Just ahead of tonight's episode of The Quest of the Sacred Slipper, thank you for all your comments about this caper and our other Tales for Our Time. In this latest installment of Sax Rohmer's Mohammedan caper, thriller abducted hero awakes in a heady environment:
When I opened my eyes it was to a conviction that I dreamed. I lay upon a cushioned divan in a small apartment which I find myself at a loss adequately to describe.
It was a yellow room, then, its four walls being hung with yellow silk, its floor being entirely covered by a yellow Persian carpet. One lamp, burning in a frame of some lemon coloured wood and having its openings filled with green glass, flooded the place with a ghastly illumination... Turn my eyes where I would, clutch my aching head as I might, this dream chamber would not disperse, but remained palpable before me—yellow and green and gold...
To contemplate my surroundings assuredly must be to court madness. No door was visible, no window; nothing but silk and luxury, yellow and green and gold.
To crown all, the air was heavy with a perfume wholly unmistakable by one acquainted with Egypt's ruling vice. It was the reek of smouldering hashish—a stench that seemed to take me by the throat, a vapour damnable and unclean.
"The reek of smouldering hashish" has become rather more familiar in London since then. Members of The Mark Steyn Club can hear me read Part Thirteen of The Quest of the Sacred Slipper simply by clicking here and logging-in. Earlier episodes can be found here.
If you've yet to hear any of our Tales for Our Time, you can do so by joining The Mark Steyn Club. For more details, see here - and don't forget our special Gift Membership. I'll be back for Part Fourteen of The Quest of the Sacred Slipper right here tomorrow evening.
