4 African Mysteries: Zoraida, The Great White Queen, The Eye of Istar & The Veiled Man (Illustrated Edition). William Le Queux

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      “I have acted as I thought fit. Leave my presence!” she commanded, with imperious gesture. “I will no longer suffer the brutal insults of a man I hate. Ere the sun hath set I shall have freed myself of thine hateful bonds and left thine accursed roof.”

      “Thou shalt never go from here alive!” he hissed in her ear, holding her slim white wrist and dragging her roughly towards him. “Already thou, the cause of our downfall, hast defiled thine hands with the blood of a stranger, and allowed him to obtain knowledge whereby our secret designs will be thwarted. For such offences there is but one penalty. It is death!”

      “Thou, who art tired of me, bring these accusations in order to justify my murder!” she gasped in indignation and alarm. “My people have not forgotten, and assuredly will they seek blood revenge.”

      “Enough!” he growled between his teeth, as in a second he drew a knife from his waist, and, clutching her by the throat, forced her upon her knees. “Thou art the handmaiden of Al-Dajjâl, and the mark of the Câfer is set upon thy brow. Thou shalt die!”

      She shrieked as his powerful arm poised in mid air.

      “Spare me! Spare me!” she implored piteously. “Be thou merciful!”

      But he jeered at her appeal, and, forcing her backward in his iron clutches, gripped the gleaming, murderous weapon.

      “Thy people, thou Misriyah! will never know thy fate, for ere sundown thou wilt be as offal, and vultures will strip thy bones,” he said, with a fiendish grin. “See! this my knife seeketh thy polluted heart.”

      Unhesitatingly I dashed forward, springing upon him from behind and wrenching the weapon from his grasp. I was not a moment too soon, for in another instant the keen steel would have been plunged into the heaving white breast of the fair, fragile jewel of the harem.

      “Who, pray, art thou, who darest obstruct me?” he demanded angrily, turning upon me in amazement.

      “Thy wife hath saved my life, and it is my duty to save hers,” I answered boldly.

      “See!” she panted, suddenly recognising me. “See! it is the stranger who was wounded!”

      “The stranger who hath learned at his peril the secret of the Ghuzzat,” he added, with grim sarcasm. “As he is thy protector, he is most probably thy lover also!”

      “That I deny,” I answered quickly. “I have known nothing of this lady until to-day.”

      “Liar!” he shrieked in rage. “Thou boldest our secret. Only thy death will expiate thine eavesdropping!” and ere I could realise his intention, he had drawn a second knife from his waist and made a desperate lunge at me. With difficulty I managed to parry the blow, and for a few moments we engaged in deadly combat. His young wife, alarmed, rushed to a door which led into a beautiful courtyard, and shouted for help. Her cries were answered immediately by two black slaves of gigantic stature, who, in obedience to her commands, flung themselves upon their master, twisted the knife from his fingers, and in a trice had bound his hands behind his back with a cord they seemed to have brought for the purpose.

      “Slaves! Suffer not thine hands to thus defile me!” he cried, with a look of murder in his flashing eyes, but they gagged him immediately.

      His wife, addressing the two negroes, exclaimed —

      “It is as I expected. He hath attempted to strike me to earth, and had it not been for this stranger, I should have been murdered. Three days ago I gave thee certain instructions — carry them out.”

      “We will, O Lady of Great Beauty,” they both replied.

      “Then remove him.”

      The two black giants opened the small door by which I had entered, and almost before the old Arab could mumble a protest, they had hurried him out and down into the dark subterranean passage that led away into the unknown maze below.

      “That course is my only chance of escape,” she said, turning to me in explanation, when the door had closed. “Had I fallen, thou too must have perished, for thy food in the secret chamber could not have lasted long,” she panted, holding her hand to her breast as if in pain.

      “I have to thank thee for rescuing me from death,” I said. “I had no idea who was my deliverer until I overheard thy conversation.”

      “But thou didst not obey the instructions I left thee in my letter,” she said in a tone of reproach. “Searching for a means of exit, it seemeth, brought thee unto the Chamber of Assembly; hence my disgrace and thine own peril.”

      “But thine husband — whither have they taken him?”

      “To the chamber in which thou hast remained hidden these few days. Before he is placed there, he will be rendered unconscious, so that he may not know of the secret entrance. There will he remain while I reach a place of safety.”

      “Merely detained?” I asked dubiously.

      “Yes. Though in his wrath he tried to kill me, I bear him no malice, for when I get back to mine own people, I shall be safe. If he discovers how to get out of his prison, then he will live. If not” — and she shrugged her shoulders.

      “Though thou art his wife, thou dost not appear to regret thy departure.”

      “Why should I, when I have been detained here over a year against my will? If thou only knewest the dreary life a woman leadeth in the hands of a brute she hates and despises — ah!” and she shuddered.

      “Then thou wilt now regain freedom?” I said, surprised.

      “Yes. For many moons have I waited in patience for this moment, and at last I have accomplished what I sought. Already the preparations are being made. My two trusty slaves will return when their work hath been accomplished, and in an hour camels will be packed in readiness for our journey.”

      “Our journey? Dost thou СКАЧАТЬ