Snakes and shadows

From the diary of George Moriarty, a.k.a. Cousin George.

Saturday, 19 June 1875

Lt. Pellew took us on an excursion into the swamps north of Bombay. Bombay is part of a cluster of islands and mangrove swamps, joined by a series of elevated causeways. Which were designed by Mr. Jerrold Moriarty. Before he became the Young Cobb, of course. Before Pellew was born (since it was while he was supervising their construction that he meant Grandmother).

Pellew had obtained a small boat -- a large dinghy, I suppose I should say --- so he could row us out and show Wilhelmina how the causeway was designed. Mrs Frazer went along as Wilhelmina's tutor and chaperone. I was there to look after Wilhelmina. Albert came along because he insists on it.

It was interesting. Not as big as the bridge we helped Mr Balderstoke build up in Scotland, but it is interesting. Wilhelmina was quite happy to get to climb around and discuss things with her father. I didn't realize that the city is built on four islands that used to be separated. For years and years they've been building seawalls and filling in the swamp to join the islands together. More than a mile of the original causeway is no longer going over swamp because they've filled in the swamp under it. But there's a lot of swamp it still crosses.

The swamp is full of lots of interesting birds. There are also dangerous snakes, as we found out.

We met another small boat. There were three men in it. One is a Naturalist Mrs Frazer had heard of, a Lithuanian Count named Lindrom. Another was his assistant, a German man named von Klatna. The third was their guide, a boatman called Chirag. When we met them, they had just caught this snake, and were measuring her as part of their survey of species.

Mrs Frazer and Wilhelmina were having a pleasant conversation when someone started shooting at us. Pellew poled the boat away, while the rest of us took cover or tried to figure out where the shots were coming from. Herr von Klatna produced a pistol and started shooting back. The hidden gunman shot the pistol out of his hand.

I could tell the gunman was south of us, at least a hundred yards away. There were several clumps of mangrove that could have been their hiding place. I started to leap from the boat, but Albert thought he should go while I stayed to watch Wilhelmina. I decided he was right, if for no other reason that he can't throw me nearly so far as I can throw him. He went flying over the trees while Wilhelmina returned fire with the flare pistol. In the daylight the flare was useful mostly for blinding our opponents, or possibly setting them aflame if Wilhelmina got lucky. It did seem to prevent the marksman from killing Von Klatna after shooting the pistol.

The gunman was definitely shooting at Count Lindrom's boat, and not at us. The Count was busy with the snake, which was very poisonous and now quite agitated. The boatman was huddled in the bottom of the boat. And Von Klatna was chanting and raising power.

Mrs Frazer had her rifle out by this point and Pellew was firing his pistol. As Albert swung from tree to tree, he was yelling out ridiculously loudly that they should surrender. I suppose he was trying to draw their fire.

It didn't much matter. Klatna finished his spell, which seemed to mystically hurl a snake into the grove we'd all decided was the gunman's location. Then Albert started called for medical assistance, and not for himself.

We arrived first, Pellew and I able to propell our boat much faster then the fearful boatman. There was a very familiar stench of sulphur smoke in the air. There had been two gunmen. One had been struck by a bullet, fell dead in their boat, and then just dissolved into smoke, leaving his clothing behind. The other one was dead, had not dissolved. His whole body was swollen up and discolored, as if he had bruised all over. He had the black silk clothing under his clothes we recognized as the uniform of the League of Shadows.

Count Lindrom assisted in examining the body, and claimed that it appeared as if the man had been bitten by a Manchurian Mamba. Which is a venomous snake more common on the Chinese coast than in India. Except the fang punctures were in the exact center of the man's chest. A snake's mouth could not really do that, of course. And there was no snake.

I knew that Von Klatna had killed him with a spell. And it was obvious that Mrs Frazer, Wilhelmina, and Pellew had all figured it out. But Von Klatna wasn't confessing to it. And it was clearly in self-defense.

Wilhelmina stitched up Von Klatna's hand. Pellew decided we should take the bodies into the city, rather than leave someone with them while the rest of us went to fetch the police.

Once back at the docks, we answered some questions, then were sent back to the bungalow, where we immediately told Inspector MacGreggor and Mr Frazer what had happened. We were still explaining when a constable arrived, wanting to speak to Mrs MacGreggor. Turns out Pellew had told them that she had assisted with her father's paper about venomous snakes and was something of an expert.

It was mambas of South Africa, not India, that she'd studied, but she was willing to go look at the body. It was only natural for the police to invite the Inspector to join in the investigation.

Mrs Cuthbert and Mrs Salmalin had not been at the bungalow when we arrived, but Mrs Cuthbert found out about it and met us at the police office. She agreed that magic had killed the man. Specifically black magic, but even with some of Von Klatna's blood (left in Wilhelmina's bandage kit) and the body of a man he'd killed, she couldn't scry on him. She said he was veiled, and may have even tailored his veil to her, since our arrival in the city has been far from secret.

Mrs Cuthbert was able to talk to the spirit of the dead man, and convinced him to "go into the light" rather than return to the League of Shadow's reincarnation pit. She was happy about that.

The Frazers had an appointment with a professor, a man who used to work with Mr Frazer's grandparents, and he lives here in Bombay. They went to do that while we returned to the bungalow, and the MacGreggors went with the police to interview Count Lindrom. Or at least try to find him.

Wilhelmina is behind on all her projects, so we were busy at the bungalow for the rest of the day. Sir Cosmo almost caught her out. Later in the day so did Mrs Frazer. But so far the surprise is holding. Sir Cosmo went over Wilhelmina's sketches of the causeway supports and cantilevers.

Mrs Frazer's professor turns out to have been a friend of Rip Chigwidgeon, back when he was here working for the Navy. Not only that, he's the man who christened Lady Cowperthwaite! Which means he also knew her mother. So Lady Cowperthwaite had to send a note off to ask if she could come visit.

Some of the clothing the ladies and gentlemen have purchased has been delivered. And there's been invitations issued from Lady Ambridge (the Viceroy's wife), and Admiral Pinchingdale. We're going to be busy, getting everyone ready and delivered!

Mr Salmalin said he wished that Mr Graves were here. David, Stuart, and Mr Caine agreed with the sentiment. Tattvick said we'd just have to try to think of what he would do.

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