Novelist.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2707, 16 November 1889, Page 5 (Supplement)

Novelist.

[all kiohts kesekveu.]

BY JAMES GRANT. Author of " The Romance of War," "The Black " Watch," " Fairer than a Fairy," &c., &c.

Love's labour Won: AN EVENTFUL STORY.

CHAPTER LV.—Will HE Escape 1 Once more we change the scone. From the banks of the muddy Thames to those of the Irawaddy seems only an instantaneous feat now, as in our time we surpass the boast of Puck that he would put a girdle round the earth in forty minutes. Lonsdale calculated, wc have said, that he might within three days, or less, reach the eastern bank of that great river, which is to the Burman empire, what the Ganges is to Bengal, and the Nile to Egypt ; and be within hail of some of the river steamers, if any were passing upward or downward just then, an important doubt on which lie rather shrank from dwelling.

Full of the horrid aspect presented by the executed Burmese near the monastery, and too well aware that some such fate awaited himself if the Dacoits caught him and had time to dispose of him in a leisurely manner, he hurried on, anxious only at first to get as far away as possible from the vicinity of his late place of captivity. It was difficult to think of sucli barbarities being done in a land where education had certainly made good progress since last we fought them in 18152, when half the male population are said to be able to read and write, and when schoolbooks are issued in the venacular, setting fortli the elements of mathematics, geography, astronomy and human physiology ; yet so it is. He paused more than once to examine the edge and hilt of the dab, and the charges in the revolver, on which so much, to him, depended now ; and when darkness was fairly in, he found himself in a locality famous for adventures in old romance, to wit—the recessess of a ! forest. It was of teak, a species of tree which frequently attains the height of seventy feet, without a branch or twig, and then throws out a roof of foliage so solid and leafy as to exclude the rays of a noon-day sun. There the darkness was dense then ; under such an umbrageous canopy in mid-air not a star was visible, nor could a ray of the most brilliant planet penetrate ; but the surface under foot was clear of all brushwood ; though, in places near the river, there grew jungle-grass more than twenty feet in height. For years these vast teak forests have supplied noble materials for the dock-yards of Rangoon, Madras and Calcutta.

Around him was a solitude awful and oppressive. Elephants, tigers, bears and leopards abounded, he knew, in the wild places of Burmah, but none, as yet, disturbed him, and stretched among soft moss and the dry dead leaves of the past season, he took his repose, and in the morning awoke to find that he had slept —actually slept long and sound, and felt, though a little stiff, fresh and ready to face anything.

Extremes of heat and cold are seldom felt in Burruah, and the season's are generally regular.

The light of the uprisen sunfailed to penetrate the screen of interwoven foliage that spread above him so far from the earth. Here and there he could see a blue patch of sky—no more; but far as the eye could

penetrate, on every side, spaead the mighty stems of the teak trees, rising in long, long rows like stupendous cathedral aisles, all seen by a spccies of subdued, yet clear and steady twilight. Save an occasional ichneumon, or rat of Paraoh, gliding about among the dead leaves—scuddingas rabbits do at home—no living thing was visible. Which way was he to turn his steps. The morning sun, he knew, was shining ; but under that roof of horizontal greenery it was impossibe to know east from west, as there was no shadow below it, the subdued light was so uniform ; and after a long and careful consideration he found more of it in one particular direction, and conceiving that there the forest must grow thinner and be more open, lie proceeeed towards it, and found his conjecture correct. He reached the skirt of the teak wilderness, where the pepper, the capsicum, turmeric and ginger shrubs grew wild, and saw before him an open and fertile country, on the woody verbis and abandoned rice fields on which the sun shone brightly, and guided by its art he struck westward, by what seemed an old and forgotten path that was nearly hidden now by tall coarse grass and long flowering trailers. The inhabitants—for the district was inhabited, from many indications that Lonsdale saw—must have fled, inspired by false terror of the British troops on one hand, and real terror of the blood-thirsty Dacoits on the other; and as a proof of their recent presence, after proceeding about two miles, he came upon a zarnl, or rest-house, of comparatively recent construction —an edifice only about four feet in height, built of teak wood, with a broad roof projecting all round it—-and Lonsdaie, already somewhat weary with a march that wis toilsome, devious, unci over very rough ground, in a district strange and trackless, without guide or certainty, among rocks, old water-cuts, and places encumbered by the nutmeg, spikenard and bamboo, all growing wild together, crept therein, and was fain to pass the second night of his freedom —assured that in it lie would be safe, at least, from any of the four-footed denizens of the place, For the second time, also, as he had to be careful of his little store, he examinsd it, and partook of what remained of the contents of the sobcit given him by the Rahoan, consisting of a piece of boiled goat sflesb, with a few cherpathis of dough, toasted before afire, and a mouthful of shumshei from a little china flask —the native stimulant, which tastes strongly of cocoa-nut oil, and lias a greater odour of it. When this food and refreshment was done, there would be but a slender ehanccof his procuring more, unless he reached our gunboats, or British shelter of some kind on the river or the land.

The next morning was somewhat advanced—the hours he knew not, having long since been deprived of his watch—when he again set forth, vaguely, but resolutely, westward, but he had not proceeded far from the sequestered zazel when ho heard sounds ■ — voices —in his rear ; and while shrinkingdown among some tall grass he could see about fifteen or twenty Dacoits, among them the gigantic fellow with the tatooed skin and quilted,

frock, coming leisurely along, in Indian file, by the kind of path

that led to the rest-house, into which with the hope of plunder, they all went on their hands and knees; and then he stole swiftly away—away through the long grass as fast as its tantalising obstructive-

iess permitted and his limbs could

carry him. To his eyes there seemed something almost diabolical in the aspect of the tall Dacoit leader, as he had never before seen tattooing, which the Burmese generally use about thighs alone, according to some travellers ; but this man had it over the most of his face and neck, in strange concentric rings of black and blue—now the result of lampblack mixed with the gall of the mirga fish. But Nicolo Conti refers to the hideous custom so far back as 1425, when he states that all Burmese, " both men and women paynte or embroider their skinues with iron pennes, putting indelible tincture thereto."

Now the women never do it, and in complexion many of them are as fair and delicate as Europeans.

Just as Lonsdale had quitted that tedious and exhausting mode of progression among the tall coarse grass, amid which he saw more than one poisonous snake in dangerous proximity to him, and reached an angle in a narrow rocky path, by ascending which he hoped to find a place of concealment, if necessary, an exultant shout echoed through the little valley wherein the zaxal stood, and he knew that therein some traces of his recent repast had been detected by the Dacoits, who now proceeded to beat the bush, the grass and everything else, in evident search for him. CHAPTER LVl.—Tue Tattooed BUKMAJf. Now for English pluck, and the muscular energy born of out-door l sports in the cricket and huntingfields, and in handling the oar and the gun. All were requisite for Lonsdale now.

Upward and onward lie toiled, the path—for a beaten path it was

he pursued—though narrow and half hidden by wild vines, laurel bushes and capsicum plants, leading him higher and higher till the slope became the side of a lofty and rocky hill, and exertion strung every nerve and fibre, and his breath grew thick and fast, while his heart beat fiercely with rage and bitterness but never with despair or fear. So on he toiled, keeping well ahead of them, their voices, and an occasional random shot following him, for though they had not seen him yet they were well assured of being- upon his trail. They were not less than fifteen in number, his revolver shots were only six, and all these, if any, might not be successful. It was a time of supremo peril, and he conceived that he was now somewhere within ten miles of the Irawaddy. A succession of wild yells that pierced the welkin suddenly announced that they had obtained sight of him, and this added spurs to his steps.

On one side the path was now bordered by a sheer and terrible precipice, far down below which he could see poddy and rice fields, intersected by shining water cuts, with here and there a ruined house, and in some places only gigantic guinea grass, amid which great grey boulders lay, and coarse-look-ing elks were grazing. On the other side rose a wall of rock, without cranny or crevice into which he could creep and there sell his life as dearly as possible. In some places these cliffs were bare, and reddened by the splendour of a cloudless sun; in others they were shrouded by luxuriant and leafy screens of wild vine, papan fig trees, and fragrant flowers of the most brilliant colours.

Eight, at least, of the pursuers, wore now upon his track, and more than once their rifle shots, making the rocks re-echo, were sent after him, but went wide of the mark, as it was evident that these Dacoits were unskilled iu the use of modern fire-arms and the mode of sighting them. Now the narrow path, on reaching a point ou the face of these precipices, began to descend at a steep angle, down which Lonsdalo by one swift backward glance, saw the tattooed Dacoit and two others, without taking time to fire, come rushing with all their speed, assured of overtaking him at last.

Just at a point where Londale nearly lost his life by the path taking an acute angle or turn to the left, he shrunk close to a wall of rock unsoen, and with a gasp in his throat and a sigh of prayer on his lips, at his own narrow escape —■ beheld, a moment after, to his intense satisfaction, these three leading Dacoits, unable to arrest the tierce impetus with which they came blindly rushing down the slope, fly headlong over the precipice in quick succession, to be dashed out of all shape among the boulders, or drowned in the water cuts some hundred feet below.

They vanished through the air and from sight, without a cry or a sound in falling.

Without having to fire one of his precious shots, he had thus got rid of three ; but the others, seeing their

fate, came on more warily. One, who was in advance of the rest, now came to the acute angle of the path, but paused, riile in baud, and Lonsdale, by one deadly thrust of razor-edged duh, laid him at his feet, and sped on, haunted, oftentimes, by the glare of the dying

man's eyes and his falling jaw, full of teeth, blackened by the betel nut.

Now then; were but four —all armed, however, with rifles.

Whether their ardour was clamped or not Lonsdale could not tell ; but after a time their voices ceased in his rear, and on listening intently he could hear nothing of their footsteps ; and supposing they had abandoned the pursuit, and quite unconscious that they had made a detour and were hastening to cut him oil' in front, he proceeded more leisurely. After obtaining, with intense satisfaction, a glimpse of the broad and blue Irawadcly some miles distant,

lie continued to follow the patl:

resolutely downward from the rocks and precipices into a flat and level district, covered with sand, jungle and the inevitable wild grass.

He had seen the Irawaddy, but without a vestige of smoke from any passing steamer.

All trace of the path was lost now, but, guided by the sun, now verging westward, beyond the forests on the other side of the great river, he continued to push on in the direction where he knew the latter lay.

Noon was long since past now, and Lonsdale believed that he was now safe from immediate pursuit. But the Dacoits had never quite lost sight of him ; and thus, just as t,he red flush of the farewell sun was deepening and crimsoning the face of the bluffs from which lie had descended, and when he found himself among grass that was fully ten feet high, a shot was fired at him from the front and came perilously near. There was an impossibility of seeing the man who had delivered it. Lonsdale drew out his revolver, and though he but detected the thin blue smoke of the musket curling up auiid the greenery, he fired in that direction at a venture, when a shrill yell of agony and a violent moving of the tall reedy grass to and fro, told him that the shot had not been thrown away. Another report rang out 011 the air. but further off and from a

different quarter, and a second bullet, though almost fired at random, passed so near Lonsdale's right cheek that it grazed, yet did not break, the skin, and he felt as if the latter had beeii scorched or seared by a hot iron. Finding all quiet after this, and that ho was no more molested, he lay very still for hours, yet listening intently for any passing or approaching sound, and heard nothing save the hum of insect-life among the long grass where he was compelled to pass the night. During the hours of the latter a heavy dew full and well-nigh drenched him ; and this, ultimately, proved perhaps the worst enemy he encountered.

Cold and d imp, and chilled to the bone, he set warily forth again in the morning, guided only by the

direction of the rising sun. On leaving the long grass behind and getting in the open, sharply and keenly he surveyed the ground on every side, but no human being was visible. He felt intense thirst, but no hunger ; he felt also a tremor in his

limbs, a sensation of clamorous fear about his heart, and a giddiness—unpleasant symptoms for which he could not then account ; while, like one in a dream, lie pushed on resolutely, but vaguely, towards

the river, at a place, where for about two miles inland from it, the whole district, though deserted, was studded with pagodas of every shape and size, and with images of Guadama, composed of that beautiful marble dug from the mines of Amaropura —the " City of Immortals"—equalled only by the finest in Italy, and thus monopolised by the Government for effigies in temples. All about him were crumbling shrines and neglected lotus tanks;

thus it was almost impossible to move a step without treading upon, or encounteriLg, something deemed saored there.

Ail this seemed like the fragment of a fantastic dream to Lonsdale just then.

Then he passed near a few cottages having roofs of grass thatch, gable ends of teak plank, with the other walls of matting or woven bamboos, with fireplaces of wooden boxes lined with clay placed on the verandahs, from the roof of one of which he saw an empty child's cradle suspended by cords. The place had been abandoned by the people, and then looted and partly burned by the Dacoits. whose lawless hands where against men like the Thugs and Pindarees of India in past times; and now before him he saw the broad waters of the magnificent Irawaddy, rolling in all their majesty, some two miles in breadth from bank to bank, but not a vestige of our flotilla. For all he knew, it might have left the waters for ever.

He glanced about him now with a kind of dumb despair, for all his toil and peril had been faced in vain, and lie felt weak, weary, and crushed by all the fierce excitement and tension of the nerves he had undergone for so long—for the last few days especially.

Near the deserted hamlet he saw three native boats, which had doubtless belonged to the inhabitants, moored near a rude jetty of stones and bamboo poles. Selecting the smallest of these ho got on board, after pulling out the plugs of the other two, that by scuttling them they could not be available for pursuit; and slashing through the rope-painter by one cut of the dah, he shoved off.

The craft was one of those graceful Burmese boats that can only sail with the wind, owing to being without any keel, and they usually carry one square sail, and when the wind fails they are poled along the bank. He contrived to set the sail, which was of tough matting, took the tiller, and was speedily out in the mid-stream, and went gently southward with the current and the morning breeze, with only one idea —that the nearer lie was to Rangoon the better, but at that point ho was fully three hundred miles above Rangoon.

Becoming too weary to steer, he lashed the rudder in such a manner as to keep the sail full ; and hours ) after that he was roused from a species of waking doze by the welcome sounds of steam blowing off, and then of more than one voice hailing him in English. Starting up, he found himself close by a gun-boat. She proved to bo the Kathleen, and he was speedily taken on board; but though restoratives were given, he soon became delirious with fever and inseusiblo to all about him. In this state he was conveyed to Rangoon, whither the Kathleen was steaming with a melancholy freight of sick men, and placed in a bungalow of the cantonments there, where for weeks upon weeks he lay hovering between life and death—"given over" by the doctors, as the phrase is—weeks that to him were fraught with fatality at homo. "Poor fellow," said a shrewd Scotch surgeon, Major Squills, " he can't last long—he is going down the brae very fast now." (Tu be omtlnueO.)