The Sirdar's Oath: A Tale of the North-West Frontier

  CHAPTER TWELVE.

  A STRANGE MIDNIGHT RAMBLE.

  She was walking in her sleep.

  This was the conclusion Raynier instinctively arrived at as he followedstealthily and noiselessly behind; and to his mind the problem occurredas to what he had better do. He had always been under the impressionthat to awaken a person under such circumstances was likely to producean alarming, if not rather a disastrous, shock. But what on earth wasto be done? She could not be suffered to walk on like this, Heaven knewwhere. Should he go back and rouse up Tarleton? But at the pace shewas going she would be away and out of sight by the time he had hammeredinto the understanding of that contentious idiot the urgency of thesituation, and this was no sort of country for any woman to go wanderingabout in at night. There were wolves around, too, for had they not beenmaking themselves heard? and however chary such were of lettingthemselves be seen if anyone were anxious to get the sights of a rifleupon them, a solitary woman was a different story--and he was cognisant,moreover, of the fact that even the most skulking of wild animals are,strangely enough, far less afraid of the female of the human species.No, he must follow on after her, and that at once.

  But where on earth was she going to lead him? On, on, she pressed,walking swiftly, and although the ground itself was, in places, none ofthe smoothest, yet, while not seeming to notice the way, she sped overit almost quicker than he did, looking carefully where he was going. Itwas a weird sort of undertaking. He could see in the moonlight hersplendid hair streaming like a mantle about her shoulders, and noted thegrace and ease with which she walked. On--ever. They were nearing theedge of the plain--and lo!--there in front of them rose the mountainwhich was cleft by the great _tangi_--the haunted _tangi_, equallyfeared seemingly by the enlightened and highly-educated Europeans whowere his fellow-travellers as by the superstitious natives of the land.

  Straight for this the unconscious pedestrian was heading. What strangeinfluence was drawing her thither, thought he who followed: and for thefirst time something of the superstitious shrinking which caused them toshun the place began to creep over him. He glanced over his shoulderwith some faint hope that others might have discovered the girl'sabsence and be following, but no. All was dead and silent. Nothingmoved in the silvery moonlight.

  And now in front rose the great rock portal--and on, ever on, kept thewhite and gliding figure before him. He saw it stand forth whiter thanever against the gloom of the entrance, then disappear, swallowed withinthe cavernous blackness of the great chasm.

  Would the sudden change both of light and atmosphere awaken her? Wouldshe come rushing forth wild with terror, instinctively making for thelight? For a moment he waited in case this should be so--then plungedwithin the darkness of the place.

  Raynier felt that here her wandering would end. Some strangepsychological wave, acting with their experience of the day before,stimulated by the subject of their conversation that evening, had movedher to rise in her sleep and come hither. But to what end? There wassomething uncanny about her, Haslam had remarked, but Raynier wasconscious of a very lively sense of thankfulness that he had been awake,and thus ready to follow and watch over her on this eerie and far fromsafe adventure upon which she had all unconsciously embarked.

  The light from without hardly penetrating here, Raynier found himselfslipping and stumbling in the gloom, yet, with it all, his quick earscould hear the footsteps in front moving easily and firmly without tripor stumble. It was marvellous--nor did the noise he made on therattling stones seem in any way to disturb her whom he followed.

  Now it grew light again in front. The white figure had reached thepoint where the rock walls widened out, and--had halted. The moon,immediately overhead now, darted down its light right into the chasm.Should he go forward and gently awaken her, if indeed she were notalready awake? Surely she must be, for now she turned slowly round andfaced him. He could see her great eyes, wide open and stamped with awondering look; then, as he was about to advance and address her, sheturned again and moved slowly onward.

  And then a sound struck upon Raynier's ears which caused every drop ofblood within him to freeze, and well it might, for well he knew thatsawing, grating cough drawing nearer. A panther was coming up the_tangi_. Heavens, and the girl was between it and him.

  Then the brute appeared--and with it a cub. Raynier knew with whatdeadly peril the situation was now fraught, for a revolver, save in thehand of a thorough expert, is an uncertain weapon, especially in anindifferent light. At sight of them the brute stopped, then crouched,uttering a hideous, purring snarl. In that second of time the scene wasphotographed upon his mind; the ghostly moonlight glinting down betweenthe great rock walls, the spotted, sinuous shape of the savage beast,every muscle quivering as it crouched there ready for its spring, itstail softly waving to and fro, and the white gliding figure advancingstraight upon it; straight upon destruction in the most horrible offorms. Yes, in a flash the whole scene was before him as, pointing thepistol past her, he steadied his nerves to take the best possible aim.

  But--what was this? Instead of edging forward preparatory to making itsfatal rush, as he had often seen a cat do when stealing upon a bird ormouse, the brute was stealthily backing. Was it fear of the strangesight that was actuating the beast? Was there indeed some latentmagnetic force about those wide open eyes? For the gliding white figureadvanced unwaveringly, and as it did so the crouching brute shrank backmore and more--now in unmistakable alarm. Then suddenly snatching upits cub in its mouth, it turned and bounded away beyond the elbow ofrock wall round which it had first appeared.

  Every nerve in the spectator's being thrilled to the revulsion producedby this sudden removal of the awful tension of those few moments. Atall risks he must awaken her and take her back to the camp. But as headvanced to do this, she halted again, turned round, passed a hand overher brow and face, looked upward at the great cliffs, then down again athim. Then she spoke,--

  "So we are here together again."

  That was all. Her tone was even, placid, and evinced no astonishmentwhatever, as though it were the most natural thing in the world to getup in the middle of the night, and take a moonlight stroll away over aparticularly wild, and, as the recent incident showed, somewhatdangerous country, or to wake to consciousness in the heart of a vastrock chasm of awe-inspiring and savage grandeur and enjoying an eeriereputation. To her listener this was well-nigh the most astounding partof the whole adventure. Was she conscious? was his first thought.

  Again she passed a hand over her brow, and her great eyes rested calmlyupon his face.

  "Now I remember," she said, in the same even tones. "Somethingthreatened me--there, just now," looking toward the spot where thepanther had crouched. "It was an animal--a panther. But--it went," sheadded, with a slight smile.

  "That it certainly did," rejoined Raynier, "and thank Heaven it did. Doyou know that that was about the tightest situation I have ever heard orread of--a panther with a cub--with a cub, mind, for in that lay nearlythe whole of the peril--coming along this narrow tube where there's nopossible means of getting out of its way--and you walking straight intoits jaws. And this, under the circumstances, is a precious unreliableweapon," showing the revolver he still held in his hand. "You or bothof us might have been horribly mauled before it even began to takeeffect."

  "So we might. But I had a better plan with it, don't you think so?Anyhow, the thing got in my way, and--it had to get out of it."

  The same cool tone, the same confident, but rather captivating smile.Two subjects of wonderment were at that moment crowding HerbertRaynier's mind to the exclusion of all others. What was there aboutthis girl--what magnetic compelling power had enabled her, by the sheer,unflinching fearlessness of her presence, to put to flight what, underthe circumstances--the narrowness of the place to wit, the suddenness ofthe encounter, and, above all, the cub--was one of the most dangerousand formidable of wild beasts? This was one. The other was, how onearth he co
uld ever have passed her by as being without attractiveness,and that not once, but day after day. Here, standing before him in themoonlight, looking tall in her loose white wrapper--for her strangeexcursion had not been so impromptu as he at first supposed--hersplendid hair flowing in masses over her shoulders, her great eyessmiling upon him with something of the compelling force which had givenher power over the brute, he decided that she was scarcely, if anything,short of beautiful. And then the somewhat uncommon circumstances ofthis interview came back upon him.

  "What made you come here?" he said, the lameness of the remark strikinghim even while he uttered the words.

  "The very question I was going to ask you."

  "Well, the answer to that should be obvious," he said. "I saw you startout, and thought you were walking in your sleep--and I need hardlyremind you that this is not an over-safe part of the world for that kindof exercise."

  "And you came to take care of me? That was very sweet of you."

  "If I had gone back to wake up Tarleton, you might have got to Heavenknows where by the time he was under way," went on Raynier, consciousthat her tone and manner had become insidiously alluring. Was he goingto drift into the common idiocy? he thought, with something of dismay."You might have altered your course and got right away from us. Then,when I did come up with you I didn't like to wake you, because I thoughtit might give you a shock of sorts."

  "But I was not asleep--at least, I don't think I was."

  Raynier stared.

  "Not asleep? But you won't mind my saying that that is--er--rather anunusual kind of walking attire."

  She laughed, glancing at her wrapper.

  "Isn't it? The fact is I hadn't gone to bed yet I was sitting readingin the tent, and some impulse moved me to come to this place again--Ican't explain it, but it was there. Yet, I must have been asleep attimes, when I walked. But I was half conscious, too, that you were nearto me."

  "Well, you did not seem surprised when you woke up, so to say, and foundI was."

  "No. And in a way it was a waking-up. I can't explain it--unless itwas a kind of sleeping consciousness."

  "What a strange girl you are, Miss Clive. Somehow I can't make you outat all."

  "No? And yet you wish you could. Am I right?"

  The smile she flashed at him was inexpressibly winning and sweet.Raynier recalled Haslam's dictum. Something uncanny about her, he hadsaid--something sort of creepy. Well, there might be from the point ofview of some, even of most. But what would have repelled most menappealed to him, and the proof of it was that he was conscious of noinclination to terminate this interview--rather the reverse. Still, ithad to be done.

  "We ought to return to the camp, I think," he said, in the sameunconcerned tone as though suggesting a return from an ordinary walk orride. And she acquiesced.

  "I want you to promise me something," Raynier said, rather earnestly,and perhaps a little tenderly, as they wended their way back over themoon-lit wildness of the plain, and the tents of the sleeping camp werequite near, "and that is not to repeat to-night's adventure. It'sanything but safe. And if the same impulse comes over you, you mustcombat it."

  "I'll almost promise that. Do you know, you are awfully unlike othermen. For instance, all this time you have scarcely given a singlethought to the awkwardness of this situation. Most men would have beenfidgety and thinking what everyone would say, and so on."

  He laughed.

  "Magician as you are, that is not difficult to divine," he said. "WhatI want to get at is, how do you know I have not?"

  "There's no magic in knowing that. It is almost like setting yourselfout to prove a negative. I can see--by the absence of all signs of it.Shall I tell you why that strange place has a fascination for me?Something warns me there will come a day when our knowledge of it willmake all the difference between life and death. There--the thought hasgone, nor can I pick up the thread of it. It has left me."

  That same movement of the hand as though clearing away an invisible mistfrom before her eyes. Upon her face, earnest and serious in themoonlight, there rested that same look which he had seen there when theywere discussing clairvoyance and things occult, during the evening, andhe felt just a little awed. Did she really possess the gift of seeinginto the future?

  "Good-night now, and get a good rest," he said in a low tone andsomewhat concernedly, as they regained the tents. And with a bright nodshe disappeared within hers.