The Battery and the Boiler - Robert Michael Ballantyne (an ebook reader .txt) 📗

inquire after the great cable with which they now felt themselves to be specially connected.

"Letta," said Robin, as they went along, "you and I must part for a time."

"Oh! must we?" asked the child, with a distressed look.

"Yes, but only for a _very_ short time, dear," returned Robin. "You know we cannot get you a berth on board the Great Eastern. They won't even take you as chief engineer or captain!"

"But why not as the captain's daughter--or his wife?" said Letta, who thoroughly understood and enjoyed a joke.

"Because, Letta, you are engaged to me," replied Robin, with an offended look.

"O, yes; I forgot that. Well?"

Well, what we have arranged is this. I have met with many kind people here, some of whom have been greatly interested in your story, and one of them--a very nice lady, who is going home--has offered to take you with her, and deliver you safely to my mother in England, there to wait till I come home and marry you.

"How nice!" exclaimed Letta; "and you'll be sure to come home soon?"

"Yes, quite sure, and very soon."

This arrangement, being deemed satisfactory, was afterwards carried into effect, and Letta sailed a few days later in one of the regular steamers for England _via_ the Suez Canal.

Meanwhile the Great Eastern still lay at her moorings, completing the arrangements for her voyage.

During this period our hero lived in a whirl of excitement. It seemed to himself as if he were the subject of an amazing but by no means unpleasant dream, the only dark spots in which were the departure of Letta and the depravity of John Shanks, _alias_ James Gibson, _alias_ Stumps.

"Oh! Stumps, Stumps," he soliloquised, sadly, one day while standing on "the green" in the unromantic shade of a huge bale of cotton, "how could you behave so after being our trusted comrade so long!"

"Never mind Stumps just now," said Sam Shipton, making his appearance at the moment, "but come along with me at once, for we have received an invitation, through my good and remarkable friend Frank Hedley, to the grand entertainment to be given to-night at the palace of the chief and Bahee Sahib of Junkhundee."

"And who may that be?" asked Robin, with an incredulous smile.

"What! know you not the great chief whose praise is in the mouths of all--Hindu, Mohammedan, Jew, and Gentile, because he feeds and entertains them all like a prince?"

"He is the creation of your own brain, Sam. I fancy."

"No, indeed," protested Sam, earnestly, "I do not jest. The Bahee Sahib is a wealthy young Mahratta chieftain, who has been consistently loyal to us, and who entertains mixed parties of Englishmen and natives in European style, and does his best to break down the barriers of prejudice and caste. He has been hospitably received on board the Great Eastern, it seems, and is now getting up a grand affair in honour of Captain Halpin and his officers. So, come along."

"But, my dear Sam, you forget, we have not a dress suit between us, and in the present condition of our finances it would be folly to--"

"Fiddlesticks, Robin. We have only to make a couple of turbans out of bath-towels and a few peacock feathers; turn Persian shawls, which we can borrow, into kilts, put on slippers, bare our legs and paint them with red and blue stripes crossed, to indicate something of Scottish Highland origin, anoint our noses with blue bear's-grease, and--"

"Nonsense, Sam; be serious if you can, and consider what we are really to do."

"You're so impatient, Robin. The thing has all been considered for us. We have nothing to do but accept our fate. Frank Hedley, who is exactly your size, has a dress suit which he will lend you, and a friend of his, who happens to be exactly and conveniently my size, has also a suit, and is equally accommodating. Come now, for time presses, and I am told the Bahee's wife loves punctuality--but she's liberal-minded like her husband, and makes allowance for laziness, especially in hot weather. She is a regular trump, it seems, and quite amazed our electricians, during her visit to the big ship, by her intelligent comprehension of all they explained to her. She is an accomplished equestrian, and dresses as a native princess, with a huge ornament in her nose, but does not disdain to mingle with English ladies in the Bombay Rotten Row, and uses a European saddle."

The account which Sam had thus slightly sketched was more than borne out by the facts that evening. The young Rajah's reception-rooms, blazing with light, were decorated with all that the wealth of fancy could suggest or the wealth of precious metal procure, while music and perfume filled the air and intoxicated the senses.

For some time Sam and Robin moved slowly about in the crowded rooms, finding themselves rubbing shoulders, now with Eastern aristocrats in richest costume and glittering jewels, now with England's warriors in scarlet and blue; sometimes with Parsees, Hindus, Mohammedans, and Jews in their characteristic garbs; at other times with European civilians, like themselves, in sober black.

It was a bewildering scene, and the loud continuous murmur of many voices, chattering in many tongues, did not tend to decrease the bewilderment.

"What are they about over there?" said Robin, directing his companion's attention to a room in which the people appeared to be observing something with great attention.

"I don't know. Let's go and see," said Sam.

A little polite pushing brought them into an apartment in which an English professor of conjuring, who had been engaged for the occasion, was exhibiting his tricks. They were poor enough, and would not have commanded much applause from any audience, except one that had met to enjoy whatever chanced to be provided.

In another room, however, they found a performer of much greater capacity--a man who possessed considerable powers as a musician, low comedian, and local satirist; he was noted for his delineations of native character, and succeeded in making the Parsees laugh heartily at his caricature of the Hindus, while he convulsed the Hindus with his clever skits on the Parsees. He also made effective reference to the Great Eastern and her work, bringing out the humorous aspects of telegraphy and of quick communication between India and England.

"Come, let's go and see if we can find anything to eat," said Sam, when tired of this man.

"Who is that?" asked Robin, as they moved through the crowd.

"Why, that's the Bahee himself. See, he has got hold of Captain Halpin, and seems greatly pleased to lead him about."

The Rajah did indeed exhibit much satisfaction in his beaming brown face at having got hold of so noted a character as the commander of the monster ship, and it was pleasant to see the almost childlike glee, with which, taking the captain by the hand, he threaded his way through the crowd, introducing him right and left to his friends. Not less pleasant was it to observe the lively interest, with which the natives regarded the captain when they learned who he was.

At this point in the evening's proceedings, a gentleman in civilian costume came up to Sam Shipton, and asked him if he were acquainted with Mr Davis--one of the petty officers of the Great Eastern.

"I know him slightly," said Sam.

"He has got into trouble, sir," said the stranger, "and begged me to find you, if possible, and take you to him. I have been on board the Great Eastern looking for you, and was directed here."

"That's strange," returned Sam, "I have seldom spoken to the man. Are you sure he did not send you for some one else--one of his mess-mates?"

"Quite sure, sir. And he bade me urge you to go quickly, else you may be too late."

"Well--lead the way. Come, Robin, I'm sorry to quit this gay and festive scene--especially before supper--but it can't be helped. You'll go with me, and we can return together."

The stranger seemed to hesitate a moment, as if annoyed at Robin being thus asked to go, but, as if quickly making up his mind, led them out of the Rajah's residence, and, after a smart walk, conducted them into one of the poorer districts of the city.

"What sort of trouble has the man got into?" asked Sam as they went along.

"I really do not know. He will tell you when you see him, I suppose. I am only a casual acquaintance of his, and came on this errand to oblige him, solely because he seemed in great mental distress and was very urgent."

Soon the conversation turned upon cable-laying, and, finding that Robin had been at the laying of the Atlantic cable of 1856, the stranger inquired about the attempts that had been made to injure that cable.

"Tell me, now, would you think it a sin," he said, with a peculiar look at Sam, "to drive a nail into the cable so as to destroy it, if you were offered the sum of ten thousand pounds?"

"Of course I would," said Sam, looking at his conductor with surprise. "I wonder that you should ask the question."

"Why should you wonder," returned the man with a smile, "at any question which aims at the investigation of that great enigma styled the human mind? I am fond of the study of character, and of those principles of good and evil which influence men. Under given circumstances and conditions, the commission of a certain sin is greatly more blameworthy than the commission of the same sin under different conditions and circumstances. Do you not think so?"

"Of course I do," said Sam. "The man who, having been born and brought up among pickpockets, and under strong temptation commits a theft, is not nearly so guilty as the man would be who, having been trained under refined and Christian influences, should commit a similar theft; but I do not see the application of your argument, for your question did not refer to the relative depth of guilt, but to the sinfulness or innocence of a certain dastardly act for a tempting sum of money."

"I may not have put my question very philosophically," returned the stranger, "but I would like to have your opinion as to whether you think, under _any_ circumstances of distress--poverty, for instance, with those dependent on one dying of hunger--a man would be justified in destroying the power of a telegraph cable for a sum of money--part, let us suppose, paid in advance, and the remainder after the deed had been accomplished."

"My opinion is that no circumstances whatever would justify such an act," said Sam with indignation. "Don't you agree with me, Robin?"

"Of _course_ I do," said Robin with even greater indignation.

"And _I_ quite agree with you, gentlemen," said the stranger, with a wider smile than before; "but I like to have my opinions corroborated or combated by other minds. We have now reached our destination; please follow me, and stoop a little, for the ceiling of the passage is rather low, and the poor people here cannot afford to light it."

The recent discussion had diverted Sam's mind from the character of the place into which he had been led, but a suspicion which had been growing now assailed him