"The first of you who moves will be sent naked six leagues into the
red desert and left there to die," said Antinea coldly to her women,
whom my gesture had thrown into a frightened murmuring.
She turned to me.
"That dagger is very ugly and you hold it badly. Shall I send Sydya to
my room to get the silver hammer? You are more adroit with it than
with the dagger."
"Antinea," I said in a low voice, "I am going to kill you."
"Do not speak so formally. You were more affectionate last night. Are
you embarrassed by them?" she said, pointing to the women, whose eyes
were wide with terror.
"Kill me?" she went on. "You are hardly reasonable. Kill me at the
moment when you can reap the fruits of the murder of...."
"Did--did he suffer?" I asked suddenly, trembling.
"Very little. I told you that you used the hammer as if you had done
nothing else all your life."
"Like little Kaine," I murmured.
She smiled in surprise.
"Oh, you know that story.... Yes, like little Kaine. But at least
Kaine was sensible. You ... I do not understand."
"I do not understand myself, very well."
She looked at me with amused curiosity.
"Antinea," I said.
"What is it?"
"I did what you told me to. May I in turn ask one favor, ask you one
question?"
"What is it?"
"It was dark, was it not, in the room where _he_ was?"
"Very dark. I had to lead you to the bed where he lay asleep."
"He _was_ asleep, you are sure?"
"I said so."
"He--did not die instantly, did he?"
"No. I know exactly when he died; two minutes after you struck him and
fled with a shriek."
"Then surely _he_ could not have known?"
"Known what?"
"That it was I who--who held the hammer."
"He might not have known it, indeed," Antinea said. "But he did know."
"How?"
"He did know ... because I told him," she said, staring at me with
magnificent audacity.
"And," I murmured, "he--he believed it?"
"With the help of my explanation, he recognized your shriek. If he had
not realized that you were his murderer, the affair would not have
interested me," she finished with a scornful little smile.
Four steps, I said, separated me from Antinea. I sprang forward. But,
before I reached her, I was struck to the floor.
King Hiram had leapt at my throat.
At the same moment I heard the calm, haughty voice of Antinea:
"Call the men," she commanded.
A second later I was released from the leopard's clutch. The six white
Tuareg had surrounded me and were trying to bind me.
I am fairly strong and quick. I was on my feet in a second. One of my
enemies lay on the floor, ten feet away, felled by a well-placed blow
on the jaw. Another was gasping under my knee. That was the last time
I saw Antinea. She stood erect, both hands resting on her ebony
scepter, watching the struggle with a smile of contemptuous interest.
Suddenly I gave a loud cry and loosed the hold I had on my victim. A
cracking in my left arm: one of the Tuareg had seized it and twisted
until my shoulder was dislocated.
When I completely lost consciousness, I was being carried down the
corridor by two white phantoms, so bound that I could not move a
muscle.