Jack Haydons Quest | Page 3

gulped once or twice, then began to speak. The two gentlemen
heard his story with the utmost surprise.
"Garrotters!" cried Dr. Lawrence, "I never heard of such an outrage in

this neighbourhood before. What a frightful thing! Yes, yes, that
explains the mark on your throat. Their object must have been robbery.
What have they stolen from you, Haydon?" But the mystery now
deepened. Jack's watch and chain, his purse, everything he had worth
stealing, were perfectly safe and untouched. Suddenly Jack started up
and thrust his hand into his pocket. "The letter! the letter!" he cried. He
drew out several letters and looked over them. "My father's letter has
gone!" he said.
"What's that?" said Colonel Keppel, pointing to a sheet of paper
fluttering over the heath about thirty yards away. He ran and fetched it.
"This is the letter," said Jack, "the letter I received from my father this
morning."
"But what an extraordinary thing that you should be attacked in this
manner, Haydon, in order that this man may read a private letter. Is
there anything in it, may I ask, to explain such a strange proceeding?"
"Nothing, sir, that I know of; nothing in the least. My father says
nothing there but what anyone may see. I beg that you and Colonel
Keppel will glance over it; you will then see how ordinary it is."
The two gentlemen demurred, but Jack insisted, and they ran their eyes
over what Mr. Haydon had written. "Purely and simply an ordinary
letter from a father abroad to his son," said the Doctor; "it seems
madness to go to such lengths to gain a glimpse of such a letter."
"All the same, young Haydon was quite right in not giving up his
father's note to such rogues to read, whatever their purpose may have
been," remarked the Colonel.
"Oh, quite so, quite so," agreed Dr. Lawrence. "They had no right
whatever to see his private correspondence. By the way, Haydon, I see
your father is on his way home. This is posted at Cairo. In what part of
the East has he been staying lately?"
"He has been in Burmah for some time, sir," replied Jack, "but I do not
know exactly what he has been doing. I rather fancy he went out to

survey some ruby-mines for a big London firm."
"Quite so," said the Doctor, "I have seen him referred to many times as
a famous ruby expert."
At this moment Colonel Keppel came towards them with something in
his hand. He had started away after concluding his last speech, and had
gone in the direction where he had seen the letter fluttering. Now he
was returning.
"Here is something they dropped, something which throws a flood of
light on the affair in one way, and makes it much stranger in another,"
he remarked in a grave voice, holding up his find. It was a
curiously-plaited thong of raw hide, with faded strips of silk worked
into the plaits.
"The cord with which Haydon was garrotted!" cried Dr. Lawrence.
"They dropped it."
"Yes," said the Colonel slowly, "but this does not mean common
garrotters. The fact that they stole nothing really disposes of that. This
means a much darker and more terrible business."
"And what is that?" cried the headmaster.
"Thuggee," said Colonel Keppel very gravely.
"Thugs, Colonel!" said Dr. Lawrence in a tone of stupefaction. "Are
you serious? Thugs on the heath here, in our quiet, familiar country?"
"This is a Thug noose, at any rate," said Colonel Keppel. "I know it
very well. I served twenty-seven years among the hill-tribes of northern
India in one capacity and another, and once I served in a Thug country,
and I shall never forget it. The way young Haydon was handled
suggests Thuggee. No common garrotter could have overcome such a
fine, powerful young fellow in that fashion. But the skill of these Thugs
is a thing truly diabolical. I remember one instance well. One night, just
upon dusk, two men of my regiment were entering the gate of the

cantonments. The guard saw them pass, and one was relating a story to
the other. The man telling the story expected his comrade to laugh at
the conclusion of the anecdote. Hearing nothing, he turned and found
that he was walking alone and talking to the empty air. Thinking his
comrade had slipped aside and played a trick upon him by leaving him
to himself, he went on to the barrack-room. Later the second man was
missing, and inquiries were made. A search followed, and the dead
body of the unfortunate man was found under the wall of the
cantonments. He had been seized and strangled by Thugs when actually
walking beside a comrade, and the latter had known nothing of it.