Begumbagh: A Tale of the Indian Mutiny, Page 4

  STORY ONE, CHAPTER THREE.

  Now, after what I've told you about Measles' listing for spite, you willeasily understand that the fact of his calling any one a lunatic did notprove a want of common reason in the person spoken about; but what hemeant was, that the people coming up were half-mad for travelling whenthe sun was so high, and had got so much power.

  I looked up and saw, about a mile off, coming over the long straightlevel plain, what seemed to be an elephant, and a man or two onhorseback; and before I had been looking above a minute, I saw CaptainDyer cross over to the colonel's tent, and then point in the directionof the coming elephant. The next minute, he crossed over to where wewere. "Seen Lieutenant Leigh?" he says in his quick way.

  "No, sir; not since breakfast."

  "Send him after me, if he comes in sight. Tell him Miss Ross and partyare yonder, and I've ridden on to meet them."

  The next minute he had gone, taken a horse from a sycee, and in spite ofthe heat, cantered off to meet the party with the elephant, the airbeing that clear that I could see him go right up, turn his horse round,and ride gently back by the side.

  I did not see anything of the lieutenant and, to tell the truth, Iforgot all about him, for I was thinking about the party coming, for Ihad somehow heard a little about Mrs Maine's sister coming out from theold country to stay with her. If I recollect right, the black nursetold Mrs Bantem, and she mentioned it. This party, then, I supposedcontained the lady herself; and it was as I thought. We had had toleave Patna unexpectedly to relieve the regiment ordered home; and thelady, according to orders, had followed us, for this was only our secondday's march.

  I suppose it was my pipe made me settle down to watch the coming party,and wonder what sort of a body Miss Ross would be, and whether anythinglike her sister. Then I wondered who would marry her, for, as you know,ladies are not very long out in India without picking up a husband."Perhaps," I said to myself, "it will be the lieutenant;" but tenminutes after, as the elephant shambled up, I altered my mind, forCaptain Dyer was ambling along beside the great beast, and his was thehand that helped the lady down--a tall, handsome, self-possessed girl,who seemed quite to take the lead, and kiss and soothe the sister, whenshe ran out of the tent to throw her arms round the new-comer's neck.

  "At last, then, Elsie," Mrs Colonel said out aloud. "You've had a longdreary ride."

  "Not during the last ten minutes," Miss Ross said, laughing in a bright,merry, free-hearted way. "Lieutenant Leigh has been welcoming me mostcordially."

  "Who?" exclaimed Mrs Colonel, staring from one to the other.

  "Lieutenant Leigh," said Miss Ross.

  "I'm afraid I am to blame for not announcing myself," said Captain Dyer,lifting his muslin-covered cap. "Your sister, Miss Ross, asked me toride to meet you, in Lieutenant Leigh's absence."

  "You, then--"

  "I am only Lawrence Dyer, his friend," said the captain, smiling.

  It's a singular thing that just then, as I saw the young lady blushdeeply, and Mrs Colonel look annoyed, I muttered to myself, "Somethingwill come of this," because, if there's anything I hate, it's for a manto set himself up for a prophet. But it looked to me as if the captainhad been taking Lieutenant Leigh's place, and that Miss Ross, as wasreally the case, though she had never seen him, had heard him so muchtalked of by her sister, that she had welcomed him, as she thought,quite as an old friend, when all the time she had been talking toCaptain Dyer.

  And I was not the only one who thought about it; else why did MrsColonel look annoyed, and the colonel, who came paddling out, exclaimloudly: "Why, Leigh, look alive, man! here's Dyer been stealing a marchupon you. Why, where have you been?"

  I did not hear what the lieutenant said, for my attention was just thentaken up by something else, but I saw him go up to Miss Ross, holdingout his hand, while the meeting was very formal; but, as I told you, myattention was taken up by something else, and that something was alittle, dark, bright, eager, earnest face, with a pair of sharp eyes,and a little mocking-looking mouth; and as Captain Dyer had helped MissRoss down with the steps from the howdah, so did I help down LizzyGreen, her maid; to get, by way of thanks, a half-saucy look, a nod ofthe head, and the sight of a pretty little tripping pair of ankles goingover the hot sandy dust towards the tent.

  But the next minute she was back, to ask about some luggage--abullock-trunk or two--and she was coming up to me, as I eagerly steppedforward to meet her, when she seemed, as it were, to take it into herhead to shy at me, going instead to Harry Lant, who had just come up,and who, on hearing what she wanted, placed his hands, with a graveswoop, upon his head, and made her a regular eastern salaam, ending bytelling her that her slave would obey her commands. All of which seemedto grit upon me terribly; I didn't know why, then, but I found outafterwards, though not for many days to come.

  We had the route given us for Begumbagh, a town that, in the old days,had been rather famous for its grandeur; but, from what I had heard, itwas likely to turn out a very hot, dry, dusty, miserable spot; and Iused to get reckoning up how long we should be frizzling out there inIndia before we got the orders for home; and put it at the lowestcalculation, I could not make less of it than five years. But there, wewho were soldiers had made our own beds, and had to lie upon them,whether it was at home or abroad; and, as Mrs Bantem used to say to us,"Where was the use of grumbling?" There were troubles in every life,even if it was a civilian's--as we soldiers always called those whodidn't wear the Queen's uniform--and it was very doubtful whether weshould have been a bit happier, if we had been in any other line. Butall the same, government might have made things a little better for usin the way of suitable clothes, and things proper for the climate.

  And so on we went: marching mornings and nights; camping all through thehot day; and it was not long before we found that, in Miss Ross, we menhad got something else beside the children to worship.

  But I may as well say now, and have it off my mind, that it has alwaysstruck me, that during those peaceful days, when our greatest worry wasa hot march, we didn't know when we were well off, and that it wantedthe troubles to come before we could see what good qualities there werein other people. Little trifling things used to make us sore--thingssuch as we didn't notice afterwards, when great sorrows came. I know Iwas queer, and spiteful, and jealous, and no great wonder that for Ialways was a man with a nastyish temper, and soon put out; but even MrsBantem used to shew that she wasn't quite perfect, for she quite upsetme, one day, when Measles got talking at dinner about Lizzy Green, MissRoss's maid, and, what was a wonderful thing for him, not finding fault.He got saying that she was a nice girl, and would make a soldier aswanted one a good wife; when Mrs Bantem fires up as spiteful as couldbe--I think, mind you, there'd been something wrong with the cookingthat day, which had turned her a little--and she says that Lizzy wasvery well, but looks weren't everything, and that she was raw as raw,and would want no end of dressing before she would be good for anything;while, as to making a soldier's wife, soldiers had no business to havewives till they could buy themselves off, and turn civilians. Then,again, she seemed to have taken a sudden spite against Mrs Maine,saying that she was a poor, little, stuck-up, fine lady, and she couldnever have forgiven her if it had not been for those two beautifulchildren; though what Mrs Bantem had got to forgive the colonel's wife,I don't believe she even knew herself.

  The old black ayah, too, got very much put out about this time, and allon account of the two new-comers; for when Miss Ross hadn't got thechildren with her, they were along with Lizzy, who, like her mistress,was new to the climate, and hadn't got into that dull listless way thatcomes to people who have been some time up the country. They were alllife, and fun, and energy, and the children were never happy when theywere away; and of a morning, more to please Lizzy, I used to think, thanthe children, Harry Lant used to pick out a shady place, and then driveChunder Chow, who was the mahout of _Nabob_, the principal elephant,half-wild, by calling out his beast, and playing with him all sorts ofantics. Chunder tried all he could to stop it, but it was of no use,for Harry had got such influence over that animal that when one day hewas coaxing him out to lead him under some trees, and the mahout triedto stop him, _Nabob_ makes no more ado, but lifts his great soft trunk,and rolls Mr Chunder Chow over into the grass, where he lay screechinglike a parrot, and chattering like a monkey, rolling his opal eyeballs,and shewing his white teeth with fear, for he expected that _Nabob_ wasgoing to put his foot on him, and crush him to death, as is the natureof those great beasts. But not he: he only lays his trunk gently onHarry's shoulder, and follows him across the open like a greatflesh-mountain, winking his little pig's eyes, whisking his tiny tail,and flapping his great ears; while the children clapped their hands asthey stood in the shade with Miss Ross and Lizzy, and Captain Dyer andLieutenant Leigh close behind.

  "There's no call to be afraid, miss," says Harry, saluting as he sawMiss Ross shrink back; and seeing how, when he said a few words inHindustani, the great animal minded him, they stopped being scared, andgave Harry fruit and cakes to feed the great beast with.

  You see, out there in that great dull place, people are very glad tohave any little trifle to amuse them, so you mustn't be surprised tohear that there used to be quite a crowd to see Harry Lant'sperformances, as he called them. But all the same, I didn't like hisupsetting old Chunder Chow; and it seemed to me even then, that we'dmanaged to make another black enemy--the black ayah being the first.

  However, Harry used to go on making old _Nabob_ kneel down, or shakehands, or curl up his trunk, or lift him up, finishing off by going upto his head, lifting one great ear, saying they understood one another,whispering a few words, and then shutting the ear up again, so as thewords shouldn't be lost before they got into the elephan
t's brain, as Iexplained, because they'd got a long way to go. Then Harry would liedown, and let the great beast walk backwards and forwards all over him,lifting his great feet so carefully, and setting them down close toHarry, but never touching him, except one day when, just as the greatbeast was passing his foot over Harry's breast, a voice called outsomething in Hindustani--and I knew who it was, though I didn't see--when _Nabob_ puts his feet down on Harry's chest, and Lizzy gave a greatscream, and we all thought the poor chap would be crushed; but not he:the great beast was took by surprise, but only for an instant, and, inhis slow quiet way, he steps aside, and then touches Harry all over withhis trunk; and there was no more performance that day.

  "I've got my knife into Master Chunder for that," says Harry to me, "forI'll swear that was his voice." And I started to find he had known it.

  "I wouldn't quarrel with him," I says quietly, "for it strikes me he'sgot his knife into you."

  "You've no idea," says Harry, "what a nip it was. I thought it was allover; but all the same, the poor brute didn't mean it, I'd swear."