Part 27 (2/2)

A ghastly silence reigned--no one spoke; ten thousand eyes stared out across the pool.

Then the voice of Ka.s.sim was heard, solemn and deep, saying: ”The covenant has been kept and Allah has avenged the death of Amir Khan!”

CHAPTER XXV

Commander Ka.s.sim touched Barlow on the arm: ”Captain Sahib, come with me. The death of that foul murderer does not take the weight off our hearts.”

”He deserved it,” Barlow declared.

Though filled with a sense of shuddering horror, he was compelled involuntarily to admit that it had been a most just punishment; less brutal, even more impressive--almost taking on the aspect of a religious execution--than if the Bagree had been tortured to death; hacked to pieces by the _tulwars_ of the outraged Pindaris. He had been executed with no evidence of pa.s.sion in those who witnessed his death. And as to the subtlety of the Commander in obtaining the confession, that, too, according to the ethics of Hindustan, was meritorious, not a thing to be condemned. Hunsa's animal cunning had been over-matched by the clear intellect of this wise soldier.

”We will walk back to the Chamber of Audience,” Ka.s.sim said, ”for now there are things to relate.”

He spoke to a soldier to have his horse led behind, and as they walked he explained: ”With us, Sahib, as at the death of a Rana of Mewar, there is no interregnum; the dead wait upon the living, for it is dangerous that no one leads, even for an hour, men whose guard is their sword. So, as Amir Khan waits yonder where his body lies to be taken on his way to the arms of Allah in Paradise, they who have the welfare of our people at heart have selected one to lead, and one and all, the jamadars and the hazaris, have decreed that I shall, unworthily, sit upon the _ghuddi_ (throne) that was Amir Khan's, though with us it is but the back of a horse. And we have taken under advis.e.m.e.nt the message thou brought. It has come in good time for the Mahrattas are like wolves that have turned upon each other. Sindhia, Rao Holkar, both beaten by your armies, now fight amongst themselves, and suck like vampires the life-blood of the Rajputs. And Holkar has become insane.

But lately, retreating through Mewar, he went to the shrine of Krishna and prostrating himself before his heathen image reviled the G.o.d as the cause of his disaster. When the priests, aghast at the profanity, expostulated, he levied a fine of three hundred thousand rupees upon them, and when, fearing an outrage to the image these infidels call a G.o.d, they sent the idol to Udaipur, he way-laid the men who had taken it and slew them to a man.”

”Your knowledge of affairs is great, Chief,” Barlow commented, for most of this was new to him.

”Yes, Captain Sahib, we Pindaris ride north, and east, and south, and west; we are almost as free as the eagles of the air, claiming that our home is where our cooking-pots are. We do not trust to ramparts such as Fort Chitor where we may be cooped up and slain--such as the Rajputs have been three times in the three famed sacks of Chitor--but also, Sahib, this is all wrong.”

The Chief halted and swept an arm in an encompa.s.sing embrace of the tent-studded plain.

”We are not a nation to muster an army because now the cannon that belch forth a shower of death mow hors.e.m.e.n down like ripened grain. It was the dead Chief's ambition, but it is wrong.”

Barlow was struck with the wise logic of this tall wide-browed warrior, it _was_ wrong. Ma.s.sed together Pindaris and _Bundoolas_ a.s.sailed by the trained hordes of Mahrattas, with their French and Portuguese gunners and officers, would be slaughtered like sheep. And against the war-trained Line Regiments of the British foot soldiers they would meet the same fate. ”You are right, Chief Ka.s.sim,” Barlow declared; ”even if you cut in with the winning side, especially Sindhia, he would turn on you and devour you and your people.”

”Yes, Sahib. The trade of a Pindari, if I may call it so, has been that of loot in this land that has always been a land of strife for possession. I rode with Chitu as a jamadar when we swept through the Nizam's territory and put cities under a tribute of many _lakhs_, but that was a force of five thousand only, and we swooped through the land like a great flock of hawks. But even at that Chitu, a wonderful chief, was killed by wild animals in the jungle when he was fleeing from disaster, almost alone.”

They were now close to the palace, and as they entered, just within the great hall Ka.s.sim said: ”There will be nothing to say on thy part, Captain Sahib; the officers will come even now to the audience and it is all agreed upon. Thou wilt be given an a.s.surance to take back to the British, for by chance the others have great confidence in me, even more in a matter of diplomacy than they had in the dead leader, may Allah rest his soul!”

And to the audience chamber--where had sat oft two long rows of minor chiefs, at their head on a raised dais the Rajput Raja, a Seesodia, one of the ”Children of the Sun,” as the flaming yellow gypsum sun above the dais attested--now came in twos and threes the wild-eyed whiskered riders of the desert. They were lean, raw-boned, steel-muscled, tall, solemn-faced men, their eyes set deep in skin wrinkled from the scorch of sun on the white sands of the desert. And their eyes beneath the black brows were like falcon's, predatory like those of birds of prey.

And the air of freedom, of self-reliance, of independence was in every look, in the firm swinging stride, and erect set of the shoulders.

They were men to swear by or to fear; verily men. And somehow one sharp look of apprais.e.m.e.nt, and one and all would have sworn by Allah that the Sahib in the garb of an Afghan was a man.

As each one entered he strode to the centre of the room, drew himself erect facing the heavy curtain beyond which lay the dead Chief, and raising a hand to brow, said in a deep voice: ”Salaam, Amir Khan, and may the Peace of Allah be upon thy spirit.”

”Now, brothers,” Ka.s.sim said, when the curtain entrance had ceased to be thrust to one side, ”we will say what is to be said. One will stand guard just without for this is a matter for the officers alone.”

He took from his waist the silver chain and unlocked the iron box, brought forth the paper that Barlow had carried, and holding it aloft, said: ”This is the message of brotherhood from the English Raj. Are ye all agreed that it is acceptable to our people?”

”In the name of Allah we are,” came as a sonorous chorus from one and all.

”And are ye agreed that it shall be said to the Captain Sahib, who is envoy from the Englay, that we ride in peace to his people, or ride not at all in war?”

”Allah! it is agreed,” came the response.

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