Leonie of the Jungle
Page 30
CHAPTER XXIX
"A merry heart doeth good like a medicine!"--_The Bible_.
Guy Dean, the cheery optimistic lad who worshipped openly at Leonie'sbeautiful feet, and who was seeing the world at the behest of hiswealthy old father, had been as good as his word.
Bursting with excitement, he hurled himself into his racing-car oneSunday morning, about a fortnight after Leonie's hasty ride riverwards,and passed like a whirlwind through the fairly empty streets ofCalcutta and the suburb of Ballygunge to the Jodhpur Club.
She was waiting for breakfast under the trees with some friends,discussing the four-some they had just finished, and watching thearrival of various cars which were parked, with some difficulty, withthe others which had arrived earlier.
"Sounds all right," said Cuxson, as he looked with disfavour upon theclub's breakfast _piece de resistance_, namely fatty sausages andmashed of all things. "I am beginning to feel quite thrilled. Let'ssee, it will take us about a day to get to Tiger's Point by launch fromKulna, and there we find monkeys, adjutant birds, spotted deer, andtigers all ready."
"Don't rot!" said young Dean. "I've bribed the finest _shikari_ in thewhole of Bengal to stage-manage the whole thing; he did seem rathercontemptuous over the _chotar shikar_, as he called it, I must say,until I began to juggle with backsheesch, and then he bucked upconsiderably and said he would do his very best to provide sport forthe mems. The programme includes a ruined temple but not a tiger,'cause he says it would be too risky a job at such short notice; also,and the real reason _I_ should say, there hasn't been a tiger seen,anyway killed, since one was wounded and caught near that same Hindutemple umpteen years ago."
Leonie wrinkled her forehead at the last sentence, and looking upcaught Jan Cuxson's eyes upon her.
"That sounds _so_ familiar," she said perplexedly, "I----"
"The tiger at the Zoo which we knew all those years ago was trappednear a ruined Hindu temple in the Sunderbunds, Lady Hickle," he saidquietly, watching the curious dilation of the pupils in the greenisheyes as he spoke.
"The very one!" broke in young Dean, as he suspiciously eyed aproffered curry.
"How did you come to think of the stunt?"
"I ran up against a perfectly top-hole native prince at polo lastmonth. Amongst other things we started talking elephant and_bagh_--tiger, you know," laughed the lad, who always seemed to be onthe point of bursting with high infectious spirits. "No, take it away,I will _not_ eat a cold _chupattie_ of the consistency of a bicycletyre--as I was saying, we talked tiger, and somehow or other hesuggested a few days' pursuit, through the Sunderbunds, of the spotteddeer, muntjak or sambur----"
"Neither."
"Well, they're _spotted_."
"Dogs, perhaps."
Ignoring the execrable repartee, the boy turned completely round toLeonie.
"By the way, Lady Hickle, if you ever go to Benares, don't forget toget off _en route_ and visit the tomb of what's-its-name, it's quitenear--oh! I forget--but it's on one of this fellow's father's estates.They don't let many people go and see it--afraid, I expect, of paperbags but if you _do_ go you'll find an elephant or two hanging about totake you to the place in state. He's, the native prince, got some ofthe finest elephants in the whole of this mosquito-ridden land--makes ahobby of them."
"What happened to the original tiger?"
"Noah pushed him into the ark."
The lad grinned, and offered his cigarette to Leonie, who shook herhead.
"Oh! stop fooling, Dean. Did a sahib manage to trap the brute, orwhat?"
"Yes! and sent it across to Blighty and shoved it into the Zoo.They're frightfully sick about that tiger being in a cage; theywouldn't have minded a sahib killing it for the good of mankind itseems, but putting it behind bars is an insult to some god, orsomething like that. Are you any good as a gun, dear lady?"
Leonie smiled at the tardiness of such an important question.
"Fair," she said, refusing an unkempt pot of marmalade as she turned toCuxson. "I used to pass most of my holidays with the Wetherbournes,you know them, don't you? They were awfully keen on sports, and had arifle-range, but I could beat them any day with a revolver."
"That doesn't matter, Lady Hickle," said the lad blithely. "All you'llhave to do'll be to bob up and down in the tiger-grass in the approvedstyle; keep your trigger away from the bush, and so as to feelthoroughly creepy, your eye out for pugs; which, in case some of youdon't know, means tiger-tracks, not the dog with the beastly curlytail--and--oh, jolly!--here come the Talbots--just in time for the_khubber_ which means tiger-news for those whose Hindustani is not asperfect as mine. Mrs. Talbot, don't pass us by, we have plenty of roomand some superb sausages."
Edna Talbot laughingly sank into a chair next Leonie whom she liked,and immediately became enthralled in the discussion.
Honest, sweet little woman, with an honest plodding husband in a nativeregiment, inhabiting the dreary crumbling fort, without a murmur,whilst living in hopes of better things to come. Soft-voiced,considerate towards her native servants who worshipped her, one of thefinest shots in India, and a true upholder of the British Raj in word,action, and clothes.
A perfect oasis, in fact, among the desert of her sisters, who storm inseason and out at their native staff, before whom they likewise showthemselves in ill-considered neglige, with their unbrushed hair downtheir backs, and their bare feet thrust into the evening shoes of lastnight's dance.
So it came about without any undue fuss that, after surviving theexcruciating heat of the railway journey, three sahibs, two mem-sahibs,and their servants steamed out of Kulna in two launches to Tiger'sPoint, where awaited them the finest _shikari_ in all Bengal, with anadequate retinue in which was included a _chukler_ or skin dresser.
And who would notice the look in an ayah's eyes as she wiped herbeloved mem-sahib's ant-ridden bunk with cotton-waste soaked inkerosene, and who on earth would connect the jungle guide with theBritish Museum.