"So this is how thou treatest the stranger who falleth into thy
merciless clutches!" I gasped, scarcely able to articulate, but
struggling desperately.
"Thou, dog of hell, art no stranger!" he said, with a string of
blasphemies. "Thou hast escaped from our camp and brought upon us
disaster, defeat, and dishonour. Thou hast obtained actual possession
of the Crescent of Glorious Wonders, and even at this moment there is
concealed upon thy person a secret message to the Hadj Mohammed ben
Ishak, of Agadez. Confess where thou hast hidden the Crescent, or thou
shalt assuredly die!" His knife was poised aloft; his hand trembled,
impatient to strike me down. Yet I was powerless in his grasp!
"I cannot tell thee!" I answered.
"Thou liest!" he cried. "Dost thou deny also that thou hast any secret
message addressed to the _imam_, upon thee?"
"I deny nothing," I gasped. "It was thee, paltry pilferer, who stole
the box from me in the _kahoua_ in Algiers; thee who offered Gajere a
bag of gold to assist in my murder! I know thee, Labakan! Rest
assured, that if thou killest me, my assassination will speedily be
avenged."
His fierce, brutal countenance, hideously distorted by uncontrollable
anger, broadened into a fiendish grin as, with a loud, defiant laugh, he
cried--
"Hadj Absalam is Sultan of the Desert, and Labakan his Grand Vizier. We
care naught for Infidels who seek to avenge thee, nor for the _homards_
who bear arms against us. Speak! Dost thou still refuse to disclose
the hiding-place of the Crescent of Glorious Wonders, or to deliver unto
me thy secret message?"
"I do," I gasped.
"Too long then have I tarried and wasted words upon thee, courier of
evil!" he shrieked, shaking me in his rage and tightening his painful
grip upon my throat. At that moment, however, I succeeded in wrenching
free my right hand from the outlaw's grasp, and, desperately clutching
the hilt of my thin, curved blade, unsheathed it. It was a struggle for
life. Again he grasped my wrist and held it immovable.
"Cur of a Christian! thou who hast sought to bring ill-luck, disaster,
and destruction upon us, shalt no longer pollute True Believers with thy
baneful presence!" he roared furiously, adding, "Die! rot in the grave
of the Infidels that is called the Hall of the Great Death! Curse thee!
May Eblis condemn thee and all thine accursed race to the horrible
tortures that are eternal, and may Allah burn thy vitals!"
"Thou hast brought me here to murder me!" I cried. "Yet I am willing
to explain to thee the whereabouts of the Crescent, if thou wilt tell me
of the fate of Zoraida, Daughter of the Sun."
"The Lalla Zoraida?" he cried, in surprise. "Then it _is_ true thou
knowest her! We have not been mistaken! Thy dog's eyes have rested
upon her unveiled face; her beauty hath been defiled by thy curious
gaze, and she hath spoken with thee, telling thee of wonders the secret
of which she was charged to preserve under penalty of death!"
"She hath told me nothing," I answered, still helpless in his murderous
grasp. "For many moons have I journeyed over oasis and desert, _hamada_
and dune, in search of the truth, but nothing, alas! hath been
revealed."
"She entrusted to thy keeping the Crescent of Glorious Wonders; she
unveiled before thee, an Infidel; therefore the punishment to which she
was condemned is just."
"What was her punishment?" I gasped breathlessly. "At least tell me
whether she still lives."
"The hand that wrought treacherous deeds was sent thee, so that thou
mightest gaze upon the result of thy gallant adventure," he answered
sternly.
"Yes, yes, I know. Its sight was horrible!" I said, shuddering, his
words bringing back to my memory the cold, dead, bejewelled lingers in
all their sickening hideousness.
"Disgraced in the eyes of the people of Al-Islam, untrue to her creed,
faithless to her people, she hath already received the just reward of
spies and those who play us false. The vengeance of the Ennitra shall
also fall upon thee!"
"Was she murdered?" I demanded. "Tell me."
"She, the One of Beauty, who was possessed of powers strange and
inexplicable, exhibited to thee wonders that none have seen, marvels
that she alone was able to work," he continued, murder lurking in every
line of his dark, forbidding countenance. "The Great Secret that hath
for generations been so zealously-guarded by our people she gave into
thine unscrupulous hands. To thee, a dog of a Christian--upon whom may
the wrath of Allah descend--she transferred her power, thus allowing her
people to be ignominiously defeated and slaughtered by the _homards_.
Of the disasters that have fallen upon us, of the misfortune that ever
dogs the footprints of those of our men who set out upon expeditions, of
all the discomforture that hath been experienced by us; nay, of the
terrible doom that hath overtaken the perfidious Daughter of the Sun who
entranced thee, thou art the author."
"Merciful Allah!" I cried loudly. "I have been unconscious of having
brought catastrophe upon thee. True, I am not of thy creed, but--"
"Silence, thou bringer of evil! Let not the name of the One of Might
pass thy polluted lips," he cried, glaring into my face with fierce,
passionate anger. "To thee we owe the loss of the Marvellous Crescent.
With it our good fortune hath departed. Crushed by defeat, the downfall
of Hadj Absalam seemeth imminent, owing to the false, fickle sorceress
Zoraida--may Allah burn the hell-vixen!--having fallen under thine
amorous glances. Upon thee her power hath fallen, and as thou refusest
to give back to us that which is our own, thou shalt not live to witness
the rising of to-morrow's sun."
"Doth thy Koran teach thee to murder those who are innocent?" I shouted
in a tone of reproach, struggling strenuously, but in vain, to free my
hand.
"The Book of the Everlasting Will saith that those who fight against the
True Believers and study to act corruptly shall be slain, or shall have
their hands and feet cut off, and that the Infidel shall have none to
help him."
"Loosen thine hold!" I cried again, vainly exerting every muscle.
"Felon and outlaw! thou hast seized me by coward stealth, fearing to
fight in open combat. If thine hand strikest me, my blood will swiftly
be avenged!"
"Spawn of a worm! I have brought thee hither to kill thee!" he hissed
between his firmly-set teeth. "Christian dog! Son of a dungheap!
Thou, whose ill-favoured white features so fascinated the One of Beauty
as to cause her to forsake her people and leave them powerless in the
hands of their hated enemies--thou hast uttered thy last word!
To-morrow thou wilt be carrion for the vultures!"
"Curse thee, cut-throat!" I shrieked, turning my dagger upon him, but
only succeeding in inflicting a gash upon his brown wrist. "Thou,
brigand of bloody deeds, hast followed me here into the distant desert
to assassinate me secretly, to satisfy thy craving for the shedding of
blood, but I prophesy that thou wilt--"
In the terrible death-embrace the words froze on my parched lips. His
brown, sinewy arm fell swiftly between my aching eyes and the golden
blaze of sunlight. A sharp twinge in the breast told me the horrible
truth, and the hideous, dirty, repulsive face glaring into mine seemed
slowly to fade into the dark red mist by which everything was suddenly
overspread.
I felt myself falling, and clutched frantically for support, but with a
nauseating giddiness reeled backwards upon the sand.
A rough hand searched the inner pocket of my gandoura, and tore from my
breast my little leathern charm-case, without which no Arab travels.
Upon my ears, harsh and discordant, a short, exultant laugh sounded
hollow and distant.
Next second a grim shadow fell, enveloping me in a darkness that blotted
out all consciousness.