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diff --git a/old/tssnn10.txt b/old/tssnn10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d571cbf --- /dev/null +++ b/old/tssnn10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2467 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Story of Sonny Sahib +by Mrs. Everard Cotes +(#2 in our series by Mrs. Everard Cotes) + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before distributing this or any other +Project Gutenberg file. + +We encourage you to keep this file, exactly as it is, on your +own disk, thereby keeping an electronic path open for future +readers. Please do not remove this. + +This header should be the first thing seen when anyone starts to +view the etext. 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Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.10/04/01*END* + + + + +This etext was created by Don Lainson (dlainson@sympatico.ca) & Charles Aldarondo (Aldarondo@yahoo.com) + +THE STORY OF SONNY SAHIB + +By MRS. EVERARD COTES + +(SARA JEANNETTE DUNCAN) + +1894 + + + + + + +CHAPTER I + + + + + +'Ayah,' the doctor-sahib said in the vernacular, standing beside +the bed, 'the fever of the mistress is like fire. Without doubt +it cannot go on thus, but all that is in your hand to do you have +done. It is necessary now only to be very watchful. And it will +be to dress the mistress, and to make everything ready for a +journey. Two hours later all the sahib-folk go from this place in +boats, by the river, to Allahabad. I will send an ox-cart to take +the mistress and the baby and you to the bathing ghat.' + +'Jeldi karo!' he added, which meant 'Quickly do!'--a thing people +say a great many times a day in India. + +The ayah looked at him stupidly. She was terribly frightened; she +had never been so frightened before. Her eyes wandered from the +doctor's face to the ruined south wall of the hut, where the sun of +July, when it happens to shine on the plains of India, was beating +fiercely upon the mud floor. That ruin had happened only an hour +ago, with a terrible noise just outside, such a near and terrible +noise that she, Tooni, had scrambled under the bed the mistress was +lying on, and had hidden there until the doctor-sahib came and +pulled her forth by the foot, and called her a poor sort of person. +Then Tooni had lain down at the doctor-sahib's feet, and tried to +place one of them upon her head, and said that indeed she was not a +worthless one, but that she was very old and she feared the guns; +so many of the sahibs had died from the guns! She, Tooni, did not +wish to die from a gun, and would the Presence, in the great mercy +of his heart, tell her whether there would be any more shooting? +There would be no more shooting, the Presence had said; and then he +had given her a bottle and directions, and the news about going +down the river in a boat. Tooni's mind did not even record the +directions, but it managed to retain the words about going away in +a boat, and as she stood twisting the bottle round and round in the +folds of her ragged red petticoat it made a desperate effort to +extract their meaning. + +'There will be no more shooting,' said the doctor again, 'and there +is a man outside with a goat. He will give you two pounds of milk +for the baby for five rupees.' + +'Rupia! I have not even one!' said the ayah, looking toward the +bed; 'the captain-sahib has not come these thirty days as he +promised. The colonel-sahib has sent the food. The memsahib is +for three days without a pice.' + +'I'll pay,' said the doctor shortly, and turned hurriedly to go. +Other huts were crying out for him; he could hear the voice of some +of them through their mud partitions. As he passed out he caught a +glimpse of himself in a little square looking-glass that hung on a +nail on the wall, and it made him start nervously and then smile +grimly. He saw the face of a man who had not slept three hours in +as many days and nights--a haggard, unshaven face, drawn as much +with the pain of others as with its own weariness. His hair stood +up in long tufts, his eyes had black circles under them. He wore +neither coat nor waistcoat, and his regimental trousers were tied +round the waist by a bit of rope. On the sleeve of his collarless +shirt were three dark dry splashes; he noticed them as he raised +his arm to put on his pith helmet. The words did not reach his +lips, but his heart cried out within him for a boy of the 32nd. + +The ayah caught up her brass cooking-pot and followed him. Since +the doctor-sahib was to pay, the doctor-sahib would arrange that +good measure should be given in the matter of the milk. And upon +second thought the doctor-sahib decided that precautions were +necessary. He told the man with the goat, therefore, that when the +ayah received two pounds of milk she would pay him the five rupees. +As he put the money into Tooni's hand she stayed him gently. + +'We are to go without, beyond the walls, to the ghat?' she asked in +her own tongue. + +'Yes,' said the doctor, 'in two hours. I have spoken.' + +'Hazur![1] the Nana Sahib--' + + +[1] 'Honoured one.' + + +'The Nana Sahib has written it. Bus!'[1] the doctor replied +impatiently. Put the memsahib into her clothes. Pack everything +there is, and hasten. Do you understand, foolish one?' + + +[1] 'Enough.' + + +'Very good said the ayah submissively, and watched the doctor out +of sight. Then she insisted--holding the rupees, she could insist-- +that the goat-keeper should bring his goat into the hut to milk +it; there was more safety, Tooni thought, in the hut. While he +milked it Tooni sat upon the ground, hugging her knees, and +thought. + +The memsahib had said nothing all this time, had known nothing. +For two days the memsahib had been, as Tooni would have said, +without sense--had lain on the bed in the corner quietly staring at +the wall, where the looking-glass hung, making no sign except when +she heard the Nana Sahib's guns. Then she sat up straight, and +laughed very prettily and sweetly. It was the salute, she thought +in her fever; the Viceroy was coming; there would be all sorts of +gay doings in the station. When the shell exploded that tore up +the wall of the hut, she asked Tooni for her new blue silk with the +flounces, the one that had been just sent out from England, and her +kid slippers with the rosettes. Tooni, wiping away her helpless +tears with the edge of her head covering, had said, 'Na, memsahib, +na!' and stroked the hot hand that pointed, and then the mistress +had forgotten again. As to the little pink baby, three days old, +it blinked and throve and slept as if it had been born in its +father's house to luxury and rejoicing. + +Tooni questioned the goat-keeper; but he had seen three sahibs +killed that morning, and was stupid with fear. He did not even +know of the Nana Sahib's order that the English were to be allowed +to go away in boats; and this was remarkable, because he lived in +the bazar outside, and in the bazar people generally know what is +going to happen long before the sahibs who live in the tall white +houses do. Tooni had only her own reflections. + +There would be no more shooting, and the Nana Sahib would let them +all go away in boats; that was good khaber--good news. Tooni +wondered, as she put the baby's clothes together in one bundle, and +her own few possessions together in another, whether it was to be +believed. The Nana Sahib so hated the English; had not the guns +spoken of his hate these twenty-one days? Inside the walls many +had died, but outside the walls might not all die? The doctor had +said that the Nana Sahib had written it; but why should the Nana +Sahib write the truth? The Great Lord Sahib, the Viceroy, had sent +no soldiers to compel him. Nevertheless, Tooni packed what there +was to pack, and soothed the baby with a little goat's milk and +water, and dressed her mistress as well as she was able, according +to the doctor's directions. Then she went out to where old Abdul, +the table-waiter, her husband, crouched under a wall, and told him +all that she knew and feared. But Abdul, having heard no guns for +nearly an hour and a half, was inclined to be very brave, and said +that without doubt they should all get safely to Allahabad; and +there, when the memsahib was better, they would find the captain- +sahib again, and he would give them many rupees backsheesh for +being faithful to her. + +'The memsahib will never be better,' said Tooni, sorrowfully; 'her +rice is finished in the earth. The memsahib will die.' + +She agreed to go to the ghat, though, and went back into the hut to +wait for the ox-cart while Abdul cooked a meal on the powder- +blackened ground with the last of the millet, and gave thanks to +Allah. + +There was no room for Tooni to ride when they started. She walked +alongside carrying the baby and its little bundle of clothes. +There was nothing else to carry, and that was fortunate, for the +cart in which the memsahib lay was too full of sick and wounded to +hold anything more. In Tooni's pocket a little black book swung to +and fro; it was the memsahib's book; and in the beginning of the +firing, before the fever came, Tooni had seen the memsahib reading +it long and often. They had not been killed in consequence, Tooni +thought; there must be a protecting charm in the little black book; +so she slipped it into her pocket. They left the looking-glass +behind. + +The ox-cart passed out creaking, in its turn, beyond the earthworks +of the English encampment into the city, where the mutinous natives +stood in sullen curious groups to watch the train go by. A hundred +yards through the narrow streets, choked with the smell of +gunpowder and populous with vultures, and Abdul heard a quick voice +in his ear. When he turned, none were speaking, but he recognised +in the crowd the lowering indifferent face of a sepoy he knew--one +of the Nana Sahib's servants. Saying nothing, he fell back for +Tooni and laid his hand upon her arm. And when the cart creaked +out of the town into the crowded, dusty road that led down to the +ghat, neither Abdul nor Tooni were in the riotous crowd that +pressed along with it. They had taken refuge in the outer bazar, +and Sonny Sahib, sound asleep and well hidden, had taken refuge +with them. + +As to Sonny Sahib's mother, she was neither shot in the boats with +the soldiers that believed the written word of the Nana Sahib, nor +stabbed with the women and children who went back to the palace +afterwards. She died quietly in the oxcart before it reached the +ghat, and the pity of it was that Sonny Sahib's father, the +captain, himself in hospital four hundred miles from Cawnpore, +never knew. + +There is a marble angel in Cawnpore now, standing in a very quiet +garden, and shut off even from the trees and the flowers by an +enclosing wall. The angel looks always down, down, and such an +awful, pitiful sorrow stands there with her that nobody cares to +try to touch it with words. People only come and look and go +silently away, wondering what time can have for the healing of such +a wound as this. There is an inscription-- + + +SACRED TO THE PERPETUAL MEMORY OF A LARGE COMPANY OF CHRISTIAN +PEOPLE, CHIEFLY WOMEN AND CHILDREN, WHO NEAR THIS SPOT WERE CRUELLY +MURDERED BY THE FOLLOWERS OF THE REBEL NANA DHUNDU PANT OF BITHUR, +AND CAST, THE DYING WITH THE DEAD, INTO THE WELL BELOW, ON THE XVTH +DAY OF JULY MDCCCLVII.' + + +And afterward Sonny Sahib's father believed that all he could learn +while he lived about the fate of his wife and his little son was +written there. But he never knew. + + + + + + +CHAPTER II + + + + + +Tooni and Abdul heard the terrible news of Cawnpore six months +later. They had gone back to their own country, and it was far +from Cawnpore--hundreds and hundreds of miles across a white sandy +desert, grown with prickles and studded with rocks--high up in the +north of Rajputana. In the State of Chita and the town of +Rubbulgurh there was no fighting, because there were no Sahibs. +The English had not yet come to teach the Maharajah how to govern +his estate and spend his revenues. That is to say, there was no +justice to speak of, and a great deal of cholera, and by no means +three meals a day for everybody, or even two. But nobody was +discontented with troubles that came from the gods and the +Maharajah, and talk of greased cartridges would not have been +understood. Thinking of this, Abdul often said to Tooni, his wife; +'The service of the sahib is good and profitable, but in old age +peace is better, even though we are compelled to pay many rupees to +the tax-gatherers of the Maharajah.' Tooni always agreed, and when +the khaber came that all the memsahibs and the children had been +killed by the sepoys, she agreed weeping. They were always so kind +and gentle, the memsahibs, and the little ones, the babalok--the +babalok! Surely the sepoys had become like the tiger-folk. Then +she picked up Sonny Sahib and held him tighter than he liked. She +had crooned with patient smiles over many of the babalok in her +day, but from beginning to end, never a baba like this. So strong +he was, he could make old Abdul cry out, pulling at his beard, so +sweet-tempered and healthy that he would sleep just where he was +put down, like other babies of Rubbulgurh. Tooni grieved deeply +that she could not give him a bottle, and a coral, and a +perambulator, and often wondered that he consented to thrive +without these things, but the fact remains that he did. He even +allowed himself to be oiled all over occasionally for the good of +his health, which was forbearing in a British baby. And always +when Abdul shook his finger at him and said-- + + +'Gorah pah howdah, hathi pah JEEN! +Jeldi bag-gia, Warren HasTEEN!'[1] + + +he laughed and crowed as if he quite understood the joke. + + +[1] 'Howdahs on horses, on elephants JEEN! +He ran away quickly did Warren HasTEEN!' + +'Jeen' means 'saddles,' but nobody could make that rhyme! Popular +incident of an English retreat in Hastings' time. + + +Tooni had no children of her own, and wondered how long it would be +before she and Abdul must go again to Cawnpore to find the baby's +father. There need be no hurry, Tooni thought, as Sonny Sahib +played with the big silver hoops in her ears, and tried to kick +himself over her shoulder. Abdul calculated the number of rupees +that would be a suitable reward for taking care of a baby for six +months, found it considerable, and said they ought to start at +once. Then other news came--gathering terror from mouth to mouth +as it crossed Rajputana--and Abdul told his wife one evening, after +she had put Sonny Sahib to sleep with a hymn to Israfil, that a +million of English soldiers had come upon Cawnpore, and in their +hundredfold revenge had left neither Mussulman nor Hindoo alive in +the city--also that the Great Lord Sahib had ordered the head of +every kala admi, every black man, to be taken to build a bridge +across the Ganges with, so that hereafter his people might leave +Cawnpore by another way. Then Abdul also became of the opinion +that there need be no haste in going. + +Sonny Sahib grew out of the arms and necks of his long embroidered +night dresses and day dresses almost immediately, and then there +was a difficulty, which Tooni surmounted by cutting the waists off +entirely and gathering the skirts round the baby's neck with a +drawing string, making holes in the sides for his arms to come +through. Tooni bought him herself a little blue and gold Mussulman +cap in the bazar. The captain-sahib would be angry, but then the +captain-sahib was very far away, killed perhaps, and Tooni thought +the blue and gold cap wonderfully becoming to Sonny Sahib. All day +long he played and crept in this under the sacred peepul-tree in +the middle of the village among brown-skinned babies who wore no +clothes at all--only a string of beads round their fat little +waists--and who sometimes sat down in silence and made a solemn +effort to comprehend him. + +In quite a short time--in Rubbulgurh, where there is no winter, two +years is a very little while--Sonny Sahib grew too big for even +this adaptation of his garments; and then Tooni took him to Sheik +Uddin, the village tailor, and gave Sheik Uddin long and careful +directions about making clothes for him. The old man listened to +her for an hour, and waggled his beard, and said that he quite +understood; it should be as she wished. But Sheik Uddin had never +seen any English people, and did not understand at all. He +accepted Tooni's theories, but he measured and cut according to his +own. Sheik Uddin could not afford to suffer in his reputation for +the foolish notions of a woman. So he made Sonny Sahib a pair of +narrow striped calico trousers, and a long tight-fitting little +coat with large bunches of pink roses on it, in what was the +perfectly correct fashion for Mahomedan little boys of Rubbulgurh +and Rajputana generally. Tooni paid Sheik Uddin tenpence, and +admired her purchase very much. She dressed Sonny Sahib in it +doubtfully, however, with misgivings as to what his father would +say. Certainly it was good cloth, of a pretty colour, and well +made, but even to Tooni, Sonny Sahib looked queer. Abdul had no +opinion, except about the price. He grumbled at that, but then he +had grumbled steadily for two years, yet whenever Tooni proposed +that they should go and find the captain-sahib, had said no, it was +far, and he was an old man. Tooni should go when he was dead. + +Besides, Abdul liked to hear the little fellow call him 'Bap,' +which meant 'Father,' and to feel his old brown finger clasped by +small pink and white ones, as he and Sonny Sahib toddled into the +bazar together. He liked to hear Sonny Sahib's laugh, too; it was +quite a different laugh from any other boy's in Rubbulgurh, and it +came oftener. He was a merry little fellow, blue-eyed, with very +yellow wavy hair, exactly, Tooni often thought, like his mother's. + + + + + + +CHAPTER III + + + + + +It was a grief to Tooni, who could not understand it; but Sonny +Sahib perversely refused to talk in his own tongue. She did all +she could to help him. When he was a year old she cut an almond in +two, and gave half to Sonny Sahib and half to the green parrot that +swung all day in a cage in the door of the hut and had a fine gift +of conversation; if anything would make the baby talk properly that +would. Later on she taught him all the English words she +remembered herself, which were three, 'bruss' and 'wass' and +'isstockin',' her limited but very useful vocabulary as lady's- +maid. He learned them very well, but he continued to know only +three, and he did not use them very often, which Tooni found +strange. Tooni thought the baba should have inherited his mother's +language with his blue eyes and his white skin. Meanwhile, Sonny +Sahib, playing every morning and evening under the peepul-tree, +learned to talk in the tongue of the little brown boys who played +there too. + +When Sonny Sahib was four he could drive the big black hairy +buffaloes home from the village outskirts to be milked. Abdul +walked beside him, but Sonny Sahib did all the shouting and the +beating with a bit of stick, which the buffaloes must have +privately smiled at when they felt it on their muddy flanks, that +is if a buffalo ever smiles, which one cannot help thinking +doubtful. Sonny Sahib liked buffalo milk, and had it every day for +his dinner with chupatties, and sometimes, for a treat, a bit of +roast kid. Chupatties are like pancakes with everything that is +nice left out of them, and were very popular in Rubbulgurh. Sonny +Sahib thought nothing in the world could be better, except the +roast kid. On days of festival Abdul always gave him a pice to buy +sweetmeats with, and he drove a hard bargain with either Wahid Khan +or Sheik Luteef, who were rival dealers. Sonny Sahib always got +more of the sticky brown balls of sugar and butter and cocoa-nut +for his pice than any of the other boys. Wahid Khan and Sheik +Luteef both thought it brought them luck to sell to him. But +afterwards Sonny Sahib invariably divided his purchase with whoever +happened to be his bosom friend at the time--the daughter of Ram +Dass, the blacksmith, or the son of Chundaputty, the beater of +brass--in which he differed altogether from the other boys, and +which made it fair perhaps. + +At six Sonny Sahib began to find the other boys unsatisfactory in a +number of ways. He was tired of making patterns in the dust with +marigolds for one thing. He wanted to pretend. It was his +birthright to pretend, in a large active way, and he couldn't carry +it out. The other boys didn't care about making believe soldiers, +and running and hiding and shouting and beating Sonny Sahib's tom- +tom, which made a splendid drum. They liked beating the tom-tom, +but they always wanted to sit round in a ring and listen to it, +which Sonny Sahib thought very poor kind of fun indeed. They +wouldn't even pretend to be elephants, or horses, or buffaloes. +Sonny Sahib had to represent them all himself; and it is no wonder +that with a whole menagerie, as it were, upon his shoulders, he +grew a little tired sometimes. Also he was the only boy in +Rubbulgurh who cared to climb a tree that had no fruit on it, or +would venture beyond the lower branches even for mangoes or +tamarinds. And one day when he found a weaver-bird's nest in a +bush with three white eggs in it, a splendid nest, stock-full of +the fireflies that light the little hen at night, he showed it +privately first to Hurry Ghose, and then to Sumpsi Din, and lastly +to Budhoo, the sweeper's son; and not one of them could he coax to +carry off a single egg in company with him. Sonny Sahib recognised +the force of public opinion, and left the weaver-bird to her house- +keeping in peace, but he felt privately injured by it. + +Certainly the other boys could tell wonderful stories--stories of +princesses and fairies and demons--Sumpsi Din's were the best--that +made Sonny Sahib's blue eyes widen in the dark, when they all sat +together on a charpoy by the door of the hut, and the stars +glimmered through the tamarind-trees. A charpoy is a bed, and +everybody in Rubbulgurh puts one outside, for sociability, in the +evening. Not much of a bed, only four short rickety legs held +together with knotted string, but it answers very well. + +Sonny Sahib didn't seem to know any stories--he could only tell the +old one about the fighting Abdul saw over and over again--but it +was the single thing they could do better than he did. On the +whole he began to prefer the society of Abdul's black and white +goats, which bore a strong resemblance to Abdul himself, by the +way, and had more of the spirit of adventure. It was the goat, for +example, that taught Sonny Sahib to walk on the extreme edge of the +housetop and not tumble over. In time they became great friends, +Sonny Sahib and the goat, and always, when it was not too hot, they +slept together. + +Then two things happened. First, Abdul died, and Sonny Sahib +became acquainted with grief, both according to his own nature and +according to the law of Mahomed. Then, after he and Tooni had +mourned sincerely with very little to eat for nine days, there +clattered one day a horseman through the village at such a pace +that everybody ran out to see. And he was worth seeing, that +horseman, in a blue turban as big as a little tub, a yellow coat, +red trousers with gold lace on them, and long boots that stuck out +far on either side; and an embroidered saddle and a tasselled +bridle, and a pink-nosed white charger that stepped and pranced in +the bazar so that Ram Dass himself had to get out of the way. It +ought to be said that the horseman's clothes did not fit him very +well, that his saddle girth was helped out by a bit of rope, and +that his charger was rather tender on his near fore-foot; but these +are not things that would be noticed in Rubbulgurh, being lost in +the general splendour of his appearance. + +Sonny Sahib ran after the horseman with all the other boys, until, +to everybody's astonishment, he stopped with tremendous prancings +at Tooni's mud doorstep, where she sat to watch him go by. Then +Sonny Sahib slipped away. He was afraid--he did not know of what. +He ran half a mile beyond the village, and helped Sumpsi Din keep +the parrots out of his father's millet crop all day long. Nor did +he say a word to Sumpsi Din about it, for fear he should be +persuaded to go back again. Instead, he let Sumpsi Din sleep for +long hours at a time face-downwards on his arm in the sun, which +was what Sumpsi Din liked best in the world, while he, Sonny Sahib, +clapped his hands a hundred times at the little green thieves, +abusing them roundly, and wondering always at the back of his head +why so splendid a horseman should have stopped at his particular +doorstep. So it was not until the evening, when he came back very +hungry, hoping the horseman would be gone, that he heard Tooni's +wonderful news. Before she gave him water or oil, or even a +chupatty, Tooni told him, holding his hand in hers. + +'The Maharajah has sent for you, O noonday kite; where have you +been in the sun? The Maharajah has sent for you, lotus-eyed one, +and I, though I am grown too old for journeys, must go also to the +palace of the Maharajah! Oh, it is very far, and I know not what +he desires, the Maharajah! My heart is split in two, little Sahib! +This khaber is the cat's moon to me. I will never sleep again!' + +Then for some reason the fear went out of Sonny Sahib. 'Am I not +going with you, Tooni-ji?' said he, which was his way of saying +'dear Tooni.' 'There is no cause for fear. And will it not be +very beautiful, the palace of the Maharajah? Sumpsi Din says that +it is built of gold and silver. And now I should like six +chupatties, and some milk and some fried brinjal, like yesterday's, +only more, Tooni-ji.' + + + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + + + + +The palace of the Maharajah at Lalpore was not exactly built of +gold and silver; but if it had been, Sonny Sahib could hardly have +thought it a finer place. It had a wall all round it, even on the +side where the river ran, and inside the wall were courts and +gardens with fountains and roses in them, divided by other walls, +and pillared verandahs, where little green lizards ran about in the +sun, and a great many stables, where the Maharajah's horses pawed +and champed to be let out and ridden. The palace itself was a +whole story higher than the stables, and consisted of a wilderness +of little halls with grated windows. It smelt rather too strong of +attar of roses in there--the Maharajah was fond of attar of roses-- +but the decorations on the whitewashed walls, in red and yellow, +were very wonderful indeed. The courtyards and the verandahs were +full of people, soldiers, syces, merchants with their packs, +sweetmeat sellers, barbers; only the gardens were empty. Sonny +Sahib thought that if he lived in the palace he would stay always +in the gardens, watching the red-spotted fish in the fountains, and +gathering the roses; but the people who did live there seemed to +prefer smoking long bubbling pipes in company, or disputing over +their bargains, or sleeping by the hour in the shade of the +courtyard walls. There were no women anywhere; but if Sonny Sahib +had possessed the ears or the eyes of the country, he might have +heard many swishings and patterings and whisperings behind +curtained doors, and have seen many fingers on the curtains' edge +and eyes at the barred windows as he went by. + +This was the palace, and the palace was the crown of Lalpore, which +was built on the top of a hill, and could lock itself in behind +walls ten feet thick all round, if an enemy came that way. + +The Maharajah was to receive them in one of the pillared verandahs, +one that looked out over the river, where there was a single great +ivory chair, with a red satin cushion, and a large piece of carpet +in front of it, and nothing else. It was the only chair in the +palace, probably the only chair in all the Maharajah's State of +Chita, and as Sonny Sahib had never seen a chair before he found it +very interesting. He and Tooni inspected it from a respectful +distance, and then withdrew to the very farthest corner of the +verandah to wait for the Maharajah. A long time they waited, and +yet Tooni would not sit down. What might not the Maharajah do if +he came and found them disrespectfully seated in his audience hall! +Patiently she stood, first on one foot and then on the other, with +her lips all puckered up and her eyes on the floor, thinking of +things that would be polite enough to say to a Maharajah. They +were so troublesome to think of, that she could not attend to what +Sonny Sahib said at all, even when he asked her for the sixth time +how you made a peacock with blue glass eyes, like the one on each +arm of His Highness's chair. Sonny Sahib grew quite tired of +watching the mud-turtle that was paddling about in a pool of the +shallow river among the yellow sands down below, and of counting +the camels that were wading across it, carrying their packs and +their masters; and yet the Maharajah did not come. + +'Tooni,' he said presently, 'without doubt I must sit down,' and +down he sat plumply, with his back against the wall, and his two +small legs, in their very best striped cotton trousers, stretched +out in front of him. + +As a matter of fact the Maharajah was asleep, and had forgotten all +about Sonny Sahib in the hall of audience. It was Moti[1] who +reminded him, whispering in his ear until he awoke. Moti was the +little Maharajah, and that was his pet name. Moti was privileged +to remind his father of things. + + +[1] A pearl. + + +So Moti and the Maharajah went down to the audience hall together, +and there they found Sonny Sahib asleep too, which was not +wonderful, considering that the Maharajah had kept him waiting two +hours and a quarter. Perhaps this occurred to His Highness, and +prevented him from being angry. At all events, as Sonny Sahib +scrambled to his feet in response to a terrified tug from Tooni, he +did not look very angry. + +Sonny Sahib saw a little lean old man, with soft sunken black eyes, +and a face like a withered potato. He wore a crimson velvet +smoking-cap upon his head, and was buttoned up to the chin in a +long tight coat of blue and yellow brocade. Above the collar and +below the sleeves of the coat showed the neck and cuffs of an +English linen shirt, which were crumpled and not particularly +clean. The cuffs were so big that the Maharajah's thin little +brown fingers were almost lost in them. The blue and yellow +brocaded coat was buttoned up with emeralds, but the Maharajah +shuffled along in a pair of old carpet slippers, which to Sonny +Sahib were the most remarkable features of his attire. So much +occupied, indeed, was Sonny Sahib in looking at the Maharajah's +slippers, that he quite forgot to make his salaam. As for Tooni, +she was lying flat at their Highnesses' feet, talking indistinctly +into the marble floor. + +The little Highness was much pleasanter to look at than his father. +He had large dark eyes and soft light-brown cheeks, and he was all +dressed in pink satin, with a little jewelled cap, and his long +black hair tied up in a hard knot at the back of his neck. The +little Highness looked at Sonny Sahib curiously, and then tugged at +his father's sleeve. + +'Let him come with me now, immediately,' said the little Maharajah; +'he has a face of gold.' + +The Maharajah sat down, not in his chair--he did not greatly like +sitting in his chair--but on the carpet. + +'Whence do you come?' said he to Tooni. + +'Protector of the poor, from Rubbulgurh.' + +'Where your Highness sent to for us,' added Sonny Sahib. 'Tooni, +why do you pinch me?' + +His Highness looked disconcerted for a moment. As a matter of fact +he had known all that Tooni or Sonny Sahib could tell him about +themselves for three years, but he considered it more dignified to +appear as if he knew nothing. + +'This is a child of the mlechas,' said the Maharajah, which was not +a very polite way of saying that he was English. + +'Protector of the poor, yes.' + +'Account to me for him. How old is he?' + +'Seven years, great King.' + +'And two months, Tooni-ji. Your Highness, may I sit down?' + +'As old as the Folly.'[1] + + +[1] Native term for the Mutiny. + + +'He came of the Folly, Hazur. His mother died by the sepoys in +Cawnpore, his father--also,' said Tooni, for she feared to be +blamed for not having found Sonny Sahib's father. As she told the +story once again to the Maharajah, adding many things that Sonny +Sahib had never heard before, he became so much interested that he +stood on one foot for five minutes at a time, and quite forgot to +ask His Highness again if he might sit down. + +The Maharajah heard her to the end without a word or a change of +expression. When she had finished, 'My soldiers were not there,' +he said thoughtfully, and with a shade of regret, which was not, I +fear, at the thought of any good they might have done. Then he +seemed to reflect, while Tooni stood before him with her hands +joined together at the finger-tips and her head bowed. + +'Then, without permission, you brought this child of outcasts into +my State,' said he at last. 'That was an offence.' + +Tooni struck her forehead with her hand. + +'Your Highness is my father and my mother!' she sobbed, 'I could +not leave it to the jackals.' + +'You are a wretched Mussulman, the daughter of cow-killers, and you +may have known no better--' + +'Your Highness!' remarked Sonny Sahib, with respectful indignation, +'Adam had two sons, one was buried and one was burned--' + +'Choop!' said the Maharajah crossly. You might almost guess that +'Choop' meant 'Be quiet!' + +'But it was an offence,' he continued. + +'Protector of the poor, I meant no harm.' + +'That is true talk. And you shall receive no harm. But you must +leave the boy with me. I want him to play games with my son, to +amuse my son. For thirty days my son has asked this of me, and ten +days ago his mother died--so he must have it.' + +Tooni salaamed humbly. 'If the boy finds favour in Your Highness's +eyes it is very good,' she said simply, and turned to go. + +'Stop,' said the Maharajah. 'I will do justice in this matter. I +desire the boy, but I have brought his price. Where is it, Moti- +ji?' + +The little Maharajah laughed with delight, and drew from behind him +a jingling bag. + +'It is one hundred and fifty rupees,' said the Maharajah. 'Give it +to the woman, Moti.' And the child held it out to her. + +Tooni looked at the bag, and then at Sonny Sahib, salaamed and +hesitated. It was a provision for the rest of her life, as lives +go in Rajputana. + +'Is it not enough!' asked the Maharajah irritably, while the little +prince's face fell. + +'Your Highness,' stammered Tooni, 'it is great riches--may roses be +to your mouth! But I have a desire--rather than the money--' + +'What is your desire?' cried the little prince. 'Say it. In a +breath my father will allow it. I want the gold-faced one to come +and play.' + +The Maharajah nodded, and this time Tooni lay down at the feet of +the little prince. + +'It is,' said she, 'that--I am a widow and old--that I also may +live in the farthest corner within the courtyard walls, with the +boy.' + +The Maharajah slipped the bag quickly into the pocket of his blue +and yellow coat. + +'It is a strange preference,' he said, 'but the Mussulmans have no +minds. It may be.' + +Tooni kissed his feet, and Sonny Sahib nodded approval at him. +Somehow, Sonny Sahib never could be taught good Rajput manners. + +'The boy is well grown,' said the Maharajah, turning upon his heel. +'What is his name?' + +'Protector of the poor,' answered Tooni, quivering with delight, +'his name is Sonny Sahib.' + +Perhaps nobody has told you why the English are called Sahibs in +India. It is because they rule there. + +The Maharajah's face went all into a pucker of angry wrinkles, and +his eyes shone like little coals. + +'What talk is that?' he said angrily. 'His great-grandfather was a +monkey! There is only one master here. Pig's daughter, his name +is Sunni!' + +Tooni did not dare to say a word, and even the little prince was +silent. + +'Look you,' said the old man to Sonny Sahib. 'Follow my son, the +Maharajah, into the courtyard, and there do his pleasure. Do you +understand? FOLLOW him!' + + + + + + +CHAPTER V + + + + + +'Sunni,' said Moti, as the two boys rode through the gates of the +courtyard a year later, 'a man of your race has come here, and my +father has permitted him to remain. My father has given him the +old empty jail to live in, behind the monkey temple. They say many +curious things are in his house. Let us ride past it.' + +In his whole life Sunni had never heard such an interesting piece +of news before--even Tooni's, about the Maharajah's horseman, was +nothing to this. 'Why is he come?' he asked, putting his little +red Arab into a trot. + +'To bring your gods to the Rajputs.' + +'I have no gods,' declared Sunni. 'Kali is so ugly--I have no +heart for her. Ganesh makes me laugh, with his elephant's head; +and Tooni says that Allah is not my God.' + +'Tooni says,' Sunni went on reflectively, 'that my God is in her +little black book. But I have never seen him.' + +Perhaps this Englishman will show him to you,' suggested Moti. + +'But His Highness, your father, will he allow strange gods to be +brought to the people?' + +'No,' said Moti, 'the people will not look at them. Every one has +been warned. But the stranger is to remain, that he may teach me +English. I do not wish to learn English--or anything. It is +always so hot when the pundit comes. But my father wishes it.' + +A pundit is a wise old man who generally has a long white beard, +and thinks nothing in the world is so enjoyable as Sanskrit or +Arabic. Sunni, too, found it hot when the pundit came. But an +English pundit-- + +'Moti-ji,' said Sunni, laying his arm around the little prince's +neck as they rode together, 'do you love me?' + +Moti caught Sunni's hand as it dropped over his shoulder. 'You +know that in my heart there is only my father's face and yours, +Sahib's son,' he said. + +'Will you do one thing, then, for love of me?' asked Sunni eagerly. +'Will you ask of the Maharajah, your father, that I also may learn +English from the stranger?' + +'No,' said Moti mischievously, 'because it is already spoken, +Sunni-ji. I said that I would not learn unless you also were +compelled to learn, so that the time should not be lost between us. +Now let us gallop very fast past the jail, lest the Englishman +should think we wish to see him. He is to be brought to me to- +morrow at sundown.' + +The Englishman at that moment was unpacking his books and his +bottles, and thinking about how he could best begin the work he had +come to Lalpore to do. He was a medical missionary, and as they +had every variety of disease in Lalpore, and the population was +entirely heathen, we may think it likely that he had too much on +his mind to run to the window to see such very young royalty ride +by. + +'Sunni-ji,' said Moti that afternoon in the garden, 'I am very +tired of talking of this Englishman.' + +'I could talk of him for nine moons,' said Sunni; and then +something occurred which changed the subject as completely as even +the little prince could desire. This was a garden for the pleasure +of the ladies of the court; they never came out in it, but their +apartments looked down upon it, and a very high wall screened it +from the rest of the world. The Maharajah and Moti and Sunni were +the only people who might ever walk there. As the boys turned at +the end of a path directly under the gratings, they heard a soft +voice say 'Moti!' + +'That is Matiya,' said the little prince. 'I do not like Matiya. +What is it, Matiya?' + +'It is not Matiya,' said the voice quickly, 'it is Tarra. Here is +a gift from the heart of Tarra, little parrot, a gift for you, and +a gift for the Sahib's son; also a sweet cake, but the cake is for +Moti.' + +'I am sure it was Matiya,' said Moti, running to pick the packet +out of the rose-bush it had fallen into; 'but Matiya was never kind +before.' + +The packet held a necklace and an armlet. The necklace was of +little pearls and big amethysts strung upon fine wire, three rows +of pearls, and then an amethyst, and was very lovely. The armlet +was of gold, with small rubies and turquoises set in a pattern. +The boys looked at them more or less indifferently. They had seen +so many jewels. + +'Matiya--if you think it was Matiya--makes pretty gifts,' said +Sunni, 'and the Maharajah will keep your necklace for you for ever +in an iron box. But this armlet will get broken just as the other +two armlets that were given to me have got broken. I cannot wear +armlets and play polo, and I would rather play polo.' + +'That is because you were clumsy,' Moti answered. Moti was peevish +that afternoon. The Maharajah had refused him a gun, and he +particularly wanted a gun, not to shoot anything, but to frighten +the crows with and perhaps the coolie-folk. To console himself +Moti had eaten twice as many sweetmeats as were good for him, and +was in a bad temper accordingly. + +'Now they are certainly of Tarra, these jewels,' exclaimed Sunni, +'I remember that necklace upon her neck, for every time Tarra has +kissed me, that fifth stone which has been broken in the cutting +has scratched my face.' + +'In one word,' said Moti imperiously, 'it was the voice of Matiya. +And this perplexes me, for Matiya, hating my mother, hates me also, +I think.' + +'Why did she hate your mother?' asked Sunni. + +'How stupid you are to-day! You have heard the story two hundred +times! Because she thought that she should have been chosen to be +queen instead of my mother. It is true that she was more +beautiful, but my mother was a pundita. And she was not chosen. +She is only second in the palace. And she has no children, while +my mother was the mother of a king.' + +'No,' said Sunni, 'I never heard that before, Moti.' + +'But I say you have! Two hundred times! And look, O thoughtless +one, you have gone between me and the sun, so that even now your +shadow falls upon my sugar-cake--my cake stuffed with almonds, +which is the kind I most love, and therefore I cannot eat it. +There,' cried Moti, contemptuously, 'take it yourself and eat it-- +you have no caste to break.' + +For a minute Sunni was as angry as possible. Then he reflected +that it was silly to be angry with a person who was not very well. + +'Listen, Moti,' he said, 'that was indeed a fault. I should have +walked to the north. But I will not eat your cake--let us give it +to the red and gold fishes in the fountain.' + +'Some of it,' said Moti, appeased, 'and some to my new little +monkey--my talking monkey.' + +The fishes darted up for the crumbs greedily, but the monkey was +not as grateful for her share as she ought to have been. She took +it, smelt it, wiped it vigorously on the ground, smelt it again, +and chattered angrily at the boys; then she went nimbly hand over +hand to the very top of the banyan-tree she lived in; and then she +deliberately broke it into little pieces and pelted the givers with +them. + +'She is not hungry to-day,' said Moti. 'Let us take out the +falcons.' + +Next morning the Maharajah was very much annoyed by the +intelligence that all the little red-spotted fishes were floating +flabby and flat and dead among the lily pads of the fountain--there +were few things except Moti that the Maharajah loved better than +his little red-spotted fishes. He wanted very particularly to know +why they should have died in this unanimous and apparently +preconcerted way. The gods had probably killed them by lightning, +but the Maharajah wanted to know. So he sent for the Englishman, +who did not mind touching a dead thing, and the Englishman told him +that the little red-spotted fishes had undoubtedly been poisoned. +Moti was listening when the doctor said this. + +'It could not have been the cake,' said Moti. + +But when all was looked into, including one of the little fishes, +Dr. Roberts found that it undoubtedly had been the cake. Scraps of +it were still lying about the banyan-tree to help him to this +conclusion, and the monkey chattered as if she could give evidence, +too, if anybody would listen. But she gave evidence enough in not +eating it. Everybody, that is, everybody in Rajputana, knows that +you can never poison a monkey. The little prince maintained that +the voice he heard was the voice of Matiya, yet every one +recognised the jewels to be Tarra's. There was nothing else to go +upon, and the Maharajah decided that it was impossible to tell +which of the two had wickedly tried to poison his eldest son. He +arranged, however, that they should both disappear--he could not +possibly risk a mistake in the matter. And I wish that had been +the greatest of the Maharajah's injustices. When the truth came +out, later, that it was undoubtedly Matiya, the Maharajah said that +he had always been a good deal of that opinion, and built a +beautiful domed white marble tomb, partly in memory of Tarra and +partly, I fear, to commemorate his own sagacity, which may seem, +under the circumstances, a little odd. + +The really curious thing was, however, that out of it all came +honour and glory for Sunni. For what, asked the Maharajah, had +prevented the poisoning of his son? What but the shadow of Sunni, +which fell upon the cake, so that Moti could not eat it! +Therefore, without doubt, Sunni had saved the life of a king; and +he could ask nothing that should not be granted to him; he should +stand always near the throne. Sunni felt very proud and important, +he did not know exactly why; but he could not think of anything he +wanted, except to learn his own language from the Englishman. + +'Oh, foolish bargainer!' cried Moti, 'when you know that has been +given already!' + + + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + + + + +Dr. Roberts, who lived, by the Maharajah's kind permission, in the +jail behind the monkey temple, soon found himself in rather an +awkward dilemma. Not in regard to the monkeys. They were +certainly troublesome. They stole his biscuits, and made holes in +his roof, and tore up the reports he wrote for the S.P.C.K. in +England. Dr. Roberts made allowance for the monkeys, however. He +had come to take away their sacred character, and nobody could +expect them to like it. If you had asked Dr. Roberts what his +difficulty was he would have shown you Sonny Sahib. The discovery +was so wonderful that he had made. He had found a yellow-haired, +blue-eyed English boy in a walled palace of Rajputana, five hundred +miles from any one of his race. The boy was happy, healthy, and +well content. That much the Maharajah had pointed out to him; that +much he could see for himself. Beyond that the Maharajah had +discouraged Dr. Roberts' interest. The boy's name was Sunni, he +had no other name, he had come 'under the protection' of the +Maharajah when he was very young; and that was all His Highness +could be induced to say. Any more pointed inquiries he was +entirely unable to understand. There seemed to be no one else who +knew. Tooni could have told him, but Tooni was under orders that +she did not dare to disobey. In the bazar two or three conflicting +stories, equally wonderful, were told of Sunni; but none that Dr. +Roberts could believe. In the end he found out about Sunni from +Sunni himself, who had never forgotten one word of what Tooni told +the Maharajah. Sunni mentioned also, with considerable pride, that +he had known three English words for a long time--'wass' and +'bruss' and 'isstockin'.' + +Then Dr. Roberts, with his heart full of the awful grief of the +Mutiny, and thinking how gladly this waif and stray would be +received by somebody, hurried to the Maharajah, and begged that the +boy might be given back to his own people, that he, Dr. Roberts, +might take him back to his own people at his personal risk and +expense; that inquiries might at least be set on foot to find his +relatives. + +'Yes,' said the Maharajah, 'but not yet, ee-Wobbis. The boy will +be well here for a year, and you shall teach him. At the end of +that time we will speak again of this matter.' + +Dr. Roberts was not satisfied. He asked the Maharajah at all +events to allow Sunni to live with him in his empty jail, but His +Highness refused absolutely. + +'And look you, ee-Wobbis,' said he, 'I have promised the Viceroy in +Calcutta that you shall be safe in my country, and you shall be +safe, though I never asked you to come here. But if any khaber +goes to Calcutta about this boy, and if there is the least +confusion regarding him, your mouth shall be stopped, and you shall +not talk any more to my people. For my part, I do not like your +medicines, and you have not yet cured Proteb Singh of his short +leg; he goes as lame as ever!' + +This was Dr. Roberts' difficulty; his mouth would be stopped. He +did not doubt the Maharajah. If he wrote to Calcutta that a Rajput +prince still held a hostage from the Mutiny, and made a +disturbance, there would be an end to the work he had begun under +the shadow of the palace wall. And the work was prospering so +well! The people were listening now, Dr. Roberts thought, and +certainly he had been able to relieve a great deal of their +physical misery. Would he be justified in writing to Calcutta? +Dr. Roberts thought about it very long and very seriously. In the +end he believed that he would not be justified, at least until the +year was over of which the Maharajah spoke. Then if His Highness +did not keep his promise, Dr. Roberts would see about it. + +So the year went by; the months when the sun blazed straight across +the sky overhead, and everybody slept at noonday--the months when a +gray sheet of rain hung from the clouds for days together, and the +months when all the Maharajah's dominions were full of splendid +yellow lights and pleasant winds--when the teak wood trees dropped +their big dusty leaves, and the nights were sharply cold, and +Rajputana pretended that it was winter. Dr. Roberts and Sunni were +very well then, but Moti shrivelled up and coughed the day through, +and the Maharajah, when he went out to drive, wrapped himself up in +Cashmere shawls, head and ears and all. + +The boys learnt as much English as could possibly be expected of +them; Sunni learnt more, because Dr. Roberts made it a point that +he should. Besides, he became a great friend of Dr. Roberts, who +began by begging that Sunni might be allowed to ride with him, then +to drive with him, and finally to spend two or three days at a time +with him. Sunni had more to learn than Moti had. He had a good +many things to forget, too, which gave him almost as much trouble. + +The Maharajah found it as difficult as ever to like ee-Wobbis's +medicines, but he considered them excellent for Moti's cough, and +only complained that his son should be given so little of them. +The royal treasury would pay for a whole bottle--why should the +little prince get only a spoonful? Nevertheless Dr. Roberts stood +well in the estimation of the Maharajah, who arranged that a great +many things should be done as the missionary suggested. In one +case the Maharajah had the palace well, the oldest palace well, +cleaned out--a thing that nobody had ever thought of before; and he +was surprised to find what was at the bottom of it. Dr. Roberts +advised putting down a few drains too, and making a road from the +city of the Maharajah to the great highways that led to the +Viceroy's India. The Maharajah laid the drains, and said he would +think about the road. Then Dr. Roberts suggested that a hospital +would be a good thing, and the Maharajah said he would think about +that too. + +Sunni was growing fast; he was too tall and thin for nine years +old. Dr. Roberts took anxious care of him, thinking of the unknown +grandfather and grandmother in England, and how he could best tell +them of this boy of theirs, who read Urdu better than English, and +wore embroidered slippers turned squarely up at the toes, and asked +such strange questions about his father's God. But when he taxed +the Maharajah with his promise, His Highness simply repeated, in +somewhat more amiable terms, his answer of the year before. And +the work was now prospering more than ever. When once he had got +the hospital, Dr. Roberts made up his mind that he would take +definite measures; but he would get the hospital first. + + + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + + + + +I suppose it was about that time that Surji Rao began to consider +whether it was after all for the best interests of the State that +ee-Wobbis should remain in it. Surji Rao was first Minister to the +Maharajah, and a very important person. He had charge of the +Treasury, and it was his business to produce every day one hundred +fresh rupees to put into it. This was his duty, and whether the +harvests had been good and the cattle many, or whether the locusts +and the drought had made the people poor, Surji Rao did his duty. +If ever he should fail, there hung a large and heavy shoe upon the +wall of the Maharajah's apartment, which daily suggested personal +chastisement and a possible loss of dignity to Surji Rao. + +Dr. Roberts was making serious demands upon the Treasury, and +proposed to make others more serious still. Worse than that, he +was supplanting Surji Rao in the confidence and affection of the +Maharajah. Worse still, he was making a pundit of that outcast +boy, who had been already too much favoured in the palace, so that +he might very well grow up to be Minister of the Treasury instead +of Rasso, son of Surji Rao--a thing unendurable. Surji Rao was the +fattest man in the State, so fat that it was said he sat down only +twice a day; but he lay awake on sultry nights for so many weeks +reflecting upon this, that he grew obviously, almost ostentatiously, +thin. To this he added such an extremely dolorous expression of +countenance that it was impossible for the Maharajah, out of sheer +curiosity, to refrain from asking him what was the matter. + +'My father and my mother! I grow poor with thinking that the feet +of strangers are in the palace of the King, and what may come of +it.' + +The Maharajah laughed and put his arm about the shoulders of Surji +Rao. + +'I will give you a tub of melted butter to grow fat upon again, and +two days to eat it, though indeed with less on your bones you were +a better Rajput. What should come of it, Surji Rao?' + +The Minister sheathed the anger that leapt up behind his eyes in a +smile. Then he answered gravely-- + +'What should come of it but more strangers? Is it not desired to +make a road for their guns and their horses? And talk and +treaties, and tying of the hand and binding of the foot, until at +last that great Jan Larrens[1] himself will ride up to the gate of +the city and refuse to go away until Your Highness sends a bag of +gold mohurs to the British Raj, as he has done before.' + + +[1] John Lawrence, afterwards Lord Lawrence and Viceroy of India. + + +'I do not think I will make the road,' said the Maharajah +reflectively. + +'King, you are the wisest of men, and therefore your own best +counsellor. It is well decided. But the Rajputs are all sons of +one father, and even now there is grief among the chief of them +that outcasts should be dwelling in the King's favour.' + +'I will not make the road,' said the Maharajah. 'Enough!' + +Surji Rao thought it was not quite enough, however, and took +various means to obtain more, means that would never be thought of +anywhere but in countries where the sun beats upon the plots of +Ministers and ferments fanaticism in the heads of the people. He +talked to the Rajput chiefs, and persuaded them--they were not +difficult to persuade--that Dr. Roberts was an agent and a spy of +the English Government at Calcutta, that his medicines were a sham. +When it was necessary, Surji Rao said that the medicines were a +slow form of poison, but generally he said they were a sham. He +persuaded as many of the chiefs as dared, to remonstrate with the +Maharajah, and to follow his example of going about looking as if +they were upon the brink of some terrible disaster. Surji Rao's +wife was a clever woman, and she arranged such a feeling in the +Maharajah's zenana, that one day as Dr. Roberts passed along a +corridor to His Highness's apartment, a curtain opened swiftly, and +some one in the dark behind spat at him. Amongst them they managed +to make His Highness extremely uncomfortable. But the old man +continued to decline obstinately to send the missionary back. + +Then it became obvious to Surji Rao that Dr. Roberts must be +disposed of otherwise. He went about that in the same elaborate +and ingenious way. His arrangements required time, but there is +always plenty of time in Rajputana. He became friendly with Dr. +Roberts, and encouraged the hospital. He did not wish in any way +to be complicated with his arrangements. Nobody else became +friendly. Surji Rao took care of that. And at last one morning a +report went like wildfire about the palace and the city that the +missionary had killed a sacred bull, set free in honour of Krishna +at the birth of a son to Maun Rao, the chief of the Maharajah's +generals. Certainly the bull was found slaughtered behind the +monkey temple, and certainly Dr. Roberts had beefsteak for +breakfast that day. Such a clamour rang through the palace about +it that the Maharajah sent for the missionary, partly to inquire +into the matter, and partly with a view to protect him. + +It was very unsatisfactory--the missionary did not know how the +bull came to be killed behind his house, and, in spite of all the +Maharajah's hints, would not invent a story to account for it. The +Maharajah could have accounted for it fifty times over, if it had +happened to him. Besides, Dr. Roberts freely admitted having +breakfasted upon beefsteak, and didn't know where it had come from! +He rode home through an angry crowd, and nobody at all came for +medicines that day. + +Two days later the Rajput general's baby died--could anything else +have been expected? The general went straight to the Maharajah to +ask for vengeance, but His Highness, knowing why the chief had +come, sent word that he was ill--he would see Maun Rao to-morrow. +To-morrow he had not recovered, nor even the day after; but in the +meantime he had been well enough to send word to Dr. Roberts that +if he wished to go away he should have two camels and an escort. +Dr. Roberts sent to ask whether Sunni might go with him, but to +this the Maharajah replied by an absolute 'No.' + +So the missionary stayed. + +It was Surji Rao who brought the final word to the Maharajah. + +'My father and my mother!' he said, 'it is no longer possible to +hold the people back. It is cried abroad that this English +hakkim[1] has given the people powder of pig's feet. Even now they +have set upon his house. And to-day is the festival of Krishna. +My heart is bursting with grief.' + + +[1] 'Doctor.' + + +'If Maun Rao strikes, I can do nothing,' said the Maharajah weakly. +'He thinks the Englishman killed his son. But look you, send Sunni +to me. HE saved mine. And I tell you,' said the Maharajah, +looking at Surji Rao fiercely with his sunken black eyes, 'not so +much of his blood shall be shed as would stain a moth's wing.' + +But Maun Rao struck, and the people being told that the missionary +was dead, went home hoping that Krishna had nothing more against +them; they had done what they could. + +As to Sunni he told his grief to Tooni because it comforted him, +and went into mourning for nine days in defiance of public opinion, +because he owed it to the memory of a countryman. He began, too, +to take long restless rambles beyond the gates, and once he asked +Tooni if she knew the road to Calcutta. + +'It is fifty thousand miles,' said Tooni, who had an imagination; +'and the woods are full of tigers.' + + + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + + + + +The gates of Lalpore were shut, and all about her walls the yellow +sandy plains stretched silent and empty. There did not seem to be +so much as a pariah dog outside. Some pipal-trees looked over the +walls, and a couple of very antiquated cannon looked through them, +but nothing stirred. It made a splendid picture at broad noon, the +blue sky and the old red-stone city on her little hill, holding up +her minarets and the white marble bubbles of her temples, and then +the yellow sand drifting up; but one could not look at it long. +Colonel Starr, from the door of his tent, half a mile away, had +looked at it pretty steadily for two hours, so steadily that his +eyes, red and smarting with the dust of a two hundred mile ride, +watered copiously, and made him several degrees more uncomfortable +than he had been before. + +I doubt whether any idea of the beauty of Lalpore had a place in +the Colonel's mind, it was so full of other considerations. He +thought more, probably, of the thickness of its walls than of their +colour, and speculated longer upon the position of the arsenal than +upon the curves of the temples. Because, in the Colonel's opinion, +it had come to look very like fighting. In the opinion of little +Lieutenant Pink the fighting should have been over and done with +yesterday, and the 17th Midlanders should be 'bagging' the +Maharajah's artillery by now. Little Lieutenant Pink was spoiling +for the fray. So were the men, most of them. They wanted a change +of diet. Thomas Jones, sergeant, entirely expressed the sentiments +of his company when he said that somebody ort to pay up for this +blessed march, they 'adn't wore the skins off their 'eels fer two +'undred mile to admire the bloomin' scenery. Besides, for Thomas +Jones's part, he was tired of living on this yere bloomin' tinned +rock, he wanted a bit of fresh roast kid and a Lalpore curry. + +Colonel Starr had been sent to 'arrange,' if possible, and to fight +if necessary. Perhaps we need not inquire into the arrangements +the Government had commissioned Colonel Starr to make. They were +arrangements of a kind frequently submitted to the princes of +independent States in India when they are troublesome, and their +result is that a great many native States are governed by English +political residents, while a great many native princes attend +parties at Government House in Calcutta. The Maharajah of Chita +had been very troublesome indeed. Twice in the year his people had +raided peaceful villages under British protection, and now he had +killed a missionary. It was quite time to 'arrange' the Maharajah +of Chita, and Colonel Starr, with two guns and three hundred +troops, had been sent to do it. + +His Highness, however, seemed indisposed to further his social +prospects in Calcutta and the good of his State. For the twenty- +four hours they had been in camp under his walls the Maharajah had +taken no more notice of Colonel Starr and his three hundred +Midlanders than if they represented so many jungle bushes. To all +Colonel Starr's messages, diplomatic, argumentative, threatening, +there had come the same unsatisfactory response--the Maharajah of +Chita had no word to say to the British Raj. And still the gates +were shut, and still only the pipal-trees looked over the wall, and +only the cannon looked through. + +By the time evening came Colonel Starr was at the end of his +patience. He was not, unfortunately, simultaneously at the end of +his investigations. He did not yet know the position or the +contents of the arsenal, the defensibility of the walls, the water +supply, or the number of men under arms in that silent, impassive +red city on the hill. The reports of the peasantry had been +contradictory, and this ordinary means of ascertaining these things +had failed him, while he very particularly required to know them, +his force being small. The Government had assured Colonel Starr +that the Maharajah of Chita would be easy to arrange; that he was a +tractable person, and that half the usual number of troops would be +ample, which made His Highness's conduct, if anything, more +annoying. And Colonel Starr's commissariat, even in respect to +'tinned rock,' had not been supplied with the expectation of +besieging Lalpore. The attack would be uncertain, and the Colonel +hesitated the more because his instructions had been not to take +the place if he could avoid it. So the commanding officer paced +his tent, and composed fresh messages to the Maharajah, while +Lieutenant Pink wondered in noble disgust whether the expedition +was going to end in moonshine after all, and Thomas Jones, +sergeant, remarked hourly to his fellow-privates, 'The 17th 'aint +come two 'undred miles for this kind of a joke. The bloomin' +Maharajer 'ull think we've got a funk on.' + +But neither Colonel Starr nor Thomas Jones was acquainted with the +reason of the remarkable attitude of Lalpore. + +A week before, when the news reached him that the Viceroy was +sending three hundred men and two guns to remonstrate with him for +his treatment of Dr. Roberts, the Maharajah smiled, thinking of the +bravery of his Chitans, the strength of his fortifications, the +depth of his walls, and the wheat stored in his city granaries. +No one had ever taken Lalpore since the Chitans took it--in all +Rajputana there were none so cunning and so brave as the Chitans. +As to bravery, greater than Rajput bravery simply did not exist. +The Maharajah held a council, and they all sported with the idea of +English soldiers coming to Lalpore. Maun Rao begged to go out and +meet them to avenge the insult. + +'Maharajah,' said he, 'the Chitans are sufficient against the +world; why should we speak of three hundred monkeys' grandsons? If +the sky fell, our heads would be pillars to protect you!' + +And after a long discussion the Maharajah agreed to Maun Rao's +proposal. The English could come only one way. A day's march from +Lalpore they would be compelled to ford a stream. There the +Maharajah's army would meet them, ready, as Maun Rao said in the +council, to play at ball with their outcast heads. There was a +feast afterwards, and everybody had twice as much opium as usual. +In the midst of the revelry they made a great calculation of +resources. The Maharajah smiled again as he thought of the +temerity of the English in connection with the ten thousand rounds +of ammunition that had just come to him on camel back through +Afghanistan from Russia--it was a lucky and timely purchase. Surji +Rao, Minister of the Treasury, when this was mentioned, did not +smile. Surji Rao had bought the cartridges at a very large +discount, which did not appear in the bill, and he knew that not +even Chitan valour could make more than one in ten of them go off. +Therefore, when the Maharajah congratulated Surji Rao upon his +foresight in urging the replenishment of the arsenal at this +particular time, Surji Rao found it very difficult to congratulate +himself. + +It all came out the day before the one fixed for the expedition. +His Highness, being in great spirits, had ordered a shooting +competition, and the men were served from the new stores supplied +to the State of Chita by Petroff Gortschakin of St. Petersburg. +The Maharajah drove out to the ranges to look on, and all his +Ministers with him. All, that is, except the Minister of the +Treasury, who begged to be excused; he was so very unwell. + +Some of the men knelt and clicked and reloaded half a dozen times +before they could fire; some were luckier, and fired the first time +or the third without reloading. They glanced suspiciously at one +another and hesitated, while there grew a shining heap of +unexploded cartridges, a foot high, under the Maharajah's very +nose. His Highness looked on stupefied for ten minutes, then burst +into blazing wrath. Maun Rao rode madly about examining, +inquiring, threatening. + +'Our cartridges are filled with powdered charcoal,' he cried, +smiting one of them between two stones to prove his words. There +was an unexpected noise, and the noble General jumped into the air, +bereft of the largest half of his curled moustache. That one was +not. Then they all went furiously back to the palace. The only +other incident of that day which it is worth our while to chronicle +is connected with Surji Rao and the big shoe. The big shoe was +administered to Surji Rao by a man of low caste, in presence of the +entire court and as many of the people of Lalpore as chose to come +and look on. It was very thoroughly administered, and afterwards +Surji Rao was put formally outside the city gates, and told that +the king desired never to look upon his black face again. Which +was rubbing it in rather unfairly, as His Highness's own complexion +was precisely the same shade. With great promptitude Surji Rao +took the road to meet the English and sell his information, but +this possibility occurred to the Maharajah soon enough to send men +after him to frustrate it. + +'There shall be at least enough sound cartridges in his bargain for +that,' said His Highness grimly. + +The Chitan spirit did not flourish quite so vaingloriously at the +council that night, and there was no more talk about the sky +falling upon dauntless Chitan heads. The sky had fallen, and the +effect was rather quenching than otherwise. The previous stores +were counted over, and it was found that the men could not be +served with three rounds apiece out of them. When this was +announced, nobody thought of doubting the wisdom of the Maharajah's +decision to shut up the gates of the city, and trust to the +improbability of the English venturing to attack him in such small +numbers, not knowing his resources. So that very night, lest any +word should go abroad of the strait of the warriors of Chita, the +gates were shut. But all the city knew. Moti knew. Sunni knew. + +Two days later, Moti and Sunni heard the English bugles half a mile +away. They were playing 'Weel may the keel row!' the regimental +march-past, as Colonel Starr's Midlanders did the last half mile to +their camping-ground. The boys were in the courtyard among the +horses, and Sunni dropped the new silver bit he was looking at, +held up his head, and listened. He was the same yellow-haired, +blue-eyed Sunni, considerably tanned by the fierce winds of +Rajputana; but there came a brightness over his face as he +listened, that had not been there since he was a very little boy. + +'How beautiful the music is!' said he to Moti. + +Moti put his fingers in his ears. + +'It is horrible,' he cried. 'It screams and it rushes. How can +they be able to make it? I shall tell my father to have it +stopped.' + +Presently the bugles stopped of themselves, and Moti forgot about +them, but the brightness did not go out of Sunni's face, and all +day long he went about humming the air of 'Weel may the keel row,' +with such variations as might be expected. He grew very thoughtful +toward evening, but his eyes shone brighter than any sapphires in +the Maharajah's iron boxes. As to an old Mahomedan woman from +Rubbulgurh, who cooked her chupatties alone and somewhat despised, +she heard the march-past too, and was troubled all day long with +the foolish idea that the captain-sahib would presently come in to +tea, and would ask her, Tooni, where the memsahib was. + + + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + + + + +Sunni had his own room in the palace, a little square place with a +high white wall and a table and chair in it, which Dr. Roberts had +given him. The table held his books, his pen and ink and paper. +There was a charpoy in one corner, and under the charpoy a locked +box. There were no windows, and the narrow door opened into a +passage that ran abruptly into a wall, a few feet farther on. +So nobody saw Sunni when he carried his chirag, his little +chimneyless, smoking tin lamp, into his room, and set it in a niche +on the wall, took off his shoes, and threw himself down on his +charpoy at eleven o'clock that night. For a long time he had been +listening to the bul-buls, the nightingales, in the garden, and +thinking of this moment. Now it had come, and Sunni quivered and +throbbed all over with excitement. He lay very still, though, on +the watch for footsteps, whispers, breathings in the passage. Four +years in the palace had taught Sunni what these things meant. He +lay still for more than two hours. + +At last, very quietly, Sunni lifted himself up by his elbows, put +first one leg, and then the other, out of the charpoy, and got up. +More quietly still he drew the locked box from under the bed, took +a key from his pocket, and opened it. The key squeaked in the +wood, and Sunni paused again for a long time, listening. Then in +the smoky, uncertain light of the chirag flaring in the niche, he +took from the box three gold bangles, two broken armlets, enamelled +in red and blue, and a necklace of pearls with green enamelled +pendants. Last, he drew out a little sword with rubies set in the +hilt. For an instant Sunni hesitated; the ornaments were nothing, +but the sword was his chief possession and his pride. It would be +so easy to carry away! He looked at it lovingly for a minute, and +laid it with the rest. All these things were his very own, but +something told him that he must not take them away. Then he took +the long coarse white turban cloth from his head, and wrapped +everything skilfully in it. Nothing jangled, and when the parcel +was made up it was flat and even. Then Sunni, with his English +pen, printed in Urdu: + + +[Urdu text] + + +which in English letters would have been spelled 'Maharajah ka +wasti,' and which meant simply, 'For the Maharajah,' upon one side +of it. Upon the other he wrote in the large round hand that Dr. +Roberts had taught him-- + +'To your Honner, the Maharajah of Chita. Sunni will take your +Honner in his hart to his oun country, but the gifs are too +heavie.' + +Sunni had certainly learned politeness at last among the Rajputs. +Then he put the parcel back into the box, softly locked it, and +laid the key on the cover. + +Still nobody came his way. Sunni took another turban cloth from +its nail in the wall, a finely-woven turban cloth, with blue and +gold stripes, nine yards long, for festivals. He twisted it +carelessly round his neck, and blew out the chirag. Then he +slipped softly into the passage, and from that into the close, +dark, high-walled corridors that led into the outer courts. He +stepped quickly, but carefully; the corridors were full of sleeping +servants. Twice he passed a sentinel. The first was stupid with +opium, and did not notice him. Mar Singh, the second, was very +wide awake. + +'Where go you, Sunni-ji?' he asked, inquisitively. + +'I go to speak with Tooni about a matter which troubles me so that +I cannot sleep,' answered Sunni; 'and afterwards I return to the +little south balcony that overlooks the river; it will be cooler +there if the wind blows.' + +As Sunni went on, the thoughts of the sentinel became immediately +fixed upon the necessity of being awake when the sahib's son should +pass in again--the sahib's son had the ear of the Maharajah. + +The ayah's hut was in the very farthest corner of the courtyard she +had begged for, somewhat apart from the others. It was quite dark +inside when Sunni pushed open the door, but the old woman, +slumbering light, started up from her charpoy with a little cry. + +'Choop!' said he in a low, quick tone; and Tooni, recognising his +voice, was instantly silent. + +Sunni made his way to the side of the bed, and took one of her +hands. + +'Listen, Tooni,' said he, in the same tone, 'I am come for what is +mine. Give it to me.' + +'Sonny Sahib!' quavered the old woman hoarsely, 'what have I to +give you? Dil kushi,[1] I have nothing.' + + +[1] 'Heart's delight.' + + +'What from fear you have never given up, nor burnt, nor thrown +away,' said Sunni, firmly; 'what you said false words to ee-Wobbis +about, when you told him it had been stolen from you. My little +black book, with my God in it.' + +'Hazur! I have it not.' + +'Give it to me,' said Sunni. + +The old woman raised herself in the bed. 'A sahib's promise is +written in gold,' said she; 'promise that the Maharajah shall never +know.' + +'He shall never know,' said Sunni. + +Tooni felt her way to the side of the hut; then her hand fumbled +along the top of the wall; it seemed to Sunni for an interminable +time. At a certain place she parted the thatch and put her hand +into it with a little rustling that Sunni thought might be heard in +the very heart of the palace. Then she drew out a small, tight +sewn, oilskin bag, that had taken the shape of the book inside it, +groped across the hut again, and gave it to Sunni. The boy's hand +trembled as he took it, and without a word he slipped into the +darkness outside. + +Then he stopped short and went back. 'Great thanks to you, Tooni- +ji,' he said softly into the darkness of the hut. 'When I find my +own country I will come back and take you there too. And while I +am gone Moti will love you, Tooni-ji. Peace be to you!' + +Mar Singh was still awake when Sunni re-entered the palace. The +wind had come, he said. Sleep would rest upon the eyelids of +Sunni-ji in the south balcony. + +It was a curious little place, the south balcony, really not a +balcony at all, but a round-pillared pavilion with a roof that +jutted out above the city wall. It hung over a garden too, rather +a cramped garden, the wall and the river came so close, and one +that had been left a good deal to take care of itself. Some fine +pipal-trees grew in it though, one of them towered within three +feet of the balcony, while the lower branches overspread the city +wall. All day long the green parrakeets flashed in and out of the +pipal-trees, screaming and chattering, while the river wound blue +among the yellow sands outside the wall; but to-night the only +sound in them was the whispering of the leaves as the south wind +passed, and both the river and the sands lay silver gray in the +starlight. Sunni, lying full length upon the balcony, listened +with all his might. From the courtyard, away round to the right +where the stables were, came a pony's neigh, and Sunni, as he heard +it once--twice--thrice--felt his eyes fill with tears. It was the +voice of his pony, of his 'Dhooplal,' his 'red sunlight,' and, he +would never ride Dhooplal again. The south breeze brought no other +sound, the palace stretched on either side of him dark and still, a +sweet heavy fragrance from a frangipanni-tree in the garden floated +up, and that was all. Sunni looked across the river, and saw that +a group of palms on the other side was beginning to stand +distinctly against the sky. Then he remembered that he must make +haste. + +The first thing he did was to unwind his long turban from his neck, +and cut it in two. Two-thirds he twisted round his waist, the +other he made fast to one of the little red stone pillars of the +balcony. It hung straight and black down into the shadows of the +pipal-tree. Then, very gradually and cautiously, Sunni slipped +over the balcony's edge and let himself down, down, till he reached +a branch thick enough to cling to. The turban was none too long, +the branches at the top were so slender. Just as he grasped a +thick one, clutching it with both arms and legs, and swaying +desperately in the dark, he felt a rush of wings across his face, +and a great white owl flew out hooting in her panic. The boy +almost missed his catch with fear, and the Maharajah, wakeful in +his apartments, lost another good hour's sleep through hearing the +owl's cry. It was the worst of omens, the Maharajah believed, and +sometimes he believed it with less reason. + +As quickly as he dared, Sunni let himself down branch by branch +till he reached the level of the wall. Presently he stood upon it +in the subsiding rustle of the leaves, breathless and trembling.. +He seemed to have disturbed every living thing within a hundred +yards. A score of bats flew up from the wall crevices, a flying +fox struck him on the shoulder, at his feet something black and +slender twisted away into a darker place. Sunni stood absolutely +still, gradually letting go his hold upon the pipal twigs. +Presently everything was as it had been before, except for the +little dark motionless figure on the wall; and the south wind was +bringing across the long, shrill, mournful howls of the jackals +that plundered the refuse of the British camp half a mile away. + +Then Sunni lay down flat on the top of the wall, and began to work +himself with his hands and feet towards the nearest embrasure. An +old cannon stood in this, and threatened with its wide black mouth +any foe that should be foolish enough to think of attacking the +fort from the river. This venerable piece of ammunition had not +been fired for ten years, and would burst to a certainty if it were +fired now; but as nobody had ever dreamed of attacking Lalpore from +the river that didn't particularly matter. When Sunni reached it, +he crouched down in its shadow--the grayness behind the palms was +spreading--and took the rest of his turban cloth from his waist. +Then he took off his coat, and began to unwind a rope from his +body--a rope made up of all sorts of ends, thick and thin, long and +short, and pieced out with leather thongs. Sunni was considerably +more comfortable when he had divested himself of it. He tied the +rope and the turban cloth together, and fastened the rope end to +the old gun's wheel. He looked over for a second--no longer--but +it was too dark to tell how far down the face of the thirty-foot +wall his ragged contrivance hung. It was too dark as well to see +whether the water rippled against the wall or not; but Sunni knew +that the river was low. As a matter of fact he had only about five +feet to drop, and he went very comfortably into a thick bed of wet +sand. Nor was anything known of his going in Lalpore until +daybreak, when one of the palace sweepers found the end of a blue +and gold turban flapping about the south balcony; and Moti, who +often went early to tell his dreams to Sunni, brought the Maharajah +a parcel. + + + + + + +CHAPTER X + + + + + +'What's this?' said Colonel Starr, looking up from his camp table, +where he was writing a final message for translation to the +Maharajah. The sun was on the point of rising, the air was crisp, +and the sky was splendid. Lalpore, on her buttressed slope, sat as +proud and as silent as ever; but something like a blue ribbon +floated from the south wall over the river. + +'What's this?' said Colonel Starr, with the deepest possible +astonishment. + +'Pris'ner, sir,' answered Thomas Jones, saluting. + +'WHAT?' said the Colonel. 'Nonsense! Where did you get him?' + +'Beg pardon, sir. Peters were on duty, sir, at the second outpost, +sir. It were about two hours ago as far as I could judge, sir, not +'avin' the time by me. Peters seed pris'ner a-comin' strite fer +the camp across the sands from the river, sir. Peters sings out +"Oo goes?" H'AND there been no notiss took, pints, sir.' + +'Yes,' interposed Sunni, composedly, in his best English, 'he did. +But he did not fire. And that was well, for he might have hit me. +I am not broken.' + +'Go on, Jones,' said the Colonel. 'This is very queer.' + +'Pris'ner were about ten yards off, sir, 'an, as 'e says, Peters +MIGHT 'a hit 'im,' said Sergeant Jones, with solemn humour, 'but +afore he'd made up 'is mind to fire, 'e'd come so close Peters saw +'ow small he was, an' therefore didn't, sir.' + +'Quite right,' remarked Sunni. 'Peters might have killed me.' + +The Colonel nodded. He was looking with absorbed interest into +Sunni's eyes. He came out of his instant of abstraction with a +start, while Jones went on with respectful volubility. + +'Beggin' pardon, sir, Peters says as 'ow 'e were all struck of a +heap, sir, at 'earin' the young 'un call out in English, sir, an' +bein' so light complected fer a native, sir, an' even lighter in +that light, Peters didn't rightly know wot 'e might be firin' at, +sir. Peters do be a bit superstitious.' + +'Peters took him then, I suppose?' The Colonel smiled ironically. + +'Beggin' YOUR pardon, sir, it was rather 'im as took Peters. 'E +walked strite up to 'im, an' "Ware is the burra[1] sahib?" says 'e. +Peters sends 'im into the guard tent to me as 'e passed on his +beat, and pris'ner says "YOU ain't the burra sahib," says he. Then +I says to pris'ner, "You bito[2] an' give an account of yerself," +says I. Says 'e quite 'aughty like, "I'll account fer myself to +the burra sahib," an' wouldn't take no chaff. But 'e bitoes, an' +curls 'isself up in the sand, an' goes sound asleep in no time--an' +'ere 'e is, sir.' + + +[1] 'Principal.' + +[2] 'Sit down on the ground.' + + +'Also,' corrected Sunni, 'he gave me some coffee. He is a good +man. Are you the burra sahib?' he asked the Colonel. + +But Colonel Starr was not in a mood to answer questions regarding +his dignity. He looked at the queer slender figure before him, in +its torn coat of embroidered silk, and its narrow, shapeless, dirty +cotton trousers; and especially he looked at the boy's hair and +eyes--his wavy yellow hair and his blue eyes. + +'You are not a Rajput, you are an English boy,' he said finally, +with amazed conviction. + +At another time the Colonel would have been wild with excitement at +such a discovery, but for the moment his mind was full of graver +things. In an hour he meant to attack Lalpore. He dismissed his +kindling enthusiasm, and added simply, 'How came you here?' + +'I came by a rope from the palace to the pipal-tree, and thence to +the south wall, and thence to the river bed. It was not hard. +Knowing the shallows of the river, I arrived quite easily by +wading.' + +'You come from the fort? Are there any other English there?' The +Colonel's voice was quick and eager. + +'Not even one! Ee-Wobbis was there, but he is killed.' + +'Ah!' said Colonel Starr. 'When was he killed?' + +'In the evening on the tenth day of the month. I do not properly +know for why. It was not the Maharajah,' added Sunni quickly; 'it +was Maun Rao. Ee-Wobbis was my countryman, and I hate Maun Rao.' + +The orderly came for the final message that was to be sent to the +Maharajah. Colonel Starr told him it would be ready in half an +hour. + +'Have they given you any breakfast?' he asked. + +'No, thank you--not yet,' answered Sunni politely. + +The Colonel wrote an order, and gave it to Thomas Jones. 'Be +smart,' he added. + +Until Thomas Jones returned with some bread and bacon and a bowl of +milk, and until Sunni had eaten the bread and drunk the milk, the +Colonel looked at the boy as seldom as he could, and said only two +words. 'No bacon?' he asked. + +Sunni flushed. 'If it is excusable,' said he, 'I do not eat of the +pig.' + +At which Colonel Starr's face expressed curiosity, amusement, and +interest all at once; but he kept silence until Sunni had finished. +'Now,' said he pleasantly, 'listen, my small prisoner. I am sure +you have a great deal to tell me about yourself. Very good, I will +hear it. I should like to hear it. But not now--there is no time. +Since you have taken the trouble to escape from this place, you do +not want to go back again, I suppose?' + +'I want to go to my own country--with you,' said Sunni. 'I can +march.' + +The Colonel smiled. It was the smile of a brave man, and kindly. +His men knew it as well as they knew his sterner looks. Sunni +thought it a beautiful smile. + +'You shall go,' he said, 'but we are not quite ready to start yet. +Perhaps in a few days, perhaps in a few weeks, we shall be. A good +deal depends on what you can tell me.' + +Sunni looked straight into the Colonel's eyes, a little puzzled. + +'How do they get water in Lalpore?' asked the Colonel, to begin +with. + +'There are four wells,' said Sunni, 'and two of them have no +bottom.' + +'H'm! And what is that white building with the round roof that we +see from here?' + +'That is the mosque of Larulla,' said Sunni, 'but it is no longer +of consequence; there is so little Mussulmans in Lalpore. The +soldiers hang their guns there now.' + +'Ah! And has the Maharajah many soldiers, and have they good guns-- +new guns?' + +Sunni looked into the Colonel's face with eager pleasure to reply; +but there he saw something that made him suddenly close his lips. +He had not lived ten years among the Rajputs without learning to +read faces, and in Colonel Starr's he saw that all this talk the +Colonel desired about Lalpore was not for Lalpore's good. The boy +thought for a minute, and tightened his lips, while a little firm +line came on each side of his mouth. He only opened them to say, +'Burra sahib, I cannot tell you that.' + +'But you must tell me,' said Colonel Starr firmly. + +'No,' returned Sunni, 'not that, nor any more informations about +the fort.' + +The Colonel's face grew stern. He was not accustomed to +disobedience. + +'Come,' he said; 'out with it, boy. I have no time to waste.' His +tone was so serious that Sunni felt a little nervous thrill run all +over him. + +'No,' said he. + +The Colonel tried another way: + +'Come, my little chap,' said he gently, 'you are English, are you +not?' + +Sunni nodded. + +Then you must serve the English Queen. She has sent me here to +punish the Maharajah for killing the padre-sahib. You must help +me.' + +'The Maharajah DID NOT kill ee-Wobbis,' cried Sunni excitedly. 'I +have already once said that. The Maharajah he LIKE ee-Wobbis. I +am English, but the Maharajah is my father and my mother. I cannot +speak against the Maharajah, burra sahib.' + +There came a light into the Colonel's eyes which was not kindled by +anger. He found himself liking this slip of a ragged urchin with +fair hair, who defied him--liking him tremendously. But the crisis +was grave; he could not sacrifice his men to a child's scruple; he +could not let himself be defied. He took out his watch, and made +his face hard. + +'Then,' said he coldly, 'you are either the Maharajah's deserter or +his spy. If you have deserted, I am disposed to send you back to +him, since you are of no use to us. If you are his spy, it is my +duty to have you shot. I will give you five minutes to save your +skin in.' + +'But--but you are my COUNTRYMAN, burra sahib!' There was a sob in +his voice. + +The only possible answer to that was a hug, so it went unanswered. +Colonel Starr set himself to think of his Midlanders. + +Sunni lifted his blue eyes entreatingly to the Colonel's face, but +he had turned it away. He was watching a little brown lizard +sunning itself outside the tent door, and wondering how long he +could keep his disciplinary expression. You could hear nothing in +the tent but the ticking of the watch. Sunni looked down at the +lizard too, and so the minutes passed. + +Three of them passed. Colonel Starr found himself hoping even more +that the boy should stand firm than that he should speak. Colonel +Starr began to say softly within himself, 'I am a brute.' The +fifth minute was up. 'Will you speak?' asked the Colonel. + +'Burra sahib, no,' said Sunni. + +At that instant Lieutenant Pink galloped up to the door of the +tent. + +'They've come to their senses at last, sir. Six mounted men have +just left the north gate, signalling for a parley.' + +The Colonel jumped to his feet and gave half a dozen orders without +stopping. The last one was to Sunni. 'Stay here,' he said; 'you +shall soon go back to your own country.' + +The Chitan horsemen had ridden out to announce the coming of the +Maharajah, so that the English officer might meet him half-way. +They gave the message gravely, and rode slowly back. Half an hour +later there arose a great shouting and blowing of trumpets inside +the walls, the royal gate was flung open, and the Maharajah +appeared, swaying in a blaze of silk and jewels upon an enormous +elephant with a painted trunk and trappings fringed in gold and +silver. Trumpeters and the crimson flag of Chita went before him; +Maun Rao and the other generals rode behind him; at his side sat +his bard, his poet laureate, with glowing eyes, speaking constantly +into his royal ear the glorious annals of his house. Colonel Starr +and his little suite met this wonderful cavalcade a quarter of a +mile from the city, and the Maharajah and the Colonel dismounted. +Whereupon the magnificent Rajput, in his diamond aigrettes and his +silken swathings, and the broad shouldered British officer, in his +Queen's red coat, solemnly kissed each other. They exchanged other +politenesses, spoke of the health of the Viceroy and of his 'good +friend' the Maharajah, and His Highness arranged a durbar to be +held in his hall of audience at two that afternoon, when he would +hear the desires of the British Raj. + +Strangely enough, it occurred to nobody to wonder why the Maharajah +had so suddenly changed his mind. To nobody, that is, except Sonny +Sahib. He guessed the reason, and sitting all morning in a corner +of the Colonel's tent, as he had been told, he thought about it +very seriously. Once or twice he had to swallow a lump in his +throat to help him to think. The Maharajah's reason was that he +supposed that Sonny Sahib had told the English about Lalpore's +ammunition; and that, under the circumstances, was enough to bring +lumps into anybody's throat. + +The Colonel was very busy, and took no notice of him, except to say +that he should have some dinner. He heard talk of the Maharajah's +visit and of the durbar, and he revolved that too. When the time +came, Sunni had concluded that he also must go to the durbar. He +said so to Colonel Starr. + +'Nonsense!' said the Colonel. 'And yet,' he added reflectively, +'it might be useful to have you there. I daresay you will be safe +enough. You are not afraid?' + +Sunni said he was not afraid. So they all went, and the Maharajah, +rising from his ivory chair, received them with much state and +ceremony. He frowned when he saw Sunni, but said nothing. His +Highness felt that he was not in a position to resent anything, and +thought bitterly of Petroff Gortschakin. + +The durbar proceeded. Formally, and according to strict +precedence, each man spoke. With great amiability Colonel Starr +presented the demands of the English Government; with greater +amiability the Maharajah and his officers repelled them. But +Colonel Starr was firm, and he had the unanswerable argument of +three hundred well-armed men and two nine-pounders, which Maun Rao +would have to meet with Petroff Gortschakin's cartridges. After +duly and sadly reflecting upon this, the Maharajah concluded that +he would give up ee-Wobbis's murderers--one of them at any rate-- +and let himself be arranged, at all events for the present. +Afterwards he would say to Maun Rao that it was only for the +present. He summoned all his politeness to his aid, and said in +the end that such was his admiration for the English Lord Sahib in +Calcutta, such his friendship and respect, that he would welcome +any one who came to Lalpore in his name. + +'Accompanied by a small force,' added Colonel Starr in the +vernacular, and the Maharajah also added, while Maun Rao behind him +ground his teeth, 'Accompanied by a small force.' + +'One word more,' said the Maharajah, 'and the durbar is ended. The +opium pledge will appear, and we will drink it with you. From the +palm of your hand I will drink, and from the palm of my hand you +shall drink; but the lips of the boy who comes with you shall not +taste it. The Rajputs do not drink opium with their betrayers.' + +Sunni heard, and his face grew crimson. + +'Maharajah!' he shouted, 'I did not tell; I did not tell.' + +The Maharajah shrugged his shoulders contemptuously. + +'He is not of our blood; why should he have kept silence?' said the +old man. + +'But he did keep silence,' said the Colonel, looking straight into +the Chitan's sunken eyes. 'I asked him about your men and your +ammunition. I commanded him, I threatened him. I give you my word +of honour as a soldier that he would say nothing.' + +The English in India are always believed. A cry went up from the +other Chitans. Moti clapped his hands together, Maun Rao caught +the boy up and kissed him. + +'Then,' said the Maharajah slowly, 'I love you still, Sunni, and +you shall drink the opium with the rest. Your son,' he added to +Colonel Starr, 'will bring praise to his father.' + +The Colonel smiled. 'I have no children,' said he. 'I wish he +were indeed my son.' + +'If he is not your son,' asked the Maharajah cunningly, 'why did +you bring him to the durbar?' + +'Because he wished to come--' + +'To say that I did not tell,' said Sunni. + +'Call the woman,' ordered His Highness. + +She was in the crowd in the courtyard, waiting to see her old +master pass again. She came in bent and shaking, with her head- +covering over her face. She threw herself at Colonel Starr's feet, +and kissed them. + +'Captan Sahib!' she quavered, 'Captan Sahib! Mirbani do!'[1] + + +[1] 'Give mercy.' + + +There was absolute silence in the audience hall. A parrakeet +flashed through it screaming. The shadows were creeping east over +the marble floor; a little sun flamed out on the hilt of Maun Rao's +sword. The Colonel stooped over the old woman and raised her up. +His face whitened as he looked at her. + +'It's Tooni!' he said, hoarsely. And then, in a changed voice, +unconscious of the time and place, 'Tooni, what happened to the +memsahib?' he asked. + +The ayah burst into an incoherent torrent of words and tears. The +memsahib was very, very ill, she said. There were not five breaths +left in her body. The memsahib had gone in the cart--and the chota +baba[1]--the Sonny Sahib--had always had good milk--and she had +taken none of the memsahib's ornaments, only her little black book +with the charm in it + + +[1] 'The little baby.' + + +'That is true talk,' interposed Sunni, 'Tooni's words are all true. +Here is the little black book.' + +Colonel Starr had the face of a man in a dream, half conscious and +trying to wake up. His lips worked as he took the oilskin bag from +Sunni, and he looked at it helplessly. Little Lieutenant Pink took +it gently from him, slit it down the side with a pocket-knife, and +put back into the Colonel's hand the small leather-bound book. On +the back of it was printed, in tarnished gold letters, 'Common +Prayer.' + +It was a very little book, but the Colonel was obliged to hold it +with both hands. Even then they trembled so that he could hardly +turn to the fly-leaf. His eyes filled as he read there, 'Evelyn +Starr from John Starr, December 5th, 1855,' and remembered when he +had written that. Still the shadows crept eastward, the mynas +chattered in the garden, the scent of the roses came across warm in +the sun. The Rajputs looked at him curiously, but no one spoke. + +The Colonel's eyes were fixed upon Sunni's face. He made one or +two efforts to speak that did not succeed. Then 'And this is the +baby,' he said. + +'Hazur, ha!'[1] replied Tooni, 'Sonny Sahib hai!' + + +[1] 'Your Honour, yes. It is Sonny Sahib.' + + +The Colonel looked at Sunni an instant longer, and the boy smiled +into his face. 'Yes,' said he assuredly, with a deep breath, 'it +is Sonny Sahib.' + +'The woman saw your honour this morning, and the khaber was brought +to me then,' remarked the Maharajah complacently. + +It was three weeks, after all, before the Maharajah of Chita was +satisfactorily arranged. For three weeks Thomas Jones indulged in +roast kid and curry every day from Lalpore, and Lieutenant Pink, +having no more warlike way of amusing himself, made sanguinary +water-colour sketches of the city to send home to the Misses Pink +in England. The day came at last when Colonel Starr and Sonny +Sahib went to pay their final respects to the Maharajah. With his +hand upon his son's shoulder the Colonel turned once more after the +last courtesy had been exchanged. + +'Your Highness will remember,' said the English soldier for the +pleasure of saying it, 'he did not tell.' + +THE END + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Story of Sonny Sahib +by Mrs. Everard Cotes + diff --git a/old/tssnn10.zip b/old/tssnn10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..dd42269 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/tssnn10.zip |