"Bad for you, if they did," grinned a third. "D"ye know he actually asked me last mail-day if there were two f"s in affection. _Whoo hoop!_" Closely pursued by the avenger he leapt the low bal.u.s.trade, and the garden resounded to much boyish laughter, as one by one the youngsters joined the chase.
"Remarkably high spirits," yawned John Raby, "but a trifle reminiscent of a young gentleman"s academy. They jar on the _dolce far niente_ of the surroundings."
"We were glad enough of the spirits a few months ago," replied Philip significantly. "The _dolce far niente_ of semi-starvation requires some stimulant."
"That was very nearly a _fiasco_, sending you over the Pa.s.s so late.
Lucky for you the Politicals put the drag on the Military in time."
"Lucky, you mean, that poor d.i.c.k Smith managed to send that telegram.
I"ve often wondered how he did it. The story would be worth hearing; he was one in a thousand."
"You always had a leaning towards that red-headed boy; now I thought him most offensive. He--"
"_De mortuis_," quoted the Major with a frown.
"Those are the ethics of eternity combined with a sneaking belief in ghosts. But I mean nothing personal. He was simply a disconcerting sport, as the biologists say, from the neutral-tinted Eurasian, and I distrust a man who doesn"t look his parentage; he is generally a fraud or a monstrosity."
"That theory of yours is rather hard on development, isn"t it?" said Philip with a smile.
"Only a stand in favour of decency and order. What right has a man to be above his generation? It is extremely inconvenient to the rest of us. If he is successful, he disturbs our actions; if he uses us as a brick wall whereon to dash out his brains, he disturbs our feelings.
To return to d.i.c.k Smith; the whole affair was foolhardy and ridiculous. If I had been Political then I should certainly have refused to allow that camping-out on the Pa.s.s; and so he would probably have been enjoying all that money, instead of dying miserably just when life became worth having."
"What money?" asked Philip Marsden hastily.
"Didn"t you hear? It was in the papers last week,--haven"t seen them yet perhaps? Some distant relation of his father"s died in England, leaving everything to Smith senior or his direct male heirs; failing them, or their a.s.signs, to charity. So as no one had made a will,--paupers don"t generally--some dozens of wretched children will be clothed in knee-breeches or poke-bonnets till Time is no more."
In the pause which ensued Philip Marsden felt, as most of us do at times, that he would have given all he possessed to put Time"s dial back a s.p.a.ce, and to be standing once more on the northern slope of the Peirak with d.i.c.k"s hand in his. "_There"s the will, Major; it doesn"t make any difference, you know_." The words came back to him clearly, and with them the mingled feeling of proud irritation and resentful self-respect which had made him set the blue envelope aside, and advise a more worldly caution. Temper, nothing but temper, it seemed to him now. "There was a will," he said at last, in a low voice. "d.i.c.k spoke to me of one when we came over the Pa.s.s together.
You see there was a chance of his getting a few rupees from old Desouza."
John Raby threw away the end of his cigarette with an exclamation. "By George, that"s funny! To make a will in hopes of something from a man who died insolvent, and come in for thirty thousand pounds you knew nothing about! But where is the will? It was not among his papers, for strangely enough the people had not looted much when the Pa.s.s opened and we went over to search. Perhaps he sent it somewhere for safe custody. It would make a difference to Belle Stuart, I expect, for he--well, he was another victim."
"I think,--in fact I am almost sure,"--the words came reluctantly as if the speaker was loth to face the truth,--"that he had the will with him when he died. He showed it me--and--Raby, was every search made for the body?"
His hearer shrugged his shoulders. "As much as could be done in a place like that. For myself I should have been surprised at success.
Think of the drifts, the vultures and hyenas, the floods in spring. Of course it may turn up still ere summer is over, but I doubt it. What a fool the boy was to carry the will about with him! Why didn"t he give it to some one else who was less heroic?"
"He could easily have done that, for I tell you, Raby, he was worth a dozen of us who remain," said Philip bitterly, as he stood looking over the peach-blossom to the lingering snows where d.i.c.k had died.
"Well, good-night. I think I shall turn in. After all there is no fool like an old fool."
The civilian followed his retreating figure with a good-natured smile.
"He really was fond of that youngster," he said to himself. "The mere thought of it all has made him throw away half of the best cigar on this side the Peirak. By Jove! I won"t give him another; it is too extravagant."
The next morning Philip Marsden came over to the Political quarters, and with a remark that last night"s conversation had borne in on him the necessity for leaving one"s affairs in strict business order, asked John Raby to look over the rough draft of a will.
"Leave it with me," was the reply, given with the usual easy good-nature. "It appears to me too legal, the common fault of amateurs. I"ll make it unimpeachable as Caesar"s wife, get one of my _babus_ to engross it, and bring it over ready for you to fill up the names and sign this afternoon. No thanks required; that sort of thing amuses me."
He kept his promise, finding Philip writing in the summer-house. "If you will crown one kindness by another and can wait a moment, I will ask you to witness it," said the latter. "I shall not be a moment filling it in."
"The advantage of not cutting up good money into too many pieces,"
replied his friend smiling.
"The disadvantage perhaps of being somewhat alone in the world. There, will you sign?"
"Two witnesses, please; but I saw Carruthers in his quarters as I came by; he will do."
John Raby, waiting to perform a kindly act somewhat to the prejudice of his own leisure, for he was very busy, amused himself during Major Marsden"s temporary absence by watching a pair of doves with pink-grey plumage among the pink-grey blossom. Everything was still and silent in the garden, though outside the row of silvery poplar trees swayed and rustled in the fitful gusts of the wind. Suddenly a kite soaring above swooped slightly, the startled doves fled scattering the petals, and the wind, winning a way through the breach in the wall, blew them about like snowflakes. It caught the paper too that was lying still wet with ink, and whirled it off the table to John Raby"s feet. "I hope it is not blotted," he thought carelessly, as he stooped to pick it up and replace it.
A minute after Major Marsden, coming in alone, found him, as he had left him, at the door, with rather a contemptuous smile on his face.
"Carruthers is not to be had, and I really have not the conscience to ask you to wait any longer," said the Major.
John Raby was conscious of a curious sense of relief. In after years he felt that the chance which prevented him from signing Philip Marsden"s will as a witness came nearer to a special providence than any other event in his career. Yet he replied carelessly: "I wish I could, my dear fellow, but any other person will do as well. I have to see the Mukdoom at five, and I start at seven to prepare your way before you in true Political style. Can I do anything else for you?"
"Put the will into the Political post-bag for safety when I send it over," laughed Philip as they shook hands. "Good-bye. You will be a lion at Simla while we are still doing duty as sand-bags on the scientific frontier; diplomacy wins nowadays."
"Not a bit of it. In twenty years, when we have invented a gun that will shoot round a corner, the nation which hasn"t forgotten the use of the bayonet will whip creation, and we shall return to the belief that the man who will face his fellow, and lick him, is the best animal."
"In the meantime, Simla for you and service for us."
"Not a bit of that, either. Why, the British Lion has been on the war-trail for a year already. It"s time now for repentance and a transformation-scene; troops recalled, _durbar_ at Peshawar, the Amir harlequin to Foreign Office columbine, Skobeloff as clown playing tricks on the British public as pantaloon."
"And the nameless graves?"
"Principle, my dear fellow," replied John Raby with a shrug of his shoulders, "is our modern Moloch. We sacrifice most things to it,--on principle. By the bye, I have mislaid that original of the will somehow; possibly my boy packed it up by mistake, but if I come across it I"ll return it."
"Don"t bother,--burn it. "Tis no good to any one now."
"Nor harm, either,--so good-bye, warrior!"
"Good-bye, diplomatist!"
They parted gaily, as men who are neither friends nor foes do part even when danger lies ahead.
That same evening the homeward bound post-runner carried with him over the Peirak Major Marsden"s will leaving thirty thousand pounds to Belle Stuart unconditionally. It was addressed to an eminently respectable London firm of solicitors, who, not having to deal with the chances of war, would doubtless hold it in safe custody until it was wanted. The testator, as he rode the first march on the Cabul road, felt, a little bitterly, that once more he had done his best to stand between her and care. Yet it must be confessed that this feeling was but as the vein of gold running through the quartz, for pride and a resentful determination that no shadow of blame should be his, whatever happened, were the chief factors in his action. Nor did he in any way regard it as final. The odds on his life were even, and if he returned safe from the campaign he meant to leave no stone unturned in the search for d.i.c.k Smith"s body. Then, if he failed to find the will, it would be time enough to confess he had been in the wrong.
John Raby, as he put the bulky letter in the Political bag according to promise, felt also a little bitter as he realised that Belle with thirty thousand pounds would come as near perfection in his eyes as any woman could. And then he smiled at the queer chance which had put him in possession of Major Marsden"s intention; finally dismissing the subject with the cynical remark that perhaps a woman who was sufficiently fascinating to make two people leave her money ere she was out of her teens might not be a very safe possession.
CHAPTER XIII.
In the tiny drawing-room of a tiny house, wedged in between a huge retaining wall and the almost perpendicular hill-side, Belle Stuart sat idly looking out of the window. Not that there was anything to see. The monsoon fogs swept past the stunted oaks, tipped over the railings, filled the verandah, crept in through the crevices, and literally sat down on the hearth-stone; for the room was too small, the thermometer too high, and humanity too poor, to allow of a fire.
Without, was a soft grey vapour deadening the world; within, was a still more depressing atmosphere of women, widow"s weeds, and wrangling.
On her lap lay the newspaper filled, as usual, with items from the frontier. To many a woman that first sheet meant a daily agony of relief or despair; to Belle Stuart it was nothing more than a history of the stirring times in which she lived, for with d.i.c.k"s sad end, and John Raby"s return to reap rewards at Simla, she told herself that her personal interest in the war must needs be over. A pa.s.sing pity, perhaps, for some one known by name, a kindly joy for some chance acquaintance, might stir her pulses; but nothing more. Yet as she sat there she was conscious of having made a mistake. Something there was in the very paper lying on her lap which had power to give keen pain; even to bring the tears to her eyes as she read the paragraph over again listlessly.
Severe Fighting in the Terwan Pa.s.s. Gallant Charge of the 101st Sikhs.