There was one being in the Khedive’s palace whose admiration for Dicky
was a kind of fetish, and Dicky loathed him. Twice had Dicky saved
this Chief Eunuch’s life from Ismail’s anger, and once had he saved
his fortune--not even from compassion, but out of his inherent love of
justice. As Dicky had said: “Let him die--for what he has done, not for
something he has not done. Send him to the devil with a true bill
of crime.” So it was that Dicky, who shrank from the creature whom
Ministers and Pashas fawned upon--so powerful was his unique position
in the palace--went straight to him now to get his quid-pro-quo, his
measure for measure.
The tall, black-coated, smooth-faced creature, silent and watchful and
lean, stepped through the doorway with the footfall of a cat. He slid
forward, salaamed to the floor-Dicky wondered how a body could open and
shut so like the blade of a knife--and, catching Dicky’s hand, kissed
it.
“May thy days be watered with the dew of heaven, saadat el basha,” said
the Chief Eunuch.
“Mine eyes have not seen since thy last withdrawal,” answered Dicky
blandly, in the high-flown Oriental way.
“Thou hast sent for me. I am thy slave.”
“I have sent for thee, Mizraim. And thou shalt prove thyself, once for
all, whether thy hand moves as thy tongue speaks.”
“To serve thee I will lay down my life--I will blow it from me as the
wind bloweth the cotton flower. Have I not spoken thus since the Feast
of Beiram, now two years gone?”
Dicky lowered his voice. “Both Mustapha Bey, that son of the he-wolf
Selamlik Pasha, still follow the carriage of the Khedive’s favourite,
and hang about the walls, and seek to corrupt thee with gold, Mahommed
Mizraim?”
“Saadat el basha, but for thy word to wait, the Khedive had been told
long since.”
“It is the sport to strike when the sword cuts with the longest arm, O
son of Egypt!”
The face of Mizraim was ugly with the unnatural cruelty of an unnatural
man. “Is the time at hand, saadat el basha?”
“You hate Selamlik Pasha?”
“As the lion the jackal.”
Dicky would have laughed in scorn if he might have dared--this being to
class himself with lions! But the time was not fit for laughter. “And
the son of Selamlik Pasha, the vile Mustapha Bey?” he asked.
“I would grind him like corn between the stones! Hath he not sent
messages by the women of the bazaar to the harem of my royal master, to
whom God give glory in heaven? Hath he not sought to enter the harem as
a weasel crawls under a wall? Hath he not sought to steal what I hoard
by a mighty hand and the eye of an eagle for Ismail the Great? Shall
I love him more than the dog that tears the throat of a gazelle?” The
gesture of cruelty he made was disgusting to the eyes of Dicky Donovan,
but he had in his mind the peril to Sowerby, and he nodded his head in
careless approval, as it were.
“Then, Mizraim, thou son of secrecy and keeper of the door, take heed
to what I say, and for thine honour and my need do as I will. Thou shalt
to-night admit Mustapha Bey to the harem--at the hour of nine o’clock!”
“Saadat el basha!” The eunuch’s face was sickly in its terrified wonder.
“Even so. At nine.”
“But, saadat--”
“Bring him secretly, even to the door of the favourite’s room; then,
have him seized and carried to a safe place till I send for him.”
“Ah, saadat el basha--” The lean face of the creature smiled, and the
smile was not nice to see.
“Let no harm be done him, but await my messenger, Mahommed Yeleb, and
whatsoever he bids you to do, do it; for I speak.”
“Ah, saadat el basha, you would strike Selamlik Pasha so--the great
beast, the black river pig, the serpent of the slime...!”
“You will do this thing, Mizraim?”
“I shall lure him, as the mirage the pilgrim. With joy I will do this,
and a hundred times more.”
“Even if I asked of thee the keys of the harem?” asked Dicky grimly.
“Effendi, thou wouldst not ask. All the world knows thee. For thee the
harem hath no lure. Thou goest not by dark ways to deeds for thine own
self. Thou hast honour. Ismail himself would not fear thee.”
“See, thou master of many, squeak not thy voice so high. Ismail will
take thy head and mine, if he discovers to-night’s business. Go then
with a soft tread, Mizraim. Let thy hand be quick on his mouth, and
beware that no one sees!”