The Gobi Desert (20 page)

One or two details are necessary to give an idea of this extraordinary scene. After nightfall, for most of the time Otto Streep kept Kublai in the rear part of his cage. The front part, thus empty, remained open. Ignoring my pleas, Alzire just stepped into this part. She and the tiger stared at each other. The dear figure, standing there like a slender ghost in red and gold, was only two paces away from the magnificent white monster.

‘Alzire!' I stammered again.

In vain! Alzire motioned me to be quiet, putting a finger to her lips, a finger of her left hand, wasn't it? and she slid her other hand between the bars, and it was this hand, her right hand, that was being licked by the enormous animal.

*

‘Let's go now if you want' she said.

Kublai watched us leave, his eyes hardly visible between the cracks of his eyelids, like rays of emerald glowing in a hearth, lit up from the inside like a child's magic toy. When we switched off the lights we could still see, trained on us, the twin beams of phosphorescent green light.

Once again Alzire turned round, her fingers to her lips as if to send a last kiss to the monster.

‘I won't be gone for long,' she seemed to say. ‘Don't worry, wait for me!'

I didn't know what time it was. Two o'clock in the morning, or perhaps it was three. But what did it matter! I had a right to rest, to relax and to forget. And as for her! It occurred to me that this was the first time that we were sleeping together without being afraid that the door might slowly open and let in some sort of god of Vengeance or Death. There had always been that fear! It had started on the first night. In Khabarovsk, in Vladivostock, in Fouzan, it had never stopped once. So wasn't it now our turn to enjoy a bit of calm, and a bit of peace? Peace and calm! . . . . . I had often heard it said that it would bring misfortune to true Russians to wish for those two things.

We had eaten the partridge and we had drunk the wine – of course! – and equally of course we had drunk the champagne, which thank heavens bore no resemblance to the champagne at Mme Domestici's. Now our room was lit only by a bedside light, and every now and then by the broad sweep of the dazzling searchlights, coming and going in the night, from the nearby warship.

In that semi-conscious state you see things in a particularly strange way! Your consciousness takes pleasure in grouping together different objects according to weird and wonderful associations. The golden bottlenecks of the champagne bottles looked as if they had come from the embroidery on Alzire's silk tunic. Her high-heeled shoes, suddenly lit up by the beams of the searchlights, looked like the outline of two tiny junks sailing in convoy together. On a rosewood table, a plateau rising up out of the darkness, a bunch of black and white orchids stood between two photographs framed in a bluish glass, two photographs which seemed to smile with an indefinable smile.

One was the photograph of Kublai which I spoke about a short while ago. The other was a picture of Alzire, already old, dating from when we were in Khabarovsk, but which I had had enlarged by quite a good photographer in Shanghai. With her large eyes half closed, she had something of mystery about her, which at certain moments merged with the eyes of the tiger. It wasn't cruelty, it was more like irony. And what about Kublai? What was that I could see around his neck? Good heavens, it was Alzire's pearl necklace! I opened my eyes wider. I wasn't dreaming, it really was her necklace! When she took it off just now, she had hung it over the frame of the photograph of the animal for fun. The old fellow seemed quite proud of it! I closed my eyes again.

. . . . . . Only to reopen them almost immediately. Alzire and the tiger were still observing me. The sixty-four pearls of the necklace were still reflecting sixty-four times in the half-darkness the light from the little bedside lamp. My eyes wandered lazily around the surrounding details, making a mental list of what I saw. I remembered the night in Khabarovsk, the last night, which had preceded my arrest, or rather our arrest. Alzire's clothes, then as now, lay scattered around the room. Then there had been a gold sequined dress; now there was this costume of a Manchurian princess, and this wolf in dark velvet, with two mysterious holes instead of eyes, which was also staring at me . . . . What a strange and troubling masquerade! There was something which I couldn't quite see, the gown which she had wrapped around her when she arrived in the taxi. She must have casually dropped it somewhere in a corner of the cabin, after our visit to Kublai. I wasn't going to tear myself out of this wonderful torpor so as to get up and run off to look for it, was I?

Apart from that, I could count everything: the golden-brown shoes; the shiny, smoky-blue trousers, shimmering like metal; the two rubies, glowing like red eyes on the bedside table; lastly, covering the back of an armchair, the dark-red silk tunic, laden with gold. Here, amongst all this heavy embroidery, my imagination could give itself full rein. Chrysanthemums, warriors astride dragons, bridges stretching across raging torrents, mountains shrouded in clouds, and here and there, magnificent butterflies extending their wings. The only thing missing was the jade from Alzire's hair. Where could it be? Ah yes! I remember now, she hadn't removed it from her hair. I only had to stretch out my hand gently to caress it, as gently as possible, the dear child, so as not to . . . . .

And then what? What if I did actually wake her up? It wouldn't be such a big thing, after all!

‘Alzire!'

What was happening? I sat up straight, and now I was wide awake. Where was she? Where could she be? Not by my side, anyway!

*

I said I was
awake
, but was I really? Just then I wasn't sure. And so I remained for some moments, wanting with all my strength not to be awake. It was insane, unbelievable, what was happening! I admit that I didn't understand at first. But I leaped to my feet and looked around the cabin. Nothing. Nothing in the bathroom either! Hastily I looked out into the corridor, but there was no sign of her there. She had gone, vanished. There was just a young boy, dozing in a chair. Quickly I went back inside. Again I started my search, looking behind each and every one of the curtains. There was nothing in any of the three rooms. Nothing. The portholes, wide open in the darkness, made me shudder. Petite and slim as she was, she could easily have squeezed through one of them if she had wanted to.

‘Alzire! Alzire! Where are you?'

Nothing! My God, where could she be? In any event she couldn't be far, thank heavens! I sighed with relief, as I became aware of something which couldn't fail to reassure me: her shoes were still there, right by the bed! She wouldn't have gone out without them, would she? Nor without her gown, since she hadn't brought any nightdress with her. And then there were her rings, her necklace, things which a woman does not like to be separated from. Then just as I was forcing myself to regain my courage with this line of reasoning, I suddenly realised something which I had not noticed until then, something which terrified me. My slippers, my own slippers! Where were they? I had bought them in Tsing-Tao. They were the sort of Moroccan leather slippers which could be fitted nicely into your travel luggage. Now they too had gone!

I couldn't find them anywhere. Nor could I see the black satin gown which I had just been thinking about. It would have been impossible not to see it if it had been there, now that I had switched on all the electric lamps and the cabin was flooded with light. There was nothing on the bed or on the chairs. Nothing underneath them either! Nothing, anywhere!

‘Alzire!' I cried, in a terrible, desperate cry.

*

I thought I heard another cry, even more dreadful, in reply. My hands were shaking as I feverishly tried to get dressed, to throw on whatever clothes I could find. Just then the cabin door opened, and the boy appeared, his face green with terror, his hair stiff and spiky like a hedgehog.

‘You idiot,' I screamed. ‘Didn't you see her? This is terrible, awful! You were asleep!'

I grabbed hold of him and shook him by the collar. Then I sent him off, God knows where. I was moaning in blind terror. I knew exactly what had happened. Of course! Beside myself I set off down the corridor, like a madman.

Now the whole ship seemed to wake up at once. Sirens sounded! Doors opened as people only just awake stumbled out, their eyes all puffy and astonished. I pushed through about half a dozen of them. Just as I got to the end of the deck, I stumbled. A growl could be heard, shaking the whole of the ship down to the tiniest recesses, followed immediately by several seconds of ominous silence; then a roar such as I had never heard, the most terrifying sound since the death of Sanders.

‘Ahong! Ahong!. . . '

*

If I hadn't known which way to run, that dreadful alarm would certainly have been more than sufficient to let me know. The whole of the front part of the ship was already in turmoil. I had to make my way through sombre groups of people, from where there came whispers and exclamations. Finally I managed to pull myself out of the darkness and into the centre of the harsh, dazzling light.

‘My dear friend, what a terrible thing. But you, are you all right?'

It was the captain of the
Paul-Lecat.
He had come straightaway. He still held his mask in his hand, his gown over his shoulder, the same sort of gown that now . . . .

I pushed him aside. ‘Leave me alone, please! Leave me alone! . . . ‘

At last I stood in front of the cage. At first glance it seemed as if nothing had happened. The dividing grill was pulled across to separate the two parts. The front half was open, as it had been at about midnight, at the time of our visit to the tiger. In the rear half, Kublai was stretched out, his head resting on his paws, and seemed to look at everyone with an air of pleasant surprise, giving the impression that he didn't understand what all the fuss was about.

‘Ah! So there you are! And not before time!'

Otto Streep! It was him who was shouting at me! He was standing, barefoot, in his shirt sleeves, leaning against the bars of the cage, with a heavy iron bar in his hand.

‘You can be proud of what you've done! When you have a madwoman with you, you should keep an eye on her more closely!'

‘Where is she?' I cried.

He seized my arm. ‘Where is she, you ask? Don't look! It would be better if you didn't look!'

Too late, I looked! Oh my God, what did I see? Almost nothing, to tell the truth! At my feet was the black satin gown, which I had been looking for so urgently in my cabin just a moment ago. She had come, completely naked under her gown, to meet her destiny. The gown still just about showed the outline of the sad little thing who had worn it. Two patent leather Moroccan slippers emerged at the bottom. That was all! Nothing more!

I fell to my knees, sobbing.

‘I can tell you that it happened quickly,' said Otto Streep to the captain.

In the rear part of the cage, where the drama had taken place, there was nothing! That was what was so surprising. But then on closer inspection, there were two or three strips of torn black satin. And two or three little pools of red. In the middle of the biggest pool, a piece of jade, a water lily in this little lake of blood.

Behind me, in a low voice Streep was busy explaining to more and more newcomers what must have happened, according to him.

‘When the tiger growled, it was already all over. I had managed to get him back into the rear part of the cage, not without difficulty, believe me. I can usually get him to do what I want. For the rest, there is only one possible supposition. The poor girl must have wanted to look at the animal from as close as possible. Once she was inside the cage, in a fatal accident, she must have unknowingly started this mechanism here. It operates both the entrance to the cage and also the dividing grill inside, the one opening when the other has closed, and vice versa. Suddenly she found herself trapped, at the mercy of the creature. It was then that, alerted by her cries, I rushed out of my cabin . . . . But alas! It was too late, as you can see.'

‘This mechanism, designed to be switched on from outside the cage, can it also be operated by someone actually in the cage?' asked the captain.

‘If that person has lost his mind, then yes, certainly it can! That is clearly what must have happened. Three or four steps from where this gentleman is standing, and seized with a sudden yet understandable terror, she would have automatically put her hand through the bars of the cage and clung onto the first thing she found. Fate dictated that it should be the switch. At least that's how I imagine the scene. How else do you think it could have happened . . . . . ?‘

‘Yes,' said the captain, ‘you're right. That's how it must have happened.'

Everyone was quiet now. All that could be heard was the sound of the sobs in my throat, which I tried to hold back.

Otto Streep punched me on the shoulder. ‘Come on! Show that you are a man, for God's sake! Get to your feet, and let's clear this up!'

*

Dawn was just breaking, a dreadful equatorial dawn, warm and pale. I sat in my cabin, staring emptily into space, waiting. It would have been a service to me if anyone could tell me what I was waiting for.

Streep came in, shaved and dressed.

‘Come on, stand up! You need shaking up a bit, damn it! Today's going to be rather busy, you know! It's not going to be worth having done everything that you have done over the past six months, in terms of getting the fruits of your labours, if at the last minute . . . . But I'm not going to lose my head at least! We shall meet the judge at eight o'clock this morning for the legal statement and permission to inter the remains. I have already spoken with the port official. He completely agrees with the way I see things. But you will also have your opportunity to say something, since you are the owner of the animal. But we mustn't let him get annoyed, our little Kublai! It's not his fault after all! But hold on, what's this?'

He had suddenly stopped by the two ruby rings. At the same moment he noticed the pearl necklace draped around the photograph of the tiger.

‘What on earth . . ? She had all this on her, last night? Women are decidedly idiotic, even the best organised, as in this case. But what's the matter with you now?'

Nothing! I had started to weep again, my head in my hands.

‘Come on, be brave. The law will be here any moment now. Do what you want with these jewels. But that's enough of that for today.'

*

Unsteadily I got dressed. Some sort of bell was ringing in my head. When I was ready I got my cap and went up on deck.

Some way off I could see Streep. He was coming towards me. Now it was he who had the eyes of a madman. What on earth could have happened now? On my word of honour, he was staggering.

‘What's the matter?'

‘What's the matter? Come! Come on! Come and see for yourself! Because from now on I am no longer responsible for explaining anything, anything at all!'

He half-turned, and took me towards the tiger's cage. What more could Kublai have done now?

‘Kublai!' I cried, my head pressed against the bars.