CHAPTER XXXII
SURPRISES FOR CAPTAIN PHILLIPS
The young nobles ceased from their outcry. They went sullenly out andmounted their horses under the ruined wall of the old fort. But as theymounted they whispered together with quick glances towards CaptainPhillips. The Resident intercepted the glance and had little doubt as tothe subject of the whispering.
"I am in the deuce of a tight place," he reflected; "it's seven to oneagainst my ever reaching Kohara, and the one's a doubtful quantity."
He looked at Shere Ali, who seemed quite undisturbed by the prospectof mutiny amongst his followers. His face had hardened a little.That was all.
"And your horse?" Shere Ali asked.
Captain Phillips pointed towards the clump of trees where he hadtied it up.
"Will you fetch it?" said Shere Ali, and as Phillips walked off, heturned towards the nobles and the old mullah who stood amongst them.Phillips heard his voice, as he began to speak, and was surprised by amasterful quiet ring in it. "The doubtful quantity seems to have growninto a man," he thought, and the thought gained strength when he rodehis horse back from the clump of trees towards the group. Shere Ali methim gravely.
"You will ride on my right hand," he said. "You need have no fear."
The seven nobles clustered behind, and the party rode at a walk over thefan of shale and through the defile into the broad valley of Kohara.Shere Ali did not speak. He rode on with a set and brooding face, and theResident fell once more to pondering the queer scene of which he had beenthe witness. Even at that moment when his life was in the balance histhoughts would play with it, so complete a piece of artistry it seemed.There was the tomb itself--an earth grave and a rough obelisk without somuch as a name or a date upon it set up at its head by some past Residentat Kohara. It was appropriate and seemly to the man without friends, orfamily, or wife, but to whom the Frontier had been all these. He wouldhave wished for no more himself, since vanity had played so small a partin his career. He had been the great Force upon the Frontier, keeping theQueen's peace by the strength of his character and the sagacity of hismind. Yet before his grave, invoking him as an unknown saint, the noblesof Chiltistan had knelt to pray for the destruction of such as he and theoverthrow of the power which he had lived to represent. And all becausehis advice had been neglected.
Captain Phillips was roused out of his reflections as the cavalcadeapproached a village. For out of that village and from the fields aboutit, the men, armed for the most part with good rifles, poured towardsthem with cries of homage. They joined the cavalcade, marched with itpast their homes, and did not turn back. Only the women and the childrenwere left behind. And at the next village and at the next the same thinghappened. The cavalcade began to swell into a small army, an army of menwell equipped for war; and at the head of the gathering force Shere Alirode with an impassive face, never speaking but to check a man from timeto time who brandished a weapon at the Resident.
"Your Highness has counted the cost?" Captain Phillips asked. "There willbe but the one end to it."
Shere Ali turned to the Resident, and though his face did not change fromits brooding calm, a fire burned darkly in his eyes.
"From Afghanistan to Thibet the frontier will rise," he said proudly.
Captain Phillips shook his head.
"From Afghanistan to Thibet the Frontier will wait, as it always waits.It will wait to see what happens in Chiltistan."
But though he spoke boldly, he had little comfort from his thoughts. Therising had been well concerted. Those who flocked to Shere Ali were notonly the villagers of the Kohara valley. There were shepherds from thehills, wild men from the far corners of Chiltistan. Already the smallarmy could be counted with the hundred for its unit. To-morrow thehundred would be a thousand. Moreover, for once in a way there was nodivided counsel. Jealousy and intrigue were not, it seemed, to do theirusual work in Chiltistan. There was only one master, and he ofunquestioned authority. Else how came it that Captain Phillips rodeamidst that great and frenzied throng, unhurt and almost unthreatened?
Down the valley the roof-tops of Kohara began to show amongst the trees.The high palace on the hill with its latticed windows bulked against theevening sky. The sound of many drums was borne to the Resident's ears.The Residency stood a mile and a half from the town in a great garden. Ahigh wall enclosed it, but it was a house, not a fortress; and Phillipshad at his command but a few levies to defend it. One of them stood bythe gate. He kept his ground as Shere Ali and his force approached. Theonly movement which he made was to stand at attention, and as Shere Alihalted at the entrance, he saluted. But it was Captain Phillips whom hesaluted, and not the Prince of Chiltistan. Shere Ali spoke with the samequiet note of confident authority which had surprised Captain Phillipsbefore, to the seven nobles at his back. Then he turned to the Resident.
"I will ride with you to your door," he said.
The two men passed alone through the gateway and along a broad path whichdivided the forecourt to the steps of the house. And not a man of allthat crowd which followed Shere Ali to Kohara pressed in behind them.Captain Phillips looked back as much in surprise as in relief. But therewas no surprise on the face of Shere Ali. He, it was plain, expectedobedience.
"Upon my word," cried Phillips in a burst of admiration, "you have gotyour fellows well in hand."
"I?" said Shere Ali. "I am nothing. What could I do who a week ago wasstill a stranger to my people? I am a voice, nothing more. But the God ofmy people speaks through me"; and as he spoke these last words, his voicesuddenly rose to a shrill trembling note, his face suddenly quivered withexcitement.
Captain Phillips stared. "The man's in earnest," he muttered to himself."He actually believes it."
It was the second time that Captain Phillips had been surprised withinfive minutes, and on this occasion the surprise came upon him with ashock. How it had come about--that was all dark to Captain Phillips. Butthe result was clear. The few words spoken as they had been spokenrevealed the fact. The veneer of Shere Ali's English training had gone.Shere Ali had reverted. His own people had claimed him.
"And I guessed nothing of this," the Resident reflected bitterly.Signs of trouble he had noticed in abundance, but this one crucialfact which made trouble a certain and unavoidable thing--that hadutterly escaped him. His thoughts went back to the nameless tomb inthe courtyard of the fort.
"Luffe would have known," he thought in a very bitter humility. "Nay, hedid know. He foresaw."
There was yet a third surprise in store for Captain Phillips. As the twomen rode up the broad path, he had noticed that the door of the house wasstanding open, as it usually did. Now, however, he saw it swing to--veryslowly, very noiselessly. He was surprised, for he knew the door to be astrong heavy door of walnut wood, not likely to swing to even in a wind.And there was no wind. Besides, if it had swung to of its own accord, itwould have slammed. Its weight would have made it slam. Whereas it wasnot quite closed. As he reined in his horse at the steps, he saw thatthere was a chink between the door and the door-post.
"There's someone behind that door," he said to himself, and he glancedquietly at Shere Ali. It would be quite in keeping with the Chilticharacter for Shere Ali politely to escort him home knowing well that anassassin waited behind the door; and it was with a smile of some ironythat he listened to Shere Ali taking his leave.
"You will be safe, so long as you stay within your grounds. I will placea guard about the house. I do not make war against my country's guests.And in a few days I will send an escort and set you and your attendantsfree from hurt beyond our borders. But"--and his voice lost itscourtesy--"take care you admit no one, and give shelter to no one."
The menace of Shere Ali's tone roused Captain Phillips. "I take no ordersfrom your Highness," he said firmly. "Your Highness may not have noticedthat," and he pointed upwards to where on a high flagstaff in front ofthe house the English flag hung against the pole.
"I give your Excellency no orders," replied Shere Ali. "Bu
t on the otherhand I give you a warning. Shelter so much as one man and that flag willnot save you. I should not be able to hold in my men."
Shere Ali turned and rode back to the gates. Captain Phillips dismounted,and calling forward a reluctant groom, gave him his horse. Then hesuddenly flung back the door. But there was no resistance. The door swungin and clattered against the wall. Phillips looked into the hall, but thedusk was gathering in the garden. He looked into a place of twilight andshadows. He grasped his riding-crop a little more firmly in his hand andstrode through the doorway. In a dark corner something moved.
"Ah! would you!" cried Captain Phillips, turning sharply on the instant.He raised his crop above his head and then a crouching figure fell at hisfeet and embraced his knees; and a trembling voice of fear cried:
"Save me! Your Excellency will not give me up! I have been a good friendto the English!"
For the second time the Khan of Chiltistan had sought refuge from his ownpeople. Captain Phillips looked round.
"Hush," he whispered in a startled voice. "Let me shut the door!"