CHAPTER XVII
IMPRISONMENT
But if Kumran was let and hindered by his oath from actually killing theHeir-to-Empire in cold blood, or, in lesser degree, from treating him soharshly that he might die, he did not feel so bound towards the others;and being cruel by nature, he set to work upon them at once.Foster-father he sent to the State prison, which was down a well in thebig courtyard. There were two of these prison-wells, in which the waterwas reached by a flight of steep steps, and where dark, undergroundcells opened on to the deep silent pool. They were terribly damp, buthere poor Foster-father had to drag out long, miserable days, cut offeven from news of the others. Until one day, just when the sentry waseating his mid-day meal, he heard a violent barking, and by swinginghimself up by the bars of the tiny shaft of the well he could just get aglimpse of Tumbu on the steps. Why had he come? Perhaps he had beensent; if so he would come again at the same time. All that nightFoster-father lay awake, feverishly wondering what Tumbu had meant, andall the next morning, having no means of telling the time, he waited andwaited anxiously, until, just as he was beginning to give up hope, thefamiliar bark echoed down the well, and there was good old Tumbu on thesteps! So he must have been sent by some one; and therefore some onemust be alive and desire him to know the fact.
In truth, both his wife, Foster-mother, and Head-nurse had been rackingtheir brains how to find out where either the Heir-to-Empire orFoster-father were imprisoned until little Bija had said, "Tell Tumbu toseek for them. If you show him Mirak's cap and say, 'Go seek,' he willgo."
And so he did; but it was a long, long time before he found out whereMirak had hidden himself, for he had gone to the big palace in a litter,and so had left no trace. Then little Bija came to the rescue once more.
"You say, Foster-mother, that you feel sure that Down must have goneaway to keep Mirak company. Now she _can't_ be prisoned, 'cos cats won'tbe caught unless they want to be caught, and she doesn't want to be, _ofcourse_. So she must be going about, so why don't you tell Tumbu to seekfor Down; then we should find where Mirak was."
"But we haven't got anything of Down's to show him," arguedFoster-mother. And that was a puzzler.
At last Head-nurse said, "I believe all cats have the same smell, elsewhy do all dogs go after all cats? At any rate, it would be worthtrying."
So they got a fine, large, handsome white cat in the bazaar, and saidto Tumbu, "Go seek!" And then there was the most awful scrimmage thatever was seen. Tumbu was after the cat in a second, and the cat jumpedfor protection on Head-nurse, and Head-nurse howled, while Tumbudeafened everybody by yowls; for the cat had caught him on the nose!Peace was not restored till pussy had made her escape back to the bazaarthrough the window.
"That was not a success," sighed poor Head-nurse as she put herselftidy; but after all it was not such a failure, since, either fromputting two and two together, or by mere chance, Tumbu appeared the verynext day barking and frolicking after his usual fashion when he wantedthem to go out, and then led them straight to a lonely corner of thepalace garden, whence, looking upwards, they could plainly see Downseated on a narrow window sill. And the next moment, hearing thefamiliar bark, who should pop his head out of the window but Roy!
"All's well," he whispered rapidly seeing them below him; then withdrewhis head swiftly. For he had determined never by anything or in any wayto risk being sent away from the little Heir-to-Empire.
But the others were more than satisfied with the whisper.
"Now," said little Bija, who was beginning to manage her nurses, "Tumbumust find Foster-father and tell _him_." And this, we have seen, hedid.
Even so, with the daily content of knowing that all were at least safe,the time passed with deadly slowness, for the days grew to weeks, theweeks to months, bringing no change. Denied, as he was, the outdoorlife, the fresh air to which he had been accustomed, little Prince Akbargrew pale and thin. But his spirits did not flag, and he would laughover the tale of how Rajah Rasalu swung the Seventy Maidens as heartilyas ever, though sometimes his little lip would go down and he would say,"If Bija were only here I'd never ask her to tumble down. I would go onswinging till she wanted me to stop."
So the winter came on, but still Dearest-Lady did not return. A letterhad come from her saying she had reached Kandahar in safety--that shewas staying in the Kar Garden outside the town which her father hadplanted--that King Humayon was not angry--that he had already forgivenPrince Askurry--that Kumran had nothing to fear if he only kept to hispromise.
The prisoners, of course, knew nothing of this letter, but the effect ofit showed in a greater freedom. Foster-father was moved to a morecomfortable dungeon and Bija, Head-nurse and Foster-mother were allowedto go and see the Heir-to-Empire. Their delight may be imagined, andeven Tumbu shared in the joy, for, when he was refused admittance andleft down below, he dashed up the stairs, evading the sentries andbarked furiously at the door to be let in. And the meeting between himand Mirak was so pretty that the sentry had not the heart to insist onpoor doggie going down again. And this, in its way, was a good thing,for it was the beginning of a sort of friendship between the youngPrince and this particular Afghan sentry. Sometimes, after he had beenrelieved, he would come up to the little captive's room for a bit, andlisten to Roy's stories, or tell a few in his turn; for he had wanderedabout, over half India, giving the use of his sword to any one who wouldpay him well for it.
"Lo! I have not heard that tale since I was in Rajputana!" he said oneday after Roy had been singing an old-world legend of fighting days. "Itwas an old Brahman of Suryamer told it me of the Sun-Heroes."
Roy's face flushed up in a second. "Suryamer is mine!" he said proudly;"I am of the Sun-Heroes!"
Then he started to his feet, pale as ashes. "I have remembered! I haveremembered at last," he said almost with a cry. "It is true! I was Rajahof Suryamer! It has come back to me at last!"
Then as suddenly he crouched down again and covered his face with bothhands.
"Roy!" said little Prince Akbar gravely. "Why should you cry because youare a King? I don't."
The sentry laughed. "By my word," he remarked, "there is a blessed pairof you Kings!"
"Of course there is," assented the Heir-to-Empire with the greatestdignity. "I have been one ever since I was born, and I always knew Roybelonged to me!" Then in quick impulse he ran over to the Rajput lad andflung his arms round his neck crying, "Oh Roy! Roy! I'm so glad you aremy brother!"
"Not so fast, young sir," objected the sentry, who was hugely amused andinterested; "what proof can you bring of this, stripling?"
Roy lifted a scared face; then hung his head.
"None, save my memory, and this mark upon my breast. My mother said weall had the stamp of truth over our hearts."
The sentry shrugged his shoulders. "That is not much in this wickedworld," he said carelessly. "And anyhow it matters little if either orboth of you be Kings, since ye are in cruel Kumran's power."
"Not till my Dearest-Lady returns," dissented little Akbar gravely."Head-nurse said so; and if cruel Uncle Kumran is to get me,Dearest-Lady _won't_ come back. I _know_ she won't--so there!"
And, as events turned out, the Heir-to-Empire was right!
But a few days afterwards a messenger, bearing a blue handkerchief inhis hand--the sign of death tidings to the Royal Family--appeared inhot haste before the nobles assembled in the Audience Hall.
"News! News!" he cried breathlessly. "Cover your heads with dust, yepeople, while ye thank the Merciful One that Khanzada Khanum of theHouse of Babar hath found freedom, that after a long and godly life shehath found rest and peace. Bismillah--ul----"
The long Arabic sentence went rolling through the Hall, while Kumranstood stunned by the suddenness of his aunt's death. And yet it mighthave been expected; the journey was far too trying for one of her years.And she had risked it--for what?
With a rush Kumran realised that his promise still held good, and forthe moment disappointment, anger, savage desire for revenge swept
awayhis regret. Yet even he could not fail to be touched by the letter hisbrother Humayon had sent him by the hand of the messenger. Dearest-Ladyhad, he said, pled his, Kumran's, cause well, and he, Humayon, was readyto forgive for the sake of the dead woman who had loved them both, whomthey both loved, and who had died with a smile.
But such softer feelings did not, could not linger long in a mind thathad no fixed belief in anything. Before a day had passed the feelingthat he had been tricked onto an oath he dared not break came uppermostagain. Foster-father was ordered back to his damp dungeon, the littleHeir-to-Empire and Roy were taken from the Palace and given over to thecharge of a man noted for his hardness of heart. Only the women andlittle Bija, being of no account, were turned out into the streets tobeg or starve as they chose.
Then followed a terrible month in which the little party were cut offfrom news of one another. Only Down, the cat, wandering over roofs andHeaven knows where and how, looked in here and there to settle on someone's lap and purr.
"Cats," said poor Head-nurse, as she sat opposite Foster-mother,grinding for all they were worth at a stone hand-mill in order to gainenough to keep Bija from starving, "are of all God's creatures the mostcontented; and so little pleases them. Hark! to Down how she purrs, justbecause she has found us poor miserable women."
"Allah!" replied Foster-mother more cheerfully. "Is love such a littlething? I think not, and Down hath seen my darling. Of that I feel sure;she would not come and purr otherwise."
Still it was silent comfort and there was so much going on; so much thateven the "miserable women" could not hear, though they were free to comeand go. But one day when Down was purring on Bija's lap in the strawthatch which was all the three had for lodging, a passer-by paused tosay:
_And one day the door did open.... "My son--my littleson."_]
"That is the cat I used to see with the little King. Have you ought todo with him, sister?"
"I _am_ his sister," replied Bija haughtily, whereat the sentry, for itwas he, laughed; but for all that he paused to tell the two women whathe knew; though that was not much. It could not be long, however, hesaid, before news of one sort or another came to them; for King Humayonwas, so they said, within a day's march of Kabul, and any time theymight hear the guns begin. Then would be his turn. He would fight tillall was blue, and then if the outsiders won, turn round and fight forthem as hardily, since all he required was plenty of fighting and plentyof food and wine.
He was right in one thing. The very next day about noon, a sudden_pouf_--_bing-bing_--_thud_, told that the first shot had been fired.And after that there was no peace and little safety. Only Foster-fatherin his dungeon was free even from anxiety; for fever had seized on himand he lay unconscious. And in his close prison room, where there waslittle air and less light, and where Roy racked his brain for storieswherewith to while away the leaden-footed hours, the littleHeir-to-Empire lay listless also, yet not ill. Only weary, weary.
"I want Tumbu," he would say, "I want to run a race with him. I want tobe out of doors."
And so while the city was alive with armed men, when there wereassaults and repulses and sorties and forlorn hopes going on day afterday, Roy would tell Mirak that some day something would happen. Some daythe door would open and----
And one day the door did open. And a tall man stood for a second,half-blinded by the darkness. But the next he strode forward and caughtthe little Heir-to-Empire to his heart, murmuring, "My son--my littleson!"
It was King Humayon; for Kumran, after pleading for a few hours' truceto allow him to make submission, had taken advantage of this breathingtime to make his escape with the more desperate of his followers. Fearhad overcome him once more. Having nothing in himself on which he couldrely, he could not trust to the generosity of his brother.
So, after more than two and a half years of separation Akbar found hisfather again.
The Adventures of Akbar Page 20