Part 2 (1/2)
”The major should know,” and Darpore nodded pleasantly; ”he has grappled with the best that come out of the Punjab.”
Gilfain, his spirit still ruffled by the Prussian's sneer at England, declared peevishly: ”I wish there was a chance to test the bally thing; I'd bet a hundred pounds on the Englishman, even if I'd never seen him wrestle.”
Boelke, with a sibilant smack of his lips, retorted: ”You are quite safe, my young frient, with your hundred pounds, because, you see, there is no Englishman here to put der poor Hindu on his back.”
”I'm not quite so sure about that, Herr Doctor.”
Boelke turned in his chair at the deliberate, challenging tone of Finnerty's voice. He looked at the major, then gave vent to an unpleasant laugh.
”There is one thing a Britisher does not allow to pa.s.s--a sneer at England by a German.” Finnerty hung over the word ”German.”
”Vell,” the doctor asked innocently, ”you vil prove I am wrong by wrestling der Punjabi, or are we to fight a duel?” And again came the disagreeable laugh.
”If the prince has no objection, I don't know why I shouldn't take a fall out of one of these chaps. It's a game I'm very fond of.”
”And, Herr Doctor, I'll have you on for the hundred,” Lord Victor cried eagerly.
”Just as you like, major,” the prince said. ”There'll be no loss of caste, especially if we sit on our sporting friend over there and curb his betting propensities.”
”Right you are, rajah,” Finnerty concurred. ”We wrestle just to prove that Britain is not the poor old effete thing the Herr Doctor thinks she is.”
Prince Ananda sent for his secretary, Baboo Chunder Sen, and when the baboo came said: ”Ask Jai Singh if he would like to try a fall with the major sahib.”
Balwant Singh came back with the baboo when he had delivered this message. Salaaming, he said: ”Huzoor, the keddah sahib has his name in our land, the Land of the Five Rivers. We who call men of strength brothers say that he is one of us. No one from my land has come back boasting that he has conquered the sahib. Jai Singh, in the favor of the G.o.ds, has achieved to victory over me, so Jai Singh will meet with the sahib.”
”Fine!” Finnerty commented. ”I'll need wrestling togs, prince.”
”The baboo will take you to my room and get a suit for you.”
Finnerty put the sapphire in a silver cigarette box that was on the table, saying: ”I'll leave this here,” and followed Chunder Sen into the palace.
”Devilish sporting, I call it; Finnerty is Irish, but he's a Britisher,”
Gilfain proclaimed. ”He'll jolly well play rugby with your friend, Herr Boelke.”
”In my country ve do not shout until der victory is obtained; ve vill see,” and the doctor puffed noisily at his cheroot.
But the fish eyes of the professor were conveying to Prince Ananda malevolent messages, Swinton fancied. The whole thing had left a disturbing impression on his mind; Boelke's manner suggested a pre-arrangement with the prince.
The doctor's unpleasing physical contour would have furnished strong evidence against him on any charge of moral obliquity. He sat on the chair like a large-paunched gorilla, his round head topping the fatty mound like a coconut. His heavy-jowled face held a pair of cold, fishy eyes; coa.r.s.e hair rose in an aggressive hedge from the seamed, low forehead, and white patches showed through the iron-grey thatch where little nicks had been made in the scalp by duelling swords at Heidelberg. He was a large man, but the suggestion of physical strength was destroyed by a depressing obeseness.
A tall, fine-looking rajput came across the terrace toward Darpore.
”Ah, Darna Singh,” the prince greeted, rising; ”you are just in time to see a _kushti_ that will delight your warrior heart. This is my brother-in-law, Nawab Darna Singh,” he continued, turning to Swinton and Gilfain and repeating their ent.i.tled names.
The rajput salaamed with grave dignity, saying the honour pleased him.
”Have a seat,” Ananda proffered.
”I have intruded, rajah,” Darna Singh explained, ”because there is trouble at the temple. The mahanta is at the gate----”
”Show him in, Darna. I can't see him privately just now; the keddah sahib and Jai Singh are going to make _kushti_.”