The Island Where Time Stands Still by Dennis Wheatley

reach it, but had collapsed before he could do so.’
    â€˜A wasp sting takes effect pretty quickly,’ Gregory remarked, ‘but all the same, it seems a little surprising that he should not have had time to summon help.’
    â€˜Although not an opium addict, he was at times given to smoking several pipes. It is thought that this may have been such an occasion, and that the effects of the drug had deprived him of the power to make any great effort.’
    â€˜How about his women, though? As he was quite a youngish man I should have thought that he would always have had one of them with him, or anyhow in an adjoining chamber.’
    â€˜No; they occupy a different part of the palace, and with regard to them the custom of old China is observed. In the ante-chamber to the Emperor’s bedroom there is a table on which lie seven jade tablets. One is inscribed with the name of the Empress; the others with those of the six concubines. On his way to retire he turns over the tablet bearing the name of the lady whose company he desires for the night. She is then carried to him wrapped up in a fleecy blanket. In old China that service was performed by one of the chief eunuchs, but here the horrible custom of making boys into eunuchs has been discontinued. Their functions are now performed by old concubines who have been either in the household of the previous Emperor or those of deceased Mandarins. But sometimes the Emperor preferred to sleep alone, and it was so on the night of his death.’
    â€˜I take it the new, er—Son of Heaven, must still be a child;or at most a youth in his teens,’ Gregory observed.
    A-lu-te shook her dark head. ‘No; it is that which doubles our misfortune. The Emperor had no heir. Tragedy has twice stricken within a few weeks. His sons were both drowned less than a month ago. They were beautiful little boys of seven and nine, and were taken one afternoon to enjoy a sail along the coast; but the boat overturned and their attendants were unable to save them. It is only a few days ago that we went from full mourning into half mourning on their account.’
    Gregory immediately recalled the two children he had seen down by the harbour. That had been within a day or two of his first leaving his room to sit out on the terrace, and he remembered now that on the following day Ho-ping had given the impression that something had occurred which caused him considerable distress. On his describing the boys A-lu-te at once confirmed that they were the two little Princes.
    â€˜What happened to their attendants?’ Gregory asked, curious to know the fate of the nurse who had allowed her charges to be taken sailing without her.
    â€˜Their usual attendants were not with them,’ A-lu-te replied. ‘Had they been it is unlikely that the tragedy would have occurred. The Emperor had issued an order that they were never to be taken outside the reef. The Imperial boatman knew that, and so did their amah. By some mischance the Imperial boatmen were not warned for duty that afternoon; so rather than disappoint the children the Harbour-Master sent them out with two of his men. It was in the rough sea outside the reef that the boat overturned. The men managed to swim ashore, but as soon as the Harbour-Master learned what had happened he naturally had their heads cut off, in the hope that the immediate action he had taken would help to placate the Emperor.’
    â€˜And did it?’
    â€˜The Emperor was a just man. The Harbour-Master had sought only to save the children from disappointment, and he vowed that he had told his men not to take them out tothe open sea; so the Emperor did not hold him responsible for the tragedy.’
    â€˜What about the amah?’
    â€˜The real blame lies with her. Had she accompanied the children, as was her most positive duty, she would have prevented the boatmen from taking them beyond the reef. As it was, for some private purpose of her own