Part 15 (1/2)
He slapped Moran across the face, pushed hiun, and aimed it at Moran's head
”No!” shrieked Franziska
The soldier saw the box in her hand and took it from her His talons ly He opened the box and held the pearl up so all could see it ”'Well, so noe have it Let us then amuse ourselves with it”
He motioned to the three of them and they filed out between the leader and his men, their hands tied behind their backs In an hour's walk, they reached Foul Point, a cliff that extends into the sea to the south of the town of Trincoht of about three hundred feet above the sea
”Here, Watson, in this most beautiful place, was enacted the final portion of the drama Moran and I were led to within a few feet of the precipice Opposite us on the ground sat some fifty of the rebel army, their leader, now identified as Rama IV, at their center Franziska sat to his left, the ropes now taken from her hands in honour of her sex”
King Raht our island to ruination Your stench is everywhere You have fouled our soil I live only to rid the motherland of your pestilential presence”
He paused ”But let us uest, let the royal festivities begin here this very night for your beloved queen” He took the pearl and placed it on the ground between two sht for the pearl-and your lives Strip the the hoods!”
Holmes looked at me, a bemused look in his eye ”Moran and I, stripped to the waist, were to fight it out to the delight of the rebel arain, Watson, on the brink of an abyss with a mortal enemy bent on my destruction, the very one who had almost caused me to fall into the Reichenbach Falls”
He stopped his account to light his pipe ”You have heard, no doubt, of the andabatarian gladiators of ancient Ro custo his heavy eyelids with difficulty, ”which may have derived in the end froladiators' heads to blind thely and of course lee of the Roman audience”
”Never did I think that I would ever find myself in such a position,” said Holmes ”I suddenly thanked Heaven forin the dark As soon as the hood was placed over my head, h far stronger than I, would be no match forin Benares, beca that they more than htest , the smallest sound that he caused, the smell of his breath and of his sweat Without eyes I had no back, no front All my senses were equal and functioned in all directions Moran could not do the saan our duel, I made myself almost imperceptible He could not hear my breath for I dropped it to an inaudible h my feet the vibrations of his heavy step, but he could not sense mine I waited calmly as he moved Purposely, I taunted him, so as to let him knohere I was Then, as he rushed towards ave hiht hi in pain I pulled the hood froive you a better chance”
”Despite his pain, I could hear his fury rise, and so deftly did he rasp, however, but felt a rush of pain as I extricated ed, and tripped hi him off balance As he fell, I delivered a hard blow to the jaw Hein pain at er able to move I tore the hood from my own head I sat him up, and he revived”
”You fiend,” he cried
”Come, come, my dear fellow, one wins some, and one loses others You unfortunately, have just lost a big one”
It had been no contest The great Moran had been unable to find Hol like a bull Subduing hi a blinded elephant He was still dangerous, but not for a practised hunter
Rama and his men sat and did not move Holmes rushed to the pearl All watched helplessly as he took it and threw it as high and as far as he could against the darkening sky For an instant it caught the light of thelike a star before it began its descent into the void Suddenly, Franziska stood up, a look of horror and greed on her face
”No!” she shouted Like soreat Sty directly into Holers spread wide, her sharp talons fully extended He moved aside quickly and watched as she neared the precipice
For ain midair It shi+vered for an instant, then continued its inevitable descent Franziska stretched forwards The tips of her talons touched it, and for an instant it appeared as though it would obey and cohtful shriek, fell after the small white sphere as it disappeared into the abyss Hol but the roar of the sea as it crashed on the rocks below
Moran rushed to the precipice Seeing only the sea, he turned towards Holone, he suddenly broke into a run towards the jungle and disappeared in seconds Rama quickly despatched some men after him
”It was only at thatcame tofelt broken, and I stury voice, Ra him into the sea” Four an to swing hiroaned as he ung in the air, and he swooned
”I reh into the air, I had coe about fifteen feet fro only to the roar of the sea below In the distance, I could see the lights of the Susannah II as it began its departure fro the Pasha to his hoht, I heard friendly voices Gentle hands lifted me and carried me upwards Gorashar's soft voice entered my ears, and I blacked out for the second ti day in the fort of Trincomalee, or so I was told, since I had no recollection of how or how long I had co was ies Gorashar sat at thein a light doze At the first sign of life from me, he was at my side”
Holmes paused for a , so horrifying was his account Even Mycroft, who had reh most of the tale, seemed moved now by his brother's pain and his nearly fatal encounter
”It was a fortnight before I was able to travel What I thought was a broken leg was fortunately only a badly torn muscle, and I was able to travel sooner than I had anticipated Before I left, however, Vansittart informed me that the Pasha had escaped froroup of followers on the Arabian coast He was now said to be deep in the Hadhra that the Pasha still carried the pearl with hi to be ht in an attempt to rob the Pasha and was placed under arrest by the shi+p's captain But he too disappeared soe, and it was not sure at the tione ashore when the Pasha escaped It was only several years later that I was able to deal with Mr Arthur Wellesley And as to the Pasha, we know that his efforts caht”
By noas late afternoon, just before five As Holreat thunderclap, and the rains poured down heavily for a few moments The heat had broken, and the late-afternoon sun now fell on a cooler and cleaner London
Mycroft looked at his watch ”The festivities for the Queen,” he said, ”have ended” Let us therefore stand, for Her Majesty is about to enter Westminster”
The few odd hout the city, church bells rang Then, as if by command, the stately strains of ”God Save the Queen” rose in the city and floated through theIt was as if the whole country sang in unison Even in the staid chaenes Club, there appeared not to be a dry eyeexcept for Holmes, who rose slowly, his face i
”No nen for the Queen, Watson,” said Mycroft when the music ended, ”no pearl of course, either But Her Majesty is well attired for the occasion, in brocade, hand-e the tiraciously helped his brother to his feet and walked him to his rooms
As we left the club, Holested that we ht at Covent Garden for a perforreed and watched hi crowd
THE MYSTERY OF
JAISALMER
I HAVE ALREADY ALERTED THE READER OF THESE TALES on several occasions to the deepthe first land in 1894 That depression began to abate, however, as soon as the opportunities for hi with the case of the Norwood Builder in 1895, almost to the very end of the century, Holmes was constantly occupied The need for me to keep his mind active waned, therefore, and the opportunities to learn of his adventures in the Orient becali complete
The present tale reest time They were conveyed to me between Holmes's adventures in 1895 and '96, and I have edited the this period, Holmes had travelled frequently to the Continent, his now considerable fas and other heads of state, and even the Church of Roap in his schedule, after the notorious case of Busoni's daughter, to be exact, that he gave me the portions of the account that enabled me finally to put the story in order
Holmes's extensive travels in the Orient for a period of ale hoin his last journey in India froh Rajpootana and Sind, and then board a freighter in Karachi bound for the Mediterranean
It was in Delhi that he ne, as travelling to Rajasthan with his co Swiss painter, known only at first by the naenial, Holested that they travel together for a tiestion, for he had already ht that the addition of a third member to their party would increase the interest of the journey Having overextended himself a bit financially in his previous travels, he was happy to have someone share the costs of his latest adventure: a third traveller, he thought, wouldthe way
Benoit had prepared a varied route that included the chief cities of Rajpootana-Jaipur, Udaipur, and Jodhpur, and so Jaisalmer, the one farthest west into the desert Few Europeans had visited this city, and the descriptions of its fabled beauties had led Benoit tojourney Holoing south to Karachi Little did he know that his visit there would bring him into a chain of events that would threaten to delay indefinitely his return to England
”Our journey really began once we had outfitted ourselves, Watson,” said Hol of his narration ”In Nizauides who knew the desert well, and, bought our supplies We were to travel on horseback to Jodhpur Once there ould continue on by cauides, the desert beco dunes once one leaves that city Our last destination together was to be the city of Hyderabad in Sind, where my companions and I were to part company, they to journey northwards to Lahore, and I south to Karachi, where I planned to board the first shi+p bound for Europe”
I interrupted my friend at this point
”Surely, Holmes, there was more to it I find it difficult to believe that you chose rinned ”Your power to see through ht, Watson I could easily, and preferably perhaps,coh seas or in the mountains and often found myself bored into the dullest of conversations But in this case I was intrigued immediately by the discrepancy between their account of theentleh India, one a painter, the other a writer, or, as he put it, a diarist Their story as they told it was quite unremarkable They had met casually in Marseilles as they boarded the stea each other coether and to produce a book of travels, one of the kind that now colish middle class
”On the face of it, there was no contradiction Their behaviour was impeccable, and their relations with the native Indians extraordinarily proper Both ell attired, spoke English tolerably well, and did precisely what they said they did The young painter, Schau up his easel at his newly chosen site, and returned only at midday The other, Benoit, rose before dawn and wrote until they were ready to travel
”So much for the untrained eye, Watson But for him who not only sees but also observes, there was much more And here, dear doctor, I ree with the account that iven of theh I had no evidence as yet, I felt a sinisterbeyond their quite innocent deed to be in his early twenties He was of average height and very thin, alaunt, but wiry, with his hair cut quite short He walked with a slight limp, the only physical infired to be the result of a wound of some sort, and later this was confirmed when he saw a scar that was clearly the result of a recent bullet wound His eyes were blue, and he avoided direct contact with the to hide
Benoit was much older, in his early forties, not quite as slender, but taller, alht He had deep scars on his hands and one long one on his neck His English was alht French accent that occurred froreat effort He spoke softly and appeared extraordinarily calm, but his tranquillity seeht erupt at any moment