OVER THE WATER
Ram Nath, patient and impassive as ever, had the tonga waiting for
Amber before the Residency. Exalted beyond words, the American
permitted himself to be driven off through Kuttarpur's intricate
network of streets and backways, toward a destination of which he knew
as little as he cared. He was a guest of the State, officially
domiciled at the designated house of hospitality; without especial
permission, obtained through the efforts of the Resident, he could
sleep in no other spot in the city or its purlieus. He was indifferent,
absolutely; the matter interested him as scantily--which is to say not
at all--as did the fact that an escort of troopers of the State, very
well accoutred and disciplined, followed the tonga with a great
jangling of steel and tumult of hoofs.
He was in that condition of semi-daze which is the not extraordinary
portion of a declared lover revelling in the memory of his mistress's
eyes, whose parting look has not been unkind. Upon that glance of
secret understanding, signalled to him from eyes as brown as beautiful,
he was building him a palace of dreams so strange, so sweet, that the
mere contemplation of its unsubstantial loveliness filled him with an
exquisite agony of hope, a poignant ecstasy of despair. It was too much
to hope for, that she should smile upon him in the morning.... Yet he
hoped.
Unconscious of the passage of time, he was roused only by the pausing
of the tonga and its escort before the Gateway of the Elephants--the
main octroi gate in the northern wall of the city. There ensued a brief
interchange of formalities between the sergeant of his escort and the
captain of the Quarter Guard. Then the tonga was permitted to pass out,
and for five minutes rattled and clattered along the border of the
lake, stopping finally at the rest-house.
Alighting in the compound, Amber disbursed a few rupees to the
troopers, paid off Ram Nath--who was swift to drive off city-wards, in
mad haste lest the gates be shut upon him for the night--and entered
the bungalow. An aged, talkative, and amiable khansamah met him at the
threshold with expressions of exaggerated respect, no doubt genuine
enough, and followed him, a mumbling shadow, as the Virginian made a
brief round of inspection.
Standing between the road and the water, the rest-house proved to be
moderately spacious and clean; on the lake-front it opened upon a
marble bund, or landing-stage, its lip lapped by whispering ripples of
the lake. Amber went out upon this to discover, separated from him by
little more than half a mile of black water, the ghostly white walls of
the Raj Mahal climbing in dim majesty to the stars. A single line of
white lights outlined the topmost parapet; at the water's edge a single
marble entrance was aglow; between the two, towers and terraces,
hanging gardens and white scarp-like walls rose in darkened confusion
unimaginable--or, rather, fell like a cascade of architecture, down the
hillside to the lake. A dark hive teeming with the occult life of
unnumbered men and women--Salig Singh the inscrutable and strong,
Naraini the mysterious, whose loveliness lived a fable in the land, and
how many thousand others--living and dying, working and idling, in joy
and sadness, in hatred and love, weaving forever that myriad-stranded
web of intrigue which is the life of native palaces ...
The Virginian remained long in rapt wondering contemplation of it,
until the wind blowing across the waters had chilled him to the point
of shivering; when he turned indoors to his bed. But he was to have
little rest that night. The khansamah who attended him had hardly
turned low his light when Amber was disturbed by the noise of an angry
altercation in the compound. He arose and in dressing-gown and slippers
went to investigate, and found Ram Nath in violent dispute with the
sergeant of the escort--which, it appeared, had builded a fire and
camped round it in the compound: a circumstance which furnished food
for thought.
Amber began to suspect that the troops had been furnished as a guard
less of honour than of espionage, less in formal courtesy than in
demonstration of the unsleeping vigilance of the Eye--kindly assisted
by the Maharana of Khandawar.
A man who, warmed by the ardour of his first love, feels suddenly the
shadow of death falling cold upon him, is apt to neglect nothing. Amber
considered that he had given Ram Nath no commission of any sort, and
bent an attentive ear to the communication which the tonga-wallah
insisted upon making to him.
Ram Nath had returned, he asserted, solely for the purpose of informing
Amber in accordance with his desires. "The telegraph-office for which
you enquired, sahib, stands just within the Gateway of the Elephants,"
he announced. "The telegraph-babu will be on duty very early in the
morning, should you desire still to send the message."
"Oh, yes," said Amber indifferently. "I'd forgotten. Thanks."
He returned to his charpoy with spirits considerably higher. Ram Nath
had not winked this time, but the fact was indisputable that Amber had
_not_ expressed any interest whatever in the location of the
telegraph-office.
Wondering if the telegraph-babu by any chance wore pink satin, he dozed
off on the decision that he would need to send a message the first
thing in the morning.
Some time later he was a second time awakened by further disputation in
the compound. The troopers were squabbling amongst themselves; he was
able to make this much out in spite of the fact that the sepoys,
recruited exclusively from the native population of Khandawar, spoke a
patois of Hindi so corrupt that even an expert in Oriental languages
would experience difficulty in trying to interpret it. Amber did not
weary himself with the task, but presently lifted up his voice and
demanded silence, desiring to be informed if his sleep was to be
continually broken by the bickerings of sons of mothers without noses.
There followed instantaneous silence, broken by a chuckle and an
applausive "Shabash!" and nothing more.
Amber snuggled down again upon his pillow and soothed himself with the
feel of the pistol that his fingers grasped beneath the clothes.
A bar of moonlight slipped through the blinds and fell athwart his
eyes. He cursed it bitterly and got up and moved his charpoy into
shadow. The sibilant lisping of the wavelets against the bund sang him
softly toward oblivion ... and a convention of water-fowl went into
stormy executive session out in the middle of the lake. This had to be
endured, and in time Amber's senses grew numb to the racket and he
dropped off into a fitful doze....
Footfalls and hushed voices in the bungalow were responsible for the
next interruption. Amber came to with a start and found himself sitting
up on the edge of the charpoy, with a dreamy impression that two people
had been standing over him and had just left the room, escaping by way
of the khansamah's quarters. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and went
out to remonstrate vigorously with the khansamah. The latter naturally
professed complete ignorance of the visitation and dwelt with such
insistence upon the plausibility of dreams that Amber lost patience and
kicked him grievously, so that he complained with a loud voice and cast
himself at the sahib's feet, declaring that he was but as the dust
beneath them and that Amber was his father and mother and the light of
the Universe besides. In short, he raised such a rumpus that some of
the sepoys came in to investigate and--went out again, hastily, to
testify to their fellows that the hazoor was a man of fluent wrath,
surprisingly versed in the art and practice of abuse.
Somewhat mollified and reflecting, at the same time, that this was all
but a part of the game, to be expected by those who patronise
rest-houses off the beaten roads of travel, the Virginian returned to
his charpoy and immediately lapsed into a singularly disquieting
dream.... He was strolling by the border of the lake when a coot swam
in and hailed him in English; and when he stopped to look the coot
lifted an A.D.T. messenger-boy's cap and pleaded with him to sign his
name in a little black book, promising that, if he did so, it would be
free to doff its disguise and be Labertouche again. So Amber signed
"Pink Satin" in the book and the coot stood up and said, "I'm not
Labertouche at all, but Ram Nath, and Ram Nath is only another name for
Har Dyal Rutton, and besides you had better come away at once, for the
Eye thou dost wear upon thy finger never sleeps and it's only a paste
Token anyway." Hearing which, Amber caught the coot by the leg and
found that he had grasped the arm of Salig Singh, whose eyes were both
monstrous emeralds without any whites whatever. And Salig Singh tapped
him on the shoulder and began to say over and over again in a whisper...
But here Amber another time found himself wide awake and sitting up,
his left hand gripping the wrist of a native and his right holding his
pistol steadily levelled at the native's breast. While the voice he
heard was real and no figment of a dream-mused imagination; for the man
was whispering earnestly and repeatedly:
"_Hasten, hazoor, for the night doth wane and the hour is at hand_."
"What deviltry's this?" Amber demanded sharply, with a threatening
gesture.
But the native neither attempted to free himself nor to evade the
pistol's mouth. "Have patience, hazoor," he begged earnestly, "and make
no disturbance. It is late and the sepoys sleep; if you will be
circumspect and are not afraid--"
"Who are you?"
"I was to say, '_I come from you know whom_,' hazoor."
"That all?"
"In the matter of a certain photograph, hazoor."
"By thunder!" Labertouche's name was on Amber's lips, but he repressed
it. "Wait a bit." He gulped down the last dregs of sleep. "Let me think
and--see."
This last was an afterthought. As it came to him he dropped the pistol
by his side and felt for matches in the pocket of his coat, which hung
over the back of a bedside chair. Finding one, he struck it noiselessly
and, as the tiny flame broadened, drew his captive nearer.
It was a fat, mean, wicked face that stood out against the darkness: an
ochre-tinted face with a wide, loose-lipped mouth and protruding eyes
that blinked nervously into his. But he had never seen it before.
"Who are you?" He cast away the match as its flame died and snatched up
his weapon.
"I was to say--"
"I heard that once. What's your name?"
"Dulla Dad, hazoor."
"And who are you from?"
"Hazoor, I was not to say."
"I think you'd better," suggested Amber, with grim significance.
"I am the hazoor's slave. I dare not say."
"Now look here--"
"Hazoor, it was charged upon me to say, _'I come from you know whom.'_"
"The devil it was.... Well, what do you want?"
"I was to say, '_Hasten, hazoor, for the night--_"
"I've heard that, too. You mean you're to lead me to somebody,
somewhere--you can't say where?"
"Aye, hazoor, even so."
"Get over there, in the corner, while I think this over--and don't move
or I'll make you a present of a nice young bullet, Dulla Dad."
"That is as Allah wills; only remember, hazoor, the injunction for
haste."
The man, a small stunted Mohammedan, sidled fearsomely over to the spot
indicated and waited there, cringing and supplicating Amber with
eloquent gestures. The Virginian watched him closely until comforted by
the reflection that, had murder been the object, he had been a dead man
long since. Then he put aside the revolver and began to dress.
"Only Labertouche would have to communicate with me by such stealth,"
he considered. "Besides, that reference to the photograph--"
He slipped hurriedly into his clothing and ostentatiously dropped the
pistol into his right-hand coat-pocket. "I'm ready," he told the man.
"Lead the way; and remember, if there's any treachery afoot, you'll be
the first to suffer for it, Dulla Dad."
The Mohammedan bowed submissively. "Be it so, my lord," he said in
Hindi, and, moving noiselessly with unshod feet, glided through the
door which opened upon the bund, Amber close behind him.
That it was indeed late was shown by the position of the moon; and the
sweet freshness of early morning was strong in the keen air. The wind
had failed and the lake stretched flawless from shore to shore, a sheet
of untarnished silver. Over against them the palace slept, or seemed to
sleep, in its miraculous beauty, glacier-like with its shining surfaces
and deep, purple-shadowed crevasses. There were few lights visible in
the city, and the quiet of it was notable; so likewise with the wards
outside the walls and the lakeside palaces and villas. Only in a
distant temple a drum was throbbing, throbbing.
In the water at their feet a light boat was gently nosing the marble
bund. Dulla Dad, squatting, drew it broadside to the steps and motioned
Amber to enter. The Virginian boarded it gingerly, seating himself at
the stern. Dulla Dad dropped in forward and pushed off. The boat moved
out upon the bosom of the lake with scarce a sound, and the native,
grasping a double-bladed paddle, dipped it gently and sent the frail
craft flying onward with long, swift, and powerful strokes, guiding it
directly toward the walls of the Raj Mahal.
Two-thirds of the way across the Virginian surrendered to his mistrust
and drew his pistol. "Dulla Dad," he said gently; and the man ceased
paddling with a shudder--"Dulla Dad, you're taking me to the palace."
"Yea, hazoor; that is true," the native answered, his voice quavering.
"Who awaits me there? Answer quickly!"
"Hazoor, it is not wise to speak a name upon the water, where voices
travel far."
"Dulla Dad!"
"Hazoor, I may not say!"
"I think, Dulla Dad, you'd better. If I lose patience--"
"Upon my head be your safety, hazoor! See, you can fire, and thereafter
naught can trouble me. But I, with a single sweep of this paddle, can
overturn us. Be content, hazoor, for a little time; then shall you see
that naught of harm is intended. My life be forfeit if I speak not
truth, hazoor!"
"You have said it," said Amber grimly, "Row on." After all, he
considered, it might still be Labertouche. At first blush it had seemed
hardly credible that the Englishman could have gained a footing in that
vast pile; and yet, it would be like him to seek precisely such a
spot--the very heart of the conspiracy of the Gateway, if they guessed
aright.
The boat surged swiftly on, while again and again Amber's finger
trembled on the trigger. Though already the white gleaming walls
towered above him, it was not yet too late--not too late; but should he
withdraw, force Dulla Dad to return, he might miss ... what? He did
nothing save resign himself to the issue. As they drew nearer the
moonlit walls he looked in vain for sign of a landing-stage, and
wondered, the lighted bund that he had seen from over the water being
invisible to him round an angle of the building. But Dulla Dad held on
without a pause until the moment when it seemed that he intended to
dash the boat bows first against the stone; then, with a final dextrous
twist of the paddle, he swung at a sharp angle and simultaneously
checked the speed. Under scant momentum they slid from moonlight and
the clean air of night into a close well between two walls, and then
suddenly beneath an arch and into a cavernous chamber filled with the
soft murmuring of water--and with darkness.
Here the air was sluggish and heavy and dank with the odour of slime.
Breathing it, seeing nothing save the spectral gleam of moonlight
reflected inwards, hearing nothing save the uncanny lapping and purring
of the ripples, it was not easy to forget the tales men told of palace
corruption and crime--of lovers who had stolen thus secretly to meet
their mistresses, and who had met, instead, Death; of assassins who had
skulked by such stealthy ways to earn blood-money; of spies, of a
treacherous legion who had gained entry to the palace by such ways as
this--perhaps had accomplished their intent and returned to tell the
tale, perhaps had been found in the dawn-light, floating out there on
the lake with drawn, wan faces upturned to the pallid skies....
"Hazoor!"
It was Dulla Dad's voice, sleek with fawning. For all the repulsiveness
of the accents, Amber was not sorry to hear them. At least the native
was human and ... this experience wasn't, hardly.... He leaned toward
the man, eyes aching with the futile strain of striving to penetrate
the blackness. He could see nothing more definite than shadows. The
boat was resting motionless on the tide, as if suspended in an abyss of
night, fathomless and empty.
"Well, what now?" he demanded harshly. "Be careful, Dulla Dad!"
"Still my lord distrusts me? There is naught to fear, none here to lift
hand against you. Your servant lives but to serve you in all loyalty."
"Indeed?"
"My lord may trust me."
"It seems to me I have--too far."
"My lord will not forget?"
"Be sure of that, Dulla Dad.... Well, what are you waiting for?"
"We are arrived, hazoor," said the native calmly. "If you will be
pleased to step ashore, having care lest you overturn the boat, the
steps are on your left."
"Where?... Oh!" Amber's tentative hand, groping in obscurity, fell upon
a slab of stone, smooth and slippery, but solid. "You mean here?"
"Aye, hazoor."
"And what next?"
"I am to wait to conduct you back to your place of rest."
"Um-m. You are, eh?" Amber, doubtful, tried the stone again; it was
substantial enough; only the boat rocked. He struck a match; the
short-lived flame afforded him a feeble, unsatisfactory impression of a
long, narrow, vaulted chamber, whereof the floor was half water, half
stone. There was a landing to the left, a rather narrow ledge, with a
low, heavy door, bossed with iron, in the wall beyond.
Shaking his head, he lifted himself cautiously out of the boat. "You
stay right there, Dulla Dad," he warned the native, "until I see what
happens. If I catch you trying to get away--the boat'll show up nicely
against the opening, you know--I'll give you cause for repentance."
"I am here, hazoor. Turn you and knock upon the door thus"--rapping the
gunwale of the boat--"thrice."
Amber obeyed, wrought up now to so high a pitch of excitement and
suspense that he could hardly have withdrawn had he wished to and been
able to force Dulla Dad to heed him. As he knuckled the third signal,
the door swung slowly inward, disclosing, in a dim glow of light, stone
walls--a bare stone chamber illumined by a single iron lamp hanging in
chains from the ceiling. Across the room a dark entry opened upon a
passageway equally dark.
By the door a servant stood, his attitude deferential. As the
Virginian's gaze fell upon him he salaamed respectfully.
Amber entered, his eyes quick, his right hand in his pocket and
grateful for the cold caress of nickelled steel, his body poised
lightly and tensely upon the balls of his feet--in a word, ready.
Prepared against the worst he was hopeful of the best: apprehensive, he
reminded himself that he had first met Labertouche under auspices
hardly more prepossessing than these.
The clang of the door closing behind him rang hollowly in the
stillness. The warder moved past him to the entrance of the corridor.
Amber held him with a sharp question.
"Am I to wait here?"
"For a moment, Heaven-born!" He disappeared.
Without a sound a door at Amber's elbow that had escaped his cursory
notice, so cunningly was it fitted in the wall, swung open, and a
remembered voice boomed in his ears, not without a certain sardonic
inflection: "Welcome, my lord, welcome to Khandawar!"
Amber swung upon the speaker with a snarl. "Salig Singh!"
"Thy steward bids thee welcome to thy kingdom, hazoor!"
Dominating the scene with his imposing presence--a figure regal in the
regimentals of his native army--the Rajput humbled himself before the
Virginian, dropping to his knee and offering his jewelled sword-hilt in
token of his fealty.
"Oh, get up!" snapped Amber impatiently. "I'm sick of all this damned
tomfoolery. Get up, d'you hear?--unless you want me to take that pretty
sword of yours and spank you with it!"
A quiver, as of self-repression, moved the body of the man at his feet;
then, with a jangle of spurs, Salig Singh leaped up and stood at a
distance of two paces, his head high, his black eyes glittering
ominously with well-nigh the sinister brilliance of his vibrating
emerald aigrette.
"My lord!" he cried angrily. "Are these words to use to one who offers
thee his heart and hand? Is this insolence to be suffered by a Rajput,
a son of Kings?"
"As for that," returned Amber steadily, giving him look for look, "your
grandfather was a _bunia_ and you know it. Whether or not you're going
to 'suffer' what you call my insolence, I don't know, and I don't much
care. You've made a fool of me twice, now, and I'm tired of it. I give
you my word I don't understand why I don't shoot you down here and now,
for I believe in my heart you're the unholiest scoundrel unhung. Is
that language plain enough for you?"
For an instant longer they faced one another offensively, Amber cool
enough outwardly and inwardly boiling with rage that he should have
walked into the trap with his eyes open, Salig Singh trembling with
resentment but holding himself in with splendid restraint.
"As for me," continued Amber, "I suspect I'm the most hopeless ass in
the three Presidencies, if that's any comfort to you, Salig Singh. Now
what d'you want with me?"
A shadowy smile softened the blackness of the Rajput's wrath. He
shrugged and moved his hands slightly, exposing their palms, subtly
signifying his submission.
"Thou art my overlord," he said quietly, with a silky deference. "In
time thou wilt see how thou hast wronged me. For the present, I remain
thy servant. I harbour no resentment, I owe thee naught but loyalty. I
await thy commands."
"The dickens you do!" Amber whistled inaudibly, his eyes narrowing as
he pondered the man. "You protest a lot, Salig Singh. If you're so much
at my service ... why, prove it."
By way of reply Salig Singh lifted his sword in its scabbard from its
fastenings at his side and, with a magnificent gesture, cast it
clanking to the floor between them. A heavy English army-pattern
revolver followed it. The Rajput spread out his hands. "Thou art armed,
my lord," he said, "I, at thy mercy. If thou dost misjudge my purpose
in causing thee to be brought hither, my life is in thy hands."
"Oh, yes." Amber nodded. "That's very pretty. But presuming I chose to
take it?"
"Thou art free as the winds of the morning. See, then." Salig Singh
strode to the outer door and threw it open. "The way of escape is
clear--not even locked."
The lamplight fell across the stone landing and made visible the
waiting boat with Dulla Dad sitting patiently at the oar.
"I see," assented Amber. "Well?"
Salig Singh shut the door gently. "Is there more to say?" he enquired.
"I have shown thee that thou art free."
"Oh, so far as that goes, you've demonstrated pretty clearly that
you're not afraid of me. Of course I know as well as you do that at the
first shot Dulla Dad would slip out to the lake and leave me here to
die like a rat in a corner."
"Thou knowest, lord, that no man in Khandawar would do thee any hurt.
Thy person is sacred--"
"That's all bosh. You don't expect me to believe that you still stick
to that absurd fiction of yours--that I'm Rutton?"
"Then mine eyes have played me false, hazoor. Shabash!" Salig Singh
bowed resignedly.
"Well, then, what do you want? Why have you brought me here?"
"Why didst thou come? There was no force used: thou didst come of thine
own will--thine own will, which is the will of the Body, hazoor!"
"Oh, damnation! Why d'you insist on beating round the bush forever? You
know well why I came. Now, what do you want?"
"My lord, I move, it seems, in the ways of error. A little time ago the
words of the Voice were made known to thee in a far land; thou didst
answer, coming to this country. A few days agone I myself did repeat to
you the message of the Bell; thou didst swear thou wouldst not answer,
yet art thou here in Kuttarpur. Am I to be blamed for taking this for a
sign of thy repentance?... Hazoor, the Body is patient, the Will
benignant and long-suffering. Still is the Gateway open."
"Is that what you wanted to tell me, Salig Singh?"
"What else? Am I to believe thee a madman, weary of life, that thou
shouldst venture hither with a heart hardened against the Will of the
Body? I seek but to serve thee in thus daring thy displeasure. Why
shouldst thou come to Bharuta [Footnote: India.] at all if thou dost
not intend to undergo the Ordeal of the Gateway? Am I a fool or--I say
it in all respect, my lord--art thou?"
"From the look of things, I fancy the epithet fits us both, Salig
Singh. You refuse to take my word for it that I know nothing of your
infamous Gateway and have no intention of ever approaching it, that I
have not a drop of Indian blood in me and am in no way related to or
connected with Har Dyal Rutton, who is dead--"
"I may not believe what I know to be untrue."
"You'll have to learn to recognise the truth, I'm afraid. For the final
time I tell you that I am David Amber, a citizen of the United States
of America, travelling in India on purely personal business."
The Rajput inclined his head submissively. "Then is my duty all but
done, hazoor. Thrice hath the warning been given thee. There be still
four-and-twenty hours in which, it may be, thou shalt learn to see
clearly. My lord, I ask of thee a single favour. Wilt thou follow me?"
He motioned toward the arched entrance to the passageway.
"Follow thee?" Amber at length dropped into Urdu, unconsciously
adopting the easier form of communication now that, he felt, the issue
between them was plain, that the Rajput laboured under no further
misunderstanding as to the reason of his presence in Khandawar.
"Whither?"
"There is that which I must show thee."
"What?"
"My life be forfeit if thou dost not return unharmed to the rest-house
ere sunrise. Wilt thou come?"
"To what end, Salig Singh?"
"Furthermore," the Rajput persisted stubbornly, his head lifted in
pride and his nostrils dilated a little with scorn--"furthermore I
offer thee the word of a Rajput. Thou are my guest, since thou wilt
have it so. No harm shall come to thee, upon my honour."
Curiosity triumphed. Amber knew that he had exacted the most honoured
pledge known in Rajputana. His apprehensions were at rest; nothing
could touch him now--_until_ he had returned to the bungalow. Then, he
divined, it was to be open war--himself and Labertouche pitted against
the strength of the greatest conspiracy known in India since the days
of '57. But for the present, no pledge of any sort had been exacted of
him.
"So be it," he assented on impulse. "I follow."
With no other word Salig Singh turned and strode down the corridor.