Part 53 (1/2)

”You can only give me one thing,” I cried. ”No; two things.”

”The first, then?” he said, smiling.

”News of my troop, of Captain Brace, and our men; of the officers of the foot regiment. Tell me,” I cried excitedly, ”how did the fight end?”

”How could it end?” he replied, with a smile full of pride. ”What could that poor handful of men do against my thousands?”

”Defeated?” I cried excitedly.

”Yes; they were defeated; they fled.”

My countenance fell, and there must have been a look of despair in my eyes, which he read, for he said more quietly--

”Captain Brace is a brave man, and he did everything he could; but he had to flee--and you were left in my hands a prisoner,” he added, with a smile.

”He had to flee,” I said to myself; and that means that he had escaped uninjured from a desperate encounter. There was something consoling in that; and I wanted to ask a score of questions about Haynes and the infantry officers, but I could not. For one thing, I felt that it would be like writing a long account of a list of disasters; for another, I was not sure that I could trust an enemy's account of the engagement.

So I remained silent, and the rajah asked me a few questions about my symptoms, and whether there was anything he could get for me.

I shook my head, for, though gratified by the warm liking and esteem he had displayed, my spirits had sunk very low indeed, and I wanted to be alone to think.

Seeing that I was weak and troubled, the rajah soon after rose, and moved to the doorway of the tent, where he summoned one of the attendants, and uttered a few words, the result being that a few minutes after the tall, grave, eastern physician appeared at the doorway, and salaamed in the most lowly way before his prince.

”Go to him,” said the rajah in their own tongue, and the doctor came across to me and began examining my injuries, while the rajah stood looking on, watching everything attentively.

I could not help noticing how nervous and troubled the doctor seemed, performing his task with trembling hands, as if in great awe of the chief his master. He ended by rising and salaaming again.

”Well?” said the rajah quickly; and I knew enough Hindustani now to be able to s.n.a.t.c.h at the meaning of their words. ”You must make him well quickly.”

”I will try, your highness.”

”No, sir; you will do,” said the rajah, sternly.

”He must be made strong and well soon. I want him; he is my friend.”

He turned from the doctor, who took this as his dismissal, and bowed and left the tent, while the rajah seated himself on the carpet by his sword, and stayed there in one position as if deep in thought, making probably more plans.

I lay watching him wonderingly, asking myself whether he had ever grasped the fact of how much I had had to do with the recovery of the guns, and if he did not, what would be his feelings toward one who had utterly baulked him, and robbed him of the prize he went through so much to win.

I certainly did not feel disposed to enlighten him, but by watching his troubled face, and thinking of how valuable, if he had succeeded in well training his men, a troop of horse artillery would be, and how different our position would have been during that encounter if he had had half a dozen six-pounders well-served.

”But he has no guns,” I ended by saying to myself; ”and we--I mean our people--have, and I cannot believe in our--I mean their--being swept away, so long as they hold such a supremacy as the guns afford to them.”

I was stopped short by the rajah re-buckling his sword-belt, and a minute later he was bending over me.

”Make haste,” he said in Hindustani. ”I shall not be at peace till you are well once more.”

He pressed my hand warmly, and bade me order anything I wished, for I was in my own tent, and then, after smiling at me, and telling me to grow strong, he strode to the purdah, drew it aside, turned to look back, and then the curtain fell between us, and I was alone once more.

I lay listening to the stamping and plunging of horses, and in imagination could picture the whole scene with the restless, excitable animals, shrinking from being backed, and pretending to bite, but calming down the moment they felt a strong hand at the bit.