The RIDDLE of the RING

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 926, 29 January 1917, Page 3

The RIDDLE of the RING

[All Rights Reserved.]

Sg By WILLIAM LE QUEUX, Sg OS Author of “Fatal Fingers/’ “Death’s Doctor," etc. §§

CHAPTER Xll.—(Continued.) MYSTERY!

But an instant later he fell back heavily into the bottom of the boat, with a bullet through his brain.

snap, leaving Mrs Carter-Bonham much mystified.

The Nubians of the Prince Abbas never minced matters when it came to a light. Some of them had fought beneath the holy banner of the Khalifa, and w,ere fine, brave fellows—men who were invaluable in that wild desert region. With his two companions dead the third man ceased rowing, and shouted to them to spare him. The command of the reis rang out to cease fire, and Hie boat rowed rapdily on until it was alongside that wherein lay poor Marjorie's inanimate form. In the steamer's boat was a young English officer named Anderson, on service in the Soudan, and on his way back to Khartoum by the steamer. Only that afternoon he had been chatting with Maijorie Colyer. He was in pyjamas, with a rifle over his shoulder, and, crack shot that he was, it had been he who had picked off the two boatmen in the moonlight. "Who art thou?" demanded the reis of the survivor, who was holding up his hands in terror. '' A stranger,'' was all the reply he would give. "Thou art a thief —may Allah burn thy vitals for interfering with this English lady. And these, thy companions in evil—who are they?" *■ "Nubians —from Haifa," "Thou art our prisoner," the reis declared. "We shall deliver thee to the guards at Haifa, with the bodies of thy companions.'' Anderson had boarded thereat, and was already endeavouring to bring Marjorie round by dashing water into her pale face, while on board the steamer Mrs Carter Bonham, having knocked at the door of the girl's cabin, had discovered, to her alarm, that she was missing. Several of the steamer's crew scrambled into the fugitive boat, and placing the two bodies roughly aside, rowed back to the steamer, followed by that commanded by the reis.

Word, however, went around the steamer that Miss Colyer had recovered consciousness, and the black-faced reis, erect and majestic, in his turban and ample cloak, tapped at the door of the cabin and entered to question her, knowing that she spoke Arabic. But to his questions, as to the questions of all the others, she merely replied that she had foolishly ventured up to the temple to view it by moonlight, and on returning had suddenly fainted. After that siie had known nothing else.

Ibrahim? Who was Ibrahim? every one wondered.

She told them nothing of the weird old man, or of the ancient lamp, the breaking of which had had upon her such a curious effect, while they, in order not to upset her further, told her nothing of the shooting of two of her captors. Slowly, during the early hours of the misty morning, she. grew better. Yet she lay there much puzzled herself by her exciting adventure. She had believed in Ibrahim, and had trusted him, and yet, by some devilish arrangement that ancient lamp, which she had broken at his bidding, emitted a vapour whicli had reduced her to the utter helplessness of unconsciousness.

Whither was she being taken when the boat had been overhauled and captured? What plot had been formed against her'? She mused as she lay there, filled with wonder.

In the sunlight hour before they entered the saloon for breakfast. Mrs Carter-Bonham had questioned her again, but she remained silent. She was still undecided whether, after all, there had actually been a conspiracy against her.

When the boat drew alongside the greatest sensation was caused. An English passenger had been abducted! Upon the small steamer plying between the first and second Cataracts of the-Nile no doctor is carried, therefore the boat's manager—an Italian—opened the medicine-chest, and gave out restoratives indiscriminately.

She recollected old Ibrahim's marvellous knowledge of the ancient religion, his repetition of that beautiful prayer to the great Ra, and of his devotion and his learning. No. He was no mere thieving Arab of the desert, be the circumstances what they might. After breakfast, while passing around the stern of the vessel, she noticed the strange boat being towed behind with the tarpaulin covering something, and inquired if the boat was that in which she had been captured. An Arab sailor replied in the affirmative, and, descending into it, lifted the tarpaulin and revealed to her her two captors who had been shot. The faco of one of them, though swollen and hideously distorted, she recognised instantly as that of Ibrahim.

Marjorie, still unconscious, was tenderly carried up to her cabin by six of the native crew, and Mrs Carter Bonham, with a couple of other lady passengers, tried to restore her to consciousness. They were relieved to find no injury, and that her heart was beating regularly, therefore it became apparent that a return to i-onstdousness was only a question of time. Meanwhile below, on the main deck, the reis was closely questioning the thin-faced boatman who had survived. But lie would tell nothing. Probably he had been promised ample reward for secrecy should the plan fail. Hence the man, who had three cuts upon his check, in the manner of the Nubians, assumed an attitude of native sulkiness, defiant of his, captors, or of the terrible threats which they held over hiit!. I

She stood staring at it, speechless in amazement. The mystery of it all was as great to her as to her fellow-passen-gers.

The last worshipper at the shrine of Amen-Ra, the sun-god, had been shot dead by the tall, young engineer officer in smart white flannels, who at that moment approached her,- raising his helmet, and congratulating her upon her narrow escape.

The crew of the Prince Abbas were, of course, unaware of the close proximity of that fine dahabiyeh from.which a watcher on the dark bank had seen the shots fired, and witnessed the capture of the boat. And already that dahabiyeh with its great curved sails had unmoored from the shadow of the clump of palms, and was making its way with all speed through the moonlight down -Stream, its reis, a dark-faee'd Arab, pacing the deck and muttering curses beneath his breath.

She thanked him—thanked him very faintly he thought. She had been a mystery to him on the previous day when they had chatted together. Now he looked straight into her beautiful face, and saw that she was to him a mystery still. She smiled upon him carelessly, daintily, but within her heart she was wondering why the boat had so suddenly sped away with her into the moonlight, why Ibrahim Farid—the one person in the whole world who bowed to Amen, and who uow lay there stark and dead—had betrayed her. But the reis, with his black sphinxlike face, his long robe, and his red and yellow scarf twisted round his tarboosh, hovering near, was watching her.

He alone was aware of the truth —a truth which none, save he, knew —a truth which none had dreamed. The prisoner had made a statement to him.

The prisoner on the Prince Abbas had been securely fettered, both hands and feet, and, squatting near a ertp'stan in the»forecastlc, maintained a sullen silence. The two bodies, still in the boat, had been colored with a tarpaulin, and the boat attached to the stern of the steamer. Then half-an-our later they had- unmoored, and slowly moved up Stream in the direction of Wady-Halfa.

He gazed upon the girl, she being unconscious of his eyes upon her. "Allah give Jier peace," he murmured to himself, and turned away to pilot the steamer around the shoals which Jay in the last long reach before the bend, where lay the low-built town of Wady-Halfa, gate of the Soudan, where the Union Jack flies and the British rule.

To all on Board, European passengers and native crew alike, Marjorie's midnight adventure was an entire mystery. That she hail changed her gown on purpose to go forth alone into the night, was apparent. Yet everyone agreed that in such a wild, lawless country no woman ought to venture ashore alone, and at such an hour.

And the worshipper of Amen, the man whose generations of ancestors through three thousand years had bowed before the sun-god Ra, lay stark and dead in the boat being towed behind the steamer.

Yes, there was mystery there—mys tery, indeed.

A view of the wonderful rock-temple by moonlight appealed, of course, to those with romantic minds. Indeed half-a-dozen of the passengers had gone ashore after dinner to see it, but the sentry had accompanied them, and they had returned before 11 o'clock. Why did Marjorie wait until midnight? \ For a full hour those in her little cabin on the upper deck endeavouring to restore her met with no success, until of a sudden she opened her eyes to stare fixedly at the cabin roof for a few seconds. Then she closed them and moved uneasily, murmuring some words that Mrs Carter-Bouham could not catch. - Her pale lips moved, but only faint words escaped them. Her breast heaved slowly, and she seemed delirious for, suddenly opening her eyes, and staring wiidly about her, she exclaimed aloud:

"Amen! The great god of the ancients! You —you, Ibrahim—you—you are the last worshipper of the old religion left upon earth! Ah. Ah what does it all mean? The mystery—show me the mystery—the mystery——" And then her mouth cioseri again, and staring strangely into her companion'h face, her countenance slowly relaxed into a faint smile of recognition. "Marjorie!" cried the Member's »wife, bending tenderly over her as she lay upon her narrow little bed. " What is the matter, dear? What has happened to you?"

"Matter!" the girl gasped, staring round, and trying to raise herself upon her elbow. "Matter—what?" "Yes; you have not been well. You 've. fainted.''

"Have I? Where—where am I?" asked the girl bewildered. "On board the steamer. Some men took you off in a boat, but they were followed by our men and captured." "Took me away—in a boat?" the girl echoed, staring, puzzled at the three' faces bending over her. "I—l remember nothing. I— I " But aaraiu her lios closed as wi fl ' *

(To be continued.)