Captain Swinton and Lord Victor remained with Finnerty for dinner, and
after that meal, sitting on the verandah, the latter asked: "What sort
of bally charm did that shikari repeat when he made that ripping address
to the tiger, major?"
Finnerty looked at Swinton and the latter nodded violently; but the
major answered curtly: "I forget."
"Oh, I say! I want to know, old top--it'll go well when I tell the story
in London." He turned to Swinton. "Captain, perhaps your memory is
better."
"If you must know," Swinton answered, in mock resignation--for he was
most anxious to interpret the native's words--"Mahadua told the tiger to
play the game, for Finnerty had purposely put down his rifle, taken up
the shotgun, and fired over his head to spare his life."
"That's when you made the fumble in the howdah, eh, major? It would have
been quite on the cards for him to have mauled you to-day. You should
have potted him when you had a chance on the elephant."
Tried beyond patience by Gilfain's obtuse egotism, Swinton blurted:
"Mahadua lied to the tiger; he was concealing the fact that Major
Finnerty spared his life that you might have the glory of the kill later
on."
"But, I say, this is no end of a draw; the major told us he got rattled
and pumped bird shot into Stripes."
With a sigh, Swinton gave up the hopeless task; and Finnerty, to change
the venue, said:
"I don't think we were in any danger, really. A tiger is considerable of
a gentleman; all he asks is to be left alone to kill his legitimate
prey. And if it weren't for him the wild pig and deer would eat up the
crops of the poor."
"But tigers kill a lot of human beings," Lord Victor contended.
"About two in every million are killed annually by tigers in
India--that's statistical. Wolves, leopards, hyenas kill far more. Also
a very few tigers do the killing, and generally it was man's fault in
the first place. A griffin comes out to the service, makes a bad shot in
the dark, and the tiger is wounded; the rankling wound makes him
ferocious and he kills any human that comes within his reach. If he
recovers he may be incapacitated for killing game--who are either strong
or swift--and, driven by hunger, he takes the easiest mark, man."
The Banjara had come up the road unnoticed. He now stood at the steps,
and, with his black ayes fixed on Lord Victor, said, in heavy gravity:
"_Salaam, shikari sahib_."
"Will you pay the beggar for that dog, major? I'll send the money over,"
Lord Victor said, missing the sarcasm.
When, after much bargaining, the blood debt had been wiped out at twenty
rupees, the Banjara, ringing each coin by a spin in the air with his
thumb nail, broached the matter of his deferred revenge.
"What of the slaying of that debased killer of my cow, O sahib?" he
asked. "I will tie up a young buffalo, so be it the sahib will pay for
it, and, as the tiger has got in this way of amusing himself, he will
come. But"--and he cast a scornful glance at Lord Victor--"do you make
the kill, major sahib?"
"It is too late. We will take a dozen elephants to-morrow and make a
wide beat, driving the tiger up to the guns."
But the native shook his head. "The sahib knows that if the elephants
are not trained to the hunt they are no good, and tiger knows it. When
he smells that it is a trap, he will break back, and some of the
elephants will not stand. But if the sahib will pay me and my brothers
we will take all our buffalo and drive tiger ahead of them. He will not
break back through the buffalo, for I will take them first to smell of
the blood of the cow he has slain."
"A good idea," Finnerty declared; "the buffalo make great
beaters--Stripes won't face them. All right!" he told the Banjara. "I'll
post the sahibs on elephants. Get your men and buffalo ready for two
o'clock--it will take me till that time to get things ready."
"The tiger will be in the same grass, huzoor," the Banjara said; "but if
the young sahib shoot a buffalo or another dog, that also he will be
required to pay for. My brothers will be behind the buffalo, walking
slowly, that they do not come too sudden upon the tiger, and they are
men of passion."
Then the herdsman went clanking down the road, feeling that he had done
all that could be done in the way of insurance.
They sat for an hour planning a grand hunt for the next day. Prince
Ananda must be invited; as they were shooting over his grounds, it was
only proper courtesy. The prince would bring his own elephant, of
course, but reliable hunting elephants were scarce. The one Lord Victor
and Swinton had used that day had shown either a white feather or too
excitable a temperament; he would only do to put on the side of the cane
belt as a stop to keep the tiger from cutting out. Finnerty's elephant
had proved fairly steady, but he needed another; he would give that one
to Swinton and Lord Victor and in the morning get a goldsmith to beat
out Moti's bell, putting a metal clapper in it. The maharajah had
elephants, but none well trained for a drive, because the maharajah
never shot anything.
Before leaving Swinton took the major into the bungalow and gave him the
sapphire to use in the bell should it be necessary, insisting that it
was as safe with Finnerty as it was with him. At any rate, he did not
value it highly, not placing any faith in its miraculous power.
The moon had risen when the two drove back to their bungalow in the
major's dogcart. As they swung to enter the gate, the horse recoiled
with a snort of fear; the check was so sudden that Swinton, to avoid a
headfirst dive, jumped, cannoning into a native, who, his face covered
by his loin cloth, dashed from the compound. Instinctively Swinton
grabbed the fleeing man; but the latter, with a dexterous loosening
twist of his garment, left it in the captain's hands and sped away. On
the ground lay a white envelope and a small notebook that had fallen
from a fold of the cloth, and these Swinton put in his pocket, saying:
"That man has been up to some deviltry." To Finnerty's syce he added:
"Take the tom-tom back; we'll walk to the bungalow."
"I say, old chap," cried Lord Victor, "don't you know this is no end of
a risky caper; that urban tiger dashed that fellow--what!"
"We'd be in a hat if we stuck to the tom-tom in that event; that
flooey-headed horse would kill us if the tiger didn't."
At that instant the captain's foot caught something that projected from
the crotons. A look disclosed a pair of legs. There was something
familiar about these white-trousered limbs that terminated in canvas
shoes, and their owner must be either very drunk or dead. Swinton
grasped the projecting feet and pulled their owner to the drive, where
he lay on his back, the moonlight glinting the glazed eyes. It was
Perreira--and he was dead. His neck showed an abrasion as though a rope
had scorched it; and when Swinton lifted the dead man's shoulders the
head hung limp like the head of a rag doll.
"That old Thug trick!" Swinton declared. "Somebody caught him from
behind with a towel across the throat, threw him to the ground, put a
foot on his back, and with one twist broke his neck."
"Murdered!" Lord Victor gasped.
"Yes. That native I met at the gate did the trick." Raising his voice,
the captain called: "_Chowkidar!_ Watchman!"
There was an answer from somewhere in the compound, and the evil-faced
native they had seen the night before came hurrying to where they stood.
"If the half-caste sahib is dead he must have fallen from a horse and
broke his neck," the watchman declared.
"Call the servants and carry him into the bungalow where the baboo is;
then go at once down to the police and tell who killed this man,"
Swinton commanded.
At that instant Baboo Dass, who, startled by the clamour, had waited in
fear on the verandah, now ploughed through the bushes, saying: "Please,
sar, I will be frighted if defunct body is brought within. This place is
too much evil-spirited. If tiger is not devour I am head-shaved like a
felon and burglared of jewel."
But Swinton turned away and proceeded with Lord Victor to their
bungalow, leaving Baboo Dass wrangling with the watchman.
Lord Victor was in a captious mood over the rapid succession of stirring
episodes. "No end of a somnolent old India--what!" he said ironically,
sitting on Swinton's bed. "I'm bally well dashed with all the floaty
creeps. We've only been here twenty-four hours, and we've dined with the
rajah, seen a topping wrestling bout, been at a temple riot, chevied a
tiger out of our front yard, entertained a baboo flooey on Hindu gods,
had a drive for a tiger----"
"Shot a Banjara dog," Swinton interrupted, because he wanted to go to
bed.
"Rather! And made a devilish good shot. Then we were spoofed by Stripes,
and found a murdered man on the doorstep. A tallish order, I call all
that. Going some--what!"
Swinton yawned sleepily, and when Lord Victor had gone to his room he
took from his pocket the notebook and letter he had picked up. The
letter was addressed to himself and contained two rupees. The notebook
contained curious, ambiguous entries. To a casual reader they would have
meant nothing, but to Swinton they were a key to a great deal. With a
small screw driver he took the shoulder plate from the butt of a gun,
and, wedging the book in the hollow with some paper, replaced the plate.
Undoubtedly the little black book had something to do with Perreira's
death. He would have been closely watched since the watchman had
listened on the verandah the night before, and it would be known he was
coming to see the captain.