He moved away into the wood. Hi heard him there beating shrubs at about a hundred yards from him. At that distance he was not likely to hear small movements in the bush; Hi was able to change his position to a thicker patch of scrub and to deal with the midges. After an hour of searching, Letcombe-Bassett became silent. “He’s resting,” Hi thought, “or waiting for some sign. He thinks that if I’m alive I shall think that he is gone and get up to go; while, if I am dead, the carrion-birds or those beastly ‘betes-puants’ will show where I am.”
Letcombe-Bassett was in fact waiting for just those reasons. He had nothing better to do: he enjoyed snap-shooting and would gladly wait all day for a shot: he had besides found cause to believe that Hi had not budged. Presently, he came nearer to Hi and called, “All right, son, my Indios will be here at twelve with chow. We’ll see how you feel with some Indio trackers after you.” This was the last threat for the time: after this he came slowly up the hill, kicking or beating at some patches, though not searching them as on his way down. He passed within fifteen yards of Hi, somewhere out of sight in the talpas and sari-sari. In a few minutes, Hi heard him burst through a patch of crackle into the clearing.
“He’s going to wait for the Indian trackers,” Hi thought. “Or is that just a ruse of his? I wonder how long it is to twelve.”
XVII
He reckoned that he had breakfasted before seven, and had been at the ruin before nine: perhaps it was eleven now. Almost at once, he heard the chant of Indians and the drone of a pipe coming towards the clearing. “My luck is out again,” he thought. “Here are the Indians: this is where I shall stop, then.” He heard Letcombe-Bassett hail the Indians: he was still close to, at the edge of the clearing. Hi could hear the goobies clatter as the men trotted across to him. He heard the man address them, explaining what he wished them to do; and the grunting of the Indians as they understood and assented.
He was tempted to rise and run; but the memory of the swiftness of the man’s shooting held him back. “He would have half a dozen shots in the first half minute,” he thought, “and then the Indians would run me down. I’ve no chance that way; but this way I may get one bang at an Indian, if not at him.” He squirmed down into his patch, while the man led the Indians to the spot where he had entered cover some hours before. “Leu-in, hounds, eleu, ed-hoick,” the man called. The Indians came into cover, just like hounds, and began to cast, with little cries and ejaculations, like the whimper of hounds, feathering yet not quite owning to it. “Ed-hoick,” the man called. “Yooi, pash him up. Hoik to Chaunter: hoik. Hoik to Dowsabel. Yooi, yooi, yooi; fetch him out.”
“We all know you’ve been terrier-boy to the North Surrey,” Hi thought with bitterness. “You need not advertise the fact.”
The hounds came eastwards in a very wide cast. “It’s a drive,” Hi thought. “They’re going to make a semi-circle, and drive me up to the gun. He’s going to stay in the clearing, to pot me when I break.”
He had not time to consider the matter, for the Indians were moving swiftly to him, some above him, some below, and one straight for him. They were on the work they did best in the world. They were doing it with enjoyment, with little quick cries, one to another. “No power on earth can stop that Indian from seeing me,” Hi thought. “He’s coming straight for me.” In an instant the Indian had thrust aside the scrub, so that Hi saw him plainly. He was a short, squat, plump young Indian brave, in a cotton shirt; he had long black hair sleeked down with fat; he had a gold half-moon in his nose; he carried a spear, and bore a blow-pipe on his back. Their eyes met. Hi had never seen him before, that he could remember. He was a broad-faced, high-cheek-boned man, with hardly any nose, like most of the tribe. He looked at Hi and Hi at him for one marvellous second, in which they understood each other. So will a man and dog meet, understand and pass on, with no word said, yet the dog wagging his tail. The Indian smiled and passed on, and Hi knew that it was all right.
The little quick cries became a little louder, that was all, some sort of a message passed down the line, to let the Indians know.