wish poor Violet were here out +of the heat and glare. How she'd love all this beauty, these trees, +these gardens, the glorious mountains!" + +He sighed as he thought of the woman who was so far away. + +"_Huzoor_, that is the Mess" broke in the voice of his _mahout_, as he +pointed to a long, red-tiled building half-hidden among the trees a few +hundred feet above them. To reach it they had to pass a large, +well-built stone bungalow, two-storied, unlike all the others and +standing in a lovely garden glowing with the vivid hues of the flowers, +the flaming red of huge bushes of bougainvillea and poinsettia. Frank, +glancing towards it, was about to ask the _mahout_ who lived in it when +he started in horror and cried to the man: + +"Stop! Stop your animal! Look there!" + +And he snatched at his rifle. For on the farther side of the house a +huge tusker elephant in the garden stood over a little European boy +about four years old, who was sprawling almost under the huge feet. And +high above its head the brute held in its curved trunk a younger child, +a girl with long golden curls, as if about to dash it to the ground. + +As Frank grasped the rifle the _mahout_, who had turned at his cry, +seized the barrel and said with a smile: + +"_Durro mut_, Sahib! Do not fear, sir. Those are Durro Mut Sahib's +babies and the elephant is their playmate." + +And as he spoke Wargrave saw the elder child spring up from the ground +and beat the great animal's legs with his tiny hands, crying: + +"_Mujh-ko bhi_, Badshah! _Mujh-ko bhi! Uth! Uth!_ (Me too, Badshah! Me +too! Take me up!)" + +And the baby held aloft was crowing in glee and kicking its fat little +legs frantically. The elephant lowered it tenderly to the ground and +picked up the boy in its stead and lifted him into the air, while he +laughed and clapped his hands. The two _mahouts_ raised their palms +respectfully to their foreheads and cried to their animals: + +"_Salaam kuro_! (Salute!)" + +And the two trunks were lifted together in the _Salaamut_, the royal +salute given to Kings and Viceroys. + +Frank's _mahout_ explained. + +"_Gharib Parwar_ (Protector of the Poor), the pagan ignorant Hindus +around here say that the elephant is a god. Aye, and that his master, +Durro Mut Sahib, is one too. _That's_ like enough. Well, Allah alone +knows the truth of everything. But those two are more than mere man and +animal, that is certain. _Mul, Moti_! (Go on, Pearl!)" + +And he kicked his elephant under the ears with his bare feet to quicken +her pace. But Frank bade him stop. Despite the man's optimism he could +not believe it wise to allow tiny tots like that to play with such a +huge, clumsy animal. He was sure that their mother would be horrified if +she knew it. He loved children, and felt that it was madness to allow +these babies to continue their dangerous pastime. + +"Have they a mother?" he asked the _mahout_. + +"Yes, _Huzoor_. The _mem-Sahib_ (lady) is doubtless within the house." + +"I want to dismount," said Frank; and he grasped the surcingle rope as +the elephant sank jerkily to its knees. Then sliding down from the pad +he entered the gate and passed up through the garden towards the +bungalow. As he did so a dainty little figure in white, a charmingly +pretty girl with golden hair and blue eyes, came out on the verandah. +Seeing him she walked down the steps to meet him and held out her hand, +saying in a pleasant, musical voice: + +"You are Mr. Wargrave, of course? Welcome to Ranga Duar." + +Frank, uncomfortably conscious of his dishevelled appearance and +travel-stained attire, almost blushed as he took off his hat and +quickened his steps to meet her, wondering who this delightful young +girl--she looked about nineteen--could be. Possibly an elder sister of +the children outside. But as they shook hands she said: + +"I am the wife of the Political Officer here. My husband, Colonel +Dermot, has just gone up to the Mess to see your C.O., Major Hunt." + +Frank was astonished. This pretty young girl, scarcely more than a child +herself, the mother of the two chubby babies! Touched by her kind manner +he shook her hand warmly and said: + +"Thank you very much for your welcome, Mrs. Dermot. It's awfully good of +you, and I--I assure you I appreciate it a lot just now. I was coming to +tell you--I wonder do you know that your babies--I suppose they _are_ +yours--are playing what seems to me rather a dangerous game with an +elephant at the side of the house." + +Mrs. Dermot smiled; and the dimples that came with the smile carried his +mind back for an instant to Violet. + +"Yes, they are my chicks," she said. "I left them in Badshah's charge." + +Frank was not altogether reassured. The young mother evidently did not +know what was happening. + +"But--pardon me--is it quite safe? I was a bit scared when I saw them. +The animal was tossing them up in the air." + +"You needn't be alarmed, Mr. Wargrave--though it's very good of you to +be concerned and come to tell me," she replied. "But Badshah--that's the +elephant's name--is a most careful nurse and I know that my babies are +quite safe when they are in his care. He has looked after them since +they were able to crawl. Come and be introduced to him. I must tell you +that he is a very exceptional animal. Indeed, we almost forget that he +is an animal. He has saved our lives, my husband's and mine, on more +than one occasion. Next to the children and me I think that Kevin loves +him better than anyone or anything else in the world. And after my +chicks and Kevin and my brother I believe I do, too. As for the babies, +I'm not sure that he doesn't come first with them." + +She led the way round the house, and in spite of her assurances Wargrave +felt a little nervous when they came in sight of the strange nurse and +its charges. The tiny girl was seated on the ground tightly clasping one +huge foreleg; while the boy was beating the other with his little fists, +crying: + +"_Mujk-ko uth! Pir! Pir!_ (Lift me up! Again! Again!)" + +When he saw his mother he ran to her and said: + +"Mummie, bad, naughty Badshah won't lift me up." + +He suddenly caught sight of the stranger and paused shyly. + +"Brian darling, this is a new friend," said his mother, bending down to +him. "Won't you shake hands with him?" + +The child conquered his shyness with an effort and walked over to Frank, +holding out his little hand. + +"How do you do?" he said politely. + +The subaltern gravely shook the proffered hand. The little girl +scrambled to her fat little legs and finger in mouth, surveyed him +solemnly. Then satisfied with her inspection she toddled forward to him +and said: + +"Tiss me." + +Frank laughed joyously. + +"With all my heart, you darling," he cried. + +This delightful welcome in the dreaded place of exile was inexpressibly +cheering. He swung the dainty mite up in his arms and kissed her. She +put her arms around his neck and hugged him. + +"Me like 'oo," she said. + +"You little flirt, Eileen," exclaimed her mother laughing. "Now it's +Badshah's turn." + +She walked to the elephant, a splendid specimen of its race, though it +had only one tusk, the right. She held out her hand to it. The long +trunk shot out, brushed her fingers and then her cheek with a light +touch that was almost a caress. She stroked the trunk affectionately. + +"Now, Badshah, this is a new Sahib." + +Frank, with the baby girl seated on his shoulder, stepped forward and +extended his hand. The animal smelt it and then laid its trunk for a +moment on his free shoulder. + +"Badshah accepts you, Mr. Wargrave," said Mrs. Dermot seriously. "And +there are few whom he takes to readily." + +Eileen, with one arm around Frank's neck, stretched out the other to the +elephant. + +"Me love Badshah," she said. + +The snake-like trunk lingered caressingly on her golden head. The baby +caught and kissed it. + +"Now then, chickies, time for bed," said their mother. "Say goodnight to +Badshah." + +The little boy ran to the great animal and hugged its leg tightly, while +the snaky trunk touched the child's face affectionately. + +"Come along, Brian. Let him go now"; and at his mother's bidding the boy +released his clasp and ran to her. + +"Goodnight, Badshah. _Salaam_!" said Mrs. Dermot, waving her hand to the +mammoth, while her little daughter on Wargrave's shoulder imitated her. + +The big animal raised its trunk in salute and, turning, walked with +swaying stride out of sight behind the bungalow. + +"By Jove, what a splendid beast!" exclaimed Frank. "And how wonderfully +well trained he is. I'm not surprised now that you let the kiddies play +with him." + +Mrs. Dermot smiled. + +"You would be even less so if you knew his story," she said. "He is my +husband's private property now. The Government of India presented him to +Kevin. Now come back to the house and have tea. Oh, no, after your long +ride you'll prefer a whiskey and soda." + +"I'd really rather have the tea, I think, Mrs. Dermot. I don't feel +thirsty up in this deliciously cool air. It's awful down in the Plains +now. But what about my elephants and baggage?" + +"Tell the _mahouts_ to go to the Mess. You are to have a room there." + +Frank did so; and the two animals lumbered away up the hill after the +_mahouts_ had brought the Colonel's guns into the bungalow. + +Mrs. Dermot led the way into the house. The little boy had possessed +himself of Wargrave's free hand, the other one being engaged in holding +Eileen, who was perched on the subaltern's shoulder. Mrs. Dermot found +it difficult to separate the children from their new friend when at +last she bore them off to bed. + +Left to himself, Frank examined with deep interest and admiring envy the +splendid display of Colonel Dermot's trophies of big game shooting that +filled the bungalow. From the walls many heads of bison and buffalo, of +_sambhur_ and _barasingh_, those fine Indian stags, looked mildly at him +with their glass eyes; while tigers, bears and panthers snarled at him +from the ground. Long elephant-tusks leaned in corners, smoking and +liqueur-tables made up from the mammoths' legs and feet stood about, and +crossed from ceiling to floor; on the walls were the skins of enormous +snakes such as Frank had never seen or imagined. He had thought a +six-foot cobra or an eight-foot python long--here were reptiles sixteen +or eighteen feet in length, and he hoped that he would never meet their +equals alive in the jungle. + +While he was gazing with admiration at the fine collection of trophies +Mrs. Dermot returned. + +"What a magnificent lot of heads and skins you've got here!" he +exclaimed. "All your husband's, I suppose?" + +She laughed as she glanced round the room, while pouring out the tea +that her butler had brought. + +"I'm afraid they make the house rather like a museum of natural +history," she answered. "Yes, they are all Kevin's, or nearly all. +There are a few of mine among them." + +He looked at her in open admiration. + +"Oh, you shoot? How splendid!" he said. "Have you ever got a tiger?" + +"A couple," she replied, smiling. + +"I envy you awfully," he said. "I've never even seen one--out of a +cage." + +"Well, if you are keen on shooting, Mr. Wargrave, you ought to have +little difficulty in bagging a tiger or two before long," she said. + +"I'd love to have the chance of going after big game. I'm hoping for it +here. Shall I? I've never had any, although I've shot a panther or two +and a few black buck and _chinkara_." + +"You will have every opportunity of good sport here. Neither of the +other two Europeans, your Commanding Officer and the doctor of your +detachment, go in for it, the latter because his sight is very bad, +Major Hunt because he doesn't care for it. I'm sure my husband will be +glad to take you out with him; and nobody in the whole Terai knows more +about big game than he." + +"By Jove; how ripping," exclaimed Frank eagerly. "Would he?" + +"I'm sure he would. He'll be only too delighted to have someone for +company. I used to go with him always, until my babies came. Now Kevin +has no one but Badshah." + +"Badshah? Oh, yes, that ripping elephant. I don't know much about those +animals, but isn't it unusual for him to have only a single tusk?" + +"Yes; Badshah is what the natives call a 'Gunesh.' You know that Gunesh +is the Hindu God of Wisdom and is represented as having an elephant's +head with only the right tusk? Consequently any of these animals born +with a single tusk, and that the right, is considered sacred and looked +upon as a god." + +"One of the _mahouts_ said that the Hindus here regard your husband as +one, too," said Frank, "and he seemed inclined to believe it himself. I +like the name they've given Colonel Dermot--Durro Mut Sahib, Fear Not +Sahib." + +A look of pride came in the young wife's eyes as she repeated the name +softly to herself. + +"Fear Not Sahib. Yes, it suits him." Then aloud she continued: + +"I think you'll like my husband, Mr. Wargrave. All men do. He's a man's +man. The hill and jungle people worship him. He understands them. Ah! +here he is, I think." + +Her face brightened, and Frank saw the light of love shine in her eyes +as she turned expectantly to the door. He sprang up as a tall man with +handsome, clear-cut features, dark complexion and eyes, and +close-cropped black hair touched at the temples with grey, entered the +room. With a pleasant smile the newcomer walked towards the subaltern +with outstretched hand, saying in a friendly voice: + +"Glad to welcome you to Ranga Duar, Wargrave." + +"Thank you very much, sir," replied Frank gripping his hand and greatly +taken at once by the Political Officer's appearance and friendly manner. +"It was very kind of you to send those guns for me. But I had no luck. +We saw nothing on the way." + +After greeting him Colonel Dermot bent over his wife and kissed her +fondly. It was obvious to the subaltern that after their five years of +married life they were lovers still. Frank looked at them a little +enviously. He wondered would it be so with Violet and him after the same +lapse of time; for the sight of their happiness sent his thoughts flying +to the woman who loved him. + +"Are you keen on shooting, Wargrave?" said the Colonel. + +"Oh, yes, he is, Kevin," broke in his wife. "I told him that I was sure +you'd be glad to take him with you into the jungle sometimes." + +"I'll be happy to do so, if you care to come with me, Wargrave," said +the Colonel. + +"I'd love to, sir. It would be awfully good of you," replied the +subaltern eagerly. "But I've only a Mannlicher rifle." + +"Ah, you'll need a bigger bore than that. But I can lend you a .470 high +velocity cordite weapon. You want something with great hitting power +for dangerous game," said Dermot. + +He went on to speak of the jungle and its denizens; and his conversation +was so interesting that Wargrave forgot the flight of time until his +hostess reminded him that he had to report his arrival to his commanding +officer and find his new quarters. Her husband volunteered to show him +the way to the Mess and introduce him to Major Hunt. + +As Wargrave shook hands with Mrs. Dermot, she said: + +"I wanted to ask you to dinner this evening; but Kevin thought you might +prefer to spend your first night with your brother officers. But we +shall expect you to-morrow, when they are coming, too." + +On their way up the steep road from his bungalow the Political Officer +spoke of the great forest below them and the sport to be found in it. +Then he said: + +"It's lucky you like shooting, Wargrave, for Ranga Duar is very isolated +and life in it dull to a person who has no resources. Still, it has its +advantages, and chief among them is the climate. It's delightful in the +cold weather and pleasant in the hot." + +"By Jove, it is indeed, sir! It's like Heaven after the heat in the +Plains below. I don't know how I lived through it coming across India." + +"The rainy season is the hardest to bear. We have five months of it and +over three hundred inches of rain during them. One never sees a strange +face then--not that we ever do have many visitors here at any time. +Still, you'll like your C.O., and Burke the doctor is a capital fellow. +Here we are." + +He turned in through a narrow gate leading to a pretty though neglected +garden in which stood the Mess, a long, single-storied building raised +on piles. On the broad wooden verandah to which a flight of steps led +from the ground two men were reclining in long chairs reading old +newspapers. On seeing Dermot and his companion they rose, and the +Colonel introduced Frank. They shook hands with him and gave him a +hearty welcome, which, coming on the top of the Dermot's, cheered the +subaltern exceedingly and for the time made him forget the circumstances +of his coming. + +"It's mighty glad I am to see you here, Wargrave," said Burke, the +doctor, in a mellow brogue, "aven av it's only to have someone living in +the Mess wid me. The Major there lives in solitary state in his little +bungalow; and I'm all alone here at night wid _shaitans_ (devils) and +wild beasts walking on the verandah." + +"What? Has that panther been prowling round the Mess again?" asked the +Political Officer. + +"Faith! and he has that. Sure, I heard him sniffing at me door last +night. I wish to the Powers ye'd shoot him, sir." + +"I can't get him. I've tried often enough." + +"Troth! and it's waking up one fine morning I'll be to find he's made a +meal av me. Keep your door shut at night, Wargrave. Merrick, who lived +in the room you'll have, forgot to do it once and the divil nearly had +him." + +"Is that really a fact?" asked Frank, delighted at the thought of having +come to a place with such possibilities of sport. + +"Yes; we're plagued by a brute of a panther that prowls about the +station at night, jumps the wall of the Fort and carries off the sepoys' +dogs, and has actually entered rooms here in the Mess. He has killed +several Bhuttia children on the hills around here. Nobody can ever get a +shot at him. He's too cunning. Will you have a drink, Colonel?" said +Hunt. + +The Political Officer thanked him but declined, and, reminding them all +of his wife's invitation for the morrow, bade them goodnight. + +"That's one av the finest men in India," exclaimed Burke, as they +watched Dermot's figure receding down the road. The doctor had a +pleasant, ugly face and wore spectacles. + +"He is, indeed. He keeps the whole Bhutan border in order," said the +commandant, Major Hunt, a slight, grey-haired man with a quiet and +reserved manner. "The Bhuttias are more afraid of a cross look from him +than of all our rifles and machine-guns. Have a drink, Wargrave? Yes? +And you, Burke? Hi, boy!" + +A Gurkha servant with the ugly, cheery face of his race appeared and was +ordered to bring three whiskeys and sodas. + +"Ranga's not a bad place if you can stand the loneliness," continued the +Major. "Are you fond of shooting." + +"Yes, sir, awfully." + +"Hooray! That's good," cried Burke. "Now we'll have someone to go down +to the jungle and shoot for the Mess. We want a change from tinned Army +rations and the tough ould hins that these benighted haythins call +chickens." + +"Yes, you'll be a Godsend to us if you're a good shot, Wargrave," added +the Commandant. "We never get meat here unless someone shoots a stag or +a buck in the jungle; and for that we generally have to rely on Dermot. +But he is away such a lot, wandering along the frontier, keeping an eye +on the peace of the Border. Now we'll be able to look to you. We have +three transport elephants with the detachment, all steady to shoot +from." + +Frank was delighted. + +"I'd love to go into the jungle if you'd let me, sir." + +"Yes, I'll be glad if you do. There's not much work for you here; and +this is a dull place for a youngster unless he's keen on sport. I'm not, +myself; and Burke's as blind as a bat. But you can always have an +elephant when they aren't wanted to bring up supplies from the railway." + +The subaltern thanked him gratefully and inwardly decided that his new +commanding officer was a great improvement on Colonel Trevor. + +"Now, Burke, I'm off to my bungalow. Show Wargrave his quarters," said +the Major rising. "See you at dinner." + +Burke showed the subaltern his room, one of the four into which the Mess +was divided. Like the doctor's quarters, it was at one end of the +building, the centre apartment being the officers' anteroom and +dining-room. Frank found that his "boy," with the ready deftness of +Indian servants, had unpacked his trunks, hung up his clothes and stowed +his various belongings about the scantily-furnished room. He had stood +Violet's photo on the one rickety table and laid out his Master's white +mess uniform on the small iron cot. + +Major Hunt, Wargrave learned, lived in a bungalow a few hundred yards +away, but, being unmarried, took his meals in the Mess. The Indian +officers and sepoys of the detachment were quartered in barracks in the +Fort. + +Frank dressed and entered the anteroom or officers' sitting-room, from +which a door led into the messroom. Both apartments were poorly +furnished, but the walls were adorned with the skulls and skins of many +beasts of the jungle, presented by Colonel Dermot, as Frank learned. +Shelves filled with books ran across one end of the anteroom. + +As the interior of the Mess was rather hot at that time of year--though +to Wargrave it seemed very cool after Rohar--the dinner-table was laid +on the verandah; and while the officers sat at their meal the pleasant +mountain breeze played about them. Frank thought with gratitude of his +escape from the burning heat which at that moment was tormenting the +hundreds of millions in the furnace of the Plains of India stretching +away from the foot of the cool hills. + +The meal was not luxurious, for it consisted almost exclusively of +tinned provisions, fresh meat being unprocurable in Ranga Duar--except +fowls of exceeding toughness--and vegetables and bread being rare +dainties. + +During dinner Wargrave learned how completely isolated his new station +was. Their only European neighbours were the planters on tea-gardens +scattered about in the great forest below, the nearest thirty miles off. +The few visitors that Ranga Duar saw in the year were the General on his +annual inspection, an occasional official of the Indian Civil Service, +the Public Works or the Forest Department, or some planter friend of the +Dermots. + +The reason of the existence of this outpost and its garrison was the +guarding of the _duars_, or passes, through the Himalayas against +raiders from Bhutan, that little-known independent State lying between +Tibet and the Bengal border. Its frontier was only two miles from, and a +few thousand feet above, Ranga Duar. + +"You are just in time for our one yearly burst of gaiety, Wargrave," +said the Commandant, "the visit of the Deb Zimpun." + +"What on earth is that, sir?" asked the subaltern. + +"Sounds like a new disease, doesn't it?" said Burke laughing. "But it +isn't. The Deb Zimpun is a gintleman av high degree, the Heridithary Cup +Bearer to the Deb Raja." + +"To the what?" demanded the bewildered Frank. + +Major Hunt smiled. + +"Bhutan is supposed to be ruled by a temporal monarch called the Deb +Raja and also by a spiritual one, known in India as the Durma Raja. In +reality it is under the sway of the most powerful of the several great +feudal lords of the land, the Tongsa Penlop or Chief of Tongsa, whom we +regard as the Maharajah of Bhutan. He has placed himself, as far only as +the foreign relations of the country go, under the suzerainty of the +Government of India; and in return we grant him a subsidy of a _lakh_ of +rupees a year. It used to be fifty thousand, but the sum was doubled +years ago. To get the money one of the State Council comes every year. +He is an official called the Deb Zimpun." + +"Faith! he's a rum old beggar, Wargrave," broke in Burke. "Looks like +the Pope av Rome in his thriple crown, for he wears a high gold-edged +cap and a flowing red robe av Chinese silk, out av which sticks a pair +av hairy bare legs." + +"The Political Officer receives him in _durbar_; and we furnish a Guard +of Honour. The Colonel gives a dinner to him and us, and we have another +spread in the Mess. That reminds me. I suppose Dermot will be going into +the jungle soon to shoot for the pot, as the _durbar_ is next week. +You'd better get him to take you. You can have one of our elephants and +provide for our larder." + +"Thanks very much, Major," said the delighted subaltern. "The Colonel +promised to let me accompany him and lend me a rifle." + +When he went to his room that night the subaltern turned up the oil lamp +that lighted it and before he undressed sat down before Violet's +photograph. As he looked at it he thought affectionately and a little +sadly of the lonely woman so far away from him now. He pitied her for +the isolation in which she lived, an isolation far completer than his +own, for she had few friends, no intimates, and a husband worse than a +stranger in his lack of understanding of her. Surely it would be only +right to take her from such a man, right to give her a fresh chance of +finding the happiness that she had missed; for the warm-hearted, +intelligent and artistic-natured woman would be far happier with him in +this beautiful spot, remote from the world though it was. And his new +comrades would appeal to her, Dermot, strong, capable, one who would +always stand out from his fellows; Hunt grave, kindly, well-read; Burke +witty, clever and good-hearted. And, little though Violet cared for her +own sex, as a rule, surely in Mrs. Dermot she would find a friend. This +happy wife, this loving mother, was so sweet and sympathetic that she +would win the older woman's liking, while the two delightful children +would take her heart by storm. Poor, lonely Violet, so beautiful, so +ill-fated! Frank sighed as he took up her portrait and kissed it. + +When he extinguished the lamp and lay down in bed it was pleasant, after +the heat in Rohar, to find it so cool that he was obliged to pull a +blanket over him. Only those who have endured the torment of hot nights +in the tropics can appreciate his thankfulness as in the silence broken +only by the monotonous cry of the nightjars he drowsed contentedly to +sleep. Already he was reconciled to Ranga Duar. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +IN THE TERAI JUNGLE + + +In the pleasant light of the morning the little outpost looked as +charming to Wargrave as it had done on the previous evening. Above Ranga +Duar the mountains towered to the pale blue sky, while below it the +foot-hills fell in steps to the broad sea of foliage of the great forest +stretching away to the distant plains seen vaguely through the haze. The +horse-shoe hollow in which the tiny station was set was bowered in +vegetation. The gardens glowed with the varied hues of flowers, and were +bounded by hedges of wild roses. The road and paths were bordered by the +tall, graceful plumes of the bamboo and shaded by giant mango and banyan +trees, their boughs clothed with orchids. + +Frank had noticed the previous day that the Fort, barracks and bungalows +were all newly built, and he learned that during the great war which had +raged along the frontiers of India five years before, the post had been +fiercely attacked by an army of Chinese and Bhutanese and the little +station practically wiped out of existence, although victory had finally +rested with the few survivors of the garrison. + +From the first the subaltern took a great liking to the tall Punjaubi +Mahommedan and hook-nosed, fair-skinned Pathan native officers and +sepoys of the detachment. The work was light and scarcely required two +British officers; and Frank soon found that Major Hunt, who seemed +driven by a demon of quiet energy, preferred to do most of it himself. +Frank got the impression that to the elder man occupation was an anodyne +for some secret sorrow. Although the subaltern had no wish to shirk his +duty he could not but be glad that his superior officer seemed always +ready to dispense with his aid, for thus he would find it easier to get +permission to go shooting. + +His first excursion into the jungle was arranged at dinner at the +Dermots' house on his second evening in Ranga Duar. The Colonel proposed +to take him out on the following Monday, for on the next day the _Deb +Zimpun_ would arrive. + +"He always brings a big train of Bhuttias with him, eighty swordsmen as +an escort to the small army of coolies necessary to carry a hundred +thousand silver rupees in boxes over the Himalayan passes. I like to +give them the flesh of a few _sambhur_ stags as a treat," said the +Colonel. + +"Hiven hilp ye av ye bring any _sambhur_ flesh to the Mess, Wargrave," +said Burke. "We want something we can get our teeth into. No, we expect +a _khakur_ from you." + +"What's a _khakur_?" asked Frank. + +"It's the _muntjac_ or barking deer," replied Dermot. "You wouldn't know +it if you haven't shot in forests. It gets its English name from its +call, which is not unlike a dog's bark." + +"Whin ye hear one saying '_Wonk! Wonk!_' in the jungle, Wargrave, get up +the nearest tree; for the _khakur_ is warning all whom it may concern +that there's a tiger in the immajit vicinity." + +Frank had already learned to distrust most of Burke's statements on +sport, for the doctor was an inveterate joker. So he looked to the +Political Officer for confirmation. + +"Yes, it's supposed to be the case," agreed the Colonel. "And I've more +than once heard a tiger loudly express his annoyance when a _khakur_ +barked as he was trying to sneak by unnoticed. There's a barking-deer." +He pointed to the well-mounted head of a small deer on the wall of the +dining-room. + +"Whom do you expect up for the Durbar, Mrs. Dermot?" asked Major Hunt. + +"Only Mr. Carter, the Sub-divisional Officer, and probably Mr. Benson." + +"Eh--is--isn't Miss Benson coming too?" asked the doctor in a hesitating +manner so unlike his usual cheery and assured self that Frank looked at +him. It seemed to him that Burke was blushing. + +"Oh, yes, I hope so," replied Mrs. Dermot. + +"Er--haven't you heard from her?" persisted the doctor anxiously. + +"I had a letter this afternoon brought by a coolie. Muriel wrote to say +that they were in the Buxa Reserve but hoped to get here in time. I'm +looking forward to her coming immensely. It's four months since I saw +her." + +Frank could not help noticing that Burke seemed to hang on Mrs. Dermot's +words; and he began to wonder if the unknown lady held the doctor's +heart. + +"It's rather hard on a girl like Miss Benson to have to lead such a +lonely life and rough it constantly in the jungle as she does," remarked +Major Hunt. "At her age she must want gaiety and amusement." + +"Muriel doesn't mind it," replied the hostess. "She loves jungle life. +And she thinks that her father couldn't get on without her." + +"Sure, she's right there, Mrs. Dermot," cried Burke. "The dear ould +boy'ud lose his head av he hadn't her to hould it on for him. She does +most av his work. It's a sight to see that slip av a girl bossing all +the forest guards and _habus_ and giving them their ordhers." + +Wargrave was anxious to hear more of this girl, in whom it appeared to +him Burke was very much interested; but Colonel Dermot broke in: + +"Talking of orders, have you any for the butcher's man, Noreen?" he +asked, smiling at his wife. + +"Yes, dear; will you please bring me a _khakur_ and some jungle fowl? +And if you can manage it a brace of _Kalej_ pheasants," said the good +housewife seriously. + +"Well, Wargrave, we've both got our orders and know what to bring back +from the jungle," said the Colonel, turning to Frank, who was sitting +beside him. Then the conversation between them drifted into sporting +channels until all adjourned outside for coffee on the verandah. + +Next afternoon the subaltern, passing down the road, was hailed from the +Dermots' garden by an imperious small lady with golden curls and big +blue bows and ordered to play with her. Her brother and Badshah had to +join in the game, too. Frank, chasing the dainty mite round and round +the elephant, began to think himself in the Garden of Eden. + +But that same evening he found that his Himalayan Paradise was not +without its serpent. The three officers of the detachment were seated at +dinner on the Mess verandah, Major Hunt with his back to the rough stone +wall of the building. A swinging oil lamp with a metal shade threw the +light downward and left the ceiling and upper part of the wall in +shadow. + +When dinner was ended the Commandant, lighting a cheerot, tilted his +chair on its back legs until his head nearly touched the wall. Frank, +talking to him, chanced to look up at the roof. He stared into the +shadows for a moment, then, suddenly grasping the astonished major by +the collar, jerked him out of his chair. And as he did so a snake, a +deadly hill-viper, which had been trying to climb up the rough face of +the wall, slipped and dropped on to the Commandant's chair, slid to the +floor and glided across the verandah and down into the garden before +anyone could find a stick with which to attack it. + +Major Hunt, his sallow face a little paler than usual, looked up at the +wall to see if any more reptiles were likely to follow, then sat down +again calmly. + +"Thank you, Wargrave," he said quietly. "But for you that brute would +have got me. And his bite is death. Ranga's full of snakes, like all +these places in the hills. We've killed several in the Mess since I've +been here; but no one's had such a close shave as this. I'll stand you a +drink for that. Hi, boy!" + +But for all this quiet manner of taking it Frank had made a staunch +friend that night by his prompt action. + +As Burke took the filled glass that the Gurkha mess-servant brought him +at the Major's order he said: + +"I hate snakes worse than the Divil hates holy wather. They're the only +things in life I'm afraid av. I never go to bed without looking under +the pillow nor put on my boots in the morning without first turning them +up and shaking them. I wish St. Pathrick had made a trip to India and +dhriven the sarpints out av the counthry the same as he did in +Ireland." + +"We've the worst snake in the world, I believe, here in the Terai, +Wargrave," said Major Hunt. "Look out for it when you're in the jungle. +It's the hamadryad or king-cobra. Have you heard of it?" + +"I saw the skin of one sixteen feet long in a Bombay museum, sir," +replied the subaltern. + +"It's the only snake in Asia that will attack human beings unprovoked; +it's deadly poisonous, unlike all other big snakes, and they say it +moves so fast that it can overtake a man on a pony. Benson, the Forest +Officer of the district, tells me there are many of them in the jungles +here." + +"One av the divils chased Dermot's elephant once and turned on the +Colonel when he interfered. It got its head blown off for its pains," +put in the doctor. + +"Don't tell me any more, Burke," exclaimed Wargrave laughing, "or I +won't be able to sleep to-night." + +He pushed back his chair as the Commandant rose from the table and, +saying goodnight to the two junior officers, picked up from the verandah +and lit a hurricane lantern and walked down the Mess steps with it on +his way home to his bungalow. Europeans in India do not care to move +about at night without a lamp lest in the darkness they might tread on a +snake. + +Early on the following Monday morning Wargrave, dressed in khaki +knickerbockers, shirt and puttees, and wearing besides his pith helmet +a "spine protector"--a quilted cloth pad buttoned to the back--as a +guard against sunstroke, went down to the Dermots' bungalow. In the +garden the Colonel, also prepared for their shooting expedition, stood +talking to his wife, while their children were trying to climb up +Badshah's legs. The elephant was equipped with a light pad provided with +large pockets into which were thrust Thermos flasks, packets of +sandwiches and of cartridges. Close by two servants were holding guns. + +"Good morning, Wargrave," said the Colonel, as the subaltern greeted him +and his wife. "You're in good time." + +Eileen, deserting Badshah, ran to Frank and demanded to be lifted up and +kissed. When he had obeyed the small tyrant, he said: + +"I haven't brought a rifle, sir." + +"That's right. I have one and a ball-and-shot gun for you. We'll walk +down to the _peelkhana_ by a short cut through the hills to look for +_kalej_ pheasant on the way. Take the gun with you and load one barrel +with shot; but put a bullet in the other, for you never know what we may +meet. Badshah will go down by the road, as well as one of the servants +to bring the rifles and tell the _mahouts_ to get a detachment elephant +ready. It will follow us in the jungle to carry any animals we kill, +while we'll ride Badshah." + +Kissing his wife and children the Colonel led the way down the road, +followed by Frank and the servant, Badshah walking unattended behind +them. + +"Good sport, Mr. Wargrave!" called out Mrs. Dermot, as the subaltern +turned at the gate to take off his hat in a farewell salute; and the +little coquette beside her kissed her tiny hand to him. + +After they had gone half a mile the two officers, carrying their +fowling-pieces, turned off along a footpath through the undergrowth, +leaving the servant and the elephant to continue down the road. The +track led steeply down the mountain-side, at first between high, +closely-matted bushes, and then through scrub-jungle dotted with small +trees, among the foliage of which gleamed the yellow fruit of the limes +and the plantain's glossy drooping leaves and long curving stalks from +which the nimble fingers of wild monkeys had plucked the ripe bananas. +Here and there the ground was open; and the path following a natural +depression in the hills gave down the gradually widening valley a view +of the panorama of forest and plain lying below. + +As they passed a clump of tangled bushes a rustle and a pattering over +the dry leaves under them caught the Colonel's ear. + +"Look out! _Kalej_," he whispered, picking up a stone and throwing it +into the cover. A large speckled black and white bird whirred out; and +Wargrave brought it down. + +"Good shot! There's another," called out Dermot, and fired with equal +success. "We're lucky," he continued. "As a rule they won't break, but +scuttle along under the bushes, so that one often has to shoot them +running." + +Frank picked up the birds and examined them with interest before the +Colonel stuffed them into his game bag and moved on down the path, which +was growing steeper. The trees became more numerous and larger as they +descended nearer the forest. Out of another clump of bushes the +sportsmen succeeded in getting a second brace of pheasants. Lower down +they passed through a belt of bamboos, where in one spot the long +feathery boughs were broken off or twisted in wild confusion for a space +of fifty yards' radius. + +"Wild elephants," said the Political Officer briefly and pointed to a +patch of dust in which was the round imprint of a huge foot. + +Frank was a little startled; for he felt that against these great +animals the bullets in their guns would be useless. + +"Are they dangerous, sir?" he asked. + +"Not as a rule when they are in a herd, although cow-elephants with +calves may be so, fearing peril for their young. But sometimes a bull +takes to a solitary life, becomes vicious and develops into a dangerous +rogue. It probably happens that, finding crops growing near a jungle +village and raiding them, he is driven off by the cultivators, turns +savage and kills some of them. Then he usually seems to take a hatred to +all human beings and attacks them on sight. Hallo! here we are at the +_peelkhana_ at last." + +They had reached the high wooden building which housed the three +transport elephants of the detachment. In the clearing before it Badshah +and another animal were standing, a group of _mahouts_ and coolies near +them. + +"We'll mount and start at once," said Colonel Dermot, beckoning to his +elephant, which came to him. "Get up, Wargrave." + +The subaltern looked up doubtfully at the pad on Badshah's back. + +"How can I, sir? Isn't he going to kneel?" he asked. + +"Put your foot on his trunk when he crooks it and grab hold of his ears. +He'll lift you up then." + +The understanding elephant at once curled its trunk invitingly and +cocked its great ears forward. Frank did as he was directed and found +himself raised in the air until he was able to get on to the elephant's +head and from it scrambled on to the pad. Dermot followed and seated +himself astride the huge neck. + +"_Mul_! (Go on!)" he ejaculated. + +With a swaying, lurching stride Badshah at once moved across the +clearing, followed by the transport elephant, on to which a _mahout_ and +a coolie had climbed, and plunged into the dense undergrowth which was +so high that it nearly closed over the riders' heads. The sudden change +from the blinding glare of the sun to the enchanting green gloom of the +forest, from the intense heat to the refreshing coolness of the shade, +was delightful. + +Beyond the clearing the vegetation was tangled and rank, high grass +concealing thorny shrubs, tall matted bushes covered with large, white, +bell-shaped flowers, all so dense that men on foot could not push their +way through. But it divided like water before the leading elephant's +weight and strength. The trees were now not the lesser growths of +bamboo, lime and sago-palm that covered the foot-hills. They were the +great forest giants, enormous teak, _sal_ and _simal_ trees, towering up +bare of branches for a good height above the ground, rising to the green +canopy overhead and thrusting their leafy crowns through it, seeking +their share of the sunlight. Their massive branches were matted thick +with the glossy green leaves of orchid-plants and draped with long +trails of the beautiful mauve and white blossoms of the exotic flowers. +Hanging from the highest branches or swinging between the massive boles +creepers of every kind rioted in bewildering confusion, a chaos of +natural cordage, of festooned _lianas_ thick as a liner's hawser, some +twisting around each other, others coiling about the tree-trunks, biting +deep into the bark or striving to strangle them in a cruel grip. Not +even the elephants' weight and strength could burst through the stout +network of these creepers in places. While they tore at the obstructions +with their trunks it was necessary for their drivers to hack through the +creepers with their sharp _kukris_--the heavy curved knives carried in +their belts and similar to the Gurkha's favourite weapon. + +Here and there the party came upon glades free from undergrowth, where +in the cool shade of the great trees the ground was knee-deep in +bracken. In one such spot Wargrave's eye was caught by a flash of bright +colour, and his rifle went half-way to his shoulder, only to be lowered +again when he saw two _sambhur_ hinds, graceful animals with glossy +chestnut hides, watching the advancing elephants curiously but without +fear. For, used to seeing wild ones, they did not realise that Badshah +and his companion carried human beings. Their sex saved them from the +hunters who, leaving them unscathed, passed on and plunged into the +dense undergrowth on the far side of the clearing. + +The elephants fed continually as they moved along. Sweeping up great +bunches of grass, tearing down trails of leafy creepers, breaking off +branches from the trees, they crammed them all impartially into their +mouths. Picking up twigs in their trunks they used them to beat their +sides and legs to drive off stinging insects or, snuffing up dust from +the ground, blew clouds of it along their bellies for the same purpose. + +Suddenly the Colonel stopped Badshah and whispered: + +"There's a _sambhur_ stag, Wargrave. There, to your left in the +undergrowth. Have a shot at him." + +The subaltern looked everywhere eagerly, but in the dense tangle could +not discern the animal. Like all novices in the jungle he directed his +gaze too far away; and suddenly a dark patch of deep shadow in the +undergrowth close by materialised itself into the black hide of a stag +only as it dashed off. It had been standing within fifteen paces of the +elephants, knowing the value of immobility as a shield. At last its +nerve failed it; and it revealed itself by breaking away. But as it fled +Colonel Dermot's rifle spoke; and the big deer crumpled up and fell +crashing through the vegetation to the ground. The second elephant's +_mahout_, a grey-bearded Mahommedan, slipped instantly to the earth and, +drawing his _kukri_, struggled through the arresting creepers and +undergrowth to where the stag lay feebly moving its limbs. Seizing one +horn he performed the _hallal_, that is, he cut its throat to let blood +while there was still life in the animal, muttering the short Mussulman +creed as he did so. For his religion enjoins this hygienic +practice--borrowed by the Prophet from the Mosaic law--to guard against +long-dead carrion being eaten. At the touch of the Colonel's hand +Badshah sank to its knees; and Wargrave, very annoyed with himself for +his slowness in detecting the deer, forced his way through the +undergrowth to examine it. The stag was a fine beast fourteen hands +high, with sharp brow antlers and a pair of thick, stunted horns +branching at the ends into two points. + +Leaving the elephants to graze freely the _mahout_ and his coolie +disembowelled the _sambhur_ and hacked off the head with their heavy +_kukris_. Aided by the Political Officer and Wargrave they skinned the +animal and then with the skill of professional butchers proceeded to cut +up the carcase into huge joints. While they were thus engaged the +Colonel went to a small, straight-stemmed tree common in the jungle and, +clearing away a patch of the outer mottled bark, disclosed a white inner +skin, which he cut off in long strips. With these, which formed +unbreakable cordage, they fastened the heavy joints to the pad of the +transport elephant. + +When this was done Wargrave, looking at his hands covered with blood and +grime, said ruefully: + +"How on earth are we to get clean, sir? Is there any water in the +jungle? We haven't seen any." + +The Political Officer, looking about him, pointed to a thick creeper +with withered-seeming bark and said with a laugh: + +"There's your water, Wargrave. Lots of it on tap. See here." + +He cut off a length of the _liana_, which contained a whitish, pulpy +interior. From the two ends of the piece water began to drip steadily +and increased to a thin stream. + +"By George, sir, that's a plant worth knowing," said Frank. + +"It's a most useful jungle product," said the Colonel, holding it up so +that his companion, using clay as soap, could wash his hands. "It's +called the _pani bel_--water-creeper. One need never die of thirst in a +forest where it is found. Try the water in it." + +He raised it so that the clear liquid flowed into the subaltern's mouth. +It was cool, palatable and tasteless. + +"By George, sir, that's good," exclaimed Wargrave, examining the plant +carefully. "Now let me hold it for you." + +After Dermot and the two natives had cleansed their hands and arms the +party moved on, the transport elephant looking like an itinerant +butcher's shop as it followed Badshah. Again the undergrowth parted +before the great animals like the sea cleft by the bows of a ship and +closed similarly behind them when they had passed. Of its own volition +the leader swerved one side or the other when it was necessary to avoid +a tree-trunk or too dense a tangle of obstructing creepers. But once +Dermont touched and turned it sharply out of its course to escape what +seemed a very large lump of clay adhering to the under side of an +overhanging bough in their path. + +"A wild bees' nest," said the Colonel, pointing to it. "It wouldn't do +to risk hitting against that and being stung to death by its occupants." + +A few minutes later he suddenly arrested Badshah at the edge of a +fern-carpeted glade and whispered: + +"Look out! There's a barking-deer. Get him!" + +Across the glade a graceful little buck with a bright chestnut coat +stepped daintily, followed at a respectful distance by his doe. Their +restless ears pointed incessantly this way and that for every warning +sound as they moved; but neither saw the elephants hidden in the +undergrowth. Raising his rifle Frank took a quick aim at the buck's +shoulder and fired. The deer pitched forward and fell dead, while its +startled mate swung round and leapt wildly away. + +"A good shot of yours, Wargrave," remarked Colonel Dermot, when Badshah +had advanced to the prostrate animal. "Broke its shoulder and pierced +the heart." + +Frank looked down pityingly at the pretty little deer stretched lifeless +among the ferns. + +"It seems a shame to slaughter a harmless thing like that," he said. + +"Yes; I always feel the same myself and never kill except for food," +replied the Political Officer. "Unless of course it's a dangerous beast +like a tiger. Well, the _khakur_ is too dead to _hallal_; but that +doesn't matter, as we're going to eat it ourselves and not give it to +the sepoys." + +The _mahout_ and the coolie were already cleaning the deer and, without +troubling to cut it up, bound its legs together with _udal_ fibre and +tied it to the pad of their elephant; and the party moved on again. + +Half a mile further on the silence of the forest was broken by the loud +crowing of a cock, taken up and answered defiantly by others. + +"Hallo! are we near a village, sir?" asked Wargrave, surprised at the +familiar sounds so far in the heart of the wild. + +"No; those are jungle-fowl," whispered the Political Officer. "Get your +gun ready." + +He halted the elephant and picked up his fowling-piece. Frank hurriedly +substituted a shot cartridge for the one loaded with ball in his gun. He +heard a pattering on the dry leaves under the trees and into a fairly +open space before them stalked a pretty little bantam cock with red comb +and wattles and curving green tail-feathers, followed by four or five +sober brown hens, so like in every respect to domestic fowl that +Wargrave hesitated to shoot. But suddenly the birds whirred up into the +air; and, as the Colonel gave them both barrels, Frank did the same. The +cock and three of his wives dropped. The _mahout_ urged his elephant +forward and made the reluctant animal pick up the crumpled bunches of +blood-stained feathers in its curving trunk and pass them to him. + +Colonel Dermont searched the jungle for some distance around but could +not find the other jungle-cocks that had answered the dead one's +challenge. Looking at his watch he suggested a halt for lunch, which +Wargrave, whose back was beginning to ache with fatigue, gladly agreed +to. Dismounting, they sat on the ground and ate and drank the contents +of the pockets of Badshah's pad, but with loaded rifles beside them lest +their meal should be disturbed by any dangerous denizen of the jungle. +The two natives sat down some distance away and, turning their backs on +each other, drew out cloths in which their midday repast of _chupatis_, +or thick pancakes, with curry and an onion or two was tied up. The +elephants left to themselves grazed close by and did not attempt to +wander away. + +Their meal and a smoke finished the party mounted again and moved on. +But luck seemed to have deserted them. Much to the Political Officer's +disappointment they wandered for miles without adding anything to the +bag. He had calculated on getting another couple of _sambhur_ stags to +present to the _Deb Zimpun_ as food for his hungry followers. The route +that they were now taking led circuitously back towards the _peelkhana_, +which they wished to reach before sundown. They had got within a mile of +it and were close to the foot of the hills when Badshah stopped suddenly +and smelt the ground. Colonel Dermot leaned over the huge head and +stared down intently at something invisible to his young companion. + +"What is it, sir?" asked Wargrave in a whisper. + +"Bison. Badshah's pointing for us. We can't shoot them here, for we're +in Government jungle where the killing of elephants, bison and rhino is +forbidden unless they attack you. But the track leads north towards the +mountains and at their foot the Government Forest ends. That's only half +a mile away and we can bag them there. Load your rifle with solid-nosed +bullets. This is the _pug_ (footprint) of a bull, I think." + +The two natives had seen the tracks by this and were wildly excited. +Badshah without urging moved swiftly through the trees and soon brought +his riders to the hills and into sight of the sky once more. The +mountains stood out clear and distinct in the slanting rays of the +setting sun. Suddenly a loud though distant, almost musical bellow +sounded, seeming to come from a bamboo jungle about a mile away. + +"That's a cow-bison calling," said Dermot in a low voice. "There's a +herd somewhere about; but the '_pugs_' we're following up are those of a +solitary bull. We're in free forest now; so with luck you may get your +first bison. It's very steep here; we'll dismount, leave the elephants +and go on foot." + +The subaltern was wildly excited, and his heart thumped at a rate that +was not caused by the steep slope up which he followed Dermot. The +Colonel tracked the bull unhesitatingly, although to Wargrave there was +no mark to be seen on the ground. + +They were creeping cautiously through bamboo cover on a hill when +Dermot, who was leading, suddenly threw himself on his face, lay still +for a minute or two, then, motioning to his companion to halt, crawled +forward like a snake. A few paces on he stopped and beckoned to +Wargrave, and, when the latter reached him, pointed down into the gully +below. They were almost on the edge of a descent precipitous enough to +be called a cliff. Immediately underneath by a small stream was a +massive black bull-bison, eighteen hands--six feet--high, with short, +square, head, broad ears and horizontal rounded horns. The only touches +of colour were on the forehead and the legs below the knees, which were +whitish. The animal, with head thrown back, was staring vacantly with +its large, slatey-blue eyes. + +Wargrave trembled with excitement and his heart beat so violently that +the rifle shook as he brought it to his shoulder and gently pushed the +muzzle through the stiff, dry grass at the edge of the cliff. But for +the one necessary instant he became rigidly steady and without a tremor +pressed the trigger. Then the rifle barrels danced again before his +eyes, when he saw the great bull collapse on the ground, its fore-legs +twitching violently, the hind ones motionless. + +"Good shot. You've broken his spine," exclaimed Dermot, springing to his +feet and sliding, scrambling, jumping down the steep descent. The +excited subaltern outstripped him; but before he reached the bull it +lay motionless, dead. + +"You're a lucky young man, Wargrave. A splendid bison on your first day +in the jungle. Those horns are six feet from tip to tip I bet," and the +Political Officer held out his hand. + +Frank shook it heartily as he said gratefully: + +"I've only you to thank for it, sir. It was ripping of you to let me +have first shot; and you gave me such a sitter that I couldn't miss. +Thank you awfully, Colonel." + +Dermot gave a piercing whistle and stood waiting, while the overjoyed +subaltern walked round and round the dead bison, marvelling at its size +and exclaiming at his own good fortune. + +When in a few minutes Badshah appeared, followed by the panting men, +Colonel Dermot sent the _mahout_ on his elephant to the stable to fetch +other men to cut up and bring in the bison. Then he and Wargrave on +Badshah made for the road to Ranga Duar. + +It was dark long before they reached the little station. The Colonel +brought his companion in for a drink after the three thousand feet +climb, most of which they had done on foot. Mrs. Dermot met them in the +hall; and, after she had heard the result of the day's sport, warmly +congratulated Wargrave on his good luck. Loud whispers and a scuffle +over their heads attracted the attention of all three elders, and on +the broad wooden staircase they saw two small figures, one in pyjamas, +the other in a pretty, trailing nightdress daintily tied with blue bows, +looking imploringly down at their mother. She smiled and nodded. There +was a whirlwind rush down the stairs, and the mites were caught up in +their father's arms. Then Frank came in for his share of caresses from +them before they were sternly ordered back to bed again. And as he +passed out into the darkness he carried away with him an enchanting +picture of the charming babes climbing the stairs hand in hand and +turning to blow kisses to the tall man who stood below with a strong arm +around his pretty wife, gazing fondly up at his children. + +And the picture stayed with him when, after dinner at which he was +congratulated by his brother officers, he went to his room and found a +letter overlooked in his rush to dress for Mess. It was from Violet, the +first that had come from her since his arrival in Ranga Duar. It +breathed passion and longing, discontent and despair, in every line. As +he laid his face on his arm to shut out the light where he sat at the +table he felt that he was nearer to loving the absent woman than he had +ever been. For the vision of the Dermots' married happiness, of the deep +affection linking husband and wife, of the children climbing the stair +and smiling back at their parents, came vividly to him. And it haunted +him in his sleep when in dreams tiny arms were clasped around his neck +and baby lips touched his lovingly. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +A GIRL OF THE FOREST + + +From the frontier of Bhutan, six thousand feet up on the face of the +mountains, a line of men wound down the serpentining track that led to +Ranga Duar. At their head walked a stockily-built man with cheery +Mongolian features, wearing a white cloth garment, _kimono_-shaped and +kilted up to give freedom to the sturdy bare thighs and knees--the legs +and feet cased in long, felt-soled boots. It was the _Deb Zimpun_, the +Envoy of the independent Border State of Bhutan. Behind him came a tall +man in khaki tunic, breeches, puttees and cap, his breast covered with +bright-coloured ribbons. His uniform was similar to the British; but his +face was unmistakeably Chinese, as were those of the twenty tall, +khaki-clad soldiers armed with magazine rifles at his heels. They were +followed by three or four score Bhutanese swordsmen, thick-set and not +unlike Gurkhas in feature, with bare heads, legs and feet, and clad only +in a single garment similar to their leader's and kilted up by a cord +around the waist, from which hung a _dah_, a short sword or long knife. +In rear of them trudged a number of coolies, some laden with bundles, +others with baskets of fruit. + +Where the track came out on the bare shoulder of a spur free from the +small trees and undergrowth clothing the mountains the _Deb Zimpun_ +pointed to the roofs of the buildings in the little station a thousand +feet below them and hitherto invisible to them. + +"That is Ranga Duar," he said briefly. The Chinaman behind him looked +down at it. + +"It seems a very small and weak place to have stopped our invading +troops in the war," he said in Bhutanese. "So here lives the Man." + +"The Man? Yes, perhaps he is a man. But many, very many, there be that +think him a god or devil. They say he can call up a horde of demons in +the form of elephants. With such he trampled your army into the earth. + +"Devils? Leave such tales to lamas and the ignorant fools that believe +their teaching. But if even a part of what I have heard about this man +be true he is more dangerous than many devils. He stands in China's way, +and he who does shall be swept aside." + +"He is my friend," said the _Deb Zimpun_ shortly, and tramped on in +silence. + +Before they reached the station they were met by two of the Political +Officer's men, Bhuttias resident in British territory, detailed to +receive and guide them to the Government Dak Bungalow in which the _Deb +Zimpun_ and as many of his followers as could crowd into it were to +reside during their stay. Arrived at it the long line filed into the +compound. + +Half a mile away down the hill Colonel Dermot and Wargrave watched them +through their field-glasses. + +"Who is that fellow in khaki uniform, sir?" asked the subaltern. + +The Political Officer lowered his binoculars and laughed. + +"A gentlemen I've been very anxious to meet. He's the Chinese +_Amban_--we call him an Envoy of the Republic of China to Bhutan. But +the Chinese themselves prefer to regard him as a representative of the +suzerainty they pretend to exercise over the country. I'm curious to see +him. He is a product of the times, an example of the modern Celestial, +educated at Heidelberg University and Oxford, speaking German, French +and English. He has been specially chosen by his Government to come to a +Buddhist land, as he is a son of the abbot of the Yellow Lama Temple in +Pekin and so might have influence with the Bhutanese by reason of his +connection with their religion." + +"But what have the Chinese to do with Bhutan?" + +"Nothing now. But they've been intriguing for years to re-establish the +suzerainty they once had over it. This _Amban_, Yuan Shi Hung by name, +is a clever, unscrupulous and particularly dangerous individual." + +"You seem to know a lot about him, Colonel." + +"It's my business to do so. There is no apparent reason for his coming +here with the _Deb Zimpun_, nor has he a right to. But I won't object, +for I want to study and size him up. By the way, the Envoy will make his +official call on me this morning. Would you like to be present?" + +"Very much indeed. I'm always interested in seeing the various races of +India and learning all I can about them. I'd love a job like yours, sir, +going into out-of-the-way places and dealing with strange peoples." + +"Would you?" The Political Officer looked at him thoughtfully. "Are you +good at picking up native languages?" + +"Fairly so. I got through my Lower and Higher Standard Hindustani first +go and have passed in Marathi and taken the Higher Standard, Persian." + +Colonel Dermot regarded him critically and then said abruptly: + +"Come to my office a few minutes before eleven. That's the hour I've +fixed for the _Deb Zimpun's_ visit." + +Punctually at the time named Wargrave reached the Dermots' bungalow, on +the road outside which, a Guard of Honour of fifty sepoys under an +Indian officer was drawn up. Passing along the verandah he entered the +office and saluted the Colonel who, seated at his desk, looked up and +nodded for him to be seated and then returned to the despatch that he +was writing. + +In a few minutes a confused murmur drew nearer down the road and was +stilled by the sharp words of command to the Guard of Honour and by the +ring of rifles brought to the present in salute. Over the low wall of +the garden appeared the heads and shoulders of the Envoy and his Chinese +companion, followed by a train of attendants and swordsmen. They passed +in through the gate. The Political Officer rose as the _Deb Zimpun_, +removing his cap, entered the office and rushed towards him. The +bullet-headed, cheery old gentleman beamed with pleasure as they shook +hands and greeted each other in Bhutanese. Wargrave marvelled at the +ease and fluency with which Colonel Dermot spoke the language. The +_Amban_ now entered the room and was formally presented by the _Deb +Zimpun_. + +Speaking in excellent English but with an accent that showed that he had +first acquired it in Germany, he said: + +"I am very pleased to meet you, Colonel. I have heard much of you in +Bhutan." + +"It gives me equal pleasure to make Your Excellency's acquaintance and +to welcome you to India," replied Dermot with a bow. + +Then in his turn Wargrave was presented to the two Asiatics, and the +Envoy, calling an attendant in, took from him two white scarves of +Chinese silk and placed one round each officer's neck in the custom +known as "_khattag_". All sat down and the Envoy plunged into an +animated conversation with Colonel Dermot, first producing a metal box +and taking betel-nut from it to chew, while the attendant placed a +spittoon conveniently near him. + +Yuan Shi Hung chatted in English with Wargrave, who was astonished to +find him a well-educated man of the world and thoroughly conversant with +European politics, art and letters. But for the inscrutable yellow face +the subaltern could have believed himself to be talking to an able +Continental diplomat. The contrast between the semi-savage Bhutanese +official and his companion, in whom the most modern civilised +gentleman's manners were successfully grafted on the old-time courtesy +of the Chinese aristocrat, was very striking. The old Envoy was a frank +barbarian. He laughed loudly and clapped his hands in glee when Colonel +Dermot presented him with a gramophone--which, it appeared, he had +longed for ever since seeing one on a previous visit to India--and +taught him how to work it. He showed his betel-stained teeth in an +ecstatic grin when a record was turned on and from the trumpet came the +Political Officer's familiar voice addressing him by name and in his own +language with many flourishes of Oriental compliment. + +Towards the termination of their call the _Deb Zimpun_ called in two +attendants with large baskets of fine blood oranges and walnuts from +Bhutan and presented them in return. A number of coolies were needed to +carry off the royal gift of the flesh of the bison, the sight of which +made the Envoy's eyes glisten. He shook Wargrave's hand warmly when he +learned to whose rifle he owed it. Then he and his Chinese companion +took their leave, and with their followers passed up the hilly road. +Wargrave, gazing after them, came to the conclusion that of the pair he +preferred the savage to the ultra-cultivated Celestial. + +Having thanked the Colonel for permitting him to be present at the +interview, which had interested him greatly, the subaltern was about to +leave when Mrs. Dermot appeared at the office door. + +"May I come in, Kevin?" she began. "Oh, good morning, Mr. Wargrave. I +was just sending a _chit_ (letter) to you and Captain Burke asking you +to tea this afternoon. A coolie has arrived from the _peelkhana_ to say +that Mr. and Miss Benson and Mr. Carter are on their way up and will be +here soon. So you'll meet them at tea. You will like Miss Benson. She's +a dear girl." + +"Thanks very much, Mrs. Dermot. I'll be delighted to come, if you'll +forgive me should I be a little late. I've got to take the signallers' +parade this afternoon. I'll tell Burke when I get to the Mess. I'm going +straight there now." + +"Thank you. That will save me writing. _Au revoir_." + +Half-way up the road to the Mess Wargrave looked back and saw an +elephant heave into sight around a bend below the Dermots' house and +plod heavily up to their gate. On the _charjama_--the passenger-carrying +contrivance of wooden seats on the pad with footboards hanging by short +ropes--sat a lady and two European men holding white umbrellas up to +keep off the vertical rays of the noonday sun. When the animal sank to +its knees in front of the bungalow Wargrave saw the girl--it could only +be Miss Benson--spring lightly to the ground before either of her +companions could dismount and offer to help her. Her big sunhat hid her +face, and at that distance Wargrave could only see that she was small +and slight, as she walked up the garden path. + +When the signallers' afternoon practice was over the subaltern passed +across the parade ground to the Political Officer's house. When he +entered the pretty drawing-room, bright with the gay colours of chintz +curtains and cushions, he found the strangers present, one man talking +to Mrs. Dermot at her tea-table, the other chatting with the Colonel, +while Burke was installed beside a girl seated in a low cane chair and +dressed in a smart, hand-embroidered Tussore silk dress, _suede_ shoes +and silk stockings. Little Brian stood beside her with one arm +affectionately round her neck, while Eileen was perched in her lap. But +when Frank appeared the mite wriggled down to the floor and rushed to +him. + +The subaltern was presented to Miss Benson, her father and Carter, the +Sub-Divisional Officer or Civil Service official of the district. When +he sat down Eileen clambered on to his knee and seriously interfered +with his peaceful enjoyment of his tea; but while he talked to her he +was watching Miss Benson over the small golden head. She was +astonishingly pretty, with silky black hair curving in natural waves, +dark-bordered Irish grey eyes fringed with long, thick lashes, a +rose-tinted complexion, a pouting, red-lipped mouth and a small nose +with the most fascinating, provoking suspicion of a tip-tilt. She was as +small and daintily-fashioned as her hostess; and Wargrave thought it +marvellous that their forgotten outpost on the face of the mountains +should hold two such pretty women at the same time. His comrade Burke +was evidently acutely conscious of Muriel Benson's attractions, and, his +pleasantly ugly face aglow with a happy smile, he was flirting as openly +and outrageously with her as she with him. + +"Sure, it's a cure for sore eyes ye are, Miss Flower Face," he said. +"That's the name I christened her with the first moment I saw her, +Wargrave. Doesn't it fit her?" Then turning to the girl again, he +continued, "Aren't you ashamed av yourself for laving me to pine for a +sight av ye all these weary months?" + +Miss Benson could claim to be Irish on her mother's side and so was a +ready-witted match for the doctor's Celtic exuberance; though to +Wargrave watching it seemed that Burke's easy banter cloaked a deeper +feeling. + +Drawn into their conversation Frank found the girl to be natural and +unaffected, without a trace of conceit, gifted with a keen sense of +humour and evidently as full of the joy of living as a school-boy. He +thought her laugh delightfully musical, and it was frequently and +readily evoked by Burke's droll remarks or the quaint oracular sayings +from the self-possessed elf on Wargrave's knee. Her admiration of and +genuine affection for Mrs. Dermot was very evident when Noreen joined +their group. + +The subaltern, covertly and critically observing her, could hardly +believe the tales which their hostess had previously told him of the +courage and ability that this small and dainty girl had frequently +shown. But only a few minutes' conversation with her father convinced +Frank that he was an amiably weak and incompetent individual, more +fitted to be a recluse and a bookworm than a roamer in wild jungles +where his work brought him in contact with strange peoples and constant +danger. It was evident that the reputation which his large section of +the Terai Forest bore as being well managed and efficiently run was not +due to him and that somebody more capable had the handling of the work. +Hardly had Wargrave come to this conclusion and begun to believe that +the stories that he had heard of the daughter's business ability and +powers of organisation were true when he was given a very convincing +proof of her courage and coolness in danger. + +After tea, as the sun was nearing its setting and a deliciously cool +breeze blew down from the mountains, a move was made to the garden, +where the party sat in a circle and chatted. When evening came and the +dusk rose up from the world below, blotting out the light lingering on +the hills, Mrs. Dermot made her children say goodnight to the company +and bore them reluctant away to their beds. As the darkness deepened the +servants brought out a small table and placed a lamp on it, and by its +light carried round drinks to the men of the party. Miss Benson was +leaning back in a cane chair and chatting lazily with Burke, who sat +beside her. She had one shapely silk-clad leg crossed over the other, +and a small foot resting on the grass. Opposite her sat Colonel Dermot +and Wargrave. As the brilliant tropic stars came out in the velvety +blackness of the sky occasional silences fell on the party. A tale of +Burke's was interrupted by the Political Officer's voice, saying in a +quiet forceful tone: + +"Miss Benson, please do not move your foot. Remain perfectly still. A +snake is passing under your chair. Steady, Burke! Keep still!" + +There was a terror-stricken hush. Frank looked across in horror. The +lamplight barely showed in the shadow under the chair a deadly +hill-viper writhing its way out within a few inches of the small foot +firmly planted in its dainty, high-heeled shoe. He looked at the +motionless girl. Less pale than the men about her she sat quietly, +smiling faintly and apparently not frightened by the Death almost +touching her. One pink hand lay without a tremor in her lap, but the +other rested on the arm of her chair and the knuckles showed white as +the fingers gripped the bamboo tightly. She did not even glance down. +But the men, frozen with dread, watched the shadowy writhing line +passing her foot slowly, all too slowly, until it had wriggled out into +the centre of the circle of motionless beings. Then Colonel Dermot +sprang up. Seizing his light bamboo chair in his powerful grip he +whirled it aloft and brought it crashing down on the viper, shattering +the chair but smashing the reptile's spine in half a dozen places. + +The other men had risen from their seats; but the girl remained seated +and said quietly: + +"Thank you very much, Colonel, for warning me. I might easily have moved +my foot and trodden on the snake. I've seen so many of the horrid things +in camp lately. Now, Captain Burke, I'm sorry that the interruption +spoiled your story. Please go on with it." + +Her coolness silenced the men, who were breaking into exclamations of +relief and congratulation. Even her father sat down again calmly. + +But Burke's enthusiastic admiration of her courage found an outlet at +Mess that night when he recounted the adventure to Major Hunt and +appealed to Wargrave for confirmation of the story of her plucky +behaviour. Later in his room as he was going to bed Frank smiled at the +recollection of the Irishman's exuberant expressions; but he confessed +to himself that the girl's calm courage was worthy of every praise. + +"She is certainly brave," he thought. "I'm not surprised at old Burke's +infatuation. She is decidedly pretty. What lovely eyes she's got--and +what a provokingly attractive little nose! Well, the doctor's a lucky +man if she marries him. She seems awfully nice. Violet will certainly +have two very charming women friends in the station if she hits it off +with them." + +But as his eyes rested on her pictured face his heart misgave him; for +he remembered that she had little liking for her own sex. And then, he +told himself, these two would probably refuse to know a woman who had +run away from her husband to another man. When he had turned out the +light and jumped into bed he lay awake a long time puzzling over the +tangle into which the threads of her life and his seemed to have got. +Time alone could unravel it. + +He tossed uneasily on his bed, unable to sleep, and presently a slight +noise on the verandah outside caught his ear. He lay still and listened; +and it seemed to him that soft footfalls of a large animal's pads +sounded on the wooden flooring. Then suddenly he heard a beast sniffing +at his closed door. "A stray dog," he thought. But suddenly he +remembered Burke's account of the panther that haunted the Mess; and a +thrill of excitement ran through him and drove all his unhappy thoughts +away. He sprang out of bed and rushed across the room to get his rifle, +but in the darkness overturned a chair which fell with a crash to the +ground. This scared the animal; for there was a sudden scurry outside, +and by the time Wargrave had found the rifle and groped for a couple of +cartridges there was nothing to be seen on the verandah when he threw +open the door. It was a brilliant star-lit night. Burke called to him +from his room and when Wargrave went to him said that he too had heard +the animal, which was undoubtedly the panther. + +Returning to bed Frank was dropping off to sleep half an hour later when +he was startled by a shrill, agonised shriek coming from a distance. +Rifle in hand he rushed out on to the verandah again and heard faint +shouts coming from a small group of Bhuttia huts on a shoulder of the +hills hundreds of feet above the Mess. He called out but got no answer; +and after listening for some time and hearing nothing further he +returned to bed and at last fell asleep. In the morning he learned that +the panther had made a daring raid on a hut and carried off a Bhuttia +wood-cutter's baby from its sleeping mother's side, and had devoured it +in the jungle not two hundred yards away. + +The Durbar, or official ceremony of the public reception of the Bhutan +Envoy and the paying over to him of the annual subsidy of a hundred +thousand rupees, was held in a marquee on the parade ground in the +afternoon. There was a Guard of Honour of a hundred sepoys to salute, +first the Political Officer and afterwards the _Deb Zimpun_ when he +arrived on a mule at the head of his swordsmen and coolies. The +solemnity of his dignified greeting to Colonel Dermot was somewhat +spoiled by shrieks of delight and loud remarks from Eileen (who was +seated beside her mother in the marquee) at the stately appearance of +the Envoy. He was attired in a very voluminous red Chinese silk robe +embroidered in gold and wearing a peculiar gold-edged cap shaped like a +papal tiara. + +The Political Officer's official dinner took place that evening at his +bungalow. Besides the officers and the three European visitors the _Deb +Zimpun_ and the _Amban_ were present. The latter wore conventional +evening dress cut by a London tailor, with the stars and ribands of +several orders. But the old Envoy in his flowing red silk robe +completely outshone the two ladies, although Miss Benson was wearing her +most striking frock. + +"Sure, don't we look like a State Banquet at Buckingham Palace or a +charity dinner at the Dublin Mansion House?" said Burke, looking around +the company gathered about the oval dining-table. He was seated beside +Miss Benson, who was on the host's right and facing the _Amban_ on his +left. + +At the Durbar Wargrave had noticed that the Chinaman stared all the time +at the girl, and now during the meal he seemed to devour her with an +unpleasant gaze, gloating over the beauties of her bared shoulders and +bosom until she became uncomfortably conscious of it herself. The +unveiled flesh of a white woman is peculiarly attractive to the Asiatic, +the better-class females of whose race are far less addicted to the +public exposure of their charms than are European ladies. While the _Deb +Zimpun_ touched nothing but water the _Amban_ drank champagne, port and +liqueurs freely--even the untravelled Chinaman is partial to European +liquors--yet they seemed not to affect him. But his slanted eyes burned +all the more fiercely as their gaze was fixed on the girl opposite him. + +He endeavoured to engage her in conversation across the table, and +appeared ready to resent anyone else intervening in the talk as he +dilated on the gaieties and pleasures of life in London, Berlin and +Paris, where he had been attached to the Chinese Embassies. He glared at +Burke when the doctor persisted in mentioning the panther's visit during +the previous night, for the conversation at their end of the table then +turned on sport. A chance remark of Miss Benson on tiger-shooting made +Wargrave ask: + +"Have you shot tigers, too, like Mrs. Dermot? And I've never seen one +outside a cage!" + +The girl smiled, and the Colonel answered for her. + +"Miss Benson has got at least six. Seven, is it? More than my wife has. +And among them was the famous man-eater of Mardhura, which had killed +twenty-three persons. The natives of the district call her 'The Tiger +Girl.'" + +"Troth, my name for you is a prettier one, Miss Benson," said Burke +laughing. + +She made a _moue_ at him, but said to the subaltern: + +"Cheer up, Mr. Wargrave, you've lots of time before you yet. You +oughtn't to complain--you've only been a few days here and you've +already got a splendid bison. And they're rare in these parts." + +"We'll have to find him a tiger, Muriel," said their host. "When you +hear of a kill anywhere conveniently near, let me know and we'll arrange +a beat for him." + +"With pleasure, Colonel. We're soon going to the southern fringe of the +forest; and, as you know, there are usually tigers to be found in the +_nullahs_ on the borders of the cultivated country. I'll send you +_khubber_ (news)." + +"Thank you very much," said Wargrave. "I do want to get one." + +All through the conversation the girl felt the Chinaman's bold eyes +seeming to burn her flesh, and she was glad when the Political Officer +spoke to him and engaged his attention. And she was still more relieved +when dinner ended and Mrs. Dermot rose to leave the table. When the men +joined them later on the verandah Burke and Wargrave made a point of +hemming her in on both sides and keeping the _Amban_ off; for even the +short-sighted doctor had become cognisant of the Chinaman's offensive +stare. + +When he and the _Deb Zimpun_ had left the bungalow she said to the two +officers: + +"I'm so glad you didn't let that awful man come near me. He makes me +afraid. There's something so evil about him that I shudder when he looks +at me." + +"The curse av the crows on the brute!" exclaimed Burke hotly. "Don't ye +be afraid. We won't let the divil come next or nigh ye, will we, +Wargrave?" + +And on the following day when the visitors were entertained by athletic +sports of the detachment on the parade ground and an interesting archery +competition between excited teams of the _Deb Zimpun's_ followers and +of local Bhuttias, they allowed the _Amban_ no opportunity of +approaching her. During the sports Wargrave noticed on one occasion that +he seemed to be speaking of her to the commander of his escort of +Chinese soldiers, a tall, evil-faced Manchu, pock-marked and blind of +the right eye, who stared at her fixedly for some time. At the dinner at +the Mess that night the two ladies wore frocks that were very little +_decollete_. Burke, as Mess President, had arranged the table so that +the _Amban_ was as far away from them as possible; and Wargrave and he +mounted guard over Miss Benson when the meal was ended. + +The _Deb Zimpun_ had fixed his departure for an early hour on the +following morning and was to be accompanied by the Political Officer, +who was going to visit the Maharajah of Bhutan. In the course of the day +the Chinese _Amban_ had announced to Colonel Dermot that he did not wish +to leave so soon and desired to remain longer in Ranga Duar; but the +Political Officer courteously but very firmly told him that he must go +with the Envoy. + +Early next morning, while Noreen Dermot was occupied with her children, +and her husband was completing his preparations for departure, Muriel +Benson went out into the garden. Badshah, pad strapped on ready for the +road, was standing at one side of the bungalow swinging his trunk and +shifting from foot to foot as he patiently awaited his master. The girl +greeted and petted him, then went to gather flowers and cut bunches of +bright-coloured leaves from high bushes of bougainvillea and poinsettia +that hid her from view from the house. + +Suddenly a harsh voice sounded in her ears. + +"I have tried to speak to you alone, but those fools were ever in my +way. Do not cry out. You must listen to me." + +She started violently and turned to find the _Amban_, dressed in khaki +and ready to march, behind her. Courageous as she usually was the +extraordinary repulsion and terror with which he inspired her kept her +silent as he continued: + +"I want you, and I shall take you sooner or later. Listen! I am one of +the richest men in all China. One day I shall be President--and then +Emperor the next; and when I rule my country shall no longer be the +effete, despised land torn with dissension that it is now. I can give +you everything that the heart of a woman, white or yellow, can +desire--take you from your dull, poverty-stricken life to raise you to +power and immense wealth. I shall return for you one day. Will you come +to me?" + +The girl drew back, pale as death and unable to cry out. He glanced +around. The tall, red-leaved bushes hid them; there was no one or +nothing within sight, except the elephant shifting restlessly. + +"Answer me!" he said almost menacingly. + +She was silent. He sprang forward and seized her roughly. + +"Speak! You must answer," he said. + +The girl shrank at his touch and struggled in vain in his powerful +grasp. + +Then suddenly she cried out: + +"Badshah!" + +The Chinaman thrust his face, inflamed with passion and desire, close to +hers. + +"You must, you shall, come to me--by force, if not willingly," he +growled. "By all the gods or devils----." + +But at that instant he was plucked from her by a resistless force and +hurled violently to the ground. Dazed and half-stunned he looked up and +saw the elephant standing over him with one colossal foot poised over +his prostrate body, ready to crush him to pulp. Brave as the Chinaman +was he trembled with terror at the imminent, awful death. + +But a quiet voice sounded clear through the garden. + +"_Jane do_! (Let him go!)" + +The elephant brought the threatening foot to the ground but stood, with +curled trunk and ears cocked forward, ready to annihilate him if the +invisible speaker gave the word. The girl shrank against the great +animal, clinging to it and looking with horror at the prostrate man. The +_Amban_ slowly dragged his bruised body from the ground and staggered +shaken and dizzy out of the garden. + +Muriel kissed the soft trunk and laid her cheek against it, and it +curved to touch her hair with a gentle caress. Then she fled into the +bungalow to find Colonel Dermot on the verandah grimly watching the +Chinaman stumbling blindly up the steep road. His wife beside him opened +her arms to the shaken girl. + +"He shall pay for that some day, Muriel," said the Political Officer +sternly. "But not yet." + +An hour later the two women watched the snaking line crawl up the steep +face of the mountains, and through field-glasses they could distinguish +Badshah with his master on his neck, the _Deb Zimpun_ and his followers +and the tall form of the Chinaman, until all vanished from sight in the +trees clothing the upper hills. + +Benson and Carter left that afternoon, Muriel remaining to spend a +longer time with her friend and, as she told Wargrave, to try and regain +the affections of the children which he had stolen from her. + +Frank was thinking of her next day as he was standing on the Mess +verandah after tea, cleaning his fowling-piece, when on a wooded spur +running down from the mountains and sheltering the little station on the +west he heard a jungle-cock crowing in the undergrowth not four hundred +yards away. Seizing a handful of cartridges he loaded his gun and, +running down the steps and across the garden, plunged into the jungle. +He walked cautiously, his rope-soled boots enabling him to move +silently, and stopped occasionally to listen for the bird's crow or the +telltale pattering over the dried leaves. Peering into the undergrowth +and searching the ground he crept quietly forward. Suddenly his heart +seemed to leap to his throat. In a patch of dust he saw the unmistakable +_pug_ (footprint) of a large panther. One claw had indented a new-fallen +leaf, showing that the animal had very recently passed. Wargrave halted +and thought hard. He had only his shotgun, but the sun was near its +setting and if he returned to the Mess to get his rifle--which was taken +to pieces and locked up in its case--darkness would probably fall before +he could overtake the panther, which was possibly moving on ahead of +him. So he resolved not to turn back, but opened the breech of his gun +and extracted the cartridges. With his knife he cut their thick cases +almost through all round at the wad, dividing the powder from the shot. +For he knew that thus treated and fired the whole upper portion of the +cartridges would be shot out of the barrels like solid bullets and carry +forty yards without breaking up and scattering the shot. + +Reloading he advanced cautiously, frequently losing and refinding the +trail. Creeping through a clump of thin bushes he stopped suddenly, +frozen with horror and dread. + +In an open patch of woodland the two Dermot children stood by a tree, +the girl huddled against the trunk, while the little boy had placed +himself in front of her and, with a small stick in his hand, was bravely +facing in her defence an animal crouching on the ground not twenty yards +away. It was a large panther. Belly to earth, tail lashing from side to +side, it was crawling slowly, imperceptibly nearer its prey. With ears +flattened against the skull and lips drawn back to bare the gleaming +fangs in a devilish grin it snarled at the brave child whose dauntless +attitude doubtless puzzled it. + +"Don't cry, Eileen. I won't let it hurt you," said the little boy +encouragingly. "Go 'way, nasty dog!" + +He raised his little stick above his head. A boy should always protect a +girl, his father had often said, so he was not going to let the beast +harm his tiny sister. The panther crouched lower. The watcher in the +bushes saw the powerful limbs gathering under the spotted body for the +fatal spring. Every muscle and sinew was tense for the last rush and +leap, as the subaltern raised his gun. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +TIGER LAND + + +Wargrave fired. His shot struck the panther rather far back, wounding +but not disabling it. It swung round to face its assailant. Seeing Frank +it promptly charged. The second cartridge took it in front of the +shoulder and raked its body from end to end. Coughing blood the beast +rolled over and over, biting its paws, clawing savagely at the earth, +trying to rise and falling back in fury, while Frank rapidly reloaded +and stepped between it and the children. But the convulsions became +fewer and less violent, the limbs stiffened, the beautiful black and +yellow body sank inert to the ground. The tail twitched a little. A few +tremors shook the panther. Then it lay still. + +The subaltern turned eagerly to the children. + +"It's Frank. Look, Eileen, it's Frank," cried Brian. "He's killed the +nasty dog." + +The little girl, who had sunk to the ground, struggled to her feet and +with her brother was swept up in a joyous embrace by the subaltern. +Then, bidding the boy hold on to the sleeve of the arm carrying the gun, +Wargrave started back with Eileen perched on his shoulder. As they +passed the panther's body she looked down at it and clapped her hands. + +"He's deaded. Nasty, bad dog!" she cried. + +Striking a path through the undergrowth the subaltern climbed down the +steep ravine that lay between the hill and the Political Officer's +bungalow. As he struggled up the steep side of the _nullah_ he heard +their mother calling the children with a note of inquietude in her +voice; and he answered her with a reassuring shout. Coming up on the +level behind the low stone wall of the garden he found Mrs. Dermot and +Muriel anxiously awaiting him. + +"Mumsie! Hallo, Mumsie! Here's me. Fwank shooted bad dog," cried Eileen, +waving her arms and kicking her bearer violently in her excitement. + +"Yes, Mumsie, Frank killded the nasty dog that wanted to eat us," added +Brian. + +Wargrave passed the children over the wall into the anxious arms +outstretched for them, then vaulted into the garden. + +"What has happened, Mr. Wargrave?" asked Mrs. Dermot, pressing her +children to her nervously. "What is this about your shooting a dog?" + +The subaltern told the story briefly. + +"Oh, my babies! My babies!" cried the mother with tears in her eyes, +clasping the mites to her breast and kissing them frantically. The +little woman who had many times faced death undauntedly at her husband's +side broke down utterly at the thought of her children's peril. + +She overwhelmed Wargrave with her thanks, while Muriel complimented him +on his promptness and presence of mind and then scolded the urchins for +their disobedience in wandering away from the garden by themselves. But +the unrepentant pair smiled genially at her from the shelter of their +mother's arms and assured her that "Fwankie" would always take care of +them. Their mother, even when she grew more composed, could not be +severe after so nearly losing them; but although unwilling to terrify +them by a recital of the awful fate from which the subaltern had saved +them by the merest chance, she impressed upon them again and again her +oft-repeated warning that they must never leave the garden alone. + +But they were not awed; so, bidding them thank and kiss him, she bore +them off to bed, her eyes still full of tears. + +Wargrave sent a servant to fetch his orderly and the detachment _mochi_, +or cobbler, to skin the panther, the news of the death of which soon +spread. So Major Hunt and Burke joined Miss Benson and the subaltern +when they went to look at its body, and numbers of sepoys streamed up +from the Fort to view the animal, which had long been notorious in the +station. Lamps had to be brought to finish the skinning of it; and the +hide, when taken off, was carried in triumph to the Mess compound to be +cured. + +On the following afternoon on the tennis-court in a corner of the +parade ground Miss Benson was left with Burke and Wargrave when Mrs. +Dermot had taken her children home at sunset. + +"You've completely won her heart," the girl said to the subaltern, +pointing with her racquet to the disappearing form of her friend. +"Nothing's too good for you for saving these precious mites. But she'll +never let them out of her sight again until their big nurse returns." + +"You mean their elephant? Well, of course he's a marvellously +well-trained animal; but is he really so reliable that he can always be +trusted to look after those children?" + +"Badshah is something very much more than a well-trained animal. Perhaps +some time out in the jungle you may understand why the natives regard +him as sacred and call Colonel Dermot the 'God of the Elephants.' You +don't know Badshah as we do." + +"Well, old Burke here has told me some strange yarns about him. But, as +he's always pulling my leg, I never know when to believe him." + +The doctor grinned. + +"We won't waste words on him, Captain Burke," said the girl. "It's time +to go home now." + +They escorted her to the Dermots' bungalow, where the doctor lingered +for a few more minutes in her society, while Wargrave climbed up to the +Mess and went to look at the panther's skin pegged out on the ground +under a thick coating of ashes and now as hard as a board after a day's +exposure to the burning sun. + +A few days later Miss Benson left the station to rejoin her father in +one of the three or four isolated wooden bungalows built to accommodate +the Forest Officer in different parts of his district, each one lost and +lonely in the silent jungle. For days after her departure Burke was +visibly depressed; and Wargrave, too, missed the bright and attractive +girl who had enlivened the quiet little station during her stay. + +A fortnight later Colonel Dermot returned from Bhutan; and his gratitude +to the subaltern for the rescue of his children was sincere and +heart-felt. He was only too glad to take the young man out into the +jungle on every possible occasion and continue his instruction in the +ways of the forest. This companionship and the sport were particularly +beneficial to Wargrave just then. For they served to take him out of +himself and raise him from the state of depression into which he was +falling, thanks to Violet's letters, the tone of which was becoming more +bitter each time she wrote. + +Her reply to his long and cheery epistle describing Ranga Duar's unusual +burst of gaiety during the Envoy's visit and his own rescue of the +children was as follows: + + "You do not seem to miss me much among your new friends. While I am + leading a most unhappy and miserable life here you appear to be + enjoying yourself and giving little thought to me. You are lucky to + have two such very beautiful ladies to make much of you; and I + daresay they think you a wonderful hero for saving the little brats + who, if they are like most children, would not be much loss. Their + mother seems extremely friendly to you for such a devoted wife as + you try to make her out to be. Or perhaps it is the girl you admire + most; this marvellous young lady who shoots tigers and apparently + manages the whole Terai Forest. You say you love me; but you don't + seem to be pining very much for me. While each day that comes since + you left me is a fresh agony to me, you appear to contrive to be + quite happy without me." + +This letter stung Wargrave like the lash of a whip across the face. To +do Violet justice no sooner had she sent it than she regretted it. But +deeply hurt as he was by the bitter words he forgave her; for he felt +that her life was indeed miserable and that he was unconsciously in a +great measure to blame for its being so. But it maddened him to realise +his present helplessness to alter matters. He was more than willing to +sacrifice himself to help her; but it would be a long time before he +could hope to save enough to pay his debts and make a home for her. +Whether it was wicked or not to take away another man's wife did not +occur to him; all that he knew was that a woman was unhappy and he alone +could help her. It seemed to him that the sin--if sin there were--was +the husband's, who starved her heart and rendered her miserable. + +In his distress work and sport proved his salvation. He threw himself +heart and soul into his duty, and whenever there was nothing for him to +do with the detachment Major Hunt encouraged him to go with the +Political Officer into the jungle. For little as he suspected it the +senior guessed the young man's trouble and watched him sympathisingly. + +One never-to-be-forgotten day as Wargrave was returning from afternoon +parade Colonel Dermot called to him from his gate and showed him a +telegram. It ran: "Tiger marked down. Come immediately _dak_ bungalow, +Madpur Duar. Muriel." + +As the subaltern perused it with delight the Colonel said: + +"Ask your C.O. for leave. Then, if he gives it, get something +substantial to eat in the Mess and be ready to start at once. Madpur +Duar is thirty odd miles away; and we'll have to travel all night. Come +to my bungalow as soon as you can." + +Half an hour later the two were trudging down the road to the +_peelkhana_ carrying their rifles. Badshah, with a _howdah_ roped on to +his pad, plodded behind them; for it is far more comfortable to walk +down a steep descent than be carried down it by an elephant. At the foot +of the hills they mounted and were borne away into the gathering shadows +of the long road through the forest. As they proceeded their talk was +all of tigers; for in India, though there be bigger and more splendid +game in the land, its traditional animal never fails to interest, and +to Wargrave on his way to his first tiger-shoot all other topics were +insignificant. + +The sun went down and darkness settled on the forest. The talk died away +and no sound was heard but the soft padding of their elephant's huge +feet in the dust of the road. The subaltern soon found the _howdah_ +infinitely more trying than a seat on the pad when Badshah was in +motion; for the plunging gait of the animal jerked him backwards and +forwards and threw him against the wooden rails if he forgot to hold +himself at arm's length from them. The discomfort spoiled his +appreciation of the strange, attractive experience of being borne by +night through the sleepless forest, where in the dark hours only the +bird and the monkey repose; and even to them the creeping menace of the +climbing snake affrights the one and the wheeling shapes of the +night-flying birds of prey scare the other. But on the ground all are +awake. The glimmering whiteness of the road was occasionally blotted by +the scurrying forms of animals, hunted and hunters, dashing across it. +Once a tiny shriek in the distance broke the silence of the jungle. + +"A wild elephant," said Colonel Dermot. + +Then followed the loud crashing of rending boughs and falling trees. + +"That's a herd feeding. They graze until about ten o'clock and then +sleep on well into the small hours, wake and begin to feed again at +dawn," continued the Political Officer. + +Once a wild, unearthly wailing cry that seemed to come from every +direction at once startled the subaltern: + +"Good Heavens! what's that?" he exclaimed, gripping his rifle and trying +to pierce the darkness around them. + +"Only a Giant Owl," was the reply. "It's an uncanny noise. There!" + +Right over their heads it rang out again; and the stars above them were +blotted out for a moment by a dark, circling shape above the tree-tops. + +Hour after hour went by as they were borne along through the night; and +Wargrave bruised and battered by the _howdah_-rails, fell constantly +against them, so overcome with sleep was he. At last to his relief his +companion called a halt for a few hours' rest; and they brought the +elephant to his knees, dismounted and stripped him of _howdah_ and pad. +Sitting on the latter they supped on sandwiches and coffee from Thermos +flasks, and then stretched themselves to sleep, while Badshah standing +over them grazed on the grasses and branches within reach. Wargrave was +dropping off to sleep when he was roused by the sharp, _staccato_ bark +of a _khakur_ buck repeated several times. The tired man lost +consciousness and was sunk in profound slumber when the silence of the +forest was shattered by a snorting, braying roar that rang through the +jungle with alarming suddenness. + +Wargrave sprang up and groped for his rifle. But his companion lay +tranquilly on the pad. + +"It's all right. It's only a tiger that's missed his spring and is angry +about it," he said sleepily. "Lie down again." + +"Only a tiger, sir?" repeated Wargrave. "But it sounded close by." + +"Yes, but Badshah will look after us. Don't worry"; and the Colonel +turned over and fell asleep. + +It was a little time, however, before Frank followed his example, and he +had his rifle under his hand when he did. But the dark bulk of the +elephant towering over them comforted him as he sank to sleep. + +A couple of hours later they were on their way again. It was broad +daylight before they emerged from the jungle. It seemed strange to be +out once more in the wide-stretching, open and cultivated plains and to +look back on the great forest and, beyond it, to the mountains towering +to the sky. Before them lay the flat expanse of the hedgeless, fertile +fields dotted here and there with clusters of trimly-built huts or thick +groves of bamboos and seamed with the lines of deep _nullahs_, the tops +of the trees in them barely showing above the level and marking their +winding course. + +The _dak_ bungalow at Madpur Duar was soon reached, a single-storied +building with a couple of trees shading the well behind it and a group +of elephants and their _mahouts_. On the verandah Benson and his +daughter were standing, the girl dressed in a khaki drill coat and skirt +over breeches and soft leather gaiters, and waving a welcome to +Badshah's riders. + +After a hurried breakfast the latter were ready to start for the day's +sport. By then a line of ten female elephants, the tallest carrying a +_howdah_, the rest only their pads, was drawn up before the bungalow; +and at a word from their _mahouts_ their trunks went up in the air and +the animals trumpeted in salute as the party came out on the verandah. + +"We borrowed Mr. Carter's and the Settlement Officer's elephants for the +beat," said Miss Benson, as, wearing a big pith sunhat and carrying a +double-barrelled .400 cordite rifle, she led the way down the verandah +steps. + +It had been arranged that she was to take Wargrave with her in her +_howdah_, while her father accompanied Colonel Dermot on Badshah. Her +big elephant knelt down and a ladder was laid against its side, up which +she climbed, followed by the subaltern. When all were mounted she led +the way across the plain. Although the ground was everywhere level and +just there uncultivated the elephants tailed off in single file as is +the habit of their kind, wild or domesticated, each stepping with +precise care into the footprints of the one in front of it. Here in the +Plains the heat was intense; and Wargrave, shading his eyes from the +blinding glare, thought enviously of the coolness up in the mountains +that he had left. As they moved along Muriel explained to him how the +beat was to be conducted. + +Where the southern fringe of the Terai Jungle borders the cultivated +country it is a favourite haunt of tigers, which from its shelter carry +on war against the farmers' cattle. Creeping down the ravines seaming +the soft soil and worn by the streams that flow through the forest from +the hills they pull down the cows grazing or coming to drink in the +_nullahs_, which are filled with small trees and scrubs affording good +cover. A tiger, when it has killed, drags the carcase of its prey into +shade near water, eats a hearty meal of about eighty pounds of flesh, +drinks and then sleeps until it is ready to feed again. If disturbed it +retreats up the ravine to the forest. + +So, beating for one with elephants here, the sportsmen place themselves +on their _howdah_-bearing animals between the jungle and the spot where +the tiger is known to be lying up, and the beater elephants enter the +scrub from the far side and shepherd him gently towards the guns. + +Pointing to a distant line of tree-tops showing above the level plain +she said: + +"There is the _nullah_ in which, about a mile farther on, a cow was +killed yesterday. I hope the tiger is still lying up in it. We'll soon +see." + +They reached the ravine, which was twenty or thirty feet deep and +contained a little stream flowing through tangled scrub, and moved along +parallel to it and about a couple of hundred yards away. Presently the +girl pointed to a tall tree growing in it and a quarter of a mile ahead +of them. Its upper branches were bending under the weight of numbers of +foul-looking bald-headed vultures, squawking, huddled together, jostling +each other on their perches and pecking angrily at their neighbours with +irritable cries. Some circled in the air and occasionally swooped down +towards the ground only to rocket up again affrightedly to the sky; for +the tiger lay by its kill and resented the approach of any daring bird +that aspired to share the feast. Muriel hurriedly explained how the +conduct of the birds indicated the beast's presence. + +"If he were not there they'd be down tearing the carcase to pieces," she +said, as she held up her hand and halted the file behind her. + +"The beater elephants had better stop here, Colonel," she called out to +Dermot. "There is a way down and across the _nullah_, by which you can +take Badshah to the far side. We will remain on this." + +The Political Officer, who had seen and realised the significance of the +vultures, waved his hand and moved off at once. Muriel called up the +_mahouts_ and bade them enter the ravine and begin the beat in about ten +minutes, then told her driver to go on. Half a mile beyond the tree she +ordered him to halt and take up a position close to the edge of the +_nullah_, into which they could look down. Below them the bottom was +clear of scrub which ended fifty yards away. Dermot stopped opposite; +and both elephants were turned to face towards the spot where the tiger +was judged to be. + +"Mr Wargrave, get to the front of the _howdah_ and be ready," she said +in a low tone. + +The subaltern protested chivalrously against taking the best place. + +"Oh, it's all right. We've brought you out to get the tiger; so you must +do as you're told. If he breaks out this side take the first shot," she +said peremptorily. + +He submitted and took up his position with cocked rifle. As the _nullah_ +wound a good deal the tops of the trees in it prevented them from seeing +if the beater-elephants had gone in; but in a few minutes they heard +distant shouts and the crashing of the undergrowth as the big animals +forced their way through the scrub. + +"Be ready, Mr. Wargrave," whispered the girl. "Sometimes a tiger starts +on the run at the first sound." + +His nerves a-quiver and his heart beating violently the subaltern held +his rifle at the ready, as the noise of the beaters drew nearer. Again +and again he brought the butt to his shoulder, only to lower it when he +realised that it was a false alarm. The sounds of the beat grew louder +and closer, and still there was no sign of the tiger. Frank's heart +sank. He saw the vultures stir uneasily and some rise into the air as +the elephants passed under them. + +At last through the trees he began to catch occasional glimpses of the +_mahouts_, and he lost hope. But suddenly from the scrub below them in +the _nullah_ a number of small birds flew up; and the next instant the +edge of the bushes nearest them was parted stealthily and a tiger slunk +cautiously out in the bottom of the ravine. + +Wargrave's rifle went up to his shoulder; and he fired. A startled roar +from the beast told that it was hit; but it bounded in a flash across +the ravine and up the steep bank on their side not forty yards from +them. As it scrambled swiftly over the edge it caught sight of the +elephant and with a deep "wough!" charged straight at it. + +Frank fired again, and his bullet struck up the dust, missing the +swift-rushing animal by a couple of feet. The next moment with a roar +the tiger sprang at the elephant. With one leap it landed with its hind +paws on the elephant's head, its fore-feet on the front rail of the +_howdah_, standing right over the _mahout_ who crouched in terror on the +neck. The savage, snarling, yellow-and-black mask was thrust almost +into Wargrave's face, and from the open red mouth lined with fierce +white fangs he could feel the hot breath on his cheek as he tugged +frantically at the under-lever of his rifle to open the breech and +re-load. In another moment the tiger would have been on top of them in +the _howdah_ when a gun-barrel shot past the subaltern and pushed him +aside. The muzzle of Muriel's rifle was pressed almost against the +brute's skull as she fired. + +Frank hardly heard the report. All he knew was that the snarling face +disappeared as quickly as it had come. The whole thing was an affair of +seconds. Shot through the brain the tiger dropped back to the ground +with a heavy thud and fell dead beside the staunch elephant which had +never moved all through the terrible ordeal. + +A cry of relief and a prayer to Allah burst from the grey-bearded +Mahommedan _mahout_, as he straightened himself; and Wargrave turned +with glowing face and outstretched hand to the girl. + +"Oh, well done! Splendidly done!" he cried. "You saved me from being +lugged bodily out of the _howdah_ or at least from being mauled. This +lever jammed and I couldn't re-load." + +Her eyes shining and face beaming with excitement she shook his hand. + +"Wasn't it thrilling? I thought he'd have got both of us." Then to the +_mahout_ she continued in Urdu, "Gul Dad, are you hurt?" + +The man was solemnly feeling himself all over. He stared at a rent in +the shoulder of his coat, torn by the tiger's claw. It was the only +injury that he had suffered. He put his finger on it and grumbled: + +"Missie-_baba_, the _shaitan_ (devil) has torn my coat." + +In the reaction from the strain the girl and Wargrave went off in peals +of laughter at his words. + +"But are you not wounded?" Miss Benson repeated. "Has it not clawed +you?" + +The _mahout_ shook his head. + +"No, missie-_baba_; but it was my new coat," he insisted.[1] + + [1] A similar incident occurred in real life near Alipur Duar in + Eastern Bengal to a lady and an officer on a female elephant named + Dundora during a beat. But in this case it was the man that killed + the tiger with his second rifle when it was standing on the + elephant's head with its fore-paws on the _howdah_-rail. I can + personally testify to Dundora's immobility when facing a charging + tiger.--THE AUTHOR. + +Frank looked down at the tiger stretched motionless on the yellow grass. + +"By George, you shot him dead enough, Miss Benson!" he exclaimed. + +She stared down at the animal. + +"Yes; but it's well to be careful. I've seen a tiger look as dead as +that and yet spring up and maul a man who approached it incautiously," +she said. + +She raised her rifle and covered the prostrate animal. + +"Throw something at it," she continued. + +Wargrave took out a couple of heavy, copper-cased cartridges and flung +them one by one at the tiger's head, striking it on the jaw and in the +eye. The animal did not move. + +"Seems dead enough," said the girl, lowering her rifle. "Here come the +beaters." + +The other elephants had now burst out in line through the scrub. Their +_mahouts_ shouted enquiries to Gul Dad and when they heard of the +tiger's death cheered gleefully, for it meant _backsheesh_ to them. +Badshah was seen to be searching for a way down into the nullah and in a +few minutes brought his passengers up alongside Miss Benson and the +subaltern. Her father and Dermot congratulated the girl warmly; and the +latter, having made Badshah kick the tiger to make certain that it was +dead, dismounted and examined it. + +"Here's your shot, Wargrave," he said, pointing to a hole in the belly. +"A bit too low, but it made a nasty wound that would have killed the +beast eventually." + +"I'm so ashamed of missing it with my second barrel, sir," said the +subaltern. "But for Miss Benson I'd have been a gone coon." + +"Yes, it certainly looked exciting enough from our side of the +_nullah_," said the Colonel, smiling; "so what must it have been like +from where you were? Well, anyhow it's your tiger." + +"Oh, nonsense, sir; it's Miss Benson's. I ought to be kicked for being +such a muff." + +"Jungle law, Mr. Wargrave," said the girl, laughing "You hit it first, +so it's your beast." + +"You needn't be ashamed of missing it," added the Colonel. "A charging +tiger coming full speed at you is not an easy mark. No; the skin is +yours; and Muriel has so many that she can spare it." + +"Well, Miss Benson, I accept it as a gift from you; but I won't +acknowledge that I have earned it," said the subaltern. + +"Now, we'd better pad it and see about getting back," said Dermot, +looking at his watch. + +The other elephants had now found their way up the bank and joined +Badshah and his companion. When their _mahouts_ heard from Gul Dad the +story of the tiger's death they exclaimed in amazement and admiration: + +"_Ahre, Chai_! (Oh, brother!) Truly the missie-_baba_ is a wonder. She +will be the death of many tigers, indeed," they said. + +Then each in turn brought his elephant up to the prostrate animal and +made her smell and strike it with her trunk in order to inspire her with +contempt for tigers. Colonel Dermot measured it with a tape and found it +to be nine feet six inches from nose to tip of tail. It was a young, +fully-grown male in splendid condition. Then came the troublesome +business of "padding" it, that is, hoisting it on to the pad of one of +the elephants to bring it back to the bungalow to be skinned. It was not +an easy matter. For the tiger weighed nearly three hundred and fifty +pounds; and to raise the limp carcase, which sagged like a feather bed +at every spot where there was not a man to support it, was a difficult +task. But it was achieved at last; and with the tiger roped firmly on a +pad the elephants started back in single file. + +As they went over the plain in the burning sun Wargrave looked back to +where the striped body was borne along with stiff, dangling legs. + +"By Jove, it's been great, Miss Benson," he exclaimed. "Some people say +tiger shooting's not exciting. They ought to have been with us to-day. I +am lucky to have got a bison already and now to have seen this. With +luck I'll be having a shot at an elephant next." + +The girl replied in a serious tone: + +"Don't say that to Colonel Dermot. Elephants are his especial friends. +Besides, you are only allowed to shoot rogues; and since he's been here +there have been none in these jungles which formerly swarmed with them. +There's no doubt that he has a wonderful, uncanny control over even wild +elephants. Do you know that once a rajah tried to have him killed in his +palace by a mad tusker, which had just slaughtered several men, and the +moment the brute got face to face with him it was cowed and obeyed him +like a dog?" + +"Good gracious, is that so?" + +"Yes, I could tell you even more extraordinary things about his power +over elephants; but some day when you're in the jungle with him you may +see it for yourself. Oh, isn't it hot? I do wish we were home." + +Arrived at the _dak_ bungalow the tiger's carcase was lowered to the +ground and given over to the knives of the flayers summoned from the +_bazaar_ of Madpur Duar a mile away. As soon as the news was known in +the small town crowds of Hindu women streamed to the bungalow compound, +where with their _saris_ (shawls) pulled modestly across their brown +faces by rounded arms tinkling with glass bangles they squatted on the +ground and waited patiently until the skin was drawn clear off the raw +red carcase. Then they crowded around a couple of the older _mahouts_ +who, first cutting off all the firm white fat of the well-fed cattle +thief to be melted down for oil (esteemed to be a sovereign remedy for +rheumatism), hacked the flesh into chunks which they threw into the +eager hands of the women. These took the meat home to cook for their +husbands to eat to instil into them the spirit and vigour of a tiger. +The skin, spread out and pegged to the ground, was covered with wood +ashes and left to dry. Little of the animal was left but the bones, to +the disappointment of the wheeling, whistling kites waiting on soaring +wings in the sky above. + +After tea the two officers took their leave with many expressions of +gratitude from the younger man to the girl for her kindness in arranging +the beat for him. Hours afterwards, as they halted in the forest for a +rest in the middle of the night, Colonel Dermot said: + +"You told me once that you'd like a job like mine, Wargrave. Would you +care for frontier political work here?" + +"I'd love it, sir," exclaimed the subaltern enthusiastically. "Would it +be possible to get it?" + +"Well, I've been thinking for some time of applying to the Government of +India for an assistant political officer who would help me and take over +if I went on leave, but I'd want to train my own man and not merely +accept any youngster who was pitchforked into the Department just +because he had a father or an uncle with a pull at Simla. Now, if you +like I'll apply for you, on condition that you'll work at Bhutanese and +the frontier dialects. I'll teach them to you." + +"I'd like nothing better, sir. I'm not bad at languages." + +"Yes, I've noticed that your Hindustani is very good and idiomatic. I've +been watching you and I like your manner with natives. One must be +sympathetic, kind and just, but also firm with them. Well, I'll try +you. The rainy season will be on us very soon, and then all outdoor work +and sport will be impossible. One dare not go into the jungle--it's too +full of malaria and blackwater fever. The planters and Forest Officers +have to cage themselves in wire gauze 'mosquito houses.' During the +rains you'll have plenty of time to work at the languages." + +"Thank you very much, Colonel. I promise you I'll go at them hard." + +"You'll have a fellow-student for part of the time. Miss Benson's coming +to stay with us during the Monsoons for a bit; and she has asked me to +teach her Bhutanese, too. She wants it, as she has to deal with Bhuttia +woodcutters and hill folk generally. Well, that's fixed. Goodnight." + +"Goodnight, sir," answered the subaltern, as he lay down on the pad and +stared at the stars. He was overjoyed at Colonel Dermot's offer, and as +he dropped asleep it was with a thrill of pleasure that he realised he +would see something more of the girl who had been his companion that +day. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +A POLITICAL OFFICER IN THE MAKING + + +The lightning spattered the heavens and tore the black sky into a +thousand fragments, the thunder crashed in appalling peals of terrifying +sound which echoed again and again from the invisible mountains. The +rain fell in ropes of water that sent the brown, foam-flecked torrents +surging full-fed down every gully and ravine in the mist-wrapped hills. +The single, steep road of Ranga Duar was now the rocky bed of a racing +flood inches deep that swirled and raged round Wargrave's high rubber +boots as he waded up towards the Mess clad in an oilskin coat, off which +the rain splashed. He was glad to arrive at the garden gate, turn in +through it, climb the verandah steps, and reach his door. Here he flung +aside his coat and kicked off the heavy boots. + +Entering his room he pulled on his slippers, filled his pipe with +tobacco from a lime-dried bottle and sat down at his one rickety table +at the window. Then he took out of his pocket and laid before him a +manuscript book filled with notes on the frontier dialects taken at the +lesson with Colonel Dermot from which he had just come. He opened it +mechanically but did not even glance at it. His thoughts were elsewhere. + +Months had elapsed since the day on which he had seen his first tiger +killed. Not long afterwards the Rains had come to put a stop to descents +into the jungle. But his interest in the preparation for his new work +compensated him for the imprisonment within walls by the terrible +tropical storms and the never-ceasing downpour. He had flung himself +enthusiastically into the study of the frontier languages, of which +Colonel Dermot proved to be a painstaking and able teacher. Miss Benson, +who had returned to Ranga Duar and remained there longer than she had +originally intended, owing to fever contracted in the jungle, joined him +in these studies and astonished her fellow-pupil by her aptitude and +quickness of apprehension. But her presence proved disastrous to him. +Thrown constantly together as they were, spending hours every day side +by side, the subaltern realised to his dismay that he was falling in +love with the girl. + +It would have been strange had it been otherwise so pretty and +attractive was she. Often Mrs. Dermot, peeping into her husband's office +and seeing the dark and the fair head bent close together over a book, +smiled to herself, well-pleased at the thought of her favourites being +mutually attracted. To her husband the thought never occurred. Men are +very dull in these matters. + +But to Wargrave the realisation of the truth was unbearable. He was +pledged to another woman, whose heart he had won even if unconsciously, +who was willing for love of him to give up everything and face the +world's censure and scorn. He could not play her false. He had given her +his word. He could not now be disloyal to her without utterly wrecking +all her chances of happiness in life and dishonouring himself for ever +in his own eyes. Muriel Benson had left the station ten days ago to +rejoin her father; and Wargrave had instantly felt that he dared not see +her again until he was irrevocably and openly bound to Violet. So he had +written to her on the morrow of the girl's departure and, without giving +her the real reason for his action, begged her to come to him at once, +enclosing, as he was now able to do, a cheque for her expenses. It +seemed to him that only by her presence could he be saved from being a +traitor to his word. + +As soon as he had sent the letter he went to his Commanding Officer and +told him everything. It was not until he was actually explaining his +conduct that he realised that he should have obtained his permission +before inviting Violet to come, for Major Hunt, as Commandant of the +Station, had the power to forbid her residing in or even entering it. + +The senior officer listened in silence. When the subaltern had finished +he said: + +"I've known about this matter since you came, Wargrave. Your Colonel +wrote me--as your new C.O.--what I considered an unnecessary and unfair +letter giving me the reason of your being sent here. But Hepburn, whom +I know slightly, discovered I was here and also wrote explaining matters +more fully and, I think, more justly." + +The subaltern looked at him in surprise; but his face brightened at the +knowledge of his former commander's kindness. + +"Now, Wargrave, we've got on very well together so far, you and I. I +have always been satisfied with your work, and was glad to help you by +agreeing to Colonel Dermot's application for you. I believe that you +will make a good political officer, otherwise I wouldn't have done +so--even though I'm your debtor for saving me from that snake----." + +"Oh, Major, that was nothing," broke in the subaltern. "Anyone would +have done it." + +"Yes, I know. But it happened that you were the anyone. Now, I'm going +to talk to you as your friend and not as your commanding officer. +Frankly, I am very sorry for what you have just told me. I was hoping +that Time and separation were curing you--and the lady--of your folly. +Believe me, only unhappiness and misery can come to you both from it." + +"Perhaps so, sir; but I'm bound in honour." + +The older man shook his head sadly. + +"Is honour the word for it? I'll make a confession to you, Wargrave. You +consider me a bachelor. Well, I'm not married now; but I was. When I was +a young subaltern I was thrown much with a married woman older than +myself. I was flattered that she should take any notice of me, for she +was handsome and popular with men, while I was a shy, awkward boy. She +said she was 'being a mother' to me--you know what a married woman +'mothering' boys leads to in India. She used to tell me how +misunderstood she was, neglected, mated to a clown and all that." (Frank +grew red at certain memories.) "Women have a regular formula when +they're looking for sympathy they've no right to. I pitied her. I felt +that her husband ought to be shot. Looking back now I see that he was +just the ordinary, easy-going, indifferent individual that most husbands +become; but then I deemed him a tyrant and a brute. Well, I ran away +with her." + +He paused and passed his hand wearily across his brow. + +"There was the usual scandal, divorce, damages and costs that plunged me +into debt I'm not out of yet. We married. In a year we were heartily +sick of each other--hated, is nearer the truth. She consoled herself +with other men. I protested, we quarrelled again and again. At last we +agreed to separate; and I insisted on her going to England and staying +there. I couldn't trust her in India. Living in lodgings and Bayswater +boarding-houses wasn't amusing--she got bored, but I wouldn't have her +back. She took to drinking and ran up debts that I had to pay. +Then--and I selfishly felt glad, but it was a happy release for +both--she died. Drank herself to death. Now you know why I'd be sorry +that another man should follow the path I trod." + +He was silent. Wargrave felt an intense sympathy for this quiet, kindly +man whose life had been a tragedy. He had guessed from the first that +his senior officer had some ever-present grief weighing on his soul. He +would have given much to be able to utter words of consolation, but he +did not know what to say. + +Major Hunt spoke again. + +"You must dree your own weird, Wargrave. If the lady wishes to come +here--well, I shall not prevent her; but the General, when he knows of +it, will not permit her to remain. But you have to deal with Colonel +Dermot. You had better tell him. You might go now." + +Without a word the subaltern left the bungalow. He went straight to the +Political Officer and repeated his story. Colonel Dermot did not +interrupt him, but, when he had finished, said: + +"I have no right and no wish to interfere with your private life, +Wargrave, nor to offer you advice as to how to lead it. Your work is all +that I can claim to criticise. Of course I see, with Major Hunt, the +difficulty that will arise over the lady's remaining in this small +station, where her presence must become known to the Staff. If you are +both resolved on taking the irretrievable step it would be wiser to +defer it until you were elsewhere. I don't offer to blame either of you; +for I don't know enough to judge." + +"Well, sir, I--perhaps you won't want me under you--and Mrs. Dermot--you +mightn't wish me to----," stammered the subaltern, standing miserably +before him. + +"Oh, yes; you'll make a good political officer none the less," said the +Colonel smiling. "And you need not be afraid of my wife turning away +from you with horror. If she can be a friend to the lady she will. As +for you, well, you saved our children, Wargrave"--he laid his hand on +the young man's shoulder--"you are our friend for life. I shall not +repeat your story to my wife. Perhaps some day you may like to tell it +to her yourself." + +Wargrave tried to thank him gratefully, but failed, and, picking up his +hat, went out into the rain. + +That was days ago; and no answer had come from Violet, so that the +subaltern lived in a state of strain and anxious expectation. Indeed, +some weeks had passed since her last letter, as usual an unhappy one; +and, sitting staring out into the grey world of falling rain turned to +flame every minute by the vivid lightning, he racked his brains to guess +the reason of her silence. + +A jangle of bells sounded through the storm. Glancing out Wargrave saw +a curiously grotesque figure climb the verandah steps from the garden +and stand shaking itself while the water poured from it. It was an +almost naked man, squat and sturdy-limbed, with glistening wet brown +skin, an oilskin-covered package on his back, a short spear hung with +bells in his hand. It was the postman. For a miserable pittance he +jogged up and down the mountains in fine weather or foul, carrying His +Majesty's Mails, passing fearlessly through the jungle in peril of wild +beats, his ridiculous weapon, the bells of which were supposed to +frighten tigers, his only protection. + +Wargrave opened the door and went out to him. The man grinned, unslung +and opened his parcel. From it he took out a bundle of letters, handed +them to the subaltern, and went on to knock at Burke's door with his +correspondence. Frank returned to his room with the mail which contained +the official letters for the detachment, of which he was still acting as +adjutant. He threw them aside when he saw an envelope with Violet's +handwriting on it. He tore it open eagerly. + +To his surprise the letter was addressed from a hotel in Poona, the +large and gay military and civil station in the West of India, a few +hours' rail journey inland from Bombay. He skimmed through it rapidly. + +She wrote that, utterly weary of the dullness of Rohar, she had gone to +Poona to spend part of the festive and fashionable season there and was +now revelling in the many dances, dinners, theatricals and other +gaieties of the lively station. Everybody was very kind to her, +especially the men. She was invited to the private entertainments at +Government House, and His Excellency the Governor always danced with +her. Her programme was crowded at every ball; and she had been asked to +take one of the leading parts in "The Country Girl" to be produced by +the Amateur Dramatic Society. She had two excellent ponies with which to +hunt and to join in _gymkhanas_. She wished Frank could be with her; but +probably he was enjoying himself more with his wild beasts and Tiger +Girls. As to his proposal that she should go to him at once in that +little station he must have been mad when he made it. For had they not +discussed the matter thoroughly and decided that they must wait? She +presumed that he had not suddenly come into a fortune. From his +description of Ranga Duar and its inhabitants it could be no place for +her under the circumstances. No; there was nothing to do but to wait. +Besides, it was so very jolly now at Poona. Frank must not be an +impatient boy; and she sent him all her love. His cheque she had torn +up. + +The subaltern whistled, read the letter again very carefully, folded and +put it away. What had come to Violet? This was so unlike her. Still, he +had to confess to himself that he was relieved at not yet having to +cross the Rubicon. Perhaps she was right; it might be better to wait. He +was glad to know that for a time at least she was away from the +uncongenial surroundings of Rohar and again enjoying life. He went +through the official correspondence, shoved it in his pocket, put on +coat and boots and splashed through the water down the road to the +Commanding Officer's bungalow. When they had discussed the official +letters and drafted answers to them Wargrave told Major Hunt of the gist +of Violet's reply. The senior officer nodded, but said nothing about it +and went on to talk of other matters. + +Next day the subaltern informed Colonel Dermot, who made no comment and +did not refer to the matter again. His wife, ignorant of Mrs. Norton's +existence, delighted to talk to Wargrave about Muriel, a topic always +interesting to him, dangerous though it was to his peace of mind. His +thoughts were constantly with the girl, and he sought eagerly for news +of her when occasional letters came to Mrs. Dermot from her, touring +their wide forest district with her father. + +Frank had never been able to fathom Burke's feelings towards her. The +Irishman's manner to her in public was always light-hearted and +cheerfully friendly; but the subaltern suspected that it concealed a +deeper, warmer feeling. He betrayed no jealousy of Frank's constant +companionship with her when she took part in his studies; and his +friendly regard for his younger brother officer never altered. On her +side the girl showed openly that she shared the universal liking that +the kindly, pleasant-natured doctor inspired. + +The weary months of the rainy season dragged by; but the subaltern spent +them to advantage under Colonel Dermot's tuition and, possessing the +knack of readily acquiring foreign languages, made rapid progress with +Bhutanese, Tibetan and the frontier dialects, his good ear for music +helping him greatly in getting the correct accent. Another +accomplishment of his, a talent for acting, was of service; for the +Political Officer wished him to be capable of penetrating into Bhutan in +disguise if need be. So he taught him how to be a merchant, peasant, +nobleman's retainer or a lama Red or Yellow, of the country--but always +a man of Northern Bhutan and the Tibetan borderland, for his height and +blue eyes were not unusual there, though seldom or never seen in the +south. Frank was carefully instructed in the appropriate manners, +customs and expressions of each part that he played, how to eat and +behave in company, how to walk, sit and sleep. But he specialised as a +lama, for in that character he would meet with the least interference in +the priest-ridden country. He was taught the Buddhist chants and how to +drone them, how to carry his praying-wheel and finger a rosary to the +murmured "_Om mani padmi hung_" of the Tibetans, and--for he was +something of an artist--how to paint the Buddhist pictorial Wheel of +Life, the _Sid-pa-i Khor-lo_ or Cycle of Existence that the gentle +Gautama, the Buddha, himself first drew and that hangs in the vestibule +of every lamasery to teach priest and layman the leading law of their +religion, Re-birth. + +Colonel Dermot was helped in his instruction of his pupil by his chief +spy and confidential messenger, an ex-monk from a great monastery in +Punaka, the capital of Bhutan. This man, Tashi, before he wearied of the +cloistered life and fled to India, had been always one of the principal +actors in the great miracle plays and Devil Dances of his lamasery, for +he was gifted with considerable histrionic talent. He delighted in +teaching Wargrave to play his various _roles_, for he found the +subaltern an apt pupil. + +As soon as the rains ended the Political Officer began to take his +disciple with him on his tours and patrols along the frontier. Alone +they roamed on Badshah among the mountains on which the border ran in a +confusedly irregular line. Sometimes with or without Tashi they crossed +into Bhutan in disguise and wandered among the steep, forest-clad hills +and deep, unhealthy valleys seamed with rivers prone to sudden floods +that rose in a few hours thirty or forty feet. Wargrave marvelled at the +engineering skill of the inhabitants who with rude and imperfect +appliances had thrown cantilever bridges over the deep gorges of this +mountainous southern zone. Among the dull-witted peasants in the +villages he practised the parts that he had learned, speaking little at +first and taking care to mingle Tibetan and Chinese words with the +language of Bhutan to keep up the fable of his northern birth. He soon +promised to be in time as skilfull in disguise as his tutor. + +Colonel Dermot was anxious to investigate the activities of the Chinese +_Amban_, reputed to reach their height in the territory just across the +Indian border ruled by the Tuna Penlop and lying west of the Black +Mountain range that divides Bhutan. This great feudal chieftain was +reputed to be completely under the influence of Yuan Shi Hung and both +anti-British and disloyal to his overlord the Maharajah or Tongsa +Penlop. The close watch that his myrmidons kept on the stretch of +frontier between his territories and India prevented Dermot from +learning what went on behind the screen; for the spies of the Political +Officer's Secret Service could not penetrate it and bring back news. + +Wargrave was present when the last sturdy-limbed Bhuttia emissary +reported his failure to cross the line. As the man withdrew the Colonel +turned to Frank and said: + +"We'll go ourselves. I wanted to avoid it if possible; for it wouldn't +do for me to be caught. Not only because it would cause political +complications, for I'm not supposed to trespass on Bhutanese territory +uninvited, but also because fatal accidents might happen to us if Yuan +Shi Hung and his friends get hold of us. I'm not anxious to die yet. Be +ready to start at midnight." + +"Do you really think we'll be able to get through, sir?" queried the +subaltern. "How shall we do it?" + +"Wait and see," was the curt reply. + +Before the sun rose next day Badshah was deep in the forest, bearing the +two officers and Tashi on his back. He moved rapidly along animal paths +through the jungle in a direction parallel with the mountains. Jungle +fowl whirred up from under his feet, deer crashed away through the +undergrowth as he passed; but never a shot was fired at them, though +rifles and guns were in the riders' hands. Little brown monkeys peeped +down at them from the tree-tops or leapt away along the air lanes among +the leafy branches, swinging by hand or foot, springing across the +voids, the babies clutching fast to their mothers' bodies in the dizzy +flights. + +In the afternoon a distant crashing, which told of trees falling before +the pressure of great heads and the weight of huge bodies, made Wargrave +ask: + +"Wild elephants, sir?" + +Dermot nodded. + +"Sounds as if they were right in our path. Shall we see them?" + +"Yes. Don't touch that!" said the Colonel sharply; for the excited +subaltern, who had never yet seen a wild herd, was reaching for his +rifle. Wargrave obeyed, remembering Miss Benson's remark on the +Political Officer's love of the great animals. + +Soon unmistakable signs showed that they were on the track of a herd; +and presently Frank caught sight of a slate-coloured body in the +undergrowth, then another and another. As he was wondering how the +animals would receive them Badshah emerged on an open glade filled with +elephants of all ages and sizes, from new-born woolly calves a bare +three feet at the shoulder to splendid tuskers nine feet ten inches in +height and lean, ragged-eared old animals a hundred and thirty years of +age. All were regarding the newcomer and their trunks were raised to +point towards him, while from their throats came a low purring sound, +which appeared to the subaltern to have more of pleasure than menace in +it. Instead of seeming hostile or alarmed they behaved as though they +had expected and were welcoming their domesticated brother. This was so +evident that Frank felt no fear even when they closed in on Badshah and +touched him with their trunks. + +Dermot, smiling at his companion's amazement, said: + +"This is Badshah's old herd, Wargrave, and they're used to him and me. +I've come in search of them, for it is by their aid that I propose to +enter Bhutan." + +And the subaltern was still more surprised when the animals, which +numbered over a hundred, fell in behind Badshah--cows with calves +leading, tuskers in rear--and followed him submissively in single file +as he headed for the mountains. When night fell they were climbing above +the foot-hills under the vivid tropic stars. + +A couple of hours before midnight the leader halted, and the line behind +him scattered to feed on the bamboos and the luscious grasses, though +the younger calves nuzzled their mothers' breasts. Badshah sank to his +knees to allow his passengers to dismount and relieve him of his pad. +The three men ate and then wrapped themselves in their blankets, for it +was very cold high up in the mountains, and stretched themselves to +sleep, as the great animals around them ceased to feed and rested. +Badshah lowered himself cautiously to the ground and lay down near his +men. + +Before Wargrave lost consciousness he marvelled at Dermot's uncanny +power over the huge beasts around them--a power that could make these +shy mammoths thus subservient to his purposes. He began to understand +why his companion was regarded as a demigod by the wild jungle-folk and +hill-dwellers. + +When at daybreak the herd moved on again, climbing ever higher in the +mountains, the three men lay flat on Badshah's back and covered +themselves with their grey blankets lest vigilant watchers on the peaks +around might espy them. Thus do the _mahouts_ of the _koonkies_, or +trained female elephants employed in hunting and snaring wild tuskers, +conceal themselves during the chase. + +But darkness shielded them effectively when the herd swept at length +through a rocky pass on the frontier-line between India and Bhutan, and +with cries of fear and dismay armed men seated around watch-fires fled +in panic before the earth-shaking host. The screen was penetrated. + +Daylight found them on the banks of a broad, swift-flowing river in a +valley between the range of mountains through which they had passed and +a line of still more formidable and snow-clad peaks. The elephants swam +the wide and rushing water, for of all land animals their kind are the +best swimmers. The tiniest babies were supported by the trunks of their +mothers, on to whose backs older calves climbed and were thus carried +across. Without stopping the herd plunged into the awful passes of the +next range, of which they were not clear until the evening of the +following day. Then they halted in dense forest. + +Next morning Dermot took from the pockets of Badshah's pad the dresses +and other things that they needed for their disguises, and instead of +replacing the pad concealed it carefully. Then he said: + +"We'll leave our escort here, Wargrave, and carry on by ourselves; for +we are not far from inhabited and cultivated country, and indeed fairly +near the _Jong_ (castle) of our enemy the Penlop of Tuna." + +The wild elephants were feeding all around, paying no heed to them. The +Colonel turned to Badshah and pointing to the ground said one word: + +"_Raho_! (Remain!)" + +Then he continued to Wargrave: + +"We'll find them, or they'll find us, whenever we return." + +An hour later two elderly lamas in soiled yellow robes and horn-rimmed +spectacles, followed by a lame coolie carrying their scanty possessions, +emerged, rosary and praying-wheel in hand, from the forest into the +cultivated country. + +For some weeks they wandered unsuspected through the Tuna Penlop's +dominions and even penetrated into his own _jong_, where they were +entertained and their prayers solicited by his cut-throat retainers. +They learned enough to realise that the _Amban_ was endeavouring by the +free supply of arms and military instructors to form here the nucleus of +a trained force to be employed eventually against India, backed up by +reinforcements of Chinese troops and contingents from other parts of +Bhutan. + +Their investigations completed they returned safely to the forest in +which they had left the herd; and, much to Wargrave's relief, they had +not been many hours camped on the spot where they had parted with them +when Badshah and his wild companions appeared. The spies returned to +India as they had come, unseen and unsuspected. + +This excursion was but the first of many that Wargrave made with the +Colonel and the herd; and he soon began to know almost every member of +it and make friends, not only with the solemn but friendly little +calves, but even with their less trusting mothers. He was now thoroughly +at home in the jungle and no longer needed a tutor in sport. His one +room in the Mess began to be overcrowded with trophies of his skill with +the rifle. Other tiger-skins had joined the first; and, although he had +not secured a second bison, several good heads of _sambhur_, _khakur_ +and _cheetul_, or spotted deer, hung on his whitewashed stone walls. + +Thus with sport and work more fascinating than sport Wargrave found the +months slipping by. From Raymond he learned that Violet had returned to +Rohar before she wrote herself. When she did she seemed to be in a +brighter and more affectionate, as well as calmer, mood than she had +been before her visit to Poona. But gradually her letters became less +and less frequent; and Frank began to wonder--with a little sense of +guilty, shamed hope--if she were beginning to forget him. + +Christmas came; and with its coming Ranga Duar woke again to life. +Besides the Bensons and Carter, who now brought his wife, Mrs. Dermot's +brother--a subaltern in an Indian cavalry regiment--and five planters, +old friends of his from the district in which he had once been a planter +himself, came to spend Christmas in the small station. Major Hunt's +bungalow and the Mess took in the overflow from the Political Officer's +house. + +Brian and Eileen had the gayest, happiest time of their little lives. +Presents were heaped on them. Muriel and Frank initiated them into all +the delights of their first Christmas tree, and Burke introduced them to +a real Punch and Judy Show. On Christmas Day Badshah, his neck encircled +with a garland of flowers procured from the Plains, was led up solemnly +by his seldom-seen _mahout_ to present Colonel Dermot with a gilded lime +and receive in return a present of silver rupees which passed into the +possession of the said _mahout_. Then he was fed with dainties by the +children; and Eileen insisted on being tossed aloft by the curving +trunk, to the detriment of her starched party frock. + +The weather was appropriate to the season, cold and bright, and although +no snow fell so low down, it froze at night, so that the Europeans could +indulge in the luxury--in India--of gathering around blazing wood fires +after dinner. + +All, young and old, thoroughly enjoyed this almost English-like +Christmas--all except one. Burke's attentions to Muriel became more +marked and more full of meaning than they had ever been before; and it +was patent that he intended to put his fate to the touch during this +visit of hers. He did so without success, it seemed; for before she left +there was an evident sense of constraint between them and they tried to +avoid sitting beside each other or being left alone together, even for a +moment. Shortly after the departure of the visitors Burke contrived to +effect an exchange to another station, to the regret of all in the +little outpost, and he was replaced by a young Scots surgeon, named +Macdonald, his opposite in every way. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +TRAGEDY + + +The annual Durbar for the reception of the Bhutan Envoy and the payment +of the subsidy had come and gone again. The _Deb Zimpun_, who had not +been accompanied by the Chinese _Amban_ on this occasion, had departed; +and of the few European visitors only Muriel Benson remained. Colonel +Dermot had been called away to Simla, to confer with officials of the +Foreign Department on matters of frontier policy. Major Hunt was ill +with fever, leaving Wargrave, who was still nominally attached to the +Military Police, in command of the detachment. + +It was delicious torture to Frank to be in the same place again with +Muriel, to see her from the parade ground or the Mess verandah playing +in the garden with the children, to meet her every day and talk to her +and yet be obliged to school his lips and keep them from uttering the +words that trembled on them. + +A few nights after the Durbar he dined with Mrs. Dermot and Muriel and +was sitting on the verandah of the Political Officer's house with them +after dinner. He was wearing white mess uniform. The evening was warm +and very still, and whenever the conversation died away, no sound save +the monotonous note of the nightjars or the sudden cry of a +barking-deer, broke the silence since the echoes of the "Lights Out" +bugle call had died away among the hills. + +Wargrave looked at his watch. + +"It's past eleven o'clock," he said. "I'd no idea it was so late. I +ought to get up and say goodnight; but I'm so comfortable here, Mrs. +Dermot." + +His hostess smiled lazily at him but made no reply. Again a peaceful +hush fell on them. + +With startling suddenness it was broken. From the Fort four hundred +yards away a rifle-shot rang out, rending the silence of the night and +reverberating among the hills around. Wargrave sprang to his feet as +shouts followed and a bugle shrilled out the soul-gripping "Alarm," the +call that sends a thrill through every soldier's frame. For always it +tells of disaster. Heard thus at night in barracks swift following on a +shot it spoke of crime, of murder, the black murder of a comrade. + +The two women had risen anxiously. + +"What is it? Oh, what is it?" they asked. + +The subaltern spoke lightly to re-assure them. + +"Nothing much, I expect. Some man on guard fooling with his rifle let it +off by accident," he said quietly. "Excuse me. I'd better stroll across +to the Fort and see." + +But Mrs. Dermot stopped him. + +"Wait a moment please, Mr. Wargrave," she said, running into the house. +She returned immediately with her husband's big automatic pistol and +handed it to him. In her left hand she held a smaller one. "Take this +with you. It's loaded," she said. + +Frank thanked her, said goodnight to both calmly, and walked down the +garden path; but the anxious women heard him running swiftly across the +parade ground. + +"What is it, Noreen? What does it mean?" asked the girl nervously. + +"A sepoy running amuck, I'm afraid," replied her friend. "He's shot +someone----." + +She swung round, pistol raised. + +"_Kohn hai_? (Who's that?)" she called out. + +A man had come noiselessly on to the shadowed end of the verandah. + +"It is I, _mem-sahib_," answered Sher Afzul, her Punjaubi Mahommedan +butler. He had been in her service for five years and was devoted to her +and hers. He was carrying a rifle, for his master at his request had +long ago given him arms to protect his _mem-sahib_. Before her marriage +he had once fought almost to the death to defend her when her brother's +bungalow had been attacked by rebels during a rising. + +"It would be well to go into the house and put out the lights, +_mem-sahib_," he said quietly in Hindustani. "There is danger to-night." + +As he spoke he extinguished the lamp on the verandah and closed the +doors of the house. A second armed servant came quietly on to the +verandah and the butler melted into the darkness of the garden; but they +heard him go to the gate as if to guard it. + +"You had better go inside, Muriel," said Mrs. Dermot, but made no move +to do so herself. + +The girl did not appear to hear her. She was listening intently for any +sound from the Fort. But silence had fallen on it. + +"Muriel, won't you go into the house?" repeated her hostess. + +"Eh? What? No, I couldn't. I must stay here," replied Miss Benson +impatiently. In the black darkness the other woman could not see her; +but she felt that the girl's every sense was alert and strained to the +utmost. She moved to her and put her arm about her. Against it she could +feel Muriel's heart beating violently. + +Suddenly from the Fort came the noise of heavy blows and a crash, +instantly followed by a shot and then fierce cries. + +"Oh, my God! What is happening?" murmured the girl, her hand on her +heart. + +Presently there came the sound of running feet, and heavy boots +clattered up the rocky road towards the Mess past the gate. + +Then the butler's voice rang out in challenge: + +"_Kohn jatha_? (Who goes there?)" + +A panting voice answered: + +"Wargrave Sahib _murgya_. Doctor Sahib _ko bulana ko jatha_"--(Wargrave +Sahib is killed. I go to call the Doctor Sahib)--and the sepoy ran on in +the darkness. + +"O God! O God!" cried the girl, and tried to break from her friend's +clasp. "Let me go! Let me go!" + +"Where to?" asked Noreen, holding the frenzied girl with all her +strength. + +"To him. He's dead. Didn't you hear? He's dead. I must go to him." + +She struggled madly and beat fiercely at the hands that held her. + +"Let me go! Let me go! Oh, he's dead," she wailed. "Dead. And I loved +him so. Oh, be merciful! Let me go to him!" and suddenly her strength +gave way and she collapsed into Noreen's arms, weeping bitterly. + +They heard the clattering steps meet others coming down the hill and a +hurried conversation ensue. Noreen recognised one of the voices. Then +both men came running down. + +"It's the doctor," said Mrs. Dermot. "Come to the gate and we'll ask him +what has happened." + +"Mr. Macdonald! Mr. Macdonald!" she cried as the hurrying footsteps drew +near. + +"Who's that? Mrs. Dermot? For God's sake get into the house. There's a +man running amuck. Wargrave's killed. I'm wanted"; and the doctor, +taking no thought of danger to himself when there was need of his skill, +ran on into the darkness. + +"I must--I will go!" cried Muriel. + +"Very well. Perhaps it's not true. We must know. We may be able to +help," replied her friend. + +And with a word to Sher Afzul to guard her babies from danger she seized +Muriel's hand, and the two girls ran towards the Fort in the track that +Wargrave had followed to his death, it seemed. + + * * * * * + +Pistol in hand Wargrave had raced across the parade ground. At the gate +of the Fort he was challenged; and when he answered an Indian officer +came out of the darkness to him. + +"Sahib," he said hurriedly. "Havildar Mahommed Ashraf Khan has been shot +in his bed in barracks. The sentry over the magazine is missing with his +rifle." + +Wargrave entered the Fort. Opposite the guard-room the detachment was +falling in rapidly, the men carrying their rifles and running up from +their barrack-rooms in various stages of undress. By the flickering +light of a lantern held up for him a non-commissioned officer was +calling the roll, and his voice rumbled along in monotonous tones. The +guard were standing under arms. + +"Put out that lamp!" cried the subaltern sharply. It would only serve to +light up other marks for the invisible assassin if, like most men who +run _amok_, he meant to keep on killing until slain himself. "No; take +it into the guard-room and shut the door." + +In the darkness the silence was intense, broken only by the heavy +breathing of the unseen men and the clattering of the feet of some +late-comer. Suddenly there rang out through the night the most appalling +sound that had ever assailed Wargrave's ears. It was as the cry of a +lost soul in all the agony of the damned, an eerie, unearthly wail that +froze the blood in the listeners' veins. In the invisible ranks men +shuddered and clutched at their neighbours. + +"_Khuda ke Nam men, kiya hai?_ (In the Name of God, what is that?)" +gasped the subaltern. + +The Indian officer at his side answered in a low voice: + +"It is Ashraf Khan crying out in pain, Sahib. He is not yet dead." + +"_Subhedar_ sahib, come with me," said Wargrave. "Let your _jemadar_ +(lieutenant) take the men one by one into the guard-room and examine the +rifles to see if any have been fired. We don't know yet if the missing +sentry did the deed." + +The _Subhedar_ (company commander) gave the order to his subordinate and +followed Wargrave to the barrack-room in which the crime had been +committed. The sight that met the subaltern's eyes was one that he was +not easily to forget. + +The high-roofed chamber was in darkness save at one end where a small +lamp cast weird shadows on the walls and vaulting ceiling. At this end +and under the flickering light a group of figures stood round a bed on +which a man was writhing in agony. He was struggling in delirious frenzy +to hurl himself to the stone floor, and was only held down by the united +efforts of three men. From a bullet wound in his bared chest the +life-blood welled with every movement of his tortured body. He had been +shot in the back as he lay asleep. The lips covered with a bloody froth +were drawn back tightly over the white teeth clenched in agony, and red +foam lay on the black beard. Out of the sweat-bathed, ghastly face the +eyes glared in frenzy. The features were contorted with pain. Again and +again the wild shrieks like the howl of a mad thing rang through the +long room and out into the night. + +With tear-filled eyes and heart torn with pity Wargrave looked down at +him in silence. Ashraf Khan was one of his best men. "But where is the +doctor sahib?" he asked the native officer suddenly. + +The _subhedar_ stared and shook his head. In the excitement no one had +thought of sending for the medical officer. Wargrave turned to one of +the men around the bed. + +"Mahbub Khan, run hard to the Mess and call the doctor sahib. Here, +stop!" He remembered that Macdonald did not possess a revolver. For all +one knew he might encounter the murderer on his way. Wargrave thrust +Mrs. Dermot's pistol into the sepoy's hand, saying, "Give the sahib +that." + +The man, who was barefoot, ran out of the chamber and went to his own +barrack-room for his shoes, for the road was rocky and covered with +sharp stones. The subaltern turned away with a sigh from the bedside of +his poor comrade. He could do nothing now but avenge him. As he walked +away from the group he trod on an empty cartridge case and picked it up. +It had recently been fired. It told its tale; for it showed that the +assassin had reloaded over his victim and intended that the killing +should not end there. If he were the missing sentry then he had nine +more cartridges left--nine human lives in his blood-stained hand. And as +the subaltern crossed the verandah outside the barrack-room the +_jemadar_ met him and reported that all the rifles of the detachment had +been examined and found clean except the missing weapon of the sentry, a +young Pathan sepoy called Gul Mahommed. It was remembered that the dying +_havildar_ (sergeant) had reprimanded him hotly on the previous day for +appearing on parade with accoutrements dirty. So little a cause was +needed to send a man to his death! + +The first thing to be done now was to hunt for the murderer. While he +went free no one's life was safe. Wargrave shuddered at the thought of +danger coming to Muriel or her friend, and he hoped that they were +safely shut in their house. It was a difficult problem to know where to +begin the search. The Fort was full of hiding-places, especially at +night. And already the assassin might have escaped over the low wall +surrounding it. As Wargrave stood perplexed another Indian officer ran +up, accompanied by two men with rifles. + +"Sahib! Sahib!" he whispered excitedly. "The murderer is in my room, the +one next that in which Ashraf Kahn was shot. I left the door wide open +when I ran out. It is now shut and bolted from the inside and someone is +moving about in it." + +The subaltern went along the verandah to the door and tried it. It was +firmly fastened. + +"Here, sahib!" cried a sepoy who ran up with a comrade carrying a heavy +log. + +"_Shahbash_! (Well done!) Break in the door," said Wargrave. + +Other men, who had come up, seized the long log and dashed it violently +against the door. The bolt held, but the frail hinges gave way and the +door fell in. + +"Stand back!" cried Wargrave. + +It seemed certain death to enter the room in which a murderer lurked in +darkness, armed with a rifle and fixed bayonet and resolved to sell his +life dearly. But the subaltern did not hesitate. He was the only sahib +there and of course it was his duty to go in. He could not ask his men +to risk a danger that he shirked himself. That is not the officer's +way, whose motto must ever be "Follow where I lead." + +Wargrave sprang into the room unarmed. He was outlined against the faint +light outside. A spurt of flame lit the darkness; and the subaltern, as +he tripped over the raised threshold, felt that he was shot. He +staggered on. A rifle lunged forward and the bayonet stabbed him in the +side; but with a desperate effort he closed with his unseen assailant +and grappled fiercely with him. Struggling to overpower the assassin +before his ebbing strength left him he fought madly. The Indian officers +and sepoys blocking up the doorway could see nothing; but they could +hear the choking gasps, the panting breaths, the muttered curses and the +stamping feet of the combatants locked in the death-grapple. They could +not interfere, they dared not fire. In impotent fury they shouted: + +"Bring lamps! Bring lamps!" + +Then, groaning in their powerlessness to aid their beloved officer, they +listened, as a light danced over the stones from a lantern in the hand +of a running sepoy. The moment it came and lit up the scene they rushed +on the murderer wrestling fiercely with Wargrave and dragged him off as +the subaltern collapsed and fell to the ground. The glare of the lantern +shone on his white face. + +"The sahib is dead!" cried a sepoy, and sprang at the murderer who was +struggling in the grip of the two powerfully-built Indian officers. +Others followed him, and his captors had to fight hard and use all their +authority to keep the prisoner from being killed by the bare hands of +his maddened comrades. Only the arrival of the armed men of the guard +saved him. + +Frenzied with grief the sepoys bent over their officer lying motionless +and apparently dead on the stone floor. They loved him. Many of them +wept openly and unashamed. The _subhedar_ knelt beside him and opened +his shirt. The blood had soaked through the white mess-jacket that +Wargrave wore. + +The native officer looked up into the ring of brown faces bent over him. +Suddenly he cried angrily: + +"Mahbub Khan, why hast thou not gone for the doctor sahib as thou wert +told, O Son of an Owl?" + +The face staring in horror between the heads of the sepoys was hurriedly +withdrawn, and Mahbub Khan, who had lingered to see the end of the +tragedy, turned and pushed his way out of the crowd. + +Macdonald found the subaltern lying to all appearances dead on the +broken door out in the open, where they had gently carried him. + +"Hold a light here," he cried as he knelt down beside the body. + +By now a dozen lanterns or more lit up the scene. The doctor laid his +ear against Wargrave's chest and held a polished cigarette case to his +lips. Then he pulled back the shirt to examine his injuries. + +"Oh, is he dead? Is he dead?" cried a trembling voice. + +The doctor, looking up angrily, found Miss Benson and Mrs. Dermot +standing over him. The sepoys had silently made way for them. + +"You shouldn't be here, ladies," he said with justifiable annoyance. +"This is no place for you. No; he's not dead. And I hope and think that +he won't die." + +"Oh, thank God!" cried the two women. + +The sepoys crowding round and hanging on the doctor's verdict could not +understand the words but saw the look of joyous relief on their faces +and guessed the truth. A wild, confused cheer went up to the stars. + +"Mr. Macdonald," said Mrs. Dermot bending over him again. "Will you +bring him to my house? There is no accommodation for him in your little +hospital, you know; and he'd have no one to look after him in the Mess. +I can nurse him." + +The doctor straightened himself on his knee and looked down at the +unconscious man. + +"Yes, Mrs. Dermot, it's a good idea," he replied. "There is nowhere else +where he'd get any attention. My hands are full with Major Hunt. He's +taken a turn for the worse. His temperature went up dangerously high +to-night; and he was almost delirious." + +He stood up. + +"I can't examine Wargrave properly here. He seems to be wounded in two +places. But I hope it's not--I mean, I think he'll pull through. His +pulse is getting stronger. I've put a first dressing on; and I think we +can move him. Hi! stretcher _idher lao_. (Bring the stretcher here!)" + +Suddenly Wargrave opened his eyes and looked up in the doctor's face. + +"Is that you, Macdonald?" he asked dreamily. "Never mind me; I'm all +right. Go to poor Ashraf Khan. If he must die, at least give him +something to put him out of his misery. I can wait." + +His voice trailed off, and he relapsed into unconsciousness. Ordering +him to be carried away the doctor, after a word with the Indian +officers, entered the barrack-room. It was useless. Ashraf Khan had just +died. + +The crowd fell back in a wide circle to let the two hospital orderlies +bring up the stretcher for Wargrave and, as they did, left a group of +men standing isolated in the centre. All of these were armed, except one +whose hands were pinioned behind his back. His head was bare, his face +bruised and bleeding, and his uniform nearly torn off his body. It +needed no telling that he was the murderer. + +Miss Benson walked up to him with fierce eyes. + +"You dog!" she cried bitterly in Urdu. + +The man who had smiled defiantly when the hands of his raging comrades +were seeking to tear the life out of his body and had shouted out his +crime in their faces, cowered before the anger in the flaming eyes of +this frail girl. He shrank back between his guards. The sepoys looking +on howled like hungry wolves and, as Mrs. Dermot drew the girl back, +made a rush for the murderer. The men of the guard faced them with +levelled bayonets and ringed their prisoner round; and the sepoys fell +back sullenly. + +Suddenly a shrill voice cried in Hindustani: + +"Make way! Make way there! What has happened?" + +The circle of men gapped and through the opening came Major Hunt, +white-faced, wasted, shaking with fever and clad only in pyjamas and a +great coat and with bare feet thrust into unlaced shoes. He staggered +feebly in among them, revolver in hand. + +"Heaven and Earth! Is Wargrave dead?" he cried and tottered towards the +stretcher. + +Suddenly the pistol dropped from his shaking hand and he fell forward on +the stones before Macdonald could catch him. + +"This is madness," muttered the doctor. "It may kill him. I hoped he +wouldn't hear the alarm." + +"Bring him to my house too," said Mrs. Dermot. + +Another stretcher was fetched, the Major lifted tenderly into it, and +the sad procession started, the sepoys falling back silently to make +way. + +Major Hunt having been put to bed in one of the guest-rooms of the +Political Officer's house, Macdonald, with the aid of the subaltern's +servant, undressed Wargrave and examined his injuries, Noreen holding a +basin for him while Muriel, shuddering, carried away the blood-tinged +water and brought fresh. The shot-wound, though severe, was not +necessarily dangerous, and the bullet had not lodged in him. The doctor +was relieved to find that the bayonet had not penetrated deeply but had +only glanced along a rib, tearing the intercostal muscles and inflicting +a long, jagged but superficial wound which bled freely. Indeed, the most +serious matter was the great loss of blood, which had weakened the +subaltern considerably. + +Wargrave did not recover consciousness until early morning. When he +opened his eyes they fell on Muriel sitting by his bed. He showed no +surprise and the girl, scarce daring to believe that he was awake and +knew her, did not venture to move. But as he continued to look steadily +at her she gently laid her hand on his where it lay on the coverlet. + +Then in a weak voice he said: + +"Dearest, I mustn't love you, I mustn't. I'm bound in honour--bound to +another woman and I must play the game. It's hard sometimes. But if I +die I want you to know I loved you, only you." + +Her heart seemed to stop suddenly, then beat again with redoubled force. +Was he conscious? Was he speaking to her? Did he know what his words +meant? She waited eagerly for him to continue; but his hand closed on +hers in a weak grip and, shutting his eyes, he seemed to sleep. The girl +sank on her knees beside the bed and stared at the pale face that in +those few hours had grown so hollow and haggard. Did he really love her? +The thought was joy--until the damning memory of his other words +recurred to her and a sharp pain pierced her heart. There was another +woman then--one who held his promise. Who was she? He could not be +secretly married, surely; no, it must be that he was engaged to some +other girl. But he loved her--her, Muriel. He wanted to say so, he had +said so, though he strove to hold back, in honour bound. He would play +the game--ah! that he would do at any cost to himself. For she knew his +chivalrous nature. But he loved her--she was sure of it. Then the doubts +came again--did he know what he was saying? Was it perhaps only delirium +that spoke, the fever of his wounds? The girl suffered an agony worse +than death as she knelt beside the bed, her forehead on his hand. And +Noreen, entering softly an hour later, found her still crouched there, +weeping bitterly but silently. + +Shortly after sunrise Macdonald entered the house, wan and haggard, for +he had not been to bed all night. Besides the hours that he had spent +with his patients he had been busy in the Fort all night. He had to make +an autopsy of the dead man, and, as the only officer available, +investigate the crime, examine the witnesses and the prisoner who calmly +confessed his guilt, and telegraph the news of the occurrences to +Regimental, Divisional and Army Headquarters. He found Major Hunt +sleeping peacefully; but Wargrave woke as he tiptoed into the room and +looked up at him, at first not seeing the women. He was fully conscious +and asked eagerly for an account of what had happened. Noreen and Muriel +shuddered at the delight with which he heard of the murderer's capture; +for they were too tender-hearted to understand his passionate desire to +avenge the cruel slaying of one of his men. When he turned away from +Macdonald and saw Muriel his eyes shone eagerly for a moment, then +seemed to dull as memory returned to him. He begged Mrs. Dermot to +forgive him for upsetting her domestic arrangements by his intrusion +into the house. + +Later in the morning Noreen was sitting alone with him, having sent +Muriel to lie down for a couple of hours. She had not been to bed +herself, but after a bath and a change of clothing had given her +children their breakfast and bidden them make no noise, because their +beloved "Fwankie" was lying ill in the house. Yet she could not forbear +to smile when she saw the portentous gravity with which Eileen tiptoed +out into the garden to tell Badshah the news and order him to be very +quiet. + +Now, looking fresh and bright, she sat beside Wargrave's bed. Since the +doctor had left him he had lain thinking. He felt that Violet must be +informed at once that he had been hurt but was in no danger, lest she +might learn of the occurrence through another source and believe him to +be worse than he really was. As he looked at Mrs. Dermot the desire to +ask her instead of Macdonald if she would be the one to communicate with +Mrs. Norton grew overwhelming, and he felt that he wanted to confide to +her the whole story, sure that she would understand. And she could tell +Muriel--for he had been quite conscious when he had spoken to the girl +in the morning. It was only right that she should know the truth, but he +shrank from telling it to her himself. + +So he opened his heart to Noreen; and the understanding little woman +listened sympathisingly and made no comment, and undertook to explain +the situation to Muriel. So, an hour or two later, when Macdonald was +again with the subaltern, she went to her friend's room and told her the +whole story. + +The girl's first feeling was anger at the thought of Frank making love +to a married woman. + +"Seems to me it's the married woman who made it to him, from what I can +gather," said Noreen, a little annoyed with Muriel for her way of +receiving the story. "He did not say so, but it was easy to guess the +truth. Now, my dear, don't be absurd. Men are not angels; and if a +pretty woman flings herself at the head of one of them it's hard for +him to keep her at arm's length. And you've seen yourself in Darjeeling +how some of them, the married ones especially, do chase them." Her eyes +grew hard as she continued, "I remember how Kevin once was----." Then +she stopped. + +"But Frank! How could he? Oh, how could he? And he loved her," sobbed +the girl. + +"Don't be silly, Muriel. I tell you I don't believe he ever did. He +loves you now." + +"Oh, do you think he does? What am I to do?" + +"Nothing. Merely go along as you've been doing. Just be friendly. And +don't be hard on him. He's had a bad time. I've always felt that there +was something troubling him. Now I know; and I'm not going to let him +ruin himself and throw away his happiness for a woman who's not worth +it. He's the nicest, cleanest-minded man I've known after Kevin and my +brother. He saved my babies, and for that I'd do anything for him. I +feel almost as if he were one of my children; and I'll stand by him if +you won't." + +"Oh, but I will, I will," cried the girl. "But how can I help him?" + +"As I said, by acting as if nothing had happened and just keeping on +being friends. It oughtn't to be hard. See how he's suffering and think +how brave he's been. Remember, he loves you; and you do care for him, +don't you? I've an idea that he hopes that this woman is tiring of him +and may set him free. Of course he didn't say as much, but----." She +nodded sagely. Her intuition had told her more of his feelings in a +minute than Frank had dared to acknowledge to himself in many months. +"Anything I can do to help to bring that about I will." + +The days went by; and Wargrave, aided by his clean living, the devoted +nursing that he received, and the cool, healthy mountain air, began to +mend. Major Hunt had recovered and returned to duty, relieving the +officer sent from Headquarters to command during his illness. Colonel +Dermot had come back from Simla with Frank's appointment to the +Political Department as his assistant in his pocket. The murdered man +had long ago been laid to rest by his comrades; but his slayer still sat +fettered in the one cell of the Fort awaiting the assembling of the +General Court Martial for his trial, and seeing from his barred window +the even routine of the life that had been his for three years still +going on, but with no place in it for him. + +The period of Wargrave's convalescence was a very happy time for him. +Muriel had remained a whole month after the eventful night; for Mrs. +Dermot declared that, with the care of her house and children, she had +no time to nurse the subaltern, and the girl must stay to do it while he +was in any danger. So she lingered in the station to do him willing +service, wait on him, chat or read to him, give him her arm when he was +first allowed to leave his room, and did it all with the bright, +cheerful kindness of a friend, no more. She never alluded to his words +to her; but her patient somehow guessed that she had not been angered by +the revelation of the state of his feelings towards her. And from the +tenderness of her manner to him, the unconscious jealousy that she +displayed if anyone but she did any service for him, he began to half +hope, half fear, that she cared a little for him in return. But even as +he thought this he realised that he must not allow her to do so. + +At last the time came when she had to return to her father down in the +vast forest; and bravely as she said goodbye to everyone--and most of +all to Frank--the tears blinded her as she sat on the back of the +elephant that bore her away and saw the hills close in and shut from her +gaze the little station that held her heart. + +Wargrave, however, was not left to pine in loneliness after her +departure. All day long, if they were allowed, the children stayed with +him, Eileen smothering him with caresses at regular intervals. They told +him their doings, confided their dearest secrets to him and demanded +stories. And "Fwankie" racked his brains to recall the fairy tales of +his own childhood to repeat to the golden-haired mites perched on his +bed and gazing at him in awed fascination, the girl uttering little +shrieks at all the harrowing details of the wicked deeds of Giant +Blunderbore and the cruel deceit of the wolf that devoured Red +Ridinghood. + +But the subaltern, had a grimmer visitor one day. The orders came at +last for Gul Mahommed to be sent to Calcutta to stand his trial without +waiting for Wargrave's recovery, the latter's evidence being taken on +commission. The prisoner begged that he might be allowed to see the +wounded officer before he left; and, Frank having consented, he was +brought to the subaltern's bedroom when he was marched out of the Fort +on the first stage of his journey to the gallows. + +It was a dramatic scene. The stalwart young Pathan in uniform with his +wrists handcuffed stood with all the bold bearing of his race by the +bedside of the man that he had tried to kill, while two powerful sepoys +armed with drawn bayonets hemmed him in, their hands on his shoulders. + +The prisoner looked for a moment at the pale face of the wounded man, +then his bold eyes suffused with tears as he said: + +"_Huzoor_! (The Presence!) I am sorry. Had I known that night it was +Your Honour I would not have lifted my rifle against you. The Sahib has +always been good to me, to all of us. My enemy I slew, as we of the +_Puktana_ must do to all who insult us. That deed I do not regret." + +Wargrave looked up sorrowfully at the splendidly-built young +fellow--barely twenty-one--who had only done as he had been taught to do +from his cradle. Among Pathans blood only can wash away the stain of an +insult. The officer felt no anger against him for his own injuries and +regretted that false notions of honour had led him to kill a comrade and +were now sending him to a shameful death. + +"I am sorry, Gul Mahommed, very sorry," he said. "You were always a good +soldier, and now you must die." + +The Pathan drew himself up with all the haughty pride of his race. + +"I do not fear death, Sahib. They will give me the noose. But my father +can spare me. He has five other sons to fight for him. If only the Sahib +would forgive----." + +Wargrave, much moved, held out his hand to him. The prisoner touched it +with his manacled ones, then raised his fingers to his forehead. + +"For your kindness, Sahib, _salaam_!" + +Then he turned and walked proudly out of the room and Wargrave heard the +tramp of heavy feet on the rocky road outside as the prisoner was +marched away on the long trail to the gallows. Two months later Gul +Mahommed was hanged in the courtyard of Alipur jail in Calcutta before +detachments of all the regiments garrisoning the city. + +The subaltern had long chafed at the restraint of an invalid before +Macdonald took him off the sick-list and he was free to wander again +with Colonel Dermot in the forest and among the mountains. Before the +hot weather ended Raymond came to spend three weeks with him and be +initiated into the delights of sport in the great jungle. + +When the long imprisonment of the rains came Wargrave began to suffer in +health; for his wounds had sapped his strength more than he knew and +Macdonald shook his head over him. Nor was he the only invalid; for +little Brian grew pale and listless in the mists that enveloped the +outpost constantly now, until finally the doctor decreed that his +mother, much as she hated parting from her husband and her home, must +take the children to Darjeeling. And he ordered the subaltern to go too. +Frank did not repine, after Mrs. Dermot had casually intimated that +Muriel Benson was arranging to join her at the railway station and +accompany her on a long visit to Darjeeling. + +It was Wargrave's first introduction to a hill-station; and everything +was a delightful novelty to him, from the quaint little train that +brought them up the seven thousand feet to their destination in the +pretty town of villas, clubs and hotels in the mountains, to the +glorious panorama of the Eternal Snows and Kinchinjunga's lofty crests +that rise like fairyland into the sky at early dawn and under the +brilliant Indian moon. + +As Mrs. Dermot could not often leave her children it was Muriel, who +knew Darjeeling well, who became his guide. Together every day they set +out from their hotel, together they scaled the heights of Jalapahar or +rode down to watch the polo on the flat hill-top of Lebong, a thousand +feet below. Together they explored the fascinating bazaar and bought +ghost-daggers and turquoises in the quaint little shops. Together they +went on picnics down into the deep valleys on the way to Sikkhim. They +played tennis, rinked or danced together at the Amusement Club; and the +ladies at the tea-tables in the great lounge smiled significantly and +whispered to each other as the good-looking fair man and the pretty, +dark-haired girl came in together when the light was fading on the +mountains. Frank forgot cares. He ceased to brood unhappily--for it had +come to that--on Violet, who, as her rare letters told him, had spent +the Hot Weather in the Bombay hill-station of Mahableshwar and was now +enjoying life during the Rains in gay Poona. She seldom wrote, and then +but scrappily; and it seemed to him certain that she was forgetting him. +And he felt ashamed at the joy which filled him at the thought. Was he +always destined to be only the friend of the girl he loved, the lover of +the woman to whom he wished to be a friend? + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +"ROOTED IN DISHONOUR" + + +Government House, Ganeshkind, outside Poona, the residence of the +Governor of Bombay during the Rains, was blazing with light and gay with +the sound of music; for His Excellency was giving a fancy dress ball. +Motors and carriages were still rolling up in a long line to the +entrance where the gorgeously-clad Indian Cavalry soldiers of the +Governor's Bodyguard--tall and stately back-bearded men in long scarlet +tunics, white breeches and high black boots, their heads swathed in +gaudy _loongies_ (turbans) with tails streaming down their backs, +holding steel-headed bamboo lances with red and white pennons in their +white-gauntleted right hands--lined the approach. Inside, the splendid +ballroom, ablaze with electric lights, was crowded with gaily-dressed +figures in costumes beautiful or bizarre. The good-looking, middle-aged +baron who was the King's representative in the Bombay Presidency was +standing, dressed as Charles II., beside his plain but pleasant-featured +wife in the garb of Amy Robsart, receiving the last of their guests, +while already the dancing had begun. + +Later in the evening a group of officers in varied costumes stood near +one of the entrances criticising the dresses and the company. + +"By George, that's a magnificent kit," said a Garrison Gunner just +arrived on short leave from Bombay. "What's it supposed to be?" + +"A Polish hussar, I think," replied a subaltern in Wellesley's Rifles. + +"No, he's Murat, Napoleon's cavalry leader," said an Indian Lancer +captain. + +The wearer of the costume alluded to was passing them in a waltz. He was +a young man in a splendid old-time hussar uniform, a scarlet dolman +thick-laced with gold, a fur-trimmed slung pelisse, tight scarlet +breeches embroidered down the front of the thighs in gold, and long red +Russian leather boots with gold tassels. He was good-looking, but not in +an English way, and the swarthiness of his complexion and a slight kink +in his dark hair seemed to hint a trace of coloured blood. He was +plainly Israelite in appearance; and the large nose with the +unmistakable racial curved nostril would become bulbous with years, the +firm cheeks flabby and the plump chin double. + +"That dress cost some money, I'll bet," said the Gunner, cheaply attired +as a Pierrot. "Just look at the gold lace. I say, he's got glass +buttons." + +"Glass be hanged, Fergie, they're diamonds. Real diamonds, honour +bright, Murat wore diamonds. He was buckin' about them in the Club +to-night," said a captain in a British infantry regiment quartered in +Poona. "That's Rosenthal of the 2nd Hussars from Bangalore. Son of old +Rosenthal the South African multi-millionaire. A Sheeny, of course." + +"Who's the woman he's dancing with?" asked the Gunner. "Jolly +good-looking she is." + +"That's Mrs. Norton, wife of a Political somewhere in the Presidency. +Rosenthal's always in her pocket since he met her at Mahableshwar." + +As the dance ended the many couples streamed out of the ballroom and +made for the _kala juggas_--the "black places," as the sitting-out spots +are appropriately termed in India from the carefully-arranged lack of +light in them. Mrs. Norton, looking very lovely as Mary, Queen of Scots, +and her partner crossed the verandah and went out into the unlit garden +in search of seats. The first few they stumbled on were already +occupied, a fact that the darkness prevented them from realising until +they almost sat down on the occupants. At last in a retired corner of +the garden Rosenthal found a bench in a recess in the wall. As they +seated themselves he blurted out roughly: + +"I'm sick of all this, Vi. When do you mean to give me your answer? I'm +damned if I'm going to hang on waiting much longer. I'm fed up with +India and the Army. I mean to cut it all." + +"Well, Harry, what do you want?" asked his companion, smiling in the +darkness at his vehemence. + +"Want? You. And you know it. I want to take you away from this rotten +country. What's all this----," he waved his hand towards the lighted +ballroom, "compared to Paris, Monte Carlo, Cairo, Ostend when the races +are on? Let's go where life is worth living. This is stagnation." + +"Oh, I find it amusing. You forget, we women have a better time in India +than in Europe. There are too many of us there, so you don't value us." + +"Better time. Oh, Law! What rot!" He laughed rudely. "You've never lived +yet, dear. Look here, Vi. My father's one of the three richest men in +South Africa; and all he's got will come to me some day. As it is he +gives me an allowance bigger than those of all the other men in the +regiment put together. I hate the Service and its idiotic discipline. I +want to be free--to go where money counts. Damn India!" + +"Doesn't it count everywhere?" she asked, fanning herself lazily. His +rough, almost boorish, manner amused her always. She felt as if she were +playing with a caged tiger. "Doesn't it here?" + +"No; in the Army they seem to think more of some damned pauper who comes +of a 'county family,' as they call it, than of a fellow like me who +could buy up a dozen of them. I hate them all. And I mean to chuck it. +But I want you to come with me, Vi. And, what's more, I mean to have +you." + +"But your father wishes you to stay in the Service. You told me so +yourself. Will he like it if you leave--and will he continue your +allowance?" + +"Oh, I'll get round him. He's only got me. He's no one else to leave his +money to. It'd be all right, Vi. Answer me. I mean to get you." + +He grasped her wrist and tried to drag her towards him. She laughed and +held him off. + +"Take care, my dear boy. Darkness has ears. We're not alone in the +garden, please remember. If you can't behave prettily I'm going back to +the ballroom. Come, there's the music beginning again." + +He tried to seize her in his arms, but she eluded his grasp with a +dexterity that argued practice, and, rising, moved across the grass. He +followed sulkily, dominated by her cool and careless indifference. When +they reached the verandah one of the Government House aides-de-camp +rushed up to her. + +"Oh, Mrs. Norton, I've been hunting for you everywhere. I've a message +from His Excellency. He wants you to come to his table at supper and +save him from the Members of Council's awful wives." + +"Oh, thanks, Captain Gardner, I'll come with pleasure," she answered, +smiling prettily on him. An A.D.C. is always worth cultivating. + +"I say, is it hopeless asking you for a dance now?" he said. "We poor +devils of the Staff don't get a chance at the beginning of the evening, +as we're so busy introducing people to Their Excellencies." + +She looked at her programme. + +"You can have this, if you like. It's only with some Indian Civilian in +spectacles; and I hate the Heaven Born. They're such bores." She smiled +and sailed off on the A.D.C.'s arm to the disgust of Rosenthal, calmly +abandoned. But he could not help being amused when a round-faced young +man dressed as an ancient Greek with gig-lamp spectacles rushed up to +overtake Mrs. Norton before she entered the ballroom, and stopped in +dismay to gaze after her open-mouthed and peer at his programme. + +But the Hussar drove her back from Government House to Poona in his +particularly luxurious Rolls-Royce with an English chauffeur and would +hardly let her go when the car drew up before the door of the Munster +Hotel where she was staying. Laughing, crushed and dishevelled, she +broke from him and jumped out of the automobile, ran up the verandah +steps and turned to wave to him as the chauffeur started off to take him +to his quarters in the Club of Western India. + +Still smiling Violet stumbled up the unlighted stairs and reached her +sitting-room. When she turned up the lamp a letter lying on the table +caught her eyes. She picked it up indifferently; but when she saw that +it bore the handwriting of one of her Calcutta cousins and the +Darjeeling postmark she tore it open eagerly and ran her eye rapidly +down the pages. She came to the lines: + + "I have seen the man you asked me about. He is always with a girl + called Benson, rather a pretty little thing. She is popular with all + the men; but Mr. Wargrave seems to be the favourite. They are + staying at the same hotel; and everyone says they are engaged." + +Then the writer went on to talk of family matters. But Violet read no +more. Her eyes flamed with anger as she crumpled the paper up, flung it +on the floor and stamped it under foot. She paced the room angrily, +tearing the lace handkerchief she held in her hands to shreds. This, +then, was Frank's loyalty to her, this was how he consoled himself for +her absence. With this chit of a girl, with whom he probably laughed at +her, Violet's readiness to give up reputation, good fame, home, for him. +She almost sobbed with jealous rage at the idea. She forgot her own +infidelities and want of remembrance and felt herself to be a deceived +and much-abused woman. But she would not bear such treatment meekly. +Frank was hers; no other woman had a right to him, should ever have him. +She was resolved on that. She stopped and, picking up the letter, +smoothed it out and re-read it. Then, frowning, she passed into her +bedroom and tore off her costume. Not for an instant did she sleep +during the remainder of the night, but tossed on her bed, revolving +plans of vengeance. + +Next day she was seated in the train on her way to Darjeeling, a +journey that would take days. She had telegraphed fruitlessly for a room +at the Oriental Hotel at which she knew from his letters that Frank was +staying; but she had secured one at the larger Eastern Palace where her +Calcutta relatives were residing. Only on the second day of her journey +did she wire to Wargrave, bidding him meet her on her arrival. + +As the train carried her across India her heart was still filled with +anger, jealousy and almost hate of the man whom she had favoured above +all others and who spurned her, dared to be faithless to her, it seemed. +She did not know how much love she had left for him; for his image had +grown dim in the flight of time and among the distractions of gayer +stations than Rohar. Certainly she had flirted herself, flirted +recklessly; but that was a different matter to his faithlessness. She +might do it; but he must not. Did she want him? She hardly knew. But she +was not going to be put aside for this tiger-killing young person, this +jungle girl, who must be taught not to trespass on Violet's property. + +Then her mind went back to Rosenthal; and in the solitude of the ladies' +compartment she laughed aloud at the thought of the shock that his +self-sufficiency must have received when he learned of her sudden and +mysterious disappearance from Poona. For she had left him no word. It +would do him good; he needed a lesson, for he was too sure of her. She +had never troubled to analyse her feelings for him and did not know +whether she liked or hated him most. She saw his faults clearly, his +blatant conceit, his irritating belief in the supremacy of money, his +arrogance, his bad manners. She knew that men deemed him a bounder. But +his very boorishness, his savage outbreaks against conventionality, +attracted her. Under the thin veneer of civilisation, he was simply an +animal; she knew it and it appealed to her baser nature, the sensual +strain in her. That he was beast, and wild beast at that, did not +affright her; she felt that she could always dominate him when she +would. Once or twice the beast had come out into the open; but she had +driven it back with a whip--and she believed that she could always do +it. The wealth, the life of luxury that he offered, appealed to her +strongly; but she kept her head and remembered that he was dependent on +his father's bounty, and she had no intention of compromising herself +irretrievably under such circumstances. If he had the disposal of the +old man's immense riches then the temptation might be over-powering; but +until he had she would wait. And ever the memory of Wargrave obtruded +itself, rather to her annoyance; but angry as she was with him she could +not pretend to herself that she was indifferent to him. + +Up in Darjeeling on the very day that she left Poona Frank sat with +Miss Benson under a massive, orchid-clad tree in the lovely Botanical +Gardens, gazing moodily down into the depths of the valley far below +them. Turning suddenly he found his companion looking at him. Something +in her eyes moved him strongly and he forgot his caution. + +"Muriel, you know how it is with, me," he said impetuously. "I oughtn't +to say anything; but--well, all the men here run after you, and I can't +bear it. I'm a fool, I know, but I can't help being jealous. I'm always +afraid that some one of them will take you from me. The other woman +seems to be forgetting me completely. She hasn't written to me for +weeks, months. Surely she's tiring of me. I don't suppose she ever +really cared for me--just was bored in that dull station. If--if she +sets me free would you--could you ever like me well enough to marry me?" + +The girl looked away over the valley and a little smile crept into her +eyes. Then she turned to him and laid her hand on his. + +"Dear boy, if you were free I would," she answered. + +They were all alone, no one to see them; and his arms went out to her. +But she drew back. + +"Not yet, dear. You're another woman's property still," she said. + +He bit his lip. + +"Yes, you're right, sweetheart. But--well, even if I weren't, I haven't +much to offer you. I'm still in debt; and I'd be only condemning you to +pass all your existence in the jungle." + +"There'd be no hardship in that, dear. I love the forest better than +anywhere else in the world. Life in it is happiness to me." + +"But would you be content to live as Mrs. Dermot does?" + +"Content? I'd love it better than anything else, if I were with you." + +Then he forgot her reproof and she her high-minded resolves as his arms +went round her and he drew her to him until their lips met in a long, +passionate kiss. Afterwards they sat hand in hand and talked of what the +future would hold for them if only Fate were kind. And Mrs. Norton, +speeding across India to shatter their dream-world, smiled a little +grimly as she pictured to herself her meeting with Frank. + +Next day the blow fell. Wargrave was sitting at lunch with Mrs. Dermot +and Muriel in the hotel dining-room when Violet's telegram was handed to +him. His companions could see that he had received bad news; but he +pulled himself together and said nothing about it until he was alone +with Mrs. Dermot in her private sitting-room after _tiffin_. Then he +exclaimed suddenly, handing her the telegram: + +"She's on her way here." + +Noreen understood even before she looked at the paper. When she read +the message she asked: + +"What's she coming here for?" + +"I don't know. I haven't had a letter from her for a long time," he +replied wearily. + +"What are you going to do about her?" + +"What can I?" he said with a gesture of despair. "It's for her to +decide. If she wishes it I must keep my word." + +"But Muriel? What of her? You know she cares for you. Has she no right +to be considered?" demanded her friend impatiently. "Are you going to +ruin her life as well as yours? This woman will only drag you down. She +can't really be fond of you or she wouldn't forget you as she's been +doing. You don't love her. Don't you see what it will all mean to +you?--to be pilloried in the Divorce Court, made to pay enormous costs, +perhaps heavy damages as well. And even now you say you're in debt. And +then to be chained for life to a woman you don't care about while you're +in love with another. Oh, Mr. Wargrave, do be sensible. Tell her the +truth. Tell her you can't go on with it." + +"I've given her my word," he said simply. + +She pleaded with him passionately, but to no avail. At last, as Muriel +entered the room, she rose, saying: + +"Tell her. I'll not mention the subject again." + +And she walked indignantly into her bedroom and shut the door almost +with a bang; for the little woman was furious with him for what she +deemed his crass stupidity. + +"What's the matter with Noreen?" asked the girl in surprise. + +Without a word he gave her the telegram. + +"Oh Frank!" she gasped, and sank overwhelmed into a chair, letting the +fatal paper flutter to the floor. + +He did not go to her but stood by the window, the image of despair, +gazing out with unseeing eyes. + +"What am I to do?" he asked miserably. + +"You must keep your word if she wishes it," answered the girl bravely. + +But the next moment she broke down and, burying her face in her hands, +wept bitterly. He made no move to her; and she rose and went quietly +back to her own room. + +In the interval that elapsed before Violet's arrival Mrs. Dermot did not +abandon hope, and in spite of her words she attacked Wargrave +persistently, trying to shake his resolution. But to her despair Muriel +sided with him and declared that he was right. So finally Noreen gave it +up and vowed that she would wash her hands of the whole affair. + +When Violet reached Darjeeling Wargrave met her at the railway station. +Face to face with him her anger died and something of the attraction he +had had for her revived. So she greeted him effusively and all but +embraced him on the platform. Other men seeing the meeting wondered why +he looked so miserable when such a lovely woman evinced her delight at +seeing him so plainly. She passed her arm through his with an air of +possession and chatted volubly while he watched his servant help hers to +collect her luggage. When she took her seat in the _dandy_, or chair +carried on the shoulders of coolies, and was being conveyed towards her +hotel she behaved as though they had not been parted a week, rattled on +gaily about her doings in Poona and Mahableshwar and, with all the +glories of the Himalayas about her, declared that the Bombay +hill-station was far lovelier than Darjeeling. Wargrave was relieved +that she showed no desire to be sentimental and gladly responded to her +mood, detailing the forthcoming gaieties and promising to take her to +them all. + +When they reached the Eastern Palace Hotel and were shown up into her +private sitting-room she put her hands on his shoulders as soon as they +were alone and said: + +"Let me look at you, Frank. You have improved. You've grown handsomer, I +think. Aren't you going to kiss me?" + +He did it with so little fervour that she made a grimace and thought +"It's quite time that I came to bring him to heel. Not much loving +ardour about that. I wonder if he kisses the jungle girl as coldly." +Aloud she said: + +"Now let's go down to _tiffin_. I'm starving. Will you please secure a +table and I'll follow you in a few minutes?" + +During the meal she chattered gaily, criticised the dresses and +appearance of the other women in the dining-room and, chaffing him +merrily on his want of appetite, ate a substantial meal herself. Mrs. +Dermot, anxious to befriend him, had thought that she could help him by +inviting him to bring Mrs. Norton to tea with her that afternoon. When +during _tiffin_ he hesitatingly conveyed the invitation Violet said: + +"Oh, I don't want to be bothered with women, my dear boy. Take me out +and show me the place and the shops and the _Gymkhana_--what do you call +it here? Oh, the Amusement Club. No, stop a minute. Mrs. Dermot is your +dear friend from Ranga Duar, isn't she? So she's here. And the other, +the jungle girl, where is she?" + +Frank flushed as he replied: + +"I suppose you mean Miss Benson? She's with Mrs. Dermot." + +"So you're all staying at the same hotel. How very nice for you! But, my +dear Frank, doesn't it strike you that it'll be rather dull for me +staying by myself here? You'll have to change to this hotel." + +"I asked about rooms here; but they told me they're full up now." + +"I'll see if I can't get round the manager and make him find a corner +for you. Well, now for this tea-party. Yes; on second thoughts I'll go. +I'd like to see the ladies who've been consoling you for my absence." + +"Oh, nonsense, Violet. They haven't. They're just friends, that's all," +he said irritably. + +"Of course, dear; I know. Well, tell me what these 'just friends' are +like." + +She certainly derived little idea of them from Wargrave's lame attempt +at description. And when later she and he were shown into Mrs. Dermot's +sitting-room at tea-time Noreen and Muriel found his picture of her as a +meek, long-suffering, neglected wife very unlike the radiant, +condescending lady who patronised them from the start. She showed a +tendency to address most of her conversation to the girl, despite the +latter's evident disinclination to talk, or perhaps because of it; for +the older woman seemed to take an impish delight in teasing her about +her friendship with Wargrave and their relations as nurse and patient, +although it was apparent that her malicious humour made the others +uncomfortable. She paraded her authority over Frank and treated him like +a hen-pecked husband. When finally she bore him away to escort her to the +Amusement Club she left the two girls speechless behind her. But not +for the same reason. Noreen was furious. + +"What a hateful woman!" she exclaimed as soon as her visitor departed. +"And I pitied her as a poor neglected wife! What do you think of her?" + +Muriel only shook her head, as she sat looking despondent and thoroughly +miserable. Mrs. Norton's malice affected her little, but her undoubted +loveliness had made her despair. How could an insignificant little +person like herself, she thought, hope to win affection from any man +whom this radiant beauty deigned to favour? Frank could not help adoring +so attractive a woman. He must have loved her in Rohar, although he said +that he had not. Muriel felt that she could have resigned herself more +easily to his keeping his word to Violet, if the latter had been less +good-looking. + +Mrs. Dermot broke in on her miserable thoughts. + +"Come, dear, we'll take the children for their walk and then go on later +to the Amusement Club." + +"I couldn't go to the Club this evening, Noreen. I really couldn't. We'd +only see that woman again--with Frank." + +"Well, what of it? We're not going to let her think we're afraid to face +her. I've no patience with Mr. Wargrave. Whatever he can see in her I +can't think. You're worth twenty of her, darling. Shallow, conceited. +She neglected? She badly treated? My sympathy is with her husband now. +What fools men are!" And Noreen swept indignantly from the room. + +Every moment of the hour that they spent in the Club that evening was a +lifetime of torture to Muriel. She had faced a charging tiger with less +dread than she did the crowd at the tea-tables in the rink. She fancied +that every woman who looked at her was laughing in her sleeve at her, +that every man who bowed or spoke to her was pitying her. Suddenly her +heart seemed to stop beating, for she saw Frank sitting with Mrs. Norton +and two other ladies, her Calcutta cousins, as well as a couple of men +in the British Infantry regiment at Lebong. They were looking at her; +and she felt that Violet was pointing her out as the deserted maiden. +She tried to smile bravely when her rival waved her hand and called out +a cheery "good evening" to her and Noreen, who answered the greeting +with an almost defiant air of unconcern. + +For days afterwards she saw practically nothing of Wargrave, who was +obliged to be in constant attendance on Mrs. Norton. Violet had induced +the manager of her hotel to find a room for him; and he was forced to +transfer himself and his belongings to the Eastern Palace. She +monopolised him, insisted on his taking her shopping in the mornings, +calling in the afternoons or to Lebong to watch the polo, or else +playing tennis with her at the Amusement Club. He dined with her every +evening and escorted her to the dances, concerts or theatricals that +filled the nights during the Season. He hardly recognised her in the gay +social butterfly with seemingly never a care in the world; and she made +him wonder every day if she had any love left for him or wanted him to +have any for her. For she showed no desire to be sentimental and treated +him very much as she had in the early days of their acquaintance. She +never discussed their future. He had not the moral courage to ask her +outright if she still wanted to come to him. She gave no indication of +being happy only in his company; for she soon began to release him from +attendance on her on occasions in favour of some one or other of the new +men friends that she rapidly made. He took advantage of this to see +something of Muriel again. + +But this did not suit Mrs. Norton. Even if she did not want Frank +herself that was no reason why the girl should have him. She tried being +jealous and insisted on his breaking off the friendship; but, although +he hated the scenes that ensued, he resolutely refused to do so. Then +Violet adopted another plan. She pretended to be convinced by his +assurances that it meant nothing and declared that she wished to be +friends with Muriel. She went out of her way to be nice to the girl when +they met in public and at last invited her to tea at the Eastern Palace +Hotel on an afternoon on which she knew Mrs. Dermot to be engaged. +Muriel accepted because she did not know very well how to refuse. + +When she was shown into Mrs. Norton's private sitting-room she found +Wargrave already there with her hostess, who received her very amiably. +During tea the conversation flowed in safe channels at first. But +suddenly Violet startled her guests by saying: + +"Now, Miss Benson, that we three are alone I think it a good opportunity +to speak very plainly about Frank's relations with you. I've just been +giving him a serious talking to about the way he has behaved to you." + +The girl drew herself up haughtily. + +"What do you mean, Mrs. Norton," she said. "The way Mr. Wargrave has +behaved----? I don't understand you." + +"Oh yes, you do. It's best to speak plainly. I'm afraid Frank has been +leading you to believe that he's in love with you----." + +"Violet!" broke in Wargrave angrily. "Please don't go on. You've no +right to say such things." + +She smiled sweetly on him. + +"Yes, I have, Frank. You know, my dear boy, that you've got pretty ways +with women--I fear he's rather a flirt, Miss Benson--that you are apt to +make some of them think you mean more than you do." + +"What absurd nonsense!" he cried, more angrily still. "Please stop, I +beg of you." + +"No, Frank, it is only right that I should warn Miss Benson." She +turned to the girl. "He hasn't told you, I'm sure, that he's not free to +marry you or any other girl." + +Wargrave sprang up. + +"I've told her everything about us, Violet," he protested. "I ask you as +a favour to drop the subject." + +The girl sat as if turned to stone while Mrs. Norton went on: + +"You are young, my dear, and can't know much about men. I suppose you've +lived in the jungle all your life. Now, a little bird has told me you've +let yourself get too fond of Frank--oh, he's very charming, I know, and +this playing at nursing a poor wounded hero is a dangerous game. But I'm +going to tell you plainly that Frank is pledged to me. He has asked me +to leave my husband for him, and I've consented; so there's no use your +trying to catch him, my dear. You're too late." + +The girl sprang indignantly to her feet. + +"I've done nothing of the sort, Mrs. Norton. How dare you say so? You've +no right to speak to me as you're doing." + +The older woman sat back coolly in her chair and laughed; but her eyes +grew hard. + +"Oh yes, I have, my dear girl. You two were the talk of Darjeeling +before I came. Of course you're angry, naturally, at failing to catch +him, but I'm going to put a stop to your trying, here and now. He has +got to break with you." + +"You are a wicked woman," began the girl; and then indignation choked +her. + +Mrs. Norton leant forward in her chair. + +"Can you deny that you're in love with him?" she asked. + +Wargrave tried to interpose; but the girl waved him aside and faced her +rival. + +"I'll answer you. I am. I love him as you could never do. I was willing +to give him up to you--for he loves me, not you--so that he should not +be false to his word. I didn't know what you were like, then. But now I +don't believe you'd ever make him happy. You don't love him--you haven't +got it in you. You wouldn't be content with any one man. I've watched +you. You're absolutely heartless; and you'd only make Frank miserable. +You're willing to disgrace him as well as yourself. You don't mind if +you ruin him. Frank----" + +She turned towards Wargrave. + +"You said you loved me. Is it true?" + +He answered firmly: + +"Yes, I do." + +"Then will you marry me? This woman will only wreck your life. Choose +between us." + +He turned in desperation to Mrs. Norton. + +"Violet, you don't really want me, do you? You don't love me. I've felt +for a long time that you're forgetting me. I love Muriel and she loves +me. If you ever cared for me release me from my promise." + +Mrs. Norton lay back calmly in her chair and looked with a smile from +one to the other. Then she said deliberately: + +"This morning I wrote to my husband and told him that I was never +returning to him, that I was going to you, Frank. That is why I asked +this girl here to-day to tell you before her that now I'm going to ask +you to keep your promise. Will you?" + +The girl looked at him appealingly and stretched out her hands to him. + +"Frank, for your own sake, if not for mine, don't listen to her." + +He stood irresolute, torn by conflicting emotions. Then with an effort +he replied: + +"Muriel, I must. I can't break my word." + +Mrs. Norton gave a mocking laugh. The girl shrank from him and hid her +face in her hands for a moment. Then she looked up and said, desperately +calm: + +"Very well, be it so. You've decided and there's nothing more to be +said. You've shamed me before this woman; and I never want to see you +again." + +She turned and walked out of the room. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE + + +As Muriel passed through the door Wargrave started to follow her; but +Violet cried peremptorily: + +"Frank, stay here. Please realise that I come first now. Sit down." + +He obeyed mechanically. She went on petulantly: + +"These emotional scenes are rather exhausting. Do you mind calling the +hotel 'boy' and ordering a cocktail for me? You ought to have one +yourself. I suppose, like all men, you hate scenes. Then you should be +grateful to me for saving you from that spiteful little jungle cat." + +Going to the verandah outside the room he called a hotel servant and +gave him the order, then returned to his chair and sat down wearily. He +stared at the floor in silence. He had sent the girl that he loved away +utterly humiliated; and he knew that, with her proud spirit, the shame +of his rejection of her would cut her to the heart. He cursed himself +for bringing this pain to her. It was all his fault. Not only had he had +no right to speak of love to her while he was bound to another woman, +but he ought never to have sought her society as he had done, never +striven to gain her friendship, for by doing so he had unconsciously won +her love. The harm was done long before he spoke to her of his feelings. +What a selfish brute he was to thus cause two women to suffer! + +Presently he remembered that his moodiness, his silence, were +uncomplimentary, cruel, to Violet. She was right in saying that she came +first. Indeed she was the only one to be considered now. The other had +passed out of his life. It might be that they should meet again some day +in their restricted world, but while he could he must try to avoid her. +There was only Violet left. + +He looked up to find his companion's eyes fixed on him with an +undefinable expression. He roused himself with an effort that was not +lost on the woman watching him. + +"So you have told your husband," he said. "Well, now we must arrange +what we are going to do." + +"We won't discuss our plans at this moment," replied Violet. "I'm not in +the mood for it." Then after a pause she added bitterly, "I must give +you time to recover from the shock of the abrupt ending to your little +jungle romance." + +Before he could reply the servant appeared with a tray. + +"Ah, thank goodness, here are the cocktails. There's only one. Aren't +you having one, too? It will do you good. No?" + +She sipped her cocktail slowly. When she had finished it she got up +from her chair, saying: + +"I'll get ready to go to the Amusement Club. Will you wait for me here? +You needn't change--we won't play tennis to-day; for we've got this +dinner and dance on to-night and I don't want to tire myself. I shan't +be long." + +As she passed his chair she tapped his cheek and said: + +"Don't look so miserable, my dear boy. You'll soon get over the loss of +your jungle girl. There, you may kiss my hand as a sign of your return +to your allegiance." + +But when she entered her bedroom she did not at once proceed to get +ready to go out, but unlocked her dressing-case and, taking out of it a +letter, sat down to read it for the tenth time since she had received it +that morning. Yet it was short and concise. It was from Rosenthal and +addressed from the Mess of the 2nd (Duke's Own) Hussars in Bangalore; +for, as it told her, he had returned to his regiment as his leave had +expired. It was the first that had come from him since she had left +Poona, although, as he said in it, he had obtained her new address from +the Goanese clerk in the Munster Hotel office on the day of her flight, +thanks to the persuasive powers of a fifty-rupee note. + +He told her that although her abrupt departure had puzzled him and he +could not understand why she had tried to conceal her whereabouts from +him, he wished her to realise that if it were an attempt to escape from +him it was useless. He could bide his time, for sooner or later he would +get her. + +Violet smiled as she read his confident words, although they caused a +little shiver of fear to run through her. Then she rose, locked the +letter away and put on her hat. + +Not until after lunch next day was Wargrave able to find time to go to +the Oriental Hotel, not to see Muriel, he sternly told himself, but to +pay a visit to Mrs. Dermot. When he was shown up to her sitting-room he +had to wait for some time before Noreen entered; and he was struck at +once by the coldness of her greeting. It was evident that she was very +displeased with him. She said no word about Muriel; and Wargrave felt +curiously averse to mentioning her name. + +At last he summed up courage to ask her. With as near an approach to +frigidity of manner as she could show to a man to whom she was so +indebted Noreen replied: + +"Muriel has left Darjeeling." + +"Left Darjeeling? Where for? Where has she gone?" he exclaimed in +surprise. + +"To her father." + +"But why? She wasn't to have left for weeks yet," said Wargrave. + +Mrs. Dermot looked at him angrily. + +"Why? Need you ask? I should have thought commonsense would have told +you. I don't think we'll talk about it, please. As I said before, I've +washed my hands of the whole affair." + +Further conversation on the subject was rendered impossible by the +irruption of her children, who rushed at Wargrave and reproached him for +not being to see them lately. + +During the next few days Violet baffled every attempt that Frank made to +discuss their future course of action. The constant succession of +gaieties, the balls, theatricals, concerts, races, _gymkhanas_, that +filled every afternoon and evening of the Darjeeling Season, took up all +her time. Whenever he tried to talk matters over with her she invariably +replied that there was no hurry, even when he pointed out that Major +Norton might arrive any day in consequence of her letter. That he had +not already done so was inexplicable to Wargrave; and the subaltern +could only believe her assurance that her husband accepted her loss with +equanimity. It never occurred to Frank to doubt that she had written the +letter. + +But one morning matters came to a crisis. When Violet and Wargrave +returned to the hotel from their ride before breakfast a telegram was +handed to the latter. He found it to be an official message from Colonel +Dermot, which ran: + + "Please return forthwith to Ranga Duar. I start for Europe on sick + leave to-day." + +Frank stared at it in surprise. He had heard nothing of his superior +officer being ill. It must be something very serious to necessitate his +being sent to Europe. The news was an unpleasant shock to him; for he +genuinely liked and respected the Political Officer. + +Then it occurred to him that this order to return brought everything to +a head. Violet saw that he was perturbed. + +"What is it, Frank?" she asked. + +"I'll tell you upstairs, dear," he said. + +In her sitting-room he handed her the telegram. + +"I must leave to-day. Will you be ready to come with me?" he asked. + +"What? To-day? My dear boy, it's impossible," she replied. + +"But I must go. You see, it's imperative. The Colonel's already gone." + +"Yes, I see you must. But--well, I simply couldn't be ready," said +Violet calmly. "Besides, I'm singing at the concert to-morrow night; and +there's the dance at Government House the night after. I must follow you +later." + +"But that means your travelling alone," he argued. "Wouldn't it be much +pleasanter for you to come with me?" + +"Don't worry about me for goodness' sake, Frank. I'm not a helpless +person. I came across India by myself to get here; and surely I'll be +able to manage to do a twenty-four hours' journey alone." + +"Very well, dear," he replied with an inward, unacknowledged feeling of +relief that the decisive step had not to be taken yet. "I'll come down +from Ranga Duar with an elephant to meet you at the railway station when +you arrive. Now, while you're changing for breakfast, I'll rush round to +the Oriental and see if Mrs. Dermot has more news." + +When he reached the hotel he found Noreen busily packing. She was pale +and evidently deeply distressed, although outwardly calm and collected. + +"You have heard?" she asked, as he entered her sitting-room. + +"Only that your husband is starting for England on sick leave and that +I'm to return at once. What's the matter? I hope it's not serious." + +"Mr. Macdonald wires that Kevin must go at once to England for an +operation. He says I'm not to worry, as there is no immediate danger. +But of course I can't help being alarmed. It's all so sudden. I didn't +know that Kevin was ill. Mr. Macdonald is travelling with him to the +junction on the main line where the children and I are to meet them. +Isn't it kind of him? I'm so glad to know my husband will have someone +with him until I come." + +"We'll meet at the railway station after lunch, then," said Wargrave. +"We'll be together as far as the junction." + +Mrs. Dermot hesitated. + +"Are you travelling alone?" she asked. + +Frank flushed as he replied: + +"Yes. She--Violet is to follow later." + +Noreen made no comment; and having learned all that he could he returned +to his hotel. + +He dreaded the ordeal of the parting with Mrs. Norton, but when the time +came for it he found his fear of a distressing scene quite uncalled for. +She said goodbye to him in a pleasantly friendly, though somewhat +casual, manner, and did not offer to accompany him to the station as she +had a previous engagement. And long before the little train had +zig-zagged down the seven thousand feet to the foot of the Himalayas she +had dismissed him from her mind. + +The truth was that the gay and admired Mrs. Norton, caught up in the +whirlwind of social amusement in a lively hill-station, was not the +woman who passed weary days of _ennui_ in the company of a dull and +unattractive husband in a small, dead-and-alive station. Nor was the +dejected man who so plainly showed that he was pining for someone else +the good-looking, heart-whole subaltern who had fascinated her in the +boredom of existence in Rohar. Was he worth incurring social damnation +for? Would his companionship--for she knew that she had not his +love--make up for a life of loneliness, debt and poverty in a frontier +outpost? If she were resolved on giving up her present assured +position--and Violet felt that existence with Norton would be more than +ever unendurable after the exciting pleasures of Poona and +Darjeeling--would it not be wiser to do so for someone who could amply +compensate her for the sacrifice? Love in a cottage--or its Indian +equivalent, a subaltern's comfortless bungalow--did not appeal to her. +Her statement that she had written to tell her husband that she was +leaving for Wargrave was false. It had served the purpose for which it +was made, and that was the defeat of her rival. So now, content with her +victory, she put all burdensome thought from her and dined, danced and +flirted to her heart's content in the gaieties of the Darjeeling Season. + +When Wargrave reached Ranga Duar the little outpost seemed strangely +forlorn without the Dermots and their children. Major Hunt and Macdonald +welcomed him warmly. The latter informed him that he had insisted on the +Colonel going to England for his operation because the Political Officer +had not been out of India for seven years and needed the change, and +besides he would receive more care and attention in a London +nursing-home than in an Indian hospital. The trouble was intestinal but +there was no immediate danger to his life. + +Another familiar figure was missing. Before departing Dermot had +released Badshah and left him to wander in freedom in the jungle, +unwilling that his faithful companion of years should be servant to +anyone else and confident that the elephant would come back to him when +he returned to the Terai. Major Hunt placed one of the detachment +elephants at Wargrave's disposal whenever he required it to take him on +his tours along the frontier. And Frank needed it constantly. For, as +soon as the news of Colonel Dermot's departure spread, the lawless +spirits that for fear of him had not ventured for five years to disturb +the peace of the Border, began to show signs of restlessness. The +Political Officer's strong personality and the reputation of divinity +that he enjoyed had kept them in check. But now that he was gone they +thought that they could defy with impunity the young sahib who replaced +him. + +So the Assistant had not long to wait for an opportunity to show his +mettle. Dermot had not been gone a fortnight before one or two raids +were attempted on British villages by lawless mountaineers from across +the Bhutan frontier. Wargrave soon proved that the mantle of Colonel +Dermot had not fallen on unworthy shoulders. Single-handed he +intercepted and faced a party of Bhutanese swordsmen swooping down from +the hills on a tea-garden in search of loot, shot the leader and two of +his followers and put the rest to flight. With a handful of sepoys of +the Military Police he surprised a Bhuttia village in the No Man's Land +along the border-line and captured a notorious outlaw who had plundered +in Indian territory and had sent him a defiant challenge. + +Wargrave was glad of the excitement and the occupation, for they kept +him from brooding over his troubles and worrying about the future. He +had not time to puzzle over Violet's silence. She had not written to him +since their parting. As a matter of fact she seldom thought of him, so +engrossed was she in the pursuit of pleasure. Admittedly the prettiest +woman in Darjeeling that season she received enough attention and +admiration to turn any woman's head; and she enjoyed it all to the full. +Although she had answered Rosenthal's letter from Bangalore he had not +written again; but she felt that he was not forgetting her. She thought +oftener of him than of Wargrave; for the vision of the great riches that +she might one day share with him fascinated her. It haunted her dreams +sleeping and waking. Often she let her fancy stray to the existence that +he had promised would be hers when he was the possessor of his father's +fortune, a life of luxury in the gayest cities of the world with all +that immense wealth could bestow, a life infinitely better worth living +than her present one. Would she ever be given the chance of it? + +The question was speedily and unexpectedly answered. One morning after +breakfast she received a telegram from Rosenthal. It said: + + "My father is dead. I sail from Bombay for South Africa on Friday to + settle up his affairs. Will you come?" + +She stared at the paper almost uncomprehendingly for a few moments. Then +the meaning of the message dawned on her. She sat down at her +writing-table and thought hard. She had little time in which to make up +her mind; for if she wished to reach Bombay before Rosenthal sailed she +would have to leave Darjeeling that afternoon. What should she do? +Should she go? She found a pencil and a telegraph form and addressed the +latter to the Hussar. Then she hesitated. But she was not long in coming +to a decision. With a firm hand she wrote the one word "Yes" and signed +her name. Then she rose from the table, called a hotel servant, +despatched the telegram and went to her bedroom to pack. And the same +train that took her away from Darjeeling carried a letter from her to +Wargrave. + +But the subaltern did not receive it until more than a week afterwards, +when he returned to Ranga Duar with Tashi after chasing back across the +Border a mongrel pack of _dacoits_--brigands--who had been harrying +Bhuttia villages in British territory. The letter lay on the table in +the room which he still occupied in the Mess, although he was no longer +an officer of the detachment, together with a pile of correspondence +that had accumulated during his absence. Recognising Violet's writing on +the envelope he tore it open anxiously. He rapidly scanned the first +page, stared at it incredulously, read it again carefully and then +finished the letter. It ran: + + "My dear Frank, + + "I am going to relieve your mind of a great weight and send you into + the seventh heaven of delight by giving you the glad news that you + are never likely to see me again. Before the week is ended I shall + have left India for ever with someone who can give me all I want and + not condemn me to a poverty-stricken existence in a wretched little + jungle station, which is all that you had to offer me. I know it was + not your fault and you are really a dear boy. I was very fond of + you; but you did not love me and we would have been very miserable + together. For you would be always pining for your jungle girl and I + would have hated you for it. Now we part good friends and she is + welcome to you. I ought to tell you that I did not really write to + my husband as I said I did. + + "I wish you luck--won't you wish me the same? + + "Yours affectionately, + + "VIOLET." + +When he had thoroughly grasped the meaning of this extraordinary letter +he forgave her everything in the joy of knowing that she had set him +free. He did not speculate as to the man with whom she was going; his +thoughts flew at once to Muriel. But his delight was tempered by the +fear that his liberty had come too late to be of service to him with +her. Would she ever forgive him? His heart sank when he remembered her +indignation, her bitter words when they parted. Surely no woman who had +been so humiliated could pardon the man who had brought such shame upon +her. Yet how could he have acted otherwise? It was natural that the girl +should blame him; but how could he have been false to his plighted word +and desert the one who held his promise? If only he could see Muriel and +plead with her. Perhaps in time she might bring herself to forgive him. +But how was he to meet her? Now that Mrs. Dermot had gone to England, +the girl would not come again to Ranga Duar. She was, he knew, +accompanying her father in his tour of the forests of the districts in +his charge. How could he go to their camp or lonely bungalow in the +jungle and force his presence on her? What was he to do? + +Longing for someone to confide in, someone to advise him, he went to +Major Hunt and told him the whole story. The older man rejoiced in +learning of the subaltern's release from his entanglement, but, knowing +Miss Benson well, shook his head doubtfully over the chances of her +forgiving Wargrave. Nevertheless, unwilling to kill the young man's +hope, he affected a confidence that he was far from feeling and bade him +take courage. He advised him to arrange a few days' shooting in the +neighbourhood of the Bensons when he could spare the time from his +duties. The father would be sure to offer him hospitality and the +daughter could not well avoid him. In the meantime he might write and +plead his cause on paper. + +Wargrave sat up half the night composing a letter to Muriel. Sheet after +sheet was torn up in disgust before he was even tolerably satisfied. But +the laboured result was never sent. Next morning after breakfast as he +sat smoking in the Mess with Major Hunt and the doctor his servant +entered to tell him that a forest guard wanted to see him. A wild hope +flashed through his mind that perhaps Muriel had sent him a message. But +on going out to the back verandah where the man awaited him he was +handed an envelope "On His Majesty's Service," addressed in a strange +handwriting. He opened it and glanced carelessly at the letter, but the +first lines riveted his attention. + + "Forest Officer's Bungalow, + Barwana Section. + + "From + the District Superintendent of Police, + Bengal Civil Police. + + "To + the Assistant Political Officer, + Ranga Duar. + + "Sir, + + "Three days ago a party of Chinamen attacked and severely injured the + Deputy Conservator of Forests, Mr. Benson, in this bungalow, and + abducted his daughter. They were ten or twelve in number and well + armed, and over-awed the servants and forest employees. They have + been tracked towards the Bhutan Frontier and, I fear, have crossed + it by this. There was, unfortunately, much delay in the information + reaching me while I was touring the district south of the forest; + and I have only just arrived here. I hasten to acquaint you with the + occurrence as I am powerless if the ruffians have crossed into + Bhutan. Please request the Officer Commanding Military Police + Detachment to send out parties to try to cut off the raiders from + the passes through the mountains, although I fear it is too late. + Can you meet me here and confer with me? Please bring the Medical + Officer of the detachment with you, as Mr. Benson is in a bad state + and no civil surgeon is available for a great distance from here. + + "Your obedient servant, + Edward Lawrence. + D.S.P." + +Horror-stricken, Wargrave questioned the forest guard. The man had not +been at the bungalow at the time of the outrage and could not greatly +supplement the information contained in the letter. The story that he +had learned from the servants was to the effect that a party of Chinamen +had arrived at Mr. Benson's bungalow and asked for employment as +carpenters. There was nothing unusual in this, as Chinese from the +Southern Provinces frequently make their way on foot through Tibet and +Bhutan over the mountains in search of work on the tea-gardens or in +Calcutta. Apparently they had suddenly struck the old man down and +surprised Miss Benson before she could offer any resistance. Producing +fire-arms they had terrified the servants. They had a mule hidden in the +jungle and on this the girl was placed and led off. Long after they had +disappeared some of the forest guards had timidly followed their track +for some distance and found that it led towards the Bhutan Frontier. + +When Wargrave had extracted from the man all the information that he +could he rushed into the Mess and acquainted the two officers in it with +the terrible news. Like him they were horrified at the outrage. Major +Hunt went at once to the Fort to order out parties of the detachment in +accordance with the District Superintendent's request; and Macdonald got +ready to proceed to the Forest Officer's bungalow forty miles away. + +The Assistant Political Officer despatched a cipher telegram to the +Foreign Department, Government of India, at Simla, informing them of the +occurrence and of his intention to investigate the affair personally, +and, if possible, rescue Miss Benson. He knew that the Heads of the +Department, although they would not sanction or approve officially of +his crossing the frontier in pursuit of the raiders, as it would be +contrary to the Treaty with the Bhutanese Government, would not enquire +too closely into his movements. But whether they liked it or not he +intended to follow the abductors if necessary into the heart of Bhutan, +Treaty or no Treaty. + +His first step was to send for Tashi and order him to prepare the +disguise that he intended to use. His rifle he left behind, but armed +himself with a brace of long-barrelled automatic pistols to which their +wooden holsters clipped on to form butts, thus converting them into +carbines accurate up to a range of a hundred and fifty or two hundred +yards. He found a third for Tashi in Colonel Dermot's armoury, which was +at his disposal. + +Night had fallen long before the detachment elephant that bore Wargrave, +Macdonald, Tashi and the forest guard as well as its own _mahout_, +reached the bungalow where the District Superintendent of Police awaited +them. The doctor found Benson suffering from a wound in the head, with +concussion and fever. Frank interrogated the servants carefully and +elicited from them one fresh fact about the outrage that shed a flood of +light on its motive and its author. It was that the leader of the party +was pock-marked and blind in the right eye; and this at once confirmed +Frank's suspicion that the instigator of Muriel's abduction was the +Chinese _Amban_, whose parting threat to the girl had thus materialised. + +At daybreak Wargrave and Tashi started on foot accompanied by a forest +guard to put them on the track of the gang. This led up towards the +Bhutan Frontier, which runs among the hills at an average elevation of +six thousand feet above the sea. As the Assistant Political Officer +anticipated, the party had headed for the portion of the border under +the control of the _Amban's_ friend, the Penlop of Tuna. Enquiries among +the inhabitants of the mountain villages resulted in several of them +coming forward with the information that they had seen a small body of +armed Chinese escorting a cloaked and shrouded figure on a mule and +climbing up towards Bhutan. Two of the Government Secret Service agents +among these Bhuttias had followed them cautiously to the frontier and +seen them received there by a party of the Tuna Penlop's armed +retainers. These men reported that the watch on all the passes into +Bhutan was stricter than ever, and, as one of them phrased it, not even +a rat could creep through unobserved. + +This discouraging intelligence was a further proof of _Amban's_ guilt. +But Frank realised that it would not be sufficient to justify the +Government of India claiming redress from the Republic of China; and, +indeed, diplomatic procedure was much too slow to be of any use in the +rescue of the girl. An appeal to the Maharajah of Bhutan would be +equally fruitless; for his powerful vassal the Tuna Penlop was +practically in rebellion against him and defied his authority. The sole +hope of saving Muriel lay in Wargrave's prompt action. + +Yet try as the subaltern would, he and Tashi were unable at any point to +pierce the cordon of guards along the frontier. Generally they got away +unseen; but on one occasion they were discovered and had to flee back +into British territory under a shower of arrows. Fortunately fire-arms +are scarce in Bhutan; and the Tuna Penlop's soldiers possessed only +bows. + +It was imperative that Wargrave and his follower should be circumspect +in their movements, and by day they hid in caves or in the jungle +clothing the slopes of the higher hills, to escape observation by +Bhutanese spies. When they had exhausted the food that they had brought +with them and failed to procure any more from their Secret Service +agents in the villages, Tashi gathered bananas, dug up edible tubers +like the _charpattia_ or _charlong_, and snared jungle-fowl and Monal +pheasants. Having obtained a bow and a sheaf of arrows from a village he +sometimes succeeded in killing a _gooral_, the active little wild goat +found in the lower hills, the flesh of which is excellent. + +As day after day went by and found them no nearer success in crossing +the frontier Wargrave began to lose heart. He was harassed by anxiety +over Muriel's fate and feared that he would never be able to rescue her. +At times he grew desperate and but for his companion's remonstrances +would have tried to fight his way through the border guards, although in +his saner moments he knew that it would be sheer madness. + +Besides danger from human enemies the two men were menaced by peril from +wild beasts as well. Panthers prowled among the hills, great Himalayan +bears, a blow from the paw of one of which would crack a man's skull, +wandered on the jungle-clad slopes and, though not carnivorous, were +always ready to attack human beings. Herds of wild elephants, which had +scaled the mountains into Bhutan at the beginning of the Monsoon to +reach the northern face of the Himalayas and escape the heavy rains that +deluge the southern slopes and also to avoid the insects that plague +them in the jungle at that season, were commencing to return to the +Terai. Often Wargrave and Tashi had to climb trees to let a herd go by; +and each time as he watched them the subaltern thought longingly of +Colonel Dermot and Badshah. If he had them to help him how easily he +could burst the barrier between him and the land that held the girl whom +he loved and who needed him so! + +Late one afternoon, as the two men were making their way through bamboo +jungle at the foot of high cliffs close to a pass into Ghutan which they +had not yet attempted, they blundered into the middle of a herd of +elephants feeding. There was no tree in which they could take refuge, +and before they were able to make their escape they found themselves +surrounded on every side. A number of cow-elephants, which, having young +calves with them, were very savage, pressed threateningly towards the +men, who tried to force their way into the dense growths of the bamboos +and so put a frail barrier between themselves and the menacing beasts. +They knew that their pistols would be useless, and they had already +given themselves up for lost when the huge animals which were apparently +about to charge them, suddenly stopped and drew aside to allow a +monstrous bull-elephant to pass through. It was a single-tusker, and it +advanced steadily towards the men. Frank stared at it incredulously. +Could it be----? Yes, it was. He was sure of it. It was Badshah. + +And the elephant knew him and came towards him. In the sudden revulsion +of feeling and his relief at knowing that they were safe Frank almost +lost his head. A mad hope surged through him. He stretched out his arms +imploringly to the great beast and cried impulsively: + +"Oh, Badshah! _Hum-ko madad do_! (Help us!)" + +To his amazement the animal seemed to understand. It sank slowly to its +knees as though inviting him to mount it. + +"Sahib! Sahib! He offers us his aid," cried Tashi excitedly, and he +scrambled up after Wargrave who had climbed on to the broad shoulders. + +The subaltern leaned forward and, touching the huge forehead, pointed in +the direction of Bhutan. Badshah turned and moved off towards the pass +through the mountains, while the herd followed; and Frank thrilled with +the hope that at last he was about to break through the barrier of foes +between him and the girl he loved. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE DEVIL DANCERS OF TUNA + + +Flat-roofed, arcaded buildings terraced one above the other, with gaily +painted walls from which covered wooden verandahs and box-like, latticed +windows jutted out, surrounded a paved courtyard, its rough flagstones +hidden by shifting, many-coloured throngs of gorgeously vestmented +priests, mitred bishops, hideous demons, skeletons with grinning skulls +and weird creatures with _papier mache_ heads of bears, tigers, dragons +and even stranger beasts. Wild but not inharmonious music from +shaven-headed members of an orchestra of weird instruments--gongs, +shawns, cymbals, long silver trumpets--deafened the ears. Crowds of +gaily-clad spectators covered the flat roofs of the building and +arcades, thronged the verandahs, filled the windows and squatted around +the courtyard--these last kept in order by bullet-headed lamas with +whips. + +It was the annual ceremony of the Devil Dance of the great Buddhist +monastery of Tuna, one of the fantastic Mystery Plays, the now almost +meaningless functions into which the ideal faith preached by Gautama, +the Buddha, the high-souled reformer, has degenerated. + +From all parts of Bhutan west of the dividing line of the great Black +Mountain Range, from Tibet, even from far-distant Ladak, the faithful +had made pilgrimage to be present at the great festival in this most +famous and sacred _gompa_ of the land. Red lamas from Western Tibet +and yellow from Lhassa, abbots and monks from little-known monasteries +lost among the rugged mountains, nuns with close-cropped hair from the +convents of Thimbu, Paro and Punaka, robber chiefs of the Hah-pa and +graziers from Sipchu, townsfolk from the capital and peasants from the +fever-laden Himalayan valleys--all had gathered there. For all who +attended the sacred festival could gain indulgences that would save them +a century or two's sojourn in the hot or cold hells of their religion. + +In a gallery adorned with artistic wooden carvings and hung with +brocaded silk and gold embroideries sat a fat, bare-legged man with +close-cropped hair and scanty beard, wearing an ample, red silk gown +ornamented with Chinese designs worked in gold thread. He was the Penlop +of Tuna, the great feudal lord of the province, whose high-walled +_jong_, or castle, crowned the rocky hill on which the monastery and the +town were built. Behind him stood his officers and attendants clad in +silk or woollen kimono-like garments bound at the waist by gaily-worked +leather belts from which hung handsome swords with elaborately-wrought +silver hilts inlaid with coral and turquoises and with gold-washed +silver scabbards. + +The courtyard was gay with fluttering prayer-flags, the poles of which +as well as the wooden pillars of the arcades were hung with the +beautiful banners artistically worked with countless pieces of coloured +silks and brocades and needlework pictures of Buddhist gods and saints +for which the monasteries of Bhutan are justly famed. From the blue sky +the sun blazed on the riot of mingled hues of the decorations and the +dresses of spectators and performers. + +Especially gorgeous were the robes of the high priests in the spectacle. +They strongly resembled Catholic bishops in their gold-embroidered +mitres, copes and vestments as, carrying pastoral crooks or sprinkling +holy water, they moved around the courtyard in solemn procession behind +acolytes carrying sacred banners, swinging censers and intoning +harmonious chants. Troops of baffled demons fled at their approach +howling in diabolic despair. Shuddering wretches clad in scanty rags, +groping blindly as in the dark, wailing miserably and uttering weird, +long-drawn whistling notes, shrank aside from the fleeing devils and +stretched out their hands in supplication to the saintly prelates. They +were intended to represent the spirits of dead men straying in the +period of _Bardo_--the forty-nine days after death--during which the +soul released from the body is doomed to wander in search of its next +incarnation. In its journeyings it is assailed and terrified by demons, +who can only be defeated by the prayers of pious lamas to Chenresi the +Great Pitier. + +The whole purpose of these representations is to familiarise during life +the devout Buddhists with the awful aspect of the many demons that will +obstruct their souls after death and try to lead them astray when they +are searching for the right path to the next world in which they are to +begin a fresh existence. + +On this strange, bewildering spectacle an English girl looked down from +a small balcony not twenty feet above the courtyard. And the sight of +her caused the attention of many of the spectators to wander from the +Mystery Play. The fat old Penlop frequently looked across the quadrangle +at her from his gallery and as often uttered some coarse jest about her +to his grinning followers, while he raised a chased silver goblet filled +with _murwa_, the native liquor, to his lips. + +It was Muriel Benson. For weeks she had been a prisoner in the lamasery, +cloistered in a suite of well-furnished rooms and waited on by a +close-cropped nun. She had been surprised in the bungalow and +overpowered by three of the Chinamen before she realised her danger or +could seize a weapon with which to defend herself. Had she been able to +snatch up a revolver she would have made a desperate fight for freedom. +But with fettered hands, a helpless captive, she had been carried away +on a mule. From the first she had recognised the pock-marked, one-eyed +leader of the gang as the _Amban's_ officer, and so had known who was +the author and cause of her abduction. For days she had been borne along +up the rough track over the mountains, through narrow, high-walled +passes, down deep valleys and across rushing torrents, closely guarded +but always treated with respect. Her captors used broken Tibetan and +Bhutanese when they desired to communicate with her, but they answered +none of her questions. She had dreaded reaching their destination, where +she expected to find Yuan Shi Hung awaiting her; and once, in fear of +it, she had tried to throw herself down a precipice along the brink of +which the path ran. After that she had been roped to a big, powerful +Manchu. + +On her arrival at the monastery she learned from her garrulous +nun-attendant that the _Amban_ had been summoned to Pekin, where a +revolution had taken place and his friends there hoped to make him +President, which he regarded as a step towards the Imperial throne. The +monks of the monastery were his faithful allies on account of his +relationship to the powerful Abbott of the Yellow Lama Temple in the +Chinese capital. They had agreed to guard his prisoner, if his men +succeeded in capturing her, until he returned or sent for her. + +At first the girl, relieved of the dread of falling at once into his +hands, lived in the hope of a speedy rescue. It was unfortunate, she +thought, that Colonel Dermot, with his extraordinary knowledge of and +influence over the Bhutanese, had left India. But even without him the +power of the British Empire would be set at once in motion to avenge +this outrage on an Englishwoman. Dermot's understudy, the Assistant +Political Officer, faithless lover though he was, would do all he could +to save her. Assuredly she would not have long to wait. + +But as the days dragged by and she still remained a prisoner her heart +sank. She needed all her courage not to lose hope and give way to +despair. For she had always hanging over her the dread of Yuan Shi +Hung's return. But she had resolved to kill herself rather than fall +into his hands, and for that purpose had bribed her cheery, good-natured +attendant to procure a dagger for her. She pretended that she wanted it +as a protection in the lamasery, for the door of her apartments was +without a fastening. Even on the outside there was neither lock nor +bolt, for escape was considered impossible for her. If she got out of +the monastery she would be captured at once in the town. + +She was not interfered with and saw no one but her nun. Once or twice +she ventured to creep down to the great temple of the monastery, drawn +by curiosity and the sound of harmonious Buddhist chants intoned by the +lamaic choir. But for her anxiety about her father and her dread of the +_Amban's_ return her worst trial would have been the monotony of her +captivity, were it not that the memory of Wargrave and her unhappy love +caused her many a sleepless night. + +With nothing to occupy her mind she hailed the festival of the Devil +Dance as a welcome distraction. Not even the impertinent curiosity of +the spectators could drive her from her balcony. She followed the many +phases with interest, although she could not understand the meaning of +them. For the performance was a curious mixture of religion and +blasphemous mockery, of horse-play and coarse humour as well as a +strange impressiveness. A comic interlude would follow the most solemn +act. Troops of devils burlesqued the sacred rites of the faith, and +bands of comic masks filled the arena at times and delighted the +audience by playing practical jokes on the spectators and each other. +The solitary white woman attracted their clownish humour, and they +danced in front of her balcony, shouting out rude witticisms that caused +much amusement to the lookers-on. Fortunately the girl's command of the +language, fairly good though it was, was insufficient to enable her to +understand their coarse jests. But their intention to insult her became +obvious. The leaping, howling mob of strangely apparelled performers +threatened to storm her balcony. Some climbed on each other's shoulders +to get nearer her, others even began to swarm up the pillars supporting +her balcony. To the delight of the audience the noisy mob eventually +clambered up to the railing of the balcony and, jesting, laughing, +uttering weird cries, perched on it and shouted and jeered at her. + +Her face flaming, the girl drew back and was about to retire into her +room when suddenly she stopped, rigid with surprise. For above the +shouts of the maskers, the roars of the spectators and the din of the +clashing cymbals and braying trumpets, she heard her name spoken +distinctly. Incredulous she stood rooted to the ground and stared at the +yelling clowns perched on the railing. The uproar redoubled; but again +she distinguished one word above it all: + +"Muriel!" + +A wild hope flashed into her heart. Pretending to be amused at the +antics of the performers she advanced laughingly towards them. They +gesticulated and shouted more furiously than ever. But in the medley of +strange sounds she distinctly heard the words: + +"It's I, Frank. Don't be afraid." + +They seemed to come from the _papier mache_ head of a grotesque serpent +worn by a man who was foremost among her tormentors and wildest in his +frenzied gestures. Smiling the girl stood her ground even when some of +the maskers, encouraged by her attitude, climbed down from the rail and +surrounded her, dancing, hallooing, leaping. The snake-headed one was +the wildest in his antics and shrieked and shouted loudest of them all. +But mixed up with incoherent cries and sounds she caught the words: + +"Are you guarded?" A wild yell followed. "Can you get out?" Then he +yelled like a mad jackal. + +With wildly-beating heart the girl pretended to repulse the advances of +the maskers good-humouredly and spoke to all in English, telling them to +leave her balcony and cease to molest her. But with her laughing +remonstrances she mingled the words: + +"I am not guarded. I can leave my room. I will go down to the temple and +wait behind the statue of Buddha." + +Then the serpent-headed one, aided by another with dragon mask, both +uttering fiendish yells, pushed his companions back to the railing, just +as the Penlop spoke to one of his officials who shouted across to them +an angry command to leave the white woman alone. The scared maskers +tumbled over each other in their hurry to quit the balcony. + +Thrilled with delight the girl watched them go and then, when the entry +of a fresh body of mummers into the courtyard distracted the attention +of the spectators from her, she withdrew quietly to her room. She was +alone, the nun having gone long ago to witness the Devil Dance from +among the crowd. Muriel opened the door leading to a broad stone +staircase and peered cautiously out. There was no one to be seen. All +the inhabitants of the monastery were gathered in the courtyard. She +stole carefully down to a side door of the lamasery chapel. + +This temple was a large and lofty building richly ornamented with fine +wood carvings, rich brocades and elaborately embroidered banners and +hangings. The pillars supporting the roof were covered with copper +plates beaten into beautiful patterns and the altars were of silver, the +chief one, as in all Bhutanese chapels, being adorned by a splendid pair +of elephant's tusks. Idols abounded. There was a central seated figure +of Buddha thirty feet high, heavily gilt and studded with turquoises and +precious stones, with a canopy and background of golden lotus leaves. On +either side were attendant female figures; and images of Buddhist gods, +larger than life size, stood in double rows. + +Muriel concealed herself behind the colossal statue of Buddha and had +not long to wait before from her hiding-place she saw two maskers, the +Snake and the Dragon, enter the Temple cautiously. The latter remained +on guard at the door while his companion, who carried a bundle, advanced +furtively towards the great idol. As he drew near he opened the jaws of +the mask and said in a low tone: + +"Muriel! Muriel! Are you here?" + +At the sound of the well-remembered voice the girl trembled violently. +Her heart beat quickly as she came out from behind the statue. When he +beheld her the masker lifted the snake's head off; and Muriel saw that +the face revealed, disguised and stained a dull yellow, was that of her +lover. At the sight of it she forgot the painful past, forgot her +grievance against him, forgot the other woman, the sorrow that he had +caused her. As he sprang towards her with outstretched arms she cried: + +"Oh, thank God you've come, dear!" + +Frank caught her in his eager embrace. Then under the image of the Great +Dreamer who taught that Love is Illusion, that Affection is Error, that +Desire but binds closer to the revolving Wheel they kissed fondly, +passionately, like two faithful lovers met again after a lifetime of +parting. And the grotesque Devil-Gods around glared fiercely at them. +But the Lord Buddha looked mildly down, on his sculptured face the +ineffable calm of _Nirvana_, the peace of freedom from all Desire +attained at last. But, heedless of gods or devils, the man strained the +woman to his heart and rained kisses on her lips, her eyes, her hair. + +There was little time for dalliance. Danger encompassed them. Wargrave +produced from the bundle that he carried a mask and a costume with a +pair of high, felt-soled boots, which effectively disguised Muriel. Then +they joined Tashi; and the three passed out into the vestibule only just +in time, for here they found a group of lamas and peasants from a +distant part of the country stopping for a moment to look at the great +pictured Cycle of Existence painted on the wall before they entered the +temple. The vestibule opened on to a courtyard lined with the cells of +the monks of the monastery and, as this led to the great quadrangle in +which the Miracle Play was being performed, a stream of mummers, lamas +and laymen was passing through it, mostly going to the spectacle, +although a few were coming away from it. With Muriel clinging closely to +him Wargrave followed Tashi as he pushed his way through the crowd, +exchanging jokes and careless banter as he went. + +The rabbit-warren of steep lanes, flights of steps and bridges over +ravines through the town built on the precipitous slopes of the hill was +almost deserted, for most of the inhabitants had flocked to the Devil +Dance. So, unmolested and unnoticed, they reached the caravanserai in +which the two men had lodged for several days before the festival. Here +they hurriedly changed their costumes. When they emerged from it Muriel, +her hair cropped almost to the scalp and her face stained a yellowish +tint, was garbed as a boy-novice of a lamasery in the priestly dress, +with a great rosary round her neck. In one hand she held a begging-bowl +while with the other she guided the feeble steps of the aged lama whose +disciple she was supposed to be. Behind them limped a lame lay-brother +of their monastery. + +In this disguise the fugitives met with no hindrance as they quitted the +town for the open country, heading towards the south. Only when well +clear of the houses did Frank and Muriel venture to converse in their +own language. Wargrave narrated all that had happened to him since they +had parted. Anyone watching them beyond earshot would have wondered at +the joy that shone in the face of the young _chela_ (disciple) clasping +the hand of the old priest and gazing affectionately at him as they went +along; for Frank was telling the girl of Violet's letter which had set +him free. He described his many fruitless attempts to cross the +frontier, his fortunate meeting with Badshah and the marvellous way in +which the wonderful animal had helped him. Safely inside Bhutan he and +Tashi had parted with the elephants in what appeared to be the same +forest as the one in which Colonel Dermot and they had left the herd on +their previous entry into the country. Frank had tried to imitate his +chief in ordering Badshah to meet them there again; but he was very +doubtful of the result. + +They had not found it difficult to follow the trail left by Muriel's +abductors, for once inside the border the Chinamen had not tried to +hide themselves. At every village along the rough road Tashi had learned +of their passing with their captive, so the two had followed them +without difficulty to Tuna, where they soon discovered where the girl +was imprisoned. The festival had offered them an unhoped-for opportunity +of rescuing her. Tashi, once a star performer in similar devil dances in +his own monastery, procured costumes and taught his companion what to +do. As the number of those taking part in the performances ran to +hundreds it was easy to slip in unobserved among them. + +Then Muriel told of her adventures. But, far more interesting to both +than the details of these mere happenings, each revealed to the other +the longings, the love, the hopes and fears, that had filled his and her +heart during the unhappy period of their estrangement. + +Now began a wonderful odyssey that, but for the dread of pursuit and +capture would have seemed a journey in Fairyland to the re-united +lovers. Indeed, as they travelled on day after day and danger seemed +left behind, they forgot everything in the joy of being together once +more, their vows exchanged, their faith pledged, the Future a long vista +of golden days of delight. It was well that Tashi was with them to be on +the watch, for the lovers walked with their heads in the clouds. + +And certainly theirs was an interesting pilgrimage. Bhutan is perhaps +the least-known country in Asia, the last that has kept its cherished +seclusion since Anglo-Indian troops burst the barrier of Tibet and +flaunted the Union Jack in the streets of the fabled city of Lhassa. But +Bhutan is still a secret, a mysterious, land. Only a few British Envoys, +from Bogle in the latter half of the 18th Century to Claude White and +Bell in the beginning of this, and their companions, had intruded on its +privacy before Colonel Dermot. So that for the lovers it had all the +fascination of the unknown. + +Sometimes, among the ice-clad peaks of the giant ranges of the +Himalayas, they crossed snowy passes fourteen thousand feet above the +sea, and did not neglect to throw a stone upon the _obos_--the cairns +that pious and superstitious travellers erect to propitiate the spirits +of the passes. Sometimes the path led under beautiful cliffs of pure +white crystalline limestone that in the brilliant sunlight shone like +the finest marble. Often they journeyed through a lovely land of +gently-sloping hills, of grassy uplands, of deep valleys giving +delightful vistas of snow-clad mountains far away. They walked through +pinewoods, through forests of maple, silver fir, and larch, and miles of +huge bushes of flowering rhododendrons. They toiled up a rough and stony +track over bare and desolate land that was an old moraine and under +moraine terraces one above another, forming giant spurs of the rugged +hills. There were dark and fearsome ravines, so deep that they could +scarcely hear the roar of the foaming torrents rushing among the great +boulders below as they crossed on swaying suspension bridges of iron +chains. These had been built hundreds of years before by long-forgotten +Chinese engineers. Three chains on one level supported the bamboo or +plank footway, while one on either side served as a hand-rail, and a +bamboo or grass lattice-work between them and the roadbearers hid from +sight the deep gorge below. Often these bridges were only of ropes of +twisted withes or grass and swung and swayed in terrifying fashion with +the motion of the traveller. There were broad rivers over the eddying, +swirling waters of which strong cantilever bridges of stout wooden beams +were pushed out from the steep banks. + +Truly a beautiful land Bhutan, at its loveliest perhaps in spring, when +the hills and upland meadows where the yaks graze, ten thousand feet +above the sea, blaze with the mingled colours of anemones blue and +white, of yellow pansies and mauve and white irises, of large white +roses and small yellow ones, of giant yellow primulas with six tiers of +flowers, when the oaks and the chestnuts are clothed in young green, and +the apricot, pear and orange trees are in bloom, when large and lovely +blossoms cover that little-known tree that the Bhutanese call _chape_, +when the bright green of the young grass runs up to the white +snowfields. The woods are full of a pretty ground orchid, beautiful +trailing blossoms of others droop from the boughs of the great trees, +and on the magnesium limestone hills one of the rarest orchids grows in +profusion. + +But to the two pilgrims of Love the land seemed beautiful even now that +the winter was not far distant. In the silent woods, hidden from prying +eyes, they sat hand in hand and whispered to each other over and over +again the oldest, sweetest story that the Earth has known. Strange to +hear words of love from the lips of such a weird-looking couple; yet +Muriel in her quaint disguise with her silky hair cropped to the scalp +was as beautiful in her lover's eyes as when he had seen her in her +prettiest frocks. And she thought the yellow-skinned, wrinkled old lama +infinitely more attractive than the gay young subaltern of Ranga +Duar--for he was her own now. Such is Love's glamour. Muriel had +forgiven royally. + +Bhutan is a Buddhist-ruled land, therefore slaying for sport and fishing +in the rivers is prohibited; nay, more, the Maharajah sometimes forbids +the killing of even domestic animals for food. So wild life abounds. The +fugitives often saw flocks of burhel--called _nao_ in Bhutan--feeding on +the precipitous slopes of the higher hills. Once Frank and Muriel +excitedly watched a snow-leopard stalking one of these big-horned sheep +sixteen thousand feet above the sea-level. And in these heights they +even saw an occasional lynx or wolf, generally only to be found in the +highest elevations bordering on Tibet. Silver-haired _langur_ apes, the +white fringes around their black faces giving them a comic resemblance +to aged negroes, awoke the echoes of the mountains with their deep +booming cry; while in the lower valleys little brown monkeys mopped and +mowed from the trees at the fugitives as they passed. On one occasion +Muriel, exhilarated by the keen, life-giving air, ran gaily on ahead of +the others in a wood--and came on a tiger enjoying its midday siesta. +But the striped brute only uttered a startled "Wough! Wough!" like a big +dog and dashed away through the undergrowth. Another time they disturbed +a red bear feeding on the carcase of a strange beast that seemed a +mixture of goat, donkey and deer--Tashi called it a _serao_. And at a +lower elevation they blundered on two black bears--not flesh-eaters +these, yet more dangerous--grubbing for roots, and on another occasion +saw one climbing a tree in search of wild bees' nests. + +In a dense jungle early one morning a beautiful black panther with a +skin like watered silk glided stealthily by them, showing its white +fangs and red mouth in an angry snarl as it went. And deep down in a +valley they espied a rhinoceros feeding a thousand feet below them. But +they came across no elephants; and Frank noted the fact despairingly as +rendering even less probable a meeting with Badshah and his herd. + +Bird-life abounded, from the snow partridges that flew in the hills +eighteen thousand feet high to pigeons of every kind: birds of all +sizes, from great eagles to the little quails that hid in the +cornfields; lammergeiers that were fed on human bodies, the dead of +families of high degree, exposed on a flat rock of slate with head and +shoulders tied to a wooden axle that stretched the corpse like a rack. +In Bhutan ordinary folk are cremated. + +On their journey the fugitives met with wayfarers of every rank and +class. On a steep mountain track they stood aside to let a high official +go by. He was sitting pickaback in a cloth on a powerfully-built +servant, the ends of the cloth knotted on the man's forehead. Behind +trudged an escort of bare-legged swordsmen with leather shields and +shining steel helmets. Coolies, male and female, followed, carrying the +great man's baggage in baskets placed in the crutch of forked sticks +tied on their backs. Sometimes they passed a rival lama glaring with +jealous eye at them. Often they met groups of raiyats, sturdy peasants, +thick-limbed, bare-footed, bare-headed, the women clear-eyed, +deep-bosomed, but uglier than the males. These did reverence to the holy +men and put their modest offerings of copper coins or food into Muriel's +begging-bowl. + +Another time it was a family group at food, eating by the wayside. The +group consisted of a stout, ruddy-faced woman with close-cropped hair, +hung with many necklaces of coral and turquoise, and waited on by her +three meek and submissive husbands, all brothers--for this is a land of +polyandry. She invited the fugitives to share their meal, and bade her +dutiful spouses serve the supposed lamas. They proffered cooked rice +coloured with saffron and other food in the excellent Bhutanese baskets +woven with very finely split cane. These are made in two circular parts +with rounded top and bottom pieces fitting so well that water can +actually be carried in them. From sealed wicker-covered bamboos the +hosts filled _choongas_ (bamboo mugs) with _murwa_, the beer of the +country, and _chang_, the native spirit. Frank and Muriel refused the +liquor; but Tashi drank their share as well as his, to give the pious +peasants an opportunity of acquiring merit. And wife and husbands +thought themselves amply rewarded by a muttered blessing. + +A very different figure was that of a man lame of the right leg and +limping painfully down a steep hill in front of the fugitives. Muriel, +full of pity, whispered to her lover after they had passed him: "Oh, the +poor wretch! Did you see, dear, he had lost the right hand as well?" But +she shuddered when she learned that the cripple was a murderer punished +by the severing of the tendons of the leg and the loss of the hand that +struck the fatal blow. + +In the cultivated valleys, where barley, buckwheat and mustard grew, +there were everywhere evidences of the religious feeling of the Western +Bhutanese. Every hill was crowned with a _gompa_ or chapel, _chortens_ +and praying-wheels stood beside the road, and _mendongs_ or +praying-walls, a mile long, their stones engraved with sacred words, +were built near habitations. + +In the villages the disguised fugitives were well treated. Food and +lodging were offered them freely in the cabins as in the great houses of +officials and rich folks, where they spent hours watching the skilled +artisans among the feudal retainers of their hosts weaving silk, making +woollen and cotton garments, brocade and embroideries, or hammering +artistic designs on silver or copper plates backed with lac. None +suspected the three of being other than they seemed. The Buddhism of +Bhutan and Tibet to-day has but one article of faith--"Acquire merit by +feeding and paying the lamas and they will win salvation for you." So +rich and poor vied in giving their best to the holy wayfarers, and +sought not to intrude on the meditations or privacy of lama and _chela_, +and welcomed the cheery company of the more worldly lay brother who +could crack a joke or empty a mug with any man and pitch the stone +quoits or shoot an arrow in the archery contests better than the village +champion. + +Thus, contentedly and free from care, the three fugitives wandered on +towards the south where on the frontier they expected their troubles to +begin. One day when passing a hamlet by the roadside they tarried to +look on at a wedding at which a buxom country maid was being married to +a family of six brothers. The village headman performed the simple +ceremony, which consisted of offering a bowl of _murwa_ to the gods, +then presenting a cupful to the bride and eldest bridegroom, blessing +them, and expressing a hope that the union might be a fruitful one. The +rest, after the usual presents had been given to the bride's relatives, +was simply a matter of feasting everyone. The stranger lamas were +invited to join; but Frank refused and dragged away the convivial Tashi, +who was anxious to accept the invitation. Wargrave with difficulty led +him aside and was so occupied in arguing with his discontented guide +that he did not notice that Muriel had not followed. + +A sudden cry from her and his name shrieked out wildly made him turn in +alarm. To his horror he saw the girl struggling in the grasp of a +Chinaman, while another on a mule and holding the bridle of a second +animal was calling on the villagers in the Penlop's name to assist his +comrade. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +A STRANGE RESCUE + + +Neither Muriel, absorbed in watching the wedding, nor the two men +engrossed in their dispute had noticed the Chinese come riding along the +road and pulling up when they saw the peasants gathered together. One of +them had been about to question the villagers from his saddle when his +eyes fell on the disguised girl standing apart from the crowd. He stared +at her for a few moments. Then he spoke hurriedly to his companions, +and, springing from the mule's back seized Muriel in a rough grasp. + +At her cry Frank ran back, forgetting his disguise. He recognised in her +assailant the pock-marked officer of the _Amban_. The man, seeing him +coming, drew a revolver; but Wargrave whipped out his pistol quicker and +without hesitation shot him through the heart. The Chinaman collapsed to +the ground and in his fall dragged the girl down. His comrade fired at +his slayer and, missing him, wheeled his mule round and galloped off. +Tashi returned the shot while Frank ran to Muriel. He fired several +times and the rider was apparently hit; for he fell forward on the neck +of his animal; but he recovered himself and, crouching low, was still +in the saddle when a turn in the road hid him from sight. + +The startled villagers scattered and fled in terror at the tragedy +suddenly enacted in their midst, the six cowardly husbands deserting +their new-made wife and leaving her to follow as they ran away, which +she did at her utmost speed. + +Frank freed Muriel from the stiffened grasp of the dead man and helped +her to her feet; then the three hurried from the fatal spot, so lately +filled by a cheerful crowd of merrymakers and now tenanted only by the +corpse that lay with sightless eyes staring up at the blue sky. They +made for the shelter of jungle-clad hills that rose a couple of miles +away. + +From now onwards, for two or three weeks, the fugitives led the lives of +hunted rats. They travelled generally only by night, avoiding villages +and farms, and keeping away from the road as much as possible. They were +in the southern zone of Bhutan lying nearest the Indian frontier, a +region of precipitous hills ten or twelve thousand feet high, their +sides clothed with dense vegetation, of deep, fever-laden valleys of +awe-inspiring gorges, of rivers liable to sudden floods and rising in a +few hours thirty or forty feet. + +Tashi in various disguises occasionally visited villages in search of +food and information; while the lovers awaited his return in some hidden +spot, Frank holding the anxious girl in his arms and trying to calm her +fears. In one excursion the ex-lama got the first definite news of the +pursuit. He learned that the _Amban_ had returned unexpectedly to Tuna, +the plot in his favour in Pekin having failed. He was not satisfied by +the tales told by the monks of the lamasery to account for Muriel's +mysterious disappearance, which was that she had been carried off by +devils. He insisted on a search being made for her along the road to the +Indian border and sent his own Chinese guards to direct the pursuit. The +companion of the pock-marked man had got back to Tuna and told of their +recognition of her. Yuan Shi Hung, furious at the death of his officer +but overjoyed at the discovery of the girl, set out at once with his +personal followers and a body of the Penlop's soldiers to take up the +chase. + +The fugitives, hotly pursued, had several hair-breadth escapes. Once +they almost blundered into a bivouac of their enemies at night. They +succeeded at last in reaching the great forest in which Wargrave and the +ex-lama had parted from the elephants, the forest which ran along the +foot and clothed the northern slopes of the second-last range of +mountains between them and the frontier. But alas! there was no trace of +Badshah's herd; yet this was not surprising, for they found themselves +in a part unknown to them. Through this vast jungle they travelled by +day, until one evening they reached a deep gorge that pierced the range +and seemed to promise a passage through the mountains. + +They camped for the night by its mouth, intending to enter it at +sunrise. Dawn found them breaking their fast on a scanty meal of dried +mutton and bananas. Suddenly Tashi stopped eating and held up a warning +hand. His companions drew their pistols, Frank having given his second +weapon to Muriel. Presently they heard the faint sounds of an animal's +approach on their track. Just as they had risen silently to their feet +three gigantic dogs appeared, scenting their trail. They were Tibetan +mastiffs, such as are to be seen chained in the court yards of +lamaseries. At sight of them the huge brutes stopped, crouched for an +instant, showing their fangs in a fierce snarl, and then rushed at them. + +Without hesitation the three fired. One of the dogs dropped dead; but +the others, though wounded, came on. One bounded at Muriel. Frank threw +himself in front of her, firing rapidly at it. Several bullets struck +it, but the savage brute sprang at his throat. He grappled with it, +striving by main strength to hold it off. Muriel rushed to his aid and +putting her pistol to the mastiff's head shot it dead. Tashi meantime +had killed the third. + +Knowing that their pursuers must be close behind the dogs they fled into +the gorge. On either hand stupendous cliffs towered up two thousand feet +above them, scarcely a hundred yards apart, seeming to meet overhead +and shut off the sky. Here and there the giant walls were split from top +to bottom in slits opening off the main passage. As the fugitives ran on +the gorge narrowed until it was scarcely fifty yards wide, and they +began to fear that it might prove only a _cul-de-sac_ in which they +would be hopelessly trapped. They heard cries behind them, strangely +echoed by the rocky walls. Breathless, panting, their tired limbs giving +way under them, they staggered blindly on. + +The pass turned sharply to the right. As they approached the bend they +became aware of a dull rumbling, and the ground, which suddenly began to +slope steeply down, shook violently under their feet. Wondering what new +danger, what fresh horror, awaited them they stumbled on, turned the +corner and stopped short in dismayed despair. + +From side to side the gorge was filled with a tumultuous, racing flood +of foam-flecked water, a rushing river that poured out of a natural +tunnel in the steeply sloping rocky bottom of the pass as from a sluice. +It surged against the precipitous cliffs, leaping up against the walls +that hemmed it in, sweeping in mad onset of white-topped waves and +eddying whirlpools flinging spray high in air. The stoutest swimmer +would be tossed about helplessly in it, rolled over and over, choked, +suffocated, sucked under, the life beaten out of him. + +For one wild moment Frank thought of seizing Muriel in his arms and +springing into the raging flood, but the sheer hopelessness of escape +that way checked him. It was certain death. Better to turn and face +their pursuers. There was more chance of life in battling with a score +or two of Bhutanese swordsmen than with the tumbling, tossing waters. + +So, pistol in hand, the three retraced their steps, looking everywhere +for a suitable spot to make a stand. But on either hand the cliffs rose +sheer, their faces seamed here and there with cracks, but with never a +crevice big enough to shelter them. They passed the bend; and a few +hundred yards beyond it some large rocks fallen from the cliff on one +side lay close against its base. + +Frank resolved to take their stand here. It was the only cover visible. +They fitted the holster-stocks to their pistols, converting them into +carbines which could be fired from the shoulder, enabling them to aim +more accurately at a longer range. Then while Tashi crept cautiously +along the pass to scout, the subaltern and the girl examined the +position for defence. Thus occupied they were startled by shots ringing +out, echoing down the vast canyon. Taking cover they saw their companion +running back followed by a body of men, a few mounted, the majority on +foot. Some had fire-arms, others bows, the rest swords. + +Wargrave and Muriel opened on the pursuers with their automatic weapons +and checked them. Tashi was about a hundred yards from shelter when a +shot struck him. He stumbled and fell, while a howl of delight rose from +his foes. As he tried to struggle up bullets kicked up the dust round +him and several arrows dropped near. + +"Muriel, loose off as many cartridges as you can to cover me," said +Wargrave, laying his pistol beside her. + +Before the girl realised his meaning he had sprung out from the rocks +and was running towards Tashi. For a moment the pursuers were puzzled by +his action and then fired their rifles and matchlocks and shot arrows at +him. But unscathed he reached the wounded man who had been so faithful a +comrade to him. Raising him on his back he staggered towards the rocks, +while Muriel pumped lead at the enemy and succeeded in keeping down +their fire somewhat. As Wargrave laid the ex-lama on the ground in +shelter Tashi seized his hand and touched it with his lips and forehead +in silent gratitude. Frank hurriedly examined and bandaged the wound +made by a large-calibre bullet, which had passed through the leg below +the knee, lacerating the muscles but not injuring the bone. Then he took +up his post again, while Tashi dragged himself up behind a rock and +opened fire on their foes. + +These were for the most part Bhutanese, but there were several Chinese +among them. + +"Look! Look, Frank! There's the _Amban_," cried Muriel excitedly, +pointing to a man who rode into sight along the pass on a white mule. + +She fired at him. The bullet missed him but apparently went unpleasantly +close, for Yuan Shi Hung galloped back into shelter behind a projecting +buttress of the cliffs. + +The attackers numbered sixty or eighty. They were apparently staggered +by the rapid fire poured into them, which killed or wounded several of +them. Some tried to find shelter by huddling against the side of the +pass and others flung themselves on the ground behind boulders; but the +leaders urged them on. + +There could be little doubt as to the issue of the fight. The bullets +from the Chinamen's rifles and the Bhutanese matchlocks spattered the +rocks or the face of the cliff; but the archers began to shoot almost +vertically into the air from their strong bamboo bows, and several +iron-tipped, four-feathered arrows dropped behind the cover, one missing +Wargrave by a hand's breadth. + +Fearing for Muriel he tried to shield her with his body. + +"What's the use, dearest?" she said. "If you are killed I don't want to +live. Indeed, we must both die now. I shall not be taken alive. Kiss me +and tell me once more that you love me." + +He held her to his heart in a passionate embrace and kissed her fondly. + +"They are coming now, sahib," said Tashi. "And I have only a few +cartridges left." + +The lovers paid no heed. + +"Goodbye, my dear, dear love," whispered Muriel, "I'm happier dying with +you than living without you." + +Frank kissed her, solemnly now, for the last time. Then they turned to +face the enemy. The swordsmen were massing for a charge. Crouching low +they held their shields before them and waved their long-bladed _dahs_ +above their heads, uttering fierce yells. + +Suddenly the _Amban_ and other mounted men who had been sheltering out +of sight dashed into view and rode madly into the rear ranks, knocking +down and trampling on anyone in their way. The men on foot looked behind +and broke into a run, coming on in a disordered mob. But it was not a +charge--it was more like a panic. For with wild cries of frantic terror +they fled past the defenders who, fearing a trick, fired their last +cartridges into them, dropping several, some of whom tried to rise and +drag themselves on in dread of something terrible behind. + +Then into sight came a vast herd of wild elephants, filling the gorge +from cliff to cliff and moving at a slow trot. A huge bull led them, +lines of other tuskers behind him, crowds of females and calves +bringing up the rear. The onset of the mass of great monsters was +terrifying. It was appalling, irresistible. + +Muriel cried out: + +"It's Badshah! Frank, it's Badshah! Look at the leader! Don't you see?" + +Tashi stared at the oncoming herd. Then he quietly unfixed his pistol +and put it away in the holster. + +"We are saved, sahib," he said with the calm fatalism of the East. "The +God of the Elephants has sent them." + +And he limped out from behind the rocks. The two Europeans followed him. +Their foes had disappeared, all but the dead and wounded. + +Badshah--for it was he--swerved out of his course and came to them, +while the herd went on, opening out to pass him as he sank to his knees +before the humans. Tashi, despite his wound, climbed on to his neck, +while Wargrave mounted behind him and Muriel took her seat on the broad +back, clinging to her lover. Then the tusker rose and moved swiftly +after the herd. + +As he rounded the bend a strange sight met the eyes of those he carried. +Their enemies were huddled together in terror near the brink of the +tunnel from which the surging water rushed out. Some endeavoured to +pluck up courage to throw themselves into the river, while the majority +had turned to face the elephants. But they were paralysed with fright. A +few tried to discharge their fire-arms or loosed their arrows with +trembling hands. As the elephants, quickening their pace, rushed on in +an irresistible mass some of the men, crazed with fright, ran to meet +them. Others flung themselves to the ground where they were. + +But over both the great monsters passed, treading them to pulp under the +ponderous feet. The animals of the mounted men, as terrified as their +riders, swung about and sprang headlong into the river. Many of the men +on foot did the same. The heads of animals and men appeared and +disappeared, bobbing up and down, then their bodies were rolled over and +over, tossed up on the waves and sucked under. One by one they +disappeared. + +A few of the panic-stricken mob had tried to climb the precipitous +cliffs in vain. One, however, getting his hands into a narrow, slanting +crack, dragged himself up a few feet. + +It was the _Amban_. Frank drew his pistol; but Muriel clung to his arm +and cried: + +"Oh, spare the poor wretch!" + +Tashi had no scruples, but his magazine was empty and he searched in +vain for a cartridge. + +But Yuan Shi Hung's time had come. Badshah's trunk shot out and caught +the climber's ankle. The Chinaman was plucked from the face of the cliff +and hurled to the ground. A frenzied shriek burst from him as the tusk +was driven into his shuddering body, which in an instant was trodden to +a bloody pulp. Muriel hid her face against her lover, but the agony of +the wretch's dying yell rang in her ears. + +Not one of their enemies was left alive. Then the elephants one by one +slid and slithered down into the rushing water which was very little +below the brink. The mothers supported the youngest calves with their +trunks, the less immature climbing on to their backs. Tashi checked +Badshah as he was about to follow the herd into the river and, lame as +he was, slid down to the ground. He searched the crushed and mangled +corpses of his fellow-countrymen and collected their girdles until he +had enough to knot and plait into two ropes, one to go about Badshah's +neck, the other around the great body. More girdles sufficed to join +these together and supply cords by which the men and the woman on his +back could tie themselves on to the ropes and to each other securely. +When this was done Badshah slid into the river. As elephants do he sank +in the water until only the upper part of his head and the tip of his +upraised trunk were above it. Without the precaution that Tashi had +taken his riders would have been instantly swept away. + +Only elephants could have battled successfully with that raging torrent. +The upflung spray and leaping waves hid the herd from the fugitives as +they clung desperately to the ropes and to each other. + + * * * * * + +Eighteen months had gone by. In the garden of the Political Agent's +bungalow in Ranga Duar Colonel Dermot, completely restored to health, +and his wife stood with his Assistant, Major Hunt and Macdonald. They +were watching Mrs. Wargrave who, with Brian and Eileen clinging to her, +was holding out her two months' old baby to a great elephant with a +single tusk. The animal raised its trunk as though in salute, then, +lowering it, gently touched with its sensitive tip the laughing infant +whose tiny hand instinctively clutched it and held it fast. + +With a smile Muriel turned her head and looked at her husband. + +"Badshah has accepted him. Your son is free of the herd," said Colonel +Dermot. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE JUNGLE GIRL*** + + +******* This file should be named 14087.txt or 14087.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/0/8/14087 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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