In the Guardianship of God Part 10

"Thus it went on till one day all the _sahibs_ and _mems_ were at the house yonder, for G.o.d knows what amus.e.m.e.nt! and in the cool they strolled down here--the _mems_ dressed so gay, the _sahibs_ all black and smoking--to see how well the toddler, who could scarce speak, had learnt to throw. At least, so it seemed, for they watched and laughed; but after a time they took to throwing the flowers themselves, laughing more and jesting, until not a marigold was left. Then they began on Shivjee's _dhatura_ blossoms, filling their white horns with pebbles, and hurling them far, far into the stream.

"So, when paying time came, the young _sahib_--he had the child by the hand--flung rupees into my empty basket, and said, 'Lo! Bishen'--for he was one of those who remember names--'those who seek to curry favour with the G.o.ds will have no chance to-day. We are beforehand. We have squared them.'

"At this the _mem_, standing close by, frowned and spoke some reproof; maybe because she was of those who drive to church often. But the boy only laughed, and, catching the child up, cried, 'Lo! brotherling, then are we sinners indeed; since we do it so often, you and I!'

"And with that he raced up the steps with the child, calling '_Ram, Ram!_' and '_Jai Kali Ma!_' like any worshipper; so that the _mem_ and the others strolling after could not but laugh. And some echoed the cry as they went up the steps."

The old voice paused in its even sing-song; and when it began again, there was a new note in it which seemed to bring a sense of hurry and stress even to that uttermost peace.

"But they came down again. How long after matters not. I see them so in my old eyes. Going up, laughing in the sunset, then returning. It was starlight when they came down, the _mems_ and the _sahibs_ and the _baba-logue_. Starlight as it was now, brethren, but not still, like this. There were cries, and flames yonder, and folk running.

"The boats lay here below the temple. And one--a Mahomedan--came with them, promising safety. So they begun to get into the boats, and one moved off, the crowd looking on. Then suddenly, G.o.d knows why! it ceased looking on, and began to kill. They were half in, half out of the boat; the _sahib-logue_ and some cried to stop, some to go on. But the _mems_ made no noise; only you could see their faces white out of the shadows.

"And his, the young _sahib's_, was whiter than any, glittering, it seemed, with a white fire. The _mem_ was in the boat, and Broon-_sahib_ on the bottom step, the baby in his arms. But he, the boy, was above him facing the crowd--making time.

"Then, just as the mem stretched her hands for the child, a bullet--they were firing from the top steps--hit Broon-_sahib_, and he fell half in, half out of the water, pushing the boat out in his fall.

So it began to slide down stream.

"Some in it would have stopped it, but the _mem_ gave a look at those other _mems_, those other babies, and laid her hand on one that would have gone back.

"'No!'

"That was the cry she gave--a great cry; but a greater one rang out through the shadows and the lights, from the boy who had caught up the child as it fell upon the steps.

"I know not what it was, but it was great, and it echoed out as the boat slipped fast to safety. And he held the child to his breast and waved his sword, so that the _mem's_ white face rose from her hands, where she had hidden it, and she looked back. That was the last thing I saw out of the shadows as the boat slipped to safety; but it held me, so that when I looked round, the boy was no longer on the steps.

"He had leaped to the plinth of the temple, and his arms were empty of his burden. Only he stood in front of the doorway with his glittering white face--his glittering white face, his glittering white sword!

"' Come on, you devils!' he shouted in our tongue. 'Come on! Mai Kali shall have blood to-night if she wants it.'"

"And she had, brothers!

"It ran from the plinth and trickled to the river; for none could touch him from behind, and his sword was in front.

"There was a method in its hackings and hewings. At least so it seemed to me, watching helpless for good or evil, from my place in the shadow. For ever, as its keenest stroke fell, so another body fell blocking the plinth, until he had to stand almost in the arch itself.

"Then a burly Mahomedan trooper challenged him, and I knew not which way the fight was going, till, with a shout that was almost a laugh, the white face and the white sword showed, lunging back at the big body as they broke past. And it fell sidelong, blocking the doorway quite.

"But none thought of that, of it. None thought of anything save the glittering face and the glittering sword that had burst through the circling crowd, and now, facing it again, was backing up the steps, fighting grimly as it backed.

"Up and up, step by step, and we--even I, brothers, watching helpless--drawn after it perforce, to see--to know ...

"So the steps were left silent in the starlight. I did not see the end, brothers. It was beyond my sight. They told me afterwards it was in the bazaar, with half the town to see; but I had crept away, a great shivering on me, for I had remembered the flowers and the young _sahib's_ words about the G.o.ds.

"And I remembered the child. What had become of the child?

"Then suddenly I understood. Then I knew what the method of the sword had been--how it had hidden, had lured!

"It was nigh dawn when I remembered; dawn as it is now. Look! The iron of night's scabbard grows into the steel of day's sword upon the water; and hark! that is the cry of the mallards. The world is waking.

So it was when I crept down to Kali's shrine.

"The blood was still dripping into the water, and when I drew the dead ma.s.s of flesh from blocking the doorway, the red of it lay in a pool up to Her feet. But the child had crawled on Her knees, brothers, and had cried itself to sleep there.

"Yet when it wakened at my touch it did not cry, for, see you, it knew me; and so, when it saw the milk, set in a bowl before Her as offering, it stretched its hands for it.

"Thus it was made clear. So I gave it Mai Kali's milk, knowing it was true what he had said, 'that they had squared the G.o.ds.'"

The voice paused, and another asked, "And then?" before it went on dreamily.

"Yea! it was true indeed, for ere the day ended they were back with guns and soldiers. So, since silence is better than speech when nought is sure, I crept in the night to a Colonel's house and left the child in the garden for them to find.

"Forty years ago, brothers! Forty years is it since the boats slipped down to safety with the _Huzoors_, and now ..."

There was a sudden stir in the waiting crowd.

A boat had slipped up the river shadows from the bridge and was making for the steps.

"That's your station, Brown," said an English voice; "the water is a bit deep about the shrine, remember, and the old women are devilish hard to keep back. All right!" it continued, as a man stepped out. "Go on to the next. We are a bit early on the field; but it is as well to be beforehand, and square things."

As the boat paddled on, another English voice in the stern said in a low tone, "Why did you put Brown there? Just where his father was killed, don't you remember?"

"Just why I did! He won't stand any nonsense, and it is a troublesome job. Besides, he wasn't killed, and there's luck in it. That was a queer story. Some one saved him, of course, but why? and how? Now, Smith! there you are. And, as I said to Brown, for Heaven's sake look after the old dodderers, male and female. When they've nothing left to live for ..."

The rest was lost as the boat went on to a yet farther station.

So, as the sun rose, it rose on that great angled sweep, not of steps, but of humanity; full, pressed down, running over into the spired town behind--on a million and more of dark faces, and a dozen white ones dotted here and there at the most dangerous points.

And Broon-_sahib_, bearded, a bit burly with his forty and odd years, sat on the plinth, and thought, no doubt, of that past at first, then took out his pipe, and with it some sc.r.a.ps of smoked gla.s.s, since the coming eclipse must not be lost, even though one _was_ on duty.

The sun climbed up, brilliantly unconscious, or at least regardless, of its coming fate. And after a time boats began to slide up and down, and a big barge came punting up stream sedately. It was full of English women and children; and under its wide awning a table was laid with flowers and sparkling silver against the champagne breakfast which was to follow on a successful performance of duty.

For not even here could there be allowed hint or sign of that expectancy of possible evil. A little girl holding her mother's hand nodded her yellow curls delightedly, as the barge went past, to Dada sitting swinging his legs just where the blood had dripped into the stream forty years ago; but something in the woman's face made a call echo over the water.

"It's all right. Show going A 1!"

As a show there could be no doubt of that. There was a breathlessness in it, a mighty surge of emotion from one end of that bank of humanity to the other, a curious wail in the ceaseless roar of voices, that struck through eyes and ears to the heart.

And now, what was that?

Broad daylight still; not a shadow had shifted, and yet a sense as if a candle had gone out somewhere.

Broon-_sahib_ put his pipe in his pocket, looked through a gla.s.s darkly, stood up, raised his helmet, wiped his forehead, and put it on again.

The time had come--there was a nibble of shadow on the ball of light!--the monster had begun his meal!

As he looked round, unarmed, defenceless, on the hundreds of thousands of dark heads which held this thought, he smiled and nodded with the words.

"Have patience, brethren; there is time!" Doubtless, but not much time to think of other things beyond the mere keeping of that forward crush of bathers, that backward crush of those that had bathed, from inextricable confusion.