Caravans By Night Part 24

"Who?"

The native looked amazed at what he evidently considered gross stupidity, and elucidated:

"The he-goat that came to your window! It was he who--"

Trent cut in. "Where is he?"

"There, Presence!"--with an indefinite wave of his hand. "By the wireless-house!"

"Why didn't you bring him here?"

"He is tied, Presence, to a--what do you call them?"

"Go watch him," Trent rapped. "I'll be there directly."

Trent slipped into trousers and coat and made his way aft, up a flight of iron stairs, to the turn of the promenade deck. There, in the zone of greenish light cast from the door of the wireless-house, he beheld a startling tableau.

Tambusani, in the grip of two white-uniformed men (from the wireless-house or the deck-watch, Trent surmised), was protesting and gesticulating excitedly toward a huddled figure by the rail. The latter was a native, bound to a stanchion with a pink turban-cloth, the end of which was stuffed into his mouth.

"I can vouch for that man," Trent announced crisply, coming up. "The other fellow"--pointing at the native by the rail--"is a thief. He tried to enter my cabin. My servant happened along and followed him up here."

He saw, then, that one of the uniformed men wore chevrons of gold sparks; the other was a deck-steward. To the latter he spoke first.

"Will you call the captain? I want a word with him.... Thanks." Then to the wireless-operator: "I'll take charge of this fellow now. And you might keep this affair quiet."

The operator smiled wisely (he didn't have to see credentials to spot 'em!) and withdrew into the room where the powerful machines buzzed and crackled.

"Now, you fellow," said Trent, removing the improvised gag from the "thief's" mouth. "Who put you up to this?"

Sullen eyes glowed. "Yonder devourer of pork lies, Sahib!"--with a venomous look at Tambusani.

"Son of a dog!" flung back the other. "Mohammedan whelp!"

"Stop it, both of you!" ordered Trent. "Tambusami, what have you to say?"

One hand pressed to his cheek, Tambusami explained.

"He is a liar and a thief, O Presence. It was he I caught in your room in Calcutta--who got away from me! I recognized him as he pa.s.sed me in the steerage--and I followed. He went to your cabin and--"

Trent broke in, directing a question at the suspected one.

"Do you deny that?"

"I am an honest man, Sahib!"--sullenness giving away to fright. "That body-louse is a sink of lies!"

Trent pressed on. "Will you tell me who gave you that--? Well, you know what you dropped in my cabin."

"I am an honest man, Sahib! I was walking along the deck and--"

"Whose servant are you?"

"No man's. My name is Guru Singh. I go to Rangoon to--"

"If you're not a servant, then you had no business out of the steerage.

I'm going to have you put in irons, and when we reach port you'll be taken up by the police--"

"No, no, Sahib! By Allah, I am an honest man!"

Trent reflected a moment before he spoke again. "You insist, then, that you didn't drop--something--into my cabin?"

"Yes, Sahib!"

The captain arrived at that juncture, a subordinate at his heels. Trent explained to him what had happened, adding--a shade too darkly, he thought--certain words that impressed upon that worthy officer his authority to conclude with: "And I want him locked up."

The captain gave an order to his subordinate, who hastened away, and Trent addressed Guru Singh in Hindustani, which he felt certain the master of the vessel did not understand.

"You would rather be put in irons than tell who your master is?"

"I have no master, Sahib!"

"Very well. We will see how you feel about it to-morrow."

Shortly two men appeared and led the protesting Guru Singh below--but not before Tambusami had rescued his turban-cloth.

"It is defiled," he said, looking at it regretfully and letting it drop over the rail.

"Come with me," directed Trent. "I'll take a look at your cut."

It was only a flesh wound Trent ascertained when they were in his state-room, and after bathing it in a sterilizing solution and binding it with an adhesive strip, he dismissed Tambusami with a brief commendation for his prowess.

"It is nothing, O Presence," declared the native, magnanimously. "With a lord who deals in magic medicines, why should not I watch over him, as a keeper over his cheetah?"

And the Englishman was not quite certain that Tambusami didn't wink as he went out.

Subconsciously, Trent had been thinking all the while of the coral pendant; now it filled his mind. Again he felt the chill antic.i.p.ation.

His hand shook as he jerked aside the pillow; shook, as he stared in blank stupefaction.

The oval was not there.

As yet scarcely believing, he stripped back the sheet; turned over the mattress; searched every crevice of the berth. But the pendant had disappeared. It rather dazed him. Stolen. Once more a mysterious hand had reached out and spirited away the oval. One thing it proved: that there were two elements at work, lurking elements. But how swiftly! He was gone only a few minutes!... Why in thundering hades hadn't he looked inside before he went on deck? What a monumental fool!

Which verifies for the millionth time the truth of a certain fable about an _Equus caballus_ and a stable.

4

The next morning in the dining-salon Trent saw Dana Charteris, merely a glimpse--a smile and a nod. She was at a table across the room. However, later, as he was moving toward the purser's office, he came upon her aft on the promenade deck, elbows upon the rail, eyes upon the steerage. She turned as his step sounded behind her.

"Isn't it glorious?" was her greeting, motioning toward the sea where the sun had painted a glittering dragon on the intense blue.