DELHI
Several days after Muhafiz All delivered the imitation Pearl Scarf to
the sahib in Indore, the young woman who was marked of Destiny sat in a
first-class carriage of the East Indian Railway, her attention divided
between a green vellum volume propped against a gray-clad knee and the
sun-blistered scenery that unreeled past the window.
An elderly gentleman from Devonshire who occupied the same carriage
found himself wondering why his eyes invariably returned to the girl.
This particular gentleman was past youthful sentimentalizing and not yet
in those riper years when age casts regretful glances over its shoulder;
therefore, being no psychometric, it puzzled him that this girl should
compel his gaze. Was it the hair, in whose bronzen waves a slantwise ray
of sunlight ignited little glints of red-gold? Or the white throat, full
with young maturity? Suddenly she looked up, and he fathomed the secret
of magnetism. Brown eyes that brought to mind a deep, rich wine held to
the light--or poplar leaves just before snow. He felt something of
cathedral-largeness behind those eyes, something vital and alive yet
intensely spiritual. The warm strength of sunlight in great forests;
tapers in altar-gloom. These things were there. And the gentleman from
Devonshire thought of a daughter in Britain and smiled to himself, and
forgot hot, heart-aching India.
The lights which he had glimpsed in the girl's eyes were the very
beacons that had drawn her across leagues of water--lights that were
first kindled in some voyaging ancestor whose frigate dropped anchor off
old New Orleans, in the gilded days of Bienville; that grew dim in the
tiresome process of heredity, and flamed anew, generations later, in
this girl who sat in the railway carriage--lights that were almost
smothered by the snuffers of Aristocracy and Tradition.
For Dana Charteris came of a Louisiana family whose name was as old as
the state itself, and who lived in a great, pillared house and had black
servants and drank blacker coffee. Custom and pride and chivalry were
the goddesses of the family penetralia, and debt maintained the
vestal-fires. Her father was called "Colonel" for the same reason that
no less than one third of the gentlemen of his plane were given that
title. Her mother, who carried an air of fragrant and faded aristocracy,
read Cable and regarded him as some subaltern's wives in India regarded
Kipling. And her brother, Alan--Dana hardly knew Alan. When his name was
spoken in the house, it was in a hushed voice. They called him "black
sheep," but Dana could never associate dark fleece with the slim boy she
remembered. Alan ran away when little more than fifteen--ran away to
sail the Seven Seas and to find the end of the rainbow. Every few months
letters came from him, bearing post-marks that were, to her, stamps of
glamour.
In her eyes her brother wore the mantle of Jason. He rambled in all
manner of weird places in his quest for the golden prize. This, while
she grew in an atmosphere of sweetly-musty traditions! Before she went
off to boarding-school her days were divided between the piano, paddling
indolently in warm bayous--sometimes alone, sometimes not--and riding a
black mare. But in the quiet, breathless nights when an army of stars
thronged the sky, and from down the river came the soft crooning of a
Creole song, she dreamed of enchanted lands beyond the horizon.
But the voyaging ancestor and the argonaut-brother were only partly
responsible for her unrest. There was Tante Lucie, down in New Orleans.
(Tante Lucie, who made one think of star-jasmines and all the romantic
things that aura the Old South.) She had stories to tell, for a
lover-husband had taken her adventuring. She had seen the Shwe Dagon and
looked upon the Taj by moonlight. Her lover-husband was only a memory,
as were the temple and the Tomb; but she loved to talk of them, sitting
in her little court where the perfume of magnolias swam in the air.
Dana's father died just before her eighteenth birthday. In the years
following, her mother no longer read Cable; she sat and dreamed of her
argonaut-son and of the "Colonel." And Dana almost stifled her desire to
cross the seas. For ominous sounds disturbed the quiet of Bayou
Latouche; there were bandages to be made and books and boxes to be
shipped to camps. During that period the letters from Alan were
infrequent and from Mesopotamia.
But the interlude of khaki passed, and Bayou Latouche sank back into its
stupor. Again in the starry silences Dana listened to the crooning of
Creole songs down by the river and dreamed of a world beyond the dawns
and dusks. She was alone then; her mother went during the interlude, and
Tante Lucie no longer sat in her court and talked of foreign lands.
There were no ties; except money, as always. To keep up the house she
taught music.
Then, one day, she heard from Alan. Burma, this time. He held a post
with the Inspector of Police at Rangoon. He had a bungalow in the
cantonment, he said, and any number of servants to wait on her, if she
would sell the house at Bayou Latouche and come to him. In a short time
he would have a "leave." They could meet in Calcutta and "do" India
together.
India--together! Those words opened the dream-portals. After she read
the letter she consulted a mirror and told herself that she was
twenty-three and already in demand as a chaperone for the younger set.
She went into the library and stood before the portraits of her father
and her mother. She cried. And then, aware that the shades of the
Charteris family had stern gazes fixed upon her, she sent a cablegram to
Alan.
Once aboard the great ship, she felt no regrets; to look back upon the
great, pillared house was like lifting the lid of a rose-jar: it brought
the fragrance of things very old and very faded. When she reached
Calcutta, a young captain met her at Chandpal Ghat. He had a note from
Alan. It explained that an urgent matter had taken him to Indore; he
begged her to forgive him for not meeting her, but assured her she was
in good hands. The second day in Calcutta she received a telegram from
him.
"Meet me Delhi Friday," it ran. "Take express. Plan trip to Khyber."
To the Khyber!... She left Calcutta that same day, and now, after a long
journey through the prickly-hot United Provinces, she was speeding into
the North. India, with its contrasts of filth and grandeur, had not
tarnished under the touch of reality; the nearest she came to
disillusion was in smoky, modern Calcutta. Now Tundla Junction lay
behind in a shimmering heat-haze; ahead, beyond the roaring, sweating
engine, was Delhi--Delhi, key to perished dynasties.
The engine's whistle shrieked. It sent a charge of excitement through
her and she looked eagerly out of the window. Iron wheels rumbled across
a bridge. Another shriek of the whistle. Brakes screamed, and the train
drew up, panting, in the clamor and writhing heat of the railway
station.
The gentleman from Devonshire opened the carriage door, and Dana, a grip
in each hand, her heart fluttering against her breast, smiled at him and
stepped into a torrid swarm. Her eyes searched the crowd. What would he
look like? Suppose she did not recognize him! Vaguely nervous, yet
happy, she allowed herself to be carried with the human surge.
"Hello, there!" said a voice in her ear, and she turned quickly to look
into a clean-shaven tanned face. (And the gentleman from Devonshire, who
was passing, saw the brown eyes acquire a deeper, richer glow.)
"Alan!"
He was tall and slim, and the eyes that looked into hers were intensely
blue, the blue of sapphires.... The same boy, she told herself joyously,
only more tanned and grown-up!
"Oh, Alan!" she gasped, as he held her at arm's-length, despite the
crowd, then drew her to him and kissed her.
"Great Lord, how you've grown!" he exclaimed.
She remembered saying something about not being a little girl always;
remembered being led through the throng. Then they were in the street.
Heat and noise and colorful confusion.
"I've reserved rooms at a quiet place beyond the Kashmir Gate," he told
her as he helped her into a carriage. "From the terrace outside your
room you can look upon the battlements and the river." Then, with
another smile, "I can't believe it's you! Why, you're positively
beautiful! Lord, it seems a century, a whole century, since I was in
Bayou Latouche!"
He removed his topi as they wheeled off and she saw that his hair was
shot with gray above the temples. They seemed so absurd, those gray
hairs. And how his eyes lighted when he spoke of Bayou Latouche! She
realized suddenly, with a tightening of the cords in her throat, that
the search for the golden fleece hadn't been all pleasant. In his voice,
in his face and manner, was a thirst for home-talk. She understood how
he needed her, there in his bungalow in Rangoon.
"Bayou Latouche is just the same," she said, placing her hand upon his.
(She spoke with a faintly slurring accent that was unmistakable.)
"Except, of course, so many have gone ... the war...." Pause. "I don't
believe you've changed a bit, Alan--you're like that last picture you
had taken before you left. Mother--how she adored you! If you could have
seen the way she looked at that picture! Father, too."
He smiled soberly. She could see her father in certain of his features.
A sudden fierce joy of possession ran through her. He was hers, this
bronzed brother!
"I'm glad you've come, Dana." This solemnly. "It's been rather lonely
out here. You know the climate has a way, once it gets a hold, of
sapping up the energy and mummifying a fellow before his time."
Her hand closed tighter about his. "And there hasn't been a girl, Alan?"
He smiled. "You're the only one, Dana.... I was sorry I wasn't in
Calcutta when you landed, but this game of sleuthing has its unexpected
twists. That's why I like it. Nothing very exciting ever really happens;
it's usually humdrum thievery and dacoity. A French rogue put in his
appearance in Rangoon about a month or so ago--an international
character; only goes in for big loot. Don't know where he was before he
turned up in Rangoon, but he vanished as queerly as he'd come. The day I
reached Calcutta I was in the station and I recognized him. He'd
peroxided his beard and hair! Heard him ask for a ticket to Indore, and
I scented trouble in the wind. Of course, I should have had him arrested
there, but I wanted to see what he was up to. I left the note with
Bellingrath and took the next train."
Adventure! And he was talking of it in a matter-of-fact way!
"You caught him?" she urged.
"Has anybody ever caught Chavigny? No, he slipped through the net. And
the nerve of him! He had letters to the Maharajah and the Agent! Used
the name of Leroux. I dressed up in a Punjabi's garb--wanted to snoop
around without arousing suspicion. I tracked Chavigny to a jeweller's
shop the day I reached Indore and overheard him commission the merchant
to make an imitation copy of the Maharajah Holkar's Pearl Scarf. After
that I watched the jeweller, too. He--but I'm boring you."
"Boring me!" She laughed. "My own brother masquerading as a native and
shadowing a notorious thief! Go on!"
"Well, I waited, and the expected happened, only on a larger scale than
I anticipated. The treasury was looted--_looted_! Thousands' worth of
jewels! Why, the Pearl Scarf alone is valued at a _crore_ of rupees,
which is about three million, three hundred thousand in our money. And
the Peacock Turban, too, cost a fabulous sum! Yet, confound it, Chavigny
didn't go near the palace the night of the robbery! Nor had he taken the
copy of the Pearl Scarf from the bazaar! The night after the theft, I
followed him to the shop. Gad, how it rained that night! He got the
imitation scarf--but I lost him. We had a tussle and I snatched the
beastly imitation, which I'm keeping as a souvenir of my colossal
blunder in not taking the local police into my confidence. Departmental
jealousy; that's the death of justice. Chavigny left Indore by
automobile or carriage--don't know which--and boarded a north-bound
train at Mhow garrison. The station-babu described him and said his
ticket read to Delhi. And here I am."
"You've notified the police that--Chavigny, isn't it?--is in the city?"
He smiled. "I didn't have to. About two hours after I arrived, I heard
that Kerth--he's the Director of Central Intelligence's best man--had
got wind of Chavigny's presence and was trying to ferret him out. That
relieved me of the responsibility of reporting Chavigny."
"And you still have the copy of the Pearl Scarf?"
"Yes."
"But is it right to keep it?" This with a flickering deep in the brown
eyes.
"Oh, I'll not keep it; only for a while. If I can get Chavigny,
then--well, there's no telling what might happen. Too, I'd like to beat
that devilishly clever Kerth. You see, Dana, this is a big affair, much
bigger than I thought at first. The Secret Service is trying to keep the
lid on it, but of course it's leaked out. On the same night the robbery
occurred at Indore, similar robberies took place in several other
cities. And in every instance it was royal loot! The Gaekwar of Baroda
has one of the finest collections of diamonds in India, the famous 'Star
of the Deccan' among them--and a rug, a _rug_, Dana, ten by six, made of
pearls and rubies and diamonds! Think of it--and stolen! Scindia of
Gwalior, the Rajah of Alwar, the Nawab of Bahawalpur, and, oh, others,
too! And they all happened on the same night. Does it mean there's a
band of thieves at work, with Chavigny at the head? If so, why, great
Scott, it's the most colossal thing that's ever been staged! But I can't
understand how they intend to get away with the booty. The borders and
the coast are closed as tight as a drum, and they can't dispose of the
jewels in India."
Dana sighed. "To think of all that happening, Alan, just as I arrive!
Wouldn't it be marvelous if--"
"If what?" he encouraged, smiling.
"Well, if I were to wake up and find myself in the midst of something of
that sort; one of the players, not just an onlooker." Another sigh. "I'd
like to see a really notorious thief, Alan."
He laughed. "You may; for Chavigny's in a close quarter now. But here we
are at the hotel."
The carriage drew up and a turbaned porter took her bags. The
proprietor, an Eurasian, met them under the great front arch of the
building and conducted them to their rooms.
"Oh!" gasped the girl, drawing aside the bamboo blinds.
The casement opened upon a stone terrace flush with the city walls, and
out of the green and white chaos of Shahjehanabad, or modern Delhi, rose
the gilded bubbles of several domes. Beyond a dark green jungle area,
the Jumna shone dully.
"India!" she exclaimed. "Moguls and howdahs and mosques!"
"India! Thugs, snakes and abominable hotels!" scoffed her brother from
the adjoining room. "Here's the copy of the Pearl Scarf, if you care to
see it."
As she turned, he stepped through the communicating doorway and extended
a shallow box. When she lifted the cover a little gasp of astonishment
left her lips. The cream-luster of pearls; red and blue gleams from
paste diamonds!
"Why, they look genuine!" she cried; then shuddered. "There's a terrible
fascination about jewels, Alan. They always have a story. Murder and
pillage!"
"Grease and dirt usually, in India," he interpolated with a smile,
taking the box. "But let's forget Chavigny and the round dozen Rajahs
that are wailing over their stolen jewels. I promised Gerrish--he's an
old friend--we'd dine with him this evening. Eight o'clock."
A few minutes later Dana unpacked her grips. Dear Alan! Her brother.
After all those years. She wondered if it were not a dream, if presently
she wouldn't wake up back at Bayou Latouche, or in Tante Lucie's court,
down in New Orleans, with Tante Lucie talking of foreign lands....
2
Night settled over Delhi. From the River Jumna to the Ridge, and beyond,
tiny lights blinked at the shadows, and like a huge spirit-eye in the
dusk the moon looked down upon the domes and minarets of the old Mogul
capital. At the clubs electric punkahs fanned the air, ice clinked in
frosted glasses and home-sick young officers read news-sheets from
Britain. The network of narrow, constricted highways between Burra
Bazaar and the Delhi Gate steamed and stewed, and heat and stench
crawled beneath dirty eaves and balconies. South of the modern city, on
the dead plain of Firozabad, thornbush and acacia rustled mournfully and
ruined ramparts yielded up their nightly squadron of bats.
In his residence beyond the Civil Lines, Colonel Sir Francis Duncraigie,
Director of Central Intelligence, C. S. I., and probably one of the most
important men in the empire, sat alone in his writing-room beneath a
mildly whirring fan, and sweltered and swore.
As a house-boy appeared like a white wraith from the dusk of the hall,
he looked up.
"Well?"
"Did you call, O Presence?"
Sir Francis glared. "No!" Then, "But wait!"
A pattering noise sounded from the driveway, and he rose and strode to
the window, parting the draperies. What he saw, fantastic in the hazy
moonlight, was a palanquin with drawn curtains, borne on the shoulders
of four coolies.
"What 'n Tophet!" he exclaimed, for palanquins are rare in the
present-day Delhi of cabs and motorcars, nor is it the custom of
Mohammedan ladies, who ride in these picturesque conveyances, to call
upon officers of the empire.
"If it's anybody to see me, tell 'em I have an appointment and they'll
have to wait," he instructed briefly, turning back.
The house-boy disappeared, and Sir Francis resumed his seat. After a
moment the boy returned.
"She says you have an appointment with her, O Presence!"
The colonel stared. "What!" Pause. "By George! Perhaps you'd better show
her in!"
He watched the doorway, and presently a white figure materialized. He
rose. The woman wore a _bhourka_--the long cotton garment that
Mohammedan ladies affect in public, and which leaves only the eyes
visible.
"You wish to see me?" asked the Director of Central Intelligence.
The hood of the _bhourka_ was thrown back ... and the colonel, who while
on duty hibernated under the armor of official dignity, came out of his
shell. No man would question her beauty, many her type. The features
were long and narrow, and a warm gold, suggesting an Aryan strain,
underlay her clear skin. The eyes, rather heavy-lidded, were baffling,
and of a deep violet shade--like the peaks of the Khyber after the
sunset gun at Jamrud Fort. Black hair clouded her face.
"You are surprised to see me--like this?" she enquired, indicating the
_bhourka_.
Her voice was low and rich, and marked by a huskiness that was rare in
that it was musical. Her English was flawless.
"Well, rather!" confessed the colonel.
"Am I late?"--as he drew up a chair for her.
"On the minute," he lied.
She smiled tolerantly. "Will you close the door, please?"
With a speed that would have made his subalterns gasp, he hastened to
obey.
"Since I received your telephone call," he told her, settling himself
behind the desk, "I have been all interest. What is it this time--more
plots against the Sirkar?"
She made a grimace. "Plots spring up and die overnight! If I concerned
myself with such minor occurrences, I should be eternally occupied. I
told you I wished to see you regarding a matter of _importance_."
She paused and he said: "Well?"
"What happened on the night of June fourteenth?"
He stared at her. "You don't mean--"
"But I _do_."
He drummed upon the desk.
"You have not answered me," she reminded, after a moment. "What _did_
happen on that night? Why not read me your files?"
He unlocked a drawer of his desk and removed a file cabinet. From the
latter he took a sheaf of papers.
"The Treasure House at Alwar was robbed," he said, his eyes upon the
papers in his hand. "The diamonds alone are worth ten thousand pounds,
and--but you don't want me to go into detail, do you? Well, gems valued
at three hundred thousand pounds, sterling, were spirited away from the
Nazarbagh Palace at Baroda. Tukaji Rao of Indore lost his Pearl Scarf
and the Peacock Turban. The treasury at Jodpur was looted. Scindia of
Gwalior's pearls were stolen. Others who were robbed are: your cousin,
the Nawab of Jehelumpore, the Nawab of Bahawalpur, the Rajah of Mysore
and the Rajah of Tanjore." He halted, raising his eyes. "In other words,
on the night of June fourteenth jewels worth millions of pounds were
snatched away under the very nose of the Government, without leaving one
single thread to grasp! If anyone had even suggested such a preposterous
thing before, I'd have laughed!"
"Then the 'Delhi Post' did not tell the truth this morning," ventured
the woman, "when it said, 'the Intelligence Department has a valuable
clue'?"
"Well, so we have," he admitted.
"Chavigny?"
He gave her a swift glance. "How did you know?"
She dismissed the question with a shrug and said:
"You agree with me, I am sure, Sir Francis, that these robberies are
connected; that it is highly improbable to think for an instant that in
nine cities thefts of famous jewels merely occurred simultaneously. As
for this Chavigny--judging from his reputation he is clever enough to
have done it. However, reflect upon the difficulties he would encounter.
India is not like Europe. There is caste to consider. He is a white man.
Furthermore, the jewels were stolen from state treasuries; from
buildings, in some instances vaults, that are not easily accessible."
"Then you think it the work of some sort of organized band?"
"I think exactly as you do," she replied cryptically, "only I have
foundation for my belief, while you are--rather, your department,
is--well, romancing."
Silence fell. The man was the first to speak.
"I'm to infer, then, that in your opinion Chavigny had nothing whatever
to do with the robberies?"
She smiled. "Did I say that?"
"At least, you hinted that there is something rather big behind the
thefts."
She continued to smile and leaned upon the desk, facing him.
"To come to the purpose of this call, Sir Francis. If you will give me
four months--and a free rein--you have my word that I will recover every
jewel that was stolen on the night of June fourteenth."
It was with difficulty that the Director of Central Intelligence
smothered an impulse to smile and suggested soberly:
"Won't you be more explicit? This is--well, from my viewpoint, it seems
rather incredible."
"I mean, with the aid of one of your men I will do what your Department
could never accomplish. May I have him?"
"The whole of the Secret Service is at your disposal!"--magnanimously.
She gestured impatiently. "Woodenheads, all of them!"
Sir Francis almost gasped. "Even Euan Kerth?" he managed to ask calmly.
"I do not know Euan Kerth, but he is reputed to be the lion of your
Department. He would more than likely prove unmanageable. No, Euan Kerth
does not qualify."
He chewed his lip. "Really, won't you throw a little more light on the
subject?"
"No," she replied in mellifluous tones, with her most distracting smile.
"You recall what happened in the affair of Amar Singh, when your men
investigated? _I_ shall handle this after my own manner--or wash my
hands of it."
Sir Francis' forehead wrinkled in an official frown.
"This is most extraordinary! Is that a--er--threat?"
"Dare one threaten the Intelligence Department?" she purred.
He drummed upon the surface of his desk again. His thoughts at that
moment were none too pleasant.
"Well, what are your terms?" came at length from him.
She was aware that she was mistress of the situation, and she enjoyed
the position.
"I wish to choose the man with whom I am to work," she began. "I am not
to be spied upon by your agents; in fact, the first indication of any
sort of surveillance will end our contract. The man I choose will not be
permitted to communicate with you, or with anyone, until we have
finished. He must obey me implicitly. If you agree to my terms, I shall
name a meeting-place, and from the instant this man enters the house he
is mine; he disappears from your observation completely until I give him
back to the Raj. Meanwhile, you will follow up the clues you have; you
will forget me, you will forget the man who is to help me--and at the
end of four months I will keep my pledge."
Sir Francis concealed his thoughts under a smile, and well he did.
"You ask the impossible. Why, that's preposterous!"
"You question my loyalty?"
A spark showed in the violet eyes--steel under the velvet.
"Your loyalty is not involved in this discussion; it is simply that you
ask things that are unprecedented in the service."
"The happenings of June fourteenth are without precedent," she returned
swiftly. "Come, Sir Francis, what are you losing in this venture? On the
contrary, you gain much. I want no credit; when I have finished I vanish
from the affair, completely. One of the stipulations is that my name
must not be mentioned in connection with the work. Simply, your
curiosity is piqued. And your masculine vanity suffers at the thought
that a woman can do what you, with your hundreds of eyes, can not. Be
reasonable. I give my word, a word that you have reason to know is
always kept, that your man shall come to no harm. You do not question my
loyalty, you say; then what reason for refusal have you? Simply that in
the stale, musty annals of your Department such a thing has never been
done!"
The Director of Central Intelligence leaned back in his chair.
"Do you know"--and he smiled as he said it--"I could have
you--er--detained as a suspicious person, if I felt so disposed."
Her musical laughter rippled out. "But you do _not_ feel so disposed,
for what would it gain you?"
Their eyes met and there followed a quick duel.... The man's smile was a
sign of defeat.
"If you don't want a Secret Service man, whom _do_ you want?"
"A man who has brains and imagination--and, besides those, honor."
"Name him."
"Major Arnold Trent of Gaya."
Sir Francis lifted his eyebrows. "He is a doctor."
"That is the way with you military men"--with a sigh. "If one is a
physician, you think he knows nothing but what is taught in schools of
medicine! I want some one whose brain is free of tiresome Secret Service
rules."
The Colonel smiled. "You are a very resourceful woman," he declared.
"That means you accept?"
"It means I recognize your ability, and that I shall communicate with
the Viceroy to-morrow and give you my decision as soon as possible."
She smiled her approval and rose.
"Then I shall not prolong this interview. Good night, Sir Francis."
She gave him her hand and moved to the door, where she halted, turning
back.
"I nearly forgot," she said. "There is one other clause in the
agreement. Major Trent must be kept in ignorance of the party with whom
he is to work. To him you may call me--well, the Swaying Cobra." She
smiled again. "By that name I was known when I danced on the Continent."
Then she departed, melting into the dusky hallway.
After a moment Sir Francis moved to the window and parted the draperies
slightly. The palanquin was passing, swimming in yellow moonlight. He
watched it until it lost itself in shadows.
"Now what the deuce!" he muttered.
He resumed his seat and searched several drawers until he found a black
book; then he ran through the pages, halting at: "_Trent, Arnold Ralph,
Major, R. A. M. C...._" He read the lines following the name; took the
receiver from a telephone on his desk; called for a number.
"Kane?" he asked when he was connected. "Duncraigie. You might come out
this way to-night. Important matter. Sarojini Nanjee just called. What!
Surely you remember _her_! Connection of the Nawab of Jehelumpore;
danced in London and Paris for a while. Half white, fourth Rajput, and
the rest devil." He chuckled. "Thought you'd recall _her_. I'll be
waiting for you."
He placed the receiver upon the hook and sat staring reflectively at the
doorway where the woman of the _bhourka_ disappeared.
"Hell-cat!" he said aloud.
Which may or may not have been the impression she intended to give.
3
An hour after the interview with the Director of Central Intelligence,
Sarojini Nanjee lay back in a great cane chair in the living-room of her
bungalow, idly watching the smoke from her cigarette as it spiraled
upward and was rent into vaporous tatters by the electric punkah.
The room, like its occupant, was exotic. A Kyoto gong kindled a bright
spot among softer tones--rare rugs, brocade hangings, and a tall lamp
afloat on the shadows, like an amber island. The woman seemed to melt
into it, her very attitude expressing its utter luxury. Deep iris-hued
eyes dreamed under heavy lids. Her skin glowed with a golden sheen, and
the lacy folds of a negligee fell sheer from her slender ankles and
embroidered the carpet with foamy white.
She had been thus for some time, her brain immersed in a languor, her
thoughts propelled with as little mental volition as possible. She
stirred only to flick the cigarette-ashes into a brass bowl at her
elbow, or to arch one arm above her head in a gesture of complete
abandon. A passing recollection of her call at Sir Francis Duncraigie's
residence invariably caused a faint, inscrutable smile to slip into her
eyes. But for the most part she did not burden herself with either
thought or retrospection; merely sat in the dull, sweet stupor of
semi-inertia.
A night beetle rattled harshly outside. The sound came to the woman as a
sudden recall from her absorption. She placed her nearly burnt-out
cigarette in the ash-bowl; stretched, rose, and struck the Kyoto gong.
As the rich, deep-throated echo sank into a hush, the curtains on one
side of the room parted and a servant in white garments and a blue
turban entered.
"I shall retire now, Chandra Lal," she announced quietly. "You have your
instructions."
"Yes, Heavenborn!"
"You remember the place--the room?"
"How could I forget, Heavenborn?"
"You will"--she hesitated--"cause no injury unless necessary."
"Nay, Heavenborn!"
"Stop calling me that!"--irritably.
Scarlet betel-stained teeth were revealed in a smile.
"Very well, Memsahib."
"You may go now."
"To hear is to obey, Memsahib!"
The blue-turbaned Chandra Lal slipped noiselessly between the curtains.
Sarojini Nanjee moved to a door in the other end of the room, paused
tentatively and stepped over the threshold. The door closed behind her.
And as she left the room, Chandra Lal reappeared.
He stood motionless in the division of the curtains, listening; then
crept softly to a desk in a dusky corner. He produced a key from his
breeches; fitted it into a lock; opened a drawer. For several seconds
his hands moved swiftly, silently through the papers within. After that
he wrote a line on a small scrap of paper. This he folded and slipped
under the edge of his blue turban.
Noiselessly he locked the drawer and recrossed the room. At the doorway
he looked back.... The curtains fell together behind him.
4
Dana Charteris sat before a mirror in her room at the hotel and released
her hair from all restraining pins. It tumbled over her shoulders in
ripples of gold; little bronze-tipped waves, rather reddish, glowed with
soft fire under the searching rays of the electric lamp. The face that
looked back at her from the mirror, a face framed in the shimmering
copperish masses, had a lustrous pallor. She returned the stare of her
own image solemnly and realized, not for the first time, that while the
features in the mirror were those of a girl, there were hints of
maturity. The fullness of the throat, of the lips, and the sympathetic,
almost poignant expression in the brown eyes.
She sighed, then hummed a little tune as she ran a comb through the
thick strands. The odor of tobacco floated to her from the adjoining
room where Alan was making out a report. She liked the smell; it was
clean and masculine.
When she had plaited her hair into two long braids, she slipped into a
dressing-gown and pattered into her brother's room in bedroom sandals.
"Alan," she said, slipping her arms about his neck, "it's so wonderful
to be with you! Why, just think, two months ago I was teaching music in
Bayou Latouche!"
He put his pipe aside.
"To-morrow we'll ramble about the city, through the Fort and the
bazaars," he told her. "And the next day--to Lahore."
"I always think of Lahore with a picture of _Kim_ sitting on
'_Zam-zammah_'."
He smiled. "Then to Peshawar and the Khyber. I've an old friend at Ali
Masjid Fort and he's promised to take us through the Pass."
Then he rose, picked her up bodily and carried her into her room,
placing her upon the bed.
"Good night; sleep tight!"
He kissed her, turned out the light and returned to his room.
Dana slipped out of her dressing-gown; flung it across the foot of the
bed; dropped her slippers upon the floor. Then she lay back upon the
pillows, watching the moonlight that streamed in through the open
casement.
The wide-flung windows yielded a view of the sky and the white Indian
stars. In her fancy she likened them to a string of jewels. Jewels. That
word brought to her mind a picture of the looted treasures of which Alan
had told her. Gems. What fascinating things! Jewels of rajahs and
maharajahs, the pomp and rust of pagan rulers! Diamonds stripped from
idols' eyes, and rubies and sapphires pillaged from the vaults of
ancient temples! She had heard stories of the pearl fisheries of Ceylon
where stones were stolen and hidden in cobras, even in human bodies....
India, mother of intrigue. She shivered.
She could not forget the copy of the Pearl Scarf of Indore. It haunted
her.... Pearls.... Chavigny, a thief of international notoriety....
Alan's pen was scratching steadily on in the next room. The odor of
tobacco was comforting. It made her forget the jewels of Ind; conjured
in her mind a picture of the great, pillared house at Bayou Latouche.
And she was still thinking of Bayou Latouche, and hearing faintly the
_scratch-scratch_ of the pen, when she fell asleep.
5
Dana awakened with a start. Involuntarily she sat up in bed, staring
drowsily about the room. It was buried in dusk. The moonlight, floating
through the casement, crusted the floor with a band of pearl. As full
consciousness wiped the threads of sleep from her brain, she wondered
what had caused her sudden awakening. No noise, for silence shut down
like a lid, made more intense by the sighing of trees beyond the stone
terrace. The sounds of a clock on the dressing-table seemed to stitch
the hush.
For a moment she sat there, vaguely uneasy; then swung her feet over the
side and slipped them into bedroom sandals. Moving quietly to the
dressing-table, she looked at the clock. After one.... Her sandals
lisped on the floor as she crept to the window.
Delhi lay asleep in the breathless night. Temple, tower, dome and
minaret swam in the moonlight, and in the jungle stretch by the river
jackals were laughing hysterically. With a little shiver she returned to
the bed.
Strange to awaken like this, she thought. The new surroundings probably.
She sighed and settled deeper in the bed.
... She was almost asleep when a shadow flitted across her vision. At
first it seemed a part of the slumber that had nearly overcome her, and
she lay there contemplating the window-casement where it had passed
until it was borne to her, suddenly, and not without a shock, that she
was fully awake and the shadow was not a shadow, but a very substantial
human form that had stolen by on the stone terrace. The realization drew
her muscles rigid, and she lay motionless, listening to the hammering of
her heart.
A faint scraping noise came from Alan's room. What was it, a footfall?
An oblong reservoir of darkness outlined the doorway. She could see
nothing.... She must move, must call her brother. But her body was
locked in a temporary paralysis, her tongue dry.
Again the sound. Unmistakable. Some one was walking stealthily. The
crackle of paper.
Her fright increased, swelled, became so acute that she could no longer
endure it.
"Alan!"
It was not a scream; a whisper. She found that she could move, and she
sat up.
From the next room came a series of thuds; bare feet on the floor.
"Damn you--"
She leaped out of bed.
A ripping sound. A groan. Another thud, heavier this time.
Dana reached the communicating door in a few steps. A quick intake of
breath. Her hands closed upon the door-frame, tightened convulsively.
Dimness swam visibly before her. Through the dark mist she saw a figure
dart out upon the stone terrace and disappear.
Beside the bed, stretched full length upon the floor, was a white form.
She screamed. The dimness dissolved and she rushed to the body.
"Alan! Alan!"
She grasped his shoulders, dizzy, cold with horror. Involuntarily she
drew one hand away and saw a dark stain upon her fingers. It seemed to
glare out and strike her eyes. She fought against a gathering weakness;
forced herself to feel his heart. Beating. But that white face! And how
could she lift him to the bed, how--
Footsteps rang from the hall. Came a knock at the door; a voice
penetrated the panels.
Dana rose, found the light-switch and turned it. The flood of yellow
gave warmth and strength to her--showed her a blue coil in the middle of
the room. Dimly she realized it was a turban cloth--probably torn from
the intruder's head. She did not touch it, but unlocked the door.
The Eurasian proprietor stood outside, in a dressing-gown. Behind him
was a dark-skinned porter. A door opened further along the hall.
"My brother!" she gasped, motioning toward the white form.
The Eurasian spoke to the porter. They entered and placed the
unconscious man upon the bed. Oblivious of the fact that she was clad
only in a nightdress, Dana stood by, trying to collect her scattered
faculties.
"If you will call a doctor," she said, "I'll attend to him now."
"Yes, madam. I'll have the boy fetch some water and smelling-salts from
my wife's room. How did this happen?"
"I--I can't think--now," she returned dazedly. "Later...."
The Eurasian said something, but she did not remember what it was;
remembered only that he and the porter went out. A moment after the door
closed she heard voices in the hall.
"O Alan!" she pleaded, bending over her brother. "Can't you hear me?"
Several minutes passed before he showed any symptoms of reviving; then
he mumbled a few unintelligible words, and the lids drew back from his
eyes.
"Dana!"--weakly. "He--took it--"
"What, Alan, dear?"
"The scarf--confounded imitation." He closed his eyes; opened them an
instant later. "I'll be all right,"--with a smile. "Nothing serious.
Don't mention the scarf, or anything about it. Just say--thief...." The
lids sank over his eyes. "Imitation," he muttered. And fainted again.
... The Eurasian returned shortly, with the porter at his heels. The
latter carried a basin of water and several bottles.
"If you'll allow me to attend to him," offered the proprietor, "it will
spare you much unpleasantness."
Dana nodded and sank into a chair, shivering.
Nearly an hour passed before the doctor arrived. Alan had regained
consciousness, but fainted during the examination. Dana, standing beside
the bed in her negligee, waited nervously to hear the decision.
"I don't think you have any cause to be uneasy," said the doctor, after
what seemed an interminable time. "The wound isn't serious--only the
muscles and tissues punctured--nothing internal. But I'm going to
suggest, rather, insist, that he go to a hospital."
"By all means," agreed Dana, very close to tears. "I want everything
possible done for him."
The doctor smiled sympathetically. "Be sure we'll do all we can," he
assured her. "Now, if you'll have some one fetch a basin of water,
boiled, I'll get at this dressing."
Close to dawn, after the doctor had departed and Alan was conscious,
Dana went to her room to dress. At the doorway she paused--for the blue
turban-cloth lay coiled upon the threshold where she had tossed it.
Incidents of greater importance had crowded the remembrance of it from
her brain. Now she stooped and picked it up, rather gingerly. Queer. For
imitation pearls!
She lowered her eyes, suddenly, involuntarily--as though in obedience to
a subconscious command.
On the spot where the turban-cloth had lain was a small scrap of paper.
* * * * *
Thus, having jested with a puppet at Indore and given a thread into the
hands of Dana Charteris, Destiny, capricious as the winds, turned toward
the officer of the empire upon whom a chalk-mark had previously been
placed.