Mirrikh

“ The last camel had departed, the tail of the hindmost mule had vanished over the rocky ridge, a hundred feet or so above the inn, which formed the apex of the mountain pass, Zhad-uan; the shrill “sok! sok!” of the K’ambas was heard no more.
Inside the inn Maurice, Dr. Philpot, and your humble servant stood leaning against the k’ang, contemplating the lifeless body of Mr. Mirrikh, which, still enveloped in its sheepskin covering, lay upon its side at our feet. ”

“ Mirrikh spoke.
“Maurice De Veber, think well before you take the final step,” he said in clear, distinct tones. “What your friends refuse to believe, you know to be the truth. No persuasion of mine has urged you to this act. Say the word and I start on my long journey alone.” ”

“ The rising sun gilds the snow-clad peaks of the lofty Himalayas, they throw back its rays like so many huge reflectors, the plain below us glitters as though strewn with gems.
Standing in the embrasure of one of the tower windows of that ancient shrine of Buddha, I contemplated the scene in silent reverence. As the world’s natural Creator rose to view, I seemed seized with some measure of my friend Mirrikh’s enthusiasm, filled with the thought that it was but a reflection of the spiritual Creator of heaven and earth, whose existence in a less enthusiastic moment I would have denied. ”

“ Instinctively my gaze became riveted upon the planet. I forgot our danger; I heard not the Doctor’s violent exclamations, I was deaf even to Walla’s weeping; I could think only of Maurice—Maurice and the man Mirrikh—of the mighty mystery in which I had become involved.
Were they there? Were they actually there? Had I been there? Had I seen what I had seen, or was it all the outcome of the fearful strain to which my nervous system had been subjected? Perhaps it was hypnotism. Perhaps Padma to pacify me had made me see it? But no. There was the Doctor. He had seen it too. ”

“ Merzilla, my wife, is inside of me at the present moment, George, as truly as I am in my body myself. You grasp the situation; besides that you must remember her for Mirrikh said you saw her when you were on Mars.”
“Do you refer to the girl who stood beside you when Mirrikh delivered his lecture before that great assemblage?”
“Yes, yes!” he cried joyfully. “Then you actually were there? If I had only known it! He said so afterward—but of course I couldn’t see you. Yes, George, that’s the girl. Tell me, what do you think of her? Isn’t she the most superb creature? Heavens! ”

“ If one was a man, then so also was the other. Not an organ, not a muscle, not even the most minute fibre which was not perfectly reproduced.
“It is the spiritual man you behold,” said Mirrikh. “Until the heart ceases to beat, it remains enchained. Its life is eternal, it destruction as impossible as for you to tear one of yonder stars from heaven; and as it is with the Doctor, so also is it with every man on earth. But look now at Maurice and behold a mystery unfathomable to your Western schools of thought.”
Instantly my eyes were upon Maurice. ”

“ Nearer and nearer we approached the surface of the planet. We were descending upon a city beside which London is but an infant. I could see the people swarming through the streets. Here Mr. Mirrikh and his parti-colored face would be no novelty, for every face I saw was of the same mould, half black—half yellow; otherwise the people were like the dwellers on our earth except in the matter of dress, which was, with the men only a simple girdle of some dark cloth about the waist, while the women wore a loose gown of blue material, gathered in about the hips and thence dropping to the feet. ”

“ My dear fellow! How contemptibly shabby you must think me for deserting you!” he exclaimed, “and I owe you an apology too, Doctor. The fact is, I——”
He paused suddenly, for Mr. Mirrikh’s eye was upon him. I shuddered as I saw its steady gaze transform Maurice, for the moment at least, into a being as cold and emotionless as himself.
“Gentlemen, good morning,” said the adept, extending his hand to each of us in turn. “Mr. De Veber, I must inform your friends of the object of this meeting. If we are to start for Mars at midnight there is no time to waste.” ”

“ Mirrikh laughed shortly.
“Now, Doctor; now, Doctor! he exclaimed. “You are not sorry to see me alive, I trust?”
“I have nothing to say about that one way or the other,” replied the Doctor in his most positive fashion. What I say is this—and I stick to it—when I examined you last night you were dead.”
Again the adept gave his peculiar laugh.
“This is a strange country, Doctor,” he said lightly. “The strangest part of it is to see a dead man get hungry. I am most horribly hungry just now, so let us postpone further discussion till after breakfast, if it is all the same to you.” ”

“ Like Mr. Mirrikh’s face, half yellow, half black; yet inside of that body—and I seemed able to look inside without the slightest difficulty, I could see another man, perfect in every particular. This was Maurice De Veber as I knew him—there was no change.
When I first saw him I shouted his name aloud, but now finding that I could not make my presence known, I contented myself with simply looking at him and surveying his surroundings which were, of course, of the highest interest, for then I had not the slightest doubt that I was actually on the planet Mars. ”

“ The change came with the return to consciousness after the real, or imaginary, trip made with Maurice and Mirrikh through the spheres. From that moment the face of Walla Benjow seemed to grow absolutely repulsive to me. I wondered how I ever could have thought it beautiful, I saw it now as I had never seen it, and could see in it nothing more than in the faces of thousands of native women upon whom I had looked since I came to Farther India. ”

“ I say, Maurice, how does it strike you?”
“I am listening,” answered Maurice, quietly.
“How long would it take?” inquired the Doctor.
“That,” replied Mr. Mirrikh, “would depend entirely upon how long you cared to remain in Mars; the passage through the realm of spirit cannot be measured by time; it would be no longer than a thought.”
“Oh! We go by way of the spirit world, do we?” Well, my friend, I want you to understand that I, as a clergyman, with every opportunity to inform myself, utterly deny the existence of the so-called soul of man after death.” ”

“ You heard me singing.”
“How many voices do you usually keep about you? I’ll swear I heard at least six at once.”
“As I was saying, Mr. De Veber,” continued Mirrikh, ignoring the question; “it is useless for me to attempt to explain what your minds—and I say it without the slightest desire to cast reflection—are incapable of comprehending. You ask me how I passed down from the top of the tower to the bottom without meeting you on the stairs——”
“I beg your pardon, I didn’t ask it,” said Maurice; “but I’d like to.” ”

“ Mirrikh’s back vanishing around a turn in the winding stairs.
“Stop!” I whispered. “Maurice, at least let us be decent.”
“I won’t! If he don’t want to meet strangers, neither do we. Come on.”
He crept up the stairs, and I followed him. When we turned the corner there was nothing to be seen of Mirrikh; nor was he on the first platform when we gained it, nor yet on the second and last. Now nothing but a huge cylindrical stone remained above us—nothing save that and the sky.
“Holy smoke!” cried Maurice, dropping into American slang in his excitement. “George, the fellow ain’t here!” ”

“ Maurice followed, his black cloak trailing on the stones as he descended. Mr. Mirrikh came last, looking precisely as he always did.
As they advanced, the yellow lamas arranged themselves on either side of the altar, three and three, for Ni-fan-lu now joined the others. The Doctor and I alone seemed out of place. Now Maurice saw us at last and breaking away rushed toward me.
“Oh, George! My friend!” he burst out; “it is only you who stands between me and the most supreme happiness at this moment! I feel so sorry for you, George!” ”

“ Where is she, George?”
I felt a shiver pass over me. Was he mad?
“Do you mean Walla? She is here, Maurice.”
The girl stood facing him; her lips tightly set, her face as livid as the face of a corpse.
“No, no! I don’t mean Walla at all. You know very well who I mean, George Wylde. You saw her in Mars, Mirrikh told me so. Where is she, I say?”
“I do not understand you,” I replied. “Try and pull yourself together, old fellow. Your mind is wandering. Doctor, for God’s sake do something. He is mad! Unless there is help we shall lose him again.”
“What can I do?” groaned the Doctor. ”

“ The thunder, too, was growing deafening, with claps alternately loud and stifled, short and prolonged, sharp and crackling, while blinding flashes of light illuminated our surroundings with terrible distinctness, only to make the darkness more profound when the change came.
But, as yet, no rain—that was still in reserve. Come it must, we knew, and we ran with all speed, peering about for the hill which Mr. Mirrikh had described.
“It’s no use, George! Either there is no tower, or we must have passed it!” cried Maurice. ”

“ Philpot ”
“Oh, count me in,” blurted out the Doctor, “I have not forgotten that Mr. Mirrikh saved my life.”
“Gentlemen,” he said, after puffing meditatively for a moment, “I have nothing but the friendliest feelings toward you, nor in fact toward any one else. All God’s creatures are my friends, and in a fashion I try to love them all; for by loving his creatures I adore the Almighty himself. White or black, red or yellow, it makes no difference; men are men, intelligence is intelligence. What is it to me that you are representatives of a race widely different from my own?” ”

“ Where is that scoundrel Mirrikh? What——”
“Hush—sh!” he interposed. For God’s sake restrain yourself and remember that we are entirely at the mercy of these people. Look behind you—we are not alone.”
His words produced their effect, for they brought me to a realizing sense of the fact that if I meant to stay by Maurice I had to keep in the good graces of the powers which controlled the lamasery. There was Walla, too! Had I forgotten her?
Yes, Walla was there. When I looked around I saw her.
She lay crouched all in a heap at the foot of the altar where she had first flung herself. ”

“ Mirrikh’s little hand bag which Maurice extended toward me, with an odd twinkle in his eye.
“Heavens! That bag!” I exclaimed. “What a pity we did not have it, when—”
“When he last materialized,” broke in Philpot. “I say no. Spirits have no use for hand bags. I believe you are still an advocate for the ghostly theory, Mr. Wylde?” ”

“ Twenty paces brought us to the white boulder. We came upon it suddenly; almost before we knew it there it was rising before us amid the whirl of snow.
“Is there any one here?” shouted Mirrikh, flashing the lantern about.
Then for the first time I heard that voice which was to have such power to move me later on.
“Help! Oh help us! We are perishing!”
Though spoken with a very marked accent, the words were in our own language. It is hard to express the effect this produced on me, and I am sure with Maurice it was just the same.
“George! It is a woman! She is speaking English!” ”

“ Mirrikh joined in the argument. He said nothing, but walked out into the open as soon as I began it, remaining there until it was over.
The discussion was between Maurice, the Doctor and myself.
“It is no use, George; let that man be what he may, I shall go on,” Maurice had said. “He has made certain promises to me, set up certain claims. So far he has kept his promises and established his claims, and I propose to stick to him. You, if you like, can return to India. Please yourself.” ”

“ They are all Chinamen!” he cried. “Now is the time to see if Mirrikh’s letter is any good.”
Through the arch they came pouring, with a hideous din of beating tom-toms and a formidable display of glistening spears.
I pulled out the letter, glancing hastily at the line of Thibetan characters inscribed upon it, and bowing low, laid it in the hand of the fat Celestial who came shambling toward us, evidently being in command. ”

“ Awake! the morn is freshly breaking!” roared the singer on the balcony below.
“Perdition seize the fellow!” snapped Maurice. “George, where in the mischief do you suppose that man Mirrikh has taken himself to? I will understand this business, I swear I will.”
“Levitated, of course,” I replied ironically. “These Buddhist adepts are wonderful fellows, you know. Why, they have the London Times at Benares every morning within ten seconds of the moment of issue. Railroads they never trouble. ”

“ A human head was there—it was the head of a man—it was the head of Mr. Mirrikh—the face was partly yellow—partly black!
Eyes, nose, mouth—every feature was perfect, yet there was nothing but the head resting on the floor. ”

“ The Doctor was first to wake.
“What is the matter?” Mr. Mirrikh asked with his accustomed calmness.
“The matter! Great heavens, he wants to know the matter! Why man, you are dead! If you ain’t you ought to be, or I’m in the first stages of softening of the brain.”
But Maurice was different.
Perhaps he was only half awake, though, at the time. It was after Ah Schow, who had been awakened by the Doctor’s racket, gave one yell of terror at the sight of our guest and went flying out of doors. Ah Schow, be it understood, was a firm believer in ghosts, and of course he took Mr. Mirrikh for one. ”

“ Maurice said nothing, but Philpot was entirely incredulous. He took another brand from the fire and passed behind the big stone Buddha, calling out that there was no one concealed there. In no other part of the enclosure could a man have successfully hidden, so we found ourselves just where we started out.
“It won’t wash, Wylde,” said the Doctor, coarsely. “You didn’t see him.”
“But I did, though.”
“An optical illusion. You were scared, puzzled; thinking of Mirrikh is what brought it about.” ”