The Air Patrol Part 3

"Luckily I had been put on my guard against an attack from that quarter by one of my Pathan miners. I had twelve hours' grace, and when the raiders arrived they found they'd got a tougher nut to crack than they expected. They only made one serious rush. We beat 'em off, and they moved some distance up the valley, sniped us for a day or two, and then cleared out. We've had no trouble of that sort since, though they've played highwaymen once or twice with my caravans, and in one case got a certain amount of loot. Among other things they collared a boiler that I was bringing up at huge expense from India. I don't suppose they knew what it was, but for the sake of the metal they tried to carry it through the difficult pa.s.s into their own valley. But it proved too c.u.mbersome, as you might expect, and they had to leave it. I found it some time afterwards when shooting in the pa.s.s, at the bottom of a deep nullah, where it had rolled from the track above. It took me nearly a fortnight to recover it and bring it home, but I was glad to get it at the price."

"Things aren't all beer and skittles, then," said Bob.

"Oh, there's a little excitement sometimes, but we are well placed, as you will see, and I fancy nothing short of a regular train of artillery could do us much damage."

What the boys heard from Mr. Appleton during that march whetted their curiosity to get their first view of his mine, but they were disappointed, for twilight fell while they were still some distance from it. In the gathering dusk they saw a number of distant lights, which their uncle explained were the camp fires of the miners. The red glow, growing larger as they proceeded, lent a romantic touch to the night.

The fires were somewhat below them; and, viewed from the high ground from which they were approaching, the settlement appeared to be situated in a huge cleft between two steep mountain barriers. They could just see, swirling along the bottom, a torrential stream, which their uncle told them was unusually high just now, being swollen in summer by the melted snow from the mountains. It was, he said, a tributary to one of the headwaters of the Oxus.

They had just arrived at the outskirts of the settlement when the silence of the evening was suddenly broken by a great hubbub, and they saw a number of dark figures hurrying towards one of the camp fires. In a moment the open s.p.a.ce was filled with a shouting swaying crowd; but before the boys had time to realise what was happening, or even to ask a question, their uncle urged his tired horse towards the scene, and das.h.i.+ng into the midst of the crowd, scattered the men to right and left. When the boys galloped up behind him, they found him sternly questioning one or two of the men in their own tongue. They returned sullen answers, whereupon he addressed them in tones of rebuke, concluding with a sharp word of command at which they turned away towards a number of huts ranged in rows beyond the camp fires.

"What is it all about, Uncle?" asked Lawrence.

"We'll see in the morning. It's too late now. Slip off your horses; I'll call a fellow to take charge of them."

A man came up in answer to his call, and led the horses towards the stables beyond the huts. Then Mr. Appleton gave a loud hail, and led his nephews to the left.

"Look after your feet," he said, taking a small electric lamp from his pocket.

They now saw that they were at the edge of the ravine. Below them they heard the gurgle and rush of the river. A few steps cut in the side of the chasm led down to a narrow platform, and upon this the three stood waiting. Mr. Appleton's call was answered from the opposite side, and immediately afterwards the boys heard a creaking sound, as though a machine of some sort were being wound up. Then a dark ma.s.s appeared to detach itself from the wall of rock across the gap, and descend towards them.

"My drawbridge," said their uncle.

It sank slowly and with much groaning and squeaking until the nearer end rested on the edge of the platform where they stood. They stepped upon it, followed by the Sikhs who had acted as their guides, and in a few strides came to the other side.

"Welcome to the Appleton mine," said Mr. Appleton. "And now for supper.

Our menu isn't elaborate, but if you're as sharp set as I am you won't be dainty. Come along!"

CHAPTER THE THIRD

MR. APPLETON'S MINE

Mr. Appleton led the way across a sort of yard, littered with mining debris, towards a building in the upper part of which lights were burning. To the left sheds and a chimney stack loomed up in the darkness, scarcely distinguishable against the background of rock. They pa.s.sed through a gate, and found themselves in a less c.u.mbered enclosure, at the farther corner of which stood the illuminated building. This proved to be a compact square edifice, the lower storey of stone, the upper of wood. The door stood open, and in the entrance appeared a grave turbaned servant, who salaamed as the boys went in.

"Chunda Beg, my khansaman," said Mr. Appleton. "Come upstairs and see your room. We haven't over much s.p.a.ce, but we've done our best to make you comfortable."

The boys followed their uncle to the upper floor, which was one large apartment divided into three by matchboard part.i.tions carried up to within a foot or two of the ceiling. In the first room, the dining-room, they saw a table laid for supper. Pa.s.sing through this they entered Mr. Appleton's bedroom, a small chamber furnished only with a narrow camp bed, a chair, a towel-horse, a tin basin on a stand, a chest of drawers, and a zinc bath; a Persian rug lay on the floor at one side of the bed. Beyond the further part.i.tion, which had evidently been newly erected, was the boys' bedroom, about the same size as their uncle's, similarly furnished, but with two camp beds separated by the width of a Persian rug.

"No luxuries, you see," said Mr. Appleton, "but I think you'll find it cosy. I believe there's a looking-gla.s.s somewhere on the premises if you want to shave. That's a thing I haven't done for many years; Chunda Beg gives me a tr.i.m.m.i.n.g every now and then when I'm getting too s.h.a.ggy.

As a follower of the Prophet, he wouldn't cut his own beard for a pension. He'll send you up some hot water and soap, and when you've had a wash, come in to supper."

The menu was not so scanty as Mr. Appleton had led the boys to believe.

There was a roast joint that tasted three parts mutton and one part venison--the flesh of an ibex shot by Mr. Appleton himself. The vegetables were mushrooms, onions and lotus beans; the sweets a rice pudding and stewed peaches; and the beverage a kind of elderberry wine diluted with hot water.

"You've got a good cook, Uncle," said Lawrence, when the khansaman had brought coffee. "We haven't had so good a meal since we left Rawal Pindi."

"Well, Shan Tai does his best. He's a Chinaman, of course. We grow our own vegetables in a patch of ground down the valley. In fact, we do most things ourselves. The gas is acetylene, made on the spot. Most of the furniture in your room is home-made, as I dare say you noticed.

We're what you may call self-contained."

"What rooms have you got below?" asked Bob.

"We use the ground floor only for stores. In the dark you didn't see, I suppose, that the walls are loopholed. The stone's very thick, and in that little trouble I told you about we found them a capital fortification. The kitchen is outside; the servants have their own out-houses. The cook is Chinese, as I said; the khansaman is a Pathan; there are one or two other fellows whose nationality is an unknown quant.i.ty. Chunda Beg is a treasure, as grave as a judge, and as resourceful as a Jack-tar. You'll take most interest, I expect, in my storekeeper, Ditta Lal, a Bengali--what's commonly called a Babu. I wager you haven't spoken to him for more than two minutes before he tells you he is a B.A. of Calcutta University, and he'll tell you the same thing ten times a day until he chokes."

"Why should he choke?" asked Lawrence.

"Because he's getting so disgustingly fat. I really mustn't raise his screw--he calls it emoluments--any more. When he first came to me he was thin and weedy like many of his kind; but he made himself extremely useful, and I've increased his pay rather often. You'd be surprised at the result if you could compare him as he is with what he was. Upon my word, with every rise he swells visibly. I shouldn't like to say what his waist measurement is now. I told him the other day that I really couldn't raise him any more, for fear it proved fatal, and he smiled in my face and said, 'Ah, sahib, G.o.d tempers the wind to the shorn lamb,'

which you won't beat for a piece of delightful inconsequence."

Talking thus, Mr. Appleton interested and amused the boys for an hour or two until it was time to turn in. The night was cold; but snuggled under thick blankets they slept like tops, and did not waken until the khansaman entered with water for their morning tub.

At breakfast Mr. Appleton announced that his first business for the day was the holding of a durbar to enquire into the scuffle of the night before.

"My discipline is as easy as possible," he said; "there are few rules, but I see that they are obeyed. The men represent some of the most unruly tribes of the frontier, but they know I mean what I say, and on the whole I've had very little trouble with them. Of course they get good pay; that's the first condition of good work and contentment."

"The second is good holidays," said Lawrence with a smile.

"Ah, you've just left school!" said his uncle. "But the men haven't anything to complain of on that score. They get holidays all the winter. We stop work for four or five months. What with snowstorms and the river frozen hard we could scarcely exist here in the winter months, so the men go off to their homes and no doubt play the heavy swell among their people, and I betake myself to Bokhara, or pay a round of visits among my Chinese friends, or go on a hunting trip, returning in the spring. But there's the bugle; come and see me in my part of unpaid magistrate. Then I'll take you over the place."

On leaving the house, the boys saw a number of men filing through the gate between two ranks of tall bearded Sikhs armed with rifles. Those who came first were of the Mongolian type, with broad, flat, yellowish faces, wide noses and narrow eyes. What little clothing they wore was ragged and stained a deep indigo blue. These men, numbering about eighty, formed a group on the left-hand side. After them entered more than a score of swarthy black-haired fellows of more symmetrical shape and more powerful physique, their features more sharply cut, some of them having almost a Jewish cast of countenance. Their garments were marked with streaks and stains of yellowish-green. Mr. Appleton explained that they were for the most part Pathans from the Afghan border; but they included also several Punjabis, a couple of Baluchis, three or four Chitralis, and a sprinkling of men of Hunza and Nagar.

They formed up on the right-hand side.

At the door of an outhouse on the same side stood a very fat man whom the boys easily recognized as the Bengali storekeeper. His podgy olive cheeks were almost concealed by a bushy growth of black hair, and the loose white garment he wore, encircled with a sash of brilliant red, emphasised the vast unwieldiness of his bulk.

When all were a.s.sembled, the gate was shut, and Mr. Appleton, standing before his door, called for Gur Buksh. One of the armed Sikhs stepped forward, a tall, finely-proportioned, grey-bearded man, who, as the boys afterwards learnt, had been a havildar in a native Border regiment of the British army, and had seen considerable service on the frontier. He stood at attention, saluted, and gravely awaited the sahib's questions.

The young Appletons looked on with curiosity, wis.h.i.+ng that they could understand the conversation that ensued. Lawrence made up his mind to devote his spare time to a study of the native languages.

After Gur Buksh had made his report, Mr. Appleton called up two other men, one from each of the groups. The first was a young Kalmuck, whose yellow face would have been absolutely expressionless but for a keen look in his restless eyes. The other was a big hook-nosed Pathan, with strong, determined features and fierce low brows from beneath which his coal-black eyes flashed with truculence. The Kalmuck, answering to the name of Nurla Bai, gave brief and almost sullen answers to his master's questions; Muhammad Din, the Pathan, on the contrary, spoke at length, fiercely and volubly, with much play of features and hands. Having heard them both, Mr. Appleton made a measured speech in fine magisterial manner, and then dismissed them. At the close of his speech the boys noticed that the two culprits threw swift glances at them, the Kalmuck's eyes narrowing, and giving no clue to his thoughts, while the Pathan's indicated keen interest and searching enquiry. The whole company marched out of the gate, and the silence which they had hitherto preserved gave way to excited talk as they went off to their work.

"So much for that," said Mr. Appleton. "It appears that, taking advantage of my absence, the Kalmuck fellow, Nurla Bai, got into the Pathan section of the mine works, against my express orders. Muhammad Din stood up for law, rather zealously, and it would have come to a free fight if Gur Buksh hadn't stepped in. At night, when they knock off work, both parties cross the drawbridge to their huts on the other side, and the quarrel was just breaking out again when we had the good luck to come up. Nurla was clearly in the wrong, and I fined him a week's pay."

"He took it well," said Bob. "The fellow's face was like a mask."

"He was not so much unmoved as you think," said Mr. Appleton. "I know the fellow pretty well, and I could tell by the look of him that he was perfectly furious. I find my system answers very well. I punish all breaches of the regulations with fines, which are pooled and distributed every month among the men who haven't offended. Most of the men are quite keen to get these additions to their pay; in fact, I've known some of the rascals try to egg on a simple-minded mate to commit some slight misdemeanour, so that he'll lose his pay for their benefit. They're queer fish.... Good-morning, Ditta Lal."

The Bengali, who had been hovering about, gradually drawing nearer to his master, and casting sheep's eyes at the two young strangers, now waddled up, his face one broad smile.

"Good-morning, sir: good-morning, young gents," he said in a breathless wheeze. "'Full many a glorious morning have I seen, flatter the mountain tops with sovran eye,'--pat quotation from sweet Swan of Avon, whose sonnets I got up, with notes, for final exam, for B.A. degree, Calcutta University. Lovely morning, sir."

Mr. Appleton's eyes twinkled as he introduced his nephews, who were looking at the Babu as at some strange specimen.

"You'll find several mule loads of stuff we ordered on the other side, Ditta Lal," said Mr. Appleton.

"They shall be attended to instanter, sir. And I shall esteem it signal honour on fitting occasion to act as guide, philosopher and friend to young gents, show them my stores; in fact, do them proud, and all that."

He bowed, puffed, and waddled away. The boys laughed when his back was turned.