CHAPTER XIV.
OUT OF THE FRYING-PAN—
AFTER that exciting ride home, profound peace reigned about the Residency for a whole day, as though the Khans wished to give time for the impression to sink in. Then their Vakils arrived again, in a high state of alarm, with which they were desperately anxious to infect the British. The Khans were absolutely powerless to restrain the Arabits, they said—as Colonel Bayard had had some slight proof already. Their feelings were outraged by the signing of the treaty, and they would only accept it on the condition that Gul Ali was at once acknowledged again as holder of the Turban, and that Sir Henry’s troops, which had advanced steadily down the river bank till they were now within a few marches of the capital, should be instantly withdrawn. Otherwise, the ambassador would do well to surrender the treaty and depart, for the Khans could not protect him. To the mingled wrath and despair of his officers, the threatened loss of the treaty—which had been so hard to win—induced Colonel Bayard to write urging Sir Harry not merely to come to Qadirabad and re-establish Gul Ali on the masnad, but to withdraw his army into the desert—as far as the remote fortress of Khangarh, near the British border,—that his peaceful intentions might be made thoroughly clear. He told the Vakils what he had written, pointing out that it would have no effect unless the Khans could keep the Arabits under control, and they accepted the warning and withdrew with all gravity, though their errand must have seemed to them successful to the point of absurdity.
The next day Eveleen was in the garden—in the uncomfortable state popularly described as finding herself at a loose end. She had tried to nurse Richard, but Richard as an invalid was neither grateful nor gracious. She wanted to fuss over him, and he ruthlessly declined to be fussed over. He did not wish to be read to—perhaps this was not surprising, since the only available reading consisted of back numbers of various Bombay papers, singing the praises of Colonel Bayard and patronising the General’s wisdom in perceiving in him the only man to deal with the situation,—he did not wish to be talked to or otherwise amused; all he asked was to be let alone and allowed to smoke in peace. Thereupon Eveleen naturally went off in a huff—thereby, as she realised presently with disgust, assuring him precisely the selfish tranquillity he craved—and established herself in a shady spot, where a masonry platform had been built under the shelter of two or three large trees, to recover her equanimity. It was unfortunate for this purpose that her position brought her in view of her old antagonist the gardener, who had cheerfully ascribed the lack of garden produce to the Beebee’s interference at the beginning of the cold weather. Nevertheless, after the manner of his kind, he was able to supply vegetables—at a price,—and Eveleen raged in vain when he exhibited blandly his empty garden-beds. She was quite sure that he had sold everything they contained, and was now suborning some other gardener to do the same, though it was not quite clear who in Qadirabad would be likely to have a taste for European vegetables. Perhaps it was Tom Carthew, she thought, and wondered idly how he was getting on in his uncomfortable, half-and-half, secretive life.
As so often happens, the thought was followed at no great distance by the appearance of its object, though Eveleen did not perceive this at first. What she saw from her point of vantage was an interested group of women and children near the stables, gathered round a man who seemed to be selling something. It was most probably sweets, she thought, and remembering that she had not yet given the people in the compound the treat which was their due after her long absence, she told Ketty to fetch the man. It was altogether beneath Ketty’s dignity to enter the domains of the syce-folk, but there was a servant close at hand, specially detailed by Colonel Bayard to watch over the safety of her Madam-sahib, and she despatched him on the errand. It was rather a disappointment to find that the pedlar was not selling sweets, but glass bangles—designed for what seemed impossibly slender wrists—strung on rods according to size. Still, these would please the women, at any rate, and she sent Ketty to the house for her purse while she made her selection. To her astonishment, the moment the ayah was out of hearing, the pedlar spoke in English—low and hastily.
“Don’t look at me, Miss Evie; I’m risking my life to be here, but it’s to save yours. What was the Major thinkin’ of to bring you with him at a time like this?”
“He didn’t bring me; I came,” returned Eveleen with dignity. “Now why would you be risking your life, Tom Carthew?”
“Because they had it all ready to murder the Colonel and the gentlemen two days ago, and though they were put off it then they mean to do it now. You tell the Colonel, ma’am, not to trust Khair Husain Khan. I’ll tell you how he’ll know what the rascal’s up to. He’ll come and offer to post a guard of his servants to protect this place—and if you accept, the guard will murder you all in your beds.”
“Now I wonder will the Colonel believe it?” mused Eveleen, her heart beating a little faster than usual.
“He’d better. Why, ma’am, it was touch and go t’other day. The Khans had made up their minds to cut up the Colonel into little pieces, because he pretended to be their friend and was deceivin’ ’em. Then when he made ’em send away the guards, they had the sherbet ready to poison him—and they’d have done it too, but for what he let drop about bringing the General here. They are fair set on gettin’ hold of the General, and it won’t be cuttin’ into little bits for him. They’ve sworn to put a cord through his nose and drag him round the city at the tail of young Hafiz Ullah’s horse, for the people to see, and after that—well, they call him Satan’s brother after his getting to Sultankot as he did, never runnin’ across any of the bands that was looking for him.”
“I wonder now, did they look very hard?” There must be no showing the white feather, though Eveleen’s hands felt clammy, and her thoughtful voice was a little shaky.
“They say they did, anyhow. Well, you can guess what they think is the proper way to treat the devil. But will the General be coming, ma’am?”
“I’d say he would not.” Relentless cross-examining of Richard and Brian had convinced Eveleen of this. “But sure the Khans will do nothing till he has written to say so?”
“You might have said that yesterday, but something has happened this morning to change their minds. There was a lot of Bharri chiefs on their way here, and they came slap up against the General’s army. Whether it was just brag, or they wanted to pick a quarrel, I don’t know, but they made to ride straight through the camp of the Khemistan Horse, and got taken prisoners. When the news came in, all the Khans cried out at once that it was war now, and the General wouldn’t come. That’s all I know.” His eyes were on the approaching form of Ketty, and he began to rearrange his wares.
“No, but tell me quickly, what do they mean to do?” urged Eveleen.
“I’ve told you what they mean to do to the General. For his army, they swear they have men enough to drive it into the river, without drawin’ a sword—just pushing. Then cut the throats of every English man, woman, and child left in Khemistan. That’s what they mean to do.”
“But you can’t stay with them! Come here to us.”
“No, ma’am, I’ve made my bed and I must lie on it. Make the Beebee understand that I am a poor man, and cannot possibly sell at the price she offers,” he went on whiningly as Ketty came up. “Why must I be ruined because I cannot afford a shop in the Bazar?”
The invitation to bargain roused Ketty’s keenest instincts. Metaphorically she shouldered her mistress out of the fray, and fell upon the unhappy bangle-seller tooth and nail. She brought him down from annas to pice, and then pice by pice until he declared truly—though she naturally thought it was falsely—that his wares had cost him more to buy. Then she suddenly reflected that the Madam-sahib’s wealth and importance would suffer in the estimation of the servant people if she was known to drive too keen a bargain, and with a royal air accepted on her behalf his last offer, informing him unkindly that it was in consideration of his obvious wretchedness. Eveleen, standing by and fuming, had to curb her impatience still further and bid the pedlar follow her to a spot commanding a nearer view of the stables, whence she watched him fitting the bangles to the arms of the recipients, and received their grateful salams, and then only was she free to return to the house, and burst in upon Richard with her news. It was just as well he was not the serious invalid she had wished to make him, for she could not possibly have kept her story in any longer, and he had to remind her—as soon as he was able to understand what she was driving at—that the source of the warning must remain a secret. This had not occurred to her, and she was so much shocked at her own carelessness that she consented—though sorely against the grain—to postpone warning Colonel Bayard until he came of his own accord to smoke a cigar with Richard. To send for him would have aroused suspicion as readily as to go to speak to him in his office and ask that the native clerks might be sent out of hearing, and the delay had also the advantage of allowing Tom Carthew time to get back to the city before suspicion could be aroused.
But it was very hard to wait, and when Colonel Bayard came at last, his reception of the great news was disappointing in the extreme. At first it seemed as if he would not believe it at all.
“There’s no likelihood whatever of Khair Husain’s offering to send troops to protect the Agency,” he said. “It would be a gross insult, and he wouldn’t dream of it.”
“But why should the Daroga suggest such a thing unless it had been discussed?” asked Richard, for his wife was too much taken aback to remonstrate.
“The man wants to safeguard his own neck, of course. He thinks, very naturally, that Sir Henry is determined to destroy the Khans, and is afraid he will suffer for being mixed up with them. So he tries to establish a claim on our gratitude in advance by making up this tale.”
“But sure he was risking his life by coming to warn us!” cried Eveleen, with flashing eyes. “Would you take no notice of what he said?”
“Happily,” said Richard, in his coolest tones, “we shall be able to test his truthfulness very shortly. If Khair Husain does offer to send troops, the warning is confirmed.”
“But if Bayard has made up his mind not to take it?” Eveleen spoke before Colonel Bayard could. He raised his hand in protest.
“Not made up my mind, ma’am—you’re mistaken there. I should hardly feel justified in ignoring such a warning—yet to refuse the offer would be a precious strong step to take. Khair Husain would naturally feel himself ill-used.”
“But if you accepted it, we would be ill-used,” said Eveleen triumphantly. “Would you really like that better? And didn’t you yourself just this minute say the offer would be an insult?”
“My dear Richard, there was a great casuist lost in Mrs Ambrose.” Colonel Bayard managed to keep his indulgent air, though Eveleen felt, and looked, as though she would like to box his ears. “And what, ma’am”—kindly—“would be your idea of the proper procedure when the offer had been refused?”
“Of course, I’d like greatly to be in a real fight,” said Eveleen regretfully. “But”—summoning all the forces of duty and self-denial to her aid—“I know you gentlemen will all cry out with one voice that’s my bloodthirsty nonsense.” Deeply shocked, Colonel Bayard negatived the suggestion with a deprecating hand. “Ah, don’t I know it? So I’ll be moderate and sensible, and only say I suppose we ought all get up the river again in the Asteroid.”
“And betray my trust here?” It was his turn to triumph. “No, ma’am, I came to Qadirabad by the General’s orders”—he disregarded a sound as of dissent from Richard,—“and here I stay until either I am turned out or Sir Henry sends me orders to leave. But my first duty—Ambrose, I know you will be with me in this—is to assure the safety of the lady who has laboured so pluckily to save our lives, as she believes. I will send word to Franks that Mrs Ambrose will sleep on board to-night.”
“You think there’ll be a fight, and you won’t let me be in it?” Her undisguised anguish and dismay brought back Colonel Bayard’s sunny smile.
“Precisely!” he said, the last vestige of his ill-humour vanishing. “Why, what curs you must think us, ma’am, to be willing to expose you to a peril against which you have yourself warned us!”
Richard laughed—he could not help it—and Eveleen glared from one to the other. “I’ll never speak a word to either of y’again—unless I have to!” she declared wrathfully, and swept majestically from the room. For the rest of the day she refused to be comforted or placated, and made Richard very angry—because he felt she was making him ridiculous—by declining to address him directly, and sending him messages through Ketty, though they were on the same verandah. Therefore he triumphed in his turn when, after being summoned to be present when Colonel Bayard received a Vakil from Khair Husain Khan, he was able to meet her again with a fine air of mystery.
“Something very queer about this——” shaking his head solemnly as he sat down. “Giving warning is one thing, but playing the enemy’s game——! Now why should she——?”
“Who are you talking about?” demanded Eveleen quickly. He ignored the question.
“To offer precisely similar advice! Can she be in league with their Highnesses? Yet how communicate with ’em? Something strange here——”
“Major Ambrose, are you talking about me?” Eveleen had flown to the side of his chair, and was shaking him.
“My dear, I thought I was an invalid?” meekly. “May I not speak of you, if it’s forbidden to speak to you?”
“Ah, then, don’t be such a tease! What’s it all about?”
“Does it flatter you to know that Khair Husain thinks precisely as you do? The Vakil advised Bayard most earnestly to be off by water at once if he would not accept the guard of troops, for the Khans can’t restrain the Arabits any longer.”
“It’s flattered I am, indeed! But I won’t be if Bayard took his advice when he wouldn’t take mine.”
“Don’t be afraid. He swore he wouldn’t budge an inch nor post an extra sentry—told ’em to do their worst, in fact. So you are likely to enjoy your wish and see a fight.”
“I never said I’d like to see one,” indignantly. “I said I wanted to be in it!”
“Well, seeing it is the next best thing, surely?” But Eveleen did not think so.
“If I’d known I would be punished for saving all our lives, I wouldn’t have done it,” she said tragically to Brian as they walked down to the river after dinner. It was thought better for her to make her unwilling exit in the dark, lest hostile watchers, seeing it, should interpret it as a sign of fear.
“Be aisy, then,” returned Brian. “You couldn’t have kept it in.”
“Couldn’t—eh? What are y’after now?”
“You had to give the warning, I tell you. You couldn’t have held your tongue, if it was to save all our lives, and ’twas just the opposite in this case.”
“D’ye tell me I couldn’t hold my tongue if ’twas necessary? A fine brother y’are—to insult your own sister!”
“We’ll consult Ambrose, if you like. Will you say he wouldn’t agree with me?”
“Of course he would. Gentlemen always agree with one another.”
“Well, you wouldn’t have him agree with you, when all his experience went the other way, would you?”
“Wr-r-r-retch!” said Eveleen, with such a terrific rolling of her r’s that Richard turned round and asked if she couldn’t get a few more in. She disdained to reply, and happily at this moment they reached the sandbank to which the Asteroid was moored, and were met at the foot of the gangway by Captain Franks in a high state of pleasurable excitement.
“Welcome on board, ma’am! I have good news for you, sir——” to Colonel Bayard. “There! d’ye hear that?”
“A steamer’s whistle?” in astonishment.
“Precisely, sir—the whistle of the Nebula, no less, with the Light Company of Her Majesty’s —th on board, sent off post-haste by Sir Henry, as soon as he saw things were getting risky here.”
“A welcome reinforcement, indeed!” said Colonel Bayard heartily. “We must see that the news gets to the Khans at once. They will find it easy enough to restrain the Arabits now. But how did you hear of this, captain?”
“Why, sir, finding the river so low, Captain Warner was afraid of running aground in the dark, so he sent his mate and two men in the dinghy to find us and see where the channels were, and I sent my mate back to pilot ’em in.”
“Well done. We must get ’em ashore at once—make a regular tamasha of it, so that the spies in the bazar may take exaggerated reports to the Fort. This is an enormous relief to my mind.”
“And incidentally to mine,” remarked Richard to Brian, as Colonel Bayard handed Eveleen up the gangway to the deck, whither Captain Franks preceded them to receive her properly. “Has it struck you that we three become civilians from the moment Montgomery and his fellows arrive?”
“D’ye tell me that? Ah, I see it! The Colonel is a mere Political, you and I nothing but Staff—ornamental but powerless. Senior officer in command of European troops takes charge. What a do!”
“Better restrain your joy a bit. We don’t want the notion to occur to Bayard, or he’ll order the Nebula to stand off till daylight, by which time——”
“We’ll be smashed entirely,” supplied Brian. “I believe you, my boy! Whereas if the Khans hear large reinforcements have arrived in the night, they’ll wait till morning to attack, so as to get a good look at ’em first.”
With much shrieking of whistles and a lavish display of lights, the Nebula was welcomed to her anchorage, and that the effect was not wasted was clear from the array of villagers, roused from their beds by the noise, who lined the bank above the Agency and watched the landing with awed and not altogether pleasurable interest. Brian pointed them out to Richard with a grin.
“Choused—eh?” responded Richard. “Every man of ’em went to bed expecting to have the looting of the place in the morning, no doubt. To see seventy-five Europeans, when you expected only to have thirty dismounted sowars to deal with, must give you a bit of a shock.”
Brian nudged his elbow. “D’ye hear what Montgomery’s saying? We ain’t out of the wood yet.”
“You are well supplied with ammunition, I trust, Colonel?” the —th Captain was asking. “We came off in such a hurry that half-way here I found to my annoyance we have nothing but the ten rounds apiece in the men’s pouches.”
“Well, we could not stand a prolonged siege, certainly,” laughed Colonel Bayard, “but that will matter less, as I am convinced we shall not now have to fight at all.”
But Colonel Bayard was wrong. Whether the Arabits were really beyond their masters’ control, or whether the spies in the village just outside the Agency wall had gauged the extent of the reinforcement and adjudged it negligible, morning light showed that the place was surrounded, though the various bodies of horse and foot whose presence could be distinguished betrayed no indecent alacrity to come out into the open or approach too near. There was nothing in the nature of a surprise, for Captain Montgomery lacked Colonel Bayard’s pathetic faith in the Khans, and even a night attack would have found the garrison prepared. Unfortunately there was no time now to take the precautionary measures which should have been put in hand before. Save on the side of the river, assailants might find cover in every direction almost up to the walls, and at two points the compound was actually commanded from without—by the native village which had grown up as a sort of adjunct to the stables, and on the opposite side by a house forming a kind of outpost, where the doctor had formerly lived, and which was too much detached to be occupied effectively by so small a garrison. Reluctantly Montgomery dismissed the idea of blowing it up, since the powder could not be spared, and left it outside the line of the defences. The two strong points were the Residency itself and a range of office buildings, high and flat-roofed, which had fortunately been placed so as to command both the village and the all-important landing-stage. Montgomery observed caustically that it was quite impossible Colonel Bayard could have put it there deliberately, so that its defensive value was a happy accident. From it communication could be maintained with the steamers by means of flag signalling, and thus it was that Eveleen was able to keep in touch with the events of that long morning from the shelter contrived for her close under one of the paddle-boxes. The Asteroid was a most peaceful craft, since her builders had evidently considered bulwarks unnecessary for river work, and her flush deck afforded no protection whatever to any one upon it. She mounted a twelve-pounder gun, for which a breastwork had been built up forward of boxes and cases of all sorts, and a similar wall was erected about Eveleen and Ketty, outside which they were forbidden to stir. Since the paddle-box cut off all view of the shore, Eveleen insisted on having one look before she was built up in her cell; but there was not much to see, even from the top, since the lowness of the river left the Residency on a kind of mud cliff considerably above the vessel. But she could see little puffy clouds of smoke, rising and dissipating themselves slowly in the morning sky, and followed by reports—more or less loud as they came from the heavy matchlocks of the enemy, or the muskets which the —th were firing through the loopholes they had cut in the mud wall with their bayonets. On the right the reports sounded more distant, but almost continuous—a sort of perpetual popping; but on the left shot answered shot, as the enemy fired from cover among the village houses, and the European marksmen replied from the office roof. Captain Franks hurried her down, refusing to let her stay another moment, but she extracted from him that the attack on the right was what he feared most, owing to the expenditure of ammunition necessary to keep down the fire from the Doctor’s House. He did not tell her, but there was another danger at this point, in the shape of a nullah which formed a kind of covered way right up to the wall, and which could be enfiladed only from the Doctor’s House, so that a body of resolute men might assault with but little fear of loss. It was noticeable, however, that the enemy, in spite of their enormous superiority in numbers, betrayed no desire whatever to come to close quarters, seeming satisfied with obliging the besieged to expend their ammunition—largely wasted, of course, owing to the ample cover around. The firing had gone on for close upon three hours, and Eveleen, stifling in her nook among the boxes, had assured Captain Franks piteously several times that she would rather be shot than cooked, when a new sound, making itself heard in a momentary lull, caused the Captain to prick up his ears—a sound of rumbling and clanking.
“Guns, or I’m a Dutchman!” he said to himself, and noticed how the signalman—who but the moment before had been assuring him cheerfully that there were masses of the enemy in the village, but they durst not leave cover; that the orchard was full of them, but not one could even lift up his head to look over the wall; that the three men guarding the gate into the bazar from the stables had not even had to fire a shot—stiffened up suddenly and listened. Captain Franks listened too. Where would the guns get to work—from the bazar square, whence they could not merely knock the defences to pieces, but cut off the retreat of the besieged? But no, the enemy were taking no risks, and the old sailor was conscious of a kind of vicarious shame on their behalf as he realised that they would not face the fire from the office roof. The rumbling and clanking continued along the road that flanked the landward wall of the compound, and then seemed to drop. “The nullah!” said Captain Franks, and turned to decipher the signals which were appealing urgently for his attention.
“‘To fall back from the front of the compound on the Residency, and withdraw in an hour, when baggage has been evacuated.’ So we cut our stick!” said Captain Franks. “What now? ‘Captain Delany will proceed on board Nebula, and endeavour to rake nullah.’ Easier said than done, if you ask me!” But he passed on the signal to his subordinate, and presently Brian and his orderly ran down the path and across the sandbanks. Once they were on board, the Nebula dropped down a little way till she was level with the nullah, and her people passed a strenuous hour in trying to give their pop-gun sufficient elevation for its shots to clear the cliff and drop in upon the enemy guns. No very marked effect seemed to be produced—certainly there was no direct hit,—but that a certain moral suasion was exercised seemed clear from the fact that they did not open fire. Meanwhile, the baggage-parties were busy as ants upon the cliff path and the hard sands. Horses came down—to be put on board the flat-bottomed boat by which they had come,—wounded men, to be made as comfortable as possible on the shadeless deck, with the sun blazing down upon them, for the only alternative was the oven-like depths below. Then came the servants, to huddle together wherever they could find room, whitey-brown with fear, some chattering spasmodically, some awestruck into silence. As the baggage began to arrive—all sorts of things, of all shapes and sizes,—there was work to be done, and Captain Franks and his mate fell upon the servants with voice and threatening fist—feebly cheered by the delighted wounded—until they roused themselves sufficiently to help in piling packages to serve as a bulwark. Then came a slow-moving party bearing still burdens shoulder-high, and several rigid forms were laid reverently on the deck forward, and covered with a tarpaulin.
As if this was a signal, the sound of a bugle came from the Agency—a bugle which, though she had been warned to expect it, made Eveleen shrink and shiver in her shelter, for it sounded the Retreat. Like a reply to it came a burst of heavy firing, which was so alarming that she was thankful when Captain Franks shouted down to her, “Only covering the retreat on the office, ma’am!” Presently he added, “They’re marching down from the water-gate now. Soon have ’em all safe on board!” Almost as he spoke the noise of rumbling and clanking began again, and he was black in the face before he could make her hear. “They’ve found out how we’ve diddled ’em. S’pose they’ll bring the guns round this way now.”
Before he had finished, Eveleen had pushed down part of her barricade and climbed over the rest, and was running up the ladder to his side. In ordinary circumstances he would have felt bound to rebuke her, but he was too busy watching the last stages of the retreat—the troops arriving section by section at the water-gate and marching down the path, and last of all, the defenders of the office dropping from the back windows and covering the rear as skirmishers. Even now the enemy hesitated to press them closely, and one or two round shot from the Asteroid quite dispelled any thought of interfering with the march across the sandbanks; but the rumbling and clanking was coming closer again, and Captain Franks hailed Colonel Bayard with some anxiety.
“Get on board as quick as you can, sir, if you please! There ain’t no time for being solemn. We’ve got the flat to pick up yet, and those guns will have the range in a minute or two. Nebula, ahoy! Where do you think you’re coming to?” for the smaller steamer had left her now useless station opposite the nullah, and was forging up towards the Asteroid. Captain Warner indicated by a thumb Brian on the bridge beside him.
“Why, to help in the fight, of course!” shouted that young man brightly. “We’ve got a gun too, have we not?”
“Yes, but you ain’t going to use it,” returned Captain Franks, losing all sight of the fact that military authority was now paramount. “Cap’en Warner”—they were now so close that he had not even to use his speaking-trumpet—“you know that wood-pile you passed three miles up? If the enemy think of that, we’re gone geese! Full steam ahead and stand by to protect it. If there’s nobody there, you get on board every stick you can carry—enough for us as well as yourselves.”
“Don’t go, captain,” said Brian encouragingly. “He’s trying to do you out of the fight. Sure I’ll stand by you.”
“You’ll be coming on board here in irons as a mutineer in another two minutes, young gentleman,” returned Captain Franks savagely. “Cap’en Warner, who’s senior skipper of this flotilla? You have your orders.”
“Aye, aye, Cap’en Franks!” responded Captain Warner peaceably. “You coming with us, sir?”
“Not a bit of it!” said Brian, and jumped from one ship to the other as the Nebula drew away. He landed neatly on the paddle-box, but his orderly, following as in duty bound, fell into the water, and had to be rescued with ropes by the Irish soldiers, who were enjoying themselves hugely. Hauling him up on deck meant displacing the bulwark of boxes, which brought Captain Franks down from the bridge in wrath to insist upon its being put back instantly, in which he was backed by Captain Montgomery as soon as he understood what had to be done next. The flat-bottomed boat containing the horses drew considerably less water than the steamer, and lay farther up the little creek in the sand, so that the Asteroid had to back towards her for the tow-rope to be attached, and go ahead again to tow her out. While this manœuvre was going on, the twelve-pounder was necessarily