"You will pardon me, you are not allowed."
The tone was perfect authority. The eyes smouldered, but the lips smiled.
"You are not used to be in any way conditioned, I understand that; but I am not willing to be responsible to my only sister for the smashed body of her one man. Oh, I a.s.sure you _not_! And you may one day grant that the guardianship of an elder brother is not a bad thing to have. Why--I beg your pardon, but of course you are not here long enough to know the situation."
He stopped abruptly and looked away, considering.
"I will put it in one word and tell you that _one_ moment _any_ train, on _any_ track, may be perfectly safe; and the next moment, it may be going down the khud with half a mountain. Again, we exercise the utmost care in all bridge-building--with no reservation of resources; but almost every year a bridge or more goes with the crash."
"The crash?"
"The reason why we say the great monsoon "breaks" is not because itself breaks, but because--whatever happens to be underneath, you understand."
The floor of protest had dropped away. Skag"s face said as much.
"The tailors will need till the rails are safe to get you fitted; and before the monsoon comes, I suggest that you take your hunter up into the cheetah hills. Cheetahs are not supposed, by those at Home, to attack men. Many of them will not; but they are unreliable. The forfeits they have taken from unbelief have made them a bad reputation, among the English."
"The cheetahs I have seen in cages have been mild, compared with tigers."
"Cheetah kittens are snared and broken at once by hard handling; meaning that it is not the cheetah himself, but what is left of him, one sees either in the kennels of the princes or in the foreign cages.
You will remember my warning about his character?"
"Thank you, yes."
"Good. I have known men to prefer not . . . Then you will carry yourself alert in any kind of jungle. If you sight a cheetah, be prepared; he may _not_ attack. He may. Few men have eyes good enough to follow him after his first spring. One should be a perfect shot; are you that?"
"I am a good shot, but I don"t like to kill animals."
"Then I am the last man to commend you to the cheetah hills . . . if it were not for Nels. He is entirely competent to take care of you, unless in one possible emergency. They sometimes, but rarely, work in pairs. If ever the dog should be occupied with one and another should be in _sight_--be sure your unwillingness to kill does not delay you to the instant of charge."
"You imply that it is necessary to carry a gun in any kind of jungle--always?"
"Always wise, of _course_; but I consider it less imperative just now, because the animals are not what we call fighting. They are waiting for the great monsoon. So--you might take your dog up into the cheetah hills--"
"I don"t see how a dog--"
"He"ll break the cheetah"s back and cut his throat, before the real start is made at you. But Bhanah will tell you whatever; and he is entirely reliable. You may depend upon him, without reservation."
"That"s a big thing to know."
"India has many good servants, but Bhanah is a rare man."
The unquenchable fires in Roderick Deal"s eyes began to feed upon some enigma in Skag"s own; he endured it a moment and then interruption became expedient:
"Does the monsoon come on schedule?"
"It does."
"What is it like?"
"It is as much an experience as a spectacle. I"m not attempting to describe the thing itself; it should be seen. But across the southwestern part of India, it includes the procession of the animals.
All animals from all covers, running together."
"There is something like that in the far north of America," Skag said.
"It is called the pa.s.sage of the Barren Ground Caribou. They move south before the first winter storms in thousands. I"ve heard that sometimes their lines extend out of sight. They have no food, but they do not stop to forage. Our northern hunters say that nothing will stop them."
"That"s interesting; immensely. I"ve not heard of it."
"But I didn"t mean to interrupt you."
"Our creatures move in a trance of panic, straight away from the coming rains. I say a trance, because they appear to be oblivious of each other; hunter and hunted go side by side, without noticing."
The drive of Skag"s life-quest was working in him, as if nothing had ever given it pause.
"Do they go fast?"
"The timid and lumbering come out first, hurrying; they increase in numbers, all sorts, and run faster till those near the end go at top speed--it"s a thing to see. Bhanah will tell you when and where to watch it; but be careful and get under good roofing in time. And then, after the tracks are set right, if you must reach Hurda in order to come back with Carlin . . . Man, G.o.d help you if you do not give my sister the best of your gifts!"
"Why, I belong to her--"
Their hands met; and Skag"s soul rose up without words, to answer a white flame in the inscrutable eyes.
Early the following morning, Sanford Hantee Sahib said to his servant:
"Bhanah, what do you know about cheetahs?"
"Such little things as a man may know, Sahib."
"Are you willing to give some of it to me?"
"All that I am and all that I can, belongs to my master."
"Is that--the regular--"
"Nay, _nay_! It is right for my master to consider, that I serve him not for a price. This is true service--as men in my land bring to things holy. Those who serve for the weight of silver, render the weight of their hands."
"I don"t want you to begin thinking that I"m holy though--you understand that."
"There are meanings which will appear to the Sahib in time; it is not suitable that they come from me. But this much may be spoken: if my master serves in a great service--then I, who am a poor man and ignorant, may give something if I serve him."
"If that"s what you mean, it"s all right. Then we won"t go out this morning, Nels and I. It"ll be the time to get some of that little knowledge of yours about cheetahs."
It seemed to Skag that the uncertainty about just why Bhanah had come to him, was cleared away; and there was a dignity about the man which he liked. It was all right.
"Sanford Hantee Sahib should not go to find cheetahs before he knows his dog," Bhanah began.
"Just what are you getting at?"