Pictures and the Picturegoer (Jan-Dec 1924)

APRIL 1924 Picture s an d Pic hure&oer 33 "Look here!" stormed Crespin, striding across the room. " Do you mean this? This foolery? Speak to them. Send them away." •■ But," said the Raja gently, " when the Green Goddess sneaks to them they heed not me. It" I were to oppose them m> throne would crumple like dust. nay disagree with them in theory but I am afraid 1 must how to their pre indices or lose my crown. I am afraid that in the next morning but one. when my dear brothers go to their deaths. you must go to yours. But still, in the meantime we can he friends and gentlemen, can we not? What would you like now? Billiards?" The major sprang forward with a loud cry, and would have sent the Raja crashing across the floor but for the intervention of Traherne who held him back and whispered words of warning into his ears. " Watkins." said the Raja coolly, '■ will bring you refreshment in a moment. 1 am due immediately to consult with my High Priest, my— Archbishop of York, is it?— on details concerned with the ceremony of your death, two days hence." •• Do you mean to say." demanded spin, " that you would send an innocent woman to her death in cold blood?" The Raja swung round airily and looked in a peculiar way that made her go cold, into the eyes of Lucilla. " Well," he said. " perhaps that could he arranged. We— we will see." He went out and they drew together in the billiard room round the billiard table. "My God!" cried the major, all the cold blooded devils. If I have five minutes with him alone " Violence will do us no good, Traherne. " We must be cool and keep our wits about us. We must think ..." " One thing has puzzled me." said the major " How has he got the news of the sentence on his brothers so quickly? It seems impossible that he could do so, and yet he has. The information only got through to-day and already he has it here, hundreds of miles across the hills, right at the back of the Himalayas. The thing seems uncanny. If it were not that he had mentioned it to us first, I should say that it just had not happen e d . We "Of could ' said might pump Watkins." A knock was heard on the door and Watkins came m with glasses. •■ Watkins," said the major, turning to him. " Can you tell us how it is that the Raja has already heard of the sen tence in Delhi when the news has onlv been published this afternoon. How is it possible lor him to have heard?" Watkins glanced round mysteriously towards the door as if he feared he might he overheard. Then In looked hack at them and lowered his voice. " The priests here," he said, " have magic powers. There is magic in this place — strange things . . . ." Without giving them time to question him farther he went out hurriedly and closed the door. They looked at one another. "Bosh!" snarled the major. "The interest drivel, of course . . . And yet — and yet ... he had heard .... [ don't see how he could . . . ." They sat close to each other, talking: over ways of escape, but it was very plain that there were no ways of escape. Rritish troops would never come this way. They would die and be heard of no ' more, and their murderers need never fear discovery. A gruesome prospect. " But surely — " the major began. " It there is a way, find it," said the doctor. They sat silent and thoughtful for a long time, turning over various wild schemes in their terror. And then at last suddenly the major looked up at the electric lights that hung above the billiard table. " Look," he cried. " The lights are going dim !" And it was true. The lights dimmed until they were no more than halflights, and it was barely possible to see .icross the room. Tin three trapped Britishers drew closei together and waited in bewildered suspense. Hut nothing happened, and in a few mum the lights went up again and resumed their customary hrilhai: "What — " whispered Lucilla. " I have it !" said tin major. " They were tapping the current, for — win The doctor thumped his knee and grinned. " My word!" the major went on. "If — if we could get at tin thing! I'd get a message through to the aviation camp at Tajra, and we'd have help through in no time. But where is it? How . . . ?" They passed out of the billiard room and through various others until they came to one, eight-sided, of which one side opened on a turret ed balcony, looking down on rough rockland far below. The two men stepped on to the balcony and looked down. Escape was out of the question, and they came back into the room. A little to the right of the balcony was a heavily-studded door and before it they paused significantly. There was a bell pull at the side of the door. At a venture the major pressed it. In a moment Watkins appeared. " I have been wondering," said the major, "if I have stumbled on your marvellous secret? Perhaps it is not so wonderful after all — not magic. Now my man, what do you say if I suggest it is wireless?" All of them saw Watkins' agitated glance towards the studded door. But he quickly recovered himself. "What do I say, sir?" he said brazenly. " Why nothing, sir. I am not paid to say, sir." " Very well, Watkins. Bring us some whisky in here. We like the view better The victims were brought before the great stone image of the Green Goddess in the hall of the temple.