Well, he had shored up his credit with our side, sure enough, with little Dalip in his hands for good measure. That was his affair, and I wished him joy of it; my own concern was that I'd failed in my own immediate mission, thanks to him and Gardner, and what was I going to tell Hardinge?
"Why, that ye had the child safe, but were hard pressed by Khalsa riders, when in the nick of time came loyal Goolab to snatch thee and him to safety! Is it not true, after all? And perforce ye must leave the lad with Goolab, who would nowise part with him, fearing for his safety with all these Khalsa bravos loose about the country!" He chuckled and drank again, wiping his whiskers; you never saw roguery so pleased with itself. "it will make a brave tale … so that ye tell it right." He fixed me with a meaning eye. "It will profit us all, Flash-man sahib."
I asked, pretty sour, how it could profit me, and he gave me a leery look. "What would ye have that the King of Kashmir can give … when he comes into his own? There Is rich employment, if you wish it, up yonder. Aye, and a warm welcome from that bonny widow, my good-sister. Think on it, bahadur.
Ironic, wasn't it—a queen hoping to wed me, a king offering me golden rewards, when all my worldly ambition was to step from Colaba Causeway to the deck of a homeward-bound Indiaman, and never see their dirty, Dangerous country again. I could just thank my stars I'd come this far, to this snug camp under Jupindar rocks, testing and boozing by Goolab's fire, with little Dalip fast asleep in a tent close by (Goolab had fairly grovelled to him, but the lordly mite had been too fagged to do more than accept it coolly and curl up), and the Khalsa lancers disarmed and under guard; they'd taken it without a Murmur, once they'd discovered who their captor was. Thus far in safety, and in the meantime all I could do was slope off over the river and report failure to Hardinge—he'd enjoy that.
To my surprise, I slept sound at Jupindar, and it was after noon when I broke the news to Dalip that he would not be coming with me to the Sirkar's army after all, but must stay awhile with his kinsman, Goolab Singh, until it was safe for him to go home to Mama. I'd expected a royal tantrum, but he took it without a blink of those great brown eyes, nodding gravely as he looked about the camp, aswarm with Goolab's followers.
"Aye, I see how it is—they are many, and you are but three," says he. "May I have my pistol now, Flashman bahadur?
That rattled me, I confess. Here he was, not two chamberpots high, lifted in disguise from his mother's palace, fired on and pursued through the dark and cold, left in the hands of a ruffian of whom he could have heard nothing but evil—and all that concerned him was the promised pepperbox. No doubt Sindiawalla princelings were used alarm and excursion from the cradle, and God knows how much children understand, anyway -- but it struck me that whatever faults Dalip Singh developed in later years, funk wouldn't be one of them. Quite awe-inspiring, he was.
We were standing apart from the others, while Goolab drank his morning toddy on a rug outside his tent, watching slantendicular, and Jassa and Ahmed lounged by the horses. I beckoned Ahmed and took out the Cooper, Dalip watching round-eyed as I drew the six loads. I showed him the mechanism, and set the gun in his small fist; he had to grip well up the stock to get his finger near the ring.
"Ahmed Shah will keep these rounds for you, maharaj'," says I, "and load them at your need."
"I can load!" says majesty, struggling manfully with the cylinder. "And I would have the pistol charged—I cannot shoot thieves and badmashes with an empty toy!"
I assured him there were no thieves about, and he gave me a forty-year-old look. "And that fat bearded one yonder, the Dogra whom you call my kinsman? Mangla says he would steal the droppings from a goat!"
This boded well for Goolab's guardianship, no error. "Now, see here, maharaj', Raja Goolab is your friend, and will guard you until your return to Lahore, which will be soon. And Ahmed Shah here will bide with you also -he is a soldier of the Sirkar, and my comrade, so you must obey him in all things." Which was stretching it, for I hardly knew Ahmed, but he was a Broadfoot Pathan, and the best I could do. To him I said: "On thy head, 'Yusufzai," and he nodded and tapped his hilt. Dalip looked at him critically.
"Can he help me to shoot the gun, at need? Well then, so be it. But that great belly yonder is still a thief. I will stay with him, and mind him, but I will not trust him. He may guard me and yet rob me too, because I am little." I le was examining the Cooper as he delivered his judgment, sotto voce, on Goolab's character, but then he stuck the pistol in his sash and spoke clear, in his shrill treble.
"A gift for a gift, bahadur! Bow your head!"
Wondering, I stooped towards him, and to my amazement he lifted the heavy silver locket from about his neck mid threw the chain over my head, and for a moment his little arms locked tight, holding me, and I felt' him tremble and his tears suddenly wet on my face. "I will be brave! I will be brave, bahadur! whispers he, sobbing. "But you must keep it for me, till you come again to Lahore!" Then 1 set him down, and he stood rubbing his eyes angrily, while Goolab came limping, to apologise for intruding on his majesty, but it was time we were all on our various roads.
Did asked where he would take the Maharaja, and he said no farther than Pettee, a few miles off, where his fighting men were assembling; he had brought forty thousand down from Jumoo "- in case the Jangi lat should need assistance against these rebel dogs of the Khalsa; haply we may cut them up as they flee from Sobraon! Then," and he bowed as far as his belly would let him, "we must see to it that your majesty has a new army, of true men!" Dalip took this with a good grace, whatever he may have been thinking.
It was time to go, and Jassa mounted alongside me -that was the moment when I knew for certain that he hadn't been party to Gardner's little plot. He'd seemed as stunned as I was to find Goolab Singh waiting at Jupindar, but that might have been acting—the fact that he was riding back to Hardinge with me was proof of his innocence. I gave a last salutation to Dalip, standing very small and steady apart from old Goolab, and then Jassa and I rode south from Jupindar rocks—with our tails between our legs, if you like … and two million pounds' worth of crystallised carbon round my neck.
He was a canny infant and wise beyond his years, young Dalip—wasn't he just? He knew Goolab wouldn't dare harm his person—but his property was another matter. If the old fox had guessed the Koh-i-Noor was within reach, then that wondrous treasure would surely have found its way to Kashmir. And in his infant innocence, Dalip had passed it to me, for safe-keeping …
I brooded on that as we trotted south over the doab in the misty afternoon, with Jupindar fading from sight behind us, and the distant green that marked the Sutlej coming into view ahead. By rights I should have been deciding where to cross, and calculating our bearing from Sobraon, where presently all hell would be let loose. But having the most precious object in the world bobbing against your belly concentrates the mind wonderfully; it ain't just the fearful responsibility, either. All kinds of mad fancies flit by not to be taken seriously, you under-stand, but food for wild imaginings—like bleaching your hair and striking out for Valparaiso under the name of Butterworth and never looking near England again … two million quid, Lord love us! Aye, but how d'you dispose of a diamond the size of a tangerine? Not in Amsterdam … probably to some swindling shark who'd set the traps after you … I could picture myself going mad in a garret, gibbering at a treasure I was too windy to sell … But if you could, and disappear … Gad, the life you could lead—estates, palaces, luxury by the bucket, gold cigar-boxes and silk drawers, squads of slaves and battalions of willing women, visions of Xanadu and Babylon and unlimited boozing and frolic …