FATHER AND SON.
Mr. Haydon turned his calm, steady eyes on the filmy curtain, but he
could see nothing. Then, as he gazed quietly at it, U Saw raised his
hand, and a deep booming note resounded from the gong. The full,
musical trembling of the note still rang through the room when an
unseen hand drew back the curtain, and the light of the lamps fell
full upon Jack.
Thomas Haydon stood for a moment with the wild, distraught look of one
who sees a sight altogether beyond belief or reason, then he made to
spring forward. But he was chained to the Kachins who stood upon
either side of him, and two more leapt forward from their posts by the
wall to check his movements. And again the mocking laughter of his
enemies filled the room.
But Thomas Haydon had neither eyes nor ears for them. He could only
stare and stare upon his son as if he found it impossible to believe
the evidence of his own sight. At last he spoke.
"Jack!" he said in a tone of wonder beyond all wonder, "Jack, is it
you?"
Jack could not reply, for the gag effectually checked his utterance,
but he nodded, and his eyes spoke for him.
"My son here," murmured Thomas Haydon again, and a bitter groan broke
from him. He could not restrain it; this last stroke was utterly
beyond all human endurance. When his son had been mentioned by his
unscrupulous enemy, his thoughts had flown thousands and thousands of
miles, far away from the hot, glaring East, with its mysteries and
dangers, to the cool, quiet English meadows amid which lay Rushmere
School, where his only son, as he believed, worked and played in
safety.
And all the time Jack was within a few yards of him, hidden, a
prisoner, behind the muslin curtain. How he had got there, how he had
fallen into the terrible hands of U Saw, were the most insoluble of
mysteries to the elder man, and he could only stare at his son with a
white and ghastly face, for he knew only too well the character of the
men in whose power they both lay.
The jeering voice of the half-caste broke out on a high note of
derision. "And is there no one among this den of thieves for whom you
care, Mr. Haydon?" he cried. "If there is not, what an unnatural
parent you must be!"
A deep guttural chuckle from U Saw echoed this speech. The Ruby King
said never a word from first to last. He sat on his cushions as one
enjoying the play. His gross face was filled with an evil joy, his
small dark cunning eyes twinkled for ever with laughter at the scene
which was enacted before him, but he maintained, except for his
laughter, a perfect silence, and there was something terribly uncanny
and threatening about this.
"Where has he come from?" asked Thomas Haydon, in a low and troubled
voice. Yes, it was Jack, bound there; he was compelled to believe his
own eyes at last. It was not an hallucination; it was a piece of
dreadful fact, and in it the elder man saw his difficulties trebled
upon the spot.
"Oh, as to that, he will have plenty of opportunity to tell you
himself in a short time," smiled the half-caste. "We shall shut you up
together to talk things over. In the meantime, another piece of work
demands U Saw's attention."
He waved his hand and the Kachins led Thomas Haydon aside and placed
him against the farther wall. There was a shuffle of feet at the door,
and three or four natives from the village brought in a man whose
hands were bound behind his back. They were followed by at least a
score more of men and women, and for the next half hour there was a
fearful babel of tongues. As far as Jack could gather it seemed a sort
of trial, and the Ruby King acted as judge.
The latter uttered never a word, all the questioning being done by
Saya Chone; but at last he opened his mouth and pronounced a verdict.
It was received with cries of joy by some, and howls of grief by one
or two women. Now the bodyguard drove the whole crowd, save the
prisoner, out of the apartment.
When the uproar of the noisy horde had died away in the narrow
passages, Saya Chone waved to the guards to bring Mr. Haydon forward.
"Look at this man, Thomas Haydon," said the half-caste in a low, hard
voice, pointing, as he spoke, to the native; "he has killed a
neighbour; he is a murderer. Very good. U Saw has sentenced him to
death. Now I tell you that if you do not give us the information we
want, you have as surely sentenced your son to death as U Saw has
sentenced this man."
He said no more: there was a far more dreadful threat in his quiet,
cool words than any violence could have shown. He waved his hand once
again, and Mr. Haydon was led away by the guards.
When he had disappeared, Saya Chone turned to Jack.
"You have heard what was said," he murmured. "Do not be so foolish as
to think it was spoken as a mere threat. Base all that you do or say
on that statement as a fact. There is no hope for you unless you get
your father to do as we wish."
He turned away, and the Strangler at once released Jack from the chair
and removed the gag from his mouth. Next Jack was led away by a couple
of guards and conducted once more through a labyrinth of narrow,
winding passages until they halted before a door, where the Malay
unlocked and took off Jack's fetters. The door was opened, and he was
thrust into the room, his limbs once more his own.
The room in which Jack now found himself was lighted by a small lamp,
and, as he entered, a figure sprang up from a low bench. "Father!"
cried Jack, and at the next moment their hands were clasped together.
"Jack, Jack," said Mr. Haydon, in a low voice which he strove to keep
steady; "where, where have you come from, and how do you come to be
here?"
Jack at once plunged into his story. They sat down together on the
bench, and now Mr. Haydon learned the whole history of Jack's
adventures.
"Your quest, Jack, was well and bravely undertaken," he said, when his
son had finished the story, "but these powerful and cunning rogues
have been one too many for us up to the present."
"But how were you seized, father?" cried Jack, and Mr. Haydon related
his story in turn. It was short and soon told. He had gone for a walk
along the shore near Brindisi, when, in a lonely spot, he had been
attacked from behind and felled by a severe blow on the skull. This,
however, did not entirely reduce him to unconsciousness, for he had a
distinct recollection of inhaling the smell of some powerful drug
before he became insensible to everything about him.
He had awakened to consciousness to find himself in a cabin of U Saw's
steam yacht, and here he had been kept the closest of prisoners on the
voyage back to Burmah and up the river. He had been put ashore by
night on some deserted part of the river bank, and then carried, by
unfrequented ways, through the jungle and across the hills to U Saw's
stronghold. In the latter place he had been kept in strict
confinement, and urged by threats to disclose the ruby-mine he had
discovered. Hitherto his enemies had not proceeded to torture, though
he had been daily expecting it.
"And now they threaten me through you, Jack," concluded his father in
an anxious voice Jack laughed, a quiet, steady, confident laugh.
"They will threaten in vain, father," he said. "We shan't give way an
inch. What do you think that half-caste said to me last thing before I
was brought here to you?" He related the speech Saya Chone had made to
him, and Mr. Haydon gave an uneasy movement of the shoulders.
"Yes," he said, "they hope that you will plead with me, Jack, to give
up the secret of the ruby-mine in order to save the pair of us."
"Not likely, father," returned Jack at once. "Whatever they do to me,
mind you are not to give way on my account. We'll keep a stiff upper
lip and win through this yet."
His bold, brave words cheered Mr. Haydon, and the latter eyed his
straight, strong lad with pride. But at the same time the look of deep
anxiety never left his face. He had met his enemies boldly enough face
to face with them alone, but to have Jack in their clutches too was a
terrible thing.
"At any rate," burst out Jack, "it's awfully jolly to be in here with
you, and be able to talk things over. I hardly expected such luck as
this."
Mr. Haydon made no reply, only smiled. He saw plainly enough why they
had been allowed to share the same cell. His enemies knew that the
more he talked with his frank, brave boy, and looked into those
bright, courageous eyes, the less would he be inclined to let ill come
to Jack, the more powerful would be their hold upon him.
"And was the ruby that you found such a very fine one?" asked Jack.
"It was a most wonderful stone, Jack," replied his father. "I have
never seen one like it. Unfortunately a couple of natives, old
ruby-miners, were with me when I found it, and of course I could not
keep their tongues quiet."
"These fellows went to a tremendous lot of trouble, the rascals, to
follow you up and get possession of it," remarked Jack.
"They were well repaid, my boy," returned his father. "The stone is
worth a large fortune, and the greed of a man like U Saw for a
precious stone is beyond your understanding, for you do not know the
tribe."
"And the mine, was that rich?" asked Jack.
"Very rich," said his father, "but it is best for us not to speak of
these matters, Jack. Walls have ears with a vengeance in these
places."
Their talk now turned to the channel of their own doings while they
had been separated. For nearly twenty-four hours father and son stayed
together, and were as cheerful as the dark fate hanging over them
allowed. Then towards sunset of the day after Jack's arrival at U
Saw's stronghold, the door of the cell was opened, and the Strangler
appeared at the head of a strong guard.
By signs he ordered the two prisoners to follow him. As they stepped
forward, they were placed in single file, and the guard closed round
them. Jack and his father were now led into the courtyard, where they
saw that a larger procession was awaiting them. At the head of the
latter was placed the villager who had killed his neighbour. His hands
were bound behind his back, a loop of cord was thrown about his neck,
and he was in charge of a couple of the Kachin bodyguard.
Jack and his father were placed behind this prisoner, and were now
allowed to walk side by side.
At the next moment the Ruby King and Saya Chone rode forward, and took
their places at the head of the procession. They moved on, walking
their ponies quietly, and the line of men on foot at once marched
after them.
Neither Jack nor Mr. Haydon was bound. They were entirely free except
for the Kachins who marched on either side and kept a wary eye on
their movements.
"After all," thought Jack sadly to himself. "What need is there to
bind us? Suppose I broke loose now and ran? Even if I got away from
these fellows, where could I go to? The whole valley is a prison just
as sure as the stone walls we have left behind for the moment."
But scarce two minutes had passed before Jack had burst from the guard
and was running at his fleetest. It happened in this way. They filed
out of the courtyard and along a broad, ill-kept, dusty road passing
the village.
Near the first houses of the village, a woman sprang out of the crowd
which was waiting to see the procession pass. She rushed forward, an
infant in her arms, and flung herself on the ground before the ponies
ridden by the Ruby King and the half-caste. Holding the infant out at
the fullest reach of her arms, she lay in their path, and poured out a
string of loud, supplicating cries. Jack knew not a word she said, but
he understood very well that the wife and child of the doomed man were
before him.
He looked to see the riders pause upon witnessing this spectacle of
wretched despair. Then, with a start of horror, he saw that they were
intending, in cold-blooded fashion, to trample mother and child
beneath the hoofs of the animals which bore them. The woman had
stretched herself out so that her body was in front of the
half-caste's pony, her infant in front of that of the Ruby King. Saya
Chone's pony was more merciful than the flinty-hearted wretch who
bestrode it. It started back, reared, shied, refused absolutely to
step forward upon the unhappy woman. The Ruby King uttered a brutal
laugh, and urged his own animal on.
The latter beast went forward willingly, and was within a stride of
placing its fore feet on the little brown, naked body, when Jack gave
a sharp cry of horror and darted forward. Several of the bodyguard
sprang after him, but they might as well have leapt after a deer. Jack
raced forward, flew between the ponies, and caught the child from the
ground. At the same instant three or four of the villagers ran to the
spot, lifted the woman, and dragged her away. One of them took the
child from Jack and put it in her arms.
Now the guards came up, seized Jack, and hustled him back to his place
in the procession.
"Well done, Jack," said his father quietly. "You were just in the nick
of time. Another second and U Saw's pony would have trampled the life
out of the poor little mite."
"Really, he would have done it," breathed Jack incredulously. "Even
after cutting in and picking it up, I can hardly believe it."
"Oh, he'd have done it, without doubt," said Mr. Haydon drily. "You
will find out, Jack, that these people hold human life very cheaply,
and human suffering cheaper still."
The Ruby King and the half-caste had taken no notice of Jack's action
save to laugh derisively, and now the procession moved forward once
more. They went about a couple of miles, and halted on the edge of a
steep descent which ran down to a broad swamp. It wanted now about
half an hour to sunset. At the foot of the descent, on the edge of the
swamp, a cross had been raised. Jack's blood ran cold within him. What
awful sight were they now to see? Were these monsters about to crucify
the condemned man?
[Illustration: THE RESCUE OF THE NATIVE CHILD.]