Clytie let the paper fall from her hands. Then she picked it up and read it again.
"The pearls," she whispered. "It's the pearls they want. . . . Unlucky pearls. Something always happens when I wear them. I hate them. I hate them. When must I go . . ." She snatched up the paper. "Tonight ... at seven. Oh God, Sarah. Do you think they'll have him there waiting?"
I was terribly afraid. I said: "Clytie, we must show this to Seth. We must tell the police. They must try to catch these people."
"They say don't show it to the police!" she cried in terror.
"Naturally they would."
"Sarah, they are going to kill Ralphie if we tell the policel"
"They wouldn't dare."
"They say they would."
"I don't think you should handle this on your own."
"But they say they will kill him if I don't."
"These wicked people want the pearls. That's what they're after."
"They can have them. Do you think two rows of pearls are more important to me than my child's life!"
"No, of course not. But can we trust them?"
She had taken my arm and was looking straight at me. Her poor sad face, her wild eyes betrayed her anguish.
"I have to trust them, Sarah," she said. "I have to do everything to get my boy back."
"Sir William Carstairs himself would advise . . ."
"If he were brought in they would kill my son."
"How do we know?"
"How can we risk it? No, no. They shall have the pearls. I would give them this minute. I want my baby back."
"Try to be calm, Clytie. How can we be sure. . ."
I didn't say it. It would have been too cruel to suggest that she might give them the pearls and even then might not get her son back.
"Sarah, let's go out. Let's go to the tree. Let's see how long it takes to get there."
I could only humor her. We went out into the heat of the day. I felt dazed with horror and misery. We came to the tree with the letter R carved on it. I thought of the day Ralph had so proudly shown it to me.
"How long it seems till dark," said Clytie.
I agreed. It seemed a week at least since we had been so excited about going to the pageant and it was only yesterday.
She seemed to read my thoughts. "This time yesterday he was here with us," she said. "There was no warning of danger—oh, if only we hadn't gone. If only I had held his hand all the time. How did it happen, Sarah? How could it have happened?"
I suggested we go back to the house. Could she try to rest? Could I make some tea?
She stared at me blankly as though she did not know what I was talking about.
We sat through the afternoon, blinds drawn to keep out the afternoon sun.
Seth was in Kandy. I wondered what they were doing there. We should have told them about this last message. Clytie had promised that if anything came she would send one of the boys
with it to Sir William's office without delay. But she refused to do
so.
Sheba came and sat with us. She was silent, staring ahead of her. I warmed to her a little. Her devotion to Clytie and her love for the boy were touching.
Sheba said: "Missee Clytie, he will be back in my arms this night. I know it."
"You have had a vision?" asked Clytie eagerly.
Sheba nodded. "I see him in the woods. He is laughing. He is telling me strange story. This night it will be."
Then Clytie showed her the note and I knew then how deeply she trusted her.
Sheba said: "What it say? You tell me, missee."
Clytie told her.
"Pearls," she said. "We have our boy then. They take pearls . . . then we get boy."
"Tonight," said Clytie breathlessly. "Just as it is dark. Under the tree with the R on the trunk. He loves that tree, my darling boy. I'll give them the pearls and then they will give him back to
me.
Sheba clasped her hands together and said: "He will be back with us. . . our boy."
I wished that I could feel as optimistic as they did. Ralph was in the hands of ruthless men. They were planning to steal a fortune, for the pearls were priceless. They could not have asked for a bigger ransom. Once they had it, how could we be sure they would return the boy alive?
I thought she and Sheba were not treating the case with enough caution. Of course Clytie was nearly hysterical with grief and fear —and so I believed was Sheba. There was one thing they wanted and that was the return of the child. They would not consider the possibility that ruthless criminals might be preparing to delude them, to get the pearls and keep the boy. They could not bear to face that fact.
If only Clinton were here, I thought again. I fancy he would have been clear-thinking enough to know what was the best thing to do. I tried to imagine how he would handle the matter. I was sure it would not be to take the pearls to the woods and leave
them there. But then the pearls would probably mean a great deal to Clinton. To Clytie they were nothing but the means of restoring her son.
How slowly the time passed! The afternoon dragged on. Six o'clock. One hour to go.
Clytie sat tense, listening. She was afraid, I believed, that Seth would return bringing someone from the judiciary with him. She wanted us to be alone . . . herself . . . myself and Sheba, so that she could slip out to the woods.
It was just after six when we found the note. There was a knock on the door and we rushed out to find no one there but a piece of paper under a stone.
Mother of Boy. Let nurse come. You will be watched. You place pearls beneath tree. Nurse walk to right. Follow nurse when pearls put down. You will have boy. If you bring others boy kUled.
Clytie went to her bedroom. I followed her. She opened the safe in the anteroom and took out the case. Her fingers were trembling as she opened it.
"Our last look at the Ashington Pearls, Sarah," she said, and her voice rose hysterically.
They lay on their midnight-blue velvet, exquisite, perfection. The emerald eye of the serpent glittered evilly, I fancied.
She looked at them as though they fascinated her and held her gaze against her will. I thought of all the years they had been in the family and of the women who had worn them. Then I remembered Aunt Martha, who had wanted my father to marry again and have a son who in turn could have a wife to wear these cursed pearls. There was something evil about them which could tempt people to wickedness. Cruel and wicked people were now threatening Ralph because of them.
A legend and a tradition would be handed over to these robbers tonight. Clytie was determined.
She shut the case with a snap. "What does it matter?" she cried. "Nothing on earth is worth more than the life of my boy."
I agreed with her. My only fear was that in acting on this emotional impulse we might not be doing the right thing. I knew.
though, that I could not make Clytie agree with this. She could see only a chance to get her son back and she was ready to risk anything to do that. It was the only chance she saw. She did not trust those officials who were trying to work out a solution. While they planned a course of action, Ralph could be killed. A mother's instinct was worth all the clever planning of the judge and his police.
She was impatient when I tried to reason with her. I knew it was useless. She was determined that she and Sheba should go out into the woods and obey those instructions absolutely.
In five minutes it would be dark. Clytie was in a fever of impatience. The hands which held the crocodile case shook pitiably.
"You must stay here, Sarah," she said. "They have said no one else. You must stay in the house. If you were seen you don't know what they might do."
Sheba nodded. "Missee Sarah must stay," she agreed.
I said nothing. I knew there was nothing I could say. Clytie looked so frail in her pale-pink sari, the silver bracelets jingling on her arms, her eyes wide with sleeplessness, her expression taut and tense.
Sheba on the other hand looked calm and confid
ent. She had seen it all in a vision and she knew that they were coming back with the boy.
"He will be out there," whispered Clytie. "He will be in the woods. Oh my darling child. I trust he is not frightened."
"He would never be frightened," I said. "To him it will be one of his adventures."
"Yes," murmured Clytie. "Just. . . like that."
In a few minutes it would be seven o'clock. Darkness came suddenly. I had often marveled before how the sun was there, brilliant at one moment, and suddenly dropped below the horizon and the light disappeared. It was hke a shutter falling.
Clytie turned to me. "Stay here, Sarah. Promise me you'll stay here. Swear it."
So I swore.
It seemed hours before they came back. I heard them in the garden and I ran down.
Ralph was in his mother's arms and tears were falling down
Clytie's cheeks. Sheba was murmuring something that sounded like an incantation.
"Sarah!" Clytie had seen me.
"I heard you. I had to come out."
''He's here. We've got him. All's well. Sarah . . . Sarah . . . isn't it wonderful!"
Ralph looked from one to the other of us, as I hugged him in relief. "I've been with my elephant," he said. "He's the biggest betterest elephant in the world."
"We must go in/' said Clytie, her voice trilling with happiness. "It's past your bedtime."
Ralph went on: "There was this wonderful elephant. He had jewels on his back and I sat in a cage and there was an umbrella over me. I was the chief. And I slept in a funny bed. . . ."
"Let's go in," said Sheba. "Boy can tell us all about it tomorrow."
So we had recovered the boy for the price of the Ashington Pearls. At least Ralphie was not hurt, which was all that really mattered.
I reminded Clytie that we should now send a message at once to Kandy to tell them that we had the boy, and this was done.
Ralph was clearly tired. He was asleep before he could be undressed. Clytie wouldn't leave him. She sat by his bed and Sheba was with her.
I felt drained of emotion. It had all happened so quickly but I was glad it had been quick. I wondered what more days of such suspense would have done to Clytie.
Sir William Carstairs came back with Seth. They went upstairs and gazed on the boy, who was fast asleep by this time.
Clytie was too bewildered still to take much notice of them. Sheba kept saying that she had known it would happen. Her visions had told her so.
The two men talked to me. I showed them the notes and told them how Clytie had taken the pearls and left them under the tree.
"Good God!" said Seth. "She has lost the pearls."
"She considered it well worthwhile to get the boy back safely."
Seth nodded. Sir William said: "She should have allowed us to handle this."
"She feared for the child's life."
"I suppose most mothers would have behaved as she did."
I was sure of it. I said: "They won't be able to dispose of the pearls very easily, will they?"
"We have a full description of them," replied Sir William. "They will break them up of course. Every pearl in this necklace is a rarity. We might possibly be able to trace them but it's hardly likely. They have probably been sent out of the country by now. I'm afraid we may have to face the fact that they may have been lost forever."
Seth said to me: "You should go to bed, Sarah. This has been a great ordeal for you as well as Cl}tie."
I said good night to them and went.
First I looked in at Clytie. She was still sitting by Ralph's bed, although the boy was fast asleep, and would no doubt remain so all through the night.
I went to my own room. I felt light-headed. I had not slept since it happened.
I undressed and crept under the mosquito net. I was exhausted yet still I could not sleep. I lay there thinking of the events of the day and night . . . the paper with the letters cut out of printing and stuck on. It was so melodramatic . . . unreal in some way. The manner in which it had come about, the way we had lost Ralph, the recovery of the boy ... I didn't know how to describe it. Smooth, slick . . . like a play. Not quite real.
My thoughts were going round and round in my head. Something strange about all this. Something sinister.
It then occurred to me that since I had come here and discovered that my marriage had been arranged for me by a scheming husband, life had become vaguely menacing.
There seemed to be a warning in the darkness of the night, in the hum of the insects, in the occasional thump of one against the wire netting.
There was something here I did not understand. I was caught up in it.
Beware, said the night.
The affair had had such an effect on Clytie that she had been unable to leave her bed for a day or so. I could understand how intense the strain had been. We were only just realizing that, now that the relief had come.
The next morning Ralph behaved as though nothing very extraordinary had happened and that it was the most natural thing in the world to have been kidnaped. He chattered a great deal about the elephants he had ridden, and it was all so wildly impossible as to have occurred only in his imagination. But there were one or two comments which provided a clue.
He had slept in a funny bed. He had eaten rice. There was sugar. More sugar than Sheba gave him.
"Who gave you the rice and sugar, Ralph?" I asked.
He hunched his shoulders and laughed at me. "He did," he said.
"A man?"
"There was a cobra," he went on. "He had yellow eyes and he came up to me. I got my bow and arrow and shot him dead . . . right through his heart."
"What man was it?" I asked.
"He made me laugh. 'It's a good game,' he said. This cobra . . . You know the way a cobra darts. Aunt Sarah? I've got a picture in my book. I'll show you."
It was such a mixture of fantasy and fact that it was hopeless to try and discover anything.
Clytie said to me: "Don't ask Ralph questions. Don't let him think anything fearful happened. Don't let him know how frightened we were."
I promised.
Seth talked to me about it. "It has been a terrible experience for Clytie," he said, "but I'm sure the boy hasn't an inkling of his danger. They were evidently gentle with him."
"It's strange," I said. "It makes me think they must have been people he knew."
Seth looked grave. "Clytie wore the pearls at the ball," he said. "I just wonder whether someone there . . ."
"It seems dangerous to keep such valuables in a place like this."
"There's some rule that they have to be worn now and then.
They deteriorate if they aren't. They have been worn from time to time."
"I first heard of this when my mother showed me a picture of herself wearing them."
"Clytie's mother would have worn them too. So did Clyde sometimes for a special occasion or even when we were alone." He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, that is the end of the Ashington Pearls."
"They may be recovered."
"Maybe. Clytie's right," he went on. "She doesn't want the boy questioned. It's better for him to forget the incident as soon as possible."
I agreed. For a boy who indulged in such fantasies of the imagination what had happened that night might well seem to him commonplace.
"I'm glad you're here," continued Seth. "She has become very fond of you. She always wanted to know you and when you did come she loved you at once. Stay with her for a while, Sarah. This has been more of a shock than we realize. It's not only the boy but the pearls. She'll begin to realize the enormity of what she has done sooner or later. It's going to aflFect her deeply."
"But she could never have sold them."
"No. Your father raised money on them once. They were a sort of security, he said. And I suppose in an emergency if he was prepared to forget legends and prophecies of evil and so on, he could have sold them. I think Clytie could be afraid of some retribution. She is half Singhalese, remember,
and although she has been brought up as an English girl she has heard stories of the old legends from her mother and from Sheba. She could be very upset ibout all this. It's Clytie I'm worried about now. Ralph is all right. He doesn't realize the significance of what has happened. It's unfortunate that I have to go away almost immediately to Colombo on business. I can't easily avoid it I hate leaving her but I'd feel better about it if I knew you were here."
"Well, I am staying until Clinton gets back."
"I'm so glad. I shall only be away for a couple of nights. It will be a comfort to know that you're here."
I said again that I should most certainly stay while he was away.
He was right about Clytie. There was a change in her. She was nervous and uneasy. Sheba gave her some concoction that made her sleep and we both promised that we would never leave Ralph alone. I pointed out that now the kidnapers had the pearls there would be no reason for taking the boy. But she refused to listen. One of us must always be on guard in such a way that he would not guess it.
It was only a week since Clinton had gone and he was to stay another week. By that time Clytie would have recovered, I was sure.
Seth went off and I assured him that I would look after Clytie until his return.
The next day when I was in the garden wandering as I loved to among the sweet scented flowers I heard someone come into the garden. I swung round in alarm. Ever since that terrible night I was on edge, just as Clytie was.
"Clinton!" I cried.
He stood for a few moments grinning at me. Then he seized me in his arms. "It is good to see you!" he cried. "I've missed you."
He had picked me up and I looked down on his face, at that thick thatch of blond hair and the dark eyes which made such a contrast to it; I looked at the sensual lips and already I felt the response rising in me.
"You're back soon," I said.
He was reproachful. "Well, you should be pleased about that."
The Spring of the Tiger Page 26