Boy's Cinema (1930-31)

Every Tuesday He turned back to the desk, aiid tlioy saw the stopper of the phial lift and rasp homo into the neck of tlic little bottle, cutting off the fumes that it They died away, remained looming th. was throwing out. while the i^hadow above the bottle. It moved again, lifting things about (lie room, and dropping them almost at once. It was as though Morgan was trying out his new- sti:te. To Jack and Percy it appeared as if lie was just as ho had been before, except that liis body was almost invisible—was, in fact, apparent only as a shadow. Aforgan shifted a chair, then switched the light off and on again. He went to the telephone and lifted the receiver. and it was tnicanny to see the shadowy figure bending in ghostly fashion over th(> instrument, with the receiver poised in midair. 'Che two Iieard the thin, squeaky sound of the operator's voice as th«> call wa.s answered, but the Shadow flid not reply. It made no sound, and sud- denly the two realised that Morgan could no longer speak ! His voice had vanished with his body. He slammed the receiver down and moved froni the desk. It appeared, thej; as though complete nnder'land ing of his position came to him. He was voiceless, and he had no liody —and there was no way in whiefr he could regain his own form "-ave by death, when the power of the black phial passed. Right at the beginning of things. th(^ Shadow-Man of the .Tade Box ha<l warned him that a fate worse than death would be his if he persisted—and now that fate had overtaken him ! He was doomed to watidcr the world as a shadow: formless, voicoless--a gliost. Quite motioidess, he remained centre of the room, and then he seemed to go nia<!. He rushed around the Hoor, pulling at broken chairs, tearing pii'tures from the walls and smashing them as tiiough by physical demonstra- tion of the power left in him he could convince himself that ho still retained his old form. ' Ho fluttered about the room like a wild bat. moving in a silence shaltcrc<I only by the shifting of furniture and the hreakniL iif ulass. Finally, he rush< d to the Viarricaded grille began to wrench away th( furniture he had piled the if He slung it behind him, ii i the two saw his filmv hands wrapping on the bars of the grille as it grated open. He passed through it, and his dim-seen form merged with fh*" darkness of the hall be.yond. Gasping, some of the colour blanched froin his face. Percy VVin.slow turned to .Tack. " Poor devil!" he breathed. "If that's the seeiet of the Jade Box—" " We must get the Box and the phial before he comes back !" Jack cut in. "Quickly now!" They stepped clear of the curtains and ran across the room. The black phial was standing harmlessly on the desk, and Jack saw that its stopper BOY'S CINEMA was firm before he lifted it. He dropped it.into the Jade Box, scooping up the cotton fibres which still lay there, and using the wool-like mass to protect the glass. Thar, done, he closed the strange lid of the green casket and slipped the whole thing into his pocket. They hurried from the rocm, peering into the hall. There was no sign of .Morgan's . shadow. Night had com- pletely fallen outside, and they stepped warily into the open air. They moved on to the grass which fringed the drive, and hurried down it. to g<iin the read at the end. " We've got to get away from here wiihout him suspecting us," Jack told Percy. "He'll lind the box gone the moment lie goes back to that room and " "And he'll conic after us if he thinks we were there '" Percy agreed. " We'd better collect Helen and our kit .ind start for Kiiblih-Kehn before anything else can happen to stop us!" "That's talking sense!" .Jack agreed, and they went down the road at a run. Thy paused once to look back at the house. It uas in utter darkness. As gloomy, as nii'iiacing and torlorn as the new made Shadow thev had seen haunting the room in which the .Tade Box had rested. The Fuming Jar. Tl!OPIC' sunlight scared down on the narrow, dusty ways of Kublih Kehn. boating from the smooth, plastered walls of the buildings and shining on the awnings over the little shops and the mysterious, cool looking ba/.aars. Down a narrow way .Tack and T'ercy and Helen walked. Natives stared at them, vendors cried to them from the little hole-in the-wall shops which they owned. Camel drivers steered their lumbering beasts carefully, so that their plodding, clumsy feel might net east dust to soil the white lady's dress. "This was thr bi/.iar '' .laik ^aid r|uietK as he touched Pi r< \ s aim an>l all thn c paused "Here's wheie ihi 23 stjibbed the man .wno sold the Box to us !" He ucddcd to the dusty ilircshoid of the ba.iaar, when- the earth had drunk deep of the blood of one who had proved traitor to the Keepers of tho Jade. "And this is where the trouble started, eh?" Percy asked. "Yes. Here's where it started, an<l here's whore the ond of it begins, too," Jack said slowly. The three had reached Kublih-Kehu without tho least hitch through all their long and, sometimes, hazardous journey. They had seen notliing of any Shadow- Man, nor any sign of Morgan. " !''roin here we went to the Cafe of the Seven Seas," Jack went on. "That's where my father disappeared. If any of the sect who really own the Jade Box arc about, they'll see and recognise me. If none of them approaches us, then I'll have (o think out .some other way of getting into touch with them." "We haven't been in ICublih-Txehn more than three hours." Helen said. "It's a bit early yet for anything to happen." Helen was wrong. Things were hap- pening even then. Upon a balcony which overlooked tho entratice to the bazaar two men were standing, half-hidden by the drooping fronds of a palm whicli grew from :i wooden bowl ribbed with brass. Ono was tall: he wore a crimson cloak drawn high so that it half concealed his black beard. The other was shorter, and his cloak was blue and yellow, while both wore turbans of faded green. The one in the crimson cloak was .Abuk. and his hand rested on the haft of the Irng-bladed dagger with which the treacherous bazaar-keeper had been struck down weeks earlier. Now his fingers gripped the weapon with such forc(> that his whole arm quivered as he snarled: "By the sacred hair of Mahomet, it is the .son of Lamar!" he breathed. "Come back to Kublih Ki hn!" muttered his com|i.iiiion. Behind her Morgan was bending (orwaid, his hands reaching eagerly towards the little glass container. ii8«|)U)i»b«:r,<H)i. 1930.