The Mysteries of the Dark Jungle
The scene is India in the middle of the 19th century. Deep in the impenetrable forests of the Dark Jungle, the palace of the Maharajah of Rangnagar is raided by robbers who want to steal his legendary treasure. A battle takes place in which almost all the family and all the servants and soldiers lose their lives. There are only three survivors: Prince Tremal Naik, the Maharajah's little son, Gita, his nurse, and the bold warrior Kammamuri. Kammamuri takes it upon himself to look after the child. He takes him to live in a fisherman's hut by the river and brings him up to become a peace-loving young man who makes the mysterious world of the jungle his home. For a long time Tremal Naik, unaware of the terrible fate his family has suffered, believes Kammamuri to be his father. At the same time, in Aurangpore, Ada, the little fair-haired daughter of the British Colonel Corishant, is kidnapped, disappearing without trace. Her despairing father does not suspect that Mohan Singh, the Maharajah of Aurangpore, is at the same time the secret leader of the Thugs, a fanatical sect, and, believing little Ada to be in possession of mystical powers, is planning to bring her up to become the priestess of the sinister goddess Kali. The girl is taken to a remote valley, where Mohan Singh uses magic powers to put her into a trance and by means of black magic prepares her for her future task of serving the evil goddess. The loss of his daughter Ada almost drives Colonel Corishant mad. He instigates numerous searches but none of them is successful. Ada is nowhere to be found. Colonel Corishant has no one left to comfort him but his wife Sarah and his elder daughter Deborah. Meanwhile, in the jungle, Tremal Naik has learnt from Sonali, a girl he loves like a sister, that Kammamuri is not his real father. However, when he asks about his parents he is merely told that they are dead. Kammamuri conceals his true origins. Years pass by. Ada is still in the hands of Mohan Singh, who in his role of Maharajah, pretends to feel profound pity for the sorrowing parents. One day, when hunting, Tremal Naik comes across a secret underwater passage to the hidden valley in which the Thugs live. In this completely solitary paradise he secretly watches a blonde girl: Ada. Fascinated by Ada's grace and beauty, Tremal Naik decides he must see her again. Shortly after this, he visits his friend Father Flores, the head of a mission station in the jungle. Here he meets Sarah, Ada's mother. He is immediately struck by the likeness between Sarah and the girl in the jungle. He mentions this to Sarah and hears the story of how Ada was kidnapped ten years earlier. He returns to the valley of the Thugs and succeeds in helping Ada, who is under Mohan Singh's spell, to escape. Meanwhile Corishant, having heard Tremal Naik's story from his wife, and believing that Kammamuri and Tremal Naik are Ada's kidnappers, has Kammamuri's fisherman's hut burnt down and the old man taken prisoner. On their flight from the ruthless Thugs Tremal Naik and Ada battle their way through the pathless jungle. Ada is still under the evil influence of Mohan Singh, but the more she learns to trust Tremal Naik and feels herself protected by his love, the weaker this influence becomes. Tremal Naik's patience and sensitivity gradually help Ada to regain her memory of her origins. Ada is astonished to observe the assurance with which Tremal Naik finds his way in the jungle, his closeness to nature and his knowledge of plants and animals. In the unreal beauty of their surroundings the two young people soon grow to feel love and tenderness for each other. The lovers do not know that Kammamuri has been sentenced to death by Ada's father and that he will only be set free at the very last minute, when Sarah realizes that Kammamuri once saved her daughter's life many years before. Tremal Naik is horrified when he comes upon Kammamuri's burnt-out hut; he makes his way with Ada to Gita, his old nurse. Their arrival
