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I D'ABRA THE BUDDHIST 1

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D'ABRA THE BUDDHIST 1 A STORY OF THE ROMANTIC HUNT AFTER A LOST GIRL. BY H. M. LONSDALE: CHAPTER Yl.—(Continued.) dense mist about this man's personality tfakskaning rather than clearing. What be his purpose? He wanted Life! Was :ID7 life he wanted, in order to replenish in 80Ine mysterious way the store of his ? There had throughout his intercourse been a marked about many of his statements; yet was ever an impenetrable cloud them all. He handed me fact, I mystery; he gave me definiteness, I it bewilderment. The more I con- ^ere<* the more encaged I felt myself; all completely around by unanswerable ^oestiona fc man. I, John Eames, was no and I would await the mystery na¡¡ple with it, and force from it its Jijg I would again question D'Abra as to *ra^i^?OSe' be content with no cloud- answer. I would have solid sub- which I could handle and taste and 1 would know where I wae, and what I >fy from his direction. And, **ad lost my revolver, I would imme- trjg secure another of a similar type. A br&u-°* would at least place me in a be Ka^11 to my adversary. I should not IujjT6 iu any hand-to-hand conflict with ftiojjl .^Sht would be down at the office by clock, when I would ring him up and 1fUiL8^ him to secure a weapon similar to 7cy JjT* and to have it sent up to my place at KSo^l possible moment. Besides, I of jy ^he same time give him the address Vith and urge him to note it carefully, eventa V*6W to inqoiries at that house in the tiio °* a delay upon any visft I inaS^ induced to make thereat—the he *?es to be energetically prosecuted should ^^liot h&ar from me for a space of twelve u/8' He should insist on some formula Qnl5" > us both, such as the private oe-mark ox the firm. This course, I was ^med to think, would provide for any of ei^noy. There would thus be no chance Ridden disappearance without any » neither would there be any oppor- of personating myself in any tele- j"1 transmitted to him. jy .^trne<l again to my desk for the card that it handed to me, but I could find y^Jlowhere. Evidently D'Abra had removed g-; a*^8°- Again a band of armed questions baAfclv. up in my mind. Why did D'Abra want his card? Because, forsooth, he would •k,_? me at hie house before I had the oppor- ^^Jty of giving information of its where- j^uts. i remembered that I had casually slip the fact that his address had escaped memory. Evidently he had seen to it that not be able to re-call it. Of course, rr* he been anxious to keep me and my .ends ignorant of my whereabouts with him, could have changed bis address. But such aPParently did not suit his plans, ^bably enough that house was prepared for fcoii18, suck 33 intended me to be. A jj/*1*6- likely it was, with secret panels and j^ble floors and asphyxiating rooms. The X discussed this man the more madden- s my bewiderment. looked out of the window upon my plot th garden. It had now grown well visible in that 4?Q8e November morning, and I knew HcuVi6 machillery °f London movement waa Itte heating up into full, ringing activity. JittT^ 3,8 waa of the fact that my jjj tragedy was one scarcely noticeable drop and mighty current of metropolitan life, J* ^et how real, how awfully, vividly real, infinitely mournful waa the fate of my ^fortunate Ella, when I found myself turn- ip to greet the Man of Mystery, Dr. D'Abra !^5?8elf. He had, by his address, won the the hosied upon some domestic duties at Rj?Oter door, to allow him to pass and to i?*t himself to my presence unannounced. j-iou have been early at work this morning. <!Sh he said, eyeing me with his DaJ quiet, almost indifferent, calm. The J^lenegg of his cheek was, maybe, a degree J two paler, owing possibly to the experience the previous night, but otherwise, in matter of dress always tastefully plain, and in point of appearance always dignified and 8eU-pouesøed. he was the same D'Abra who had accosted me in the place of the unowned tiead. The moment, however, he addressed me my attitude towards him underwent a curious eftange. I could not kill my sense of mistrust and even abhorrence, but a feeling of perfect freedom and companionship, such as, in spite of all my recoiling from him, had invariably •«ooinp«feie<i his presence, begau to possess i hold speeches died down from jny tongue before even born, and J accosted fcim- "Good morning, doctor. I hope you are none the worse for our misadventure of yes- terday." "I am even better, thanks to your invigo- rating comradeship. But, my good sir. you appear some little distressed. You have lost something. You have been searching. A revolver, perhaps, judging from that cart- ridge in your hand. I trust that you have not lost hope of finding your Miss Ella. Escape fol' you from your trouble would not mean escape for her." I I nerved myself to face him manfully now that he had referred to the matter in hand. fixed my eyes keenly upon his face. as I 8a.id: "Yes. doctor, I have lost my revolver. I find that it has been stolen from a secret place In my desk." The doctor eyed me in the same calm fanner. No perceptible change crossed hia It did but show his ordinary in6cruta- The dots of light in his eye-centres altered no perceptible trace. "Your domestics are women, they would "sver tamper with anything so formidable as a revolver." > I do not suspect my domestics for a moment." "What theory, then, do you offer to explain *ts absence?" The sentence formed in my brain. "Whb but y?U, Dr. D'Abra?" but, as I faced him in all coolness and equableness, the expression of it would have been an act of madness. I ^ould not equivocate, and I accordingly Remained silent. Nevertheless. I had little dOuht that he penetrated my silence and tlneartbed my thought. He continued his JjOimpassioned gaze at me for some time, evi- denly reading and interpreting me. His eye ran over the contour of my head and brow, ahd rested at length upon my eyes. "I might suggest a theory." he observed in *he end. "You have walked in your sleep at odd timee in your life." He was hand to hand with fact on this, as I On every occasion. Whether it was only a shrewd guess or actual penetration, he had hit' the truth. There had been times in my lite when I had been a.icted with the curse ■°f somnambulism, and at one period for nearly a year had indulged in various ?ta,rtling freaks during the night watches. Sis deliberate words were iced water on the heat of my suspicions, and „ froze them. Thankful that I had not comftiitted myself br any rash utterance. I said: "Your suggestion rings like- truth. My late I **Periences may possibly have brought on my malady again." "I imagined that was the case. I've little ^otibt, also, that you will find your revolver 80mewhere in the house. You have, doubt. less, been preparing for emergencies, all un- Conseiously. during the night. I must con- gratulate you on your safe deliverance from your nocturnal experiences." Before long I had occasion to visit another room, when. seeing the overcoat which I had J'orn on the previous evening. I went to take from it my cigar-case, which I had left therein. Surely enough, there also I found *Qy revolver; but, on examining it, I found that the cartridges had been removed. On the supposition that D'Abra had removed the J^eapon the previous morning, it would have keen a simple act to have slipped it into iny docket sometime before he parted from me. that I might find it on my arrival home. However, it occurred to me that it might be '19ise to omit all mention of my having found it. and, if such a feat could be performed by portal man. leave D'Abra to imagine that it had not yet been found. By changing my o.erooat to a still warmer one. the fiction :might. to the intelligence of ordinary folk. be readily and effectually maintained. He joined me at breakfast, bnt his share 111 the meal was meagre to abstemiousness. alid I observed, as before, that he eschewed that savoured of animal food. "You have no clue. doctor, of course, and Ilp suggestion?" The burden of my search was heavy upon and with the growing day had outgrown ^1 misgiving about my' companion's inten- wons. I must get to my task of seeking and ^scuing her. "I have no clue," he assented. "But it is a finable hint that we know that Miss Birch's ^Ptors are foreigners. The tall, handsome J^an and the dark man are both apparently Ioreign ens." "Can you imagine of what country?" "Hindustan, I have little doubt." ."Cam you yet imagine any reason that could h1t"-e induced this disgraceful abduction ? I ILtn baffled—completely and miserably baffled." '1 can only imagine one thing, that her ^hdncCort must have a very good reason." 'Can it be possible that some wealthy or some Indian prince has taken a "4? torher a6 eight, and is scheming to get her away to his own country? The idea is preposterous, but not impossible. "I have heard such a plot discussed in Hin- dustan, but never heard of any actual case. The idea appears scarcely probable." "It is little use guessing. We must look for traces. Our first course is to visit the house we were aiming for yesterday when we met their coach, and then pay a visit to the police-station to learn what success, or rather, failure, they've experienced." I had eagerly watched the clock as we talked, and when the hour of nine had struck had listened anxiously for my little cabby's ring at the bell. "You are waiting for someone?" observed D'Abra, as he observed my frequent glances through the window. "Yes; I cannot go without our friend, the cabman. We shall need him for purposes of identification." "Do we need him? I saw both the men in the coach, and could recognise them any- where." Evidently the doctor wanted me alone with him. He wished for no repetition of the interference of yesterday. It was no gratifica- tion for him to remember that he had been easily outsohemed by the sharp-witted cabby. "I passed my word to wait for him. He seems of a punctual kind." "I fear you will find him remiss. My study of him bids me not expect him." Again D'Abra had hit a fact. Nine o'clock, ten. eleven, twelve passed, only to find us waiting, for I was resolved to go nowhere without the faithful fellow. But it was the truth D'Abra, epoke. We waited in vain. The cabman did not come; indeed, be never came. Nay, he was never heard of again. A hint. in subsequent times floated to my ear, but that is a later story, and must be reserved. The result, however, faced me in all its bold significance, and I was left entirely alone to negotiate my mysterious doctor friend! CHAPTER VII. My telephone instrument was so placed that every word was to be heard in the room where we had breakfasted; wherefore I was unable, in D'Abra's presence, to converse freely with my assistant. Accordingly, before leaving the house, I simply made an appointment with him at my office, asking him to meet me there at five. This would grant us ample time to pay our prospected visit to what we expected would prove the late prison of my betrothed. In due time we were upon the pavement! before the house, and found it a large one. of, the type much built in the early years of the nineteenth century. The windows presented a, most dingy appearance, as if seldom treated with a wholesome stream of cold water, while the curtains had almost a definable pattern of rents and holes in them. "What a place in which to have incarcerated the poor girl!" thought I. with a shudder. I re-called her form and features, as I was accustomed to see her. seated in the tasteful, if limited. drawing-room of her aunt. That room had always been deemed sacred to her. and she had decked and furnished it at her own dear wise will. How the sunshine of her presence had bathed her surroundings with a sweet, pure light, till every article in the room had stood out as the most beautiful and the most artistic that ever human hand con- F"3 APPROACHED HEE WITH HIS LONG KNIFE LIFTED ABOVE HER HEAD." ■ structed, while each piece of furniture blended harmoniously—I had nearly said songfully, for there was meaning, almost words, in her arrangements—with every other? And how her character revealed itself in her choice-quiet but bright, artistic but anaimsy. firm but lightsome! But I could picture her wdll-built figure, with its ever attractive and suitable dress, as she met me on my visits. I could see her fine, strong, womanful face, all radiant as she greeted me, sometimes playfully withdrawn to reserve the kiss I claimed till she was sure "I wanted it," or "deserved it," or "earned it," according as her mood or idea might be. And those large, good eyes, what well-springs of loveliness they shone when the love-lights danced and sparkled in them as I caught her in my arms and forced from her the kisses she wae burning to shower upon me. That little room was a garden of fairest flowers to me, a chamber in a palace of Fairy Land when she We had knocked at the scarred door, and a summoned head had thrust itself through the pictures of my memory to cry- "We, we. messieurs. If you please?" I stood back from the shock of the appari- tion of this wretched-looking woman. It was as if a mother had suddenly discovered the child she adored changed to a. snake in the very cradle. The picture of the face of my betrothed, and this repulsive face! they seemed to belong to different species of being. A fiery mass of red hair, strong and unkempt, flaming like a torch, on an elongated neck which linked the large head to a small body- that was what startled me. My Ella had been housed under the same roof with that!" "Excuse me. madam," I said, with a gulp, "but have you had staying here a young lady-?" D'Abra was by my side in a moment. He bad seen the flash of suspicion that made even more lurid the forbidding features of this prodigy of the feminine kind. "Allow me, my dear sir," he whispered, and then addressed himself to the gorgon at the door. "Friends have suggested your house as 'a suitable place where wo might find a suite of toorM for a special purpose." "Ah we. monsieur! We have rooms for to let. but our prices are very expensive." "We are not at all particular about the price, so long as we can command secrecy and no interference." I left the management of the interview entirely to D'Abra. who, by his marvellous adroitness, had easily won to daylight, from the woman, what my clumsiness was driving underground. "We have rooms which would be oonvenient to messieurs. But they comprise a suite, and must all be rented together. They are the more expensive." "May we look at them?" inquired the doctor. "If you please, messieurs." We were conducted up a broad and once handsome staircase on to a fine landing, from which branched two spacious corridors. The rooms upon this floor looked bearably, but certainly not comfortably, presentable. "Our special apartments are yet more high," she informed us, hastening to mount a. second flight of stairs with an agility born of frequent practice. She conducted us along a second corridor to a suite consisting of five small, rooms, which, in comparison with the rest of the house, were surprisngly tidy and clean. There was. too, an air of luxury about them that one would only expeot to find in the mansion of one of the wealthiest class. "Do you think these rooms could be made to serve a young lady whom we might Jind it to serve a young lady whom we might Jind it desirable to bring?" "If you please, monsieur?" inquired the woman, with her small eyes glittering like the wet shine on a black slug. "Will the doors look?" asked D'Abra, in a whisper. "Look! Will they not look?" "Tlhey are safe?" "Parfaitly. The last lady could not escape." "That was, perhaps, because she was not strong. Our lady is a strong woman who could-" "The last lady was tall and strong; she tried all the power that she had, and was not able to come out." "She is very particular about the cleanli- ness of her rooms. What sort of people have occupied them? Dirty? Well-bred? Gentle- folk?" "The more clean, the better bred, and cer- tainment gentil. Monsieur the stranger and madam his wife were of the quality; they lived in the rooms at the other end; the black servant lived in the small room here." "Man and wife!" The words crashed like thunder on my brain. My Ella! But she had struggled to escape from this inferno. She had cried my name from the cab in an agony of pleading. "Man and wife!" What sulphur- reeking, blood-stained, crime-crimsoned signi- ficance had those words? For me they carried horror. What was it that was surging in my veins—blood or fire? What was the hideous roar that reverberated in my ears? What the wound-red curtain that dropped before my vision? Who was I? Not John Eames. of Eames, Williams, and Co.? Surely not! What had he to do with suffering of this nature? He was never destined to pass through a fur- nace so scathing! "These rooms are a little stuffy. My friend here is seized with his usual sickness. Sit a moment or two, my dear sir." It was D'Abra who spoke, for, with his customary omniscience, he had noted the effect of the leprous-minded creature's words upon me, and seen the quick flash of snow- white into my face. He handed me his flask of peculiar cordial, from which I freely drank -more freely by far than ever before. The feeling of suffocation that ensued was over- powering, and laid me gasping upon a. couch that was near. After a few moments of utter unconsciousness, my recovery from which, I thought, seemed to give relief to the doctor. I felt the cordial at work within me, doing its bracing, invigorating mission. Soon I was upon my feet listening, as before, with an air of calmness. "And now your terms?" pursued my corn- j panion. "Fifteen guineas each night for the suite of five," replied this daughter of the devil- an import from' Parisian cesspoolism. "Fifteen!" "Our work is not at all easy-often dangerous." "Three guineas a night for each room!" "We, monsieur. And three guineas for the use of the backstair, which has been specially made for messieurs who may be obliged to go themselves suddenly." It was the cordial probably mounting to my brain and intensifying my emotions to the emotions of ten thousand men. I glared at the woman—if she deserved a name so sacred -and advanced toward her. To think that my poor heart-broken girl should have fought in these rooms-ay, in this very room where we were standing, for eo the creature had hinted-fought for freedom, for purity; battled here on the spot which my feet then trod against some fiend that, could I have caught him. I should have torn to pieces- battled madly, with breaking heart and terror-haunted face, and this vile reptile should stand unhelping by! That she should even make her ghastly gain out of the poor girl's ruin! I could endure no more of the calm inquiries of the doctor. "Child of hell!" were the words that roared from my throat as I advanced upon her— "child of hell, tell us everything you know about the fiends who dragged that poor girl into this sink of perdition against her.will, You knew she was pure, you knew that she would have exchanged life for liberty, and you lifted no hand to save her. You, a she- devil, helped those devils in their hellish work! Where have they taken her?" My blood leapt in my veins. I should have grasped the flesh of her long, repulsive throat but that she backed nimbly from me, and. darting to the mantelpiece, pressed an i electric button hidden somewhere there- abouts. An ugly gleam glittered in her slug- like eyes as she saw that she had been tricked. Now, too late, I saw how mad had been my act. We were in a den of human-shaped brutes whoae trade was to batten on the perdition of unfortunate men, and—more especially, it seemed—of helpless and innocent women. What could we two do at the top of a strange hoifse, with any number of bad confederates of this creature waiting below? If they could contrive it, we should never be aJlowed to leave the place alive; their horrid trade was too remunerative for that. "Lock the door behind you. my dear sir," were words from the lips of D'Abra, that sum- I moned back my reasoning powers to their duties. "Keep the key in your hand." I watched him as, with a swiftness that I should never have credited to him, he cut off the retreat of the woman by the door which led into the adjoining room. I saw him aa he stood calmly facing her. There was visible no excitement in any feature or movement of his. The centre-spots of his eyes alone were changed to fire-flashing points. I could not but admire the man. My spirit bowed before his colossal power. Here he stood, apparently with no hope of deliverance from the death of some cornered rat, yet his brain was coolly active, scheming out some plan of escape. Whether bad or good. this personality was one I could not but admire for the sheer grandeur of its fearleceness and power. He drew a long clasp-knife from his pocket with his left hand, and opened it with his teeth. Fastening the door behind him. he approached the shrinking Frenchwoman and looked at her quietly, as if no stealthy stockinged feet were creeping up the stairs to their confederate's aid. His steady look drove Irer back upon the wall behind. "Be pleased to seat yourself, madam." he said. pointing to a large saddle-backed chair. paying no heed to the feet shuffling outside, .all waiting the signal for their entrance. A cry, a hasty movement would have brought the gang-we could not guess how many-full crash against the door. But she let slip neither cry nor moan; she sat like a stone woman. She read in his attitude what he did not even trouble to explain that her slightest signal to the men outside was her death- warrant. "Madame," said he. speaking her own French, with purest accent, "we have little time to waste. Bid your friends have patience." The woman moistened her paled, dried lips and tried to speak, but her voice was not all at once ready at her command. At last she raised her voice- "Jacques, Bert." "Oui. madame," came a hoarse reply from the other side of the door, followed by an excited whispering. She spoke a sentence in some language or dialect with which I was not acquainted, for the words fell meaningless upon my ear. "Do not enter yet. or my life will pay for it." was the gist of what she said, as I after- wards learned from D'Abra, who translated everything to me later. "Madame," replied the doctor in the same dialect, "it is unlikely that you will be able to speak any language wh\Ch is unknown to me-least of all. any Belgian dialects. Do not be deceived, therefore. Let us deal openly with one another." The woman cowered abjectly before the ical gaze of D'Abra, who, although the whispering beyond the door grew more sibilant and angry, seemed to grow cooler and more deliberate. Nay, it appeared as if he were revelling in the situation, to be actually testing and tasting the sweetness of the danger in order to draw from it its fine, rich flavour. What a giant he was, assuredly! [What wonder if my personality had bowed land done homage to ones bo dowered I I. the .J: equal of the few and the superior of the many, was but a child with him. In my business and social dealings I was accustomed to take my place as leader, controller, director; but in his presence I was bound to acknowledge myself worthy only to obey. At the same time, I could not help keenly scrutinising the unclean specimen of woman- hood crouched in haggard terror before him. I thought of my injured Ella crying for help, while this creature was probably laughing at her cries. Naturally shrinking from the blood- shedding even of a brute, I could have watched him strike her dead at his feet with- out a- quiver of repugnance. "We will now speak French," continued D'Abra, after a while, "for my companion's beneiu. Let me just finally state, lest there should be misunderstanding, that my friend and I are going to leave your house unmolested. Be pleased, madame, to accept that as settled. Should there be occasion for a conflict we are not unprepared; indeed, I do not know that we should not welcome it." I trembled. I was afraid that the scent of blood had roused the fury of battle in him, and that he would let in the crowd of whisper- ing scoundrels for the mere love of fighting with them. I plunged my hand into the pocket of my overcoat, and grasped the revolver I had changed from my other over- coat. But D'Abra was a man, heights above those levels where men fight, for fighting's sake. His every act was crammed with pur- pose. He worked for ends, never for mere work's sake. "I do not know precisely how many friends you have, whether nine or ten- In the lamentable event of their entering I have decided"—he waited and eyed her curiously, and then proceeded—"to—kill—four—not reckoning yourself, my dear madame. You dying at once would not count as coming into the conflict. My companion there could arrange matters with not a few. Be good enough, sir, to show madame your weapon. And, by the way, you had better re-load, as the cartridges already in the cliambers are blank. Here are a few charged with bullets." He presented me with a handful of what seemed to be my own cartridges.. He knew, then, of my revolver-knew that I had trans- ferred it to my fresh overcoat! He was, indeed, beyond the sounding of my puny intelligence. "There are several ways of quietly leaving your residence, and our difficulty lies in the choice. Whether by yon fire-escape (the case is there, the ropes and pulley are, doubtless, convenient to your hand), or by the stair you mentioned, which I fear we should use free of charge. Ah. it is guarded, your eyes tell me, and locked. Those keys of yours would aid WI; and what is one man? He would not be much missed. But our desire is to depart without annoyance; we will. therefore, by another method. Do not be afraid, madame; I shall do you no injury, except on reason- able provocation. Keep your eyes earnestly upon this." He approached her with his long knife lifted above her head. Coming close to her. he held it slightly higher than her forehead, almost out of range of her vision. Her eyes followed the gleaming Jbrilliance of the blade, and remained fixed upon it for a while. Presently, to my astonishment, for the curious pheno. mena of hypnotism were entirely unknown to me at the time. I saw her pass off into a semi- unconscious state. Now, bending his mouth to her ear, he poured in upon her a string of instructions, spoken in a clear, intense tone, of which I caught a few. "You cannot escape me." "Tell them that the police will be presently upon their tratk, and, unless they are gone immediately, they'll be captured in a body. We are working with the police." "We will seat ourselves in the far room, near the secret stair." "You will bring us refreshment when they have gone." "You shall not suffer." Such were some of the remarks I caught. (To be continued.)

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