The Rose of Tibet Read Online Free PDF

cable, Mr Houston. I thought you would care to hear it.’ He began to read thecable in soft, uninflected tones before Houston was properly aware of the sense of it. It seemed that a party of sixty-six people had been sighted below the west face of a mountain; they were on a rough trail that connected with a trade route. It was not yet known if this route was blocked.
    ‘It’s signed Lister-Lawrence,’ Stahl said. ‘He’s the British representative in Calcutta, and our only source of information at the moment. Of course, we are sending a man to the frontier as soon as possible, but it will be a day or two before we hear anything. The earthquake destroyed all the telegraph lines.’
    ‘The earthquake did,’ Houston said, dazed, and felt the telephone begin to tremble against his ear.
    ‘Apparently it was quite a severe one. We surmise it blocked their route back and they’re going round the mountain. However, we’re very optimistic. With the local people hired out there, our party should come to sixty-six… .’
    The conversation went on for perhaps a minute or two more, and Houston made the necessary responses, but could not afterwards recall what else had been said. He put the phone down presently and stared at it in stupefaction.
    This was the first that he heard of the earthquake.   
        
    Hugh had been 8 and he 10 when they had first realized there was something a bit different about them. That was when he had gone away to boarding school and Hugh had been too young to follow. He had been sick all the term, and Hugh had been sick too, and he had been taken away from that school and the experiment never repeated. He had thought himself over it during the war when they had been parted once for fifteen months without ill effects. But neither had been in any real danger during the war. He had a sensation of danger now.    
        
    By the end of September he had heard a good deal more about his brother. He had heard that he was safe, that the film party was resting in a village, but that their return might be held up by three casualties, none of them, however, very serious.
    He had heard all this in three conversations with Stahl’ssecretary, a young woman called Lesley Sellers, with whom he was now on the best of telephone terms.
    She rang him again on a Monday at the beginning of October, at school, and asked how he was sustaining himself. Houston said very well and inquired what news she had.
    ‘The best, wonder boy,’ said the young woman. ‘They’re on the way back. The boss heard from Lister-Lawrence last night, and he’s expecting a call from Radkewicz some time tomorrow.’
    Houston let out his breath; for Radkewicz was the director of the unit and this was news indeed.
    He said, ‘Where will he be calling from.’
    ‘From Calcutta. A plane has been laid on for them there, so they should be home very soon. I thought you’d like to know.’
    ‘Well, thanks. Thanks very much.’
    ‘Is that all the bearer of glad tidings gets – thanks?’
    ‘What else had you in mind?’
    ‘Oh, I’d leave that to you. You could tell me when we met. We haven’t yet, have we?’
    Her voice was uncomfortably audible in the listening common room. Houston said quietly, ‘Perhaps the first thing would be to organize that. When do you suggest?’
    She had told him her suggestion, and a couple of nights later, for the first time, he had met her.  
        
    She was waiting on the corner of Wardour Street, a little, pretty, lively thing, shivering in her fur collar in the gusty evening. She put her arm through his without self-consciousness and they walked into Soho.
    ‘So you’re the artist?’
    ‘That’s right.’
    ‘You’re not much like Hugh, are you?’
    ‘We’re only half-brothers.’
    ‘I wonder who got the best of the bargain.’
    Houston liked her. She had a sideways look that was provocative without being challenging; a small elfin mobile face. They turned into Gennaro’s, and