The Devil's Cocktail (22 page)

Miles nodded.

‘I thought I noticed it on Shannon's glass, when you first handed them round,' he said carelessly.

‘Perhaps it was,' said Hugh. ‘I suppose Rahtz picked up mine instead of his own – they were close together!'

‘Give it to me!' almost screamed the Russian.

He took one glance at it, and put it down on the table with a groan of agony.

‘My God!' he gasped. ‘Oh, my God!'

He looked wildly from one to the other, then starting to his feet he staggered from the room. Hugh had gone white at this manifestation of Miles' suspicions, but the latter only smiled calmly as he looked across at his colleague.

‘I guess there's some subtle poison in that glass that isn't going to work for a while,' he said. ‘Our friend has gone to try an antidote!'

He took a self-filling fountain pen from his pocket and crossing
to a large aspidistra that stood near the window, he emptied out the ink, cleansed it from a sarai of water that stood outside on the veranda and, returning to the table, refilled the pen from the cocktail which had caused Rahtz to behave in such an extraordinary manner.

‘I'll take this right along and have it analysed,' he said.

For five minutes they waited for the Russian's return, then a bearer entered.

‘
Sahib salaam do
!' he said. ‘Too seeck, not coming, very sorry!'

‘By which I guess you mean that he sends his salaams and asks us to excuse him because he's sick?' said Miles.

The man nodded.

‘Very well,' went on the American. ‘Tell him we are very sorry he is ill, and hope he'll soon be better!'

The bearer bowed and departed, and Miles picked up his topee.

‘Come along, Hugh!' he said.

They crossed over to the college courtyard, where they had left the car. As they were about to get in, Hugh held out his hand.

‘I owe my life to you,' he remarked.

‘Shucks!' said the American. ‘Get in, and don't be such a darn fool!'

‘What made you suspect that Rahtz would put poison in my glass?' Shannon asked on the way back.

‘I didn't like his anxiety to get us to have a drink,' was the reply. ‘But I only told you to change the glasses as a precautionary measure. Naturally the telephone message was a fake.' He laughed. ‘I guess Holden, whom I rang up, was a mighty surprised man!'

‘But what about your cocktail? Perhaps that was poisoned also!'

Miles shook his head.

‘No,' he said. ‘He wouldn't want to get innocent me out of the way. Still I didn't drink it, to make sure.'

‘He must have been jolly desperate to do such a risky thing,' said Hugh reflectively.

‘I reckon the poison, whatever it is, wouldn't have worked for hours, so that he couldn't be suspected. I'm mighty curious to find out exactly what he did put in that cocktail. He got the fright of his life, when he discovered that he had drunk some of it. I wish I had let him drink the lot, but I wanted to see if there was anything in my suspicion.' He chuckled, and added, ‘There sure was!'

‘Of course he'll know now that we are aware of his connection with Kamper and company,' said Hugh. ‘He's hardly likely to be such a fool as to think that the changing of the drinks was a sheer accident.'

‘I guess not,' said Miles. ‘And he'll know I'm interested in the game, too; still it can't be helped.'

‘Perhaps he'll die!'

Miles shook his head.

‘He'll get mighty busy with antidotes right away, and prevent that,' he said. ‘All the same I hope he has a bad time before he recovers – the devil!'

‘Well what impression did you from of the College?' asked Hugh, after a pause. ‘Where do you think the meeting will be held?'

‘In the room on the first floor just over the laboratory,' replied Miles promptly, ‘where Rahtz told us board meetings are held.'

‘I agree with you. It's an ideal place for the purpose. There's only a narrow corridor leading to it, which can be guarded easily, and it is absolutely isolated. I thought as soon as I saw it, that they couldn't have found a better place in Lahore. And did you notice that under the roof of the passage there is a row of beams quite close together?'

‘Sure!'

‘Well if we could only manage to get on them somehow, we could
look right into the room and hear what is said, for there is a fanlight over the door.'

‘That's a great idea,' nodded Miles. ‘Let us hope that they will meet there!'

A few minutes later they reached the bungalow, and found Joan awaiting them on the veranda. They had decided to say nothing to her of Hugh's narrow escape, therefore they greeted her with cheerful smiles as she ran down the drive to meet them.

‘I'm so glad you've come,' she said. ‘I've been feeling so anxious – I don't know why. Silly of me, wasn't it?'

‘We've been having a dandy time,' said Miles. ‘What you might call a cocktail time!'

A few mornings after Hugh's narrow escape, he came in to breakfast looking particularly thoughtful. Miles was already half way through his meal and he also looked grave, but it was from a different cause.

‘Look here!' began the former. ‘I've been thinking that it wouldn't be a bad idea to call on Hudson, and accuse him of being behind Miss Gregson in that affair. What do you think?'

‘No harm in it as far as I can see,' replied Miles. ‘You had a row with him on boardship and afterwards saw him with Olive, which is quite good enough reason for you to suspect him. But what's the big idea?'

‘Well, I thought that perhaps I might frighten him into making some disclosure!'

‘What disclosure can he make?'

‘I'd like to find out what connection he has with Novar and Rahtz.'

‘I don't think you'll get anything out of him about that. Why, man, it would be tantamount to imprisoning himself for life, and I don't think anything you can say to him will so frighten him as to make him give himself away to that extent.'

‘Still I think I'll have a talk with him!'

‘Sure! Have you heard the latest?'

‘What?'

‘Rahtz is seriously ill, but is expected to recover. A rather complicated attack of enteric is suspected, but he seems to have got over the worst!'

He handed Hugh a newspaper.

‘Yesterday's,' he said ‘but it is a small paragraph tucked away in a corner and none of us noticed it.'

Hugh read the few lines and handed the paper back.

‘Enteric!' he exclaimed. ‘How on earth—'

Miles smiled a trifle grimly.

‘I guess he dosed himself so much that when the doctors examined him they mistook his condition for enteric,' he said. ‘As a matter of fact it is, or rather was, cholera!'

‘Good Lord! How do you know?'

‘Read that! I received it by this morning's post!'

Hugh took the letter the American held out to him. It was from a well-known medical man in Lahore.

‘“Dear Miles”' – he read,

Hugh handed the letter back, and his face had paled.

‘The fiend!' he said. ‘The utter fiend!'

‘Well, he's been hoist with his own petard,' said Miles. ‘I'm beginning to think that it's time we came out into the open a bit,' he went on. ‘He is bound to suspect now that you know more about him than he thought, and I've no doubt he has even formed certain suspicions of me. Therefore, if you were considered dangerous enough to be exterminated before, you – and I, too, in all probability – will be in continual danger henceforth. Anyhow, there can't be any harm in our calling on him, and asking what he meant by attempting to give you cholera.'

‘Right!' agreed Hugh. ‘As soon as he is well enough to see us, we'll go and interview him. In the meantime I'll have the chat I promised myself with Hudson.'

‘And I guess Jerry had better confine his attentions to Novar; what do you say?'

Hugh nodded, and just then Joan made her appearance.

House examinations commenced in the College that day, and Hugh found his morning engaged in superintending the students, while they tussled with questions which most of them could not answer. Those who could, wrote page after page on each question, and when he came to examine his papers later on, he almost went crazy with the awful repetition with which he had to contend. It was a very boring business watching them write, relieved occasionally by his catching some of them attempting to use unfair means. These he sent marching, followed by reports to the Principal anent their misdeeds. At last one o'clock came and he watched the papers being collected with a sigh of relief. Before he could leave the College, however, he was met by three of the wrongdoers who, with hands joined in supplication, entreated him to spare them the shame of
being reported for cheating, and promising to pray for his long life and happiness if he were merciful to them.

‘My report has already gone to the Principal,' he said curtly. ‘You had better go and say your prayers to him.'

Other students of his own class surrounded him, and asked him quite openly to be kind to them, when he examined their papers. They mentioned their roll numbers in the fond belief that he would remember them, and give them extra marks. A few, indeed, even wrote their numbers down on scraps of paper, and tried to get him to accept them, while one actually announced how many marks he desired. Altogether Hugh was nauseated by their unprincipled behaviour, and his reply, in every case, was short, sharp, and very much to the point, while he threatened to give no marks at all to those who had badgered him.

He left the College that morning with a new insight into the character of the Indian student, and he was doomed to get an even greater understanding of it. During the days on which he was engaged in examining the papers, his bungalow was besieged by students requesting to see him on some plea or other, and they brought baskets of fruit and various other gifts with them. Always before they left, they asked for a concession in his marking of their particular papers. Some fellows brought relations to plead for them, and, in one or two cases, even attempted to bribe him in some subtle manner. To all his reply was more forcible than polite and entirely decisive, and during that examination time he lost a great deal of the popularity which had enshrouded him before. He became so thoroughly disgusted, that he longed to be relieved of his duties at the College, and confided to Joan and his companions that he could not understand how English professors lasted for so long in a country of such corrupt ideas, and, in fact, appeared to be quite happy in
their work. Joan and Miles merely laughed at his disgust. Cousins found appropriate quotations with which to soothe him, but they quite failed to have any effect.

It was in no very good humour, therefore, that he sat down to tiffin, on the first day of the examination, and as he had decided to call on Hudson that very afternoon, Miles remarked that the signs boded ill for the civil servant. However, Shannon was a very good-tempered fellow really, and after he had eaten heartily and been in the company of Joan and Miles for some time, he began to recover his spirits and with them, see the humorous side of Indian College life.

He had decided to call on Hudson at his office. At half past two, therefore, he drove his speedy little car down to the Secretariat and made his way to a door over which a printed inscription informed him that the great man sat within. He knocked and a voice bade him enter.

Inside sat Hudson, a cigar in his mouth, looking anything but busy. As soon as he recognised his visitor, however, he started with surprise, and his face changed colour.

‘Good afternoon!' said Hugh calmly, and without waiting to be invited, seated himself in a chair on the side of the large flat desk directly opposite to the other.

‘To – to what am I indebted for – for this visit? stammered Hudson.

‘A burning desire to have a few words with you,' replied Hugh.

The shining light of the Indian Civil Service pulled himself together and looked haughtily at his visitor.

‘I can only see people here,' he said, ‘who have business with my department, and I presume yours is not!'

‘Not exactly!' admitted Hugh.

‘Then perhaps you will be good enough to call at my bungalow,
if you desire to talk to me on a personal matter. I am a busy man!'

‘You look it!'

‘Whether I look it or not has nothing to do with the matter. Will you be good enough to go?'

‘No,' said Hugh; ‘I have come to talk to you here, and I am going to talk here.'

Hudson rose indignantly.

‘Look here, Professor Shannon—' he began.

‘Sit down, Hudson, and be sensible!' interrupted Hugh. ‘It's not the slightest bit of use your taking that tone. How's your friend Rahtz, by the way? I was sorry to hear that he is so ill – Enteric, isn't it?'

Hudson sank into a chair, his face pale, his eyes searching his visitor's face affrightedly.

‘What – what do you mean?' he asked.

Hugh looked at him in pretended surprise.

‘That's rather an extraordinary question, isn't it?' he inquired. ‘What explanation can a simple question like that require? I saw in the paper that Rahtz was ill – in fact, Miles and I were with him when he was first taken ill – and knowing you to be a friend of his, I naturally inquired after his health.'

‘I'm no more a friend of Rahtz's than you are – in fact, I don't like the man very much!'

‘Don't you?' said Hugh pleasantly. ‘I thought you and he were great pals.'

‘Not a bit,' said Hudson eagerly. ‘I suppose Miles put that into your head, because he saw us together in Bombay. But I met Rahtz and – and—'

‘Novar!' supplied Hugh.

‘Novar – quite by accident, and naturally, they being from the same district as myself, you understand, we spent some time together.'

‘I see! But why this long explanation? It is immaterial to me whether you are friendly with Rahtz or not. I merely asked you how he is?'

‘Quite! Quite! But I'm afraid I can't tell you. I only knew he was ill through seeing it in the paper, just as you did.'

‘H'm!' grunted Hugh. ‘Beastly thing enteric, as bad as smallpox and – cholera!'

‘Cholera!' gasped Hudson, and his face became positively ghastly. ‘What do you know about cholera?'

‘Nothing much,' said Shannon calmly, ‘except that it is a pretty rotten disease. The very mention of it seems to upset you!'

‘I – I've had it once, that's why!'

‘Oh!'

Hudson slowly recovered himself, and the colour began to come back to his face.

‘Do you mean to say,' he asked querulously, ‘that you actually called here to ask me about Rahtz's condition?'

‘No.' Hugh leant forward. ‘I came to ask you why you persuaded Miss Gregson to do the dastardly thing she did?'

‘I?' almost screamed Hudson. ‘How dare you suggest such a thing?'

‘Now don't get excited!' said Hugh. ‘I am not suggesting it. I am quite well aware that you arranged it. I want to know why!'

‘I did not arrange it – I knew nothing about it!'

Hugh shook his head reproachfully.

‘You're lying, Hudson!' he said. ‘I know it, and you know it.'

The other began to bluster.

‘You're insulting, damnably insulting, sir. You'll hear more of this,' he croaked.

‘That's why I've called,' said Hugh patiently. ‘I'm waiting to hear more!'

‘Leave my office at once!'

‘If I leave your office without your admission, I'll tell the Committee of the Club the whole truth of the matter, and let you taste a little of the medicine you administered to me. Further, I will also inform the Governor, who, it appears, heard of the incident at the Club.'

‘Don't be such a fool, Shannon!' said Hudson, and he no longer blustered. ‘It's untrue, I tell you absolutely untrue! Who has been maligning me to you?'

‘Nobody! I have the facts in my possession.'

‘You think that because of what occurred on board ship, I was trying to have my revenge. But you're mistaken, hopelessly mistaken. I would not think of doing such a thing!'

‘Oh, look here!' said Hugh in disgust. ‘Why the devil don't you act the man for once in your rotten life, and tell the truth!'

‘I am telling the truth! I assure you I am!'

Shannon rose to his feet.

‘Very well!' he said. ‘I'll carry out my threat. You worm,' he went on, ‘you haven't one spark of manliness in you, and I'll regret to my dying day that I didn't throw you overboard when you so grossly insulted my sister. You're riding for a fall, my man, and it is going to be a pretty desperate one when it comes. And to think that a fellow like you is supposed to uphold Great Britain's prestige out here! Why you're not fit to associate with the lowest coolie!'

He walked to the door and was about to step outside, when:

‘Stop!' cried Hudson in accents of utter misery. And truly he looked a wretched object.

‘Well?' said Hugh coldly.

‘Please sit down!'

Shannon returned to his seat.

‘I'm going to make a confession to you, Shannon,' went on the broken man before him.

Hugh's heart missed a beat. Was he going to find out what tie bound Hudson to Novar and Rahtz!

‘Go on!' he said.

‘I suppose it is no use denying any longer that I did help to persuade Olive Gregson to – to do what she did. I suppose she told you that?'

‘No; she did not!'

‘Well, she told Miles then?'

‘Nor Miles!'

‘Then how did you know?'

‘That is my business, and I am not prepared to discuss it with you. Is that the extent of your confession?'

‘Will you promise not to report me to – to the Governor, nor to any one else?'

‘I'll promise not to speak of your connection with the happening in the Club, if that's what you mean?'

Hudson nodded slowly.

‘I arranged with Miss Gregson to come to Lahore,' he said, ‘and thereby try to ruin you, but there were others besides myself!'

‘Ah!' ejaculated Hugh. ‘Who were they?'

‘I cannot tell you,' said Hudson in a tone of abject misery. ‘If I did, my life would not be worth a moment's purchase. And if they didn't kill me, they would ruin me.'

Hugh stared at him.

‘You're being rather theatrical, Hudson,' he said sternly. ‘This is the twentieth century, and you're apparently trying to transport me back a hundred years or so.'