The Path to Honour Part 32

"It's not so much the insult to me personally that I resent, as the loss of the opportunity of ending the campaign at a blow!" cried Gerrard.

"Quite so. You wouldn't," said Charteris soothingly.

"Though it's perfectly clear that he was merely pursuing his grudge against me. He even stoops to vilify my poor fellows in order to justify himself. I hear that he said it was impossible to entrust such an important capture to an officer not under his authority, and to troops which had probably been bribed already to let Sher Singh slip past."

"You had visitors before I came, then?"

"A whole lot of 'em. Uncommon sympathetic they were, too."

"Uncommon pleased to get up a row between you and old Speathley, I should say. Don't you listen to 'em, Hal."

"My dear Bob, there are some things one can't pa.s.s over. We have submitted to Speathley's caprices too long, and it's time to speak out.

Personal injustice may be forgiven----"

"Precious little forgiveness about you just now," muttered Charteris.

"But when it is a case of injury to the public service, it is necessary to make a stand," concluded Gerrard impressively.

"Oh, all right; and what's your idea of making a stand? Challenging Speathley, or denouncing him to his face?"

"I shall write to the papers."

"Sort of thing Lennox and Keeling are always doing," said Charteris carelessly. "Not quite our style, eh? But if your conscience impels you to ruin your own career and justify the Brigadier's dislike of you, I suppose I can't prevent it."

"But think what he has sacrificed! Sher Singh will raise the country, bring down the Granthi army upon us, perhaps----"

"It's quite possible. But what I don't see is how your writing to the papers is going to prevent it."

"It might lead to---- Hang it, Bob! is the fellow to go unpunished?"

"Won't he be punished enough when the story of Sher Singh's escape gets about--not to speak of the additional trouble we may expect here? Hal, old boy, let him alone. If you don't, you'll be sorry when you're yourself again."

"For you to urge patience upon me is a novelty," said Gerrard, rather bitterly, but his step was less resolute as he tramped about the tent.

Suddenly he sat down opposite Charteris. "Bob, I begin to think you are not so very far wrong. At any rate I'll wait before doing it.

Who's that out there?" he cried sharply, as a shadow moved outside.

"Heaven-born!" Rukn-ud-din rose from his crouching position and saluted in the doorway. "It was told in the ears of this slave that your honour was very wrathful concerning the escape of the brother-slayer, and he presumed to approach unbidden with news."

"And what is the news?" demanded Gerrard, still ruffled.

"That the man who escaped was not Rajah Sher Singh at all, sahib."

"What! you mean that he is among the prisoners?"

"Not so, sahib. He has never left the city."

"But what--what reason have you for thinking so?"

"Does your honour think that the men who have been led by Sher Singh into their present evil case would permit him to forsake them? Surely they would hold him fast."

"No doubt they would if they could, but I imagine he has given them the slip. Would he send his wife away without him?"

"Sahib, the woman says she is the Rani, but I think she is merely a slave-girl playing a part. If the Rajah wished the troops of the Company to believe he had escaped, would he not have devised just such a plot as this, sending forth a party intended for capture, that they might bear the news?"

"It struck me as so characteristic of Sher Singh to sneak away and leave his women to be captured that I should never have thought of doubting it," said Gerrard in perplexity to Charteris, who took up the questioning.

"But what good could it do to Sher Singh that we should think he had escaped, Komadan-ji?"

"That your honours would not look for him in the city when it falls,"

replied Rukn-ud-din promptly. "If there is some hiding-place in which he may seek safety"--Gerrard's eyes met those of Charteris with sudden enlightment--"he might remain there in peace, and creep out when all is quiet again. But do not take my word for it, sahib. Only, if there is no news of Sher Singh's seeking support in the north, and bringing an army against us, remember what I have said."

"It is well. We will remember," said Gerrard. "Say nothing of this to any one, unless it be to Amrodh Chand."

"It is an order, sahib." Rukn-ud-din received leave to depart, and melted silently away. Gerrard looked at Charteris again.

"The treasury!" he cried breathlessly.

"'Pon my word, that's it. Unless--I told you how they broke into the pa.s.sage, you know, and after the treasure was got out, Sher Singh ordered the place to be destroyed."

"D'ye think he did it, Bob?"

"I don't, if you ask me. I think it was a do."

"Exactly, and he has secured himself a comfortable underground retreat, with two exits, both of which are known to us. We shall catch him like a rat in a trap, if we keep our own counsel."

"I believe you, my boy! And now, what's your mature opinion of your plan for showing up Speathley? Ain't it ray-ther better to cover yourself with glory by producing the missing Sher Singh than by indulging a revengeful temper to put it out of your power to capture him? Old boy, he can't keep you out of despatches then! And the best of it is that you and I must do the thing all on our own hook, for the very good reason that we are both sworn not to reveal the secret of the treasury to a soul. We shall have to take Rukn-ud-din and Amrodh Chand into our confidence as far as the preliminaries go, and they'll be delighted to help, but they must understand that the thing itself is a Sahibs' job."

"Don't forget that the whole thing depends on Rukn-ud-din's being right in saying that Sher Singh never left the city."

"Oh, don't _buck_.[1] Of course he's right," said Charteris rudely.

And as time went on, it became clearer to the two young men that Rukn-ud-din was right. True, the garrison of Agpur made great capital of the escape across the flooded river, and were continually condoling with the besiegers on the slowness of their horses, or prophesying great results from Sher Singh's personal influence in raising up sympathisers in the north. It was quite evident that they meant it to be believed that Sher Singh was not in the city, but the actual news from the north did not support them. Lieutenant Ronaldson sent word that an emissary from Sher Singh, sent to stir up his tribesmen against the English, had unfortunately just slipped through his fingers, but though intrigues were heard of in abundance from various quarters, there were no tidings of the Rajah himself. Meanwhile, the slow progress of the siege continued, until it received a sudden acceleration by means of a lucky shot from a howitzer, which dropped into the enemy's chief magazine, and blew it up. After this, events came in quick succession. The Agpuris were driven first from their various positions outside the city walls, then from the suburbs, and a rough road was levelled through the ruins, that the guns might be brought to bear upon the palace fortress itself. For the whole of one day they pounded at the walls which Partab Singh had constructed as the aid to his ambitious designs, and at night it was p.r.o.nounced that the breach was practicable for the next day. But in the morning a flag of truce came out, borne by old Sada Sukhi, a persona grata on account of his loyalty to Nisbet and Cowper, and it was announced that the garrison, commanded in the absence of the Rajah by the Diwan Dwarika Nath, desired to surrender. Before any terms could be granted, it was required that Sarfaraz Khan and a number of others known to have been concerned in the murder of the two Englishmen should be handed over, and this was done, though merely the dead body of the treacherous captain of the guard, who had poisoned himself with a drug concealed in the hilt of his sword, could be carried out to the conquerors. A parley between Sada Sukhi and the political officer with the force settled the terms of surrender for the fighting men and the civil inhabitants, the cases of any who might hereafter prove to have taken an active part in the murders being specially reserved, and the remains of the Agpur army marched out, and were duly disarmed.

Much curiosity was evinced by the British troops forming part of the besieging army as to the fortress which had held them at bay so long, and Gerrard, wandering through the place when the transfer of authority was complete, felt a sense of desecration when he discovered several privates, looking, in their tight scarlet tunics, stiff stocks and heavy shakos, most incongruously uncomfortable, taking their ease on the divan in the tower where he had sat with Partab Singh. Others were trying to paddle the deaf and dumb man's boat about the lotus-covered tank, their adventures affording high delight to their comrades on the sh.o.r.e, and others again were teasing the wild beasts in the menagerie.

The first troops marching in had found the palace strewn with valuable stuffs and other treasures, but these had now all been collected and placed under guard, as were the women's apartments, and there was nothing left to tempt the cupidity of the soldiers, though they found a good deal that was capable of injury, and promptly injured it. The Residency, in which Gerrard had pa.s.sed so many lonely days, was badly knocked about, and strewn with the dishonoured remnants of Nisbet and Cowper's belongings. Evidently Sher Singh and his adherents had wreaked their vengeance even upon the house where the murdered men had lived, for the place was little more than a ruin. In the enclosed garden, where he had dreamt of seeing Honour walking, Gerrard came upon the political officer, whom he knew well as one of Sir Edmund Antony's most trusted lieutenants.

"Glad to see you, Gerrard. Curious you should have come upon me just here. Wasn't it you who got into trouble with Speathley by saying that poor Nisbet and Cowper ought to be buried in the city instead of in Ratan Singh's tomb?"

"Yes, but I don't know how you heard of it."

"Other people have heard of it as well. You have impressed the sensitive imagination of no less a person than the Governor-General, my dear fellow. Your suggestion got through to him somehow--some one who was there writing to some one else, I suppose--and he has sent peremptory orders for it to be carried out. Ever since the news arrived, the pet aide-de-camp has been labouring to convince Speathley that he originated the idea himself, and was only angry with you because you took the words out of his mouth, and he is just coming to believe it."

"Very wise, in the circ.u.mstances."

"Uncommonly so. Well, what do you think of this place for the grave?

It is inside the palace enclosure, and yet quite separated from the palace itself. Even if we set up a new Rajah, I suppose we shall keep a garrison in the town, and a sentry can always be mounted here. No future Resident would care to live so close to the palace after what has happened, I should say."

"I suppose you can't do better," agreed Gerrard reluctantly, looking at the overgrown wilderness which represented his carefully kept garden.

"Yes, make a cemetery of the place by all means, Rawson. It looks as if it had a curse on it."