CHAPTER XVIII
THE CAT AND THE TIGER
Several weeks had passed since the Durga Puja Festival. Over the IndianEmpire the dark clouds were gathering fast. The Pathan tribes along theNorth-west Frontier were straining at the leash; Afridis, Yusufzais,Mohmands, all the _Pukhtana_, were restless and excited. The _mullahs_ werepreaching a holy war; and the _maliks_, or tribal elders, could notrestrain their young men. Raids into British Indian territory werefrequent.
There was worse menace behind. The Afghan troops, organised, trained, andequipped as they had never been before in their history, were massing nearthe Khyber Pass. Some of the Penlops, the great feudal chieftains oflittle-known Bhutan, were rumoured to have broken out into rebellionagainst the Maharajah because, loyal to his treaties with the Government ofIndia, he had refused a Chinese army free passage through the country. Allthe masterless Bhuttia rogues on both sides of the border were sharpeningtheir _dahs_ and looking down greedily on the fertile plains below.
All India itself seemed trembling on the verge of revolt. The Punjaub washoneycombed with sedition. Men said that the warlike castes and races thathad helped Britain to hold the land in the Black Year of the Mutiny wouldbe the first to tear it from her now. In the Bengals outrages and opendisloyalty were the order of the day. The curs that had fattened underEngland's protection were the first to snap at her heels. The Day of Doomseemed very near. Only the great feudatories of the King-Emperor, the noblePrinces of India, faithful to their oaths, were loyal.
Through the borderland of Bhutan Dermot and Badshah still ranged, watchingthe many gates through the walls of mountains better than battalions ofspies. The man rarely slept in a bed. His nights were passed beside hisfaithful friend high up in the Himalayan passes, where the snow was alreadyfalling, or down in the jungles still reeking of fever and sweltering intropic heat. By his instructions Parker and his two hundred sepoys toiledto improve the defences of Ranga Duar; and the subaltern was happy in thepossession of several machine guns wrung from the Ordnance Department withdifficulty.
Often, as Dermot sat high perched on the mountain side, searching thenarrow valleys and deep ravines of Bhutan with powerful glasses, histhoughts flew to Noreen safe beyond the giant hills at his back. It cheeredhim to know that he was watching over her safety as well as guarding thepeace of hundreds of millions in the same land. He had seldom seen hersince their return from Lalpuri, and on the rare occasions of their meetingshe seemed to avoid him more than ever. Chunerbutty was always by her side.Could there be truth, then, in this fresh story that Ida Smith had told himon their last night at the Palace, when she said that she had discoveredthat she was mistaken in believing in Noreen's approaching betrothal toCharlesworth, of which she had assured him in Darjeeling? For at Lalpurishe said she had extracted from the girl the confession that she hadrefused the Rifleman and others for love of someone in the Plains below.And Ida, judging from Chunerbutty's constant attendance on, andproprietorial manner with Noreen, confided to Dermot her firm belief thatthe Bengali was the man.
The thought was unbearable to the soldier. As he sat in his lonely eyrie heknew now that he loved the girl, that it would be unbearable for him to seeher another's wife. Those few days at Lalpuri, when first he felt theestrangement between them, had revealed the truth to him. When in thecourtyard of the Palace he saw Death rushing on him he had given her whathe believed would be his last thought.
He recalled her charm, her delightful comradeship, her brightness, and herbeauty. It was hateful to think that she would dower this renegade Hinduwith them all. Dermot had no unjust prejudice against the natives of theland in which so much of his life was passed. Like every officer in theIndian Army he loved his sepoys and regarded them as his children. Theirtroubles, their welfare, were his. He respected the men of those gallantwarrior races that once had faced the British valiantly in battle andfought as loyally beside them since. But for the effeminate and cowardlypeoples of India, that ever crawled to kiss the feet of each conqueror ofthe peninsula in turn and then stabbed him in the back if they could, hehad the contempt that every member of the martial races of the land, everySikh, Rajput, Gurkha, Punjaubi had.
The girl would scarcely have refused so good a match as Charlesworth orcome away heart-whole from Darjeeling, where so many had striven for herfavour, if she had gone there without a prior attachment. That she caredfor no man in England he was sure, for she had often told him that she hadno desire to return to that country. He had seen her among the planters ofthe district and was certain that she loved none of them. Only Chunerbuttywas left; it must indeed be he.
He shut up his binoculars and climbed down the rocky pinnacle on which hehad been perched, and went to eat a cheerless meal where Badshah grazed athousand feet below.
In Malpura Noreen was suffering bitterly for her foolish pride and jealousreadiness to believe evil of the man she loved. She knew that she wasentirely to blame for her estrangement from him. He never came to theirgarden now; and to her dismay her brother ignored all hints to invite him.For the boy was divided between loyalty to Chunerbutty (whom he had tothank for his chance in life) and the man who had twice saved his sister.Chunerbutty had reproached him with forgetting what he, the now despisedHindu, had done for him in the past, and complained sadly that Miss Dalehamlooked down on him for the colour of his skin. So Fred felt that he mustchoose between two friends and that honour demanded his clinging to theolder one. Therefore he begged Noreen for his sake not to hurt theengineer's feelings and to treat him kindly. She could not refuse, andChunerbutty took every advantage of her sisterly obedience. Whenever theywent to the club he tried to monopolise her, and delighted in exhibitingthe terms of friendship on which they appeared to be. The girl felt thateven her old friends were beginning at last to look askance at her;consequently she tried to avoid going to the weekly gatherings.
It happened that on the occasion when Dermot, having arrived at Salchini ona visit to Payne, again made his appearance at the club, Daleham hadinsisted on his sister accompanying him there, much against her will.Chunerbutty was unable to go with them, being confined to his bungalow witha slight touch of fever.
That afternoon Noreen was more than ever conscious of a strained feelingand an unmistakable coldness to her on the part of the men whom she knewbest. And worse, it seemed to her that some young fellows who had onlyrecently come to the district and with whom she was little acquainted, wereinclined to treat her with less respect than usual. She had seen Dermotarrive with his host; but, although Payne came to sit down beside her andchat, his guest merely greeted her courteously and passed on at once.
All that afternoon it seemed to the girl that something in the atmospherewas miserably wrong, but what it was she could not tell. She was bitterlydisappointed that Dermot kept away from her. It was not the smart of a hurtpride, but the bewildered pain of a child that finds that the one it valuesmost does not need it. Indeed her best friends, all except Payne, seemed tohave agreed to ignore her.
Mrs. Rice, however, was even sweeter in her manner than usual when shespoke to the girl.
"Where is Mr. Chunerbutty today, dear?" she asked after lunch from whereshe sat on the verandah beside Dermot. Noreen was standing further along itwith Payne, watching the play on the tennis-court in front of the clubhouse.
"He isn't very well," replied the girl. "He's suffering from fever."
"Oh, really? I am so sorry to hear that," exclaimed the older woman. "Sosad for you, dear. However did you force yourself to leave him?"
Noreen looked at her in surprise.
"Why not? We could do nothing for him," she said. "We sent him soup andjelly made by our cook, and Fred went to see him before we started. But hedidn't want to be disturbed."
Mrs. Rice's manner grew even more sweetly sympathetic.
"I _am_ so sorry," she said. "How worried you must be!"
The girl stared at her in astonishment. She had never expected to find Mrs.Rice seriously concerned about any one, and least of all
the Hindu, who wasno favourite of hers.
"Oh, there's really nothing to worry about," she exclaimed impatiently."Fred said he hadn't much of a temperature."
"Yes, I daresay. But you can't help being anxious, I know. I wonder thatyou were able to bring yourself to come here at all, dear," said the olderwoman in honeyed tones.
"But why shouldn't I?"
Noreen's eyebrows were raised in bewilderment. She felt instinctively thatthere was some hidden unfriendliness at the back of Mrs. Rice's sympatheticwords. She felt that Dermot was watching her.
"Oh, forgive me, dear. I am afraid I'm being indiscreet. I forgot," saidthe other woman. She rose from her chair and turned to the man beside her.
"Major, do take me out to see how the coolies are getting on with the pologround. I hope when it's finished you'll come here to play regularly. Theseboys want someone to show them the game. You military men are the only oneswho know how it should be played."
She put up her green-lined white sun-umbrella and led the way down theverandah steps. With a puckered brow Noreen watched her and her companionuntil they were out of sight round the corner of the little woodenbuilding.
"What does Mrs. Rice mean?" she demanded. "I'm sure there's somethingbehind her words. She never pretended to like Mr. Chunerbutty. Why shouldshe be concerned about him now? Why does she seem to expect me to staybehind to nurse him? Of course I would, if he were dangerously ill. Buthe's not."
Payne glanced around. Some of the men, who were sitting near, had heard theconversation with Mrs. Rice, and Noreen felt that there was somethinghostile in the way in which they looked at her.
Payne answered in a careless tone:
"Let's sit down. There are a couple of chairs. We'll bag them."
He pointed to two at the far end of the verandah and led the way to them.
When they were seated he said:
"Haven't you any idea of what she means, Miss Daleham?"
The girl stared at him anxiously.
"Then she does mean something, and you know it. Mr. Payne, you have alwaysbeen good to me. Won't you help me? Everyone seems to have grown suddenlyvery unfriendly."
The grey-haired man looked pityingly at her.
"Will you be honest with me, child?" he asked. "Are you engaged toChunerbutty?"
"Engaged? What--to marry him? Good gracious, no!" exclaimed the astonishedgirl, half rising from her chair.
"Will you tell me frankly--have you any intention of marrying him?" hepersisted.
Noreen stared at him, her cheeks flaming.
"Marry Mr. Chunerbutty? Of course not. How could you think so! Why, he'snot even a white man."
"Thank God!" Payne exclaimed fervently. "I'm delighted to hear it. Icouldn't believe it--yet one never knows."
"But what on earth put such a preposterous idea into your head, Mr. Payne?"asked Noreen. "And what has this got to do with Mrs. Rice?"
"Because Mrs. Rice said that you were engaged to Chunerbutty."
For a moment Noreen could find no words. Then she leaned forward, her eyesflashing.
"Oh, how could she--how could she think so?"
"Perhaps she didn't. But she wanted us to. She said that you had told heryou were engaged to him, but wanted it kept secret for the present. Sonaturally she told everyone."
"Told everyone that I was going to marry a native? Oh, how cruel of her!How could she be so wicked!" exclaimed the girl, much distressed. Then sheadded: "Did _you_ believe it?"
Payne shook his head.
"Candidly, child, I didn't know what to think. I hoped it wasn't true. Butof late that damned Bengali seemed so intimate with you. He apparentlywanted everyone to see on what very friendly terms you and he were."
"Did Major Dermot believe it too?"
"I don't know," said Payne doubtfully. "Dermot's not the fellow to talkabout women. He's never mentioned you."
"But how do you know that Mrs. Rice said such a thing? Did she tell you?"
"No; she knows that I am your friend, and I daresay she was afraid to tellme such a lie. But she told others."
He turned in his chair and called to a young fellow standing near the barof the club.
"I say, Travers, do you mind coming here a moment? Pull up a chair and sitdown."
Travers was a straight, clean-minded boy, one of those of their communitywhom Noreen liked best, and she had felt hurt at his marked avoidance ofher all the afternoon.
"Look here, youngster," said Payne in a low voice, "did Mrs. Rice tell youthat Miss Daleham was engaged to Chunerbutty?"
Travers looked at him in surprise.
"Yes. I told you so the other day. She said that Miss Daleham had confidedto her that they were engaged, but wanted it kept secret for a time untilhe could get another job."
"Then, my boy, you'll be pleased to hear it's a damned lie," said Payneimpressively. "Miss Daleham would never marry a black man."
The boy's face lit up.
"I am glad!" he cried impulsively. "I'm very, very sorry, Miss Daleham, forhelping to spread the lie. But I only told Payne. I knew he was a friend ofyours, and I hoped he'd be able to contradict the yarn. For I felt verysick about it."
"Thank you, Mr. Travers," the girl said gratefully. "But I'm glad that youdid tell him. Otherwise I might not have heard it, at least not from afriend."
Just then the four men on the tennis-court finished their game and came into the bar. Fred Daleham and another took their places and began a single.Mrs. Rice, with Dermot and several other men, came up the steps of theverandah, and, sitting down, ordered tea for the party.
Noreen looked at her with angry eyes, and, rising, walked along theverandah to where she was sitting surrounded by the group of men.
Her enemy looked up as she approached.
"Are you coming to have tea, dear?" she said sweetly. "I haven't orderedany for you, but I daresay they'll find you a cup."
Dermot rose to offer the girl his chair; but, ignoring him, she confrontedthe other woman.
"Mrs. Rice, will you please tell me if it is true that you said I wasengaged to Mr. Chunerbutty?" she demanded in a firm tone.
It was as if a bomb had exploded in the club. Noreen's voice carriedclearly through the building, so that everyone inside it heard her wordsdistinctly. The only two members of their little community who missed themwere her brother and his opponent on the tennis-court.
Mrs. Rice gasped and stared at the indignant girl, while the men about hersat up suddenly in their chairs.
"I said so? What an idea!" ejaculated the planter's wife. Then in aninsinuating voice she added: "You know I never betray secrets."
"There is no secret. Please answer me. Did you say to any one that I hadtold you I was engaged to him?" persisted the girl.
The older woman tried to crush her by a haughty assumption of superiority.
"You absurd child, you must be careful what accusations you bring. Youshouldn't say such things."
"Kindly answer my question," demanded the angry girl.
Mrs. Rice lay back in her chair with affected carelessness.
"Well, aren't you engaged to him? Won't even he--?" she broke off andsniggered impertinently.
"I am not. Most certainly not," said Noreen hotly. "I insist on youranswering me. Did you say that I had told you we were and asked you to keepit a secret?"
"No, I did not. Who did I tell?" snapped the other woman.
"Me for one," broke in a voice; and Dermot took a step forward. "Youtold me very clearly and precisely, Mrs. Rice, that Miss Daleham hadconfided to you under the pledge of secrecy--which, by the way, you werebreaking--that she was engaged to this man."
There was an uncomfortable pause. Noreen glanced gratefully at herchampion. The other men shifted uneasily, and Mrs. Rice's husband, who wasstanding at the bar, hastily hid his face in a whiskey and soda.
Noreen turned again to her traducer.
"Will you kindly contradict your false statement?" she asked.
The other woman looked do
wn sullenly and made no reply.
"Then I shall," continued the girl. She faced the group of men before her,Payne and Travers by her side.
"I ask you to believe, gentlemen, that there never was nor could be anyquestion of an engagement between Mr. Chunerbutty and me," she said firmly."And I give you my word of honour that I never said such a thing to Mrs.Rice."
She waited for a moment, then turned and walked away down the verandah,followed by Payne and Travers, leaving a pained silence behind her. Mrs.Rice tried to regain her self-confidence.
"The idea of that chit talking to me like that!" she exclaimed. "It wasonly meant for a joke, if I did say it. Who'd have ever thought she'd havetaken it that way?"
"Any decent man--or woman, Mrs. Rice," said Dermot severely. Then, afterlooking at Rice to see if he wished to take up the cudgels on his wife'sbehalf, and failing to catch that gentleman's carefully-averted eye, thesoldier turned and walked deliberately to where Noreen was sitting, nowsuffering from the reaction from her anger and frightened at the memory ofher boldness.
The other men got up one by one and went to the bar, from which the henpecked Rice was peremptorily called by his angry wife and ordered to driveher home.
After the Dalehams had returned to their bungalow the girl told her brotherof what had happened at the club. He was exceedingly angry and agreed thatit would be wiser for her to keep Chunerbutty at a distance in future. Andlater on he had no objection to her inviting Dermot to pay them a flyingvisit when he was again in their neighbourhood. For the incident at theclub had brought about a resumption of the old friendly relations betweenNoreen and Dermot, who occasionally invited her to accompany him on Badshahfor a short excursion into the forest, much to her delight. She confided tohim the offer of the necklace and learned in return his belief that theRajah was the instigator of the attempt to carry her off. When her brotherheard of this and of Chunerbutty's action in the matter of the jewels hewas so enraged that he quarrelled for the first time with his Hindu friend.
* * * * *
Dermot was kept informed of whatever happened in Lalpuri by the repentantRama through the medium of Barclay. For the Deputy Superintendent had beenappointed to a special and important post in the Secret Police and told offto watch the conspiracy in Bengal. This he owed to a strong recommendationfrom Dermot to the Head of the Department in Simla. Rama proved invaluable.Through him they learned of the despatch of an important Brahmin messengerand intermediary from the Palace to Bhutan, by way of Malpura, where he wasto visit some of his caste-fellows on Parry's garden. The informationreached Dermot too late to enable him to seize the man on the tea-estate.So he hurried to the border to intercept the messenger before he crossedit. But here, too, he was unsuccessful. Certain that the Brahmin had notslipped through the meshes of the net formed by his secret service ofsubsidised Bhuttias, Dermot returned to the jungle to make search for himalong the way. But all to no avail, much to his chagrin; for he had reasonto hope that he would find on the emissary proof enough of the treason ofthe rulers of Lalpuri to hang them. He went back to Malpura to prosecuteenquiries.
To console himself for his disappointment Dermot determined to have a day'sshooting in the jungle, a treat he rarely had leisure for now. He invitedthe Dalehams to accompany him. Noreen accepted eagerly, but her brother wasobliged to decline, much to his regret. For Parry was now always in a statebordering on lunacy, and his brutal treatment of the coolies, when hisassistant was not there to restrain him, several times nearly drove theminto open revolt. So Dermot and his companion set off alone.
As they went along they chanced to pass near a little village buried in theheart of the jungle. A man working on the small patch of cleared soil inwhich he and his fellows grew their scanty crops saw them, recognisedBadshah and his male rider, and ran away shouting to the hamlet. Then outof it swarmed men, women, and children, the last naked, while onlymiserable rags clothed the skinny frames of their elders. All prostratedthemselves in the dust in Badshah's path. The elephant stopped. Then awizened old man with scanty white beard raised his hands imploringly toDermot.
"Lord! Holy One! Have mercy on us!"
The rest chorused: "Have mercy!"
"Spare thy slaves, O Lord!" went on the old man. "Spare us ere all perish.We worship at thy shrine. We grudge not thy elephants our miserable crops.Are they not thy servants? But let not the Striped Death slay all of us."
Dermot questioned him and then explained to Noreen that a man-eating tigerhad taken up its residence near the village and was rapidly killing off itsinhabitants.
"Oh, do help them," she said. "Can't you shoot it?"
He reflected for a few moments.
"Yes, I think I know how to get it. Will you wait for me in the village?"
"What? Mayn't I go with you to see you kill it? Please let me. I promiseI'll not scream or be stupid."
He looked at her admiringly.
"Bravo!" he said. "I'm sure you'll be all right. Very well. I promise youyou shall see a sight that not many other women have seen."
He borrowed a _puggri_--a strip of cotton cloth several yards long--from avillager, and bade them show him where the tiger lay up during the heat ofthe day. When they had done so from a safe distance, he turned Badshah,and, to Noreen's surprise, sped off swiftly in the opposite direction.
Suddenly the girl touched his arm quietly.
"Look! I see a wild elephant. There's another! And another!" she whispered.
"Yes; I've come in search of them," he replied in his ordinary tone. "It'sBadshah's herd."
"Is it really? How wonderful! How did you know where to find them?" shecried, thrilled by the sight of the great beasts all round them andexclaiming with delight at the solemn little woolly babies, many newlyborn. For this was the calving season.
Dermot uttered a peculiar cry that sent the cow-elephants huddlingtogether, their young hiding under their bodies, while from everyquarter the great tuskers broke out through the undergrowth and came tohim in a mass. Then, as Badshah turned and set off at a rapid pace, thebull-elephants followed.
When he arrived near the spot in which the man-eater was said to have hislair, Dermot stopped them all. Despite her protests he tied Noreen firmlywith the _puggri_ to the rope crossing Badshah's pad. Then he drove hisanimal into the herd of tuskers, which had crowded together, and dividedthem into two bodies. The tiger was reported to lie up in a narrow _nullah_filled and fringed with low bushes. From the near bank to where Badshahstood the forest was free from undergrowth, which came to within a score ofyards of the far bank.
Badshah smelled the ground, and the other elephants followed his exampleand, when they scented the tiger's trail, began to be restless and excited.A sharp cry from Dermot and the two bodies of tuskers separated and movedaway, branching off half right and left, and disappeared in theundergrowth.
Dermot cocked his double-barrelled rifle. There was a long pause. A strangefeeling of awe crept over Noreen at the realisation of her companion'sstrange power over these great animals. No wonder the superstitious nativesbelieved him to be a god.
Presently there was a loud crashing in the undergrowth beyond the _nullah_,and Noreen saw the saplings in it agitated, as if by the passage of theelephants. The tiger gave no sign of life. The girl's heart beat fast, andher breath came quickly. But her companion never moved.
Suddenly Noreen gasped, for through the screen of thin bushes that fringedthe edge of the _nullah_ a hideous painted mask was thrust out. It was atiger's face, the ears flattened to the skull, the eyes flaming, the lipsdrawn back to bare the teeth in a ghastly snarl. The brute saw Badshah anddrew quietly back. A pause. Then it sprang into full view and poised for asingle instant on the far bank. But at that very moment the line of tuskersburst out of the tangled undergrowth and the tiger jumped down into the_nullah_ again.
Then like a flash it leaped into sight over the near bank, bounding in afurious charge straight at Badshah. Noreen held her breath as it crouchedto sprin
g. Dermot's rifle was at his shoulder, and he pressed the trigger.There was a click--the cartridge had missed fire. And the tiger sprang fullat the man.
But as it did so Badshah swung swiftly round--well for Noreen that she wassecurely fastened--for he had been standing a little sideways. And with anupward sweep of his head he caught the leaping tiger in mid-air on thepoint of his tusk, hurling it back a dozen yards.
As the baffled brute struck the ground with a heavy thud it lay still for asecond and then sprang up, but at that moment Dermot's second barrel rangout, and, shot through the brain, the tiger collapsed, its head resting onits paws. A tremor shook the powerful frame, the tail twitched feebly, thenall was still.
The long line of elephants halted on the far bank of the _nullah_, swunginto file, and moved swiftly out of sight. Their work was done.
Dermot reloaded and urged Badshah forward, covering the tiger with hisrifle. There was no need. It was dead.
Noreen leant forward and looked down at the striped body.
"What a splendid beast!" she exclaimed.
Dermot turned to her.
"You kept your word well, Miss Daleham," he said. "I congratulate you onyour pluck. The highest compliment I can pay you is to say that I forgotyou were there. Not many men would have sat as quiet as you did when thecartridge missed fire and the brute sprang."
The girl's eyes sparkled and she blushed. His praise was very dear to her.
In a lighter tone he continued:
"As a reward and a souvenir you shall have the skin. I'll get thevillagers to take it off. Now stay on Badshah, please, while I slip downand have a look at the tiger's little nest."
With rifle at the ready, lest the dead animal should have had a mate,he climbed down into the _nullah_. He had not gone ten yards before hisfoot struck against something hard. In the pressed-down weeds was thehalf-gnawed skull of a man. The skin and flesh of the face were fairlyintact. He took the head up in his hands. On the forehead were paintedthree white horizontal strokes. The tiger's last prey had been aBrahmin. A thought flashed across Dermot's mind. He searched about.A few bones, parts of the hands and feet, some rags of clothing--anda long flat narrow leather case. He tore this open and hastily tookout the papers it contained; and as he skimmed through them his eyesglistened with delight.
He sprang up out of the _nullah_ and ran towards Badshah. When theelephant's trunk had swung him up on to the massive head he said:
"We must go back at once. I 'll tell the villagers as we pass to flay thetiger. I must borrow your brother's pony and ride as fast as I can toSalchini to get Payne's motor to take me to the railway."
"The railway?" exclaimed the girl. "Why, what is the matter? Where are yougoing?"
"To Simla. I've found the lost messenger. Aye, and perhaps information thatmay save India and proofs that will hang our friends in the Palace ofLalpuri. _Mul_, Badshah!"
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