It was not an agreeable journey I had undertaken. In order to reach the
inaccessible spot, chosen by Isaacs for the scene of Shere Ali's
liberation, in time to be of any use, it was necessary that I should
travel by a more direct and arduous route than that taken by my friend.
He had returned to Simla, and by his carefully made arrangements would
be able to reach Keitung, or the spot near it, where the transaction was
to take place, by constant changes of horses where riding was possible,
and by a strong body of dooly-bearers wherever the path should prove too
steep for four-footed beasts of burden. I, on the other hand, must leave
the road at Julinder, a place I had never visited, and must trust to my
own unaided wits and a plentiful supply of rupees to carry me over at
least two hundred miles of country I did not know--difficult certainly,
and perhaps impracticable for riding. The prospect was not a pleasant
one, but I was convinced that in a matter of this importance a man of
Isaacs' wit and wealth would have made at least some preliminary
arrangements for me, since he probably knew the country well enough
himself. I had but six days at the outside to reach my destination.
I had resolved to take one servant, Kiramat Ali, with me as far as
Julinder, whence I would send him back to Simla with what slender
luggage we carried, for I meant to ride as light as possible, with no
encumbrance to delay me when once I left the line of the railway. I
might have ridden five miles with Kiramat Ali behind me on a sturdy
_tat_, when I was surprised by the appearance of an unknown saice in
plain white clothes, holding a pair of strong young ponies by the halter
and salaaming low.
"Pundit Ram Lal sends your highness his peace, and bids you ride without
sparing. The _dâk_ is laid to the fire-carriages."
The saddles were changed in a moment, Kiramat Ali and I assisting in the
operation. It was clear that Ram Lal's messengers were swift, for even
if he had met Isaacs when the latter reached the railroad, no ordinary
horse could have returned with the message at the time I had received
it. Still less would any ordinary Hindus be capable of laying a _dâk_,
or post route of relays, over a hundred miles long in twelve hours. Once
prepared, it was a mere matter of physical endurance in the rider to
cover the ground, for the relays were stationed every five or six miles.
It was well known that Lord Steepleton Kildare had lately ridden from
Simla to Umballa one night and back the next day, ninety-two miles each
way, with constant change of cattle. What puzzled me was the rapidity
with which the necessary dispositions had been made. On the whole, I was
reassured. If Ram Lal had been able to prepare my way at such short
notice here, with two more days at his disposal he would doubtless
succeed in laying me a _dâk_ most of the way from Julinder to Keitung. I
will not dwell upon the details of the journey. I reached the railroad
and prepared for forty-eight hours of jolting and jostling and broken
sleep. It is true that railway travelling is nowhere so luxurious as in
India, where a carriage has but two compartments, each holding as a rule
only two persons, though four can be accommodated by means of hanging
berths. Each compartment has a spacious bathroom attached, where you may
bathe as often as you please, and there are various contrivances for
ventilating and cooling the air. Nevertheless the heat is sometimes
unbearable, and a journey from Bombay to Calcutta direct during the warm
months is a severe trial to the strongest constitution. On this occasion
I had about forty-eight hours to travel, and I was resolved to get all
the rest in that time that the jolting made possible; for I knew that
once in the saddle again it might be days before I got a night's sleep.
And so we rumbled along, through the vast fields of sugar-cane, now
mostly tied in huge sheaves upright, through boundless stretches of
richly-cultivated soil, intersected with the regularity of a chess-board
by the rivulets and channels of a laborious irrigation. Here and there
stood the high frames made by planting four bamboos in a square and
wickering the top, whereon the ryots sit when the crops are ripening, to
watch against thieves and cattle, and to drive away the birds of the
air. On we spun, past Meerut and Mozuffernugger, past Umballa and
Loodhiana, till we reached our station of Julinder at dawn. Descending
from the train, I was about to begin making inquiries about my next
move, when I was accosted by a tall and well-dressed Mussulman, in a
plain cloth _caftán_ and a white turban, but exquisitely clean and fresh
looking, as it seemed to me, for my eyes were smarting with dust and
wearied with the perpetual shaking of the train.
The courteous native soon explained that he was Isaacs' agent in
Julinder, and that a _târ ki khaber_, a telegram in short, had warned
him to be on the lookout for me. I was greatly relieved, for it was
evident that every arrangement had been made for my comfort, so far as
comfort was possible. Isaacs had asked my assistance, but he had taken
every precaution against all superfluous bodily inconvenience to me, and
I felt sure that from this point I should move quickly and easily
through every difficulty. And so it proved. The Mussulman took me to his
house, where there was a spacious apartment, occupied by Isaacs when he
passed that way. Every luxury was prepared for the enjoyment of the
bath, and a breakfast of no mean taste was served me in my own room.
Then my host entered and explained that he had been directed to make
certain arrangements for my journey. He had laid a _dâk_ nearly a
hundred miles ahead, and had been ordered to tell me that similar steps
had been taken beyond that point as far as my ultimate destination, of
which, however, he was ignorant. My servant, he said, must stay with him
and return to Simla with my traps.
So an hour later I mounted for my long ride, provided with a revolver
and some rupees in a bag, in case of need. The country, my entertainer
informed me, was considered perfectly safe, unless I feared the _tap_,
the bad kind of fever which infests all the country at the base of the
hills. I was not afraid of this. My experience is that some people are
predisposed to fever, and will generally be attacked by it in their
first year in India, whether they are much exposed to it or not, while
others seem naturally proof against any amount of malaria, and though
they sleep out of doors through the whole rainy season, and tramp about
the jungles in the autumn, will never catch the least ague, though they
may have all other kinds of ills to contend with.
On and on, galloping along the heavy roads, sometimes over no road at
all, only a broad green track, where the fresh grass that had sprung up
after the rains was not yet killed by the trampling of the bullocks and
the grinding jolt of the heavy cart. At intervals of seven or eight
miles I found a saice with a fresh pony picketed and grazing at the end
of the long rope. The saice was generally squatting near by, with his
bag of food and his three-sided kitchen of stones, blackened with the
fire from his last meal, beside him; sometimes in the act of cooking his
chowpatties, sometimes eating them, according to the time of day.
Several times I stopped to drink some water where it seemed to be good,
and I ate a little chocolate from my supply, well knowing the
miraculous, sustaining powers of the simple little block of "Menier,"
which, with its six small tablets, will not only sustain life, but will
supply vigour and energy, for as much as two days, with no other food.
On and on, through the day and the night, past sleeping villages, where
the jackals howled around the open doors of the huts; and across vast
fields of late crops, over hills thickly grown with trees, past the
broad bend of the Sutlej river, and over the plateau toward Sultanpoor,
the cultivation growing scantier and the villages rarer all the while,
as the vast masses of the Himalayas defined themselves more and more
distinctly in the moonlight. Horses of all kinds under me, lean and fat,
short and high, roman-nosed and goose-necked, broken and unbroken; away
and away, shifting saddle and bridle and saddle-bag as I left each tired
mount behind me. Once I passed a stream, and pulling off my boots to
cool my feet, the temptation way too strong, so I hastily threw off my
clothes and plunged in and had a short refreshing bath. Then on, with,
the galloping even triplet of the house's hoofs beneath me, as they came
down in quick succession, as if the earth were a muffled drum and we
were beating an untiring _rataplan_ on her breast.
I must have ridden a hundred and thirty miles before dawn, and the pace
was beginning to tell, even on my strong frame. True, to a man used to
the saddle, the effort of riding is reduced to a minimum when every hour
or two gives him a fresh horse. There is then no heed for the welfare of
the animal necessary; he has but his seven or eight miles to gallop, and
then his work is done; there are none of those thousand little cares and
sympathetic shiftings and adjustings of weight and seat to be thought
of, which must constantly engage the attention of a man who means to
ride the same horse a hundred miles, or even fifty or forty. Conscious
that a fresh mount awaits him, he sits back lazily and never eases his
weight for a moment; before he has gone thirty miles he will kick his
feet out of the stirrups about once in twenty minutes, and if he has for
the moment a quiet old stager who does not mind tricks, he will probably
fetch one leg over and go a few miles sitting sideways. He will go to
sleep once or twice, and wake up apparently in the very act to
fall--though I believe that a man will sleep at a full gallop and never
loosen his knees until the moment of waking startles him. Nevertheless,
and notwithstanding Lord Steepleton Kildare and his ride to Umballa and
back in twenty-four hours, when a man, be he ever so strong, has ridden
over a hundred miles, he feels inclined for a rest, and a walk, and a
little sleep.
Once more an emissary of Ram Lal strode to my side as I rolled off the
saddle into the cool grass at sunrise in a very impracticable-looking
country. The road had been steeper and less defined during the last two
hours of the ride, and as I crossed one leg high over the other lying on
my back in the grass, the morning light caught my spur, and there was
blood on it, bright and red. I had certainly come as fast as I could; if
I should be too late, it would not be my fault. The agent, whoever he
might be, was a striking-looking fellow in a dirty brown cloth _caftán_
and an enormous sash wound round his middle. A pointed cap with some
tawdry gold lace on it covered his head, and greasy black love-locks
writhed filthily over his high cheek bones and into his scanty tangled
beard; a suspicious hilt bound with brass wire reared its snake-like
head from the folds of his belt, and his legs, terminating in
thick-soled native shoes, reminded one of a tarantula in boots. He
salaamed awkwardly with a tortuous grin, and addressed me with the
northern salutation, "May your feet never be weary with the march."
Having been twenty-four hours in the saddle, my feet were not that
portion of my body most wearied, but I replied to the effect that I
trusted the shadow of the greasy gentleman might not diminish a
hairsbreadth in the next ten thousand years. We then proceeded to
business, and I observed that the man spoke a very broken and hardly
intelligible Hindustani. I tried him in Persian, but it was of no avail.
He spoke Persian, he said, but it was not of the kind that any human
being could understand; so we returned to the first language, and I
concluded that he was a wandering kábuli.
As an introduction of himself he mentioned Isaacs, calling him Abdul
Hafiz Sáhib, and he seemed to know him personally. Abdul, he said, was
not far off as distances go in the Himalayas. He thought I should find
him the day after to-morrow, _mungkul_. He said I should not be able to
ride much farther, as the pass beyond Sultanpoor was utterly
impracticable for horses; coolies, however, awaited me with a dooly, one
of those low litters slung on a bamboo, in which you may travel swiftly
and without effort, but to the destruction of the digestive organs. He
said also that he would accompany me the next stage as far as the
doolies, and I thought he showed some curiosity to know whither I was
going; but he was a wise man in his generation, and knowing his orders,
did not press me overmuch with questions. I remarked in a mild way that
the saddle was the throne of the warrior, and that the air of the black
mountains was the breath of freedom; but I added that the voice of the
empty stomach was as the roar of the king of the forest. Whereupon the
man replied that the forest was mine and the game therein, whereof I was
lord, as I probably was of the rest of the world, since I was his father
and mother and most of his relations; but that, perceiving that I was
occupied with the cares of a mighty empire, he had ventured to slay with
his own hand a kid and some birds, which, if I would condescend to
partake of them, he would proceed to cook. I replied that the light of
my countenance would shine upon my faithful servant to the extent of
several coins, both rupees and pais, but that the peculiar customs of my
caste forbid me to touch food cooked by any one but myself. I would,
however, in consideration of his exertions and his guileless heart,
invite the true follower of the prophet, whose name is blessed, to
partake with me of the food which I should presently prepare. Whereat he
was greatly delighted, and fetched the meat, which he had stowed away in
a kind of horse-cloth, for safety against ants.
I am not a bad cook at a pinch, and so we sat down and made a
cooking-place with stones, and built a fire, and let the flame die down
into coals, and I dressed the meat as best I could, and flavoured it
with gunpowder and pepper, and we were merry. The man was thenceforth
mine, and I knew I could trust him; a bivouac in the Himalayas, when one
is alone and far from any kind of assistance, is not the spot to indulge
in any prejudice about colour. I did not think much about it as I
hungrily gnawed the meat and divided the birds with my pocket-knife.
The lower Himalayas are at first extremely disappointing. The scenery is
enormous but not grand, and at first hardly seems large. The lower parts
are at first sight a series of gently undulating hills and wooded dells;
in some places it looks as if one might almost hunt the country. It is
long before you realise that it is all on a gigantic scale; that the
quickset hedges are belts of rhododendrons of full growth, the
water-jumps rivers, and the stone walls mountain-ridges; that to hunt a
country like that you would have to ride a horse at least two hundred
feet high. You cannot see at first, or even for some time, that the
gentle-looking hill is a mountain of five or six thousand feet; in Simla
you will not believe you are three thousand feet above the level of the
Rhigi Kulm in Switzerland. Persons who are familiar with the aspect of
the Rocky Mountains are aware of the singular lack of dignity in those
enormous elevations. They are merely big, without any superior beauty,
until you come to the favoured spots of nature's art, where some great
contrast throws out into appalling relief the gulf between the high and
the low. It is so in the Himalayas.
You may travel for hours and days amidst vast forests and hills without
the slightest sensation of pleasure or sense of admiration for the
scene, till suddenly your path leads you out on to the dizzy brink of an
awful precipice--a sheer fall, so exaggerated in horror that your most
stirring memories of Mont Blanc, the Jungfrau, and the hideous _arête_
of the Pitz Bernina, sink into vague insignificance. The gulf that
divides you from the distant mountain seems like a huge bite taken
bodily out of the world by some voracious god; far away rise snow peaks
such as were not dreamt of in your Swiss tour; the bottomless valley at
your feet is misty and gloomy with blackness, streaked with mist, while
the peaks above shoot gladly to the sun and catch his broadside rays
like majestic white standards. Between you, as you stand leaning
cautiously against the hill behind you, and the wonderful background far
away in front, floats a strange vision, scarcely moving, but yet not
still. A great golden shield sails steadily in vast circles, sending
back the sunlight in every tint of burnished glow. The golden eagle of
the Himalayas hangs in mid-air, a sheet of polished metal to the eye,
pausing sometimes in the full blaze of reflection, as ages ago the sun
and the moon stood still in the valley of Ajalon; too magnificent for
description, as he is too dazzling to look at. The whole scene, if no
greater name can be given to it, is on a scale so Titanic in its massive
length and breadth and depth, that you stand utterly trembling and weak
and foolish as you look for the first time. You have never seen such
masses of the world before.
It was in such a spot as this that, nearly at noon on the appointed day,
my dooly-bearers set me down and warned me I was at my journey's end. I
stepped out and stood on the narrow way, pausing to look and to enjoy
all that I saw. I had been in other parts of the lower Himalayas before,
and the first sensations I had experienced had given way to those of a
contemplative admiration. No longer awed or overpowered or oppressed by
the sense of physical insignificance in my own person, I could endure to
look on the stupendous panorama before me, and could even analyse what I
felt. But before long my pardonable reverie was disturbed by a
well-known voice. The clear tones rang like a trumpet along the
mountain-side in a glad shout of welcome. I turned and saw Isaacs coming
quickly towards me, bounding along the edge of the precipice as if his
life had been passed in tending goats and robbing eagles' nests. I, too,
moved on to meet him, and in a moment we clasped hands in unfeigned
delight at being again together. What was Ghyrkins or his party to me?
Here was the man I sought; the one man on earth who seemed worth having
for a friend. And yet it was but three weeks since we first met, and I
am not enthusiastic by temperament.
"What news, friend Griggs?"
"She greets you and sends you this," I said, taking from my bosom the
parcel she had thrust into my hand as I left in the dark. His face fell
suddenly. It was the silver box he had given her; was it possible she
had taken so much trouble to return it? He turned it over mournfully.
"You had better open it. There is probably something in it."
I never saw a more complete change in a man's face during a single
second than came over Isaacs' in that moment. He had not thought of
opening it, in his first disappointment at finding it returned. He
turned back the lid. Bound with a bit of narrow ribbon and pressed down
carefully, he found a heavy lock of gold-white hair, so fair that it
made everything around it seem dark--the grass, our clothes, and even
the white streamer that hung down from Isaacs' turban. It seemed to shed
a bright light, even in the broad noon-day, as it lay there in the
curiously wrought box--just as the body of some martyred saint found
jealously concealed in the dark corner of an ancient crypt, and broken
in upon by unsuspecting masons delving a king's grave, might throw up in
their dusky faces a dazzling halo of soft radiance--the glory of the
saint hovering lovingly by the body wherein the soul's sufferings were
perfected.
The moment Isaacs realised what it was, he turned away, his face all
gladness, and moved on a few steps with bent head, evidently
contemplating his new treasure. Then he snapped the spring, and putting
the casket in his vest turned round to me.
"Thank you, Griggs; how are they all?"
"It was worth a two-hundred mile ride to see your face when you opened
that box. They are pretty well. I left them swearing that the party was
broken up, and that they would all go back to Simla."
"The sooner the better. We shall be there in three days from here, by
the help of Ram Lal's wonderful post."
"Between you I managed to get here quite well. How did you do it? I
never missed a relay all the way from Julinder."
"Oh, it is very easy," answered Isaacs. "You could have a _dâk_ to the
moon from India if you would pay for it; or any other thing in heaven or
earth or hell that you might fancy. Money, that is all. But, my dear
fellow, you have lost flesh sensibly since we parted. You take your
travelling hard."
"Where is Ram Lal?" I asked, curious to learn something of our movements
for the night.
"Oh, I don't know. He is probably somewhere about the place charming
cobras or arresting avalanches, or indulging in some of those playful
freaks he says he learned in Edinburgh. We have had a great good time
the last two days. He has not disappeared, or swallowed himself even
once, or delivered himself of any fearful and mysterious prophecies. We
have been talking transcendentalism. He knows as much about 'functional
gamma' and 'All X is Y' and the rainbow, and so on, as you do yourself.
I recommend him. I think he would be a charming companion for you. There
he is now, with his pockets full of snakes and evil beasts. I wanted him
to catch a golden eagle this morning, and tame it for Miss Westonhaugh,
but he said it would eat the jackal and probably the servants, so I have
given it up for the present." Isaacs was evidently in a capital humour.
Ram Lal approached us.
I saw at a glance that Ram Lal the Buddhist, when on his beats in the
civilisation of Simla, was one person. Ram Lal, the cultured votary of
science, among the hills and the beasts and the specimens that he loved,
was a very different man. He was as gray as ever, it is true, but better
defined, the outlines sharper, the features more Dantesque and easier to
discern in the broad light of the sun. He did not look now as if he
could sit down and cross his legs and fade away into thin air, like the
Cheshire cat. He looked more solid and fleshly, his voice was fuller,
and sounded close to me as he spoke, without a shadow of the curious
distant ring I had noticed before.
"Ah!" he said in English, "Mr. Griggs, at last! Well, you are in plenty
of time. The gentleman who is not easily astonished. That is just as
well, too. I like people with quiet nerves. I see by your appearance
that you are hungry, Mr. Griggs. Abdul Hafiz, why should we not dine? It
is much better to get that infliction of the flesh over before this
evening."
"By all means. Come along. But first send those dooly-bearers about
their business. They can wait till to-morrow over there on the other
side. They always carry food, and there is any amount of fuel."
Just beyond the shoulder of the hill, sheltered from the north by the
projecting boulders, was a small tent, carefully pitched and adjusted to
stand the storms if any should come. Thither we all three bent our steps
and sat down by the fire, for it was chilly, even cold, in the passes in
September. Food was brought out by Isaacs, and we ate together as if no
countless ages of different nationalities separated us. Ram Lal was
perfectly natural and easy in his manners, and affable in what he said.
Until the meal was finished no reference was made to the strange
business that brought us from different points of the compass to the
Himalayan heights. Then, at last, Ram Lal spoke; his meal had been the
most frugal of the three, and he had soon eaten his fill, but he
employed himself in rolling cigarettes, which he did with marvellous
skill, until we two had satisfied our younger and healthier appetites.
"Abdul Hafiz," he said, his gray face bent over his colourless hands as
he twisted the papers, "shall we not tell Mr. Griggs what is to be done?
Afterward he can lie in the tent and sleep until evening, for he is
weary and needs to recruit his strength."
"So be it, Ram Lal," answered Isaacs.
"Very well. The position is this, Mr. Griggs. Neither Mr. Isaacs nor I
trust those men that we are to meet, and therefore, as we are afraid of
being killed unawares, we thought we would send for you to protect us."
He smiled pleasantly as he saw the blank expression in my face.
"Certainly, and you shall hear how it is to be done. The place is not
far from here in the valley below. The band are already nearing the
spot, and at midnight we will go down and meet them. The meeting will
be, of course, like all formal rendezvous for the delivery of prisoners.
The captain of the band will come forward accompanied by his charge, and
perhaps by a sowar. We three will stand together, side by side, and
await their coming. Now the plot is this. They have determined if
possible to murder both Shere Ali and Isaacs then and there together.
They have not counted on us, but they probably expect that our friend
will arrive guarded by a troop of horse. The maharajah's men will try
and sneak up close to where we stand, and at a signal, which the leader,
in conversation with Isaacs, will give by laying his hand on his
shoulder, the men will rush in and cut Shere Ali to pieces, and Isaacs
too if the captain cannot do it alone. Now look here, Mr. Griggs. What
we want you to do is this. Your friend--my friend--wants no miracles, so
that you have got to do by strength what might be done by stratagem,
though not so quickly. When you see the leader lay his hand on Isaacs'
shoulder, seize him by the throat and mind his other arm, which will be
armed. Prevent him from injuring Isaacs, and I will attend to the rest,
who will doubtless require my whole attention."
"But," I objected, "supposing that this captain turned out to be
stronger or more active than I. What then?"
"Never fear," said Isaacs, smiling. "There aren't any."
"No," continued Ram Lal, "never disturb yourself about that, but just
knock your man down and be done with it. I will guarantee you can do it
well enough, and if he gives you trouble I may be able to help you."
"All right; give me some cigarettes;" and before I had smoked one I was
asleep.
When I awoke the sun was down, but there was a great light over
everything. The full moon had just risen above the hills to eastward and
bathed every object in silver sheen. The far peaks, covered with snow,
caught the reflection and sent the beams floating across the deep dark
valleys between. The big boulder, against which the tent was pitched,
caught it too, and seemed changed from rough stone to precious metal; it
was on the tent-pegs and the ropes, it was upon Isaacs' lithe figure, as
he tightened his sash round his waist and looked to his pocket-book for
the agreement. It made Ram Lal, the gray and colourless, look like a
silver statue, and it made the smouldering flame of the watch-fire
utterly dim and faint. It was a wonderful moon. I looked at my watch; it
was eight o'clock.
"Yes," said Isaacs, "you were tired and have slept long. It is time to
be off. There is some whiskey in that flask. I don't take those things,
but Ram Lal says you had better have some, as you might get fever." So I
did. Then we started, leaving everything in the tent, of which we pegged
down the flap. There were no natives about, the dooly-bearers having
retired to the other side of the valley, and the jackals would find
nothing to attract them, as we had thrown the remainder of our meal over
the edge. As for weapons, I had a good revolver and a thick stick;
Isaacs had a revolver and a vicious-looking Turkish knife; and Ram Lal
had nothing at all, as far as I could see, except a long light staff.
The effect of the moonlight was wild in the extreme, as we descended the
side of the mountain by paths which were very far from smooth or easy.
Every now and then, as we neared the valley, we turned the corner of
some ridge and got a fair view of the plain. Then a step farther, and we
were in the dark again, behind boulders and picking our way over loose
stones, or struggling with the wretched foothold afforded by a surface
of light gravel, inclined to the horizontal at an angle of forty-five
degrees. Then, with a scramble, a jump, and a little swearing in a great
many languages--I think we counted that we spoke twenty-seven between
us--we were on firm soil again, and swinging along over the bit of easy
level path. It would have been out of the question to go in doolies, and
no pony could keep a foothold for five minutes on the uncertain ground.
At last, as we emerged into the bright moonlight on a little platform of
rock at an angle of the path, we paused. Ram Lal, who seemed to know the
way, was in front, and held up his hand to silence us; Isaacs and I
kneeled down and looked over the brink. Some two hundred feet below, on
a broad strip of green bordering the steep cliffs, was picketed a small
body of horse. We could see the men squatting about in their small
compact turbans and their shining accoutrements; the horses tethered at
various distances on the sward, cropping so vigorously that even at that
height we could hear the dull sound as they rhythmically munched the
grass. We could see in the middle of the little camp a man seated on a
rug and wrapped in a heavy garment of some kind, quietly smoking a
common hubble-bubble. Beside him stood another who reflected more
moonlight than the rest, and who was therefore, by his trappings, the
captain of the band. The seated smoker could be no other than Shere Ali.
Cautiously we descended the remaining windings of the steep path,
turning whenever we had a chance, to look down on the horsemen and their
prisoner below, till at last we emerged in the valley a quarter of a
mile or so beyond where they were stationed. Here on the level of the
plain we stopped a moment, and Ram Lal renewed his instructions to me.
"If the captain," he said, "lays his hand on Isaacs' shoulder, seize him
and throw him. If you cannot get him down kill him--any way you
can--shoot him under the arm with your pistol. It is a matter of life
and death."
"All right." And we walked boldly along the broad strip of sward. The
moon was now almost immediately overhead, for it was midnight, or near
it. I confess the scene awed me, the giant masses of the mountains above
us, the vast distances of mysterious blue air, through which the
snow-peaks shone out with a strange look that was not natural. The swish
of the quickly flowing stream at the edge of the plot we were walking
over sounded hollow and unearthly; the velvety whirr of the great
mountain bats as they circled near us, stirred from the branches as we
passed out, was disagreeable and heavy to hear. The moon shone brighter
and brighter.
We were perhaps thirty yards from the little camp, in which there might
be fifty men all told. Isaacs stood still and sung out a greeting.
"Peace to you, men of Baithopoor!" he shouted. It was the preconcerted
form of address. Instantly the captain turned and looked toward us. Then
he gave some orders in a low voice, and taking his prisoner by the hand
assisted him to rise. There was a scurrying to and fro in the camp. The
men seemed to be collecting, and moving to the edge of the bivouac. Some
began to saddle the horses. The moon was so intensely bright that their
movements were as plain to us as though it had been broad daylight.
Two figures came striding toward us--the captain and Shere Ali. As I
looked at them, curiously enough, as may be imagined, I noticed that the
captain was the taller man by two or three inches, but Shere Ali's broad
chest and slightly-bowed legs produced an impression of enormous
strength. He looked the fierce-hearted, hard-handed warrior, from head
to heel; though in accordance with Isaacs' treaty he had been well taken
care of and was dressed in the finest stuffs, his beard carefully
clipped and his Indian turban rolled with great neatness round his dark
and prominent brows.
The first thing for the captain was to satisfy himself as far as
possible that we had no troops in ambush up there in the jungle on the
base of the mountain. He had probably sent scouts out before, and was
pretty sure there was no one there. To gain time, he made a great show
of reading the agreement through from beginning to end, comparing it all
the while with a copy he held. While this was going on, and I had put
myself as near as possible to the captain, Isaacs and Shere Ali were in
earnest conversation in the Persian tongue. Shere Ali told Abdul that
the captain's perusal of the contract must be a mere empty show, since
the man did not know a word of the language. Isaacs, on hearing that the
captain could not understand, immediately warned Shere Ali of the
intended attempt to murder them both, of which Ram Lal, his friend, had
heard, and I could see the old soldier's eye flash and his hand feel for
his weapon, where there was none, at the mere mention of a fight. The
captain began to talk to Isaacs, and I edged as near as I could to be
ready for my grip. Still it did not come. He talked on, very civilly, in
intelligible Hindustani. What was the matter with the moon?
A few minutes before it had seemed as if there would be neither cloud
nor mist in such a sky; and now a light filmy wreath was rising and
darkening the splendour of the wonderful night. I looked across at Ram
Lal. He was standing with one hand on his hip, and leaning with the
other on his staff, and he was gazing up at the moon with as much
interest as he ever displayed about anything. At that moment the captain
handed Isaacs a prepared receipt for signature, to the effect that the
prisoner had been duly delivered to his new owner. The light was growing
dimmer, and Isaacs could hardly see to read the characters before he
signed. He raised the scroll to his eyes and turned half round to see it
better. At that moment the tall captain stretched forth his arm and laid
his hand on Isaacs' shoulder, raising his other arm at the same time to
his men, who had crept nearer and nearer to our group while the endless
talking was going on. I was perfectly prepared, and the instant the
soldier's hand touched Isaacs I had the man in my grip, catching his
upraised arm in one hand and his throat with the other. The struggle did
not last long, but it was furious in its agony. The tough Punjabi
writhed and twisted like a cat in my grasp, his eyes gleaming like
living coals, springing back and forward in his vain and furious efforts
to reach my feet and trip me. But it was no use. I had his throat and
one arm well in hand, and could hold him so that he could not reach me
with the other. My fingers sank deeper and deeper in his neck as we
swayed backwards and sideways tugging and hugging, breast to breast,
till at last, with a fearful strain and wrench of every muscle in our
two bodies, his arm went back with a jerk, broken like a pipe-stem, and
his frame collapsing and bending backwards, fell heavily to the ground
beneath me.
The whole strength of me was at work in the struggle, but I could get a
glimpse of the others as we whirled and swayed about.
Like the heavy pall of virgin white that is laid on the body of a pure
maiden; of velvet, soft and sweet but heavy and impenetrable as death,
relentless, awful, appalling the soul, and freezing the marrow in the
bones, it came near the earth. The figure of the gray old man grew
mystically to gigantic and unearthly size, his vast old hands stretched
forth their skinny palms to receive the great curtain as it descended
between the moonlight and the sleeping earth. His eyes were as stars,
his hoary head rose majestically to an incalculable height; still the
thick, all-wrapping mist came down, falling on horse and rider and
wrestler and robber and Amir; hiding all, covering all, folding all, in
its soft samite arms, till not a man's own hand was visible to him a
span's length from his face.
I could feel the heaving chest of the captain beneath my knee; I could
feel the twitching of the broken arm tortured under the pressure of my
left hand; but I could see neither face nor arm nor breast, nor even my
own fingers. Only above me, as I stared up, seemed to tower the
supernatural proportions of Ram Lal, a white apparition visible through
the opaque whiteness that hid everything else from view. It was only a
moment. A hand was on my shoulder, Isaacs' voice was in my ear, speaking
to Shere Ali. Ram Lal drew me away.
"Be quick," he said; "take my hand, I will lead you to the light." We
ran along the soft grass, following the sound of each other's feet,
swiftly. A moment more and we were in the pass; the mist was lighter,
and we could see our way. We rushed up the stony path fast and sure,
till we reached the clear bright moonlight, blazing forth in silver
splendour again. Far down below the velvet pall of mist lay thick and
heavy, hiding the camp and its horses and men from our sight.
"Friend," said Isaacs, "you are as free as I. Praise Allah, and let us
depart in peace."
The savage old warrior grasped the outstretched hand of the Persian and
yelled aloud--
"Illallaho-ho-ho-ho!" His throat was as brass.
"La illah ill-allah!" repeated Isaacs in tones as of a hundred clarions,
echoing by tree and mountain and river, down the valley.
"Thank God!" I said to Ram Lal.
"Call Him as you please, friend Griggs," answered the pundit.
It was daylight when we reached the tent at the top of the pass.
* * * * *