CHAPTER X
A STRANGE HOME-COMING
Dermot dragged the girl down to the ground beside him as a shot rang out.
"I suppose they will kill us, Major Dermot," she said calmly. "But couldn'tyou manage to get away in the darkness? You know the jungle so well. Pleasedon't hesitate to leave me, for I should only hamper you. Won't you go?"
Emotion choked the soldier for a moment. He gripped her arm and was aboutto speak when suddenly the forest on every side of them resounded to apandemonium of noise: a chorus of wild shrieks, shots, the crashing oftrampled undergrowth, the death-yells of men amid the savage screams andfierce trumpetings of a herd of elephants.
"Oh, what's that? What terrible thing is happening?" cried the girl.
Dermot seized her and dragged her close against the trunk of the tree. Inthe gloom they saw men flying madly past them pursued by elephants. Onewretch not ten yards from them was overtaken by a great tusker, whichstruck him to the ground, trampled on him, kicked and knelt upon hislifeless body until it was crushed to a pulp, then placing one forefoot onthe man's chest, wound his trunk round the legs and seized them in hismouth, tore them from the body, and threw them twenty yards away. Allaround similar tragedies were being enacted; for the herd of wild elephantshad charged in among the attackers.
Dermot gathered the terrified girl in his arms and held her face againsthis breast, so that she should be spared the horror of the sights aboutthem; but he could not shut out the terrible sounds, the agonised shrieks,the despairing yells of the wretches who were meeting with an awful fate.He remained motionless against the tree, hoping to escape the notice of thefierce animals, whom he could see plunging through the jungle in pursuit oftheir prey, for they were hunting the men down. Suddenly one elephant camestraight towards them with trunk uplifted. Dermot put the girl behind himand raised his rifle; but with a low murmur from its throat the animallowered its trunk, and he recognised it.
"Thank God! we are saved," he said. "It's Badshah. He has brought his herdto our rescue."
The girl clung to him convulsively and scarcely heard him; for the tumultin the jungle still continued, though the terrible pursuit seemed to bepassing farther away. The giant avengers were still crashing through thejungle after their prey; and an occasional heartrending shriek told ofanother luckless wretch who had met his doom.
Dermot gently disengaged the clinging hands and repeated his words. Thegirl, still shuddering, made an effort and rose to her knees.
Dermot went forward and laid his hand on the elephant's trunk.
"Thank you, Badshah," he said. "I am in your debt again."
The tip of the trunk touched his face in a gentle caress. Then he steppedback and said: "Now we'll go at once, Miss Daleham. We won't stop this timeuntil we reach your bungalow."
The girl had already recovered her courage and stood beside him.
"But you are wounded. There's blood on your face and on your neck. Are youbadly hurt?"
Dermot laughed reassuringly.
"To tell you the truth I had forgotten all about it. They are onlyscratches. The skin is cut, that's all. Come, we mustn't delay any longer."
At a word from him Badshah knelt. He hurriedly threw the pad on theelephant's back and made him rise so that the surcingle rope could befixed. Then he brought the animal to his knees again and lifted Noreen onto the pad. But before he took his own seat he searched the undergrowtharound the glade and found many corpses of men almost unrecognisable ashuman bodies, so crushed and battered were they. From the number that hecame upon it was evident that most of their assailants had been slain. Butall the elephants except his had disappeared; and the sounds of themassacre were dying away.
Slinging his rifle he climbed on to the pad; and Badshah rose and wentswiftly along a track that seemed to Dermot to lead towards Malpura. He didnot attempt to guide the elephant, but placed himself so that his bodywould shield the girl from the danger of being struck by overhangingboughs. He held her firmly as they were borne through the darkness that nowfilled the forest; for the swift-coming Indian night had fallen.
"Keep well down, Miss Daleham," he said. "You must be on your guard againstbeing swept off the pad by the low branches."
"Oh, Major Dermot," cried the girl with a shudder, "have all these terriblethings really happened in the last few hours or has it all been a hideousnightmare?"
"Please try not to think of them," he answered. "You are safe now."
"Yes; but you? You have to face these dangers again, since you are so muchin the jungle. Oh, my forest that I thought a fairyland! That such terriblethings can happen in it!"
"I can assure you that they are very unusual," he replied with a cheerylaugh. "You have been very fortunate; for you have crammed more excitementand adventure into one day than I have seen previously in all my time inthe jungle."
"It all seems so incredible," she said. "Did you really mean that Badshahbrought his herd to our rescue? But I know he did. I heard him call them.When he ran off I thought that he was frightened and had abandoned us. ButI did him a great injustice."
Her companion was silent for a moment. Then he said:
"Look here, Miss Daleham, we had better not tell that tale of Badshah quitein that way. It would seem impossible, and no European would credit it.Natives would, of course, for as it is they seem to look upon him as a godalready."
"Yes; but you think as I do, don't you?" she exclaimed in surprise. "Surelyyou believe that he did bring the other elephants to save us."
"Yes, I do. I know that he did, for I--well, between ourselves I have seenhim do even more wonderful things. But others wouldn't believe us, and Idon't want to emphasise the marvellous part of the story. I'd rather peoplethought that the _dacoits_, or whoever those men were who attacked us,accidentally fell foul of a herd of wild elephants."
"Perhaps you are right. But _we_ know. It will be just our own secret andBadshah's," she said dreamily.
Then she relapsed into silence. In spite of the terrible experiencesthrough which she had just passed she felt happy at the pressure ofDermot's arm about her and the sensation of being utterly alone with him ina world of their own, as they were borne on through the darkness. Fatiguemade her drowsy, and the swaying motion of the elephant's pace lulled herto sleep.
She woke suddenly and for an instant wondered where she was. Thenremembrance came and she felt the warm blood mantle her face as sherealised that she was nestling in Dermot's arms. But, drowsy and content,she did not move. Looking up she saw the stars overhead. They were out ofthe forest.
"I must have been asleep," she said. "Where are we?"
"At Malpura. There are the lights of your bungalow," replied Dermot. Hesaid it almost with regret, for he had found the long miles through theforest almost short, while the girl nestled confidingly, thoughunconsciously, in his arms and he held her against his heart.
As the elephant neared the house Dermot gave a loud shout.
Instantly the verandah filled with men who rushed out of the lighted roomsand tried to pierce the darkness. A little distance from the bungalow alarge number of coolies, seated on the ground, rose up and pressed forwardto the road. From behind the house several white-clad servants ran out.
Dermot shouted again and called out Daleham's name.
There was a frantic rush down the verandah steps.
"Hurrah! it's the Major," cried a planter.
"And--and--yes, Miss Daleham's with him. Hooray!" yelled another.
"Good old Dermot!" came in Payne's voice.
Through the throng of shouting, excited men the girl's brother broke.
"Noreen! Noreen! My God, are you there? Are you safe?" he criedfrantically.
Almost before Badshah sank to the ground, the girl, with a little sob,sprang into her brother's arms and clung to him, while Dermot was draggedoff the pad by the eager hands of a dozen men who thumped him on the back,pulled him from one to another, and nearly shook his arm off. The servantshad brought out lamps to light up t
he scene.
From the verandah steps Chunerbutty looked jealously on. He had beenrelieved at knowing that the girl had returned, but in his heart he cursedthe man who had saved her. He was roughly thrust aside by Parry, who dashedup the steps, ran into the house, and emerged a minute later holding alarge tumbler in his hand.
"Where is he, where is he? Look you, I know what he wants. Here's what willdo you good, Major," he shouted.
Dermot laughed and, taking the tumbler, drank its contents gratefully,though their strength made him cough, for the bibulous Celt had mixed it tohis own taste.
"Major, Major, how can we thank you?" said Fred Daleham, coming to him withhis sister clinging to his arm.
But she had to release him and shake hands over and over again with all theplanters and receive their congratulations and expressions of delight atseeing her safe and sound. Meanwhile her brother was endeavouring in thehubbub to thank her rescuer. But Dermot refused to listen.
"Oh, there's nothing to make a fuss about I assure you, Daleham," he said."It was just that I had the luck to be the first to follow the raiders. Anyone else would have done the same."
"Oh, nonsense, old man," broke in Payne, clapping him on the back. "Ofcourse we'd all have liked to do it, but none of us could have tracked thescoundrels like you could. How did you do it?"
"Yes; tell us what happened, Major."
"How did you find her, Dermot?"
"What occurred, Miss Daleham?"
"Did they put up a fight, sir?"
The eager mob of men poured a torrent of questions on the girl and herrescuer.
"Easy on, you fellows," said Dermot, laughing. "Give us time. We can'tanswer you all at once."
"Yes, give them a chance, boys. Don't crowd," cried one planter.
"Here! We can't see them. Let's have some light," shouted another.
"Where are those servants? Bring out all the lamps!"
"Lamps be hanged! Let's have a decent blaze. We'll have a bonfire."
Several of the younger planters ran to the stable and outhouses and broughtpiles of straw, old boxes, anything that would burn. Others despatchedcoolies to the factory near by to fetch wood, broken chests, and otherfuel. Several bonfires were made and the flames lit up the scene with ablaze of light.
"Why, you're wounded, Dermot!" exclaimed Payne.
"Oh, no. Just a scratch."
"Yes, he is wounded, but he pretends it's nothing," said Noreen. "Do see ifit's anything serious, Mr. Payne."
"I assure you it's nothing," protested the soldier, resisting eager andwell-meant attempts to drag him into the house and tend his hurts by force.But attention was diverted when a planter cried:
"Good Heavens! what's this? The elephant's tusk is covered with blood."
"Tusk! Why, he's blood to the eyes," exclaimed another.
For the leaping flames revealed the fact that Badshah's tusk, trunk, andlegs were covered with freshly-dried blood.
"Good Heavens! he's been wading in it."
"What's that on his tusk? Why, it's fragments of flesh. Oh, the deuce!"
There were exclamations of surprise and horror from the white men. But themass of coolies, who had been pressing forward to stare, drew back into thedarkness and muttered to each other.
"The god! The god! Who can withstand the god?" they whispered.
"_Arhe, bhai_! (Aye, brother!) But which is the god? The elephant or hisrider? Tell me that!" exclaimed a grey-haired coolie.
Among the Europeans the questions showered on Dermot redoubled.
"Look here, you fellows. I can't answer you all at once," he expostulated."It's a long story. But please remember that Miss Daleham has had a tiringday and must be worn out."
"Oh, no, I'm not," exclaimed the girl. "Not now. I was fatigued, but I'mtoo excited to rest yet."
"Come into the bungalow everyone and we'll have the whole story there,"said her brother. "The servants will get supper ready for us. We mustcelebrate tonight."
"Indeed, yes. Look you, it shall be very wet tonight in Malpura,whateffer," cried Parry, who was already half drunk. "Here, boy! Boy! Whereis that damned black beastie of mine? Boy!"
His _khitmagar_ disengaged himself from the group of servants andapproached apprehensively, keeping out of reach of his master's fist.
"Go to the house," said Parry to him in Bengali. "Bring liquor here. Allthe liquor I have. Hurry, you dog!"
He aimed a blow at him, which the _khitmagar_ dodged with the ease of longpractice and ran to execute his master's bidding.
Daleham gave directions to his butler and cook to prepare supper, and ledthe way into the house with his arm round his sister, who, woman-like,escaped to change her dress and make herself presentable, as she put it.She had already forgotten the fatigues of the day in the hearty welcome andthe joy of her safe home-coming.
But before Dermot entered the bungalow he had water brought and washed fromBadshah's head and legs the evidences of the terrible vengeance that he hadtaken upon their assailants. And from the verandah the planters looked atanimal and master and commented in low tones on the strange tales told ofboth, for the reputation of mysterious power that they enjoyed with nativeshad reached every white man of the district.
The crowd of coolies drifted away to their village on the tea-garden, andthere throughout the hot night hours the groups sat on the ground outsidethe thatched bamboo huts and talked of the animal and the man.
"It is not well to cross this sahib who is not as other sahibs," said acoolie, shaking his head solemnly.
"Sahib, say you? Is he only a sahib?" asked an old man. "Is he truly of the_gora logue_ (white folk)?"
"Why, what else is he? Is not his skin white?" said a youth,presumptuously thrusting himself into the conclave of the elders.
"Peace! Since when was it meet for children to prattle in the presence oftheir grandsires?" demanded a grey-haired coolie contemptuously. "Know,boy, that Shri Krishn's skin was of the same colour when he moved among uson earth."
Krishna, the Second Person of the Hindu Trinity, the best-loved god of alltheir mythological heaven, is represented in the cheap coloured oleographssold in the bazaars in India as being of fair complexion.
"Is he Krishna himself?" asked a female coolie eagerly, the glass bangleson her arm rattling as she raised her hand to draw her _sari_ over her facewhen she thus addressed men. "Is he Krishna, think you? He is handsomeenough to be the Holy One."
"Who knows, daughter? It may be. Shri Krishn has many incarnations," saidthe old man solemnly.
"Nay, I do not think that he is Krishna," remarked an elderly coolie. "Itmay be that he is another of the Holy Ones."
"Perhaps he is _Gunesh_," ventured a younger man.
"No; he bestrides _Gunesh_. I think he must be Krishna," chimed in another."What lesser god would dare to use Gunesh as his steed?"
"He is _Gunesh_ himself," asserted a grey-beard. "Does he not range thejungle and the mountains at the head of all the elephants of the Terai? Canhe not call them to his aid as Hanuman did the monkeys?"
"He is certainly a Holy One or else a very powerful demon," declared theold man. "It is an evil and a dangerous thing to molest those whom heprotects. The Bhuttias, ignorant pagans that they are, carried off themissie _baba_ he favours. What, think ye, has been their fate? With yourown eyes ye have all seen the blood and the flesh of men upon the tusk andlegs of his sacred elephant."
And so through the night the shuttle of superstitious talk went backwardand forward and wove a still more marvellous garment of fancy to drape thereputation of elephant and man. The godship that the common belief had longendowed Badshah with was being transferred to his master; and a mere IndianArmy Major was transformed into a mysterious Hindu deity.
Meanwhile in the well-lighted bungalow in which all the sahibs weregathered together the servants were hurriedly preparing a supper such aslonely Malpura had never known. And Noreen's pretty drawing-room wascrowded with men in riding costume or in uniform--for most of the planters
belonged to a Volunteer Light Horse Corps, and some of them, expecting afight, had put on khaki when they got Daleham's summons. Their rifles,revolvers, and cartridge belts were piled on the verandah. Chunerbutty,feeling that his presence among them would not be welcomed by the white menthat night, had gone off to his own bungalow in jealous rage. And nobodymissed him. Dermot, despite his protests, had been dragged off to have hishurts attended to, and it was then seen that he had been touched by threebullets.
When all were assembled in the room the planters demanded the tale ofNoreen's adventures; and the girl, looking dainty and fresh in a whitemuslin dress, unlike the heroine of her recent tragic experience, smilinglycomplied and told the story up to the point of Dermot's unexpected anddramatic intervention.
"Now you must go on, Major," she said, turning to him.
"Yes, yes, Dermot. Carry on the tale," was the universal cry.
Everyone turned an expectant face towards where the soldier sat, lookingunusually embarrassed.
"Oh, there's nothing much to tell," he said. "The raiders--they wereBhuttias--had left a trail easy enough to see, though I confess that Iwould have lost it once but for my elephant. When I came up to them, asMiss Daleham has just told you, they all ran away except two."
"What did these two do?" asked Granger, his host of the previous night.
"Not much. They tried to stand their ground, but didn't really give muchtrouble. So I took Miss Daleham up on my elephant and we started back. Butlike a fool I stopped on the way to have grub, and somebody began shootingat us from the jungle, until wild elephants turned up and cleared them off.Then we came on here. That's all."
These was a moment's silence. Then Granger, in disgusted tones, exclaimed:
"Well, Major, of all the poor story-tellers I've ever heard, you're thevery worst. One would think you'd only been for a stroll in a quiet Englishlane. 'Then we came on here. That's all.'"
"Oh, yes, you can't ask us to believe it was as tame as that, Major," saidanother planter. "We expected to hear something a little more exciting."
"You go out after thirty or forty raiders--"
"No, only twenty-two all told," corrected Dermot.
"All right, only twenty-two, come back with three hits on you and yourelephant up to his eyes in blood and--and--well, hang it all, Major, let'shave some more details."
"Come, Miss Daleham," Payne broke in, "you tell us what happened. I knowDermot, and we won't get any more out of him."
"Yes; let's hear all about it, Noreen," said her brother. "I'm sure itwasn't as tame as the Major says."
"Tame?" echoed the girl, smiling. "I've had enough excitement to last meall my life, dear. I think that Major Dermot has put it rather mildly. I'msure even I could tell the story better."
She narrated their adventures, giving her rescuer, despite his protests,full credit for his courage and resource, only omitting the details oftheir picnic meal and slurring over their relief by the wild elephants. Theplanters listened eagerly to her tale, breaking into applause at times.When she had finished Parry laid a heavy hand on Dermot's shoulder and saidsolemnly, though thickly:
"Look you, you are a bad liar, Major Dermot. Your story would not deceive achild, whateffer. But I am proud of you. You should have been a Welshman."
The rest overwhelmed the soldier with compliments and congratulations, muchto his embarrassment, and when Noreen left the room to supervise thearrangement of the supper-table they plied him with questions withoutextracting much more information from him. But when a servant came toannounce that the meal was ready and the planters rose to troop to thedining-room, Dermot reached the door first and held up his hand to stopthem.
"Gentlemen, one moment, please," he said. Then he looked out to satisfyhimself that the domestic was out of hearing and continued: "I'd be obligedif during supper you'd make no allusion before the servants to what hashappened today. Afterwards I shall have something to say to you inconfidence that will explain this request of mine."
The others looked at him in surprise but readily agreed. Before they leftthe room Daleham noticed the Hindu engineer's absence for the first time.
"By Jove, I'd forgotten Chunerbutty," he exclaimed. "I wonder where he is?Perhaps he doesn't know we're going to have supper. I'd better send the boyto tell him."
"Indeed no, he is fery well where he is," hiccoughed Parry, who, seated bya table on which drinks had been placed, had not been idle. "This is not anight for black men, look you."
"Yes, Daleham, Parry's right," said Granger. "Let us keep to our own colourtonight. Things might be said that wouldn't be pleasant for an Indian tohear."
"Forgive my putting a word in, Daleham," added Dermot. "But I have a veryparticular reason, which I'll explain afterwards, for asking you to leaveChunerbutty out."
"Yes, we don't want a damned Bengali among us tonight, Fred," said a youngplanter bluntly.
"Oh, very well; if you fellows would rather I didn't ask him I won't,"replied their host. "But I'm afraid his feelings will be hurt at being leftout when we're celebrating my sister's safe return. He's such an oldfriend."
"Oh, hang his feelings! Think of ours," cried another of the party.
"All right. Have it your own way. Let's go in to supper," said the host.
The hastily improvised meal was a merry feast, and the loud voices and theroars of laughter rang out into the silent night and reached the ears ofChunerbutty sitting in his bungalow eating his heart out in bitterness andjealousy. Noreen, presiding at one end of the long table, was the queen ofthe festival and certainly had never enjoyed any supper in London as muchas this impromptu meal. General favourite as she always was with every manin the district, this night there was added universal gladness at herescape and the feeling of satisfaction that the outrage on her had been sopromptly avenged. While the girl was pleased with the warmth and sincerityof the congratulations showered upon her, she was secretly delighted to seethe high esteem in which all the other men held Dermot. He was seatedbeside her and shared with her the good wishes of the company. His healthwas drunk with all the honours after hers, and the planters did not sparehis blushes in their loudly-expressed praises of his achievements.Cordiality and good humour prevailed, and, although the fun was fast andfurious, Parry was the only one who drank too much. Before he becameobjectionable, for he was usually quarrelsome in his cups, he wasdexterously cajoled out of the room and safely shepherded to his bungalow.