Talbot Mundy

“ I don’t want Strange to catch me up here. We can talk outside.”
They found a stair within a turret that let them reach the courtyard without having to pass Strange, and, closing the outer gate behind them, went and sat with their backs against a wall, in a recess between two buttresses, where Jeff’s pajamas were not so likely to attract attention. There they talked until it was after nine o’clock, Jeff grumbling away steadily and Charley just as steadily insisting that Strange, “had it coming to him.” ”

“ Charley was about to offer further explanation, but they were interrupted. Sitting in a recess between two buttresses of the outer wall, they had neither seen not heard three horses cantering steadily toward them in the soft dust. Zelmira Poulakis, Miss Ommony, and Sir William Molyneux, all mounted on the raja’s Arabs, drew rein right in front of them, and Jeff got to his feet, buttoning his pajama jacket nervously. Zelmira laughed. ”

“ There had to be some explanation, and there might, after all, be something in the babu’s.
“They are great magicians, sahib! They can do things done of old in regular course of day’s work by wizards only mentioned now in fairy-tales.”
Strange encouraged him to talk on, since there was nothing else to do, and no tobacco. Jeff, disgusted, went to the kitchen to interview Charley, and together they made the round of the upper story, Jeff looking for something to explain the disappearing snake of the night before, and Charley scouting on his own account. They both found what they wanted. ”

“ Jeff said definitely, more than once.
“Aw, shucks! They’ll only make a fool of him,” Charley argued. “They’ll fix it so he marries a nautch girl. I’ll have a picture of the ceremony, and we’ll rub that in. He’ll be told afterwards it’s regular, and the only way out is by public divorce, which’ll get in all the papers, naturally. See him wince? That’s where Zelmira comes to the rescue. She’s jake with the priests and calls the whole thing off—on terms.”
“I never heard such rot! Jeff exploded beginning to laugh. “Strange isn’t an idiot. ”