I have often observed that the song of a cat seems to soothe a human
being's soul and calm his nerves, continued Shireen. Well, I had a duty
to perform to this poor sick soldier, and I was determined to do it.
What is duty, did you ask, Warlock? Well, it is a word I have borrowed
from the human race. It means the doing of that which you have been
told off to do, and that it is your business to do. Strangely enough
human beings usually want to be preached at before they can tackle their
duty--if I may be excused for talking sailor fashion--while we cats and
dogs, yes, and birds, Dick, feel impelled to duty by our own instincts
only. But I had already become fond of soldier Edgar, because I knew my
mistress liked him.
"Shireen," he said, smoothing me but smiling, "you must not mourn too
much for your mistress. She is not gone quite away, because she dwells
here in my heart, Shireen. So we will often think of her together. I
will love you for her sake, and you will love me for her sake. That is
mutuality, pussy, so there! Now sit by me and sing, and I will sleep
and awake calm and refreshed. I want to get better soon now, Shireen,
because I intend coming back here again if possible, and take Beebee
your mistress away. I want to save her from a fearful doom."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I hardly know how the time passed after this for a month, during which
time new master and I lived in the house of the priest.
But by this time master was strong and well again. Then came the day of
parting.
The priest rode with us a very long way through the forest, and told us
which way was the nearest to the city. Then we said--Farewell.
But the priest's last words as he held Edgar's hand were these: "If it
be in my power to prevent it, my friend, depend upon it Beebee shall
never enter the palace of the Shah!"
"May Heaven bless you," said the soldier. He said no more. I do not
think he could have done so had he tried, for tears seemed to rise and
choke him.
Well, the next thing I distinctly remember, is being taken on board a
man-o'-war ship from a boat that left the Apollo Bunder at Bombay.
I had one regret just then, for my thoughts reverted to Beebee in her
turret chamber. I imagined her sitting there all alone with Miss
Morgan, and gazing dreamily over the sea, the sea she so longed to float
upon.
But once on board the ship I had little time to think very much, at
first at all events. Everything was very new and very strange to me;
and it would take me some time to get up to the ropes, you know,
Warlock.
"Oh!" said Warlock, "we dogs don't bother about ropes. When we come to
a new home or house we just settle down there. All we want to know is
where the door is."
Ah! Warlock, yes, that I know is true. But think how different a dog's
life is from that of a poor cat. We cats have got to be wise, Warlock,
and we've got to be wily, for though we have not got the brand of Cain
upon our brows, still almost everybody who meets us wants to kill us.
It was on this very subject that only last Sunday I was conversing with
the parson's big tom-cat.
"I'm so much used to travelling now, Tom," I said, "having had a spell
of over twenty years of it, that I don't mind where I go; but if I were
not a travelling cat I should feel very much from home in a new house,
not knowing the outs and ins of it, the upstairs and the down, and where
to get food, where to watch for mice, and the drains to run into when
the school children come past; or the trees to run up when the butcher's
dog comes round the corner."
"Well, for many reasons," said Tom in answer, "I like dogs well enough.
But I wouldn't like to be a dog, mind you, Shireen. Now look at me for
example. I am the parson's cat to be sure, and being a parson's cat
people might think I was under some restrictions. Not a bit of it,
Shireen. I'm my own master.
"Now, look for example, at the Saint Bernard dog Dumpling--an honest
contented great fellow he is--but bless you, Shireen, he isn't free.
But I am. Dumpling can't do what he pleases--I can. I can go to bed
when I like, rise when I like, and eat and drink when, where, and what I
choose. Dumpling _can't_. Really, Shireen, my old friend, I can
forgive Dumpling for chasing me into the apple tree last Sunday, when I
think of the dull life a dog leads, and how few are his joys compared to
mine. Poor Dumpling needs the servants to wait upon him. He can't walk
a couple of miles by himself and be sure of finding his way back, or
sure of not getting into a row, getting stolen, or some other accident
equally ridiculous.
"The other day, Shireen, if you'll take my word for it, Dumpling
actually sat on the doorstep for two hours in the pouring, pitiless rain
till his great shaggy coat was soaked to the skin, because, forsooth, he
didn't know how to get the door opened. Would a cat have done that?
No, a cat would have walked politely up to the first kind-faced
passenger that came along and asked him to be good enough to ring the
bell, and the thing would have been done. Could Dumpling unlatch a door
or catch a mouse? Not to save his life. Could he climb a tree and
examine a sparrow's nest? Not he. Could he find his way home over the
tiles on a dark night? A pretty figure he would cut if he were only
going to try. No, Shireen, dogs have their uses, but they're not in the
same standard with cats."
Well, Warlock, mind these are Tom's views and not mine: but as I was
telling you all, I found myself safe on board the _Venom_ at last, and
that same afternoon we sailed away to the south.
Master being still somewhat of an invalid, the doctor had given him and
me the use of his cabin, he himself sleeping at night inside a canvas
screen on the main deck.
The _Venom_, I must tell you, wasn't a very large ship, and she was
engaged in what fighting human-sailors called the suppression of the
slave trade. Not that I meant to trouble my head very much about any
such nonsense, only in one way it appealed to us; it would make our
passage down to the far-off Cape of Good Hope and so home to England a
very much longer one.
"You see," the captain said to my soldier Edgar on the quarter-deck the
first day, "we are awfully glad to have you with us, but we can't hurry
even on your account."
"I wouldn't wish you to do so, Captain Beecroft. The long voyage will
do me a wonderful deal of good; besides I don't really long to be home.
I'd rather be back in Persia again."
The captain looked at him somewhat searchingly and smiled.
I was walking up and down with the pair of them, with my tail in the air
and looking very contented and pleased, because the sun was shining so
brightly, and the ocean, which I could catch peeps at through the
port-holes, was as blue as _lapis lazuli_.
"I say," said the captain, "did you lose your heart out there?"
"I did," was the reply. "Oh, I am ten years older than Beebee, and
perhaps more, and nothing may ever come of it. Put, sir, she saved my
life."
"Do you see this cat?" he continued, taking me up in his arms. "Well,
this is Shireen. The girl who so bravely saved my life gave Shireen to
me."
"Wait a minute," said Captain Beecroft. "Come into my cabin here. Now
sit down and just tell me all the story."
Edgar did so, and I think that from that moment these two men were fast
friends.
My master also showed the captain the beautiful little ruby that was set
in my tooth.
"A strange notion!" said the latter.
"It is not an uncommon one among eastern ladies," said the soldier.
"Anyhow," he added, "I should always know Shireen again if I happened to
lose her, and she returned even ten years after."
Somehow, my children, those words, simple though they were, had an
ominous ring in them, and I thought of them long, long after, in far
less happy times.
Well, Warlock, after I had been a few days at sea, I determined to get
up to the ropes. I must see everything there was to be seen, for as far
as I had yet noticed, there was nothing to be very greatly afraid of.
But I resolved to make my first excursion round the ship by night.
So soon after sunset I went quietly upstairs, and immediately found
myself under the stars on deck.