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diff --git a/5153.txt b/5153.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2a01ab5 --- /dev/null +++ b/5153.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10579 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Rung Ho!, by Talbot Mundy + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Rung Ho! + +Author: Talbot Mundy + +Release Date: February, 2004 [EBook #5153] +Posting Date: June 2, 2009 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RUNG HO! *** + + + + +Produced by M.R.J. + + + + + + + +RUNG HO! + +A Novel + +By Talbot Mundy + + + + +RUNG HO! + + + +CHAPTER I + + Howrah City bows the knee + More or less to masters three, + King, and Prince, and Siva. + Howrah City pays in pain + Taxes which the royal twain + Give to priests, to give again + (More or less) to Siva. + +THAT was no time or place for any girl of twenty to be wandering +unprotected. Rosemary McClean knew it; the old woman, of the sweeper +caste, that is no caste at all,--the hag with the flat breasts and +wrinkled skin, who followed her dogwise, and was no more protection +than a toothless dog,--knew it well, and growled about it in incessant +undertones that met with neither comment nor response. + +"Leave a pearl of price to glisten on the street, yes!" she grumbled. +"Perhaps none might notice it--perhaps! But her--here--at this time--" +She would continue in a rumbling growl of half-prophetic catalogues of +evil--some that she had seen to happen, some that she imagined, and not +any part of which was in the least improbable. + +As the girl passed through the stenching, many-hued bazaar, the +roar would cease for a second and then rise again. Turbaned and +pugreed--Mohammedan and Hindoo--men of all grades of color, language, +and belief, but with only one theory on women, would stare first at the +pony that she rode, then at her, and then at the ancient grandmother who +trotted in her wake. Low jests would greet the grandmother, and then the +trading and the gambling would resume, together with the under-thread of +restlessness that was so evidently there and yet so hard to lay a finger +on. + +The sun beat down pitilessly--brass--like the din of cymbals. Beneath +the sun helmet that sat so squarely and straightforwardly on the tidy +chestnut curls, her face was pale. She smiled as she guided her pony +in and out amid the roaring throng, and carefully refused to see the +scowls, her brave little shoulders seconded a pair of quiet, brave gray +eyes in showing an unconquerable courage to the world, and her clean, +neat cotton riding-habit gave the lie and the laugh in one to poverty; +but, as the crowd had its atmosphere of secret murmuring, she had +another of secret anxiety. + +Neither had fear. She did not believe in it. She was there to help her +father fight inhuman wrong, and die, if need be, in the last ditch. T + a two-hundred-million crowd, held down and compelled by less than a +hundred thousand aliens. And, least of all, had the man who followed +her at a little distance the slightest sense of fear. He was far more +conversant with it than she, but--unlike her, and far more than the +seething crowd--he knew the trend of events, and just what likelihood +there was of insult or injury to Rosemary McClean being avenged in a +generation. + +He caused more comment than she, and of a different kind. His rose-pink +pugree, with the egret and the diamond brooch to hold the egret in its +place--his jeweled sabre--his swaggering, almost ruffianly air--were +no more meant to escape attention than his charger that clattered and +kicked among the crowd, or his following, who cleared a way for him with +the butt ends of their lances. He rode ahead, but every other minute a +mounted sepoy would reach out past him and drive his lance-end into the +ribs of some one in the way. + +There would follow much deep salaaming; more than one head would bow +very low indeed; and in many languages, by the names of many gods, he +would be cursed in undertones. Aloud, they would bless him and call him +"Heaven-born!" + +But he took no interest whatever in the crowd. His dark-brown eyes were +fixed incessantly on Rosemary McClean's back. Whenever she turned a +corner in the crowded maze of streets, he would spur on in a hurry until +she was in sight again, and then his handsome, swarthy face would light +with pleasure--wicked pleasure--self-assertive, certain, cruel. He would +rein in again to let her draw once more ahead. + +Rosemary McClean knew quite well who was following her, and knew, too, +that she could do nothing to prevent him. Once, as she passed a species +of caravansary--low-roofed, divided into many lockable partitions, and +packed tight with babbling humanity--she caught sight of a pair of long, +black thigh boots, silver-spurred, and of a polished scabbard that moved +spasmodically, as though its owner were impatient. + +"Mahommed Gunga!" she muttered to herself. "I wonder whether he +would come to my assistance if I needed him. He fought once--or so he +says--for the British; he might be loyal still. I wonder what he is +doing here, and what--Oh, I wonder!" + +She was very careful not to seem to look sideways, or seek acquaintance +with the wearer of the boots; had she done so, she would have gained +nothing, for the moment that he caught sight of her through the opened +door he drew back into a shadow, and swore lustily. What he said to +himself would have been little comfort to her. + +"By the breath of God!" he growled. "These preachers of new creeds are +the last straw, if one were wanting! They choose the one soft place +where Mohammedan and Hindoo think alike, and smite! If I wanted to raise +hell from end to end of Hind, I too would preach a new creed, and turn +good-looking women loose to wander on the country-side!--Ah!" He drew +back even further, as he spied the egret and the sabre and the stallion +cavorting down the street--then thought better of it and strode +swaggering to the doorway, and stood, crimson-coated, in the sunlight, +stroking upward insolently at his black, fierce-barbered beard. There +was a row of medal ribbons on his left breast that bore out something at +least of his contention; he had been loyal to the British once, whether +he was so now or not. + +The man on the charger eyed him sideways and passed on. Mahommed Gunga +waited. One of the prince's followers rode close to him--leaned low from +the saddle--and leered into his face. + +"Knowest not enough to salute thy betters?" he demanded. + +Mahommed Gunga made a movement with his right hand in the direction of +his left hip--one that needed no explanation; the other legged his +horse away, and rode on, grinning nastily. To reassure himself of his +superiority over everybody but his master, he spun his horse presently +so that its rump struck against a tented stall, and upset tent and +goods. Then he spent two full minutes in outrageous execration of the +men who struggled underneath the gaudy cloth, before cantering away, +looking, feeling, riding like a fearless man again. Mahommed Gunga +sneered after him, and spat, and turned his back on the sunshine and the +street. + +"I had a mind to teach that Hindoo who his betters are!" he growled. + +"Come in, risaldar-sahib!" said a voice persuasively. "By your own +showing the hour is not yet--why spill blood before the hour?" + +The Rajput swaggered to the dark door, spurs jingling, looking back +across his shoulder once or twice, as though he half-regretted leaving +the Hindoo horseman's head upon his shoulders. + +"Come in, sahib," advised the voice again. "They be many. We are few. +And, who knows--our roads may lie together yet." + +Mahommed Gunga kicked his scabbard clear, and strode through the door. +The shadows inside and the hum of voices swallowed him as though he were +a big, red, black-legged devil reassimilated in the brewing broth of +trouble; but his voice boomed deep and loud after he had disappeared +from view. + +"When their road and my road lie together, we will travel all feet +foremost!" he asserted. + +Ten turnings further away by that time, Rosemary McClean pressed on +through the hot, dinning swarm of humanity, missing no opportunity to +slip her pony through an opening, but trying, too, to seem unaware that +she was followed. She chose narrow, winding ways, where the awnings +almost met above the middle of the street, and where a cavalcade of +horsemen would not be likely to follow her--only to hear a roar behind +her, as the prince's escort started slashing at the awnings with their +swords. + +There was a rush and a din of shouting beside her and ahead, as the +frightened merchants scurried to pull down their awnings before +the ruthless horse-men could ride down on them; the narrow street +transformed itself almost on the instant into a undraped, cleared defile +between two walls. And after that she kept to the broader streets, where +there was room in the middle for a troop to follow, four abreast, should +it choose. She had no mind to seek her own safety at the expense of men +whose souls her father was laboring so hard to save. + +She got no credit, though, for consideration--only blame for what the +swordsmen had already done. One man--a Maharati trader--half-naked, +his black hair coiled into a shaggy rope and twisted up above his +neck--followed her, side-tracking through the mazy byways of the +bewildering mart, and coming out ahead of her--or lurking beside bales +of merchandise and waiting his opportunity to leap from shadow into +shadow unobserved. + +He followed her until she reached the open, where a double row of trees +on each side marked the edge of a big square, large enough for the +drilling of an army. Along one side of the square there ran the +high brick wall, topped with a kind of battlement, that guarded the +Maharajah's palace grounds from the eyes of men. + +Just as she turned, just as she was starting to canter her pony beside +the long wall, he leaped out at her and seized her reins. The old woman +screamed, and ran to the wall and cowered there. + +Very likely the man only meant to frighten her and heap insults on her, +for in '56, though wrath ran deep and strong, men waited. There was to +be sudden, swift whelming when the time came, not intermittent outrage. +But he had no time to do more than rein her pony back onto its haunches. + +There came a clatter of scurrying hoofs behind, and from a whirl of +dust, topped by a rose-pink pugree, a steel blade swooped down on her +and him. A surge of brown and pink and cream, and a dozen rainbow tints +flashed past her; a long boot brushed her saddle on the off side. There +was a sickening sound, as something hard swished and whicked home; +her pony reeled from the shock of a horse's shoulder, and--none too +gently--none too modestly--the prince with the egret and the handsome +face reined in on his horse's haunches and saluted her. + +There was blood, becoming dull-brown in the dust between them. He shook +his sabre, and the blood dripped from it then he held it outstretched, +and a horseman wiped it, before he returned it with a clang. + +"The sahiba's servant!" he said magnificently, making no motion to let +her pass, but twisting with his sword-hand at his waxed mustache and +smiling darkly. + +She looked down between them at the thing that but a minute since had +lived, and loved perhaps as well as hated. + +"Shame on you, Jaimihr-sahib!" she said, shuddering. A year ago she +would have fallen from her pony in a swoon, but one year of Howrah and +its daily horrors had so hardened her that she could look and loathe +without the saving grace of losing consciousness. + +"The shame would have been easier to realize, had I taken more than +one stroke!" he answered irritably, still blocking the way on his great +horse, still twisting at his mustache point, still looking down at her +through eyes that blazed a dozen accumulated centuries' store of lawless +ambition. He was proud of that back-handed swipe of his that would +cleave a man each time at one blow from shoulder-joint to ribs, severing +the backbone. A woman of his own race would have been singing songs in +praise of him and his skill in swordsman-ship already; but no woman of +his own race would have looked him in the eye like that and dared him, +nor have done what she did next. She leaned over and swished his charger +with her little whip, and slipped past him. + +He swore, deep and fiercely, as he spurred and wheeled, and cantered +after her. His great stallion could overhaul her pony in a minute, going +stride for stride; the wall was more than two miles long with no break +in it other than locked gates; there was no hurry. He watched her +through half-closed, glowering, appraising eyes as he cantered in her +wake, admiring the frail, slight figure in the gray cotton habit, and +bridling his desire to make her--seize her reins, and halt, and make +her--admit him master of the situation. + +As he reached her stirrup, she reined in and faced him, after a hurried +glance that told her her duenna had failed her. The old woman was +invisible. + +"Will you leave that body to lie there in the dust and sun?" she asked +indignantly. + +"I am no vulture, or jackal, or hyena, sahiba!" he smiled. "I do not eat +carrion!" He seemed to think that that was a very good retort, for he +showed his wonderful white teeth until his handsome face was the epitome +of self-satisfied amusement. His horse blocked the way again, and all +retreat was cut off, for his escort were behind her, and three of them +had ridden to the right, outside the row of trees, to cut off possible +escape in that direction. "Was it not well that I was near, sahiba? +Would it have been better to die at the hands of a Maharati of no +caste--?" + +"Than to see blood spilt--than to be beholden to a murderer? Infinitely +better! There was no need to kill that man--I could have quieted him. +Let me pass, please, Jaimihr-sahib!" + +He reined aside; but if she thought that cold scorn or hot anger would +either of them quell his ardor, she had things reversed. The less she +behaved as a native woman would have done--the more she flouted him--the +more enthusiastic he became. + +"Sahiba!"--he trotted beside her, his great horse keeping up easily with +her pony's canter--"I have told you oftener than once that I make a good +friend and a bad enemy!" + +"And I have answered oftener than once that I do not need your +friendship, and am not afraid of you! You forget that the British +Government will hold your royal brother liable for my safety and my +father's!" + +"You, too, overlook certain things, sahiba." He spoke evenly, with a +little space between each word. With the dark look that accompanied it, +with the blood barely dry yet on the dusty road behind, his speech +was not calculated to reassure a slip of a girl, gray-eyed or not, +stiff-chinned or not, borne up or not by Scots enthusiasm for a cause. +"This is a native state. My brother rules. The British--" + +"Are near enough, and strong enough, to strike and to bring you and your +brother to your knees if you harm a British woman!" she retorted. "You +forget--when the British Government gives leave to missionaries to go +into a native state, it backs them up with a strong arm!" + +"You build too much on the British and my brother, sahiba! +Listen--Howrah is as strong as I am, and no stronger. Had he been +stronger, he would have slain me long ago. The British are--" He checked +himself and trotted beside her in silence for a minute. She affected +complete indifference; it was as though she had not heard him; if she +could not be rid of him, she at least knew how to show him his utter +unimportance in her estimation. + +"Have you heard, sahiba, of the Howrah treasure? Of the rubies? Of the +pearls? Of the emeralds? Of the bars of gold? It is foolishness, of +course; we who are modern-minded see the crime of hoarding all that +wealth, and adding to it, for twenty generations. Have you heard of it, +sahiba?" + +"Yes!" she answered savagely, swishing at his charger again to make him +keep his distance. "You have told me of it twice. You have told me that +you know where it is, and you have offered to show it to me. You have +told me that you and your brother Maharajah Howrah and the priests +of Siva are the only men who know where it is, and you lust for that +treasure! I can see you lust! You think that I lust too, and you make a +great mistake Jaimihr-sahib! You see, I remember what you have told me. +Now, go away and remember what I tell you. I care for you and for your +treasure exactly that!" She hit his charger with all her might, and +at the sting of the little whip he shied clear of the road before the +Rajah's brother could rein him in. + +Again her effort to destroy his admiration for her had directly the +opposite effect. He swore, and he swore vengeance; but he swore, too, +that there was no woman in the East so worth a prince's while as this +one, who dared flout him with her riding-whip before his men! + +"Sahiba!" he said, sidling close to her again, and bowing in the saddle +in mock cavalier humility. "The time will come when your government +and my brother, who--at present--is Maharajah Howrah--will be of little +service to you. Then, perhaps, you may care to recall my promise to load +all the jewels you can choose out of the treasure-house on you. Then, +perhaps, you may, remember that I said 'a throne is better than a grave, +sahiba.' Or else--" + +"Or else what, Jaimihr-sahib?" She reined again and wheeled about and +faced him--pale-trembling a little--looking very small and frail beside +him on his great war-horse, but not flinching under his gaze for a +single second. + +"Or else, sahiba--I think you saw me slay the Maharati? Do you think +that I would stop at anything to accomplish what I had set out to do? +See, sahiba--there is a little blood there on your jacket! Let that be +for a pledge between us--for a sign--or a token of my oath that on the +day I am Maharajah Howrah, you are Maharanee--mistress of all the jewels +in the treasure-house!" + +She shuddered. She did not look to find the blood; she took his word for +that, if for nothing else. + +"I wonder you dare tell me that you plot against your brother!" That was +more a spoken thought than a statement or a question. + +"I would be very glad if you would warn my brother!" he answered her; +and she knew like a flash, and on the instant, that what he said was +true. She had been warned before she came to bear no tales to any one. +No Oriental would believe the tale, coming from her; the Maharajah would +arrest her promptly, glad of the excuse to vent his hatred of Christian +missionaries. Jaimihr would attempt a rescue; it was common knowledge +that he plotted for the throne. There would be instant civil war, +in which the British Government would perforce back up the alleged +protector of a defenseless woman. There would be a new Maharajah; then, +in a little while, and in all likelihood, she would have disappeared +forever while the war raged. There would be, no doubt, a circumstantial +story of her death from natural causes. + +She did not answer. She stared back at him, and he smiled down at her, +twisting at his mustache. + +"Think!" he said, nodding. "A throne, sahiba, is considerably better +than a grave!" Then he wheeled like a sudden dust-devil and decamped +in a cloud of dust, followed at full pelt by his clattering escort. She +watched their horses leap one after the other the corpse of the Maharati +that lay by the corner where it fell, and she saw the last of them go +clattering, whirling up the street through the bazaar. The old hag rose +out of a shadow and trotted after her again as she turned and rode on, +pale-faced and crying now a little, to the little begged school place +where her father tried to din the alphabet into a dozen low-caste +fosterlings. + +"Father!" she cried, and she all but fell out of the saddle into his +arms as the tall, lean Scotsman came to the door to meet her and stood +blinking in the sunlight. "Father, I've seen another man killed! I've +had another scene with Jaimihr! I can't endure it! I--I--Oh, why did I +ever come?" + +"I don't know, dear," he answered. "But you would come, wouldn't you?" + + + + +CHAPTER II + + + 'Twixt loot and law--'tween creed and caste-- + Through slough this people wallows, + To where we choose our road at last. + I choose the RIGHT! Who follows? + +HEMMED in amid the stifling stench and babel of the caravansary, +secluded by the very denseness of the many-minded swarm, five other +Rajputs and Mahommed Gunga--all six, according to their turbans, +followers of Islam--discussed matters that appeared to bring them little +satisfaction. + +They sat together in a dark, low-ceilinged room; its open door--it was +far too hot to close anything that admitted air--gave straight onto the +street, and the one big window opened on a courtyard, where a pair of +game-cocks fought in and out between the restless legs of horses, while +a yelling horde betted on them. On a heap of grass fodder in a corner +of the yard an all-but-naked expert in inharmony thumped a skin tom-tom +with his knuckles, while at his feet the own-blood brother to the +screech-owls wailed of hell's torments on a wind instrument. + +Din--glamour--stink--incessant movement--interblended poverty and riches +rubbing shoulders--noisy self-interest side by side with introspective +revery, where stray priests nodded in among the traders,--many-peopled +India surged in miniature between the four hot walls and through the +passage to the overflowing street; changeable and unexplainable, in +ever-moving flux, but more conservative in spite of it than the very +rocks she rests on--India who is sister to Aholibah and mother of all +fascination. + +In that room with the long window, low-growled, the one thin thread of +clear-sighted unselfishness was reeling out to very slight approval. +Mahommed Gunga paced the floor and kicked his toes against the walls, +as he turned at either end, until his spurs jingled, and looked with +blazing dark-brown eyes from one man to the other. + +"What good ever came of listening to priests?" he asked. "All priests +are alike--ours, and theirs, and padre-sahibs! They all preach peace and +goad the lust that breeds war and massacre! Does a priest serve any but +himself? Since when? There will come this rising that the priests speak +of--yes! Of a truth, there will, for the priests will see to it! There +is a padre-sahib here in Howrah now for the Hindoo priests to whet their +hate on. You saw the woman ride past here a half-hour gone? There is a +pile of tinder ready here, and any fool of a priest can make a spark! +There will be a rising, and a big one!" + +"There will! Of a truth, there will!" Alwa, his cousin, crossed one leg +above the other with a clink of spurs and scabbard. He had no objection +to betraying interest, but declined for the present to betray his hand. + +"There will be a blood-letting that will do no harm to us Rajputs!" +said another man, whose eyes gleamed from the darkest corner; he, +too, clanked his scabbard as though the sound were an obbligato to his +thoughts. "Sit still and say nothing is my advice; we will be all ready +to help ourselves when the hour comes!" + +"It is this way," said Mahommed Gunga, standing straddle-legged to face +all five of them, with his back to the window. He stroked his +black beard upward with one hand and fingered with the other at his +sabre-hilt. "Without aid when the hour does come, the English will +be smashed--worn down--starved out--surrounded--stamped +out--annihilated--so!" He stamped with his heel descriptively on the +hard earth floor. "And then, what?" + +"Then, the plunder!" said Alwa, showing a double row of wonderful white +teeth. The other four grinned like his reflections. "Ay, there will be +plunder--for the priests! And we Rajputs will have new masters over us! +Now, as things are, we have honorable men. They are fools, for any +man is a fool who will not see and understand the signs. But they are +honest. They ride straight! They look us straight between the eyes, and +speak truth, and fear nobody! Will the Hindoo priests, who will rule +India afterward, be thus? Nay! Here is one sword for the British when +the hour comes!" + +"I have yet to see a Hindoo priest rule me or plunder me!" said Alwa +with a grin. + +"You will live to see it!" said Mahommed Gunga. "Truly, you will live to +see it, unless you throw your weight into the other scale! What are we +Rajputs without a leader whom we all trust? What have we ever been?" +He swung on his heels suddenly--angrily--and began to pace the floor +again--then stopped. + +"Divided, and again subdivided--one-fifth Mohammedan and four-fifths +Hindoo--clan within clan, and each against the other. Do we own +Rajputana? Nay! Do we rule it? Nay! What were we until Cunnigan-bahadur +came?" + +"Ah!" All five men rose with a clank in honor to the memory of that man. +"Cunnigan-bahadur! Show us such another man as he was, and I and mine +ride at his back!" said Alwa. "Not all the English are like Cunnigan! +A Cunnigan could have five thousand men the minute that he asked for +them!" + +"Am I a wizard?--Can I cast spells and bring dead men's spirits from +the dead again? I know of no man to take his place," said Mahommed Gunga +sadly. + +He was the poorest of them, but they were all, comparatively speaking, +poor men; for the long peace had told its tale on a race of men who are +first gentlemen, then soldiers, and last--least of all--and only as a +last resource, landed proprietors. The British, for whom they had often +fought because that way honor seemed to lie, had impoverished +them afterward by passing and enforcing zemindary laws that lifted +nine-tenths of the burden from the necks of starving tenants. The new +law was just, as the Rajputs grudgingly admitted, but it pinched their +pockets sadly; like the old-time English squires, they would give their +best blood and their last rack-rent-wrung rupee for the cause that +they believed in, but they resented interference with the rack-rents! +Mahommed Gunga had had influence enough with these five landlord +relations of his to persuade them to come and meet him in Howrah City to +discuss matters; the mere fact that he had thought it worth his while +to leave his own little holding in the north had satisfied them that he +would be well worth listening to--for no man rode six hundred miles on +an empty errand. But they needed something more than words before they +pledged the word that no Rajput gentleman will ever break. + +"Find us a Cunnigan--bring him to us--prove him to us--and if a blade +worth having from end to end of Rajputana is not at his service, I +myself will gut the Hindoo owner of it! That is my given word!" said +Alwa. + +"He had a son," said Mahommed Gunga quietly. + +"True. Are all sons like their fathers? Take Maharajah Howrah here; his +father was a man with whom any soldier might be proud to pick a quarrel. +The present man is afraid of his own shadow on the wall--divided between +love for the treasure-chests he dare not broach and fear of a brother +whom he dare not kill. He is priest-ridden, priest-taught, and fit to be +nothing but a priest. Who knows how young Cunnigan will shape? Where is +he? Overseas yet! He must prove himself, as his father did, before he +can hope to lead a free regiment of horse!" + +"Then Cunnigan-bahadur's watch-word 'For the peace of India,' is +dead-died with him?" asked Mahommed Gunga. "We are each for our own +again?" + +"I have spoken!" answered Alwa. As the biggest clan-chief left on all +that countryside, he had a right to speak before the others, and he +knew that what he said would carry weight when they had all ridden home +again, and the report had gone abroad in ever-widening rings. "If the +English can hold India, let them! I will not fight against them, for +they are honest men for all their madness. If they cannot, then I am for +Rajputana, not India--India may burn or rot or burst to pieces, so long +as Rajputana stands! But--" He paused a moment, and looked at each man +in turn, and tapped his sabre-hilt, "--if a Cunnigan-bahadur were among +us--a man whom I could trust to lead me and mine and every man--I would +lend him my sword for the sheer honor of helping him hack truth out of +corruption! I have nothing more to say!" + +"One word more, cousin!" said Mahommed Gunga. "I was risaldar in +Cunnigan-bahadur's regiment of horse. There was more than mere +discipline between us. I ate his salt. Once--when he might have saved +himself the trouble without any daring to reproach him--he risked his +own life, and a troop, and his reputation to save a woman of my family +from capture, and something worse. There was never a Rajput or any other +native woman wronged while he was with us." + +"Well?" + +"I am no friend of Christian priests--of padres. But--" + +"She who rode by just now? What, then?" + +"I ride northward now, and then very likely South again. I can do +nothing in the matter, yet--were he in my shoes, and she a native woman +at the mercy of the troops--Cunnigan-bahadur would have assigned a guard +for her." + +"Ho! So I am thy sepoy?" sneered Alwa, standing sideways--looking +sideways--and throwing out his chest. "I am to do thy bidding, guarding +stray padres" (he spoke the word as though it were a bad taste he was +spitting from his mouth), "and herding women without purdah, while thou +ridest on assignations Allah knows where? Since when?" + +"I have yet to refuse to guard thy back, or thy good name, Alwa!" +Mahommed Gunga eyed him straight, and thrust his hilt out. "The woman is +nothing to me--the padre-sahib less. It is because of the debt I owe to +Cunnigan that I ask this favor." + +"Oh. It is granted! Should she appeal to me, I will rip Howrah into +rags and burn this city to protect her if need be! She must first ask, +though, even as thou didst." + +Mahommed Gunga saluted him, bolt-upright as a lance, and without the +slightest change in his expression. + +"The word is sufficient, cousin!" + +Alwa returned his salute, and raised his voice in a gruff command. A +saice outside the window woke as though struck by a stick--sprang to his +feet--and passed the order on. A dozen horses clattered in the courtyard +and filed through the arched passage to the street, and Alwa mounted. +The others, each with his escort, followed suit, and a moment later, +with no further notice of one another, but with as much pomp and noise +as though they owned the whole of India, the five rode off, each on his +separate way, through the scattering crowd. + +Then Mahommed Gunga called for his own horse and the lone armed man of +his own race who acted squire to him. + +"Did any overhear our talk?" he asked. + +"No, sahib." + +"Not the saice, even?" + +"No, sahib. He slept." + +"He awoke most suddenly, and at not much noise." + +"For that reason I know he slept, sahib. Had he been pretending, he +would have wakened slowly." + +"Thou art no idiot!" said Mahommed Gunga. "Wait here until I return, and +lie a few lies if any ask thee why we six came together, and of what we +spoke!" + +Then he mounted and rode off slowly, picking his way through the throng +much more cautiously and considerately than his relatives had done, +though not, apparently, because he loved the crowd. He used some +singularly biting insults to help clear the way, and frowned as though +every other man he looked at were either an assassin or--what a good +Mohammedan considers worse--an infidel. He reached the long brick wall +at last--broke into a canter--scattered the pariah dogs that were nosing +and quarreling about the corpse of the Maharati, and drew rein fifteen +minutes later by the door of the tiny school place that Miss McClean had +entered. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +For service truly rendered, and for duty dumbly done--For men who +neither tremble nor forget--There is due reward, my henchman. There is +honor to be won. There is watch and ward and sterner duty yet. + +No sound came, from within the schoolhouse. The little building, coaxed +from a grudging Maharajah, seemed to strain for light and air between +two overlapping, high-walled brick warehouses. Before the door, in a +spot where the scorching sun-rays came but fitfully between a mesh of +fast-decaying thatch, the old hag who had followed Rosemary McClean lay +snoozing, muttering to herself, and blinking every now and then as a +street dog blinks at the passers-by. She took no notice of Mahommed +Gunga until he swore at her. + +"Miss-sahib hai?" he growled; and the woman jumped up in a hurry and +went inside. A moment later Rosemary McClean stood framed in the doorway +still in her cotton riding-habit, very pale--evidently frightened at +the summons--but strangely, almost ethereally, beautiful. Her wealth of +chestnut hair was loosely coiled above her neck, as though she had been +caught in the act of dressing it. She looked like the wan, wasted spirit +of human pity--he like a great, grim war-god. + +"Salaam, Miss Maklin-sahib!" + +He dismounted as he spoke and stood at attention, then stared +truculently, too inherently chivalrous to deny her civility--he would +have cut his throat as soon as address her from horseback while she +stood--and too contemptuous of her father's calling to be more civil +than he deemed in keeping with his honor. + +"Salaam, Mohammed Gunga!" She seemed very much relieved, although +doubtful yet. "Not letters again?" + +"No, Miss-sahib. I am no mail-carrier! I brought those letters as a +favor to Franklin-sahib at Peshawur; I was coming hither, and he had +no man to send. I will take letters, since I am now going, if there are +letters ready; I ride to-night." + +"Thank you, Mahommed Gunga. I have letters for England. They are not yet +sealed. May I send them to you before you start?" + +"I will send my man for them. Also, Miss Maklin-sahib" (heavens! +how much cleaner and better that sounded than the prince's ironical +"sahiba"!) + +"If you wish it, I will escort you to Peshawur, or to any city between +here and there." + +"But--but why?" + +"I saw Jaimihr. I know Jaimihr." + +"And--" + +"And--this is no place for a padre, or for the daughter of a padre." + +What he said was true, but it was also insolent, said insolently. + +"Mahommed Gunga-sahib, what are those ribbons on your breast?" she asked +him. + +He glanced down at them, and his expression changed a trifle; it was +scarcely perceptible, but underneath his fierce mustache the muscles of +his mouth stiffened. + +"They are medal ribbons--for campaigns," he answered. + +"Three-four-five! Then, you were a soldier a long time? Did you--did you +desert your post when there was danger?" + +He flushed, and raised his hand as though about to speak. + +"Or did people insult you when you chose to remain on duty?" + +"Miss-sahib, I have not insulted you!" said Mahommed Gunga. "I came here +for another purpose." + +"You came, very kindly, to ask whether there were letters. Thank you, +Mahommed Gunga-sahib, for your courtesy. There are letters, and I will +give them to your man, if you will be good enough to send him for them." + +He still stood there, staring at her with eyes that did not blink. He +was too much of a soldier to admit himself at a loss what to say, yet +he had no intention of leaving Howrah without saying it, for that, too, +would have been unsoldierly. + +"The reason why your countrymen have found men of this land before now +to fight for them--one reason, at least--" he said gruffly, "is that +hitherto they have not meddled with our religions. It is not safe! It +would be better to come away, Miss-sahib." + +"Would you like to say that to my father? He is--" + +"Allah forbid that I should argue with him! I spoke to you, on your +account!" + +"You forget, I think," she answered him gently, "that we had permission +from the British Government to come here; it has not been withdrawn. We +are doing no harm here--trying only to do good. There is always danger +when--" + +"I would speak of that," he interrupted--"You will not come away?" + +She shook her head. + +"Your father could remain." + +She shook her head again. "I stay with him," she answered. + +"At present, Jaimihr is the danger, Miss-sahib; but I think that at +present he will dare do nothing. The Maharajah dare do nothing either, +yet. Should either of them make a move to interfere with you, it would +not be safe to appeal to the other one. You will not understand, but +it is so. In that event, there is a way to safety of which I would warn +you." + +"Thank you, Mahommed Gunga. What is it?" + +"There are men more than a day's ride away from here who are to be +depended on--by you, at least--under all circumstances. Is that old +woman to be trusted?" + +"How should I know?" she smiled. "I believe she is fond of me." + +"That should be enough. I would like, if the Miss-sahib will permit, to +speak with her." + +At a word from Miss McClean the old hag came out into the sun again and +blinked at the Rajput, very much afraid of him. Mahommed Gunga saluted +Miss McClean--swore at the old woman--pointed a wordless order with his +right arm--watched her shuffle half a hundred yards up-street--followed +her, and growled at her for about five minutes, while she nodded. +Finally, he drew from the pocket of his crimson coat a small handful +of gold mohurs--fat, dignified coins that glittered--and held them out +toward her with an air as though they meant nothing to him--positively +nothing--Her eyes gleamed. He let her take a good look at the money +before replacing it, then tossed her a silver quarter-rupee piece, +saluted Miss McClean again--for she was watching the pantomime from the +doorway still--and mounted and rode off, his back looking like the back +of one who has neither care nor fear nor master. + +At the caravansary his squire came running out to hold his stirrup. + +"Picket the horse in the yard," said Mahommed Gunga, "then find me +another servant and bring him to me in the room here!" + +"Another servant? But, sahib--" + +"I said another servant! Has deafness overcome thee?" He used a word in +the dialect which left no room for doubt as to his meaning; it was to +be a different servant--a substitute for the squire he had already. The +squire bowed his head in disciplined obedience and led the horse away. + +An hour later--evening was drawing on--he came back, followed by a +somewhat ruffianly-looking half-breed Rajput-Punjaubi. The new man was +rather ragged and lacked one eye, but with the single eye he had he +looked straight at his prospective master. Mahommed Gunga glared at him, +but the man did not quail or shrink. + +"This fellow wishes honorable service, sahib." The squire spoke as +though he were calling his master's attention to a horse that was for +sale. "I have seen his family; I have inquired about him; and I have +explained to him that unless he serves at thee faithfully his wife and +his man child will die at my hands in his absence." + +"Can he groom a horse?" + +"So he says, sahib, and so say others." + +"Can he fight?" + +"He slew the man with his bare hands who pricked his eye out with a +sword." + +"Oh! What payment does he ask?" + +"He leaves that matter to your honor's pleasure." + +"Good. Instruct him, then. Set him to cleaning my horse and then return +here." + +The squire was back again within five minutes and stood before Mahommed +Gunga in silent expectation. + +"I shall miss thee," said Mahommed Gunga after five minutes' reflection. +"It is well that I have other servants in the north." + +"In what have I offended, sahib?" + +"In nothing. Therefore there is a trust imposed." + +The man salaamed. Mahommed Gunga produced his little handful of gold +mohurs and divided it into two equal portions; one he handed to the +squire. + +"Stay here. Be always either in the caravansary or else at call. Should +the old woman who serves Miss Maklin-sahib, the padre-sahib's daughter +come and ask thy aid, then saddle swiftly the three horses I will leave +with thee, and bear Miss Maklin-sahib and her father to my cousin Alwa's +place. Present two of the gold mohurs to the hag, should that happen." + +"But sahib--two mohurs? I could buy ten such hags outright for the +price!" + +"She has my word in the matter! It is best to have her eager to win +great reward. The hag will stay awake, but see to it that thou sleepest +not!" + +"And for how long must I stay here, sahib?" + +"One month--six months--a year--who knows? Until the hag summons thee, +or I, by writing or by word of mouth, relieve thee of thy trust." + +At sunset he sent the squire to Miss McClean for the letters he had +promised to deliver; and at one hour after sunset, when the heat of the +earth had begun to rise and throw back a hot blast to the darkened sky +and the little eddies of luke-warm surface wind made movement for horse +and man less like a fight with scorching death, he rode off, with his +new servant, on the two horses left to him of the five with which he +came. + +A six-hundred-mile ride without spare horses, in the heat of northern +India, was an undertaking to have made any strong man flinch. The +stronger the man, and the more soldierly, the better able he would be to +realize the effort it would call for. But Mahommed Gunga rode as though +he were starting on a visit to a near-by friend; he was not given +to crossing bridges before he reached them, nor to letting prospects +influence his peace of mind. He was a soldier. He took precautions +first, when and where such were possible, then rode and looked fate in +the eye. + +He appeared to take no more notice of the glowering looks that +followed him from stuffy balconies and dense-packed corners than of the +mosquitoes to and the heat. Without hurry he picked his way through +the thronged streets, where already men lay in thousands to escape the +breathlessness of walled interiors; the gutters seemed like trenches +where the dead of a devastated city had been laid; the murmur was like +the voice of storm-winds gathering, and the little lights along the +housetops were for the vent-holes on the lid of a tormented underworld. + +But he rode on at his ease. Ahead of him lay that which he considered +duty. He could feel the long-kept peace of India disintegrating all +around him, and he knew--he was certain--as sometimes a brave man can +see what cleverer men all overlook--that the right touch by the right +man at the right moment, when the last taut-held thread should break, +would very likely swing the balance in favor of peace again, instead of +individual self seeking anarchy. + +He knew what "Cunnigan-bahadur" would have done. He swore by +Cunnigan-bahadur. And the memory of that same dead, desperately honest +Cunningham he swore that no personal profit or convenience or safety +should be allowed to stand between him and what was honorable and right! +Mahommed Gunga had no secrets from himself; nor lack of imagination. He +knew that he was riding--not to preserve the peace of India, for that +was as good as gone--but to make possible the winning back of it. And he +rode with a smile on his thin lips, as the crusaders once rode on a less +self-advertising errand. + + + +CHAPTER IV + + + "You have failed!" whispered Fate, and a weary civilian + Threw up his task as a matter of course. + "Failed?" said the soldier. He knew a million + Chances untackled yet. "Get me a horse!" + +THAT was a strange ride of Mahommed Gunga's, and a fateful one--more +full of portent for the British Raj in India than he, or the British, +or the men amid whose homes he rode could ever have anticipated. He +averaged a little less than twenty miles a day, and through an Indian +hot-weather, and with no spare horse, none but a born horseman--a man +of light weight and absolute control of temper--could have accomplished +that for thirty days on end. + +Wherever he rode there was the same unrest. Here and there were new +complaints he had not yet heard of, imaginary some of them, and some +only too well founded. Wherever there were Rajputs--and that race of +fighting men is scattered all about the north--there was ill-suppressed +impatience for the bursting of the wrath to come. They bore no grudge +against the English, but they did bear more than grudge against the +money-lenders and the fat, litigious traders who had fattened under +British rule. At least at the beginning it was evident that all the +interest of all the Rajputs lay in letting the British get the worst +of it; even should the British suddenly wake up and look about them and +take steps--or should the British hold their own with native aid, and +so save India from anarchy, and afterward reward the men who helped--the +Rajputs would stand to gain less individually, or even collectively, +than if they let the English be driven to the sea, and then reverted to +the age-old state of feudal lawlessness that once had made them rich. + +Many of the Hindoo element among them were almost openly disloyal. The +ryots--the little one and two acre farmers--were the least unsettled; +they, when he asked them--and he asked often--disclaimed the least +desire to change a rule that gave them safe holdings and but one +tax-collection a year; they were frankly for their individual +selves--not even for one another, for the ryots as a class. + +Nobody seemed to be for India, except Mahommed Gunga; and he said +little, but asked ever-repeated questions as he rode. There were men who +would like to weld Rajputana into one again, and over-ride the rest +of India; and there were other men who planned to do the same for the +Punjaub; there were plots within plots, not many of which he learned in +anything like detail, but none of which were more than skin-deep below +the surface. All men looked to the sudden, swift, easy whelming of the +British Raj, and then to the plundering of India; each man expected to +be rich when the whelming came, and each man waited with ill-controlled +impatience for the priests' word that would let loose the +hundred-million flood of anarchy. + +"And one man--one real man whom they trusted--one leader--one man who +had one thousand at his back--could change the whole face of things!" +he muttered to himself. "Would God there we a Cunnigan! But there is no +Cunnigan. And who would follow me? They would pull my beard, tell me I +was scheming for my own ends!--I, who was taught by Cunnigan, and would +serve only India!" + +He would ride before dawn and when the evening breeze had come to cool +the hot earth a little through the blazing afternoons he would lie in +the place of honor by some open window, where he could watch a hireling +flick the flies off his lean, road-hardened horse, and listen to +the plotting and the carried tales of plots, pretending always to be +sympathetic or else open to conviction. + +"A soldier? Hah! A soldier fights for the side that can best reward +him!" he would grin. "And, when there is no side, perhaps he makes one! +I am a soldier!" + +If they pressed him, he would point to his medal ribbons, that he always +wore. "The British gave me those for fighting against the northern +tribes beyond the Himalayas," he would tell them. "The southern +tribes--Bengalis of the south and east--would give better picking than +mere medal ribbons!" + +They were not all sure of him. They were not all satisfied why he +should ride on to Peshawur, and decline to stay with them and talk good +sedition. + +"I would see how the British are!" he told them. And he told the truth. +But they were not quite satisfied; he would have made a splendid leader +to have kept among them, until he--too--became too powerful and would +have to be deposed in turn. + +His own holding was a long way from Peshawur, and he was no rich man +who could afford at a mere whim to ride two long days' march beyond his +goal. Nor was he, as he had explained to Miss McClean, a letter-carrier; +he would get no more than the merest thanks for delivering her letters +to where they could be included in the Government mail-bag. Yet he +left the road that would have led him homeward to his left, and carried +on--quickening his pace as he neared the frontier garrison town, and +wasting, then, no time at all on seeking information. Nobody supposed +that the Pathans and the other frontier tribes were anything but openly +rebellious, and he would have been an idiot to ask questions about their +loyalty. + +Because of their disloyalty, and the ever-present danger that they +were, the biggest British garrison in India had to be kept cooped up +in Peshawur, to rot with fever and ague and the other ninety Indian +plagues. + +He wanted to see that garrison again, and estimate it, and make up his +mind what exactly, or probably, the garrison would do in the event of +the rebellion blazing out. And he wanted to try once more to warn some +one in authority, and make him see the smouldering fire beneath the +outer covering of sullen silence. + +He received thanks for the letters. He received an invitation to take +tea on the veranda of an officer so high in the British service +that many a staff major would have given a month's pay for a like +opportunity. But he was laughed at for the advice he had to give. + +"Mahommed Gunga, you're like me, you're getting old!" said the high +official. + +"Not so very old, sahib. I was a young man when Cunnigan-bahadur raised +a regiment and licked the half of Rajputana into shape with it. Not too +old, sahib, to wish there were another Cunnigan to ride with!" + +"Well, Mahommed Gunga, you're closer to your wish than you suppose! +Young Cunningham's gazetted, and probably just about starting on his way +out here via the Cape of Good Hope. He should be here in three or four +months at the outside." + +"You mean that, sahib?" + +"Wish I didn't! The puppy will arrive here with altogether swollen +notions of his own importance and what is due his father's son. He's +been captain of his college at home, and that won't lessen his sense of +self-esteem either. I can foresee trouble with that boy!" + +"Sahib, there is a service I could render!" + +The Rajput spoke with a strangely constrained voice all of a sudden, +but the Commissioner did not notice it; he was too busy pulling on a +wool-lined jacket to ward off the evening chill. + +"Well, risaldar--what then?" + +"I think that I could teach the son of Cunnigan-bahadur to be worth his +salt." + +"If you'll teach him to be properly respectful to his betters I'll be +grateful to you, Mahommed Gunga." + +"Then, sahib, I shall have certain license allowed me in the matter?" + +"Do anything you like, in reason, risaldar! Only keep the pup from +cutting his eye-teeth on his seniors' convenience, that's all!" + +Mahommed Gunga wasted no time after that on talking, nor did he wait to +specify the nature of the latitude he would expect to be allowed him; he +knew better. And he knew now that the one chance that he sought had been +given him. + +Like all observant natives, he was perfectly aware that the British +weakness mostly lay in the age of the senior officers and the slowness +of promotion. There were majors of over fifty years of age, and if a +man were a general at seventy he was considered fortunate and young. The +jealousy with which younger men were regarded would have been humorous +had it not come already so near to plunging India into anarchy. + +He did not even trouble to overlook the garrison. He took his leave, +and rode away the long two-day ride to his own place, where a sadly +attenuated rent-roll and a very sadly thinned-down company of servants +waited his coming. There, through fourteen hurried, excited days, he +made certain arrangements about the disposition of his affairs during +an even longer absence; he made certain sales--pledged the rent of fifty +acres for ten years, in return for an advance--and on the fifteenth day +rode southward, at the head of a five-man escort that, for quality, was +worthy of a prince. + +A little less than three months later he arrived at Bombay, and by dint +of much hard bargaining and economy fitted out himself and his escort, +so that each man looked as though he were the owner of an escort of his +own. Then, fretful at every added day that strained his fast-diminishing +resources, he settled down to wait until the ship should come that +brought young Cunningham. + + + +CHAPTER V + + + Lies home beneath a sickly sun, + Where humbleness was taught me? + Or here, where spurs my father won + On bended knee are brought me? + +HE landed, together with about a dozen other newly gazetted subalterns +and civil officers, cramped, storm-tossed, snubbed, and then disgorged +from a sailing-ship into a port that made no secret of its absolute +contempt for new arrivals. + +There were liners of a kind on the Red Sea route, and the only seniors +who chose the long passage round the Cape were men returning after +sick-leave--none too sweet-tempered individuals, and none too prone +to give the young idea a good conceit of himself. He and the other +youngsters landed with a crushed-in notion that India would treat +them very cavalierly before she took them to herself. And all, save +Cunningham, were right. + +The other men, all homesick and lonely and bewildered, were met by +bankers' agents, or, in cases, only by a hotel servant armed with a +letter of instructions. Here and there a bored, tired-eyed European had +found time, for somebody-or-other's sake, to pounce on a new arrival +and bear him away to breakfast and a tawdry imitation of the real +hospitality of northern India; but for the most part the beardless boys +lounged in the red-hot customs shed (where they were to be mulcted for +the privilege of serving their country) and envied young Cunningham. + +He--as pale as they, as unexpectant as they were of anything approaching +welcome--was first amazed, then suspicious, then pleased, then proud, in +turn. The different emotions followed one another across his clean-lined +face as plainly as a dawn vista changes; then, as the dawn leaves a +landscape finally, true and what it is for all to see, true dignity was +left and the look of a man who stands in armor. + +"His father's son!" growled Mahommed Gunga; and the big, black-bearded +warriors who stood behind him echoed, "Ay!" + +But for four or five inches of straight stature, and a foot, perhaps, +of chest-girth, he was a second edition of the Cunnigan-bahadur who had +raised and led a regiment and licked peace into a warring countryside; +and though he was that much bigger than his father had been, they dubbed +him "Chota" Cunnigan on the instant. And that means "Little Cunningham." + +He had yet to learn that a Rajput, be he poorest of the poor, admits no +superior on earth. He did not know yet that these men had come, at one +man's private cost, all down the length of India to meet him. Nobody had +told him that the feudal spirit dies harder in northern Hindustan than +it ever did in England, or that the Rajput clans cohere more tightly +than the Scots. The Rajput belief that honest service--unselfishly +given--is the greatest gift that any man may bring--that one who has +received what he considers favors will serve the giver's son--was an +unknown creed to him as yet. + +But he stood and looked those six men in the eye, and liked them. And +they, before they had as much as heard him speak, knew him for a soldier +and loved him as he stood. + +They hung sickly scented garlands round his neck, and kissed his hand +in turn, and spoke to him thereafter as man to man. They had found their +goal worth while, and they bore him off to his hotel in clattering glee, +riding before him as men who have no doubt of the honor that they +pay themselves. No other of the homesick subalterns drove away with a +six-man escort to clear the way and scatter sparks! + +They careered round through the narrow gate of the hotel courtyard as +though a Viceroy at least were in the trap behind them; and Mahommed +Gunga--six medaled, strapping feet of him--dismounted and held out an +arm for him to take when he alighted. The hotel people understood at +once that Somebody from Somewhere had arrived. + +Young Cunningham had never yet been somebody. The men who give their +lives for India are nothing much at home, and their sons are even less. +Scarcely even at school, when they had made him captain of the team, had +he felt the feel of homage and the subtle flattery that undermines a +bad man's character; at schools in England they confer honors but take +simultaneous precautions. He was green to the dangerous influence of +feudal loyalty, but he quitted himself well, with reserve and dignity. + +"He is good! He will do!" swore Mahommed Gunga fiercely, for the other +emotions are meant for women only. + +"He is better than the best!" + +"We will make a man of this one!" + +"Did you mark how he handed me his purse to defray expenses?" asked a +black-bearded soldier of the five. + +"He is a man who knows by instinct!" said Mahommed Gunga. "See to it +that thy accounting is correct, and overpay no man!" + +Deep-throated as a bull, erect as a lance, and pleased as a little +child, Mahommed Gunga came to him alone that evening to talk, and to +hear him talk, and to tell him of the plans that had been made. + +"Thy father gave me this," he told him, producing a gold watch and +chain of the hundred-guinea kind that nowadays are only found among +the heirlooms. Young Cunningham looked at it, and recognized the heavy +old-gold case that he had been allowed to "blow open" when a little boy. +On the outside, deep-chiseled in the gold, was his father's crest, and +on the inside a portrait of his mother. + +"Thy father died in these two arms, bahadur! Thy father said: 'Look +after him, Mahommed Gunga, when the time is ripe for him to be a +soldier.' And I said: 'Ha, huzoor!' So! Then here is India!" + +He waved one hand grandiloquently, as though he were presenting the +throne of India to his protege! + +"Here, sahib, is a servant--blood of my own blood." + +He clapped his hands, and a man who looked like the big, black-ended +spirit of Aladdin's lamp stood silent, instant, in the doorway. + +"He speaks no English, but he may help to teach thee the Rajput tongue, +and he will serve thee well--on my honor. His throat shall answer for +it! Feed him and clothe him, sahib, but pay him very little--to serve +well is sufficient recompense." + +Young Cunningham gave his keys at once to the silent servant, as a tacit +sign that from that moment he was trusted utterly; and Mahommed Gunga +nodded grim approval. + +"Thy father saw fit to bequeath me much in the hour when death came on +him, sahib. I am no boaster, as he knew. Remember, then, to tell me if I +fail at any time in what is due. I am at thy service!" + +Tact was inborn in Cunningham, as it had been in his father. He realized +that he ought at once to show his appreciation of the high plane of the +service offered. + +"There is one way in which you could help me almost at once, Mahommed +Gunga," he answered. + +"Command me, sahib." + +"I need your advice--the advice of a man who really knows. I need +horses, and--at first at least--I would rather trust your judgment than +my own. Will you help me buy them?" + +The Raiput's eyes blazed pleasure. On war, and wine, and women, and a +horse are the four points to ask a man's advice and win his approval by +the asking. + +"Nay, sahib; why buy horses here? These Bombay traders have only crows' +meat to sell to the ill-advised. I have horses, and spare horses for +the journey; and in Rajputana I have horses waiting for thee--seven, +all told--sufficient for a young officer. Six of them are +country-bred-sand-weaned--a little wild perhaps, but strong, and up to +thy weight. The seventh is a mare, got by thy father's stallion Aga +Khan (him that made more than a hundred miles within a day under a +fifteen-stone burden, with neither food nor water, and survived!). A +good mare, sahib--indeed a mare of mares--fit for thy father's son. That +mare I give thee. It is little, sahib, but my best; I am a poor man. The +other six I bought--there is the account. I bought them cheaply, paying +less than half the price demanded in each case--but I had to borrow and +must pay back." + +Young Cunningham was hard put to it to keep his voice steady as he +answered. This man was a stranger to him. He had a hazy recollection +of a dozen or more bearded giants who formed a moving background to his +dreams of infancy, and he had expected some sort of welcome from one or +two perhaps, of his father's men when he reached the north. But to have +men borrow money that they might serve him, and have horses ready for +him, and to be met like this at the gate of India by a man who admitted +he was poor, was a little more than his self-control had been trained as +yet to stand. + +"I won't waste words, Mahommed Gunga," he said, half-choking. +"I'll--er--I'll try to prove how I feel about it." + +"Ha! How said I? Thy father's son, I said! He, too, was no believer in +much promising! I was his servant, and will serve him still by serving +thee. The honor is mine, sahib, and the advantage shall be where thy +father wished it." + +"My father would never have had me--" + +"Sahib, forgive the interruption, but a mistake is better checked. Thy +father would have flung thee ungrudged, into a hell of bayonets, me, +too, and would have followed after, if by so doing he could have served +the cause he held in trust. He bred thee, fed thee, and sent thee +oversea to grow, that in the end India might gain! Thou and I are +but servants of the peace, as he was. If I serve thee, and thou the +Raj--though the two of us were weaned on the milk of war and get our +bread by war--we will none the less serve peace! Aie! For what is honor +if a soldier lets it rust? Of what use is service, mouthed and ready, +but ungiven? It is good, Chota-Cunnigan-bahadur, that thou art come at +last!" + +He saluted and backed out through the swinging door. He had come in his +uniform of risaldar of the elder Cunningham's now disbanded regiment, +so he had not removed his boots as another native--and he himself if +in mufti--would have done. Young Cunningham heard him go swaggering and +clanking and spur-jingling down the corridor as though he had half a +troop of horse behind him and wanted Asia to know it! + +It was something of a brave beginning that, for a twenty-one-year-old! +Something likely--and expressly calculated by Mahommed Gunga--to bring +the real man to the surface. He had been no Cunningham unless his sense +of duty had been very near the surface--no Englishman, had he not been +proud that men of a foreign, conquered race should think him worthy of +all that honor; and no man at all if his eye had been quite dry when +the veteran light-horseman swaggered out at last and left him to his own +reflections. + +He had not been human if he had not felt a little homesick still, +although home to him had been a place where a man stayed with distant +relatives between the intervals of school. He felt lonely, in spite of +his reception--a little like a baby on the edge of all things new and +wonderful. He would have been no European if he had not felt the heat, +the hotel was like a vapor-bath. + +But the leaping red blood of youth ran strong in him. He had +imagination. He could dream. The good things he was tasting were a +presage only of the better things to come, and that is a wholesome point +of view. He was proud--as who would not be?--to step straight into the +tracks of such a father; and with that thought came another--just as +good for him, and for India, that made him feel as though he were a +robber yet, a thief in another's cornfield, gathering what he did not +sow. It came over him in a flood that he must pay the price of all this +homage. + +Some men pay in advance, some at the time, and some pay afterward. +All men, he knew, must pay. It would be his task soon to satisfy these +gentle-men, who took him at his face value, by proving to them that +they had made no very great mistake. The thought thrilled him instead +of frightening--brought out every generous instinct that he had and made +him thank the God of All Good Soldiers that at least he would have a +chance to die in the attempt. There was nothing much the matter with +young Cunningham. + + + +CHAPTER VI + + + I take no man at rumor's price, + Nor as the gossips cry him. + A son may ride, and stride, and stand; + His father's eye--his father's hand-- + His father's tongue may give command; + But ere I trust I'll try him! + +BUT before young Cunningham was called upon to pay even a portion of the +price of fealty there was more of the receiving of it still in store +for him, and he found himself very hard put to it, indeed, to keep +overboiling spirits from becoming exultation of the type that nauseates. + +None of the other subalterns had influence, nor had they hereditary +anchors in the far northwest that would be likely to draw them on to +active service early in their career. They had already been made to +surrender their boyhood dreams of quick promotion; now, standing in +little groups and asking hesitating questions, they discovered that +their destination--Fort William--was about the least desirable of all +the awful holes in India. + +They were told that a subaltern was lucky who could mount one step of +the promotion ladder in his first ten years; that a major at fifty, a +colonel at sixty, and a general at seventy were quite the usual thing. +And they realized that the pay they would receive would be a mere +beggar's pittance in a neighborhood so expensive as Calcutta, and that +their little private means would be eaten up by the mere, necessities +of life. They showed their chagrin and it was not very easy for young +Cunningham, watching Mahommed Gunga's lordly preparations for the long +up-country journey, to strike just the right attitude of pleasure at the +prospect without seeming to flaunt his better fortune. + +Mahommed Gunga interlarded his hoarse orders to the mule-drivers with +descriptions in stateliest English, thrown out at random to the world at +large, of the glories of the manlier north--of the plains, where a man +might gallop while a horse could last, and of the mountains up beyond +the plains. He sniffed at the fetid Bombay reek, and spoke of the clean +air sweeping from the snow-topped Himalayas, that put life and courage +into the lungs of men who rode like centaurs! And the other subalterns +looked wistful, eying the bullock-carts that would take their baggage by +another route. + +Fully the half of what Mahommed Gunga said was due to pride of race +and country. But the rest was all deliberately calculated to rouse the +wicked envy of those who listened. He meant to make the son of "Pukka" +Cunnigan feel, before he reached his heritage, that he was going up to +something worth his while. To quote his own north-country metaphor, he +meant to "make the colt come up the bit." He meant that "Chota" Cunnigan +should have a proper sense of his own importance, and should chafe at +restraint, to the end that when his chance did come to prove himself he +would jump at it. Envy, he calculated--the unrighteous envy of men less +fortunately placed--would make a good beginning. And it did, though +hardly in the way he calculated. + +Young Cunningham, tight-lipped to keep himself from grinning like a +child, determined to prove himself worthy of the better fortune; and +Mahommed Gunga would have cursed into his black beard in disgust had +he known of the private resolutions being formed to obey orders to the +letter and obtain the good will of his seniors. The one thing that the +grim old Rajput wished for his protege was jealousy! He wanted him so +well hated by the "nabobs" who had grown crusty and incompetent in high +command that life for him in any northern garrison would be impossible. + +Throughout the two months' journey to the north Mahommed Gunga never +left a stone unturned to make Cunningham believe himself much more than +ordinary clay. All along the trunk road, that trails by many thousand +towns and listens to a hundred languages, whatever good there was was +Cunningham's. Whichever room was best in each dak-bungalow, whichever +chicken the kansamah least desired to kill, whoever were the stoutest +dhoolee-bearers in the village, whichever horse had the easiest +paces--all were Cunningham's. Respect were his, and homage and +obeisance, for the Rajput saw to it. + +Of evenings, while they rested, but before the sun went down, the old +risaldar would come with his naked sabre and defy "Chota" Cunnigan to +try to touch him. For five long weeks he tried each evening, the Rajput +never doing anything but parry,--changing his sabre often to the other +hand and grinning at the schoolboy swordsmanship--until one evening, at +the end of a more than usually hard-fought bout, the youngster pricked +him, lunged, and missed slitting his jugular by the merest fraction of +an inch. + +"Ho!" laughed Mahommed Gunga later, as he sluiced out the cut while his +own adherents stood near by and chaffed him. "The cub cuts his teeth, +then! Soon it will be time to try his pluck." + +"Be gentle with him, risaldar-sahib; a good cub dies as easily as a poor +one, until he knows the way." + +"Leave him to me! I will show him the way, and we will see what we will +see. If he is to disgrace his father's memory and us, he shall do it +where there are few to see and none to talk of it. When Alwa and the +others ask me, as they will ask, 'Is he a man?' I will give them a true +answer! I think he is a man, but I need to test him in all ways possible +before I pledge my word on it." + +But after that little accident the old risaldar had sword-sticks +fashioned at a village near the road, and ran no more risks of being +killed by the stripling he would teach; and before many more days of +the road had ribboned out, young Cunningham--bareback or from the +saddle--could beat him to the ground, and could hold his own on foot +afterward with either hand. + +"The hand and eye are good!" said Mahommed Gunga. "It is time now for +another test." + +So he made a plausible excuse about the horses, and they halted for four +days at a roadside dak-bungalow about a mile from where a foul-mouthed +fakir sat and took tribute at a crossroads. It was a strangely chosen +place to rest at. + +Deep down in a hollow, where the trunk road took advantage of a winding +gorge between the hills--screened on nearly all sides by green +jungle whose brown edges wilted in the heat which the inner steam +defied--stuffy, smelly, comfortless, it stood like a last left +rear-guard of a white-man's city, swamped by the deathless, ceaselessly +advancing tide of green. It was tucked between mammoth trees that +had been left there when the space for it was cleared a hundred +years before, and that now stood like grim giant guardians with arms +out-stretched to hold the verdure back. + +The little tribe of camp-followers chased at least a dozen snakes out +of corners, and slew them in the open, as a preliminary to further +investigation. There were kas-kas mats on the foursquare floors, and +each of these, when lifted, disclosed a swarm of scorpions that had to +be exterminated before a man dared move his possessions in. The once +white calico ceilings moved suggestively where rats and snakes chased +one another, or else hunted some third species of vermin; and there was +a smell and a many-voiced weird whispering that hinted at corruption and +war to the death behind skirting boards and underneath the floor. + +It had evidently not been occupied for many years; the kansamah looked +like a gray-bearded skeleton compressed within a tightened shroud of +parchment skin that shone where a coffin or a tomb had touched it. He +seemed to have forgotten what the bungalow was for, or that a sahib +needed things to eat, until the ex-risaldar enlightened him, and then he +complained wheezily. + +The stables--rather the patch-and-hole-covered desolation that once had +been stables--were altogether too snake-defiled and smelly to be worth +repairing; the string of horses was quartered cleanly and snugly under +tents, and Mahommed Gunga went to enormous trouble in arranging a ring +of watch-fires at even distances. + +"Are there thieves here, then?" asked Cunningham, and the Rajput nodded +but said nothing. He seemed satisfied, though, that the man he had +brought safely thus far at so much trouble would be well enough housed +in the creaky wreck of the bungalow, and he took no precautions of any +kind as to guarding its approaches. + +Cunningham watched the preparations for his supper with ill-concealed +disgust--saw the customary chase of a rubber-muscled chicken, heard its +death gurgles, saw the guts removed, to make sure that the kansamah did +not cook it with that part of its anatomy intact, as he surely would do +unless watched--and then strolled ahead a little way along the road. + +The fakir was squatting in the distance, on a big white stone, and in +the quiet of the gloaming Cunningham could hear his coarse, lewd voice +tossing crumbs of abuse and mockery to the seven or eight villagers +who squatted near him--half-amused, half-frightened, and altogether +credulous. + +Even as he drew nearer Cunningham could not understand a word of what +the fakir said, but the pantomime was obvious. His was the voice and +the manner of the professional beggar who has no more need to whine +but still would ingratiate. It was the bullying, brazen swagger and +the voice that traffics in filth and impudence instead of wit; and, in +payment for his evening bellyful he was pouring out abuse of Cunningham +that grew viler and yet viler as Cunningham came nearer and the fakir +realized that his subject could not understand a word of it. + +The villagers looked leery and eyed Cunningham sideways at each fresh +sally. The fakir grew bolder, until one of his listeners smothered +an open laugh in both hands and rolled over sideways. Cunningham came +closer yet, half-enamoured of the weird scene, half-curious to discover +what the stone could be on which the fakir sat. + +The fakir grew nervous. Perhaps, after all, this was one of those +hatefully clever sahibs who know enough to pretend they do not know! +The abuse and vile innuendo changed to more obsequious, less obviously +filthy references to other things than Cunningham's religion, likes, +and pedigree, and the little crowd of men who had tacitly encouraged him +before got ready now to stand at a distance and take sides against him +should the white man turn out to have understood. + +But Cunningham happened to catch sight of a cloud of paroquets that +swept in a screaming ellipse for a better branch to nest in and added +the one touch of gorgeous color needed to make the whole scene utterly +unearthly and unlike anything he had ever dreamed of, or had seen in +pictures, or had had described to him. He stood at gaze--forgetful of +the stone that had attracted him and of the fakir--spellbound by the +wonder-blend of hues branch-backed, and framed in gloom as the birds' +scream was framed in silence. + +And, seeing him at gaze, the fakir recovered confidence and jeered new +ribaldry, until some one suddenly shot out from behind Cunningham, and +before he had recovered from his surprise he saw the fakir sprawling on +his back, howling for mercy, while Mahommed Gunga beat the blood out of +him with a whalebone riding-whip. + +The sun went down with Indian suddenness and shut off the scene +of upraised lash and squirming, naked, ash-smeared devil, as a +magic-lantern picture; disappears. Only the creature's screams +reverberated through the jungle, like a belated echo to the restless +paroquets. + +"He will sleep less easily for a week or two!" hazarded Mahommed Gunga, +stepping back toward Cunningham. In the sudden darkness the white +breeches showed and the whites of his eyes, but little else; his voice +growled like a rumble from the underworld. + +"Why did you do it, risaldar? What did he say?" + +"It was enough, bahadur, that he sat on that stone; for that alone +he had been beaten! What he said was but the babbling of priests. All +priests are alike. They have a common jargon--a common disrespect for +what they dare not openly defy. These temple rats of fakirs mimic them. +That is all, sahib. A whipping meets the case." + +"But the stone? Why shouldn't he sit on it?" + +"Wait one minute, sahib, and then see." He formed his hands into a +trumpet and bellowed through them in a high-pitched, nasal, ululating +order to somebody behind: + +"Oh-h-h--Battee-lao!" + +The black, dark roadside echoed it and a dot of light leapt up as a man +came running with what gradually grew into a lamp. + +Mahommed Gunga seized the lamp, bent for a few seconds over the still +sprawling fakir, whipped him again twice, cursed him and kicked him, +until he got up and ran like a spectre for the gloom beyond the trees. +Then, with a rather stately sweep of the lamp, and a tremble in his +voice that was probably intentional--designed to make Cunningham at +least aware of the existence of emotion before he looked--he let the +light fall on the slab on which the fakir had been squatting. + +"Look, Cunningham-sahib!" + +The youngster bent down above the slab and tried, in the fitful light, +to make out what the markings were that ran almost from side to side, in +curves, across the stone; but it was too dark--the light was too fitful; +the marks themselves were too faint from the constant squatting of +roadside wanderers. + +Mahommed Gunga set the lamp down on the stone, and he and the attendant +took little sticks, sharp-pointed, with which they began to dig +hurriedly, scratching and scraping at what presently showed, even in +that rising and falling light, as Roman lettering. Soon Cunningham +himself began to lend a hand. He made out a date first, and he could +feel it with his fingers before his eyes deciphered it. Gradually, +letter by letter--word by word--he read it off, feeling a strange new +thrill run through him, as each line followed, like a voice from the +haunted past. + + + A.D. 1823. A.D. + SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF GENERAL ROBERT FRANCIS CUNNINGHAM + WHO DIED ON THIS SPOT + AETAT 81 + FROM + WOUNDS INFLICTED BY A + TIGER + +There was no sound audible except the purring of the lamp flame and +the heavy breathing of the three as Cunningham gazed down at the very +crudely carved, stained, often-desecrated slab below which lay the first +of the Anglo-Indian Cunninghams. + +This man--these crumbled bones that lay under a forgotten piece of +rock--had made all of their share of history. They had begotten "Pukka" +Cunningham, who had hacked the name deeper yet in the crisscrossed +annals of a land of war. It was strange--it was queer--uncanny--for the +third of the Cunninghams to be sitting on the stone. It was unexpected, +yet it seemed to have a place in the scheme of things, for he caught +himself searching his memory backward. + +He received an impression that something was expected of him. He knew, +by instinct and reasoning he could not have explained, that neither +Mahommed Gunga nor the other men would say a word until he spoke. They +were waiting--he knew they were--for a word, or a sign, or an order +(he did not know which), on which would hang the future of all three of +them. + +Yet there was no hurry--no earthly hurry. He felt sure of it. In +the silence and the blackness--in the tense, steamy atmosphere of +expectancy--he felt perfectly at ease, although he knew, too, that there +was superstition to be reckoned with--and that is something which a +white man finds hard to weigh and cope with, as a rule. + +The sweat ran down his face in little streams a the prickly heat began +to move across his skin, like a fiery-footed centiped beneath his +undershirt, but he noticed, neither. He began to be unconscious anything +except the knowledge that the bones of his grandsire lay underneath +him and that Mahommed Gunga waited for the word that would fit into the +scheme and solve a problem. + +"Are there any tigers here now?" he asked presently, in a perfectly +normal voice. He spoke as he had done when his servant asked him which +suit he would wear. + +"Ha, sahib! Many." + +"Man-eaters, by any chance?" + +Mahommed Gunga and the other man exchanged quick glances, but Cunningham +did not look up. He did not see the quick-flashed whites as their eyes +met and looked down again. + +"There is one, sahib--so say the kansamah and the head man--a full-grown +tiger, in his prime." + +"I will shoot him." Four words, said quietly--not "Do you think," or "I +would like to," or "Perhaps." They were perfectly definite and without a +trace of excitement; yet this man had never seen a tiger. + +"Very good, sahib." That, too, was spoken in a level voice, but Mahommed +Gunga's eyes and the other man's met once again above his head. + +"We will stay here four days; by the third day there will be time enough +to have brought an elephant and--" + +"I will go on foot," said Cunningham, quite quietly. "Tomorrow, at dawn, +risaldar-sahib. Will you be good enough to make arrangements? All we +need to know is where he is and how to get there--will you attend to +that?" + +"Ha, sahib." + +"Thanks. I wonder if my supper's ready." + +He turned and walked away, with a little salute-like movement of his +hand that was reminiscent of his father. The two Rajputs watched him +in heavy-breathing silence until the little group of lights, where the +horse-tents faced the old dak-bungalow, swallowed him. Then: + +"He is good. He will do!" said the black-beard who had brought the lamp. + +"He is good. But many sahibs would have acted coolly, thus. There must +be a greater test. There must be no doubt--no littlest doubt. Alwa and +the others will ask me on my honor, and I will answer on my honor, yes +or no." + +It was an hour before the two of them returned, and looked the horses +over and strolled up to bid Cunningham good night; and in the meanwhile +they had seen about the morrow's tiger, and another matter. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + + What found ye, then? Why heated ye the pot? + What useful metal down the channels ran? + Gold? Steel for making weapons? Iron? What? + Nay. Out from the fire we kindled strode a man! + +THEY set the legs of Cunningham's string-woven bed into pans of water, +to keep the scorpions and ants and snakes at bay, and then left him in +pitch darkness to his own devices, with a parting admonition to keep his +slippers on for the floor, in the dark, would be the prowling-place of +venomed death. + +It was he who set the lamp on the little table by his bedside, for his +servant--for the first time on that journey--was not at hand to execute +his thoughts almost before he had spoken them. Mahommed Gunga had +explained that the man was sick; and that seemed strange, for he had +been well enough, and more than usually efficient, but an hour before. + +But there were stranger things and far more irritating ones to interfere +with the peaceful passage of the night. There were sounds that were +unaccountable; there was the memory of the wayside tombstone and the +train of thought that it engendered. Added to the hell-hot, baking +stuffiness that radiated from the walls, there came the squeaking of a +punka rope pulled out of time--the piece of piping in the mud-brick wall +through which the rope passed had become clogged and rusted, and the +villager pressed into service had forgotten how to pull; he jerked at +the cord between nods as the heat of the veranda and the unaccustomed +night duty combined to make him sleepy. + +Soon the squeaking became intolerable, and Cunningham swore at him--in +English, because he spoke little of any native language yet, and had not +the least idea in any case what the punka-wallah's tongue might be. +For a while after that the pulling was more even; he lay on one elbow, +letting the swinging mat fan just miss his ear, and examining his rifle +and pistols for lack of anything better to keep him from going mad. +Then, suddenly, the pulling ceased altogether. Silence and hell heat +shut down on him like a coffin lid. Even the lamp flame close beside him +seemed to grow dim; the weight of black night that was suffocating him +seemed to crush light out of the flame as well. + +No living mortal could endure that, he imagined. He swore aloud, but +there was no answer, so he got up, after crashing his rifle-butt down +on the floor to scare away anything that crawled. For a moment he stood, +undecided whether to take the lamp or rifle with him--then decided on +the rifle, for the lamp might blow out in some unexpected night gust, +whereas if he left it where it was it would go on burning and show him +the way back to bed again. Besides, he was too unaccustomed to the joy +of owning the last new thing in sporting rifles to hesitate for long +about what to keep within his grasp. + +Through the open door he could see nothing but pitch-blackness, +unpunctuated even by a single star. There were no lights where the tents +stood, so he judged that even the accustomed natives had found the added +heat of Mahommed Gunga's watch-fires intolerable and had raked them +out; but from where he imagined that the village must be came the +dum-tu-dum-tu-dum of tom-toms, like fever blood pulsating in the veins +of devils of the night. + +The punka-wallah slept. He could just make out the man's blurred +shape--a shadow in the shadows--dog-curled, with the punkah rope looped +round his foot. He kicked him gently, and the man stirred, but +fell asleep again. He kicked him harder. The man sat up and stared, +terrified; the whites of his eyes were distinctly visible. He seemed to +have forgotten why he was there, and to imagine that he saw a ghost. + +Cunningham spoke to him--he first words that came into his head. + +"Go on pulling," he said in English, quite kindly. + +But if he had loosed his rifle off, the effect could not have been more +instantaneous. Clutching his twisted rag of a turban in one hand, +and kicking his leg free, he ran for it--leaped the veranda rail, and +vanished--a night shadow, swallowed by its mother night. + +"Come back!" called Cunningham. "Iderao! I won't hurt you!" + +But there was no answer, save the tom-toms' thunder, swelling now into +a devil's chorus-coming nearer. It seemed to be coming from the forest, +but he reasoned that it could not be; it must be some village marriage +feast, or perhaps an orgy; he had paid out what would seem to the +villagers a lot of money, and it might be that they were celebrating the +occasion. It was strange, though, that he could see no lights where the +village ought to be. + +For a moment he had a half-formed intention to shout for Mahommed +Gunga; but he checked that, reasoning that the Rajput might think he +was afraid. Then his eye caught sight of something blacker than +the shadows--something long and thin and creepy that moved, and he +remembered that bed, where the pans of water would protect him, was the +only safe place. + +So he returned into the hot, black silence where the tiny lamp-flame +guttered and threw shadows. He wondered why it guttered. It seemed to +be actually short of air. There were four rooms, he remembered, to the +bungalow, all connected and each opening outward by a door that faced +one of the four sides; he wondered whether the outer doors were opened +to admit a draught, and started to investigate. + +Two of them were shut tight, and he could not kick them open; the +dried-out teak and the heavy iron bolts held as though they had been +built to resist a siege; the noise that he made as he rattled at them +frightened a swarm of unseen things--unguessed-at shapes--that scurried +away. He thought he could see beady little eyes that looked and +disappeared and circled round and stopped to look again. He could hear +creepy movements in the stillness. It seemed better to leave those doors +alone. + +One other door, which faced that of his own room, was open wide, and he +could feel the forest through it; there was nothing to be seen, but the +stillness moved. The velvet blackness was deeper by a shade, and the +heat, uprising to get even with the sky, bore up a stench with it. There +was no draught, no movement except upward. Earth was panting-in time, it +seemed, to the hellish thunder of the tom-toms. + +He went back and lay on the bed again, leaning the rifle against the +cot-frame, and trying by sheer will-power to prevent the blood from +bursting his veins. He realized before long that he was parched with +thirst, and reached out for the water-jar that stood beside the lamp; +but as he started to drink he realized that a crawling evil was swimming +round and round in rings in the water. In a fit of horror he threw the +thing away and smashed it into a dozen fragments in a corner. He saw a +dozen rats, at least, scamper to drink before the water could evaporate +or filter through the floor; and when they were gone there was no +half-drowned crawling thing either. They had eaten it. + +He clutched his rifle to him. The barrel was hot, but the feel of it +gave him a sense of companionship. And then, as he lay back on the bed +again, the lamp went out. He groped for it and shook it. There was no +oil. + +Now, what had been hot horror turned to fear that passed all +understanding--to the hate that does not reason--to the cold sweat +breaking on the roasted skin. Where the four walls had been there was +blackness of immeasurable space. He could hear the thousand-footed +cannibals of night creep nearer--driven in toward him by the dinning of +the tom-toms. He felt that his bed was up above a scrambling swarm of +black-legged things that fought. + +He had no idea how long he lay stock-still, for fear of calling +attention to himself, and hated his servant and Mahommed Gunga and all +India. Once--twice--he thought he heard another sound, almost like the +footfall of a man on the veranda near him. Once he thought that a man +breathed within ten paces of him, and for a moment there was a distinct +sensation of not being alone. He hoped it was true; he could deal with +an assassin. That would be something tangible to hate and hit. Manhood +came to his assistance--the spirit of the soldier that will bow to +nothing that has shape; but it died away again as the creeping silence +once more shut down on him. + +And then the thunder of the tom-toms ceased. Then even the venomed +crawlers that he knew were near him faded into nothing that really +mattered, compared to the greater, stealthy horror that he knew was +coming, born of the shuddersome, shut silence that ensued. There +was neither air nor view--no sense of time or space--nothing but +the coal-black pit of terror yawning--cold sweat in the heat, and a +footfall--an undoubted footfall--followed by another one, too heavy for +a man's. + +Where heavy feet were there was something tangible. His veins tingled +and the cold sweat dried. Excitement began to reawaken all his soldier +senses, and the wish to challenge seized him--the soldierly intent to +warn the unaware, which is the actual opposite of cowardice. + +"Halt! Who comes there?" + +He lipped the words, but his dry throat would not voice them. Before he +could clear his throat or wet his lips his eye caught something lighter +than the night--two things--ten--twelve paces off--two things that +glowed or sheened as though there were light inside them--too big and +too far apart to be owl's eyes, but singularly like them. They moved, a +little sideways and toward him; and again he heard the heavy, stealthy +footfall. + +They stayed still then for what may have been a minute, and another +sense--smell--warned him and stirred up the man in him. He had never +smelled it in his life; it must have been instinct that assured him of +an enemy behind the strange, unpleasant, rather musky reek that filled +the room. His right hand brought the rifle to his shoulder without +sound, and almost without conscious effort on his part. + +He forgot the heat now and the silence and discomfort. He lay still on +his side, squinting down the rifle barrel at a spot he judged was midway +between a pair of eyes that glowed, and wondering where his foresight +might be. It struck him all at once that it was quite impossible to see +the foresight--that he must actually touch what he would hit if he would +be at all sure of hitting it. He remembered, too, in that instant--as a +born soldier does remember things--that in the dark an attacking enemy +is probably more frightened than his foe. His father had told it him +when he was a little lad afraid of bogies; he in turn had told it to the +other boys at school, and they had passed it on until in that school it +had become rule number one of school-boy lore--just as rule number two +in all schools where the sons of soldiers go is "Take the fight to him." + +He leaped from the bed, with his rifle out in front of +him--white-nightshirted and unexpected--sudden enough to scare the +wits out of anything that had them. He was met by a snarl. The two eyes +narrowed, and then blazed. They lowered, as though their owner gathered +up his weight to spring. He fired between them. The flash and the +smoke blinded him; the burst of the discharge within four echoing walls +deadened his cars, and he was aware of nothing but a voice beside him +that said quietly: "Well done, bahadur! Thou art thy father's son!" + +He dropped his rifle butt to the floor, and some one struck a light. +Even then it was thirty seconds before his strained eyes grew accustomed +to the flare and he could see the tiger at his feet, less than a yard +away--dead, bleeding, wide-eyed, obviously taken by surprise and shot as +he prepared to spring. Beside him, within a yard, Mahommed Gunga stood, +with a drawn sabre in his right hand and a pistol in his left, and there +were three other men standing like statues by the walls. + +"How long have you been here?" demanded Cunningham. + +"A half-hour, sahib." + +"Why?" + +"In case of need, sahib. That tiger killed a woman yesterday at dawn +and was driven off his kill; he was not likely to be an easy mark for an +untried hunter." + +"Why did you enter without knocking?" + +The ex-risaldar said nothing. + +"I see that you have shoes on." + +"The scorpions, sahib--" + +"Would you be pleased, Mahommed Gunga, if I entered your house with my +hat on and without knocking or without permission?" + +"Sahib, I--" + +"Be good enough to have that brute's carcass dragged out and skinned, +and--ah--leave me to sleep, will you?" + +Mahommed Gunga bowed, and growled an order; another man passed the order +on, and the tom-tom thundering began again as a dozen villagers pattered +in to take away the tiger. + +"Tell them, please," commanded Cunningham, "that that racket is to +cease. I want to sleep." + +Again Mahommed Gunga bowed, without a smile or a tremor on his face; +again a growled order was echoed and re-echoed through the dark. The +drumming stopped. + +"Is there oil in the bahadur's lamp?" asked Mahommed Gunga. + +"Probably not," said Cunningham. + +"I will command that--" + +"You needn't trouble, thank you, risaldar-sahib. I sleep better in the +dark. I'll be glad to see you after breakfast as usual--ah--without your +shoes, unless you come in uniform. Good night." + +The Rajput signed to the others and withdrew with dignity. Cunningham +reloaded his rifle in the dark and lay down. Within five minutes +the swinging of the punka and the squeaking of the rope resumed, but +regularly this time; Mahommed Gunga had apparently unearthed a man who +understood the business. Reaction, the intermittent coolth, as the +mat fan swung above his face, the steady, evenly timed squeak and +movement--not least, the calm of well-asserted dignity--all joined to +have one way, and Chota-Cunnigan-bahadur slept, to dream of fire-eyed +tigers dancing on tombstones laid on the roof of hell, and of a +grandfather in full general's uniform, who said: "Well done, bahadur!" + +But outside, by a remade camp-fire, Mahommed Gunga sat and chuckled to +himself, and every now and then grew eloquent to the bearded men who sat +beside him. + +"Aie! Did you hear him reprimand me? By the beard of God's prophet, that +is a man of men! So was his father! Now I will tell Alwa and the others +that I bring a man to them! By the teeth of God and my own honor I will +swear to it! His first tiger--he had never seen a tiger!--in the dark, +and unexpected--caught by it, to all seeming, like a trapped man in a +cage--no lamp--no help at hand, or so he thought until it was all +over. And he ran at the tiger! And then, 'you come with your shoes on, +Mahommed Gunga--why, forsooth?' Did you hear him? By the blood of Allah, +we have a man to lead us!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + + Now, the gist of the thing is--Be silent. Be calm. + Be awake. Be on hand on the day. + Be instant to heed the first note of alarm. + And--precisely--exactly--Obey. + +AT Howrah, while Mahommed Gunga was employing each chance circumstance +to test the pluck and decision and reliability of Cunningham at almost +every resting-place along the Grand Trunk Road, the armed squire he had +left behind with a little handful of gold mohurs and three horses was +finding time heavy on his hands. + +Like his master, Ali Partab was a man of action, to whom the purlieus +of a caravansary were well enough on rare occasions. He could ruffle +it with the best of them; like any of his race, he could lounge +with dignity and listen to the tales that hum wherever many horsemen +congregate; and he was no mean raconteur--he had a tale or two to tell +himself, of women and the chase and of the laugh that he, too, had flung +in the teeth of fear when opportunity arose. + +But each new story of the paid taletellers, who squat and drone and +reach a climax, and then pass the begging bowl before they finish +it--each merrily related jest brought in by members of the constantly +arriving trading parties--each neigh of his three chargers--every new +phase of the kaleidoscopic life he watched stirred new ambition in +him to be up, and away, and doing. Many a dozen times he had to remind +himself that "there had been a trust imposed." + +He exercised the horses daily, riding each in turn until he was as lean +and lithe and hard beneath the skin as they were. They were Mahommed +Gunga's horses--he Mahommed Gunga's man; therefore, his honor was +involved. He reasoned, when he took the trouble to, along the good clean +feudal line that lays down clearly what service is: there is no honor, +says that argument, in serving any one who is content with half a +service, and the honor is the only thing that counts. + +As day succeeded ever sultrier, ever longer-drawn-out day--as each night +came that saw him peg the horses out wherever what little breezes moved +might fan them--as he sat among the courtyard groups and listened in the +heavy heat, the fact grew more apparent to him that this trust of his +was something after all which a man of worth might shoulder proudly. +There was danger in it. + +The talk among the traders--darkly hinted, most of it, and couched in +metaphor--was all of blood, and what would follow on the letting of it. +Now and then a loud-mouthed boaster would throw caution to the winds and +speak openly of a grim day coming for the British; he would be checked +instantly by wiser men, but not before Ali Partab had heard enough to +add to his private store of information. + +Priests came from a dozen cities to the eastward, all nominally after +pilgrims for the sacred places, but all strangely indifferent to their +quest. They preferred, it would seem, to sit in rings with chance-met +ruffians--with believers and unbelievers alike--even with men of no +caste at all--and talk of other things than pilgrimages. + +"Next year, one hundred years ago the English conquered India. Remember +ye the prophecy? One hundred years they had! This, then, is the last +year. Whom the gods would whelm they first deprive of reason; mark ye +this! The cartridges they serve out to the sepoys now are smeared with +the blended fat of cows and pigs. Knowing that we Hindoos hold the cow +a sacred beast, they do this sacrilege--and why? They would make us bite +the cartridges and lose our caste. And why again? Because they would +make us Christians! That is the truth! Else why are the Christian +missionaries here in Howrah?" + +The listeners would nod while the little red fires glowed and purred +above the pipes, and others not included in the circle strained forward +through the dark to listen. + +"The gods get ready now! Are ye ready?" + +Elsewhere, a hadji--green-turbaned from the pilgrimage to Mecca--would +hold out to a throng of true believers. + +"Ay! Pig's fat on the cartridges! The new drill is that the sepoy bites +the cartridge first, to spill a little powder and make priming. Which +true believer wishes to defile himself with pig's fat? Why do they +this? Why are the Christian missionaries here? Ask both riddles with one +breath, for both two are one!" + +"Slay, then!" + +"Up now, and slay!" + +There would be an instant, eager restlessness, while Ali Partab would +glance over to where the horses stood, and would wonder why the +word that loosed him was so long in coming. The hadji would calm his +listeners and tell them to get ready, but be still and await the sign. + +"There were to be one hundred years, ran the prophecy; but ninety-nine +and a portion have yet run. Wait for the hour!" + +Then, for perhaps the hundredth time, Ali Partab would pretend that +movement alone could save one or other of his horses from heat apoplexy. +He would mount, and ride at a walking pace through the streets that +seemed like a night view of a stricken battle-field, turn down by the +palace wall, and then canter to the schoolhouse, where the hag--wiser +than her mistress--would be sleeping in the open. + +"Thou! Mother of a murrain! Toothless one! Is there no word yet?" + +The hag would leer up through the heavy darkness--make certain that +he had no lance with him with which to prod her in the ribs--scratch +herself a time or two like a stray dog half awakened--and then leer +knowingly. + +"Hast thou the gold mohurs?" she would demand. + +"Am I a sieve?" + +"Let my old eyes see them, sahib." + +He would take out two gold coins and hold them out in such a way that +she could look at them without the opportunity to snatch. + +"There is no word yet," she would answer, when her eyes had feasted on +them as long as his patience would allow. + +"Have they no fear then?" + +"None. Only madness!" + +"See that they bite thee not! Keep thy wits with thee, and be ready to +bring me word in time, else--" + +"Patience, sahib! Show me the coins again--one little look--again once!" + +But Ali Partab would wheel and ride away, leaving her to mumble and +gibber in the road and curl again on to her blanket in the blackest +corner by the door. + +Once, on an expedition of that kind, he encountered Duncan McClean +himself. The lean, tall Scotsman, gray-headed from the cares he had +taken on himself, a little bowed from heat and hopelessness, but showing +no least symptom of surrender in the kind, strong lines of a rugged +face, stood, eyes upward, in the moonlight. The moon, at least, looked +cool. It was at the full, like a disk of silver, and he seemed to drink +in the beams that bathed him. + +"Does he worship it?" wondered Ali Partab, reining from an amble to a +walk and watching half-reverently. The followers of Mohammed are most +superstitious about the moon. The feeling that he had for this man of +peace who could so gaze up at it was something very like respect, and, +with the twenty-second sense that soldiers have, he knew, without a word +spoken or a deed seen done, that this would be a wielder of cold steel +to be reckoned should he ever slough the robes of peace and take it into +his silvered head to fight. The Rajput, that respects decision above all +other virtues, perhaps because it is the one that he most lacks, could +sense firm, unshakable, quick-seized determination on the instant. + +Duncan McClean acknowledged the fierce-seeming stare with a salute, +and Ali Partab dismounted instantly. He who holds a trust from such as +Mahommed Gunga is polite in recognition of the trust. He leaned, +then, against the horse's withers, wondering how far he ought to let +politeness go and whether his honor bade him show contempt for the +Christian's creed. + +"Is there any way, I wonder," asked the Scotsman, the clean-clipped +suspicion of Scots dialect betraying itself even through the Hindustanee +that he used, "of getting letters through to some small station?" + +"I know not," said the Rajput. + +"You are a Mohammedan?" The Scotsman peered at him, adjusting his +viewpoint to the moon's rays. "I see you are. A Rajput, too, I think." + +"Ha, sahib." + +"There was a Rangar here not very long ago." This man evidently knew the +proper title to give a he true believer of the proudest race there is. +Ali Partab's heart began to go out to him--"an officer, I think, once +of the Rajput Horse, who very kindly carried letters for me. Perhaps you +know of some other gentleman of your race about to travel northward? He +could earn, at least, gratitude." + +"So-ho!" thought Ali Partab to himself. "I have known men of his race +who would have offered money, to be spat on!--Not now, sahib," he +answered aloud. + +"Mahommed Gunga was the officer's name. Do you know him, or know of him, +by any chance?" + +"Ha, sahib, I know him well. It is an honor." + +The Scotsman smiled. "He must be very far away by this time. How many +are there, I wonder, in India who have such things said of them when +their backs are turned?" + +"More than a few, sahib! I would draw steel for the good name of more +than a hundred men whom I know, and there be many others!" + +"Men of your own race?" + +"And yours, sahib." + +There was no bombast in the man's voice; it was said good-naturedly, as +a man might say, "There are some friends to whom I would lend money." +No man with any insight could mistake the truth that underlay the boast. +The Scotsman bowed. + +"I am glad, indeed, to have met you. Will you sit down a little while?" + +"Nay, sahib. The hour is late. I was but keeping the blood moving in +this horse of mine." + +"Well, tell me, since you won't stay, have you any notion who the man +was whom Mahommed Gunga sent to get my letters? My daughter handed them +to him one evening, late, at this door." + +"I am he, sahib." + +"Then--I understood--perhaps I was mistaken--I thought it was his man +who came?" + +"Praised be Allah, I am his man, sahib!" + +"Oh! I wonder whether my servants praise God for the privilege!" McClean +made the remark only half-aloud and in English. Ali Partab could not +have understood the words, but he may have caught their meaning, for he +glanced sideways at the old hag mumbling in the shadow and grinned into +his beard. "Are you in communication with him? Could you get a letter to +him?" + +"I have no slightest notion where he is, sahib." + +"If my letters could once reach him, wherever he might be, I would feel +confident of their arriving at their destination." + +"I, too, sahib!" + +"I sent one letter--to a government official. It cannot have reached +him, for there should have been an answer and none has come. It had +reference to this terrible suttee business. Suttee is against the law +as well as against all dictates of reason and humanity; yet the Hindoos +make a constant practice of it here under our very eyes. These native +states are under treaty to observe the law. I intend to do all in my +power to put a stop to their ghoulish practices, and Maharajah Howrah +knows what my intentions are. It must be a Mohammedan, this time, to +whom I intrust my correspondence on suttee!" + +Now, a Rangar is a man whose ancestors were Hindoos but who +became converts to Islam. Like all proselytes, they adhere more +enthusiastically to their religion than do the men whose mother creed +it is; and the fact that the Rangars originally became converts under +duress is often thrown in their teeth by the Hindoos, who gain nothing +in the way of brotherly regard in the process. A Rangar hates a Hindoo +as enthusiastically as he loves a fight. Ali Partab began to drum his +fingers on his teeth and to exhibit less impatience to be off. + +"There is no knowing, sahib. I, too, am no advocate of superstitious +practices involving cruelty. I might get a letter through. My commission +from the risaldar-sahib would include all honorable matters not +obstructive to the main issue. I have certain funds--" + +"I, too, have funds," smiled the missionary. + +"I am not allowed, sahib, to involve myself in any brawl until after my +business is accomplished. It would be necessary first to assure me on +that point. My honor is involved in that matter. To whom, and of what +nature, would the letter be?" + +"A letter to the Company's Resident at Abu, reporting to him that Hindoo +widows are still compelled in this city to burn themselves to death +above their husbands' funeral pyres." + +The Rajput grinned. "Does the Resident sahib not know it, then?" + +"There will be no chance of his not knowing should my report reach him!" + +"I will see, sahib, what can be done, then, in the matter. If I can find +a man, I will bring him to you." + +The missionary thanked him and stood watching as the Rajput rode away. +When the horseman's free, lean back had vanished in the inky darkness +his eyes wandered over to a point where tongues of flame licked upward, +casting a dull, dancing, crimson glow on the hot sky. Here and there, +silhouetted in the firelight, he could see the pugrees and occasional +long poles of men who prodded at the embers. Ululating through the din +of tom-toms he could catch the wails of women. He shuddered, prayed a +little, and went in. + +That day even the little bazaar fosterlings, whom he had begged, and +coaxed, and taught, had all deserted to be present at the burning of +three widows. Even the lepers in the tiny hospital that he had started +had limped out for a distant view. He had watched a year's work +all disintegrating in a minute at the call of bestial, loathsome, +blood-hungry superstition. + +And he was a man of iron, as Christian missionaries go. He had been +hard-bitten in his youth and trained in a hard, grim school. In the Isle +of Skye he had seen the little cabin where his mother lived pulled down +to make more room for a fifty-thousand-acre deer-forest. He had seen his +mother beg. + +He had worked his way to Edinburgh, toiled at starvation wages for the +sake of leave to learn at night, burned midnight oil, and failed at the +end of it, through ill health, to pass for his degree. + +He had loved as only hard-hammered men can love, and had married after +a struggle the very thought of which would have melted the courage of an +ordinary man, only to see his wife die when her child was born. And even +then, in that awful hour, he had not felt the utterness of misery such +as came to him when he saw that his work in Howrah was undone. He had +given of his best, and all his best, and it seemed that he had given it +for nothing. + +"Who was that man, father?" asked a very weary voice through which +courage seemed to live yet, as the tiniest suspicion of a sweet refrain +still lives through melancholy bars. + +"The man who took your home letters to Mahommed Gunga." + +"And--?" + +"He has promised to try to find a man for me who will take my report on +this awful business to the Resident at Abu." + +"Father, listen! Listen, please!" Rosemary McClean drew a chair for him +and knelt beside him. Youth saved her face from being drawn as his, but +the heat and horror had begun to undermine youth's powers of resistance. +She looked more beautiful than ever, but no law lays down that a wraith +shall be unlovely. She had tried the personal appeal with him a hundred +times, and argument a thousand; now, she used both in a concentrated, +earnest effort to prevail over his stubborn will. Her will was as strong +as his, and yielded place to nothing but her sense of loyalty. There +were not only Rajputs, as the Rajputs knew, who could be true to a high +ideal. "I am sure that whoever that man is he must be the link between +us and the safety Mahommed Gunga spoke of. Otherwise, why does he stay +behind? Native officers who have servants take their servants with them, +as a rule." + +"Well?" + +"Give the word! Let us at least get in touch with safety!" + +"For myself, no. For you, yes! I have been weak with you, dear. I have +let my selfish pleasure in having you near me overcome my sense of +duty--that, and my faithless fear that you would not be properly +provided for. I think, too, that I have never quite induced myself +to trust natives sufficiently--even native gentlemen. You shall go, +Rosemary. You shall go as soon as I can get word to Mahommed Gunga's +man. Call that old woman in." + +"Father, I will not go without you, and you know it! My place is with +you, and I have quite made up my mind. If you stay, I stay! My presence +here has saved your life a hundred times over. No, I don't mean just +when you were ill; I mean that they dare not lay a finger on me! They +know that a nation which respects their women would strike hard and +swiftly to avenge a woman of its own! If I were to go away and leave +you they would poison you or stab you within a day, and then hold a mock +trial and hang some innocent or other to blind the British Government. I +would be a murderess if I left you here alone! Come! Come away!" + +He shook his head. "It was wrong of me to ever bring you here," he said +sadly. "But I did not know--I would never have believed." Then wrath +took hold of him--the awful, cold anger of the Puritan that hates evil +as a concrete thing, to be ripped apart with steel. "God's wrath shall +burst on Howrah!" he declared. "Sodom and Gomorrah were no worse! +Remember what befell them!" + +"Remember Lot!" said Rosemary. "Come away!" + +"Lot stayed on to the last, and tried to warn them! I will warn the +Resident! Here, give me my writing things--where are they?" + +He pushed her aside, none too gently, for the fire of a Covenanter's +anger was blazing in his eyes. + +"There are forty thousand British soldiers standing still, and +wrong--black, shameful wrong--is being done! For a matter of gold--for +fear of the cost in filthy lucre--they refrain from hurling wrong-doers +in the dust! For the sake of dishonorable peace they leave these native +states to misgovern themselves and stink to high heaven! Will God allow +what they do? The shame and the sin is on England's head! Her statesmen +shut their eyes and cry 'Peace, peace!' where there is no peace. Her +queen sits idle on the throne while widows burn, screaming, in the +flames of superstitious priests. Men tell her, 'All is well; there is +British rule in India!' They are too busy robbing widows in the +Isle of Skye to lend an ear to the cries of India's widows! +Corruption--superstition--murder--lies--black wrong--black +selfishness--all growing rank beneath the shadow of the British +rule--how long will God let that last?" + +He was pacing up and down like a caged lion, not looking at Rosemary, +not speaking to her--speaking to himself, and giving rein to all the +rankling rage at wrong that wrong had nurtured in him since his boyhood. +She knelt still by the chair, her eyes following him as he raged up and +down the matted floor. She pitied him more than she did India. + +When he took the one lamp at last and set it where the light would +fall above his writing pad, she left the room and went to stand at the +street-door, where the sluggish night air was a degree less stifling +than in the mud-plastered, low-ceilinged room. As she stood there, one +hand on either door-post to remind her she was living in a concrete +world, not a charred whisp swaying in the heat, a black thing rose out +of the blackness, and the toothless hag held out a bony hand and touched +her. + +"Is it not time yet for the word to go?" she asked. + +"No. No word yet, Joanna." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + + Now, God give good going to master o' mine, + God speed him, and lead him, and nerve him; + God give him a lead of a length in the line, + And,--God let him boast that I serve him! + +THE dawn was barely breaking yet when things stirred in the little +mission house. The flea-bitten gray pony was saddled by a sleepy saice, +and brought round from his open-sided thatch stable in the rear. The +violet and mauve, that precede the aching yellow glare of day were +fading; a coppersmith began his everlasting bong-bong-bong, apparently +reverberating from every direction; the last, almost indetectable, warm +whiff of night wind moved and died away, and the monkeys in the near-by +baobab chattered it a requiem. Almost on the stroke of sunrise Rosemary +McClean stepped out--settled her sun-helmet, with a moue above the +chin-strap that was wasted on flat-bosomed, black grandmotherdom and +sulky groom--and mounted. + +She needed no help. The pony stood as though he knew that the hot wind +would soon dry the life out of him; and, though dark rings beneath dark +eyes betrayed the work of heat and sleepless worry on a girl who should +have graced the cool, sweet, rain-swept hills of Scotland, she had +spirit left yet and an unspent store of youth. The saice seemed more +weathered than the twenty-year-old girl, for he limped back into the +smelly shelter of the servants' quarters to cook his breakfast and +mumble about dogs and sahibs who prefer the sun. + +She looked shrunk inside the riding-habit--not shrivelled, for she sat +too straight, but as though the cotton jacket had been made for a larger +woman. If she seemed tired, and if a stranger might have guessed that +her head ached until the chestnut curls were too heavy for it, she was +still supple. And, as she whipped the pony into an unwilling trot and +old mission-named Joanna broke into a jog behind, revolt--no longer +impatience, or discontent, or sorrow, but reckless rebellion--rode with +her. + +It was there, plain for the world to see, in the firm lines of a little +Puritan mouth, in the angle of a high-held chin in the set of a gallant +little pair of shoulders. The pony felt it, and leaned forward to a +canter. Joanna scented, smelt, or sensed in some manner known to Eastern +old age, that purpose was afoot; this was to be no early-morning canter, +merely out and home again; there was no time, now, for the customary +tricks of corner-cutting and rest-snatching under eaves; she tucked her +head down and jogged forward in the dust, more like a dog than ever. It +was a dog's silent, striving determination to be there when the finish +came--a dog's disregard of all object or objective but his master's--but +a long-thrown stride, and a crafty, beady eye that promised more +usefulness than a dog's when called on. + +The first word spoken was when Rosemary drew rein a little more than +half-way along the palace wall. + +"Are you tired yet, Joanna?" + +"Uh-uh!" the woman answered, shaking her head violently and pointing at +the sun that mounted every minute higher. The argument was obvious; in +less than twenty minutes the whole horizon would be shimmering again +like shaken plates of brass; wherever the other end might be, a rest +would be better there than here! Her mistress nodded, and rode on again, +faster yet; she had learned long ago that Joanna could show a dusty +pair of heels to almost anything that ran, and she had never yet +known distance tire her; it had been the thought of distance and speed +combined that made her pause and ask. + +She did not stop again until they had cantered up through the awakening +bazaar, where unclean-looking merchants and their underlings rinsed out +their teeth noisily above the gutters, and the pariah dogs had started +nosing in among the muck for things unthinkable to eat. The sun had +shortened up the shadows and begun to beat down through the gaps; the +advance-guard of the shrivelling hot wind had raised foul dust eddies, +and the city was ahum when she halted at last beside the big brick arch +of the caravansary, where Mahommed Gunga's boots and spurs had caught +her eye once. + +"Now, Joanna!" She leaned back from the saddle and spoke low, but with +a certain thrill. "Go in there, find me Mahommed Gunga-sahib's man, and +bring him out here!" + +"And if he will not come?" The old woman seemed half-afraid to enter. + +"Go in, and don't come out without him--unless you want to see me go in +by myself!" + +The old woman looked at her piercingly with eyes that gleamed from amid +a bunch of wrinkles, then motioned with a skinny arm in the direction of +an awning where shade was to be had from the dangerous early sun-rays. +She made no move to enter through the arch until her mistress had taken +shelter. + +Fifteen minutes later she emerged with Ali Partab, who looked sleepy, +but still more ashamed of his unmilitary dishabille. Rosemary McClean +glanced left and right--forgot about the awning and the custom which +decrees aloofness--ignored the old woman's waving arm and Ali Partab's +frown, and rode toward him eagerly. + +"Did Mahommed Gunga-sahib leave you here with any orders relative to +me?" she asked. + +The Rajput bowed. + +"Before he went away, he spoke to me of safety, and told me he would +leave a link between me and men whom I may trust." + +The Rajput bowed again. Neither of them saw an elbow laid on the +window-ledge of a room above the arch; it disappeared, and very gingerly +a bared black head replaced it. Then the head too disappeared. + +The girl's eyes sparkled as the reassurance came that at least one good +fighting man was waiting to do nothing but assist her. For the moment +she threw caution to the winds and remembered nothing but her plight and +her father's stubbornness. + +"My father will not come away, but--" + +Ali Partab's eyes betrayed no trace of concern. + +"But--I thought--Are you all alone?" + +"All alone, Miss-sahib, but your servant." + +"Oh! I thought--perhaps that"--she checked herself, then rushed the +words out as though ashamed of them--"that, if you had men to help you, +you might carry him away against his will! Where are these others who +are to be trusted?" + +Ali Partab grinned and then drew himself up with a movement of polite +dissent. It was not for him to question the suggestions of a Miss-sahib; +he conveyed that much with an inimitable air. But it was his business to +keep strictly to the letter of his orders. + +"Miss-sahib, I cannot do that. So said Mahommed Gunga: 'When the hag +brings word, then take three horses and bear the Miss-sahib and her +father to my cousin Alwa's place.' I stand ready to obey, but the +padre-sahib comes not against his will." + +"To whose place?" + +"Alwa's, Miss-sahib." + +"And who is he?" She seemed bewildered. "I had hoped to be escorted to +some British residency." + +"That would be for Alwa, should he see fit. He has men and horses, and +a fort that is impregnable. The Miss-sahib would be safe there under all +circumstances." + +"But--but, supposing I declined to accept that invitation? Supposing I +preferred not to be carried off to a--er--a Mohammedan gentleman's fort. +What then?" + +"I could but wait here, Miss-sahib, until the hour came when you +changed your mind, or until Mahommed Gunga by letter or by word of mouth +relieved me of my trust." + +"Oh! Then you will wait here until I ask?" + +"Surely, Miss-sahib." + +The head again peered through the window up above them, but disappeared +below the ledge furtively, and none of the three were aware of it. +For that matter, the old woman was gazing intently at Ali Partab and +listening eagerly; he stood almost underneath the arch, and Miss McClean +was staring at him frowning with the effort to translate her thoughts +into a language that is very far from easy. They would none of them have +seen the roof descending on them. + +"And--and won't you under any circumstances take us, say, to the +Resident at Abu instead?" + +"I may not, Miss-sahib." + +"But why?" + +"Of a truth I know not. I never yet knew Mahommed Gunga to give an order +without good reason for it; but beyond that he chose me, because he said +the task might prove difficult and he trusted me, I know nothing." + +"Have you no idea of the reason?" + +"Miss-sahib, I am a soldier. To me an order is an order to be carried +out; suspicions, fears are nothing unless they stand in the way of +accomplishment. I await your word. I am ready. The horses are here--good +horses--lean and hard. The order is that you must ask me." + +"Thank you--er--Ali what?--thank you, Ali Partab." The disappointment in +her voice was scarcely more noticeable than the despondency her drooping +figure showed. The little shoulders that had sat so square and gallantly +seemed to have lost their strength, and there was none of the determined +ring left in the words she hesitated for. "I--hope you will understand +that I am grateful--but--I cannot--er--see my way just yet to--" + +"In your good time, Miss-sahib. I was ordered to have patience!" + +"At least I will have more confidence, knowing that you are always close +at hand." + +The Rajput bowed. She reined back. He saluted, and she bowed again; +then, with a glance to make sure that Joanna followed, she started back +at little more than a walking pace--a dejected wraith of a girl on a +dejected-looking pony, too overcome by the upsetting of her rebellious +scheme to care or even think whether Joanna dropped out of sight or +not. Ali Partab watched her down the street with a face that betrayed no +emotion and no suspicion of what his thoughts might be. When she was out +of sight he went back under the arch to attend to his three horses; +and the moment that he did so a fat but very furtive Hindoo took his +place--glanced down the street once in the direction that Rosemary had +taken--and then darted up-street as fast as his shaking paunch would +let him. He had been gone at the least ten minutes, when Joanna, also +furtive, also in a hurry, dodged here and there among the commencing +surge of traffic and approached the arch again. + +It would be useless to try to read her mind, or to translate the glitter +of her beady eyes into thoughts intelligible to any but an Oriental. +It was quite clear, though, that she wished not to be noticed, that she +feared the occupants of the caravansary, and that she had returned for +word with Ali Partab. He, least of all, would have doubted her intention +of demanding the two gold mohurs, for it was she who had brought the +word that Miss McClean wanted him. But what relation that intention +had to her loyalty or treachery, or whether she were capable of +either--capable of anything except greed, and obedience for the sake of +pay--were problems no man living could have guessed. + +She asked the lounging sweeper by the arch whether Ali Partab had ridden +out as yet. He jeered back outrageous improprieties, suggestive of +impossible ambition on the hag's part. She called him "sahib," dubbed +him "father of a dozen stalwart sons," returned a few of his immodest +compliments with a flattering laugh, and learned that Ali Partab was +still busy in the caravansary. Then she proceeded to make herself +very inconspicuous beside a two-wheeled wagon, up-ended in the gutter +opposite the arch, and waited with eastern patience for the horseman to +ride out. + +She saw the fat Hindoo come back, in no particular hurry now, and seat +himself not far from her. Later she saw eight horsemen ride down the +street, pass the arch, wheel, and halt. She noticed that they were +not Maharajah Howrah's men but a portion of his brother Jaimihr's +body-guard, then took no further notice of them. If they chose to wait +there, it was no affair of hers, and to appear inquisitive would be to +invite a lance-butt, very shrewdly thrust where it would hurt. + +It was an hour at least before Ali Partab rode out through the arch, +looking down anxiously at his horse's off-hind that had been showing +symptoms of "brushing" lately. Joanna rose instantly to cross the street +and intercept him; and she recoiled in the nick of time to save herself +from being ridden down. + +At a sign from the fat Hindoo the eight horsemen spurred, and swooped +up-street with the speed and certainty of sparrow-hawks and the noise of +devastation. They rode down Ali Partab--unhorsed him--bound him--threw +him on his horse again--and galloped off before any but the Hindoo had +time to realize that he was their objective. He was gone--snatched +like a chicken from the coop. Noise and dust were all the trace or +explanation that he left. The mazy streets swallowed him; the Hindoo +waddled over to the arch and disappeared without a smile on his face to +show even interest. The interrupted trading and bartering went on again, +and no one commented or made a move to follow but Joanna. + +She watched the fat Hindoo, and made sure that she would recognize him +anywhere again. Then, by a trail that no one would have guessed at and +few could have followed, she made her way to Jaimihr's palace--three +miles away from Howrah's--where a dozen sulky-looking sepoys lolled, +dismounted, by the wooden gate. There was neither sight nor sound of +mounted men, and the gate was shut; but in the middle of the roadway +there was smoking dung, and there was a suspicion of overacting about +the indifference of the guardians of the entrance. + +There was no overacting, though, in what Joanna did. Nobody would have +dreamed that she was playing any kind of part, or interested in anything +at all except the coppers that she begged for. She squatted in +the roadway, ink-black and clear-cut in the now blazing sunlight, +alternately flattering them and pretending to a knowledge of +unguessed-at witchcraft. + +She was there still at midday when they changed the guard. She was +there when night fell, still squatting in the roadway, still exchanging +repartee and hints at the supernatural with armed men who shuddered now +and then between their bursts of mockery. The sore, suffering dogs that +sniff through the night for worse eyesores than themselves whimpered and +watched her. The guard changed and the moon paled, but she stayed +on; and whatever her purpose, or whatever information she obtained in +fragments amid the raillery, she did not return to the mission house. + +It was not until Rosemary McClean returned and dismounted by the door +that she realized Joanna had not kept pace. Even then she thought little +of it; the old woman often lingered on the homeward way when the chance +of her being needed was remote. Two or three hours passed before the +suspicion rose that anything might have happened to Joanna, and even +then she might not have been remembered had not Duncan McClean asked for +her. + +"I have changed my mind," he said, calling Rosemary into the long, low +living-room. It was darkened to exclude the hot wind and the glare, and +he looked like a ghost as he rose to meet her. "I have decided that my +duty is to get away from this place for your sake and for the sake of +the cause I have at heart. We are doing no good here. I can do most by +going to the Resident, or even to somebody higher up than he, and laying +my case before him personally. Send for Joanna, and tell her to go and +bring Mahommed Gunga's man." + +It was then that they missed Joanna and began to search for her. But no +Joanna came. It was then that Rosemary McClean rehearsed with her father +her former conversation with Mahommed Gunga and part, at least, of her +recent one with Ali Partab, and the missionary started off himself to +find the horseman whom Mahommed Gunga had so thoughtfully left behind. + +But he very naturally found no Ali Partab. What he did discover was that +he was followed--that a guard, unarmed but obvious, was placed around +the mission house--that his servants deserted one by one--that no more +children came to the mission school. + +He decided to take chances and ride off with his daughter in the night. +But the ponies went mysteriously lame, and nobody would lend or sell him +horses on any terms at all. He did his best to get a letter through to +anywhere where there were British, but nobody would take it. And then +Jaimihr came, swaggering with his escort, to offer him and his daughter +the hospitality of his palace. + +He declined that offer a little testily, for the insolence behind the +offer was less than half concealed. Jaimihr sneered as he rode away. + +"Perhaps a month or two of undisturbed enjoyment will induce the +padre-sahib to change his mind about my invitation!" he said nastily. +And he made no secret then, as he ordered them about before he went, +that the men who lounged and watched at every vantage-point were his. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + + They looked into my eyes and laughed,-- + But, what when I was gone? + Have strong men made me one of them? + Or do I ride alone? + +ON the morning after Mahommed Gunga's daring experiment with +Cunningham's nervous system he was anxious to say the least of it; and +that is only another way of saying that he was irritable. He watched the +Englishman at breakfast, on the dak-bungalow veranda, with a sideways +restless glance that gave the lie a dozen times over to his assumed air +of irascible authority. + +"We will see now what we will see," he muttered to himself. "These who +know such a lot imagine that the test is made. They forget that there +be many brave men of whom but a few are fit to lead. Now--now--we will +see!" And he kept on repeating that assurance to himself, with the +air of a man who would like to be assured, but is not, while he +ostentatiously found fault with every single thing on which his eyes +lit. + +"One would think that the Risaldar-sahib were afraid of consequences!" +whispered the youngest of his followers, stung to the quick by a quite +unmerited rebuke. "Does he fear that Chota-Cunnigan will beat him?" + +White men have been known--often--to do stupider things than that, +and particularly young white men who have not yet learned to gauge +proportions accurately; so there was nothing really ridiculous in the +suggestion. A young white man who has had his temper worked up to +the boiling-point, his nerves deliberately racked, and then has been +subjected to the visit of a driven tiger, may be confidently expected to +exhibit all the faults of which his character is capable. + +To make the situation even more ticklish, Cunningham's servant, in +his zeal for his master's comfort, had forgotten to sham sickness, and +instead of limping was in abominably active evidence. He was even doing +more than was expected of him. Ralph Cunningham had said nothing to +him--had not needed to; every single thing that a pampered sahib could +imagine that he needed was done for him in the proper order, without +noise or awkwardness, and the Risaldar cursed as he watched the +clockwork-perfect service. He had hoped for a lapse that might call +forth some pointer, either by way of irritation or amusement, as to how +young Cunningham was taking things. + +But not a thing went wrong and not a sign of any sort gave Cunningham. +The youngster did not smile either to himself darkly or at his servant. +He lit his after-breakfast cigar and smoked it peacefully, as though he +had spent an absolutely normal night, without even a dream to worry him, +and if he eyed Mahommed Gunga at all, he did it so naturally, and with +so little interest, that no deductions could be drawn from it. He was +neither more nor less than a sahib at his ease--which was disconcerting, +very, to the Oriental mind. + +He smoked the cigar to a finish, without a word or sign that he wished +to give audience. Then his eyes lit for the first time on the tiger-skin +that was pegged out tight, raw side upward, for the sun to sterilize; +he threw the butt of his cigar away and strolled out to examine the skin +without a sign to Mahommed Gunga, counted the claws one by one to +make sure that no superstitious native had purloined any of them, and +returned to his chair on the veranda without a word. + +"Is he vindictive, then?" wondered Mahommed Gunga. "Is he a mean man? +Will he bear malice and get even with me later on? If so--" + +"Present my compliments to Mahommed Gunga-sahib, and ask him to be good +enough to--" + +The Risaldar heard the order, and was on his way to the veranda before +the servant started to convey the message. He took no chances on a +reprimand about his shoes, for he swaggered up in riding-boots, which +no soldier can be asked to take off before he treads on a private floor; +and he saluted as a soldier, all dignity. It was the only way by which +he could be sure to keep the muscles of his face from telling tales. + +"Huzoor?" + +"Morning, Mahommed Gunga. Take a seat, won't you?" + +A camp-chair creaked under the descending Rajput's weight, and creaked +again as he remembered to settle himself less stiffly--less guiltily. + +"I say, I'm going to ask you chaps to do me a favor. You don't mind +obliging me now and then, do you?" + +The youngster leaned forward confidentially, one elbow on his knee, and +looked half-serious, as though what he had to ask were more important +than the ordinary. + +"Sahib, there is nothing that we will not do." + +"Ah! Then you won't mind my mentioning this, I'm sure. Next time you +want to kennel a tiger in my bedroom, d'you mind giving me notice in +advance? It's not the stink I mind, nor being waked up; it's the deuced +awful risk of hurting somebody. Besides--look how I spoilt that tiger's +mask! The skins I've always admired at home had been shot where it +didn't show so badly." + +There was not even the symptom of a smile on Cunningham's face. He +looked straight into Mahommed Gunga's eyes, and spoke as one man talking +calm common sense to another. He raised his hand as the Rajput began to +stammer an apology. + +"No. Don't apologize. If you'll forgive me for shooting your pet tiger, +I'll overlook the rest of it. If I'd known that you kept him in there +o' nights, I'd have chosen another room, that's all--some room where +I couldn't smell him, and where I shouldn't run the risk of killing an +inoffensive man. Why, I might have shot you! Think how sorry I'd have +been!" + +The Risaldar did not quite know what to say; so, wiser than most, he +said nothing. + +"Oh, and one other matter. I don't speak much of the language yet, so, +would you mind translating to my servant that the next time he goes sick +without giving me notice, and without putting oil in my lamp, I'll have +him fed to the tiger before he's brought into my room? Just tell him +that quietly, will you? Say it slowly so that it sinks in. Thanks." + +Straight-faced as Cunningham himself, the Risaldar tongue-lashed +the servant with harsh, tooth-rasping words that brought him up to +attention. Whether he interpreted or not the exact meaning of what +Cunningham had said, he at least produced the desired effect; +the servant mumbled apologetic nothings and slunk off the veranda +backward--to go away and hold his sides with laughter at the back of the +dak-bungalow. There Mahommed Gunga found him afterward and administered +a thrashing--not, as he was careful to explain, for disobedience, but +for having dared to be amused at the Risaldar's discomfiture. + +But there was still one point that weighed heavily on Mahommed Gunga's +mind as the servant shuffled off and left him alone face to face with +Cunningham. There is as a very general rule not more than one man-eating +tiger in a neighborhood, and not even the greenest specimen of subaltern +new brought from home would be likely to mistake one for the other kind. +The man-eater was dead, and there was an engagement to shoot one that +very morning. He hesitated--said nothing for the moment--and wondered +whether his best course would be to go ahead and pretend to beat out the +jungle and tell some lie or other about the tiger having got away. But +Ralph Cunningham, with serious gray eyes fixed full on his, saved him +the trouble of deciding. + +"If it's all one to you, Mahommed Gunga," he said, the corner of his +mouth just flickering, "we'll move on from here at once. This is a +beastly old bungalow to sleep in, and shooting tigers don't seem so +terribly exciting to me. Besides, the climate here must be rotten for +the horses." + +"As you wish, sahib." + +"Very well--if the choice rests with me, I wish it. It might--ah--save +the villagers a lot of hard work beating through the jungle, mightn't +it--besides, there'll be other tigers on the road." + +"Innumerable tigers, sahib." + +"Good. Will you order a start then?" + +The Risaldar departed round the corner of the bungalow, and a minute or +two later Cunningham's ears caught the sound of a riding-switch, lustily +applied, and of muffled groans. He suspected readily enough what was +going on, particularly since his servant was not in evidence, but he +dared not laugh on the veranda. He went inside, and made believe to be +busy with his bag before he relaxed the muscles of his face. + +"Now, I wonder whether I handled that situation rightly?" he asked +himself between chuckles. "One thing I know--if that old ruffian plays +another trick on me--one more of any kind--Ill show my teeth. There's a +thing known as the limit!" + +He would not have wondered, though, if he could have overheard Mahommed +Gunga less than an hour later. The Risaldar had stayed behind to make +sure nothing had been forgotten, and one of his men remained with him. + +"There be sahibs and then sahibs," said Mahommed Gunga. "Two kinds are +the worst--those who strike readily in anger and use bad language when +annoyed, and those whose lips are thin and who save their vengeance to +be wreaked later on. They are worse, either of them, than the sahib who +is usually drunk." + +"And Cunnigan?" + +"Is altogether otherwise. As his father was, and as a few other sahibs I +have met, he understands what is not spoken--concedes dignity to him who +is caught napping, as one who having disarmed his adversary, allows him +to recover his weapon--and--" + +"And?" + +"Proves himself a man worth following! I myself will slit the throat of +any man I catch disparaging the name of Chota-Cunnigan-bahadur! By +the blood of God--by my medals, my own honor, and the good name of +Pukka-Cunnigan, his father, I swear it!" + +"Rung Ho!" grinned the six-foot son of war who, rode beside him. + +They rode on at a walk past the tombstone that--at Mahommed Gunga's +orders--the villagers had decked with sickly scented forest flowers, and +as they passed they both saluted it in silence. The fakir of the night +before, sitting not very far away from it, mimicked them. He sprang on +the stone as soon as they were out of sight, scattering the flowers all +about him, and calling down the vengeance of a hundred gods on the heads +of Christian and Mohammedan alike. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + + From lone hunt came the yearling cub + And brought a grown kill back; + With fangs aglut "'Tis nothing but + Presumption!" growled the pack. + +RALPH CUNNINGHAM reached Peshawur at last with no less than nine tigers +to his gun, and that in itself would have been sufficient to damn him in +the eyes of more than half of the men who held commands there. Jealousy +in those days of slow promotion and intrenched influence had eaten +into the very understanding of men whose only excuse for rule over a +conquered people ought to have been understanding. + +It was not considered decent for a boy of twenty-one to do much more +than dare to be alive. For any man at all to offer advice or information +to his senior was rank presumption. Criticism was high treason. Sport, +such as tiger-shooting, was for those whose age and apoplectic temper +rendered them least fitted for it. Conservatism reigned: "High Toryism, +sir, old port, and proud Prerogative!" + +Mahommed Gunga grinned into his beard at the reception that awaited the +youngster whom he had trained for months now in the belief that India +had nothing much to do except reverence him. He laughed aloud, when he +could get away to do it, at the flush of indignation on his protege's +face. Tall, lean-limbed, full of health and spirits, he had paid his +duty call on a General of Division; with the boyish enthusiasm that says +so plainly, "Laugh with me, for the world is mine!" he had boasted +his good luck on the road, only to be snubbed thoroughly and told that +tiger-shooting was not what he came for. + +He took the snub like a man and made no complaint to anybody; he did +not even mention it to the other subalterns, who, most of them, made no +secret of their dissatisfaction and its hundred causes. He listened, +and it was not very long before it dawned on him that, had not Mahommed +Gunga gone with him to pay a call as well, the General Division would +not have so much as interviewed him. + +Mahommed Gunga soon became the bane of his existence. The veteran seemed +in no hurry to go back to his estate that must have been in serious need +of management by this time, but would ride off on mysterious errands and +return with a dozen or more black-bearded horsemen each time. He would +introduce them to Cunningham in public whenever possible under the eyes +of outraged seniors who would swear and, fume and ride away disgust +at the reverence paid to "a mere boy, sir--a bally, ignorant young +jackanapes!" + +Had Cunningham been other than a born soldier with his soldier senses +all on edge and sleepless, he would have fallen foul of disgrace within +a month. He was unattached as yet, and that fact gave opportunity to +the men who looked for it to try to "take the conceit out of the cub, by +gad." + +"They "--everybody spoke of them as "they"--conceived the brilliant idea +of confronting the youngster with conditions which he lacked experience +to cope with. They set him to deal with circumstances which had long +ago proved too difficult for themselves, and awaited confidently the +outcome--the crass mistake, or oversight, or mere misfortune that, with +the aid of a possible court martial, would reduce him to a proper state +of humbleness. + +Peshawur, the greatest garrison in northern India, was there on +sufferance, apparently. For lack of energetic men in authority to deal +with them, the border robbers plundered while the troops remained cooped +up within the unhealthiest station on the list. The government itself, +with several thousand troops to back it up, was paying blackmail to the +border thieves! There was not a government bungalow in all Peshawur that +did not have its "watchman," hired from over the border, well paid to +sleep on the veranda lest his friends should come and take tribute in an +even more unseemly manner. + +The younger men, whose sense of fitness had not yet been rotted by +climate and system and prerogative, swore at the condition; there were +one or two men higher up, destined to make history, whose voices, raised +in emphatic protest, were drowned in the drone of "Peace! Peace is the +thing to work for. Compromise, consideration, courtesy, these three are +the keys of rule." They failed to realize that cowardice was their +real keynote, and that the threefold method that they vaunted was quite +useless without a stiffening of courage. + +So brave men, who had more courtesy in each of their fingers than +most of the seniors had all put together, had to bow to a scandalous +condition that made England's rule a laughing-stock within a stone's +throw of the city limits. And they had to submit to the indecency of +seeing a new, inexperienced arrival picked for the task of commanding a +body of irregulars, for no other reason than because it was considered +wise to make an exhibition of him. + +Cunningham became half policeman, half soldier, in charge of a small +special force of mounted men engaged for the purpose of patrol. He had +nothing to do with the selection of them; that business was attended +to perfunctorily by a man very high up in departmental service, who +considered Cunningham a nuisance. He was a gentleman who did not know +Mahommed Gunga; another thing he did not know was the comfortable feel +of work well done; so he was more than pleased when Mahommed Gunga +dropped in from nowhere in particular--paid him scandalously untrue +compliments without a blush or a smile and offered to produce the +required number of men at once. + +Only fifty were required. Mahommed Gunga brought three hundred to select +from, and, when asked to do so in order to save time and trouble, picked +out the fifty best. + +"There are your men!" said the Personage off-handedly, when they had +been sworn in in a group. "Be good enough to remember, Mr. Cunningham, +that you are now responsible for their behavior, and for the proper +night patrolling of the city limits." + +That was a tall order, and in spite of all of youth's enthusiasm was +enough to make any young fellow nervous. But Mahommed Gunga met him in +the street, saluted him with almost sacrilegious ceremony, and drew him +to one side. + +"Have courage, now, bahadur! I ride away to visit my estates (he spoke +of them always in the plural, as though he owned a county or two). You +have under you the best eyes and the keenest blades along the border for +I attended to it! Be ruthless! Use them, work them--sweat them to death! +Keep away from messes and parades; seek no praise, for you will get none +in any case! Work! Work for what is coming!" + +"You speak as though the fate of a continent were hanging in the +balance," laughed Cunningham, shaking hands with him. + +"I speak truth!" said Mahommed Gunga, riding off and leaving the +youngster wondering. + +Now, there was nothing much the matter with the men on either side, +taken in the main, who hated one another on that far-pushed frontier. +Even the insufferable incompetents who held the rotting reins of control +were such because circumstance had blinded them. There was not a man +among the highly placed ones even who would have deliberately placed his +own importance or his own opinion in the scale against India's welfare. +There was not a border thief but was ready to respect what he could +recognize as strong-armed justice. + +The root of the trouble lay in centralization of authority, and rigid +adherence to the rule of seniority. Combined, these two processes had +served to bring about a state of things that is nearly unbelievable when +viewed in the light of modern love for efficiency. Young men, with the +fire of ambition burning in them and a proper scorn for mere superficial +ceremony, had to sweat their tempers and bow down beneath the yoke of +senile pompousness. + +Strong, savage, powder-weaned Hill-tribesmen--inheritors of egoistic +independence and a love of loot--laughed loud and long and openly at +System that prevented officers from taking arms against them until +authority could come by delegate from somebody who slept. By that time +they would be across the border, quarrelling among themselves about +division of the plunder! + +They had respect in plenty for the youth and virile middle age that +dealt with them on the rare occasions when a timely blow was loosed. +Then they had proof that from that strange, mad country overseas there +came men who could lead men--men who could strike, and who knew enough +to hold their hands when the sudden blow had told--just men, who could +keep their plighted word. No border thief pretended that the British +could not rule him; to a man, they laughed because the possible was not +imposed. And to the last bold, ruffianly iconoclast they stole when, +where, and what they dared. + +Things altered strangely soon after Ralph Cunningham, with the +diffidence of youth but the blood of a line of soldiers leaping in +him, took charge of his tiny force of nondescripts. They were neither +soldiers nor police. Nominally, he was everybody's dog, and so were +they; actually he found himself at the head of a tiny department of +his own, because it was nobody's affair to give him orders. They had +deliberately turned him loose "to hang himself," and their hope that he +might get his head into a noose of trouble as soon as possible--the very +liberty they gave him, on purpose for his quick damnation--was the means +of making reputation for him. + +Nobody advised him; so with singularly British phlegm and not more +than ordinary common sense he devised a method of his own for scotching +night-prowlers. He stationed his men at well-considered vantage-points, +and trusted them. With a party of ten, he patrolled the city ceaselessly +himself and whipped every "watchman" he caught sleeping. One by one, the +blackmailing brigade began to see the discomfort of a job that called +for real wakefulness, and deserted over the Hills to urge the resumption +of raids in force. One by one, the night-prowling fraternity were +shot as they sneaked past sentries. One by one, the tale of robberies +diminished. It was merely a question of one man, and he awake, +having power to act without first submitting a request to somebody in +triplicate on blue-form B. + +The time came, after a month or two, when even natives dared to leave +their houses after dark. The time came very soon, indeed, when the +nearest tribes began to hold war councils and inveigh against the +falling off of the supply of plunder. Cunningham was complimented +openly. He was even praised by one of "Them." So it was perfectly +natural, and quite in keeping with tradition, that he should shortly +be relieved, and that a senior to him should be placed in charge of his +little force, with orders to "organize" it. + +The organization process lasted about twelve hours; at the end of that +time every single man had deserted, horse and arms! Two nights later, +the prowling and plundering was once more in full swing, and Cunningham +was blamed for it; it was obvious to any man of curry-and-port-wine +proclivities that his method, or lack of it, had completely undermined +his men's loyalty! + +A whole committee of gray-headed gentlemen took trouble to point out +to him his utter failure; but a brigadier, who was not a member of that +committee, and who was considered something of an upstart, asked that +he might be appointed to a troop of irregular cavalry that had recently +been raised. With glee--with a sigh of relief so heartfelt and unanimous +that it could be heard across the street--the committee leaped at the +suggestion. The proper person was induced without difficulty to put +his signature to the required paper, and Cunningham found himself +transferred to irregular oblivion. Incidentally he found himself +commanding few less than a hundred men, so many of whose first names +were Mahommed or Mohammed that the muster-roll looked like a list of +Allah's prophets. + +Cunningham was more than a little bit astonished, on the day he joined, +in camp, a long way from Peshawur, to find his friend Mahommed Gunga, +seated in a bell tent with the Brigadier. He caught sight of the long +black military boot and silver spur, and half-recognized the up-and-down +movement of the crossed leg long before he reached the tent. It was +like father and son meeting, almost, as the Rajput rose to greet him +and waited respectfully until he had paid his compliments to his new +commander. Cunningham felt throat-bound, and could scarcely more than +stammer his introduction of himself. + +"I know who you are and all about you," said the Brigadier. "Used to +know your father well. I applied to have you in my command partly for +your father's sake, but principally because Risaldar Mahommed Gunga +spake so highly of you. He tells me he has had an eye on you from the +start, and that you shape well. Remember, this is irregular cavalry, and +in many respects quite unlike regulars. You'll need tact and a firm hand +combined, and you mustn't ever forget that the men whom you will lead +are gentlemen." + +Cunningham reported to his Colonel, only to discover that he, too, knew +all about him. The Colonel was less inclined to be restricted as to +topic, and less mindful of discretion than the Brigadier. + +"I hear they couldn't stand you in Peshawur. That's hopeful! If you'd +come with a recommendation from that quarter, I'd have packed you off +back again. I never in my life would have believed that a dozen men +could all shut their eyes so tightly to the signs--never!" + +"The signs, sir?" + +"Yes, the signs! Come and look your troop over." + +Cunningham found that the troop, too, had heard about his coming. He +did not look them over. When he reached the lines, they came out in a +swarm--passed him one by one, eyed him, as traders eye a horse--and then +saluted him a second time, with the greeting: + +"Salaam, Chota-Cunnigan-bahadur!" + +"Yes! You're in disgrace!" said his Colonel, noticing the color rising +to the youngster's cheeks. + + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + + Sons of the sons of war we be, + Sabred and horsed, and whole and free; + One is the caste, and one degree,-- + One law,--one code decreed us. + Who heads wolves in the dawning day? + Who leaps in when the bull's at bay? + He who dare is he who may! + Now, rede ye who shall lead us! + +THE check that Ralph Cunningham's management of his police had caused, +and the subsequent resumption of night looting, served to whet the +appetites of the hungry crowd beyond the border. Those closest to +Peshawur, who had always done the looting, were not the ultimate +consignees by any means; there were other tribes who bought from +them--others yet to whom they paid tribute in the shape of stolen +rifles. Cunningham's administration had upset the whole modus vivendi of +the lower Himalayas! + +Though it all began again the moment he was superseded, there had been, +none the less, a three-month interregnum, and that had to be compensated +for. The tribes at the rear were clamorous and would not listen to +argument or explanation; they had collected in hundreds, led by the +notorious Khumel Khan, preparatory to raiding in real earnest and with +sufficient force to carry all before them at the first surprise attack. + +They were disappointed when the pilfering resumed, for a tribal Hillman +would generally rather fight than eat, and would always prefer his +dinner from a dead enemy's cooking-pot. They sat about for a long time, +considering whether there were not excuse enough for war in any case +and listening to the intricately detailed information brought by the +deserting watchmen. And as they discussed things, but before they had +time to decide on any plan, the Brigadier commanding the Irregulars got +wind of them. + +He was a man who did not worry about the feelings of senile heads of +red-tape-bound departments; nor was he particularly hidebound by respect +for the laws of evidence. When he knew a thing, he knew it; then he +either acted or did not act, as the circumstances might dictate. And +when the deed was done or left undone, and was quite beyond the reach of +criticism, he would send in a verbose, voluminous report, written out in +several colored inks, on all the special forms he could get hold of. The +heads of departments would be too busy for the next twelvemonth trying +to get the form of the report straightened out to be able to give any +attention to the details of it; and then it would be too late. But he +was a brigadier, and what he could do with impunity and quiet amusement +would have brought down the whole Anglo-Indian Government in awful wrath +on the head of a subordinate. + +He heard of the tribesmen under Khumel Khan one evening. At dawn his +tents stood empty and the horse-lines were long bands of brown on the +green grass. The pegs were up; only the burying beetles labored where +the stamping chargers had neighed overnight. + +The hunger-making wind that sweeps down, snow-sweetened, from the +Himalayas bore with it intermittent thunder from four thousand hoofs +as, split in three and swooping from three different directions, the +squadrons viewed, gave tongue, and launched themselves, roaring, at the +half-awakened plotters of the night before. + +There was a battle, of a kind, in a bowlder-lined valley where the early +morning sun had not yet reached to lift the chill. Long lances--devils' +antennae--searched out the crevices where rock-bred mountain-men sought +cover; too suddenly for clumsy-fingered Hillmen to reload, the reformed +troops charged wedgewise into rallying detachments. In an hour, or less, +there were prisoners being herded like cattle in the valley bottom, and +a sting had been drawn from the border wasp that would not grow again +for a year or two to come. + +But Khumel Khan was missing. Khumel Khan, the tulwar man--he whose boast +it was that he could hew through two men's necks at one whistling sweep +of his notched, curved cimeter--had broken through with a dozen at his +back. He had burst through the half-troop guarding the upper end of +the defile, had left them red and reeling to count their dead, and the +overfolding hill-spurs swallowed him. + +"Mr. Cunningham! Take your troop, please, and find their chief! Hunt him +out, ride him down, and get him! Don't come back until you do!" + +The real thing! The real red thing within a year! A lone +command--and that is the only thing a subaltern of spunk may pray +for!--eighty-and-eight hawk-eyed troopers asking only for the +opportunity to show their worth--lean, hungry hills to hunt in, no +commissariat, fair law to the quarry, and a fight--as sure as God made +mountains, a fight at the other end! There are men here and there who +think that the day when they pass down a crowded aisle with Her is the +great one, other great days are all as gas-jets to the sun. And there +are others. There are men, like Cunningham, who have heard the drumming +of the hoofs behind them as they led their first un-apron-stringed unit +out into the unknown. The one kind of man has tasted honey, but the +other knows what fed, and feeds, the roaring sportsmen in Valhalla. + +There were crisscross trails, where low-hung clouds swept curtainwise to +make the compass seem like a lie-begotten trick. There were +gorges, hewn when the Titans needed dirt to build the awful +Himalayas--shadow-darkened--sheer as the edge of Nemesis. Long-reaching, +pile on pile, the over-lapping spurs leaned over them. The wind blew +through them amid silence that swallowed and made nothing of the din +which rides with armed men. + +But, with eyes that were made for hunting, on horses that seemed part +of them, they tracked and trailed--and viewed at last. Their shout gave +Khumel Khan his notice that the price of a hundred murders was overdue, +and he chose to make payment where a V-shaped cliff enclosed a small, +flat plateau and not more than a dozen could ride at him at a time. His +companions scattered much as a charge of shrapnel shrieks through the +rocks, but Khumel Khan knew well enough that he was the quarry--his was +the head that by no conceivable chance would be allowed to plan +fresh villainies. He might have run yet a little way, but he saw the +uselessness, and stood. + +The troop, lined out knee to knee, could come within a hundred paces of +him without breaking; it formed a base, then, to a triangle from which +the man at bay could no more escape than a fire-ringed scorpion. + +"Call on him to surrender!" ordered Cunningham. + +A chevroned black-beard half a horse-length behind him translated the +demand into stately Pashtu, and for answer the hill chieftain mounted +his stolen horse and shook his tulwar. He had pistols at his belt, but +he did not draw them; across his shoulder swung a five-foot-long jezail, +but he loosed it and flung it to the ground. + +"Is there any here dare take me single-handed?" he demanded with a grin. + +Of the eight-and-eighty, there were eighty-eight who dared; but there +was an eighty-ninth, a lad of not yet twenty-two, whom Indian chivalry +desired to honor. The troop had heard but the troop had not yet seen. + +"Ride in and take him!" ordered Cunningham and there was a +thoroughly well acted make-believe of fear, while every eye watched +"Cunnigan-bahadur," and the horses, spurred and reined at once, pranced +at their bits for just so long as a good man needs to make his mind up. +And Cunningham rode in. + +He rode in as a Rajput rides, with a swoop and a swinging sabre and a +silent, tight-lipped vow that he would prove himself. Green though he +was yet, he knew that the troop had found for him--had rounded up for +him--had made him his opportunity; so he took it, right under their +eyes, straight in the teeth of the stoutest tulwar man of the lower +Himalayas. + +He, too, had pistols at his belt, but there was no shot fired. There +was nothing but a spur-loosed rush and a shock--a spark-lit, swirling, +slashing, stamping, snorting melee--a stallion and a mare up-ended--two +strips of lightning steel that slit the wind--and a thud, as a lifeless +border robber took the turf. + +There was silence then--the grim, good silence of Mohammedan +approval--while a native officer closed up a sword-cut with his fingers +and tore ten-yard strips from his own turban to bind the youngster's +head. They rode back without boast or noise and camped without +advertisement. There was no demonstration made; only-a colonel said, +"I like things done that way, quickly, without fuss," and a brigadier +remarked, "Hrrrumph! 'Gratulate you, Mr. Cunningham!" + +Later, when they camped again outside Peshawur, a reward of three +thousand rupees that had been offered on the border outlaw's head was +paid to Cunningham in person--a very appreciable sum to a subaltern, +whose pay is barely sufficient for his mess bills. So, although no +public comment was made on the matter, it was considered "decent of him" +to contribute the whole amount to a pension fund for the dependents of +the regiment's dead. + +"You know, that's your money," said his Colonel. "You can keep every +anna of it if you choose." + +"I suppose I needn't be an officer unless I choose?" suggested +Cunningham. + +"I don't know, youngster! I can't guess what your troop would do if you +tried to desert it!" + +That was, of course, merely a diplomatic recognition of the fact that +Cunningham had done his duty in making his men like him, and was not +intended seriously. Nobody--not even the Brigadier--had any notion that +the troop would very shortly have to dispense with its leader's services +whether it wanted to or not. + +But it so happened that one troop at a time was requisitioned to be +ornamental body-guard to such as were entitled to one in the frontier +city; and the turn arrived when Cunningham was sent. None liked the +duty. No soldier, and particularly no irregular, likes to consider +himself a pipe-clayed ornament; but Cunningham would have "gone sick" +had he had the least idea of what was in store for him. + +It was bad enough to be obliged to act as body-guard to men who had +jockeyed him away because they were jealous of him. The white scar that +ran now like a chin-strap mark from the corner of his eye to the angle +of his jaw would blaze red often at some deliberately thought-out, +not fancied, insult from men who should have been too big to more than +notice him. And that, again, was nothing to the climax. + +Mahommed Gunga chose to polish up his silver spurs and ride in from his +"estates" on a protracted visit to Peshawur, and with an escort that +must have included half the zemindars on the countryside as well as +his own small retinue. Glittering on his own account like a regiment of +horse, and with all but a regiment clattering behind him, he chose +the occasion to meet Cunningham when the youngster was fuming with +impatience opposite the club veranda, waiting to escort a general. + +On the veranda sat a dozen men who had been at considerable pains to +put and keep the officer of the escort in his place. If the jingle and +glitter of the approaching cavalcade had not been sufficient to attract +their notice, they could have stopped their cars and yet have been +forced to hear the greeting. + +"Aha! Salaam sahib! Chota-Cunnigan-bahadur, bohut salaam! Thy father's +son! Sahib, I am much honored!" + +The white scar blazed, but Mahommed Gunga affected not to notice the +discomfort of his victim. Many more than a hundred sabred gentlemen +pressed round to "do themselves the honor," as they expressed it, of +paying Cunningham a compliment. They rode up like knights in armor in +the lists, and saluted like heralds bringing tribute and allegiance. + +"Salaam, Chota-Cunnigan!" + +"Salaam, sahib!" + +"Bohut salaam, bahadur!" + +The Generals, the High-Court judges, and Commissioners on the club +veranda sat unhonored, while a boy of twenty-two received obeisance from +men whose respect a king might envy. No Rajput ever lived who was not +sure that his salute was worth more than tribute; he can be polite on +all occasions, and what he thinks mere politeness would be considered +overacting in the West, but his respect and his salute he keeps for his +equals or his betters--and they must be men indeed. + +The coterie of high officials sat indignation-bound for ten palpitating +minutes, until the General remembered that it was his escort that was +waiting for him. He had ordered it an hour too soon, for the express +sweet purpose of keeping Cunningham waiting in the sun, but it dawned +now on his apoplectic consciousness that his engagement was most urgent. +He descended in a pompous hurry, mounted and demanded why--by all the +gods of India--the escort was not lined up to receive him. A minute +later, after a loudly administered reprimand that was meant as much for +the swarm of Rajputs as for the indignant Cunningham, he rode off with +the escort clattering behind him. + +But on the club veranda, when the Rajputs with Mahommed Gunga had +dispersed, the big wigs sat and talked the matter over very thoroughly. + +"It's no use blinking matters," said the senior man present, using a +huge handkerchief to wave the flies away from the polished dome which +rose between two side wisps of gray hair. "They're going to lionize him +while he's here, so we'd better move him on." + +"But where?" + +"I've got it! There's a letter in from Everton at Abu, saying he needs +a man badly to go to Howrah and act resident there--says he hasn't heard +from the missionaries and isn't satisfied--wants a man without too much +authority to go there and keep an eye on things in general. Howrah's a +hell of a place from all accounts." + +"But that 'ud be promotion!" + +"Can't be helped. No excuse for reducing him, so far as I've heard. The +trouble is the cub has done too dashed well. We've got to promote him if +we want to be rid of him." + +They talked it over for an hour, and at the end of it decided Cunningham +should go to Howrah, provided a brigadier could be induced without too +much argument to see reason. + +"The Brigadier probably wants to keep him, and his Colonel will raise +all the different kinds of Cain there are!" suggested the man who had +begun the discussion. + +"I've seen brigadiers before now reduced to a proper sense of their +own unimportance!" remarked another man. And he was connected with the +Treasury. He knew. + +But a week later, when the papers were sent to the Brigadier for +signature, he amazed everybody by consenting without the least +objection. Nobody but he knew who his visitor had been the night before. + +"How did you know about it, Mahommed Gunga?" he demanded, as the veteran +sat and faced him over the tent candle, his one lean leg swaying up and +down, as usual, above the other. + +"Have club servants not got ears, sahib?" + +"And you--?" + +"I, too, have ears--good ones!" + +The Brigadier drummed his fingers on the table, hesitating. No officer, +however high up in the service, likes to lose even a subaltern from his +command when that subaltern is worth his salt. + +"Let him go, sahib! You have seen how we Rangars honor him--you may +guess what difference he might make in a crisis. Sign, sahib--let him +go!" + +"But--where do you come in? What have you had to do with this?" + +"First, sahib, I tested him thoroughly. I found him good. Second, I told +tales about him, making him out better than even he is. Third, I made +sure that all those in authority at Peshawur should hate him. That +would have been impossible if he had been a fool, or a weak man, or +an incompetent; but any good man can be hated easily. Fourth, sahib, I +sent, by the hand of a man of mine, a message to Everton-sahib at Abu +reporting to him that it was not in Howrah as it should be, and warning +him that a sahib should be sent there. I knew that he would listen to a +hint from me, and I knew that he had no one in his office whom he could +send. Then, sahib, I brought matters to a head by bringing every man of +merit whom I could raise to salute him and make an outrageous exhibition +of him. That is what I have done!" + +"One would think you were scheming for a throne, Mahommed Gunga!" + +"Nay, sahib, I am scheming for the peace of India! But there will be war +first." + +"I know there will be war," said the Brigadier. "I only wish I could +make the other sahibs realize it." + +"Will you sign the paper, sahib?" + +"Yes, I will sign the paper. But--" + +"But what, sahib?" + +"I'm not quite certain that I'm doing right." + +"Brigadier-sahib, when the hour comes--and that is soon--it will be time +to answer that! There lie the papers." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + + Even in darkness lime and sand + Will blend to make up mortar. + Two by two would equal four + Under a bucket of water. + +NOW it may seem unimaginable that two Europeans could be cooped in +Howrah, not under physical restraint, and yet not able to communicate +with any one who could render them assistance. It was the case, though, +and not by any means an isolated case. The policy of the British +Government, once established in India, was and always has been not to +occupy an inch of extra territory until compelled by circumstances. + +The native states, then, while forbidden to contract alliances with +one another or the world outside, and obliged by the letter of written +treaties to observe certain fundamental laws imposed on them by the +Anglo-Indian Government, were left at liberty to govern themselves. And +it was largely the fact that they could and did keep secret what was +going on within their borders that enabled the so-called Sepoy Rebellion +to get such a smouldering foothold before it burst into a blaze. The +sepoys were the tools of the men behind the movement; and the men behind +were priests and others who were feeling nothing but their own ambition. + +No man knows even now how long the fire rebellion had been burning +underground before showed through the surface; but it is quite obvious +that, in spite of the heroism shown by British and loyal native alike +when the crash did come, the rebels must have won--and have won easily +sheer weight of numbers--had they only used the amazing system solely +for the broad, comprehensive purpose for which it was devised. + +But the sense of power that its ramifications and extent gave birth to +also whetted the desires individuals. Each man of any influence at all +began to scheme to use the system for the furtherance of his individual +ambition. Instead of bending all their energy and craft to the one +great object of hurling an unloved conqueror back whence he came, each +reigning prince strove to scheme himself head and shoulders above the +rest; and each man who wanted to be prince began to plot harder than +ever to be one. + +So in Howrah the Maharajah's brother, Jaimihr, with a large following +and organization of his own, began to use the secret system of which he +by right formed an integral part and to set wheels working within the +wheels which in course of time should spew him up on the ledge which his +brother now occupied. Long before the rebellion was ready he had all +his preparations made and waited only for the general conflagration to +strike for his own hand. And was so certain of success that he dared +make plans as well for Rosemary McClean's fate. + +There is a blindness, too, quite unexplainable that comes over whole +nations sometimes. It is almost like a plague in its mysterious arrival +and departure. As before the French Revolution there were almost none of +the ruling classes who could read the writing on the wall, so it was in +India in the spring of '57. Men saw the signs and could not read their +meaning. As in France, so in India, there were a few who understood, but +they were scoffed at; the rest--the vast majority who held the reins of +power--were blind. + +Rosemary McClean discovered that her pony had gone lame, and was angry +with the groom. The groom ran away, and she put that down to native +senselessness. Duncan McClean sent one after another of the little +native children to find him a man who would take a letter to Mount Abu. +The children went and did not come back again, and he put that down to +the devil, who would seem to have reclaimed them. + +Both of them saw the watchers, posted at every vantage-point, insolently +wakeful; both of them knew that Jaimihr had placed them there. But +neither of them looked one inch deeper than the surface, nor supposed +that their presence betokened anything but the prince's unreachable +ambition. Neither of them thought for an instant that the day could +possibly have come when Britain would be unable to protect a woman of +its own race, or when a native--however powerful--would dare to do more +than threaten. + +Joanna disappeared, and that led to a chain of thought which was not +creditable to any one concerned. They reasoned this way: Rosemary had +seen Mahommed Gunga hold out a handful of gold coins for the old +woman's eyes to glitter at, therefore it was fair to presume that he +had promised her a reward for bringing word to the man whom, it was +now known, he had left behind. She had brought word to him and had +disappeared. What more obvious than to reason that the man had gladly +paid her, and had just as gladly ridden off, rejoicing at the thought +that he could escape doing service? + +"So much," they argued, "for native constancy! So much for Mahommed +Gunga's boast that he knew of men who could be trusted! And so much for +Joanna's gratitude!" + +The old woman had been saved by Rosemary McClean from the long-drawn-out +hell that is the life portion of most Indian widows, even of low caste; +she had had little to do, ever, beyond snooze in the shade and eat, and +run sometimes behind the pony--a task which came as easily to her as +did the other less active parts of her employment. Her desertion, +particularly at a crisis, made Rosemary McClean cry, and set her father +to quoting Shakespeare's "King Lear." + + "Blow, blow, thou winter wind! + Thou art not so unkind + As man's ingratitude!" + +All Scotsmen seem to have a natural proclivity for quoting +the appropriate dirge when sorrow shows itself. The Book of +Lamentations--Shakespeare's sadder lines--roll off their tongues +majestically and seem to give them consolation--as it were to lay a +sound, unjoyous basis for the proper enjoyment of the songs of Robbie +Burns. + +The poor old king of the poet's imagining, declaiming up above the +cliffs of Dover, could have put no more pathos into those immortal lines +than did Duncan McClean as he paced up and down between the hot wars +of the darkened room. The dry air parched his throat, and his ambition +seemed to shrivel in him as he saw the brave little woman who was all he +had sobbing with her head between her hands. + +He turned to the Bible, but he could find no precedent in any of its +pages for abandoning a quest like his in the teeth of disaster or +adversity. He read it for hour after crackling hour, moistening +his throat from time to time with warm, unappetizing water from the +improvised jar filter; but when the oven blast that makes the Indian +summer day a hell on earth had waned and died away, he had found nothing +but admonishment to stand firm. There had been women, too, whose +deeds were worthy of record in that book, and he found no argument +for deserting his post on his daughter's account either. In the Bible +account, as he read it, it had always been the devil who fled when +things got too uncomfortable for him, and he was conscious of a +tight-lipped, stern contempt for the devil. + +He had about made up his mind what line to take with his daughter, when +she ceased her sobbing and looked up through swollen eyes to relieve him +of the necessity for talking her over to his point view. What she said +amazed him, but not be cause it came to him as a new idea. She said, in +different words, exactly what was passing in his own mind, and it was as +though her tears and his search of the Scriptures had brought them both +to one clear-cut conclusion. + +"Why are we here, father?" she asked him suddenly; and because she took +him by surprise he did not answer her at once. "We are here to do +good aren't we?" That was no question; it was beginning of a line of +argument. Her father held his tongue, and laid his Bible down, and +listened on. "How much good have we done yet?" + +She paused, but the pause was rhetorical, and he knew it; he could see +the light behind her eyes that was more than visionary; it was the light +of practical Scots enthusiasm, unquenched and undiscouraged after a +battle with fear itself. She began to be beautiful again as the spirit +of unconquerable courage won its way. + +"Have we won one convert? Is there one, of those you have taught who is +with us still?" + +The answer was self-evident. There was none. But there was no sting for +him in what she asked. Rather her words came as a relief, for he could +feel the strength behind them. He still said nothing. + +"Have we stopped one single suttee? Have we once, in any least degree, +lessened the sufferings of one of those poor widows?" + +"Not once," he answered her, without a trace of shame. He knew, and she +knew, how hard the two of them had tried. There was nothing to apologize +for. + +"Have we undermined the power of the Hindoo priests? Have we removed one +trace of superstition?" + +"No," he said quietly. + +"Have we given up the fight?" + +He looked hard at her. Gray eyes under gray brows met gray eyes that +shone from under dark, wet lashes, and deep spoke unto deep. Scotsman +recognized Scotswoman, and the bond between them tightened. + +"It seems to me"--there was a new thrill in her voice--"that here is +our opportunity! Either Jaimihr wants to frighten us away or he is in +earnest with his impudent attentions to me. In either case let us make +no attempt to go away. Let us refuse to go away. Let us stay here at all +costs. If he wishes us to go away, then he must have a reason and will +show it, or else try to force us. If he is really trying to make love +to me, then let him try; if he has pluck enough, let him seize me. In +either case we shall force his hand. I am willing to be the bait. The +moment that he harms either you or me, the government will have to +interfere. If he kills us so much the better, for that would mean swift +vengeance and a British occupation. That would stop suttee for all time, +and we would have given our lives for something worth while. As we are, +we cannot communicate with our government, and Jaimihr thinks he has us +in his grasp. Let him think it! Let him go ahead! Sooner or later the +government must find out that we are missing Then--!" Her eyes blazed at +the thought of what would happen then. + +Her father looked at her for about a minute, sadness and pride in her +fighting in him for the mastery. Then he rose and crossed the little +space between them. + +"Lassie!" he said. "Lassie!" + +She took his hand--the one little touch of human sentiment lacking to +disturb his emotional balance. The Scots will talk readily enough of +sorrow, but at showing it they are a grudging race of men. Unless a +Scotsman thinks he can gain something for his cause by showing what +emotion racks him, he will swallow down the choking flood of grief, and +keep a straight face to the world and his own as well. Duncan McClean +turned from her--drew his hand away--and walked to open the slit +shutters. A moment later he came back, once more master of himself. + +"As things are, dear," he said gently, "how would it be possible for us +to get away?" + +"'We canna gang awa'!" she quoted, with a smile. + +"NO, lassie. We must stay here and be brave. This matter is not in our +hands. We must wait, and watch, and see. If opportunity should come +to us to make our escape, we will seize it. Should it not come--should +Jaimihr, or some other of them, make occasion to molest us--it may +be--it might be that--surely the day of martyrs is not past--it might +be that--well, well, in either case we will eventually win. Should they +kill us, the government must send here to avenge us; should we get away, +surely our report will be listened to. A month or two--perhaps only a +week or two--even a day or two, who knows?--and the last suttee will +have been performed!" + +He stood and stroked her head--then stooped and kissed it--an unusual +betrayal of emotion from him. + +"Ye're a brave lassie," he said, leaving the room hurriedly, to escape +the shame of letting her see tears welling from his eyes--salt tears +that scalded as they broke their hot-wind-wearied bounds. + +Five minutes later she arose, dry-eyed, and went to stand in the +doorway, where an eddy or two of lukewarm evening breeze might possibly +be stirring. But a dirtily clad Hindoo, lounging on a raised, railless +store veranda opposite, leered at her impudently, and she came inside +again--to pass the evening and the sultry, black, breathless night out +of sight, at least, of the brutes who shut her off from even exercise. + + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + + So, I am a dog? Hence I must come + To do thy bidding faster? + Must tell thee--Nay, a dog stays dumb! + A dog obeys one master! + +NOT many yards from where the restless elephants stood lined under +big brick arches--in an age-old courtyard, three sides of which were +stone-carved splendor and the fourth a typically Eastern mess of +stables, servants' quarters, litter, stink, and noisy confusion--a +stone door, slab-hewn, gave back the aching glitter of the sun. Its only +opening--a narrow slit quite near the top--was barred. A man--his face +close-pressed against them--peered through the interwoven iron rods from +within. + +Jaimihr, in a rose-pink pugree still, but not at all the swaggering +cavalier who pranced, high-booted, through the streets--a down-at-heel +prince, looking slovenly and heavy-eyed from too much opium--sat in +a long chair under the cloister which faced the barred stone door. He +swished with a rhino riding-whip at the stone column beside him, and the +much-swathed individual of the plethoric paunch who stood and spoke with +him kept a very leery eye on it; he seemed to expect the binding swish +of it across his own shins, and the thought seemed tantalizing. + +"It is not to be done," said Jaimihr, speaking in a dialect peculiar +to Howrah. "That--of all the idiotic notions I have listened to--is the +least worth while! Thy brains are in thy belly and are lost amid the +fat! If my brother Howrah only had such counsellors as thou--such monkey +folk to make his plans for him--the jackals would have finished with him +long ago." + +"Sahib, did I not bring word, and overhear, and trap the man?" + +"Truly! Overheard whisperings, and trapped me a hyena I must feed! +Now thou sayest, 'Torture him!' He is a Rangar, and of good stock; +therefore, no amount of torturing will make him speak. He is that pig +Mahommed Gunga's man; therefore, there' is nothing more sure than that +Mahommed Gunga will be here, sooner or later, to look for him--Mahommed +Gunga, with the half of a Hindoo name, the whole of a Moslem's fire, and +the blind friendship of the British to rely on!" + +"But if the man be dead when Mahommed Gunga comes?" + +"He will be dead when Mahommed Gunga comes, if only what we await has +first happened. But this rising that is planned hangs fire. Were I +Maharajah I would like to see the Rangar who dare flout me or ask +questions! I would like but to set eyes on that Rangar once! But I +am not yet Maharajah; I am a prince--a younger brother--surrounded, +counselled, impeded, hampered, rendered laughable by fat idiots!" + +"My belly but shows your highness's generosity. At whose cost have I +grown fat?" + +"Ay, at whose cost? I should have kept thee slim, on prison diet, and +saved myself a world of useless problems! Cease prattling! Get away from +me! If I have to poison this Ali Partab, or wring his casteless neck, I +will make thee do it, and give thee to Mahommed Gunga to wreak vengeance +on. Leave me to think!" + +The fat former occupant of the room above the arch of the caravansary +waddled to the far end of the cloister, and sat down, cross-legged, +to grumble to himself and scratch his paunch at intervals. His master, +low-browed and irritable, continued to strike the stone column with his +cane. He was in a horrid quandary. + +Mahommed Gunga was one of many men he did not want, for the present, +to offend seriously. Given a fair cause for quarrel, that irascible +ex-Risaldar was capable of going to any lengths, and was known, +moreover, to be trusted by the British. Nobody seemed to know whether or +not Mahommed Gunga reciprocated the British regard, and nobody had cared +to ask him except his own intimates; and they, like he, were men of +close counsel. + +The Prince had given no orders for the capture of Ali Partab; that had +been carried out by his men in a fit of ill-advised officiousness. But +the Prince had to solve the serious problem caused by the presence of +Ali Partab within a stone-walled cell. + +Should he let the fellow go, a report would be certain to reach Mahommed +Gunga by the speediest route. Vengeance would be instantly decided on, +for a Rajput does not merely accept service; he repays it, feudal-wise, +and smites hip and thigh for the honor of his men. The vengeance would +be sure to follow purely Eastern lines, and would be complicated; it +would no doubt take the form of siding in some way or other with his +brother the Maharajah. There would be instant, active doings, for +that was Mahommed Gunga's style! The fat would be in the fire months, +perhaps, before the proper time. + +The prisoner's presence was maddening in a million ways. It had been the +Prince's plan (for he knew well enough that Mahommed Gunga had left a +man behind) to allow the escape to start; then it would have been an +easy matter to arrange an ambush--to kill Ali Partab--and to pretend to +ride to the rescue. Once rescued, Miss McClean and her father would be +almost completely at his mercy, for they would not be able to accuse him +of anything but friendliness, and would be obliged to return to whatever +haven of safety he cared to offer them. Once in his palace of their own +consent, they would have had to stay there until the rising of the +whole of India put an end to any chance of interference from the British +Government. + +But now there was no Ali Partab outside to try to escort them to +some place of safety; therefore, there was little chance that the +missionaries would try to make a bolt. Instead of being in the position +of a cat that watches silently and springs when the mouse breaks cover, +he was in the unenviable condition now of being forced to make the first +move. Over and over again he cursed the men who had made Ali Partab +prisoner, and over and over again: he wondered how--by all the gods of +all the multitudinous Hindoo mythology--how, when, and by what stroke +of genius he could make use of the stiff-chinned Rangar and convert him +from being a rankling thorn into a useful aid. + +He dared not poison him--yet. For the same reason he dared not put him +to the torture, to discover, or try to discover, what Mahommed Gunga's +real leanings were in the matter of loyalty to the Raj or otherwise. He +dared not let the man go, for forgiveness is not one of the virtues +held in high esteem by men of Ali Partab's race, and wrongful arrest is +considered ground enough for a feud to the death. It seemed he did not +dare do anything! + +He racked his opium-dulled brain for a suspicion of a plan that +might help solve the difficulty, until his eye--wandering around the +courtyard--fell on the black shape of a woman. She was old and bent and +she was busied, with a handful of dry twigs, pretending to sweep around +the stables. + +"Who is that mother of corruption?" demanded Jaimihr; and a man came +running to him. + +"Who is that eyesore? I have never seen her, have I?" + +"Highness, she is a beggar woman. She sat by the gate, and pretended +to a power of telling fortunes--which it would seem she does possess in +some degree. It was thought better that she should use her gift in here, +for our advantage, than outside to our disadvantage. So she was brought +in and set to sweeping." + +"By the curse of the sin of the sack of Chitor, is my palace, then, +a midden for the crawling offal of all the Howrah streets? First this +Rangar--next a sweeper hag--what follows? What bring you next? Go, fetch +the street dogs in!" + +"Highness, she is useful and costs nothing but the measure or two of +meal she eats." + +"A horse eats little more!" the angry Prince retorted, perfectly +accustomed to being argued with by his own servants. That is the +time-honored custom of the East; obedience is one thing--argument +another--both in their way are good, and both have their innings. "Bring +her to me--nay!--keep her at a decent distance--so!--am I dirt for her +broom?" + +He sat and scowled at her, and the old woman tried to hide more of her +protruding bones under the rag of clothing that she wore; she stood, +wriggling in evident embarrassment, well out in the sun. + +"What willst thou steal of mine?" the Prince demanded suddenly. + +"I am no thief." Bright, beady eyes gleamed back at him, and gave the +lie direct to her shrinking attitude of fear. But he had taken too much +opium overnight, and was in no mood to notice little distinctions. +He was satisfied that she should seem properly afraid of him, and he +scowled angrily when one of his retainers--in slovenly undress--crossed +the courtyard to him. The man's evident intention, made obvious by his +manner and his leer at the old woman, was to say something against her; +the Prince was in a mood to quarrel with any one, on any ground at all, +who did not cower to him. + +"Prince, she it is who ran ever with the white woman, as a dog runs in +the dust." + +"What does she here, then?" + +"Ask her!" grinned the trooper. "Unless she comes to look for Ali +Partab, I know not." + +He made the last part of his remark in a hurried undertone, too low for +the old woman to hear. + +"Let her earn her meal around the stables," said the Prince. A sudden +light dawned on him. Here was a means, at least, of trying to make use +of Ali Partab. "Go--do thy sweeping!" he commanded, and the hag slunk +off. + +For ten minutes longer, Jaimihr sat still and flicked at the stone +column with his whip,--then he sent for his master of the horse, whose +mistaken sense of loyalty had been the direct cause of Ali Partab's +capture. He had acted instantly when the fat Hindoo brought him word, +and he had expected to be praised for quick decision and rewarded; he +was plainly in high dudgeon as he swaggered out of a dark door near the +stables and advanced sulkily toward his master. + +"Remove the prisoner from that cell, taking great care that the hag +yonder sees what you do--yes, that hag--the new one; she is a spy. Bring +the prisoner in to me, where I will talk with him; afterward place him +in a different cell--put him where we kept the bear that died--there is +a dark comer beside it, where a man might hide; hide a man there when +it grows dark. And give the hag access. Say nothing to her; let her come +and go as she will; watch, and listen." + +Without another word, the Prince got up and shuffled in his decorated +slippers to a door at one end of the cloister. Five minutes later Ali +Partab--high-chinned, but looking miserable--was led between two men +through the same door, while the old woman went on very ostentatiously +with her sweeping about the yard. She even turned her back, to prove how +little she was interested. + +Ali Partab was hustled forward into a high-ceilinged room, whose light +came filtered through a scrollwork mesh of chiselled stone where the +wall and ceiling joined. There were no windows, but six doors opened +from it, and every one of them was barred, as though they opened into +treasure-vaults. The Prince sat restlessly in a high, carved wooden +chair; there was no other furniture at all, and Ali Partab was left +standing between his guards. The Prince drew a pistol from inside his +clothing. + +"Leave us alone!" he ordered; and the guards went out, closing the door +behind them. + +"I gave no orders for your capture," said Jaimihr, with a smile. + +"Then, let me go," grinned Ali Partab. + +"First, I must be informed on certain matters." + +Ali Partab still grinned, but the muscles of his face changed their +position slightly, and it took no expert in physiognomy to read that +questions he would answer must be very tactfully asked. + +"Ask on!" + +"You are Mahommed Gunga's man?" + +"Yes. It is an honorable service." + +"Did he order you to stay here?" + +"Here--in this palace? Allah forbid!" + +"Did he order you to stay in Howrah?" + +"He gave me certain orders. I obeyed them until your men invited swift +death for themselves and you by interfering with me!" + +"What were the orders?" + +Ali Partab grinned again--this time insolently. + +"To make sure that the Jaimihr-sahib did not make away with the treasure +of his brother Howrah!" he answered. + +"If you were released now what would you proceed to do?" + +"To obey my orders." + +Jaimihr changed his tactics and assumed the frequently successful legal +line of pretending to know far more than he really did. + +"I am told by one who overheard you speak that you were to take the +missionary and his daughter to Alwa's place. How much is my brother +Howrah paying for Mahommed Gunga's services in this matter? It is well +known that he and Alwa between them could call out all the Rangars in +the district for whichever side they chose. Since they are not on my +side, they must be for Howrah. How much does he pay? I might offer +more." + +"I know not," said Ali Partab, perfectly ready to admit anything that +was not true. + +"It is true, then, that Howrah has designs on the missionary's daughter? +Alwa is to keep her prisoner until the great blow is struck, and Howrah +dare take possession of her?" + +"That is not my business," answered Ali Partab, with the air of a man +who knew all of the secret details but would not admit it. Jaimihr began +to think that he had lit at random on the answer to the riddle. + +"Where is Mahommed Gunga?" + +"I know not." + +"At Alwa's place?" + +"Am I God that I should know where any man is whom I cannot see?" + +"Oh! So he is at Alwa's, eh?" That overdose of opium had rendered +Jaimihr's brain very dull indeed; he considered himself clever, and +overlooked the fact that Ali Partab would be almost surely lying to him. +In India men never tell the truth to chance-met strangers or to their +enemies; the truth is a valuable thing, to be shared cautiously among +friends. + +"If Mahommed Gunga is at Alwa's," reasoned Jaimihr, "then he is much +too close at hand to take any chances with. I must keep this man close +confined." He raised his voice in a high-pitched command, and the guards +opened the door instantly; at a sign from the Prince they seized Ali +Partab by the wrists. + +"I will send a message to Mahommed Gunga for thee," said Jaimihr. "On +his answer will depend your release or otherwise." He nodded. The guards +took their prisoner out between them--led him past the wrinkled old +woman in the courtyard--and halted him in a far corner, where an +evil-smelling cage of a place stood open to receive him. A moment later, +in order to make sure, the master of the horse sent for the old woman +and made her sweep out the cell a little; then he drove her away with +a fierce injunction not to let herself be caught anywhere near the cell +again unless ordered. Following the line of eastern reasoning, had he +not given that order he would not have known what her object could be +should she make her way toward the cell; but now, if she risked his +wrath by disobeying, he would know beyond the least shadow of a doubt +that she had a message to deliver to the prisoner--the man who was +hidden in the dark corner need entertain no hope of keeping the secret +to himself for purposes of sale or blackmail! + +They trust each other wonderfully--with an almost childlike +confidence--in a household such as Jaimihr's! + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + + Ho! I am king! All lesser fry + Must cringe, and crawl, and cry to me, + And none have any rights but I,-- + Except the right to lie to me. + +JAIMIHR was not the only man who would have dearly liked to know of the +whereabouts of Mahommed Gunga. It had been reported to Maharajah Howrah, +by his spies, that the redoubtable ex-Risaldar of horse had visited his +relatives in Howrah City, and, though he had not been able to ascertain +a word of what had passed, he was none the less anxious. + +He knew, of course--for every soul in Howrah knew--that Jaimihr was +plotting for the throne. He knew, too, that the priests of Siva, +who with himself were joint keepers of the wickedly won, tax-swollen +treasure, had sounded Jaimihr; they had tentatively hinted that they +might espouse his cause, provided that an equitable division of the +treasure were arranged beforehand. The question uppermost in Maharajah +Howrah's mind was whether the Rangars--the Moslem descendants of once +Hindoo Rajputs, who formed such a small but valuable proportion of the +local population--could or could not be induced to throw in their lot +with him. + +No man on the whole tax-ridden countryside believed or considered it as +a distant possibility that the Rangars would strike for any hand except +their own; they were known, on the other hand, to be more or less +cohesive, and it was considered certain that, whichever way they swung, +when the priest-pulled string let loose the flood of revolution, they +would swing all together. The question, then, was how to win the favor +of the Rangars. It was not at all an easy question, for the love lost +between Hindoos and Mohammedans is less than that between dark-skinned +men and white--a lot less. + +Within two hours of its happening he had been told of the capture of +Ali Partab; and he knew--for that was another thing his spies had told +him--that Ali Partab was Mahommed Gunga's man. Apparently, then, Ali +Partab--a prisoner in Jaimihr's palace-yard--was the only connecting +link between him and the Rangars whom he wished to win over to his side. +He was as anxious as any to help overwhelm the British, but he naturally +wished to come out of the turmoil high and dry himself, and he was, +therefore, ready to consider the protection of individual British +subjects if that would please the men whom he wanted for his friends. + +Mahommed Gunga was known to have carried letters for the missionaries. +He was known to have engaged a new servant when he rode away from Howrah +and to have left his trusted man behind. Miss McClean was known to have +conversed with the retainer, immediately after which the man had been +seized and carried off by Jaimihr's men. Jaimihr was known to have +placed watchers round the mission house and--once--to have killed a man +in Miss McClean's defense. The deduction was not too far-fetched +that the retainer had been left as a protection against Jaimihr, and +consequently that the Rangars, at the behest of Mahommed Gunga, had +decided--on at least the white girl's safety. + +Therefore, he argued, if he now proceeded to protect the McCleans, he +would, at all events, not incur the Rangars' enmity. + +It was a serious decision that he had to make, for, for one thing, he +dared not yet make any move likely to incite his strongly supported +brother to open rebellion; he dared not, therefore, interfere at +present with the watchers near the mission house. To openly befriend the +Christian priests would be to set the whole Hindoo population against +himself, for it had been mainly against suttee and its kindred horrors +that the missionaries had bent all their energy. + +The great palace of Howrah was ahum. Elephants with painted tusks, +and loaded to the groaning-point under howdahs decked with jewels and +gold-leaf, came and went through the carved entrance-gates. Occasionally +camels, loaded too until their legs all but buckled underneath them, +strutted with their weird, mixed air of foolishness and dignity, to be +disburdened of great cases that eight men could scarcely lift; on the +outside the cases were marked "Hardware," but a horde of armed and +waiting malcontents scattered about the countryside could have given a +more detailed and accurate guess at what was in them. + +Men came and went--men almost of all castes and many nationalities. +Priests--not all of them fat, but every single one fat-smiling--sunned +themselves, or waited in the shade until they could have audience; no +priest of any Hindoo temple had to wait long to be admitted to that +Rajah's presence, and there was an everlasting chain of them, each with +his axe to grind, coming and going by day and night. + +Color rioted in the blazing sun and deep, dark shadows lurked in all +the thousand places where the sun could never penetrate. It was India +in essence--noise and blaze and flouted splendor, with a back-ground and +underground of mystery. Any but the purblind British could have told at +half a glance, merely by the attitude of Howrah's armed sepoys, that a +concerted movement of some kind was afoot--that there was a tight-held +thread of plan running through the whole confusion; but no man--not +even a native--could have guessed what secret plotting might be going on +within the acres of the straggling palace. + +From the courtyard there was no least hint obtainable even of the +building's size; its shape could only have been marked down from a +bird's-eye view aloft. Even the roof was so uneven, and so subdivided by +traced and deep-carved walls and ramparts, that a sentry posted at one +end could not have seen the next man to him, perhaps some twenty feet +away. Building had been piled on building--other buildings had been +added end to end and crisscrosswise--and each extension had been walled +in as new centuries saw new additions, until the many acres were a maze +of bricks and stone and fountain-decorated gardens that no lifelong +palace denizen could have learned to know in their entirety. + +Within--one story up above the courtyard din--in a spacious, richly +decorated room that gave on to a gorgeous roof-garden, the Maharajah sat +and let himself be fanned by women, who were purchasable for perhaps a +tenth of what any of the fans had cost. Another woman, younger than the +rest, played wild minor music to him on an instrument not much unlike +a flute; they were melancholy notes--beautiful--but sad enough to sow +pessimism's seed in any one who listened. + +His divan--carved, inlaid, and gilded--faced the wide, awning-hung +opening to the garden. Round him on all three sides was a carved stone +screen through whose interstices came rustlings and whisperings that +told of the hidden life which sees and is not seen. The women with the +fans and flute were mere court accessories; the real nerves of Asia--the +veiled intriguers whom none may know but whose secret power any man may +feel--could be heard like caged birds crowding on their perches. + +Now and then glass bracelets tinkled from behind the screen; ever and +again the music stopped, until another girl appeared to play another +melancholy air. But the even purring of the fans went on incessantly, +and the poor, priest-ridden fool who owned it all scowled straight in +front of him, his brows lined deep in thought. + +It is a strange malady, that which seizes men whom fate has elevated to +a throne. It acts as certain Indian drugs are known to do--deprives its +victim of the power to act, but intensifies his ability to think, and +theorize, and feel. Howrah, with untold treasure in his vaults, with an +army of five thousand men, with the authority and backing that a hundred +generations give, could long for more--could fear the loss of what he +did have--but could not act. + +The priests held him fear-bound. His brother held him hate-bound. His +women--and not even he knew, probably, how many of them languished in +the secret warren inside those palace walls--kept him restless in a net +of this-and-that-way-tugged intrigue. Flattery--and that is by far the +subtlest poison of the East--blinded him utterly to his own best course, +and kept him blind. Luxury unmanned him; he who had once held the +straightest spear in western India, and for the love of feeling red +blood racing in his veins had ridden down panthers on the maidan, +was flabby now; deep, dark rings underlined his eyes and the once +steel-sinewed wrist trembled. + +His brother Jaimihr in his place, unsapped yet by decadent delights, +would have loosed his five thousand on the countryside--butchered any +who opposed him--pressed into service those who merely lagged--and would +have plunged India in a welter of blood before the priests had time +to mature their plans and arrange to keep all the power and plunder to +themselves. But Jaimihr had to stalk lesser game and content himself +with pricking at the ever-growing hate that gradually rendered the +Maharajah decisionless and sorry only for himself. + +A first glimpse at Howrah, particularly in the shaded room, showed a +handsome man, black-bearded, lean, and lithe; a second look, undazzled +by his jewelry or by the studied magnificence of each apparently +unstudied movement, betrayed a man whose lightest word was law, but who +feared to give the word. Where muscles had been were unfilled folds of +skin that shook; where a firm if selfish mouth had once smiled merrily +beneath a pointed black mustache, a mouth still smiled, but meanly; the +selfishness was there, but the firmness had faded. + +His eyes, though, were his most marked feature. They were hungry eyes, +pathetic as a caged beast's and as savage. No one could see them without +pitying him, and no man in his senses would have accepted their owner's +word on any point at all. A man looks as he did when the fire of a +burning velt has circled him and there is no way out. There was fear +behind them, and the look of restless search for safety that is nowhere. + +In one of the many-columned courtyards of the palace was a chained, +mad elephant whose duty was to kneel on the Rajah's captive enemies. In +another courtyard was a big, square tank with a weedy, slippery stone +ramp at one end; in the tank were alligators; down the ramp other of the +Rajah's enemies, tight-bound, would scream and struggle and slide from +time to time. But they were only little enemies who died in that way; +the greater ones, who had power or influence, lived on and plotted, +because the owner of the execution beasts was afraid to put them to +their use. + +Below, in damp, unlit dungeons, there were silken cords suspended from +stone ceilings; their ends were noosed, and the nooses hung ten feet +above the floor; those told only, though, of the fate of women who had +schemed unwisely--favorites of a week, perhaps, who had dared to sulk, +listeners through screens who had forgotten to forget. No men died ever +by the silken cord, and no tales ever reached the outside world of who +did die down in the echoing brick cellars; there was a path that led +underground to the alligator tank and a trap-door that opened just +above the water edge. Night, and the fungus-fouled long jaws, and slimy, +weed-filled water--the creak of rusty hinges--a splash--the bang of +a falling trap--a swirl in the moonlit water, and ring after heavy, +widening ring that lapped at last against the stone would write +conclusion to a tragedy. There would be no record kept. + +Howrah was childless. That, of all the hell-sent troubles that beset +him, was the worst. That alone was worse than the hoarded treasure whose +secret he and his brother and the priests of Siva shared. Only in India +could it happen that a line of Rajahs, drag-net-armed--oblivious to the +duties of a king and greedy only of the royal right to tax--could pile +up, century by century, a hoard of gold an jewels--to be looked at. The +secret of that treasure made the throne worth plotting for--gave the +priests, who shared the secret, more than nine tenths of their power for +blackmail, pressure, and intrigue--and grew, like a cancer, into each +succeeding Rajah's mind until, from a man with a soul inside him he +became in turn a heartless, fear ridden miser. + +Any childless king is liable to feel the insolent expectancy betrayed by +the heir apparent. But Jaimihr--who had no sons either--was an heir who +understood all of the Indian arts whereby a man of brain may hasten the +succession. Worry, artfully stirred up, is the greatest weapon of them +all, and never a day passed but some cleverly concocted tale would reach +the Rajah, calculated to set his guessing faculties at work. + +Either of the brothers, when he happened to be thirsty, would call his +least-trusted counsellor to drink first from the jewelled cup, and would +watch the man afterward for at least ten minutes before daring to slake +his thirst; but Jaimihr had the moral advantage of an aspirant; Howrah, +on the defensive, wilted under the nibbling necessity for wakefulness, +while Jaimihr grinned. + +What were five thousand drilled, armed men to a king who feared to use +them? Of what use was a waiting countryside, armed if not drilled, if he +was not sure that his brother had not won every man's allegiance? Being +Hindoo, priest-reared, priest-fooled, and priest-flattered, he knew, or +thought he knew, to an anna the value he might set on Hindoo loyalty +or on the loyalty of any man who did not stand to gain in pocket by +remaining true; and, as many another fear-sick tyrant has begun to do, +he turned, in his mind at least, to men of another creed--which in India +means of another race, practically-wondering whether he could not make +use of them against his own. + +Like every other Rajah of his line, he longed to have sole control +of that wonderful treasure that had eaten out his very manhood. Miser +though he was, he was prepared at least to bargain with outsiders with +the promise of a portion of it, if that would give him possession of it +all. He had learned from the priests who took such full advantage of him +an absolute contempt for Mohammedans; and their teaching, as well as his +own trend of character, made him quite indifferent to promises he might +make, for the sake of diplomacy, to men of another creed. It began to be +obvious to him that he would lose nothing by courting the favor of the +Rangars, and of Alwa in particular, and that he might win security by +coaxing them to take his part. Of one thing he was certain: the Rangars +would do anything at all, if by doing it they could harm the Hindoo +priests. + +But, being of the East Eastern, and at that Hindoo, he could not have +brought himself to make overtures direct and go straight to the real +issue. He had to feel his way gingerly. The thousand horses in his +stables, he reflected, would mount a thousand of the Rangars and place +at his disposal a regiment of cavalry which would be difficult to beat; +but a thousand mounted Mohammedans might be a worse thorn in his side +than even his brother or the priests. He decided to write to Alwa, but +to open negotiations with a very thin and delicately inserted wedge. + +He could write. The priests had overlooked that opportunity, and had +taught him in his boyhood; in that one thing he was their equal. But the +other things that they had taught him, too, offset his penmanship. +He was too proud to write--too lazy, too enamoured of his dignity. +He called a court official, and the man sat very humbly at his +feet--listened meekly to the stern command to secrecy--and took the +letter from dictation. + +Alwa was informed, quite briefly, that in view of certain happenings in +Howrah City His Highness the Maharajah had considered it expedient +to set a guard over the Christian missionaries in the city, for their +safety. The accompanying horse was a gift to the Alwa-sahib. The +Alwa-sahib himself would be a welcome guest whenever he might care to +come. + +The document was placed in a silver tube and scaled. Within the space of +half an hour a horseman was kicking up the desert dust, riding as though +he carried news of life-and-death importance, and with another man and a +led horse galloping behind him. Five minutes after the man had started, +in a cell below the temple, of Siva, the court official who had taken +down the letter was repeating it word for word to a congeries of +priests. And one hour later still, in a room up near the roof of +Jaimihr's palace, one of the priests--panting from having come so +fast--was asking the Rajah's brother what he thought about it. + +"Did he say nothing--," asked Jaimihr. + +"Nothing, sahib." + +The priest watched him eagerly; he would have to bear back to the other +priests an exact account of the Prince's every word, and movement, and +expression. + +"Then I, too, say nothing!" answered Jaimihr. + +"But to the priests of Siva, who are waiting, sahib?" + +"Tell them I said nothing." + + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + + Eyes in the dark, awake and keen, + See and may not themselves be seen; + But--and this is the tale I tell-- + What if the dark have eyes as well? + +BESIDE the reeking bear's cage in which Ali Partab stood and swore was +a dark, low corner space in which at one time and another sacks and +useless impedimenta had been tossed, to become rat-eaten and decayed. In +among all the rubbish, cross-legged like the idol of the underworld, a +nearly naked Hindoo sat, prick-eared. He was quite invisible long before +the sun went down, for that was the dingiest corner of the yard; when +twilight came, he could not have been seen from a dozen feet away. + +Joanna, sweeping, sweeping, sweeping, in the courtyard, with her back +very nearly always turned toward the cage, appeared to take no notice +of the falling darkness; unlike the other menials, who hurried to their +rest and evening meal, she went on working, accomplishing very little +but seeming to be very much in earnest about it all. Very, very +gradually she drew nearer to the cage. When night fell, she was within +ten feet of it. A few lamps were lit then, here and there over doorways, +but nobody appeared to linger in the courtyard; no footfalls resounded; +nothing but the neigh of stabled horses and the chatter around the big, +flat supper pans broke on the evening quiet. + +Joanna drew nearer. Ali Partab came forward to the cage bars, but said +nothing; it was very dark inside the cage, and even the sharp-eyed +old woman could not possibly have seen his gestures; when he stood, +tight-pressed, against the bars she might have made out his dark shape +dimly, but unless he chose to speak no signal could possibly have passed +from him to her. He said nothing, though, and she-still sweeping, with +her back toward him--passed by the cage, and stooped to scratch at some +hard-caked dirt or other close to the rubbish hole where the Hindoo +waited. Still scratching, still working with her twig broom, still +with her back toward the rubbish hole, she approached until the darkest +shadow swallowed her. + +There were two in the dark then--she and the man who listened. He, +motionless as stone, had watched her; peering outward at the lesser +darkness, he lost sight of her for a second as she backed into the +deepest shadow unexpectedly. Before he could become accustomed to the +altered focus and the deeper black, her beady eyes picked out the whites +of his. Before he could move she was on him--at his throat, tearing it +with thin, steel fingers. Before he could utter a sound, or move, she +had drawn a short knife from her clothing and had driven it to the hilt +below his ear. He dropped without a gurgle, and without a sound she +gathered up her broom again and swept her way back past the cage-bars, +where Ali Partab waited. + +"Was any there?" he whispered. + +"There was one." + +"And--?" + +"He was." + +"Good! Now will the reward be three mohurs instead of two!" + +"Where are they?" + +"These pigs have taken all the money from me. Now we must wait until +Mahommed Gunga-sahib comes. His word is pledged." + +"He said two mohurs." + +"I--Ali Partab--pledge his word for three." + +"And who art thou? The bear in the cage said: 'I will eat thee if I get +outside!"' + +"Mother of corruption! Listen! Alwa must know! Canst thou escape from +here? Canst thou reach the Alwa-sahib?" + +"If the price were four mohurs, there might be many things that I could +do." + +"The price is three! I have spoken!" + +"'I would eat honey were I outside!' said the bear." + +"Hag! The bear died in the cage, and they sold his pelt for how much? +Alive, he had been worth three mohurs, but he died while they bargained +for him!--Quick!" + +"I am black, sahib, and the night is black. I am old, and none would +believe me active. They watch the gates, but the bats fly in and out." + +"Find out, then, what has happened to my horses, left at the +caravansary; give that information to the Alwa-sahib. Tell the +Miss-sahib at the mission where I am. Tell her whither I have sent thee. +Tell the Alwa-sahib that a Rangar--by name Ali Partab--sworn follower of +the prophet, and servant of the Risaldar Mahommed Gunga--is in need and +asks his instant aid. Say also to the Alwa-sahib that it may be well to +rescue the Miss-sahib first, before he looks for me, but of that matter +I am no judge, being imprisoned and unable to ascertain the truth. Hast +thou understood?" + +"And all that for three mohurs?" + +"Nay. The price is now two mohurs again. It will be one unless--" + +"Three, sahib! It was three!" + +"Then run! Hasten!" + +The shadows swallowed her again. She crept where they were darkest--lay +still once, breathless, while a man walked almost over her--reached the +outer wall, and felt her way along it until she reached low eaves that +reached down like a jagged saw from utter blackness. Less than a minute +later she was crawling monkeywise along a roof; before another five had +passed she had dropped on all fours in the dust of the outer road and +was running like a black ghost--head down--an end of her loin-cloth +between her teeth--one arm held tight to her side and the other crooked +outward, swinging--striding, panting, boring through the blackness. + +She wasted little time at the caravansary. The gate was shut and a +sleepy watchman cursed her for breaking into his revery. + +"Horses? Belonging to a Rangar? Fool! Does not the Maharajah-sahib +impound all horses left ownerless? Ask them back of him that took them! +Go, night-owl! Go ask him!" + +Almost as quickly as a native pony could have eaten up the distance, she +dropped panting on the door-step of the little mission house. She +was panting now from fright as well as sheer exhaustion. There were +watchers--two sets of them. One man stood, with his back turned within +ten paces of her, and another--less than two yards away from him--stood, +turned half sideways, looking up the street and whistling to himself. +There was not a corner or an angle of the little place that was not +guarded. + +She had tried the back door first, but that was locked, and she had +rapped on it gently until she remembered that of evenings the missionary +and his daughter occupied the front room always and that they would not +have heard her had she hammered. She tapped now, very gently, with her +fingers on the lower panel of the door, quaking and trembling in every +limb, but taking care to make her little noise unevenly, in a way +that would be certain to attract attention inside. Tap-tap-tap. Pause. +Tap-tap. Pause. Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap. Pause. Tap-tap. The door opened +suddenly. Both watchers turned and gazed straight into the lamplight +that streamed out past the tall form of Duncan McClean. He stared at +them and they stared back again. Joanna slunk into the deep shadow at +one side of the steps. + +"Is it necessary for you to annoy me by rapping on my door as well as by +spying on me?" asked the missionary in a tone of weary remonstrance. + +The guards laughed and turned their backs with added insolence. In that +second Joanna shot like a black spirit of the night straight past the +missionary's legs and collapsed in a bundle on the floor behind him. + +"Shut the door, sahib!" she hissed at him. "Quick! Shut the door!" + +He shut it and bolted it, half recognizing something in the voice or +else guided by instinct. + +"Joanna!" he exclaimed, holding up a lamp above her. "You, Joanna!" + +At the name, Rosemary McClean came running out--looked for an +instant--and then knelt by the old woman. + +"Father, bring some water, please, quickly!" + +The missionary went in search of a water-jar, and Rosemary McClean bent +down above the ancient, shrivelled, sorry-looking mummy of a woman--drew +the wrinkled head into her lap--stroked the drawn face--and wept over +her. The spent, age-weakened, dried-out widow had fainted; there was no +wakened self-consciousness of black and white to interfere. This was a +friend--one lone friend of her own sex amid all the waste of smouldering +hate--some one surely to be wept over and made much of and caressed. +The poor old hag recovered consciousness with her head pillowed on a +European lap, and Duncan McClean--no stickler for convention and no +believer in a line too tightly drawn--saw fit to remonstrate as he laid +the jar of water down beside them. + +"Why," she answered, looking up at him, "father, I'd have kissed a dog +that got lost and came back again like this!" + +They picked her up between them, after they had let her drink, and +carried her between them to the long, low sitting-room, where she told +them--after considerable make-believe of being more spent than she +really was--after about a tenth "sip" at the brandy flask and when +another had been laughingly refused--all about Ali Partab and what his +orders to her were. + +"I wonder what it all can mean?" McClean sat back and tried to summarize +his experiences of months and fit them into what Joanna said. + +"What does that mean?" asked his daughter, leaning forward. She was +staring at Joanna's forearm and from that to a dull-red patch on the +woman's loin-cloth. Joanna answered nothing. + +"Are you wounded, Joanna? Are you sure? That's blood! Look here, +father!" + +He agreed that it was blood. It was dry and it came off her forearm in +little flakes when he rubbed it. But not a word could they coax out +of Joanna to explain it, until Rosemary--drawing the old woman to +her--espied the handle of her knife projecting by an inch above the +waist-fold of her cloth. Too late Joanna tried to hide it. Rosemary held +her and drew it out. Beyond any shadow of a doubt, there was blood on +the blade still, and on the wooden hilt, and caked in the clumsy joint +between the hilt and blade. + +"'Joanna--have you killed any one?" + +Joanna shook her head. + +"Tell me the truth, Joanna. Whose blood is that?" + +"A dog's, Miss-sahib. A street dog attacked me as I ran hither." + +"I wish I could believe it!" + +"I too!" said her father, and he took Joanna to one side and +cross-examined her. But he could get no admission from her--nothing but +the same statement, with added details each time he made her tell it, +that she had killed a dog. + +They fed her, and she ate like a hyena. No caste prejudices or forbidden +foods troubled her; she ate whatever came her way, Hindoo food, or +Mohammedan, or Christian,--and reached for more--and finished, as hyenas +finish, by breaking bones to get the marrow out. At midnight they left +her, curled dogwise on a mat in the hall, to sleep; and at dawn, when +they came to wake her, she was gone again--gone utterly, without a trace +or sign of explanation. The doors, both front and back, were locked. + +It was two days later when they found a hole torn through the thatch, +through which she had escaped; and though they searched the house from +cellar up to roof, and turned all their small possessions over, they +could not find (and they were utterly glad of it) that she had stolen +anything. + +"Thank God for that!" said the missionary. + +"I've finished disbelieving in Joanna!" said his daughter with a grimace +that went always with irrevocable decision. + +"I've come to the conclusion," said McClean, "that there are more than +just Joanna to be trusted. There is Ali Partab, and--who knows how +many?" + + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + + Against all fear; against the weight of what, + For lack of worse name, men miscall the Law; + Against the Tyranny of Creed; against the hot, + Foul Greed of Priest, and Superstition's Maw; + Against all man-made Shackles, and a man-made Hell-- + Alone--At last--Unaided-- + I REBEL! + +No single, individual circumstance, but a chain of happenings in very +quick succession, brought about a climax, forcing the hand of Howrah +and his brother and for the moment drawing the McCleans, father and +daughter, into the toothed wheel of Indian action. As usual in India, +the usual brought about the unexpected, and the unexpected fitted +strangely into the complex, mysteriously worked-out whole. + +Two days after Joanna left the mission house, through a hole made in the +thatch, the spirit of revolt took hold of Rosemary McClean again. The +stuffy, narrow quarters--the insolent, doubled, unexplained, but very +obvious, guard that lounged outside--the sense of rank injustice +and helplessness--the weird feeling of impending horror added onto +stale-grown ghastliness--youth, chafing at the lack of liberty--stirred +her to action. + +Without a word to her father, who was writing reports that seemed +endless at the little desk by the shaded window, she left the +house--drew with a physical effort on all her reserve of strength and +health--faced the scorching afternoon wind, as though it were a foe that +could shrink away before her courage, and walked, since she had no pony +now, in any direction in which chance or her momentary whim might care +to lead her. + +"I won't cry again--and I won't submit--and I'll see what happens!" she +told herself; and the four who followed her at a none-too-respectful +distance--two of the Maharajah's men in uniform and two shabby-looking +ruffians of Jaimihr's--grinned as they scented action. Like their +masters they bore no love for one another; they were there now, in fact, +as much to watch one another as the missionaries; they detected the +possibility of an excuse to be at one another's throats, and gloated +as they saw two messengers, one of either side, run off in a hurry to +inform the rival camps. + +It was neither plan nor conscious selection that led Rosemary McClean +toward the far end of the maidan, where the sluggish, narrow, winding +Howrah River sucked slimily beside the burning ghats. When she realized +where her footsteps were leading her she would have turned in horror and +retreated, for even a legitimately roasting corpse that died before the +Hindoo priests had opportunity to introduce it to the flames is no sight +for eyes that are civilized. + +But, when she turned her head, the sight of her hurrying escort +perspiring in her wake--(few natives like the heat and wind one whit +better than their conquerors)--filled her with an unexpected, probably +unjustifiable, determination not to let them see her flinch at any kind +of horror. That was the spirit of sahibdom that is not always quite +commendable; it is the spirit that takes Anglo-Saxon women to the +seething, stenching plains and holds them there high-chinned to stiffen +their men-folk by courageous example, but it leads, too, to things not +quite so womanly and good. + +"I'll show them!" muttered Rosemary McClean, wiping the blown dust from +her eyes and facing the wind again that now began to carry with it the +unspread taint--the awful, sickening, soul-revolting smell inseparable +from Hindoo funeral rites. There were three pyres, low-smouldering, +close by the river-bank, and men stirred with long poles among the ashes +to make sure that the incineration started the evening before should be +complete; there was one pyre that looked as though it had been lit long +after dawn--another newly lit--and there were two pyres building. + +It was those two new ones that held her attention, and finally +decided her to hold her course. She wanted to make sure. The smell of +burning--the unoutlined, only guessed-at ghastliness--would probably +have killed her courage yet, before she came close enough to really see; +but the suspicion of a greater horror drew her on, as snakes are said to +draw birds on, by merely being snakes, and with red-rimmed eyes smarting +from smoke as well as wind she pressed forward. + +The ghats were deserted-looking, for the funeral rites of those who +burned were practically over until the time should come to scatter ashes +on the river-surface; only a few attendants hovered close to the fires +to prod them and occasionally throw on extra logs. Only round the +two new pyres not yet quite finished was anything approaching a crowd +assembled, and there a priest was officiously directing the laying of +the logs. It was the manner of their laying and the careful building +of a scaffold on each side of either pyre that held Rosemary +McClean's attention--called all the rebellious womanhood within her to +interfere--and drew her nearer. + +Soon the priest noticed her--a cotton-skirted wraith amid the smoke--and +shouted to the guards behind; one of them answered, laughing coarsely, +and Rosemary understood enough of the dialect he used to grit her teeth +with shame and anger. The men left off building, and, directed by the +priest, came toward her in a ragged line to cut her off from closer +approach; she stood, then--examined the new pyres as carefully as she +could--walked to another vantage-point and viewed them sideways--then +turned her back. + +"Oh, the brutes!" she ejaculated. There were tears in her voice, as well +as helpless anger. "There is not one devil, there are a million, and +they all live here!" + +She looked back again once, trembling with an overmastering hate, +directed less at the priest who grinned back at her than at the +loathsome rite he represented. In two actual words, she cursed him. +It was the first time she had ever cursed anybody in her life, and the +wickedness of doing it swept over her as a relief. She revelled in it. +She was glad she had cursed him. Her little, light, graceful body that +had been quivering grew calm again, and she turned to hurry home with an +unexpected sense of having pulled some lever in the mechanism that would +bring about results. She neither knew nor cared what results, nor how +they were to happen; she felt that that curse of hers, her first, had +landed on the mark! + +But she had come further than she thought. Distance, hot wind, and +emotion had exhausted her far more, too, than she had had time to +realize. Before a mile of the homeward journey had been accomplished, +she was forced against her stubborn Scots will to sit down on a big +stone by the roadside and rest, while the four that followed came up +close, grinning and passing remarks in anything but under-tones. If +the meaning of the words escaped her, their gestures left little to +be misunderstood. A crowd of stragglers drew together near the +four--laughed with them--took sides in the coarse-worded argument about +Jaimihr's known ambition--and shamed her into pressing on homeward. + +But she was forced to rest again, and then again. Physical sickness +prevented her from obeying instinct, reason, will, that all three urged +her on. No false pride now told her to dare the insolence of the guards; +nothing appealed to her but the desire to hurry, hurry, hurry, and do +whatever should appear to need doing when she reached the mission house. +She had no plan in her head. She only knew that she had cursed a man, +and that the curse was potent. But her feet dragged, and her vitality +died down. It was sundown when she reached the mission house, and she +could hear the rising, falling, intermittent din of drums before she saw +her father in the doorway. + +"Father!" She ran to him, and he caught her in his arms to save her from +falling headlong. "Father, there is going to be a suttee tonight! Hear +the drums, father! Hear the drums! It'll be tonight! That's to stop the +screams from being heard! Listen to them, father--two suttees, side +by side--I've seen the pyres and the scaffolds--do they jump into the +flames, father, from the scaffolds?--tell me! No-don't tell me--I won't +listen! Take me away from here--away--away--away--take me away, d'you +hear!" + +He carried her inside, and laid her on the caned couch in the +living-room, looking like a great, big, helpless, gray-haired baby, as +any man is prone to do when he has hysteria to deal with in a woman whom +he loves. + +"I cursed a man, father! I cursed a man! I did! I said 'Damn you!' I'm +glad!" + +"Don't, little girl--don't! Lassie mine, don't! Never mind what you saw +or what you said--be calm now--there is something we must do; we must +act; I have determined we must act. We must act tonight. But we can't do +anything with you in this state." + +Slowly, gradually he calmed her--or probably she grew calm, in spite of +his attentions, for he was too upset himself to exercise much soothing +sway over anybody else. At last, though, she fell into a fitful sleep, +and he sat beside her, holding rigid the left hand that she clutched, +letting it stiffen and grow cold and numb for fear of waking her. + +Outside a full moon rose majestically, pure and silvery as peace +herself, bathing the universe in blessings. And each month, when the +full moon rose above the carved dome of Siva's temple, there was a +ceremony gone through that commemorated cruelty, greed, poisoning, +throat-slitting, hate, and all the hell-invented infamy that suckles +always at the breast of stagnant treasure. + +Since history has forgotten when, at each full moon, the priests of Siva +had gone with circumstantial ceremony to view the hoarded wealth tied up +by jealousy and guarded jealously in Howrah's palace. With them, as +the custom that was stronger than a thousand laws dictated, went the +Maharajah and his brother Jaimihr--joint owners with the priests. + +There had not been one Maharajah, since the first of that long line, who +would not have given the lives of ten thousand men for leave to broach +that treasure; nor, since the first heir apparent shared the secret with +the priests and the holder of the throne, had there been one prince in +line-son-brother-cousin--who would not have drenched the throne with his +relation's blood with that same purpose. + +Heir after heir could have agreed with Maharajah, but the priests had +stood between. That treasure was their fulcrum; the legacy, dictated by +a dead, misguided hand, intended as a war reserve to stay the throne of +Howrah in its need, and trebly locked to guard against profligacy, had +placed the priests of Siva in the position of dictators of Howrah's +destiny. A word from them, and a prince would slay his father--only +to discover that the promises of Siva's priests were something less to +build on than the hope of loot. There would be another heir apparent +to be let into the secret--another man to scheme and hunger for the +throne--another party to the bloody three-angled intrigue which kept the +Siva-servers fat and the princes lean. + +Past masters of the art by which superstitious ignorance is swayed, +the priests could swing the allegiance of the mob whichever way they +chose--even the soldiers, loyal enough to their masters under ordinary +circumstances, would have rebelled at as much as a hint from holy Siva. +It was the priests who made it possible for Jaimihr to dare take +his part in the ceremony; without them he would not have entered his +brother's palace-yard unless five thousand men at least were there to +guard his back--but, if there was danger where the priests were, there +was safety too. + +As the custom was, he rode to the temple of Siva first with a ten-man +guard; there, when the priests had finished droning age-old anthems to +the echoing roof, when his brother, the Maharajah, also with a ten-man +guard, had joined him, and the two had submitted to the sanctifying +rites prescribed, eleven priests would walk with them in solemn mummery +to the palace-entrance--censer-swinging, chanting, blasphemously acting +duty to their gods and state. + +The moon--and that, too, was custom-rested with her lower rim one full +hand's breadth above the temple dome as viewed from the palace-gate, +when a gong clanged resonantly, died to silence, music of pipes and +cymbals broke on the evening quiet, and the strange procession started +from the temple door, the Maharajah leading. + +Generally it passed uninterrupted over the intervening street to the +palace-entrance, between the ranks of a salaaming, silent crowd, and +disappeared from view. This time, though, for the first time in living +memory, and possibly for the first time in all history, the unforeseen, +amazing happened. The procession stopped. Moon-bathed, between the +carved posts of the palace-gate, two people blocked the way. + +The music ceased. The sudden silence framed itself against the distant +thunder of a hundred drums. The crowd--all heads bowed, as decreed--drew +in its breath and held it. A sea of pugrees moved as brown eyes looked +up surreptitiously--stared--memorized--and then looked down again. There +was no precedent for this happening, and even the Maharajah and the +priests were at a momentary loss--stood waiting, staring--and said +nothing. + +"Maharajah-sahib!--I must interrupt your ceremony. I must have word with +you at once!" + +It was Duncan McClean, bareheaded, holding his daughter's hand. They +had no weapons; they were messengers of peace, protesting, or so they +looked. No longer timid, but resigned to what might happen--they held +each other's hands, and blocked the way of Siva's votaries--Siva's +tools--and Siva's ritual. + +Jaimihr whispered to his brother--the first time he had dared one +word to him in person for years--the high priest of the temple pressed +forward angrily, saying nothing, but trying to combine rage and dignity +with an attempt to turn the incident to priestly advantage. Surely this +was a crisis out of which the priests must come triumphant; they held +all the cards--knew how and when rebellion was timed, and could compare, +as the principals themselves could not do, Howrah's strength with +Jaimihr's. And the priests had the crowd to back them--the ignorant, +superstitious crowd that can make or dethrone emperors. + +But some strange freak of real dignity--curiosity perhaps, or possibly +occasion--spurred desire to act of his own initiative and keep the high +priest in his place--impelled the Maharajah in that minute. Men said +afterward that Jaimihr had whispered to him advice which he knew was +barbed because it was his brother whispering, and that he promptly did +the opposite; but, whatever the motive, he drew himself up in all his +jewelled splendor and demanded: "What do you people wish?" + +The McCleans were given no time to reply. The priests did not see fit +to let the reins of this occasion slip; the word went out, panic-voiced, +that sacrilege to Siva was afoot. + +"Slay them! Slay them!" yelled the crowd. "They violate the sacred +rites!" + +There were no Mohammedans among that crowd to take delight in seeing +Hindoo priests discomfited and Hindoo ritual disturbed. There came no +counter-shout. The crowd did not, as so often happens, turn and rend +itself; and yet, though a surge from behind pressed forward, the men in +front pressed back. + +"Slay them! Slay the sacrilegious foreigners!" The yell grew louder and +more widely voiced, but no man in the front ranks moved. + +The Maharajah looked from the company of guards that lined the +palace-steps to the priests and his brother and the crowd--and then to +the McCleans again. + +He remembered Alwa and his Rangars, thought of the messenger whom he had +sent, remembered that a regiment of lance-armed horsemen would be worth +a risk or two to win over to his side, and made decision. + +"You are in danger," he asserted, using a pronoun not intended to convey +politeness, but--Eastern of the East--counteracting that by courtesy of +manner. "Do you ask my aid?" + +"Yes, among other things," Duncan McClean answered him. "I wish also +to speak about a Rangar, who I know is held prisoner in a cage in the +Jaimihr-sahib's palace." + +"Speak of that later," answered Howrah. "Guard!" + +He made a sign. A spoken word might have told the priests too much, and +have set them busy fore-stalling him. The guards rushed down the +steps, seized both McCleans, and half-carried, half-hustled them up the +palace-steps, through the great carved doors, and presently returned +without them. + +"They are my prisoners," said the Maharajah, turning to the high priest. +"We will now proceed." + +The crowd was satisfied, at least for the time being. Well versed in the +kind of treatment meted out to prisoners, partly informed of what was +preparing for the British all through India, the crowd never doubted +for an instant but that grizzly vengeance awaited the Christians who +had dared to remonstrate against time-honored custom. It looked for the +moment as though the high priest's word had moved the Maharajah to +order the arrest, and the high priest realized it. By skilful play and +well-used dignity he might contrive to snatch all the credit yet. He +ordered; the pipes and cymbals started up again at once; and, one by +one--Maharajah, Jaimihr, high priest, then royal guard, Jaimihr's guard, +priest again--the procession wound ahead, jewelled and egretted, sabred +and spurred, priest-robed, representative of all the many cancers eating +at the heart of India. + +Chanting, clanging, wailing minor dirges to the night, it circled all +the front projections of the palace, turned where a small door opened on +a courtyard at one side, entered, and disappeared. + + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + + Oh, is it good, my soldier prince and is the wisdom clear, + To guard thy front a thousand strong, while ten may take thy rear? + +Now, because it was impregnable to almost anything except a +yet-to-be-invented air-ship, the Alwa-sahib owned a fortress still, +high-perched on a crag that overlooked a glittering expanse of desert. +More precious than its bulk in diamonds, a spring of clear, cold water +from the rock-lined depths of mother earth gushed out through a fissure +near the Summit, and round that spring had been built, in bygone +centuries, a battlemented nest to breed and turn out warriors. +Alwa's grandfather had come by it through complicated bargaining and +dowry-contracts, and Alwa now held it as the rallying-point for the +Rangars thereabout. + +But its defensibility was practically all the crag fort had to offer by +way of attraction. Down at its foot, where the stream of rushing water +splashed in a series of cascades to the thirsty, sandy earth, there were +an acre or two of cultivation--sufficient, in time of peace, to +support an attenuated garrison and its horses. But for his revenues the +Alwa-sahib had to look many a long day's march afield. Leagues of desert +lay between him and the nearest farm he owned, and since--more in the +East than anywhere--a landlord's chief absorption is the watching of his +rents, it followed that he spent the greater part of his existence in +the saddle, riding from one widely scattered tenant to another. + +It was luck or fortuitous circumstance--Fate, he would have called it, +had he wasted time to give it name--that brought him along a road where, +many miles from Howrah City, he caught sight of Joanna. Needless to say, +he took no slightest notice of her. + +Dog-weary, parched, sore-footed, she was hurrying along the burning, +sandy trail that led in the direction of Alwa's fort. The trail was +narrow, and the horsemen whose mounts ambled tirelessly behind Alwa's +plain-bred Arab pressed on past him, to curse the hag and bid her make +horse-room for her betters. She sunk on the sand and begged of them. +Laughingly, they asked her what a coin would buy in all that arid waste. + +"Have the jackals, then, turned tradesman?" they jeered; but she only +mumbled, and displayed her swollen tongue, and held her hands in +an attitude of pitiful supplication. Then Alwa cantered up--rode +past--heard one of his men jeering--drew rein and wheeled. + +"Give her water!" he commanded. + +He sat and watched her while she knelt, face upward, and a Rangar poured +lukewarm water from a bottle down her tortured throat. He held it high +and let the water splash, for fear his dignity might suffer should he or +the bottle touch her. Strictly speaking, Rangars have no caste, but they +retain by instinct and tradition many of the Hindoo prejudices. Alwa +himself saw nothing to object to in the man's precaution. + +"Ask the old crows' meat whither she was running." + +"She says she would find the Alwa-sahib." + +"Tell her I am he." + +Joanna fawned and laid her wrinkled forehead in the dust. + +"Get up!" he growled. "Thy service is dishonor and my ears are deaf to +it! Now, speak! Hast thou a message? Who is it sends a rat to bring me +news?" + +"Ali Partab." + +"Soho! And who is Ali Partab? He needs to learn manners. He has come to +a stern school for them!" + +"Sahib--great one--Prince of swordsmen!--Ali Partab is Mahommed +Gunga-sahib's man. He bid me say that he is held a prisoner in a +bear-cage in Jaimihr's palace and needs aid." + +Alwa's black beard dropped onto his chest as he frowned in thought. He +had nine men with him. Jaimihr had by this time, perhaps, as many as +nine thousand, for no one knew but Jaimihr and the priests how many +in the district waited to espouse his cause. The odds seemed about as +stupendous as any that a man of his word had ever been called upon to +take. + +A moment more, and without consulting any one, he bade one of his men +dismount. + +"Put that hag on thy horse!" he commanded. "Mount thou behind another!" + +The order was obeyed. Another Rangar took the led horse, and Joanna +found herself, perched like a monkey on a horse that objected to the +change of riders, between two troopers whose iron-thewed legs squeezed +hers into the saddle. + +"To Howrah City!" ordered Alwa, starting off at an easy, desert-eating +amble; and without a word of comment, but with downward glances at their +swords and a little back-stiffening which was all of excitement that +they deigned to show, his men wheeled three and three behind him. + +It was no affair of Alwa's that a full moon shone that night--none of +his arranging that on that one night of the month Jaimihr and his most +trusted body-guard should go with the priests and the Maharajah to +inspect the treasure. Alwa was a soldier, born to take instant advantage +of chance--sent opportunity; Jaimihr was a schemer, born to indecision +and the cunning that seeks underhanded means but overlooks the obvious. +Because the streets were full of men whose allegiance was doubtful yet, +because he himself would be too occupied to sit like a spider in a web +and watch the intentions of the crowd unfold, Jaimihr had turned out +every retainer to his name, and had scattered them about the city, with +orders, if they were needed, to rally on a certain point. + +He did think that at any minute a disturbance might break out which +would lead to civil war, and he saw the necessity for watchfulness at +every point; but he did not see the rather obvious necessity for +leaving more than twenty men on guard inside his palace. Not even +the thoughtfulness of Siva's priests could have anticipated that ten +horse-men would be riding out of nowhere, with the spirit in them that +ignores side issues and leads them only straight to their objective. + +Alwa, as a soldier, knew exactly where fresh horses could be borrowed +while his tired ones rested. A little way beyond the outskirts of the +city lived a man who was neither Mohammedan nor Hindoo--a fearful man, +who took no sides, but paid his taxes, carried on his business, and +behaved--a Jew, who dealt in horses and in any other animal or thing +that could be bought to show a profit. + +Alwa had an utterly complete contempt for Jews, as was right and proper +in a Rangar of the blood. He had not met many of them, and those he had +had borne away the memory of most outrageous insult gratuitously offered +and rubbed home. But this particular Jew was a money-lender on occasion, +and his rates had proved as reasonable as his acceptance of Alwa's +unwritten promise had been prompt. A man who holds his given word as +sacred as did Alwa respects, in the teeth of custom or religion, the man +who accepts that word; so, when the chance had offered, Alwa had done +the Jew occasional favors and had won his gratitude. He now counted on +the Jew for fresh horses. + +To reach him, he had to wade the Howrah River, less than a mile from +where the burning ghats glowed dull crimson against the sky; the crowd +around the ghats was the first intimation he received that the +streets might prove less densely thronged than usual. It was the Jew, +beard-scrabbling and fidgeting among his horses, who reminded him that +when the full moon shone most of the populace, and most of Jaimihr's and +Howrah's guards, would be occupied near Siva's temple and the palace. + +He left his own horses, groomed again, and gorging their fill of good, +clean grain in the Jew's ramshackle stable place. Joanna he turned +loose, to sneak into any rat-hole that she chose. Then, with their +swords drawn--for if trouble came it would be certain to come +suddenly--he and his nine made a wide-ringed circuit of the city, to a +point where the main street passing Jaimihr's palace ended in a rune +of wind-piled desert sand. From the moment when they reached that point +they did not waste a second; action trod on the heel of thought and +thought flashed fast as summer lightning. + +They lit through the deserted street, troubling for speed, not silence; +the few whom they passed had no time to determine who they were, and +no one followed them. A few frightened night-wanderers ran at sight of +them, hiding down side streets, but when they brought up at last outside +Jaimihr's palace-gate they had so far escaped recognition. And that +meant that no one would carry word to Jaimihr or his men. + +It was death-dark outside the bronze-hinged double gate; only a dim lamp +hung above from chains, to show how dark it was, and the moon--cut off +by trees and houses on a bluff of rising ground--lent nothing to the +gloom. + +"Open! The jaimihr-sahib comes!" shouted Alwa and one of his horsemen +legged up close beside the gate. + +Some one moved inside, for his footsteps could be heard; whoever he was +appeared to listen cautiously. + +"Open for the Jaimihr-sahib!" repeated Alwa. + +Evidently that was not the usual command, or otherwise the gates would +have swung open on the instant. Instead, one gate moved inward by a +fraction of a foot, and a pureed head peered cautiously between the gap. +That, though, was sufficient. With a laugh, the man up closest drove +his sword-hilt straight between the Hindoo's eyes, driving his horse's +shoulder up against the gate; three others spurred and shoved beside +him. Not thirty seconds later Alwa and his nine were striking hoof +sparks on the stone of Jaimihr's courtyard, and the gates--that could +have easily withstood a hundred-man assault with battering-rams--had +clanged behind them, bolted tight against their owner. + +"Where is the bear cage?" demanded Alwa. "It is a bear I need, not +blood!" + +The dozen left inside to guard the palace had recovered quickly enough +from their panic. They were lining up in the middle of the courtyard, +ready to defend their honor, even if the palace should be lost. It was +barely probable that Jaimihr's temper would permit them the privilege +of dying quickly should he come and find his palace looted; a Rangar's +sword seemed better, and they made ready to die hard. + +"Where's Ali Partab?" + +There was no answer. The little crowd drew in, and one by one took up +the fighting attitude that each man liked the best. + +"I say I did not come for blood! I came for Ali Partab! If I get him, +unharmed, I ride away again; but otherwise--" + +"What otherwise?" asked the captain of the guard. + +"This palace burns!" + +There was a momentary consultation--no argument, but a quickly reached +agreement. + +"He is here, unharmed," declared the captain gruffly. + +"Bring him out!" + +"What proof have we that he is all you came for?" + +"My given word." + +"But the Jaimihr-sahib--" + +"You also have my given word that unless I get Ali Partab this palace +burns, with all that there is in it!" + +Distrustful still, the captain of the guard called out to a sweeper, +skulking in the shadow by the stables to go and loose Ali Partab. + +"Send no sweepers to him!" ordered Alwa. "He has suffered indignity +enough. Go thou!" + +The captain of the guard obeyed. Two minutes later Ali Partab stood +before Alwa and saluted. + +"Sahib, my master's thanks!" + +"They are accepted," answered Alwa, with almost regal dignity. "Bring a +lamp!" he ordered. + +One of the guard brought a hand-lantern, and by its light Alwa examined +Ali Partab closely. He was filthy, and his clothing reeked of the +disgusting confinement he had endured. + +"Give this man clothing fit for a man of mine!" commanded Alwa. + +"Sahib, there is none; perhaps the Jaimihr-sahib--" + +"I have ordered!" + +There was a movement among Alwa's men--a concerted, horse-length-forward +movement, made terrifying by the darkness--each man knew well enough +that the men they were bullying could fight; success, should they have +to force it at the sword-point, would depend largely on which side took +the other by surprise. + +"It is done, sahib," said the leader of the guard, and one man hurried +off to execute the order. Ten minutes later--they were ten impatient +minutes, during which the horses sensed the fever of anxiety and could +be hardly made to stand--Ali Partab stood arrayed in clean, new khaki +that fitted him reasonably well. + +"A sword, now!" demanded Alwa. "Thy sword! This man had a sword when he +was taken! Give him thine, unless there is a better to be had." + +There was nothing for it but obedience, for few things were more certain +than that Alwa was not there to waste time asking for anything he would +not fight for if refused. The guard held out his long sword, hilt first, +and Ali Partab strapped it on. + +"I had three horses when they took me," he asserted, "three good ones, +sound and swift, belonging to my master." + +"Then take three of Jaimihr's!" + +It took ten minutes more for Ali Partab and two of Alwa's men to search +the stables and bring out the three best chargers of the twenty and +more reserved for Jaimihr's private use. They were wonders of horses, +half-Arab and half-native-bred, clean-limbed and firm--worth more, each +one of them, than all three of Mahommed Gunga's put together. + +"Are they good enough?" demanded Alwa. + +"My master will be satisfied," grinned Ali Partab. + +"Open the gate, then!" Alwa was peering through the blackness for +a sight of firearms, but could see none. He guessed--and he was +right--that the guard had taken full advantage of their master's +absence, and had been gambling in a corner while their rifles rested +under cover somewhere else. For a second he hesitated, dallying with the +notion of disarming the guard before he left, then decided that a fight +was scarcely worth the risking now, and with ten good men behind him he +wheeled and scooted through the wide-flung gates into outer gloom. + +He galloped none too fast, for his party was barely out of range before +a ragged volley ripped from the palace-wall; one of his men, hampered +and delayed by a led horse that was trying to break away from him, was +actually hit, and begged Alwa to ride back and burn the palace after +all. He was grumbling still about the honor of a Rangar, when Alwa +called a halt in the shelter of a deserted side street in order to +question Ali Partab further. + +Ali Partab protested that he did not know what to say or think about the +missionaries. He explained his orders and vowed that his honor held him +there in Howrah until Miss McClean should consent to come away. He did +not mention the father; he was a mere side issue--it was Alwa who asked +after him. + +"A tick on the belly of an ox rides with the ox," said Ali Partab. + +"Lead on, then, to the mission house," commanded Alwa, and the ten-man +troop proceeded to obey. They had reached the main street again, and +were wheeling into it, when Joanna sprang from gutter darkness and +intercepted them. She was all but ridden down before Ali Partab +recognized her. + +"The mohurs, sahib!" she demanded. "Three golden mohurs!" + +"Ay, three!" said Ali Partab, giving her a hand and yanking her off the +ground. She sprang across his horse's rump behind him, and he seemed to +have less compunction about personal defilement than the others had. + +"Is she thy wife or thy mother-in-law?" laughed Alwa. + +"Nay, sahib, but my creditor! The mother of confusion tells me that the +Miss-sahib and her father are in Howrah's palace!" + +They halted, all together in a cluster in the middle of the street--shut +in by darkness--watched for all they knew, by a hundred enemies. + +"Of their own will or as prisoners?" + +"As prisoners, sahib." + +"Back to the side street! Quickly! Jaimihr' rat's nest is one affair," +he muttered; "Howrah' beehive is another!" + + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + + Now, secrets and things of the Councils of Kings + Are deucid expensive to buy, + For it wouldn't look nice if a Councillor's price + Were anything other than high. + Be advised, though, and note that the price they will quote + Is less at each grade you go deeper, + And--(Up on its toes it's the Underworld knows!)-- + The cheapest of all is the Sweeper. + +JOANNA--when Alwa forgot about her and loosed her to run just where she +chose--had sneaked, down alleys and over roof-tops, straight for the +mission house. She found there nothing but a desultory guard and an +impression, rather than the traces, of an empty cage. About two +minutes of cautious questioning of neighbors satisfied her where the +missionaries were; nothing short of death seemed able to deprive her of +ability to flit like a black bat through the shadows, and the distance +to Howrah's palace was accomplished, by her usual bat's entry route, +in less time than a pony would have taken by the devious street. Before +Alwa had thundered on Jaimihr's gate Joanna had mingled in the crowd +outside the palace and was shrewdly questioning again. + +She arrived too late to see McClean and his daughter seized; what she +did hear was that they were prisoners, and that the Maharajah, Jaimihr, +and the priests were all of them engaged in the secret ceremony +whose beginning was a monthly spectacle but whose subsequent +developments--supposed to be somewhere in the bowels of the earth--were +known only to the men who held the key. + +Like a rat running in the wainscot holes, she tried to follow the +procession; like everybody else, she knew the way it took from the +palace gate, and--as few others were--she was aware of a scaling-place +on the outer wall where a huge baobab drooped century-scarred branches +nearly to the ground on either side. The sacred monkeys used that route +and where they went Joanna could contrive to follow. + +It was another member of the sweeper caste, lurking in the darkness +of an inner courtyard, who pointed out the bronze-barred door to her +through which the treasure guardians had chanted on their way; it was +he, too, who told her that Rosemary McClean and her father had been +rushed into the palace through the main entrance. Also, he informed her +that there was no way--positively no way practicable even for a monkey +or a bird--of following further. He was a sweeper-intimate acquaintance +of creeper ladders, trap-doors, gutters drains, and byways; she realized +at once that there would be no wisdom in attempting to find within an +hour what he had not discovered in a lifetime. + +So Joanna, her beady eyes glittering between the wrinkled folds of skin, +slunk deeper in a shadow and began to think. She, the looker-on, had +seen the whole play from its first beginning and could judge at least +that part of it which had its bearing on her missionary masters. First, +she knew what Jaimihr's ambition was--every man in Howrah knew how he +planned to seize Miss McClean when the moment should be propitious--and +her Eastern wisdom warned her that Jaimihr, foiled, would stop at +nothing to contrive vengeance. If he could not seize Miss McClean, he +would be likely to use every means within his power to bring about her +death and prevent another from making off with his prize. Jaimihr, then, +was the most pressing danger. + +Second, as a Hindoo, she knew well how fiendishly the priests loathed +the Christian missionaries; and it was common knowledge that the +Maharajah was cross-hobbled by the priests. The Maharajah was a fearful +man, and, unless the priests and Jaimihr threatened him with a show +of combination, there was a slight chance that he might dread British +vengeance too much to dare permit violence to the McCleans. Possibly he +might hold out against the priests alone; but before an open alliance +between Jaimihr and the priests he would surrender for his own throne's +sake. + +So far Joanna could reason readily enough, for there was a vast fund of +wisdom stored beneath her wrinkled ugliness. But her Eastern limitation +stopped her there. She could not hold loyalty to more than one cause, +or to more than one offshoot of that cause, in the same shrewd head at +once. She decided that at all costs Jaimihr must be out of the way so +that the Maharaja might be left to argue with the priests alone. For the +moment no other thought occurred to her. + +The means seemed ready to her hand. A peculiarity of the East, which is +democratic in most ways under the veneer of swaggering autocracy, that +servants of the very lowest caste may speak, and argue on occasion, with +men who would shudder at the prospect of defilement from their touch. +There was nothing in the least outrageous in the proposition that the +sweeper, waiting in a corner for the procession to emerge again so that +he might curl on his mat and sleep undisturbed when it had gone, should +dare to approach Jaimihr and address him. He would run no small risk +of being beaten by the guards; but, on the other hand, should he catch +jaimihr's ear and interest him, he would be safe. + +"Wouldst thou win Jaimihr's favor?" asked Joanna, creeping up beside +him, and whispering with all the suggestiveness she could assume. + +"Who would not? Who knows that within week he will not be ruler?" + +"True. I have a message for him. I must hurry back. Deliver it for me." + +"What would be the nature of the message?" + +"This. His prisoner is gone. A raid has taken place. In his absence, +while his men patrolled the city, certain Rangars broke into his +palace--looted--and prepared to burn. Bid him hurry back with all the +men he can collect." + +"From whom is this message?" + +"From the captain of the guard." + +"And I am to deliver it? Thou dodderest! Mother of a murrain, have I not +trouble sufficient for one man? Who bears bad news to a prince, or to +any but his enemy? I--with these two eyes--I saw what happened to the +men who bore bad news to Howrah once. I--with this broom of mine--I +helped clean up the mess. Deliver thine own message!" + +"Nay. Afterward I will say this--to the Jaimihr-sahib in person. There +is one, I will tell him, a sweeper in the palace, who refused to bear +tidings when the need was great." + +"If his palace is burned and his wealth all ashes, who cares what +Jaimihr hears?" + +"There is no glow yet in the sky," said Joanna looking up. "The palace +is not yet in flames; they loot still." + +"What if it be not true?" + +"Will Jaimihr not be glad?" + +"Glad to see me, the bearer of false news, impaled--or crushed beneath +an elephant--ay--glad, indeed." + +"The reward, were the Jaimihr-sahib warned in time, would be a great +one." + +"Then, why waitest thou not to have word with him. Art thou above +rewards?" + +"Have no fear! He will know in good time who it was brought thee the +news." + +They argued for ten minutes, Joanna threatening and coaxing and +promising rewards, until at last the man consented. It was the thought, +thoroughly encouraged by Joanna, that the penalty for not speaking would +be greater than the beating he might get for bearing evil news that +at last convinced him; and it was not until she had won him over and +assured herself that he would not fail that it dawned on Joanna just +what an edged tool she was playing with. While getting rid of Jaimihr, +she was endangering the liberty and life of Alwa--the one man able to do +anything for the McCleans! + +That thought sent her scooting over housetops, diving down dark +alleyways, racing, dodging, hiding, dashing on again, and brought her +in the nick of time to a ditch, from whose shelter she sprang and seized +the hand of Ali Partab. That incident, and her intimation that the +missionaries were in Howrah's palace, took Alwa back up the black, blind +side street; and before he emerged from it he saw Jaimihr and his ten go +thundering past, their eyes on the sky-line for a hint of conflagration, +and their horses--belly-to-the-earth--racing as only fear, or +enthusiasm, or grim desperation in their riders' minds can make them +race. + +A little later, in groups and scattered fours, and one by one, his +heavy-breathing troopers followed, cursing the order that had sent +them abroad with-out their horses, damning--as none but a dismounted +cavalryman can damn--the earth's unevenness, their swords, their luck, +their priests, the night, their boots, and Jaimihr. Forewarned, Alwa +held on down the pitch-dark side street, into whose steep-sided chasm +the moon's rays would not reach for an hour or two to come, and once +again he led his party in a sweeping, wide-swung circle, loose-reined +and swifter than the silent night wind--this time for Howrah's palace. +There was his given word, plighted to Mahommed Gunga, to redeem. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + + + Ha! my purse may be lean, but my 'scutcheon is clean, + And I'm backed by a dozen true men; + I've a sword to my name, and a wrist for the same; + Can a king frown fear into me, then? + +IT is the privilege of emperors, and kings and princes, that--however +little real authority they have, or however much their power is +undermined by men behind the throne--they must be accorded dignity. They +must be, on the face of things, obeyed. + + +Inspection of the treasure finished and an hour-long mummery of rites +performed, the thirty wound their way, chanting, in single file back +again. The bronze-enforced door, that was only first of half a hundred +barriers between approach and the semi-sacred hoard, at last clanged +shut and was locked with three locks, each of whose individual keys was +in the keeping of a separate member of the three--Maharajah, Prince, and +priest. The same keys fitted every door of the maze--made passages, but +no one door would open without all three. + +Speaking like an omen from the deepest shadow, the sweeper called to +Jaimihr. + +"Sahib, thy palace burns! Sahib, thy prisoner runs! Haste, sahib! Call +thy men and hasten back! Thy palace is in flames--the Rangars come to--" + +As a raven, disturbed into night omen-croaking, he sent forth his news +from utter blackness into nerve-strung tension. No one member of the +thirty but was on the alert for friction or sudden treachery; the were +all eyes for each other, and the croaking fell on ears strained to the +aching point. He had time to repeat his warning before one of Jaimihr's +men stepped into the darkness where he hid and dragged him out. + +"Sahib, a woman came but now and brought the news. It was from the +captain of the guard. The Rangars came to take their man away. They +broke in. They burn. They loot. They--" + +But Jaimihr did not wait another instant to hear the rest. To him this +seemed like the scheming of his brother. Now he imagined he could read +between the lines! That letter sent to Alwa had been misreported to +him, and had been really a call to come and free the prisoner and wreak +Rangar vengeance! He understood! But first he must save his palace, if +it could be saved. The priests must have deceived him, so he wasted no +time in arguing with them; he ran, with his guards behind him, to the +outer wall of Siva's temple where the horses waited, each with a saice +squatting at his head. The saices were sent scattering among the crowd +to give the alarm and send the rest of his contingent hurrying back; +Jaimihr and his ten drove home their spurs, and streaked, as the +frightened jackal runs when a tiger interrupts them at their worry, +hell-bent-for-leather up the unlit street. + +Then Maharajah Howrah's custom-accorded dignity stood him in good stead. +It flashed across his worried brain that space had been given him by the +gods in which to think. Jaimihr--one facet of the problem and +perhaps the sharpest--would have his hands full for a while, and the +priests--wish how they would--would never dare omit the after-ritual in +Siva's temple. He--untrammelled for an hour to come--might study out a +course to take and hold with those embarrassing prisoners of his. + +He turned--updrawn in regal stateliness--and intimated to the high +priest that the ceremony might proceed without him. When the priests +demurred and murmured, he informed them that he would be pleased to give +them audience when the ritual was over, and without deigning another +argument he turned through a side door into the palace. + +Within ten minutes he was seated in his throne-room. One minute later +his prisoners stood in front of him, still holding each other's hands, +and the guard withdrew. The great doors opening on the marble outer hall +clanged tight, and in this room there were no carved screens through +which a hidden, rustling world might listen. There was gold-incrusted +splendor--there were glittering, hanging ornaments that far outdid the +peacocks' feathers of the canopy above the throne; but the walls were +solid, and the marble floor rang hard and true. + +There was no nook or corner anywhere that could conceal a man. For a +minute, still bejewelled in his robes of state and glittering as the +diamonds in his head-dress caught the light from half a dozen hanging +lamps, the Maharajah sat and gazed at them, his chin resting on one hand +and his silk-clad elbow laid on the carved gold arm of his throne. + +"Why am I troubled?" he demanded suddenly. + +"You know!" said the missionary. His daughter clutched his hand tightly, +partly to reassure him, partly because she knew that a despot would be +bearded now in his gold-bespattered den, and fear gripped her. + +"Maharajah-sahib, when I came here with letters from the government of +India and asked you for a mission house in which to live and work, I +told you that I came as a friend--as a respectful sympathizer. I told +you I would not incite rebellion against you, and that I would not +interfere with native custom or your authority so long as acquiescence +and obedience by me did not run counter to the overriding law of the +British Government." + +Howrah did not even move his head in token that he listened, but his +tired eyes answered. + +"To that extent I promised not to interfere with your religion." + +Howrah nodded. + +"Once--twice--in all nine times--I came and warned you that the practice +of suttee was and is illegal. My knowledge of Sanskrit is only slight, +but there are others of my race who have had opportunity to translate +the Sanskrit Vedas, and I have in writing what they found in them. I +warned you, when that information reached me, that your priests have +been deliberately lying to you--that the Vedas say: 'Thrice-blessed is +she who dies of a broken heart because her lord and master leaves her.' +They say nothing, absolutely nothing, about suttee or its practice, +which from the beginning has been a damnable invention of the priests. +But the practice of suttee has continued. I have warned the government +frequently, in writing, but for reasons which I do not profess to +understand they have made no move as yet. For that reason, and for no +other, I have tried to be a thorn in your side, and will continue to try +to be until this suttee ceases!" + +"Why," demanded Howrah, "since you are a foreigner with neither +influence nor right, do you stay here and behold what you cannot +change? Does a snake lie sleeping on an ant-hill? Does a woman watch the +butchering of lambs? Yet, do ant-hills cease to be, and are lambs not +butchered? Look the other way! Sleep softer in another place!" + +"I am a prisoner. For months past my daughter and I have been prisoners +to all intents and purposes, and you, Maharajah-sahib, have known it +well. Now, the one man who was left to be our escort to another place is +a prisoner, too. You know that, too. And you ask me why I stay! Suppose +you answer?" + +Rosemary squeezed his hand again, this time less to restrain him than +herself. She was torn between an inclination to laugh at the daring or +shiver at the indiscretion of taking to task a man whose one word could +place them at the mercy of the priests of Siva, or the mob. But +Duncan McClean, a little bowed about the shoulders, peered through +his spectacles and waited--quite unawed by all the splendor--for the +Maharajah's answer. + +"Of what man do you speak?" asked Howrah, still undecided what to do +with them, and anxious above all things to disguise his thoughts. "What +man is a prisoner, and how do you know it?" + +Before McClean had time to answer him, a spear haft rang on the great +teak double door. There was a pause, and the clang repeated--another +pause--a third reverberating, humming metal notice of an interruption, +and the doors swung wide. A Hindoo, salaaming low so that the expression +of his face could not be seen, called out down the long length of the +hall. + +"The Alwa-sahib waits, demanding audience!" There was no change apparent +on Howrah's face. His fingers tightened on the jewelled cimeter that +protruded, silk-sashed, from his middle, but neither voice nor eyes nor +lips betrayed the least emotion. It was the McCleans whose eyes blazed +with a new-born hope, that was destined to be dashed a second later. + +"Has he guards with him?" + +"But ten, Maharajah-sahib." + +"Then remove these people to the place where they were, and afterward +admit him--without his guards!" + +"I demand permission to speak with this Alwa-sahib!" said McClean. + +"Remove them!" + +Two spear-armed custodians of the door advanced. Resistance was +obviously futile. Still holding his daughter's hand, the missionary let +himself be led to the outer hall and down a corridor, where, presently, +a six-inch door shut prisoners and guards even from sound of what +transpired beyond. + +Alwa, swaggering until his long spurs jingled like a bunch of keys +each time his boot-heels struck the marble floor, strode straight as +a soldier up to the raised throne dais--took no notice whatever of +the sudden slamming of the door behind him--looked knife-keenly into +Howrah's eyes--and saluted with a flourish. + +"I come from bursting open Jaimihr's buzzard roost!" he intimated +mildly. "He held a man of mine. I have the man." + +Merely to speak first was insolence; but that breach of etiquette was +nothing to his manner and his voice. It appeared that he was so utterly +confident of his own prowess that he could afford to speak casually; he +did not raise his voice or emphasize a word. He was a man of his word, +relating facts, and every line of his steel-thewed anatomy showed it. + +"I sent a letter to you, by horseman, with a present," said Howrah. "I +await the answer." + +Alwa's eyes changed, and his attention stiffened. Not having been +at home, he knew nothing of the letter, but he did not choose to +acknowledge the fact. The principle that one only shares the truth with +friends is good, when taken by surprise. + +"I preferred to have confirmation of the matter from the Maharajah's +lips in person, so--since I had this other matter to attend to--I +combined two visits in one trip." + +He lied, as he walked and fought, like a soldier, and the weary man who +watched him from the throne detected no false ring. + +"I informed you that I had extended my protection to the two +missionaries, man and daughter." + +"You did. Also, you did well." He tossed that piece of comfort to the +despot as a man might throw table scraps to a starveling dog! "I have +come to take away the missionaries." + +"With a guard of ten!" + +It was the first admission of astonishment that either man had made. + +"Are you not aware that Jaimihr, too, has eyes on the woman?" + +"I am aware of it. I have shown Jaimihr how deep my fear of him lies! I +know, too, how deep the love lies between thee and thy brother, king of +Howrah! I am here to remind you that many more than ten men would +race their horses to a stand-still to answer my summons--brave men, +Maharajah-sahib--men whose blades are keen, and straightly held, and +true. They who would rally round me against Jaimihr would--" + +"Would fight for me?" + +"I have not yet said so." There was a little, barely accentuated +emphasis on the one word "yet." The Maharajah thought a minute before he +answered. + +"How many mounted troopers could you raise?" + +"Who knows? A thousand--three thousand--according to the soreness of the +need." + +"You have heard--I know that you have heard--what, even at this minute, +awaits the British? I know, for I have taken care to know, that a cousin +of yours--Mahommed Gunga--is interested for the British. So--so I am +interested to have word with you." + +Alwa laughed ironically. + +"And the tiger asked the wolf pack where good hunting was!" he mocked. +"I and my men strike which way suits us when the hour comes." + +"My palace has many chambers in it!" hinted Howrah. "There have been men +who wondered what the light of day was like, having long ago forgotten!" + +"Make me prisoner!" laughed Alwa. "Count then the hours until three +thousand blades join Jaimihr and help him grease the dungeon hinges with +thy fat!" + +"Having looted Jaimihr's palace, you speak thus?" + +"Having whipped a dog, I wait for the dog to lick my hand." + +"What is your purpose with these missionaries?" + +"To redeem my given word." + +"And then?" + +"I would be free to pledge it again." + +"To me?" + +"To whom I choose." + +"I will give thee the missionaries, against thy word to fight on my side +when the hour comes." + +"Against whom?" + +"The British." + +"I have no quarrel with the British, yet." + +"I will give thee the missionaries, against thy word to support me on +this throne." + +"Against whom?" + +"Against all comers." + +"If I refuse, what then?" + +"Jaimihr--who by this time must surely be thy very warmest +friend!--shall attack thee unmolested. Pledge thy word--take thy +missionary people--and Jaimihr must oppose thee and me combined." + +"Should Jaimihr ride after me, what then?" + +"If he takes many with him, he must leave his camp unguarded, or only +weakly guarded. Then I would act. If he goes with few, how can he take +thy castle?" + +"Then I have your protection against Jaimihr, and the missionaries, +against my promise to support you on the throne?" + +"My word on it." + +"And mine." + +Howrah rose, stepped forward to the dais edge, and held his hand out. + +"Nay!" swore Alwa, recoiling. "My word is given. I take no Hindoo's +hand!" + +Howrah glared for a moment, but thought better of the hot retort that +rose to his lips. Instead he struck a silver gong, and when the doors +swung open ordered the prisoners to be produced. + +"Escape through the palace-grounds," he advised Alwa. "A man of mine +will show the way." + +"Remember!" said Alwa across his shoulder with more than royal +insolence, "I swore to help thee against Jaimihr and to support thee on +thy throne--but in nothing did I swear to be thy tool--remember!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + + Howrah City bows the knee + (More or less) to masters three, + King, and Prince, and Siva. + Howrah City comes and goes-- + Buys and sells--and never knows + Which is friend, and which are foes-- + King, or Prince, or Siva. + + +THAT that followed Alwa's breakaway was all but the tensest hour in +Howrah City's history. The inevitable--the foiled rage of the priests +and Jaimihr's impudent insistence that the missionaries should be handed +over to him--the Maharajah's answer--all combined to set the murmurings +afoot. Men said that the threatened rebellion against the rule of +Britain had broken loose at last, and a dozen other quite as false and +equally probable things. + +Jaimihr, finding that his palace was intact, and that only the prisoner +and three horses from his stable were missing, placed the whole guard +under arrest--stormed futilely, while his hurrying swarm flocked to him +through the dinning streets--and then, mad-angry and made reckless by +his rage, rode with a hundred at his back to Howrah's palace, scattering +the bee-swarm of inquisitive but so far peaceful citizens right and +left. + +With little ceremony, he sent in word to Howrah that he wanted Alwa and +the missionaries; he stated that his private honor was at stake, and +that he would stop at nothing to wreak vengeance. He wanted the man who +had dared invade his palace--the man whom he had released--and the +two who were the prime cause of the outrage. And with just as little +ceremony word came out that the Maharajah would please himself as to +what he did with prisoners. + +That message was followed almost instantly by the high priest of Siva +in person, angry as a turkey-gobbler and blasphemously vindictive. He +it was who told Jaimihr of the unexpected departure through the +palace-grounds. + +"Ride, Jaimihr-sahib! Ride!" he advised him. + +"How many have you? A hundred? Plenty! Ride and cut him off! There is +but one road to Alwa's place; he must pass by the northern ford through +Howrah River. Ride and cut him off!" + +So, loose-reined, foam-flecked, breathing vengeance, Jaimihr and his +hundred thundered through the dark hot night, making a bee-line for the +point where Alwa's band must pass in order to take the shortest route to +safety. + +It was his word to the Jew that saved Alwa's neck. He and his men were +riding borrowed horses, and he had promised to return them and reclaim +his own. They had moved at a walk through winding, dark palace-alleys, +led by a palace attendant, and debouched through a narrow door that gave +barely horse-room into the road where Jaimihr had once killed a Maharati +trader who molested Rosemary McClean. The missionary and his daughter +were mounted on the horses seized in Jaimihr's stable; Joanna, moaning +about "three gold mohurs, sahib--three, where are they?" was up behind +Ali Partab, tossed like a pea on a drum-skin by the lunging movements of +the wonder of a horse. + +Instead of heading straight for home, in which case--although he did not +know it--he would have been surely overhauled and brought to bay, he led +at a stiff hand gallop to the Jew's, changed horses, crossed the ford by +the burning ghats, and swooped in a wide half-circle for the sandy trail +that would take him homeward. He made the home road miles beyond the +point where Jaimihr waited for him--drew rein into the long-striding +amble that desert-taught horses love--and led on, laughing. + +"Ho!" He laughed. "Ho-ho! Here, then, is the end of Mahommed Gunga's +scheming! Now, when he comes with arguments to make me fight on the +British side, what a tale I have for him! Ho! What a swearing there will +be! I will give him his missionary people, and say, 'There, Mahommed +Gunga, cousin mine, there is my word redeemed--there is thy man into the +bargain--there are three horses for thee--and I--I am at Howrah's beck +and call!' Allah! What a swearing there will be!" + +There was swearing, viler and more blasphemous than any of which +Mahommed Gunga might be capable, where Jaimihr waited in the dark. He +waited until the yellow dawn broke up the first dim streaks of violet +before he realized that Alwa had given him the slip; and he cursed even +the high priest of Siva when that worthy accosted him and asked what +tidings. + +"Another trick!" swore Jaimihr. "So, thou and thy temple rats saw fit to +send me packing for the night! What devils' tricks have been hatched out +in my absence?" + +The high priest started to protest, but Jaimihr silenced him with +coarse-mouthed threats. + +"I, too, can play double when occasion calls for it!" he swore. And with +that hint at coming trouble he clattered on home to his palace. + +To begin with, when he reached home, he had the guard beaten all but +unconscious for having dared let raiders in during the night before; +then he sent them, waterless and thirsty, back to the dungeon. He felt +better then, and called for ink and paper. + +For hours he thought and wrote alternately, tearing up letter after +letter. Then, at last, he read over a composition that satisfied him and +set his seal at the foot. He placed the whole in a silver tube, poured +wax into the joint, and called for the fat man who had been responsible +for Ali Partab's capture. + +"Dog!" he snarled. "Interfering fool! All this was thy doing! Didst thou +see the guard beaten awhile ago?" + +"I did. It was a lordly beating. The men are all but dead but will live +for such another one." + +"Wouldst thou be so beaten?" + +"How can I prevent, if your highness wishes?" + +"Take this. It is intended for Peshawur but may be given to any British +officer above the rank of major. It calls for a receipt. Do not dare +come back, or be caught in Howrah City, without a receipt for that tube +and its contents intact!" + +"If Alwa and Mahommed Gunga are in league with my brother," muttered +Jaimihr to himself when the fat Hindoo had gone, "then the sooner the +British quarrel with both of them the better. Howrah alone I can dispose +of easily enough, and there is yet time before rebellion starts for the +British to spike the guns of the other two. By the time that is done, I +will be Maharajah!" + +It was less than three days later when the word came mysteriously +through the undiscoverable "underground" route of India for all men to +be ready. + +"By the next full moon," went the message, from the priests alone knew +where, "all India will be waiting. When the full moon rises then the +hour is come!" + +"And when that full moon rises," thought Jaimihr to himself, "my +brother's funeral rites will be past history!" + +For the present, though, he made believe to regret his recent rage, and +was courteous to priest and Maharajah alike--even sending to his brother +to apologize. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + + + They've called thee by an evil word, + They've named thee traitor, friend o' mine. + Thou askest faith? I send my sword. + There is no greater, friend o' mine. + + +RALPH CUNNINGHAM said good-by to Brigadier-General Byng (Byng the +Brigadier) with more feeling of regret and disappointment than he cared +to show. A born soldier, he did his hard-mouthed utmost to refrain +from whining; he even pretended that a political appointment was +a recognizable advance along the road to sure success--or, rather, +pretended that he thought it was; and the Brigadier, who knew men, and +particularly young men, detected instantly the telltale expression +of the honest gray eyes--analyzed it--and, to Cunningham's amazement, +approved the unwilling make-believe. + +"Now, buck up, Cunningham!" he said, slapping him familiarly on the +shoulder. "You're making a good, game effort to hide chagrin, and you're +a good, game ass for your pains. There isn't one man in all India who +has half your luck at this minute, if you only knew it; but go ahead +and find out for yourself! Go to Abu and report, but waste no more time +there than you can help. Hurry on to Howrah, and once you're there, if +Mahommed Gunga tells you what looks like a lie, trust him to the hilt!" + +"Is he coming with me, then?" asked Cunningham in some amazement. + +"Yes--unofficially. He has relations in that neighborhood and wants to +visit them; he is going to take advantage of your pack-train and escort. +You'll have a small escort as far as Abu; after that you'll be expected +to look out for yourself. The escort is made up of details travelling +down-country; they'll leave you at Abu Road." + +So, still unbelieving--still wondering why the Brigadier should go +to all that trouble to convince him that politics in a half-forgotten +native state were fair meat for a soldier--Cunningham rode off at the +head of a variously made-up travelling party, grudging every step of +that wonderful mare Mahommed Gunga had given him, that bore him away +from the breeze-swept north--away from the mist-draped hills he had +already learned to love--ever down, down, down into the hell-baked +plains. + +Each rest-house where he spent a night was but another brooding-place +of discontent and regret, each little petty detail connected with the +command of the motley party (mainly time-expired men, homeward bound), +was drudgery; each Hindoo pugree that he met was but a beastly contrast, +or so it seemed to him, to the turbans of the troop that but a week ago +had thundered at his back. + +More than any other thing, Mahommed Gunga's cheerfulness amazed him. He +resented it. He did not see why the man who had expressed such interest +in the good fortune of his father's son should not be sympathetic now +that his soldier career had been nipped so early in the bud. He began to +lose faith in Mahommed Gunga's wisdom, and was glad when the ex-Risaldar +chose to bring up the rear of the procession instead of riding by his +side. + +But behind, in Peshawur, there was one man at least who knew Mahommed +Gunga and his worth, and who refused to let himself be blinded by any +sort of circumstantial evidence. The evidence was black--in black on +white--written by a black-hearted schemer, and delivered by a big, fat +black man, who was utterly road-weary, to the commissioner in person. + +The sepoy mutiny that had been planned so carefully had started to take +charge too soon. News had arrived of native regiments whose officers +had been obliged against their will to disarm and disband them, and the +loyalty of other regiments was seriously called in question. + +But the men whose blindness was responsible for the possibility of +mutiny were only made blinder by the evidence of coming trouble. With +a dozen courses open to them, any one of which might have saved +the situation, they deliberately chose a thirteenth--two-forked +toboggan-slide into destruction. To prove their misjudged confidence in +the native army, they actually disbanded the irregulars led by Byng +the Brigadier--removed the European soldiers wherever possible +from ammunition-magazine guard-duty, replacing them with native +companies--and reprimanded the men whose clear sight showed them how +events were shaping. + +They reprimanded Byng, as though depriving him of his command were not +enough. When he protested, as he had a right to do, they showed him +Jaimihr's letter. + +"Mahommed Gunga told you, did he? Look at this!" + +The letter, most concisely and pointedly written, considering the +indirect phraseology and caution of the East, deliberately accused +Mahommed Gunga and a certain Alwa, together with all the Rangars of +a whole province, of scheming with Maharajah Howrah to overthrow the +British rule. It recommended the immediate arrest of Mahommed Gunga and +stern measures against the Rangars. + +"What do you propose to do about it?" inquired Byng. + +"It's out of our province. A copy of this letter has been sent to the +proper quarter, and no doubt the story will be investigated. There have +been all kinds of stories about suttee being practised in Howrah, and it +very likely won't be difficult to find a plausible excuse for deposing +the Maharajah and putting Jaimihr in his place. In the meantime, if +Mahommed Gunga shows himself in these parts he'll be arrested." + +Byng did then the sort of thing that was fortunately characteristic of +the men who rose in the nick of time to seize the reins. He hurried to +his quarters, packed in its case the sword of honor that had once been +given him by his Queen, and despatched it without a written line of +comment to Mahommed Gunga. The native who took it was ordered to ride +like the devil, overtake Mahommed Gunga on the road to Abu, present the +sword without explanation, and return. + +Cunningham, in spite of himself, had travelled swiftly. The moon lacked +two nights of being full and two more days would have seen him climbing +up the fourteen-mile rock road that leads up the purple flanks of Abu, +when the ex-trooper of Irregulars cantered from a dust cloud, caught up +Mahommed Gunga, who was riding, as usual, in the rear, and handed him +the sword. He held it out with both hands. Mahommed Gunga seized it by +the middle, and neither said a word for the moment. + +In silence Mahommed Gunga drew the blade--saw Byng's name engraved close +to the hilt--recognized the sword, and knew the sender--thought--and +mistook the meaning. + +"Was there no word?" + +"None." + +"Then take this word back. 'I will return the sword, with honor added to +it, when the peace of India is won.' Say that, and nothing else." + +"I would rest my horse for a day or two," said the trooper. + +"Neither thou nor yet thy horse will have much rest this side of Eblis!" +said Mahommed Gunga. "Ride!" + +The trooper wheeled and went with a grin and a salute which he repeated +twice, leaning back from the saddle for a last look at the man of his +own race whom Byng had chosen to exalt. He felt himself honored merely +to have carried the sword. Mahommed Gunga removed his own great sabre +and handed it to one of his own five whom he overtook; then he buckled +on the sword of honor and spurred until he rode abreast of Cunningham, a +hundred yards or more ahead of the procession. + +"Sahib," he asked, "did Byng-bahadur say a word or two about listening +to me?" + +"He did. Why?" + +"Because I will now say things!" + +The fact that the Brigadier had sent no message other than the sword +was probably the Rajput's chief reason for talking in riddles still +to Cunningham. The silence went straight to his Oriental heart--so +to speak, set the key for him to play to. But he knew, too, that +Cunningham's youth would be a handicap should it come to argument; what +he was looking for was not a counsellor or some one to make plans, for +the plans had all been laid and cross-laid by the enemy, and Mahommed +Gunga knew it. He needed a man of decision--to be flung blindfold into +unexpected and unexpecting hell wrath, who would lead, take charge, +decide on the instant, and lead the way out again, with men behind him +who would recognize decision when they saw it. So he spoke darkly. +He understood that the sword meant "Things have started," so with a +soldier's courage he proceeded to head Cunningham toward the spot where +hell was loose. + +"Say ahead!" smiled Cunningham. + +"Yonder, sahib, lies Abu. Yonder to the right lies thy road now, not +forward." + +"I have orders to report at Abu." + +"And I, sahib, orders to advise!" + +"Are you advising me to disobey orders?" + +The Rajput hesitated. "Sahib, have I anything to gain," he asked, "by +offering the wrong advice?" + +"I can't imagine so." + +"I advise, now, that we--thou and I, sahib, and my five turn off +here--yonder, where the other trail runs--letting the party proceed to +Abu without us." + +"But why, Mahommed Gunga?" + +"There is need of haste, sahib. At Abu there will be delay--much talk +with Everton-sahib, and who knows?--perhaps cancellation of the plan to +send thee on to Howrah." + +"I'd be damned glad, Mahommed Gunga, not to have to go there!" + +"Sahib, look! What is this I wear?" + +"Which?" + +"See here, sahib--this." + +For the first time Cunningham noticed the fine European workmanship on +the sword-hilt, and realized that the Rajput's usual plain, workmanlike +weapon had been replaced. + +"That is Byng-bahadur's sword of honor! It reached me a few minutes ago. +The man who brought it is barely out of sight. It means, sahib, that the +hour to act is come!" + +"But--" + +"Sahib--this sending thee to Howrah is my doing? Since the day when I +first heard that the son of Pukka Cunnigan-bahadur was on his way I have +schemed and planned and contrived to this end. It was at word from me +that Byng-bahadur signed the transfer papers--otherwise he would have +kept thee by him. There are owls--old women--men whom Allah has deprived +of judgment--drunkards--fools--in charge at Peshawur and in other +places; but there are certain men who know. Byng-bahadur knows. I +know--and I will show the way! Let me lead, sahib, for a little while, +and I will show thee what to lead!" + +"But--" + +"Does this sword, sahib, mean nothing? Did Byng-bahadur send it me for +fun?" + +"But what's the idea? I can't disobey orders, and ride off to--God +knows where--without some excuse. You'll have to tell me why. What's the +matter? What's happening?" + +"Byng-bahadur sent not one word to me when he sent this sword. To thee +he said: 'Listen to Mahommed Gunga, even when he seems to lie!' I +know that, for he told me he had said it. To me he said: 'Take charge, +Mahommed Gunga, when the hour comes, and rub his innocent young nose +hard as you like into the middle of the mess!' Ay, sahib, so said he. It +is now that I take charge." + +"But--" + +"'But,' said the nylghau, and the wolf-pack had him! 'But,' said the +tiger, and the trap door shut! 'But,' said the Hindoo, and a priest +betrayed him! But--but--but--I never knew thy father make much use of +that word!" + +"Yes--but--I have my orders, Mahommed Gunga!" + +"Sahib--this sword is a sword of honor--it stands for Byng-bahadur's +honor. I have it in my keeping. Mine own honor is a matter somewhat +dear to me, and I have kept it clean these many years. Now I ask to keep +thine honor, too, awhile--making three men's honor. If I fail, then thou +and I and Byng-bahadur all go down together in good company. If I fail +not, then, sahib--Allah is contented when his honor stands!" + +Cunningham drew rein and looked him in the eyes. Gray eyes met brown and +neither flinched; each read what men of mettle only can read when they +see it--the truth, the fearlessness, the thought they understand because +it lives with them. Cunningham held out his hand. + +Some thirty minutes later Cunningham, Mahommed Gunga, and the five, with +a much-diminished mule-train bumping in their wake, were headed westward +on a dry, hot trail, while the time-expired and convalescent escort +plodded south. The escort carried word that Cunningham had heard of +trouble to the west, and had turned off to investigate it. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + + + Quoth little red jackal, famishing, "Lo, + Yonder a priest and a soldier go; + You can see farthest, and you ought to know,-- + Which shall I wander with, carrion crow?" + The crow cawed back at him, "Ignorant beast! + Soldiers get glory, but none of the feast; + Soldiers work hardest, and snaffle the least. + Take my advice on it--Follow the priest!" + + +IT was two hours after sunrise on the second day that followed +Cunningham's desertion of his party when he and Mahommed Gunga first +caught sight of a blue, baked rock rising sheer out of a fringe of +green on the dazzling horizon. It was a freak of nature--a point pushed +through the level crust of bone-dry earth, and left to glitter there +alone. + +"That is my cousin Alwa's place!" exclaimed Mahommed Gunga, and he +seemed to draw a world of consolation from the fact. + +The sight loosed his tongue at last; he rode by Cunningham, and deigned +an explanation now, at least, of what had led to what might happen. He +wasted little breath on prophecy, but he was eloquent in building up +a basis from which Cunningham might draw his own deductions. They had +ridden through the cool of the night in easy stages, and should have +camped at dawn; but Mahommed Gunga had insisted that the tired animals +could carry them for three hours longer. + +"A soldier's horse must rest at the other end sahib," he had laughed. +"Who knows that they have not sent from Abu to arrest both thee and me?" +And he had not vouchsafed another word until, over the desert glare, his +cousin's aerie had blazed out, beating back the molten sun-rays. + +"It looks hotter than the horns of hell!" said Cunningham. + +"The horns of hell, sahib, are what we leave behind us! They grow hot +now! Thy countrymen--the men who hated thee so easily--heated them and +sit now between them for their folly!" + +"How d'you mean? 'Pon my soul and honor, Risaldar, you talk more riddles +in five minutes than I ever heard before in all my life!" + +"There be many riddles I have not told yet--riddles of which I do not +know the answer. Read me this one. Why did the British Government annex +the state of Oudh? All the best native soldiers came from Oudh, or +nearly all. They were loyal once; but can a man be fairly asked to +side against his own? If Oudh should rise in rebellion, what would the +soldiers do?" + +"Dunno, I'm sure," said Cunningham. + +"Read me this one, then. By pacifying both Mohammedan and Hindoo and by +letting both keep their religion, by sometimes playing one against the +other and by being just, the British Government has become supreme +from the Himalayas to the ocean. Can you tell me why they now issue +cartridges for the new rifles that are soaked in the fat of cows and +pigs, thus insulting both Mohammedan and Hindoo?" + +"I didn't know it was so." + +"Sahib, it is! These damned new cartridges and this new drill-sahib, +I--I who am loyal to the marrow of my bones--would no more touch those +cartridges--nor bite them, as the drill decrees--than I would betray +thee! Pig's fat! Ugh!" + +He spat with Mohammedan eloquence and wiped his lips on his tunic sleeve +before resuming. + +"Then, like a flint and steel, to light the train that they have laid, +they loose these missionaries, in a swarm, from one end of India to the +other. Why? What say one and all? Mohammedan and Hindoo both say it is a +plot, first to make them lose their own religion by defilement, then +to make Christians of them! Foolishness to talk thus? Nay! It was +foolishness to act thus! + +"Sahib, peace follows in the wake of soldiers, as we know. Time and time +again the peace of India has been ripped asunder at the whim of priests! +These padre people, preaching new damnation everywhere, are the flint +and steel for the tinder of the cartridge fat!" + +"I never knew you to croak before, Mahommed Gunga." + +"Nor am I croaking. I am praising Allah, who has sent thee now to the +place whence the wind will come to fan the hell flames that presently +will burn. The wind will blow hot or cold--for or against the +government--according as you and I and certain others act when +opportunity arrives! See yonder!" + +They had been seen, evidently, for horsemen--looking like black ants on +the desert--seemed to have crawled from the bowels of the living rock +and were galloping in their direction. + +"Friends?" asked Cunningham. + +"Friends, indeed! But they have yet to discover whether we are friends. +They set me thinking, sahib. Alwa is well known on this country-side and +none dare raid his place; few would waste time trying. Therefore, it is +all one to him who passes along this road; and he takes no trouble, as +a rule, to send his men out in skirmishing order when a party comes in +view. Why, then, does he trouble now?" + +"Couldn't say. I don't know Alwa." + +"I am thinking, sahib, that the cloud has burst at last! A blood-red +cloud! Alwa is neither scare-monger nor robber; when he sends out armed +men to inspect strangers on the sky-line, there is war! Sahib, I grow +young again! Had people listened to me--had they called me anything but +fool when I warned them--thou and I would have been cooped up now in +Agra, or in Delhi, or Lucknow, or Peshawur! Now we are free of the +plains of Rajputana--within a ride of fifty of my blood-relations, +and they each within reach of others! Ho! I can hear the thunder of +a squadron at my back again! I am young, sahib--young! My old joints +loosen! Allah send the cloud has burst at last--I bring to two thousand +Rangars a new Cunnigan-bahadur! Thy father's son shall learn what +Cunnigan-bahadur taught!" + +He lapsed into silence, watching the advancing horsemen, who swooped +down on them in an ever-closing fan formation. His tired horse sensed +the thrill that tingled through its rider's veins, and pranced again, +curving his neck and straining at the bit until Mahommed Gunga steadied +him. The five behind--even the mule-drivers too--detected excitement +in the air, and the little column closed in on its leaders. All eyes +watched the neck-and-neck approach of Alwa's men, until Cunningham at +last could see their turbans and make out that they were Rangars, not +Hindoos. Then he and the Risaldar drew rein. + +There were twenty who raced toward them, but no Alwa. + +"It is as I thought!" declared Mahommed Gunga. "It is war, sahib! He has +summoned men from his estates. As a rule, he can afford but ten men for +that fort of his, and he would not send all his men to meet us--he has a +garrison up yonder!" + +Like blown dust-devils the twenty raced to them, and drew up thundering +within a lance-length. A sword-armed Rangar with a little gold lace on +his sleeve laughed loud as he saluted, greeting Mahommed Gunga first. +The Risaldar accepted his salute with iron dignity. + +"Forgive him, sahib!" he whispered to Cunningham. "The jungli knows no +better! He will learn whom to salute first when Alwa has said his say!" + +But Cunningham was in no mood just then to stand on military ceremony or +right of precedence. He was too excited, too inquisitive, too occupied +with the necessity for keeping calm in the face of what most surely +looked like the beginning of big happenings. These horsemen of Alwa's +rode, and looked, and laughed like soldiers, new-stripped of the hobble +ropes of peace, and their very seat in the untanned saddles--tight down, +loose-swaying from the hips, and free--was confirmation of Mahommed +Gunga's words. + +They wheeled in a cloud and led the way, opening a little in the centre +to let the clouds of sand their horses kicked up blow to the right and +left of Cunningham and his men. Not a word was spoken--not a question +asked or a piece of news exchanged--until the whole party halted at the +foot of Alwa's fortress home--a great iron gate in front of them and +garden land on either side--watered by the splashing streamlet from the +heights above. + +"Men of the house of Kachwaha have owned and held this place, sahib, +since Allah made it!" whispered Mahommed Gunga. "Men say that Alwa has +no right to it; they lie! His father's father won the dower-right!" + +He was interrupted by the rising of the iron gate. It seemed solid, +without even an eyehole in it. It was wide enough to let four horses +under side by side, and for all its weight it rose as suddenly and +evenly as though a giant's hand had lifted it. Immediately behind it, +like an actor waiting for the stage-curtain to rise, Alwa bestrode his +war-horse in the middle of a roadway. He saluted with drawn sabre, and +this time Cunningham replied. + +Almost instantly the man who had led the gallopers and had saluted +Mahommed Gunga spurred his horse up close to Cunningham and whispered: + +"Pardon, sahib! I did not know! Am I forgiven?" + +"Yes," said Cunningham, remembering then that a Rajput, and a Rangar +more particularly, thinks about points of etiquette before considering +what to eat. Alwa growled out a welcome, rammed his sabre home, and +wheeled without another word, showing the way at a walk--which was all +a wild goat could have accomplished--up a winding road, hewn out of the +solid mountain, that corkscrewed round and round upon itself until it +gave onto the battlemented summit. There he dismounted, ordered his men +to their quarters, and for the first time took notice of his cousin. + +"I have thy missionary and his daughter, three horses for thee, and thy +man," he smiled. + +"Did Ali Partab bring them?" + +"Nay. It was I brought Ali Partab and the rest! My promise is redeemed!" + +Mahommed Gunga thrust his sword-hilt out and smiled back at him. +"I present Raff-Cunnigan-sahib--son of Pukka-Cunnigan-bahadur!" he +announced. + +Alwa drew himself up to his full height and eyed young Cunningham as a +buyer eyes a war-horse, inch by inch. The youngster, who had long since +learned to actually revel in the weird sensation of a hundred pairs of +eyes all fixed on him at once, felt this one man's gaze go over him +as though he were being probed. He thanked his God he had no fat to be +detected, and that his legs were straight, and that his tunic fitted +him! + +"Salaam, bahadur," said Alwa slowly. "I knew thy father. +So--thou--art--his--son. Welcome. There is room here always for a guest. +I have other guests with whom you might care to speak. I will have a +room made ready. Have I leave to ask questions of my cousin here?" + +Cunningham bowed in recognition of his courtesy, and walked away to +a point whence he could look from the beetling parapet away and away +across desert that shone hot and hazy-rimmed on every side. If this were +a man on whom he must depend for following--if any of all the more +than hints dropped by the risaldar were true--it seemed to him that his +reception was a little too chilly to be hopeful. + +After a minute or two he turned his eyes away from the dazzling plain +below and faced about to inspect the paved courtyard. Round it, on +three sides of a parallelogram, there ran a beautifully designed and +wonderfully worked-out veranda-fronted building, broken here and there +by cobbled passages that evidently led to other buildings on the far +edge of the rock. In the centre, covered by a roof like a temple-dome +in miniature, was the ice-cold spring, whose existence made the fort +tenable. Under the veranda, on a long, low lounge, was a sight that +arrested his attention--held him spell-bound--drew him, tingling in +a way he could not have explained--drew him--drew him, slow-footed, +awkward, red--across the courtyard. + +He heard Mahommed Gunga swear aloud; he recognized the wording of the +belly-growled Rangar oath; but it did not occur to him that what +he saw--what was drawing him--could be connected with it. He looked +straight ahead and walked ahead--reached the edge of the veranda--took +his helmet off--and stood still, feeling like an idiot, with the sun +full on his head. + +"I'd advise you to step into the shade," said a voice that laughed more +sweetly than the chuckling spring. "I don't know who you are, but I'm +more glad to see you than I ever was in my life to see anybody. I can't +get up, because I'm too stiff; the ride to here from Howrah City all but +killed me, and I'm only here still because I couldn't ride another yard. +My father will be out in a moment. He's half-dead too." + +"My name is Cunningham." + +"I'm Miss McClean. My father was a missionary in Howrah." + +She nodded to a chair beside her, and Cunningham took it, feeling +awkward, as men of his type usually do when they meet a woman in a +strange place. + +"How in the world did you get in?" she asked him. "It's two days now +since the Alwa-sahib told us that the whole country is in rebellion. How +is it that you managed to reach here? According to Alwa, no white man's +life is safe in the open, and he only told me today that he wouldn't let +me go away even if I were well enough to ride." + +"First I've heard of rebellion!" said Cunningham aghast at the notion of +hearing news like that a second hand, and from a woman. + +"Hasn't Alwa told you?" + +"He hasn't had time to, yet." + +"Then, you'd better ask him. If what he say is true--and I think he +tells the truth--the natives mean to kill us all, or drive us out of +India. Of course they can't do it, but they mean to try. He has been +more than kind--more than hospitable--more than chivalrous. Just because +he gave his word to another Rangar, he risked his life about a dozen +times to get my father and me and Ali Partab out of Howrah. But, I don't +think he quite liked doing it--and--this is in confidence--if I were +asked--and speaking just from intuition--I should say he is in sympathy +with the rebellion!" + +"How long have you been here?" asked Cunningham. + +"Several days--ten, I think. It seemed strange at first and rather awful +to be lodged on a rock like this in a section of a Rangar's harem! +Yes, there are several women here behind the scenes, but I only see the +waiting-women. I've forgotten time; the news about rebellion seems too +awful to leave room for any other thought." + +"Who was the Rangar to whom Aliva gave his word? Not Mahommed Gunga, by +any chance?" + +"Yes, Mahommed Gunga." + +"Well, I'm--!" Cunningham clipped off the participle just in time. +"There is something, then, in the talk about rebellion! That man's been +talking in riddles to me ever since I came to India, and it looks as +though he knew long in advance." + +He was about to cross-examine Miss McClean rigorously, even at the risk +of seeming either rude or else frightened; but before his lips could +frame another question he caught sight of Mahommed Gunga making signals +to him. He affected to ignore the signals. He objected to being kept in +the dark so utterly, and wished to find out a little for himself before +listening to what the Rangars had to say. But Mahommed Gunga started +over to him. + +He could not hear the remark Mahommed Gunga made to Alwa over his +shoulder as he came. + +"Had I remembered there was a woman of his own race here, I would have +plunged him straight into the fighting! Now there will be the devil +first to pay!" + +"He has decision in at least one thing!" grinned Alwa. + +"Something that I think thou lackest, cousin!" came the hot retort. + +Alwa turned his back with a shake of his head and a thin-lipped +smile--then disappeared through a green door in the side of what seemed +like solid rock. A moment later Mahommed Gunga stood near Cunningham, +saluting. + +"We ask the favor of a consultation, sahib." + +Cunningham rose, a shade regretfully, and followed into the rock-walled +cavern into which Alwa had preceded them. It was nearly square--a hollow +bubble in the age-old lava--axe-trimmed many hundred years ago. What +light there was came in through three long slits that gave an archer's +view of the plain and of the zigzag roadway from the iron gate below. +It was cool, for the rock roof was fifty or more feet thick, and the +silence of it seemed like the nestling-place of peace. + +They sat down on wooden benches round the walls, with their soldier legs +stretched out in front of them. Alwa broke silence first, and it was of +anything but peace he spoke. + +"Now--now, let us see whose throats we are to slit!" he started +cheerfully. + + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + + + Achilles had a tender spot + That even guarding gods forgot, + When clothing him in armor; + And I have proved this charge o' mine + For fear, and sloth, and vice, and wine, + But clear forgot the charmer! + + +THE Alwa-sahib knew more English than he was willing to admit. In the +first place, he had the perfectly natural dislike of committing his +thoughts to any language other than his own when anything serious +was the subject of discussion; in the second place, he had little of +Mahommed Gunga's last-ditch loyalty. Not that Alwa could be disloyal; +he had not got it in him; but as yet he had seen no good reason for +pledging himself and his to the British cause. + +So for more than ten minutes he chose to sit in apparent dudgeon, +his hands folded in front of him on the hilt of his tremendous sabre, +growling out a monologue in his own language for Mahommed Gunga's +benefit. Then Mahommed Gunga silenced him with an uplifted hand, and +turned to translate to Cunningham. + +"It would seem, sahib, that even while we rode to Abu the rebellion was +already raging! It burst suddenly. They have mutinied at Berhampur, +and slain their officers. Likewise at Meerut, and at all the places in +between. At Kohat, in this province they have slain every white man, +woman, and child, and also at Arjpur and Sohlat. The rebels are hurrying +to Delhi, where they have proclaimed new rule, under the descendants +of the old-time kings. Word of all this came before dawn today, by a +messenger from Maharajah Howrah to my cousin here. My cousin stands +pledged to uphold Howrah on his throne; Howrah is against the British; +Jaimihr, his brother, is in arms against Howrah." + +"Why did the Alwa-sahib pledge himself to Howrah's cause?" + +Mahommed Gunga--who knew quite well--saw fit to translate the question. +With a little sign of irritation Alwa growled his answer. + +"He says, sahib, that for the safety of two Christian missionaries, for +whom he has no esteem at all, he was forced to swear allegiance to a +Hindoo whom he esteems even less. He says that his word is given!" + +"Does he mean that he would like me and the missionaries to leave his +home at once--do we embarrass him?" + +Again Mahommed Gunga--this time with a grin--saw fit to ask before he +answered. + +"He says, 'God forbid,' sahib; 'a guest is guest!'" + +Cunningham reflected for a moment, then leaned forward. + +"Tell him this!" he said slowly. "I am glad to be his guest, but, if +this story of rebellion is true--" + +"It is true, sahib! More than true! There is much more to be told!" + +"Then, I can only accept his hospitality as the representative of my +government! I stay here officially, or not at all. It is for him to +answer!" + +"Now, Allah be praised!" swore Mahommed Gunga. "I knew we had a man! +That is well said, sahib!" + +"The son of Cunnigan-bahadur is welcome here on any terms at all!" +growled Alwa when Mahommed Gunga had translated. "All the rebels in all +India, all trying at once, would fail to take this fort of mine, had I a +larger garrison. But what Rangar on this countryside will risk his life +and estates on behalf of a cause that is already lost? If they come to +hold my fort for me, the rebels will burn their houses. The British Raj +is doomed. We Rangars have to play for our own stake!" + +Then Mahommed Gunga rose and paced the floor like a man in armor, +tugging at his beard and kicking at his scabbard each time that he +turned at either end. + +"What Rangar in this province would have had one yard of land to his +name but for this man's father?" he demanded. "In his day we fought, all +of us, for what was right! We threw our weight behind him when he led, +letting everything except obedience go where the devil wanted it! What +came of that? Good tithes, good report, good feeling, peace!" + +"And then, the zemindary laws!" growled Alwa. "Then the laws that took +away from us full two-thirds of our revenue!" + +"We had had no revenue, except for Cunnigan-bahadur!" + +It dawned on Cunningham exactly why and how he came to be there! He +understood now that Mahommed Gunga had told nothing less than truth when +he declared it had been through his scheming, and no other man's, +that he--Cunningham--whose sole thought was to be a soldier, had been +relegated to oblivion and politics! He understood why Byng had signed +the transfer, and he knew--knew--knew--deep down inside him that his +chance had come! + +"It seems that another Cunningham is to have the honor of preserving +Rangars' titles for them," he smiled. "How many horsemen could the +Alwa-sahib raise?" + +"That would depend!" Alwa was in no mood to commit himself. + +"At the most--at a pinch--in case of direst need, and for a cause that +all agreed on?" + +"Two thousand." + +"Horsed and armed?" + +"And ready!" + +"And you, Alwa-sahib--are you pledged to fight against the British?" + +"Not in so many words. I swore to uphold Howrah on his throne. He is +against the British." + +"You swore to help smash his brother, Jaimihr?" + +"If I were needed." + +"And Jaimihr too is against the British?" + +"Jaimihr is for Jaimihr, and has a personal affair with me!" + +"I must think," said Cunningham, getting up. "I can think better alone. +D'you mind if I go outside for a while, and come back later to tell you +what I think?" + +Alwa arose and held the door open for him--stood and watched him cross +the courtyard--then turned and laughed at Mahommed Gunga. + +"Straight over to the woman!" he grinned. "This leader of thine seems in +leading-strings himself already!" + +Mahommed Gunga cursed, and cursed again as his own eyes confirmed what +Alwa said. + +"I tried him all the ways there are, except that one way!" he declared. +"May Allah forgive my oversight! I should have got him well entangled +with a woman before he reached Peshawur! He should have been +heart-broken by this time--rightly, he should have been desperate with +unrequited love! Byng-bahadur could have managed it! Byng-bahadur would +have managed it, had I thought to advise him!" + +He stood, looking over very gloomily at Cunningham, making a dozen +wild plans for getting rid of Miss McClean--by no means forgetting +poison--and the height of Alwa's aerie from the plain below! He would +have been considerably calmer, could he have heard what Cunningham and +Miss McClean were saying. + +The missionary was with her now--ill and exhausted from the combined +effects of excitement, horror, and the unaccustomed ride across +the desert--most anxious for his daughter--worried, to the verge of +desperation, by the ghastly news of the rebellion. + +"Mr. Cunningham, I hope you are the forerunner of a British force?" he +hazarded. + +But Cunningham was too intent on cross-examination to waste time on +giving any information. + +"I want you to tell me, quite quietly and without hurry, all you can +about Howrah," he said, sitting close to Miss McClean. "I want you to +understand that I am the sole representative of my government in the +whole district, and that whatever can be done depends very largely on +what information I can get. I have been talking to the Alwa-sahib, but +he seems too obsessed with his own predicament to be able to make things +quite clear. Now, go ahead and tell me what you know about conditions +in the city. Remember, you are under orders! Try and consider yourself +a scout, reporting information to your officer. Tell me every single +thing, however unimportant." + +On the far side of the courtyard Alwa and Mahommed Gunga had gone to +lean over the parapet and watch something that seemed to interest +both of them intently. There were twenty or more men, lined round +the ramparts on the lookout, and they all too seemed spellbound, but +Cunningham was too engrossed in Miss McClean's story of the happenings +in Howrah City to take notice. Now and then her father would help her +out with an interjected comment; occasionally Cunningham would stop her +with a question, or would ask her to repeat some item; but, for more +than an hour she spun a clear-strung narrative that left very little to +imagination and included practically all there was to know. + +"Do you think," asked Cunningham "that this brute Jaimihr really wants +to make you Maharanee?" + +"I couldn't say," she shuddered. "You know, there have been several +instances of European women having practically sold themselves to native +princes; there have been stories--I have heard them--of English women +marrying Rajahs, and regretting it. There is no reason why he should not +be in earnest, and he certainly seemed to be." + +"And this treasure? Of course, I have heard tales about it, but I +thought they were just tales." + +"That treasure is really there, and its amount must be fabulous. I +have been told that there are jewels there which would bring a Rajah's +ransom, and gold enough to offset the taxes of the whole of India for a +year or two. I've no doubt the stories are exaggerated, but the treasure +is real enough, and big enough to make the throne worth fighting for. +Jaimihr counts on being able to break the power of the priests and +broach the treasure." + +"And Jaimihr is--er--in love with you!" + +"He tried very hard to prove it, in his own objectionable way!" + +"And Jaimihr wants the throne--and Howrah wants to send a force against +the British, but dare not move because of Jaimihr--I have Mahommed +Gunga and five or six men to depend on--the Rangars are sitting on the +fence--and the government has its hands full! The lookout's bright! I +think I see the way through!" + +"You are forgetting me." The missionary spread his broad stooped +shoulders. "I am a missionary first, but next to that I have my +country's cause more at heart than anything. I place myself under your +orders, Mr. Cunningham." + +"I too," said Miss McClean. She was looking at him keenly as he gazed +away into nothing through slightly narrowed eyes. Vaguely, his attitude +reminded her of a picture she had once seen of the Duke of Wellington; +there was the same mastery, the same far vision, the same poise of +self-contained power. His nose was not like the Iron Duke's, for young +Cunningham's had rather more tolerance in its outline and less of Roman +overbearing; but the eyes, and the mouth, and the angle of the jaw were +so like Wellesley's as to force a smile. "A woman isn't likely to be +much use in a case like this--but, one never knows. My country comes +first." + +"Thanks," he answered quietly. And as he turned his head to flash one +glance at each of them, she recognized what Mahommed Gunga had gloated +over from the first--the grim decision, that will sacrifice all--take +full responsibility--and use all means available for the one unflinching +purpose of the game in hand. She knew that minute, and her father knew, +that if she could be used--in any way at all--he would make use of her. + +"Go ahead!" she nodded. "I'll obey!" + +"And I will not prevent!" said Duncan McClean, smiling and straightening +his spectacles. + +Cunningham left them and walked over to the parapet, where the whole +garrison was bending excitedly now above the battlement. There were more +than forty men, most of them clustered near Alwa and Mahommed Gunga. +Mahommed Gunga was busy counting. + +"Eight hundred!" he exclaimed, as Cunningham drew near. + +"Eight hundred what, Mahommed Gunga? Come and see, sahib." + +Cunningham leaned over, and beheld a mounted column, trailing along the +desert road in wonderfully good formation. + +"Where are they from?" he asked. + +"Jaimihr's men, from Howrah!" + +"That means," growled Alwa, "that the Hindoo pig Jaimihr has more than +half the city at his back. He has left behind ten men for every one he +brings with him--sufficient to hold Howrah in check. Otherwise he +would never have dared come here. He hopes to settle his little private +quarrel with me first, before dealing with his brother! Who told him, I +wonder, that I was pledged to Howrah?" + +"He reckons he has caught thee napping in this fort of thine!" laughed +Mahommed Gunga. "He means to bottle up the Rangars' leader, and so +checkmate all of them!" + +The eight hundred horsemen on the plain below rode carelessly through +Alwa's gardens, leaving trampled confusion in their wake, and lined +up--with Jaimihr at their head--immediately before the great iron +gate. A moment later four men rode closer and hammered on it with their +lance-ends. + +"Go down and speak to them!" commanded Alwa, and a man dropped down the +zigzag roadway like a goat, taking short cuts from level to level, until +he stood on a pinnacle of rock that overhung the gate. Ten minutes later +he returned, breathing hard with the effort of his climb. + +"Jaimihr demands the missionaries--particularly the Miss-sahib--also +quarters and food!" he reported. + +"Quarters and food he shall have!" swore Alwa, looking down at the +Prince who sat his charger in the centre of the roadway. "Did he deign a +threat?" + +"He said that in fifteen minutes he will burst the gate in, unless he is +first admitted!" + +Duncan McClean walked over, limping painfully, and peered over the +precipice. + +"Unfriendly?" he asked, and Mahommed Gunga heard him. + +"Thy friend Jaimihr, sahib! His teeth are all but visible from here!" + +"And--?" + +"He demands admittance--also thee and thy daughter!" + +"And--?" + +"Sahib--art thou a priest?" + +"I am." + +"One, then, who prays?" + +"Yes." + +"For dead men, ever? For the dying?" + +"Certainly." + +"Aloud?" + +"On occasion, yes." + +"Then pray now! There will be many dead and dying on the plain below +in less than fifteen minutes! Hindoos, for all I know, would benefit by +prayer. They have too many gods, and their gods are too busy fighting +for ascendancy to listen. Pray thou, a little!" + +There came a long shout from the plain, and Alwa sent a man again to +listen. He came back with a message that Jaimihr granted amnesty to +all who would surrender, and that he would be pleased to accept Alwa's +allegiance if offered to him. + +"I will offer the braggart something in the way of board and lodging +that will astonish him!" growled Alwa. "Eight men to horse! The first +eight! That will do! Back to the battlement, the rest of you!" + +They had raced for the right to loose themselves against eight hundred! + + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + + + OH, duck and run--the hornets come! + Oh, jungli! Clear the way! + The nest's ahum--the hornets come! + The sharp-stinged, harp-winged hornets come! + Nay, jungli! When the hornets come, + It isn't well to stay! + + +ALWA ordered ten men down into the bowels of the rock itself, where +great wheels with a chain attached to them were forced round to lift the +gate. Next he stationed a signaller with a cord in either hand, above +the parapet, to notify the men below exactly when to set the simple +machinery in motion. His eight clattered out from the stables on the far +side of the rock, and his own charger was brought to him, saddled. + +Then, in a second, it was evident why Raputs do not rule in Rajputana. + +"I ride too with my men!" declared Mahommed Gunga. + +"Nay! This is my affair--my private quarrel with Jaimihr!" + +Mahommed Gunga turned to Ali Partab, who had been a shadow to him ever +since he came. + +"Turn out my five, and bring my charger!" he commanded. + +"No, I say!" Alwa had his hand already on his sabre hilt. "There is room +for eight and no more. Four following four abreast, and one ahead +to lead them. I and my men know how to do this. I and my men have a +personal dispute with Jaimihr. Stay thou here!" + +Mahommed Gunga's five and Ali Partab came clattering out so fast as +to lead to the suspicion that their horses had been already saddled. +Mahommed Gunga mounted. + +"Lead on, cousin!" he exclaimed. "I will follow thy lead, but I come!" + +Then Alwa did what a native nearly always will do. He turned to a man +not of his own race, whom he believed he could trust to be impartial. + +"Sahib--have I no rights in my own house?" + +"Certainly you have," said Cunningham, who was wondering more than +anything what weird, wild trick these horsemen meant to play. No man in +his senses would have dared to ride a horse at more than foot-pace down +the path. Was there another path? he wondered. At least, if eight men +were about to charge into eight hundred, it would be best to keep his +good friend Mahommed Gunga out of it, he decided. + +"Risaldar!" The veteran was always most amenable to reason when +addressed by his military title. "Who of us two is senior--thou or I?" + +"By Allah, not I, sahib! I am thy servant!" + +"I accept your service, and I order you to stay with your men up here +with me!" + +Mahommed Gunga saluted and dismounted, and his six followed suit, +looking as disappointed as children just deprived of a vacation. Alwa +wheeled his horse in front of Cunningham and saluted too. + +"For that service, sahib, I am thy friend!" he muttered. "That was right +and reasonable, and a judgement quickly given! Thy friend, bahadur!" He +spoke low on purpose, but Mahommed Gunga heard him, caught Cunningham's +eye, and grinned. He saw a way to save his face, at all events. + +"That was a trick well turned, sahib!" he whispered, as Alwa moved away. +"Alwa will listen in future when Cunnigan-bahadur speaks!" + +"Go down and tell Jaimihr that I come in person!" ordered Alwa, and the +man dropped down the cliff side for the third time; they could hear his +voice, high-pitched, resounding off the rock, and they caught a faint +murmur of the answer. Below, Jaimihr could be seen waiting patiently, +checking his restive war-horse with a long-cheeked bit, and waiting, +ready to ride under the gate the moment it was opened. Rosemary McClean +came over; she and Cunningham and the missionary leaned together over +the battlement and watched. + +"We might do some execution with rifles from here," Cunningham +suggested; "I believe I'll send for mine." But Mahommed Gunga overheard +him. + +"Nay, sahib! No shooting will be necessary. Watch!" + +There was a clatter of hoofs, and they all looked up in time to see the +tails of the last four chargers disappearing round the corner, downward. +They had gone--full pelt--down a path that a man might hesitate to take! +From where they stood, there was an archer's view of every inch of the +only rock-hewn road that led from the gate to the summit of the cliff; +an enemy who had burst the gate in would have had to climb in the teeth +of a searching hail of missiles, with little chance of shooting back. + +They could see the gate itself, and Jaimihr on the other side. +And, swooping--shooting--sliding down the trail like a storm-loosed +avalanche, they could see the nine go, led by Alwa. No living creature +could have looked away! + +Below, entirely unconscious of the coming shock, the mounted sepoys +waited behind Jaimihr in four long, straight lines. Jaimihr himself, +with a heavy-hilted cimeter held upward at the "carry," was about four +charger lengths beyond the iron screen, ready to spur through. Close by +him were a dozen, waiting to ram a big beam in and hold up the gate +when it had opened. And, full-tilt down the gorge, flash-tipped like +a thunderbolt, gray-turbaned, reckless, whirling death ripped down on +them. + +They caught sound of the hammering hoofs too late. Two gongs boomed in +the rock. The windlass creaked. Five seconds too late Jaimihr gathered +up his reins, spurred, wheeled, and shouted to the men behind him. +The great gate rose, like the jaws of a hungry monster, and +the nine--streaking too fast down far too steep a slide to stop +themselves--burst straight out under it and struck, as a wind blast +smites a poppy-field. + +Jaimihr was borne backward--carried off his horse. Alwa and the first +four rode him down, and crashed through the four-deep line beyond; the +second four pounced on him, gathered him, and followed. Before the lines +could form again the whole nine wheeled--as a wind-eddy spins on its own +axis--and burst through back again, the horses racing neck and neck, and +the sabres cutting down a swath to screech and swear and gurgle in among +the trampled garden stuff. + +They came back in a line, all eight abreast, Alwa leading only by a +length. At the opening, four horses--two on either side--slid, rump to +the ground, until their noses touched the rock. Alwa and four dashed +through and under; the rest recovered, spun on their haunches, and +followed. The gongs boomed again down in the belly of the rock, and the +gate clanged shut. + +"That was good," said Mahommed Gunga quietly. "Now, watch again!" + +Almost before the words had left his lips, a hail of lead barked out +from twenty vantage-points, and the smoke showed where some forty men +were squinting down steel barrels, shooting as rapidly and as rottenly +as natives of India usually do. They did little execution; but before +Alwa and his eight had climbed up the steep track to the summit, patting +their horses' necks and reviling Jaimihr as they came, the cavalry below +had scampered out of range, leaving their dead and wounded where they +lay. + +"How is that for a start, sahib?" demanded Mahommed Gunga exultantly, +as two men deposited the dishevelled Jaimihr on his feet, and the Prince +glared around him like a man awaking from a dream. "How is that for a +beginning?" + +"As bad as could be!" answered Cunningham. "It was well +executed--bold--clever--anything you like, Mahommed Gunga, but--if I'd +been asked I'd have sooner made the devil prisoner! Jaimihr is no use at +all to us in here. Outside, he'd be veritable godsend!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + + + There is war to the North should I risk and ride forth, + And a fight to the South, too, I'm thinking; + There is war in the East, and one battle at least + In the West between eating and drinking. + I'm allowed to rejoice in an excellent choice + Of plans for a soldier of mettle, + For all of them mean bloody war and rapine. + So--on which should a gentleman settle? + + +WITH his muscles strained and twisted (for his Rangar capturers had +dragged him none too gently) and with his jewelled pugree all awry, +Jaimihr did not lack dignity. He held his chin high, although he gazed +at the bubbling spring thirstily; and, thirsty though he must have been, +he asked no favors. + +One of Alwa's men brought him a brass dipper full of water, after +washing it out first thoroughly and ostentatiously. But Jaimihr smiled. +His caste forbade. He waved away the offering much as Caesar may have +waved aside a crown, with an air of condescending mightiness too proud +to know contempt. + +"Go, help thyself!" growled Alwa; and Jaimihr walked to the spring +without haste, knelt down, and dipped up water with his hand. + +"Now to a cell with him!" commanded Alwa, before the Prince had time +to slake a more than ordinary thirst. Jaimihr stood upright as four men +closed in on him, and looked straight in the eyes of every one in turn. +Rosemary McClean stepped back, to hide herself behind Cunningham's broad +shoulders, but Jaimihr saw her and his proud smile broadened to a laugh +of sheer amusement. He let his captors wait for him while he stared +straight at her, sparing her no fragment of embarrassment. + +"I slew a man once to save thee, sahiba!" he mocked. "Why slink away? +Have I ever been thy enemy?" + +Then he folded his arms and walked off between his guards, without even +an acknowledgment of Alwa's or any other man's existence on the earth. + +Alwa spat as he wiped blood from his long sabre. He imagined he was +doing the necessary dirty work out of Miss McClean's sight; but, except +hospital nurses, there are few women who can see dry blood removed from +steel without a qualm; she had looked at Alwa to escape Jaimihr's gaze; +now she looked at Jaimihr's back to avoid the sight of what Alwa was +seeing fit to do. And with all the woman in her she pitied the prisoner, +who had said no less than truth when he claimed to have killed a man for +her. + +She knew that he would have killed a thousand men for her with equal +generosity and equal disregard of what she thought was right, and she +did not doubt that he would think himself both justified and worthy of +renown for doing it. She could have begged his release that minute, +had she thought for an instant that Alwa would consent, and but for +Cunningham. She had grown aware of Cunningham's gray eyes, staring +straight at her--summing her up--reading her. And she became conscious +of the fact that she had met a man whose leave she would like to ask +before deciding to act. + +The mental acknowledgment brought relief for a few seconds. She was +tired. The woman in here went out to the man in Cunningham, and she +welcomed a protector. Then the Scots blood raced to the assistance of +the woman, and she bridled instantly. Who, then, was this chance-met +jackanapes, that she should lean on him or look to him for guidance? + +The rebellion that had made her disobey her father back in Howrah +City--the spirit that had kept her in Howrah City and had given Jaimihr +back cool stare for stare--rallied her to resist--to ridicule--to rival +Cunningham's pretensions. He saw her flush beneath his gaze, and turned +away to where Mahommed Gunga watched from the parapet. + +The leaders of Jaimihr's calvary were arguing. They could be seen +gathered together out of rifle-shot but in full view of Alwa's rock, and +from their gestures they seemed to be considering the feasibility of an +attack. + +But it needed no warrior--it needed less even than ordinary +intelligence--to know that as few as forty men could hold that fastness +against two thousand. Eight hundred would have no chance against it. +Even two thousand would need engineers, and ordnance, as well as plans. + +Presently half of the little army rode away, back toward Howrah City, +and the other half proceeded to bivouac where they could watch the +iron-shuttered entrance and cut off the little garrison from all +communication or assistance. + +"We might as well resume our conference," suggested Alwa, with the +courtly air of a man just arisen from a chair. No one who had not seen +him ride would have dreamed that he was fresh from snatching a prisoner +at the bottom of a neck-breaking defile. Cunningham nodded acquiescence +and followed him, turning to stare again at Miss McClean before he +strode away with long, even strides that had a reassuring effect on any +one who watched him. She bridled again, and blushed. But she experienced +the weird sensation of being read right through before Mahommed Gunga +contrived adroitly to step into the line of view and so let Cunningham's +attention fix itself on something else. The Risaldar had made up his +mind that love was inopportune just then; and he was a man who left no +stone unturned--no point unwatched--when he had sensed a danger. This +might be danger and it might not be; so he watched. Cunningham was +conscious of the sudden interruption of a train of thought, but he was +not conscious of deliberate interference. + +"That very young man is an old man," said Duncan McClean, wiping his +spectacles as he walked beside his daughter to the deep veranda where +their chairs were side by side. "He is a grown man. He has come to man's +estate. Look at the set of that pair of shoulders. Mark his strength!" + +"I expect any one of those Rajputs is physically stronger," answered +Rosemary, in no mood to praise any one. + +"I was thinking of the strength of character he expresses rather than of +his actual muscles," said McClean. + +"Bismillah!" Alwa was swearing behind the thick teak door that closed +behind him and Cunningham and Mahommed Gunga. "We have made a good +beginning! With the wolf in a trap, what has the goat to dread? Howrah +may chuckle himself to sleep! And I--I, too, by the beard of God's +prophet!--I, too, may laugh, for, with Jaimihr under lock and key, what +need is there to ride to the aid of a Hindoo Rajah? I am free again!" + +"Alwa-sahib!" + +Cunningham had fixed him with those calm gray eyes of his, and Mahommed +Gunga sat down on the nearest bench contented. He could wait for what +was coming now. He recognized the blossoming of the plant that he had +nursed through its growth so long. + +"I listen," answered Alwa. + +"I represent the British Government. I am the only servant of the +Company within reach. Do you realize that?" + +"Yes, sahib." + +"I have no orders which entitle me to deal with any crisis such as this. +But, when my orders were given me, no such crisis was contemplated. +Therefore, on behalf of the Company, I assume full authority until such +time as some one senior to me turns up to relieve me. Is all that clear +to you?" + +"Yes, sahib." + +Mahommed Gunga went through considerable pantomime of being angry with a +fly. He found it necessary to conceal emotion in some way or other. Alwa +sat motionless and stared straight back at Cunningham. + +"I understand, sahib," he repeated. + +"You are talking to me, then, on that understanding?" + +"Most certainly, huzoor." + +"You can raise two thousand men?" + +"Perhaps." + +"Say fifteen hundred?" + +"Surely fifteen hundred. Not a sabre less." + +"All horsed and armed?" + +"Surely, bahadur. Of what use would be a rabble? I was speaking in terms +of men able to fight, as one soldier to another." + +"Will you raise those men?" + +"Of a truth, I must, sahib!" Alwa laughed. "Jaimihr's thousands will be +in no mind to lie leaderless and let Howrah ride rough-shod over them! +They know his charity of old! They will be here to claim their Prince +within a day or two, and without my fifteen hundred how would I stand? +Surely, bahadur, I will raise my fifteen hundred." + +"Very well. Now I will make you a proposal. On behalf of the Company I +offer you and your men pay at the rate paid to all irregular cavalry on +a war basis. In return, I demand your allegiance." + +"To whom, sahib? To you or to the Company?" + +"To the Company, of course." + +"Nay! Not I! For the son of Cunnigan-bahadur I would slit the throats of +half Asia, and then of nine-tenths of the other half! But by the breath +of God--by my spurs and this sabre here--I have had enough of pledging! +I swore allegiance to Howrah. Being nearly free of that pledge by +Allah's sending, shall I plunge into another, like a frightened bird +fluttering from snare to snare? Nay, nay, bahadur! For thyself, for thy +father's sake, ask any favor. It is granted. But thy Company may stew in +the grease of its own cartridges for ought I care!" + +Cunningham stood up and bowed very slightly--very stiffly--very +punctiliously. Mahommed Gunga leaped to his feet, and came to attention +with a military clatter. Alwa stared, inclining his head a trifle in +recognition of the bow, but evidently taken by surprise. + +"Then, good-by, Alwa-sahib." + +Cunningham stretched out a hand. + +"I am much obliged to you for your hospitality, and regret exceedingly +that I cannot avail myself of it further, either for myself or +for Mahommed Gunga or for Mr. and Miss McClean. As the Company's +representative, they, of course, look to me for orders and protection, +and I shall take them away at once. As things are, we can only be a +source of embarrassment to you." + +"But--sahib--huzoor--it is impossible. You have seen the cavalry below. +How can you--how could you get away?" + +"Unless I am your prisoner I shall certainly leave this place at once. +The only other condition on which I will stay here is that you pledge +your allegiance to the Company and take my orders." + +"Sahib, this is--why--huzoor--" + +Alwa looked over to Mahommed Gunga and raised his eyebrows eloquently. + +"I obey him! I go with him!" growled Mahommed Gunga. + +"Sahib, I would like time to think this over." + +"How much time? I thought you quick-witted when you made Jaimihr +prisoner. Has that small success undermined your power of decision? I +know my mind. Mahommed Gunga knows his, Alwa-sahib." + +"I ask an hour. There are many points I must consider. There is the +prisoner for one thing." + +"You can hand him over to the custody of the first British column we +can get in touch with, Alwa-sahib. That will relieve you of further +responsibility to Howrah and will insure a fair trial of any issue there +may be between yourself and Jaimihr." + +Alwa scowled. No Rajput likes the thought of litigation where affairs +of honor are concerned. He felt he would prefer to keep Jaimihr prisoner +for the present. + +"Also, sahib"--fresh facets of the situation kept appearing to him as he +sparred for time--"with Jaimihr in a cage I can drive a bargain with his +brother. While I keep him in the cage, Howrah must respect my wishes for +fear lest otherwise I loose Jaimihr to be a thorn in his side anew. If I +hand him to the British, Howrah will know that he is safe and altogether +out of harm's way; then he will recall what he may choose to consider +insolence of mine; and then--" + +"Oh, well--consider it!" said Cunningham, saluting him and making for +the door, close followed by Mahommed Gunga. The two went out and it +left Alwa to stride up and down alone--to wrestle between desire and +circumspection--to weigh uncomfortable fact with fact--and to curse his +wits that could not settle on the wisest and most creditable course. +They turned into another chamber of the tunnelled rock, and there until +long after the hour of law allowed to Alwa they discussed the situation +too. + +"The point was well taken, sahib," said Mahommed Gunga, "but he should +have been handled rather less abruptly." + +"Eh?" + +"Rather less abruptly, sahib." + +"Oh! Well--if his mind isn't clear as to which side he'll fight on, I +don't want him, and that's all!" said Cunningham. And Mahommed Gunga +bitted his impatience fiercely, praying the one God he believed in to +touch the right scale of the two. Later, Cunningham strode out to pace +the courtyard in the dark, and the Rajput followed him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + + + The trapped wolf bared his fangs and swore, + "But set me this time free, + And I will hunt thee never more! + By ear and eye and jungle law, + I'll starve--I'll faint--I'll die before + I bury tooth in thee!" + + +WHILE Alwa raged alone, and while Mahommed Gunga talked to Cunningham +in a rock-room near at hand, Rosemary McClean saw fit to take a hand +in history. It was not her temperament to sit quite idle while others +shaped her destiny; nor was she given to mere brooding over wrongs. When +a wrong was being done that she could alter or alleviate it was her way +to tackle it at once without asking for permission or advice. + +From where her chair was placed under the long veranda she could see the +passage in the rock that led to Jaimihr's cell. She saw his captors take +him up the passage; she heard the door clang shut on him, and she saw +the men come back again. She heard them laugh, too, and she overheard a +few words of a jest that seemed the reason for the laughter. + +In Rajputana, as in other portions of the East, men laugh with meaning +as a rule, and seldom from mere amusement. Included in the laugh there +usually lies more than a hint of threat, or hate, or cruelty. And, in +partial confirmation of the jest she unintentionally overheard, she saw +no servant go to the chuckling spring to fill a water-jar. She recalled +that Jaimihr only sipped as much as he could dip up in the hollow of his +hand, and that physical exertion and suffering of the sort that he had +undergone produces prodigious thirst in that hot, dry atmosphere. + +She waited until dark for Cunninham, growing momentarily more restless. +She recalled that she was a guest of Alwa's, and as such not free to +interfere with his arrangements or to suggest insinuations anent his +treatment of prisoners. She recalled the pride of all Rajputs, and its +accompanying corollary of insolence when offended. There would come no +good--she knew--from asking anybody whether Jaimihr was allowed to drink +or not. + +Cunningham, with that middle-aged air of authority laid over the fire +and ability of youth, would be able, no doubt, to enforce his wishes in +the matter after finding out the truth about it. But Cunningham did not +come; and she remembered from a short experience of her own what thirst +was. + +The men-at-arms were all on the ramparts now, watching the leaderless +cavalry on the plain. They had even left the cell door unguarded, for it +was held shut by a heavy beam that could not be reached from the inside; +and they were all too few, even all of them together, to hold that rock +against eight hundred. It was characteristic, though, and Eastern of the +East, that they should omit to padlock the big beam. It pivoted at its +centre on a big bronze pin, and even a child could move it from the +outside; it was only from the inside that it was uncontrollable. From +inside one could have jerked at the door for a week and the big beam +would have lain still and efficient in its niche in the rock-wall; but +a little pressure underneath one end would send it swinging in an arc +until it hung bolt upright. Then the same child who had pushed it up +could have swung the teak door wide. + +Rosemary, growing momentarily thirstier herself as she thought of the +probable torture of the prisoner, walked down to the spring and filled +a dipper, as she had done half a dozen times a day since she first +arrived. She had carried almost all her own and her father's water, +for Joanna was generally sleeping somewhere out of view, and no other +body-servant had been provided for her. There was a fairly big brass +pitcher by the spring. She filled it. Nobody noticed her. + +Then she recalled that nobody would notice her if she were to carry the +brass pitcher in the direction of her room, for she had done that often. +She picked it up, and she reached the end of the veranda with it without +having called attention to herself. She set it down then to make quite +sure that she was unobserved. + +But some movement of the cavalry on the plain below was keeping the eyes +of the garrison employed. Although a solitary lantern shone full on her, +she reached the passage leading to the prisoner's cell unseen; and she +walked on down it, making no attempt to hide or hurry, remembering that +she was acting out of mercy and had no need to be ashamed. If she were +to be discovered, then she would be, and that was all about it, except +that she would probably be able to appeal to Cunningham to save her from +unpleasant consequences. In any case, she reasoned, she would have done +good. She was quite ready to get herself and her own in trouble if by +doing it she could insure that a prisoner had water. + +But she was not seen. And no one saw her set the jar down by the door. +No one except the prisoner inside heard her knock. + +"Have you water, Jaimihr-sahib?" she inquired. + +The East has a hundred florid epithets for one used in the West; and +in a land where water is as scarce as gold and far more precious the +mention of water to a thirsty man calls forth a flood of thought such +as only music or perhaps religion can produce in luckier climes. Jaimihr +waxed eloquent; more eloquent than even water might have made him had +another--had even another woman--brought it. He recognized her voice, +and said things to her that roused all the anger that she knew. She had +not come to be made love to. + +She thought, though, of his thirst. She remembered that within an hour +or two he might be raving for another reason and with other words. The +big beam lifted on her hands with barely more effort than was needed +to lift up the water-jar; the door opened a little way, and she tried, +while she passed the water in, to peer through the darkness at the +prisoner. But there were no windows to that cell, and such dim light as +there was came from behind her. + +"They have bound me, sahiba, in this corner," groaned Jaimihr. "I cannot +reach it. Take it away again! The certainty that it is there and out of +reach is too great torture!" + +So she slipped in through the door, leaving it open a little way--both +her hands busy with the brass pitcher and both eyes straining their +utmost through the gloom--advancing step by step through mouldy straw +that might conceal a thousand horrors. + +"You wonder, perhaps, why I do not escape!" said a voice. And then she +heard the cell door close again gently. + +Now she could see Jaimihr, for he stood with his back against the door, +and his head was between her and the little six-inch grating that was +all the ventilation or light a prisoner in that place was allowed. + +"So you lied to me, even when I brought you water?" she answered. She +was not afraid. She had nerve enough left to pity him. + +"Yes. But I see that you did not lie. I am still thirsty, sahiba." + +He held out both hands, and she could see them dimly. There were no +chains on them, and he was not bound in any way. She gave him the jar. + +"Let me pass out again before you drink," she ordered. "It is not known +that I am in here, and I would not have it known." + +She could have bitten out her tongue with mortification a moment +afterward for letting any such admission escape her. She heard him +chuckle as he drank--he choked from chuckling, and set the jar down +to cough. Then, when he had recovered breath again, he answered almost +patronizingly. + +"Which would be least pleased with you, sahiba? The Rangars, or thy +father, or the other Englishman? But never mind, sahiba, we are friends. +I have proved that we are friends. Never have I taken water from the +hands of any man or any woman not of my own caste. I would have died +sooner. It was only thou, sahiba, who could make me set aside my caste." + +"Let me pass!" + +She certainly was frightened now. It dawned on her, as it had at once on +him, that at the least commotion on his part or on hers a dozen Rangars +would be likely to come running. And just as he had done, she wondered +what explanation she would give in that case, and who would be likely +to believe it. To have been caught going to the cell would have been one +thing; to be caught in it would be another. He divined her thoughts. + +"Have no fear, sahiba. Thou and I are friends." + +She did not answer, for words would not come. Besides, she was beginning +to realize that words would be of little help to her. A woman who will +tell nothing but the truth under any circumstances and will surely keep +her promises is at a disadvantage when conversing with a man who surely +will not tell the truth if he can help it and who regards his given word +with almost equal disrespect. + +"I have no fear, sahiba. I am not afraid to open this door wide and make +a bid for liberty. It would not be wise, that is all, and thou--and I +must deal in wisdom." + +His words came through the dark very evenly--spaced evenly--as though +he weighed each one of them before he voiced it. She gathered the +impression that he was thinking for his very life. She felt unable to +think for her own. She felt impelled to listen--incredulous, helpless, +frightened,--not a little ashamed. She was thinking more of the awful +things those Moslem gentlemen would say about her should they come and +discover her in Jaimihr's cell. + +"Listen, sahiba! From end to end of India thy people are either dead, or +else face to face with death. There is no escape anywhere for any man or +woman--no hope, no chance. The British doom is sealed. So is the doom of +every man who dared to side with them." + +She shuddered. But she had to listen. + +"There will be an army here within a day or two. My men--and I number +them by thousands--will come and rip these Rangars from their roost. +Those that are not crucified will be thrown down from the summit, and +there shall be a Hindoo shrine where they have worshipped their false +god. Then, sahiba, if thou art here--perhaps--there might--yet--be a +way-perhaps, yes?--a way, still, to escape me?" + +She was trembling. She could not help beginning to believe him. Whatever +might be true of what he said was certainly not comforting. + +"But, while my army comes in search of me, my brother Howrah will be +making merry with my palace and belongings. There will be devastation +and other things in my army's rear for which there is no need and +for which I have no stomach. I detest the thought of them, sahiba. +Therefore, sahiba, I would drive a bargain. Notice, sahiba, I say not +one word of love, though love such as mine is has seldom been offered +to a woman. I say no word of love--as yet. I say, help me to escape by +night, when I may make my way unseen back to my men: enable me to reach +Howrah before my dear brother is aware of my trouble and before his men +can start plundering, and name your own terms, sahiba!" + +Name her own terms--name her own terms--name her own terms! The words +dinned through her head and she could grasp no other thought. She was +alone in a cell with Jaimihr, and she could get out of it if she would +name her terms! She must name them--she must hurry--what were they? What +were her terms? She could not think. + +"Understand, sahiba. Certain things are sure. It is sure my men will +come. It is sure that every Rangar on this rock will meet a very far +from pleasant death--" + +He grinned, and though she could not see him grin, she knew that he was +doing it. She knew that he was even then imagining a hundred horrors +that the Rangars would endure before they died. She might name her +terms. She could save them. + +"No!" she hissed hoarsely. "No! They are my terms! I name them! You must +spare them--spare the Rangars--spare every man on this hill, and theirs, +and all they have!" + +"Truly are those thy terms, sahiba?" + +"Truly! What others can I ask?" + +"They are granted, sahiba!" + +"Oh, thank God!" + +She knew that he was speaking at least half the truth. She knew his +power. She knew enough of Howrah City's politics to be convinced that +he would not be left at the mercy of a little band of Rangars. She knew +that there were not enough Rangars on the whole countryside to oppose +the army that would surely come to his rescue. And whether he were dead +or living, she knew well enough that the vengeance would be wreaked on +every living body on the hill. Alwa might feel confident, not she. She +trembled now with joy at the thought that she--she the most helpless and +useless of all of them--might save the lives of all. + +But then another phase of the problem daunted her. She might help +Jaimihr go. He might escape unobserved with her aid. But then? What +then? What would the Rangars do to her? Had she sufficient courage to +face that? It was not fear now that swept over her so much as wonder at +herself. Jaimihr detected something different in her mental attitude, +and, since almost any change means weakness to the Oriental mind, he +was quick to try to take advantage of it. He guessed right at the first +attempt. + +"And what wilt thou do here, sahiba? When I am gone, and there is none +here to love thee--" + +"Peace!" she commanded. "Peace! I have suffered enough--" + +"Thou wilt suffer more, should the Rangars learn--" + +"That is my business! Let me pass! I have bargained, and I will try to +fulfil my part!" + +She stepped toward the door, but he held out both his arms and she saw +them. She had no intention of being embraced by him, whatever their +conspiracy. + +"Stand back!" she ordered. + +"Nay, nay, sahiba! Listen! Escape with me! These Rangars will not +believe without proof that thou hast saved their lives by bargaining. +They will show thee short shrift indeed when my loss is discovered. Come +now and I will make thee Maharanee in a week!" + +"I would be as safe with one as with the other!" she laughed, something +of calm reflection returning to her. "And what proof have I in any case +that you will keep your word, Jaimihr-sahib. I will keep mine--but who +will keep yours, that has been so often broken?" + +"Sahiba--" + +"Show me a proof!" + +"Here--now--in this place?" + +"Convince me, if you can! I will give myself willingly if I can save my +father by it and these Rangars and Mr. Cunningham; but your bare word, +Jaimihr-sahib, is worth that!" + +She snapped her fingers, and he swore beneath his breath. Then he +remembered his ambition and his present need, and words raced to his +aid--words, plans, oaths, treachery, and all the hundred and one tricks +that he was used to. He found himself consciously selecting from a dozen +different plans for tricking her. + +"Sahiba"--he spoke slowly and convincingly. In the gloom she could +see his brown eyes levelled straight at hers, and she saw they did not +flinch--"there is none who knows better than thou knowest how my brother +and I stand to each other." She shuddered at the reiterated second +person singular, but he either did not notice it or else affected not +to. "Thou know est that there is no love between him and me, and that +I would have his throne. The British could set me on that throne unless +they were first overwhelmed. Wert thou my legal wife, and were I to aid +the British in this minute of their need, they would not be overwhelmed, +and afterward they would surely set me on the throne. Therefore I pledge +my word to lead my men to the Company's aid, provided that these Rangars +ride to my aid. My brother plans to overcome me first, and then take +arms against the British. If the Rangars come to help me I will ride +with them to the Company's aid afterward. That is my given word!" + +"Then the throne of Howrah is your price, Jaimihr-sahib?" + +"Thou art the price and the prize, sahiba! For thee I would win the +throne!" + +She actually laughed, and he winced palpably. There was no doubt that he +loved her after a manner of his own, and her contempt hurt him. + +"I have said all I can say," he told her. "I have promised all I can +promise. What more is there to say or offer? If I stay here, I swear on +the honor of a Rajput and a prince of royal blood, that every living +man and woman on this rock, excepting thee only, shall be dead within a +week. But if I escape by thy aid, and if, at thy instance, these Rangars +and their friends ride to my help against my brother, then I will throw +all my weight--men and influence--in the scale on the British side." + +"And--?" + +"And thou shalt be Maharanee!" + +"Never!" + +"But in case that the British should be beaten before we reach them, +then, sahiba! Then in case of thy need!" + +"Jaimihr-sahib, I will help you to escape tonight on the terms that you +have named--that you spare these Rangars and every living body on this +hill. Then I will do my utmost to persuade the Rangars to ride to your +assistance on your condition, that you lead your men to help the British +afterward. And if my action in helping you escape should make the +Rangars turn against me and my immediate friends, I shall claim your +protection. Is that agreed?" + +"Sahiba--absolutely!" + +"Then let me pass!" + +Reluctantly he stood aside. She slipped out and let the bar down +unobserved. But she had not recovered all her self-possession when she +reached the courtyard. + +"Evening, Miss McClean," said Cunningham; and she all but fainted, she +was strained to such a pitch of nervousness. + +"Where have you come from, Miss McClean?" asked Cunningham. And she told +him. She was not quite so stiff-chinned as she had been. + +"What were you doing there?" + +She told him that, too. + +"Where is your father?" + +"In his chair on the veranda, Mr. Cunningham. There, in that deep +shadow." + +"Come to him, please. I want your explanation in his presence." + +She followed as obediently as a child. The sense of guilt--of fright--of +impending judgment left her as she walked with him, and gave place to a +glow of comfort that here should be a man on whom to lean. She did not +fight the new sensation, for she was growing strangely weary of the +other one. By the time that they had reached her father, and he was +standing before Cunningham wiping his spectacles in his nervous way, she +had completely recovered her self-possession, although it is likely she +would not have given any reason for it to herself. + +Cunningham held a lantern up, so that he could study both their faces. +His own face muscles were set rigidly, and he questioned them as +he might have cross-examined a spy caught in the act. His voice was +uncompromising, and his manner stern. + +"Do you both understand how serious this situation is?" he asked. + +"We naturally do," said Duncan McClean. The Scotsman was beginning to +betray an inclination to bridle under the youngster's attitude, and to +show an equally pronounced desire not to appear to. "More so, probably, +than anybody else!" + +"Are you positive--both of you--you too, Mr. McClean--that all that talk +about treasure in Howrah City is not mere imagination and legend?" + +"Absolutely positive!" They both answered him at once, both looking in +his eyes across the unsteady rays of the flickering, smoky lamp. "The +amount has been, of course, much exaggerated," said McClean, "but I have +no doubt there is enough there to pay the taxes of all India for a year +or two." + +"Then I have another question to ask. Do you both--or do you +not--place yourselves at the service of the Company? It is likely to be +dangerous--a desperate service. But the Company needs all that it can +muster." + +"Of course we do!" Again both answered in one breath. + +"Do you understand that that involves taking my orders?" + +This time Duncan McClean did the answering, and now it was he who seized +the lamp. He held it high, and scanned Cunningham's face as though he +were reading a finely drawn map. + +"We are prepared--I speak for my daughter as well as for myself--to obey +any orders that you have a right to give, young man." + +"You misunderstand me," answered Cunningham. "I am offering you the +opportunity to serve the Company. As the Company's senior officer in the +neighborhood, I am responsible to the Company for such orders as I see +fit to give. I could not have my orders questioned. I don't mind telling +you that I'm asking you, as British subjects, no more than I intend to +ask Alwa and his Rangars. You can do as much as they are going to be +asked to do. You can't do more. But you can do less if you like. You +are being given the opportunity now to offer your services +unconditionally--that is to say in the only manner in which I will +accept them. Otherwise you will remain non-combatants, and I shall take +such measures for your safety as I see fit. Time presses. Your answer, +please!" + +"I will obey your legal orders," said McClean, still making full use of +the lantern. + +"I refuse to admit the qualification," answered Cunningham promptly. +"Either you will obey, or you will not. You are asked to say which, that +is all." + +"I will obey," said Rosemary McClean quietly. She said it through +straight lips and in a level voice that carried more assurance than a +string of loud-voiced oaths. + +"And you, sir?" + +"Since my daughter sees fit to--ah--capitulate, I have no option." + +"Be good enough to be explicit." + +"I agree to obey your orders." + +"Thank you." He seemed to have finished with McClean. He turned away +from him and faced Rosemary, not troubling to examine her face closely +as he had done her father's, but seeming none the less to give her full +attention. "I understood you to say that you promised to help Prince +Jaimihr to escape from his cell tonight?" + +"WHAT?" + +Duncan McClean could not have acted such amazement. Cunningham desired +no further evidence that he had not been accessory to his daughter's +visit to the prisoner. He silenced him with a gesture. And now his eyes +seemed for the time being to have finished with both of them; in spite +of the darkness they both knew that he had resumed the far-away look +that seemed able to see things finished. + +"Yes," said Rosemary. "I promised. I had to." + +Her father gasped. But Cunningham appeared to follow an unbroken chain +of thought, and she listened. + +"Well. You will both realize readily that we, as British subjects, are +ranged all together on one side opposed to treachery, as represented +by the large majority of the natives. That means that our first +consideration must be to keep our given word. What we say,--what we +promise--what we boast--must tally with what we undertake, and at the +least try, to do. You must keep your word to Jaimihr, Miss McClean!" + +She stared back at Cunningham through wide, unfrightened eyes. Whatever +this man said to her, she seemed unable to feel fear while she had his +attention. Her father seemed utterly bewildered, and she held his hand +to reassure him. + +"On the other hand, we cannot be guilty of a breach of faith to our +friend Alwa here. I must have a little talk with him before I issue any +orders. Please wait here and--ah--do nothing while I talk to Alwa. Did +you--ah--did you agree to marry Jaimihr, should he make you Maharanee?" + +"No! I told him I would rather die!" + +"Thank you. That makes matters easier. Now tell me over again from +the beginning what you know about the political situation in Howrah. +Quickly, please. Consider yourself a scout reporting to his officer." + +Ten minutes later Cunninham heard a commotion by the parapet, and +stalked off to find Alwa, close followed by Mahommed Gunga. The grim old +Rajput was grinning in his beard as he recognized the set of what might +have been Cunningham the elder's shoulders. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + + + Ye may go and lay your praise + At a shrine of other days + By the tomb of him who gat, and her who bore me; + My plan is good--my way-- + The sons of kings obey-- + But, I'm reaping where another sowed before me. + + +JAIDEV SINGH was a five-K man, with the hair, breeches, bangle, comb, +and dagger that betoken him who has sworn the vow of Khanda ka Pahul. +Every item of the Sikh ritual was devised with no other motive than to +preserve the fighting character of the organization. The very name Singh +means lion. The Sikh's long hair with the iron ring hidden underneath +is meant as a protection against sword-cuts. And because their faith +is rather spiritual than fanatical--based rather on the cause of +things than on material effect--men of that creed take first rank among +fighting men. + +Jaidev Singh arrived soon after the moon had risen. The notice of +his coming was the steady drumming footfall of his horse, that slowed +occasionally, and responded to the spur again immediately. + +Close to the big iron gate below Alwa's eyrie there were some of +Jaimihr's cavalry nosing about among the trampled gardens for the dead +and wounded they had left there earlier in the afternoon. They ceased +searching, and formed up to intercept whoever it might be who rode in +such a hurry. Above them, on the overhanging ramparts, there was quick +discussion, and one man left his post hurriedly. + +"A horseman from the West!" he announced, breaking in on Alwa's privacy +without ceremony. + +"One?" + +"One only." + +"For us or them?" + +"I know not, sahib." + +Alwa--glad enough of the relief from puzzling his brain--ran to the +rampart and looked long at the moving dot that was coming noisily toward +his fastness but that gave no sign of its identity or purpose. + +"Whoever he is can see them," he vowed. "The moon shines full on them. +Either he is a man of theirs or else a madman!" + +He watched for five more minutes without speaking. Cunningham and +Mahommed Gunga, coming out at last in search of him, saw the strained +figures of the garrison peering downward through the yellow moon +rays, and took stand on either side of him to gaze, too, in spellbound +silence. + +"If he is their man," said Alwa presently, "he will turn now. He will +change direction and ride for the main body of them yonder. He can see +them now easily. Yes. See. He is their man!" + +On a horse that staggered gamely--silhouetted and beginning to show +detail in the yellow light--a man whose nationality or caste could not +be recognized rode straight for the bivouacking cavalry, and a swarm of +them rode out at a walk to meet him. + +The tension on the ramparts was relaxed then. As a friend in direst need +the man would have been welcome. As one of enemy, with a message for +them, however urgent, he was no more than an incident. + +"By Allah!" roared Alwa suddenly. "That is no man of theirs! Quick! To +the wheels! Man the wheels! Eight men to horse!" + +He took the cord himself, to send the necessary signal down into the +belly of the rock. From his stables, where men and horses seemed to +stand ready day and night, ten troopers cantered out, scattering +the sparks, the whites of their horses' eyes and their drawn blades +gleaming; without another order they dipped down the breakneck gorge, +to wait below. The oncoming rider had wheeled again; he had caught the +cavalry, that rode to meet him, unawares. They were not yet certain +whether he was friend or foe, and they were milling in a bunch, shouting +orders to one another. He, spurring like a maniac, was heading straight +for the searching party, who had formed to cut him off. He seemed to +have thrown his heart over Alwa's iron gate and to be thundering on +hell's own horse in quest of it again. + +Alwa's eight slipped down the defile as quickly as phantoms would have +dared in that tricky moon-light. One of them shouted from below. Alwa +jerked the cord, and the great gate yawned, well-oiled and silent. +The oncomer raced straight for the middle of the intercepting line of +horsemen; they--knowing him by this time for no friend--started to meet +him; and Alwa's eight, unannounced and unexpected, whirled into them +from the rear. + +In a second there was shouting, blind confusion--eddying and trying +to reform. The lone galloper pulled clear, and Alwa's men drove his +opponents, crupper over headstall, into a body of the main contingent +who had raced up in pursuit. They rammed the charge home, and reeled +through both detachments--then wheeled at the spur and cut their way +back again, catching up their man at the moment that his horse dropped +dead beneath him. They seized him beneath the arms and bore him through +as the great gate dropped and cut his horse in halves. Then one man took +the galloper up behind his saddle, and bore him up the hill unquestioned +until he could dismount in front of Alwa. + +"Who art thou?" demanded the owner of the rock, recognizing a warrior +by his trademarks, but in no way moderating the natural gruffness of +his voice. Alwa considered that his inviolable hospitality should be too +well known and understood to call for any explanation or expression; he +would have considered it an insult to the Sikh's intelligence to have +mouthed a welcome; he let it go for granted. + +"Jaidev Singh--galloper to Byng-bahadur. I bring a letter for the +Risaldar Mahommed Gunga, or for Cunnigan-sahib, whichever I can find +first." + +"They are both here." + +"Then my letter is for both of them." + +Cunningham and Mahommed Gunga each took one step forward, and the Sikh +gave Cunningham a tiny, folded piece of paper, stuck together along +one edge with native gum. He tore it open, read it in the light of +a trooper's lantern, and then read it again aloud to Mahommed Gunga, +pitching his voice high enough for Alwa to listen if he chose. + +"What are you two men doing?" ran the note. "The very worst has +happened. We all need men immediately, and I particularly need them. One +hundred troopers now would be better than a thousand men a month from +now. Hurry, and send word by bearer. S. F. BYNG." + +"How soon can you start back?" asked Cunningham. + +"The minute I am provided with a horse, sahib." + +Cunningham turned to Alwa. + +"Will you be kind enough to feed him, Alwa-sahib?" + +Alwa resented the imputation against his hospitality instantly. + +"Nay, I was waiting for his money in advance!" he laughed. "Food waits, +thou. Thou art a Sikh--thou eatest meat--meat, then, is ready." + +The Sikh, or at least the true Sikh, is not hampered by a list of caste +restrictions. All of his precepts, taken singly or collectively, bid him +be nothing but a man, and no law forbids him accept the hospitality of +soldiers of another creed. So Jaidev Singh walked off to feed on curried +beef that would have made a Hindoo know himself for damned. Cunningham +then turned on Alwa. + +"Now is the time, Alwa-sahib," he said in a level voice. "My party can +start off with this man and our answer, if your answer is no. If your +answer is yes, then the Sikh can bear that answer for us." + +"You would none of you ride half a mile alive!" laughed Alwa. + +"I none the less require an answer, Alwa-sahib." + +Alwa stared hard at him. That was the kind of talk that went straight to +his soldier heart. He loved a man who held to his point in the teeth of +odds. The odds, it seemed to him, were awfully against Cunningham. + +"So was thy father," he said slowly. "My cousin said thou wast thy +father's son!" + +"I require an answer by the time that the Sikh has finished eating," +said Cunningham. "Otherwise, Alwa-sabib, I shall regret the necessity of +foregoing further hospitality at your hands." + +"Bismillah! Am I servant here or master?" wondered Alwa, loud enough for +all his men to hear. Then he thought better of his dignity. "Sahib," +he insisted, "I will not talk here before my men. We will have another +conference." + +"I concede you ten minutes," said Cunningham, preparing to follow him, +and followed in turn by Mohammed Gunga. + +"Now, swore the Risaldar into his beard, we shall see the reaching of +decisions! Now, by the curse of the sack of Chitor we shall know who is +on whose side, or I am no Rangar, nor the son of one!" + +"I have a suggestion to make, sahib," smiled Alwa, closing the door of +the rock-hewn chamber on the three of them. + +"Hear mine first!" said Cunningham, with a hint of iron in his voice. + +"Ay! Hear his first! Hear Chota-Cunnigan-bahadur!" echoed Mahommed +Gunga. "Let us hear a plan worth hearing!" And Alwa looked into a pair +of steady eyes that seemed to see through him--past him--to the finished +work beyond. + +"Speak, sahib." + +"You are pledged to uphold Howrah on his throne?" + +"Ha, sahib." + +"Then, I guarantee you shall! You shall not go to the Company's aid +until you have satisfactory guarantees that your homes and friends will +not be assailed behind your backs." + +"Guarantees to whose satisfaction, sahib?" + +"Yours!" + +"But with whom am I dealing?" Alwa seemed actually staggered. "Who makes +these promises? The Company?" + +"I give you my solemn word of honor on it!" + +"It is at least a man who speaks!" swore Alwa. + +"It is the son of Cunnigan-bahadur!" growled Mahommed Gunga, standing +chin erect. He seemed in no doubt now of the outcome. He was merely +waiting for it with soldierly and ill-concealed impatience. + +"But, sahib--" + +"Alwa-sahib, we have no time for argument. It is yes or no. I must send +an answer back by that Sikh. He must--he shall take my answer! Either +you are loyal to our cause or you are not. Are you?" + +"By the breath of God, sahib, I am thinking you leave me little choice!" + +"I still await an answer. I am calling on you for as many men as you can +raise, and I have made you specific promises. Choose, Alwa-sahib. Yes or +no?" + +"The answer is yes--but--" + +"Then I understand that you undertake to obey my orders without +question until such time as a senior to me can be found to take over the +command." + +"That is contingent on the agreement," hesitated Alwa. + +"I would like your word of honor, Alwa-sahib." + +"I pledge that not lightly, sahib." + +"For that very good reason I am asking for it. I shall know how far to +trust when I have your word of honor!" + +"I knew thy father! Thou art his son! I trusted him for good reason +and with good result. I will trust thee also. My word is given, on thy +conditions, sahib. First, the guarantees before we ride to the British +aid!" + +And you obey my orders? + +"Yes. My word is given, sahib. The oath of a Rajput, of a Rangar, of a +soldier, of a zemindar of the House of Kachwaha; the oath of a man to +a man, sahib; the promise of thy father's friend to thy father's son! +Bahadur"--he drew himself to his full height, and clicked his spurs +together--"I am thy servant!" + +Cunningham saluted. All three men looked in each other's eyes and a bond +was sealed between them that nothing less than death could sever. + +"Thank you," said Cunningham quite quietly. "And now, Alwa-sahib"--(he +could strike while the iron glowed, could this son of Cunnigan!)--"for +the plan. There is little time. Jaimihr must escape tonight!" + +"Sahib, did I understand aright?" + +Alwa's jaw had actually dropped. He looked as though he had been struck. +Mahommed Gunga slammed his sabre ferule on the stone floor. He too, was +hard put to it to believe his ears. + +"Jaimihr is the key to the position. He is nothing but a nuisance where +he is. Outside he can be made to help us." + +"Am I dreaming, or art thou, sahib?" Alwa stood with fists clinched on +his hips and his legs apart--incredulous. "Jaimihr to go free? Why that +Hindoo pig is the source of all the trouble in the district!" + +"We are neither of us dreaming, Alwa-sahib. Jaimihr is the dreamer. Let +him dream in Howrah City for a day or two, while we get ready. Let him +lead his men away and leave the road clear for us to pass in and out." + +"But--" + +"Oh, I know. He is your prisoner, and your honor is involved, and all +that kind of thing. I'm offering you, to set off against that, a much +greater honor than you ever experienced in your whole life yet, and I've +put my order in the shape of a request for the sake of courtesy. I ask +you again to let me arrange for Jaimihr to escape." + +"I was mad. But it seems that I have passed my word!" swore Alwa. + +"I give you your word back again, then." + +"Bismillah! I refuse it!" + +"Then I do with Jaimihr as I like?" + +"I gave my word, sahib." + +"Thanks. You'll be glad before we've finished. Now I've left the raising +of as many men as can be raised to you, Alwa-sahib. You will remember +that you gave your promise on that count, too." + +"I will keep that promise, too, sahib." + +"Good. You shall have a road clear by tonight." + +He stepped back a pace, awaited their salute with the calm, assured +authority of a general of division, returned it, and left the two +Rajputs looking in each other's eyes. + +"What is this, cousin, that thou hast brought me to?" demanded Alwa. + +Mahommed Gunga laughed and shook his sabre, letting it rattle in its +scabbard. + +"This? This is the edge of the war that I promised thee a year ago! +This is the service of which I spoke! This is the beginning of the +blood-spilling! I have brought thee the leader of whom we spoke in +Howrah City. Dost remember, cousin? I recall thy words!" + +"Ay, I recall them. I said then that I would follow a second Cunnigan, +could such be found." + +"And this is he!" vowed Mahommed Gunga. + +"Ho! But we Rangars have a leader! A man of men!" + +"But this plan of his? This loosing of the trapped wolf--what of that?" + +"I neither know nor care, as yet! I trust him! I am his man, as I was +his father's! I have seen him; I have heard him; I have felt his pulse +in the welter of the wrath of God. I know him. Whatever plans he makes, +whatever way he leads, those are my plans, my road! I serve the son of +Cunnigan!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + + + Did he swear with his leg in a spring-steel trap + And a tongue dry-cracked from thirst? + Or down on his knees at his lady's lap + With the lady's lips to his own, mayhap, + And his head and his heart aburst? + Nay! I have listened to vows enough + And never the oath could bind + Save that, that a free man chose to take + For his own good reputation's sake! + They're qualified--they're tricks--they break-- + They're words, the other kind! + + +MAHOMMED GUNGA had long ago determined to "go it blind" on Cunningham. +He had known him longest and had the greatest right. Rosemary McClean, +who knew him almost least of all, so far as length of time was +concerned, was ready now to trust him as far as the Risaldar dared go; +her limit was as long and as devil-daring as Mahommed Gunga's. Whatever +Scots reserve and caution may have acted as a brake on Duncan McClean's +enthusiasm were offset by the fact that his word was given; so far as +he was concerned, he was now as much and as obedient a servant of the +Company as either of the others. Nor was his attitude astonishing. + +Alwa's was the point of view that was amazing, unexpected, brilliant, +soldierly, unselfish--all the things, in fact, that no one had the least +right to expect it to turn out to be. Two or three thousand men looked +to him as their hereditary chieftain who alone could help them hold +their chins high amid an overwhelming Hindoo population; his position +was delicate, and he might have been excused for much hesitation, +and even for a point-blank refusal to do what he might have preferred +personally. He and his stood to lose all that they owned--their +honor--and the honor of their wives and families, should they fight on +the wrong side. Even as a soldier who had passed his word, he might have +been excused for a lot of wordy questioning of orders, for he had enough +at stake to make anybody cautious. + +Yet, having said his say and sworn a dozen God-invoking Rangar oaths +before he pledged his word, and then having pledged it, he threw Rajput +tradition and the odds against him into one bottomless discard and +proceeded to show Cunningham exactly what his fealty meant. + +"By the boots and beard of Allah's Prophet!" he swore, growing +freer-tongued now that his liberty of action had been limited. "Here we +stand and talk like two old hags, Mahommed Gunga! My word is given. Let +us find out now what this fledgling general of thine would have us do. +If he is to release my prisoner, at least I would like to get amusement +out of it!" + +So he and Mahommed Gunga swaggered across the courtyard to where +Cunningham had joined the McCleans again. + +"We come with aid and not objections, sahib," he assured him. "If we +listen, it may save explanations afterward." + +So at a sign from Cunningham they enlarged the circle, and the East +and West--bearded and clean-shaven, priest and soldiers, Christian and +Mohammedan--stood in a ring, while almost the youngest of them--by far +the youngest man of them--laid down the law for all. His eyes were all +for Rosemary McClean, but his gestures included all of them, and they +all answered him with nods or grunts as each saw fit. + +"Send for the Sikh!" commanded Cunningham. + +Five minutes later, with a lump of native bread still in his fist, +Jaidev Singh walked up and saluted. + +"Where is Byng-bahadur now?" asked Cunningham. + +"At Deeseera, sahib--not shut in altogether, but hard pressed. There +came cholera, and Byng-bahadur camped outside the town. He has been +striking, sahib, striking hard with all too few to help him. His +irregulars, sahib, were disbanded at some one's orders just before this +outbreak, but some of them came back at word from him. And there were +some of us Sikhs who knew him, and who would rather serve him and die +than fight against him and live. He has now two British regiments with +him, sadly thinned--some of my people, some Goorkhas, some men from the +North--not very many more than two thousand men all told, having lost +heavily in action and by disease. But word is going round from mouth to +mouth that many sahibs have been superseded, and that only real sahibs +such as Byng-bahadur have commands in this hour. Byng-bahadur is a man +of men. We who are with him begin to have courage in our bones again. +Is the answer ready? Yet a little while? It is well, sahib, I will rest. +Salaam!" + +"You see," said Cunningham, "the situation's desperate. We've got to +act. Alwa here stands pledged to protect Howrah and you have promised to +aid Jaimihr. Somebody's word has got to break, and you may take it from +me that it will be the word of the weakest man! I think that that man +is Jaimihr, but I can't be sure in advance, and we've got to accept his +promise to begin with. Go to him, Miss McClean, and make a very careful +bargain with him along the line I mapped out for you. Alwa-sahib, I want +witnesses, or rather overhearers. I want you and Mahommed Gunga to place +yourselves near Jaimihr's cell so that you can hear what he says. There +won't be any doubt then about who has broken promises. Are you ready, +Miss McClean?" + +She was trembling, but from excitement and not fear. Both Rajputs +saluted her as she started back for the cell, and whatever their +Mohammedan ideas on women may have been, they chose to honor this one, +who was so evidently one of them in the hour of danger. Duncan McClean +seemed to be praying softly, for his lips moved. + +When the cell-door creaked open, Alwa and Mahommed Gunga were crouched +one on either side, listening with the ears of soldiers that do not let +many sounds or words escape them. + +"Jaimihr-sahib!" she whispered. "Jaimihr-sahib!" + +"Ha! Sahiba!" Then he called her by half a dozen names that made the +listening Rangars grin into their beards. + +"Jaimihr-sahib"--she raised her voice a little now--"if I help you to +escape, will you promise me my safety under all conditions?" + +"Surely, sahiba!" + +"Do you swear to protect every living person on this hill, including the +Alwa-sahib and Cunningham-sahib?" + +"Surely, sahiba." + +"You swear it?" + +"I swear it on my honor. There is no more sacred oath." + +"Then, listen. I can help you to escape now. I have a rope that is +long enough to lower you over the parapet. I am prepared to risk the +consequences, but I want to bargain with you for aid for my Countrymen." + +Jaimihr did not answer. + +"The Alwa-sahib and his Rangars stand pledged to help your brother!" + +"I guessed at least that much," laughed Jaimihr. + +"They would not help you against him under any circumstances. But they +want to ride to the Company's aid, and they might be prepared to protect +you against him. They might guarantee the safety of your palace and your +men's homes. They might exact a guarantee from Howrah." + +Jaimihr laughed aloud, careless of the risk of being overheard, and +Rosemary knew that Cunningham's little plan was useless even before +it had been quite expounded. She felt herself trembling for the +consequences. + +"Sahiba, there is only one condition that would make me ride to the +British aid with all my men." + +"Name it!" + +"Thou art it!" + +"I don't understand you, Jaimihr-sahib," she whispered, understanding +all too well. + +"Follow me. Come to me in Howrah. Then whatever these fool Rangars +choose to do, I swear by Siva and the Rites of Siva that I will hurry to +the Company's aid!" + +Rosemary McClean shuddered, and he knew it. But that fact rather added +to his pleasure. The wolf prefers a cowering, frightened prey even +though he dare fight on occasion. She was thinking against time. Through +that one small, overburdened head, besides a splitting headache, there +was flashing the ghastly thought of what was happening to her countrymen +and women--of what would happen unless she hurried to do something for +their aid. All the burden of all warring India seemed to be resting on +her shoulders, in a stifling cell; and Jaimihr seemed to be the only +help in sight. + +"How many men could you summon to the Company's aid?" she asked him. + +He laughed. "Ten thousand!" he boasted. + +"Armed and drilled men--soldiers fit to fight?" + +"Surely." + +"I think that is a lie, Jaimihr-sahib. There is not time enough to waste +on lies. Tell me the exact truth, please." + +He contrived to save his face, or, rather, he contrived to make himself +believe he did. + +"I would need some to guard my rear," he answered. "I could lead five +thousand to the British aid." + +"Is that the truth?" + +"On my honor, sahiba." + +"And you wish to marry me?" + +"Sahiba--I--I have no other wish!" + +"I agree to marry you provided you will lead five thousand men to the +Company's aid, but not until you have done so." + +"You will come to Howrah?" + +She could feel his excitement. The cell walls seemed to throb. + +"Yes; but I shall come accompanied by my father, and Mr. Cunningham, and +all the Rangars he can raise. And I shall hold you to your bargain. You +must help the Company first. FIRST--d'you understand?" + +"I understand." + +It was Jaimihr's turn now to lay the law down. She had let him see her +eagerness to gain his aid for the Company, and he saw the weakness of +her case in an instant. He knew very well, too, that no woman of her +breed would have thought of consenting to marry him unless her hand was +forced. He decided immediately to force it further. + +"I understand, sahiba. I, too, will hold thee to thy promise! Thou wilt +come with an escort, as befits a prince's wife! But how should I know +that the Rangars would prove friends of mine? How should I know that it +is not all a trap?" + +"You will have my promise to depend on." + +"Truly! And there will be how many hundred men to override the promise +of one woman? Nay! My word is good; my promise holds; but on my own +conditions! Help me to escape. Then follow me to Howrah City. Come in +advance of thy Rangar escort. By that I will know that the Rangars and +this Cunningham are my friends--otherwise they would not let thee come. +The Rangars are to exact guarantees from my brother? How should I know +that they do not come to help my brother crush me out of existence? With +thee in my camp as hostage I would risk agreement with them, but not +otherwise. Escape with me now, or follow. But bring no Rangars, sahiba! +Come alone!" + +"I will not. I would not dare trust you." + +Jaimihr laughed. "I have been reckoning, sahiba, how many hours will +pass before my army comes to rip this nest of Alwa's from its roots, and +defile the whole of it! If I am to spare the people on this rock, then I +must hurry! Should my men come here to carry me away, they will be +less merciful than I! Choose, sahiba! Let me go, and I will spare these +Rangars until such time as they earn punishment anew. Or let me go, and +follow me. Then fight with the Rangars and for the Company, with thee as +the price of my alliance. Or leave me in this cell until my men come to +rescue me. The last would be the simplest way! Or it would be enough +to help me escape and wait until I have done my share at conquering the +British. Then I could come and claim thee! Choose, sahiba; there are +many ways, though they all end in one goal." + +"If I am the price of your allegiance," said Rosemary, "then I will pay +the price. Five thousand men for the British cause are dearer to me than +my own happiness. I promise, Jaimihr-sahib, that I will come to you in +Howrah. I shall come accompanied by one servant, named Joanna, and--I +think--by my father; and the Rangars and Mr. Cunningham shall be at +least a day's ride behind me. I give my word on that. But--I can promise +you, on Mr. Cunningham's behalf, and on the Alwa-sahib's, and +Mahommed Gunga's, that should you have made any attempt against my +liberty--should you have offered me any insult or indignity--before +they come--should you have tried to anticipate the terms of your +agreement--then--then--there would be an end of bargaining and +promises, Jaimihr-sahib, and your life would be surely forfeit! Do you +understand?" + +"Surely, sahiba!" + +"Do you agree?" + +"I already have agreed. They are my terms. I named them!" + +"I would like to hear you promise, on your honor." + +"I swear by all my gods and by my honor. I swear by my love, that is +dearer to me than a throne, and by the name and the honor of a Rajput!" + +"Be ready, then. I am going now to hide the rope in the shadow of the +wall. It will take perhaps fifteen minutes. Be ready." + +He made a quick movement to embrace her, but she slipped out and escaped +him; and he thought better of his sudden plan to follow her, remembering +that her word was likely to be good, whatever his might be. He elected +to wait inside until she returned for him. He little knew that he +missed the downward swing of Alwa's sabre, that was waiting, poised and +balanced for him, in the darkness by the door. + +"Bismillah! I would have had a right to kill him had he followed her +and broken faith so early in the business!" Alwa swore, excusing his +impatience to Mahommed Gunga. "Have no fear, sahib!" he counselled +Cunningham a moment later, laying a heavy hand on the boy's arm. "Let +her keep her promises. That Hindoo pig will not keep his! We will +be after her, and surely--surely we will find good cause for some +throat-slitting as well as the cancelling of marriage promises!" + +"Do you understand, Alwa-sahib, that--if Jaimihr keeps his promise to +her, she must keep hers to him? Do you realize that?" + +"Allah! Listen to him! Yes, sahib. Truly, bahadur, I appreciate! I also +know that I have given certain promises which I, too, must fulfil! She +is not the only bargainer! I am worrying more about those guarantees +that Howrah was to give--I am anxious to see how, with fifteen hundred, +we are to get the better of a Rajah and his brother and their total of +ten thousand! I want to see those promises performed! Ay! The Miss-sahib +has done well. She has done her share. Let her continue. And do thou thy +share, bahadur! I am at thy back with my men, but give us action!" + +Cunningham held up a lantern, and looked straight at Duncan McClean. +The missionary had held his daughter's hand while she recounted what had +happened in the cell. Whatever he may have thought, he had uttered no +word of remonstrance. + +"Of course, we go to Howrah ahead of you," he answered to Cunningham's +unspoken question. + +Cunningham held out his right hand, and the missionary shook it. + +"Hold the lamp, please," said Cunningham, and Mahommed Gunga seized it. +Then Cunningham took paper and a pencil and read aloud the answer that +he wrote to Byng-bahadur. He wrote it in Greek characters for fear lest +it might fall into the enemy's hands and be too well understood. + + +"I can be with you in one week, sir, and perhaps sooner. Unless we are +all killed in the meantime we should number more than fifteen hundred +when we come. Expect either all or none of us. The situation here is +critical, but our course seems clear, and we ought to pull through. +Mahommed Gunga sends salaams. Your obedient servant, + + "RALPH CUNNINGHAM." + +"Would God I could see the clear course!" laughed Alwa. + +"Call the Sikh, please." + +The Sikh came running, and Cunningham gave him the folded note. + +"Have you a horse for him, Alwa-sahib?" + +"That has been attended to, sahib," the Sikh answered. "The Alwa-sahib +has given me a wonder of a horse." + +"Very well, then, Jaidev Singh. Watch your chance. Go to the parapet, +and when you see by their lanterns that the cavalry below have ridden +off, then race for all you're worth with that news for Byng-bahadur!" + +"Salaam, sahib!" said the Sikh. + +"Salaam, Jaidev Singh. And now hide, every-body! Don't let Jaimihr get +the impression that we're playing with him." + +A little later Miss McClean led Jaimihr through a passage in the rock, +off which axe-hewn cells led on either side, to the far side of the +summit, where the parapet was higher but the wall was very much less +sheer. The Prince's arms were still too sore from the wrenching he +received when they took him prisoner for him to dare trust himself hand +over hand on a rope; she had to make the rope fast beneath his armpits, +and then lower him slowly, taking two turns with the rope round the +waist of a brass cannon. The Prince fended himself off the ragged wall +with hands and feet, and called up instructions to her as loudly as he +dared. + +It was a tremendous drop. For the last fifty or more feet the wall rose +straight, overhung by a ridge that rasped the rope. And the rope proved +fifteen feet or more too short. Rosemary paid out as much of it as she +dared, and then made the end fast round the cannon, leaning over to see +whether Jaimihr would have sense enough or skill enough to cut himself +free and fall. But he hung where he was and spun, and it was five +minutes before Rosemary remembered that his weapons had all been taken +from him! It was scarcely likely that he could bite the thick rope +through with his teeth! + +She stood then for two or three more minutes wondering what to do, +for she had no knife of her own, and she had made the rope +fast--woman-wise--with a true landlubber's knot that tightened from the +strain until her struggling fingers could not make the least impression +on it. But Alwa walked up openly--drew his heavy sabre--and saved the +situation for her. + +"That may help to jog his recollection of the bargain!" he laughed, +severing the rope with a swinging cut and peering over to see, if he +could, how Jaimihr landed. By a miracle the Prince landed on his feet. +He sat down for a moment to recover from the shock, and then walked off +awkwardly to where his cavalry were sleeping by their horses. + +He had some trouble in persuading the outposts who he really was, and +there was an argument that could be quite distinctly heard from the +summit of the rock, and made Alwa roar with laughter before, finally, +the whole contingent formed and wheeled and moved away, ambling toward +Howrah City at a pace that betokened no unwillingness. + +Five minutes later the Sikh's horse thundered out across the plain from +under Alwa's iron gate, and the news, such as it was, was on its way to +Byng-bahadur. + +"A clear road at the price of a horse-hide rope!" laughed Alwa. "Now for +some real man's work!" + +Rosemary stole off to argue with her father and her conscience, but Alwa +went to his troopers' quarters and told off ten good men for the task +of manning the fortress in his absence. They were ten unwilling men; it +needed all his gruff authority, and now and then a threat, to make them +stay behind. + +"I must leave ten men behind," he insisted. "It takes four men, even at +a pinch, to lift the gate. And who shall guard my women? Nay, I should +leave twenty, and I must leave ten. Therefore I leave the ten best men I +have, and they who stay behind may know by that that I consider them the +best!" + +The remainder of his troopers he sent out one by one in different +directions, with orders to rally every Rangar they could find, and at +a certain point he named. Then he and Mahommed Gunga said good-by to +Cunningham and took a trail that led in the direction where +most of the doubtfuls lived--the men who might need personal +convincing--rousing--awakening from lethargy. + +"You think I ought to stay behind?" asked Cunningham, who had already +made his mind up but chose to consult Alwa. + +"Surely, sahib. If for no other reason, then to make sure that that +priest of thine and his daughter make tracks for Howrah City! While he +is here he is a priest, and we Rangars have our own ideas on what they +are good for! When he is there he will be a man maneuvering to save his +own life and his daughter's reputation! See that he starts, sahib!" + +He rode off then. But before Mahommed Gunga saw fit to follow him he +legged his charger close to Cunningham for a final word or two. + +"Have no fear now, bahadur--no anxiety! Three days hence there will be +a finer regiment to lead than ever thundered in thy father's wake--a +regiment of men, sahib, for a man to lead and love!--a regiment that +will trust thee, sahib! See thou to the guarantees! Rung Ho, bahadur!" + +"Rung Ho! See you again, Mahommed Gunga!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + + + Sabres and spurs and jingling bits-- + (Ho! But the food to feed them!) + Sinews and eyes and ears and wits-- + (Hey! But the troopers need them!) + Sahib, mount! Thy chargers fling + Foam to the night--thy trumpets sing-- + Thy lance-butts on the stirrups ring-- + Mount, sahib! Blood them! Lead them! + + +IT was arranged that the McCleans, with old Joanna, should start at dawn +for Howrah City, and they were, both of them, too overcome with mingled +dread and excitement to even try to sleep. Joanna, very much as usual, +snoozed comfortably, curled in a blanket in a corner. + +They would run about a hundred different risks, not least of which was +the chance of falling in with a party of Howrah's men. In fact, if they +should encounter anybody before bringing up at Jaimihr's palace it was +likely that the whole plan would fizzle into nothing. + +Cunningham, after fossicking for a long time in Aliva's armory--that +contained, besides weapons of the date, a motley assortment of the +tools of war that would have done great credit to a museum of +antiquities--produced two pistols. He handed, one to the missionary and +one to Miss McClean, advising her to hide hers underneath her clothing. +"You know what they're for?" he asked. "No. You'd gain nothing by +putting up a fight. They're loaded. All you've got to do is jerk the +hammer back and pull the trigger, and the best way not to miss is to +hold the muzzle underneath your chin--this way--keeping the butt well +out from you. You make sure when you do that. The only satisfaction +you'll have, if it comes to suicide as a last resource, will be that +you've tried to do your duty and the knowledge that you'll be avenged. I +promise that. But I don't think you'll have any need to do it--if I did +think it I'd have thought twice before sending you." + +"How does such a very young man as you come to have all this +responsibility?" asked Rosemary, taking the pistol without a shudder. +She laughed then as she noticed Cunningham's discomfort and recognized +the decency that hates to talk about itself. + +"I suppose I know my own mind," he answered. "These other awfully decent +fellows don't, that's all--if you except Mahommed Gunga. That chap's +a wonder. 'Pon my soul, it seems he knew this was coming and picked +me from the start to take charge over here. Seems, owing to my +dad's reputation, these Rangars think me a sort of reincarnation of +efficiency. I've got to try and live up to it, you know--same old game +of reaping what you didn't sow and hoping it'll all be over before you +wake up! Won't you try and get some sleep before morning? No? Come and +sit over by the parapet with me, then." + +He carried chairs for both of them to a point whence he could sit and +watch the track that led to Howrah and so help out the very meagre +garrison. There, until the waning moon dipped down below the sky-line, +they talked together--first about the task ahead of each of them; then +about the sudden ghastliness of the rebellion, whose extent not one of +them could really grasp as yet; last, and much longest, as familiarity +gradually grew between them, of youthful reminiscences and home--of Eton +and the Isle of Skye. + +In the darkness and the comparative coolness that came between the +setting of the moon and dawn Rosemary fell asleep, her head pillowed in +her father's lap. For a while, then, seeing her only dimly through the +night, but conscious, as he could not help being, of her youth and +charm and of the act of self-sacrifice that she had undertaken without +remonstrance, he felt ashamed. He began to wonder whether there might +not have been some other way--whether he had any right, even for his +country's sake, to send a girl on such a mission. Misgiving began to sap +his optimism, and there was no Mahommed Gunga to stir the soldier in him +and encourage iron-willed pursuance of the game. He began to doubt; and +doubt bred silence. + +He was wakened from a revery by Duncan McClean, who raised his daughter +tenderly and got up on his feet. + +"The dawn will be here soon, Mr. Cunningham. We had better get ready. +Well--in case we never meet again--I'm glad I met you." + +"Better start before the sun gets up," he answered, gripping the +missionary's hand. He was a soldier again. He had had the answer to +his thoughts! If the man who was to sacrifice his daughter--or risk +her sacrifice--was pleased to have met him, there was not much sense in +harboring self-criticism! He shook it off, and squared his shoulders, +beginning again to think of all that lay ahead. + +"Trust to the old woman to guide you and show you a place to rest at, +if you must rest. You ought to reach Howrah at dusk tomorrow, for you'll +find it quite impossible to travel fast--you're both of you too stiff, +for one thing. Lie up somewhere--Joanna will know of a place--until the +old woman has taken in a message to Jaimihr, and wait until he sends +you some men to escort you through the outskirts of the city. I've got +disguises ready for you--a pugree for you, Mr. McClean, and a purdah for +your daughter--you'll travel as a Hindoo merchant and his wife. If you +get stopped, say very little, but show this." + +He produced the letter written once by Maharajah Howrah to the +Alwa-sahib and sent by galloper with the present of a horse. It was +signed, and at the bottom of it was the huge red royal seal. "Now go and +put the disguise on, while I see to the horses; I'm going to pick out +quiet ones, if possible, though I warn you they're rare in these parts." + +Some twenty minutes later he led their horses for them gingerly down the +slippery rock gorge, and waited at the bottom while six men wound the +gate up slowly. Rosemary McClean was quite unrecognizable, draped from +head to foot in a travelling veil that might have been Mohammedan or +Hindoo, and gave no outward sign as to her caste, or rank. McClean, in +the full attire of a fairly prosperous Hindoo, but with no other mark +about him to betoken that he might be worth robbing, rode in front of +her, high-perched on a native saddle. In front, on a desert pony, rode +Joanna, garbed as a man. + +"She ought to be travelling in a carriage of some kind," admitted +Cunningham, "but we haven't got a single wheeled thing here. If any one +asks pertinent questions on the road, you'd better say that she had an +ekka, but that some Rangars took it from you. D'you think you know the +language well enough to pass muster?" + +"It's a little late to ask me that!" laughed McClean. "Yes--I'm positive +I do. Good-by." + +They shook hands again and the three rode off, cantering presently, to +make the most of the coolness before the sun got up. Cunningham climbed +slowly up the hill and then watched them from the parapet--wondering, +wondering again--whether he was justified. As he put it to himself, it +was "the hell of a position for a man to find himself in!" He caught +himself wondering whether his thoughts would have been the same, and +whether his conscience would have racked him quite as much, had Rosemary +McClean been older, and less lovely, and a little more sour-tongued. + +He had to laugh presently at the absurdity of that notion, for Jaimihr +would never have bargained for possession of a sour-faced, elderly +woman. He came to the conclusion that the only thing he could do was +to congratulate the Raj because, at the right minute, the right +good-looking woman had been on the spot! But he did not like the +circumstances any better; and before two hours had passed the loneliness +began to eat into his soul. + +Like any other man whose race and breed and training make him +self-dependent, he could be alone for weeks on end and scarcely be aware +that he had nobody to talk to. But his training had never yet included +sending women off on dangerous missions any more than it had taught him +to resist woman's attraction--the charm of a woman's voice, the lure +of a woman's eyes. He did not know what was the matter with him, but +supposed that his liver must be out of order or else that the sun had +touched him. + +Taking a chance on the liver diagnosis, he had out the attenuated +garrison, and drilled it, both mounted and dismounted, first on the +hilltop--where they made the walls re-echo to the clang of grounded +butts--and then on the plain below, with the gate wide open in their +rear and one man watching from the height above. When he had tired +them thoroughly, and himself as well, he set two men on the lookout +and retired to sleep; nor did the droning and the wailing music of some +women in the harem trouble him. + +They called him regularly when the guard was changed, but he slept the +greater part of that day and stood watch all night. The next day, and +the third day, he drilled the garrison again, growing horribly impatient +and hourly more worried as to what Byng-bahadur might be doing, and +thinking of him. + +It was evening of the fourth day when a Rangar woke him, squeezing at +his foot and standing silent by the cot. + +"Huzoor--Mahommed Gunga comes!" + +"Thank God!" + +He ran to the parapet and watched in the fading light a little dust +cloud that followed no visible track but headed straight toward them +over desert. + +"How d'you know that's Mahommed Gunga?" he demanded. + +"Who else, huzoor? Who else would ride from that direction all alone and +straight for this nest of wasps? Who else but Alwa or Mahommed Gunga? +Alwa said he would not come, but would wait yonder." + +"It might be one of Alwa's men." + +"We have many good men, sahib--and many good horses--but no man or horse +who could come at that pace after traversing those leagues of desert! +That is Mahommed Gunga, unless a new fire-eater has been found. And what +new man would know the way?" + +Soon--staccato, like a drum-beat in the silence--came the welcome, +thrilling cadence of the horse's hoofs--the steady thunder of a +horse hard-ridden but not foundered. The sun went down and blackness +supervened, but the sound increased, as one lone rider raced with the +evening wind, head on. + +It seemed like an hour before the lookout challenged from the crag that +overhung the gate--before the would-be English words rang out; and all +Asia and its jackals seemed to wait in silence for the answer. + +"Howt-uh! Hukkums-thar!" + +"Ma--hommed--Gunga--hai!" + +"Hurrah!" + +The cheer broke bonds from the depth of Cunningham's being, and Mahommed +Gunga heard it on the plain below. There was a rush to man the wheels +and sweat the gate up, and Cunningham started to run down the zigzag +pathway. He thought better of it, though, and waited where the path gave +out onto the courtyard, giving the signal with the cords for the gate to +lower away again. + +"Evening, Mahommed Gunga!" he said, almost casually, as the weary +charger's nose appeared above the rise. + +"Salaam, bahadur!" + +He dismounted and saluted and then leaned against his horse. + +"I wonder, sahib, whether the horse or I be weariest! Of your favor, +water, sahib!" + +Cunningham brought him water in a dipper, and the Rajput washed his +horse's mouth out, then held out the dipper again to Cunningham for +fresh charge for himself. + +"I would not ask the service, sahib, but for the moment my head reels. I +must rest before I ride again." + +"Is all well, Mahommed Gunga?" + +"Ay, sahib! More than well!" + +"The men are ready?" + +"Horsed, armed, and waiting, they keep coming--there were many when I +left--there will be three squadrons worthy of the name by the time we +get there! Is all well at your end, sahib?" + +"Yes, all's well." + +"Did the padre people go to Howrah?" + +"They started and they have not returned." + +"Then, Allah be praised! Inshallah, I will grip that spectacled old +woman of a priest by the hand before I die. He has a spark of manhood in +him! Send me this good horse to the stables, sahib; I am overweary. Have +him watered when the heat has left him, and then fed. Let them blanket +him lightly. And, sahib, have his legs rubbed--that horse ever loved to +have his legs rubbed. Allah! I must sleep four hours before I ride! And +the Miss-sahib--went she bravely?" + +"Went as a woman of her race ought to go, Mahommed Gunga." + +"Ha! She met a man first of her own race, and he made her go! Would she +have gone if a coward asked her, think you? Sahib--women are good--at +the other end of things! We will ride and fetch her. Ha! I saw! My eyes +are old, but they bear witness yet!--Now, food, sahib--for the love of +Allah, food, before my belt-plate and my backbone touch!" + +"I wonder what the damned old infidel is dreaming of!" swore Cunningham, +as Mahommed Gunga staggered to the chamber in the rock where a +serving-man was already heaping victuals for him. + +"Have me called in four hours, sahib! In four hours I will be a man +again!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + + + The freed wolf limped home to his lair, + And lay to lick his sore. + With wrinkled lip and fangs agnash-- + With back-laid ear and eyes aflash-- + "Twas something rather more than rash + To turn me loose!" he swore. + + +NOW Jaimihr fondly thought he held a few cards up his sleeve when he +made his bargain with Rosemary McClean and let himself be lowered from +the Alwa-sahib's rock. He knew, better probably than any one except his +brother and the priests, how desperate the British situation had become +throughout all India at an instant's notice, and he made his terms +accordingly. + +He did not believe, in the first place, that there would be any British +left to succor by the time matters had been settled sufficiently in +Howrah to enable him to dare leave the city at his rear. Afterward, +should it seem wise, he would have no objection in the world to riding +to the aid of a Company that no longer existed. + +In the second place, he entertained no least compunction about breaking +his word completely in every particular. He knew that the members of the +little band on Alwa's rock would keep their individual and collective +word, and therefore that Rosemary McClean would come to him. He +suspected, though, that there would prove to be a rider of some sort to +her agreement as regarded marrying him, for he had young Cunningham in +mind; and he knew enough of Englishmen from hearsay and deduction to +guess that Cunningham would interject any obstacle his ingenuity could +devise. + +Natives of India do not like Englishmen to marry their women. How much +less, then, would a stiff-necked member of a race of conquerors care +to stand by while a woman of his own race became the wife of a native +prince? He did not trust Cunningham, and he recalled that he had had no +promise from that gentleman. + +Therefore, he proposed to forestall Cunningham if possible, and, if +that were inconvenient or rash, he meant to take other means of making +Rosemary McClean his, beyond dispute, in any case. + +Next to Rosemary McClean he coveted most the throne of Howrah. With +regard to that he was shrewd enough not to conceal from himself for a +second the necessity for scotching the priests of Siva before he dare +broach the Howrah treasure, and so make the throne worth his royal +while. Nor did he omit from his calculations the public clamor that +would probably be raised should he deal too roughly with the priests. +And he intended to deal roughly with them. + +So the proposed allegiance of the Rangars suited him in more ways than +one. His army and his brother's were so evenly matched in numbers and +equipment that he had been able to leave Howrah without fear for the +safety of his palace while his back was turned. The eight hundred whom +he had led on the unlucky forray to Alwa's were scarcely missed, and, +even had the Maharajah known that he was absent with them, there were +still too many men behind for him to dare to start reprisals. The +Maharajah was too complete a coward to do anything much until he was +forced into it. + +The Rangars, he resolved, must be made to take the blame for the +broaching of the treasure. He proposed to go about the broaching even +before hostilities between himself and his brother had commenced, and he +expected to be able to trick the Rangars into seeming to be looting. To +appear to defend the treasure would probably not be difficult; and it +would be even less difficult to blame the Rangars afterward for the +death of any priest who might succumb during the ensuing struggle. He +counted on the populace, more than on his own organized forces, to make +the Rangars powerless when the time should come for them to try to +take the upper hand. The mob would suffer in the process, but its +fanaticism--its religious prejudice and numbers--would surely win the +day. + +As for Rosemary McClean, the more he considered her the more his brown +eyes glowed. He had promised to make her Maharanee. But he knew too +thoroughly what that would mean not to entertain more than a passing +doubt as to the wisdom of the course. He was as ready to break his word +on that point as on any other. + +A woman of his own race, however wooed and won, would have been content +to accept the usual status of whisperer from behind the close-meshed +screens. Not so an Englishwoman, with no friends to keep her company +and with nothing in the world to do but think. She, he realized, would +expect to make something definite of her position, and that would suit +neither his creed (which was altogether superficial), nor custom (which +was iron-bound and to be feared), nor prejudice (which was prodigious), +nor yet convenience (which counted most). + +He came to the conclusion that the fate in store for her was not such as +she would have selected had she had her choice. Nor were his conclusions +in regard to her such as would commend him in the eyes of honest men. + +But, after all, the throne was the fulcrum of his plotting; and the +lever had to be the treasure, if his plans were to succeed beyond +upsetting. He changed his plans a dozen times over before he arrived at +last at the audacious decision he was seeking. + +Like many another Hindoo in that hour of England's need, he did not lose +sight altogether of the distant if actual possibility that the Company's +servants might--by dint of luck and grit, and what the insurance papers +term the Act of God--pull through the crisis. Therefore, he decided that +under no circumstances should Rosemary McClean be treated cavalierly +until the Rangars were out of the way and he could pose as her protector +if need be. + +He would be able to prove that Rosemary and her father had come to +him of their own free will. He would say that they had asked him for +protection from the Rangars. He had evidence that his brother Howrah had +been in communication with the Rangars. So, should the Company survive +and retain power enough to force an answer to unpleasant questions, +he thought it would not be difficult to prove that he had been the +Company's friend all along. + +Under all the circumstances he considered it best to be false to +everybody and strike for no hand but his own, and with that reconsidered +end in view he decided on a master-stroke. He sent word to his brother, +the Maharajah, saying that the Rangars had accepted service with the +Company and purposed a raid on Howrah; therefore, he proposed that they +unite against the common enemy and set a trap for the Rangars. + +Howrah sent back to ask what proof he had of the Rangars' taking service +with the British. Jaimihr answered that Cunningham and Mahommed Gunga +were both on Alwa's crag. He also swore that as Alwa's prisoner he had +been able to over-hear the Rangars' plans. + +The Maharajah was bewildered, as Jaimihr had expected that he would +be. And with just as Eastern, just as muddle-headed, just as dishonest +reasoning, he made up his mind to play a double game with everybody, +too. He agreed to join Jaimihr in opposition to the Rangars. He agreed +to send all his forces to meet Jaimihr's and together kill every Rangar +who should show himself inside the city. And he privately made plans to +arrive on the scene too late, and smash Jaimihr's army after it had been +reduced in size and efficiency by its battle with Alwa's men. + +Jaimihr, unknowingly, fitted his plan into his brother's by determining +to get on the scene early enough to have first crack at the treasure. He +meant to get away with that, leave his brother to deal with Alwa's men, +circle round, and then attack his brother from the rear. + +Finally, he made up his mind once and for all that Rosemary McClean must +remain inviolate until he was quite certain that the English had been +driven out of India. He expected that good news within a week. + +He was delighted when Joanna, dressed as a man, turned up at his +palace-gates and cajoled her way in past the guards. To be asked for +an escort to bring the McCleans into Howrah fitted in with his role +of protector as a key might fit a lock. Now they could never +pretend--nobody could ever pretend--that he had seized them. He sent a +carriage out for them, and when they arrived placed a whole wing of his +palace at their disposal, treating them like royalty. He made no attempt +to molest or interfere with either of them, except that he prevented +them from going in and out; and he told off plenty of witnesses who +would be able to swear subsequently that they had seen how well his +guests were treated. He was taking no unnecessary chances at that stage +of the game he played. + +There were others, though, who plotted besides Jaimihr. There were, for +instance, Siva's priests. It is not to be forgotten that in that part +of India the priests had been foremost in fomenting the rebellion. They +urged Howrah constantly to take the field against the British, and it +was only the sure knowledge of his brother's intention to strike for the +throne that prevented the Maharajah from doing what the priests urged. + +He knew that Alwa and the Rangars would not help him unless Jaimihr +first attacked him, for Alwa would be sure to stand on the strict letter +of his oath. And he was afraid of the Rangars. He feared that they might +protect him and depose him afterward. He reasoned that that, too, +might be construed into a strict interpretation of the terms of Alwa's +promise! + +He consented to collect his army. He kept it under arms. He even paid it +something on account of arrears of wages and served out rations. But, +to the disgust of the priests who asked nothing better than dissension +between the brothers, he jumped at the idea of uniting with Jaimihr to +defeat Alwa's men. He knew--just as the priests feared--that once he +could trick and defeat Jaimihr he could treat the troublesome priests as +cavalierly as he chose. + +So the priests made a third knot in the tangle and tried desperately at +the last moment to recreate dissension between the rival royal camps. + +"Jaimihr is getting ready to attack you!" they assured Howrah. "Attack +him first!" + +"I will wait until he does attack," the Maharajah answered. "For the +moment we are friends and have a cause in common." + +"Howrah's men will desert to you the moment you make a move to win the +throne," they assured Jaimihr. + +"Wait!" answered Jaimihr. "Wait but a day or two. I will move fast as I +see fit when I am ready. For the present my cause and my brother's cause +are one." + +Spies brought in news to Maharajah, Prince, and priest of the hurried +raising of a Rangar army. The Maharajah and the Prince laughed up their +sleeves and the priests swore horribly; the interjection of another +element--another creed--into the complication did not suit the priestly +"book." They were the only men who were really worried about Alwa. + +And another spy--Joanna--disappeared. No longer garbed as a man, she had +hung about the palace, and--known to nearly all the sweepers--she had +overheard things. Garbed as a man again, she suddenly evaporated in thin +air, and Rosemary McClean was left without a servant or any means of +communication with the outside world. + + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + + + The ringed wolf glared the circle round + Through baleful, blue-lit eye, + Not unforgetful of his debt. + "Now, heed ye how ye draw the net." + Quoth he: "I'll do some damage yet + Or ere my turn to die!" + + +THE mare that had been a present from Mahommed Gunga was brought out and +saddled, together with a fresh horse for the Risaldar. The veteran had +needed no summoning, for with a soldier's instinct he had wakened at +the moment his self-allotted four hours had expired. He mounted a little +stiffly, and tried his horse's paces up and down the courtyard once or +twice before nodding to Cunningham. + +"All ready, sahib." + +"Ready, Mahommed Gunga." + +But there was one other matter, after all, that needed attention first. + +"That horse of mine that brought me hither"--the Risaldar picked out +the man who waited with the gong cord in his hand--"is left in thy +particular charge. Dost thou hear me? I will tell the Alwa-sahib what I +now tell thee--that horse will be required of thee fit, good-tempered, +light-mouthed, not spur-marked, and thoroughly well groomed. There will +be a reward in the one case, but in the other--I would not stand in thy +shoes! It is a trust!" + +"Come along, Risaldar!" called Cunningham. "We're wasting an awful lot +of time!" + +"Nay, sahib, but a good horse is like a woman, to be loved and treated +faithfully! Neither horse nor woman should be sacrificed for less than +duty! Lead on, bahadur--I will join thee at the gate." + +He had several directions to give for the horse's better care, and +Cunningham was forced to wait at least five minutes for him at the foot +of the steep descent. Then for another minute the two sat their horses +side by side, while the great gate rose slowly, grudgingly, cranked +upward by four men. + +"If we two ever ride under here again, bahadur, we shall ride with honor +thick on us," remarked Mahommed Gunga. "God knows what thy plan may +be; but I know that from now on there will be no peace for either of +us until we have helped rip it with our blades from the very belly of +rebellion. Ride!" + +The gate clanged down behind them as--untouched by heel or +spur--the two spring-limbed chargers raced for their bits +across the sand. They went like shadows, casting other +shadows--moon-made--wind-driven--knee-to-knee. + +"Now, sahib!" + +The Risaldar broke silence after fifteen minutes. Neither he nor +Cunningham were of the type that chatters when the time has come to +loosen sabres and sit tight. + +"In the matter of what lies ahead--as I said, neither I nor any man +knows what this plan of thine may be, but I and the others have accepted +thy bare word. These men who await thee--and they are many, and all +soldiers, good, seasoned horsemen--have been told that the son of +Cunnigan will lead them. Alwa has given his word, and I mine, that in +the matter of a leader there is nothing left to be desired. And my five +men have told them of certain happenings that they have seen. Therefore, +thou art awaited with no little keenness. They will be all eyes and +ears. It might be well, then, to set the pace a little slower, for a man +looks better on a fresh horse than on a weary one!" + +"I'm thinking, Mahommed Gunga, of the two McCleans and of General Byng, +who is expecting us. There is little time to lose." + +"I, too, consider them, sahib. It is we Rangars who must do the sabre +work. ALL, sahib--ALL--depends now on the impression created on the men +awaiting thee! Rein in a little. Thy father's name, thine own, and mine +and Alwa's weigh for much on thy side; but have a sound horse between +thy legs and a trumpet in thy throat when we get there! I have seen more +than one officer have to fight up-hill for the hearts of his troopers +because his tired horse stumbled or looked shabby on the first parade. +Draw rein a little, sahib." + +So Cunningham, still saying nothing, drew back into an easy canter. He +was conscious of something, not at all like a trumpet, in his throat +that was nearly choking him. He did not care to let Mahommed Gunga know +that what was being mistaken for masterly silence was really emotion! He +did not speak because he did not trust his voice. + +"There are three squadrons, sahib--each of about five hundred men. Alwa +has the right wing, I the left. Take thou the centre and command the +whole. The horses are as good as any in this part of India, for each +man has brought his best to do thee honor. Each man carries four days' +rations in his saddle-bag and two days' rations for his horse. More +horse feed is collecting, and they are bringing wagons, to follow when +we give the word. But we thought there would be little sense in ordering +wagons to follow us to Howrah City, knowing that thy plan would surely +entail action. If we are to ride to the aid of Byng-bahadur it seemed +better to pick up the wagons on the journey back again. That is all, +sahib. There will be no time, of course, to waste on talk or drill. Take +charge the moment that we get there--issue thy orders--and trust to the +men understanding each command. Lead off without delay." + +"All right," said Cunningham--two English words that went much further +to allay the Risaldar's anxiety than any amount of rhetoric would have +done. "But--d'you mean to tell me that the men don't understand words of +command?" + +"All of them do, sahib--but to many of them the English words are new. +They all understand formations, and those who know the English words are +teaching the others while they wait for us. There is not one man among +them but has couched a lance or swung a sabre in some force or other?" + +"Good. Have they all got lances?" + +"All the front-rank men are armed with lance and sabre--the rear ranks +have sabres only." + +"Good." + +After two hours of steady cantering the going changed and became a quick +succession of ever-deepening gorges cleft in sandstone. Far away in the +distance to the left there rose a glow that showed where Howrah City +kept uneasy vigil, doubtless with watch-fires at every street corner. It +looked almost as though the distant city were in flames. + +Ahead of them lay the gloom of hell mouth and the silence of the space +beyond the stars. + +It was with that strange, unclassified, unnamed sixth sense that +soldiers, savages, and certain hunters have that Cunningham became aware +of life ahead of him--massed, strong-breathing, ready--waiting life, +spring-bent in the quivering blackness. A little farther, and he caught +the ring of a curb-chain. Then a horse whinnied and a hoarse voice swore +low at a restive charger. His own mare neighed, throwing her head high, +and some one challenged through the dead-black night. + +"How-ut! Hukkums--thar!" + +A horseman appeared suddenly from nowhere, and examined them at close +quarters instead of waiting for their answer. He peered curiously at +Cunningham--glanced at Mahommed Gunga--then wheeled, spinning his horse +as the dust eddies twist in the sudden hot-wind gusts. + +"Sahib-bahadur hai!" he shouted, racing back. + +The night was instantly alive with jingling movement, as line after +line of quite invisible light-horse-men--self-disciplined and eager to +obey--took up their dressing. The overhanging cliff of sandstone hid the +moon, but here and there there was a gleam of eyeballs in the dark--now +man's, now horse's--and a sheen that was the hint of steel held +vertical. No human being could have guessed the length of the gorge +nor the number of the men who waited in it, for the restless chargers +stamped in inch-deep sand that deadened sound without seeming to lessen +its quantity. + +"Salaam, bahadur!" + +It was Alwa, saluting with drawn sabre, reining back a pedigreed mare to +get all the spectacular emotion out of the encounter that he could. + +"Here are fifteen hundred eight and fifty, sahib--all Rangars--true +believers--all true men--all pledged to see thee unsinged through the +flames of hell! Do them the honor of a quick inspection, sahib!" + +"Certainly!" smiled Cunningham. + +"I have told them, sahib, that their homes, their women, their +possessions, and their honor are all guaranteed them. Also pay. They +make no other terms." + +"I guarantee them all of that," said Cunningham, loud enough for at +least the nearest ranks to hear. + +"On thine own honor, sahib?" + +"On my word of honor!" + +"The promise is enough! Will you inspect them, sahib?" + +"I'll take their salute first," said Cunningham. + +"Pardon, bahadur!" + +Alwa filled his lungs and faced the unseen lines. + +"Rangars!" he roared. "Your leader! To Chota-Cunnigan-bahadur--son of +Pukka-Cunnigan whom we all knew--general--salute--present--sabres!" + +There was sudden movement--the ring of whipped-out metal--a bird's +wing-beat--as fifteen hundred hilts rose all together to as many +lips--and a sharp intake of breath all down the line. + +It wasn't bad. Not bad at all, thought Cunningham. It was not done +as regulars would have worked it. There was the little matter of the +lances, that he could make out dimly here and there, and he could detect +even in that gloom that half of the men had been caught wondering how +to salute with lance and sabre both. But that was not their fault; +the effort--the respect behind the effort--the desire to act +altogether--were all there and striving. He drew his own mare back a +little, and returned their salute with full military dignity. + +"Reeeecee--turn--sabres!" ordered Alwa, and that movement was +accomplished better. + +He rode once, slowly, down the long front rank, letting each man look +him over--then back again along the rear rank, risking a kick or two, +for there was little room between them and the cliff. He was not choking +now. The soldier instinct, that is born in a man like statesmanship +or poetry, but that never can be taught, had full command over all his +other senses, and when he spurred out to the front again his voice rang +loud and clear, like a trumpet through the night. + +With fifty ground scouts scattered out ahead of them, they drummed out +of the gorge and thundered by squadrons on the plain beyond--straight, +as the jackal runs, for Howrah City. Alwa, leaving his own squadron, +to canter at Cunningham's side, gave him all the new intelligence that +mattered. + +"Last evening I sent word on ahead to them of our coming, sahib! I sent +one messenger to the Maharajah and one to Jaimihr, warning each that we +ride to keep our plighted word. At the worst, we shall find both parties +ready for us! We shall know before we reach the city who is our friend! +News reached me, too, sahib, that the Maharajah and his brother have +united against us--that Howrah will eat his promises and play me +false. God send he does! I would like to have my hands in that Hindoo's +treasure-chests! We none of us know yet, bahadur, what is this plan of +thine--" + +"You've been guessing awfully close to it, I think" laughed Cunningham. + +"Aha! The treasure-chests, then! But--is there--have you information, +sahib? Who knows, then--who has told where they are? Neither I nor my +men know!" + +"Send for Mahommed Gunga." + +Mahommed Gunga left his squadron, too, to canter beside Alwa. + +"I am all ears, sahib!" he asserted, reining his horse until his stride +was equal to the others. + +"The key to the situation is that treasure," asserted Cunningham. +"Howrah wants it. Jaimihr wants it. The priests want it. I know that +much for certain, from the McCleans. All right. We're a new factor in +the problem, and they all mistrust us nearly as much, if not more, than +they mistrust one another. Good. They'll be all of them watching that +treasure. It'll be near where they are, and I'm going to snaffle it or +break my neck--and all your necks--in the deuced desperate attempt. Is +that clear? Where the carcass is, there wheel the kites and there the +jackals fight, as your proverb says. The easiest part will be finding +the treasure. Then--" + +They legged in closer to him, hanging on his words and too busy +listening to speak. + +"If Howrah thinks we're after the treasure and decides to fight without +previous argument, that absolves you from your promise, doesn't it, +Alwa-sahib?" + +"Surely, sahib, provided our intention is not to evade the promise." + +"Our intention is to prevent Howrah and his brother from fighting, to +insure peace and protection on this whole countryside, and, if possible, +to ride away with Jaimihr's army to the Company's aid." + +"Good, sahib." + +It seemed to occur to none of the three that fifteen hundred mounted men +were somewhat few with which to accomplish such a marvel. + +"If they are fighting already, we must interfere." + +"We are ready, bahadur. Fighting is our trade!" + +"But, before all things, we must keep our eyes well skinned for a +hint of treachery on Jaimihr's part. I would rather quarrel with that +gentleman than be his friend, but he happens to hold our promise. +We've got to keep our promise, provided he keeps his. I think our first +objective is the treasure." + +"That, sahib, is an acrobat of a plan," said Alwa; "much jumping from +one proposition to another!" + +"It is no plan at all," said Cunningham. "It is a mere rehearsal of the +circumstances. A plan is something quickly seized at the right +second and then acted on--like your capture of Jaimihr. Wait awhile, +Alwa-sahib!" + +"Ay, wait awhile!" growled Mahommed Gunga. "Did I bring thee a leader to +ask plans of thee, or a man of men for thee to follow? Which?" + +"All the same," said Alwa, "I would rather halt and make a good plan. It +would be wiser. I do not understand this one." + +"I follow Cunnigan-bahadur!" said Mahommed Gunga; and he spurred off +to his squadron. Alwa could see nothing better than to follow suit, for +Cunningham closed his lips tight in a manner unmistakable. And whatever +Alwa's misgivings might have been, he had the sense and the soldierly +determination not to hint at them to his men. + +As dawn rose pale-yellow in the eastern sky they thundered into view +of Howrah City and drew rein to breathe their horses. The sun was high +before they had trotted near enough to make out details. But, long +before details could be seen, it was evident that an army was formed +up to meet them on the tree-lined maidan that lay between them and the +two-mile-long palace-wall. Beyond all doubt it was Jaimihr's army, for +his elephants were not so gaudily harnessed as Howrah's, and his men +were not so brilliantly dressed. + +As they dipped into the last depression between them and the wall and +halted for a minute's consultation, a khaki-clad, shrivelled figure of +a man leaped up from behind a sand-ridge, and raced toward Cunningham, +shouting to him in a dialect he had no knowledge of and gesticulating +wildly. A trooper spurred down on him, brought him up all standing with +an intercepted lance, examined him through puckered eyes, and then, +roaring with laughter, picked him up and carried him to Cunningham. + +"A woman, sahib! By the beard of Abraham, a woman!" + +"Joanna!" + +"Ha, sahib! Ha, sahib!" + +She babbled to him, word overtaking word and choking all together in +a dust-dry throat. Cunningham gave her water and then set her on the +ground. + +"Translate, somebody!" he ordered. "I can't understand a word she says." + +Babbled and hurried and a little vague it might be, but Joanna had the +news of the minute pat. + +"Jaimihr is looting the treasure now, sahib. He has tricked his brother. +They were to join, and both fight against you, but Jaimihr tried to get +the treasure out before either you or his brother came. He is trying +now, sahib!" + +"Miss McClean! Ask her where Miss McClean is! Ask for Miss Maklin, +sahib!" + +"Jaimihr has told her that thou and Alwa and Mahommed Gunga are all +dead, and the British overwhelmed throughout all India! He has her with +him in a carriage, under guard, for all his men are with him and he +could spare no great guard for his palace. See! Look, sahib! Jaimihr's +palace is in flames!" + +Alwa all but fell from his charger, laughing volcanically. The Rajput, +who never can agree, can always see the humor in other Rajputs' +disagreement. + +"Ho, but they are playing a great game with each other!" he shouted. But +Cunningham decided he had wasted time enough. He shouted his orders, and +in less than thirty seconds his three squadrons were thundering in the +direction of Jaimihr's army and the palace-wall. They drew rein again +within a quarter of a mile of it, to discover with amazed military eyes +that Jaimihr had no artillery. + +It was then, at the moment when they halted, that Jaimihr reached a +quick decision and the wrong one. He knew by now that his brother had +won the first trick in the game of treachery, for he could see the smoke +and flames of his burning palace from where he sat his horse. He +decided at once that Alwa and his Rangars must have taken sides with the +Maharajah, for how, otherwise, he reasoned, could the Maharajah dare +let the Rangars approach unwatched and unmolested. It was evident to him +that the Rangars were acting as part of a concerted movement. + +He made up his mind to attack and beat off the new arrivals without +further ceremony. He out-numbered them by four or five to one, and was +on his own ground. Whatever their intentions, at least he would be +able to pretend afterward that he had acted in defence of the sacred +treasure; and then, with the treasure in his possession, he would soon +be able to recompense himself for a mere burned and looted palace! + +So he opened fire without notice, argument, or parley, and an ill-aimed +volley shrieked over the heads of Cunningham's three squadrons. + +Cunningham, unruffled and undecided still, made out through puckered +eyes the six-horse carriage in which Miss McClean evidently was; it was +drawn up close beside the wall, and two regiments were between it and +his squadron. He was recalling the terms of the agreement made with +Jaimihr; he remembered it included the sparing of all of Alwa's men, and +not the firing on them. + +A thousand of Jaimihr's cavalry swooped from the shelter of the +infantry, opened out a very little, and, mistaking Cunningham's delay +for fear, bore down with a cheer and something very like determination. + +They were met some ten yards their side of the half-way mark by +Cunningham's three squadrons, loosed and led by Cunningham himself. +Outridden, outfought, outgeneralled, they were smashed through, ridden +down, and whirled back reeling in confusion. About a hundred of them +reached the shelter of the infantry in a formed-up body; many of the +rest charged through it in a mob and threw it into confusion. + +Too late Jaimihr decided on more reasonable tactics. Too late he gave +orders to his infantry that no such confused body could obey. Before +he could ride to rally them, the Rangars were in them, at them, through +them, over them. The whole was disintegrating in retreat, endeavoring to +rally and reform in different places, each subdivision shouting orders +to its nearest neighbor and losing heart as its appeals for help were +disregarded. + +Back came Cunningham's close-formed squadrons, straight through the +writhing mass again; and now the whole of Jaimihr's army took to its +heels, just as part of the five-feet-thick stone palace-wall succumbed +to the attacks of crowbars and crashed down in the roadway, disclosing a +dark vault on the other side. + +Jaimihr made a rush for the six-horse carriage, and tried vainly to +get it started. Cunningham shouted to him to surrender, but he took no +notice of the challenge; he escaped being made prisoner by the narrowest +of margins, as the position next him was cut down. The other postilions +were un-horsed, and six Rangars changed mounts and seized the reins. The +Prince ran one man through the middle, and then spurred off to try and +overtake his routed army, some of which showed a disposition to form up +again. + +"Sit quiet!" called Cunningham through the latticed carriage window. +"You're safe!" + +The heavy, swaying carriage rumbled round, and the horses plunged in +answer to the Rangars' heels. A moment later it was moving at a gallop; +two minutes later it was backed against the wall, and Rosemary McClean +stepped out behind three protecting squadrons that had not suffered +perceptibly from what they would have scorned to call a battle. + +"Now all together!" shouted Cunningham, whose theories on the value +of seconds when tackling reforming infantry were worthy of the Duke of +Wellington, or any other officer who knew his business; and again he led +his men at a breakneck charge. This time Jaimihr's disheartened little +army did not wait for him, but broke into wild confusion and scattered +right and left, leaving their elephants to be captured. There were only +a few men killed. The lance-tipped, roaring whirlwind loosed itself +for the most part against nothing, and reformed uninjured to trot back +again. Cunningham told off two troops to pursue fugitives and keep their +eyes open for the Prince before he rode back to examine the breach in +the wall that Jaimihr had been to so much trouble about making. + +He had halted to peer through the break in the age-old masonry when +Mahommed Gunga spurred up close to him, touched his arm, and pointed. + +"Look, sahib! Look!" + +Jaimihr--and no one but a wizard could have told how he had managed to +get to where he was unobserved--was riding as a man rides at a tent-peg, +crouching low, full-pelt for Rosemary McClean! + +Cunningham's spurs went home before the word was out of Mahommed Gunga's +mouth, and Mahommed Gunga raced behind him; but Jaimihr had the start +of them. Duncan McClean, looking ill and weak and helpless, crowded his +daughter to the wall, standing between her and the Prince; but Jaimihr +aimed a swinging sabre at him, and the missionary fell. His daughter +stooped to bend over him, and Jaimihr seized her below the arms. A +second later he had hoisted her to his saddle-bow and was spurring +hell-bent-for-leather for the open country. + +Two things prevented him from making his escape. Five of Alwa's men, +returning from pursuing fugitives, cut off his flight in one direction, +and the extra weight on his horse prevented him from getting clear by +means of speed alone--as he might have done otherwise, for Cunningham's +mare was growing tired. + +Jaimihr rode for two minutes with the frenzy of a savage before he saw +the futility of it. It was Cunningham's mare, gaining on him stride +over stride, that warned him he would be cut down like a dog from behind +unless he surrendered or let go his prize. + +So he laughed and threw the girl to the ground. For a moment more he +spurted, spurring like a fiend, then wheeled and charged at Cunningham. +He guessed that but for Cunningham that number of Rangars would never +have agreed on a given plan. He knew that it was he, and not Cunningham +or Alwa or Rosemary McClean, who had broken faith. He had broken it in +thought, and word, and action. And he had lost his prospect of a throne. +So he came on like a man who has nothing to gain by considering his +safety. He came like a real man at last. And Cunningham, on a tired +mare, met him point to point. + +They fought over a quarter of a mile of ground, for Jaimihr proved to +be as useful with his weapon as Mahommed Gunga's teaching had made +Cunningham. There was plenty of time for the reformed squadrons to see +what was happening--plenty of time for Alwa, who considered that he had +an account of his own to settle with the Prince, to leave his squadron +and come thundering up to help. Mahommed Gunga dodged and reined and +spurred, watching his opportunity on one side and Alwa on the other. It +would have suited neither of them to have their leader killed at that +stage of the game, but the fighting was too quick for either man to +interfere. + +Jaimihr charged Cunningham for the dozenth time and missed, charged +past, to wheel and charge again, then closed with the most vindictive +rush of all. Again Cunningham met him point to point. The two blades +locked, and bent like springs as they wrenched at them. Cunningham's +blade snapped. He snatched at his mare and spun her before Jaimihr could +recover, then rammed both spurs in and bore down on the Prince with half +a sabre. He had him on the near side at a disadvantage. Jaimihr spurred +and tried to maneuver for position, and the half sabre went home just +below his ribs. He dropped bleeding in the dust at the second that Alwa +and Mahommed Gunga each saw an opportunity and rushed in, to rein back +face to face, grinning in each other's faces, their horses' breasts +pressed tight against the charger that Jaimihr rode. The horse screamed +as the shock crushed the wind out of him. + +"You robbed me of my man, sahib, by about a sabre's breadth!" laughed +Alwa. + +"And you left your squadron leaderless without my permission!" answered +Cunningham. "You too! Mahommed Gunga!" + +"But, sahib!" + +"Do you prefer to argue or obey?" + +Mahommed Gunga flushed and rode back. Alwa grinned and started after +him. Cunningham, without another glance at the dead Prince, rode up to +Rosemary McClean, who was picking herself up and looking bewildered; +she had watched the duel in speechless silence, lying full length in the +dust, and she still could not speak when he reached her. + +"Put your foot on mine," he said reassuringly; "then swing yourself up +behind me if you can. If you can't, I'll pick you up in front." + +She tried hard, but she failed; so he put both arms under hers and +lifted her. + +"Am I welcome?" he asked. And she nodded. + +Fresh from killing a man--with a man's blood on his broken sword and the +sweat of fighting not yet dry on him--he held a woman in his arms for +the first time in his life. His hand had been steady when it struck the +blow under Jaimihr's ribs, but now it trembled. His eyes had been stern +and blazing less than two minutes before; now they looked down into +nothing more dangerous than a woman's eyes and grew strangely softer +all at once. His mouth had been a hard, tight line under a scrubby upper +lip, but his lips had parted now a little and his smile was a boy's--not +nervous or mischievous--a happy boy's. + +She smiled, too. Most people did smile when young Cunningham looked +pleased with them; but she smiled differently. And he, with that blood +still wet on him, bent down and kissed her on the lips. Her answer was +as characteristic as his action. + +"You look like a blackguard," she said--"but you came, and I knew you +would! I told Jaimihr you would, and he laughed at me. I told God you +would, and you came! How long is it since you shaved? Your chin is all +prickly!" + +They were interrupted by a roar from the three waiting squadrons. He had +ridden without caring where he went, and his mare had borne the two of +them to where the squadrons were drawn up with their rear to the great +gap in the wall. The situation suited every Rangar of them! That was, +indeed, the way a man should win his woman! They cheered him, and +cheered again, and he grinned back, knowing that their hearts were in +the cheering and their good will won. Red, then, as a boiled beet, he +rode over to the six-horse carriage and dismounted by her father--picked +him up--called two troopers--and lifted him on to the rear seat of the +great old-fashioned coach. + +"Get inside beside him!" he ordered Rosemary, examining the missionary's +head as he spoke. "It's a scalp wound, and he's stunned--no more. He's +left off bleeding already. Nurse him!" He was off, then, without another +word or a backward glance for her--off to his men and the gap in the +wall that waited an investigation. + +The amazing was discovered then. The treasure--the fabled, fabulous, +enormous Howrah treasure was no fable. It was there, behind that wall! +The jewels and the bullion in marketable bars that could have bought +an army or a kingdom--the sacred, secret treasure of twenty troubled +generations, that was guarded in the front by fifty doors and fifty +corridors and three times fifty locks--the door of whose secret vault +was guarded by a cannon, set to explode at the slightest touch--was +hidden from the public road at its other side, its rear, by nothing +better than a five-foot wall of ill-cemented stone! Cunningham stepped +inside over the dismantled masonry and sat down on a chest that held +more money's worth than all the Cunninghams in all the world had ever +owned, or spent, or owed, or used, or dreamed of! + +"Ask Alwa and Mahommed Gunga to come to me here!" he called; and a +minute later they stood at attention in front of him. + +"Send a hundred men, each with a flag of truce on his lance, to gallop +through the city and call on Jaimihr's men to rally to me, if they wish +protection against Howrah!" + +"Good, sahib! Good!" swore Alwa. "Howrah is the next danger! Make ready +to fight Howrah!" + +"Attend to my orders, please!" smiled Cunningham, and Alwa did as he was +told. Within an hour Jaimihr's men were streaming from the four quarters +of the compass, hurrying to be on the winning side, and forming into +companies as they were ordered. + +Then Cunningham gave another order. + +"Alwa-sahib, will you take another flag of truce, please, and ride with +not more than two men to Maharajah Howrah. Tell him that I want him here +at once to settle about this treasure." + +Alwa stared. His mouth opened a little, and he stood like a man bereft +of reason by the unexpected. + +"Are you not still pledged to support Howrah on his throne?" + +"I am, bahadur." + +"Would plundering his treasure be in keeping with your promise to him?" + +"Nay, sahib. But--" + +"Be good enough to take my message to him. Assure him that he may come +with ten men without fear of molestation, but guarantee to him that if +he comes with more than ten--and with however many more--I will fight, +and keep his treasure, both!" + + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + + + Friends I have sought me of varying nations, + Men of all ranks and of different stations; + Some are in jail now, and some are deceased. + Two, though, I found to be experts at sundering + Me from my revenue, leaving me wondering + Which was the costlier--soldier or priest. + + +A LITTLE more than one hour later, Howrah--sulky and disgruntled, but +doing his level best to appear at Ease--faced young Cunningham across +a table in the treasure-vault. Outside was a row of wagons, drawn +by horses and closely guarded by a squadron of the Rangars. Behind +Cunningham stood Alwa and Mahommed Gunga; behind the Maharajah were +two of his court officials. There were pen and ink and the royal seal +between them on the table. + +"So, Maharajah-sahib. They are all scaled, and each chest is marked on +the outside with its contents; I'm sorry there was no time to weigh the +gold, but the number of the ingots ought to be enough. And, of +course, you'll understand it wasn't possible to count all those unset +stones--that 'ud take a week; but your seal is on that big chest, too, +so you'll know if it's been opened. You are certain you can preserve the +peace of your state with the army you have?" + +"Yes," said Howrah curtly. + +"Don't want me to leave a squadron of my men to help you out?" + +"No!" He said that even more abruptly. + +"Good. Of course, since you won't have to spare men to guard the +treasure now, you'll have all the more to keep peace in the district +with, won't you? Let me repeat the terms of our bargain--they're written +here, but let's be sure there is no mistake. I agree to deliver your +treasure into safe keeping until the rebellion is over, and to report to +my government that you are friendly disposed toward us. You, in return, +guarantee to protect the families and property of all these gentlemen +who ride with me. It is mutually agreed that any damage done to their +homes during their absence shall be made good out of your treasure, but +that should you keep your part of the agreement the treasure shall be +handed back to you intact. Is that correct?" + +"Yes," said Howrah shifting in his seat uneasily. + +"Is there anything else?" + +"One other thing. I am outmaneuvered, and I have surrendered with the +best grace possible. That agreement stands in my name, and no other +man's?" + +"Certainly." + +"The priests of Siva are not parties to it?" + +"I've had nothing whatever to do with them," said Cunningham. + +"That is all, then, sahib. I am satisfied." + +"While we're about it, Maharajah-sahib, let's scotch those priests +altogether! McClean-sahib has told me that suttee has been practised +here as a regular thing. That's got to stop, and we may as well stop it +now. Of course, I shall keep my word about the treasure, and you'll get +it back if you live up to the bargain you have made; but my government +will know now where it is, and they'll be likely to impose a quite +considerable fine on you when the rebellion's over unless this suttee's +put an end to. Besides, you couldn't think of a better way of scoring +off the priests than by enforcing the law and abolishing the practice. +Think that over, Maharajah-sahib." + +Howrah swore into his beard, as any ruling potentate might well do at +being dictated to by a boy of twenty-two. + +"I will do my best, sahib," he answered. "I am with the British--not +against them." + +"Good for you!--er, I mean, that's right!" He turned to Alwa, and looked +straight into his eyes. "Are you satisfied with the guarantee?" he +asked. + +"Sahib, I am more than satisfied!" + +"Good! Oh, and--Maharajah-sahib--since we've fought your battle for +you--and lost a few men--and are going to guard your treasure for you, +and be your friends, and all that kind of thing--don't you think you'd +like to do something for us--not much, but just a little thing?" + +"I am in your power. You have but to command." + +"Oh, no. I don't want to force anything. We're friends--talking as +friends. I ask a favor." + +"It is granted, sahib." + +"A horse or two, that's all." + +"How many horses, sahib?" + +"Oh, not more than one each." + +The Maharajah pulled a wry face, but bowed assent. It would empty +his stables very nearly, but he knew when he could not help himself. +Mahommed Gunga clapped a hand to his mouth and left the vault hurriedly. + +"You understand this is not a demand, Maharajah-sahib. I take it that +you offer me these horses as an act of royal courtesy and as additional +proof of friendliness?" + +"Surely, sahib." + +"My men will be very grateful to you. This will enable them to reach +the scene of action with their own horses in good shape. I'm sure it's +awfully good of you to have offered them!" + +Outside, where the late afternoon sun was gradually letting things cool +down, Mahommed Gunga leaned against the wall and roared with laughter, +as he explained a few details to the admiring troopers. + +"A horse or two, says he! How many? Oh, just a horse or two, +Maharajah-sahib--merely a horse apiece! Fifteen hundred horses! A horse +or two! Oh-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ho! Allah! But that boy will make a better +soldier than his father! As a favor, he asked them--no compulsion, +mind you--just as a favor! Allah! What is he asking now, I wonder! +Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ho-ho-ho!" + +And inside, with a perfectly straight face and almost ghastly +generosity, young Cunningham proceeded to impose on Howrah the +transferred, unwelcome, perilous allegiance of Jaimihr's reassembling +army. The mere keeping of it in subjection, it was realized by donor and +recipient alike, would keep the Maharajah's hands full. + +"Are you satisfied that your homes will be safe, now?" he asked Alwa. +And Alwa looked him in the eyes and grinned. + + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + + + Now, fifteen hundred, horse and man, + Reel at the word of one! + Loosed by the brazen trumpet's peal-- + Knee to knee and toe on heel-- + Troop on troop the squadrons wheel + Outbrazening the sun! + + +WITHIN a fortnight of the outbreak of the mutiny, men spoke with bated +breath about the Act of God. It burst at the moment when India's reins +were in the hands of some of the worst incompetents in history. A week +found strong men in control of things--the right men, with the right +handful behind them. + +Some of the men in charge went mad, and were relieved. Some threw +up their commands. Some of the worst incompetents were killed by the +mutineers, and more than one man who could have changed the course +of history for the worse were taken sick and died. Instead of finding +themselves faced by spineless nincompoops, the rebels reeled before +the sudden, well-timed tactics of real officers with eyes and ears +and brains. The mask was off on both sides, and the sudden, stripped +efficiency of one was no less disconcerting than the unexpected +rebellion of the other. + +Byng-bahadur--"Byng the Brigadier"--was in command of a force again +within three days of the news of the first massacre; and because he was +Byng, with Byng's record, and Byng's ability to handle loyal natives, +the men who succeeded to the reins packed him off at once with a free +hand, and with no other orders than to hit, hit hard, and keep on +hitting. + +"Go for them, Byng, old man. Live off the country, keep moving, and +don't let 'em guess once what your next move's going to be!" + +So Byng recruited as he went, and struck like a brain-controlled tornado +at whatever crossed his path. But irreparable damage had been done +before the old school was relieved, and Byng--like others--was terribly +short of men. Many of his own irregulars were so enraged at having been +disbanded at a moment's notice that they refused to return to him. Their +honor, as they saw it, had been outraged. Only two British regiments +could be spared him, and they were both thinned by sickness from the +first. They were Sikhs, who formed the bulk of his headquarterless +brigade, and many of them were last-minute friends, who came to him +unorganized and almost utterly undrilled. + +But Byng was a man of genius, and his bare reputation was enough to +offset much in the way of unpreparedness. He coaxed and licked and +praised his new men into shape as he went along; within a week he had +stormed Deeseera, blowing up their greatest reserve of ammunition and +momentarily stunning the rebellion's leaders. But cholera took charge in +the city, and two days later found him hurrying out again, to camp +where there was uncontaminated water, on rising ground that gave him the +command of three main roads. It was there that the rebels cornered him. + +They blew up a hundred-yard-long bridge behind him at the one point +where a swiftly running river could be crossed, and from two other sides +at once mutinied native regiments and thousands from the countryside +flocked, hurrying to take a hand in what seemed destined to be Byng's +last action. The fact that so many swaggering soldier Sikhs were +cornered with him was sufficient in itself to bring out Hindoo and +Mohammedan alike. + +The mutinous regiments had all been drilled and taught by British +officers until they were as nearly perfect as the military knowledge of +the day could make them; the fact that they had killed their officers +only served to make them savage without detracting much from their +efficiency. They had native officers quite capable of taking charge, and +sense enough to retain their discipline. + +So Byng intrenched himself on the gradual rise, and sent out as many +messengers as he could spare to bring reinforcements from whatever +source obtainable. Then, when almost none came, he got ready to die +where he stood, using all the soldier gift he had to put courage into +the last-ditch loyalists who offered to die with him. He had counted +most on aid from Cunningham and Mahommed Gunga, but that source seemed +to have failed him; and he gave up hope of their arrival when a body +of several thousand rebels took up position on his flank and cut off +approach from the direction whence Cunningham should come. + +The sun blazed down like molten hell on sick and wounded. Rotting +carcasses of horses and cattle, killed by the rebels' artillery-fire, +lay stenching here and there, and there was no possibility of disposing +of them. A day came very soon, indeed, when horse, or occasional +transport bullock, was all there was to eat, and a night came when +Govind Singh, the leader of the Sikhs, came to him and remonstrated. + +The old man had to be carried to Byng's tent, for a round shot had +disabled him, and he had himself set down by the tent-door, where the +General sat on a camp-stool. + +"General-sahib, I have not been asked for advice; I am here to offer +it." + +The huge black dome of heaven was punctuated by a billion dots of steely +white that looked like pin-pricks. All the light there was came from the +fitful watch-fires, where even the wagons were being burned now that +the meagre supply of rough timber was giving out. The rebels, too, were +burning everything on which they could lay their hands, and from between +the spaced-out glow of their bonfires came ever and again the spurt of +cannon-flame. + +"Speak, Govind Singh!" + +"Sahib, we have no artillery with which to answer them. We have no food; +and the supply of ammunition wanes. Shall we die here like cattle in a +slaughter-house?" + +"This is as good as any other place" said Byng. + +"Nay, sahib!" "How, then?" + +"In their lines is a better place! Here is nothing better than a +shambles, with none but our men falling. They know that our food is +giving out--they know that we lose heavily--they wait. They will wait +for days yet before they close in to finish what their guns have but +begun, and--then--how many will there be to die desperately, as is +fitting?" + +"We might get reinforcements in the morning, Govind Singh." + +"And again, we might not, sahib!" + +"I sent a number of messengers before we were shut in." + +"Yes, sahib--and to whom? To men who would ask you to reinforce them if +they could get word to you! Tomorrow our rear will be surrounded, too; +they have laid planks across the little streams behind us, and are +preparing to drag guns to that side, too. Now, sahib, we have fire left +in us. We can smite yet, and do damage while we die. Tomorrow night +may find us decimated and without heart for the finish. I advise you to +advance at dawn, sahib!" + +That advice came as a great relief to Byng-bahadur. He had been the +first to see the hopelessness of the position, and every instinct that +he had told him to finish matters, not in the last reeking ditch, but +ahead, where the enemy would suffer fearfully while a desperate charge +roared into them, to peter out when the last man went down fighting. +Surrender was unthinkable, and in any event would have been no good, +for the mutineers would be sure to butcher all their prisoners; his only +other chance had been to hold out until relief came, and that hope was +now forlorn. + +A Mohammedan stepped out of blackness and saluted him--a native officer, +in charge of a handful of irregular cavalry, whose horses had all been +shot. + +"Well--what is it?" + +"This, sahib. Do we die here? I and my men would prefer to die yonder, +where a mutineer or two would pay the price!" + +A Ghoorka officer--small as a Japanese and sturdy-looking came up next. +The whole thing was evidently preconcerted. + +"My men ask leave to show the way into the ranks ahead, General-sahib! +They are overweary of this shambles!" + +"We will advance at dawn!" said Byng. "Egan--" He turned to a British +officer, who was very nearly all the staff he had. "Drag that table up. +Let's have some paper here and a pencil, and we'll work out the best +plan possible." + +He sent for the commanding officers of the British regiments--both of +them captains, but the seniors surviving--and a weird scene followed +round the lamp set on the tiny table. British, Sikh, Mohammedan, and +Ghoorka clustered close to him, and watched as his pencil traced +the different positions and showed the movement that was to make the +morrow's finish, their faces outlined in the lamp's yellow glow and +their breath coming deep and slow as they agreed on how the greatest +damage could be done the enemy before the last man died. + +As he finished, and assigned each leader to his share in the last +assault that any one of them would take a part in, a streak of light +blazed suddenly across the sky. A shooting-star swept in a wide parabola +to the horizon. A murmur went up from the wakeful lines, and the silence +of the graveyard followed. + +"There is our sign, sahib!" laughed the Mohammedan. The old Sikh nodded +and the Ghoorka grinned. "It is the end!" he said, without a trace of +discouragement. + +"Nonsense!" said Byng, his face, too, turned upward. + +"What, then, does it mean, sahib?" + +"That--it means that God Almighty has relieved a picket! We're the +picket. We're relieved! We advance at dawn, and we'll get through +somehow! Join your commands, gentlemen, and explain the details +carefully to your men--let's have no misunderstandings." + +The dawn rose gold and beautiful upon a sleepless camp that reeked and +steamed with hell-hot suffering. It showed the rebels stationary, still +in swarming lines, but scouts reported several thousand of them moving +in a body from the flank toward the British rear. + +"What proportion of the rebel force?" asked Byng. "New arrivals, or some +of the old ones taking up a new position?" + +"The same crowd, sir. They're just moving round to hem us in +completely." + +"So much the better for us, then! That leaves fewer for us to deal with +in front." + +As he spoke another man came running to report the arrival of five +gallopers, coming hell-bent-for leather, one by one and scattered, +with the evident purpose of allowing one man to get through, whatever +happened. + +"That'll be relief at last!" said Byng-bahadur. And, instead of ordering +the advance immediately, he waited, scouring the sky-line with his +glasses. + +"Yes--dust--lance-heads--one--two--three divisions, coming in a hurry." + +Being on rising ground, he saw the distant relieving force much sooner +than the rebels did, and he knew that it was help for him on the way +some time before the first of the five gallopers careered into the camp, +and shouted: + +"Cunnigan-bahadur comes with fifteen hundred!" + +"Fifteen hundred," muttered Byng. "That merely serves to postpone the +finish by an hour or two!" + +But he waited; and presently the rebel scouts brought word, and their +leaders, too, became aware of reinforcements on the way for somebody. +They made the mistake, though, of refusing to believe that any help +could be coming for the British, and by the time that messengers had +hurried from the direction of the British rear, to tell of gallopers who +had ridden past them and been swallowed by the shouting British lines, +three squadrons on fresh horses were close enough to be reckoned +dangerous. + +"Is that a gun they've got with them?" wondered Byng. "By the lord +Harry, no,--it's a coach and six! They're flogging it along like a +twelve-pounder! And what the devil's in those wagons?" + +But he had no time for guesswork. The desultory thunder of the rebel +ordnance ceased, and the whole mass that hemmed him in began to revolve +within itself, and present a new front to the approaching cavalry. + +"Caught on the hop, by God! The whole line will advance! Trumpeter!" + +One trumpet-call blared out and a dozen echoed it. In a second more a +roar went up that is only heard on battle-fields. It has none of the +exultant shout of joy or of the rage that a mob throws up to heaven; +it is not even anger, as the cities know it, or the men who riot +for advantage. It is a welcome ironically offered up to +Death--full-throated, and more freighted with moral effect on an enemy +than a dozen salvoes of artillery. + +The thousands ahead tried hard to turn again and face two attacks at +once; but, though the units were efficiently controlled, there were none +who could swing the whole. Byng's decimated, forward-rushing fragment +of a mixed brigade, tight-reined and working like a piece of mechanism, +struck home into a mass of men who writhed, and fell away, and shouted +to each other. A third of them was out of reach, beyond the British +rear; fully another third was camped too far away to bring assistance at +the first wild onslaught. Messengers were sent to bring them up, but the +messengers were overtaken by a horde who ran. + +Then, like arrows driven by the bows of death, three squadrons took them +on the flank as Cunningham changed direction suddenly and loosed his +full weight at the guns. Instead of standing and serving grape, the +rebel gunners tried to get their ordnance away--facing about again too +late, when the squadrons were almost on them. Then they died gamely, +when gameness served no further purpose. The Rangars rode them down and +butchered them, capturing every single gun, and leaving them while they +charged again at the rallying hordes ahead. + +The strange assortment of horsed wagons and the lumbering six-horse +coach took full advantage of the momentary confusion to make at a gallop +for the British rear, where they drew up in line behind the Sikhs, who +were volleying at short range in the centre. + +Byng detached two companies of British soldiers to do their amateur +damnedest with the guns, and, for infantry, they did good service with +them; fifteen or twenty minutes after the first onslaught the enemy was +writhing under the withering attention of his own abandoned ordnance. +But the odds were still tremendous, and the weight of numbers made the +ultimate outcome of the battle seem a foregone conclusion. + +From the British rear heads appeared above the rising ground; the +deserted camp was rushed and set alight. The tents blazed like a beacon +light, and a moment later the Ghoorkas retaliated by setting fire to +such of the rebel camp as had fallen into British hands. + +It was those two fires that saved the day. From the sky-line to the +rebel rear came the thunder of a salvo of artillery. It was the short +bark of twelve-pounders loaded up with blank--a signal--and the rebels +did not wait to see whether this was friend or foe. Help from one +unexpected source had reached the British; this, they argued, was +probably another column moving to the relief, and they drew off in +reasonably decent order--harried, pestered, stung, as they attempted +to recover camp-equipment or get away with stores and wagons, by +Cunningham, Alwa, and Mahommed Gunga. + +In another hour the rebel army was a black swarm spreading on the +eastern sky-line, and on the far horizon to the north there shone the +glint of bayonets and helmet spikes, the dancing gleam of lance-tips, +and the dazzle from the long, polished bodies of a dozen guns. A +galloper spurred up with a message for Byng. + +"You are to join my command," it ran, "for a raid in force on Howrah, +where the rebels are supposed to have been concentrating for months +past. The idea is to paralyze the vitals of the movement before +concentrating somewhere on the road to Delhi, where the rebels are sure +to make a most determined stand." + +As he read it Mahommed Gunga galloped up to him, grinning like a boy. + +"Cunnigan-sahib's respects, General-sahib! He asks leave to call his men +off, saying that he has done all the damage possible with only fifteen +hundred." + +"Yes. Call 'em off and send Cunningham to me. How did he shape?" + +"Like a son of Cunnigan-bahadur! General-sahib-salaam!" + +"No. Here, you old ruffian--shake hands, will you? Now send Cunningham +to me." + +Cunningham came up fifteen minutes later, with a Rangar orderly behind +him, and did his best to salute as though it were nothing more than an +ordinary meeting. + +"Oh! Here you are. 'Gratulate you, Cunningham! You came in the nick of +time. What kept you?" + +"That 'ud take a long time to tell, sir. I've fifteen hundred horses +about ten miles from here, sir, left in charge of native levies, and +I'd like permission to go and fetch them before the levies make off with +them." + +"Splendid! Yes, you'd better go for them. What's in the wagons." + +"The Howrah treasure, sir!" + +"What?" + +"The whole of the Howrah treasure, sir! It's held as security. Howrah +guarantees to keep the peace and protect the homes of my men. I +guaranteed to hand him back the treasure when the show's over, less +deductions for damage done!" + +"Well, I'm--Who thought of that? You or Mahommed Gunga?" + +"Oh, I expect we cooked it up between us, sir." + +"H-rrrr-umph! And what's in the six-horse coach?" + +"A lady and her father." + +"The deuce they are!" + +Byng rode up to the lumbering vehicle, signing to Cunningham to follow +him. + +"General Byng," said Cunningham. "Miss McClean, sir." + +A very much dishevelled and very weary-looking young woman with a +wealth of chestnut hair leaned through the window and smiled, not at the +General but at Cunningham. Byng stared--looked from one to the other of +them--and said "Hu-rrrr-umph!" again. + +"It was she who made the whole thing possible, sir." + +"The very deuce it was!" It began to be evident that Byng was not a +ladies' man! + +"This is Mr. McClean, sir--Rosemary's father. He helped her put the +whole scheme through." + +Byng nodded to the missionary and looked back at Rosemary McClean--then +from her to Cunningham again. + +"Hu-rrrr-umph! Christian names already! More 'gratulations, eh?" + +Rosemary's head and shoulders disappeared and Cunningham looked foolish. + +"Well! Send Mahommed Gunga for the horses. Ride over there to where you +see General Evans's column and tell him the whole story. Take a small +escort and the treasure with you. And--ah--er--lemme see--take this +carriage, too. Oh, by the bye--you'd better ask General Evans to make +some arrangements for Miss McClean. Leave her over there with the +treasure. I want you back with my brigade, and I want you to be some +sort of use. Can't have love-making with the brigade, Mr. Cunningham!" + +The Brigadier rode off with a very perfunctory salute. + +"Isn't he a rather curmudgeony sort of officer?" asked Rosemary the +moment that his back was turned. + +"Oh, no!" laughed Cunningham. "That's Byng-bahadur's little way, that's +all. He's quite likely to insist on being best man or something of that +sort when the show's all over! Wait here while I fetch the escort." + + + END + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Rung Ho!, by Talbot Mundy + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RUNG HO! *** + +***** This file should be named 5153.txt or 5153.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/5/5153/ + +Produced by M.R.J. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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