by Talbot Mundy
“Now, heed ye how ye draw the net.”
Quoth he: “I’ll do some damage yet
Or ere my turn to die!”
THE mare that had been a present from Mahommed Gunga was brought out and saddled, together with a fresh horse for the Risaldar. The veteran had needed no summoning, for with a soldier’s instinct he had wakened at the moment his self-allotted four hours had expired. He mounted a little stiffly, and tried his horse’s paces up and down the courtyard once or twice before nodding to Cunningham.
All ready, sahib.”
Ready, Mahommed Gunga.”
But there was one other matter, after all, that needed attention first.
“That horse of mine that brought me hither” — the Risaldar picked out the man who waited with the gong cord in his hand— “is left in thy particular charge. Dost thou hear me? I will tell the Alwa-sahib what I now tell thee — that horse will be required of thee fit, good-tempered, light-mouthed, not spur-marked, and thoroughly well groomed. There will be a reward in the one case, but in the other — I would not stand in thy shoes! It is a trust!”
“Come along, Risaldar!” called Cunningham. “We’re wasting an awful lot of time!”
“Nay, sahib, but a good horse is like a woman, to be loved and treated faithfully! Neither horse nor woman should be sacrificed for less than duty! Lead on, bahadur — I will join thee at the gate.”
He had several directions to give for the horse’s better care, and Cunningham was forced to wait at least five minutes for him at the foot of the steep descent. Then for another minute the two sat their horses side by side, while the great gate rose slowly, grudgingly, cranked upward by four men.
“If we two ever ride under here again, bahadur, we shall ride with honor thick on us,” remarked Mahommed Gunga. “God knows what thy plan may be; but I know that from now on there will be no peace for either of us until we have helped rip it with our blades from the very belly of rebellion. Ride!”
The gate clanged down behind them as — untouched by heel or spur — the two spring-limbed chargers raced for their bits across the sand. They went like shadows, casting other shadows — moon-made — wind-driven — knee-to-knee.
“Now, sahib!”
The Risaldar broke silence after fifteen minutes. Neither he nor Cunningham were of the type that chatters when the time has come to loosen sabres and sit tight.
“In the matter of what lies ahead — as I said, neither I nor any man knows what this plan of thine may be, but I and the others have accepted thy bare word. These men who await thee — and they are many, and all soldiers, good, seasoned horsemen — have been told that the son of Cunnigan will lead them. Alwa has given his word, and I mine, that in the matter of a leader there is nothing left to be desired. And my five men have told them of certain happenings that they have seen. Therefore, thou art awaited with no little keenness. They will be all eyes and ears. It might be well, then, to set the pace a little slower, for a man looks better on a fresh horse than on a weary one!”
“I’m thinking, Mahommed Gunga, of the two McCleans and of General Byng, who is expecting us. There is little time to lose.”
“I, too, consider them, sahib. It is we Rangars who must do the sabre work. ALL, sahib — ALL — depends now on the impression created on the men awaiting thee! Rein in a little. Thy father’s name, thine own, and mine and Alwa’s weigh for much on thy side; but have a sound horse between thy legs and a trumpet in thy throat when we get there! I have seen more than one officer have to fight up-hill for the hearts of his troopers because his tired horse stumbled or looked shabby on the first parade. Draw rein a little, sahib.”
So Cunningham, still saying nothing, drew back into an easy canter. He was conscious of something, not at all like a trumpet, in his throat that was nearly choking him. He did not care to let Mahommed Gunga know that what was being mistaken for masterly silence was really emotion! He did not speak because he did not trust his voice.
“There are three squadrons, sahib — each of about five hundred men. Alwa has the right wing, I the left. Take thou the centre and command the whole. The horses are as good as any in this part of India, for each man has brought his best to do thee honor. Each man carries four days’ rations in his saddle-bag and two days’ rations for his horse. More horse feed is collecting, and they are bringing wagons, to follow when we give the word. But we thought there would be little sense in ordering wagons to follow us to Howrah City, knowing that thy plan would surely entail action. If we are to ride to the aid of Byng-bahadur it seemed better to pick up the wagons on the journey back again. That is all, sahib. There will be no time, of course, to waste on talk or drill. Take charge the moment that we get there — issue thy orders — and trust to the men understanding each command. Lead off without delay.”
“All right,” said Cunningham — two English words that went much further to allay the Risaldar’s anxiety than any amount of rhetoric would have done. “But — d’you mean to tell me that the men don’t understand words of command?”
“All of them do, sahib — but to many of them the English words are new. They all understand formations, and those who know the English words are teaching the others while they wait for us. There is not one man among them but has couched a lance or swung a sabre in some force or other?”
“Good. Have they all got lances?”
“All the front-rank men are armed with lance and sabre — the rear ranks have sabres only.”
“Good.”
After two hours of steady cantering the going changed and became a quick succession of ever-deepening gorges cleft in sandstone. Far away in the distance to the left there rose a glow that showed where Howrah City kept uneasy vigil, doubtless with watch-fires at every street corner. It looked almost as though the distant city were in flames.
Ahead of them lay the gloom of hell mouth and the silence of the space beyond the stars.
It was with that strange, unclassified, unnamed sixth sense that soldiers, savages, and certain hunters have that Cunningham became aware of life ahead of him — massed, strong-breathing, ready — waiting life, spring-bent in the quivering blackness. A little farther, and he caught the ring of a curb-chain. Then a horse whinnied and a hoarse voice swore low at a restive charger. His own mare neighed, throwing her head high, and some one challenged through the dead-black night.
“How-ut! Hukkums — thar!”
A horseman appeared suddenly from nowhere, and examined them at close quarters instead of waiting for their answer. He peered curiously at Cunningham — glanced at Mahommed Gunga — then wheeled, spinning his horse as the dust eddies twist in the sudden hot-wind gusts.
“Sahib-bahadur hai!” he shouted, racing back.
The night was instantly alive with jingling movement, as line after line of quite invisible light-horse-men — self-disciplined and eager to obey — took up their dressing. The overhanging cliff of sandstone hid the moon, but here and there there was a gleam of eyeballs in the dark — now man’s, now horse’s — and a sheen that was the hint of steel held vertical. No human being could have guessed the length of the gorge nor the number of the men who waited in it, for the restless chargers stamped in inch-deep sand that deadened sound without seeming to lessen its quantity.
“Salaam, bahadur!”
It was Alwa, saluting with drawn sabre, reining back a pedigreed mare to get all the spectacular emotion out of the encounter that he could.
“Here are fifteen hundred eight and fifty, sahib — all Rangars — true believers — all true men — all pledged to see thee unsinged through the flames of hell! Do them the honor of a quick inspection, sahib!”
“Certainly!” smiled Cunningham.
“I have told them, sahib, that their homes, their women, their possessions, and their honor are all guaranteed them. Also pay. They make no other terms.”
“I guarantee them all of that,” said Cunningham, loud enough for at least the nearest ranks to hear.
“On th
ine own honor, sahib?”
“On my word of honor!”
“The promise is enough! Will you inspect them, sahib?”
“I’ll take their salute first,” said Cunningham.
“Pardon, bahadur!”
Alwa filled his lungs and faced the unseen lines.
“Rangars!” he roared. “Your leader! To Chota-Cunnigan-bahadur — son of Pukka-Cunnigan whom we all knew — general — salute — present — sabres!”
There was sudden movement — the ring of whipped-out metal — a bird’s wing-beat — as fifteen hundred hilts rose all together to as many lips — and a sharp intake of breath all down the line.
It wasn’t bad. Not bad at all, thought Cunningham. It was not done as regulars would have worked it. There was the little matter of the lances, that he could make out dimly here and there, and he could detect even in that gloom that half of the men had been caught wondering how to salute with lance and sabre both. But that was not their fault; the effort — the respect behind the effort — the desire to act altogether — were all there and striving. He drew his own mare back a little, and returned their salute with full military dignity.
“Reeeecee — turn — sabres!” ordered Alwa, and that movement was accomplished better.
He rode once, slowly, down the long front rank, letting each man look him over — then back again along the rear rank, risking a kick or two, for there was little room between them and the cliff. He was not choking now. The soldier instinct, that is born in a man like statesmanship or poetry, but that never can be taught, had full command over all his other senses, and when he spurred out to the front again his voice rang loud and clear, like a trumpet through the night.
With fifty ground scouts scattered out ahead of them, they drummed out of the gorge and thundered by squadrons on the plain beyond — straight, as the jackal runs, for Howrah City. Alwa, leaving his own squadron, to canter at Cunningham’s side, gave him all the new intelligence that mattered.
“Last evening I sent word on ahead to them of our coming, sahib! I sent one messenger to the Maharajah and one to Jaimihr, warning each that we ride to keep our plighted word. At the worst, we shall find both parties ready for us! We shall know before we reach the city who is our friend! News reached me, too, sahib, that the Maharajah and his brother have united against us — that Howrah will eat his promises and play me false. God send he does! I would like to have my hands in that Hindoo’s treasure-chests! We none of us know yet, bahadur, what is this plan of thine—”
“You’ve been guessing awfully close to it, I think” laughed Cunningham.
“Aha! The treasure-chests, then! But — is there — have you information, sahib? Who knows, then — who has told where they are? Neither I nor my men know!”
“Send for Mahommed Gunga.”
Mahommed Gunga left his squadron, too, to canter beside Alwa.
“I am all ears, sahib!” he asserted, reining his horse until his stride was equal to the others.
“The key to the situation is that treasure,” asserted Cunningham. “Howrah wants it. Jaimihr wants it. The priests want it. I know that much for certain, from the McCleans. All right. We’re a new factor in the problem, and they all mistrust us nearly as much, if not more, than they mistrust one another. Good. They’ll be all of them watching that treasure. It’ll be near where they are, and I’m going to snaffle it or break my neck — and all your necks — in the deuced desperate attempt. Is that clear? Where the carcass is, there wheel the kites and there the jackals fight, as your proverb says. The easiest part will be finding the treasure. Then—”
They legged in closer to him, hanging on his words and too busy listening to speak.
“If Howrah thinks we’re after the treasure and decides to fight without previous argument, that absolves you from your promise, doesn’t it, Alwa-sahib?”
“Surely, sahib, provided our intention is not to evade the promise.”
“Our intention is to prevent Howrah and his brother from fighting, to insure peace and protection on this whole countryside, and, if possible, to ride away with Jaimihr’s army to the Company’s aid.”
“Good, sahib.”
It seemed to occur to none of the three that fifteen hundred mounted men were somewhat few with which to accomplish such a marvel.
“If they are fighting already, we must interfere.”
“We are ready, bahadur. Fighting is our trade!”
“But, before all things, we must keep our eyes well skinned for a hint of treachery on Jaimihr’s part. I would rather quarrel with that gentleman than be his friend, but he happens to hold our promise. We’ve got to keep our promise, provided he keeps his. I think our first objective is the treasure.”
“That, sahib, is an acrobat of a plan,” said Alwa; “much jumping from one proposition to another!”
“It is no plan at all,” said Cunningham. “It is a mere rehearsal of the circumstances. A plan is something quickly seized at the right second and then acted on — like your capture of Jaimihr. Wait awhile, Alwa-sahib!”
“Ay, wait awhile!” growled Mahommed Gunga. “Did I bring thee a leader to ask plans of thee, or a man of men for thee to follow? Which?”
“All the same,” said Alwa, “I would rather halt and make a good plan. It would be wiser. I do not understand this one.”
“I follow Cunnigan-bahadur!” said Mahommed Gunga; and he spurred off to his squadron. Alwa could see nothing better than to follow suit, for Cunningham closed his lips tight in a manner unmistakable. And whatever Alwa’s misgivings might have been, he had the sense and the soldierly determination not to hint at them to his men.
As dawn rose pale-yellow in the eastern sky they thundered into view of Howrah City and drew rein to breathe their horses. The sun was high before they had trotted near enough to make out details. But, long before details could be seen, it was evident that an army was formed up to meet them on the tree-lined maidan that lay between them and the two-mile-long palace-wall. Beyond all doubt it was Jaimihr’s army, for his elephants were not so gaudily harnessed as Howrah’s, and his men were not so brilliantly dressed.
As they dipped into the last depression between them and the wall and halted for a minute’s consultation, a khaki-clad, shrivelled figure of a man leaped up from behind a sand-ridge, and raced toward Cunningham, shouting to him in a dialect he had no knowledge of and gesticulating wildly. A trooper spurred down on him, brought him up all standing with an intercepted lance, examined him through puckered eyes, and then, roaring with laughter, picked him up and carried him to Cunningham.
“A woman, sahib! By the beard of Abraham, a woman!”
“Joanna!”
“Ha, sahib! Ha, sahib!”
She babbled to him, word overtaking word and choking all together in a dust-dry throat. Cunningham gave her water and then set her on the ground.
“Translate, somebody!” he ordered. “I can’t understand a word she says.”
Babbled and hurried and a little vague it might be, but Joanna had the news of the minute pat.
“Jaimihr is looting the treasure now, sahib. He has tricked his brother. They were to join, and both fight against you, but Jaimihr tried to get the treasure out before either you or his brother came. He is trying now, sahib!”
“Miss McClean! Ask her where Miss McClean is! Ask for Miss Maklin, sahib!”
“Jaimihr has told her that thou and Alwa and Mahommed Gunga are all dead, and the British overwhelmed throughout all India! He has her with him in a carriage, under guard, for all his men are with him and he could spare no great guard for his palace. See! Look, sahib! Jaimihr’s palace is in flames!”
Alwa all but fell from his charger, laughing volcanically. The Rajput, who never can agree, can always see the humor in other Rajputs’ disagreement.
“Ho, but they are playing a great game with each other!” he shouted. But Cunningham decided he had wasted time enough. He shouted his orders, and in less than thirty seconds his three squadr
ons were thundering in the direction of Jaimihr’s army and the palace-wall. They drew rein again within a quarter of a mile of it, to discover with amazed military eyes that Jaimihr had no artillery.
It was then, at the moment when they halted, that Jaimihr reached a quick decision and the wrong one. He knew by now that his brother had won the first trick in the game of treachery, for he could see the smoke and flames of his burning palace from where he sat his horse. He decided at once that Alwa and his Rangars must have taken sides with the Maharajah, for how, otherwise, he reasoned, could the Maharajah dare let the Rangars approach unwatched and unmolested. It was evident to him that the Rangars were acting as part of a concerted movement.
He made up his mind to attack and beat off the new arrivals without further ceremony. He out-numbered them by four or five to one, and was on his own ground. Whatever their intentions, at least he would be able to pretend afterward that he had acted in defence of the sacred treasure; and then, with the treasure in his possession, he would soon be able to recompense himself for a mere burned and looted palace!
So he opened fire without notice, argument, or parley, and an ill-aimed volley shrieked over the heads of Cunningham’s three squadrons.
Cunningham, unruffled and undecided still, made out through puckered eyes the six-horse carriage in which Miss McClean evidently was; it was drawn up close beside the wall, and two regiments were between it and his squadron. He was recalling the terms of the agreement made with Jaimihr; he remembered it included the sparing of all of Alwa’s men, and not the firing on them.
A thousand of Jaimihr’s cavalry swooped from the shelter of the infantry, opened out a very little, and, mistaking Cunningham’s delay for fear, bore down with a cheer and something very like determination.
They were met some ten yards their side of the half-way mark by Cunningham’s three squadrons, loosed and led by Cunningham himself. Outridden, outfought, outgeneralled, they were smashed through, ridden down, and whirled back reeling in confusion. About a hundred of them reached the shelter of the infantry in a formed-up body; many of the rest charged through it in a mob and threw it into confusion.