Path of the Tiger, стр. 422
‘Brandy…’ he muttered hoarsely, ‘more brandy…’
‘Pardon me, master?’ the nervous servant nearest to him said.
Cavanaugh’s eyeballs bulged with white fury, as if they were about to pop out of his skull, and the veins in his temples and neck pulsated like food-engorged pythons.
‘I SAID MORE FUCKING BRANDY, YOU GOOD-FOR-NOTHING WOG! GET ME SOME FUCKING BRANDY RIGHT FUCKING NOW!’
‘Yes master, as you say master,’ stammered the servant, who hastily rushed off to replenish the supply of liquor.
‘And a glass for me,’ Kelly called out gaily, biting down hard on his lower lip and clenching his fists tight, only barely managing to keep a fit of giggles at bay.
‘Well Cavanaugh,’ he said eventually, unable to keep the dripping smugness out of his voice, ‘it appears that my man has emerged victorious! Our debt is thus settled, is it not?’ Kelly then turned to Bingham, who was wearing a subtle smile, and asked him to confirm this. ‘Dr Ivor Bingham,’ he said calmly, ‘you are here as an independent witness, so I ask you this: has our debt been settled in a gentlemanly fashion? Did my man not compete, obeying all the rules of the contest and satisfying all the conditions thereof, and emerge triumphant? And you witnessed Cavanaugh and I shake hands on these terms, yes? So please, sir, I say, I do say, I do say, do us the honour of declaring the outcome of this here wager.’
Bingham took a slow sip of his brandy and then set his glass down on the table, after which he dabbed at his mouth with his silk handkerchief.
‘As witness to both the terms of the wager and the action of the contest,’ he said coolly, ‘I must declare that the contest was won in a legitimate fashion by Niall Kelly’s man, thus winning Kelly the sum of one hundred pounds, and simultaneously nullifying Kelly’s long-standing debt to Cavanaugh.’
Kelly stifled a giggle, which nonetheless popped through his cupped hand as a snort and a cough. He kept his hand clamped over his mouth to disguise his devilish grin.
‘If I ever see you on my property again, Kelly, you have my word that you’ll be thrown into the tiger pit,’ Cavanaugh hissed through gritted teeth. ‘That, Kelly, is no idle threat; indeed, it is a promise I fully intend to keep. I want you and your vagabond rider off of my estate before sundown, or I’ll shoot you both. Your debt to me … is now … settled. Bah! BAH!’
Kelly snorted and coughed into his hand again, unable to completely suppress the violent giggles that longed with such desperation to escape his throat. Through his shaking and trembling he managed to nod and cough a simple ‘yes’ in reply to this.
The servant returned with two glasses of brandy, and after Cavanaugh snatched his from the frightened man he promptly got up and stormed off in a huff of fiery wrath. Kelly took his glass, shamelessly beaming out an ear-to-ear smile, and leaned back in his chair to savour the taste of the expensive liquor as he sipped liberally on it.
‘Where did you manage to find that fellow?’ Bingham asked as he retrieved Cavanaugh’s field glasses from the floor and peered out over the field at the victorious jockey.
‘Oh, I picked him up at the docks around two years ago when one of my shipments from Hong Kong was coming in. He was arguing with an Arab ship captain, who had just brought him and his horse in from Sevastopol – that same stallion he’s riding now. The fool was penniless and had lied to the Arab, saying that he had connections here in India who would pay handsomely for his passage upon arrival.’
‘And you paid the Arab?’
‘I did.’
‘Why?’
‘Well,’ Kelly answered, grinning into his tumbler as he sipped on his brandy, ‘like any businessman with a knack for the game, I spotted an opportunity.’
Bingham nodded, scratching his chin with a contemplative forefinger.
‘Your gamble paid off, Kelly.’
‘Handsomely. Very handsomely.’
‘I’ve never seen anyone ride like that fellow did today,’ Bingham mused, staring out at the shabbily attired rider. ‘He is absolutely superb on horseback.’
‘Dang right. He’s paid back what I spent on him many times over.’
‘Pray tell though, why does he stick with a fellow like yourself? I understand that he is totally loyal to you – yet, and I mean no offence by this – you are not the type of man who inspires loyalty in others.’
Kelly laughed uproariously at this.
‘Why yes, your powers of observation never fail you, do they Bingham? I am a scoundrel of the lowest sort! Ha! And I do so delight in my fiendish ways, I say, and my … perversions … However, let me tell you, sir, that I learned many a thing about loyalty on my father’s plantation when I was growing up. See, we had slaves, lots of ‘em. Niggers, most brought over fresh from West Africa, along with some second and even third generation ones too. Now, other plantation owners in our area would keep their niggers in line with all sorts of brutality and violence; really distasteful, if you ask me. I’m not a man of violence, y’see, and neither was my father. No, he was not, not at all. So he found a better way than the whip to keep them slaves under his thumb.’
‘And what, pray tell, was that?’ Bingham asked, his eyes narrowing.
‘This,’ Kelly answered, tapping on the side of his head with a finger as he smiled smugly. ‘You keep this chained up, the mind, see, and you’ll never again have to put a steel shackle on their black hides, nor take a whip to ‘em neither. No you won’t sir, no you will not.’
Bingham took a swig of his brandy and nodded slowly.
‘I understand the theory, but how do you apply the method?’
‘You find out what it takes for a man to build his own cage,’