CHAPTER XXIX
THE SQUIRE'S STORY (CONTINUED)
"When I recovered I found myself in a pitch-dark room. A terrible painin my neck when I first moved was the first reminder of what had gonebefore.
"With difficulty (for I was weak and faint) I rose to my feet, thankfulthat, at any rate, I was not bound or fettered in any way. The darknesswas unbearable. I sought the pocket in which I kept my vesta-case. Itwas empty, as were all my pockets. My watch was gone, likewise mycigar-case, match-box, scarf-pin, and, in fact, everything of any value.Fortunately, I discovered a couple of matches loose in my waistcoatpocket. One of these I struck on the sole of my boot. The bright lightalmost blinded me, but, after a moment, I was able to discover that Iwas in a large empty room. Empty? No, for what was that dark object inthe far corner? I crept over towards it.
"It was the prostrate body of a man! Moreover, it was an Englishman, anda fellow-officer with whom I was very intimate. And he was dead.
"What did it mean? How came Lieutenant Aubrey in the cellar (for such itwas) of an opium den? Of what had he died? Not till afterwards did Ilearn of the man who had been seized with cholera in the den on theprevious day. Otherwise I might have thought, for the moment, that mybrother officer and the unhappy wretch were one and the same. Butsomething about the position of the body caused me to give it a furtherinvestigation.
"Then I perceived that, without a doubt, Aubrey had been the victim offoul play. He had been murdered!
"What seemed even more significant to me, bearing in mind the nature ofmy own attack by the gigantic Hindoo, was that the head of the corpsewas almost entirely twisted off. The face looked upward, pale, grim, andterrible; yet the body lay on the stomach. A thin red line was markedacross the throat. The neck was evidently broken.
"'What did it mean?' I asked myself again and again.
"My last match had died out, burning my fingers. I was alone in an emptyroom--empty save for that terrible thing in the corner.
"And the door was securely fastened from without.
"There was some kind of window, though, the bars of which, though stout,were rusty, as was their setting.
"Gifted, for the moment, with almost super-human strength, I managed toremove two or three of these, and then raised myself on to the ledge. Isaw that it was pitch dark, and could not tell whether there was an easydrop or no. However, there was only one thing to do. I must risk it. AndI did. Fortunately, I only had to fall a few feet. Then I found myselfin a small courtyard.
"How I made my way out of this, what streets I traversed, and how longit took me to reach the barracks I do not know. I recollect beingchallenged more than once. But I made no reply, and in the darkness Ipassed through unobserved until I reached some kind of a shed, in whichI fell down and slept heavily until daybreak.
"Of course, my absence had been noticed, as had that of Aubrey.Hurriedly deciding my course of action, I craved an interview with thecommanding officer, Sir Bromley Lestrange, who had always been most kindand sympathetic to me in the matter of my love affairs, concerning whichI had told him all.
"My first idea was to invent some satisfactory explanation of myabsence, making no reference to my discovery of Aubrey's dead body, orto the fact that I had laid myself open so indiscreetly to infection.
"To a stranger I might have been able to invent a tissue of lies, but toa friend, no. Accordingly, in the privacy of his own chamber, I told SirBromley the whole story. His horror on learning my news was as great asmine had been on perceiving how I had been ensnared by the girl Lilla,and more so when I made the gruesome discovery in the empty room.
"'We must hush this up--that's quite clear,' said Sir Bromley; 'it wouldnever do to publish these facts abroad. Young Aubrey was no doubt drawnto the opium den by the same devilish means as those employed in yourcase. It will be a lesson to you, Carrington. But of that more anon.First we must recover poor Aubrey's body, and have it decently buried.Then we must do all in our power to have the wretches in the den handedover to justice. I think I can manage this quietly. Leave me now, and Iwill arrange the best I can. I am sorry for you, truly sorry,Carrington, but you might have expected it.' I knew that in his lastsentence he referred to the paragraph in the _Times_, for I had notwithheld any of the facts from him.
"I took my departure shortly after, first explaining the exact localityin which the opium den was to be found.
"My misconduct was never known to anyone but Sir Bromley. Consequently,it was with unusual regret I learned a year or so back that the Generalhad died suddenly of heart disease in India. I left the regiment shortlyafter, under circumstances I will proceed to explain, and never sawLestrange again, but I cherish the memory of his kindness and leniencyto this day.
"I subsequently learned that a police raid had been made on the premisesof the opium den, when the body of Lieutenant Aubrey was found, andsecretly returned to the barracks. I forget exactly how his death wasexplained, but as we had one or two cases of fever in the hospital aboutthat time, I presume his relatives were led to believe that the youngman succumbed to that disease.
"Of course, on discovering that I had escaped, or, perhaps, immediatelyafter robbing me of all I possessed, the proprietors of the opium dendecamped.
"But the corpse of my unhappy fellow-officer afforded a distinct clue tothe clever, but lazy, native police. Aubrey had been slain byPhansigars, or, as they are better known to the world, Thugs!
"The police were able to inform us, from my description, that Lilla wasa well-known 'sotha,' or entrapper. How many victims she had secured forher terrible gang the police did not know, but she was considered aqueen among her people--a position she owed to the fact that she hadbewitched and ensnared more victims than any other candidate for thenominal honour. The old Chinese woman, her mother, was a 'guru,' orteacher, her occupation being the instructing of children in the art ofThugee--the so-called religion of Kalee, the goddess of scientificmurder. The giant Hindoo, who was the husband of Lilla, combined thecallings of 'bhuttote,' which means strangler with the noose, and'lughaee' (grave-digger). There were several other members of the gang,which subsisted entirely on plunder.
"Once on the track of these inhuman scoundrels, the police quicklymanaged to effect the arrest of the whole gang, with the singleexception of Lilla (or the girl I knew by that name). The latter wasnever captured.
"Exactly what punishment was meted out to the captives I never learned.I feel sure, though, that the death sentence was passed upon them, forthe treatment of Thugs is very severe in India, as it necessarily shouldbe.
"The strangest part of my story still remains to be told.
"A few months later I was walking down an almost deserted street inMadras, when my attention was arrested by a roll of thin yellowparchment lying in the pathway, and on which was written my own name!
"Very naturally I picked up the sheet, and, unrolling it, was astoundedto read the following message in Hindustani:--
"'My baby was born nine days ago. Siva (the husband of Kalee) hasdecreed that it should be a male. My vengeance will be slow. The boyshall be brought up as an expert "Phansigar" (another name for"Strangler") until he shall have reached manhood in five-and-twentyyears. He shall be taught to avenge his father, and, as his father's andmother's son, shall give his life for that purpose and the fraternity. Iam dying, but my mother will bring him up, and, after eight years,sixteen years, and four-and-twenty years, shall inform you of hisprogress, lest you forget the day when you despised Lilla, the "sotha."When five-and-twenty years shall have passed away, your doom shall besealed by Lilla's gift to the world. If you are dead, then shall thedoom descend upon your dear ones. The curse of Devi (another name forKalee) be upon you, but not until five-and-twenty years have passed. Inthose years all that you shall do will prosper, but there shall be nopeace for you, for the doom of Kalee and Siva shall rest upon you andyour seed until that which I have prophesied shall have come to pass.'
"To say that I was frightened by the words in this st
range letter wouldbe to exaggerate my feelings. In those days I did not know what I do nowabout the Thugs and their so-called religion, or I should have givenmore heed to the warning. One thing I did, that was to lay the letterbefore Sir Bromley, who took a very grave view of it.
"'Those Thugs,' he said, with an ominous shake of his head, 'are devils.No other word can be so aptly applied to them. I have made a study oftheir art, for such it is, and I can say that there are thousands ofauthentic cases in which they have done marvels--really marvels--ofbrutality. Beware, my boy! If I were you I would try to change myregiment, and get out of the country as quickly as possible. Murder isnot as uncommon in this part of the Queen's Empire as you might think;and the relatives of these captured Thugs would consider that they haddone a good deed if they were able to put an end to your existence.'
"It was not for this reason, though, that I returned to England shortlyafter. The fact was, I learned, about this time, that a man in London,for whom I had once been able to do a good turn, had recently died,bequeathing to me a sum of money which would, at any rate, make itunnecessary for me to work for my daily bread. 'Ah!' I thought, when Iheard the good news, 'if only Edith had waited a few months longer!'"
The House of Strange Secrets: A Detective Story Page 29