The Path to Honour Part 16

"Us? That sounds good. I hoped you would see the folly of ramming your head into the lion's mouth by going back to Agpur with Sher Singh."

"He's uncommon anxious that I should--been trying to persuade me all this time. First he followed me himself, and then he sent the fakir, and then Ibrahim Khan."

"I'm not surprised. You would be a particularly welcome guest at Agpur just now, but whether the visit would be quite as agreeable to you as to your entertainers, I take leave to doubt. Have you forgot that you know the secret of the treasury, and Sher Singh don't?"

"I had forgotten. As a matter of fact, I have promised to go back as soon as I have seen the Rani to Ranjitgarh."

"I believe you, my boy! But I wonder whether Sher Singh does. By the way, what becomes of our oaths, and the treasure, now that Kharrak Singh, whom it was intended to benefit, is no more?"

"I really don't know. The question did not arise."

"Well, my base material mind would have asked it first thing. Can hardly go to the Rani, I suppose, can it? or be divided between two deserving young officers in the Company's army? Perhaps in time to come Sher Singh may leave a descendant to whom we can honourably confide the secret. But meanwhile, Sher Singh has his accomplices to pay, and the treasure would come in very handy. I suppose you ain't labouring under any romantic delusion as to his innocence?"

"It would be hopeless, I fear. If he had merely planned the murder from here, he would certainly have accorded me the interview I asked for, so as to secure an una.s.sailable alibi. But I can't help seeing that unless one of the accomplices confesses, which is highly unlikely, it will be next to impossible to bring it home to him. Poor little Kharrak Singh! I give you my word, Bob, I really was most uncommon fond of that little chap. He used to sit opposite me like little Dombey--I showed him the picture when last mail came in, and he laughed like anything--and say the most old-fashioned things. I'm glad Antony ain't likely to send me back to Agpur. I should be thinking that I saw him all about the place."

"I'm jolly glad you don't feel yourself pledged to return."

"Sort of nineteenth-century Regulus? Well, that'll depend upon my orders, of course, and I don't take 'em from Sher Singh. Not that we have had any rupture. I told him quite politely that I could hold no further communication with him until the Rani was safe at Ranjitgarh, and that we start to-morrow morning."

"Quite so. Hal, a minute or two ago you paid me a very handsome compliment. Hang compliments! says I, and show a little confidence.

Will you take my advice, and while making elaborate, even ostentatious, preparations for starting to-morrow morning, set off tonight instead?"

"My dear fellow, have you gone quite mad?"

"There's a prodigious deal of method in my madness. Say that Sher Singh, in confab with his friends, or his own uneasy conscience, begins to perceive the extreme improbability of your returning quietly into the lion's mouth once you are safely out of it. Do you think he won't harden his heart like Pharaoh, and refuse to let you go?"

"It's possible, of course. But I fail to see how you would conduct a moonlight flitting from the heart of his camp."

"That's my artfulness, my dear Hal. We can't hope to slip away unnoticed, I grant you. But I do believe we can take 'em by surprise, and walk out before they can combine to stop us. We have the guns, and the hotties, which would be useful in breaking a path, and those two facts may even induce them to let us go without a fuss. Otherwise I should have proposed spiking the guns, which are in a state of rottenness calculated to do more harm to us than to the enemy, and leaving the hotties, taking the women behind us on our horses. But if by making an awe-inspiring impression we can get away without a fight, it's just as well under the circ.u.mstances--especially as the Rani has promised us our fill of gore later on. I should say, start as soon as the moon rises, in two hours or so. We can't go at once, because the Rani's hotty and the one we have been using all day will require a little rest, or I should have advised that."

"But Sher Singh will simply follow and attack us on the march, and he has the big battalions."

"Now look here, Hal. You'll allow that I know something of the country through which I came two days ago? Two marches will take us well into Darwan, where Sher Singh don't dare follow us, or he will have the Darwanis up round him like a hive of bees. The place where he will try to stop us is a rough jungly bit about half-way--one of the disputed boundary districts. We must get through it by daylight. Six hours'

forced march to-night will bring us nearly to it. We halt for another two hours' rest, and then press on at once. Once through that bit we are practically safe. Marching morning and afternoon we should not reach it till evening, and during the night Sher Singh would have ample time to lay an ambush for us. If we take him by surprise, any thoughtful preparations on his part must be fairly sketchy in character."

"I see your point. But no one can help knowing we are starting at once when they see the tents being struck."

"Then leave 'em standing. You can take your clothes and your papers and your hair-brushes, and sacrifice the rest. Oh, I know you are still dragging about with you the chest of drawers you got for the cabin when we came out, and the long chair you bought at Madeira----"

"Nonsense!" said Gerrard, rather vexed. "But I like my own things about me, I confess."

"The very reason why you should be deprived of 'em! You won't know the proper wilderness spirit till you are. What's a chair? Something to sit on when the ground's dirty or swampy. A table? Something to eat off or write at when there ain't a flat rock handy. Not friends--not pieces of yourself--which is what you make of 'em. Release yourself from this tyranny of material things--as your pater used to quote Socrates or some other old codger as saying. We don't want tents, and the women must do with the howdah."

"All right; have it your own way. We'll start to-night."

"Give your secret orders to that effect to Badan Hazari, then. You'll find that my Darwanis have been already tipped the wink, and the women too, and the fires are being kept low so as not to shed too much light upon our movements."

"I am much honoured in placing myself at the disposal of so far-sighted a commander," said Gerrard, a little stiffly, as he saluted. Charteris laughed, and clapped him on the back with a friendly force no stiffness could survive.

"Ain't we too old friends to stand on our dignity with each other, Hal?

I have taken a lot upon myself, I confess it, but you are in command here, and I know it as well as you do. Jolly cheeky of me to offer you advice, of course, but I couldn't see you rushing into destruction without hinting at the fact."

"I know. It's all right, old boy. Well now, will you lead the advance, as a favour to me?"

"Hal, you're a brick. No, I won't. You go first, with your own Granthis, whom you have well in hand, I suppose? at any rate, they won't fire unless you give the word. Then Rukn-ud-din, with the guns and hotties--and incidentally the women--and then your humble servant with the Darwanis. If they led, they would fire right and left for pure devilry, but being in the rear, I think I can make them see the necessity of waiting till they are attacked."

The evening meal had been hurriedly despatched during the course of this conversation, and Gerrard now went out to summon Badan Hazari and give him his orders, while Charteris saw to the packing of such of their joint possessions as were not too heavy to impede a hasty flight.

The moon had barely risen when the column formed up for the march, Gerrard and his men leading, the Agpuris, with the women, elephants, guns and baggage in the centre, and Charteris with his Darwanis bringing up the rear. He had taken the precaution to warn the sentries round the tents to turn back any coolie who might try to creep out and carry information to the main camp, while any outsider dropping in for a little friendly conversation was to be gently but firmly detained, and this, with the ruse of leaving the tents standing, kept Sher Singh's men completely in the dark. There was a wild scene of confusion when they realised what was happening, tomtoms beating, trumpets sounding, and men rushing together, but the compact body of matchlockmen with their matches lighted, and troopers with drawn swords, looked so formidable that beyond firing a stray shot or two, the army made no opposition to their progress. The Darwanis were wildly desirous to reply to the random shots with a volley, but Charteris succeeded in keeping them in hand, and the column ploughed its way steadily across the sand of the river-bed, and up the bank on the opposite side. The country was fairly open here, but Gerrard sent out scouts in front and flanking-parties on either side, to guard against a determined rush, which might be deadly in its result if Sher Singh were less easily hoodwinked than he seemed. Two of the Darwanis who knew the country well from past raids, and had guided Charteris as he came, rode ahead to show the way, and the column tramped on doggedly in the moonlight, the great lurching forms of the elephants casting strange shadows by the way.

After a long day's hunting, and an evening so full of excitement, Gerrard found it difficult not to sleep as he rode. In fact, his mind was asleep, though his eyes were open and keenly surveying the landmarks, which persisted in a.s.suming the form of advancing ma.s.ses of troops, or exhibiting lights where no lights were. He found relief occasionally in riding back a little to whip up stragglers, but it gave him unfeigned pleasure when, after what seemed untold hours of marching, Charteris p.r.i.c.ked forward to tell him that they were now within a mile of the "bad bit," and had better halt where they were until dawn. But Gerrard had no mind to give in too soon.

"You don't think it would be well to press on and push through at one go, Bob? The men don't seem at all done up," he felt it his duty to say.

Charteris hesitated a moment. "No, I don't," he said. "If Sher Singh is occupying the bad bit at all, his men are there already--sent off probably while he kept you in talk after the big flare-up--for it would be no good despatching them after we had started. Don't it strike you as queer that they have made no motion to hara.s.s our rear? I imagine they are holding back till they can catch us between two fires. If you agree with me, let us give the beasts a rest and a feed here, and send two or three of my beggars scouting ahead."

Gerrard consented, and they saw that the horses were picketed so as to provide a barrier against a sudden rush, made the men lie down with their weapons beside them, posted sentries all round the bivouac, and agreed to keep watch for an hour each, to ensure the sentries not going calmly to sleep. Gerrard, who felt wide-awake again now after talking and walking about, insisted on taking the first watch, which pa.s.sed uneventfully. Then he called Charteris, and dropping into the hollow which the latter had scooped for himself in the sand, was asleep in a moment, only to be waked, as it seemed, in another moment, by his friend's shaking him vigorously.

"Time to get up, Hal! No shaving-water, so don't look round in that bewildered way. You'd arrive at Ranjitgarh with a beard--a fine, flowing, patriarchal, even prophetic beard, like what Ronaldson has taken to sport--if this sort of thing went on long. He paid me a visit when he was pa.s.sing through to his district, and I a.s.sure you I was immensely taken with his new adornment. It would be perfectly killing among the ladies, I'm sure--throw our poor whiskers and moustaches horribly into the shade. Talk of owls! I never saw any one stare like you. This, my young friend, is a cup of tea, and this is a hard-boiled egg--the best _choti haziri_ our chaps can manage--and the animal beside you, looking astonished at your laziness, is your horse, vulgarly termed a quad. But give me your hand, old boy, and let me haul you up to take part in this epicurean meal."

"You're in spirits to-day, Bob," observed Gerrard, with a mighty yawn, as he accepted the tin cup.

"Ray-ther, just a few! There's a rare good fight in front of us, Hal--or else a very fine piece of strategy, which is almost as satisfactory when you have women to look after. Sher Singh's fellows are in occupation of the bad bit, as I suspected--posted on both sides of the track. But--and here comes in the possibility of strategy--there's another path besides that one, and I told my scouts to investigate its practicability. They report that it's pa.s.sable for hotties, which is what I was inclined to doubt, but they don't think we shall ever get the guns up there. Here's your problem, then, my budding Wellington. Do we fight our way through by the ordinary track--in view of the condition of our guns I omit the alternative of sh.e.l.ling the enemy out of their hiding-places first--or do we take up position with the guns before the mouth of the defile and make a feint there, while the hotties are going round the other way? We might even fire the guns once or twice with reduced charges before spiking them and leaving them there to c.u.mber the ground, while we make ourselves scarce and overtake the rest."

"You know which it must be before asking me," said Gerrard mournfully.

"We daren't risk taking the women through a running fight in the defile, especially if, as you said last night, Sher Singh is hanging on our heels as well. I'll take the guns and my Granthis and look after the feigned attack, while you get the women through behind the enemy's back, and are ready to support us with the Darwanis if Sher Singh turns up."

"All right," said Charteris shortly.

"You want the fight, I know. But would you be satisfied with a feint so long as the guns didn't burst? Not you, old boy; I know you. You would hang on to that defile, or more probably get half-way through it, until Sher Singh came up behind you and your retreat was cut off. You shall do rear-guard again when we rejoin, and as that is when the real fight will probably come, I can't do better for you."

It was still only twilight when Gerrard and his men, with the two field-pieces drawn by bullocks, left the bivouac for the mouth of the defile, with one of the Darwani guides to pioneer for them. Another of these men was to remain on the hillock where the halt had been made, to watch for any sign of pursuit from the Adamkot direction, and bring the news instantly if any appeared. Charteris and the main body, with the elephants, struck to the right of Gerrard's line of march to gain the other path, and that their intention might not become apparent to the liers-in-wait, Gerrard halted his guns as soon as he was within possible range of the mouth of the defile, and with fear and trembling discharged them both, by way of giving the enemy something to think about. The guns did not burst, and though the shot fell far short, in consequence of the reduced charges, they drew an excited matchlock fire from the men in ambush, which did no harm, but showed their positions.

The guns moved on, and Gerrard found excellent places for them in some rocky ground thick with th.o.r.n.y bushes, while his matchlockmen exchanged long shots with the concealed enemy. The fire of the field-pieces seemed to have an impressive moral effect, preventing any desire of coming out into the open on the enemy's part, but was unsuccessful in turning them out of their hiding-places, which were in the cliffs overlooking the track. Gerrard advanced his sharp-shooters and changed the position of the guns from time to time, but the sun was growing hot, his men were grumbling loudly because he would not allow them to charge the defenders, and he was glad to see that the time he had fixed with Charteris for his withdrawal was approaching. His men were recalled from the front two or three at a time, the remainder keeping up a brisk fire to delude the enemy and divert their minds, and when all were withdrawn, the two cannon were spiked, and a start made across the rocky ground towards the right. Before they had gone far, the scout left at the bivouac came riding in hot haste to say that he had seen a great cloud of dust advancing from the direction of Adamkot, and evidently concealing a large force of hors.e.m.e.n hastening towards the sound of the firing. This was vexatious, as they would probably arrive at the spiked field-pieces and divine the truth long before the ambush in the defile would be emboldened by the silence to creep down and see what had happened, and Gerrard hurried his men on. It was difficult to hasten, however, over the rough ground and through the th.o.r.n.y bushes, while it was inadvisable to venture out upon the plain lest they should be seen, and the hors.e.m.e.n sweep down upon them. The cloud of dust was quite visible now, whenever a break in the jungle gave a view of the plain, and Gerrard found himself wondering whether the pursuers had a man of Charteris's type or of his own in command of them. He could not help hoping it might prove to be his own.

Before it seemed possible that the deserted guns could have been found, examined, and the correct deductions drawn, the shouts of the pursuing hors.e.m.e.n could be heard as they raced along the level ground of the plain, seeking for their prey. It was impossible that they should not discern the movements of Gerrard's men, but they could not charge through the jungle, and when they came near enough, he halted and gave them a volley. The sight of horses and men rolling over checked them for a moment, but he wondered how long it would be before they thought of pushing forward a party to intercept him in front. Almost as the idea crossed his mind, a dropping fire broke out from among the bushes in advance, and he realised that Charteris was waiting for him. The hors.e.m.e.n drew off when they saw they were opposed by a larger body than they expected, and Charteris emerged from a lair in the bushes and came up to his friend.

"On with you, Hal!" he cried cheerily. "Rukn-ud-din and the hotties are halted till you come up, for fear the enemy should be waiting for them at the other end of the defile. I'll retreat upon you gradually, and keep these beggars back."

"All right!" and Gerrard and his men, now on more open ground, were able to urge their horses to something beyond a walk. The so-called path was very rugged, and he wondered how they had been able to get the elephants along it at all. Indeed, when he reached them, the mahouts were complaining loudly, and making much display of the wounded feet of their charges. The nearer sound of firing behind showed that Charteris's force was nearly up, and Gerrard, sending back a messenger to see whether he was hard pressed, led the main body on, disregarding the grumblers. Charteris returned answer that he was getting along all right, but warned Gerrard again of a possible rush when the end of the path was reached, and he sent forward scouts to examine the ground. A burst of firing ahead was his first intimation that Charteris's fears were justified, and two out of the five scouts came scurrying back to say that the enemy had evidently evacuated the defile, and were awaiting the fugitives here. As there was no narrow mouth to hold, however, they could not command the path from above, and were merely lying hidden among the rocks and bushes on either side. Gerrard ordered his men to hold their fire in case of a rush, and was glad he had done so--unpleasant as was the storm of bullets drawn upon the column by the easy mark offered by the elephants--when he saw that a body of the enemy were actually posted in front to block his way. Only one plan was now possible, and he gave orders to Rukn-ud-din and Badan Hazari that when the proper moment came, the hors.e.m.e.n should open out and allow the elephants to break a path. At the sound of his whistle the hors.e.m.e.n faced outwards, and on either side fired a volley into the bushes, while the elephants were urged on. For a moment the enemy stood their ground, and the bullets which met the great beasts maddened them. Trumpeting loudly, they rushed through the opposing ranks, all but one, and the rout was completed by the swords of the hors.e.m.e.n who followed.

It was the hunting-elephant, driven frantic by a bullet in a specially tender spot, which broke the line and turned sideways, overthrowing two Granthis and their horses as she did so. The mahout, with voice and goad, tried manfully to get her back into the path, but there was a moment's wild confusion, in the midst of which Gerrard became aware of a mob of wild Darwanis, their garments flying, charging down upon his rear.

"They have broken through! Our Sahib is slain--Chatar Sahib--the Red Sahib!" they yelled. "Fly for your lives!"

Gerrard spurred back impetuously to stop them, under a hail of bullets from the enemy rallying in the bushes. A sudden numbing pain in his arm made him drop the reins, and he had only time to realise that Sher Singh's pursuing hors.e.m.e.n were on the heels of the fugitives before their rush swept him from the saddle, and he went down into a cruel welter of hoofs. Then all was silence.

When he recovered consciousness, he was lying helpless, and as he thought bound, in an elephant's howdah. An attempt at movement showed him that he was not bound, but bruised and wounded from head to heel.

"Heaven-born!" said a voice at his side, and he distinguished the tones of Munshi Somwar Mal. "Now do the roses bloom again in the garden of joy, since your honour lives!"