Chapter 4
Harshit is not alone
Sumit was Harshit's playmate when Harshit was living with the Kumars. Harshit and Sumit started talking; about old times mostly. Then Sumit asked Harshit why he had run away. Harshit explained.
“I knew the Kumars weren’t nice,” said Sumit, indignantly, after Harshit had finished his narrative, “but I never thought they would do such things as they’ve done to you.”
“Let’s go down to my cave, we’ll talk there,” suggested Harshit and Sumit agreed.
Sumit put down his foot on one of the lower branches, but Harshit straight away jumped down to the ground. He had been practicing jumping, so he was all right. But poor Sumit couldn’t believe his eyes. He half jumped down after Harshit “to rescue Harshit”; for Sumit thought that it was an accident. But then, he changed his mind, reasoning that if he went after Harshit, it wouldn’t improve affairs at all, except that two lives would be lost instead of one, and that wouldn’t be an improvement, ‘course.
He parted the leaves and peered down, anxiously, expecting to see a lifeless Harshit soaked in blood with his arms and legs stretched out.
But instead, Sumit got quite a different sight! There was Harshit standing on the ground as cool as a cucumber! Harshit was looking upwards, shading his eyes from the sun with his hands, and shouting for all he was worth!
“Now, Sumit, when are you going to come down here?” shouted Harshit, enjoying Sumit’s surprise. “You look as though you had seen a ghost!”
Sumit got a shock! What! Harshit had fallen from this height and was not even unconscious! Sumit nearly fell off the tree himself in his surprise.
“Well, of all the puzzling rascals, you top them all Harshit!” said Sumit, astonished. “How in the whole wide world…no; how in the whole universe did you do it?”
Harshit just grinned and beckoned to Sumit, to come down.
Sumit came down the tree as fast as he could. When he reached the lower part of the tree, Sumit, unfortunately, slid down the rest of the way though he tried hard to stop himself by digging his fingers into the trunk. The result was that a few more scratches were added to his collection on the forehead, as Sumit found to his cost.
Sumit listened eagerly as Harshit told him about his practices.
“Gosh!! Can you really somersault in the air?” asked Sumit.
“Oh, yes! I’ll show you!” said Harshit and he jumped up into the air, turned cartwheels three times and landed skillfully on a branch over the admiring Sumit.
“Wow!” exclaimed Sumit, admiringly, “Wish I could do that!” Harshit jumped back to the ground, turning cartwheels again.
“Look, Sumit! Your goats are wandering away!” said Harshit, suddenly.
“Oh, that’s all right!” said the young goatherd, looking around at his goats and he applied his flute to his lips and played the flute so melodiously that the birds stopped their chirping:
“FFFOOOOOoooooo……FOOoooooo…eee…ooo!”
The birds seemed surprised at the boy who made such a sweet melody and had beat them at their own game! The wandering goats heard it too. They stopped their wanderings and listened intently.
“FFFOOOOOoooooo……FOOoooooo…eee…ooo!” Sumit went on, “FFOoooooooooo…eee…oo…eee…oo!” The goats recognized that melody! That’s their master! All goats around clattered down to Sumit, who went on producing the sweet melody. Harshit started. Why were the goats rushing at himself and Sumit like that?!! He was getting ready to use his fists when Sumit, laying down his flute, touched him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry,” assured Sumit, “they aren’t attacking us. They just recognized my melody, that’s all.”
The goats came rushing towards them, making a lot of noise. The first to reach Sumit started rubbing their heads lovingly on his shoulder. The rest of the herd followed its example.
Sumit hadn’t expected this, but looked pleased. But ‘course, Sumit couldn’t accommodate the whole herd to rub their heads at once. So there was scramble for Sumit, Which Sumit didn’t like much. And unfortunately, Harshit got mixed up in the scrimmage too. There was a lot of yelling, shouting, screaming; and the goats gave both boys a thorough rubbing before Sumit could silence them.
The tormented boys sat down on the ground and both gave a sigh of relief, as the goats got bored and went off to graze again.
“Phew!” said Harshit, “You had better try some other way to gather up the herd next time.” Sumit agreed, all right; but didn’t say so.
Harshit took Sumit to show his cave. When they neared the cave, they could still hear the strange-roaring noise coming from somewhere. Sumit listened intently, and concluded that it was the sound of an underground river.
“An underground river!” ejaculated Harshit, after Sumit had stated his opinion.
“Yes, an underground river,” confirmed Sumit, “Oh yes! By the way, I forgot to tell you something.”
“What is it?” asked Harshit, carelessly, “anything of importance?”
“Yes,” replied Sumit, unexpectedly.
“Go on,” responded Harshit, sitting straight suddenly.
“Well, Harshit, you’re not the only one who has run away to this mountain.”
“Really?!”
“It is true.”
“And who is my neighbour here, Sumit?”
“My sister, Katrina.”
“Katrina!”
“Yes, Katrina.”
“Do you know why she ran away?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Oh! You know, Harshit, our parents had made a new type of submarine for the navy?”
“Yes, I know something about it Sumit, and didn’t your parents go for a trial trip to Australia in the submarine, leaving you with your uncle or someone like that?”
“Just so, Harshit, and they were never seen or heard of again.”
“Yes, I read it in the newspaper.”
“Well, so, I and my sister, Katrina, went to live with our uncle.”
“Yes, Sumit, go on.”
“The first two years were okay enough, but when our parents remained missing, even after two years, uncle and aunt began to think that our parents would never come back.”
“And so, they changed their minds about being kind and polite to you, I suppose, Sumit.”
“Exactly, Harshit, and they made us work hard. They made me look after their goats, and Katrina had to do the entire household work, along with some scolding and hard slaps, now and then, for a change.”
“And I suppose Katrina couldn’t stand it.”
“Just so, Harshit, and she thought she could run away to this ring of mountains, while I could come to see her every day when I come to graze the goats, and could bring some food supplies also.”
“So, that’s it.”
Both boys became silent for a minute, their brains working.
“Well,” said Sumit, breaking the silence. “I thought you and Katrina could keep each other company.”
“Just what I was thinking about.”
“Any objection? Katrina must be feeling so lonely,” implored Sumit.
“All right, Sumit. I’ll go and keep her company. Katrina isn’t used to such a rough life.”
“Yes,” said Sumit, happily, “you see, she needs a real friend, and I can’t be always at her side.”
“Right,” said Harshit, “where is she ‘lodging’?”
“Inside this ring of mountains.” said Sumit.
Harshit’s face looked like he hadn’t heard anything so ridiculous.
“You’re joking!”
“No, I’m not. Just before sunset, Katrina comes out of the ‘ring’ to meet me. You could come with me, and then you’ll see that it’s not impossible.”
Harshit peeped out of the cave and looked at the sun, which was already disappearing down the horizon, and the sky had turned bright red.
Harshit turned back to Sumit and said: “The sun’s sinking already.”
“
Then, follow me,” said Sumit, getting out of the cave, “and you’ll see Katrina.”