"Major Bracebrydge--Captain Fleming"--introduced Upward. The first
lifted his hat punctiliously to Campian, the second put out his hand.
To the rest of the party both were already known.
"Well--ar--Upward--lots of chikor, eh?" began the first.
"Swarms. But they've become beastly wild. Campian has been harrying
them ever since we found him one dark night half in half out of the
nullah in flood."
"Oh, yes; we heard something of that I suppose--ar--Mr Campian--it
wasn't one magnified by half-a-dozen--ah, ha--ha. You were travelling
after dinner, you know--ah--ha--ha?"
A certain amount of chaff in fair good fellowship Campian didn't mind.
But the element of _bonhomie_ was lacking alike in the other's tone and
demeanour. The laugh too, was both fat and feeble. He did not deem
this specimen of garrison wit worthy of any answer. The other seemed
disappointed.
"I see our camels have turned up," he went on. "By Jove, Upward, I've
got a useless lot of servants. That new bearer of mine wants kicking
many times a day. Look at him now--over there. Just look at the
brute--squatting on his haunches when he ought to be getting things
together. I say though, you've got all the best of it here"--surveying
the apricot _tope_, which was incapable of sheltering even one more
tent--"we shall get all the sun."
"Sorry they didn't plant more trees, old chap," said Upward. "But then
we are here for a longish time, whereas it's only a few days with you.
Come in and have a `peg.' Fleming--how about a `peg'?"
"Oh, very much about a `peg,'" responded Fleming with alacrity. He had
been renewing his acquaintance with Nesta about as volubly as time
allowed.
"Well, what _khubbur_ from below?" asked Upward, when they were seated
in the large dining tent, discussing the said "pegs."
"Oh, the usual thing," said Bracebrydge. "Tribes restless Khelat way--
that's nothing--they always are restless."
"Ever since you've been in the country, old chap?" rejoined Upward, with
a dry smile, the point of which lay in the fact that the man who
undertook to give an exhaustive and authoritative opinion on the country
was absolutely new to it. He was not quartered at Shalalai, nor
anywhere else in Baluchistan; but was up, on furlough, from a hot
station in the lower plains.
"There is some talk of disturbance, though," said Fleming. "Two or
three of the Brahui sirdars sent a message to the A.G.G., which was
offhand, not to say cheeky. Let them. We'll soon smash 'em up."
"You may do," said Upward. "But there'll be lively times first. Then
there's all that disaffection in lower India. Things are looking
dicky--devilish dicky. I shouldn't wonder if we saw something before
long. I've always said so."
Then they got away from the general question to _gup_ of a more private
nature--even station _gup_.
"When are you coming back to Shalalai, Miss Cheriton?" said Fleming, in
the midst of this.
"I don't know. I've only just left it," Nesta answered. "Not for a
long time, I think."
"That's awful hard lines on Shalalai, Miss Cheriton--ah--ha--ha," said
Bracebrydge, twirling the ends of his moustache, which, waxed out on a
level with the line of his mouth, gave him a sort of barber's block
expression, which however, the fair of the above city, and of elsewhere,
deemed martial and dashing to a degree. This effect, in their sight,
was heightened by a jagged scar extending from the left eye to the lower
jaw, suggestive of a sword slash at close quarters, "facing the foe"--
and so forth. As a matter of hard fact this honourable wound had been
received while heading a storming party upon the quarters of a
newly-joined and rather high tempered subaltern, for "hazing" purposes.
The latter, anticipating such attentions had locked his door, and on the
arrival of the "hazing" party, had given out that the first man to enter
the room was going to receive something he wouldn't like in the least.
The door was burst open, and with characteristic gallantry the first man
to enter was Bracebrydge, who found the destined victim to be as good as
his word, for he received a heavy article of crockery, deftly hurled,
full in the face--and he didn't like it in the least--for it cut him so
badly right along the cheek that he had to retire perforce, bleeding
hideously. The next day the newly-joined subaltern sent in his papers,
saying he had no wish to belong to a service wherein it was necessary to
take such measures to defend oneself against the overgrown schoolboy
rowdyism of "brother" officers, and subsequently won distinction and the
V.C. as a daring and gallant leader of irregular horse in other parts of
Her Majesty's dominions.
"I suppose you fellows will want to give the birds a turn," said Upward,
after tiffin. "We'll get the ponies and start shooting from about four
miles down the valley. I'm afraid they're beastly wild until we get
that far."
"Don't know that I feel up to it," said Fleming. "Beastly fag the ride
up this morning. Think I'll just take it easy here in camp, Upward.
You and Bracebrydge can go. It'll be all the better for yourselves;
three guns are sure to have more sport than four."
Campian, who was in the joke, caught a sly wink from Upward, and
mightily enjoyed it. Here was the latter's prediction being already
fulfilled.
"What sort of fellow are you, Fleming?" said Bracebrydge. "What's the
good of coming up here on purpose to shoot, and then hanging up in camp?
Now I had thought of not going out. The fact is, I want to fetch a
snooze."
"Oh you don't want a snooze. You snored for ten hours at a stretch the
way up last night," retorted Fleming. "Now I didn't, and feel cheap in
consequence. You go along now, or you'll spoil the party. Upward and
Mr Campian are both keen on it."
"Rather. One of you fellows must come," declared Upward, bent on
keeping up the fun. "We might spare one of you, but not both. Three
guns we must have, to cover the ground properly."
"Then Fleming had better go," said Bracebrydge. "I'm sleepy."
"No fear, I'm going to remain in camp," declared Fleming. "I'm sleepy,
too."
"Why don't you toss for it?" suggested Upward. "Sudden death--the
winner to do as he likes."
The idea took on, and Fleming came out the winner.
"All right, Bracebrydge," said the latter, jubilant. "I'll have my
snooze while you sacrifice yourself in the cause of others--and sport."
The latter snarled, but even he drew the line at backing out of his
pledge.
Meanwhile Campian, no longer able to restrain a roar, had hurried from
the dining tent.
"What's the joke, now?" called out Nesta, who, with Mrs Upward, was
seated beneath the trees.
"Yes, it _is_ a joke."
"Well, we're spoiling to hear it; go on."
"Ssh--ssh! little girls shouldn't be impatient. The joke is this--Wait.
They're coming," with a look over his shoulder.
"No. They're not. Quick quick. What is it?"
"Well, the spectacle of two fellows old enough to know better, who have
come all the way up here on purpose to shoot, both keenly competing as
to who shall have the privilege of remaining in camp, is comical--to say
the least of it."
"Ah, I don't believe it--" said Nesta.
"Not, eh? Well they have even gone so far as to toss for the
privilege."
"And who won?"
"Him they call Fleming. Where are you going to take him for his
afternoon stroll, Nessita? I warn you _we_ are going _down_ the
valley."
"Then _we_ will go up it," laughed the girl. "Yes, I think he is the
best fun of the two."
"A pair of great sillies, both of them," laughed Mrs Upward.
"Steady. Here comes Fleming. But you won't see much of him. He is
only remaining behind with the express object of having an afternoon
snooze. Ta-ta--I'm off."
Fleming, who was at that moment emerging from the dining tent came over
to the two ladies, and throwing himself on the ground, lighted another
cheroot and began to talk. He was still talking animatedly when the
shooters started.
"I say, Fleming, when are you going to have your snooze?" called out
Bracebrydge nastily. "You don't look so sleepy now as you did--Ar--ha--
ha!" The shooters proceeded on the plan laid down, except that
Bracebrydge suggested they should leave the ponies much sooner than was
at first intended. Then, being in a villainous temper, he shot badly,
and wondered what the devil they had come to such an infernally rotten
bit of shooting for, and cursed the attendant forest guard, and made a
studiously offensive remark or two to Campian, who received the same
with the silence of utter contempt. Before they had been at it an hour,
he flung down his gun and burst out with:
"Look here Upward, I can't shoot a damn to-day, and my boot is chafing
most infernally. I shall be lame for a month if I walk any more.
Couldn't one of these fellows fetch my pony? I'll go back to camp."
"All right, old chap; do just as you like," replied Upward, giving the
necessary orders.
"Why not get on the gee, and ride on with us"--suggested Campian,
innocently. "The scenery is rather good further down."
"Oh, damn the scenery! Look here though. I don't want to spoil you two
fellows' shoot. You go on. Don't wait for me. The nigger will be here
with the horse directly."
"No. There's no point in waiting," assented Upward. "We'll go on eh,
Campian? So long, Bracebrydge."
The two resumed their shoot, cutting down a bird here and a bird there,
and soon came together again.
"That's a real show specimen, that man Bracebrydge," remarked Campian.
"What made you freeze on to him, Upward?"
"Oh, I met him in the Shalalai club. I never took to the man, but he
was in with some others I rather liked. It was Fleming who brought him
up here."
"So? But, do you know, it's a sorrowful spectacle to see a man of his
age--already growing grey--making such an egregious ass of himself.
Mind you, I'm not surprised at him being a little `gone'--she's a very
taking little girl--but to give himself away as he does, that's where
the lunacy of the affair comes in."
Upward chuckled.
"Bless your life, old chap, Bracebrydge isn't really `gone' there."
"Not, eh? Then he's a bigger idiot than even I took him for, letting
himself go like that."
"It's his way. He does just the same with every woman he comes across,
if she's at all decent-looking, and what's more is under the impression
she must be wildly `gone' on him; and by the way, some of them have
been. Wait till we get back to Shalalai; you may see some fun in that
line."
"They must be greater fools even than himself. I'm not a woman-hater,
but really the sex can roll out some stupendous examples of defective
intelligence--but then, to be fair, so can our own--as for instance
Bracebrydge himself. What sort of place is this, Upward?" he broke off,
as they came upon a low tumble-down wall surrounding a tree; the
enclosure thus formed was strewn with loose horns, as of sheep and
goats, and yet not quite like them.
"Why, it's a sort of rustic shrine, rigged up to some Mohammedan saint.
Isn't it, Bhallu Khan?" translating the remark.
The forester reached over the wall, and picking up a markhor horn, worn
and weather-beaten, held it towards them.
"He says it's where the people come to make offerings," translated
Upward. "When they want to have a successful stalk they vow a pair of
markhor horns at a place like this."
"And then deposit it here, and then the noble Briton, if in want of such
a thing to hang in his hall, incontinently bones it, and goes home and
lies about it ever after," cut in Campian. "Isn't that how the case
stands?"
"I don't think so. The horns wouldn't be good enough to make it worth
while."
"I suppose not," examining the one tendered him by the forester. "I
didn't know the cultus of Saint Hubert obtained among Mohammedans. Do
these people have legends and local ghosts, and all that kind of thing?"
"Rather. You just set old Bhallu Khan yarning--pity you can't
understand him though. Look. See that very tree over there?" pointing
out a large juniper. "He has a yarn about a fakir who used to jump
right over the top of it every day for a year."
"So? What did he do that for? As a pious exercise?"
"Something of the kind. But the joke of it is, the thing happened a
devil of a time ago. When I pointed out to him that any fool could have
done the same, considering that the tree needn't have been more than a
yard high, even then he hardly sees it."
"I should doubt that, Upward. My opinion is that our friend Bhallu Khan
was endeavouring to pull his superior's leg when he told that story."
"They are very stupid in some ways, though sharp as the devil in others.
And the odd part of it is that most of their local sacred yarns are of
the most absurd kind--well, like the tree and fakir story."
"They are rather a poor lot these Baluchis, aren't they? They don't go
in for a lot of jewels, on their clothes and swords, like the Indian
rajahs?"
"No. Some of the Afghan sirdars do, though--or at any rate used to."
"So? And what became of them all?"
"They have them still--though wait--let me see. There are yarns that
some are hidden away, so as not to fall into the hands of other tribes
as loot. There was a fellow named Keogh in our service who made a good
haul that way. A Pathan brought him an old battered sword belt,
encrusted with rough looking stones, which he had dug up, and wanted ten
rupees for it Keogh beat him down to five, and brought the thing as a
curio. How much do you think he sold it for?"
"Well?"
"Four thousand. The stones were sapphires."
"Where was this?" asked Campian quickly. "Anywhere near here?"
"No. Out the other side of Peshawur. You seem keen on the subject, old
chap! You haven't got hold of a notion there's anything to be done in
that line around here, eh?"
"Hardly. This sort of country doesn't grow precious stones, I guess,
except precious big ones."
"Where's Bracebrydge?" queried Upward, on their return to camp two hours
later.
"He isn't back yet," replied Nesta, with a very mischievous laugh.
"What? Why, he left us more than a couple of hours ago. What can have
become of the chap? He ought to have been back long before us."
"He was back, but he started off again," said Mrs Upward. "This time
he went the other way"--whereat both Nesta and Fleming laughed
immoderately.
"I think he started to hunt us up, didn't he, Mrs Upward?" spluttered
the latter.
"Oh, I don't know. But--I believe you saw him and gave him the go-by"--
whereat the inculpated pair exchanged glances, and spluttered anew.
"I see," said Upward, amusing himself by beginning to tease Tinkles--
whose growls and snaps afforded him considerable mirth. "How's his
chafed foot now--Oh-h!" The last as the little terrier, getting in a
bite, half play, half earnest, nipped him through his trousers.
"He didn't say anything about his chafed foot. Why, here he comes."
A very sulky looking horseman rode up and dismounted. Upon him Fleming
turned a fire of sly chaff; which had the effect of rendering
Bracebrydge sulkier than ever, and Bracebrydge sulky was not a pleasant
fellow by any means. He retorted accordingly.
"Never mind, old chap," cut in Upward. "It's all right now, and nearly
dinner time. Let's all have a `peg.' Nothing like a `peg' to give one
an appetite."