Part 28 (2/2)
She was waiting for breakfast under the trees with some friends, discussing the four-some they had just finished, and watching the arrival of various cars which were parked, with some difficulty, with the others which had arrived earlier.
”Sounds all right,” said Cuxson, as he looked with disfavour upon the club's breakfast _piece de resistance_, namely fatty sausages and mashed of all things. ”I am beginning to feel quite thrilled. Let's see, it will take us about a day to get to Tiger's Point by launch from Kulna, and there we find monkeys, adjutant birds, spotted deer, and tigers all ready.”
”Don't rot!” said young Dean. ”I've bribed the finest _s.h.i.+kari_ in the whole of Bengal to stage-manage the whole thing; he did seem rather contemptuous over the _chotar s.h.i.+kar_, as he called it, I must say, until I began to juggle with backsheesch, and then he bucked up considerably and said he would do his very best to provide sport for the mems. The programme includes a ruined temple but not a tiger, 'cause he says it would be too risky a job at such short notice; also, and the real reason _I_ should say, there hasn't been a tiger seen, anyway killed, since one was wounded and caught near that same Hindu temple umpteen years ago.”
Leonie wrinkled her forehead at the last sentence, and looking up caught Jan Cuxson's eyes upon her.
”That sounds _so_ familiar,” she said perplexedly, ”I----”
”The tiger at the Zoo which we knew all those years ago was trapped near a ruined Hindu temple in the Sunderbunds, Lady Hickle,” he said quietly, watching the curious dilation of the pupils in the greenish eyes as he spoke.
”The very one!” broke in young Dean, as he suspiciously eyed a proffered curry.
”How did you come to think of the stunt?”
”I ran up against a perfectly top-hole native prince at polo last month. Amongst other things we started talking elephant and _bagh_--tiger, you know,” laughed the lad, who always seemed to be on the point of bursting with high infectious spirits. ”No, take it away, I will _not_ eat a cold _chupattie_ of the consistency of a bicycle tyre--as I was saying, we talked tiger, and somehow or other he suggested a few days' pursuit, through the Sunderbunds, of the spotted deer, muntjak or sambur----”
”Neither.”
”Well, they're _spotted_.”
”Dogs, perhaps.”
Ignoring the execrable repartee, the boy turned completely round to Leonie.
”By the way, Lady Hickle, if you ever go to Benares, don't forget to get off _en route_ and visit the tomb of what's-its-name, it's quite near--oh! I forget--but it's on one of this fellow's father's estates.
They don't let many people go and see it--afraid, I expect, of paper bags but if you _do_ go you'll find an elephant or two hanging about to take you to the place in state. He's, the native prince, got some of the finest elephants in the whole of this mosquito-ridden land--makes a hobby of them.”
”What happened to the original tiger?”
”Noah pushed him into the ark.”
The lad grinned, and offered his cigarette to Leonie, who shook her head.
”Oh! stop fooling, Dean. Did a sahib manage to trap the brute, or what?”
”Yes! and sent it across to Blighty and shoved it into the Zoo.
They're frightfully sick about that tiger being in a cage; they wouldn't have minded a sahib killing it for the good of mankind it seems, but putting it behind bars is an insult to some G.o.d, or something like that. Are you any good as a gun, dear lady?”
Leonie smiled at the tardiness of such an important question.
”Fair,” she said, refusing an unkempt pot of marmalade as she turned to Cuxson. ”I used to pa.s.s most of my holidays with the Wetherbournes, you know them, don't you? They were awfully keen on sports, and had a rifle-range, but I could beat them any day with a revolver.”
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