Part 15 (2/2)
”Bothperiods in the sun,” said Hole was therefore unh, spoke of the sa of the painter or writer in the body of either And so, Watson, from the ti other than what they represented themselves to be”
For the first few days, Holh They stopped at the end of the first day just outside Bharatpur, then continued on to Areat palace In the h Palace, one of the truly nificent domiciles of the Subcontinent, indeed of all of Asia Like the succeeding monarchs wholy courteous, British in his education, and enerosity He invited theed leave after a few days and continued on their journey south towards Udaipur, stopping in the kingdo the fabled wooden city of Tonk
”It was in Tonk that I hadwas newly a companions I must say, Watson, that despite the natural beauty that surrounded us, I was already beco a bit bored We were by now six days out of Delhi, out of touch with the world, and had arrived tired and hungry after a full day's journey in the hot sun Tonk appeared towards evening, and we pitched our tents just on its outskirts While the servants were preparing our food, alked into the tohich lay about a half mile from our camp”
By this ti importuned by a variety of touts, mainly small boys in the e to lead one into the greedy, wretched, hands of so shopkeeper But here in Tonk the expected touts failed to materialise and the three entered the city almost unnoticed The toas silent, its streets and arcades empty of any persons, and only after they saw the entrance to the central mosque did they realise that they had entered at the ti prayer, and that the entire population was on its knees facing Mecca
”Tonk, unlike the other kingdoms of Rajpootana, Watson,” said Holmes, ”is Mahometan, and is alone in this respect in the vast deserts in which a militant Hindooism holds sway It is, unlike the other marble and stone cities of the Rajpoot, entirely constructed of wood, ornately carved and painted in greens, golds and reds, and a variety of other hues”
As they stood staring at the Palace, Schau took leave of his coh the town in order to sketch, and that he would meet them back at the camp Benoit and Hol in this an to wend their way back to the ate of the town It ith so stealthily entering a s to Benoit, for he thought that it would serve no purpose They returned to the caht supper
Towards ht, Hol were seated by a s to keep their voices down but without appreciable success
”We have to get rid of hi ”We should never have allowed hi mistake, I tell you Captain Fantoent toldwho he is If he finds out e're up to-”
”Don't be so jumpy, and be quiet or you'll waken him, you fool,” said Benoit excitedly but in a whisper ”I told you he will be with us through to Sind He is harlish They see and hear hi else, least of all us And he gives them medicines for their ills How many times do you think we can make this trip without discovery? No, I will be the one to decide when he goes, if he goes before Hyderabad And to hell with Fantome! That bloody crew in the desert will take orders from me! When we arrive in Jaisalmer, then we shall decide, only then”
”Aconversation, Holmes, if I say so myself,” I interjected ”Youmystery”
”Well put, my dear Watson I am no lover of landscape for its own sake, as you know And the Maharajahs and their palaces are a bit trying after a few days Their pieties as well as their cri to observe or deduce about them beyond the commonplaces that pertain to royalty But, with this conversation in my ear, I smiled in the darkness of ht, and I heard their heavy, peaceful breathing as I too fell asleep in the brisk desert cold”
When Hol, he said, to capture on canvas the first rays of thein his diary a short distance away
”You have slept well, I trust,” said Benoit, in greeting
”Very well, indeed,” Hol”
”Perhaps er I have already been out, hunting up our breakfast Look, three wild partridge and a peacock!”
Benoit pointed to a large pile of feathers that the cooks had plucked fro on spits over the fire, and it was not long before the three co the orated by this most luxurious of breakfasts, they mounted fresh horses and proceeded towards Udaipur Here they again visited the Maharajah, who, after he read Lloyd-Smith's letter of introduction frouests It was here that they experienced the fabled land of enchantreat chronicler of Rajasthan, had land The royal palace of Udaipur faces a beautiful lake and is surrounded by a ring of low hills The city itself is a cluster of white houses that lies nestled in a small valley, visible from the top of the palace After several days, they were loath to leave this happy vale Indeed, it was difficult for Holmes to recollect by now the nocturnal conversation between his two companions and its implications, for his companions acted well and appeared, more and more, to be what they said they were: two travellers on tour in the desert Benoit explored every alley of the city, bargained for trinkets, and wrote constantly in his diary Schau sketched and painted incessantly, never, it see the true beauty of the landscape, but every so often producing a few strokes that gave some intimation of the beauty of the place Benoit reiterated to the delighted Maharajah that his diaries would form the text for a book about India and that he would include in it Schaun labours could be iined, and Holmes resisted the temptation to equate exterior behaviour with the reality of his co somewhat of a literary bent himself, the Maharajah expressed keen interest, opened his vast library to Benoit, and ordered his chief scholar, one Shyamal Das, to produce whatever Benoit needed to e one of our visits to the royal library, Watson, that I learned soave ht me back to an ever more serious conte a large tohal Empire, I learned that there had been several soldiers of fortune who had served in the ar battles with the Maharajahs of Rajasthan over two hundred years before These soldiers of fortune were mostly French The most famous of these was one Jean de Bourbon, who had served the emperor Akbar My interest, and my consternation, were prodded even raphs down that two others of these early adventurers had borne the nane”
”How extraordinary, Hole coincidence! A name from that nocturnal conversation that you overheard and the name of one of your companions-”
”Coincidence, yes Watson, but a coincidence in its most basic form: the names were coincident, identical, but I knew that this was no ain, a piece of unexpected luck from an unsuspected source, a dusty old book Thank the Gods for theto Benoit, of course, who, at the moment of my discovery, was fortunately deep in conversation with the royal librarian I closed the book, filed the information in my brain, and decided to let it do its work in the attic of my mind: there were, then, two Captain Fantones”
For over a week, neither Benoit nor Schau showed any desire to leave Udaipur It was on the evening of the tenth day that Benoit said that they had been there long enough and that they should ency in his voice They inforrieved at their i fresh horses for the journey to Jodhpur
Jodhpur, said Holmes, lies three days from Udaipur, in the middle of a desiccated landscape in which only thorny scrub-desert plants survive Its palace is interesting but not of the quality of those of Jaipur and Udaipur, and their stay there was short It was there that he began to observe a rising tension in young Schau, a tension which showed itself by his barely controlled anger in speech and his irritation at every mistake of the hapless porters Several times he struck them Benoit warned him quietly to control hihtly apart so that he could observe what transpired between theitation, Holht also eventually become the object of his ire, and he wished to avoid that ht be inevitable The Maharajah of Jodhpur was absent on shi+kar, and so they caained for the camels that were to carry the
It was on this portion of their journey, a day's ride beyond Jodhpur, that they entered the true deserts of Rajpootana What had been up until then a dry rocky landscape occasionally broken by the Aravalli Hills now became an undifferentiated mass of yellowish sand, of the finest quality, so that even a scant breeze blew enough of it into one's face to cause disco winter, the air was cool for the most part, the sun intense, and the landscape barren of any living thing except an occasional caravan treading its way east The desert see every trace of their being there Had a storht Holmes, they would have disappeared, covered forever in the unending dunes
By now it had becoress towards their destination was timed very precisely by Benoit, for reasons that were still concealed As if controlled by an invisible hand, they alternately raced ahead or waited for him to complete his diary entries, which became the chief pretext by which the time of travel was determined Holmes made no co was, however, alternately tranquil and agitated He appeared impatient to arrive at their destination and could not endure their slow pace without occasional outbursts to Benoit
Two days frouides informed them that sandstorms to the ere so intense that they had best make a detour northwards, towards a town called Bap that lay on the road to the great fortress of Bikaner From there, they should follow that route south A look of consternation came over Benoit's face as he co and to Holer, I believe that we should proceed as planned,” said Benoit ”The storuarantee that ill not run into them to the north of here”
”As you choose,” said Hol, however, appeared frightened by the reports
”I don't like desert storms,” he said excitedly ”I have seen one in North Africa, and I say let's take the detour It won't add much, and we'll be much safer”
”No detour,” said Benoit coldly ”We will proceed as planned”
Schau
”And so, Watson, we continued on our route A few hours out, the cool of the earlyhad disappeared The sun bore down on usblue sky Even entle breeze which we had experienced thus far beca of the sand on our hands and faces A stor, and we could see in the distance the tops of the dunes transforh in the air”
Towards dusk, they began to look anxiously for shelter, and their chief guide changed direction In a short ti on the horizon, and as they approached they sahat appeared to be an abandoned tee just as the stor equal to it Sand swirled around them so intensely that it was as if all air had been sucked away The temple was an open structure and the only recourse they had was to turn their faces to the walls But as the wind increased, sand blew everywhere, sand filled their eyes, their nostrils, and it was als At the very height of the storan to screao on C' to die like rats here!”
He grabbed Hol stood up screa in fear and leapt from the temple directly into the storm Benoit sat silently, but Holmes rushed after hirabbed hi collapsed in tears as Hol sobbed, and Benoit shouted to hi to himself, however, and Holmes pretended not to hear as Benoit continued his remonstrances
The storm subsided as fast as it arose, and Hol nothing in sight but blinding white sand
”The worst is over,” said Benoit ”You can shut up now”
”Don't tell , veheh too much in the Sahara Don't you remember? This is the last time-”
Benoit slapped him hard across the face
”Just remember who you are-and who I a became caled theh the sand on the teht with theuides-all appeared to have been buried They had nothing
”We're going to die,” said Schau to die”
”You bloody coward, shut up!” shouted Benoit
Schau sobbed uncontrollably, and Benoit shook hi him to his senses, but to no avail Benoit left hi's fears were fortunately not to materialise He had been conditioned by his experience in the great Sahara Here, however, the desert, though vast, was far more heavily travelled, and as they looked out they sao campfires, not more than a few hundred yards away, towards which they iroup of Gujar herdsoats and camels They had spent the day in Sam, they said, and hadto their route, their destination being the city of Jaisalht and said that they would be welcome to accompany them to the desert city And so, at dawn they awoke and, now provided with fresh ca of their journey
For two days they rode through the dunes A merciless sun beat down upon the on the second day, they saw their destination in the distance: a series of sand-colored towers and walls rising suddenly out of the desert
”I shall never forget that first glih the many monstrous cenotaphs of the Rajpoots, scattered as they were through the sand, and passed through thein our tents just inside the city walls Our exhaustion ht seem even more unworldly than it otherould have seehost-like, for all were dressed in long white caftans and white caps, hite masks over their faces I later learned that the majority of the population were of the Jain faith, an Indian sect that practices no har even an insect, they wear masks over their faces in order to avoid even the inadvertent inhalation of a fly or mosquito Except for this oddity of behaviour, the population appeared quiet and tranquil, free of the rotesque excesses that one finds in other parts of our Indian possessions It was into this religious at, and I entered”