Herman Cyril McNeile

“ If, on the other hand, I am not wrong and you become aware that they are after you, then come to see me—I will give you my address—and possibly I may be of assistance. But it is no use attempting to evolve any scheme now, when we have no idea what to be on our guard against. Therefore, let us leave it until we have an idea, and then—well, three heads are better than two, isn't that so?”
“I call that sporting of you, prince!” said Jim heartily. ”

“ But anyway, my dear Leyton, you will now know one place to avoid.”
“Which is more than you do!” came a terrible voice, and the prince screamed. For Jim's hands were around his throat, and Jim's merciless eyes were boring into his brain.
“You're not the only person who can bluff, nigger.”
The grip tightened, and the Egyptian struggled madly to free himself, until quite suddenly he grew limp and Jim flung him into the chair, where he lay sprawling. Then, picking up his revolver, Jim came toward me. ”

“ We can only wait and see if anything happens.”
“It's possible,” I said, “that the whole thing is designed to have a mental effect only. To make one nervous anticipating things which are never really coming.”
“It is possible,” agreed Jim gravely. ”

“ And I didn't want to run any risk of alarming your girl.”
“What was the threat?”
“Terse and to the point,” laughed Jim. “It merely stated that in view of what had happened, all our lives were forfeit and that they would be claimed in due course.”
“How frightfully jolly!” I remarked, a little blankly. “Do you think it need be taken seriously?”
“I take it a great deal less seriously now that we've left the country,” he answered. “I think that undoubtedly the principal danger has passed, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that we are out of the wood. However, there's nothing to be done. ”

“ And I may say without undue pride that some of the things in here are absolutely unique. For instance, that chair near you, Mr. Leyton, is one that was used by the Doges of Venice. If you will sit in it, please, and put your arms along the sides as you would when resting comfortably—— Oh! By the way, Maitland, there's a head through there that will interest you. A record specimen, I'm told.”
“That's comfortable now,” I said, as Jim strolled into the other half of the room.
“Well, all I do,” said the prince, “is to turn this little lever behind your head—and there you are.” ”

“ And when Jim discovered that he knew the captain, it was a foregone conclusion that we should sit at his table. And it was he who introduced us to Prince Feisul.
“A charming man,” he remarked, at lunch, as Jim made some comment on the empty seat just opposite him. “Fabulously wealthy, and almost more of an Englishman than an Egyptian. Has a large house in London, and spends most of his time there. ”

“ There came another vivid spark, and with a loud clang the gate closed in the grille, while the Egyptian still sprawled unconscious in the chair.
“I took the only possible way, as it seemed to me,” Jim continued. “If it failed—I died, and by the mercy of Allah it didn't. Oh! Great Scott, look!”
His hand gripped my arm, and I swung around just in time to see it. I suppose he'd slipped in the chair or something, but Prince Feisul's back was arched inward in a semi-circle and for a moment he seemed to stand on his head. Then he crashed forward to the floor and lay still. ”

“ And yet in London itself, in a house in the middle of Mayfair there took place a thing more amazing, more horrible by the very reason of the surroundings, than anything that had happened by the Nile. There, at any rate, the setting was appropriate; but in London, it appeared even at the time to be unreal and incredible.
As I say, it was a week after we reached London that it happened. I had been out all the afternoon shopping with Molly, and, after seeing her to her hotel, I had returned to my club to rest. I found Jim waiting for me tn a state of unconcealed impatience. ”

“ The time is important, as he will then arrange that his Arab butler is out. That little precaution is for his benefit, he told me; it would be signing his own death sentence if it were known he was warning us. ”