The Sa'-Zada Tales Part 17

"The water that had been sweet ran full of a sickness because of all this, and the Men that drank of it were stricken with the Black Death.

At first it was those of the Black-kind, and then the others, the Sahibs, became possessed of it. And then the Burra-Sahib, Huzoor the Governor, was taken with it; so said one of the Sahibs who came to Dera Khan just as he was tying a rope about my foreleg so that I could not rise and wander in the night.

"'It is sixty miles to Sibi,' this Sahib, who was but young, said to my Master.

"'By the Grace of Allah, it is more,' Dera answered him.

"'The Big Sahib, who is my friend, is stricken with the Black Death,'

said the young Sahib, 'and also the Baboo Doctor is the same, being close to his death; and unless I get a Healer from Sibi to-morrow, the Sahib who is my friend will surely die.'

"'If Allah wills it so, Kismet,' answered my Master.

"'Have you a fast Camel?' asked the young Sahib.

"'This is Moti,' replied my Master, putting his hand on my hump, 'and when he paces, the wind remains behind.'

"Then the young Sahib promised my Master many rupees and much work for the other Unts, so be it he might ride me to Sibi for a Doctor.

"By a meal of brown paper such as one picks up in a bazaar, I swear that I understood more of what that meant to my Master than many a Camel would have known, for had I not seen it all, this that I am about to tell? You know, Comrades, that the Burra-Sahib was a Man of a dry temper, and it so happened that one day Dera Khan had displeased him, which I just say was a way my Master had often. That was a full moon before the coming of the Black Sickness. Oh, Friends, but I had seen it all; it made me tremble, knowing of the readiness with which Dera Khan argued with his knife, like unto the manner of Pathans.

"The Big Sahib would have struck my Master but for this same young Sahib who had now come with his offer of many rupees--this Sahib who had been there at that time. So, Comrades, there was _good_ hate for the sick man in Dera's heart.

"'Will you send the Camel?' said the young Sahib; and Dera, drawing himself up straight, even as I do under a heavy load, held out his hand and said, 'Allah! thou art a Man. My goods are your goods, but for the other, the one who is your friend and my enemy, the wrath of Allah upon him.'

"The Sahib was on my back in a little.

"I have said before that with the Baboo and many kettles on my back I ran fast, but think you, Comrades, of the weight, and also of the poor rider, for there is nothing an Unt dislikes so much as the knock, knock, against his hump of one having no knowledge of proper pace. How the Sahib sat! Close as a pad that had been tied on; and he coaxed and urged--even swore a little at times, but not after an unreasoning manner as had the Baboo. He called me a Bikaneer, even his Dromedary, which means one of great speed; and begged me, if I wished food for all time, to hasten. How we fled in the long night, down the hot paths, splas.h.i.+ng many times through the cool water that crossed our path--Bolan River, it is called, the water that comes from the high-reaching sand lands that are all white on their tops."

"The snow mountains," explained Sa'-zada, for Camel's description was more or less vague.

"As I have said," continued Camel, "the water was cool. Never once did I fall, though the round stones were like evil things that twist at one's feet to bring him down. 'Hurry, hurry, hurry!' the young Sahib called to me, and I laughed, thinking he would tire before I should.

"On we went, pa.s.sing little fires where those of the Cooly kind rested as they fled from the Black Death. Just as we came out on the flat sand which is the Sibi Desert, there were gathered in one place many Men.

For a s.p.a.ce we stopped, and my Rider asked if there was a Healer with them. They answered that they were Men of the war-kind going up to keep the workers from running away from the Black Death; even those at the little fires would be turned back, they said.

"Then on again I raced. I could hear my Rider talking back to his friend, the Burra-Sahib, who lay stricken with the evil sickness, though I know not how he could hear him, for we were full half way to Sibi.

"'Keep up your courage, Jack,' he would say, speaking to his Friend.

'Please G.o.d, I'll have a Surgeon there in time to save you yet.'

"Then he would fall to abusing some other of the Men-kind, perhaps he was not a friend, whom he blamed for all that was wrong. 'You puffed-up beast,' he would say, speaking to this other, 'to send a lot of Men to such a death hole with a brute of a Bengali-Baboo to doctor them--murder them, and a medicine chest that was emptied in a day. It's a bit of luck that Baboo died, but it doesn't help matters much.'

"That was the Baboo I had run away with; perhaps even the medicine chest had lost much through its fall from my back.

"Then to me, 'Hurry, hurry, hurry! Shabaz!' (push on); then to his Friend, 'Poor old Man, Jack! what will _She_ say if I don't pull you out of this? I'll never go back to England as long as I live if this beastly thing snuffs you out.'

"Then to the other, the one who had done this evil: 'Curse you, with your red tape economy! You're a C. I. E.'--whatever that meant I don't know--'but you've murdered old Jack, who is a Man. You're out of this trouble up at Simla, but you'll roast for this yet.'

"You know, Comrades," said Unt, plaintively, "I didn't know all about this thing--I couldn't understand it, you see, being an Unt, and, as Magh says, stupid; but someway I felt like doing my best for the young Sahib who did not make me cross by beating me, but only cried 'Hurry!

Shabaz! my swift runner,' and shook a little at the nose line in his haste."

"I have often felt that way," encouraged Hathi; "once I remember, it was in Rangoon, that time I was working in the timber yards. I had a Mahout who never stuck the sharp iron goad in my head at all. He always told me everything I was to do by different little knocks on my ears with his knees as he sat on my neck. And also by soft speech, of course, for, as you say, Unt, it keeps one from getting cross, or filled with fear, and so one has only to think of what the Master requires. You were right to run fast with such a rider."

"This is Camel's story," pleaded Sa'-zada.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "BUT SOME WAY I FELT LIKE DOING MY BEST."]

"Never mind," bubbled Unt; "I was just trying to remember what time we got to Sibi--I know it was before the sands grew hot from the sun.

Straight to the _Tes.h.i.+l_ (Government office) the young Sahib rode me.

Here he made an orderly bring me food and drink while he went quick to bring a Healer for his Friend. I had scarce time to store half the _raji_ away for future cud-chewing, when back he came with a Healer of the White Kind.

"Now, the _Tes.h.i.+ldar_, who was Chief of Sibi, was a slow-motioned Man, not given to hurry; that was because the hump on his stomach was large with the fat of great eating; and when the Sahib asked for another Unt to carry the Healer, this Man who was Chief made no haste--not at first; but when the young Sahib, no doubt thinking of his friend Jack, threatened him with the wrath of the Governor, also the smaller anger of his own fists, the _Tes.h.i.+ldar_ had an Unt of great speed quickly brought forth. Then the young Sahib, speaking to me, said, 'My heavy-eyed Friend, also one of much strength, can you go straight back the sixty miles?'

"Of course, at that time I couldn't speak in his words, though I could understand, so I just shook myself, and stretched out my long hind legs, as much as to say, 'Mount to my back, and I will try.'

"We started, the Healer on the other Unt, and the Sahib on my back. I shall never forget that ride. Sore legs! but at first it was not easy to keep up with my Comrade, who was fresh; but also was he a trifle like the _Tes.h.i.+ldar_, fat in the hump, so in the end that had its effect, and I managed to keep pace with him.

"We reached back in the Bolan just as the sun was straight over our heads. By the _raji_ that was still in my gullet I was tired; so was the young Sahib, for when I knelt down, and he slipped quickly from my back, he spun round and round like a box that has broken loose, and came to the ground in haste. Just as he fell, Dera Khan caught him, and lifted him up; then he and the Healer went to the tent where was his friend Jack. And I heard my Master, Dera, say afterward, that the little Sahib never slept while it was twice dark and twice light; that was until the Healer said the stricken one, Jack, the Burra-Sahib, was again free of the Black Death."

"I think it is a true tale," remarked Adjutant, putting down his left leg and taking up his right. "I have seen much of this Black Death in my forty years of life, and the Men of the White-kind take great care of each other. Now, those of the Black-kind get the Man-fear which Hathi has spoken of, in their eyes, and flee fast from this terrible sickness, crying aloud that their livers have turned to water. I, myself, though I am a bird of little speech, could tell tales of both methods."

"But what became of you, Unt?" queried Magh; "did you catch this sickness and die?"

"No," replied Camel, solemnly, not noticing the sarcasm; "the little Sahib took me from Dera Khan by a present of silver, and kept me to ride on, and in the end I was sent here to Sa'-zada."

"It's bed-time," broke in the Keeper; "let each one go quickly to his cage or corral."

Tenth Night

The Story of Big Tusk, the Wild Boar

[Ill.u.s.tration]

[Ill.u.s.tration]

TENTH NIGHT

THE STORY OF BIG TUSK, THE WILD BOAR

'Twas the tenth night of what might be called the Sa'-zada convention, and Black Panther was making the iron bars of his cage jingle in their sockets with his full-voiced roar. Shoulders spread, and head low to the floor, his white fangs showing, he called "Waugh, waugh! Waw-houk!

Come, Comrades. Ganesh, One-tusked Lord of the Jungles, Muskwa and Mooswa; you, Sher Abi, eater of Water-men; even little Magh; come all of you and listen to the lies of a Swine." Then he laughed: "Che-hough, che-hough! the lying tales of Jungli Soor."

"Ugh, ugh!" grunted Grey Boar, angrily, as he slipped up the graveled walk to the front of Leopard's cage. "In my land there is a saying of the Men-kind, that 'A lie can hide like a Panther; if it be a bad lie, that it is as difficult to come face to face with as Black Panther.'"