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diff --git a/2138.txt b/2138.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e5ef577 --- /dev/null +++ b/2138.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8271 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Day's Work/Part I, by Kipling +#8 in our series by Rudyard Kipling + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +This Project Gutenberg Etext was prepared by Bill Stoddard +hscrr@vgernet.net + + + + + +THE DAY'S WORK - PART I + +By RUDYARD KIPLING + + + + +CONTENTS + +PART I + +THE BRIDGE-BUILDERS + +A WALKING DELEGATE + +THE SHIP THAT FOUND HERSELF + +THE TOMB OF HIS ANCESTORS. + +THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP SEA + +WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR- PART I + +WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR - PART II + +THE SON OF HIS FATHER + +THE BRIDGE-BUILDERS + +The least that Findlayson, of the Public Works Department, +expected was a C.I.E.; he dreamed of a C. S. I. Indeed, his +friends told him that he deserved more. For three years he had +endured heat and cold, disappointment, discomfort, danger, and +disease, with responsibility almost to top-heavy for one pair of +shoulders; and day by day, through that time, the great Kashi +Bridge over the Ganges had grown under his charge. Now, in less +than three months, if all went well, his Excellency the Viceroy +would open the bridge in state, an archbishop would bless it, +and the first trainload of soldiers would come over it, and +there would be speeches. + +Findlayson, C. E., sat in his trolley on a construction line that +ran along one of the main revetments - the huge stone-faced +banks that flared away north and south for three miles on either +side of the river and permitted himself to think of the end. +With its approaches, his work was one mile and three-quarters in +length; a lattice~girder bridge, trussed with the Findlayson +truss standing on seven-and-twenty brick piers. Each one of those +piers was twenty-four feet in diameter, capped with red Agra +stone and sunk eighty feet below the shifting sand of the Ganges' +bed. Above them was a railway-line fifteen feet broad; above +that, again, a cart-road of eighteen feet, flanked with +footpaths. At either end rose towers, of red brick, loopholed +for musketry and pierced for big guns, and the ramp of the road +was being pushed forward to their haunches. The raw earth-ends +were crawling and alive with hundreds upon hundreds of tiny asses +climbing out of the yawning borrow-pit below with sackfuls of +stuff; and the hot afternoon air was filled with the noise of +hooves, the rattle of the drivers' sticks, and the swish and +roll-down of the dirt. The river was very low, and on the +dazzling white sand between the three centre piers stood squat +cribs of railway~sleepers, filled within and daubed without with +mud, to support the last of the girders as those were riveted up. +In the little deep water left by the drought, an overhead crane +travelled to and fro along its spile-pier, jerking sections of +iron into place, snorting and backing and grunting as an elephant +grunts in the timberyard. Riveters by the hundred swarmed about +the lattice side-work and the iron roof of the railway line hung +from invisible staging under the bellies of the girders, +clustered round the throats of the piers, and rode on the +overhang +of the footpath-stanchions; their fire-pots and the spurts of +flame that answered each hammer-stroke showing no more than pale +yellow in the sun's glare. East and west and north and south the +construction-trains rattled and shrieked up and down the +embankments, the piled trucks of brown and white stone banging +behind them till the side-boards were unpinned, and with a roar +and a grumble a few thousand tons' more material were flung out +to hold the river in place. Findlayson, C. E., turned on his +trolley and looked over the face of the country that he had +changed for seven miles around. Looked back on the humming +village of five thousand work-men; up stream and down, along the +vista of spurs and sand; across the river to the far piers, +lessening in the haze; overhead to the guard-towers -and only he +knew how strong those were - and with a sigh of contentment saw +that his work was good. There stood his bridge before him in +the sunlight, lacking only a few weeks' work on the girders of +the three middle piers - his bridge, raw and ugly as original +sin, but pukka - permanent - to endure when all memory of the +builder, yea, even of the splendid Findlayson truss, has +perished. Practically, the thing was done. + +Hitchcock, his assistant, cantered along the line on a little +switch-tailed Kabuli pony who through long practice could have +trotted securely over trestle,and nodded to his chief. + +"All but," said he, with a smile. + +"I've been thinking about it," the senior answered. "'Not half a +bad job for two men, is it?" + +"One - and a half. 'Gad, what a Cooper's Hill cub I was when I +came on the works!" Hitchcock felt very old in the crowded +experiences of the past three years, that had taught him power +and responsibility. + +"You were rather a colt," said Findlayson. "I wonder how you'll +like going back to office-work when this job's over." + +"I shall hate it!" said the young man, and as he went on his eye +followed Findlayson's, and he muttered, "Isn't it damned good?" + +"I think we'll go up the service together," Findlayson said to +himself. "You're too good a youngster to waste on another man. +Cub thou wast; assistant thou art. Personal assistant, and at +Simla, thou shalt be, if any credit comes to me out of the +business!" + +Indeed, the burden of the work had fallen altogether on +Findlayson and his assistant, the young man whom he had chosen +because of his rawness to break to his own needs. There were +labour contractors by the half-hundred - fitters and riveters, +European, borrowed from the railway workshops, with, perhaps, +twenty white and half-caste subordinates to direct, under +direction, the bevies of workmen - but none knew better than +these two, who trusted each other, how the underlings were not +to be trusted. They had been tried many times in sudden crises +- by slipping of booms, by breaking of tackle, failure of cranes, +and the wrath of the river - but no stress had brought to light +any man among men whom Findlayson and Hitchcock would have +honoured by working as remorselessly as they worked them-selves. +Findlayson thought it over from the beginning: the months of +office-work destroyed at a blow when the Government of India, at +the last moment, added two feet to the width of the bridge, under +the impression that bridges were cut out of paper, and so brought +to ruin at least half an acre of calculations- and Hitchcock, new +to disappointment, buried his head in his arms and wept; the +heart-breaking delays over the filling of the contracts in +England; the futile correspondences hinting at great wealth of +commissions if one, only one, rather doubtful consignment were +passed; the war that followed the refusal; the careful, polite +obstruction at the other end that followed the war, till young +Hitchcock, putting one month's leave to another month, and +borrowing ten days from Findlayson, spent his poor little savings +of a year in a wild dash to London, and there, as his own tongue +asserted and the later consignments proved, put the fear of God +into a man so great that he feared only Parliament and said so +till Hitchcock wrought with him across his own dinner table, and +- he feared the Kashi Bridge and all who spoke in its name. Then +there was the cholera that came in the night to the village by +the bridge works; and after the cholera smote the small-pox. The +fever they had always with them. Hitchcock had been appointed a +magistrate of the third class with whipping powers, for the +better government of the community, and Findlayson watched him +wield his powers temperately, learning what to overlook and what +to look after. It was a long, long reverie, and it covered +storm, sudden freshets, death in every manner and shape, violent +and awful rage against red tape half frenzying a mind that knows +it should be busy on other things; drought, sanitation, finance; +birth, wedding, burial, and riot in the village of twenty warring +castes; argument, expostulation, persuasion, and the blank +despair that a man goes to bed upon, thankful that his rifle is +all in pieces in the gun-case. Behind everything rose the black +frame of the Kashi Bridge - plate by plate, girder by girder, +span by span - and each pier of it recalled Hitchcock, the +all-round man, who had stood by his chief without failing from +the very first to this last. + +So the bridge was two men's work - unless one counted Peroo, as +Peroo certainly counted himself. He was a Lascar, a Kharva from +Bulsar, familiar with every port between Rockhampton and London, +who had risen to the rank of serang on the British India boats, +but wearying of routine musters and clean clothes, had thrown up +the service and gone inland, where men of his calibre were sure +of employment. For his knowledge of tackle and the handling of +heavy weights, Peroo was worth almost any price he might have +chosen to put upon his services; but custom decreed the wage of +the overhead-men, and Peroo was not within many silver pieces of +his proper value. Neither running water nor extreme heights made +him afraid; and, as an ex-serang, he knew how to hold authority. +No piece of iron was so big or so badly placed that Peroo could +not devise a tackle to lift it - a loose-ended, sagging +arrangement, rigged with a scandalous amount of talking, but +perfectly equal to the work in hand. It was Peroo who had saved +the girder of Number Seven pier from destruction when the new +wire-rope jammed in the eye of the crane, and the huge plate +tilted in its slings, threatening to slide out sideways. Then +the native workmen lost their heads with great shoutings, and +Hitchcock's right arm was broken by a falling T-plate, and he +buttoned it up in his coat and swooned, and came to and directed +for four hours till Peroo, from the top of the crane, reported +"All's well," and the plate swung home. There was no one like +Peroo, serang, to lash, and guy, and hold, to control the +donkey-engines, to hoist a fallen locomotive craftily out of the +borrow-pit into which it had tumbled; to strip, and dive, if need +be, to see how the concrete blocks round the piers stood the +scouring of Mother Gunga, or to adventure upstream on a monsoon +night and report on the state of the embankment-facings. He +would interrupt the field-councils of Findlayson and Hitchcock +without fear, till his wonderful English, or his still more +wonderful lingua franca, half Portuguese and half Malay, ran out +and he was forced to take string and show the knots that he would +recommend. He controlled his own gang of tackle men - +mysterious relatives from Kutch Mandvi gathered month by month +and tried to the uttermost. No consideration of family or kin +allowed Peroo to keep weak hands or a giddy head on the +pay-roll. "My honour is the honour of this bridge," he would +say to the about-to-be-dismissed. "What do I care for your +honour? Go and work on a steamer. That is all you are fit for." + +The little cluster of huts where he and his gang lived centred +round the tattered dwelling of a sea-priest - one who had never +set foot on black water, but had been chosen as ghostly +counsellor by two generations of sea-rovers all unaffected by +port missions or those creeds which are thrust upon sailors by +agencies along Thames bank. The priest of the Lascars had +nothing to do with their caste, or indeed with anything at all. +He ate the offerings of his church, and slept and smoked, and +slept again, "for," said Peroo, who had haled him a thousand +miles inland, "he is a very holy man. He never cares what you +eat so long as you do not eat beef, and that is good, because on +land we worship Shiva, we Kharvas; but at sea on the Kumpani's +boats we attend strictly to the orders of the Burra Malum [the +first mate], and on this bridge we observe what Finlinson Sahib +says." + +Finlinson Sahib had that day given orders to clear the +scaffolding from the guard-tower on the right bank, and Peroo +with his mates was casting loose and lowering down the bamboo +poles and planks as swiftly as ever they had whipped the cargo +out of a coaster. + +From his trolley he could hear the whistle of the serang's +silver pipe and the creek and clatter of the pulleys. Peroo was +standing on the top-most coping of the tower, clad in the blue +dungaree of his abandoned service, and as Findlayson motioned to +him to be careful, for his was no life to throw away, he gripped +the last pole, and, shading his eyes ship-fashion, answered with +the long-drawn wail of the fo'c'sle lookout: "Ham dekhta hai" +("I +am looking out"). Findlayson laughed and then sighed. It was +years since he had seen a steamer, and he was sick for home. As +his trolley passed under the tower, Peroo descended by a rope, +ape-fashion, and cried: "It looks well now, Sahib. Our bridge is +all but done. What think you Mother Gunga will say when the rail +runs over?" + +"She has said little so far. It was never Mother Gunga that +delayed us." + +"There is always time for her; and none the less there has been +delay. Has the Sahib forgotten last autumn's flood, when the +stone-boats were sunk without warning - or only a half-day's +warning?" + +"Yes, but nothing save a big flood could hurt us now. The spurs +are holding well on the West Bank." + +"Mother Gunga eats great allowances. There is always room for +more stone on the revetments. I tell this to the Chota Sahib "- +he meant Hitchcock - "and he laughs." + +"No matter, Peroo. Another year thou wilt be able to build a +bridge in thine own fashion." + +The Lascar grinned. "Then it will not be in this way - with +stonework sunk under water, as the Qyetta was sunk. I like +sus-sus-pen-sheen bridges that fly from bank to bank. with one +big step, like a gang-plank. Then no water can hurt. When does +the Lord Sahib come to open the bridge?" + +"In three months, when the weather is cooler." + +"Ho! ho! He is like the Burra Malum. He sleeps below while the +work is being done. Then he comes upon the quarter-deck and +touches with his finger, and says: 'This is not clean! Dam +jibboonwallah!'" + +"But the Lord Sahib does not call me a dam jibboonwallah, Peroo." + +"No, Sahib; but he does not come on deck till the work is all +finished. Even the Burra Malum of the Nerbudda said once at +Tuticorin -" + +"Bah! Go! I am busy." + +"I, also!" said Peroo, with an unshaken countenance. "May I take +the light dinghy now and row along the spurs?" + +"To hold them with thy hands? They are, I think, sufficiently +heavy." + +"Nay, Sahib. It is thus. At sea, on the Black Water, we have +room to be blown up and down without care. Here we have no room +at all. Look you, we have put the river into a dock, and run her +between stone sills." + +Findlayson smiled at the "we." + +"We have bitted and bridled her. She is not like the sea, that +can beat against a soft beach. She is Mother Gunga - in irons." +His voice fell a little. + +"Peroo, thou hast been up and down the world more even than I. +Speak true talk, now. How much dost thou in thy heart believe of +Mother Gunga?" + +"All that our priest says. London is London, Sahib. Sydney is +Sydney, and Port Darwin is Port Darwin. Also Mother Gunga is +Mother Gunga, and when I come back to her banks I know this and +worship. In London I did poojah to the big temple by the river +for the sake of the God within. . . . Yes, I will not take the +cushions in the dinghy." + +Findlayson mounted his horse and trotted to the shed of a +bungalow that he shared with his assistant. The place had +become home to him in the last three years. He had grilled in +the heat, sweated in the rains, and shivered with fever under +the rude thatch roof; the lime-wash beside the door was covered +with rough drawings and formulae, and the sentry-path trodden in +the matting of the verandah showed where he had walked alone. +There is no eight-hour limit to an engineer's work, and the +evening meal with Hitchcock was eaten booted and spurred: over +their cigars they listened to the hum of the village as the +gangs came up from the river-bed and the lights began to +twinkle. + +"Peroo has gone up the spurs in your dinghy. He's taken a couple +of nephews with him, and he's lolling in the stern like a +commodore," said Hitchcock. + +"That's all right. He's got something on his mind. You'd think +that ten years in the British India boats would have knocked +most of his religion out of him." + +"So it has," said Hitchcock, chuckling. "I overheard him the +other day in the middle of a most atheistical talk with that fat +old guru of theirs. Peroo denied the efficacy of prayer; and +wanted the guru to go to sea and watch a gale out with him, and +see if he could stop a monsoon." + +"All the same, if you carried off his guru he'd leave us like a +shot. He was yarning away to me about praying to the dome of St. +Paul's when he was in London." + +"He told me that the first time he went into the engine-room of a +steamer, when he was a boy, he prayed to the low-pressure +cylinder." + +"Not half a bad thing to pray to, either. He's propitiating his +own Gods now, and he wants to know what Mother Gunga will think +of a bridge being run across her. Who's there?" A shadow +darkened the doorway, and a telegram was put into Hitchcock's +hand. + +"She ought to be pretty well used to it by this time. Only a tar. + +It ought to be Ralli's answer about the new rivets. . . . Great +Heavens!" Hitchcock jumped to his feet. + +"What is it?" said the senior, and took the form. "that's what +Mother Gunga thinks, is it," he said, reading. "Keep cool, young +'un. We've got all our work cut out for us. Let's see. Muir wired +half an hour ago: 'Floods on the Ramgunga. Look out.' Well, that +gives us - one, two - nine and a half for the flood to reach +Melipur Ghaut and seven's sixteen and a half to Lataoli - say +fifteen hours before it comes down to us." + +"Curse that hill-fed sewer of a Ramgunga! Findlayson, this is two +months before anything could have been expected, and the left +bank is littered up with stuff still. Two full months before +the time!" + +"That's why it comes. I've only known Indian rivers for +five-and-twenty years, and I don't pretend to understand. Here +comes another tar." Findlayson opened the telegram. "Cockran, +this time, from the Ganges Canal: 'Heavy rains here. Bad.' He +might have saved the last word. Well, we don't want to know any +more. We've got to work the gangs all night and clean up the +riverbed. You'll take the east bank and work out to meet me in +the middle. Get everything that floats below the bridge: we +shall have quite enough river-craft coming down adrift anyhow, +without letting the stone-boats ram the piers. What have you got +on the east bank that needs looking after? + +"Pontoon - one big pontoon with the overhead crane on it. +T'other overhead crane on the mended pontoon, with the cart-road +rivets from Twenty to Twenty~three piers - two construction +lines, and a turning-spur. The pilework must take its chance," +said Hitchcock. + +"All right. Roll up everything you can lay hands on. We'll give +the gang fifteen minutes more to eat their grub." + +Close to the verandah stood a big night~gong, never used except +for flood, or fire in the village. Hitchcock had called for a +fresh horse, and was off to his side of the bridge when +Findlayson took the cloth-bound stick and smote with the rubbing +stroke that brings out the full thunder of the metal. + +Long before the last rumble ceased every night-gong in the +village had taken up the warning. To these were added the hoarse +screaming of conches in the little temples; the throbbing of +drums and tom-toms; and, from the European quarters, where the +riveters lived, McCartney's bugle, a weapon of offence on Sundays +and festivals, brayed desperately, calling to "Stables." Engine +after engine toiling home along the spurs at the end of her day's +work whistled in answer till the whistles were answered from the +far bank. Then the big gong thundered thrice for a sign that it +was flood and not fire; conch, drum, and whistle echoed the +call, and the village quivered to the sound of bare feet running +upon soft earth. The order in all cases was to stand by the +day's work and wait instructions. The gangs poured by in the +dusk; men stopping to knot a loin-cloth or fasten a sandal; +gang-foremen shouting to their subordinates as they ran or paused +by the tool-issue sheds for bars and mattocks; locomotives +creeping down their tracks wheel-deep in the crowd; till the +brown torrent disappeared into the dusk of the river-bed, raced +over the pilework, swarmed along the lattices, clustered by the +cranes, and stood still - each man in his place. + +Then the troubled beating of the gong carried the order to take +up everything and bear it beyond high-water mark, and the +flare-lamps broke out by the hundred between the webs of dull +iron as the riveters began a night's work, racing against the +flood that was to come. The girders of the three centre piers - +those that stood on the cribs -were all but in position. They +needed just as many rivets as could be driven into them, for the +flood would assuredly wash out their supports, and the ironwork +would settle down on the caps of stone if they were not blocked +at the ends. A hundred crowbars strained at the sleepers of the +temporary line that fed the unfinished piers. It was heaved up +in lengths, loaded into trucks, and backed up the bank beyond +flood-level by the groaning locomotives. The tool-sheds on the +sands melted away before the attack of shouting armies, and with +them went the stacked ranks of Government stores, iron-hound +boxes of rivets, pliers, cutters, duplicate parts of the +riveting-machines, spare pumps and chains. The big crane would +be the last to be shifted, for she was hoisting all the heavy +stuff up to the main structure of the bridge. The concrete +blocks on the fleet of stone-boats were dropped overside, where +there was any depth of water, to guard the piers, and the empty +boats themselves were poled under the bridge down-stream. It was +here that Peroo's pipe shrilled loudest, for the first stroke of +the big gong had brought the dinghy back at racing speed, and +Peroo and his people were stripped to the waist, working for the +honour and credit which are better than life. + +"I knew she would speak," he cried. "I knew, but the telegraph +gives us good warning. O sons of unthinkable begetting - +children of unspeakable shame - are we here for the look of the +thing?" It was two feet of wire-rope frayed at the ends, and it +did wonders as Peroo leaped from gunnel to gunnel, shouting the +language of the sea. + +Findlayson was more troubled for the stone boats than anything +else. McCartney, with his gangs, was blocking up the ends of +the three doubtful spans. but boats adrift, if the flood chanced +to be a high one, might endanger the girders; and there was a +very fleet in the shrunken channel. + +"Get them behind the swell of the guard tower," he shouted down +to +Peroo. "It will be dead-water there. Get them below the +bridge." + +"Accha! [Very good.] I know; we are mooring them with +wire-rope," was the answer. "Heh! Listen to the Chota Sahib. He +is working hard." + +>From across the river came an almost continuous whistling of +locomotives, backed by the rumble of stone. Hitchcock at the +last minute was spending a few hundred more trucks of Tarakee +stone in reinforcing his spurs and embankments. + +"The bridge challenges Mother Gunga," said Peroo, with a laugh. +"But when she talks I know whose voice will be the loudest." + +For hours the naked men worked, screaming and shouting under the +lights. It was a hot, moonless night; the end of it was +darkened by clouds and a sudden squall that made Findlayson very +grave. + +"She moves!" said Peroo, just before the dawn. "Mother Gunga is +awake! Hear!" He dipped his hand over the side of a boat and the +current mumbled on it. A little wave hit the side of a pier with +a crisp slap. + +"Six hours before her time," said Findlayson, mopping his +forehead savagely. "Now we can't depend on anything. We'd +better clear all hands out of the riverbed." + +Again the big gong beat, and a second time there was the rushing +of naked feet on earth and ringing iron; the clatter of tools +ceased. In the silence, men heard the dry yawn of water +crawling over thirsty sand. + +Foreman after foreman shouted to Findlayson, who had posted +himself by the guard-tower, that his section of the river-bed +had been cleaned out, and when the last voice dropped Findlayson +hurried over the bridge till the iron plating of the permanent +way gave place to the temporary plank-walk over the three centre +piers, and there he met Hitchcock. + +"'All clear your side?" said Findlayson. The whisper rang in the + +box of lattice work. + +"Yes, and the east channel's filling now. We're utterly out of +our reckoning. When is this thing down on us?" + +"There's no saying. She's filling as fast as she can. Look!" +Findlayson pointed to the planks below his feet, where the sand, +burned and defiled by months of work, was beginning to whisper +and fizz. + +"What orders?" said Hitchcock. + +"Call the roll - count stores sit on your hunkers - and pray for +the bridge. That's all I can think of Good night. Don't risk +your life trying to fish out anything that may go downstream." + +"Oh, I'll be as prudent as you are! 'Night. Heavens, how she's +filling! Here's the rain in earnest. + +Findlayson picked his way back to his bank, sweeping the last of +McCartney's riveters before him. The gangs had spread themselves +along the embankments, regardless of the cold rain of the dawn, +and there they waited for the flood. Only Peroo kept his men +together behind the swell of the guard-tower, where the +stone-boats lay tied fore and aft with hawsers, wire-rope, and +chains. + +A shrill wail ran along the line, growing to a yell, half fear +and half wonder: the face of the river whitened from bank to +hank between the stone facings, and the far-away spurs went out +in spouts of foam. Mother Gunga had come bank-high in haste, +and a wall of chocolate-coloured water was her messenger. There +was a shriek above the roar of the water, the complaint of the +spans coming down on their blocks as the cribs were whirled out +from under their bellies. The stone-boats groaned and ground +each other in the eddy that swung round the abutment, and their +clumsy masts rose higher and higher against the dim sky-line. + +"Before she was shut between these walls we knew what she would +do. Now she isthus cramped God only knows what she will do!" +said Peroo, watching the furious turmoil round the guard~tower. +"Ohe'! Fight, then! Fight hard, for it is thus that a woman wears +herself out." + +But Mother Gunga would not fight as Peroo desired. After the +first down-stream plunge there came no more walls of water, but +the river lifted herself bodily, as a snake when she drinks in +midsummer, plucking and fingering along the revetments, and +banking up behind the piers till even Findlayson began to +recalculate the strength of his work. + +When day came the village gasped. "Only last night," men said, +turning to each other, "it was as a town in the river-bed! Look +now!" + +And they looked and wondered afresh at the deep water, the racing +water that licked the throat of the piers. The farther bank was +veiled by rain, into which the bridge ran out and vanished; the +spurs up-stream were marked by no more than eddies and +spoutings, and down-stream the pent river, once freed of her +guide-lines, had spread like a sea to the horizon. Then hurried +by, rolling in the water, dead men and oxen together, with here +and there a patch of thatched roof that melted when it touched a +pier. + +"Big flood," said Peroo, and Findlayson nodded. It was as big a +flood as he had any wish to watch. His bridge would stand what +was upon her now, but not very much more, and if by any of a +thousand chances there happened to be a weakness in the +embankments, Mother Gunga would carry his honour to the sea with +the other raffle. Worst of all, there was nothing to do except +to sit still; and Findlayson sat still under his macintosh till +his helmet became pulp on his head, and his boots were +over-ankle in mire. He took no count of time, for the river was +marking the hours, inch by inch and foot by foot, along the +embankment, and he listened, numb and hungry, to the straining +of the stone-boats, the hollow thunder under the piers, and the +hundred noises that make the full note of a flood. Once a +dripping servant brought him food, but he could not eat; and +once he thought that he heard a faint toot from a locomotive +across the river, and then he smiled. The bridge's failure would +hurt his assistant not a little, hut Hitchcock was a young man +with his big work yet to do. For himself the crash meant +everything - everything that made a hard life worth the living. +They would say, the men of his own profession . . . he +remembered the half-pitying things that he himself had said when +Lockhart's new waterworks burst and broke down in brick-heaps and +sludge, and Lockhart's spirit broke in him and he died. He +remembered what he himself had said when the Sumao Bridge went +out in the big cyclone by the sea; and most he remembered poor +Hartopp's face three weeks later, when the shame had marked it. +His bridge was twice the size of Hartopp's, and it carried the +Findlayson truss as well as the new pier-shoe - the Findlayson +bolted shoe. There were no excuses in his service. Government +might listen, perhaps, but his own kind would judge him by his +bridge, as that stood or fell. He went over it in his head, plate +by plate, span by span, brick by brick, pier by pier, +remembering, comparing, estimating, and recalculating, lest there +should be any mistake; and through the long hours and through the +flights of formulae that danced and wheeled before him a cold +fear would come to pinch his heart. His side of the sum was +beyond question; but what man knew Mother Gunga's arithmetic? +Even as he was making all sure by the multiplication table, the +river might be scooping a pot-hole to the very bottom of any one +of those eighty-foot piers that carried his reputation. Again a +servant came to him with food, but his mouth was dry, and he +could only drink and return to the decimals in his brain. And +the river was still rising. Peroo, in a mat shelter coat, +crouched at his feet, watching now his face and now the face of +the river, but saying nothing. + +At last the Lascar rose and floundered through the mud towards +the village, but he was careful to leave an ally to watch the +boats. + +Presently he returned, most irreverently driving before him the +priest of his creed - a fat old man, with a grey beard that +whipped the wind with the wet cloth that blew over his shoulder. +Never was seen so lamentable a guru. + +"What good are offerings and little kerosene lamps and dry +grain," shouted Peroo, "if squatting in the mud is all that thou +canst do? Thou hast dealt long with the Gods when they were +contented and well-wishing. Now they are angry. Speak to them!" + +"What is a man against the wrath of Gods?" whined the priest, +cowering as the wind took him. "Let me go to the temple, and I +will pray there." + +"Son of a pig, pray here! Is there no return for salt fish and +curry powder and dried onions? Call aloud! Tell Mother Gunga we +have had enough. Bid her be still for the night. I cannot pray, +but I have been serving in the Kumpani's boats, and when men did +not obey my orders I -" A flourish of the wire-rope colt +rounded the sentence, and the priest, breaking free from his +disciple, fled to the village. + +"Fat pig!" said Peroo. "After all that we have done for him! When +the flood is down I will see to it that we get a new guru. +Finlinson Sahib, it darkens for night now, and since yesterday +nothing has been eaten. Be wise, Sahib. No man can endure +watching and great thinking on an empty belly. Lie down, Sahib. +The river will do what the river will do.""The bridge is mine; I +cannot leave it." + +"Wilt thou hold it up with thy hands, then?" said Peroo, +laughing. "I was troubled for my boats and sheers before the +flood came. Now we are in the hands of the Gods. The Sahib will +not eat and lie down? Take these, then. They are meat and good +toddy together, and they kill all weariness, besides the fever +that follows the rain. I have eaten nothing else to-day at all." + +He took a small tin tobacco-box from his sodden waist-belt and +thrust it into Findlayson's hand, saying: "Nay, do not be +afraid. It is no more than opium - clean Malwa opium. + +Findlayson shook two or three of the dark-brown pellets into his +hand, and hardly knowing what he did, swallowed them. The stuff +was at least a good guard against fever -the fever that was +creeping upon him out of the wet mud -and he had seen what Peroo +could do in the stewing mists of autumn on the strength of a dose +from the tin box. + +Peroo nodded with bright eyes. "In a little - in a little the +Sahib will find that he thinks well again. I too will -" He +dived into his treasure-box, resettled the rain-coat over his +head, and squatted down to watch the boats. It was too dark now +to see beyond the first pier, and the night seemed to have given +the river new strength. Findlayson stood with his chin on his +chest, thinking. There was one point about one of the piers - +the seventh - that he had not fully settled in his mind. The +figures would not shape themselves to the eye except one by one +and at enormous intervals of time. There was a sound rich and +mellow in his ears like the deepest note of a double-bass - an +entrancing sound upon which he pondered for several hours, as it +seemed. Then Peroo was at his elbow, shouting that a wire hawser +had snapped and the stone-boats were loose. Findlayson saw the +fleet open and swing out fanwise to a long-drawn shriek of wire +straining across gunnels. + +"A tree hit them. They will all go," cried Peroo. "The main +hawser has parted. What does the Sahib do?" + +An immensely complex plan had suddenly flashed into Findlayson's +mind. He saw the ropes running from boat to boat in straight +lines and angles - each rope a line of white fire. But there was +one rope which was the master rope. He could see that rope. If +he could pull it once, it was absolutely and mathematically +certain that the disordered fleet would reassemble itself in the +backwater behind the guard-tower. But why, he wondered, was +Peroo clinging so desperately to his waist as he hastened down +the bank? It was necessary to put the Lascar aside, gently and +slowly, because it was necessary to save the boats, and, +further, to demonstrate the extreme ease of the problem that +looked so difficult. And then - but it was of no conceivable +importance - a wire-rope raced through his hand, burning it, +the high bank disappeared, and with it all the slowly +dispersing factors of the problem. He was sitting in the rainy +darkness - sitting in a boat that spun like a top, and Peroo was +standing over him. + +"I had forgotten," said the Lascar, slowly, "that to those +fasting and unused, the opium is worse than any wine. Those who +die in Gunga go to the Gods. Still, I have no desire to present +myself before such great ones. Can the Sahib swim?" + +"What need? He can fly - fly as swiftly as the wind," was the +thick answer. + +"He is mad!" muttered Peroo, under his breath. "And he threw me +aside like a bundle of dung-cakes. Well, he will not know his +death. The boat cannot live an hour here even if she strike +nothing. It is not good to look at death with a clear eye." + +He refreshed himself again from the tin box, squatted down in the +bows of the reeling, pegged, and stitched craft, staring through +the mist at the nothing that was there. A warm drowsiness crept +over Findlayson, the Chief Engineer, whose duty was with his +bridge. The heavy raindrops struck him with a thousand tingling +little thrills, and the weight of all time since time was made +hung heavy on his eyelids. He thought and perceived that he was +perfectly secure, for the water was so solid that a man could +surely step out upon it, and, standing still with his legs apart +to keep his balance - this was the most important point - would +be borne with great and easy speed to the shore. But yet a better +plan came to him. It needed only an exertion of will for the +soul to hurl the body ashore as wind drives paper, to waft it +kite-fashion to the bank. Thereafter - the boat spun dizzily - +suppose the high wind got under the freed body? Would it tower +up like a kite and pitch headlong on the far-away sands, or would +it duck about, beyond control, through all eternity? Findlayson +gripped the gunnel to anchor himself, for it seemed that he was +on the edge of taking the flight before he had settled all his +plans. Opium has more effect on the white man than the black. +Peroo was only comfortably indifferent to accidents. "She cannot +live," he grunted. "Her seams open already. If she were even a +dinghy with oars we could have ridden it out; but a box with +holes is no good. Finlinson Sahib, she fills." + +"Accha! I am going away. Come thou also." In his mind, Findlayson +had already escaped from the boat, and was circling high in air +to find a rest for the sole of his foot. His body - he was +really sorry for its gross helplessness - lay in the stern, the +water rushing about its knees. + +"How very ridiculous!" he said to himself from his eyrie -" that +- is Findlayson - chief of the Kashi Bridge. The poor beast is +going to be drowned, too. Drowned when it's close to shore. I'm +- I'm on shore already. Why doesn't it come along?" + +To his intense disgust, he found his soul back in his body again, +and that body spluttering and choking in deep water. The pain of +the reunion was atrocious, but it was necessary, also, to fight +for the body. He was conscious of grasping wildly at wet sand, +and striding prodigiously, as one strides in a dream, to keep +foothold in the swirling water, till at last he hauled himself +clear of the hold of the river, and dropped, panting, on wet +earth. + +"Not this night," said Peroo, in his ear. "The Gods have +protected us." The Lascar moved his feet cautiously, and they +rustled among dried stumps. "This is some island of last year's +indigo-crop," he went on. "We shall find no men here; but have +great care, Sahib; all the snakes of a hundred miles have been +flooded out. Here comes the lightning, on the heels of the +wind. Now we shall be able to look; but walk carefully." + +Findlayson was far and far beyond any fear of snakes, or indeed +any merely human emotion. He saw, after he had rubbed the water +from his eyes, with an immense clearness, and trod, so it seemed +to himself with world-encompassing strides. Somewhere in the +night of time he had built a bridge - a bridge that spanned +illimitable levels of shining seas; but the Deluge had swept it +away, leaving this one island under heaven for Findlayson and his +companion, sole survivors of the breed of Man. + +An incessant lightning, forked and blue, showed all that there +was to be seen on the little patch in the flood - a clump of +thorn, a clump of swaying creaking bamboos, and a grey gnarled +peepul overshadowing a Hindoo shrine, from whose dome floated a +tattered red flag. The holy man whose summer resting-place it was +had long since abandoned it, and the weather had broken the +red-daubed image of his god. The two men stumbled, heavy-limbed +and heavy-eyed, over the ashes of a brick-set cooking-place, and +dropped down under the shelter of the branches, while the rain +and river roared together. + +The stumps of the indigo crackled, and there was a smell of +cattle, as a huge and dripping Brahminee bull shouldered his way +under the tree. The flashes revealed the trident mark of Shiva on +his flank, the insolence of head and hump, the luminous stag-like +eyes, the brow crowned with a wreath of sodden marigold blooms, +and the silky dewlap that almost swept the ground. There was a +noise behind him of other beasts coming up from the flood-line +through the thicket, a sound of heavy feet and deep breathing. + +"Here be more beside ourselves," said Findlayson, his head +against the tree pole, looking through half-shut eyes, wholly at +ease. + +"Truly," said Peroo, thickly, "and no small ones." + +"What are they, then? I do not see clearly." + +"The Gods. Who else? Look!" + +"Ah, true! The Gods surely - the Gods." Findlayson smiled as his +head fell forward on his chest. Peroo was eminently right. +After the Flood, who should be alive in the land except the Gods +that made it - the Gods to whom his village prayed nightly - the +Gods who were in all men's mouths and about all men's ways. He +could not raise his head or stir a finger for the trance that +held him, and Peroo was smiling vacantly at the lightning. + +The Bull paused by the shrine, his head lowered to the damp +earth. A green Parrot in the branches preened his wet wings and +screamed against the thunder as the circle under the tree filled +with the shifting shadows of beasts. There was a black Buck at +the Bull's heels-such a Buck as Findlayson in his far-away life +upon earth might have seen in dreams - a Buck with a royal head, +ebon back, silver belly, and gleaming straight horns. Beside +him, her head bowed to the ground, the green eyes burning under +the heavy brows, with restless tail switching the dead grass, +paced a Tigress, full-bellied and deep-jowled. + +The Bull crouched beside the shrine, and there leaped from the +darkness a monstrous grey Ape, who seated himself man-wise in +the place of the fallen image, and the rain spilled like jewels +from the hair of his neck and shoulders.Other shadows came and +went behind the circle, among them a drunken Man flourishing +staff and drinking-bottle. Then a hoarse bellow broke out from +near the ground. "The flood lessens even now," it cried. "Hour +by hour the water falls, and their bridge still stands!" + +"My bridge," said Findlayson to himself "That must be very old +work now. What have the Gods to do with my bridge?" + +His eyes rolled in the darkness following the roar. A Mugger - +the blunt-nosed, ford-haunting Mugger of the Ganges -draggled +herself before the beasts, lashing furiously to right and left +with her tail. + +"They have made it too strong for me. In all this night I have +only torn away a handful of planks. The walls stand. The towers +stand. They have chained my flood, and the river is not free any +more. Heavenly Ones, take this yoke away! Give me clear water +between bank and bank! It is I, Mother Gunga, that speak. The +Justice of the Gods! Deal me the Justice of the Gods!" + +"What said I?" whispered Peroo. "This is in truth a Punchayet of +the Gods. Now we know that all the world is dead, save you and +I, Sahib." + +The Parrot screamed and fluttered again, and the Tigress, her +ears flat to her head, snarled wickedly. + +Somewhere in the shadow, a great trunk and gleaming tusks swayed +to and fro, and a low gurgle broke the silence that followed on +the snarl. + +"We be here," said a deep voice, "the Great Ones. One only and +very many. Shiv, my father, is here, with Indra. Kali has +spoken already. Hanuman listens also." + +"Kashi is without her Kotwal to-night," shouted the Man with the +drinking-bottle, flinging his staff to the ground, while the +island rang to the baying of hounds. "Give her the Justice of +the Gods." + +"Ye were still when they polluted my waters," the great Crocodile +bellowed. "Ye made no sign when my river was trapped between the +walls. I had no help save my own strength, and that failed - the +strength of Mother Gunga failed - before their guard-towers. +What +could I do? I have done everything. Finish now, Heavenly +Ones!" + +"I brought the death; I rode the spotted sick-ness from hut to +hut of their workmen, and yet they would not cease." A +nose-slitten, hide-worn Ass, lame, scissor-legged, and galled, +limped forward. "I cast the death at them out of my nostrils, +but they would not cease." + +Peroo would have moved, but the opium lay heavy upon him. + +." Bah!" he said, spitting. "Here is Sitala herself; Mata - the +small-pox. Has the Sahib a handkerchief to put over his face?" + +"Little help! They fed me the corpses for a month, and I flung +them out on my sand-bars, but their work went forward. Demons +they are, and sons of demons! And ye left Mother Gunga alone for +their fire-carriage to make a mock of The Justice of the Gods on +the bridge-builders!" + +The Bull turned the cud in his mouth and answered slowly: "If the +Justice of the Gods caught all who made a mock of holy things +there would be many dark altars in the land, mother." + +"But this goes beyond a mock," said the Tigress, darting forward +a griping paw. "Thou knowest, Shiv, and ye, too, Heavenly Ones; +ye know that they have defiled Gunga. Surely they must come to +the Destroyer. Let Indra judge." + +The Buck made no movement as he answered: "How long has this +evil been? + +"Three years, as men count years," said the Mugger, close pressed +to the earth. + +"Does Mother Gunga die, then, in a year, that she is so anxious +to see vengeance now? The deep sea was where she runs but +yesterday, and to-morrow the sea shall cover her again as the +Gods count that which men call time. Can any say that this their +bridge endures till to-morrow?" said the Buck. + +There was a long hush, and in the clearing of the storm the full +moon stood up above the dripping trees. + +"Judge ye, then," said the River, sullenly. "I have spoken my +shame. The flood falls still. I can do no more." + +"For my own part " - it was the voice of the great Ape seated +within the shrine -" it pleases me well to watch these men, +remembering that I also builded no small bridge in the world's +youth." + +"They say, too," snarled the Tiger, "that these men came of the +wreck of thy armies, Hanuman, and therefore thou hast aided -" + +"They toil as my armies toiled in Lanka, and they believe that +their toil endures. Indra is too high, but Shiv, thou knowest +how the land is threaded with their fire-carriages." + +"Yea, I know," said the Bull. "Their Gods instructed them in the +matter." + +A laugh ran round the circle. + +"Their Gods! What should their Gods know? They were born +yesterday, and those that made them are scarcely yet cold," said +the Mugger. "To-morrow their Gods will die." + +"Ho!" said Peroo. "Mother Gunga talks good talk. I told that to +the padre-sahib who preached on the Mombassa, and he asked the +Burra Malum to put me in irons for a great rudeness." + +"Surely they make these things to please their Gods," said the +Bull again. + +"Not altogether," the Elephant rolled forth. "It is for the +profit of my mahajuns - my fat money-lenders that worship me at +each new year, when they draw my image at the head of the +account-books. I, looking over their shoulders by lamplight, +see that the names in the books are those of men in far places - +for all the towns are drawn together by the fire-carriage, and +the money comes and goes swiftly, and the account-books grow as +fat as - myself. And I, who am Ganesh of Good Luck, I bless my +peoples." + +"They have changed the face of the land-which is my land. They +have killed and made new towns on my banks," said the Mugger. + +"It is but the shifting of a little dirt. Let the dirt dig in the +dirt if it pleases the dirt," answered the Elephant. + +"But afterwards?" said the Tiger. "Afterwards they will see that +Mother Gunga can avenge no insult, and they fall away from her +first, and later from us all, one by one. In the end, Ganesh, we +are left with naked altars." + +The drunken Man staggered to his feet, and hiccupped vehemently. + +"Kali lies. My sister lies. Also this my stick is the Kotwal of +Kashi, and he keeps tally of my pilgrims. When the time comes +to worship Bhairon-and it is always time - the fire-carriages +move one by one, and each bears a thousand pilgrims. They do +not come afoot any more, but rolling upon wheels, and my honour +is increased." + +"Gunga, I have seen thy bed at Pryag black with the pilgrims," +said the Ape, leaning forward, "and but for the fire-carriage +they would have come slowly and in fewer numbers. Remember." + +"They come to me always," Bhairon went on thickly. "By day and +night they pray to me, all the Common People in the fields and +the roads. Who is like Bhairon to-day? What talk is this of +changing faiths? Is my staff Kotwal of Kashi for nothing? He +keeps the tally, and he says that never were so many altars as +today, and the fire carriage serves them well. Bhairon am I - +Bhairon of the Common People, and the chiefest of the Heavenly +Ones to-day. Also my staff says -" + +"Peace, thou" lowed the Bull. "The worship of the schools is +mine, and they talk very wisely, asking whether I be one or +many, as is the delight of my people, and ye know what I am. +Kali, my wife, thou knowest also." "Yea, I know," said the +Tigress, with lowered head. + +"Greater am I than Gunga also. For ye know who moved the minds of +men that they should count Gunga holy among the rivers. Who die +in that water - ye know how men say - come to us without +punishment, and Gunga knows that the fire-carriage has borne to +her scores upon scores of such anxious ones; and Kali knows that +she has held her chiefest festivals among the pilgrimages that +are fed by the fire-carriage. Who smote at Pooree, under the +Image there, her thousands in a day and a night, and bound the +sickness to the wheels of the fire-carriages, so that it ran from +one end of the land to the other? Who but Kali? Before the +fire-carriage came it was a heavy toil. The fire-carriages have +served thee well, Mother of Death. But I speak for mine own +altars, who am not Bhairon of the Common Folk, but Shiv. Men go +to and fro, making words and telling talk of strange Gods, and I +listen. Faith follows faith among my people in the schools, and +I have no anger; for when all words are said, and the new talk is +ended, to Shiv men return at the last." + +"True. It is true," murmured Hanuman. "To Shiv and to the others, +mother, they return. I creep from temple to temple in the North, +where they worship one God and His Prophet; and presently my +image is alone within their shrines." + +"Small thanks," said the Buck, turning his head slowly. "I am +that One and His Prophet also." + +"Even so, father," said Hanuman. "And to the South I go who am +the oldest of the Gods as men know the Gods, and presently I +touch the shrines of the New Faith and the Woman whom we know is +hewn twelve-armed, and still they call her Mary." + +"Small thanks, brother," said the Tigress. "I am that Woman." + +"Even so, sister; and I go West among the fire-carriages, and +stand before the bridge-builders in many shapes, and because of +me they change their faiths and are very wise.. Ho! ho! I am the +builder of bridges, indeed - bridges between this and that, and +each bridge leads surely to Us in the end. Be content, Gunga. +Neither these men nor those that follow them mock thee at all." + +"Am I alone, then, Heavenly Ones? Shall I smooth out my flood +lest unhappily I bear away their walls? Will Indra dry my +springs in the hills and make me crawl humbly between their +wharfs? Shall I bury me in the sand ere I offend?" + +"And all for the sake of a little iron bar with the +fire-carriage atop. Truly, Mother Gunga is always young!" said +Ganesh the Elephant. "A child had not spoken more foolishly. Let +the dirt dig in the dirt ere it return to the dirt. I know only +that my people grow rich and praise me. Shiv has said that the +men of the schools do not forget; Bhairon is content for his +crowd of the Common People; and Hanuman laughs." + +"Surely I laugh," said the Ape. "My altars are few beside those +of Ganesh or Bhairon, but the fire-carriages bring me new +worshippers from beyond the Black Water - the men who believe +that their God is toil. I run before them beckoning, and they +follow Hanuman." + +"Give them the toil that they desire, then," said the River. +"Make a bar across my flood and throw the water back upon the +bridge. Once thou wast strong in Lanka, Hanuman. Stoop and lift +my bed." + +"Who gives life can take life." The Ape scratched in the mud with +a long forefinger. "And yet, who would profit by the killing? +Very many would die." + +There came up from the water a snatch of a love-song such as the +boys sing when they watch their cattle in the noon heats of late +spring. The parrot screamed joyously, sidling along his branch +with lowered head as the song grew louder, and in a patch of +clear moonlight stood revealed the young herd, the darling of the +Gopis, the idol of dreaming maids and of mothers ere their +children are born Krishna the Well-beloved. He stooped to knot +up his long wet hair, and the Parrot fluttered to his shoulder. + +"Fleeting and singing, and singing and fleeting," hiccupped +Bhairon. "Those make thee late for the council, brother." + +"And then?" said Krishna, with a laugh, throwing back his head. +"Ye can do little without me or Karma here." He fondled the +Parrot's plumage and laughed again. "What is this sitting and +talking together? I heard Mother Gunga roaring in the dark, and +so came quickly from a hut where I lay warm. And what have ye +done to Karma, that he is so wet and silent? And what does +Mother Gunga here? Are the heavens full that ye must come +paddling in the mud beast-wise? Karma, what do they do?" + +"Gunga has prayed for a vengeance on the bridge-builders, and +Kali is with her. Now she bids Hanuman whelm the bridge, that +her honour may be made great," cried the Parrot. "I waited here, +knowing that thou wouldst come, O my master! + +"And the Heavenly Ones said nothing? Did Gunga and the Mother of +Sorrows out-talk them? Did none speak for my people?" + +"Nay," said Ganesh, moving uneasily from foot to foot; "I said it +was but dirt at play, and why should we stamp it flat?" + +"I was content to let them toil -well content," said Hanuman. + +"What had I to do with Gunga's anger?" said the Bull. + +"I am Bhairon of the Common Folk, and this my staff is Kotwal of +all Kashi. I spoke for the Common People." + +"Thou?" The young God's eyes sparkled. + +"Am I not the first of the Gods in their mouths to-day?" returned +Bhairon, unabashed. "For the sake of the Common People I said - +very many wise things which I have now forgotten, but this my +staff-" + +Krishna turned impatiently, saw the Mugger at his feet, and +kneeling, slipped an arm round the cold neck. "Mother," he said +gently, "get thee to thy flood again. The matter is not for thee. +What harm shall thy honour take of this live dirt? Thou hast +given them their fields new year after year, and by thy flood +they are made strong. They come all to thee at the last. What +need to slay them now? Have pity, mother, for a little - and it +is only for a little.""If it be only for a little " the slow +beast began. + +"Are they Gods, then?" Krishna returned with a laugh, his eyes +looking into the dull eyes of the River. "Be certain that it is +only for a little. The Heavenly Ones have heard thee, and +presently justice will be done. Go now, mother, to the flood +again. Men and cattle are thick on the waters - the banks fall - +the villages melt because of thee." + +"But the bridge - the bridge stands." The Mugger turned grunting +into the undergrowth as Krishna rose. + +"It is ended," said the Tigress, viciously. "There is no more +justice from the Heavenly Ones. Ye have made shame and sport of +Gunga, who asked no more than a few score lives." + +"Of my people - who lie under the leaf-roofs of the village +yonder - of the young girls, and the young men who sing to them +in the dark -of the child that will be born next morn - of that +which was begotten to-night," said Krishna. "And when all is +done, what profit? To-morrow sees them at work. Ay, if ye swept +the bridge out from end to end they would begin anew. Hear me! +Bhairon is drunk always. Hanuman mocks his people with new +riddles." + +"Nay, but they are very old ones," the Ape said, laughing. + +"Shiv hears the talk of the schools and the dreams of the holy +men; Ganesh thinks only of his fat traders; but I - I live with +these my people, asking for no gifts, and so receiving them +hourly." + +"And very tender art thou of thy people," said the Tigress. + +"They are my own. The old women dream of me turning in their +sleep; the maids look and listen for me when they go to fill +their lotahs by the river. I walk by the young men waiting +without the gates at dusk, and I call over my shoulder to the +white-beards. Ye know, Heavenly Ones, that I alone of us all +walk upon the earth continually, and have no pleasure in our +heavens so long as a green blade springs here, or there are two +voices at twilight in the standing crops. Wise are ye, but ye +live far off; forgetting whence ye came. So do I not forget. +And the fire-carriage feeds your shrines, ye say? And the +fire-carriages bring a thousand pilgrims where but ten came in +the old years? True. That is true, to-day." + +"But to-morrow they are dead, brother," said Ganesh. + +"Peace!" said the Bull, as Hanuman leaned forward again. "And +to-morrow, beloved - what of to-morrow?" + +"This only. A new word creeping from mouth to mouth among the +Common Folk - a word that neither man nor God can lay hold of - +an evil word - a little lazy word among the Common Folk, saying +(and none know who set that word afoot) that they weary of ye, +Heavenly Ones." + +The Gods laughed together softly. "And then, beloved ~" they +said. + +"And to cover that weariness they, my people, will bring to thee, +Shiv, and to thee, Ganesh, at first greater offerings and a +louder noise of worship. But the word has gone abroad, and, +after, they will pay fewer dues to your fat Brahmins. Next they +will forget your altars, but so slowly that no man can say how +his forgetfulness began." + +I knew - I knew! I spoke this also, but they would not hear," +said the Tigress. "We should have slain-we should have slain!" + +"It is too late now. Ye should have slain at the beginning when +the men from across the water had taught our folk nothing. Now +my people see their work, and go away thinking. They do not +think of the Heavenly Ones altogether. They think of the +fire-carriage and the other things that the bridge-builders have +done, and when your priests thrust forward hands asking alms, +they give a little unwillingly. That is the beginning, among one +or two, or five or ten - for I, moving among my people, know what +is in their hearts." + +"And the end, Jester of the Gods? What shall the end be?" said +Ganesh. + +The end shall be as it was in the beginning, O slothful son of +Shiv! The flame shall die upon the altars and the prayer upon +the tongue till ye become little Gods again - Gods of the jungle +-names that the hunters of rats and noosers of dogs whisper in +the thicket and among the caves -rag-Gods, pot Godlings of the +tree, and the village-mark, as ye were at the beginning. That is +the end, Ganesh, for thee, and for Bhairon - Bhairon of the +Common People." + +"It is very far away," grunted Bhairon. "Also, it is a lie." + +"Many women have kissed Krishna. They told him this to cheer +their own hearts when the grey hairs came, and he has told us +the tale," said the Bull, below his breath. + +"Their Gods came, and we changed them. I took the Woman and made +her twelve-armed. So shall we twist all their Gods," said +Hanuman. + +"Their Gods! This is no question of their Gods - one or three - +man or woman. The matter is with the people. ~ move, and not +the Gods of the bridge-builders," said Krishna. + +"So be it. I have made a man worship the fire-carriage as it +stood still breathing smoke, and he knew not that he worshipped +me," said Hanuman the Ape. "They will only change a little the +names of their Gods. I shall lead the builders of the bridges as +of old; Shiv shall be worshipped in the schools by such as doubt +and despise their fellows; Ganesh shall have his mahajuns, and +Bhairon the donkey-drivers, the pilgrims, and the sellers of +toys. Beloved, they will do no more than change the names, and +that we have seen a thousand times." + +"Surely they will do no more than change the names," echoed +Ganesh; but there was an uneasy movement among the Gods. + +"They will change more than the names. Me alone they cannot kill, +so long as a maiden and a man meet together or the spring +follows the winter rains. Heavenly Ones, not for nothing have I +walked upon the earth. My people know not now what they know; +but I, who live with them, I read their hearts. Great Kings, the +beginning of the end is born already. The fire-carriages shout +the names of new Gods that are not the old under new names. +Drink now and eat greatly! Bathe your faces in the smoke of the +altars before they grow cold! Take dues and listen to the +cymbals and the drums, Heavenly Ones, while yet there are +flowers and songs. As men count time the end is far off; but as +we who know reckon it is to-day. I have spoken." + +The young God ceased, and his brethren looked at each other long +in silence. + +"This I have not heard before," Peroo whispered in his +companion's ear. "And yet sometimes, when I oiled the brasses in +the engine-room of the Goorkha, I have wondered if our priests +were so wise - so wise. The day is coming, Sahib. They will be +gone by the morning." + +A yellow light broadened in the sky, and the tone of the river +changed as the darkness withdrew. + +Suddenly the Elephant trumpeted aloud as though man had goaded +him. + +"Let Indra judge. Father of all, speak thou! What of the things +we have heard? Has Krishna lied indeed? Or --" + +"Ye know," said the Buck, rising to his feet. "Ye know the Riddle +of the Gods. When Brahm ceases to dream, the Heavens and the +Hells and Earth disappear. Be content. Brahm dreams still. The +dreams come and go, and the nature of the dreams changes, but +still Brahm dreams. Krishna has walked too long upon earth, and +yet I love him the more for the tale he has told. The Gods +change, beloved - all save One!" + +"Ay, all save one that makes love in the hearts of men," said +Krishna, knotting his girdle. "It is but a little time to wait, +and ye shall know if I lie."Truly it is but a little time, as +thou sayest, and we shall know. Get thee to thy huts again, +beloved, and make sport for the young things, for still Brahm +dreams. Go, my children! Brahm dreams and till he wakes the +Gods die not." + +"Whither went they -" said the Lascar, awe-struck, shivering a +little with the cold. + +"God knows!" said Findlayson. The river and the island lay in +full daylight now, and there was never mark of hoof or pug on +the wet earth under the peepul. Only a parrot screamed in the +branches, bringing down showers of water-drops as he fluttered +his wings. + +"Up! We are cramped with cold! Has the opium died out? Canst +thou move, Sahib?" + +Findlayson staggered to his feet and shook himself. His bead swam +and ached, but the work of the opium was over, and, as he +sluiced his forehead in a pool, the Chief Engineer of the Kashi +Bridge was wondering how he had managed to fall upon the island, +what chances the day offered of return, and, above all, how his +work stood. + +"Peroo, I have forgotten much I was under the guard-tower +watching the river; and then --- Did the flood sweep us away?" + +"No. The boats broke loose, Sahib, and" (if the Sahib had +forgotten about the opium, decidedly Peroo would not remind him) +"in striving to retie them, so it seemed to me but it was dark - +a rope caught the Sahib and threw him upon a boat. Considering +that we two, with Hitchcock Sahib, built, as it were, that +bridge, I came also upon the boat, which came riding on +horseback, as it were, on the nose of this island, and so, +splitting, cast us ashore. I made a great cry when the boat left +the wharf and without doubt Hitchcock Sahib will come for us. As +for the bridge, so many have died in the building that it cannot +fall."A fierce sun, that drew out all the smell of the sodden +land, had followed the storm, and in that clear light there was +no room for a man to think of the dreams of the dark. Findlayson +stared upstream, across the blaze of moving water, till his eyes +ached. There was no sign of any bank to the Ganges, much less of +a bridge-line. + +"We came down far," he said. "It was wonderful that we were not +drowned a hundred times." + +"That was the least of the wonder, for no man dies before his +time. I have seen Sydney, I have seen London, and twenty great +ports, but "- Peroo looked at the damp, discoloured shrine under +the peepul -" never man has seen that we saw here." + +What?" + +"Has the Sahib forgotten; or do we black men only see the Gods?" + +"There was a fever upon me." Findlayson was still looking +uneasily across the water. "It seemed that the island was full +of beasts and men talking, but I do not remember. A boat could +live in this water now, I think." + +"Oho! Then it is true. 'When Brahm ceases to dream, the Gods +die.' Now I know, indeed, what he meant. Once, too, the guru +said as much to me; but then I did not understand. Now I am +wise. + +"What?" said Findlayson, over his shoulder. + +Peroo went on as if he were talking to himself "Six - seven - ten +monsoons since, I was watch on the fo'c'sle of the Rewah - the +Kumpani's big boat - and there was a big tufan; green and black +water beating, and I held fast to the life-lines, choking under +the waters. Then I thought of the Gods - of Those whom we saw +to-night "- he stared curiously at Findlayson's back, but the +white man was looking across the flood. "Yes, I say of Those +whom we saw this night past, and I called upon Them to protect +me. And while I prayed, still keeping my lookout, a big wave +came and threw me forward upon the ring of the great black +bow-anchor, and the Rewah rose high and high, leaning towards +the left-hand side, and the water drew away from beneath her +nose, and I lay upon my belly, holding the ring, and looking +down into those great deeps. Then I thought, even in the face of +death: If I lose hold I die, and for me neither the Rewah nor my +place by the galley where the rice is cooked, nor Bombay, nor +Calcutta,nor even London, will be any more for me. 'How shall I +be sure,' I said, 'that the Gods to whom I pray will abide at +all?' This I thought, and the Rewah dropped her nose as a hammer +falls, and all the sea came in and slid me backwards along the +fo'c'sle and over the break of the fo'c'sle, and I very badly +bruised my shin against the donkey-engine: but I did not die, +and I have seen the Gods. They are good for live men, but for +the dead . . . . They have spoken Themselves. Therefore, when I +come to the village I will beat the guru for talking riddles +which are no riddles. When Brahm ceases to dream the Gods go." + +"Look up-stream. The light blinds. Is there smoke yonder?" + +Peroo shaded his eyes with his hands. "He is a wise man and +quick. Hitchcock Sahib would not trust a rowboat. He has +borrowed the Rao Sahib's steam-launch, and comes to look for us. +I have always said that there should have been a steam-launch on +the bridge works for us. + +The territory of the Rao of Baraon lay within ten miles of the +bridge; and Findlayson and Hitchcock had spent a fair portion of +their scanty leisure in playing billiards and shooting blackbuck +with the young man. He had been bearled by an English tutor of +sporting tastes for some five or six years, and was now royally +wasting the revenues accumulated during his minority by the +Indian +Government. His steam-launch, with its silver-plated rails, +striped silk awning, and mahogany decks, was a new toy which +Findlayson had found horribly in the way when the Rao came to +look at the bridge works. + +"It's great luck," murmured Findlayson, but he was none the less +afraid, wondering what news might be of the bridge. + +The gaudy blue-and-white funnel came downstream swiftly. They +could see Hitchcock in the bows, with a pair of opera-glasses, +and his face was unusually white. Then Peroo hailed, and the +launch made for the tail of the island. The Rao Sahib, in tweed +shooting-suit and a seven-hued turban, waved his royal hand, and +Hitchcock shouted. But he need have asked no questions, for +Findlayson's first demand was for his bridge. + +"All serene! 'Gad, I never expected to see you again, Findlayson. +You're seven koss downstream. Yes; there's not a stone shifted +anywhere; but how are you? I borrowed the Rao Sahib's launch, +and he was good enough to come along. Jump in."Ah, Finlinson, +you are very well, eh? That was most unprecedented calamity last +night, eh? My royal palace, too, it leaks like the devil, and +the crops will also be short all about my country. Now you shall +back her out, Hitchcock. I - I do not understand steam-engines. +You are wet? You are cold, Finlinson? I have some things to eat +here, and you will take a good drink." + +"I'm immensely grateful, Rao Sahib. I believe you've saved my +life. How did Hitchcock -" + +"Oho! His hair was upon end. He rode to me in the middle of the +night and woke me up in the arms of Morpheus. I was most truly +concerned, Finlinson, so I came too. My head-priest he is very +angry just now. We will go quick, Mister Hitchcock. I am due to +attend at twelve forty-five in the state temple, where we +sanctify some new idol. If not so I would have asked you to +spend the day with me. They are dam-bore, these religious +ceremonies, Finlinson, eh?" + +Peroo, well known to the crew, had possessed himself of the +inlaid wheel, and was taking the launch craftily up-stream. But +while he steered he was, in his mind, handling two feet of +partially untwisted wire-rope; and the back upon which he beat +was the back of his guru. + +End of THE BRIDGE-BUILDERS + + + +A WALKING DELEGATE + +ACCORDING to the custom of Vermont, Sunday afternoon is +salting-time on the farm, and, unless something very important +happens, we attend to the salting ourselves. Dave and Pete, the +red oxen, are treated first; they stay in the home meadow ready +for work on Monday. Then come the cows, with Pan, the calf, who +should have been turned into veal long ago, but survived on +account of his manners; and lastly the horses, scattered through +the seventy acres of the Back Pasture. + +You must go down by the brook that feeds the clicking, bubbling +water-ram; up through the sugar-bush, where the young maple +undergrowth closes round you like a shallow sea; next follow the +faint line of an old county-road running past two green hollows +fringed with wild rose that mark the cellars of two ruined +houses; then by Lost Orchard, where nobody ever comes except in +cider-time; then across another brook, and so into the Back +Pasture. Half of it is pine and hemlock and Spruce, with sumach +and little juniper bushes, and the other half is grey rock and +boulder and moss, with green streaks of brake and swamp; but the +horses like it well enough - our own, and the others that are +turned down there to feed at fifty cents a week. Most people +walk to the Back Pasture, and find it very rough work; but one +can get there in a buggy, if the horse knows what is expected of +him. The safest conveyance is our coupe. This began life as a +buckboard, and we bought it for five dollars from a sorrowful man +who had no other sort of possessions; and the seat came off one +night when we were turning a corner in a hurry. After that +alteration it made a beautiful salting-machine, if you held +tight, because there was nothing to catch your feet when you fell +out, and the slats rattled tunes. + +One Sunday afternoon we went out with the salt as usual. It was +a broiling hot day, and we could not find the horses anywhere +till we let Tedda Gabler, the bobtailed mare who throws up the +dirt with her big hooves exactly as a tedder throws hay, have +her head. Clever as she is, she tipped the coupe over in a +hidden brook before she came out on a ledge of rock where all +the horses had gathered, and were switching flies. The Deacon +was the first to call to her. He is a very dark iron-grey +four-year-old, son of Grandee. He has been handled since he was +two, was driven in a light cart before he was three, and now +ranksas an absolutely steady lady's horse - proof against +steam-rollers, grade-crossings, and street processions. + +"Salt!" said the Deacon, joyfully. "You're dreffle late, Tedda." + +"Any - any place to cramp the coupe?" Tedda panted. "It weighs +turr'ble this weather. I'd 'a' come sooner, but they didn't know +what they wanted - ner haow. Fell out twice, both of 'em. I +don't understand sech foolishness." + +"You look consider'ble het up. 'Guess you'd better cramp her +under them pines, an' cool off a piece." + +Tedda scrambled on the ledge, and cramped the coupe in the shade +of a tiny little wood of pines, while my companion and I lay +down among the brown, silky needles, and gasped. All the home +horses were gathered round us, enjoying their Sunday leisure. + +There were Rod and Rick, the seniors on the farm. They were the +regular road-pair, bay with black points, full brothers, aged, +sons of a Hambletonian sire and a Morgan dam. There were Nip +and Tuck, seal-browns, rising six, brother and sister, Black +Hawks by birth, perfectly matched, just finishing their +education, and as handsome a pair as man could wish to find in a +forty-mile drive. There was Muldoon, our ex-car-horse, bought at +a venture, and any colour you choose that is not white; and +Tweezy, who comes from Kentucky, with an affliction of his left +hip, which makes him a little uncertain how his hind legs are +moving. He and Muldoon had been hauling gravel all the week for +our new road. The Deacon you know already. Last of all, and +eating something, was our faithful Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, the +black buggy-horse, who had seen us through every state of weather +and road, the horse who was always standing in harness before +some door or other - a philosopher with the appetite of a shark +and the manners of an archbishop. Tedda Gabler was a new +"trade,"with a reputation for vice which was really the result of +bad driving. She had one working gait, which she could hold till +further notice; a Roman nose; a large, prominent eye; a +shaving-brush of a tail; and an irritable temper. She took her +salt through her bridle; but the others trotted up nuzzling and +wickering for theirs, till we emptied it on the clean rocks. +They were all standing at ease, on three legs for the most part, +talking the ordinary gossip of the Back Pasture - about the +scarcity of water, and gaps in the fence, and how the early +windfalls tasted that season - when little Rick blew the last few +grains of his allowance into a crevice, and said: + +"Hurry, boys! 'Might ha' knowed that livery plug would be +around." + +We heard a clatter of hooves, and there climbed up from the +ravine below a fifty-center transient--a wall-eyed, yellow +frame-house of a horse, sent up to board from a livery-stable in +town, where they called him "The Lamb," and never let him out +except at night and to strangers. My companion, who knew and had +broken most of the horses, looked at the ragged hammer-head as it +rose, and said quietly: + +"Ni-ice beast. Man-eater, if he gets the chance - see his eye. +Kicker, too - see his hocks. Western horse." + +The animal lumbered up, snuffling and grunting. His feet showed +that he had not worked for weeks and weeks, and our creatures +drew together significantly. + +"As usual," he said, with an underhung sneer-"bowin' your heads +before the Oppressor that comes to spend his leisure gloatin' +over you." + +"Mine's done," said the Deacon; he licked up the remnant of his +salt, dropped his nose in his master's hand, and sang a little +grace all to himself. The Deacon has the most enchanting +manners of any one I know. + +"An' fawnin' on them for what is your inalienable right. It's +humiliatin'," said the yellow horse, sniffing to see if he could +find a few spare grains. + +"Go daown hill, then, Boney," the Deacon replied. "Guess you'll +find somethin' to eat still, if yer hain't hogged it all. You've +ett more'n any three of us to-day - an' day 'fore that - an' the +last two months - sence you've been here." + +"I am not addressin' myself to the young an' immature. I am +speakin' to those whose opinion an' experience commands +respect." + +I saw Rod raise his head as though he were about to make a +remark; then he dropped it again, and stood three-cornered, like +a plough-horse. Rod can cover his mile in a shade under three +minutes on an ordinary road to an ordinary buggy. He is +tremendously powerful behind, but, like most Hambletonians, he +grows a trifle sullen as he gets older. No one can love Rod +very much; but no one can help respecting him. + +"I wish to wake those," the yellow horse went on, "to an abidin' +sense o' their wrongs an' their injuries an' their outrages." + +"Haow's that?" said Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, dreamily. He +thought Boney was talking of some kind of feed. + +"An' when I say outrages and injuries" - Boney waved his tail +furiously "I mean 'em, too. Great Oats! That's just what I do +mean, plain an' straight." + +"The gentleman talks quite earnest," said Tuck, the mare, to Nip, +her brother.There's no doubt thinkin' broadens the horizons o' +the mind. His language is quite lofty." + +"Hesh, sis," Nip answered. "He hain't widened nothin' 'cep' the +circle he's ett in pasture. They feed words fer beddin' where he +comes from." + +"It's elegant talkin', though," Tuck returned, with an +unconvinced toss of her pretty, lean little head. + +The yellow horse heard her, and struck an attitude which he meant +to be extremely impressive. It made him look as though he had +been badly stuffed. + +"Now I ask you, I ask you without prejudice an' without +favour,-what has Man the Oppressor ever done for you? - Are you +not inalienably entitled to the free air O' heaven, blowin' +acrost this boundless prairie?" + +"Hev ye ever wintered here?" said the Deacon, merrily, while the +others snickered. "It's kinder cool." + +"Not yet," said Boney. "I come from the boundless confines o' +Kansas, where the noblest of our kind have their abidin'-place +among the sunflowers on the threshold o' the settin' sun in his +glory." + +"An' they sent you ahead as a sample ~" said Rick, with an amused +quiver of his long, beautifully groomed tail, as thick and as +fine and as wavy as a quadroon's back hair. + +"Kansas, sir, needs no advertisement. Her native sons rely on +themselves an' their native sires. Yes, sir." + +Then Tweezy lifted up his wise and polite old head. His +affliction makes him bashful as a rule, but he is ever the most +courteous of horses. + +"Excuse me, suh," he said slowly, "but, unless I have been +misinfohmed, most of your prominent siahs, suh, are impo'ted +from Kentucky; an' I'm from Paduky." + +There was the least little touch of pride in the last words. + +"Any horse dat knows beans," said Muldoon, suddenly (he had been +standing with his hairy chin on Tweezy's broad quarters), "gits +outer Kansas 'fore dey crip his shoes. I blew in dere from +Ioway in de days o' me youth an' innocence, an' I wuz grateful +when dey boxed me fer N' York. You can't tell me anything about +Kansas I don't wanter fergit. De Belt Line stables ain't no +Hoffman House, but dey're Vanderbilts 'longside ' Kansas." + +"What the horses o' Kansas think to-day, the horses of America +will think to-morrow; an' I tell you that when the horses of +America rise in their might, the day o' the Oppressor is ended." + +There was a pause, till Rick said, with a little grunt: + +"Ef you put it that way, every one of us has riz in his might, +'cep' Marcus, mebbe. Marky, 'j ever rise in yer might?" + +"Nope," said Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, thoughtfully quidding +over a mouthful of grass. "I seen a heap o' fools try, though." + +"You admit that you riz ~" said the Kansas horse, excitedly. +"Then why - why in Kansas did you ever go under again?" + +"'Horse can't walk on his hind legs all the time," said the +Deacon. + +"Not when he's jerked over on his back 'fore he knows what +fetched him. We've all done it, Boney," said Rick. "Nip an' Tuck +they tried it, spite o' what the Deacon told 'em; an' the Deacon +he tried it, spite o' what me an' Rod told him; an' me an' Rod +tried it, spite o' what Grandee told us; an' I guess Grandee he +tried it, spite Oo' what his dam told him. It's the same old +circus from generation to generation. 'Colt can't see why he's +called on to back. Same old rearm' on end - straight up. Same old +feelin' that you've bested 'em this time. Same old little yank at +your mouth when you're up good an' tall. Same old Pegasus-act, +wonderin' where you'll 'light. Same old wop when you hit the dirt +with your head where your tail should be, and your in'ards shook +up like a bran-mash. Same old voice in your ear: 'Waal, ye little +fool, an' what did you reckon to make by that?' We're through +with risin in our might on this farm. We go to pole er single, +accordin' ez we're hitched." + +"An' Man the Oppressor sets an' gloats over you, same as he's +settin' now. Hain't that been your experience, madam?" + +This last remark was addressed to Tedda; and any one could see +with half an eye that poor, old anxious, fidgety Tedda, stamping +at the flies, must have left a wild and tumultuous youth behind +her. + +"'Pends on the man," she answered, shifting from one foot to the +other, and addressing herself to the home horses. "They abused +me dreffle when I was young. I guess I was sperrity an' nervous +some, but they didn't allow for that.'Twas in Monroe County, Noo +York, an' sence then till I come here, I've run away with more +men than 'u'd fill a boardin'-house. Why, the man that sold me +here he says to the boss, s' he: 'Mind, now, I've warned you. +'Twon't be none of my fault if she sheds you daown the road. +Don't you drive her in a top-buggy, ner 'thout winkers,' s' he, +'ner 'thought this bit ef you look to come home behind her.' 'N' +the fust thing the boss did was to git the top-buggy. + +"Can't say as I like top-buggies," said Rick; "they don't balance +good." + +"Suit me to a ha'ar," said Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. "Top-buggy +means the baby's in behind, an' I kin stop while she gathers the +pretty flowers - yes, an' pick a maouthful, too. The women-folk +all say I hev to be humoured, an' -I don't kerry things to the +sweatin'-point." + +"'Course I've no prejudice against a top-buggy s' long 's I can +see it," Tedda went on quickly. "It's ha'f-seein' the pesky +thing bobbin' an' balancn' behind the winkers gits on my nerves. +Then the boss looked at the bit they'd sold with me, an' s' he: +'Jiminy Christmas! This 'u'd make a clothes-horse Stan' 'n end!' +Then he gave me a plain bar bit, an' fitted it 's if there was +some feelin' to my maouth." + +"Hain't ye got any, Miss Tedda?" said Tuck, who has a mouth like +velvet, and knows it. + +"Might 'a' had, Miss Tuck, but I've forgot. Then he give me an +open bridle,- my style's an open bridle - an' - I dunno as I +ought to tell this by rights -he -give - me - a kiss." + +"My!" said Tuck, "I can't tell fer the shoes o' me what makes +some men so fresh." + +"Pshaw, sis," said Nip, "what's the sense in actin' so? You git a +kiss reg'lar 's hitchin'-up time." + +"Well, you needn't tell, smarty," said Tuck, with a squeal and a +kick. + +"I'd heard o' kisses, o' course," Tedda went on, "but they hadn't +come my way specially. I don't mind tellin' I was that took +aback at that man's doin's he might ha' lit fire-crackers on my +saddle. Then we went out jest 's if a kiss was nothin', an' I +wasn't three strides into my gait 'fore I felt the boss knoo his +business, an' was trustin' me. So I studied to please him, an' +whenever took the whip from the dash - a whip drives me plumb +distracted - an' the upshot was that - waal, I've come up the +Back Pasture to-day, an' the coupe's tipped clear over twice, an' +I've waited till 'twuz fixed each time. You kin judge for +yourselves. I don't set up to be no better than my neighbours,- +specially with my tail snipped off the way 'tis,- but I want you +all to know Tedda's quit fightin' in harness or out of it, 'cep' +when there's a born fool in the pasture, stuffin' his stummick +with board that ain't rightly hisn, 'cause he hain't earned it." + +"Meanin' me, madam?" said the yellow horse. + + "Ef the shoe fits, clinch it," said Tedda, snorting. "I named no +names, though, to be sure, some folks are mean enough an' greedy +enough to do 'thout 'em." + +"There's a deal to be forgiven to ignorance," said the yellow +horse, with an ugly look in his blue eye. + +"Seemin'ly, yes; or some folks 'u'd ha' been kicked raound the +pasture 'bout onct a minute sence they came - board er no +board." + +"But what you do not understand, if you will excuse me, madam, is +that the whole principle o' servitood, which includes keep an' +feed, starts from a radically false basis; an' I am proud to say +that me an' the majority o' the horses o' Kansas think the +entire concern should be relegated to the limbo of exploded +superstitions. I say we're too progressive for that. I say we're +too enlightened for that. 'Twas good enough 's long 's we didn't +think, but naow - but naow - a new loominary has arisen on the +horizon!" + +"Meanin' you?" said the Deacon. + +"The horses o' Kansas are behind me with their multitoodinous +thunderin' hooves, an' we say, simply but grandly, that we take +our stand with all four feet on the inalienable rights of the +horse, pure and simple,- the high-toned child o' nature, fed by +the same wavin' grass, cooled by the same ripplin' brook-- yes, +an' warmed by the same gen'rous sun as falls impartially on the +outside an' the inside of the pampered machine o' the +trottin'-track, or the bloated coupe-horses o' these yere +Eastern cities. Are we not the same flesh an' blood?" + +"Not by a bushel an' a half," said the Deacon, under his breath. +"Grandee never was in Kansas." + +"My! Ain't that elegant, though, abaout the wavin' grass an' the +ripplin' brooks?" Tuck whispered in Nip's ear. "The gentleman's +real convincin' I think." + +"I say we are the same flesh an' blood! Are we to be separated, +horse from horse, by the artificial barriers of a +trottin'-record, or are we to look down upon each other on the +strength o' the gifts o' nature - an extry inch below the knee, +or slightly more powerful quarters? What's the use o' them +advantages to you? Man the Oppressor comes along, an' sees +you're likely an' good-lookin', an' grinds you to the face o' +the earth. What for? For his own pleasure: for his own +convenience! Young an' old, black an' bay, white an' grey, +there's no distinctions made between us. We're ground up +together under the remorseless teeth o' the engines of +oppression !" + +"Guess his breechin' must ha' broke goin' daown-hill," said the +Deacon. "Slippery road, maybe, an' the buggy come onter him, an' +he didn't know 'nough to hold back. That don't feel like teeth, +though. Maybe he busted a shaft, an' it pricked him." + +"An' I come to you from Kansas, wavin' the tail o' friendship to +all an' sundry, an' in the name of the uncounted millions o' +pure-minded, high-toned horses now strugglin' towards the light +o' freedom, I say to you, Rub noses with us in our sacred an' +holy cause. The power is yourn. Without you, I say, Man the +Oppressor cannot move himself from place to place. Without you +he cannot reap, he cannot sow, he cannot plough." + +Mighty odd place, Kansas!" said Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. +"Seemin'ly they reap in the spring an' plough in the fall. +'Guess it's right fer them, but 'twould make me kinder giddy." + +"The produc's of your untirin' industry would rot on the ground +if you did not weakly consent to help him. Let 'em rot, I say! +Let him call you to the stables in vain an' nevermore! Let him +shake his ensnarin' oats under your nose in vain! Let the +Brahmas roost in the buggy, an' the rats run riot round the +reaper! Let him walk on his two hind feet till they blame well +drop off! Win no more soul-destroyn' races for his pleasure! +Then, an' not till then, will Man the Oppressor know where he's +at. Quit workin', fellow-sufferers an' slaves! Kick! Rear! +Plunge! Lie down on the shafts, an' woller! Smash an' destroy! +The conflict will be but short, an' the victory is certain. +After that we can press our inalienable rights to eight quarts +o' oats a day, two good blankets, an' a fly-net an' the best o' +stablin'." + +The yellow horse shut his yellow teeth with a triumphant snap; +and Tuck said, With a sigh: 'Seems's if somethin' ought to be +done. Don't seem right, somehow,- oppressin' us an all,- to my +way o' thinkin'." + +Said Muldoon, in a far-away and sleepy voice: + +"Who in Vermont's goin' to haul de inalienable oats? Dey weigh +like Sam Hill, an' sixty bushel at dat allowance ain't goin' to +last t'ree weeks here. An' dere's de winter hay for five +mont's!" + +"We can settle those minor details when the great cause is won," +said the yellow horse. "Let us return simply but grandly to our +inalienable rights - the right o' freedom on these yere verdant +hills, an' no invijjus distinctions o' track an' pedigree:" + +"What in stables 'jer call an invijjus distinction?" said the +Deacon, stiffly. + +"Fer one thing, bein' a bloated, pampered trotter jest because +you happen to be raised that way, an' couldn't no more help +trottin' than eatin'." + +"Do ye know anythin' about trotters?" said the Deacon. + +"I've seen 'em trot. That was enough for me. I don't want to know +any more. Trottin' 's immoral." + +"Waal, I'll tell you this much. They don't bloat, an' they don't +pamp - much. I don't hold out to be no trotter myself, though I +am free to say I had hopes that way - onct. But I do say, fer +I've seen 'em trained, that a trotter don't trot with his feet: +he trots with his head; an' he does more work - ef you know what +that is - in a week than you er your sire ever done in all your +lives. He's everlastingly at it, a trotter is; an' when he +isn't, he's studyin' haow. You seen 'em trot? Much you hev! You +was hitched to a rail, back o' the stand, in a buckboard with a +soap-box nailed on the slats, an' a frowzy buff'lo atop, while +your man peddled rum fer lemonade to little boys as thought they +was actin' manly, till you was both run off the track an' jailed +-you intoed, shufflin', sway-backed, wind-suckin' skate, you!" + +"Don't get het up, Deacon," said Tweezy, quietly. "Now, suh, +would you consider a fox-trot, an' single-foot, an' rack, an' +pace, an' amble, distinctions not worth distinguishin'? I assuah +you, gentlemen, there was a time befo' I was afflicted in my hip, +if you'll pardon me, Miss Tuck, when I was quite celebrated in +Paduky for all those gaits; an in my opinion the Deacon's co'rect +when he says that a ho'se of any position in society gets his +gaits by his haid, an' not by - his, ah, limbs, Miss Tuck. I +reckon I'm very little good now, but I'm rememberin' the things I +used to do befo' I took to transpo'tin' real estate with the help +an' assistance of this gentleman here." He looked at Muldoon. + +"Invijjus arterficial hind legs !" said the ex-carhorse, with a +grunt of contempt. "On de Belt Line we don't reckon no horse +wuth his keep 'less he kin switch de car off de track, run her +round on de cobbles, an' dump her in ag'in ahead o' de truck +what's blockin' him. Dere is a way o' swingin' yer quarters when +de driver says, 'Yank her out, boys!' dat takes a year to learn. +Onct yer git onter it, youse kin yank a cable-car outer a +manhole. I don't advertise myself for no circus-horse, but I +knew dat trick better than most, an' dey was good to me in de +stables, fer I saved time on de Belt - an' time's what dey hunt +in N' York." + +"But the simple child o' nature-" the yellow horse began. + +"Oh, go an' unscrew yer splints! You're talkin' through yer +bandages," said Muldoon, with a horse-laugh. "Dere ain't no +loose-box for de simple child o' nature on de Belt Line, wid de +Paris comin' in an' de Teutonic goin' out, an' de trucks an' de +coupe's sayin' things, an' de heavy freight movin' down fer de +Boston boat 'bout t'ree o'clock of an August afternoon, in de +middle of a hot wave when de fat Kanucks an' Western horses +drops dead on de block. De simple child o' nature had better +chase himself inter de water. Every man at de end of his lines +is mad or loaded or silly, an' de cop's madder an' loadeder an' +sillier than de rest. Dey all take it outer de horses. Dere's no +wavin' brooks ner ripplin' grass on de Belt Line. Run her out on +de cobbles wid de sparks flyin', an' stop when de cop slugs you +on de bone o' yer nose. Dat's N'York; see? + +"I was always told s'ciety in Noo York was dreffle refined an' +high-toned," said Tuck. "We're lookin' to go there one o' these +days, Nip an' me." + +"Oh, you won't see no Belt business where you'll go, miss. De man +dat wants you'll want bad, an' he'll summer you on Long Island +er at Newport, wid a winky-pinky silver harness an' an English +coachman. You'll make a star-hitch, you an' yer brother, miss. +But I guess you won't have no nice smooth bar bit. Dey checks +'em, an' dey bangs deir tails, an' dey bits 'em, de city folk, +an' dey says it's English, ye know, an' dey darsen't cut a horse +loose 'ca'se o' de cops. N' York's no place fer a horse, 'less +he's on de Belt, an' can go round wid de boys. Wisht I was in de +Fire Department!" + +"But did you never stop to consider the degradin' servitood of it +all?" said the yellow horse. + +"You don't stop on de Belt, cully. You're stopped. An' we was +all in de servitood business, man an' horse, an' Jimmy dat sold +de papers. Guess de passengers weren't out to grass neither, by +de way dey acted. I done my turn, an' I'm none o' Barnum's +crowd; but any horse dat's worked on de Belt four years don't +train wid no simple child o' nature - not by de whole length o' +N' York." + +"But can it be possible that with your experience, and at your +time of life, you do not believe that all horses are free and +equal?" said the yellow horse."Not till they're dead," Muldoon +answered quietly. "An' den it depends on de gross total o' +buttons an' mucilage dey gits outer youse at Barren Island." + +"They tell me you're a prominent philosopher." The yellow horse +turned to Marcus. "Can you deny a basic and pivotal statement +such as this?" + +"I don't deny anythin'," said Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, +cautiously; "but ef you ast me, I should say 'twuz more +different sorts o' clipped oats of a lie than anythin' I've had +my teeth into sence I wuz foaled." + +"Are you a horse?" said the yellow horse. + +"Them that knows me best 'low I am." + +"Ain't I a horse?" + +"Yep; one kind of""Then ain't you an' me equal?" + +"How fer kin you go in a day to a loaded buggy, drawin' five +hundred pounds?" Marcus asked carelessly. + +"That has nothing to do with the case," the yellow horse answered +excitedly. + +"There's nothing I know hez more to do with the case," Marcus +replied. + +"Kin ye yank a full car outer de tracks ten times in de mornin'?" +said Muldoon. + +"Kin ye go to Keene - forty-two mile in an afternoon - with a +mate," said Rick; "an' turn out bright an' early next mornin'?" + +"Was there evah any time in your careah, suh - I am not referrin' +to the present circumstances, but our mutual glorious past - +when you could carry a pretty girl to market hahnsome, an' let +her knit all the way on account o' the smoothness o' the +motion?" said Tweezy. + +"Kin you keep your feet through the West River Bridge, with the +narrer-gage comin' in on one side, an' the Montreal flyer the +other, an' the old bridge teeterin' between?" said the Deacon. +"Kin you put your nose down on the cow-catcher of a locomotive +when you're waitin' at the depot an' let 'em play 'Curfew shall +not ring to-night' with the big brass bell?" + +"Kin you hold back when the brichin' breaks? Kin you stop fer +orders when your nigh hind leg's over your trace an' ye feel +good of a frosty mornin'?" said Nip, who had only learned that +trick last winter, and thought it was the crown of horsely +knowledge. + +"What's the use o' talk in'?" said Tedda Gabler, scornfully. +"What kin ye do?" + +"I rely on my simple rights - the inalienable rights o' my +unfettered horsehood. An' I am proud to say I have never, since +my first shoes, lowered myself to obeyin' the will o' man." + +"'Must ha' had a heap o' whips broke over yer yaller back," said +Tedda. "Hev ye found it paid any?" + +"Sorrer has been my portion since the day I was foaled. Blows +an' boots an' whips an' insults - injury, outrage, an' +oppression. I would not endoor the degradin' badges o' servitood +that connect us with the buggy an' the farm-wagon." + +"It's amazin' difficult to draw a buggy 'thout traces er collar +er breast-strap er somefin'," said Marcus. "A Power-machine for +sawin' wood is most the only thing there's no straps to. I've +helped saw 's much as three cord in an afternoon in a +Power-machine. Slep', too, most o' the time, I did; but 'tain't +half as interestin' ez goin' daown-taown in the Concord." + +"Concord don't hender you goin' to sleep any," said Nip. "My +throat-lash! D'you remember when you lay down in the sharves +last week, waitin' at the piazza? + +"Pshaw! That didn't hurt the sharves. They wuz good an' wide, an' +I lay down keerful. The folks kep' me hitched up nigh an hour +'fore they started; an' larfed - why, they all but lay down +themselves with larfin'. Say, Boney, if you've got to be hitched +to anything that goes on wheels, you've got to be hitched with +somefin'." + +"Go an' jine a circus," said Muldoon, "an' walk on your hind +legs. All de horses dat knows too much to work [he pronounced it +"woik," New York fashion] jine de circus." + +"I am not sayin' anythin' again' work," said the yellow horse; +"work is the finest thing in the world." + +"'Seems too fine fer some of us," Tedda snorted. + +"I only ask that each horse should work for himself, an' enjoy +the profit of his labours. Let him work intelligently, an' not +as a machine." + +"There ain't no horse that works like a machine," Marcus began. + +"There's no way o' workin' that doesn't mean goin' to pole er +single - they never put me in the Power-machine - er under +saddle," said Rick. + +"Oh, shucks! We're talkin' same ez we graze," said Nip, "raound +an' raound in circles Rod, we hain't heard from you yet, an' +you've more know-how than any span here." + +Rod, the off-horse of the pair, had been standing with one hip +lifted, like a tired cow; and you could only tell by the quick +flutter of the haw across his eye, from time to time, that he +was paying any attention to the argument. He thrust his jaw out +sidewise, as his habit is when he pulls, and changed his leg. +His voice was hard and heavy, and his ears were close to his +big, plain Hambletonian head. + +"How old are you?" he said to the yellow horse. + +"Nigh thirteen, I guess." + +"Mean age; ugly age; I'm gettin' that way myself. How long hev ye +been pawin' this firefanged stable-litter?" + +"If you mean my principles, I've held 'em sence I was three." + +"Mean age; ugly age; teeth give heaps o' trouble then. 'Set a +colt to actin' crazy fer a while. You've kep' it up, seemin'ly. +D'ye talk much to your neighbours fer a steady thing?" + +"I uphold the principles o' the Cause wherever I am pastured." + +"'Done a heap o' good, I guess?" + +"I am proud to say I have taught a few of my companions the +principles o' freedom an' liberty." + +"Meanin' they ran away er kicked when they got the chanst?" + +"I was talkin' in the abstrac', an' not in the concrete. My +teachin's educated them." + +"What a horse, specially a young horse, hears in the abstrac', +he's liable to do in the Concord. You was handled late, I +presoom." + +Four, risin' five." + +"That's where the trouble began. Driv' by a woman, like ez not - +eh?" + +"Not fer long," said the yellow horse, with a snap of his teeth. + +"Spilled her?" + +"I heerd she never drove again." + +"Any childern?" + +"Buckboards full of 'em." + +"Men too?" + +"I have shed conside'ble men in my time." + +"By kickin'?" + +"Any way that come along. Fallin' back over the dash is as handy +as most." + +"They must be turr'ble afraid o' you daowntaown?" + +"They've sent me here to get rid o' me. I guess they spend their +time talkin' over my campaigns.""I wanter know!" + +"Yes, sir. Now, all you gentlemen have asked me what I can do. +I'll just show you. See them two fellers lyin' down by the +buggy?" + +"Yep; one of 'em owns me. T'other broke me," said Rod. + +"Get 'em out here in the open, an' I'll show you something. Lemme +hide back o' you peoples, so 's they won't see what I'm at." + +"Meanin' ter kill 'em?" Rod drawled. There was a shudder of +horror through the others; but the yellow horse never noticed. + +"I'll catch 'em by the back o' the neck, an' pile-drive 'em a +piece. They can suit 'emselves about livin' when I'm through +with 'em." + +"'Shouldn't wonder ef they did," said Rod. The yellow horse had +hidden himself very cleverly behind the others as they stood in +a group, and was swaying his head close to the ground with a +curious scythe-like motion, looking side-wise out of his wicked +eyes. You can never mistake a man-eater getting ready to knock +a man down. We had had one to pasture the year before. + +"See that?" said my companion, turning over on the pine-needles. +"Nice for a woman walking 'cross lots, wouldn't it be?" + +"Bring 'em out!" said the yellow horse, hunching his sharp back. +"There's no chance among them tall trees. Bring out the - oh! +Ouch!" + +It was a right-and-left kick from Muldoon. I had no idea that +the old car-horse could lift so quickly. Both blows caught the +yellow horse full and fair in the ribs, and knocked the breath +out of him. + +"What's that for?" he said angrily, when he recovered himself; +but I noticed he did not draw any nearer to Muldoon than was +necessary. + +Muldoon never answered, but discoursed to himself in the whining +grunt that he uses when he is going down-hill in front of a +heavy load. We call it singing; but I think it's something much +worse, really. The yellow horse blustered and squealed a little, +and at last said that, if it was a horse-fly that had stung +Muldoon, he would accept an apology. + +"You'll get it," said Muldoon, "in de sweet by-and-bye - all de +apology you've any use for. Excuse me interruptin' you, Mr. Rod, +but I'm like Tweezy - I've a Southern drawback in me hind legs." + +"Naow, I want you all here to take notice, an' you'll learn +something," Rod went on. "This yaller-backed skate comes to our +pastur'-" + +"Not havin' paid his board," put in Tedda. + +"Not havin' earned his board, an' talks smooth to us abaout +ripplin' brooks an' wavin' grass, an' his high-toned, +pure-souled horsehood, which don't hender him sheddin' women an' +childern, an' fallin' over the dash onter men. You heard his +talk, an' you thought it mighty fine, some o' you." + +Tuck looked guilty here, but she did not say anything. + +"Bit by bit he goes on ez you have heard." + +"I was talkin' in the abstrac'," said the yellow horse, in an +altered voice. + +"Abstrac' be switched! Ez I've said, it's this yer blamed +abstrac' business that makes the young uns cut up in the +Concord; an' abstrac' or no abstrac', he crep' on an' on till he +come to killin' plain an' straight - killin' them as never done +him no harm, jest beca'se they owned horses." + +"An' knowed how to manage 'em," said Tedda. That makes it worse." + +Waal, he didn't kill 'em, anyway," said Marcus. "He'd ha' been +half killed ef he had tried." + +"'Makes no differ," Rod answered. "He meant to; an' ef he hadn't +- s'pose we want the Back Pasture turned into a biffin'-ground +on our only day er rest? 'S'pose we want our men walkin' round +with bits er lead pipe an' a twitch, an' their hands full o' +stones to throw at us, same 's if we wuz hogs er hooky keows? +More'n that, leavin' out Tedda here - an' I guess it's more her +maouth than her manners stands in her light -there ain't a horse +on this farm that ain't a woman's horse, an' proud of it. An' +this yer bogspavined Kansas sunflower goes up an' daown the +length o' the country, traded off an' traded on, boastin' as +he's shed women --an' childern. I don't say as a woman in a buggy +ain't a fool. I don't say as she ain't the lastin'est kind er +fool, ner I don't say a child ain't worse - spattin' the lines +an' standin' up an' hollerin' - but I do say, 'tain't none of +our business to shed 'em daown the road.""We don't," said the +Deacon. "The baby tried to git some o' my tail for a sooveneer +last fall when I was up to the haouse, an' I didn't kick. Boney's +talk ain't goin' to hurt us any. We ain't colts." + +"Thet's what you think Bimeby you git into a tight corner, +'Lection day er Valley Fair, like 's not, daown-taown, when +you're all het an' lathery, an' pestered with flies, an' +thirsty, an' sick o' bein' worked in an aout 'tween buggies. +Then somethin' whispers inside o' your winkers, bringin' up all +that talk abaout servitood an' inalienable truck an' sech like, +an' jest then a Militia gun goes off; er your wheels hit, an' - +waal, you're only another horse ez can't be trusted. I've been +there time an' again. Boys - fer I've seen you all bought er +broke - on my solemn repitation fer a three-minute clip, I ain't +givin' you no bran-mash o' my own fixin'. I'm tellin' you my +experiences, an' I've had ez heavy a load an' ez high a check 's +any horse here. I wuz born with a splint on my near fore ez big +'s a walnut, an' the cussed, three-cornered Hambletonian temper +that sours up an' curdles daown ez you git older. I've favoured +my splint; even little Rick he don't know what it's cost me to +keep my end up sometimes; an' I've fit my temper in stall an' +harness, hitched up an' at pasture, till the sweat trickled off +my hooves, an' they thought I wuz off condition, an' drenched +me." + +"When my affliction came," said Tweezy, gently, "I was very near +to losin' my manners. Allow me to extend to you my sympathy, +suh." + +Rick said nothing, but he looked at Rod curiously. Rick is a +sunny-tempered child who never bears malice, and I don't think +he quite understood. He gets his temper from his mother, as a +horse should. + +"I've been there too, Rod," said Tedda. "Open confession's good +for the soul, an' all Monroe County knows I've had my +experriences." + +"But if you will excuse me, suh, that pusson"-Tweezy looked +unspeakable things aat the yellow horse - "that pusson who has +insulted our intelligences comes from Kansas. An' what a ho'se +of his position, an' Kansas at that, says cannot, by any stretch +of the halter, concern gentlemen of our position. There's no +shadow of equal'ty, suh, not even for one kick. He's beneath our +contempt." + +"Let him talk," said Marcus. "It's always interestin' to know +what another horse thinks. It don't tech us." + +"An' he talks so, too," said Tuck. "I've never heard anythin' so +smart for a long time." + +Again Rod stuck out his jaws sidewise, and went on slowly, as +though he were slugging on a plain bit at the end of a +thirty-mile drive: + +"I want all you here ter understand thet ther ain't no Kansas, +ner no Kentucky, ner yet no Vermont, in our business. There's +jest two kind o' horse in the United States-them ez can an' will +do their work after bein' properly broke an' handled, an' them as +won't. I'm sick an' tired o' this everlastin' tail-switchin' an' +wickerin' abaout one State er another. A horse kin be proud o' +his State, an' swap lies abaout it in stall or when he's hitched +to a block, ef he keers to put in fly-time that way; but he +hain't no right to let that pride o' hisn interfere with his +work, ner to make it an excuse fer claimin' he's different. +That's colts' talk, an' don't you fergit it, Tweezy. An', +Marcus,you remember that hem' a philosopher, an' anxious to save +trouble,- fer you ate,- don't excuse you from jumpin' with all +your feet on a slack-jawed, crazy clay-bank like Boney here. It's +leavin' 'em alone that gives 'em their chance to ruin colts an' +kill folks. An', Tuck, waal, you're a mare anyways - but when a +horse comes along an' covers up all his talk o' killin' with +ripplin' brooks, an wavin grass, an' eight quarts of oats a day +free, after killn' his man, don't you be run away with by his +yap. You're too young an' too nervous." + +"I'll - I'll have nervous prostration sure ef there's a fight +here," said Tuck, who saw what was in Rod's eye; "I'm - I'm that +sympathetic I'd run away clear to next caounty." + +"Yep; I know that kind o' sympathy. Jest lasts long enough to +start a fuss, an' then lights aout to make new trouble. I hain't +been ten years in harness fer nuthin'. Naow, we're goin' to keep +school with Boney fer a spell." + +"Say, look a-here, you ain't goin' to hurt me, are you? +Remember, I belong to a man in town," cried the yellow horse, +uneasily. Muldoon kept behind him so that he could not run away. + +"I know it. There must be some pore delooded fool in this State +hez a right to the loose end o' your hitchin'-strap. I'm blame +sorry fer him, but he shall hev his rights when we're through +with you," said Rod. + +If it's all the same, gentlemen, I'd ruther change pasture. +'Guess I'll do it now." + +"'Can't always have your 'druthers. 'Guess you won't," said Rod. + +"But look a-here. All of you ain't so blame unfriendly to a +stranger. S'pose we count noses." + +"What in Vermont fer?" said Rod, putting up his eyebrows. The +idea of settling a question by counting noses is the very last +thing that ever enters the head of a well-broken horse. + +"To see how many's on my side. Here's Miss Tuck, anyway; an' +Colonel Tweezy yonder's neutral; an' Judge Marcus, an' I guess +the Reverend [the yellow horse meant the Deacon] might see that +I had my rights. He's the likeliest-lookin' Trotter I've ever +set eyes on. Pshaw. Boys. You ain't goin' to pound me, be +youyou? Why, we've gone round in pasture, all colts together, +this month ' Sundays, hain't we, as friendly as could be. There +ain't a horse alive I don't care who he is - has a higher +opinion o' you, Mr. Rod, than I have. Let's do it fair an' true +an' above the exe. Let's count noses same 's they do in +Kansas." Here he dropped his voice a little and turned to +Marcus: "Say, Judge, there's some green food I know, back o' the +brook, no one hain't touched yet. After this little fracas is +fixed up, you an' me'll make up a party an' 'tend to it."Marcus +did not answer for a long time, then he said: "There's a pup up +to the haouse 'bout eight weeks old. He'll yap till he gits a +lickin', an' when he sees it comin' he lies on his back, an' +yowls. But he don't go through no cirkituous nose-countin' first. +I've seen a noo light sence Rod spoke. You'll better stand up to +what's served. I'm goin' to philosophise all over your carcass." + +I'm goin' to do yer up in brown paper," said Muldoon. "I can fit + +you on apologies." + +"Hold on. Ef we all biffed you now, these same men you've been +so dead anxious to kill 'u'd call us off. 'Guess we'll wait till +they go back to the haouse, an' you'll have time to think cool +an' quiet," said Rod. + +"Have you no respec' whatever fer the dignity o' our common +horsehood?" the yellow horse squealed. + +"Nary respec' onless the horse kin do something. America's paved +with the kind er horse you are -jist plain yaller-dog horse - +waitin' ter be whipped inter shape. We call 'em yearlings an' +colts when they're young. When they're aged we pound 'em - in +this pastur'. Horse, sonny, is what you start from. We know all +about horse here, an' he ain't any high-toned, pure souled child +o' nature. Horse, plain horse, same ez you, is chock-full o' +tricks, an' meannesses, an' cussednesses, an' shirkin's, an' +monkey-shines, which he's took over from his sire an' his dam, +an' thickened up with his own special fancy in the way o' goin' +crooked. Thet's horse, an' thet's about his dignity an' the size +of his soul 'fore he's been broke an' rawhided a piece. Now we +ain't goin' to give ornery unswitched horse, that hain't done +nawthin' wuth a quart of oats sence he wuz foaled, pet names +that would be good enough fer Nancy Hanks, or Alix, or Directum, +who hev. Don't you try to back off acrost them rocks. Wait where +you are! Ef I let my Hambletonian temper git the better o' me I'd +frazzle you out finer than rye-straw inside o' three minutes, you +woman-scarin', kid-killin', dash-breakin', unbroke, unshod, +ungaited, pastur'-hoggin', saw-backed, shark-mouthed, +hair-trunk-thrown-in-in-trade son of a bronco an' a +sewin'-machine!" + +" I think we'd better get home," I said to my companion, when Rod +had finished; and we climbed into the coupe, Tedda whinnying, as +we bumped over the ledges: "Well, I'm dreffle sorry I can't stay +fer the sociable; but I hope an' trust my friends'll take a +ticket fer me." + +"Bet your natchul!" said Muldoon, cheerfully, and the horses +scattered before us, trotting into the ravine. + +Next morning we sent back to the livery-stable what was left of +the yellow horse. It seemed tired, but anxious to go. + +End of "A WALKING DELEGATE" + + + +THE SHIP THAT FOUND HERSELF + +It was her first voyage, and though she was but a cargo-steamer +of twenty-five hundred tons, she was the very best of her kind, +the outcome of forty years of experiments and improvements in +framework and machinery; and her designers and owner thought as +much of her as though she had been the Lucania. Any one can make +a floating hotel that will pay expenses, if he puts enough money +into the saloon, and charges for private baths, suites of rooms, +and such like; but in these days of competition and low freights +every square inch of a cargo-boat must be built for cheapness, +great hold-capacity, and a certain steady speed. This boat was, +perhaps, two hundred and forty feet long and thirty-two feet +wide, with arrangements that enabled her to carry cattle on her +main and sheep on her upper deck if she wanted to; but her great +glory was the amount of cargo that she could store away in her +holds. Her owners -they were a very well known Scotch firm came +round with her from the north, where she had been launched and +christened and fitted, to Liverpool, where she was to take cargo +for New York; and the owner's daughter, Miss Frazier, went to and +fro on the clean decks, admiring the new paint and the brass +work, and the patent winches, and particularly the strong, +straight bow, over which she had cracked a bottle of champagne +when she named the steamer the Dimbula. It was a beautiful +September afternoon, and the boat in all her newness she was +painted lead-colour with a red funnel - looked very fine indeed. +Her house-flag was flying, and her whistle from time to time +acknowledged the salutes of friendly boats, who saw that she was +new to the High and Narrow Seas and wished to make her welcome. + +"And now," said Miss Frazier, delightedly, to the captain, "she's +a real ship, isn't she? It seems only the other day father gave +the order for her, and now - and now - isn't she a beauty!" The +girl was proud of the firm, and talked as though she were the +controlling partner. + +"Oh, she's no so bad," the skipper replied cautiously. "But I'm +sayin' that it takes more than christenin' to mak' a ship. In +the nature o' things, Miss Frazier, if ye follow me, she's just +irons and rivets and plates put into the form of a ship. She has +to find herself yet." + +"I thought father said she was exceptionally well found.""So she +is, said the skipper, with a laugh. "But it's this way wi' +ships, Miss Frazier. She's all here, but the parrts of her have +not learned to work together yet. They've had no chance." + +"The engines are working beautifully. I can hear them." + +"Yes, indeed. But there's more than engines to a ship. Every +inch of her, ye'll understand, has to be livened up and made to +work wi' its neighbour - sweetenin' her, we call it, +technically." + +"And how will you do it?" the girl asked. + +"We can no more than drive and steer her and so forth; but if we +have rough weather this trip - it's likely - she'll learn the +rest by heart! For a ship, ye'll obsairve, Miss Frazier, is in +no sense a reegid body closed at both ends. She's a highly +complex structure o' various an' conflictin' strains, wi' +tissues that must give an' tak' accordin' to her personal +modulus of elasteecity." Mr. Buchanan, the chief engineer, was +coming towards them. "I'm sayin' to Miss Frazier, here, that our +little Dimbula has to be sweetened yet, and nothin' but a gale +will do it. How's all wi' your engines, Buck?" + +"Well enough - true by plumb an' rule, o' course; but there's no +spontaneeity yet." He turned to the girl. "Take my word, Miss +Frazier, and maybe ye'll comprehend later; even after a pretty +girl's christened a ship it does not follow that there's such a +thing as a ship under the men that work her." + +"I was sayin' the very same, Mr. Buchanan," the skipper +interrupted. + +"That's more metaphysical than I can follow," said Miss Frazier, +laughing. + +"Why so? Ye're good Scotch, an'- I knew your mother's father, he +was fra' Dumfries - ye've a vested right in metapheesics, Miss +Frazier, just as ye have in the Dimbula," the engineer said. + +"Eh, well, we must go down to the deep watters, an' earn Miss +Frazier her deevidends. Will you not come to my cabin for tea?" +said the skipper. "We'll be in dock the night, and when you're +goin' back to Glasgie ye can think of us loadin' her down an' +drivin' her forth - all for your sake." + +In the next few days they stowed some four thousand tons +dead-weight into the Dimbula, and took her out from Liverpool. +As soon as she met the lift of the open water, she naturally +began to talk. If you lay your ear to the side of the cabin, +the next time you are in a steamer, you will hear hundreds of +little voices in every direction, thrilling and buzzing, and +whispering and popping, and gurgling and sobbing and squeaking +exactly like a telephone in a thunder-storm. Wooden ships +shriek and growl and grunt, but iron vessels throb and quiver +through all their hundreds of ribs and thousands of rivets. The +Dimbula was very strongly built, and every piece of her had a +letter or a number, or both, to describe it; and every piece had +been hammered, or forged, or rolled, or punched by man, and had +lived in the roar and rattle of the shipyard for months. +Therefore, every piece had its own separate voice, in exact +proportion to the amount of trouble spent upon it. Cast-iron, as +a rule, says very little; but mild steel plates and +wrought-iron, and ribs and beams that have been much bent and +welded and riveted, talk continuously. Their conversation, of +course, is not half as wise as our human talk, because they are +all, though they do not know it, bound down one to the other in +a black darkness, where they cannot tell what is happening near +them, nor what will overtake them next. + +As soon as she had cleared the Irish coast, a sullen, grey-headed +old wave of the Atlantic climbed leisurely over her straight +bows, and sat down on the steam-capstan used for hauling up the +anchor. Now the capstan and the engine that drove it had been +newly painted red and green; besides which, nobody likes being +ducked. + +"Don't you do that again," the capstan sputtered through the +teeth of his cogs. "Hi! Where's the fellow gone?" + +The wave had slouched overside with a plop and a chuckle; but +"Plenty more where he came from," said a brother-wave, and went +through and over the capstan, who was bolted firmly to an iron +plate on the iron deck-beams below. + +"Can't you keep still up there?" said the deckbeams. "What's the +matter with you? One minute you weigh twice as much as you +ought to, and the next you don't!" + +"It isn't my fault," said the capstan. "There's a green brute +outside that comes and hits me on the head." + +"Tell that to the shipwrights. You've been in position for months +and you've never wriggled like this before. If you aren't +careful you'll strain us." + +"Talking of strain," said a low, rasping, unpleasant voice, are +any of you fellows - you deck-beams, we mean - aware that those +exceedingly ugly knees of yours happen to be riveted into our +structure - ours?" + +"Who might you be?" the deck-beams inquired. + +"Oh, nobody in particular," was the answer. "We're only the port +and starboard upper-deck stringers; and if you persist in +heaving and hiking like this, we shall be reluctantly compelled +to take steps." + +Now the stringers of the ship are long iron girders, so to speak, +that run lengthways from stern to bow. They keep the iron frames +(what are called ribs in a wooden ship) in place, and also help +to hold the ends of the deck-beams, which go from side to side of +the ship. Stringers always consider themselves most important, +because they are so long. + +"You will take steps - will you?" This was a long echoing +rumble. It came from the frames - scores and scores of them, +each one about eighteen inches distant from the next, and each +riveted to the stringers in four places. "We think you will have +a certain amount of trouble in that"; and thousands and +thousands of the little rivets that held everything together +whispered: "You Will! You will! Stop quivering and be quiet. +Hold on, brethren! Hold on! Hot Punches! What's that?" + +Rivets have no teeth, so they cannot chatter with fright; but +they did their best as a fluttering jar swept along the ship +from stern to bow, and she shook like a rat in a terrier's +mouth. + +An unusually severe pitch, for the sea was rising, had lifted the +big throbbing screw nearly to the surface, and it was spinning +round in a kind of soda-water - half sea and half air - going +much faster than was proper, because there was no deep water for +it to work in. As it sank again, the engines - and they were +triple expansion, three cylinders in a row - snorted through all +their three pistons. "Was that a joke, you fellow outside?It's an +uncommonly poor one. How are we to do our work if you fly off the + +handle that way?" + +"I didn't fly off the handle," said the screw, twirling huskily +at the end of the screw-shaft. "If I had, you'd have been +scrap-iron by this time. The sea dropped away from under me, and +I had nothing to catch on to. That's all." + +That's all, d'you call it?" said the thrust-block, whose +business it is to take the push of the screw; for if a screw had +nothing to hold it back it would crawl right into the +engine-room. (It is the holding back of the screwing action +that gives the drive to a ship.) "I know I do my work deep down +and out of sight, but I warn you I expect justice. All I ask for +is bare justice. Why can't you push steadily and evenly, instead +of whizzing like a whirligig, and making me hot under all my +collars?" The thrust-block had six collars, each faced with +brass, and he did not wish to get them heated. + +All the bearings that supported the fifty feet of screw-shaft as +it ran to the stern whispered: "Justice - give us justice." + +"I can only give you what I can get," the screw answered. "Look +out! It's coming again!" + +He rose with a roar as the Dimbula plunged, and "whack - flack - +whack - whack" went the engines, furiously, for they had little +to check them. + +"I'm the noblest outcome of human ingenuity - Mr. Buchanan says +so," squealed the high-pressure cylinder. "This is simply +ridiculous!" The piston went up savagely, and choked, for half +the steam behind it was mixed with dirty water. "Help! Oiler! +Fitter! Stoker! Help I'm choking," it gasped."Never in the +history of maritime invention has such a calamity over-taken one +so young and strong. And if I go, who's to drive the ship?" + +"Hush! oh, hush!" whispered the Steam, who, of course, had been +to sea many times before. He used to spend his leisure ashore in +a cloud, or a gutter, or a flower-pot, or a thunder-storm, or +anywhere else where water was needed. "That's only a little +priming, a little carrying-over, as they call it. It'll happen +all night, on and off. I don't say it's nice, but it's the best +we can do under the circumstances." + +"What difference can circumstances make ~. I'm here to do my work +- on clean, dry steam. Blow circumstances!" the cylinder roared. + +"The circumstances will attend to the blowing. I've worked on the +North Atlantic run a good many times - it's going to be rough +before morning." + +"It isn't distressingly calm now," said the extra strong frames - +they were called web-frames - in the engine-room. "There's an +upward thrust that we don't understand, and there's a twist that +is very bad for our brackets and diamond- plates, and there's a +sort of west-northwesterly pull, that follows the twist, which +seriously annoys us. We mention this because we happened to cost +a good deal of money, and we feel sure that the owner would not +approve of our being treated in this frivolous way." + +I'm afraid the matter is out of owner's hands for the present," +said the Steam, slipping into the condenser. "You're left to +your own devices till the weather betters." + +"I wouldn't mind the weather," said a flat bass voice below; +"it's this confounded cargo that's breaking my heart. I'm the +garboard-strake, and I'm twice as thick as most of the others, +and I ought to know something." + +The garboard-strake is the lowest plate in the bottom of a ship, +and the Dimbula's garboardstrake was nearly three-quarters of an +inch mild steel. + +"The sea pushes me up in a way I should never have expected," the +strake grunted, "and the cargo pushes me down, and, between the +two, I don't know what I'm supposed to do." + +"When in doubt, hold on," rumbled the Steam, making head in the +boilers. + +"Yes; but there's only dark, and cold, and hurry, down here; and +how do I know whether the other plates are doing their duty? +Those bulwark-plates up above, I've heard, ain't more than +five-sixteenths of an inch thick -scandalous, I call it." + +"I agree with you," said a huge web-frame, by the main +cargo-hatch. He was deeper and thicker than all the others, and +curved half-way across the ship in the shape of half an arch, to +support the deck where deck-beams would have been in the way of +cargo coming up and down. "I work entirely unsupported, and I +observe that I am the sole strength of this vessel, so far as my +vision extends. The responsibility, I assure you, is enormous. +I believe the money-value of the cargo is over one hundred and +fifty thousand pounds. Think of that!" + +"And every pound of it is dependent on my personal exertions." +Here spoke a sea-valve that communicated directly with the water +outside, and was seated not very far from the garboard-strake. +"I rejoice to think that I am a Prince-Hyde Valve, with best Para +rubber facings. Five patents cover me - I mention this without +pride - five separate and several patents, each one finer than +the other. At present I am screwed fast. Should I open, you +would immediately be swamped. This is incontrovertible!" + +Patent things always use the longest words they can. It is a +trick that they pick up from their inventors. + +"That's news," said a big centrifugal bilge-pump. "I had an idea +that you were employed to clean decks and things with. At +least, I've used you for that more than once. I forget the +precise number, in thousands, of gallons which I am guaranteed +to throw per hour; but I assure you, my complaining friends, +that there is not the least danger. I alone am capable of +clearing any water that may find its way here. By my Biggest +Deliveries, we pitched then!" + +The sea was getting up in workmanlike style. It was a dead +westerly gale, blown from under a ragged opening of green sky, +narrowed on all sides by fat, grey clouds; and the wind bit like +pincers as it fretted the spray into lacework on the flanks of +the waves. + +"I tell you what it is," the foremast telephoned down its +wire-stays. "I'm up here, and I can take a dispassionate view +of things. There's an organised conspiracy against us. I'm +sure of it, because every single one of these waves is heading +directly for our bows. The whole sea is concerned in it - and +so's the wind. It's awful!" + +"What's awful?" said a wave, drowning the capstan for the +hundredth time. + +"This organised conspiracy on your part," the capstan gurgled, +taking his cue from the mast."Organised bubbles and spindrift! +There has been a depression in the Gulf of Mexico. Excuse me!" He +leaped overside; but his friends took up the tale one after +another. + +"Which has advanced - "That wave hove green water over the +funnel. + +"As far as Cape Hatteras -" He drenched the bridge. + +"And is now going out to sea - to sea - to sea!" The third went +out in three surges, making a clean sweep of a boat, which +turned bottom up and sank in the darkening troughs alongside, +while the broken falls whipped the davits. + +"That's all there is to it," seethed the white water roaring +through the scuppers. " There's no animus in our proceedings. +We're only meteorological corollaries." + +"Is it going to get any worse?" said the bow-anchor chained down +to the deck, where he could only breathe once in five minutes. + +"'Not knowing, can't say. Wind may blow a bit by midnight. +Thanks awfully. Good-bye." + +The wave that spoke so politely had travelled some distance aft, +and found itself all mixed up on the deck amidships, which was a +well-deck sunk between high bulwarks. One of the bulwark-plates, +which was hung on hinges to open outward, had swung out, and +passed the bulk of the water back to the sea again with a clean +smack. + +"Evidently that's what I'm made for," said the plate, closing +again with a sputter of pride. "Oh, no, you don't, my friend!" + +The top of a wave was trying to get in from the outside, but as +the plate did not open in that direction, the defeated water +spurted back. + +"Not bad for five-sixteenths of an inch," said the bulwark-plate. +"My work, I see, is laid down for the night"; and it began +opening and shutting, as it was designed to do, with the motion +of the ship. + +"We are not what you might call idle," groaned all the frames +together, as the Dimbula climbed a big wave, lay on her side at +the top, and shot into the next hollow, twisting in the descent. +A huge swell pushed up exactly under her middle, and her bow and +stern hung free with nothing to support them. Then one joking +wave caught her up at the bow, and another at the stern, while +the rest of the water slunk away from under her just to see how +she would like it; so she was held up at her two ends only, and +the weight of the cargo and the machinery fell on the groaning +iron keels and bilge-stringers. + +"Ease off! Ease off; there!" roared the garboard-strake. "I want +one-eighth of an inch fair play. D' you hear me, you rivets!" + +"Ease off! Ease off!" cried the bilge-stringers. "Don't hold us +so tight to the frames!" + +"Ease off!" grunted the deck-beams, as the Dimbula rolled +fearfully. "You've cramped our knees into the stringers, and we +can't move. Ease off; you flat-headed little nuisances." + +Then two converging seas hit the bows, one on each side, and fell +away in torrents of streaming thunder. + +"Ease off!" shouted the forward collision-bulkhead. "I want to +crumple up, but I'm stiffened in every direction. Ease off; you +dirty little forge-filings. Let me breathe!" + +All the hundreds of plates that are riveted to the frames, and +make the outside skin of every steamer, echoed the call, for +each plate wanted to shift and creep a little, and each plate, +according to its position, complained against the rivets. + +"We can't help it! We can't help it!" they murmured in reply. +"We're put here to hold you, and we're going to do it; you never +pull us twice in the same direction. If you'd say what you were +going to do next, we'd try to meet your views. + +"As far as I could feel," said the upper-deck planking, and that +was four inches thick, "every single iron near me was pushing or +pulling in opposite directions. Now, what's the sense of that? My +friends, let us all pull together." + +"Pull any way you please," roared the funnel, "so long as you +don't try your experiments on me. I need fourteen wire-ropes, +all pulling in different directions, to hold me steady. Isn't +that so?" + +We believe you, my boy!" whistled the funnel-stays through their +clinched teeth, as they twanged in the wind from the top of the +funnel to the deck. + +"Nonsense! We must all pull together," the decks repeated. +"Pull lengthways." + +"Very good," said the stringers; "then stop pushing sideways when +you get wet. Be content to run gracefully fore and aft, and +curve in at the ends as we do." + +"No - no curves at the end. A very slight workmanlike curve from + +side to side, with a good grip at each knee, and little pieces +welded on," said the deck-beams. + +"Fiddle!" cried the iron pillars of the deep, dark hold. "Who +ever heard of curves? Stand up straight; be a perfectly round +column, and carry tons of good solid weight - like that! There!" +A big sea smashed on the deck above, and the pillars stiffened +themselves to the load. + +"Straight up and down is not bad," said the frames, who ran that +way in the sides of the ship, "but you must also expand +yourselves sideways. Expansion is the law of life, children. +Open out! open out!" + +"Come back!" said the deck-beams, savagely, as the upward heave +of the sea made the frames try to open. "Come back to your +bearings, you slack-jawed irons!" + +"Rigidity! Rigidity! Rigidity!" thumped the engines. "Absolute, +unvarying rigidity -rigidity!" + +"You see!" whined the rivets, in chorus. "No two of you will ever +pull alike, and - and you blame it all on us. We only know how +to go through a plate and bite down on both sides so that it +can't, and mustn't, and sha'n't move." + +"I've got one fraction of an inch play, at any rate," said the +garboard-strake, triumphantly. So he had, and all the bottom of +the ship felt the easier for it. + +"Then we're no good," sobbed the bottom rivets. "We were ordered +- we were ordered -never to give; and we've given, and the sea +will come in, and we'll all go to the bottom together! First +we're blamed for everything unpleasant, and now we haven't the +consolation of having done our work." + +"Don't say I told you," whispered the Steam, consolingly; "but, +between you and me and the last cloud I came from, it was bound +to happen sooner or later. You had to give a fraction, and +you've given without knowing it. Now, hold on, as before." + +"What's the use?" a few hundred rivets chattered. "We've given - +we've given; and the sooner we confess that we can't keep the +ship together, and go off our little heads, the easier it will +be. No rivet forged can stand this strain." + +"No one rivet was ever meant to. Share it among you," the Steam +answered."The others can have my share. I'm going to pull out," +said a rivet in one of the forward plates. + +"If you go, others will follow," hissed the Steam. "There's +nothing so contagious in a boat as rivets going. Why, I knew a +little chap like you - he was an eighth of an inch fatter, +though - on a steamer - to be sure, she was only twelve hundred +tons, now I come to think of it in exactly the same place as you +are. He pulled out in a bit of a bobble of a sea, not half as +bad as this, and he started all his friends on the same +butt-strap, and the plates opened like a furnace door, and I had +to climb into the nearest fog-bank, while the boat went down." + +"Now that's peculiarly disgraceful," said the rivet. "Fatter than +me, was he, and in a steamer not half our tonnage? Reedy little +peg! I blush for the family, sir." He settled himself more +firmly than ever in his place, and the Steam chuckled. + +"You see," he went on, quite gravely, " a rivet, and especially a +rivet in your position, is really the one indispensable part of +the ship." + +The Steam did not say that be had whispered the very same thing +to every single piece of iron aboard. There is no sense in +telling too much. + +And all that while the little Dimbula pitched and chopped, and +swung and slewed, and lay down as though she were going to die, +and got up as though she had been stung, and threw her nose +round and round in circles half a dozen times as she dipped, for +the gale was at its worst. It was inky black, in spite of the +tearing white froth on the waves, and, to top everything, the +rain began to fall in sheets, so that you could not see your hand +before your face. This did not make much difference to the +ironwork below, but it troubled the foremast a good deal. + +"Now it's all finished," he said dismally. "The conspiracy is too +strong for us. There is nothing left but to -" + +"Hurraar! Brrrraaah! Brrrrrrp!" roared the Steam through the +fog-horn, till the decks quivered. "Don't be frightened, below. +It's only me, just throwing out a few words, in case any one +happens to be rolling round to-night." + +"You don't mean to say there's any one except us on the sea in +such weather?" said the funnel, in a husky snuffle. + +"Scores of 'em," said the Steam, clearing its throat. "Rrrrrraaa! +Brraaaaa! Prrrrp! It's a trifle windy up here; and, Great +Boilers! how it rains!" + +"We're drowning," said the scuppers. They had been doing nothing +else all night, but this steady thrash of rain above them seemed +to be the end of the world. + +"That's all right. We'll be easier in an hour or two. First the +wind and then the rain: Soon you may make sail again! +Grrraaaaaah! Drrrraaaa! Drrrp! I have a notion that the sea is +going down already. If it does you'll learn something about +rolling. We've only pitched till now. By the way, aren't you +chaps in the hold a little easier than you were?" + +There was just as much groaning and straining as ever, but it was +not so loud or squeaky in tone; and when the ship quivered she +did not jar stiffly, like a poker hit on the floor, but gave +with a supple little waggle, like a perfectly balanced +golf-club. + +"We have made a most amazing discovery," said the stringers, one +after another. "A discovery that entirely changes the situation. +We have found, for the first time in the history of +ship-building, that the inward pull of the deck-beams and the +outward thrust of the frames locks us, as it were, more closely +in our places, and enables us to endure a strain which is +entirely without parallel in the records of marine +architecture." + +The Steam turned a laugh quickly into a roar up the fog-horn. +"What massive intellects you great stringers have," he said +softly, when he had finished. + +"We also," began the deck-beams, "are discoverers and geniuses. +We are of opinion that the support of the hold-pillars +materially helps us. We find that we lock up on them when we +are subjected to a heavy and singular weight of sea above." + +Here the Dimbula shot down a hollow, lying almost on her side; +righting at the bottom with a wrench and a spasm. + +"In these cases - are you aware of this, Steam? - the plating at +the bows, and particularly at the stern - we would also mention +the floors beneath us - help us to resist any tendency to +spring." The frames spoke, in the solemn awed voice which people +use when they have just come across something entirely new for +the very first time. + +"I'm only a poor puffy little flutterer," said the Steam, "but I +have to stand a good deal of pressure in my business. It's all +tremendously interesting. Tell us some more. You fellows are so +strong." + +"Watch us and you'll see," said the bow-plates, proudly. "Ready, +behind there! Here's the father and mother of waves coming! Sit +tight, rivets all!" A great sluicing comber thundered by, but +through the scuffle and confusion the Steam could hear the low, +quick cries of the ironwork as the various strains took them - +cries like these: "Easy, now - easy! Now push for all your +strength! Hold out! Give a fraction! Hold up! Pull in! Shove +crossways! Mind the strain at the ends! Grip, now! Bite tight! +Let the water get away from under - and there she goes!" + +The wave raced off into the darkness, shouting, "Not bad, that, +if it's your first run!" and the drenched and ducked ship +throbbed to the beat of the engines inside her. All three +cylinders were white with the salt spray that had come down +through the engine-room hatch; there was white fur on the +canvas-bound steam-pipes, and even the bright-work deep below +was speckled and soiled; but the cylinders had learned to make +the most of steam that was half water, and were pounding along +cheerfully. + +"How's the noblest outcome of human ingenuity hitting it?" said +the Steam, as he whirled through the engine-room. + +"Nothing for nothing in this world of woe," the cylinders +answered, as though they had been working for centuries, "and +precious little for seventy-five pounds head. We've made two +knots this last hour and a quarter! Rather humiliating for eight +hundred horse-power, isn't it?" + +"Well, it's better than drifting astern, at any rate. You seem +rather less - how shall I put it - stiff in the back than you +were." + +"If you'd been hammered as we've been this night, you wouldn't be +stiff- iff- iff; either. Theoreti - retti - retti - cally, of +course, rigidity is the thing. Purrr - purr - practically, there +has to be a little give and take. We found that out by working on +our sides for five minutes at a stretch - chch - chh. How's the +weather?" + +"'Sea's going down fast," said the Steam. + +"Good business," said the high-pressure cylinder. "Whack her up, +boys. They've given us five pounds more steam"; and he began +humming the first bars of "Said the young Obadiah to the old +Obadiah," which, as you may have noticed, is a pet tune among +engines not built for high speed. Racing-liners with twin-screws +sing "The Turkish Patrol" and the overture to the "Bronze +Horse," and "Madame Angot," till something goes wrong, and then +they render Gounod's "Funeral March of a Marionette," with +variations. + +"You'll learn a song of your own some fine day," said the Steam, +as he flew up the fog-horn for one last bellow. + +Next day the sky cleared and the sea dropped a little, and the +Dimbula began to roll from side to side till every inch of iron +in her was sick and giddy.But luckily they did not all feel ill +at the same time: otherwise she would have opened out like a wet +paper box. + +The Steam whistled warnings as he went about his business: it is +in this short, quick roll and tumble that follows a heavy sea +that most of the accidents happen, for then everything thinks +that the worst is over and goes off guard. So he orated and +chattered till the beams and frames and floors and stringers and +things had learned how to lock down and lock up on one another, +and endure this new kind of strain. + +They found ample time to practise, for they were sixteen days at +sea, and it was foul weather till within a hundred miles of New +York. The Dimbula picked up her pilot, and came in covered with +salt and red rust. Her funnel was dirty-grey from top to +bottom; two boats had been carried away; three copper ventilators +looked like hats after a fight with the police; the bridge had a +dimple in the middle of it; the house that covered the steam +steering-gear was split as with hatchets; there was a bill for +small repairs in the engine-room almost as long as the +screw-shaft; the forward cargo-hatch fell into bucket-staves when +they raised the iron cross-bars; and the steam-capstan had been +badly wrenched on its bed. Altogether, as the skipper said, it +was "a pretty general average." + +"But she's soupled," he said to Mr. Buchanan. "For all her +dead-weight she rode like a yacht. Ye mind that last blow off +the Banks - I am proud of her, Buck." + +"It's vera good," said the chief engineer, looking along the +dishevelled decks. "Now, a man judgin' superfeecially would say +we were a wreck, but we know otherwise - by experience." + +Naturally everything in the Dimbula fairly stiffened with pride, +and the foremast and the forward collision-bulkhead, who are +pushing creatures, begged the Steam to warn the Port of New York +of their arrival. "Tell those big boats all about us," they said. +"They seem to take us quite as a matter of course." + +It was a glorious, clear, dead calm morning, and in single file, +with less than half a mile between each, their bands playing and +their tugboats shouting and waving handkerchiefs, were the +Majestic, the Paris, the Touraine, the Servia, the Kaiser +Wilhelm II, and the Werkendam, all statelily going out to sea. As +the Dimbula shifted her helm to give the great boats clear way, +the Steam (who knows far too much to mind making an exhibition +of himself now and then) shouted:Oyez! Oyez! Oyez! Princes, +Dukes, and Barons of the High Seas! Know ye by these presents, +we are the Dimbula, fifteen days nine hours from Liverpool, +having crossed the Atlantic with four thousand ton of cargo for +the first time in our career! We have not foundered. We are +here. 'Eer! 'Eer! We are not disabled. But we have had a time +wholly unparalieled in the annals of ship-building! Our decks +were swept! We pitched; we rolled! We thought we were going to +die! Hi! Hi? But we didn't. We wish to give notice that we have +come to New York all the way across the Atlantic, through the +worst weather in the world; and we are the Dimbula! We are - arr +- ha - ha - ha-r-r-r!" + +The beautiful line of boats swept by as steadily as the +procession of the Seasons. The Dimbula heard the Majestic say, +"Hmph!" and the Paris grunted, "How!" and the Touraine said, +"Oui!" with a little coquettish flicker of steam; and the Servia +said, "Haw!" and the Kaiser and the Werkendam said, "Hoch!" Dutch +fashion - and that was absolutely all. + +"I did my best," said the Steam, gravely, "but I don't think they +were much impressed with us, somehow. Do you?" + +"It's simply disgusting," said the bow-plates. "They might have +seen what we've been through. There isn't a ship on the sea that +has suffered as we have - is there, now?" + +"Well, I wouldn't go so far as that," said the Steam, "because +I've worked on some of those boats, and sent them through +weather quite as bad as the fortnight that we've had, in six +days; and some of them are a little over ten thousand tons, I +believe. Now I've seen the Majestic, for instance, ducked from +her bows to her funnel; and I've helped the Arizona, I think she +was, to back off an iceberg she met with one dark night; and I +had to run out of the Paris's engine-room, one day, because +there was thirty foot of water in it. Of course, I don't deny -" +The Steam shut off suddenly, as a tugboat, loaded with a +political club and a brass band, that had been to see a New York +Senator off to Europe, crossed their bows, going to Hoboken. +There was a long silence that reached, without a break, from the +cut-water to the propeller-blades of the Dimbula. + +Then a new, big voice said slowly and thickly, as though the +owner had just waked up: "It's my conviction that I have made a +fool of myself" + +The Steam knew what had happened at once; for when a ship finds +herself all the talking of the separate pieces ceases and melts +into one voice, which is the soul of the ship. + +"Who are you?" he said, with a laugh. + +"I am the Dimbula, of course. I've never been anything else +except that - and a fool!" + +The tugboat, which was doing its very best to be run down, got +away just in time; its band playing clashily and brassily a +popular but impolite air: + + In the days of old Rameses - are you on?In the days of old +Rameses - are you on?In the days of old Rameses,That story had +paresis,Are you on - are you on - are you on? + +"Well, I'm glad you've found yourself," said the Steam. "To tell +the truth, I was a little tired of talking to all those ribs and +stringers. Here's Quarantine. After that we'll go to our wharf +and clean up a little, and - next month we'll do it all over +again." + +END OF THE "THE SHIP THAT FOUND HERSELF" + + + +THE TOMB OF HIS ANCESTORS + +Some people will tell you that if there were but a single loaf of +bread in all India it would be divided equally between the +Plowdens, the Trevors, the Beadons, and the Rivett-Carnacs. That +is only one way of saying that certain families serve India +generation after generation, as dolphins follow in line across +the open sea. + +Let us take a small and obscure case. There has been at least one +representative of the Devonshire Chinns in or near Central India +since the days of Lieutenant-Fireworker Humphrey Chinn, of the +Bombay European Regiment, who assisted at the capture of +Seringapatam in 1799. Alfred Ellis Chinn, Humphrey's younger +brother, commanded a regiment of Bombay grenadiers from 1804 to +1813, when he saw some mixed fighting; and in 1834 John Chinn of +the same family - we will call him John Chinn the First - came to +light as a level-headed administrator in time of trouble at a +place called Mundesur. He died young, but left his mark on the +new country, and the Honourable the Board of Directors of the +Honourable the East India Company embodied his virtues in a +stately resolution, and paid for the expenses of his tomb among +the Satpura hills. + +He was succeeded by his son, Lionel Chinn, who left the little +old Devonshire home just in time to be severely wounded in the +Mutiny. He spent his working life within a hundred and fifty +miles of John Chinn's grave, and rose to the command of a +regiment of small, wild hill-men, most of whom had known his +father. His son John was born in the small thatched-roofed, +mud-walled cantonment, which is even to-day eighty miles from +the nearest railway, in the heart of a scrubby, tigerish +country. Colonel Lionel Chinn served thirty years and retired. +In the Canal his steamer passed the outward-bound troop-ship, +carrying his son eastward to the family duty. + +The Chinns are luckier than most folk, because they know exactly +what they must do. A clever Chinn passes for the Bombay Civil +Service, and gets away to Central India, where everybody is glad +to see him. A dull Chinn enters the Police Department or the +Woods and Forest, and sooner or later he, too, appears in +Central India, and that is what gave rise to the saying, +"Central India is inhabited by Bhils, Mairs, and Chinns, all +very much alike." The breed is small-boned, dark, and silent, +and the stupidest of them are good shots. John Chinn the Second +was rather clever, but as the eldest son he entered the army, +according to Chinn tradition. His duty was to abide in his +father's regiment for the term of his natural life, though the +corps was one which most men would have paid heavily to avoid. +They were irregulars, small, dark, and blackish, clothed in +rifle-green with black-leather trimmings; and friends called them +the "Wuddars," which means a race of low-caste people who dig up +rats to eat. But the Wuddars did not resent it. They were the +only Wuddars, and their points of pride were these: + +Firstly, they had fewer English officers than any native +regiment. Secondly, their subalterns were not mounted on parade, +as is the general rule, but walked at the head of their men. A +man who can hold his own with the Wuddars at their quickstep must +be sound in wind and limb. Thirdly, they were the most pukka +shikarries (out-and-out hunters) in all India. Fourthly-up to +one-hundredthly - they were the Wuddars -Chinn's Irregular Bhil +Levies of the old days, but now, henceforward and for ever, the +Wuddars. + +No Englishman entered their mess except for love or through +family usage. The officers talked to their soldiers in a tongue +not two hundred white folk in India understood; and the men were +their children, all drawn from the Bhils, who are, perhaps, the +strangest of the many strange races in India. They were, and at +heart are, wild men, furtive, shy, full of untold superstitions. +The races whom we call natives of the country found the Bhil in +possession of the land when they first broke into that part of +the world thousands of years ago. The books call them Pre-Aryan, +Aboriginal, Dravidian, and so forth; and, in other words, that is +what the Bhils call themselves. When a Rajput chief whose bards +can sing his pedigree backwards for twelve hundred years is set +on the throne, his investiture is not complete till he has been +marked on the forehead with blood from the veins of a Bhil. The +Rajputs say the ceremony has no meaning, but the Bhil knows that +it is the last, last shadow of his old rights as the long-ago +owner of the soil. + +Centuries of oppression and massacre made the Bhil a cruel and +half-crazy thief and cattle-stealer, and when the English came +he seemed to be almost as open to civilisation as the tigers of +his own jungles. But John Chinn the First, father of Lionel, +grandfather of our John, went into his country, lived with him, +learned his language, shot the deer that stole his poor crops, +and won his confidence, so that some Bhils learned to plough and +sow, while others were coaxed into the Company's service to +police their friends. + +When they understood that standing in line did not mean instant +execution, they accepted soldiering as a cumbrous but amusing +kind of sport, and were zealous to keep the wild Bhils under +control. That was the thin edge of the wedge. John Chinn the +First gave them written promises that, if they were good from a +certain date, the Government would overlook previous offences; +and since John Chinn was never known to break his word - he +promised once to hang a Bhil locally esteemed invulnerable, and +hanged him in front of his tribe for seven proved murders - the +Bhils settled down as steadily as they knew how. It was slow, +unseen work, of the sort that is being done all over India +to-day; and though John Chinn's only reward came, as I have +said, in the shape of a grave at Government expense, the little +people of the hills never forgot him. + +Colonel Lionel Chinn knew and loved them, too, and they were very +fairly civilised, for Bhils, before his service ended. Many of +them could hardly be distinguished from low-caste Hindoo +farmers; but in the south, where John Chinn the First was +buried, the wildest still clung to the Satpura ranges, cherishing +a legend that some day Jan Chinn, as they called him, would +return to his own. In the mean time they mistrusted the white +man and his ways. The least excitement would stampede them, +plundering, at random, and now and then killing; but if they +were handled discreetly they grieved like children, and promised +never to do it again. + +The Bhils of the regiment - the uniformed men - were virtuous in +many ways, but they needed humouring. They felt bored and +homesick unless taken after tiger as beaters; and their +cold-blooded daring - all Wuddars shoot tigers on foot: it is +their caste-mark - made even the officers wonder. They would +follow up a wounded tiger as unconcernedly as though it were a +sparrow with a broken wing; and this through a country full of +caves and rifts and pits, where a wild beast could hold a dozen +men at his mercy. Now and then some little man was brought to +barracks with his head smashed in or his ribs torn away; but his +companions never learned caution; they contented themselves with +settling the tiger. + +Young John Chinn was decanted at the verandah of the Wuddars' +lonely mess-house from the back seat of a two-wheeled cart, his +gun-cases cascading all round him. The slender little, +hookey-nosed boy looked forlorn as a strayed goat when he +slapped the white dust off his knees, and the cart jolted down +the glaring road. But in his heart he was contented. After +all, this was the place where he had been born, and things were +not much changed since he had been sent to England, a child, +fifteen years ago. + +There were a few new buildings, but the air and the smell and the +sunshine were the same; and the little green men who crossed the +parade-ground looked very familiar. Three weeks ago John Chinn +would have said he did not remember a word of the Bhil tongue, +but at the mess door he found his lips moving in sentences that +he did not understand - bits of old nursery rhymes, and tail-ends +of such orders as his father used to give the men. + +The Colonel watched him come up the steps, and laughed. + +"Look!" he said to the Major. "No need to ask the young un's +breed. He's a pukka Chinn. 'Might be his father in the Fifties +over again." + +"'Hope he'll shoot as straight," said the Major. "He's brought +enough ironmongery with him." + +"'Wouldn't be a Chinn if he didn't. Watch him blowin' his nose. +'Regular Chinn beak. 'Flourishes his handkerchief like his +father. It's the second edition - line for line." + +"'Fairy tale, by Jove!" said the Major, peering through the slats +of the jalousies. "If he's the lawful heir, he'll . . . . Now +old Chinn could no more pass that chick without fiddling with it +than . . . . + +"His son!" said the Colonel, jumping up. + +"Well, I be blowed!" said the Major. The boy's eye had been +caught by a split-,reed screen that hung on a slew between the +veranda pillars, and, mechanically, he had tweaked the edge to +set it level. Old Chinn had sworn three times a day at that +screen for many years; he could never get it to his satisfaction. + +His son entered the anteroom in the middle of a fivefold +silence. They made him welcome for his father's sake and, as +they took stock of him, for his own. He was ridiculously like +the portrait of the Colonel on the wall, and when he had washed +a little of the dust from his throat he went to his quarters with +the old man's short, noiseless jungle-step. + +"So much for heredity," said the Major. "That comes of four +generations among the Bhils." + +"And the men know it," said a Wing officer. "They've been waiting +for this youth with their tongues hanging out. I am persuaded +that, unless he absolutely beats 'em over the head, they'll lie +down by companies and worship him." + +"Nothin' like havin' a father before you," said the Major. "I'm +a parvenu with my chaps. I've only been twenty years in the +regiment, and my revered parent he was a simple squire. There's +no getting at the bottom of a Bhil's mind. Now, why is the +superior bearer that young Chinn brought with him fleeing across +country with his bundle?" He stepped into the verandah, and +shouted after the man - a typical new-joined subaltern's servant +who speaks English and cheats in proportion. + +What is it?" he called. + +Plenty bad man here. I going, sar," was the reply. "'Have taken +Sahib's keys, and say will shoot." + +Doocid lucid - doocid convincin'. How those up-country thieves +can leg it! He has been badly frightened by some one." The +Major strolled to his quarters to dress for mess. + +Young Chinn, walking like a man in a dream, had fetched a compass +round the entire cantonment before going to his own tiny +cottage. The captain's quarters, in which he had been born, +delayed him for a little; then he looked at the well on the +parade-ground, where he had sat of evenings with his nurse, and +at the ten-by-fourteen church, where the officers went to +service if a chaplain of any official creed happened to come +along. It seemed very small as compared with the gigantic +buildings he used to stare up at, but it was the same place. + +>From time to time he passed a knot of silent soldiers, who +saluted. They might have been the very men who had carried him +on their backs when he was in his first knickerbockers. A faint +light burned in his room, and, as he entered, hands clasped his +feet, and a voice murmured from the floor. + +"Who is it?" said young Chinn, not knowing he spoke in the Bhil +tongue. + +"I bore you in my arms, Sahib, when I was a strong man and you +were a small one - crying, crying, crying! I am your servant, +as I was your father's before you. We are all your servants." + +Young Chinn could not trust himself to reply, and the voice went +on: + +"I have taken your keys from that fat foreigner, and sent him +away; and the studs are in the shirt for mess. Who should know, +if I do not know? And so the baby has become a man, and forgets +his nurse; but my nephew shall make a good servant, or I will +beat him twice a day." + +Then there rose up, with a rattle, as straight as a Bhil arrow, a +little white-haired wizened ape of a man, with medals and orders +on his tunic, stammering, saluting, and trembling. Behind him a +young and wiry Bhil, in uniform, was taking the trees out of +Chinn's mess-boots. + +Chinn's eyes were full of tears. The old man held out his keys. + +"Foreigners are bad people. He will never come back again. We +are all servants of your father's son. Has the Sahib forgotten +who took him to see the trapped tiger in the village across the +river, when his mother was so frightened and he was so brave?" + +The scene came back to Chinn in great magic-lantern flashes. +"Bukta!" he cried; and all in a breath: "You promised nothing +should hurt me. Is it Bukta?" + +The man was at his feet a second time. "He has not forgotten. He +remembers his own people as his father remembered. Now can I +die. But first I will live and show the Sahib how to kill +tigers. That that yonder is my nephew. If he is not a good +servant, beat him and send him to me, and I will surely kill him, +for now the Sahib is with his own people. Ai, Jan haba - Jan +haba! My Jan haba! I will stay here and see that this does his +work well. Take off his boots, fool. Sit down upon the bed, +Sahib, and let me look. It is Jan haba." + +He pushed forward the hilt of his sword as a sign of service, +which is an honour paid only to viceroys, governors, generals, +or to little children whom one loves dearly. Chinn touched the +hilt mechanically with three fingers, muttering he knew not +what. It happened to be the old answer of his childhood, when +Bukta in jest called him the little General Sahib. + +The Major's quarters were opposite Chinn's, and when he heard his +servant gasp with surprise he looked across the room. Then the +Major sat on the bed and whistled; for the spectacle of the +senior native commissioned officer of the regiment, an "unmixed" +Bhil, a Companion of the Order of British India, with +thirty-five years' spotless service in the army, and a rank +among his own people superior to that of many Bengal +princelings, valeting the last-joined subaltern, was a little +too much for his nerves. + +The throaty bugles blew the Mess-call that has a long legend +behind it. First a few piercing notes like the shrieks of +beaters in a far-away cover, and next, large, full, and smooth, +the refrain of the wild song: "And oh, and oh, the green pulse +of Mundore - Mundore!" + +"All little children were in bed when the Sahib heard that call +last," said Bukta, passing Chinn a clean handkerchief. The call +brought back memories of his cot under the mosquito-netting, his +mother's kiss, and the sound of footsteps growing fainter as he +dropped asleep among his men. So he hooked the dark collar of +his new mess-jacket, and went to dinner like a prince who has +newly inherited his father's crown. + +Old Bukta swaggered forth curling his whiskers. He knew his own +value, and no money and no rank within the gift of the +Government would have induced him to put studs in young +officers' shirts, or to hand them clean ties. Yet, when he took +off his uniform that night, and squatted among his fellows for a +quiet smoke, he told them what he had done, and they said that he +was entirely right. Thereat Bukta propounded a theory which to a +white mind would have seemed raving insanity; but the whispering, +level-headed little men of war considered it from every point of +view, and thought that there might be a great deal in it. + +At mess under the oil-lamps the talk turned as usual to the +unfailing subject of shikar - big game-shooting of every kind +and under all sorts of conditions. Young Chinn opened his eyes +when he understood that each one of his companions had shot +several tigers in the Wuddar style - on foot, that is - making no +more of the business than if the brute had been a dog. + +"In nine cases out of ten," said the Major, "a tiger is almost as +dangerous as a porcupine. But the tenth time you come home feet +first." + +That set all talking, and long before midnight Chinn's brain was +in a whirl with stories of tigers - man-eaters and +cattle-killers each pursuing his own business as methodically as +clerks in an office; new tigers that had lately come into +such-and-such a district; and old, friendly beasts of great +cunning, known by nicknames in the mess-such as "Puggy," who was +lazy, with huge paws, and "Mrs. Malaprop," who turned up when you +never expected her, and made female noises. Then they spoke of +Bhil superstitions, a wide and picturesque field, till young +Chinn hinted that they must be pulling his leg. + +"'Deed, we aren't," said a man on his left. "We know all about +you. You're a Chinn and all that, and you've a sort of vested +right here; but if you don't believe what we're telling you, +what will you do when old Bukta begins his stories? He knows +about ghost-tigers, and tigers that go to a hell of their own; +and tigers that walk on their hind feet; and your grandpapa's +riding-tiger, as well. 'Odd he hasn't spoken of that yet." + +"You know you've an ancestor buried down Satpura way, don't you?" +said the Major, as Chinn smiled irresolutely. + +"Of course I do," said Chinn, who had the chronicle of the Book +of Chinn by heart. It lies in a worn old ledger on the Chinese +lacquer table behind the piano in the Devonshire home, and the +children are allowed to look at it on Sundays. + +"Well, I wasn't sure. Your revered ancestor, my boy, according +to the Bhils, has a tiger of his own - a saddle-tiger that he +rides round the country whenever he feels inclined. I don't call +it decent in an ex-Collector's ghost; but that is what the +Southern Bhils believe. Even our men, who might be called +moderately cool, don't care to beat that country if they hear +that Jan Chinn is running about on his tiger. It is supposed to +be a clouded animal - not stripy, but blotchy, like a +tortoise-shell tom-cat. No end of a brute, it is, and a sure +sign of war or pestilence or - or something. There's a nice +family legend for you." + +"What's the origin of it, d' you suppose?" said Chinn. + +"Ask the Satpura Bhils. Old Jan Chinn was a mighty hunter before +the Lord. Perhaps it was the tiger's revenge, or perhaps he's +huntin' 'em still. You must go to his tomb one of these days and +inquire. Bukta will probably attend to that. He was asking me +before you came whether by any ill-luck you had already bagged +your tiger. If not, he is going to enter you under his own wing. +Of course, for you of all men it's imperative. You'll have a +first-class time with Bukta." + +The Major was not wrong. Bukta kept an anxious eye on young +Chinn at drill, and it was noticeable that the first time the +new officer lifted up his voice in an order the whole line +quivered. Even the Colonel was taken aback, for it might have +been Lionel Chinn returned from Devonshire with a new lease of +life. Bukta had continued to develop his peculiar theory among +his intimates, and it was accepted as a matter of faith in the +lines, since every word and gesture on young Chinn's part so +confirmed it. + +The old man arranged early that his darling should wipe out the +reproach of not having shot a tiger; but he was not content to +take the first or any beast that happened to arrive. In his own +villages he dispensed the high, low, and middle justice, and when +his people-naked and fluttered - came to him with word of a +beast marked down, he bade them send spies to the kills and the +watering-places, that he might be sure the quarry was such an one +as suited the dignity of such a man. + +Three or four times the reckless trackers returned, most +truthfully saying that the beast was mangy, undersized - a +tigress worn with nursing, or a broken-toothed old male - and +Bukta would curb young Chinn's impatience. + +At last, a noble animal was marked down - a ten-foot +cattle-killer with a huge roll of loose skin along the belly, +glossy-hided, full-frilled about the neck, whiskered, frisky, +and young. He had slain a man in pure sport, they said. + +"Let him be fed," quoth Bukta, and the villagers dutifully drove +out a cow to amuse him, that he might lie up near by. + +Princes and potentates have taken ship to India and spent great +moneys for the mere glimpse of beasts one-half as fine as this +of Bukta's. + +"It is not good," said he to the Colonel, when he asked for +shooting-leave, "that my Colonel's son who may be - that my +Colonel's son should lose his maidenhead on any small jungle +beast. That may come after. I have waited long for this which +is a tiger. He has come in from the Mair country. In seven days +we will return with the skin." + +The mess gnashed their teeth enviously. Bukta, had he chosen, +might have invited them all. But he went out alone with Chinn, +two days in a shooting-cart and a day on foot, till they came to +a rocky, glary valley with a pool of good water in it. It was a +parching day, and the boy very naturally stripped and went in for +a bathe, leaving Bukta by the clothes. A white skin shows far +against brown jungle, and what Bukta beheld on Chinn's back and +right shoulder dragged him forward step by step with staring +eyeballs. + +"I'd forgotten it isn't decent to strip before a man of his +position," said Chinn, flouncing in the water. "How the little +devil stares! What is it, Bukta?" "The Mark!" was the whispered +answer. + +"It is nothing. You know how it is with my people!" Chinn was +annoyed. The dull-red birth-mark on his shoulder, something like +a conventionalised Tartar cloud, had slipped his memory or he +would not have bathed. It occurred, so they said at home, in +alternate generations, appearing, curiously enough, eight or nine +years after birth, and, save that it was part of the Chinn +inheritance, would not be considered pretty. He hurried ashore, +dressed again, and went on till they met two or three Bhils, who +promptly fell on their faces. "My people," grunted Bukta, not +condescending to notice them. "And so your people, Sahib. When I +was a young man we were fewer, but not so weak. Now we are many, +but poor stock. As may be remembered. How will you shoot him, +Sahib? From a tree; from a shelter which my people shall build; +by day or by night?" + +"On foot and in the daytime," said young Chinn. + +"That was your custom, as I have heard," said Bukta to himself "I +will get news of him. Then you and I will go to him. I will +carry one gun. You have yours. There is no need of more. What +tiger shall stand against thee?" + +He was marked down by a little water-hole at the head of a +ravine, full-gorged and half asleep in the May sunlight. He was +walked up like a partridge, and he turned to do battle for his +life. Bukta made no motion to raise his rifle, but kept his eyes +on Chinn, who met the shattering roar of the charge with a single +shot - it seemed to him hours as he sighted - which tore through +the throat, smashing the backbone below the neck and between the +shoulders. The brute couched, choked, and fell, and before Chinn +knew well what had happened Bukta bade him stay still while he +paced the distance between his feet and the ringing jaws. + +"Fifteen," said Bukta. "Short paces. No need for a second shot, +Sahib. He bleeds cleanly where he lies, and we need not spoil +the skin. I said there would be no need of these, but they came +- in case." + +Suddenly the sides of the ravine were crowned with the heads of +Bukta's people - a force that could have blown the ribs out of +the beast had Chinn's shot failed; but their guns were hidden, +and they appeared as interested beaters, some five or six waiting +the word to skin. Bukta watched the life fade from the wild eyes, +lifted one hand, and turned on his heel. + +"No need to show that we care," said he. "Now, after this, we can +kill what we choose. Put out your hand, Sahib." + +Chinn obeyed. It was entirely steady, and Bukta nodded. "That +also was your custom. My men skin quickly. They will carry the +skin to cantonments. Will the Sahib come to my poor village for +the night and, perhaps, forget that I am his officer?" + +"But those men - the beaters. They have worked hard, and perhaps +-" + +"Oh, if they skin clumsily, we will skin them. They are my +people. In the lines I am one thing. Here I am another." + +This was very true. When Bukta doffed uniform and reverted to the +fragmentary dress of his own people, he left his civilisation of +drill in the next world. That night, after a little talk with his +subjects, he devoted to an orgie; and a Bhil orgie is a thing not +to be safely written about. Chinn, flushed with triumph, was in +the thick of it, but the meaning of the mysteries was hidden. +Wild folk came and pressed about his knees with offerings. He +gave his flask to the elders of the village. They grew eloquent, +and wreathed him about with flowers. Gifts and loans, not all +seemly, were thrust upon him, and infernal music rolled and +maddened round red fires, while singers sang songs of the ancient +times, and danced peculiar dances. The aboriginal liquors are +very potent, and Chinn was compelled to taste them often, but, +unless the stuff had been drugged, how came he to fall asleep +suddenly, and to waken late the next day - half a march from the +village? + +"The Sahib was very tired. A little before dawn he went to +sleep," Bukta explained. "My people carried him here, and now +it is time we should go back to cantonments." + +The voice, smooth and deferential, the step, steady and silent, +made it hard to believe that only a few hours before Bukta was +yelling and capering with naked fellow-devils of the scrub. + +"My people were very pleased to see the Sahib. They will never +forget. When next the Sahib goes out recruiting, he will go to +my people, and they will give him as many men as we need." + +Chinn kept his own counsel, except as to the shooting of the +tiger, and Bukta embroidered that tale with a shameless tongue. +The skin was certainly one of the finest ever hung up in the +mess, and the first of many. When Bukta could not accompany his +boy on shooting-trips, he took care to put him in good hands, +and Chinn learned more of the mind and desire of the wild Bhil +in his marches and campings, by talks at twilight or at wayside +pools, than an uninstructed man could have come at in a +lifetime. + +Presently his men in the regiment grew bold to speak of their +relatives-mostly in trouble-and to lay cases of tribal custom +before him. They would say, squatting in his verandah at +twilight, after the easy, confidential style of the Wuddars, +that such-and-such a bachelor had run away with such-and-such a +wife at a far-off village. Now, how many cows would Chinn Sahib +consider a just fine? Or, again, if written order came from the +Government that a Bhil was to repair to a walled city of the +plains to give evidence in a law-court, would it be wise to +disregard that order? On the other hand, if it were obeyed, would +the rash voyager return alive? + +"But what have I to do with these things?" Chinn demanded of +Bukta, impatiently. "I am a soldier. I do not know the law." + +"Hoo! Law is for fools and white men. Give them a large and +loud order, and they will abide by it. Thou art their law." + +"But wherefore?" + +Every trace of expression left Bukta's countenance. The idea +might have smitten him for the first time. "How can I say?" he +replied. "Perhaps it is on account of the name. A Bhil does not +love strange things. Give them orders, Sahib- two, three, four +words at a time such as they can carry away in their heads. +That is enough." + +Chinn gave orders then, valiantly, not realising that a word +spoken in haste before mess became the dread unappealable law of +villages beyond the smoky hills was, in truth, no less than the +Law of Jan Chinn the First, who, so the whispered legend ran, had +come back to earth, to oversee the third generation, in the body +and bones of his grandson. + +There could be no sort of doubt in this matter. All the Bhils +knew that Jan Chinn reincarnated had honoured Bukta's village +with his presence after slaying his first-in this life-tiger; +that he had eaten and drunk with the people, as he was used; and +- Bukta must have drugged Chinn's liquor very deeply-upon his +back and right shoulder all men had seen the same angry red +Flying Cloud that the high Gods had set on the flesh of Jan +Chinn the First when first he came to the Bhil. As concerned the +foolish white world which has no eyes, he was a slim and young +officer in the Wuddars; but his own people knew he was Jan Chinn, +who had made the Bhil a man; and, believing, they hastened to +carry his words, careful never to alter them on the way. + +Because the savage and the child who plays lonely games have one +horror of being laughed at or questioned, the little folk kept +their convictions to themselves; and the Colonel, who thought he +knew his regiment, never guessed that each one of the six +hundred quick-footed, beady-eyed rank-and-file, to attention +beside their rifles, believed serenely and unshakenly that the +subaltern on the left flank of the line was a demi-god twice +born -tutelary deity of their land and people. The Earth-gods +themselves had stamped the incarnation, and who would dare to +doubt the handiwork of the Earth-gods? + +Chinn, being practical above all things, saw that his family name +served him well in the lines and in camp. His men gave no +trouble-one does not commit regimental offences with a god in +the chair of justice-and he was sure of the best beaters in the +district when he needed them. They believed that the protection +of Jan Chinn the First cloaked them, and were bold in that belief +beyond the utmost daring of excited Bhils. + +His quarters began to look like an amateur natural-history +museum, in spite of duplicate heads and horns and skulls that he +sent home to Devonshire. The people, very humanly, learned the +weak side of their god. It is true he was unbribable, but +bird-skins, butterflies, beetles, and, above all, news of big +game pleased him. In other respects, too, he lived up to the +Chinn tradition. He was fever-proof. A night's sitting out over +a tethered goat in a damp valley, that would have filled the +Major with a month's malaria, had no effect on him. He was, as +they said, "salted before he was born." + +Now in the autumn of his second year's service an uneasy rumour +crept out of the earth and ran about among the Bhils. Chinn +heard nothing of it till a brother- Officer said across the +mess-table: "Your revered ancestor's on the rampage in the +Satpura country. You'd better look him up." + +"I don't want to be disrespectful, but I'm a little sick of my +revered ancestor. Bukta talks of nothing else. What's the old +boy supposed to be doing now?" + +"Riding cross-country by moonlight on his processional tiger. +That's the story. He's been seen by about two thousand Bhils, +skipping along the tops of the Satpuras, and scaring people to +death. They believe it devoutly, and all the Satpura chaps are +worshipping away at his shrine- tomb, I mean-like good uns. You +really ought to go down there. Must be a queer thing to see your +grandfather treated as a god." + +"What makes you think there's any truth in the tale?" said +Chinn. + +"Because all our men deny it. They say they've never heard of +Chinn's tiger. Now that's a manifest lie, because every Bhil +has." + +"There's only one thing you've overlooked," said the Colonel, +thoughtfully. "When a local god reappears on earth, it's always +an excuse for trouble of some kind; and those Satpura Bhils are +about as wild as your grandfather left them, young un. It means +something." + +"Meanin' they may go on the war-path?" said Chinn. + +"'Can't say - as yet. 'Shouldn't be surprised a little bit." + +"I haven't been told a syllable." + +"'Proves it all the more. They are keeping something back." + +"Bukta tells me everything, too, as a rule. Now, why didn't he +tell me that?" + +Chinn put the question directly to the old man that night, and +the answer surprised him. + +"Why should I tell what is well known? Yes, the Clouded Tiger is +out in the Satpura country." + +"What do the wild Bhils think that it means?" + +They do not know. They wait. Sahib, what is coming? Say only one +little word, and we will be content." + +"We? What have tales from the south, where the jungly Bhils live, +to do with drilled men?" "When Jan Chinn wakes is no time for +any Bhil to be quiet." + +"But he has not waked, Bukta." + +"Sahib "-the old man's eyes were full of tender reproof-" if he +does not wish to be seen, why does he go abroad in the +moonlight? We know he is awake, but we do not know what he +desires. Is it a sign for all the Bhils, or one that concerns +the Satpura folk alone? Say one little word, Sahib, that I may +carry it to the lines, and send on to our villages. Why does Jan +Chinn ride out? Who has done wrong? Is it pestilence? Is it +murrain? Will our children die? Is it a sword? Remember, Sahib, +we are thy people and thy servants, and in this life I bore thee +in my arms-not knowing." + +"Bukta has evidently looked on the cup this evening," Chinn +thought; "but if I can do anything to soothe the old chap I +must. It's like the Mutiny rumours on a small scale." + +He dropped into a deep wicker chair, over which was thrown his +first tiger-skin, and his weight on the cushion flapped the +clawed paws over his shoulders. He laid hold of them +mechanically as he spoke, drawing the painted hide, +cloak-fashion, about him. + +"Now will I tell the truth, Bukta," he said, leaning forward, the +dried muzzle on his shoulder, to invent a specious lie. + +"I see that it is the truth," was the answer, in a shaking voice. + +"Jan Chinn goes abroad among the Satpuras, riding on the Clouded +Tiger, ye say? Be it so. Therefore the sign of the wonder is for +the Satpura Bhils only, and does not touch the Bhils who plough +in the north and east, the Bhils of the Khandesh, or any +others, except the Satpura Bhils, who, as we know, are wild and +foolish." + +"It is, then, a sign for them. Good or bad?" + +"Beyond doubt, good. For why should Jan Chinn make evil to those +whom he has made men? The nights over yonder are hot; it is ill +to lie in one bed over-long without turning, and Jan Chinn would +look again upon his people. So he rises, whistles his Clouded +Tiger, and goes abroad a little to breathe the cool air. If the +Satpura Bhils kept to their villages, and did not wander after +dark, they would not see him. Indeed, Bukta, it is no more than +that he would see the light again in his own country. Send this +news south, and say that it is my word." + +Bukta bowed to the floor. "Good Heavens!" thought Chinn, "and +this blinking pagan is a first-class officer, and as straight as +a die! I may as well round it off neatly." He went on: + +"If the Satpura Bhils ask the meaning of the sign, tell them that +Jan Chinn would see how they kept their old promises of good +living. Perhaps they have plundered; perhaps they mean to +disobey the orders of the Government; perhaps there is a dead +man in the jungle; and so Jan Chinn has come to see." + +"Is he, then, angry?" + +"Bah! Am I ever angry with my Bhils? I say angry words, and +threaten many things. Thou knowest, Bukta. I have seen thee +smile behind the hand. I know, and thou knowest. The Bhils are +my children. I have said it many times." + +"Ay. We be thy children," said Bukta. + +"And no otherwise is it with Jan Chinn, my father's father. He +would see the land he loved and the people once again. It is a +good ghost, Bukta. I say it. Go and tell them. And I do hope +devoutly," he added, "that it will calm 'em down." Flinging back +the tiger-skin, he rose with a long, unguarded yawn that showed +his well-kept teeth. + +Bukta fled, to be received in the lines by a knot of panting +inquirers. + +"It is true," said Bukta. "He wrapped him-self in the skin, and +spoke from it. He would see his own country again. The sign is +not for us; and, indeed, he is a young man. How should he lie +idle of nights? He says his bed is too hot and the air is bad. +He goes to and fro for the love of night-running. He has said +it." + +The grey-whiskered assembly shuddered. + +"He says the Bhils are his children. Ye know he does not lie. +He has said it to me." + +"But what of the Satpura Bhils? What means the sign for them?" + +"Nothing. It is only night-running, as I have said. He rides to +see if they obey the Government, as he taught them to do in his +first life." + +"And what if they do not?" + +"He did not say." + +The light went out in Chinn's quarters. + +"Look," said Bukta. "Now he goes away. None the less it is a +good ghost, as he has said. How shall we fear Jan Chinn, who +made the Bhil a man? His protection is on us; and ye know Jan +Chinn never broke a protection spoken or written on paper. +When he is older and has found him a wife he will lie in his bed +till morning." + +A commanding officer is generally aware of the regimental state +of mind a little before the men; and this is why the Colonel +said, a few days later, that some one had been putting the Fear +of God into the Wuddars. As he was the only person officially +entitled to do this, it distressed him to see such unanimous +virtue. "It's too good to last," he said. "I only wish I could +find out what the little chaps mean." + +The explanation, as it seemed to him, came at the change of the +moon, when he received orders to hold himself in readiness to +"allay any possible excitement" among the Satpura Bhils, who +were, to put it mildly, uneasy because a paternal Government had +sent up against them a Mahratta State-educated vaccinator, with +lancets, lymph, and an officially registered calf. In the +language of State, they had "manifested a strong objection to +all prophylactic measures," had "forcibly detained the +vaccinator," and "were on the point of neglecting or evading +their tribal obligations." + +"That means they are in a blue funk - same as they were at +census-time," said the Colonel; "and if we stampede them into +the hills we'll never catch 'em, in the first place, and, in the +second, they'll whoop off plundering till further orders. +'Wonder who the God-forsaken idiot is who is trying to vaccinate +a Bhil. I knew trouble was coming. One good thing is that +they'll only use local corps, and we can knock up something +we'll call a campaign, and let them down easy. Fancy us potting +our best beaters because they don't want to be vaccinated! +They're only crazy with fear." + +"Don't you think, sir," said Chinn, the next day, "that perhaps +you could give me a fortnight's shooting-leave?" + +"Desertion in the face of the enemy, by Jove!" The Colonel +laughed. "I might, but I'd have to antedate it a little, because +we're warned for service, as you might say. However, we'll assume +that you applied for leave three days ago, and are now well on +your way south." + +"I'd like to take Bukta with me." + +"Of course, yes. I think that will be the best plan. You've some +kind of hereditary influence with the little chaps, and they may +listen to you when a glimpse of our uniforms would drive them +wild. You've never been in that part of the world before, have +you? Take care they don't send you to your family vault in your +youth and innocence. I believe you'll be all right if you can get +'em to listen to you." + +"I think so, sir; but if -- if they should accidentally put an +-- make asses of 'emselves -- they might, you know -- I hope +you'll represent that they were only frightened. There isn't an +ounce of real vice in 'em, and I should never forgive myself if +any one of -- of my name got them into trouble." + +The Colonel nodded, but said nothing. + +Chinn and Bukta departed at once. Bukta did not say that, ever +since the official vaccinator had been dragged into the hills by +indignant Bhils, runner after runner had skulked up to the +lines, entreating, with forehead in the dust, that Jan Chinn +should come and explain this unknown horror that hung over his +people. + +The portent of the Clouded Tiger was now too clear. Let Jan +Chinn comfort his own, for vain was the help of mortal man. +Bukta toned down these beseechings to a simple request for +Chinn's presence. Nothing would have pleased the old man better +than a rough-and-tumble campaign against the Satpuras, whom he, +as an "unmixed" Bhil, despised; but he had a duty to all his +nation as Jan Chinn's interpreter; and he devoutly believed that +forty plagues would fall on his village if he tampered with that +obligation. Besides, Jan Chinn knew all things, and he rode the +Clouded Tiger. + +They covered thirty miles a day on foot and pony, raising the +blue wall-like line of the Satpuras as swiftly as might be. +Bukta was very silent. + +They began the steep climb a little after noon, but it was near +sunset ere they reached the stone platform clinging to the side +of a rifted, jungle-covered hill, where Jan Chinn the First was +laid, as he had desired, that he might overlook his people. All +India is full of neglected graves that date from the beginning of +the eighteenth century - tombs of forgotten colonels of corps +long since disbanded; mates of East India men who went on +shooting expeditions and never came back; factors, agents, +writers, and ensigns of the Honourable the East India Company by +hundreds and thousands and tens of thousands. English folk +forget quickly, but natives have long memories, and if a man has +done good in his life it is remembered after his death. The +weathered marble four-square tomb of Jan Chinn was hung about +with wild flowers and nuts, packets of wax and honey, bottles of +native spirits, and infamous cigars, with buffalo horns and +plumes of dried grass. At one end was a rude clay image of a +white man, in the old-fashioned top-hat, riding on a bloated +tiger. + +Bukta salamed reverently as they approached. Chinn bared his head +and began to pick out the blurred inscription. So far as he +could read it ran thus - word for word, and letter for letter: + +To the Memory of JOHN CHINN, Esq. Late Collector +of................ithout Bloodshed or...error of Authority +Employ.only..cans of Conciliat...and Confiden. Accomplished +the...tire Subjection... a Lawless and Predatory +Peop......taching them to...ish Government by a Conquest +over....Minds The most perma...and rational Mode of +Domini....Governor General and Counc...engal have ordered +lhi.....erected...arted this Life Aug. 19, 184..Ag... + +On the other side of the grave were ancient verses, also very +worn. As much as Chinn could decipher said: + +..the savage band. Forsook their Haunts and b.....is +Comman..mended..rals check a.st for spoil. And.. a..ing Hamlets +prove his gene....toil. Humanit...survey......ights restor.. A +Nation..ield..subdued without a Sword.Forsook their Haunts and b +. . . . is Command mended . . rals check a . . . st for spoil And +. s . ing Hamlets prove his gene . . . . toil Humanit . . . +survey +ights restore A Nation . . ield. . subdued without a Sword. + +For some little time he leaned on the tomb thinking of this dead +man of his own blood, and of the house in Devonshire; then, +nodding to the plains: "Yes; it's a big work all of it even my +little share. He must have been worth knowing. . . . Bukta, +where are my people?" + +"Not here, Sahib. No man comes here except in full sun. They +wait above. Let us climb and see." + +But Chinn, remembering the first law of Oriental diplomacy, in an +even voice answered: "I have come this far only because the +Satpura folk are foolish, and dared not visit our lines. Now +bid them wait on me here. I am not a servant, but the master of +Bhils." + +"I go -- I go," clucked the old man. Night was falling, and at +any moment Jan Chinn might whistle up his dreaded steed from the +darkening scrub. + +Now for the first time in a long life Bukta disobeyed a lawful +command and deserted his leader; for he did not come back, but +pressed to the flat table-top of the hill, and called softly. +Men stirred all about him - little trembling men with bows and +arrows who had watched the two since noon. + +"Where is he?" whispered one. + +"At his own place. He bids you come," said Bukta. + +"Now?" + +"Now." + +"Rather let him loose the Clouded Tiger upon us. We do not go." + +"Nor I, though I bore him in my arms when he was a child in this +his life. Wait here till the day." + +"But surely he will be angry." + +"He will be very angry, for he has nothing to eat. But he has +said to me many times that the Bhils are his children. By +sunlight I believe this, but - by moonlight I am not so sure. +What folly have ye Satpura pigs compassed that ye should need +him at all?" + +"One came to us in the name of the Government with little +ghost-knives and a magic calf, meaning to turn us into cattle by +the cutting off of our arms. We were greatly afraid, but we did +not kill the man. He is here, bound - a black man; and we think +he comes from the west. He said it was an order to cut us all +with knives - especially the women and the children. We did not +hear that it was an order, so we were afraid, and kept to our +hills. Some of our men have taken ponies and bullocks from the +plains, and others pots and cloths and ear-rings." + +"Are any slain?" + +"By our men? Not yet. But the young men are blown to and fro by +many rumours like flames upon a hill. I sent runners asking for +Jan Chinn lest worse should come to us. It was this fear that he +foretold by the sign of the Clouded Tiger. + +He says it is otherwise," said Bukta; and he repeated, with +amplifications, all that young Chinn had told him at the +conference of the wicker chair. + +"Think you," said the questioner, at last, "that the Government +will lay hands on us?" + +"Not I," Bukta rejoined. "Jan Chinn will give an order, and ye +will obey. The rest is between the Government and Jan Chinn. I +myself know something of the ghost-knives and the scratching. It +is a charm against the Small-pox. But how it is done I cannot +tell. Nor need that concern you." + +"If he stands by us and before the anger of the Government we +will most strictly obey Jan Chinn, except - except we do not go +down to that place to-night." + +They could hear young Chinn below them shouting for Bukta; but +they cowered and sat still, expecting the Clouded Tiger. The +tomb had been holy ground for nearly half a century. If Jan +Chinn chose to sleep there, who had better right? But they would +not come within eyeshot of the place till broad day. + +At first Chinn was exceedingly angry, till it occurred to him +that Bukta most probably had a reason (which, indeed, he had), +and his own dignity might suffer if he yelled without answer. +He propped himself against the foot of the grave, and, +alternately dozing and smoking, came through the warm night proud +that he was a lawful, legitimate, fever-proof Chinn. + +He prepared his plan of action much as his grandfather would have +done; and when Bukta appeared in the morning with a most liberal +supply of food, said nothing of the overnight desertion. Bukta +would have been relieved by an outburst of human anger; but Chinn +finished his victual leisurely, and a cheroot, ere he made any +sign. + +They are very much afraid," said Bukta, who was not too bold +himself "It remains only to give orders. They said they will +obey if thou wilt only stand between them and the Government." + +"That I know," said Chinn, strolling slowly to the table-land. A +few of the elder men stood in an irregular semicircle in an open +glade; but the ruck of people - women and children were hidden +in the thicket. They had no desire to face the first anger of Jan +Chinn the First. + +Seating himself on a fragment of split rock, he smoked his +cheroot to the butt, hearing men breathe hard all about him. +Then he cried, so suddenly that they jumped: + +"Bring the man that was bound!" + +A scuffle and a cry were followed by the appearance of a Hindoo +vaccinator, quaking with fear, bound hand and foot, as the Bhils +of old were accustomed to bind their human sacrifices. He was +pushed cautiously before the presence; but young Chinn did not +look at him. + +"I said - the man that was bound. Is it a jest to bring me one +tied like a buffalo? Since when could the Bhil bind folk at his +pleasure? Cut!" + +Half a dozen hasty knives cut away the thongs, and the man +crawled to Chinn, who pocketed his case of lancets and tubes of +lymph. Then, sweeping the semicircle with one comprehensive +forefinger, and in the voice of compliment, he said, clearly and +distinctly: " Pigs! + +"Ai!" whispered Bukta. "Now he speaks. Woe to foolish people!" + +"I have come on foot from my house" (the assembly shuddered) "to +make clear a matter which any other Satpura Bhil would have seen +with both eyes from a distance. Ye know the Small-pox who pits +and scars your children so that like wasp-combs. It is an order +of the Government that whoso is scratched on the arm with these +little knives which I hold up is charmed against her. All Sahibs +are thus charmed, and very many Hindoos. This is the mark of the +charm. Look!" + +He rolled back his sleeve to the armpit and showed the white +scars of the vaccination-mark on his white skin. "Come, all, and +look." + +A few daring spirits came up, and nodded their heads wisely. +There was certainly a mark, and they knew well what other dread +marks were hidden by the shirt. Merciful was Jan Chinn, that +then and there proclaimed his godhead! + +"Now all these things the man whom ye bound told you." + +I did - a hundred times; but they answered with blows," groaned +the operator, chafing his wrists and ankles. + +"But, being pigs, ye did not believe; and so came I here to save +you, first from Small-pox, next from a great folly of fear, and +lastly, it may be,from the rope and the jail. It is no gain to +me; it is no pleasure to me: but for the sake of that one who is +yonder, who made the Bhil a man" - he pointed down the hill --" +I, who am of his blood, the son of his son, come to turn your +people. And I speak the truth, as did Jan Chinn." + +The crowd murmured reverently, and men stole out of the thicket +by twos and threes to join it. There was no anger in their god's +face. + +"These are my orders. (Heaven send they'll take 'em, but I seem +to have impressed 'em so far!) I myself will stay among you +while this man scratches your arms with the knives, after the +order of the Government. In three, or it may be five or seven, +days, your arms will swell and itch and burn. That is the power +of Small-pox fighting in your base blood against the orders of +the Government I will therefore stay among you till I see that +Small-pox is conquered, and I will not go away till the men and +the women and the little children show me upon their arms such +marks as I have even now showed you. I bring with me two very +good guns, and a man whose name is known among beasts and men. +We will hunt together, I and he and your young men, and the +others shall eat and lie still. This is my order." + +There was a long pause while victory hung in the balance. A +white-haired old sinner, standing on one uneasy leg, piped up: + +"There are ponies and some few bullocks and other things for +which we need a kowl [protection]. They were not taken in the +way of trade." + +The battle was won, and John Chinn drew a breath of relief. The +young Bhils had been raiding, but if taken swiftly all could be +put straight. + +"I will write a kowl so soon as the ponies, the bullocks, and the +other things are counted before me and sent back whence they +came. But first we will put the Government mark on such as have +not been visited by Small-pox." In an undertone, to the +vaccinator: "If you show you are afraid you'll never see Poona +again, my friend." + +"There is not sufficient ample supply of vaccination for all this +population," said the man. "They destroyed the offeecial calf." + +They won't know the difference. Scrape 'em and give me a couple +of lancets; I'll attend to the elders." + +The aged diplomat who had demanded protection was the first +victim. He fell to Chinn's hand and dared not cry out. As soon +as he was freed he dragged up a companion, and held him fast, +and the crisis became, as it were, a child's sport; for the +vaccinated chased the unvaccinated to treatment, vowing that all +the tribe must suffer equally. The women shrieked, and the +children ran howling; but Chinn laughed, and waved the +pink-tipped lancet. + +"It is an honour," he cried. "Tell them, Bukta, how great an +honour it is that I myself mark them. Nay, I cannot mark every +one - the Hindoo must also do his work - but I will touch all +marks that he makes, so there will be an equal virtue in them. +Thus do the Rajputs stick pigs. Ho, brother with one eye! Catch +that girl and bring her to me. She need not run away yet, for +she is not married, and I do not seek her in marriage. She will +not come? Then she shall be shamed by her little brother, a fat +boy, a bold boy. He puts out his arm like a soldier. Look! He +does not flinch at the blood. Some day he shall be in my +regiment. And now, mother of many, we will lightly touch thee, +for Smallpox has been before us here. It is a true thing, +indeed, that this charm breaks the power of Mata. There will be +no more pitted faces among the Satpuras, and so ye can ask many +cows for each maid to be wed." + +And so on and so on - quick-poured showman's patter, sauced in +the Bhil hunting-proverbs and tales of their own brand of coarse +humour till the lancets were blunted and both operators worn out. + +But, nature being the same the world over, the unvaccinated grew +jealous of their marked comrades, and came near to blows about +it. Then Chinn declared himself a court of justice, no longer a +medical board, and made formal inquiry into the late robberies. + +"We are the thieves of Mahadeo," said the Bhils, simply. "It is +our fate, and we were frightened. When we are frightened we +always steal." + +Simply and directly as children, they gave in the tale of the +plunder, all but two bullocks and some spirits that had gone +amissing (these Chinn promised to make good out of his own +pocket), and ten ringleaders were despatched to the lowlands +with a wonderful document, written on the leaf of a note-book, +and addressed to an Assistant District Superintendent of Police. +There was warm calamity in that note, as Jan Chinn warned them, +but anything was better than loss of liberty. + +Armed with this protection, the repentant raiders went down-hill. +They had no desire whatever to meet Mr. Dundas Fawne of the +Police, aged twenty-two, and of a cheerful countenance, nor did +they wish to revisit the scene of their robberies. Steering a +middle course, they ran into the camp of the one Government +chaplain allowed to the various irregular corps through a +district of some fifteen thousand square miles, and stood before +him in a cloud of dust. He was by way of being a priest, they +knew, and, what was more to the point, a good sportsman who paid +his beaters generously. + +When he read Chinn's note he laughed, which they deemed a lucky +omen, till he called up policemen, who tethered the ponies and +the bullocks by the piled house-gear, and laid stern hands upon +three of that smiling band of the thieves of Mahadeo. The +chaplain himself addressed them magisterially with a +riding-whip. That was painful, but Jan Chinn had prophesied it. +They submitted, but would not give up the written protection, +fearing the jail. On their way back they met Mr. D. Fawne, who +had heard about the robberies, and was not pleased. + +"Certainly," said the eldest of the gang, when the second +interview was at an end, "certainly Jan Chinn's protection has +saved us our liberty, but it is as though there were many +beatings in one small piece of paper. Put it away." + +One climbed into a tree, and stuck the letter into a cleft forty +feet from the ground, where it could do no harm. Warmed, sore, +but happy, the ten returned to Jan Chinn next day, where he sat +among uneasy Bhils, all looking at their right arms, and all +bound under terror of their god's disfavour not to scratch. + +"It was a good kowl," said the leader. "First the chaplain, who +laughed, took away our plunder, and beat three of us, as was +promised. Next, we meet Fawne Sahib, who frowned, and asked for +the plunder. We spoke the truth, and so he beat us all, one +after another, and called us chosen names. He then gave us these +two bundles "-they set down a bottle of whisky and a box of +cheroots--" and we came away. The kowl is left in a tree, +because its virtue is that so soon as we show it to a Sahib we +are beaten." + +"But for that kowl" said Jan Chinn, sternly, "ye would all have +been marching to jail with a policeman on either side. Ye come +now to serve as beaters for me. These people are unhappy, and +we will go hunting till they are well. To-night we will make a +feast." + +It is written in the chronicles of the Satpura Bhils, together +with many other matters not fit for print, that through five +days, after the day that he had put his mark upon them, Jan +Chinn the First hunted for his people; and on the five nights of +those days the tribe was gloriously and entirely drunk. Jan +Chinn bought country spirits of an awful strength, and slew wild +pig and deer beyond counting, so that if any fell sick they might +have two good reasons. + +Between head- and stomach-aches they found no time to think of +their arms, but followed Jan Chinn obediently through the +jungles, and with each day's returning confidence men, women, +and children stole away to their villages as the little army +passed by. They carried news that it was good and right to be +scratched with ghost-knives; that Jan Chinn was indeed +reincarnated as a god of free food and drink, and that of all +nations the Satpura Bhils stood first in his favour, if they +would only refrain from scratching. Henceforward that kindly +demi-god would be connected in their minds with great gorgings +and the vaccine and lancets of a paternal Government. + +"And to-morrow I go back to my home," said Jan Chinn to his +faithful few, whom neither spirits, overeating, nor swollen +glands could conquer. It is hard for children and savages to +behave reverently at all times to the idols of their +make-belief; and they had frolicked excessively with Jan Chinn. +But the reference to his home cast a gloom on the people. + +"And the Sahib will not come again?" said he who had been +vaccinated first. + +"That is to be seen," answered Chinn, warily. + +"Nay, but come as a white man -- come as a young man whom we know +and love; for, as thou alone knowest, we are a weak people. If +we again saw thy -- thy horse -" They were picking up their +courage. + +"I have no horse. I came on foot with Bukta, yonder. What is +this?""Thou knowest - the thing that thou hast chosen for a +night-horse." The little men squirmed in fear and awe. + +"Night-horses? Bukta, what is this last tale of children?" + +Bukta had been a silent leader in Chinn's presence since the +night of his desertion, and was grateful for a chance-flung +question. + +They know, Sahib," he whispered. "It is the Clouded Tiger. That +that comes from the place where thou didst once sleep. It is thy +horse - as it has been these three generations." + +"My horse! That was a dream of the Bhils." + +"It is no dream. Do dreams leave the tracks of broad pugs on +earth? Why make two faces before thy people? They know of the +night-ridings, and they - and they - " + +"Are afraid, and would have them cease." + +Bukta nodded. "If thou hast no further need of him. He is thy +horse." + +"The thing leaves a trail, then?" said Chinn. + +"We have seen it. It is like a village road under the tomb." + +"Can ye find and follow it for me?" + +"By daylight - if one comes with us, and, above all, stands near +by." + +"I will stand close, and we will see to it that Jan Chinn does +not ride any more." + +The Bhils shouted the last words again and again. + +>From Chinn's point of view the stalk was nothing more than an +ordinary one - down-hill, through split and crannied rocks, +unsafe, perhaps, if a man did not keep his wits by him, but no +worse than twenty others he had undertaken. Yet his men - they +refused absolutely to beat, and would only trail - dripped sweat +at every move. They showed the marks of enormous pugs that ran, +always down-hill, to a few hundred feet below Jan Chinn's tomb, +and disappeared in a narrow-mouthed cave. It was an insolently +open road, a domestic highway, beaten without thought of +concealment. + +"The beggar might be paying rent and taxes," Chinn muttered ere +he asked whether his friend's taste ran to cattle or man. + +"Cattle," was the answer. "Two heifers a week. We drive them for +him at the foot of the hill. It is his custom. If we did not, he +might seek us." + +"Blackmail and piracy," said Chinn. "I can't say I fancy going +into the cave after him. What's to be done?" + +The Bhils fell back as Chinn lodged himself behind a rock with +his rifle ready. Tigers, he knew, were shy beasts, but one who +had been long cattle-fed in this sumptuous style might prove +overbold. + +"He speaks!" some one whispered from the rear. "He knows, too." + +"Well, of all the infernal cheek!" said Chinn. There was an angry +growl from the cave - a direct challenge. + +"Come out, then," Chinn shouted. "Come out of that. Let's have a +look at you."The brute knew well enough that there was some +connection between brown nude Bhils and his weekly allowance; +but the white helmet in the sunlight annoyed him, and he did not +approve of the voice that broke his rest. Lazily as a gorged +snake, he dragged himself out of the cave, and stood yawning and +blinking at the entrance. The sunlight fell upon his flat right +side, and Chinn wondered. Never had he seen a tiger marked +after this fashion. Except for his head, which was staringly +barred, he was dappled - not striped, but dappled like a child's +rocking-horse in rich shades of smoky black on red gold. That +portion of his belly and throat which should have been white was +orange, and his tail and paws were black. + +He looked leisurely for some ten seconds, and then deliberately +lowered his head, his chin dropped and drawn in, staring +intently at the man. The effect of this was to throw forward the +round arch of his skull, with two broad bands across it, while +below the bands glared the unwinking eyes; so that, head on, as +he stood, he showed something like a diabolically scowling +pantomime-mask. It was a piece of natural mesmerism that he had +practised many times on his quarry, and though Chinn was by no +means a terrified heifer, he stood for a while, held by the +extraordinary oddity of the attack. The head - the body seemed to +have been packed away behind it - the ferocious, skull-like head, +crept nearer to the switching of an angry tail-tip in the grass. +Left and right the Bhils had scattered to let John Chinn subdue +his own horse."My word!" he thought. "He's trying to frighten +me!" and fired between the saucer-like eyes, leaping aside upon +the shot. + +A big coughing mass, reeking of carrion, bounded past him up the +hill, and he followed discreetly. The tiger made no attempt to +turn into the jungle; he was hunting for sight and breath - nose +up, mouth open, the tremendous fore-legs scattering the gravel in +spurts. + +Scuppered!" said John Chinn, watching the flight. "Now if he was +a partridge he'd tower. Lungs must be full of blood." + +The brute had jerked himself over a boulder and fallen out of +sight the other side. John Chinn looked over with a ready +barrel. But the red trail led straight as an arrow even to his +grandfather's tomb, and there, among the smashed spirit-bottles +and the fragments of the mud image, the life left, with a flurry +and a grunt. + +"If my worthy ancestor could see that," said John Chinn, "he'd +have been proud of me. Eyes, lower jaw, and lungs. A very nice +shot." He whistled for Bukta as he drew the tape over the +stiffening bulk. + +"Ten - six - eight - by Jove! It's nearly eleven - call it +eleven. Fore-arm, twenty-four -five - seven and a half. A short +tail, too: three feet one. But what a skin! Oh, Bukta! Bukta! The +men with the knives swiftly." + +"Is he beyond question dead?" said an awe-stricken voice behind a +rock. + +"That was not the way I killed my first tiger," said Chinn. "I +did not think that Bukta would run. I had no second gun." + +"It - it is the Clouded Tiger," said Bukta, un-heeding the taunt. +"He is dead." + +Whether all the Bhils, vaccinated and unvaccinated, of the +Satpuras had lain by to see the kill, Chinn could not say; but +the whole hill's flank rustled with little men, shouting, +singing, and stamping. And yet, till he had made the first cut +in the splendid skin, not a man would take a knife; and, when the +shadows fell, they ran from the red-stained tomb, and no +persuasion would bring them back till dawn. So Chinn spent a +second night in the open, guarding the carcass from jackals, and +thinking about his ancestor. + +He returned to the lowlands to the triumphal chant of an +escorting army three hundred strong, the Mahratta vaccinator +close at his elbow, and the rudely dried skin a trophy before +him. When that army suddenly and noiselessly disappeared, as +quail in high corn, he argued he was near civilisation, and a +turn in the road brought him upon the camp of a wing of his own +corps. He left the skin on a cart-tail for the world to see, and +sought the Colonel. + +"They're perfectly right," he explained earnestly. "There isn't +an ounce of vice in 'em. They were only frightened. I've +vaccinated the whole boiling, and they like it awfully. What are +- what are we doing here, sir?" + +"That's what I'm trying to find out," said the Colonel. "I don't +know yet whether we're a piece of a brigade or a police force. +However, I think we'll call ourselves a police force. How did +you manage to get a Bhil vaccinated?" + +"Well, sir," said Chinn, " I've been thinking it over, and, as +far as I can make out, I've got a sort of hereditary influence +over 'em." + +"So I know, or I wouldn't have sent you; but what, exactly?" + +"It's rather rummy. It seems, from what I can make out, that I'm +my own grandfather reincarnated, and I've been disturbing the +peace of the country by riding a pad-tiger of nights. If I +hadn't done that, I don't think they'd have objected to the +vaccination; but the two together were more than they could +stand. And so, sir, I've vaccinated 'em, and shot my tiger-horse +as a sort o' proof of good faith. You never saw such a skin in +your life." + +The Colonel tugged his moustache thought-fully. "Now, how the +deuce," said he, "am I to include that in my report?" + +Indeed, the official version of the Bhils' anti-vaccination +stampede said nothing about Lieutenant John Chinn, his godship. +But Bukta knew, and the corps knew, and every Bhil in the +Satpura hills knew. + +And now Bukta is zealous that John Chinn shall swiftly be wedded +and impart his powers to a son; for if the Chinn succession +fails, and the little Bhils are left to their own imaginings, +there will be fresh trouble in the Satpuras. + +End of, "THE TOMB OF HIS ANCESTORS" + + + +THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP SEA + +All supplies very bad and dear, and there are no facilities for +even the smallest repairs. - Sailing Directions. + +Her nationality was British, but you will not find her house-flag +in the list of our mercantile marine. She was a +nine-hundred-ton, iron, schooner-rigged, screw cargo-boat, +differing externally in no way from any other tramp of the sea. +But it is with steamers as it is with men. There are those who +will for a consideration sail extremely close to the wind; and, +in the present state of a fallen world, such people and such +steamers have their use. From the hour that the Aglaia first +entered the Clyde -- new, shiny, and innocent, with a quart of +cheap champagne trickling down her cut-water -- Fate and her +owner, who was also her captain, decreed that she should deal +with embarrassed crowned heads, fleeing Presidents, financiers +of over-extended ability, women to whom change of air was +imperative, and the lesser law-breaking Powers. Her career led +her sometimes into the Admiralty Courts, where the sworn +statements of her skipper filled his brethren with envy. The +mariner cannot tell or act a lie in the face of the sea, or +mis-lead a tempest; but, as lawyers have discovered, he makes up +for chances withheld when he returns to shore, an affidavit in +either hand. + +The Aglaia figured with distinction in the great Mackinaw +salvage-case. It was her first slip from virtue, and she learned +how to change her name, but not her heart, and to run across the +sea. As the Guiding Light she was very badly wanted in a South +American port for the little matter of entering harbour at full +speed, colliding with a coal-hulk and the State's only +man-of-war, just as that man-of-war was going to coal. She put +to sea without explanations, though three forts fired at her for +half an hour. As the Julia M'Gregor she had been concerned in +picking up from a raft certain gentlemen who should have stayed +in Noumea, but who preferred making themselves vastly unpleasant +to authority in quite another quarter of the world; and as the +Shah-in-Shah she had been overtaken on the high seas, indecently +full of munitions of war, by the cruiser of an agitated Power at +issue with its neighbour. That time she was very nearly sunk, and +her riddled hull gave eminent lawyers of two countries great +profit. After a season she reappeared as the Martin Hunt painted +a dull slate-colour, with pure saffron funnel, and boats of +robin's-egg blue, engaging in the Odessa trade till she was +invited (and the invitation could not well be disregarded) to +keep away from Black Sea ports altogether. + +She had ridden through many waves of depression. Freights might +drop out of sight, Seamen's Unions throw spanners and nuts at +certificated masters, or stevedores combine till cargo perished +on the dock-head; but the boat of many names came and went, +busy, alert, and inconspicuous always. Her skipper made no +complaint of hard times, and port officers observed that her +crew signed and signed again with the regularity of Atlantic +liner boatswains. Her name she changed as occasion called; her +well-paid crew never; and a large percentage of the profits of +her voyages was spent with an open hand on her engine-room. She +never troubled the underwriters, and very seldom stopped to talk +with a signal-station, for her business was urgent and private. + +But an end came to her tradings, and she perished in this manner. +Deep peace brooded over Europe, Asia, Africa, America, +Australasia, and Polynesia. The Powers dealt together more or +less honestly; banks paid their depositors to the hour; diamonds +of price came safely to the hands of their owners; Republics +rested content with their Dictators; diplomats found no one whose +presence in the least incommoded them; monarchs lived openly with +their lawfully wedded wives. It was as though the whole earth +had put on its best Sunday bib and tucker; and business was very +bad for the Martin Hunt. The great, virtuous calm engulfed her, +slate sides, yellow funnel, and all, but cast up in another +hemisphere the steam whaler Haliotis, black and rusty, with a +manure-coloured funnel, a litter of dingy white boats, and an +enormous stove, or furnace, for boiling blubber on her forward +well-deck. There could be no doubt that her trip was successful, +for she lay at several ports not too well known, and the smoke of +her trying-out insulted the beaches. + +Anon she departed, at the speed of the average London +four-wheeler, and entered a semi-inland sea, warm, still, and +blue, which is, perhaps, the most strictly preserved water in +the world. There she stayed for a certain time, and the great +stars of those mild skies beheld her playing puss-in-the-corner +among islands where whales are never found. All that while she +smelt abominably, and the smell, though fishy, was not +whalesome. One evening calamity descended upon her from the +island of Pygang-Watai, and she fled, while her crew jeered at a +fat black-and-brown gunboat puffing far behind. They knew to the +last revolution the capacity of every boat, on those seas, that +they were anxious to avoid. A British ship with a good +conscience does not, as a rule, flee from the man-of-war of a +foreign Power, and it is also considered a breach of etiquette +to stop and search British ships at sea. These things the +skipper of the Haliotis did not pause to prove, but held on at an +inspiriting eleven knots an hour till nightfall. One thing only +he overlooked. + +The Power that kept an expensive steam-patrol moving up and down +those waters (they had dodged the two regular ships of the +station with an ease that bred contempt) had newly brought up a +third and a fourteen-knot boat with a clean bottom to help the +work; and that was why the Haliotis, driving hard from the east +to the west, found herself at daylight in such a position that +she could not help seeing an arrangement of four flags, a mile +and a half behind, which read: "Heave to, or take the +consequences!" + +She had her choice, and she took it. The end came when, +presuming on her lighter draught, she tried to draw away +northward over a friendly shoal. The shell that arrived by way +of the Chief Engineer's cabin was some five inches in diameter, +with a practice, not a bursting, charge. It had been intended to +cross her bows, and that was why it knocked the framed portrait +of the Chief Engineer's wife - and she was a very pretty girl - +on to the floor, splintered his wash-hand stand, crossed the +alleyway into the engine-room, and striking on a grating, dropped +directly in front of the forward engine, where it burst, neatly +fracturing both the bolts that held the connecting-rod to the +forward crank. + +What follows is worth consideration. The forward engine had no +more work to do. Its released piston-rod, therefore, drove up +fiercely, with nothing to check it, and started most of the nuts +of the cylinder-cover. It came down again, the full weight of +the steam behind it, and the foot of the disconnected +connecting-rod, useless as the leg of a man with a sprained +ankle, flung out to the right and struck the starboard, or +right-hand, cast-iron supporting-column of the forward engine, +cracking it clean through about six inches above the base, and +wedging the upper portion outwards three inches towards the +ship's side. There the connecting-rod jammed. Meantime, the +after-engine, being as yet unembarrassed, went on with its work, +and in so doing brought round at its next revolution the crank of +the forward engine, which smote the already jammed +connecting-rod, bending it and therewith the piston-rod +cross-head- the big cross-piece that slides up and down so +smoothly. + +The cross-head jammed sideways in the guides, and, in addition to +putting further pressure on the already broken starboard +supporting-column, cracked the port, or left-hand, +supporting-column in two or three places. There being nothing +more that could be made to move, the engines brought up, all +standing, with a hiccup that seemed to lift the Haliotis a foot +out of the water; and the engine-room staff, opening every steam +outlet that they could find in the confusion, arrived on deck +somewhat scalded, but calm. There was a sound below of things +happening - a rushing, clicking, purring, grunting, rattling +noise that did not last for more than a minute. It was the +machinery adjusting itself, on the spur of the moment, to a +hundred altered conditions. Mr. Wardrop, one foot on the upper +grating, inclined his ear sideways, and groaned. You cannot +stop engines working at twelve knots an hour in three seconds +without disorganising them. The Haliotis slid forward in a +cloud of steam, shrieking like a wounded horse. There was +nothing more to do. The five-inch shell with a reduced charge +had settled the situation. And when you are full, all three +holds, of strictly preserved pearls; when you have cleaned out +the Tanna Bank, the Sea-Horse Bank, and four other banks from +one end to the other of the Amanala Sea -when you have ripped +out the very heart of a rich Government monopoly so that five +years will not repair your wrong-doings - you must smile and +take what is in store. But the skipper reflected, as a launch +put out from the man-of-war, that he had been bombarded on the +high seas, with the British flag - several of them - +picturesquely disposed above him, and tried to find comfort from +the thought. + +Where," said the stolid naval lieutenant hoisting himself aboard, +"where are those dam' pearls?" + +They were there beyond evasion. No affidavit could do away with +the fearful smell of decayed oysters, the diving-dresses, and +the shell-littered hatches. They were there to the value of +seventy thousand pounds, more or less; and every pound poached. + +The man-of-war was annoyed; for she had used up many tons of +coal, she had strained her tubes, and, worse than all, her +officers and crew had been hurried. Every one on the Haliotis +was arrested and rearrested several times, as each officer came +aboard; then they were told by what they esteemed to be the +equivalent of a midshipman that they were to consider themselves +prisoners, and finally were put under arrest. + +It's not the least good," said the skipper, suavely. "You'd much +better send us a tow - " + +"Be still - you are arrest!" was the reply. + +"Where the devil do you expect we are going to escape to?" We're +helpless. You've got to tow us into somewhere, and explain why +you fired on us. Mr. Wardrop, we're helpless, aren't we?" + +"Ruined from end to end," said the man of machinery. "If she +rolls, the forward cylinder will come down and go through her +bottom. Both columns are clean cut through. There's nothing to +hold anything up." + +The council of war clanked off to see if Mr. Wardrop's words were +true. He warned them that it was as much as a man's life was +worth to enter the engine-room, and they contented themselves +with a distant inspection through the thinning steam. The +Haliotis lifted to the long, easy swell, and the starboard +supporting-column ground a trifle, as a man grits his teeth +under the knife. The forward cylinder was depending on that +unknown force men call the pertinacity of materials, which now +and then balances that other heartbreaking power, the perversity +of inanimate things. + +"You see!" said Mr. Wardrop, hurrying them away. "The engines +aren't worth their price as old iron." + +"We tow," was the answer. "Afterwards we shall confiscate." + +The man-of-war was short-handed, and did not see the necessity +for putting a prize-crew aboard the Haliotis. So she sent one +sublieutenant, whom the skipper kept very drunk, for he did not +wish to make the tow too easy, and, moreover, he had an +inconspicuous little rope hanging from the stem of his ship. + +Then they began to tow at an average speed of four knots an hour. +The Haliotis was very hard to move, and the gunnery-lieutenant, +who had fired the five-inch shell, had leisure to think upon +consequences. Mr. Wardrop was the busy man. He borrowed all the +crew to shore up the cylinders with spars and blocks from the +bottom and sides of the ship. It was a day's risky work; but +anything was better than drowning at the end of a tow-rope; and +if the forward cylinder had fallen,it would have made its way to +the sea-bed, and taken the Haliotis after. + +"Where are we going to, and how long will they tow us?" he asked +of the skipper. + +"God knows! and this prize-lieutenant's drunk. What do you think +you can do?" + +"There's just the bare chance," Mr. Wardrop whispered, though no +one was within hearing -"there's just the bare chance o' +repairin' her, if a man knew how. They've twisted the very guts +out of her, bringing her up with that jerk; but I'm saying that, +with time and patience, there's just the chance o' making steam +yet. We could do it." + +The skipper's eye brightened. "Do you mean," he began, "that she +is any good?" + +"Oh, no," said Mr. Wardrop. "She'll need three thousand pounds in +repairs, at the lowest, if she's to take the sea again, an' that +apart from any injury to her structure. She's like a man fallen +down five pair o' stairs. We can't tell for months what has +happened; but we know she'll never be good again without a new +inside. Ye should see the condenser-tubes an' the steam +connections to the donkey, for two things only. I'm not afraid +of them repairin' her. I'm afraid of them stealin' things." + +"They've fired on us. They'll have to explain that." + +"Our reputation's not good enough to ask for explanations. Let's +take what we have and be thankful. Ye would not have consuls +remembern' the Guidin' Light, an' the Shah-in-Shah, an' the +Aglaia, at this most alarmin' crisis. We've been no better than +pirates these ten years. Under Providence we're no worse than +thieves now. We've much to be thankful for - if we e'er get back +to her." + +"Make it your own way, then," said the skipper. "If there's the +least chance - " + +"I'll leave none," said Mr. Wardrop - "none that they'll dare to +take. Keep her heavy on the tow, for we need time." + +The skipper never interfered with the affairs of the engine-room, +and Mr. Wardrop - an artist in his profession - turned to and +composed a work terrible and forbidding. His background was the +dark-grained sides of the engine-room; his material the metals +of power and strength, helped out with spars, baulks, and ropes. +The man-of-war towed sullenly and viciously. The Haliotis behind +her hummed like a hive before swarming. With extra and totally +unneeded spars her crew blocked up the space round the forward +engine till it resembled a statue in its scaffolding, and the +butts of the shores interfered with every view that a +dispassionate eye might wish to take. And that the dispassionate +mind might be swiftly shaken out of its calm, the well-sunk +bolts of the shores were wrapped round untidily with loose ends +of ropes, giving a studied effect of most dangerous insecurity. +Next, Mr. Wardrop took up a collection from the after-engine, +which, as you will remember, had not been affected in the general +wreck. The cylinder escape-valve he abolished with a +flogging-hammer. It is difficult in far-off ports to come by +such valves, unless, like Mr. Wardrop, you keep duplicates in +store. At the same time men took off the nuts of two of the +great holding-down bolts that serve to keep the engines in place +on their solid bed. An engine violently arrested in mid-career +may easily jerk off the nut of a holding-down bolt, and this +accident looked very natural. + +Passing along the tunnel, he removed several shaft coupling-bolts +and -nuts, scattering other and ancient pieces of iron +underfoot. Cylinder-bolts he cut off to the number of six from +the after-engine cylinder, so that it might match its neighbour, +and stuffed the bilge - and feed-pumps with cotton-waste. Then +he made up a neat bundle of the various odds and ends that he had +gathered from the engines - little things like nuts and +valve-spindles, all carefully tallowed - and retired with them +under the floor of the engine-room, where he sighed, being fat, +as he passed from manhole to manhole of the double bottom, and in +a fairly dry submarine compartment hid them. Any engineer, +particularly in an unfriendly port, has a right to keep his spare +stores where he chooses; and the foot of one of the cylinder +shores blocked all entrance into the regular store-room, even if +that had not been already closed with steel wedges. In +conclusion, he disconnected the after-engine, laid piston and +connecting-rod, carefully tallowed, where it would be most +inconvenient to the casual visitor, took out three of the eight +collars of the thrust-block, hid them where only he could find +them again, filled the boilers by hand, wedged the sliding doors +of the coal-bunkers, and rested from his labours. The +engine-room was a cemetery, and it did not need the contents of +the ash-lift through the skylight to make it any worse. + +He invited the skipper to look at the completed work. + +Saw ye ever such a forsaken wreck as that ?" said he, proudly. +"It almost frights me to go under those shores. Now, what d' you +think they'll do to us?" + +"Wait till we see," said the skipper. " It'll be bad enough when +it comes." + +He was not wrong. The pleasant days of towing ended all too soon, +though the Haliotis trailed behind her a heavily weighted jib +stayed out into the shape of a pocket; and Mr. Wardrop was no +longer an artist of imagination, but one of seven-and-twenty +prisoners in a prison full of insects. The man-of-war had towed +them to the nearest port, not to the headquarters of the colony, +and when Mr. Wardrop saw the dismal little harbour, with its +ragged line of Chinese junks, its one crazy tug, and the +boat-building shed that, under the charge of a philosophical +Malay, represented a dockyard, he sighed and shook his head. + +"I did well," he said. "This is the habitation o' wreckers an' +thieves. We're at the uttermost ends of the earth. Think you +they'll ever know in England?" + +"Doesn't look like it," said the skipper. + +They were marched ashore with what they stood up in, under a +generous escort, and were judged according to the customs of the +country, which, though excellent, are a little out of date. +There were the pearls; there were the poachers; and there sat a +small but hot Governor. He consulted for a while, and then +things began to move with speed, for he did not wish to keep a +hungry crew at large on the beach, and the man-of-war had gone +up the coast. With a wave of his hand - a stroke of the pen was +not necessary - he consigned them to the black gang-tana, the +back-country, and the hand of the Law removed them from his +sight and the knowledge of men. They were marched into the +palms, and the back-country swallowed them up - all the crew of +the Haliotis. + +Deep peace continued to brood over Europe, Asia, Africa, America, + +Australasia, and Polynesia. + +It was the firing that did it. They should have kept their +counsel; but when a few thousand foreigners are bursting with +joy over the fact that a ship under the British flag has been +fired at on the high seas, news travels quickly; and when it +came out that the pearl-stealing crew had not been allowed access +to their consul (there was no consul within a few hundred miles +of that lonely port) even the friendliest of Powers has a right +to ask questions. The great heart of the British public was +beating furiously on account of the performance of a notorious +race-horse, and had not a throb to waste on distant accidents; +but somewhere deep in the hull of the ship of State there is +machinery which more or less accurately takes charge of foreign +affairs. That machinery began to revolve, and who so shocked and +surprised as the Power that had captured the Haliotis? It +explained that colonial governors and far-away men-of-war were +difficult to control, and promised that it would most certainly +make an example both of the Governor and the vessel. As for the +crew reported to be pressed into military service in tropical +climes, it would produce them as soon as possible, and it would +apologise, if necessary. Now, no apologies were needed. When +one nation apologises to an-other, millions of amateurs who have +no earthly concern with the difficulty hurl themselves into the +strife and embarrass the trained specialist. It was requested +that the crew be found, if they were still alive - they had been +eight months beyond knowledge - and it was promised that all +would be forgotten. + +The little Governor of the little port was pleased with himself. +Seven-and-twenty white men made a very compact force to throw +away on a war that had neither beginning nor end - a jungle and +stockade fight that flickered and smouldered through the wet hot +years in the hills a hundred miles away, and was the heritage of +every wearied official. He had, he thought, deserved well of his +country; and if only some one would buy the unhappy Haliotis, +moored in the harbour below his verandah, his cup would be full. +He looked at the neatly silvered lamps that he had taken from her +cabins, and thought of much that might be turned to account. But +his countrymen in that moist climate had no spirit. They would +peep into the silent engine-room, and shake their heads. Even +the men-of-war would not tow her further up the coast, where the +Governor believed that she could be repaired. She was a bad +bargain; but her cabin carpets were undeniably beautiful, and his +wife approved of her mirrors. + +Three hours later cables were bursting round him like shells, +for, though he knew it not, he was being offered as a sacrifice +by the nether to the upper millstone, and his superiors had no +regard for his feelings. He had, said the cables, grossly +exceeded his power, and failed to report on events. He would, +therefore - at this he cast himself back in his hammock - +produce the crew of the Haliotis. He would send for them, and, +if that failed, he would put his dignity on a pony and fetch +them himself. He had no conceivable right to make pearl-poachers +serve in any war. He would be held responsible. + +Next morning the cables wished to know whether he had found the +crew of the Haliotis. They were to be found, freed and fed - he +was to feed them - till such time as they could be sent to the +nearest English port in a man-of-war. If you abuse a man long +enough in great words flashed over the sea-beds, things happen. +The Governor sent inland swiftly for his prisoners, who were +also soldiers; and never was a militia regiment more anxious to +reduce its strength. No power short of death could make these +mad men wear the uniform of their service. They would not +fight, except with their fellows, and it was for that reason the +regiment had not gone to war, but stayed in a stockade, +reasoning with the new troops. The autumn campaign had been a +fiasco, but here were the Englishmen. All the regiment marched +back to guard them, and the hairy enemy, armed with blow-pipes, +rejoiced in the forest. Five of the crew had died, but there +lined up on the Governor's verandah two-and-twenty men marked +about the legs with the scars of leech-bites. A few of them +wore fringes that had once been trousers; the others used +loin-cloths of gay patterns; and they existed beautifully but +simply in the Governor's verandah, and when he came out they +sang at him. When you have lost seventy thousand pounds' worth +of pearls, your pay, your ship, and all your clothes, and have +lived in bondage for five months beyond the faintest pretences +of civilisation, you know what true independence means, for you +become the happiest of created things - natural man. + +The Governor told the crew that they were evil, and they asked +for food. When he saw how they ate, and when he remembered that +none of the pearl patrol-boats were expected for two months, he +sighed. But the crew of the Haliotis lay down in the verandah, +and said that they were pensioners of the Governor's bounty. A +grey-bearded man, fat and bald-headed, his one garment a +green-and-yellow loin-cloth, saw the Haliotis in the harbour, +and bellowed for joy. The men crowded to the verandah-rail, +kicking aside the long cane chairs. They pointed, gesticulated, +and argued freely, without shame. The militia regiment sat down +in the Governor's garden. The Governor retired to his hammock - +it was as easy to be killed lying as standing-and his women +squeaked from the shuttered rooms. + +"She sold?" said the grey~bearded man, pointing to the Haliotis. +He was Mr. Wardrop. + +"No good," said the Governor, shaking his head. "No one come +buy." + +"He's taken my lamps, though," said the skipper. He wore one leg +of a pair of trousers, and his eye wandered along the verandah. +The Governor quailed. There were cuddy camp-stools and the +skipper's writing-table in plain sight. + +"They've cleaned her out, o' course," said Mr. Wardrop. "They +would. We'll go aboard and take an inventory. See!" He waved his +hands over the harbour. "We - live - there - now. Sorry?" + +The Governor smiled a smile of relief. + +"He's glad of that," said one of the crew, reflectively. "I +shouldn't wonder." + +They flocked down to the harbour-front, the militia regiment +clattering behind, and embarked themselves in what they found - +it happened to be the Governor's boat. Then they disappeared +over the bulwarks of the Haliotis, and the Governor prayed that +they might find occupation inside. + +Mr. Wardrop's first bound took him to the engine-room; and when +the others were patting the well-remembered decks, they heard +him giving God thanks that things were as he had left them. The +wrecked engines stood over his head untouched; no inexpert hand +had meddled with his shores; the steel wedges of the store-room +were rusted home; and, best of all, the hundred and sixty tons of +good Australian coal in the bunkers had not diminished. + +"I don't understand it," said Mr. Wardrop. "Any Malay knows the +use o' copper. They ought to have cut away the pipes. And with +Chinese junks coming here, too. It's a special interposition o' +Providence." + +"You think so," said the skipper, from above. "There's only been +one thief here, and he's cleaned her out of all my things, +anyhow." + +Here the skipper spoke less than the truth, for under the +planking of his cabin, only to be reached by a chisel, lay a +little money which never drew any interest - his sheet-anchor to +windward. It was all in clean sovereigns that pass current the +world over, and might have amounted to more than a hundred +pounds. + +"He's left me alone. Let's thank God," repeated Mr. Wardrop. + +"He's taken everything else; look!" + +The Haliotis, except as to her engine-room, had been +systematically and scientifically gutted from one end to the +other, and there was strong evidence that an unclean guard had +camped in the skipper's cabin to regulate that plunder. She +lacked glass, plate, crockery, cutlery, mattresses, cuddy carpets +and chairs, all boats, and her copper ventilators. These things +had been removed, with her sails and as much of the wire rigging +as would not imperil the safety of the masts. + +"He must have sold those," said the skipper. "The other things +are in his house, I suppose." + +Every fitting that could be pried or screwed out was gone. Port, +starboard, and masthead lights; teak gratings; sliding sashes of +the deckhouse; the captain's chest of drawers, with charts and +chart-table; photographs, brackets, and looking-glasses; cabin +doors; rubber cuddy mats; hatch-irons; half the funnel-stays; +cork fenders; carpenter's grindstone and tool-chest; holystones, +swabs, squeegees; all cabin and pantry lamps; galley-fittings en +bloc; flags and flag-locker; clocks, chronometers; the forward +compass and the ship's bell and belfry, were among the missing. + +There were great scarred marks on the deck-planking over which +the cargo-derricks had been hauled. One must have fallen by the +way, for the bulwark-rails were smashed and bent and the +side-plates bruised. + +"It's the Governor," said the skipper "He's been selling her on +the instalment plan." + +"Let's go up with spanners and shovels, and kill 'em all," +shouted the crew. "Let's drown him, and keep the woman!" + +"Then we'll be shot by that black-and-tan regiment - our +regiment. What's the trouble ashore ~ They've camped our +regiment on the beach." + +"We're cut off; that's all. Go and see what they want," said Mr. +Wardrop. "You've the trousers." + +In his simple way the Governor was a strategist. He did not +desire that the crew of the Haliotis should come ashore again, +either singly or in detachments, and he proposed to turn their +steamer into a convict-hulk. They would wait - he explained this +from the quay to the skipper in the barge - and they would +continue to wait till the man-of-war came along, exactly where +they were. If one of them set foot ashore, the entire regiment +would open fire, and he would not scruple to use the two cannon +of the town. Meantime food would be sent daily in a boat under +an armed escort. The skipper, bare to the waist, and rowing, +could only grind his teeth; and the Governor improved the +occasion, and revenged himself for the bitter words in the +cables, by saying what he thought of the morals and manners of +the crew. The barge returned to the Haliotis in silence, and the +skipper climbed aboard, white on the cheek-bones and blue about +the nostrils. + +"I knew it," said Mr. Wardrop; "and they won't give us good food, +either. We shall have bananas morning, noon, and night, an' a man +can't work on fruit. We know that." + +Then the skipper cursed Mr. Wardrop for importing frivolous +side-issues into the conversation; and the crew cursed one +another, and the Haliotis, the voyage, and all that they knew or +could bring to mind. They sat down in silence on the empty +decks, and their eyes burned in their heads. The green harbour +water chuckled at them overside. They looked at the palm-fringed +hills inland, at the white houses above the harbour road, at the +single tier of native craft by the quay, at the stolid soldiery +sitting round the two cannon, and, last of all, at the blue bar +of the horizon. Mr. War-drop was buried in thought, and scratched +imaginary lines with his untrimmed finger-nails on the planking. + +"I make no promise," he said, at last, "for I can't say what may +or may not have happened to them. But here's the ship, and +here's us." + +There was a little scornful laughter at this, and Mr. Wardrop +knitted his brows. He recalled that in the days when be wore +trousers he had been Chief Engineer of the Haliotis. + +"Harland, Mackesy, Noble, Hay, Naughton, Fink, O'Hara, Trumbull." + +"Here, sir!" The instinct of obedience waked to answer the +roll-call of the engine-room. + +"Below!" + +They rose and went. + +"Captain, I'll trouble you for the rest of the men as I want +them. We'll get my stores out, and clear away the shores we +don't need, and then we'll patch her up. My men will remember +that they're in the Haliotis, - under me." + +He went into the engine-room, and the others stared. They were +used to the accidents of the sea, but this was beyond their +experience. None who had seen the engine-room believed that +anything short of new engines from end to end could stir the +Haliotis from her moorings. + +The engine-room stores were unearthed, and Mr. Wardrop's face, +red with the filth of the bilges and the exertion of travelling +on his stomach, lit with joy. The spare gear of the Haliotis had +been unusually complete, and two-and-twenty men, armed with +screw-jacks, differential blocks, tackle, vices, and a forge or +so, can look Kismet between the eyes without winking. The crew +were ordered to replace the holding-down and shaft-bearing +bolts, and return the collars of the thrust-block. When they had +finished, Mr. Wardrop delivered a lecture on repairing compound +engines without the aid of the shops, and the men sat about on +the cold machinery. The cross-head jammed in the guides leered +at them drunkenly, but offered no help. They ran their fingers +hopelessly into the cracks of the starboard supporting-column, +and picked at the ends of the ropes round the shores, while Mr. +Wardrop's voice rose and fell echoing, till the quick tropic +night closed down over the engine-room skylight. + +Next morning the work of reconstruction began. It has been +explained that the foot of the connecting-rod was forced against +the foot of the starboard supporting-column, which it had cracked +through and driven outward towards the ship's skin. To all +appearance the job was more than hopeless, for rod and column +seemed to have been welded into one. But herein Providence +smiled on them for one moment to hearten them through the weary +weeks ahead. The second engineer -more reckless than resourceful +- struck at random with a cold chisel into the cast-iron of the +column, and a greasy, grey flake of metal flew from under the +imprisoned foot of the connecting-rod, while the rod itself fell +away slowly, and brought up with a thunderous clang somewhere in +the dark of the crank-pit. The guides-plates above were still +jammed fast in the guides, but the first blow had been struck. +They spent the rest of the day grooming the donkey-engine, which +stood immediately forward of the engine-room hatch. Its +tarpaulin, of course, had been stolen, and eight warm months had +not improved the working parts. Further, the last dying hiccup of +the Haliotis seemed - or it might have been the Malay from the +boat-house - to have lifted the thing bodily on its bolts, and +set it down inaccurately as regarded its steam connections. + +"If we only had one single cargo-derrick!" Mr. Wardrop sighed. +"We can take the cylinder-cover off by hand, if we sweat; but to +get the rod out o' the piston's not possible unless we use +steam. Well, there'll be steam the morn, if there's nothing +else. She'll fizzle!" + +Next morning men from the shore saw the Haliotis through a cloud, +for it was as though the deck smoked. Her crew were chasing +steam through the shaken and leaky pipes to its work in the +forward donkey-engine; and where oakum failed to plug a crack, +they stripped off their loin-cloths for lapping, and swore, +half-boiled and mother-naked. The donkey-engine worked - at a +price - the price of constant attention and furious stoking- +worked long enough to allow a wire-rope (it was made up of a +funnel and a foremast-stay) to be led into the engine-room and +made fast on the cylinder-cover of the forward engine. That rose +easily enough, and was hauled through the skylight and on to the +deck, many hands assisting the doubtful steam. Then came the tug +of war, for it was necessary to get to the piston and the jammed +piston-rod. They removed two of the piston junk-ring studs, +screwed in two strong iron eye-bolts by way of handles, doubled +the wire-rope, and set half a dozen men to smite with an +extemporised battering-ram at the end of the piston-rod, where it +peered through the piston, while the donkey-engine hauled upwards +on the piston itself. After four hours of this furious work, the +piston-rod suddenly slipped, and the piston rose with a jerk, +knocking one or two men over into the engine-room. But when Mr. +Wardrop declared that the piston had not split, they cheered, and +thought nothing of their wounds; and the donkey-engine was +hastily stopped; its boiler was nothing to tamper with. + +And day by day their supplies reached them by boat. The skipper +humbled himself once more before the Governor, and as a +concession had leave to get drinking-water from the Malay +boat-builder on the quay. It was not good drinking-water, but +the Malay was anxious to supply anything in his power, if he were +paid for it. + +Now when the jaws of the forward engine stood, as it were, +stripped and empty, they began to wedge up the shores of the +cylinder itself. That work alone filled the better part of three +days - warm and sticky days, when the hands slipped and sweat ran +into the eyes. When the last wedge was hammered home there was +no longer an ounce of weight on the supporting-columns; and Mr. +Wardrop rummaged the ship for boiler-plate three-quarters of an +inch thick, where he could find it. There was not much available, +but what there was was more than beaten gold to him. In one +desperate forenoon the entire crew, naked and lean, haled back, +more or less into place, the starboard supporting-column, which, +as you remember, was cracked clean through. Mr. Wardrop found +them asleep where they had finished the work, and gave them a +day's rest, smiling upon them as a father while he drew +chalk-marks about the cracks. They woke to new and more trying +labour; for over each one of those cracks a plate of +three-quarter-inch boiler-iron was to be worked hot, the +rivet-holes being drilled by hand. All that time they were fed on +fruits, chiefly bananas, with some sago. + +Those were the days when men swooned over the ratchet-drill and +the hand-forge, and where they fell they had leave to lie unless +their bodies were in the way of their fellows' feet. And so, +patch upon patch, and a patch over all, the starboard +supporting-column was clouted; but when they thought all was +secure, Mr. Wardrop decreed that the noble patchwork would never +support working engines; at the best, it could only hold the +guide-bars approximately true. The deadweight of the cylinders +must be borne by vertical struts; and, therefore, a gang would +repair to the bows, and take out, with files, the big bow-anchor +davits, each of which was some three inches in diameter. They +threw hot coals at Wardrop, and threatened to kill him, those who +did not weep (they were ready to weep on the least provocation); +but he hit them with iron bars heated at the end, and they limped +forward, and the davits came with them when they returned. They +slept sixteen hours on the strength of it, and in three days two +struts were in place, bolted from the foot of the starboard +supporting-column to the under side of the cylinder. There +remained now the port, or condenser-column, which, though not so +badly cracked as its fellow, had also been strengthened in four +places with boiler-plate patches, but needed struts. They took +away the main stanchions of the bridge for that work, and, crazy +with toil, did not see till all was in place that the rounded +bars of iron must be flattened from top to bottom to allow the +air-pump levers to clear them. It was Wardrop's oversight, and he +wept bitterly before the men as he gave the order to unbolt the +struts and flatten them with hammer and the flame. Now the broken +engine was underpinned firmly, and they took away the wooden +shores from under the cylinders, and gave them to the robbed +bridge, thanking God for even half a day's work on gentle, kindly +wood instead of the iron that had entered into their souls. Eight +months in the back-country among the leeches, at a temperature of +84 degrees moist, is very bad for the nerves. + +They had kept the hardest work to the last, as boys save Latin +prose, and, worn though they were, Mr. Wardrop did not dare to +give them rest. The piston-rod and connecting-rod were to be +straightened, and this was a job for a regular dockyard with +every appliance. They fell to it, cheered by a little chalk +showing of work done and time consumed which Mr. Wardrop wrote +up on the engine-room bulkhead. Fifteen days had gone -fifteen +days of killing labour - and there was hope before them. + +It is curious that no man knows how the rods were straightened. +The crew of the Haliotis remember that week very dimly, as a +fever patient remembers the delirium of a long night. There were +fires everywhere, they say; the whole ship was one consuming +furnace, and the hammers were never still. Now, there could not +have been more than one fire at the most, for Mr. Wardrop +distinctly recalls that no straightening was done except under +his own eye. They remember, too, that for many years voices gave +orders which they obeyed with their bodies, but their minds were +abroad on all the seas. It seems to them that they stood through +days and nights slowly sliding a bar backwards and forwards +through a white glow that was part of the ship. They remember an +intolerable noise in their burning heads from the walls of the +stoke-hole, and they remember being savagely beaten by men whose +eyes seemed asleep. When their shift was over they would draw +straight lines in the air, anxiously and repeatedly, and would +question one another in their sleep, crying, "Is she straight?" + +At last - they do not remember whether this was by day or by +night - Mr. Wardrop began to dance clumsily, and wept the while; +and they too danced and wept, and went to sleep twitching all +over; and when they woke, men said that the rods were +straightened, and no one did any work for two days, but lay on +the decks and ate fruit. Mr. Wardrop would go below from time to +time, and pat the two rods where they lay, and they heard him +singing hymns. + +Then his trouble of mind went from him, and at the end of the +third day's idleness he made a drawing in chalk upon the deck, +with letters of the alphabet at the angles. He pointed out that, +though the piston-rod was more or less straight, the piston-rod +cross-head - the thing that had been jammed sideways in the +guides - had been badly strained, and had cracked the lower end +of the piston-rod. He was going to forge and shrink a +wrought-iron collar on the neck of the piston-rod where it joined +the cross-head, and from the collar he would bolt a Y-shaped +piece of iron whose lower arms should be bolted into the +cross-head. If anything more were needed, they could use up the +last of the boiler-plate. + +So the forges were lit again, and men burned their bodies, but +hardly felt the pain. The finished connection was not beautiful, +but it seemed strong enough - at least, as strong as the rest of +the machinery; and with that job their labours came to an end. +All that remained was to connect up the engines, and to get food +and water. The skipper and four men dealt with the Malay +boat-builder by night chiefly; it was no time to haggle over the +price of sago and dried fish. The others stayed aboard and +replaced piston, piston-rod, cylinder-cover, cross-head, and +bolts, with the aid of the faithful donkey-engine. The +cylinder-cover was hardly steam-proof, and the eye of science +might have seen in the connecting-rod a flexure something like +that of a Christmas-tree candle which has melted and been +straightened by hand over a stove, but, as Mr. Wardrop said, +"She didn't hit anything." + +As soon as the last bolt was in place, men tumbled over one +another in their anxiety to get to the hand starting-gear, the +wheel and worm, by which some engines can be moved when there is +no steam aboard. They nearly wrenched off the wheel, but it was +evident to the blindest eye that the engines stirred. They did +not revolve in their orbits with any enthusiasm, as good +machines should; indeed, they groaned not a little; but they +moved over and came to rest in a way which proved that they +still recognised man's hand. Then Mr. Wardrop sent his slaves +into the darker bowels of the engine-room and the stoke-hole, and +followed them with a flare-lamp. The boilers were sound, but +would take no harm from a little scaling and cleaning. Mr. +Wardrop would not have any one over-zealous, for he feared what +the next stroke of the tool might show. "The less we know about +her now," said he, "the better for us all, I'm thinkin'. Ye'll +understand me when I say that this is in no sense regular +engineerin'." + +As his raiment, when he spoke, was his grey beard and uncut hair, +they believed him. They did not ask too much of what they met, +but polished and tallowed and scraped it to a false brilliancy. + +"A lick of paint would make me easier in my mind," said Mr. +Wardrop, plaintively. "I know half the condenser-tubes are +started; and the propeller-shaftin' 's God knows how far out of +the true, and we'll need a new air-pump, an' the main-steam +leaks like a sieve, and there's worse each way I look; but - +paint's like clothes to a man, 'an ours is near all gone." + +The skipper unearthed some stale ropy paint of the loathsome +green that they used for the galleys of sailing-ships, and Mr. +Wardrop spread it abroad lavishly to give the engines +self-respect. + +His own was returning day by day, for he wore his loin-cloth +continuously; but the crew, having worked under orders, did not +feel as he did. The completed work satisfied Mr. Wardrop. He +would at the last have made shift to run to Singapore, and gone +home without vengeance taken to show his engines to his brethren +in the craft; but the others and the captain forbade him. They +had not yet recovered their self-respect. + +"It would be safer to make what ye might call a trial trip, but +beggars mustn't be choosers; an if the engines will go over to +the hand-gear, the probability - I'm only saying it's a +probability the chance is that they'll hold up when we put steam +on her." + +"How long will you take to get steam?" said the skipper. + +God knows! Four hours - a day - half a week. If I can raise +sixty pound I'll not complain." + +"Be sure of her first; we can't afford to go out half a mile, and +break down." + +"My soul and body, man, we're one continuous breakdown, fore an' +aft! We might fetch Singapore, though." + +"We'll break down at Pygang-Watai, where we can do good," was the +answer, in a voice that did not allow argument. "She's my boat, +and - I've had eight months to think in." + +No man saw the Haliotis depart, though many heard her. She left +at two in the morning, having cut her moorings, and it was none +of her crew's pleasure that the engines should strike up a +thundering half-seas-over chanty that echoed among the hills. +Mr. Wardrop wiped away a tear as he listened to the new song. + +"She's gibberin' - she's just gibberin'," he whimpered. "Yon's +the voice of a maniac. + +And if engines have any soul, as their masters believe, he was +quite right. There were outcries and clamours, sobs and bursts +of chattering laughter, silences where the trained ear yearned +for the clear note, and torturing reduplications where there +should have been one deep voice. Down the screw-shaft ran +murmurs and warnings, while a heart-diseased flutter without +told that the propeller needed re-keying. + +"How does she make it?" said the skipper. + +"She moves, but - but she's breakin' my heart. The sooner we're +at Pygang-Watai, the better. She's mad, and we're waking the +town." + +"Is she at all near safe?" + +"What do I care how safe she is? She's mad. Hear that, now! To +be sure, nothing's hittin' anything, and the bearin's are fairly +cool, but - can ye not hear?" + +"If she goes," said the skipper, "I don't care a curse. And she's +my boat, too." + +She went, trailing a fathom of weed behind her. From a slow two +knots an hour she crawled up to a triumphant four. Anything +beyond that made the struts quiver dangerously, and filled the +engine-room with steam. Morning showed her out of sight of land, +and there was a visible ripple under her bows; but she +complained bitterly in her bowels, and, as though the noise had +called it, there shot along across the purple sea a swift, dark +proa, hawk-like and curious, which presently ranged alongside +and wished to know if the Haliotis were helpless. Ships, even +the steamers of the white men, had been known to break down in +those waters, and the honest Malay and Javanese traders would +sometimes aid them in their own peculiar way. But this ship was +not full of lady passengers and well-dressed officers. Men, +white, naked and savage, swarmed down her sides -- some +withred-hot iron bars, and others with large hammers - threw +themselves upon those innocent inquiring strangers, and, before +any man could say what had happened, were in full possession of +the proa, while the lawful owners bobbed in the water overside. +Half an hour later the proa's cargo of sago and trepang, as well +as a doubtful-minded compass, was in the Haliotis. The two huge +triangular mat sails, with their seventy-foot yards and booms, +had followed the cargo, and were being fitted to the stripped +masts of the steamer. + +They rose, they swelled, they filled, and the empty steamer +visibly laid over as the wind took them. They gave her nearly +three knots an hour, and what better could men ask? But if she +had been forlorn before, this new purchase made her horrible to +see. Imagine a respectable charwoman in the tights of a +ballet-dancer rolling drunk along the streets, and you will come +to some faint notion of the appearance of that nine-hundred-ton, +well-decked, once schooner-rigged cargo-boat as she staggered +under her new help, shouting and raving across the deep. With +steam and sail that marvellous voyage continued; and the +bright-eyed crew looked over the rail, desolate, unkempt, +unshorn, shamelessly clothed beyond the decencies. + +At the end of the third week she sighted the island of +Pygang-Watai, whose harbour is the turning-point of a pearl +sea-patrol. Here the gun-boats stay for a week ere they retrace +their line. There is no village at Pygang-Watai; only a stream +of water, some palms, and a harbour safe to rest in till the +first violence of the southeast monsoon has blown itself out. +They opened up the low coral beach, with its mound of +whitewashed coal ready for supply, the deserted huts for the +sailors, and the flagless flagstaff. + +Next day there was no Haliotis - only a little proa rocking in +the warm rain at the mouth of the harbour, whose crew watched +with hungry eyes the smoke of a gunboat on the horizon. + +Months afterwards there were a few lines in an English newspaper +to the effect that some gunboat of some foreign Power had broken +her back at the mouth of some far-away harbour by running at full +speed into a sunken wreck. + +End of the, "DEVIL and THE DEEP SEA + + + +WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR + +PART I + +I have done one braver thing +Than all the worthies did; +And yet a braver thence doth spring, +Which is to keep that hid. +The Undertaking. + +"Is it officially declared yet?" + +They've gone as far as to admit 'extreme local scarcity,' and +they've started relief-works in one or two districts, the paper +says." + +"That means it will be declared as soon as they can make sure of +the men and the rolling-stock. 'Shouldn't wonder if it were as +bad as the '78 Famine." + +"'Can't be," said Scott, turning a little in the long cane chair. + +"We've had fifteen-anna crops in the north, and Bombay and +Bengal report more than they know what to do with. They'll be +able to check it before it gets out of hand. It will only be +local." + +Martyn picked the "Pioneer" from the table, read through the +telegrams once more, and put up his feet on the chair-rests. It +was a hot, dark, breathless evening, heavy with the smell of the +newly watered Mall. The flowers in the Club gardens were dead and +black on their stalks, the little lotus-pond was a circle of +caked mud, and the tamarisk-trees were white with the dust of +weeks. Most of the men were at the band-stand in the public +gardens - from the Club verandah you could hear the native Police +band hammering stale waltzes - or on the polo-ground, or in the +high-walled fives-court, hotter than a Dutch oven. Half a dozen +grooms, squatted at the heads of their ponies, waited their +masters' return. From time to time a man would ride at a +foot-pace into the Club compound, and listlessly loaf over to the +whitewashed barracks beside the main building. These were +supposed to be chambers. Men lived in them, meeting the same +white faces night after night at dinner, and drawing out their +office-work till the latest possible hour, that they might escape +that doleful company. + +"What are you going to do?." said Martyn, with a yawn. "Let's +have a swim before dinner." + +"'Water's hot. I was at the bath to-day." + +"Play you game o' billiards - fifty up." + +"It's a hundred and five in the hall now. Sit still and don't be +so abominably energetic." + +A grunting camel swung up to the porch, his badged and belted +rider fumbling a leather pouch. + +"Kubber-kargaz-ki-yektraaa," the man whined, handing down the +newspaper extra - a slip printed on one side only, and damp from +the press. It was pinned up on the green-baize board, between +notices of ponies for sale and fox-terriers missing. + +Martyn rose lazily, read it, and whistled. "It's declared!" he +cried. "One, two, three - eight districts go under the +operations of the Famine Code ek dum. They've put Jimmy Hawkins +in charge." + +"Good business!" said Scott, with the first sign of interest he +had shown. "When in doubt hire a Punjabi. I worked under Jimmy +when I first came out and he belonged to the Punjab. He has more +bundobust than most men." + +"Jimmy's a Jubilee Knight now," said Martyn."He's a good chap, +even though he is a thrice-born civilian and went to the +Benighted Presidency. What unholy names these Madras districts +rejoice in - all ungas or rungas or pillays or polliums!" + +A dog-cart drove up in the dusk, and a man entered, mopping his +head. He was editor of the one daily paper at the capital of a +Province of twenty-five million natives and a few hundred white +men: as his staff was limited to himself and one assistant, his +office-hours ran variously from ten to twenty a day. + +"Hi, Raines; you're supposed to know everything," said Martyn, +stopping him. "How's this Madras 'scarcity' going to turn out?" + +"No one knows as yet. There's a message as long as your arm +coming in on the telephone. I've left my cub to fill it out. +Madras has owned she can't manage it alone, and Jimmy seems to +have a free hand in getting all the men he needs. Arbuthnot's +warned to hold himself in readiness." + +"'Badger' Arbuthnot?" + +"The Peshawur chap. Yes: and the Pi wires that Ellis and Clay +have been moved from the Northwest already, and they've taken +half a dozen Bombay men, too. It's pukka famine, by the looks +of it." + +"They're nearer the scene of action than we are; but if it comes +to indenting on the Punjab this early, there's more in this than +meets the eye," said Martyn. + +"Here to-day and gone to-morrow. 'Didn't come to stay for ever," +said Scott, dropping one of Marryat's novels, and rising to his +feet. "Martyn, your sister's waiting for you." + +A rough grey horse was backing and shifting at the edge of the +verandah, where the light of a kerosene lamp fell on a +brown-calico habit and a white face under a grey-felt hat. + +"Right, O!" said Martyn. "I'm ready. Better come and dine with +us, if you've nothing to do, Scott. William, is there any +dinner in the house?" + +"I'll go home and see," was the rider's answer. "You can drive +him over - at eight, remember." + +Scott moved leisurely to his room, and changed into the +evening-dress of the season and the country: spotless white +linen from head to foot, with a broad silk cummerbund. Dinner +at the Martyns' was a decided improvement on the goat-mutton, +twiney-tough fowl, and tinned entrees of the Club. But it was a +great pity that Martyn could not afford to send his sister to +the hills for the hot weather. As an Acting District +Superintendent of Police, Martyn drew the magnificent pay of six +hundred depreciated silver rupees a month, and his little +four-roomed bungalow said just as much. There were the usual +blue-and-white-striped jail-made rugs on the uneven floor; the +usual glass-studded Amritsar phulkaris draped on nails driven +into the flaking whitewash of the walls; the usual half-dozen +chairs that did not match, picked up at sales of dead men's +effects; and the usual streaks of black grease where the leather +punka-thong ran through the wall. It was as though everything +had been unpacked the night before to be repacked next morning. +Not a door in the house was true on its hinges. The little +windows, fifteen feet up, were darkened with wasp-nests, and +lizards hunted flies between the beams of the wood-ceiled roof. +But all this was part of Scott's life. Thus did people live who +had such an income; and in a land where each man's pay, age, and +position are printed in a book, that all may read, it is hardly +worth while to play at pretence in word or deed. Scott counted +eight years' service in the Irrigation Department, and drew eight +hundred rupees a month, on the understanding that if he served +the State faithfully for another twenty-two years he could retire +on a pension of some four hundred rupees a month. His +working-life, which had been spent chiefly under canvas or in +temporary shelters where a man could sleep, eat, and write +letters, was bound up with the opening and guarding of irrigation +canals, the handling of two or three thousand workmen of all +castes and creeds, and the payment of vast sums of coined silver. + +He had finished that spring, not without credit, the last section +of the great Mosuhl Canal, and - much against his will, for he +hated office-work - had been sent in to serve during the hot +weather on the accounts and supply side of the Department, with +sole charge of the sweltering sub-office at the capital of the +Province. Martyn knew this; William, his sister, knew it; and +everybody knew it. Scott knew, too, as well as the rest of the +world, that Miss Martyn had come out to India four years ago to +keep house for her brother, who, as every one knew, had borrowed +the money to pay for her passage, and that she ought, as all the +world said, to have married at once. In stead of this, she had +refused some half a dozen subalterns, a Civilian twenty years her +senior, one Major, and a man in the Indian Medical Department. +This, too, was common property. She had "stayed down three hot +weathers," as the saying is, because her brother was in debt and +could not afford the expense of her keep at even a cheap +hill-station. Therefore her face was white as bone, and in the +centre of her forehead was a big silvery scar about the size of a +shilling - the mark of a Delhi sore, which is the same as a +"Bagdad date." This comes from drinking bad water, and slowly +eats into the flesh till it is ripe enough to be burned out. + +None the less William had enjoyed herself hugely in her four +years. Twice she had been nearly drowned while fording a river; +once she had been run away with on a camel; had witnessed a +midnight attack of thieves on her brother's camp; had seen +justice administered, with long sticks, in the open under trees; +could speak Urdu and even rough Punjabi with a fluency that was +envied by her seniors; had entirely fallen out of the habit of +writing to her aunts in England, or cutting the pages of the +English magazines; had been through a very bad cholera year, +seeing sights unfit to be told; and had wound up her experiences +by six weeks of typhoid fever, during which her head had been +shaved and hoped to keep her twenty-third birthday that +September. It is conceivable that the aunts would not have +approved of a girl who never set foot on the ground if a horse +were within hail; who rode to dances with a shawl thrown over her +skirt; who wore her hair cropped and curling all over her head; +who answered indifferently to the name of William or Bill; whose +speech was heavy with the flowers of the vernacular; who could +act in amateur theatricals, play on the banjo, rule eight +servants and two horses, their accounts and their diseases, and +look men slowly and deliberately between the eyes - even after +they had proposed to her and been rejected. + +"I like men who do things," she had confided to a man in the +Educational Department, who was teaching the sons of +cloth-merchants and dyers the beauty of Wordsworth's "Excursion +in annotated cram-books; and when he grew poetical, William +explained that she "didn't understand poetry very much; it made +her head ache," and another broken heart took refuge at the +Club. But it was all William's fault. She delighted in hearing +men talk of their own work, and that is the most fatal way of +bringing a man to your feet. + +Scott had known her for some three years, meeting her, as a rule, +under canvass, when his camp and her brother's joined for a day +on the edge of the Indian Desert. He had danced with her several +times at the big Christmas gatherings, when as many as five +hundred white people came in to the station; and had always a +great respect for her housekeeping and her dinners. + +She looked more like a boy than ever when, the meal ended, she +sat, rolling cigarettes, her low forehead puckered beneath the +dark curls as she twiddled the papers and stuck out her rounded +chin when the tobacco stayed in place, or, with a gesture as +true as a school-boy's throwing a stone, tossed the finished +article across the room to Martyn, who caught it with one hand, +and continued his talk with Scott. It was all "shop," - canals +and the policing of canals; the sins of villagers who stole more +water than they had paid for, and the grosser sin of native +constables who connived at the thefts; of the transplanting +bodily of villages to newly irrigated ground, and of the coming +fight with the desert in the south when the Provincial funds +should warrant the opening of the long-surveyed Luni Protective +Canal System. And Scott spoke openly of his great desire to be +put on one particular section of the work where he knew the land +and the people; and Martyn sighed for a billet in the Himalayan +foot-hills, and said his mind of his superiors, and William +rolled cigarettes and said nothing, but smiled gravely on her +brother because he was happy. + +At ten Scott's horse came to the door, and the evening was ended. + +The lights of the two low bungalows in which the daily paper was +printed showed bright across the road. It was too early to try +to find sleep, and Scott drifted over to the editor. Raines, +stripped to the waist like a sailor at a gun, lay half asleep in +a long chair, waiting for night telegrams. He had a theory that +if a man did not stay by his work all day and most of the night +he laid himself open to fever: so he ate and slept among his +files. + +"Can you do it?" be said drowsily. "I didn't mean to bring you +over." + +"About what ~ I've been dining at the Martyns'." + +"The Madras famine, of course. Martyn's warned, too. They're +taking men where they can find 'em. I sent a note to you at the +Club just now, asking if you could do us a letter once a week +from the south - between two and three columns, say. Nothing +sensational, of course, but just plain facts about who is doing +what, and so forth. Our regular rates - ten rupees a column." + +"'Sorry, but it's out of my line," Scott answered, staring +absently at the map of India on the wall. "It's rough on Martyn +- very. 'Wonder what he'lldo with his sister? 'Wonder what the +deuce they'll do with me? I've no famine experience. This is the +first I've heard of it. Am I ordered?" + +"Oh, yes. Here's the wire. They'll put you on to relief-works," +Raines said, "with a horde of Madrassis dying like flies; one +native apothecary and half a pint of cholera-mixture among the +ten thousand of you. It comes of your being idle for the moment. +Every man who isn't doing two men's work seems to have been +called upon. Hawkins evidently believes in Punjabis. It's going +to be quite as bad as anything they have had in the last ten +years." + +"It's all in the day's work, worse luck. I suppose I shall get my +orders officially some time to-morrow. I'm awfully glad I +happened to drop in. 'Better go and pack my kit now. Who +relieves me here - do you know?" + +Raines turned over a sheaf of telegrams. "McEuan," said he, "from +Murree." + +Scott chuckled. "He thought he was going to be cool all summer. +He'll be very sick about this. Well, no good talking. 'Night." + +Two hours later, Scott, with a clear conscience, laid himself +down to rest on a string cot in a bare room. Two worn bullock +trunks, a leather water-bottle, a tin ice-box, and his pet +saddle sewed up in sacking were piled at the door, and the Club +secretary's receipt for last month's bill was under his pillow. +His orders came next morning, and with them an unofficial +telegram from Sir James Hawkins; who was not in the habit of +forgetting good men when he had once met them, bidding him +report himself with all speed at some unpronounceable place +fifteen hundred miles to the south, for the famine was sore in +the land, and white men were needed. + +A pink and fattish youth arrived in the red-hot noonday, +whimpering a little at fate and famines, which never allowed any +one three months' peace. He was Scott's successor - another cog +in the machinery, moved forward behind his fellow whose +services, as the official announcement ran, "were placed at the +disposal of the Madras Government for famine duty until further +orders." Scott handed over the funds in his charge, showed him +the coolest corner in the office, warned him against excess of +zeal, and, as twilight fell, departed from the Club in a hired +carriage, with his faithful body-servant, Faiz Ullah, and a +mound of disordered baggage atop, to catch the southern mail at +the loopholed and bastioned railway-station. The heat from the +thick brick walls struck him across the face as if it had been a +hot towel; and he reflected that there were at least five nights +and four days of this travel before him. Faiz Ullah, used to the +chances of service, plunged into the crowd on the stone +platform, while Scott, a black cheroot between his teeth, waited +till his compartment should be set away. A dozen native +policemen, with their rifles and bundles, shouldered into the +press of Punjabi farmers, Sikh craftsmen, and greasy-locked +Afreedee pedlars, escorting with all pomp Martyn's uniform-case, +water-bottles, ice-box, and bedding-roll. They saw Faiz Ullah's +lifted hand, and steered for it. + +"My Sahib and your Sahib," said Faiz Ullah to Martyn's man, "will +travel together. Thou and I, O brother, will thus secure the +servants' places close by; and because of our masters' authority +none will dare to disturb us." + +When Faiz Ullah reported all things ready, Scott settled down at +full length, coatless and bootless, on the broad leather-covered +bunk. The heat under the iron-arched roof of the station might +have been anything over a hundred degrees. At the last moment +Martyn entered, dripping. + +"Don't swear," said Scott, lazily; "it's too late to change your +carriage; and we'll divide the ice." + +"What are you doing here?" said the police-man. + +"I'm lent to the Madras Government, same as you. By Jove, it's a +bender of a night! Are you taking any of your men down?" + +"A dozen. I suppose I shall have to superintend relief +distributions. 'Didn't know you were under orders too." + +"I didn't till after I left you last night. Raines had the news +first. My orders came this morning. McEuan relieved me at four, +and I got off at once. 'Shouldn't wonder if it wouldn't be a +good thing -this famine - if we come through it alive." + +"Jimmy ought to put you and me to work together," said Martyn; +and then, after a pause: "My sister's here." + +"Good business," said Scott, heartily. "Going to get off at +Umballa, I suppose, and go up to Simla. Who'll she stay with +there?" + +"No-o; that's just the trouble of it. She's going down with me." + +Scott sat bolt upright under the oil-lamps as the train jolted +past Tarn-Taran. "What! You don't mean you couldn't afford -" + +"'Tain't that. I'd have scraped up the money somehow." + +"You might have come to me, to begin with," said Scott, stiffly; +"we aren't altogether strangers." + +"Well, you needn't be stuffy about it. I might, but - you don't +know my sister. I've been explaining and exhorting and all the +rest of it all day - lost my temper since seven this morning, +and haven't got it back yet-but she wouldn't hear of any +compromise. A woman's entitled to travel with her husband if she +wants to; and William says she's on the same footing. You see, +we've been together all our lives, more or less, since my people +died. It isn't as if she were an ordinary sister." + +"All the sisters I've ever heard of would have stayed where they +were well off." + +She's as clever as a man, confound - Martyn went on. "She broke +up the bungalow over my head while I was talking at her. +'Settled the whole thing in three hours - servants, horses, and +all. I didn't get my orders till nine." + +"Jimmy Hawkins won't be pleased," said Scott "A famine's no place +for a woman." + +"Mrs. Jim - I mean Lady Jim's in camp with him. At any rate, she +says she will look after my sister. William wired down to her on +her own responsibility, asking if she could come, and knocked the +ground from under me by showing me her answer." + +Scott laughed aloud. "If she can do that she can take care of +herself, and Mrs. Jim won't let her run into any mischief There +aren't many women, sisters or wives, who would walk into a +famine with their eyes open. It isn't as if she didn't know +what these things mean. She was through the Jalo cholera last +year." + +The train stopped at Amritsar, and Scott went back to the ladies' +compartment, immediately behind their carriage. William, with a +cloth riding-cap on her curls, nodded affably. + +"Come in and have some tea," she said. "'Best thing in the world +for heat-apoplexy." + +"Do I look as if I were going to have heat-apoplexy?" + +"'Never can tell," said William, wisely. "It's always best to be +ready." + +She had arranged her compartment with the knowledge of an old +campaigner. A felt-covered water-bottle hung in the draught of +one of the shuttered windows; a tea-set of Russian china, packed +in a wadded basket, stood on the seat; and a travelling +spirit-lamp was clamped against the woodwork above it. + +William served them generously, in large cups, hot tea, which +saves the veins of the neck from swelling inopportunely on a hot +night. It was characteristic of the girl that, her plan of +action once settled, she asked for no comments on it. Life among +men who had a great deal of work to do, and very little time to +do it in, had taught her the wisdom of effacing, as well as of +fending for, herself. She did not by word or deed suggest that +she would be useful, comforting, or beautiful in their travels, +but continued about her business serenely: put the cups back +without clatter when tea was ended, and made cigarettes for her +guests. + +"This time last night," said Scott, "we didn't expect - er - this +kind of thing, did we?" + +"I've learned to expect anything," said William. "You know, in +our service, we live at the end of the telegraph; but, of +course, this ought to be a good thing for us all, departmentally +- if we live." + +"It knocks us out of the running in our own Province," Scott +replied, with equal gravity. "I hoped to be put on the Luni +Protective Works this cold weather, but there's no saying how +long the famine may keep us." + +"Hardly beyond October, I should think," said Martyn. "It will be +ended, one way or the other, then." + +"And we've nearly a week of this," said William. "Sha'n't we be +dusty when it's over?" + +For a night and a day they knew their surroundings, and for a +night and a day, skirting the edge of the great Indian Desert on +a narrow-gauge railway, they remembered how in the days of their +apprenticeship they had come by that road from Bombay. Then the +languages in which the names of the stations were written +changed, and they launched south into a foreign land, where the +very smells were new. Many long and heavily laden grain-trains +were in front of them, and they could feel the hand of Jimmy +Hawkins from far off. They waited in extemporised sidings while +processions of empty trucks returned to the north, and were +coupled on to slow, crawling trains, and dropped at midnight, +Heaven knew where; but it was furiously hot, and they walked to +and fro among sacks, and dogs howled. Then they came to an India +more strange to them than to the untravelled Englishman - the +flat, red India of palm-tree, palmyra-palm, and rice - the India +of the picture-books, of "Little Harry and His Bearer" - all dead +and dry in the baking heat. They had left the incessant +passenger-traffic of the north and west far and far behind them. +Here the people crawled to the side of the train, holding their +little ones in their arms; and a loaded truck would be left +behind, the men and women clustering round it like ants by +spilled honey. Once in the twilight they saw on a dusty plain a +regiment of little brown men, each bearing a body over his +shoulder; and when the train stopped to leave yet another truck, +they perceived that the burdens were not corpses, but only +foodless folk picked up beside dead oxen by a corps of Irregular +troops. Now they met more white men, here one and there two, +whose tents stood close to the line, and who came armed with +written authorities and angry words to cut off a truck. They were +too busy to do more than nod at Scott and Martyn, and stare +curiously at William, who could do nothing except make tea, and +watch how her men staved off the rush of wailing, walking +skeletons, putting them down three at a time in heaps, with their +own hands uncoupling the marked trucks, or taking receipts from +the hollow-eyed, weary white men, who spoke another argot +than theirs. They ran out of ice, out of soda-water, and out of +tea; for they were six days and seven nights on the road, and it +seemed to them like seven times seven years. + +At last, in a dry, hot dawn, in a land of death, lit by long red +fires of railway-sleepers, where they were burning the dead, +they came to their destination, and were met by Jim Hawkins, the +Head of the Famine, unshaven, unwashed, but cheery, and entirely +in command of affairs. + +Martyn, he decreed then and there, was to live on trains till +further orders; was to go back with empty trucks, filling them +with starving people as he found them, and dropping them at a +famine-camp on the edge of the Eight Districts. He would pick +up supplies and return, and his constables would guard the loaded +grain-cars, also picking up people, and would drop them at a +camp a hundred miles south. Scott Hawkins was very glad to see +Scott again - would that same hour take charge of a convoy of +bullock-carts, and would go south, feeding as he went, to yet +another famine-camp, where he would leave his starving -there +would he no lack of starving on the route - and wait for orders +by telegraph.Generally, Scott was in all small things to act as +he thought best. + +William bit her under lip. There was no one in the wide world +like her one brother, but Martyn's orders gave him no discretion. + +She came out on the platform, masked with dust from head to foot, +a horse-shoe wrinkle on her forehead, put here by much thinking +during the past week, but as self-possessed as ever. Mrs. Jim - +who should have been Lady Jim but that no one remembered the +title - took possession of her with a little gasp. + +"Oh, I'm so glad you're here," she almost sobbed. "You oughtn't +to, of course, but there -there isn't another woman in the +place, and we must help each other, you know; and we've all the +wretched people and the little babies they are selling." + +"I've seen some," said William. + +"Isn't it ghastly? I've bought twenty; they're in our camp; but +won't you have something to eat first? We've more than ten +people can do here; and I've got a horse for you. Oh, I'm so +glad you've come, dear. You're a Punjabi, too, you know." + +"Steady, Lizzie," said Hawkins, over his shoulder. "We'll look +after you, Miss Martyn. 'Sorry I can't ask you to breakfast, +Martyn. You'll have to eat as you go. Leave two of your men to +help Scott. These poor devils can't stand up to load carts. +Saunders" (this to the engine-driver, who was half asleep in the +cab), "back down and get those empties away. You've 'line clear' +to Anundrapillay; they'll give you orders north of that. Scott, +load up your carts from that B. P. P. truck, and be off as soon +as you can. The Eurasian in the pink shirt is your interpreter +and guide. You'll find an apothecary of sorts tied to the yoke of +the second wagon. He's been trying to bolt; you'll have to look +after him. Lizzie, drive Miss Martyn to camp, and tell them to +send the red horse down here for me." + +Scott, with Faiz Ullah and two policemen, was already busied with +the carts, backing them up to the truck and unbolting the +sideboards quietly, while the others pitched in the bags of +millet and wheat. Hawkins watched him for as long as it took to +fill one cart. + +"That's a good man," he said. "If all goes well I shall work him +hard." This was Jim Hawkins's notion of the highest compliment +one human being could pay another. + +An hour later Scott was under way; the apothecary threatening him +with the penalties of the law for that he, a member of the +Subordinate Medical Department, had been coerced and bound +against his will and all laws governing the liberty of the +subject; the pink-shirted Eurasian begging leave to see his +mother, who happened to be dying some three miles away: "Only +verree, verree short leave of absence, and will presently +return, sar -"; the two constables,armed with staves, bringing +up the rear; and Faiz Ullah, a Mohammedan's contempt for all +Hindoos and foreigners in every line of his face, explaining to +the drivers that though Scott Sahib was a man to be feared on +all fours, he, Faiz Ullah, was Authority Itself. + +The procession creaked past Hawkins's camp - three stained tents +under a clump of dead trees, behind them the famine-shed, where +a crowd of hopeless ones tossed their arms around the +cooking-kettles. + +"'Wish to Heaven William had kept out of it," said Scott to +himself, after a glance. "We'll have cholera, sure as a gun, +when the Rains break." + +But William seemed to have taken kindly to the operations of the +Famine Code, which, when famine is declared, supersede the +workings of the ordinary law. Scott saw her, the centre of a mob +of weeping women, in a calico riding-habit, and a blue-grey felt +hat with a gold puggaree. + +"I want fifty rupees, please. I forgot to ask Jack before he +went away. Can you lend it me? It's for condensed-milk for the +babies," said she. + +Scott took the money from his belt, and handed it over without a +word. "For goodness sake, take care of yourself," he said. + +"Oh, I shall be all right. We ought to get the milk in two days. +By the way, the orders are, I was to tell you, that you're to +take one of Sir Jim's horses.There's a grey Cabuli here that I +thought would be just your style, so I've said you'd take him. +Was that right?" + +"That's awfully good of you. We can't either of us talk much +about style, I am afraid." + +Scott was in a weather-stained drill shooting-kit, very white at +the seams and a little frayed at the wrists. William regarded +him thoughtfully, from his pith helmet to his greased +ankle-boots. "You look very nice, I think. Are you sure you've +everything you'll need - quinine, chlorodyne, and so on?" + +"'Think so," said Scott, patting three or four of his +shooting-pockets as he mounted and rode alongside his convoy. + +"Good-bye," he cried. + +"Good-bye, and good luck," said William. "I'm awfully obliged for +the money." She turned on a spurred heel and disappeared into +the tent, while the carts pushed on past the famine-sheds, past +the roaring lines of the thick, fat fires, down to the baked +Gehenna of the South. + +End of "WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR - PART I" + + + +WILLIAM THE CONQUERER + +PART II + +So let us melt and make no noise, No tear-floods nor +sigh-tempests move; 'Twere profanation of our joys to tell the +Laity our love. A Valediction. + +It was punishing work, even though he travelled by night and +camped by day; but within the limits of his vision there was no +man whom Scott could call master. He was as free as Jimmy +Hawkins - freer, in fact, for the Government held the Head of +the Famine tied neatly to a telegraph-wire, and if Jimmy had ever +regarded telegrams seriously, the death-rate of that famine +would have been much higher than it was. + +At the end of a few days' crawling Scott learned something of the +size of the India which he served, and it astonished him. His +carts, as you know, were loaded with wheat, millet, and barley, +good food-grains needing only a little grinding. But the people +to whom he brought the life-giving stuffs were rice-eaters. They +could hull rice in their mortars, but they knew nothing of the +heavy stone querns of the North, and less of the material that +the white man convoyed so laboriously. They clamoured for rice - +unhusked paddy, such as they were accustomed to - and, when they +found that there was none, broke away weeping from the sides of +the cart. What was the use of these strange hard grains that +choked their throats? They would die. And then and there very +many of them kept their word. Others took their allowance, and +bartered enough millet to feed a man through a week for a few +handfuls of rotten rice saved by some less unfortunate. A few put +their share into the rice-mortars, pounded it, and made a paste +with foul water; but they were very few. Scott understood dimly +that many people in the India of the South ate rice, as a rule, +but he had spent his service in a grain Province, had seldom seen +rice in the blade or ear, and least of all would have believed +that in time of deadly need men could die at arm's length of +plenty, sooner than touch food they did not know. In vain the +interpreters interpreted; in vain his two policemen showed in +vigorous pantomime what should be done. The starving crept away +to their bark and weeds, grubs, leaves, and clay, and left the +open sacks untouched. But sometimes the women laid their phantoms +of children at Scott's feet, looking back as they staggered away. + +Faiz Ullah opined it was the will of God that these foreigners +should die, and it remained only to give orders to burn the +dead. None the less there was no reason why the Sahib should lack +his comforts, and Faiz Ullah, a campaigner of experience, had +picked up a few lean goats and had added them to the procession. +That they might give milk for the morning meal, he was feeding +them on the good grain that these imbeciles rejected. "Yes," said +Faiz Ullah; "if the Sahib thought fit, a little milk might be +given to some of the babies"; but, as the Sahib well knew, babies +were cheap, and, for his own part, Faiz Ullah held that there was +no Government order as to babies. Scott spoke forcefully to Faiz +Ullah and the two policemen, and bade them capture goats where +they could find them. This they most joyfully did, for it was a +recreation, and many ownerless goats were driven in. Once fed, +the poor brutes were willing enough to follow the carts, and a +few days' good food - food such as human beings died for lack of +- set them in milk again. + +"But I am no goatherd," said Faiz Ullah. "It is against my izzat +[my honour]." + +"When we cross the Bias River again we will talk of izzat," Scott +replied. "Till that day thou and the policemen shall be sweepers +to the camp, if I give the order." + +"Thus, then, it is done," grunted Faiz Ullah, "if the Sahib will +have it so"; and he showed how a goat should be milked, while +Scott stood over him. + +"Now we will feed them," said Scott; "twice a day we will feed +them"; and he bowed his back to the milking, and took a horrible +cramp. + +When you have to keep connection unbroken between a restless +mother of kids and a baby who is at the point of death, you +suffer in all your system. But the babies were fed. Each morning +and evening Scott would solemnly lift them out one by one from +their nest of gunny-bags under the cart-tilts. There were always +many who could do no more than breathe, and the milk was dropped +into their toothless mouths drop by drop, with due pauses when +they choked. Each morning, too, the goats were fed; and since +they would straggle without a leader, and since the natives were +hirelings, Scott was forced to give up riding, and pace slowly at +the head of his flocks, accommodating his step to their +weaknesses. All this was sufficiently absurd, and he felt the +absurdity keenly; but at least he was saving life, and when the +women saw that their children did not die, they made shift to eat +a little of the strange foods, and crawled after the carts, +blessing the master of the goats. + +"Give the women something to live for," said Scott to himself, as +he sneezed in the dust of a hundred little feet, "and they'll +hang on somehow. This beats William's condensed-milk trick all to +pieces. I shall never live it down, though." + +He reached his destination very slowly, found that a rice-ship +had come in from Burmah, and that stores of paddy were +available; found also an overworked Englishman in charge of the +shed, and, loading the carts, set back to cover the ground he +had already passed. He left some of the children and half his +goats at the famine-shed. For this he was not thanked by the +Englishman, who had already more stray babies than he knew what +to do with. Scott's back was suppled to stooping now, and he +went on with his wayside ministrations in addition to +distributing the paddy. More babies and more goats were added +unto him; but now some of the babies wore rags, and beads round +their wrists or necks. "That" said the interpreter, as though +Scott did not know, "signifies that their mothers hope in +eventual contingency to resume them offeecially." + +The sooner, the better," said Scott; but at the same time he +marked, with the pride of ownership, how this or that little +Ramasawmy was putting on flesh like a bantam. As the +paddy-carts were emptied he headed for Hawkins's camp by the +railway, timing his arrival to fit in with the dinner-hour, for +it was long since he had eaten at a cloth. He had no desire to +make any dramatic entry, but an accident of the sunset ordered +it that when he had taken off his helmet to get the evening +breeze, the low light should fall across his forehead, and he +could not see what was before him; while one waiting at the tent +door beheld with new eyes a young man, beautiful as Paris, a god +in a halo of golden dust, walking slowly at the head of his +flocks, while at his knee ran small naked Cupids. But she +laughed - William, in a slate-coloured blouse, laughed +consumedly till Scott, putting the best face he could upon the +matter, halted his armies and bade her admire the kindergarten. +It was an unseemly sight, but the proprieties had been left ages +ago, with the tea-party at Amritsar Station, fifteen hundred +miles to the north. + +"They are coming on nicely," said William. "We've only +five-and-twenty here now. The women are beginning to take them +away again." + +"Are you in charge of the babies, then?" + +"Yes - Mrs. Jim and I. We didn't think of goats, though. We've +been trying condensed-milk and water." + +"Any losses?" + +More than I care to think of;" said William, with a shudder. +"And you?" + +Scott said nothing. There had been many little burials along his +route - one cannot burn a dead baby - many mothers who had wept +when they did not find again the children they had trusted to +the care of the Government. + +Then Hawkins came out carrying a razor, at which Scott looked +hungrily, for he had a beard that he did not love. And when +they sat down to dinner in the tent he told his tale in few +words, as it might have been an official report. Mrs. Jim +snuffled from time to time, and Jim bowed his head judicially; +but William's grey eyes were on the clean-shaven face, and it +was to her that Scott seemed to appeal. + +"Good for the Pauper Province!" said William, her chin on her +hand, as she leaned forward among the wine~glasses. Her cheeks +had fallen in, and the scar on her forehead was more prominent +than ever, but the well-turned neck rose roundly as a column +from the ruffle of the blouse which was the accepted +evening-dress in camp. + +"It was awfully absurd at times," said Scott. "You see, I didn't +know much about milking or babies. They'll chaff my head off, if +the tale goes up North." + +"Let 'em," said William, haughtily. "We've all done coolie-work +since we came. I know Jack has." This was to Hawkins's address, +and the big man smiled blandly. + +"Your brother's a highly efficient officer, William," said he, +"and I've done him the honour of treating him as he deserves. +Remember, I write the confidential reports." + +"Then you must say that William's worth her weight in gold," said +Mrs. Jim. "I don't know what we should have done without her. She +has been everything to us." She dropped her hand upon William's, +which was rough with much handling of reins, and William patted +it softly. Jim beamed on the company. Things were going well with +his world. Three of his more grossly incompetent men had died, +and their places had been filled by their betters. Every day +brought the Rains nearer. They had put out the famine in five of +the Eight Districts, and, after all, the death-rate had not been +too heavy - things considered. He looked Scott over carefully, as +an ogre looks over a man, and rejoiced in his thews and iron-hard +condition. + +"He's just the least bit in the world tucked up," said Jim to +himself, "but he can do two men's work yet." Then he was aware +that Mrs. Jim was telegraphing to him, and according to the +domestic code the message ran: "A clear case. Look at them!" + +He looked and listened. All that William was saying was: "What +can you expect of a country where they call a bhistee [a +water-carrier] a tunni-cutch?" and all that Scott answered was: +"I shall be glad to get back to the Club. Save me a dance at the +Christmas Ball, won't you?" + +"It's a far cry from here to the Lawrence Hall," said Jim. +"Better turn in early, Scott. It's paddy-carts to-morrow; +you'll begin loading at five." + +"Aren't you going to give Mr. Scott a single day's rest?" + +"'Wish I could, Lizzie, but I'm afraid I can't. As long as he can +stand up we must use him." + +"Well, I've had one Europe evening, at least. By Jove, I'd nearly +forgotten! What do I do about those babies of mine?" + +"Leave them here," said William -" we are in charge of that - and +as many goats as you can spare. I must learn how to milk now." + +"If you care to get up early enough to-morrow I'll show you. I +have to milk, you see. Half of 'em have beads and things round +their necks. You must be careful not to take 'em off; in case +the mothers turn up." + +"You forget I've had some experience here." + +"I hope to goodness you won't overdo." Scott's voice was +unguarded. + +"I'll take care of her," said Mrs. Jim, telegraphing hundred-word +messages as she carried William off; while Jim gave Scott his +orders for the coming campaign. It was very late - nearly nine +o'clock. + +"Jim, you're a brute," said his wife, that night; and the Head of +the Famine chuckled. + +"Not a bit of it, dear. I remember doing the first Jandiala +Settlement for the sake of a girl in a crinoline, and she was +slender, Lizzie. I've never done as good a piece of work since. +He'll work like a demon." + +"But you might have given him one day." + +"And let things come to a head now? No, dear; it's their +happiest time." + +"I don't believe either of the darlings know what's the matter +with them. Isn't it beautiful? Isn't it lovely?" + +"Getting up at three to learn to milk, bless her heart! Oh, ye +Gods, why must we grow old and fat?" + +"She's a darling. She has done more work under me -" + +"Under you? The day after she came she was in charge and you +were her subordinate. You've stayed there ever since; she +manages you almost as well as you manage me." + +"She doesn't, and that's why I love her. She's as direct as a +man - as her brother." + +"Her brother's weaker than she is. He's always to me for orders; +but he's honest, and a glutton for work. I confess I'm rather +fond of William, and if I had a daughter -" + +The talk ended. Far away in the Derajat was a child's grave more +than twenty years old, and neither Jim nor his wife spoke of it +any more. + +All the same, you're responsible," Jim added, a moment's silence. + +"Bless 'em!" said Mrs. Jim, sleepily. + +Before the stars paled, Scott, who slept in an empty cart, waked +and went about his work in silence; it seemed at that hour +unkind to rouse Faiz Ullah and the interpreter. His head being +close to the ground, he did not hear William till she stood over +him in the dingy old riding-habit, her eyes still heavy with +sleep, a cup of tea and a piece of toast in her hands. There +was a baby on the ground, squirming on a piece of blanket, and a +six-year-old child peered over Scott's shoulder. + +"Hai, you little rip," said Scott, "how the deuce do you expect +to get your rations if you aren't quiet?" + +A cool white hand steadied the brat, who forthwith choked as the +milk gurgled into his mouth. + +"'Mornin'," said the milker. "You've no notion how these little +fellows can wriggle." + +"Oh, yes, I have." She whispered, because the world was asleep. +"Only I feed them with a spoon or a rag. Yours are fatter than +mine. .And you've been doing this day after day?" The voice was +almost lost. + +"Yes; it was absurd. Now you try," he said, giving place to the +girl. "Look out! A goat's not a cow." + +The goat protested against the amateur, and there was a scuffle, +in which Scott snatched up the baby. Then it was all to do over +again, and William laughed softly and merrily. She managed, +however, to feed two babies, and a third. + +"Don't the little beggars take it well?" said Scott. "I trained +'em." + +They were very busy and interested, when lo! it was broad +daylight, and before they knew, the camp was awake, and they +kneeled among the goats, surprised by the day, both flushed to +the temples. Yet all the round world rolling up out of the +darkness might have heard and seen all that had passed between +them. + +"Oh," said William, unsteadily, snatching up the tea and toast, +"I had this made for you. It's stone-cold now. I thought you +mightn't have anything ready so early. 'Better not drink it. +It's - it's stone-cold." + +"That's awfully kind of you. It's just right. It's awfully good +of you, really. I'll leave my kids and goats with you and Mrs. +Jim, and, of course, any one in camp can show you about the +milking." + +"Of course," said William; and she grew pinker and pinker and +statelier and more stately, as she strode back to her tent, +fanning herself with the saucer. + +There were shrill lamentations through the camp when the elder +children saw their nurse move off without them. Faiz Ullah +unbent so far as to jest with the policemen, and Scott turned +purple with shame because Hawkins, already in the saddle, +roared. + +A child escaped from the care of Mrs. Jim, and, running like a +rabbit, clung to Scott's boot, William pursuing with long, easy +strides. + +"I will not go - I will not go!" shrieked the child, twining his +feet round Scott's ankle. They will kill me here. I do not know +these people." + +"I say," said Scott, in broken Tamil, "I say, she will do you no +harm. Go with her and be well fed." + +"Come!" said William, panting, with a wrathful glance at Scott, +who stood helpless and, as it were, hamstrung. + +"Go back," said Scott quickly to William. I'll send the little +chap over in a minute." + +The tone of authority had its effect, but in a way Scott did not +exactly intend. The boy loosened his grasp, and said with +gravity: "I did not know the woman was thine. I will go." Then +he cried to his companions, a mob of three-, four-, and +five-year-olds waiting on the success of his venture ere they +stampeded: "Go back and eat. It is our man's woman. She will +obey his orders." + +Jim collapsed where he sat; Faiz Ullah and the two policemen +grinned; and Scott's orders to the cartmen flew like hail. + +"That is the custom of the Sahibs when truth is told in their +presence," said Faiz Ullah. "The time comes that I must seek new +service. Young wives, especially such as speak our language and +have knowledge of the ways of the Police, make great trouble for +honest butlers in the matter of weekly accounts." + +What William thought of it all she did not say, but when her +brother, ten days later, came to camp for orders, and heard of +Scott's performances, he said, laughing: "Well, that settles it. +He'll be Bakri Scott to the end of his days." (Bakri in the +Northern vernacular, means a goat.) "What a lark! I'd have given +a month's pay to have seen him nursing famine babies. I fed some +with conjee [rice-water], but that was all right." + +"It's perfectly disgusting," said his sister, with blazing eyes. +"A man does something like -like that - and all you other men +think of is to give him an absurd nickname, and then you laugh +and think it's funny." + +"Ah," said Mrs. Jim, sympathetically. + +"Well, you can't talk, William. You christened little Miss Demby +the Button-quail, last cold weather; you know you did. India's +the land of nicknames." + +"That's different," William replied. "She was only a girl, and +she hadn't done anything except walk like a quail, and she does. +But it isn't fair to make fun of a man." + +"Scott won't care," said Martyn. "You can't get a rise out of old +Scotty. I've been trying for eight years, and you've only known +him for three. How does he look?" + +"He looks very well," said William, and went away with a flushed +cheek. "Bakri Scott, indeed!" Then she laughed to herself, for +she knew her country. "But it will he Bakri all the same"; and +she repeated it under her breath several times slowly, +whispering it into favour. + +When he returned to his duties on the railway, Martyn spread the +name far and wide among his associates, so that Scott met it as +he led his paddy-carts to war. The natives believed it to be +some English title of honour, and the cart-drivers used it in +all simplicity till Faiz Ullah, who did not approve of foreign +japes, broke their heads. There was very little time for milking +now, except at the big camps, where Jim had extended Scott's +idea and was feeding large flocks on the useless northern +grains. Sufficient paddy had come now into the Eight Districts +to hold the people safe, if it were only distributed quickly, +and for that purpose no one was better than the big Canal +officer, who never lost his temper, never gave an unnecessary +order, and never questioned an order given. Scott pressed on, +saving his cattle, washing their galled necks daily, so that no +time should be lost on the road; reported himself with his rice +at the minor famine-sheds, unloaded, and went back light by +forced night-march to the next distributing centre, to find +Hawkins's unvarying telegram: "Do it again." And he did it +again and again, and yet again, while Jim Hawkins, fifty miles +away, marked off on a big map the tracks of his wheels +gridironing the stricken lands. Others did well - Hawkins +reported at the end they all did well - but Scott was the most +excellent, for he kept good coined rupees by him, settled for +his own cart-repairs on the spot, and ran to meet all sorts of +unconsidered extras, trusting to be recouped later on. +Theoretically, the Government should have paid for every shoe +and iinchpin, for every hand employed in the loading; but +Government vouchers cash themselves slowly, and intelligent and +efficient clerks write at great length, contesting unauthorised +expenditures of eight annas. The man who wants to make his work +a success must draw on his own bank-account of money or other +things as he goes. + +"I told you he'd work," said Jimmy to his wife, at the end of six +weeks. "He's been in sole charge of a couple of thousand men up +north, on the Mosuhl Canal, for a year; but he gives less +trouble than young Martyn with his ten constables; and I'm +morally certain - only Government doesn't recognise moral +obligations - he's spent about half his pay to grease his +wheels. Look at this, Lizzie, for one week's work! Forty miles +in two days with twelve carts; two days' halt building a +famine-shed for young Rogers. (Rogers ought to have built it +himself, the idiot!) Then forty miles back again, loading six +carts on the way, and distributing all Sunday. Then in the +evening he pitches in a twenty-page Demi-Official to me, saying +the people where he is might be 'advantageously employed on +relief-work,' and suggesting that he put 'em to work on some +broken-down old reservoir he's discovered, so as to have a good +water-supply when the Rains break. 'Thinks he can cauk the dam +in a fortnight. Look at his marginal sketches - aren't they +clear and good ~ I knew he was pukka, but I didn't know he was +as pukka as this." + +"I must show these to William," said Mrs. Jim. "The child's +wearing herself out among the babies." + +"Not more than you are, dear. Well, another two months ought to +see us out of the wood. I'm sorry it's not in my power to +recommend you for a V. C." + +William sat late in her tent that night, reading through page +after page of the square handwriting, patting the sketches of +proposed repairs to the reservoir, and wrinkling her eyebrows +over the columns of figures of estimated water-supply."And he +finds time to do all this," she cried to herself, "and-well, I +also was present. I've saved one or two babies. + +She dreamed for the twentieth time of the god in the golden dust, +and woke refreshed to feed loathsome black children, scores of +them, wastrels picked up by the wayside, their bones almost +breaking their skin, terrible and covered with sores. + +Scott was not allowed to leave his cart-work, but his letter was +duly forwarded to the Government, and he had the consolation, +not rare in India, of knowing that another man was reaping where +he had sown. That also was discipline profitable to the soul. + +"He's much too good to waste on canals," said Jimmy. "Any one can +oversee coolies. You needn't be angry, William; he can - but I +need my pearl among bullock-drivers, and I've transferred him to +the Khanda district, where he'll have it all to do over again. He +should be marching now. + +"He's not a coolie," said William, furiously. "He ought to be +doing his regulation work." + +"He's the best man in his service, and that's saying a good deal; +but if you must use razors to cut grindstones, why, I prefer the +best cutlery." + +"Isn't it almost time we saw him again?" said Mrs. Jim. "I'm sure +the poor boy hasn't had a respectable meal for a month. He +probably sits on a cart and eats sardines with his fingers." + +"All in good time, dear. Duty before decency - wasn't it Mr. +Chucks said that?" + +"No; it was Midshipman Easy," William laughed. "I sometimes +wonder how it will feel to dance or listen to a band again, or +sit under a roof. I can't believe I ever wore a ball-frock in my +life." + +"One minute," said Mrs. Jim, who was thinking. "If he goes to +Khanda, he passes within five miles of us. Of course he'll ride +in." + +"Oh, no, he won't," said William. + +"How do you know, dear?" + +"It will take him off his work. He won't have time." + +"He'll make it," said Mrs. Jim, with a twinkle. + + "It depends on his own judgment. There's absolutely no reason +why he shouldn't, if he thinks fit," said Jim. + +"He won't see fit," William replied, without sorrow or emotion. +"It wouldn't be him if he did." + +"One certainly gets to know people rather well in times like +these," said Jim, drily; but William's face was serene as ever, +and even as she prophesied, Scott did not appear. + +The Rains fell at last, late, but heavily; and the dry, gashed +earth was red mud, and servants killed snakes in the camp, where +every one was weather-bound for a fortnight - all except +Hawkins, who took horse and plashed about in the wet, rejoicing. +Now the Government decreed that seed-grain should be distributed +to the people, as well as advances of money for the purchase of +new oxen; and the white men were doubly worked for this new duty, +while William skipped from brick to brick laid down on the +trampled mud, and dosed her charges with warming medicines that +made them rub their little round stomachs; and the milch goats +throve on the rank grass. There was never a word from Scott in +the Khanda district, away to the southeast, except the regular +telegraphic report to Hawkins. The rude country roads had +disappeared; his drivers were half mutinous; one of Martyn's +loaned policemen had died of cholera; and Scott was taking thirty +grains of quinine a day to fight the fever that comes with the +rain: but those were things Scott did not consider necessary to +report. He was, as usual, working from a base of supplies on a +railway line, to cover a circle of fifteen miles radius, and +since full loads were impossible, he took quarter-loads, and +toiled four times as hard by consequence; for he did not choose +to risk an epidemic which might have grown uncontrollable by +assembling villagers in thousands at the relief-sheds. It was +cheaper to take Government bullocks, work them to death, and +leave them to the crows in the wayside sloughs. + +That was the time when eight years of clean living and hard +condition told, though a man's head were ringing like a bell +from the cinchona, and the earth swayed under his feet when he +stood and under his bed when he slept. If Hawkins had seen fit +to make him a bullock-driver, that, he thought, was entirely +Hawkins's own affair. There were men in the North who would +know what he had done; men of thirty years' service in his own +department who would say that it was "not half bad"; and above, +immeasurably above, all men of all grades, there was William in +the thick of the fight, who would approve because she understood. +He had so trained his mind that it would hold fast to the +mechanical routine of the day, though his own voice sounded +strange in his own ears, and his hands, when he wrote, grew +large as pillows or small as peas at the end of his wrists. That +steadfastness bore his body to the telegraph-office at the +railway-station, and dictated a telegram to Hawkins saying that +the Khanda district was, in his judgment, now safe, and he +"waited further orders." + +The Madrassee telegraph-clerk did not approve of a large, gaunt +man falling over him in a dead faint, not so much because of the +weight as because of the names and blows that Faiz Ullah dealt +him when he found the body rolled under a bench. Then Faiz Ullah +took blankets, quilts, and coverlets where he found them, and lay +down under them at his master's side, and bound his arms with a +tent-rope, and filled him with a horrible stew of herbs, and set +the policeman to fight him when he wished to escape from the +intolerable heat of his coverings, and shut the door of the +telegraph-office to keep out the curious for two nights and one +day; and when a light engine came down the line, and Hawkins +kicked in the door, Scott hailed him weakly but in a natural +voice, and Faiz Ullah stood back and took all the credit. + +"For two nights, Heaven-born, he was pagal" said Faiz Ullah. +"Look at my nose, and consider the eye of the policeman. He beat +us with his bound hands; but we sat upon him, Heaven-born, and +though his words were tez, we sweated him. Heaven-born, never has +been such a sweat! He is weaker now than a child; but the fever +has gone out of him, by the grace of God. There remains only my +nose and the eye of the constabeel. Sahib, shall I ask for my +dismissal because my Sahib has beaten me?" And Faiz Ullah laid +his long thin hand carefully on Scott's chest to be sure that the +fever was all gone, ere he went out to open tinned soups and +discourage such as laughed at his swelled nose. + +"The district's all right," Scott whispered. "It doesn't make +any difference. You got my wire?" I shall be fit in a week. +'Can't understand how it happened. I shall be fit in a few +days." + +"You're coming into camp with us," said Hawkins. + +"But look here - but -" + +"It's all over except the shouting. We sha'n't need you Punjabis +any more. On my honour, we sha'n't. Martyn goes back in a few +weeks; Arbuthnot's returned already; Ellis and Clay are putting +the last touches to a new feeder-line the Government's built as +relief-work. Morten's dead - he was a Bengal man, though; you +wouldn't know him. 'Pon my word, you and Will - Miss Martyn - +seem to have come through it as well as anybody."- "Oh, how is +she, by-the-way"." The voice went up and down as he spoke. + +"Going strong when I left her. The Roman Catholic Missions are +adopting the unclaimed babies to turn them into little priests; +the Basil Mission is taking some, and the mothers are taking the +rest. You should hear the little beggars howl when they're sent +away from William. She's pulled down a bit, but so are we all. +Now, when do you suppose you'll be able to move?" + +"I can't come into camp in this state. I won't," he replied +pettishly. + +"Well, you are rather a sight, but from what I gathered there it +seemed to me they'd be glad to see you under any conditions. +I'll look over your work here, if you like, for a couple of +days, and you can pull yourself together while Faiz Ullah feeds +you up." + +Scott could walk dizzily by the time Hawkins's inspection was +ended, and he flushed all over when Jim said of his work that it +was "not half bad," and volunteered, further, that he had +considered Scott his right-hand man through the famine, and +would feel it his duty to say as much officially. + +So they came back by rail to the old camp; but there were no +crowds near it; the long fires in the trenches were dead and +black, and the famine-sheds were almost empty. + +"You see!" said Jim. "There isn't much more to do. 'Better ride +up and see the wife. They've pitched a tent for you. Dinner's at +seven. I've some work here." + +Riding at a foot-pace, Faiz Ullah by his stirrup, Scott came to +William in the brown-calico riding-habit, sitting at the +dining-tent door, her hands in her lap, white as ashes, thin and +worn, with no lustre in her hair. There did not seem to be any +Mrs. Jim on the horizon, and all that William could say was: "My +word, how pulled down you look!" + +"I've had a touch of fever. You don't look very well yourself." + +"Oh, I'm fit enough. We've stamped it out. I suppose you know?" + +Scott nodded. "We shall all be returned in a few weeks. Hawkins +told me." + +"Before Christmas, Mrs. Jim says. Sha'n't you be glad to go back +~ I can smell the wood-smoke already"; William sniffed. "We +shall be in time for all the Christmas doings. I don't suppose +even the Punjab Government would be base enough to transfer Jack +till the new year?" + +"It seems hundreds of years ago - the Punjab and all that - +doesn't it? Are you glad you came?" + +"Now it's all over, yes. It has been ghastly here, though. You +know we had to sit still and do nothing, and Sir Jim was away so +much." + +"Do nothing! How did you get on with the milking?" + +"I managed it somehow - after you taught me. 'Remember?" + +Then the talk stopped with an almost audible jar. Still no Mrs. +Jim. + +"That reminds me, I owe you fifty rupees for the condensed-milk. +I thought perhaps you'd be coming here when you were transferred +to the Khanda district, and I could pay you then; but you +didn't." + +"I passed within five miles of the camp, but it was in the middle +of a march, you see, and the carts were breaking down every few +minutes, and I couldn't get 'em over the ground till ten o'clock +that night. I wanted to come awfully. You knew I did, didn't +you?" + +"I - believe - I - did," said William, facing him with level +eyes. She was no longer white." + +"Did you understand?" + +"Why you didn't ride in? Of course I did." + +"Why?""Because you couldn't, of course. I knew that." + +"Did you care?" + +"If you had come in - but I knew you wouldn't - but if you had, I +should have cared a great deal. You know I should." + +"Thank God I didn't! Oh, but I wanted to! I couldn't trust myself +to ride in front of the carts, because I kept edging 'em over +here, don't you know?" + +"I knew you wouldn't," said William, contentedly. "Here's your +fifty." + +Scott bent forward and kissed the hand that held the greasy +notes. Its fellow patted him awkwardly but very tenderly on the +head. + +"And you knew, too, didn't you?" said William, in a new voice. + +"No, on my honour, I didn't. I hadn't the - the cheek to expect +anything of the kind, except . . I say, were you out riding +anywhere the day I passed by to Khanda?" + +William nodded, and smiled after the manner of an angel surprised +in a good deed. + +"Then it was just a speck I saw of your habit in the -" + +"Palm-grove on the Southern cart-road. I saw your helmet when you +came up from the mullah by the temple - just enough to be sure +that you were all right. D' you care?" + +This time Scott did not kiss her hand, for they were in the dusk +of the dining-tent, and, because William's knees were trembling +under her, she had to sit down in the nearest chair, where she +wept long and happily, her head on her arms; and when Scott +imagined that it would be well to comfort her, she needing +nothing of the kind, she ran to her own tent; and Scott went out +into the world, and smiled upon it largely and idiotically. But +when Faiz Ullah brought him a drink, he found it necessary to +support one hand with the other, or the good whisky and soda +would have been spilled abroad. There are fevers and fevers. + +But it was worse - much worse - the strained, eye-shirking talk +at dinner till the servants had withdrawn, and worst of all when +Mrs. Jim, who had been on the edge of weeping from the soup down, +kissed Scott and William, and they drank one whole bottle of +champagne, hot, because there was no ice, and Scott and William +sat outside the tent in the starlight till Mrs. Jim drove them in +for fear of more fever. + +Apropos of these things and some others William said: "Being +engaged is abominable, because, you see, one has no official +position. We must be thankful we've lots of things to do." + +"Things to do!" said Jim, when that was reported to him. +"They're neither of them any good any more. I can't get five +hours' work a day out of Scott. He's in the clouds half the +time." + +"Oh, but they're so beautiful to watch, Jimmy. It will break my +heart when they go. Can't you do anything for him?" + +"I've given the Government the impression - at least, I hope I +have - that he personally conducted the entire famine. But all +he wants is to get on to the Luni Canal Works, and William's +just as bad. Have you ever heard 'em talking of barrage and +aprons and waste-water ~ It's their style of spooning, I +suppose." + +Mrs. Jim smiled tenderly. "Ah, that's in the intervals - bless +'em." + +And so Love ran about the camp unrebuked in broad daylight, while +men picked up the pieces and put them neatly away of the Famine +in the Eight Districts. + +Morning brought the penetrating chill of the Northern December, +the layers of wood-smoke, the dusty grey-blue of the tamarisks, +the domes of ruined tombs, and all the smell of the white +Northern plains, as the mail-train ran on to the mile-long Sutlej +Bridge. William, wrapped in a poshteen - a silk-embroidered +sheepskin jacket trimmed with rough astrakhan - looked out with +moist eyes and nostrils that dilated joyously. The South of +pagodas and palm-trees, the overpopulated Hindu South, was done +with. Here was the land she knew and loved, and before her lay +the good life she understood, among folk of her own caste and +mind. + +They were picking them up at almost every station now - men and +women coming in for the Christmas Week, with racquets, with +bundles of polo-sticks, with dear and bruised cricket-bats, with +fox-terriers and saddles. The greater part of them wore jackets +like William's, for the Northern cold is as little to be trifled +with as the Northern heat. And William was among them and of +them, her hands deep in her pockets, her collar turned up over +her ears, stamping her feet on the platforms as she walked up and +down to get warm, visiting from carriage to carriage and +everywhere being congratulated. Scott was with the bachelors at +the far end of the train, where they chaffed him mercilessly +about feeding babies and milking goats; but from time to time he +would stroll up to William's window, and murmur: "Good enough, +isn't it?" and William would answer with sighs of pure delight: +"Good enough, indeed." The large open names of the home towns +were good to listen to. Umballa, Ludianah, Phillour, Jullundur, +they rang like the coming marriage-bells in her ears, and William +felt deeply and truly sorry for all strangers and outsiders - +visitors, tourists, and those fresh-caught for the service of the +country. + +It was a glorious return, and when the bachelors gave the +Christmas Ball, William was, unofficially, you might say, the +chief and honoured guest among the Stewards, who could make +things very pleasant for their friends. She and Scott danced +nearly all the dances together, and sat out the rest in the big +dark gallery overlooking the superb teak floor, where the +uniforms blazed, and the spurs clinked, and the new frocks and +four hundred dancers went round and round till the draped flags +on the pillars flapped and bellied to the whirl of it. + +About midnight half a dozen men who did not care for dancing came +over from the Club to play "Waits," and that was a surprise the +Stewards had arranged - before any one knew what had happened, +the band stopped, and hidden voices broke into "Good King +Wenceslaus," and William in the gallery hummed and beat time with +her foot: + +"Mark my footsteps well, my page, +Tread thou in them boldly. +Thou shalt feel the winter's rage +Freeze thy blood less coldly!" + + +"Oh, I hope they are going to give us another! Isn't it pretty, +coming out of the dark in that way? Look - look down. There's +Mrs. Gregory wiping her eyes!" + +"It's like Home, rather," said Scott. "I remember -" + +"Hsh! Listen! - dear." And it began again: + +"When shepherds watched their flocks by night -" + +"A-h-h!" said William, drawing closer to Scott. + +"All seated on the ground, +The Angel of the Lord came down, +And glory shone around. +'Fear not,' said he (for mighty dread +Had seized their troubled mind); +'Glad tidings of great joy I bring +To you and all mankind.'" + +This time it was William that wiped her eyes. + +End of WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR - PART II + + + +THE SON OF HIS FATHER + +"It is a queer name," Mrs. Strickland admitted, "and none of our +family have ever borne it, but, you see, he is the first man to +us." + +So he was called Adam, and to that world about him he was the +first of men - a man-child alone. Heaven sent him no Eve for a +companion, but all earth, horse and foot, was at his feet. As +soon as he was old enough to appear in public, he held a levee; +and Strickland's sixty policemen, with their sixty clanking +sabres, bowed to the dust before him. When his fingers closed a +little on Imam Din's sword-hilt, they rose and roared - till Adam +roared, too, and was withdrawn. + +"Now, that was no cry of fear," said Imam Din, afterwards, +speaking to his companions in the Police Lines. "He was angry - +and so young! Brothers, he will make a very strong Police +officer." + +"Does the Memsahib give him the breast?" said a new Phillour +recruit, the dye smell not yet out of his yellow cotton uniform. + +"Ho!" said an up-country Naik, scornfully. "It has not been known +for more than ten days that my woman suckles him." He curled his +moustaches as lordly as ever an Inspector could afford to do, for +he knew that the husband of the foster-mother of the son of the +District Superintendent of Police was a man sure of +consideration. + +"I am glad," said Imam Din, loosening his belt. "Those who drink +our blood become of our own blood, and I have seen, in these +thirty years, that the sons of the Sahibs, once being born here, +return when they are men. Yes, they return after they have been +to Belait [Europe]." + +"And what do they do in Belait?" asked the recruit, respectfully. + +"Get instruction - which thou hast not," returned the Naik. "Also +they drink of belaitee-panee [soda-water], enough to give them +that devil's restlessness which endures for all their lives. +Whence we of Hind have trouble." + +"My father's uncle," said Imam Din, slowly, with importance, "was +Ressaldar of the Longcoat Horse; and the Empress called him to +Belait in the year that she had accomplished fifty years of +rule. He said (and there were also other witnesses) that the +Sahibs there drink common water, even as do we; and that the +belaitee-panee does not run in all the rivers. + +"He said also that there was a Shish Mahal - half a glass palace +- half a koss in length and that the rail-gbarri ran under the +roads, and that there are boats bigger than a village. He is a +great talker." The Naik spoke scornfully. He had no well-born +uncles. + +"He is a man of good birth," said Imam Din, with the least +possible emphasis on the first word, and the Naik was silent. + +"Ho! ho!" Imam Din reached out to his pipe, chuckling until his +fat sides shook again. "Strickland Sahib's foster-mother was the +wife of an Arain in the Ferozepur district. I was a young man +then, ploughing while the English fought. This child will also be +suckled here, and he will have double wisdom, and when he is a +Police officer it will be very bad for the thieves in this +illakha." + +"There will be no English in the land then. They are asking +permission of clerks and low-caste men to continue their rule +even now," said the Naik. + +"All but foolish men - such as those clerks are - would know that +this asking is but an excuse for making trouble, and thus +holding the country more strictly. Now, in an investigation, is +it not our custom to permit the villagers to talk loosely and +give us abuse for a little time? Then do we not grow hot, and +walk them to the thana two by two - as these clerks will be +walked? Thus do I read the new talk." + +"So do not I," said the Naik, who borrowed the native +newspapers. + +"Because thou art young, and wast born in time of peace. I saw +the year that was to end the English rule. Men said it was +ended, indeed, and that all could now take their neighbour's +cattle. This I saw ploughing, and I was minded to fight too, +being a young man. My father sent me to Gurgaon to buy cattle, +and I saw the tents of Van Corlin Sahib(1) in the wheat, and I +saw that he was going up and down collecting the revenue, +neither abating nor increasing it, though Delhi was all afire, +and the Sahibs lay dead about the fields. I have seen what I have +seen. This Raj will not be talked down; and he who builds on the +present madness of the Sahib-log, which, O Naik, covers great +cunning, builds for himself a lock-up. My father's uncle has seen +their country, and he says that he is afraid as never he feared +before. So Strickland Sahib's boy will come back to this country, +and his son after him. Naik, have they named him yet?" + +"The butler spoke to my household, having heard the talk at +table, and he says that they will call him Adam, and no +jaw-splitting English name. Ud-daam. The padre will name him at +their church in due time."(1) Van Cortland? + +"Who can tell the ways of Sahibs? Now, Strickland Sahib knows +more of the Faith than ever I had time to learn-prayers, charms, +names, and stories of the Blessed Ones. Yet he is not a +Musalman," said Imam Din, thoughtfully. + +"For the reason that he knows as much of the gods of Hindustan, +and so rides with a rein in each hand. Remember that he sat +under the Baba Atall, a fakir among fakirs, for ten days: +whereby a man came to be hanged for the murder of the +dancing-girl on the night of the great earthquake," said the +Naik. + +"True - it is true - and yet . . . they are one day so wise, the +Sahibs, and another so foolish. But he has named the child well: +Adam. Huzrut Adam! Ho! ho! Father Adam we must call him." + +"And all who minister to the child," said the Naik, quietly, but +with meaning, "will come to great honour." + +Adam throve, being prayed over before the gods of at least three +creeds, in a garden almost as fair as Eden. There were gigantic +clumps of bamboo that talked continually, and enormous plantains +on whose soft paper skin he could scratch with his nails; green +domes of mango-trees as huge as the dome of St. Paul's, full of +parrots as big as cassowaries, and grey squirrels the size of +foxes. At the end of the garden stood a hedge of flaming +poinsettias higher than any-thing in the world, because, +childlike, Adam's eye could not carry to the tops of the +mango-trees. Their green went out against the blue sky, but the +red poinsettias he could just see. A nurse who talked +continually about snakes and pulled him back from the mouth of a +fascinating dry well, and a mother who believed that the sun hurt +little heads, were the only drawbacks to this loveliness. But, as +his legs grew under him, he found that by scaling an enormous +rampart -three feet of broken-down mud wall at the end of the +garden - he could come into a ready-made kingdom where every one +was his slave. Imam Din showed him the way one evening, and the +police troopers cooking their supper received him with rapture, +and gave him pieces of very indigestible but altogether +delightful spiced bread. + +Here he sat or sprawled in the horse-feed where the police horses +were picketed in a double line, and he named them, men and +beasts together, according to his ideas and experiences, as his +First Father had done before him. In those days everything had a +name, from the mud mangers to the heel-ropes; for things were +people to Adam, exactly as people are things to folk in their +second childhood. Through all the conferences - one hand twisted +into Imam Din's beard, and the other on his polished belt-buckle +- there were two other people who came and went across the talk - +Death and Sickness - persons stronger than Imam Din, and stronger +than the heel-roped stallions. There was Mata, the small-pox, a +woman in some way connected with pigs; and Heza, the cholera, a +black man, according to Adam; and Booka, starvation; and Kismet, +who quietly settled all questions, from the choking of a pet +mungoose in the kitchen drain, to the absence of a young +policeman who once missed a parade and never came back. It was +all very wonderful to Adam, but not worth much thinking over; for +a child's mind is bounded by his eyes exactly as a horse's view +of the road is limited by blinkers. Between all these +objectionable shadowy vagrants stood a ring of kind faces and +strong arms, and Mata and Heza would never touch Adam, the first +of men. Kismet might do so, because - and this was a mystery no +staring into the looking-glass would solve - Kismet, who was a +man, was also written, like police orders for the day, in or on +Adam's head. Imam Din could not explain how this might be, and +it was from that grey fat Muhammadan that Adam learned through +every inflection the Khuda janta (God knows) that settled +everything in his mind. + +Beyond the fact that "Khuda" was a very good man and kept lions, +Adam's theology did not run far. Mrs. Strickland tried to teach +him a few facts, but he revolted at the story of Genesis as +untrue. A turtle, he said, upheld the world, and one-half the +adventures of Huzrut Nu (Father Noah) had never been told. If +Mamma wanted to hear them, she must ask Imam Din. Adam had heard +of a saint who had made wooden cakes and pressed them to his +stomach when he felt hungry, and the Feeding of the Multitude did +not impress him. So it came about that a reading of miracle +stories generally ended in a monologue by Adam on other and much +more astonishing miracles. + +"It's awful," said Mrs. Strickland, half crying, "to think of his +growing up like a little heathen." Mrs. Strickland (Miss Youghal +that was, if you remember her) had been born and brought up in +England, and did not quite understand things. + +"Let him alone," said Strickland; "he'll grow out of it all, or +it will only come back to him in dreams.""Are you sure?" said +his wife, to whom Strickland's least word was pure truth. + +"Quite. I was sent home when I was seven, and they flicked it +out of me with a wet towel at Harrow. Public schools don't +encourage any-thing that isn't quite English." + +Mrs. Strickland shuddered, for she had been trying not to think +of the separation that follows motherhood in India, and makes +life there, for all that is written to the contrary, not quite +the most desirable thing in the world. Adam trotted out to hear +about more miracles, and his nurse must have worried him beyond +bounds, for she came back weeping, saying that Adam Baba was in +danger of being eaten alive by wild horses. + +As a matter of fact, he had shaken off Juma by bolting between a +couple of picketed horses and lying down under their bellies. +That they were personal friends of his, Juma did not understand, +nor Strickland either. Adam was settled at ease when his father +arrived, breathless and white, and the stallions put back their +ears and squealed. + +"If you come here," said Adam, "they will hit you kicks. Tell +Juma I have eaten my rice and wish to be alone." + +"Come out at once," said Strickland, for the horses were +beginning to paw violently. + +"Why should I obey Juma's order? She is afraid of horses." + +"It is not Juma's order. It is mine. Obey!" + +"Ho!" said Adam, "Juma did not tell me that." And he crawled out +on all fours among the shod feet. Mrs. Strickland was crying +bitterly with fear and excitement, and as a sacrifice to the +home gods Adam had to be whipped. He said with perfect justice: +"There was no order that I should not sit with the horses, and +they are my horses. Why is there this tamasha?" + +Strickland's face showed him that the whipping was coming, and +the child turned white. Mother-like, Mrs. Strickland left the +room, but Juma, the foster-mother, stayed to see. + +"Am I to be whipped here?" he gasped. + +"Of course." + +"Before that woman? Father, I am a man -I am not afraid. It is my +izzat - my honour." + +Strickland only laughed (to this day I cannot imagine what +possessed him), and gave Adam the little tap-tap with a +riding-cane that was whipping sufficient for his years. + +When it was all over, Adam said quietly: "I am little, and you +are big. If I stayed among my horse folk I should not have been +whipped. You are afraid to go there." + +The merest chance led me to Strickland's house that afternoon. +When I was half-way down the drive Adam passed me, without +recognition, at a fast run. I caught one glimpse of his face +under his big hat, and it was the face of his father as I had +once seen that in the grey of morning when it bent above a +leper. I caught the child by the shoulder. + +"Let me go!" he screamed, and he and I were the best of friends, +as a rule. "Let me go!" + +"Where to, Father Adam?" He was quivering like a new-haltered +colt. + +"To the well. I have been beaten. I have been beaten before +women! Let me go!" He tried to bite my hand. + +"That is a small matter," I said. "Men are horn to beatings." + +"Thou hast never been beaten," he said savagely. + +"Indeed I have. Times past counting." + +"Before women?" + +"My mother and the ayah saw. By women too, for that matter. What +of it?" + +"What didst thou do?" He stared beyond my shoulder up the long +drive. + +"It is long ago, and I have forgotten. I was older than thou art; +but even then I forgot, and now the thing is but a jest to be +talked of" + +Adam drew one big breath and broke down utterly in my arms. Then +he raised his head, and his eyes were Strickland's eyes when +Strickland gave orders. + +"Ho! Imam Din." + +The fat orderly seemed to spring out of the earth at our feet, +crashing through the bushes, and standing to attention. + +"Hast thou ever been beaten?" said Adam."Assuredly. By my father +when I was thirty years old. He beat me with a plough-beam before +all the women of the village.""Wherefore?" + +"Because I had returned to the village on leave from the +Government service, and had said of the village elders that they +had not seen the world. Therefore he beat me, to show that no +seeing of the world changed father and son." + +"And thou?" + +"I stood up. He was my father." + +"Good," said Adam, and turned on his heel without another word. + +Imam Din looked after him. "An elephant breeds but once in a +lifetime, but he breeds elephants. Yet I am glad I am no father +of tuskers," said he. + +"What is it all?" I asked. + +"His father beat him with a whip no bigger than a reed. But the +child could not have done what he desired to do without leaping +through me. And I am of some few pounds weight. Look!" + +Imam Din stepped back through the bushes, and the pressed grass +showed that he had been lying curled round the mouth of the dry +well. + +"When there was talk of beating I knew that one who sat among +horses, such as ours, was not like to kiss his father's hand. So +I lay down in this place." We both stood still looking at the +well-curb. + +Adam came back along the garden path to us. "I have spoken to my +father," he said simply. "Imam Din, tell thy Naik that his woman +is dismissed my service." + +"Huzoor!" said Imam Din, stooping low. + +"For no fault of hers." + +"Protector of the Poor!" + +And to-day." + +"Khodawund!" + +"It is an order! Go!" + +Again the salute, and Imam Din departed, with that same set of +the back which he wore when he had taken an order from +Strickland. I thought that it would be well to go too, but +Strickland beckoned me from the verandah. When I came up he was +perfectly white, and rocking to and fro in his chair, repeated +"Good God!" half a dozen times. + +"Do you know that he was going to chuck himself down the well - +because I tapped him just now ~" he said helplessly. + +"I ought to," I replied. "He has just dismissed his nurse - on +his own authority, I suppose?" + +"He told me just now that he wouldn't have her for a nurse any +more. I never supposed he meant it for an instant. I suppose +she'll have to go." + +It is written elsewhere that Strickland was feared through the +length and breadth of the Punjab by murderers, horse-thieves, +and cattle-lifters. + +Adam returned, halting outside the verandah, very white about the +lips. + +"I have sent away Juma because she saw that - that which +happened. Until she is gone I do not come in the house," he +said. + +But to send away thy foster-mother ~" said Strickland, with +reproach. + +"I do not send her away. It is thy blame, and the small +forefinger was pointed to Strickland. "I will not obey her; I +will not eat from her hand, and I will not sleep with her. Send +her away." + +Strickland stepped out and lifted the child into the verandah. + +"This folly has lasted long enough," he said. "Come, now, and be +wise." + +"I am little, and you are big," said Adam, between set teeth. +"You can beat me before this man or cut me to pieces. But I will +not have Juma for my ayah any more. I will not eat till she goes. +I swear it by - my father's head." + +Strickland sent him indoors to his mother, and we could hear +sounds of weeping, and Adam's voice saying nothing more than, +"Send Juma away." Presently Juma came in and wept too, and Adam +repeated, "It is no fault of thine, but go!" + +And the end of it was that Juma went, with all her belongings, +and Adam fought his own way alone into his little clothes until +a new ayah came. His address of welcome to her was rather +amazing. In a few words it ran: "If I do wrong send me to my +father. If you strike me I will try to kill you. I do not wish my +ayah to play with me. Go and eat rice." + +>From that day Adam forswore the society of ayahs and small +native girls as much as a small boy can, confining himself to +Imam Din and his friends of the police. The Naik, Juma's +husband, had been presuming not a little on his position, and +when Adam's favour was withdrawn from his wife he judged it best +to apply for a transfer to another post. There were too many +companions anxious to report his shortcomings to Strickland. + +Towards his father Adam kept a guarded neutrality. There was not +a touch of sulkiness in it, for the child's temper was as clear +as a bell. But the difference and the politeness worried +Strickland. + +If the other men had loved Adam before the affair of the well, +they worshipped him now. + +He knows what honour means," said Imam Din; "he has justified +himself upon a point thereof. He has carried an order through +his father's household as a child of the blood might do. +Therefore he is not altogether a child any longer. Wah! He is a +tiger's cub." The next time that Adam made his little +unofficial inspection of the line, Imam Din, and by consequence +all the others, stood upon their feet, with their hands to their +sides, instead of calling out from where they lay, "Salaam, +Babajee," and other disrespectful things. + +But Strickland took long counsel with his wife, and she with the +cheque-book and their lean bank-account, and they decided that +Adam must go "home" to his aunts. But England is not home to a +child that has been born in India, and it never becomes +home-like unless he spends all his youth there. The bank-book +showed that if they economised through the summer by going to a +cheap hill-station instead of to Simla, where Mrs. Strickland's +parents lived, and where Strickland might be noticed by the +powers, they could send Adam home in the next spring. It would be +hard pinching, but it could be done. In India all the money that +people in other lands save against a rainy day runs off in loss +by exchange, which to-day cuts a man's income down almost exactly +to one-half There is nothing to show for money when all is put +by, and that is what makes married life there so hard. Strickland +used to say, sometimes, that he envied the convicts in the jail. +They had no position to keep up, and the ball and chain that the +worst of them wore was only a few pounds weight of iron. + +Dalhousie was chosen as being the cheapest of the hill-stations; +Dalhousie and a little five-roomed cottage full of mildew, +tucked away among the rhododendrons. + +Adam had been to Simla three or four times, and knew by name the +most of the Tonga drivers from Kalka to Tara Deva; but this new +plan disquieted him. He came to me for information, his hands +deep in his knickerbocker pockets, walking, step for step, as +his father walked. + +"There will be none of my bhai-bund [Brotherhood] up there," said +he, disconsolately, "and they say that I must lie still in a +doolie for a day and a night, being carried like a sheep. I wish +to take some of my mounted men to Dalhousie." + +I told him that there was a small boy called Victor, at +Dalhousie, who had a calf for a pet, and was allowed to play +with it on the public roads. After that Adam could not +sufficiently hurry the packing. + +"First," said he, "I shall ask that man Victor to let me play +with the cow's child. If he is mug-gra [ill-conditioned] I shall +tell my policemen to take it away." + +"But that is unjust," said Strickland, "and there is no order +that the police should do injustice." + +"When the Government pay is not sufficient, and low-caste men are +promoted, what can an honest man do?" he replied, in the very +touch and accent of Imam Din, and Strickland's eyebrows went up. + +"You talk too much to the police, my son," he said. + +"Always, about everything," said Adam, promptly. "They say that +when I am an officer I shall know as much as my father." "God +forbid, little one!" + +"They say, too, that you are as clever as Shaitan to know +things." + +"They say that, do they?" said Strickland, looking pleased. His +pay was small, but he had his reputation, and that was dear to +him. + +"They say also - not to me, but to one another when they eat rice +behind the wall - that in your own heart you esteem yourself as +wise as Suleiman, who was cheated by Shaitan." + +This time Strickland did not look so pleased. Adam, in all +innocence, launched into a long story about Suleiman-bin-Daoud, +who once, out of vanity, pitted his wits against Shaitan, and +because God was not on his side Shaitan sent "a little devil of +low caste," as Adam put it, who cheated him utterly, and put him +to shame before "all the other Rajas." + +"By Jove!" said Strickland, when the tale was done, and went +away, while Adam took me to task for laughing at Imam Din's +story. I did not wonder that he was called Huzrut Adam, for he +looked old as all time in his grave childhood, sitting +cross-legged, his battered little helmet far at the back of his +head, his forefinger wagging up and down, native fashion, and +the wisdom of serpents on his unconscious lips. + +That May he went up to Dalhousie with his mother, and in those +days the journey ended in fifty or sixty miles of uphill travel +in a doolie or palanquin, along a road winding through the +Himalayas. Adam sat in the doolie with his mother,and Strickland +rode and tied with me, a spare doolie following. The march began +after we got out of the train at Pathankot, in a hot night among +the rice - and poppy-fields. + +It was all new to Adam, and he had opinions to advance - notably +about a fish that jumped on a wayside pond. + +"Now I know," he shouted, "how Khuda puts them there. First He +makes them and then He drops them down. That was a new one." +Then, lifting his head to the stars, he cried, "O God, do it +again, but slowly, that I, Adam, may see." + +But nothing happened, and the doolie-bearers lit the noisome, +dripping rag torches, and Adam's eyes shone big in the dancing +light, and we smelt the dry dust of the plains that we were +leaving after eleven months' hard work. + +At stated times the men ceased their drowsy, grunting tune, and +sat down for a smoke. Between the guttering of their water-pipes +we could hear the cries of the beasts of the night, and the wind +stirring in the folds of the mountain ahead. At the changing +stations the voice of Adam, the first of men, would be lifted to +rouse the sleepers in the huts till the fresh relays of bearers +shambled from their cots, and the relief-pony with them. + +Then we would re-form and go on, and by the time the moon rose +Adam was asleep, and there was no sound in the night except the +grunting of the men, the husky murmur of some river a thousand +feet down in the valley, and the squeaking of Strickland's +saddle. So we went up from the date-palm to deodar, till the dawn +wind came round a corner all fresh from the snows, and we +snuffed it. I heard Strickland say: "Wife, my overcoat, please," +and Adam, fretfully: "Where is Dalhousie, and the cow's child?" +and then I slept till Strickland turned me out of the warm doolie +at seven o'clock, and I stepped into the splendour of a cool hill +day, the plains sweltering twenty miles back and three thousand +feet below. + +Adam waked too, and needs must ride in front of me to ask a +million questions, and shout at the monkeys, and clap his hands +when the painted pheasants bolted across our road, and hail +every wood-cutter and drover and pilgrim within sight, till we +halted for breakfast at a staging-house. After breakfast, being a +child, he went out to play with a train of bullock-drivers +haltered by the road-side, and we had to chase him out of a +native liquor-shop where he was bargaining with a naked +seven-year-old for a mynah in a bamboo cage. + +Said he, wriggling on my pommel, as we went on again: "There were +four men behosh [insensible] at the back of that house. +Wherefore do men grow behosh from drinking?" + +"It is the nature of the water," l said, and calling back: +"Strick, what's that grog-shop doing so close to the road? It's +a temptation to any one's servants." + +"Dun'no," said a sleepy voice in the doolie. "This is Kennedy's +district. 'Twasn't here in my time." + +"Truly the water smells bad," Adam went on. "I smelt it, but I +did not get the mynah even for six annas. The woman of the house +gave me a love-gift, that I found, playing near the verandah." + +"And what was the gift, Father Adam?" + +"A nose-ring for my ayah. Ohe! ohe! Look at that camel with a +bag on his nose." A string of loaded camels came cruising round +the corner, as a fleet rounds a cape. + +"Ho, Malik! why does not a camel salaam like an elephant? His +neck is long enough," Adam cried. + +"The Angel Jibrail made him a fool from the beginning," said the +driver, as he swayed on the top of the led beast, and laughter +ran all along the line of red-bearded men. + +"That is true," said Adam, and they laughed again. + +At last, in the late afternoon, we came to Dalhousie, loveliest +of the hill-stations, and separated.Adam hardly could be +restrained from setting out at once to find Victor and the +"cow's child." I found them both, something to my trouble, next +morning. The two young sinners had a calf on a taut line just at +a sharp turn in the Mall, and were pretending that he was a +Raja's elephant who had gone mad. But it was my horse that +nearly went mad, and they shouted with delight. Then we began to +talk, and Adam, by way of crushing Victor's repeated reminders +that he and not "that other" was the owner of the calf, said: +"It is true I have no cow's child, but a great dacoity has been +done on my father." + +"We came up together yesterday. There could have been nothing," I +said. + +"It was my mother's horse. She has been dacoited with beating +and blows, and now it is so thin." He held his hands an inch +apart. "My father is at the tar-house sending tars. Imam Din +will cut off all their heads. I desire your saddle-cloth for a +howdah to my elephant. Give it me." + +This was exciting, but not lucid. I went to the telegraph-office +and found Strickland in a bad temper among many telegraph-forms. +A dishevelled, one-eyed groom stood in a corner, whimpering at +intervals. He was a man whom Adam invariably addressed as +"Be-shakl be-ukl, be-ank" - ugly, stupid, eyeless. It seemed, +according to Strickland, that he had sent his wife's horse up to +Dalhousie by road, a fortnight's march. This is the custom in +Upper India. Among the foot-hills near Dhunnera or Dhar, horse +and man had been violently set upon in the night by four men, who +had beaten the groom (his leg was bandaged from knee to ankle in +proof), had incidentally beaten the horse, and had robbed the +groom of the bucket, and all his money eleven rupees, nine +annas, three pie. Last, they had left him for dead by the +wayside, where wood-cutters had found and nursed him. Then the +one-eyed howled with anguish, thinking over his bruises. "They +asked me if I was Strickland Sahib's servant, and I, thinking the +protection of the name would be sufficient, spoke the truth. +Then they beat me grievously." + +"Hm!" said Strickland. "I thought they wouldn't dacoit as a +business on the Dalhousie road. This is meant for me personally +- sheer badmashi [impudence]. All right." + +In justice to a very hard-working class, it must be said that the +thieves of Upper India have the keenest sense of humour. The +last compliment that they can pay a Police officer is to rob +him, and if, as once they did, they can loot a Deputy +Inspector-General of Police, on the eve of his retirement, of +everything except the clothes on his back, their joy is +complete. They cause letters of derision and telegrams of +condolence to be sent to the victim; for of all men, thieves are +most compelled to keep up with modern progress. + +Strickland was a man of few words where his business was +concerned. I had never seen a Police officer robbed before, and +I expected some excitement; but Strickland held his tongue. He +took the groom's deposition and retired into himself for a time, +evolving thieves. Then he sent Kennedy, of the Pathankot charge, +an official letter and an unofficial note. Kennedy's reply was +purely unofficial, and it ran thus: "This seems a compliment +solely intended for you. My wonder is, you didn't get it before. + +The men are probably back in your district by this time. The +Dhunnera and foot-hill people are highly respectable cultivators, +and seeing my Assistant is an unlicked pup, and I can't trust my +Inspector out of my sight, I am not going to turn their harvest +upside down with a police investigation. I am run off my feet +with vaccination police work. You'd better look at home. The +Shubkudder Gang were through here a fortnight back. They laid up +at the Amritsar Serai, and then worked down. No cases against +them in my charge, but remember you lagged their malik for +receiving in Prub Dyal's burglary. They owe you one." + +"Exactly what I thought," said Strickland. "I had a notion it was +the Shubkudder Gang from the first. We must make it pleasant +for them at Peshawur, and in my district too. They are just the +kind that would lie up under Imam Din's shadow." + +>From this point onward the wires began to he worked heavily. +Strickland had a very fair knowledge of the Shubkudder Gang, +gathered at first hand. + +They were the same syndicate that had once stolen a Deputy +Commissioner's cow, put horse-shoes on her, and taken her forty +miles into the jungle before they lost interest in the joke. +They added insult to insult by writing that the Deputy +Commissioner's cows and horses were so much alike that it took +them two days to find out the difference, and they would not +lift the like of such cattle any more. + +The District Superintendent at Peshawur replied to Strickland +that he was expecting the gang, and Strickland's Assistant in +his own district, being young and full of zeal, sent up the most +amazing clues. + +"Now that's just what I want that young fool not to do," said +Strickland. "He hasn't passed the lower standard yet, and he's +an English boy born and bred, and his father before him. He has +about as much tact as a bull, and he won't work quietly under my +Inspector. I wish the Government would keep our service for +country-born men. Those first five or six years give a man a +pull that lasts him his life. Adam, if you were only old enough +to be my 'Stunt"!" He looked down at the little fellow on the +verandah. Adam was deeply interested in the dacoity, and, unlike +a child, did not lose interest after the first week. On the +contrary, he would ask his father every evening what had been +done, and Strickland had drawn him a picture on the white wall of +the verandah showing the different towns in which policemen were +on the lookout for the thieves. They were Amritsar, Jullundur, +Phillour, Gurgaon, in case the gang were moving south; Rawal +Pindi and Peshawur, with Multan. Adam looked up at the picture +as he answered: + +"There has been great dikh [trouble] in this case." + +"Very great trouble. I wish thou wert a young man and my +assistant to help me." + +"Dost thou need help, my father?" Adam asked curiously, with his +head on one side. + +"Very much." + +"Leave it all alone. It is bad. Let loose everything." + +"That must not be. Those beginning a business continue to the +end." + +"Thou wilt continue to the end? Dost thou not know who did the +dacoity?" + +Strickland shook his head. Adam turned to me with the same +question, and I answered it in the same way. + +"What foolish people!" he said, and turned his back on us. He +showed plainly in all our dealings afterwards how we had fallen +in his opinion. Strickland told me that he would sit at the +door of his work-room and stare at him for half an hour at a +time as he went through his papers. Strickland seemed to work +harder over the case than if he had been in office on the +plains. + +"And sometimes I look up and I fancy the little chap's laughing +at me. It's an awful thing to have a son. You see, he's your own +and his own, and between the two you don't know quite how to +handle him," said Strickland. "I wonder what in the world he +thinks about?" + +I asked Adam this on my own account. He put his head on one side +for a moment and replied: "In these days I think about great +things; I do not play with Victor and the cow's child any more. +He is only a baba." + +At the end of the third week of Strickland's leave the result of +Strickland's labours - labours that had made Mrs. Strickland +more indignant against dacoits than any one else - came to hand. +The police at Peshawur reported that half the Shubkudder Gang +were held at Peshawur to account for the possession of some +blankets and a horse-bucket. Strickland's Assistant had also +four men under suspicion in his charge; and Imam Din must have +stirred up Strickland's Inspector to investigations on his own +account, for a string of incoherent telegrams came in from the +Club Secretary, in which he entreated, exhorted, and commanded +Strickland to take his "mangy havildars" off the club premises. +"Your men, in servants' quarters here, examining cook. Marker +indignant. Steward threatens resignation. Members furious. +Saises stopped on roads. Shut up, or my resignation goes to +committee." + +"Now, I shouldn't in the least wonder," said Strickland, +thoughtfully, to his wife, "if the club was not just the place +where a man would lie up. Bill Watson isn't at all pleased, +though. I think I shall have to cut my leave by a week and go +down there. If there's anything to be told, the men will tell me. +It will never do for the gang to think they can dacoit my +belongings." + +That was in the forenoon, and Strickland asked me to tiff in to +leave me some instructions about his big dog, with authority to +rebuke those who did not attend to her. Tietens was growing too +old and too fat to live in the plains in summer. When I came, +Adam had climbed into his high chair at the table, and Mrs. +Strickland seemed ready to weep at any moment over the general +misery of things. + +"I go down the hill to-morrow, little son," said Strickland. + +"Wherefore?" said Adam, reaching out for a ripe mango and burying +his head in it. + +"Imam Din has caught the men who did the dacoity, and there are +also others at Peshawur under suspicion. I must go to see." + +"Bus!" said Adam, between the sucks at his mango, as Mrs. +Strickland tucked the napkin round his neck. "It is enough. +Imam Din speaks lies. Do not go." + +"It is necessary. There has been great dikhdari +(trouble-giving]." + +Adam came out of the fruit for a minute and laughed. Then, +returning, he spoke between slow and deliberate mouthfuls. + +"The dacoits live in Beshakl's head. They will never be caught. +All people know that. The cook knows, and the scullion, and +Rahim Baksh here." + +"Nay," said the butler behind his chair, hastily. "What should I +know? Nothing at all does the servant of the Presence know." + +"Accha," said Adam, and sucked on. "Only it is known." + +"Speak, then," said Strickland. "What dost thou know? Remember +the sais was beaten insensible." + +"That was in the bad-water shop where I played when we came here. +The boy who would not sell me the mynah for six annas told me +that a one-eyed man had come there and drunk the bad waters and +gone mad. He broke bedsteads. They hit him with a bamboo till he +fell senseless, and, fearing he was dead, they nursed him on +milk like a little baba. When I was playing first with the cow's +child I asked Beshakl if he were that man, and he said no. But I +knew, because many wood-cutters asked him whether his head were +whole now." + +"But why," I interrupted, "did Beshakl tell lies?" + +"Oh! he is a low-caste man, and desired consideration. Now he is +a witness in a great law-case, and men will go to the jailkhana +on his account. It was to give trouble and obtain notice." + +"Was it all lies?" said Strickland, + +"Ask him," said Adam, cheerily, through the mango-juice. + +Strickland passed through the door; there was a howl of despair +in the servants' quarters up the hill, and he returned with the +one-eyed groom. + +"Now," said Strickland, "it is known. Declare!" "Beshakl," said +Adam, while the man gasped. "Imam Din has caught four men, and +there are some more at Peshawur. Bus! Bus! Bus! Tell about the +mare and how she rolled." + +"Thou didst get drunk by the wayside, and didst make a false case + +to cover it. Speak!" + +Like many other men, Strickland, in possession of a few facts, +was irresistible. The groom groaned. + +"I - I did not get drunk - till - till - Protector of the Poor, +the mare rolled." + +"All horses roll at Dhunnera. The road is too narrow before +that, and they smell where the other horses have rolled. This +the bullock-drivers told me when they came there," said Adam. + +"She rolled. The saddle was cut, and the curb-chain was lost." + +"See!" said Adam, tugging a curb-chain from his pocket. "That +woman in the shop gave it to me for a love-gift. Beshakl said +it was not his when I showed it. But I knew." + +"Then they in the grog-shop, knowing that I was the servant of +the Presence, said that unless I drank and spent money they +would tell." + +"A lie. A lie," said Strickland. "Son of an owl, speak truth +now at least." + +"Then I was afraid because I had lost the curb-chain, so I cut +the saddle across and about." + +"She did not roll, then?" said Strickland, bewildered and very +angry. + +"It was the curb-chain that was lost. That was the beginning of +all. I cut the saddle to look as though she had rolled, and +went to drink in the shop. I drank, and there was a fray. The +rest I have forgotten, till I was recovered." + +"And the mare the while? What of the mare?" + +The man looked at Strickland, and collapsed. "I will speak truth. + +She bore fagots for a wood-cutter for a week." + +"Oh, poor Diamond!" said Mrs. Strickland. + +"And Beshaki was paid four annas for her hire three days ago by +the wood-cutter's brother, who is the left-hand man of the +jhampanis here," said Adam, in a loud and joyful voice. "We all +knew. We all knew. I and all the servants." + +Strickland was silent. His wife stared helplessly at the child - +the soul called out of the Nowhere, that went its own way alone. + +"Did no man help thee with the lies?" I asked of the groom. + +"None, Protector of the Poor - not one." + +"They grew, then?" + +"As a tale grows in the telling. Alas! I am a very bad man," and +he blinked his one eye dole-fully. + +"Now four men are held at my station on thy account, and God +knows how many more at Peshawur, besides the questions at +Multan, and my izzat is lost, and the mare has been pack-pony to +a wood-cutter. Son of devils, what canst thou do to make +amends?" + +There was just a little break in Strickland's voice, and the man +caught it. Bending low, he answered in the abject, fawning whine +that confounds right and wrong more surely even than most modern +creeds, "Protector of the Poor, is the police service shut to an +honest man?" + +"Out!" cried Strickland, and swiftly as the groom departed he +must have heard our shout of laughter behind him. + +"If you dismiss that man, Strick, I shall engage him. He's a +genius," I said. "It will take you months to put this mess +right, and Billy Watson won't give you a minute's peace." + +"You aren't going to tell him?" said Strickland, appealingly. + +"I couldn't keep this to myself if you were my own brother. Four +men held in your district -four or forty at Peshawur - and what +was that you said about Multan?" + +"Oh, nothing. Only some camel men there have been -" + +"On account of a curb-chain. Oh, my aunt!" + +"And whose memsahib was thy aunt?" said Adam, with the mango +stone in his fist. We began to laugh again. + +"But here," said Strickland, pulling his face together, "is a +very bad child who has caused his father to lose honour before +all the policemen of the Punjab." + +"Oh, they know," said Adam. "It was only for the sake of show +that they caught the people. Assuredly they all knew it was +bunao [make-up]." + +"And since when hast thou known?" said the first policeman in +India to his son. + +"Four days after we came here - after the wood-cutter had asked +Beshakl of the health of his head. Beshaki all but slew a +wood-cutter at that bad-water place." + +"If thou hadst spoken then, time and money and trouble to me and +to others had all been spared. Baba, thou hast done a wrong +greater than thy knowledge, and thou hast put me to shame, and +set me out upon false words, and broken my honour. Thou hast +done very wrong. But perhaps thou didst not think?" + +"Nay, but I did think. Father, my honour was lost when that +happened that - that happened in Juma's presence. Now it is made +whole again." + +And, with the most enchanting smile in the world, Adam climbed on + +to his father's lap. + +End of "THE SON OF HIS FATHER" + + + +End of "THE DAY'S WORK" - PART I + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Day's Work/Part I, by Kipling + |