A STRANGE RESCUE
Neither Muriel, absorbed in watching the wedding, nor the two men
engrossed in their dispute had noticed the Chinese come riding along the
road and pulling up when they saw the peasants gathered together. One of
them had been about to question the villagers from his saddle when his
eyes fell on the disguised girl standing apart from the crowd. He stared
at her for a few moments. Then he spoke hurriedly to his companions,
and, springing from the mule's back seized Muriel in a rough grasp.
At her cry Frank ran back, forgetting his disguise. He recognised in her
assailant the pock-marked officer of the _Amban_. The man, seeing him
coming, drew a revolver; but Wargrave whipped out his pistol quicker and
without hesitation shot him through the heart. The Chinaman collapsed to
the ground and in his fall dragged the girl down. His comrade fired at
his slayer and, missing him, wheeled his mule round and galloped off.
Tashi returned the shot while Frank ran to Muriel. He fired several
times and the rider was apparently hit; for he fell forward on the neck
of his animal; but he recovered himself and, crouching low, was still
in the saddle when a turn in the road hid him from sight.
The startled villagers scattered and fled in terror at the tragedy
suddenly enacted in their midst, the six cowardly husbands deserting
their new-made wife and leaving her to follow as they ran away, which
she did at her utmost speed.
Frank freed Muriel from the stiffened grasp of the dead man and helped
her to her feet; then the three hurried from the fatal spot, so lately
filled by a cheerful crowd of merrymakers and now tenanted only by the
corpse that lay with sightless eyes staring up at the blue sky. They
made for the shelter of jungle-clad hills that rose a couple of miles
away.
From now onwards, for two or three weeks, the fugitives led the lives of
hunted rats. They travelled generally only by night, avoiding villages
and farms, and keeping away from the road as much as possible. They were
in the southern zone of Bhutan lying nearest the Indian frontier, a
region of precipitous hills ten or twelve thousand feet high, their
sides clothed with dense vegetation, of deep, fever-laden valleys of
awe-inspiring gorges, of rivers liable to sudden floods and rising in a
few hours thirty or forty feet.
Tashi in various disguises occasionally visited villages in search of
food and information; while the lovers awaited his return in some hidden
spot, Frank holding the anxious girl in his arms and trying to calm her
fears. In one excursion the ex-lama got the first definite news of the
pursuit. He learned that the _Amban_ had returned unexpectedly to Tuna,
the plot in his favour in Pekin having failed. He was not satisfied by
the tales told by the monks of the lamasery to account for Muriel's
mysterious disappearance, which was that she had been carried off by
devils. He insisted on a search being made for her along the road to the
Indian border and sent his own Chinese guards to direct the pursuit. The
companion of the pock-marked man had got back to Tuna and told of their
recognition of her. Yuan Shi Hung, furious at the death of his officer
but overjoyed at the discovery of the girl, set out at once with his
personal followers and a body of the Penlop's soldiers to take up the
chase.
The fugitives, hotly pursued, had several hair-breadth escapes. Once
they almost blundered into a bivouac of their enemies at night. They
succeeded at last in reaching the great forest in which Wargrave and the
ex-lama had parted from the elephants, the forest which ran along the
foot and clothed the northern slopes of the second-last range of
mountains between them and the frontier. But alas! there was no trace of
Badshah's herd; yet this was not surprising, for they found themselves
in a part unknown to them. Through this vast jungle they travelled by
day, until one evening they reached a deep gorge that pierced the range
and seemed to promise a passage through the mountains.
They camped for the night by its mouth, intending to enter it at
sunrise. Dawn found them breaking their fast on a scanty meal of dried
mutton and bananas. Suddenly Tashi stopped eating and held up a warning
hand. His companions drew their pistols, Frank having given his second
weapon to Muriel. Presently they heard the faint sounds of an animal's
approach on their track. Just as they had risen silently to their feet
three gigantic dogs appeared, scenting their trail. They were Tibetan
mastiffs, such as are to be seen chained in the court yards of
lamaseries. At sight of them the huge brutes stopped, crouched for an
instant, showing their fangs in a fierce snarl, and then rushed at them.
Without hesitation the three fired. One of the dogs dropped dead; but
the others, though wounded, came on. One bounded at Muriel. Frank threw
himself in front of her, firing rapidly at it. Several bullets struck
it, but the savage brute sprang at his throat. He grappled with it,
striving by main strength to hold it off. Muriel rushed to his aid and
putting her pistol to the mastiff's head shot it dead. Tashi meantime
had killed the third.
Knowing that their pursuers must be close behind the dogs they fled into
the gorge. On either hand stupendous cliffs towered up two thousand feet
above them, scarcely a hundred yards apart, seeming to meet overhead
and shut off the sky. Here and there the giant walls were split from top
to bottom in slits opening off the main passage. As the fugitives ran on
the gorge narrowed until it was scarcely fifty yards wide, and they
began to fear that it might prove only a _cul-de-sac_ in which they
would be hopelessly trapped. They heard cries behind them, strangely
echoed by the rocky walls. Breathless, panting, their tired limbs giving
way under them, they staggered blindly on.
The pass turned sharply to the right. As they approached the bend they
became aware of a dull rumbling, and the ground, which suddenly began to
slope steeply down, shook violently under their feet. Wondering what new
danger, what fresh horror, awaited them they stumbled on, turned the
corner and stopped short in dismayed despair.
From side to side the gorge was filled with a tumultuous, racing flood
of foam-flecked water, a rushing river that poured out of a natural
tunnel in the steeply sloping rocky bottom of the pass as from a sluice.
It surged against the precipitous cliffs, leaping up against the walls
that hemmed it in, sweeping in mad onset of white-topped waves and
eddying whirlpools flinging spray high in air. The stoutest swimmer
would be tossed about helplessly in it, rolled over and over, choked,
suffocated, sucked under, the life beaten out of him.
For one wild moment Frank thought of seizing Muriel in his arms and
springing into the raging flood, but the sheer hopelessness of escape
that way checked him. It was certain death. Better to turn and face
their pursuers. There was more chance of life in battling with a score
or two of Bhutanese swordsmen than with the tumbling, tossing waters.
So, pistol in hand, the three retraced their steps, looking everywhere
for a suitable spot to make a stand. But on either hand the cliffs rose
sheer, their faces seamed here and there with cracks, but with never a
crevice big enough to shelter them. They passed the bend; and a few
hundred yards beyond it some large rocks fallen from the cliff on one
side lay close against its base.
Frank resolved to take their stand here. It was the only cover visible.
They fitted the holster-stocks to their pistols, converting them into
carbines which could be fired from the shoulder, enabling them to aim
more accurately at a longer range. Then while Tashi crept cautiously
along the pass to scout, the subaltern and the girl examined the
position for defence. Thus occupied they were startled by shots ringing
out, echoing down the vast canyon. Taking cover they saw their companion
running back followed by a body of men, a few mounted, the majority on
foot. Some had fire-arms, others bows, the rest swords.
Wargrave and Muriel opened on the pursuers with their automatic weapons
and checked them. Tashi was about a hundred yards from shelter when a
shot struck him. He stumbled and fell, while a howl of delight rose from
his foes. As he tried to struggle up bullets kicked up the dust round
him and several arrows dropped near.
"Muriel, loose off as many cartridges as you can to cover me," said
Wargrave, laying his pistol beside her.
Before the girl realised his meaning he had sprung out from the rocks
and was running towards Tashi. For a moment the pursuers were puzzled by
his action and then fired their rifles and matchlocks and shot arrows at
him. But unscathed he reached the wounded man who had been so faithful a
comrade to him. Raising him on his back he staggered towards the rocks,
while Muriel pumped lead at the enemy and succeeded in keeping down
their fire somewhat. As Wargrave laid the ex-lama on the ground in
shelter Tashi seized his hand and touched it with his lips and forehead
in silent gratitude. Frank hurriedly examined and bandaged the wound
made by a large-calibre bullet, which had passed through the leg below
the knee, lacerating the muscles but not injuring the bone. Then he took
up his post again, while Tashi dragged himself up behind a rock and
opened fire on their foes.
These were for the most part Bhutanese, but there were several Chinese
among them.
"Look! Look, Frank! There's the _Amban_," cried Muriel excitedly,
pointing to a man who rode into sight along the pass on a white mule.
She fired at him. The bullet missed him but apparently went unpleasantly
close, for Yuan Shi Hung galloped back into shelter behind a projecting
buttress of the cliffs.
The attackers numbered sixty or eighty. They were apparently staggered
by the rapid fire poured into them, which killed or wounded several of
them. Some tried to find shelter by huddling against the side of the
pass and others flung themselves on the ground behind boulders; but the
leaders urged them on.
There could be little doubt as to the issue of the fight. The bullets
from the Chinamen's rifles and the Bhutanese matchlocks spattered the
rocks or the face of the cliff; but the archers began to shoot almost
vertically into the air from their strong bamboo bows, and several
iron-tipped, four-feathered arrows dropped behind the cover, one missing
Wargrave by a hand's breadth.
Fearing for Muriel he tried to shield her with his body.
"What's the use, dearest?" she said. "If you are killed I don't want to
live. Indeed, we must both die now. I shall not be taken alive. Kiss me
and tell me once more that you love me."
He held her to his heart in a passionate embrace and kissed her fondly.
"They are coming now, sahib," said Tashi. "And I have only a few
cartridges left."
The lovers paid no heed.
"Goodbye, my dear, dear love," whispered Muriel, "I'm happier dying with
you than living without you."
Frank kissed her, solemnly now, for the last time. Then they turned to
face the enemy. The swordsmen were massing for a charge. Crouching low
they held their shields before them and waved their long-bladed _dahs_
above their heads, uttering fierce yells.
Suddenly the _Amban_ and other mounted men who had been sheltering out
of sight dashed into view and rode madly into the rear ranks, knocking
down and trampling on anyone in their way. The men on foot looked behind
and broke into a run, coming on in a disordered mob. But it was not a
charge--it was more like a panic. For with wild cries of frantic terror
they fled past the defenders who, fearing a trick, fired their last
cartridges into them, dropping several, some of whom tried to rise and
drag themselves on in dread of something terrible behind.
Then into sight came a vast herd of wild elephants, filling the gorge
from cliff to cliff and moving at a slow trot. A huge bull led them,
lines of other tuskers behind him, crowds of females and calves
bringing up the rear. The onset of the mass of great monsters was
terrifying. It was appalling, irresistible.
Muriel cried out:
"It's Badshah! Frank, it's Badshah! Look at the leader! Don't you see?"
Tashi stared at the oncoming herd. Then he quietly unfixed his pistol
and put it away in the holster.
"We are saved, sahib," he said with the calm fatalism of the East. "The
God of the Elephants has sent them."
And he limped out from behind the rocks. The two Europeans followed him.
Their foes had disappeared, all but the dead and wounded.
Badshah--for it was he--swerved out of his course and came to them,
while the herd went on, opening out to pass him as he sank to his knees
before the humans. Tashi, despite his wound, climbed on to his neck,
while Wargrave mounted behind him and Muriel took her seat on the broad
back, clinging to her lover. Then the tusker rose and moved swiftly
after the herd.
As he rounded the bend a strange sight met the eyes of those he carried.
Their enemies were huddled together in terror near the brink of the
tunnel from which the surging water rushed out. Some endeavoured to
pluck up courage to throw themselves into the river, while the majority
had turned to face the elephants. But they were paralysed with fright. A
few tried to discharge their fire-arms or loosed their arrows with
trembling hands. As the elephants, quickening their pace, rushed on in
an irresistible mass some of the men, crazed with fright, ran to meet
them. Others flung themselves to the ground where they were.
But over both the great monsters passed, treading them to pulp under the
ponderous feet. The animals of the mounted men, as terrified as their
riders, swung about and sprang headlong into the river. Many of the men
on foot did the same. The heads of animals and men appeared and
disappeared, bobbing up and down, then their bodies were rolled over and
over, tossed up on the waves and sucked under. One by one they
disappeared.
A few of the panic-stricken mob had tried to climb the precipitous
cliffs in vain. One, however, getting his hands into a narrow, slanting
crack, dragged himself up a few feet.
It was the _Amban_. Frank drew his pistol; but Muriel clung to his arm
and cried:
"Oh, spare the poor wretch!"
Tashi had no scruples, but his magazine was empty and he searched in
vain for a cartridge.
But Yuan Shi Hung's time had come. Badshah's trunk shot out and caught
the climber's ankle. The Chinaman was plucked from the face of the cliff
and hurled to the ground. A frenzied shriek burst from him as the tusk
was driven into his shuddering body, which in an instant was trodden to
a bloody pulp. Muriel hid her face against her lover, but the agony of
the wretch's dying yell rang in her ears.
Not one of their enemies was left alive. Then the elephants one by one
slid and slithered down into the rushing water which was very little
below the brink. The mothers supported the youngest calves with their
trunks, the less immature climbing on to their backs. Tashi checked
Badshah as he was about to follow the herd into the river and, lame as
he was, slid down to the ground. He searched the crushed and mangled
corpses of his fellow-countrymen and collected their girdles until he
had enough to knot and plait into two ropes, one to go about Badshah's
neck, the other around the great body. More girdles sufficed to join
these together and supply cords by which the men and the woman on his
back could tie themselves on to the ropes and to each other securely.
When this was done Badshah slid into the river. As elephants do he sank
in the water until only the upper part of his head and the tip of his
upraised trunk were above it. Without the precaution that Tashi had
taken his riders would have been instantly swept away.
Only elephants could have battled successfully with that raging torrent.
The upflung spray and leaping waves hid the herd from the fugitives as
they clung desperately to the ropes and to each other.
* * * * *
Eighteen months had gone by. In the garden of the Political Agent's
bungalow in Ranga Duar Colonel Dermot, completely restored to health,
and his wife stood with his Assistant, Major Hunt and Macdonald. They
were watching Mrs. Wargrave who, with Brian and Eileen clinging to her,
was holding out her two months' old baby to a great elephant with a
single tusk. The animal raised its trunk as though in salute, then,
lowering it, gently touched with its sensitive tip the laughing infant
whose tiny hand instinctively clutched it and held it fast.
With a smile Muriel turned her head and looked at her husband.
"Badshah has accepted him. Your son is free of the herd," said Colonel
Dermot.