CHAPTER XXVIII
THE HILL-FORT
Lewis got to his feet and blinked at the morning sun across the yard.
"That was a near shave. Phew, I hate being a target for sharpshooting!These devils are your friends the Bada-Mawidi."
"The deuce they are," said Andover lugubriously. "I always knew it.I've told Holm a hundred times, and now here is the beggar away sick andI am left to pay the piper."
"I know. I met him in Bardur, and that's why I'm here. He told me totell you to mind the north gate."
"More easily said than done. We're too few by half here if things getnasty. How was the chap looking?"
"Pretty miserable. Thwaite and I put him to bed. Then they sent me offhere, for I've got news for you. You know a man called Marker?"
Andover nodded.
"I was dining with him the day before yesterday, and yesterday morning Igot a note from him. He says that he has heard from some private sourcethat the Bada-Mawidi were arming and proposed an attack on Forza to-day.He thinks they may have got their arms from the other side, you know.At any rate he asked me to try to let you hear, and when I saw Holm lastnight and heard that such a thing was possible, I came off at once. Isuppose Marker is the sort of man who should know."
"What did Thwaite say?"
"He was keen that I should come at once. Do you think that it's a falsealarm?"
"Oh, it will be genuine enough on Marker's part, but he may have beenmisinformed. What beats me is the attack by day. I know the Badas as Iknow my own name, and they're too few at the best to have any chance ofrushing the place. Besides, they are poor fighters in the open. On theother hand they are devils incarnate in a night attack, as we used tofind to our cost. You are sure he said to-day?"
"Sure. Some time this morning."
"Wonder what their game is. However, he ought to be right if anybodyis, and we are much obliged to you for your trouble. You had a prettyhard time in the open, but how on earth did you get up the hill?"
"Deerstalking style. It was good sport. But for heaven's sake, Andy,give me breakfast, and tell me what you want me to do. I am under yourorders now."
"You'd better feed and then sleep for a bit. If you don't mind I'llleave you, for I've got to be very busy. And poor old Holm lookedpretty sick, did he? Well, I am glad he has been saved this affairanyhow."
A Sikh orderly brought Lewis breakfast. Beyond the tent door there wasstir in the garrison. Men were deployed in the yard, Gurkhas mainly,with a few Kashmir sepoys, and the loud harsh voice of Andover wasraised to give orders. It was a hot still morning, with somethingthunderous in the air. Hot sulphurous clouds were massing on thewestern horizon, and the cool early breeze had gone. The whole placesmelt of powder.
Half-way through the meal Andover returned, his lean face red withexertion. "I've got things more or less in order. They may easilystarve us out, for we are wretchedly provisioned, but I don't thinkthey'll get us with a rush. I wonder when the show is to commence." Hedrank some coffee, and then filled a pipe.
"I left a man at Nazri. If the thing turns out to be a small affair Iam to meet him there to-night; but if I don't come he is to know that itis serious and go and warn the Khautmi people. You haven't a connectionby any chance?"
"No. Wish we had. The heliograph is no good, and the telegraph isstill under the consideration of some engineer man. But how do youpropose to get to Nazri? It's only twelve miles, but they are mostly upon end."
"I did it when I was here before. It's easy enough if you have done anyrock-climbing, and I can leave with the light. Besides, there's amoon."
Andover laughed. "You've turned over a new leaf, Lewis. Your energyputs us all to shame. I wish I had your physical gifts, my son. Theworst of being long and lanky in a place like this is that you're alwaysas stiff as a poker. I shall die of sciatica before I am forty. Butupon my word it is queer meeting you here in the loneliest spot increation. When I saw you in town before I came out, you were going intoParliament or some game of that kind. Then I heard that you had beenout here, and gone back; and now for no earthly reason I waken up onefine morning to find you being potted at before my gate. You're assudden as Marker, and a long chalk more mysterious."
Lewis looked grave. "I wish Marker were only as simple as me, or I assudden as him. It's a gift not learned in a day. Anyhow I'm here, andwe've got a day's sport before us. Hullo, the ball seems about to open."Little puffs of smoke and dust were rising from beyond the wall, and onthe heavy air came the faint ping-ping of rifles.
Andover stretched himself elaborately. "Lord alive, but this is absurd.What do these beggars expect to do? They can't shell a fort with stolenexpresses."
The two men went up to the edge of the wall and looked over the plateau.A hundred yards off stood a group of tribesmen formed in some semblanceof military order, each with a smoking rifle in his hand. It was like aparody of a formation, and Andover after rubbing his eyes burst into aroar of laughter.
"The beggars must be mad. What in heaven's name do they expect to do,standing there like mummies and potting at a stone wall? There's twomore companies of them over there. It isn't war, it's comic opera." Andhe sat down, still laughing, on the edge of a gun-case to put on theboots which his orderly had brought.
It was comic opera, but the tinge of melodrama was not absent. When asufficient number of rounds had been fired, the tribesmen, as if actingon half-understood instructions from some prehistoric manual, slungtheir rifles on their shoulders and came on. The fire from the fort didnot stop them, though it broke their line. In a minute they wereclutching at every hand-grip and foothold on the wall, and Andover witha beaming face directed the disposition of his men.
Forza is built of great, rough stones, with ends projecting in placescyclopean-wise, which to an active man might give a foothold. Thelittle garrison was at its posts, and picked the men off with carbinesand revolvers, and in emergencies gave a brown chest the straightbayonet-thrust home. The tribesmen fought like fiends, scrambling upsilently with long knives between their teeth, till a shot found themand they rolled back to die on the sand at the foot. Now and againa man would reach the parapet and spring down into the courtyard. Thenit was the turn of Andover and Lewis to account for him, and they didnot miss. One man with matted hair and beard was at Lewis's back beforehe saw him. A crooked knife had nearly found that young man's neck, buta lucky twisting aside saved him. He dodged his adversary up and downthe yard till he got his pistol from his inner pocket. Then it was histurn to face about. The man never stopped and a ball took him betweenthe eyes. He dropped dead as a stone, and his knife flying from hishand skidded along the sand till it stopped with a clatter on thestones. The sound in the hot sulphurous air grated horribly, and Lewisclapped his hands to his ears to find that he too had not come offscathless. The knife had cut the lobe, and, bleeding like a pig, hewent in search of water.
The assailants seemed prepared to find paradise speedily, for they werenot sparing with their lives. The attacking party was small, andapparently there was no reserve, for in all the wide landscape there wasno sign of man. Then for no earthly reason the assault was at an end.One by one the men dropped back and disappeared from the plateau. Therewas no overt signal, no sound; but in a little the annoyed garrison werelooking at vacancy and one another.
"This is the devil's own business," said Andover, rubbing his eyes. Themen, too astonished to pick off stragglers, allowed the enemy to meltinto space; then they set themselves down with rifles cuddled up totheir chins, and stared at Andover.
"It beats me," said that disturbed man. "How many killed?"
"Seven," said a sergeant. "About five more wounded. None of ustouched, barring a bullet in my boot, and two Johnnies slashed on thecheek. Seems to me as if the gen'lman, Mr. 'Aystoun, was 'it, though."
At the word Andover ran for his quarters, where he found his servantdressing Lewis's wounded ear. That young man with a face of greatdespair was inclining his head over a basin.
"What's the matter, Andy
? Don't tell me the show has stopped. Ithought they were game to go on for hours, and I was just coming to joinyou."
"They've gone, every mother's son of them. I told you it was comicopera all along. Seven of them have found the part too much for them,but the rest have cleared out like smoke. I give it up."
Lewis stared at the speaker, his brain busy with a problem. For amoment before the fight, and for a little during its progress he hadbeen serenely happy. He had done something hard and perilous; he hadrisked bullets; he had brought authentic news of a real danger. He washappily at peace with himself; the bland quiet of conscience which hehad not felt for months had given him the vision of a new life. But thedanger had faded away in smoke; and here was Andover with a mystifiedface asking its meaning.
"I swear that those fellows never had the least intention of beating us.There were far too few of them for one thing. They looked likecriminals fighting under sentence, you know, like the Persian fellows.It was more like some religious ceremony than a fight. The whole thingis beyond me, but I think no harm's done. Hang it, I wish Holm werehere. He's a depressing beggar, but he takes responsibility off myshoulders."
The dead men were buried as quickly and decently as the place allowedof. Things were generally cleaned up, and by noon the little fort wasas spick as if the sound of a rifle had never been heard within itswalls. Lewis and Andover had the midday meal in a sort of gun-roomwhich looked over the edge of the plateau to a valley in the hills. Ithad been arranged and furnished by a former commandant who found in theview a repetition of the one in a much-loved Highland shooting-box.Accordingly it was comfortable and homelike beyond the average offrontier dwellings. Outside a dripping mist had clouded the hills andchilled the hot air.
The two men smoked silently, knocking out their ashes and refilling withthe regularity of clockwork. Lewis was thinking hard, thinking of thebitterness of dashed hopes, of self-confidence clutched at and lost. Hesaw as if in an inspiration the trend of Marker's plans. He had beengiven a paltry fictitious errand, like a bone to a dog, to quiet him.Some devilry was afoot and he must be got out of the road. For a secondthe thought pleased him, the thought that at least one man held himworthy of attention, and went out of his way to circumvent him. But thegleam of satisfaction was gone in a moment. He could not even be surethat there was guile at the back of it. It might be all foolishhonesty, and to a man cursed with a sense of weakness the thought ofsuch a pedestrian failure was trebly intolerable.
But honesty was inconceivable. He and he alone in all the frontiercountry knew Marker and his ways. To Andover, sucking his pipe dismallybeside him, the thing appeared clear as the daylight. Marker, the bestman alive, had word of some Bada-Mawidi doings and had given a friendlyhint. It was not his blame if the thing had fizzled out like damppowder. But to Lewis, Marker was a man of uncanny powers andintelligence beyond others, the iron will of the true adventurer. Theremust be devilry behind it all, and to the eye of suspicion there wasdoubt in every detail. And meantime he had fallen an easy victim.Marooned in this frontier fort, the world might be turned topsy-turvy atBardur, and he not a word the wiser. Things were slipping from hisgrasp again. He had an intense desire to shut his eyes and let alldrift. He had done enough. He had come up here at the risk of hisneck; fate had fought against him, and he must succumb. The fatalwisdom of proverbs was all on his side.
But once again conscience assailed him. Why had he believed Marker,knowing what he knew? He had been led by the nose like a crudeschool-boy. It was nothing to him that he had to believe or remain idlein Bardur. Another proof of his folly! This importunate sense ofweakness was the weakest of all qualities. It made him a nervous andawkward follower of strength, only to plunge deeper into the mud ofincapacity.
Andover looked at him curiously. His annoyance was of a differentstamp--a little disappointment, intense boredom, and the ever-presentfrontier anxiety. But such were homely complaints to be forgotten overa pipe and in sleep. It struck him that his companion's eyes betrayedsomething more, and he kicked him on the shins into attention.
"Been seedy lately? Have some quinine. Or if you can't sleep I cantell you a dodge. But you know you are looking a bit cheap, old man."
"I'm pretty fit," said Lewis, and he raised his brown face to a glass."Why I'm tanned like a nigger and my eye's perfectly clear."
"Then you're in love," said the mysterious Andover. "Trust me forknowing. When a man keeps as quiet as you for so long, he's either inlove or seedy. Up here people don't fall in love, so I thought it mustbe the other thing."
"Rot," said Lewis. "I'm going out of doors. I must be off pretty soon,if I'm to get to Nazri by sundown. I wish you'd come out and show methe sort of lie of the land. There are three landmarks, but I can'tremember their order."
An hour later the two men returned, and Lewis sat down to an earlydinner. He ate quickly, and made up sandwiches which he stuffed intohis pocket. Then he rose and gripped his host's hand.
"Good-bye, Andy. This has been a pleasant meeting. Wish it could havebeen longer."
"Good-bye, old chap. Glad to have seen you. My love to George, if youget to Nazri. Give you three to one in half-crowns you won't get thereto-night."
"Done," said Lewis. "You shall pay when I see you next." And in themost approved style of the hero of melodrama he lit a short pipe andwent off into Immensity.