A Fascinating Traitor: An Anglo-Indian StorySavage, Richard
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A Fascinating Traitor: An Anglo-Indian Story
Savage, Richard
India -- Fiction
But, on his knees beside the dying man, Eric Murray bent down his head
to listen to the final adieu of the dying wanderer, whose luck had
turned at last. “Justine Delande is to have all! The drafts, and my
money, at Granville. Murray, I’ll tell you everything now. Ram Lal Singh
murdered old Hugh Johnstone to get the jewels that Johnstone stole. The
same ones that this old scoundrel, Fraser, here, is hiding.” The red
foam gathered thickly on Hawke’s trembling lips. “Tell Major Hardwicke
all! He’s a good fellow! The knife that Ram Lal killed old Fraser with
is in my own trunk at Granville, stored in Railroad Bureau. He got in
through the window. I was in the garden, and caught him coming out. I
was watching old Johnstone, for fear he would give me the slip. I didn’t
tell--I wanted to come over here and get the jewels myself. Hang old Ram
Lal! He’s a cowardly murderer! Telegraph to the Viceroy to arrest the
jewel seller; he will break down and confess at once. Make him pay poor
Justine Delande all my drafts--Johnstone gave him that money for me to
keep me silent about the stolen crown jewels. Now--now, all grows dark!
Lift me up high--higher!” he gasped. “I played a hard game, but the luck
turned--turned at last! That woman, Berthe Louison was too much--too
much for me! Poor Justine! Tell her--tell her--” His voice grew fainter
and fainter.
“Do you know this man, Hawke?” whispered Hardwicke, forcing Jack Blunt’s
face down to the dying renegade’s glance.
“Never--saw him--before!” gasped Alan Hawke. “Poor Justine, tell her--”
and with a sighing gasp, his jaw dropped, and at their feet, the fool of
fortune lay dead, with a last lie on his lips.
“By God! He was dead game!” muttered Jack Blunt, kneeling there, by the
stiffening form of the wreck of a once brilliant Queen’s officer. He
dared not lift his craven eyes!
“He had the making of a gallant soldier in him!” cried Hardwicke, as he
turned to the American, and motioned to the rope ladder. “We must not
let Miss Johnstone see the body. Some of you run and get a ladder or
some other means to aid her descent. And rouse up the nearest farm
people. Get a carriage and bring the old Professor and maid here!”
While a dozen volunteers darted away to bring a conveyance, the rest
hastily covered Hawke’s body with their coats. The gun-room was now lit
up, and in five minutes the waylaid carriage was drawn by hand to the
door of the lonely tower. Within it lay the bruised and exhausted
old scholar, bareheaded and ghastly, in the light of the flickering
lanterns, while pretty Mattie Jones, with a shriek of terror, ran to the
side of her sweetheart, his arms still bound with Prince Djiddin’s sash.
Jack Blunt’s “swell mob” assurance stood him in good stead.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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