Moonlight Secrets (#2 Penderry's Bizarre)

Chapter Seventeen

The sun shone over the bustling port of Bombay, a welcome sight of stone buildings, archways and palm trees. Jim and Westman descended along the gangway and found themselves amidst noise and crowds. Workers and traders jostled to and fro while travellers meandered their way to the train station gate. Their party assembled outside the railway line with their baggage, and McKusky placed a trunk filled with supplies and weapons on the ground. Blinks dodged a snorting bullock, accidentally backing into a man selling garlands. Before he could apologise, the peddler had him snared.

"Garland, sahib?" He put several strings of flowers over Blinks' head. "Very good luck, sahib."

"Cats and dogs," muttered Blinks, trying to fend off an onslaught of fragrant petals.

McKusky chuckled at the servant. "We need all the luck we can get."

A fat lot of good lucky flowers did, thought Jim, thinking of the heather he'd bought. That gypsy woman had swindled him.

Westman smirked and paid the persistent seller. It seemed the easiest way to get rid of the fellow. Then he turned to survey the railway line. "Well, we're here. I trust someone knows where we're going."

"The nearest station is ten miles from the cantonment," said Jim. "Miss Spencer's uncle gave us the address, and I have the map." He patted the canvas bag at his side. "We'll find it."

McKusky nodded. "When we reach our stop, we'll have to find our own way to the cantonment."

"Ten miles on foot in this heat? And through the jungle, too." Westman loosened his tie. "I hope it's cooler in the north. This blasted heat is unbearable."

"Then take off your coat." Jim smiled. He'd had the forethought to dress light in khaki trousers, boots, and a linen shirt. He led the way aboard the train. "I said you should've worn the white suit."

"The day I wear white will be the day I'm anointed a saint."

They boarded and set off on the long journey. By the following day, they reached the end of the track and hired two elephants and a guide to take them to the cantonment in Chagra.

"I don't feel well," moaned Blinks.

The passenger box atop the elephant rocked precariously. Jim could sympathise with the servant. The train ride had been hot, uncomfortable, dusty, sweaty and smelly. And now there was a risk of motion sickness, too.

Pale as an apparition, Blinks reached under the wilting marigold garlands to clutch his stomach. "I never got seasick on the voyage. What do they call this? Elephant-sickness?"

"Oh, I don't know," said McKusky from the rear elephant. He leaned against their luggage and scratched one of his thick sideburns. "It's rather relaxing."

The sway of the box had a lulling effect on Westman. Now coatless, with his shirt sleeves rolled up and waistcoat unbuttoned, he'd spent the last hour with his head resting on the sun shade post.

Arms crossed and eyes shut, he said, "Blinks, if you're going to be ill, go about it quietly, would you?"

The elephant, adorned with a tasselled blanket, marched onward beneath the dipping sun. Jim took a long drink of water from his canteen and squinted at the sun-speckled fig trees and tall pink mist grass at the edge of the track. A crocodile slid into a lily pond, and a moment later a deer ran across a meadow.

Blinks vomited over the side of the passenger box.

With cries of disgust, Jim and Westman edged away from him.

"I'm sorry," he choked out the words before another wave of nausea struck him.

Westman swatted away a flying insect and peered over the side of the elephant. "I'm tempted to walk. This box is too crowded."