SHOWS THE DREADFUL DEPRAVITY OF MAN, AND THE AMAZING EFFECTS OF
ELECTRICAL TREATMENT ON MAN AND BEAST.
Meanwhile Stumps went back to the hotel to brood over his misfortunes,
and hatch out the plan which his rather unfertile brain had devised.
Seated on a chair, with his elbows on his knees, his chin in his hands,
and his nails between his teeth, he stared at a corner of the room,
nibbled and meditated. There was nothing peculiar about the corner of
the room at which he stared, save that there stood in it a portmanteau
which Sam had bought the day before, and in which were locked his and
Robin's bags of treasure.
"If I could only manage to get away by rail to--to--anywhere, I'd do
it," he muttered.
Almost simultaneously he leaped from his chair, reddened, and went to
look-out at the window, for some one had tapped at the door.
"Come in," he said with some hesitation.
"Gen'l'man wants you, sir," said a waiter, ushering in the identical
captain who had stopped Stumps on the street that day.
"Excuse me, young man," he said, taking a chair without invitation, "I
saw you enter this hotel, and followed you."
"Well, and what business had you to follow me?" demanded Stumps, feeling
uneasy.
"Oh, none--none at all, on'y I find I must sail this afternoon, an' I've
took a fancy to you, an' hope you've made up your mind to ship with me."
Stumps hesitated a moment.
"Well, yes, I have," he said, with sudden resolution. "When must I be
on board?"
"At four, sharp," said the captain, rising. "I like promptitude. All
right. Don't fail me."
"I won't," said Stumps, with emphasis.
When the captain was gone, Stumps went nervously to the door and peeped
out. Nothing was visible, save the tail of a waiter's retiring coat.
Cautiously shutting and bolting the door, he took up a strong
walking-cane, and, after some difficulty, forced the lock of the
portmanteau therewith. Abstracting from it the two bags containing the
treasures of his mates Robin and Sam, he wrapped them in a handkerchief,
and put them into a canvas bag, which he had purchased for the reception
of his own wardrobe. Taking this under his arm he went quietly out of
the hotel into the street and disappeared.
He was closely followed by a waiter who had taken the liberty of peeping
through the key-hole when he committed the robbery, and who never lost
sight of him till he had seen him embark in a vessel in the harbour,
named the Fairy Queen, and heard him give his name as James Gibson.
Then he returned to the hotel, giving vent to his sentiments in the
following soliloquy--"Of course it is no business of yours, John Ribbon,
whether men choose to open their comrades' portmantys with keys or
walkin'-sticks, but it is well for you to note the facts that came under
your observation, and to reveal them to them as they concern--for a
consideration."
But the waiter did not at that time obtain an opportunity to reveal his
facts to those whom they concerned, for Sam, Robin, Slagg, and Letta did
not return to the hotel, but sent a pencil note to Stumps instead, to
the effect that they had received an invitation from a telegraph
official to pay him a visit at his residence up country; that, as he was
to carry them off in his boat to the other side of the bay, they would
not have an opportunity of calling to bid him, Stumps, a temporary
farewell; that he was to make himself as happy as he could in Bombay
during their absence, keep on the rooms at the hotel, and settle the
bills, and that all expenses would be paid by them on their return.
As the youth by whom this message was sent knew nothing about the
senders or whither they had gone, and as Stumps did not again make his
appearance, the landlord seized the few things that had been left by the
supposed runaways.
The invitation that had thus suddenly been given and accepted, was
received from a gentleman named Redpath, an official in the Indian
telegraph service. They had been introduced to him on board of the
Great Eastern by Sam's friend, Frank Hedley, and he became so interested
in their adventurous career that he begged them to visit his bungalow in
a rather out-of-the-way part of the country, even if only for a few
days.
"It won't take us long to get there," he said, "for the railway passes
within thirty miles of it, and I'll drive you over as pretty a piece of
country as you could wish to see. I have a boat alongside, and must be
off at once. Do come."
"But there are so many of us," objected Sam Shipton.
"Pooh! I could take a dozen more of you," returned the hospitable
electrician; "and my wife rejoices--absolutely rejoices--when I bring
home unexpected company."
"What a pattern she must be," said Slagg; "but excuse me, sir, since you
are so good as to invite us all, may I make so bold as to ax if you've
got a servants'-'all?"
"Well, I've not got exactly that," replied Redpath, with an amused look;
"but I've got something of the same sort for my servants. Why do you
ask?"
"Because, sir, I never did sail under false colours, and I ain't agoin'
to begin now. I don't set up for a gentleman, and though
circumstances has throwed me along wi' two of 'em, so that we've bin
hail-feller-well-met for a time, I ain't agoin' to condescend to consort
wi' them always. If you've got a servants'-'all, I'll come and thank
'ee; if not, I'll go an' keep company wi' Stumps till Mr Shipton comes
back."
"Very well, my good fellow, then you shall come, and we'll find you a
berth in the servants'-hall," said Redpath, laughing.
"But what about Stumps?" said Robin; "he will wonder what has come over
us. Could we not return to the hotel first?"
"Impossible," said the electrician; "I have not time to wait. My leave
has expired. Besides, you can write him a note."
So the note was written, as we have shown, and the party set out on
their inland journey.
Before starting, however, Frank Hedley, the engineer, took Sam and Robin
aside.
"Now, think over what I have mentioned," he said, "and make up your
minds. You see, I have some influence at head-quarters, and am quite
sure I can get you both a berth on board to replace the men who have
left us. I think I can even manage to find a corner for Slagg, if he is
not particular."
"We shall only be too happy to go if you can manage it," replied Robin;
"but Stumps, what about him? We can't leave Stumps behind, you know."
"Well. I'll try to get Stumps smuggled aboard as a stoker or something,
if possible, but to say truth, I don't feel quite so sure about that
matter," replied Frank.
"But shall we have time for this trip if you should prove successful?"
asked Sam.
"Plenty of time," returned his friend; "coaling is a slow as well as a
dirty process, and to ship thousands of tons is not a trifle. I daresay
we shall be more than a week here before the shore-end is fixed and all
ready to start."
"Well then, Frank," said Sam; "adieu, till we meet as shipmates."
The railway soon conveyed our adventurers a considerable distance into
the interior of the country.
At the station where Redpath and his guests got out, a vehicle was
procured sufficiently large to hold them all, and the road over which
they rapidly passed bore out the character which the electrician had
given to it. Every species of beautiful scenery presented itself--from
the low scrubby plain, with clumps of tropical plants here and there, to
undulating uplands and hills.
"You must have some difficulties in your telegraph operations here,"
said Robin to Redpath, "with which we have not to contend in Europe."
"A few," replied his friend, "especially in the wilder parts of the
East. Would you believe it," he added, addressing himself to Letta,
"that wild animals frequently give us great trouble? Whenever a wild
pig, a tiger, or a buffalo, takes it into his head to scratch himself,
he uses one of our telegraph-posts if he finds it handy. Elephants
sometimes butt them down with their thick heads, by way of pastime, I
suppose, for they are not usually fond of posts and wire as food. Then
bandicoots and porcupines burrow under them and bring them to the
ground, while kites and crows sit on the wires and weigh them down.
Monkeys, as usual, are most mischievous, for they lay hold of the wires
with tails and paws, swinging from one to another, and thus form living
conductors, which tend to mix and confuse the messages."
"But does not the electricity hurt the monkeys?" asked Letta.
"O no! It does them no injury; and birds sitting on the wires are never
killed by it, as many people suppose. The electricity passes them
unharmed, and keeps faithfully to the wire. If a monkey, indeed, had a
tail long enough to reach from the wire to the ground, and were to wet
itself thoroughly, it might perhaps draw off some of the current, but
fortunately the tails of monkeys are limited. We often find rows of
birds lying dead below our telegraph lines, but these have been killed
by flying against them, the wires being scarcely visible among trees."
"And what about savages, sir?" asked Jim Slagg, who had become deeply
interested in the telegraphist's discourse; "don't they bother you
sometimes?"
"Of course they do," replied Redpath, with a laugh, "and do us damage at
times, though we bother them too, occasionally."
"How do you manage that, sir?" asked Jim.
"Well, you must know we have been much hindered in our work by the
corruptness and stupidity of Eastern officials in many places, and by
the destructive propensities and rapacity of Kurds and wandering Arabs
and semi-savages, who have found our posts in the desert good for
firewood and our wires for arrow-heads or some such implements. Some of
our pioneers in wild regions have been killed by robbers when laying the
lines, while others have escaped only by fighting for their lives.
Superstition, too, has interfered with us sadly, though sometimes it has
come to our aid."
"There was one eccentric Irishman--one of the best servants I ever had,"
continued Redpath, "who once made a sort of torpedo arrangement which
achieved wonderful success. The fellow is with me still, and it is a
treat to hear Flinn, that's his name, tell the story, but the fun of it
mostly lies in the expressive animation of his own face, and the
richness of his brogue as he tells it.
"`I was away in the dissert somewheres,' he is wont to say, `I don't
rightly remimber where, for my brain's no better than a sive at
geagraphy, but it was a wild place, anyhow--bad luck to it! Well, we
had sot up a line o' telegraph in it, an' wan the posts was stuck in the
ground not far from a pool o' wather where the wild bastes was used to
dhrink of a night, an' they tuk a mighty likin' to this post, which they
scrubbed an' scraped at till they broke it agin an' agin. Och! it's me
heart was broke intirely wi' them. At last I putt me brains in steep
an' got up an invintion. It wouldn't be aisy to explain it, specially
to onscientific people. No matter, it was an electrical arrangement,
which I fixed to the post, an' bein' curious to know how it would work,
I wint down to the pool an' hid mesilf in a hole of a rock, wid a big
stone over me an ferns all round about. I tuk me rifle, av coorse, just
for company, you know, but not to shoot, for I'm not bloodthirsty, by no
means. Well, I hadn't bin long down whin a rustle in the laves towld me
that somethin' was comin', an' sure enough down trotted a little deer--
as purty a thing as you could wish to see. It took a dhrink, tremblin'
all the time, an' there was good cause, for another rustlin' was heard.
Off wint the deer, just as a panther o' some sort jumped out o' the
jungle an' followed it. Bad luck go wid ye says I; but I'd scarce said
it whin a loud crashing in the jungle towld me a buffalo or an elephant
was comin'. It was an elephant. He wint an' took a long pull at the
pool. After that he goes straight to the post. Ha! says I, it's an
owld friend o' yours, I see. When he putt his great side agin' it, for
the purpose of scratchin', he got a shock from my electrical contrivance
that caused his tail to stand upon end, and the hairs at its point to
quiver. Wid a grunt he stood back an' gave the post a look o' surprise,
as much as to say, Did ye do that a-purpose, ye spalpeen? Then he tried
it again, an' got another shock that sot up his dander, for he twisted
his long nose round the post, goin' to pull it down, no doubt, but he
got another shock on the nose that made him squeal an' draw back. Then
he lowered his great head for a charge. It's all over wid ye now, me
post, says I; but the baste changed its mind, and wint off wid its tail
an' trunk in the air, trumpetin' as if it had got the toothache. Well,
after that nothin' came for some time, and I think I must have gone off
to slape, for I was awoke by a most tremendious roar. Lookin' up I saw
a tiger sprawlin' on his back beside the post! Av coorse the shock
wasn't enough to have knocked the baste over. I suppose it had tripped
in the surprise. Anyhow it jumped up and seized the post with claws an'
teeth, whin av coorse it got another shock that caused it to jump back
about six yards, with its tail curled, its hair all on end, all its
claws out, an' its eyes blazin'. You seem to feel it, says I--into
meself, for fear he'd hear me. He didn't try it again, but wint away
into the bush like a war-rocket. After that, five or six little wild
pigs came down, an' the smallest wan wint straight up to the post an'
putt his nose to it. He drew back wid a jerk, an' gave a scream that
seemed to rend all his vitals. You don't like it, thinks I; but, faix,
it looked as if I was wrong, for he tried it again. Another shock he
got, burst himself a'most wid a most fearful yell, an' bolted. His
brothers didn't seem to understand it quite. They looked after him in
surprise. Then the biggest wan gave a wriggle of his curly tail, an'
wint to the post as if to inquire what was the matter. When _he_ got it
on the nose the effect was surprisin'. The curl of his tail came
straight out, an' it quivered for a minute all over, wid its mouth wide
open. The screech had stuck in his throat, but it came out at last so
fierce that the other pigs had to join in self-defence. I stuck my
fingers in my ears and shut me eyes. When I opened them again the pigs
were gone. It's my opinion they were all dissolved, like the zinc
plates in a used-up battery; but I can't prove that. Well, while I was
cogitatin' on the result of my little invintion, what should walk out o'
the woods but a man! At first I tuk him for a big monkey, for the light
wasn't very good, but he had a gun on his shoulder, an' some bits o'
clothes on, so I knew him for a human. Like the rest o' them, he wint
up to the post an' looked at it, but didn't touch it. Then he came to
the pool an' tuk a dhrink, an' spread out his blanket, an' began to
arrange matters for spendin' the rest o' the night there. Av coorse he
pulled out his axe, for he couldn't do widout fire to kape the wild
bastes off. An' what does he do but go straight up to my post an' lift
his axe for a good cut. Hallo! says I, pretty loud, for I was a'most
too late. Whew! What a jump he gave--six futt if it was an inch. Whin
he came down he staggered with his back agin the post. That was enough.
The jump he tuk before was nothin' to what he did after. I all but
lost sight of him among the branches. When he returned to the ground it
was flat on his face he fell, an', rowlin' over his head, came up on his
knees with a roar that putt the tigers and pigs to shame. Sarves you
right, says I, steppin' out of my hole. Av coorse he thought I was a
divil of some sort, for he turned as white in the face as a brown man
could, an' bolted without so much as sayin' farewell. The way that
nigger laid his legs along the ground was a caution. Ostriches are a
joke to it. I picked up his blanket an' fetched it home as a keepsake,
an' from that day to this the telegraph-posts have been held sacred by
man an' baste all over that part of the country.'"
"I'd like to meet wi' the feller that told that yarn," said Jim Slagg.
"So should I," said Letta, laughing.
"You shall both have your wish, for there he stands," said Redpath, as
they dashed round the corner of a bit of jungle, on the other side of
which lay as pretty a bungalow as one could wish to see. A man-servant
who had heard the wheels, was ready at the gate to receive the reins,
while under the verandah stood a pretty little woman to receive the
visitors. Beside her was a black nurse with a white baby.
"Here we are, Flinn," said Redpath, leaping to the ground. "All well,
eh?"
"Sure we're niver anything else here, sor," replied Flinn, with a modest
smile.
"I've just been relating your electrical experiences to my friends,"
said the master.
"Ah! now, it's drawin' the long bow you've been," returned the man; "I
see it in their face."
"I have rather diluted the dose than otherwise," returned Redpath. "Let
me introduce Mr Slagg. He wishes to see Indian life in the
`servants'-hall.' Let him see it, and treat him well."
"Yours to command," said Flinn, with a nod as he led the horses away.
"This way, Mr Slug."
"Slagg, if you please, Mr Flinn," said Jim. "The difference between a
a an' a u ain't much, but the results is powerful sometimes."
While Slagg was led away to the region of the bungalow appropriated to
the domestics, his friends were introduced to pretty little Mrs
Redpath, and immediately found themselves thoroughly at home under the
powerful influence of Indian hospitality.
Although, being in the immediate neighbourhood of a veritable Indian
jungle, it was natural that both Sam and Robin should wish to see a
little sport among large game, their professional enthusiasm rose
superior to their sporting tendencies, and they decided next day to
accompany their host on a short trip of inspection to a neighbouring
telegraph station. Letta being made over to the care of the hostess,
was forthwith installed as assistant nurse to the white baby, whom she
already regarded as a delicious doll--so readily does female nature
adapt itself to its appropriate channels.
Not less readily did Jim Slagg adapt himself to one of the peculiar
channels of man's nature. Sport was one of Slagg's weaknesses, though
he had enjoyed very little of it, poor fellow, in the course of his
life. To shoot a lion, a tiger, or an elephant, was, in Slagg's
estimation, the highest possible summit of earthly felicity. He was
young, you see, at that time, and moderately foolish! But although he
had often dreamed of such bliss, he had never before expected to be
within reach of it. His knowledge of sport, moreover, was entirely
theoretic. He knew indeed how to load a rifle and pull the trigger, but
nothing more.
"You haven't got many tigers in these parts, I suppose?" he said to
Flinn as they sauntered towards the house after seeing the electrical
party off. He asked the question with hesitation, being impressed with
a strange disbelief in tigers, except in a menagerie, and feeling nearly
as much ashamed as if he had asked whether they kept elephants in the
sugar-basin. To his relief Flinn did not laugh, but replied quite
gravely--"Och! yes, we've got a few, but they don't often come nigh the
house. We have to thravel a bit into the jungle, and camp out, whin we
wants wan. I heard master say he'd have a try at 'em to-morrow, so
you'll see the fun, for we've all got to turn out whin we go after
tigers. If you're fond o' sport in a small way, howiver, I can give ye
a turn among the birds an' small game to-day."
"There's nothing I'd like better," said Slagg, jumping at the offer like
a hungry trout at a fly.
"Come along, then," returned the groom heartily; "we'll take shot-guns,
an' a spalpeen of a black boy to carry a spare rifle an' the bag."
In a few minutes the two men, with fowling-pieces on their shoulders,
and a remarkably attenuated black boy at their heels carrying a large
bore rifle, entered the jungle behind the electrician's bungalow.