It was night when I awoke, refreshed and ready to ask myself whether it
was a dream, one of the many vivid sleep scenes which I had conjured up
since I had been there, wounded and a prisoner.
But I knew directly that it was no dream, and I began thinking of how
sadly some of the natives must have been treated for the simple
civilities which I had bestowed upon Ny Deen to be appreciated as they
were.
From that I began thinking of Brace and Haynes, about the colonel of the
foot regiment, and of Ny Deen's words that they were beaten and had
fled.
"I don't believe it," I said, half aloud. There may have been thousands
against our hundreds; but our fellows would not study that. It would
only make them fight the more fiercely. I suppose that was his idea of
it; but I felt sure that it would not be Brace's, or that of his brother
in arms. I thought then of our tremendous charge with the guns, and I
could not keep from smiling.
"That does not seem to be the work of a man who wants to retreat," I
said to myself. "If Brace has retired, it is only to act like a wave of
the sea, so that he can come back with greater force, and sweep
everything before him."
Yes; I was sure of that, as I lay there gazing at the lamp, whose soft
light seemed to look dreamy and pleasant. I was in better spirits, and
the old depression and feeling of misery had gone.
Then I began to plan what I should do as I grew stronger. I would make
use of the palanquin and the elephant's howdah; but at the first
opportunity I decided that I would escape. I did not want to be
ungrateful to Ny Deen, and it was very pleasant to feel that he liked
me; but I must get back to my own people, I felt, and he would know that
it was quite reasonable.
A faint rustling sound drew my attention just then, somewhere near the
head of my bed; but it ceased directly, and I attributed it to the
servants.
To prove this, I made up my mind to clap my hands, but at the first
movement such a keen pain shot through my shoulder that I contented
myself by calling, "Who waits?"
There was a quick rustling sound at once, and the purdah was drawn aside
by a shadowy figure, and held while three men in white entered with
trays so quickly and silently that I felt as if I were going through
some scene from the "Arabian Nights," when the four men came up to my
couch, and the chief attendant pointed out places on the carpet for the
various things to be placed, and then signed to the men to go, which
they did without word or look.
"I suppose I shall not be allowed to eat and drink what I like," I
thought, and I laughed to myself, for it was such a good sign even to
think about food at all. Directly after I found I was right, for my
attendant poured me out something warm which smelt savoury, and as he
raised me carefully and propped me up with cushions, I smiled again, for
I felt as if I were a baby about to be fed.
My amusement was quite justified, for I was as weak as an infant, and
was glad to let the calm, silent man supply my wants, holding me so that
I could drink what tasted like a strong preparation of chicken; after
which he gave me a very delicious and sweet preparation which I
recognised as cocoanut cream. Lastly, he gave me some curious-looking
_bonbons_, helping me to lie back first, so that I need not grow weary
while I partook of the preparations, which were nice, but possessed a
peculiar aromatic taste, which was new to me.
I had eaten three of these, and then half uneasily told myself that,
without doubt, the doctor ordered these preparations because they
contained the medicines he wished me to take.
I think so now; for in a short time a pleasant drowsiness stole over me,
and I fell asleep to awake with a start, as it seemed to me; but it must
have been only a slight one, for I could not have moved more than my
eyes, which were at once directed to the lamp on its stand, some ten or
a dozen feet from me, and I wondered why my breath came so short, and
grasped at once the fact that I had a heavy weight upon my chest.
It appeared simple enough. I had hardly taken anything of late, and my
meal on the previous night had been fairly liberal. Consequently, being
a sick or delicate man, I was suffering from the consequences--that of a
heavy weight at my chest.
I lay thinking that I had not taken much, and that it was very hard that
I should suffer so much inconvenience for so trivial a meal, when the
weight on my chest moved, and I felt something cool touch my neck.
I was still not clearly awake, and I did not feel any very great
surprise at this; for during what must have been my delirium, I had in
imagination had stranger adventures than this, and consequently I lay
perfectly still, waiting for the sensation to pass off before closing my
eyes and enjoying another pleasant, restful, strength-giving sleep.
I had just arrived at this pitch of reasoning, and I was considering how
long it would be before the sensation passed away, when, as I stared
with half-closed eyes at the lamp, I fancied that I saw something gleam
only a short distance before me; and this exciting my curiosity, I
looked again, felt startled, my heart began to beat painfully, and a
cold chill ran through me, as I realised the horrible fact that,
consequent upon my bed being made up on the ground, instead of upon the
native bedstead known as a charpoy, a serpent had crept in beneath the
side of the tent--the rustle I had heard--and, attracted by the warmth,
coiled itself upon my chest, where it now lay with its cool head upon my
neck.
I was awake now fully, and, above all, to the terror of my situation.
What shall I do? I asked myself, as the icy feeling of horror
increased. I dared not move or attempt to call, for the reptile's head
was close to my chin, and the slightest stir might cause it to bite; for
at the first alarm I felt certain that it must be one of the poisonous
cobras which infested the land.
As I lay there, I could feel the perspiration streaming out of my pores,
and the weight upon my chest increasing rapidly, till I began to fancy
that if I were not soon relieved I should be suffocated.
How long I lay like this I cannot say; but it felt to me almost an
eternity, and the more painful from the fact that there was help close
at hand, so near that a call would bring in one if not more of the
servants instantly.
One moment my lips parted ready to utter a cry; but that cry, in spite
of several attempts, was not uttered. For the idea of being bitten, of
receiving the two sharp fangs of the monster in my flesh, was so
horrible that, cowardly or no, I could not call. I had heard too much
of the results of a cobra bite, and the thought of the insidious poison
making its way rapidly through the veins, and ending one's life by
arresting the pulsations of the heart in a few minutes, or at most
hours, was too terrible for me to run any risk.
I think I must have nearly fainted away, for I was very weak; but I
never quite lost my senses, but lay looking with misty eyes across the
gleaming scaly skin there upon my heart, and feeling from time to time a
peculiar movement, as if one coil were passing over another.
Then I tried hard to call up my courage, and wondered whether by a sharp
movement I could heave the reptile from me, while I tried to roll myself
off on the other side of the bed. But I knew that it was impossible,
for I was weak as a child, and, setting aside the pain such a movement
would have caused, it was in my then state impossible.
At last, when the stress upon my mind was enough to make me feel that,
at any cost, I must try and call for help, I heard a movement outside
the tent, and my lips parted once more to speak, but no sound came. I
could only lie in expectancy, with my eyes fixed upon the gleaming
scales, which were now certainly in motion.
There was another faint noise outside, and I felt that help was coming--
one of the men, to see whether I required anything. But, no; it ceased
once more; hope died out of my breast, and at all costs I was going to
utter a hoarse cry, for I could bear the suspense no longer, when there
was a louder rustle outside, and this time my flesh seemed to creep, for
the serpent was all in motion, and it had raised its head to look in the
direction of the sound, and I could see its bent, spade-like shape, and
the bright gleaming eyes.
Suddenly the purdah was softly drawn aside; and as I strained my eyes
sidewise to try and catch a glimpse of the man who entered, I saw him
approach silently, till he was near my couch, when he suddenly caught
sight of the serpent, uttered a faint cry, and fled.
I shuddered in my despair as I saw him sweep back the purdah and dart
through, and then I mentally called him a coward for not coming to my
help.
But I was premature in judging him, for all at once he darted back,
armed with a stout bamboo, and came cautiously toward where I lay now
nearly freed from my burden; for, at the sight of the men who came
swiftly in, the serpent's coils began to pass one over the other till it
was all in motion; and it was evidently gliding off me, to retreat to
the hole beneath the canvas through which it had found its way.
But it had not made sufficient haste. Just before it had reached the
canvas, the man was upon it, bringing the bamboo down with so terrible a
blow that the serpent twisted itself up, writhing and struggling in a
perfect knot, the tail flogging the carpet, and the head rising and
falling convulsively, till the man struck at it again and again,
crippling the tail with one blow; and, after watching his opportunity,
succeeded in delivering so fierce a cut at the head that the neck was
broken, and it fell back upon the writhing knot perfectly inert, a few
more blows making the body as helpless as the head and neck.
This done, the man seized the creature by the tail, and drew it out to
its full length, which seemed to me to be eight or nine feet; but the
creature was very thick.
The man had turned to me with a scared face, and spoke almost for the
first time since he had been my attendant, saying in Hindustani--
"I pray that my lord will not tell my master the maharajah!"
"Not tell him you killed the snake?"
"No, my lord. He would say thy servant did right to slay the serpent;
but he would punish him for not keeping guard, and seeing that no
serpent came."
"Would it have bitten and poisoned me?" I asked.
"No, my lord. This kind does not bite and poison, only twists round and
crushes. It is very strong."
"How did it come in?" I said.
He went down on his hands and knees and examined the edge of the tent,
looking for a hole where the creature could have crept under; but every
part was secure, and the man rose, and his face wore a puzzled look.
"Thy servants have done their work well," he said. "There is no hole
where the serpent could have crept under. I do not know."
He was peering about in silence, while I lay gradually recovering my
equanimity, and congratulating myself on the fact that my nocturnal
visitor had been a serpent of the boa kind, and not a deadly cobra, when
the man suddenly held up his finger, and pointed to a spot beyond the
lamp, where the roof and canvas wall of the tent joined.
As I tried to penetrate the dim, warm twilight of the room, I could hear
a faint rustling sound, and I saw my attendant stoop cautiously and go,
without making a sound, toward the spot where his stick lay on the
carpet, not far from the still heaving body of the reptile he had slain.
As I gazed hard at the place whence the rustling came, I suddenly caught
sight of something behind the lamp, something shadowy or misty, swaying
gently to any fro, and I at once grasped the fact that it was another
serpent entering the tent by the way in which the first must have found
its way.
I had hardly arrived at this point when my attention was taken up by the
action of my attendant, who was stealing round like a black shadow close
to the side of the tent, and the next minute he raised his stick, and
made a sharp blow at the intruder.
There was a sharp crack, a loud rustling, and the man darted back with
only half his staff in his hand, to run out of the tent, and leave me
alone with the body of the first serpent, which I half fancied was
moving slowly toward where I lay helpless, if it happened to have still
vitality enough left in its shattered length to come and wreak its
vengeance on one who could not defend himself.
But while I was watching the slowly writhing creature, which in the dim
light looked of far greater proportion than before, I could hear
trampling and voices outside, then loud rustling as if men were hurrying
about through bushes, and at last, to my great relief, the man came
back.
"Thy servant struck the snake," he said, "and broke the staff; but so
much of it was outside that it darted back and crawled away before we
could get to the spot and find it. The creature has gone away to die."
"And now others will come, and that one too, if you have not killed it."
"No, my lord," he said. "That was the mate of the snake I killed. They
go two together, and there is no fear. I struck it so hard that it will
die, and the hole up there shall be fastened tightly."
To my great satisfaction, he bent down and took the serpent by the tail
and drew it out of the tent, and I heard him give orders to his
companions to drag it right away into the forest, and to bury it as soon
as it was day.
As he was talking, I was conscious of a peculiar, slightly musky odour
pervading the tent, and I was wondering what it could be, when the man
returned with two or three burning splints of some aromatic wood, which
gave forth a great deal of smoke, and he walked about the tent, waving
the pieces and holding them low down near the carpet where the serpent
had lain, and also along a track leading past the lamp to the side of
the tent where I had seen the shadowy form of the second serpent.
He busied himself in this way till the matches were pretty well burned
down, and then placed the ends in a little brass vessel, which he stood
on the carpet not far from my couch.