The Three Mulla-mulgars Read online

  CHAPTER XI

  Battle went out hunting as usual the next morning. Tracks of leopardswere everywhere in the night's thin snow. He ventured not far into theforest, and returned with only a poor old withered bird, too cold andweak to fly off from his gun.

  "It's this way, my son," he said; "I've heard the thing before. Thathowl brings half the forest against me, like blue-flies to meat. So allI does is to keep a weather-eye open, and musket a-cock. One of thesedays, Mulgar _mio_, Shadow or no Shadow, she shall have a brace ofbullets in her vitals, as sure as my name's Battle." But in spite of hisfine words, he crouched gloomy and distracted beside his fire all day,casting ever and anon a stealthy glance over his shoulder, and liftinghis eye slowly above the flames, to survey the clustering fringes of theforest around his hut.

  But Nod told Battle nothing of his talk with the old hare. He did notas much as tell him even that his brothers were near, or that he hadseen Immanala. He cleaned his master's gun. He busied himself over hisNano-cakes and nuts, and prevailed on Battle to eat by making him laughat his antics. The more he thought of leaving him, and of the danger ofthe coming night, and the stony cruelty of Immanala's gloating eyes, hisheart fell deeper and deeper into trouble and dismay. But each time whenit seemed he must run away and hide himself he gulped his terror down,and touched his Wonderstone.

  He himself lugged out Battle's Juddie when evening fell. But Battle hadno mind for merriment and braveries that night. He picked out idly onthe strings old mournful chanties that sailors sometimes sing; and hetaught Nod a new song to bray out in his queer voice, "She's me forgot":

  "'Me who have sailed Leagues across Foam haunted By the albatross, Time now hath made Remembered not: Ay, my dear love Hath me forgot.

  "'Oh, how should she, Whose beauty shone, Keep true to one Such long years gone? Grief cloud those eyes!-- I ask it not: Content am I-- She's me forgot.

  "'Here where the evening Ooboe wails, Bemocking England's nightingales, Bravely, O sailor, Take thy lot; Nor grieve too much, She's thee forgot!'"

  But even between his slow-drawled, shakety notes of deep and shrill Nodlistened for the least stir in the forest, and seemed to hear the low,hungry calls and scamperings of Immanala's hunting-pack, which she hadsummoned from far and near to the tangled ravine beneath the rock.

  He got Battle early to bed by telling him he would dress his woundedshoulder, which was angry and inflamed, with a poultice of leaves suchas his mother, Mutta-matutta, had taught him to make. "Now," says he,"it be broad full-moontime, master, and all Munza-mulgar will be gonehunting. But wake not. Nod, Prince of Tishnar, will watch;" and even ashe said it came remembrance of the Pigs to mind.

  Battle laughed, thinking what wondrous good sense these two-leggedmonkeys seemed to have, concerning which King Angeca had yet himselfoften assured him that it is all nothing but a show and pretence, sinceman alone has wisdom and knowledge, and little remains over for thebeasts to share.

  The warmth and sleepiness of his big poultice soon set him snoring. Andin a blaze of moonlight Nod warily opened the door, and stood in thesquat black shadow of the hut, looking out over the forest. He hadbound himself up tight. He had wound up his Wonderstone in a piece oflead that he had found in the hut to keep it from hopping in his pocket,and had stuck the sailor's sharp sheath-knife down the leg of hisbreeches.

  Then, like but an Utt or a gnome in that great waste of whiteness, hesallied out to destroy the Nameless. He came to the rock, but no shadowcouched there now in the sheen. He crept on all fours, and between twogreat frost-lit boulders peeped into the ravine. There, changing andstirring, shone the numberless small green lanterns of the eyes ofImmanala's hunting-pack. He heard their low whinings and the soft crunchof their clawed feet in the snow. Else all was still.

  And Nod called in a low voice: "Why do you hide from me, Immanala, Queenof Shadows?"

  He waited, but no answer came. "Venture out, mistress," cried Nodlouder, "and we will be off together to the Oomgar's hut. You shall siton the roof and watch the hunting-dogs at their supper."

  At that, up by a narrow path from the ravine stole Immanala, and all theJack-Alls and Jaccatrays fell silent, staring with blazing eyes out ofthe darkness.

  "Call not so lustily, Prince of Tishnar!" she said, fawning; "we shallawake the Oomgar."

  "Ohe," said Nod boldly; "he sleeps deep. He fears neither beast norMeermut in all this frozen Munza. Bid your greedy slaves stand ready,Immanala. When I whistle them, supper is up."

  Immanala lifted her flat grey head, and seemed to listen. "I hear theharps of Tishnar in the forest. The leaves of the branches of the treesof my master N[=o][=o]manossi stir, and yet there moves no wind."

  She fixed her colourless eyes on Nod, with her ears on her long, smoothforehead pricked forward. "What is the cunning Mulgar thinking beneathall he says? Like fine sand in water, I hear the rustling of histhoughts."

  Nod took a long breath and shut his eyes. "I was thinking," he said,"what stupid fellows must be these dogs of yours, seeing that each andevery one keeps whimpering, 'The head--the head for me!' But they mustwait in patience yet a little longer, if even a knucklebone is to be ashare. I will go forward and choose out all that I and theMulla-mulgars, my brothers, want of the Oomgar's house-treasures beforethe Jaccatrays tear everything to pieces."

  "Softly, now, softly," said Immanala. "You think very little of me,Nizza-neela. Do you dream I came from far to protect you from my slaves,Roses and Jaccatray, and now am to get nothing for my pains? What ofthat stiff coat drenched with magic? That is mine. No, no, little greedyMulgar; we share together, or I have all."

  "Well, well," said Nod, as if unwilling, "you shall take part, mistress,though all that's there is truly Tishnar's. Follow quietly! I will seeif my Zbaffle be still asleep."

  Immanala crouched snarling in the moonlight, and Nod ran swiftly to thehut. The moon streamed in on the sailor's upturned face, where, lyingflat on his back, he snored and snored and snored. Then Nod very quietlytook down from its wooden hook the sailor's great skin coat, his belt ofEphelanto-hide, his huge hair hat, all such as in his wanderings he hadcaptured from black Kings and men of magic. He filled the pockets, hestuffed them with bullets and copper rings and stones and lumps ofice--everything heavy that he could find. At the rattling of the stonesBattle rolled over, muttering hoarsely in his sleep. Nod stoppedinstantly and listened. No words he understood. Then once more he set towork, and soon had dragged the huge stiff coat and hat and belt one byone over the door-log into the snow.

  "Hither, come hither! Hasten, mistress!" he called softly, caperinground about them. "Here's a sight to cheer your royal heart! Here'sriches! What have we here but the magic coat which the Oomgar strippedfrom the M'keeso of the old Lord Shillambansa, that feeds a hundredpeacocks on his grave?"

  Very, very heedfully Immanala drew near on her belly in the snow.Cat-like, she smelt and capered.

  "Have no fear, Beast of Shadows," called Nod softly; "the Oomgar sleepslike moss on the Tree of Everlasting."

  Then all her vanity and greed welled up in the Beast of Shadows, forwhosoever her dam may be, and all her lineage of solitude andstrangeness, she has more greed than a wolf, more vanity than a vixen.She thrust her long lean head into the Cap.

  "Do but now let me help you, mistress," said Nod, "as I used to help theOomgar. Stand upright, and I will thrust your arms into the sleeves. Wemust hasten, we must be quiet." At every glance her greed and vanityincreased. Nod heaved and tugged till his thick fur lay dank on hispoll, and at last the dreadful Beast was draped and swathed and mantledfrom ears to tail in the Oomgar's coat.

  "Now for the Dondo's belt of sorcery," said Nod. "Sure, none will daresneeze in Munza-mulgar when the sailorman is gone." He put the thickbelt round her lean body, though his head swam with her muskiness, anddrew it tight into the buckle.

  "Gently, gently, little brother!" sighed Imman
ala. "It is heavy, and Iscarce can breathe."

  "The very Oomgar himself used often to snort," said Nod.

  "But why does he keep so many stones in his pocket?" pined Immanala.

  "Why, Queen of Wisdom! What if the wind should blow, and all his magicflit away? Ay, ay, ay! stripped from the M'keeso of the dead LordShillambansa came this coat into my Messimut's hands, who feeds fivehundred peacocks on his grave! And now his wondrous Cap of Hair! NineFulbies, as I live, were flayed to skin that cap withal," said Nod, "andseven rogue Ephelantoes gave the Oomgar of their tails."

  "Ah yes, ah yes!" groaned Immanala; "but what are seventy Ephelantoescompared with Immanala, Queen of All?"

  "Now," said Nod, "I will weary myself no more with speeches. Is itwarm?"

  "I am in a furnace; I burn."

  "Is it too loose? Does it wrinkle? Does it sag?"

  "Oh, but I can breathe but a mouthful at a time!"

  "Last and last again, then," said Nod, packing into the pockets one ortwo of the stones and bullets and lumps of ice that had fallen out, "isit comfortable?"

  "O my friend, my scarce-wise Mulgar-royal, when did you ever hear thatgrand clothes were comfortable?"

  "Wait but a little moment, then, while I go in to fetch the magic-glass,that will show you your face, Immanala, handsome and lovesome."

  The Beast struggled faintly in her magic coat. "Have a care--oh, have acare, Ummanodda! The gun, the gun! The Oomgar might wake. Let me creepswiftly to my stone, and bring the glass to me there."

  "The Oomgar will not wake," said Nod; "he sleeps as deep as the Ghost ofthe Rose upon the bosom of Tishnar."

  "But, O Mulgar, think again. Strip off from my body this grievous belt,"she pleaded; "you will keep nothing for yourself."

  "Have no fear, friend," said Nod shakily; "I will keep"--and his eyesmet hers in the shadow of the hat, stony and merciless and ravenous--"Iwill keep," he grunted, "my Zbaffle."

  He went into the hut and seated himself on a little stool. Then verycarefully he took the Wonderstone out of his pocket and unwrapped it.Its pale gleam mingled softly with the moonlight, as a rainbow mingleswith foam. Wetting his left thumb with spittle, he rubbed it softly,softly, Samaweeza, three times round. And distant and clear as theshining of a star a voice seemed to cry: "The Spirit of Tishnar answers,Prince Ummanodda Nizza-neela; what dost thou require of me?"

  "Oh, by Tishnar, only this," said Nod, trembling: "that thenine-and-ninety hunting-dogs in their hunting mistake the raveningBeast of Shadows, Immanala, for the sailorman, Zbaffle, my master andfriend."

  And surely, when Nod looked out from the doorway, it seemed that,strange and terrible, the shape muffled within the Oomgar's coat wasswollen out, stretched lean and tall, that even lank gold hair diddangle on her shoulders from beneath the furry cap. It seemed he heard afar-away crying--crying, out of that monstrous bale, as the creaturewithin, standing hidden from the moonlight, began to sway and stir andtotter over the snow. And Nod, choking with terror, called one wordonly--"Sulani!" Then, with all his force, he whistled once, twice,thrice, clear and loud and long and shrill; then he shut fast the doorand barred it, and went and crouched beside the Oomgar's bed.

  Already Battle was wide awake. "Ahoy!" said he, and started up andthrust out his hand for his gun.

  "Steady--oh, steady, Oomgar Zbaffle!" said Nod. "It is dogs of theImmanala only, that soon will be gone."

  Even as he spoke rose out of the distance a dreadful baying and howling.Battle leapt up out of his bed to the window-hole. But Nod squattedshivering, his face hidden in his hands.

  "Ghost of me! What is it?" said Battle to himself. "What beast is thisthey're after--M'keeso, or Man of the Woods?"

  It reeled, it fell, it rose up; it wheeled slowly, faintly weeping andwhining, and then stood still, with arms lifted high, struggling like aman with a great burden. But over the crudded snow, like a cloud acrossthe moon, streamed with brindled hair on end, jaws gaping and flamingeyes, the hungry pack of the Shadow's hunting-dogs. "Oomgar, Oomgar,Oomgar, Oomgar!" they yelled one to another. "Immanala, Immanala, death,death, death!" And presently, while Battle in amazement watched, therecame one miserable cry of fear and pain. The tottering shape seemed tomelt, to vanish.

  Then Nod scampered and opened the door.

  "What say you now, hunting-dogs? Was the Oomgar tender or tough?"

  "Tough, tough!" they yelled.

  "Go, then, and tell your mistress, Queen of Shadows, Immanala, that youhave supped with the Prince of Tishnar, and are satisfied."

  "Why lurks the little Mulgar in the Oomgar's hut?" yelped a lank hoaryJaccatray.

  "I guard her treasures for the Nameless," said Nod; but he had hardlysaid the word when he heard Battle striding to the door.

  "It's no good prattling and blabbing, my son," he was saying. "If comeit be, it's come. Off, now, while your skin's whole, and let me give therogues a taste of powder."

  Two or three of the hunting-dogs yelped aloud. "What, my brothers!" saidNod. "Did you hear the Oomgar's Meermut calling for his gun?"

  A few of the meaner dogs scampered off a few paces at this, sniffing andcocking their ears.

  "Out of the way, Pongo," whispered the Englishman through the doorway,and the next moment there fell a crash that nearly toppled Nod into thesnow, and Battle strode out of the hut with his smoking musket. But thecowardly Jack-Alls, at sound of his gun and at sight of the ghost of theOomgar they had torn to pieces, lifted up their voices in a howl ofterror, and in an instant over the snow they swept off at a gallop, andsoon were lost in the moonless silence and shadowiness of Munza.

  Nod turned towards the hut. Battle stood in his breeches, his gun in hishand, his blue eyes wide open as if in fear.