Each team had its own witch doctor and troupe of bejeweled dancing girls.
Part of the girls’ job was to sing the praises of their own archers and insult the opposing team. The contestants shot at the targets with bamboo bows and copper-tipped arrows.
“This is like a mixture of Robin Hood and the Arabian Nights!” Sandy exclaimed to Bud.
During an intermission, yellow-skirted male dancers with feathered crowns whirled about the field to the music of drums, trumpets, and bells. When the contest was over, the Rajah presented a bag of gold pieces to the winning team.
“That was an amazing performance,” Tom said, and Bud added, “I’d hate to be in the path of one of those arrows!”
After a palace lunch of pork, bamboo shoots,
SKY SHOW 89
and saffron rice, the teen-agers hurried to a fairground outside town. It was dotted with yakskin tents put up by peasants who had journeyed over mountain trails to the festival.
Trinket sellers, jugglers, and snake charmers plied their trade among the crowds. There was even a small, crude wooden Ferris wheel which two men were turning by hand. Sandy, Phyl, Tom, and Bud took a ride and the two girls squealed with delight as they clung to the swinglike open seats.
“This is even more fun than the big ones back home!” Phyl exclaimed breathlessly.
At two o’clock the foursome returned to Chullagar for the great parade. The town seemed to explode with color and noise as the procession wound its way through the streets.
First came yellow-hatted Hindu priests chanting hymns-musicians blowing oboes-and temple lamas, in queer red hats with ear flaps, spinning prayer wheels. These were followed by masked demon dancers who pranced to the sound of drums and gongs.
Then came several loud military bands and troops of soldiers. Among them were turbaned Indians, bagpipers, Gurkhas from Nepal, and the Rajah’s red-coated Royal Guard armed with muzzle-loaders.
Suddenly an outburst of cheers and yells went up as the royal elephants came into view.
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Tom was goggle-eyed. “Am I seeing things,” he shouted to Bud above the din, “or is that Chow Winkler riding the lead elephant?”
“It’s the Texas Kid himself!” Bud yelled back.
Chow-resplendent in a ten-gallon hat, fancy breeches, and red-orange cowboy shirt-was perched on his favorite elephant’s neck. He was spinning a lariat and doing rope tricks that brought shrieks of approval from the crowd.
Chini the elephant was wearing gold caps on her tusks, silver anklets, and brocaded trappings. Her trunk was painted with flowers.
Chow doffed his hat with one hand as he sighted Tom’s party. “Hi there, ladies an’ buckaroos! How’m I doin?”
“Terrific!” Sandy called back.
More elephants followed, bearing Prince Jahan, Prince Gopal, and finally the Rajah and Rani.
Musicians blaring singsong tunes, capering masked gods, and demons brought up the rear. The parade was scarcely over before the crowds broke into wild street dancing. Colored water was sprayed in all directions, and both Tom and Bud were liberally streaked with dye.
“Too bad Swift Enterprises couldn’t have had a float in the parade!” Phyl remarked with a giggle as they walked back to the palace.
“Don’t count us out too soon,” Tom replied mysteriously. Bud and the girls peppered him with questions, but he refused to say more.
SKY SHOW 91
Toward the end of the afternoon a Swift cargo jet touched down on the Chullagar airfield. Tom received word of its arrival and hurried to the airfield to meet it. Aboard was a young geologist named Bill Harper.
Soon after dark the royal court gathered outside the palace for the fireworks display. Rockets streaked across the sky and burst into glowing fireballs or scattered stars and meteors in every color of the rainbow. Huge set pieces turned into flaming dragons, demons, and monsters.
“What’s keeping Tom?” Phyl asked her companions.
“Search me,” said Bud, glancing around. “He said he’d be out here.”
Suddenly Tom’s voice blared from a number of loud-speakers: “This is one of Prince Jahan’s friends from America, bringing greetings to the people of Vishnapur! Through the magic of science, you will now see scenes from the country where your prince has been visiting.”
Other voices followed, translating Tom’s words into Hindi and Tibetan dialects. Then a huge likeness of the capitol dome in Washington sprang into view in the night sky.
“Tom’s using his three-D telejector!” Bud gasped. This amazing invention could project three-dimensional images of any size, without a screen and in full color.
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Views of skyscrapered cities, broad expressways, farms, factories, and schools appeared in the sky, one after another. Tom and his translators kept up a stream of comments.
When the sky show was over, there was an awed hush-then a loud outburst of shouts and cheers. The Rajah summoned Tom and thanked him personally.
When Tom rejoined Bud and the girls, Sandy burst out, “The show was great. But how did you ever manage to put it on at such short notice?”
“Nothing to it, Sis.” Tom grinned. “After Ja-han told me about the parade and fireworks, I radioed Enterprises to send my telejector pronto. The travelogue was taped two months ago for the U. S. Information Agency.”
Late that night the two boys returned to their room in the palace. Tom opened the door and switched on the light, then gasped.
“Good grief!” Bud said in a hoarse whisper.
A blood-chilling, four-armed figure of the goddess Kali had been painted in red on the wall near their beds. Below were the words: Do not touch my lake or You will die!
CHAPTER XI
FLIGHT INTO DANGER
TOGETHER, Tom and Bud walked over to examine the strange warning.
The death goddess’s teeth appeared to be dripping blood, and a ring of skulls had been painted around her neck.
“Whew! What a cheerful thing to see just before hitting the sack!” Bud muttered.
Tom’s jaw set grimly. “We’d better tell Prince Gopal about this.”
Tom found a servant, who hurried to notify the dewan. Prince Gopal came to the boys’ room. A look of alarm spread over his face when he saw the sinister painting.
“When did this happen?” he asked.
Tom replied, “It wasn’t here when we came back to our room after dinner.”
“No doubt it was done during the fireworks display,” Gopal said. “Many of the guards and servants left their posts to watch the sky spectacle.
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94 POLAR-RAY DYNASPHERE
The culprit may have slipped in through a window.”
“Looks to me like the work of more dacoits,” Bud put in. “Maybe the same gang who stole Sandy’s Kali pin and attacked Prince Jahan.”
“You may be right,” Gopal agreed. “I fear this may be only the first hint of worse trouble to come.”
Tom said, “You take the warning seriously?”
“Most seriously!” Gopal snapped. “I have told you that tampering with the Lake of Kali may provoke an outbreak among the people. Now it appears that your own life is in danger.”
The dewan strode back and forth, twisting his mustache. Then he faced Tom.
“I trust you will now reconsider your foolhardy plans.”
“As I told you last night, sir, I’ve made no plans yet,” the young inventor replied coolly. “What happens after I get more data on the lake will be up to Prince Jahan and the Rajah.”
Gopal’s dark eyes gleamed with anger, but when he spoke, his voice was cold and polite. “Very well. But you now know the risk you are taking. Good night, gentlemen.”
The dewan strode out of the room. Soon a servant appeared to clean the gruesome painting off the wall. He was nervous and fearful.
As the boys got ready for bed, Bud chuckled. “Knowing what a stubborn clunk you are, I suppose a mere death threat won’t stop you.”
FLIGHT INTO DANGER 95
“Bud, the peasants in this country don’t look exactly overfed,” Tom replied. “If purifying that lake will make new farmland for these people, I’m going right ahead in spite of Kali and her stooges.”
Next morning Tom reported the incident to Jahan. The prince frowned when he heard about the threat. He was silent for a moment, then said, “That valley could feed many mouths if it were irrigated with good water. I am not afraid of a few fanatics-but there is your own safety to think of, Tom.”
“If you’re willing to go ahead, so am I.”
“Then it is settled.”
Tom told Bill Harper, the geologist, that they would take off in the Sky Queen at ten o’clock. A little later Hugh Mortlake accosted Tom in a corridor of the palace.
“I hear you’re flying north,” the archaeologist said. “Could you take me to Shankaru?”
“I guess so-if you have permission.”
“That’s all set,” Mortlake assured him.
The other trainees were eager to accompany Prince Jahan and the young scientist. As the group was boarding the Flying Lab, Hugh Mortlake came hurrying across the airfield with two palace servants lugging his baggage.