CHAPTER VI
A BORDER OUTPOST
"What a beautiful spot!" thought Frank as he gazed entranced at thescenery. "I've never seen anything like it. It looks like Heaven afterthe ugliness of Rohar. And how delightfully cool it is, too, up in themountains! Well, with this climate and good shooting in the forest belowlife won't be as dreadful as I thought. I wish poor Violet were here outof the heat and glare. How she'd love all this beauty, these trees,these gardens, the glorious mountains!"
He sighed as he thought of the woman who was so far away.
"_Huzoor_, that is the Mess" broke in the voice of his _mahout_, as hepointed to a long, red-tiled building half-hidden among the trees a fewhundred feet above them. To reach it they had to pass a large,well-built stone bungalow, two-storied, unlike all the others andstanding in a lovely garden glowing with the vivid hues of the flowers,the flaming red of huge bushes of bougainvillea and poinsettia. Frank,glancing towards it, was about to ask the _mahout_ who lived in it whenhe started in horror and cried to the man:
"Stop! Stop your animal! Look there!"
And he snatched at his rifle. For on the farther side of the house ahuge tusker elephant in the garden stood over a little European boyabout four years old, who was sprawling almost under the huge feet. Andhigh above its head the brute held in its curved trunk a younger child,a girl with long golden curls, as if about to dash it to the ground.
As Frank grasped the rifle the _mahout_, who had turned at his cry,seized the barrel and said with a smile:
"_Durro mut_, Sahib! Do not fear, sir. Those are Durro Mut Sahib'sbabies and the elephant is their playmate."
And as he spoke Wargrave saw the elder child spring up from the groundand beat the great animal's legs with his tiny hands, crying:
"_Mujh-ko bhi_, Badshah! _Mujh-ko bhi! Uth! Uth!_ (Me too, Badshah! Metoo! Take me up!)"
And the baby held aloft was crowing in glee and kicking its fat littlelegs frantically. The elephant lowered it tenderly to the ground andpicked up the boy in its stead and lifted him into the air, while helaughed and clapped his hands. The two _mahouts_ raised their palmsrespectfully to their foreheads and cried to their animals:
"_Salaam kuro_! (Salute!)"
And the two trunks were lifted together in the _Salaamut_, the royalsalute given to Kings and Viceroys.
Frank's _mahout_ explained.
"_Gharib Parwar_ (Protector of the Poor), the pagan ignorant Hindusaround here say that the elephant is a god. Aye, and that his master,Durro Mut Sahib, is one too. _That's_ like enough. Well, Allah aloneknows the truth of everything. But those two are more than mere man andanimal, that is certain. _Mul, Moti_! (Go on, Pearl!)"
And he kicked his elephant under the ears with his bare feet to quickenher pace. But Frank bade him stop. Despite the man's optimism he couldnot believe it wise to allow tiny tots like that to play with such ahuge, clumsy animal. He was sure that their mother would be horrified ifshe knew it. He loved children, and felt that it was madness to allowthese babies to continue their dangerous pastime.
"Have they a mother?" he asked the _mahout_.
"Yes, _Huzoor_. The _mem-Sahib_ (lady) is doubtless within the house."
"I want to dismount," said Frank; and he grasped the surcingle rope asthe elephant sank jerkily to its knees. Then sliding down from the padhe entered the gate and passed up through the garden towards thebungalow. As he did so a dainty little figure in white, a charminglypretty girl with golden hair and blue eyes, came out on the verandah.Seeing him she walked down the steps to meet him and held out her hand,saying in a pleasant, musical voice:
"You are Mr. Wargrave, of course? Welcome to Ranga Duar."
Frank, uncomfortably conscious of his dishevelled appearance andtravel-stained attire, almost blushed as he took off his hat andquickened his steps to meet her, wondering who this delightful younggirl--she looked about nineteen--could be. Possibly an elder sister ofthe children outside. But as they shook hands she said:
"I am the wife of the Political Officer here. My husband, ColonelDermot, has just gone up to the Mess to see your C.O., Major Hunt."
Frank was astonished. This pretty young girl, scarcely more than a childherself, the mother of the two chubby babies! Touched by her kind mannerhe shook her hand warmly and said:
"Thank you very much for your welcome, Mrs. Dermot. It's awfully good ofyou, and I--I assure you I appreciate it a lot just now. I was coming totell you--I wonder do you know that your babies--I suppose they _are_yours--are playing what seems to me rather a dangerous game with anelephant at the side of the house."
Mrs. Dermot smiled; and the dimples that came with the smile carried hismind back for an instant to Violet.
"Yes, they are my chicks," she said. "I left them in Badshah's charge."
Frank was not altogether reassured. The young mother evidently did notknow what was happening.
"But--pardon me--is it quite safe? I was a bit scared when I saw them.The animal was tossing them up in the air."
"You needn't be alarmed, Mr. Wargrave--though it's very good of you tobe concerned and come to tell me," she replied. "But Badshah--that's theelephant's name--is a most careful nurse and I know that my babies arequite safe when they are in his care. He has looked after them sincethey were able to crawl. Come and be introduced to him. I must tell youthat he is a very exceptional animal. Indeed, we almost forget that heis an animal. He has saved our lives, my husband's and mine, on morethan one occasion. Next to the children and me I think that Kevin loveshim better than anyone or anything else in the world. And after mychicks and Kevin and my brother I believe I do, too. As for the babies,I'm not sure that he doesn't come first with them."
She led the way round the house, and in spite of her assurances Wargravefelt a little nervous when they came in sight of the strange nurse andits charges. The tiny girl was seated on the ground tightly clasping onehuge foreleg; while the boy was beating the other with his little fists,crying:
"_Mujk-ko uth! Pir! Pir!_ (Lift me up! Again! Again!)"
When he saw his mother he ran to her and said:
"Mummie, bad, naughty Badshah won't lift me up."
He suddenly caught sight of the stranger and paused shyly.
"Brian darling, this is a new friend," said his mother, bending down tohim. "Won't you shake hands with him?"
The child conquered his shyness with an effort and walked over to Frank,holding out his little hand.
"How do you do?" he said politely.
The subaltern gravely shook the proffered hand. The little girlscrambled to her fat little legs and finger in mouth, surveyed himsolemnly. Then satisfied with her inspection she toddled forward to himand said:
"Tiss me."
Frank laughed joyously.
"With all my heart, you darling," he cried.
This delightful welcome in the dreaded place of exile was inexpressiblycheering. He swung the dainty mite up in his arms and kissed her. Sheput her arms around his neck and hugged him.
"Me like 'oo," she said.
"You little flirt, Eileen," exclaimed her mother laughing. "Now it'sBadshah's turn."
She walked to the elephant, a splendid specimen of its race, though ithad only one tusk, the right. She held out her hand to it. The longtrunk shot out, brushed her fingers and then her cheek with a lighttouch that was almost a caress. She stroked the trunk affectionately.
"Now, Badshah, this is a new Sahib."
Frank, with the baby girl seated on his shoulder, stepped forward andextended his hand. The animal smelt it and then laid its trunk for amoment on his free shoulder.
"Badshah accepts you, Mr. Wargrave," said Mrs. Dermot seriously. "Andthere are few whom he takes to readily."
Eileen, with one arm around Frank's neck, stretched out the other to theelephant.
"Me love Badshah," she said.
The snake-like trunk lingered caressingly on her golden head. The babycaught and kissed it.
"Now then, chickies, time for bed," said thei
r mother. "Say goodnight toBadshah."
The little boy ran to the great animal and hugged its leg tightly, whilethe snaky trunk touched the child's face affectionately.
"Come along, Brian. Let him go now"; and at his mother's bidding the boyreleased his clasp and ran to her.
"Goodnight, Badshah. _Salaam_!" said Mrs. Dermot, waving her hand to themammoth, while her little daughter on Wargrave's shoulder imitated her.
The big animal raised its trunk in salute and, turning, walked withswaying stride out of sight behind the bungalow.
"By Jove, what a splendid beast!" exclaimed Frank. "And how wonderfullywell trained he is. I'm not surprised now that you let the kiddies playwith him."
Mrs. Dermot smiled.
"You would be even less so if you knew his story," she said. "He is myhusband's private property now. The Government of India presented him toKevin. Now come back to the house and have tea. Oh, no, after your longride you'll prefer a whiskey and soda."
"I'd really rather have the tea, I think, Mrs. Dermot. I don't feelthirsty up in this deliciously cool air. It's awful down in the Plainsnow. But what about my elephants and baggage?"
"Tell the _mahouts_ to go to the Mess. You are to have a room there."
Frank did so; and the two animals lumbered away up the hill after the_mahouts_ had brought the Colonel's guns into the bungalow.
Mrs. Dermot led the way into the house. The little boy had possessedhimself of Wargrave's free hand, the other one being engaged in holdingEileen, who was perched on the subaltern's shoulder. Mrs. Dermot foundit difficult to separate the children from their new friend when atlast she bore them off to bed.
Left to himself, Frank examined with deep interest and admiring envy thesplendid display of Colonel Dermot's trophies of big game shooting thatfilled the bungalow. From the walls many heads of bison and buffalo, of_sambhur_ and _barasingh_, those fine Indian stags, looked mildly at himwith their glass eyes; while tigers, bears and panthers snarled at himfrom the ground. Long elephant-tusks leaned in corners, smoking andliqueur-tables made up from the mammoths' legs and feet stood about, andcrossed from ceiling to floor; on the walls were the skins of enormoussnakes such as Frank had never seen or imagined. He had thought asix-foot cobra or an eight-foot python long--here were reptiles sixteenor eighteen feet in length, and he hoped that he would never meet theirequals alive in the jungle.
While he was gazing with admiration at the fine collection of trophiesMrs. Dermot returned.
"What a magnificent lot of heads and skins you've got here!" heexclaimed. "All your husband's, I suppose?"
She laughed as she glanced round the room, while pouring out the teathat her butler had brought.
"I'm afraid they make the house rather like a museum of naturalhistory," she answered. "Yes, they are all Kevin's, or nearly all.There are a few of mine among them."
He looked at her in open admiration.
"Oh, you shoot? How splendid!" he said. "Have you ever got a tiger?"
"A couple," she replied, smiling.
"I envy you awfully," he said. "I've never even seen one--out of acage."
"Well, if you are keen on shooting, Mr. Wargrave, you ought to havelittle difficulty in bagging a tiger or two before long," she said.
"I'd love to have the chance of going after big game. I'm hoping for ithere. Shall I? I've never had any, although I've shot a panther or twoand a few black buck and _chinkara_."
"You will have every opportunity of good sport here. Neither of theother two Europeans, your Commanding Officer and the doctor of yourdetachment, go in for it, the latter because his sight is very bad,Major Hunt because he doesn't care for it. I'm sure my husband will beglad to take you out with him; and nobody in the whole Terai knows moreabout big game than he."
"By Jove; how ripping," exclaimed Frank eagerly. "Would he?"
"I'm sure he would. He'll be only too delighted to have someone forcompany. I used to go with him always, until my babies came. Now Kevinhas no one but Badshah."
"Badshah? Oh, yes, that ripping elephant. I don't know much about thoseanimals, but isn't it unusual for him to have only a single tusk?"
"Yes; Badshah is what the natives call a 'Gunesh.' You know that Guneshis the Hindu God of Wisdom and is represented as having an elephant'shead with only the right tusk? Consequently any of these animals bornwith a single tusk, and that the right, is considered sacred and lookedupon as a god."
"One of the _mahouts_ said that the Hindus here regard your husband asone, too," said Frank, "and he seemed inclined to believe it himself. Ilike the name they've given Colonel Dermot--Durro Mut Sahib, Fear NotSahib."
A look of pride came in the young wife's eyes as she repeated the namesoftly to herself.
"Fear Not Sahib. Yes, it suits him." Then aloud she continued:
"I think you'll like my husband, Mr. Wargrave. All men do. He's a man'sman. The hill and jungle people worship him. He understands them. Ah!here he is, I think."
Her face brightened, and Frank saw the light of love shine in her eyesas she turned expectantly to the door. He sprang up as a tall man withhandsome, clear-cut features, dark complexion and eyes, andclose-cropped black hair touched at the temples with grey, entered theroom. With a pleasant smile the newcomer walked towards the subalternwith outstretched hand, saying in a friendly voice:
"Glad to welcome you to Ranga Duar, Wargrave."
"Thank you very much, sir," replied Frank gripping his hand and greatlytaken at once by the Political Officer's appearance and friendly manner."It was very kind of you to send those guns for me. But I had no luck.We saw nothing on the way."
After greeting him Colonel Dermot bent over his wife and kissed herfondly. It was obvious to the subaltern that after their five years ofmarried life they were lovers still. Frank looked at them a littleenviously. He wondered would it be so with Violet and him after the samelapse of time; for the sight of their happiness sent his thoughts flyingto the woman who loved him.
"Are you keen on shooting, Wargrave?" said the Colonel.
"Oh, yes, he is, Kevin," broke in his wife. "I told him that I was sureyou'd be glad to take him with you into the jungle sometimes."
"I'll be happy to do so, if you care to come with me, Wargrave," saidthe Colonel.
"I'd love to, sir. It would be awfully good of you," replied thesubaltern eagerly. "But I've only a Mannlicher rifle."
"Ah, you'll need a bigger bore than that. But I can lend you a .470 highvelocity cordite weapon. You want something with great hitting powerfor dangerous game," said Dermot.
He went on to speak of the jungle and its denizens; and his conversationwas so interesting that Wargrave forgot the flight of time until hishostess reminded him that he had to report his arrival to his commandingofficer and find his new quarters. Her husband volunteered to show himthe way to the Mess and introduce him to Major Hunt.
As Wargrave shook hands with Mrs. Dermot, she said:
"I wanted to ask you to dinner this evening; but Kevin thought you mightprefer to spend your first night with your brother officers. But weshall expect you to-morrow, when they are coming, too."
On their way up the steep road from his bungalow the Political Officerspoke of the great forest below them and the sport to be found in it.Then he said:
"It's lucky you like shooting, Wargrave, for Ranga Duar is very isolatedand life in it dull to a person who has no resources. Still, it has itsadvantages, and chief among them is the climate. It's delightful in thecold weather and pleasant in the hot."
"By Jove, it is indeed, sir! It's like Heaven after the heat in thePlains below. I don't know how I lived through it coming across India."
"The rainy season is the hardest to bear. We have five months of it andover three hundred inches of rain during them. One never sees a strangeface then--not that we ever do have many visitors here at any time.Still, you'll like your C.O., and Burke the doctor is a capital fellow.Here we are."
He turned in through a narrow gate leading to a pretty
though neglectedgarden in which stood the Mess, a long, single-storied building raisedon piles. On the broad wooden verandah to which a flight of steps ledfrom the ground two men were reclining in long chairs reading oldnewspapers. On seeing Dermot and his companion they rose, and theColonel introduced Frank. They shook hands with him and gave him ahearty welcome, which, coming on the top of the Dermot's, cheered thesubaltern exceedingly and for the time made him forget the circumstancesof his coming.
"It's mighty glad I am to see you here, Wargrave," said Burke, thedoctor, in a mellow brogue, "aven av it's only to have someone living inthe Mess wid me. The Major there lives in solitary state in his littlebungalow; and I'm all alone here at night wid _shaitans_ (devils) andwild beasts walking on the verandah."
"What? Has that panther been prowling round the Mess again?" asked thePolitical Officer.
"Faith! and he has that. Sure, I heard him sniffing at me door lastnight. I wish to the Powers ye'd shoot him, sir."
"I can't get him. I've tried often enough."
"Troth! and it's waking up one fine morning I'll be to find he's made ameal av me. Keep your door shut at night, Wargrave. Merrick, who livedin the room you'll have, forgot to do it once and the divil nearly hadhim."
"Is that really a fact?" asked Frank, delighted at the thought of havingcome to a place with such possibilities of sport.
"Yes; we're plagued by a brute of a panther that prowls about thestation at night, jumps the wall of the Fort and carries off the sepoys'dogs, and has actually entered rooms here in the Mess. He has killedseveral Bhuttia children on the hills around here. Nobody can ever get ashot at him. He's too cunning. Will you have a drink, Colonel?" saidHunt.
The Political Officer thanked him but declined, and, reminding them allof his wife's invitation for the morrow, bade them goodnight.
"That's one av the finest men in India," exclaimed Burke, as theywatched Dermot's figure receding down the road. The doctor had apleasant, ugly face and wore spectacles.
"He is, indeed. He keeps the whole Bhutan border in order," said thecommandant, Major Hunt, a slight, grey-haired man with a quiet andreserved manner. "The Bhuttias are more afraid of a cross look from himthan of all our rifles and machine-guns. Have a drink, Wargrave? Yes?And you, Burke? Hi, boy!"
A Gurkha servant with the ugly, cheery face of his race appeared and wasordered to bring three whiskeys and sodas.
"Ranga's not a bad place if you can stand the loneliness," continued theMajor. "Are you fond of shooting."
"Yes, sir, awfully."
"Hooray! That's good," cried Burke. "Now we'll have someone to go downto the jungle and shoot for the Mess. We want a change from tinned Armyrations and the tough ould hins that these benighted haythins callchickens."
"Yes, you'll be a Godsend to us if you're a good shot, Wargrave," addedthe Commandant. "We never get meat here unless someone shoots a stag ora buck in the jungle; and for that we generally have to rely on Dermot.But he is away such a lot, wandering along the frontier, keeping an eyeon the peace of the Border. Now we'll be able to look to you. We havethree transport elephants with the detachment, all steady to shootfrom."
Frank was delighted.
"I'd love to go into the jungle if you'd let me, sir."
"Yes, I'll be glad if you do. There's not much work for you here; andthis is a dull place for a youngster unless he's keen on sport. I'm not,myself; and Burke's as blind as a bat. But you can always have anelephant when they aren't wanted to bring up supplies from the railway."
The subaltern thanked him gratefully and inwardly decided that his newcommanding officer was a great improvement on Colonel Trevor.
"Now, Burke, I'm off to my bungalow. Show Wargrave his quarters," saidthe Major rising. "See you at dinner."
Burke showed the subaltern his room, one of the four into which the Messwas divided. Like the doctor's quarters, it was at one end of thebuilding, the centre apartment being the officers' anteroom anddining-room. Frank found that his "boy," with the ready deftness ofIndian servants, had unpacked his trunks, hung up his clothes and stowedhis various belongings about the scantily-furnished room. He had stoodViolet's photo on the one rickety table and laid out his Master's whitemess uniform on the small iron cot.
Major Hunt, Wargrave learned, lived in a bungalow a few hundred yardsaway, but, being unmarried, took his meals in the Mess. The Indianofficers and sepoys of the detachment were quartered in barracks in theFort.
Frank dressed and entered the anteroom or officers' sitting-room, fromwhich a door led into the messroom. Both apartments were poorlyfurnished, but the walls were adorned with the skulls and skins of manybeasts of the jungle, presented by Colonel Dermot, as Frank learned.Shelves filled with books ran across one end of the anteroom.
As the interior of the Mess was rather hot at that time of year--thoughto Wargrave it seemed very cool after Rohar--the dinner-table was laidon the verandah; and while the officers sat at their meal the pleasantmountain breeze played about them. Frank thought with gratitude of hisescape from the burning heat which at that moment was tormenting thehundreds of millions in the furnace of the Plains of India stretchingaway from the foot of the cool hills.
The meal was not luxurious, for it consisted almost exclusively oftinned provisions, fresh meat being unprocurable in Ranga Duar--exceptfowls of exceeding toughness--and vegetables and bread being raredainties.
During dinner Wargrave learned how completely isolated his new stationwas. Their only European neighbours were the planters on tea-gardensscattered about in the great forest below, the nearest thirty miles off.The few visitors that Ranga Duar saw in the year were the General on hisannual inspection, an occasional official of the Indian Civil Service,the Public Works or the Forest Department, or some planter friend of theDermots.
The reason of the existence of this outpost and its garrison was theguarding of the _duars_, or passes, through the Himalayas againstraiders from Bhutan, that little-known independent State lying betweenTibet and the Bengal border. Its frontier was only two miles from, and afew thousand feet above, Ranga Duar.
"You are just in time for our one yearly burst of gaiety, Wargrave,"said the Commandant, "the visit of the Deb Zimpun."
"What on earth is that, sir?" asked the subaltern.
"Sounds like a new disease, doesn't it?" said Burke laughing. "But itisn't. The Deb Zimpun is a gintleman av high degree, the Heridithary CupBearer to the Deb Raja."
"To the what?" demanded the bewildered Frank.
Major Hunt smiled.
"Bhutan is supposed to be ruled by a temporal monarch called the DebRaja and also by a spiritual one, known in India as the Durma Raja. Inreality it is under the sway of the most powerful of the several greatfeudal lords of the land, the Tongsa Penlop or Chief of Tongsa, whom weregard as the Maharajah of Bhutan. He has placed himself, as far only asthe foreign relations of the country go, under the suzerainty of theGovernment of India; and in return we grant him a subsidy of a _lakh_ ofrupees a year. It used to be fifty thousand, but the sum was doubledyears ago. To get the money one of the State Council comes every year.He is an official called the Deb Zimpun."
"Faith! he's a rum old beggar, Wargrave," broke in Burke. "Looks likethe Pope av Rome in his thriple crown, for he wears a high gold-edgedcap and a flowing red robe av Chinese silk, out av which sticks a pairav hairy bare legs."
"The Political Officer receives him in _durbar_; and we furnish a Guardof Honour. The Colonel gives a dinner to him and us, and we have anotherspread in the Mess. That reminds me. I suppose Dermot will be going intothe jungle soon to shoot for the pot, as the _durbar_ is next week.You'd better get him to take you. You can have one of our elephants andprovide for our larder."
"Thanks very much, Major," said the delighted subaltern. "The Colonelpromised to let me accompany him and lend me a rifle."
When he went to his room that night the subaltern turned up the oil lampthat lighted it and before he undressed sat down before Violet'sphotograph. As he looked at it he t
hought affectionately and a littlesadly of the lonely woman so far away from him now. He pitied her forthe isolation in which she lived, an isolation far completer than hisown, for she had few friends, no intimates, and a husband worse than astranger in his lack of understanding of her. Surely it would be onlyright to take her from such a man, right to give her a fresh chance offinding the happiness that she had missed; for the warm-hearted,intelligent and artistic-natured woman would be far happier with him inthis beautiful spot, remote from the world though it was. And his newcomrades would appeal to her, Dermot, strong, capable, one who wouldalways stand out from his fellows; Hunt grave, kindly, well-read; Burkewitty, clever and good-hearted. And, little though Violet cared for herown sex, as a rule, surely in Mrs. Dermot she would find a friend. Thishappy wife, this loving mother, was so sweet and sympathetic that shewould win the older woman's liking, while the two delightful childrenwould take her heart by storm. Poor, lonely Violet, so beautiful, soill-fated! Frank sighed as he took up her portrait and kissed it.
When he extinguished the lamp and lay down in bed it was pleasant, afterthe heat in Rohar, to find it so cool that he was obliged to pull ablanket over him. Only those who have endured the torment of hot nightsin the tropics can appreciate his thankfulness as in the silence brokenonly by the monotonous cry of the nightjars he drowsed contentedly tosleep. Already he was reconciled to Ranga Duar.