dried up, and it could easily be crossed. It was strange to me to be
standing there with those two wild Punjabees waiting for the man who
was coming to his death.
"Suddenly my eye caught the glint of a shaded lantern at the other
side of the moat. It vanished among the mound-heaps, and then appeared
again coming slowly in our direction.
"`Here they are!' I exclaimed.
"`You will challenge him, sahib, as usual,' whispered Abdullah.
`Give him no cause for fear. Send us in with him, and we shall do
the rest while you stay here on guard. Have the lanter ready to
uncover, that we may be sure that it is indeed the man.'
"The light had flickered onward, now stopping and now advancing,
until I could see two dark figures upon the other side of the moat.
I let them scramble down the sloping bank, splash through the mire,
and climb halfway up to the gate before I challenged them.
"`Who goes there?' said I in a subdued voice.
"`Friends,' came the answer. I uncovered my lanter and threw a flood
of light upon them. The first was an enormous Sikh with a black
beard which swept nearly down to his cummerband. Outside of a show I
have never seen so tall a man. The other was a little fat, round
fellow with a great yellow turban and a bundle in his hand, done up in
a shawl. He seemed to be all in a quiver with fear, for his hands
twitched as if he had the ague, and his head kept turning to left
and right with two bright little twinkling eyes, like a mouse when
he ventures out from his hole. It gave me the chills to think of
killing him, but I thought of the treasure, and my heart set as hard
as a flint within me. When he saw my white face he gave a little
chirrup of joy and came running up towards me.
"`Your protection, sahib,' he panted, `your protection for the
unhappy merchant Achmet. I have travelled across Raipootana, that I
might seek the shelter of the fort at Agra. I have been robbed and
beaten and abused because I have been the friend of the Company. It is
a blessed night this when I am once more in safety! and my poor
possessions.'
"`What have you in the bundle?' I asked.
"`An iron box,' he answered, `which contains one or two little
family matters which are of no value to others but which I should be
sorry to lose. Yet I am not a beggar; and I shall reward you, young
sahib, and your governor also if he will give me the shelter I ask.'
"I could not trust myself to speak longer with the man. The more I
looked at his fat, frightened face, the harder did it seem that we
should slay him in cold blood. It was best to get it over.
"`Take him to the main guard,' said I. The two Sikhs closed in
upon him on each side, and the giant walked behind, while they marched
in through the dark gateway. Never was a man so compassed round with
death. I remained at the gateway with the lanter.
"I could hear the measured tramp of their footsteps sounding through
the lonely corridors. Suddenly it ceased, and I heard voices and a
scuffle, with the sound of blows. A moment later there came, to my
horror, a rush of footsteps coming in my direction, with a loud
breathing of a running man. I turned my lanter down the long
straight passage, and there was the fat man, running like the wind,
with a smear of blood across his face, and close at his heels,
bounding like a tiger, the great black-bearded Sikh, with a knife
flashing in his hand. I have never seen a man run so fast as that
little merchant. He was gaining on the Sikh, and I could see that if
he once passed me and got to the open air he would save himself yet.
My heart softened to him, but again the thought of his treasure turned
me hard and bitter. I cast my firelock between his legs as he raced
past and he rolled twice over like a shot rabbit. Ere he could stagger
to his feet the Sikh was upon him and buried his knife twice in his
side. The man never uttered moan nor moved muscle but lay where he had
fallen. I think myself that he may have broken his neck with the fall.
You see, gentlemen, that I am keeping my promise. I am telling you
every word of the business just exactly as it happened, whether it
is in my favour or not."
He stopped and held out his manacled hands for the whisky and
water which Holmes had brewed for him. For myself, I confess that I
had now conceived the utmost horror of the man not only for this
cold-blooded business in which he had been concerned but even more for
the somewhat flippant and careless way in which he narrated it.
Whatever punishment was in store for him, I felt that he might
expect no sympathy from me. Sherlock Holmes and Jones sat with their
hands upon their knees, deeply interested in the story but with the
same disgust written upon their faces. He may have observed it, for
there was a touch of defiance in his voice and manner as he proceeded.
"It was all very bad, no doubt," said he. "I should like to know how
many fellows in my shoes would have refused a share of this loot
when they knew that they would have their throats cut for their pains.
Besides, it was my life or his when once he was in the fort. If he had
got out, the whole business would come to light, and I should have
been court-martialled and shot as likely as not, for people were not
very lenient at a time like that."
"Go on with your story," said Holmes shortly.
"Well, we carried him in, Abdullah, Akbar, and I. A fine weight he
was, too, for all that he was so short. Mahomet Singh was left to
guard the door. We took him to a place which the Sikhs had already
prepared. It was some distance off, where a winding passage leads to a
great empty hall, the brick walls of which were all crumbling to
pieces. The earth floor had sunk in at one place, making a natural
grave, so we left Achmet the merchant there, having first covered
him over with loose bricks. This done, we all went back to the
treasure.
"It lay where he had dropped it when he was first attacked. The
box was the same which now lies open upon your table. A key was hung
by a silken cord to that carved handle upon the top. We opened it, and
the light of the lanter gleamed upon a collection of gems such as I
have read of and thought about when I was a little lad at Pershore. It
was blinding to look upon them. When we had feasted our eyes we took
them all out and made a list of them. There were one hundred and
forty-three diamonds of the first water, including one which has
been called, I believe, `the Great Mogul,' and is said to be the
second largest stone in existence. Then there were ninety-seven very
fine emeralds, and one hundred and seventy rubies, some of which,
however, were small. There were forty carbuncles, two hundred and
ten sapphires, sixty-one agates, and a great quantity of beryls,
onyxes, cats'-eyes, turquoises, and other stones, the very names of
which I did not know at the time, though I have become more familiar
with them since. Besides this, there were nearly three hundred very
fine pearls, twelve of which were set in a gold coronet. By the way,
these last had been taken out of the chest, and were not there when
I recovered it.
"After we had counted our treasures we put them back into the
chest and carried them to the gateway to show them to Mahomet Singh.
Then we solemnly renewed our oath to stand by each other and be true
to our secret. We agreed to conceal our loot in a safe place until the
country should be at peace again, and then to divide it equally
among ourselves. There was no use dividing it at present, for if
gems of such value were found upon us it would cause suspicion, and
there was no privacy in the fort nor any place where we could keep
them. We carried the box, therefore, into the same hall where we had
buried the body, and there, under certain bricks in the best-preserved
wall, we made a hollow and put our treasure. We made careful note of
the place, and next day I drew four plans, one for each of us, and put
the sign of the four of us at the bottom, for we had sworn that we
should each always act for all, so that none might take advantage.
That is an oath that I can put my hand to my heart and swear that I
have never broken.
"Well, there's no use my telling you gentlemen what came of the
Indian mutiny. After Wilson took Delhi and Sir Colin relieved
Lucknow the back of the business was broken. Fresh troops came pouring
in, and Nana Sahib made himself scarce over the frontier. A flying
column under Colonel Greathed came round to Agra and cleared the
Pandies away from it. Peace seemed to be settling upon the country,
and we four were beginning to hope that the time was at hand when we
might safely go off with our shares of the plunder. In a moment,
however, our hopes were shattered by our being arrested as the
murderers of Achmet.
"It came about in this way. When the rajah put his jewels into the
hands of Achmet he did it because he knew that he was a trusty man.
They are suspicious folk in the East, however: so what does this rajah
do but take a second even more trusty servant and set him to play
the spy upon the first. This second man was ordered never to let
Achmet out of his sight, and he followed him like his shadow. He
went after him that night and saw him pass through the doorway. Of
course he thought he had taken refuge in the fort and applied for
admission there himself next day, but could find no trace of Achmet.
This seemed to him so strange that he spoke about it to a sergeant
of guides, who brought it to the ears of the commandant. A thorough
search was quickly made, and the body was discovered. Thus at the very
moment that we thought that all was safe we were all four seized and
brought to trial on a charge of murder- three of us because we had
held the gate that night, and the fourth because he was known to
have been in the company of the murdered man. Not a word about the
jewels came out at the trial, for the rajah had been deposed and
driven out of India: so no one had any particular interest in them.
The murder, however, was clearly made out, and it was certain that
we must all have been concerned in it. The three Sikhs got penal
servitude for life, and I was condemned to death, though my sentence
was afterwards commuted to the same as the others.
"It was rather a queer position that we found ourselves in then.
There we were all four tied by the leg and with precious little chance
of ever getting out again, while we each held a secret which might
have put each of us in a palace if we could only have made use of
it. It was enough to make a man eat his heart out to have to stand the
kick and the cuff of every petty jack-in-office, to have rice to eat
and water to drink, when that gorgeous fortune was ready for him
outside, just waiting to be picked up. It might have driven me mad;
but I was always a pretty stubborn one, so I just held on and bided my
time.
"At last it seemed to me to have come. I was changed from Agra to
Madras, and from there to Blair Island in the Andamans. There are very
few white convicts at this settlement, and, as I had behaved well from
the first, I soon found myself a sort of privileged person. I was
given a hut in Hope Town, which is a small place on the slopes of
Mount Harriet, and I was left pretty much to myself. It is a dreary,
fever-stricken place, and all beyond our little clearings was infested
with wild cannibal natives, who were ready enough to blow a poisoned
dart at us if they saw a chance. There was digging and ditching and
yam-planting, and a dozen other things to be done, so we were busy
enough all day, though in the evening we had a little time to
ourselves. Among other things, I learned to dispense drugs for the
surgeon, and picked up a smattering of his knowledge. All the time I
was on the lookout for a chance to escape; but it is hundreds of miles
from any other land, and there is little or no wind in those seas:
so it was a terribly difficult job to get away.
"The surgeon, Dr. Somerton, was a fast, sporting young chap, and the
other young officers would meet in his rooms of an evening and play
cards. The surgery, where I used to make up my drugs, was next to
his sitting-room, with a small window between us. Often, if I felt
lonesome, I used to turn out the lamp in the surgery, and then,
standing there, I could hear their talk and watch their play. I am
fond of a hand at cards myself, and it was almost as good as having
one to watch the others. There was Major Sholto, Captain Morstan,
and Lieutenant Bromley Brown, who were in command of the native
troops, and there was the surgeon himself, and two or three
prison-officials, crafty old hands who played a nice sly safe game.
A very snug little party they used to make.
"Well, there was one thing which very soon struck me, and that was
that the soldiers used always to lose and the civilians to win.
Mind, I don't say there was anything unfair, but so it was. These
prison-chaps had done little else than play cards ever since they
had been at the Andamans, and they knew each other's game to a
point, while the others just played to pass the time and threw their
cards down anyhow. Night after night the soldiers got up poorer men,
and the poorer they got the more keen they were to play. Major
Sholto was the hardest hit. He used to pay in notes and gold at first,
but soon it came to notes of hand and for big sums. He sometimes would
win for a few deals just to give him heart, and then the luck would
set in against him worse than ever. All day he would wander about as
black as thunder, and he took to drinking a deal more than was good
for him.
One night he lost even more heavily than usual. I was sitting in
my hut when he and Captain Morstan came stumbling along on the way
to their quarters. They were bosom friends, those two, and never far
apart. The major was raving about his losses.
"`It's all up, Morstan,' he was saying as they passed my hut. `I
