The Tiger of Mysore Part 44

"That is a good beginning, Annie. It took me a lot longer than that, I know."

The next morning, d.i.c.k and Surajah started. They were to ride up the ghauts, to the frontier line at Amboor, two troopers accompanying them to bring back their horses. There they were to disguise themselves as traders, and make their way direct to Bangalore. d.i.c.k said goodbye to his mother, up in her own room.

"You must not be down-hearted, Mother," he said, as she tried in vain to keep back her tears. "You see, I have come back to you twice, safely, and after pa.s.sing unsuspected in Tippoo's palace, there is no fear of my being detected elsewhere. Besides, of course, every month I am there I become better acquainted with the people, and can pa.s.s as a native more easily."

"I am not really afraid, my boy. You have got on so well that, it seems to me, G.o.d will surely protect you and bring you back safely.

And I can't help thinking that this time your search may be successful. You know why I feel convinced that your father is still alive, and, in spite of past disappointments, I still cling to the belief."

"Well, Mother, if he is to be found I will find him. There are still many hill forts where he may be living, and his very existence forgotten, and until I have visited every one of them, I don't mean to give up the search. Anyhow, I shall come back at the end of ten months, whether I have heard of him or not. I have promised Annie that I will be back before she sails. It is not a very long journey down here, and I shall drop in for a fortnight's stay with you, as I have done this time."

"She is in the next room, crying her eyes out, d.i.c.k. You had better look in there, and say goodbye to her. She is not fit to go down to the door."

After parting with his mother, d.i.c.k went in to see Annie.

"You must not cry so, child," he said, as she rose from the divan, with her face swollen with crying. "I am sure that you will be very happy here, until I come back."

"I know, d.i.c.k; but it won't be at all the same, without you."

"Oh, you will have plenty to do, and you will soon fall into regular ways. Besides, you know, you have got to comfort my mother, and keep up her spirits, and I quite rely upon you to do that."

"I will try, d.i.c.k," she said earnestly.

"Now, goodbye, Annie."

He held out his hand, but she threw her arms round his neck, and kissed him.

"You have never kissed me, not once," she said reproachfully, "and you were going away without it, now. Your mother kisses me, and the English girls in the harem always used to do so."

"But that is different, Annie. Girls and women do kiss each other, but boys and girls do not kiss, unless they are brothers and sisters, or are relations, or something of that sort."

"But you are not a boy. You are a great big man, d.i.c.k."

"I am not much more than a boy yet, Annie. However, there is no harm in kissing, when one is saying goodbye, so there.

"Now be a good girl, and don't fret;" and he ran downstairs to the door, where his uncle and the two boys were standing.

"Take care of yourself, lad," the Rajah said, as, after bidding them goodbye, d.i.c.k sprang upon his horse. "Whenever you get a chance, send down a letter as we arranged last night, to the care of Azol Afool, trader, Tripataly. That will seem natural enough, whoever you send it by, while a letter directed to me might excite suspicion.

"Goodbye."

"Goodbye, Uncle;" and, with a wave of his hand, d.i.c.k rode off and joined Surajah, who was waiting for him a short distance off. And then, followed by Ibrahim--who had begged so earnestly to be allowed to accompany them that d.i.c.k had consented to take him, feeling indeed that his services would be most useful to them--and the two troopers, they rode off at a sharp pace.

At Amboor they a.s.sumed their disguises. d.i.c.k purchased a pack pony, and some goods suitable to their appearance as pedlers, and then they started up the pa.s.s on foot. They pa.s.sed the frontier line without any interruption, stopped and chatted for a few minutes with the guard, and then pa.s.sed on up the valley.

"There is the house where we had our fight, Surajah," d.i.c.k said, as they reached the ruined village. "Though there is peace now, I fancy we should not get much farther than that fort ahead, if they guessed that we were the fellows who gave them such trouble, two years and a half ago."

"There is no fear of our being recognised," Surajah said. "The guard has probably been changed, long ago. Besides, they never once caught sight of our faces."

"Oh, no; we are safe enough," d.i.c.k agreed. "If I had not been sure of that, we would have gone up one of the pa.s.ses to the south, that has been ceded to us, though it would have been a great deal longer round to Bangalore--unless, indeed, we had gone by Kistnagherry, and that would have been too dangerous to attempt, for the officers on the frontier would probably have recognised us."

It was late in the afternoon before they arrived at the gate. It stood open, and there was no sentry on duty. A few soldiers could be seen, loitering about in the street; but it was evident that, now the war was over and everything finally settled, it was considered that all occasion for vigilance was at an end.

Upon making inquiries, they soon found a house where they could put up for the night. They had, as is the custom in India, brought their provisions with them, and after leaving their goods in the house, and seeing that the horse was fed, Ibrahim set to work to cook a meal; while the others opened one of the packs, and went round the village, where they disposed of a few small articles.

They arrived, without any adventure, at Bangalore. There, as soon as they had established themselves at one of the caravansaries for travellers, d.i.c.k and Surajah went to the house of the trader to whom Pertaub had promised to consign their goods.

"We have come for some packs, that have been sent by friends of ours at Seringapatam to your care," d.i.c.k said, making as he spoke the sign that Pertaub had taught him, as enabling those who were Hindoos to recognise each other, at once. "We were to use the word 'Madras' as a sign that we were the parties to whom they were consigned."

"The goods arrived a week ago," the trader said, "and are lying for you at my warehouse. I will hand them over to you, tomorrow morning."

"Thank you. We may not come early, for we have to purchase two pack horses to carry them, and three tats for ourselves and our man. This may take us some time, and it will be, perhaps, better for us to come to you early the next morning, and we can then start away direct."

This was arranged, and on the following day, two strong animals were bought for the packs; and three tats, or ponies, for their own riding.

d.i.c.k had disposed of the horse he had ridden down to Tripataly for a good price, and had also been supplied with funds by his mother, although, as he said, the contents of their packs ought to suffice to pay all their expenses, for a long time.

Then they purchased some provisions for the journey. The pack horse they had brought with them was laden with these, and the goods brought up from Amboor. The new pack horses were taken round to the trader's, and the goods sent from Seringapatam packed on them. Then they mounted and rode off at a walk, the pack animals following Ibrahim's horse, tied one behind the other.

They had already debated upon the course to pursue, and finally decided that they would, in the first place, again visit Savandroog; for the conviction d.i.c.k had entertained, that there was at least one white captive there, had increased rather than diminished.

"I can't give any good reason for it, Surajah," he had admitted, when they talked it over before starting, "but it is just because I have no good reason to give, that I want to go there again. Why should I have such a strong conviction without a good cause? One has heard of a presentiment of evil--I can't help feeling that this is a presentiment of good. The question is, how can we best go there again? I don't think it is in the least likely that the governor will have heard of our flight, as this would be the last direction anyone would think of our taking, for had we done so, we might have met the Sultan on his way back from Bangalore. It will naturally be supposed that we have made for the frontier, and have descended the Western or Southern Ghauts. The affair will, of course, seem a mystery to them altogether; for why should two young fellows, so recently promoted, and in such high favour, desert Tippoo's service? If they do not a.s.sociate Annie's disappearance with our flight--and there is no reason on earth why they should do so, as no one ever saw us speaking to her--they will most likely think that we have fallen into the hands of the Dacoits, or Thugs, and have been murdered. Numbers of people do disappear every year, and are, as everyone supposes, victims of that detestable sect.

My uncle has told me of Thugs. He warned me to be very careful, if I travelled with strangers, for that these men travel in all sorts of disguises.

"So I think that, as far as that goes, we could boldly put on our uniforms and badges again, and ride into Savandroog. The disadvantage of doing so is, however, plain. The commander would remain with us all the time. We should get no opportunity of speaking privately with any of the soldiers, and, taking us to be in Tippoo's confidence, he would, as before, shirk the question of prisoners. On the other hand, if we can get in as traders we shall be able to move about unwatched--to go to the soldiers' huts and offer goods to their wives, and be able to find out, to a certainty, if there is a prisoner there, and, if so, where he is kept. We may even see him; for while, if the governor wished to keep his existence a secret, he would have shut him up when he heard that two of Tippoo's officers were coming, he would not trouble about it, one way or the other, in the case of a couple of traders.

"The only objection to that course is that we were here but two or three months since, and he and his servants, and that artillery officer we went round with, would know us at once. If we go, we shall have to alter our appearance completely. At any rate, we had better provide means for disguise, and we can use them, or not, as we please."

While they were at Tripataly, therefore, they had two false beards made for themselves, and tried many experiments in the way of painting their faces; and found that by tracing light lines on their foreheads, and at the corners of their eyes, they were able, by the help of beards, to counterfeit the appearance of old age, so well that it could only be detected on close observation. d.i.c.k, too, had purchased a pair of native spectacles, with large round gla.s.ses and broad black-horn rims, that made him look, as he said, like an astonished owl. It was agreed that Surajah should wear, under his dress, a very thickly padded vest, which would give him the appearance of being fat, as well as elderly.

They proceeded for seven or eight miles at a walking pace, and when the heat of the day rendered it necessary for them to stop, turned into a grove by the roadside, as they had no intention of going on to Savandroog that day, intending to halt some miles short of it, and to present themselves there the next afternoon. They therefore prepared for a stay of some hours. The pack horses were unloaded, and the saddles taken off the other animals.

Half an hour later a party of twelve men, travelling in the same direction as themselves, also halted and turned in among the trees.

The man who was apparently the leader of the party came across to where they were sitting.

"We do not disturb you, I hope, brothers?" he said. "The grove is large enough for us all. I see that you are traders, like myself."

"By no means," Surajah replied. "The wood is open to all, and even were it not, we should be discourteous, indeed, did we refuse to share our shade with others. Sit down by us, I beg of you, while your people are unloading your animals."

"I marked you as you left Bangalore," the trader said, as he seated himself beside them, "and when I saw that you were taking the same route that we should follow, I wondered how far our roads might lie together."

"We are travelling west," Surajah replied. "It may be that we shall stop at Magree, and there, or at Outradroog, stop for a day or two to trade. Thence we may go north."

"Then as far as Outradroog our paths will lie together," the merchant said. "There we shall strike the river, and turn south to Seringapatam. I am sorry that you will not be going farther in our direction, for the roads are far from safe. Since the war with the Feringhees ended, there are many disbanded soldiers who have taken to dacoity, and it is always better to travel with a strong band. I wonder that you venture with three loaded animals, and only one man beside yourselves."

Surajah was about to speak, but a quick glance from d.i.c.k stopped him.

"We think there is less danger in travelling in a small body than there is with a large one," the latter said. "There is less to tempt anyone to interfere with us. Moreover, we could not travel with a caravan, because the greater part of our goods are such as would tempt the peasantry only. We therefore stop at small villages to trade, leaving the towns to those who travel with more valuable merchandise."

After chatting for some minutes, the traveller got up and joined his party.