Supping With Panthers Read Online Free

that ever stop anyone’s attacks?’
    Eliot shrugged languidly. “The superstitions here can sometimes seem rather strange.’
    ‘Yes, so I’ve been told. Demon worship, and all that. What lies behind it, do you think? Anything much?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ said Eliot. He poked at the fire and watched the sparks fly up into the night. Then he glanced back at me, and as he did so his air of relaxation seemed suddenly gone. I was struck again by the depths that seemed to wait behind his eyes, remarkable in a man so much younger than myself. Two years I have worked here,’ he murmured at length, ‘and there’s one thing, Captain, that I am sure about. The mountain folk are terrified of something – and it isn’t just superstition. In fact, if s what drew me to come here in the first place.’
    ‘What do you mean?’ I asked.
    ‘Oh, odd things reported in out-of-the-way journals.’
    ‘Such as?’
    Eliot glanced up at me, and his eyes narrowed. ‘Really, Captain, you wouldn’t be interested. Ifs a rather obscure branch of medical research.’
    ‘Try me.’
    Eliot smiled mockingly. ‘It’s to do with the regulation and structure of the blood.’ My face must have betrayed me, for his smile broadened and he shook his head. ‘To put it simply, Captain, the white blood cells take a long time to die.’
    Well, this had me sitting up, and no mistake. I stared at the man in astonishment. ‘What,’ I asked, ‘you don’t mean to say they can prolong a chap’s life?’
    ‘Not exactly.’ Eliot paused. ‘They may give the illusion of it, perhaps, but only for a while. You see’ – he paused again – ‘they also mutate.’
    ‘Mutate?’
    ‘Yes. Like a cancer spreading through the blood. It ends up destroying the nerves and the brain.’
    ‘Sounds pretty grim. What exactly is the disease, do you think?’
    Eliot stared at me; then he shook his head and looked away. ‘I don’t know,’ he admitted reluctantly. ‘I have only had a couple of chances to examine it’
    ‘But wasn’t it to study the sickness that you came here?’
    ‘Yes, originally. But I soon found out that the natives discouraged interest in anything to do with the disease and, since I am their guest here, I have respected their wishes and not pursued my research. I have had more than enough to do here as it is, establishing my hospital and fighting diseases which are all too well-known.’
    ‘But even so – you did say you had seen a couple of people with your mystery disease?’
    ‘Yes. It was shortly after Lady Westcote was abducted – you heard about that, no doubt?’
    ‘Very briefly. A terrible case.’
    ‘It appears,’ continued Eliot dispassionately, ‘that intrusions of such a kind, from the outside world, will always disturb the sufferers from the illness, draw them out from their hiding-places to stalk the foothills and jungles round about.’
    ‘Goodness!’ I exclaimed. ‘You make them sound like wild beasts!’
    ‘Yes,’ agreed Eliot, ‘but that is very much how the natives here regard them – as the deadliest of foes. And from my own observation of the two cases that I mentioned I think they are right to be so afraid, for the disease is indeed deadly – highly infectious, and destructive of the mind. That is why I am willing to help you now, for the presence of the Russians here is dangerous in the extreme. If they remain here long, God knows how rapidly the disease may start to spread.’
    ‘And is there no cure?’ I asked, appalled.
    Eliot shrugged. ‘None that I know of. But the two cases I treated were not with me for very long. I had them a week or so, but it was a race against the process of atrophication. In the end I lost out – the brain-sickness got to them. Both the victims disappeared.’
    ‘Disappeared?’
    ‘Back to where they had come from.’ Eliot turned and gestured at the forest and the distant mountain peaks. ‘You know the legend’ he said. ‘That’s where all the demons