Path of the Tiger, стр. 427
‘What’s he saying?’ the wiry porter whispered to William. ‘He looks worried.’
William frowned and raised an eyebrow as he replied in Bengali.
‘He says that we’ve come to the place where we’ll find our quarry. I thought we were going after a tiger though … but anyway, Bingham’s sounding a bit strange. He’s talking about this animal as if it’s a person, an enemy soldier.’
‘I’ve heard the old men in my village tell stories about the animals deep in the heart of this forest,’ muttered the thin porter, wearing an expression of poorly masked fear as he spoke. ‘They say … they say that out here, there are wild beasts who can take the form of a person.’
‘Nonsense,’ William scoffed. ‘We have the same sorts of folk tales in my land – “werewolves”, we call them in English – but that’s all they are, nothing but folk tales. I’ve seen stranger things than I thought imaginable here in India over the past few years, but I still know that no human can change their form into that of an animal. It’s impossible.’
The wiry lad crossed his arms defiantly across his chest.
‘I’ve seen holy men walk through fire unscathed, raise the dead back to life, and levitate above the ground as if they were hummingbirds. Nothing is impossible, Englishman.’
The lanky porter’s eyes, meanwhile, were shifting nervously from side to side.
‘I don’t like the look of this place,’ he mumbled. ‘It’s cursed. There is an evil lurking here … I can feel it.’
A chill rippled down William’s spine as he heard these words, and he felt suddenly cold, as if he had just been doused unexpectedly with icy water. He tried to shake off the feeling and curled the fingers of his right hand around the grip of Captain Liversage’s sabre, which was sheathed in its scabbard on his hip. In addition to the sword and two lances, he also carried a Winchester repeating rifle, in the use of which he had been intensively trained by the American hunter Milton.
‘There’s no “evil” that this can’t defeat,’ William declared confidently, patting the butt of the Winchester rifle, which was secured in a long rifle holster attached to River King’s saddle. He hoped that the bravado of his words adequately concealed the undercurrent of fear in his voice.
‘The sun is low in the sky, gentlemen,’ Bingham announced. ‘We’ll make camp here tonight, and then we’ll descend into the valley tomorrow. We do not want to be down there in the dark, trust me. Porters, you lot clear a section of undergrowth there and set up camp. No fires at all tonight – that is an order – and we’ll double the watch. We set off at first light tomorrow, so get a good night’s rest.’
As the porters went about setting up camp, William trotted over to Kelly, who was looking rather haggard after the weeks of travelling through the forest and mountains. His golden locks hung limp and greasy around his sloped shoulders, and his acne had gotten markedly worse.
‘What the hell do you want?’ Kelly snapped harshly as William approached. ‘If you’ve come to beg for more opium, you can turn that goddamned horse of yours right back around! You aren’t getting any more until we’ve completed this mission. It’s your dang fault we’re out here in this godforsaken wilderness in the first place!’
‘But master,’ William protested, ‘it was you who convinced me that it would be a good idea to take on this job, you said it’d go a good way toward paying off my debt, and—’
‘You’re lying! You’re a goddamned filthy liar, Gisborne! It was all your idea to come out here on this hare-brained fiasco! I only agreed to it out of pity for you, and out of the kindness of my too-soft heart! I’ll have you know that by doing this, by forcing me into agreeing to let you come here, your debt to me has tripled! That’s right you stupid ingrate, it’s tripled! Do you have any idea how much money I’m losing every day just by being here and not engaging in my … my business activities back in Calcutta?! You’re costing me my goddamned livelihood, you wretched sum’bitch! Now I don’t want to be a harsh man, and God knows it hurts my heart to do so, but Jesus H. Christ Gisborne, this is how the world works, I say! I’m continually sticking my neck out for you, yet you just keep on getting me into situations like this!’
‘I’m … I’m sorry master,’ William murmured, crestfallen and hanging his head with shame. ‘You’re right … it is my fault.’
‘Go back to your damned wog porters and smoke that dirty pipe with them if you want something to do! But don’t you dare talk to me, I say, and don’t even damn well come near me until we’re on our way out of this hellhole!’
‘I’m sorry master.’
‘GO AWAY NOW!’ Kelly shrieked, his shrill voice cracking with rage. ‘You stupid, insipient half-wit! Get the hell away from me!’
William turned River King about and slunk away, stinging from Kelly’s barrage of harsh words. Bingham, however, had been observing this whole exchange, and he trotted over on his horse to William, glancing over his shoulder to make sure that Kelly wasn’t watching as he spoke to him.
‘I heard what Kelly said to you,’ he said in a low voice. ‘Come and take a walk in the forest with me. I need to explain a few things to you.’
‘About Niall, sir? Why, he’s a benevolent an’ kind man, but I just keep on disappointing him an’ letting him down. I’m—’
‘Enough of that hogwash,’ Bingham said sharply. ‘Get your horse tied up and meet me by that stream we just crossed in five minutes.’
‘Very well, sir.’
William strolled through the jungle to the burbling stream where Bingham was waiting for him, arriving