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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40136 ***
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+   1. Page scan source:
+      http://books.google.com/books?id=k6cOAAAAIAAJ
+
+   2. The letter "a" with macron is represented by [=a].
+
+
+
+
+                        The Mercy of the Lord
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                        The Mercy of the Lord
+
+
+
+
+                                  By
+
+                          Flora Annie Steel
+
+                              Author of
+
+       'On the Face of the Waters,' 'A Sovereign Remedy,' etc.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               New York
+
+                       George H. Doran Company
+
+
+
+
+
+                         _Printed in England_
+
+
+
+
+
+NEW YORK; GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY, 1914.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CONTENTS
+
+
+THE MERCY OF THE LORD.
+
+SALT DUTY.
+
+THE WISDOM OF OUR LORD GANESH.
+
+THE SON OF A KING.
+
+THE BIRTH OF FIRE.
+
+THE GIFT OF BATTLE.
+
+THE VALUE OF A VOTE.
+
+SALT OF THE EARTH.
+
+AN APPRECIATED RUPEE.
+
+THE LAKE OF HIGH HOPE.
+
+RETAINING FEES.
+
+HIS CHANCE.
+
+THE FLATTERER FOR GAIN.
+
+A MAIDEN'S PRAYER.
+
+SILVER SPEECH AND GOLDEN SILENCE.
+
+THE FOOTSTEPS OF A DOG.
+
+THE FINDING OF PRIVATE FLANIGAN.
+
+REX ET IMP:
+
+THERE AROSE A MAN.
+
+DRY GOODS.
+
+THE REGENERATION OF DAISY BELL.
+
+A SONG WITHOUT WORDS.
+
+SEGREGATION.
+
+SLAVE OF THE COURT.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                        THE MERCY OF THE LORD
+
+
+                 "God movesn--a--mystere'ras way
+                        Iswon--derstuper--form."
+
+Craddock was polishing the brass of his safety valve and singing the
+while at high pressure between set teeth: his choice of a ditty
+determined by one of his transitory lapses into conventional
+righteousness. The cause of which in the present instance being an
+equally transient admiration for a good little Eurasian girl fresh from
+her convent.
+
+As the sun--which shines equally on the just and the unjust--flamed on
+his red face and glowed from his corn-coloured beard it seemed to
+me--waiting in the comparative coolth of the pointsman's mud-oven
+shelter till the one mail train of the day should appear and disappear,
+leaving the ribbon of rail which spanned the desert world to its
+horizon free for our passaging--that both he and his engine radiated
+heat: that they gave out--as the burning bush or the flaming swords of
+the paradise-protectors must have given out--a message of fiery warning
+that suited the words he sang:
+
+
+                  "Eplants 'isfootsteps--inthesea."
+
+
+Craddock punctuated the rhythm with an appropriate stop of shrill steam
+which ought to have startled me: but it did not, because my outward
+senses had suddenly become slaves to my memory. The desert was a garden
+full of cool fragrance which comes with the close of an Indian day, and
+the only sound to be heard in it was a glad young voice repeating these
+words:
+
+
+"Oh! God of the Battle! Have mercy! Have mercy! Have mercy!"
+
+
+"Bravo! young Bertram!" said someone--even those who scarcely
+knew whether Bertram were his Christian or his surname called him
+that--"Easy to see you're fresh from the Higher Standard."
+
+Young Bertram smiled down on us from the plinth of the marble steps
+leading up to the marble summer house which stood in the centre of this
+Garden-of-Dead-Kings.
+
+Posed there on his pedestal, holding orb-like in his raised right hand
+the battered bronze cannon ball whose inscription--roughly lettered in
+snaky spirals--he had just translated, young Bertram reminded me of the
+young Apollo.
+
+"You bet," he answered, gaily. "But what does it mean, here on this
+blessed ball? Who knows the story?--for there is one, of course."
+
+The company looked at me, partly because as a civilian such knowledge
+was expected of me; mostly because I was responsible for the invasion
+of this peaceful Eastern spot by a restless, curious horde of Westerns;
+my only excuse for the desecration being, that as the most despicable
+product of our Indian rule, a grass widower bound to entertain, I had
+naturally clutched at the novelty of a picnic supper and dance some few
+miles out of the station.
+
+Perhaps, had I seen the garden first, I might have relented, but I took
+it on trust from my orderly, who assured me it held all things
+necessary for my salvation, including a marble floor on which a drugget
+could be stretched.
+
+It held much more. There was in it an atmosphere--not all orange
+blossom and roses, though these drugged the senses--which to my mind
+made a touch of tragedy lurk even in our laughter.
+
+Though, in sooth, we brought part of the tragedy with us: for a
+frontier war was on, and all the men and half the women present, knew
+that the route might come any moment.
+
+Some few--I, as chief district officer, the colonel and his
+adjutant--were aware that it probably would come before morning:
+but ours were not the sober faces. Our plans were laid; all things,
+even the arrangements for the women and the children and the
+unfit-for-service, were cut and dried: but the certainty that someone
+must--as the phrase runs--take over documents, and the uncertainty as
+to who the unlucky beggar would be, lent care to a young heart or two.
+
+Not, however, to young Bertram. As he stood questioning me with his
+frank blue eyes, even the white garments he had donned (because, he
+said, "It might be a beastly time before he wore decent togs again")
+told the same tale as his glad voice--the tale of that boundless hope
+which holds ever the greatest tragedy of life.
+
+"Who is that pretty boy?" said a low soft voice at my elbow.
+
+I did not answer the spoken question of the voice, but as I replied to
+the unspoken question of many eyes I was conscious that of all the many
+incongruous elements I had imported into that Eastern garden this
+Western woman who had appraised young Bertram's beauty was the most
+incongruous. It was not the Paris frock and hat, purchased on the way
+out--she had only rejoined her husband the day before--which made her
+so. It was the woman inside them. I knew the type so well, and my soul
+rose in revolt that she should soil his youth with her approval.
+
+"I've no doubt there are stories," I replied; "but I don't happen to
+know them. I'm as much a stranger here as you all are. So come! let us
+look round till it's dark enough to dance."
+
+"Dark enough to sit out, he means," said someone to the Paris frock and
+hat, whereat there was a laugh, but not so general and not half so
+hearty as the one which greeted young Bertram's gravity as he replaced
+the cannon ball on the plinth with the profound remark:
+
+"Something about a woman, you bet."
+
+"Do introduce me!" pleaded the Paris frock and hat as the lad came
+down, bearing the brunt of chaff gallantly; but I pretended not to
+hear, though I knew such diplomacy was vain with women of her
+type--women whose refinement makes them shameless.
+
+Yes! she was a strange anomaly in that garden, though, Heaven
+knows, it appealed frankly enough to the senses. So frankly that it
+absorbed even such meretricious Western additions as cosy corners
+and iced champagne--on tables laid for two--without encroaching a
+hair's--breadth on the inviolable spiritual kingdom of the ivory orange
+blossom, the silver jasmine stars, even the red hearts of the roses.
+
+They were lighting up the lines of the cressets about the dancing floor
+when we began to reassemble, and as each star of light quivered into
+being, the misty unreal radiance grew around the fretted marble of the
+summer house until arch and pilaster seemed to lose solidity, and the
+whole building, leaving its body behind in shining sleep, found freedom
+ass a palace of dreams.
+
+And there, as a foreground to its mystical beauty, was young Bertram
+dangling his long legs from the pedestal and nursing the battered old
+bronze ball on his lap as if it had been a baby.
+
+"I've found out all about it," he said, cheerfully. "That chap"--he
+pointed to a figure below him--"told me a splendid yarn, and if you
+lite,"--he turned to me--"as they haven't done lighting up yet, and we
+can't dance till they finish, he could tell it again. I could
+translate, you know, for those who can't understand."
+
+The innocent pride made me smile, until the Paris frock said, "_I_
+shall be so grateful if you will, Mr. Bertram," in a tone of soft
+friendliness which proclaimed her success and my failure. Both,
+however, I recognised were inevitable when I remembered that she was
+the wife of the lad's captain, a silent, bullet-headed Briton of whom
+he chose to make a hero--as boys will of older men who are not worthy
+to unlatch their shoes.
+
+The figure rose and salaamed. It was that of a professional snake
+charmer, who had evidently come in hopes of being allowed to exhibit
+his skill: for his flat basket of snakes, slung to a bambu yoke, lay
+beside him.
+
+"And it _was_ about a woman, as I said," continued young Bertram, with
+the same innocent pride. "She was of his tribe--the snaky tribe, and
+so, of course, he knows about it all."
+
+I had my doubts--the man looked a cunning scoundrel--but there was an
+awkward five minutes to fill up, so chairs and cushions were
+requisitioned, and on them and the marble steps we circled round to
+listen: the Paris dress, I noticed, choosing the latter, close to the
+translator.
+
+He performed his task admirably, catching not only the meaning of the
+words but the rhythm of the snake charmer's voice, and so quickly, too,
+that the message for the East, and for the West, seemed one; yet it
+seemed to come from neither of the speakers.
+
+"'Oh, God of the Battle! have mercy, have mercy, have mercy!' Such was
+her prayer to the Bright One, and this is the tale of it:
+
+"Straight was her soul as the saraph who tempted Eve-mother, but
+crooked her body as snakes that deal death in the darkness--crookt in
+her childhood--crookt in the siege of the town by a spent shot which
+struck her, asleep in her cradle (the ball that you nurse on your knee,
+sahib--they found it beside her--her crushed limbs caressing the foe
+that destroyed her).
+
+"She grew in this garden, a cripple, but fair still of face, and twice
+cursed in such gifts of beauty all barren and bitter--so bitter she
+veiled it away, hiding loveliness, hatefulness, both, from the eyes of
+the others: a soul stricken sore ere the battle began, yet insatiate of
+life, insatiate of blessing and cursing, insatiate of power. And, look
+you! she gained it! Most strangely, for fluttering through thickets
+like birds that are wounded and dragging herself like a snake to the
+blossoms, she threaded the jasmine to necklets and pressed out the
+roses to perfume, so giving to women uncrippled love-lures for the
+fathers of sons.
+
+"Hid in the jasmine and screened by the trails of the roses, here, on
+this spot stood her chamber of charm for the secret distilling of
+_itr_, the silent repeating of ritual, the murmur of musical _mantras_.
+
+"And none dare to enter since Death lurked unseen in the thickets, and
+serpents, her kinsmen, slid swift to the threshold to guard it, and
+watched with still eyes her command.
+
+"'It was witchcraft,' they said, with a shudder, those fortunate women,
+yet came in the dusk for her charms!
+
+"But she gave them not always, for years brought her wisdom. She learnt
+the love lore of the flowers, the close starry heart of the jasmine,
+the open red heart of the rose, told their dream of fair death through
+the ripening of seed, and her voice would grow bitter with scorn....
+
+"'Go! find your own lures for your lovers--I work for the seed--for the
+harvest of men.'
+
+"High perched on the wall of the city the balcony women waxed wroth. It
+was money to them till the cripple who fought them with flowers
+prevailed in the battle for life to the world.
+
+"And Narghiza, the chief of them all, felt her youth on the wane....
+
+"So, one night in the darkness, ere dawning, men crept to the garden
+where only the women might enter. Men, heated by wine and by lust,
+inflamed by the balcony lies--yea! the witch who wrought evil to
+all--who had killed Gulanâr in her prime by a wasting--whose frown was
+a curse, must be reckoned with, killed, and her devilish chamber
+destroyed.
+
+"But the sound of the rustling leaves as the snakes slid soft in the
+darkness made even the wine bibbers think, so that secret and soft as
+the snakes in the thickets they crept back to safety; till there--in
+the darkness, the fragrance of flowers, but one man remained, a man who
+grew old! Beautiful, tired of the life he had squandered, and reckless,
+yet angered because of the girl who had wasted to death--a girl he had
+paid for.
+
+"'Cowards!' he said with a smile, and crept on in the dark. A rustle,
+but not of a snake! In the leaves a faint glimmer of white, and a
+voice--such a beautiful voice!
+
+"'In this garden of women what seek you, my lord?'
+
+"'I seek _you_, for your death.' But as swift as his hand with the
+dagger, around him there rose in a shimmering shelter the wide-hooded
+curves of the serpents, their still, watchful eyes giving out a cold
+gleaming that shone like a halo about her.
+
+"'What harm have I done?' Such a beautiful voice! 'Come and see, if you
+will.'
+
+"On his head fell the spent leaves of roses, the frail stars of jasmine
+were hers as she dragged herself on, and he followed through darkness
+and fragrance and flowers. The serpents lay thick on the threshold; she
+stayed them with this:
+
+"'Wait, friends, till he touches me.'
+
+"Opened the door and said scornfully:
+
+"'There stands my charm.'
+
+"The dim light of the cresset showed emptiness save for yon ball with
+its legend ('tis scratched, as you see, in the shape of a snake,
+sahib). She read it aloud, and then turned to him:
+
+"'Yea! that is all! I appeal to the God of the Battle of Life, and I
+call unto Him to have mercy, have mercy, have mercy--What mercy He
+chooses----'
+
+"Her voice sank to silence. The cresset's dim light showed the folds of
+her veiling to him, and to her showed his beauty of face as he knelt to
+her crippledom.
+
+"'Mercy!'--his voice was a whisper--'have mercy--the charm lies
+within--let me see it....'
+
+"His hand sought the folds of her veil and, responsive, the shelter of
+snakes rose about her.
+
+"'Wait, friends, till he touches me!'
+
+"Swift, with quick fear in it, came the stern warning, and then there
+was silence.
+
+"Oh! beautiful night with spent stars of the jasmine, spent leaves of
+the roses, spent life nigh to death 'mid its darkness, its fragrance.
+
+"Oh! beautiful face, free of veiling with spent stars of eyes and spent
+rose leaves of lips.
+
+"'My beloved!'
+
+"Like a sigh came the whisper, and slowly as stars in the evening their
+eyes grew to brightness, and closer and closer their lips grew to
+kisses.
+
+"'_Wait, friends, till he touches me_.'
+
+"That was her order, and swift to the second, the snakes struck between
+them.
+
+"Oh, beautiful death by the kiss of a lover! Oh, merciful poison of
+passion."
+
+The sing-song ceased, and, as if to take its place, the first notes of
+the _Liebestraum_ waltz sounded from the rose and jasmine thicket in
+which the band had been concealed.
+
+"That's a mercy of the Lord, anyhow," laughed some young Philistine. "I
+thought they'd never stop, or the band begin!"
+
+In a moment the listening circle had changed into an eager hurrying of
+couples towards the dancing floor.
+
+But young Bertram still sat on the pilaster nursing the old bronze
+ball, his glad young face strangely sober.
+
+"I think this is our dance," said the Paris frock, in a voice of icy
+allurement which positively rasped my nerves.
+
+Young Bertram sprang to the ground hastily.
+
+"I beg your pardon! By George, what's that?"
+
+He had upset one of the snake charmer's flat baskets, and there was a
+general stampede as the occupants slid out.
+
+"Don't be alarmed," I cried, "they always have their fangs drawn, and
+he will get them back in a moment."
+
+Even as I spoke the hollow quavering of the charmer's gourd flute
+began, and three snakes stayed their flight to sit up on their tails
+and sway drowsily to the rhythm.
+
+"There was a fourth one, wasn't there?" said young Bertram. "It slipped
+our way, didn't it?"
+
+He spoke to the Paris frock, which had taken refuge on the opposite
+pilaster, so that the whole expanse of the wide marble steps now lay
+between them.
+
+"Huzoor, no!" interrupted the owner of the snakes, hastily, "there were
+but three--there could only have been three--for see! my serpents obey
+me."
+
+He was slipping the brutes back to prison again as he spoke, but I
+noticed his eyes were restless.
+
+"Are you quite sure?" I asked.
+
+He gave me a furtive glance, then carelessly held up a loathsome
+five-footer. "Cobras like these are very easily counted, Huzoor;
+besides, as the Presence said, they are all fangless."
+
+The one whose jaws he as carelessly prized open certainly was, and I
+should have dismissed doubt had not young Bertram at that moment taken
+up the flute gourd, and with the gay remark, "Let me have a shot at
+it," commenced--out of fastidiousness as to the mouthpiece, no
+doubt--to blow into it upside down.
+
+I never saw fear better expressed in any face than on the snake
+charmer's when he heard the indescribable sound which echoed out into
+the garden. It grew green as without the least ceremony he snatched the
+instrument away.
+
+"The Presence must not do that--the snakes do not like strangers."
+
+Young Bertram laughed, "Nor the noise, I expect! The beastly thing
+makes a worse row wrong side up than right--doesn't it?"
+
+What the Paris frock replied I do not know, as they were already
+hurrying up to make the most of the remaining dance.
+
+Not that there was any necessity for hurry to judge by the number of
+times I saw his white raiment and her fancy frills floating round
+together during the next hour or so.
+
+The Adjutant--a man I particularly disliked (possibly because he seemed
+to me the antithesis of young Bertram)--remarked on it also when he
+found me out seeking solitude in one of the latticed minarets.
+
+"Going it!" he said, cynically. "He won't be quite such a young fool
+when he comes down from the hills."
+
+I turned on him in absolute dismay. "The hills? but surely you're going
+on service?"
+
+The Adjutant shrugged his shoulders. "Someone has to take over, and
+he'll soon console himself."
+
+I felt I could have kicked him, and was glad that the "Roast Beef"
+called me to my duties as host.
+
+They had laid the supper table where we had listened to the snake
+charmer's chant; somehow through all the laughter I seemed to hear that
+refrain going on: "Oh! God of the Battle! have mercy! have mercy! have
+mercy!"
+
+What mercy would she show him? None. And what chance would he have in
+an atmosphere like that of Semoorie? None. Even the husband, whom
+rumour said was bullet-headed to some purpose, would be away.
+
+We were very merry in spite, or perhaps because of, an insistent trend
+of thought towards impending change, and I was just about to propose
+the health of my guests with due discreet allusion to the still
+doubtful future when it was settled by the appearance of a telegraph
+peon.
+
+In the instant hush which followed, I observed irrelevantly that our
+brief feasting had made a horrid mess of what not half an hour before
+had seemed food for the gods!
+
+Then the Colonel looked up with a grim conscious smile which fitted ill
+with the fragrant lantern-lit garden behind him.
+
+"The route has come, gentlemen, we start to-morrow at noon."
+
+He checked a quick start to their feet on the part of some of the
+youngsters by addressing himself to me:
+
+"But as everything has been cut and dry for some days we needn't spoil
+sport yet awhile. There's time for a dance or two."
+
+"In that case I'll go on," I replied, "and with greater will than
+ever."
+
+Somehow it never struck me what was likely to happen, seeing that young
+Bertram was junior subaltern and in addition the pride of his fellows,
+until I heard the calls for "our speaker" to return thanks. He had been
+sitting, of course, next to the Paris frock, and beside him had been
+the Adjutant, looking, I had noticed, as if he thought he ought to be
+in young Bertram's place. I wish to God he had been.
+
+They both rose at the same moment; the Adjutant to work, no
+doubt--for, pushing his chair back, he left the table; young Bertram to
+his task of responding.
+
+I saw at once that he knew his fate. I think he had that instant been
+told of it by the Adjutant: and perhaps in a way it was wiser and
+kinder to tell him before--so to speak--he gave himself away.
+
+He stood for an appreciable time as if dazed, then pulling himself
+together, spoke steadily, if a trifle artificially.
+
+"Mr. Commissioner, Ladies, and Gentlemen! I thought a minute ago that I
+was the last person to return thanks for our host's regrets and good
+wishes. I know now that I am really the only person in the regiment who
+could do it honestly; because I am the only person who can sympathise
+with him thoroughly--who can, like he does, regret the regiment's
+departure, and--and at the same time give it God-speed, while I--I----"
+
+He paused, and suddenly the strenuous effort after conventional
+banalities left his young face free to show its grief--almost its
+anger.
+
+"It's no use my trying to talk bosh," he broke out, and swept away by
+realities: "As you know, I'd give everything not to say God-speed, but
+I suppose I must."
+
+And then a sudden remembrance seemed to come to him, he turned in swift
+impulse, his face alight, leapt to the pedestal behind him, and there
+he was again with that blessed battered old ball in his raised right
+hand.
+
+"And I don't think I can do it better than this does it. This----" his
+voice had the notes of life's divine tragedy of hope in it--"fits us
+all--fits everything!--And so," his eyes sought mine, "we thank you,
+sir, for all and everything, and wish that the God of the Battle may
+have mercy all round."
+
+For a second he stood there, almost triumphant, beautiful as a god,
+below him the guttering candles and disorder of the supper table, above
+him the stars of heaven: then, with a light laugh, he was calling for
+the band to begin and heading the hurried return to the dancing floor.
+
+As he passed me, gallant and gay, I heard the Paris frock quote in a
+consoling whisper, "They also serve who only stand and wait."
+
+The grateful admiration of his eyes told the delicacy of her art. I
+realised this again when shortly after I had an opportunity for one
+word of consolation also.
+
+"She said that, too," he replied, his voice trembling a little. "She's
+been awfully good to me, you know--but so you all are--and I daresay it
+is all right."
+
+I knew that to be impossible, but I resolved to do my level best to
+protect him.
+
+Then my duties claimed me. Despite the Colonel's coolness, the party
+began to drift away to preparations, their measure of responsibility
+shown by the order of their going, until only a dozen or so of
+lighthearted youngsters were left for another and yet another waltz,
+the prime instigator of delay being, of course, young Bertram.
+
+I never saw the lad look better. An almost reckless vitality seemed to
+radiate from and invade the still scented peace of the whole garden.
+
+I found myself trying to evade it by wandering off to the furthest,
+stillest corner, where I could smoke in peace till called on finally to
+say good-night--or good-morning--to my guests.
+
+I must have fallen asleep in one of the latticed minarets, and slept
+long, for when I woke a grey radiance was in the sky that showed above
+the scented orange trees. Dawn was breaking, the garden held no sound
+save a faint rustle as of leaves. And not a sign remained of Western
+intrusion. The swiftness of Indian service had taken away as it had
+brought. As I made my way to where we had danced and supped, the
+immediate past seemed a dream, and I strained my eyes into the starred
+shadows of the jasmine thicket half expecting to see a white veil
+creeping like a snake.
+
+What was that? I had no time to find fancy or fact--my eyes had caught
+sight of something unmistakable at the foot of the marble pedestal.
+
+It was young Bertram.
+
+He was lying as if asleep, his cheek caressing the battered bronze ball
+that he had encircled with his arms.
+
+His face turned up to the stars showed nothing but content.
+
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+
+He must have stayed on after the others had gone, probably to think
+things out--the legend of appeal must have drawn him back to the very
+spot where the snake charmer's basket had been upset--like it had to
+me, the fragrant peace must have brought to his weariness sleep.
+
+For the rest. Had there really been a fourth snake? Was it true that
+serpents always revenged themselves for wrong charming? Or were those
+two faint blood spots on the rose leaves of young Bertram's lips ....
+
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+                     "An 'E' willmakeit--plain."
+
+Craddock's rolling baritone mingled with a shriek of steam welcoming a
+swift speck on the horizon.
+
+With a roar and a rush it was on us, past us.
+
+"Ef that 'ymn 'ad bin wrote these times, sir," remarked Craddock
+blandly, as he turned on steam, "the h'author might 'ave put in a
+H'engin. There ain't anythin' more mysterious in its goin's on--except
+per'aps wimmen. I'd ruther trust for grace to the mercy o' the Lord
+than to them any day."
+
+
+
+
+                              SALT DUTY
+
+
+                                  I
+
+"Lo! nigh on fifty years have passed since that dark night; just such a
+night as this, O! Children-of-the-Master! and yet remembering the
+sudden yell of death which rose upon the still air--just such an air as
+this, hot and still.... Nay! fear not, Children-of-the-Master! since I,
+Imân (the faithful one so named and natured), watch, as I watched
+then ... and yet, I say, the hair upon my head which then grew thick and
+now is bald, the down upon my skin which then was bloom and now is
+stubble, starts up even as I started to my feet at that dread cry, and
+catching Sonny-_baba_ in my arms fled to the safer shadows of the
+garden. And the child slept...."
+
+The voice, declamatory yet monotonous, paused as if the speaker
+listened.
+
+"It is always so with the Master-Children," it went on, tentatively,
+"they sleep...."
+
+The second and longer pause which ensued allowed soft breathings to be
+heard from the darkness, even, unmistakable, and when the voice
+continued something of the vainglorious tone of the _raconteur_ had
+been replaced by a note of resignation.
+
+"And wherefore not, my friends, seeing that as masters they know no
+fear?"
+
+Wherefore, indeed?
+
+Imân Khân, whilom major-domo to many sahibs of high degree, now in his
+old age factotum to the Eurasian widow and children of a conservancy
+overseer, asked himself the question boldly. Yet the heart which beat
+beneath the coarse white muslin coatee starched to crackle-point in the
+effort to conceal the poorness of its quality, felt a vague
+dissatisfaction.
+
+In God's truth the memory of the great Mutiny still sent his old blood
+shivering through his veins, and some of the tribe of black-and-tan
+boys who slept around him in the darkness were surely now old enough to
+thrill, helplessly responsive, to the triumphal threnody of their race?
+
+Yet it was not so. The tale, on the contrary, was a sure
+sleep-compeller; indeed, he was never able to reach his own particular
+contribution to the sum total of heroism before sleep came--except in
+his own dreams! _There_ he remembered, as he remembered so many things.
+How to decorate a ham, for instance--though it was an abomination to
+the Lord!--how to ice champagne--though that also was damnable!--when
+to say "Not at home," or dismiss a guest by announcing the carriage--
+though these were foreign to him, soul and body.
+
+Out there, beyond the skimp verandah, amid the native cots set in the
+dusky darkness in hopes of a breath of fresher air, old Imân's
+imagination ran riot in etiquette.
+
+And yet the faint white glimmer of the Grand Trunk Road which showed
+beyond the cots was not straighter, more unswerving than the
+_khânsâman's_ creed as to the correct card to play in each and every
+circumstance of domestic life.
+
+His present mistress, a worthy soul of the most doubtful Portuguese
+descent, knew this to her cost. It was a relief, in fact, for her to
+get away at times from his determination, for instance, to have what he
+called "sikkens" for dinner. But then she did not divide her world into
+the sheep who always had a savoury second course in their menu, and the
+goats who did not. To him it was the crux of social position.
+
+So, an opportunity of escape having arisen in the mortal illness of a
+distant relation, she had gone off for a weeks holiday full of tears
+and determination, while away, to eat as much sweet stuff as she chose,
+leaving Imân Khân in charge of the quaint little bastion of the
+half-ruined caravanserai in which she was allowed free quarters in
+addition to her pension.
+
+He was relieved also. He had, in truth, a profound contempt for her;
+but as this was palpably the wrong game, he covered his disapproval
+with an inflexible respect which allowed no deviation from duty on
+either side. Yet it was a hard task to keep the household straight.
+Sometimes even Imân's solid belief in custom as all-sufficing wavered,
+and he half regretted having refused the offers of easier services made
+him by rich natives anxious to ape the manner of the alien. But it was
+only for a moment. The claims of the white blood he had served all his
+life, as his forbears had before him, were paramount, and whatever his
+faults, the late _E-stink Sahib_, conservancy overseer, had been
+white--or nearly so! Did not his name prove it? Had not _Warm E-stink
+Sahib_ (Warren Hastings) left a reputation behind him in India for all
+time? Yea! he had been a real master. The name was without equal in the
+land--save, perhaps, that which came from the great conqueror,
+_Jullunder_ (Alexander).
+
+Undoubtedly, _E-stink Sahib_ had been white; so it was a pity the
+children took so much after their mother; more and more so, indeed,
+since the baby girl born after her father's death was the darkest of
+the batch. It was as if the white blood had run out in consequence of
+the constant calls upon it. For Elflida Norma, the eldest girl--they
+all had fine names except the black baby, whom that incompetent widow
+had called Lily--was....
+
+Ah! what was not Elflida Norma? The old man, drowsing in the darkness
+after a hard day of decorum, wandered off still more dreamily at the
+thought of his darling. _She_ did not sleep out on the edge of the high
+road. Her sixteen years demanded other things. Ah! so many things. Yet
+the Incompetent one could perceive no difference between the claims of
+the real Miss-_Sahiba_--that is, _E-stink Sahib's_ own daughter by a
+previous wife--and those of the girl-brat she herself had brought to
+him by a previous husband, and whom she had cheerfully married off to a
+black man with a sahib's hat! For this was Imân Khân's contemptuous
+classification of Xavier Castello, one of those unnecessarily dark
+Eurasians who even in the middle of the night are never to be seen
+without the huge pith hats, which they wear, apparently, as an effort
+at race distinction.
+
+The Incompetent one was quite capable of carrying through a similar
+marriage for the Miss-_Sahiba_. Horrible thought to Imân; all the more
+horrible because he was powerless to provide a proper husband. He could
+insist on savouries for dinner; he could say "the door is shut" to
+undesirable young men; he could go so far in weddings as to provide a
+_suffer_ (supper) and a wedding cake (here his wrinkles set into a
+smile), but only God could produce the husband, especially here in this
+mere black-man's town where sahibs lived not. Where sahibs did not even
+seek a meal or a night's rest in these evil days when they were whisked
+hither and thither by rail trains instead of going decently by road.
+
+Through the darkness his dim eyes sought the opposite bastion of the
+serai. In the olden days any moment might have brought someone....
+
+But those days were past. It would need a miracle now to bring a sahib
+out of a post carriage to claim accommodation there. Yea! a real
+heaven-sent car must come.
+
+Still, God was powerful. If he chose to send one, there might be a real
+wedding--such a wedding as--there had been--when--he....
+
+So, tired out, Imân was once more in his dreams decorating hams, icing
+champagne, and giving himself away in the intricacies of sugar-piping.
+
+When he woke, it was with a sense that he had somehow neglected his
+duty. But no! In the hot dry darkness there was silence and sleep. Even
+Lily-_baba_ had her due share of Horatio Menelaus' bed. He rose, and
+crept with noiseless bare feet to peep in through the screens of
+Elflida Norma's tiny scrap of a room that was tacked on to the one
+decent-sized circular apartment in the bastion, like a barnacle to a
+limpet. One glance, even by the dim light of the cotton wick set in a
+scum of oil floating on a tumbler of water, showed him that she was no
+longer where an hour or two before he had left her safe.
+
+Without a pause he crept on across the room and looked through the door
+at its opposite end, which gave on the arcaded square of the serai.
+
+All was still. Here and there among the ruined arches a twinkling light
+told of some wayfarer late come, and from the shadows a mixed bubbling
+of hookahs and camels could be heard drowsily.
+
+She was not there, however, as he had found her sometimes, listening to
+a bard or wandering juggler; for she was not as the others, tame as
+cows, but rather as the birds, wild and flighty. So he passed on, out
+through the massive doorway, built by dead kings, and stood once more
+on the white gleam of the road, listening. From far down it, nearer the
+town, came the unmelodious hee-haw of a concertina played regardless of
+its keys.
+
+"Hee, hee, haw! Haw, hee, hee!"
+
+His old ear knew the rhythm. That was the dance in which the
+sahib-logue kicked and stamped and laughed. This was Julia Castello's
+doing. There was a "nautch" among the black people with the sahib's
+hats, and the Miss-_Sahiba_--his Miss-_Sahiba_--had been lured to it!
+
+Once more, without a pause, the instinct as to the right thing to do
+coming to him with certainty, he turned aside to his cook-room, and,
+lighting a hurricane lantern, began to rummage in a battered tin box,
+which, bespattered still with such labels as "Wanted on the Voyage,"
+proclaimed itself a perquisite from some past services.
+
+So, ten minutes afterwards, a starched simulacrum of what had once been
+a Chief Commissioner's butler (even to a tarnished silver badge in the
+orthodox headgear shaped like a big pith quoit) appeared in the
+verandah of Mrs. Castello's house, and, pointing with dignity to the
+glimmer of a hurricane lantern in the dusty darkness by the gate, said,
+as he produced a moth-eaten cashmere opera-cloak trimmed with moulting
+swansdown:
+
+"As per previous order, the Miss-Sahiba's ayah hath appeared for her
+mistress, with this slave as escort."
+
+Elflida Norma, a dancing incarnation of pure mischief, looked round
+angrily on the burst of noisy laughter which followed, and the pausing
+stamp of her foot was not warranted by the polka.
+
+"Why you laugh?" she cried, passionately. "He is my servant--he belongs
+to our place."
+
+Then, turning to the deferential figure, her tone changed, and she drew
+herself up to the full of her small height.
+
+"Nikul jao!" she said, superbly; which, being interpreted, is the
+opprobrious form of "get you gone."
+
+The old man's instinct had told him aright. There, amid that company,
+the girl in the white muslin she had surreptitiously pinned into the
+semblance of a ball dress, her big blue eyes matching the tight string
+of big blue beads about her slender throat, showed herself apart
+absolutely, despite her dark hair and 'almost sallow complexion.
+
+"The Huzoor has forgotten the time," said Imân, imperturbably;
+"it is just twelve o'clock, and _Sin-an-hella_ dances of this
+description"--here he looked round at the squalid preparations for
+supper with superlative scorn--"always close at midnight."
+
+There was something so almost appalling in the answering certainty of
+his tone regarding Cinderellas, that even Mrs. Castello hesitated,
+looking round helplessly at her guests.
+
+"In addition," added the old man, following up the impression,
+"is not the night Saturday? and even in the great _Lat-Sahib's_ house,
+where I have served, was there no nautch on Saturdays--excepting
+_Sin-an-hellas_."
+
+He yielded the last point graciously, but the concession was even more
+confounding to Mrs. Castello than his previous claim. Besides, old
+Imân's darkling allusion to service with a Governor-General was a
+well-known danger-signal to the whole Hastings family, including
+Elflida Norma, who now hesitated palpably.
+
+"I t'ought you more wise," insinuated her partner, who had actually
+laid aside his hat for the polka, "than to have such a worn-out poor
+fellow to your place. Pay no heed to him, Miss 'Astin', and polk again
+once more."
+
+Elflida drew herself away from his encircling arm haughtily.
+
+"No, thanks," she drawled, her small head, with its short curls in air.
+"I am tired of polking--and he is a more better servant than your
+people have in your place, anyhow."
+
+"But Elfie!" protested Mrs. Castello.
+
+The girl interrupted her step-sister with an odd expression in her big
+blue eyes.
+
+"It will be Sunday, as he says, Julia; besides, the princess always
+goes home first from a Cinderella, you know, because----"
+
+"Because why?" inquired Mrs. Castello, fretfully; "that will be some
+bob-dash from the silly books she adores so much, Mr. Rosario."
+
+Elflida stood for a moment smiling sweetly, as it were appraising all
+things she saw, from the greasy tablecloth on the supper table to old
+Imân's starched purity; from the cocoanut oil on the head of one
+admirer, to the tarnished silver sign of service on the head of the
+other.
+
+"Because she was a princess, of course," she replied, demurely; and
+straightway stooped her white shoulders for the yoke of cashmere and
+swansdown with a dignity which froze even Mr. Rosario's remonstrance.
+
+"Thank you," she said, loftily in the verandah, when he suggested
+escort; "but my ayah and my bearer are sufficient. Good-night."
+
+So down the pathway, inches deep in dust, she walked sedately towards
+the glimmer of the lantern by the gate, followed deferentially by Imân.
+But only so far; for once within the spider's web halo round the barred
+light, she sprang forward with a laugh. The next instant all was dark.
+Cimmerian darkness indeed to the old man as he struggled with the
+moulting swansdown and moth-eaten cashmere she had flung over his head.
+
+"Miss-_Sahiba!_ Miss-_baba_! _norty_, _norty_ girl!" he cried after
+her, desperately, in his double capacity of escort and ayah. Then he
+consoled himself with the reflection that it was but a bare quarter of
+a mile to the serai along a straight deserted high road. Even a real
+Miss-Sahiba might go so far alone, unhurt; so, after pausing a moment
+from force of habit to re-light the lantern, he ambled after his charge
+as fast as his old legs could carry him. Suddenly he heard a noise such
+as he had never heard before close behind him. A horrid, panting noise,
+and then something between a bellow and a whistle. He turned, saw a red
+eye glaring at him, and the next instant the infernal monster darted
+past him, whirring, snorting. In pursuit, of course, of Elflida Norma!
+
+What tyranny was here! What defiance of custom! Saw anyone ever the
+like?--on a decent metalled road--and only the ayah--God forgive him
+the lie!--wanting to make all things in order?
+
+These confused, helpless thoughts ran swifter in the old man's mind
+that his legs carried his body, as he followed in pursuit of the
+monster. The lantern, swinging wildly, hindered such light as there
+might have been without it, but he knew the Thing was ahead of him, by
+the truly infernal smell it left behind it.
+
+And then from the darkness ahead came a curiously familiar cry, "Hut,
+hut! (get out of the way). Oh, damn!"
+
+A crash followed; then silence. A few seconds afterwards he was gazing,
+helplessly bewildered, at two figures who were looking at each other
+wrathfully across the white streak of road.
+
+One he knew. It was Elflida Norma, her impromptu ball dress
+metamorphosed by her race into loose white draperies out of which the
+small dark head and slim throat, with its circlet of big blue beads,
+rose as from clouds. The other, unknown, was that of a tall, fair young
+man.
+
+"If you had only stood still," the latter was saying angrily, "I could
+have managed, but you dodged about like--like----" His eyes had taken
+her in by this time, and he paused in his simile. But hers had wandered
+to the monster prone in the dust; and she stepped closer to it
+curiously.
+
+"I suppose it is named a motor bicycle," she said, coolly. "I have not
+seen one in our place before, only in picture books. I am glad."
+
+There were no regrets or apologies. And even Imân Khân, when he
+recovered his breath, made no inquiries as to whether the young man had
+hurt himself in getting out of the Miss-Sahiba's way He simply looked
+at the wheels of the bicycle and then at its stalwart young rider.
+
+God had been kind and sent a husband in a miraculous car!
+
+
+                                  II
+
+Imân Khân sate in the early dawn, putting such polish as never before
+was put on a pair of rather large size Oxford shoes. So far all had
+gone well. His own vast experience, aided by the stranger's complete
+ignorance of Indian ways, had sufficed for much; and Alexander
+Alexander Sahib (all the twelve Imâns be praised for such a name!) was
+now comfortably asleep in the bastion opposite the widow's quarters,
+under the impression that the hastily produced whisky and soda, with a
+"sand beef" (sandwich) in case hunger had come on the road, the simple
+but clean bedding, and briefly, all the luxuries of a night's sleep
+after a somewhat severe shaking, were due to the commercial instincts
+of a good old chap in charge of the usual rest-house: that being
+exactly what Imân had desired as a beginning.
+
+The sequel required thought, and, as he polished, his brain was full of
+plans for the immediate future. One thing was certain, however, quite
+certain. The husband God had sent in a car must not be allowed to ride
+away on it before seeing more of the Miss-_Sahiba_. Arrangements must
+be made, as they always had to be made in the best families. Generally
+it began with a tennis party--but this, of course, was out of the
+question--and perhaps the accident on the road might be taken as
+an equivalent for that introduction. Then there were dances, and
+"fools-food" (picnics). The one might be considered as taken also, the
+others were out of season in the heats of May. There remained drives
+and dinners. Both possible, but both required time; therefore time must
+be had. The _chota-sahib_ must not ride away after breakfast, as he had
+settled on doing, should he and the monster be found fit for the road.
+
+Now the _chota-sahib_ seemed none the worse for his fall, as Imân, in
+his capacity of valet, had had opportunities of judging. The inference,
+therefore, was obvious. It must be the monster who was incapable.
+
+Imân gave a finishing glisten to the shoes and placed them decorously
+side by side, ready to be taken in when the appointed hour came for
+shaving water. Then he went over and looked at the motor bicycle, which
+was accommodated in the verandah. It did not pant or smell now as if it
+were alive, but for all that it looked horribly healthy and strong. It
+was evidently not a thing to be broken inadvertently by a casual push.
+Then a thought struck him, and he ambled off to the old blacksmith, who
+still lived in the serai arcade and boasted of his past trade of
+mending springs, shoeing horses, and selling to travellers his own
+manufactures in the way of wonderful soft iron pocket-knives with
+endless blades and corkscrews warranted to draw themselves instead of
+the corks!
+
+"Ari Bhai," said Imân mildly to this worthy, "thou art a prince of
+workmen, truly; but come and see something beyond thy art in iron.
+Bâpri bâp! I warrant thou couldst not even guess at its inner parts."
+
+Could he not? Tezoo, the smith, thought otherwise, and being clever as
+well as voluble, hit with fair correctness on pivots, cog-wheels, and
+such-like inevitables of all machinery, the result of the interview
+being that Imân, armed with his kitchen chopper and a bundle of
+skewers, had a subsequent _tête-à-tête_ with the monster, in which the
+latter came off second best; so that when its owner, fortified by a
+most magnificent breakfast (served in the verandah by reason of the
+central room of that bastion having an absolutely unsafe roof), went to
+overhaul his metal steed, he was fairly surprised.
+
+"It is a verra remarkable occurrence," he said softly to himself as his
+deft hands busied themselves with nuts and screws (for he was a Scotch
+engineer on his way to take up an appointment as superintendent in a
+canal workshop), "most remarkable. And would be a fine example to the
+old ministers thesis that accident is not chance. There's just a method
+in it that is absolutely uncanny."
+
+In short, even with the smithy on the premises, of which the good old
+chap in charge spoke consolingly, it was clear he could not start
+before evening, if then. Not that it mattered so much, since he had
+plenty of time in which to join his billet.
+
+Thus, as he smoked his pipe, the question came at last for which the
+old matchmaker had been longing.
+
+"And who would the young lady be who smashed me up last night?"
+
+In his reply Imân dragged in _Warm E-stink Sahib Bahadur_ and a vast
+amount of extraneous matter out of his own past experiences. Regarding
+the present, however, he was distinctly selective without being
+actually untruthful. The late _E-stink Sahib's_ widow and children, for
+instance, being also at rest in the serai, were equally under his
+charge. And this being so, since there was but one public room in which
+dinner could possibly be served as it should be served--here Imân made
+a digression regarding the rights of the sahib-logue at large and
+_E-stink Sahib's_ family in particular--it was possible that the Huzoor
+might meet his fellow-lodgers and the Miss-_Sahiba_ again.
+
+In fact, he--Imân--would find it more convenient if the meal were eaten
+together and at the same time, and the mem--her absence being one of
+the eliminated truths--would, he knew, fall in with any suggestion of
+his; which statement again was absolutely true.
+
+Alec Alexander, lost in the intricacies of a piston-rod, acquiesced
+mechanically, though in truth the likelihood of seeing such a
+remarkably pretty face again was not without its usual unconscious
+charm to a young man.
+
+This charm, however, became conscious half an hour afterwards, when
+hard at work in the smithy, his coat off, his sleeves rolled up,
+showing milk-white arms above his tanned wrists, he looked up from the
+bit of glowing iron on the anvil and saw a large pair of blue eyes and
+a large string of blue beads about an almost childish throat.
+
+It struck him that both were as blue as the sky inarching the wide
+inarched square of the old serai. It struck him also that the eyes,
+anyhow, had more in common with the sky than with the house made with
+hands in which he stood, even though dead kings had built it. Yes! the
+whole figure did not belong somehow to its environment; to the litter
+of wasted forage, the ashes of dead fires, to the desertion and neglect
+of a place which, having served its purpose of a night's lodging, has
+been left behind on the road. It seemed worth more than that.
+
+"I gave you a nice toss, didn't I?" said Elflida Norma, breaking in on
+his quasi-sentimental thought with a certain complacency. "If you had
+got out of my way it would have been more better."
+
+"You mean if you hadn't got in mine," he replied, grimly. "But don't
+let us quarrel about that now. The mischief's done so far as I am
+concerned."
+
+The blue eyes narrowed in eager interest.
+
+"Have you broken things inside, too?" she asked, sympathy absent, pure
+curiosity present in her tone.
+
+"No! I didn't," he said, shortly. "I'm not of the kind that breaks
+easily."
+
+She considered him calmly from head to foot. "No-o-o," she admitted,
+sparingly. "I suppose not--but your arms look veree brittle, like
+china--I suppose that is from being so--being so chicken-white."
+
+"Perhaps," he said, still more shortly, and was relieved when Imân
+(having from the cook-room, where he was feverishly feathering fowls in
+preparation for the night's feast, detected Elflida's flagrant breach
+of etiquette in having anything whatever to do with a coatless sahib)
+hurried across to beguile his charge back to the paths of propriety by
+reporting that Lily-_baba_ (to whom the girl was devoted) evinced a
+determination to eat melons with her brothers, which he, Imân, was far
+too busy to frustrate.
+
+"You need not make such pother about big dinner to-night," she said,
+viciously, when, with the absolutely accommodating Lily in her arms,
+she stood watching the far less interesting process of pounding
+forcemeat on a curry stone; "for I heard him tell the smith that he
+would go this evening if--well, if somebody kept his temper in boiling
+oil. Such a queer idea--as if anybody could!"
+
+Old Imân's hands fell for an instant from the _munâdu_ (Maintenon)
+cutlets he was preparing, for he understood the frail foundation on
+which his chance of manufacturing a husband stood. Jullunder-sahib must
+be making a spring, and if the oil in which it had to be
+boiled---- But no! As cook, he knew something of the properties of hot
+fat, and felt convinced that the spring would never be fried in time.
+
+So all that long hot day he toiled and slaved in company with an
+anatomy of a man whom he had unearthed from the city. A man who had
+also in his youth served the white blood, but had never risen beyond
+the scullery. A man who called him "Great Artificer," and fanned him
+and the charcoal fire indiscriminately according to their needs.
+
+And all that long hot day on the other side of the arcaded square work
+went on also, so that the clang of metal on anvil or cook-room fire
+rose in antagonism on the dusty sunshine which slept between them.
+Dinner or no dinner? Spring or no spring? And the circling dark shadows
+of the kites above in the blue sky were almost the only other signs of
+life, for Elflida Norma had found sleep the easiest way of keeping
+Lily-_baba_ from the melons, and the boys slept as they slept always.
+
+But as the sun set Imân knew that fate had decided in favour of the
+dinner, for Jullunder-sahib came over from the smithy with empty hands,
+and found hot water in his room, and the change of white raiment he
+carried in his knapsack laid out decorously on the bed.
+
+He took the hint and dressed for dinner, even to the buttonhole of
+jasmine which he found beside his hair-brush.
+
+Elflida Norma, under similar supervision, dressed also. In fact,
+everything was dressed, including the flat tin lids of the saucepans
+which Imân had impressed into doing duty as side-dishes. Surrounded by
+castellated walls of rice paste, supporting cannon balls of alternate
+spinach and cochinealed potatoes, they really looked very fine. So did
+Imân himself, starched to inconceivable stiffness of deportment. So
+even did the anatomy, who, promoted for once to the dining-room,
+grinned at the young man and the girl, at the Great Artificer and all
+his works, with his usual indiscrimination.
+
+And, in truth, each and all deserved grins. Yet Elflida Norma looked at
+Alec Alexander, he at her, and both at the dinner table set out
+marvellously with great trails of the common pumpkin vine looped with
+the cheap silver tinsel every Indian bazaar provides, and felt a sudden
+shyness of themselves, of each other, and the unwonted snowiness and
+glitter.
+
+"Cler or wite?" said Imân, his old hands in difficulties with two soup
+plates. There was a dead silence.
+
+"He means soup," faltered Elflida Norma desperately, wishing herself
+with the boys who were being regaled with curry and rice in her room,
+and thereinafter became dumb until the next course, when a sense of
+duty made her supplement Imân's "fish-bar'l" with the explanation that
+it was not really fish, which was not procurable, but another form of
+fowl.
+
+So, in fact, were the side dishes which followed, and in which Imân had
+so far surpassed his usual self that Elflida was perforce as helpless
+as her companion for all save eating them solidly in due order. The old
+man, however, was too much absorbed in the due handling of "bredsarse"
+with the fowl, which was at last allowed to appear under the title of
+"roschikken," too much discomforted by the subsidence of his favourite
+"sikken," a cheese _soufflée_, to notice silence, or the lack of it,
+until, just as--the worst strain over--he was perfunctorily apologising
+for the impossibility of "Hice-puddeen," a fateful cry came from the
+next room and Elflida started to her feet.
+
+"It's Lily," she began; but Imân frowned her into her seat again, and
+turned to the anatomy superbly. "Go!" he said with dignity, "and bid
+the ayah see to Lily-_baba_."
+
+The result, however, was unsatisfactory, and a certain obstinacy grew
+to Elflida's small face, which finally blossomed into open rebellion
+and a burst of confidence.
+
+"You see," she said, those blue eyes of hers almost blinking as she
+narrowed them with earnestness, "she smells guavas, and they are more
+her hobby than melons even."
+
+The young man smiled.
+
+"Who's Lily?" he asked; "your sister, I suppose."
+
+"My half-sister," she replied, solemnly. "But she will cry on, you see,
+if she is not let to come to my place."
+
+"Then let her come--why not?"
+
+"It is an evil custom," began Imân, as the order was given. He knew no
+graver blame than that even for a whole Decalogue in ruins; but Elflida
+Norma stamped her foot as she had stamped it in the polka, so he had to
+give in and thus avoid worse exposures.
+
+And, after all, the introduction of the dimpled brown child in a little
+white night-shift, who leant shyly against Elflida's blue beads, seemed
+to help the conversation. So much so that after coffee and cigarettes
+had been served in the verandah, old Imân felt as if success must crown
+his efforts--if only there were time! But how could there be time when
+the possible husband had arranged, since the motor bicycle refused to
+be mended with the appliances at his disposal, to have it conveyed by
+country cart overnight to the nearest railway station, five miles off,
+whither he must tramp it, he supposed? next morning, to catch the mail
+train.
+
+It was when, pleasantly, yet still carelessly, Alec Alexander was
+saying good-bye to the blue eyes and the blue beads, with the brown
+baby cuddled up comfortably in the girl's slender arms, that Imân, with
+a sinking heart, played his last card by saying that there was no need
+for the Huzoor to tramp. The Miss-_Sahiba_ and Lily-_baba_ invariably
+took a carriage airing before breakfast, and could quite easily drop
+the Huzoor at the railway station.
+
+"Yes! I could drop you quite easily at that place. It would be more
+better than the walk," assented Elflida Norma, with a Sphinx-like
+smile. Her heart was beating faster than usual. She was beginning
+to be amused with the tinsel glitter and the general pretence.
+It was like playing a game. Still she slept soundly; and so
+did the young engineer, and Lily-_baba_, and the boys gorged with
+as-a-rule-prohibited native dainties. Even the smith slept, and the
+anatomy had already reverted to reality, his transient dignity
+vanishing into thin air. So that in that wide ruined serai, built by
+dead kings, all were at rest save the Great Artificer, Imân, who sate
+among the ruins of his dinner, satisfied, yet still conscious of
+failure. Something was lacking, which once more only God could
+create--only a miraculous car could bring.
+
+In truth, if any vehicle might from outward appearance claim miraculous
+powers, it was the extraordinary sort of four-wheeled dogcart which, in
+the cool morning air, appeared as Imân's last card. He had, indeed, not
+wandered from the truth in telling Alec Alexander that carriages were
+not to be hired in that sahib-forsaken spot, and it had been only with
+extreme difficulty that he had raised these four wheels of varying
+colours and a body painted with festoons of grapes, all tied together
+with ropes.
+
+Still, it held the party. Imân, with Lily-_baba_ in his arms, on the
+box by the driver, Elflida and the young engineer disposed on the back
+seat. The horse, it is true, showed signs of never having been in
+harness before, but this was not so evident to those behind, and Imân
+held tight and set his teeth, knowing that success has sometimes to be
+bought dearly.
+
+Still, it was with no small measure of relief when they were close on
+their destination, and the beast settled down to the two hundred yards
+of collar work leading up to the small station level with the high
+embankment of the permanent way, that he turned round to peep at
+progress on the back seat.
+
+Had anything happened? His heart sank at the cool, collected air with
+which the possible husband took his ticket; but it rose again, when,
+after saying good-bye to Lily-_baba_ and tipping the coachman, the
+young man went off to the platform with Elflida, as if it were a matter
+of course she should see him off. In truth, that is exactly what he did
+feel concerning this distinctly pretty and rather jolly little girl
+with a bad temper.
+
+And Elflida? Her world seemed to have had a fresh start in growth, it
+held greater possibilities than before, that was all.
+
+So everything had been in vain, even Imân's sense of duty towards the
+white blood he had served so long.
+
+"Good-bye!" He could not hear the words, but he saw the young hands
+meet to unclasp again, as with a whistle the mail train rushed out from
+behind a dense mango clump, and the Westinghouse brakes brought a
+sudden grinding rattle to the quiet morning air.
+
+"All was over!" thought Imân sadly, as still sitting on the box with
+Lily-_baba_, he watched. Surely it had not been his fault. He had done
+all--only the cheese _soufflée_ had failed, and that happened sometimes
+even in the house of Lât-Sahibs. Yet it was over.
+
+It was, indeed. Almost including the miraculous car, as deprived of its
+driver, who was spending part of his tip in the sweet stall, the horse,
+frightened at the train, reared, bounded forward, and then, finding its
+progress barred in front by a railing, swerved on its track, and came
+past the station again, heading for that downward incline with the
+steep banks falling away on either side.
+
+Elflida grasped the position first, and with a cry of "Lily! Lily!" was
+at the horse's head as it passed. The possible husband was not far
+behind--just far enough to make the off rein as convenient to his
+pursuing feet as the near one, to which she clung, half dragged,
+helpless, half in wild determination to keep pace with the terrified
+beast.
+
+"Let go!" he shouted. "He'll get you down, and then--let go, I say!"
+
+She did not answer. In truth, she had no breath for words. And,
+besides, her mind was not clear enough to grasp his order, though it
+grasped something else--namely, that relief from her dead weight on one
+side must bring a swerve to the other. And that must not be till the
+embankment was passed, or the man holding to the off rein must go
+under.
+
+"Let go!" he shouted, again and again, as he, in his turn, grasped her
+purpose; but he might as well have shouted to the dead.
+
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+
+"I believe--I hope--she has fainted," said Alec Alexander, with a catch
+in his voice not all due to breathlessness, as, the runaway safe held
+by other captors, he stooped over the girl who lay in the dust, her
+hands still clenched over a broken rein. Then he lifted her tenderly
+and carried her back to the station whence the mail train, careless of
+such trivialities as miraculous cart, had departed.
+
+And if on his way he kissed the closed blue eyes and the blue beads
+round the childish throat, who shall blame him?
+
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+
+Anyhow, the hot dry nights of May were not over before old Imân's voice
+rose once more in declamation over the unforgettable story of the white
+blood.
+
+But this time sleep did not come to the black-and-tan tribe gathered in
+the light of the floating oil wick. For the boys were watching
+something they had never seen before--the icing of a wedding cake.
+
+And so the long-deferred personal climax came at last.
+
+"The trouble being over, the masters were masters again, and I took
+Sonny-_baba_ back to his people. And wherefore not? Seeing I had eaten
+of their salt all my life and they of mine. Yea! even unto wedding
+cakes. Look, my sons! That is done, and I, Imân, the faithful one by
+name and nature made it."
+
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+
+There was but one flaw in the old man's content on the great day; for
+he had managed to get a ham cheap for the "suffer," and Mrs. Hastings,
+only too glad of greater freedom in the future, had consented to his
+turning his attention to the education of the young couple and
+Lily-_baba_, who was to live with them. That flaw was a slight
+irregularity in what he was pleased to call a "too-liver-ot" on the
+said cake. Not that it really mattered. The true lover's knot itself
+was there, though the hands which fashioned it were not so young and
+steady as they had been when they caught up Sonny-_baba_ and carried
+him to the safe shadows.
+
+Yet, old as they were, those hands had forgotten no duty. _E-stink
+Sahib's_ widow, absorbed with a friend in the recipe of a mango pickle
+she meant to make on the morrow--a pickle full of forbidden turmeric
+and mustard oil--had to be reminded of her _rôle_ as bride's mother
+over and over again, but it was Imân who hung a horseshoe for luck on
+the miraculous car--drawn this time by an old stager--Imân, who was
+ready with rice, Imân, who finally ran after the departing lovers to
+fling the old white shoe, in which Elflida had danced the hee-haw
+polka, into their laps as they sate on the back seat, and then,
+overbalancing himself in the final effort, to tumble into the dust,
+where he remained blissfully uncertain as to praise or blame, murmuring
+blandly, "What a custom is here!"
+
+
+
+
+                    THE WISDOM OF OUR LORD GANESH
+
+"The wisdom of Sri Ganêsh--the wisdom of our Lord Ganêsh."[1]
+
+
+Through and through my fever-drugged brain the words came, compelling,
+insistent; forcing me away from reality, forcing me back into the past.
+Yet I knew perfectly where I was; I remembered distinctly that having
+felt unusually tired after rather a hot day's march I had pitched the
+little _tente d'abri_--which was my home during a sketching tour in
+Wales--rather closer to the main road than I generally did, and had
+thereinafter promptly succumbed to an unmistakable go of fever and
+ague, a half-forgotten legacy left behind by many years of Indian life.
+
+Yes, I could remember distinctly the bramble-and-nut-hidden quarry
+hole, with its little inner sward of sweet sheep-bitten grass where I
+had pitched the tent. I knew that if I were to call, someone of the
+rumbling cart wheels, which came at intervals along the road, might
+stop and seek for the caller; but I lay still. I was hard-happed round
+and round with the curious content which comes as the chills and the
+aches are passing into the fire flood of fever that thrills the
+finger-tips and sets the brain fizzling like champagne.
+
+
+"The wisdom of Sri Ganêsh--the wisdom of our Lord Ganêsh."
+
+
+Why on earth should that haunt me here in Wales? on a piece, no doubt,
+of Nat Gwynne's property.
+
+Nat Gwynne! Then I knew. It was because I had seen him in the distance
+that day, driving a pair of grey ponies, tandem, with a pretty young
+girl beside his coarse, heavy, good looks; heavier than they had been,
+though, heaven knows! refinement had never stood much in his way. And
+they were to be married to-morrow! Married to Gwynne of Garthgwynne!
+Couldn't anyone tell her what she was doing? Couldn't anyone save her,
+as the wisdom of Sri Ganêsh had saved that other one?...
+
+And then in a second I was gone. I was under the brassy blue
+sky of India, and from the twisted tufts of marsh-grasses by the
+elephant's feet came a native beater's lament--"As God sees me it is
+invisible--what a tyranny is here."
+
+"Bid Ganêsh seek," said Nat Gwynne's voice, imperatively from the
+howdah from which we were both shooting. He was in a Lancer regiment
+cantooned in the native State where for many years I had been
+consulting engineer.
+
+The _mahout_, seated on the big brute's neck, turned calmly. "It is
+against the orders that Sri Ganêsh, King of Elephants and Lord of
+Wisdom, should touch carrion even of the Huzoor's."
+
+I looked at my old friend Mahadeo with astonishment. He and I had been
+out on Ganêsh, the Rajah's finest elephant, scores of times, and again
+and again the cunning old rogue's inquisitive trunk had nosed out and
+up a partridge or snipe which the coolies had failed to find.
+
+"He hath a scent like a bed of roses," old Mahadeo would say proudly,
+"and as for wisdom! Doth he not hold the Huzoor even as his own
+_mahout?_"
+
+Which delicate piece of flattery was true, for old Ganêsh, pad elephant
+to the bankrupt young scoundrel of a Rajah, had taken a fancy to me, as
+elephants do take fancies.
+
+So, seeing at a glance that something lay beneath the surface of the
+bitter hatred in the dark face, and the wild, wicked rage of the white
+one, I said, quickly. "Seek! my brother!"
+
+Ganêsh swayed forward, his trunk curling like a snake, his wicked
+little eyes alert, a faint _frou-frou_ of a blowing sound seeming to
+quiver the grasses; and there, grasped softly in the prehensile end was
+a dead jack snipe! As he put it deferentially and politely into my
+outstretched hand I seemed to catch a contemptuous flicker in his eye,
+as who would say, "What an amount of fuss about such a very little
+piece of pork," as the Jew said when a thunderstorm found him eating
+sausage.
+
+But that it was _not_ a little piece of pork between those two, still
+glaring at each other, was evident.
+
+Mahadeo's usually gentle face had taken on a stony stare that held in
+it something of limitless power; while Nat Gwynne's anger was almost
+obscured by sheer disgust at having to keep his hands off another man's
+servant.
+
+"By God!" he cried. "It's lucky for you, you pig, that I'm not your
+master--but--but I'll try to be--I'll buy this big brute when they sell
+the bankrupt State up next month, and I'll buy you, curse you, and
+I'll ..."
+
+"Do hold your tongue, Gwynne," I said to him in a low voice, for his
+temper was notorious, and once he lost control over himself he would
+often behave like a madman. As, indeed, he had every right to be, since
+the record of the Gwynnes of Garthgwynne was a black one.
+
+Mahadeo, however, supplied the return to calm.
+
+"The Huzoor is _mast_," he said to me, rapidly in low contemptuous
+Hindustani, turning the while to sit, immovable as ever, a mere head
+and trunk of a man, all else being hidden by the elephant's great
+shields of ears. "He is as the beasts that perish. And Ganêsh, too,
+nears his time of power--" he pointed to the great head he bestrode
+where, oozing apparently from a slight hollow in the skin a few drops
+of ichor showed, half hardened into amber, "so let those who would harm
+him--or _his friends_ beware!"
+
+But there was nothing of which to be beware thereinafter, for all
+became peace. How hot the sun was! And the guns, too! Almost too hot to
+hold. But how cool it was in the camp down in a mango-grove beside a
+tank with great cane brakes stretching away into the stars under the
+moonlight! And how peaceful! How one slept, and slept, and slept,
+drowsed to dreamlessness by the great peace of the immovable shadows,
+the greater peace of the light behind them....
+
+Ye powers above! What was that? Even now, remembering it, all was as it
+had seemed then. Shadow on light, light on shadow ... a curse, a
+cry ... something young and slim fleeing, half in light, half in shadow!
+Then a sudden trumpet, a rattle as of chained front feet, one little
+sob....
+
+How steadily the moonlight shone through the branches on that small
+upturned face which was all Ganêsh's feet had spared.
+
+"Who? What?" I gasped, uncomprehending, staring stupidly at Mahadeo on
+his knees beside the dead girl, at Gwynne, still dressed, the buttons
+on his mess jacket glittering like diamonds, his face all working with
+horror and dismay. But there was no room for anything but the old man's
+voice, quiet, restrained:
+
+"She was my granddaughter, Huzoor. But a light thing. She must have
+gone too near the King of Elephants, being as this slave said, near to
+his time of power. What then? _It is the wisdom, of our Lord Ganêsh!
+The wisdom of Sri Ganêsh!_"
+
+The sound of his voice died away softly, and the wind carried it
+further, and further, and further....
+
+Such an odd wind! Soft, warm, with a faint perfume in it, blowing on my
+hands, my face. And behind it a familiar sighing sound with the echo of
+a chuckle in it....
+
+Was it possible? I started up, my brain in a whirl. Did I, or did I not
+see in the moonbeam which stole through a chink in the tent flap,
+something sinuous, that curved and bent caressingly? And beyond it,
+where the flap divided, was or was that not a rough image of the
+Elephant Headed God of Wisdom painted in hot ochres on an elephant's
+fore front? I was out of the blankets in a second, flinging back the
+tent flaps with a delirious laugh. Aye! It was true! Earth and air
+alike seemed blocked by a huge mass of flesh that quivered all over
+with delight. Come! this was something like a fever dream! To have an
+Indian Rajah's pad elephant to ride on--to go whither you would for a
+fresh breeze--to cool your brain.
+
+"_Baito_, Ganêsh! _Baito!_" I cried, giving the familiar order; but the
+next instant my vaingloriousness ended in a shiver, almost of fear, as
+the brute obeyed, sinking noiselessly and laying its trunk, curled
+round to protect itself against injury, ready for me to mount.
+
+Scarcely knowing what I did I caught familiarly at the big drooping
+ears, I felt the trunk beneath my feet tilted gingerly to aid me, and
+there I was, my head reeling madly, in the old familiar place!
+
+But around me? Around me half Wales, bathed in broad moonlight, lay
+peaceful; with, in the distance, a faint shimmer telling of the
+sea--the far sea that still seemed to sound in my ears as if, indeed, I
+lay upon its very shore listening to the break and burden of the waves
+which came from far away--so very far away.
+
+I think the effort must have made me relapse into unconsciousness, for
+the next thing I remember is finding myself propped up by pillows in
+the howdah, and hearing a familiar voice break in upon the ceaseless
+fall of the waves which filled my ears.
+
+And from the voice I gathered vaguely that it was not a dream at all.
+This was indeed Ganêsh, who had been sold because of his great height
+to an English showman, and this was no other than old Mahadeo, who
+would not leave his charge, and had come over the black water, also,
+where there was nothing good to be had save rum; rum that kept the cold
+out on these chill September nights when Ganêsh had to do his marches
+from town to town, since the sight of an elephant might frighten the
+traffic by day. There was evidently some of that rum still in the old
+man's voice as he chid Ganêsh glibly for having been restive and thrown
+his unsteady _mahout_ on the road. But then had not the animal always
+loved the Huzoor, even as his master? And must he not have nosed him
+out as he passed, the Lord of Elephants having, as ever, a scent as of
+rose gardens? Which was as well, since now the Huzoor would be able to
+get a doctor-_sahib_ and medicine....
+
+I tried to understand, but it was hard to get at anything with fever
+raging in one's brain, while the rhythmic roll of the elephant's pace
+as we lilted away over half Wales seemed to blend with the fall of
+those waves from very far away. Once I remember asking how many couple
+of snipe we had killed. After that Mahadeo furtively brought out a
+bottle and gave me something fiery which seemed to do me good, though
+he muttered to himself that he could but do his best--his was not the
+wisdom of Sri Ganêsh.
+
+"You--you shouldn't say that to me, you--you old fool," I
+murmured, weakly. "You should say it as you said to--to--to
+Gwynne-_sahib_--Gwynne-_sahib_, who is going to be married
+to-morrow--don't you know? Such a pretty girl--such a very pretty
+girl--such a poor, pretty girl...."
+
+I don't know quite what I said; I am glad, indeed, not to be able to
+remember, but I have a vague recollection of becoming a trifle maudlin,
+and finally of pointing out, amid a cloud-like shadow of trees that lay
+on the far horizon, the position--or thereabouts--of Garthgwynne,
+whither the young bride was to be led the next evening.
+
+Now, in all this, as I recount it from a blurred, fever-stricken
+memory, allowance must be made for illusion. I don't know if it really
+happened, I can only vouch for my belief that I actually saw and did
+these things. I think now, therefore, that I fell asleep, always with
+that recurring fall of distant waves in my ear, until I woke suddenly
+to a loud hilarious burst of half-drunken laughter.
+
+"Stop him! Hie! Gone away! Hello! Gwynne! Pity the bride! If you don't
+go to bed there'll be no wedding day! Yoicks! Poor devil! wants to
+escape the halter. Hie! You there! Best man! You're bound to bring him
+up sober."
+
+We were in the deep shadow of the famous cedar trees, and one look at
+the old house beyond the lawn was enough for recognition. Yes! it was
+Plas Garthgwynne, favoured of picture postcards, favoured of wild,
+wicked romance and legend. It was all blazing with lights, so, despite
+the waning of the moon, I could see--clustering at the door and
+dispersed over the gravel sweep--the mad rush of Gwynne of
+Garthgwynne's last bachelor party as it tumbled tipsily in chase of a
+reeling figure that came straight towards us across the lawn to lose
+itself in the opposite shadows.
+
+And then a hard feminine voice dominated the uproar:
+
+"Leave him alone, you fools! The night air will sober him; and if it
+doesn't, there's no hurry to carry on the breed."
+
+Something of brutal truth behind the brutal coarseness of the remark
+fell like a wet blanket over the half-fuddled guests; some of them
+picked themselves up moodily from the gravel, others found stability
+from friends, and so they drifted in unsteadily, dominated once more by
+that hard, feminine, unwomanly voice asserting that if he didn't crawl
+back to burrow in a quarter-of-an-hour, she'd send the butler to look
+for him.
+
+And thereinafter came quiet; while one by one the glittering windows of
+the house sank to darkness.
+
+And yet it was not dark, after all, surely? Or was there a curious halo
+of light emanating from old Mahadeo's head; a halo which distorted him
+somehow, which piled his low turban into a high tiara, and made his
+nose show long, so long--almost as long as the Elephant-Faced
+God-of-Wisdom ... in the Indian shrines....
+
+Ah! There he was!...
+
+Gwynne of Garthgwynne, standing on a bit of open beyond the
+shadow--behind him a grey shimmer of mere set thick with water
+lilies--his legs very wide apart, his watch in his hand--it had some
+electric appliance about it, and the feeble light streaming upwards
+showed his face full of hard, soul-revealing lines. What a face!--the
+face of a devil let loose--set free from the fetters of conventional
+life.
+
+"Two o'clock," he muttered. "Well! whats'h a--matter. Sh'upposin' am
+drunk she'll have to put up--Gwynne Garthgwynne, d--mn her--my
+wife--mother of Gwynne's-Garth ..."
+
+"Forward, Sri Ganêsh!" The order came soft but swift, and we were out
+of the shadows. What was it out of the shadows, also--out of the Dim
+Shadows which shroud Life in the Beginning and the End, which caught me
+irresistibly, making me say sharply as one who has waited long, "Come
+along, Gwynne! do--there's a good fellow."
+
+For an instant surprise seemed to struggle with satisfaction in his
+drink-sodden brain. The tall, heavy figure swayed, lurched. I could see
+its every detail, the very buttons on the mess jacket--worn doubtless
+out of bravado this last evening of bachelorhood--shone, as they had
+done that night years ago amid the shadow and shine of the mango-tôpe;
+for a radiance seemed to have sprung from earth and sky in which
+nothing could be hidden.
+
+Then suddenly came his old reckless, half-insane burst of laughter.
+"Come," he echoed, drunkenly, "Why--why--shno't? Whatsh' larks--chursh,
+fl'rs joll'--lit'--bride--no bridegroom!--joll'--good'--larks'h, eh!
+Off to Phildelp'ia in the mornin'--see th'other one--joll'--lit' one.
+_Bait_, you pig, Ganêsh! _Bait!_"
+
+It all passed like a flash of lightning. The elephant was down and up
+again, and the last thing I remember was hearing Gwynne of
+Garthgwynne's drunken voice say, "Hello! old Mahadeo, eh! Well! go it,
+ol' man. Givs'h some of--wish-dom--Shri Ganêsh--eh--what?"
+
+When I roused again it was dawn; pale primrose dawn over a cloudless
+sea.
+
+It was the strange wind that roused me, the soft, warm wind that passed
+over my face and sought something else--and found it. Soft as a snake
+the elephant's trunk found the drunken man's neck as he lay asleep,
+half hanging out of the cushioned howdah, and closed on it. The sight
+drove the blur from my mind, and in an instant I saw all things
+clearly.
+
+We were on the very edge of a high cliff. Below us lay the scarce
+dawn-lit waters of the calm sea. But between me and that tender distant
+sky, what form was this with triple crown and wise stern human eyes
+looking out of an animal's face?
+
+Wisdom itself! Wisdom come to judgment.
+
+There was a moment's pause. I clung to the howdah's side as if turned
+to stone. I seemed to know what was coming--to realise the verdict
+which that ultimate wisdom must give. Then in a clarion voice the words
+came:
+
+"By the order of the Lord Ganêsh, kill."
+
+The softness, the tenderness of the snaky coil, so sensitive that the
+finest thread in God's world can scarce escape it, changed suddenly to
+iron. There was no cry, no struggle. Gwynne of Garthgwynne's body swung
+high in air, then, flung from it with all leviathan's strength, fell,
+and fell, and fell ...
+
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+
+When the roaring of the distant sea ceased in mine ears about a
+fortnight afterwards, I found that the nine days' wonder of Gwynne of
+Garthgwynne's disappearance on his wedding night had died down. He had
+rushed out rollicking drunk--that all knew. He had not returned. The
+butler sent out to seek for him had sought other seekers, but all in
+vain. They were still dragging the mere for him, but the flood gates of
+the river (of which it was a backwater) had been open that night, and
+the body might have drifted out to sea. So there had been no wedding,
+and a distant heir, barely related to the old stock, was ready to take
+possession so soon as doubt was over. As for me, the early postman,
+attracted by my moaning, had found me half-in and half-out of my blankets
+in the _tente d'abri_ behind the bramble screen of the quarry.
+
+Was it then all a dream? Even if it were not ...
+
+Was it not the wisdom of our Lord Ganêsh?
+
+I decided, at last, to say nothing about that dream of a marvellous
+moonlight ride on an elephant over half Wales. Twinges of conscience
+assailed me at times, but they were laid to rest for ever about
+Christmas-tide, when, going through a small town in the Midlands, I was
+met, in passing a new cottage hospital on its environs, by a glad cry--
+"The very man I want! I've got a poor soul here who won't die. He ought
+really to have been at peace two days ago--but he goes on and on. You
+see, he's an Indian or something, and we can't speak the lingo--you
+can, I expect?"
+
+I followed the doctor, with whom I had a slight acquaintance, into the
+ward, with a foreboding at my heart. I knew it was old Mahadeo, and
+that, indeed, he wanted me. And it was. He lay tucked up between clean
+sheets on an English bed with two English hospital nurses fadding about
+him, speechless, gasping, at the very point and spit of death, yet
+waiting--waiting ...
+
+I knew what he wanted, and without a word, his dark eyes following me
+in dim gladness, I threw back the clothes and got a firm grip of the
+sheet at his head. He should at least die as a Hindu should die. "Now,
+doctor!" I said, "if you'll take the feet we will let him find freedom
+outside."
+
+A nurse started forward. "But the case is pneumonia--double
+pneumonia----"
+
+The doctor hesitated; they always are in the hands of the nurses.
+
+"Look here, Jones," I cried, sharply. "This man doesn't want clinical
+thermometers, and draw-sheets, and caps. He wants freedom. He wants to
+die as his religion tells him he must die, on Mother Earth--aye--even
+if her bosom is white with snow."
+
+And it was, for it was Christmas-tide.
+
+So we lifted him out, the doctor and I, and laid him down on Heaven's
+white quilt. He just rolled over, face down, into the cool pillow.
+
+"_Râm-Râm--Sita-Râm_," I whispered, kneeling beside him to give the
+last dying benediction of his race. Such a quaint one! Only the name of
+what to it, is superman and superwoman. A last appeal to the higher
+instincts of humanity.
+
+There was one little sob. I thought I heard the beginning of the old
+refrain:
+
+"The wisdom of our Lord Ganêsh----" Then he had found freedom.
+
+"You seem to know their ways, sir," said a horsey-looking man who had
+come in with us and who had evidently something to do with the show.
+"So, if you could give us a 'elp with this pore fellar's beast, I'd be
+obliged. Hasn't touched food this ten days--never since the old man
+took worse, and a elephant, sir, is a dead loss to a show. The master
+lef' 'im here with me, but I'm blowed if I can do nothing with him."
+
+I found Ganêsh happier than his master, for, no place being large
+enough for him, he lay in the open; but they had stretched a tarpaulin
+over him like a rick-cover, as a protection.
+
+A glance told me he was far gone, though he lay crouched, not prone;
+his trunk--marvellous agent for good or ill--stretched out before him
+beyond shelter into the snow.
+
+As I came up to him, I fancied I saw a flicker in his eyes, those eyes
+so small, so full of wisdom. Then I laid in front of him the old man's
+turban, ragged, worn, which I had begged of the prim nurses. In a
+second the whole, huge, inert mass of flesh became instinct with life.
+He rose to his feet with incredible swiftness, and softly encircling
+the old ragged pugree, raised it gently and placed it in the master's
+seat. For a moment I doubted what would come next; but the instinct
+which is held in leviathan's small brain is great. He knew by some
+mysterious art that the master was dead, that the human mind which had
+been his guide was gone.
+
+He took one step forward, threw up his trunk, and the echoes of the
+surrounding houses cracked with the roaring bellow of his trumpet as he
+swayed sideways and fell dead.
+
+That was all the little smug provincial English town ever knew of the
+
+
+                     "Wisdom of our Lord Ganêsh."
+
+
+
+
+                          THE SON OF A KING
+
+
+                                  I
+
+"Barring my pay," he said, ruefully, "I haven't a coin in the world."
+And for the moment, newly accepted lover as he was, his eyes actually
+left hers and wandered away to the reddening yellow of the sunset with
+a certain resentment at the limitations of his world.
+
+"Father has plenty!" she put in joyously. And for the moment her hand
+actually touched his in a new-born sense of appropriation and right of
+re-assurance which made her blush faintly. It also made his eyes return
+to hers, whereat she blushed furiously, and then tried to cover her
+confusion by a jest. "Well! he has. Hasn't he the best collection of
+coins in India?"
+
+"He wouldn't part with one of them, though, for love or money. And I
+doubt his parting with you--though I could pay a lot--in love."
+
+He had both her hands now, and the very newness of the position made
+her fence with the emotion it aroused.
+
+"He parted with duplicates."
+
+"But you aren't one--there isn't anyone like you in the wide, wide
+world. And I'm glad you're not. I don't want anyone else to be as lucky
+as I am."
+
+She retreated still further from realities into jesting. "Then
+he exchanges quite often, so, if you only set yourself to find
+something----" She broke off, and her face lit up. "Oh, Jim! I have
+such a delightful idea! You shall find the gold coin--you know the one
+I mean--with the date that is to settle, or unsettle, half the history
+of the world! Do you know, I really believe, if you helped him to
+confound all those German wiseacres, that father would be quite willing
+to exchange----"
+
+"His daughter for the ducat! Perhaps. But, unfortunately--and quite
+between ourselves--I have my doubts about the existence of that coin.
+Or if it does exist it is hopelessly hidden away for ever and ever and
+aye, like that blessed old buried city of his that we have all been
+hunting after this month past in the wilderness. I don't wish to be
+disrespectful to your father, Queenie, but I believe he dreamt of
+it--that is to say, if it didn't dream of him--one never knows which
+comes first----"
+
+He paused, arrested in the egoism, the absolute individualism of love
+by the mystery of the collective life which was part even of that love,
+and once more his eyes wandered to the sun setting.
+
+The sky had darkened on the horizon as the dust haze shadowed into
+purple, so that the distant edge of the low sand-hills, losing definite
+outline, seemed almost level. Yet far and near, from the feet of the
+lovers as they sat close together to that uncertain ending of their
+visible world, not a straight line was to be seen. Everything showed in
+curves--curves that told their unflinching tale of unseen circlings.
+The wrinkled ripples left by the last wind upon the sea of sand around
+them waved over the endless undulations of the desert, the sparse
+tussocks of coarse grass fell in fountains from their own centres, the
+stunted thorn-bushes were coiled and twisted on themselves like tangled
+skeins without a clue, the faint tracks of the sand-rats and the
+partridges wound snake-like in every direction, and even the footprints
+which had brought the two lovers in their present resting-place held
+the same hint of reference to unseen continuity, for, absorbed in
+Love's new world, they had wandered on aimlessly unheeding of the old
+one at their feet.
+
+The result stared them in the face, now, in a firm yet undecided trail
+that was by far the most salient feature in the indefinite landscape.
+Jim Forrester laughed as he directed her attention to it.
+
+"We seem to have gone round and round on our tracks; so the tents, and
+your respected father and civilisation generally must be--well! exactly
+where I would have sworn they were not. But that just bears out what I
+was saying. For all we know the whole thing may be a peculiarly vicious
+circle! The world may be going back when we think it is going forward,
+and all the fine new things we think we find, may only he ourselves
+again. You and I, and the buried city and the gold coin--everything
+that we dream of, or that dreams of us, may only be part of the hidden
+circle which belongs to the curve of a life which has no straight
+lines--My God! take care--what the devil is that?"
+
+That, if anything, _was_ a straight line--straight as an arrow. And an
+arrow it was, still vibrating in the soft sand at their very feet. Jim
+Forrester stood up angrily and looked round for the archer who had
+drawn his bow at such an unpleasantly close venture. But no one was
+visible, so he stooped down and drew the arrow out of the sand. He had
+seen its like, or almost its like, before in those wild central tracts
+of sandy desert where the wandering tribes of goatherds still cling to
+the weapons of a past age. His companion, however, had not, and she
+bent to examine it curiously. The attitude made the fair coils of her
+hair, which were plaited round her head, look more than ever like a
+heavy gold crown.
+
+"It takes one back to another world altogether," she said, watching him
+as he balanced it critically to appraise the perfection of its poise.
+"To a world where it was made, perhaps--for it looks old, doesn't it! I
+wonder who----"
+
+She paused, becoming conscious that someone was standing behind her.
+Jim Forrester became conscious of the fact also, and showed it in such
+an aggressive way that she exclaimed hastily:
+
+"Don't be angry with him, please. It must have been quite a chance--he
+couldn't have known we were here."
+
+Even without the plea it would have been difficult for the young
+Englishman to refuse the chance of explanation to the figure which had
+appeared so unexpectedly. For, though in all outward accessories it was
+only that of a wandering goatherd, there was a calm dignity about it
+which claimed consideration. The fillet which bound the hair,
+sun-ripened to a rich brown on its waves and curls, was only a knotted
+bit of goats'-hair string, but the head it encircled had a youthful
+buoyancy such as the Greek sculptors gave to the young Apollo, a
+resemblance enhanced by the statuesque folds of the rough goats'-hair
+blanketing which was sparsely draped over the bare, sinewy yet
+fine-drawn frame.
+
+The face, however, was faintly aquiline, and the eyes, deep set between
+prominent brow and cheek bone, had the mingled fire and softness which
+in India so often redeems an otherwise commonplace countenance.
+
+"I was stalking bustard, Huzoor," said the goatherd frankly, with a
+flash of very white teeth, "and being face down on the sand yonder
+behind the grasses saw nothing till the Presences stood up, but a glint
+of the sun on something."
+
+He spoke to the man, but his eyes were on the girl's golden crown of
+hair.
+
+Jim Forrester suddenly broke the arrow across his knee and threw the
+fragments from him into the sand ripples.
+
+"Hand me over the bow, too," he said, peremptorily, then paused.
+"Hullo! Where the deuce did you get that--it is very old--the oldest
+I've seen--with a looped string, too?" he added, handling it curiously.
+
+The goatherd smiled. "The Presence is welcome to keep it if he likes. I
+can get plenty more in the old city."
+
+Once again, in speaking to the man, his eyes, askance, were on the
+girl.
+
+She started. "In the old city," she echoed, "Jim! do you hear
+that--then you know where the old city is?"
+
+The goatherd almost laughed. "Wherefore not, malika sahiba
+(queen-lady). Have I not lived in it always?"
+
+"Lived in it! Then where is it?"
+
+He swept a bronze hand in a circle which clipped her and him and the
+distant horizon.
+
+"Here, queen-lady."
+
+"Here," echoed Jim Forrester, incredulously; "but there are absolutely
+no signs of a city here."
+
+"Plenty, Huzoor!" replied the goatherd, "if the Protector of the Poor
+will only use his eyes. Look yonder, how the ground rises to meet the
+curve of the sky; yonder, sahib, where the sunset red dyes deepest."
+
+The young Englishman looked and frowned, but the girl gave a quick
+exclamation, and laid a hasty, surprised touch on her lover's arm. "He
+is right, Jim," she said; "why didn't we notice it before? It stands
+out quite clear--an even rise all round centring on the unseen sun. How
+very curious! Ask him his name, Jim, and all that, so that father may
+be able to get hold of him. Fancy if we find the buried city--it would
+be as good almost as the gold coin, though somehow it makes me feel
+creepy." She gave a faint shiver as she spoke.
+
+"The queen-lady should not remain in the wilderness when the sun has
+set," came in swift warning from the goatherd; "there is a fever fiend
+lurks in it and brings strange dreams."
+
+Something almost of familiarity and command in the liquid yet vibrant
+voice made Jim Forrester frown again and say, shortly, "Yes; we must
+get back; it grows quite cold."
+
+The girl looked half bewildered first to one and then to the other of
+the two tall figures that stood between her and the fast-fading light,
+against which she still saw clearly that faint swelling domed blue
+shadow, as of some other world forcing its way through the crust of the
+visible one.
+
+So she stood silent, vaguely disturbed while the few questions
+necessary to identify the man who answered them were asked.
+
+She did not speak, indeed, until with faces set on the right path for
+their camp and civilisation generally, they paused on the top of the
+first sand-rippled wave to look back. The shadowy dome was still there,
+swelling towards the vanished sun, and from its side the figure of the
+young goatherd rose into the darkening dust haze. He was calling to his
+flock, and the words of his old-time chant were clearly audible:
+
+
+      "O, seekers for Life's meat,
+       Your course is run!
+       Come home with weary feet,
+       Rest is so sweet.
+       What though one day be done?--
+       Another has begun.
+       The flock, the fold are one,
+       Where long years meet!"
+
+
+"I hope he told us his real name!" she said, suddenly.
+
+
+                                  II
+
+"My dear child, all your geese are swans--and so were your poor
+mother's before you," said her father. And then his eyes grew dreamy,
+perhaps over the intricacies of some new coins he was classifying;
+though, in truth, the memory of the young wife who had left him alone
+with a week-old baby in the days of his youth had somehow come harder
+to him during the last few happier, more home-like years since his
+daughter had returned to take her mother's place as mistress of the
+house; for the girl was very like the dead woman.
+
+She had brought her father his afternoon cup of tea to the
+office-tent, cleared for that brief recess of the cloud of clerks and
+witnesses, who through the wide canvas-wings, set open to let in the
+air, could be seen huddled in groups among the sparse shadows of the
+stunted kikar trees amid which the camp was pitched. They could be
+heard also, since in the limited leisure at their disposal they were
+hubble-hubbling away at their hookahs conscientiously; the noise in its
+rhythmic, intermittent insistency seemed like a distant snore from the
+sleepy desert of sand that stretched away to the horizon on all sides.
+
+"Of course," he went on, "you could hardly be expected to know--though
+really, my dear, you have all your mother's quickness of perception
+regarding people and places--but the mere fact of that goatherd fellow
+giving his name as Khesroo, and admitting he was low-caste, should have
+made you doubt his assertion. I confess I had little hope, for such
+knowledge as he professed to have is generally in the keeping of the
+priesthood only."
+
+"But Jim was there--I mean Mr. Forrester," she began. Her father
+coughed uneasily.
+
+"Because I call my personal assistant, whom I have known as a child,
+Jim, that is no reason, my dear Queenie, why you should contract the
+habit. I don't think your poor mother would have liked it. Besides,
+though he is an able young man--very much so, indeed, and when he
+grows older will make an excellent officer--Mr. Forrester--ahem!"
+(he made a violent effort over the name) "has no genius for
+antiquities. He utterly fails, for instance, to realise the
+far-reaching importance--for it would, of course, alter the whole
+chronology of the Græco-Bactrian era--of my contention concerning
+what Hausmann and the German school generally venture to designate a
+post-Vicramaditya. Yet some day, I feel sure, the gold coin of which
+Kapala gives so exact a description in B.C. 200, with the date under
+the legend and a double profile on the obverse, will turn up, and then
+the point will be settled, even if I do not live to see it."
+
+He was fairly off on his hobby and had risen to pace the tent, his
+hands behind his back. Many a time and oft she had listened to him
+patiently, almost eagerly, for the story of India's golden age always
+fired her imagination, but to-day she was thinking of other things--of
+her engagement for one, which she must break to him sooner or later. So
+she went up to him and tucked her arm into his coaxingly.
+
+"You may, father. It might be found any day. Do you know, I believe you
+would give almost anything--even your daughter--for that ducat.
+Wouldn't you?"
+
+Absolute jest as it was, her voice trembled over the trivial words, as
+voices often do unconsciously when Fate means to turn them to her own
+purposes.
+
+He smiled and patted her hand. "Undoubtedly, I would, my dear. But,
+nice as you are, no one is likely to offer me that exchange. To begin
+with, the coin, as a simple unique, would be worth a fortune, and then
+there is the fame. Think of it! Half the philologists, most of the
+historians, and all those German fellows routed on their own ground!"
+
+"Who knows?" she said, and then a frown dimmed the amusement in her
+eyes. "Though I can't understand," she added, "why that man Khesroo
+denied--as you say he did--having met Jim--I mean, us--yesterday. He
+can't be the wrong man, can he?"
+
+"Mr. Forrester thinks he is not. But you can see for yourself," replied
+her father, returning to his tea and his treasures, "for he is still
+over in the orderlies' tent. They had such trouble hunting him out of
+the jungles and persuading him to come here that they said they must
+keep him overnight, anyhow, in case he was wanted."
+
+An hour or so afterwards, therefore, a yellow-legged constable escorted
+the goatherd who had answered to the name of Khesroo into the verandah
+of the Miss-Sahiba's drawing-room tent. It, also, was set wide to the
+cool of the desert evening, and its easy-chairs and low, flower-decked
+tables strewn with books and magazines struck a curiously dissonant
+note from that sounded by the wilderness of sandy waste which on all
+sides hemmed in the little square of white-winged camp with a certain
+hungry emptiness.
+
+"He is the man, Jim," said the girl, in an undertone (for her father
+had come over from office and was seated within, reading the daily
+papers which the camel-post had just brought). "And yet--he looks
+different somehow--and so ill, too."
+
+He did look ill, with the languid yet harassed air which follows on
+malarial fever. The buoyancy of his carriage was replaced by an almost
+dejected air. Yet it was unmistakably the goatherd they had met the
+evening before, who, in obedience to a sign, squatted down midway, as
+it were, between the culture inside the tent and the savagery without
+it.
+
+"You look as if you had been having fever--have you?" asked the girl
+abruptly, for her years of authority had made her knowledgeable in such
+things.
+
+"The malika sahiba says right," replied Khesroo, indifferently. "I have
+had it much--this long while back."
+
+"And you had it yesterday or the day before?"
+
+"It was yesterday. I was put past by it all day. And yet----" here a
+vague perplexity came to the dulled yet anxious face as he looked first
+at the girl, then apologetically at Jim Forrester. "What the Presence
+said about meeting me is perhaps right after all. Yes! it is right. I
+did see the Huzoor. I have remembered from the graciousness of the
+queen-lady and the gold crown of her hair."
+
+The young Englishman frowned angrily. "You work miracles in memory, my
+dear Queenie," he said, and there was quite an aggrieved tone in his
+voice as he turned shortly on the speaker. "Why on earth didn't you
+tell the truth before, then? And the old city? I suppose you remember
+all about that, too?"
+
+"The old city," echoed Khesroo, doubtfully. "No, Huzoor! What should I
+know about it beyond what all know--that there was a city, and that it
+is lost? Such as I know only what the wise tell them----" he paused,
+and even to his deprecation came a half-resigned self-assertion,
+"And yet I had more chance than most, seeing that my mother was
+twice-born."
+
+"She was, was she?" put in his hearer, and then looked round towards
+his chief. "Do you hear that, sir? His mother was a Brahmani--that may
+account for his profile, which you said this morning puzzled you in a
+low-caste man."
+
+"I said it was Scythic in type, and so it is," was the answer, as the
+speaker laid down his paper and came forward for further inspection.
+"So your mother was twice-born," he continued, addressing the goatherd;
+"a child-widow, I suppose?"
+
+Khesroo stretched his hand out, the fingers wide-spread in a dignified
+assent, which suited him better than his former almost cringing
+humility.
+
+"Huzoor, yes! Her people, however, did not find her till I was nigh
+six; but after that, of course, I was alone."
+
+A hush fell on the group, for--to those three listeners who understood
+them--the simple words told of a common enough tragedy in India; of a
+life denied all natural outlet, of unworthy love, of outraged pride of
+race followed by sure, if slow, revenge.
+
+"And your father--who was he?"
+
+Kresroo shook his head. "I had no one but my mother, Huzoor."
+
+There was another hush, on which the girl's voice rose clear with a
+curious thrill in it.
+
+"And she was very beautiful, was she not?"
+
+"Her son is a good-looking fellow, at any rate," remarked Jim
+Forrester, coolly, and moving away, he took up the newspaper, conscious
+of a certain irritation, and began to read the latest report of
+wireless telegraphy with the unsuspicious and unquestioning assent
+which we of these latter days reserve for the marvels of matter only.
+
+Her father having gone back to his papers also, the girl and the
+goatherd were left alone midway between civilisation and savagery.
+Huddled in his coarse blanketing, his bare arms crossed over his bare
+knees, there was nothing distinctive or unusual in Khesroo's figure,
+behind which the background of shadowy desert was fast fading into
+shadowy sky, except the haggardness of the aquiline face, the
+hollowness of the dark eyes. These struck her, and she stretched out
+her hand to feel his.
+
+"Have you fever now? No, you are quite cool."
+
+He shivered slightly at her touch, and his eyes, passing hers, seemed
+to rest on the plaits of her hair.
+
+"No, Huzoor," he replied, "it is a thief fever--it is hard to catch."
+
+She smiled. "I think quinine will manage it."
+
+He shook his head. "Nothing catches that which robs us of life at its
+own time. It will leave me none some day." He spoke unconcernedly, as
+if the fact were beyond question.
+
+"Then why do you wear that amulet if it is of no use?" she said,
+pointing to the little leathern bag, such as the wild tribes use for
+the carrying of charms, which was tied round his arm.
+
+Khesroo shook his head again, but smiled this time, and the flash of
+his white teeth must have removed any doubt of his identity, had such
+doubt existed.
+
+"The queen-lady mistakes," he said. "It does not contain a charm. It is
+my _photongrar_."
+
+"Your what?" she echoed, uncomprehending.
+
+"_Photongrar_. The picture, Huzoor, that the sun holds always of all
+things it has ever seen in the world. It showed this to a memsahiba
+long ago when I was little, and she showed it to my mother."
+
+"You mean your photograph?"
+
+"Huzoor, yes! Perhaps the queen-lady might care to see it, since it is
+like my mother as she was--_before they found her!_"
+
+Perhaps it was the thought of what the poor woman must have been like
+_after_ that finding which made the English girl feel a vague
+oppression as she took the tight roll of paper that Khesroo unfolded
+from a piece of red rag.
+
+"I was five, Huzoor," he said simply, "and my mother loved me much."
+
+Small wonder, was the girl's first thought as she looked at the sedate,
+yet childish face, half-concealed by the high turban, which had
+evidently been borrowed for the occasion, at the quaint dignity of the
+childish figure huddled into finery too large for it, and holding a
+flower in its hand as if it had been a sceptre. But as she looked, a
+startled expression came over her face; she stood up and hurried to her
+father, with appeal in her voice.
+
+"Oh, father! do look here! How very curious! This photograph of Khesroo
+when he was a child--I think mother must have taken it, for I am almost
+sure there is one like it in her diary--in the volume you gave me to
+read the other day, because we were camping through the same country.
+Stay! I'll fetch it----"
+
+She was back in a moment with an unclasped book in her hand, and
+fluttered hastily through pages and sketches, almost to the end.
+
+"There!" she cried, suddenly, "I was sure of it!"
+
+Her father laid the one photograph beside the other, and Jim Forrester,
+looking over his shoulder curiously, compared them also. They were
+identical. But underneath the one pasted into the book a woman's hand
+had written:
+
+
+                        "_The Son of a King!_"
+
+
+The title fitted the picture, and reminded the girl of something in
+Khesroo which had struck her yesterday and which was absent to-day. She
+turned over the page, but beyond it all was blank. Those words were the
+last in the diary.
+
+"I think I remember something about it now, my dear," said her
+father, taking his hand away from the book gently; "it may have been
+the last she took, for I was camping round here as assistant just
+before--before you were born. And she was always taking children and
+giving pictures to the mothers; not that I remember that particular
+one--you see it must be fifteen years ago--at least."
+
+"Nearer five-and-twenty, dear," she said, softly, and as she realised
+the impotence of what the world counts as time to touch the smallest
+thing that once has been, the utter irrelevance of days and weeks and
+years in connection with a single thought, the photographs before her
+grew dim to her eyes, the fine feminine writing with its verdict, "The
+Son of a King," became invisible.
+
+So through her tears she saw only--blurred and indistinct--the
+wondering face of Khesroo the goatherd.
+
+"Look!" she said, in sudden impulse. "The sun must have held two
+pictures of you."
+
+He stared at the duplicate stupidly. "I did not steal it," he began,
+uneasily.
+
+"Of course you didn't," she replied, smiling now. "It was my mother who
+took the picture, and gave it to yours--she was the mem-sahiba you
+spoke of--perhaps you remember her?"
+
+A look almost of relief came to the goatherd's haggard, anxious face.
+"Yes! Perhaps your slave remembers, and that is why he thought he
+recollected the graciousness of the queen-lady and the gold crown of
+her hair. That will be it, and your slave did not lie to the Huzoor."
+He looked apologetically towards the young Englishman; but the latter
+had once more an aggrieved tone in his voice as he said shortly in
+English:
+
+"Whether he did or did not doesn't much matter. There isn't anything to
+be got out of him apparently, so perhaps you had better tell the
+orderly to take him back to the tent and see that he takes the quinine
+you send--as I suppose you will."
+
+
+                                 III
+
+"I meant to tell him yesterday, Jim," said the girl, in an undertone,
+glancing with almost maternal solicitude at her father, who was writing
+within, his grey, somewhat bald head shining out in the light of the
+lamp by which he was working, against the intense shadowy darkness of
+the tent walls, "but that disappointment about the lost city, wasn't,
+so to say, propitious. And to-day there was that letter from Hausmann
+about the coin somebody has discovered, which has quite upset him. Poor
+father," she added, turning to her lover again, "it will be hard on
+him. Did you notice how he said it was but fifteen years ..."
+
+She broke off and looked out into the night. The stars were showing
+overhead through the fine fret of the kikar trees, though the horizon
+still held a hint of the day that was dead. Against this paler
+background she fancied she could see--itself a shadow, yet half hidden
+by shadow--that curving dome as of a new world forcing its way through
+the crust of the old, or an old one through the new.
+
+"It was odd about those photographs, wasn't it?" she said,
+irrelevantly. "He must be five years older than I am."
+
+"His age is honoured by the comparison."
+
+"My dear Jim," she interrupted, opening her eyes, "this unfortunate
+goatherd seems----"
+
+"I said he was fortunate, I think. But I admit hating things I don't
+quite understand."
+
+"Then you must hate me--now don't be angry," she added: "I mean no
+blame. I very often don't understand myself."
+
+"I know that--and that is why I want this business settled and
+clear--you--you seem so far off sometimes."
+
+There was a passion in his voice; he stretched his hands out to her as
+she stood apart, her filmy dinner dress looking ghostly and elusive
+seen half in the dark, half by the feeble light from within the tent.
+
+She stretched out her hands also, but there was all the world between
+his almost pathetic appeal and her almost amused repulse.
+
+"You must make haste and find the ducat, Jim. I feel sure that without
+it--and especially in his present mood--father will never consent----"
+
+He certainly did not seem in a consenting frame of mind as he came out
+to them with the offending letter from Hausmann in his hand.
+
+"I've answered it," he said, sternly, "but as the man is an ass, he
+will most likely miss the point, which is, of course, Kapala's
+description of this coin. He says distinctly that it has one profile
+superimposed on another with the legend beneath, and the date below the
+flower on the obverse. Really, child, I think I will get you to figure
+it for me, since Hausmann seems unable to understand words."
+
+"You could use the handsome goatherd as a model, you know," remarked
+Jim Forrester, vaguely surprised at his own irritation; "your father
+said his features were Scythic."
+
+"Yes!" assented the numismatist, abstractedly, as he tried to re-read
+part of the offending missive by the distant light of the lamp; "rather
+an uncommon type in India, nowadays, though one sees it elsewhere.
+Queenie has it partly--your mother had Russian blood in her, you know."
+
+"Perhaps that is why I feel so interested in Khesroo," said the girl,
+looking coldly askance at her lover.
+
+"Oh, by the way," put in her father, breaking in on his own indignation
+and the silence which ensued between those two who loved each other--a
+silence which both felt to be at once incomprehensible yet inevitable,
+intolerable yet in a way rascinating--"that reminds me. The orderlies
+reported he was bad with fever to-night. Send him over some more
+quinine."
+
+"I'll take it, if you like," said Jim Forrester, faintly penitent.
+
+She looked at the two men with disdainful tolerance. "I will see him
+first. One never knows what these people call fever--it may be
+pneumonia."
+
+She moved off as she spoke, into the night, meaning to cross over
+towards the orderlies' tent, then paused to glance back at the
+figure--which followed. "Are you coming, too?" she said, curtly. "I can
+manage all right."
+
+"Of course I am coming!" replied Jim Forrester. "It is pitch dark,
+to begin with, and I can at least help you to find your patient. I
+think you had better keep outside the camp, so as to avoid the
+tent-ropes--it isn't any longer, really."
+
+It was, if anything, shorter, but it brought them instantly into the
+grip, as it were, of the desert, which crept hungrily upon the camp on
+all sides; so that, ere they had gone five steps beyond the canvas
+wings of the tent, they seemed as much alone, as far from conventional
+twentieth-century life, as they had been two days before, when they
+first sat together as betrothed lovers in the sunset of a world of
+curves telling the tale of eternal, of unseen circlings. Even so much
+of Life's secret was invisible now. All they saw was a darkness they
+knew to be wilderness, a dim outline of themselves, close together,
+hand in hand. For with the knowledge that they were alone--perhaps with
+the memory of the wilderness--they had clasped hands instinctively, and
+for the time the sense of stress and strain had passed.
+
+It returned again, however, with curious vividness, as, right in their
+path, a shadow, dim as their own, showed suddenly.
+
+She knew who it was instinctively before it spoke.
+
+"I thought you had fever," she said. "Why are you here?"
+
+"I have been waiting the graciousness of the queen-lady," came the
+reply, and the voice was buoyant with joyous vitality. "I have to tell
+her my dreams--the fever always brings dreams, and I remember now! Yea!
+I remember all things from the beginning. So, if she will come, I will
+show her the lost city where we lived, and she will dream the dream
+also."
+
+Dimly, in the darkness, she fancied she could see the shining of his
+eyes, see his beckoning hand. What her lover saw was a movement of the
+shadow towards the wilderness: what he felt was a faint increase in the
+distance between his hand and hers which made him claim it again.
+
+"Queenie!" he cried, "what are you thinking of? You can't possibly go
+now. The man is delirious with fever--surely you hear that in his
+voice. You had better come back to the tent and let me send someone to
+take him into shelter and look after him."
+
+For an instant no one spoke, and then it seemed almost a bodiless voice
+from the desert which broke the silence, for in his desire to detain
+her, Jim Forrester had drawn the girl back a pace or two, so that the
+darkness lay deeper between their two shadows and that third one nearer
+the wilderness.
+
+"Let the queen-lady decide for herself. If she comes, I will show her
+all forgotten things--the golden crown that is not plaited hair, the
+golden coin that was made for the lovers----"
+
+"Jim," she whispered, almost fiercely, "do you hear? It is the gold
+coin--it is waiting to be found. I must go----"
+
+"This is pure folly," protested the young Englishman. "If anyone has to
+go, I will, of course. But what hurry is there? Why not wait till
+to-morrow--now, do be reasonable, Queenie, and consider----"
+
+She ceased trying to release her hand, and when she spoke again it was
+in a natural tone.
+
+"Yes. I forgot that. Khesroo, I will come with you to-morrow. It will
+be easier by daylight. Go back to the orderlies' tent now, and I will
+send you over some more medicine, and when the fever has gone----"
+
+"The dreams will have gone, too," came the voice out of the night; but
+it, also, was more natural, more like that of Khesroo the goatherd. "I
+shall forget again, and then the gold coin that was struck for her and
+her lover----"
+
+"For her and her lover," echoed the girl, softly. "Did you hear, Jim? I
+must go and get it for you."
+
+"Long--long ago----" came the voice again.
+
+She echoed the words almost inaudibly this time, and Jim Forrester drew
+her closer as he said sharply: "If anyone goes, I will; but I don't
+see----"
+
+The voice interrupted him. "But the queen-lady sees. She is like her
+mother; she sees pictures in the sun. Of course, the Huzoor can come;
+but if the queen-lady really wants this thing--if she believes--if she
+trusts----"
+
+"Let me go, Jim! let me go!"
+
+"You shall not," he cried, seizing her round the waist in swift
+antagonism to some unseen influence, in sudden consciousness of
+conflict.
+
+And so to both him and her in the darkness and stillness of the desert,
+within a few steps only of quiet, comfortable, commonplace
+civilisation, came like a whirlwind a perfect tumult of bewildering
+emotions, and all the deathless forces which never slumber or sleep in
+their work of moulding the soul of man, leapt from silence into speech.
+Love, jealousy, hatred, resolve, high courage--all these seemed to
+sweep through their every fibre of mind and body, leaving them
+breathless, wondering, uncertain if they were awake or dreaming, if
+they were real or mere shadows of a reality which Time cannot touch or
+alter. For an instant only they were conscious of all this--but the
+instant might have been an hour in its suggestion of infinite
+experience.
+
+Then Time claimed them once more, time and trivialities and
+commonsense, so that ten minutes afterwards, Jim Forrester, having made
+his preparations for a tramp into the desert, was stooping to say
+good-night to his betrothed and to assure her of his speedy return. The
+moon would rise in half-an-hour, the distance to the place where they
+had first met Khesroo could not be over three miles, he would be back
+by midnight.
+
+Meanwhile, she could tell her father he had turned in, but if she chose
+herself to sit up--well ...
+
+As their lips met lingeringly, a little breeze that had wandered from
+the desert shifted a ripple or two on the sand-waves about their feet,
+and died away like a sigh in the fine fret of the kikar trees above the
+unseen tents.
+
+
+                                  IV
+
+It was an hour before dawn.
+
+The desert itself could scarcely have been stiller than the camp. In
+the white moonlight the white tents looked like some shrouded city of
+the dead, forgotten yet unburied; for, here and there, some out in the
+moonlit open, other flecked with the fine shadow of the kikar trees,
+lay corpse-like figures swathed in sheets, as if waiting for their
+graves. There was no sound, no sign of life, not even where the
+moonlight, slanting through the still, wide-set wings of the
+drawing-room tent, showed the folds of a woman's dress, the daintiness
+of a high-heeled shoe.
+
+The rest of the figure was in shadow, though the light, in its last
+effort against the darkness of the tent, claimed the pages of the open
+book which lay on the sleeping girl's lap, and turned one of them into
+a silver framing for the photograph of a child. So vivid was the light
+that even the fine feminine writing beneath it showed in the dead
+woman's verdict:
+
+
+                        "_The Son of a King!_"
+
+
+For the girl had been pondering over the strange chance which had
+brought her, in her turn, within the influence of this nameless
+kingship when, as she waited for her lover's return, she had fallen
+asleep in her chair. And yet, as she had sat there, thinking, watching,
+she had felt very wide awake indeed. Not with anxiety, however; that
+had passed. In fact, as she followed in her mind what had gone before
+Jim Forrester's quite prosaic start to walk three or four miles into
+the wilderness on a moonlight night to be shown the bearings of a
+buried city and possibly to be given proof positive that there were
+ruins beneath the sand, she had been in grave doubt as to what had
+actually occurred. Had there been conflict? Had love and jealousy and
+hatred and resolve risen up and claimed them all? Surely not. Why,
+indeed, should it be so? Though, doubtless, in her, in her lover, in
+the goatherd, there was something held, as it were, in common, yet
+which had struggled to be individual, separate.
+
+And this had been most marked between the young Englishman and the
+goatherd. Unaccountable as it was, she felt that in some mysterious
+fundamental mind of hers these two were associated indissolubly--that
+they stood towards her on the same plane. Nay, more! that it was the
+consciousness of this which kept her calm, which overbore the
+possibility of future danger, the memory of past conflict. What harm
+could happen to the Son of a King or with the Son of a King?
+
+The phrase had been on her lips as she fell asleep. It was on them as
+she awoke and stood up suddenly, the open book sliding soundless from
+her lap into the soft sand. But the phrase brought no comfort with it
+now. Had she been asleep for long! Had her lover returned? Was it past
+midnight?
+
+The anxious questions surged up through the crust of calm before she
+was half awake, and instinctively she was outside the tent in a moment
+on her way towards her lover's, her rapid feet, shod in the dainty
+high-heeled slippers, dimpling the shifting sand.
+
+The coming dawn had sent cloud heralds to the west, and an advanced
+pursuivant, drifting across the moon, shadowed all things faintly and
+seemed to increase the silence.
+
+She called softly; there was no reply, so she looked in. A glance told
+her that her lover had not returned, and the light stealing in through
+the uplifted screen showed her by the travelling-clock hung to the
+tent-pole that it was already past three o'clock.
+
+Three! What had happened--and what was to be done? For an instant the
+ordinary inrush of anxiety made her think of rousing the camp, of
+sending out search-parties; but the next brought her a curious
+conviction that in this case danger lay in seeking outside help: a
+certainty that in this matter she must stand alone, that in this
+crisis--whatever it was--there must be but three alone--if, indeed,
+there were three--herself, her lover, and this nameless Son of a King.
+
+So, almost without a pause, the dimples left by her rapid feet were
+curving towards the highest sand-wave within sight of the camp. Thence
+she could watch the desert sea, and perhaps find him, even now, close
+at hand. But once there, the next sand-wave attracted her as being a
+better point of vantage, and so from wave to wave she flitted in her
+white dress like some desert bird, leaving behind her a curved track of
+dimples in the sliding sand, until a little wind, the herald blast of
+the hurrying clouds overhead, crept low down over the world and swept
+the dimples back into the old ripples.
+
+"Khesroo!" she called, suddenly, for a shadow seemed beside hers in
+that empty wilderness; but there was no answer.
+
+"Jim!" she called again, uncertainly; but there was no reply. Yet she
+was not frightened. She knew now, in that mysterious fundamental mind
+of hers, that she alone was responsible, that she, and she only, could
+solve the riddle. Khesroo had been right. If she wanted this thing, if
+she had believed, if she had trusted, she would have gone before. And
+now she must hurry, or it would be too late--wherefore or for what she
+scarcely considered.
+
+"Khesroo!" she called once more, and this time there was a faint
+inflection of fear in her voice; for was that figure Khesroo, the
+goatherd, or was it her lover? Or was it neither; but someone only of
+whom she had dreamt as the Son of a King?
+
+Should she go back? The wish struck her keenly, but she ignored it, and
+went on. She must, she knew, have left the camp far behind her, and, if
+she had kept the right direction, would soon be close on the spot where
+that straight line of an arrow had startled her by its intrusion into
+her dream of love.
+
+If she had kept it! And surely she had, for behind her the east was
+faintly lightening with the dawn. Yonder, therefore, in the dark of the
+heralding clouds which had huddled upon the western horizon must lie
+the domed shadows of the buried city.
+
+"Khesroo!" she cried, instinctively, the very soul of her speaking,
+"show it to me! For the sake of the woman who died, as women die for a
+life of love, a love of life, show it to me!"
+
+And then, behind her, she heard a voice chanting, as Khesroo, the
+goatherd, had chanted, the call of guidance for the wanderers in the
+desert. Yet the words were different; for these were they:
+
+
+             "Seekers for sleep, arise!
+              Your rest is done.
+              Go forth with weary eyes
+              To find your prize
+              In vain, in vain! To none
+              Will slumber have begun
+              Till from the heart of one
+                  Desire dies."
+
+
+Listening, she turned to look, then realised that in her searching she
+must once more have circled back on her own footsteps, for behind and
+not before her, dark, clear, unmistakable, the domed shadow of the lost
+city lay against the lightening east. And on its swelling side, as
+Khesroo had stood before, he stood again. Was it the rising sun which
+turned the fillet of knotted cord about his head to gold?--which dyed
+the coarse blanketing to royal purple, and transformed the wearer into
+the perfect kingliness of buoyant youth and beauty? She never knew. She
+only felt that something stronger than herself caught her, held her,
+clasped her, and yet drew her on, so that with hands outstretched she
+ran towards it, crying between smiles and tears:
+
+"The Son of a King! The Son of a King!"
+
+The next instant she had tripped and fallen heavily on her face over a
+tangled tuft of grass concealing an unusually deep descent of a desert
+wave. As she picked herself up, confused, somewhat dazed, and paused to
+free her eyes from the sand grains which clouded them, something almost
+at her feet brought her back to realities, and she gave a quick
+exclamation. For in the hollow beneath the wave, where he had evidently
+sought shelter deliberately, Jim Forrester lay curled up comfortably,
+fast asleep. At least, so it seemed, though Khesroo's quaint old bow
+must surely make rather an uncomfortable pillow.
+
+She stooped over the sleeping man, and for an instant her face
+whitened; she bent lower to listen to his breathing. And as she
+listened a couple of startled sand-chaffs fled from a neighbouring
+thorn bush, their chuckling cry echoing over the desert like an evil
+laugh.
+
+But a minute afterwards, in answer to her touch, Jim Forrester was
+staring at her trying to collect his sleep-scattered senses.
+
+"Hullo!" he said, slowly. "How on earth did I--Ah! I remember. That
+brute of a goatherd played the garden ass and I lost him, so after
+wandering about for hours, I turned in till daylight. But you--my
+dearest dear----"
+
+He started to his feet as he realised her presence there, and held out
+both his hands to her.
+
+As he did so, something dropped from them and lay glittering on the
+sand at his feet. It was a gold coin.
+
+They looked at each other, amazed; then she stooped and picked it up.
+
+"A double profile," she said slowly, holding it so as to catch the
+growing sunlight, "and the legend round"--she spelt it out from the
+Greek lettering--"'Basileus Basileon.'"
+
+"And the date," he cried, "the date!"
+
+"Yes, the date is there," she replied, still more slowly turning to the
+obverse, "the bird and the date--it is all right--but I was thinking of
+the other----"
+
+"What other?"
+
+"Basileus Basileon--'the King of Kings,'" she said softly, and looked
+out towards the sunrise. But the light had claimed the whole world and
+sent all shadows flying.
+
+So happily, prosaically, they went home to breakfast. Yet there was one
+thing which she never told anyone, perhaps because it might
+have stood in the way of the popular explanation of the whole
+affair--namely, that Khesroo had happened on the coin and must have put
+it in Jim Forrester's hand after the latter fell asleep. So, not even
+when her father proudly pointed out to admirers that the double profile
+was that of a man and a woman, and that the latter, curiously enough,
+might almost be a portrait of his married daughter, did she ever say
+that when she found her husband asleep in the sand that morning, the
+looped bowstring of Khesroo the goatherd's bow was loose about his
+neck.
+
+But she often wonders if it would have been drawn tighter had she not
+gone to seek for what she wanted.
+
+
+
+
+                          THE BIRTH OF FIRE
+
+
+The night was clear and silent.
+
+The light-pulse of the stars as they wheeled with slow certainty to
+meet the dawn was the only visible movement in the whole expanse of
+shadowed earth and sky.
+
+And the only sound audible was my own life breath as I sate beside the
+glowing embers of the camp fire.
+
+Strictly speaking, however, there was no camp, for I, and the two
+coolies who carried my breakfast, had missed our way in our detour
+through the eternal sameness of faint curve and level in the wide
+uplands, and finally, in despair of rejoining our tents, had bivouacked
+as best we could on the shore of a small frozen lake; one of those
+obstinate, rock-bound pools which, even when spring has set seal of
+conquest on the world, refuse to melt, and so yield up their treasure
+of sweet water to its renewed thirst for Life.
+
+My servants had forced this particular lakelet to philanthropy with
+rude blows; wantonly rude it had seemed to me, as I watched the swift
+shiver with which the stable unity of surface had split into forlorn
+fragments of ice, each adrift at the mercy of that which they had held
+prisoner for so long.
+
+The other necessary element, fire, my men had also commandeered by a
+raid on the low juniper which crept like moss below the taller grasses
+of the plain.
+
+The result had not been altogether satisfactory, for the pungent
+smoke of the aromatic wood had--at least, so the sufferers averred,
+though, at the time, I suspected a recourse for comfort to my
+whisky-flask--produced unmistakable symptoms of intoxication in the
+amateur cooks, who, after valiantly serving me up a réchauffé of
+breakfast had succumbed to sleep. The mattress of creeping juniper on
+which they lay like logs was springy enough to have hidden them from
+sight even if the shadowed earth had not been so dark; for it was dark,
+formless, void, as only an unbroken expanse of featureless plain can be
+when the very sky grows velvet black because of the infinitely distant
+brilliance of the stars. Indeed, the uniformity of indefinable shadow
+was almost oppressive, although I knew right well the scene that lay
+around me; for who that has once seen it can fail of seeing again with
+the mind's eye the marvellous mosaic as of white marble and precious
+jewels which covers the high upland stretches of the World's Roof, when
+the winter snow retreats reluctantly, as if loth to leave the carpeting
+of spring flowers which follow on its fleeing footsteps.
+
+I even remembered as I watched the embers that just behind them,
+finding faint shelter from a solitary boulder, there grew a tiny azalea
+I had never seen before; a fragile, leafless thing set sparsely with
+sweet-scented flowers that were flecked rose on saffron like a sunset
+sky.
+
+And the silence was oppressive also. I caught myself
+listening--listening almost breathlessly--for a sound--for some sound!
+But there was not even a whisper among the tall grasses.
+
+In sudden impulse I threw a fresh juniper branch upon the embers, and
+the silence, the stillness ended as if by magic; for the green spines
+spat and sputtered as they shrivelled, and sent out a dense cloud of
+smoke to circle up endlessly into the darkness.
+
+A pungent smoke indeed! Involuntarily I drew back from it and covered
+my eyes with my hand waiting until the smouldering should lighten into
+flame.
+
+The waiting, however, prolonged itself strangely. No flicker of light
+reached me, and I began to wonder dreamily what had happened; so
+dreamily, indeed, that when at last I looked up, I did so reluctantly,
+and with a curious sense of confusion.
+
+It was this, no doubt, which prevented surprise at finding that I was
+no longer the solitary watcher of those dull embers.
+
+Opposite me, nearly hidden in the endless curlings of the juniper smoke
+was a man crouching towards the fire as if he felt the cold of the high
+uplands. Only his face, and the hands he held towards the heat, showed
+clearly; the rest was lost in billowy clouds which, drifting upwards
+behind him, obscured the very stars.
+
+I sate silent for a while, disinclined even for curiosity, and then,
+rather to my own surprise, I spoke as I might have spoken to a familiar
+friend.
+
+"You are cold, I'm afraid."
+
+To this day, I do not know in what language he replied--if, indeed! he
+spoke at all. My only recollection is of the eloquence of liquid,
+lustrous eyes, the confident certainty of comprehension which is the
+child's ere it can speak articulately.
+
+"I am a Star-gazer; so the Fire draws me."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Why? Surely all know it is the Star Fire which fell when She first
+came to me--Hai-me! Hai-me! When She first came and laid her hand in
+mine."
+
+The drifting billows parted, showing the stars above his head, then
+closed again, blotting them out; blotting out all things, it seemed to
+me, even my own self as I sate listening to the faint wail which rose
+vaguely, filling the wide shadows.
+
+"Io! Io! Disturber of dreams, why didst thou come? Io! Io! Bringer of
+dreams, why didst go? Lo! the Star fire was not thine though thou
+earnest with the Fire of the Star."
+
+Through the pungent aroma of the burning branches, a faint breath of
+perfume from the sunset-dyed azalea swept, mingling with it, and so
+passing with it into the endless circling.
+
+The lustrous eyes drooped, losing their brilliance; but when they
+looked up again only serene confident comprehension was there.
+
+"In forest days none of us were Star-gazers, for there was no Rim to
+the world on which the following Footsteps could be seen. But when we
+left the forest for the upland, with its milch kine and seed grains, we
+learnt to look; for there was the Rim. And all things went to stand on
+it and disappear among the Stars.
+
+"So, gazing, we saw that the Stars disappeared also; they, too, were
+following the Footsteps. But they never came back as they went, like
+other things. Their footsteps were faithful; so faithful that you could
+foretell by them the ripening of the seed grains, the coming of milk to
+the herds.
+
+"So gazing, we wondered. Here by this pool I watched, taking no need of
+harvest or milk time; but I saw nothing but the following Footsteps and
+the footsteps of the Stars.
+
+"Nothing, though I followed with mine eyes, wheeling as the Stars
+wheeled to meet the dawn while the shadows and my kind, and all other
+things, slept as they do now."
+
+They slept, indeed! The very smoke had ceased to circle. It hung in
+motionless curves, soft, impenetrable, and I could see nothing now save
+the lustrous eyes, and the dull glow of the fire.
+
+"So I gazed, until one night, as I stood following the footsteps of the
+faithful Stars with mine eyes, the knowledge came to me, that as I
+stood watching them, so Someone stood watching me and all things.
+Someone who did not move. And I was glad, though I was afraid.
+
+"But that dawn, when I went down after our custom to gather the seed
+grains with my kind, they looked at me askance as if I were a stranger.
+Only Io, she of the beautiful young one that all cherished, paused as
+she suckled it to follow me with curious wondering eyes."
+
+There was a pause, and through it came, soft as a sigh, that faint
+wail:
+
+"Io! Io! Disturber of Dreams, why didst come? Io! Io! Bringer of
+Dreams, why didst thou go?"
+
+"It was cold here, on the uplands, gazing; but the faithful Stars shone
+quite near me. It seemed as if I could reach up and clasp them. And I
+was faithful as they in the Footsteps; for I have driven a stake of
+wood into the ground firm as the ground itself, and night after night,
+as I watched the Stars wheel, I twirled the slender wand I held in my
+hands upon it, following their faithful Footsteps so that the Someone
+who watched might see me even as they were!
+
+"And I was happy, though I was afraid.
+
+"But one night, when the tall grasses were stiff and the low green
+things were white with the cold, my fingers could scarce twirl the
+wand, and the fear lest the Someone might grow angry with me came so
+strong that suddenly I lifted my head and cried to It to be kind.
+
+"How the stars shone! My hands longed to leave the wand and reach them,
+and in me there rose a great new joy, as if I had found myself.
+
+"But that Dawn, when I went after the custom to gather the grain with
+my kind, they fled from me as if I had been an enemy.
+
+"Only Io, she of the beautiful young one, with her breasts full of
+milk, left the cherished one athirst to follow my footsteps and hold
+out a handful of the grain she had gathered for herself.
+
+"But I feared her and she feared me, so she left it lying on the
+ground, and afterwards I went and ate it, for I was hungry. But the
+touch of her hand that was on the grain touched my lips so that I felt
+it even as I gazed.
+
+"Io! Io! Disturber of Dreams, why didst come? Io! Io! Why didst thou
+go? The Star fire was not thine, though thou wast in the fire of the
+Star!"
+
+Even the lustrous eyes were hidden from me now; I saw nothing but the
+fading glow of the embers as I sate listening amid the uttermost peace
+of all things to that soft almost voiceless wail.
+
+"The nights grew hot, and the tall grasses crackled in the drought, and
+the low green things wilted to greyness. But I cared not, for I had
+found myself, and I knew there was a Beginning and an End. And even
+that touch on my lips did not disturb my dreams as, faithful as they, I
+followed the faithful footsteps of the Stars.
+
+"Until one night--it was so hot that something in me seemed to
+out-beat the beating of the Stars--a great Darkness that was not Night
+came from the Rim and swallowed up all things.
+
+"I had seen it come before and had hidden my face from it like the rest
+of my kin, but now my fear was too strong for hiding. Besides, who
+could hide when Someone watched always? And why should I hide if I were
+faithful--if I were as the Stars?
+
+"Thus a great joy mingled with my fear, until something in me cried out
+with a great longing for something that was not in me, and something
+that I had not, seemed to come to me until my wand twirled faster, as
+if other hands were on it, and my lips, as I cried out that I was
+faithful, felt the touch of other lips upon them.
+
+"So through the Darkness that hid the Stars while the hot wind howled
+about me and flung hot earth grains in my face, I shouted to the Stars
+to come down to me."
+
+The very fire had gone now, and I strained my eyes into the shadows,
+seeing nothing but endless curves as of smoke.
+
+"And lo! One came!
+
+"Just where the wand whirled by my hot hasty hands touched the steady
+stake of wood I saw a tiny star.
+
+"But, as I saw it, something came to me also, making me forget the
+Star!
+
+"It was Io!
+
+"She had left her cherished one; with her breasts full of milk, she had
+left the little drinker athirst; she had followed my footsteps through
+the darkness to find me and lay her hand in mine.
+
+"Io! Io! Bringer of Dreams! Io! Io! Disturber of Dreams, thou didst
+come!
+
+"And the touch of our hands and our lips together made us forget the
+starshine which had come with it.
+
+"But the shine grew and grew, so that when we looked again it was not a
+Star at all, but something new and strange. Something that crept among
+the dry grasses and the wilted green things, something that leaped and
+laughed amid the darkness, something that sent hot arms towards us,
+till I caught her in mine and fled from it, leaving the wand and the
+steady stake behind.
+
+"So we fled and fled, with the Fire which came from the Starshine
+behind us always. Fled in the faithful footsteps of the Stars.... Fled
+to find the Dawn!..."
+
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+
+There was silence; a long silence! And was that the Dawn, the gracious
+Dawn!
+
+Something, surely, all rose flecked on saffron and suffused with Light
+lay before my upturned eyes.
+
+It was an azalea blossom. But, as I rose to my feet from the springy
+juniper where I had been lying, my head sheltered by the straggling
+branches of the leafless bush, the dawn had come, indeed, on the far
+rim of the wide plain.
+
+And between it and me, rising from the retreating snow and the
+carpeting of spring flowers, was a white vapour which, lit by the rosy
+sun rays behind it, showed like smoke from a prairie fire.
+
+But our fire was out. Only a heap of grey ashes remained, though the
+sleep which had come from the juniper branches still held the sleeping
+servants.
+
+It needed a rough awakening, as rough as that which had left the
+prisoning ice at the mercy of the prisoned water, to rouse them and
+make them stand yawning, stretching in the dawn, avowing that
+_haschish_ itself could not bring wilder dreams than those which
+had been theirs that night. But was it a dream? or does the man,
+hand-in-hand with the woman, still fly from the Fire which came from
+the Star-shine!
+
+
+
+
+                          THE GIFT OF BATTLE
+
+
+"Then you recommend them both," said the mild little Commissioner,
+doubtfully; he was a vacillating man, by nature lawful prey to his
+superiors.
+
+Tim O'Brien, C.I.E.--the uncoveted distinction had been, to his great
+disgust, bestowed on him after a recent famine, in which his sheer
+vitality had saved half a province, and earned him, rightfully, the
+highest honour of the empire--removed his long Burmah cheroot from his
+lips and smiled brilliantly. He was a thin brown man with a whimsical
+face.
+
+"And what would I be doing with wan of them on the Bench and the other
+in the dock? For it would be that way ere a week was past. It is very
+kind of the L.G. to suggest putting either Sirdar Bikrama Singh or Khân
+Buktiyar Khân on the Honorary Magistracy, but he doesn't grasp that
+they are hereditary enemies and have been the same for eight hundred
+years. Ever since the Pathans temporarily conquered the Rajputs, in the
+year av' grace 1256! So you couldn't in conscience expect wan of them
+not to commit a crime if the other was to be preferred before him. Ye
+see, he'd just have to kill someone. But, if ye appoint them both, the
+dacencies of Court procedure and the hair-splittin' formalities of the
+local Bar will conduce to dignity--to say nothing of their own sense of
+justice, which, I'll go bail, is stronger than it is in most people ye
+could appoint. Equity's apt to go by the board if ye've too much legal
+knowledge; and they have none of that last. But I'll give them a good
+Clerk of the Court and guarantee they come to no harrm. Yes, sir, I
+recommend them both--to sit _in banco_."
+
+When Tim O'Brien spoke, as he did in the last sentence, curtly and
+without a trace of his usual rollicking Irish accent, his superior
+officers invariably fell in with his views; it saved trouble.
+
+So, in due course, what answers to a J.P.'s commission at home (with no
+small extra powers thrown in) was sent to Sirdar Bikrama Singh, Rajput
+at his castle of Nagadrug (the Snake's Hole), and also to Khân Buktiyar
+Khân at his fortress of Shakingarh (the Falcon's Nest).
+
+Both buildings had been for some centuries in a hopeless state of
+dilapidation, as, from a worldly point of view, were their owners'
+fortunes. But, just as the crumbling walls still commanded the wide
+arid valley which lay between the rocky steeps of the sandhills on
+which they stood, so the position of the two most ancient families of
+Hindus and Mahomedans in the district still commanded the respect of
+the whole sub-division. Of course, they were antagonistic. Had they not
+been so always? But, in truth, the old story of how they came to be so
+was such a very old story, that none knew the rights of it: not even
+the two high-nosed, high-couraged old men, who, having in due time
+succeeded to the headship of their respective families, had done as
+their fathers had done; that is to say, glared at each other over their
+barren fields, formulated every possible complaint they could against
+their neighbour, and denied any good quality to him, his house, his
+wife, his oxen, or his ass.
+
+Yet the two had one thing in common. They were both soldiers by race.
+Their sons were even now with the colours of Empire, and in their own
+youth both had served John Company, and afterwards, the Queen. This
+bond, however, was not one of union, but rather of discord. For the one
+had belonged to the crack Hindu and the other to the crack Mahomedan
+corps of the Indian army, and their respective sons naturally followed
+in their fathers' footsteps. Indeed, on occasions the pair of dear old
+pantaloons would appear in the uniforms of a past day, hopelessly out
+of date as regards buttons and tailoring, but still worn with the
+distinctive cock of the turban and swagger of high boots that had
+belonged of old days and still belonged to the "rigimint."
+
+Bikrama Singh was seated on the flat roof which had sheltered him and
+his for centuries when he received the little slip of silk paper, so
+beautifully engrossed, which appointed him to the Honorary Magistracy.
+It was a barren honour, since he was not one of those--and there are
+many--who make a stipend out of an unpaid post; but his thin old
+fingers trembled a little and his eye lost the faintly blue film which
+age draws between the Real and the Unreal. Whether his mind reverted at
+once to his hereditary enemy--who was not mentioned in the
+paper--is doubtful, but he felt it to be an honour in these miserable
+days, when a moneylender had more chance of being elected to a district
+council than a gentleman of parts to be chosen by the Sirkar. It was a
+thousand times better than being "puffed by rabble votes to wisdom's
+chair."
+
+"It is well," he said simply, but with a superior air, to his
+womenfolk--the wife and daughters and grand-daughters and
+daughters-in-law and their kind who filled up the wide old house. "I
+shall do my duty and punish the evil doer; notably those who do evil to
+my people and my land, since true justice begins at home." And he
+curled his thin grey moustache to meet his short grey whiskers and
+looked fierce as an old tiger.
+
+Over in Shakingarh also the commission met with approval. "It is well!"
+said Buktiyar Khân, as he sate amongst his crowding womenfolk with a
+poultice of leaves on his short beard to dye it purple. "I shall do my
+duty and punish the evil doer; notably him who has done evil to my
+people and my land, since that is the beginning of justice." And his
+hawk's eye travelled almost unconsciously from his flat roof to that
+other one far over the valley.
+
+Yet, when they met, a few days afterwards, duly attired in their
+uniforms on the threshold of _Brine sahib's_ verandah, whither they had
+repaired full of courteous acknowledgments to one whom they recognised
+as being at the bottom of the appointment, a faint frown came to their
+old faces. But _Brine sahib_ broke it to them gently, with the graceful
+tact which gained him so much confidence. Government, recognising their
+many and great excellencies, had found it impossible to do otherwise
+than elevate them both to the Bench, where they would doubtless remain,
+as they were now, the best representatives of Hindu and Mahomedan
+feeling in the district. And then Tim O'Brien made a few remarks about
+the King-Emperor and devoted service which sent both old hands out in
+swift stiff salute.
+
+Doubtless it was a shock to find themselves equally honoured; but
+regarding the "_in banco_," they both admitted instantly to themselves
+that it was better to sit next a hereditary enemy than a stinking
+scrivener or a mean moneylender. So Bikrama Singh twirled his grey
+moustache and said, "It is well," and Buktiyar Khân twirled his purple
+one and said the same thing.
+
+Thereinafter they began work. The women of both houses made the first
+court day a regular festival, and sent the two old men from home
+dressed and scented and decorated as if for a bridal. The purple of
+Buktiyar's beard was positively regal, while the points of Bikrama's
+thin trembling fingers were rosy as the dawn.
+
+They were fearsomely stately with each other, of course, but that only
+added to the dignity of the Bench. An excellent Clerk of the Court had
+been provided for them, and their first cases had been carefully chosen
+by Tim O'Brien for their simplicity.
+
+Thus there had seemed no possibility of friction; yet the two new
+judges returned to their womenkind vaguely dissatisfied, dimly uneasy.
+
+"The Mahomedan is no fool," remarked Bikrama Singh thoughtfully, "he
+saw as quickly as I did that truth lay with the defendant, lies with
+the plaintiff."
+
+"By God's truth," admitted Buktiyar Khân grudgingly, "the Hindu is not
+such a blockhead as I deemed him. He saw as quickly as I did that lies
+were with the plaintiff, truth with the defendant."
+
+It was almost intolerable; but it was true. The hereditary enemies had
+agreed about something on God's earth. And as time went on this
+unanimity of opinion became the most salient feature of the
+newly-constituted court. They agreed about everything. Of different
+race, different religion, something deeper in them than these surface
+variations coincided. Their innate sense of justice, fostered by the
+fact that they had both been brought up in the India of the past, that
+they represented its laws, its morals, its maxims, made their judgments
+identical.
+
+"We waste time, _babu-jee_," broke in old Bikrama Singh on the lengthy
+peroration of a newly passed pleader, eager to air his eloquence.
+"Words are idle when facts stare you in the face. 'Who knows is silent,
+he who talks knows not,' as the proverb hath it. That is enough. We are
+satisfied." "_Wâh Wâh_," assented Buktiyar Khân at once, acquiescent
+and regretful. "Truly, pleader-jee! thou hast said that before. Why say
+it again? If sugar kills, why try poison? We are satisfied, so that is
+enough."
+
+It was more than enough for the local Bar. They went in a body to Tim
+O'Brien and complained that they were not treated as lawyers should be
+treated.
+
+As usual, _Brine sahib_ met them with sympathy; but it was the sympathy
+of inaction.
+
+"I sincerely regret, gentlemen," he said softly, "that sufficient toime
+is not allowed you to get all the words you have at command off your
+stomachs--I beg pardon, your minds. But, ye see, the judgments of the
+Bench are unfortunately quite sound; they'd be watertight against the
+full forensic flood of the whole High Court Bar. So I don't see what
+the divvle is to be done--do you?"
+
+They did not. In sober truth the sense of equity in the hereditary
+enemies was too strong for the lawyers. The old men were honestly
+fulfilled with the desire of punishing the evil doer and praising those
+who did well. Such flimsy overlays as race and tribe and caste and
+family and creed did not touch their agreement on all things necessary
+to salvation.
+
+The fact was rather a pain and grief to them. It did not make them
+treat each other with less stately dignity or cause them to be one whit
+more friendly out of court.
+
+Sirdar Bikrama Singh went home to his womenfolk and railed as ever
+against his neighbour, and Khân Buktiyar Khân, as he rolled his little
+opium pill betwixt finger and thumb, would do the same thing. But in
+their heart of hearts they knew that, since a judge must always be "an
+ignorant man between two wise ones" (the plaintiff and defendant), it
+must be some common ground in themselves which made their views
+coincide.
+
+Meanwhile the fame of the collective wisdom grew amongst the litigants,
+and indignation at its brevity increased amongst the lawyers. Tim
+O'Brien, however, when the timid little Commissioner showed him a
+numerously signed petition from the local Bar protesting against the
+"strictly non-regulation curtailment of eloquence," only smiled
+suavely. "They get at the rights of a case by congenital intuition,
+sir. The High Court have upheld their judgments in the few appeals the
+pleaders have cared to make; so I don't see what the div---- I mean,
+sir, I don't see what is to be done--do you?"
+
+Once again there was no answer, and Tim O'Brien, as he dashed off here
+and there to institute enquiries in obedience to the cipher telegrams
+which came pouring in from Calcutta by day and by night, felt comfort
+in knowing that one sub-division of his district at any rate was being
+well administered.
+
+For they were troublous days for officers in charge. Someone somewhere
+had been unwise enough to take the thumb-marks of a peripatetic
+preacher who was suspected of being an anarchist. He was proved to be
+an apostle of unrest; he was also unfortunately a man not only of
+thumb-mark, but of mark. A professor, briefly, in some far-away
+college. So the official who had ordered the indignity in the interests
+of public order was degraded; and thereinafter, naturally, began a
+campaign of would-be terrorism amongst the schoolboys and students of
+the province which shattered the nerves of government.
+
+"By the Lord who made me," ejaculated Tim O'Brien angrily, as he flung
+aside the last urgent _communiquée_ from headquarters, "one would think
+from that bosh, we were in danger of losing India to-morrow. Can't they
+see it's only schoolboy rot, sheer daredevil schoolboy mischief, like
+throwing caps under a motor car and heads you win tails I lose, you're
+over last. I'll tell you what it is, Smith,"--here he addressed his
+assistant, a pale-faced boy not yet recovered from the strain of
+examinations--"if I was worth my salt and had the courage of my
+opinions, I'd have up those boys' masters and give 'em each thirty with
+the cane for not keeping their pupils in order. That 'ud stop it.
+Instead of that, I have to arrest a poor child of thirteen who threw a
+badly made bomb, as harmless--it turned out--as a squib. However! my
+pension stares me in the face. There isn't even a House of Lords left
+to which I could appeal. So here goes for the innocent victim av'
+education! Inspector! arrange the arrest, please!"
+
+Naturally, of course, as Tim O'Brien had known, every other schoolboy
+in the district marched about singing patriotic songs and doing wanton
+mischief to their hearts' content; thus there was quite a crop of minor
+arrests.
+
+In fact, when the Bench of Hereditary Enemies held its next sitting it
+was confronted with a lengthy police case against a gang of boys whose
+ages varied from ten to thirteen.
+
+Bikrama Singh listened gravely to the details and twirled his grey
+moustache. Buktiyar Khan also listened gravely and stroked his purple
+beard. They listened very patiently, yet a vague impatience came to
+their old faces. Then they looked in each other's eyes, and at last the
+wisdom of their hearts found speech.
+
+"Where is the teacher of these children? Bring him hither that he may
+show cause for himself."
+
+To be brief. That night the head master of the sub-divisional school
+could neither sit down nor stand up comfortably. But the streets were
+quiet; the boys peacefully in their beds.
+
+"Glory be to them," cried Tim O'Brien exultantly, when the news was
+brought to him. "They've more spunk than I have--so now to get them out
+of the scrape."
+
+He did his best, and that was a good deal, but the law and lies were
+against him. The schoolmaster happened to be somebody's nephew by
+marriage, and though there was ample evidence to prove that he had
+misused his position as a Government servant, the utmost favour Tim
+O'Brien could screw out of the Powers was permission for the offenders
+to retire instead of being dismissed from the Honorary Magistracy.
+
+He broke this to the old men with his usual tact, applauding them
+between the lines for their courage. To his surprise and relief they
+accepted the position calmly. The better the subordinate, they said,
+the less likely he was to be always in agreement with others. During
+their three years' work, which, in truth, had been laborious, not one
+of their decisions had been upset on appeal. How many judges could say
+the same! And as for head master-_jee?_ Would _Brine sahib_, if he
+could, remove those thirty stripes from the miscreant's back. "Ye have
+me there, _sahiban_," Tim O'Brien replied, with conviction, "I would
+not; an' that's God's truth."
+
+So the old men sent in their resignations, not altogether regretfully.
+For one thing, the unanimity of their opinions had been disturbing; the
+old antagonism seemed more natural. And there the matter should have
+ended. Unfortunately for all, it did not. To be brief. Tim O'Brien was
+asked one day, as District Officer, to sign a warrant for the arrest of
+Sirdar Bikrama Singh and Khân Buktiyar Khân on a charge of assault and
+battery against the head master-_jee_, who turned out to be sib to half
+the local Bar.
+
+There is no reason to go into the legal points of the incident, or to
+tell of the vain efforts of Tim O'Brien to save the whilom Bench from
+this last affront. An epidemic of cases against magistrates had set in,
+and late one evening the District Officer started to ride over and
+break the news of the coming arrest to the Hereditary Enemies.
+
+Nagadrug stood on the nearest scarp of sand, so he went there first. He
+found the old Sirdar, looking rather frail, engaged as usual in glaring
+out over the arid fields to Shakingarh.
+
+But this time all Tim O'Brien's tact did not avail for calm.
+Incredulous anger, half dazed indignation, took its place. It could not
+be true. What! was he, Rajput of Rajput, to be dragged to court at the
+bidding of a miserable hound whom he had whipped, and rightly whipped?
+Had not _Brine sahib_ himself applauded the act? Had they not done
+right?--the plural pronoun came out naturally. Was not a false _guree_
+God's basest creature? Did not the law say so: "He who teaches false
+teaching, who kills his own soul and another, let him die." Why had
+they not given the vile reptile an hundred stripes and so got rid of
+him altogether.
+
+And now were they to have a degree (decree) against them! Shinjee! It
+should never be, never! never! They would not have it! The old tongue
+found no difficulty in thus claiming companionship in revolt, the old
+heart knew it was certain of sympathy in the ancient enmity.
+
+Utterly sickened at a tragedy he could not prevent, the District
+Officer went, tactfully as ever, to Shakingarh; only to meet with even
+deeper indignation. Innocent though he knew himself to be, the
+Englishman positively writhed under the contemptuous unsparing scorn of
+the old Pathan. What! was the Sirkar not strong enough to protect
+itself? Then let it pack up its bundle and get out of Hindustan. Let it
+leave India and its problems to _his_ people--those northern folk who
+had harried Bengal in the past, who, God willing, would harry it again.
+Had _Brine sahib_ not heard the saying: "He who uses his public office
+to betray the State commits a crime against himself, his country, and
+his God." And had not the base hound betrayed the State? A thousand
+times, yes! it was a pity they had not flogged him to death.
+
+The moon rose over the low sandhills before the District Officer,
+bruised and broken by the verdict of past India on the present, rode
+back to the sessions bungalow, where he meant to pass the night. For
+with the dawn he would go up with the police officer and so soften the
+arrest of the Hereditary Enemies so far as it could be softened.
+
+They would be let out on bail, of course, and, at the worst, a fine
+more or less heavy would see them through. It was not so bad--not so
+very bad.
+
+The District Officer tried to comfort himself with such reflections; in
+his heart he knew they were futile; that nothing would soften the
+degradation to those two old warriors.
+
+Nothing! unless it was the calm moonlight that lay over the arid valley
+and turned the round old fortresses to dim mysterious palaces of light.
+
+Perhaps the peace of it sank into the wearied hot old eyes that looked
+out from the ancestral roofs with a new feeling of comradeship, each
+for each, dulling the hereditary hatred, yet bringing with it old
+memories, old tales of past enmity.
+
+"Bring me my uniform, women!" said Bikrama Singh, suddenly. Half a
+dozen weeping daughters and daughters-in-law and an old wife too blind
+to see did as they were bid, and in a short time the old man stood
+arrayed as for a bridal, his sword buckled tight to his bowed back.
+"And the shield, women--the shield of my fathers that hangs in the
+entry. I shall need it, too!"
+
+Over in Shakingarh, Buktiyar Khân, impelled likewise by those memories
+of the past, that hatred of the present, had donned his uniform
+likewise; and so the moonlight shone on cold steel and damascened gold
+as, silently obeying some inward community of thought, the two old men
+started silently alone, leaving all behind them, to seek for Peace in
+their own way.
+
+Steadily over the arid fields, nearer and nearer to each other. The
+fields had been cut and carried; the harvest was over; it was nigh time
+to plough again for a fresh crop----
+
+Of what?
+
+"The Peace of the Unknown be upon you, oh, mine enemy," said Bikrama
+Singh, when at long last they stood face to face in the open.
+
+"And the Peace of the Most Mighty be on you, my foe," answered Buktiyar
+Khân.
+
+So for a moment there was silence. Then the Rajput spoke, his old voice
+full of fire, full of vibration.
+
+"In the old days to which we belong, oh, Mahomedan! did brave men wait
+for Fate?"
+
+"They did not wait, oh, Hindu," came the answer. "When brave men found
+sickness or dishonour before them: when there was no longer hope of
+victory: when that which lay ahead was hateful, and they left sons to
+carry on the race, did not the ancestors of my race claim of their
+enemies the glorious gift of battle?"
+
+"They did so claim it, oh, Bikrama Singh! Dost claim it now!"
+
+The reply, quick, vibrant, rang through the moonlight; a veritable
+challenge.
+
+"Yea, Pathan--robber! thief! I claim it now! _Jug-dân, Jug-dân_--the
+Gift of Battle to the Death."
+
+"Take it, pig of an idolator! Jug-dân, Jug-dân--the Gift of Battle!"
+
+The still, hot air became full of faint chinkings, as buckles were
+settled straight, scabbards thrown aside. Then there was an instance
+silence as the two old warriors faced each other.
+
+"Art ready ... friend?" The question came softly.
+
+"Yea! I am ready ... friend!" The reply was almost a caress.
+
+So, with a quick clash of sword on sword, youth and health and strength
+came back to the Hereditary Enemies.
+
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+
+It matters little if the combat ended in quarter of an hour, half an
+hour, or an hour; whether Bikrama Singh or Buktiyar Khân got in the
+first blow. The moon shone peacefully on the Gift of Battle. She still
+hung a white shield on the grey skies of dawn when Tim O'Brien and the
+police officer, coming to do their disagreeable duty, found the two old
+men lying stone dead within swords' thrust of each other on the
+stubble.
+
+"They are really an incomprehensible lot," said the police officer,
+almost mournfully; "why the deuce should the two poor old buffers come
+out and kill each other, as presumably they have----"
+
+Tim O'Brien smiled a grim smile. "You haven't heard, I suppose--why
+should ye--of what they call the Gift of Battle! Well! I have. It's an
+ould Rajput custom by which a man who feared he'd die in his bed or be
+put to it any way by any other stupid inept limitations, could claim a
+decent death from his nearest foe."
+
+"Well! they've done it. That's all, and small blame to them."
+
+"By God who made me, it's a protest with a vengeance. But the worst of
+it is, the Government won't see it and I can't explain it. Cipher
+telegrams won't run to it So ... peace be with you, friends!"
+
+
+
+
+                         THE VALUE OF A VOTE
+
+                          A SKETCH FROM LIFE
+
+
+He was an old man; a very old man. A Syyed--that is, a Mahomedan who
+claims direct descent from the prophet--by trade a Yunani hakeem, or
+physician according to the Grecian system, introduced to India,
+doubtless, by Alexander the Great. He had a little sort of shop, close
+to the principal gate of the city, where he was in touch with all those
+who, with its ship the camel, went out, or came back from the desert
+beyond, and with all strangers and sojourners in the land. So all day
+and every day you might see wearied travellers resting on the hard
+wooden platform set in a dark archway, of which his shop consisted,
+drinking out of green glass tumblers some restorative sherbet of things
+hot or things cold, things dry or things wet, while he showed dimly in
+the background, a visionary outline of long grey beard and high white
+turban. In this way he heard a good deal of what was going on both
+inside and outside the city, and as he was of the old school of the
+absolutely loyal outspoken Mahomedan, who, while he holds our rule to
+be inferior to that of his own faith, emphatically believes it to be
+superior to all others, I used often to pause in riding into or out of
+the city for a chat with the old man; seldom without benefit to myself.
+One morning--I remember it so well!--the _gram_ fields outside the city
+were literally drenched with dew, making the fine tufts look like
+diamond plumes, amongst which the wealth of tiny purple blue pea
+blossom showed like a sowing of sapphires--I found him sitting with a
+troubled look on his high, wrinkled forehead, peering through his horn
+spectacles at a blue printed paper.
+
+A patient was snoring contentedly on the boards, with, tucked into the
+hollow of his neck, a hard roly-poly bolster which made me ache to look
+at. Nothing brings home to one the impossibility of any Western judging
+what is, or is not pleasant or convenient to an Eastern more than the
+ordinary rolling pin, two feet by six inches, stuffed hard with cotton
+wool, which the latter habitually uses as a pillow. The sight of it
+makes a Western neck feel stiff.
+
+I recognised the paper at once. We were then in the throes of "Local
+Self Government," and a violent effort was being made to induce this
+little far-away town, inhabited for the most part by Pathans (exiled
+these centuries back from northern wilds to the Indian plain) to elect
+a Municipal Committee.
+
+I had spent the better part of the day before in explaining to various
+Rais'es or honourable gentlemen of the city, that no insult was
+intended by asking them to put themselves up to auction as it were by
+the votes of their fellow citizens, instead of being discreetly and as
+ever nominated to the office of Councillor by the "hated alien." A few
+had gravely and dutifully given in to this new and quite
+incomprehensible fad of the constituted authorities, others had
+hesitated, but one, a fiery old Khân Bahadur, who was a retired
+risseldar from one of our crack native cavalry regiments, had sworn
+with many oaths that never would he take office from, amongst others,
+the perjured vote of Gunpat-Lal, pleader, who belonged to his ward, and
+whose evil, eloquent tongue had deliberately diddled him out of
+ancestral rights in a poppy field in the Huzoor's own court. No! He had
+served the Sirkar with distinction, he had, with his own hands, nearly
+killed an agitator he had found in the lines; nay, more! he had
+absolutely sent his daughter to school to please the _sahib logue_; but
+_this_ was too much. It had been all I could do to prevent the
+hot-tempered old soldier from giving up the sword of honour with which
+he had been presented on retirement, as a signal of final rupture with
+the Government.
+
+So, as I say, I recognised the blue paper at once as one of many voting
+papers which had been sent out for marking and return; for in these out
+of the way places in those days, the secret ballot-box was not the best
+blessing of the world, as it is now. And my old friend the hakeem was,
+I knew, on the Aga Khân's ward.
+
+"What have you got to do with it?" I echoed, in reply to an anxious
+question. "Why, put a mark against the Aga Khân's name and give it back
+whence it came."
+
+He salaamed profoundly. "Huzoor! that was the settled determination of
+this slave, thus combining new duties with old--which is the philosophy
+of faithful life; but, being called in last night to an indigestion in
+his house, which I combatted with burnt almonds, he told me that if I
+so much as went near his honourable name with my stylus, I should cease
+to be physician-in-ordinary to his household. And, father and son, we
+have been physicians to the Aga Khân ever since our fathers followed
+his fathers from Ghazni in that capacity with the Great Mahomed--on
+whom be peace."
+
+"Then mark one of the other names--which you choose, and send it in," I
+replied, taking no notice of the scandalous attempt at coercion on the
+old Aga Khân's part.
+
+A still more profound salaam was the answer. "That also would have
+occurred to me," came the suave old voice, "but that the Aga Khân said,
+with oaths, that if I so much as made a chance blot on this cursed
+paper against any of the names thereon, I should be cast for life from
+his honourable company."
+
+I felt quite nettled. Her Majesty's lieges must not be intimidated in
+this fashion. "Well! you must think of the person whom you consider
+most fitted to fulfil all the many duties which will devolve on him,
+and put down his name," I said, for in these days when we really wished
+to get at the wishes of the people, we were not so strict about
+nominations and proposings and secondings as we are now, "and I will
+speak again to the Khân Bahadur and see if I cannot induce him to
+stand." (I meant to do so by threats of exposure for using force to Her
+Majesty's lieges!)
+
+As I rode off, my horse picking its way through the piles of melons,
+the bags of corn, the jars of milk, the nets of pottery and all the
+_olla podrida_ of trivial daily merchandise which finds pause for a few
+minutes about an active gate at dawn time, the patient sat up straight
+from his backboard and yawned, then asked for another violet drink. But
+the hakeem was absorbed in the problem of voting.
+
+I happened that day to have business in the city in the evening also,
+but I entered by another gate, so that the sun was nigh setting when,
+on my homeward way, I saw my old friend the Yunani hakeem sitting with
+his pile of little medicine bottles and tiny earthenware goglets of
+pills and ointments beside him.
+
+He was pounding away at something in a minute jade mortar and looked no
+longer disturbed, but weary utterly.
+
+"Have you settled that knotty point, hakeem sahib?" I asked.
+
+He gave a sigh of relief, but pounded away faster than ever. "I give
+God thanks I have been led into the way of wisdom," he replied, "else
+would I be harried, indeed! Never, within the memory of man, have so
+many gentlemen of rank been sick as during this day. I am but now
+compounding the 'Thirty-six-ingredient-drug' for one honourable house,
+and have but just finished the 'Four-great-things' for another. 'Tis
+anxiety about the elections, methinks, for they talk of nothing else.
+Hardly had your Honour left this morning, than Gunpat-Lal sent to say
+he had a belly-ache which his idolatrous miracle-monger could not
+touch. I had it away in half an hour with cucumber and lemon juice.
+Cold things to cold. And Lala-ji full of compliments and regrets that
+the Aga Sahib would not be elected." A faintly worried air crept over
+the high old face.
+
+"Did he ask you to give him your vote?" I enquired, with a sinking at
+my heart.
+
+"Yea!" replied the Yunani hakeem cheerfully, "and offered me five
+rupees for it."
+
+Ye Gods above! How soon political corruption seizes on the innocent, I
+thought.
+
+"But others have offered more," continued the old man, with a certain
+self-satisfaction. Then his face clouded. "Yonder pasty-faced
+knock-kneed student, who calls himself 'Hedditerlile--jackdaw'" (Editor
+Loyal Objector) "told me it was his by right, since he and his like were
+Hindustan. But I told the lad God had ordained otherwise--for look you,
+Huzoor, we Mussalmans came from the north many long years before the
+_sahib-logue_ came from the west. So I let him talk, having, by God's
+mercy, come to a decision."
+
+"What is that, hakeem-ji?" I asked, curious to know what had influenced
+the old man.
+
+He salaamed quite simply. "The Huzoor bade me think who could best do
+the work, so I decided to vote for him. He is noble, and he knows what
+has to be done. He knows _santation_ and _inspekshon-conservance_. Also
+_new-tense_, and _karl-ra-pre-kar-sons_, and"--he added, with the most
+beautiful supplementary salaam of pure flattery--"all other noble arts
+and philosophies." It quite gave me a pang to tell him that this scheme
+of his would not work. That I was _ex officio_ president of the
+Municipal Committee, and thus beyond the reach of voters.
+
+His face was illumined by a vast relief even amidst his perplexities.
+
+"That is as it should be," he said simply. "The Sirkar then, has not,
+as they say, quite lost its head; the Huzoor retains it still. But what
+am I to do?"
+
+I left him looking the picture of woe, absolutely unheeding of two
+patient travellers who had been awaiting my departure with that calm
+stolid disregard of the passing hour which brings with it to the
+Western such a sense of personal grievance; whereas to the Eastern it
+only emphasises his trust in Providence by proving the omnipotence of
+Fate.
+
+Next morning, however, the whole aspect of affairs had been changed.
+Hakeem-ji was alert, spry, surrounded by quite a congregation of
+would-be patients, to whom he was giving out his _dicta_ with quite a
+lordly air.
+
+There was no need to ask him if he had settled his vexed question. That
+was apparent. I simply asked him what he had done about the paper.
+
+"Huzoor," he said again, with that lucid candour which--was so marked a
+feature of the man himself, "the Lord mercifully directed me. Therefore
+I ate it, and it hath done me much good."
+
+"Ate it?" I echoed. "You don't mean to say----"
+
+"Huzoor!" he interrupted cheerfully, "this is how it was. After your
+Honour left, it was the time of evening prayer. So I went, after my
+usual custom, to the House of God, to await the cry of the Muazzim and
+prepare myself for the presence of the Most High by the necessary
+ablutions. And as I sat squatted on the edge of the Pool of
+Purification, my hands in the cool water, I felt as if naught could
+cleanse me from that accursed paper that lay folded in my breast. So I
+cried in my heart to the prophet that he should show me a way, and then
+in one moment I saw where the error lay. I was arrogating to myself
+decisions that should be left to the Almighty. So I did what I do ever
+when life and death are at issue; when even the mighty skill of
+medicine has to stand on one side and do nothing.
+
+"I took my stylus, and I wrote all over that paper the attributes
+of the Most High--His mercy, His truth, His wisdom, His great
+loving-kindness. And then, Huzoor, I crushed it into the form of a
+bolus, covered it with silver foil, and swallowed it as a pill.
+
+"It hath done me much good. I am now free from anxiety. The decision of
+all things rests with the Most Mighty."
+
+
+
+
+                        THE SALT OF THE EARTH
+
+
+"The Huzoor is the salt of the earth," said Hoshyari Mull,
+submissively. He had been educated, he asserted, at a mission school:
+thus the words of Scripture came handy to him. So also did a variety of
+other things.
+
+"And you are the biggest scoundrel unhung. I know that, though I can't
+find you out--yet," retorted the Boy, almost savagely. He was really a
+Boy, a round-faced, fresh-coloured English Boy, though his years
+numbered twenty-four, and he was a full-blown Salt Patrol on the Great
+Customs Hedge, which, in the 'fifties and 'sixties, still stretched
+between the river Indus, as it flows to the Arabian Sea, and the
+Mahanuddi river that finds its way to the Bay of Bengal; in other
+words, stretched for fifteen hundred miles across the vast continent of
+India. It was a strange, weird barrier, this vast hedge of cactus and
+thorny acacia, of prickly palms, and still more prickly agaves, that
+thrust out their spiked swords boldly from a buckler of spine-set
+thicket. It was fully fourteen feet high, and of its width one could
+only guess, in passing through the break, every ten miles or so, where
+some first-class road claimed a long passage-way through it. Here it
+was that the Patrols had their bungalows, and it was at one of these
+that the Boy lived. It was a very important post, because it was, so to
+speak, the gateway between the South-West and the North-East; that is
+to say, between Bombay and the Central Provinces, and Delhi, Oude,
+Bengal. Then, lying as it did, right in the Rajputana Desert, with no
+other roadway within twenty miles of it on either side, it needed a
+sharp look out all along the line to prevent isolated attempts at
+smuggling. But the Boy was quick at his work, and spent all his
+youthful energy in preserving the intactness of his Customs Hedge. The
+life, however, was as strange and weird as was the barrier. Absolute
+loneliness, absolute isolation. For long months together not one word
+of your mother-tongue. With luck, a weekly post. No books, no
+newspapers, no civilisation of any kind. On the other hand there was
+endless sport, unfailing interest for those who loved wild things. And
+the Boy had never been one for books. Harrow had left him, one may say,
+uncontaminated by them; examinations had passed him by; so, though both
+his grandfathers had been high Indian officials, he had drifted
+naturally into the Salt Department; the last refuge, not of the
+incompetent, but the unlearned. There, to be a man was all that was
+asked of you. Without manhood the salt had lost its savour; there was
+no possibility of salting it with all the 'ologies in existence.
+
+Hoshyari Mull paused in his deft winding-on of the Huzoor's putties, to
+say submissively, "The Salt of the Earth speaks truth." Whereat the Boy
+laughed.
+
+He and Hoshyari were at once friends and enemies. The latter was chief
+native supervisor, a man of about forty, above middle height, smooth
+faced and lissome. There was nothing, the Boy soon found out, which he
+could not do; which, in fact, he did not do. An excellent accountant,
+he was also an excellent shot. If he knew, or said he knew, every
+smuggler of salt between Attock and Cuttack, he also knew every bird
+and beast and butterfly by name, and could tell you the habits of all
+and sundry. He knew the history of Ancient India by heart, and could
+pour forth legend and tale by the yard. He was a magnificent swordsman,
+and could teach the Boy, who had learnt singlestick, many cuts and
+thrusts.
+
+In short, he was all things to the Boy; without him, life in the Patrol
+bungalow would, indeed, have lost its savour. And yet the Boy
+mistrusted him, for no reason, except vaguely that he was too clever by
+half. Hoshyari, for his part, regarded the Boy as he had regarded no
+other master. He had been, as it were, _impresario_ of amusement to
+several Huzoors of the ordinary type. This one was different. This one
+was as the Angels of God. That is how Hoshyari put it to himself, and,
+on the whole, it was a sufficiently comprehensive description, and led
+to thoroughly wholesome treatment. Here was no necessity for _itr_ of
+rose, no distilled waters of any description, save the dew of heaven,
+as it gathered on the gram fields where the black buck lay, or hung
+like a diamond on a cactus flower over which some rare butterfly
+hovered.
+
+But there was no dew this hot May dawn, when Hoshyari Mull, with the
+deftness of an expert, was putting the woollen bandages on the Huzoor's
+long legs. It was not his work; but then half the things he did were
+not that. "I thought you were a Brahman; but I don't believe you are
+even a Hindu," the Boy had said scornfully to him one day, when,
+foraging for breakfast in a village, Hoshyari had come back,
+triumphantly, with half a dozen eggs in his high caste hand. Hoshyari
+had smiled. "I am a Srimali Brahman, Huzoor," he had replied
+tolerantly. "The Maharajah of Jaipur salaams to me. There are none here
+in the wilderness able to say Hoshyari hath defiled himself."
+
+So he made no ado about this putting on of putties. They were, as he
+had proved to the Boy, the best of all protection against snake bite.
+With them on you might almost venture on trying to find a gap in the
+Great Salt Hedge; without them it was madness; for is not the prickly
+pear called in the vernaculars, _naga-pan_, or serpent shelter? And on
+these hot May mornings, as well as at noontide, were there not along
+the Customs line many pairs of watching, unwinking eyes lying in wait
+for the unwary, beside those of the fourteen thousand humans who
+patrolled its long length day and night?
+
+Truly there were. As they cantered along it, after passing through the
+gateway, many a faint rustle among the colocynth apples at its base
+told of death among the flowers. For the Hedge was at its blossom time.
+Thorny salmon-coloured capers began it, with here and there a yellow
+cactus bloom, or, perhaps, a rare red one, on whose stems the wild
+cochineal insect lay like tiny spots of blood. Above it, a wilderness
+of these same cactus flowers, big as a tea cup, primrose within, the
+white stamens ranged sedately round the whiter star-pistil; then yellow
+without, shading to purple. Above them the violet-scented puff-balls of
+the thorny mimosa, with every now and again a great lance of aloe
+blossom, brown and white, all set with flower bells.
+
+And above all, butterflies, dragon flies, moths, flitting in myriads.
+"That is the gap, Huzoor, where the ill-begotten hound of a Poorbeah
+managed to smuggle in a back-load of salt last week. He was going to
+carry it all the way to Kashi (Benares) he said. As the Salt of the
+Earth will see, it is now thoroughly mended," remarked Hoshyari, with a
+debonair smile of superiority.
+
+The Boy frowned. There was too much, to his liking, of these petty
+discoveries. That long line of Hedge had not been planted, was not kept
+up, to prevent the smuggling of a poor back-load of salt. He looked at
+Hoshyari with dissatisfaction in his face.
+
+"When are we going to find something worth finding out?" he asked
+cavalierly.
+
+"If it is God's will, before long, Huzoor," was the reply, and there
+was a curious undertone of certainty about it. "Look, my lord! yonder
+are the buck. They are on the move already; we must hasten."
+
+They were off at a gallop, rifles crossed on the saddle bow, over the
+hard white _putt_ ground that was interspersed by ribbed drifts of fine
+white sand. Hoshyari sate his horse like an Englishman. Indeed, the
+Boy, looking at him, used often to think that, barring his colour, he
+seemed of kindred race; as, in truth, he was, since the Srimali Brahman
+is Aryan of the Aryans. There was, in fact, only that vague distrust to
+keep them apart; and that always vanished before sport.
+
+It was a hot day, they followed the buck far, then, the Boy having a
+sudden headache from the sun, paused by Hoshyari's advice at some
+wandering goatherd's thatch for a hearth-baked cake, a drink of milk,
+and a rest till noon should have passed.
+
+A very hot day; and the Boy rested in the shade of _jund_ tree on a
+string bed, and slept profoundly.
+
+When he woke, the shadows were lengthening, and Hoshyari, squatted on
+the ground beside him, had a new look on his face; a look of anxiety
+mingled with satisfaction.
+
+"Huzoor!" he said, "I have news for you! What I have always prophesied,
+what I have always told you would happen if the Sirkar were not more
+careful, has come to pass. The native troops in Meerut have mutinied;
+they have gone to Delhi and murdered the _Sahib-logue_. I rode back
+to the depôt while the Salt of the Earth slept, to see all was right,
+and--and I heard it at the gate."
+
+"At the gate," echoed the Boy, still stupid with sleep. "Who brought
+the news--has the post come in?"
+
+Hoshyari's face was a study. He must break this thing gently to the
+Boy, who was a full-blown Salt Patrol, or he would see red, try to kill
+and be killed. And that must not be; quite a pang at the very thought
+shot through heart and brain, making him realise that this Boy of an
+alien race had grown dear to him.
+
+"The post had not come in, Salt of the Earth," he said evasively. "Men
+brought it from the South."
+
+"The South," echoed the Boy again, with a relieved yawn; "then it's a
+lie. How could they know, if we didn't?"
+
+How? Hoshyari could have answered that question easily; he knew the
+strange wordless rapidity with which news travels in India; in Delhi
+to-day, in Peshawur to-morrow. A mystery that has passed undiscovered
+with the coming of telegraphs and telephones that do it for pennies and
+twopences.
+
+Yes! he knew, but his task was to prevent this Angel of God from
+putting his life into the hands of men who, at best, were devils; as he
+was, himself, at bottom. He knew that also. Most men with brains did.
+
+"It is not a lie, Huzoor," he said, simply. "These men are mutineers
+themselves. They are going to join those at Delhi, murdering all the
+Sahibs they can on the way."
+
+He had laid his plan while the Salt of the Earth slept, and watched the
+effect of his words upon the Boy narrowly; hoping that even the defence
+of a post might take second place before the duty of giving a warning--
+and that would mean being out of danger--for the time.
+
+The Boy's face blanched. He had been away to the nearest station, fifty
+miles off, for a three days' holiday at Christmas, and the remembrance
+of a laughing girl with blue eyes came back to him now with a rush.
+Hoshyari saw his chance, and went on----
+
+"The plans were laid for later on, Huzoor, so they are taken by
+surprise themselves; yet it gives them advantage also, since everywhere
+the Sahibs are taken by surprise also; if only they had been prepared
+it might be different."
+
+The cunning told; the Boy's face hardened into thought. Fifty miles on,
+along the road. He might do it.
+
+"When did they come in? I suppose they forced the guard," he added, his
+voice almost breaking in its resentment.
+
+"About noon, Huzoor," came the wily tones. "They were wearied out."
+
+So much the better; they would not start, likely, till just before dawn
+next day. If he could give warning. He rose and looked round for his
+horse.
+
+Hoshyari rose also. "The Salt of the Earth cannot ride through the
+gate," he said--the time for dissuasion had come now. "He will only be
+killed in the attempt."
+
+The Boy rounded on him instantly. "Didn't I always tell you you were
+the greatest scoundrel unhung? Now I've found you out, you skunk!"
+
+"Has this slave not always said the Huzoor was as the Salt of the
+Earth," came the instant rapid reply. "My lord, listen! This is the
+Hand of Fate. Wise men bow to it. You are here, safe, alone, none know
+of you. Come with this slave and he will save you ..."
+
+"D--n you, you scoundrel," shouted the Boy blindly, and fumbled for the
+stirrups.
+
+"Huzoor! that is useless!" came Hoshyari's voice, quiet now; all
+entreaty gone. In its place almost command. "You cannot force the
+barrier. Where we had one man, they have ten."
+
+"I will try," muttered the Boy, doggedly. "I can but try."
+
+"The Huzoor can do better," said Hoshyari. "He can come with me. I know
+a way."
+
+Even in his excitement the full meaning of this came home to the Boy.
+
+"You know?" he echoed under his breath, "didn't I always say you were
+the greatest scoundrel unhung?"
+
+"And the Huzoor is the Salt of the Earth," came the unfailing reply.
+
+The rapid Indian dusk was falling as they made their way on foot to a
+village which, though almost exactly opposite the barrier, still lay
+the orthodox half mile from the Hedge, within which, by rule of the
+Salt Department, no building might be erected. The Boy was now in
+native dress, for Hoshyari had utilised the interval of time in
+arranging for the former's midnight ride of warning.
+
+In reporting on these arrangements, he had given scope to his
+imagination as to their difficulty. In reality, he had only had to ride
+up to the barrier, give the password, and enter, to be welcomed as one
+of the party within. Whether he was at heart one of them, or whether,
+all things considered, his cleverness had come to the conclusion that
+it was best for his purpose to fall in with their mood for the time
+being, is uncertain; but that purpose was clear, namely, to get the Boy
+out of the danger zone if he could. So he raised no objection to the
+looting of the Salt Patrol's bungalow--the little Salt Patrol who,
+doubtless, had run away into the jungle in the hope of escape, being
+but a mere boy--but the office must be let alone. There must be no
+tampering with books and registers, since he, Hoshyari Mull, Srimali
+Brahman, whose father--God rest him--had been Prime Minister to a
+Prince, was accountable for them to the powers that be--be they John
+Company or the Badshah. Therefore the doors must be locked and the keys
+given to him. And that Kathyawar mare in the stable was his; so that
+was an end of it. Whoever laid hands on the beast would rue the deed.
+But all this was past: now he had to get the Boy through the Hedge,
+incredible though it seemed. "The furthermost house in the village is
+mine, Huzoor," said Hoshyari, gravely. "It is thence that, in disguise,
+I penetrate the evil designs of the smugglers."
+
+The Boy ground his teeth, and was silent. He knew what he would say;
+but this was not the time to say it; this was the time to warn his
+countrymen.
+
+They found the tiny hamlet deserted; as all knew, half India fled
+before the mutineers.
+
+"It is as well," remarked Hoshyari, hardily, "since they might talk,
+though none know of the secret save this slave and Suchet Singh, the
+waiting--house keeper."
+
+But as they came upon what was called the waiting-house, since here
+salt that arrived without proper papers, or that failed to pay the
+toll, was held up, they found Suchet Singh the Sikh lying dead at his
+post. The Boy ground his teeth again. So would he be lying but for his
+desire not only to die, but to do.
+
+"Look sharp, will you," he said, roughly, to his companion, "we lose
+time. The moon will be up ere long."
+
+Hoshyari led the way across a yard; an ordinary village house yard with
+a row of three or four native corn granaries standing against one wall.
+These are huge basketwork erections, each taller than a man, in shape
+not unlike a big pickle bottle, fixed to the ground and carefully
+plastered over with mud and cow dung.
+
+"They are all full," said Hoshyari, with a curious smile, as he passed
+one; and, sure enough, as he lifted the little sliding door at the
+bottom, a tiny moraine of wheat fell forward in the half light. But the
+next instant, with a dexterous twist of his hand, the whole _kothe_
+slid round as on a pivot, disclosing a round well-like hole.
+
+"We shall need a light," said Hoshyari in a matter-of-fact tone, and
+produced a tinder box and a candle from a niche at his feet.
+
+Once again the Boy ground his teeth. So this was the way, was it? and
+all the time this biggest scoundrel that ever went unhung was
+discovering miserable back-loads of smuggling! Words had failed him
+long since; now thought failed him also; he plodded on, his head bent,
+down the narrow subterranean passage that scarcely showed in the
+flickering candle light.
+
+But here, surely, there was less gloom and more room. He stood upright
+and glanced above him. A star showed through a tangle of branches.
+
+"We are under the Great Hedge, Huzoor," said Hoshyari, deferentially,
+in answer to his look. "The passage needed air, and we also required to
+have a store closer at hand." He held up the light, and it fell faintly
+on rows on rows of sacks of salt ranged round a central space. "It is
+quite light here in the daytime, Huzoor," he went on cheerfully.
+"Sometimes the sun actually shines in; and the snakes do not fall down
+now that we have put a net across the opening."
+
+So this was one of the things concealed in the great width of the
+Hedge. Who would have dreamt of it? Who _could_ have dreamt it?
+Something of the comicality of the whole affair was beginning to filter
+into the Boy's brain; he caught himself wondering where the passage
+ended--under his bed, maybe!
+
+It was almost as bad. "We are there, Huzoor," said Hoshyari, mounting
+some steep steps, and then swung a panel blocking the passage
+backwards. It had shelves on it, and books. He heard the turning of a
+key, he followed his leader, and the next minute stood in the growing
+light which presages a rising moon, inside the office room, looking
+stupidly at what lay behind him; only a cupboard in the mud wall where
+the ledgers were kept.
+
+Dazed as he was, he yet realised partly how it was done. The wall must
+be thicker than it seemed--twice, three times, perhaps four times as
+thick--but who would have dreamed! And for the rest? He looked at
+Hoshyari defiantly--the latter answered in words.
+
+"It was quite easy, Huzoor," he replied, lightly. "We could always
+replace salt that was taken from the Government storehouse next door
+with salt from our storehouse yonder. And that paid nothing."
+
+The Boy gave a little gasp. But there was no time for that sort of
+thing now. The Kathyawar mare was waiting, the moon would be up in ten
+minutes or so, and he must be beyond sight of the chattering devils he
+could hear outside before them; but perhaps--yes! perhaps he might be
+able to come back--to come back and give these fellows their deserts.
+
+"I'll pay you out yet--you're the greatest scoundrel unhung," he said,
+thickly, as Hoshyari held the stirrup for him.
+
+"And the Huzoor is the Salt of the Earth," came the urbane reply.
+
+After that there was silence on the far side of the office for five
+minutes--for ten minutes. Then, faint and far, only to be heard of an
+anxious listener, came the sound of a horse's hoofs as it was let into
+its stride.
+
+The Huzoor had got through the picket, and if he only remembered
+instructions, might be considered safe for those fifty miles across
+country. Hoshyari drew a breath of relief, shut the door, and lay down
+placidly to sleep, feeling he had done his best. It is true he had sent
+the Angel of God on a wild goose chase; for, briefly, the mutineers had
+gone on straight that morning, only leaving a strong guard at the gate
+to keep it until the second body of rebels should come in next day.
+
+So by this time, doubtless, the fate of Englishmen--aye, and every
+Englishwoman, too, on the route to Delhi must have been settled. But
+the ride would keep the Salt of the Earth out of danger, since it
+prevented him from doing rash things; which otherwise he was sure to
+have done; for what was the use of losing one's life in fighting two to
+a hundred; still less if it were only one. And these things were on the
+knees of the Gods. No! there was no use, especially when the store
+ammunition was in the hands of the enemy and you had expended your
+pouch full on black buck. The Huzoor was best away. With luck he would
+only find the cold ashes of outbreak. The hurricane of revolt would
+have spent itself, for, after all, it was only the soldiers who would
+mutiny. The rabble in the towns might follow suit; but there was safety
+yet in the country.
+
+So he fell asleep.
+
+When he woke it was broad daylight. Daylight? Why, it must be nigh on
+noon. He stepped to the door and looked through the panes. Aye! the
+sentry in the verandah was eating his bread. And the other detachment
+had come in. The courtyard was crowded with men. So much the better,
+for they would only rest during the heat of the day, and go on at
+sundown. Thus there would be peace before the Salt of the Earth could
+possibly return--if he did return; but once away from his post he
+would, most likely, and wisely, make for security to the north.
+
+Meanwhile, it was time for him to think of himself. There was gold in
+the safe yonder, and it would be folly to leave it to new masters who
+had no more right to it than he. He went over to it, set the iron door
+open and began to gather together what he found.
+
+The room was very still, but on the one side came the clamour of the
+newly-arrived rebels. He gave one last glance at them through the
+closed door, then slipped into the verandah on the other side. Then he
+paused before a dusty swaying figure that, throwing up its arms as it
+saw him, came at him like a wild beast. It was a time for calm--with
+those men in the courtyard, a time of calm for both!
+
+He stood back a step and said, quietly, "So you have returned--Salt of
+the Earth."
+
+The Boy seemed for an instant dazed, then a loud, reckless laugh rang
+out, "Come back! Yes! I've come back to kill you, you d--d scoundrel.
+I've come back as I said I'd come."
+
+"I saved the Huzoor's life," interrupted Hoshyari, quietly, "and I'll
+save it again, if he will not speak so loud; the sentry will hear, and
+then----"
+
+"Let him hear--I'll have time to kill you first," went on the Boy,
+blindly; for all that he lowered his voice; the instinct of belief in
+Hoshyari's wisdom was strong.
+
+"The Huzoor would not have time," whispered the latter, blandly. "I am
+no fool at wrestling, as he knows; and he knows also that I tried to
+save him."
+
+There was a sudden unexpected appeal in the tone which surprised even
+the man himself. He could have cried over this Angel of God who refused
+to be saved.
+
+The Boy looked at him with dry hot eyes; there were no tears there--he
+had seen too many horrors for that. And he had ridden all night, all
+day, till the Kathyawar mare had dropped with him; then he had stumbled
+on as best he might, intent on revenge. And now the sight of Hoshyari
+was as the sight of a friend's face: it brought back the memory of so
+many jolly times they had had together. And what he said was true: the
+man had tried to save him.
+
+He had to bolster up his anger. "It--it's the other thing you've got to
+answer for, you--you thief."
+
+Hoshyari's eyes gleamed. "Don't call me that again, Huzoor. I am no
+thief. I was only--cleverer than other folk."
+
+"I'll call you it ten times over if I choose. Thief! mean, miserable,
+petty thief."
+
+There was something more savage in the whispered quarrel than if the
+two had been shouting at each other, and Hoshyari's gasp of rage fell
+on absolute silence, as, breathing hard, they looked at each other.
+
+Then the Boy passed his hand wearily over his forehead. "No!" he said.
+"I can't--you're right--I can't kill you like a dog--we must fight it
+out--there are foils or swords somewhere--foils with the buttons
+off--where are they?"
+
+His dependence on the elder man showed in his helplessness; he asked as
+a child might have asked.
+
+There was almost a sob in his throat, but the voice which answered was
+firm.
+
+"They are on the wall, Huzoor; but we cannot fight here; the sentry
+would hear, and----"
+
+"D--n the sentry," said the Boy again, helplessly. "What can we do?"
+
+Hoshyari thought for a moment. "There is light enough in the storehouse
+under the Great Hedge----" he began.
+
+The Boy leapt up, fire in his eyes. "By God in heaven, it shall be
+there--and, mind you, it's to the death, you cursed smuggler."
+
+"To the death, Salt of the Earth." A minute later the false back to the
+record cupboard swung to its lock with a click, and the office was
+empty.
+
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+
+The cactus flowers bloomed and faded; the violet-scented mimosa
+puff-balls fell in gold showers on the green lobes, the aloe bells
+withered in silence, the waiting, watching eyes waited and watched in
+vain. If the snakes, as they slid over the netting-covered round hole
+in the thickness of the great Salt Hedge, had looked down into the
+widening sunlit circle below them, what would they have seen?
+
+Who knows, since Suchet Singh the Sikh lay dead at his post.
+
+
+
+
+                         AN APPRECIATED RUPEE
+
+
+She was a poor Mahomedan widow, and lived in an unconceivable sort of
+burrow under the tall winding stair of a big tenement house, which in
+its turn was hidden away in a long, winding, sunless alley. The stair
+centred round a sort of shaft, barred at each storey by iron gratings,
+narrow enough to admit of refuse being thrown down--the shaft being,
+briefly, the rubbish shoot of the building, so that old Maimuna--who
+seldom left her seclusion till the evening--had, in passing to and fro,
+to step over quite a pile of radish parings, cauliflower stalks, fluff,
+rags--a whole day's sweepings and leavings of the folk higher up in the
+world than she.
+
+And even when she reached the odd-shaped cell of a place, whose only
+furniture consisted of a rickety bed with string--halt in two of its
+emaciated legs, a low stool and a spinning wheel, she was not free from
+her neighbours' off-scourings; for down the wall beside the low
+latticed window, where, perforce, she had to set her spinning wheel,
+crept a slimy black streak of sewage from above, which smelt horribly,
+on its way to join the open drain in the middle of the alley. Yet here
+Maimuna Begam, Patha-ni from Kasur, had lived for fifteen years of
+childless widowhood; lived far away from her home and people, too poor
+to rejoin them, too ignorant to hold her own among strangers. For she
+had been that most intolerable of interlopers--the wife of a man's old
+age. Not a suitable wife bringing a dower into the family; but one who,
+as a widow, might--unless the other heirs took active measures to
+prevent it--claim her portion of one-sixth for life. A wife, too,
+without a pretence of any position save that of the strictest
+seclusion; a seclusion so untouched by modern latitude as to be in
+itself second-rate. Without good looks also, and married simply and
+solely because old Jehan Latif had fancied some quail curry which he
+had eaten when business called him to Kasur, and, as the best way of
+securing repetition of the delicacy, had married the compounder and
+carried her back to Lucknow; where, to tell truth, he found more
+attractions in the cook than he had anticipated when he paid a
+good round sum for his middle-aged bride. For Maimuna was a good
+woman--kindly, gentle, pious--who had lived discreetly in her father's
+house, and helped to cook quail curry for that somewhat dissolute old
+swashbuckler ever since, as a girl of twelve, her husband had died
+before she had even seen him.
+
+So, while she pounded the spices and boned the quails (since that was
+one of the refinements of the _bonne-bouche_) for old Jehan Latif,
+Maimuna used sometimes to think, with a kind of wondering regret, what
+life would have been like if the husband of her youth had not died of
+the measles; but, being conscientious, she never allowed the tears to
+drop into the quail curry!
+
+It was no carelessness of hers, therefore, which led to fat Jehan Latif
+falling into a fit shortly after partaking of his favourite dish, which
+for ten years she had dutifully prepared for him. None-the-less, his
+heirs (who had had all these years in which to cook their accounts of
+the matter) treated her as if it were. There is no need to enter into
+details. Those who know India know how unscrupulous heirs can oppress a
+strange lone woman--ignorant, secluded; a woman whose position as wife
+has from the first been cavilled at, resented, impugned. It is
+sufficient to say that Maimuna, after a few feeble protests, found
+herself in the little cell under the stairs, earning a few farthings by
+her spinning wheel, and thankful that her great skill at it kept her
+from that last resort of deserted womanhood in India--the quern. Even
+so, it was hard at times to wait till there was sufficient thread in
+the percentage she got back for her spinning, to make it worth while
+for the merchant to buy it from her, or for her to break in, by a cash
+transaction, on the curious succession of cotton bought, and thread
+returned, without a coin changing hands. And this winter it was harder
+than ever, for the unusual cold made her fingers stiff, and sent
+shoots of rheumatism up her arm as she sat spinning in the ray of light
+which came in with the smell.
+
+It was very cold indeed that New Year's afternoon, and Maimuna felt
+more than usually down-hearted; for there had been a death upstairs,
+and she knew that the stamping and shufflings she could hear coming
+rhythmically downwards over her head were the feet of those carrying a
+corpse. Now, weary and worn as she was, Maimuna--between the fifties
+and sixties--did not yet feel inclined to fold her hands and give in.
+Even now it needed a very little thing to bring a smile to her face;
+and once, when a child had fallen downstairs, she had surprised the
+neighbours by her alert decision. So that when she heard girls' shrill
+voices in half-giggling alarm through her door--which was ajar--she
+guessed at the cause, and called to the owners to come in until the
+stairs should be clear.
+
+One (a slip of a thing ten years old) she knew as the daughter of a
+gold-thread worker higher up the stairs; the other (not more than five
+or six) was a stranger; a fat broad-faced morsel, with a stolid look,
+and something held very tight in one small chubby hand. She was dressed
+in the cleanest of new clothes, scanty of stuff, but gay, with a yard
+or two of tinsel on her scrap of a veil. Maimuna paused in the whirr
+and hum of her wheel to look at the children wistfully; her own
+childlessness had always seemed a crime to her.
+
+"It is Fatma, the pen-maker's girl, _Mai_," said the gold-worker's
+daughter, patronisingly. "She is just back from the Missen School,
+where they have been having a big festival because it is the _sahib
+log's_ big day."
+
+"Tchuk," dissented the solemn-faced baby, clucking her tongue in
+emphatic denial. "It is not the Big Day. It is because _Malika_
+Victoria is--is----" The solemnity merged in confusion, finally into a
+sort of appealing defiance: "Is--is--_that_----"
+
+She unclasped her fist, and held out a brand new shining silver
+two-anna bit. It was one of those struck when her Majesty the Queen
+assumed the Imperial title.
+
+The gold-worker's daughter giggled. "She means Wictoria
+_Kaiser-i-hind_, you know. What the guns were about this morning. They
+are to go off every year, they say. That will be fun!"
+
+"But why?" asked Maimuna, puzzled. Her life for close on
+five-and-twenty years had been spent in the cooking of quail curry and
+spinning of cotton--the very Mutiny had passed by unknown to her. She
+had heard vaguely of the Queen, and knew that it was her head on the
+rupee which, despite the hard times, she always wore on a black silk
+skein round her neck, because she had worn it since her babyhood, when
+the parents of the boy who had died of the measles had sent it her; but
+what the Queen had to do with John Company Bahadar, or he to her, was a
+mystery.
+
+"Why," giggled the elder girl, "because she is going to be the King,
+and turn all the men out. That is what father says. He says she is sure
+to favour the women, and I think that will be fun. But Fatma knows it
+all. Come! dear one! Sing Maimuna that song the _miss sahibs_ made the
+schools sing to-day. Sing it soft, close, close up to her ear, so that
+no one may hear it--for they don't like her singing, you know, at home,
+_Mai_: it isn't respectable."
+
+So, standing on tip-toe, steadying herself against Maimuna's arm by the
+hand which held the two-anna bit, Fatma began in a most unmelodious
+whisper to chant a Hindee version of "God Save our Gracious Queen." The
+words as well as the tune were a difficulty to the fat, solemn-faced
+child, but the old woman sat listening and looking at the two-anna bit
+with a new interest, a new wonder in her weary eyes.
+
+"Bismillah!" she said, half way through, when the gold-worker's
+daughter, becoming impatient, declared the corpse must have passed, and
+dragged Fatma off incontinently. "And she is a woman--only a woman!"
+
+The girls paused at the door; the elder to nod and giggle, the younger
+to stand sedate and solemn, wagging one small forefinger backwards and
+forwards in negation.
+
+"Tchuk! you shouldn't say that, Mai! Little girls are made of sugar and
+spice. It is little boys that are made nasty--the _miss_ says so."
+
+"She should not say so," faltered Maimuna, aghast. The very idea was
+preposterous, upsetting her whole cosmogony; but when they had closed
+the door, she sat idle, too astonished to work. Then, suddenly, she
+took off the black silk hank with its precious rupee, and looked at the
+woman's head at the back.
+
+It was a young woman there; young and unveiled--strange,
+incomprehensible! But that other on the two-anna bit had been an old
+woman, more decently dressed, and with a crown on her head.
+
+
+                  "Frustrate their knavish tricks."
+
+
+Fatma's song returned to memory. So the Queen, too, had enemies; and
+yet she was Kaiser-i-hind, and, what is more, she made men like the
+gold-thread worker upstairs tremble!
+
+
+                     "On thee our hopes we fix!"
+
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+
+Maimuna sat, and sat, and sat, looking at that rupee.
+
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+
+It was a day or two after this that an English official was sitting
+smoking in his verandah, when he became aware of a whispered colloquy
+behind him. It was someone, no doubt, trying, through the red-coated
+_chaprasi_, to gain an audience of him; and he was newly back from
+office, tired, impatient, perhaps, of the hopelessness of doing justice
+always. So he took no notice till something roused him to a swift turn,
+a swifter question. "What's that, _chaprasi?_" _That_ was the
+unmistakable chink of fallen silver, the unmistakable whirr of a
+running rupee, the unmistakable buzzing ring of its settling to rest.
+And there, midway between a giving and a taking hand, lay the rupee
+itself--the Queen's head uppermost.
+
+"_Hazoor!_" explained the _chaprasi_, glibly, "your slave was
+virtuously refusing; he was sending this ill-bred one away. Hat!
+_budhi!_[2] Hat!"
+
+But the sight of that head on the precious rupee, which, after many
+heartsearchings, poor Maimuna had determined to risk in this effort to
+gain justice from a _budhi_ like herself, whose enemies also had
+knavish tricks, brought courage to the old heart, and the old woman
+stood her ground.
+
+"_Gharibparwar!_" she said quietly, with her best salaam--and in the
+old Pathan house they had taught manners, if nothing else--"Little
+Fatma, the pen-maker's daughter, says that Wictoria Kaiser-i-hind is an
+old woman like me, and so I have fixed my hopes on her. There is my
+rupee. It is all I have, and I want my widow's portion."
+
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+
+And she got it. It happened years ago, but the story is worth telling
+to-day, when women can no longer sing "God Save the Queen."
+
+
+
+
+                        THE LAKE OF HIGH HOPE
+
+
+A man stood watching a primrose dawn. There was a cloud upon his
+face; none on the wide expanse of light-suffused sky beyond the dim
+distance of the world. At his feet lay, stretching far, irregularly,
+into the grey mistiness of morning, a great sheet of water. The dawn
+showed on it as in a mirror, save where tall sedges and reeds sent
+still-shining shadows over its level light. Unutterable peace lay upon
+all things. They seemed still asleep, though the new day had come,
+bringing with it good and evil, rest and strife.
+
+And then, suddenly, there was a change. The man turned swiftly at a
+light footstep behind him, to see a woman, and in an instant passion
+leapt up, bringing with it joy and despair. For the woman was another
+man's wife.
+
+But something in her face made him open his arms and take her close to
+his clasp. It seemed to him as if he had been waiting for this moment
+ever since he was born.
+
+She was a little bit of a woman, frail and fair, who looked
+over-weighted by her dark riding habit, but both seemed lost in the
+man's hold, as vibrating with tense emotion, he stood silent, their
+mingled figures forming a swaying shadow against that further light.
+
+"At last," he said, in tender exultation, "at long last!"
+
+She threw back her head then, and looked him in the eyes, hope and
+fear, and joy and sorrow showing in her face.
+
+"I couldn't stand it--at the last," she almost sobbed, "when it came to
+going away, and leaving you here--alone--with that awful risk--for no
+one can say what mayn't come--with cholera---- _He_"--her voice
+trembled over the small syllable--"started earlier--I am to meet him
+by-and-by--so I came round--just to see you--and now----" She buried
+her face again, and the sobs shook her gently. He tightened his hold.
+
+"I'm glad!" he replied, in a hard voice. "It was bound to come sooner
+or later--you couldn't go on for ever--an angel from heaven couldn't go
+on standing--it all. But now----" his voice changed--"now you and
+I----" he broke off and raised his head to listen.
+
+It was a wild weird cry, that echoed and re-echoed over the wide
+stretches of water, that rose in one long continuous melodious wail
+from every reed bed, every thicket of sedge, every tuft of low lamarisk
+and bent-rush; for it was the dawn-cry of the myriad wild fowl which
+haunted this low-lying _jheel_ of Northern India, and swift as thought,
+with a thunderous whirr of wide wings, the birds, teal and mallard and
+widgeon, white eye, pochard, and green shank, purple heron and white,
+rose in ones, in twos, in threes, in flocks, in companies, in serried
+battalions.
+
+The primrose dawn was half effaced, the coming day was darkened by
+wheeling, veering, eddying flight, and the peace vanished in the strife
+of wings.
+
+"By George! what a shot," cried the man excitedly, even passion
+forgotten as a trail of whistling teal swooped past, unconscious of
+them, to settle on the still water, then, recognising unlooked for
+humanity, veered at sharp angle to rise again into the troubled air.
+
+But the woman clung closer. To her the interruption was terrible. The
+soaring birds brought home to her what she had done, and before that
+knowledge compelling emotion stopped abruptly.
+
+"It is very foolish of me," she murmured brokenly, "and very
+wrong--though I don't know!--I don't know! It was your danger--and I
+was so tired--besides it--it need make no difference."
+
+"No difference?" he echoed, in joyous, incredulous exultation. "Why, of
+course, it makes all the difference in the world, little woman! You and
+I can never go back again, _now!_ We can never pretend again that we
+don't care! No! when this cholera camp is over, and I have time, we
+must think over what is to be done--but it's final. Yes! it's final, my
+darling, my darling!"
+
+His kisses rained on her face, his heart encompassed her. So they stood
+for a while, oblivious of the wheeling, veering, eddying wings above
+them, oblivious of all things save that they were lovers, and that they
+knew it.
+
+Then she left him. "He" would be wondering why she was so late; but
+Suleiman, the Arab pony, would soon carry her over the sandy plain.
+
+The man remained watching the slight figure on the bounding grey till
+it was lost in the "azure silk of morning." Then he returned slowly to
+the _jheel_ again, lost in thought. There was a good deal whereof to
+think, for she was a mother; by ill luck the mother of girls. Why had
+she worn those tiny presentments of their sweet baby faces in the
+double heart brooch which fastened her folded tie! She had not thought,
+of course; but it had somehow come between him and his kisses after he
+had noticed it.
+
+Well! it was unfortunate; but that sort of thing had to be faced, and
+he _would_ face it after he had seen his cholera camp through; for he
+was a doctor, and the thought of what might lie before him was with him
+as a background to all others. He had chosen a good place for the camp,
+yonder among the low sandhills, which were the highest point in all the
+desert plain, and, if that did not kill the germ, they could move on.
+
+Meanwhile---- He drew a long breath and looked out over the water. The
+primrose dawn had passed to amber, the amber was beginning to flame,
+the whirring wings had carried the birds to distant feeding grounds,
+only a flock of egrets remained fishing solemnly in a distant shallow.
+
+"The Huzoor is looking for God's birds," said a courteous voice beside
+him. "They have gone, likely, to the Lake of High Hope, for it nears
+the time of transit to a Higher Land."
+
+The speaker was an old man seated so close to the water that his feet
+and legs were hidden by it. He had a simple, pleasant face, which
+over-thinness had refined almost to austerity.
+
+The doctor took stock of him quietly. His speech proclaimed him a down
+country man, his lack of any garment save a strip of saffron cloth
+around his loins suggested asceticism, but his smile was at once
+familiar and kindly.
+
+"M[=a]nasa Sarovara?" replied the Englishman, carelessly, "is that what
+you mean? I am told the birds really do go there during the hot
+weather. I wonder if it is true. I should like to see it." He spoke
+half to himself, for he was somewhat of an ornothologist and the tale
+of the great West Tibetan Lake of Refuge for God's dear birds--that
+lake far from the haunts of men amid the eternal snow and ice, into
+which so many streams flow, out of which come none--had caught his
+fancy.
+
+"The Huzoor can go when he chooses," remarked the old man placidly;
+"but he must leave many things behind him first; the _mem sahiba_, for
+instance."
+
+The doctor felt himself flush up to the very roots of his hair, and his
+first instinct was to fall upon the evident eavesdropper. Consideration
+natheless condemning this course, he tried cool indifference.
+
+"You have been here some time, I perceive," he said calmly.
+
+"I have been all the time behind the _shivala_," acquiesced the other,
+with beautiful frankness, as he pointed to a large black upright stone
+set on end by the water. "The Huzoor was--was too much occupied to
+observe this slave."
+
+"So that is a _shivala_, is it?" interpolated the Englishman hurriedly;
+"it doesn't look much like a temple."
+
+"We pilgrims call it so, Huzoor, and we worship it."
+
+"Then you are a pilgrim--whither?"
+
+"To the Lake of High Hope, Huzoor," came the answer, and there was a
+tinge of sadness in the tone. "I have been going thither these twenty
+years past, but my feet are against me. God made them crooked."
+
+He drew them out of the water as he spoke, and the doctor's
+professional eye recognised a rare deformity; recognised also that they
+were unconceivably blistered and worn.
+
+"You will not get to M[=a]nasa Sarovara on those," he said kindly;
+"they need rest, not travel."
+
+The old man shook his head, and a trace of hurry crept into his voice.
+"I give them such rest as I can, Huzoor. That is why I sat with them in
+heaven's healing water; but I must get to M[=a]nasa Sarovara, or my
+pilgrimage will be lost--and it is not for my own soul, see you." Then
+he smiled brilliantly. "And this slave will reach it, Huzoor. Shiv's
+angels tell me so."
+
+"Shiv's angels?" queried the doctor.
+
+"The birds yonder, Huzoor," replied the old man gravely, pointing to
+the flock of fishing egrets. "Some call them rice birds, and others
+egrets, but they come from Shiv's Paradise--one can tell that by their
+plumes--perhaps that is why the _mems_ are so fond of wearing them."
+
+A sudden memory of her face as he had first seen it beneath a snowy
+aigrette of such plumes assailed the doctor's mind; but it brought a
+vague dissatisfaction. "_Herodias alba_," he muttered to himself,
+giving the Latin name of the bird, "more likely to have something to do
+with dancing away a man's head!" Then a vague remorse at the harshness
+of his thought made him say curiously: "And why must I leave the _mem_
+behind if I want to reach the Lake of High Hope?"
+
+"Because she is a mother, Huzoor," came the unexpected reply, followed
+by deprecating explanation. "This slave has good eyes--he saw the
+childs' faces on her breast."
+
+Once again the doctor felt that unaccustomed thrill along the roots of
+his hair. What right had this old man to see--everything?--and to
+preach at him? A sudden antagonism leapt up in him against all rules,
+all limitations.
+
+"Well! I don't mean to leave her behind, I can tell you," he said
+almost petulantly. "When a man has found Paradise----"
+
+"Shiv's Paradise is close to the Lake of High Hope," interrupted the
+suave old voice.
+
+"D--n Shiv's Paradise!" cried the doctor; then he laughed. "It's no
+use, br[=a]hman-_jee_, for I suppose you are a br[=a]hman. I'm not
+going to be stopped by snow or ice. Look here,"--his mood changed
+abruptly to quick masterful protest--"that would be to give up
+happiness. Now! what makes you happy? Holiness, I expect, being a
+pilgrim! high caste! one of the elect! Give that all up,
+br[=a]hman-_jee_--and--and I'll think about it. And if you'll come over
+there," he pointed to the low sandhills as he spoke, "this evening.
+I'll give you an ointment for those blistered feet of yours--you'll
+never get to M[=a]nasa Sarovara otherwise, you know."
+
+"I shall get there some time, Huzoor," came the confident reply.
+
+Perhaps the old man came; perhaps he did not. The doctor was far too
+busy to care, since before daylight failed he found himself face to
+face with the tightest corner of his life. The promise of the primrose
+dawn passed before noon. Heavy rain clouds massed themselves into a
+purple pall, dull, lowering, silent, until, with the close of day, the
+courage of the coming storm rose in low mutterings.
+
+And then, at last, the rain fell--fell in torrents. It found the
+regiment--seeking safety from the scourge of cholera,--on the march,
+and disorganised it utterly. With baggage waggons bogged, soldiers
+already discouraged by dread, all drenched and disordered, there was
+nothing to be done but keep cool and trust that chance might avert
+disaster, since no man could hurry up tents that were miles behind.
+
+"There's another man in G company down, sir," said the hospital
+sergeant, "and the apothecary reports no more room in his ward."
+
+"There's room here," replied the doctor, setting his teeth. "Orderly!
+put a blanket in that corner and lift Smith to it--he's getting
+better--he'll do all right."
+
+So yet one more man found a cot and such comfort as skill and strength
+of purpose could give him, while the thunder crashed overhead and the
+pitiless rain hammered at the taut tent roof like a drum. One had to
+shout to make oneself heard.
+
+"Lights! I say, lights! I've been calling for them these ten minutes.
+Why the devil doesn't someone bring them? I can't see to do anything."
+
+The doctor's voice rang resonantly; but the lights did not come. The
+waggon with the petroleum tins was hopelessly bogged miles away, and in
+the confusion no one had thought of lights.
+
+"Thank God for the lightning," muttered the doctor with unwonted piety,
+as with awful blinding suddenness the whole hospital tent blazed into
+blue brilliance, putting out the miserable glimmer of the oil lantern
+that had been raised from somewhere. In that brief luminous second he
+could at least see his patients--thirty of them or more. It was not an
+encouraging sight. The livid look on many faces might be discounted by
+the lightning, but there was an ominous stillness in some that told its
+tale.
+
+"Gone! Bring in another man from outside," came the swift verdict and
+order after a moment's inspection with the oil lantern.
+
+"Beg pardin', sir," almost whined a hospital orderly "but Apothecary
+Jones has sent to say he's took himself, an' can't go on no more; an'
+beggin' your pardin, sir, I'm feeling awful bad myself."
+
+The doctor held up the lantern, and its bull's eye showed a face as
+livid as any in the tent; a face distorted by justifiable horror and
+fear.
+
+"Go into the quarantine tent, it's up by now, and tell them to give you
+a stiff-un of rum with chlorodyne in it. You'll be better by-and-by.
+I've no use for you here."
+
+And he had no use for him--that was true. Shaking hands and trembling
+nerves were only in the way in a tight corner like this. So, one by
+one, men fell away, leaving the one strong soul and body to wrestle
+with a perfect hell.
+
+For the rain never ceased, the thunder went on crashing, the lightning
+was almost incessant. Thank God for that! Thank God for the inches of
+running water on the floor of the tent that swept away its unspeakable
+uncleanlinesses, for the thunder's voice that drowned all other sounds,
+for the blessed light which made it possible to work.
+
+The very sweepers disappeared at last. No one was left save that one
+strong soul and body, and even he stood for a second, dazed,
+irresolute.
+
+"How can this slave help the Protector of the Poor," came a courteous
+voice beside him, and he turned to see a smile at once familiar and
+kindly.
+
+"How?" echoed the doctor, stupidly; then he recovered himself. "You
+can't. You're a br[=a]hman--high caste--all that----"
+
+"This slave has come to help the Huzoor, so that he may be able to
+reach M[=a]nasa Sarovara," was the quiet insistent reply. "Where shall
+he begin?"
+
+A sudden spasm almost of anger shot through the strong soul and body as
+it realised and recollected, vaguely, dimly, as rudely, roughly, it
+gave no choice save the most menial work. But instant obedience
+followed, and the doctor, dismissing all other thoughts, plunged once
+more into the immediate present. The rain pelted, the thunder roared,
+but every time that blue brilliance filled the tent, it showed two men
+at work, both doing their duty nobly.
+
+A born nurse! thought the doctor almost remorsefully, as he saw the old
+man moving about swiftly and remembered those blistered and bleeding
+feet. "They must hurt you--awfully," he said at last.
+
+"God's healing water cools them, Huzoor," replied the old man, with a
+radiant smile, "I shall not be delayed in reaching the Lake of High
+Hope."
+
+So the long night drew down to dawn once more, and dawn brought peace
+again, even to the cholera camp. An hour and a half passed without a
+fresh case, and the doctor, realising that the crisis was over, found
+time to notice the grey glimmer of light stealing through each crack
+and cranny of the tent. He set the flap aside and looked out. The
+primrose east was all barred with purple clouds, the distant _jheel_
+lay in still shiny shadow, but there was no concerted dawn cry of the
+wild birds, and the flights of whirring wings were isolated, errant.
+
+"The call has come to them, Huzoor," said the suave old voice beside
+him. "They have gone to M[=a]nasa Sarovara, leaving all things behind
+them."
+
+The Englishman turned abruptly, almost with an oath, and began to count
+the costs of the night. Thirty-six dead bodies awaiting burial; but no
+more--no more!
+
+With the mysterious inconsequence of cholera, the scourge had come, and
+gone. Seen in the first level rays of the sun, the camp looked almost
+cheerful, almost bright. A couple of doctors had ridden out from
+headquarters--there was no more to be done.
+
+"I'll go out for a bit, and shake off the hell I've been in all night,"
+said the doctor to the chief apothecary, who was recounting his past
+symptoms with suspicious accuracy. So he went out and wandered round
+the _jheel_, watching a flock of egrets--_Herodias alba_--that still
+lingered in its level waters. Were they really Shiv's angels?--or did
+they dance away men's brains----?
+
+The sun was already high when he returned to camp, looking worn and
+tired. The hospital orderly whom he had sent to bed with rum and
+chlorodyne was standing, spruce and alert, at the canteen.
+
+"Feeling better, eh, Green?" he said kindly, as he passed, then added:
+"All right, I suppose. No more cases or deaths?"
+
+"No, sir," replied the orderly, saluting somewhat shamefacedly.
+"Leastways, not to count. There's a h'ole man as they found dead
+outside the camp about quarter of an hour agone, but not being on the
+strength of the regiment, 'e don't count."
+
+Five minutes afterwards the doctor, his face still more tired and worn,
+was looking down on the body of his helper. It must have been one of
+those sudden cases in which collapse comes on from the very first, for
+no one had seen the old man ill. They had simply found him lying
+peacefully dead with his blistered deformed feet in a pool of water.
+
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+
+The doctor wrote a letter; it was rather a wild letter about plumes and
+egrets and the difficulty of distinguishing _Herodias alba_ from the
+stork which brought babies. For the strain of that night in hell, and
+the subsequent fever brought on by wandering about the _jheel_ land
+when he was outwearied had told even upon his body and soul.
+
+So they sent him to the hills when he began to recover, and being a
+keen sportsman he did not stop in the Capuas of smart society, but made
+straight for the solitudes, seeking for something to slay; for he felt
+a bit savage sometimes. And ever, though he did not acknowledge the
+fact, his route brought him nearer and nearer to that high Tibetan land
+where ice and snow reign eternal. Through Garhw[=a]l and up by
+Kidarn[=a]th where the new born Ganges issues from a frost-bound cave,
+until one day he pitched his little six-foot hunter's tent on the other
+side of the Holy Himalaya and looked down into the wide upland valleys
+of Naki-khorsum and up beyond them to the great white cone of
+Kail[=a]sa, the Paradise of Shiva.
+
+A mere iceberg cutting the clear blue sky. How cold, how distant, how
+utterly unsatisfactory! He stood looking at it in the chill moonlight
+after his two servants were snoring round the juniper fire on their
+beds of juniper boughs--looking, and smoking, and thinking.
+
+He had thought much during his three months of solitary wandering, and
+now the time was coming when thoughts must be translated into action,
+for his leave was nearly up. Should he go backwards or forwards? Go on
+to M[=a]nasa Sarovara, or set his face towards lower levels? Should
+Hope of the mind take the place of Hope of the body? Bah! he was a
+fool! He would be a sensible man and return. That was his last thought
+as he rolled himself in his hunter's blanket and lay down to sleep.
+
+But the dawn found him plodding on in front of his two coolies towards
+that compelling cone of snow. He left the tent at the foot of the next
+ridge, and that night the last thing he saw was Orion's Sword resting
+upon the summit of Mount Kail[=a]sa.
+
+Yes! he would go on. He would see if it were true that _Herodias alba_
+disported its plumes on the waters of the Lake of High Hope.
+
+During the latter part of his wanderings he had, partly owing to the
+unsettled and hesitating state of his mind, diverged from the pilgrim
+track; but here, on this last day, he rejoined it, and in more than one
+place the bones of someone who had fallen by the way, showed amongst
+the flowers which carpeted every rent in the world's white shroud of
+snow; showed like streaks of snow itself, so bleached were they by long
+months of frost.
+
+But the flowers! what countless thousands of them--low, almost
+leafless, hurrying in hot haste to blossom while they yet had time. And
+yet how pure, how cold, how colourless had not this mountain-side
+looked from afar. Almost as cold as Kail[=a]sa, which, viewed from the
+height of the pass, seemed barely more significant.
+
+But every foot of descent made a difference, and soon over the rocky
+ravine it rose stupendous, its great glacier shiny cold, inaccessible.
+Before long it would overtop the sky and reach High Heaven. No wonder
+men thought of Paradise!
+
+Down and down, through a mere cleft in the rocks that closed in,
+shutting out all view....
+
+Then, suddenly, he gave a little gasp and stood still.
+
+So that was the Lake of the Soul's Hope--M[=a]nasa Sarovara! The pure
+beauty of it sank into him, its rest and peace filled him with content.
+
+A wilderness--a perfect wilderness of bright-hued flowers between the
+snow slopes and the lake whose blue waters gleamed like sapphires
+between the diamond icebergs that drifted hither and thither on its
+breeze-kissed waves.
+
+But not one sign of life; no movement, no noise, save every now and
+again a far-distant thunderous roar, and a puff of distant white smoke
+upon some mountain-side telling of a falling avalanche.
+
+Cradled in snow, yet wreathed in flowers; solemn, secure, unchangeable!
+
+It was a marvellous sight. He was glad he had come, for it was a place
+where one could think--_really_ think.
+
+So he stood and thought--really--for a while; and then he took out his
+watch. Time was waning, for he had to re-climb the pass and rejoin his
+tent ere sundown. Still there was enough left for him to reach that
+jutting flower-set promontory, whence, surely the best view of the
+whole would be obtained.
+
+Yes! decidedly the best! Shiv's Paradise, rising from the water's edge,
+showed from hence, equal-sided, serene, unassailable, a pure pyramid of
+ice.
+
+Truly a sight never to be forgotten; a sight well worth a pilgrimage.
+
+And then some swift remembrance made him glance downwards, and he saw
+before him the bleached skeleton of a man. Something in the attitude of
+it, the feet hidden in the lake made him stoop curiously to see what
+its sapphire surface covered.
+
+What was it?
+
+He stood looking down into the rippling water that whispered and
+whispered to the flowers ceaselessly, for some time; then he turned and
+climbed the hill again.
+
+But, even if he had taken anything with him to M[=a]nasa Sarovara, he
+left it behind him there beside the skeleton of a man with curiously
+deformed feet. But the blisters had gone.
+
+
+
+
+                            RETAINING FEES
+
+
+It is not always on rocks and rapids that the cockle shell of human
+happiness meets with the direst shipwreck. Often in the quietest
+backwaters, where no current is, where not a ripple disturbs the still
+surface, disaster so absolute, so overwhelming comes, that the very
+tragedy of it sinks out of sight also, unrecognised, unrecorded.
+
+Such a backwater was a little square of roof four pair back, in a tall
+tenement house in Lucknow, where one blazing hot day in June a buxom
+woman, with a yellow-skinned baby hitched to her hip outside the
+voluminous veil of dirty crushed calico, which for the present was
+mostly in folds about her feet, was haranguing three other women who
+sat working as for dear life in the hard unyielding shadow of the high
+walls, which were deemed necessary even here to shut out the
+possibility of prying eyes.
+
+"What you need, honourable ladies," finished Mussumet Jewuni
+decisively, "is a 'bannister.'"
+
+"A 'bannister!'" echoed the eldest of the three listeners. "And what
+new-fangled thing is that?"
+
+She did not slacken a second in her deft twirling of her distaff,
+neither did the others, despite their questioning eyes, relax their
+swift business. Indeed, as they sat in the shadows, the three might
+have served as a model for the Fates, since Khulâsa Khânum span
+ceaselessly. Aftâba Khânum wound yarn on a circling bamboo frame, and
+Lateefa Khânum snipped with a very large pair of scissors at the shirt
+she was making; for, being many years younger than the others, her eyes
+were still fit for fine back-stitching. Beautiful hazel eyes they were,
+too: large, soft, full of sunshine and shadow.
+
+Jewuni dismissed one mouthful of betel nut and began on another ere she
+replied.
+
+"A 'bannister' is a pleader, who, having been across the black water to
+London, knows new tricks wherewith to confound the old ones. 'Tis the
+only chance for justice, ladies. I know of such an one, and could bring
+him here to receive instruction, and mayhap there would be no need for
+the honourable ladies to answer in Court."
+
+Khulâsa Khânum's hands froze in horror; she glanced anxiously towards
+Lateefa. "Talk not like that before the child, woman!" she interrupted,
+almost fiercely. "No strange man, as thou knowest, comes to this
+virtuous house, and no woman goes out of it."
+
+Both statements were absolutely true; these women, distant relations,
+yet bound to each other by the tie of a common poverty, a common wrong,
+had not set foot beyond that square of roof for years and no men--save
+those whose interest it was to keep them poor--had ever climbed the
+steep stair hole which showed like a cavernous shadow in the high back
+wall.
+
+Yet Jewuni Begum laughed. She was a very different stamp of woman. Her
+oil-beplastered hair narrowing her forehead beyond even Nature's
+intention, and the soap curls at her silver and gold tasselled ears
+were of a fashion which left little doubt as to her moral character;
+but, being a bottomless receptacle for the gossip of the whole town,
+owing to her husband's position as a paid tout at the Law Courts, the
+neighbourhood in general, and even that virtuous roof in particular,
+had left inquiry and condemnation alone for the present.
+
+"Lo! Khânum!" she giggled, "that is true enough, God knows; yet what
+avails it for reputation? None. 'Tis a rare joke, and I meant not to
+tell it thee; still, 'tis too good to be lost. In the Mirza's reply to
+the last petition sent from this house for direct payment of the
+pension due to honourable ladies, it is written--my man saw it, and
+there was laughter among the writers, I will go bail--that the
+petitioners, being giddy young things, given to wanton ways, it is
+necessary for the honour of a princely family that they be held under
+restraint; such money as is due being expended lavishly, aye! and more,
+in securing the luxury due to gentlewomen of your estate."
+
+Here she herself went off into such chuckles that the yellow baby had
+to be shifted higher on her shaking side.
+
+The three women ceased working, and looked at each other helplessly,
+while underneath their curiously fair skins a flush showed distinctly.
+
+"Did they say that--of us?" asked Aftâba Khânum at last, in a faltering
+voice. Perhaps it was her occupation of winding hanks without tangle
+which made her always so keen to have all things clear.
+
+"And of me?" echoed Khulâsa faintly. Her old face had grown very grey,
+her hands, though they had ceased working, were no longer frozen; they
+trembled visibly.
+
+Only Lateefa sat silent, a swift yet sullen anger on her still young
+face.
+
+Jewuni giggled again. "There was no distinction of decency, Khânum. But
+'tis too bad, and that is why I spoke of a 'bannister' to confound such
+old tricks with new ones. However, 'tis no business of mine, only," she
+paused in her conversation, and, going beside Lateefa, she lowered her
+voice, "there is no need for stitching shirts till shroud-time comes.
+There be other ways, as I have told thee before, of earning money, aye!
+enough even to pay a 'bannister's' fee, and get the truth made known.
+So, if thou preferest to be as a hooded falcon, seeing nothing of the
+sport in life, sit and stitch. If not, come to me and claim freedom--in
+all things."
+
+When she and the yellow baby had gone, silence fell on the desecrated
+little square of virtuous roof.
+
+Truly it was hard! After a life-time of patient propriety, long years
+of self-denial involving silence and seclusion even from scant justice,
+to have all these virtues reft from them in order that wantonness and
+giddiness and youth might serve as an excuse for withholding their
+rights! That these rights should be traversed was to their experience
+no new thing, though to Western ears it may seem inconceivable that
+even under British rule it is the easiest thing in the world to treat
+secluded women as these three had been treated. Briefly, for the male
+head of the family, as guardian, to leave them to starve, while he made
+merry over their poor pittances of pensions granted to them by
+Government in consideration of their race, or its good services. No
+wonder, then, that Khulâsa sat helpless, resorting for comfort to the
+little rosary she always carried, that Aftâba's tears ran silently down
+her withered cheeks, or that Lateefa's sullen anger gave a dangerous
+look to her still handsome face. So dangerous that fear pierced
+Aftâba's soft self-pity at last, making her ask anxiously:
+
+"What was it she said to thee privately, Lateefa? Naught worse,
+surely?"
+
+The darkening of the handsome face was not all anger now. Lateefa rose
+with a bitter laugh.
+
+"Nay! she but spoke of 'fees' for justice, as if we had aught to pay.
+Yet something must be done."
+
+"We have done too much already," came Khulâsa's shaking voice. "If we
+had trusted in the Lord instead of sending petitions there would have
+been no need for them to tell the lie. If we had waited----"
+
+"Lo! we had waited," put in Aftâba, "and petitions are no new thing.
+Our fathers made them. They are not like 'bannisters' and strange men.
+These----"
+
+There was no need for her to explain what these were to that virtuous
+roof, for at the moment a tentative cough from the stair-hole
+accompanied by the rhythmic squelching of water in a skin-bag announced
+the daily visitation of old Shamira, the _bhisti_, who had filled their
+earthen pots for them for years and years; and in an instant veils were
+hastily drawn close, faces turned to the wall.
+
+"_Bismillah!_" came the orthodox greeting, for old Shamira knew all
+about the honourable ladies, and in a way loved them, though he had
+never once seen them in all the long years.
+
+"_Bismillah! irruhman, niruheem!_" returned the virtuous ones
+decorously. Only Lateefa, standing in the corner, felt that there was
+but half a truth in the words. God might be clement in the next world,
+but he was far from merciful in this. Yet it was not the fault of the
+world itself; that was fair enough. There was a displaced brick in the
+corner where she stood, and, profiting by the temporary blindness of
+her veiled companions, she did what she had done several times on the
+sly, during the past few weeks--she took advantage of the brick-hole
+and tip-toe to gain a glimpse of that outside world. It was the veriest
+glimpse indeed, of purpling shadowy roofs huddled against a flare of
+sunset sky, but the dust haze through which she saw it seemed a golden
+halo of transfiguration, and in a second she had made her choice. She
+would pay a retaining fee for bare justice to her own womanhood. Jewuni
+was right! Times had changed. Why should she waste her life clinging to
+old ways when new freedom was within reach.
+
+Yet there was a startled, half-frightened look both in the sunshine and
+shadow of her hazel eyes, as she waited, face towards the wall, till
+the cool sound of pouring water have ceased, she was free to resume her
+limited life. Limited, indeed! How strange those limitations seemed in
+the light of her new decision!
+
+But those brief minutes of arrest, due to old Shamira's entry into the
+feminine cosmogony, had, curiously enough, brought decision to the
+other two women, for, in truth, Jewuni's story, Jewuni's giggle at the
+joke, had been the last straw to their patience, the final goad rousing
+them to action of which, each in her own way, they had been dreaming
+for long.
+
+They, too, felt that the time was past for temporising, for trimming
+their sails to suit each other's opinions.
+
+So Khulâsa Khânum's pallid, high-featured face was more like that of
+one new-dead than ever, when Shamira gone, she returned to work. And,
+in truth, she had in those few seconds died for ever to this world and
+its works.
+
+Delicate from her babyhood, saintly from pure suffering, joy had had
+small part even in her desire, and her resistance to pain had been
+always half-hearted. For what was even the justice of man worth in
+comparison with the justice of God? Naturally enough, then, Jewuni's
+tale of the sorry jest had been more a horror to her than to either of
+the others, making her turn to the hidden meaning of her thwarted life
+for comfort. Her retaining fee for justice should be paid where there
+was no fear of a miscarriage. And in the meantime, while the tyranny of
+life lasted, she must work--work to the end.
+
+For on her work, practically, those others lived. In all the town no
+hands could spin a finer thread than old Khulâsa Khânum's. The very
+spinning jennies of Bombay could not compete with her ceaseless
+industry; and there still remained noble folk who clung to the
+spider's-web muslin of the old times. So her hands twirled faster, more
+deftly. The rest was with God.
+
+Aftâba Khânum, on the contrary, had decided for the world; not, as
+Lateefa had done, for the world as it was in these latter days, but for
+the world as it ought to be, as it used to be. She had a very different
+strain in her from those other two; from Khulâsa in her spirituality
+Lateefa in her emotionality. Aftâba, even when things were at their
+worst, smiled, consoling herself and the roof generally with some
+unexpected and perhaps extravagant scrap of amusement. A mouthful of
+pillau concocted out of nothing to season a dry bread dinner, a
+ridiculous toy made out of rubbish, whereat all laughed. Courtier-born,
+she loved even the old etiquettes by instinct, while her keen wit could
+find a clue of an intrigue as deftly as her fingers could disentangle
+Khulâsa's cobwebs. And, of all three, she kept in closer touch with a
+world with which she had not quarrelled, despite its injustice towards
+her. There was, indeed, a certain Uncle Chirâgh who still came to see
+her, and her only, once or twice a year. A blue-beard dodderer, with a
+twinkling eye, and a still mellow voice, who sometimes brought quails
+with him, and spices, so that Aftâba might regale him with one of her
+best curries; for she was a great cook.
+
+So the spur of Jewuni's retailed insult came as a challenge to Aftâba's
+sense of propriety. The world might be diseased by novelty, but the
+foundations were sure. She had been a fool all these years to acquiesce
+in impersonal petitions with purposeless stamps to them, instead of
+some graceful tribute, after the older, approved method. True, she had
+once broached the subject to Jewuni. She had even gone so far as to
+bring out a certain faded brocaded bag, which was her greatest
+treasure, and produce therefrom a medal or two, a dozen or more worn
+letters. Quaint, old-world informations to the reader, that the bearer,
+Futteh, or Iman, or Hassan, was such and such a worthy person--a
+gold-spangled record of thanks for service in the Mutiny--the
+intimation of one Rissildar Tez Khan's death in action; which latter
+had indeed been the cause of Aftâba's loneliness. Even (curious
+survival of friendly days gone, never to return) a few English words,
+in sprawling, irresponsible, boyish handwriting, to say that the
+self-same Tez Khan knew the whereabouts of every living creature fit to
+shoot in the whole countryside!
+
+But Jewuni had scorned the suggestion of sending these to the bigwig
+with, say, a basket of Aftâba's famous pumpkin preserve, since, alas,
+oranges stuffed with rupees were out of the question. Indeed, she had
+said succinctly:
+
+"Keep them till the Day of Judgment. The Lord may look at them, the law
+will not. For, see, they are not even stamped, and without stamps is no
+justice possible."
+
+Even then old Aftâba had felt, with dim obstinacy, that it was not law
+or justice she sought: it was favour! Favour such as the great had to
+give in a well-ordered world!
+
+And so she, in her turn, came back to the limitations of her life with
+a decision. Uncle Chirâgh had told her but a week or two before--as
+luck would have it!--that the whole town was to be in an uproar the
+very next day over the unveiling of a statue of Malika Victoria. The
+anniversary of a great day in the heroic annals of the Defence of the
+Residency--for which, by the way, that gold-spangled gratitude had been
+given--had been chosen as fitting for the ceremonial. The grounds were
+to be lit up, fireworks let off, and special messages sent to and from
+the Queen herself, while the statue would be covered with offerings.
+Could anything be more opportune for the decorous presentation of a
+retaining fee?
+
+So next day, while Lateefa Khânum stitched, repenting not at all yet,
+still with a flutter of her heart, and Khulâsa Khânum, with an odd
+flutter at her heart also, which kept the colour even from her lips,
+worked and prayed, Aftâba used the privacy of a tiny kitchen for the
+preparation of other things than a scanty dinner of herbs. It meant the
+loss of her only silver bangle, sold on the sly through the market
+woman who came every morning. It was quite the most valuable thing in
+the house; yet there was but a farthing or two left by the time the
+pumpkin preserve, covered with silver leaf, lay in a tinselled rush
+basket with the precious brocaded bag on the top, and the market woman,
+bribed to return for it in the afternoon, had received a generous
+douceur which would surely ensure its due delivery.
+
+All this took time, and was tiring, to boot; so it was nigh sunset
+when, after a sleep which had taken her almost unawares in the little
+cook room, Aftâba came out again to the limited life on the roof. As
+she did so, the familiar tentative cough of Shamira the _bhisti_ on his
+rounds, accompanied by the squelching of his water-skin, made her step
+back into the screening wall.
+
+"_Bismillah!_" she said, wondering not to hear the familiar greeting.
+But old Shamira was staring helplessly at something he had never seen
+before. It was old Khulâsa Khânum.
+
+"She must be dead," he said, simply, to Aftâba's horrified disbelief.
+"See! She sits with face unveiled."
+
+And she was dead. Her retaining fee had brought justice swiftly. And
+Lateefa?
+
+Aftâba, when she realised the emptiness of the roof save for herself
+and the dead woman, wondered if it was the sight of one who belonged to
+it slipping downstairs from its virtue that, by its terrible
+confirmation of wantonness, had sent Khulâsa to seek to a higher
+tribunal.
+
+As for herself!
+
+That night, when the waiters had gone, promising to return at dawn, and
+she was left really alone for the first time, she sat wondering what
+fate her preserved pumpkins would bring. And then she did something she
+had never done in all her life before. She, too, used the hole left by
+the displaced brick to gain a glimpse of the world which was doing
+honour to dead heroes, and to the Queen for whom they died. As she did
+so the first rockets rose from the unseen Residency to commemorate its
+brave defenders, and set their stars of glory in high heaven.
+
+Up and up, valiantly, higher and higher, full of the best intentions,
+they went, typical, so far, of the hands that sent them on their
+mission. And then?
+
+Then old Aftâba stepped down from her vain vantage, and creeping back
+to where Khulâsa lay waiting the dawn, put her head down beside hers
+and wept.
+
+For the stars had fallen, but the dead woman's retaining fee had
+reached the Mercy Seat.
+
+
+
+
+                              HIS CHANCE
+
+
+He sate biting his nails viciously. It was not a habit of his, but, at
+the moment, the tangle of his nineteen years of life had been too much
+for him, and he sate before it, helpless yet resentful.
+
+He was trying to write a letter to his mother, his widowed mother far
+away over the black water in England, to tell her that he had been
+placed under arrest for cowardice--since that was what it came to in
+the end!--and yet not to hurt her, not to blame her, whom every bit of
+his being blamed. Why had she brought him up a nincompoop? Why had she
+been so afraid of him?--poor little mother whose nerves had been
+shattered once and for all by her hero husband's death ere her child
+was born. Yet that father had been brave to recklessness....
+
+The boy's head went down on his arm. Something like a sob quivered
+through the hot air. For it was hot, though the sun was but an hour
+old, in the little grass-thatched bungalow which boasted of but one
+room, two verandahs, and two corresponding slips of dark enclosed
+space; one a bathroom, the other full of saddles, corn, empty
+boxes--briefly, the factotum's go-down. The whole house being nothing
+but a square mushroom set down causelessly in a dusty plain and guarded
+by two whitewashed gate-pillars, one of which bore the legend, on a
+black board, "Ensign Hector Clive, 1st Pioneers."
+
+A good name, Hector Clive, and yet the boy's head was down on his arm.
+Why had he been such a cursed fool?
+
+A brain-fever bird was hard at work in a far-off _sirus_ tree. He could
+see it in his mind's eye--green, with its red head held high among the
+powder-puff flowers, as it gave its incessant cry with the regularity
+of a coppersmith's hammer--for, though he had been but one year in the
+country, he knew all its birds, and beasts, and flowers; aye! and had a
+good smattering of its lingo also--it was that, partly, which had made
+him--what was it--afraid--or--or cautious?
+
+His brain was in such a whirl he could not tell which. And he had no
+one to whom he could talk; not a friend in the whole regiment, for he
+was shy. That was why he was living alone in this cursed shanty where
+the centipedes and snakes, too, sometimes (but he was not afraid of
+them, or of any animal, thank heaven), fell from the cloth ceiling, and
+the sparrows (poor devils, after all they were only making their nests)
+dropped straws over one's letters. That one had made a blot--like a
+tear-mark--or was it, indeed...?
+
+He cursed again under his breath, and a rigid obstinacy came to his
+face.
+
+Like his name, it was a good enough face, though curiously young even
+for his young age. The great height of his forehead, it is true, took
+away from its breadth, and the short-sighted blink of the eyes set so
+close upon the high narrow nose prevented their piercing clearness from
+being seen. On the lower part of his face, hair had scarcely begun to
+show itself. All was callow, immature; yet the square chin showed stiff
+and strong enough.
+
+There should, at least, be no suspicion of tear marks, so he took a
+fresh sheet: and then the thought struck him. He would write two
+letters. One to the dear little Mother who had devoted herself to
+him--him only--ever since he was born; the other to the woman
+who had spoiled him and his life, whose timidity had accentuated his
+birth-legacy of fear. It would do him good to have it out with himself
+and with Fate--not with Her--no! never with Her!
+
+So this was what he wrote, and left lying on the table when an orderly
+came to summon him to the Colonel:
+
+
+"Dear Mother,--It has come at last! I always knew it must come if you
+would make a soldier of me, just because my father was one! Why didn't
+you think? Why didn't you know? Poor Mother! I'm sorry to write all
+this. How could you dream I have felt more or less of a coward all my
+life, when _he_ was so brave!
+
+"And then you made me worse--you know you did. I wasn't allowed to risk
+things like the other boys did; because I was your only one. Ah! I
+don't blame you, but it was rough on me. I should have made an
+excellent parson, I expect. And yet I'll be damned--this isn't really
+for your eyes, mother darling--if I can see what good I should have
+done if I had ordered that Sepoy under arrest? The men wouldn't have
+obeyed orders. I saw murder in their eyes. I've seen it for a long
+time, and I haven't dared to say so--haven't dared to warn those who
+should be warned for fear of being thought a coward--Isn't that
+cowardice in itself? Oh, Mother, Mother! Well, it was very simple. A
+Sepoy was cheeky over these greased cartridges; actually threatened to
+shoot me if I ordered him under arrest, and--I--you see I know a lot of
+their lingo, and I understand--I was afraid to do what I ought to have
+done--chanced it. Of course it doesn't read as bare as that in the
+Adjutant's report--but I am under arrest. Not that it matters. It must
+have come sooner or later--for I'm a coward--that is what I am--a
+coward...."
+
+
+The words, still wet, stared up into the baggy cloth ceiling, and the
+sparrows dropped straws over them while Ensign Hector Clive was being
+interviewed by his Colonel. He sate stolid, acquiescing in every word
+of blame; and yet he was obstinate.
+
+"I don't see, sir, what good it would have done," he began drearily,
+when the Colonel stopped him with a high hand.
+
+"Now, I won't have a word of that sort, Mr. Clive," he said severely.
+"There is enough of that silly talk amongst civilians, and I won't have
+it amongst the officers of my regiment. It is as good a regiment as any
+in India, and I'll stake----"
+
+Here, feeling some lack of dignity in what he was about to say, he
+stood up, and the lad standing up also, overtopped his senior by many
+inches. Something suggestive in his still lanky length seemed to strike
+the Colonel. "I'll tell you what it is, Clive, you live too much alone.
+You're altogether too--too--why! I don't believe you even had a cup of
+tea before you started. There! I was sure of it. Absolute suicide! How
+can you expect, in this climate--and with a Colonel's wigging before
+you--Really too foolish--my wife shall give you one now--she's in the
+verandah with the boy--and--and, of course, I can't promise--but
+you--you shall have your chance--if--if possible."
+
+The--lad--for he was but that--murmured something unintelligible.
+Perhaps to his dejected mind, another chance seemed to be but another
+opportunity of disgracing himself.
+
+"How very shy he is," thought the tall slim woman who gave a cup of tea
+into his reluctant hand and sent Sonnie round to him with the toast and
+butter. "I must get you to give my small son a lesson, Mr. Clive," she
+said, smiling, trying to make conversation. "He was telling me all
+sorts of dreadful things he has heard--so he says--from Budlu, his
+bearer, and that he was frightened. And I told him a soldier's son
+never could be frightened at anything. Isn't that true?"
+
+Ensign Hector Clive turned deadly pale. The child standing, with the
+plate of toast and butter, looked up at him confidently, as children
+look always where they feel there is sympathy.
+
+"But you are flightened, aren't you?" he asked.
+
+There was an instant's silence; then the answer came, desperately true:
+"Yes! I am--but then I'm a coward--that's what I am--a coward!"
+
+You might have heard a pin drop in the pause. Then something in the
+wise, gentle face of the Colonel's wife broke down the barriers.
+
+"Ah! you don't know----" he began; and so with a rush it all came out.
+
+The Colonel's wife sate quite still; she was accustomed to confidences,
+and even when they did not come voluntarily she had the art of
+beguiling them. The art also of comforting the confider; and so when
+the lad's face had gone into his hands with his last words, as he
+sate--his elbows on his knees--the picture of dejection, she just rose
+gently, and came over with soft step to where he was. And she laid a
+soft hand on either of his lank long-fingered ones and pulled them
+apart. So, standing, smiled down upon him brilliantly--confidently.
+
+"I don't believe it!" she said, "I don't believe a word of it! You'll
+be brave--oh! so brave, when your chance comes. Now, my dear, dear
+boy----" she looked at him as if he had been her son--"go away and
+forget all this nonsense. And see! Come back at dinner time and tell me
+before dinner that you've obeyed orders and haven't even thought about
+it."
+
+She stood and waved her hand at him as he rode away in the blare of
+sunlight. Her voice echoing through the hot dry air reached him faintly
+as he turned out of her garden into the dust of the world beyond. "Till
+dinner-time--remember!"
+
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+
+Remember! The memory of those words came back to her idly as she sate
+clasping her baby to her breast, while Sonnie, wearied out with fear,
+slept in her lap, and her one disengaged hand busied itself in fanning
+a half-delirious man who lay on a string bed set in the close darkness.
+Dinner time! Yes, it must be about dinner time, for through a chink in
+the door you could see the sun flaring to his death in the west.
+
+What had happened? She shuddered as she thought of it. What had come
+first, of all the horrors of that long hot May day? She could not piece
+it together. All that she knew was that someone had taken pity on the
+women and the children. And that they were all huddled together in that
+one room waiting till darkness should give a chance of escape; for the
+hut was built against an old ruin through which some underground
+passage gave upon ground not quite so sentry-warded as the barrack
+square in front. She could hear the familiar words of command, the
+clank of arms as they changed guard, and she shuddered again. Aye! the
+women and children might be safe, even if the almost hopeless stratagem
+failed; but what of the man--her husband--the only one, so far as she
+knew, of all the officers of the regiment who had escaped the massacre
+on the parade ground? How had he been saved? She scarcely knew. She
+remembered his running back like a hare--yes! he, the bravest of
+men--all bleeding and fainting, to gasp some words of almost hopeless
+directions for her safety. And then old Imân Khân--yes! it had been
+he--faithful old servant! Why had she not remembered before? For there
+he was, his bald head bereft of its concealing turban, keeping watch
+and ward at the door.
+
+What a ruffian he looked, so--poor, faithful Imân Khân!
+
+Hush! a voice from outside, a reply from the bald-headed watcher
+within. More questions, more replies, both growing in urgency in
+appeal. Then a pause and retreating footsteps.
+
+"What is it, Imân Khân?" she questioned dully, as the old man stole
+over to her and laid his forehead in the dust.
+
+"What this slave has feared, has waited for all the hours," he
+whispered, whimperingly. "They know--Huzoor----" he pointed to the bed.
+"Or, at least, they have suspicion that a man is here. And they must
+search--they will search--or kill. I have sent them to await the
+Huzoor's decision."
+
+She stood up, still clasping her babe, the boy slipping, half-asleep,
+to the ground, and looked round at those other women--those other
+children who had lost their all. And hers lay here....
+
+"They must come," she said in a muffled voice. Then she bent over her
+husband. "Will!" she whispered, bringing him back from confused,
+half-restful dreams, "the Sepoys say they must search--or--or
+kill--them all. We will hide you--if we can."
+
+If we can! Was it possible, she wondered, feeling dead, dead at heart,
+as the door opened wide, letting in the sunlight and showing a group of
+tense womanhood, a bed whereon, huddled up asleep or awake, lay the
+children deftly disposed to hide all betraying contours.
+
+"Huzoor! salaam!" said the tall _subahdâr_, drawing himself up to
+attention, and the search party of four followed suit.
+
+How long that minute seemed. How interminable the sunlight. Ah! would
+no one shut out the light, and why did Sonnie move his hand?...
+
+"Huzoor! Salaam!"
+
+Oh! God in heaven! were they going? Was the door closing? Was the
+blessed darkness coming?...
+
+It was utter darkness, as, her strength giving way, she fell on her
+knees beside the bed, burying her face upon her children, her husband.
+
+"Will! Will!" she whispered.
+
+A faint sigh came from the watching women. So Fate had been kind to
+her--her only....
+
+One who had seen her husband shot down before her very eyes rose
+slowly, and taking her baby from the bed, moved away, rocking it in her
+arms almost fiercely. So, in the grim intensity of those first seconds,
+the sound of further parley at the door escaped them.
+
+Then, in the ensuing pause, old Imân Khân's bald head was in the dust
+once more, his voice, scarce audible, seemed to fill the room.
+
+"Huzoor! They have seen. He must go forth or they will kill--all."
+
+The words, half-heard, seemed to rouse the wounded man to his manhood.
+He raised himself in bed, he staggered to his feet; so stood, swaying
+unsteady, yet still a man. "All right--I'll go--Let me out,
+quick--quick----"
+
+But someone stood between him and the door. It was Ensign Hector Clive.
+His face was pale as death, his hands twitched nervously, but in the
+semi-darkness his eyes blazed, his chin looked square and set.
+
+"No, sir," he said quietly, "this is my chance. Look here! I ran
+and hid in the passage-way when the others--died like men--I couldn't
+help it--perhaps if they had had the chance I had--but that's
+nothing!--nothing! I heard--I understand their lingo. They don't know
+you're here, sir--only a man--let me be a man--for once. It is my
+chance----"
+
+His eyes sought the Colonel's wife in bitter appeal.
+
+Swift as thought she answered it. Her hand was on her husband's
+shoulder to hold him back, for she saw in a flash what others might not
+see--a martyrdom of life, soul warring with frail flesh, for this boy.
+
+"Let him go, Will," she whispered hoarsely. "As he says, it is his
+chance."
+
+There was a faint stir amongst the listeners. The Colonel shook himself
+free from his wife's detaining hand. The code of conventional honour
+was his, in all its maddening lack of comprehension.
+
+"Stand back, please--and you, Mr. Clive, obey orders--I--I----" He
+reeled and would have fallen, but for the bed against which he sank.
+His wife was on her knees beside him.
+
+"Let him go, Will. It is his chance, give it him, for God's sake!"
+
+There was no answer. Unconsciousness had come to bring the silence
+which gives consent, and she stood up again, stepped to the lad and
+laid her lips on his forehead.
+
+"Thank you, dear--in the name of all these--thanks for a brave deed."
+
+The blood surged up to his face. A boyish look of sheer triumph
+transfigured it as he paused for an instant to throw off his coat and
+tighten his waistband.
+
+"I shall have my chance, too," he cried exultantly, "for I was always a
+good runner at school!"
+
+Aye! a good runner, indeed! With the wild whoop of a schoolboy at play,
+he was across the barrack square, untouched. Once over that low wall in
+front and he would be in cover. He rose to the leap lightly, and for an
+instant he showed in all the pathetic beauty of immature strength, all
+the promise of what might lie hidden in the future, against the red
+flare of the sunlit sky, against the glorious farewell which is true
+herald of the rising of another day. Then he threw his arms skywards
+and fell, shot through the heart.
+
+He had had his chance!
+
+
+
+
+                           THE FLATTERER FOR GAIN
+
+
+Prem Lal, census enumerator, raised to that fleeting dignity by
+reason of his being a "middle fail" student (as those who have at
+least gone up for the Middle School examination style themselves in
+India), paused in his ineffectual attempt to write with a fine steel
+nib on the fluttering blue paper held--without any backing--in his left
+hand, and, all unconsciously, gave the offending pen that sidelong,
+blot-scattering flick which the native reed requires when it will not
+drive properly.
+
+Then he coughed a deprecating cough, and covered the previous
+act--natural enough in one whose ancestors, being of the clerkly caste,
+had spent long centuries in acquiring and transmitting it--by
+displaying his Western culture in another way.
+
+"Now for the next 'adult' or 'adulteress' in this house," he said
+pompously in polyglot.
+
+The grammatical correctness of his genders passed unchallenged by his
+half-curious, half-awe-stricken audience. The blue paper, ruled,
+scheduled, classified, contained an unknown world to that patriarchal
+party assembled in the sleepy sunshine which streamed down on the roof
+set--far above the city, far above Western civilisation--under the
+sleepy sunshiny sky; so it might well hold stranger things to its
+environment than untrustworthy feminines.
+
+"There is the grandfather's father, Chiragh Shah, Huzoor," replied a
+man of about thirty who, standing midway between the real householder
+and his grandsons, had assumed the responsibility of spokesmanship in
+virtue of his possibly combining old wisdom and new culture. He used
+the honorific title "Huzoor" not to Prem Lal--whom he gauged scornfully
+to be a mere schoolboy, and a Hindoo idolator to boot--but to the blue
+paper which represented the alien rulers, who were numbering the people
+for reasons best known to themselves.
+
+A stir came from the door chink behind which the females of the family
+were decorously hiding their indignant anxiety.
+
+"Yea! let the old man go forth," shrilled a voice to which none in that
+household ever said nay. "He is past his time--let them take his brains
+if they will, and leave virtuous women alone. Who are we, to be
+registered as common evil walkers?"
+
+Even Prem Lal grew humble instantly.
+
+"Nay! mother," he said apologetically, in unconscious oblivion of his
+own previous classification. "The Sirkar suggests no impropriety. We
+seek but to know such trivials as age--sex--if idiot, cripple,
+spinster, adult or adult----"
+
+"Let Chiragh Shah go forth to him," interrupted the hidden oracle with
+opportune decision. "Lo! his midday opium is still in his brain. Let it
+bring peace to him and the eater thereof."
+
+The chink widened obediently, disclosing a fluttering and scattering of
+dim draperies. So, roused evidently from a doze in the inner darkness,
+a very old man shuffled out into the sunshine, then stopped, blinking
+at it as if, verily, he found himself in some new and unfamiliar world.
+
+"The Sirkar hath sent for thee, grandad," bawled the appointed
+spokesman in his ear. "They need----"
+
+But the words were enough. The blank, dazed look passed into a sudden
+alacrity which took years from the old body as it sat it a-trembling
+with eagerness.
+
+"The Sirkar," he echoed. "It is long since I, Chiragh Shah--long
+since----" He relapsed as suddenly into dreams. His voice failed as if
+following the suit of memory, but he supplied the lack of both by a
+smile which spoke volumes.
+
+For it was the smile of a sycophant as unblushingly false as the
+teeth which it displayed--teeth which were square, dicelike blocks of
+ivory, unvarying in size, strung together en a bold gold wire, and
+hung--Heaven knows how--to his toothless gums.
+
+"Sit down, _meeân-jee_," said the census enumerator, politely, for the
+heart-whole artificiality of the smile admitted of no breach of
+manners. "We seek but honourable names and ages."
+
+So they brought the old man a quaint red lacquered stool, which
+had once carried a certain dignity in its spindled back rail by
+reason of its having come into the family with some far dead and gone
+bride--Chiragh Shah's own, mayhap!--and there he sate, still with that
+look of urbane smiling alacrity rejuvenating his wrinkled face.
+
+There was a hint, beneath the semi-transparency of his frayed white
+muslin robe, cut in a bygone fashion, of very worn, very old brocade
+fitting closely to the very thin, very old body, and the embroidered
+cap set back from his high, narrow forehead showed a glint here and
+there of frayed old worn gold thread.
+
+"His name is Chiragh Shah," yawned the spokesman, adding in a bawl,
+"How old art thou, dâdâ--the Sirkar is asking?"
+
+There was a little pause, and wintry though the sun was, its shine
+seemed to filter straight through all things, denying a visible shadow
+even to the blue paper.
+
+"How old?" came the urbane voice, speaking with a long-lapsed precision
+of polish. "That is as God wills and my lord chooses."
+
+Prem Lal glanced doubtfully at the schedules. They did not provide for
+such politeness, so he appealed mutely to the spokesman, who replied by
+roundabout assertion:
+
+"He was of knowledgeable years when the city fell--wast thou not,
+dâdâ?" The explanatory shout brought keen intelligence to the hearer.
+
+"Aye! it was from the palace bastion I watched the English. Half the
+city watched them that 14th of September...." Here once more voice and
+memory lapsed awhile. But Prem Lal's history was at least equal to the
+more recent event of that memorable date, so his pen grew glib in
+ciphering. "Taking knowledgeable age as ten," he commenced rapidly,
+"with deduction of years 1857 from present epoch 1881----"
+
+His face darkened. "He has the appearance of more age than
+thirty-five," he began dubiously, when the suave old voice picked up
+the lost thread of recollection.
+
+"Lake sahib came to our court two days after, and the King, being
+blind, saw not that the English face was no more merciful than the
+French face which had been driven away, so there were rejoicings."
+
+"He means the day which began the hundred years of tyranny," suggested
+the spokesman; and Prem Lal's pen had already substituted 1805 for
+1857, when the voice of her who had to be obeyed came sternly from the
+chink. "Put him down as a hundred, boy!" it said scornfully. "Meat is
+tough when the sacrifice is past its prime, anyhow, so what does it
+matter?"
+
+The next question presented no difficulty. No one in that house could
+be aught but a descendant of the Prophet, so the answer "Syyed" sprang
+to every lip with chill, almost scornful, pride.
+
+"Profession or trade," continued Prem Lal, mechanically; "gold-thread
+embroiderer, I suppose, like the rest of you."
+
+It was a natural supposition, seeing that the high-bred, in-bred
+household had for years past--since, in fact, courts were abolished in
+Delhi--taken to this, the trade of so many ousted officials.
+
+"Huzoor! no!" replied the spokesman with a yawn, for the proceedings
+were becoming uninteresting to him. "He is before that. He does
+nothing--he never did anything."
+
+"Gentleman at large," hesitated on Prem Lal's pen; there an ephemeral
+conscientiousness born of his ephemeral dignity made him appeal to the
+old man himself.
+
+Chiragh Shah smiled courteously. His hands trembled themselves tip to
+tip.
+
+"My profession," he echoed. "Surely I am Chaplaoo--of inheritance and
+choice," he added alertly.
+
+"Chaplaoo!" That was clear enough to Prem Lal in the vernacular, but
+how was it to be translated for the blue paper which must be written in
+English as an exposition of learning that might lead to further
+employment?
+
+Being prepared for such emergencies by a pocket dictionary, he looked
+the word up--a proceeding which revived interest in the audience,
+notably behind the chink, whence the magisterial voice was heard
+remarking that it was no wonder the Sirkar wanted brains if it was so
+crassly ignorant as not to know what chaplaoo meant!
+
+This flurried Prem Lal into premature decision. "Chaplaoo," he
+quoted under his breath, "a fawner--ha! I see! One who keepers the
+fawn--forester--huntsman--Am I not right?" he translated with a
+preparative flick of the steel pen.
+
+The even ivory smile was clouded by an expression too blank for
+resentment.
+
+"The Sirkar mistakes. This slave kept no animals."
+
+Prem Lal dived hurriedly into further equivalents.
+"Parasite--backbiter--one who bites backs! Ah! I see--bug--etc."
+
+"This slave, as he has said, kept no kind of animals whatever,"
+repeated Chiragh Shah, with a suave, unconscious dignity which appeased
+even the rising storm of virtuous indignation behind the chink. "He
+was--if the Sirkar prefers the title--Chapar-qunatya, by inheritance
+and choice."
+
+The rolling Arabic word had a soothing sound, and a hush fell with the
+sunshine even on Prem Lal's search after a common factor between East
+and West.
+
+"Toad eater! eater of toads----" he began with doubt in the suggestion;
+"lick spittle--one who licks the spittle?"
+
+"Eater of toads, licker of spittle," shrilled the voice of the chink.
+"Dost come here defiling an honourable house--and I who purvey its
+food--with such vile calumny--I----"
+
+"Peace, mother," soothed a softer voice; "such things do no harm save
+to the speaker. What you spit at the sky falls on your own face!"
+
+"Aye!" assented a ruder voice, "and is he not a Kyasth (clerk)--lie he
+must or his belly will burst."
+
+The word "lie" gave the agitated enumerator a fresh clue, and the pages
+of the dictionary fluttered as if in a full gale.
+
+"Lie--liar--slanderer----"
+
+There was no connection in his tone; but the suggestion being at least
+plausible to his audience, the question was referred loudly to old
+Chiragh Shah, who was beginning to nod with combined sunshine and opium
+drams.
+
+"Lie?" he asked, with a return of that swift alacrity. "Surely, I lied
+always. Yea! from the beginning to the end."
+
+He used the high-sounding Arabic word for liar, and so sent Prem Lal
+a--fluttering once more. Ere he had lit on the correct gutteral, old
+Chiragh Shah's set smile had changed into a real one. The slack muscles
+of his neck stiffened; he flung out his right hand airily.
+
+"Hush!" said the two smallest boys on the roof in sudden interest;
+"dâdâ is going to talk."
+
+He was.
+
+"Lies!" he began, and there was tone in the old voice, "and wherefore
+not if it is a real lie and not a bungle? But I never was a bungler. I
+know my profession too well--even at the last--yea, at the very end
+they had to come to me for artifice--for subterfuge. It was the last
+lie--to count as a real lie."
+
+He paused, one of the boys had crept round to him and now laid a
+compelling hand of entreaty on the old man.
+
+"Tell us of it, dâdâ."
+
+The spokesman looked at the enumerator as if for orders.
+
+"It may elucidate the meanings," muttered the Middle-fail to himself.
+
+So in the stillness of that sunshiny roof, set so far above the
+workaday world, they sate listening.
+
+"Yea! it was the last lie that was worth the telling. Yet I was past my
+prime like the court itself. For none, save those who saw, knew the
+heart-burnings, the bitterness of those last years. King but in name,
+the very court officials drifting away to other allegiance. And Lake
+sahib had been so full of promise on that first September day, when the
+Frenchman was driven away because, forsooth! he had made the blind Shah
+Alum a prisoner in his own palace----" There was a pause in the thin
+old cadences, and a flitting shadow fell on the sun-saturate listeners
+from a wheeling kite overhead.
+
+"And what was Bahadur Shah but a prisoner, too? What matter--the
+Huzoors gave him bread after their fashion and he was unfaithful to the
+salt of it. That was not well--one must be loyal even to a lie! So
+after the mad midsummer dream of recovered kingship in the palace--such
+a mad dream--we who dreamed it knew at the time that we were
+dreaming--came that second September day when the English returned
+to Delhi. We did not watch them, then; we were hiding in the
+tombs--Humayon's tomb without the wall.
+
+"It was the night after Hudson _sahib bahadur_ had wiled away the King
+by fair promises--aya! the Huzoor knew the trick of those well--but the
+Princes were still hiding--and many a better man, too.
+
+"My son for one. He was wounded to the death. Ah! I knew it--though the
+brave lad--he was the son of mine old age--steadied his breath and
+smiled when I spoke to him. But there was little leisure for words with
+treachery to right and treachery to left, and none to trust fairly. For
+the world had changed even then, and there were but one or two of my
+kind left, and I was out of favour. Too old for the new court--too old
+for new pleasures. And the young Prince--lo! how he used to laugh at my
+worn flatteries--had many pleasures--so many of them that he took some
+of them from other folks' lives; thus he had foes. Aye! but friends,
+too, for he came nearer to kingliness than his brothers. And my son
+loved him.
+
+"So when the danger came, and I knew by chance of the plot to kill the
+Prince as he slept, and gain the reward set on him by the English, I
+had no choice. Yet I dare trust no one in the skulking crowd which
+crept about the shadows of the old tomb. In those days it was every one
+for himself, and the Prince had scant following at best. And he lay
+drunk with wine and women, out of bravado partly to the skulkers--in
+one of the half-secret upper rooms. But I knew which, and I remember it
+so well. The grey spear point of the distant Kut showed through its
+open arch.
+
+"And below, in a far nook of the crypt, where there was a secret
+swinging panel in the red sandstone wall, known only to the old, my son
+lay dying.
+
+"He steadied his breath as I stooped over him, and whispered that he
+would soon be fighting for his Prince again.
+
+"'Soon, my son,' I answered, waiting as he smiled. For I knew the
+silence was at hand--silence from all things save the breathing that
+would only steady into death.
+
+"We, my servant and I, lifted him easily. He was but a lad, though he
+would have grown to greater stature than the Prince. His head lay so
+contentedly on my shoulder as I went backward up the stair, telling
+those who stood aside to let us pass, that he was better and craved the
+fresher air of the roof. 'Better? Aye! he is better, or soon will be,
+old fool,' said one with a laugh. Then clattered noisily after his
+companions, so noisily that the echo of the winding staircase sent
+their scornful mirth back to me. 'He will be dead--like someone he
+followed--by morning.'
+
+"Before morning, if I did not fail, thought I, silently, as, searching
+the shadows, we sought the Prince's hidden room. There was a youth ever
+with the Prince--a baby-faced, frightened, womanly thing--yet faithful
+as far as in him lay. Him, I caught by the throat, 'They would kill
+thee, too,' I said; 'better take the chance of life. If fate be kind,
+ere dawn discovers the deceit, _he_ will be fit to fly.'
+
+"So after my servant and I, wailing at our lack of wisdom, had carried
+the Prince down, face covered as one to whom worse sickness had come
+suddenly, I crept to the upper room again. It was growing late, but the
+grey spear-head of the Kut still showed beyond the open arch as I
+covered the lad's face, lest, for all his gay dress, the murderers
+might see too much.
+
+"'Dream thou art fighting for the Prince, sonling!' I said, knowing he
+was past even the steadying of his breath for an answer; but the smile
+had lingered on his face.
+
+"Then I covered my face also, and, bidding the baby-faced one escape to
+the crypt as soon as it was possible, sate as a servant might have
+sate, at the turning of the ways from the stair head.
+
+"Would those who were to come be familiar or strange? I wondered. The
+latter, most likely, since Chiragh Shah, the Chaplaoo, had long since
+passed from court life, almost from remembrance.
+
+"They were strange; as they challenged me, I drew the cloth from my
+face without fear.
+
+"'The Prince's room!' they cried, dagger-point at my breast. But that
+could not be. There must be no suspicion, only certainty, only soothed
+certainty. 'I have been waiting to show it to my lords,' I answered.
+'Lo! he sleeps sound--yea! he sleeps sound, his face toward the Kut.'
+
+"So, with smooth words, I led them in the dark----"
+
+The memory of the darkness seemed to fall as darkness itself on the old
+brain, and Chiragh Shah sate silent in the sunshine for a few seconds.
+When he spoke again, it was as if years had passed. "It was the last
+lie that was worth the telling," he said, almost triumphantly.
+
+"And a good lie, too," came the shrill voice from behind the door
+chink. "See you, boy!--call the old man by his right name in your
+paper, or may God's curse light on you for ever!"
+
+Thus adjured, Prem Lal, who, throughout the whole tale, had been
+fluttering his dictionary from one synonym to another, suggested
+sycophant; that was, he explained, one who flatters and lies for
+personal profit.
+
+"Profit!" echoed the voice. "Small profit dâdâ gained. Was not the
+Prince killed with his brothers next day by Hudson Sahib; so there was
+no one left even to reward the old man?"
+
+"Save God," suggested Prem Lal, piously trying to escape somehow from
+the dilemma.
+
+"And there is gain, and gain," admitted the spokesman, combining new
+and old, east and west.
+
+"Hush!" said one of the two small boys again; "dâdâ is going to
+talk--he may know----"
+
+So once more the old voice rose in unconscious apology for the
+difficulty of condensing what etomologists call his life history into a
+census paper.
+
+"Yea, it was good, and hard--yet not so hard as the first. _That_ never
+left me, despite the long years."
+
+It seemed, indeed, as if it had not, for something of childlike
+complaint came into the old voice. "It was my first day at court.
+Mother had cut my father's khim-khab robe--crimson with gold
+flowering--to fit me, despite her tears. Her eyes were heavy with them
+when she kissed me; but I had no fear for all I was so young. I knew
+the women's bread depended on my tongue--though it was my heritage also
+to be Chaplaoo.
+
+"And the King was pleased. Mother had tied my turban so tall and he
+laughed at that. It was out in the garden, he under the gilt canopy,
+the nobles round and beyond the flowers, and birds fluttering among the
+roses.
+
+"And I was standing beside the king, and he was laughing--for I knew my
+part.
+
+"Then the fluttering came closer, closer, and lo! a bird settled on my
+wrist. It was Gul-afrog--I had left it with my sister, but it had
+followed me--for we loved each other. So, on my wrist it sate joyful,
+and salaamed, as I had taught it, drooping its pretty wings.
+
+"Then the King cried, 'How, now, whose pretty bird is this?' and
+someone laid a warning hand upon my shoulder. But I knew before what I
+must say if I was to stand in father's place. I knew! I knew!
+
+"'It is yours, my king.'
+
+"So I said, kneeling at his feet! 'It is yours, it is yours,' and
+Gul-afrog had been with me since it fell out of the bulbul nest in the
+rose tree. Then they brought a golden cage ..." The old man sate
+staring out into the sunshine in silence, and only the littlest of the
+two boys wept softly.
+
+"We will call him 'Flatterer for Gain.'" said Prem Lal, in desperate
+decision, and perhaps the description came as near to old Chiragh
+Shah's profession as was possible in a census schedule.
+
+
+
+
+                          A MAIDEN'S PRAYER
+
+
+"That is over! Thanks to Kâli Ma!" sighed Ramabhai, fanning herself
+vigorously as the last man shambled, a trifle sheepishly, from the
+inner apartment. She--was a stoutish Bengâli lady, with red
+betel--stained lips and smooth bandeaux of shiny black hair.
+Good-looking, good-natured, at the moment distinctly excited as she
+went on garrulously. "Muniya! down with the curtain, there is no
+further use for it now that crew has gone! And to think that the master
+will have to give each one of them five rupees! And for what? Forsooth!
+for the first seeing of such a bride as not one of them ever saw
+before. Lo! Shibi, marriage-monger!" Here she turned accusingly on one
+of the women who were busy unveiling themselves, chattering the while
+with shrill voices. "Hast no mind at all? Thou mightst have found newer
+words for thy description of my daughter!--'beautiful as a full moon,
+symmetrical as a cart-wheel, graceful as a young goose.' What are these
+for perfection? And thou didst use the same last week for Luchi Devi's
+girl, who is pock-marked and blind of an eye! But there! 'What's a fowl
+to one who has swallowed a sheep.' Parbutti,"--here she transferred her
+attentions to a young girl who was seated on a cushion resting her face
+in her henna-dyed hands, as if she felt dazed or tired--"an thou hast a
+grain of sense have a care of that nose-ring thy paternal auntie lent
+for the occasion or there will be flies in the pease porridge--there
+always is in that family. Yea! it is well over; and thank the gods, the
+priest found good omen in the morning watches, so I have not to dine
+the creatures. Fish curry and kid pillau is too much to pile on the
+getting of a trousseau; yet one must have meats at a wedding feast, if
+one in Sakta; and the bridegroom's folk are strict. As for clothes, I
+tell you, sisters, that 'boycotts' is well enough to play with every
+day, but when it comes to weddings and tinsel, 'tis a different matter.
+Kâli Ma! what a price for _kulabatoon_! Parbutti! an thou canst not
+remember that thou hast on thee four hundred rupees worth of Benares
+_khim-kob_, go put on the old Manchester. Thank Heaven!' Boycotts' is
+not so old yet, but one has stores left to come and go upon! Yea! Yea!
+A wedding is a great strain on a mother; and then there is the parting
+with my daughter, too--my sweeting, my little lump of delight----"
+
+Here Ramabhai discreetly dissolved into regulation tears, mingled with
+sharp sobs and little outcries. It came easily, for she was really
+devoted to Parbutti, the little bride, who, in truth, looked
+distractingly pretty, all swathed in scarlet gold-flowered silk gauze,
+and hung with jewels galore.
+
+Her grave open-eyed face looked, perhaps, a trifle stupid and
+obstinate, but there could be no question of its beauty.
+
+"Mother!" she said seriously, "there is a smell of smoke--the tall one
+in the black coat smelt of it, and it is defilement. Had we not better
+pacify the gods?"
+
+"Hark to her!" exclaimed Ramabhai, drying her facile tears
+triumphantly. "Saw you ever such a saint? He who gets my Parbutti is
+certain of salvation."
+
+Parbutti sate silent. She did not even blush, though that is allowed to
+a Bengâli bride. But for all her outward calm she was inwardly
+quivering all over; and small wonder if she was! After long years
+spent, not like an English girl, in ignorance and innocence of
+matrimony, but in matter-of-fact expectation of it, that one great
+event in woman's life was close at hand. It had been delayed almost
+beyond propriety by the difficulty of finding a high-caste husband. For
+her father, though a Kulin Brahman, was sufficiently westernised not to
+hold with the caste habit of marrying a daughter to what may be called
+a professional husband: that is, to a Kulin who already possesses a
+score or two of wives. A suitable student had, however, been found at
+last, and the feminine portion of the household had plunged
+hysterically into all the suggestive ceremonials of a high-class
+Bengâli marriage. Even the widows let their blighted fancies dwell on
+kisses and blisses; so, feeling vicariously the sensuous pleasures of
+bridedom, vied with happier women in drugging the girl with sweets and
+scents, and secret whisperings of secret delights. The whole atmosphere
+was enervating, depraving; but Parbutti took all the gigglings and
+titterings gravely as her right. For this was the consummation of her
+hopes ever since, as a child of five, she had been taught to worship
+the gods, to pray for an amorous husband, and curse any woman who might
+try to win love from her.
+
+"Look! how the little marionette scowls over it," the women had
+tittered as they watched her, a bit of a naked baby, going through the
+formula of the Brata, as it is called. "Truly no co-wife will dare to
+enter her house." And certainly her energy was prodigious.
+
+
+      "Mata! Mata! Ma! Keep my co-wife far--
+       Shiv! Shiv! Shiv! Grant she may not live--
+       Pot! Pot! Pot! Boil her hard and hot--
+       Broom! Broom! Broom! Sweep her from the room--
+       Mud! Mud! Mud! Moist thee with her blood--
+       Bell! Bell! Bell! Ring her soul to hell--"
+
+
+and so on through every common and uncommon object on God's earth--and
+beneath it!
+
+The childish body had swayed to the rhythm of the chant; the childish
+voice had risen clear in denunciation; the childish soul had given its
+consent to every wish; for Parbutti was nothing if not serious.
+
+The very cantrips of the Sakta cult to which her parents--and some
+fifty millions of other Bengâlis--belonged, were to her so many
+indispensable realities.
+
+She, as an unmarried girl, ate her plateful of sacrificial meat
+contentedly, though her mother refused it. She sate wide-eyed, solemn,
+acquiescent, when after long fasting the whole family waited in the
+dead of the night till the auspicious moment for sacrifice arrived, and
+in the silence the only sound was an occasional piteous, half-wondering
+bleat of the miserable victim--a pet goat, mayhap! She did not wink an
+eye when the consecrated scimitar curved downwards, a jet of red, red
+bubbling blood spurted into the dim light, and a sort of sob from the
+dying and the living alike told that atonement was made.
+
+That sort of thing did not make her or any of the other women quiver;
+yet they were affectionate, emotional, kind-hearted. "Without shedding
+of blood is no remission of sin," is a Pauline text; but it was theirs
+also. Graven by age-long iteration in their limited minds and lives was
+the dogma that the Blood is the Life thereof. There was but one
+Sacrament; the Sacrament of Blood. Marriage was secondary, but cognate
+to it, of course; that was because it was the Gate to Birth and Death,
+through which none pass without the Great Sacrifice. So they clothed
+the bride in scarlet, and smeared her forehead with vermilion. It was
+this stability of inner thought which enabled the women to be so
+untiring in their variants of its outward application. All the bathings
+and anointings and soothsayings had this unchangeable dogma as
+foundation. So the round of ritual went on, the drums throbbed in
+unending rhythm, the conches blared in deafening yells, the whole house
+was full of the rustlings and bustlings of womenfolk. It must surely
+have been a wedding which made Babu Kishub Chander Sen write the
+ponderous dictum: "Man is a noun in the objective case, governed by the
+active verb woman."
+
+Parbutti's father, being a sensible man, removed himself as much as
+possible from the ebullient atmosphere; perhaps it was as well, since
+he was a light in the Nationalist party, and the ceremonials of a Sakta
+wedding do not go well with talk of political rights and wrongs, of
+education, and equality, and exotic tyranny.
+
+Even Parbutti's solemnity was not quite proof against the silly
+suggestiveness, the almost indecent jokes and tricks, the hysterical
+enhancing of emotions with which she was surrounded.
+
+She felt it a relief when, the guests having retired for some sleep,
+she was free to perform her daily devotion at the shrine downstairs.
+
+It was a quaint place, this shrine dedicated to Mai Kâli in her
+terrific form--in other words, to Our Lady of Pain--the Woman ever in
+travail of mind and body--the Ewig Weiblichkeit which is never
+satisfied. It formed on the river side of the house, a sort of low
+basement, private in so far that a flight of steep stone steps led down
+to it from the lowest storey of the house, public in that it opened on
+to some bathing steps. But few people came thither except on certain
+festivals; so Parbutti, still in her wedding finery, stole down to it
+confidently. She liked the small, dim, arched chamber where you could
+only see Mai Kâli as a blotch of crimson in her dark niche. And as you
+crept down the stairs behind that niche, and looked through the
+crisscross iron bars that filled up the arch, "She" showed nothing but
+a black shadow against the brilliance beyond. Parbutti used often to
+stand for an instant or two on the cornerwise landing of the stairs to
+look before passing up. Everything showed black but the low square of
+the outside doorway; and even the pigeons when they flew across it
+seemed flitting shadows on the light. To-day she was in a hurry, so she
+squatted down promptly at a respectful distance from the image, and
+began to smear the floor from a goglet of red paint she had brought
+with her. And as she did so she chanted:
+
+
+       "Om! Om! Kâli Ma!--
+        Ruler, Thou, of blackest night--
+        Dark, Dark, not a Star--
+        In Thy Heaven Kâli Ma!--
+        Thou who lovest the flesh of man--
+        By this blood I pray thee ban--
+        Aliens in Hindustan--
+        Kill them, Kâli Ma!--
+        Drink their blood and eat their flesh--
+        Thou shalt have it fresh and fresh--
+        Lo! devour it! lick thy lips--
+        Flesh in lumps and blood in sips--
+        Stain thyself with sacred red--
+        Make them lifeless, dead! dead! dead!
+        Blessed Kâli Ma!
+               Ho-o-m! 'Phut!"
+
+
+The last two words were spoken with relish, not only because they were
+supposed to be the most potent part of the charm, but because they lent
+themselves to dramatic effect. _Ho-om_ being given soft and low; _phut_
+explosively. The result being suggestive of an angry tom-cat. But the
+rest of the doggerel came slackly, for Parbutti was not much interested
+in it. It was not her curse at all, but one she had promised her
+schoolboy brother, Govinda, to say every evening. For many reasons;
+chiefly, it is to be feared, because someone else, at present nameless,
+was a class-fellow of the said Govinda's. But everyone knew, that if
+there was one compelling prayer on earth it was that of a maiden bride;
+even Mai Kâli could not resist it. And the petition was a fair one. Who
+wanted aliens in Hindustani? Not she! Why! their presence made your
+menkind do unspeakable things, so that life became wearisome with
+pacifying the gods. Imagine not being able to kiss ...
+
+Voices close at hand, made her leap to her feet, and gain the staircase
+like a frightened hare. Then, of course, being a girl, she paused to
+peep through the grating.
+
+Surely it was Govinda! Then, she need not have run away! No! he had a
+tall lad with him! Parbutti's heart beat to suffocation. Was it
+possible? Could it be? Was it--well! what she had been taught to
+consider her prayer, her pilgrimage, her paradise; that is, her duty
+and her pleasure combined? Stay! there was another lad--short! And yet
+another--middle-sized!
+
+This was disconcerting; but perhaps if she listened a little she might
+find out. So she stood still as a mouse, all ears, praying in her
+inmost heart it might be the tall one.
+
+Though they spoke in Bengâli, they used such a plentitude of English
+words that it was difficult for her to understand fully what they said.
+It was not all their fault, as it arose largely from the fact that the
+ideas they wished to express, being purely Western, had no Eastern
+equivalents. Parbutti, however, had been accustomed to this sort of
+talk, as she had been a great favourite of her father's, and till the
+last year or so, had often sate on his knee as he entertained his
+friends.
+
+So she listened patiently to pæans about Liberty, Equality and
+Fraternity, mingled with darkling threats--threats which must destroy
+all three by depriving some brother of the Liberty of Life or at best
+of an arm or a leg!
+
+For they were only silly schoolboys, who, but for an alien ideal of
+education, would have been learning, as their father had learnt,
+unquestioning, unqualified obedience at a Guru's feet. Learning it
+probably with tears, tied up in a sack with a revengeful tom-cat, or
+with a heavy brick poised on the back of the neck for livelong hours;
+such being the approved punishments for the faintest disobedience.
+Small wonder then, if the organism accustomed to this immemorial
+control, runs a bit wild when it finds itself absolutely free to do and
+think as it likes.
+
+These particular boys were very angry, apparently, because some one of
+their number had been forced to obey something or someone. It was
+tyranny. The Mother-land and their religion was outraged. They were all
+Bengâli Brahmans; so Kâli worshippers by birth, and of the Sakta cult;
+possibly of the Left-handed or Secret form of that cult. Anyhow they
+talked big of Force being the one ruling principle by which men could
+rule, of the true Saktas' or Tantriks' contempt for public opinion, of
+their determination to show the world that the Tantras had been given
+by the gods in order to destroy the oppressors of men. So, "_Jai_
+Anarchism! _Jai Kâli! Jai Bhairavi! Jai Banda Materam!_"
+
+It was a sad farrago of nonsense; Western individualism dished up
+skilfully by professional agitators in a garb of Eastern mysticism; but
+they talked it complacently, while Parbutti, still as a mouse, told
+herself it must be the tall one; he had such a nice voice.
+
+Her hopes gained confidence when he lingered behind with Govinda after
+the others departed, and began speaking in a lower voice. Could he be
+talking about her? Ever and always that came as the uppermost thought.
+Then consideration told her this was not possible; no respectable
+bridegroom could talk of his bride to another--not even if he also were
+a Kulin and a brother. What was it then, about which they were so
+mysterious when there was nobody nigh?--here a twinge of compunction
+shot through her--at least nobody they could know about.
+
+At last, her ears becoming accustomed to the strain, she caught one
+sentence: "My father was Mai Kâli's priest here"; so by degrees
+gathered that there was some secret receptacle somewhere, and that the
+tall youth wished to hide something.
+
+The something appeared to be in what Parbutti had supposed to be a
+hooded cage such as students often carry about with their pet
+_avitovats_ or fighting quails inside. But this one contained a square
+box, which the boy removed with great care, and then, before Parbutti
+had grasped what he was doing, he was round at the back of the carven
+image, kneeling with his back towards her, and fumbling at the gilt
+wooden drapery about Mai Kâli's waist; Govinda meanwhile keeping a
+look-out at the door.
+
+How close he was! If she put out a hand she could touch him--she
+thrilled all over at the thought! Too close at any rate for her to
+move; besides, she must see what happened.
+
+Ye gods! The drapery slid up! Mai Kâli was hollow!
+
+"If aught happens to me," said the nice voice solemnly, "I leave this
+in thy charge, oh! Govinda Ram, Kulin. Thou art the only other living
+soul who knows of it. And see thou use it as it should be used. A
+cocoanut full for a bomb. It requires no fuse. The concussion is
+sufficient if the hand is bold."
+
+The box deposited, the panel slid back again, and the tall lad rising
+from his knees stepped to the front again. As he did so, Parbutti
+caught a glimpse of his face. It was beautiful as the young
+Bala-Krishna, and the whole soul and body of her went out to him--her
+hand stole through the bars to touch the air in which he had stood--the
+happy air which had touched him.
+
+So absorbed was she in her joy that she did not realise what was going
+on until the sound of their voices brought her back to reality. Then
+she recognised that they were repeating the vow of secrecy which is
+imposed on all initiates to the Tantrik cult. "I swear by the Eternal
+Relentless and Living Power I worship never to divulge the Secret, but
+to bury it deeply in silence and ever preserve it inviolate and
+inviolable. I will conceal it as the water in a cocoanut is concealed.
+I will be a Kaula internally, a Saiva externally, and a Vaishnava when
+talking at public meetings." Then they branched off into that of the
+new secret political society which underlies the old religious
+mysteries. And Parbutti listened with growing fear, for this was
+sheer straightforward cursing of informers and lukewarm supporters and
+spies--and--and----
+
+If they should go on to her? If he should curse her?
+
+The long stillness had told on her nerves--she felt as if she must
+scream, must do something to prevent the dreadful sequence going on and
+on....
+
+"And cursed be they who listen and----"
+
+The voices were checked by a passionate cry--
+
+"Curse me not! Curse me not! I swear! I, Parbutti, swear to keep
+faith!"
+
+Then, terrified at everything, even her own temerity, she turned and
+fled.
+
+There was little leisure allowed her for thought in the women's
+apartment that night, for each one vied with the other in devising
+cantrips, most of them undescribable, to secure for her a truly
+uxorious husband; but one thing beat through her brain. Would he, could
+he--if it _were_ he--be angry with her? Surely not! She had sworn, and
+she would keep her oath. Yes! she would keep it faithfully.
+
+So the day dawned and another tumult of rejoicing rose around her.
+
+In view of the delay in her betrothals it had been arranged to crowd in
+the ceremonials as closely as possible, so as to expedite the actual
+marriage, and everybody was running about, conches were blowing, women
+were giggling and laughing as the professional guests of the male sex
+cracked doubtful jests while they awaited the arrival of the
+bridegroom.
+
+And then came a sudden hush. Something must have happened. What was it?
+
+Parbutti, sitting apart swathed in her wedding scarlet, was too dazed
+to notice the pause at first, until low, and whimpering, an
+unmistakable woman's wail rose amid the garlands and tinsels, the paper
+flowers, the swinging lanterns.
+
+She started to her feet--was someone dead?
+
+In a way, the news that had come was worse than death. _That_ was an
+act of God to be accepted with what resignation could be mustered. But
+this? What! They had arrested a bridegroom on his wedding day!--and
+Govinda, too, the son of the house! What! Those boys--they could not be
+guilty! It was only the tyranny of the hated police. They could not be
+mixed up with Anarchists. So said some of the men; but others held
+their peace and looked sinister, while all the women wept and wailed,
+and called on Mai Kâli to avenge the sacrilege. Only Parbutti sate very
+still, very silent. She knew something that the others did not know,
+but the knowledge only increased her blind resentment, only aggravated
+her blind despair.
+
+He had been filched from her--if it was he. She was too dulled by
+disappointment at first to do more than realise her loss, and the
+thought of her oath of fealty did not come to her at all until
+after three months' needless delay in trying the conspiracy case
+against some forty students in the college--a delay due entirely to the
+hair-splitting efforts of the counsel for the defence--Govinda settled
+it for himself by dying in prison of autumnal fever. His had never been
+a good life; he had almost died of it the year before; he might have
+died of it at home. But the loss of a son, even when he is not the only
+one, is a grievous loss to a Hindu household, and it brought enhanced
+and almost insensate anger to every member of it; except to Parbutti,
+who went about her household duties calmly, almost stupidly.
+
+Then came the final blow. The bridegroom--was it _he?_--she wondered
+dully--shot himself with a revolver smuggled in to him by a woman, a
+young and pretty woman full of patriotism and poetry, a woman brought
+up on Western lines, who was almost worshipped by the Nationalist party
+of unrest.
+
+Parbutti heard the tale, still calm to outward appearance. She heard
+women's voices, full of curiosity, tell of the deed of patriotism, as
+it was called: she heard them wonder what the woman agitator was really
+like, and say that Kâli Ma would surely, ere long, rise up in Her Power
+and smite the M'llechas hip and thigh.
+
+And then they looked at her and shook their heads. Neither maid, wife,
+nor widow, it would be more difficult than ever to find fresh
+betrothals for her. Whereupon Ramabhai wept as she had wept before with
+sharp sobs and little outcries. And once more Parbutti said nothing,
+though she was quivering all over. It would be impossible to define her
+feelings, they were such an admixture of hatred, and love, of fear, and
+jealousy, and despair. And through it all came the question: "Was it
+he?"--while, as a background, sheer physical disappointment stretched
+every fibre of her mind and body almost to breaking joint.
+
+So it went on until one day someone spoke to her almost as if she had
+been a widow, and bade her do something almost menial.
+
+She did it without a word. It was noon time and the house was deserted;
+those who were in it being asleep. She sate for a while in the sunshine
+of the courtyard, her hands on her knees, doing nothing. Then suddenly
+she rose, and slipped into the room which Ramabhai used as a wardrobe.
+
+When she emerged from it she was swathed in the scarlet and gold
+Benares _khim-kob_ that had cost four hundred rupees, and her arms, her
+neck, her feet, were hung with golden ornaments.
+
+They tinkled as she made her way down the steep stone stairs to Kâli's
+shrine. Dark, and still, and small, it lay, with a faint scent of
+incense about it; for the previous day had been a festival, and many
+folk had been to worship there.
+
+But Kâli--Mai Kâli--would never have better worshipping than Parbutti
+meant to give her. How the idea had come to the girl's mind who can
+say; but dimly, out of her confused thoughts had grown the conviction
+that something must be done. She was the only one, now, who knew the
+secret; but it was useless in her hands. She could not go out and throw
+bombs, as he doubtless would have thrown them had he lived; so giving
+the Great Goddess the Blood for which she craved. Yes! he had meant to
+do it, for were not the aliens accursed? Had they not killed him?
+
+She mixed everything up hopelessly; Mai Kâli and the Sacrament of
+Blood, her own loss and the public good; she felt angry, and weary, and
+disappointed; she felt that she ought to do something, that she must
+get Someone stronger than she was on her side, to do what she was
+helpless to do.
+
+So, confused, obstinate, she stepped behind the image, slid back the
+panel, and took out the box. Then, producing a cocoanut shell from the
+folds of her _sare_, she filled it carefully, methodically, and put
+back the box carefully, methodically.
+
+This done, she went to the front of the image, smeared the floor once
+more with blood-red, and began her maiden's prayer--the prayer that is
+infallible!
+
+
+             "Om! Om! Kâli Ma!--
+              Dark! Dark! Not a star--
+              In my Heaven, Kâli Ma!--"
+
+
+This time her voice was high and hard, for had not Mai Kâli to be
+compelled--yea! even by the greatest of sacrifices?
+
+
+          "Thou shalt have it fresh and fresh--
+           Blood to drink, and lumps of flesh--"
+
+
+Higher and higher grew the voice; it did not falter at all: not even
+when at the final
+
+
+                     "_Hoom phut_"
+
+
+the girl, raising her hand on high, dashed the cocoanut she held upon
+the ground boldly.
+
+There was a faint flash, an instant explosion, a grinding noise as the
+house rocked to its foundation, then steadied into quiescence.
+
+But Parbutti had kept her promise to Mai Kâli, and to--_him_; for the
+Goddess might have satisfied Her craving for Blood, Her desire for
+Flesh amid the welter of broken stones and twisted grids, of shattered
+wood-carving and torn Benares _khim-kob_, of jewels rent apart and
+splintered bones, that was all remaining of Her shrine, Her image, and
+Her worshipper.
+
+Whether She will keep her part of the bargain is another matter.
+
+But the Maiden's Prayer has been said, the Greatest of Sacrifices has
+been made.
+
+
+
+
+                       SILVER SPEECH AND GOLDEN
+                               SILENCE
+
+
+                                  I
+                            SILVER SPEECH
+
+"It is not only the interest of India--now the most considerable part
+of the British Empire--but the credit and honour of the British nation
+itself, will be decided by this division. We are to decide by this
+judgment whether the crimes of individuals are to be turned into public
+guilt and national ignominy; or whether this nation will convert the
+very offences which have thrown a transient shade upon its government
+into something that will reflect a permanent lustre upon the honour,
+justice and humanity of the kingdom! My lords! There is yet another
+consideration equal to those other two great interests I have
+stated--those of our Empire, of our national character--something that,
+if possible, comes more home to the hearts and feelings of every
+Englishman--I mean the interests of our constitution itself, which is
+deeply involved in this case."
+
+In the audience, a young man, fair of face, blue of eye, looked up
+suddenly, then muttered under his breath:
+
+"Hard cheek! What the deuce has he got to do with the British
+constitution?"
+
+"Do be quiet, Tom!" blushed the girl who sat next him in a whisper;
+"they'll hear you."
+
+Tom relapsed into bored silence, and the stream of words went on--
+
+"But the crimes we charge against him are not lapses, defects, errors
+of common human frailty which, as we know and feel, we can allow for.
+There are no crimes that have not arisen from passions which it is
+criminal to harbour, no offences that have not their root in avarice,
+rapacity, pride, insolence, ferocity, treachery, cruelty, malignity of
+temper; in short, in nothing that does not argue a total extinction of
+all moral principle, that does not manifest an inveterate blackness of
+heart dyed ingrain with malice, vitiated, corrupted, gangrened to the
+very core."
+
+"Confound his Billingsgate!" murmured Tom Gordon softly. "What good
+does it do--anybody?"
+
+"H'sh!" came the warning feminine whisper; "his accent is really very
+good."
+
+Tom shifted uneasily, and once again the strenuous, eager voice,
+struggling bravely against the harshness of the English language, was
+the only sound held in the white walls of the Mission School at Ilmpur,
+a little Punjab town set in a waste of sand. The hot sunshine slanted
+across it in broad, golden rays from the upper windows, to lay broad,
+yellow squares on the cool whitewash. Through the doors, set open to
+the air on all sides, the same hot, yellow sunshine slanted in on the
+upturned faces of the students, all bent--with elation in their
+looks--on the prize English speaker, who was declaiming his set speech
+out of Burke's famous impeachment of Warren Hastings. Declaiming it
+before, as the local paper put it, "Mr. Commissioner Gordon and his
+good lady, Mr. Tom Gordon, a fine young man worthy of his great father
+who has lately entered India from Eton in quest of police post, the
+beautiful Miss Gordon, and many others of European renown, including
+natives of high official positions, who have honoured the Reverends
+Freemantle and Smith with attendance at their mission-school
+prizegiving."
+
+They sat in a semicircle on the dais. A quaint company. Mr.
+Commissioner Gordon, with a painstakingly pious expression on his
+grizzly red-bearded face, inwardly rehearsing the speech he would have
+to make in his turn; his good lady nervously eyeing the gilt books
+which she would have to give away, spread out on the table before her.
+It was covered with a royal red cloth, and on it stood a packed posy of
+jasmine blossoms and marigolds. The odour of the crushed blossoms
+mingled with the confused scent of cocoanut oil, roses, and curry
+powder which is inseparable from every Indian assembly. On one side of
+the Commissioner sat the Reverend Freemantle, a gentleman with a beard
+grown white in the service of education. Mild, placid, benevolent, his
+face beamed out over his students. They were all doing well, and
+Gunpat-Rai was simply excelling himself by showing complete mastery
+over both vowels and consonants. Indeed, in the whole semicircle of
+eager teachers and approvers upon the platform there was not to be seen
+a dissentient expression; and one _zenana_-worker positively wept tears
+of joy, because it was through her dreary daily drudgery amongst fetid
+alleys and sunless back courts that the prize pupil had originally come
+to the mission-school.
+
+Otherwise he might have remained as his father had remained all his
+life, proprietor of an odd little shop right away from all other shops,
+where they sold matches and oil, flour and earthenware dishes, string
+and pipe-bowls--everything, in fact, which might suddenly be wanted in
+the big, high, tenement houses that elbowed and shouldered the little
+dark lane.
+
+"The law is the security of the people of England! It is the security
+of the people of India!"
+
+Gunpat-Rai's voice, overtaxed, almost broke over the climax of Burke's
+rhodomontade, but the tumultuous, undisciplined applause which
+followed, covered the fact, and he sat down feeling dazed, confused. It
+was the first time he had ever spoken in public, and he had found that
+he had not been afraid. That, in itself, was disturbing--he had not
+felt afraid!
+
+Meanwhile, Mr. Commissioner Gordon's loud voice was bombarding the wall
+with fitful explosions of words which reverberated amidst an echo of
+hesitating stutters.
+
+"Gives me great pleasure, unalloyed pleasure to--er--er--er--to--to see
+Indian youth--er--er--er--taking their place with--with--er--er--er----"
+Here a glance at his son--who, after the manner of sons when their
+fathers are speaking, was burying his face in his hands--seemed to
+supply the lacking phrase--"with the youth of England."
+
+"Good Heavens!" groaned Tom Gordon aside plaintively; "I say, Nell, how
+long do you think the Guv'nor will be on his legs, for I'll slope out,
+and have a smoke----"
+
+"S--st, Tom!" reproved his sister severely. "You can't--and you've got
+to play in the cricket match, you know."
+
+Tom groaned again, but less plaintively; and so the speechifying
+went on, the burden of all being the incalculable advantage of a good
+sound English education in every walk of life. Did they but choose,
+every student present--at any rate, students of the stamp of
+Gunpat-Rai--might "rise to higher things."
+
+So, with a final and formal hand-shake to the lad who had so
+distinguished himself, the company trooped out into the sunshine and
+the mission-school lay empty. Only in the place where Gunpat-Rai had
+sat ere rising to speak, a tiny packet wrapped in silver-leaf betrayed
+its presence by shining like a star. It was the talisman which his
+little fifteen-year-old wife had given him that morning ere he started,
+with tears and laughter, because it was only the first half-chewed,
+half-sucked piece of dough-cake his firstborn had ever had. It had
+dropped from his nerveless hand when, in a dire funk, he had stood up
+in answer to the call of his name.
+
+It did not, however, shine long, for an impudent sparrow soon
+discovered that it was but dough made silvern, and promptly carried it
+off.
+
+Meanwhile the cricket match was in full swing, Tom Gordon captaining
+one side, and the Reverend Mr. Freemantle (who still cherished an old
+blue cap he had worn in his Oxford days) the other.
+
+Youth, however, had to be allowed for, so the last-comer from
+Eton found himself, to his great delight, at the head of ten
+smaller boys--jolly little chaps with bright eyes and boundless
+obediences--while the big students, including Gunpat-Rai--who was cock
+at cricket as in English, ranged themselves under their master.
+
+They won the toss, and Tom Gordon, as he suppled his hands with the
+ball, told himself the bowling must be good.
+
+And good it was, especially in style. The tall young figure in white
+flannels, close clipped about the lean flanks with the light blue belt,
+reminded one of a flying Mercury as it poised in delivery. Every
+woman's eye was on it in admiration. As for the swift balls it sent,
+they were a revelation to these Indian boys, who had never seen real
+cricket. They crumpled up before them like agitated spiders when they
+came off the wicket, and when they came on it, they looked helplessly
+at the umpire to see if they were really out. The Reverend Mr.
+Freemantle made a good stand, the memory of many a past day coming back
+to give half-forgotten skill to his bat, his sheer delight in his
+youthful adversary's prowess making him bold. Still the score stood
+ominously at one figure when Gunpat-Rai took his place. Tom Gordon
+hitched up his belt and looked.
+
+"I should say leg before," he muttered, "but they're so thin, they
+hardly count."
+
+And then he let drive.
+
+Now, whether the ball chose to hit Gunpat-Rai's bat or Gunpat-Rai's bat
+chose to hit the ball, is immaterial. Away it went beyond the boundary,
+and Gunpat-Rai's long legs scored four. A sharp, hissing roar of
+delight rose from the assembled school, and Tom Gordon frowned faintly;
+but he was far too good-humoured to withstand what followed. Heartened
+up by his absolutely unlooked-for success, Gunpat-Rai who, though his
+legs were thin, was a powerful enough young fellow, did everything and
+more than everything that could be expected of him. He gambolled out
+and slogged wildly, he pirouetted like a teetotum and nearly killed his
+wicket-keep, and finally let drive at his partner's wicket, demolishing
+all three stumps.
+
+"Out!" cried the umpire ruefully, but with commendable impartiality,
+and when Tom Gordon had sufficiently recovered from his laughter to
+assert that no one but the stumps had suffered, another hissing roar of
+applause rose from the school.
+
+All things, however, must come to an end, and a skying block of
+Gunpat-Rai's was finally caught by Tom Gordon as it appeared to be
+descending on his mother's lap. But the score stood at thirty-six, and
+as the batsman walked past him proudly yet sheepishly, the Eton boy
+shook him by the hand.
+
+"By George, you know," he said, "you'd be another Ranji, with practice!
+I never saw such an innings played--never!"
+
+Gunpat-Rai flushed up under his dark skin and gave back the grip with
+all the curious, lissome strength of an Indian hand, in which the
+sinews seem made of iron, the bones of velvet.
+
+After that it seemed of little count that Tom Gordon, who began the
+next innings, should, by a judicious foresight and the obedience of his
+small boys combined, carry out his last bat as last man with a score of
+seventy-two.
+
+"You are too good for us, Gordon," laughed the Rev. Mr. Freemantle. "We
+must deport him from the station, or request him not to play again,
+mustn't we, boys?"
+
+But the hissing roar which followed was of dissent, not assent, and
+when it had died away, Gunpat-Rai, as head of the school, spoke up, to
+his own surprise again, fluently.
+
+"Cricket," he said, "is a noble game. We learn everything noble from
+England. So are we pleased to acquire proficiency at the hands of Mr.
+Tom Gordon, Esquire."
+
+The soft dark eyes looked almost appealingly at the blue ones.
+
+"All right," said their owner, curtly. "I'll come down and coach you a
+bit, if you like."
+
+And he did.
+
+
+                                  II
+                            GOLDEN SILENCE
+
+"Why on earth can't you learn to hold your tongue, Gunpat?" said Tom
+Gordon roughly. "I thought you had more sense than to mix yourself up
+with those Arya Somajh agitators. You'll be getting yourself into
+trouble some day!"
+
+The years had passed since the famous innings, making of the bowler an
+Assistant District Superintendent of Police, of the batsman a pleader
+in the High Court. Practically the balance of progress was all in
+favour of the latter. Coming from the house of a miserable merchant
+whose monthly earnings barely touched a living wage of the poorest
+description, he had risen far beyond his birthright, whereas Tom
+Gordon, on his pay of two hundred a month, with poor promotion before
+him, had, if anything, fallen from his. But discontent sat in the dark
+eyes and cheerful acquiescence in the blue ones. Perhaps the owner of
+the latter was a better appraiser of his own worth, for he knew he was
+not clever; knew that though he was "jolly good" at this, he was not
+"jolly good" at that. Not so Gunpat-Rai. Clever at school--the
+cleverness of imitation, of memory--and gifted with a fluency of words
+beyond even that of most of his class, he had spent the first years of
+his young manhood in waiting for an appointment which never came. How
+could it come when every school in India turns out dozens of applicants
+as capable as he for every Government post from Cape Comorin to Holy
+Himalaya? Yet resentment at this failure of the impossible ate into his
+soul. So he had turned pleader, had drifted into the editing of a
+native newspaper, a copy of which lay on Tom Gordon's office table as
+he looked with kindly contempt at the man who sat opposite him. For,
+though Gunpat-Rai had not turned out a second Ranji, the memory of the
+old days when he had coached the Ilmpur school still lingered with the
+Eton boy, and he had shaken hands as frankly as ever when Gunpat-Rai
+had called to welcome him to his new district.
+
+"I'll tell you what it is, Gunpat," continued Tom Gordon, "you
+fellows don't know what anybody wants but yourselves. Now, take this
+district--it's a very fair sample." He turned over the leaves of the
+last Census report which lay on his table rapidly. "Hum--m--m, here we
+are, Jahilabad, population 560,000 odd--240,000 Jat cultivators of the
+soil, 35,000 Banyas, presumably moneylenders--literacy--let's take the
+average for all India if you like--it tells enormously against my
+argument, but it can stand it! Now think! At fifty-three per thousand
+we have twenty-nine--let's say 30,000 men who can scrawl their names
+and spell out a line or two in their own vernacular. How many of these
+are put out of court by the 35,000 moneylenders? More than half, I'll
+wager. There you are, you educated men, a negligible minority, taking
+India as a whole. So why don't you speak for yourselves, not for the
+country at large? Because you don't really mean anything, you don't
+know what you want yourselves." Tom Gordon paused in this unusual
+eloquence, and, with a laugh, turned to the handsome little fellow of
+six whom Gunpat-Rai had shown off with pride as his eldest son.
+
+"Jolly little chap," said the Assistant Superintendent irrelevantly. "I
+suppose he's married?"
+
+Gunpat-Rai flushed up under his dark skin as he had done five years
+before at the cricket match.
+
+"The women----" he began.
+
+"Oh, I know!" interrupted the young Englishman. "'_Stri acchar_,' and
+all that. But, I say, Gunpat! How the deuce are you going to govern
+India if you can't even settle your womenkind? No, my dear fellow! I
+haven't the faintest sympathy with you. You sail pretty near sedition
+in this copy." Here he laid his hand on the blurred, blotched
+broadsheet which called itself _The Star of Hope_. "But, by George! if
+you jib it the least bit more, I shall have to run you in. So don't be
+a fool. You're a good sort, Gunpat, and I shall never forget that
+innings of yours--never! If you would only have stuck to it instead of
+'seeking a post in white clothing' you might have been----"
+
+He paused, unable to say what; and Gunpat-Rai, feeling a like
+inability, the conversation ended uncomfortably.
+
+And so it came to pass that not many more days afterwards, Tom
+Gordon sat once more in that curious atmosphere of cocoanut-oil and
+curry powder which is inseparable from Indian crowds, listening to
+Gunpat-Rai's voice. But he sat disguised in one of the front benches of
+the crowded hall, so that he had to look far back more than once to see
+that his constables were all in evidence. For a notable agitator on
+tour had stopped at the little town; and this was a meeting which must
+be reported upon, since here was no audience composed of peacefully
+seditious Bengâli clerks and irresponsible students, but of stalwart
+Jats, discontented over some new, but as yet untried, scheme of
+irrigation. Now, irrigation stands closer to the heart of a Jat that
+does wife and children. What! was the Sirkar to deny the land its
+drink?
+
+The other speakers had been innocuous. Their very vehemence had passed
+by the slumbering passions of the long-bearded Jats who listened to
+them with ill-concealed yawns. But with Gunpat-Rai it was different. At
+the first word Tom Gordon felt that he was in the presence of a born
+orator. And yet--and yet--surely the words were vaguely familiar in
+their import, if not in their sound?
+
+"The crimes we charge against this alien Government of India," came the
+liquid Indian voice, "are not lapses, defects, errors of common frailty
+which we, brethren, as we know them in ourselves, can allow for. They
+are no crimes that have not arisen from evil passions--passions which
+it is criminal to harbour"--an iron mailed stick held by a burly farmer
+fell with a clang as its owner shifted it to his right hand--"no
+offences that have not their root in avarice, rapacity, pride,
+insolence, ferocity, treachery, cruelty, malignity of temper----" Each
+epithet seemed punctuated by a growing stir amongst the audience. "In
+short, in nothing that does not argue a total extinction of all moral
+principle, that does not manifest an inveterate blackness of heart."
+
+Tom Gordon had it now! The Billingsgate he had confounded years ago, of
+course--Burke's Billingsgate!
+
+He had flung off his disguise and leapt to the dais in a second.
+
+"Oh, hold your jaw! Do, there's a decent chap! Don't go spouting other
+folks' abuse!" he cried.
+
+But Gunpat-Rai was helpless before the sudden need for decision. "Dyed
+ingrain with malice, vitiated----" he went on mechanically.
+
+The young Assistant Superintendent of Police gave a sharp glance behind
+him. What he saw there was not reassuring. "Oh! do shut up! Tell them
+the meeting's over, or there'll be mischief."
+
+"Corrupted, gangrened----"
+
+"Constables," came the order keenly, "clear the room! For Heaven's
+sake, Gunpat, don't get yourself into trouble!"
+
+They were the last words Tom Gordon spoke. His hand slipped from
+Gunpat-Rai's shoulder as he was struck full on the bare head from
+behind by an iron-bound staff which crashed into his skull.
+
+Even then the tyranny of words held Gunpat-Rai, though the suddenness
+of the shock dislocated his sequence.
+
+"Dyed ingrain, corrupted to the very core."
+
+Then he stood staring at what lay before him, and a great silence--a
+golden silence from words--came to him at last.
+
+He only broke it once, when he was on trial. The court was full of his
+friends, and on the dais sat Englishmen, so the conditions were nearly
+the same as they had been years ago when the hot sunshine had slanted
+from the Tipper windows at Ilmpur to lay broad squares on the cool
+whitewash.
+
+"I learnt it at school," he said dully; and then he began: "But the
+crimes we charge against you----"
+
+"Hush--h!" said the judge gravely. "We know what you learnt at school."
+
+But that did not lessen the sentence.
+
+
+
+
+                        THE FOOTSTEPS OF A DOG
+
+
+She passed, smiling softly, though a vague trouble seemed to clutch at
+her heart. She had found him asleep so often of late, and if the driver
+slept, the oxen might well pause in their task of drawing water, and so
+the fields which needed it so much be deprived for yet another day of
+their life-giving draught. They were not, however, pausing now, at any
+rate. Their slow circling brought her sleeping husband to Sarsuti's
+eyes, and carried him away again, wheeling round by the well from whose
+depths a stream of water splashed drowsily into a wooden trough and
+then hurried away--a little ribbed ribbon of light--out of the shade of
+the great banyan tree into the sun-saturated soil beyond where the
+young millet was sprouting.
+
+How cool it was, after her hot walk from the village! No wonder he
+slept! She sat herself down beside the runnel of water where a jasmine
+bush threw wild whips of leaf and blossom over the damp earth. There
+was no need to wake him yet. The bullocks would not pause now that she
+was there to make them do their work.
+
+That was her task in life!--to make them do their work.
+
+She sighed, and yet she smiled again, as the slow-circling oxen brought
+her husband Prema almost to her feet once more. How handsome he was,
+his bare head lying on the turban he had pressed into the service of a
+pillow. And his slender limbs! How ingeniously he had curved them on
+the forked seat so as to gain a comfortable resting-place! Trust Prema
+to make himself and everyone else in the world comfortable! A sudden
+leap of her heart sent the blood to dye her dark face still darker, as
+she thought of the softness, the warmth, the colour he had brought into
+her life.
+
+How long had they been married? Ten years--a whole ten years, and there
+was never a child yet. It was getting time. No! No! Not yet--not yet!
+She need not look that in the face yet.
+
+She rose suddenly as the wheeling oxen brought him to her once more,
+and staying them with one swift word, bent over the sleeping man.
+
+"Prem!" she said. "Prema! I am here." His arms were round her in an
+instant, his lips on hers; for here, out in the shadow amongst the
+sunshine, they were alone.
+
+"Sarsuti! Wife!" he murmured drowsily, then with a laugh, shook his
+long length and stood beside her, his arm still about her waist. Tall
+as he was, she was almost as tall, a straight, upstanding Jatni woman
+with eyebrows like a broad bar across her face.
+
+But, as her dark eyes met his in passionate adoration, something in the
+sight of his exceeding beauty smote her to the heart. The thought that
+there was none to inherit it, the knowledge that if it passed it would
+leave nothing behind it. It is a thought which has driven many an
+Indian woman to take another woman by the hand and lead her home to be
+a hand-maiden to the lord. It drove Sarsuti--after long weeks, nay,
+months of thought--almost to speech.
+
+"Prem!" she faltered, hiding her face on his breast,
+
+"I have been thinking--thou needst a son--and----" But she could get no
+further, partly because the words seemed to choke her, partly because
+Prema, turning her face to his with his soft, supple hand, stopped her
+mouth with kisses.
+
+What was the use? What was the use, she asked herself fiercely,
+thinking of such things when she loved him so? Some morning, aye! some
+summer morning after a summer's night, she would rather make the
+Dream-compeller send her to sleep, once and for all!--to sleep and
+dreams of Prema and his love! Then he could marry again, and there
+would be children to light up the old house, a son to light the funeral
+pyre.
+
+But now--no! Not yet!...
+
+The sunshine filtering through the broad leaves dappled them with light
+and shade; the oxen resting stood head down, nosing at the damp earth;
+the water, ceasing to splash, ran silently more and more slowly on its
+way, and all around them a yellow glare of heat hemmed them in
+breathlessly. Yet here, at the well, the jasmine grew green, a big
+datura lily, rejoicing in the shade, threw out its wide white blossoms,
+and, looking down to the mirror-like pool of water into which the long,
+unending circle of deftly-arranged earthen pots and ropes dipped, you
+could see the tufts of maidenhair fern which came God knows whence.
+They were like love in the heart--Heaven--sent!
+
+"Thou wilt call at the Lala-_jee's_ this evening, Sarsuti," said Prema,
+with a faint note of half-shamed uneasiness in his voice, as, his
+midday meal of milk and hearth-cakes over, she prepared to go back. "He
+deals more justly with thee than with me--may he be accursed, and may
+the footsteps of a dog ..."
+
+"S'st! Prema," she interrupted, "the Lala-_jee_ is no worse than his
+kind; and we have asked so much--lately."
+
+Yes! she thought as she trudged homewards, they had asked much, for
+Prema had a lavish hand. Yet she would, of course, have him keep up his
+position as head man of the village; the position that had been hers by
+right as the only child of her father. Prema, her cousin, had gained it
+through his marriage to her, by special favour of the Sirkar, in memory
+of good service done in the Mutiny time by the old man. He had been a
+better husbandman than Prema, and money had gone fast these few years
+since he died, though she had tried to keep things as they had been.
+Still, who could grudge Prema the handsomest yoke of oxen in the
+country-side, the fleetest mare? And those mad experiments of his with
+new ploughs, new seeds that the Huzoors spoke about! It was well to
+keep to the soft side of the masters, no doubt, yet it should be done
+discreetly--and when was Prema ever discreet? She almost laughed, even
+while she stooped to let the water from an overflooded plot run into
+the next by removing the clod which her husband had forgotten, thinking
+of his indiscreetness--of the gifts he showered on her when he had
+money in his pocket to pay for them; sometimes when he had not. Of
+course, the Lala-_jee_ would listen to reason and lend more on the
+coming crop--who could deny Prem anything?
+
+But the Lala was curiously obdurate. He was an old man, who had backed
+the luck of the village for three generations, and never had a dispute
+with his creditors.
+
+"See you, daughter," he said. "Prem for all he is head man and thy
+husband, is but man, and there is none to come after him."
+
+Her face darkened with a hot blush again.
+
+"The land will be there," she replied, haughtily.
+
+"Aye, but who will own it! Strangers, they say, from far away. I have
+no dealings with strangers."
+
+"There will be my share," she protested.
+
+"Aye! but how wilt thou fare with strangers also, thou--childless
+widow?" he asked.
+
+Her hot anger flamed up. "Wait thou and see! Meanwhile, since thou art
+afraid, take this," she tore off the solid gold bangle she wore, "'tis
+worth fifty rupees at the veriest pawnshop--give me forty!"
+
+"Nay," replied the bunnya, with spirit. "'Tis worth a good
+seventy-five, though thy man--I'll warrant me--paid a hundred. So
+seventy-five thou shalt have; but, look you, daughter--or, if thou
+willest it, mother--keep Prem in leash, or a surety the footsteps of a
+dog will show on his ashes."
+
+She looked at him, startled. Curious how the phrase, born of a belief
+that one can read the reward of the dead from the marks which show on
+his funeral pyre, should crop up. First from Prem, regarding the
+ Lala-_jee_, next from the Lala-_jee_ concerning Prem. Was there any
+truth in it, she wondered? She had the money, that was one comfort, and
+Prema would be pleased. Then, when the Biluch mare foaled, and they
+sold it as a yearling for the three hundred rupees Prem thought it
+would fetch, she would tell him how she had pawned his gift; meanwhile,
+a brass bracelet, to be had at the shop for a rupee, would serve to
+deceive his eyes. But not the sharp ones of Veru, the young widow who
+was the only other inhabitant of the wide courtyard with its slips of
+arcaded rooms round about it, and great stacks of millet stalks, and
+huge bee-hive stores of grain.
+
+Her eyes were on it from the moment Sarsuti, sitting down above her on
+the little raised mud dais, began to spin.
+
+"Thou needst not stare so, girl," broke in Sarsuti, at last. "Yes! I
+have pawned it. He needed money, and he is more to me than aught else
+beside--more than thou, husbandless, can dream, child."
+
+Veru--she was indeed but little more than a child, this virgin widow of
+Sarsuti's half-brother, who had been born and died in his father's old
+age--held her head lower over her wheel, and said nothing. Her widow's
+shroud seemed to swallow her up. Yet in that Jat household she was
+kindly enough treated, for Sarsuti's strong arms loved work, and she
+had a great pity in her great soft heart for all unloved things. Here
+was no question of shaven head or daily fasting. Veru simply led a
+cloistered life, and did what share her strength allowed of the daily
+work. Of late that had not been much; she had complained of fatigue,
+and had sat all day spinning feverishly as if to make up for her
+failure in other ways; for she was a sensitive little thing, ready to
+cry at a word of blame.
+
+So the evening passed by. Prema was not to be back from the well till
+late, not, indeed, until the moon set; for the young millet had been
+neglected somewhat, and even he was roused to the necessity for action.
+Water it must have, or there would be no crop. Thus, as the sun set,
+Sarsuti cooked the supper, reserving the best dough cakes, the choicest
+morsels of the pickled carrots against her husband's return, and then,
+being weary, lay down so as to freshen herself up to receive him as he
+should be received. The night was hot, there was a restlessness in it
+which found its way into her mind, and she lay awake for some time
+thinking of what the Lala-_jee_ had said. Yes! It was time, it was
+growing time for so many things. Yes! she must harden her heart and be
+wise--the footsteps of the ...
+
+Here she fell asleep.
+
+When she woke, there was pitch darkness. The moon had set. What had
+happened? Had Prema returned, and, full of kindliness as ever, seen she
+was tired and so refrained from waking her? She put out her hand and
+touched his bed, but he was not there. How late he was! And where was
+Veru? Veru, who should have been watching for him.
+
+"Veru! lazy child--art asleep?"
+
+Her question came back to her unanswered; Veru, also, was not in the
+wide courtyard. Where were they?
+
+The very conjunction of her thought regarding them, woke in her a
+sudden swift pang of jealousy.
+
+Where were they?
+
+A minute later, holding an oil cresset in her hand as a guard against
+snakes, she was passing swiftly through the deserted village on her way
+to the well. Prema might have fallen asleep--he might be asleep still.
+The night was so dark, she held the lamp high above her head so as to
+throw its light before her on the narrow edge of a pathway between the
+flooded fields. It was so still, she could hear the faint sob made by
+some deadly thing slipping from her coming into the water, over which a
+wandering firefly would flash, revealing an inky glimmer between the
+rising shoots of corn. Ahead, that massed shadow was the banyan tree.
+The fireflies were thick there, thick as cressets at a bridal feast ...
+
+If Prema slept--Yes! if he slept, to be awakened by a kiss.
+
+Underneath the arching branches of the banyan tree it was dark indeed,
+but the silence of it told her that the oxen anyhow were at rest.
+
+And Prema!
+
+As she held the light forward, something on the ground at her feet
+caught her eye--jasmine! Jasmine twined into a wreath. For whose head?
+Not hers!
+
+"Prema!" she called. "Prem!"
+
+There was no answer. But he was there for all that; half resting on the
+forked seat, as if he had flung himself upon it when weary; weary and
+content; his head thrown back upon his arm, his whole body lax with
+sleep--and with content.
+
+She had seen him look thus so often! "Prem!" she whispered. "Prem!" and
+touched him on the bosom.
+
+Then a hideous shriek of terror and horror startled the sleeping oxen
+into forward movement, as from the folds of his clothes, like some evil
+thought, there slipped a snake, swift, curved, disappearing into the
+darkness.
+
+"Prem! Prem! Speak to me! Oh, Prem--speak!"
+
+As she flung herself upon him, the forward movement of the oxen forced
+her to her knees, so heeding it not at all, one hand holding the light
+close to his face as she strove vainly to rouse him, she was dragged
+along the accustomed round, until the beasts, recognising the
+unaccustomed strain, paused once more.
+
+"Prem! Say thou art not dead--say only that, Prem!" she moaned.
+
+Her voice seemed to reach him on the far edge of the great Blank, for
+his eyelids quivered. Then, for one moment, he looked at her, and there
+was appeal in his eyes.
+
+"Wife--Veru--my----" It was scarcely a whisper, but she heard it, and
+with a cry of joy, she caught him in her strong arms, laid him on the
+ground, and, tearing his cloth aside, sought for the wound. Finding it,
+her lips were on it in a second. Ah! could kisses draw the poison,
+surely her frantic love must avail.
+
+But no. His eyelids closed. There was no sound, only a little quiver
+that she felt through her lips. Then his beauty lay still beneath them.
+
+After a time she drew herself away from him, and laid his head upon her
+lap. So she sat, dazed, thinking of that jasmine wreath in the dust,
+and of that half-heard whisper--
+
+"Wife--Veru--my----" My--what?
+
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+
+"And there is none to come after him," said the village worthies, when
+the fire of Prema's burning had died down to smouldering embers, and
+the oldest man of his clan in the village had performed the rites which
+should have been the duty of a son.
+
+And then they shook their heads wisely, thinking that men of Prem
+Singh's kind ran an ill risk in the next world without a son to perform
+the funeral obsequies; especially, nowadays, when the law prevented a
+dutiful wife from ensuring her husband's safety and salvation by
+burning herself on his funeral pyre. Yea! it was an ill world indeed in
+which the fostered virtue of a woman you had cared for and cossetted
+might not avail to save the man she loved from the pains of purgatory.
+And then they drifted away, full of surmise and deep desire concerning
+the headship of the village. Mai Sarsuti could not hold it as a widow,
+though she could hold the land; and there were no relations--none. So
+the coast was clear for many claims.
+
+Sarsuti meanwhile had not clamoured--as many an Indian widow does even
+nowadays--to be allowed to sacrifice herself for her husband's
+salvation. She had scarcely wept. She had, on the contrary, spoken
+sternly to Veru, bidding her keep her foolish tears until all things
+had been done in due order to keep away the evil spirits and ensure
+peace to the departed.
+
+Then, after all the ceremonies were completed, and Prem's beauty lay
+swathed awaiting sunset for its burning, she had sat on one side of his
+low bier, while Veru sat on the other, and the wail had risen
+piercingly--
+
+"Naked he came, naked he has gone; this empty dwelling-house belongs
+neither to you nor to me."
+
+There had been a menace in her voice, high-pitched, clear, almost
+impassive, while Veru's had been broken by sobs.
+
+So now that frail weakling was asleep, wearied out by her woe, while
+Sarsuti sat where the bier had been, still in all the glory of her
+wifely raiment, still with the vermilion stain upon her forehead, still
+wearing round her neck the blessed marriage cord with which he had so
+often toyed. For she had point-blank refused to allow it to be broken.
+Time enough for the widow's shroud, she had said. To-day she was still
+Prem's wife--he had scarce had time to die.
+
+So she sat quite still, looking at the place where he had lain,
+thinking of those last words. Had she really heard them? Was it
+possible, the thing that had leapt to her mind?
+
+Deep down in her heart she knew vaguely that the feet of her idol had
+been of clay; that with Prem all things were possible. Poor, wandering
+feet, which might yet have kept to the straight path, if--Oh, Prem!
+Prem! Had it been her fault? Or was she wronging him?
+
+Then, suddenly, that recurring phrase recurred to her once more.
+
+"The footstep of a dog--the footstep of a dog."
+
+Was it past midnight? Had another day begun--the day of judgment?
+Surely; then she could see--yea! She could prove it was not true.
+
+The moon was just sinking as, close-wrapped in her veil, she crept down
+to the edge of the nullah, where the burning-ground lay; a gruesome
+place, haunted by the spirits of the departed, not to be ventured near
+after dark. But Sarsuti had forgotten all the village lore, she had
+forgotten everything save that deadly doubt.
+
+Yonder, it must be on the point close to the water, for still an almost
+mist-like vapour lingered there. She sped past the faintly lighted
+patches on the hard-baked soil which told of other burnings, murmuring
+a prayer for the peace of dead souls, and so found herself beside that
+little pile of dear ashes. A breeze from the coming dawn stirred them,
+sending a grey flake or two to meet her.
+
+"Prem!" she whispered; then, as she stooped to look, the whisper passed
+to a cry--
+
+"Oh! Prema! Prema!"
+
+She lay there face down, her hands grovelling in the still warm embers
+on which there showed unmistakably the footstep of a dog!
+
+And the moon sank, so there was darkness for a while. Then in the far
+east the horizon lightened, bringing a grey mystery to the wide expanse
+of the level world. And behind the greyness came a primrose dawn, and
+the sun, rising serene and bright, sent a shaft of light to touch her
+as she lay.
+
+Then she rose, and dusting the dear ashes from her almost blistered
+hands, she crept back to the wide courtyard, where Veru still slept,
+worn out by sorrow. She stood watching her asleep, wondering at her own
+blindness. Then she touched her on the bosom.
+
+"Wake!" she cried, in a loud voice. "Wake! Oh, Veru! And speak the
+truth!"
+
+The girl started up, and the eyes of the two women met.
+
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+
+The village was bitterly disappointed; but, of course, there was
+nothing to be done but wait and see if the child was a son, for Mai
+Sarsuti had stolen a march on them. She had gone straight to the
+burra-sahib, straight to the head district official, and told him of
+her hopes. What is more, she had petitioned for trustees to work the
+land, seeing that she and her sister-in-law were poor widows; and she,
+especially, unfit for work.
+
+So three of the village elders had been convened to see to the land and
+render account to the sahib, who would be sure to keep an eye on them
+seeing that Mai Sarsuti was an upstanding, straightforward Jatni, just
+the kind to whom the sahib-logue gave consideration. And, after all,
+she and hers deserved it, for they came of a long line of virtuous,
+loyal people.
+
+So Sarsuti, with Vera, lived in the seclusion which befitted her recent
+loss; though, according to custom, she still wore a wife's dress. But
+she grew haggard as the months went by. Small wonder, said the village
+matrons, when they returned from their occasional visits, seeing that
+she awaited a fatherless child.
+
+Then one morning, Veru, looking very worn and frightened, and ill, came
+to tell the elders that a son had been born to Sarsuti. Perhaps it was
+as well, they thought, since otherwise there might be disputes about
+the headship. Now there could be none; and as there would be a very
+long minority under the care of the sahibs, Prem's son would come in to
+free land, and money laid up in the bank. A rich headman was always a
+prop to the village. So their wives went to congratulate the new-made
+mother.
+
+She was looking haggard still, and scarcely seemed to rejoice in her
+great gift; but that, perhaps, might come by and bye.
+
+But it did not. Sometimes she would take the baby and look at it long
+and earnestly. Then she would give it back to Veru, whose arms were
+seldom empty of Prem's child, and return to the work of the house, or
+sit watching them gravely from her spinning-wheel, her large dark eyes
+full of wistful pain.
+
+So the months sped by.
+
+And still Sarsuti wore a wife's dress and smeared vermilion on her
+forehead; and the mangala sutram, still unbroken, held the wife's medal
+round her throat. It would be time, she answered proudly to the shocked
+village women, to think of breaking it when Prem should have been dead
+a year, and the child be able to suck cow's milk.
+
+She prepared for the anniversary by purchasing a Maw's feeding bottle,
+and an eagerness grew to her face as she watched little Prem take it,
+and roll over contentedly to sleep, like the fat good-natured little
+lump of a healthy child as he was. But Veru wept.
+
+Still, Maw had supplanted Motherhood when the night came round again on
+which Sarsuti had heard that faint whisper from her dying husband. The
+child slept as a child should, and Veru, once more worn out by tears,
+slept also.
+
+But, as on that night a year ago, Sarsuti sat on the place where Prem's
+bier had lain and thought, her dark eyes full of a great resolve.
+Suddenly she rose, tall, straight, upstanding, and passed to where
+the child lay. She stooped and kissed it--kissed it for the first
+time--then, throwing her arms skywards, murmured to High Heaven, "Lo! I
+have saved him--I, his wife"; and so, catching up a small bundle which
+she had prepared, passed into the darkness of the night.
+
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+
+They found her charred body at dawn, face downwards, where the
+footsteps of a dog had shown upon Prem's ashes.
+
+She had saturated her clothes with paraffin, and set fire to herself
+deliberately.
+
+"Lo! how she loved him," said the village elders, behind their outward
+and decorous disapproval. "See you, she is decked as a bride with all
+her jewels. Now, with a son in his house, and suttee on his pyre, there
+is no fear but what Prem hath found freedom."
+
+"Ay!" assented the Lala-_jee_. "The footstep of a dog will not be seen
+on his ashes."
+
+
+
+
+                        THE FINDING OF PRIVATE
+                               FLANIGAN
+
+
+We were quartered up in the hills making a military road when Private
+Flanigan was lost. It was to be a big road, cutting clean into the
+heart of the Himalayas, so various detachments were set to work upon
+its long length. Ours was the last but one, and we were lucky in
+getting by far the best pitch on the whole line. It would be difficult,
+indeed, to exaggerate its beauty, and as summer came on the advantages
+of shade-shelter which it afforded made us feel blessed above our
+fellows. It was a green oasis about half-a-mile long by some quarter
+broad, of fine emerald sward not to be beaten by any English lawn. And
+it was irregularly fringed by the most magnificent deodar cedars I have
+ever seen. When we arrived in early autumn these were wreathed with
+virginia creeper already russet, which, as winter advanced, flamed like
+fire among the dark spines. Now, in spring the trees were hung to their
+very tops with a rambling white rose, faintly double, faintly yet
+penetratingly scented, which festooned the whole forest, making it look
+as if it were garlanded for some festival, and turning the oval
+greensward into a veritable _stadium_ fit for the sport of a King; for
+an amphitheatre of blue hills rose behind the forest, with here and
+there a peak of eternal snow.
+
+It was simply a ripping place, and when on Saturday evenings, the
+detachment further south, and the detachment further north, used to
+come over to play football, the fellows were always full of envy. Our
+men--there were but two officers with each detachment--were little
+Ghurkas, but they played an uncommonly good game, thanks partly to the
+fact that my captain was an old Rugby man, and gave his countenance to
+practice. But our chief asset was Private Flanigan of the small party
+of Sappers and Miners who acted as overseers on the works. He was not,
+perhaps, a shining example to the men in other ways, but so far as
+football went, he was the best possible coach.
+
+The result was, that, despite their small size, our Ghurkas could hold
+their own with the detachment of Tommies further south. They never
+actually won a match, but they made a stubborn fight, and accepted
+honourable defeat good humouredly, treating their adversaries right
+royally at the canteen afterwards in the manner of Ghurkas when they
+get chummy with British regiments. It was a quaint sight to see them
+hob-nobbing together at the further end of the _stadium_, where there
+was a duck-pond sort of lake half filled with sacred lotus, blossoming
+white and pink. A wood-slab little temple dedicated to Kâli stood
+beside this lake with steps leading down to the water; but nobody
+seemed to notice its presence, and the very brahman in charge used to
+come and watch the games with interest; perhaps he thought it
+sufficiently savage to please the terrific goddess who sat enshrined in
+a little dark hole, where nothing was to be seen of Her but crimson
+arms and hands, one of them apparently holding a football. It certainly
+was bloodthirsty enough one day when the detachment further north came
+down to try their luck. They were the biggest, tallest, lankiest lot of
+Sikhs I ever saw, but, perhaps because they had such long shins, they
+simply knuckled under before a rush of our little beggars. It was
+almost pitiable to see them; the more so because they were furious, and
+would not accept consolation, even at the hands of Private Flanigan,
+who with unblushing kindness of heart, took all the credit to himself
+in the curious dialect he used as a means of communication with his
+pupils; for being a Manchester Irishman, his English had to contend
+with a town accent, a Lancashire accent and an Irish accent, while his
+Hindustani was of the lowest type to be picked up in a barrack square.
+
+"'Taint your _kussoor_ (fault), sonnies, at all, at all! be jabers!
+_nahin_ (no). Don'tcher fret. _Dil khoosh_ (heart happy). Kape yer 'air
+on. _Dekko you soors_--beg pardon, gintlemen, it was a mistake
+entoirely!--You 'aven't a _Nadmi_ (man) like Tim Flanigan to _purwarish
+karo_ (nourish) _you_." So in his garbled language he went on to boast
+of what he had done for the little Gherkins, as he was wont to call
+them, making them, indeed, rhyme to jerkins and firkins in a football
+song he had composed; for Private Flanigan was great at singing, also
+at clog dancing. In fact, he was good at anything and everything he
+chose to take in hand thoroughly; but that was not much, for a more
+idle, able, devil-may-care fellow did not exist. He was, however, a
+general favourite, and I noticed that even my regulationarily correct
+captain dealt leniently with his not infrequent lapses from good
+behaviour. Flanigan was in tremendous form at a sing-song held the
+night of the football match, and literally brought down the house with
+his clog accompaniment to a patter song in which he parodied the
+feelings of victor and vanquished. Even the priest of Kâli, who, as
+usual, viewed the performance from a distance, was reported to have
+observed that the energetic and active Goddess herself could not have
+danced with greater vigour upon the prostrate body of Shiv-_jee_!
+
+As for the Sikhs, they positively bellowed with delight, although
+Private Flanigan had not paltered with such obvious rhymes as kicks and
+licks. In fact, the whole audience was so happy and hilarious that we
+hoped the slight difference of the afternoon was forgotten; but we were
+mistaken. About midnight Sunt Singh, havildar, began to attribute Jye
+Kush _naick's_ flat nose to a provision of the All-wise Creator in view
+of football squashes, and assert magniloquently that God never made an
+ugly Sikh, whereat strife arose, and _kukries_ and _bichwas_ might have
+drawn blood had not my captain shown discreet firmness, and sent an
+exactly equal number of Sikhs and Gurkhas to the guard room.
+
+It was very shortly after this incident that Private Flanigan found
+himself there also; as usual for patronising the canteen too liberally.
+But this time he was profusely indignant, and assured me on his Bible
+oath--as a rule he professed Roman Catholicism--that it was a gross
+case of mistaken diagnosis. He had not been drunk; still less,
+disorderly. When the sergeant put him under arrest he was merely giving
+a realistic and spirited representation of last year's All England
+match _as it had appeared to him_. And this he was doing solely for the
+benefit of his pupils, the little Gherkins; shirkin', lurkin' little
+Gherkins, who had basely failed to speak up for him when he was
+comatose from fatigue.
+
+That was about the last time I ever spoke to poor Flanigan; for about a
+week after he was mysteriously lost. I say mysteriously, because though
+all sorts of theories were put forward to explain his disappearance,
+none of them were entirely satisfactory. I myself, inclined to the
+explanation that, being, according to the Ghurkas' testimony, a little
+bit on at the time, he lost his life in a sudden spate of the river
+caused by the melting of the snows in the higher hills. It was a very
+sudden spate, and caught the working party as they were clearing the
+southern end of a deep cutting--a tunnel, indeed, for twenty yards or
+so--which lay just at the end of our section. The Sikhs, however, who
+were working at the northern end, escaped the flood altogether, and
+rather jeered at our men who had to scramble for dear life, some
+regaining the camp and others spending the night in the open; so, each
+party thinking Flanigan must be with the other, he was not missed till
+next morning, when it was too late to find his body.
+
+We dragged the river pools to no purpose, then, as the spate had ruined
+half our work, gave up the search and duly reported his death at
+headquarters.
+
+With the prospect of the advancing hot weather before us, when we must
+knock off, there was not much time for amusement, and we were kept
+pretty close at it. But a Himalaya spring in the uplands was a
+perpetual temptation to me, and I used to start off at dawn time for a
+long tramp on the higher _murgs_ or alps, taking my gun with me in case
+I came across an old cock _minawul_ pheasant. There was a perfect
+mosaic of flowers beneath one's feet; forget--menots, pansies, white
+anemones, yellow gillyflowers, scarlet potentilla and half-a-hundred
+others whose names I did not know. You could not set your foot down
+without crushing some beautiful thing; you felt that you were ramping
+through a veritable garden.
+
+Then it was marvellous to see the snow peaks flush red with sunrise
+while the shadow of night--the shadow of the earth itself!--still lay
+immovable in the valleys, and you had to bend close over the mosaic to
+distinguish one flower from another. Even the cock _minawul_, despite
+their dazzling metallic lustre, looked shadowy and dark as they rose;
+rose swiftly to flash out suddenly into copper and green, and silvery
+goldeny blue as they met the higher sunlight.
+
+One morning, thinking I had hit a splendid specimen of these rocketting
+fireworks, and being anxious to secure such a perfectly plumaged bird,
+I followed one over keenly. The result being that I lost my way, and
+found myself under a blazing hot sun, still seeking for my particular
+valley. At long last I caught a glimpse of deodar trees below me and
+began to descend confidently; but half way down a certain strangeness
+of contour made me pull up and question my judgment.
+
+No! it was not our valley. It was too narrow, too small; besides, there
+was no lakelet in it. Indeed, there seemed no way out of it; it lay
+like an extinct crater, absolutely shut in by the high hills, tucked
+away--right away--No! by Jove! there were people or things in it. I
+could see a steady white spot of something on the greensward, and a
+sort of dancing circle of black specks.
+
+Were they men or animals? I was too short-sighted to distinguish; so I
+started downwards again, impelled by curiosity and a vague feeling that
+I knew what was coming, to find a point of vantage whence I could see
+clearly.
+
+I don't think I was in the least surprised at what I _did_ see. I am
+sure my inner consciousness was aware of it before _I_ was.
+
+The dazzling white speck was Private Flanigan. He was standing in a
+dignified attitude in the very middle of the field, naked as the day he
+was born, save for a waistcloth and the biggest pair of boots I ever
+saw. At his feet lay a football, and in his right hand was a glass of
+something to drink, which, between his sips, he used to beckon on his
+adversaries.
+
+I crept further till I could hear his voice.
+
+"Come on, sonnies! come on, boys!" it came persuasively. "_Idder
+'h'ow!_ I won't 'urt much--not to spake of--_Kooch nay_--Come on, I
+says." Then, as his invitation was reluctantly accepted, he lunged out
+a wild kick, an awful howl followed, and yet another lanky Sikh retired
+rapidly, rubbing his shin. Whereat Private Flanigan laughed and took
+another sip triumphantly.
+
+"_Bahoot utcha!_"--the rollicking tones were a trifle thick--"Now
+you're learning, I tell yer--yer 'ardening like a hegg in 'ot water.
+And you'll soon get useter it. You won't remember it when yer sees the
+leather a-sailing through the uprights. No, yer won't! No more nor a
+woman for joy as a man is born into the wurrld. Hello! ye divvle--ye
+would, would ye?"
+
+This was to an enterprising youth who thought to take advantage of a
+prolonged drink to sniggle the ball.
+
+I lay and laughed. I couldn't help it. Flanigan wasn't a big man, but
+he was brawny, and the Sikhs, twice his height, had such temptingly
+long shins!
+
+I watched the lesson of how to defend the globe until, after several
+replenishings of the glass he held, Private Flanigan's dignity became
+portentous, and his lunge a little wide.
+
+Evidently, however, he was not too far gone to recognise the fact, for
+suddenly he sat down, still guarding the ball with his wide-spread
+legs, and called for a pipe, a pillow, and a punkah.
+
+All three were instantly forthcoming, and as I cautiously re-climbed
+the hill, I saw Private Flanigan enjoying his ease in the centre of an
+admiring circle of pupils.
+
+As I made my way home, I puzzled over what I had best do. Of course, it
+was easy to report to my captain, but, by so doing, I should get a lot
+of men into trouble over what was, in reality, a huge joke. Anyhow,
+before I did so report, I determined to find out whether Private
+Flanigan had absconded _himself_, or had been stolen.
+
+So the next evening, having carefully taken the bearings of our valley
+in miniature the day before, I went over after work hours. When I came
+on the level at the bottom, I found that quite a large wood slab shed
+had been erected at one end of the little bit of greensward. As I
+crossed towards it the familiar sound of really good clog dancing met
+my ears accompanying a rollicking baritone voice that was singing the
+refrain of a patter song:
+
+
+      "Kick an' 'ammer away at their shins,
+       Silly old dribblers as cole' cream their skins,
+       Barkin', lurkin', shirkin' Gher_kins_,
+       Give 'em a crush and a rush for their sins,
+       Yoicks! hey forward!!!--the Sicki wins."
+
+
+A perfect bellow of applause was following as I opened the slab door
+and walked in. There was a regular stage at the end of the shed, and on
+it stood Tim Flanigan, bowing his acknowledgments to an audience of
+squatting Sikhs with much dignity. A flimsy muslin overcoat partially
+hid his massive muscles and he was garlanded with flowers like a prize
+ox at a show. He did not notice me at first, and began a speech in true
+music hall style, his hand on his heart:
+
+"My kyind patrons, an' you Gintlemen of the Press, it is with the
+hutmost diffidence that I roise to drink me own 'elth, you, gintlemen,
+bein' by birth and descent tay totallers, which is better by a long
+chalk than being answered for by godfathers an' godmothers at your
+baptism. Gintlemen, I have but a few wurrds to say, so I will not
+detain you. Since I come 'ere--I mean since the woise decrays of a
+koindly Providence brought me to the wilderness, I 'ave endeavoured to
+do my dooty by you, an' I done it. Gintlemen! you are a credit to me.
+There ain't a 'ole skin amongst the lot of your shins. Gintlemen! it is
+a thing to be proud of. It makes the tear come to my watery heyes an'
+sends the life blood to the tip of my nose. I tell you, gintlemen, that
+if any of thim officer chaps were to step in this moment----" Here his
+eye caught mine. The change was instantaneous, and he brought himself
+up to the salute smartly.
+
+"Beg pardon, sir," he went on, without the least sign of embarrassment.
+"Havin' bin h'absent without leave, sir, this fortnight past through
+being kidnapped outrageous, I 'as to report myself."
+
+I mustered up what gravity I could, for his attitude of respectful and
+disciplined attention was excruciatingly funny in contrast with his
+costume--or rather the lack of it.
+
+"Private Flanigan," I said. "Have done with tomfoolery. How the devil
+do you come here?"
+
+"I didn't come, sir," he replied volubly. "I was brought, s'help me
+Moses. I was kidnapped outrageous, as I said, by them Sickies, same as
+seethin' it in its mother's milk. I was, entirely, sir--sure the
+bla'gards won't deny it."
+
+Here, _havildar_ Sunt Singh, who understood English, broke in rapidly
+in Hindustani. "He speaks truth, Huzoor. He did not come of himself. He
+was brought hither when he was without consciousness."
+
+"From drink, I suppose?" I asked severely.
+
+_Havildar_ Sunt Singh paused a moment. "Huzoor," he said at last,
+solemnly. "In a world of illusion it is difficult to reach truth; but
+one thing is certain, by the blessing of God he was extremely without
+consciousness. Was it not so, brothers?" he continued, appealing to two
+_naicks_ and another _havildar_ who were also standing to attention.
+Their corroborative "_Be-shakks_" rang out smartly, like a rifle shot.
+
+"That is all very well," I continued, sternly addressing the
+culprit-in-chief. "If they kidnapped you, they'll have to answer for
+it; but that is no excuse for you stopping here. You can't pretend
+you're a prisoner, you know."
+
+I glanced round as I spoke, and Flanigan's eyes followed mine. There
+was a bed in one corner, a chair, a washhandstand, an assortment of
+Europe tins, a box of cigars in a rough set of shelves, while on one
+side of the stage stood a table, elaborately laid for dinner, with a
+tablenapkin folded into the form of a peacock!
+
+There was a pause. Then candour came to Private Flanigan's aid--almost
+pathetic candour.
+
+"Well! it weren't exactly uncomfortable, you see, sir," he said, with a
+deprecating smile; and I had to admit the justice of his plea. It was
+more comfortable than being packed like a herring in a barrel in a bell
+tent. I had, moreover, thought the matter out, and had come to the
+conclusion that the less said about it the better. So I gave Private
+Flanigan the option of taking the pledge, and returning to duty, making
+the best excuse he could for his absence, or being sent for officially.
+
+He chose the former, to the great delight of the Sikhs, who, as he had
+said, were teetotallers to a man, and who naturally did not want to get
+into trouble over the business.
+
+Next morning Private Flanigan reported himself to my captain. He was
+bare-foot, travel-stained, weary, and he had the most cock-and-bull
+story I ever heard of how he had spent the last ten days.
+
+"If there had been any liquor shop within two hundred miles I wouldn't
+believe him," said my captain in an injured tone, "but there isn't--and
+no man is such a fool as to stop out in this wild country for nothing."
+
+So the tale passed muster. Had I known, however, of the richness of the
+culprit's imagination, I doubt whether I should have given him such a
+field for it; for the story of the "loss of Private Flanigan" became a
+recognised entertainment, even for the Gherkins, and night after night
+he gave a different version of it to delighted admirers. I ventured
+once to remonstrate with him, and hint that capture by cannibals was
+hardly correct; but his unconsciousness was supreme.
+
+"S'elp me Moses, sir," he said. "You don' know wot I bin through.
+They'd have eat me, sure enuff, if I 'adn't happen to 'ave my big boots
+on."
+
+A fortnight afterwards we finished the work, but before we left our
+jolly little camp we had a football Saturday. The Sikhs came down in
+force, and licked the little Ghurkas all to smithereens.
+
+"They must a 'ad some un to teach 'em 'ow to charge, sir," said Private
+Flanigan sorrowfully to the captain.
+
+The captain looked at me, and I looked at the captain. But I said
+nothing, for Flanigan had been as sober as a judge since I found him.
+
+
+
+
+                             REX ET IMP:
+
+
+                                  I
+
+"Rex will get on all right," said Muriel Alexander pettishly, "you know
+quite well, Horace, that so long as he has old Bisvâs he wants nothing
+else. Look at him now! He is quite happy, and the old man would die
+rather than let any harm happen to the child."
+
+Horace Alexander frowned slightly as he looked through the wide set
+door of his office room to the verandah beyond. It was a very neat,
+natty, office room, severely correct and Western in its pigeon-holes,
+its files, its elegant upholstered chair at the further side of the
+writing table ready for the confidential visitor. No guns defiled it;
+no tennis bats, no half-used box of cigars, no general litter of
+unofficial male humanity such as most Indian office rooms in the past
+have permitted, was to be seen within the precincts sacred to duty, for
+Horace Alexander was that curious product of modern times, a clever and
+advanced man, bent upon progress, who stickles for the commonplace
+conventional etiquette in all things. So he stirred uneasily at the
+sight he saw beyond his office doors, dropped his eye-glasses and put
+them on again petulantly.
+
+Yet it was rather a pretty sight.
+
+A red-haired, fuzzy-headed child of four or five, small, but strong and
+sturdy, seated with the utmost dignity oh a red velvet cushion, his
+broad freckled face wearing an expression of conscious majesty, part of
+which was doubtless due to the insecurity of a gilt paper band which
+was perched on his goldy-red curls.
+
+Before him, in an attitude of prayerful adoration, squatted a very very
+old man. At his full height he must still have been tall, and the bent
+shoulders were broad; broad enough to show up the line of war-medals on
+the breast of his orderly's coat. They gave the new scarlet cloth a
+certain personal _cachet_ and toned down its official garishness.
+
+"Come here, Rex!" called Horace Alexander, and the child rose at once.
+Though high-spirited and a bit of an imp, he was a reasonable,
+obedient, little chap enough; obedient because he was reasonable.
+
+"What's that you've got on your head?" queried his father irritably.
+
+"It's my c'wown," replied Rex cheerfully. "Bisvâs cut it out for me;
+and he's goin' to put b'wown paper to make it 'weal stiff--c'wowns
+onghter be stiff, 'weal stiff, oughtn't they? an' he's going to put
+things on it like the pictures in the papers, an' then I shall be a
+'weal King, shan't I?"
+
+"No, my boy!" said his father sharply. "Crowns don't make kings;
+remember that always. There was Charles the First----"; then he paused,
+recognising he was out of the child's depth; and the cult of the weaker
+brother was not often forgotten by Horace Alexander. It was the secret
+of his popularity; but how he managed to reconcile it with his passion
+for progress remained rather a mystery to some people.
+
+"And what were you doing," he continued.
+
+"I wasn't doin' nothin' except be king," replied the child; "but Bisvâs
+was doin' '_durshan_.' What is a '_durshan_,' daddy, 'weally?"
+
+The childish forehead was all puckered beneath its crown, and Rex's
+father, for all he was entitled to linguistic letters after his name,
+hesitated.
+
+"Sight," he began, "ur--appearance--ur--aspect----"
+
+But Rex shook his head in disapproval. "Bisvâs says it's just for all
+the same as seein' God--didn't you, Bisvâs?"
+
+The liquid Urdu to which the little fellow's voice turned, echoed
+through the sunshine to where the tall old trooper, risen to his full
+height, stood smiling.
+
+"Huzoor! so it is, without doubt. The sight of a King is even as the
+sight of a God. It is a revelation of the Most High."
+
+"Good Lord!" muttered Horace Alexander under his breath, yet with an
+amused smile. "The child will grow up a feudal serf combined with a
+feudal lord, if we don't take care, Muriel! He is too much with old
+Bisvâs--You'd better take him with you--or--or not go."
+
+His wife did not even frown: her position was too assured in the
+household for her to be even alarmed. "Of course I must go. I
+must wear my new frocks. Besides, you forget I'm President of the
+Veiled-Women's-Guild, and they are going to present a casket. And there
+isn't room in the Hotel for Rex--I was lucky to get _one_ for myself
+this morning--besides, it would be bad for him. Of course, when you
+were going with tents and all that it was different; but now that
+you've been told to stop--Really, Horace, it is most annoying! What can
+it mean? There is nothing wrong in the district, is there?"
+
+Horace Alexander's eyeglass dropped again. It generally did when he was
+asked for a personal opinion; not from any lack of decision in the man
+himself, but from that habit of relying on collective as against
+individual thought which distinguishes so many clever men nowadays; as
+if the mediocre mass could ever outvalue superior sense.
+
+"I cannot conceive that anything serious can be wrong," he began, then
+paused almost pathetically before the certainty that his district was
+admittedly the best managed in the province. "However," he continued,
+virtuously remembering that the communication which stopped his going
+to the Big Durbar was strictly confidential, "that is neither here nor
+there. I have my orders, so that ends it, and----" he glanced out to
+the verandah where the "_durshan_" had re-commenced--"I suppose Rex had
+better remain, if you think it safe. I shall be very busy----"
+
+His wife laughed, and stooping over his chair, kissed the top of his
+head; it was a trifle bald.
+
+"You dear old stupid," she said kindly. "You've nothing to do with it.
+I wouldn't leave him if it wasn't for old Bisvâs! You and I, Horace,
+have grown out of--what shall I call it--feudal relations--but we can
+understand them. You don't suppose I leave the boy in your charge, do
+you? No! My dear man! you're not up to it. But Bisvâs! Bisvâs was your
+grandfather's servant when he was a boy, and he swears Rex is the
+living image of '_Jullunder Jullunder baba_,' whom, I verily believe,
+he mixes up with Alexander the Great! It doesn't do the child any harm,
+though it makes him a bit autocratic now. He'll grow out of being King
+at school. And really it is a pretty sight to see him with his
+bodyguard of those marvellous old dodderers Bisvâs rakes up from the
+bazaar----"
+
+"I've seen them," replied her husband gloomily. "I'd have sent them
+about their business if they hadn't been old pensioners--and in
+uniform----"
+
+Muriel laughed again. "Such uniforms! But they are magnificent to the
+child and he's magnificent to them. It's all right, Horace. He is as
+pleased as Punch, because I've allowed him, as he can't go to Delhi, to
+have a sham coronation here."
+
+"My dear!" protested her husband; but at that moment an old-fashioned
+buggy, with a flea-bitten Arab in the shafts, drew up, and Mrs.
+Alexander discreetly withdrew before an official visitor.
+
+Ere five minutes were over the new comer rose from the upholstered
+chair, went to the four doors of the office room, looked round for
+possible eavesdroppers, closed them, then sate down again; for John
+Carruthers, the Superintendent of Police, was of the old school. He
+suspected everybody. In his heart of hearts Horace Alexander loathed
+him: or rather, his methods; but he had to admit that he was an
+excellent police officer. Short and stout, he looked as if he had a
+trace of native blood in him, anyhow, none understood the ways of
+Indian wickednesses better than he.
+
+"This is serious," he said briefly. "I always told you, sir, you would
+have to face it some time." Then he paused. "I wonder if anyone
+realises the relief it will be to our force when the whole show goes
+off well--as it will do! But there's always that off chance--and here
+is one----"
+
+"I don't believe it," said Horace Alexander stubbornly; "it is
+unthinkable, inconceivable----"
+
+John Carruthers raised his shaggy eyebrows. "Nothing, sir, is
+inconceivable in India. There's a lot of lees in four thousand years of
+civilisation. So long as it's stagnant, well and good; but if you stir
+'em up--However! you don't agree. And _this_----" he touched the
+confidential communication--"has got to be seen to."
+
+"Yes! it has got to be seen to--wrong or right," echoed the younger man
+firmly. Outside, the sunshine shone in sultry drowsy peace; but within
+the closed office room, the air seemed vibrant, as the two, mutually
+responsible for so much in their world, looked into each other's eyes
+in perfect unanimity. So it is often in India nowadays; something has
+to be done and old and new must combine to the doing of it.
+
+"Hullo! what's up?" asked the Superintendent of Police when, having
+offered to drive his official superior down to the city, they stepped
+into the verandah; and then he smiled. "The youngster seems to be
+enjoying himself, eh!"
+
+Under the _sirus_ trees on the opposite side of the drive were drawn up
+five old men, headed by Bisvâs, who stood next something that was more
+like a monkey than a man; for Bhim Singh, even when he had been the
+most swaggering _havildar_ in a Ghurka regiment, had never been tall,
+and was now almost incredibly shrunken and old. But his eyes still
+looked out sharp and bright from his wizened face and his military
+salute shot out smartly at the sight of the masters.
+
+"It is all old Bisvâs' fault," excused Rex's father, giving a disturbed
+look at his son and heir, who--with the gilt paper circlet still on his
+fuzzy head--was apparently drilling the ancient warriors, "I've told my
+wife that it's a mistake, but you see, Bisvâs looked after my
+grandfather when they were kids together, and so----"
+
+"And so," interrupted John Carruthers with a chuckle, "you have the
+most valuable asset in the world! If I were you I would encourage it!
+Good Lord! man!----" he forgot etiquette for the moment--"that sort of
+thing is the safety of--of everything."
+
+So the two men drove off to the office, to confer secretly with other
+good men and true, and the child, with the gold circlet on his fuzzy
+hair, stood in the half shade, half shine of the _sirus_ trees, and
+dressed his army autocratically. And the old warriors--there was Bisvâs
+who had fought at Sobraon, and Bhim Singh who had fought everywhere
+indiscriminately for sheer love of fighting, and old Imân, the hair of
+whose body still stood on end as he told tales of how he had waged war
+for the Sirkar against his own brothers in Mutiny time, and Pir Khan,
+Yusufzai, who still talked of _Nikalseyn sahib_ as if he were not dead,
+and last but not least, most ancient of all, a nameless fossil of
+humanity called by the others "_Baba_" (father), who bewailed the fact
+that he had not been at both sieges of Bhurtpore--these all obeyed the
+child's orders, and nodded and winked and swore that he was the living
+spit and image of "_Gineral Jullunder Jullunder Sahib Bahadur_," who
+had led them to victory again and again. The smallest cavalry officer
+in _Jân Kampâni's_ army; but the bravest and the best loved!
+
+
+                                  II
+
+Three days had passed, and once again the two men sate facing each
+other in the tidy, conventional office room. The confidential box was
+open and papers littered the table; but the hint of possible trouble
+remained still a mere hint.
+
+"And yet," said John Carruthers thoughtfully, "I don't like it. I told
+you about that temple incident? Quite a trivial affair, but in my
+experience--and that is pretty wide, sir--that sort of thing always
+means something. But the fact is, I haven't time----" his bright eyes
+grew restless--"to unearth anything."
+
+Horace Alexander smiled. "Because, my dear fellow, there is nothing to
+unearth. I told you so from the beginning. I am pretty well up in my
+own district, Carruthers----"
+
+"That you may be, sir; but pure anarchism isn't a thing of districts:
+it's--what do they call it!--a _zeit geist_! How many fools do you
+suppose are in your towns and villages, sir? Well! everyone of them is
+a danger if there is a good agitator within hearing. Anyhow, I am so
+far dissatisfied, that I am going to propose to you a plan----" He got
+up as he had done before, closed every door after a good look round for
+eavesdroppers, and finally paused before little Rex, who was sitting in
+a corner of the room, playing with a pen and paper and some red and
+black ink which his father had given him. His mother having gone off to
+the Big Show, which was to take place next day, the little fellow had
+been tearful and needed consolation. Now, however, he appeared quite
+absorbed in his occupation.
+
+"What are you doing, Rex?" asked John Carruthers.
+
+The child held up a round of white paper with cabalistic signs on it.
+
+"I'm makin' a medal to give to my army," he said with importance. "And
+'Wex' is to be in 'wed and so's 'Imp.' Then 'et' will be black, don't
+you see?"
+
+The men laughed, and settled themselves over the railway map which John
+Carruthers spread out on the table.
+
+"You see," said the police officer in a low voice, "the Royal train
+focusses anxiety according to these hints----" he pointed to the
+confidential papers--"and I can't help a feeling that they are right.
+I've got a sort of second-sight in these ways--perhaps because I was
+born and brought up in the country--and I believe there is something in
+it. I'd ferret it out if I'd time; but I haven't. So why run risks? The
+Royal train is timed to run the sixty odd miles through your district
+on the _direct_ line between three and five a.m. to-morrow morning--
+just before dawn. Now why should it? Why shouldn't it do the eighty odd
+miles of the loop line?"
+
+"But that would bring it right here--right in the very heart----"
+interrupted Horace Alexander.
+
+"That wouldn't matter, provided _nobody knew_," came the quick reply.
+"And nobody need know--except, of course, the railway bosses. Just look
+at it on the map. Points changed at Barâwal Junction--then straight
+away, past us, to the northern branch, and so back a bit--only a
+bit--to the main line again. It wouldn't delay them half an hour, if
+that----"
+
+Horace Alexander's finger traced out the line on the map.
+
+"But the direct line is guarded," he began.
+
+"Inadequately," persisted John Carruthers, "at least, to my mind. Now,
+by taking this new loop you are safe. It only needs a telegram--for the
+trains haven't begun yet to run at night, and it will be 'line clear'
+all through. The usual pilot engine, of course--so no one need know."
+
+Horace Alexander nodded. "No! poor devils!" he assented, a bit
+irrelevantly, "and dozens of them would have rejoiced to do
+'_durshan_.'"
+
+The child in the corner of the room looked up at the familiar word and
+listened.
+
+But the men were too much immersed to notice him.
+
+"Well, it may be wise!" said Horace Alexander at last. "I don't agree
+with you, Carruthers, of course. The whole thing's a mare's nest. But,
+as you say, it won't disarrange anything. The Royal train will be up to
+time for early tea at Sonabad, and there all is safe: so if you'll
+drive me down to the telegraph office, I'll send the cipher myself."
+
+"H'm," said John Carruthers thoughtfully, "I wouldn't cipher. Don't
+trust 'em a bit. The clerks in my office know 'em, I'm sure. Try
+French--it's safer."
+
+Horace Alexander laughed a superior laugh.
+
+"Mine don't! not the _real_ confidential one. Why! I don't suppose you
+do."
+
+"That's a different matter," replied the police officer drily.
+"However! it's for you to decide."
+
+"Yes," said the District Officer firmly. "Well! goodnight, Rex! I
+shan't be back, child, till breakfast to-morrow."
+
+"Where are you going, Daddy?" asked the boy.
+
+"I'm going to do _durshan_," replied his father carelessly.
+
+The child rose and came towards the table with shining eyes, the medal
+in his hand.
+
+"Daddy!" he said, "I should like to do '_durshan_' too. Mayn't I?"
+
+His father shook his head and smiled. "Impossible, Rex! You can't ride
+forty miles over the desert along a railway as I shall, can you? You
+wouldn't like to do what Daddy's got to do to-night, I can tell you,
+young man! Wait a while! Your turn'll come." He was busy locking the
+confidential box.
+
+"But I meant _here_, Daddy," persisted the child.
+
+"Here?" echoed his father carelessly, "Oh! here! Yes! You and old
+Bisvâs can amuse yourselves with doing _durshan_ as much as you like.
+Now good-night--and--and be sure to say your prayers, Rex." He stooped
+down to kiss the child, and as he did so, "_Rex Imp_" in red with the
+_et_ in black, caught his eye. "Rex, Imp," he muttered, "not a bad name
+for you, though you're a good little chap on the whole."
+
+And he went off, feeling virtuous. Whatever his own beliefs, or rather
+lack of belief, might be, no one could say that he was forcing it
+prematurely on the weaker brother. Perhaps, however, the thought that
+his little son's lips--which had never to his knowledge been soiled by
+a lie--had begged dear God to take care of his Daddy, was unconsciously
+a help to the man during the anxious night. For it was anxious. To be
+responsible meant much to both those men, and this sudden change of
+plan--though it certainly removed risk--threw a still heavier burden of
+care on the shoulders of those two who had suggested it.
+
+Therefore, when, just as the primrose dawn of another day had begun to
+dissipate the shadows of the night, the Royal train, safe and sound,
+steamed into the station at Sonabad, Horace Alexander and John
+Carruthers looked at each other as they stood on the platform and
+positively laughed.
+
+"That nightmare's over," said the latter.
+
+"I always said it was a mare's nest," replied the former.
+
+"Well! we needn't quarrel about it now. I've handed over charge to
+Evesham, and you to Coleridge, and that's all. And I shall be glad to
+have a cup of tea. I've been too busy to eat for the last few days."
+
+Half-an-hour afterwards they were in Horace Alexander's motor, going
+full speed along the Grand Trunk road.
+
+"We shall be back by breakfast time," said John Carruthers, whose
+thoughts ran upon food.
+
+But Horace, as he steered his way past the long lines of lumbering
+wains laden with corn, which still, in India, cling to the roads,
+despite railways, was jubilant over his district.
+
+"I told you it was all right," he said finally, "but you and your
+sort, Carruthers, can't see that we are in a new age. We are out of the
+past----"
+
+"That doesn't look like it," interrupted John Carruthers, pointing to a
+group in the verandah; for at that moment the car swept easily into the
+gateway of Horace Alexander's house. The latter frowned, for Rex's army
+was awaiting them, drawn up to stiff military salute, while in front of
+them, his small broad face full of smiles, was Rex himself holding a
+box in his hand.
+
+"We got it, Daddy!" he shouted. "We got it all 'wight, and the men 'wan
+away, and Baba-jee emptied it, because he was the older-est, and it's
+all quite 'wight."
+
+"Good God," cried John Carruthers, leaping out of the car, his eyes
+almost out of his head. "It's an infernal machine. I--I--I--'ve
+seen--'em--before--I--I----"
+
+Horace Alexander turned pale as ashes. "Put it down, Rex.
+Gently--gently--but--but----"
+
+Old Bisvâs salaamed down to the ground. "The Presence need not fear.
+The child did not touch it, of course, till the poisonous thing had
+been emptied of its venom."
+
+"But how----" began Horace Alexander helplessly.
+
+John Carruthers, however, had his wits about him, and said in a low
+voice, "Look here, sir! This had better be kept dark; for the present,
+anyhow."
+
+Old Imân, who understood a little English, nodded approvingly.
+"Without doubt it is a concealed word," he said suavely. "And
+so I told Bisvâs. Therefore none know of it save those here present.
+So we had to do often in Mutiny time when news meant much; and
+_Gineral-Jullunder-Jullunder-sahib-bahadur_ would say----"
+
+The police officer cut the old man's reminiscence short. "You have done
+well, _risildar-jee_," he said curtly, but the praise brought an
+unwonted flush to the withered cheek. "We'd better hear the story _in
+camera_, sir."
+
+So the five old warriors filed into the office room, the doors were
+shut, and Rex sate on his father's knee, while John Carruthers
+carefully examined the infernal machine which had been laid on the
+table.
+
+"Paris," he said laconically, "one of the latest sort. What did I tell
+you, sir--anarchy isn't a thing of districts."
+
+"Go on, Bisvâs!" replied Horace Alexander evasively.
+
+"As I was saying, Huzoor, when the Huzoor left to do _durshan_ last
+night, _Jullunder Baba_ came to me and said, 'Bisvâs! get ready to go
+and do _durshan_ likewise; my father said I might----'"
+
+"And you did, daddy, didn't you?" broke in the little lad's voice
+confidently. His father hesitated, then remembering his uncomprehending
+words, nodded and held the child closer.
+
+"So I, knowing that the word of _Jullunder Baba_ is even as the word of
+a King, unbreakable, said, 'But whither, my lord?' And he said, 'That
+will I show thee! Do thou as thou art bid, slave!' Now the night, as
+the Huzoor knows, was dark, and I grow old. So I bethought me of help,
+lest evil should befall. Therefore I said, 'Lo! it is not meet to go
+without the Army.' So these came willingly. For, see you, Protector of
+the Poor, we are all old, and the _durshan_ is even as the sight of a
+god--it heals sin. Therefore, in the darkness we set off, and I wrapped
+the _chota sahib_ in blankets and took the _trick_ lamp and a _ternus_
+of hot milk also----"
+
+John Carruthers looked up.
+
+"He means electric and thermos," said Horace Alexander, with an odd
+sort of cackle in his voice; something seemed to have risen in his
+throat and prevented his speaking clearly.
+
+"We carried the _chota sahib_ by turns, seeing there might have been
+serpents in the way," continued the old man, "and made for the railway,
+since that was all the direction _Jullunder Baba_ would give. Then
+Imân, remembering the old tomb--the Huzoor will remember it also, since
+there was a case about it in his court----"
+
+"And the Huzoor," broke in Imân, "decided virtuously, that being the
+tomb of a saint, it should stand, and the railway move----"
+
+"Remembering it," went on old Bisvâs, "he said, 'It would give shelter
+to the child.' So thither we went, and there the _chota sahib_, having
+remembered he had not said his prayers as he had promised the Huzoor,
+said them. He knelt, Huzoor, on that slab, lest the floor should be
+damp----"
+
+"Yes," assented the child's father as the old man paused. Once
+again there was that lump in his throat. He saw, as in a vision, the
+old Mahomedan tomb rearing its half-ruined dome so close to the
+railway--the white-faced child praying God to bless everyone he loved,
+those dark faces standing round reverently.
+
+"Lo!" continued old Bisvâs gently, "I think the saint down below must
+have heard--Imân says he did--for what followed was of no man's making.
+We were all drowsing in the tomb--'tis a good five miles from the
+Huzoor's bungalow to the railway, for all it goes so near to the
+city--when _Baba-jee_--he hath the ears of a mouse still--said 'Hist!'
+
+"So I looked out, and there were men--five or six of them, on the line.
+Then it came to me what the ill-begotten hounds had been doing in
+Bengal, and a sort of fury seized on me. So I crept back. _Jullunder
+Baba_ was asleep among the blankets on the tomb slab, but I whispered
+the others, and they unbuckled their swords and made ready."
+
+The faces of the four old warriors who, standing two on one side two on
+the other of the speaker, had watched his every word, were a study.
+Exultation, pride, absolute satisfaction showed in every line of them,
+and the lean old fingers gripped their sword-hilts once more.
+
+"Then _Baba-jee_ gave the word--he was '_senior-orfficer_,'
+and--and--Huzoor, they ran away!!!"
+
+Even John Carruthers' chuckle had a suspicion of a sob in it.
+
+"And then! Oh! hero!" he said, "what then?"
+
+"Huzoor! I looked out over the desert and far, far away on the straight
+line I saw light. And there was a faint rumble in the air. It was a
+train. Mayhap the _chota sahib_ had been right, mayhap it was the
+Train-of-Majesty! So I turned on the 'trick lamp,' and there it was on
+the line--that thing--it had a string to it that lay on the rail.
+And--and--Huzoor! my memory fails me--There was the child, and there
+was the train!--I had to decide----
+
+"Then I cried to Imân, 'Quick! the _chota sahib_! Run far with
+him--far!--far!' So when that was done I up with my sword and I smote
+the string that lay on the rail!----" he paused, then went on--
+
+"So that was done also; and Imân brought the child back, and the train
+sped past, and we all stood in a row and did _durshan_; though I know
+not if it was _durshan_ or not, since, mayhap, it was not the Royal
+train after all."
+
+The old eyes looked almost wistfully at those two men in office, but
+the child's were on his father's confidently:
+
+"But it _was_ the Royal train, wasn't it, daddy?" said the child's
+voice, and Horace Alexander's answered huskily:
+
+"Perhaps it was, _Rex_; anyhow, you and the others did _durshan_. Of
+that I am sure."
+
+Content settled to those two faces, the old and the young, and the
+ancient warrior went on--
+
+"Then there was nothing to do, Huzoor, save to come home and bring the
+poisonous thing with us. I was for sending the _chota sahib_ on in
+Imân's care and carrying the thing myself; but _Jullunder Baba_ would
+not go without it. So Bhim and the Father took the devil's box apart
+lest it should kill everyone, and with Bhim's _kukri_ they prized it
+open"--a faint sigh came from the Europeans--"and spilt the witches'
+brew in the sand. That is all, Huzoor! Your slaves did what they could.
+The men ran away so fast, it was not possible for us, aged ones, to
+pursue them."
+
+"But," broke in the most aged, "they were dressed like the Huzoors--in
+trousers, and my sword was bloody, so I must have hit someone."
+
+"And so was mine," said each of the ancient warriors in turn.
+
+Horace Alexander cleared his throat.
+
+"Really!" he began, "I scarcely know how to thank----"
+
+"Daddy!" said Rex's eager voice, "I know! I'm goin' to give each of 'em
+my army medal with '_Wex_ and _Imp_ in 'wed, and _et_ in black on it;
+an' they'll be orful pleased--won't you, Army?"
+
+"Huzoor!" The old arms were stiff in salute, and then the oldest voice
+struck up quaveringly. "Lo! _sahibân_! it is enough for us that we have
+done _durshan_ ere death. It brings contentment, even though both
+sieges of Bhurtpore is denied to some of us."
+
+As, led by Rex, they marched out to the verandah, the two officials
+looked at one another.
+
+But they said nothing for a minute. Then John Carruthers burst out:
+
+"Damn the cipher! I told you it wasn't safe. Look here, sir, we must
+keep this quiet for the time."
+
+Horace Alexander nodded.
+
+
+
+
+                          THERE AROSE A MAN
+
+
+This was one of the many stories which Nathaniel James Craddock told me
+in the cab of his engine while we used to go up and down that ribbon of
+red brick metalling edged with steel which was slowly laying itself out
+over a wide sandy desert.
+
+Some of these were tragic, some comic, some betwixt and between; but
+most of them were worth the re-telling, especially as told by him. But
+the discursiveness of his method does not lend itself to print, so they
+all suffer in the process; even though, as I write, I seem to hear the
+steady grind of the engine, to feel the fine fretting of a sand storm
+on my cheek, and see the clear blue eyes looking at me with a keenness
+which always came as a surprise out of that bleared dissipated face.
+
+"It was 'arter I 'ad that peep o' the Noo Jerusalem, sir, at the bottom
+o' the King's Well, 'as I come upon pore old 'Oneyman. I was a bit on
+the loose, you see, sir; them sort o' peeps wakes up the spiritooal
+nater o' a man, an' it's heads I win, tails you lose, if 'e takes to
+prayers or to drink. I tuk to the latter"--here he gave a slight cough,
+and added gently--"more nor usual. An' so I come across 'Oneyman. 'E'd
+'ad a peep o' hell, sir, for 'e'd seen 'is wife's dead body lyin' where
+he'd left 'er safe an' sound waitin' for 'er baby to be born in doo
+time." There was always a biblical twang about Craddock's recitations
+which gave them a mournfully dignified tone. "'E 'ad friends in 'igh
+places, sir, an' one o' them, w'en he come through 'is brain fever,
+made 'im Conservancy Inspector down Bandelkhand way. It wasn't the
+place for 'im. They was wot they call Suckties, sir, down there, though
+there was precious little o' the babe an' sucklin' about _their_
+methods, but contrariwise, battle an' murder an' sudden death. They was
+for ever killin' goats an' kids, an' smearin' ole Mother Kâli with
+blood--never knew such chaps for paintin' the town red! So the
+_Khush-boo sahib_,[3] as they call him in their topsy turvey way, since
+it weren't perfoom but real stinks down by them temple steps, couldn't
+never forget the sights he see in Mutiny time. When 'e was in 'is cups,
+'e'd sit an' cry about it; for 'e was a little bit of a man, sir, the
+smallest man as ever I see, an' all wrinkled like an' wizened; just for
+all the world the same as the monkeys as used to come down in crowds on
+feast days, an' leg it with the orferings folk used to bring to ole
+Mother Kâli. That's 'ow 'Oneyman come on reduction, as the sayin' is;
+tho', pore chap, them as look on 'is face might a-seen that 'e wasn't
+for long; not even if they'd made 'im Guv'ner-General-in-Council; for
+what with--savin' your presence, sir--a galloping consumption, both o'
+drink an' lungs, 'e was wearin' away like snowdrifts in summer."
+Here Craddock paused to whistle a familiar tune. "Beg pardin, sir, but
+it comes home to me so, for he was awful fond of 'is wife. Well!
+whether it was 'is name--'Oneyman, you know, sir, being the God o'
+monkeys[4]--or whether it was 'is nater, he was uncommon kind to the
+_bunder logue_. Used to say they was the only Christians in the place,
+'cos they wouldn't 'ave no meat offered to hidols, sir. An' it's true
+as gospel, sir, they wouldn't. You should a' seen them waitin' in the
+trees, and hover the arches an' crocketty things on the temples, while
+three or four smug Brahmins was going the rounds with a party o'
+country folk, full up o' sugar candies, an' parched rice, an' platters
+o' curds to leave at each 'oly spot. It was a rare sight; for, you see,
+the monkeys were 'oly too, an' the priests dursn't even 'eave a brick
+at 'em.
+
+"They 'ad just to lump it when the beasts 'oofed away with all the best
+things afore their very eyes. An' 'Oneyman used to amoose himself of an
+evening by sittin' on the steps an' larfin' fit to split. I told 'im it
+weren't perlite; but there! it ain't no use talkin' to a man as has
+seen 'is wife lyin' dead.
+
+"Then one day an ole buck monkey 'oofed it with a bag of rupees, an'
+dropped it, as 'e was climbin' a tree, above 'Oneyman's 'ead. And
+'Oneyman, being in no state to know 'is own 'and, much less wot it
+'eld, gathered some of 'em up, an' swore 'e'd keep 'em. That's 'ow it
+was. So 'e got the sack: though anyone as had eyes might a-seen it was
+the weddin' garment o' a shroud _he_ was wantin', pore chap.
+
+"I was runnin' ballast then on a bit o' new line that was cuttin' its
+way through jungle land, yard by yard an' inch by inch. It give one a
+sorter shock, sir, every day, as I come up with my trucks, to find the
+engine goin' so much further, an' yet to get 'eld up at last by the
+same ole blocking o' trees an' creepers an' butterflies an' all that.
+Seemed as though there wasn't nothin' else before one, and as if it
+wasn't no use trying to get through with it. But they give me good
+wage, specially after they tuk to runnin' o' nights too, so I was able
+to put my hand into my breeches pocket when 'Oneyman said, 'You don't
+'appen to 'ave a five-rupee about you, do'ee Craddock, for I ain't got
+a feather to fly with.' Then my stoker tuk sick an' I managed ter get
+'Oneyman as _local demon_. It didn't 'urt no one, you see, sir, for I
+done both works without turnin' more 'airs than 'ad to turn with two
+shirts, one dryin' the other; an' it give 'Oneyman time to die
+respectable an' quiet like at the back o' the lamp room in the junction
+where I 'ad my diggings. Not that it was much of a 'quiet and secluded
+'ome for an invalid,' sir, specially after orders come to push on the
+work as much as may be before His Honner the Guv'ner or some such
+bigwig, I disremember which, come on tower. Still, 'e got a sight
+better, an' I used to tote 'im about as stoker up an' down the line,
+an' many a time as 'e see me 'angin' out my shirt to dry, 'e'd say,
+pitiful like, 'It had ought ter be mine; but I'd do as much for
+Nathaniel James Craddock if I could.' And he done it, sir, in the end,
+for I should a' lost my billet but for 'im.
+
+"This is 'ow it 'appened. The monkeys weren't no better after 'Oneyman
+left, but rather the worse. They was more Christian-like than ever, an'
+wouldn't 'ave no bowings down in the house of Rumnings. It got so bad
+as the Suckties couldn't stand 'em no more; but it was some leeches as
+a down-country man brought as done the trick at last. I don't mean
+proper blood leeches, sir, but them whited-sepulcre-the-other-way-round
+fruits as is marocky leather outside, an' my golly! in--Well! the 'ead
+bottlewasher Brahman, 'im as they called the Gossoon--though w'y, I
+can't say, since the only gossoon I ever 'eard tell on was a Hirish
+gentleman in the Colleen Bawn--was dead on leeches--'e was a real blood
+leech 'imself, if you like--but, though 'e kep 'is eye on them all the
+time 'e was palavering away about Mai Kâli an' Shiv-_jee_, the ole buck
+monkey was too much for 'im, an' 'e 'ad nothin' but the marocky leather
+trimmings as come floatin' down peaceful-like on 'is bald 'ead and big
+stummick as he stud dancin' with rage while _bunder-jee_ was eatin' the
+my golly.
+
+"That, as I said, done the trick. There was a gold-printed letter come
+from Mai Kâli ter say she was lonesome away in the jungles without 'er
+Hunoomân--or some such rot. Then 'is Honner the bigwig was coming, an'
+so on, an' so on. It ain't 'ard to do that sort o' thing, sir, w'en you
+don't have no Ten Commandments an' everyone is so accustomed to lying
+that it don't strike 'em as odd.
+
+"How they done it, I don't know. All I know is that one moonlick night
+I saw the signal against me as I was running through to the junction
+with sand I'd bin far to fetch. And I didn't like it. I'd bin away two
+days without 'Oneyman, and bein' a bit lonesome I'd perraps had a drop
+too much. Or perraps it was the moonlick night as done it." Here
+Craddock's voice took on a hushed tone. "It wasn't like the Noo
+Jerusalem, sir, or them yaller bottles in the chimist's shop as I used
+to think was 'eaven when I was learning my dooty to my neighbour. There
+wasn't nothin' glittery about it, nothin' to make you think of the far
+away. It was there, right down beside you on the engine, cold an'
+clear, taking the colour out of every mortal thing, till there weren't
+no difference a'twixt earth an' sky; till the pin point of the pole
+star wasn't no brighter than--than the safety valve; for I keeps 'em
+bright, you see, sir." Here he laid his hand affectionately on the
+throttle. "So I wasn't that pleased at 'aving to 'old up, specially as
+I was a bit late and 'ad to get through the junction afore tha Bigwig's
+train was due--for 'e was comin' that night.
+
+"'Wot's up?' I sings out to the station-master, with an oath.
+
+"'E laughed. 'Two truck load caged monkeys, zoological specimens rate,
+attendant priests in charge, consigned to Mai Kâli. We'll hitch 'em on
+behind in no time. Superintendent's orders.'
+
+"Well, sir! it was no use swearin'; so they was 'itched up, and I went
+on full steam, givin' them Brahmins a bit o' a swing, wot with the
+'eavy sand in front an' the cages behind. The junction was all lit up
+an' decorated for the Bigwig, flags a-flying an' red baize all along
+the platform. 'E was to dine there, and the refreshment room looked
+A 1--a reg'lar spread, I call it. An' there was the Superintendent,
+waitin' in 'is best uniform----" Craddock paused as if to emphasise
+further remarks. "'E was a real bone-silly man--there ain't no other
+word for 'im, sir--bone-silly down to the last drop o' marrow. I dunno
+if it was the sight o' 'im, or the drink I 'ad on board, but I forgot
+to choke 'er down in time, an' we went over the points at a rattlin'
+pace.
+
+"The sand, being 'eavy, took 'em steady, but the zoological
+consignment, being light, didn't. It ran off the rail, lurched into a
+shed, upset, and before you cud say 'knife' there was a matter of two
+'undred or more o' the specimens let loose in that there junction."
+
+He paused again and shook his head sorrowfully. "It ain't no use tryin'
+to describe it, sir. All you got to do is say ''ell an' tommy' and
+leave it alone.
+
+"'Craddock!' shrieks the Superintendent, as I stud laughin' fit to
+split, as I see limber-legs at their old games, 'make that brute give
+up my helmet or I'll--I'll----' Then 'e got speechless, save for bad
+words, sir. You never see such a huproar. Red baize, tore to strips,
+festooning the roof, 'God bless our Bigwig' flutterin' in bits like a
+paperchase down the platforms, an' the mail train due in 'arf an hour.
+
+"'You--you brought 'em 'ere, you scoundrel!' shrieks the
+Superintendent, 'take 'em away again or I'll--I'll----' an' again he
+refrained even from good words, sir. But 'e was bone-silly. Not as
+anyone cud do anything; leastways, not till 'Oneyman step out of the
+lamp room in 'is pyjamas, lookin' more dead nor alive. But there was
+somethin' in his hair, sir, as made me feel as a man had arose in
+Israel, for all he was so small.
+
+"'You leave it to me,' he says, confident like; then he turns to the
+bone-silly Superintendent as stood dumbfounded, staring at 'im as if 'e
+were Lazarus noo raised. 'There's five an' twenty minutes yet, sir,' he
+says, 'afore His Honner's train's doo. On _my_ honner as Josiah
+'Oneyman, I'll 'ave 'em safe out by then--only I won't 'ave no one
+a-interfering--everyone's got to obey my horders, and mine honly.'
+
+"The bone-silly one hadn't a word to say, there was somethin' so awful
+majestic about the little man in 'is pyjamas, pore chap.
+
+"Lordy, sir! you should 'ave 'eard him next with they Suckti Brahmins
+as was rubbing their bruises an' calling on Mai Kâli for assistance.
+
+"'She ain't in it, sonnies, nor the chaps as you bamboozle, neither,'
+he said, said he. 'It's you as 'ave to make a offerin' yourselves this
+time, so it'll make a 'ole in your _pockets_ as well as your
+_stummicks_, my boys. An' it's no use your saying you ain't got no
+rupees--your credit's good enough for that.' An' here he waved 'is
+'and, sir, to the row o' sweetmeat-sellers' booths and stalls as was
+sot just outside the iron railings. You seen 'em, sir. You know 'ow
+they looks at night. Harf a dozen trays piled up full o' treacle
+stuff an' greese, with a hoil _butti_ flaring an' smoking on the
+top of a pile o' their beastly toffee an' dribbling through it to
+give the dead flies a-stickin' to it a flavour. Yes! you've seen the
+'_met-aiy-yen-shee-yen_'"--here he gave an excellent rendering of the
+sweetmeat sellers' cry--"an' so've I--an' 'ad to eat it, too, w'en I
+was 'ard put to it. Well! 'e got the lot in, brass platters an' all,
+an' then began the rummiest go you ever see. W'en I was a boy, sir, in
+quires an' places w'ere they sing, parson use ter make us run through
+the service so as to get the Amens right up to time--it's 'arder nor
+runnin' a mail train, though you wouldn't believe it, sir. Well! they
+Suckti Brahmans 'ad to do the 'ole caboodle, same as if ole Mother Kâli
+was sitting like a spider with 'er eight red legs an' harms on the top
+of each sand-truck. For you see, sir, they was standin' fair an' square
+on the lines, engine's steam up, et cetera. It was a rare sight. The
+monkeys was fine an' pleased with the red baize an' the flags an' the
+motters, but the moment they 'eard them Brahmans begin to chant, they
+cock their tails an' listen, an' the ole buck monkey 'e clomb crafty
+along the girders so's to be ready to drop down so soon's he could. But
+'Oneyman 'ad 'is views, an' wasn't goin' to be give away prematoor; so
+'e kep a Suckti gennoflexing by each platter o' toffee until every
+truck 'ad its altar. Then 'e clumb up to the engine, an' beckon me to
+foller.
+
+"I was standin' with one fut on the step when he shouted to the
+Suckties, 'Hands off.' I give you my word, sir, it weren't 'arf a
+minute before them trucks was covered as black as flies with
+them monkeys, grabbing an' yelling an' searchin' out for
+_met-aiy-en-sher-een_ like all possessed, for they were main hungry,
+'avin' bin shut up all the arternoon. So there was our chanst, an' I
+was just leapin' in to put on steam, w'en that bone-silly ass of a
+Superintendent says, says 'e, 'You 'aven't got the baton.' An' sure
+'nuff I 'adn't. For it was a single line, you see, sir, an' we 'ad to
+run a mile or two through a signal station afore branchin' off. Of
+course, I didn't ought to 'ave noticed 'is remark, but took the chance;
+but there it is! I was a bit on, an' I'd laughed fit to split my sides,
+let alone my 'ead. So I putt down my fut agin, an' made to go fetch it,
+when the engine she gave a screech an' started full speed. Whether
+'Oneyman thought I was aboard, or whether he thought 'e 'ad no time to
+lose, I never knew, for after that 'twas no laughin' matter, I can tell
+you. But there wasn't much time, for as I run down the platform to
+'urry up the baton, I see some o' the platters nigh empty already, an'
+they monkeys looking as if they were makin' ready to 'oof it. So when
+the screech come I turn back; but I was too late. She 'ad ten mile an
+hour on her afore I lep upon the back buffer, seeing there wasn't no
+other way o' getting along. An' then, sir"--Craddock drew his hand over
+his mouth, thoughtfully--"what come next sobered me in a jiffy. Talk o'
+the ride to Khiva! it wasn't in it to the ride I 'ad on the back buffer
+o' those sand trucks! Thirty, forty, fifty mile an hour, trundlin'
+along a consignment of A 1 devils from the nethermost 'ell. It was 'arf
+fright with them, sir, an' 'arf fury. As we scud past the signal
+station, full speed, I see the _babu_ fall on 'is face, an' cry
+'_dohai! dohai!_' as if 'twere the Day o' Judgment.
+
+"An' then, sir, I begun to think o' that blockin' o' trees an' creepers
+an' butterflies, as was sure to crop up somewhere, closer or furder,
+and to wonder if 'Oneyman knew w'en to put on the brake; for 'e was
+only a stoker an' not one at that. Lordy, sir, we must a-bin a queer
+sight, rushin' through the moonlick night, with the engine flarin' fit
+to bust, a full cargo of devils from 'ell dancin' an' whoopin' an'
+'owlin' like all possessed, an' Nathanial James Craddock astride the
+hoff buffer. I tell you, sir, if any one 'ad said 'whip be'ind,' I'd
+a-got down; but I didn't want to leave pore old 'Oneyman off my own
+bat.
+
+"So there we were; but the little fireflies didn't seem to care. I see
+'em from the buffer as we flew past, eddyin' up an' down, an' round an'
+round, just twinklin' among the trees like the stars up aloft--just as
+unreasonable-like an' careless as if there wasn't nothin' to worry
+about in this world--and there ain't, sir, since all flesh is grass, as
+the man said to the vegetarian. And then we come to the beginning of
+the end o' the line, but there weren't no slackenin' down o' steam; so
+I prepare to jump----
+
+"An' jump I did. When I come to myself the moonlick was as peaceful as
+the grave. The engine 'ad cooled down, an' there weren't no sign o'
+life anywhere. Only a 'eap of wreckage. I found pore old 'Oneyman lying
+dead, chucked clean out o' the cab. 'E 'adn't no mark on 'im, an'
+somehow it seemed to me as if 'e 'ad died natural afore we run slap
+bang into the blockin' o' trees. For 'e knew enuff about stokin', sir,
+to turn off steam. I wouldn't a-took 'im on if 'e 'adn't.
+
+"But there weren't a sign o' them monkeys, sir; an' wot's more, there's
+never bin one seen in that there jungle since."
+
+Here Craddock rose, yawned, and passed over to the cranks and handles
+and valves. The next instant an ear-piercing whistle rang through the
+dust-laden air, seeming to set it a-quiver.
+
+"That's to rouse old Meditations, sir," he said cheerfully; "but it
+won't do it. 'E's petrified to 'is place, an' I shall 'ave to lift 'im
+out o' the way, as per usual."
+
+From afar I could see, like a speck upon the receding ribbon of rail,
+an immovable figure on the Permanent Way.
+
+
+
+
+                              DRY GOODS
+
+
+"Mr. Blooker, sir," said the head clerk severely, "no one whose chest
+measurement is under thirty-two inches has any right to beat time to
+'Rule, Britannia,' even when it is played by a German band in the
+street."
+
+A small man whose desk stood nearest the office window, against which a
+City fog lay like yellow cotton wool, blushed, apologised incoherently,
+and returned to fair general averages.
+
+The other clerks tittered, since this was a recurring criticism. For,
+though Alexander Blooker's chest measurement made active patriotism
+impossible, the heart within it was full of that sentiment. This was
+unmistakable when he boomed forth solid songs of the past, such as the
+"Death of Nelson" and the "Soldier's Tear," in his big solid bass
+voice; the more modern ditties about "beggars" and "gurls" and "kids"
+and "khaki" being, he assured his club, "unsuitable to his organ." And
+Alexander Blooker was very proud of his organ.
+
+
+               "_Never, never, never will be slaves_."
+
+
+Quite unconsciously his dutiful pen punctuated each quaver and
+semi-quaver, though in his heart of hearts he knew that he himself had
+been a slave all his life. First to an old aunt who had lately died
+full of self-satisfaction because she left him fifty pounds out of the
+money she had saved from the earnings he had brought home to her all
+his working life; and secondly to the head clerk, Mr. Mossop. Such a
+kind, good----
+
+"Blooker, please!" chanted the office boy, showing round the glass
+screen.
+
+It was the voice of Fate. Wondering vaguely whether this unusual
+call to the innermost Holy of Holies, "Our Firm," presaged
+dismissal--possibly for punctuating patriotism--he went meekly.
+
+And he returned as he went, to sit down solidly once more to fair
+general averages. The other clerks waited for a remark, but none came;
+so the pens scraped and scraped until time was up.
+
+Then, when the office was empty, save for himself and Alexander, Mr.
+Mossop, the head clerk, went over to the latter's desk.
+
+"We can finish that for you, Mr. Blooker," he said, "you have much to
+do."
+
+"Thank you, sir," came the solemn reply, "I am much obliged to you,
+sir, but I would rather complete it myself, sir, before going to----"
+Then decorum gave way. "Mr. Mossop, sir," he continued wildly, "am I on
+my 'ed or on my 'eels? I can't believe it--and it is all your doing,
+sir. I feel sure 'Our Firm' wouldn't never have done it if you hadn't
+spoken for me, and--and--I don't know whether I am on my 'ed or my
+'eels!"
+
+As a rule Alexander Blooker struggled successfully with the accent of
+Cockaigne, but in times of stress, and especially when using certain
+set phrases, he adhered to it as if he felt it added forcefulness of
+expression.
+
+There was a suspicion of a tear in his pale blue eye, and Mr. Mossop
+felt inclined to brace him up by telling him the truth; namely, that
+"Our Firm" contemplated in the near future closing the Distant Depot to
+the charge of which he had been appointed. Briefly, it did not pay:
+Germany had got at the markets in the way that Germany has, when
+competition is old-fashioned. But Alexander Blooker's face came up from
+the ledger over which it had bent itself for a moment with an
+expression on it that startled Mr. Mossop out of contemptuous
+compassion.
+
+"I am going to run this job on my own, sir," he began eagerly; "I'm
+going to work it on Imperial lines----"
+
+"H'm--we are not at the debating club, Mr. Blooker," interrupted the
+head clerk; but Alexander was beyond recall; his voice took on the
+blatant tone of the public speaker.
+
+"Shrinkage in trade follows shortage in piece goods, and our piece
+goods is short. Germany's ain't. I don't say that 'Our Firm' is as bad
+as most, but there's a cool quarter yard out of the forty for rubbage
+border and all that. Besides, mind you, some of 'em goes as far as
+three-quarters!--a _cool_-three-quarters!!--and why not? If you tike a
+hinch why not tike a hell!"
+
+This was apparently quite conclusive, for the head clerk hastily
+changed the subject to the necessary preparations. But two days could
+be allowed, as the Distant Depot lay up a river that was only navigable
+for six months in the year; and four of these were already overpast. It
+was rather a rush, but the present occupant of the post had
+unexpectedly accepted the agency of a liquor shop; and the half-yearly
+market must not find "Our Firm" without a representative. So the first
+mail--it was a journey of six or seven weeks--must be the one. If any
+money was wanted--"Thank you, sir," replied Alexander Blooker; "the
+fifty pounds of my own that my aunt left me will do for the present:
+by-and-by perhaps----"
+
+He looked mysterious, but he said no more to anyone; unless he
+whispered something to the glass case illustrating cotton manufactures
+in the Imperial Institute, which had always had an especial fascination
+for him. Despite his hurry, he was looking at the peculiarly broad
+borders of a pile of piece goods and muttering under his breath, "If
+you tike a hinch you may as well tike a hell," when a man of gold lace
+and buttons found him, after closing time, and hustled him by corridors
+of Imperial pickle bottle into the Sahara of Exhibition Road.
+
+Within two months he was--to use his own expression--"taking down the
+shutters" in a very different desert. For the "Distant Depot" lay at
+the Back o' Beyont. Whereabouts in the World-Circle matters nothing.
+Briefly, it was one of those advancing tentacles of civilisation
+boasting the Mission-House, the Dry-Goods-Store or two and the
+Whisky-Shop, which carry between them civilisation to the aboriginal.
+Beyond it lay desolation, except for a single telegraph wire which
+spanned the void towards the west, instead of following the tortuous
+curves of the river (now sinking into sandbanks), which after a long
+course south-eastward eventually found itself at the same goal--the
+sea-board. There was no town to speak of; only a cluster of leaf-huts,
+besides the Mission-House and Chapel, the two Stores and the
+Liquor-Shop. And these were so close clustered that to Alexander
+Blooker, when he rose to look out over his new world on the morning
+after his arrival, it seemed as if the bell which was being rung from
+the Chapel was a general invitation to pray, and buy, and drink.
+
+But it was a pretty little place. A real oasis in the surrounding
+desert of sands, and almost bewilderingly green amidst thickets of
+banana trees.
+
+A tall fat man showed in the verandah of the opposition.
+
+"_Guten, morgen, mien freund_," he called, with superb indifference. "I
+gif you welcome."
+
+That was doubtless Franz Braun, the German rival, and Alexander Blooker
+hated him at sight; but he kept his dignity.
+
+"The same to you, sir," he replied stiffly, "I trust trade is good."
+
+"It is goot for me," remarked Franz Braun, with an air for which
+Alexander Blooker could have kicked him. That being impossible owing to
+their relative sizes, the little man relieved his bellicose feelings by
+beginning on "'Twas in Trafalgar Bay." It still had for him the charm
+of novelty to be able to beat time when and where he chose.
+
+"_Mein Gott!_" shouted Franz Braun excitedly over the way. "_Wass fur
+eine Stimme! Wunderbar!_"
+
+It was the voice that did it. But for it the armed neutrality of the
+past between the rival firms might have remained in the future; as it
+was, an hour afterwards Alexander Blooker was politely but steadily
+refusing to sing a second to the "Wacht am Rhein," although Franz Braun
+(who had an equally good high tenor, after the fashion of tall burly
+men) wept on his shoulder and called him "_Bruderlein_."
+
+"You must to the pastor-house this evening," sighed the big creature at
+last, "Fraulein Anna, who is to the Pastor Schmidt daughter, will make
+you sing. She is _my verlobte_. I will to her be married, but she will
+make you sing."
+
+Nevertheless, neither her yellow hair nor her blue eyes beguiled
+Alexander Blooker from his fixed determination; but they sang together
+for half the night, and the memory of Fraulein Anna's soaring soprana,
+as the notes of "Oh! for the wings of a dove" floated into the hot air,
+was with him as, despite the lateness of the hour, he set all in
+readiness for the morrow. Since on the next day's doings much depended;
+for it was the yearly market-day, on which all the native traders from
+far and near came to buy goods. Alexander Blooker, in fact, had hurried
+his _doongah_ up the sinking river so as to reach the Distant Depot in
+time for it. His last task was the undoing of one of the small bales
+which throughout their journey had been the objects of his special
+care.
+
+"It you tike a' hinch you may as well tike the h'ell," he murmured, as
+he cut the packing threads by the dim light--for he had refused to use
+the "Made in Germany" lamp of his predecessor. Then, with a sigh of
+satisfaction, he held up the top one of the hard-pressed pile of
+printed cotton handkerchiefs.
+
+"That ought to fetch 'em," he said admiringly. Certainly it might
+have "fetched" anything and everything. To use heraldic terms, the
+field of the kerchief was gules, argent and azure, arranged in
+_saltire_--otherwise, a Union Jack. An _escutcheon of pretence_ bore
+the Queen's head _regardant_, while _quarterly_, _en surtout_, were: on
+the first, _gules_, three lions _passant_, or, for England; on the
+second, or, a lion _rampant_ within a double _tressure flory counter
+flory_, _gules_, for Scotland; on the third, azure, a harp, _or_,
+stringed _argent_, for Ireland; on the fourth?--well!--why the fourth
+field should have been charged with specimens from a pack of cards,
+Alexander Blooker did not know. It was a blot on the _scutcheon_, no
+doubt; but two days had not sufficed for the printing of a special
+design, and this was the best he had been able to find. Besides, in a
+measure, it was true. There was no blinking the fact that even British
+civilisation was apt to bring gambling and drinking with it.
+
+The next day the whole place was full up with native traders and
+natives generally. The first sight of them made Alexander Blooker
+wonder why they were so eager for piece goods, considering how little
+of them they wore! But then he had hardly realised that beyond that
+northerly desert lay a huge tract of densely-populated, almost unknown
+land.
+
+Trade was brisk over the way at Franz Braun's store. The cheap German
+muslins, guaranteed full length, and packed in convenient carriageable
+size, went off like smoke; and it was not until the best lots had gone
+off that a trader thought it worth while to give a perfunctory glance
+at Alexander Blooker's consignments. Then his eye fell instantly on the
+heraldic handkerchiefs.
+
+"Sell, how much?" he asked.
+
+Alexander Blooker shook his head. "They are not for sale, sir," he
+replied loftily. "They are a gift. An Imperial gift from Her Gracious
+Majesty the Queen of England. Everyone as buys forty yards of English
+stuff has one of them given in, free, gratis, and for nothin'. Him as
+buys two, has three, and so on--much the same as parcel post rates."
+
+It took two interpreters to bring home this admixture of patriotism and
+progressive bribery to the limited brains of purchasers, but when it
+did find its way into their understanding, the effect was marvellous.
+Before the sun set Alexander Blooker had to conceal his last bale of
+handkerchiefs against the year which must elapse before he could get a
+new supply.
+
+"So! _mein freund_," said Franz Braun, with a good-natured laugh. "It
+is well; but it is not trade!"
+
+"It will be trade," replied little Alexander stoutly. "I am going to
+work this job on Imperial lines."
+
+It grew to be a joke in this Distant Depot, as it had been in the City
+office where the yellow fog lay on the windows like cotton wool; but
+here Mr. Blooker had liberty to beat time to anything he chose. And it
+was surprising how the natives took to him. He must have spent a good
+deal of his fifty pounds on the purchase of medicines, for his morning
+dispensary soon out-rivalled Pastor Schmidt's--who, in truth, was
+growing a bit old for the work. He had lost his wife of late years, his
+daughter was betrothed to Franz Braun (who had a promise of a post
+elsewhere), and the hearts of all three held hope of change in the near
+future which hindered much enthusiasm in the present. Not that there
+had ever been much of it in their lives; even the old missionary had
+gone on his way coolly, if conscientiously.
+
+Alexander Blooker, on the contrary, was always at fever heat. He
+managed to transfer some of his ardour even through the lengthy mail to
+"Our Firm," so that when the river route reopened, a double consignment
+of dry goods took advantage of the water. The last penny, too, of the
+fifty pounds had gone, through Mr. Mossop's agency, in handkerchiefs of
+brand-new design, more heraldic, more patriotic than ever, and
+guiltless of cards. Perhaps Alexander Blooker felt that, so far as he
+was concerned, British civilisation was bringing no evil in its train.
+
+And it was not. It was surprising, indeed, to see how the Distant
+Depot had improved in tone. Franz Braun, who, deprived by the
+difficulty of carriage of sufficient lager beer to satisfy him, had
+taken to over-much whisky instead, now, greatly to the delight of his
+"_verlobte_," satisfied his thirst on home-made ginger-pop, brewed by a
+recipe of Alexander's aunt, while the old pastor gave in with smiling
+acquiescence to the appropriation by Alexander Blooker of what might be
+called "parochial work." In fact, there was some talk of building
+another shanty as a parish hall; for the little man was distinctly
+churchy, and liked things in order. A Temperance League and a Band of
+Hope had, combined with an enlarged liver, made the liquor-store keeper
+take leave home, and Alexander, having offered to run the business
+until another man could come out, was now conducting it with a curious
+mixture of conscience and commerce.
+
+So the eve of the next yearly market came round, and Alexander, in a
+fervour of Imperialism, actually climbed up the telegraph post which
+stood in one corner of his compound, and nailed a pocket-handkerchief
+to it, flag-wise.
+
+"So!" called Franz Braun from over the way, half-jocularly,
+half-vexedly, "the patrol will at you haf damages when he returns."
+
+For that single wire which sped seawards from north to south was
+patrolled at intervals by a staff of engineers from the former.
+
+"He has paid his last visit for the cool season," said Alexander
+knowingly; "so there it can stay if it likes for the next four months,
+at any rate."
+
+"I wish that to me came the same certainty of liking," growled Franz
+Braun, "but, you see, the Herr papa ails, and the _verlobte_ wishes him
+to the Homeland to take, and I would also go if I could."
+
+A vague alarm showed on Alexander Blooker's face. "And leave me here
+alone? I'm glad you can't."
+
+The idea, however, stuck in his brain. Supposing he were left alone,
+what would he do?
+
+After he had arranged everything to his liking for the morrow, this
+idea of perfect solitude kept him from sleep and he strolled out with a
+pipe to quiet his nerves in the desert.
+
+What would he do if he were left alone? A curious elation mixed with
+his natural dread. He walked, and walked, scarcely thinking out the
+question, only feeling it in that big heart of his. He had
+instinctively followed the telegraph line himself so as to be sure of
+not losing his way, but now he started at the sight of a solitary
+figure before him, visible in the moonlight, advancing to him, and
+keeping the same bee-line swiftly yet stumblingly, with a pause as for
+a few seconds' rest at each post. It was someone who was ill, or very,
+very tired.
+
+A woman, a native woman! He could hear her voice now in her pauses.
+Always the same words mumbled mechanically over and over again:
+
+"Save me, Queen-of-the-handkerchief.... Save me...."
+
+He knew enough of the language now to understand so much, and he
+waited, watching her curiously.
+
+Across the last gap she stumbled towards him, gave one surprised look
+at him, and--with a vague effort at the same words as if he had been a
+telegraph post--sank down in a dead faint.
+
+She was quite a slip of a girl, and, after a time, she came to herself;
+but she was so exhausted that it was past grey dawn when Alexander
+Blooker managed to get her back to the telegraph post in the corner of
+his compound. And to this she clung pertinaciously, much to his
+annoyance, for he wanted to get her out of the way, and find who she
+was, and what she wanted, before the native traders began to turn up.
+
+His remonstrances, however, were in vain. Her only reply was a murmured
+incoherent repetition of her first appeal:
+
+"Save me! Queen-of-the-handkerchiefs."
+
+And every time she said it, Alexander Blooker experienced a patriotic
+thrill down his back. He felt that she must at all costs be saved--but
+from what?
+
+The dawn grew from grey to gold.
+
+"_Gott in Himmel!_" laughed Franz Braun, coming down very early because
+of something he had forgotten. "_Mein Alexander mit a Madchen! Ach!_
+fie!"
+
+"Stop your silly jaw and find out what she is wanting," cried Alexander
+Blooker fiercely, "or help me to get her into the shanty before the
+traders come."
+
+"_Mein bruderlein_," replied Franz Braun solemnly, "when you have so long
+as me been in savage places you will-not-to-redress-women's-wrongs-learn."
+
+Alexander Blooker swelled visibly. "That sentiment is made in
+Germany, sir. She has appealed to that"--he pointed to the flag
+pocket--handkerchief on the telegraph post which was waving in the
+breeze of dawn--"and, by George! she shall have protection!"
+
+There was nothing more to be said, not even when some of the traders,
+coming on the scene, recognised the girl as the daughter of a powerful
+chief in the northern land, who would be certain to give trouble were
+she harboured by the Distant Depot. It would be better to send her back
+in their charge. How she had found her way so far was a mystery; she
+must have followed the telegraph posts day by day, have slept in their
+shadow night by night.
+
+Some vague confused sense of the poetry of this--night after night
+sleeping, all unconsciously as it were, under the flag of England--day
+after day following the course of light to freedom, rose in Alexander's
+throat, and half-choked him.
+
+"She shall stay," he said. "Let her father come to fetch her; if he is
+in the right, he shall have her."
+
+"My dear sir," quavered old Pastor Schmidt, "he will not time for
+explanation give. I was in a to-be-compared position once. I will not
+be so again. I will take my daughter-ling away. I will go. There is no
+good in staying to be massacred when pension has become due."
+
+It was all to no purpose. Alexander Blooker stood firm. The utmost he
+would do was to write a conciliatory letter for the traders to give on
+their return to the girl's father, saying that his daughter had been
+handed over to the charge of a suitable matron, and that he might have
+her again if adequate explanations were tendered to Her Gracious
+Britannic Majesty's representative at the Distant Depot. And here the
+great temptation of his life came to Alexander Blooker. He would have
+loved to sign himself "Consul C.M.G." No one would be the wiser. But
+the sense of duty was strong within him, and he refrained.
+
+This being so, Pastor Schmidt incontinently determined not to brave the
+certainty, as he deemed it, of coming trouble. His Society in the West
+was prepared for his possible return. The details of how the work could
+be carried on by a native deacon during the six months before a new
+pastor could arrive were all settled. Nothing but a half-conscious
+feeling that to retire would be to sign his warrant of dismissal from
+what had been to him his life, had kept him hitherto from decision.
+Now, the river was falling fast; they must take their chance of escape
+while they could get it.
+
+And Franz Braun? After two days of moody helping to pack his
+"_verlobte's_" belongings, he came to say, not without a certain
+tremble in his voice:
+
+"_Bruderlein_, I also go--so far anyhow--my firm said so much a month
+ago--to-night thou wilt be alone."
+
+There was not much time for Alexander Blooker to realise his position
+until, as the cool of the night came on, he stood by the last little
+landing-stage on the river, watching the Noah's-ark-boat as it punted
+its way slowly through the network of sandbanks.
+
+Behind him as he stood, flared the red glories of the setting sun; in
+front of him, the long stretches of sand, the winding gleams of the
+shrinking river were fast losing each other in the purple-blue shadows
+of coming night. From the lessening speck of the boat as it drifted
+downwards on the current came half-regretful, half-joyful farewells.
+The native congregation, assembled in full force, sent after it
+wailing outcries; but Alexander Blooker was silent, save for one brief
+"Good-bye, Fraulein Anna! Good-bye, Pastor Schmidt! Good-bye, Franz
+Braun!"
+
+The sliding shadow of the boat had disappeared into the oncoming night
+for his short-sighted eyes, long before the still savage congregation
+lost it, but he stood staring on where it had been long after they had
+gone home contentedly. Then he turned suddenly. The red had almost
+faded from the sky. Only low down on the horizon lay a band of what
+Ruskin held to be the highest light--pure vermilion--and against it he
+could see the telegraph post, with a black speck that must be the
+pocket-handkerchief of England flying at its peak.
+
+He drew a long breath. For the first time in his life Alexander Blooker
+felt that he was not a slave.
+
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+
+Six months after, the first _doongah_ of the season punted and sailed
+up the river again. The Distant Depot was deserted; but there was no
+sign of disorder in it. The English flag still flew from the telegraph
+post. The Pastor's house, which Alexander Blooker had been implored to
+occupy and keep in order, looked, save for the dust which always
+gathered from the desert, as if he must have been there but a few days
+before. The garden was ablaze with flowers. The clusters of native huts
+had disappeared, and in their place neat streets of low wattle and dab
+dwellings converged outwards from quite an imposing edifice with
+"Church Hall" marked on it conspicuously. The liquor shop had
+disappeared. Franz Braun's dry goods store was closed and the British
+one removed to a portion of the central building.
+
+The little Mission Chapel also was utterly changed. The seats removed
+to make room for clean matting on which the native congregation could
+squat. Everything western or of western symbolism swept away, and in
+their place, ingeniously adapted to their present purpose, were things
+held sacred by the natives. Here an English school had evidently had
+its quarters, for copybooks, headed in a neat hand "If you take an
+inch, you may as well take an ell," were found there. Also a few
+chapters of the New Testament written out in the same handwriting.
+
+The tiny cemetery behind the chapel, surrounded on three sides by
+banana thickets, remained unaltered, save that, just under the east
+window, three of the heraldic pocket-handkerchiefs were pegged to the
+ground in an oblong.
+
+What had happened?
+
+The yearly market day brought vague, inconsistent rumours from the
+mouths of many merchants.
+
+Nothing was known for certain. The "Lord-of-Handkerchiefs" had
+remained, of course. It was said that the chief had come for his
+daughter. Nothing had happened. Only the Handkerchief-Lord had, as they
+might see, built palaces.
+
+He was a Great Chief. The people simply would not live without him when
+he died. So, at least, they had said as they came through the villages
+beyond the desert on their way north. How long ago? Ah! not long; they
+were afraid, see you, of the new gentlemen. They preferred to begin
+afresh elsewhere. That would doubtless be his grave at the back of the
+chapel. He was a great loss to the country. No one gave handkerchiefs
+away as he did.
+
+So the Distant Depot had to go on its way without further details. Only
+the traces of Alexander Blooker's short rule remained, and the new
+inhabitants who soon gathered to fill the trim walls and dab houses
+benefited by them.
+
+One day, however, when almost a year had gone by, the new pastor found
+that the oblong of handkerchiefs in the cemetery, instead of being worn
+and faded by sun and rain was, apparently, brand new.
+
+Someone must have renewed it in the night. And on the top of it,
+written out in wobbly round hand, was the last copy Alexander Blooker
+had set:
+
+"If you take an inch you may as well take an ell."
+
+From which the Distant Depot inferred that it was his death-day.
+
+
+
+
+                      THE REGENERATION OF DAISY
+                                 BELL
+
+
+"It is quite out of the question," said the Adjutant, severely. "Major
+Primmer has formerly complained, and the C.O. has desired me to--to--to
+see that the nuisance is abated----"
+
+So far, regimental discipline kept the Adjutant's risible muscles under
+control; then he smiled, for he was more human than adjutants are wont
+to be in orderly room. "And, upon my soul, youngster," he went on,
+picking up a letter which lay beside him, "it is a bit hard on Primmer.
+I can imagine his disgust! H'm, h'm--'_have to report_'--Ah! here--'_As
+usual, I woke with the entry of my body-servant bringing my early tea.
+As usual, also, I lay for a few moments to collect my thoughts; but
+when I turned to pour out the beverage_'--good old Primmer--'_my
+disgust was great to find Lieutenant Graham's so-called tame monkey--I
+may interpolate that it is a specimen of the Presbytis schistaceus, a
+bold and predatory tribe, and not the Presbytis entellus, a much milder
+race_'--good old Primmer again; he's nothing if not exact--'_in full
+possession of my tea-table. The brute had consumed all the toast, save
+one crust, which I regret to say it threw at me when I attempted
+remonstrance_.'"
+
+We both laughed.
+
+"Can't you see Major Primmer, V.C., sitting up in bed with his
+eye-glasses on, in a mortal funk," I began, trying to brazen it out.
+But official decorum had resumed its sway over the Adjutant, and he
+read on:
+
+"'_It then proceeded, with an accuracy which I cannot believe to be
+entirely self-taught_'--H'm, Graham, that is serious; remember he is
+your superior officer--'_to imitate closely my method of pouring out
+tea. This is peculiar, as I invariably put the milk in first. My
+efforts at checking the lawless brute were again quite unavailing; and
+resulted only in the deliberate emptying of the scalding hot tea over
+my nether garments_.'"
+
+"Why couldn't he say his pyjamas," I groaned, captiously; for I
+recognised that things had gone a bit too far. I had had no idea Jennie
+had such a fund of humour.
+
+But once more official decorum failed to respond.
+
+"'_This, I may add, it did again and again, until the teapot was
+exhausted. It then pouched the whole contents of the sugar-basin, drank
+the milk, and smeared its head with the butter. The latter action
+appeared to arouse reminiscence. It repaired to my dressing-table,
+brushed its hair with my brushes, used my pommade hongroise, and then
+proceeding to the wash-hand-stand, nefariously laid hold of my
+tooth-brush. This, however, was too much. I rose. At the same moment my
+body-servant providently appeared with my hot water, and the brute,
+jabbering at me in unseemly fashion, made for the window, which I
+always keep open winter and summer. I have already requested Lieutenant
+Graham to remove this savage animal; and now have no option_ ...'"
+
+The Adjutant laid down the letter. "It's hard on Primmer," he said,
+with almost superhuman solemnity; "the tooth-brush incident was----" he
+resumed speech after a brief pause, "and he is a good sort is old
+Primmer."
+
+I was perfectly aware of the fact. Only the week before, when we were
+out in the jungle, he had dosed me with quinine and taken my
+temperature every two hours during an attack of fever and ague.
+
+So Jennie the monkey must give way; but what the deuce was I to do with
+her? I did not want to have to shoot her.
+
+"Give her to Tootsie," suggested the Adjutant, sympathetically; "I
+heard her say not long ago she would give anything for a monkey."
+
+It was a brilliant idea. Miss d'Aguilar, familiarly known as Tootsie,
+performed the arduous duties of spinster to our little frontier
+station; so that afternoon, before going on duty, I rode round by "The
+Forest," so called, I presume, because there was not a bit of
+vegetation larger than a caper bush between it and the Beluchistan
+Hills.
+
+I found the young lady and her mother--a frankly black-and-tan lady who
+looked as if she would have been more comfortable with a veil to roll
+round her fat person--engaged, after their wont, in entertaining some
+of the junior subalterns at tea. As I entered, Tootsie--a sparkling
+brunette with gloriously startling Titian brown hair, due to cunning
+applications of henna dye (there were traces of it on Mamma's
+hands)--was, in a high-pitched staccato voice, recounting with arch
+gaiety, her impressions of Calcutta, whence she had but lately
+returned. "Yes! I do declare the men are just sillies. Why! do not
+believe me, but I asked a young fellow in a Europe shop to bring me
+flesh-coloured stockings, and he brought me tan! Was he not a silly
+boy?"
+
+The pause which inevitably followed this anecdote seemed a fitting
+opportunity for somewhat sentimentally offering Jennie. Had I offered a
+bomb the effect could not have been more disastrous. Miss grew crimson;
+Mamma, purple and plethoric, wondered how any gentleman could keep such
+a nasty brute, still less offer it as a fit companion to an innocent
+young girl.
+
+Evidently Jennie had again got herself disliked; how, the junior sub.
+told me succinctly as we rode home.
+
+"You see, Tootsie dyes her hair--and henna's a bit of a lengthy
+business. They don't mind me, I'm only a boy; but she has to have it
+plastered over her head for hours. So she has a big hat with a false
+bun and fringe for these occasions. And Jennie got hold of it somehow
+last week. I happened to be there; and, by George, I chevied the beast
+half over cantonments before she would give it up--she's a regular
+devil."
+
+I sighed. Evidently the culprit must be shot. She had no friends.
+
+As I came up to the guardroom, however, I heard a song being lilted out
+by a tenor voice into the hot dusty air. The refrain of London sounded
+odd here in the desert on the confines of civilisation:
+
+
+      "Dy'sy, Dy'sy, give me yer answer dew,
+       I'm half cry'sy, all for the love o' yew."
+
+
+"Yes, sir," reported the sergeant. "It's Dy'sy, sure enough. He's in
+agin; more often in nor out."
+
+"What for?" I asked, a trifle regretfully, for the man, nicknamed by
+his comrades Dy'sy from his habit of perpetually warbling that
+aggravating ditty, was rather a favourite of mine. He was a perfectly
+reckless rolling stone, a bad shilling of about five-and-thirty, who
+from the way he had, when not on his guard, of assimilating drill, must
+have been through it several times. But over his past he drew a veil;
+and, indeed, his present was sufficient for character. He had come
+out with a draft in the cold weather, and already his evil influence
+with the recruits was notorious. Yet I liked the fellow; he was a
+first-class light-weight bruiser, out and away the best in the
+regiment. I had taken lessons of his, and his devil-may-care defiance
+had been attractive.
+
+"Same as before, sir," replied the sergeant. "Shindy in Number Three.
+'Tain't no manner o' use shiftin' 'is room. He'd purwurt a Sunday
+School."
+
+Solid truth in every word! Yet the light blue eyes which met mine had a
+twinkle in them that softened my heart.
+
+"If you are such a cursed fool," I said, as sternly as I could, "you'll
+come to grief."
+
+His face took on sublime innocence. "Beg pardin, sir; but it ralely
+ain't fair w'en a party is trying to do 'is dooty to 'is parsters an'
+marsters. Them young chaps was makin' fun hover your monkey usin' the
+major's py-jammas has a slopper; an' I only tole 'm it was kind o'
+disrespekful like, as she meant it hall in k'yindness, an' bid 'm hold
+their jaw. That's how the tin dishes got hinjured, for," he added, with
+great dignity, "I won't 'ave no slanderin' o' dumb animals as can't
+speak up for thesselves."
+
+A gleam of hope shot through me. "You're fond of animals, are you?" I
+asked.
+
+For once candid confidence came to him. "Well! I don' know, sir," he
+replied, "but 'twas the loss o' a dorg as fust set me wrong." He gave a
+glance towards the sergeant, who was discreetly retiring, and then went
+on. "I was but a young chap, just gone twenty, and the dorg was a bull
+tarrier, sir, as good as they make 'm. S'yme n'yme as your monkey,
+sir--Jennie. We was chums. Then I got a gel, one o' the yaller-haired
+kind, sir, an' I was a fool about her, as young chaps is apt ter be.
+Well, sir, I 'adn't bin just steddy--no real 'arm, you know, but sort
+o' light like. But I settles down an' begins ter screw against gettin'
+married. The yaller-haired gel was livin' with me, sir, so as to save
+time like, but we was sure to get married in church an' go hoff
+emigrating so soon as I'd got the 'oof. An' Jennie was to go, too, for
+she an' me was chums. Well, sir, there was a big, black chap, coster he
+was, I licked him more nor once for 'angin' round; but there! females
+are built that way. So it 'appened when I come 'ome one hevening that I
+found 'er gone, an' the 'oof too. An' Jennie----" he drew his hand
+slowly over his mouth--"Jennie had died game, sir. She 'ad a bit of the
+big black brute's corduroys betwixt 'er teeth, but 'e'd bashed 'er 'ead
+open with 'is boot."
+
+There was silence. Then he went on with a reckless laugh, "'Tweren't
+the gel, sir; there's plenty o' them ter be got, yaller hair an' all.
+But Jennie an' me had been chums."
+
+Five minutes later the monkey had changed masters. To oblige me and
+save Jennie from being shot Dy'sy Bell had promised to take care of
+her.
+
+"I'u'd rather 'ave no money, sir," he said, when he appeared to fetch
+her away and I offered him something towards her keep, "'twould only go
+to the canteen, and if I get into trouble, oo'd look after 'er?"
+
+'"Er," I may mention, had just bitten his finger through to the bone,
+an action which he dismissed with the remark that "females was built
+that way."
+
+Three days later, as I rode past Number Three barrack, I saw Jennie
+cracking nuts on a brand-new perch. Dy'sy, it now appeared, was quite a
+smart carpenter, and had made it himself in the workshop. Three days
+after that again, the perch was embellished by a brass chain, and Dy'sy
+admitted shamefacedly that he had once been in a foundry. So time
+passed on, until it occurred to me that Dy'sy had ceased to come into
+prominence before me as company officer, and I questioned the sergeant
+concerning him.
+
+The official did not move a muscle. "Number Three's has quiet has a
+orphin asylum now, sir. As I lies in my bunk I don't 'ear no whisper.
+But it was Bedlam broke loose the fust night after Jennie come, sir. I
+lay low, seeing as there never was no use in tryin' to get at the
+bottom o' that sort o' row in the dark, sir. An' next morning 'arf the
+room complained of 'avin' a hunbaptised brute put to bed with 'em. The
+monkey slep' with Dy'sy, sir, so I spoke to 'im, an' told 'im I
+c'u'dn't 'ave no more complaints, an' he replied, quite civil-like, as
+there sh'u'dn't be none. An' there wasn't; but 'arf the men 'ad black
+eyes that week, sir, though 'ow they came by 'm they didn't say."
+
+I did not enquire. It was sufficient for me that Number Three barrack
+was rapidly becoming regenerate. As I passed one day I heard a voice
+say, "Now, boys! I won't 'ave no cuss words; they ain't fit for a lydy
+to hear."
+
+"You don't go so often to the canteen as you used to, Bell," I said to
+him one day when I found him sitting alone in the verandah nursing
+Jennie, who jibbered at me.
+
+"Ain't got the money, sir," he replied cheerfully. "_Neringis_ and
+sich--like is a horful price in this Gordforsaken spot, an' Jennie's
+been a bit ailin'; won't eat nothing else."
+
+"Well, you'll be getting your stripes soon, I expect, if you go on as
+you are doing," I remarked.
+
+He flushed up. "I 'opes so, sir," he said modestly. "Jennie 'u'd set
+store by a striped sleeve, females being built that way."
+
+My prophecy proved correct. Dy'sy was made a corporal, and before long,
+in the Border campaign which the cold weather brought us, found himself
+a sergeant, and so eventually in charge of a telegraph station on the
+top of one of the passes to our rear.
+
+It was an important post to keep open, since on the integrity of the
+wire through a mile or so of singularly difficult country hung the
+certainty of speedy relief, should any kind of disaster overtake our
+little force, which was intimidating the tribes in the valleys beyond.
+
+And disaster did overtake it, chiefly by reason of a terrific snowstorm
+which swept over it early in February--a snowstorm which paralysed
+progress, and made all thoughts turn to the probability of that mile of
+telegraph wire remaining intact.
+
+No supplies could, of course, be sent up, so the men in the station
+must either starve or return, if, indeed, they had not been overwhelmed
+already. The latter seemed the most likely, since, though the through
+wire remained open, not a signal came from the station.
+
+"An avalanche most likely," said the Adjutant. "The station was built,
+I always said, in the wrong place. What luck the wire isn't damaged as
+yet. It won't be long before it is, I'm afraid."
+
+It was, however, still going strong when four men, one badly
+frost-bitten, made their way into camp. They had started five, they
+said, by Sergeant Bell's orders, after they had with difficulty
+extricated themselves from the ruins of the house, which had been
+completely smashed up by a tremendous avalanche. It was impossible,
+Dy'sy had said, to keep the post and six men also, so he had given them
+what supplies he could spare--the store was luckily uninjured--and
+bidden them take their best chance of safety at once.
+
+As for his, it seemed but slender, as I felt when, a fortnight later,
+we managed to cut our way through the drifts that lay round the hollow
+where the station had stood. Across this hollow the through wire still
+stretched, and quite recently someone had evidently been at work upon
+it, for tools lay on fresh frosted snow. But all was still as the dead,
+quiet as the grave. We found Dy'sy lying on his face in the store many
+feet below the snow surface. The steps cut down to it were worn with
+the passing of his feet, but he did not move when we bent over him;
+something, however, cuddled close in his arms, woke and jibbered at us
+angrily. It was Jennie, dressed for warmth in every rag of blanketing
+available. She was as fat as a pig, and the charcoal embers in the tin
+can hung round her neck were not yet quite cold. But Dy'sy was skin and
+bone; yet the Irish doctor, as he bent hastily to examine him, said,
+cheerfully: "Annyhow, his love for the baste may have saved his life;
+she's kept his heart warm whatever."
+
+And she had.
+
+Six weeks afterwards I sat beside him in hospital. He showed thin and
+gaunt still in his grey flannel dressing-gown, and two fingers were
+missing on his left hand.
+
+"Well!" I said, "so they've given you the D.S.M., and a special pension
+if you want to go."
+
+He smiled brilliantly.
+
+"Don't want to, sir. Jennie she likes the H'army; females is built that
+way. And as for t'other, 'twas really Jennie done it. I couldn't take
+her through the snow--she'd 'a' died for sure. An' I couldn't leave
+her, so there wasn't no choice."
+
+
+
+
+                         A SONG WITHOUT WORDS
+
+
+It was in the club that the telegram came, and as I sat watching my
+partner make pie of one of the best bridge hands ever ruined, I read it
+over once or twice, and, finally, when our adversaries had run out,
+handed it over to the culprit as a means of turning my wrath to another
+subject.
+
+"Transferred!" he commented, calmly. "H'm! We shall have to get
+Beveridge to join our game instead!" (My self-pity flew for a moment
+to poor Beveridge, and I wondered what sort of a temper he had.)
+"Still, it isn't a bad place, though rather out of the way. Splendid
+buck-shooting--only, of course, this isn't the time. And a very decent
+house." Here he giggled. "Well, decent isn't, perhaps, the word to use,
+is it? And, by Jove, I'm sorry for you. There will be a devil of a mess
+to set right, I expect; and, anyhow, it isn't pleasant to step into
+another fellow's shoes after that sort of thing."
+
+I acquiesced. "That sort of thing" was, briefly, the suicide of a
+fellow civil servant, whom I had known vaguely as the most brilliant
+man in my year.
+
+A tall, handsome, light-hearted fellow, full of life, full of
+everything, apparently, likely to make him go up; instead of which he
+had gone down steadily--so steadily that at last even a Government
+which prides itself on ignoring breaches of social law, had been driven
+into first banishing him to the charge of a solitary jungle district,
+where there was no world to be scandalised, and then with warning him
+that he must either pull up or send in his papers.
+
+He chose the latter course decisively, sending in his checks to another
+tribunal.
+
+"He wasn't a bad sort when he first came out," continued my partner;
+"had, in fact, distinct glimmerings of sense, and to the last he
+wasn't, so to speak, a bad officer. But the wine and the women--well,
+there you are--and--make the best of it."
+
+This last might have been meant for the nice hand which he displayed.
+We had cut for partners again, with the only result of shifting the
+deal. I took it that way, anyhow, and said no more.
+
+There was, in fact, nothing to be said, so when I got home, I told the
+bearer of my transfer, and, sitting down, wrote an effusively-cheerful
+letter to my wife, who was in the hills with the babies, enlarging on
+the manifold advantages of my transfer, and making much of the fact
+that, though it brought no extra pay, it was, in a measure, promotion.
+
+Then I smoked a pipe, feeling virtuous, for those two estimable
+creatures--my bearer and my wife--invariably do my duty for me. In
+fact, I am the happiest man in existence. I have told my wife so a
+hundred times, and she believes it firmly. The faculty, by the way,
+which good women have of believing things that ought to be true, is
+occasionally appalling, but is always immensely convenient to their
+husbands.
+
+I always wrote her cheerful letters, and in return I used to get
+delightful daily budgets, giving me all the wonderful ways and works of
+the chicks, and imploring me to let her know regularly what the cook
+gave me for dinner, and if I ate it. Also if I were morally sure that
+the water was boiling for my tea every afternoon, as, if I was not, she
+would infallibly hand the babies over to hirelings, and come down to
+her ill-used hubby.
+
+Such delightful, tender, womanly budgets were her replies that I swear
+and declare that, had I been asked to read them aloud, a lump in my
+throat would have interfered with my elocution.
+
+Yet I swear and declare, also, that I would far rather the kettle were
+not boiling than that any one I cared for should fuss over it and a
+charcoal brazier on a hot verandah on a sweltering August day. But,
+then, as my wife is always telling me, I have no real sense of duty.
+
+I wrote her, therefore, as cheerfully as I could, telling her, which
+was true, that solitude would be better than bad bridge. Also that it
+really was a move nearer to her, since, in case of emergency, I could
+cut across country by dhoolie to the foot of the hills. Finally, I
+enlarged on the fact that my successor would take over our house as it
+stood until her return, so that she need not fuss about moving
+anything, as I should do well in my new house, which was to remain as
+it was until my predecessor's unfortunate affairs had gone through the
+Administrator-General's office--a business, as a rule, of months.
+
+I even mentioned the existence of a Bechstein grand piano, with a hint
+that if I could get rid of our cottage, I might buy it when the sale
+came on--an additional craftiness, since my wife loves to think I am
+allowed to have my own way in everything. It makes her more certain
+that we have won the Dunmow flitch of bacon--which we undoubtedly have.
+
+Having done my best to set her wifely anxiety at rest, I advanced fifty
+rupees to my bearer.
+
+In consequence of which we started next day for my new district, bag
+and baggage. Though the most part of the journey was by train, the
+bearer insisted on buckling a big sword he had picked up somewhere
+round his capacious middle. It decidedly had an effect on the railway
+coolies.
+
+About three a.m. we turned out at a roadside station, where, thanks to
+that fifty rupees, a dak gharri was waiting to convey me the remaining
+twenty miles. I was very sleepy, and as I tumbled into my new
+conveyance I got a vague impression of a howling wilderness of sand,
+tufted with tiger grass, desolate utterly; so falling asleep again, and
+not waking until, in the darkness, I tumbled out--this time into a
+large empty room, with a tiny camp bed set in its midst--I carried on,
+as it were, the impression of desert surrounding me. But not for long.
+The next day would, I suspected, be a trifle trying, since my
+unfortunate predecessor's methods of business would scarcely be
+conducive to a mechanical taking over charge of his office. So I was
+soon asleep, without even realising that probably I was sleeping where
+he had lain dead but a day or two before.
+
+When I opened my eyes next morning I felt a curious content and
+surprise. The room was bare in the extreme. The camp bed on which I
+lay, a deck chair, the cover of a travelling chest-of-drawers doing
+duty as a wardrobe, the top of a travelling bath doing ditto as a
+table, a bit of looking-glass hung above it by a string--these were its
+furniture. The furniture of the light-hearted boy who had come out in
+the same year as I had. With an odd, guilty remorse, I remembered that
+I had long since exchanged these simple satisfactions of youth for more
+luxurious methods. An unpaid bill of Maple's, indeed, flashed to my
+mind, as, looking round the walls, which were hung with full-sized
+photographs and copies of the great masters, I realised that my
+predecessor had spent his spare cash in a different fashion to what I
+had.
+
+Very different, indeed. My remorse vanished in contempt, as, opening
+one of the drawers, a very strong scent of sandal wood made itself
+perceptible, and in one corner I saw a trumpery piece of native
+jewellery.
+
+A certain anger took possession of me then, as I looked up into the
+eyes of the Sistine Madonna, which hung in a conspicuous place, and I
+felt virtuous in realising that, after all, it was a natural refinement
+and pure love of order and beauty which lay at the bottom of our
+civilised cult of comfortableness.
+
+So thinking, I passed out on to the verandah, still with last night's
+impression on me that I was in a howling desert.
+
+What I saw, therefore, gave me a shock. For here was a garden such as I
+had never seen. Neither English nor Indian, yet reminiscent of both in
+its wide sweeps of well-kept lawns, its dense thickets of flowering
+shrubs, both, at this break in the rainy season, looking their best. It
+took me a moment, however, to realise what it was which gave this
+garden its curious distinction from other gardens. There was no path in
+it. Though where I stood must once have been the front door, since a
+huge pillared porch jutted beyond the verandah, the grass swept right
+up to the very house. It had a curious untrodden look. A huge-leaved,
+waxen-flowered Beaumontia almost covered the porch with its cold, white
+scentless blossoms, and between the pillars Eucharis lilies rose above
+a marvellous mass of maidenhair.
+
+The delicate greenery, the chill whiteness made me think involuntarily
+of the newly dead, and had I had on my hat I felt as if I should have
+removed it.
+
+As it was, I stepped, with a slight shiver, beyond the porch into the
+sunlight.
+
+The chilliness was gone in a moment, though the cloistered air
+remained, due to the great tamarind trees, which on all sides shut out
+the world, shut in the flowers. The birds, too. I never saw so many. A
+golden oriole was challenging the sun with its full-throated call from
+the bronze rain-shoots of the huge banyan tree, which filled up one
+corner, and there were at least a dozen ruby-throated humming-birds
+among the hibiscus flowers--those strangely mutable flowers, white in
+the dawn, which blush into a crimson death before sunset.
+
+The banyan tree, promising a well in its shade, and the well promising
+the possibility of a gardener whom I could question--for I was beset by
+curiosity--I strolled over to it, and found what I wanted--a very old,
+wizened man, pretending to weed an offensive patch of yellow African
+marigolds, which was carefully hidden away behind a henna hedge.
+
+"Yes!" he replied, with the tearless regret one often hears in native
+voices, the dead Huzoor had been very fond of his garden--in a way.
+(Here the regret became personal and aggrieved.) He had never sent for
+European seeds, so, of course, it had been impossible even for the most
+skilful of malas to make it into a real garden. But if the new Huzoor
+would employ this slave--who had many certificates--here the usual
+bundle was drawn out from some mysterious hiding-place--mysterious
+because he was more than half-naked--he would make proper paths and
+"rippin' beds," and set them ablaze with "floccus" and "soot-ullians"
+and "gerabians and----"
+
+He was beginning to reel off a seedsman's catalogue when I pulled him
+up by pointing to the marigolds. He pursed up his lips in pious horror.
+Oh, no, there would be no more "gooljafari" or "genda" grown in that
+garden. They had been for the other folk, who, of course, would no
+longer---- The mixture of cunning question and scandalised propriety on
+the old humbug's face made me mentally resolve that he should "no
+longer" either. In fact, before my wife and the bairns came down I must
+have the whole place cleared and fumigated. But the garden? No, it must
+not be touched.
+
+I had my breakfast in a huge dark, central room, which was absolutely
+bare save for a ricketty table and two chairs. There were not even any
+photographs on the walls. It was so dark that they could not have been
+seen.
+
+"They found the Huzoor lying there, at the door," said my bearer
+calmly, after apologising profusely for an oversight in the matter of
+marmalade, which, he trusted, might be forgotten, and not reported to
+the memsahib. "He had been dead a long time, for he had paid off all
+the servants and sent away the other people and the children on the
+evening before, saying he was going on a journey. His bearer waited for
+him at the station with his baggage, only he never came, nor his horse,
+either.
+
+"It was the office which found him, when it came for signature of
+papers next day, and there was nothing disturbed, only the Huzoor lying
+where they could see him easily from the front door, and the horse
+comfortable in its stall, with plenty of grass. He was always
+thoughtful to the poor was the sahib, and never gave trouble to others.
+At least, so his servants say--but what can they know--poor, mean
+creatures, who do not even know when a kettle boils!"
+
+I let him talk, for somehow I did not wish to think. In much the same
+mood I went doggedly through my day's work in taking over charge and
+reducing chaos to order--or, rather, conventional order, for through
+all the disgraceful neglect of ordinary routine ran the unmistakable
+thread of one man's control, and of a strong man at that, even in its
+favouritism, its flagrant derelictions from the ordinary conception of
+a magistrate's duty.
+
+As I got into my dogcart to come home, an orderly came forward, with a
+doubtful air, carrying a small bag, such as natives use as a purse.
+
+"It was the custom," he began; but by this time I felt that I must
+return to a right judgment of things, so I purposely lost my temper,
+and let it be known that all old customs were to be abolished. "It was
+only the pennies for the children on Fridays," stuttered the orderly.
+"The Huzoor used always to give them----"
+
+I drove off, thinking that, perhaps, my predecessor might have been
+wise in choosing a higher tribunal.
+
+My bearer, however, who, as usual, stood in the verandah to receive my
+hat, had no doubts in the totality of his blame. He was full of
+virtuous activities. Order, in some measure, had been restored. Certain
+screens of grass, which had been removed against a time when the mem
+might find them useful in the poultry yard, and the outhouses having
+been finally cleared--by the aid of the police--of various pensioners
+and idle folk, who wept profusely, had been duly distributed among the
+servants, he himself having taken one with a women's enclosure, which
+would be the cause of great comfort.
+
+I bid him take what he liked, and for the first time went into the
+drawing-room, where he said my tea awaited me.
+
+I shall never forget my first look at that room, with its five
+straight, undraped windows, set in a row round one slightly curved
+wall. The others bare, save for the shadows, which were fast creeping
+to obliterate even the bareness. The windows were mere oblongs of dim
+light, stretching up into the lofty roof, and that shadow looming in
+one shadowy corner, across a vast expanse of shadowy matting, must be
+the Bechstein piano. I made a move towards it, and stumbled against my
+own tea-table, a highly ornate, sham Oriental, carved thing, which the
+bearer, by my wife's orders, carried about with him religiously, and at
+the same time the bearer himself entered with the reading lamp, without
+which, so I am told, I cannot exist.
+
+I gave up the Bechstein, therefore, for a time, and had caviare
+sandwiches with my tea instead.
+
+I do not know why--my wife would have said because the water was not
+boiling--but I did not enjoy my tea. The pity of all things in this
+incomprehensible world struck me with a vague anger. I sat wondering
+if, after all, a higher tribunal----
+
+Good heavens! What was that? Someone was playing on the Bechstein. I
+did not turn. I sat staring at those five solemn oblongs of the
+glimmering windows, showing lighter and lighter as the shadows deepened
+in the big bare room.
+
+It was Walther's song out of "Tannhauser"--the song of divine love....
+
+The bearer said I was asleep when he came to tell me it was time to
+dress for dinner. Perhaps I was, for sound sleep brings perfect peace
+and rest, and that had come to me with the music which had come out of
+the windows.
+
+I have a dim recollection that the khansaman apologised because the
+soup was not clear, and that the bearer explained that a wire mattress
+had not arrived owing to the breaking down of a bullock cart. But I
+know that I sat up till all hours of the night in the dark, hoping to
+hear the Bechstein again, but it was silent as the grave.
+
+Perhaps at dusk I might hear it once more. I raced off to the office
+early, in order to be home in time, and was almost glad of a few
+flagrant derelictions of duty cropping up to keep my moral nature from
+too much sympathy.
+
+Yet even so, as I drove home, I put my hand in my pocket and drew out a
+handful of coppers for a group of children I passed on the road. I
+could not help it when I remembered a certain paper I had sent up to
+the Administrator-General that day, showing the way in which a certain
+sinner had spent his last pay.
+
+"Tea is ready in the drawing-room," said the bearer; and even in my
+preoccupation I thought there was something odd in his voice.
+
+But a look into the big bare room was sufficient. I shouldn't have
+known it, women have such a way of altering the whole character of a
+house by a yellow silk bow. She had taken the little camp bed and made
+a couch out of it with cushions and phulkarees. The five fateful
+windows, like the five senses looking out on the garden of the soul,
+were tucked and festooned, and through one of them came the familiar
+sound of a pair of bellows, and then a still more familiar exclamation:
+
+"There! That's really boiling at last."
+
+The next instant my wife was in my arms, tearful, tender, triumphant.
+
+Cheerful letters were all very well, but she knew; so she had just left
+the babies in charge of some super-excellent creature, and run away
+down to see I was really comfortable.
+
+"And, after all," she said, nodding her head as she poured out the tea,
+"it is as well I did come, for really there seems to be nothing in the
+house except the Bechstein."
+
+I looked over to it dully, and noticed that it was now ornamented by my
+photograph in a filigree frame.
+
+"Yes," I said--I hope I kept some of the regret out of my voice--"only
+the Bechstein."
+
+And as we sat and talked of the children, and our own happiness, and
+the seeds we were going to sow in the garden, the five windows grew
+lighter as the shadows deepened.
+
+But the spirit of the room was silent.
+
+
+
+
+                             SEGREGATION
+
+
+"I've got the plague, sir, upon my sam, I 'ave. I'll show yer the spot,
+sir, same as they 'ad in 1666 w'en the Tower o' London was burnt down,
+an' Sir Christopher Wren built St. Paul's--so 'elp me Gawd."
+
+The speaker was a plausible loafer of the usual type. He was dressed in
+white, or what had once been white raiment. A gilt button or two hung
+round the coat; mute testimony to its having once belonged to a man who
+did some work of some kind for the Government. He was not a Eurasian,
+that you could see by the line of white on his forehead above the tan,
+as he stood apologetically in the court room holding his helmet before
+him with both hands as if he meant to offer it up as a bribe. It was
+certainly the most valuable thing about him, for it had a wadded
+quilted cover and looked, what the rest of him did not--respectable.
+
+"The plague!" echoed the magistrate (I am the magistrate). "Nonsense,
+man! you're drunk--that's what's the matter with you. Inspector, remove
+that man: put him into the lock-up if he gives trouble."
+
+The inspector approached, but the loafer stood his ground, not without
+quiet dignity; the dignity that comes to some people in the first stage
+of intoxication. "Excuse of me, sir," he said, "but I ain't going to
+make myself a noosance to nobody. That's w'y I came 'ere. That's w'y I
+spent my last bloomin' _hart hanner_ (eight annas) in takin' a _ticca
+ghari_ (hired carriage) to the 'orspitals, every one of 'em, so as
+there might be no infections. Bless your 'art, I don't want to do no
+'arm to anyone. I wants to be seggergated, that's all, afore I does
+any."
+
+The magistrate smiled faintly: there was something likeable in the
+man's face.
+
+"So you've been to the hospitals, have you? What did the doctors say!"
+
+"Same as you, sir," he replied cheerfully, "as I was drunk; but if I
+am, Job Charnock--that's me, sir--never got real on afore with one
+glass o' _harrack_--an' beastly bad stuff it was, too--smelt like a
+dead dorg an' tasted like a tannery."
+
+Perhaps the name, Job Charnock, awoke memories of the founder of
+Calcutta, who, before his fortunes were made, must have been more or
+less of a friendless wanderer in an eastern land; perhaps it was
+because the magistrate was waiting for a file to be brought from the
+record office; but the spirit of cross-examination entered into him.
+"One glass of arrak--is that all you've had?"
+
+The loafer paused, an expression of the utmost candour came to his
+face. "All I've 'ad to-day, sir, s'elp me, 'cos I 'adn't a pice more
+left ter buy a bit o' food with. Only the _hart hanner_ I spent
+Christian-like on a _ticca ghari_ ter try an' get seggergated afore it
+was too late. An' they said I was drunk!"
+
+The mournful cadence of his voice was irresistible.
+
+"Chaprassi, take that man to the serai, and tell the _darogah_ to give
+him some breakfast. I'll pay for it. Now you go quietly, my man, and
+sleep it off. You'll have got rid of the plague by morning."
+
+The file had come in from the record office, I was immersed in the
+endless, hopeless attempt to drag truth from the bottom of the well in
+a land suit; so I thought no more of Job Charnock until I met the civil
+surgeon at tennis in the evening.
+
+"Yes," he replied to my query, "Segregation was on his rounds again
+this morning. You're new, but he is a regular institution here. He gets
+the funks on board, generally about a month after a bout, and comes to
+every one of us in turn to be segregated. I think he is a bit looney on
+the plague--has a real _phoby_ about it. He'll get it, I expect, some
+day, from sheer fright--but there's none about at present."
+
+The something likeable in the man's face, however, returned to memory
+with the obvious fact that he had appeared chiefly concerned to "do no
+'arm to anyone." So the next morning, having ten minutes to spare on my
+way from the city, I called in at the _serai_. It was like all other
+_serais_: a dreary cloistered square, deserted absolutely between five
+a.m. until eight p.m.; that is to say, the hours during which
+travellers are on the road. Now, close on nine o'clock, only the muck
+of last night's bivouac remained. A sweeper, with a broom and a basket,
+was busy removing some of the more salient rubbishes. Otherwise all was
+still as the grave. But, seated on a rush stool in one of the little
+octagonal turret rooms, which, built on either side of the gateway, are
+reserved for European wayfarers, I found Job Charnock. He had evidently
+paid a visit to the well, for he looked cleaner and was distinctly
+sober, but he was more voluble than ever.
+
+"I give 'arf the breakfast you stood me away to the sweeper, sir," he
+said, "an' 'e brought me some _omum_ water as cured me in a jiffy.
+That's all I was wantin', sir, an' none o' them doctors could spare me
+'arf a pint. It seems strange, don't it, sir? And ter think the 'arm as
+I might do going about with the plague spot under my harm, as it's all
+writ truthful in that book by Mr. 'Arrison Hainsworth, Esquire. 'Ave
+you read it, sir?" he asked blandly.
+
+I assured him I had, told him he was a fool, advised him to go north to
+the new railway to find work, gave him five rupees to find his way
+there. It was indiscreet and quite contrary to the rules of the Charity
+Organisation Society, but as I have said, something in the man's face
+appealed to me.
+
+Thereafter he passed from my memory under the usual pressure of work
+and worry which is the lot of an Indian official.
+
+It was in the middle of the hot weather, when the civil surgeon rushed
+into me at my office with a telegram in his hand.
+
+"Will you arrange with Spiller for my work," he said excitedly, "I must
+be off at once. Read that--you see, I gave the assistant surgeon at the
+Bimariwallah dispensary a few days' leave off my own bat, and there's
+only a dresser in charge; so there will be the devil of a row if
+anything goes wrong."
+
+The telegram read as follows: "Outbreaks of much plague amongst
+European gentlemen here. Please arrange for supplies of sufficient
+brandy."
+
+"But there are no Europeans at Bimariwallah," I began.
+
+"I know that," broke in the doctor, "and, of course, brandy isn't the
+right treatment; but that's just where it is. The fool of a dresser
+doesn't know English, doesn't know anything, so I'm bound to go."
+
+"Well, if you'll curb your impatience for two hours, till I've finished
+this case, I'll motor you so far down the Trunk road, and _dak_ you on.
+I have an Executive Municipal Council to-morrow morning at Raipur, and
+it's all on the way."
+
+There had been a shower of rain--an advance scout of the coming monsoon
+to spy out the dryness of the land--so our spin of thirty miles down
+the road was pleasant enough, though the great wains of corn and straw
+that still defy the network of railways which has immeshed India, had
+possession of a large portion of the highway. But, to my mind, there is
+always something "satisfactory" in finding that no amount of
+preliminary hooting changes the path of the slow-moving wheels, and
+that, in the end, even a Siddeley-Wolsey car must either hold up until
+comprehension comes to the carter who moves as slowly as the wheels, or
+else pass by on a side-walking. It seems to presage safety; to give
+assurance that India will not, after all, run off the rails.
+
+The buggy and horse were waiting at the cross roads, and it only needed
+a _detour_ of three miles to drop the doctor at the very door of the
+dispensary.
+
+Feeling some curiosity as to what was really the matter, I withstood
+his prayer to be set down and allowed to make his way on foot. I was
+glad I did; for the first glimpse I had of the dispensary compound
+assured me that something very unusual was taking place. To begin with,
+a long low reed shed, such as is used in cholera epidemics, had been
+hastily run up on the opposite side of the road, and in it were to be
+seen patients lying in their beds or out of them. Posts, each carrying
+a yellow streamer, were set up every ten yards around the compound
+itself, and at each gate stood a village watchman complete with speared
+staff and bells.
+
+As we drove up, the dresser--pallid of face, but full of a vast
+importance--rushed out from a small hut which had been erected inside.
+
+"Many, many thanks to Supreme Almighty," he ejaculated; then added,
+with distinct complacency, "you will find all things necessarily in
+order, sir. Segregationalism is being much carried out. Patient having
+passed through p--neumonic deliriums is now comatic and in _articulo
+mortis_."
+
+I followed the doctor, who looked, as well he might, completely
+bewildered.
+
+The dispensary was cleared out: saucers of disinfectants positively
+littered the ground. White sheets saturated with the same hung at every
+door; the smell of them stank in the nostrils, and, as I followed, a
+dank disagreeable wet flap from one of them on my cheek made me shiver;
+but the sight which met my eyes in the central room set me literally
+shaking with laughter. It was so inexpressibly comic.
+
+Propped high on pillows, his face placid, composed, lay Job Charnock,
+snoring contentedly, while an empty brandy bottle beside him on the bed
+showed one cause at least of his somnolence. There he lay, peaceful as
+a baby, while the doctor, frowning at my inopportune laughter, turned
+angrily to the dresser.
+
+"You cursed fool! The man's drunk. What the deuce do you mean by being
+such an ass." Then the comic side of the situation took him also, and
+he joined me in my merriment.
+
+"By Jove," he chortled, "Segregation has done it this time."
+
+There was no use attempting to awaken him for the moment, so the doctor
+turned on the dresser again. How had it come about? How had he allowed
+himself to be so imposed upon?
+
+It was quite simple, even when clothed in the babu's best "middel-fail"
+English.
+
+Segregation had come, had seen, had conquered. He had declared himself
+sick of the plague, and defied the dresser to deny it. He had thereupon
+taken possession of the dispensary, ordered the erection of the
+temporary sheds by enforced labour, cleared out the patients, used up
+all the disinfectants, and had then, but not till then, taken to his
+bed and drunk all the brandy! So "cometic symptoms supervening, and
+supplies of brandy exhausting," the dresser had appealed "through
+authentic sources for aid of the Almighty."
+
+"Anyway, by Jove!" said the doctor, as he noted all the arrangements,
+"I couldn't have done it better myself. He has even"--he pointed to a
+row of men, evidently of the semi-savage Sansiya race, who were
+squatting in front of the village accountant's house--"set them to
+killing rats!"
+
+And, in truth, each of these hardy hunters, bore a bamboo on which were
+strung the dead bodies of many rodents, young and old. Undoubtedly Job
+Charnock had a genius for organisation; and, with a mournful prescience
+of what would be the answer, I asked the nearest Sansi what he was to
+get for his rats.
+
+It was half the Government rate: but the broad grin on the man's
+face showed him satisfied. Yes! Job Charnock had the gift of the
+Empire-builder!
+
+"Look here!" I said to the doctor, "that man hasn't committed an
+indictable offence. He diagnosed his complaint as plague--that is not
+indictable; he went to your Department for advice and got confirmation
+of his suspicions; that was not his fault; and all he's done since
+then, is what _ought_ to have been done under the circumstances."
+
+"Except the brandy," expostulated the doctor. "Brandy is not in the
+dietary for plague, and he's drunk up the year's supply! That amounts
+to stealing."
+
+"Pardon me! You can have the dresser up for misuse of supplies, if you
+like," I said stoutly, "but every drop of that brandy was drunk out of
+one of your blessed measuring glasses." I pointed to the inverted
+crystal cone with cabalistic signs on it which lay beside the bottle.
+"He couldn't have taken more than an ounce at a time, and that to a man
+of his habits is strictly a medicinal dose, and for that your dresser
+is responsible. No! send him in to me when he sobers. I'll settle him
+up."
+
+I did so to the best of my ability, but there was no question that Job
+Charnock was, as the doctor had said, "a bit looney" at times,
+especially when he had any drink on board, though no one could have
+called him a habitual drunkard. Still, there was little use in getting
+him employment. He always drifted out of it again. Then, for a while,
+he would disappear, only to return after a few months with his usual,
+"I don't want to do no 'arm to anyone. I wants to be seggergated, for
+I've got the plague, so 'elp me Gawd I 'ave." He was always, then, at
+the last point of destitution; more than once even the "_hart banner_"
+for the _ticca ghari_ was not his, and he would come skulking into the
+office almost starving and barefoot. For he looked on me as a friend in
+need; and, indeed, I used sometimes to wonder if hunger were not as
+much responsible for the recurrence of his delusion as drink.
+
+Then I was transferred to Rajputana, and apparently left Job Charnock
+behind me, until one hot weather morning when, in order to catch a
+train, I was galloping across a short cut of the wild Bar land which
+lay between the railway and the out-of-the-way-place where I was
+stationed. It is a strange desert, this Bar land, of wild caper bushes,
+stunted _jund_ trees, and hard resilient limestone soil, baked by the
+sun to whiteness. A horse's hoofs resounds over it for miles, but a
+man, if he left visible path, might, without the aid of the sun, lose
+his way in it almost any moment. Even I had to glance at the
+whereabouts of that luminary when a few moment's abstraction caused me
+to divert my eye from the faint traces of previous passages which was
+all there was of path.
+
+As I did so, my eye was caught by something curious in the gnarled
+branches of a _jund_ tree some fifty yards further away. It looked like
+a red cross. Instinctively I rode towards it. It was a red cross. Two
+strips of red Turkey cotton had been carefully tied crosswise between
+the branches. What did it mean? And why had that shallow trench--a mere
+scraping on the hard soil--been traced between that tree and the next!
+
+And--yes!--that was another red cross in its branches also! I rode on
+only to find that here again the trench trended at right angles towards
+a further tree where yet another red cross showed.
+
+The grey, green, leafless triangle of caper bushes, all set with tiny
+coral bud-flowers, had so far prevented my seeing anything within the
+traced square; but now I came upon a definite opening. Across it,
+however, from bush to bush, stretched a pair of men's braces, and
+pinned to this was a bit of paper on which something was written in
+what looked suspiciously like blood.
+
+I jumped off my horse and bent to look at it. Though written in large
+characters it was barely decipherable, and seemed to have been drawn
+with difficulty by a pointed stick. This much I could read:
+
+
+                   "_Trespussers will be persecuted_
+
+                          _No Thoroughfare_
+
+               _Case of Plague within s'elp me Gawd_."
+
+
+Segregation! by all that was holy!
+
+I tied my horse to the inarched root of a _jund_ tree, set aside the
+braces, and made my way through the bushes.
+
+It was quite a comfortable secluded spot. The grey-green
+set-with-scarlet brocade of the caper bushes formed a curtain round it,
+the floor of it was hard and white as marble; but in the middle of the
+little open space there was, as one sees so often in this Bar land, a
+tiny hillock of sand that had been whirled thither and left by the wild
+dust storms which sweep over the Rajputana desert. And on this sand Job
+Charnock lay, his face turned up to the sky. He cannot have been dead
+long, for his body was untouched by wild birds or beasts, but he was
+quite dead. Perhaps though, the sleeves of his turkey-red shirt--the
+rest of it having evidently gone to the making of crosses--which were
+hung on sticks set in the sand at his head and his feet might, so far,
+have frightened away the animals. They might have been put there for
+the purpose; on the other hand they might have been meant as a last
+danger signal, not to prevent harm being done to him, but to prevent
+him from "'arming anybody." His bare body showed terribly emaciated;
+but his face was calm; it almost had a smile upon it.
+
+Had he really died of the plague; or, in coming, it might be, to see
+me, had he lost his way, as a stranger might well do, in the pathless
+Bar, and fallen a victim to starvation? And had the recurrence of
+hunger brought on his curious hallucination once more?
+
+Who could say? Plague was very prevalent. It might be one; it might be
+the other.
+
+I stood looking at the peaceful face for a minute or two; then I made
+up my mind. He should have his wish; no one this time should interfere
+with his desire to "do no 'arm to nobody."
+
+So, covering the body for the time with the doubled blanket I always
+use as a saddle cloth, I rode off to the nearest village, some six
+miles off, and returned with two men, pickaxes and shovels.
+
+It took some time to dig a grave in that hard white soil; but when the
+coolies had done patting down the dry dust and limestone nodules into
+the long mound of earth which is the outward sign that a human body
+lies beneath, I lingered to peg one of the red crosses over it.
+
+So he found Segregation at last. There was no more fear of his doing
+any harm to anyone.
+
+
+
+
+                          SLAVE OF THE COURT
+
+
+I sate in the sunshine of Delhi as it blazed down upon the trellised
+tombs of a dead dynasty. I was very tired; as police officers are apt
+to be when Crowned Heads travel in India. But my particular Monarch was
+away from my jurisdiction laying foundation stones elsewhere, so I had
+an off four-and-twenty hours. Not knowing Delhi as it should be known,
+I utilised my holiday for slow, solitary, silent sight-seeing, in the
+course of which I had driven out to the Kutb-minar, had bidden the
+carriage return to await me by Humayon's Tomb, so, with lunch in my
+pocket, had set out systematically to reconstruct old India out of the
+crowding ruins.
+
+It is a fascinating occupation; but one provocative of dreams, and, as
+I rested, idly smoking, in the shade of a gnarled _jhund_ tree, I was
+more than half asleep. Around me lay the graves of Kings who had once
+ruled in the flesh. I had been trying, as it were, to live their lives,
+to see with their eyes, and the conclusion had been forced in upon me
+that though the monarchy had changed (and my particular Crowned Head
+was certainly not to pattern of the Old Indian autocrat) the country
+and the people had altered but little.
+
+For instance, the pageant through the city streets of a few days past,
+with the brazen sunlight setting silks and satins aflame with vivid
+colours, and painting every shadow dark with the purple gloom of night,
+was, as it were, of all time; the faces of the crowd through which it
+cleft its way, were in type, in character, permanent.
+
+I closed my eyes to visualize how the dapper Viceroy would have looked
+had he been scattering golden pistachios, silver almonds and enamelled
+rose leaves amongst the lieges, instead of sitting his horse
+purposefully, like an ill-fitting statue and inwardly rehearsing the
+detail of up-to-date benefits he had to proclaim at the end of his
+ride? Were they, I wondered, more satisfactory than the older largesse?
+
+When I opened my eyes, I saw a naked old man squatted forlornly
+among the latticed graves. He held a flat basket--a gardener's
+basket--between his knees; it contained only one compact posy of
+closely crushed flowers--the _gul_ this and _gul_ that--beloved of
+natives; but I saw that a similar bunch had been laid on several of the
+tombs.
+
+The man, however, was palpably _not_ a gardener. No one of Indian
+experience who on real hot-weather evenings had wandered round his back
+premises could have hesitated as to vocation. Either as _chef_ or
+scullion, the figure belonged to the cook-room; there was that in its
+very nakedness (save for a tight-wound waist cloth), that in the very
+polish of the close-shaved head, which was quaintly reminiscent of
+full-starched raiment and high-piled turban.
+
+Now, I always speak to a native when I get him alone--it is a useful
+habit for a police officer--so I said casually:
+
+"On what tomb, friend, are you going to put that bunch?"
+
+The old figure turned, profuse--of course!--in _salaam_; it showed a
+wrinkled toothless face, overlaid with the smiles and subtlety of
+centuries of service. But its reply was dazed, forlorn.
+
+"This slave of the Court," it mumbled, "seeks for a tomb that was but
+is not. God send some miscreant hath not taken the marble slab thereof
+for his idolatrous curry-stone! Lo! I can find it nowhere, and the
+inscription thereof is lost--is lost!"
+
+A world of angry apprehension crept into the tired blear old eyes; the
+tired old hand shook visibly.
+
+"What inscription?" I asked idly.
+
+"My inscription, Protector of the Poor!" came the tired old voice.
+"Yea! whatever this slave of the Court said, the writer Abd-un-Nubbi
+copied it."
+
+I sate up more alert, vaguely reminiscent of something I had seen
+lately. "What was it about?" I queried; this time curiously.
+
+"About the Heaven-Nestled Kings the slave of the Court served," came
+the reply, less wearily; and, as if some stored memory cylinder had
+been set going by keywords, the voice went on, gaining strength: "This
+old slave of the Court does not feel any shame in serving the Kings and
+the Nobles! This old slave of the Court, Mahmud, supplicates God that
+the name of the Heaven-Nestled Emperor Humayon and the Heaven-Nestled
+Emperor Akbar may be perpetuated for all time! Lo! may they have been
+given the robe of Paradise! This old slave of the Court honoured by the
+Earth-Cherished Emperor Jahangir was told, 'You have grown old. Serve
+in the tomb of the Heaven-Nestled One at Delhi.'
+
+"Humbly says Mahmud, old slave of the Court! He has come nigh to ninety
+years, he has come nigh his end. He has passed his life in luxury and
+ease through the kindness of Kings. Oh! Mahmud! no desire is left
+unfulfilled. Of giving and taking, buying and selling, bargainings in
+the bazaar, all is done with now!
+
+"Lo! in this seat of Delhi, the rulers and the landholders, the elders
+and the neighbours should entrust this tomb and shrine (of which the
+total amount of expenses, including all necessary articles and
+allowances was 290,000 tankas) to those who are my heirs and who
+deserve to possess it, as it was built with my honestly-earned money."
+The long-drawn-out quaintly ungrammatical Persian phrases ceased in a
+melancholy refrain: "But it has gone, Huzoor! Someone has taken away my
+tombstone."
+
+I knew now what he was talking about; knew why that faint message of
+memory had come to me. I had seen this inscription, or something like
+it, in the Delhi Museum, on a square slab of white marble which the
+catalogue said had been found amongst some ruins not far from where we
+were sitting.
+
+I looked at the old man; though he himself was well on in years, the
+impossibility of his words made me pass over major points to cavil at
+minor ones.
+
+"My tombstone!" I echoed. "I suppose you mean this King's cook was a
+forbear of yours. You come of a servant family, I expect, ah! Prince of
+Personalities."
+
+I gave him the full title of the highest domestic office with intent.
+It had a marvellous effect. His bowed back straightened itself; he
+seemed to sit resplendent in gold-laced coat and badge-wound turban.
+"The Huzoor speaks truth," he said, with perfectly blatant dignity.
+"Since the beginning of time my people have served Kings--and Sahibs."
+
+The last was a palpable concession to the alien, and I could not help
+smiling. But the old man, despite his toothless, wrinkled, wagging
+head, was no subject for smiles. He sate there transfigured, his face
+shiny, an apotheosis of what folk nowadays call servility. You felt it
+in the warm scented sunshine; an atmosphere of dutiful devotion that
+brought a kindly interest to my heart.
+
+"It hasn't been taken as a curry-stone," I said gravely: "it is quite
+safe. I saw it yesterday in the Wonder House." And then I remembered
+that my Crowned Head had paused over it to look and smile. "Yes! Prince
+of Personalities," I went on, "there it is. A marble slab with an
+inscription." So I went on to tell him what had occurred.
+
+He sate and listened, gravely, reverently, and when I had finished he
+rose--I knew he would--and salaamed down to the ground.
+
+"This poor Preparer-of-Plates is proud still to serve Majesty. May the
+Earth cherish the Wise King long! May Heaven nestle him when the time
+comes for soul to separate from body."
+
+As I looked into the blazing sunshine at the old, naked, bald-headed
+figure, I swear it seemed to me clothed upon with all the liveries of
+all those centuries of service.
+
+"Lo!" he went on, "let the tombstone remain in the Wonder House where
+it hath been honoured by the eye-glances of Kings. And as for the Noble
+Huzoor who hath relieved this poor slave of the Court's mind concerning
+curry-stones----" he paused, took up the remaining posy from his basket
+and held it out to me between deferential palms. "It is all I have,
+Huzoor, but it is sweet," he said simply, "and I have asked so many
+before, and none could tell me."
+
+In sudden impulse I took it. "I'll tell you what I'll do, Prince of
+Personalities!" I said, half in jest, "I'll stop at the Wonder House on
+my way home and put it on the tombstone. Will that satisfy you?"
+
+Once again he salaamed to the ground. "The gratitude of this old slave
+of the Court will go with the Huzoor all his days."
+
+I left him salaaming still among the graves. As I drove back I
+regretted not having lingered to pick his brains concerning those
+centuries of his ancestors' service. Good stories must have been handed
+down as heirlooms; one curious as I was of the past might have heard
+much of interest.
+
+But holiday was over. My Crowned Head had returned, making me
+responsible. In addition, fate was unkind. My major-domo, on whose care
+during those strenuous days when meals were oft-deferred. I was
+entirely dependent, fell sick and had to go to hospital. Not, however,
+before he had, in kindly Indian fashion, found me a substitute.
+Everyone who has been in India knows the type of professional cook-room
+substitute. They are to be seen sometimes in old dâk bungalows,
+survivals still of the patronage of other days when such posts were the
+recognised superannuation pensions for civilians' servants. And this
+substitute of mine--I call them scapegoats as a rule, since all the
+subsequent sins of omission or commission in the back purlieus are
+invariably laid to their charge--differed in no way from the type. He
+was rather more aggressive in starch than most. He had the biggest of
+white turbans, and the forward bow of his arched back was a little more
+accentuated than usual by folds on folds of white bandaging until he
+looked as if he were wearing an extra sized, new whited motor tyre
+round his waist. But his scanty beard was purple black, and his eyes
+were brightened to youth with beautiful rims of antimony. Altogether he
+looked his part to perfection; and for a wonder, performed it also.
+
+My table servant admitted at once that he was a "master artificer," and
+I, personally, confessed that never had I had such appetising dinners.
+Most of these substitutes have old-world dishes at their fingers' ends;
+dishes with strange names which philology can trace back to French and
+Portuguese origin, but this old man might have come from a Parisian
+restaurant.
+
+"This slave belongs to a family of cooks," he said calmly, when I
+questioned him as to where he had learnt to make "_Petits Timbales de
+foie gras à la Belle Eugénie_." "Therefore the wisdom of all the ages
+is at his disposal. When a slave's mind is set on serving his master,
+nothing is impossible."
+
+And nothing seemed to be. My Inspector-General was a gourmet. He
+breakfasted with me in camp one morning, and after that it is
+surprising how often his meal times tallied with mine. So, in the
+course of a few days, the fame of my cook became noised abroad;
+especially when the Crowned Head started on a shooting tour and had to
+leave his French chef behind him; the latter not feeling equal to camp
+fires.
+
+Then the Substitute came to the fore, and once or twice when I had the
+honour of dining at the Royal table, I noticed dishes which I could
+have sworn my man had prepared. Knowing the curious bond of brotherhood
+which exists in India between one cook-room and another, I knew this
+was quite possible.
+
+We had some hard marching, and at the end of a week, I noticed that my
+substitute was palpably older. The _surma_ had worn off his eyes; there
+was a fringe of grey beard above the purple black; yet still he looked
+magnificently starched as he stood behind my chair on the frequent
+occasions when the suite messed with royalty. Then we arrived at a Hill
+Rajah-ship where there had been some trouble during a long minority
+between Palace-Women and a Council of Regency; neither being
+oversatisfied with the Resident. But our Royal visit was to inaugurate
+a new regime under a new young Rajah, and great were to be the
+rejoicings; amongst other things a State Dinner in the Palace.
+
+We were a bit late coming in from a shoot after black partridge, and I
+had a good many preparations to make, as I was in police charge, so
+that it was almost dark ere I returned to my tent to dress for dinner.
+To my surprise I found the Substitute immaculate one inside. He was
+immaculate as ever, but he looked old and frail and worn. Still it
+needed one of those sudden enlargements of personality, which are so
+puzzling, to make the shadows of the tent bring what the light of day
+had denied to me--recognition of the old man I had met amongst the
+latticed Tombs of Kings--the man who had lost his tombstone.
+
+"You old scoundrel," I said. "Why didn't you tell me before who you
+were."
+
+He salaamed a trifle furtively as he replied, "It is nothing to the
+master who his servant is, so that the servant be faithful, and I am
+that. My gratitude is bound to the Huzoor for ever and ever. So I came
+to ask what Tasters have been appointed for the Earth-Cherished-One
+this evening."
+
+"Tasters?" I echoed. "What the deuce do you mean? Tasters!" Then it
+flashed upon me that he was alluding to the old "Tasters for Poison";
+and I looked at him curiously. In the semi-darkness he seemed to have
+shrunken, to be inconceivably old and frail, so I went on more kindly.
+"There's no need for them nowadays, old man. They belong to the past.
+The King--God bless him!--is safe from that sort of thing. Thank
+Heaven."
+
+I was throwing off my shooting togs vigorously, and the answer came out
+of the corner of the tent, as it were, vaguely.
+
+"So said Firdoos Makâni, the Sainted Babar in Paradise, yet he had to
+live a full month on lily leaves, and the Heaven-Nestled One the
+Emperor Humayon was also--"
+
+"Look here! old chap!" I said, divided between haste and the desire to
+tap these old stories. "You shall tell me all that to-morrow. At
+present I must be off to the Palace to see all is right." Then I
+laughed. "Other days other manners. Ah! descendant of Mahmud the King's
+Cook! we have to look after bombs, not poisons, nowadays."
+
+The answer came faintly to me, "The wickedness of men's hearts is ever
+the same, Huzoor!"
+
+I do not think I ever saw a prettier entertainment. The long-eyed
+lazy-looking young Rajah must have had the blood of past sybarites in
+his veins, for he had enhanced Oriental splendour with Western
+refinement to perfection.
+
+Having seen by a glance that all my detectives were in their places,
+knowing also the infinite precautions which had been secretly taken on
+all sides, and feeling fairly secure of the young ruler's personal
+loyalty, I felt I might enjoy myself, and I did. The champagne was iced
+to perfection, the illuminations glimmered softly away into the gloom
+of the lake, a band of native musicians, beautifully trained,
+discoursed plaintive love songs on native instruments deftly entuned to
+almost Western modulations, the dinner was super-excellent, a
+combination of Eastern and Western delicacies, and there was not one
+single hitch in the arrangements, except for a slight _contretemps_,
+due, apparently, to short-sightedness on the part of my venerable
+Scapegoat. He collided with the State servant who was handing a special
+tray of curried _koftahs_ to the Crowned Head, with the result that the
+Crowned Head did not even get a taste of it. But the accident only
+raised a moment's laugh. The debris was cleared away in a twinkling,
+and I caught sight of the offender's scared protesting face as he was
+hustled away from further mischief.
+
+After dinner we had a really excellent pantomime in dumb show by native
+actors, so it was past midnight ere I returned to my tent. I found my
+Chief Inspector, a man I could really trust, a man whose wide
+experience was of infinite use to me, standing outside.
+
+"A report, Huzoor!" he said briefly, and I passed into the office. He
+looked all round, carefully closed the screens, and then began in a low
+voice:
+
+"Huzoor! When your Honour's servant upset the State servant and
+his dish, I was close by. There was a look on your Honour's
+servant's face I did not understand. They scrambled instantly for the
+_koftahs_--scrambled hastily--to pick them up. But I got _one_, Huzoor.
+I gave it to a dog; and Huzoor! the dog is dead!"
+
+I could scarcely speak. "Dead! ye Gods!" Then I remembered that the dog
+would be needful evidence, and said at once, "Where is the body? Bring
+it here."
+
+But, if there had been a conspiracy to poison, the conspirators had
+been too quick for us. The _corpus delicti_ was not where it had been
+left. Neither was the Substitute to be found. The other servants
+reported that, overcome with shame at his unpardonable offence in
+depriving an Earth-Cherished-One of his victuals, he had retired into
+the wilderness. Whence he never returned.
+
+My Inspector-General used to bewail the _Petits Timbales de foie gras à
+la Belle Eugénie_. But I have never ceased to wonder. And every time I
+go to Delhi I go to the Wonder House and lay a posy on the tombstone of
+Mahmud, the old Slave of the Court.
+
+The gratitude was to be for ever and ever; so there is time for more
+yet.
+
+
+
+                              FOOTNOTES
+
+[Footnote 1: Ganêsh is the Indian God of Wisdom. He is always portrayed
+with the head of an elephant.]
+
+[Footnote 2: Old woman.]
+
+[Footnote 3: Pleasant smell.]
+
+[Footnote 4: Hanooman.]
+
+
+
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+               Jas. Truscott & Son, Ltd., London, E.C.
+
+
+
+
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+End of Project Gutenberg's The Mercy of the Lord, by Flora Annie Steel
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+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40136 ***