Tales of Destiny Part 12

"After an interval I withdrew from the chamber, securing the padlock on the outside, and slipping back the artfully concealed panel that hid the secret doorway from prying intruders. The corridor without led to the women's quarters, through which I pa.s.sed, vouchsafing word to no one. It was only when I had gained the outer courtyard that I drew my breath freely, and recovered my wonted tranquillity of mind and mien.

"Several days pa.s.sed before I ventured again to visit the Ganapati, and this at last I did in the full belief that the whole affair had been naught but an idle dream. But when I pressed again on the eyes of the elephant head, there came once more the clicking of wheels, followed by the clangor of the gong. This I succeeded in m.u.f.fling somewhat by throwing a thick cotton quilt, which I had brought for the purpose, over the figure of the G.o.d.

"A minute later I held the necklace of flas.h.i.+ng blue diamonds in my trembling hand. I lingered just long enough to satisfy myself of the reality of the jewels, of their flawless quality and their matchless l.u.s.tre. Then, replacing everything as before, I left the chamber with the usual precautions, and gained the divan in the vestibule of the outer courtyard, where I was accustomed to sit and receive my friends.

There I meditated for several hours, and at last had formed a definite plan.

"Well I knew that to disclose the treasure would mean its instant surrender to the Nawab, most probably my own doing to death, so that the new owner of the gems might feel more secure in their possession. To realize the value of those blue diamonds they must be sold one by one, or, at most, in separate pairs, and this with infinite care, so as not to arouse suspicion among the banians who are the traders in precious stones, and are ever on the outlook to screw the last copper paisa out of the seller unlawfully trafficking in them. And first of all it would be necessary for me to gain some true idea as to the value of brilliants of so rare a hue.

"Three days later I rode into the city of Lah.o.r.e, and, after seeing to the wants of my horse, repaired to the bazaar of the Hindu shroffs and banians. All my actions having been carefully thought out and decided upon beforehand, I approached with a bold swagger the shop of a reputable-looking banian, and, in the usual manner of business, took my seat cross-legged before him. Two other merchants were seated near by, but to them I gave no heed.

"After some desultory conversation with the owner of the shop, I unloosed my waistband, and drew therefrom a tiny piece of silk stuff, in whose folds were wrapped two of the smallest of the blue diamonds, a pair, which I had carefully detached from the necklace before setting forth on my journey. These I placed in the banian's hand, and I waited, with all proper patience, while he carefully examined them. His face gave no sign as at last he laid the gems on the lap of his robe. With this I extended my right hand, and thrust it into his right hand, covering both with the loosened end of my waistband, so that he could tell me the price he was willing to pay by the secret pressure on my fingers that would reveal to me the value he had set on the stones without disclosing it to the rival traders seated at our side.

"But to my surprise his hand remained absolutely impa.s.sive, giving no response to my movement of inquiry. Then, looking again into the banian's eyes, I detected there a strange menacing look that greatly perturbed me. As his fingers were still limp over mine, signifying unmistakably that there was no willingness to buy, I hastened to withdraw my hand, and, retying my little package, restored it to its place of security. After I had adjusted my waistband, again we spoke some t.i.ttle-tattle of the hour before I arose and, with a courteous salaam, took my departure.

"Glancing back from a short distance, I saw the three banians in close colloquy and eagerly gesticulating. Thoroughly alarmed now, and feeling sure that they had recognized the blue diamonds as the spoil of one of their temples, I made all speed to regain the caravanserai where my horse had been bestowed, and, offering no explanation of my hurried departure, immediately rode from the city. Gaining the open country, I gave rein to my horse, although I took the precaution of making a detour before I finally struck out in the direction of my home.

"Before nightfall of the succeeding day I had regained my house, and had replaced the detached stones on the necklace by the little golden hooks that formed their fastenings. With all speed I quitted the presence of the Ganapati, vowing that I would make no more attempt for the present to dispose of the treasure hidden in his entrails.

"A full month had elapsed, and I had ceased to give my exclusive thoughts to the necklace of blue diamonds; for the harvest time was approaching, and I had to make arrangements for the garnering of my crops. My house was in the open country, half a league or so from the nearest village. It was the evening hour, and I was seated in the vestibule of the outer courtyard, having just dismissed the head reaper with whom I had come to terms for the services of himself and his fellows in the fields of grain.

"Glancing along the road I descried what I took to be a band of travelling yogis, in rags, unkempt, some hobbling on crutches. But as I was accustomed to treat with contempt such Hindu beggars, I gave no special heed to their approach.

"All of a sudden, however, when within less than a bow shot of the house, the pretended yogis raised a loud and terrifying yell, and rushed toward me, brandis.h.i.+ng staves and daggers. Then did I realize that I was in the presence of a gang of armed dacoits. Before I could summon help, I was mercilessly beaten over the head with bludgeons; after which I was bound hand and foot, and thrown face downward on the divan on which I had been seated. I could hear the sound of a scuffle in the courtyard, and the dying scream of the eunuch who guarded the entrance to the women's apartments, rising high above the frightened cries of my two wives and the children and of the female slaves who attended them. Then, because of the grievous blows that had a.s.sailed me, as well as the agony of my mind, consciousness fled, and I lay like one dead unto the world.

"It must have been hours before I was awakened from this stupor, for the moon was riding high in the heavens. Over me was bending the demoniac face of a Hindu priest, a wors.h.i.+pper of Siva as I knew from the caste marks on his forehead.

"'Where is the Ganapati?' he hissed in my ear. 'It is that which we want. We will spare your life if you surrender the stolen G.o.d and the blue diamonds.'

"Instantly great joy surged through my heart, for I knew that, whatever other evil fortune had befallen, my secret treasure chamber had not been discovered. And with this joy came the determination that I would rather die than surrender the necklace of blue diamonds, or allow the mocking elephant-headed G.o.d to be returned to his place of honour before a crowd of idolatrous wors.h.i.+ppers.

"I shall not recount the details of that terrible night. I need but say that I was tortured in a dozen different ways--the soles of my feet were burned with hot embers, the flesh of my thighs was pierced with daggers, I was beaten all over with clubs, and when I lost my senses for a spell I was revived by chatties of cold water being dashed on my face. But I never spoke a word. The very spirit of Shaitan had entered into my soul; if they were devils, then was I the prince of devils in my resolve to defy them.

"I was but faintly conscious of my surroundings, when I heard a whispered colloquy among the priests disguised as robbers.

"'We must not kill him,' I heard one voice say. 'Only if he lives shall we recover the Ganapati.'

"Then also I heard some faint cries from afar off, from the village, showing that the dacoits were discovered, and that courage was being mustered for some attempt to drive them away.

"After a moment the same priest who had addressed me before bent his face once again over mine.

"'Listen, you Moslem son of a pig,' he hissed in my ear. 'Three more warnings will be given to you, and if these do not succeed in making you restore the Ganapati and the jewels then a.s.suredly will you die. You know whence you stole it. Take back the idol to Ferishtapur, or go to the nethermost h.e.l.l to which you belong.'

"With that he slapped my face again and again, with a slipper taken from his foot, and, writhing in my bonds, I was powerless to revenge, even at the cost of my life, this crowning and abominable insult.

"I must have swooned once more, for dawn was breaking when the craven villagers, satisfied that the robbers and murderers had departed, at last arrived upon the scene, and, loosening the thongs that bound me, re-awakened me to consciousness of my pitiful plight.

"My womenfolk and my three children were uninjured. I found them, cowering and terrified, in an inner chamber. But the infidels had searched every room in their quarters, scattering the contents of chests on the floors. And at sight of this vile desecration the iron of revenge even then entered into my soul.

"The eunuch lay dead in the vestibule leading to the harem. My other servants, who had happened to be outside the house at the time of the a.s.sault, had fled, and in the shame of their desertion never again dared to show their faces in my presence. The kotwal of the district made an investigation, but I held my own counsel, and spoke not one word about the Ganapati or the blue diamonds. So the outrage was set down as the work of dacoits, and although in point of fact nothing had been stolen I felt no call on me to disturb this finding of the magistrate.

"About a week later a new disaster overtook me. In the full light of day, when a breeze happened to be blowing, my standing crops were burned, and my fields left a blackened wilderness. By whose hand the fire-brand had been applied, no man could tell. An accident, or the first of the promised warnings?--this I asked myself, and I strove hard to believe that it was ill-luck and nothing more.

"Another full week pa.s.sed, and I began to hope that the threatened persecution had indeed been abandoned. Recovered from my wounds and bruises, I was able now to be out and about again, endeavouring to restore order to my troubled affairs. One afternoon on my home-coming, I found the women lamenting with loud outcries over the body of my eldest son, a lad of seven years. Unseen by any of the household he had been knocked down on the road and crushed under the wheels of a heavy wagon that was travelling past.

"That night, when his poor little body was being made ready for burial, my elder wife, his mother, led me to the side of the bier. Uncovering the child's shoulder, she showed me a strange mark, as if branded upon the flesh by a hot iron. In the red, angry lines I had no difficulty in tracing the head of a bull, the sacred mark of Siva. I said nothing, and indeed commanded my wife to hold her peace.

"I knew now that this cruel calamity was indeed a warning from the accursed priesthood, who had not even scrupled to murder an innocent child so that they might wreak their vengeance on me or break my will.

"But, if I had been determined before, ten times more now was I resolved never to yield. No cowardly surrender could bring me back my child. The boy was dead, and what was done could not be undone, for the will of G.o.d is eternal.

"That very night I visited the Ganapati, and in the frenzy of my bitter grief and righteous wrath I swore, with clenched fist shaken before his twinkling eyeb.a.l.l.s, that I would break him into pieces, throw the blue diamonds into a fire of charcoal, and myself die, rather than restore him to the infidels who had destroyed my happiness and my home.

"The next blow fell swifter than ever. Only four days had pa.s.sed when the bereaved mother, who had refused to be consoled for the death of her only child, was found drowned at the bottom of the well in the harem garden. The household was plunged in lamentation over her pitiful act of self-destruction, and now I became vaguely conscious that friends and neighbours, as well as servants, were looking at me askance, and were beginning to shun my presence as if a curse had fallen upon my head.

"It was at the funeral ceremonies of my wife that I was first made pointedly to feel that there rested over me the suspicion of some terrible crime that had drawn down the special wrath of Allah. Standing in isolation, at a time when my sorrowing heart yearned for brotherly comfort, I realized that already I was an outcast from among my own people, one whom they deemed to be marked by heaven for special vengeance, a moral leper, a menace to the community, to be shunned for all time by his fellow men.

"And there and then I made up my mind to flee secretly to another country, sending later for my surviving wife and children, abandoning all my other possessions in the shape of land and cattle and acc.u.mulated stores, but clinging to the blue diamonds which would yet bring me riches out of all proportion to those of which fate was robbing me at the present time.

"For the third and final warning had pa.s.sed, although no one but myself had thought of my wife's death otherwise than as a case of grief-demented suicide.

"But, as she had lain on her bier, I had looked secretly, and had found the brand of the bull on her shoulder blade, just as she had found it on that of her murdered boy. Allah alone knows how this last crime was wrought--how access to the women's quarters had been gained, and how the fatal seal of Siva had been impressed upon her flesh before she had been flung into the well.

"To me has this ever remained a mystery of mysteries.

"So the three warnings had been delivered--the burning of my crops, the slaying of my child, the drowning of my wife. Unless by the morrow I made signs of submission by taking the road to Ferishtapur, there to surrender the Ganapati, it would a.s.suredly be upon myself that the sword of fate would next descend.

"That very night of the funeral, after securely barricading the outer gates of the house, I locked myself in the treasure chamber. Not a servant had remained in the home upon which the curse of G.o.d had descended; even the two women slaves had fled in the dusk of the evening, gone, I knew not whither, and now I little cared. My surviving wife and children, tiny infants, a girl and a boy, were asleep in an inner room; I had glanced at their slumbering forms when pa.s.sing to the corridor that led to the secret doorway.

"I lost no time in beginning my preparations for departure. First of all I unlocked my strong box, and drew therefrom a small sack of gold mohurs, and another of gold paG.o.das, also sundry family jewels, armlets and necklets of gold, gemmed rings, and other trinkets of price. All these I tied tightly in a cotton cloth, forming a package that I could conveniently and without undue attention carry at my saddle-bow or in my hand. The bags of silver money, likewise the store of silver bangles, I would leave behind; they were c.u.mbersome, and moreover they would serve to meet the necessities of my wife and children during our period of severance.

"Then I turned to the Ganapati, and after swathing him as before in the cotton quilt, so as to deaden the sound of the gong, with my hands beneath the covering I pressed upon the jewelled eyeb.a.l.l.s. I had not gazed upon the blue diamonds since the day when I had restored the two stones shown to the banian merchant in Lah.o.r.e. As the wheels now clicked and the m.u.f.fled bell commenced its dulled clangor, the uneasy thought came to my mind that perhaps the treasure had in the interval been spirited away by some devilish jugglery. But when at last silence fell, and I whipped the cloth aside, there reposed the crystal casket, and, the lid of gold removed, my eyes fastened with grim satisfaction upon the cl.u.s.tered heap of gems, gleaming in the light of my tiny oil lamp like drops of rain in a flash of lightning.

"a.s.sured of their safety, I pressed down the cap on the casket, and bound the crystal ball securely in my waistband.

"Then I turned round to seize an iron hammer which I had brought with me for the deliberate purpose of smas.h.i.+ng the accursed idol to pieces, partly in revenge, partly to secure the bejewelled eyeb.a.l.l.s. But at that very moment I became possessed with the notion that I was not alone in the room. My heart beat wildly, and I raised aloft the little lamp.

Nothing but four bare walls, and not even a window through which an enemy might be peering!

"I breathed again, and grasped the handle of the hammer. Yet my uneasy dread was still with me, for I paused once more, this time to listen.

Not a sound without, or the whisper of a sound!

"But what was that?--the creak of a timber not louder than if a mouse had stirred. And, directed by the faint sound, I saw the wooden bolt that fastened the door on the inside heave, just once, as if by the pressure of a lever cautiously at work on the other side. The hammer slipped to the rug from my unnerved fingers.

"Lamp in hand, I stole to the door, on tiptoe, step by step, afraid to awaken the echo of a footfall. I touched the wooden bolt with a finger tip; I pressed my ear against the panel. And now, every fibre of my being at tension, my senses quickened by the unseen but certain presence of danger, I could hear at the other side of the thin boards the eager breathing of the fanatic devil of a priest who had come to slay me, miserably trapped like a panther in a pit. At this thought the very blood froze in my veins. My hand relaxed its hold on the lamp, and in its fall the light was extinguished.

"Alone in the dark with the Ganapati, and with the human tiger at the other side of the door, I shrieked aloud.

"In prompt answer to my cry of pent-up agony came the sharp sound of splintering timber, and before me, revealed by the flare of a torch held aloft in one hand, appeared the dread visage of the Hindu priest, contorted now by his mingled emotions of hate and triumph. For his eyes had lighted on the idol, and it was with a shout of joyful recognition, 'Ganapati! Ganapati!' that the fanatic flung himself upon me, and plunged a dagger into my throat. Then the curtain of black forgetfulness descended and covered me with its folds.

"I know not what time elapsed, but I was awakened to the consciousness that I was yet alive by a tongue of flame that leaped at my face, and, scorching my skin, caused me to stir instinctively in self-preservation.