Chapter 3

He went forward eagerly, but paused, as there was some commotion across
the room. Judge Lobbett, in spite of his son’s obvious disapproval, was
already halfway up the steps to the stage. He also paused as the young
man appeared, and the two men stood irresolute until the magician,
coming forward, beckoned them both on to the stage.

‘One after the other,’ he said easily. ‘The first to come, the first to
be served.’

He helped the judge up as he spoke, and the pale young man leaped up
beside them.

‘I say,’ he said nervously, ‘would you mind if my pet went first?’

He held up the white mouse as he spoke, while the audience, thinking it
was some intentional comic relief, tittered complacently.

Satsuma smiled also, but his English was not equal to the situation,
and, ignoring the young man, he led Judge Lobbett over to the cabinet.

‘Haig,’ announced the foolish-looking young man in a loud voice, ‘will
be more than disappointed if he’s not allowed to go first. This is his
birthday and he’s been promised the best and the first of everything.
Surely, sir,’ he went on, turning to the old man, ‘you wouldn’t deprive
my young friend of his birthday thrill?’

Judge Lobbett contented himself by regarding the young man with a slow
cold smile for some seconds, but the other appeared not in the least
abashed.

Meanwhile, with a flourish from the orchestra, Satsuma touched the
cabinet with his wand and the doors swung open, disclosing a safe-like
metal-lined compartment whose grilled sides shone in the brilliant
light.

‘Now, ladies and gentlemen,’ said the magician, turning to his audience,
‘I shall invite this gentleman’—he indicated the older man—‘to step in
here. Then I shall close these doors. When I open them again he will be
gone. You shall search the whole ship, ladies and gentlemen, the stage,
under the stage—you shall not find him. Then I will shut the doors once
more. Once more they will fly open, and this gentleman shall be back
again as you see him now. Moreover, he will not be able to tell you
where he has been hiding. Now, sir, if you please.’

‘What?’ said the irrepressible young man, darting forward, consternation
in his pale eyes. ‘Can’t Haig go first? Are you going to disappoint him
after all?’

The audience was becoming restive, and Lobbett turned upon the
importunate one, mildly annoyed.

‘I don’t know who you are, sir,’ he said, in a low tone, ‘but you’re
making a darn nuisance of yourself. I’m genuinely interested in this
experiment, and I think everyone else is. Go and play with your mouse on
deck, sir.’

On the last word he turned and stepped towards the cabinet, the doors of
which stood open to receive him. The man who, by this time, was regarded
by everyone in the room as a source of embarrassment, seemed suddenly to
lose all sense of decorum.

With an angry exclamation he elbowed the unsuspecting old man out of the
way, and before the magician could stop him deliberately dropped the
small white mouse upon the glittering floor of the cabinet.

Then he stepped back sharply.

There was a tiny hiss, only just loud enough to be heard among the
audience: a sickening, terrifying sound.

For a moment everyone in the lounge held his breath. With a convulsive
movement the mouse crumpled up on the polished steel grille, where it
slowly blackened and shrivelled before their eyes.

There was an instant of complete stupefaction.

The significance of this extraordinary incident dawned slowly. The men
upon the platform to whom the thing had been so near stiffened with
horror as the explanation occurred to them.

Marlowe Lobbett was the first to move. He sprang on to the platform by
his father’s side and stood with him looking down at the charred spot on
the cabinet floor.

It was at this moment that the pale young man with the spectacles,
apparently grasping the situation for the first time, let out a howl of
mingled grief and astonishment.

‘Oh! my poor Haig! What has happened to him? What has happened to him?’
He bent forward to peer down into the cabinet.

‘Look out, you fool!’ Judge Lobbett’s voice was unrecognizable as he
caught the incautious young man by his collar and jerked him backwards.
‘Can’t you see!’ His voice rose high and uncontrolled. ‘That cabinet is
live! Your pet has been electrocuted!’

The words startled everyone.

An excited murmur followed a momentary silence. Then a woman screamed.

Concert officials and ship’s officers hurried on to the platform. The
noise became greater, and a startled, bewildered crowd swept up to the
platform end of the room.

Judge Lobbett and his tall son were surrounded by an excited group of
officials.

Satsuma chattered wildly in his own tongue.

The pale young man with the spectacles appeared to be on the verge of
fainting with horror. Even the complacent Mr Barber was shaken out of
his habitual affability. His heavy jaws sagged, his greasy eyes grew
blank with astonishment.

All the time the cabinet remained glowing with a now evil radiance,
bizarre and horrible, a toy that had become a thing of terror.

The arrival of the chief engineer roused the general stupor. He was a
lank Belfast Irishman, yellow-haired, lantern-jawed, and deaf as a post.
He gave his orders in the hollow bellow of a deaf man and soon reduced
the affair to almost a commonplace.

‘McPherson, just clear the lounge, will you? I don’t want anyone to
remain but those intimately concerned. There’s been a small accident
here in the temporary fittings,’ he explained soothingly to the
bewildered crowd which was being gently but firmly persuaded out of the
lounge by an energetic young Scotsman and his assistants.

‘There’s something very wrong with the insulation of your cupboard,’ he
went on, addressing the Japanese severely. ‘It’s evidently a very
dangerous thing. Have you not had trouble with it before?’

Satsuma protested violently, but his birdlike twittering English would
have been unintelligible to the engineer even had he been able to hear
it.

Meanwhile a small army of mechanics was at work. The chief entered into
an incomprehensible technical discussion with them, and their growing
astonishment and consternation told more plainly than anything else
could have done the terrible tragedy that had only just been averted by
the timely sacrifice of the unfortunate Haig.

It was impossible not to be sorry for the Japanese. There could be no
doubt of the sincerity of his wretchedness. He hovered round the
electricians, half terrified of the consequences of what had happened
and half fearful for the safety of his precious apparatus.

Marlowe Lobbett, whose patience had been slowly ebbing, stepped up to
the chief and shouted in his ear.