Evening star., 1934-07-22
CHAPTER XXI.

- ORTUNATELY Diana was not
- expected to talk. Save on an
occasional Your honor is
Il kind" to some person who
proffered dish Of food or
fruit, she was able to sit in thrice
blessed silence.
Raising her eyes, she scanned the
upper galleries. Behind a screen of
double black muslin hung In the
space between two pillars Of the right
hand gallery she thought she could
discern Gulbudun and Shireen sitting
side by side among the Cobra S
women.
The roar Of voices had soon sunk
to a deep murmur. broken only by
customary sounds indicative Of reple-
tion, most Of them purpoSely exag-
gerated to increase the compliment
they were intended to convey to the
host.
The Cobra had at once thrust the
dispatch into brazier.
THE veiled man is coming" he
had said, and that was all. But
within q few minutes every hillman
present knew the tidings, and quar-
ter Of an hour later the market place
was whispering the news.
Meanwhile her eyes betraying moth
ing of the fear that was torturing
her, Diana sat silently upon her piled
cushions.
With the lighting Of the kalyans,
or hubbul-bubbul pipes, the hall
filled with acrid fumes which hung
in the heavy air in fiat, blue layers.
At last the Cobra rose.
"Come!" he said, taking her hand
And with a cultural salutation to
his sirdars he led her from the hall.
Her last impression Of that night
mare ordeal was the look in the
Mongols small eyes-a mixture Of
lust and cunning triumph.
At the foot of spiral stone stair
case the Cobra halted.
Go up!" he commanded.
As she climbed it seemed as II the
ceaseless twisting and turning-like
the tightening of the Cobra's coils
about her life-would never end.
At last they reached a narrow
archway-so narrow that the Cobra
was forced to pass through 1t with
his massive shoulders at an angle of
As degrees to his sides-end she
found herself In a small, cell-like
chamber, where a smoky oil lamp
hickered in niche. .
Crossing to the further wall, the
Cobra pressed a thumb on a con-
cealed spring, and a deep piece Of
masonry some 18 inches square
swung outward, as the door Of an iron
safe swings open-slowly.
For a moment, bent almost double,
he gazed into the blank space behind
1t.
Somewhere, very family, sounded a
gong.
Strengthening himself. he turned.
Look See now, that which thou
wouldst not believed"
Diana approached the opening.
Visible through the aperture at the
far end Of a long shaft sloping
through the masonry, was the center
of another room. In the mediaeval
French chateau she had once seen a
similar EYE" through which, in an
cient times, an observer used to spy
on the guests at a banquet.
Sitting an overwhelming sense Of
foreboding, she looked.
On large divan with silken cush-
ions, two lovers were reclining. She
could even hear the madly passionate
words Of the girl as she twined her
bare white arms about the man.
Then the feeling of foreboding
turned to agonizing apprehension.
Surely there was something familiar
about that richly clad Oriental lying
with his arms around his beautiful
companion.
Oh God It was Colin Gray!
At the quick intake of her breath.
the Cobra came swiftly to her side.
Was I not right?" he hissed, in a
whisper "Wouldst thou
see more? .. Good!"
With q contemptuous gesture he
swung the stone into place.
Wide-eycd, Diana gazed at him.
Once again the overpowering hugeness
Of the man seemed to crush her. She
felt she must get away from him, or
faint.
Have I your leave to go?" she