Fire Tongue
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Sax Rohmer >> Fire Tongue
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"I have the reputation of being a cold, hard man. So had Antony
before he met Cleopatra. But seven years ago, under the Indian
moon, I learned tolerance for the human weakness which forgets
the world for the smiles of a woman.
"It had to end. Sooner or later, discovery was inevitable. One
night I told Naida that I must go. Over the scene that followed I
will pass in silence. It needed all the strength of a fairly
straight, hard life to help me keep to my decision.
"She understood at last, and consented to release me. But there
were obstacles--big ones. The snow on the lower mountain slopes
had begun to melt, and the water-gate in the valley by which I
had entered was now impassable. As a result, I must use another
gate, which opened into a mountain path, but which was always
guarded. At first, on hearing this, I gave myself up for lost,
but Naida had a plan.
"Removing a bangle which she always wore, she showed me the
secret mark of Fire-Tongue branded upon the creamy skin.
"'I will put this mark upon your arm,' she said. 'In no other way
can you escape. I will teach you some of the passwords by which
the brethren know one another, and if you are ever questioned you
will say that you were admitted to the order by the Master of the
Bombay Lodge, news of whose death has just reached us.'
"'But,' said I, 'how can I hope to pass for an Oriental?'
"'It does not matter,' Naida replied. 'There are some who are not
Orientals among us!'
"Gentlemen, those words staggered me, opening up a possibility
which had seemed only shadowy before. But Naida, who had
tremendous strength of character, definitely refused to discuss
this aspect of the matter, merely assuring me that it was so.
"'Those who have successfully passed the ordeal of fire,' she
said, 'are put under a vow of silence for one month, and from
moon to moon must speak to no living creature. Therefore, once
you bear the mark of the Fiery Tongue, you may safely pass the
gate, except that there are certain signs which it is necessary
you should know. Afterward, if you should ever be in danger of
discovery anywhere in the East, you will remember the passwords,
which I shall teach you.'
"So I was branded with the mark of Fire-Tongue, and I spent my
last night with Naida learning from her lips the words by which
members of this order were enabled to recognize one another. In
vain I entreated Naida to accompany me. She would allow herself
to love and be loved; but the vows of this singular priesthood
were to her inviolable.
"She exacted an oath from me that I would never divulge anything
which I had seen or heard in the City of Fire. She urged that I
must leave India as quickly as possible. I had already learned
that this remote society was closely in touch with the affairs of
the outside world. And, because I knew I was leaving my heart
behind there in the Indian hills, I recognized that this dreadful
parting must be final.
"Therefore I scarcely heeded her when she assured me that, should
I ever be in danger because of what had happened, a message in
the Times of India would reach her. I never intended to insert
such a message, gentlemen. I knew that it would need all my
strength to close this door which I had opened.
"I will spare you and myself the details of our parting. I passed
out from the City of Fire in the darkest hour of the night,
through a long winding tunnel, half a mile in length. I had
protested to Naida that the secret mark might be painted upon my
arm and not branded, but she had assured me that the latter was a
necessity, and this now became evident; for, not only three times
was it subjected to scrutiny, but by the last of the guards,
posted near the outer end of the tunnel, it was tested with some
kind of solution.
"Silence and the salutation with the moistened finger tips,
together with the brand upon my arm, won me freedom from the
abode of Fire-Tongue.
"From a village situated upon one of the tributaries of the
Ganges I readily obtained a guide, to whom such silent,
yellow-robed figures as mine were evidently not unfamiliar; and,
crossing the east of Nepal, I entered Bengal, bearing a strange
secret. I found myself in an empty world--a world which had
nothing to offer me. For every step south took me farther from
all that made life worth living."
CHAPTER XXXIV. NICOL BRINN'S STORY (CONCLUDED)
"The incidents of the next seven years do not concern you,
gentlemen. I had one aim in life--to forget. I earned an
unenviable reputation for foolhardy enterprises. Until this very
hour, no man has known why I did the things that I did do. From
the time that I left India until the moment when fate literally
threw me in the way of the late Sir Charles Abingdon, I had heard
nothing of the cult of Fire-Tongue; and in spite of Naida's
assurance that its membership was not confined to Orientals, I
had long ago supposed it to be a manifestation of local
fanaticism, having no political or international significance.
"Then, lunching with the late Sir Charles after my accident in
the Haymarket, he put to me a question which literally made me
hold my breath.
"'Do you know anything of the significance of the term
Fire-Tongue?' he asked.
"I am not accustomed to any display of feeling in public, and I
replied in what I think was an ordinary tone:
"'In what connection, Sir Charles?'
"'Well,' said he, watching me oddly, 'I know you have travelled
in India, and I wondered if you had ever come in contact with the
legend which prevails there, that a second Zoroaster has arisen,
to preach the doctrine of eternal fire.'
"'I have heard it,' I replied, guardedly.
"'I thought it possible,' continued Sir Charles, 'and I am
tempted to tell you of a curious experience which once befell me
during the time that I was a guest of my late friend Colonel
Banfield in Delhi. My reputation as an osteologist was not at
that time so fully established as it later became, but I already
had some reputation in this branch of surgery; and one evening a
very dignified Hindu gentleman sought an interview with me,
saying that a distinguished native noble, who was a guest of his,
had met with a serious accident, and offering me a fee equivalent
to nearly five hundred pounds to perform an operation which he
believed to be necessary.
"'I assured him that my services were at his disposal, and
blankly declined to accept so large a fee. He thereupon explained
that the circumstances were peculiar. His friend belonged to a
religious cult of an extremely high order. He would lose caste if
it became known that he had been attended by a Christian surgeon;
therefore my visit must be a secret one.
"'It made no difference,' I replied. 'I quite understood; and he
might rely upon my discretion.
"'Accordingly I was driven in a car which was waiting to some
house upon the outskirts of the city and conducted to a room
where the patient had been carried. I saw him to be a singularly
handsome young man, apparently about twenty-three years of age.
His features were flawless, and he possessed light ivory skin and
wavy jet-black hair. His eyes, which were very dark and
almond-shaped, had a strange and arresting beauty. But there was
something effeminate about him which repelled me, I cannot say in
what way; nor did I approve of the presence of many bowls of
hyacinths in the room.
"'However, I performed the operation, which, although slight,
demanded some skill, and with the nature of which I will not
trouble you. Intense anxiety was manifested by the young man's
attendants, and one of these, a strikingly beautiful woman,
insisted on remaining while the operation was performed.
"'She seemed more especially to concern herself with preserving
intact a lock of the young man's jet-black hair, which was
brushed in rather an odd manner across his ivory forehead.
Naturally enough, this circumstance excited my curiosity and,
distracting the woman's attention for a moment--I asked her to
bring me something from a table at the opposite side of the
room--I lightly raised this wayward lock and immediately replaced
it again.
"'Do you know what it concealed, Mr. Brinn?'
"I assured him that I did not.
"'A mark, apparently natural, resembling a torch surmounted by a
tongue of fire!'
"I was amazed, gentlemen, by Sir Charles's story. He was given
his fee and driven back to his quarters. But that he had succeeded
where I had failed, that he had actually looked upon Fire-Tongue
in person, I could not doubt. I learned from this, too, that the
Prophet of Fire did not always remain in his mountain stronghold,
for Delhi is a long way from the Secret City.
"Strange though it must appear, at this time I failed to account
for Sir Charles confiding this thing to me. Later, I realized
that he must have seen the mark on my arm, although he never
referred to it.
"Well, the past leapt out at me, as you see, and worse was to
come. The death of Sir Charles Abingdon told me what I hated to
know: that Fire-Tongue was in England!
"I moved at once. I inserted in the Times the prearranged
message, hardly daring to hope that it would come to the eye of
Naida; but it did! She visited me. And I learned that not only
Sir Charles Abingdon, but another, knew of the mark which I bore!
"I was summoned to appear before the Prophet of fire!
"Gentlemen, what I saw and how I succeeded in finding out the
location of his abode are matters that can wait. The important
things are these: first, I learned why Sir Charles Abingdon had
been done to death!
"The unwelcome attentions of the man known as Ormuz Khan led Sir
Charles to seek an interview with him. I may say here and now
that Ormuz Khan is Fire-Tongue! Oh! it's a tough statement--but I
can prove it. Sir Charles practically forced his way into this
man's presence--and immediately recognized his mysterious patient
of years ago!
"He accused him of having set spies upon his daughter's
movements--an accusation which was true--and forbade him to see
her again. From that hour the fate of Sir Charles was sealed.
What he knew, the world must never know. He had recorded, in a
private paper, all that he had learned. This paper was stolen
from his bureau--and its contents led to my being summoned to the
house of Fire-Tongue! It also spurred the organization to renewed
efforts, for it revealed the fact that Sir Charles contemplated
confiding the story to others.
"What were the intentions of the man Ormuz in regard to Miss
Abingdon, I don't know. His entourage all left England some days
ago--with three exceptions. I believe him to have been capable of
almost anything. He was desperate. He knew that Ormuz Khan must
finally and definitely disappear. It is just possible that he
meant Miss Abingdon to disappear along with him!
"However, that danger is past. Mrs. McMurdoch, who to-day
accompanied her to his house, was drugged by these past-masters
in the use of poisons, and left unconscious in a cottage a few
miles from Hillside, the abode of Ormuz.
"You will have observed, gentlemen, that I am somewhat damaged.
However, it was worth it! That the organization of the
Fire-Worshippers is destroyed I am not prepared to assert. But I
made a discovery to-day which untied my hands. Hearing, I shall
never know how, that Naida had had a secret interview with me,
Fire-Tongue visited upon her the penalty paid seven years ago by
my informant in Nagpur, by Sir Charles Abingdon, recently, by God
alone knows how many scores--hundreds--in the history of this
damnable group.
"I found her lying on a silken divan in the deserted house, her
hands clasped over a little white flower like an odontoglossum,
which lay on her breast. It was the flower of sleep--and she was
dead.
"My seven years' silence was ended. One thing I could do for the
world: remove Fire-Tongue--and do it with my own hands!
"Gentlemen, at the angle where the high road from Upper Claybury
joins the Dover Road is the Merton Cottage Hospital. Mr. Harley
is awaiting us there. He is less damaged than I am. A native
chauffeur, whose name I don't know, is lying insensible in one of
the beds--and in another is a dead man, unrecognizable, except
for a birthmark resembling a torch on his forehead, his head
crushed and his neck broken.
"That dead man is Fire-Tongue. I should like, Mr. Commissioner,
to sign the statement."
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