The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1939-02-18
INsTALLMENT THIRTY-oNE

INSTALLMENT THIRTY ONE
In the summer palace the solid
ancient walls cracked at the first
shock of the quake and for a little
time, held together by their own
vast weight, tottered before fall
ing. the east side inward, the west
side outward upon the ornate porte
and geraniums.
The east wall buried Miss de
Souza, the nurse, Lady Eskeths
two frightened maids and four
Indian servants, and the west wall
put an end TO the two Sikhs and
the porter on guard at the en-
trance. The servants who escaped
ran from the house into the park
in the direction of the bazaar. and
here the flood caught them, sweep
ing them to death.
In what remained of the palace
Lord Esketh, in the teakwood bed
ornamented with mother-of-
alone remained alive. The wall and
part of the roof slipped away and
the driving monsoon rain swept in,
striking his face. soaking the bed
clothes, rousing him for a moment
to consciousness out of the deliri-
UNI which for IA hours had kept
him writing on the bed, crying
out at the phantoms which tor
mented him. now cringing. now
10 hft,acalf thn
floor, for the fever and pain were
violent and drove him to behave
like mailman.
Now, Weakening slowly in little
gusts of consciousness beneath the
flood of the monsoon rain, he
thought at first that he was back
again in the luxury of the house
in Hill Street and that pipe had
burst in room above his head.
He would try to shout for Bates.
and then the delirium would seize
him again. thrusting him back into
a horrible world of dreadful
shapes; but with each returning
wave of consciousness his mind be-
came little more clear, and each
time the wave lasted little
longer, until presently he was able
to understand b ythe glare from
the burning town that he was in
strange place. in an unfamiliar
shattered room, and that the
water which fell on his face came
not from broken pipe, but from
the sky itself, a sky thick with
clouds which reflected the light
/ of the flames on the earth below
him.
Raising himself with a frantic
effort, he tried again TO make the
hideous swollen tongue articulate
the name of Bates. Then desperate
I ly he managed to slip to the side
of the bed.
Inch by inch he made his way
under the beating rain across the
turkey-red carpet. Twice he fell,
but at las. he reached the door,
and with surging of that mon
strous vitality, raised himself slow
ly until at last he was standing.
tearing at the gilt door handle.
But the door did not move be-
cause behind il there lay tons of
fallen stones and beams and the
crushed bodies of Miss de Souza
and Edwina's two maids. Wildly
he tried to force it open, gurgling
and choking in an effort to make
the swollen tongue cry out: Help
me. Save me, / am Lord Esketh
Il. the great and powerful Lord
Esketh. I'll pay you what you
want. I'll give you everything
have, only get me out of here.
Help me, Save me-"
But the tongue was silent, SO
swollen now that 1t had begun To
choke him. Then in the wild de-
lirium he had a sudden vision of
the face of Bates, cold, white
damp, hating him, full of con.
tempt. The door handle came away
suddenly. and in a final paroxysn'
of pain he fell with all his huge
weight. and his aching. burning
head struck the marble top of the
Victorian wsshstand. Then merci.
fully he was beyond pain. beyond
delirium. and in the reflected glow
from the burning city he lay still
at last on the soaked turkey-rec
carpet beneath the flood of the
monsoon.
1t was the Untouehable quarter
which suffered worst of all because
il lay in the lowest part of the
city just across the river from the
burning CHATS and on 1t fell not
only the weight of the water itself
but the whole burden Of shattered
trees and wrecked houses anc
corpses which the flood bore upor
its angry breast.
At the first shock OF the quake
Mr.. Jobnekar, taking his wife anc
three doli-like children with him
had gone down into the littl,
square 10 Join the crowd which
had gathered there, but before hs