The Mystery of Munroe Island

by Satyajit Ray

  The movie camera was still strapped to Callenbach’s waist. The lens was broken into pieces; its body was badly damaged yet the camera was still there. It took me by surprise to see our Japanese friend’s reaction. ‘May be an interesting film,’ he remarked and removed the camera along with the film from the dead body. We could not bear this bizarre yet poignant scene any more. We ought to bury Callenbach but not now; we need to move on.

  Was the cave Callenbach mentioned the one in front of us? Located against the big hillock this dark opening drew attention.

  We went ahead. From the camp it had seemed quite rocky. But on nearing it we noticed the presence of a few trees between the rocks. We also realized that these phenomenal fruits were available only in this part of the island.

  When we reached the cave, David walked forward and hastened to enter it. David can’t resist the lure of a cave. In the last few days, any cavern, large or small, that came our way would be visited by David, who would rush inside with a torch and inspect the inside thoroughly. Of course, he was doing this in the lure of a treasure. Did he ever dream that today would be the day he succeeded in his mission? ‘Yo ho ho’—this loud announcement by David was typically a pirate’s cry. It seems as if the blood running in David’s body is not Munroe’s but Brandon’s!

  The reason for this exclamation was absolutely genuine. We’re all familiar with the appearance of a pirate’s chest. A decorative ancient chest was indeed lying in one corner of the cave. We couldn’t figure out from the outside that the cave was so vast. It could easily accommodate a hundred people. It became obvious that the dacoits of Brandon’s group had used this cave as their primary habitat.

  David was standing in front of the chest looking wide-eyed at the closed lid. He had gone ahead to open the lid but it was as if some unknown power had turned his pair of hands into stones.

  Ultimately, Saunders went up and opened the lid and at that instant David once more let out a cry and fell unconscious. Suma, of course, immediately tapped on the middle of his forehead with the forefinger of his right hand and revived him. But one must also give allowances for David’s loss of consciousness. His childhood desire has come to fruition today; the chest was overflowing with seventeenth-century Spanish gold coins. This was Blackhole Brandon’s looted wealth!

  Meanwhile, yet another discovery stirred our minds. This, too, was a coffer—though much smaller in size. On a copper plate attached to the box one could still read the clearly written name, Dr H. Munroe.

  After opening this chest, other than some ancient pieces of clothes and a doctor’s paraphernalia, what we found was an immensely valuable item—Hector Munroe’s diary. The diary had commenced from the day after his arrival on this island. How Munroe arrived on this island has also been recorded in this diary. Our hunch had not been exactly wrong. The Conquest came under the attack of the buccaneers and was scuppered. It was Brandon himself who rescued Munroe and brought him to his ship. Then they set sail for Jamaica. The ship faced a violent storm. Having lost its direction the ship began to flounder. At this point the sailors were struck by an epidemic. After seven days when it arrived near this island, the ship ran aground some reefs. Apart from Brandon and Munroe, thirty-three sailors somehow managed to reach the coast and save themselves. A sailor by the name of Ragland had discovered the blue fruit. Ragland was unwell at that time. After consuming this fruit he regained his health within an hour. Eventually everyone present in this group ate this fruit and magically got cured. Munroe had named the fruit, Ambrosia, that is, nectar. Whether the birds or animals, too, ate this fruit was what worried Munroe. He writes:

  ‘If not any other animal, I certainly know that monkeys eat them judging by their good health and swiftness. And that’s not all; these monkeys are not vegetarian, they eat meat. I have seen them catch and eat chameleons and frogs.’

  These observations by Munroe were further clarified by what he had to say next. After eating the fruit in his normal healthy state, he writes—

  ‘Today I tasted something divine. The fruit has the potential to create extraordinary appetite. This morning with much relish we ate deer meat. There’s no dearth of fruits and vegetables but that doesn’t satiate your hunger. Will this amazing fruit remain only within this island? Won’t the rest of the world ever get to know about it?’

  Later on there’s an intimation that as there was no longer any need for a doctor, Brandon was trying to do away with Munroe. To save himself Munroe was constantly evading him but at the same time, he writes, he can feel that there’s no escape from the pirate’s clutches. In the meantime there’s food crunch that has set in. After exhausting the deer population, the band of Brandon’s robbers was now hunting birds and monkeys. They no longer wished to have fruits or vegetables.

  The words Munroe had written right at the end of the diary left a deep impact on my mind:

  ‘I don’t know if I did the right thing by sending the letter through a bottle. Whether to define this fruit as something heavenly is raising doubts in my mind now. I can clearly see that within these three months all the humans are about to turn into savages. Am I, too, degrading myself into an animal? The state of this eternal good health clubbed with indomitable appetite—is this a good signal for mankind?’

  After we finished reading Munroe’s diary, we all sat brooding inside the cave. Suddenly it struck me that we must switch on the Telecardioscope once more.

  We turned on the machine but received no result. That meant the animal had now reached within the range of a kilometre. At that very instant I detected a certain smell inside the cave which we hadn’t sensed earlier. We were sitting at the entrance of the cave so that we could read Munroe’s diary by daylight. But the odour was coming from inside the cave and it grew more and more intense. It meant that there was an entrance to the cave from the rear side as well. The animal was indeed approaching very cautiously because we could not yet hear his footsteps.

  There was now a slight noise. A stone fell down. At that very moment with a blood-curdling roar a stone came hurling out from the darkness of the cave and hit Saunders in the head. Letting out a groan, Saunders lost consciousness and fell to the floor of the cave. And then, much to our surprise, David Munroe picked up the double-barrel gun which had slipped from Saunders’ hand, and aiming into the darkness fired two shots.

  We caught a glimpse of the animal from the thin light which came from outside and heard his heart-wrenching cry. Rising from four feet he got up on two and lifted up his two hairy hands advanced towards us. Before I could take out my Annihilin gun, producing a sharp, whistling sound, a poisonous capsule from the Sumagun pierced the animal’s chest and within minutes he lay flat on the floor, lifeless.

  For the first time I saw Suma overcome by excitement. He screamed, ‘Just try to grasp the special power of this fruit, Shonku. I could fathom this and hence stopped you from eating it. Once you consume this then there’s no escape from a violent death or death by starvation. This creature alone having consumed all other beings of this island was starving to death but having had Callenbach as food had once more aroused his desire to live. But now his hunger has died forever.’

  After saying this Suma turned the wrist of his left hand towards the animal and when he pressed a button of his wristwatch a strong beam fell on that animal’s face.

  ‘Well, whom you now see as a dead being,’ said Suma, ‘was beyond four hundred years old.’

  ‘Blackhole Brandon!’ David Munroe let out a yell that echoed around the cave.

  Saunders has regained consciousness. The four of us were staring at the dead creature. This hairy humongous animal can no longer be identified as a human, but when you see the deep hole in the place of the right eye which now looks even deeper in Suma’s torchlight, this itself pointed at his original self.

  The shots by David Munroe had first injured him and Suma’s poisonous capsule had stopped his heartbeat.

  Now, my own weapon eliminated this vicious pirate—Shakespeare’s co
ntemporary forever from the face of the earth.

  A Messenger from Space

  22 October

  The renowned English astronomer Francis Fielding has been my friend for the past twenty-two years. Although the majority of scientists across the world have almost given up the hope of discovering any indications of the presence of life on any other planets, Fielding has still kept going. He had installed a self-made receiver with a ninety-five-foot diameter in the backyard of his home and carried on sending radio signals based on the mathematical code of 21-centimetre-shortwave frequency year after year, focused on a specific area of the galaxy. It gave me great joy when I received intimation of his success.

  Brentwood, 15 October

  Dear Shonku

  I strongly feel that all my hard work and efforts over the past twelve years are finally bearing fruit! It’s not yet time to broadcast this; I’m disclosing this only to you.

  I finally received a response to my message yesterday at 1.37 a.m. from some part of the Epsilon Indi constellation. My message consisted of primary numbers and so did their reply. This makes it clear that some planet in that part of the galaxy is inhabited by certain intelligent species who understand the language of our mathematics and are eager to establish contact with us.

  This constellation is situated at a distance of ten light years and hence the radio wave would need ten years to reach them. I had sent my first message twelve years ago. In theory their response should have taken another eight years to reach us. The amazing part of the story is that it just took two years. Do we take it that the inhabitants of this alien planet have found a method to transmit interspace messages at a speed faster than a radio wave? Are they far superior to us and ahead of us in civilization?

  In any case, there’s no point in worrying over this now. I’m giving you this news as you, too, like me, must be remembering the prophecy imparted by the papyrus of Egypt.

  Hope you’re keeping well. Will keep you informed with any further news.

  With best wishes

  Francis

  Now I must explain about the prophecy of the papyrus mentioned in Francis’s letter.

  In the three-and-a-half thousand years of ancient Egyptian civilization there has been mention of the rule of numerous kings, and archaeologists who later dug up their graves have unearthed many amazing items. In order to appease the departed souls of the kings, valuable items like jewels, scriptures, garments, utensils were placed inside their mausoleums. Despite sealing the main entrance of these tombs, these items often got looted by thieves. In 1912, when the seal of the main entrance of the young king Tutankhamen’s tomb was found intact, there was great excitement amongst the archaeologists. Cairo Museum houses an array of amazing items that were found in the tomb.

  Last March, an American millionaire and archaeologist by hobby, Gideon Morgenstern, travelled to Cairo when he came to know that the police had arrested two thieves and recovered priceless ancient Egyptian objects from them. The robbers confessed that they obtained these articles from a mastaba i.e., a tomb. The entrance to this mastaba was hidden behind a limestone rock in Beni Hasan, situated on the north-eastern side of the Nile.

  Immediately Morgenstern obtained permission from the government of Egypt and, at his own expense, organized a group of archaeologists who began the task of digging inside the mastaba. He didn’t, however, discover anything of much monetary value. What he did find was, however, both peculiar as well as precious. It was a papyrus document.

  Papyrus was used to make paper by the ancient Egyptians. The outer fibres of a papyrus plant were peeled away and the cores of the stalk sliced into very thin strips and then pounded till they were as thin as silver foil. Until now, all papyrus documents discovered had been political documents, or descriptions of some historical episode or the narration of a local fable. But after deciphering, this particular papyrus was found to contain a set of oracles. Many of us know of the French astrologer Nostradamus’s oracles. Written almost 500 years ago, among the 1000 quatrains written by him, quite a few have turned out to be surprisingly true. The plague and the great fire of London; the beheading of King Louis XVI by guillotine; the rise and fall of Napoleon and Hitler; and the destruction of Hiroshima—all had been predicted by Nostradamus.

  The oracles in the Egyptian papyrus, however, are scientific in nature. Perhaps they had been made by the person who was buried in the mausoleum. Well, whoever had predicted these, the information it provides leaves one awestruck. Almost 5000 years ago, the author of the papyrus foresaw the invention of the steam engine, the aeroplane, the telephone and the television. The papyrus also mentions robots, computers, X-rays and ultraviolet rays. The most interesting thing that’s mentioned is that our earth is the only planet in the solar system inhabited by intelligent beings, a fact that has been confirmed and verified scientifically very recently. However, the papyrus also says that besides our solar system, there are innumerable solar systems existing in our galaxy or the universe. It mentions that there are other planets inhabited by different types of living beings but that there is just one other planet in the entire universe that contains beings exactly like Homo Sapiens. But they are far more advanced scientifically. Apparently they visit earth every 5000 years and have greatly helped push our own civilization forward. The author of the papyrus said that he himself had met an inhabitant of this alien planet and learned the power of foretelling events from him.

  After persuading the officials of the museum, Morgenstern was able to acquire this remarkable papyrus for his own personal collection. And last May in London, at a special conference attended by a select few noted scientists of the world, Morgenstern presented the papyrus and delivered a lecture on its contents. It had been deciphered by the noted Egyptologist Dr Edward Thorneycroft. But the bottom end of this worn-out papyrus was missing. Perhaps the author’s name was mentioned there, but it was no longer possible to decipher. Yet, whatever that has been decoded brings out amazing information. Judging by the time frame of the dates and years described here, it seems the writer of this document had met an inhabitant of this other planet about 5000 years ago. Exactly when and at which location they were to meet again was missing.

  My old German friend, Wilhelm Crole, and I were present at this gathering. I’m yet to meet a more sceptical fellow. I have lost count of how many times he whispered close to my ears, ‘A humbug, fraud, hoaxster . . .’ At the end of the lecture he straightaway demanded to see the papyrus. Respecting Crole’s reputation, Morgenstern gave in to his demand. I too examined the papyrus very carefully. It seemed like a genuine article.

  Now the question is—the radio wave which Fielding has received from the other planet . . . is it the same presence that has been mentioned in this papyrus?

  Unless there’s some further progress, nothing can be discerned at this point.

  26 October

  There is an amazing piece of news in today’s newspaper.

  Gideon Morgenstern has committed suicide.

  He had returned to Cairo; the reason is not mentioned in the paper. The report runs thus. Two days after reaching Cairo, Morgenstern complained to the manager of the hotel saying he was having disturbed sleep because every time he woke up he would see a vulture perched on the windowsill, looking straight in his direction. Initially, the manager treated it as a joke but the result wasn’t a pleasant one. An angry Morgenstern tried to throttle him. In consideration of the stature of his guest, the manager did not take any step towards him despite such an unconvincing complaint. When advised to shut his windows, Morgenstern said he couldn’t sleep with his windows closed due to his asthma. The complaints continued for two days. On the third day, the room boy took coffee to his room and despite pressing the bell a number of times, got no response. So he opened the door with the master key and found the room empty. Morgenstern’s suitcase was still there; the bathroom shelf still contained all his toiletries and on the bedside table lay a parcel with a sticker on top and an open letter. The lett
er consisted of only one line: ‘Nekhbet did not let me live.’

  Since time immemorial the Egyptians have worshipped various animals, birds and reptiles in the form of gods and goddesses. Jackals, dogs, lions, owls, snakes, falcons, cats—all of them were objects of worship. Nekhbet was their vulture goddess.

  After intensive investigations and threats issued to the doorkeeper, it was discovered that Morgenstern had indeed left the hotel on his own. The police opened the packet to look for a clue. It contained the wristwatch Morgenstern had wanted to send to his nephew in New York.

  It must be mentioned here that there have been stories of Egyptian tomb diggers dying mysteriously. For example, during the excavation of Tutankhamen’s tomb, the chief organizer, Lord Carnarvon, died after a mosquito bit him on the cheek in his hotel room in Cairo; the bite turned septic which led to blood loss and finally turned into pneumonia that proved fatal.

  When Carnarvon expired, his pet dog at Hampshire in London is said to have died suddenly at the same time for no apparent reason. Within a couple of months of these twin deaths, eight more people related to the work at this tomb passed away. None of these deaths was normal.

  I’m keen to find out where Brian Dexter is now. Dexter is a very young archaeologist as well as a photographer. He had accompanied Morgenstern during his excavation. It was decided that after completing the work in Cairo Dexter would travel to India. About three years ago he had come to India and had contacted me. With the help of my letter written to the government of India’s department of archaeology, Dexter was given permission to take photographs of the Harappan civilization in Kalibangan. He had said he would look me up in Giridih when he visits India this time.