That Eurasian

by Aleph Bey

CHAPTER VIII.

I have in my life attended many religious services, but never one that impressed me of so much good as those to the poor in our compound. This service was not restricted to Sunday, as is too often the case in religious matters, as if God was shut up in the churches and He only did business one day in the week.

Scarcely a day passed but some came to him for assistance of some kind, and very few went away without a token of his kindness. He was cautious in giving, yet he very often gave when he was not quite satisfied, saying: “I would rather take the chance of giving to twenty undeserving, than to fail once in doing right to any one. The deceivers hurt themselves more than any loss to me. I will do the best I can, and the settlement at last will be all right.” Then he added, “Charles, my boy, always remember this, a man who does a mean act always hurts himself more than anybody else. It may not seem so at the time, but sooner or later in this life, or the life to come, every wrong act will rebound upon the doer like a boomerang, and this will make an eternal punishment. This is one of God’s beneficent and inexorable laws, and I do not believe that He will or that He can change it. Whatever a man sows that shall he reap, is true, not because it is in the Bible, but because it is in harmony with the universal law of cause and effect, in nature, and also in morals.”

He often indulged in such reflections. It was his indirect way of appealing to my reason, in giving me suggestions and advice.

I have said that he was kind to the poor. He took a great interest in establishing hospitals and dispensaries in the district, and when the Government allowance for medicines was not sufficient, he supplied this from his own funds. He always kept a stock of medicines on hand and various medical works, which he had well studied, so that he was quite a doctor. For some of the villages remote from the dispensaries, he would send medicines for free distribution to some prominent native, usually a man in Government service, with full directions as to the use of them.

One day a native from one of these villages came to ask for a certain kind of medicine. He was asked how he knew of the medicine, and he answered that he had bought some of the Tahsildar sahib, and that he had gone to him for another bottle, but the Tahsildar sahib had demanded two rupees for it, and he had paid only one before, so he had come to the Barra Sahib. Mr. Percy told him that it was not possible that he was telling the truth in saying that he had bought the medicine. The man declared that he had told the truth. Mr. Percy, turning to me, said, “Well, Charles, we have some business in hand, and you must help me out. I believe this fellow, but his say so will not be sufficient proof against the Tahsildar. If we cannot get up a scheme to entrap this fraud we had better leave the country at once.” Ram Singh stood waiting very attentively, not understanding anything that we said. For a few minutes Mr. Percy sat with an elbow on each arm of his chair, with his hands in front of him, the tips of the fingers of one hand touching the tips of the other, while he looked away off, as if he could see help coming from a distance. This was often his attitude when engaged in deep thought. “I have it, I have it!” he exclaimed, and going into his library, returned with a ten-rupee note. “Now,” said he, “I will write something in Greek, and sign it with my initials, and you can put on it some writing with your name.” When he had finished, he handed the note to me, and as I turned to go to the other side of the table, there sat “Cockear” before me. This was a terrier always waiting and watching. We called him Cockear because his right ear always stood erect, or rather, leaned forward, while his left ear always hung down at the side of his head, giving him a most comical appearance. I had tried to make sketches of this dog, and on the impulse of the moment, with him before me, watching intently, as if he had some interest in the business in hand, I got a sketch of his head, particularly that ear of his, and wrote Charles in front, and Japhet after it, with “his” above and “mark” under the sketch.

A few days previous a soldier had come to sign some papers before the magistrate and I noticed he signed in this way with his mark. I was greatly surprised that a good looking European was unable to write his name, so I got the hint from the way he signed the paper. As I handed the note to Mr. Percy he exclaimed “Excellent! excellent! just the thing, couldn’t be better.” He sent for the villager and when he appeared he said, “Ram Singh, you know I am your friend, your bhai, brother.” “Certainly Sahib, I know it, for didn’t you come out and help me when I was in great trouble and came very near losing my fields.” “Now Ram Singh do you think you can do just as I tell you without a mistake?” “Certainly Sahib, if I have to die for it.” Said Mr. Percy, “Here is a ten-rupee note, now listen with both your ears for you must do just as I tell you.” “Without any doubt Sahib.” “You take this note, go back to your village and to-morrow morning, take two men, your friends with you, show them the note and then you go to the Tahsildar and buy a bottle of the medicine, give him the note and get eight rupees from him, do this so that your two friends can see the whole transaction and prove by them that you bought the medicine.”

Ram Singh was asked to repeat the instructions several times to show that he thoroughly understood them. And now said Mr. Percy “Don’t you gossip along the road with any one about this matter and don’t say a word about this to your wife for you know how the women chatter.” “Yes, yes, I know it too well,” he replied with a knowing look, for his wife’s free tongue had caused the trouble about the fields, and the Sahib had made a good point of it. “After you get the medicine, bring the bottle and the eight rupees and your two friends straight to me as quickly as you can, for I will be waiting for you.” Saying “very good, Sahib, it shall be just as your Honor has commanded,” he made his salaam and departed.

I was greatly interested in the affair, because I was admitted as a partner, a junior one to be sure, yet still a partner. I questioned if Ram Singh would do as he was told. “No doubt of it,” said Mr. Percy. “I know Ram Singh well, and he will do his part to the very letter just as I told him. That is the pleasure in dealing with these natives, if they have entire confidence in you, they have no minds of their own when in your service and never stop to reason, but do just as they are told. This is rather inconvenient at times. Once I gave a darzi some cloth and an old pair of trousers for a pattern and told him to make a pair just like the old ones, but to my dismay he put in all the patches and darns.”

I was considerably excited over our plot and showed it by my restlessness. “Charles, Charles,” said Mr. Percy, “You are too agitated. I am afraid you would never do for a judge.”