ans. David motioned
them towards the great gates, and, without speaking, passed swiftly down
the pathway and emerged upon the road without. A moment later he was
riding towards the Citadel with Harrik's message to Achmet. In the
red-curtained room Harrik sat alone, listening until he heard the far
clatter of hoofs, and knew that the Nubians were gone. Then the other
distant sound which had captured his ear came to him again. In his fancy
it grew louder and louder. With it came the voice that called him in the
night, the voice of a woman--of the wife he had given to the lions for
a crime against him which she did not commit, which had haunted him all
the years. He had seen her thrown to the king of them all, killed in one
swift instant, and dragged about the den by her warm white neck--this
slave wife from Albania, his adored Fatima. And when, afterwards, he
came to know the truth, and of her innocence, from the chief eunuch who
with his last breath cleared her name, a terrible anger and despair had
come upon him. Time and intrigue and conspiracy had distracted his mind,
and the Jehad became the fixed aim and end of his life. Now this was
gone. Destiny had tripped him up. Kaid and the infidel Inglesi had won.

As the one great passion went out like smoke, the woman he loved, whom
he had given to the lions, the memory of her, some haunting part of
her, possessed him, overcame him. In truth, he had heard a voice in the
night, but not the voice of a spirit. It was the voice of Zaida, who,
preying upon his superstitious mind--she knew the hallucination which
possessed him concerning her he had cast to the lions--and having given
the terrible secret to Kaid, whom she had ever loved, would still save
Harrik from the sure vengeance which must fall upon him. Her design had
worked, but not as she intended. She had put a spell of superstition on
him, and the end would be accomplished, but not by flight to the desert.

Harrik chose the other way. He had been a hunter.

He was without fear. The voice of the woman he loved called him. It came
to him through the distant roar of the lions as clear as when, with one
cry of "Harrik!" she had fallen beneath the lion's paw. He knew now why
he had kept the great beast until this hour, though tempted again and
again to slay him.

Like one in a dream, he drew a dagger from the cushions where he sat,
and rose to his feet. Leaving the room and passing dark groups of
waiting slaves, he travel