CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.
DE TALIONE.
"There _is_ gratitude left in the world."
Herbert Raynier was lying in the damp and pitchy gloom of his dungeon,sleeping as soundly and as peacefully as though he were not to be ledforth and beheaded with the rising of the morrow's sun. That lastinterview had calmed and soothed him, and now his slumbers were bright--for he was amid beautiful scenes, far away, and Hilda was beside him.Then he started up--and with the first flash of awaking consciousnesscame the thought that the time had come, and the hand that had droppedon his shoulder in the darkness was that which should lead him forth tohis doom.
"There _is_ gratitude left in the world."
The words were uttered softly, and--in good English. Was he dreaming?But immediately a shaded light rendered things visible. Hands were busyabout his shackles, and lo! they fettered his ankles no more.
"I have come to save you, brother," went on the whispered voice. "Ifyou obey me implicitly you will be free immediately. Put on these, anduntil I give leave, do not speak so much as one little word."
Raynier obeyed him in both particulars. In a moment or two he wasarrayed in the white loose garments and turban of the border tribes.For the other injunction, he whispered but one name,--
"Shere Dil Khan?"
"Yes. Now--silence." Following his guide, to Raynier it seemed theywere traversing endless and labyrinthine passages. With something of ashudder he recognised that horrible door through which he had passedduring those acute moments of living death, then the Sirdar openedanother door, and the cool free air of the desert, blowing upon them,told that they were outside the walls.
Still preserving the most rigid silence, they held on, downward, by asteep path. Turning his head, Raynier could make out the loom of thegreat mountain mass against the stars, and was conjecturing on the easeand absence of obstacle which had characterised his deliverance at thehands of the Nawab's son, for not a soul did they encounter, no guardchallenged them; and it occurred to him that, in the strength of hisfetters, his safe keeping had lain, wherefore no watch was placed overhim; and this was the real meaning of it.
For about half an hour they had been walking swiftly and in silence,when Shere Dil Khan stopped. Before them was a rude herdsman's shelter,and from within came a sound.
They entered this, and, was it imagination? but Raynier thought toperceive a human figure dart out at the other end. But here stood twohorses, saddled and bridled.
"Mount," said Shere Dil Khan, breaking the silence. And he thrust arifle into the other's hand. "It is a Lee-Metford, and the magazine isfully loaded, but here are other cartridges."
"You might well have thought that gratitude was dead in the world, mybrother," resumed the Sirdar, as they rode on through the night. "Buthad I shown any recognition of you then, you would not be here now, for,the Nawab's suspicions once aroused, you would have been stronglyguarded. Even to the lady I dared not give the slightest encouragementto hope."
"I misjudged you, brother, forgive me. But would not the Nawab havereckoned what I was able to do for you as a set-off against what myfather is supposed to have done."
"He would not, for he had sworn, and an oath is binding. Now that youhave escaped he will not be sorry, when he learns how you saved me fromthe murderous rabble in your country. But, brother, get your Governmentto remove you from this border, because now it is the duty of everyGularzai to take your life."
Raynier thought that his Government would not require much "getting"under all the circumstances, and perhaps it was as well.
"But you, brother? Will not you have to suffer for this?"
"No. My father will be displeased, but although he would not havespared you, at heart he will be glad you have escaped, having saved thelife of his son."
It had been midnight when they started. Towards daybreak they paused torest their horses, then on again.
"Yonder is she who would have redeemed you, brother," said Shere DilKhan.
In front were discernible two mounted figures. Raynier's heart leaped,and he well-nigh blessed his peril, by reason of that which it had drawnforth. But the meeting between the two was subdued, for there wereothers present Shere Dil Khan and the Baluchi were deep in earnestconference.
"Farewell now, brother," said the former. "I can go no further. Allahbe with ye! I think the way is open, yet do not delay, and avoid othersif possible." And with a farewell handclasp the Sirdar turned his horseand cantered swiftly away.
Twice they sighted parties of Gularzai, but these were distant andunmounted, moreover, they themselves being in native attire attracted noattention. The sun rose over the chaos of jagged peaks, and to thosewanderers it seemed that he never rose upon a fairer and brighterworld--yet they were in a desert of arid plain, and cliff, and hump-likehills streaked white with gypsum. Mehrab Khan thought that by swifttravelling they might reach Mazaran by the middle of the next night.All seemed fair and promising.
On the right front rose a great mountain range, broken and rugged, andnow they were crossing a long narrow plain. Then, at the end of thisthey became aware of something moving.
"Horsemen--and Gularzai," pronounced Mehrab Khan.
Were they pursued? was the first thought of his hearers. For they madeout that this was a party four or five dozen strong perhaps. Yet, whyshould they attract the attention of these any more than of other groupsthey had passed? They forgot one thing. Hilda, though in nativecostume, was riding European fashion, side saddle.
Further scrutiny did not tend to reassure. The horsemen were heading intheir direction, and riding rapidly. It began to wear an ugly look ofpursuit. This might prove to be a stray wandering band, but even thatdid not seem to mend matters.
Raynier and Mehrab Khan held rapid consultation. It would look lesssuspicious to ride on if they had been seen, they decided, and there wasnowhere to hide, if they had not. But soon a glimpse behind placed thequestion beyond all doubt. The distance between themselves and thehorsemen had diminished perceptibly. The latter, strung out over theplain, were coming for them at a gallop.
As they put their steeds to a corresponding pace, it seemed to Raynierthat all he had gone through was as nothing to that moment. They wouldbe captured, for, bearing in mind the pace at which they had hithertotravelled, their steeds were urgently in need of a blow. Just as theyhad reckoned on having gained safety at last, and now--all was lost.
On, on, swept this wild chase, and now the pursuers were near enough toshout to them to halt Hilda's steed was beginning to show signs ofgiving in. Then its rider uttered breathlessly,--
"Herbert, I see a chance. That bend of rock just ahead. Beyond it--the_tangi_--the Syyed's _tangi_."
"A chance, indeed," he answered, all athrill at the discovery. "Theonly thing is will they fight shy of it now, as they did in cold blood?"
"They will--they will," she panted.
Now they had gained the rock portal--towering up grim and frowningoverhead, and the pursuers had nearly gained it too. But these last,the foremost of them, drew up a little way from the entrance. So didothers who came up. It was evident they recognised the place, and theforce of superstition was strong.
Crouched among the boulders the three fugitives could just see what wasgoing on. One who seemed a leader was evidently urging them forward--riding up and down their line haranguing and gesticulating vehemently.At last six or seven men broke from the others, and, followed by these,the chief advanced towards the mouth of the chasm.
"Murad Afzul, _Huzoor_," whispered Mehrab Khan.
"It is his last quarter of an hour," grimly answered Raynier, sightinghis rifle. And then an inspiration came to him, and he whispered somehurried instructions to Mehrab Khan. The Baluchi immediately left hisside, and retired further into the chasm.
"Hilda, dearest, do you think you could hold the horses, in case theyget a bit of a scare?" he said. "I have a plan which will save us, ifanything will. Stand behind that
elbow of rock with them."
Without a word she obeyed, and now the Gularzai were already within themouth of the _tangi_, Murad Afzul leading. What followed was weirdlystartling. The whole of the grim and gloomy chasm roared with the mostappalling sounds, mingled with shriekings and wailings. To and fro--tossed along those gigantic cliff walls the echoes bellowed, givingforth strange mouthings, and then, over all, from the dim inner recessesof the cavernous rift spake an awful voice.
"O unbelievers, violators of my sanctuary, retire, or ye die--die evenas those three now lying here, whom none may find until the ending ofthe world. He who makes one step forward, that moment he dies. In thename of the Great, the Terrible One."
The suddenness of it, the awful appalling din, the sombre repute of theplace, and the consciousness that they were knowingly venturing onsacrilege, had an effect upon the intruders which was akin to panic.They stopped short, reining in their horses cruelly, lest they shouldaccidentally make that one step forward, and their fierce shaggy visagesseemed petrified with the terror that was in them. But Murad Afzul'shorse at that moment, wildly plunging, half stumbled on a round stone,and the jerk of the bit, and the savage sting of the hide whip,instinctively administered, caused it to take a bound forward. Then itstopped dead still, and its rider half stood up in his stirrups with aquick jerk, then, throwing up his arms, toppled heavily, and with acrash, on to the stones.
One terrified glance at the set face and glazing eyes, and the wholehalf-dozen venturesome ones turned and stampeded wildly from theterrible spot, muttering citations from the Koran to avert further evil.What could be clearer? Their leader had made a forbidden step forwardand--and he had died, even as the ghost of the holy one whose sanctuaryit was, had threatened. He had died, stricken by the powers of the airat the bidding of the Syyed.
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Raynier, his nerves all athrill with this passing of the crisis,withdrew his rifle, feeling something of savage satisfaction and pridein his successful shot. But it did not at once occur to him that thewild and deafening din of the reverberations had so completely drownedthe report of his piece that no shadow of a suspicion lay upon the mindsof the now discomfited pursuers that their leader had met his death bymortal agency, or by any other than that of the powers of the unseen.It was left to Hilda to suggest, and the idea was a reassuring one,because it meant that no further pursuit would be undertaken. Her hefound struggling with the bridles of the scared and refractory horses,and at the same time convulsively laughing.
"It was so comical," she explained. "Fancy our being able to turn thatecho to such account. It was clever of you to hit upon that idea."Then gravely, "Do you remember what I said that night, Herbert, thesecond time we were in here together? `Something warns me there willcome a day when our knowledge of this place will make all the differencebetween life and death.' Well, has it made that difference?"
"I should rather think so. But what puzzles me is how on earth you knewwe were anywhere near the place. We entered it now, mind you, by theend furthest from the camp, and we never went outside that on either ofthose occasions."
"I knew it by that split rock and the little one beside it, rising upout of the nullah down there. I noticed them opposite this entrance thefirst time we were here."
"Wonderful! Do you know, Hilda, Haslam says there's something uncannyabout you, and I begin to believe there is."
"Only _begin_ to believe?" And she laughed gaily, happily.
The comedy side of what had come near being tragedy did not appeal toMehrab Khan in the least. They found that estimable Baluchi in aserious and gloomy vein. In the first place he had penetrated here andhad thus incurred the consequent penalty; in the next by taking thevoice of the dead Syyed he had committed an act of sacrilege. Raynierstrove to reassure him.
"If Allah used this place as a means of saving our lives," he said, "hedoes not intend that it shall be the means of our losing them, and itwas written that they should be saved here. Besides, O believer, it wasupon the people of this country that the dead Syyed laid the curse, notupon us, who are not of this country."
And this, perhaps, was what went furthest towards reassuring MehrabKhan. He repeated sententiously,--
"It was written."
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.
A DEED OF GIFT.
At Mazaran Hilda Clive was the heroine of the hour, and the station didnot know which to do most--admire her pluck and resolution, or marvelhow it could have regarded her all this while as of no account. She haddone a wonderful thing, this quiet, retiring girl, on whom the popularverdict had been "Oh, so-so." She had ventured alone into thestronghold of one of the fierce, fanatical tribes then engaged in theborder war, and had brought back their prisoner, the man whom they haddoomed to death. She had saved his life.
But Hilda declared emphatically that she had done nothing of the kind--on the contrary, her errand had failed signally. He had been releasedby a different and unexpected agency altogether, and it was only byaccident that they had travelled back together. To this side of thestory not much attention was given. The fact remained that she had setout to effect his release, and had returned with him, and not withouthim. And now the station metaphorically winked, and pronounced Rayniera lucky fellow indeed.
Yes, but what about that other time when it had so pronounced him, andthe reason thereof? Well, on that head it had seen cause to change itsmind. For Cynthia Daintree had not been careful to keep up her part.She had flirted outrageously with Captain Beecher what time the man towhom she declared herself engaged was in daily peril of his life, andhad incidentally offended more than one whose good word was worthhaving. Yet how would Raynier dispose of her, she having come all theway out from home; moreover, she would be rather a difficult subject tonegotiate? Clearly there were complications ahead, and the stationlooked forward to no end of fun.
It was disappointed, however. Raynier, with a promptitude and decisionfor which she had not given him credit gave Cynthia to understand thathe did not consider himself in the very least bound to her, nor had hesince that last interview in the Vicarage garden. As for her action incoming out there to claim him, under the circumstances, he preferred notto express an opinion, for fear he might say too much.
He had anticipated a wild and stormy scene. To his surprise she seemedto acquiesce. The only thing was that if he repudiated her after whatshe had given out, what sort of a figure would she cut? She had betterlet it be known that she had discovered they were not suited to eachother, and so had better part, she suggested.
There was something in this. He could hardly show her up--for everyreason. He was intensely annoyed, but finally agreed; resolving,however, that there was one person at any rate who should know thetruth.
But now official business claimed Raynier's time and attention to theexclusion of all else. Reinforcements arrived at Mazaran, and fieldoperations were to be opened immediately against the Gularzai, and onthe eve of these, Raynier had the good fortune to capture, with the aidof Mehrab Khan and a few Levy Sowars, the _mullah_ Hadji Haroun, hehaving obtained secret information that that pestilent agitator wastravelling in disguise and almost unguarded. This was a stroke of luckindeed. There was no question at headquarters of superseding him now,the more so that immediately afterwards he succeeded, through hisfriendship with Shere Dil Khan, in opening up communications with theNawab. The Gularzai chief had been drawn into the war unwillingly, aswe have seen. The tribes further along the border had sufferedseverely, and more reinforcements were moving up to reduce him. He hadentered upon it mainly as an opportunity of wreaking his vengeance uponRaynier, only to find that the latter had saved the life of his son andsuccessor. Shere Dil Khan, too, had cast doubts on the genuineness ofthe document used by the _mullah_ to secure the adherence of theGularzai--in fact, believed it to be a downright forgery.
Raynier was an important personage at that juncture, and, in truth, hedeser
ved any prestige he may have earned. For, again trusting to MushimKhan's safe conduct, he had placed himself alone in the power of theGularzai chief, with the result that he returned having obtained theNawab's submission. The Gularzai had taken no very active part as yetin the rising, and the Government were only too glad to receive thesubmission of so important and powerful a chief as Mushim Khan,wherefore there was peace, and Raynier was marked out for recognition;albeit the military element cursed him roundly among themselves as oneof those infernal meddling Politicals who had done them out of a nicelittle campaign.
Hilda Clive seemed to have become quieter and more retiring than ever,and the station--whose attempt to lionise her she had resolutelyevaded--decided that anxiety about Raynier was her motive, for it wasuniversally opined that "that would be a _bundobust_" once the bordertrouble was over.
One day she said to the Tarletons,--"Do you remember how scared you allwere for fear I should go through the Syyed's _tangi_ with Mr Raynier?"
"Rather," said Haslam, who was there, helping Tarleton to reduce MushimKhan--in theory.
"How long ago was that?"
They fell to discussion; deciding that it was quite two months.
"Well, then, I ought to be dead by now. The tradition says before theend of the second moon. And even when we were talking about the place,I had already been through it once. I have been through it twice since.The third time it saved our lives, as you know."
The story of this latter event in its completeness they had agreed tokeep to themselves, only giving out that the Gularzai had shrunk fromfollowing them into the _tangi_ from superstitious motives.
"I told you I'd prove that superstition nonsensical," she went on, hereyes dancing with fun. "Well, what have you got to say for yourselves?"
"You'd already been through it before that night, Miss Clive?" saidHaslam. "Well, I'm jiggered!"
"Yes. But what about the rule?" she persisted. "I'm not dead yet."
Snapped Tarleton, "Well, you can't expect there to be no exception toevery rule, can you?"
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Hilda had been giving herself over to business of late, for each mailbrought her enclosures, bulky and blue, and of unequivocally legalaspect. With such documents she would shut herself up in Tarleton'sden, which he had made over to her for the purpose, and she was soengaged one morning, when Raynier was announced. He had returned toMazaran the day before, and they had met--in public; but this visit wasone of arrangement--of her arrangement.
Hilda looked up from the papers she had been busy with as he entered--infact made a guilty and trepidatious attempt at sweeping them out ofsight, which suggested a weakness entirely foreign to her.
"Well, how are things going?" she asked gaily.
"Things are going quite right. We have that pestiferous _mullah_, HadjiHaroun, safe by the heels, and Mushim Khan has cut out of all furtherpart in the _jihad_. That's good enough to begin with."
"Yes--and you? You know, you must get removed from here. The bloodfeud will overtake you sooner or later."
"No, I think not. I believe Mushim Khan was wound up by that sweep of a_mullah_. Now he only remembers what I did for his son. And he hasdone nothing beyond what he did to me individually, and Murad Afzul isdead, so the Government will not be hard on him, and things will be asthey were."
"Yes. And who has he--who have we all got to thank for that? Herbert,had you no thought for me, when you put yourself into their power again?If I could not get you out of it before, could I again, do you think?"
"Darling, it was because I had every thought for you that I worriedalong at the official business for all I knew how. I wanted tostraighten out the muddle they'd be sure to put down to me. And now Ibelieve I have."
"Yes, indeed, you have."
"And the stir and work knocked me together again, and all that fever hascleared out of my system. I can never forget what an abject invalid Iwas, just when I ought to have been taking care of you."
"Can't you? But I can, and have."
She was standing beside him now, one hand toying absently with a buttonon his coat, a half-absent, half-serious expression in her large eyesthat was very sweet. Her mind went back to the period to which hereferred, when he was ill and fevered and fainting on the cloud-swepthill side. What a contrast! She saw him now, dominant, restored inevery way, having ended the disturbance here in his own jurisdiction bysheer personal intrepidity and weight of influence--the calm, strong,cool-headed official, to whom all looked up.
"Tell me about Cynthia Daintree," she said.
"Just the very thing I've wanted to do. By the way, incidentally, shehas hooked that young ass, Beecher. Whether she'll land him is anothermatter."
"I know. I know, too, what you wanted to tell me that day we went tovisit Sarbaland Khan. Well, we met with a very uncommon interruptionthen."
"Hilda, Hilda. What a witch you are. Is there anything you don'tknow?"
"Yes, plenty. But I won't bother you to go over all that again, becauseI know it already. In fact, I knew it on that very day, though notthrough you. Remember the _dak_ may bring me momentous communicationsas well as you. Oh, by the way, I have a little present here for you.Will you take it?"
"Will I? Will I value anything from you! Darling, how can you ask?"
She did not return his kiss. Her manner was constrained--almostawkward. Turning to the table she placed in his hands a document--large, parchmenty, legal-looking. Then she turned away.
"Why, what on earth is this?" he said as he read through it, and atlength mastered how it set forth, amid infinite legal terminology, howshares and property and cash to the amount of thirty-seven thousandpounds was conveyed to "the said Herbert Raynier by his said cousin, thesaid Hilda Clive."
"Great Scott! What does it all mean?"
"What it says, dear," she answered, still somewhat constrained. "Ialways thought you had been hardly treated in Cousin Jervis's will. Youwere much nearer to him than I was, and a Raynier to boot. So I made upmy mind to go halves with you--until--until--well, lately. Then Ithought you ought to have the whole. I was always reckoned rathereccentric, you know. But I kept a little, just a little for myself.You won't mind that, will you?"
He was staring blankly at her, then at the document.
"I don't quite understand. What is this thing?"
"Well, it's a restoration of what ought to have gone to you. Thelawyers call it a deed of gift. It has to be put that way, you know,"she added shyly, apologetically.
Still Raynier was staring at her as though he had taken leave of hissenses. For there suddenly rushed in upon his mind a scrap of a certainconversation with Mr Daintree in the Vicarage garden. This, then, wasthe distant cousin, Hilda Clive! He had not even known her name--andthen he remembered how he would have learned it then and there but forthe younger girl's boisterous interruption. He remembered, too, theVicar's remark. "She's bound to marry, and then where do you come in?"and his own answer, lightly, banteringly given, "Nowhere, unless I wereto marry her myself," and then--
There was a harsh, staccato sound of tearing. The parchment lay uponthe floor, crumpled, and torn in several pieces. But she who had handedit to him seemed to share its violent treatment, for she was crushed tohim in a close embrace.
"Hilda, darling, I wonder if you have anything approaching a parallel inthe world. I never heard of such an act of magnificent generosity.But, unfortunately, it is all thrown away. I don't want that," pointingto the tattered deed. "I want you. I would rather be back in MushimKhan's prison, with all it involved, and you as you were then, than takewhat you wanted me to there--without you. The only deed of gift I willaccept is yourself. Yourself, do you hear? Am I to have it?"
She was thinking. Almost the spirit of her clairvoyance was in thevivid picture of the dread prison in the Gularzai stronghold that rosebefore her mind. Then she had stood with him on the brink of his grave,
and soul had met soul undisguised. Then it was death--now life--lifeand such happiness! Her cheek was against his, her lips at his ear.She whispered,--
"Yes. You know you are."
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The End.
The Sirdar's Oath: A Tale of the North-West Frontier Page 25
