CHAPTER XIV.
THE IDEAL AND THE REAL.
The secretary came in with his hands full of papers, and Gerrard leftthe office, hardly knowing whither he went. James Antony, sitting inhis shirt-sleeves among the records of his interrupted labours inanother room, took a huge cheroot out of his mouth and called to him ashe passed, but he muttered something unintelligible and hurried on. Upand down the stone-paved courtyard he paced, much to the perturbationof the sentry at the gateway, who found the form of madness with whichthe Sahib must be afflicted difficult to classify. Gerrard waswrestling with himself and with the impulse to throw up politicalemployment altogether and go back to the routine work of hisprofession. When he and Charteris left Ranjitgarh together, he hadenvied his friend, and wished that his work also lay in the open airand among unsophisticated children of nature. But now the environmentin which he had spent the past year had left its traces on him,heightening his natural tendency to proceed by sap and mine rather thanby direct assault, and rendering him still less ready than before tocut Gordian knots when by any conceivable expenditure of time andpatience they might ultimately be undone. In other words, his Agpurtraining had improved his fitness for work of the same kind, but lefthim worse adapted than before for the rough and ready methods necessaryfor the ruler of Darwan. And he was to succeed Charteris, whosesuccess in these very rough and ready methods had been pre-eminent, andwho would much have preferred to do the wrong thing at once rather thanthe right thing after a lengthy pause.
So much engrossed was Gerrard in his meditations that the jingling andclanking that told of the arrival of a party of horsemen at the gate ofthe Residency failed to attract his notice, and it was not until, as heturned in his backward and forward march, he came face to face with BobCharteris sitting on his horse in the moonlight and solemnly regardinghim, that he realised he was no longer alone. He stood speechless.
"Thought I'd wait and see how long you could keep it up--brown study asusual!" cried Charteris. "Why, I believe the beggar takes me for aghost! Hal, old boy!" bending from the saddle he bestowed on Gerrard amost unghostly clap on the shoulder. "I'm come back to plague you; doyou twig--eh?"
"Bob!" cried Gerrard, shaking hands with him rapturously. "My dear oldfellow, I never was so glad in my life!"
"And I believe the fool really is glad, instead of having been thankfulthat his hated rival was safely out of the way," said Charteriscompassionately.
"Glad is no word for it," said Gerrard. "Come and tell me all aboutyourself. I'm in the old place--you'll chum with me as usual, ofcourse?"
"I believe you, my boy! But I must satisfy the natural curiosity ofthe higher powers first. I suppose it's true, as they told me at thegate, that the Colonel has come down like a wolf on the fold, andsneaked the conduct of affairs out of the hands of our Mr James?"
"Yes, he is here. You know he's got his K.C.B.?"
"Wish he had stayed up in the hills with it, then. I don't admireJames Antony's taste in jokes, but his heavy hand appeals to me inconnection with Sher Singh. Now I am afraid the erring brother will bereceived with tears of joy and forgiven on the spot and coddledafterwards, and I wanted him kept in suspense for a bit and then put onprobation. He has given me some precious unpleasant moments, I cantell you. Well, you go off and prepare fatted calf and any othersuitably symbolical prog you may have at hand, and I'll turn up as soonas I can."
Munshi Somwar Mal was in waiting to escort Charteris to his quarterswhen he emerged from his interview with the Resident, and greeted himwith genuine pleasure.
"Now do the nightingales sing once more in the groves of friendship!"he remarked. "Verily for Jirad Sahib the flame of joy has of lateburned low in the lamp of life, but now the oil of Chatar Sahib'spresence will replenish it until it illuminates all Granthistan."
With similar flowery compliments he beguiled the whole way, andCharteris noted with admiration that he did not once repeat hismetaphors. On the well-remembered verandah Gerrard's servant wasputting the finishing touches to the supper-table, to furnish which hehad raided the Resident's larder and suborned his cook, and Charteristhrew himself into a chair with a sigh of satisfaction. Gerrard,moving things about energetically inside to make room for him, calledout that he would come in a moment, and presently emerged and sat downopposite him.
"Well, this is just what I like--and a few over," remarked Charteriscontentedly. "So I hear you are going to sneak my job, old boy?"
"I shall hand it back to you with the utmost pleasure, Bob, as you canwell guess. But tell me how it is you are here at all."
Charteris assumed a deeply sententious manner. "You are not whollyunacquainted with the literature of our vivacious kindred across theAtlantic, I believe, Hal? Well, do you know the expression 'playingpossum'? because that's what I did. I got a glancing bullet across myforehead, where this imposing scar is, just here, which stunned me atfirst, and must have made a ghastly-looking wound, but theunconsciousness didn't last more than a minute or two. At least,that's what I gather from seeing my precious Darwanis in full flightwhen I got the blood out of my eyes. Their way of conducting a retreatwas always to fire a volley and then run away helter-skelter, andthough I had been teaching them better manners, I always knew theywould break if I wasn't there to stiffen them. I was a good dealknocked about, besides the wound on the head, and before I could manageto roll into the bushes, Sher Singh's men were back. I thought it wellto appear more dead than I was, especially when I saw them going roundand finishing off all our wounded that they could find. They were in agreat hurry, and I gathered that your men had driven them off, and theyfelt it advisable to make themselves scarce. I was in full view,unluckily, and expected to get the _coup de grace_ every moment, butwhen they came to me they took me up without troubling to see whether Iwas alive or not, and threw me over a horse. It was not what you wouldcall a luxurious mode of travelling, and twice I managed to drop off,feet first, hoping they would leave me lying where I was and go on indisgust. They were disgusted--highly, but their remarks made it clearthat Sher Singh had ordered you and me to be brought in dead or alive,preferably alive, so I condescended to exhibit signs of life, and theyhoisted me up behind one of them. That was an uncommon disagreeableride, I can tell you."
"I started to come back and look for you, Bob, but I couldn't get farenough."
"Of course you couldn't. Why, this alone"--he touched the sling ofGerrard's broken arm--"shows that you were much worse hurt than I was.But I was pretty well done for, and a most gruesome object, when wecame up with Sher Singh. His manners ain't exactly ingratiating at thebest of times, as you have more than once remarked to me, but when hesaw my unlucky hair, his language was positively improper. You see, itwas my misfortune--and your very good fortune, I'm inclined tothink--that I wasn't you. He even sent for water and had some of theblood washed off my face, to make sure, I suppose, that we hadn'texchanged wigs in the hope of deceiving him, and when he was quite surewho I wasn't, I expected nothing better than to be cut into little bitsthere and then. But some one ventured to suggest something, and hecame at me with great fury and demanded whether I knew where PartabSingh's hidden treasure was. I know I ought to have struck a heroicattitude and refused to speak, but as a matter of fact, I fainted. Itwas horribly ill-timed, for Sher Singh is bound to believe for everthat it was sheer terror of his alarming aspect that did it, but it wasprecious fortunate for me, for when I woke up I was in a palanquin, andthey had tied up my head and looked after me a bit. Dear, good,sympathetic souls! how they did try to make things pleasant forme--always dinning into my ears that Sher Singh was fattening me forthe slaughter--the torture, I mean! They used to congregate outsideand discuss tortures in the halts, when I might have had a chance toget a little sleep if there had been any air, like a whole regiment ofFat Boys."
"If we had only known you were alive, Bob!"
"Oh, don't think _I'm_ trying to make your flesh creep. All's wellthat ends well, and it's a useful exper
ience to have been through.Shows a fellow he can stand a good deal more than he ever thought hecould, I mean. But perhaps it was just as well it was me and not you."
"Complimentary, as usual!" Gerrard's laugh was a little forced.
"It's merely a question of nerves, old boy. You would have beenpicturing the details over and over again when the beggars were nottalking about 'em, whereas I was able to put them out of my mind.Well, we got to Agpur at last, and once in the palace, Sher Singh setto work to try kindness. He let me take up my quarters--watched dayand night, of course--in your old Residency, which looks a good dealthe worse for wear since you left it. The servants you left in chargeseem to have taken first choice when they heard you were hardly likelyto come back, and then the palace servants and the guards had theirturn. Your books were all torn to pieces--they must have thought youhad gold-leaf hidden between the pages--and scattered all about theplace. I camped in the ruins, and Sher Singh came to see me twice. Hetalked to me like a man and a brother, pointed out how important it wasfor him to find the treasure, what a guarantee of peace it would be,and how he was obviously the rightful owner now that his father andbrother were dead. I agreed with him in everything, but declinedrespectfully to say whether I knew where it was or not. When heproceeded to threats, I told him that he must think me as big a fool asI was beginning to consider him. I was not going to tell him whether Iknew the secret, because if I did know it, he would at once begin tomake things very unpleasant for me, and if I didn't, he might kill meas useless. On the other hand, he could not proceed to extremitieswhile he was still uncertain, because if I knew the hiding-place, hewould have killed the goose that laid the golden eggs, and if I didn't,he would have thrown away uselessly his one chance of placating Antony.That was just when Nisbet was beginning to thunder at the gates ofAgpur--or rather, a good way off them--so it appealed to him. Ofcourse the flaw in the argument was that if he knew his business, historturer might contrive to extract the answer to the question, and thesecret, without killing me, but I had to treat that possibility asabsolutely non-existent. Still, he found out the secret at last."
"Bob!" cried Gerrard anxiously.
"Sold again. This was how he did it. After dogging me all over theplace, trying to discover by my face where the treasure might behidden, they hit upon a new plan, by which, if the worst came to theworst, they could produce my body quite free from marks of violence,and so satisfy Antony. It was a fiendish thing, Hal. As soon as everI went to sleep, day or night, they woke me up, and asked me if I knewwhere the treasure was. I stood it for two days and nights, but if ithad gone on, I swear to you I must have given in; I was pretty near madthen. But curiously enough, Sher Singh discovered the treasury forhimself in an odd sort of way. You know the great tank where the lotusgrows? Well, one of Sher Singh's ladies brought some gold-fish withher from Adamkot and turned them into it. The fish all died--change ofdiet, I suppose, but she swore that the deaf and dumb boatman hadkilled them. It was clearly a case of 'Off with his head!' for thepoor wretch couldn't defend himself, but he made signs that if theywould let him off he would show them something. They were open to adeal, and he took them across to the thicket of bamboos, and showedthem the door in the wall, making them understand somehow that oldPartab Singh used to go that way often at night. They lost the scentwhen they found that the door only led down to the wild beasts' pit,but picked it up again by a very pretty bit of deduction. It was quitecertain that the treasury couldn't be under the pit or under the tank,so that the passage leading to it must pass between them, and it mustlie in the direction either of the palace or the Residency. They brokeground in the Residency direction first, sinking two or three shafts inlikely places, while I watched them with great interest, and askedintelligent questions. It was the one way I had of getting a littlebit even with them for what they were doing to me. They held to theResidency theory because they couldn't see otherwise how you managed toget at the treasure for paying the soldiers without being discovered,but Sher Singh never believed in it much. Once when he was a small boyhis father let him come with him into the ordinary treasury under thezenana, and he heard what sounded to him like men working undergroundnot very far off. He couldn't make out where the sound came from, andhis father diddled him with some fairy-tale to account for it, but nowhe remembered. So he had every inch of the treasury walls examined,and they came on the air-hole looking into the passage. Then they hadonly to break down the wall between, and there they were--and I giveyou my word for it, Hal, I was thankful! When they were all busywatching what was being done, and the gold was being handed up througha shaft that they dug, I just dropped down and went to sleep. Itwasn't for long, but when I woke up I felt fit to face Sher Singh orthe devil himself."
"Pretty much the same thing, after all," said Gerrard grimly.
"I should rayther think so! But the worst was over. It seems thatthey were uncommon disappointed in the amount of the treasure. Theyexpected sufficient to make them all rich for life, and there was onlyjust about enough to settle Sher Singh comfortably on the _gaddi_."
"Just what I calculated--only it was for poor little Kharrak Singh."
"Well, they held palaver upon palaver to decide whether they shouldhang the expense and plump for immediate war, beginning upon me.Everybody talked very big about wanting to fight, but nobody reallycared about it. The army have plenty of money left for the present,and want to spend it, and the secret messengers sent to see whether theGranthis generally would join in a rising against the English were notencouraging. It'll be just as well for Antony to know that they lookforward to a shindy before very long, but they ain't equal to kickingit up in cold blood just yet. The council had no illusions as to thepossibility of the Agpuris making head against us without allies, andyour old friend Dwarika Nath, who has come back as Diwan, was verystrong on the need of prudence."
"The old reprobate!" cried Gerrard. "Master and man are pretty wellmatched."
"So I should guess. At last they did me the honour to call me intoconsultation. There was no parade of tenderness for my feelings, butthey did make it clear that while every man of them would have made ithis particular business to see that you underwent the longest and mostuncomfortable death that could be had, they considered me not half abad sort. Therefore they did their best to frighten me into promisingthem all sorts of concessions in Antony's name, and all I could do wasto invite them to kill me at once, since that would be far less painfulto my feelings than the consequences that would follow if I attemptedto negotiate treaties on my own responsibility. At the same time Idropped a hint that since the murder of a British officer was aprominent count in the bill Nisbet was presenting, it would undoubtedlybe an extenuating circumstance if the said officer could be producedalive and only superficially damaged. We wrangled a good bit, but atlast I agreed to act as mediator on the basis of the execution ofKharrak Singh's murderers, the retention by the Rani of her _jaghirs_or their equivalent in cash, and a settlement of the frontierquestion--all of them bitter pills for the Agpuris to swallow, butindispensable, I assured them, if their professions of goodwill were tobe accepted."
"The execution of Kharrak Singh's murderers! You were pretty cool todemand that, and they must have been mad, or pretty well desperate, togrant it."
"Why, you have picked out the easiest condition of the lot. Hisofficial murderers, I mean. They confessed, four of them--what theywere paid for doing it I don't know--and I saw them blown from gunsmyself. But paying the Rani's jointure--that was a bitter pill, Igrant you. I had to engage that any jewels or cash in her possessionwhen she dies--a natural death, of course, understood--shall return toSher Singh, before he would promise, and even then it was like bleedinghim white. And the rectification of the frontier, on which Antony laidsuch stress in his instructions to Nisbet, will be opposed by all Agpurwhen they hear of it. I hope our Mr James may be in power again whenit comes to be settled, to carry it through by sheer strength of will,for I should be very
sorry to be in charge of the negotiations unless Ihad overwhelming force at hand in support."
"I suppose there's no doubt that Sir Edmund will accept Sher Singh'ssubmission on these terms?" asked Gerrard gloomily.
"None whatever, I should say, judging by the way he received them justnow."
"And this is the end of it, then! Sher Singh gets all he wanted at theprice of a few rupees to the heirs of the _badmashes_ he has bribed totake his guilt upon them."
"My dear fellow, you can prove nothing against him, and we have nopower to bring him to trial. I believe you and I are fated to be theinstruments of exemplary vengeance upon him eventually, ain't we,according to the Rani? Till then we must be content to see himflourishing like the green bay-tree."
"But we need not supply the bay-tree with water and the soil that suitsit, and with a gardener to look after it and railings to keep off thegoats," grumbled Gerrard.
"Oh, you are getting too horrid technical for me," said Charteris, witha yawn. "I don't know what you feel about turning in, Hal, but yourunfortunate servants will certainly think they ain't going home tillmorning. I have been riding all day, you know."
Gerrard laughed, and the sitting broke up. The two friends hardly saweach other the next day, so closely was Charteris closeted with SirEdmund Antony and his brother, discussing the affairs of Agpur, andwhen he was released, Gerrard was sent for, to throw the light of hisexperience on the present situation. It was dark when he got back tohis quarters, and he started when Charteris bounced up out of thedepths of a long chair.
"I thought you were never coming! Hal, I've seen her."
His tone was so instinct with rapture that Gerrard's heart stood still."Where?" he asked hoarsely.
"At the band. Driving with her mother. Lady Cinnamond was uncommonkind--let me ride on her side of the carriage. Hal, sheblushed--blushed when she saw me! She was looking stunning--so paleand cool; she never has much colour in her cheeks, has she? She had onone of those worked muslin gowns, and a big floppy hat with blackstreamers to it, and black velvet round her neck--nothing pink or blueto take your eyes from her face."
"Yes?" muttered Gerrard, as Charteris paused in blissful contemplationof the picture he had evoked.
"Yes? oh, that was all. I rode beside her, and looked at her, and herhand lay on the side of the carriage quite close to me--I wanted tokiss it, but I didn't dare. And she let me hold it for a moment when Ibade them good-day--at least, perhaps she didn't let me, but I did,anyhow--and she blushed, blushed divinely."
Gerrard sprang up and paced the verandah hastily. Charteris woke fromhis dream of bliss.
"Old boy, I'm sorry--'pon my word I am. But after all, she is free tochoose, ain't she? With any other girl one wouldn't think much of ablush. But one never sees her change colour, and I came upon hersuddenly, so she couldn't have been thinking of me before. I thoughtold Sir Arthur would never have done with congratulating me on myescape, and that sort of thing--and a man can't be rude to hisprospective papa-in-law, can he? But when I saw the greys coming downthe drive, and the two parasols in the carriage--why, I made myselfscarce in no time, and the old boy positively beamed upon my departure."
"And having made sure of the lady and her parents both, when do youpropose to clinch the matter?" demanded Gerrard savagely.
Charteris looked at him in surprise. "Why, Hal, you don't imagine thatI meant to run away from our compact? We'll draw lots who shall speakfirst exactly as we arranged. Unless"--with sudden fiercesuspicion--"you took your opportunity when you thought I was dead?"
"Bob!" cried Gerrard, so reproachfully that his friend could not doubthim. "I had given up all thoughts of it. I never went near herwithout talking of you."
"Oh!" said Charteris rather blankly. "I hope you haven't made herthink I'm like a brute in a poetry-book? Because if so, she'll bedisappointed."
"I can't help what she thinks," growled Gerrard. "I told her nothingthat wasn't true."
"I don't suppose you did. But it's the finishing touches that count inthese things, my boy. And if she chooses to fit me out with a halo anda pedestal--why, when she discovers the truth, I shall really be_finished off_. But after all," with reviving cheerfulness, "it ain'tmy fault if she is kind enough to endow me with imaginary virtues. Sheblushed, anyhow. And when a girl accepts a man, it's as if she gavehim leave to teach her the difference between creatures in books, andfellows as they are. And if she's agreeable, why, so am I; with all myheart, says I. That's my theory."
"Bob, you are really in earnest? It isn't one of your jokes?"
"Jokes, indeed!" said Charteris, in high dudgeon. "I'll show you howmuch in earnest I am, Lieutenant Henry Gerrard. We'll go to businessto-morrow, if you please."
"Then you wish to draw the lots to-night?"
"No, don't let us have any melodramatic nonsense with straws, or bitsof wood of different lengths. We'll go down to the gateway to-morrowbetween one and two, when there's scarcely a creature about, and oneshall look up the street, and the other down. Whoever can count twentyhuman beings first shall have first right to speak. Are you agreeable?"
"All serene. But what if we both call out at once?"
"Try again, of course. It ain't likely to happen twice. The sentrywill think we have got a wager on, so there won't be any fuss."
* * * * * *
Charteris proved successful in the counting competition, announcing histwenty while Gerrard had only reached seventeen. As he was dining withthe Cinnamonds that night, the fates seemed to be propitious. But whenGerrard came back from supping with the James Antonys, he found hisfriend reclining on the verandah, in an attitude suggestive ofdespondency.
"Sold again!" said a sepulchral voice from the recesses of the longchair.
"You don't mean that she has refused you, Bob?"
"Oh, don't I?" the voice suggested something more than sulkiness. "IfI don't, I'm very much mistaken. She told me that I wasn't what sheexpected, in a way that implied I was a very poor creature indeed. Ifthat was acceptance, all I can say is, I hope you may be accepted too!"
The Path to Honour Page 14
