Part 14 (1/2)
Hol and went, according to instructions, to a small hotel on Chetty Street The innkeeper handed hi that he would expect him at the circuit house at four that afternoon
”My room was a misery, hot and breathless, with only a smallblocked by a piece of torn brown paper that buzzed with flies occasionally, and placed there by some previous occupant in a vain effort to keep out the swar outside In the center of the roo an old mosquito net I climbed in to catch a moment's rest, but I quickly abandoned the notion as I felt the small but sharp bites of a variety of Asiatic pests I decided then to have my first look at Pearl Town, as the central bazaar of the pearl fisheries is known It was of no solid construction and displayed one up alht Little would rehuts, thrown up temporarily to house the pearl fishers and the many merchants, with vile conditions for food and drink”
As he approached the main road known as Tank Street, he saw that he was only a few yards froed in co, others on their way out to the pearl beds, having disgorged their harvest onto the shore The pearl fisheries he found grossly offensive, particularly to the olefactory sense, and to the eyes as well The mollusks, collected from the sea by thousands of pearl divers, were delivered to the shore in large jute bags They were then due vats, sometimes into small boats secured on the shore, where they were allowed to rot in the sun The rotting process softens the flesh in which the pearls are e slih the ugly oyster jelly for gerain
”Shakespeare was quite right, Watson,” said Holmes ”A foul odor inevitably surrounds the pearl The discovery of no other gem causes such a stench, and it is difficult to convey the odor produced by so in the tropical sun, covered by large swar away at the sweet, rotting flesh But this is the method chosen by the native pearl fishers and sanctioned by our agents, for the entire process is in Governht, a hureat surprise the object of ain”
Fro line of pearl merchants was but a few feet The shops were no e umbrella under which the jeweller sat to block the heat of the sun It was there that the pearl fishers brought their share of the harvest, selling it to the dealers who drill the pearls, transforrace the heads and shoulders of the rich No roup of faces could be found anywhere, for the ents came from every civilised country Holmes found hi every conceivable size and shape of pearl Overco the touts and purveyors of these ge to vary at least the discomforts which he saere to be inevitably his over the next few days Beyond the rudi of the whereabouts or even the existence of his quarry Once in his rooreat pearl seerips with his more immediate difficulties His ankles were covered with already bloated leeches Previous experience in the Hiically on their backs, often corip Once this was done, and he was freed from this annoyance, he sat in the only chair in the rooan his battle with the flies They ca had no previous experience with such devils, he began to despair Suddenly, there was a knock at the door He opened to see his dear friend, Gorashar
”Lemon juice,” he said as he sprayed Holmes's face and head with a squirter The flies disappeared instantly
”Iyou on a nu another hue, Gorashar had taken the first available train to Ceylon Once arrived in Pearl Town, he had located ”the Englishman in the bazaar” in a matter of minutes I had not seen hied pleasantries, I told him of my mission”
Gorashar's face darkened ”This pearl is no longer in Pearl Town It is in Trincomalee, now in the hands of the Atkinson brothers, faemstones”
Gorashar already knew ently and as discreetly as possible Gorashar said that he would report to hiht all that he could discover Hollishoinordinate attention
Gorashar left, and Holmes took a rickshaw directly to the circuit house to hiswith Vansittart A peon inforarden at once
The garden of the circuit house was a slish oasis, filled with flowers and trees, obviously well attended In the shade in one corner sat two men dressed in white, the attire of the colonial servant The older of the two nodded to Holmes as he entered
”Welcome, Mr Holmes, to Ceylon I am Anthony Vansittart and this is my successor, somewhat recently arrived himself, Mr Arthur Wellesley”
”My naly in public, if at all,” said Holathered that I am still alive, they do not necessarily knohere I aer Lloyd-Snive my indiscretion, Professor”
As he spoke, Hol look round the garden Vansittart was the older, a large man, tall and stout, with a full head of white hair under his straw hat, florid of face, in lishoverneable and syuile Wellesley, a far younger man, was very different In his early thirties, he was in soht nor dark, a face not unpleasant but of no strong character, and of h he had been ill, for he was overly pale, and his eyes were sunken and bloodshot They showed a certain weakness, and when he spoke Holmes saw that his teeth had been ruined, most probably by the overuse of intoxicants and opium
”You should know,” continued Vansittart, ”that I shall be leaving rather quickly-in one week, to be exact-for England I have been here for three years, and I return honment In your work, you will be aided priiven to you, and has my full confidence”
”Thank you I often work alone and unaided, but I of course shall avail myself of your help as events unfold What is the latest report on the pearl?”
”Our information is still rather sketchy and incomplete,” said Wellesley ”And soents in the bazaar, stated that the pearl had been found here at Pearl Town by a young Taned to sort through a large vat of molluscs by her father, an expert pearl diver by the name of Nelusko, in whose share of the harvest the pearl was located She brought the pearl to her father as soon as she found it, and the two immediately left their quarters, a small hut on Tank Street not far from here, and absconded They have not been seen, except for a report that they had been sighted travelling by foot on the road to Trincomalee”
”Trincomalee,” said Holmes,” still then the hoem merchants of the Indian world”
”Precisely I ao, I was consulted on the disappearance of a star sapphire, a case in which they played a large role”
”Since that tie in the firm of which you may not be aware,” continued Vansittart ”The Atkinson brothers are gone and the firm sold to an Arab jeweller, one Abdul Latif, who has shrewdly kept the old naame even harder than the Atkinsons It is possible that the pearl is already in his possession If it is, I would i for it”
Vansittart stopped short as his eyes caught sight of a tall, thin figure entering the garden, rove at the other end He wore Arab dress, and as he took his seat, Hollimpse of his face His features and colour were neither Indian nor Cingalese, and Holnised him immediately
”Arthur,” said Vansittart, ”please do the needful See that he lacks nothing”
Wellesley got up and went over to the barove and sat doith the man He took a deck of cards frorossed in the gayptian leader I had forgotten that he had been exiled here”
Vansittart appeared somewhat surprised at his words
”Yes, indeed You are most observant He is now in his twelfth year of imprisonment in this paradise, shall we say You know his story He foolishly issued a proclamation to his countrymen that he was inspired by the Prophet to free the country of its foreign rulers His forces were defeated at Tel el-Kabir and he was taken prisoner Condemned to death by our tribunal, his sentence was later commuted to life in exile So far Allah and the Prophet have chosen not to free him He has been one of my most onerous tasks, a heavy ball and chain, for in my three years here, he has been with one, he has couards, atch hi more than to return to his country, to spend his last days with his faht of the Nile But Government refuses any commutation of his life sentence For someone from the desert, the tropical climate of Ceylon is particularly difficult And so he quietly plots his escape as he plays cards all day Despite our best efforts, he seeularly with elees I haven't a clue Twice he has almost made his escape, but he has not been successful in my time, thank God”
”He will make it this time easily, under Wellesley,” said Holain, you are e and the re my confidence, Wellesley is really not up to the usual standard, I'race from Burma, where he beca the Governor's daughter Unfortunately, won office sent hiht, with a severe reprimand that this was to be his last post should he fail to measure up The Pasha's escape would of course end his career But so far, Wellesley's behaviour has been ih I must tell you that, as I leave, I have some other more worrisome concerns, and I do not think that Wellesley will be able to deal with them”
”What are they?” Holmes asked
Vansittart leaned forwards to make sure that he was not overheard
”Ceylon, my dear professor, as you must have seen even in the short time you have been here, has every appearance of an island paradise I have coht of folly not to realise that our presence here is deeply resented Having defeated the kings of Kandy over a half century ago, we have ed the island for our own purposes, for tea, rubber, pearls, of course, and for men and women to do our work We delude ourselves about these dark-skinned natives We love how they bow and scrape, with their heads bent low, their noses to the ground, call us iven the chance, they will rise up and cut us to ribbons, as they once did in India And there is now an evil presence on the island, one who moves about constantly and is so clever that it is difficult to apprehend him or to fathom his intentions He is in touch with every unhappy ele Rama IV and his family, who form the sad re discontented classes in Colombo and other cities, and the Pasha himself”
”Who is he?” asked Holentleman by the name of Sebastian Moran, late of the Indian army You may have heard of him He is an old India hand and shi+kari”
Holmes smiled inwardly ”Tell me more,” said he
”There is much still to learn, and precious little to tell, at least from my own experience I o Before that, I gather he had been in the western Hirounds But India became too hot for him Wanted by the local police for attempted murder in Simla, he escaped and arrived here, where he has been protected by several friends in high places, who refuse to believe anything evil of him Since he is faultless in manners and education, and his older brother is a loyal soldier who served heroically in Afghanistan, he is easily believed He unfortunately has gained the full confidence of Sir Edward Gordon, the Governor And Wellesley adores him Moran was born here, in Colombo, the son of an early tea planter He left after his father andin his brother's footsteps, he joined the Indian arreat ence, it is only the cruel look in his steel grey eyes that gives any warning of his criminal disposition Of considerable o and purchased a large house in Colombo, which he furnished lavishly He lived there alone except for a friend, a young Swiss by the name of Giacomo, who has since left on a tour of India I met Moran at his house once I was ushered into the library, where I waited for hie wolfhounds, both of which he kept on tight chains Otherwise they would have devoured h He had just been on an inspection tour of his property, he said, for there had been a burglary during the night Alerted by his hounds, he had caught the thief, a young boy of fifteen who had dared to scale the walls and enter the house Moran caught hiht hi It was then that I noticed a frightening transfor detail how he had beaten the boy to a pulp before releasing him It was the obvious and intense pleasure that he took in a near- with this er to all of us I took et the contrast between the civilised library and the cruelty of Moran's expression”
”No charges were pressed?” asked Holmes
”A thief is a thief is the common attitude here The boy was found on the road outside Moran's house and was taken to the local hospital But he said nothing after his recovery and has since disappeared altogether”
Vansittart spoke quickly in a low voice Hole of Moran and his crimes, however, for fear that he should interrupt Vansittart's account In his mind's eye, however, he returned instantly to the Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland, to the e rocks down upon hiah stakes He rarely loses, but God help the winner, for Moran deals harshly with those who dare to best him And he has a half sister, Franziska van Rhede, who aids and abets him in his crimes Fortunately, she lives elsewhere, much of the time in Pondicherry, I believe, but visits him on occasion I have neverthat she takes on the for in the sky at sunset in search of victims”
”Where is Moran now?”
”It is difficult to say He rarely goes to Colombo these days, but spends most of his time camped at a place called World's End It is one of the most beautiful and drahlands, and is a kind of high plain, filled with the wild game that attracts him At the end of the plain, however, is the ht drop down of some five thousand feet Moran hunts all day, feasts in the evening, and sleeps almost not at all It is as if the inner cruelty dissipates somewhat in shi+kar Otherwise, there would be a He needs constant replenishment of these nutrients, and he is not at all averse to criminal activity to meet his ends”
Wellesley returned to the table at that ed the subject ”Perhaps,” he said, ”the place for you to begin would be Pearl Town itself”
”The Pasha wishes to speak to this gentleman,” said Wellesley
”What about?” Holy He seems to have noticed soypt and the ancient ruins of Ceylon'”
”I shall be ive him my views By the way, Vansittart, please check the bottom of the Pasha's tea cup before the bearer ree attached to it, I believe”
Holmes left Vansittart with a surprised look on his face and went over to where the Pasha was sitting
”Welcome to Ceylon, my dear professor,” said the Pasha ”I hope your stay is fruitfuland not too long”
”I gather you would leave this paradise,” said Holmes