ger
to Shagpat! he that's attended by Genii, and watched over by the greatest
of them, day and night incessantly?'

And Noorna said, 'I ask pardon of the Power that seeth, and of thee, if I
be wrong. Wah! am I not also of them that watch over Shagpat? So then let
thou and I go into the palace and examine the doings of this deputation
and this dish of pomegranate grain.'

Now, Kadza remembered the scene on the roofs of the Vizier Feshnavat, and
relaxed in her look of suspicion, and said, ''Tis well! Let's in to
them.'

Thereupon the twain threaded through the crowd and locked at the portals
of the palace, and it was opened to them and they entered, and lo! the
hand that opened the portals was the hand of a slave of the Sword, and
against corners of the Court leaned slaves silly with slumber. So Kadza
went up to them, and beat them, and shook them, and they yawned and
mumbled, 'Excellent grain! good grain! the grain of Shiraz!' And she beat
them with what might was hers, till some fell sideways and some forward,
still mumbling, 'Excellent pomegranate grain!' Kadza was beside herself
with anger and vexation at them, tearing them and cuffing them; but
Noorna cried, 'O Kadza! what said I? there's danger to Shagpat in this
dish of pomegranate grain! and what's that saying:

"'Tis much against the Master's wish
That slaves too greatly praise his dish."

Wullahy! I like not this talk of the grain of Shiraz.'

Now, while Noorna spake, the eyes of Kadza became like those of the
starved wild-cat, and she sprang off and along the marble of the Court,
and clawed a passage through the air and past the marble pillars of the
palace toward the first room of reception, Noorna following her. And in
the first room were slaves leaning and lolling like them about the Court,
and in the second room and in the third room, silent all of them and
senseless. So at this sight the spark of suspicion became a mighty flame
in the bosom of Kadza, and horror burst out at all ends of her, and she
shuddered, and cried, 'What for us, and where's our hope if Shagpat be
shorn, and he lopped of the Identical, shamed like the lion of my dream!'

And Noorna clasped her hands, and said, ''Tis that I fear! Seek for him,
O Kadza!'

So Kadza ran to a window and looked forth over the garden of the palace,
and it was a fair garden with the gleam of a fountain and watered plants
and cool arches of shade, thick bowers, fragrant alleys, long sheltered