So there would be a silence broken only by the even breathing of the old man and the child.
For Sonny _baba_ and his wife, watching the scene from within, only looked into each other"s eyes and said nothing.
THE BHUT-BABY.
"According to established precedent it is reported, under section so and so, that one Buddha Singh of Kidderjana having died, his rightful heirs inherit." The court-reader"s voice hurried the liquid Urdu syllables into long, sleepy cadences like the drone of a humble-bee entangled in the swaying punkah overhead. Backwards and forwards, rising and falling, the rhythm seemed to become part of me, until the colourless reports were a monotonous lullaby, and each wave of sound and motion bore me farther from earth, nearer to the land of dreams.
Ah! if the right people always inherited, and my old uncle received ticket-of-leave from the gout, I might afford furlough, and stand once more on that big boulder at the foot of the One-stone pool waiting for a new ring of light to show on the dark eddy by the far side--a ring with a swirl and a gleam of silver scales in the centre, a tightening line under the finger, till the reel went whirr-rr-rr-rr! It was a lovely dream while it lasted.
"According to established precedent, the ca.n.a.l-officer reports, under section so-and-so, that certain rebellious persons in Chori-pani have opened the sluices of the cut, and taken water that did not belong to them." The heather-sweet breeze off the One-stone pool ceased to blow, and I was back, with the punkah, in the humanity-laden atmosphere of the court-house, where even the mosquitoes were glutted, and the lizards, hanging head downwards on the wall, looked as if they had congestion of the brain. Stealing water! Poor wretches, who could blame them with their crops withering in the June sun and the sluice-doors within reach? Even a juicy apple on a hot day is irresistible, despite Farmer Smith"s big dog watching from below, while you sit on the lower branch, and Jerry sits on the upper, eating all the ripe fruit just to pa.s.s the time, and thanking Providence meanwhile for making you Christian children in a cider-country!
"According to established precedent it is reported, under section so-and-so, that the devil was born three days ago in village Hairan-wallah. Orders are requested. Meanwhile the _chowkidar_ [watchman] remains watching the same." Startled into wakefulness, I looked sharply to see if the reader had not been nodding in his turn; but my alertness merely produced a respectful iteration of the paragraph, which showed all too clearly my subordinate"s explanation of the sudden display of attention.
The suspicion of sleep is always irritating. "_Sarishtadar!_" [clerk of the Court] I began in English, "what, the devil?"
"Nossir," interrupted the reader suavely in the same language, "pardon the suggestion, sir, but the devil is somewhat free translation, sir.
In Dictionary _bhut_ (the word used, sir,) equals an _indefinite_ devil, thus _a_ devil, _a_ fiend, _a_ imp--pardon the indiscretion, sir! an imp."
A glow of proud humility at his own quick detection of these trivial errors filled up the pause which followed, while the punkah went on swinging, and I sat wondering if I were asleep or awake. Finally the _sarishtadar_ dipped his pen in the ink, fluttered the superfluous moisture on the carpet, and suggested deferentially that the _chowkidar_ was waiting for orders. A sudden curiosity as to what his self-complacent brain, surcharged with Western culture, would do with the situation made me reply curtly, "The usual orders."
I managed to forbear laughing in the grave face raised to mine in deprecating apology. "I am unable, sir," he said after a pause, "to recall, at the present moment, any section, penal or civil, suitable to occasion. Would you kindly jog memory, sir, by suggesting if it is under judicial or administrative heads? Or perhaps," he added, as a bright after-thought, "it is political job." Then, I regret to say, I went off into yells of unseemly mirth, as most Englishmen have to do at times over the portentous solemnity of the Aryan brother.
There was a stir in the verandah, a sudden waking to renewed effort on the part of the punkah coolie, resulting in a general breeziness. Or was it that Terence O"Reilly, our young Irish doctor, as he came into the darkened Court, brought with him a thought of fresh air, a remembrance of Nature in her sunniest, most lovable moods? He invariably suggested such things to me at any rate, and as he paused in astonishment at my indecorous occupation, I thought once more that it was a pleasure simply to look at him. His face sympathised promptly with the unknown joke. "Whwhat the divvle are ye laughing at--me?" he asked in a rich brogue as he seated himself astride a chair, in which equestrian position his dandy costume for polo showed to great advantage.
Nero fiddling over the flames of Rome is sympathy itself compared to the indifference with which we often speak the first lines of a coming tragedy in every-day life. So it was with a jest that I introduced Terence O"Reilly to the existence of the _bhut_-baby, and in so doing became instantly aware that he surpa.s.sed me in other things besides good looks. He could scarcely be said to become grave, for to lose brightness would have been to lose the essence of the man, but his expression grew to a still more vivid reflex of his mind. ""Twill be one of those poor little craytures that come into this worrld G.o.d knows why," he said with an infinite tenderness of voice. "Ten to wan "tis better it should die, fifty to wan I can do nothing to help it, but I"ll ride over and see annyhow."
The _sarishtadar_ laid aside his pen somewhat mournfully, the practical being out of his line; while I, smitten by admiration into immediate regret at my own indifference, murmured something about having thought of going over next morning.
"There"s no time loike the present, my dear fellow," he replied buoyantly. "The pony"s at the door, and sure I"m got up for riding annyhow;" and as he spoke he stretched out his long legs, and surveyed their immaculate boots and breeches critically.
"And what will your team do without their best forward?" I asked, feeling a certain captiousness at his prompt decision.
"Get along with your blarney! Sure it"s practising, and you can take my place at that anny day; indeed "twas to fetch you I ventured into the dock, for whin I caught a glimpse of your face at the jail this morning I said to meself, "Terence, me bhoy, that"s a case of polo, or blue pill, for by the powers his liver"s not acting." So "twas to hound you into exercise I came annyhow."
A feverish desire to amend and excuse my own lukewarmness shot up through the loophole his words afforded. "To tell the truth, I _was_ feeling a bit slack; but if you"ll wait five minutes while I slip over to the bungalow and change my clothes, I"ll ride with you to Hairan-wallah. It will be better for me than polo; I might get over-heated, you know."
""Tis over-_eating_, not over-_heating_ that"s the matter with you, me bhoy," he replied coolly; "but I"m proud,--and by the powers!" he added, starting up in great excitement, "you shall ride my pony; I call him Blue Pill, for he"s better than wan anny day; and while you"re dressing I"ll send me _syce_ round for the Lily of Killarney. I"ve a bet on her at the _gymkhana_ next Monday, and we"ll try her on the quiet against the stable."
Half an hour afterwards I was enjoying plenteous exercise, and it seemed to me, far behind, as if the Lily--a great black beast without a single white hair on her--was trying to buck Terence over into the saffron-coloured horizon, as she went along in a series of wild bounds.
He came back to me, however, after a time, as fresh as paint; but the mare, with head down and heaving flanks, appeared to have had enough of it.
""Tis a pity the faymale s.e.x is so narvous," he said casually. "Ye can"t hold "em responsible for annything; but if it wasn"t for hysteria they"d be angels entirely. She has the paces of wan, annyhow."
Fourteen miles of constant ca.n.a.l cuts, that were a perpetual joy to the doctor and a terror to me, brought us to Hairan-wallah, a large village standing among irrigated fields. Here cautious inquiries for the devil led us to a cl.u.s.ter of mud huts beyond the pale, where the low-caste servants of the community dwelt apart. Before reaching it we were joined by the head-men and their followers, all anxious to explain and excuse the calamity which had befallen their reputation; but as the fear of evil eye had prevented any of them from personally inspecting the fiend, the accounts of its appearance were wildly conflicting. The doctor, indeed, refused to listen to them, on the ground that it was sheer waste of time, and rode along affably discussing the crops with an aged patriarch. His manner changed, however, when we were requested to dismount, and he led the way into the enclosure where, guarded by the police _chowkidar_, the devil-baby lay awaiting Government orders.
The courtyard was hung round with coloured thread, old iron, and other devices against witchcraft, and a group of low-caste men and women were huddled up dejectedly in one corner. So far the crowd followed us; but when some of the reputed relations showed us into a dark out-house at the further end, even curiosity failed to prevent a visible hanging-back. Blinded by the change from the glare outside, I could at first see nothing but my companion"s tall form bending over a bundle of rags on a low stool, beside which a half-naked hag sat chanting a guttural charm; and before I regained clearer sight his voice rang out in tones of evident relief, "By the powers! "tis only a black albino."
The bull was perfect, seeing that it conveyed succinctly a very accurate description. The _bhut_-baby was a black, a very black albino, for the abnormal colouring was confined to its hair, which was unusally well developed, and grew in tight cl.u.s.tering curls over its head like a coachman"s wig. The faint eyebrows and eyelashes were also white, and the result, if not devilish, was extremely startling. For the rest, it was as fine a man-child as ever came to gladden a mother"s heart. I deemed it asleep till I saw the doctor bend closer, and then raise the eyelid in keen professional scrutiny.
"Where"s the mother?" he cried, turning like lightning on the nearest male relative, and seizing him by the scruff of the neck in order to emphasise his words. "Bring her at once, or I"ll go inside and fetch her myself. The child has been left to starve," he added rapidly in English, "and it"s nigh dead of neglect. You"re a magistrate! Make them bring the devil of a mother here at once, or it will die."
But they met my commands and remonstrances with frightened obstinacy, a.s.serting after some hesitation that the mother was dead, had died virtuously of shame at bringing such disgrace to her people. I had every reason to believe this statement was a lie, but no means of proving it to be one, for of course the whole village favoured it.
Then there came to Terence O"Reilly"s face a look that was good to see, but not to endure. "And if the poor little creature has lost its own mother," he cried in that strong, round voice of his, "are there no other women among you all with the milk of kindness in their b.r.e.a.s.t.s that will give it a drink for the sake of the time when they took suck themselves? Look at it! What are you all frightened of? "Tis as fine a babe as a woman could bear. Only the white hair of it, and G.o.d knows we shall all come to that if we are spared. Look at it, I say! Handle it, and see for yourselves!"
Suiting the action to the word, he lifted the infant in his arms and carried it out to the lingering light of day, among the crowd which fell back in alarm from him and his burden. He did, indeed, look somewhat of an avenging angel with his face ablaze with indignant appeal. There was a scuttling from behind as some of the head-men tried to force a sweeper-woman to the front, but ere they succeeded she had promptly gone into hysterics, and so roused a murmur of disapprobation and dismay among the rest. Her shrieks brought Terence back to earth; and ceasing to hold the child at arm"s length, as if offering it for acceptance, he turned to me once more. "At least your magistracy can make them bring me milk. If ye can"t even do that, then G.o.d help the British rule!"
Stung by the sarcasm, I exerted myself to such an extent, that three separate head-men arrived breathless at the same moment with large _lotahs_ full of nourishment for the devil, or any one else on whom the Presence was foolish enough to bestow it. So much lay within their conceptions of duty.
The scene which followed will linger in my memory until memory itself ceases to be. Terence in polo-costume seated on a string bed under the darkening skies with the devil on his lap, feeding it methodically with the corner of his pocket-handkerchief moistened in the milk held by three trembling _lambadars_. Beside him the Presence, with, thank G.o.d, sufficient vitality left for admiration. And round about a cloud of awestruck witnesses, wondering at his audacity, doubtful of its effect on the future.
"Sure "tis the firrst toime I ever did dhry-nurse," he remarked after a long silence, during which I became absorbingly interested in the little imp"s growing desire for life. "Hark to that, now! The ungrateful divvle"s wanting to cry just because it"s got something to digest, as if that wasn"t the firrst duty of a human stomach. Great Moses! don"t ye think it"s time you stepped in as ripresentative of the _Kaiser-i-Hind_, and took things in hand a bit? Ah, it"s after having dill-water ye are now, is it? Whist, whist, whist now!"
He walked up and down, the crowd swaying from him, as he dandled the infant with what seemed to me marvellous skill, while I did my best to argue sense into the dull brains of the villagers. I was quite unsuccessful, of course, and after many words found myself, as before, with two courses open to me; either to leave the _bhut_-baby where it was, or give it in charge of the head-men--the one a swift, the other a more tardy certainty of death from that mysterious disease called "by the cause of not drinking milk properly," which figures so largely in the records of infant mortality in India; the former for choice, since, as Terence remarked, "It would save trouble to kill it at the beginning instead of the end of its life."
"So the magistracy can do nothing," he said at last; "thin I will.
_Chowkidar!_ take this baby to the headquarters" hospital. I"m master there, annyhow, and I"ll make it anny case I please, and dye its hair, an" no man shall say me nay!"
So the _chowkidar_ was ordered to carry the devil to hospital to be cured of its devilry, and we rode home in frantic haste, because Terence was engaged to sing "_Killaloe_" that evening in barracks. Some of the relations ran about a mile after us yelling out blessings for having removed the curse from them.
Six weeks after I saw an atrocious hag nursing a white-haired infant in the doctor"s own compound, and questioned him on the subject. "The fact is," he said ruefully, "it gave fits to the patients. I tried shaving its head, but it grew so fast and the white eyelashes of it betrayed the cloven hoof. And dye wouldn"t stick on; so I"ve hired a harridan on two rupees a month to look after it under my own eye."
There was, no doubt, something of combativeness in this particular instance of Terence O"Reilly"s charity; but the _bhut_-baby was by no means the only pensioner on his bounty. The row of mud houses beyond the cook-room was filled with the halt, the maimed, and the blind--especially the latter, for the fame of his infinite skill and patience as an eye-doctor was spreading far and wide. Besides, he had the secret, possessed by some Englishmen unconsciously, of inspiring the natives with absolutely unbounded devotion, and many of his patients would literally have laid down their lives for him; among others his bearer, a high-caste Brahman. The man, who had originally come to him for blindness of long standing, had, on recovery, made his way straight from hospital to the doctor"s house, and announced his intention of serving him till death. "What are hands, and feet, or brain," he answered calmly to all objections, "if they have not eyes to guide them? Therefore are they all predestined since all time to be servants to my Lord the Light-bringer for ever and ever."
Treated at first as a joke, Shivdeo"s determination had outlived opposition, and at the time of the _bhut_-baby"s advent he had achieved his intention of becoming trusted personal attendant to the "Light of the World," for without some such allusion to the benefit he had received at his hands he never spoke of his master. The introduction of a baby, pariah to begin with and devil to follow, brought about a temporary disturbance of his office; for he was haughty, with all the pride of his race, and superst.i.tious beyond belief. But after a week of dismissal consequent on failing to provide the harridan with proper milk for the bottle, Shivdeo, almost blind again with fruitless tears, crept back to the Light-giver"s feet and swore a big oath to feed the low-caste demon himself if thereby he might return to the only life he could live. He kept his promise of strict neutrality to the letter, never by word or deed showing his aversion to the child; affecting indeed not to see it with those mild, short-sighted eyes of his. Yet, as it grew older, he must often have been brought into contact with the child, for it would crawl after the doctor like a dog. Despite the peculiarity of its silvery curls and pale blue eyes, it was really pretty, and by the time it was two years old had picked up such a variety of comical tricks and odd ways, that Boots, as we called it, became quite an inst.i.tution with the doctor"s friends. We used to send for it to the verandah and laugh at the silent agility with which it tumbled for sweetmeats, and the equally silent quickness of its mimicry; for to all intents and purposes the child was dumb. Beyond a very rare repet.i.tion of the feeble wail I had first heard from it in the doctor"s arms at Hairan-wallah, it made no articulate sound whatever; but once or twice when we tired of it and forgot its presence, I have heard a purring noise like a cat, and looking down, found that the little creature was curled up with its silver curls resting on the doctor"s foot in perfect content. He spent many hours in demonstrating its full possession of all five senses, and always declared it would speak in time; certainly if speech went by intelligence it would have been the most eloquent of babies. As it was, its unusual silence undoubtedly added to its uncanny appearance, and helped to strengthen the still lingering belief in its devilish origin.
As long, however, as Terence O"Reilly"s voice gave the orders for its well-being, not a soul in his compound or elsewhere would have dreamt of disobedience. Indeed, it often struck me that poor little Boots lived by virtue of his exuberant vitality, and by nothing else.
I remember one evening we had been screaming with laughter over the comical little creature"s mimicry of Shivdeo"s stately, short-sighted way of bringing in whisky and soda-water. The applause seemed to get into the baby"s brain, and it took us off one after the other with such deadly truth that we nearly rolled off our chairs. Then some one suggested that we should ask it to imitate Terence, who happened to be absent; and when it failed to respond, a young subaltern, thinking it had not understood, came out with a fair copy of the doctor"s round, rich brogue. We were all startled at the result; the child made for the speaker like a wild beast, stopped suddenly, then crept away with silent tears br.i.m.m.i.n.g up into its eyes. I think we all felt a bit ashamed, especially when Terence, coming in from a patient, found Boots curled up asleep in a damp corner by the _tattie_, and, with a mild rebuke that, ""Twas enough to give the poor little crayture fayver an"
ague," lifted the child in his arms, and proceeded to carry it across the garden to its harridan. But he had hardly raised it before Shivdeo, gliding in like a ghost from heaven knows where, came forward and took the child from him with a rapid insistence that left me wondering. So, when the man brought me my parting cheroot, I questioned him on his interference. He looked startled for a moment; then replied gravely that it was not meet for the Light of the Universe to bear a sweeper"s child in his bosom. "Nor is it meet for a Brahman either," I returned, feeling sure he had some other reason. The man"s eyes flashed before they dropped submissively: "Nor is it meet for a Brahman to serve; but the Presence knows that this slave cares not if he wakes as a dog so that the Lord of Light remains to give sight to the blind."
Shortly after this Boots sickened for some childish complaint, in the course of which pneumonia developed, making it hover for a day or two between this world and the next. Once more Terence stood between the _bhut_-baby and the shadow of death, and had it been the heir of princes, the resources of modern science could not have been more diligently ransacked for its benefit. Indeed the doctor looked quite worn out when I met him one morning, going, as he said, to give himself a freshener by taking the Lily round the steeple-chase course.
"You"re over-working, Terence," said I, noting his fine-drawn clearness of feature; "up all night after Boots (I"m glad to hear the little fellow"s better, by the way), and Blue Pill waiting for you day after day till after dark at the hospital gates, to say nothing of _gymkhanas_. It won"t do for long; I"m serious about it, old chap."
"Are you? Well, it"s kind of you to be that," he laughed; "though mayhap "twould be more of a change for your friends if you were the t"other thing. Don"t fret yourself about me, annyhow; I"m well enough.
Maybe "tis having done dhry-nurse to him at first that makes me feel Boots on me mind; but I think he"s well through. And d"ye know! the little beggar wouldn"t touch a thing unless I gave it him. "Tis a queer place this worrld, annyhow."
His voice had a suspicion of a break in it, and his eyes were brighter than ever; whence I augured that he felt worse than he cared to confess. Next day he sent a note asking me to inspect the jail for him, as he was going to try conclusions with his liver; the day after I found him in bed, but lively. Then the deadly fever which kills so many fine young fellows in India laid fast hold on him, and for three long weeks we, who loved him, watched the struggle for life, helpless to do aught save keep up his strength as best we might against the coming crisis. It was as if a calamity had befallen the whole Station. Men when they met each other asked first of all how _he_ was; and women sent jellies and soups enough for a regiment to the bungalow where the young doctor, who had soothed so many of their troubles, lay bravely fighting out his own. Quite a crowd of natives gathered round the gate by early dawn, waiting for news of the past night; and, so far as I knew, Shivdeo never left the verandah during all those weary days. I could see him from my post by the bed, sitting like a bronze statue against a pillar, whence my slightest sign would rouse him. For I a.s.sumed the office of head-nurse after Terence, full of grat.i.tude for the kindly offers of help showered upon him, had said with a wistful gleam of the old mischief, "But I loike your sober face best, old man; it makes me feel so pious." I sent in for leave that morning and never left him again. It was the twenty-sixth day, about ten o"clock in the evening, that the doctor in charge shook his head over my patient sorrowfully. "He is terribly weak, but while there"s life-- We shall know by dawn."
The old formula fell on my ears--though I had been waiting for it--with a sense of sickening failure, and unable to reply, I turned away from the figure which lay so still and lifeless despite all my care. As I did so I noticed Shivdeo listening with eyes and ears at the door. For the last three days the man had been strangely restless, and more than once I had discovered odd things disposed about the room, and even on poor Terence"s pillow--things used as talismans to keep away the evil eye, such as I had seen in Hairan-wallah when the _bhut_-baby was born; and I had smiled--good heavens, how ignorant we are in India!--smiled at the silly superst.i.tion which evidently lingered in Shivdeo"s mind.
He came to me when the doctor left to ask if he had understood rightly that the great hour of hope or dread drew nigh. I told him we should know by dawn, and that till then all must be quiet as the grave. His face startled me by its intensity, as standing at the foot of the bed he fixed his eyes on the unconscious face of his master and _salaamed_ to it with all the reverence he would have given to a G.o.d. But he spoke calmly to me, saying that as I would doubtless be loth to leave the room he would order the servants to bring me something to eat there. He presently appeared, bearing the tray himself, giving as a reason for this unusual service his desire to avoid any disturbance. It was just upon twelve o"clock when, with Shivdeo"s help, I gave Terence, who was quite unconscious, a few drops of stimulant before sitting down with a sinking heart to my anxious watch. It was early April, and the doors, set wide open to let in the cool air, showed a stretch of moonlit gra.s.s where shadows from the unseen trees above quivered and shifted as the night-wind stirred the leaves. In the breathless silence I could hear even the faint respiration of the sick man, and found myself counting its rise and fall, until the last thing I remembered was Shivdeo"s immovable figure with the moonlight streaming full in his face.
When I awoke the rapid Eastern dawn had come. The sparrows were twittering in the verandah, and Shivdeo stood by his master"s bed holding his finger to his lips. "Hush!" he whispered, as my eyes met his; "the light has brought life to the Giver of Light."
It must have been the sound of wheels which woke me, for ere I had time to reply the doctor entered the room, and after a glance at his patient shook me silently by the hand. "I believe he"s through," he said, when he had cautiously examined the sleeping man; "fever gone, pulse stronger. I scarcely dared to hope for it even with his splendid const.i.tution. Hullo! what"s that?" It was only a tiny spot of blood on the forehead just where the trident of Shiva is painted by his worshippers, but it showed vividly against the pallor of the skin.