Page:Doughty--Mirrikh or A woman from Mars.djvu/35

 a whole evening trying to drink him under the table. No go, though. I was only too glad to get out at last.”

“You have been in the East some time then?” I remarked

“Oh yes; a matter of a few years. They sent me out as a missionary, but bless you, I couldn’t stand it. I had a charge near Rangoon—bored the very life out of me. Luckily I fell heir to a few pounds just about that time, so I took to knocking round again. The fact is, gentlemen, I’ve knocked round so much in my time that I’m fit for nothing  else.”

“Did you happen to knock against a man—a Hindoo—wearing a black cloth over the lower part of his face, on your way over from Siamrap?” demanded Maurice, turning  suddenly upon him.

“No; I saw no such person. I was the only man in the party outside of the bearers and the guide.”

“And you arrived?”

“Half an hour ago, as I just told you.”

“How long were you at Siamrap?”

“Two days. But pardon me—what are you driving at?”

“One moment. Coming up here did you meet any one on the stairs going down?”

“No; the priests told me there were two English gentlemen at the ruins and your man informed me that you had gone  up into the tower so I expected to meet you, but I met no  one on the way up.”

“Might not some one have passed you while you stopped on the platform where we heard you singing? ”

“Scarcely. I was there only a moment. I should have heard him, and my very highly developed bump of curiosity  would most certainly have prompted me to look round.”

Then, to my surprise, Maurice just blurted out the whole affair.

I was disgusted—half angry. I tried to stop him, but in vain.

“It’s no use, George,” he said. “I am determined to fathom this mystery. If your friend Mirrikh did not come to Angkor up the river then he must have come from Siamrap, for there is no other way of getting here unless through  the forest. I want to know where he came from and by what means he left this tower. It is not fair to question Mr. Philpot so closely without letting him understand the whole matter.”