Bill Brown, with his twelve, had not been set to watch a lonely
crossroad for the fun of it. One road was a well-made highway, and led
from a walled city, where three thousand men sweated and thought
of England, to another city, where five thousand armed natives drew
England's pay, and wore English uniforms.
The other road was a snake-like trail, nearly as wide but not nearly
so well kept. It twisted here and there amid countless swarming native
villages, and was used almost exclusively by natives, whose rightful
business was neither war nor peace nor the contriving of either of them.
It had been a trade-road when history was being born, and the laden
ox-carts creaked along it still, as they had always done and always will
do until India awakes.
But there are few men in the world who attend to nothing but their
rightful business, and there are even more in India than elsewhere
who are prone to neglect their own affairs and stir up sedition among
others. There are few fighting-men among that host. They are priests
for the most part or fakirs or make-believe pedlers or confessed and
shameless mendicants; and they have no liking for the trunk roads,
where the tangible evidence of Might and Majesty may be seen marching in
eight-hundred-man battalions. They prefer to dream along the byways, and
set other people dreaming. They lead, when the crash comes, from behind.
Though the men who made the policies of the Honorable East India Company
were mostly blind to the moving finger on the wall, and chose to imagine
themselves secure against a rising of the millions they controlled; and
though most of their military officers were blinder yet, and failed to
read the temper of the native troops in their immediate command, still,
there were other men who found themselves groping, at least two years
before the Mutiny of '57. They were groping for something intangible and
noiseless and threatening which they felt was there in a darkness, but
which one could not see.
Baines was one of them--Lieutenant-General Baines, commanding at
Bholat. His troops were in the center of a spider's web of roads that
criss-crossed and drained a province. There were big trunk arteries,
which took the flow of life from city to walled city, and a mass of
winding veins in the shape of grass-grown country tracks. He could feel,
if any man could, the first faint signs of fever rising, and he was
placed where he could move swiftly, and cut deep in the right spot,
should the knife be needed.
He was like a surgeon, though, who holds a lancet and can use it, but
who lacks permission. The poison in India's system lay deep, and the
fever was slow in showing itself. And meanwhile the men who had the
ordering of things could see neither necessity nor excuse for so much as
a parade of strength. They refused, point-blank and absolutely, to admit
that there was, or, could be, any symptom of unrest.
He dared not make new posts for officers, for officers would grumble at
enforced exile in the country districts, and the Government would get to
hear of it, and countermand. But there were non-commissioned officers
in plenty, and it was not difficult to choose the best of them--three
men--and send them, with minute detachments, to three different points
of vantage. Non-commissioned officers don't grumble, or if they do no
one gets to hear of it, or minds. And they are just as good as officers
at watching crossroads and reporting what they see and hear.
So where a little cluster of mud huts ached in the heat of a right
angle where the trunk road crossed a native road some seventy miles from
Bholat, Bill Brown--swordsman and sergeant and strictest of martinets,
as well as sentimentalist--had been set to watch and listen and report.
There were many cleverer men in the non-commissioned ranks of Baine's
command, many who knew more of the native languages, and who had
more imagination. But there was none who knew better how to win the
unqualified respect and the obedience of British and native alike,
or who could be better counted on to obey an order, when it came,
literally, promptly and in the teeth of anything.
Brown's theories on religion were a thing to marvel at, and walk
singularly wide of, for he was a preacher with a pair of fists when
thoroughly aroused. And his devotion to a girl in England whom no one
in his regiment had ever seen, and of whom he did not even possess a
likeness, was next door to being pitiable. His voice was like a raven's,
with something rather less than a raven's sense of melody; he was very
prone to sing, and his songs were mournful ones. He was not a social
acquisition in any generally accepted sense, although his language was
completely free from blasphemy or coarseness. His ideas were too cut
and dried to make conversation even interesting. But his loyalty and his
sense of duty were as adamant.
He had changed the double guard at the crossroads; and had posted two
fresh men by the mud-walled guardroom door. He had lit his pipe for the
dozenth time, and had let it go out again while he hummed a verse of a
Covenanters' hymn. And he had just started up to wall over to the cell
and make a cursory inspection of his prisoner, when his ears caught a
distant sound that was different from any of the night sounds, though
scarcely louder.
Prompt as a rifle in answer to the trigger, he threw himself down on
all fours, and laid his ear to the ground. A second later, he was on his
feet again.
“Guard!” he yelled. “Turn out!”
Cots squeaked and jumped, and there came a rush of hurrying feet. The
eight men not on watch ran out in single file, still buttoning their
uniforms, and lined up beside the two who watched the guardroom door.
“Stand easy!” commanded Brown. Then he marched off to the crossroads,
finding his way in the blackness more by instinct and sense of direction
than from any landmark, for even the road beneath his feet was barely
visible.
“D'you mean to tell me that neither of you men can hear that sound?” he
asked the sentries.
Both men listened intently, and presently one of them made out a very
faint and distant noise, that did not seem to blend in with the other
night-sounds.
“Might be a native drum?” he hazarded.
“No, 'tain't!” said the other. “I got it now. It's a horse galloping.
Tired horse, by the sound of him, and coming this way. All right,
Sergeant.”
“One of you go two hundred yards along the road, and form an
advance-post, so to speak. Challenge him the minute he's within
ear-shot, and shoot him if he won't halt. If he halts, pass him along to
Number Two. Number Two, pass him along to the guardroom, where
I'll deal with him! Which of you's Number One? Number One,
then--forward--quick--march!”
The sentry trudged off in one direction, and Bill Brown in another. The
sentry concealed itself behind a rock that flanked the road, and
Brown spent the next few minutes in making the guard “port arms,” and
carefully inspecting their weapons with the aid of a lantern. He had
already inspected there once since supper, but he knew the effect that
another inspection would be likely to produce. Nothing goes further
toward making men careful and ready at the word than incessant and
unexpected but quite quietly performed inspection of minutest details.
He produced the effect of setting the men on the qui vive without
alarming them.
Suddenly, the farthest advanced sentry's challenge rang out.
“Frie-e-e-e-nd!” came the answer, in nasal, high-pitched wail, but the
galloping continued.
“Halt, I tell you!” A breech-bolt clicked, and then another one. They
were little sounds, but they were different, and the guard could hear
them plainly. The galloping horse came on.
“Cra-a-a-a-ack!” went the sentry's rifle, and the flash of it spurted
for an instant across the road, like a sheet of lightning. And, just
as lightning might, it showed an instantaneous vision of a tired
gray horse, foam-flecked and furiously ridden, pounding down the road
head-on. The vision was blotted by the night again before any one could
see who rode the horse, or what his weapons were--if any--or form a
theory as to why he rode.
But the winging bullet did what the sentry's voice had failed to do.
There came a clatter of spasmodic hoof-beats, an erratic shower of
sparks, a curse in clean-lipped decent Urdu; a grunt, a struggle, more
sparks again, and then a thud, followed by a devoutly worded prayer
that Allah, the all-wise provider of just penalties, might blast the
universe.
“Stop talkin'!” said the sentry, and a black-bearded Rajput rolled free,
and looked up to find a bayonet-point within three inches of his eye.
“Poggul!” snarled the Mohammedan.
“Poggul's no password!” said the sentry. “Neither to my good-nature nor
to nothing else. Put up your 'ands, and get on your feet, and march!
Look alive, now! Call me a fool, would yer? Wait till the sergeant's
through with yer, and see!”
The Rajput chose to consider a retort beneath his dignity. He rose, and
took one quick look at the horse, which was still breathing.
“Your bayonet just there,” he said, “and press. So he will die quickly.”
The sentry placed his bayonet-point exactly where directed, and leaned
his weight above it. The horse gave a little shudder, and lay still.
“Poggul!” said the Rajput once again. And this time the sentry looked
and saw cold steel within three inches of his eye!
“Your rifle!” said the Rajput. “Hand it here!”
And, to save his eyesight, the sentry complied, while the Rajput's
ivory-white teeth grinned at him pleasantly.
“Now, hands to your sides! Attention! March!” the Rajput ordered, and
with his own bayonet at his back the sentry had to march, whether
he wanted to or not, by the route that the other chose, toward the
guardroom. The Rajput seemed to know by instinct where the second sentry
stood although the man's shape was quite invisible against the night. He
called out, “Friend!” again as he passed him, and the sentry hearing the
first sentry's footsteps, imagined that the real situation was reversed.
So, out of a pall of blackness, to the accompanying sound of rifles
being brought up to the shoulder, a British sentry--feeling and looking
precisely like a fool--marched up to his own guardroom, with a man who
should have been his prisoner in charge of him.
“Halt!” commanded Brown. “Who or what have you got there, Stanley?”
“Stanley is my prisoner at present!” said a voice that Brown vaguely
recognized.
He stepped up closer, to make sure.
“What, you? Juggut Khan!”
“Aye, Brown sahib! Juggut Khan--with tidings, and a dead gray horse on
which to bear them! If this fool could only use his bayonet as he can
shoot, I think I would be dead too. His brains, though, are all behind
his right eye. Tie him up, where no little child can come and make him
prisoner!”
“Arrest that man!” commanded Brown, and two men detached themselves from
the end of the guard, and stood him between them, behind the line.
“Here's his rifle!” smiled Juggut Khan, and Brown received it with an
ill grace.
“How did you get past the other sentry?” he asked.
“Oh, easily! You English are only brave; you have no brains. Sometimes
one part of the rule is broken, but the other never. You are not always
brave!”
“I suppose you're angry because he killed your horse?”
“I am angry, Brown sahib, for greater happenings than that! The man
conceivably was right, since I did not halt for him, and I suppose he
had his orders. I am angry because the standard of rebellion is raised,
and because of what it means to me!”
“Are you drunk, Juggut Khan?”
“Your honor is pleased to be humorous? No, I am not drunk. Nor have I
eaten opium. I have eaten of the bread of bitterness this day, and drunk
of the cup of gall. I have seen British officers--good, brave fools,
some of whom I knew and loved--killed by the men they were supposed
to lead. I have seen a barracks burning, and a city given over to be
looted. I have seen white women--nay, sahib, steady!--I have seen them
run before a howling mob, and I have seen certain of them shot by their
own husbands!”
“Quietly!” ordered Brown. “Don't let the men hear!”
“One of them I slew myself, because her husband, who was wounded, sent
me to her and bade me kill her. She died bravely. And certain others
I have hidden where the mutineers are not likely to discover them at
present. I ride now for succor--or, I rode, rather, until your expert
marksman interfered with me! I now need another horse.”
“You mean that the native troops have mutinied?” “I mean rather more
than that, sahib. Mohammedans and Hindus are as one, and the crowd is
with them. This is probably the end of the powder-train, for, from what
I heard shouted by the mutineers, almost the whole of India is in revolt
already!”
“Why?”
“God knows, sahib! The reason given is that the cartridges supplied are
greased with the blended fat of pigs and cows, thus defiling both Hindu
and Mohammedan alike. But, if you ask me, the cause lies deeper. In the
meantime, the rebels have looted Jailpore and burned their barracks, and
within an hour or two they will start along this road for Bholat, which
they have a mind to loot likewise. My advice to you is retire at once.
Get me another horse from somewhere, that I may carry warning. Then
follow me as fast as you and your men can move.”
“Bah!” said Brown. “They'll find General Baines to deal with them at
Bholat.”
“Who knows yet how many in Bholat have not risen? Are you positive that
the garrison there has not already been surrounded by rebels? I am not!
I would not be at all surprised to learn that General Baines is so busy
defending himself that he can not move in any direction. And--does your
honor mean to hold this guardroom here against five thousand?”
“I mean to obey my orders!” answered Brown.
“And your orders are?”
“My orders!”
“Would they preclude the provision of another horse for me?”
“There's a village about a mile away, down over yonder, where I think
you'll find a decent horse--along that road there.”
“And your honor's orders would possibly permit a certain payment for the
horse?”
“Positively not!” said Brown.
“Then--'
“To seize a horse, for military use, under the spur of necessity, and
after giving a receipt for it, would be in order.”
“So I am to spend the night wandering around the countryside, in a vain
endeavor to--”
But Brown was doing mathematics in his head. Two men to guard prisoners,
two on guard at the crossroads, two at the guardroom door--six from
twelve left six, and six were not enough to rape a countryside.
“Guard!” he ordered. “Release that prisoner. Now, you Stanley, let this
be a lesson to you, and remember that I only set you free because I'd
have been short-handed otherwise. Number One! Stand guard between the
clink and the guardroom door. Keep an eye on both. The remainder--form
two-deep. Right turn! By the left, quick-march! Left wheel!... Now,”
he said, turning to Juggut Khan, “if you'll come along I'll soon get a
horse for you!”
The Rajput strode along beside him, and gave him some additional
information as they went, Brown taking very good care all the time to
keep out of earshot of the men and to speak to Juggut Khan in low tones.
He learned, among other things, that Juggut Khan had lost every anna
that he owned, and had only escaped with his life by dint of luck and
swordship and most terrific riding.
“Are all of you Rajputs loyal?” asked Brown.
“I know not. I know that I myself shall stay loyal until the end!”
“Well--the end is not in doubt. There can only be one end!” commented
Brown.
“Of a truth, sahib, I believe that you are right. There can only be one
end. This night is not more black, this horizon is no shorter, than the
outlook!”
“Then, you mean--”
“I mean, sahib, that this uprising is more serious than you--or any
other Englishman--is likely to believe. I believe that the side I fight
for will be the losing side.”
“And yet, you stay loyal?”
“Why not?”
“All the same, Juggut Khan--I'm not emotional, or a man of many words. I
don't trust Indians as a rule! I--but--here--will you shake hands?”
“Certainly, sahib!” said the Rajput. “We be two men, you and I! Why
should the one be loyal and the other not?”
“When this is over,” said Brown, “if it ends the way we want, and we're
both alive, I'd like to call myself your friend!”
“I have always been your friend, sahib, and you mine, since the day when
you bandaged up a boy and gave him your own drinking-water and carried
him in to Bholat on your shoulder, twenty miles or more.”
“Oh, as for that--any other man would have done the same thing. That was
nothing!”
“Strange that when a white man does an honorable deed he lies about it!”
said Juggut Khan. “That was not nothing, sahib, and you know it was not
nothing! You know that from the heat and the exertion you were ill for
more than a month afterward. And you know that there were others there,
of my own people, who might have done what you did, and did not!”
“But, hang it all! Why drag up a little thing like this?”
“Because, sahib, I might have no other opportunity, and--”
“Well? And what?”
“And the Rajput boy whom you carried was my son!”