Part 3:
Ist July.
We have shifted to Savedra castle from the hotel. But a strange thing happened before we shifted, which made all of us a little tensed. The hotel management was mostly responsible for it, and we had to be very rude to him for that — let me write in details.
Even in the small sized hotels, it never happens, that the room 'A' key would also open room 'B'; here on the very first day I discovered that the lock of Krole's room could easily be opened by Saunder's Room keys. We all were annoyed, but the area around the hotel was so beautiful and so quite, we decided to stay there.
Today in the morning Krole came to my room shouting and using German slangs for the hotel manager — he was very angry, I gave him a glass of water first and after he calmed down a bit, I learned that last night someone entered his room and left everything at sixes and sevens.
'Could he take anything?' I asked anxiously — 'No, he couldn’t, but it was quite easy for him, just think, had the diary been there with me, what would have happened?
One thing I forgot to mention, that in London, Krole copied a part of the diary where the 'gold making process' was explained, in coded script and kept the diary in his bank locker. We had distributed those papers amongst ourselves; each of us had three A4 sheets to carry. Now I think — had this safety measure not been taken what could have happened!
Saunders went straight to the manager's room and started scolding him vehemently. The gentleman was almost in tears, he said that since the hotel's inauguration - twenty-six years ago, no such thing happened there. When we interrogated the night watchman - Pedro, he said one tourist came looking for a room last night, it was one a.m. and when he told him that there was no room available in the hotel, the tourist then took a seat and offered him a cigarette. Pedro couldn't refuse the expensive French cigarette. And with just one drag of that cigarette he fall asleep and wake up only in the morning. 'How did he look?' Krole asked, ‘The face was covered with beard and moustache and a dark glass', replied Pedro. He also said that the thief must have climbed up on the second floor balcony by the water pipe and once he reached the balcony, the stairs were just a few meters through the passage.
Now – at this point of conversation I asked Krole that so much happened in his room and how come he didn't wake up?
He said last night he had taken two sleeping pills, as he wanted to have some good sleep before we start the work.
As Krole didn't loose any money or any of his belongings and we were also leaving the hotel, we decided to not to think about it any more. The manager said he would inform the police, and would ask them to enquire about all the new tourists who visited the place within the last couple of days.
After reaching the castle, we have inspected around and seen the entire castle thoroughly in the daylight. The plan of the castle was quite complex and one really cannot get a clear idea at one go. Quite frankly — had Pablo not been there with us, we would have lost our way innumerable times. We already heard that one of the eastern rooms on the 1st floor was locked. Today we saw it. There was quite huge a lock hanging on the door. Though we tried a lot but could not have any luck opening it.
'It would be funny to try any of our keys to open this lock'. Said Krole 'anyway we are going to stay here, so one day we would try with a hammer or something heavy to break this open. Saunders seemed a little morose since yesterday. He has this thought that there is some connection between the gypsy lady's forecast and the comments made by the spirit. He said Madame Reneta said, 'I see death' and yesterday the spirit communicated 'the price of gold is the price of life.' Now friends, if I see my life is at stake, then I would leave this project immediately and not only that — even Mustafa's life is equally priceless to me.
But Krole was very optimistic — he said, ‘don’t think much about the gypsy lady’s forecast. Gold cannot have any connection with death. And what Zabir Hayan’s spirit meant was —Alchemic gold is a priceless thing’.
Exactly at 12 noon we started our experiment by setting fire in the oven.
The proceedings were very simple — it only required time and patience. Today we had to burn different plants and collect their ashes. The other thing we did was to weight the ingredients (especially lead, sulphur and table salt) and put them into different containers. Oh! Yes! Another thing the rainwater had been stored in the oval shaped water tank by Pablo.
Its 10 pm. We all have slept in shifts because at least two of us should always be there in the laboratory. Pablo ‘s duty was to guard the place through the night so he also slept for a couple of hours in the after noon.
4 th July
Nothing worth mentioning had happened over the last three days, that's why I didn't write. Today's scheduled work is also going fine. But in the afternoon something exciting happened which I think is mentionable — I heard the sound of Saunders' alarm clock from the next room at 12.30 p.m. and understood he would come to work and I would have to sleep now, though I knew I could not sleep, as my nerves were very much awakened, but I had to maintain the routine, so I left the laboratory immediately after Saunders entered and decided to survey the castle within these three hours.
Unknowingly I walked directly towards the closed door on the 1st floor.
One thing was really disturbing me - why would only one room among the twenty-six rooms of this castle be locked?
After climbing the stairs of the 1st floor, I walked through the dark passage towards the closed door. The door was huge — ten feet in height and four & half feet in width. Decorative copper plates were fitted on the door. Intricate designs on the lock were also quite visible. I was carrying a torch and after searching the door from top to bottom with its light I found a thin crack. I was in a dilemma - if I put the torchlight through the crack then I do not have a place to put my eyes through.
Finally I took off my spectacles and put my right eye on the crack.
I never thought that I would be able to see anything inside a locked, dark room. But even through that 1/4th inch narrow crack I could see that the room was not at all dark, possibly light was coming through some skylight or through a window. I could also understand that the light had a yellow tint in it — most probably the walls were painted in yellow or the window had yellow glass fitted.
No further investigation was possible for me; I knew only one person could help me; I came out of the castle in search of that other person.
It didn't take much time to find out Pablo. He was sitting under an oak tree in the compound of the castle and trying to set up a catch for hedgehogs. He said he had seen one in the bushes around the oak tree. I said, 'let the hedgehog wait for some more time to get captured, and you come and do a small work for me.'
I showed him the room and asked him to go up on the third floor and find out whether there was any sky-light or something like that on that room or not.
Pablo came back in ten minutes; totally out of breath; his eyes were twinkling in excitement “professor - come with me!” he breathed.
He did not leave my hand until we reached the second floor terrace; he was literally pulling me by my hand. The moment we reached on the terrace he pointed his finger towards a specific direction and shouted “there’s the sky-light, see what all magnificent things are there in that room.'
I looked through the skylight and got so excited that I immediately broke the glass of the skylight; collected some rope; helped Pablo to climb down. And got the shock of my life when finally Pablo climbed up to me with three golden statues in his hand.
He was holding one life size squirrel, one owl and one rose — when I rubbed them with my handkerchief the blinding glitter suggested that they were undoubtedly made of 100% pure gold.
And of course there was no doubt about the fact that the gold was made by the thirteenth century Spanish alchemist Manuel Savedra. Surely enough, now I know why did he call himself an artist, because he was not only a great alchemist but also a goldsmith of a class. Even the famous Italian goldsmith Benvenutu Chellini's works would seem very dull in front of these works of art, I thought.
5th July
Initially I thought I would not show these objects to Saunders and Krole. But keeping Saunders' depression in mind I showed them the statues.
Actually Saunders lost his excitements with in two days since we started our work — one primary reason for that was …as a scientist it is quite tough to accept the methodology of alchemy on a serious note. I can understand this and respect the feeling. But being an Indian, I can't ignore things like spirits, ghosts, mantras and chants etc. In my own life I had come across so many things for which science does not have any explanation. But Saunders is a pure Englishman; he does not believe in any 'Mumbo Jumbos'.
But, now Saunders' attitude has changed and the only reason for that is the gold, made by Savedra.
We have displayed the statues on a shelf in our laboratory. I don't know how much the beauty of the room is enhanced, but surely I can say that the chances of a visit by robbers are now much higher. Anyway all three of us are carrying weapons.
Saunders is a crack shot hunter, Krole is also good with his pistol and I always carry my annihilin gun in my pocket. So there is no reason to be afraid of.
Pablo is guarding the compound in the nights; he could finally catch the hedgehog, so he is very happy with both his mongoose and hedgehog.
It seems that it will take two more days for us to finish the work. Today that 'semi-liquid thing' (as mentioned in the diary) has been made. It looks quite peculiar. Its colour appears to be different from different angles. And possibly for the existence of mercury all the colours have a silver tint.
6th July
Today something serious has happened which made us to believe that someone is still following us. In the morning when Pablo came to us with the news — we followed him to the garden and found some unknown footprints. And they were almost everywhere. Some of them were very close to our laboratory's window. Strangely enough Pablo could hear nothing. But then again it's not very surprising at all, as there are many ways to enter the castle compound, other than the main gate. The seven hundred year old wall is broken in many places. Anyone can enter through any of those broken parts; can hide behind the bushes and keep an eye on our activities. Now onwards Pablo should be more cautious.
It is 9 a.m and I have just started writing my diary after finishing the coffee. Its time for Krole to go to sleep, but I am not sure whether any of us can sleep tonight. Today it is scheduled to mix the semi-liquid substance with rainwater and to purify it for seven hours continuously. After that we need to pray to our gods and goddesses and try all the metal stuff we are carrying, into that semi liquid substance to check whether we are successful or not. If the result doesn't satisfy us, we do not know what would be our next step. Probably we would have to act as good boys and go back home. I do not know why? But I have a feeling that our experiment is going towards success.
7th July
Extreme sadness.
All the slogging, all the efforts and endless patience has gone in vein, the liquid we made through the alchemic process could not turn any metal into gold. We tried everything we had with us in that liquid but nothing happened. Though one thing we could understand that this thing had some specialty; it should be cold by this time but whenever I take my hand close to it, it feels like innumerable invisible needles are pinning my hand from nowhere.
Savedra had clearly stated in his diary that this liquid couldn't be touched. Saunders had carried Mustafa out of the laboratory; he had gone to the garden and was sitting helplessly on a half broken bench. Krole was sitting on a stool and staring at the oval water tank as if he was in a trance. That bat was still hanging from the ceiling. It was there in the same place since it came inside on the very first day.
I could never realize Krole’s state of mind, that he was so shocked until he suddenly became furious about the bat.
Suddenly I saw him taking out his revolver. He abused the bat in German and before I could do anything he shot it. But surprisingly the dead bat didn't fall; it kept on hanging the same way, only droplets of blood started dripping from it's body on the floor.
Saunders heard the firing and ran straight up to the laboratory. He took a few seconds to understand the situation and then started scolding Krole violently.
I immediately went out of the laboratory. I was really feeling very tired after so many long working hours, night shifts and failure at the end. Generally, none of my expeditions were unsuccessful, but I think this time it was one.
7th July, 11 pm
The most shocking and memorable day in my life. All those spine-chilling events happened within ten minutes of Krole- Saunders's fight. Let me now describe how everything happened.
I went to the garden instead of going to my own room after coming out of the laboratory. Two-three minutes before there was a quick rainfall, but now the sun was shining bright on the sky. When I came out and looked at the eastern sky, 'Mull Hassen' the highest peak of Spain welcomed me. A beautiful pair of rainbows above the peak were adding amazing colours to the sky. Suddenly, a sound of a half-uttered cry brought me down on earth from the two beautiful rainbows. Following the sound I ran as fast as I could and found Pablo — lying on the grass; senseless. He had a black spot on his jaw and blood was dripping from this mouth.
The next moment some noises came from the direction of the laboratory. I ran again towards the noise; but I had to stop at the door.
Rufus Blackmore standing facing Krole and Saunders with a .38 colt revolver and with a devilish smile.
“ The moment you cross the door, you are a dead man”, he warned.
After saying this, he first collected the coded formula papers from the table and then he moved towards the shelf where the golden statues were kept.
I still shiver in horror to visualize what happened the next.
A hairy ball-like thing jumped out of Saunders's lap; traveled all the distance through air at the speed of thunder and attacked Blackmore. Blackmore’s revolver went out of control and got fired, Krole had a close shave as the bullet missed him by a few inches and broke a glass retort.
And with that, Blackmore lost his balance and fell into the tank at the center of the room. Mustafa went back to his master after taking his revenge by giving deep scratch marks on Blackmore's face with his claws. The moment Blackmore's body touched the liquid; he started trembling as if he got an electric shock and then remained motionless. All three of us kept watching with our three pairs of eyes wide open — the uncovered areas of Blackmore's body — like his neck, his face, his hands- they all were turning into dazzling gold — very fast.
Saunders whispered “the price of gold …the price of life”.
So in Savedra's alchemy living things are required to make gold instead of metals — like human beings, flowers, animals, birds anything living.
The ‘Blackmore’ we can see now, that owl, that squirrel, that rose — they all were mortal living things at some point of time.
Now, they will never talk, never move, and never age as they have all become immortal.
Translated by Victor Kalyan Ghoshe
From The Original Shonku story in bengali by Satyajit Ray
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