"And to look at it now," came the Commissioner"s rich, round brogue, "you would think b.u.t.ter wouldn"t melt in its mouth!"
He waved the cigar he was smoking towards Eshwara. It looked sleepier, more sun-saturate than ever, as it lay reflected in the still lagoon between it and the tent in which he was sitting; a double-poled, Commissioner"s tent, which two days before had swooped down like an avenging angel with broad white wings to take possession of the just and the unjust in the name of Victoria _Kaiser-i-Hind_.
It was pitched on the site of the Viceroy"s camp, for the convenience of being close to the gaol where the late disturbers of the public peace had taken up their residence. In fact, the mast from which the royal standard had floated, still reared itself, bare, undraped, from its roundel of roses. But the flowers were withered, dead. Even the palms, their work of welcome over, were wilting fast; but they still gave a doubtful shade to some groups of manacled men, who, guarded by yellow-legged constables, were placidly awaiting the Commissioner"s leisure and pleasure; both being, at the time, occupied with lunch and Dr. Dillon. So, the wide white wings of the tent being set open and supported with bamboos to let in the breeze, the representative of law and order could be seen--his feet on the table among his law books--drinking an iced whiskey-and-soda.
Dr. Dillon--he looked careworn chiefly because in his care for others he had, as yet, been able to take no rest--nodded.
"Yes; and it doesn"t, as a rule. A more peaceable spot never was. You can"t account for these sudden idiotic outbreaks. One reason is as good as another. And so old Mother Campbell, with her a.s.sertion that it all came because Miss Shepherd would talk about Jean Ziska"s drum--"
The Commissioner smiled. "Yes, the good lady has an endless circle of unfounded beliefs, all dependent on each other for support. It"s the most comfortable way of getting through life. An" miracles are like drams--ye can"t stop them, once you begin. Besides, on me soul, it was queer--even Carlyon said--"
"And if it _were_ true," interrupted the doctor, "we shouldn"t be any "forrader"! We shouldn"t understand. And that"s our position now. You can"t, in fact. It"s better you shouldn"t; in India, at any rate. Just accept them, ignore them, smash them, hush them up"--here his face clouded--"and in this case there is a good deal that had better be kept dark--you"ll do your best, I hope?"
The keen whimsical face hardened. "I shall follow the usual official routine, sir," he said cynically; "for, look you, there never was a row like this in India but there is something in it about a woman, which we"ve got to hush up. An" that"s G.o.d"s truth. Yes, we pay a heavy toll--" He broke off, took up a pen as if to write, threw it down impatiently, and stared out into the hot, yellow sunshine.
Dr. Dillon sat twiddling his mushroom hat round and round in his nervous fingers, and staring out into it also. A sense of being face to face with an unpleasant truth was on them both. Suddenly he laughed harshly.
"We ought to have got accustomed to the fact by this time, anyhow," he said, "for it began early enough in the history of man. Well, I"m off; you won"t want me, will you, this afternoon, now those men have turned Queen"s evidence?"
"Don"t think so. Let"s see." The Commissioner drew a list towards him, and ran his eye over it. "I"ve condemned three warders and seven prisoners to death for poor Dering"s murder; so I daresay penal servitude will see through the rest. Then there"s _jogi_ Gorakh-nath and his _gosain_. They ought to be hung, but we haven"t caught them, and we never shall; the wild a.s.s that snuffeth up the east wind isn"t in it with a Hindoo ascetic in eluding captors! So the lot out there are really small fry; for the other ringleaders are either dead or departed--even that amphibious brute, Gu-gu."
Dr. Dillon looked up cheerfully. "By George! I"d have given something to see that water-fight between him and Am-ma! By the way, what are you going to do for that queer fish? But for him, we would never have seen Lance Carlyon"s face again."
The Commissioner"s expression was curious. "It"s a bit hard to do anything for a man who wants nothing but earth, air, and water, and has got all three; besides--" he drew a paper out of a file, looked at it, then looked at the doctor--"besides it wasn"t altogether Am-ma!" He paused, smiled an infinitely kind smile, then went on: "I was a brute, entirely, to talk about a heavy toll just now. We get its worth back, me dear fellow, over and over again. See! here is Am-ma"s _affidavit_.
I took it this morning, and upon me soul, Dillon, I should be obliged if you would tell me whether to hush it up, or inform the party concerned." So saying, his brogue took possession of the sun-bright, sun-dry air--
"I, Am-ma, of the river folk, solemnly affirm that, knowing the _Dee-puk-rag_ to be in the power of the _Huzoors_, I several times warned Gu-gu not to follow other masters. But he had learned books, and become ignorant. He could not even feel when a current changed its course; and then he thought he must die, because of the ghost, and that made him wild. So when I refused, and set off, as ordained, for the raft, he took the Brahmin"s money and stopped the miracle. Of a surety, the Awarder of Justice is right. This slave knew what was to come. He did not tell of it because, where the _Dee-puk-rag_ is, there is victory; so there was no fear. Yet when the Miss-_sahiba_ bade me help her, I obeyed, because she has power over devils, and my son, _Huzoor_, is still in the first week of life. Therefore, for that reason, I guided the raft. But when I saw that the Light-bringers had smitten the darkness of evil-doers, and that the raft would be needed no more, I went on with it to the place appointed by the Wood-_wallah-sahib_ whence it could float of itself.
"So I returned to my home and ate my bread. And the day was quiet, as the _Huzoor_ knows; only the folk reviled, because I had no fish to sell.
"But, at night, at the waning of the sunset stars, about the third jackal cry, came the Miss-_sahiba_ to my hut."
Dr. Dillon ceased twiddling his hat, and looked up in sudden interest.
"To my hut," reiterated the reading voice. "I deemed it because of devils first; but it was not. It was because of Carlone-_sahib_ who could not be found,--only his clothes and pistol on my craft, stranded on a sand-bank by the mid-channel.
""He has not been killed," said the Miss-_sahiba_ "He would not have fought with his clothes off. Nor did he go to fight. He would not have left the pistol if he had. He has gone swimming, to get quicker and find help. So he is drowned. He is in the river still, and I cannot think of it. Am-ma! you know every inch of the river. Find him! Find him!"
"Then I said: "Yea, Miss-_sahiba_ I will find him when his body rises.
No man can find a dead one in the river till then." But, as I spoke, the son at his mother"s breast left sucking, and cried aloud. The Miss-_sahiba_ said it was but the gripes, but we--my house and I--knew more than that. We knew it was the devils, winning a way because the Miss was not content. So I said: "I will find him while his beauty is still on him, for you to see again,"--since that is in the heart of all women, O Awarder of Justice. Thus at the dawn--the dawn after the dawn of darkness--I, Am-ma, set out with my nets, seeing that fish, anyhow, could be found, and the market would be dear, because none had come to the bazaar during the commotion. So, remembering where my craft had stranded, I went first to mid-channel; thus, working up, came to where it had stranded once before. Then, seeing footmarks, I followed them, till in an island, eating his bread, I found the evil-begotten Gu-gu.
"He had a knife in his bead belt, at the sight whereof I gave glory to G.o.ds and devils alike, for I knew the handle of it. It was Carlone-_sahib"s shikar_ knife, and I had been his _shikari_ many a time.
"So I said, "Where gottest thou Carlone-_sahib"s_ knife, Gu-gu?"
thinking to startle him. And it did. He said no word, but came at me with it.
"So we fought. His right hand and mine on the knife, and our left arms round each other"s throat, choking us; and our legs wrestling. Till the water grew too deep. Then we swam with them. But he said nothing, nor did I. There was no need. We understood, as dogs do, that it was foe and foe. So it came to the deep stream; his right hand and mine, with the knife between them, and our teeth fixed in each other"s shoulders,--till I bethought me of his ear.
"Then he yelled, and let go; but I was after him as he dived. It was a long race. Wherefore not? since we are the best swimmers in the river.
But I felt the cleave of the water from his foot at last, and spent myself in one stroke. So I laid hold of his leg and ran my hand up till I found his back. Then I used Carlone-_sahib"s_ knife on him, and he sank; and I sank too, with the blow.
"And when I came up, leaving him there, I found how long the race had been, for my right hand struck the city wall. Then it came to me what the Miss-_sahiba_ had said, of Carlone-_sahib_ wishing to go quick; and I bethought me of the secret pa.s.sages, and the knife, and Gu-gu"s fear.
And I said to myself someone must have restored the miracle. Not Gu-gu; else why was he hiding? What if it be Carlone-_sahib?_ But most of all I thought of my little son, and the devils longing for him, and for a woman longing for the sight of a man"s beauty, and I knew I must go and see if it lay there. So I dived, and found him, as the Awarder of Justice knows, sitting high up, with the water about his feet, waiting for death, and brought him back as I promised. And Gu-gu is dead, for his body was drifting by the tunnel with Carlone-_sahib"s_ knife in the back as we came out. So the Miss is pleased, and the devils do not come near my son."
The brogue ceased, and there was a pause. "Well! what do ye say, Dillon?" asked the Commissioner, fretfully.
George Dillon rose and put on his hat deliberately. "Nothing. Except that I must really be off. I"ve to see Smith first, and Carlyon--that sprained ankle of his, which he got trying to climb up beyond the rise of the water, will be the deuce and all if he uses it too soon. And then, if I can, I want to get round and say good-by to--to the Miss-_sahiba_. She"s off to Herrnhut again this evening. In fact, Campbell didn"t half like her waiting for the funeral, he is in such a blessed hurry to get to his new field, as he calls it; thinks of nothing else. They are to be married on Monday, I believe."
The Commissioner laid aside Am-ma"s _affidavit_ with a soft "d.a.m.n," and Dr. Dillon paused on his way out at the sound.
"Quite so,--I entirely agree with you," he said sympathetically; "but, unfortunately, there is only one person who has a right to tell that story, sir--and she won"t!"
"Why not?" interrupted the Commissioner, militantly--"why the blazes shouldn"t a woman tell the truth?"
"Because women don"t know it," broke in the doctor, "or men either, for that matter. Because we men and women have got ourselves on such false lines, into such an absolutely false position towards each other, that the only course consistent with propriety and _les convenances_ is to--to hush the thing up! So hush-a-bye baby, sir, to your heart"s content. So long as the mother can tell her blessed infant that she is a lady, what does the real fact matter?"
He spoke with a concentrated bitterness, an almost fierce resentment, and the Commissioner nodded, finished his whiskey-and-soda at a gulp, and returned to work, tossing his papers about recklessly.
"It"s a quare world, certainly," he murmured, with a lack of originality which sat ill on him. Then, catching sight of something in a file, his humorous, kindly self returned. "Listen to this now, for quareness," he laughed, beginning to read:--
""The pet.i.tion of Mussumat Mumtaza Mahal"--that"s Roshan Khan"s grandmother, you know--"sister," etc., etc., "humbly sheweth that she has endured grievous wrong and hurt, by loss of her grandson in the late deplorable mutiny (of which she was utterly incognizant, being helpless, veiled, old woman perpetually confined in house). Therefore prayeth that whereas one Mussumat Ashraf-un-nissa, her neighbour, is in receipt of pension rupees twenty-five _per mensem_ for similar bereavement of male protector and head of family lost in "57 mutiny, therefore her pension of rupees twenty _per mensem_, only, for exile of husband to Calcutta, be commuted to similar sum of twenty-five, seeing that your poor pet.i.tioner is in floods of tears and wholly heartbroken through this most nonregulation, premature death of promising young scion of her n.o.ble house, on whom, as on blessed Victoria, Queen, her hopes were fixed. Said pet.i.tioner being able to prove _alibi_, absolute incomplicity, and continuous remaining at home during late devilish disturbances.""
"Poor old soul!" laughed the doctor, "give it to her if you can, sir.
And as for remaining at home, everybody except the actual conspirators did that. Even Dya-Ram, the disaffected--though he has preached armed resistance to tyranny in his paper for years. He barricaded himself in with his printing-press. Fact; jammed his fingers in so doing, and came to me in a blind funk for a professional certificate that the wound could not have been caused by any lethal weapon. As if anyone could ever have suspected him of taking part in raising a row, or even in settling one! His sort are simply negligible quant.i.ties."
"But Ramanund seems to have attempted a lead," put in the Commissioner, judicially.
"Exactly. Attempted, and failed. His sort are negligible quant.i.ties also, sir, I"m sorry to say, and will remain so until they learn, amongst other knowledge, to believe in something besides themselves--" here the hard eyes softened, the hard voice paused. "That is another thing I should like to have seen--dear old Pidar Narayan--"
The hard voice found even softness too loud; and in the silence which fell between the two men, only the Commissioner"s pen could be heard.
"You"ll look in at the palace, perhaps, and see all is right," came the brogue, after a bit, "and give my love to old Smith. I"m not sure but that I"d rather have seen him behind the door than anything else, for it must have been the hardest job--"
"Considering the circ.u.mstances, yes!" put in the doctor; so, with the pith hat turning him into an animated mushroom, he pa.s.sed out into the blaze of dry yellow sunshine, on that dry yellow sand.
The sky above was molten with light and heat, the gaol positively shimmered in the glare. Not a sound, not a sight, told of that midsummer night"s dream of wild, useless revolt, save when one of the shackled prisoners awaiting trial sought a better bit of shade under the wilted palms, which, not a week before, had welcomed the Hosts of the Lord-_sahib_ on their way to the hills.
The whole thing seemed incredible; yet, as he crossed the road to enter the Smiths" compound, the footsteps of those other Hosts who had pa.s.sed on to the hills also remained to dimple the dry yellow sand.
The Smiths" bungalow lay calm, peaceful; the drawing-room, as he entered it, struck him with the old, familiar sense of refinement, indexing the refinement of its mistress. Only one change caught his observant eyes. Vincent Dering"s photograph was no longer on the mantle-piece, whence it had always looked out with a certain challenge in its very prominence. Where had it gone? What matter? There was no need for such defiance now, thought George Dillon, with that curious half-cynical, half-resentful smile he kept for one subject only. She might keep the photograph where she chose, now, and none would blame her.
So thinking, he set aside the curtain which hung at his patient"s door, and as he did so, resentment, cynicism, vanished in quick sympathy.
"Ah! fever again, I see,--that"s a bore," he said, going over swiftly to the bed where Eugene Smith"s long length lay visibly shivering; for something,--the exposure, the excitement, the strain, perhaps, of that awful inaction behind the door against which Vincent Dering was making that heroic stand,--had knocked the big man over, a prey to an old enemy--malarial fever. "When did it come on?"
Muriel Smith, who sat on the bed, her hand in one of her husband"s shaking, trembling ones, looked up. She was very pale, but very calm.