The Secret of Abdu El Yezdi Read Online Free PDF Page A

crossed to an occasional table and looked down at a pair of white gloves folded upon it. A tiepin had been placed on them. He picked it up and examined it. At its top, a small disk of gold bore two symbols, one looking like the letter C but with two small lines extending outward from the left edge of its curve, the other like a mirror-image number seven. Letters, Burton was sure, but—again!—from a language he was unfamiliar with.
    He pocketed the pin and sketchbook, left the cabin, and found Sister Raghavendra standing in the corridor.
    â€œHello, Sadhvi. Have you been waiting for me? Why didn’t you knock?”
    â€œI didn’t want to interrupt. But what are you doing running around? You should be in bed. You’re not well.”
    â€œI’m shaky, I’ll admit. Gad, that potion you gave me certainly brought the fever to crisis! Really, though, I’m thoroughly fed up with my bed. Don’t worry—I won’t overdo it. I want to visit Oliphant, then I’ll settle in the library and I shan’t move until we’re home.”
    â€œYou’ve already overdone it, Richard, and there’s no point in seeing Oliphant. The captain called me to attend him an hour ago. The man is a raving lunatic. Apparently he screamed and babbled his way through the early hours then lapsed into a catatonic trance. He’s neither moved nor said a word in the past three hours. Poor William! He was such a good soul. Why in heaven’s name was he killed?”
    â€œThat’s exactly what I’m trying to find out.”
    Burton looked the Sister up and down and gave a broad smile—not something he did very often, for he knew it looked as if it hurt him, and fully exposed his overly long eye teeth. Indeed, Raghavendra blanched slightly at the sight of it.
    â€œBound and smothered, I see,” he said.
    She glanced down at her voluminous bell-shaped skirts, tightly laced bodice, and frilly fringes, then reached up and patted her pinned hair.
    â€œWoe is me,” she said, “a genteel woman of the British Empire, which spreads its civilised mores across the globe and slaps its shackles on every female it encounters. Are we really so dangerous?”
    â€œNone more so than you, Sadhvi,” Burton replied. “Such beauty has, in the past, caused empires to fall.”
    â€œNo, no, I’ll not have that. It is men who create and destroy empires. Women are just the explanation they employ to excuse their ill-disciplined passions and subsequent misjudgments. History is proof enough that your so-called superior sex is utterly inferior and wholly lacking in common sense.”
    â€œThank you kindly, ma’am,” Burton said, with a slight bow, and it struck him that—though it was Isabel Arundell he loved and would marry—he possessed few friends as loyal, true, and forthright as Sadhvi Raghavendra.
    â€œAnd the reason for this bondage,” the Sister said, gesturing down at her clothes, “is that our passengers are about to board, so I thought it prudent to sacrifice my comfort and liberty, especially after having so shocked Lord Elgin with my thoroughly practical Indian garb. That’s why I’m here, Richard: to fetch you. We’re to greet the newcomers in the ballroom. After that, you can—and you will—take to the library.”
    Burton grunted his acquiescence and followed her along the corridor.
    â€œHave they told you who our passengers are?” he asked.
    â€œLord Stanley,” she replied. “And who? His secretary?”
    â€œPrince Albert.”
    â€œPrince Albert? The Prince Albert? The HRH Prince Albert?”
    â€œThat one, yes.”
    â€œBless me!”
    â€œIndeed. I feel our homecoming has been somewhat overshadowed. We are eclipsed.”
    Sister Raghavendra put her hands to her face and exclaimed, “Imagine! I might have met him in my smock! Thank goodness I changed!”
    â€œAnd there