MAHARANA OF KHANDAWAR
Both hand and voice might well have been Labertouche's; Amber believed
they were. And the darkness rendered visual identification impossible.
No shadow of doubt troubled him as he yielded to the urgent hand, and
permitted himself to be dragged, more than led, through the reeking,
milling mob, whose numbers seemed each instant augmented. He had
thought, dully, to find it a difficult matter to worm through and
escape, but somehow his guide seemed to have little trouble. Others,
likewise, evidently wished to get out of sight before the arrival of
the police, and in the wake of a little knot of these Amber felt
himself drawn along until, within less than two minutes, they were on
the outskirts of the crowd.
He drew a long breath of relief. Ever since that knife had flown
whining past his cheek, his instinct of self-preservation had been
dominated by a serene confidence that Pink Satin was at hand to steer
him in safety away from the brawl. For his own part he was troubled by
a feeling of helplessness and dependence unusual with him, who was of a
self-reliant habit, accustomed to shift for himself whatever the
emergency. But this was something vastly different from the run of
experiences that had theretofore fallen to his lot. In. the foulest
stews of a vast city, with no least notion of how to win his way back
to the security of the Chowringhee quarter; in the heart of a howling
native rabble stimulated to a pitch of frenzy by the only things that
ever seem really to rouse the Oriental from his apathy--the scent and
sight of human blood; and with a sense of terror chilling him as he
realised the truth at which his guide had hinted--that the actual
assassin would not hesitate an instant to cry the murder upon the head
of one of the Sahib-logue: Amber felt as little confidence in his
ability to work out his salvation as though he had been a child. He
thanked his stars for Labertouche--for the hand that clasped his arm
and the voice that spoke guardedly in his ear.
And then, by the light of the street, he discovered that his gratitude
had been premature and misplaced. His guide had fallen a pace behind
and was shouldering him along with almost frantic energy; but a glance
aside showed Amber, in Labertouche's stead, a chunky little Gurkha in
the fatigue uniform of his regiment of the British Army in India. Pink
Satin was nowhere in sight and it was immediately apparent that an
attempt to find him among the teeming hundreds before the goldsmith's
stall would be as futile as foolish--if not fatal. Yet Amber's impulse
was to wait, and he faltered--something which seemed to exasperate the
Gurkha, who fairly danced with excitement and impatience.
"Hasten, hazoor!" he cried. "Is this a time to loiter? Hasten ere they
charge you with this spilling of blood. The gods lend wings to our feet
this night!"
"But who are you?" demanded Amber.
"What matter is that? Is it not enough that I am here and well disposed
toward you, that I risk my skin to save yours?" He cannoned suddenly
against Amber, shunting him unceremoniously out of the bazaar road and
into a narrow black alley.
Simultaneously Amber heard a cry go up, shrill above the clamour of the
mob, screaming that a white sailor had knifed the goldsmith. And he
turned pale beneath his tan.
"You hear, hazoor? They are naming you to the police-wallahs. Come!"
"You're right." Amber fell into a long, free stride that threatened
quickly to distance the Gurka's short, sturdy legs. "Yet why do you
take this trouble for me?"
"Why ask?" panted the Gurkha. "Did I not stand behind you and see that
you did not throw the knife? Am I a dog to stand by and see an innocent
man yoked to a crime?" He laughed shortly. "Am I a fool to forget how
great is the generosity of Kings? This way, hazoor!"
"Why call me King?" Amber hurdled a heap of offal and picked up his
pace again. "Yet you will find me generous, though but a sahib."
"The sahibs are very generous." Again the Gurkha laughed briefly and
unpleasantly. "But this is no time for words. Save your breath, for now
we must run."
He broke into a springy lope, with his chin up, elbows in and chest
distended, his quick small feet slopping regardlessly through the
viscous mud of the unpaved byway. "Hear that!" he cried, as a series of
short, sharp yells rose in the bazaar behind them. "The dogs have found
the scent!" And for a time terror winged their flight. Eastern mobs are
hard to handle; if overtaken the chances were anything-you-please to
one that the fugitives would be torn to pieces as by wild animals ere
the police could interfere.
They struck through stranger and more awful quarters than Amber had
believed could be tolerated, even in India. For if there were a better
way of escape they had no time to pause and choose it. From the racket
in their rear the pursuit was hot upon their trail, and with every
stride, well-nigh, they were passing those who would mark them down
and, when the rabble came up, cry it on with explicit directions.
And so Amber found himself pounding along at the heels of his Gurkha,
threading acres of flimsy huts huddled together in meaningless
confusion--frail boxes of bamboo, mud, and wattles thrown roughly
together upon corrupt, naked earth that reeked of the drainage of
uncounted generations. Whence they passed through long, brilliant,
silent streets lined with open hovels wherein Vice and Crime bred
cheek-by-jowl, the haunts of Shame, painted and unabashed, sickening in
the very crudity of its nakedness.... There is no bottom to the Pit
wherein the native sinks.... And on, panting, with labouring chests and
aching limbs, into the abandoned desolation of the Chinese quarter, and
back through the still, deadly ways which Amber had threaded in the
footsteps of Pink Satin--where the houses towered high and were
ornamented with dingy, crumbling stucco and rusty, empty, treacherous
balconies of iron, and the air hung in stagnation as if the very winds
here halted to eavesdrop upon the iniquities that were housed behind
the jealous, rotting blinds of wood and iron.
By now the voice of the chase had subsided to a dull and distant
muttering far behind them, and the way was clear. Beyond its age-old,
ineradicable atmosphere of secret infamy there was nothing threatening
in the aspect of the neighbourhood. And the Gurkha pulled up, breathing
like a wind-broken horse.
"Easily, hazoor!" he gasped. "There is time for rest."
Willingly Amber dropped into a wavering stride, so nearly exhausted
that his legs shook under him and he reeled drunkenly; and, fighting
for breath, they stumbled on, side by side, in the shadow of the
overhanging walls, until as they neared a corner the Gurkha stopped and
halted Amber with an imperative gesture.
"The police, sahib, the police!" he breathed, with an expressive sweep
of his hand toward the cross street. "Let us wait here till they pass."
And in evident panic he crowded Amber into the deep and gloomy recess
afforded by a door overhung by a balcony.
Taken off his guard, but with growing doubt, Amber was on the point of
remonstrating. Why should the police concern themselves with peaceful
wayfarers? They could not yet have heard of the crime in the Bazaar,
miles distant. But as he opened his lips he heard the latch click
behind him, and before he could lift a finger, the Gurkha had flung
himself bodily upon him, fairly lifting the American across the
threshold.
They went down together, the Gurkha on top. And the door crashed to
with a rattle of bolts, leaving Amber on his back, in total darkness,
betrayed, lost, and alone with his enemies....
Now take a man--a white man--an American by preference--such an one as
David Amber--who has led an active if thoughtful life and lived much
out of doors, roughing it cheerfully in out-of-the-way corners of the
world, and who has been careful to maintain his physical condition at
something above par; bedevil him with a series of mysterious
circumstances for a couple of months, send him on a long journey,
entangle him in a passably hopeless love affair, work his expectations
up to a high pitch of impatience, exasperate him with disappointment,
and finally cause him to be tripped up by treachery and thrust into a
pitch-black room in an unknown house in one of the vilest quarters of
Calcutta: treat him in such a manner and what may you expect of him?
Not discretion, at least.
Amber went temporarily mad with rage. He was no stranger to fear--no
man with an imagination is; but for the time being he was utterly
foolhardy. He forgot his exhaustion, forgot the hopelessness of his
plight, forgot everything save his insatiable thirst for vengeance. He
was, in our homely idiom, fighting-mad.
One instant overpowered by and supine beneath the Gurkha, the next he
had flung the man off and bounded to his feet. There was the automatic
pistol in his coat-pocket, but he, conscious that many hands were
reaching out in the darkness to drag him down again, found no time to
draw it. He seemed to feel the presence of the nearest antagonist, whom
he could by no means see; for he struck out with both bare, clenched
fists, one after the other, with his weight behind each, and both blows
landed. The sounds of their impact rang like pistol-shots, and beneath
his knuckles he felt naked flesh crack and give. Something fell away
from him with a grunt like a poled ox. And then, in an instant, before
he could recover his poise, even before he knew that the turned-in
stone of the emerald ring had bitten deep into his palm, he was the
axis of a vortex of humanity. And he fought like a devil unchained.
Those who had thrown themselves upon him, clutching desperately at his
arms and legs and hanging upon his body, seemed to be thrown off like
chips from a lathe--for a time. In two short minutes he performed
prodigies of valour; his arms wrought like piston-rods, his fists flew
like flails; and such was the press round him that he struck no blow
that failed to find a mark. The room rang with the sounds of the
struggle, the shuffle, thud, and scrape of feet both booted and bare,
the hoarse, harsh breathing of the combatants, their groans, their
whispers, their low tense cries....
And abruptly it was over. He was borne down by sheer weight of numbers.
Though he fought with the insanity of despair they were too many for
him. He went a second time to the floor, beneath a dozen half-nude
bodies. Below him lay another, with an arm encircling his throat, the
elbow beneath his chin compressing his windpipe. Powerless to move hand
or foot, he gave up ... and wondered dully why it was that a knife had
not yet slipped between his ribs--between the fifth and sixth--or in
his back, beneath the left shoulder-blade, and why his gullet remained
unslit.
Gradually it was forced upon him that his captors meant him no bodily
harm, for the present at least. His wrath subsided and gave place to
curiosity while he rested, regaining his wind, and the natives squirmed
away from him, leaving one man kneeling upon his chest and four others
each pinioning a limb.
There followed a wait, while some several persons indulged in a
whispered confabulation at a distance from him too great for their
words to be articulate. Then came a croaking laugh out of the darkness
and words intended for his ear.
"By Malang Shah! but my lord doth fight like a Rajput!"
Amber caught his breath and exploded. "Half a chance, you damned thugs,
and I'd show you how an American can fight!"
But he had spoken in English, and his hearers gathered the import of
his words only from his tone, apparently. He who had addressed him
laughed applausively.
"It was a gallant fight," he commented, "but like all good things hath
had its end. My lord is overcome. Is my lord still minded for battle or
for peace? Dare I, his servant, give orders for his release, or----"
Here Amber interrupted; stung by the bitter irony, he told the speaker
in fluent idiomatic Hindustani precisely what he might expect if his
"lord" ever got the shadow of a chance to lay hands upon him.
The grim cackling laugh followed his words, a mocking echo, and was his
only answer. But for all his defiance, he presently heard orders issued
to take him up and bear him to another chamber. Promptly the man on his
chest moved away, and his fellows lifted and carried Amber, gently and
with puzzling consideration, some considerable distance through what he
surmised to be an underground corridor. He suffered this passively,
realising his impotence, and somewhat comforted if perplexed by the
tenderness accorded him in return for his savage fight for freedom.
Unexpectedly he was let down upon the floor and released. Bare feet
scurried away in the darkness and a door closed with a resounding bang.
He was alone, for all he could say to the contrary--alone and unharmed.
He was more: he was astonished; he had not been disarmed. He got up and
felt of himself, marvelling that his pocket still sagged with the
weight of the pistol as much as at the circumstance that, aside from
the inevitable damage to his clothing--a coat-sleeve ripped from the
arm-hole, several buttons missing, suspenders broken--he had come out
of the melee unhurt, not even bruised, save for the hand that had been
cut by the emerald. He wrapped a handkerchief about this wound, and
took the pistol out, deriving a great deal of comfort from the way it
balanced, its roughened grip nestling snugly in his palm.
He fairly itched to use the thing, but lacking an excuse, had time to
take more rational counsel of himself. It were certainly unwise to
presume upon the patience of his captors; though he had battered some
of them pretty brutally and himself escaped reprisals, the part of
wisdom would seem to be to save his ammunition.
With this running through his mind, the room was suddenly revealed to
his eyes, that had so long strained fruitlessly to see. A flood of
lamplight leaped through some opening behind him and showed him his
shadow, long and gigantic upon a floor of earth and a wall of stone. He
wheeled about, alert as a cat; and the sight of his pistol hung steady
between the eyes of one who stood at ease, with folded arms, in an open
doorway. Over his shoulder was visible the bare brown poll of an
attendant whose lank brown arm held aloft the lamp.
One does not shoot down in cold blood a man who makes no aggressive
move, and he who stood in the doorway endured impassively the mute
threat of the pistol. Above its sight his eyes met Amber's with a level
and unwavering glance, shining out of a dark, set face cast in a mould
of insolence and pride. A bushy black beard was parted at his chin and
brushed stiffly back. Between his thin hard lips, parted in a shadowy
smile, his teeth gleamed white. Standing a head taller than Amber and
very gracefully erect in clothing of a semi-military cut and of regal
magnificence, every inch of his pose bespoke power, position, and the
habit of authority. His head was bound with a turban of spotless white
from whose clasp, a single splendid emerald, a jewelled aigret nodded;
the bosom of his dark-green tunic blazed with orders and decorations;
at his side swung a sabre with richly jewelled hilt. Heavy white
gauntlets hid his hands, top-boots of patent leather his legs and feet.
At once impressed and irritated by his attitude, Amber lowered his
weapon. "Well?" he demanded querulously. "What do you want? What's your
part in this infamous outrage?"
On the other's face the faint smile became more definite. He nodded
nonchalantly at Amber's pistol. "My lord intends to shoot?" he enquired
in English, his tone courteous and suave.
"That's as may be," retorted Amber defiantly. "I'm going to have
satisfaction for this outrage if I die getting it. You may count on
that, first and last."
The man lifted his eyebrows and his shoulders in deprecation; then
turned to his attendant. "Put down the light and leave us," he said
curtly in Hindustani.
Bowing obsequiously, the servant entered and departed, leaving the lamp
upon a wooden shelf braced against one side of the four-square,
stone-walled dungeon. As he went out he closed the door, and Amber
noted that it was a heavy sheet of iron or steel, very substantial. His
face darkened.
"I presume you know what that means," he said, with a significant jerk
of his head toward the door. "It'll never be shut on me alone. We'll
leave together, you and I, if we both go out feet first." He lifted the
pistol and took the measure of the man, not in any spirit of bravado
but with absolute sincerity. "I trust I make my meaning plain?"
"Most clear, hazoor." The other showed his teeth in an appreciative
smile. "And yet"--with an expressive outward movement of both
hands--"what is the need of all this?"
"What!" Amber choked with resentment. "What was the need of setting
your thugs upon me--of kidnapping me?"
"That, my lord, was an error of judgment on the part of one who shall
pay for it full measure. I trust you were not rudely treated."
"I'd like to know what in blazes you call it," snapped Amber. "I'm
dogged by your spies--Heaven knows why!--lured to this place, butted
bodily into the arms of a gang of ruffians to be manhandled, and
finally locked up in a dark cell. I don't suppose you've got the nerve
to call that courteous treatment."
He had an advantage, and knowing it, was pushing it to the limit; for
all his nonchalance the black man was not unconscious of the pistol;
his eye never forgot it. And Amber's eyes left his not an instant.
Despite that the fellow's next move was a distinct surprise.
Suddenly and with superb grace, he stepped forward and dropped to one
knee at Amber's feet, bowing his head and offering the hilt of his
sword to the American.
"My lord," he said swiftly in Hindustani, "if I have misjudged thee, if
I have earned thy displeasure, upon my head be it. See, I give my life
into thy hands; but a little quiver of thy forefinger and I am as
dust.... An ill report of thee was brought to me, and I did err in
crediting it. It is true that I set this trap for thee; but see, my
lord! though I did so, it was with no evil intent. I thought but to
make sure of thee and bid thee welcome, as a faithful steward should,
to thy motherland.... Maha Rao Rana, Har Dyal Rutton Bahadur,
Heaven-born, King of Kings, Chosen of the Voice, Cherished of the Eye,
Beloved of the Heart, bone of the bone and flesh of the flesh of the
Body, Guardian of the Gateway of Swords!... I, thy servant, Salig
Singh, bid thee welcome to Bharuta!"
Sonorous and not unpleasing, his voice trembled with intense and
unquestionable earnestness; and when it ceased he remained motionless
in his attitude of humility. Amber, hardly able to credit his hearing,
stared down at the man stupidly, his head awhirl with curiously
commingled sensations of amazement and enlightenment. Presently he
laughed shortly.
"Get up," he said; "get up and stand over there by the wall and don't
be a silly ass."
"Hazoor!" There was reproach in Salig Singh's accents; but he obeyed,
rising and retreating to the further wall, there to hold himself at
attention.
"Now see here," began Amber, designedly continuing his half of the
conversation in English--far too much misunderstanding had already been
brought about by his too-ready familiarity with Urdu. He paused a
little to collect his thoughts, then resumed: "Now see here, you're
Salig Singh, Maharana of Khandawar?" This much he recalled from his
conversation with Labertouche a couple of hours gone.
"Hazoor, why dost thou need ask? Thou dost know." The Rajput, on his
part, steadfastly refused to return to English.
"But you are, aren't you?"
"By thy favour, it is even so."
"And you think I'm Rutton--Har Dyal Rutton, as you call him, the former
Maharana who abdicated in your favour?"
The Rajput shrugged expressively, an angry light in his dark, bold
eyes. "It pleases my lord to jest," he complained; "but am I a child,
to be played with?"
"I'm not joking, Salig Singh, and this business is no joke at all. What
I'm trying to drive into your head is the fact that you've made the
mistake of your life. I'm not Rutton and I'm nothing like Rutton; I am
an American citizen and----"
"Pardon, hazoor, but is this worth thy while? I am no child; what I
know I know. If thou art indeed not Har Dyal Rutton, how is it that
thou dost wear upon thy finger the signet of thy house"--Salig Singh
indicated the emerald which Amber had forgotten--"the Token sent thee
by the Bell? If thou are not my lord the rightful Maharana of
Khandawar, how is it that thou hast answered the summons of the Bell?
Are the servants of the Body fools who have followed the hither, losing
trace of thee no single instant since thou didst slay the Bengali who
bore the Token to thee? Am I blind--I, Salig Singh, thy childhood's
playmate, the Grand Vizier of thy too-brief rule, to whom thou didst
surrender the reins of government of Khandawar? I know thee; thou canst
not deceive me. True it is that thou art changed--sadly changed, my
lord; and the years have not worn upon thee as they might--I had
thought to find thee an older man and, by thy grace, a wiser. But even
as I am Salig Singh, thou art none other than my lord, Har Dyal
Rutton."
Salig Singh put his shoulders against the wall and, leaning so with
arms folded, regarded Amber with a triumph not unmixed with contempt.
It was plain that he considered his argument final, his case complete,
the verdict his. While Amber found no words with which to combat his
false impression, and could only stare, open-mouthed and fascinated.
But at length he recollected himself and called his wits together.
"That's all very pretty," he admitted fairly, "but it won't hold water.
I don't suppose these faithful servants of the Bell you mentioned
happened to tell you that Chatterji himself mistook me for Rutton, to
begin with, and just found out his mistake in time to recover the
Token. Did they?"
The man shook his head wearily. "Nothing to that import hath come to
mine ears," he said.
"All right. And of course they didn't tell you that Rutton committed
suicide down there on Long Island, just after he had killed the babu?"
Again Salig Singh replied by a negative movement of his head.
"Well, all I've got to say is that your infernal 'Body' employs a giddy
lot of incompetents to run its errands."
Salig Singh said nothing, and Amber pondered the situation briefly. He
understood now how the babu's companion had fallen into error: how
Chatterji, possessing sufficient intelligence to recognise his initial
mistake, had, having rectified it, saved his face by saying nothing to
his companion of the incident; and how the latter had remained in
ignorance of Rutton's death after the slaying of Chatterji, and had
pardonably mistaken Amber for the man he had been sent to spy upon. The
prologue was plain enough, but how to deal with this its sequel was a
problem that taxed his ingenuity. A single solution seemed practicable,
of the many he debated: to get in touch with Labertouche and leave the
rest to him.
He stood for so long in meditation that the Rajput began to show traces
of impatience. He moved restlessly, yawned, and at length spoke.
"Is not my lord content? Can he not see, the dice are cast? What profit
can he think to win through furtherance of this farce?"
"Well," curiosity prompted Amber to ask, "what do you want of me,
then?"
"Is there need to ask? Through the Mouthpiece, the Bengali, Behari Lai
Chatterji, whom thou didst slay, the message of the Bell was brought to
thee. Thou hast been called; it is for thee to answer."
"Called----?"
"To the Gateway of Swords, hazoor."
"Oh, yes; to be sure. But where in thunderation is it?"
"That my lord doth know."
"You think so? Well, have it your own way. But suppose I decline the
invitation?"
Salig Singh looked bored. "Since thou hast come so far," he said, "thou
wilt go farther, hazoor."
"Meaning--by force?"
"Of thine own will. Those whom the Voice calleth are not led to the
Gateway by their noses."
"But," Amber persisted, "suppose they won't go?"
"Then, hazoor, doth the Council of the Hand sit in judgment upon them."
The significance was savagely obvious, but Amber merely laughed. "And
the Hand strikes, I presume?" Salig Singh nodded. "Bless your heart,
I'm not afraid of your 'Hand'! But am I to understand that compulsion
is not to be used in order to get me to the Gateway--wherever that is?
I mean, I'm free to exercise my judgment, whether or not I shall
go--free to leave this place and return to my hotel?"
Gravely the Rajput inclined his head. "Even so," he assented. "I caused
thee to be brought hither solely to make certain what thou hast out of
thine own mouth confirmed--the report that thou hadst become altogether
traitor to the Bell. So be it. There remains but the warning that for
four days more, and four days only, the Gateway remains open to those
summoned. On the fifth it closes."
"And to those who remain in the outer darkness on that fifth day, Salig
Singh----?"
"God is merciful," said the Rajput piously.
"Very well. If that is all, I think I will now leave you, Salig Singh,"
said Amber, fondling his pistol meaningly.
"One word more," Salig Singh interposed, very much alive to Amber's
attitude: "I were unfaithful to the trust thou didst once repose in me
were I not to warn thee that whither thou goest, the Mind will know;
what thou dost, the Eye will see; the words thou shalt utter, the Ear
will hear. To all things there is an end, also--even to the patience of
the Body. Shabash!"
"Thank you 'most to death, Salig Singh. Now will you be good enough to
order a ghari to take me back to the Great Eastern?"
"My lord's will is his servant's." Salig Singh started for the door the
least trace too eagerly.
"One moment," said Amber sharply. "Not so fast, my friend." He tapped
his palm with the barrel of the pistol to add weight to his peremptory
manner. "I think if you will lift your voice and call, some one will
answer. I've taken a great fancy to you, if you don't know it, and I
don't purpose letting you out of my sight until I'm safely out of this
house."
With a sullen air the Rajput yielded. From his expression Amber would
have wagered much that there was a bad quarter of an hour in store for
those who had neglected to disarm him when the opportunity was theirs.
"As you will," conceded Salig Singh; and he clapped his hands smartly,
crying: "Ohe, Moto!"
Almost instantly the iron door swung open and the lamp-bearer appeared,
salaaming.
"Tell him," ordered Amber, "to bring me a cloak of some sort--not too
conspicuous. I've no fancy to kick up a scandal at the hotel by
returning with these duds visible. You can charge it up to profit and
loss; if it hadn't been for the tender treatment your assassins gave
me, I'd be less disreputable."
A faint smile flickered in Salig Singh's eyes--a look that was not
wholly devoid of admiration for the man who had turned the tables on
him with such ease. "Indeed," he said, "I were lacking in courtesy did
I refuse thee that." And turning to the servant he issued instructions
in accordance with Amber's demands, adding gratuitously an order that
the way of exit should be kept clear.
As the man bowed and withdrew Amber grinned cheerfully. "It wasn't a
bad afterthought, Salig Singh," he observed; "precautions like that
relieve the mind wonderfully sometimes."
But the humour of the situation seemed to be lost upon the Rajput.
In the brief wait that followed Amber shifted his position to one
wherefrom he could command both the doorway and Salig Singh; his
solicitude, however, was without apparent warrant; nothing happened to
justify him of his vigilance. Without undue delay the servant returned
with a light cloak and the announcement that the ghari was in waiting.
His offer to help the American don the garment was graciously declined.
"I've a fancy to have my arms free for the present," Amber explained;
"I can get it on by myself in the ghari." He took the cloak over his
left arm. "I'm ready; lead on!" he said, and with a graceful wave of
the pistol bowed Salig Singh out of the cellar.
Moto leading with the light, they proceeded in silence down a musty but
deserted passage, Amber bringing up the rear with his heart in his
mouth and his finger nervous upon the trigger. After a little the
passage turned and discovered a door open to the street. Beyond this a
ghari could be seen.
Amber civilly insisted that both the servant and his master leave the
house before him, but, once outside, he made a wary detour and got
between them and the waiting conveyance. Then, "It's kind of you, Salig
Singh," he said; "I'm properly grateful. I'll say this for you: you
play the game fairly when anybody calls your attention to the rules.
Good-night to you--and, I say, be kind enough to shut the door as you
go in. I'll just wait until you do."
The Rajput found no answer; conceivably, his chagrin was intense. With
a curt nod he turned and reentered the house, Moto following. The door
closed and Amber jumped briskly into the ghari.
"Home, James," he told the ghariwallah, in great conceit with himself.
"I mean, the Great Eastern Hotel--and _juldee jao_!"
The driver wrapped a whiplash round the corrugated flanks of his horse
and the ghari turned the corner with gratifying speed. In half a minute
they were in the Chitpur Road. In fifteen they drew up before the
hotel.
It was after midnight and the city had begun to quiet down, but Old
Court House Street was still populous with carriages and pedestrians,
black and tan and white. There was a Viceregal function of some sort
towards in the Government House, and broughams and victorias, coaches,
hansoms, and coupes, with lamps alight and liveried coachmen--turn-outs
groomed to the last degree of smartness--crowded the thoroughfare to
the peril and discomfort of the casual ghari. The scene was
unbelievably brilliant. Amber felt like rubbing his eyes. Here were
sidewalks, pavements, throbbing electric arcs, Englishmen in evening
dress, fair Englishwomen in dainty gowns and pretty wraps, the hum of
English voices, the very smell of civilisation. And back there, just
across the border he had so recently crossed, still reigned the
midnight of the Orient, glamorous with the glamour of the Arabian
Nights, dreadful with its dumb menace, its atmosphere of plot and
counterplot, mutiny, treason, intrigue, and death. Here, a little
island of life and light and gay, heedless laughter; there, all round
it, pressing close, silence and impenetrable darkness, like some dark
sea of death lapping its shores....
In a cold sweat of horror Amber got out of the vehicle and paid his
fare. As he turned he discovered an uniformed policeman stalking to and
fro before the hotel, symbol of the sane power that ruled the land.
Amber was torn by an impulse to throw himself upon the man and shriek
aloud his tale of terror--to turn and scream warning in the ears of
those who lived so lightly on the lip of Hell....
A Bengali drifted listlessly past, a bored and blase babu in a suit of
pink satin, wandering home and interested in nothing save his own bland
self and the native cigarette that drooped languidly from his lips. He
passed within a foot of Amber, and from somewhere a voice spoke--the
Virginian could have taken an oath that the babu's lips did not
move--in a clear yet discreet whisper.
"To-morrow," it said; "Darjeeling."
Amber hitched his cloak round him and entered the hotel.