The
degradation which awaits the drug slave had never been more succinctly
expounded to her. She was to employ Gray's foolish devotion for the
commercial advantage of Kazmah. Of course Gray might any day become
one of the three wealthiest peers in the realm. She divined the
meaning of Kazmah's hitherto incomprehensible harshness (or believed
that she did); she saw what was expected of her. "My God!" she
whispered. "I have not come to that yet."
Rashid she knew to be incorruptible or powerless, and she turned away,
trembling, and left the place, whose faint perfume of frankincense had
latterly become hateful to her.
She was at this time bordering upon a state of collapse. Insomnia,
which latterly had defied dangerously increased doses of veronal, was
telling upon nerve and brain. Now, her head aching so that she often
wondered how long she could retain sanity, she found herself deprived
not only of cocaine, but also of malourea. Margaret Halley was her
last hope, and to Margaret she hastened on the day before the tragedy
which was destined to bring to light the sinister operations of the
Kazmah group.
Although, perhaps mercifully, she was unaware of the fact,
representatives of Spinker's Agency had been following her during the
whole of the preceding fortnight.
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