‘Say, Jerry,’ said the American, ‘what happened?’
‘I was lying in my little cubby hole trying to hear what was being said below,’ replied Cousins, ‘when Kamper discovered me and crawled in. We had rather a lengthy argument, and he tried to demonstrate his point of view with a knife. We were right at the height of our little affair, when he slipped from the rafter and as he put his foot through the plaster, I thought it would be as well if he joined his friends below. Were they pleased to see him?’
‘Not much,’ grinned Hugh. ‘And now look here, Rainer, and you too, Rahim, I’ve a few questions to ask. What was—’
He got no further, for an English police sergeant rushed into the room.
‘That man with the wounded hand has got away!’ he cried.
‘Rahtz!’ exclaimed Shannon. ‘Damn!’
‘I think I know where to find him,’ said Abdul Rahim. ‘Come with me!’
Gone was the sibilant inflection from his voice and he spoke so commandingly that Hugh and his companions gazed at him curiously and perhaps a trifle resentfully. However, Hugh prepared to follow him.
‘Search Rahtz’s bungalow, Rainer,’ he said; ‘perhaps he has gone there!’
They all ran from the room and made their way out of the building, past the gymnasium, to the small gate. Hugh found that his car had been brought there by the sergeant of police in whose care he had left it. He jumped in and Rahim got in beside him, while Cousins and Miles sprang into the tonneau. With the Mahommedan directing him, Hugh drove to The Retreat and stopped outside the big gates.
‘I think you had better go a little farther along and leave the car in a turning I know of,’ said Abdul Rahim. ‘Probably Rahtz has not arrived here yet, and we may have to wait for him; in that case you don’t want to make him suspicious.’
Hugh agreed, and drove the car to the place indicated.
Returning, the four found the gate locked, and were compelled to climb over it. The Indian led them to the house by careful stages. The front door was fastened, but circling round the building they eventually found a small window which had been left open and one by one they squeezed through. With Abdul Rahim still leading the way, carrying an electric torch, they went along a passage whence they turned into another, and stopped by the open door of a room.
‘This is where your sister made her heroic fight,’ said the Mahommedan to Hugh.
The latter and his companions gazed into the disorderly‑looking apartment with very deep emotions, then Hugh turned to Rahim rather abruptly.
‘Lead on!’ he said curtly.
They came to a small, bare room.
‘This is where Rahtz will come, if he hasn’t already arrived,’ said the smiling Indian. ‘Keep away from the centre of the floor!’
He crossed to the wall and pressed hard against a portion which appeared somewhat irregular. At once a trapdoor rose in the centre of the room and they could dimly make out a flight of steps.
‘You had better hold your revolvers ready,’ said Rahim, and shone his torch on the steps. ‘I watched them go down there the night I came for your sister. I returned to see exactly what they would do and was just in time to find out. I’ll go first with the light – follow as carefully as you can!’
They reached the bottom without accident and looked round them with interest. They were standing in a small, square chamber containing four chairs and a table on which were a few eating utensils. Opposite them was a door through which they presently passed into another room containing two charpoys (native beds), a chair covered with clothes, and three suitcases. There was another room beyond – this contained one charpoy on which were more clothes, a suitcase and a large worn leather bag. A camp washstand also occupied one corner.
‘Well, he’s not here yet,’ remarked Rahim. ‘We’ll wait until he does come.’
‘How do you know he will?’ asked Cousins.
‘Because this must be the safest hiding place he possesses. You see he does not know that I have discovered it. Probably he’ll take some time to get here as he will approach the house warily for fear that it is being watched. Now let us discover how to shut the trapdoor from below.’
Somehow the Indian seemed to have fallen quite naturally into the position of leader and, rather to his surprise, Shannon found himself accepting the situation. They returned to the first room and quickly discovered a lever at the bottom of the steps which manipulated the trapdoor. Rahim next searched for an electric-light switch. He discovered two; one apparently controlled the lights upstairs, the other lit all the lamps in the underground rooms.
‘That’s better,’ said Hugh. ‘I wonder how long we shall have to wait?’
He had hardly spoken when they heard the sound of stealthy footsteps overhead. In a moment Rahim had switched out the lights again and they were in darkness.
‘Back into the next room!’ he whispered.
With the aid of his torch, they retreated to the first bedroom and waited in silence. Presently there was a slight creak and they knew that the trapdoor had been raised. Then footsteps were heard descending the steps; a moment later there was a dull boom, followed almost at once by a click as the lights were put on. After that there was silence. A minute or two went by and Hugh cautiously looked into the other room. Rahtz was sitting at the table with his back to him. Nodding to his companions, the young Englishman strode to the Russian’s side and taped him on the shoulder. The latter leapt to his feet with such suddenness that he overturned his chair. In a state of absolute amazement he looked at Shannon.
‘You!’ he gasped. ‘You!’
‘Yes,’ said Hugh, ‘and my friends!’
He indicated his three companions, who had followed him. Rahtz shrugged his shoulders and, picking up his chair, sat on it.
‘It would appear that I am caught after all,’ he said with the utmost coolness.
‘You are!’ replied Hugh.
‘So you even discovered this last refuge,’ went on the Russian. ‘If I had a hat on I would take it off to you, Shannon. Really you are positively brilliant, and our mistake all along has been in underrating you.’
‘It was my friend here who discovered your last refuge, as you call it.’ Hugh indicated Abdul Rahim.
‘Ah! The person who shot me!’ Rahtz held up his right hand, round the wrist of which was a bloodstained handkerchief. ‘It was rather undignified to be shot by an Indian,’ he added insolently, ‘though I must admit it was a good shot.’
‘Since you appear to regard Indians with such disdain,’ said Hugh hotly, ‘it may interest you to know that this gentleman also rescued my sister from your infernal clutches.’
‘Indeed!’ Rahtz looked at Abdul Rahim with an appearance of bland curiosity. ‘But please don’t suggest that she was in my – er – clutches. It was Hudson who wanted her so badly. Poor fellow, he died rather suddenly.’
‘How?’ demanded Hugh.
‘I shot him,’ was the calm reply.
They stared at him in horror.
‘You see,’ he went on, ‘the poor man went mad, and tried to kill Novar and myself – he very nearly did too, but during the struggle he dropped his revolver; I picked it up and managed to shoot him just as he was strangling Novar. He is buried in the garden somewhere.’
There was silence for a full minute after that, then Hugh roused himself.
‘Come on, Rahtz!’ he said. ‘There’s no reason why we should remain here any longer.’
‘None at all,’ said the Russian. ‘Am I to attribute it as a compliment to myself,’ he added with an ironical smile, ‘or a sign that you are not as brave as you appear, that you have brought three other men to help you to capture me?’
‘I think you may congratulate yourself on being treated with consideration at all by Captain Shannon,’ said Abdul Rahim quietly.
Rahtz looked at him disdainfully.
‘I am not aware that I addressed you,’ he said. ‘Who are you, anyway?’
‘A great admirer of
Captain Shannon’s,’ was the reply.
‘You have my sympathy,’ murmured the Russian, and rose from his chair. ‘Well, I am ready!’ he said.
He walked carelessly towards the steps. Then, suddenly, as he passed the electric light switch he put up his hand and the place was plunged into complete darkness. A mocking laugh came from the gloom.
‘Gentlemen, I have a revolver in my hand and I am ready to use it,’ said Rahtz’s voice. ‘No doubt one of you has an electric torch. If he switches it on he is a dead man!’
For a moment there was a tense silence, then suddenly Rahim’s torch flared out, there was a flash and a terrific concussion followed immediately by another flash and an even greater concussion, a moan, the sound of a body dropping – and silence. The acrid smell of powder filled the close atmosphere.
‘Switch on the lights, please,’ said Abdul Rahim’s quiet voice. ‘My torch has fallen, and I fear it is broken.’
Hugh groped along the wall and at last found the switch. A moment and the place was brilliantly illuminated.
On the ground lay Rahtz, stretched on his back. Miles knelt beside him and after examining him stood up.
‘I guess his plotting days are over,’ he said.
‘Dead?’ asked Cousins.
The American nodded.
‘He was hit clean between he eyes,’ he said, looking at Abdul Rahim with admiration. ‘It was a thundering good shot.’
‘It’s a pity he had to be killed,’ said the Indian, ‘but it was fate.’
‘What did you do?’ asked Cousins, with a curious tone in his voice.
‘I merely held the torch at arm’s length and he fired. Then I fired back.’
‘What made you drop it?’
‘I think it was hit.’ He bent and picked it up. ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘it is quite shattered.’
The others examined it also.
‘Look here,’ said Cousins, ‘I believe you’ve been hit also. Let me see your left hand!’
The Indian stood smiling at him, his left hand, as ever, stuck in the pocket of his coat.
‘Believe me, Mr Cousins,’ he said, ‘I am perfectly all right.’
The little man turned away with a puzzled frown on his face.
‘You’re a strange fellow,’ he said.
‘This business has meant the loss of some lives,’ said Hugh regretfully. ‘Hudson, Kamper, and now Rahtz. We’ll have to get Rainer to send along and have him taken away. Come on! We may as well have a look round before we leave this house.’
They searched the suitcases and the leather bag. The latter was locked, but they forced it open and found inside several important documents relative to Russia’s activities, besides large bundles of bank notes and negotiable securities which must have represented a very large amount of money. The suitcases contained very little of interest; a few papers which they stuffed into the bag – as they intended taking it with them – some money and clothes, that was all.
Leaving the underground apartments they ascended the steps and dropped the trap-door behind them. They went from room to room, but found nothing worthy of notice until they entered a bedroom adjoining a small sitting room which, from evidence left about, they soon concluded was Hudson’s. Cousins noticed a writing pad lying in a wastepaper basket. He pulled it out and with it some sheets of paper.
‘Wastepaper baskets often contain information worth having,’ he said.
He proceeded to study the pad and paper. There was nothing written on the former, but the sheets of paper were covered with words and sentences scrawled about in the utmost confusion. Cousins became very interested and sat down in a chair to read what he could, while the others continued their search of the apartment.
‘By Jove!’ he exclaimed at last. ‘There is something here which the Commissioner will find very interesting, and a few other people as well.’
‘What is it?’ asked Hugh.
‘It is obviously the writing of a madman, for there is no beginning nor end, nor, in fact, any order at all. It consists of sentences and words and Hudson’s signature repeated over and over again, but it amounts to this, that he had embezzled over two lacs of rupees from the Government by forged signatures, and that Rahtz discovered it – how, is not stated. Apparently under the threat of exposure the two Russians forced him to act with them and supply them with all kinds of confidential documents. At the end he writes, Joan has gone to kill Novar and Rahtz for my sake – I must help her.’
‘Good Lord!’ said Hugh. ‘Now we know why he was connected with the others. Bring it along, Jerry! There’s nothing else worth taking.’
They found the gates open when they reached them, so passed out of the grounds without difficulty. Rainer was waiting for them outside Rahtz’s bungalow, and they told him about the Russian’s death.
‘H’m!’ he grunted. ‘I suppose I’ll have to go and tell his wife. I’ve already frightened her to death with my searching, but as I warned her something might happen to him if he resisted, I hope it won’t come as too great a shock. Every triumph has its drawbacks,’ he added. ‘Poor woman!’
He came back in ten minutes wiping his brow with a handkerchief.
‘She took it very badly,’ he growled. ‘I’ve left her in a dead faint. Luckily there’s a woman friend of hers there who’ll look after her.’ He called to a sergeant of police who was standing near by. ‘Harris,’ he said, ‘take two or three men to The Retreat on Shadrah Road, and bring the body of Rahtz home. Mr Rahim will tell you how to enter the room where it is lying.’
The Indian gave careful instructions and evendrew a diagram, so that the sergeant went away fully posted with directions about getting into the underground chambers.
‘Now,’ said Rainer, ‘you fellows will want to get back. Miss Shannon will be getting anxious. I hope you’ve room in your car for me.’
‘Sure!’ said Miles heartily, then added with a grin, ‘Sorry, Hugh, I forgot it was your automobile.’
Shannon laughed maliciously.
‘I’ve almost forgotten that fact myself,’ he said. ‘Jump in everybody You too, Rahim – I’ve a bone to pick with you and the D.C. Besides we want to thank you for what you did the other night, and my sister will be hurt if you don’t come.’
Abdul Rahim smiled.
‘I’ll come,’ he said, ‘but I’d rather face the bone than the thanks. I’ve a car of my own hidden a little way away, so I’ll follow you in that. Rainer’s bungalow I presume?’
Hugh nodded and as the Indian strolled away, turned to the Deputy Commissioner with a grin.
‘Our friend is a trifle familiar,’ he remarked.
‘I like it,’ said the other.
On the way, Cousins told Rainer about the sheets of paper found in Hudson’s waste-paper basket and what they contained. Rainer was vastly interested and took them into his own possession.
‘These will make a lot of people sit up and think,’ he said. ‘I’ll hand them over to the Governor. By the way, you fellows, His Excellency is very gratified over the wonderful success that has attended your efforts. I found time to ring him up from Rahtz’s bungalow and he desire’s me to bring you all to see him at eleven tomorrow morning.’
They stopped at the telegraph office on the way and Hugh kept the rest of the party waiting nearly half an hour while he wrote out a long cable and despatched it. He had brought his small code book with him in his breast pocket in order to prevent delay and now, with a sigh of relief and satisfaction, he sent away the news to England, which would prove to be the forerunner of a great sensation.
Abdul Rahim had arrived at Rainer’s bungalow some time before them, and he was chatting with the ladies when they entered. Joan ran to meet them her eyes shining with a great happiness.
‘Oh, Hugh,’ she cried, ‘isn’t it wonderful? Mr Rahim has been telling us of your great success. Won’t Sir Leonard Wallace be delighted?’
‘I hope so,’ replied Hugh. ‘Have you thanked Rahim for rescuing you?’
‘I’ve tried to, but he wouldn’t let me.’
‘Well, I guess I’ll have a go,’ said Miles.
‘If you do,’ said the Indian, ‘I’ll depart at once, and I understand that Captain Shannon has a bone to pick with me and Mr Rainer!’
‘A bone to pick with—!’ exclaimed Joan. ‘How absurd!’
‘Nevertheless I have,’ said Hugh obstinately, ‘and quite a large one. I want to know how Rahim knew anything about the meeting and raid tonight and how, in fact, he knew anything about the activities of the Russians at all! And, as he is a friend of Mr Rainer’s, who knew everything, I have been forced to the conclusion that Rainer must have told him.’
Abdul Rahim stood in the centre of the room and smiled. His left hand still reposed in his coat pocket and he looked anything but annoyed or embarrassed by Hugh’s words.
‘Rainer,’ he said, turning to the Commissioner, ‘I am going to give you away.’
‘Go ahead!’ said the other, who looked thoroughly pleased with himself.
‘Well, I called here the other morning,’ went on Rahim and his voice was perfectly clear and resonant, with no trace of a sibilant inflection whatever, ‘and Rainer, I am delighted to say, was so pleased to see me that he told me everything where you imagined the meeting would take place and I resolved to be present myself in case of accidents. I arrived at Mozang College about half past six this evening, had the pleasure of seeing Mr Cousins climb over the wall and followed him. After a great deal of trouble I got into the College, and found my way to the room in question. Of course, the door was locked, but I possess a little instrument which will open most doors. It opened that one and I entered and locked it behind me, then looked about for a hiding place. The large cupboard was the only possible place, and I unlocked the door as I had done the other. It was lined with shelves, but each one was long enough and wide enough to contain me if I cleared off the papers and books. I chose one of the lowest and piled all its litter on to the others. Time passed very slowly and I began to wonder if I was in the wrong room after all, but the orderly position of the chairs around the table reassured me and, at last, I heard a sound and scrambled into the cupboard and pulled the doors to, just as the key turned in the lock and someone entered. I could not see, but I heard everything that went on – well, you know the rest!’
Devil's Cocktail (Wallace of the Secret Service Series) Page 37