"Nearly ready, Darrell?" cried Hulton.
"Yes, and waiting for you," was the reply as the captain entered the
lad's quarters and looked round critically.
"Humph! you've got better rooms than I have."
"Like to change, sir?"
"Not I. So long as I've a good bed I don't mind. Bless us! how smart
the boy looks! Shall I do?"
"Do? Yes; you always look well and manly, sir. But how are we going to
find our way?"
"Oh, I'll find the way; but I wish we were not going to walk through the
dust, on account of one's shoes."
They were not going to walk, for there was the trampling of horses and
jingling of accoutrements heard in the courtyard, and Hakim entered.
"The sahib's elephant is waiting," he said.
"Eh?" cried the captain. "What elephant?"
"The Rajah's, sahib; come to fetch."
"Hah! that's something like a host." cried Hulton.
"I was just going to see if we couldn't have palanquins."
They recognised the elephant as the one the Rajah had ridden that day,
but the howdah and trappings were changed, though they were magnificent
enough as it was; and as soon as they appeared, the great beast was
guided forward from where it stood in company with a dozen of the
Rajah's mounted guard, who saluted the officers.
At a word from the mahout and a flourish of his ankus the elephant
knelt, a ladder was placed by a couple of servants, and the two officers
mounted. Two of the guard placed themselves in front as the elephant
rose, and the rest formed up behind as they set off across the courtyard
and through the gate, riding in state through the streets, with the
people collecting on either side to see them pass.
"It's a much finer city than I expected to see, Darrell," said the
captain. "Plenty of temples--a pretty good sign that the Brahmin
priests have a strong hold over the people. Look; there are a couple
coming along. Humph! Scowls for us instead of welcome salutes. That
means something."
"Don't like the English," said Dick.
"Yes, that is evident. Look here, Darrell; I want you to keep your eyes
and ears open while we are at the palace, so as to pick up all you can,
and then we will compare notes afterwards. Look at that, too."
This remark was made as they passed a crowd at the entrance to what
appeared to be a temple. Up to this point, saving the two priests,
every one they passed had given them a smiling welcome, or gazed with
eager curiosity at the new-comers; but now it was evident, from the
scowling looks which greeted them, that the crowd was inimical.
"There's lesson the first, Darrell," said the captain.
"It means keeping our men well in barracks, in case of their getting
into trouble."
Before they reached the Rajah's palace they had further evidence of the
fact that they as strangers had as many enemies as friends in the place.
Then for the time all was forgotten in the warm welcome they received
from their host, who gave them a dinner which was a strange combination
of his own native style and English, but mingled with an evidently
earnest desire to make the guests satisfied with their reception.
He spoke capital English, as had been before noticed, and in the course
of conversation he said:
"I used to hate your people, and look upon them as enemies and
intruders, till I awoke to the fact that in this world of change matters
were altering--that our old superstitions and follies must pass away
before the spread of European civilisation. I am not going to criticise
the acts of the great Company, but I look upon it all as fate, and I
want my people to think as I do, throw aside the bad old past, and
welcome the newer and better."
"And what do they say?" asked Hulton: while Dick listened with keen
interest to all that was said, reading, as he did, that the young Rajah
was a gentleman of high aspirations and keen intelligence.
"Unfortunately, I find I am making many enemies," the Rajah replied.
"My mother reproaches me as a degenerate son of my father, and sides
with the Brahmins, who hate me and my rule."
"Because you wish to improve your people," said Hulton.
"Exactly. And because I wish to be friends with the Company, and march
with the times. She wishes to do what my father would have done, she
tells me--oppose the advance of the Company and help to drive them back
into the sea, and go back to the old days of tyranny, superstition, and
vice."
"Which would be folly. She cannot have any idea of the British power."
"She is a woman," said the Rajah sadly--"one of our women, brought up in
ignorance and seclusion. Help to drive the English into the sea! It is
absurd."
"Yes," said Hulton; "absurd. As the enemy of the Company, the result
would be that your raj would be lost. As the Company's friend, you will
always reign and your country will progress."
"All this I know," said the Rajah; "but, as I told you, my mother sides
with the Brahmins, who feel that under the new order of things they will
lose their horrible, tyrannical hold upon the common people, and keep
them in ignorance and slavery no longer."
"And what about the Rajah of Singh?"
"I fear it is by the invitation of people near me that he has declared
war. It is hard, when one tries for the good, to find enemies springing
up on all sides."
"And friends too," said Hulton.
"Yes," said the Rajah, smiling, "and brave friends. Yesterday I was in
despair, for I thought the help I had asked from the Company would never
come. Now I live again, and am content."
"Is the Rajah of Singh very strong?"
"Just about as strong as I should be were all here faithful to me; but
there are so many that I cannot trust. With you here, though, I feel
his equal."
"I'm afraid," said Hulton quietly, "that the Rajah, your enemy, will
lose his possessions, for in declaring war against you he has declared
war against the Company; and if we are not enough to defeat him, more
and more will be sent until the task is done."
"You make me live again," said the Rajah excitedly. "I always felt that
the English would see justice done, and it would be an injustice for
another to take the country I inherited from my fathers."
"Certainly it would, and you have nothing to fear, sir."
"You will not be offended if I speak and say something that is in my
mind?"
"Of course not, sir. What is it?"
"I thought the number of troops my English friends have sent were very
few."
"Yes, but they are highly-trained men, sir; and there are the guns. But
I understood, on leaving Roumwallah, that more troops with heavier guns
were to follow."
"It is good," said the Rajah, smiling with satisfaction.
Then coffee and pipes were brought, in which Hulton and the Rajah
indulged; and in good time the elephant was brought round, and, after
many expressions of friendship on the part of the Rajah, his guests
returned to the old palace which had been turned into a barrack for the
time.
"Well," said Wyatt before Dick retired for the night, "how are you, O
festive one?"
"Tired out, and want to go to sleep," said Dick, yawning.
"Oh, come! none of that nonsense," cried Wyatt. "Here have you been
feasting on cake and wine, drinking sublime coffee, and smoking
rose-water hubble-bubbles, while I have been hard at work, shaking the
men down into their quarters, and giving orders about the stowing of the
baggage; and now, when I want to hear a little about your sports and
pastimes, what's what, and the rest of it, you yawn in my face and want
to go to sleep."
"Can't help it."
"You must help it. Wine good?"
"Didn't like it. Sickly, sweet stuff."
"Victuals and fruit?"
"Splendid."
"And the coffee?"
"The nicest I ever tasted."
"Then I'll go next time. Did you smoke?"
"Of course not."
"Well, what about the state of affairs here?" Dick told him as nearly
as he could everything that had passed.
"Hah! Then we shall have some fighting."
"Think so?"
"I do, my boy. This Rajah Singh will be kept well informed about our
coming, and you will see that he will strike at once before more troops
come. He'll think, as the Rajah does, that we are so few that the
sooner he begins the better; and, if he gives us a chance, he'll catch a
tartar. He doesn't know what our troop can do."
"We are few, though," said Dick thoughtfully.
"Yes, we are few; but that doesn't matter. We only want plenty of room.
By the way, though, Dicky, the city seems to be pretty strong with its
big walls. I hadn't time to see much more than we did when we rode in,
but I had a peep. As for this old palace, there's plenty of water, and,
given enough provisions and forage for the horses, we could stand a
siege; for it is a fortification in itself--only one entrance, and that
through those big gates. Take it altogether, I think we are in for some
fun."
"Yes; it looks bad," said Dick.
"Bad, you young heathen! Then why, in the name of common-sense--why did
you turn soldier? Here we are with plenty of friends, and a splendid
suspicion of danger sandwiched in amongst them in the shape of
conspirators like mamma, the dowager, and her Brahmin friends."
"Yes; we noticed several of those scowling at us as we went to the
palace."
"Hulton said something of the kind just now, but I couldn't get much out
of him. He was grumpy and thoughtful. I don't think he much likes the
idea of what he has to do. He's brave enough, but I think he likes to
be led better than leading others. There, go to bed."
"Thank you; I will," said Dick eagerly.
"You may sleep soundly for I shall visit the posts to-night and see that
no one goes near the ammunition with a light."
"Where is it, then?" said Dick anxiously.
"Just below these rooms. I was obliged to have it put there
temporarily. We'll make one of the places across the yard there a
magazine to-morrow. Good-night."
"Good-night," said Dick, who had suddenly grown wakeful.
"You shan't be blown up, Dicky," continued Wyatt; "we can't spare you."
"I wish he hadn't said anything about that powder being underneath,"
muttered Dick as he undressed, after examining his charpoy, with its
delicate muslin mosquito-curtains.
But he threw himself down with a weary sigh, thoroughly enjoying the
elasticity of the laced-string bottom of the bedstead; and, powder or no
powder, in less than five minutes he was fast asleep.