Jimgrim Series. Talbot Mundy

Narayan Singh’s; certainly not mine.

      Grim told her to go to her tent, and she obeyed him as meekly as Ruth obeyed Boaz. I thought he was going to talk things over with the Sikh and me, but after another minute’s silence he dismissed us as well.

      “I’ve had all the sleep I need,” he said. “I think I’ll keep watch up here and puzzle out the workings of this mix-up. Suppose you fellows turn in down below there and make up for lost time. I guess I’ll maybe need all your faculties when daylight comes.”

      So off we went, and turned in. It’s mortifying in a way to be sent to bed like a small boy when your own life as likely as not hangs on the issue of deliberation. But there’s nothing to be gained by intruding either your opinions or curiosity on a man who does his thinking best when undisturbed. I had a sort of nettled feeling that I’m not sure I wasn’t entitled to, and that kept me from falling asleep for an hour. After that, Narayan Singh’s snores made sleep impossible, until I put the heel of a tent-peg in his mouth. And even then, the intermittent roars of laughter of our gang, who would wake one another to discuss some fresh angle of the situation, kept me from little more than dozing until nearly dawn. They seemed to consider that Ali Higg’s turning the tables by masquerading as Jimgrim was the most prodigious joke that had ever been sprung on an amusing world.

      When I left the tent at daybreak Grim was still sitting up there on the island, motionless, not even smoking. I went up at once, to find out whether he had formed a plan.

      “Well?” I asked.

      “Yes,” he said, “I think all’s well. I’d like to pull up stakes and get a move on, but we’ve got to consider the camels; the silly fools have lain there all night long with good corn on mats beside them and haven’t touched a mouthful. We’ve got to wait and let them eat.”

      “What after that?”

      “I want you and Narayan Singh to scout ahead and get in touch with Ibrahim ben Ah. The best bet would be to find Ali Baba first, but that’s too much like luck to happen. He’s a shrewd old fox, and if he gets first sight of you he’s dead sure to try to give Ibrahim ben Ah the slip and give you the news out of earshot. Next best after that would be for you to take his place with Ibrahim ben Ah, and let the old man come to me with information. Somehow or other I’ve got to know the exact state of mind of that army of Ali Higg’s before we try the long chance.”

      “Which is?”

      “To send Ayisha to command them.”

      I laughed. “She’ll be a safer bet than Jael ever was,” said I, “as long as she thinks there’s a chance of her becoming Mrs. Jimgrim.”

      But he smiled back like a chess-player who can see about nine moves ahead.

      “Jael kids herself she’s dangerous,” he said. “But I allow she’ll watch her step on account of her fifty thousand pounds. And the Lion will watch his for the same reason. Besides, I’m counting on that sore neck to take the pep out of him. Prospects aren’t so gloomy. What do you say to our setting those camels an example? Is breakfast ready?”

      “See here, James Schuyler Grim,” I answered. “You’re a darned good man, and I like you, and all that. But suppose you come across for once! Narayan Singh is a soldier; he’ll obey orders and ask no questions, but I’m neither built nor trained that way. Doesn’t it seem to you like good sense to take me into confidence?”

      “Haven’t I?” he asked, raising his eyebrows in obviously genuine surprise. “Seems to me I’ve trusted you till it’s become a kind of habit.”

      “Have I failed you,” I retorted, “that you can’t give me at least an outline of your plan now?”

      “Oh, is that the trouble?” He seemed suddenly relieved. “Why, no; that doesn’t seem like sense to me. My plan might be no good. If that’s so, I can change it. But if I tell it to you now, you’re going to bear it in mind, and if any unforeseen contingency crops up you’re going to be governed by the plan I outlined and maybe act in some way so that I shall have to follow up —which might be mighty inconvenient. But as long as you don’t know what I’m contemplating you’re not limited by it, any more than I’m limited by having to consult you before making a sudden change. We’d be like two fellows trying to play one poker hand.”

      “I should think you could give me a general idea.”

      “The general idea is to get in touch with the Avenger now, and bluff him.”

      “I know that, of course. But along what line? What general principle?”

      “I wonder if you’d mind not pressing that?” he answered. “Let’s have this clear. It isn’t you I don’t trust, it’s myself. The thought that I wasn’t absolutely free at any minute to turn my whole plan bottom-side up, or discard it and try another one, would rattle me so I’d make mistakes. I haven’t a secret you can’t know; but I hate to tell a man something I don’t know for sure; I’d feel sort of weak and helpless afterwards. It’s my fault, not yours; I’m built that way. If it isn’t doing right by you, I beg your pardon and ask you to be tolerant.”

      Well, I don’t know that I liked it any better at the time, but I saw his point. I have got so since that I never think of pinning him down to an outline since his plan in any undertaking; and the method works well although —and perhaps because—it calls for every ounce of zeal. You’re on the jump the whole time. Not knowing what he’s going to do next, you’re like an infielder with three on bases. But he has to choose his men discreetly. There are plenty of men more useful than myself, for instance, who wouldn’t stand his reticence for a day. On the other hand, I never knew a man less prone to find fault than he is, or one more superbly tolerant of others’ shortcomings.

      A little more than an hour after dawn, while the desert was still cool, Narayan Singh and I set off together on the two best camels. I don’t doubt I was still humping a grouch, and Narayan Singh divined the reason of it.

      “By the bones in these hills,” he laughed, “this is better sport than serving with the Army, sahib! A soldier in the ranks such as I have ever been, and such as I am like to be again unless our fate overtakes us all on this adventure, is told nothing—knows nothing—is nothing. He obeys. If a fool of an officer marches him face-first into hell, there is not even the satisfaction of a sort of explanation. Scouting for the Army is rather better fun; but it is very little that a man finds out, and oftener than not that little is ignored; at the best, that one little scrap of information is but added to the mass like a grain of sand into a bushel of the stuff. Neither may a man scout as he would like to, but only as another wills. Whereas with Jimgrim—”

      “Oh, shut up!” I growled. “I’m not here to be preached at.”

      “In an army, sahib, there would be much damning and very little preaching,” he answered. “Whereas with Jimgrim, though he tells us precious little, we are free like hounds to draw the coverts for him, and there is neither leash nor whip. Il hamdul’illah!as these heathen say; that Jimgrim is a prince of huntsmen, who knows when a good hound bays on a true scent. But an army has too many huntsmen, who talk among themselves, saying: ‘Yes, sir, no sir,’ and then command the pack with a ‘Lo! the General Staff decrees that the scent lies yonder in that direction; therefore make haste to find it and bark aloud!’ This Jimgrim would have been a king if his mother had borne him on this side of the Atlantic. Are there others like him in America?”

      Well, I grew good-tempered gradually, if for no other reason than because it was absurd to find fault with a man who could arouse such enthusiasm in a follower. Besides, I like Grim; and it’s one of my fundamental articles of marrow-bone religion that if I’m a man’s friend he may get away with anything except black treason.

      But leaving all that out of the reckoning, I defy any man to start off in the morning on a camel alongside Narayan Singh, with friends behind and the unknown just beyond the shimmering horizon, and retain a grouch for twenty minutes.

      The hot wind wasn’t due for an hour or two.