CHAPTER XIV.
INTO THE TERRIBLE LAND.
IT was not long before Ferrers’ request for an accession of force reached Major Keeling, but it came at an unfortunate moment, for the Commandant was just setting out in the opposite direction, taking with him every man he could muster except those needed to guard the town. News had arrived that a band of Nalapuri raiders had crossed the frontier to the westward two days before, and as nothing more had been heard of them, it was evident they were hiding in the hills and waiting for an opportunity to swoop down and attack the labourers engaged upon the new canal works. The various raids of the kind which had occurred hitherto had been dealt with by the native police, but having received timely warning of this organised and more formidable incursion, Major Keeling meant to make an example of its promoters. They should not cut up his coolies in future, however tempting and defenceless the prey might appear. The matter was urgent, for delay would enable the raiders either to accomplish their object, or, on learning his intention, to make good their retreat over the frontier. Once in their own country they need only separate and mingle among their fellow-countrymen, who were all as villainous in looks and character as themselves, and there would be no hope of tracking them. Hence Major Keeling’s face was perturbed when he sent for Colin to his office shortly before the hour fixed for starting.
“I have just had a chit from Ferrers, asking for a small reinforcement in order to effect the capture of Shir Hussein, and suggesting that you should be sent in charge of it,” he said. “Had you any idea that he had found out where he was?”
“He mentioned to me that he had reason to believe Shir Hussein had taken refuge in a fort which he knew very well, sir.”
“And that was when he was here the other day? Most extraordinary of him not to have said anything to me.”
“I think he meant to reconnoitre the place, sir, and see how large a force would be needed, before he said anything about it.”
“Lest I should rush in and carry off the honour, I suppose? And he promised to ask for you—and you are wild to go? It won’t do, Ross. He can’t have reconnoitred the place to much purpose, I fear, from his letter. He talks about Shir Hussein’s ‘sheltering in a ruined fort,’ and ‘hopes to turn him out of it.’ Curiously enough, independent information on the subject reached me only this morning, from which it appears that Shir Hussein has between two and three hundred men with him, and that he has repaired his ‘ruined fort’ in a very workmanlike way.”
“Perhaps his strength is exaggerated, sir?” pleaded Colin, seeing Ferrers’ chance of distinction fading away; but Major Keeling shook his head.
“The information comes from one of my most trusted spies. No; I should certainly have dealt with Shir Hussein myself if I had not been starting on this business. How he can have managed to support such a following in that district is most mysterious, and argues a good deal of slackness on Ferrers’ part.”
“I—I think perhaps he was outwitted, sir. I mean that he seems to have looked for the man everywhere except comparatively near at hand.”
“Possibly; but he ought not to have been outwitted. Well, Ross, you see that it’s out of the question for you to go. Shir Hussein and his fort won’t fly away, and I’ll take them in hand when this raiding-party is disposed of, Ferrers co-operating from Shah Nawaz. No; it’s his discovery, after all, and he shall have the credit of it and be in command. If I go, it will be as a spectator.”
“But they might escape first, sir—when they know they are discovered, and that messengers are going backwards and forwards between here and Shah Nawaz, I mean—and Ferrers will lose his chance.”
“I can’t sacrifice my coolies that Ferrers may distinguish himself. But look here. I will call out the doctor and his Hospital Fencibles to guard the town again, and you shall take the detachment I was intending to leave here, and join Ferrers. Then he will be strong enough to keep the fellows from breaking away as you suggest. It’s really important that they should not vanish and give us all the trouble of looking for them over again. But mind, there is to be no fighting. The troops—your detachment and Ferrers’ own—are to be used purely for keeping guard over the approaches to Shir Hussein’s fort and preventing his escape. My orders are stringent—I will send them in writing as well as by word of mouth—that no attack is to be made on the fort until I come up with the reinforcements. I know Ferrers would be perfectly ready to run his head against a stone wall, expecting to batter it down. Perhaps he might, but I distrust his prudence, and I won’t have the town left open to an attack from Shir Hussein. You understand?”
“Yes, sir,” said Colin dolefully. He knew by intuition that not even Major Keeling’s chivalrous offer of self-suppression would make his orders palatable to Ferrers, and his foresight was justified when he arrived at Shah Nawaz with his small detachment, and found the whole place in a turmoil of preparation. Ferrers was first incredulous, then wrathful.
“Didn’t I tell you how it would be?” he cried furiously. “Keeling is determined that I shan’t leave the frontier with flying colours. It’s nothing but mean, miserable jealousy on his part—and you side with him. I expected it of the others, but you——!”
“But your force is not large enough. Major Keeling believes that Shir Hussein has over two hundred men with him.”
“As if I didn’t know that! A surprise would make it all right.”
“But he has repaired his fort, so the Chief says.”
“He has made a new gate, which I am going to blow in, and piled up a few of the stones which had fallen down. Do you think I don’t know more about it than Keeling, when I reconnoitred up to the very gate two nights ago, and not a soul stirred?”
“If you had only said so in your letter! He thought you underrated the difficulties.”
“You fool! If I had told him all I knew about the strength of the place, would he ever have sanctioned my attacking it? I thought I had made that right, at any rate, and then this cursed spy of his turns up! What business has he sending spies into my district?—to spy upon me, I suppose, and make sure I get no chance of distinguishing myself.”
“You are unjust, George. He will let you have all the credit when he brings up the reinforcements. You are to be in command, and he will only be a spectator.”
“You are too green. Don’t you know his dodge of getting these chaps to surrender by the magic of his name? Where should I be then? If they surrender, he gets the credit; if they don’t, he’ll get the fighting. You don’t catch him sitting still and looking on, or joining as a volunteer under me.”
“I really think that was what he meant, and you couldn’t expect it of any one else,” said Colin thoughtfully.
“And I don’t expect it of him, you may be sure. I am going to carry out my original plan, and surprise the fort to-night.”
“But that would be disobeying orders!”
“What do I care for orders? It’s a plot to rob me of my last chance of distinction while I’m here. Dare you look me in the face and say it isn’t? Porter and Haigh and the rest hate me like poison, and all toady the Chief, so it’s no wonder that he tries to push them on, and not me. But I won’t stand it.”
“Then you must attack with only your own men—not mine.”
“What! are you afraid?” There was an unpleasant smile on Ferrers’ face. “Then you shall stay in command here, and I’ll take over your men for the occasion.”
“No, you won’t. They are under my orders, not yours.”
Ferrers flung an ugly word at him, but could not alter his determination, and all might have been well if Colin had not felt moved to improve the occasion. “Don’t think I don’t sympathise with you,” he said. “I know how hard it must be, but I can assure you Keeling means well by you. After all, it is only keeping our men on outpost duty for a day or two, and having the fight then.”
“No,” said Ferrers earnestly—his mood seemed to have changed—“that’s not all. I know the place too well to think we can guard all its outlets. Shir Hussein and his men will simply make themselves scarce, and we shall lose them. Colin, I’m going to put the glass to my blind eye.” Colin moved uneasily. “Isn’t it Keeling’s boast that he commands men, not machines—that he can trust his officers to disobey an order if circumstances make it desirable?” Colin gave a doubtful assent, and Ferrers went on, “I call upon you to second me. If you are afraid of the responsibility, stay behind here; but unless you are bent upon my death, you will let me have your men. We shall never have such an opportunity again. By to-morrow morning Shir Hussein will have heard you are here, and the chance of a surprise will be over. To-night he knows nothing; there is no watch kept. I have the powder and the fuse all ready for blowing in the gate, and once inside, we shall have them at our mercy. Dare you risk the responsibility and come?”
“I do. We will come,” said Colin, carried away by his friend’s unusual earnestness, and Ferrers went out well pleased. His preparations were in such a forward state that they had not suffered from his temporary withdrawal, and at the appointed time all was ready for the night-march. It was his intention to reach the fort about an hour before dawn, and this part of his plans was carried out admirably. After posting Colin and the larger portion of his force in readiness to rush forward as soon as the smoke cleared away, Ferrers himself went forward with one of the native officers to place the powder-bag against the gate. It was impossible to follow their movements with the eye, but as Colin gazed into the darkness, there came a crash, a glare, a blinding explosion, shouts of dismay. He gave the word to the eager men behind him, and they rushed forward with a cheer. But before they were half-way across the space which separated them from the fort gate, Colin became aware that bullets were whistling round him, that men behind him were falling. Could it be that the men left in reserve with their carbines loaded to keep down any fire that might be opened from the wall were firing too low? No, the bullets came from before, not from behind. As Colin realised this, he tripped over something and fell into a hole, and was followed by several of his men. Before they could extricate themselves, there was a tremendous rush from in front, and a band of swordsmen, cutting and slashing with their heavy tulwars, threw themselves upon the disordered force. The men behind durst not fire, for fear of hitting their comrades; Colin, struggling vehemently to his feet at last, was cut down and trampled upon; and if a wild figure, with face streaming with blood, and hair partially burnt off, had not burst into the fray, scarcely one of the storming-party would have escaped. But Ferrers, who had been flung senseless to a distance when the burst of firing from the wall—which proved that it was he and not Shir Hussein who was surprised—had exploded the gunpowder he was carrying and killed his companion, was able to rally his force, and even press the enemy’s swordsmen back to the gate. There was no prospect now of pushing in after them; all he could do was to send orders to the men held in reserve to fire at any flash of a matchlock from the wall, while he extricated Colin’s body from the hole torn in the ground by the explosion, and his men carried off their wounded comrades. The dead must be left behind—disgrace unprecedented in the history of the Khemistan Horse. To retire on the reserve, then to retreat slowly, with frequent halts to drive back the pursuers, to the spot where the horses had been left, and to return with sorely diminished numbers to Shah Nawaz, was all that could be done. Had Shir Hussein chosen to follow up his advantage there would have been little hope of defending the place successfully; but the tradition of the invincibility of the regiment stood it in good stead in this dark hour, and Ferrers was able to despatch a messenger to Alibad, and then turn to and help the native hospital assistant who was doing his best for Colin’s ghastly wounds.
The news of the repulse created great excitement at Alibad; and as soon as Dr Tarleton had sent off another messenger to Major Keeling, he summoned Lady Haigh and Penelope and as many other non-combatants as could be accommodated there to take refuge in the gaol, while he armed his volunteers and appointed them their stations. But all fear of an attack was at an end on the following morning, when Major Keeling and his force swept like a tornado through the town, flushed with victory over the Nalapuri invaders, and burning to avenge the most serious check which the Khemistan Horse had met with since its first formation. Kīlin Sahib had roared like a bull, the messenger said, when he heard the news, and his face was black towards the officers who sought to dissuade him from setting out at once for Shah Nawaz. The men had had a severe fight and a long march, they reminded him; to which he replied that the Khemistan Horse had often met with hard knocks before, but had never retired. He was prevailed upon at last to allow the force a night’s rest; but before daylight he was parading the men, and selecting the freshest and best mounted to accompany him, while the others were to escort the prisoners and spoil to Alibad, and remain to guard the town. Sir Dugald was sent on ahead to pick up two of his field-pieces, and he rejoined the force with them as it passed through Alibad, bound first for Shah Nawaz, and then for Shir Hussein’s stronghold.
Shir Hussein was a man who knew when he was beaten. His first overwhelming success was entirely unexpected, for, once run to earth, he had only hoped to make his fortress a hard nut to crack, and keep the Shah Nawaz detachment occupied with it for some time, while he stood out for better terms. When he found all his approaches commanded by marksmen posted among the rocks, and learned that it was the height of folly for a man to show so much as his head above the parapet, he congratulated himself on having made such an impression upon the foe that they had decided upon a blockade rather than an assault, and made up his mind that he could hold out for weeks. But when a small group of men and two disagreeable-looking objects made their appearance at the top of a precipitous cliff, the steepness of which seemed to suggest that wings would be needed to get guns up there, and a far from charming variety of round-shot, shell, and grape began to fall inside his enclosure, Shir Hussein followed the example of the historic coon, and intimated that he would surrender without further persuasion. The resistance had been much too brief to satisfy the outraged feelings of the regiment and its Commandant, but it afforded these some relief to blow up the fort, and tumble the shattered fragments down into the valley. Major Keeling ordered a halt at Shah Nawaz on the way back, that he might install Lieutenant Jones there a second time in place of Ferrers, whom he had already suspended; but found to his disgust that there was no punishment involved in this, since Ferrers had just received his appointment as envoy to Gamara. The only thing to be done was to cold-shoulder him out of the province as quickly as possible.
“Envoy or no envoy,” said Major Keeling savagely to Lady Haigh in a rare moment of confidence, “I’d have court-martialled him if it hadn’t been for the private grudge between us. You can’t go persecuting the man who’s cut you out.”
Ferrers’ departure from Alibad, hurried and almost ignominious as it was, was not wholly without its compensations, for Penelope and he were drawn nearer together than ever before by their common anxiety about Colin. Ferrers was so genuinely anxious and distressed for his friend that he could think of nothing else, and his farewells to Penelope consisted almost entirely of charges to take care of Colin, and to let him know exactly how he was getting on. Penelope was not likely to resent this preoccupation—indeed, she caught herself reflecting what a sympathising friend she might have been to Ferrers if he had not insisted upon being regarded as a lover,—and she parted from him with kinder feelings than she would have thought possible before. Thus he started on his journey to the river, whence he was to cross the desert to the eastward and to travel to Calcutta, so as to receive his orders and credentials from the Government before he betook himself beyond the bounds of civilisation. Major Keeling saw him depart with unconcealed pleasure, and promptly ordered up from the river to replace him a young officer on whom he had had his eye for some time, sowing the seeds of future trouble by seconding him from his regiment and appointing him to the Khemistan Horse on his own authority.
As for Ferrers, he discovered very soon that his mission was not likely to be either an easy or a particularly glorious one. When the unfortunate Lieutenant Whybrow had disappeared, the Government expressed its official regret at his probable fate, and seemed to think it had done all that could be expected of it. But Whybrow had possessed relations and many friends, and these were so unreasonable as to hold the opinion that the Government was responsible for the lives of its accredited agents. They induced a section of the home press to take up the subject, and there was something like an agitation about it in London. Finding that it was not to be left alone, the Government decided on a compromise. Nothing but overwhelming physical force could bring the fanatics of Gamara to their knees, and this could only have been applied by an army, under the command of Sir Henry Lennox or an officer of his calibre, whose calculated rashness might, like Faith, “laugh at impossibilities, and say, It shall be done.” But no one would have ventured to propose such an expedition at this time, and it was therefore determined to try moral suasion once more. Ferrers was supplied with the means of obtaining abundance of money (which was to be rigorously accounted for), but denied an escort; instructed to obtain the release of Whybrow, if he was still alive, by all possible means, but strictly forbidden to indulge in threats which might seem to pledge the Government to take action. To most people the affair seemed hopeless from the first; but Ferrers’ failing was not a lack of self-confidence, and he felt that he had it in him to secure success where other men would only suffer signal defeat.
His journey to Gamara seemed to justify him in this opinion, for it was a triumph of what a later age has learnt to call bluff. Taking with him only his personal servants, he attached himself, for the greater part of the way, to a trading caravan, and speedily made himself the chief person in it. It could only be some very important man, with unlimited power behind him, who would dare to adopt such an insolent demeanour, and bully his travelling companions so unconcernedly, thought the merchants. Somewhat sulkily they accepted him at his own valuation, and the marches and halting-places came to be settled by reference to him. He it was also who rebuked the guides when it was necessary, bringing those haughty mountaineers to reason by displaying a proficiency in many-tongued abuse which astonished them, and who forced the headmen of inhospitable villages to turn out of their own houses for his accommodation. True, the merchants sometimes looked forward with misgiving to the next time they would traverse these regions, when there would be no champion to help them; but such a splendid opportunity of paying off old grudges was not to be let slip, and the caravan led by the overbearing Farangi was long a proverb on the route.
When the mountains had been crossed, and the irrigated plains of Gamara were in view, the caravan broke up into several portions, and Ferrers pursued his way to the city in company with one of these. His heart was high, for his reputation had preceded him, and the villagers received him with marked respect. It was clear, he thought, that the men who went before him had failed by going to work too gently, and truckling to the prejudices of the people. The right thing was to go on one’s way regardless of opposition, to browbeat the haughty and meet the insolent with an insolence greater than their own, and in general to act as no sane man, alone and without support in a hostile country, could be expected to act. The natives, like his fellow-travellers, would conclude that he had some mysterious reserve of strength, or he could never be so bold. Thus he saw without misgiving the distant masses of green which marked the neighbourhood of the city, and rode calmly along the narrow dikes, which were the only roads between the sunken fields, without a thought of turning back while there was time. Dimly seen through their screen of trees, the brick towers and earthen ramparts of Gamara had nothing very terrible about them, and was not Ferrers entering the place as an accredited envoy, with permission from the Khan to reside there until the business on which he came was done? Even the contemptible little dispute into which he was forced by the action of the officials at the gate, who wished to make him dismount from his horse, did not trouble him. What did it signify that the law of Gamara forbade a Christian to ride in her streets? He, at least, was going to ride where he liked, and ride he did. It was when he had passed triumphantly through the gate that he was first conscious of a sense of uneasiness, of a feeling that a net was closing round him. The city boasted flourishing bazaars, and streets bordered by canals of clear water and shaded by trees, but his way did not lie through them. Possibly by reason of his self-assertion at the gate, or merely in order to avoid the crowds which thronged the business part of the town, he was led through the dullest bylanes of the residential quarter. The narrow alleys through which he passed looked absolutely blank, the houses on either side presenting nothing but high bare walls to the public eye. Their roofs were flat, and such windows as there were looked into the inner courtyards. It was like passing a never-ending succession of prison-walls with occasional doors. Where the line was broken by a mosque, which generally served also as a college, there was some little relief in the shape of stately dome and lofty minaret, and occasional dashes of colour produced by the use of enamelled tiles; but it gave forth a throng of young fanatics clad in black, who made outrageous remarks about the Kafir, which were as audible to their object as they were intended to be. For convenience’ sake, and to avoid attracting a crowd round him by his mere presence, Ferrers had made the journey in native dress; but he had not attempted to alter his appearance in any other respect, and his fair colouring rendered him distinguishable at once.
Having presented his credentials to the favourite who occupied the position of the Khan’s foreign minister for the nonce, he was received with suitable compliments, and assured that his arrival had been expected, and a house and servants prepared for him. He was half afraid that this house might prove to be within the circuit of the inner wall enclosing the hill on which the Khan’s palace and the public offices stood, in which case he would have anticipated the possibility of foul play, but it turned out to be one of the ordinary houses of the town. It was furnished sufficiently, according to oriental ideas, with carpets and cushions; the servants in it accepted with remarkably little friction the direction of those he had brought with him; and when he had seen to the securing of the door opening into the street, he felt that what looked like a prison from without might be a fortress from within.