The Venus of Konpara

by John Masters

  ‘Foster and Mrs Kendrick,’ she said ‘The truth about them came while you were away. They are not a beefy contractor and a neurotic woman who paints. They are lovers, that’s all. That’s the truth about them. They found it, too . . . Mr Smith -- I have always known, and you found out on the hunt, didn’t you?’

  ‘Yes,’ Mohan said. ‘He’s a pilgrim.’

  ‘But he’ll never find his shrine. He knows it... I once said to him, or he to me, that until we saw the people here as they really are, we would never find the Venus. Now I think there are only three whom we do not know. One is the leader of those who want to preserve the secret of the cave. The others are - you and I... Look at me, Mohan.’ He turned and faced her. ‘Suppose we found the cave tomorrow,’ she said very carefully, and the Venus was in it, and she was low caste, and a queen - what would you do?’

  He said; ‘There is no chance of my becoming Rajah of Deori if I marry you. But yesterday, while we were hunting the tigress, I learned something, at least I love you more than I love Deori. We shall be married at once. To prevent rioting and bloodshed, we will first leave the state, and I will renounce all claims to the succession on behalf of myself and my descendants. I will tell the A.G.G. when we see him in Nowgong.’

  She did not answer, but lay, looking at him. After a time he muttered, ‘I thought you wanted to marry me.’

  She said, ‘So - we are to be the lovers, those who find themselves just in that discovery. But Mr Foster and Mrs Kendrick are the lovers.’ She seemed to be speaking to herself. ‘There are not two pairs of lovers in the group - I know there aren’t! No, no, Mohan, the truth about us is beyond that, We are lovers already. We are also the king and queen.’

  He bunched his fist and cried, ‘It can’t be, Rukmini! You know it can’t.’

  She said, ‘Then, O Suvala, it is better that you never see the cave, or the Venus-Queen.’

  She lay on her back, and though he tried three times more to make her speak to him she did not answer.

  Let the morning come. Perhaps there was some way out of the impasse, though he could see only the walls of custom and tradition, and the British and his uncle and the chief Brahmin standing armed to defend them. It would need India’s Bow and Indra’s Thunderbolt to overcome them. Wearily, he fell into a deep sleep.

  He awoke in a strong dawn light and rolled over, yawning, determined to sleep another ten minutes.

  The arrow shafts! He must look for them. He opened his eyes. Rukmini was not in the bed.

  ‘Rukmini,’ he called.

  He slipped out of bed and went into the bathroom. He looked into every room. As he ran out of the drawing-room he met the major-domo hurrying in. The man was panting with excitement. The headman,’ he gasped. The headman ... the cave has been discovered... by the lady Rukmini!’

  Chapter 28

  Mohan ran out to the verandah. Huttoo Lall, the headman of Konpara, waited at the foot of the steps, his usually expressionless face transformed by a warm smile.

  ‘What’s happened!’ Mohan cried.

  The headman said, ‘Success! one of my people saw the lady Rukmini in the pit below him, just at dawn, as he passed over Indra’s Rock on his way to cut twigs. She called up that she had found the cave, and that you were all to come at once. The man told the Resident Sahib on his way back to the village to tell me. I believe the Resident Sahib has already gone down. I sent word to Smith Sahib and Foster Sahib on my way here - and Kendrick Memsahib, who had not been informed, since the Resident left in such haste.’

  Looking down the slope Mohan saw Foster and Barbara Kendrick at the head of the scaffolding. The headman broke in respectfully, ‘Your honour will need a lantern, perhaps?’

  ‘Yes, of course,’ Mohan said. ‘Get one. Full.’ The major-domo hurried off.

  He waited impatiently. The servant came out in a minute, a puzzled frown on his face and a hurricane lantern in his hand. ‘They are all empty, lord,’ he said. ‘And the one in the spare bedroom, where I went first, is not there. I filled them all only yesterday, and... ‘

  ‘It doesn’t matter,’ Mohan cried. ‘Fill it now!’

  The man hurried away. When he returned Mohan made sure that he had matches and then ran down the short path to the head of the scaffolding, followed by the headman.

  As they reached it Foster cried, ‘Hello there! We seem to have done it, just in time... I can’t understand it, though.’ I’ve been right round the pit, on foot I’m sure I didn’t miss anything that could have been a cave mouth.’

  ‘You must have,’ Mohan said.

  Smith arrived, carrying a rifle. He held it out to Foster, with a handful of cartridges. ‘I thought you’d better have this,’ he said. ‘There are quite a few snakes in the pit.’

  Foster indicated the pistol strapped to his waist ‘But I’ve got this...’

  Smith said, ‘Sorry.’ He handed the rifle and cartridges to Mohan, taking the lantern from him. ‘Perhaps you’d better carry it, then... The magazine’s loaded. It’s a Mannlicher, isn’t it, Foster - normal bolt action?’

  ‘Yes,’ Foster said. ‘Let’s get a move on.’

  Smith said, ‘I saw Rukmini, by the way, or someone who looks like her. She was over to the west, past the Indra’s Rock Tumulus.’

  ’Why didn’t she tell me she was going?‘ Mohan muttered, so that only Smith could hear.

  Smith did not reply, but said, ‘There are a couple of villagers with her. She waved, and then disappeared her clearly.’

  Foster stepped out on to the ladder. Barbara followed, then Mohan. He heard Smith, behind him, call to the headman, ‘Are you coming down now?’

  ‘In a moment, sahib. I am waiting for my cousins.’

  Then Smith came too. Mohan hurried down the ladder, a new thought boiling with all the rest in his mind. If the cave mouth was in the pit, the filling of the dam would flood it Perhaps it could be blocked off and another entrance made from above. That would cost hundreds of thousands of rupees. It would depend on the importance of what was inside the cave.

  He reached the foot of the scaffold. The heads bobbed and wound on ahead of him, now directly under the towering cliffs, now passing into the dense brush. At those times the cliffs disappeared and they were in a dark tunnel, hurrying along the narrow track the coolies had made during the excavation of the Indra’ Rock Tumulus.

  They passed the tumulus and Foster commented that someone had filled in the excavations. ‘Not on my orders,’ he said. After five more minutes Smith said, This is about where I saw her.’ They all stopped.

  Mohan cupped his hands and shouted, ‘Rukmini!’ The others joined in; then they shouted again, to right, to left, listening between each call. There was no answer.

  Smith said, ‘There is someone in the bushes ahead.’

  Mohan saw the movement too, and shouted, ‘Rukmini...’ He broke into a run, but it was almost impossible to run in that tangle. After a few moments, though, he recognised the back of the struggling figure ahead of him, and shouted, ‘Mr Kendrick! Mr Kendrick!’

  The Resident turned. He was dressed for the jungle, the haversack slung across his shoulder,

  ‘Have you seen her?’ Mohan called urgently.

  Kendrick looked bewildered and a little mad. ‘What are you doing here?’ he asked slowly. His gaze passed over Mohan’s shoulder and he saw the others. ‘All of us,’ he mumbled. ‘Barbara, Foster, Smith... except Rukmini. He told me she was here alone.’

  ‘Have you seen her? Mohan shouted.

  ‘What’s the day?’ Kendrick said suddenly. He grabbed Mohan by the arm. ‘What day after the full moon?’

  Mohan nervously shook off the clutching hand. Kendrick had lost his mind. Smith said, ‘This is the morning of the third day after the full moon,’

  ‘This is the day we are going to Nowgong, isn’t it?’ Kendrick whispered.

  ‘Yes,’ Mohan began, ‘but...’

  Smith said, loudly but calmly, ‘Look back, towards the scaffold.’

 
; Mohan swung round. A huge tongue of flame climbed slowly out of the jungle and up the cliff face back there, a quarter of a mile to the east and almost directly below Cheltondale. As he stared, a thin black smoke rose above and around the flames. The sun burst over the rim of the pit behind, and instantly it was hot.

  ‘I’m not sure,’ Barbara Kendrick said softly, ‘but I think the scaffolding has gone.’

  For a moment they stood, while the flames grew into long yellow and red tongues and the smoke thickened.

  Kendrick began to scream oaths at the top of his voice. ‘Oh,’ the swine! The filthy murderous swine! They said ...’ He broke into a run, mouthing incoherently.

  They followed, but none reached the scaffolding, for a hundred yards from it the jungle had become a wall of flame, and beyond it, above the slowly marching spears of the fire, they saw the bare cliff, and the mouth of the excavation forty feet up, but no signs of scaffolding or ladder. The fire also blocked the path towards the dam. A breeze had risen, stirring the brush.

  ‘Rukmini!’ Mohan cried. ‘Where is she?’

  Kendrick stood waving his clenched fists above his head. ‘Back to the tumulus,’ Foster said sharply. ‘Barbara, stay close to me. Mohan, keep an eye on the cliff tops as we pass under them. Shoot at sight’

  They ran back, and soon reached the tumulus. Mohan looked round hurriedly. Now he understood why the trenches had been filled in. No chance of sheltering.in them, even though they would have given little enough protection against such a fire as this. It was coming slowly, for the heat sucked in the air and the fire had to advance against the wind which it itself had created.

  They were gathered-in a tight group under the cliff, facing the fire. Kendrick licked his lips. Foster spoke in a soft voice to Barbara. Smith watched the fire with detached admiration.

  ‘Rukmini, Rukmini,’ Mohan whispered, ‘where are you?’ He turned to Smith. ‘Did you actually recognise her from the cliff top?’

  ‘No,’ Smith said.

  Mohan gritted his teeth. Then she probably was not in the pit at all, nor ever had been. His chances of seeing her again, if she were still alive, depended on his escaping from here. Smith could take control of the group, and was the natural person to do it, but, as in the hunt for the tigress, he was deliberately standing back.

  Mohan put Rukmini out of his mind. In a loud voice he said, ‘We must try to reach the dam. I don’t know whether we can force our way through this scrub, past the fire, in time, but we’ve got to try.’

  Barbara said almost conversationally, ‘I’m afraid that won’t do now, Mohan. They’ve started another fire.’

  Mohan looked where she pointed and saw more smoke, more fire, in the distance to the east - where the dam lay.

  Foster said, ‘We’ll have to set light to the jungle here. Bum a patch.’

  Not safe, Mohan thought .The wind swirled every way now. The new fire had upset the pattern.

  Smith said, ‘There’s nothing else for it, though.’

  Kendrick shouted, ‘Murderers!’ and shook his fist at the blank cliff. Mohan looked at the sky, at the cliffs, at the fires, and produced his box of matches. He called, ‘Along here. Are we far enough from the cliff? Farther in. Here. Light a line a hundred feet long, starting here. Here, everyone take some matches.’

  The fires flickered, flamed, and burst into small crackling furies. When Mohan ran back from the far end of the line, the near end was a mass of flame.

  ‘Coats off,’ he cried. ‘Break off branches. Keep our fire from spreading in this direction; let it go in the other!’ Barbara Kendrick took off her skirt and hoisted her petticoat in a tight wad round her waist. They all began to beat, with coat and skirt and shirt, at the flames that crept back towards them from the line of fire that they had lighted.

  Mohan watched anxiously as he worked. ‘The wind’s changing over there,’ he shouted to Smith. ‘If it turns right round our fire will die, and the burned area isn’t big enough for us yet.’

  Smith nodded. But there was nothing any of them could do about it. To the east, towards the dam, the flames of the biggest of the three fires now spread across the whole pit from cliff to cliff. The smoke dimmed the sun, and the flames luridly lit the underside of it Mohan could not tell how far away it was, nor how fast it was corning. But coming it was, and so strong now that the wind whisked up great arms of trees and whirled them around, burning fiercely in the base of the smoke, before allowing them to fall again. And dead trees exploded from the violent assault of the heat, and sent rockets of golden sparks towering up to drift and wheel like fiery birds in the smoke.

  Foster yelled, ‘We’ve got to be a hundred feet clear of that when it comes or we’ll bloody well try just the same... two hundred feet of burned land we need!’

  Mohan coughed and retched, caught by a low swirl of smoke. The air currents were forcing most of it high, thank God. The original fire at the scaffolding seemed lower. In half an hour it might burn itself out, or reach to their blackened area here; but by then it would be too late, for the great fire from the dam would come first.

  ‘Wind’s changed,’ Smith called. Mohan saw the flames lean out to the north, and cursed helplessly.

  ‘We’ll have to let it go, get behind it, and hope for the best,’ he shouted. The roar of the great fire deafened him.

  Smith said, ‘I think the wind must settle towards the big one soon. Look there!’

  Even as he spoke, it happened. The flames leaned again to the east. Their own fire marched more rapidly away from them. A huge lizard ran across Foster’s feet, going north. Then another, in the opposite direction. More animals came - nothing large, for the dam had long since turned the pit into a trap for them - but more lizards, snakes, a wildcat, a mongoose, several rats... A jackal ran out of the scrub and headlong through the thickest part of the flames along the line that they had set. A moment later it burst out again, screaming, its coat afire. Mohan spun, lifted the rifle, arid whipped off a shot as the jackal disappeared. The scurrying, howling ball of flame sank down. Mohan ran heavily to it crashing through the brush. With his hands he beat out the flames that had already started to spread from the corpse into the area where they were sheltering.

  Now the great fire was a hundred and fifty yards away, and coming on more slowly against the hurricane of wind that it had created.

  Foster said, ‘My God, the jungle on top’s caught, too.’ He pointed up, and Mohan saw trees and scrub burning below Cheltondale and. above the dam.

  ‘That may help us later,’ Smith said. ‘It can’t have been intended.’

  Mohan slung his charred jacket over his shoulders and called to the rest of them to join him. Kendrick had recovered some of his poise, but the twitch was very noticeable. Mohan said, ‘There’s nothing more we can do now. The wind has settled in towards the big fire. In a few minutes it will reach the land that we have burned. We must go out on to it now - .‘ He motioned towards the charred, sparkling desert in front of them. ‘As the big fire passes round the edge, we must move into the middle of our burned patch.’

  ‘Good plan!’ Kendrick exclaimed. ‘We shall escape, after all! And then...’

  To the east the advancing fire spread from wall to wall of the pit in a reverse crescent, the wings edged back against the cliffs, the out-thrust centre soon to meet the tiny, advancing flames of their own line. The blackened area which was to be their refuge was neither flat nor unobstructed. It was not grass or heather that had burned, but dense jungle, mainly of brush and creepers from four to twelve feet high, with larger trees scattered about in it. The larger trees still stood, like soldiers burning alive, each surrounded by an almost visible belt of heat that prevented sanctuary close to it. Some of the burned brush had fallen to the ground to form a shallow carpet of grey and black and white, the red glow of fire shining through from below. Some stood in brittle caricature of the shape they had held in life, here and there the arms sprouting buds of flame, mostly black and dead, but all hot.


  A foot at a time they walked out across the burned and burning floor of the pit, faces barred and blackened, clothes wrecked, hands scorched. The giant centre wall of the great fire met the small, leaning spires of their own. The wings of the crescent moved on along the cliffs.

  The heat began to come through the soles of Mohan’s boots. To his right he saw Barbara Kendrick biting her lip in agony. He moved towards her, but Foster was quicker, sweeping her up and carrying her in his arms. The heat poured directly at them from three sides, and from the fourth the cliffs radiated heat. Three mongoose and a pair of jackals had followed them on to the burned ground, and now danced around and among them, howling and grimacing after their fashion of pain, but keeping close. Low and high the smoke rolled in dense billows.

  Mohan found that the handkerchief tied across his mouth was having no effect. He felt himself losing his senses, slipping to his knees, the black earth close to his eyes, and living red flame under it...

  He came to, coughing violently, and found he was on Kendrick’s back, Smith supporting him. ‘Let me down,’ he croacked.

  ‘In a minute. We’ll get through,’ Kendrick cried. ‘You and I!’

  Mohan struggled down, retching painfully. The ground was still agonisingly hot, the drifting smoke still choked him, but while he had been unconscious some crisis had passed, as in an illness, and he knew they were going to survive. All their faces were lighter under the filth.

  Kendrick croaked, ‘In half an hour... we’ll start, towards the dam.’

  In that direction the flames were dying fast, and they looked out over a blackened desert, the bigger trees burning and writhing, and everywhere sparks towering into the wind.

  ‘When we go,’ Kendrick gasped, ‘keep to the centre of the pit.’

  ‘Safe enough that side,’ Smith said, pointing north. All the forest there, along the Dobehari Ridge, seemed to be on fire. Cheltondale burned furiously, sending up a thick, oily column of black smoke.

  Kendrick said, ‘Must conduct our progress as an operation of war... decide at the dam, what next.’