Peace with Honour

by Sydney C. Grier

Dick found a pair of scissors in the dead man’s medicine-chest, and Sir Dugald cut off a lock of hair and placed it carefully in his pocket-book. Then he went across to the Mission, returning in a short time with two servants, whom he set to work at their mournful task, and leaving Dick to superintend them, went back to break the news to his wife and Georgia. Presently he was summoned again to the doctor’s house to meet the official who had returned with Stratford from the Palace, and who bore assurances of the grief and wrath felt by the King on account of the crime which had been committed. Stratford brought word that the monarch’s utterances seemed to be really sincere, and that it was probable that even if the murder was justly attributed to Fath-ud-Din, his master had no share in it. He had come to the door of the Palace to meet Stratford, finding that he would not enter, and to all appearance was struck with surprise and horror at his news. The thought that the Queen of England might suspect that he had plotted the murder of her officer seemed to impress him particularly, and he was ready to order every possible step to be taken that could lead to the detection of the criminals. At the same time, he was persistent in fastening the guilt upon the runaway servants, and refused to listen to the hint thrown out by Stratford that they might have been instigated to their deed by some one higher in position; and neither Sir Dugald nor his subordinates could resist the conclusion, that although it was in all probability true that the King knew nothing of the crime before it had taken place, yet he had now no difficulty in assigning it to its true perpetrator, whom he was, moreover, determined to shield.

Short of allowing any real inquiry into the manner of the doctor’s death, however, the King was ready to do all he could in the painful circumstances. The desired proclamation was already being published in the different quarters of the town, and a price had been set on the heads of the servants. With regard to the funeral, as there was no Christian burial-ground anywhere in Ethiopia, Sir Dugald might choose a spot in the royal gardens outside the city, and that spot should be fenced off and held sacred. Deputations from the Ethiopian army and council should be present at the ceremony, and Rustam Khan should also attend it as his father’s representative. In the meantime, to show the King’s deep regret for the misunderstanding which had existed during the last few days between himself and Sir Dugald, the guard of soldiers would be removed from the front of the Mission, and the country-people informed that they might bring their produce to sell as usual.

It was Stratford and Fitz to whom fell the task of riding out to the King’s garden and selecting the site of the first Christian cemetery in Ethiopia. They chose a spot on the border of the estate, which could be easily marked off from the rest, and the official who had accompanied them gave the necessary orders to the workmen. The funeral was to take place in the late afternoon, and there was need for haste. Fitz and Stratford had ridden out almost in silence; but as they mounted their horses for the return journey to Kubbet-ul-Haj, Fitz looked back at the garden and shuddered.

“I wonder how many of us will lie there before this business is over!” he said, only to be annihilated by Stratford’s reply—

“Shut up, you young fool, and don’t croak. Your business is to obey orders, and not to wonder.”

The boy relapsed into sulky silence at once, and brooded all the way home over the disgusting state of Stratford’s temper, never guessing that it was with this very end in view, of detaching his thoughts from the tragedy of the morning, that the rebuke had been administered to him. In the courtyard of the Mission they found Dick engaged in superintending the preparations for the funeral, and Stratford noticed at once that among the riding-horses, which were those presented by the King a few days before, there were two hired mules carrying a curtained litter.

“Surely the ladies are not going?” he said to Dick.

“They are, indeed. Lady Haigh declared that she could never face the doctor’s mother if she was unable to tell her in what kind of place he was buried, and what the funeral was like, and it struck the Chief that it was just possible they might be safer with us than left behind here under Kustendjian’s charge. Our force is none too large now, you know.”

And thus it happened that Lady Haigh and Georgia formed part of the mournful procession that accompanied the doctor’s rude coffin to its resting-place in the King’s garden. The streets and house-tops were crowded with people, who gazed eagerly and in silence at the British flag which covered the remains, and at the little group of Englishmen, sad-faced and stern, who followed. Many of those in the crowd owed relief from disease, or even life itself, to Dr Headlam’s skill, yet no sign of grief was exhibited by any one. But neither was there any attempt at mockery or sign of unfriendliness; the people seemed to watch the proceedings with intense and absorbing curiosity, much, thought Georgia, as the inhabitants of Mexico might have contemplated a religious ceremony performed by Cortes and his Spaniards. The same interest was shown at the cemetery, where another crowd had assembled, that listened expectantly to the unfamiliar accents as Sir Dugald read the Burial Service, and pressed forward eagerly to see what was happening when Lady Haigh and Georgia came to the grave-side and threw their flowers upon the coffin. The party from the Mission remained beside the grave until it was filled up and a rough wooden tablet erected, bearing the doctor’s name and the date of his death, and then returned sadly home, parting from Rustam Khan and his attendants as soon as they reached the city gate.

Now that the last honours had been paid to the dead, it was time, as Sir Dugald had said to Dick, to think of the living, and the four Englishmen and Kustendjian met on the terrace to discuss the state of affairs. The latest cause for anxiety arose from the fact that Rustam Khan had shown a strong disposition to emphasise the truth that he attended the funeral merely as the representative of his father. He had declined to ride side by side with Sir Dugald after the coffin, and had displayed a determination, which under less painful circumstances would have been almost ludicrous, to avoid direct communication with any of the party.