Dennis Wheatley - The Rape Of Venice

Suddenly he looked up, and went on, with a menacing scowl. 'But he shall not enjoy his triumph for long. I'll see to that. Did he love her there might be some justification for his act. But I'll vow that's not the case. I know the man. He'll treat her no better than a light-​o'-love, and has pursued this scheme mainly to have the laugh of me. He'll laugh no more, though, when I confront him. By wrecking Clarissa's happiness and mine, he has signed his own death warrant.'

'You imply that you intend to go in pursuit of them,' Hickey said. 'If so you'll need an escort. To my regret my age, and the accursed attacks which sometimes suddenly prostrate me as a result of the stone, debar me from riding with you; but I’ll have one of my people enrol a troop of good fighting men and a guide who is conversant with the road to Bahna.'

'Thanks, Will, for your offer,' Roger smiled bleakly. 'Of course, I mean to hunt them down. But it is now Tuesday morning, and they left on Friday night. From their having a palanquin apiece and relief teams of bearers, it's clear that they mean to travel fast; it is as good as certain they will be back in Bahna before I can catch up with them. Nothing would have pleased me better than the chance to attack them on the road; but it would be suicide for me to attempt to pluck Clarissa from Gunston with only a dozen or so men against his regiment. I must rely on calling him personally to account; and at least he is no coward. Besides, did he refuse my challenge, he would be shamed before Clarissa. He must fight or lose her. So all I'll need is a guide and a couple of good men with led horses.'

As soon as they had finished breakfast, Hickey went off to make the arrangements, and knowing Roger's impatience to set out he made certain that his orders should be executed without the lethargic delays so usual in the East. By ten o'clock a reliable guide named Tej Mewar was at the door with two well-​armed companions, and led horses on which were packed a tent, stores, and other equipment which might be needed on the journey. Roger, meanwhile, had ridden out to his house to change into travelling clothes and collect a small portmanteau with his belongings. At a quarter past, Hickey wished him good luck, and he rode away wretchedly miserable but fully confident in his ability to bring Gunston to book before the week was out.

The little cavalcade first crossed the river to Howrah, then took the road south-​west to Ulubaria, as that was the direct route to Bahna; but Roger did not halt to make enquiries there, as the party he was pursuing had passed through Andul, so would not have struck the main road to Bahna until considerably further west.

Ten miles farther on, at the town of Bagnan, he did get Tej Mewar to enquire, while his party rested their horses for an hour and had a meal, but none of the inn people had seen the palanquins. As they would have passed through after dark, that was not surprising, and the same applied at Panskura which they reached late in the evening. By then they had covered forty miles; so although he would have liked to push on, he knew that he would regret it later if he did not give the horses a good night's rest. The town caravanserai would, he felt sure, be riddled by bugs; so he put up his men and stabled the horses there, but had the tent erected for himself in the garden, and spent another miserable night,

Next morning they were off soon after dawn and reached Debra by eight o'clock. There again, no one could be found who had seen the palanquins, and Roger began to fear that he was on the wrong track; for it was quite possible that, as Gunston's regiment was not on active service, he had not returned to Bahna, but had taken Clarissa to some other place up country in a totally different direction. But by half-​past ten they reached the considerable town of Midnapore and, to his great relief, learned at the principal inn that Gunston's party had had a meal there on Sunday evening.

Knowing the pace at which a double team of bearers, each eight strong, could travel with a palanquin, and the staying powers of such specially-​trained natives, Roger was not surprised that they had got so far in some forty-​eight hours; and it confirmed his belief that Gunston would reach Bahna at least a day ahead of him, as both parties would have to stop now and then for a few hours' sleep. Nevertheless, to reduce the time of agonised waiting until he could confront Gunston, he pressed on hard all day, halting only at Jhargram and Chakulia to rest the horses and snatch meals.

At both places they picked up news of Gunston, and again at Raghunathpur, where his party had arrived late on Monday night. Roger reached the latter township on Wednesday evening, but after their arduous day both his men and horses were done up; so, as he had to halt there for the night, when he set off again at dawn on Thursday Gunston was still two days ahead of him.

From Raghunathpur they took a road that led south and in a few miles came to the village of Kokpada, which lay on the east bank of the broad Subarnarekha. Its waters were not yet in flood, so there was no difficulty about their being ferried across it; but on the far side of the river they entered very different country.

Ever since leaving Calcutta they had been riding across the western part of the great plain of Bengal, with its fertile soil and teeming population. The roads had been dusty but only slightly undulating and, for the most part, straight. As long as daylight lasted, they had never been out of sight of a hamlet or group of rickety farm buildings; while the ryots working in the fields, naked but for a loin-​cloth and turban, women with water-​jars or bundles on their heads, shouting children and strangely humped oxen, which they had passed, could be numbered by the thousands. But at the river, the plain ended.

Beyond it there were low foothills, then more rugged country with stony crags and precipitous gorges. Only patches here and there on the less steep hill-​sides were cultivated, few bullock-​wagons were to be met with on the sharply curving roads, and a solitary goatherd was usually the only figure to be seen in this much harsher landscape.

By midday they reached Paruli and by evening Bahalda, having covered little more than half the distance that they had on the previous day. At neither place could they find anyone who had seen Gunston's party go through, which disquieted Roger somewhat; but Tej Mewar assured him that they were taking the quickest road to Banna and should reach the city by the following night.

On the Friday they came down through the mountains to Boalda, and Roger's fears that Gunston might have taken some other direction were stilled by learning that his party had breakfasted there the day before; so they had doubtless arrived in the city of Bahna the previous evening. Soon after leaving Boalda, Roger and his three companions crossed another river, the Kharkai. By mid-​morning they were on its far side up in another range of mountains and making their way through a pass that led into the little state of Bahna. Late in the afternoon they came to a forked gorge with a small stream running through it, and dismounted to water their horses. It was there that swift and unexpected disaster fell upon them.

From somewhere up in the crags a single long-​drawn note sounded on a horn. Instantly it was followed by the thunder of horses' hooves, wild shouting, and confused echoes from the surrounding rocky defiles. Down both forks of the gorge ahead, and from behind as well, groups of white-​clad, turbaned horsemen converged upon Roger's little party.

They had no time to mount; hardly time to draw their weapons. Before they could even get back to back, the three troops of native warriors had met and formed a swirling cloud about them so dense that it shut out the sight of the hills and gorges. Close beside Roger one of his men went down with a shriek, pierced through the chest with a lance that, from the force of the thrust, protruded nearly a foot behind his back. Of the others Roger temporarily lost sight while striving to defend himself. He shot at one warrior with a pistol he had snatched from his holster, and had the brief satisfaction of seeing him roll from his saddle. Throwing the empty pistol in the face of another he whipped out his sword. As he lunged upward with it. the weapon was nearly struck from his hand by the fierce sweep of a weighty scimitar. At the same instant, a hand from behind seized him by the hair. With a violent jerk of his head, he freed himself, ducked under his horse's belly and came up the other side. As he did so he nearly tripped over Tej Mewar's body. He caught a glimpse of the guide's head; it was almost unrecognisable, having been cloven in two halves from crown to chin. Again Roger lunged with his sword at the nearest of the yelling mob of dark faced horsemen, but again his slender blade was beaten down. Next moment he received a blow on the back of his head that sent him reeling. He fell to his knees. Before he could get back on his feet, two natives had flung themselves off their horses and seized him from behind. His wrist was twisted until he was forced to let go his sword and his arms were swiftly bound behind his back.