“Well, the Luck of Alibad very nearly came to an abrupt and premature end. Take the child in, Miss North, and reassure the mother. Master North has had his baptism of fire pretty early in life.”
“What can have made them fire in this direction now that we have the curtain?” asked Flora, as she brought out a pair of scissors to slit up Ismail Bakhsh’s sleeve.
“I see how it is,” cried the doctor. “The curtain doesn’t quite reach the ground, and the sight of such an assemblage of spurs, shining in the sun, showed the sniper that something was going on in this neighbourhood. It’s a happy thing that Ismail Bakhsh was standing in front of the baby.”
“Ah,” said the old man, with a delighted grin, “the Baba Sahib is altogether ours now. We have paid our respects at his first durbar, and we have been under fire with him already. Surely the Ressaldar-Major Sahib and those who are absent with him will be mad with envy of us!”
“And you have shed your blood for him,” said Dr Tighe, as he bandaged the arm.
“Nay, sahib, it all belongs to him. He has but taken toll.”
“Isn’t he perfectly sweet, Georgie?” Mabel was demanding at that moment, by way of diverting Georgia’s mind from the danger to which the baby had been exposed. Kneeling at the side of the bed, she was trying, with conspicuous lack of success, to tempt her nephew to play with her hair. “Don’t you think he’s the most delightful baby that ever was born?” she asked again.
“Of course,” said Georgia, smiling. “I am almost as proud of him as Dr Tighe is, and that’s saying a good deal.”
“And he’s so good,” resumed Mabel, referring to the baby, not to the doctor. “He has scarcely cried a bit, and that is such a comfort under the circumstances. It would have been so discreditable if the Luck of Alibad had cried whenever a shot was fired, but he’s a regular little hero.”
“Well, he has no lack of nurses, if that’s good for the temper,” said Georgia. “Oh, how I wish his father could see him!” she sighed suddenly, as the baby moved in her arms and looked straight before it with solemn grey eyes.