Shadow of the Moon (29 page)

He fell silent for a moment or two, drawing deeply at his cigarette while the sunset painted his face with a wash of vivid light so that it seemed to glow like polished bronze, and presently he said: ‘Thou wert right, my brother. There is devil's work afoot; and this time it is not a plague that will break out in one spot only and may thereby be kept from others. This runs north and south, and the infection is carried by many and to all men. Even by such as the drivers of these dâk-
gharis
! There are also many tales told of signs and wonders, and the prophecy of the “Hundred Years” is spoken in every village throughout Hind.'

‘There is always talk,' said Alex laconically, his eyes on a high-flying wedge of Garganey teal that cut a thin dark pattern against the quiet sky.

‘That I know, for when has it ever been otherwise? But this time it is more than talk. Thou dost not remember (it was before thy time) the year in which thy Government ordered the Army to Kabul. The Hindus in that Army became disaffected when they crossed the Indus. They had heard that when Raja Maun Singh crossed that river to wage war against the Afghans he had told all men that the Hindu religion ran no further than the Indus, and had built a temple on the far bank and ordered all Brahmins to leave their sacred threads, the emblems of their caste, in that temple. Then when they reached Afghanistan it was cold - a cold such as they had never known - so that they could no longer bathe before food, as is their custom, and must wear
poshteens
, coats of sheep skin, on account of the cold and the snow: wherefore, since none but the lowest caste will willingly touch the skin of a dead animal, when the Army returned to Ferozepore the Hindus found that their own people would not consort with them because they had lost caste and been defiled. The Mussulmans too were angered, for they said that John
Company had forced them to fight against their co-religionists, which is forbidden in the Koran.'

‘This I know,' said Alex quietly. ‘It is an old tale. And now?'

‘And now, as then, there is a grievance among the sepoys on account of pay: and so the old grievances, that have never slept, are spoken of once more - that the Company desires to destroy all caste. The rail-
ghari
and the telegraph, the jails and hospitals where all are admitted, are looked upon as weapons for the destruction of caste. And the foolish talk of missionary-
log
adds fuel to that fire, since they and many of the Company's officers tell the people of Hind that their customs and practices are evil and must be abolished. Perhaps this is so. I do not know. But their customs are as a tree that is deep-rooted, and if the trunk be cut down there are still the roots.'

Niaz cupped his lean brown hands about the stub of his cigarette and drew on it, letting the smoke trickle slowly through his nostrils, and Alex stayed silent. There was little in what Niaz had said that he did not already know. But he knew better than to hurry him.

‘It has long been a custom of Hind,' said Niaz slowly, ‘for a man who has no heir to adopt one who shall succeed him; since the son, say the Unbelievers, delivers his father from the hell called
Pat
. If there be no son to perform the funeral rites, they believe that there can be no resurrection to eternal bliss. Therefore their priests and lawgivers have permitted the adoption of sons where the male line has failed. Comes now the order of the Company saying that where there is no male heir of the blood the lands and titles of a prince shall not pass to any adoptive son, but pass instead into the possession of the Company, and that man's line shall die out and cease. Thus many states, by right of lapse, have been swallowed up into the maw of the Company and their ancient names have become as dust …'

Niaz's voice had taken on a singsong quality as he spoke, and the pupils of his eyes had widened as though from the effects of a drug: he had forgotten that he, a Mohammedan, spoke of Hindus, and remembered only that he spoke as a native of India:

‘Satarah … Nagpur … Jhansi … Sambhalpur … Their greatness has departed. The Rajas of Satarah were descended from Shivaji, the founder of the Mahratta Empire. They committed no crime against the Company - save that the last of the Rajas had no son. Yet was their state forfeit. The Peishwa too, the Nana Sahib, smarts under the injustice of the Government who have refused him what is his right under the old laws—'

Alex said softly: ‘These be Hindus, O follower of the Prophet.'

‘That is so. But now there is Oudh also. In former times the Kings of Oudh rendered assistance to the Company, and because of that help there was a treaty made between them that the state would never be taken by the British - yet now it too has been taken. That it was misgoverned means nothing: that is a word for Councillors and Lat Sahibs, not for the common
people. The common people say that Oudh belongs to Wajid Ali and his line, and whether he has governed well or ill as regards his own people he has in no wise broken faith with the Company. If, therefore, the Company dispossess one who has himself - and his forebears also - been faithful to them, who then is safe? Every princeling, every sirdar, every man who has anything to leave or anything to lose, from a small-holding of no more than a quarter acre to a state many
koss
^*
wide, is afraid. And men who are afraid are dangerous. Therefore Hindu and Mussulman, Unbelievers and the Elect of God plot together in fear and hatred; and the word goes up and down the land.'

‘And what is that word?'

‘That the
feringhis
(foreigners) are few and their councils are divided, and that the men of the North, the Russ-
log
, have made so great a slaughter of their armies that there are none left to come to the aid of those in Hind. That Dost Mohammed Khan, the Amir of Afghanistan, will rise against them and that the Shah of Persia will join with him to drive them into the sea - though that last I know to be fools' talk,' said Niaz, and spat to show his contempt. ‘Dost Mohammed would sooner take a live cobra in his hand than ally himself with the Persian! Yet there be many who believe all these things, and the word goes forth, carried into the towns and villages by a hundred different ways. It runs from
pulton
(regiment) to
pulton
- from
rissala
to
rissala
. Men on pilgrimage to the shrines of Kashi and Haramukh; merchants, maulvis, sadhus; Mussulmans, Brahmins, Sikhs and Jains; the woman who draws water at the well and the man who drives a plough - all or any of them may be a carrier of the Word. They spill the powder, and when the train is laid it will need but a spark to ignite it.'

Alex flicked his cigarette-end into the water where it went out with a little hiss, startling a paddy bird which undisturbed by the rise and fall of Niaz's low voice had pricked through the shallows a yard beyond them. The bird flew off with a flapping of wings as a flight of red-necked Brahmini duck swished overhead with a sound like tearing silk to settle down with ruffling importance at the far end of the jheel. The rose and saffron of the sunset had faded, leaving the sky awash with clear green light in which a single star blazed and glittered in lonely splendour.

Alex rolled another cigarette and said: ‘Has that spark been found?'

‘Not yet. Those who plot seek for one. It wants only that to set the land alight. But it must be something that touches Mussulman and Hindu alike, for if one rise without the other, the Company, few and weak as they have become, may still triumph. Therefore they search diligently, and wait.'

‘Yes,' said Alex reflectively, handing over another cigarette, ‘but a thing that will make Mussulman, Hindu and Sikh sink their differences and unite against us will not be so easy.'

‘Doubtless the Company will of their charity supply it,' said Niaz ironically.
‘Are thy people blind or mad, or both, that they cannot see what is toward?'

‘Neither,' said Alex. ‘It is a national conceit. They - we - can only see ourselves as benefactors whom such as thou' - he grinned maliciously at Niaz - ‘must perforce regard only with admiration and gratitude.'

‘And do they never learn?' inquired Niaz scornfully.

‘No. We
Angrezis
(British) are as God made us. The mould is set. All this that you have told me, word for word and letter for letter, happened once before some two score years and more ago, in the Kingdom that was Haidar Ali's. At that time also there were a few who had eyes and ears and used them, but they were derided and their warnings laughed to scorn. So it is now.'

‘I have heard that tale,' grunted Niaz. ‘Then too there were injustices pertaining to the payment of allowances, and then as now it needed but a spark to fire the train. That spark thy countrymen supplied by ordering the wearing of leather hats made from the skins of that unclean animal the pig, and of the cow that is sacred to the Hindus. Whereupon the Army rose and massacred their officers, saying that they would rid the land of those who sought to destroy their caste. Those same words are being spoken once again, but this time if the fire be lit it will not be so easy to stamp it out since it will not be in the south only, as it was in that day, but north and west and east also. And many will die in that burning!
I
tell you this. I who have hearkened this past year to the talk in the lines and in the bazaars, in the cities and the
serais
and at the wayside halts.'

Alex shifted restlessly. The swift tropic twilight was almost gone and he could no longer see Niaz's face clearly. He said abruptly: ‘All this is talk. Have you proof?'

‘
Proof
!' said Niaz and laughed shortly. ‘Spoken like a sahib -
Sahib
!' - he gave that title the same scornful emphasis that Kishan Prasad had once done. ‘Have I ever lied to thee that thou shouldst demand proof of what I tell thee as though I were some
vakil
(lawyer) of the court?'

‘
Gulam
(slave),' said Alex gently, ‘were it not that thou art as my brother in all but blood, I would throw thee into the jheel for that word.'

Niaz flung up a hand in mock appeal: ‘
Marf karo
(have mercy) - Sahib!'

Alex caught the upflung hand about the wrist and bent it backward, and for a moment the two men wrestled silently, hand against hand.

‘Is it to be the jheel then?' inquired Alex.

‘Nay, it is enough.
Marf karo - bai
(brother).'

‘That is better,' said Alex releasing him.

Niaz rubbed his wrist and grinned. ‘At least thy sojourn in
Belait
(England) has not softened thee. But what is that gaud thou art wearing? A love token, belike?'

‘That …?' Alex looked down at the twisted silver ring with its three
small red stones and shook his head. ‘No, it was given me by a man whom I would have given much to see dead.'

He told the tale and heard Niaz draw a short hissing breath between his teeth at the mention of that name. ‘Kishan Prasad!' said Niaz. ‘I have heard of that man. And if all that I have heard is true it had been better that thou hadst cut off thy right hand rather than have given him his life.'

‘These things are written,' said Alex philosophically.

‘
Beshak
!' (assuredly) said Niaz grimly. ‘Nevertheless I think that that bauble will serve its turn. It may yet get thee this proof that thou hast demanded.'

‘It is not for myself that I require proof,' said Alex composedly. ‘All that thou hast told me I knew without the telling. But those in authority are hard to convince. The Burra-lat-Sahib who has lately gone to his own land has told them that all is well - the land never more peaceful and the people filled with content.'

‘More fool he!' grunted Niaz.

‘Therefore,' continued Alex, ignoring the interruption, ‘those in high places are unwilling to lend an ear to warnings.'

‘As they were in the days before the massacre of Vellore,' interjected Niaz scornfully.

‘Yes. As in the days before Vellore. There is a saying among our people that those whom the gods would destroy they first make mad.'

‘A true saying indeed,' said Niaz. ‘But thou shalt have thy proof, though small good will it give thee.'

‘Ah!' said Alex, his eyes suddenly bright. ‘I thought that there was something more. Tell me swiftly and let us have no more of this talk that runs in circles.'

Niaz laughed. “‘We are as God made us,”' he quoted. “‘The mould is set.” It is only the English who rush straight upon the heart of the matter, looking neither to the right nor to the left. Yes, there is indeed something more. I would not have troubled thee on account of bazaar rumours.'

He glanced uneasily over his shoulder as though to make sure that there could be no third person near by, and despite the fact that nothing larger than a jackal could possibly have approached within fifty yards of them without being seen, he lowered his voice until it was barely audible: ‘I have learned,' whispered Niaz, ‘that there is to be a meeting of certain men in a place near Khanwai that lies to the north of Bithaur within the borders of Oudh. It is dangerous knowledge and known only to a few. Perhaps a hundred in all Hind: no more.'

‘And how didst
thou
come by it?' inquired Alex softly.

Niaz threw his hands out palm upwards in a brief, indescribable gesture. ‘A woman. How else? Her husband is old and moreover he drinks wine. The Prophet forbade the drinking of wine, and rightly, for by indulgence in this are tongues loosened and many plans brought to ruin. When a woman has
discovered a matter that should be hid she will tell it for idleness or mischief or' - Niaz grinned - ‘for love's sake.'

‘But is it true talk that she has told thee?'

‘It is true. That I would swear on my life. I do not know what it is that they who meet will speak of or do, but this I know - that it bodes no good. So I have had the thought that it would be well if we two learned what is afoot. It is set for a night but twelve days hence, when there is a fair at Khanwai. I have been to spy out the land. The place of their meeting is a ruin; no more than a handful of stones and a broken wall which the jungle has swallowed. A foolish spot for such talk, but these men are assuredly bitten with madness. There is but one path to it, for the jungle grows thick behind it, and that path leads through a deep nullah where was once a gateway that has fallen. Only one man at a time can pass through, and each as they pass must say a word. That word I have.'