Part 2 (1/2)
Echo supplied no answer.
CHAPTER II
AT THE TENT CLUB
Aylmer tightened the reins, touched the rowels against the mare's flank, and lifted her out of her easy amble into something like a canter. He called to his companion and pointed up the slope at a gleam of white set in the dun green of the cork woods.
”The camp!” he said, and gave a little sigh of relief. Through the fifteen miles which separate Tangier from Awara the two had halted no longer than sufficed to tighten a girth or light a cigarette. The horses were white with lather, the men stained with dust.
Commandant Rattier looked, nodded, and smiled. For a sailor, people were apt to consider him taciturn--at first; but they soon discovered that his was a taciturnity which spoke. His brown eyes could gleam with many lights which were whimsically expressive. A little sidelong jerk of his neatly trimmed beard told more than many elaborated sentences.
Reputations had tottered and scandals had been abashed before a single gesture of his neatly gloved hands. For the moment his nod suggested content, antic.i.p.ation, and unruffled good humor.
A minute later surprise overcame his reticence. Half a dozen dull, half-m.u.f.fled explosions throbbed in the distant jungle of broom and wild olive. The commandant's eyebrows rose in arcs of amazement.
”Do they then shoot the boar as well as impale it?” he asked.
Aylmer smiled.
”The beaters,” he explained. ”They are driving towards the plain behind the marsh. They are firing blank charges.”
The Frenchman gave a little laugh.
”In all these matters you must remember that I am of an ignorance the most profound. And my impudence, also, must appear to you colossal. I am to allow myself to charge with a spear--I, who, till to-day, have never seen a wild pig save, perhaps, as bacon!”
Aylmer dropped the reins upon the mare's neck, lifted his hand, and wiped his forehead.
”All things must have a beginning, my friend,” he said. ”You have the sailor's eye and, no doubt, the sailor's steady hand. And, above all, you ride--as sailors do not always ride. I have every reason to believe that I shall be proud of you before the day is out.”
Rattier lifted his shoulders with a little shrug. He did not speak, but he left the impression that he deprecated this point of view, found the arguments futile, and disposed of the question finally. The attention of the riders was suddenly drawn elsewhere.
A couple of men emerged into view from behind a clump of argans. They held two horses by the bridles. One of them signalled with outstretched hand.
As Aylmer reined in the mare almost upon her haunches the man dropped his hand, relinquished the horse he held into the care of his companion, and approached. He made a dignified gesture of welcome and pointed to a basket on the ground.
”Sid' Anstruther sends breakfast, Sidi. They drive the bush beyond the hill and the marsh. If you will refresh yourselves here you will avoid climbing the hill to the camp. You can then take these horses and join the spears who wait at the tongue of the jungle in the plain.”
Aylmer slid to the ground.
”It is well thought of, Absalaam,” he said, and turned to explain matters to his companion. The Moor beckoned forward his underling, who quickly tethered the fresh horses to a broom stump and then led away the other two in the direction of the tents which gleamed white upon the slope a mile or so above them. Absalaam, meanwhile, was deftly setting out the meal in the shadow of the argan branches.
The two began to eat and drink with appreciation but quickly. They did not exchange much conversation; their attention, indeed, seemed concentrated on matters outside sight but within hearing. For the m.u.f.fled explosions continued and to them was added the sound of chorussed and intermittent yells. But these last had not risen to any great pitch of excitement; no pig, or, at any rate, no boar, had as yet been sighted or had broken cover.
Absalaam flitted to and fro handing dishes, changing plates, expressing by the vigilance of his att.i.tude and actions the fact that he, too, appreciated the need for haste. His dark eyes beamed a sort of intensity of vigor; the pose of his head seemed to indicate that his ears were critically alert to the purport of those distant shouts. But he offered no comment till Aylmer pushed aside his plate and rose to his feet.
”Your station, oh Sidis, will be at the far side of the point of jungle, between the marsh and the forest.”
Aylmer nodded, explained to Rattier, and swung himself into the saddle.
”How many spears?” he asked laconically. The Moor held up the open fingers of one hand.