Tara: A Mahratta Tale Read online

  CHAPTER XX.

  "You have not stayed long, Meah, after all," cried the cheery voiceof Bulwunt Rao, as he saw his young master approaching the place ofmeeting, a large peepul tree, which stood at a back entrance to thegarden. "And you are as good as your word. I thought there might besome lecture from 'the Mastu,' and some remonstrances from the Khanum,and possibly that the stars were not to be overcome; but all seems tohave gone well. Did they know you?"

  "My sister seemed rather frightened as she saw me, and shrank back, butmy father declared me perfect, and bade me God-speed," replied Fazil;"but look over me once more: dark as it is, it might be a matter oflife or death if we were discovered."

  "Discovered, Meah! No, trust me for that!" replied Bulwunt. "Only keepthat courtly tongue of yours quiet, or if you speak at all, let it bein Canara, which somehow suits you better than our soft Mahratta, andlet it be as broad as you can make it. Leave the rest to me. 'Mahrattasknow Mahrattas,' is one of our common proverbs, not untrue either. Nosalaams, Meah! If there be occasion to salute any one, you know themode. So--join your hands and thumbs together, carry them up to yournose. There, your thumbs along the nose--good. Now a gentle inclinationof the head, very little----Shabash! that was excellent. Take care thatno Bundagee or Salaam Alyek--or other Moslem salutation escape you: ifyou have need, a soft 'Numuscar Maharaj,' or if we meet a Gosai, 'NemmoNarrayen Bawa!' Or, better than all--why risk anything? keep a silenttongue, and leave me to talk."

  "Nay, not so fast, friend," cried the young Khan, smiling at hisfollower's earnestness, "fear not for me; I know enough of the customsof the dress I wear to bear me out if need be, and I would fain have mytongue as my hands are--at liberty. No ganja, I hope, since your brainis clear."

  "By your head and eyes, no, Meah, I have only drunk water since youfirst called me," he replied earnestly; "look here," and he executedone of the most difficult of the movements which accompanied his swordexercise,--"will that do?"

  "Let us on then, friend, in the name of all the saints, for we haveenough to do ere morning, and it is some distance to the temple."

  "Nearly a coss, Meah, and we have to pass some bad places beyond thedeer park. Come, let nothing induce you to enter into a brawl, ornotice insult, or we shall fail. If we are attacked, we can strike inreturn. Come!"

  So saying, they moved on rapidly and silently to the Hindu templewhich Bulwunt Rao knew of. Their appearance--for both were attired asnearly as possible alike, except that Bulwunt had concealed more ofhis face than his companion--was too common and unobtrusive to attractattention, and they passed unnoticed through the respectable portionsof the city, meeting, however, few passers in the now dark and desertedstreets.

  Passing the wall of the deer park, and skirting the walls and glacisof the citadel, patches of open rocky ground succeeded, where a fewsleepless asses picked up a scanty night meal, and the houselessdogs of the city snarled and fought over the carrion carcases ofcattle, or the offal which had been thrown out there, or disputedtheir half-picked bones with troops of jackals. Now they met men atintervals, who, with muffled faces and scarcely concealed weapons,watched for unwary single passengers, from whom by threat or violencethey might be able to extort the means of temporary debauchery. Somesuch looked scowlingly upon the friends, and sometimes even advancedupon them; but seeing at a nearer glance no hope of anything but hardblows, passed them by unheeded.

  "Many a good fellow has had an end of him made hereabouts," saidBulwunt in a low voice, as they passed a more conspicuous group thanusual, who seemed inclined to dispute the way with them. "How muchwould there be found of a man by morning, to ascertain what he had beenin life, if his body were thrown upon one of those heaps of carrion,which the hyenas, dogs, and jackals are fighting over? Do you not hearthem yelling?--Bah! that would be an ugly fate, and that is why Iseldom venture into this quarter by night."

  "Then you come sometimes?"

  "Why not, Meah? Are there not adventures enough for those who seekthem? I tell thee, many a young noble, ay, and old one too, that Icould name, come here after dark and amuse themselves gaily for an houror two; but thou art not of that sort, Meah; else I had brought theelong ago."

  "And that is the quarter yonder, I suppose," said the young man, "abovewhich the light gleams brightly."

  "You are right, Meah; a few minutes more and we enter it."

  A scene it was of coarse open profligacy. Shops of a low character forthe sale of spirits were everywhere open, filled with flaming lamps, orbefore which stood large iron cressets filled with cotton seed soakedin oil, that burned brightly, sending forth a thick ropy smoke, andshowing groups of men, women, and children too, sitting on the ground,drinking the hot new liquor, or the more rapidly intoxicating juice ofthe date palm-tree; which, contained in large earthen jars, was beingdispensed by ladlesful to people clustered around them. All this partresounded with obscene abuse, and songs, and violent wrangling. In onegroup two men had drawn their daggers, and were with difficulty heldback by women hanging about them. In another place, two women had holdof each other's hair, and were beating and scratching each other withtheir disengaged hands.

  They passed through all; many a gibe and coarse invitation familiarto Bulwunt Rao, who, had he been alone, could not have resisted them,followed them from men and women. But he was for the time steady,checked by the presence of his young chief, and with the fierce desireof meeting his hereditary enemy burning at his heart. They were nownear the place in regard to which Bulwunt thought he could not bemistaken. A little further there was a Hindu temple gaily decked outwith white and orange-coloured banners; people were singing eveninghymns within it, and their voices rose even above the hoarse murmur ofthe crowd, and there was a clash of cymbals accompanying them. Bulwuntstopped, and laid his hand on his companion's arm.

  "That is the temple," he said, "by which I know the kullal's, and thatis where we shall meet Tannajee, if at all. That is Rama of Ashtee'sshop across the street."

  "And is the other temple far off?" asked Fazil.

  "Not now; a few more turns down the back lanes yonder, and we shallfind it among the tamarind trees in the plain. We will go there atonce."

  Bulwunt knew the place perfectly. A quiet secluded spot, where often,stupid from the effects of ganja, or drink, he had gone to sleep offthe effects before he went home. A place where one or two Jogis, orGosais, or Sunniasis of ascetic orders, usually put up, or travellerssometimes going eastwards, who had to be clear of the city before dawn.The grove, too, was a favourite place for encampment, and droves ofBrinjarries, or other public carriers, halted there in fair weather.Now, however, it was quite vacant, and the natural gloom of the placewas deepened by the darkness of the night, while the glare to whichtheir eyes had been exposed, caused it to seem more gloomy still.

  "An evil-looking place, friend, at this hour," said Fazil.

  "Ay, Meah, dark enough; yet better than the light we have left yonder,"he replied, pausing and looking back to where the glare of the kullal'squarter rose into the dark night air above the houses;--"better thanthat. Yet it is a strange place to come to at night, unless there beany one here. Be cautious, Meah, I will look in."

  The temple was a small one, upon a low basement; the high conicalroof or steeple could hardly be traced among the heavy foliage thatenveloped it. There was a court around it, the wall of which was not sohigh on one side but that a man standing on tip-toe might look over it;and as Fazil was about to do so, Bulwunt Rao pulled him back.

  "For your life, no," he whispered, "some one is there. I saw theflicker of a fire yonder; come round to the back of the verandah. Iknow of a hole in the wall which is not filled up."

  Fazil followed. His companion was right. A hole had been left in thewall for light or air, and some loose stones and bricks stuffed intoit. Just enough aperture remained for both to see plainly what wastherein. On two sides of the small court, opposite to the temple, was aterraced building roughly built, the pillars supporting the clay roofbeing of rudely-hewn timber. T
he basement was level with that of thetemple, and ascended by three low steps in the centre. Three personswere sitting on the floor near the embers of a fire; two enveloped inwhite sheets, which were drawn over their heads, and partly over theirfaces; they might be Brahmuns, who had been worshipping at the temple.The other was a "Jogi," or ascetic, who, in all his majesty of dirt andashes--his hair matted and twisted about his head like a turban, theends of a long grizzly beard tucked over his ears, and naked to thewaist--sat cross-legged upon a deer's skin before the embers, whichcast a dull and flickering light upon his naked body.

  Occasionally, with his right hand, he took ashes from the fireand rubbed them over his broad hairy chest and sinewy arms, andoccasionally over his face, telling his beads the while with his left.None of the men spoke. Could they be the persons of whom they were insearch?

  "I fear we are wrong, Bulwunt," whispered Fazil, "these must beBrahmuns with that Jogi."

  "I know of no other temple, Meah," returned Bulwunt; "but wait here, Iwill go round to the door and question them."

  "Be careful, friend; I like not the look of the old Jogi; be careful,"interrupted Fazil.

  "Nay, I am not going to quarrel with him," continued Bulwunt Rao; "butwatch what they do. You will see all their faces if they turn to me."And with cautious steps he moved in.

  The door of the temple was in front. Bulwunt had seen it was partiallyopened when they arrived. Fazil heard it creak on its hinges as Bulwuntopened it, and saw him emerge from behind the basement of the temple;and amidst a rough cry of "who comes?" "who art thou?" from the threepersons, walk slowly and firmly up to the basement of the verandah, andmake the customary reverential salutation.

  "Thou art a bold fellow," exclaimed one of the men covered with asheet, who stood up, looking at Bulwunt from head to foot, "to intrudeupon respectable people unbidden. A Gosai, too, whence art thou?"

  "I am a poor disciple of Amrut Geer, of Kullianee, if ye know thetown," answered Bulwunt, deferentially; "and they call me Poorungeer.I have come to the city on business, and have travelled far to-day.I often put up here, and, as I saw lights, I entered, in the hopeof shelter for the night. It will rain presently, and, with yourpermission, I will take a drink of water and rest here."

  "There is plenty of water in the well without," returned the mansulkily; "and there are the iron bucket and cord--take them and begone.There are a thousand Gosain's Mutts in Beejapoor, why shouldst thoustay here?--begone!"

  "Nay, be not inhospitable, O Bawa!" returned Bulwunt. "I am weary andfootsore; it is a long way to the only Mutt, I know, and it is not safefor a man alone to pass the plain at night."

  "I tell thee begone," said the Jogi; "there is no room for thee here;begone, else we will turn thee out."

  "Direct me, then, to a resting-place, good sirs," replied Bulwunt. "Iwould give no offence; I pray ye be not angry." "Nay," he continued,observing a gesture of impatience; "behold, I am gone. I would not beunwelcome. Only say, O Jogi, what this temple is called?"

  "This is the temple of Toolja Devi, and dedicated to the Holy Motherat Tooljapoor," replied the man. "If thou hast need to visit it, cometo-morrow, and thou wilt see the image. Depart now, or these worthymen may be angry. Thou hast interrupted already a discourse on themysteries----"

  "Which would have benefited me, Bawa, also. I shall not forget theirinhospitality. Now I depart." And saluting the Jogi, who lifted hishand to his head, and staring fixedly at the others, whose faces wereplainly visible by the light of the fire, which had blazed up, BulwuntRao left them.

  "Listen, Meah," whispered Bulwunt to Fazil, as he rejoined him. "Theseare the people, no doubt; there are some holes in the wall behind them,which I saw when within; come round to them, we shall see and hearbetter, and can listen to the old Jogi's discourse on the mysteries;no doubt it will be edifying. The old Jogi is some one, I think, indisguise, but it is well done. Come, and tread softly."

  The light tread of their naked feet was not heard amidst the rustlingof the trees above; and, as Bulwunt had said, there were several holesin the wall which enabled them to see and hear perfectly, except whenthe conversation was carried on in the lowest whispers. They were,however, on the highest side of the court wall.

  "We are right now," whispered Fazil; "but have the weapons ready incase of need. I like not the Jogi nor his friends."

  The inmates of the little building were silent for some time, and oneof them, who had kept his face concealed, at length lay down, and drewhis sheet over him. The other two smoked at intervals. Now one, nowthe other, lighting the rude cocoa-nut hooka with embers from the firebefore them.

  "Didst thou know that lad, Pahar Singh--that Gosai?" asked hiscompanion. "Methinks he was more than he seemed. I know most of thatold robber Amrut Geer's cheylas, too, but not him; he may be a new oneperhaps. Only I wish I had not seen him; there was an evil eye in hishead;" and the speaker's shoulders twitched as though a slight shudderhad passed through him.

  "What dost thou care about evil eyes, Maun Singh?" replied the Jogi,laughing. "I know not the man, and why should he trouble thee, brother?Depend upon it he was no more than he seemed, else why should he havenamed Amrut Geer of Tooljapoor? Why art thou thus suspicious?" And heagain applied himself to the hooka, whose bubbling rattle rang throughthe building.

  "Nay, it does not signify, only one does not like to be intruded upon,that's all. I had as well shut the door of the temple, brother."

  "Do not bolt it," cried the Jogi; "they will be here soon," as the manwent and closed it; then returned, and with another shrug or shiver,lay down, when both relapsed into silence.

  "Pahar Singh!" whispered Bulwunt to the young Khan; "the robber,murderer, rebel, what you please. The man after whom we wandered solong last year. Ah, 'tis a rare plot, Meah, if such be the instruments."

  "Hush!" said Fazil; "they are speaking again. Listen!"

  "Where did you get those papers, O Toolsee Das?" asked Pahar Singh ofthe man who had been lying down. "What, hast thou been asleep? Tell meagain, lest I make a mistake."

  "Not I, please your Highness," replied the person addressed, raisinghimself upon his arm; "but if you talk in that gibberish language ofyour country, what am I to do? It is dull work waiting when one's eyesare heavy with sleep, and I am not rested from that fearful ride."

  "Ha, ha, ha!" laughed Pahar Singh; "that ride, Lalla! O man! it was buta child's ride after all, only forty coss. You will be lively enoughby-and-by. Now, if you can speak without lying, tell me truly, arethose papers genuine or not?"

  "My lord," replied the Lalla, sitting up; "they who come will bestknow that. If they had not been genuine they would not have been worththe stealing, nor these long journeys, to which your servant is notaccustomed, nor the risk of being compared with original documents. Itold my lord this before, and----"

  "True, Lalla," said Pahar Singh, interrupting him; "but one likesto hear a thing over again when it is pleasant. Ha, ha! when it ispleasant, you know----"

  "When the honour of great houses is at stake we Mutsuddees have to beproportionably careful," returned the Lalla pompously; "and when yourpoor servant saw what these were, you see--my consideration for theking--for this state--may it flourish a thousand years--was great, andI--I, ahem--brought them away----"

  "You mean you stole them, Lalla? Out with the truth, good fellow."

  "Well, sir, if you don't like my words. Yes, I stole them, and itwas a blessed chance which has enabled me to turn them to such goodaccount," said the Lalla, smiling blandly. "Excellent indeed, my lord;and I," continued the Lalla, rubbing his hands, "ha! ha! my lord, andI----"

  "Ha! ha! ha!" responded Pahar Singh, interrupting him with a coarselaugh. "We shall see. No blood in that robbery, Maun Singh. Ours areseldom so neatly done, I think; but the Lalla is a master of his craft.Well, and if they are genuine, you will have a rich reward. O, muchmoney; gold perhaps, who knows? and half is mine for not cutting thatlying coward throat of yours, or hanging you like a dog, Lallajee."

  "Nobl
e prince, I have not forgotten the agreement, nor my lord'shospitality," returned the Lalla, joining his hands.

  "Ah, that is well," returned Pahar Singh grimly. "One should not forgetobligations, and they are only five days old. By your child's head,Maun Singh, he had a narrow escape, only for the boy and thee. Ah, itwas rare fun. A coward--a peculiar coward! He did not think he shouldlive, and he told us of the papers; only for that, they would havegone into the river with his carcase. Ah, yes; it was well done. Whatif they are false, O Lalla, and we have been brought so far in vain! Oman, think of that."

  "Yes, think of that, Lallajee," returned Maun Singh, turning himselflazily round to speak. "There are few like thee who are made guests of,and fed instead of becoming food. Ha, ha, ha! art thou not afraid?"

  "My lords, I can say no more. I have told you all I can, and therest is in their hands who come," said the Lalla, humbly putting uphis hands to his nose. In his heart, however, the man was chuckling,secretly. He thought those who were to come would be attended by aretinue, and he purposed to watch his opportunity and denounce therobber, who would be seized on the bare mention of his name; and whenhe, Toolsee Das, should not only get the price of the papers, but, hefelt sure, be rewarded for having enticed so wary a robber into a trap.The Lalla, therefore, endured the raillery and coarse abuse expendedupon him with a peculiarly grim satisfaction.

  "Yes, a cowardly knave, by your eyes, Maun Singh," continued PaharSingh, while both were laughing heartily. "Ah, how he begged for life!And we have fed him well since too, though I am not sure that I didright in bringing him here, after all. I think I ought to have sentthee after thine ancestors, Lalla!"

  "I doubt not, valiant sir, that your worship hath slain many of theKing's enemies," said the Lalla, trembling in spite of himself, butinwardly determining to show no mercy, "and you are pleased to bemerry."

  "Dog, if thou hast deceived me, and brought me fifty coss for nothing,to save thy miserable life," said Pahar Singh, fiercely, "thou shaltnot escape me twice. Hark! what is that at the door?" for it was nowshaken violently; "they are come, Maun Singh. Remember, Lalla, I amno Pahar Singh now, or thou diest on the spot. See what I have forthee here," and he showed the shining naked blade of a sword concealedunder the ashes. "Enough, don't be frightened, only be discreet. Go,Maun Singh, brother, open the wicket quickly," for those withoutagain shook it impatiently. "Two are to come, only the two; theremight be treachery with more. But ho, ho, ho! Pahar Singh is a matchfor ten, is he not? Now, see thou speakest the truth, O Lalla," hecontinued; "and my vows for the temple, and the well, they are not tobe forgotten--nor--the feeding--five thousand Brahmuns. Forget not thison thy life. I am thy Gooroo, teaching thee 'the mysteries.'"

  These words came from him, jerked out, as it were, by morsels, duringthe brief interval that elapsed before those he expected arrived; andwhich he employed in rubbing additional handfuls of ashes from theedges of the fire upon his face, body, and limbs, so as to render hisdisguise more complete, and in heaping up ashes on his sword, the hiltof which lay towards him, ready for action. As he finished, he took astring of wooden beads from his hair, and settled himself on his heels,in an attitude of austere devotion; for, after a brief parley at thegate, steps were heard advancing, and the Lalla, though his heart sankwithin him at seeing only two persons accompanying Maun Singh, rose asthey ascended the steps of the basement, and were clearly visible bythe light of the fire, which Pahar Singh had caused to burn brightly.

  Fazil Khan's heart beat fast as he saw that one of the persons whoascended first was the King's secretary, his most trustworthy andconfidential servant. His handsome, grave, Persian face, and long greybeard, with the lameness he was known by, which resulted from a wound,were unmistakable. The other, who had his face partly concealed, andwho might be taken for an ordinary attendant to the Secretary, seemednowise remarkable; but, as the pair sat down before him, and thisperson removed one fold of the scarf about his face--though he kept hismouth and nose still covered, as if to exclude the night air--the largesad eyes of the young King were plainly visible.

  Fazil beheld him with an intensity of wondering interest, which it isimpossible to describe, and fairly panted with excitement. "If he hadknown whom he was to meet here," he thought, "he would not have exposedhimself to this risk: Alla and the Prophet have sent us." And as thisescaped him, partly interjectionally and partly in devout prayer, theyoung Khan seemed to swell with the consciousness that his King mightowe his safety, nay, even life, to them.

  The Secretary was a veteran soldier, but he was unarmed, except a smallknife-dagger in his girdle. Fazil, therefore, loosened his sword in itssheath. "Be ready," he whispered to his companion, who pressed his handsilently, in acknowledgment of the caution. Bulwunt had evidently notrecognized the King; indeed, it was well perhaps that he could not seethe face, or have his suspicions awakened: he might not have preservedthe same composure as his young master.