The Battery and the Boiler/Chapter 24
CHAPTER XXIV.
SHOWS THE DREADFUL DEPRAVITY OF MAN, AND THE AMAZING EFFECTS OF ELECTRICAL TREATMENT ON MAN AND BEAST.
Meanwhile Stumps went back to the hotel to brood over his misfortunes, and hatch out the plan which his rather unfertile brain had devised.
Seated on a chair, with his elbows on his knees, his chin in his hands, and his nails between his teeth, he stared at a corner of the room, nibbled and meditated. There was nothing peculiar about the corner of the room at which he stared, save that there stood in it a portmanteau which Sam had bought the day before, and in which were locked his and Robin's bags of treasure.
"If I could only manage to get away by rail to—to—anywhere, I 'd do it," he muttered.
Almost simultaneously he leaped from his chair, reddened, and went to look out at the window, for some one had tapped at the door.
"Come in," he said with some hesitation.
"Gen'l'man wants you, sir," said a waiter, ushering in the identical captain who had stopped Stumps on the street that day.
"Excuse me, young man," he said, taking a chair without invitation, "I saw you enter this hotel, and followed you."
"Well, and what business had you to follow me?" demanded Stumps, feeling uneasy.
"Oh, none—none at all, on'y I find I must sail this afternoon, an' I 've took a fancy to you, an' hope you 've made up your mind to ship with me."
Stumps hesitated a moment.
"Well, yes, I have," he said, with sudden resolution. "When must I be on board?"
"At four, sharp," said the captain, rising. "I like promptitude. All right. Don't fail me."
"I won't," said Stumps, with emphasis.
When the captain was gone. Stumps went nervously to the door and peeped out. Nothing was visible, save the tail of a waiter's retiring coat. Cautiously shutting and bolting the door, he took up a strong walking-cane, and, after some difficulty, forced the lock of the portmanteau therewith. Abstracting from it the two bags containing the treasures of his mates Robin and Sam, he wrapped them in a handkerchief, and put them into a canvas bag, which he had purchased for the reception of his own wardrobe. Taking this under his arm he went quietly out of the hotel into the street and disappeared.
He was closely followed by a waiter who had taken the liberty of peeping through the key-hole when he committed the robbery, and who never lost sight of him till he had seen him embark in a vessel in the harbour, named the Fairy Queen, and heard him give his name as James Gibson. Then he returned to the hotel, giving vent to his sentiments in the following soliloquy—
"Of course it is no business of yours, John Ribbon, whether men choose to open their comrades' portmantys with keys or walkin'-sticks, but it is well for you to note the facts that came under your observation, and to reveal them to them as they concern—for a consideration."
But the waiter did not at that time obtain an opportunity to reveal his facts to those whom they concerned, for Sam, Robin, Slagg, and Letta did not return to the hotel, but sent a pencil note to Stumps instead, to the effect that they had received an invitation from a telegraph official to pay him a visit at his residence up country; that, as he was to carry them off in his boat to the other side of the bay, they would not have an opportunity of calling to bid him, Stumps, a temporary farewell; that he was to make himself as happy as he could in Bombay during their absence, keep on the rooms at the hotel, and settle the bills, and that all expenses would be paid by them on their return.
As the youth by whom this message was sent knew nothing about the senders or whither they had gone, and as Stumps did not again make his appearance, the landlord seized the few things that had been left by the supposed runaways.
The invitation that had thus suddenly been given and accepted, was received from a gentleman named Redpath, an official in the Indian telegraph service. They had been introduced to him on board of the Great Eastern by Sam's friend, Frank Hedley, and he became so interested in their adventurous career that he begged them to visit his bungalow in a rather out-of-the-way part of the country, even if only for a few days.
"It won't take us long to get there," he said, "for the railway passes within thirty miles of it, and I 'll drive you over as pretty a piece of country as you could wish to see. I have a boat alongside, and must be off at once. Do come."
"But there are so many of us," objected Sam Shipton.
"Pooh! I could take a dozen more of you," returned the hospitable electrician; "and my wife rejoices—absolutely rejoices—when I bring home unexpected company."
"What a pattern she must be," said Slagg; "but excuse me, sir, since you are so good as to invite us all, may I make so bold as to ax if you 've got a servants'-'all?"
"Well, I 've not got exactly that," replied Redpath, with an amused look; "but I've got something of the same sort for my servants. Why do you ask?"
"Because, sir, I never did sail under false colours, and I ain't agoin' to begin now. I don't set up for a gentleman, and though circumstances has throwed me along wi' two of 'em, so that we 've bin hail-feller-well-met for a time, I ain't agoin' to condescend to consort wi' them always. If you 've got a servants'-'all, I 'll come and thank 'ee; if not, I 'll go an' keep company wi' Stumps till Mr. Shipton comes back."
"Very well, my good fellow, then you shall come, and we 'll find you a berth in the servants'-hall," said Redpath, laughing.
"But what about Stumps?" said Robin; "he will wonder what has come over us. Could we not return to the hotel first"
"Impossible," said the electrician; "I have not time to wait. My leave has expired. Besides, you can write him a note."
So the note was written, as we have shown, and the party set out on their inland journey. Before starting, however, Frank Hedley, the engineer, took Sam and Robin aside.
"Now, think over what I have mentioned," he said, "and make up your minds. You see, I have some influence at headquarters, and am quite sure I can get you both a berth on board to replace the men who have left us. I think I can even manage to find a corner for Slagg, if he is not particular."
"We shall only be too happy to go if you can manage it," replied Robin; "but Stumps, what about him? We can't leave Stumps behind, you know."
"Well, I 'll try to get Stumps smuggled aboard as a stoker or something, if possible, but to say truth, I don't feel quite so sure about that matter," replied Frank.
"But shall we have time for this trip if you should prove successful?" asked Sam.
"Plenty of time," returned his friend; "coaling is a slow as well as a dirty process, and to ship thousands of tons is not a trifle. I daresay we shall be more than a week here before the shore- end is fixed and all ready to start."
"Well then, Frank," said Sam; "adieu, till we meet as shipmates."
The railway soon conveyed our adventurers a considerable distance into the interior of the country.
At the station where Redpath and his guests got out, a vehicle was procured sufficiently large to hold them all, and the road over which they rapidly passed bore out the character which the electrician had given to it. Every species of beautiful scenery presented itself—from the low scrubby plain, with clumps of tropical plants here and there, to undulating uplands and hills.
"You must have some difficulties in your telegraph operations here," said Robin to Redpath, "with which we have not to contend in Europe."
"A few," replied his friend, "especially in the wilder parts of the East. Would you believe it," he added, addressing himself to Letta, "that wild animals frequently give us great trouble? Whenever a wild pig, a tiger, or a buffalo, takes it into his head to scratch himself, he uses one of our telegraph posts if he finds it handy. Elephants sometimes butt them down with their thick heads, by way of pastime, I suppose, for they are not usually fond of posts and wire as food. Then bandicoots and porcupines burrow under them and bring them to the ground, while kites and crows sit on the wires and weigh them down. Monkeys, as usual, are most mischievous, for they lay hold of the wires with tails and paws, swinging from one to another, and thus form living conductors, which tend to mix and confuse the messages."
"But does not the electricity hurt the monkeys?" asked Letta.
"O no! It does them no injury; and birds sitting on the wires are never killed by it, as many people suppose. The electricity passes them unharmed, and keeps faithfully to the wire. If a monkey, indeed, had a tail long enough to reach from the wire to the ground, and were to wet itself thoroughly, it might perhaps draw off some of the current, but fortunately the tails of monkeys are limited. We often find rows of birds lying dead below our telegraph lines, but these have been killed by flying against them, the wires being scarcely visible among trees."
"And what about savages, sir?" asked Jim Slagg, who had become deeply interested in the telegraphist's discourse; "don't they bother you sometimes?"
"Of course they do," replied Redpath, with a laugh, "and do us damage at times, though we bother them too, occasionally."
"How do you manage that, sir?" asked Jim,
"Well, you must know we have been much hindered in our work by the corruptness and stupidity of Eastern officials in many places,and by the destructive propensities and rapacity of Kurds and wandering Arabs and semi-savages, who have found our posts in the desert good for firewood and our wires for arrow-heads or some such implements. Some of our pioneers in wild regions have been killed by robbers when laying the lines, while others have escaped only by fighting for their lives. Superstition, too, has interfered with us sadly, though sometimes it has come to our aid."
"There was one eccentric Irishman—one of the best servants I ever had," continued Redpath, "who once made a sort of torpedo arrangement which achieved wonderful success. The fellow is with me still, and it is a treat to hear Flinn, that 's his name, tell the story, but the fun of it mostly lies in the expressive animation of his own face, and the richness of his brogue as he tells it.
"'I was away in the dissert somewheres,' he is wont to say, 'I don't rightly remimber where, for my brain 's no better than a sive at geagraphy, but it was a wild place, anyhow—bad luck to it! Well, we had sot up a line o' telegraph in it, an' wan o' the posts was stuck in the ground not far from a pool o' wather where the wild bastes was used to dhrink of a night, an' they tuk a mighty likin' to this post, which they scrubbed an' scraped at till they broke it agin an' agin. Och! it 's me heart was broke intirely wi' them. At last I putt me brains in steep an' got up an invintion. It wouldn't be aisy to explain it, specially to onscientific people. No matter, it was an electrical arrangement, which I fixed to the post, an' bein' curious to know how it would work, I wint down to the pool an' hid mesilf in a hole of a rock, wid a big stone over me an' ferns all round about. I tuk me rifle, av coorse, just for company, you know, but not to shoot, for I 'm not bloodthirsty, by no means. Well, I hadn't bin long down whin a rustle in the laves towld me that somethin' was comin', an' sure enough down trotted a little deer—as purty a thing as you could wish to see. It took a dhrink, tremblin' all the time, an' there was good cause, for another rustlin' was heard. Off wint the deer, just as a panther o' some sort jumped out o' the jungle an' followed it. Bad luck go wid ye! says I; but I 'd scarce said it whin a loud crashing in the jungle towld me a buffalo or an elephant was comin'. It was an elephant. He wint an' took a long pull at the pool. After that he goes straight to the post. Ha! says I, it 's an owld friend o' yours, I see. When he putt his great side agin' it, for the purpose of scratchin', he got a shock from my electrical contrivance that caused his tail to stand upon end, and the hairs at its point to quiver. Wid a grunt he stood back an' gave the post a look o' surprise, as much as to say. Did ye do that a-purpose, ye spalpeen? Then he tried it again, an' got another shock that sot up his dander, for he twisted his long nose round the post, goin' to pull it down, no doubt, but he got another shock on the nose that made him squeal an' draw back. Then he lowered his great head for a charge. It's all over wid ye now, me post, says I; but the baste changed its mind, and wint off wid its tail an' trunk in the air, trump etin' as if it had gob the toothache. Well, after that nothin' came for some time, and I think I must have gone off to slape, for I was awoke by a most tremendious roar. Lookin' up I saw a tiger sprawlin' on his back beside the post! Av coorse the shock wasn't enough to have knocked the baste over. I suppose it had tripped in the surprise. Anyhow it jumped up and seized the post with claws an' teeth, whin av coorse it got another shock that caused it to jump back about six yards, with its tail curled, its hair all on end, all its claws out, an' its eyes blazin'. You seem to feel it, says I—in to meself, for fear he'd hear me. He didn't try it again, but wint away into the bush like a war-rocket. After that, five or six little wild pigs came down, an' the smallest wan wint straight up to the post an' putt his nose to it. He drew back wid a jerk, an' gave a scream that seemed to rend all his vitals. You don't like it, thinks I; but, faix, it looked as if I was wrong, for he tried it again. Another shock he got, burst himself a'most wid a most fearful yell, an' bolted. His brothers didn't seem to understand it quite. They looked after him in surprise. Then the biggest wan gave a wriggle of his curly tail, an' wint to the post as if to inquire what was the matter. When he got it on the nose the effect was surprisin'. The curl of his tail came straight out, an' it quivered for a minute all over, wid its mouth wide open. The screech had stuck in his throat, but it came out at last so fierce that the other pigs had to join in self-defence. I stuck my fingers in my ears and shut me eyes. When I opened them again the pigs were gone. It's my opinion they were all dissolved, like the zinc plates in a used-up battery; but I can't prove that. Well, while I was cogitatin' on the result of my little invintion, what should walk out o' the woods but a man! At first I tuk him for a big monkey, for the light wasn't very good, but he had a gun on his shoulder, an' some bits o' clothes on, so I knew him for a human. Like the rest o' them, he wint up to the post an' looked at it, but didn't touch it. Then he came to the pool an' tuk a dhrink, an' spread out his blanket, an' began to arrange matters for spendin' the rest o' the night there. Av coorse he pulled out his axe, for he couldn't do widout fire to kape the wild bastes off. An' what does he do but go straight up to my post an' lift his axe for a good cut. Hallo! says I, pretty loud, for I was a'most too late. Whew! What a jump he gave!—six futt if it was an inch. Whin he came down he staggered with his back agin the post. That was enough. The jump he tuk before was nothin' to what he did after. I all but lost sight of him among the branches. When he returned to the ground it was flat on his face he fell, an', rowlin' over his head, came up on his knees with a roar that putt the tigers and pigs to shame. Sarves you right, says I, steppin' out of my hole. Av coorse he thought I was a divil of some sort, for he turned as white in the face as a brown man could, an' bolted without so much as sayin' farewell. The way that nigger laid his legs along the ground was a caution. Ostriches are a joke to it. I picked up his blanket an' fetched it home as a keepsake, an' from that day to this the telegraph posts have been held sacred by man an' baste all over that part of the country.'"
"I 'd like to meet wi' the feller that told that yarn," said Jim Slagg.
"So should I," said Letta, laughing.
"You shall both have your wish, for there he stands," said Redpath, as they dashed round the corner of a bit of jungle, on the other side of which lay as pretty a bungalow as one could wish to see. A man-servant who had heard the wheels, was ready at the gate to receive the reins, while under the verandah stood a pretty little woman to receive the visitors. Beside her was a black nurse with a white baby.
"Here we are, Flinn," said Redpath, leaping to the ground. "All well, eh?"
"Sure we 're niver anything else here, sor," replied Flinn, with a modest smile.
"I 've just been relating your electrical experiences to my friends," said the master,
"Ah! now, it 's drawin' the long bow you 've been," returned the man; "I see it in their faces."
"I have rather diluted the dose than otherwise," returned Redpath. "Let me introduce Mr. Slagg. He wishes to see Indian life in the 'servants' hall.' Let him see it, and treat him well."
"Yours to command," said Flinn, with a nod as he led the horses away. "This way, Mr. Slug."
"Slagg, if you please, Mr. Flinn," said Jim, "The difference between a a an' a u ain't much, but the results is powerful sometimes."
While Slagg was led away to the region of the bungalow appropriated to the domestics, his friends were introduced to pretty little Mrs. Redpath, and immediately found themselves thoroughly at home under the powerful influence of Indian hospitality.
Although, being in the immediate neighbourhood of a veritable Indian jungle, it was natural that both Sam and Robin should wish to see a little sport among large game, their professional enthusiasm rose superior to their sporting tendencies, and they decided next day to accompany their host on a short trip of inspection to a neighbouring telegraph station, Letta being made over to the care of the hostess, was forthwith installed as assistant nurse to the white baby, whom she already regarded as a delicious doll—so readily does female nature adapt itself to its appropriate channels!
Not less readily did Jim Slagg adapt himself to one of the peculiar channels of man's nature. Sport was one of Slagg's weaknesses, though he had enjoyed very little of it, poor fellow, in the course of his life. To shoot a lion, a tiger, or an elephant, was, in Slagg's estimation, the highest possible summit of earthly felicity. He was young, you see, at that time, and moderately foolish! But although he had often dreamed of such bliss, he had never before expected to be within reach of it. His knowledge of sport, moreover, was entirely theoretic. He knew indeed how to load a rifle and pull the trigger, but nothing more.
"You haven't got many tigers in these parts, I suppose?" he said to Flinn as they sauntered towards the house after seeing the electrical party off. He asked the question with hesitation, being impressed with a strange disbelief in tigers, except in a menagerie, and feeling nearly as much ashamed as if he had asked whether they kept elephants in the sugar-basin. To his relief Flinn did not laugh, but replied quite gravely—
"Och! yes, we 've got a few, but they don't often come nigh the house. We have to thravel a bit into the jungle, and camp out, whin we wants wan. I heard master say he 'd have a try at 'em to-morrow, so you 'll see the fun, for we 've all got to turn out whin we go after tigers. If you 're fond o' sport in a small way, howiver, I can give ye a turn among the birds an' small game to-day."
"There 's nothing I 'd like better," said Slagg, jumping at the offer like a hungry trout at a fly.
"Come along, then," returned the groom heartily; "we 'll take shot-guns, an' a spalpeen of a black boy to carry a spare rifle an' the bag."
In a few minutes the two men, with fowling-pieces on their shoulders, and a remarkably attenuated black boy at their heels carrying a large bore rifle, entered the jungle behind the electrician's bungalow.