CHAPTER VI
_Jungle Laughter_
It was while Skag was waiting near Poona, for Carlin's eldest brotherRoderick Deal, that he became toiled in the snare of his own interestin jungle laughter. It is a strange tale; lying over against the mudwall of the English caste system in India. It is to be understood thata civil officer of high rank in that country is a man whose word islaw. His least suggestion is imperative. The usages of his householdmay not be questioned by a thought, if one is wise.
Police Commissioner Hichens was such a man. He was stationed in Bombayand there is nothing better in appointment in all India. Hisresponsibilities were heavy like those of an empire. Personally he wasaustere--entirely unapproachable. Of his home life no one knewanything whatever, outside the very few of equal rank. It wasunderstood that the mother of his two small children had died more thana year ago. Some indiscreet person had mooted that she was not sentHome in time. Still, European women do not live long in that climateanyway; and it is common knowledge that to maintain a family requiresseveral successive mothers.
The present Mrs. Hichens was but recently a bride; a mere girl andlovely; but within a few weeks of her landing, Bombay fever had begunto destroy the more tangible qualities of her beauty--which could notbe permitted.
It does not take long for the most exalted official to discover thatBombay fever resembles the Supreme Being in that it is no respecter ofpersons. Yet it was not even so nearly convenient to send this Mrs.Hichens Home, as it had been to send that Mrs. Hichens Home; and thathad been quite out of the question. But the Western Ghat mountainsfurnish a very good barricade against Bombay fever. (Devoutly inclinedpersons have even intimated that they were specially placed there forthe convenience of men who are much attached to their homes.)
Extending a thousand miles parallel with the coast, from five to fortymiles inland, built mostly of pinnacles and peaks rising a few hundredor a few thousand feet from near sea level, more rugged than anymountains of their size in the world, the Western Ghats are like asection of Himalaya in miniature. The railway line up has areversing-station proclaimed far and wide to be the most splendid pieceof railway engineering on earth. (That there are several more splendidin the Rocky Mountains is unimportant.)
Just over the top, about seventy miles from Bombay, is Khandalla andLanowli and further on, Poona. Poona is a military station, sometimestoo far. Lanowli is a railway station--which means that no one livesthere who is fit to associate with a police commissioner's wife. ButKhandalla is no station at all, being only a small mountain villagewith three or four abandoned bungalows far apart from each other.Heaven knows who built them in the beginning, but whoever it was, theymust have done it too late, because there is a neglected grave or twonear each one.
The native agents got in every good argument for the bungalows, butPolice Commissioner Hichens was not persuaded. He seemed to have aconstitutional antipathy to those bungalows.
No, the bungalows might be safer and dryer and warmer at night; theymight be cleaner and healthier and more comfortable all the time; buthe wanted a tent and he meant to put it where he wanted it. So, atgreat expense of time and labour on the part of natives, but verylittle expenditure of money on his part, he succeeded in hoisting atent from Bombay to the top of the Western Ghat mountains, of a sizeand of an age and of a strength which suggested a military mess-camp.
The tent was set up in the Jungle at the edge of Khandalla. Theservants would find quarters in Khandalla village; a cook, a cook'sservant-boy and a butler for the entire household; a boy for the smallson, an ayah for the wee girl and a very expensive ayah for the ladyherself.
If an ayah is expensive enough, she is usually a very intelligentperson, thoroughly informed on most general subjects pertaining to herown country and entirely competent to impart that information. It isunderstood she will always interpret the native standpoint relative toany matter under discussion. Her value as a servant may be great, buther value as an instructor will be greater. It was necessary that eachof the ayahs should be wife to one of the men servants, but it isalways possible to make a temporary arrangement of that sort toaccommodate the customs of a high official.
So the present Mrs. Hichens was to be established in the tent, verycomfortably matted as to the floor and furnished with all necessaryappointments of a satisfying quality and wealthy appearance. Men ofhigh rank must do all things with a certain pomp and circumstance,otherwise the ignorant might sometimes forget their rank. And rankmust never be allowed to be forgotten.
Police Commissioner Hichens would spend all week-ends with her; that isto say, he would leave Bombay by the first train going up after Courtclosed on Saturday and would be obliged to take the Sunday eveningtrain down. The two children so recently come into the care of asecond mother, would be occupied and entertained by their servants; andthe little girl, not quite three years old, would be under theadditional guardianship of a Great Dane dog who had once belonged toher own mother.
It will be observed that the Great Dane dog is spoken of as apersonality. He was so. He seemed to have quite fixed conclusionsabout the family. He ignored the servants (excepting Bhanah the cook,who was a servant as far out of the ordinary as the lady's own ayah).He tolerated the small boy. He approved of the new lady. He neverceased to mourn for his dead mistress; especially in the presence ofthe man.
He would extend his great length on the floor in a low couchantposition, not too close to where the man sat--and search the stronghuman face with eyes more strong. Without the twitch of a muscleanywhere in his whole body, he would endure the man's gaze as long asthe man chose, with a level look of cold, untiring rebuke. There wasno anger in it, no flash of light, no flame of passion--but it had away of eating in.
The servants bear common witness that it is the only thing they haveever known to drive the Sahib away from the delightful relaxations ofhis own home, which he claimed as sanctuary from the stress and grindof his official days. But the Great Dane Nels had done it more thanonce. Afterward the Sahib would sometimes take Nels on ahunting-furlough.
It was the first Mrs. Hichens who took the puppy with her, when shewent to India with Police Commissioner Hichens; and before she died hewas made to promise her on his honour, that he would care for andprotect Nels as if Nels were his own son, so long as Nels should live.There was no help for it.
Especially as it was quite well known among the servants, that on thevery day of her death she had made the Sahib with his own hands lay thesleeping child over on the bed underneath Nels' out-stretched paws;because this was done in the presence of Baby's ayah and of her ownayah also, and therefore two witnesses had heard her say:
"Nels, I am giving my baby to you. The Sahib her father is not able tobe with her, much. But you are to care for my baby for me. Do youunderstand, my dear?" She often called Nels "my dear" with a peculiarinflection on the _dear_ and an upward lilt of tone.
And Nels had agreed, because he pressed the little body hard and liftedup his big grey head and cried a long, low cry. And the lady hadlaughed a little and wiped glistening tears from her death-misted face,for her baby would be--not _quite_ alone.
So all the servants knew that Nels had owned the child from that day.Now it is not a wise thing to antagonise a body of East Indian servantsin matters which they consider sacred; and Police Commissioner Hichenswas a lawyer and a judge and a wise man. He might fear Nels as hefeared death itself, the two being equivalent in his mind, but he mightnot destroy Nels with his own hand, nor let it be known that he hadcaused the great dog's death. Still, if he took Nels with him onhunting-furloughs, as often as possible setting him to charge mostdeadly game, there was always the possibility of an accident.
To many it seemed strange that the present Mrs. Hichens, a regal youngEnglish thing, was made to live in a lonely tent, well back among densejungle growths, quite out of sight or call away from any humanhabitation, with her husband's little son and littler daughter and theGreat Dane dog. C
ertainly the servants were about during the daytime;as much out of sight as possible, according to their good teaching.But at night there were no servants about; they were all far away atthe other end of the village, because the natives who lived at thisside were low caste.
And it was at night the thing developed. A slow-driving inquisition,night after night. It drove her through and beyond the deadly feverlassitude. She was not building up out of it; she was beaten downbelow it. She was beaten through all the successive stages of breakingnerves. She used all the known arguments, all the intellectual methodsto sustain pure courage, to hold herself immune. She used them all up.
At first, when her husband came up for his weekends, he was quiteevidently pleased with his arrangement. And it would take aself-confidence which had long since gone a-glimmering out of her, tobreak in on his enthusiasm with any criticism of his provisions for hercomfort; certainly no criticism on any basis of noise. It has beensaid that Police Commissioner Hichens was an unapproachable man; andsome things are impossible. One can die, you know, any death. Butsome things are entirely impossible.
The day came when she dragged her weary weight up from the couch anddrove her unsteady frame along the new pathway through jungle thicketstoward the village. The idea had been gnawing in her consciousness fordays; to find the nearest house or hut or any kind of place where humanbeings lived, so as to have it in her mind where to run when the timecame. It had come to that. It went in circles through her brain; whenthe time came to run, she positively must know where to run.
Her progress was slow and painful. When her limbs shook so she couldnot stand alone, she leaned against a tree. She must not lie down onthe ground on account of the centipedes and scorpions.
"Hello--"
Startled a little, she turned toward the voice. A man's voice, verylow. It came from somewhere behind her. She broke away from hersupport and the fever-surge caught her and whipped her from head tofoot. Her balance was going--
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to frighten you."
She was kept from falling by the arm of the stranger.
"No. It's the fever. I assure you it's the fever."
Now he just steadied her with one hand. The fever was filling herbrain with a dull haze. . . . He was slender and not tall. He wasmuch bronzed. She could see only his eyes and his mouth. He spokeagain:
"Why are you alone in this jungle--with such a fever?"
The words dropped into her consciousness; even, smooth, like pebblesgently released into water.
Then the blackness of outer darkness came up between.
. . . That was how the present Mrs. Hichens began to know Skag.
He carried her back along the path, fresh-marked by her own footsteps,to the tent.
Next afternoon he called to learn how she was. He had a sheaf of wildmountain lilac-blooms in his hand.
"Oh, lovely! I haven't seen lilacs since England."
"They make me think of my mother," he said, giving the flowers into herhands.
"I would so much like to hear about your mother."
Skag had not the habit of much speaking, but he found it easy to tellthis English girl about the mother who had died when he was a child.She leaned against banked pillows and watched the changes flow acrosshis face. They were almost startling and yet so clean, so wholesome,that she felt inwardly refreshed, as by a breath from mountain heights.
Naturally he went on to tell her about Carlin; but when at last hespoke her name, the English girl interrupted him:
"Is it possible you are meaning Doctor Carlin Deal?"
"Yes; do you know her?" Skag asked.
"I have met her several times--quite frightened at first, because I hadheard about her--you know she is very learned, even for one much older."
"I know she is a physician."
"Yes; London Medical. But it's not just her profession; it's herself.She's really wonderful; her sweetness is so strong and--all herstrengths are so lovely."
"She is wonderful to me," Skag said.
"I'm congratulating you, you understand?" The present Mrs. Hichenssmiled as she added: "I've heard that she has a fine discernment ofmen."
He went before sunset. After he had gone she asked her ayah to findout about who he was and whatever concerning him.
When Police Commissioner Hichens came up that week-end, he was soseriously dissatisfied with the tediousness of her recovery, that shehad no inclination to tell him about having gone out from the tent onher own unsteady feet, at all. Certainly it would be calamitous forhim to hear of her having been carried in by a perfect stranger. Forwhich reason she called her ayah, while the Sahib was in his bathbefore dinner and said to her hurriedly:
"Ayah, will you do a thing for my sake?"
"To the shedding of my blood, Thou Shining."
"Then guard from the master that he shall not learn of my going out, orof the stranger who appeared."
"He shall never learn. Never while he lives shall he learn, unlessfrom your own lips."
"Will all the other servants help you, Ayah dear?"
"It is already considered and determined among us. He shall neverlearn from us."
"Why are you all good to me?"
"Because by the hand of our master, who is our father and our mother,our bodies live; but by the grace of thy soul our hearts are glad. _Itis better to have joy in the heart one day than to endure upon thefatness which grows out of a full stomach for ten years._"
"Oh, Ayah, don't tell me things like that, because they are never to beforgotten."
"That is a great saying, oh Flower-of-Life. A saying come down frommany generations. My people have found in it much food. The most pooramong us go empty many days by the strength in it. And it is knownthat holy men have lived long years of holy life, without anysatisfaction to the body at all, dwelling in that courage by which theunutterable of suffering may be endured, entirely by the _memory of oneday_."
The ayah's voice finished in the tones of ceremony; and she movedsmoothly from the room, unconscious that she had not been dismissed.
The following evening, after the police commissioner had gone down, theayah brought report concerning the stranger. His name was SanfordHantee Sahib. He was an American Sahib. He did not consort with anyof his own people, nor with Europeans. Of all human beings he had onlyone friend and associate, Cadman Sahib, who was a great man amongmen--as was well known by even the ignorant. Cadman Sahib had beenheard to call him "Skag," but Cadman Sahib would permit no one to callhim by that title excepting himself; therefore it was a sealed title,to pronounce which few are worthy. Five days ago Sanford Hantee Sahibhad come by train from far in the interior, beyond the Grass Junglecountry, to meet an Indian Sahib of high rank in the railway service,at Poona. It was an appointment personal to himself; no one knew thepurpose. Also, why Cadman Sahib had not come together with him was notknown, unless--
"Oh, Ayah! I don't care a bit about Cadman Sahib--_will_ you be goodenough. What about the man? Now go on."
"Most illustrious lady, the thing is an exaltation. I am poor andignorant. My head is at your feet. One like I am should not approachpower like his save turning fresh from a bath."
"Ayah dear! I am prepared."
"He has the power to control all wild animals. So great is his powerthat not long ago, when he and his so-fortunate friend Cadman Sahib hadboth fallen into a tiger pit-trap and a mighty young tiger in his fullstrength had come after them, falling bodily down upon them and beingfull of fright and fury, had turned upon them to destroy them,beholding his master's face, the beast had become subject to him in theinstant and had sat quietly before him the whole night, without movingto hurt them. What man will require more than this?"
"For Heaven's sake! What a tale. But Ayah, what sort of man is he?"
"Who will be able to know what sort of man? Is it not enough?"
"We require much more than that."
"Lady, I--who am not as you are--I have not
bathed since dawn. Surelycalamity will fall on me, if I set my tongue to the nature of such anone."
"If he is holy, then he will be willing to help."
"The knowledge of him among men is that he _is that_."
"Then, Ayah, I will take the danger of calamity away from you, for Ihave need. Speak."
"It is known that he resembles the most high masters themselves, inthat he is _always kind_. And yet there was a strange saying, that hepermitted his friend Cadman Sahib to destroy the head of a mightyserpent who had feasted upon the creatures and children of a GrassJungle village. Now these things could not both be true at the sametime, unless he had taken a vow to protect the children of men. Inthat case his presence in the land was a benediction beyond thebenediction of twenty years of full rains. He might even be one of thehigh gods, incarnated to serve Vishnu the Great Preserver, if what theysaid was true, that he had been recognised by Neela Deo, the Bluegod--king of all the elephants--in _his own place_."
"Then, Ayah, fasten it all into one word."
"That he is a very great mystic. Not one of the yogis who are uncleanand scrap-fed, but a true mystic; a master and an adept in one of thegreatest of all powers."
"_Have no fear_. I alone shall carry the burden of speaking."
Since there are few more potent benedictions than "Have no fear," theayah withdrew in deep content.
While Skag sat in the tent next day, the police commissioner's wifesaid to him:
"I have learned that you are a wonder man."
"That is a mistake."
"Is it true that you and a friend spent the night in a pit-trap with aliving, unchained tiger and that he did not hurt you?"
"A part of the night, yes."
"Will you explain it on any ordinary grounds?"
"Maybe not quite ordinary. I travelled several years with a circus inAmerica; and I learned to handle animals, especially big cats ofdifferent sorts."
"How do you do it?"
"A man does it by first mastering the wild animals in himself. Then hemust have learned never to be afraid."
"Is that all?"
"He must always be fair to them. I mean he must never take advantageof them; never do anything to them that would make him fight back, ifhe were in their place."
"I am thinking what a difference there is between your standpoint andthat of the hunters of wild animals I know. But tell me--have you everbeen afraid?"
"Yes, once."
"Really afraid?"
"Yes."
"I want to hear about it some day, if you will be so good; but first Iwant to tell you a story of fear; two kinds of fear. There has been noone I could speak to--and I am in need of help."
"I would like to help you. Tell on."
"Do you know much about hyenas?"
"I know they are the most unclean of all beasts. I have never heardthat they are dangerous to men."
"Sometimes they are. Only a little way from where we sit in thisjungle, a woman was killed and eaten last year, by a hyena. But I amnot afraid for myself. I have said my fear is of two kinds. First, Iam seriously concerned for the children; especially the baby. She isfrail at her best and if it were not for her long afternoon naps, I amunwilling to think what would come to her just from the sort of thingwhich has been happening. She is highly organised; and one has heardthat any kind of nerve-shock is most dangerous to such children. Then,there is a different kind of fear, _quite_ different; it is for herGreat Dane dog."
"Won't he charge them?"
"That is the most awful part of it. Of all creatures I have everknown, I may as well say of all people I have ever known, he has themost splendid courage. One night in every week he is taken to Bhanah'sown quarters, so that his master shall not be disturbed. The changeseemed to relieve him, at first. But--one who had not seen could neverconceive how gradually, through the long, long nights--I have watchedhis almost super-human courage--breaking."
Skag opened his lips to speak, but she put up her hand.
"This is hard to tell because I have never known that I could beafraid. I have always supposed that I had perfect courage. But whileNels' courage has been in the wrecking, my own has been wrecked--quite!"
Her voice was very low and very bitter.
"I don't believe it's as bad as that."
She glanced up and smiled the slow smile of extreme age upon extremeyouth.
"My husband, the police commissioner, has hunted in India more thantwenty years; some of his friends longer than that. I suppose they areas familiar with the natures and doings of most animals in this countryas foreign hunters can become. But of course the natives know junglecreatures even better. We have two servants, born in these hills, myayah and Bhanah the old cook; I have much from both of them. But myexperience here in this tent, has--as the natives wouldsay--established it all in me. You will have heard that hyenas arealmost always the scouts for tigers."
"Yes, Mr. Cadman told me that."
"Jackals run with them. The hunters say that between the hyena, whosestench is beyond description awful, and the jackal, whose stench isstrong dog, they obliterate the tiger smell and so prevent thedesperate panic coming in time to the hunted creatures, who fear thetiger more than anything."
"Hyenas in captivity do not smell so exceptionally bad."
"One has heard that all flesh-eating animals in captivity are fed cleanmeat, reasonably fresh--"
"They are; and for the moment I forgot their reputation--that wouldmake a difference."
"It is claimed here, that they eat only two kinds of flesh, atonce--human and dog. They say that the hyena entices and betrays tothe killing, the tiger kills and eats his fill, then the jackals comein and leave only bones and tendon-stuff for the hyena. This is whathe devours as soon as it is old enough to suit his taste."
"Are all these animals here in this jungle?"
"Plenty of jackals; but the tigers have been killed out of all thispart of these Ghats by the European sportsmen of Bombay and Poona. Thehunters disregard hyenas; so there are many left, with no killer tokill for them."
"That might make them dangerous."
"And they will tell you that when a hyena is forced to kill forhimself, he invariably hunts for a dog. It has become very importantto me that dog flesh is their first choice. And dogs never fighthyenas; never even to defend their own lives. They may bark or howlwhile the hyena is some distance away, but as soon as it comes nearthey are silent; and when it approaches them, they simply cower andsubmit. Not only that, but it is beyond question that hyenas have thepower to call dogs to them. . . . For five weeks I have been alone inthis tent six nights in every week all night, with two children and thespartan soul of Nels the Great Dane dog; and I have seen and I haveheard the _process_ of the hyena's lure."
"That is what I want to hear about."
"You shall hear; but will you be good enough to remember, please, Nelsis no average dog. There is nothing better in lineage than his. Also,he is a thoroughly trained hunting dog. My husband, the policecommissioner, has used him in hunting tigers and cheetahs, blackpanthers and leopards of the long sort, the big black bears of Himalayaand jungle pigs, which we call wild boars at Home. To different famoushunting districts of the country he has taken Nels, on manyhunting-furloughs; and Nels' courage stands to him and to his friends,the very last word in courage. I have often heard him say he does notknow a man with courage to equal that which has never once failed inNels."
"I should like to know that dog."
"You shall certainly meet him; and it may be you are the one to knowhim. I am confident no one does, now."
"About the hyenas?"
"The hyena has three kinds of call. The most common is the bark of apuppy. (If you ever hear it you will not wonder why mother dogs go outto it, to their death.) Presently the bark breaks into a puppy's cry.It whimpers, then it climbs up into heart-breaking desolation; thewailing cry of a lost puppy. It snaps out in distraction futile littleyappings; then
it whimpers again, like sobbing. So on for hours.
"The next most common is a laugh; a harsh, senseless laugh. The effectis to terrorise, to paralyse its prey. It is wicked. It climbs upinto piercing, high, falsetto tones; all maniacal. . . . So insanethat though one knows perfectly well what it is, it chills one's blood.This keeps on a long time, with variations. Every change seems worsethan the last. But sooner or later it brings one up standing with alaugh impossible to describe, unless it is devilish--so clear, so keen,so intelligent, so beyond expression malicious. Toward morning thissometimes brings sweat. Oh, maybe not if one were alone; but withNels, watching Nels--indeed yes!
"The last and least often heard--I mean they do not do it every night,sometimes not for several nights, sometimes they do all three in onenight--is the cry of a little native baby; the cry of a lost baby; thecry of a deserted baby; the cry of a baby alone out in the jungleshadows and frightened to death."
She stopped and lay quite still; seeming to forget he was there.
"And what then?"
"Nothing, only it keeps on sometimes the rest of that night. Theynever mix the three kinds together. Even when they do them all in onenight, they are usually in this order as I am telling you. Sometimesthe baby is still for a few minutes; then it begins again and goes on."
Again she stopped a long time. Suddenly she flung up her hand andspoke faster:
"No, there's nothing more about that little deserted native baby's cry,excepting that I've started up in broad daylight afterward, with a coldpanic in my heart that it had really been a baby, a true baby and I hadfailed to go and save it. And--the nights, the long nights I havefastened my weight on Nels' neck to keep him inside of this door!"
She pointed to the opening by her couch.
"Why don't you chain him?"
"He goes on a leash perfectly, but he has never been taught to bechained up. My husband has never permitted the servants to do it. Itried it here myself, but he suffers and cries; and that keeps both thechildren awake. It would jeopardise Baby's life to force him. Onaccount of the ceremony which occurred a few hours before her motherdied, the servants believe she belongs to Nels. They claim that heacknowledges the ownership. I will admit that he behaves like it. Shehas often kept him back. He goes from this tent door to her cotyonder, to look at her. But always he comes back to the door. Somenight my weight will not be sufficient. That is my fear."
"The situation is clear and I think I can manage it, if you will leaveit to me for a night or two. These beasts must be kin to a big snake Imet in the Grass Jungle country. My friend Mr. Cadman shot him. Thatwas when I found fear--"
At that moment Skag heard the clear, treble tones of a child's voice:
"Nels-s, Nels-s, Nels-s!"
And the veriest fairy thing his eyes had ever looked upon came flyingin the tent door before him. Her head was a halo of gold made of thefinest kind of baby curls. She was unbelievable. She was like aflame, beside the couch.
"This is Betty, our baby."
The child lifted intensely blue eyes and while Skag smiled into them,he was without words before the vivid whiteness of her face. She wassent with her ayah to the back of the tent for her nap. Then Nels camein.
Skag had never seen such a dog. For size, for proportions, for power,for dignity, he was quite beyond comparison.
"This is Nels, one of the four greatest hunters in India."
Nels came to him at once. With a searching regard he looked intoSkag's face one long moment, then a glow came up in his eyes and heswung about and stretched himself alongside Skag's chair, reached hisarms out before him and laid his chin on them, almost touching theman's foot. Skag leaned over and stroked the big head. It felt likesealskin, but it was soft clean grey colour.
"Nels has adopted you, Wonder Man!"
The lady on the couch spoke like a small child, marvelling.
"I am glad to have his friendship. But I wish, if you will excuse me,I wish that you wouldn't call me by that name. Skag is not my realname, but the few friends I have call me Skag. I'd be pleased if youwould call me that."
"That's very nice of you, but do you much mind? I like Wonder Manbetter."
"I don't believe I quite understand why."
"Partly from things I've heard about you. But rather more on accountof what I've seen just now. I fancy the natives are not far wrong andyou are a wonder man to them. . . . If you do this sort of thing,delivering people who are in danger of their lives, and getting thedevotion of creatures as hard to win as Nels, I can see that you aregoing to have a great reputation in this India. And you are not to bein the least disturbed if I call you Wonder Man; I am believing thetitle is prophetic at least."
"What I'm doing for you is only what any man would do. If you hear meoutside to-night, don't be startled. I'll get the beast as soon as Ican. If there's more than one, I'll stay around till they're cleanedout."
Soon after dusk Skag circled out into the jungle. He carried one ofthe best hunting-pieces made and plenty of ammunition. Taking aposition in sight of the tent on the jungle side, he waited. Withinhalf an hour a little puppy began to bark. No man alive could everknow it was anything but a puppy. It yapped and whimpered a while andthen it began to get frightened. He moved toward it, but it stopped.For several minutes there was silence. Then another one began back ofhim. He slipped through the shadows with the utmost caution, butbefore he got near it, it also stopped. This occurred several times.At last, away in another direction, a wild, grating laugh broke out.He turned at once and moved carefully but swiftly to come in rangebetween it and the tent.
This laugh-thing was torture. It couldn't stop. It was insane. Hethought it would never be done. In a few minutes it was important tohave it done. She had said it was to paralyse its prey. It was enoughto paralyse anything. Then he jumped. Now _that_ was devilish! Buthe was coming closer to the sound and getting interested, when itstopped. So he followed it from place to place. Always, when he gotnear possible range, it stopped. Always it began in a few minutes insome other spot. There might be a dozen. . . .
And a woman, alone with two children and a dog, had endured this sixnights out of seven, night after night all night, for five weeks. . . .
Near morning, toward the front, a sick baby began to cry. While hemade his way around, his steps quickened to the very urge of its need.He was quite near the tent when--a clear, high, agonised shriek. Itwas the girl! And he ran.
There was an instant when he did not realise anything. He just saw.Fifty feet from the tent, the Great Dane dog, his head low, almosttouching the ground, moving slowly, step by step--with a long, slender,white figure dragged bodily on his neck. Then he heard:
"Rodger! Keep back! Take care of Baby. Nels, _Nels_! Nels, you must_listen_ to me. . . . _Nels_!"
He caught hold of her and the dog at the same moment.
"Don't let him go. _Don't let go of Nels_!"
"All right, I won't. Now will you go back to the tent, please? I'vegot Nels. I'm going with him."
"No, _the thing has happened_! I tell you, he doesn't even know me!Why do you want him to go at all?"
"Because they keep out of my range, alone. He'll lead me to this one.I'll take care of him. Now go; will you please go back?"
"I don't--"
A frantic scream from a boy's throat and in the same instant thelifting cry of a younger child. Clear in the door-space of the tent,behind them, two little figures clung together in the opening--and justat one side, close to the children, a dark, ungainly shape! Skagsprang three jumps toward the opposite side, dropped on one knee andfired. The shape bounced up, crumpled over and lay still.
They both ran to the children. Skag had just made sure the beast wasdead, when he heard:
"Nels, Nels!--He is gone!"
"If you'll shut the door safely, I'll take care of Nels."
"It won't fasten, but I'll stay."
The Great Dane was not in sight but
Skag knew the direction. He ranalmost upon them. Nels stood, but crouched toward the ground. A shaperose against him--above his shoulders on the other side. Skag slippedaround to reach it without hitting the dog. In the same instant Nelstook a blow from the jungle beast's head. The two swerved over towardone side. Skag set his gun-muzzle against the hyena's neck--he couldsee that much--and blew it away from him. (There wouldn't be muchdanger but it was dead.) Then he knelt, his hand instantly wet atNels' throat. But the blood was not gushing, it was streaming. He puthis arms underneath to lift him, but couldn't do it alone. There wasnothing to do but go for the girl.
"I'm sorry. I need your help. Dare we leave the children a minute?"
"Yes, Baby is falling asleep; and Rodger is brave, he will watchher. . . . Tell me, is Nels killed?"
"No, I think we can save him. But we must be quick."
She was by his side running, as he added:
"I know how to do it, when we get him to the light."
They worked together and it was all they could do, but they got Nelsinto the tent. She brought the materials he asked for, and while hestopped the flow of blood and dressed the wound, she went to the baby.When he rose she was leaning over the child.
"I'm afraid something has happened to her! Her face is strange Herbreath is not right. I wish Ayah would come; I don't know a thingabout babies!"
"Is there a doctor near?"
"Not this side Poona."
"I can go after him."
"You're awfully good, but there will be no train before the one myhusband comes up on. It's a holiday. He would have been up lastevening, only he had important business. I am not at liberty todetermine about a physician, because he will be here so soon."
"Shall I go after the ayah?"
"That might help--thank you so much!"
Skag learned in the next two hours that there is nothing in life moredifficult for a man to find, than servants' quarters in a nativevillage. By full daylight he gave up and tramped back a considerabledistance. As he approached the tent, an Englishman came out walkingrapidly toward him. Police Commissioner Hichens had a very red face.He spoke before Skag could see his eyes:
"Sir, I take pleasure in ordering you to leave my premises. You willbe good enough not to be seen again in this vicinity."
"Yes? You--are--finding--fault--with--me?"
"What occurs to mine does not in the least concern you! You areoccupying yourself with my affairs. I will not permit it. Am Iexplicit enough?"
"You are explicit enough."
Skag wheeled on the path and walked away from the police commissionerunder a sharp revelation that if he didn't get away at once, he woulddo a thing he had never been inclined to do before. He was amazed byhis own fury. Unconsciously he spoke aloud:
"I never wanted to----"
"_Remember, it is not necessary to touch the unclean._"
Low tones of strange vibration. Skag looked up. A brown-robed manstood before him. (The long straight lines of the garment were made ofa material hand-woven of camel's hair, known in the High Himalayas as_puttoo_.) The quiet face was in chiselled lines. The level dark eyeswere looking deep into the place where Skag's soul lived. Skag wasintensely conscious that he stood in a Presence. He endured the eyes.They made him feel better. The robed man spoke again:
"I speak to give you assurance that those you have served will be caredfor. Also, a responsibility may fall upon you. If you accept, a greatgood will come to you in this life."
"I will do what I can."
"_Peace be with thee._"
"Shall I see you again?"
"Never."
Skag stood aside and the robed man walked toward the tent.
Skag went back to Poona. Carlin's eldest brother Roderick Deal had notcome yet. Still waiting, a week later, he walked one morning on thestone causeway, which is a most attractive unit in the architecture ofPoona's great waterworks, and filled his eyes with the Ghat vistastoward the north and west. Joyous dog tones made him glance back. Itwas Nels, straining forward on a heavy chain-leash in the old cook'shand.
"Let him go."
Now Skag noticed that the dog moved with some effort, possibly withsome pain; but when he arrived, Nels reared his mighty body and set hispaws on Skag's two shoulders. Skag hugged him and eased him down. Theold cook handed Skag a note. It read:
To the Wonder Man, by the hand of Bhanah the cook, who is a gift to theMan from the gods. Together with Nels the beautiful, a gift to the Manfrom Eleanor Beatrice (Hichens)--who is free!
Bhanah the cook will tell his master the rest. Save this, that EleanorBeatrice is grateful with her full heart to the Man.
He is to remember that he has been adopted by Nels. He is to walksoftly because he is on the way to be adopted--of course it is pastbelief, but also it is past question--by the mightiest of all mysticorders, whose messengers have accomplished this thing.
N.B. The Sahib is to enquire of his servant Bhanah what is the nativemeaning of "walk softly." He will find Bhanah entirely trustworthy inall matters of information.
Skag looked up and the old cook spoke:
"I, who am speaking to Sanford Hantee Sahib, am Bhanah--entered intocovenant before the gods that I am his servant to serve him with mystrength, so long as I endure to live.
"I bring from the shining lady who was my mistress, whom may the godsprotect! certain messages for him alone.
"The child is dead. Her body lies deep in a metal case beside hermother's, near one of the old bungalows."
"I am sorry to hear that."
"Death does not snare the soul. If she were still here, Nels would notbe free to come to my master. And my master has become his heart'sdesire."
"I am glad to have him and you."
The old cook laid his hand on his forehead and bent low before Skag.
"The lady-beautiful will sail from Bombay in a few days, returning toher own mother's house. She is forever free from Police CommissionerHichens Sahib, who was my master only for her sake and for the sake ofNels. The lady's own ayah will go with her to her own country, toserve her as I serve thee.
"These things are accomplished by a Power which works through those whoare seldom seen and never known of men.
"I have spoken and it is finished. Have I permission to take Nels tomy quarters where he can rest? He is well; but not yet fully strong.If my master will tell us his place, we will come to him in themorning."
Skag told them. The recognition of Nels as a personality amused him;but he did not quarrel with it.