CHAPTER XVII
THE JUNGLE FIRE
Mr. Gilchrist supposed that they might be drawing near the Englishsettlement, which he found, upon conversation with the chief Burman, tobe a police-station; when on the farther side of a small tributary tothe river, which it would be necessary to ford, a bright glare of lightflashed upon them suddenly as they rounded a spur of rock.
"What is that?" asked he anxiously.
"Paya, it is the jungle on fire," said the man. "It is the first junglefire I have heard of this year, but it happens frequently in the heatevery season."
"Good God!" exclaimed the gentleman, "what a sight! Are we safe here?"
"From the fire? yes, certainly," said the Burman. "See, my royal lord,there is a strip of clear ground on the farther bank of the stream, andthe water would quench anything that is likely to reach it. But form upclosely, for wild beasts may burst through here, being accustomed todrink at this place, and cross the ford where it is shallow."
"Load the guns," cried Mr. Gilchrist "Close round the gharrie; take outthe bullocks, and fasten them to the wheels,--we can surround thembetter so. Set your backs to the cart, and keep your weapons ready."
He would have had Osborn remain in the gharrie, beneath shelter, withWills, but the old man was out at the first hint of danger. He laid hisfriend's head upon a cushion, renewed the wet rags that lay upon hisfevered brow, gave him some cool drink, and was ready to help his masterin five minutes.
He was needed. Gilchrist looked round, his numbers were short. Had theuncertain light deceived him? Surely there should have been enough mento surround the gharrie and bullocks; also the two tats, or ponies, andthe larger horse, that were now brought into such close space, andfastened to the cart. He counted heads. Three Burmans were missing.
A very short search discovered them,--they were crouched upon theground, beneath the gharrie, hiding, in an agony of fear.
"Come out, you cowardly rascals!" thundered he. "Come out, or I willshoot you all as you lie there! Come out this instant!"
The men crept out, shaking with fright, and imploring the royal lord'sself to pardon them. They did not know whether to be most afraid of him,or the fire, or the possible wild beasts. They were not likely to be ofmuch use whichever danger arose first.
Mr. Gilchrist posted them between the coolies, Osborn, and himself, withorders that the first one who abandoned his post should be shot withoutmercy.
Meantime, animals were flying by, now by one or two at a time, then inherds. Sambhurs, with terrified eyes, bounded along at headlong speed;peacocks flew past, screaming; water-fowl rose in air. Monkeys jabberedand leapt by, wild cats scurried across. Then a great roar was heard,and a pair of leopards sprang out of their covers, and stood glaring atthe little band, every hair upon their beautiful spotted skins seemingto bristle with wrath.
Out rang Mr. Gilchrist's rifle; out rang Osborn's,--the female fell; themale, hardly braver than the Burmans, though more ferocious, turned tailand fled. The leopard was not dead, her leg was broken by one shot, herside entered by the other; but the contents of the second barrelsdespatched her.
Hardly had she been dead ten minutes, when, with a heavy flapping ofdark wings, many vultures were seen sweeping past and settling upon thenearest trees. The branches were weighed down with the black mass ofthese ill-omened birds.
Meantime the fire wound along among the jungle-grass in brilliantlysinuous lines; and ever as it ran hither and thither, a screaming,fluttering, shrieking rush of animal life followed it, though not alwaystaking the direction of our friends.
After the first, though clouds of birds and bats flew over their heads,deer, and larger beasts, hurrying to places of safety, turned aside uponperceiving them, and scampered farther down the stream. Rats and smallfry ran in the shallow water along its banks; and monkeys swungthemselves, hand over hand, among the trees.
By degrees the fire burnt itself out upon their road, and swept fartheraway; but it was broad daylight before the travellers dared to relaxtheir vigilance, or breathe freely once more. Mr. Gilchrist served out amodicum of brandy to each man, and some biscuits. The refreshment wasmuch needed, and gave them heart.
In the cool early morning, Wills was better; his temperature went down,his mind appeared clearer, and his speech less confused. Then, too,rising above the blackened jungle, perched high upon a hillside,appeared the police-station; and a group of horsemen might be seen, infresh linen garments, riding down in their direction. A lady was one ofthe party as well; she cantered along in her easy grey habit, with longcurls blowing back beneath a shady black hat, a pleasant sight to all.She proved to be a girl of nineteen, just come out from home, the brideof the young police officer; a bonnie, slender thing, with smiling lips,frank blue eyes, English roses still upon her cheeks, Burmese rosesfastened into the bosom of her jacket.
So short a time had elapsed since her marriage, that she still gave alittle involuntary start of remembrance when anyone called her Mrs.Brudenel, the name which she had been accustomed to hear only as that ofher husband's mother, while at his "wifey," a flush of colour wouldsuddenly mantle upon her fair young face.
Mr. Gilchrist had his own private hopes, which caused him to watch theselittle signs with secret interest, though he betrayed no outward symptomof his pleasure in them, and maintained a formal show of deep respecttowards her.
She was kindness itself to poor Wills, and treated him with a skillwhich showed her familiarity with illness. No sooner did she receive himinto her house, than she directed her ayah to prepare her one spare roomfor him,--a cool pleasant apartment; she bathed his brow with a fragrantlotion, applied mustard poultices to the back of his head behind hisears; she supplied all other things desirable, and devised means forthrowing out a profuse perspiration upon his body.
Wills gradually recovered his full senses under this treatment, but wasvery weak.
The doctor soon arrived, and so played his skilful part, that, uponbringing to him a basin of such soup as he had seldom enjoyed, Willslooked up anxiously in Mrs. Brudenel's face.
"The boy?" he asked. "Is he safe?"
"We hope so," replied she gently.
"Only _hope_, miss?"
"Only hope at present, but my husband has taken his men to bring him in.We shall soon have good news for you, please God."
"Ay, please God," said the old man. "The cheild has come to be like theapple of my eye,--the best fruit from a fine old stock, lady. PleaseGod, please God."
"Would you like me to pray with you for his safety?" asked the lady.
"Ay, ef 'ee will," replied he.
Mrs. Brudenel knelt by the old seaman's bed, took his horny hand in hersoft white one, and poured out a supplication to the God and Father ofthem both, that He would keep this boy safely beneath the shadow of Hiseverlasting wings, and restore him to his friends without injury.
As she rose from her knees, the old man's lips moved again. "Amen,amen," he muttered. "Please God, please God."
He fell into a sleep, still murmuring these words, and holding thelady's hand.
She did not try to release it, but sat patiently by the bedside untilhis fingers relaxed of their own accord, as his sleep deepened; thenleaving the ayah to fan him, and be ready to give him more nourishmentwhen he should awake, she stole away in search of her husband.
Mr. Brudenel, having helped his other guests to refresh themselves aftertheir night's strain of anxiety, having placed baths and refreshmentbefore them, had now gathered his own men together, and, with Mr.Gilchrist and Osborn, was proceeding to search for Ralph.
"How is your patient, wifey?" asked he, as he observed his wife'sapproach.
"Better," said she in a cheerful voice. "He was quite clear in mind fora short time, and is now asleep. I hope you will find your young friendsafe and well," she added, turning to Mr. Gilchrist.
"Thank you, madam," replied he. "If not, I shall feel guilty of his lossto my dying day, for I took him from comparative safety, chiefly for myown pleasure
in the company of his bright boyhood."
"Pooh, pooh!" cried Mr. Brudenel. "We will have him all right in acouple of hours. Lads like he take a deal of killing. I have been inqueer places dozens of times myself, but always turned up again like abad shilling. Forward, my friends!"
They rode down the hillside; a turn in the path hid them from sight;then they reappeared upon the plain through which the stream flowed, andpicked their careful way across the ford, the horses throwing up thesparkling water at each step as they splashed through. Then they slowlymounted the rocky track on the farther side, and disappeared from sight.
Mrs. Brudenel watched the cavalcade to this spot, and then returned tothe invalid.
"We will go to the tent first," said Mr. Gilchrist. They did so. Thefire which they had built up was burned down to a handful of smoulderingashes; the little white note was still there upon the tree, plainly insight; the tent was deserted, no sign was there of any person havingvisited it. The silence and solitude was significant and oppressive.
With a gloomy brow, Gilchrist turned his horse's head towards the defileup which Ralph had fled.
This led away from the direction of the river, back into the junglethrough which they had come, but farther east. No word was spoken amongthe searchers as they rode up the pass. It was very narrow, probably butthe bed of a mountain stream when the rains had fallen plentifully, andnow dry. The jungle closed in thickly upon it, and became more and moredense as they mounted the hill. The natives who accompanied the partypointed out the spot where the two tiger cubs had lain, and been killed.It was marked by the bleached and scattered bones of various deer, somesambhurs' horns, and remains of other creatures, which had formed theprey of the parent animals.
With a sick heart, Gilchrist nerved himself to examine this debris. Heturned over leg bones, skulls, and all which he could find, not leavingone unnoticed, but none were human remains. Not the slightest signappeared to show that Ralph had been there, nor that the full-grownbeasts had revisited the spot.
They pursued their way with difficulty, so thick was the tangle of theunderwood. Huge ferns reared gigantic fronds among shrubs of a hundreddifferent kinds; orchids hung pendant from lofty trees; creepers of manysorts, with blossoms of every colour, drooped from heights, clung tobranches, wound their devious way from trunk to trunk, cast curtains offoliage and flower around monarchs of the forest and humble scrub,touched the fertile virgin earth, took fresh root, and started upon newcomplications in other directions.
But what was this? Dark vultures concealed a massive form stretched uponthe ground in a little glade, comparatively open. What were theydevouring?
At the approach of the searchers they rose, heavily flapping theirill-omened pinions, among hoarse cries, and awaited the completion oftheir meal from short distances.
Mr. Gilchrist turned very faint, he could not proceed, he leant againstthe trunk of a tree while the rest cut their way through the interveningvines, and a jackal sneaked away at their approach.
A cry of surprise and relief broke from Mr. Brudenel's lips.
"It is a female tiger's remains, nothing worse!" shouted he. "She hasbeen killed by a magnificent shot, here in the neck! A single bullet didfor her! Your man has been this way, without doubt; and does he not knowhow to handle his rifle! _He_ is no bungler, that's certain."
Mr. Gilchrist took fresh heart, and approached the spot. The tiger'sbones were picked nearly clean already; the foul birds of prey hadwasted no time. Little but the skeleton remained of what had, onlytwenty-four hours earlier, been so fearsome and so splendid a brute; andwhich had been done to death by one little piece of lead buried in itsspine.
The eyes which had glared with yellow fire were picked clean from thehead, the jaws which had uttered many a dreadful cry were lying wideopen in ghastly mockery of rage, and the tongue was torn from behindthem.
"We will keep this skull," exclaimed Brudenel with triumph. "There islittle else worth carrying off, but this will be a trophy worth keeping.Your friend has got safely away from _this_ peril, at anyrate,Gilchrist; we will find him yet, you will see. He's no fool to have shotlike this!"
Gilchrist smiled. A faint ray of hope pierced into his heart at thecheery words. It certainly must have been Denham who had killed thattiger,--that must have been the shot which had been heard. But why hadhe not returned? Where was he now?