Then I sat down on the divan.
My quiet was short. "Be honest with yourself," I said. "Since Morhange
abandoned you, since the day when you saw Antinea, you have had only
one idea. What good is it to beguile yourself with the stories of
Tanit-Zerga, charming as they are? This leopard is a pretext, perhaps
a guide. Oh, you know that mysterious things are going to happen
tonight. How have you been able to keep from doing anything as long as
this?"
Immediately I made a resolve.
"If I open the door," I thought, "King Hiram will leap down the
corridor and I shall have great difficulty in following him. I must
find some other way."
The shade of the window was worked by means of a small cord. I pulled
it down. Then I tied it into a firm leash which I fastened to the
metal collar of the leopard.