FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130  
131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   >>   >|  
was disgraced, and that the Prince Pasha would be happier if Harrik were quiet for ever? Mechanically he drew out his watch and looked at it. It was nine o'clock. In three hours more would have fallen the coup. But from this man's words he knew that the stroke was now with the Prince Pasha. Yet, if this pale Inglesi, this Christian sorcerer, knew the truth in a vision only, and had not declared it to Kaid, there might still be a chance of escape. The lions were near--it would be a joy to give a Christian to the lions to celebrate the capture of Cairo and the throne. He listened intently to the distant rumble of the lions. There was one cage dedicated to vengeance. Five human beings on whom his terrible anger fell in times past had been thrust into it alive. Two were slaves, one was an enemy, one an invader of his harem, and one was a woman, his wife, his favourite, the darling of his heart. When his chief eunuch accused her of a guilty love, he had given her paramour and herself to that awful death. A stroke of the vast paw, a smothered roar as the teeth gave into the neck of the beautiful Fatima, and then--no more. Fanaticism had caught a note of savage music that tuned it to its height. "Why art thou here? For what hast thou come? Do the spirit voices give thee that counsel?" he snarled. "I am come to ask Prince Harrik to repair the wrong he has done. When the Prince Pasha came to know of thy treason--" Harrik started. "Kaid believes thy tale of treason?" he burst out. "Prince Kaid knows the truth," answered David quietly. "He might have surrounded this palace with his Nubians, and had thee shot against the palace walls. That would have meant a scandal in Egypt and in Europe. I besought him otherwise. It may be the scandal must come, but in another way, and--" "That I, Harrik, must die?" Harrik's voice seemed far away. In his own ears it sounded strange and unusual. All at once the world seemed to be a vast vacuum in which his brain strove for air, and all his senses were numbed and overpowered. Distempered and vague, his soul seemed spinning in an aching chaos. It was being overpowered by vast elements, and life and being were atrophied in a deadly smother. The awful forces behind visible being hung him in the middle space between consciousness and dissolution. He heard David's voice, at first dimly, then understandingly. "There is no other way. Thou art a traitor. Thou wouldst have been a fratricide
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130  
131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Prince
 

Harrik

 

Christian

 
overpowered
 
palace
 
treason
 

stroke

 

scandal

 

Europe

 

besought


started
 
repair
 

snarled

 

counsel

 

spirit

 

voices

 

answered

 

quietly

 

surrounded

 

believes


Nubians
 

forces

 

visible

 
middle
 

smother

 
deadly
 
elements
 

atrophied

 

traitor

 

wouldst


fratricide

 

understandingly

 
consciousness
 
dissolution
 

aching

 
strange
 

sounded

 

unusual

 

vacuum

 

Distempered


spinning

 

numbed

 
senses
 

strove

 
escape
 
celebrate
 

capture

 

chance

 
declared
 

throne