Part 15 (1/2)

”By Jove, what a grand bed, I've a mind to repose on it,” exclaimed Rayner, with well-simulated admiration.

”And would your Honour realee do your humble slave the joy of taking repose on thatt bed this veree night? If so, all can be arranged and quicklee too,” cried Zynool with enthusiasm.

Mr. Rayner was considerably taken aback by the proposal to sleep in a native house. He had intended to travel a station or two down the line when he had finished his business with the Mussulman, and put up at the bungalow of a bachelor friend. But this eager offer of hospitality was not to be lightly refused, following as it did Zynool's irate mood, and he decided that prudence demanded a gracious compliance with the request.

Zynool, obviously delighted with the success of his suggestion, hurried off, all importance, to make arrangements for the entertainment of the English guest. The news instantly circulated from bas.e.m.e.nt to house-top that the English sahib was to honour the house of his client, though half-an-hour previously his arrival had seemed to incense its master, and make confusion throughout the household.

Mr. Rayner's relations with the Mussulman had been of more than two years' standing. In fact Zynool Sahib had been one of the young barrister's earliest clients, and owing to Rayner's astuteness and daring he had been piloted round at least one ugly corner. If the truth must be told, since then the lawyer had more than once thrust his client into hot water. The pair had taken shares together in various doubtful ventures, at Rayner's instigation, encouraged by high interest, and had been markedly unsuccessful, so that when Zynool informed him that a really good investment was going a-begging in the shape of a piece of land in Puranapore, Rayner lent a ready ear. The land being the property of a Hindu, Zynool explained that he must keep entirely in the background, but was eager, for reasons of his own, to aid the purchase by underhand methods. The result was that the land in question became the property of Alfred Rayner, to pa.s.s shortly after into the hands of the Moslem community for double the price which the lawyer gave for it.

Thus the mosque which was now such a bone of contention came into being, growing with the rapidity of Jack's beanstalk. Before the Hindus began to realise what a perpetual source of annoyance it was likely to prove, the Mahomedans were shouting their morning and evening prayer-calls from its jerry-built minaret. Zynool rubbed his fat hands with joy at the success of his plot to snub the Hindus, while Rayner's bag of rupees for the price of the site was a G.o.dsend to him, and had tided him through many months. But these ill-gotten gains had all melted away during the past season's extravagances. More serious still, the shares, which had seemed so promising, were threatening to pay no further dividends, and calls were looming in the distance. It was this black outlook which had brought the young lawyer to the house of the Mahomedan this afternoon, not indeed to announce to his client the threatened failure of their joint investments--that, he decided, must be kept in the dark--but to see whether he could negotiate a much needed loan on easier terms than those of the Madras _soukars_. He considered it therefore worth the odiousness of being condemned to spend an evening in the crimson plush drawing-room and the discomfort of a night in the s.h.i.+ning bra.s.s bedstead, if he could work his host up to that pitch of smiling compliance which would make his request an easier task than it seemed likely to be during the first few minutes of his call.

It was, however, with the cheque for five thousand rupees in his pocket-book, albeit with even a greater loss of self-respect than his dealings with the wily Mussulman had hitherto engendered, that Alfred Rayner stepped out at the low doorway in the weather-stained wall next morning. His host had ordered his gaudy little chariot to be in readiness to drive him to the railway station. It waited now as Zynool stood salaaming on the narrow pavement.

As Mr. Rayner was stepping into the carriage he caught sight of two Englishmen pa.s.sing along the head of the street. They walked slowly. One was a short, broad-shouldered man, who was endeavouring to hold a white-covered umbrella over the head of his younger and taller companion as they laughed and chatted together.

”There goes Dr. Campbell, mine enemee,” said Zynool, with a fierce scowl, ”and the osser is that haughtee young man. What a pity he did not see your Honour at the house of your humble slave here,” he added, with an air of disappointment.

Rayner had retreated into the depths of the bandy before he ventured to make any reply.

”So that's Dr. Campbell, is it? Not a very formidable looking person! I should say, Zynool, that you're a match for that little man with the hollow chest,” he said, with a careless laugh as he settled himself among the cus.h.i.+ons, while Zynool's dark face filled the window.

Rayner was longing to ask him the question which he was anxiously asking himself. ”Had Mark caught sight of him at the Mussulman's door?”

He fervently hoped not, and made an absent, formal salaam as he took leave of his host.

He congratulated himself that the two gentlemen, being on foot, were probably going to the dispensary while their carriage waited near, and that there would be no risk of his meeting them. He was therefore not a little chagrined when the first person he saw standing on the platform was the a.s.sistant-Collector.

Perceiving that an encounter was inevitable, Rayner went forward with a gracious smile.

”Who would have thought of seeing you here, Cheveril!”

”Why, I should rather say, who would have thought of seeing you at our little Puranapore,” responded Mark, with that direct look in his eye which had already annoyed Rayner more than once.

”To a dead certainty he saw me at Zynool's door,” thought Rayner, who replied lightly, ”Business, sir, business! Trying to get that fellow Zynool to pay up what he owes me. He happened to be one of my Puranapore clients before my last furlough. We barristers don't always get paid in advance, I a.s.sure you!”

Mark recalled with discomfort Mr. Worsley's remark as to Zynool having been helped by a ”shady pleader,” but he was glad to dismiss the topic for the present by polite enquiries after Mrs. Rayner.

”Oh, Hester is as fit as a fiddle! Going in for no end of dissipation, and still keeps her English roses,” her husband replied briskly. ”Come and see for yourself, Cheveril! My wife was a bit disappointed that you declined all our invitations.”

”Please tell Mrs. Rayner that I have not been a day absent since I joined, or I should have taken a run to Madras to see my friends there.”

”Yes, I believe the Collector is rather of the slave-driving order.

Between touring and office work he grinds his subs. pretty hard--so Printer used to tell me.”

”That's not a fair representation by any means,” said Mark quickly.

”Touring and office work are both in the day's routine, and I like both.”

”Lucky man,” said the lawyer, with more honest conviction than his words generally implied as he glanced half enviously, half admiringly, at the strong, reliant face of the young civilian which told of faithful days and peaceful nights.

”Oh, by the way, Rayner, let me introduce you to our doctor! He is taking a run to Madras to see a case he has in the hospital there.