Gil the Gunner Part 75

I quite enjoyed the delicious breakfast they gave me, and felt in high spirits thinking such a life as the rajah offered me would be glorious if it could have been accepted with honour, and one could have made sure that his enemies would not be of his own race.

The meal removed, Salaman informed me that the rajah had sent to know how I was; and, as I heard his words, there was the excuse ready to gain time. I might say I was weak and ill. But I did not. I sent word that I was rested and better.

Salaman sent off his messenger, and then returned to say that a palanquin and bearers were waiting if I wished to go out about the gardens and park.

But I declined, preferring to rest for the day, and think. I really was tired, and a seat in the shade by an open window would, I felt, be far preferable, so I seated myself, and tried to follow up my early success with some fresh idea that would help my escape.

I looked down into the court, and watched the goldfish and those of a deep orange; then I looked down at the men on guard, and wondered whether they would stop one of the servants of the palace if they saw him walking steadily out, for that seemed to me the task before me.

I was watching the gate, and picturing myself walking boldly up to the sentries, when I heard a familiar sound, and leaned out, as there was a loud trampling of horses, and I knew that a regiment must be pa.s.sing by.

But I could see nothing, only mentally picture what was going on as I listened, making out that it must be a very strong body to take so long in pa.s.sing, while hardly had they gone before there came the dull regular tramp of foot, and regiment after regiment went past I wondered what for, and wished that my window looked right upon the road by which they pa.s.sed, knowing full well that a request to that effect would be eagerly granted by one who would be pleased to see me taking so much interest in his troops.

So of course I could not ask, only content myself by thinking out what was going on--whether the men were going to some drill, or whether an attack was imminent.

My cheeks tingled at this, and my imagination grew busy as I began to picture the advance of some of our force. All I had been told by the rajah vanished like mist, and with patriotic fervour I mentally declared that England could not be beaten so easily as he supposed.

But time wore away, and as the day glided by I grew dull and low-spirited, for I began to dread a visit.

"He has been busy with his troops," I said; "and to-night he will come to talk to me."

I was quite right; just at dark the rajah came to greet me smilingly, and sat down to smoke and chat as freely as if such a question as my joining his army were quite out of the question. He seemed pleased to find me so well, and begged me to ask for anything I wished--except liberty--and ended by telling me how hard he had been at work all day drilling and reviewing troops.

"They want a great deal of teaching," he said gloomily. "There is everything in them to make good soldiers, and they are willing to learn, but there is no one to drill them properly, and make them smart and quick like the whites."

We were getting on to dangerous ground, and he felt it too, and as if not to break his word about treating me as a friend, he changed his position directly, and began to ask my opinion about certain manoeuvres made by foot regiments, and whether I did not think them a great mistake.

From that we drifted into the manufacture of powder, and the casting of shot and sh.e.l.l.

"I mean to have all that done by my people," he said--"in time.

By-and-by I shall cast my own cannon. No, no," he cried merrily; "we must not talk about guns."

"No; please don't," I said.

"I'll keep my word, Gil," he cried; and as he spoke he looked one of the most n.o.ble gentlemen I ever saw. "Oh yes, I'll keep my word to you, Gil; but we can talk about soldiering, even if you are not in my service."

And he went on talking upon that subject with all the keen interest of a man who was a soldier at heart, and who meant to gather round him an army which he meant to be invincible.

I am sorry to say that I was very ignorant of the history of India; but still I had read and studied it a great deal, and I felt that Ny Deen was of the same type of men as the old warriors who rose from time to time, petty chiefs at first, but who by their indomitable energy conquered all around, and grew into men whose names were known in history, and would never die.

"I tire you," he said at last, after talking eagerly for some time about raising a regiment of light horse--all picked men, with the swiftest and best Arab troopers that could be obtained. "Mount them for speed," he said, "and to hara.s.s the advance of an enemy, and keep him engaged when he is in retreat. Such men, if I can get them drilled and trained to the perfection I want, will be invaluable. You see, I have plenty of schemes," he added, with a laugh. "All ambition, I suppose. No, not all," he continued, earnestly; "for I want my nation to be great, and my people prosperous and well governed. It is not from the greed of conquest, Gil, nor the love of blood. I hope it is something better; but this rising of the peoples of Hindustan is my opportunity. Once the English are driven out of the country, the rest will be easy."

"Then the English are not driven out?" I said sharply.

"Not quite, boy; but they are at their last gasp. There, Gil, I have placed myself in your hands. If you betray what I have said to-night, every one of the chiefs who now help me, and are my allies, would turn against me, and I should stand alone."

"You have no fear of that," I said quietly. "You would not have trusted me if you had."

"No," he said, rising, "I should not. So you see what confidence I have in you. There, I shall leave you now. Go to rest, man, and get stronger. You are beginning to look weary already."

He held out his hand as I walked with him to the door, and as I gave him mine, not without a feeling of compunction, for I was playing a double part, and letting him, as I thought, believe I was settling down, when he laughed merrily.

"It is of no use," he said.

"I don't understand," I said, colouring like a girl.

"Then I'll explain. You are thinking of nothing else but escaping.

Well, try to get away. There are only curtains before the doors; but you will find my plans stronger than locks and bolts. Try and grow contented with your lot, Gil--with the great future that is before you; for it is greater than you can grasp, boy. There, good night."

He pa.s.sed through the doorway, and the purdah dropped behind him, while I stood thinking of his words, and ended by going to one of the windows and leaning out to gaze at the great stars.

"That is not my fate," I said to myself; and as the cool night-breeze came softly over my heated forehead, I saw better things in store than becoming the servant of a conquering tyrant, and I went to my couch more strongly determined than ever to scheme some way of escape.

CHAPTER FORTY FIVE.

I suppose it was the returning flush of strength which made my rest so pleasant during my stay in the rajah's palace, for my sleep was dreamless and delicious, and I awoke every morning in spirits so buoyant that I felt ashamed of them as unsuitable for a prisoner.

Five days pa.s.sed over now, during which I had been out twice in a palanquin, but only in the extensive gardens about the palace. I had not been idle, though; for I had, while apparently sitting back listlessly, made myself thoroughly acquainted with the shape and position of the place, knowing now that one side was protected by a swiftly flowing river. It was only about a hundred and fifty feet across, but deep, and its waters looked suggestive of crocodiles, so that one thought of attempting to cross by swimming with a shudder.

I had by degrees pretty well got the plan of the place in my mind, but at the same time woke to the fact that the rajah's was no empty boast, for the palace was surrounded by sentries, who were changed as regularly as in our service. Besides, I felt that every servant was a sentry over my actions, and that any attempt at evasion for some time to come was out of the question.

And so the days glided by with no news from outside, and for aught I knew, the war might be over, and the country entirely in the hands of the mutineers.

Once or twice I tried to get a little information from Salaman, but he either did not know or would not speak.

I tried him again and then again, and at last, in a fit of temper, I cried--

"You do know, and you will not speak."

"I am to attend on my lord," he said deprecatingly, "not to bear news.

If I told my lord all I knew to-day, I should have no head to tell him anything to-morrow."

I was in the territory of a rajah who did as he pleased with his people, and I did not wonder at Salaman's obstinate silence any more.

So there I was with my plans almost in the same state as on my first day at the palace. There were the curtains waiting to be turned into ropes; there were the servants with their white garments; but I had no walnuts, and I knew of nothing that would stain my skin; and I was beginning to despair, when a trifling thing sent a flash of hope through me, and told me that I was not forsaken.

It was one hot day when everything was still but the flies, which were tormenting in the extreme; and, after trying first one room and then the other, I was about to go and lie down in the place set apart for my bath as being the coolest spot there was, when I heard a dull thud apparently in the next room where I had been sitting at the window, and I was about to go and see what it was, but stooped down first to pick up my handkerchief which had fallen.

I was in the act of recovering it, when I heard a faint rustling sound, and knew what that was directly--Salaman looking in from behind the curtain to see if anything was wrong.

Apparently satisfied, he drew back, and a splashing sound drew me to the window.

That sound was explained directly, for just below me a couple of bheesties, as they are called, were bending low beneath the great water-skins they carried upon their backs, while each held one of the legs of the animal's skin, which had been formed into a huge water-bladder, and was directing from it a tiny spout which flashed in the sun as he gave it a circular motion by a turn of his wrist, and watered the heated marble floor of the court, forming a ring or chain-like pattern as he went on.

It was something to look at, and the smell of the water on the stones was pleasant; so I stayed there watching the two men, one of whom took the side of the court beyond the fountain, the other coming almost beneath my window.

The weight of the water-skin must have been great at first, but it grew lighter as the man went on; and one moment I was thinking of what strength there was in his thin sinewy legs and arms, the next of the clever way in which the pattern was formed upon the pavement, and lastly of what a clumsy mode it was of watering the place, and how much pleasanter it would be if there were greater power in the fountain, and it sent up a great spray to come curving over like the branches of a weeping-willow. And by that time the skin was empty, hanging flaccid and collapsed upon the bheestie's back, as he went slowly out by the guarded gate, still bent down as if the load was heavy even yet. "What a life for a man!" I thought, as, yawning again--I yawned very much during those hot days--I went slowly into the next room and felt startled, for just in front of the window lay a little packet, one which had evidently been thrown in, and it was that which had made the noise when it fell.