Читать книгу The Air Patrol - George Herbert Ely - Страница 7

Table of Contents

Mr. Appleton led the way across a sort of yard, littered with mining debris, towards a building in the upper part of which lights were burning. To the left sheds and a chimney stack loomed up in the darkness, scarcely distinguishable against the background of rock. They passed through a gate, and found themselves in a less cumbered enclosure, at the farther corner of which stood the illuminated building. This proved to be a compact square edifice, the lower storey of stone, the upper of wood. The door stood open, and in the entrance appeared a grave turbaned servant, who salaamed as the boys went in.

"Chunda Beg, my khansaman," said Mr. Appleton. "Come upstairs and see your room. We haven't over much space, but we've done our best to make you comfortable."

The boys followed their uncle to the upper floor, which was one large apartment divided into three by matchboard partitions carried up to within a foot or two of the ceiling. In the first room, the dining-room, they saw a table laid for supper. Passing through this they entered Mr. Appleton's bedroom, a small chamber furnished only with a narrow camp bed, a chair, a towel-horse, a tin basin on a stand, a chest of drawers, and a zinc bath; a Persian rug lay on the floor at one side of the bed. Beyond the further partition, which had evidently been newly erected, was the boys' bedroom, about the same size as their uncle's, similarly furnished, but with two camp beds separated by the width of a Persian rug.

"No luxuries, you see," said Mr. Appleton, "but I think you'll find it cosy. I believe there's a looking-glass somewhere on the premises if you want to shave. That's a thing I haven't done for many years; Chunda Beg gives me a trimming every now and then when I'm getting too shaggy. As a follower of the Prophet, he wouldn't cut his own beard for a pension. He'll send you up some hot water and soap, and when you've had a wash, come in to supper."

The menu was not so scanty as Mr. Appleton had led the boys to believe. There was a roast joint that tasted three parts mutton and one part venison--the flesh of an ibex shot by Mr. Appleton himself. The vegetables were mushrooms, onions and lotus beans; the sweets a rice pudding and stewed peaches; and the beverage a kind of elderberry wine diluted with hot water.

"You've got a good cook, Uncle," said Lawrence, when the khansaman had brought coffee. "We haven't had so good a meal since we left Rawal Pindi."

"Well, Shan Tai does his best. He's a Chinaman, of course. We grow our own vegetables in a patch of ground down the valley. In fact, we do most things ourselves. The gas is acetylene, made on the spot. Most of the furniture in your room is home-made, as I dare say you noticed. We're what you may call self-contained."

"What rooms have you got below?" asked Bob.

"We use the ground floor only for stores. In the dark you didn't see, I suppose, that the walls are loopholed. The stone's very thick, and in that little trouble I told you about we found them a capital fortification. The kitchen is outside; the servants have their own out-houses. The cook is Chinese, as I said; the khansaman is a Pathan; there are one or two other fellows whose nationality is an unknown quantity. Chunda Beg is a treasure, as grave as a judge, and as resourceful as a Jack-tar. You'll take most interest, I expect, in my storekeeper, Ditta Lal, a Bengali--what's commonly called a Babu. I wager you haven't spoken to him for more than two minutes before he tells you he is a B.A. of Calcutta University, and he'll tell you the same thing ten times a day until he chokes."

"Why should he choke?" asked Lawrence.

"Because he's getting so disgustingly fat. I really mustn't raise his screw--he calls it emoluments--any more. When he first came to me he was thin and weedy like many of his kind; but he made himself extremely useful, and I've increased his pay rather often. You'd be surprised at the result if you could compare him as he is with what he was. Upon my word, with every rise he swells visibly. I shouldn't like to say what his waist measurement is now. I told him the other day that I really couldn't raise him any more, for fear it proved fatal, and he smiled in my face and said, 'Ah, sahib, God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb,' which you won't beat for a piece of delightful inconsequence."

Talking thus, Mr. Appleton interested and amused the boys for an hour or two until it was time to turn in. The night was cold; but snuggled under thick blankets they slept like tops, and did not waken until the khansaman entered with water for their morning tub.

At breakfast Mr. Appleton announced that his first business for the day was the holding of a durbar to enquire into the scuffle of the night before.

"My discipline is as easy as possible," he said; "there are few rules, but I see that they are obeyed. The men represent some of the most unruly tribes of the frontier, but they know I mean what I say, and on the whole I've had very little trouble with them. Of course they get good pay; that's the first condition of good work and contentment."

"The second is good holidays," said Lawrence with a smile.

"Ah, you've just left school!" said his uncle. "But the men haven't anything to complain of on that score. They get holidays all the winter. We stop work for four or five months. What with snowstorms and the river frozen hard we could scarcely exist here in the winter months, so the men go off to their homes and no doubt play the heavy swell among their people, and I betake myself to Bokhara, or pay a round of visits among my Chinese friends, or go on a hunting trip, returning in the spring. But there's the bugle; come and see me in my part of unpaid magistrate. Then I'll take you over the place."

On leaving the house, the boys saw a number of men filing through the gate between two ranks of tall bearded Sikhs armed with rifles. Those who came first were of the Mongolian type, with broad, flat, yellowish faces, wide noses and narrow eyes. What little clothing they wore was ragged and stained a deep indigo blue. These men, numbering about eighty, formed a group on the left-hand side. After them entered more than a score of swarthy black-haired fellows of more symmetrical shape and more powerful physique, their features more sharply cut, some of them having almost a Jewish cast of countenance. Their garments were marked with streaks and stains of yellowish-green. Mr. Appleton explained that they were for the most part Pathans from the Afghan border; but they included also several Punjabis, a couple of Baluchis, three or four Chitralis, and a sprinkling of men of Hunza and Nagar. They formed up on the right-hand side.

At the door of an outhouse on the same side stood a very fat man whom the boys easily recognized as the Bengali storekeeper. His podgy olive cheeks were almost concealed by a bushy growth of black hair, and the loose white garment he wore, encircled with a sash of brilliant red, emphasised the vast unwieldiness of his bulk.

When all were assembled, the gate was shut, and Mr. Appleton, standing before his door, called for Gur Buksh. One of the armed Sikhs stepped forward, a tall, finely-proportioned, grey-bearded man, who, as the boys afterwards learnt, had been a havildar in a native Border regiment of the British army, and had seen considerable service on the frontier. He stood at attention, saluted, and gravely awaited the sahib's questions. The young Appletons looked on with curiosity, wishing that they could understand the conversation that ensued. Lawrence made up his mind to devote his spare time to a study of the native languages.

After Gur Buksh had made his report, Mr. Appleton called up two other men, one from each of the groups. The first was a young Kalmuck, whose yellow face would have been absolutely expressionless but for a keen look in his restless eyes. The other was a big hook-nosed Pathan, with strong, determined features and fierce low brows from beneath which his coal-black eyes flashed with truculence. The Kalmuck, answering to the name of Nurla Bai, gave brief and almost sullen answers to his master's questions; Muhammad Din, the Pathan, on the contrary, spoke at length, fiercely and volubly, with much play of features and hands. Having heard them both, Mr. Appleton made a measured speech in fine magisterial manner, and then dismissed them. At the close of his speech the boys noticed that the two culprits threw swift glances at them, the Kalmuck's eyes narrowing, and giving no clue to his thoughts, while the Pathan's indicated keen interest and searching enquiry. The whole company marched out of the gate, and the silence which they had hitherto preserved gave way to excited talk as they went off to their work.

"So much for that," said Mr. Appleton. "It appears that, taking advantage of my absence, the Kalmuck fellow, Nurla Bai, got into the Pathan section of the mine works, against my express orders. Muhammad Din stood up for law, rather zealously, and it would have come to a free fight if Gur Buksh hadn't stepped in. At night, when they knock off work, both parties cross the drawbridge to their huts on the other side, and the quarrel was just breaking out again when we had the good luck to come up. Nurla was clearly in the wrong, and I fined him a week's pay."

"He took it well," said Bob. "The fellow's face was like a mask."

"He was not so much unmoved as you think," said Mr. Appleton. "I know the fellow pretty well, and I could tell by the look of him that he was perfectly furious. I find my system answers very well. I punish all breaches of the regulations with fines, which are pooled and distributed every month among the men who haven't offended. Most of the men are quite keen to get these additions to their pay; in fact, I've known some of the rascals try to egg on a simple-minded mate to commit some slight misdemeanour, so that he'll lose his pay for their benefit. They're queer fish.... Good-morning, Ditta Lal."

The Bengali, who had been hovering about, gradually drawing nearer to his master, and casting sheep's eyes at the two young strangers, now waddled up, his face one broad smile.

"Good-morning, sir: good-morning, young gents," he said in a breathless wheeze. "'Full many a glorious morning have I seen, flatter the mountain tops with sovran eye,'--pat quotation from sweet Swan of Avon, whose sonnets I got up, with notes, for final exam, for B.A. degree, Calcutta University. Lovely morning, sir."

Mr. Appleton's eyes twinkled as he introduced his nephews, who were looking at the Babu as at some strange specimen.

"You'll find several mule loads of stuff we ordered on the other side, Ditta Lal," said Mr. Appleton.

"They shall be attended to instanter, sir. And I shall esteem it signal honour on fitting occasion to act as guide, philosopher and friend to young gents, show them my stores; in fact, do them proud, and all that."

He bowed, puffed, and waddled away. The boys laughed when his back was turned.

"What a treasure!" said Lawrence. "Our old school porter at Rugton was pretty big about, but this fellow would make two of him. What a rag the chaps would have if we could transport him!"

"I can't spare him. He's an abiding joy. But come, let me take you round."

The next hour was spent in going over the not very extensive settlement. The boys found that the portion on the west side of the gorge was divided into three. The first contained Mr. Appleton's dwelling-house, the engine-house and stores, and a set of small stamps, together with sheds for assaying, and a number of huts occupied by the personal native servants and the Sikh garrison. The dwelling-house was built in an angle of the cliff, which rose sheer behind it. Between house and cliff, however, was a space of about three yards filled with heavy beams, which were all loopholed. The whole of the enclosure in which the house stood was surrounded by a bank of earth about six feet high, formed of "tailings" from the mine. This bank was broken only in two places, one for the gate leading into the second enclosure or compound, the second for the drawbridge connecting with the east side of the gorge.

The second compound was somewhat smaller than the first. Here were to be seen barrows, trucks, and other implements; a line of rails led into a cave-like opening in the hillside, which, Mr. Appleton explained, was the entrance to a vein or lode sloping upwards into the heart of the mountain.

"It was lucky I hadn't to sink shafts," he said, "considering the difficulty of bringing mining appliances to this remote region."

"What led you to pitch here?" asked Bob.

"Well, you may call it accident, or you may put it down to my being possessed of a roving eye. I was hunting hereabout some years ago, and caught sight of what seemed to be an outcrop of copper ore. I poked about rather carefully, and collected a number of samples of this and other ores, which I had tested by a capital fellow in Peshawar. His assays confirmed my suspicions, and I thought I couldn't do better than try my luck."

"Who does the place belong to?" asked Lawrence. "Do you pay rent?"

Mr. Appleton smiled.

"I'm afraid I'm a squatter," he said, "not unlike the ancestors of some people I could name nearer home. The natives, I believe, used to pay tribute to the Amir, and also to the Chinese emperor--a little gold dust (where they got it I don't know)--a dog or two, and a basket of apricots: some trivial thing like that; and as the people are nomads, their suzerains, I dare say, thought they were lucky to get anything. Then the Russians came along, and among other unconsidered trifles snapped up this little no-man's land. They had a small military post a couple of marches across the hills to the north. This was raided by the Afghans when they got news of the Russian smash-up in Mongolia. The Mongols turned out the Afghans; then the post was destroyed by another Afghan raid; and since then nobody has troubled about it. It would puzzle even an international jurist in a Scotch university to decide who is the rightful sovereign of this tract of hill country; and meanwhile I'm on the spot, and I'll stay here and get on with my work until I'm turned out.

"This gallery here is worked by the Kalmucks: you saw some of them at the stamping presses as you came up. The slope makes it easy to dig the ore out, and also drains what little water there is: there's only a trickle, as you see. Come into the next compound."

He unlocked the door in the stout fence, and led the boys into a third enclosure, like the second, and having another line of rails leading into a gallery.

"This is the Pathan section," said Mr. Appleton. "There are not quite half as many Pathans as Kalmucks."

"I suppose you keep them apart for fear of ructions," said Bob.

"Partly," said Mr. Appleton, smiling a little as he added: "But there's another reason; I'll tell you that later. We are not treating the ore from this gallery at present. Look here."

He led them to the further fence, in which there was a gap, and bade them look down. They saw a heap of greenish rock lying in a deep saucer-shaped hollow between the yard and the river below. A line of rails ran from the mouth of the gallery to the gap, and while the three men stood there a couple of Pathans emerged from the hill, pushing a laden truck before them. On arriving at the fence they tilted up the truck, and the contents fell crashing upon the heap beneath.

"Now we'll go over the bridge and have a look at the miners' quarters on the other side," said Mr. Appleton. "I have to inspect them frequently: I'm magistrate, sanitary inspector, a regular Jack of all trades."

"Why did those two miners look at us so curiously when you were jawing them?" said Lawrence.

"I had just told them who you were, my nephews and the new superintendents. You've got to earn your living, you know. Bob will be responsible for the Pathans, and you for the Kalmucks. Of course you've a lot to learn."

"They looked as if they didn't much like their new bosses," said Bob.

"I daresay; but you'll be a comfort to me. I'm not troubled with nerves, but at times, I confess, I have felt what the old ladies call lonesome for want of a white man to talk to. The Babu is all very well, but now and again he worries me. When I'm tired and bothered he'll expound a knotty passage of Browning or some other incomprehensible poet; and when I should enjoy a little stimulating conversation, he 'havers,' as the Scotch say, in a mixture of high falutin' and outrageous slang. Now that you are here I've no doubt he'll be nothing but the joy I find him in my cheerful moods. I'm very glad of your company, boys."