HE last glow of sunset hung over the mountain peaks across the gorge, and the wind had died away. The camp was in shadow, and the paths under the deodars were dark. It was very likely that we were being watched, and it would not do to take a light where we were going. Miss Carnie saw that I'd decided on some course of action and she followed me into the deeper gloom near the car.
"We'll go to the look-out, where Captain Dixon went," I whispered, "before the moon rises. After we've gained touch with him we'll come right back to your brother. He's safe enough for the present."
"I don't want to leave him."
Neither did I, but we couldn't carry him, and it was important to find out what had happened to Dixon. Although I did not tell her, we couldn't help Arnold much by hanging around; and by slipping away in the interval of darkness anyone spying on us would lose track of us.
"As a matter of fact," a man's voice remarked at my ear, "Carnie is perfectly safe where he is."
Dr. Moorcroft had come up somehow without being heard, and I could just make out his square, pale face in the gloom. He seemed to be alone. When I reached out and caught his arm he did not make a move to resist.
"What have you done to Arnold?" I asked.
"A little was put in his tobacco jar this morning, while you were all away from the camp."
"That is poison," said Gordon, a catch in her voice.
"In quantity, yes. Scattered grains mixed with tobacco merely produce overpowering drowsiness, in fact a stupor that lasts for some hours." Moorcroft might have been lecturing to a class. "My servants were instructed to doctor your tobacco, Smith, but apparently they were not successful. If you are coming with us this evening, I must have your word that you will not resort to violence, no matter what happens."
"Guess again," I laughed. "I never felt more like violence in my life and I'll begin with you, if anything more starts happening."
For a moment we were all silent and I could hear the girl's quick breathing. Twilight is very short under those immense heights and the afterglow had left the sky when Moorcroft spoke again.
"Miss Carnie, I had intended taking you with me alone tonight. You did not heed my warning to leave the grove. It is now too late. Your only chance is in coming with me to see the snake."
"What snake?" I asked.
"The one in the tomb. If you come and keep silence, I will do my utmost to guard you against the forces that are loosed within this grove at present."
"Where—where is—Captain Dixon?" I had never heard her speak of Dixon in such a hesitating way, but Moorcroft seemed to be able to read the girl's mind.
"He is unharmed at present, and you will see him before long." The man spoke as if he pitied the girl, and I wondered what had happened to Dixon. Probably he was a prisoner, in the hands of the Chitrali-Moorcroft-rajah party, although Miss Carnie had heard no shooting and the captain was not the sort of fellow to fall into a trap easily, or let himself be taken without using his gun.
"We will go to the tomb and be spectators of a time-honored ceremonial of the tribe—of the Chitralis," the doctor explained as if we were children. "Unfortunately the rajah is absent in Delhi, horse racing. If he were here, he would protect you, Miss Carnie."
The grove was pitch dark by then, and a hazy light was growing over the eastern peaks. The air felt colder all at once. In some way the place seemed to take shape and form around us.
Gordon drew a little closer to me, and I knew she felt the same way I did. It's hard to explain. Neither of us were subject to ordinary fear of barren places, or heights. It was the camp itself that set our nerves on edge, that shapeless pit of blackness under the giant trees, already sighing and rustling with a chilly breeze.
We both knew without being told that the camp was not deserted any more. Something else was there, besides Moorcroft and ourselves. An hour before we'd had trees around us and a stretch of grass and a few canvas shelters. Now the confounded place felt as if it had taken on life. It was just as if we'd walked out of a garden into someone else's house, only we had not moved at all.
"How did Anim Dass die?" I asked Moorcroft suddenly, certain that he knew.
And he did, because he laughed and said under his breath, "Come, and you'll learn for yourself."
There was nothing else to do. If I'd pulled my gun on Moorcroft and demanded that he tell us the truth of all this mystery, I don't think the man would have opened his lips. His warning sounded crazier than ever, but my brain was beginning slowly to register the fact that Moorcroft was not mad.