Sherlock Holmes In Japan by Vasudev Murthy

Author:Vasudev Murthy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers India
Published: 2013-03-25T04:00:00+00:00

Professor Moriarty read the wire with mounting frustration:

Search of Bombay–Calcutta Mail before Patna revealed no sign of Holmes and Watson. The attendant said two European men had alighted at Jubbulpore but neither fit the description. Searched the adjacent coach just to be sure. Hindoo sadhoos in ochre robes were singing religious hymns with the passengers. No Europeans were seen. Awaiting instructions.

‘Holmes, you are clever, very clever. But I am not done yet,’ hissed the Professor.

We had shifted to the adjacent compartment and, when the train arrived in Patna, we alighted with the sadhoos and merged into their chaos. Rahman Khan had instructions to handle our luggage separately. We boarded the slow train to Gaya, a town due south of Patna, assisted by Khan, to whom we shall always be indebted. I was now almost completely fit, though tired and dehydrated to some extent. We sat in the fourth-class compartment with dozens of other passengers, all of whom were quite deferential to two holy men travelling to a place of pilgrimage. Holmes had already acquired a more than rudimentary grasp of the local dialect and had completely dissolved into India in a manner of speaking. He later made light of this superhuman effort, saying that the diction, lexicon and grammar of Hindoostani were entirely logical. His rectangular violin case and our other luggage was camouflaged or hidden in other ways. He took up the offer of smoking the local drug, charas, in a smoking pipe called chillum, and convinced our co-passengers that I was dumb and unwell, thus sparing me the possibility of any interaction. He was entirely at home. As far as I was concerned, his astonishing skill as a master of disguise was in evidence in the most profound way. The brown complexion, the long matted hair, the crushed and unwashed robes of the sadhoos, the local mannerisms – none in our circle of acquaintances would have ever believed that two upstanding men with rooms at 221B Baker Street and memberships in exclusive clubs in London might be seen in such garb, sitting on the floor of a filthy coach on the slow train from Patna to Gaya.

On the Bombay-Calcutta Mail, the resourceful Rahman Khan had obtained the ochre robes, sacred ash and matted locks from his sources and, within a couple of hours, we had both been transformed. He understood that we were in danger and readily assisted us in moving our effects to the next coach, which happened to have several sadhoos. He even refused to accept any baksheesh, insisting that it was his duty.

We reached Bodh Gaya, a Buddhist pilgrimage destination associated with the enlightenment of the Buddha. Holmes felt it would be wise to rest here for a few days for two reasons: to shake off our pursuers and to allow me to regain my energy. We walked the distance to the temple complex, hoping to find acceptable lodgings. Only a few years prior to our arrival, Sir Alexander Cunningham had made a serious attempt to rescue this temple from utter ruin.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.