Part 69 (1/2)

Apparently soft stones were forthcoming: for one by one the men rolled themselves up in their blankets and sheep-skins, and slept soundly on two hundred feet of ice under a freezing sky; leaving Lenox alone with his pipe and his thoughts, and the silence that dwelt like a presence in the eerie place.

As a rule a hard day on the glaciers left him so over-powered with sleep that he could scarcely finish his smoke: but to-night his brain was alert and active; stimulated by the knowledge that two more days of climbing ought to bring him at last to the Pa.s.s of his dreams:--the Pa.s.s that must be found and crossed in the teeth of all that Nature might do to hinder him!

That discovery would close the first phase of his journey: and to-night, looking back over it, from the day of his departure for Simla, he saw that it had been good.

Sir Henry Forsyth, Foreign Secretary, and an old school friend of his brother's, had instructed him to work his way up to Hunza, a small independent state north of Kashmir, hidden among lofty mountains and impenetrable valleys, whence robber bands--secure from retaliation--had for long amused and enriched themselves by flying descents upon neighbouring tribes, and upon caravans pa.s.sing from Asia to India. And now, after an unusually daring raid, the peace-loving Kirghiz of the district had appealed to the Indian Government for protection and help.

Lenox, with his little escort of six Gurkhas and one Pathan, was to enter this stronghold of brigands; reason with their chief, and bind him down to good behaviour for the future. In addition, Sir Henry suggested that instead of going to Hunza direct, he should strike out eastward from Kashmir, working his way round through the great Mustagh Mountains, and exploring as he went, also that he should finally push on northward, and penetrate as far into the Pamirs as the approach of winter would permit.

”There will be no difficulty with the authorities. I have arranged all that; and you need not be back at Dera till October or November,” the great man had concluded, in a tone half question, half command.

”No, sir. I may as well do all I can while I'm up there.”

Whereat Sir Henry had eyed him thoughtfully from between narrowed lids.

For all his great brain, he was a man of one idea: and that idea--”The North safeguarded.” Mere men, himself included, were for him no more than p.a.w.ns in the great game to be played out between two Empires, on the chess-board of Central Asia. But . . there are p.a.w.ns, and p.a.w.ns: and Sir Henry had had his eye on Lenox for some years; recognising in him a p.a.w.n of high value; a man to be sent to the front on the first opportunity, and kept there as long as might be. The news of his marriage had been a shock to the Foreign Secretary: and it is conceivable that he had wished to test Lenox by asking him to undertake such a mission within a year of the fatal event. He was speculating now, as he watched him, how far the 'woman complication' was likely to count with this impenetrable Scot. With Sir Henry, after the first year or two, the woman had not counted at all; and, unhappily for her, she knew it.

The pause lasted so long that Lenox s.h.i.+fted his position: but Sir Henry only said, ”I was relieved when I got your wire.”

”Surely I could not have answered otherwise?”

”I am glad you think so. But frankly, when I heard of your marriage, I was half afraid I had lost one of my ablest men.”

Lenox smiled. ”Not quite as bad as that, sir, I hope.”

”Well then . . what about Gilgit?”

Sir Henry spoke carelessly; but his eyes were on Lenox's face, and he saw him flinch.

”Is that likely to be an immediate contingency?” Lenox asked quietly.

”Next, year, I should say, as things are going now.”

”Well, I hope it may be possible. But . . one would have to think it over.”

”_Talk_ it over, you mean . . eh?”

Something in the tone angered Lenox.

”Yes, sir . . talk it over. That is what I meant,” he had answered, looking straightly at the other: and they had returned somewhat abruptly to the matter in hand.

But Lenox had dined with the Foreign Secretary that night, and they had parted good friends, as ever: Sir Henry begging the younger man to ask him for anything that might serve to lessen the hards.h.i.+ps and dangers ahead of him, adding, as they shook hands: ”I a.s.sure you, my dear fellow, we who sit in Simla fully realise how much the country owes to men of your sort; and grudge no money spent in making the way smoother for you.”

But Lenox, knowing well that hards.h.i.+ps and perils loom larger in an easy-chair than on the slope of a glacier, had asked for little, beyond permission to depart, and that speedily.

A few days at Pindi had sufficed for the collecting of stores and equipment. Then he had pushed northward in earnest, picking up his escort of Gurkhas from their station in the foot-hills: and so on through Kashmir, where spring had already flung her bridal veil over the orchards, and retreating snow-wreaths had left the hills carpeted with a mosaic of colour,--primula, iris, orchid, and groundlings innumerable: over the Zoji-la Pa.s.s, into the shadeless, fantastic desolation of Ladak; and on, across stark desert and soundless snow-fields, to Leh, the terminus of all caravans from India and Central Asia. Here Lenox had spent two days with one Captain Burrow of the Bengal Cavalry, who, with a handful of half-starved Kashmiri soldiers, upheld the interests of the British Raj on this uttermost edge of Empire. Here also he found a letter from Quita; read and re-read it, and stowed it away in his breast-pocket, trying not to be aware of a haunting ache deep down in him, which must perforce be ignored. The old charm of the Road, the 'glory of going on,' that works like madness in the blood, was strong upon him as ever. But whereas, in former journeyings, he had been one man, he was now two.

The whole-hearted ecstasy of travel would never again be his. He had given a part of himself into a woman's keeping; and let him put the earth's diameter between them, she would hold him still. Every week, every day that drew him farther from her did but bring home to him more forcibly the mysterious, compelling power of marriage, its large reserves of loyalty, its sacred and intimate revelations, its inexorable grip on life and character.

But meanwhile, there was the Road before him; a rough road, full of vicissitudes and anxieties, of interests and antic.i.p.ations that left him small leisure for the communings of his heart.

Before leaving Leh, hill camels and ponies had been added unto him; besides twenty-one decrepit Kashmir soldiers,--a type extinct since they have been handled by British officers. These were to be deposited by Lenox at his so-called 'base of operations,' by way of guarding the trade route so grievously troubled by the brigand state.