“Then you won’t alter that queer plan of theirs?”
“How can I? It’s nothing but folly, of course, but as long as the present state of things lasts it must go on. If I had let Shahbaz broach the question, I don’t doubt he’d have tried to get me to promise his son should succeed him, but that don’t come into my province. If this nonsense of Brotherhood rule is done away with, and Shahbaz becomes sole Khan, it may be settled his way, but that’s for Lord Maryport to decide—not me.”
“I wonder how can they go on with such a silly way of governing—all reigning at once,” said Eveleen.
“Why not, ma’am? Precious convenient way for them—you can never pin ’em down to anything. Ask your good husband what all the letters are about which are turning his hair as grey as mine. Oh, I forgot! he don’t tell you things—eh? Well, then, when I write to demand why the Khans have stopped the boats going down the river and demanded toll, contrary to treaty, the first thing is to deny it absolutely. With shocking bad manners I contradict ’em flatly—it has been done, and why? In a great hurry half the Khans reply that they had no hand in it; it was the doing of some of the other Khans’ servants. Then why have not the servants been punished? I demand. ‘Oh, they were not their servants, but the other chaps’.’ ‘Very well, then, if you don’t punish ’em, I shall,’ says I. ‘Oh,’ say the Khans, ‘the poor fellows were ignorant; we have admonished ’em, and bid ’em not do it again.’ It happens again the next week. ‘Precious lot of good your admonitions are!’ says I. ‘Be so good as to send the poor ignorant chaps to me, and I’ll admonish ’em.’ ‘Alas!’ says they, ‘the servants, being unaware of the honour destined for ’em, have fled.’ ‘Oh, very well,’ says I; ‘princes who give their seals and their authority to their servants to use must expect to be held responsible for their misdeeds. The fines due will be deducted from the sum which was to have been paid to their Highnesses as rent for our cantonments.’ Silence for a bit, while they think hard to find some way of getting round me. Bright idea! they’ll put an utter stop to the steamer traffic by forbidding woodcutting on either bank of the river on pain of death—making out that every patch of brushwood is part of their private preserves. ‘Sorry!’ says I, ‘but the traffic must be maintained somehow. If the wood ain’t to be taken from the shikargahs, why, I must destroy Qadirabad bit by bit, and burn the wood from the houses.’ Then they lament together in durbar over the wicked stiff-neckedness of that old rapscallion the Bahadar Jang, and talk big about the steps they are on the point of taking to teach him a lesson. ‘We will handle the English so vilely,’ say they, ‘that they’ll call out in despair, “Great Heaven, what have we done that Thou shouldst let loose such devils upon us?”’ Which is a very proper sentiment for patriotic princes defending their country against the invader, but things of that sort should be done first, and talked about afterwards.”
“D’ye tell me then they won’t be meaning it at all, Sir Harry?”
“Mean it? They mean to slip out of all their engagements, and all punishment for breaking ’em, by dint of shifting the blame on one another and on their servants, and if they could frighten me off, it would suit them nicely. But that they ain’t going to do. When the new treaty is presented to ’em, they’ll sign it or they’ll refuse it, and we shall know where we are, and if they sign it and break it, then also I shall know what to do—and I’ll do it!”
“You’ll just be waiting now for Bayard to come back, and then the treaty will be presented?” suggested Eveleen. Sir Harry turned a ferocious glance upon her.
“Waiting for Colonel Bayard? Certainly not. I don’t need Colonel Bayard to help me make treaties, ma’am—much obliged to you for thinking of it!” with deadly irony. “All he’s wanted for is to help with the arrangements about lands and so on, which will have to be made under the treaty—and which he ought to know something about, after his years here. The treaty will go to Qadirabad by Stewart as soon as it’s finished translating into Persian, and the moment he’s well away I begin to move my troops across the river—where they’ll be equally ready to occupy the stolen Habshiabad districts and hand ’em back to the Nawab, or to move on Qadirabad if the Khans turn nasty. Wait for Bayard, indeed!”
He went on growling to himself for some time, until Eveleen turned the conversation tactfully to horses. It was inadvisable to mention Colonel Bayard’s name to him again, but to her husband she said when they were alone—
“D’ye think Bayard will understand, Ambrose, that he comes back merely as assistant to the General?”