The Return of Imray
Strickland and the narrator, the protagonists from Rudyard Kipling’s “The Return of Imray,” are struck by Imray’s murder and want to find out who killed him. One day, Imray disappears. Despite his village’s best efforts, he cannot be found. After a few months, Strickland, a policeman, and the narrator move into Imray’s old abode. During a rainstorm the narrator feels as though an unfamiliar presence has entered the dwelling, that it is trying to tell him something. The following day, the narrator’s experience is forgotten when the lodgers notice a pair of snakes nestled in the ceiling cloth. Strickland devises a plan to get rid of them. As he is carrying out his plan, Strickland finds Imray’s corpse and the protagonists realize that he was murdered. Startled by Imray’s death because he had few enemies, they determine that one of his servants must have killed him. The protagonists struggle to come up with a plan to question them—if they question the servants altogether, they’ll lie. If they question them one by one, they’ll run away and tell the others. Feeling as though they have little choice, they begin questioning a servant named Bahadur Khan, who admits to the murder.
Rating: 2.7/5 stars