"AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN."
[Footnote: From "Under the Deodars," by Rudyard Kipling.
Copyright, 1899, by Rudyard Kipling. Reprinted by special
permission of Doubleday, Page and Company.]
His full name was Percival William Williams, but he picked up the
other name in a nursery-book, and that was the end of the
christened titles. His mother's ayah called him Willie-Baba, but
as he never paid the faintest attention to anything that the ayah
said, her wisdom did not help matters.
His father was the Colonel of the 195th, and as soon as Wee Willie
Winkie was old enough to understand what Military Discipline
meant, Colonel Williams put him under it. There was no other way
of managing the child. When he was good for a week, he drew good-
conduct pay; and when he was bad, he was deprived of his good-
conduct stripe. Generally he was bad, for India offers many
chances of going wrong to little six-year-olds.
Children resent familiarity from strangers, and Wee Willie Winkie
was a very particular child. Once he accepted an acquaintance, he
was graciously pleased to thaw. He accepted Brandis, a subaltern
of the 195th, on sight. Brandis was having tea at the Colonel's,
and Wee Willie Winkie entered strong in the possession of a good-
conduct badge won for not chasing the hens round the compound. He
regarded Brandis with gravity for at least ten minutes, and then
delivered himself of his opinion.
"I like you," said he slowly, getting off his chair and coming
over to Brandis. "I like you. I shall call you Coppy, because of
your hair. Do you MIND being called Coppy? It is because of ye
hair, you know."
Here was one of the most embarrassing of Wee Willie Winkie's
peculiarities. He would look at a stranger for some time, and
then, without warning, or explanation, would give him a name. And
the name stuck. No regimental penalties could break Wee Willie
Winkie of this habit. He lost his good-conduct badge for
christening the Commissioner's wife "Pobs"; but nothing that the
Colonel could do made the Station forego the nickname, and Mrs.
Collen remained "Pobs" till the end of her stay. So Brandis was
christened "Coppy," and rose, therefore, in the estimation of the
regiment.
If Wee Willie Winkie took an interest in any one, the fortunate
man was envied alike by the mess and the rank and file. And in
their envy lay no suspicion of self-interest. "The Colonel's son"
was idolized on his own merits entirely. Yet Wee Willie Winkie was
not lovely. His face was permanently freckled, as his legs were
permanently scratched, and in spite of his mother's almost tearful
remonstrances he had insisted upon having his long yellow locks
cut short in the military fashion. "I want my hair like Sergeant
Tummil's," said Wee Willie Winkie, and, his father abetting, the
sacrifice was accomplished.
Three weeks after the bestowal of his youthful affections on
Lieutenant Brandis--henceforward to be called "Coppy" for the sake
of brevity--Wee Willie Winkie was destined to behold strange
things and far beyond his comprehension.
Coppy returned his liking with interest. Coppy had let him wear
for five rapturous minutes his own big sword--just as tall as Wee
Willie Winkie. Coppy had promised him a terrier puppy, and Coppy
had permitted him to witness the miraculous operation of shaving.
Nay, more--Coppy had said that even he, Wee Willie Winkie, would
rise in time to the ownership of a box of shiny knives, a silver
soap-box, and a silver-handled "sputter-brush," as Wee Willie
Winkie called it. Decidedly, there was no one except his own
father, who could give or take away good-conduct badges at
pleasure, half so wise, strong, and valiant as Coppy with the
Afghan and Egyptian medals on his breast. Why, then, should Coppy
be guilty of the unmanly weakness of kissing--vehemently kissing--
a "big girl," Miss Allardyce to wit? In the course of a morning
ride Wee Willie Winkie had seen Coppy so doing, and, like the
gentleman he was, had promptly wheeled round and cantered back to
his groom, lest the groom should also see.
Under ordinary circumstances he would have spoken to his father,
but he felt instinctively that this was a matter on which Coppy
ought first to be consulted.
"Coppy," shouted Wee Willie Winkie, reining up outside that
subaltern's bungalow early one morning--"I want to see you,
Coppy!"
"Come in, young 'un," returned Coppy, who was at early breakfast
in the midst of his dogs. "What mischief have you been getting
into now?"
Wee Willie Winkie had done nothing notoriously bad for three days,
and so stood on a pinnacle of virtue.
"_I_'VE been doing nothing bad," said he, curling himself into a
long chair with a studious affectation of the Colonel's languor
after a hot parade. He buried his freckled nose in a tea-cup and,
with eyes staring roundly over the rim, asked: "I say, Coppy, is
it pwoper to kiss big girls?"
"By Jove! You're beginning early. Who do you want to kiss?"
"No one. My muvver's always kissing me if I don't stop her. If it
isn't pwoper, how was you kissing Major Allardyce's big girl last
morning, by ve canal?"
Coppy's brow wrinkled. He and Miss Allardyce had with great craft
managed to keep their engagement secret for a fortnight. There
were urgent and imperative reasons why Major Allardyce should not
know how matters stood for at least another month, and this small
marplot had discovered a great deal too much.
"I saw you," said Wee Willie Winkie calmly. "But ve sais didn't
see. I said, 'Hut jao!'"
"Oh, you had that much sense, you young Rip," groaned poor Coppy,
half amused and half angry. "And how many people may you have told
about it?"
"Only me myself. You didn't tell when I twied to wide ve buffalo
ven my pony was lame; and I fought you wouldn't like."
"Winkie," said Coppy enthusiastically, shaking the small hand,
"you're the best of good fellows. Look here, you can't understand
all these things. One of these days--hang it, how can I make you
see it!--I'm going to marry Miss Allardyce, and then she'll be
Mrs. Coppy, as you say. If your young mind is so scandalized at
the idea of kissing big girls, go and tell your father."
"What will happen?" said Wee Willie Winkie, who firmly believed
that his father was omnipotent.
"I shall get into trouble," said Coppy, playing his trump card
with an appealing look at the holder of the ace.
"Ven I won't," said Wee Willie Winkie briefly. "But my faver says
it's un-man-ly to be always kissing, and I didn't fink YOU'D do
vat, Coppy."
"I'm not always kissing, old chap. It's only now and then, and
when you're bigger you'll do it too. Your father meant it's not
good for little boys."
"Ah!" said Wee Willie Winkie, now fully enlightened. "It's like ve
sputter-brush?"
"Exactly," said Coppy gravely.
"But I don't fink I'll ever want to kiss big girls, nor no one,
'cept my muvver. And I MUST do vat, you know."
There was a long pause, broken by Wee Willie Winkie.
"Are you fond of vis big girl, Coppy?"
"Awfully!" said Coppy.
"Fonder van you are of Bell or ve Butcha--or me?"
"It's in a different way," said Coppy. "You see, one of these days
Miss Allerdyce will belong to me, but you'll grow up and command
the Regiment and--all sorts of things. It's quite different, you
see."
"Very well," said Wee Willie Winkie, rising. "If you're fond of ve
big girl, I won't tell any one. I must go now."
Coppy rose and escorted his small guest to the door, adding--
"You're the best of little fellows, Winkie. I tell you what. In
thirty days from now you can tell if you like--tell any one you
like."
Thus the secret of the Brandis-Allardyce engagement was dependent
on a little child's word. Coppy, who knew Wee Willie Winkie's idea
of truth, was at ease, for he felt that he would not break
promises. Wee Willie Winkie betrayed a special and unusual
interest in Miss Allardyce, and, slowly revolving round that
embarrassed young lady, was used to regard her gravely with
unwinking eye. He was trying to discover why Coppy should have
kissed her. She was not half so nice as his own mother. On the
other hand, she was Coppy's property, and would in time belong to
him. Therefore it behooved him to treat her with as much respect
as Coppy's big sword or shiny pistol.
The idea that he shared a great secret in common with Coppy kept
Wee Willie Winkie unusually virtuous for three weeks. Then the Old
Adam broke out, and he made what he called a "camp-fire" at the
bottom of the garden. How could be have foreseen that the flying
sparks would have lighted the Colonel's little hay-rick and
consumed a week's store for the horses? Sudden and swift was the
punishment--deprivation of the good-conduct badge and, most
sorrowful of all, two days' confinement to barracks--the house and
veranda--coupled with the withdrawal of the light of his father's
countenance.
He took the sentence like the man he strove to be, drew himself up
with a quivering under-lip, saluted, and, once clear of the room,
ran to weep bitterly in his nursery--called by him "my quarters."
Coppy came in the afternoon and attempted to console the culprit.
"I'm under awwest," said Wee Willie Winkie mournfully, "and I
didn't ought to speak to you."
Very early the next morning he climbed on to the roof of the
house--that was not forbidden--and beheld Miss Allardyce going for
a ride.
"Where are you going?" cried Wee Willie Winkie.
"Across the river," she answered, and trotted forward.
Now the cantonment in which the 195th lay was bounded on the north
by a river--dry in the winter. From his earliest years, Wee Willie
Winkie had been forbidden to go across the river, and had noted
that even Coppy--the almost almighty Coppy--had never set foot
beyond it. Wee Willie Winkie had once been read to, out of a big
blue book, the history of the Princess find the Goblins--a most
wonderful tale of a land where the Goblins were always warring
with the children of men until they were defeated by one Curdie.
Ever since that date it seemed to him that the bare black and
purple hills across the river were inhabited by Goblins, and, in
truth, every one had said that there lived the Bad Men. Even in
his own house the lower halves of the windows were covered with
green paper on account of the Bad Men who might, if allowed clear
view, fire into peaceful drawing-rooms and comfortable bedrooms.
Certainly, beyond the river, which was the end of all the Earth,
lived the Bad Men. And here was Major Allardyce's big girl,
Coppy's property, preparing to venture into their borders! What
would Coppy say if anything happened to her? If the Goblins ran
off with her as they did with Curdie's Princess? She must at all
hazards be turned back.
The house was still. Wee Willie Winkie reflected for a moment on
the very terrible wrath of his father, and then--broke his arrest!
It was a crime unspeakable. The low sun threw his shadow, very
large and very black, on the trim garden-paths, as he went down to
the stables and ordered his pony. It seemed to him in the hush of
the dawn that all the big world had been bidden to stand still and
look at Wee Willie Winkie guilty of mutiny. The drowsy sais gave
him his mount, and, since the one great sin made all others
insignificant, Wee Willie Winkie said that he was going to ride
over to Coppy Sahib, and went out at a foot-pace, stepping on the
soft mould of the flower-borders.
The devastating track of the pony's feet was the last misdeed that
cut him off from all sympathy of Humanity. He turned into the
road, leaned forward, and rode as fast as the pony could put foot
to the ground in the direction of the river.
But the liveliest of twelve-two ponies can do little against the
long canter of a Waler. Miss Allardyce was far ahead, had passed
through the crops, beyond the Police-posts, when all the guards
were asleep, and her mount was scattering the pebbles of the
river-bed as Wee Willie Winkie left the cantonment and British
India behind him. Bowed forward and still flogging, Wee Willie
Winkie shot into Afghan territory, and could just see Miss
Allardyce a black speck flickering across the stony plain. The
reason of her wandering was simple enough. Coppy, in a tone of
too-hastily-assumed authority, had told her over night that she
must not ride out by the river. And she had gone to prove her own
spirit and teach Coppy a lesson.
Almost at the foot of the inhospitable hills, Wee Willie Winkie
saw the Waler blunder and come down heavily. Miss Allardyce
struggled clear, but her ankle had been severely twisted, and she
could not stand. Having fully shown her spirit, she wept, and was
surprised by the apparition of a white, wide-eyed child in khaki,
on a nearly spent pony.
"Are you badly, badly hurted?" shouted Wee Willie Winkie, as soon
as he was within range. "You didn't ought to be here."
"I don't know," said Miss Allardyce ruefully, ignoring the
reproof. "Good gracious, child, what are YOU doing here?"
"You said you was going acwoss ve wiver," panted Wee Willie
Winkie, throwing himself off his pony. "And nobody--not even
Coppy--must go acwoss ve wiver, and I came after you ever so hard,
but you wouldn't stop, and now you've hurted yourself, and Coppy
will be angwy wiv me, and--I've bwoken my awwest! I've bwoken my
awwest!"
The future Colonel of the 195th sat down and sobbed. In spite of
the pain in her ankle, the girl was moved.
"Have you ridden all the way from cantonments, little man? What
for?"
"You belonged to Coppy. Coppy told me so!" wailed Wee Willie
Winkie disconsolately. "I saw him kissing you, and he said he was
fonder of you van Bell or ve Butcha or me. And so I came. You must
get up and come back. You didn't ought to be here. Vis is a bad
place, and I've bwoken my awwest."
"I can't move, Winkie," said Miss Allardyce, with a groan. "I've
hurt my foot. What shall I do?"
She showed a readiness to weep anew, which steadied Wee Willie
Winkie, who had been brought up to believe that tears were the
depth of unmanliness. Still, when one is as great a sinner as Wee
Willie Winkie, even a man may be permitted to break down.
"Winkie," said Miss Allardyce, "when you've rested a little, ride
back and tell them to send out something to carry me back in. It
hurts fearfully."
The child sat still for a little time, and Miss Allardyce closed
her eyes; the pain was nearly making her faint. She was roused by
Wee Willie Winkie tying up the reins on his pony's neck and
setting it free with a vicious cut of his whip that made it
whicker. The little animal headed towards the cantonments.
"Oh, Winkie! What are you doing?"
"Hush!" said Wee Willie Winkie. "Vere's a man coming--one of ve
Bad Men. I must stay wiv you. My faver says a man must ALWAYS look
after a girl. Jack will go home, and ven vey'll come and look for
us. Vat's why I let him go."
Not one man, but two or three, had appeared from behind the rocks
of the hills, and the heart of Wee Willie Winkie sank within him,
for just in this manner were the Goblins wont to steal out and vex
Curdie's soul. Thus had they played in Curdie's garden (he had
seen the picture), and thus had they frightened the Princess's
nurse. He heard them talking to each other, and recognized with
joy the bastard Pushto that he had picked up from one of his
father's grooms lately dismissed. People who spoke that tongue
could not be the Bad Men. They were only natives, after all.
They came up to the boulders on which Miss Allardyce's horse had
blundered.
Then rose from the rock Wee Willie Winkie, child of the Dominant
Race, aged six and three-quarters, and said briefly and
emphatically, "Jao!" The pony had crossed the river-bed.
The man laughed, and laughter from natives was the one thing Wee
Willie Winkie could not tolerate. He asked them what they wanted
and why they did not depart. Other men with most evil faces and
crooked-stocked guns crept out of the shadows of the hills, till,
soon, Wee Willie Winkie was face to face with an audience some
twenty strong. Miss Allardyce screamed.
"Who are you?" said one of the men.
"I am the Colonel Sahib's son, and my order is that you go at
once. You black men are frightening the Miss Sahib. One of you
must run into cantonments and take the news that the Miss Sahib
has hurt herself, and that the Colonel's son is here with her."
"Put our feet into the trap?" was the laughing reply. "Hear this
boy's speech!"
"Say that I sent you--I, the Colonel's son. They will give you
money."
"What is the use of this talk? Take up the child and the girl, and
we can at least ask for the ransom. Ours are the villages on the
heights," said a voice in the background.
These WERE the Bad Men--worse than Goblins--and it needed all Wee
Willie Winkie's training to prevent him from bursting into tears.
But he felt that to cry before a native, excepting only his
mother's ayah, would be an infamy greater than any mutiny.
Moreover, he, as future Colonel of the 195th, had that grim
regiment at his back.
"Are you going to carry us away?" said Wee Willie Winkie, very
blanched and uncomfortable.
"Yes, my little Sahib Bahadur," said the tallest of the men, "and
eat you afterwards."
"That is child's talk," said Wee Willie Winkie. "Men do not eat
men."
A yell of laughter interrupted him, but he went on firmly--"And if
you do carry us away, I tell you that all my regiment will come up
in a day and kill you all without leaving one. Who will take my
message to the Colonel Sahib?"
Speech in any vernacular--and Wee Willie Winkie had a colloquial
acquaintance with three--was easy to the boy who could not yet
manage his "r's" and "th's" aright.
Another man joined the conference, crying, "O foolish men! What
this babe says is true. He is the heart's heart of those white
troops. For the sake of peace let them go both, for if he be
taken, the regiment will break loose and gut the valley. OUR
villages are in the valley, and we shall not escape. That regiment
are devils. They broke Khoda Yar's breastbone with kicks when he
tried to take the rifles; and if we touch this child they will
fire and rape and plunder for a month till nothing remains. Better
to send a man back to take the message and get a reward. I say
that this child is their God, and that they will spare none of us,
nor our women, if we harm him."
It was Din Mahommed, the dismissed groom of the Colonel, who made
the diversion, and an angry and heated discussion followed. Wee
Willie Winkie, standing over Miss Allardyce, waited the upshot.
Surely his "wegiment," his own "wegiment," would not desert him if
they knew of his extremity.
The riderless pony brought the news to the 195th, though there had
been consternation in the Colonel's household for an hour before.
The little beast came in through the parade-ground in front of the
main barracks, where the men were settling down to play Spoil-five
till the afternoon. Devlin, the Color-Sergeant of E Company,
glanced at the empty saddle and tumbled through the barrack-rooms,
kicking up each Room Corporal as he passed. "Up, ye beggars!
There's something happened to the Colonel's son," he shouted.
"He couldn't fall off! S'help me, 'e COULDN'T fall off," blubbered
a drummer-boy. "Go an' hunt acrost the river. He's over there if
he's anywhere, an' maybe those Pathans have got 'im. For the love
o' Gawd don't look for 'im in the nullahs! Let's go over the
river."
"There's sense in Mott yet," said Devlin. "E Company, double out
to the river--sharp!"
So E Company, in its shirt-sleeves mainly, doubled for the dear
life, and in the rear toiled the perspiring Sergeant, adjuring it
to double yet faster. The cantonment was alive with the men of the
195th hunting for Wee Willie Winkie, and the Colonel finally
overtook E Company, far too exhausted to swear, struggling in the
pebbles of the river-bed.
Up the hill under which Wee Willie Winkie's Bad Men were
discussing the wisdom of carrying off the child and the girl, a
look-out fired two shots.
"What have I said?" shouted Din Mahommed. "There is the warning!
The pulton are out already and are coming across the plain! Get
away! Let us not be seen with the boy!"
The men waited for an instant, and then, as another shot was
fired, withdrew into the hills, silently as they had appeared.
"The wegiment is coming," said Wee Willie Winkie confidently to
Miss Allardyce, "and it's all wight. Don't cwy!"
He needed the advice himself, for ten minutes later, when his
father came up, he was weeping bitterly with his head in Miss
Allardyce's lap.
And the men of the 195th carried him home with shouts and
rejoicings; and Coppy, who had ridden a horse into a lather, met
him, and, to his intense disgust, kissed him openly in the
presence of the men.
But there was balm for his dignity. His father assured him that
not only would the breaking of arrest be condoned, but that the
good-conduct badge would be restored as soon as his mother could
sew it on his blouse-sleeve. Miss Allardyce had told the Colonel a
story that made him proud of his son.
"She belonged to you, Coppy," said Wee Willie Winkie, indicating
Miss Allardyce with a grimy fore-finger. "I KNEW she didn't ought
to go acwoss ve wiver, and I knew ve wegiment would come to me if
I sent Jack home."
"You're a hero, Winkie," said Coppy--"a pukka hero!"
"I don't know what vat means," said Wee Willie Winkie, "but you
mustn't call me Winkie any no more. I'm Percival Will'am
Will'ams."
And in this manner did Wee Willie Winkie enter into his manhood.