It seemed to me that, for the time being, Lieutenant Leigh was too much
of a soldier to let private matters and personal feelings of enmity
interfere with duty; and those two stood talking together for a good
half-hour, when, having apparently made their plans, fatigue-parties
were ordered out; and what I remember then thinking was a wise move, the
soldiers' wives and children in quarters were brought into the old
palace, since it was the only likely spot for putting into something
like a state of defence.
I have called it a palace, and I suppose that a rajah did once live in
it, but, mind you, it was neither a very large nor a very grand place,
being only a square of buildings, facing inward to a little courtyard,
entered by a gateway, after the fashion of no end of buildings in the
east.
Water we had in the tank, but provisions were brought in, and what sheep
there were. Fortunately, there was a good supply of hay, and that we
got in; but one thing we did not bargain for, and that was the company
of the great elephant, Nabob, he having been left behind. And what does
he do but come slowly up on those india-rubber cushion feet of his, and
walk through the gateway, his back actually brushing against the top;
and then, once in, he goes quietly over to where the hay was stacked,
and coolly enough begins eating!
The men laughed, and some jokes were made about his taking up a deal of
room, and I suppose, really, it was through Harry Lant that the great
beast came in; but no more was said then, we all being so busy, and not
one of us had the sense to see what a fearful strait that great
inoffensive animal might bring us to.
I believe we all forgot about the heat that day as we worked on, slaving
away at things that, in an ordinary way, we should have expected to be
done by the niggers. Food, ammunition, wood, particularly planks,
everything Captain Dyer thought likely to be of use; and soon a
breastwork was made inside the gateway; such lower windows as looked
outwards carefully nailed up, and loopholed for a shot at the enemy,
should any appear; and when night did come at last, peaceful and still,
the old palace was turned into a regular little fort.
We all knew that all this might be labour in vain, but all the same it
seemed to be our duty to get the place into as good a state of defence
as we could, and under orders we did it. But, after all, we knew well
enough that if the mutineers should bring up a small field-piece, they
could knock the place about our ears in no time. Our hope, though, was
that, at all events while our regiment was away, we might be unmolested,
for, if the enemy came in any number, what could eight-and-thirty men
do, hampered as they were with half-a-dozen children, and twice as many
women? Not that all the women were likely to hamper us, for there was
Mrs Bantem, busy as a bee, working here, comforting there, helping
women to make themselves snag in different rooms; and once, as she came
near me, she gave me one of her tremendous slaps on the back, her eyes
twinkling with pleasure, and the perspiration streaming down her face
the while. "Ike Smith," she says, "this is something like, isn't it?
But ask Captain Dyer to have that breastwork strengthened--there isn't
half enough of it. Glad Bantem hasn't gone. But, I say, only think of
that poor woman! I saw her just now crying, fit to break her poor
heart."
"What poor woman?" I said, staring hard.
"Why, the colonel's wife. Poor soul, it's pitiful to see her; it went
through me like a knife.--What! are you there, my pretties?" she cried,
flumping down on the stones as the colonel's two little ones came
running out. "Bless your pretty hearts, you'll come and say a word to
old Mother Bantem, won't you?"
"What's everybody tying about?" says the little girl, in her prattling
way. "I don't like people to ty. Has my ma been whipped, and Aunt
Elsie been naughty?"
"Look, look!" cries the boy excitedly; "dere's old Nabob!" And toddling
off, the next minute he was close to the great beast, his little sister
running after him, to catch hold of his hand; and there the little mites
stood close to, and staring up at the great elephant, as he kept on
amusing himself by twisting up a little hay in his trunk, and then
lightly scattering it over his back, to get rid of the flies--for what
nature could have been about to give him such a scrap of a tail, I can't
understand. He'd work it, and flip it about hard enough; but as to
getting rid of a fly, it's my belief that if insects can laugh, they
laughed at it, as they watched him from where they were buzzing about
the stone walls and windows in the hot sunshine.
The next minute, like a chorus, there came a scream from one of the
upper windows, one from another, and a sort of howl from Mrs Bantem,
and we all stood startled and staring, for what does Jenny Wren do, but,
in a staggering way, lift up her little brother for him to touch the
elephant's trunk, and then she stood laughing and clapping her hands
with delight, seeing no fear, bless her! as that long, soft trunk was
gently curled round the boy's waist, when he was drawn out of his
sister's arms; and then the great beast stood swinging the child to and
fro, now up a little way, now down between his legs, and him crowing and
laughing away all the while, as if it was the best fun that could be.
I believe we were all struck motionless; and it was like taking a hand
away from my throat to let me breathe once more, when I saw the elephant
gently drop the little fellow down on a heap of hay, but only for him to
scramble up, and run forward shouting: "Now 'gain, now 'gain;" and, as
if Nabob understood his little prattling, half-tied tongue, he takes him
up again, and swings him, just as there was a regular rush made, and
Mrs Colonel, Miss Ross, Lizzy, and the captain and lieutenant came up.
"For Heaven's sake, save the child!" cries Mrs Maine.--"Mr Leigh, pray
do something."
Miss Ross did not speak, but she looked at Captain Dyer; and those two
young men both went at the elephant directly, to get the child away;
but, in an instant, Nabob wheeled round, just the same as a stubborn
donkey would at home with a lot of boys teasing it; and then, as they
dodged round his great carcass, he trumpeted fiercely, and began to
shuffle off round the court.
I went up too, and so did Mrs Bantem, brave as a lion; but the great
beast only kept on making his loud snorting noise, and shuffled along,
with the boy in his trunk, swinging him backwards and forwards; and it
was impossible to help thinking of what would be the consequence if the
elephant should drop the little fellow, and then set on him one of his
great feet.
It seemed as if nothing could be done, and once the idea--wild enough
too--rushed into my head that it would be advisable to get a rifle put
to the great beast's ear, and fire, when Measles shouted out from where
he was on guard: "Here's Chunder coming!" and, directly after, with his
opal eyeballs rolling, and his dark, treacherous-looking face seeming to
me all wicked and pleased at what was going on, came the mahout, and
said a few words to the elephant, which stopped directly, and went down
upon its knees. Chunder then tried to take hold of the child, but
somehow that seemed to make the great beast furious, and, getting up
again, he began to grunt and make a noise after the fashion of a great
pig, going on now faster round the court, and sending those who had come
to look, and who stood in his way, fleeing in all directions.
Mrs Maine was half fainting, and, catching the little girl to her
breast, I saw her go down upon her knees and hide her face, expecting,
no doubt, every moment, that the next one would be her boy's last; and,
indeed, we were all alarmed now, for the more we tried to get the little
chap away, the fiercer the elephant grew; the only one who did not seem
to mind being the boy himself, though his sister now began to cry, and
in her little artless way I heard her ask her mother if the naughty
elephant would eat Clivey.
I've often thought since that if we'd been quiet, and left the beast
alone, he would soon have set the child down; and I've often thought,
too, that Mr Chunder could have got the boy away if he had liked, only
he did nothing but tease and irritate the elephant, which was not the
best of friends with him. But you will easily understand that there was
not much time for thought then.
I had been doing my best along with the others, and then stood thinking
what I could be at next, when I caught Lizzy Green's eye turned to me in
an appealing, reproachful sort of way, that seemed to say as plainly as
could be: "Can't you do anything?" when all at once Measles shouts out:
"'Arry, 'Arry!" and Harry Lant came up at the double, having been busy
carrying arms out of the guardroom rack.
It was at one and the same moment that Harry Lant saw what was wrong,
and that a cold dull chill ran through me, for I saw Lizzy clasp her
hands together in a sort of thankful way, and it seemed to me then, as
Harry ran up to the elephant, that he was always to be put before me,
and that I was nobody, and the sooner I was out of the way the better.
All the same, though, I couldn't help admiring the way Harry ran up to
the great brute, and did what none of us could manage. I quite hated
him, I know, but yet I was proud of my mate, as he went up and says
something to Nabob, and the elephant stands still. "Put him down," says
Harry, pointing to the ground; and the great flesh-mountain puts the
little fellow down. "Now then," says Harry, to the horror of the
ladies, "pick him up again;" and in a twinkling the great thing whips
the boy up once more. "Now, bring him up to the colonel's lady." Well,
if you'll believe me, if the great thing didn't follow Harry like a
lamb, and carry the child up to where, half fainting, knelt poor Mrs
Maine. "Now, put him down," says Harry; and the next moment little
Clive Maine--Cock Robin, as we called him--was being hugged to his
mother's breast. "Now, go down on your knees, and beg the lady's
pardon," says Harry laughing. Down goes the elephant, and stops there,
making a queer chuntering noise the while. "Says he's very sorry,
ma'am, and won't do so no more," says Harry, serious as a judge; and in
a moment, half laughing, half crying, Mrs Maine caught hold of Harry's
hand, and kissed it, and then held it for a moment to her breast,
sobbing hysterically as she did so.
"God bless you! You're a good man," she cried; and then she broke down
altogether; and Miss Ross, and Mrs Bantem, and Lizzy got round her, and
helped her in.
I could see that Harry was touched, for one of his lips shook; but he
tried to keep up the fun of the thing; and turning to the elephant, he
says out loud: "Now, get up, and go back to the hay; and don't you come
no more of those games, that's all."
The elephant got up directly, making a grunting noise as he did so.
"Why not?" says Harry, making-believe that that was what the great beast
said. "Because, if you do, I'll smash you. There!"
Officers and men, they all burst out laughing to see little Harry Lant--
a chap so little that he wouldn't have been in the regiment only that
men were scarce, and the standard was very low when he listed--to see
him standing shaking his fist at the great monster, one of whose legs
was bigger than Harry altogether--stand shaking his fist in its face,
and then take hold of the soft trunk and lead him away.
Perhaps I did, perhaps I didn't, but I thought I caught sight of a
glance passing between Lizzy Green, now at one window, and Harry,
leading off the elephant; but all the same I felt that jealous of him,
and to hate him so, that I could have quarrelled with him about nothing.
It seemed as if he was always to come before me in everything.
And I wasn't the only one jealous of Harry, for no sooner was the court
pretty well empty, than he came slowly up towards me, in spite of my
sour black looks, which he wouldn't notice: but before he could get to
me, Chunder Chow, the mahout, goes up to the elephant, muttering and
spiteful-like, with his hook-spear thing, that mahouts use to drive
with; and being, I suppose, put out and jealous, and annoyed at his
authority being taken away, and another man doing what he couldn't, he
gives the elephant a kick in the leg, and then hits him viciously with
his iron-hook thing.
Lord bless you! it didn't take an instant, and it seemed to me that the
elephant only gave that trunk of his a gentle swing against Chunder's
side, and he was a couple of yards off, rolling over and over in the
scattered hay.
Up he jumps, wild as wild; and the first thing he catches sight of is
Harry laughing fit to crack his sides, when Chunder rushes at him like a
mad bull.
I suppose he expected to see Harry turn tail and ran; but that being one
of those things not included in drill, and a British soldier having a
good deal of the machine about him, Harry stands fast, and Chunder pulls
up short, grinning, rolling his eyes, and twisting his hands about, just
for all the world like as if he was robbing a hen-roost, and wringing
all the chickens' necks.
"Didn't hurt much, did it, blacky?" says Harry coolly. But the mahout
couldn't speak for rage; but he kept spitting on the ground, and making
signs, till really his face was anything but pretty to look at. And
there he kept on, till, from laughing, Harry turned a bit nasty, for
there was some one looking out of a window; and from being half-amused
at what was going on, I once more felt all cold and bitter. But Harry
fires up now, and makes towards Mr Chunder, who begins to retreat; and
says Harry: "Now I tell you what it is, young man; I never did you any
ill turn; and if I choose to have a bit of fun with the elephant, it's
government property, and as much mine as yours. But look ye here--if
you come cussing, and spitting, and swearing at me again in your nasty
heathen dialect, why, if I don't--No," he says, stopping short, and
half-turning to me, "I can't black his eyes, Isaac, for they're black
enough already; but let him come any more of it, and, jiggermaree, if I
don't bung 'em."
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