But now, all her hopes had been shattered.
All her dreams had been dispelled.
There was nothing for her to do--but to dance!...
And so she began.
She waved her arms.
Her bracelets jingled.
She stamped her feet.
Her anklets jangled.
The tom-toms began to throb.
The pipes began to lilt.
And Lotus Flower started to perform the Dance of the Cobra.
She swayed from side to side.
She darted to and fro.
She floated backwards and forwards.
Slowly at first.
Then faster and faster.
Finally she stopped.
“Is that the end of the Dance of the Cobra?” asked Captain Lawrence.
“No,” said the Maharajah, “that is only the beginning.”
Lotus Flower had been nerving herself for the ordeal.
She had been working herself up for the performance.
And now it began in earnest.
A strong eunuch stood guard over a big basket.
Lotus Flower stooped down, lifted the cover, thrust in her arms, and
drew out a large cobra.
The cobra wriggled and writhed in her clutch.
The tom-toms started again.
And the pipes.
At first, Lotus Flower held the cobra far from her.
Then a little closer.
And at last, she placed it upon her body.
As she danced around, the cobra twined about her.
It crawled in and out among the soft folds of her gauzy drapery.
It disarranged the coverings of her shoulders.
And of her breast.
And of her waist.
Thus it was that Lotus Flower postured and posed before the Maharajah
and his guest, her naked body gleaming under the light of the lamps,
and the great cruel cobra crawling over her lithe young limbs.
The cobra twined about her shoulders.
Lotus Flower darted here and there.
The cobra twisted about her thighs.
Lotus Flower rushed hither and thither.
She seemed fairly to fly.
The notes of the music accompanied her.
And then, suddenly, the music ceased, and two big eunuchs sprang
forward to tear the cobra from her body.
That was part of the performance.
The climax had come.
But--what was this?
Had the dancer gone mad?
Lotus Flower fought off the eunuchs.
She clung to the cobra.
It pressed tightly about her waist.
But Lotus Flower pressed it tighter still.
The eunuchs fought with her.
But Lotus Flower fought against them.
The Maharajah sprang up from his chair.
And Captain Lawrence sprang up from his.
They rushed towards the unfortunate dancer, to assist the eunuchs in
attempting to save her.
But it was too late.
Lotus Flower lay on the ground.
The cobra was coiled about her in a grip of steel.
A grip of steel that would crush the life out of any human being.
Lotus Flower, the favorite dancing girl of the Maharajah, was dead....
* * * * *
Two days later Captain Esme Lawrence left India, and went back to
England--to be married.