The Bronze Bell

೾The Bronze Bell

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Title: The Bronze Bell
Author: Louis Joseph Vance
Release Date: February, 2006 [EBook #9927] [This file was first posted on October 31, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE BRONZE BELL ***

E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Janice Piette, Sheila Vogtmann, Elaine Walker, and Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders

THE BRONZE BELL
By LOUIS JOSEPH VANCE
1909

To
F. E. Z.
Chatelaine of Juniper Lodge
This story is dedicated by one to whom her hospitality, transplanted from its Kentucky home, will ever remain a charming memory.

[Illustration: "NOT ONCE DID HE LOOK BACK WHILE AMBER WATCHED--HIMSELF DIVIDED BETWEEN AMUSEMENT, ANNOYANCE, AND ASTONISHMENT" (PAGE 14)]

CONTENTS

CHAPTER
I DESTINY AND THE BABU
II THE GIRL AND THE TOKEN
III MAROONED
IV THE MAN PERDU
V THE GOBLIN NIGHT
VI RED DAWN
VII MASKS AND FACES
VIII FIRST STEPS
IX PINK SATIN
X MAHARANA OF KHANDAWAR
XI THE TONGA
XII THE LONG DAY
XIII THE PHOTOGRAPH
XIV OVER THE WATER
XV FROM A HIGH PLACE
XVI SUNRISE FOR TWO
XVII THE WAY TO KATHIAPUR
XVIII THE HOODED DEATH
XIX RUTTON'S DAUGHTER
XX A LATER DAY
XXI THE FINAL INCARNATION

CHAPTER I
DESTINY AND THE BABU
Breaking suddenly upon the steady drumming of the trucks, the prolonged and husky roar of a locomotive whistle saluted an immediate grade-crossing.
Roused by this sound from his solitary musings in the parlour-car of which he happened temporarily to be the sole occupant, Mr. David Amber put aside the magazine over which he had been dreaming, and looked out of the window, catching a glimpse of woodland road shining white between sombre walls of stunted pine. Lazily he consulted his watch.
"It's not for nothing," he observed pensively, "that this railroad wears its reputation: we are consistently late."
His gaze, again diverted to the flying countryside, noted that it had changed character, pine yielding to scrub-oak and second-growth--the ragged vestments of an area some years since denuded by fire. This, too, presently swung away, giving place to cleared land--arable acres golden with the stubble of garnered harvests or sentinelled with unkempt shocks of corn.
In the south a shimmer of laughing gold and blue edged the faded horizon.
Eagerly the young man leaned forward, dark eyes the functions of waiting-room and ticket and telegraph offices. From its eaves depended a weather-worn board bearing the legend: "Nokomis."
The train, pausing only long enough to disgorge from the baggage-car a trunk or two and from the day-coaches a thin trickle of passengers, flung on into the wilderness, cracked bell clanking somewhat disdainfully.
By degrees the platform cleared, the erstwhile patrons of the road and the station loafers--for the most part hall-marked natives of the region--straggling off upon their several ways, some afoot, a majority in dilapidated surreys and buckboards. Amber watched them go with unassumed indifference; their type interested him little. But in their company he presently discovered one, a figure so thoroughly foreign and aloof in attitude, that it caught his eye, and, having caught, held it clouded with perplexity.
Abruptly he abandoned his belongings and gave chase, overtaking the object of his attention at the far end of the station.
"Doggott!" he cried. "I say, Doggott!"
His hand, falling lightly upon the man's shoulder, brought him squarely about, his expression transiently startled, if not a shade truculent.
Short and broad yet compact of body, he was something round-shouldered, with the stoop of those who serve. In a mask of immobility, full-colored and closely shaven, his lips were thin and tight, his eyes steady, grey and shallow: a countenance neither dishonest nor repellent, but one inscrutable. Standing solidly, once halted, there remained a suggestion of alertness in the fellow's pose.
"Doggott, what the deuce brings you here? And Mr. Rutton?"
Amber's cordiality educed no response. The grey eyes, meeting eyes dark, kindly, and penetrating, flickered and fell; so much emotion they betrayed, no more, and that as disingenuous as you could wish.
"Doggott!" insisted Amber, disconcerted. "Surely you haven't forgotten me--Mr. Amber?"
The man shook his head. "Beg pardon, sir," he said; "you've got my nyme 'andy enough, but I don't know _you_, and--"
"But Mr. Rutton?"
"Is a party I've never 'eard of, if you'll