w
e were sitting on the deck of the “empress of india,” homeward bound for southampton. i was returning on a six months’ leave from hospital duty in calcutta, and the colonel was retiring from his post in the northern provinces, where he had served with credit for over fifteen years. he had resigned suddenly a month before. his resignation had been refused, whereupon he immediately gave up everything to his second in command, and took the next steamer home, for a year’s stay, according to the belief of the home government, but with a private resolution never to return.
i knew that he had had some terrible experience in which his dearest friend, lieutenant arthur stebbins, had been killed; but beyond that i was as ignorant as the home government which had refused to sanction his resignation. that night, however, as we sat on deck, and felt the lingering tremor of the giant screw which[14] was driving us back to home and civilization, something prompted the colonel to confide in me.
“i was not acting in my official capacity when arthur stebbins and i went up into the junga district,” the colonel said in answer to a chance remark of mine, “it was simply and solely to visit the haunted city of mubapur. you have been in india for two years, and you may have heard some of the strange tales in regard to the place; but as nearly every little out-of-the-way province in india has its peculiar tale of hidden wealth or strange craft, you have probably paid no attention to the stories of mubapur.
“i had heard the natives, when they thought no one was listening, speak of the lost tribe of jadacks, which had once lived up among the ora mountains. it seems that they were not like other natives, but a white people almost giant in size, and their chief city was mubapur. but years ago, some say ten, others fifty, and still others a hundred, for these natives have no idea of time, a great plague came upon the white tribe, and it was smitten from the land.
“they believed that the gods had in some way been offended, and that this people were annihilated in punishment. anyway, we could not get one of our coolie boys within two miles of the place after nightfall; and they told strange stories of immense white creatures which flitted[15] about the place, and of moanings and wailings which could be heard on still nights when the wind was from mubapur.
“stebbins and i were on a shooting expedition in the junga district when he, remembering the wild tales he had heard, proposed that we turn aside, and make the two days’ trip to the haunted city. as time was of no particular account just then, i agreed; and after leaving our coolie bearers two miles from the town, for they refused all bribes and ignored all threats to go farther, we entered the deserted and grass-grown streets of mubapur. it was near dark when we arrived; and we decided to put up for the night in a little temple, the roof of which still defied the action of the wind and rain, and which offered us a comfortable retreat.
“as i was building a fire just outside the entrance preparatory to getting supper, i heard stebbins call, and hurrying in, found him standing behind the chief altar of the place, and gazing down a steep stairway which apparently led into the bowels of the earth. he put up his hand as i entered, and whispered, ‘listen; do you hear anything?’
“i held my breath listening, and from somewhere down in the damp depths below i heard a strange sound floating upwards. it might have been a chant such as the hill men sing on the eve of battle; or it might have been only the wind soughing through underground passages,[16] but anyway it was weird enough in its effect on both of us, so that we hurried out to the fire and busied ourselves getting supper. it is strange how differently the tales we had heard seemed in that ruined temple with night coming on, from what they had in the bright daylight in the market place at calcutta.
“we slept very close together that night just inside the entrance to the temple, and all through the watches i fancied i heard that solemn dirge rising and falling in the stillness of the night. once i awoke to find stebbins talking softly, and i heard him mutter something about a great white beast; but when i looked at him his eyes were shut, and he was sleeping soundly.
“the next morning after breakfast i asked him the question for which i knew he was waiting,—should we descend the narrow stairway into the passage? he was anxious to make the attempt; and after getting ready some torches and looking carefully to our guns, we started down the slippery stairway.
“the steps ended abruptly, and we found ourselves in a long, narrow passage. what struck me at once as peculiar as we proceeded were some little cavities in the floor at regular intervals, such as might have been made by a person walking continuously, as a prisoner walks in his cell. but the stride was nearly twice that of an ordinary man. after walking about fifty paces we came to another stairway leading to a[17] still lower passage, and just as we were about to descend we heard a noise as of something running swiftly below us. i looked at stebbins to see if he had seen anything, for he was nearer to the head of the stairway than i; but there was only a white, determined look on his face.
“‘come on, colonel,’ he called, and led the way down the stairs. at the farther end of this passage we came to a square opening into a kind of vault, and we paused for a moment before it. then, in that stillness of the tomb, sixty feet below the surface of the ground, and just on the other side of the little opening, we heard a low moaning, and i would have sworn it was a man who made the sounds.
“we held our rifles a little closer, and crawled through the aperture, pausing to look about us. we both nearly dropped our guns in our excitement; for, crouched in the farther corner, was a great white, hairy creature, watching us with red, flaming eyes. then, even before we could recover ourselves, the thing gave a kind of guttural cry of anger, and started toward us. as it rose to its feet, i swear to you i turned sick as a woman. the beast was over eight feet tall, and was covered with a thick growth of hair which was snow white. its arms were once and a half the length of those of a common man, and its head was set low on its shoulders like that of an ape or a monkey; but the skin beneath the hair was as white as yours or mine.
[18]“i heard the lieutenant’s gun go off, but the thing never stopped. i raised my four-bore and let drive with the left barrel; then, overcome with a nameless fear of that great white beast, i called wildly to arthur to follow me, and plunged through the opening and ran with all my strength toward the upper passage. it was not until i felt the fresh air on my face that i stopped to take breath, and i was so weak i could scarcely stand. then, if you can, imagine my horror to find that i was alone. the lieutenant was nowhere in sight. i called down the passage, and i could hear my voice echoing down the dismal place, but there was no answer.
“think what you may; but i tell you it took more courage for me to force myself down into that vault again than it would to have walked up the steps to the scaffold. i crept fearfully along the passage, calling weakly every few minutes, and dreading what i should find; but—there was nothing to find.”
the colonel paused, putting his hand over his eyes, and i could see by the moonlight that his face was white and drawn.
“and did you not find him in the lower passage?” i asked, when the silence had become oppressive.
“no, i did not find the lieutenant,” he answered; “but when i came to the little square opening before the vault, there were some bloody[19] little pieces scattered about the floor, and the place was all slippery, but there was no lieutenant. you know it takes four horses to pull a man apart, and you can judge of the strength of that white beast when i tell you that there was not left of arthur stebbins a piece as big as your two hands.
“as i looked at that floor with the ghastly things which covered it, a wild rage took possession of me. i knew that the creature was in the room beyond, for i could hear a crunching as a dog makes with a bone. i rushed through the opening, straight toward the corner where it was crouching. it saw me coming, and leaped to its feet. again that sickening fear that i had felt before came over me; but i stood my ground and waited till it nearly reached me. then, with the muzzle of my gun almost against it, i fired both barrels full into its breast.
“i must have fainted or gone off my head after that, for the next thing i knew i was lying in a native’s hut on the durbo road. zur khan, the man who owned the bungalow, said that he had found me four days before, wandering about on the plains, stark mad, and had taken me home.”
“and the thing in the passage?” i asked breathlessly. “did you never go back?”
“yes; when i had recovered a little, i went back to the mubapur temple,” answered the colonel; but he was silent for some minutes[20] before he answered the first part of my question.
“in my report to the government i said that lieutenant arthur stebbins was torn to pieces in the lower passage of a mubapur temple by an immense white ape,—but i lied,” he added quietly.
