Part 20 (1/2)
”You will pardon me, you are not allowed.”
The tone was perfect authority. The eyes smouldered, but the lips smiled.
”You are not used to be in any way conditioned, I understand that; but I am not willing to be responsible to my only sister for the smashed body of her one man. Oh, I a.s.sure you _not_! And you may one day grant that the guardians.h.i.+p of an elder brother is not a bad thing to have. Why--I beg your pardon, but of course you are not here long enough to know the situation.”
He stopped abruptly and looked away, considering.
”I will put it in one word and tell you that _one_ moment _any_ train, on _any_ track, may be perfectly safe; and the next moment, it may be going down the khud with half a mountain. Again, we exercise the utmost care in all bridge-building--with no reservation of resources; but almost every year a bridge or more goes with the crash.”
”The crash?”
”The reason why we say the great monsoon 'breaks' is not because itself breaks, but because--whatever happens to be underneath, you understand.”
The floor of protest had dropped away. Skag's face said as much.
”The tailors will need till the rails are safe to get you fitted; and before the monsoon comes, I suggest that you take your hunter up into the cheetah hills. Cheetahs are not supposed, by those at Home, to attack men. Many of them will not; but they are unreliable. The forfeits they have taken from unbelief have made them a bad reputation, among the English.”
”The cheetahs I have seen in cages have been mild, compared with tigers.”
”Cheetah kittens are snared and broken at once by hard handling; meaning that it is not the cheetah himself, but what is left of him, one sees either in the kennels of the princes or in the foreign cages.
You will remember my warning about his character?”
”Thank you, yes.”
”Good. I have known men to prefer not . . . Then you will carry yourself alert in any kind of jungle. If you sight a cheetah, be prepared; he may _not_ attack. He may. Few men have eyes good enough to follow him after his first spring. One should be a perfect shot; are you that?”
”I am a good shot, but I don't like to kill animals.”
”Then I am the last man to commend you to the cheetah hills . . . if it were not for Nels. He is entirely competent to take care of you, unless in one possible emergency. They sometimes, but rarely, work in pairs. If ever the dog should be occupied with one and another should be in _sight_--be sure your unwillingness to kill does not delay you to the instant of charge.”
”You imply that it is necessary to carry a gun in any kind of jungle--always?”
”Always wise, of _course_; but I consider it less imperative just now, because the animals are not what we call fighting. They are waiting for the great monsoon. So--you might take your dog up into the cheetah hills--”
”I don't see how a dog--”
”He'll break the cheetah's back and cut his throat, before the real start is made at you. But Bhanah will tell you whatever; and he is entirely reliable. You may depend upon him, without reservation.”
”That's a big thing to know.”
”India has many good servants, but Bhanah is a rare man.”
The unquenchable fires in Roderick Deal's eyes began to feed upon some enigma in Skag's own; he endured it a moment and then interruption became expedient:
”Does the monsoon come on schedule?”
”It does.”
”What is it like?”