Stretton. A novel

Chapter I

So the Colonel and Roland let Jim go his own quaint way with his Nawab and his moonshee, and went their own. Before many months were over, it became apparent that Jim was ex ercising an immense influence over the Nawab. The drag was discontinued ; he was taught to ride. His Royal Highness likewise left off dressing himself in puce-coloured velvet and gold, white loose trousers, and patent-leather pumps, and came out in a neat costume, between English and Asiatic. He likewise smoked less, and rode harder, and what is more, liked it. "I told you, Colonel," said Roland, "that there was good in him. He will make a man of that Nawab." VOL. III. B STRETTON. " He is a queer fellow," said the Colonel; " as mad as a hatter ; but T suppose we must leave him alone. He is certainly making a gentleman out of the Nawab."

"What are the Nawab's antecedents?" asked Roland. " Same as the rest of them," said the Colonel, yawning. "Married when he was twelve, and four times since. Now twenty three. Spent all his time learning European languages and manners, and flying kites for a recreation, till a couple of years ago, when he took up with a kind of Orleans Anglo-mania. I dare say Mordaunt will make something of him. What is this building going on at his palace ? That is a new kick." " Jim and he are studying fortification to gether," said Roland; "and they are reducing it to practice." "Well, he is a safe man," said the Colonel. " He might spend his money worse. I will go and have a look at these two fools. By-the bye, Evans " "Yes, sir." " You speak French ? " STRETTON. 3 "Yes, sir. And the conversation, until Roland's depar ture, was carried on in that language, which had the very strange effect of causing the pun kah over their heads to go faster and faster, as though with exasperation.

The Colonel noticed it, and laughed. " I wish you would go out and stick a pig for me, to-morrow." The Colonel looked at him so very straight that Roland only looked back again and said — " Yes, sir. " Between tbis and Delhi it is only a hun dred and forty miles." "And not a dozen pigs in the distance," said Roland. "Yes, sir." " And put this cypher in your pocket, and let your horse run away ; and let him run away as far as Jellapore, where they will remount you ; and then let that horse run away as far as Bugapore, and they will give you a fresh horse there ; and let him run away with you as far as Delhi ; and give that cypher into L 's own hands." " I see, sir. STRETTON. " If you are assassinated, I wiU see after your affairs. I don't think you will be, if you can get safe to Jellapore.

Don't come back alone, but come with the 201st." "I will obey your instructions, sir. I am very much obliged to you for this mark of con fidence." " Whoy ! For the matter of that, I always pick out the best man for a dangerous and secret service with no possible chance of reward attaching to it. The compliment is quite mu tual, I assure you. Ride in the open as much as possible till you are past JeUapore." "Are our communications threatened already, sir ? ' ' asked Roland. " I suppose that is more my business than yours, is it not?" said the Colonel, quietly. " What you have to do is to obey orders. Go to bed now, and shp off before day with a hog spear. Do as you are told." And Roland nodded, and turned to the door, when the Colonel caUed him back. " Come, young man, I will trust you as far as this.

They have learnt our cypher, and you are the first bearer of a new one." STRETTON. 5 " Are they going to move yet, sir ? " " Who knows ? Who cares ? It will aU be the same. What was done before can be done again. Be careful of yourself. You are the best man I have, or I should not have sent you on this dangerous errand. You know, of course, that you will get no credit by it." "Good evening, sir," said Roland, in English, laughing. " Good evening, Evans," said the Colonel, also in that language. " Mind you are not late for parade." And the Colonel went out into the verandah, and pleased himself by staring steadily at the punkah wallah, who had pulled the string so violently when he and Roland began to talk French. And Roland went away to his errand ; and before day broke, on his best Australian, dressed in the old Shropshire hunting-breeches, and boots, with a hog-spear in his hand, he had put a good twenty miles between him and Belpore.

These were the first days of it, when those who warned were not listened to. The end was not yet by any means. STRETTON. On the very morning on which Roland had so innocently cantered out of Belpore with a hog-spear, and two running syces, blown and distanced very soon by the pace of his Clarence River bred Australian horse — on this very morn ing Jim was lying on his sofa, contemplating his beloved moonshee with greater satisfac tion than ever. The moonshee had long before finished the " Contemplations of Dhalblat," and indeed the modern Hindustani comedy of " Rumsi Door, the Cloth-Merchant of Jellala bad," a work of great art, directed against the Mahomedans, but which has faUen dead in England, in spite of Captain Rollingstone's most spirited translation. The moonshee had finished these two on Jim's head, and was be ginning with the " Dhollery-bagh ; or, Garden of Rupees" (a poor piece as to plot, but admirable for its Anglicised Hindustani).

He was propped up on his haunches at one end of the room, and Jim was lying on his sofa at the other, contemplating him, and smok ing. The old moonshee's knees were up to his nose, and his wise, good old face looked at Jim STRETTON. from between them. He adjusted his great round spectacles, and began — " It now becomes my duty to call the atten tion of the sahib to the ravages and dacoitees which his language has committed on mine," when a voice in the doorway said — " Come, old man, don't talk about dacoitee. If we have altered your language for the better, we have at least rendered it possible for you to know the finest literature which the world has ever seen." And Jim, rising in astonishment, saw the Colonel before him. The moonshee got off his seat, shut up his book with his spectacles in it, and salaamed.

The Colonel said, hurriedly — " Sit still, Mordaunt. Moonshee, go out and send those men away, and then come back to us." And the old man did so with rapidity and dexterity. Jim, sitting upon his sofa, in his shirt and trousers, was a httle dazed by these very sudden proceedings. Before he had time to Bay a few common-places to the Colonel, the STRETTON. punkah was stopped, and the Colonel was sitting on one side of him and the old moonshee standing on the other. "Sit down," said the Colonel, "and speak low." And the moonshee sat clown with a bow. "James Mordaunt," said the Colonel, in French, " I am a man who never refused the combat or the retractation where I thought either the one or the other thing was in any way necessary. I owe you the apology at the present. I owe you the apology because I doubted, on a recent occasion, the capability possessed by you of selecting acquaintances with discrimination."

Jim said, in such French as he had got at Gloucester, that he was profoundly pene trated with the sentiments of Colonel the Commandant ; and he couldn't have done better if he had tried. " But you have shown — you — that you have power of selection enormously. I beheved for a long time that you were vain and foolish; that your old friend, the moonshee, was rascal ; and, again, old babbler ; and, again, spy ; and, again, once more, betrayer of deposed trusts ; STRETTON. 9 but I have changed all these opinions. I have disclosed the very bottom of my heart to you on this business ; and now we wHl speak Eng lish." Jim, thinking it was the best thing they could do, if they wanted to talk sense, ac quiesced without a murmur. And he was wondering idly how the French got through their business with such extremely florid language, when the Colonel began in his native tongue.

" That old man who sits beside you has rendered service to the Queen's Government which shall not be forgotten." " Sahib," said the old man, " I desire nothing, take nothing, and will accept nothing. I think British rule is good for India, and my three boys have died for you. I have sown, and I will reap. It would be strange, I think, that a father who has lost three sons in a cause should turn against it at last." " There spoke a man," said Jim, suddenly and loudly. " There spoke a man, Colonel. I know a man when I see him. You go into boat-racing, and you'll be able to do the same." STRETTON. "Do you know what he has done?" said the Colonel. "No," said Jim, "I don't know anything about him, except that I spotted him for a gentleman, and that he sits at one end of the room, and reads that balderdash, and I sit at the other and look at him.

Whatever he has done is no harm." "He has refused every offer of the Rajah of Bethoor, and has discovered for us that our cypher was discovered, and our despatches mutilated, and he refuses reward." "It was little enough to do, sir," said the old moonshee. "Peace for India means merely a strong British Government. Ah, you don't remember the old days. I take my leave," and he went. They watched him go. To Jim he had been a friend, and yet he had been a subject of an almost absurd contemplation. An abnormal, and consequently, to Jim's mind, in some sort an absurd creature. He was absurd in Jim's eyes no longer now ; Jim knew, after this story of the Colonel's, why he had loved the old man instinctively, and without knowing it. The STRETTON. quaint, fantastic old moonshee was a very noble person ; Jim was a judge of men as far as his training went, and he had judged this good old man as honest from the first moment he saw him.

And as he and the Colonel watched the good old man go fluttering down the sandy road towards the nullah and the patch of jungle beyond, Jim said to the Colonel, " There goes a good and honest man, sir," and the Colonel said, " You are right. Now I want to go with you to the Nawab." Let us follow the old moonshee first. With his books at his breast, in fluttering white robes, he went down the long broad sandy road towards the nullah, towards the patch of dark green jungle beyond, towards his poor little bungalow, now empty for ever. He had been married many times, this quaint old man, but all his wives were dead, and he was all alone. Daughters he had alive, but dead to him in zenanas. He had thought and read, this quaint old man, until he be lieved that he had thought through all recorded knowledge, and his thoughts had always been towards one solitary point — the good of India.

STRETTON. He was old enough to remember when he had resisted the British invasion in arms in his own person. But afterwards he had seen more and more hope in the British, and he had sent three sons to die for us. He saw more chances for good, day after day, in the British rule, and day by day he was strenuous to uphold it. Lastly, there had come to him a young man, also of the Indo-Germanic race, whom he chose to believe was the image of one of his own sons, and that young man was singularly enough Jim Mordaunt. It is not to be supposed that Jim and he entirely confined themselves to Hindustani. They had a few talks together, and James had altered the old man's opinions with regard to the Nawab of Belpore, whom he had always considered as a young man without worth. Jim had altered his opinion somewhat.

Jim thought highly of the Nawab; and the old moonshee was determined to make a greater acquaintance with the Nawab, and see whether, after all, there ivas anything to be made of an Indian gentleman. He believed so far in the transmigration of STRETTON. 13 souls as to believe that our poor Jim from Shropshire was his own son. He had left all his little wealth to him. But leaving alone this superstition, there was more sense and reason under the turban of that old moonshee than there is under ninety-nine out of every hundred beaver hats in England. When he turned the corner and lost sight of Jim's bungalow, he turned, and on his way gave his blessing to Jim. Then he crossed the nullah and came beside the patch of jungle which lay between Jim's bungalow and his. The good old man was turning all politics over in his head when he arrived here.

There were few passing on the road, and the sand was heavy on his feet. At once, within the jungle, he heard the low wail of an infant. "It is a case of exposure," he said. "I will go and pick it up. I have none of my own; it may live to serve Hindustan." And so the good old man, parting the thick, heavy, green leaves, left the sandy track, and turned into the jungle on his errand of mercy after the wailing infant. STRETTON.

Chapter II

The Nawab was excessively fond of billiards, but did not play well by any means. He had therefore looked round for a moonshee for billiards, as it was not very agreeable to be always beaten by Jim. And he had discovered one. Let us see who he was, and how he found himself in this queer out-of-the-way business. How quaint this bringing together of Eng land and India is ! The great Squire Tod hunter, of Cambridgeshire, rode eighteen stone, and, consequently, had to be horsed at the expense of nearly £500. Now, the Squhe was a saving and discreet man, and he did not like his horses trashed unnecessarily. Con sequently, in choosing a second horseman, he looked for the qualities of extreme smallness and extreme cleverness. He was very particular about this ; and one day he got a letter STRETTON. from Sir Gregory Dowes, to say that he had found him a treasure.

The treasure was sent over for inspection, and into Squire Todhunter' s library came one of the strangest little men the squire had ever seen — a handsome little lad, weighing six stone, and four feet high, very well dressed, like a gentleman, who seemed perfectly cool and unconcerned. " HaUo, my lad, you are a flat -race rider ! That won't do, you know." "Never rode a flat-race in my life, and never mean to, sir ; certainly not, at my time of life." " How old are you, child?" said Todhunter, liking the looks of him, and thinking he might be hcked into shape. " Thirty-one," answered the child. "Mar ried ; one son ; no other incumbrance. Wife takes washing when she can get it. Talk French and German ; but not Italian. In the stables of the Pasha of Egypt; but didn't like it. Sober ; honest.

Eight years' good cha racter from the Pasha. Loves his horses as his horses love him. Used to a gentleman's place, or wouldn't be here." STRETTON. "Why, I thought you were a boy." "So has many; but they found theirselves deceived." " Where are your wife and son ? " said Squire Todhunter. The little man went and rang the bell, and waited in cool silence tiU the footman came. " Send up my wife and the boy, James," was all he said, after which he drummed on his hat. Then there came up a very tiny woman, and a strange mite of a bright-eyed boy, about twelve, half the size of his father, who stared persistently at Squhe Todhunter until that gentleman was uncomfortable, and the bargain was concluded. "Can that boy ride?" said the Squire. "He would make a good feather-weight." " He rides well enough, sir ; but he has took to flat-racing and billiards ; and I am busted, sir, if you'U excuse the expression, if the present turf business a'n't too much for my stomach.

I'm a-going to send him to the Pasha of Egypt's stables, to improve his moral tone." STRETTON. "That won't do the boy any good," said the Squire. " Excusing me, sir, I know Cairo and I know Newmarket; and that boy's a-going to Grand Cairo." The Squire gave some sensible advice, but it was not taken by this wonderful, resolute, little cross-country rider; and the boy went East, and East again, for ten years, winning flat races, on sometimes hopeless horses, sending the large sums he earned home to his father, to be invested in the funds (which was scrupu lously done for him), and paying his travelling expenses by billiards and safe betting. He was at Bombay, and thought he would go to Australia ; but then again thought he would go to Calcutta. And at Calcutta he heard of the Rajah of Belpore and his horses ; and so he went up and looked in on our Nawab.* Our Nawab was immensely flattered at the visit of such a distinguished young man.

He at once allotted him apartments and money. When he found that BiUy Lee could play billiards, he instantly sent to the right-about a * All this is almost exactly true. C VOL. STRETTON. tipsy, cashiered old captain, his previous in structor, and installed Billy Lee in his place. Jim Mordaunt had, of course, met BiUy Lee, and disliked him extremely. For Roland, he had never given two thoughts about him ; only once caUed him a rascally little renegade. The Colonel scarcely knew of his existence. It was, therefore, not very pleasant when the Colonel, and Roland, and Jim rode into the Nawab's courtyard, to hear this young man's voice in high conversation with the Nawab, during the clicking of billiard baUs. But they heard what he said before they went in at the window. " I teU your Royal Highness that it is horses, and all horses, with them.

Your horses should be brought inside this fortified com pound, or else, in what is going to happen, you will let 'em go to the enemy. Did you ever hear me talk Hindustani ? " " No," said the Nawab ; " you can't talk it." At this moment our three friends entered the biUiard-room. They were confronted by the little jockey billiard -player, and noticed him closely for the first time. STRETTON. A bright, handsome, resolute little fellow enough, and not a bit afraid of them. He struck out at them at once in French. " His Highness says I cannot talk Hindus tani. Me, who was three years in Bombay. I can talk it fast enough ; and I lie in my bed at night and hear them talking ; and their talk is mischief and devilry, which things I hate. I am no renegade, Lieutenant Evans, as you have called me. I am an Englishman to the backbone ; but n'importe.

Cornet Mordaunt, I have something very particular to say to you." Such a gallant little figure standing in front of such a strange group ! The jockey was a little tiny dandy, whose head reached to one of Jim's waistcoat-buttons. The Colonel was in scarlet and white ; Roland, Jim, and the Nawab in simple close-fitting white — a solemn group. But the little jockey was not a bit afraid of them. "Colonel," he said, "I have been giving advice to his Highness which I think you will approve. You will hear what I have said from him. Cornet Mordaunt, I was just coming STRETTON. over to your bungalow, to say a word or two to your good old moonshee, if you would allow it. You and I know a brick when we see one." " I fear you wiU not find him there," said Jim, greatly pleased by this mention of his old friend.

" The Colonel came in, and I sent him away." " Not home. Don't say home," said the little jockey, sharply. " Yes," said Jim, quietly. " We saw him walking down the road homewards." "But I thought he always stayed with you till late at night, and often all night in your bedroom, reading to you when you were rest less?" "He is gone home to-day," however, said Jim still more quietly. The jockey uttered a great oath. " Get your horses, gentlemen. I wouldn't have had this happen for a thousand pound. And I playing billiards there! Come along, in God's name." He was first on his horse, and sped away out of the Nawab's compound. Jim was second, and rode as hard as he could to the STRETTON. good old man's house. There was nothing there but a very old woman, who was boiling rice in a pipkin, and stirring it round and round with a stick.

And when Roland brought his horse half-way into the bungalow, and asked her if the old man had come home, she said " No," and spat at him. For she was our moonshee's mother, and most devoutly believed that the world was so governed by the great God that her son would be sent to everlasting torment, by losing caste in consequence *of sitting in the room while Jim was eating bacon to his breakfast. But you must respect then prejudices, such as suttee, for example, if you are consistent. Jim rode off hard, and found the others on the sandy road, in front of the patch of jungle which lay between Jim's bungalow and the moonshee's. Here there was a very old lean man in leg irons, a convict, who was pounding on the road with a rammer, and had nothing on but a pair of drawers and a turban. When Jim rode up, the old gentleman had got his rammer between his knees, and had his withered old arms stretched out before him, with the palms STRETTON. of his hands close together, after the Indian manner.

Those withered palms were stretched alternately from one sahib to another. " Colonel Sahib, sh, he did not go by here ; Jockey Sahib, sh, I did not see him ; Lieutenant Sahib, sir, I will tell all I know ; Nawab Sahib, plead for me ; ' ' and so the poor ironed old convict went on with helpless, hopeless lie after he until Jim rode up, and giving his bridle to the jockey, went up to the poor trembling old man, and put his two hands on his shoulders. " Old man," he said in Hindustani, looking down into his face, " we have missed some one whom we love. Tell us all about it." It was strange beyond measure to see the splendid young Englishman looking down into the face of the poor old lying Indian convict. England and India face to face. That love which the best of our men have for extremely old people told here.

There is a kind of royal arch-masonry between the very young and prosperous and the very old and unfortunate. " I was hke you once, and you may be as I am hereafter." This thieving and lying old Hindoo looked into Jim's honest face, and for STRETTON. 23 the sake of what he saw there, undid all his lies and told the whole truth. " Sahib, he did not come so far as this. But he turned into the jungle there,/and you can see his footprints in the sand/ Lieutenant Sahib, I will speak all the truth. Lieutenant Sahib, the Rajah of Bethoor went by in his carriage, and he stood up and looked into the jungle. And then, sir, your moonshee came along with his book on his bosom, and there was the wailing as of a child in the jungle, and I knew that it would turn him, for he has a kind heart. And I would have called louder than I did, but durst not.

And he passed in there, and I heard two shots." The party were awed enough now. The syces who had run after them had their horses, and they moved together towards the jungle, and passed into it, the little jockey first. " Is there any one here who is afraid of seeing death?" said he, and looking round confronted the tall solemn Nawab. " When you have seen the suttee of your own mother, as I did, sh, you will not ask that question of me." And the sharp-tongued, STRETTON. honest, clever little Cockney understood in his clear, good little brain the whole matter, nodded to the Nawab, with his head on one side, and went on. Jim's poor old moonshee ! It was really very sad. He lay straight in their path, shot stone dead, on his face, with the book which he had last been reading to Jim crumpled up under his honest old heart ; a heap of snowy white amidst the dark greenery around.

Jim did not mend matters by any means. He never thought that the old man was dead. He called out, " Baghobahar, most excellent and admirable of moonshee s, sleeping in the forest of golden delight, get up and come home. We thought that we had lost thee, thou aged one." Roland put his hands on his shoulders and said suddenly, " Hush, Jim, he is dead." "Dead!" " Assassinated." " My moonshee ! Damnation ! Let me get at him. Assassinated by whom ?" A very quiet voice said, " By the Rajah of Bethoor," and Jim knew that it was the Nawab STRETTON. of Belpore who had spoken. These two young men looked at one another for a moment, and saw that they understood each other. Jim was perfectly quiet after this one out break — far too quiet to please Roland. They picked the old man up and laid him on his back.

His face was very quiet ; he had been shot twice through the heart, while on his supposed errand of mercy. The little jockey said, "I knew they had a plot for his life, after his giving information about the cypher. Why, I have laid in bed and heard them talk it over. I'll tell you why it is, gentlemen, that I have never let out my knowing of Hindustani ; because I want to hear what is going to be done about the nob bling of horses. An unworthy motive. Let that pass. I knew that this would happen if the old man came home, but I thought he was always at the Cornet's bungalow." Blurted out Jim, " The Colonel didn't like him at one time, and so he turned out when the Colonel came." And the Colonel said, "That is perfectly true, in one respect. But it is not a thing which STRETTON. should been said, and I like you the less for saying it just now, Mordaunt."

The jockey had picked up the moonshee's book, and had shaken it. Nothing dropped from it but a few loose papers and a photograph of Jim, which the jockey handed to him. The Colonel and Roland walked away together, lamenting over the accident. The Nawab and Jim remained behind, looking at one another over the dead body. Unless history is altogether the Mississippi of lies which Matthew Arnold says it is, you will find, I think, that when two members of the Indo-Germanic race get scowling at one another over the dead body of one whom they have loved, — it means mischief. STRETTON.

Chapter III

Jim and the Nawab looked steadily at one another over the corpse for a little time, until the others were out of hearing. Then Jim said, steadily, " Are you with me?" And the Nawab said, " To the death." And the two young men shook hands. " What shall we do ? " said the Nawab. " You are of the conquering race, and should suggest. I will follow." " Beat him up in his own quarters." "Who ?" " The Rajah." " But how ?" said the Nawab. " Will you follow me, and let me do the talking?" " Of course I will. But it is terribly dan gerous." " Tigers are. Yet we kill them." STRETTON. "Yes, but armed," said the Nawab. "We are unarmed. Nevertheless, I will go with you. It is horribly dangerous. The crash is so near that we might precipitate it, and we have only your regiment here, and the two companies of the 201st, which came with Roland Evans, against five thousand native troops.

But I will go." Jim only nodded. And the Nawab saw how India was conquered. " Lee," said Jim, " my good-hearted little fellow, get this poor body seen to for me." And the jockey said, " Yes, sh. But are you going to the Rajah's palace ?" Jim said, " Yes." " I wouldn't ; but you know best. Here, you wallahs, all of you, come here. And while you are about it, you had better go and fetch half a hundred more. There is enough of you round somewhere." And so Jim, giving one more look at his poor old friend, mounted his horse, and rode away with the Nawab. I must for a few moments follow Roland and the Colonel. Roland said, " This is a sad business." STRETTON. 29 The Colonel said, " That a good old man, whom I, God forgive me, disliked, is gone to his God swiftly, with a smile on his face ? I don't agree with you there."