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

  CHAPTER TEN.

  THE SYYED'S TANGI.

  "Are you superstitious, Miss Clive?"

  "Well, I don't know. Not more than other people, I suppose."

  "That is tantamount to an answer in the affirmative," rejoined Raynier."Believer in `luck.' Observances connected with the new moon--thefinding of a horse-shoe. Things of that kind."

  "Oh no, I'm not," she answered decidedly.

  "What? You would really upset the salt, and omit to throw some overyour shoulder--or walk under a ladder?"

  "As to that, I'd make sure there was no one on it with a paint-potfirst."

  "That's better. And you're not afraid of ghosts, eh?"

  "Well, I've never seen one," she answered, demurely mischievous. Andthen they both laughed.

  It was near sundown--also near the camp. They were returning from anafternoon ride, and the rest of the party, Haslam and the Tarletons towit, were some way on ahead. These two were alone together.

  This they had frequently been, since accident had thus thrown themtogether, and in that brief period of time Raynier had fallen towondering more and more what there was about Hilda Clive that already hehad begun to think how he would miss her later on, and how on earth theycould have been shut up together on board a ship all the time they had,and yet that he should hardly have taken any notice of her. Now intheir daily intercourse she was so companionable and tactful--and withalfeminine. She was really attractive too, he thought, not for the firsttime, as he looked at her and noticed how well she sat her horse. As anactual fact she really had improved in the point of appearance, and thatvastly; for the healthy outdoor life in that high climate had added acolour to her face which gave it just that amount of softness in whichit had seemed lacking before.

  "If you are absolutely sure you are free from superstition," went onRaynier, "I'd like to show you something that's worth seeing."

  "What is it?"

  "There's a real thrill of curiosity in that question," he laughed."It's a _tangi_--and a haunted one."

  "Oh, I must see it. Where is it, Mr Raynier?"

  "Close here. But before you venture you had better think over thepenalty. The belief is that whoever enters it meets his death in someshape or form before the end of the next moon."

  "That's creepy, at any rate. But is the idea borne out by fact?"

  "They say it is, without exception. You would not get any of the peoplehere to set foot in it on any consideration whatever."

  "Then none of them ever set foot in it?"

  "I should rather think not."

  "Then how do they know what would happen if they did?"

  "They know what _has_ happened--at least, they say so. This is theplace."

  They had been riding over a nearly level plain, sparsely grown withstunted vegetation, and shut in by hills, stony and desolate, breakingup here and there into a network of chasms. Under one of these and atthe further edge of the plain was pitched their camp, and from wherethey now halted they could distinguish the smoke of the fires risingstraight upward on the still air, could make out the glimmer of a whitetent or two. Right in front of them reared a mountain side, steep andlofty, rising in terraced slopes--and, cleaving this there yawned theentrance of a gigantic rift.

  "I'm not surprised they should weave all sorts of superstitions aboutsuch a place as this," said Hilda Clive, as she gazed up, withadmiration not unmixed with awe, at the sheer of the stupendous rockportals, so regular in their smooth immensity as almost to preclude thepossibility of being the work of Nature unaided.

  "Well, now, I've warned you what the penalty is," went on the other."Do you still want to go in?"

  "Why, you are so solemn over it, Mr Raynier, that anyone would think youbelieved in it yourself."

  "They could hardly think that, could they, seeing that I've been throughit already."

  "Been through it? Have you really? How long ago?"

  "From end to end. A couple of days after we came up here."

  "But did you know the tradition?"

  "Yes. Haslam told me. I questioned Mehrab Khan about it, and he is afirm believer in it. In fact, all the people are. That's the reason Isent him on to the camp now. I didn't want him to know what we weregoing to do, if only that there's nothing to be gained by jumping withboth feet upon other people's prejudices, especially natives'. Andthese might look upon it as a desecration."

  "Has Mr Haslam been through it himself?"

  Raynier whistled, then laughed.

  "Haslam! Why, he'd about as soon go into it as Mehrab Khan."

  "Really, Mr Raynier, I couldn't have believed you people out here wereso superstitious. You are as bad as the natives themselves. I supposeyou get it from them."

  "`You'? Count me out, please. Didn't I just say I'd been through theplace? I'm doomed anyhow, you see," he added banteringly, "but there'sno reason why you should be. So now we'll get back to camp."

  "No. I want to go through it too."

  "Quite sure you won't feel uncomfortable about it afterwards?" he said."You might, you know."

  But a strange expression had come over her face, the set, far-away lookof one whose thoughts were not with her words. In after times that lookcame back to him.

  "I want to go through it too," she repeated.

  "Very well, then--you've been warned."

  As they entered the grim portal the sun was just touching the horizon,but it occurred to neither of them that it might be pitch dark beforethey emerged. At first the slant of the rock walls caused one of theseto overhang, shutting out the sky, but the rift gradually widening, theycould see the brow of these stupendous cliffs, far above against the skyat a dizzy height. Unconsciously the tones of both were lowered as theyconversed.

  "It isn't healthy taking too long to get through a _tangi_ like thiswhen there are rain storms going about," Raynier was saying. "It makesa most effective waterway for ten, twenty, forty feet of flood. Ah, Ithought so. Look."

  High over their heads, caught here and there in a crevice of the rock,was a wisp of withered grass or a few sticks. There was no mistakinghow these objects had got there, and the awful magnitude of the floodwhich at times bellowed through this grisly rift.

  "Why is the place supposed to be haunted?" said Hilda Clive. "Youdidn't tell me."

  "The usual thing--a curse. There was a man killed here by the people ofthe neighbourhood--not an incident of very great moment in this country,you would think. But this one was a great character in the sanctityline of business--a Syyed or a Hadji, or something of the sort--and sohis ghost appeared and took it out of the neighbourhood, and indeed thehuman race in general, by planting a rigid embargo on the place. And itwas a pretty practical way of taking it out of them too, for they usedthis _tangi_ as a thoroughfare--it's scarcely a mile long, you know--whereas now they've got to go round the mountain instead of through it,which makes a difference of at least eight."

  "It's an eerie place, anyhow," said the girl, looking up a littleawe-stricken at the immensity of the cliff walls. The sun had gone offthe world now, and a tomb-like twilight prevailed here in the heart ofthe mountain. It was chilling enough to have begotten a whole volume ofgrim legends.

  "Wonder if the old Syyed's ghost is on hand now," said Raynier, who wascynically and frankly sceptical in such matters. "We'll give him thesalaam anyhow." Then, raising his voice but very slightly, heexclaimed,--

  "Salaam, Syyed!"

  What was this? The whole of the immense vault was roaring and bellowingwith sound. In waves it rolled, now running along the ground at theirfeet, now tossed on high as though escaping into outer air. "Salaam,salaam, salaam!" it replied in every conceivable tone and key, thenroared along the cliffs again as in a peal of thunder, the wholeaccompanied by a mighty rattling. The noise was simply appalling.

  Raynier, the sceptical, was more than startled. Not to put too line apoint on it, he was just a little bit scared, though no manifestation ofit escaped him. The horse
s of both, too, were backing and snorting,evincing a degree of terror not at all calculated to soothe the nervesof their riders. The suddenness of it all, the booming of the spectralvoices here in the grisly depths, was rather startling.

  He looked at his companion somewhat apprehensively, expecting to see herpale and shaking, perhaps hysterical. To his surprise she was laughing.His first thought even then was that this was a form of hysteria.

  "Don't you see?" she said.

  "Don't you see? Don't you see?" boomed the vault around. "Don't yousee? Don't you see?" shrieked and wailed the heights above. And thenRaynier felt secretly more than a little ashamed of himself--for he didsee.

  As they were talking they had rounded a sudden bend in the defile, andthe salute he had jocosely directed to the dead Syyed--if such a personhad ever existed in fact--had been caught up by a most astounding echo,which, for no apparent reason, was given forth precisely at that spot.Still, it was not a little curious that they should have entered withinits scope simultaneously with the utterance of the half-mocking words,which, mingling with the rattle of the horses' hoofs upon the loosestones of the _tangi_, had produced the horrible din.

  Now it was she who said in a whisper,--

  "We had better not talk out loud or these horses will go quite mad. Itis all I can do to stay on mine as it is."

  In fact the animals were in the wildest stage of snorting, tremblingfear, and could hardly be persuaded to proceed at all. Their shying andplunging created a rattle which the echo reproduced and magnified asbefore. At length they quieted down.

  "We may be through the sphere of the echo," said Raynier, tentativelyraising his voice a little. And the result showed that they were.

  "How is it the same thing did not happen when you came through herebefore?" said Hilda Clive, as soon as it became safe to converse again.

  "Easily explained. I left my horse at the entrance and walked. Ialways wear very silent boots, and I had nobody to talk to. Look, weare through now, but we sha'n't have much time to admire the view on theother side because it's rather late, and we ought to get back to camp."

  A tower of light now rose in front of them, light only in comparison tothe gloom of the _tangi_. It was the exit at the other end, similar inevery particular to the entrance.

  They stood looking out over a wild wide valley shut in by the sameeternal hills. From far beneath among the gloomy rifts and sparsevegetation arose the long-drawn howl of a wolf.

  "What a wilderness!" exclaimed the girl. "Do you know, it's splendid.I'm so glad I came."

  She had turned her eyes full upon his face. What wonderful eyes theywere, he thought--and they were fascinating too. How on earth had hebeen so long in making the discovery? He thought, too, how she had beenthe one whose nerves had remained entirely unshaken during that verystartling surprise--how she it was--not he--who had at once seen throughits perfectly natural solution, and he felt small accordingly. But hisadmiration for her had strangely increased.

  They turned to retrace their way, hardly able to make it out in thegloom. They had been descending all the time, and now it took a littlelonger, for the floor of the _tangi_ was stony and rough.

  "I'm not surprised they have set up a ghost here," said Raynier, whenthey had passed the echo point. "That is one of the most extraordinaryeffects I have ever experienced."

  "Is it not?" she answered quietly. "Don't look up just yet--it hasdisappeared--but there was the head of someone watching us just over theledge a little above you on the right. There. Now look."

  Raynier could hardly repress a start, as his hand went instinctively tohis pistol pocket nor did he feel any the easier because, by someinadvertence, it was empty. Then he looked up.

  Right over the way they were to pass was a small ledge, apparentlyinaccessible to mortal foot, or incapable of sustaining a single humanbeing could such attain to it. Yet, there was the head again--huge,shaggy, menacing--staring down upon them in the gloom. Then it againdisappeared.