The Monster Within by Darrell Pitt

League, the Vegetarian Society and the Laughing Banana Club.’
    ‘The…?’ Jack stared at her. ‘Did you just say what I think you said?’
    She nodded. ‘It’s more sensible than it sounds.’
    ‘Glad to hear it.’
    ‘I’ll explain. Science has shown that beneficial endorphins are released by the
brain when a person laughs.’
    ‘Right.’
    ‘Interestingly, the brain can’t tell the difference between real laughter and false
laughter.’
    ‘Uh, okay.’
    ‘So when you laugh in a simulated manner, your brain and body still get the same
benefits.’
    ‘So people just stand around at this club and laugh at each other.’
    ‘That’s right.’
    ‘I hate to say it, but that actually makes some strange kind of sense. And the business
about the banana?’
    ‘Oh, they’re just naturally funny.’
    They arrived at a library in Brixton. At the other end of the building was a meeting
room filled with women of all ages, and from all parts of society.
    Some were wealthily attired, with woollen suits and shirtwaist blouses, but several
obviously worked as maids or governesses, wearing plain day dresses or skirts.
    ‘It’s unusual to see women together like this,’ Mr Doyle murmured.
    ‘The struggle for women’s rights is breaking down the class barriers too,’ Scarlet
said.
    The only other man in the room was Warren Dudley. The skinny pharmacist arrowed over
to them.
    ‘Thank you for coming,’ he said. ‘Edwina has been most upset by the latest turn of
events.’
    ‘What’s happened?’ Mr Doyle asked.
    ‘The police have threatened to arrest a number of hunger strikers today,’ he said.
‘It’s part of the Cat and Mouse Act .’
    This was news to Jack. There were hunger strikers? And what was the Cat and Mouse
Act?
    Mr Dudley explained. ‘A common form of protest is to go on a hunger strike while
in prison. The government doesn’t want them dying of starvation,’ he said. ‘That
would turn them into martyrs. So if they become ill, they are released. Once their
strength has recovered, however, they are re-arrested and returned to prison.’
    ‘That’s terrible,’ Jack said.
    ‘It’s worse than that,’ Scarlet said. ‘The women in prison are often force-fed. Rubber
tubes are rammed down their throats and into their stomachs to force them to take
nourishment. Sometimes the procedure goes wrong and they are injured.’
    Mrs Dudley came over and greeted them. She pointed to half-a-dozen pale women sitting
in chairs at the front.
    ‘They were released three weeks ago,’ she said. ‘We believe the police will be here
to return them to jail. This is a violence that no civilised society should stand
for.’
    Mr Doyle looked uncomfortable. ‘I agreed to speak today to assure your organisation
that I was investigating the Valkyrie Circle,’ he said. ‘I didn’t intend to become
part of a protest.’
    ‘You will not. We are seeking peaceful change.’
    ‘Yet some suffragettes have caused violence themselves,’ Mr Doyle said tactfully.
‘Even before the Valkyrie Circle, churches were attacked, window-breaking campaigns
were carried out, and women chained themselves to the gates of Buckingham Palace.’
    ‘We must all protest in our own way,’ Mrs Dudley said. Her husband steered Jack and
the others to the front, in order to get the meeting underway.
    ‘Edwina’s a terrific speaker,’ he told them.
    ‘It’s wonderful that you’re so supportive of your wife,’ Scarlet said.
    ‘How could I not be? The battle for women’s rights is everyone’s fight.’
    As he had to attend another meeting, Mr Dudley wished them well and excused himself.
After calling the meeting to order, Mrs Dudley began by deriding the Valkyrie Circle.
    ‘This organisation has brought the entire women’s rights movement into disrepute,’
she said. ‘The government is talking about making the Primrose Society, and a dozen
other organisations, illegal. Everyone here could be arrested, our lands and