CHAPTER THE SECONDBEYOND THE PALEOf all the strange scenes which the Appletons had witnessed since their arrival in India, none was more surprising than the immediate sequel of the ambuscade. The hill-men rode in high good-temper behind their intended victims; and when they met the sowars, their leader exchanged laughing greetings with the dafadar, and the two parties became one. For the rest of that day they marched together, and at fall of night they formed a common encampment, the troopers acting as hosts towards the hill-men, and exerting themselves to entertain them.To the Appletons it was all very mysterious. Lawrence had put a question or two to Major Endicott as they marched; but finding him strangely uncommunicative, deferred further enquiry to the hour after supper, when he was most often in the mood to talk. Even then the young fellows' curiosity was rather piqued than satisfied."That man Nagdu, the leader of the hill-men, was a sergeant of yours, you say, sir?" said Lawrence."Yes, years ago he was a dafadar in my troop.""But he was laying an ambush for you!""He is paid by the government to guard the road.""Oh!""Didn't know it was you, perhaps, until he saw you," suggested Bob."Hewasrather surprised to see me," said the Major, and a slow smile gathered upon his face, and passed."My heart was in my mouth when I saw you go alone into the rest-house," said Lawrence. "And I couldn't get a word out of your man.""Pretty close, isn't he?" said the Major. "But look here, my lads, I called you a couple of young fools a while ago. I take that back, for without you I shouldn't have had the opportunity of enjoying the surprise of Nagdu and his crew. All the same, youwerefools, you know," he added reflectively.While this conversation was proceeding beneath the extended flap of the tent, another, of quite a different tenor, was going on at the nearest camp fire, fifty yards away. There Ganda Singh the dafadar and his old comrade Nagdu were seated, gazing into the glow, with their rifles across their knees."Hai! Ennicott Sahib is truly a very great man," said Nagdu. "We were there in the little house, with our guns on the wall, looking up the road, when there came a soft voice behind us. 'Twas like cold water trickling down my back, O Ganda. And when I turned and saw the huzur's two eyes like little bits of blue steel, I felt my soul shrivel up inside me: that is true, old friend. 'You are keeping good watch upon the road, Nagdu,' said he, and I shivered, and my voice was like a woman's when I said my salaam.""Keeping watch upon the road!" repeated the dafadar with a sly look at the other. "Do you know, Nagdu, if any harm had come to the sahib-ji I would have put a bullet there, and there."He touched the man's neck and breast."Hai! what harm could come to the huzur?" said Nagdu protestingly. "He is heaven-born, and knows. 'Keeping good watch upon the road,' he said, and when I stammered out my 'Salaam, sahib,' he went on: 'It is well. There are rascals about. I go to hold a talk with your people on that very matter, and 'tis good luck I met you, for you can take me to your village.' And I said the huzur's face was like the sun shining upon the hills, for by that time my soul was come to me again, and after a little talk we came out. Hai! Truly is Ennicott Sahib a very great man.""Ay, he knows the heart of you hill-men. You have a little heart, Nagdu; the huzur's is a very great one. His word is a sword.""And his eyes are like fires that burn. Is there anything he does not know? He did not see us go into the little house: we were quiet as mice in the corn; yet he knew we were there----""Keeping watch on the road," said Ganda Singh with a low chuckle. "You are indeed a mouse, Nagdu; would you measure yourself against a lion?"Nagdu protested that he had no such thought, and then turned the conversation into an easier channel.Next day on the march Lawrence Appleton found an opportunity of having a little private talk with Ganda Singh, who knew just enough English to make himself understood. Lawrence asked point-blank whether the hill-men had been lying in wait for the party, intending to fire upon them from their ambush. The dafadar neither denied nor affirmed, but contented himself with retailing the substance of what Nagdu had told him. Putting two and two together, the Appletons arrived at a very fair estimate of what had actually taken place. They realised that the hill-men, who would have shot down the Major without ruth if they had been unseen behind a wall, had been completely cowed when he appeared alone in their midst. Nagdu was a bold fellow, and had proved his mettle in many a border fray; but the habit of discipline and the impression made upon him by the Englishman's dominant personality had acted like a cold douche upon his purpose. It was the victory of a stronger nature over a weaker; and the lads formed a new idea of the Major's personal influence, and the unerring instinct with which he had probed the character of the natives.That day the caravan came to the parting of the ways. Major Endicott's road struck off westward among the hills; the Appletons had still several days' northward march before them. The lads, if they had consulted their own tastes, would very willingly have gone with the Major; but they knew it was out of the question. They thanked him warmly for allowing them to accompany him so far."That's all right," said he. "Look me up if you ever come south. By the way, I've told off three sowars to see you to the frontier: there I dare say your uncle will meet you.""But you can't spare them, sir," said Bob. "You've few enough all told.""We aren't a fighting force, my boy. If it comes to a scrap we shan't stand the ghost of a chance, and the fewer there are of us the better. Keep to the track. My salaams to your uncle. Good-bye!"The Appletons watched the Major and his party until the sowars who brought up the rear were out of sight: then they turned their faces once more to the north, feeling somewhat depressed. Their own portion of the caravan consisted of only five or six mules, whose loads were for the most part goods for their uncle. For two days they climbed higher into the rugged mountains that encompassed them on every side. In the day-time it was hot, though the heights were crowned with snow: but the nights were bitterly cold; icy blasts swept through the gorges, causing the lads to desert even their camp fires for the snugger blankets. They could not help wondering, with a certain misgiving, what the winter in these heights was like, if such wintry conditions could exist in the summer.On the morning of the third day after leaving Major Endicott they were met at the British frontier by two stalwart and well-mounted Sikhs, who had been sent by their uncle to conduct them over the remaining stages of their journey; and the Major's three sowars returned to overtake their master. That night they had only just got into camp when they experienced for the first time the full rigours of a mountain storm. Dense clouds rolled down from the heights, enveloping them in a drenching icy mist. A cutting wind sprang up, and soon a hurricane of sleet and snow burst upon them, with lightning and thunder, and other rumblings which, as they learnt from their guides, were caused by avalanches and landslips among the mountains. All next day they were storm-bound, remaining rolled up in their blankets in the tent, and feeling more low-spirited than ever. On the following morning, however, the sun rose in a cloudless sky, and they set off again through a narrow pass dangerous at any time, but doubly dangerous now that the track was almost obliterated by snow-drifts. They felt a pang of commiseration for the scantily clad coolies who trudged along barefoot in snow and slush by their mules; but the men were cheerful, laughing and singing as they marched, and the Appletons envied their hardiness and vigour.Leaving the Pamirs on their right, they threaded their way through the mountains towards what had once been the Russo-Afghan frontier. Slowly, steadily they marched on for three days, the track leading gradually downwards. Then one morning, soon after they had left camp, they saw in the far distance two horsemen riding slowly towards them."The huzur, sahib!" said one of the guides.The lads lifted their glasses, and were then able to discern that the one of the two riders who wore a grey suit and a solah helmet was their uncle himself. They hastened on in front of their party, and in a quarter of an hour uncle and nephews met."How do?" cried Harry Appleton, gripping them in turn by the hand. "You've grown since I saw you last: I should hardly have known you.""You look the same as ever," said Bob."Wait till you see me with my hat off. Hair doesn't grow on brains, they say. But I'm glad to see you, boys: you are looking uncommonly fit too. Have you had a pleasant journey?""Pretty good, bar a snowstorm. Major Endicott came with us best part of the way. He's gone to interview a troublesome tribe. He sent his salaams to you, Uncle.""Much obliged to him. He thinks I'm mad, you know. Don't look it, do I?"The boys laughed. Their uncle was a sturdy man, rather under middle height, hard and muscular, his brown face half covered with a thick moustache and beard turning slightly grey. His blue eyes were bright and piercing, with an expression of alertness and humour. He certainly did not look mad."Your caravan is rather smaller than I expected to see," he went on, as the mules came straggling up."Their loads are mostly your stuff," said Lawrence. "We've only brought a couple of bags apiece.""Very sensible of you. I was afraid you might bring out a lot of rubbish, and wished I'd sent you a caution. But I needn't have worried, evidently.""Well, there are one or two things coming after us," said Bob, with a shade of misgiving. "We sent them ahead by slow steamer, and as they hadn't arrived when we reached Bombay, we thought we'd better come on.""Humph!" their uncle grunted. "It'll be a month before my next consignment comes up, so it's to be hoped you're not in a hurry for your stuff. I suppose there's not much of it. What is it?""There's my cricket-bag, and a couple of tennis rackets, and a set of golfing sticks," said Lawrence."You didn't happen to bring turf too, I suppose?" said their uncle with twinkling eyes. "The ground hereabout is all bunkers. Anything else useful?""There's my aeroplane," said Bob."Your what?""A monoplane. I was going into the flying corps, you know, if--"Yes, yes," interrupted Mr. Appleton. "It must have been very disappointing, my boy, but you must cheer up. But an aeroplane!""It's very light and portable--perhaps a couple of mule loads at the most.""I wasn't thinking of the mules," replied his uncle dryly. "An aeroplane in these hills will be just about as useful as a Dreadnought in a millpond. You didn't realise that the Hindu Kush is not exactly like the South Downs. Well, it can't be helped now. Anything else?""Nothing of any importance," said Bob, feeling a little dashed. He had looked forward to many hours of flying in his spare time, and it was rather dispiriting to find that the expense of shipping his aeroplane was to be wasted."Well, we'll get on," said Mr. Appleton. "With good luck we shall reach the mine before dark. You won't be sorry, I expect, to spend the night under a roof again."They rode on, the track running generally to the north-north-west. About an hour after they started, their uncle pointed to a narrow cleft in the hills on their left hand."You see that path?" he said. "It runs into Afghan country. About six months after I started operations the mine was raided by a horde of ruffians who came that way.""I say!" cried Bob. "What happened?""Luckily I had been put on my guard against an attack from that quarter by one of my Pathan miners. I had twelve hours' grace, and when the raiders arrived they found they'd got a tougher nut to crack than they expected. They only made one serious rush. We beat 'em off, and they moved some distance up the valley, sniped us for a day or two, and then cleared out. We've had no trouble of that sort since, though they've played highwaymen once or twice with my caravans, and in one case got a certain amount of loot. Among other things they collared a boiler that I was bringing up at huge expense from India. I don't suppose they knew what it was, but for the sake of the metal they tried to carry it through the difficult pass into their own valley. But it proved too cumbersome, as you might expect, and they had to leave it. I found it some time afterwards when shooting in the pass, at the bottom of a deep nullah, where it had rolled from the track above. It took me nearly a fortnight to recover it and bring it home, but I was glad to get it at the price.""Things aren't all beer and skittles, then," said Bob."Oh, there's a little excitement sometimes, but we are well placed, as you will see, and I fancy nothing short of a regular train of artillery could do us much damage."What the boys heard from Mr. Appleton during that march whetted their curiosity to get their first view of his mine, but they were disappointed, for twilight fell while they were still some distance from it. In the gathering dusk they saw a number of distant lights, which their uncle explained were the camp fires of the miners. The red glow, growing larger as they proceeded, lent a romantic touch to the night. The fires were somewhat below them; and, viewed from the high ground from which they were approaching, the settlement appeared to be situated in a huge cleft between two steep mountain barriers. They could just see, swirling along the bottom, a torrential stream, which their uncle told them was unusually high just now, being swollen in summer by the melted snow from the mountains. It was, he said, a tributary to one of the headwaters of the Oxus.They had just arrived at the outskirts of the settlement when the silence of the evening was suddenly broken by a great hubbub, and they saw a number of dark figures hurrying towards one of the camp fires. In a moment the open space was filled with a shouting swaying crowd; but before the boys had time to realise what was happening, or even to ask a question, their uncle urged his tired horse towards the scene, and dashing into the midst of the crowd, scattered the men to right and left. When the boys galloped up behind him, they found him sternly questioning one or two of the men in their own tongue. They returned sullen answers, whereupon he addressed them in tones of rebuke, concluding with a sharp word of command at which they turned away towards a number of huts ranged in rows beyond the camp fires."What is it all about, Uncle?" asked Lawrence."We'll see in the morning. It's too late now. Slip off your horses; I'll call a fellow to take charge of them."A man came up in answer to his call, and led the horses towards the stables beyond the huts. Then Mr. Appleton gave a loud hail, and led his nephews to the left."Look after your feet," he said, taking a small electric lamp from his pocket.They now saw that they were at the edge of the ravine. Below them they heard the gurgle and rush of the river. A few steps cut in the side of the chasm led down to a narrow platform, and upon this the three stood waiting. Mr. Appleton's call was answered from the opposite side, and immediately afterwards the boys heard a creaking sound, as though a machine of some sort were being wound up. Then a dark mass appeared to detach itself from the wall of rock across the gap, and descend towards them."My drawbridge," said their uncle.It sank slowly and with much groaning and squeaking until the nearer end rested on the edge of the platform where they stood. They stepped upon it, followed by the Sikhs who had acted as their guides, and in a few strides came to the other side."Welcome to the Appleton mine," said Mr. Appleton. "And now for supper. Our menu isn't elaborate, but if you're as sharp set as I am you won't be dainty. Come along!"CHAPTER THE THIRDMR. APPLETON'S MINEMr. Appleton led the way across a sort of yard, littered with mining debris, towards a building in the upper part of which lights were burning. To the left sheds and a chimney stack loomed up in the darkness, scarcely distinguishable against the background of rock. They passed through a gate, and found themselves in a less cumbered enclosure, at the farther corner of which stood the illuminated building. This proved to be a compact square edifice, the lower storey of stone, the upper of wood. The door stood open, and in the entrance appeared a grave turbaned servant, who salaamed as the boys went in."Chunda Beg, my khansaman," said Mr. Appleton. "Come upstairs and see your room. We haven't over much space, but we've done our best to make you comfortable."The boys followed their uncle to the upper floor, which was one large apartment divided into three by matchboard partitions carried up to within a foot or two of the ceiling. In the first room, the dining-room, they saw a table laid for supper. Passing through this they entered Mr. Appleton's bedroom, a small chamber furnished only with a narrow camp bed, a chair, a towel-horse, a tin basin on a stand, a chest of drawers, and a zinc bath; a Persian rug lay on the floor at one side of the bed. Beyond the further partition, which had evidently been newly erected, was the boys' bedroom, about the same size as their uncle's, similarly furnished, but with two camp beds separated by the width of a Persian rug."No luxuries, you see," said Mr. Appleton, "but I think you'll find it cosy. I believe there's a looking-glass somewhere on the premises if you want to shave. That's a thing I haven't done for many years; Chunda Beg gives me a trimming every now and then when I'm getting too shaggy. As a follower of the Prophet, he wouldn't cut his own beard for a pension. He'll send you up some hot water and soap, and when you've had a wash, come in to supper."The menu was not so scanty as Mr. Appleton had led the boys to believe. There was a roast joint that tasted three parts mutton and one part venison--the flesh of an ibex shot by Mr. Appleton himself. The vegetables were mushrooms, onions and lotus beans; the sweets a rice pudding and stewed peaches; and the beverage a kind of elderberry wine diluted with hot water."You've got a good cook, Uncle," said Lawrence, when the khansaman had brought coffee. "We haven't had so good a meal since we left Rawal Pindi.""Well, Shan Tai does his best. He's a Chinaman, of course. We grow our own vegetables in a patch of ground down the valley. In fact, we do most things ourselves. The gas is acetylene, made on the spot. Most of the furniture in your room is home-made, as I dare say you noticed. We're what you may call self-contained.""What rooms have you got below?" asked Bob."We use the ground floor only for stores. In the dark you didn't see, I suppose, that the walls are loopholed. The stone's very thick, and in that little trouble I told you about we found them a capital fortification. The kitchen is outside; the servants have their own out-houses. The cook is Chinese, as I said; the khansaman is a Pathan; there are one or two other fellows whose nationality is an unknown quantity. Chunda Beg is a treasure, as grave as a judge, and as resourceful as a Jack-tar. You'll take most interest, I expect, in my storekeeper, Ditta Lal, a Bengali--what's commonly called a Babu. I wager you haven't spoken to him for more than two minutes before he tells you he is a B.A. of Calcutta University, and he'll tell you the same thing ten times a day until he chokes.""Why should he choke?" asked Lawrence."Because he's getting so disgustingly fat. I really mustn't raise his screw--he calls it emoluments--any more. When he first came to me he was thin and weedy like many of his kind; but he made himself extremely useful, and I've increased his pay rather often. You'd be surprised at the result if you could compare him as he is with what he was. Upon my word, with every rise he swells visibly. I shouldn't like to say what his waist measurement is now. I told him the other day that I really couldn't raise him any more, for fear it proved fatal, and he smiled in my face and said, 'Ah, sahib, God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb,' which you won't beat for a piece of delightful inconsequence."Talking thus, Mr. Appleton interested and amused the boys for an hour or two until it was time to turn in. The night was cold; but snuggled under thick blankets they slept like tops, and did not waken until the khansaman entered with water for their morning tub.At breakfast Mr. Appleton announced that his first business for the day was the holding of a durbar to enquire into the scuffle of the night before."My discipline is as easy as possible," he said; "there are few rules, but I see that they are obeyed. The men represent some of the most unruly tribes of the frontier, but they know I mean what I say, and on the whole I've had very little trouble with them. Of course they get good pay; that's the first condition of good work and contentment.""The second is good holidays," said Lawrence with a smile."Ah, you've just left school!" said his uncle. "But the men haven't anything to complain of on that score. They get holidays all the winter. We stop work for four or five months. What with snowstorms and the river frozen hard we could scarcely exist here in the winter months, so the men go off to their homes and no doubt play the heavy swell among their people, and I betake myself to Bokhara, or pay a round of visits among my Chinese friends, or go on a hunting trip, returning in the spring. But there's the bugle; come and see me in my part of unpaid magistrate. Then I'll take you over the place."On leaving the house, the boys saw a number of men filing through the gate between two ranks of tall bearded Sikhs armed with rifles. Those who came first were of the Mongolian type, with broad, flat, yellowish faces, wide noses and narrow eyes. What little clothing they wore was ragged and stained a deep indigo blue. These men, numbering about eighty, formed a group on the left-hand side. After them entered more than a score of swarthy black-haired fellows of more symmetrical shape and more powerful physique, their features more sharply cut, some of them having almost a Jewish cast of countenance. Their garments were marked with streaks and stains of yellowish-green. Mr. Appleton explained that they were for the most part Pathans from the Afghan border; but they included also several Punjabis, a couple of Baluchis, three or four Chitralis, and a sprinkling of men of Hunza and Nagar. They formed up on the right-hand side.At the door of an outhouse on the same side stood a very fat man whom the boys easily recognized as the Bengali storekeeper. His podgy olive cheeks were almost concealed by a bushy growth of black hair, and the loose white garment he wore, encircled with a sash of brilliant red, emphasised the vast unwieldiness of his bulk.When all were assembled, the gate was shut, and Mr. Appleton, standing before his door, called for Gur Buksh. One of the armed Sikhs stepped forward, a tall, finely-proportioned, grey-bearded man, who, as the boys afterwards learnt, had been a havildar in a native Border regiment of the British army, and had seen considerable service on the frontier. He stood at attention, saluted, and gravely awaited the sahib's questions. The young Appletons looked on with curiosity, wishing that they could understand the conversation that ensued. Lawrence made up his mind to devote his spare time to a study of the native languages.After Gur Buksh had made his report, Mr. Appleton called up two other men, one from each of the groups. The first was a young Kalmuck, whose yellow face would have been absolutely expressionless but for a keen look in his restless eyes. The other was a big hook-nosed Pathan, with strong, determined features and fierce low brows from beneath which his coal-black eyes flashed with truculence. The Kalmuck, answering to the name of Nurla Bai, gave brief and almost sullen answers to his master's questions; Muhammad Din, the Pathan, on the contrary, spoke at length, fiercely and volubly, with much play of features and hands. Having heard them both, Mr. Appleton made a measured speech in fine magisterial manner, and then dismissed them. At the close of his speech the boys noticed that the two culprits threw swift glances at them, the Kalmuck's eyes narrowing, and giving no clue to his thoughts, while the Pathan's indicated keen interest and searching enquiry. The whole company marched out of the gate, and the silence which they had hitherto preserved gave way to excited talk as they went off to their work."So much for that," said Mr. Appleton. "It appears that, taking advantage of my absence, the Kalmuck fellow, Nurla Bai, got into the Pathan section of the mine works, against my express orders. Muhammad Din stood up for law, rather zealously, and it would have come to a free fight if Gur Buksh hadn't stepped in. At night, when they knock off work, both parties cross the drawbridge to their huts on the other side, and the quarrel was just breaking out again when we had the good luck to come up. Nurla was clearly in the wrong, and I fined him a week's pay.""He took it well," said Bob. "The fellow's face was like a mask.""He was not so much unmoved as you think," said Mr. Appleton. "I know the fellow pretty well, and I could tell by the look of him that he was perfectly furious. I find my system answers very well. I punish all breaches of the regulations with fines, which are pooled and distributed every month among the men who haven't offended. Most of the men are quite keen to get these additions to their pay; in fact, I've known some of the rascals try to egg on a simple-minded mate to commit some slight misdemeanour, so that he'll lose his pay for their benefit. They're queer fish.... Good-morning, Ditta Lal."The Bengali, who had been hovering about, gradually drawing nearer to his master, and casting sheep's eyes at the two young strangers, now waddled up, his face one broad smile."Good-morning, sir: good-morning, young gents," he said in a breathless wheeze. "'Full many a glorious morning have I seen, flatter the mountain tops with sovran eye,'--pat quotation from sweet Swan of Avon, whose sonnets I got up, with notes, for final exam, for B.A. degree, Calcutta University. Lovely morning, sir."Mr. Appleton's eyes twinkled as he introduced his nephews, who were looking at the Babu as at some strange specimen."You'll find several mule loads of stuff we ordered on the other side, Ditta Lal," said Mr. Appleton."They shall be attended to instanter, sir. And I shall esteem it signal honour on fitting occasion to act as guide, philosopher and friend to young gents, show them my stores; in fact, do them proud, and all that."He bowed, puffed, and waddled away. The boys laughed when his back was turned."What a treasure!" said Lawrence. "Our old school porter at Rugton was pretty big about, but this fellow would make two of him. What a rag the chaps would have if we could transport him!""I can't spare him. He's an abiding joy. But come, let me take you round."The next hour was spent in going over the not very extensive settlement. The boys found that the portion on the west side of the gorge was divided into three. The first contained Mr. Appleton's dwelling-house, the engine-house and stores, and a set of small stamps, together with sheds for assaying, and a number of huts occupied by the personal native servants and the Sikh garrison. The dwelling-house was built in an angle of the cliff, which rose sheer behind it. Between house and cliff, however, was a space of about three yards filled with heavy beams, which were all loopholed. The whole of the enclosure in which the house stood was surrounded by a bank of earth about six feet high, formed of "tailings" from the mine. This bank was broken only in two places, one for the gate leading into the second enclosure or compound, the second for the drawbridge connecting with the east side of the gorge.The second compound was somewhat smaller than the first. Here were to be seen barrows, trucks, and other implements; a line of rails led into a cave-like opening in the hillside, which, Mr. Appleton explained, was the entrance to a vein or lode sloping upwards into the heart of the mountain."It was lucky I hadn't to sink shafts," he said, "considering the difficulty of bringing mining appliances to this remote region.""What led you to pitch here?" asked Bob."Well, you may call it accident, or you may put it down to my being possessed of a roving eye. I was hunting hereabout some years ago, and caught sight of what seemed to be an outcrop of copper ore. I poked about rather carefully, and collected a number of samples of this and other ores, which I had tested by a capital fellow in Peshawar. His assays confirmed my suspicions, and I thought I couldn't do better than try my luck.""Who does the place belong to?" asked Lawrence. "Do you pay rent?"Mr. Appleton smiled."I'm afraid I'm a squatter," he said, "not unlike the ancestors of some people I could name nearer home. The natives, I believe, used to pay tribute to the Amir, and also to the Chinese emperor--a little gold dust (where they got it I don't know)--a dog or two, and a basket of apricots: some trivial thing like that; and as the people are nomads, their suzerains, I dare say, thought they were lucky to get anything. Then the Russians came along, and among other unconsidered trifles snapped up this little no-man's land. They had a small military post a couple of marches across the hills to the north. This was raided by the Afghans when they got news of the Russian smash-up in Mongolia. The Mongols turned out the Afghans; then the post was destroyed by another Afghan raid; and since then nobody has troubled about it. It would puzzle even an international jurist in a Scotch university to decide who is the rightful sovereign of this tract of hill country; and meanwhile I'm on the spot, and I'll stay here and get on with my work until I'm turned out."This gallery here is worked by the Kalmucks: you saw some of them at the stamping presses as you came up. The slope makes it easy to dig the ore out, and also drains what little water there is: there's only a trickle, as you see. Come into the next compound."He unlocked the door in the stout fence, and led the boys into a third enclosure, like the second, and having another line of rails leading into a gallery."This is the Pathan section," said Mr. Appleton. "There are not quite half as many Pathans as Kalmucks.""I suppose you keep them apart for fear of ructions," said Bob."Partly," said Mr. Appleton, smiling a little as he added: "But there's another reason; I'll tell you that later. We are not treating the ore from this gallery at present. Look here."He led them to the further fence, in which there was a gap, and bade them look down. They saw a heap of greenish rock lying in a deep saucer-shaped hollow between the yard and the river below. A line of rails ran from the mouth of the gallery to the gap, and while the three men stood there a couple of Pathans emerged from the hill, pushing a laden truck before them. On arriving at the fence they tilted up the truck, and the contents fell crashing upon the heap beneath."Now we'll go over the bridge and have a look at the miners' quarters on the other side," said Mr. Appleton. "I have to inspect them frequently: I'm magistrate, sanitary inspector, a regular Jack of all trades.""Why did those two miners look at us so curiously when you were jawing them?" said Lawrence."I had just told them who you were, my nephews and the new superintendents. You've got to earn your living, you know. Bob will be responsible for the Pathans, and you for the Kalmucks. Of course you've a lot to learn.""They looked as if they didn't much like their new bosses," said Bob."I daresay; but you'll be a comfort to me. I'm not troubled with nerves, but at times, I confess, I have felt what the old ladies call lonesome for want of a white man to talk to. The Babu is all very well, but now and again he worries me. When I'm tired and bothered he'll expound a knotty passage of Browning or some other incomprehensible poet; and when I should enjoy a little stimulating conversation, he 'havers,' as the Scotch say, in a mixture of high falutin' and outrageous slang. Now that you are here I've no doubt he'll be nothing but the joy I find him in my cheerful moods. I'm very glad of your company, boys."CHAPTER THE FOURTHTHE AEROPLANE ARRIVESDuring the next three weeks the younger Appletons were fully occupied in studying the working of the mine. Dressed in calico overalls they penetrated into the torch-lit galleries and watched the miners at their work. They saw the process of crushing the ore, but Mr. Appleton's operations went little further, for owing to his distance from civilisation and the limited space at his disposal, he left the final stages of purification to be performed in India. The boys were rather curious to know why the colours of the stains upon the clothing of the two bands of miners differed, but they forbore to question their uncle, guessing that he would tell them all in good time, and would meanwhile be pleased by their showing patience. In this they were right. Mr. Appleton had no wish to keep any secrets from them; he was only waiting until he had learnt something of the characters of the two young fellows, whom he had not seen for several years, and at no time had had many opportunities of studying.They both soon showed their bents. In the evenings, when work was done, there was little to occupy them. Mr. Appleton's books were few; they were mainly books on mining and grammars and dictionaries of the local dialects. Robert seized on the former; Lawrence devoted himself to the latter; and their uncle was very well pleased, for each of these studies would prove useful. Their recreations were for the present confined to an occasional game of chess or cards, a still rarer shooting expedition in the hills, and the reading of the rather dilapidated magazines which had come at odd times from India and home. Lawrence missed his cricket, and Bob his golf; but in spite of what Mr. Appleton had said about the impossibility of using the aeroplane when it should arrive, they both looked forward privately to trying their wings by and by.Lawrence soon became popular with the natives. He had a turn for languages, and managed to pick up quickly a little Turki and scraps of the other tongues spoken by the very mixed crowd that constituted the mining staff. Robert had not the same quickness in learning languages, but he made himself useful on the engineering side. He had been accustomed to spend part of his holidays in the engine shops of the father of one of his schoolfellows, and found his experience valuable. Once, for instance, when there was a breakdown of the somewhat crazy engine that worked the stamping presses, he was able to make the necessary repairs more quickly than Mr. Appleton himself, or the regular engine man, could have done. Mr. Appleton was a very good prospector and an all-round man in general, but he had no particular gift in the direction of mechanics, while the engine man had picked up from his master all he knew. He was a Gurkha, a short, compact little fellow, of hard muscles and a very quick intelligence. His race is more accustomed to military service than to machinery, and Fazl, as this man was named, had never seen a steam engine before he came to the mine. Mr. Appleton had found him wandering half starved in Turkestan two seasons before, and out of sheer kindness of heart put him on as cleaner. Some time after, the Mohammedan Bengali who had hitherto driven the engine asked leave to go home and bury his grandmother, and Fazl was promoted to his place. The Bengali, of course, never returned, and Fazl was still engine man.One evening after supper Mr. Appleton said--"Don't get your books yet, boys; I want to show you something."He placed a Bunsen burner on the table, and brought a blowpipe and a piece of charcoal from a cupboard. Then he took from his pocket a small lump of ore, which he laid on the charcoal with a little powdered carbonate of soda, and proceeded to treat in the Bunsen flame. The boys watched his experiment curiously. After a time they saw a bright bead form itself on the surface of the ore. Mr. Appleton laid down the blowpipe."What do you make of that?" he said."Is it tin?" asked Robert."Well, I have known school-boys call it 'tin' in the shape of sixpenny bits. It is silver. Now I'll let you into my secret. The ore obtained from the farther gallery, and dumped down into that very convenient cavity, contains almost pure silver; there's method in my madness, you see. Nobody knows it but yourselves; though I can't say what some of the men may suspect. I don't attempt to work it for the simple reason that I don't want the news to get about. If it became generally known that I have struck silver, somebody might put in a claim to this neglected region, and I should either have to decamp or be in constant fear of attack. As it is, I think I am pretty secure; and when I have got a sufficient quantity of the ore I shall close down, dismiss the men, and carry the stuff to India.""But isn't there silver also in the other gallery?" asked Bob."No. The two metals, so far as I can discover, lie in parallel vertical streaks, with a band of quartz between them, and the men who are working at the copper know nothing of the silver a few feet away. You see now the reason why I keep the Kalmucks and the Pathans apart. The Kalmucks work the copper; they belong more or less to the neighbourhood; but the Pathans come from far distant parts, and if they should discover that their ore is silver, they are not at all so likely as the Kalmucks to bring unwelcome visitors upon me. I confess I was a little uneasy when I heard the explanation of that scrimmage we happened upon as we rode down. I wondered whether Nurla Bai's presence in the Pathan section was due to some suspicion of the truth. But he has given no more trouble, and I hope that I was wrong.""He's a sulky beggar," said Lawrence. "I can't get a word out of him, and I don't like those ugly eyes of his.""I'm watching him," said Mr. Appleton. "He works well, and has a great influence with the other Kalmucks. He's certainly far and away more intelligent, and he has brought in a good many labourers. In fact, I had to put a stop to his recruiting. I wanted to keep the Kalmucks pretty equal in number to the Pathans, but, as you see, they already outnumber them by more than two to one. One great nuisance is their possession of firearms. I tried to induce them to hand them over when I engaged them, but in these regions the hillmen are as tenacious of their guns as our sailors are of their knives. Without my police Pathans and Kalmucks would be at each other's throats."A few days after this conversation, the caravan which the boys had for some time been expecting arrived. It was larger than that which had accompanied them, and Mr. Appleton threw up his hands with a dismay that was not wholly feigned when he saw how many additional mules had been required for the transport of the aeroplane."You said two or three," he remarked to Bob as the laden beasts defiled along the path; "but I'm sure there are seven or eight more than my stuff needed.""I expect it's the petrol," said Bob humbly."You didn't mention petrol.""No; but of course we couldn't work the engine without it, and I left word to send up a good quantity. I didn't suppose you had any on the spot.""And wasn't there a single sensible creature to tell you that you can't go skylarking with an aeroplane in the Hindu Kush? Whoever sold you the petrol must have laughed in his sleeve.""He seemed uncommon glad to sell it, anyway," said Bob, a trifle nettled."Of course he was. There are no end of sharks always on the watch for a griffin. He sold the petrol, and he sold you. And the expense of it! D'you know how much it costs to bring a mule from India here?""You can dock it out of my screw," growled Bob."And money absolutely flung away. You have seen for yourself that there's no level space hereabout for running off. And even supposing you could use the thing, it would be madness to do so. You'd be bound to come to grief; all flying men do sooner or later, and at the best you might find yourself landed thirty or forty miles away, with nothing but peaks and precipices between you and home. There are no repairing shops to fall back upon; no garages 'open day and night,' or anything of that sort. In short----""Don't rub it in, Uncle," said Lawrence. "The thing's here now, and we've got to make the best of it. Come on, Bob; let's go and look after the unloading; those fellows are sure to smash something."The mules were led across the drawbridge to the west side of the gorge, and the separate parts of the machine were stacked near the dwelling house until a new shed could be constructed."What on earth we're to do with the petrol I don't know," said Mr. Appleton. "We daren't have it within reach of the native workmen. They're as careless as they are inquisitive, and we don't want a flare up.""Isn't there room for the cans in the dynamite shed?" asked Lawrence.The explosive was kept in a specially devised cache. The space between the house and the cliff was boarded in. A doorway led from the house into this space, which was divided by a partition, in which another door opened into a kind of strong room excavated in the hill side. There was room for the cans beside the boxes of dynamite."I shan't sleep at night now that we've got two explosives at our doors," said Mr. Appleton."Why didn't you store the stuff farther from the house?" asked Bob."Well, as a matter of fact wherever it was stored in the neighbourhood of the mine the result would be pretty much the same if it exploded. The best chance of safety was to have it under lock and key where nobody could get at it but myself. In for a penny, in for a pound. Trundle your cans through: if I'm not a false prophet they'll stay there until doomsday untouched."When the boys entered the dark chamber between the house and the cliff, following Mr. Appleton, who carried an electric lamp, Bob uttered a sudden exclamation."I say, hanged if there isn't a machine gun!"He pointed to a corner of the room, where the muzzle of the gun protruded from a nest of boxes."A very neat little machine," said Mr. Appleton. "I got it as a precaution against a second raid, and the difficulty of smuggling it through turned my surviving hairs grey. It came in parts among some engine fittings; the invoices are very interesting! A clear case of gun running, of course; but there was no other way; the government would never have allowed it to pass complete. Nobody here knows of it but you; I put it together myself; and if you know anything about such things, Bob, I'll be glad if you'll overhaul it one of these days, and see if my amateurish efforts have been successful. Some of those boxes contain ammunition: smuggled in as dynamite. Now stack your cans, and when you've finished bring me the key. I'll have duplicates cut for you."Later in the day the boys had a consultation."It's no good putting the aeroplane together until we've found a starting-place," said Lawrence."I know. I've looked all about, and can't find one. It's pretty rotten, and the old man is so ratty about it that I almost wish we'd never brought the thing.""Oh, he'll come round. I bet you what you like that he'll be as keen as mustard if we can only get the thing going. We'll go out exploring; we're sure to hit on some place by and by."They spent the spare time of two or three days in ranging up and down stream in search of a suitable starting-place. Every morning at breakfast Mr. Appleton dropped some quizzing remark that sorely tried Bob's temper. "How's the white elephant?" he would say; or "When is the ascent to take place?" Meanwhile the dismembered aeroplane lay under tarpaulin at the side of the house, and the Babu irritated Bob by kind enquiries."Will tender plant suffer, sir?" he asked one morning, when a sprinkling of snow lay upon the ground."What do you mean?" said Bob."Packages were marked 'fragile with care,' sir, and having been myself once fragile, delicate infant, sir, I have fellow feeling, that makes me wondrous kind.""Well, be kind enough to shut up," said Bob.At length, after much searching, they discovered a spot which, so far as space was concerned, promised the solution of their difficulty. About a hundred yards up stream, at a somewhat higher level than the ledge upon which the mine buildings were situated, there was a similar ledge of about the same extent and on the same side of the gorge. But it was very difficult of access. It could not be approached from the mine, owing to the sheer wall of cliff that separated the two ledges. Nor could it be gained by bridging the river, for not only was the stream at this point much broader than lower down, but there was no rock in mid-channel that would serve as support. After a good deal of cogitation, Bob hit upon a plan which he determined to attempt.On the way up, their caravan had crossed a stream by means of a bridge constructed on the cantilever principle, as is common in that country. It occurred to Bob that there was a possibility of constructing a walk along the face of the cliff on the same principle."It will be a series of bridges made of overlapping planks," he said to Lawrence when explaining his idea. "There's plenty of timber in the shed.""Which Uncle won't allow to be used.""I'll talk him over.""But I don't see how you're going to manage it. There are no supports.""They are easily managed. All we've got to do to is drive beams into the rock, say twenty feet apart.""Exactly; but how are you going to make holes in the rock? There's nothing to stand on, and we can't rig up scaffolding from the bottom of the river.""I think we can do it all the same. What we have to do is to go to the extreme edge of the ledge of the silver mine, bore a couple of holes in the rock level with our heads, and drive in poles strong enough to support a swinging platform. You've seen house painters use them on house fronts at home. We can extend that with some planks, and so reach a position where similar holes can be bored a little farther away, and so on until we reach the farther ledge. A couple of stout miners on the platform can easily bore the holes, level with it, that we require for the larger beams, and when they are placed it will be a comparatively simple matter to lay planks upon them, and carry our cantilever walk the whole way. We can use the upper poles too: connect them by a rope, which we can cling to as we push the parts of the machine along on trolleys.""It will take a very long time," said Lawrence dubiously."Not so long as you think if we can only persuade the old man to let us have a couple of men to work at it continuously. I'll tackle him to-night after supper when he's comfortably settled with a cigar."Mr. Appleton happened to be in a very amiable mood when Bob broached the subject, and though he uttered doleful warnings and foretold broken limbs, and declared that he washed his hands of all responsibility, he told the boys that they might do as they pleased. Next day they invited volunteers from among the Kalmuck miners, and were somewhat surprised when Nurla Bai was the first to offer his services, explaining that he was an expert in carpentry. Taking this as a sign of grace, Bob engaged the man, and told him to choose his own assistant. Nurla at once suggested a dwarfish man named Tchigin, a thick-set, muscular fellow with a huge head covered with jet-black hair. Mr. Appleton called him Black Jack. They began work, and Bob was well pleased with their industry and skill. Before night there was a row of half-a-dozen of the smaller poles in position, and all was ready for the drilling of the larger hole for the first of the stout beams that were to support the wooden path.On the subsequent days, with the number of workers increased to six, the work was carried on even more rapidly. The greatest difficulty encountered was a bend in the cliff a few yards before it opened out on to the ledge on which the aeroplane was to be put together. It cost a good deal of labour to shape the planks to the curve, and to fix the beams; and the boys regarded it as a further disadvantage that the ledge would be out of sight from the mine. Not that they could suppose that the aeroplane, when set up in its hangar there, would be in any danger of molestation, for the only approach was from the Pathan compound, and Mr. Appleton thought that the Pathans might be trusted. But they would have preferred that their flying machine should always be in sight. However, there came a time when they were very thankful for the projecting corner of the cliff which had given them so much extra toil.Their proceedings naturally caused a good deal of curiosity and excitement among the miners and the domestic staff. No one was more deeply interested than Ditta Lal, who numbered among his many accomplishments a smattering of theoretical engineering picked up in the course of his studies at Calcutta University. He talked very learnedly of strains and stresses, and often laid before the boys scraps of paper on which he had worked out magnificent calculations and drawn elaborate diagrams for their guidance. This amused them at first, but it became rather exasperating as the work progressed. He had a formula for everything; taught them exactly, to the fraction of an inch, how far the timbers should project from the ends of those supporting them, and what strain each portion of the structure could bear. As the successive bridges were completed, he proved, as he supposed, the accuracy of his calculations by venturing his own portly person upon them, at first with some timidity, but with more and more confidence as time went on. Mr. Appleton, on the other hand, watched the work from the security of the compound until it passed from sight round the shoulder of the cliff."You're a heap braver than I am," he said once to Ditta Lal. "I wouldn't trust myself on the thing for a pension, and you're heavier by three or four stone.""Ah, sir, conscience makes cowards of us all," replied the Babu; "by which I understand immortal bard to mean, ignorance makes you funky. With my knowledge of science, imbibed from fostering breast of Alma Mater, Calcutta University--of which, as you are aware, I have honour to be B.A.--I know to a T exact weight planks will support, all worked out by stunning formulæ, sir. Knowledge is power, sir.""Well, if you quote proverbs at me, I'll give you one: 'A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.'""A thousand pardons, sir, and with due respect, you have made a bloomer: misquotation, sir. Divine bard wrote: 'A littlelearningis a dangerous thing;' and I understand him to mean, if even alittlelearning in a man is dangerous to critic who tries to bowl him out, how much more dangerous is a fat lot!"Mr. Appleton found it necessary at this point to break away, and Ditta Lal's further exposition was lost.One evening, when the work of the bridge makers was nearing completion, the accepted explanation of Pope's line was brought home to the Babu by a rather unpleasant experience. He had walked along the finished portion of the pathway, which consisted of two lines of stout and broad planks supported by the cantilevers, these resting on the thick beams firmly embedded in the rock. The workmen on their swinging platform, Nurla Bai and Black Jack, had just laid the planks forming one bridge section across the gap, and were about to knock off work for the day. Ditta Lal was so eager to prove the soundness of his calculations, and demonstrate the valuable share he believed himself to have had in this engineering feat, that he took it into his head to walk across the planks to the other side. He had sufficient caution to hold on to the rope which had been carried along the smaller poles just above the level of his head."Hi, Ditta Lal! Come back!" shouted Bob from behind him. "The planks aren't nailed down yet."The Babu halted and looked round with an air of pained astonishment."Sir," he said, "it is as safe as eggs. Planks are held firm by my own avoirdupois. I have worked it out."Still holding the rope with one hand, with the other he drew from his pocket a sheet of paper on which he had made his last calculation."The weight which these planks will tolerate," he continued, "is eleven hundred and eighty-six pounds fifteen point eight ounces gross. My weight is two hundred and forty-four pounds and a fraction nett, by which I mean my own corpus without togs. Q.E.D. Suppose I jump, even then energy I develop is innocuous. I demonstrate the quod."He replaced the paper in his pocket, took the rope in both hands, and lifting his feet, to the boys' horror came down ponderously on the planks. The result was alarming. One of the planks was jerked off the beams on which it rested, and fell with a splash into the swirling river below. The other turned up on its edge; Ditta Lal sought to keep his footing, but his feet slid off, the plank fell, and he was left hanging on the rope alone, which sagged deeply under the tremendous strain.The boys shivered as they saw the portly man dangling over the river. They expected every moment that the rope would break and plunge him into the depths, carrying with him the workmen on their platform below. It seemed impossible to give him any aid, for a gap of sixteen feet, now unbridged, separated them from him. But luckily there was lying near them a plank intended for use farther on. They caught it up, and pushed it within reach of the workmen, who hastily threw it across the gap in such a way that the Babu could just reach it with his knees.The description of his appearance which the boys afterwards gave made their uncle laugh heartily."His face was positively green," said Lawrence, "and his eyes were rolling like the eyes of a giant in one of those moving magic lantern slides. He was yelling at the top of his voice--invoking strange gods by the sound of it. When he felt the plank beneath his knees he began to shuffle along sideways, but away from us instead of towards us; he was in such an awful state of funk that he didn't know which way he was going. When he got to the beam he threw his legs across it and sat there shaking, with the rope under his arms. We couldn't get him to budge even when we had laid another plank across, so that the way back was perfectly safe. He looked just like a 'varsity stroke pumped out at the end of a race--bar the complexion, of course. We tried to persuade him to get up and walk back, but he did nothing but shake his head and moan. He wouldn't speak for a bit; at last he said that he must wait till morning light. 'Buck up!' I said: 'make an effort!' but he only rolled his eyes and groaned and sighed. You can't do anything with a chump like that."Ditta Lal indeed refused all entreaties, and kept his perch through the cold night. Lawrence sent him a bowl of soup, but he declined to unwreathe his arms from the rope. Only when, early next day, the planks had been firmly nailed to their supports did he allow himself to be wheeled in a trolley--for his limbs were numbed and useless--back to the mine. For the rest of the day he was not seen. For a week he avoided the boys, and made no more calculations except the elementary addition and subtraction of his store book-keeping.
CHAPTER THE SECOND
BEYOND THE PALE
Of all the strange scenes which the Appletons had witnessed since their arrival in India, none was more surprising than the immediate sequel of the ambuscade. The hill-men rode in high good-temper behind their intended victims; and when they met the sowars, their leader exchanged laughing greetings with the dafadar, and the two parties became one. For the rest of that day they marched together, and at fall of night they formed a common encampment, the troopers acting as hosts towards the hill-men, and exerting themselves to entertain them.
To the Appletons it was all very mysterious. Lawrence had put a question or two to Major Endicott as they marched; but finding him strangely uncommunicative, deferred further enquiry to the hour after supper, when he was most often in the mood to talk. Even then the young fellows' curiosity was rather piqued than satisfied.
"That man Nagdu, the leader of the hill-men, was a sergeant of yours, you say, sir?" said Lawrence.
"Yes, years ago he was a dafadar in my troop."
"But he was laying an ambush for you!"
"He is paid by the government to guard the road."
"Oh!"
"Didn't know it was you, perhaps, until he saw you," suggested Bob.
"Hewasrather surprised to see me," said the Major, and a slow smile gathered upon his face, and passed.
"My heart was in my mouth when I saw you go alone into the rest-house," said Lawrence. "And I couldn't get a word out of your man."
"Pretty close, isn't he?" said the Major. "But look here, my lads, I called you a couple of young fools a while ago. I take that back, for without you I shouldn't have had the opportunity of enjoying the surprise of Nagdu and his crew. All the same, youwerefools, you know," he added reflectively.
While this conversation was proceeding beneath the extended flap of the tent, another, of quite a different tenor, was going on at the nearest camp fire, fifty yards away. There Ganda Singh the dafadar and his old comrade Nagdu were seated, gazing into the glow, with their rifles across their knees.
"Hai! Ennicott Sahib is truly a very great man," said Nagdu. "We were there in the little house, with our guns on the wall, looking up the road, when there came a soft voice behind us. 'Twas like cold water trickling down my back, O Ganda. And when I turned and saw the huzur's two eyes like little bits of blue steel, I felt my soul shrivel up inside me: that is true, old friend. 'You are keeping good watch upon the road, Nagdu,' said he, and I shivered, and my voice was like a woman's when I said my salaam."
"Keeping watch upon the road!" repeated the dafadar with a sly look at the other. "Do you know, Nagdu, if any harm had come to the sahib-ji I would have put a bullet there, and there."
He touched the man's neck and breast.
"Hai! what harm could come to the huzur?" said Nagdu protestingly. "He is heaven-born, and knows. 'Keeping good watch upon the road,' he said, and when I stammered out my 'Salaam, sahib,' he went on: 'It is well. There are rascals about. I go to hold a talk with your people on that very matter, and 'tis good luck I met you, for you can take me to your village.' And I said the huzur's face was like the sun shining upon the hills, for by that time my soul was come to me again, and after a little talk we came out. Hai! Truly is Ennicott Sahib a very great man."
"Ay, he knows the heart of you hill-men. You have a little heart, Nagdu; the huzur's is a very great one. His word is a sword."
"And his eyes are like fires that burn. Is there anything he does not know? He did not see us go into the little house: we were quiet as mice in the corn; yet he knew we were there----"
"Keeping watch on the road," said Ganda Singh with a low chuckle. "You are indeed a mouse, Nagdu; would you measure yourself against a lion?"
Nagdu protested that he had no such thought, and then turned the conversation into an easier channel.
Next day on the march Lawrence Appleton found an opportunity of having a little private talk with Ganda Singh, who knew just enough English to make himself understood. Lawrence asked point-blank whether the hill-men had been lying in wait for the party, intending to fire upon them from their ambush. The dafadar neither denied nor affirmed, but contented himself with retailing the substance of what Nagdu had told him. Putting two and two together, the Appletons arrived at a very fair estimate of what had actually taken place. They realised that the hill-men, who would have shot down the Major without ruth if they had been unseen behind a wall, had been completely cowed when he appeared alone in their midst. Nagdu was a bold fellow, and had proved his mettle in many a border fray; but the habit of discipline and the impression made upon him by the Englishman's dominant personality had acted like a cold douche upon his purpose. It was the victory of a stronger nature over a weaker; and the lads formed a new idea of the Major's personal influence, and the unerring instinct with which he had probed the character of the natives.
That day the caravan came to the parting of the ways. Major Endicott's road struck off westward among the hills; the Appletons had still several days' northward march before them. The lads, if they had consulted their own tastes, would very willingly have gone with the Major; but they knew it was out of the question. They thanked him warmly for allowing them to accompany him so far.
"That's all right," said he. "Look me up if you ever come south. By the way, I've told off three sowars to see you to the frontier: there I dare say your uncle will meet you."
"But you can't spare them, sir," said Bob. "You've few enough all told."
"We aren't a fighting force, my boy. If it comes to a scrap we shan't stand the ghost of a chance, and the fewer there are of us the better. Keep to the track. My salaams to your uncle. Good-bye!"
The Appletons watched the Major and his party until the sowars who brought up the rear were out of sight: then they turned their faces once more to the north, feeling somewhat depressed. Their own portion of the caravan consisted of only five or six mules, whose loads were for the most part goods for their uncle. For two days they climbed higher into the rugged mountains that encompassed them on every side. In the day-time it was hot, though the heights were crowned with snow: but the nights were bitterly cold; icy blasts swept through the gorges, causing the lads to desert even their camp fires for the snugger blankets. They could not help wondering, with a certain misgiving, what the winter in these heights was like, if such wintry conditions could exist in the summer.
On the morning of the third day after leaving Major Endicott they were met at the British frontier by two stalwart and well-mounted Sikhs, who had been sent by their uncle to conduct them over the remaining stages of their journey; and the Major's three sowars returned to overtake their master. That night they had only just got into camp when they experienced for the first time the full rigours of a mountain storm. Dense clouds rolled down from the heights, enveloping them in a drenching icy mist. A cutting wind sprang up, and soon a hurricane of sleet and snow burst upon them, with lightning and thunder, and other rumblings which, as they learnt from their guides, were caused by avalanches and landslips among the mountains. All next day they were storm-bound, remaining rolled up in their blankets in the tent, and feeling more low-spirited than ever. On the following morning, however, the sun rose in a cloudless sky, and they set off again through a narrow pass dangerous at any time, but doubly dangerous now that the track was almost obliterated by snow-drifts. They felt a pang of commiseration for the scantily clad coolies who trudged along barefoot in snow and slush by their mules; but the men were cheerful, laughing and singing as they marched, and the Appletons envied their hardiness and vigour.
Leaving the Pamirs on their right, they threaded their way through the mountains towards what had once been the Russo-Afghan frontier. Slowly, steadily they marched on for three days, the track leading gradually downwards. Then one morning, soon after they had left camp, they saw in the far distance two horsemen riding slowly towards them.
"The huzur, sahib!" said one of the guides.
The lads lifted their glasses, and were then able to discern that the one of the two riders who wore a grey suit and a solah helmet was their uncle himself. They hastened on in front of their party, and in a quarter of an hour uncle and nephews met.
"How do?" cried Harry Appleton, gripping them in turn by the hand. "You've grown since I saw you last: I should hardly have known you."
"You look the same as ever," said Bob.
"Wait till you see me with my hat off. Hair doesn't grow on brains, they say. But I'm glad to see you, boys: you are looking uncommonly fit too. Have you had a pleasant journey?"
"Pretty good, bar a snowstorm. Major Endicott came with us best part of the way. He's gone to interview a troublesome tribe. He sent his salaams to you, Uncle."
"Much obliged to him. He thinks I'm mad, you know. Don't look it, do I?"
The boys laughed. Their uncle was a sturdy man, rather under middle height, hard and muscular, his brown face half covered with a thick moustache and beard turning slightly grey. His blue eyes were bright and piercing, with an expression of alertness and humour. He certainly did not look mad.
"Your caravan is rather smaller than I expected to see," he went on, as the mules came straggling up.
"Their loads are mostly your stuff," said Lawrence. "We've only brought a couple of bags apiece."
"Very sensible of you. I was afraid you might bring out a lot of rubbish, and wished I'd sent you a caution. But I needn't have worried, evidently."
"Well, there are one or two things coming after us," said Bob, with a shade of misgiving. "We sent them ahead by slow steamer, and as they hadn't arrived when we reached Bombay, we thought we'd better come on."
"Humph!" their uncle grunted. "It'll be a month before my next consignment comes up, so it's to be hoped you're not in a hurry for your stuff. I suppose there's not much of it. What is it?"
"There's my cricket-bag, and a couple of tennis rackets, and a set of golfing sticks," said Lawrence.
"You didn't happen to bring turf too, I suppose?" said their uncle with twinkling eyes. "The ground hereabout is all bunkers. Anything else useful?"
"There's my aeroplane," said Bob.
"Your what?"
"A monoplane. I was going into the flying corps, you know, if--
"Yes, yes," interrupted Mr. Appleton. "It must have been very disappointing, my boy, but you must cheer up. But an aeroplane!"
"It's very light and portable--perhaps a couple of mule loads at the most."
"I wasn't thinking of the mules," replied his uncle dryly. "An aeroplane in these hills will be just about as useful as a Dreadnought in a millpond. You didn't realise that the Hindu Kush is not exactly like the South Downs. Well, it can't be helped now. Anything else?"
"Nothing of any importance," said Bob, feeling a little dashed. He had looked forward to many hours of flying in his spare time, and it was rather dispiriting to find that the expense of shipping his aeroplane was to be wasted.
"Well, we'll get on," said Mr. Appleton. "With good luck we shall reach the mine before dark. You won't be sorry, I expect, to spend the night under a roof again."
They rode on, the track running generally to the north-north-west. About an hour after they started, their uncle pointed to a narrow cleft in the hills on their left hand.
"You see that path?" he said. "It runs into Afghan country. About six months after I started operations the mine was raided by a horde of ruffians who came that way."
"I say!" cried Bob. "What happened?"
"Luckily I had been put on my guard against an attack from that quarter by one of my Pathan miners. I had twelve hours' grace, and when the raiders arrived they found they'd got a tougher nut to crack than they expected. They only made one serious rush. We beat 'em off, and they moved some distance up the valley, sniped us for a day or two, and then cleared out. We've had no trouble of that sort since, though they've played highwaymen once or twice with my caravans, and in one case got a certain amount of loot. Among other things they collared a boiler that I was bringing up at huge expense from India. I don't suppose they knew what it was, but for the sake of the metal they tried to carry it through the difficult pass into their own valley. But it proved too cumbersome, as you might expect, and they had to leave it. I found it some time afterwards when shooting in the pass, at the bottom of a deep nullah, where it had rolled from the track above. It took me nearly a fortnight to recover it and bring it home, but I was glad to get it at the price."
"Things aren't all beer and skittles, then," said Bob.
"Oh, there's a little excitement sometimes, but we are well placed, as you will see, and I fancy nothing short of a regular train of artillery could do us much damage."
What the boys heard from Mr. Appleton during that march whetted their curiosity to get their first view of his mine, but they were disappointed, for twilight fell while they were still some distance from it. In the gathering dusk they saw a number of distant lights, which their uncle explained were the camp fires of the miners. The red glow, growing larger as they proceeded, lent a romantic touch to the night. The fires were somewhat below them; and, viewed from the high ground from which they were approaching, the settlement appeared to be situated in a huge cleft between two steep mountain barriers. They could just see, swirling along the bottom, a torrential stream, which their uncle told them was unusually high just now, being swollen in summer by the melted snow from the mountains. It was, he said, a tributary to one of the headwaters of the Oxus.
They had just arrived at the outskirts of the settlement when the silence of the evening was suddenly broken by a great hubbub, and they saw a number of dark figures hurrying towards one of the camp fires. In a moment the open space was filled with a shouting swaying crowd; but before the boys had time to realise what was happening, or even to ask a question, their uncle urged his tired horse towards the scene, and dashing into the midst of the crowd, scattered the men to right and left. When the boys galloped up behind him, they found him sternly questioning one or two of the men in their own tongue. They returned sullen answers, whereupon he addressed them in tones of rebuke, concluding with a sharp word of command at which they turned away towards a number of huts ranged in rows beyond the camp fires.
"What is it all about, Uncle?" asked Lawrence.
"We'll see in the morning. It's too late now. Slip off your horses; I'll call a fellow to take charge of them."
A man came up in answer to his call, and led the horses towards the stables beyond the huts. Then Mr. Appleton gave a loud hail, and led his nephews to the left.
"Look after your feet," he said, taking a small electric lamp from his pocket.
They now saw that they were at the edge of the ravine. Below them they heard the gurgle and rush of the river. A few steps cut in the side of the chasm led down to a narrow platform, and upon this the three stood waiting. Mr. Appleton's call was answered from the opposite side, and immediately afterwards the boys heard a creaking sound, as though a machine of some sort were being wound up. Then a dark mass appeared to detach itself from the wall of rock across the gap, and descend towards them.
"My drawbridge," said their uncle.
It sank slowly and with much groaning and squeaking until the nearer end rested on the edge of the platform where they stood. They stepped upon it, followed by the Sikhs who had acted as their guides, and in a few strides came to the other side.
"Welcome to the Appleton mine," said Mr. Appleton. "And now for supper. Our menu isn't elaborate, but if you're as sharp set as I am you won't be dainty. Come along!"
CHAPTER THE THIRD
MR. APPLETON'S MINE
Mr. Appleton led the way across a sort of yard, littered with mining debris, towards a building in the upper part of which lights were burning. To the left sheds and a chimney stack loomed up in the darkness, scarcely distinguishable against the background of rock. They passed through a gate, and found themselves in a less cumbered enclosure, at the farther corner of which stood the illuminated building. This proved to be a compact square edifice, the lower storey of stone, the upper of wood. The door stood open, and in the entrance appeared a grave turbaned servant, who salaamed as the boys went in.
"Chunda Beg, my khansaman," said Mr. Appleton. "Come upstairs and see your room. We haven't over much space, but we've done our best to make you comfortable."
The boys followed their uncle to the upper floor, which was one large apartment divided into three by matchboard partitions carried up to within a foot or two of the ceiling. In the first room, the dining-room, they saw a table laid for supper. Passing through this they entered Mr. Appleton's bedroom, a small chamber furnished only with a narrow camp bed, a chair, a towel-horse, a tin basin on a stand, a chest of drawers, and a zinc bath; a Persian rug lay on the floor at one side of the bed. Beyond the further partition, which had evidently been newly erected, was the boys' bedroom, about the same size as their uncle's, similarly furnished, but with two camp beds separated by the width of a Persian rug.
"No luxuries, you see," said Mr. Appleton, "but I think you'll find it cosy. I believe there's a looking-glass somewhere on the premises if you want to shave. That's a thing I haven't done for many years; Chunda Beg gives me a trimming every now and then when I'm getting too shaggy. As a follower of the Prophet, he wouldn't cut his own beard for a pension. He'll send you up some hot water and soap, and when you've had a wash, come in to supper."
The menu was not so scanty as Mr. Appleton had led the boys to believe. There was a roast joint that tasted three parts mutton and one part venison--the flesh of an ibex shot by Mr. Appleton himself. The vegetables were mushrooms, onions and lotus beans; the sweets a rice pudding and stewed peaches; and the beverage a kind of elderberry wine diluted with hot water.
"You've got a good cook, Uncle," said Lawrence, when the khansaman had brought coffee. "We haven't had so good a meal since we left Rawal Pindi."
"Well, Shan Tai does his best. He's a Chinaman, of course. We grow our own vegetables in a patch of ground down the valley. In fact, we do most things ourselves. The gas is acetylene, made on the spot. Most of the furniture in your room is home-made, as I dare say you noticed. We're what you may call self-contained."
"What rooms have you got below?" asked Bob.
"We use the ground floor only for stores. In the dark you didn't see, I suppose, that the walls are loopholed. The stone's very thick, and in that little trouble I told you about we found them a capital fortification. The kitchen is outside; the servants have their own out-houses. The cook is Chinese, as I said; the khansaman is a Pathan; there are one or two other fellows whose nationality is an unknown quantity. Chunda Beg is a treasure, as grave as a judge, and as resourceful as a Jack-tar. You'll take most interest, I expect, in my storekeeper, Ditta Lal, a Bengali--what's commonly called a Babu. I wager you haven't spoken to him for more than two minutes before he tells you he is a B.A. of Calcutta University, and he'll tell you the same thing ten times a day until he chokes."
"Why should he choke?" asked Lawrence.
"Because he's getting so disgustingly fat. I really mustn't raise his screw--he calls it emoluments--any more. When he first came to me he was thin and weedy like many of his kind; but he made himself extremely useful, and I've increased his pay rather often. You'd be surprised at the result if you could compare him as he is with what he was. Upon my word, with every rise he swells visibly. I shouldn't like to say what his waist measurement is now. I told him the other day that I really couldn't raise him any more, for fear it proved fatal, and he smiled in my face and said, 'Ah, sahib, God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb,' which you won't beat for a piece of delightful inconsequence."
Talking thus, Mr. Appleton interested and amused the boys for an hour or two until it was time to turn in. The night was cold; but snuggled under thick blankets they slept like tops, and did not waken until the khansaman entered with water for their morning tub.
At breakfast Mr. Appleton announced that his first business for the day was the holding of a durbar to enquire into the scuffle of the night before.
"My discipline is as easy as possible," he said; "there are few rules, but I see that they are obeyed. The men represent some of the most unruly tribes of the frontier, but they know I mean what I say, and on the whole I've had very little trouble with them. Of course they get good pay; that's the first condition of good work and contentment."
"The second is good holidays," said Lawrence with a smile.
"Ah, you've just left school!" said his uncle. "But the men haven't anything to complain of on that score. They get holidays all the winter. We stop work for four or five months. What with snowstorms and the river frozen hard we could scarcely exist here in the winter months, so the men go off to their homes and no doubt play the heavy swell among their people, and I betake myself to Bokhara, or pay a round of visits among my Chinese friends, or go on a hunting trip, returning in the spring. But there's the bugle; come and see me in my part of unpaid magistrate. Then I'll take you over the place."
On leaving the house, the boys saw a number of men filing through the gate between two ranks of tall bearded Sikhs armed with rifles. Those who came first were of the Mongolian type, with broad, flat, yellowish faces, wide noses and narrow eyes. What little clothing they wore was ragged and stained a deep indigo blue. These men, numbering about eighty, formed a group on the left-hand side. After them entered more than a score of swarthy black-haired fellows of more symmetrical shape and more powerful physique, their features more sharply cut, some of them having almost a Jewish cast of countenance. Their garments were marked with streaks and stains of yellowish-green. Mr. Appleton explained that they were for the most part Pathans from the Afghan border; but they included also several Punjabis, a couple of Baluchis, three or four Chitralis, and a sprinkling of men of Hunza and Nagar. They formed up on the right-hand side.
At the door of an outhouse on the same side stood a very fat man whom the boys easily recognized as the Bengali storekeeper. His podgy olive cheeks were almost concealed by a bushy growth of black hair, and the loose white garment he wore, encircled with a sash of brilliant red, emphasised the vast unwieldiness of his bulk.
When all were assembled, the gate was shut, and Mr. Appleton, standing before his door, called for Gur Buksh. One of the armed Sikhs stepped forward, a tall, finely-proportioned, grey-bearded man, who, as the boys afterwards learnt, had been a havildar in a native Border regiment of the British army, and had seen considerable service on the frontier. He stood at attention, saluted, and gravely awaited the sahib's questions. The young Appletons looked on with curiosity, wishing that they could understand the conversation that ensued. Lawrence made up his mind to devote his spare time to a study of the native languages.
After Gur Buksh had made his report, Mr. Appleton called up two other men, one from each of the groups. The first was a young Kalmuck, whose yellow face would have been absolutely expressionless but for a keen look in his restless eyes. The other was a big hook-nosed Pathan, with strong, determined features and fierce low brows from beneath which his coal-black eyes flashed with truculence. The Kalmuck, answering to the name of Nurla Bai, gave brief and almost sullen answers to his master's questions; Muhammad Din, the Pathan, on the contrary, spoke at length, fiercely and volubly, with much play of features and hands. Having heard them both, Mr. Appleton made a measured speech in fine magisterial manner, and then dismissed them. At the close of his speech the boys noticed that the two culprits threw swift glances at them, the Kalmuck's eyes narrowing, and giving no clue to his thoughts, while the Pathan's indicated keen interest and searching enquiry. The whole company marched out of the gate, and the silence which they had hitherto preserved gave way to excited talk as they went off to their work.
"So much for that," said Mr. Appleton. "It appears that, taking advantage of my absence, the Kalmuck fellow, Nurla Bai, got into the Pathan section of the mine works, against my express orders. Muhammad Din stood up for law, rather zealously, and it would have come to a free fight if Gur Buksh hadn't stepped in. At night, when they knock off work, both parties cross the drawbridge to their huts on the other side, and the quarrel was just breaking out again when we had the good luck to come up. Nurla was clearly in the wrong, and I fined him a week's pay."
"He took it well," said Bob. "The fellow's face was like a mask."
"He was not so much unmoved as you think," said Mr. Appleton. "I know the fellow pretty well, and I could tell by the look of him that he was perfectly furious. I find my system answers very well. I punish all breaches of the regulations with fines, which are pooled and distributed every month among the men who haven't offended. Most of the men are quite keen to get these additions to their pay; in fact, I've known some of the rascals try to egg on a simple-minded mate to commit some slight misdemeanour, so that he'll lose his pay for their benefit. They're queer fish.... Good-morning, Ditta Lal."
The Bengali, who had been hovering about, gradually drawing nearer to his master, and casting sheep's eyes at the two young strangers, now waddled up, his face one broad smile.
"Good-morning, sir: good-morning, young gents," he said in a breathless wheeze. "'Full many a glorious morning have I seen, flatter the mountain tops with sovran eye,'--pat quotation from sweet Swan of Avon, whose sonnets I got up, with notes, for final exam, for B.A. degree, Calcutta University. Lovely morning, sir."
Mr. Appleton's eyes twinkled as he introduced his nephews, who were looking at the Babu as at some strange specimen.
"You'll find several mule loads of stuff we ordered on the other side, Ditta Lal," said Mr. Appleton.
"They shall be attended to instanter, sir. And I shall esteem it signal honour on fitting occasion to act as guide, philosopher and friend to young gents, show them my stores; in fact, do them proud, and all that."
He bowed, puffed, and waddled away. The boys laughed when his back was turned.
"What a treasure!" said Lawrence. "Our old school porter at Rugton was pretty big about, but this fellow would make two of him. What a rag the chaps would have if we could transport him!"
"I can't spare him. He's an abiding joy. But come, let me take you round."
The next hour was spent in going over the not very extensive settlement. The boys found that the portion on the west side of the gorge was divided into three. The first contained Mr. Appleton's dwelling-house, the engine-house and stores, and a set of small stamps, together with sheds for assaying, and a number of huts occupied by the personal native servants and the Sikh garrison. The dwelling-house was built in an angle of the cliff, which rose sheer behind it. Between house and cliff, however, was a space of about three yards filled with heavy beams, which were all loopholed. The whole of the enclosure in which the house stood was surrounded by a bank of earth about six feet high, formed of "tailings" from the mine. This bank was broken only in two places, one for the gate leading into the second enclosure or compound, the second for the drawbridge connecting with the east side of the gorge.
The second compound was somewhat smaller than the first. Here were to be seen barrows, trucks, and other implements; a line of rails led into a cave-like opening in the hillside, which, Mr. Appleton explained, was the entrance to a vein or lode sloping upwards into the heart of the mountain.
"It was lucky I hadn't to sink shafts," he said, "considering the difficulty of bringing mining appliances to this remote region."
"What led you to pitch here?" asked Bob.
"Well, you may call it accident, or you may put it down to my being possessed of a roving eye. I was hunting hereabout some years ago, and caught sight of what seemed to be an outcrop of copper ore. I poked about rather carefully, and collected a number of samples of this and other ores, which I had tested by a capital fellow in Peshawar. His assays confirmed my suspicions, and I thought I couldn't do better than try my luck."
"Who does the place belong to?" asked Lawrence. "Do you pay rent?"
Mr. Appleton smiled.
"I'm afraid I'm a squatter," he said, "not unlike the ancestors of some people I could name nearer home. The natives, I believe, used to pay tribute to the Amir, and also to the Chinese emperor--a little gold dust (where they got it I don't know)--a dog or two, and a basket of apricots: some trivial thing like that; and as the people are nomads, their suzerains, I dare say, thought they were lucky to get anything. Then the Russians came along, and among other unconsidered trifles snapped up this little no-man's land. They had a small military post a couple of marches across the hills to the north. This was raided by the Afghans when they got news of the Russian smash-up in Mongolia. The Mongols turned out the Afghans; then the post was destroyed by another Afghan raid; and since then nobody has troubled about it. It would puzzle even an international jurist in a Scotch university to decide who is the rightful sovereign of this tract of hill country; and meanwhile I'm on the spot, and I'll stay here and get on with my work until I'm turned out.
"This gallery here is worked by the Kalmucks: you saw some of them at the stamping presses as you came up. The slope makes it easy to dig the ore out, and also drains what little water there is: there's only a trickle, as you see. Come into the next compound."
He unlocked the door in the stout fence, and led the boys into a third enclosure, like the second, and having another line of rails leading into a gallery.
"This is the Pathan section," said Mr. Appleton. "There are not quite half as many Pathans as Kalmucks."
"I suppose you keep them apart for fear of ructions," said Bob.
"Partly," said Mr. Appleton, smiling a little as he added: "But there's another reason; I'll tell you that later. We are not treating the ore from this gallery at present. Look here."
He led them to the further fence, in which there was a gap, and bade them look down. They saw a heap of greenish rock lying in a deep saucer-shaped hollow between the yard and the river below. A line of rails ran from the mouth of the gallery to the gap, and while the three men stood there a couple of Pathans emerged from the hill, pushing a laden truck before them. On arriving at the fence they tilted up the truck, and the contents fell crashing upon the heap beneath.
"Now we'll go over the bridge and have a look at the miners' quarters on the other side," said Mr. Appleton. "I have to inspect them frequently: I'm magistrate, sanitary inspector, a regular Jack of all trades."
"Why did those two miners look at us so curiously when you were jawing them?" said Lawrence.
"I had just told them who you were, my nephews and the new superintendents. You've got to earn your living, you know. Bob will be responsible for the Pathans, and you for the Kalmucks. Of course you've a lot to learn."
"They looked as if they didn't much like their new bosses," said Bob.
"I daresay; but you'll be a comfort to me. I'm not troubled with nerves, but at times, I confess, I have felt what the old ladies call lonesome for want of a white man to talk to. The Babu is all very well, but now and again he worries me. When I'm tired and bothered he'll expound a knotty passage of Browning or some other incomprehensible poet; and when I should enjoy a little stimulating conversation, he 'havers,' as the Scotch say, in a mixture of high falutin' and outrageous slang. Now that you are here I've no doubt he'll be nothing but the joy I find him in my cheerful moods. I'm very glad of your company, boys."
CHAPTER THE FOURTH
THE AEROPLANE ARRIVES
During the next three weeks the younger Appletons were fully occupied in studying the working of the mine. Dressed in calico overalls they penetrated into the torch-lit galleries and watched the miners at their work. They saw the process of crushing the ore, but Mr. Appleton's operations went little further, for owing to his distance from civilisation and the limited space at his disposal, he left the final stages of purification to be performed in India. The boys were rather curious to know why the colours of the stains upon the clothing of the two bands of miners differed, but they forbore to question their uncle, guessing that he would tell them all in good time, and would meanwhile be pleased by their showing patience. In this they were right. Mr. Appleton had no wish to keep any secrets from them; he was only waiting until he had learnt something of the characters of the two young fellows, whom he had not seen for several years, and at no time had had many opportunities of studying.
They both soon showed their bents. In the evenings, when work was done, there was little to occupy them. Mr. Appleton's books were few; they were mainly books on mining and grammars and dictionaries of the local dialects. Robert seized on the former; Lawrence devoted himself to the latter; and their uncle was very well pleased, for each of these studies would prove useful. Their recreations were for the present confined to an occasional game of chess or cards, a still rarer shooting expedition in the hills, and the reading of the rather dilapidated magazines which had come at odd times from India and home. Lawrence missed his cricket, and Bob his golf; but in spite of what Mr. Appleton had said about the impossibility of using the aeroplane when it should arrive, they both looked forward privately to trying their wings by and by.
Lawrence soon became popular with the natives. He had a turn for languages, and managed to pick up quickly a little Turki and scraps of the other tongues spoken by the very mixed crowd that constituted the mining staff. Robert had not the same quickness in learning languages, but he made himself useful on the engineering side. He had been accustomed to spend part of his holidays in the engine shops of the father of one of his schoolfellows, and found his experience valuable. Once, for instance, when there was a breakdown of the somewhat crazy engine that worked the stamping presses, he was able to make the necessary repairs more quickly than Mr. Appleton himself, or the regular engine man, could have done. Mr. Appleton was a very good prospector and an all-round man in general, but he had no particular gift in the direction of mechanics, while the engine man had picked up from his master all he knew. He was a Gurkha, a short, compact little fellow, of hard muscles and a very quick intelligence. His race is more accustomed to military service than to machinery, and Fazl, as this man was named, had never seen a steam engine before he came to the mine. Mr. Appleton had found him wandering half starved in Turkestan two seasons before, and out of sheer kindness of heart put him on as cleaner. Some time after, the Mohammedan Bengali who had hitherto driven the engine asked leave to go home and bury his grandmother, and Fazl was promoted to his place. The Bengali, of course, never returned, and Fazl was still engine man.
One evening after supper Mr. Appleton said--
"Don't get your books yet, boys; I want to show you something."
He placed a Bunsen burner on the table, and brought a blowpipe and a piece of charcoal from a cupboard. Then he took from his pocket a small lump of ore, which he laid on the charcoal with a little powdered carbonate of soda, and proceeded to treat in the Bunsen flame. The boys watched his experiment curiously. After a time they saw a bright bead form itself on the surface of the ore. Mr. Appleton laid down the blowpipe.
"What do you make of that?" he said.
"Is it tin?" asked Robert.
"Well, I have known school-boys call it 'tin' in the shape of sixpenny bits. It is silver. Now I'll let you into my secret. The ore obtained from the farther gallery, and dumped down into that very convenient cavity, contains almost pure silver; there's method in my madness, you see. Nobody knows it but yourselves; though I can't say what some of the men may suspect. I don't attempt to work it for the simple reason that I don't want the news to get about. If it became generally known that I have struck silver, somebody might put in a claim to this neglected region, and I should either have to decamp or be in constant fear of attack. As it is, I think I am pretty secure; and when I have got a sufficient quantity of the ore I shall close down, dismiss the men, and carry the stuff to India."
"But isn't there silver also in the other gallery?" asked Bob.
"No. The two metals, so far as I can discover, lie in parallel vertical streaks, with a band of quartz between them, and the men who are working at the copper know nothing of the silver a few feet away. You see now the reason why I keep the Kalmucks and the Pathans apart. The Kalmucks work the copper; they belong more or less to the neighbourhood; but the Pathans come from far distant parts, and if they should discover that their ore is silver, they are not at all so likely as the Kalmucks to bring unwelcome visitors upon me. I confess I was a little uneasy when I heard the explanation of that scrimmage we happened upon as we rode down. I wondered whether Nurla Bai's presence in the Pathan section was due to some suspicion of the truth. But he has given no more trouble, and I hope that I was wrong."
"He's a sulky beggar," said Lawrence. "I can't get a word out of him, and I don't like those ugly eyes of his."
"I'm watching him," said Mr. Appleton. "He works well, and has a great influence with the other Kalmucks. He's certainly far and away more intelligent, and he has brought in a good many labourers. In fact, I had to put a stop to his recruiting. I wanted to keep the Kalmucks pretty equal in number to the Pathans, but, as you see, they already outnumber them by more than two to one. One great nuisance is their possession of firearms. I tried to induce them to hand them over when I engaged them, but in these regions the hillmen are as tenacious of their guns as our sailors are of their knives. Without my police Pathans and Kalmucks would be at each other's throats."
A few days after this conversation, the caravan which the boys had for some time been expecting arrived. It was larger than that which had accompanied them, and Mr. Appleton threw up his hands with a dismay that was not wholly feigned when he saw how many additional mules had been required for the transport of the aeroplane.
"You said two or three," he remarked to Bob as the laden beasts defiled along the path; "but I'm sure there are seven or eight more than my stuff needed."
"I expect it's the petrol," said Bob humbly.
"You didn't mention petrol."
"No; but of course we couldn't work the engine without it, and I left word to send up a good quantity. I didn't suppose you had any on the spot."
"And wasn't there a single sensible creature to tell you that you can't go skylarking with an aeroplane in the Hindu Kush? Whoever sold you the petrol must have laughed in his sleeve."
"He seemed uncommon glad to sell it, anyway," said Bob, a trifle nettled.
"Of course he was. There are no end of sharks always on the watch for a griffin. He sold the petrol, and he sold you. And the expense of it! D'you know how much it costs to bring a mule from India here?"
"You can dock it out of my screw," growled Bob.
"And money absolutely flung away. You have seen for yourself that there's no level space hereabout for running off. And even supposing you could use the thing, it would be madness to do so. You'd be bound to come to grief; all flying men do sooner or later, and at the best you might find yourself landed thirty or forty miles away, with nothing but peaks and precipices between you and home. There are no repairing shops to fall back upon; no garages 'open day and night,' or anything of that sort. In short----"
"Don't rub it in, Uncle," said Lawrence. "The thing's here now, and we've got to make the best of it. Come on, Bob; let's go and look after the unloading; those fellows are sure to smash something."
The mules were led across the drawbridge to the west side of the gorge, and the separate parts of the machine were stacked near the dwelling house until a new shed could be constructed.
"What on earth we're to do with the petrol I don't know," said Mr. Appleton. "We daren't have it within reach of the native workmen. They're as careless as they are inquisitive, and we don't want a flare up."
"Isn't there room for the cans in the dynamite shed?" asked Lawrence.
The explosive was kept in a specially devised cache. The space between the house and the cliff was boarded in. A doorway led from the house into this space, which was divided by a partition, in which another door opened into a kind of strong room excavated in the hill side. There was room for the cans beside the boxes of dynamite.
"I shan't sleep at night now that we've got two explosives at our doors," said Mr. Appleton.
"Why didn't you store the stuff farther from the house?" asked Bob.
"Well, as a matter of fact wherever it was stored in the neighbourhood of the mine the result would be pretty much the same if it exploded. The best chance of safety was to have it under lock and key where nobody could get at it but myself. In for a penny, in for a pound. Trundle your cans through: if I'm not a false prophet they'll stay there until doomsday untouched."
When the boys entered the dark chamber between the house and the cliff, following Mr. Appleton, who carried an electric lamp, Bob uttered a sudden exclamation.
"I say, hanged if there isn't a machine gun!"
He pointed to a corner of the room, where the muzzle of the gun protruded from a nest of boxes.
"A very neat little machine," said Mr. Appleton. "I got it as a precaution against a second raid, and the difficulty of smuggling it through turned my surviving hairs grey. It came in parts among some engine fittings; the invoices are very interesting! A clear case of gun running, of course; but there was no other way; the government would never have allowed it to pass complete. Nobody here knows of it but you; I put it together myself; and if you know anything about such things, Bob, I'll be glad if you'll overhaul it one of these days, and see if my amateurish efforts have been successful. Some of those boxes contain ammunition: smuggled in as dynamite. Now stack your cans, and when you've finished bring me the key. I'll have duplicates cut for you."
Later in the day the boys had a consultation.
"It's no good putting the aeroplane together until we've found a starting-place," said Lawrence.
"I know. I've looked all about, and can't find one. It's pretty rotten, and the old man is so ratty about it that I almost wish we'd never brought the thing."
"Oh, he'll come round. I bet you what you like that he'll be as keen as mustard if we can only get the thing going. We'll go out exploring; we're sure to hit on some place by and by."
They spent the spare time of two or three days in ranging up and down stream in search of a suitable starting-place. Every morning at breakfast Mr. Appleton dropped some quizzing remark that sorely tried Bob's temper. "How's the white elephant?" he would say; or "When is the ascent to take place?" Meanwhile the dismembered aeroplane lay under tarpaulin at the side of the house, and the Babu irritated Bob by kind enquiries.
"Will tender plant suffer, sir?" he asked one morning, when a sprinkling of snow lay upon the ground.
"What do you mean?" said Bob.
"Packages were marked 'fragile with care,' sir, and having been myself once fragile, delicate infant, sir, I have fellow feeling, that makes me wondrous kind."
"Well, be kind enough to shut up," said Bob.
At length, after much searching, they discovered a spot which, so far as space was concerned, promised the solution of their difficulty. About a hundred yards up stream, at a somewhat higher level than the ledge upon which the mine buildings were situated, there was a similar ledge of about the same extent and on the same side of the gorge. But it was very difficult of access. It could not be approached from the mine, owing to the sheer wall of cliff that separated the two ledges. Nor could it be gained by bridging the river, for not only was the stream at this point much broader than lower down, but there was no rock in mid-channel that would serve as support. After a good deal of cogitation, Bob hit upon a plan which he determined to attempt.
On the way up, their caravan had crossed a stream by means of a bridge constructed on the cantilever principle, as is common in that country. It occurred to Bob that there was a possibility of constructing a walk along the face of the cliff on the same principle.
"It will be a series of bridges made of overlapping planks," he said to Lawrence when explaining his idea. "There's plenty of timber in the shed."
"Which Uncle won't allow to be used."
"I'll talk him over."
"But I don't see how you're going to manage it. There are no supports."
"They are easily managed. All we've got to do to is drive beams into the rock, say twenty feet apart."
"Exactly; but how are you going to make holes in the rock? There's nothing to stand on, and we can't rig up scaffolding from the bottom of the river."
"I think we can do it all the same. What we have to do is to go to the extreme edge of the ledge of the silver mine, bore a couple of holes in the rock level with our heads, and drive in poles strong enough to support a swinging platform. You've seen house painters use them on house fronts at home. We can extend that with some planks, and so reach a position where similar holes can be bored a little farther away, and so on until we reach the farther ledge. A couple of stout miners on the platform can easily bore the holes, level with it, that we require for the larger beams, and when they are placed it will be a comparatively simple matter to lay planks upon them, and carry our cantilever walk the whole way. We can use the upper poles too: connect them by a rope, which we can cling to as we push the parts of the machine along on trolleys."
"It will take a very long time," said Lawrence dubiously.
"Not so long as you think if we can only persuade the old man to let us have a couple of men to work at it continuously. I'll tackle him to-night after supper when he's comfortably settled with a cigar."
Mr. Appleton happened to be in a very amiable mood when Bob broached the subject, and though he uttered doleful warnings and foretold broken limbs, and declared that he washed his hands of all responsibility, he told the boys that they might do as they pleased. Next day they invited volunteers from among the Kalmuck miners, and were somewhat surprised when Nurla Bai was the first to offer his services, explaining that he was an expert in carpentry. Taking this as a sign of grace, Bob engaged the man, and told him to choose his own assistant. Nurla at once suggested a dwarfish man named Tchigin, a thick-set, muscular fellow with a huge head covered with jet-black hair. Mr. Appleton called him Black Jack. They began work, and Bob was well pleased with their industry and skill. Before night there was a row of half-a-dozen of the smaller poles in position, and all was ready for the drilling of the larger hole for the first of the stout beams that were to support the wooden path.
On the subsequent days, with the number of workers increased to six, the work was carried on even more rapidly. The greatest difficulty encountered was a bend in the cliff a few yards before it opened out on to the ledge on which the aeroplane was to be put together. It cost a good deal of labour to shape the planks to the curve, and to fix the beams; and the boys regarded it as a further disadvantage that the ledge would be out of sight from the mine. Not that they could suppose that the aeroplane, when set up in its hangar there, would be in any danger of molestation, for the only approach was from the Pathan compound, and Mr. Appleton thought that the Pathans might be trusted. But they would have preferred that their flying machine should always be in sight. However, there came a time when they were very thankful for the projecting corner of the cliff which had given them so much extra toil.
Their proceedings naturally caused a good deal of curiosity and excitement among the miners and the domestic staff. No one was more deeply interested than Ditta Lal, who numbered among his many accomplishments a smattering of theoretical engineering picked up in the course of his studies at Calcutta University. He talked very learnedly of strains and stresses, and often laid before the boys scraps of paper on which he had worked out magnificent calculations and drawn elaborate diagrams for their guidance. This amused them at first, but it became rather exasperating as the work progressed. He had a formula for everything; taught them exactly, to the fraction of an inch, how far the timbers should project from the ends of those supporting them, and what strain each portion of the structure could bear. As the successive bridges were completed, he proved, as he supposed, the accuracy of his calculations by venturing his own portly person upon them, at first with some timidity, but with more and more confidence as time went on. Mr. Appleton, on the other hand, watched the work from the security of the compound until it passed from sight round the shoulder of the cliff.
"You're a heap braver than I am," he said once to Ditta Lal. "I wouldn't trust myself on the thing for a pension, and you're heavier by three or four stone."
"Ah, sir, conscience makes cowards of us all," replied the Babu; "by which I understand immortal bard to mean, ignorance makes you funky. With my knowledge of science, imbibed from fostering breast of Alma Mater, Calcutta University--of which, as you are aware, I have honour to be B.A.--I know to a T exact weight planks will support, all worked out by stunning formulæ, sir. Knowledge is power, sir."
"Well, if you quote proverbs at me, I'll give you one: 'A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.'"
"A thousand pardons, sir, and with due respect, you have made a bloomer: misquotation, sir. Divine bard wrote: 'A littlelearningis a dangerous thing;' and I understand him to mean, if even alittlelearning in a man is dangerous to critic who tries to bowl him out, how much more dangerous is a fat lot!"
Mr. Appleton found it necessary at this point to break away, and Ditta Lal's further exposition was lost.
One evening, when the work of the bridge makers was nearing completion, the accepted explanation of Pope's line was brought home to the Babu by a rather unpleasant experience. He had walked along the finished portion of the pathway, which consisted of two lines of stout and broad planks supported by the cantilevers, these resting on the thick beams firmly embedded in the rock. The workmen on their swinging platform, Nurla Bai and Black Jack, had just laid the planks forming one bridge section across the gap, and were about to knock off work for the day. Ditta Lal was so eager to prove the soundness of his calculations, and demonstrate the valuable share he believed himself to have had in this engineering feat, that he took it into his head to walk across the planks to the other side. He had sufficient caution to hold on to the rope which had been carried along the smaller poles just above the level of his head.
"Hi, Ditta Lal! Come back!" shouted Bob from behind him. "The planks aren't nailed down yet."
The Babu halted and looked round with an air of pained astonishment.
"Sir," he said, "it is as safe as eggs. Planks are held firm by my own avoirdupois. I have worked it out."
Still holding the rope with one hand, with the other he drew from his pocket a sheet of paper on which he had made his last calculation.
"The weight which these planks will tolerate," he continued, "is eleven hundred and eighty-six pounds fifteen point eight ounces gross. My weight is two hundred and forty-four pounds and a fraction nett, by which I mean my own corpus without togs. Q.E.D. Suppose I jump, even then energy I develop is innocuous. I demonstrate the quod."
He replaced the paper in his pocket, took the rope in both hands, and lifting his feet, to the boys' horror came down ponderously on the planks. The result was alarming. One of the planks was jerked off the beams on which it rested, and fell with a splash into the swirling river below. The other turned up on its edge; Ditta Lal sought to keep his footing, but his feet slid off, the plank fell, and he was left hanging on the rope alone, which sagged deeply under the tremendous strain.
The boys shivered as they saw the portly man dangling over the river. They expected every moment that the rope would break and plunge him into the depths, carrying with him the workmen on their platform below. It seemed impossible to give him any aid, for a gap of sixteen feet, now unbridged, separated them from him. But luckily there was lying near them a plank intended for use farther on. They caught it up, and pushed it within reach of the workmen, who hastily threw it across the gap in such a way that the Babu could just reach it with his knees.
The description of his appearance which the boys afterwards gave made their uncle laugh heartily.
"His face was positively green," said Lawrence, "and his eyes were rolling like the eyes of a giant in one of those moving magic lantern slides. He was yelling at the top of his voice--invoking strange gods by the sound of it. When he felt the plank beneath his knees he began to shuffle along sideways, but away from us instead of towards us; he was in such an awful state of funk that he didn't know which way he was going. When he got to the beam he threw his legs across it and sat there shaking, with the rope under his arms. We couldn't get him to budge even when we had laid another plank across, so that the way back was perfectly safe. He looked just like a 'varsity stroke pumped out at the end of a race--bar the complexion, of course. We tried to persuade him to get up and walk back, but he did nothing but shake his head and moan. He wouldn't speak for a bit; at last he said that he must wait till morning light. 'Buck up!' I said: 'make an effort!' but he only rolled his eyes and groaned and sighed. You can't do anything with a chump like that."
Ditta Lal indeed refused all entreaties, and kept his perch through the cold night. Lawrence sent him a bowl of soup, but he declined to unwreathe his arms from the rope. Only when, early next day, the planks had been firmly nailed to their supports did he allow himself to be wheeled in a trolley--for his limbs were numbed and useless--back to the mine. For the rest of the day he was not seen. For a week he avoided the boys, and made no more calculations except the elementary addition and subtraction of his store book-keeping.