The Slayer of Souls

by Robert W. Chambers

  CHAPTER XVI

  THE PLACE OF PRAYER

  Her husband called her on the telephone a few minutes later:

  "Fifty-three, Six-twenty-six speaking! Who is this?"

  "V-sixty-nine," replied his young wife happily. "Are you all right?"

  "Yes. Is M. H. 2479 there?"

  "He is here."

  "Very well. An hour ago I saw Togrul Khan in a limousine and chased himin a taxi. His car got away in the fog but it was possible to make outthe number. An empty Cadillac limousine bearing that number is nowwaiting outside the 44th Street entrance to the Hotel Astor. The doormanwill hold it until I finish telephoning. Tell M. H. 2479 to send men tocover this matter----"

  "Victor!"

  "Be careful! Yes, what is it?"

  "I beg you not to stir in this affair until I can join you----"

  "Hurry then. It's just across the street from Westover Court----" Hisvoice ceased; she heard another voice, faintly, and an exclamation fromher husband; then his hurried voice over the wire: "The doorman justsent word to hurry. The car number is N. Y. _015 F 0379_! I've got torun! Good-b----"

  * * * * *

  He left the booth at the end of Peacock Alley, ran down the marble stepsto the left and out to the snowy sidewalk, passing on his way a younggirl swathed to the eyes in chinchilla who was hurrying into the hotel.As he came to where the limousine was standing, he saw that it was stillempty although the door stood open and the engine was running. Aroundthe chauffeur stood the gold laced doorman, the gorgeously uniformedcarriage porter and a mounted policeman.

  "Hey!" said the latter when he saw Cleves,--"what's the matter here?What are you holding up this car for?"

  Cleves beckoned him, whispered, then turned to the doorman.

  "Why did you send for me? Was the chauffeur trying to pull out?"

  "Yes, sir. A lady come hurrying out an' she jumps in, and the shawfur hestarts her humming----"

  "A lady! Where did she go?"

  "It was that young lady in chinchilla fur. The one you just met when yourun out. Yessir! Why, as soon as I held up the car and called this herecop, she opens the door and out she jumps and beats it into the hotelagain----"

  "Hold that car, Officer!" interrupted Cleves. "Keep it standing here andarrest anybody who gets into it! I'll be back again----"

  He turned and hurried into the hotel, traversed Peacock Alley scanningevery woman he passed, searching for a slim shape swathed in chinchilla.There were no chinchilla wraps in Peacock Alley; none in the dining-roomwhere people already were beginning to gather and the orchestra was nowplaying; no young girl in chinchilla in the waiting room, or in thenorth dining-room.

  Then, suddenly, far across the crowded lobby, he saw a slender,bare-headed girl in a chinchilla cloak turn hurriedly away from theroom-clerk's desk, holding a key in her white gloved hand.

  Before he could take two steps in her direction she had disappeared inthe crowd.

  He made his way through the packed lobby as best he could amid throngsof people dressed for dinner, theatre, or other gaiety awaiting themsomewhere out there in the light-smeared winter fog; but when he arrivedat the room clerk's desk he looked for a chinchilla wrap in vain.

  Then he leaned over the desk and said to the clerk in a low voice: "I ama Federal agent from the Department of Justice. Here are my credentials.Now, who was that young woman in chinchilla furs to whom you gave herdoor key a moment ago?"

  The clerk leaned over his counter and, dropping his voice, answered thatthe lady in question had arrived only that morning from San Francisco;had registered as Madame Aoula Baroulass; and had been given a suite onthe fourth floor numbered from 408 to 414.

  "Do you mean to arrest her?" added the clerk in a weird whisper.

  "I don't know. Possibly. Have you the master-key?"

  The clerk handed it to him without a word; and Cleves hurried to theelevator.

  On the fourth floor the matron on duty halted him, but when he murmuredan explanation she nodded and laid a finger on her lips.

  "Madame has gone to her apartment," she whispered.

  "Has she a servant? Or friends with her?"

  "No, sir.... I did see her speak to two foreign looking gentlemen in theelevator when she arrived this morning."

  Cleves nodded; the matron pointed out the direction in silence, and hewent rapidly down the carpeted corridor, until he came to a doornumbered 408.

  For a second only he hesitated, then swiftly fitted the master-key andopened the door.

  The room--a bedroom--was brightly lighted; but there was nobody there.The other rooms--dressing closet, bath-room and parlour, all werebrilliantly lighted by ceiling fixtures and wall brackets; but there wasnot a person to be seen in any of the rooms--nor, save for theillumination, was there any visible sign that anybody inhabited theapartment.

  Swiftly he searched the apartment from end to end. There was no baggageto be seen, no garments, no toilet articles, no flowers in the vases, nomagazines or books, not one article of feminine apparel or of personalbric-a-brac visible in the entire place.

  Nor had the bed even been turned down--nor any preparation for thenight's comfort been attempted. And, except for the blazing lights, itwas as though the apartment had not been entered by anybody for a month.

  All the windows were closed, all shades lowered and curtains drawn. Theair, though apparently pure enough, had that vague flatness which oneassociates with an unused guest-chamber when opened for an airing.

  Now, deliberately, Cleves began a more thorough search of the apartment,looking behind curtains, under beds, into clothes presses, behind sofas.

  Then he searched the bureau drawers, dressers, desks for any sign orclew of the girl in the chinchillas. There was no dust anywhere,--thehotel management evidently was particular--but there was not even a pinto be found.

  Presently he went out into the corridor and looked again at the numberon the door. He had made no mistake.

  Then he turned and sped down the long corridor to where the matron wasstanding beside her desk preparing to go off duty as soon as the othermatron arrived to relieve her.

  To his impatient question she replied positively that she had seen thegirl in chinchillas unlock 408 and enter the apartment less than fiveminutes before he had arrived in pursuit.

  "And I saw her lights go on as soon as she went in," added the matron,pointing to the distant illuminated transom.

  "Then she went out through into the next apartment," insisted Cleves.

  "The fire-tower is on one side of her; the scullery closet on theother," said the matron. "She could not have left that apartment withoutcoming out into the corridor. And if she had come out I should have seenher."

  "I tell you she isn't in those rooms!" protested Cleves.

  "She must be there, sir. I saw her go in a few seconds before you cameup."

  At that moment the other matron arrived. There was no use arguing. Heleft the explanation of the situation to the woman who was going offduty, and, hastening his steps, he returned to apartment 408.

  The door, which he had left open, had swung shut. Again he fitted themaster-key, entered, paused on the threshold, looked around nervously,his nostrils suddenly filled with a puff of perfume.

  And there on the table by the bed he saw a glass bowl filled with a massof Chinese orchids--great odorous clusters of orange and snow-whitebloom that saturated all the room with their freshening scent.

  So astounded was he that he stood stock still, one hand still on thedoor-knob; then in a trice he had closed and locked the door frominside.

  _Somebody_ was in that apartment. There could be no doubt about it. Hedropped his right hand into his overcoat pocket and took hold of hisautomatic pistol.

  For ten minutes he stood so, listening, peering about the room from bedto curtains, and out into the parlour. There was not a sound in theplace. Nothing stirred.

  Now, grasping his pistol but not drawing it, he began another stealthytour of
the apartment, exploring every nook and cranny. And, at the end,had discovered nothing new.

  When at length he realised that, as far as he could discover, there wasnot a living thing in the place excepting himself, a very faint chillgrew along his neck and shoulders, and he caught his breath suddenly,deeply.

  He had come back to the bedroom, now. The perfume of the orchidssaturated the still air.

  And, as he stood staring at them, all of a sudden he saw, where theirtwisted stalks rested in the transparent bowl of water, somethingmoving--something brilliant as a live ember gliding out from among themass of submerged stems--a living fish glowing in scarlet hues andwinnowing the water with grotesquely trailing fins as delicate asfilaments of scarlet lace.

  To and fro swam the fish among the maze of orchid stalks. Even its eyeswere hot and red as molten rubies; and as its crimson gills swelled andrelaxed and swelled, tints of cherry-fire waxed and waned over its fatand glowing body.

  And vaguely, now, in the perfume saturated air, Cleves seemed to sense asubtle taint of evil,--something sinister in the intense stillness ofthe place--in the jewelled fish gliding so silently in and out among thepallid convolutions of the drowned stems.

  As he stood staring at the fish, the drugged odour of the orchids heavyin his throat and lungs, something stirred very lightly in the room.

  Chills crawling over every limb, he looked around across his shoulder.

  There was a figure seated cross-legged in the middle of the bed!

  Then, in the perfumed silence, the girl laughed.

  For a full minute neither of them moved. No sound had echoed her lowlaughter save the deadened pulsations of his own heart. But now theregrew a faint ripple of water in the bowl where the scarlet fish,suddenly restless, was swimming hither and thither as though pursued byan invisible hand.

  With the slight noise of splashing water in his ears, Cleves stoodstaring at the figure on the bed. Under her chinchilla the girl seemedto be all a pale golden tint--hair, skin, eyes. The scant shred of anevening gown she wore, the jewels at her throat and breast, all wereyellow and amber and saffron-gold.

  And now, looking him in the eyes, she leisurely disengaged the robe ofsilver fur from her naked shoulders and let it fall around her on thebed. For a second the lithe, willowy golden thing gathered there asgracefully as a coiled snake filled him with swift loathing. Then,almost instantly, the beauty of the lissome creature fascinated him.

  She leaned forward and set her elbows on her two knees, and rested herface between her hands--like a gold rose-bud between two ivory petals,he thought, dismayed by this young thing's beauty, shaken by the dullconfusion of his own heart battering his breast like the blows of arising tide.

  "What do you wish?" she inquired in her soft young voice. "Why have youcome secretly into my rooms to search--and clasping in your hand aloaded pistol deep within your pocket?"

  "Why have you hidden yourself until now?" he retorted in a dull andlaboured voice.

  "I have been here."

  "Where?"

  "Here!... Looking at you.... And watching my scarlet fish. His name isDzelim. He is nearly a thousand years old and as wise as a magician.Look upon him, my lord! See how rapidly he darts around his tiny crystalworld!--like a comet through outer star-dust, running the eternal racewith Time.... And--yonder is a chair. Will my lord be seated--at his newservant's feet?"

  A strange, physical weariness seemed to weight his limbs and shoulders.He seated himself near the bed, never taking his heavy gaze from thesmiling, golden thing which squatted there watching him so intently.

  "Whose limousine was that which you entered and then left so abruptly?"he asked.

  "My own."

  "What was the Yezidee Togrul Kahn doing in it?"

  "Did you see anybody in my car?" she asked, veiling her eyes a littlewith their tawny lashes.

  "I saw a man with a thick beard dyed red with henna, and the bony faceand slant eyes of Togrul the Yezidee."

  "May my soul be ransom for yours, my lord, but you lie!" she saidsoftly. Her lips parted in a smile; but her half-veiled eyes werebrilliant as two topazes.

  "Is that your answer?"

  She lifted one hand and with her forefinger made signs from right toleft and then downward as though writing in Turkish and in Chinesecharacters.

  "It is written," she said in a low voice, "that we belong to God and wereturn to him. Look out what you are about, my lord!"

  He drew his pistol from his overcoat and, holding it, rested his hand onhis knee.

  "Now," he said hoarsely, "while we await the coming of Togrul Kahn, youshall remain exactly where you are, and you shall tell me exactly whoyou are in order that I may decide whether to arrest you as an alienenemy inciting my countrymen to murder, or to let you go as a foreignerwho is able to prove her honesty and innocence."

  The girl laughed:

  "Be careful," she said. "My danger lies in your youth andmine--somewhere between your lips and mine lies my only danger from you,my lord."

  A dull flush mounted to his temples and burned there.

  "I am the golden comrade to Heavenly-Azure," she said, still smiling. "Iam the Third Immaum in the necklace Keuke wears where Yulun hangs as arose-pearl, and Sansa as a pearl on fire.

  "Look upon me, my lord!"

  There was a golden light in his eyes which seemed to stiffen the musclesand confuse his vision. He heard her voice again as though very faraway:

  "It is written that we shall love, my lord--thou and I--this night--thisnight. Listen attentively. I am thy slave. My lips shall touch thy feet.Look upon me, my lord!"

  There was a dazzling blindness in his eyes and in his brain. He swayed alittle still striving to fix her with his failing gaze. His pistol handslipped sideways from his knee, fell limply, and the weapon dropped tothe thick carpet. He could still see the glimmering golden shape of her,still hear her distant voice:

  "It is written that we belong to God.... Tokhta!..."

  Over his knees was settling a snow-white sheet; on it, in his lap, lay anaked knife. There was not a sound in the room save the rushing andsplashing of the scarlet fish in its crystal bowl.

  Bending nearer, the girl fixed her yellow eyes on the man who lookedback at her with dying gaze, sitting upright and knee deep in hisshroud.

  Then, noiselessly she uncoiled her supple golden body, extending herright arm toward the knife.

  "Throw back thy head, my lord, and stretch thy throat to the knife'ssweet edge," she whispered caressingly. "No!--do not close your eyes.Look upon me. Look into my eyes. I am Aoula, temple girl of theBaroulass! I am mistress to the Slayer of Souls! I am a golden playthingto Sanang Noiane, Prince of the Yezidees. Look upon me attentively, mylord!"

  Her smooth little hand closed on the hilt; the scarlet fish splashedfuriously in the bowl, dislodging a blossom or two which fell to thecarpet and slowly faded into mist.

  Now she grasped the knife, and she slipped from the bed to the floor andstood before the dazed man.

  "This is the Namaz-Ga," she said in her silky voice. "Behold, this isthe appointed Place of Prayer. Gaze around you, my lord. These are theshadows of mighty men who come here to see you die in the Place ofPrayer."

  Cleves's head had fallen back, but his eyes were open. The Baroulassgirl took his head in both hands and turned it hither and thither. Andhis glazing eyes seemed to sweep a throng of shadowy white-robed mencrowding the room. And he saw the bloodless, symmetrical visage ofSanang among them, and the great red beard of Togrul; and his stiffeninglips parted in an uttered cry, and sagged open, flaccid and soundless.

  The Baroulass sorceress lifted the shroud from his knees and spread iton the carpet, moving with leisurely grace about her business and softlyintoning the Prayers for the Dead.

  Then, having made her arrangements, she took her knife into her righthand again and came back to the half-conscious man, and stood close infront of him, bending near and looking curiously into his dimmed eyes.

  "Ayah!" she said s
milingly. "This is the Place of Prayer. And you shalladd your prayer to ours before I use my knife. So! I give you back yourpower of speech. Pronounce the name of Erlik!"

  Very slowly his dry lips moved and his dry tongue trembled. The wordthey formed was,

  "Tressa!"

  Instantly the girl's yellow eyes grew incandescent and her lovely mouthbecame distorted. With her left hand she caught his chin, forced hishead back, exposing his throat, and using all her strength drew theknife's edge across it.

  But it was only her clenched fingers that swept the tautthroat--clenched and empty fingers in which the knife had vanished.

  And when the Baroulass girl saw that her clenched hand was empty, felther own pointed nails cutting into the tender flesh of her own palm, shestared at her blood-stained fingers in sudden terror--stared, spreadthem, shrieked where she stood, and writhed there trembling andscreaming as though gripped in an invisible trap.

  But she fell silent when the door of the room opened noiselessly behindher;--and it was as though she dared not turn her head to face the endof all things which had entered the room and was drawing nearer in uttersilence.

  Suddenly she saw its shadow on the wall; and her voice burst from herlips in a last shuddering scream.

  Then the end came slowly, without a sound, and she sank at the knees,gently, to a kneeling posture, then backward, extending her supplegolden shape across the shroud; and lay there limp as a dead snake.

  Tressa went to the bowl of water and drew from it every blossom. Thescarlet fish was now thrashing the water to an iridescent spume; andTressa plunged in her hands and seized it and flung it out--squirmingand wheezing crimson foam--on the shroud beside the golden girl of theBaroulass. Then, very slowly, she drew the shroud over the dying things;stepped back to the chair where her husband lay unconscious; knelt downbeside him and took his head on her shoulder, gazing, all the while, atthe outline of the dead girl under the snowy shroud.

  After a long while Cleves stirred and opened his eyes. Presently heturned his head sideways on her shoulder.

  "Tressa," he whispered.

  "Hush," she whispered, "all is well now." But she did not move her eyesfrom the shroud, which now outlined the still shapes of _two_ humanfigures.

  "John Recklow!" she called in a low voice.

  Recklow entered noiselessly with drawn pistol. She motioned to him; hebent and lifted the edge of the shroud, cautiously. A bushy red beardprotruded.

  "Togrul!" he exclaimed.... "But who is this young creature lying deadbeside him?"

  Then Tressa caught the collar of her tunic in her left hand and flungback her lovely face looking upward out of eyes like sapphires wet withrain:

  "In the name of the one and only God," she sobbed--"if there be noresurrection for dead souls, then I have slain this night in vain!

  "For what does it profit a girl if her soul be lost to a lover and herbody be saved for her husband?"

  She rose from her knees, the tears still falling, and went and lookeddown at the outlined shapes beneath the shroud.

  Recklow had gone to the telephone to summon his own men and anambulance. Now, turning toward Tressa from his chair:

  "God knows what we'd do without you, Mrs. Cleves. I believe thisaccounts for all the Yezidees except Sanang."

  "Excepting Prince Sanang," she said drearily. Then she went slowly towhere her husband lay in his armchair, and sank down on the floor, andlaid her cheek across his feet.