The Far Pavilions - Mary Margaret Kaye [370]
As if to bear this out, the order for his recall ended with the welcome information that Lieutenant Pelham-Martyn was to take any leave due to him before, and not after, rejoining. This meant that he could take at least three months if he wished, as apart from an occasional weekend and a brief visit to Cutch, he had taken no leave since the summer of '76 when he had trekked to Kashmir with Wally – the two of them having decided to save up their leave against the day when Ash returned to the Frontier, when they could go on another trek together, this time to Spiti and across the high passes into Tibet.
‘How soon are you proposing to leave us, Pandy?’ inquired the Adjutant as Ash came through the outer office after seeing the Colonel.
‘As soon as it's convenient,’ said Ash promptly.
‘Oh, I fancy it's convenient now. We haven't got much on at the moment, so it will be up to you to decide. And there's no need for you to look so damned pleased about it, either!’
Ash laughed and said: ‘Was I looking pleased? I'm sorry. It's not that I'm glad to leave. I've had some good times here, but – Well, you might say I've been serving a sentence for the last four years: “doing a stretch”. Now it's over and I can go back to my own regiment and my old friends and to my own part of the world again, and I can't help feeling pleased about it. No reflection on Roper's Horse. They're a fine lot.’
‘Don't mention it,’ said the Adjutant graciously. ‘Though I take it we are not to be compared with the Guides. Ah well, I expect I should feel the same, in your shoes. Strange how absurdly attached one becomes to one's own particular crowd. I suppose you won't be selling that horse of yours?’
‘Dagobaz? Not likely!’
‘I was afraid not. Well, even if we don't exactly break our hearts over losing you, Pandy, we're going to miss that black devil. He'd have won every race you entered him for, next season; and we'd have cleaned out every bookmaker in the Province. How do you propose to get him to Mardan?’
‘Take him up by train. He won't like it, but I can always doss down with him if necessary. He'll have his own syce, anyway.’
‘If you'll take my advice,’ said the Adjutant, ‘you'll nip down and see the station-master this evening. It's not all that easy to reserve a truck, and if you plan to leave fairly soon, you'd better make sure that you can get one. Otherwise you may find yourself being held up for a good deal longer than you expect.’
‘Thanks for the tip,’ said Ash gratefully, and took himself off then and there to the railway station, where he discovered that the Adjutant had been right. If he meant to travel on the same train as Dagobaz, it did not look as though he would be able to leave Ahmadabad within the next ten or fifteen days. And even that would entail a judicious amount of bribery and corruption.
‘Arranging accommodation for quadruped is veree difficult affair and will occupy much time, for it will mean much booking ahead,’ explained the Eurasian station-master. ‘You see, Mr Martyn, there are too many trains, all of different gauges. Now if I obtain a horse-van for you on thee Bombay-and-Baroda line, this is veree fine. But then that is only small part of your journey, and what, I am asking, will occur when you arrive at Bombay Central and find that none is available on thee G.I.P. railway, to which you will there transfer yourself? Or when you must change again at Aligarh onto thee East Indian Railway Line, which is again different gauge, and there is likewise no van? I am fearing veree greatly, sir, that you will endure many vexatious delays if you leave hastily and before all these bookings are pukka.’
Ash had hoped to leave within a day