A Bid for Fortune/Chapter 9
CHAPTER IX.
DR. NIKOLA PERMITS US A FREE PASSAGE.
The old saying, "Don't count your chickens before they're hatched," is as good a warning as any I know. Certainly it proved so in our case. For had we not been so completely occupied filing through the staples of our collars we should not have omitted to take into consideration the fact that, even when we should have removed the chains that bound us, we would still be prisoners in the room. I'm very much afraid, however, even had we remembered this point, we should only have considered it of minor importance, and one to be easily overcome. As it was, the unwelcome fact remained that the door was locked, and, what was worse, that the lock itself had, for security's sake, been placed on the outside, so that there was no chance of our being able to pick it, even had our accomplishments lain in that direction.
"Try the window," whispered Beckenham, in answer to the heavy sigh which followed my last discovery.
Accordingly we crossed the room, and I put my hands upon one of the boards and pulled. But I might as well have tried to tow a troopship with a piece of cotton, for all the satisfactory result I got; the planks were trebly screwed to the window frame, and each in turn defied me. When I was tired Beckenham put his strength to it, but even our united efforts were of no avail, and, panting and exhausted, we were at length obliged to give it up as hopeless.
"This is a pretty fix we've got ourselves into," I said as soon as I had recovered sufficient breath to speak. "We can't remain here, and what on earth are we to do to escape?"
"I can't say, unless we manage to burst that door open and fight our way out. I wonder if that would be possible?"
"First, let's see if it's possible to burst the door!"
We crossed the room again and I examined the door carefully with my fingers. It was not an over-strong one; but I was sufficient of a carpenter to tell that it would withstand a good deal of pressure before it would give way.
"I've a good mind to try it," I said; "but in that case, remember, it will probably mean a hand-to-hand fight on the other side, and, unarmed and weak as we are, we shall be pretty sure to get the worst of it."
"Never mind that," my intrepid companion replied, with a confidence in his voice that I was very far from feeling. "In for a penny, in for a pound, even if we're killed it couldn't be worse than being buried alive in here."
"That's so, and if fighting's your idea, I'm your man," I answered. "Let me first take my bearings, and then I'll see what I can do against it. You get out of the way, but be sure to stand by to rush the passage directly the door goes."
Again I felt the door and wall in order that I might be sure where it lay, and having done so crossed the room. My heart was beating like a Nasmyth hammer, and it was nearly a minute before I could pull myself together sufficiently for my rush. Then summoning every muscle in my body to my assistance, I dashed across and at it with every ounce of strength my frame was capable of. Considering the darkness of the room, my steering was not so bad, for my shoulder caught the door just above its centre; there was a great crash a noise of breaking timbers and amid a shower of splinters and general débris I fell headlong through into the passage. By the time it would have taken me to count five, Beckenham was beside me helping me to rise.
"Now stand by for big trouble!" I said, rubbing my shoulder, and every moment expecting to see a door open and a crowd of Prendergast's ruffians come rushing out. "We shall have them on us in a minute."
But to our intense astonishment it was all dead silence in the house. Not a sound of any single kind, save our excited breathing, greeted our ears. We might have broken into an empty house for all we knew the difference.
For nearly five minutes we stood, side by side, waiting for the battle which did not come.
"What on earth does it all mean?" I asked my companion. "That crash of mine was loud enough to wake the dead. Can they have deserted the place, think you, and left us to starve?"
"I can't make it out any more than you can," he answered. "But don't you think we'd better take advantage of their not coming to find a way out?"
"Of course. One of us had better creep down the passage and discover how the land lies. As I'm the stronger, I'll go. You wait here."
Stealthily as a cat I crept along the passage, treading cautiously, for I knew that both our lives depended on it. Though it could not have been more than sixty feet, it seemed of interminable length, and was as black as night. Not a glimmer of light, however faint, met my eyes.
On and on I stole, expecting every moment to be pounced upon and seized; but no such fate awaited me. If, however, our jailers did not appear, another danger was in store for me.
In the middle of my walk my feet suddenly went from under me, and I found myself falling I knew not where. In reality it was only a drop of about three feet down a short flight of steps. Such a noise as my fall made was surely never heard, still, however, no sound came. Then Beckenham fumbled his way cautiously down the steps to my side, and whispered an enquiry as to what had happened. I told him in as few words as possible, and then struggled to my feet again.
Just as I did so my eyes detected a faint glimmer of light low down on the floor ahead of us. From its position it evidently emanated from the doorway of a room.
"Oh! if only we had a match," I whispered.
"It's no good wishing," said Beckenham. "What do you advise?"
"It's difficult to say; but I should think we'd better listen at that door and try to discover if there is anyone inside. If there is, and he is alone, we must steal in upon him, let him see that we are desperate, and, willy nilly, force him to show us a way out. It's ten chances to one, if we go on prowling about here, we shall stumble upon the whole nest of them—then we'll be caught like rats in a trap. What do you think?"
"I agree with you. Go on."
Without further ado we crept towards the light, which, as I expected, came from under a door, and listened. Someone was plainly moving about inside; but though we listened for what seemed a quarter of an hour, but must in reality have been less than a minute and a half, we could hear no voices.
"Whoever he is, he's alone—that's certain," whispered my companion. "Open the door softly, and we'll creep in upon him."
In answer, and little by little, a cold shiver running down my back lest it should creak and so give warning to the person within, I turned the handle, pushed open the door, and we looked inside. Then—but, my gracious! if I live to be a thousand I shall never forget even the smallest particular connected with the sight that met my eyes.
The room itself was a long and low one; its measurements possibly sixty feet by fifteen. The roof—for there was no ceiling—was of wood, crossed by heavy rafters, and much begrimed with dirt and smoke. The floor was of some highly polished wood closely resembling oak and was completely bare. But the shape and construction of the room itself were as nothing compared with the strangeness of its furniture and occupants. Words would fail me if I tried to give you a true and accurate description of it. I only know that, strong man, used to the horrors of life and death, as I was, what I saw before me made my blood run cold and my flesh creep as it had never been made to do before.
To begin with, round the walls were arranged, at regular intervals, more than a dozen enormous bottles, each of which contained what looked, to me, only too much like human specimens pickled in some light-coloured fluid resembling spirits of wine. Between these gigantic but more than horrible receptacles were numberless smaller ones holding other and even more dreadful remains; while on pedestals and stands, bolt upright and reclining, were skeletons of men, monkeys, and quite a hundred sorts of animals. The intervening spaces were filled with skulls, bones, and the apparatus for every kind of murder known to the fertile brain of man. There were European rifles, revolvers, bayonets, and swords; Italian stilettos, Turkish scimitars, Greek knives, Central African spears and poisoned arrows, Zulu knob-kerries, Afghan yataghans, Malay krises, Sumatra blow-pipes, Chinese dirks, New Guinea head-catching implements, Australian spears and boomerangs, Polynesian stone hatchets, and numerous other weapons the names of which I cannot now remember. Mixed up with them were implements for every sort of wizardry known to the superstitious; from English love charms to African Obi sticks, from spiritualistic planchettes to the most horrible of Fijian death potions.
In the centre of the wall, opposite to where we stood, was a large fireplace of the fashion usually met with in old English manor-houses, and on either side of it a figure that nearly turned me sick with horror. That on the right side was apparently a native of Northern India, if one might judge by his dress and complexion. He sat on the floor in a constrained attitude, accounted for by the fact that his head, which was at least three times too big for his body, was so heavy as to require an iron tripod with a ring or collar in the top of it to keep it from over balancing him and bringing him to the floor. To add to the horror of this awful head, it was quite bald; the skin was drawn tensely over the bones, and upon this great veins stood out as large as macaroni stems.
On the other side of the hearth was a creature half ape and half man the like of which I remember once to have seen in a museum of monstrosities in Sydney, where, if my memory serves me, he was described upon the catalogue as a Burmese monkey-boy. He was chained to the wall in somewhat the same fashion as we had been, and was chattering and scratching for all the world like a monkey in a Zoo.
But, horrible as these things were, the greatest surprise of all was yet to come. For, standing at the heavy oaken table in the centre of the room, was a man I should have known anywhere if I had been permitted half a glance at him. It was Dr. Nikola.
When we entered he was busily occupied with a scalpel, dissecting an animal strangely resembling a monkey. On the table, and watching the work upon which his master was engaged, sat his constant companion, the same fiendish black cat I have mentioned on a previous occasion. While at the end nearest us, on tip-toe, in order to see what was going on, stood an albino dwarf, scarcely more than two feet eight inches high.
Now, though it has necessarily taken me some time to describe the scene which greeted our eyes, it must not be supposed that anything like the same length of time had really elapsed. Three seconds at the very most would have sufficed to cover the whole period.
So stealthily, however, had our approach been made, and so carefully had I opened the door, that we were well into the room before our appearance was discovered, and also before I had realised into whose presence we had stumbled. Then my foot touched upon a board that creaked, and Dr. Nikola looked up from the work upon which he was engaged.
His pale, thin face did not show the slightest sign of surprise as he said, in his usual placid tone:
"So you have managed to escape from your room, gentlemen. Well, and pray what do you want with me?"
For a moment I was so much overcome with surprise that my tongue refused to perform its office. Then I said, advancing towards him as I spoke, closely followed by the Marquis:
"So, Dr. Nikola, we have met at last!"
"At last, Mr. Hatteras, as you say," this singular being replied, still without a sign of either interest or embarrassment. "All things considered, I suppose you would deem me ironical if I ventured to say that I am pleased to see you about again. However, don't let me keep you standing, won't you sit down? My Lord Marquis, let me offer you a chair."
All this time we were edging up alongside the table, and I was making ready for a rush at him. But he was not to be taken off his guard. His extraordinary eyes had been watching me intently, taking in my every movement; and a curious effect they had upon me.
"Dr. Nikola," I said, pulling myself together, "the game is up. You beat me last time; but now you must own I come out on top. Don't utter a word or call for assistance—if you do you're a dead man. Now drop that knife you hold in your hand, and show us the way out!"
The Marquis was on his right, I was on his left, and we were closing in upon him as I spoke. Still he showed no sign of fear, though he must have well known the danger of his position. But his eyes glowed in his head like living coals.
You will ask why we did not rush at him? Well, if I am obliged to own it, I must—the truth was, such was the power that emanated from this extraordinary man, that though we both knew the crucial moment of our enterprise had arrived, while his eyes were fixed upon us, neither of us could stir an inch. When he spoke his voice seemed to cut like a knife.
"So you think my game is up, Mr. Hatteras, do you? I'm afraid once more I must differ from you. Look behind you, my friend."
I did so, and that glance showed me how cleverly we'd been trapped. Leaning against the door, watching us with cruel, yet smiling eyes, was our old enemy, Prendergast, revolver in hand. Just behind me were two powerful Soudanese, while near the Marquis was a man looking like a Greek—and a very stalwart Greek—at that. Observing our discomfiture, Nikola seated himself in a big chair near the fireplace and folded his hands in the curious fashion I have before described; as he did so his black cat sprang to his shoulder and sat there watching us all. Dr. Nikola was the first to speak.
"Mr. Hatteras," he said, with devilish clearness and deliberation, "you should really know me better by this time than to think you could outwit me so easily. Is my reputation after all so small as that? And, while I think of it, pray let me have the pleasure of returning to you your five-pound note and your letters. Your mice were perfect messengers, were they not?"
As he spoke he handed me the selfsame Bank of England note I had despatched through the pipe that very evening in payment for the file; then he shook from a box he had taken from the chimneypiece all the communications I had written imploring assistance from the outside world. To properly estimate my chagrin and astonishment would be very difficult. I could only sit and stare, first at the money and then at the letters, in blankest amazement. So we had not been rescued by the cripple after all. Was it possible that while we had been so busy arranging our escape we had in reality been all the time under the closest surveillance? If that were so, then this knowledge of our doings would account for the silence with which my attack upon the door had been received. Now we were in an even worse position than before. I looked at Beckenham, but his head was down and his right hand was picking idly at the table edge. He was evidently waiting for what was coming next. In sheer despair I turned to Nikola.
"Since you have outwitted us again, Dr. Nikola, do not play with us—tell us straight out what our fate is to be."
"If it means going back to that room again," said Beckenham in a voice I hardly recognised, "I would far rather die and be done with it."
"Do not fear, my lord, you shall not die," Nikola said, turning to him with a bow. "Believe me, you will live to enjoy many happier hours than those you have been compelled to spend under my roof!"
"What do you mean?"
The doctor did not answer for nearly a moment; then he took what looked to me suspiciously like a cablegram form from his pocket and carefully examined it. Having done so, he said quietly:
"Gentlemen, you ask what I mean? Well, I mean this—if you wish to leave this house this very minute, you are free to do so on one condition!"
"And that condition is?"
"That you allow yourselves to be blindfolded in this room and conducted by my servants to the harbour side. I furthermore ask your words of honour that you will not seek to remove your bandages until you are given permission to do so. Do you agree to this?"
Needless to say we both signified our assent.
This free permission to leave the house was a second surprise, and one for which we were totally unprepared.
"Then let it be so. My Lord Marquis, and you, Mr. Hatteras, it is with sincere pleasure I restore to you your liberty again!"
He made a sign to Prendergast, who instantly stepped forward. But I had something to say before we were removed.
"One word first, Dr. Nikola. You have"
"Mr. Hatteras, if you will be guided by me, you will keep a silent tongue in your head. Let well alone. In the words of the proverb, Beware how you disturb a sleeping dog. Why I have acted as I have done towards you you may some day learn; in the meanwhile rest assured it was from no idle motive. Now take me at my word, and go while you have the chance. I may change my mind in a moment, and then"
He stopped and did not say any more. At a sign, Prendergast clapped a thick bandage over my eyes, another man did the same for Beckenham; a man on either side of me took my arms, and next moment we had passed out of the room, and before I could have counted fifty were in the cool air of the open street.
How long we were walking after leaving the house I could not say, but at last our escort called a halt. Prendergast was evidently in command, for he said:
"Gentlemen, before we leave you you will renew your words of honour not to remove your bandages for five full minutes?"
We complied with his request; instantly our arms were released, and a moment later we heard our captors leaving us. The minutes went slowly by. Presently Beckenham said:
"How long do you think we've been standing here?"
"Nearly the stipulated time, I should say," I answered. "However, we'd better give them a little longer, on chance of mistake."
Again a silence fell on us. Then I tore off my bandage, to find Beckenham doing the same.
"They're gone, and we're free again," he cried.
"Hurrah!"
We shook hands warmly on our escape and then looked about us. A ship's bell out in the stream chimed half an hour after midnight, and a precious dark night it was. A number of vessels were to be seen, and from the noise that came from them it was evident they were busy coaling.
"What's to be done now?" asked Beckenham.
" Find an hotel, I think," I answered; "get a good night's rest, and first thing in the morning hunt up our consul and the steamship authorities."
"Come along, then. Let's look for a place. I noticed one that should suit us close to where we came ashore that day."
Five minutes' walking brought us to the house we sought. The proprietor was not very fastidious, and whatever he may have thought of our appearances he took us in without demur. A bath and a good meal followed, and then after a thorough overhauling of all the details connected with our imprisonment we turned into bed resolved to thrash it out upon the morrow.
Next morning, true to our arrangement, as soon as breakfast was over, I set off for the steamship company's office, leaving the Marquis by himself at the hotel for reasons which had begun to commend themselves to me, and which will soon be apparent to you.
I found the Saratoga's agent busily at work in his private office. He was a tall, thin man, slightly bald, wearing a pair of heavy gold pince-nez, and very slow and deliberate in his speech.
"I beg your pardon," he began, when I had taken possession of his proffered chair, "but did I understand my clerk to say that your name was Hatteras?"
"That's my name," I answered. "I was a passenger in your boat the Saratoga for Australia three weeks ago, but had the misfortune to be left behind when she sailed."
"Ah! I remember the circumstances well," he said. "The young Marquis of Beckenham went ashore with you, I think, and came within an ace of being also left behind."
"Within an ace!" I cried; "but he was left behind."
"No, no! there you are mistaken," was the astounding reply; "he would have been left behind had not his tutor and I gone ashore at the last moment to look for him and found him wandering about on the outskirts of Arab Town. I don't remember ever to have seen a man so angry as the tutor was, and no wonder, for they only just got out to the boat again as the gangway was being hauled aboard."
"Then you mean to tell me that the Marquis went on to Australia after all!" I cried. "And pray how did this interesting young gentleman explain the fact of his losing sight of me?"
"He lost you in a crowd, he said," the agent continued. "It was a most extraordinary business altogether."
It certainly was, and even more extraordinary than he imagined. I could hardly believe my ears. The world seemed to be turned upside down. I only know that I stumbled out a few lame enquiries about the next boat sailing for Australia, and what would be done with my baggage on its arrival at the other end, and then made my way as best I could out of the office.
Hastening back to the hotel, I told my story from beginning to end to my astonished companion, who sat on his bed listening open-mouthed. When I had finished he said feebly:
"But what does it all mean? Tell me that! What does it mean?"
"It means," I answered, "that our notion about Nikola's abducting us in order to blackmail your father was altogether wrong, and, if you ask me, I should say not half picturesque enough. No, no! this mystery is a bigger one by a hundred times than even we expected, and there are more men in it than ourselves. It remains with you to say whether you will assist in the attempt to unravel it or not. Oh! my beauty Baxter, if ever I get hold of you! What a meeting that will be!"
"What do you mean by saying it remains with me to say whether we shall unravel it or not? Do I understand you to mean that you intend following it up?"
"Of course I do. Nikola and Baxter between them have completely done me—now I'm going to do my best to do them. By Jove!"
"What is it now?"
"I see it all as plain as a pikestaff. I understand exactly now why Baxter came for you, why he telegraphed that the train was laid, why I was drugged in Plymouth, why you were seasick between Naples and this place, and why we were both kidnapped so mysteriously!"
"Then explain, for mercy's sake!"
"I will. See here. In the first place, remember your father's peculiar education of yourself. If you consider that you will see that you are the only young nobleman of high rank whose face is not well known to his brother Peers. That being so, Nikola wants to procure you for some purpose of his own in Australia. Your father advertises for a tutor; he sends one of his agents—Baxter—to secure the position. Baxter, at Nikola's instruction, puts into your head a desire for travel. You pester your father for the necessary permission. Just as this is granted I come upon the scene. Baxter suspects me. He telegraphs to Nikola 'The train is laid,' which means that he has begun to lay the seeds of a desire for travel, when a third party steps in—in other words, I am the new danger that has arisen. He arranges your sailing, and all promises to go well. Then Dr. Nikola finds out I intend going in the same boat. He tries to prevent me; and I—by Jove! I see another thing. "Why did Baxter suggest that you should cross the Continent and join the boat at Naples? Why, simply because if you had started from Plymouth you would soon have got over your sickness, if you had ever been ill at all, and in that case the passengers would have become thoroughly familiar with your face by the time you reached Port Said. That would never have done, so he takes you to Naples, drugs you next morning for you must remember you were ill after the coffee he gave you and by that means keeps you ill and confined to your cabin throughout the entire passage to Port Said. Then he persuades you to go ashore with me. You do so, with what result you know. Presently he begins to bewail your non-return, invites the agent to help in the search. They set off, and eventually find you near the Arab quarter. You must remember that neither the agent, the captain, nor the passengers have seen you, save at night, so the substitute, who is certain to have been well chosen and schooled for the part he is to play, is not found out. Then the boat goes on her way, while we are left behind languishing in durance vile."
"Do you really think those are the facts of the case?"
"Upon my word, I do!"
"Then what do you advise me to do? Remember, Baxter has letters to the different Governors from my father."
"I know what I should do myself!"
"Go to the consul and get him to warn the authorities in Australia, I suppose?"
"No. That would do little or no good—remember, they've three weeks' start of us."
"Then what shall we do? I'm in your hands entirely, and whatever you advise I promise you I'll do."
"If I were you I should doff my title, take another name, and set sail with me for Australia. Once there, we'll put up in some quiet place and set ourselves to unmask these rascals and to defeat their little game whatever it may be. Are you prepared for so much excitement as that?"
"Of course I am. Come what may, I'll go with you, and there's my hand on it."
"Then we'll catch the next boat—not a mail-steamer—that sails for an Australian port, and once ashore there we'll set the ball a-rolling with a vengeance."
"That scoundrel Baxter! I'm not vindictive as a rule, but I feel I should like to punish him."
"Well, if they've not flown by the time we reach Australia, you'll probably be able to gratify your wish. It's Nikola, however, I want."
Beckenham shuddered as I mentioned the Doctor's name. So to change the subject I said:
"I'm going for another walk now. Would you care to accompany me?"
"Where are you going?" he asked.
"I'm off to try and find the house where we were shut up," I answered. "I want to be able to locate it for future reference, if necessary."
"Is it safe to go near it, do you think?"
"In broad daylight, yes! But just to make sure we'll buy a couple of revolvers on the way. And if it becomes necessary we'll use them."
"Come along, then."
With that we left our hotel and set off in the direction of the Casino, stopping, however, on the way to make the purchases above referred to.
On arrival at the place we sought, we stopped and looked about us. I pointed to a street on our right.
"That was the way we came from the mosque," I said. Then, pointing to a narrow alley way almost opposite where we were, I continued, "And that was where I saw Nikola standing watching us. Now when we came out of this building we turned to our left hand, and, if I mistake not, went off in that direction. I think, if you've no objection, we'll go that way now."
We accordingly set off at a good pace, and after awhile arrived at the spot where the guide had caught us up. It looked a miserably dirty neighbourhood in the bright sunlight. Beckenham looked round him thoughtfully, and finally said:
"Now we turn to our right, I think."
"Quite so. Come along!"
We passed down one thoroughfare and up another, and at last reached the spot where I had commented on the sign-boards, and where we had been garotted. Surely the house must be near at hand now. But though we hunted high and low, up one street and down another, not a single trace of any building answering the description of the one we wanted could we discover. At last, after nearly an hour's search, we were obliged to give it up, and return to our hotel, unsuccessful.
As we finished lunch a large steamer made her appearance in the harbour, and brought up opposite the town. We questioned our landlord, who was an authority on the subject, and he informed us that she was the s. s. Pescadore, of Hull, bound to Melbourne.
Hearing this we immediately chartered a boat, pulled off to her, and interviewed the captain. As good luck would have it, he had room for a couple of passengers. We therefore paid the passage money there and then, provided ourselves with a few necessaries, articles of attire, toilet, etc., and shortly before nightfall steamed into the Canal. Port Said was a thing of the past. Our eventful journey was resumed—what was the end of it all to be?