"Hast ever been thirsty, Highness?"
"Drink thy sweat, then!"
"Give the "heaven born" irons that are rusted!"
The keepers enjoyed this raillery. Umballa was going to afford them much amus.e.m.e.nt. They forced him to the wrist bar, snapped the irons on his wrist, and shouted to the men to tread. Ah, well they knew the game! They trotted with gusto, forcing Umballa to keep pace with them, a frightful ordeal for a beginner. Presently he slipped and fell, and hung by his wrists while his legs and thighs b.u.mped cruelly. The lash fell upon his shoulders, and he shrieked and grew limp. He had fainted.
Among the late king"s papers they found an envelope addressed to Kathlyn. It was in grandiloquent English. Brevity of speech is unknown to the East Indian. Kathlyn read it with frowning eyes. She gave it to her father to read; and it hurt her to note the way his eyes took fire at the contents of that letter. The filigree basket of gold and gems; the trinkets for which he had risked his own life, Kathlyn"s, then Winnie"s. In turn Bruce and Ramabai perused the letter; and to Ramabai came the inspiration.
They would seek this treasure, but only he, Ramabai, and Pundita would return. Here lay their way to freedom without calling upon Bala Khan for aid. The matter, however, had to be submitted to the priests, and those wily men in yellow robes agreed. They could very well promise Durga Ram his freedom again, pursue these treasure seekers and destroy them; that would be Durga Ram"s ransom.
The return to the palace was joyous this time; but in her heart of hearts Kathlyn was skeptical. Till she trod the deck of a ship homeward bound she would always be doubting.
Bruce did not have to seek Bala Khan. The night of Kathlyn"s defiance Ahmed had acquainted them with his errand. He was now on his way to Bala Khan. They need trouble themselves no longer regarding the future.
"All goes well," said Ramabai; "for, to reach the hiding-place, we must pa.s.s the city of Balakhan. I know where this cape is. It is not large. It juts off into the sea, the Persian Gulf, perhaps half a dozen miles. At high tide it becomes an island. None lives about except the simple fishermen. Still, the journey is hazardous. The truth is, it is a spot where there is much gun running; in fact, where we found our guns and ammunition. I understand that there are great secret stores of explosives hidden there."
"Any seaport near?" asked the colonel.
"Perhaps seventy miles north is the very town we stopped at a few weeks ago."
The colonel seized Kathlyn in his arms. She played at gaiety for his sake, but her heart was heavy with foreboding.
"And the filigree basket shall be divided between you and Pundita, Kit."
"Give it all to her, father. I have begun to hate what men call precious stones."
"It shall be as you say; but we may all take a handful as a keepsake."
Two days later the expedition was ready to start. They intended to pick up Ahmed on the way. There was nothing but the bungalow itself at the camp.
Umballa was thereupon secretly taken from the treadmill. He was given a camel and told what to do. He flung a curse at the minarets and towers and domes looming mistily in the moonlight. Ransom? He would destroy them; aye, and take the treasure himself, since he knew where it now lay, this information having been obtained for him. He would seek the world, choosing his habitation where he would.
Day after day he followed, tireless, indomitable, as steadfast upon the trail as a jackal after a wounded antelope, never coming within range, skulking about the camp at night, dropping behind in the morning, not above picking up bits of food left by the treasure seekers. Money and revenge; these would have kept him to the chase had he been dying.
As for Bala Khan, he was at once glad and sorry to see his friends.
Nothing would have pleased him more than to fall upon Allaha like the thunderbolt he was. But he made Ramabai promise that if ever he had need of him to send. And Ramabai promised, hoping that he could adjust and regulate his affairs without foreign a.s.sistance. They went on, this time with Ahmed.
Toward the end of the journey they would be compelled to cross a chasm on a rope and vine bridge. Umballa, knowing this, circled and reached this bridge before they did. He set about weakening the support, so that the weight of pa.s.sengers could cause the structure to break and fall into the torrent below. He could not otherwise reach the spot where the treasure lay waiting.
The elephants would be forced to ford the rapids below the bridge.
Kathlyn, who had by this time regained much of her old confidence and buoyancy, declared that she must be first to cross the bridge. She gained the middle, when she felt a sickening sag. She turned and shouted to the others to go back. She made a desperate effort to reach the far end, but the bridge gave way, and she was hurled into the swirling rapids. She was stunned for a moment; but the instinct to live was strong. As she swung to and fro, whirled here, flung there, she managed to catch hold of a rock which projected above the flying foam.
A mahout, seeing her danger, urged his elephant toward her and reached her just as she was about to let go.
CHAPTER XXIV
THE INVINCIBLE WILL
"Those ropes were cut," declared Ahmed.
"But who in the world could have cut them?" demanded the colonel.
Ahmed shrugged. "We may have been followed by thieves. They could have got here before us, as we were forced to use the elephant trails.
Let us keep our eyes about us, Sahib. When one speaks of gold, the wind carries the word far. And then . . ." He paused, scowling.
"And then what?"
"I do not want the Mem-sahib to hear," Ahmed whispered. "But who shall say that this is not the work of the gurus, who never forget, who never forgive, Sahib."
"But they would not follow!"
"Nay, but their servant would, on the fear of death. I will watch at night hereafter."
Ahmed searched thoroughly about the ledge from which the east side of the bridge had swung, but the barren rocks told him nothing. Armed with his rifle, he plunged boldly back along the elephant trail, but returned without success. Whoever was following them was an adept, as secret as a Thuggee. All this worried Ahmed not a little. He readily understood that the murderous attempt had not been directed against Kathlyn alone, but against all of them. But for her eagerness and subsequent warning some of them would have been dead at this moment.
"Sahib, it would be better to make camp on the other side of the ford.
The Mem-sahib is weak from the shock and might collapse if we proceeded."
"I leave everything to you, Ahmed. But is there not some place farther below where the water does not run so fast?"
"Ramabai will know."
But Ramabai knew only the bridge. They would have to investigate and explore the bank. Half an hour"s journey--rather a difficult one--brought them to still and shallow water. Here they crossed and made camp beyond in a natural clearing. They erected the small tent for Kathlyn, inside of which she changed her clothes, drank her tea and lay down to sleep.
"What does Ahmed think?" asked Bruce anxiously.
"That we are being followed by some a.s.sa.s.sins hired by our friends, the priests."
"Colonel, let us make straight for the seaport and let this d.a.m.nable bushel of trinkets stay where it is," urged Bruce, the lover.
"That is not possible now," replied Ramabai. "We can now reach there only by the seacoast itself, or return to the desert and journey over the old trail. We must go on."
The colonel smoked his pipe moodily. He was pulled between necessity and desire. He had come to Asia for this filigree basket, and he wanted it, with a pa.s.sion which was almost miserly. At one moment he silently vowed to cast the whole thing into the sea, and at the next his fingers would twitch and he would sigh.
Sometimes it seemed to him that there was some invisible force working in him, drawing and drawing him against the dictates of his heart. He had experienced this feeling back in California, and had fought against it for weeks, without avail. And frequently now, when alone and undisturbed, he could see the old guru, shaking with the venom of his wrath, the blood dripping from his lacerated fingers, which he shook in the colonel"s face flecking it with blood. A curse. It was so. He must obey that invincible will; he must go on and on.
His pipe slipped from his fingers and his head fell upon his knees; and thus Kathlyn found him.
"Let him sleep, Mem-sahib," warned Ahmed from across the fire. "He has been fighting the old guru."
"What?" Kathlyn whispered back. "Where?"