Transcriber's note: Unusual and inconsistent spelling is as printed.
[Illustration: "Oh!" he cried excitedly, "We're having such fun!"]
Sir Richard's Grandson
or
A Soldier's Son
By
ELEANORA H. STOOKE
Author of
"The Hermit's Cave," "Rose Cottage," "A Little Town Mouse,"
"Little Gem," etc.
London
GALL AND INGLIS, 25 PATERNOSTER SQUARE
AND EDINBURGH
List of Illustrations.
"OH!" HE CRIED EXCITEDLY, "WE'RE HAVING SUCH FUN!"
"WELL, DICK," HE SAID, "SO THEY LET YOU COME?"
"LET ME GO!" SAID DICK, HOARSELY.
"'TWAS EXACTLY LIKE LETTING OFF A CANNON."
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I. DICK AND HIS PARENTS
II. BREAKING THE NEWS TO DICK
III. DICK'S FIRST DAY IN ENGLAND
IV. DICK'S GRANDFATHER
V. THE MARTYRED MONK
VI. AN UNANSWERED QUESTION
VII. SIR RICHARD TELLS DICK OF THE SECRET PASSAGE
VIII. A MORNING DRIVE
IX. A SLIGHT ACCIDENT
X. DICK'S COUSINS
XI. A SECRET COMPACT
XII. CONCERNING TWO AFTERNOON CALLS
XIII. THE OLD BLUNDERBUSS
XIV. IN QUEST OF AMMUNITION
XV. LIONEL'S CRUEL SPEECH
XVI. LIONEL'S ACCIDENT
XVII. THE STORM
XVIII. THE MORNING AFTER THE STORM
XIX. ADRIFT
XX. A JOYFUL HOME-COMING
SIR RICHARD'S GRANDSON
OR
A Soldier's Son
CHAPTER I
DICK AND HIS PARENTS
THE intense heat of the Indian day was over, and Captain and Mrs.
Gidley, with their little son, Dick, were seated on the verandah
of their bungalow, enjoying the comparative coolness of the evening.
Captain Gidley was a tall, handsome man, whose spare form and tanned
skin told of many years lived beneath an eastern sun; his wife was a
very pretty woman, and though she had lost the pink roses from her
cheeks which she had brought to India with her as a bride, ten years
previously, she had not grown languid and idle, but was as bright and
cheerful as she had been in her English home, so that her little son,
now eight years old, always had a friend and playmate in the mother,
who loved him, next to her husband, better than all the world.
Dick was a handsome little fellow, though pale and delicate. The
climate was beginning to have bad effects upon his health, and many
were the anxious glances his mother and father cast upon him from
time to time, after which they would meet each other's eyes, and
sigh, realizing that they would not be able to keep him with them
much longer in India.
Dick loved his parents dearly. He thought his mother sweeter, and
prettier, and cleverer than any of the wives of his father's
brother-officers. With the exception of the faithful ayah who had
nursed him with the devotion of her class, his mother had been his
chief companion during the eight short years of his life; he had
never had a thought which he had hidden from her; he had told her all
his childish hopes, and she had shared all his pleasures and joys;
they had played like two children together, and all the while he had
obeyed her slightest wish.
"Dick, always obey your mother!" Captain Gidley had been in the habit
of telling his son, and Dick had complied with the willingness of
perfect confidence and love.
His affection for his father was mingled with deep admiration, for he
considered him the soul of honour and bravery, and had quite made up
his mind that when he should be a man grown he would be a soldier
too.
It was a merry little group on the verandah that evening. Captain and
Mrs. Gidley reclined on deck-chairs, whilst Dick sat on a low stool
at his mother's feet, his hands clasped around his knees,
occasionally joining in his parents' conversation.
"Blair will be sent home as soon as he is well enough," Captain
Gidley remarked presently; "I saw him this afternoon,
sat half-an-hour with him, in fact, and he is decidedly better."
"That is good news," Mrs. Gidley replied, whilst Dick looked up
at his father quickly, his pale face full of lively interest,
for Colonel Blair was the colonel of his father's regiment, and had
had a serious illness from which he was now recovering.
"I am so very glad Colonel Blair is better, because I like him so
much, and Mrs. Blair will be pleased," the little boy said simply.
"Do you mean he is going to England, father? Will Mrs. Blair go too?"
"Yes, my son, most certainly.— What is it, Nanukchund?"
The question was addressed to an Indian servant who had quietly
approached them. He was a brown, lean Hindu, clad in native dress,
who, when he had delivered a message to his master, withdrew to the
far end of the verandah, where he stood in an attitude of unconscious
dignity, his arms crossed upon his breast, his dark eyes fixed upon
the shadowy landscape.
So accustomed were the Gidleys to Nanukchund that they continued
their conversation regardless of his near presence; and the man
himself, standing immovable like a statue, showed no signs of hearing
a word that was being said.
"I was told to-day that the cry of a 'fau' was heard last night
in this neighbourhood," Captain Gidley said by-and-by, "but I do not
know if such was really the case."
"Oh Richard!" cried Mrs. Gidley, glancing nervously around, "don't
say that! You positively terrify me!"
"What is a 'fau?'" Dick asked, for he had never heard the word
before.
"It is a small animal about the size of a cat," Captain Gidley
explained; "the natives declare it is always the forerunner of a
tiger, but I'm sure I don't know about that."
"You forget, Richard," his wife said seriously. "Don't you remember?"
"Remember what, my dear?"
"That before the advent of that tiger—the man-eater you shot before
Dick was born—the natives said they heard a 'fau' some nights
previously?"
"Did they say so? Why, how stupid of me! I had actually forgotten!"
"Oh, father, do tell me all about the man-eater!" Dick cried, with
sparkling eyes.
"You have heard all about it so many times, my son!"
"But I want to hear it again! Do tell it," Dick pleaded in his most
coaxing tone, for, like most children, he was never tired of
listening to the repetition of a fascinating tale.
The captain shook his head, and declared he was too lazy, whereupon
Dick appealed to his mother, and begged her to relate the story.
"Well, dear, I will, if you very much wish it," she responded with an
indulgent smile, "although I thoroughly believe you must know it as
well as I do. It happened, as you are aware, not long after your
father and I were married—just after we had come here to live.
Everything was strange to me, and when I heard that a tiger was
prowling about the district, and had actually killed several
unfortunate natives, you can easily imagine that I was more terrified
than I can express. Your father tried to laugh me out of my fears,
which he thought were needless; but Nanukchund fully sympathised
with me—I think, indeed, he was quite as alarmed as I was, and
during your father's daily absences from home kept a careful watch
around the place, whilst after dark he even persisted in our having
the doors leading on to the verandah shut and bolted, although the
heat was almost unendurable just then."
"I had not had much experience of tigers in those days," Captain
Gidley interposed, "or I should have known that Nanukchund was wise
to insist on caution. I thought it extremely unlikely that 'my lord
stripes' would dare to approach our bungalow, although I knew he had
worked sad havoc in a native village not far distant; and I actually
laughed at Nanukchund when he suggested the advisability of my
keeping a loaded gun by my bedside!"
"But I made you take Nanukchund's advice, Richard," his wife said,
"and, as it happened, it was most fortunate, most providential,
I ought to say, that I did!—Well, Dick, to proceed with the story.
One night, some hours after we had gone to bed, we found the heat so
intolerable in our room that your father suggested opening the door
leading to the verandah for a few minutes. Accordingly he did so, and
then made the discovery that Nanukchund was squatting in a corner of
the verandah. I heard your father ask him what he was doing, and
heard Nanukchund reply that he was on the look-out for the tiger."
"Yes," broke in Captain Gidley, who, although he had declared himself
too lazy to tell the tale, could not resist putting in a few words
now and then, "and he distinctly objected to my leaving the door
open; however, I informed him we could not possibly endure the heat
with it shut, and then he took up his position in the doorway, and
said he would watch whilst we slept; so I returned to your mother,
and told her she need have no fears as to our safety."
"Afterwards," Mrs. Gidley said, as her husband paused, "Nanukchund
explained to us that he fell asleep, and was awakened by the sound
of a snarling growl. He sprang to his feet, immediately on the
defensive, and—it was a moonlight night—saw a huge tiger, only a
few yards from him on the verandah, licking his lips, lashing his
tail, and evidently contemplating the prospect of a meal. In his
sudden fright, Nanukchund uttered a piercing yell, which awoke both
your father and me. Your father jumped out of bed and grasped his gun
at the same instant that the tiger sprang at poor Nanukchund, who,
too, sprang forward, meeting the great beast in its leap. I saw a
flash of steel in the moonlight, and heard an awful snarling cry of
mingled rage and pain as Nanukchund struck the tiger in the chest
with the long-bladed knife he had taken the precaution to have with
him; but, although wounded, the animal was not mortally hurt, and
struck at Nanukchund with one of his forepaws. Then your father, who
had raised his gun and taken careful aim, fired; and in a few minutes
the servants were all on the spot, the tiger lay dead in the doorway,
and Nanukchund, except for some deep scratches on the chest where the
tiger's claws had torn the flesh, was quite unharmed."
"That was a good shot of yours, father!" Dick cried enthusiastically.
"So it was," Captain Gidley replied, with a smile. "The tiger was
shot right through the heart. I never took surer aim; and I can
truthfully say, was never more frightened in my life! There was no
time for reflection; but I was conscious of the full horror of the
situation, and as I caught up my gun and took aim, I just cried out
to God in my heart to help me—and He did!"
There was a brief silence, which was broken by Dick, who said
earnestly,—
"I hope I shall be as good a shot as you, father, when I grow up.
I expect every one was very glad to hear the tiger was killed?"
"Yes, very glad, for the brute had been the terror of the
neighbourhood for several weeks."
"Go and ask Nanukchund if he thinks the 'fau' has really been heard,"
Mrs. Gidley said to Dick, who obeyed immediately, and presently
returned to his parents reassured upon that point, for Nanukchund had
told him the Mem Sahib need not fear. He believed it was only idle
gossip about the "fau" having been heard in the district.
"How should you like to go to England, Dick?" Captain Gidley asked
suddenly.
"Oh, very much, father! It's lovely in England, isn't it?" the boy
asked, looking at his mother, who was fond of talking to him of the
land of her birth.
"Yes, dear," she answered quietly, "one can breathe there. The
regiment will very likely be ordered home next year, will it not,
Richard?" she enquired of her husband.
"Very likely," he replied.
"What fun it will be!" Dick exclaimed gleefully. "Shan't we be busy
beforehand packing up! It's jolly on board ship, isn't it?"
"Yes," Captain Gidley assented, "a sea voyage in a good ship is
rather a pleasant experience. You ought to go to bed now, Dick; it's
past your usual time. Don't dream about the man-eater, though!"
"No," the boy replied with a laugh, "I'll try not to! His skin has
made a splendid rug, hasn't it, father? Mrs. Blair said the other day
it was the finest tiger-skin she had ever seen! Must I really go
to bed? Well, then, good-night!" and he kissed his parents
affectionately. "I must go and say good-night to Nanukchund,"
he added.
They watched him as he exchanged a few words with the Hindoo; then,
nodding gaily to them, he disappeared through the doorway leading
to his bedroom.
"He is in fine spirits to-night," Captain Gidley said gravely, "but I
am not blind to the fact that he daily grows thinner and paler; and
several people have remarked it to me lately. The boy is pining,
Margaret, and I know you see it as plainly as I do. I have been
thinking that we must really send him to England. Mrs. Blair told me
to-day that she would be very pleased to undertake the charge of him
on the voyage. There is no chance of our returning home till next
year, and we run a great risk of losing our boy altogether if we keep
him here much longer."
"Oh, Richard, it is cruelly hard to think of parting from him,"
Mrs. Gidley responded, her usually bright face full of pain, "but we
must think of him and his welfare, of course, and not of our own
feelings at all," she added quickly.
Whilst his parents were discussing a future for him apart from
themselves, Dick was undressing, and having said his prayers,
he slipped into bed. He lay awake thinking of the great tiger his
father had shot with such faultless aim. No wonder Nanukchund was so
devoted to the Captain Sahib who had saved his life! No wonder
every one spoke of his father as a brave and gallant soldier! Captain
Gidley was a pattern for all that was good and true in his little
son's partial eyes; the boy meant to be like him in the years
to come, if God would allow him to grow into a strong man fitted
to be a soldier; but until then, he reflected, he must be content
to learn to be good and obedient, because to obey was a soldier's
first duty in life; and he must ask God to give him a brave, fearless
spirit.
"I am rather small for my age," Dick thought, as he mentally compared
his little fragile form with his father's tall, straight, sinewy
figure, "but I suppose I shall get bigger by-and-by. Mother thinks
when we go to England I shall grow much faster—I hope so, I'm sure.
But even if I don't get very tall I can be a soldier all the same!
Captain Blair's quite short, and yet father says he's a fine
fellow—I suppose that means he's brave, and not afraid
of anything?"
"Who's there?" he cried, as a figure paused in the doorway. "Is it
you, mother! Oh no; it's you, Nanukchund! Come and tell me a story,
do. I'm not a bit sleepy to-night!"
The Hindu obeyed willingly, for the child was a favourite of his.
He had the Mem Sahib's permission to talk to Dick, and accordingly he
commenced to relate some wonderful stories of Indian conjurers and
their marvellous tricks till Dick's eyes grew misty, Nanukchund's
lithe, dark figure became more and more indistinct, and at last faded
altogether as the heavy lids drooped, and a restful sleep overcame
him.