Page:The council of seven.djvu/286

 kind, as the faces around told him very surely, would mean certain death.

At the call of an obscure law of being Endor slowly returned the cylinder to its gun-metal sheath. And then fully sensible of six pairs of eyes fixed upon him, he took from his breast pocket a cigarette case and calmly placed within it this most deadly of weapons.

"Sir, you have until to-morrow Monday week at mid-*night," were Lien Weng's final words.

Once more Endor looked at the circle of faces around him. Of the thoughts they concealed he could glean nothing beyond a covert hostility in the eyes of Bandar Ali and a look of deep anxiety in those of George Hierons. The American was seated next to him. At this terrible moment, in which Endor knew that his own death sentence had been pronounced, and even in this most dangerous company, he was not without a friend.

As Endor got up from the table he felt upon his arm a slight pressure, soothing yet magnetic. It was as if that gentle touch spoke its own silent message, "For heaven's sake, my friend," it seemed to say, "do nothing hastily. Let your slightest action now be the fruit of wisdom."

In spite of this tacit prayer, Endor yielded to the all-powerful desire now in his mind. He would fly at once from this house of ill omen. Before he left the room, however, he was moved to speak again.

"One last word!" As Endor reached the door he