CHAPTER XL.
"Shookur Khoda!" cried Peer Khan, as he rushed into my presence onthe fourth day after we had arrived at Nassuk; "Soobhan Khan wasright--they are come!"
"Are you sure, Khan?"
"Certain," he replied; "the description we had of them tallies withwhat I have seen in every point. Come and see yourself; there are thecamels and the men disguised. But I could have sworn, had I met themanywhere, that they were Rokurreas; they have the air and bearing ofthe tribe."
"Enough," said I, "_you_ cannot be deceived. They do not know we arehere, and we will do the same as we did at Boorhanpoor. Get the menready; we will go round the town, travel a coss or two, and enter bythe same gate they did: we will then put up in the bazar with them."
We were all shortly in motion, and, as I had planned, after going roundthe outside of the town, we entered it on the other side, and were soonin our new quarters in the bazar.
Travellers soon get acquainted. The shop I chose adjoined the one theyoccupied, and I had quickly scraped an acquaintance with the Jemadar ofthe Rokurreas.
Narrayun Das, for that was his name, was a tall and very powerfulman; he had small twinkling eyes, and long straight eyebrows, which,by binding his turban tightly over his temples, he had drawn up indiagonal lines to either side, and this imparted to them a verypeculiar expression: long mustachios, which were twisted out to eachside, and thick bushy whiskers, and his whole appearance proved him tobe an experienced Rokurrea, and one to whom deceit and stratagem werefamiliar. I shall have a cunning hand to deal with here, thought I, asI scanned his features; no common pretences will go down with him; buthave him I must and will, ay, and his two lakhs too. Two lakhs! it isworth an effort were he Roostum himself. Yet he was not slow in formingan acquaintance with me. Our salutations passed in due form, and afterwe had all cooked our morning meal, and sat on our carpets, we soonentered into familiar conversation.
"A pretty business Bajee Rao has made of it," said he, as I had askedhim the news from Poona. "The coward! had he but put himself at thehead of his army when the fight took place at Kirkee, he might haveannihilated the Feringhees."
"And do you wish that he had?" said I.
"Certainly; what do we know of them? While they confined themselves tothe fort of Bombay, it was all very well,--and I remember the time whenthey had hardly a foot of ground beyond it; but now, little by littlethey have advanced, until they have upset the Mahratta empire, and arein a fair way to take it."
"But," said I, "Bajee Rao has a good army, all the country is his own,and surely he will do something. The Mahrattas are good soldiers, andhe has leaders of renown with him."
"He will do nothing, Meer Sahib; he will run from place to place, andhis army may fight if they can or will: he will never draw a sword. Thecowardly wretch has not the soul of a flea."
"Well, Jemadar, to me it matters little; I have forsworn soldiering,and find that I can get a good livelihood by escorting treasure andgoods. I am just come from Benares, and the sahoukar who employed mehas sent for more, which I am to bring down to him."
"Ah!" cried he, "so you are in that line. Well, it is a good one ifyou have plenty of men, but a sorely troublesome and difficult one ifyou have few. I speak from experience, for I am in the same businessmyself. I have been lucky, but my poor brother was otherwise; he fellby the hands of thieves between here and Indoor; we heard of him fromBoorhanpoor, but beyond that we could get no tidings of him."
"Strange!" said I: "I never heard of thieves on the road, thoughmy kafila would have been worth plundering. But now I am under theprotection of the Sahib-logue, I care not; they will soon have all thecountry, and there will be no danger in another year."
"Under the protection of the Feringhees! how do you mean? I thought yousaid you served a sahoukar."
"So I do," I replied; "but to ensure my safe return, his friend SoobhanKhan got me this pass, which he said would be respected throughout thecountry;" and I pulled out the document, which I had carefully foldedup in wax-cloth, and showed it to him.
"You are fortunate, Meer Sahib, and particularly in knowing SoobhanKhan, who is a worthy man and one deservedly respected; I have knownhim for many years; he has always been a good friend to me, and hasgot me employment when I most required it, by becoming security for meto a large amount. But you said that you had given up soldiering; inthis you have been wise; far preferable is it to gain an honourablelivelihood than be marched in all directions, with but little pay, andhard fighting for that. With whom have you served?"
"You must not tell any one," said I; "for every man who has served theman I have would desire it to be a secret, and perhaps the knowledge ofmy former life might be against my present interests. I served underCheetoo Pindharee, and led three thousand of his best horse."
"Under Cheetoo!" cried the Jemadar; "this is most strange; and you arenot joking?"
"I am not, I swear by your head; I dare say I could find some papers toconvince you of the fact if you doubt it. But, as I said, I do not liketo tell any one."
"You need not fear me," said he, "I am as close as a Rokurrea, andyou know the saying is proverbial; but you must have seen strangeadventures and strange lands, for they say he got nearly to Madras, andleft the Feringhees' country a desert behind him."
"I shall be glad to tell you some of my adventures, Jemadar Sahib, andperhaps they may interest you, though it hardly befits a man to speakof his own deeds."
"Nay, there is nothing to be ashamed of, Meer Sahib; and as for being aPindharee, the best in the land were with him; and a gallant army theywere when the first Lubhur assembled at Nemawur."
"Then you were there?"
"I was. I brought some treasure from Indoor and Oojein to the sahoukarsat Nemawur, and saw the whole of the preparations for the campaign;and Bhugwan knows I was so taken with the appearance of the whole,that could I have got a horse, I verily believe I should have turnedPindharee myself. They say every man filled his saddle with gold andpearls."
"We were lucky enough," said I, "especially in the first expedition.Had you come to Nemawur before the second had set out, you would haveheard of me; I had a good name and a high rank. In the first I wasnobody, and gained Cheetoo's favour solely because I was a betterswordsman than any in his camp."
"Then I have heard of you," said the man; "but surely you cannot bethat Syud Ameer Ali who was only second to Ghuffoor Khan?"
"I am the very person, and no other," I replied; "true, my rankis fallen, but whose has not? Cheetoo is dead; Ghuffoor Khan hasdisappeared, and is supposed to have gone to Hyderabad; Syud Bheekoo isGod knows where; and Shekh Dulla still roams about the hills betweenBoorhanpoor and Ellichpoor, with a price set on his head. No one knewmuch of me, and I suspect, so long as I behave peacefully and followmy present calling, no one will ask after me. I had enough of being aPindharee after the second foray, and got to my home at Jhalone as soonas I could. If the others had been wise, they would have sought theirsafety as I did."
"Yes," said the jemadar, "Cheetoo's was a sad fate--he deserved abetter; but they say the Sahib-logue offered him a Jagheer,--is thistrue?"
"So I have heard," said I; "fool that he was, he would not accept it;but no wonder, his whole soul was bound up in his plans for driving outthe Feringhees. He thought the Mahrattas would beat them; and when theyhad gained the first victory, he was to have joined them with fifteenthousand horse, and become a great commander. I should have followedhim too, had they been successful; but they were not, nor ever will be;and I am what you see me."
"A strange history," said the man, "and you have told me more than Iever knew before. Had the Peshwa and the Rajah of Nagpoor played theirparts as well as Cheetoo, all would have gone right; but it is uselessto think of them, and I suppose we must make up our minds to our newmasters. Now, however, you and I, Meer Sahib, must not separate. I amgoing to Indoor for some treasure, and your best way lies through it;I will keep with you, for your party is a large one, and, to tell youthe truth, I don't like passin
g those jungles by the Sindwah Ghat withmy own. The Bheels are taking advantage of the present disturbances tobe all in arms. Bands of deserters from the Peshwa traverse the countryin all directions, helping themselves to what they can; and they arenot over scrupulous either. So we will keep together, if you like, formutual protection."
"I shall be glad to do so," said I; "though I have nothing to lose,except two or three thousand rupees, and whoever comes to take themwill get more blows than money."
"And I have still less," said he; "I have only enough to pay myexpenses and feed my camels; but I am no great hand at fighting, andam not mounted as you are, to run from danger." But the heavily-ladenpack-saddles belied his words. I was not to be deceived, and felt assure that the coveted treasure was there as that the Rokurrea whoguarded it was before me.
We shortly afterwards separated; and when I was alone with Peer Khan Itold him what I had said, and how I had deceived the Rokurrea. A longand hearty laugh we had over it. "But I fear for you, Meer Sahib," saidhe. "Compare his power and your own slight frame. You must risk nothingnow."
I laughed. "His power, Khan!" I said, "what is it to that of many whohave fallen under my hand before now? Besides, he is the brother ofthe Rokurrea we killed beyond Boorhanpoor, and he must be mine at allhazards. I would not miss this adventure for thousands."
"I will tell you what," said Peer Khan, "it will never do to kill themso far from Indoor; let us get them as near to the city as possible,and we shall be the nearer our own home. This matter will cause a stir,and we had better not risk anything."
"Well, be it as you will. I had intended to have killed them nearBoorhanpoor, and then to have turned off directly into the hills; weshould never be followed."
"Ay, and risk Shekh Dulla and his party, who are out?" said Peer Khan;"that would never do. He would plunder us; and as he knows us, wouldmost like serve us as Cheetoo did the poor fellows who were caught."
"Astaffur Alla!" cried I, shuddering. "God forbid! no, your plan is thebest. We will entice them out of the towns before we have gone manymarches, and then they are our own when and wherever we please."
I pass over our journey, Sahib; all journeys are alike devoid ofinterest, and only one routine of dusty roads, parching sun (for theRokurreas would not travel by night), bad food, and discomfort ofall kinds. We met with no adventure, except being robbed of triflingarticles at different places; and we fully succeeded in persuadingthe Rokurreas to encamp with us, as we adhered to our old customof preferring the outside of the villages to entering them, where,besides the additional fear of thieves, there was more dust, moredirt, more heat, and continual squabbles with the villagers. My menhad behaved admirably. No one could have told, from the broad patoisthey spoke, that they were aught but what they represented themselvesto be,--Benares-walas, and Bhojpoorees: they looked as stupid a set ofowls as could well be collected together; but they played their parts,to a man, with the extreme caution and cunning on which rested thesuccess of our enterprise.
After all, Sahib, cannot you now understand the excitement whichpossesses the soul of a Thug in his pursuit of men? Cannot you feelwith us, as you hear my story, and follow us in my recital? Here hadwe kept company with these Rokurreas for twenty days; we had becomeintimate; they told their adventures, we told ours; the evenings passedin singing or telling tales, until one by one we sunk down wearied uponour carpets. Cannot you appreciate the intense interest with which wewatched their every movement, nay, every word which fell from them, andour terrible alarms, as sometimes our minds misgave us that we weresuspected? Yet still we stuck to them through everything, they werenever lost sight of for a moment, and, above all, their minds were kepthappy.
As to their leader, he was delighted with me. My accounts of myadventures as a Pindharee, the plunder we had got, the towns we hadburned and sacked, all were to him interesting, and day by day I toldhim of new exploits. He used to sit, and the rest of his men too,listening with unfeigned pleasure to the accounts which I and Peer Khangave. Cunning as they were, at heart they were honest and simple, andthey readily believed all we told them.
But their time had drawn near. Indoor was five marches further, anddelay was now impracticable and useless; besides, to insure their safearrival, I knew they had determined on going thirty coss in one march,and my men could not keep up with these hardy fellows. "Come whatwill," said I to Peer Khan, "they die to-morrow night."
The time came. We were sitting, as usual, under the same nobletamarind-trees; one by one we had sung our song or related ouradventures; and who could have guessed, had he seen us thus engaged,that a work of death was to ensue? Every tongue was employed, and thehearty laugh which broke at times from one or other of the assembly,showed how light and merry were our hearts,--we, at the certainty ofour success, the Rokurreas, at the thought that the peril of the roadwas past, and that their large amount of treasure would reach itsdestination in safety: there was not a grave face among us.
"There," cried the Jemadar of the Rokurreas, "there is the moon; whenshe has risen over the trees yonder, we will bid you farewell, kindMeer Sahib; we have been happy in your company, and free from alarmsand danger. Bhugwan grant that we may hereafter journey in company, andas safely as we have done! Thanks to your care in protecting us outsidethe villages, we have not lost a cowree; and we have been taught a newmode of encamping, which we will follow in future. The moon will lastus the whole night, and we shall have twenty coss of ground behind usby the time you wake from your night's sleep."
The Thugs had taken their places; to each Rokurrea were four stout menallotted, and I marvelled that they should have thus allowed themselvesto be separated from each other. But they had not suspected; who_could_ have done so? The moon rose majestically above the distanttrees; her full, round, and yellow orb cast a mellow light upon ourgroup. The Rokurreas rose with one accord, and each turned to the menhe was near to give them his parting benediction and salutation.
"Nay," said I, "we part not thus, Narrayun Das; let us separateas friends; receive my embrace; we are friends and brothers byprofession." We embraced, and before the others could press forward tosalute me, I gave the jhirnee: "Pan lao!" I exclaimed. It was enough.The Jemadar fell beneath my own handkerchief, and a few shrieks andgroans told the rest--all had died.
"Haste ye, my good fellows," cried I to the Lughaees; "the same brightmoon which was to have served these fellows shines brightly upon us;quick with your work, the camels are ready, and a few hours will see ussafe from pursuit, though indeed none is to be apprehended from thissmall place."
The bodies were stripped; every fellow had a heavy humeana, besideswhat was laden on the camels. We stopped not to count our money, buthastened on when the interment was finished; and only tarrying for afew moments at the next village we came to, to purchase the goor forthe Tupounee, we found ourselves in the morning nearly twenty cossfrom the scene of our last night's adventure.
We halted till the evening, and again pushed on, but by a differentroad; and leaving Indoor about fifteen coss to the right, we directedour course to a small village named Dehalpoor. From this, leavingOojein also to the right, we hastened on, always travelling by night onaccount of the extreme heat of the weather, and by way of Buhadoorgurhand Aorcha, we reached Jhalone in safety. No alarm had we but one. Therevenue officers on the frontier of Holkar's dominions insisted onknowing who we were, and what we had with us; and so strict were theirinquiries, that, had it not been for the English pass I had with me,we must have been suspected and apprehended. But, thanks to SoobhanKhan, it was not questioned; as Futih Mahomed I passed free. A duty,or rather an exaction, of fifty rupees was levied on the treasure, anda fresh pass given to us, by which we escaped further questioning anddetention. Who can describe my father's joy at seeing the treasure!the old man was in ecstasy: he kissed me, he embraced me, called meby every endearing name, and extolled my conduct in glowing terms toGanesha, who happened to be with him. It was easy to see, however, thatto that worthy they might well have been spar
ed. Jealousy possessedhim, which he could ill disguise, and I verily believe, had he dared,that he would have informed the Rajah of the treasure we had secured.In the memory of the oldest Thug, no such booty had ever been gained,and I was classed by the Thugs with Jhora Naeck and Kuduk Bunwaree,fabled votaries of Bhowanee, of whom stories were told which, thoughimplicitly believed by most, nay all of our fraternity, I nevercredited. But it was enough for me. I had never met a reverse, andevery Thug of Hindostan, I verily believe, only thought he must join meto secure to himself a booty which would support him for years.
I have forgotten, however, to mention to you an incident which befellus at Buhadoorgurh. We were encamped outside the town, and late in theevening we saw a body of men, whom we at first took to be Thugs, comingtowards our camp.
"Who can they be?" said I to Peer Khan; "they look like Thugs, yet itis late for any party to be out."
"Some straggling party, I suppose," said he; "I will go and see."
"If they are Thugs and you know them," I added, "bring them, but saynot a word of our booty."
"No, no, I am not such a fool," said he laughing; "but I will bring youthe news."
He went, and returned with the leader of the party. I had purposelykept in my little tent, in order that my face might not be seen incase they were strangers; and to conceal it effectually, I tied ahandkerchief over my mouth and chin.
"Salam Aliekoom," said a gruff voice, as a man with Peer Khan enteredthe tent.
"You are welcome, friend," said I: "sit down." He was evidently wearywith travel, and seated himself slowly.
"Your name," said I; "and who are you?"
"My name," replied the man, "is well known, I dare say, to most people,and they are afraid of it. I am called Lall Khan, or familiarly Lalloo."
"I have not heard it before," said I; "but who are you and your men?"
"Oh, we are free traders, who help ourselves to what we can get with astrong hand." Some wandering Pindharees, thought I; and I asked him ifthey were such.
"Not exactly," said he; "we are Dacoos."
"Worse and worse," said I, laughing; "and I suppose you are from Delhi?"
"Ay," replied he, "even so; we know you, though you do not know us. Weknow you to be Thugs by your encampment--but never fear us;--brethrenshould not interfere with each other; we have different ways of helpingourselves to spoil, but what matter; we are brothers in a general senseof the word."
"Good, we are; and if I can help you, say so."
"In no wise," said he, "but to give us room among ye for the night: wewill be off early, if you do not go the same road."
"Room ye shall have, Khan, till the moon rises, and food too; but afterthat we are off; we travel northwards."
"Then it cannot be helped," he replied; "we will stay here till you go,and occupy your ground afterwards; we shall not be suspected."
"And where are you going?" I asked.
"To Hyderabad," said the man. "No one suspects Dacoos to be out at thistime of the year, and we shall have the whole road to ourselves; weshall return after the rains, about the Dussera, by the Nagpoor road.Now we are going by Bhopal and Boorhanpoor."
"And your luck?" said I; "have you had good bunij?" (for this word wasunderstood by them, and is common to all classes of people who do theirwork on the roads).
"Middling," said he, "neither good nor bad. We have had a few affairs,but nothing to boast of."
"Well," said I, "you have taken a good line; the road from Boorhanpoorto Hyderabad is a good one, and you will be in Sikundur Jah's country,where no one asks questions about the people who are left on thehighways. I wish you good luck, and my friend will look after yourcomforts: you must excuse me, as I am in pain from a swelled face andtoothache."
"Salam!" said he, as he departed: "if you were going instead ofreturning, we might get good plunder in company; we Dacoos are rarehands at rough work."
I had spoken in a disguised voice, and it was impossible he couldrecognize me again if he met me. I did this for an object whichoccurred to me at the moment, as you shall learn hereafter. I mentionedthis meeting to my father. "What hinders us," said I, "from meetingthem as they come up? they will be laden with spoil, and will be aneasy prey. Brave and reckless as they are, they have no wit, and willnever find us out."
"I don't know that," said my father; "they are not so stupid as youthink; I know much of them, have killed some of them, and they werecunning enough. Several gangs of them have escaped Thugs by being ableto detect them. However, I see nothing objectionable in your plan; andat any rate, it will furnish excuse for a new expedition."
"Ay," said Ganesha, who was present, "let us go; I long to see theMeer Sahib act. We hear so much of him, that, by Bhowanee, perhaps anunlucky old Thug like myself may pick up something new. Will you let mecome also?"
"Certainly," said I; "but you will see no more than you know already;lucky I have been, but you know my pretensions to knowledge are verysmall, and I have never boasted of them. To my perception, the wholeart consists in having a smooth tongue in one's head; and a man who isa good Bhuttote rarely makes a good Sotha."
"Yet you are both, Meer Sahib," said Ganesha, with a malicious grin;"and your men would follow you to the death."
"So they will," said I; "for I am kind and considerate to them, andreward them handsomely."
This stung him to the quick; for he was a rough bully, and, thoughperhaps one of the best Bhuttotes then living, was no hand atinveigling travellers; and as he always persisted in being a Sothahimself, he was notoriously unlucky; but few men, too, would serveunder him. He was preparing to retort sharply, when my father stoppedhim.
"Let him alone," said he; "he is a proud boy, and bickerings among uslead to no good: you must not think on what he has said."
"Nay, Ismail," said he, with the air of an offended child, "I care notwhat he says; pride will have its fall, and I may live to see it."
I was very angry, but there was no use in saying more. Had we beenalone, he should have answered for it.--So you see, Sahib, out of atrifling incident a new expedition was determined on. We all prayed itmight be more favourable than the former one which was planned in thatdirection, and I confess that my success in the last had strengthenedmy faith in the efficacy of the omens, though as yet by no meansestablished it. Experience, they say, is always bought at a costlyprice, and is bitter when you have got it; and I had to buy mine,though the time was not yet come.
But Soobhan Khan, who was he? said I to Ameer Ali; and did you pay himhis price of blood?
Not a cowree of it, said Ameer Ali; but you shall hear. I asked myfather who he was, and detailed the whole of my adventures with him: heremembered the man the instant I spoke of him.
"The rascal!" cried my father; "and is he so rich and honoured, the sonof a vile woman? To think that he should be in such a situation, thescoundrel! But the deeds of Alla are inscrutable. Listen, my son, tohis story, which can be told in a few words.
"He and I were Jemadars together. I never liked him, and he had a badreputation; he was never a good Bhuttote, for the fellow was an arrantcoward, but he was a capital Sotha, and his smooth tongue gained himmore bunij than we could gain by straightforward work. Well, many yearsago we joined together, he to be Sotha, and I to manage the other work.We had killed a large body of travellers near Jeypoor, for we had anumerous gang. Two were sahoukars, and the booty was large. Among itwere some pearls and precious stones; they were given over to his partyas their share, and he said he would go to Indoor to sell them; but Ihad lent him nearly a thousand rupees at different times, when he hadno money to make advances to men to induce them to serve under him, andI pressed him for some of the pearls, which I wanted for my wife, inpayment of the money. This was late one night, after we had divided thespoil; he said he would give me them in the morning, when I could pickout the strings I liked best; and he spoke so winningly, that I, foolas I was, never doubted him. That night he absconded, and I never heardof him till this extraordinary account of yours.
Pay him!" continuedmy father, "not the value of a broken cowree shall he ever get; inany other man I might have pardoned it, but in him the conduct wasingratitude in the highest degree; for had I not assisted and upheldhim, he would have been neglected and have starved."
This then was the secret of Soobhan Khan's wealth; he must have soldhis pearls one by one, as he had hinted to me that he had traded inthem, and raised himself by bribery to the state he was in. Of course Ineither sent him his money as I had promised, nor wrote him a line tosay that I had arrived safely at Jhalone. I destroyed his pass too, asit might have led to detection.
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