CHAPTER IV
Bythe first week of August, just after the children were born, Hira and Gay-Neck had gone from Calcutta to Bombay, setting sail with Ghond to serve in the world-war. I sent that bachelor bird Hira with Gay-Neck because the army had need of both.
I was very glad that Gay-Neck had some knowledge of his little ones before he sailed for the battle-field of Flanders and France. The chief reason of this happiness was because I knew that a pigeon whose wife and new-born children are waiting at home rarely fails to return. That bond of love between Gay-Neck and his family assured me that he would do his work of carrying messages very well. No sound of gun-fire, nor bullets, as long as he lived, could keep him from returning home at the end.
But here one may raise the question that home was in Calcutta and the war was thousands of miles away. That is true. But all the same, because he had left his wife and children at home, he would do his utmost to fly back to his temporary nest with Ghond.
It is said that Gay-Neck carried several important messages between the front and general headquarters where the Commander-in-chief and Ghond waited for him. Of course Gay-Neck was attached to Ghond first. But in the course of the following months he became very fond of the Chief.
Ghond and not I went to the front with the two pigeons for I was under age and ineligible for any kind of service, so the old fellow had to take them. During the voyage out from India to Marseilles, Hira and Gay-Neck and the old hunter became fast friends. I have yet to see any strange animal resist Ghond's friendship long, and since my pigeons had known him before, it was easy for them to respond to him.
During the stay of the Indian Army in Flanders from September 1914 till the following spring, Ghond remained near General Headquarters with his cage, while Hira or Gay-Neck was taken by different units to the front. There from time to time messages were written on thin paper weighing no more than an ounce and were tied to his feet; then he was released. He, Gay-Neck, invariably flew to Ghond at the general headquarters of the Army. There the message was deciphered and answered by the Commander-in-Chief himself. It is rumoured that the latter personage loved Gay-Neck and valued his services highly.
But it is better to listen to Gay-Neck's own story. As the experiences of a dream cannot be told except by the dreamer, so some of the adventures of Gay-Neck he should recount in person.
"After we crossed the black water—the Indian ocean and the Mediterranean—we travelled by rail through a very strange country. Though it was September, yet that country—France—was cold as Southern India in the winter. I expected to see snow-capped mountains and giant trees, for I thought I was nearing the Himalayas. But no hills higher than our tallest bamboo trees could I perceive on the horizon. I do not see why a land has to be cold when it is not high.
"At last we reached the battle front. It turned out to be the rear end of it, but even there you could hear the boom, boom, boom of the fire-spitters. And, as a normal pigeon, I hate all fire-spitters no matter of what size and shape. Those metal dogs barking and belching out death were not to my liking. After I had been there a couple of days our trial flight began. There were only four pigeons of our own city besides Hira and myself. You know how rash Hira could be. No sooner had we flown up above the houses of a large village than Hira flew towards the direction of the boom, boom, boom. He wanted to investigate. Well, in an hour's time we were there. Oh, what a noise! Big balls of fire, spat out like thunderbolts by the metal dogs hidden under trees, hissed and exploded below us. I was frightened, so I rose higher and higher. But no peace there in the highest heavens could I find. From nowhere came vast eagles roaring and growling like trumpeting elephants. At such a terrific sight, we flew towards where Ghond was waiting for us. But the eagles, two of them followed! We went faster and faster. Fortunately they could not overtake us. Just as we had expected, those eagles came down where we lived. I felt death was at hand. Those eagles were going to devour us in our cages like weasels. But no! They stopped trumpeting soon and lay down on the field—dead. Two men each jumped out of the stomachs of those two birds and walked away. I wondered how eagles could devour human beings. And how could the fellows come out alive?
No beast of prey can kill his victim without frightening him first.
No beast of prey can kill his victim without frightening him first.
No beast of prey can kill his victim without frightening him first.
"Soon enough the men returned from their errand, climbed inside the eagles, and then with a groan and trumpeting racket, they came alive and flew up in the air again. That left no doubt in my mind that they were men's chariots, and when I knew that I felt relieved.
"Though everything looked strange at first it ceased to be so after we got used to it; yet the problem of sleeping soundly under the continual booming and barking noises remained unsolved. All those months in the army I never slept well. No wonder Hira and I were nervous and fidgety, like newly hatched snakes.
"My first adventure consisted of taking a message from the Rasseldar at the front where all kinds of dogs barked and spat fire day and night. I must tell you a word about the Rasseldar. He was in charge of a lot of Indian warriors from Calcutta. He took me in a cage completely covered with black canvas, and with his forty men set out for the front trench. After going for hours and nights—for that is what it felt like in my darkened cage—we reached our destination. There the canvas was removed. Now I could see nothing but walls around me where turbaned men from India crawled like little insects. Overhead flew the mechanical eagles trumpeting with terror. Here for the first time I began to grasp sounds. Instead of one confused boom, boom, boom, there were as many grades of explosion as the ear could distinguish. The hardest one to make out was the talk of the men about me. Under the deafening sounds their talk sounded like the whisper of a lazy breeze in the grass. Now and then they unmuzzled a metal dog that barked—spitting out fire for a long stretch of time. Then came the laughter of a hyena. Hundreds of men goaded those little pups to an awful coughing—puck puff, puck puff, puck puff! That sound was drowned in the deep-toned cry of the eagles above who flew in flocks and barked as well as screeched like mad, slaying each other like so many sparrows. The Rasseldar who was in charge of me pointed the face of his pup at the sky, then let off—puck puff—some fire and lo! it brought down one of those eagles as if it were a rabbit. Now the deepest tone was heard. The boom bazoom bum bum! The tiger-roar of the large ones' mammoth majesty rose and spread like a canopy of divine chords, drowning under its engulfing immensity all other petty sounds. Oh! the excruciating enchantment of that organ tone. Can I ever forget! Roar upon roar, titanic tonality on tonality, like cataclysmic boulders of sounds crashed and clamoured!
"Why does beauty lie so close to death? Hardly had the ineffable glory of that supernal music overhead seized my soul when balls of fire fell about us like a torrential rain. Men fell and succumbed like rats in flooded holes. The Rasseldar, who was bleeding and red, wrote hastily on a piece of paper, tied it to my feet and uncaged me. I knew by the look in his eyes that he was in dire distress and wanted Ghond to bring him succour.
"Of course you know, my master, I flew up; but what I beheld almost froze my wings. The air above the trenches was one sheet of flying fire. How to rise above it was my problem. I used my tail rudder, and steered my flight in every direction. But no matter which way I rose, above me ran a million shuttles of flame, weaving the garment of red destruction on the loom of life. But I had to rise, I, Gay-Neck, the son of my father. And soon I struck a pocket of air which was full of a current that sucked and whirled me up as if my wing were broken and I were as light as a leaf. It turned me up and down and up again till I had torn my way through the fabric of fire that kept on weaving itself with ever-increasing rapidity. But I had no eye for anything now. 'To Ghond, to Ghond,' I kept saying to myself. Every time I said that, it dug like a fresh goad into my spirit and made me put forth my greatest effort. Now that I had risen very high I made my observations and flew westward. Just then a shot pierced and broke my rudder. Half of my tail was burnt and torn away from me. And you know that made me furious! My tail is my point of honour. I can't bear it to be touched, let alone shot at. Well, I flew safely home, but just about the moment I was getting ready to go down, two eagles started a fight above me. I had not heard their trumpeting nor seen their faces. Had they killed each other I would not have minded, but they let loose a hurricane of flames after me. The more they fought the more fire fell from their beaks. I dived and ducked as well as I could. If only they had had some trees there. Of course there had been trees, but most of them had been shot and mutilated so that they stuck out like stumps, with no shade-giving gracious foliage, nor any prodigious boughs. So I had to zig-zag my way round and about those dilapidated spikes like a man fleeing from elephants in the jungle. At last I reached home and perched on Ghond's wrist. He cut the thread and took the message with me to the Commander-in-Chief, who looked like a ripe cherry and exuded a pleasant odour of soap. Probably, unlike most soldiers, he bathed and soaped himself clean three or four times a day. After he had read what was scribbled on that paper by the Rasseldar, he patted me on the head and grunted like a happy ox."