One Maid's Mischief Part 32

Captain Hilton saw no reason for detaining his subaltern, only bade him be ready to return to the island at the slightest sign of danger, which Chumbley promised to do; and he was about to walk down to the landing-stage, when, happening to gaze across the swift river towards Mr Perowne's beautiful garden, which sloped down to the water's edge, with as good a semblance of a lawn as could be obtained in that part of the world, he caught sight of a couple of figures in white, walking slowly up and down in the shade of the trees.

He was too far distant to make out their faces, but he had no doubt that the two were Helen and Grey Stuart.

"Now, I would not mind laying a whole shilling that Master Hilton has his binocular focussed exactly upon one of your faces, and is watching every turn of expression. If you smile he thinks it is with thoughts of him; and take it altogether, the poor fellow imagines you are always dreaming of him, when you are wondering what is worn now in Paris or London, and whether any of the new fashions will reach you by the next steamer.

"Yes, that's Helen--fair Helen," he said, leaning upon a rail, and gazing across the water. "Chumbley, old fellow, I'm beginning to think you are not such a fool as I used to imagine you to be. It was a good brave stroke to get away from the toils of that syren; for there's no mistake about it, old man, you were just like a big fly in the pretty spider's web.

"By George! she is a very lovely girl though! She seems to fascinate everyone she comes near. Thank goodness, she only got me by one leg, and I broke out, I hope, without much damaging the net. Certainly she soon seemed to repair it. I wish I were a good prophet," he went on, lighting a cigarette. "I should like to be able to say what is to take place here, who'll marry whom, and who'll remain single. Hullo! what's coming now?"

The splash of oars roused him from his reverie, and turning towards the landing-stage, he made out a dragon-boat, or naga, as the larger row-galleys used by the Malay n.o.bles are called, rapidly approaching the little isle.

It was propelled by a dozen rowers, all dressed uniformly in yellow silk bajus or jackets, their coa.r.s.e black hair being topped by a natty little cap similar to that worn by a cavalry soldier in undress, and they kept stroke with wonderful accuracy as they forced the boat along.

A large shed-like awning of bamboo and palm leaves covered the latter part of the vessel; and Chumbley forgot his customary inertia, and scanned the boat eagerly, to see if it contained armed men. To his surprise, however, he saw that the whole s.p.a.ce beneath the broad awning was filled with women, whose brightly-coloured silken sarongs were hung from their heads after the manner of veils; and though the rowers each wore his kris, the hilt was covered, and it was evidently a friendly visit.

"I don't know though," thought Chumbley. "Perhaps it is a ruse, and instead of women, those are smart youths, well armed, ready to give our fellows a dig with the kris, and take the place by surprise.

"No," he said, after a few moments' pause, for there was no mistaking the object of the visit, the Malays being a particularly religious people, and great sticklers for form and ceremony, to which they adhere with scrupulous exactness, so that any one pretty well versed in their customs would know at a glance at their dress whether their object was friendly or the reverse.

"Why, it must be the Inche Maida," muttered Chumbley, giving the native name to a princess residing some distance higher up the stream. "I ought to have been in full fig. I suppose I must go and receive her as I am."

He threw away his cigarette, turned out the guard, sent a messenger up to the Residency with the news of the Princess's arrival, bidding the man leave word at the officers' quarters as he pa.s.sed, and then walked down to the landing-stage, just as the dragon-boat, with its carved and gilded prow, was run abreast.

Chumbley courteously raised his muslin-covered pith helmet, tucked it beneath his arm, and helped the Princess to step ash.o.r.e.

She was a remarkably handsome woman of about thirty, with features of the Malay type, but softened into a nearer approach to beauty than is common amongst the women of this nation, whose prominent lips and dilated nostrils are not compensated by the rich long black hair, and large l.u.s.trous dark eyes.

In the case of the Princess there was almost a European cast of feature, and she possessed an imposing yet graceful carriage, which with her picturesque costume and flower-decked hair, made her far from unattractive, in spite of her warm brown skin.

She accepted Chumbley's a.s.sistance with a smile that checked the thought in his mind that she was a fine-looking woman; for that smile revealed a set of remarkably even teeth, but they were filed to a particular pattern and stained black.

Chumbley removed his eyes at once from this disfigurement, and let them rest on the magnificent knot of jetty hair, in which were stuck, in company with large gold pins, cl.u.s.ters of a white and odorous jasmine.

He could not help noting, too, the gracefully-worn scarf of gossamer texture, pa.s.sing from her right shoulder beneath her left arm, and secured by a richly-chased gold brooch of native workmanship. This she removed to set the scarf at liberty, so as to throw over her head to screen it from the sun.

Accustomed to command, she made no scruple in exposing her face to the gaze of men; but as the women who formed her train alighted, each raised her hands to a level with her temples, and spread the silken sarong she wore over her head, so that it formed an elongated slit, covering every portion of the face but the eyes, and following the Princess in this uncomfortable guise, they took their places ash.o.r.e.

"I have come to see the Resident," said the Princess, looking very fixedly at Chumbley, and speaking in excellent English. "Will you take me to his presence?"

Chumbley bowed, and he forgot his slow drawl as he said that he would be happy to lead her to the Residency; but felt rather disconcerted as the visitor exclaimed, in a very pointed way:

"I have not seen you before. Are you the lieutenant?"

"I have not had the pleasure of meeting you either," he replied, rather liking the visitor's dignified way as he recovered himself; "but I have heard Mr and Miss Perowne talk of the Inche Maida."

"What did they say about me?" she said, sharply.

"That you were a n.o.ble lady, and quite a princess."

"Ah!" she replied, looking at him fixedly. "How big and strong you are."

Chumbley stared and tried to find something suitable to reply, but nothing came, and the situation seemed to him so comical that he smiled, and then, as the Princess smiled too, he laughed outright.

"Forgive my laughing," he said, good-humouredly. "I can't help being big; and I suppose I am strong."

"There is the Resident!" said the lady then; and she drew her hand from Chumbley's arm. "Ah! and the captain."

For just then Harley stepped out from the Residency veranda to meet his visitors; and Hilton, who had found time to put on the regimental scarlet and buckle on his sword, came up to make the reception more imposing.

The Princess shook hands in the European fashion, and accepted the Resident's arm, smiling and bowing as if excusing herself to Hilton.

Then, declining to enter the house, she took a seat in the broad veranda amongst the Resident's flowers, while her women grouped themselves behind her, letting fall the sarongs they held over their faces now that, with the exception of a single sentry, none of the common soldiers were about to gaze upon their charms.

But for her costume, the Inche Maida would have pa.s.sed very well for a dark Englishwoman, and she chatted on for a time about the Resident's flowers and her own; about her visits to the English ladies at the station; and the various European luxuries that she kept adding to her home some twenty miles up the river, where she had quite a palm-tree palace and a goodly retinue of slaves.

Both Mr Harley and Hilton knew that there was some special object in the lady's visit; but that was scrupulously kept in the background, while coffee and liqueurs were handed round, the visitors partaking freely of these and the sweetmeats and cakes kept by the Resident for the gratification of his native friends.

"It is nearly a year since you have been to see me Mr Harley," said the lady at last. "When will you come again?"

"I shall be only too glad to come and see you," said the Resident, "I have not forgotten the pleasure of my last journey to your home."

"And you will come too?" said the Princess quickly; and she turned her great dark eyes upon Hilton, gazing at him fixedly the while.

"I--er--really I hardly think I can leave."

"You will not come?" she cried, with an impetuous jerk of the head.

"You think I am a savage, and you despise my ways. Mr Harley will tell you I have tried for years to learn your English customs and to speak your language. It is not fair."

"Indeed," cried Hilton, eager to make up for what the visitor evidently considered a slight, "I only hesitated on the score of duty."

"You would not care to come," she said, with the injured look of a spoiled child.

"Indeed I should," exclaimed Hilton, "and I will come."

"You will come?" she cried, with her dark eyes flashing.

"Yes, indeed I will."

She leaned towards him, speaking eagerly:

"I am glad. I like you English. You shall hunt and shoot. There are tigers, and I have elephants. My slaves shall find game, and you shall have my boat to fetch you."

Dark as her skin was, the Resident noticed the red blood mantling beneath it in her cheeks as she spoke eagerly, fixing her eyes upon Hilton as she spoke, and then lowering the lids in a dreamy, thoughtful way.

"Then you will both come?" she said.

"Yes, I promise for both; but we cannot leave the station together,"

said Mr Harley.