Supping With Panthers Read Online Free Page A

live.’
    ‘Are you serious?’
    Once again, Eliot hooded his eyes. ‘I don’t know’ he said at last, ‘but it seems clear that the higher up the mountain you go, the greater the incidence of these cases becomes. It is my theory that the local people have observed this phenomenon and explained it by constructing a whole mythology.’
    ‘Meaning all this talk of demons, and such rot?’
    ‘Exactly so.’ Eliot paused, and slowly opened his eyes again. He glanced over his shoulder and despite myself I did the same. The moon, as ghostly and pale as the mountain peaks, was almost full, and the jungle behind us seemed a patchwork of blues. Eliot stared at it, as though trying to penetrate its very depths; then after a while he turned back to me. ‘Vetala-pancha-Vinshati,’ he said suddenly. ‘When the brahmin spoke that phrase, you recognised it, didn’t you?’
    I nodded.
    ‘How?’
    ‘I was told,’ I replied, ‘by a Professor of Sanskrit, no less.’
    ‘Ah.’ Eliot nodded slowly. ‘So you’ve met Huree?’
    I tried to remember if that had been the Babu’s name. ‘He was fat,’ I said, ‘and damnably rude.’
    Eliot smiled. ‘Yes, that was Huree,’ he agreed.
    ‘So how do you know him, then?’ I asked.
    Eliot’s eyes narrowed. ‘He visits here occasionally,’ he replied.
    ‘Up here?’ I chuckled to myself. ‘But he’s so confoundedly fat! How the devil does he manage it?’
    Eliot smiled again faintly. ‘Oh, in the cause of his research he could manage anything.’ He reached inside his pocket. ‘Here,’ he said, taking out a folded sheaf of papers. Those articles I mentioned, the ones that persuaded me to come up here – it was the Professor who wrote them.’ He handed the papers across. ‘He sent me this one just a month ago.’
    I glanced down at it. ‘The Demons of Kalikshutra,’ I read. ‘A Study in Modern Ethnography.’ And then there was a sub-title, in smaller print ‘Sanskrit Epics, Himalayan Cults, and the Global Tradition of the Meal of Blood.’ I frowned. ‘Sorry,’ I said. ‘Should I be interested in this?’
    There seemed to be mockery in Eliot’s glance. ‘So Huree didn’t tell you what “vetala-pancha-Vinshati” meant, then?’ he asked.
    ‘Yes, of course he did, it’s the word for demon.’
    Eliot pursed his thin lips. ‘Actually,’ he said, ‘around here it means something much more specific than that’
    ‘Oh, really?’
    Eliot nodded. ‘yes. Something which, with my interests, I’ve always found particularly intriguing – the association of myth, with medical fact, you see, being particularly suggestive in the regions of the East…’
    ‘Yes, yes’ I said, ‘but tell me – what does the damn phrase mean}
    Eliot turned again, to stare at the jungle and the pale, ghostly moon. ‘It means “drinker of blood”, Captain’ he said at last. ‘Now do you see? That is why the hill-people smear their statues with goat-blood. They are afraid that otherwise the demons will come and drink from them’ He laughed softly, and a strange sound it was. ‘vetala-pancha-Vinshati,’ he whispered to himself. He turned back to face me. There is an obvious English word for it’ he said, ‘much more precise than “demon”’ He paused. “Vampire”, Captain. That is what it means.’
    I paused, staring at his face bathed silver by the moon, then opened my mouth to ask him if he really thought the tribesmen drank blood. At that very moment, however, I heard my sentries call out; I looked round and jumped to my feet There was the sudden crack of a rifle shot. So much for our chat, I thought; as is ever the soldier’s fate, I was being summonsed away by action’s call. I hurried through the camp to find the sentries standing by the edge of the path. ‘Russians, sir,’ said one of them, still holding his gun. He gestured with the weapon. ‘Out there, three or four of them. I think I got one of the bastards in the back.’
    I drew out my revolver, then led