第11章

A RUSSIAN COMRADE

Hermann Heideck lived in a dak bungalow, one of those hotels kept going by the Government, which afford travellers shelter, but neither bed nor food.On returning home from the camp he found his servant, Morar Gopal, standing at the door ready to receive his master, and was informed that a newcomer had arrived with two attendants.As this dak bungalow was more roomy than most of the others, the new arrivals were able to find accommodation, and Heideck was not obliged, as is usual, to make way as the earlier guest for a later arrival.

"What countryman is the gentleman?" he inquired.

"An Englishman, sahib!"

Heideck entered his room and sat down at the table, upon which, besides the two dim candles, stood a bottle of whisky, a few bottles of soda-water and the inevitable box of cigarettes.He was moody and in a bad humour.The exciting scene in the officers'

mess had affected him greatly, not on account of Captain Irwin, who, from the first moment of their acquaintance, was quite unsympathetic to him, but solely on account of the beautiful young wife of the frivolous officer, of whom he had a lively recollection from their repeated meetings in social circles.None of the other officers' wives--and there were many beautiful and amiable women among them--had made such a deep and abiding impression upon him as Edith Irwin, whose personal charms had fascinated him as much as her extraordinary intellectual powers had astonished him.The reflection that this graceful creature was fettered with indissoluble bonds to a brutal and dissolute fellow of Irwin's stamp, and that her husband would perhaps one day drag her down with him into inevitable ruin, awoke in him most painful feelings.

He would so gladly have done something for the unhappy wife.But he was obliged to admit that there was no possibility for him, a stranger, who was nothing to her but a superficial acquaintance, to achieve anything in the way he most desired.The Captain would be completely justified in rejecting every uncalled-for interference with his affairs as a piece of monstrous impudence; and then, too, in what way could he hope to be of any assistance?

A sudden noise in the next room aroused Heideck from his sad reverie.He heard loud scolding and a clapping sound, as if blows from a whip were falling upon a bare human body.A minute later and the door between the rooms flew open and an Indian, dressed only in cummerbund and turban, burst into the room, as if intending to seek here protection from his tormentor.A tall European, dressed entirely in white flannel, followed at the man's heels and brought his riding-whip down mercilessly upon the naked back of the howling wretch.Heideck's presence did not, evidently, disturb him in the least.

At the first glance the young German perceived that his neighbour could not be an Englishman, as his servant had told him he was.

His strikingly thin, finely-cut features, and his peculiarly oval, black eyes and soft, dark beard betrayed much more the Sarmatic than the characteristic Anglo-Saxon type.

The man's appearance did not make an unfavourable impression, but he could not possibly overlook his behaviour.Stepping between him and his victim he demanded, energetically, what this scene meant.

The other, laughing, let drop the arm which had been again raised to strike.

"I beg your pardon, sir," he said with a foreign accent, "a very good boy, but he steals like a crow, and must have the whip occasionally.I am sure that he has concealed somewhere about him the five rupees which have been stolen from me again to-day." On saying this, as if he considered this information quite sufficient explanation, he again caught hold of the black fellow, and with a single wrench tore the turban from his head.From the white, red-bordered cloth a few pieces of silver fell and rolled jingling over the tiles; and at the same time a larger object fell at Heideck's feet.He picked it up and held in his hand a gold cigarette-case, the lid of which was engraved with a prince's coronet.On handing it to the stranger, the latter bowed his thanks and made his apologies like a man of good breeding.The Indian the while took the opportunity, in a few monkey-like bounds, to make good his escape.The sight of the coat-of-arms on the cigarette-case aroused in Heideck the desire to make nearer acquaintance with his impetuous neighbour.As though he had quite forgotten the extraordinary manner of his entrance into the room, he asked, blandly, if he might invite his neighbour, whom accident had thus thrust upon him, to a cigar and a "nightcap."The other accepted the invitation with amiable alacrity."You are also a commercial traveller, sir?" inquired Heideck; and on receiving an affirmative answer, continued, "we are then colleagues.Are you satisfied with your results here?""Oh, things might be better.There is too much competition.""Cotton?"

"No.Bronze goods and silk.Have brought some marvellous gold ornaments from Delhi.""Then probably your cigarette-case comes from Delhi also?" The oval eyes of the other shot over him in an inquiring glance.

"My cigarette-case? No--are you travelling perhaps in skins, colleague? Do you deal in Cashmir goats?""I have everything.My house trades in everything.""You do not come from Calcutta?"

"No! not from Calcutta."

"Bad weather down there.All my leather is spoilt.""Is it so damp there?"

"Vapour bath, I tell you; a real vapour bath!"Heideck had long since made up his mind that he had a Russian before him.But, in order to be quite on the safe side, he made a jocular remark in Russian.His new acquaintance looked up astonished.

"You speak Russian, sir?"

"A little."

"But you are no Russian?"