"My lord was restless, and sleeping ill. The tent was hot, and the
great drops were on his face, so I opened the side to let in the light."
He ceased speaking, and I uttered a sigh of relief as all the feverish
vision of the night passed away, the sensation of rest and comfort
growing stronger as he clapped his hands, and the other men came in
bearing a large brass basin full of cool fresh water, with which my face
was bathed with all the care and solicitude that would have been shown
by a woman.
Then followed my medicine, and, soon after, coffee and sweet cakes,
preparatory to a real breakfast later on, to which I found that I could
pay greater attention, eating so that the man smiled with satisfaction.
"My lord is getting well," he said. And I gave my head a feeble nod.
"Tell me whereabouts we are," I said at last.
He shook his head. "I am only to tell you that you are in my lord the
rajah's care," he replied.
"Well, I can guess," I replied. "I can hear nothing of people; there is
no town near; and I know from the noises made by birds and beasts, and
by the coming of those serpents, that we must be in the forest. I am at
some hunting-station, I suppose. Look here," I continued, as the man
remained silent, "tell me where the English soldiers are."
"I cannot, my lord. I do not know," he replied.
"It is of no use to ask you anything," I cried pettishly. "Yes, it is;
you can tell me this--what is your name?"
"Salaman, my lord," he replied, with a smile.
"Humph!" I said sourly, for I was getting into an invalid's tetchy,
weary state. "Salaman! why couldn't they call you Solomon? That's the
proper way to pronounce it."
"My lord can call me Solomon," he said quietly.
"Of course I can," I said, "and I will. Then look here, Solomon, did
you bury that great snake?"
"Yes, my lord, as soon as it was light, and the others found and killed
its mate. They are now dead, and covered with the earth."
"That's right. No fear of their getting out?" I added, as I remembered
my dream.
He laughed and shook his head.
"Tell me this too; the rajah, will he be here to-day?"
"Who can say, my lord? His highness is master, and he goes and comes as
he pleases. Perhaps he will come, perhaps he will not. I never know."
"The doctor, then; will he be here?"
"Oh yes, my lord, and soon."
He left the tent, and I lay thinking again, ready to quarrel with
everything, for my arm pained me, and my head felt stiff and sore.
"I wish he'd speak in a plain, matter-of-fact way," I grumbled to
myself. "I'm sick of being `my lorded' and bowed down to. I always
feel as if I could kick a fellow over when he bows down to me as if I
were one of their precious idols."
Then I laughed to myself long and heartily, for I knew that I must be
getting better by my irritable ways. And now I forced myself into
thinking about our position as English rulers of the land, and wondered
whether it would be possible for our power to be overthrown. Then came
on a feverish desire to know where Brace was, and in what kind of
condition his men were, and those of the colonel.
"It seems hard that they do not come and try to rescue me," I thought.
"Brace would come fast enough," I added spitefully, "if I were a gun."
This idea seemed so comic in its disagreeable tone, and so thoroughly
due to my state of weakness and unreason, that I laughed silently.
"How precious ill-tempered I am!" I said to myself.
A moment later I was wondering about the fate of those dear to me at
Nussoor--whether my father was still there, and whether there had been
any rising in his neighbourhood.
Directly after I came to the conclusion that his regiment would
certainly have been called away, and I hoped that he had made
arrangements for my mother and sister to go back to England; and then I
was marvelling at the rapid way in which my thoughts ran excitedly from
one subject to the other.
"It is all through being so weak, I suppose," I said to myself; and then
I began eagerly to listen, for I could hear trampling.
Feeling certain that it was the rajah, and making up my mind to speak
quietly to him, and ask him to try and exchange me for some other
prisoner, I lay with my eyes fixed upon the open side of the tent, to
see directly after the tall, stately figure of the grey-bearded
physician, who came to my side in his customary sedate fashion, and
knelt down to examine and dress my injuries, which he declared to be in
a perfectly satisfactory state. But, all the same, they pained me a
great deal during the time he was unbandaging and covering them afresh.
I plied him with questions all the time--as to how long it would be
before I was well; how soon I might sit up; how soon I might go out in a
palanquin, and the like; all of which he answered in the same grave way,
but when I turned the question to the state of the country, and asked
for information about our troop, and the late battle, he shook his head
and smiled gravely.
"I am the rajah's physician," he said, "and my duties are with the sick.
I can tell you no more."
"But tell me this," I said eagerly; "where are our people now?"
"I only know about my own people," he replied, with a smile. "You are
one of them, and you are troubling your brain about matters that you
cannot deal with now, so be at rest."
I made an impatient gesture, and he laid his hand upon my brow, saying
gently--
"Be at rest. You will learn all these things in time. You have but one
duty now--to get well."
There was only one other resource left to me--to get an answer somehow
from the rajah when he came; and upon the doctor leaving, I lay there
impatiently listening for the visitor who would, I was sure, come before
long, though whether I should get my information appeared doubtful
indeed.