Caravans By Night Part 38

She knew that the truth would tarnish a memory, but she could not evade it. She smiled wanly.

"I have reached the 'Temple of Truth' in my 'Caves of Kor'! Yes, I followed, with a guide. Alan had wired me the name of a man who he said would serve me well--an old bearer of his. I waited all afternoon on the upper porch of the hotel, and when you left I followed, with Guru Singh, the bearer. We hired an automobile, instructing the driver to keep you in sight. When you left your automobile, we left ours.... Oh, those frightful places you led us through! Of course we were halted when you went into that house in that dreadful street.

"I determined then to make your acquaintance. Just before you came out I sent Guru Singh away; then I deliberately threw myself upon your mercy.

But oh, I felt guilty! I realized that you didn't suspect it was all deliberate and planned!

"The next morning I made another desperate move. I _had_ to return that piece of coral. Too, I wanted to learn your plans. I gave the pendant to Guru Singh--with instructions. To insure him against discovery, I--I asked you to go shopping with me. Guru Singh found a packet in your trunk showing that you had a berth on the _Manchester_ to Rangoon, and that from there you were going to Myitkyina, to the shop of Da-yak, a Tibetan. But your servant happened along, and in the excitement Guru Singh forgot to leave the coral. It seemed that I'd never rid myself of it!"

The sun was almost below the hills now. A gong in the nearby Shan village rang clearly across the quiet evening. Both Trent and the girl sat motionless, listening until it died out.

"I wired Alan that I was going to Rangoon and would wait for him there,"

she said, taking up the thread of her story. "I didn't send it until just before I went to the boat, for I was afraid he might say no--and, oh, I wanted to see my adventure through!

"On s.h.i.+pboard Guru Singh at last succeeded in returning the coral--but that inevitable servant of yours appeared. I was terrified when I learned that Guru Singh had been caught! I felt responsible for it, and afterward I carried food to him several times. That was what I was doing the night I met you on deck. I was frightened, and I flung plate and all overboard. Then.... But you know what occurred then. I had come to hate myself for what I was doing, yet the thing was a Medusa. It held me and I let it draw me on.

"I met Guru Singh, by previous instructions, at the paG.o.da in Rangoon, and we drove to Alan's bungalow--but only to leave part of my baggage, and that night I took a train for Myitkyina with Guru Singh. When we got there I realized the presence of a strange white woman would be noticed in so small a place, so I instructed Guru Singh carefully and went back to Mandalay to wait.

"The second day in Mandalay I heard from Guru Singh. He wired for me to come. When I arrived he told me he had found where the jewels were--also that you had left Myitkyina. It seems that Da-yak was arrested"--here the muscles of Trent's jaw tensed again--"and your servant, too. Guru Singh said he bribed the jailer to let him see Da-yak, who, after he was paid liberally, told where you had gone.... He said the jewels had been taken to a city in Tibet: the name is s.h.i.+ngtse-lunpo. The sum of his words is that this place is the penetralia of a band called the Order of the Falcon, with a man known as the Falcon at its head. The Tibetan took oath he didn't know the Falcon. At any rate, he said that to get there one had to go first to a town across the China border--Tali-fang, he called it--and that only three men in Myitkyina knew the route to Tali-fang, one of whom had gone with your caravan and another with some one else. The third was a Buddhist priest. Da-yak said there were several ways of reaching Tali-fang and that you had been sent by the longest. At Tali-fang one would have to depend upon his own resources to get a guide to take him into Tibet, he said. That was all he would tell--or rather, he said that was all he knew."

"I don't suppose," Trent questioned, "he told who had him arrested?" Yet Trent felt that he knew without asking who had arrested Da-yak and Tambusami.

"No," she replied.

Trent nodded--more to himself than to her--and she went on.

"That the jewels were in Tibet--vast, mysterious Tibet--both frightened and fascinated me. To go where no white woman, had been--the land of Marco Polo, Orazio della Penna and Huc! You can understand the lure of it. Yet I think I must have been a little mad to have attempted it--but we all are, aren't we?

"Guru Singh--poor, dear Guru Singh!--tried to persuade me to turn back, but I wouldn't. We went to the Buddhist priest. For an extortionate sum he agreed to guide us to Tali-fang. So we outfitted a caravan, Guru Singh, the monk and I, and two days after you left Myitkyina we took the same trail. I went as a man; I thought it would excite less suspicion.

Before leaving, I wrote Alan. I waited until then because I knew he would disapprove.

"At several villages we learned that you had already pa.s.sed; then, the third afternoon, one of the porters, who was ahead, came back with the news that your pack-train was about a mile in advance. We marched more slowly after that. The nearness of another white person rea.s.sured me, for--oh, before that it was terrible in those jungles and swamps! I think the loneliness and the fright, after dark, would have driven me mad had I not remembered what the converted Brahmin priest, who lectured at home, said about the jungle. That comforted me.

"Last--When was it? I can't remember now--but it was late afternoon and I was sitting in front of my tent. The Buddhist priest pa.s.sed. There was something about him, the way he looked at that moment, that struck me numb to the heart.... I realized what an impossible thing I was trying to do; wondered what would happen if I reached Tali-fang and found I couldn't go further. Yet--yet I _couldn't_ turn back. As I sat there, thinking, a desperate plan unfolded.... I told Guru Singh.

"The next afternoon, late, he and the priest and my porters left for Myitkyina. Guru Singh stayed behind until--until I fired the shot--and--and your muleteer brought you. I began to feel ill, suddenly.

I.... Well, that's all. I had intended to tell you that my porters deserted--and other lies, too. I knew you wouldn't leave me; you couldn't send me back, and you'd have to take me with you. But after--after all you did--I couldn't falsify; I couldn't.... Now you know the truth."

She halted--halted and waited for him to speak. But he did not. His eyes were still upon the bracelet, nor did he look up. The silence was long and tense. Finally, unable to endure it longer, she moved her hand tentatively; dropped it; raised it again and let it rest lightly upon his sleeve.

"You--you believe me--don't you?" she faltered.

He drew a deep breath; lifted his head.

"Yes," he said, looking across the river. "Yes, of course I believe you.

I'm only wondering what I'm going to do with you."

He rose then and moved off rapidly toward the canebrake.

4

For over an hour Trent walked. When he returned to camp he found Dana Charteris sitting where he had left her. Masein had made a fire, and the leaping flames kindled a glow in the meshes of her red-gold hair. Eyes dark with misery met his--moist eyes.... The cobra-bracelet glinted on his wrist.

"I was abrupt a while ago," he announced, halting before her, head slightly lowered--as a man stands before a cathedral-image. "I am sorry.

I was worried. I shouldn't have left as I did, nor should I have stayed away so long, but I wanted to be alone--to solve the problem. I think I have."

She smiled faintly. "Don't apologize, Arnold Trent. You've done enough for me." She paused. "You must hate me," she pressed on after a moment.

"First I deceive you; then I fall sick and delay you; and when I recover, I am a stone about your neck." She laughed a mirthless little laugh. "What are you going to do with me?"

He made a gesture. "You were right. I haven't a guide to send back with you, and you can't go alone. The nearest Government post is Kw.a.n.glu--that's at least a two-days' journey. I can't afford to delay any longer. Yet if I take you with me and anything happens to you--" He hesitated, then finished: "I'd never forgive myself. So what am I to do?"

She got up, and her eyes shone with the warmth of the fire.

"I--I might be able to help you," she suggested rather timidly, as though afraid he would scorn the idea. "I've hindered you so much that the least I can do is to try to make amends. Oh, I realize what you're thinking, that I am a woman and would only be a burden, but--"

"No," he interrupted, "I wasn't thinking that--I was thinking of you.

G.o.d knows, from a selfish standpoint, I would be glad enough for your companions.h.i.+p! But aside from the physical danger, there are other things to reckon with. That's the trouble with people; they don't consider the future. And if we come out of this alive, there's a future.

It's all right for me; but you--you're a woman. And the public doesn't credit any man with honor, or any woman with self-respect, if they're thrown together under other than conventional circ.u.mstances. Don't you see what people will say when they learn of it? And they will learn of it--and you can't ignore their opinions. They couldn't understand, d.a.m.n them; rather, they _wouldn't_.... You see?" Another pause, and he repeated: "You see?"

She nodded. "Yet I'm here"--helplessly.

"Yet you're here," he echoed, with a gesture of futility.

He strode away; turned back at a sudden thought.

"Of course, there's one thing I've overlooked in my masculine egotism.

It just occurred to me that you--you might be afraid to go with me."

"No," she interposed very quietly--and to him the world seemed to expand to greater dimensions. "No. I am not afraid." That was all. Yet it thrilled him.

After a few seconds he resumed.

"You must promise to do as I say; and without asking questions. I've given my word, you know. Before we reach Tali-fang you'll have to be fixed up like a Hindu. You can be my brother, or anything you like. I'll teach you a few more Hindustani words--necessary words. You won't have to talk much, if any. There will be hards.h.i.+ps--many--but--" He furrowed his hair. "There's no alternative."

Then, glancing down at the bracelet, he took it off.

"Here--"

"Won't you keep it?" she asked. "I sent it with a plea for succor, and you came. According to the custom, you are my bracelet-brother, sworn to honor and protect. So won't you keep it, as Humayun, the Great Mogul, kept the bracelet of Kurnavati, the Rani of Chitor?"

For answer he slipped the golden circlet over his hand. The girl, with a swift smile, turned and went into the tent. And, being a man, he could not know it was for the express purpose of crying.

CHAPTER X

CARAVAN