In a short time the shikari returned, and Mark thought no more about the animal until he had been back at the camp some time.
While Mark had been away on his shooting expedition, Harry Burton, the Superintendent of Police, had called, and during the afternoon Mark casually mentioned the incident of the porcupine.
"I think you are mistaken about it being a porcupine, my boy," said Burton.
"I don"t think so. I saw it twice and hit it with the stone, for I distinctly heard it make a peculiar noise as though hurt," persisted Mark.
"That is exactly what makes me certain it was not a porcupine, for it is one of the animals without vocal cords, therefore cannot make a vocal sound. It was more likely a wild pig, for there are a number about here," said Burton, who was a great sportsman.
Mark, however, felt certain he had distinctly seen the animal"s quills, so a little later he quietly left the camp without saying a word to any one as to where he was going.
At nine o"clock that night Mark had not returned to camp, and Burton, who had remained to dinner, suggested that he might have got lost, or met with an accident; so a search was at once commenced.
CHAPTER III.--THE MYSTERIOUS FAKIR
"Well, Burton, what is your opinion now?" asked Doctor Mullen on their return to camp about three o"clock in the morning, after an unsuccessful search for Mark.
"I am sorry to say I think he has met with a serious accident and is unable to help himself. Listen to those natives shouting "Sahib! Sahib!"
and far beyond them others are calling, and the boy would have replied if he could have done so. You are sure he went alone?" asked Burton.
"Yes. He took his gun, which seems to suggest that he started for that lake about a mile from here after duck. Had he gone after oorial he would have taken his rifle and would have been accompanied by the shikari," said the Doctor, who was greatly distressed about his son"s disappearance.
"As soon as it is light I will have every nullah and bush searched for miles round," said Burton, and then he mused without giving expression to his thoughts. "He may have fallen over a kud (precipice), or his gun may have burst, or he may have been bitten by a snake, or he may have run against those--well, fragments of slab"; and he left the tent and sent off messages to the headmen of the villages around.
Harry Burton was one of the cleverest officers in the Indian police; he was a few years over thirty, a dark-complexioned man of medium height, very agile and powerful, and was known to the Salt Range natives as Koj (tracker) Burton Sahib, owing to his smartness in following up the slightest clue.
Burton, at the Doctor"s request, went to occupy Mark"s empty tent for an hour or two, and as he stretched himself on the camp bed his busy brain was engaged in trying to form a connection between the broken slab and Mark"s absence, and these thoughts kept him awake, so he was the first to hear the footsteps of an approaching horse.
"h.e.l.lo! Is that you, Ellison?" greeted Burton, as the new arrival dismounted.
"Yes. I heard at Gunjyal about Mark, so, instead of waiting for daylight, I hunted up a horse, and, by all this shouting, I conclude Mark is still missing," said Tom, and in a very few minutes he had related to Burton and the Doctor his experience in the train and what he had learnt in Lah.o.r.e.
"Ah, things are getting a bit more complicated," said Burton aloud, and then muttered to himself, "But I begin to get a better hold of the idea."
"Now you clearly understand me," said Burton when instructing the headmen. "You are to send out every available man and boy from your villages, and they are to search every nullah until they meet the men from the next village. We think the young Sahib has met with an accident, and if you find him you are to send word here immediately; and you, Appoyas, instruct your men to be most careful in searching those cliffs near your village."
"What"s that man"s name?" asked the Doctor as soon as the men had gone.
"Appoyas. It is an unusual name--certainly not a Punjabi one," replied Burton.
"I never heard the name before. He is a fine-looking man," remarked the Doctor.
"And a very wealthy man, according to report. That is his village on the very edge of those cliffs about a mile away. It is the most prosperous village on the Salt Range, and celebrated for its stamped-cloth work.
Appoyas and his brother Atlasul--another uncommon name--buy up all the cloth made and stamped in the place, and give a good price too, and their camels frequently go off laden with bales. But come over here a minute," and Burton led the Doctor some short distance from the camp.
"I can scarcely credit it; surely it is too improbable, how----" began the Doctor when he had heard what Burton had to say.
"Never mind; kindly act in the manner I suggest," interrupted Burton, "and I think you will find I am right. Now I must be off, and--well, expect me when you see me, as they say"; and in a couple of minutes he was riding from the camp on a secret and dangerous expedition.
The search was continued all day, but not the slightest sign of Mark could be discovered.
If any one, about sunset, had been near the place where Mark was resting at the time he thought he saw the porcupine, a Fakir might have been seen sitting on the identical spot. He appeared to be in deep meditation, but, as soon as it was dark, he crept cautiously to the entrance of the cave into which Mark thought the porcupine had disappeared.
The Fakir paused, and after listening intently for a few moments he scrambled in; and after again listening he produced a bull"s-eye lamp--a most unusual thing for a native to possess--and carefully lit it.
He next examined a revolver and a knife he carried in a girdle under a loose garment he had wrapped round him, and in addition to these weapons he had an iron rod about three feet and a-half long, similar to what many Fakirs carry.
He now advanced along a narrow pa.s.sage which widened into a large cave, from which opened another narrow pa.s.sage, and this he proceeded cautiously to explore, but when he had gone about a hundred yards it came to an abrupt end, the roof here being exceedingly high, and as he flashed his light around he could not see the top.
For the s.p.a.ce of an hour he probed about with his iron rod, and felt in the cracks and crevices in the walls; then suddenly he sat down, and, had any one been near enough, they would have heard him chuckling to himself, for he had made a great discovery.
In a short time he made his way out of the cave and disappeared into the darkness of the night.
"What do you make of this, Ellison?" said the Doctor early next morning.
"I have just found this note in my tent; it is written in Punjabi, and in English it reads: "If the Sahib wishes to learn where his son is he will be told if you promise to give up the other pieces of stone you found. Let the Sahib write his promise on the blank part of this paper and place it on the small olive-tree near the salt spring. The Sahib"s men need not watch, for they will not see who fetches it."
"Do you think it is a hoax?" asked the Doctor.
"I don"t know. I scarcely think so. I wish Burton was back," said Tom, who thought that Burton"s experience might enable him to get something of a clue from the strange message. "They have got all the stones," he added.
"We took others that did not belong to the slab," said the Doctor.
"Of course, I had forgotten; and the writer of this is under the impression they are parts of the slab," remarked Tom.
"If this is genuine, then Mark is a prisoner, which is Burton"s opinion; and I believe he is acting in some secret manner on his opinion," said the Doctor.
After a long consultation the Doctor tore off the blank piece of paper and wrote on it in the native language: "You must first give me some proof that you know where my son is before I promise to comply with your request. Let him write to me."
"We both know where the salt spring is, Tom, so I will take the paper there, and you go to some place where you can watch the spring through your field-gla.s.ses," said the Doctor.
"Very good. By the time we get a reply Burton may be back," said Tom, and they left the camp.
Tom watched patiently all day, but, with the exception of a boy in charge of some goats, no one went near the spring, and the boy did not go within a hundred yards of it, though his goats were feeding all round and close to it.
"Glad to see you back, Burton," exclaimed Tom when he returned to camp and found the officer there.
"What luck, Tom?" asked the Doctor.
"Bad. I waited until it was too dark to see, and the message had not been taken when I came away," he replied.
"You are wrong, Tom, my boy, for I saw it taken," said Burton.
"How? Where were you?" asked Tom, in surprise.