Part 23 (1/2)

CHAPTER X

Ranjoor Singh; on the trail of a ainst a little door of the House-of-the-Eight-Half- brothers It yielded suddenly He shot in headlong, and the door slammed behind him As he fell forward into pitch blackness he was conscious of shooting bolts behind and of the squeaking of a bea served the Raj for ns in the Hiainst the Masudis, and once in China, he was in full possession of trained soldier senses Darkness, he calculated instantly, was a shi+eld to hier only to the unwary; and there are grades of wariness, just as there are grades of sloth

Two ht theovernht each other Ranjoor Singh could not see the ropes, but he could hear the stifled swearing and the ensuing struggle; and an ear is as good as an eye in the dark

So-he never knearned him to duck and step forward He felt the whistle of a club that missed him by so little as to ht leg shot sidewise, and he tripped a man In another second he had the club, and there was no measurable interval of ti

Three h was in command of a situation whose wherefore and possibilities he could not guess until an electric torch declared itself soht, and he stood vignetted in a circle of white light

”The sahib proves a gentle guest!” purred a voice he thought he recognized It was a woh, cursing his own neglect of soldierly precaution, saw fit not to answer A huht He struck at it with the club, and a groan announced that he had struck hard enough

”Does the sahib think that the noise of a pistol would cause his friends to coh ashamed? Speak, sahib! Is it well to break into a house and be surly with the hostess?”

Ranjoor Singh stepped backward, and the ring of light followed hiainst the teak door and could feel the heavy beam that ran up and down it, locked firmly above and below He prodded over his head behind hi to find what held the beaht lifted a foot or two, then five feet, until its center was on the center of the club's handle

A pistol cracked and flashed then, froht, and the club splintered He dropped it, and the torch-light ceased, leaving him dazed, but not so dazed that he did not hear a man sneak up and carry the splintered club away He followed after the e and no ain the torch-light sought him out Half-way to the foot of steep stairs that he could diainst hidden pistol-fire and dazzling light was futile

”Look!” said the sah! the hooded death! See the hooded death behind you!”

It was not her command that made him look He knew better than to turn his head at an unseen wo in the dark But he heard them hiss, and he turned to see four cobras come toward him, with the front third of their bodies raised from the floor and their hoods extended He saw that a panel in the wooden wall had slid, and the last snake's tail was yet inside the gap There was no need of a man to slip between him and the door!

”There are h! Will they follow thee up- stairs? See, they come! Step swiftly, for the hooded death is swift!”

The light went out again, and his ears were all he had to warn hiination Swift as a well launched charge of light cavalry, he leaped for the stairs and took them four at a time He reached the top one sooner than he knew it The torch flashed in his eyes, and he saw a pistol-h!” said a voice that he felt sure he recognized His eyes began to search beyond the light for glih! Back to the right-toward that door! In, through that door-so!”

He obeyed, since he kneith who liberties with Yasmini He stepped into a bare, dark, teak-walled room, and she followed him, and she had scarcely closed the door at her back before another door opened at the farther end, and two of hercandle-lah

”Nay! Did I invite the sahib?”

”I cah which I came”

”To pay him the reward, perhaps?” she asked ih