Narkom puckered up his brows.
"A gentleman," responded he. "A Hindoo gentleman, Mr. Gunga Ramagee, of Lincoln's Inn."
"Gunga Ramagee! Worst of those Indian Babu chaps, their names are so much alike. But, if my memory doesn't play me false, wasn't there one of that name who took a scholarship for law in Calcutta ? Came of high Brahmin caste, and was accordingly disowned by his family when he came over to England?"
"The very man!" ejaculated the Superintendent, with a sigh of genuine admiration. "Though how you learn these things beats me. It's uncanny, I call it."
Cleek laughed good-naturedly.
"Not a bit, my dear chap. As it happens, there was a small paragraph about it in an old journal lying on the dentist's table last week, and as I had to patronize one of that fraternity, and loathe the inevitable hour's wait beforehand, that item impressed itself on my memory. But go on. Begin at the beginning, please. First of all, who has been killed and where?"
"At least three Hindoos," said the Superintendent with a sigh, "and probably a fourth. Each one is found nude, and a strange thing about the whole affair is that in each case nearly all the blood has been drained from the body."
Cleek sat up suddenly and sucked in his breath.
"What's that? What's that?" he rapped out, stung into a show of feeling by the revolting nature of this statement. "All the blood drained! Good heavens, man! this is something like a mystery. Where were they found?"
"In the neighbourhood of the Essex marshes, just near a little village called Easthope. The last one was discovered at midnight by the constable on duty, lying covered with a piece of sacking, a rope twisted round the body, and not a drop of blood spilt anywhere. They tell me that it seems as if he had been allowed to bleed to death, and then the corpse deposited in the road like a sucked orange."
"No clothing, eh?" Cleek dived for his cigarette case, a sure sign that his interest was aroused. "Pretty good evidence that the poor beggar's clothes would have betrayed his identity, and that he could not have been staying very far away from where he was found. Even in a country village a man can't carry a naked corpse very far without attracting attention, can he? H'm-m-m! Any vehicle seen or heard in the neighbourhood?"
Mr. Narkom shook his head.
"Not the ghost of one. But the first body was not found in the main road at all, but in a little lane leading over private fields. The constable is certain that no one passed him on his beat.
"But, according to Gunga Ramagee, a dog ran down the lane, running as if it had been frightened. As the constable knew where it belonged, he didn't take particular notice of it, and concluded it had been out on the prowl and was just making for Delhi House "
"What's that? Delhi House? " threw in Cleek with an upward twitch of the eyebrows.
"Yes, it's the name of the house where Gulam Singh, the uncle of Gunga Ramagee, lives."
"Oho!" said Cleek, with a strong rising inflection. Now we're getting 'warm,' as the children say. And all these gentlemen, you say, are Hindoos? And they're found outside a house wherein lives a Hindoo?"
Mr. Narkom sniffed.
"Yes, that's the popular belief," said he disdainfully. "But Gunga Ramagee declares that no one had visited his uncle save himself, and that he was an absolute recluse and hermit. Investigation proved that this was so, and that no one had any reason to expect the presence of the murdered men in the neighbourhood."
"Quite so. Any marks on the body? No signs of mutilation, I suppose?"
"No. The only wounded spots were where the arteries had been cut at the wrists and legs. Perfectly clean cuts, evidently made for the purpose of letting out the blood, and obviously not for killing. Beyond that the body bore no blemish. He had not been stabbed, shot, or bludgeoned, and Gunga Ramagee says that Seton, the village physician, made an examination, and proved, despite the fact that the body was practically bloodless, that there were no traces of poison or disease. The only signs of anything wrong at all were inflamed passages of the inside of the mouth and nostrils, and the doctor attributed this to cold, due to change of climate. Perhaps so much attention would not have been paid, but for the fact of finding, just three days after the burial, a second man in exactly the same condition. This corpse was half buried in a deep ditch about a hundred yards away. Examination showed that the body was in a far more advanced stage of decomposition, and that the man must have been murdered some weeks before the other."
"H'mm! I see," said Cleek. "Go on, please. I suppose there was an uproar in the village?"
The Superintendent threw up his hands.
"I should just think there was. The whole countryside is up in arms, and, like you, have connected Gulam Singh with the crimes. When a third body was found in the ditch they nearly burnt the house down, and Gunga Ramagee applied to the county station to have a special posse of police to guard his uncle, whom he fairly worships. The man has been something more than a father to him, I should say.
"Well, yesterday, a fourth body was dug out, and, as I said before, Heaven alone knows how many more may have been discovered by this time!"
Cleek pursed up his lips, as though about to whistle, and gave bent to a low laugh.
"What a fool's trick!" said he. "What a fool's trick! The man must be a madman to court death at the hands of an infuriated mob, by burying the bodies just outside his own house. How has he done it without being seen? I suppose it is safe to assume that the fourth was discovered under similar circumstances?"
"Yes, all save the fact that the face was distorted into an expression of fearful agony, whereas those of the others were quite calm and peaceful; and the corpse was wrapped in a fragment of Indian tapestry. It was this, according to the entire village, that completed the evidence against Gulam Singh."
"The chain of events, but not necessarily 'evidence,' Mr. Narkom," threw in Cleek with a shake of the head. "Kali! Swa! Krishna! Let me think for a moment." His voice dropped off; he took his elbow in his palm, and his chin between his thumb and forefinger, and sat looking, with fixed eyes and puckered brow, out over the shining river, and for a time made neither sound nor movement.
And so he was still sitting when Miss Lorne came hurrying down the path, her white frock showing vividly against the green trees, and at her side a slim, frock-coated, top-hatted, brown-faced figure with the features of an Indian god, and a closeclipped, soot-black moustache covering his lips.
A slight frown crossed Cleek 's face as he sprang up to greet them, and for the moment he hesitated. Then he put out his hand.
"Mr. Gunga Ramagee?" said he politely.
The Hindoo bowed.
"This gentleman has an appointment with you," said Ailsa with a smile, and a sudden light leaped into the Hindoo's face as he turned to thank her. He bowed as she left them, with an obeisance that was fitting for a queen.
Cleek turned on his heel.
"Come," said he briskly; "we will be off at once. Drive down in the limousine, Mr. Narkom, and Mr. Gunga Ramagee shall tell me the facts as we go along. That's right, dear friend; lead the way and I shall follow."
A few brief moments of farewell to Ailsa, and then Cleek strode after the figures of Mr. Narkom and the Hindoo; and, before she had time to retrace her steps, Lennard
