CHAPTER XXX. NICOL BRINN'S STORY OF THE CITY OF FIRE
"The statement which I have to make, gentlemen, will almost certainlyappear incredible to you. However, when it has been transcribed I willsign it. And I am going to say here and now that there are points in thenarrative which I am in a position to substantiate. What I can't proveyou must take my word for. But I warn you that the story is tough.
"I have a certain reputation for recklessness. I don't say it may not beinherent; but if you care to look the matter up, you will find that thecraziest phase of my life is that covering the last seven years. Thereason why I have courted death during that period I am now about toexplain.
"Although my father was no traveller, I think I was born with thewanderlust. I started to explore the world in my Harvard vacations, andwhen college days were over I set about the business whole-heartedly.Where I went and what I did, up to the time that my travels led me toIndia, is of no interest to you or to anybody else, because in IndiaI found heaven and hell--a discovery enough to satisfy the mostadventurous man alive.
"At this present time, gentlemen, I am not going to load you withgeographical details. The exact spot at which my life ended, in a sensewhich I presently hope to make clear, can be located at leisure by theproper authorities, to whom I will supply a detailed map which I have inmy possession. I am even prepared to guide the expedition, if the IndianGovernment considers an expedition necessary and cares to acceptmy services. It's good enough for you to know that pig-sticking andtiger-hunting having begun to pall upon me somewhat, I broke away fromAnglo-Indian hospitality, and headed up country, where the Himalayasbeckoned. I had figured on crossing at a point where no man has crossedyet, but that project was interrupted, and I'm here to tell you why.
"Up there in the northwest provinces they told me I was crazy when Ioutlined, one night in a mess, of which I was a guest at the time, myscheme for heading northeast toward a tributary of the Ganges whichwould bring me to the neighbourhood of Khatmandu, right under the shadowof Everest.
"'Once you leave Khatmandu,' said the mess president, 'you are outsidethe pale as far as British influence is concerned. I suppose youunderstand that?'
"I told him I quite understood it.
"'You can't reach Tibet that way,' he said.
"'Never mind, sir,' I answered. 'I can try, if I feel like it.'
"Three days later I set out. I am not superstitious, and if I take along time to make a plan, once I've made it I generally stick to it. Butright at the very beginning of my expedition I had a warning, if ever aman had one. The country through which my route lay is of very curiousformation. If you can imagine a section of your own west country viewedthrough a giant magnifying glass, you have some sort of picture of theterritory in which I found myself.
"Gigantic rocks stand up like monstrous tors, or towers, sometimesoffering sheer precipices of many hundreds of feet in height. Onthose sides of these giant tors, however, which are less precipitous,miniature forests are sometimes found, and absolutely impassablejungles.
"Bordering an independent state, this territory is not at all wellknown, but I had secured as a guide a man named Vadi--or that was thename he gave me whom I knew to be a high-caste Brahmin of good family.He had been with me for some time, and I thought I could trusthim. Therefore, once clear of British territory, I took him into myconfidence respecting the real object of my journey.
"This was not primarily to scale a peak of the Himalayas, nor even tovisit Khatmandu, but to endeavour to obtain a glimpse of the Temple ofFire!
"That has excited your curiosity, gentlemen. I don't suppose any onehere has ever heard of the Temple of Fire.
"By some it is regarded as a sort of native legend but it is more than alegend. It is a fact. For seven years I have known it to be a fact, butmy tongue has been tied. Listen. Even down in Bombay, the coming of thenext great Master is awaited by certain of the natives; and for morethan ten years now it has been whispered from end to end of India thathe was about to proclaim himself, that disciples moved secretly amongthe people of every province, and that the unknown teacher in personawaited his hour in a secret temple up near the Tibetan frontier.
"A golden key opens many doors, gentlemen, and at the time of which I amspeaking I had obtained more information respecting this secret religionor cult than any other member of the white races had ever collected,or so I thought at the time. I had definite evidence to show that theexistence of this man, or demi-god--for by some he was said to possesssuperhuman powers--was no myth, but an actual fact.
"The collecting of this data was extremely perilous, and one of myinformants, with whom I had come in contact while passing through thecentral provinces, died mysteriously the night before I left Nagpur. Iwondered very much on my way north why I was not molested, for I did notfail to see that the death of the man in Nagpur was connected with thefact that he had divulged to me some of the secrets of the religion ofFire-Tongue. Indeed, it was from him that I first learned the name ofthe high priest of the cult of Fire. Why I was not molested I learnedlater.
"But to return to Vadi, my Brahmin guide. We had camped for the nightin the shadow of one of those giant tors which I have mentioned. Thebearers were seated around their fire at some little distance from us,and Vadi and I were consulting respecting our route in the morning, whenI decided to take him into my confidence. Accordingly:
"'Vadi,' I said, 'I know for a positive fact that we are within tenmiles of the secret Temple of Fire.'
"I shall never forget the look in his eyes, with the reflection of thefirelight dancing in them; but he never moved a muscle.
"'The sahib is wise,' he replied.
"'So is Vadi,' said I. 'Therefore he knows how happy a thousand poundsof English money would make him. It is his in return for a sight of theTemple.'
"Still as a carven image, he squatted there watching me, unmoving,expressionless. Then:
"'A man may die for nothing,' he returned, softly. 'Why should the sahibpay a thousand pounds?'
"'Why should the sahib die?' said I.
"'It is forbidden for any to see the Temple, even from a distance.'
"'But if no one ever knows that I have seen it?'
"'Fire-Tongue knows everything,' he replied, and as he pronounced thename, he performed a curious salutation, touching his forefinger withthe tip of his tongue, and then laying his hand upon his brow, uponhis lips, and upon his breast, at the same time bowing deeply. 'Hisvengeance is swift and terrible. He wills a man to die, and the man isdead. None save those who have passed through the tests may set eyesupon his temple, nor even speak his name.'
"This conversation took place, as I have already mentioned, in theshadow of one of those strange stone hillocks which abounded here, andit was at this point that I received a warning which might have deterredmany men, since it was inexplicable and strangely awesome.
"My attention was drawn to the phenomenon by a sudden cessation ofchatter amongst the bearers seated around their fire. I became awarethat an absolute stillness had fallen, and in the eyes of the Brahminwho sat facing me I saw a look of exaltation, of wild fanaticism.
"I jerked my head around, looking back over my shoulder, and what I sawI shall never forget, nor to this day have I been able to explain themeans by which the illusion was produced.
"Moving downward toward me through the jungle darkness, slowly, evenly,but at a height above the ground of what I judged to be about fifteenfeet, was a sort of torch or flambeau, visible because it was faintlyluminous; and surmounting it was a darting tongue of blue flame!
"At the moment that I set eyes upon this apparently supernaturalspectacle the bearers, crying some word in Hindustani which I did notunderstand, rose and fled in a body.
"I may say here that I never saw any of them again; although,considering that they took nothing with them, how they regained thenearest village is a mystery which I have never solved.
"Gentlemen, I know the East as few of my fellow-citizens know it. I knowsomethi
ng of the powers which are latent in some Orientals and active inothers. That my Brahmin guide was a hypnotist and an illusionist, I havesince thought.
"For, even as the pattering footsteps of the bearers grew faint in thedistance, the fiery torch disappeared as if by magic, and a silken cordwas about my throat!
"As I began a desperate fight for life, I realized that, whatever elseVadi might be, he was certainly an expert thug. The jungle, the rocks,seemed to swim around me as I crashed to the ground and felt theBrahmin's knee in the small of my back."