CHAPTER XV
A STRANGE RESCUE
Neither Muriel, absorbed in watching the wedding, nor the two menengrossed in their dispute had noticed the Chinese come riding along theroad and pulling up when they saw the peasants gathered together. One ofthem had been about to question the villagers from his saddle when hiseyes fell on the disguised girl standing apart from the crowd. He staredat her for a few moments. Then he spoke hurriedly to his companions,and, springing from the mule's back seized Muriel in a rough grasp.
At her cry Frank ran back, forgetting his disguise. He recognised in herassailant the pock-marked officer of the _Amban_. The man, seeing himcoming, drew a revolver; but Wargrave whipped out his pistol quicker andwithout hesitation shot him through the heart. The Chinaman collapsed tothe ground and in his fall dragged the girl down. His comrade fired athis slayer and, missing him, wheeled his mule round and galloped off.Tashi returned the shot while Frank ran to Muriel. He fired severaltimes and the rider was apparently hit; for he fell forward on the neckof his animal; but he recovered himself and, crouching low, was stillin the saddle when a turn in the road hid him from sight.
The startled villagers scattered and fled in terror at the tragedysuddenly enacted in their midst, the six cowardly husbands desertingtheir new-made wife and leaving her to follow as they ran away, whichshe did at her utmost speed.
Frank freed Muriel from the stiffened grasp of the dead man and helpedher to her feet; then the three hurried from the fatal spot, so latelyfilled by a cheerful crowd of merrymakers and now tenanted only by thecorpse that lay with sightless eyes staring up at the blue sky. Theymade for the shelter of jungle-clad hills that rose a couple of milesaway.
From now onwards, for two or three weeks, the fugitives led the lives ofhunted rats. They travelled generally only by night, avoiding villagesand farms, and keeping away from the road as much as possible. They werein the southern zone of Bhutan lying nearest the Indian frontier, aregion of precipitous hills ten or twelve thousand feet high, theirsides clothed with dense vegetation, of deep, fever-laden valleys ofawe-inspiring gorges, of rivers liable to sudden floods and rising in afew hours thirty or forty feet.
Tashi in various disguises occasionally visited villages in search offood and information; while the lovers awaited his return in some hiddenspot, Frank holding the anxious girl in his arms and trying to calm herfears. In one excursion the ex-lama got the first definite news of thepursuit. He learned that the _Amban_ had returned unexpectedly to Tuna,the plot in his favour in Pekin having failed. He was not satisfied bythe tales told by the monks of the lamasery to account for Muriel'smysterious disappearance, which was that she had been carried off bydevils. He insisted on a search being made for her along the road to theIndian border and sent his own Chinese guards to direct the pursuit. Thecompanion of the pock-marked man had got back to Tuna and told of theirrecognition of her. Yuan Shi Hung, furious at the death of his officerbut overjoyed at the discovery of the girl, set out at once with hispersonal followers and a body of the Penlop's soldiers to take up thechase.
The fugitives, hotly pursued, had several hair-breadth escapes. Oncethey almost blundered into a bivouac of their enemies at night. Theysucceeded at last in reaching the great forest in which Wargrave and theex-lama had parted from the elephants, the forest which ran along thefoot and clothed the northern slopes of the second-last range ofmountains between them and the frontier. But alas! there was no trace ofBadshah's herd; yet this was not surprising, for they found themselvesin a part unknown to them. Through this vast jungle they travelled byday, until one evening they reached a deep gorge that pierced the rangeand seemed to promise a passage through the mountains.
They camped for the night by its mouth, intending to enter it atsunrise. Dawn found them breaking their fast on a scanty meal of driedmutton and bananas. Suddenly Tashi stopped eating and held up a warninghand. His companions drew their pistols, Frank having given his secondweapon to Muriel. Presently they heard the faint sounds of an animal'sapproach on their track. Just as they had risen silently to their feetthree gigantic dogs appeared, scenting their trail. They were Tibetanmastiffs, such as are to be seen chained in the court yards oflamaseries. At sight of them the huge brutes stopped, crouched for aninstant, showing their fangs in a fierce snarl, and then rushed at them.
Without hesitation the three fired. One of the dogs dropped dead; butthe others, though wounded, came on. One bounded at Muriel. Frank threwhimself in front of her, firing rapidly at it. Several bullets struckit, but the savage brute sprang at his throat. He grappled with it,striving by main strength to hold it off. Muriel rushed to his aid andputting her pistol to the mastiff's head shot it dead. Tashi meantimehad killed the third.
Knowing that their pursuers must be close behind the dogs they fled intothe gorge. On either hand stupendous cliffs towered up two thousand feetabove them, scarcely a hundred yards apart, seeming to meet overheadand shut off the sky. Here and there the giant walls were split from topto bottom in slits opening off the main passage. As the fugitives ran onthe gorge narrowed until it was scarcely fifty yards wide, and theybegan to fear that it might prove only a _cul-de-sac_ in which theywould be hopelessly trapped. They heard cries behind them, strangelyechoed by the rocky walls. Breathless, panting, their tired limbs givingway under them, they staggered blindly on.
The pass turned sharply to the right. As they approached the bend theybecame aware of a dull rumbling, and the ground, which suddenly began toslope steeply down, shook violently under their feet. Wondering what newdanger, what fresh horror, awaited them they stumbled on, turned thecorner and stopped short in dismayed despair.
From side to side the gorge was filled with a tumultuous, racing floodof foam-flecked water, a rushing river that poured out of a naturaltunnel in the steeply sloping rocky bottom of the pass as from a sluice.It surged against the precipitous cliffs, leaping up against the wallsthat hemmed it in, sweeping in mad onset of white-topped waves andeddying whirlpools flinging spray high in air. The stoutest swimmerwould be tossed about helplessly in it, rolled over and over, choked,suffocated, sucked under, the life beaten out of him.
For one wild moment Frank thought of seizing Muriel in his arms andspringing into the raging flood, but the sheer hopelessness of escapethat way checked him. It was certain death. Better to turn and facetheir pursuers. There was more chance of life in battling with a scoreor two of Bhutanese swordsmen than with the tumbling, tossing waters.
So, pistol in hand, the three retraced their steps, looking everywherefor a suitable spot to make a stand. But on either hand the cliffs rosesheer, their faces seamed here and there with cracks, but with never acrevice big enough to shelter them. They passed the bend; and a fewhundred yards beyond it some large rocks fallen from the cliff on oneside lay close against its base.
Frank resolved to take their stand here. It was the only cover visible.They fitted the holster-stocks to their pistols, converting them intocarbines which could be fired from the shoulder, enabling them to aimmore accurately at a longer range. Then while Tashi crept cautiouslyalong the pass to scout, the subaltern and the girl examined theposition for defence. Thus occupied they were startled by shots ringingout, echoing down the vast canyon. Taking cover they saw their companionrunning back followed by a body of men, a few mounted, the majority onfoot. Some had fire-arms, others bows, the rest swords.
Wargrave and Muriel opened on the pursuers with their automatic weaponsand checked them. Tashi was about a hundred yards from shelter when ashot struck him. He stumbled and fell, while a howl of delight rose fromhis foes. As he tried to struggle up bullets kicked up the dust roundhim and several arrows dropped near.
"Muriel, loose off as many cartridges as you can to cover me," saidWargrave, laying his pistol beside her.
Before the girl realised his meaning he had sprung out from the rocksand was running towards Tashi. For a moment the pursuers were puzzled byhis action and then fired their rifles and matchlocks and shot arrows athim. But unsca
thed he reached the wounded man who had been so faithful acomrade to him. Raising him on his back he staggered towards the rocks,while Muriel pumped lead at the enemy and succeeded in keeping downtheir fire somewhat. As Wargrave laid the ex-lama on the ground inshelter Tashi seized his hand and touched it with his lips and foreheadin silent gratitude. Frank hurriedly examined and bandaged the woundmade by a large-calibre bullet, which had passed through the leg belowthe knee, lacerating the muscles but not injuring the bone. Then he tookup his post again, while Tashi dragged himself up behind a rock andopened fire on their foes.
These were for the most part Bhutanese, but there were several Chineseamong them.
"Look! Look, Frank! There's the _Amban_," cried Muriel excitedly,pointing to a man who rode into sight along the pass on a white mule.
She fired at him. The bullet missed him but apparently went unpleasantlyclose, for Yuan Shi Hung galloped back into shelter behind a projectingbuttress of the cliffs.
The attackers numbered sixty or eighty. They were apparently staggeredby the rapid fire poured into them, which killed or wounded several ofthem. Some tried to find shelter by huddling against the side of thepass and others flung themselves on the ground behind boulders; but theleaders urged them on.
There could be little doubt as to the issue of the fight. The bulletsfrom the Chinamen's rifles and the Bhutanese matchlocks spattered therocks or the face of the cliff; but the archers began to shoot almostvertically into the air from their strong bamboo bows, and severaliron-tipped, four-feathered arrows dropped behind the cover, one missingWargrave by a hand's breadth.
Fearing for Muriel he tried to shield her with his body.
"What's the use, dearest?" she said. "If you are killed I don't want tolive. Indeed, we must both die now. I shall not be taken alive. Kiss meand tell me once more that you love me."
He held her to his heart in a passionate embrace and kissed her fondly.
"They are coming now, sahib," said Tashi. "And I have only a fewcartridges left."
The lovers paid no heed.
"Goodbye, my dear, dear love," whispered Muriel, "I'm happier dying withyou than living without you."
Frank kissed her, solemnly now, for the last time. Then they turned toface the enemy. The swordsmen were massing for a charge. Crouching lowthey held their shields before them and waved their long-bladed _dahs_above their heads, uttering fierce yells.
Suddenly the _Amban_ and other mounted men who had been sheltering outof sight dashed into view and rode madly into the rear ranks, knockingdown and trampling on anyone in their way. The men on foot looked behindand broke into a run, coming on in a disordered mob. But it was not acharge--it was more like a panic. For with wild cries of frantic terrorthey fled past the defenders who, fearing a trick, fired their lastcartridges into them, dropping several, some of whom tried to rise anddrag themselves on in dread of something terrible behind.
Then into sight came a vast herd of wild elephants, filling the gorgefrom cliff to cliff and moving at a slow trot. A huge bull led them,lines of other tuskers behind him, crowds of females and calvesbringing up the rear. The onset of the mass of great monsters wasterrifying. It was appalling, irresistible.
Muriel cried out:
"It's Badshah! Frank, it's Badshah! Look at the leader! Don't you see?"
Tashi stared at the oncoming herd. Then he quietly unfixed his pistoland put it away in the holster.
"We are saved, sahib," he said with the calm fatalism of the East. "TheGod of the Elephants has sent them."
And he limped out from behind the rocks. The two Europeans followed him.Their foes had disappeared, all but the dead and wounded.
Badshah--for it was he--swerved out of his course and came to them,while the herd went on, opening out to pass him as he sank to his kneesbefore the humans. Tashi, despite his wound, climbed on to his neck,while Wargrave mounted behind him and Muriel took her seat on the broadback, clinging to her lover. Then the tusker rose and moved swiftlyafter the herd.
As he rounded the bend a strange sight met the eyes of those he carried.Their enemies were huddled together in terror near the brink of thetunnel from which the surging water rushed out. Some endeavoured topluck up courage to throw themselves into the river, while the majorityhad turned to face the elephants. But they were paralysed with fright. Afew tried to discharge their fire-arms or loosed their arrows withtrembling hands. As the elephants, quickening their pace, rushed on inan irresistible mass some of the men, crazed with fright, ran to meetthem. Others flung themselves to the ground where they were.
But over both the great monsters passed, treading them to pulp under theponderous feet. The animals of the mounted men, as terrified as theirriders, swung about and sprang headlong into the river. Many of the menon foot did the same. The heads of animals and men appeared anddisappeared, bobbing up and down, then their bodies were rolled over andover, tossed up on the waves and sucked under. One by one theydisappeared.
A few of the panic-stricken mob had tried to climb the precipitouscliffs in vain. One, however, getting his hands into a narrow, slantingcrack, dragged himself up a few feet.
It was the _Amban_. Frank drew his pistol; but Muriel clung to his armand cried:
"Oh, spare the poor wretch!"
Tashi had no scruples, but his magazine was empty and he searched invain for a cartridge.
But Yuan Shi Hung's time had come. Badshah's trunk shot out and caughtthe climber's ankle. The Chinaman was plucked from the face of the cliffand hurled to the ground. A frenzied shriek burst from him as the tuskwas driven into his shuddering body, which in an instant was trodden toa bloody pulp. Muriel hid her face against her lover, but the agony ofthe wretch's dying yell rang in her ears.
Not one of their enemies was left alive. Then the elephants one by oneslid and slithered down into the rushing water which was very littlebelow the brink. The mothers supported the youngest calves with theirtrunks, the less immature climbing on to their backs. Tashi checkedBadshah as he was about to follow the herd into the river and, lame ashe was, slid down to the ground. He searched the crushed and mangledcorpses of his fellow-countrymen and collected their girdles until hehad enough to knot and plait into two ropes, one to go about Badshah'sneck, the other around the great body. More girdles sufficed to jointhese together and supply cords by which the men and the woman on hisback could tie themselves on to the ropes and to each other securely.When this was done Badshah slid into the river. As elephants do he sankin the water until only the upper part of his head and the tip of hisupraised trunk were above it. Without the precaution that Tashi hadtaken his riders would have been instantly swept away.
Only elephants could have battled successfully with that raging torrent.The upflung spray and leaping waves hid the herd from the fugitives asthey clung desperately to the ropes and to each other.
* * * * *
Eighteen months had gone by. In the garden of the Political Agent'sbungalow in Ranga Duar Colonel Dermot, completely restored to health,and his wife stood with his Assistant, Major Hunt and Macdonald. Theywere watching Mrs. Wargrave who, with Brian and Eileen clinging to her,was holding out her two months' old baby to a great elephant with asingle tusk. The animal raised its trunk as though in salute, then,lowering it, gently touched with its sensitive tip the laughing infantwhose tiny hand instinctively clutched it and held it fast.
With a smile Muriel turned her head and looked at her husband.
"Badshah has accepted him. Your son is free of the herd," said ColonelDermot.
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