Joined to the love of a military life, I had all a boy's ideal notions
of bravery and chivalry. By which I mean the frank, natural, outside
ideas, full of the show and glitter, and I could not see beneath the
surface. I did not know then that it might take more courage to refuse
to fight and face the looks and scorn of some people than to go and meet
an adversary in the field, after the braggart fashion of some of our
French neighbours, whose grand idea of honour is to go out early some
morning to meet an enemy about some petty, contemptible quarrel, fence
for a few moments till one or the other is pricked or scratched, and
then cry, "_Ah, mon ami! mon ami_!" embrace, and go home to breakfast
together.
Very beautiful, no doubt, to a certain class of Frenchman, but to a
nineteenth-century Englishman--fluff.
I'm afraid that I was very Gallic in my ideas in more ways, so that when
next morning I knew that both Brace and Barton had had long interviews
separately with Major Lacey, and then met him together in the presence
of the doctor, and found that a peace had been patched up, my feelings
toward Brace were very much cooled, and I was ready to become fast
friends with Barton--at least, I could have been if he had been a
different kind of man. As it was, I was thrown a great deal on the
society of the doctor and the other officers, while Brace, who rightly
interpreted my coolness, held himself aloof at mess.
I found myself near the major that evening, and after a time he began
chatting to me in a low tone.
"Let's see; you were in the squabble yesterday," he said. "Great pity.
We don't want any references to head-quarters, Vincent, nor
court-martial; and as for their fighting, that sort of thing's as dead
as Queen Anne. We've got to keep our fighting for the Queen's enemies,
eh?"
"I suppose so, sir."
"Of course you suppose so," he said sharply. "Why, you did not want
them to fight, did you?"
"That, it seems to me, would have been the most honourable course, sir,"
I said stiffly.
He turned his head and stared in my face.
"You're a young goose--gander, I mean. No: gosling," he said. "There,
I've made them shake hands, after Barton had apologised. I'm not going
to have any of that nonsense. And look here, you've got to be friends
with Barton too. Why, hang it, boy, a handful of Englishmen here, as we
are, in the midst of enemies, can't afford to quarrel among ourselves;
we must hold together like--like--well, like Britons. Here, I've
something else for you to think about. I've had a messenger over from
the nawab. A couple of man-eaters have been doing a lot of mischief a
few miles from his place, and he wants some of us to go over very early
to-morrow to rid the country of the brutes. Perhaps I shall go too."
The thoughts of such an exciting expedition soon drove away those of the
trouble, and upon the major making the announcement, it was at once
discussed, while in imagination I pictured the whole scene, ending with
the slaughter of the monsters, and their being brought home in triumph
upon a pad elephant.
"I thought so," the major whispered to me with a chuckle; "that has put
them both in a good temper. I did think of going, but I shall send
them."
I went across the square to my bed that night, full of thoughts of the
expedition, and not far from my quarters came upon three figures in
white, talking eagerly together, but ready to start apart when they
caught sight of me, and salaam profoundly. "Ah, Ny Deen," I said.
"Fine night."
"Yes, sahib," he said in his soft low voice. "Does the sahib go to the
hunt to-morrow?"
"How did you know there was to be a hunt to-morrow?" I said sharply.
"There are orders to have the buggies ready, sahib, before day."
"Oh," I said. "Then your master is going?"
"No, sahib; he stays with the men."
"I don't think he does," I said to myself, as I went into my quarters,
where I gave orders for all my shooting things to be put out; and then,
after making sure that I should be called in time, I dived in behind the
mosquito curtains, so as to get all the rest I could, and in half a
minute was sleeping heavily, but not until I had repented leaving the
mess-room without saying "good night" to Brace, Barton having gone some
time before, as he was on duty that evening.
I scarcely seemed to have fallen asleep before a hand was laid upon my
shoulder.
"Master's bath and coffee ready," said a voice; and I looked up to see
by the light of a lamp that my man Dost was gazing down at me, with the
curtains held aside, and a curiously troubled fixed look in his face.
"Time to get up already?" I said.
"Yes, sahib," he said hurriedly. "All the other gentlemen call and get
up."
"All right," I said; and springing out, I stepped into my tiled
bath-room, and had myself refreshed with some chatties of cold water
poured over my head, after which, feeling elastic as steel, I towelled,
and began to dress.
"Why, hallo, Dost," I said, as I saw that the man was trembling, "what's
the matter? Not ill?"
"No, no, sahib; quite well, quite well!" he cried hastily.
"But you are not," I cried. "You are all of a shiver. Let me give you
something."
He shook his head violently, and kept on reiterating that he was quite
well.
"Come, out with it, Dost," I said. "You are not deceiving me. What is
the matter?"
He looked round quickly, and I could see that the poor fellow evidently
was in great alarm about something.
"Master always good to Dost," he said.
"Of course I am, when you are good and attentive to me. Is my rifle
ready?"
"Yes, sahib. Dost afraid for his lord."
I laughed at him, though I felt touched, as I grasped what he seemed to
mean.
"You coward!" I said. "Do you think the first tiger I see will get
into my howdah and maul me?"
He nodded his head, and looked more nervous than before.
"And that I shall be a job for Dr Danby, and you will have to nurse
me?"
He bowed his head again.
"Then you would like me to stop, and not go to the tiger-hunt?"
"No, no, sahib," he cried excitedly, and I smiled again at him, as I
thought that it was very doubtful whether Ny Deen and his other men were
in such anxiety about Barton.
Dost hung about me with the greatest of solicitude as, fully equipped at
last, I made my way to where the buggies and their attendants were in
waiting. It was very dark, and it was only by the light of the lanterns
that I made out who was there, and saw Brace, the doctor, and a quiet
gentlemanly lieutenant of ours named Haynes.
Just then the major came bustling up, his genial nature having urged him
to leave his comfortable bed, and come to see us off.
"All here?" he cried. "You'll have a glorious day. Needn't have taken
rifles; the rajah would have everything for you, and better pieces than
your own, I dare say. Wish I was going with you."
"Why not come?" said Brace.
"No, no! Don't tempt me; I've quite work enough. Some one ought to
stay."
"I will stop with pleasure," cried Brace.
"No, no, my dear boy; we settled that you should go. I'll have my turn
another time."
"But really--" began Brace.
"Be quiet, man!" cried the major. "You are going. Keep an eye on
Vincent here, and don't let a tiger get him. He can't be spared."
"I dare say we shall be in the same howdah," replied Brace; and somehow
I did not feel pleased any more than I did at the major taking such
pains to have me looked after like a little boy.
"These young chaps are so thoughtless," continued the major. "They run
into danger before they know where they are, and then, when they are in
the midst of it, they forget to be cool."
"Oh, I shall be careful, sir," I said pettishly.
"You think so, of course," said the major. "I suppose you will not be
back till quite late. Like an escort to meet you?"
"Oh no, it is not necessary," said Brace.
"Hullo! Where's Barton?" cried the doctor. "Any one seen him?"
"Not coming," said the major quietly.
"Not coming?"
"No; he sent me a line last thing to say he preferred not to go."
I heard Brace draw his breath in a hissing way, and then he hesitated
and descended from the buggy to speak to the major, who said aloud--
"No, no! If he likes to turn disagreeable, let him. There, be off, and
a good day's sport to you. Here, Vincent, try if you can't manage a
skin rug for yourself this time, and don't any of you waste your charges
on small game. You are sure to scare the big away."
We promised, and five minutes after were going at a pretty good pace
along the main road, each vehicle with a native driver, and a man
running at the horses' heads as well.
We had about fifteen miles to go along the road to a point where
elephants or horses would be in waiting for us, sent by the rajah from
his jungle palace. Then we should leave the buggies and the main road,
to follow a track leading up to the rajah's place, where he often went,
to be out of the heat and dust of the city, in which every pair of feet
was kicking up the dust all day long, till it was as if the lower part
of the town was shrouded in a dense stratum of fog twelve or fourteen
feet thick.
We had been riding for some time at a rapid rate before we began to note
a change in the surroundings. First a tree would stand out in a pale
grey ghostly way; then a clump of high cane-like grass would loom out
like something solid, and then, on turning round, I could see a pale
grey light in the sky, which rapidly turned to pale crimson, and then to
deep ruddy gold, as up came the sun almost at once, the change from
night to day being rapid there.
For some little time now we had been ascending; and getting into a part
clear of trees, we were suddenly aware of a tent pitched in the shade of
a mango tope, and close by, quietly picking up freshly cut green food,
and tucking it into their mouths with their trunks, were half a dozen
elephants, three of which bore handsome trappings and howdahs, while the
others had only the ordinary pads.
A couple of handsomely dressed servants came forward to meet us as we
dismounted, and we were ushered into the open-sided tent, where
breakfast was waiting, spread on a soft Indian carpet, while the rajah's
men waited upon us with the greatest of attention.
But, as the doctor said, we had not come to eat, and very soon expressed
our readiness to start, when the elephants were guided to the front of
the tent, and we mounted, after giving orders to the drivers of the
vehicles in which we had come, to be in waiting for us just at dusk.
Then the huge animal on which I was mounted with the doctor moved slowly
on apparently, but covering a good deal of ground in his shuffling
stride.
A shout from Brace on the next elephant arrested us, though, and, on
turning, we found that he was pointing back.
The scene was worth stopping to contemplate, for there, miles away
behind us, lay Rajgunge, with its mosques and temples glittering in the
morning sun, and the dust which often shrouded the place now visible
only as a faint haze, while the sparkling river looked a very band of
silver curving round it like the fold of some wondrous serpent
undulating over the plain. The city lay in a hollow, from which the
land sloped away on one side, while, on the other, hill and valley
alternated, with the country rising higher and higher to where we stood,
and then rose more and more into a wild of jungle and mountain, whose
more distant eminences died into a soft blue mist.
"I never saw a more beautiful view," said the doctor to me. "Grand
place to send patients to. Sight of the country would do them more good
than my physic. Make much of it, Vincent," he said; "you may never see
the city look so beautiful again."