Читать книгу A Desert Bride - Hume Nisbet - Страница 15
ОглавлениеTOWARDS THE AFGHAN PASSES.
Six months have passed since that awful night at Allahabad, and the adventurers have fairly begun their journey, that is, they have at last got free of the British stations with the Indian mutineers, and have plunged into a country which the natives alone are as yet accountable for; the natives and other predatory owners of the land who have to be propitiated, avoided, or battled with. They are at last in the jungles and forests of the great Northwest, and approaching the mountains of Afghanistan.
These vanished six months had added years to the boys, and although they did not look much older at first sight, yet there was an alertness about their bearing, and a stern resolution about their lips, which compressed them as the lips of boys seldom are. They had been baptised in blood and fire, and had come out of the ordeal men as far as decision and action were concerned.
Some men, whose lives fall on fertile places, always remain boys. These are not always the best or noblest of men, although they are mostly the pleasantest of companions for a flourishing hour. Others, again, who have been tried by adversity, and have gazed upon death face to face, acquire a grave steadfastness of gaze which may pass for sternness or sullenness to the lightly observant. These men seldom laugh outright, or if they do, it is a boisterous laugh which is forced from their weighted hearts; but they can smile, and when they do, it is the charm which enthrals, for it is the smile of experience, tempered with divine charity.
Ronald MacIvor and Jack Bangles had become experienced shikarìes during these six months of privation, so that, when they wanted to laugh, they chuckled as a good shikarì must do, as silently as possible.
But they used to smile often—although they had got over the loud laughing stage—graver smiles than boys usually smile, and fuller of intention.
The effect of these six months of bodily danger and hardship had been quite the reverse on Mrs Bangles than it had been on her son and his friend. She seemed to have cast off years of care and taken up the youth which they were so rapidly setting down. Her eyes were clearer; many of the wrinkles had shifted their places from the brow and corners of the eyes to the sides of her still pretty mouth.
She was gay as she had not been since her short honeymoon, and her eyes sparkled with health and happiness, for the excitement which she had now, and which that bundle of nerves composing her little anatomy required, was no longer the morbid excitement of the stage, or poverty as it becomes degraded and accentuated within cities, but the healthy excitement of open-air danger, constant variety and exertion, so that she did not now require opiates to make her sleep sound at night, for downright fatigue did that for her most effectually. Ah, if some of the ladies who stay at home and fall victims to that most horrible of all diseases, ennui, would only accompany their adventurous husbands, how much less danger there would be from lions, tigers and tempests, than there is from this brain-sapping monster of civilisation. And if the men only knew what an injury they were doing to their women by taking so much care of them, they would not leave them so often behind.
This tiny mother of Jack had become the spirit and life of the expedition. She was always ready to laugh at any mishap now that they were clear of the human carnage; she was the one who directed them in their moments of indecision, nursed them when ailing—for even hardy boys cannot go through a journey of this sort without suffering some of the sicknesses which afflict even veteran travellers in a land like India.
She cooked for them the game which their guns brought down, and performed a hundred of those tender duties which only a woman can do for those she loves, and which are never noticed by the recipients thereof until the tender heart has gone from them; then, like the sage Carlyle, they wake up wondering how it was that they never noticed this close hedge of affection which had environed them about, keeping the harsh winds from them so long.
But one thing the boys excelled her in, and that was the guns. She never could bring down what she aimed at, although she sometimes killed something unexpectedly, and wide of the mark; therefore, although at close quarters she could be depended upon for her courage, she left the hunting entirely to the boys, concerning herself mostly in the mending of their light costumes, and, as I have said, cooking their food.
There were four travellers in this company, for the monkey Falko had accompanied them; a wonderful monkey that was to be sure, who as nearly as possible supplied the missing link between his species and man. He understood every word that was said to him, which was, of course, not at all surprising; but what was astonishing, he was beginning to make himself understood by his friends. Already he could utter the Hindoo words for food, heat, cold and love, and Jack, who was his instructor, felt hopeful that he would get him to converse just like an ordinary human, even although he could not master the English language.
"You see, I expect Hindoo must be the original language of the world, so that it comes more natural to Falko than our mixed up lingo," remarked Ronald.
"I expect so," returned Jack.
Falko had been accidentally wounded on that retreat from the tower after saving the lives of the refugees more than once, for, being one of the sacred order of monkeys, Jack had carried him in front of the procession; and when they came to a crowd, he had only to hold up the little fellow for the Hindoos to bend down and let them go past, while the others, who had taken the advice of Mrs Bangles, and borrowed the robes from the dead men, kept their turbans well over their faces until the danger was past.
In this way they had reached the river without serious mishap, and confiscating the boats, rowed round to the back of the fort, and, making themselves known to those inside, were admitted.
It was while trying to make themselves known that Falko got his wound—a shot in the leg—which, for a time, made a cripple of him. However, thanks to the nursing of Mrs Bangles, he was soon able to move about; and now, with the exception of a decided limp, which reminded one of some of the half-pay captains we see halting about the parks and clubs, he was as well as ever, and passionately devoted to his little nurse, Mrs Bangles.
With an eye to future business, she paid great attention to his education as a gymnast, acrobat and breakdown dancer.
Falko took very naturally to the acrobatic and gymnastic part of the profession. The step-dancing was a little more difficult to get him to understand; yet his instructor was an old hand at the training of professional dancers, so that, before a couple of months was over, he could do the native nautch dance, the Highland fling, and was making great progress in the Irish jig, with the sailor hornpipe, and had almost succeeded in that most most difficult of all performances, the egg dance.
"I'll have Falko yet able to sing a comic song, now that he has begun to pick up words, and then we don't need to bother about the Peacock Throne, for he'll make our fortune in England," exclaimed the enthusiastic music-hall singer, as she caressed her wonderful and affectionate prodigy, while he answered her back with "Han," which was as plain as could be, "Yes."
They had waited at the fort until they were released by General Neill, and then, against all the remonstrances of their friends at Allahabad, had started on their perilous journey, bearing with them the good wishes of all.
Through the heart of the mutineers they had wandered in this assumed character of mendicant performers, Ronald as a mute, and Falko, the sacred one, as their safeguard.
The Orientals were not difficult to please as far as talent was concerned. Mrs Bangles and Jack made quite a sensation with their free and impromptu translations of the comic songs of the times; and as they were going northward instead of south, there was the less inquiry about their purpose. They sang and danced in the camps and small courts of the Zamindars, did their share in the temples of the monkey god with Falko, and managed to escape from the clutches of dacoits and other more legalised robbers, with a share of the proceeds of their industry.
Past Cawnpore and Delhi—both places they gave a wide berth to when they found them in possession of the sepoys—past Loodiana and Lahore, doing most of their business at the little villages en route, and everywhere charitably and generously treated by the small farmers and peasants, who always shared their best with them, and sent them on their way full-handed and with a blessing.
Of course they witnessed many horrid sights as they went through this war-devastated portion of the land, for the blood of the sepoy was boiling with real or fancied wrongs; and when such is the case, death and disaster must be expected.
They had also many narrow escapes, sometimes from discovery of their nationality, sometimes from quicksands in crossing rivers, or snake-bites and tigers; also from those crafty, insinuating devotees, the Thugs, who travel about in small bands and lure strangers to their death; but they made a strict rule not to take up with anyone on the road, giving as an excuse that they had made vows to that effect, and as India is the land where vows are respected, they were permitted to go unquestioned.
As for the serpents, Falko stood their friend by warning them of danger; while as to tigers and panthers, they had already won the gratitude of several terror-stricken villagers by slaying their exterminators.
Ronald had with him his father's hunting gun, and had learnt to use it with deadly effect, so that already the tawny-striped tyrant of the jungle had ceased to inspire him with the terror that the thought of it gave him at first; and no one doubted the story which they told about the firearms being given them by their friends, the sepoys, as payment for their theatrical performances down south, particularly when they had that sacred Falko along with them.
From Lahore they struck up towards the beautiful Cashmere country, and then began to make their way to Afghan Land.
