CHAPTER VI.
Lala Shunker Das having discarded all clothing save a scarf of white muslin tied petticoat-wise round his loins, lay on a wooden bed perched high on the topmost platform of his tall house. But even there the burning breezes of May brought no relief from the heat; and he lay gasping, while his faithful jackal Ram Lal pounded away with lean brown knuckles at his master"s fat body. The _ma.s.sage_ seemed to do little good, for he grunted and groaned dismally. In truth the Lala ached all over, both in body and soul. A thousand things had conspired against him: his last and most expensive wife (after spending a fortune in pilgrimages) had committed the indiscretion of presenting him with a girl baby; his grandmother having died, he had been forced much against his will to shave his head; his greatest rival had been elevated to the Honorary Magistracy and (adding injury to insult) been a.s.sociated with him on a _bunch_ (bench), and justice grown in bunches is not nearly so remunerative to the grower as single specimens. These were serious ills, but there was one, far more trivial, which nevertheless smarted worst of all; perhaps because it was the most recent.
That very morning Shunker Das, as behoved one of his aspirations, had testified to his loyalty by attending the usual parade in honour of the Queen"s birthday. On previous occasions he had driven thither in his barouche, but ambition had suggested that an appearance on horseback would show greater activity, and please the Powers. So he bought a cast horse from the cavalry regiment just ordered on service, and having attired himself in glittering raiment, including a magnificent turban of pink Benares muslin, he took his place by the flagstaff. People congratulated him warmly on his confidential charger which, even at the _feu de joie_, seemed lost in philosophic reflections. Shunker Das waxed jubilant over the success of his scheme, and was just giving himself away in magnificent lies, when the bugle sounded for "close order" preparatory to a few words from the General to the departing cavalry regiment. On this the war-horse p.r.i.c.ked up its ears, and starting off at a dignified trot rejoined its old companions, while the Lala, swearing hideously, tugged vainly at the reins. Arrived at the line the conscientious creature sidled down it, trying vainly to slip into a vacant place. Failing of success, the intelligent beast concluded it must be on orderly duty, and just as the Lala was congratulating himself on having finished his involuntary rounds, his horse, turning at right angles, bounded off to rejoin the General"s staff. Away went the Lala"s stirrups. He must have gone too, despite his clutch on the mane, had not the streaming end of his _pugree_ caught in the high crupper-strap and held fast. So stayed, fore and aft, he might have reached the goal in safety, had not the General, annoyed by the suppressed t.i.ttering around him, lost patience, and angrily ordered some one to stop that man. Whereupon a mischievous aide-de-camp gave the word for the "halt" to be sounded.
Confused out of everything save obedience, the charger stopped dead in his tracks, and the Lala shot over his head, still in a sitting posture. On being relieved of his burden, the co-ordination "stables"
apparently came uppermost in the horse"s mind, for it walked away slowly, bearing with it the end of the Lala"s turban still fastened in the crupper. He, feeling a sudden insecurity in his headgear, and being, even in his confusion, painfully conscious of his baldness, clung to the lower folds with both hands. At this slight check, the charger, not to be baulked, set off at a canter, and over rolled the fat Lala, heels in air. Then, and not till then, one roar of laughter rent the air. For as he lay there on his back, kicking like a turned turtle, the _pugree_ began to unwind like a ball of thread, while the Lala held on like grim death to the lower portion. Not until the last fold had slipped through his fingers and a quarter of a mile or so of pink muslin was fluttering across the parade ground, did he realise the position, and struggling to his seat pa.s.s his hand over his bald head with a deprecating smile.
"Go out, Raby, and pick him up," gasped the General aching with laughter. "You"re in political charge, aren"t you?"
But Philip Marsden, who happened to be on staff duty that day, was already pouring in oil and wine to the Lala"s hurt dignity when the young civilian came up with nonchalant courtesy. "_Shahbash, sahib!_"
he said, "you sat him splendidly, and that last prop would have undone a Centaur."
The Lala, grinned a ghastly smile, and Philip Marsden turned impatiently, saying aside: "Get him home, do! He looks so helpless with his bald head; it seems a shame to laugh."
John Raby raised his eyebrows. "The General shall lend him his carriage. That will soothe his wounded vanity."
So the Lala, with his head tied up in a red pocket-handkerchief, went home in the big man"s barouche, and the spectators of his discomfiture laughed again at the recollection of it.
"You ought to be the editor of a native newspaper, Marsden," remarked John Raby. "You would be grand on the unsympathetic Anglo-Indian. But if I"d seen the Viceroy himself being unwound like a reel of cotton I must have chuckled."
"No doubt," replied the other laughing himself. "Yet I am sure a keen sense of the ludicrous is unfortunate in a conquering race. We English always laugh when policy should make us grave; that is why we don"t succeed."
"Perhaps; for myself I prefer to grin. As some one says, humour is the religion of to-day. Those who believe in eternity have time for tears.
We others,--why we cry "_Vogue la galere!_""
Lala Shunker Das, however, without any abiding belief in a future state, was in no laughing mood as he lay under Ram Lal"s manipulations, listening captiously to his items of bazaar rumour.
"And they say, Lal-ji, that the Sirkar thinks of transferring Colonel Estuart _sahib_."
Shunker Das sat up suddenly and scowled. "Transfer Estuart _sahib!_--why?"
Ram Lal redoubled his exertions on the new portion of the Lala"s frame thus brought within reach, until the latter, uttering dismal groans, sank back to his former position. "They say," he continued calmly, "that the Sirkar is beginning to suspect."
"Fool! idiot! knave!" growled his master, gasping at the furious onslaught on his fat stomach. ""Tis all thy bungling. Have I not bid thee not go so fast? Times have changed since the Commissariat _sahibs_ sat in their verandahs, and one could walk a file of twenty camels round and round the house until they counted the proper number.
But remember! "Tis thou who goest to the wall, not I. That"s the compact. Shunker finds the money, Ramu runs the risk."
"Have I forgotten it, Lala-ji?" replied the other with some spirit.
"Ramu is ready. And "tis Shunker"s part to look after the wife and children when I"m in jail; don"t forget that! The master would do better if he were bolder. This one would have made much in that fodder contract, but your heart was as water; it always is."
"And if Estuart is transferred; what then?"
"If the branch be properly limed, the bird sticks. Is it limed? Such things are the master"s work, not mine."
"Ay! limed right enough for _him_. But the money, Ramu, the money! It will take months to lay the snare for a new man, and the war will be over." The Lala positively wept at the idea.
Ram Lal looked at him contemptuously. "Get what is to be got from this _sahib_, at any rate; that"s my advice."
The very next day Lala Shunker Das drove down to the Commissariat office, intent on striking a grand blow.
Things had been going on better than could have been expected in the large, empty house, where Belle, thinner and paler as the days of intense heat went by, did the honours cheerfully. It was not without a struggle that she had been allowed to remain with her father. Mrs.
Stuart had prophesied endless evil, beginning with a bad reputation for herself as stepmother; but prudential reasons had given their weight in favour of the girl"s earnest desire. To make light of the heat, and avoid flight to the hills, was a great recommendation for a civilian"s wife, and that, Mrs. Stuart had decreed, was to be Belle"s fate. So with many private injunctions to the _khansamah_ not to allow the Miss _sahib_ to interfere too much in the management, the good lady had, as usual, taken herself and her family to Mussoorie. Shortly after they left Fate played a trump for Belle by sending a slight attack of malarious fever to the Colonel. He was always dreadfully alarmed about himself, and a hint from the doctor about the consequences of over-free living, reduced him to toast and water for a week, and kept him from mess for three. Belle was in a heaven of delight; and she was just enjoying the sight of her father actually drinking afternoon tea, when Budlu came in to say the Lala-ji wanted to see the Colonel.
"Don"t go, father," pleaded Belle. "It"s only that horrid fat man; tell him to come again."
John Raby, who often strolled across about tea-time, looked at Colonel Stuart and smiled. He knew most things in the station; among others how unpleasant a visitor Shunker Das might be to his host, and not being ill-natured, he chimed in with the girl by offering to see the man himself.
The Lala, leaning back magnificently in his barouche, felt a sudden diminution of dignity at the sight of John Raby. "Bruises all right, Lala?" asked the young man cheerfully, and Shunker"s dignity sank lower still. "They ought to give you that _Rai Bahadur_-ship for the way you stuck to him; by George, they should! We don"t often get men of your stamp, Lala, with estates in every district,--do we? So you want to see the Colonel; what for?" he added suddenly and sternly.
"_Huzoor!_" bleated the fat man. "I,--I came to inquire after his honour"s health."
"Much obliged to you! He is better; and I really think if you were to come, say this day fortnight, he might be able to see you."
Shunker Das hesitated, fear for his money making him brave. "There were rumours," he began, "that my good patron was about to be transferred."
"Sits the wind in that quarter," thought Raby, amused. "My dear Lala,"
he said, "it"s absolutely untrue. Your eighty thousand is quite safe, I a.s.sure you."
"_Huzoor!_"
"Good-bye, Lala-ji--this day fortnight," and he returned to his cup of tea in high good-humour. Then he sat and played _ecarte_ with the Colonel for an hour while Belle worked and watched them carelessly.
"That makes fifteen," remarked the young man as he rose to go, whereupon Colonel Stuart a.s.sented cheerfully, for he had won that evening; and Belle looked up with a smiling farewell, unconscious and content. She lived in a fool"s paradise, hugging the belief that her presence was the charm; as though Niagara was to be stemmed by a straw, or the habit of years by a sentiment. As time wore on, the few remaining ladies fled before that last awful pause ere the rains break, when a deadly weariness settles on all living things. Belle, feeling shy among so many men, ceased to go out except on the rare occasions when she could persuade her father to accompany her. But, though he still adhered to his habit of dining at home, he was moody and out of sorts. He, too, had heard rumours of transfer, and that meant the possibility of disaster not to be faced with composure.
Restless and irritable, he began to relieve the great craving which took possession of him by all sorts of stimulant and narcotic drugs.
And one day came an almost illegible note from him, bidding Belle not wait dinner for him. She felt instinctively that this was the beginning of trouble; nor was she wrong, for though Colonel Stuart was full of excuses the next evening, he never even sent a note the day after that. So Belle ate her solitary dinners as best she might, and though she often lay awake till the small hours of the morning brought an altercation between Budlu and her father, she never sat up for him, or made any effort to meet him on his return. From this time, brutal though it may seem to say so, poor Belle"s presence in the house, so far from being an advantage, became a distinct drawback. But for it, Colonel Stuart would have yielded to the mad craze for drink which generally beset him at this time of the year; and after a shorter or longer bout, as the case might be, have been pulled up short by illness. Instead of this, he tried to keep up appearances, and drugged himself with chloral and laudanum till the remedy grew worse than the disease so far as he himself was concerned. It served, however, to hide the real facts from his daughter; for he met her timid protests by complaints of ill-health, a.s.sertions that he knew what was best for him, and absolute refusal to call in a doctor.
She grew alarmed. The long, silent days spent in brooding over her father"s altered demeanour were too great a strain on her nerves, and she began to exaggerate the position. Her thoughts turned again and again to d.i.c.k; if he were there! ah, if he were only there! No one who has not had in extreme youth to bear anxiety alone, can fully understand the horror of silence to the young. Belle felt she must speak, must tell some one of her trouble; it seemed to her as if her silence was a sort of neglect, and that some one must be able to do something to set matters straight. But who? She hesitated and shrank, till one day her father broke down and began to cry piteously in the middle of his ordinary abuse of the servants at lunch. A stiff gla.s.s of whisky-and-water restored his anger effectually, and he made light of the incident; but that evening, when Philip Marsden came in late to dress for dinner he found a note awaiting him from Belle.
She, having received no answer, had been expecting him all the afternoon, and as time pa.s.sed began to wonder at her own temerity in writing. d.i.c.k, it is true, had bidden her look on Major Marsden as one willing to help if needs be; but what could d.i.c.k know? She went out, after a pretence of dinner, to the little raised platform in the garden where chairs were set every evening for those who preferred it to the house. Belle liked it far better; the purple arch of sky, spangled with stars save where the growing moon outshone them, rested her tired eyes, and the ceaseless quiver of the cicala prevented her from thinking by its insistence. Suddenly her half-doze was interrupted by a voice asking for the Miss _sahib_, and she stood up trembling and uncertain. Why had she sent for him, and what should she say now that he had come?
"I came as soon as I could, Miss Stuart," said Major Marsden, formally, as their hands met. "But I was out all day, and had a guest to entertain at mess." He stopped, dismayed at her appearance, and added in quite a different tone, "I am afraid you are ill."
She did indeed look ghastly pale in the moonlight, her eyes full of appeal and her lips quivering; yet her shyness had gone with the first look at his face, and she felt glad that she had sent for him. "It is father," she began, then could say no more for fear of breaking down.
The trivial words brought back the recollection of that first meeting with her months before, when she had made the same reply to his offer of help; and as he stood waiting for her to master the fast-rising sobs, a remorse seized him with the thought that surely some of this pain might have been prevented somehow, by some one.
"You must think me very silly," she murmured hastily.
"I think you are overdone," he replied, "and I don"t expect you"ve had any dinner. Now have you?"
A smile struggled to her face. "I don"t think I had,--much."
"Then I will tell the _khansamah_ to bring you something now."
The full-blown tragedy of life seemed to have departed. She even wondered at her own tears as she sipped her soup, and told him of her troubles with a lightening heart. "Budlu says he never saw father like this before," was the climax, and even that did not seem a hopeless outlook.
"Could he not take leave?" suggested Major Marsden at once; leave being the panacea for all ills in India.