If he could not see her face, and study there the effect of that thrust of his, at least he observed the quiver that ran through her m.u.f.fled figure, he caught the note of anger that throbbed in her reply--"And if that were so, what is"t to thee?"
"It may be much or little," he replied thoughtfully.
"Indeed, it should be much," she answered quickly, breathlessly. "Have I not ever been thy friend? Have I not ever urged thy valour on my lord"s notice and wrought like a true friend for thine advancement, Sakr-el-Bahr?"
He laughed outright. "Hast thou so?" quoth he.
"Laugh as thou wilt, but it is true," she insisted. "Lose me and thy most valuable ally is lost--one who has the ear and favour of her lord.
For look, Sakr-el-Bahr, it is what would befall if another came to fill my place, another who might poison Asad"s mind with lies against thee--for surely she cannot love thee, this Frankish girl whom thou hast torn from her home!"
"Be not concerned for that," he answered lightly, his wits striving in vain to plumb the depths and discover the nature of her purpose. "This slave of mine shall never usurp thy place beside Asad."
"O fool, Asad will take her whether she be for sale or not."
He looked down upon her, head on one side and arms akimbo. "If he can take her from me, the more easily can he take her from thee. No doubt thou hast considered that, and in some dark Sicilian way considered too how to provide against it. But the cost--hast thou counted that? What will Asad say to thee when he learns how thou hast thwarted him?"
"What do I care for that?" she cried in sudden fury, her gestures becoming a little wild. "She will be at the bottom of the harbour by then with a stone about her neck. He may have me whipped. No doubt he will. But "twill end there. He will require me to console him for his loss, and so all will be well again."
At last he had drawn her, pumped her dry, as he imagined. Indeed, indeed, he thought, he had been right to say she was not subtle. He had been a fool to have permitted himself to be intrigued by so shallow, so obvious a purpose. He shrugged and turned away from her.
"Depart in peace, O Fenzileh," he said. "I yield her to none--be his name Asad or Shaitan."
His tone was final, and her answer seemed to accept at last his determination. Yet she was very quick with that answer; so quick that he might have suspected it to be preconceived.
"Then it is surely thine intent to wed her." No voice could have been more innocent and guileless than was hers now. "If so," she went on, "it were best done quickly, for marriage is the only barrier Asad will not overthrow. He is devout, and out of his deep reverence for the Prophet"s law he would be sure to respect such a bond as that. But be very sure that he will respect nothing short of it."
Yet notwithstanding her innocence and a.s.sumed simplicity--because of it, perhaps--he read her as if she had been an open book; it no longer mattered that her face was veiled.
"And thy purpose would be equally well served, eh?" he questioned her, sly in his turn.
"Equally," she admitted.
"Say "better," Fenzileh," he rejoined. "I said thou art not subtle. By the Koran, I lied. Thou art subtle as the serpent. Yet I see whither thou art gliding. Were I to be guided by thine advice a twofold purpose would be served. First, I should place her beyond Asad"s reach, and second, I should be embroiled with him for having done so. What could more completely satisfy thy wishes?"
"Thou dost me wrong," she protested. "I have ever been thy friend. I would that...." She broke off suddenly to listen. The stillness of the night was broken by cries from the direction of the Bab-el-Oueb. She ran swiftly to the parapet whence the gate was to be seen and leaned far out.
"Look, look!" she cried, and there was a tremor of fear in her voice.
"It is he--Asad-ed-Din."
Sakr-el-Bahr crossed to her side and in a glare of torches saw a body of men coming forth from the black archway of the gate.
"It almost seems as if, departing from thy usual custom, thou hast spoken truth, O Fenzileh."
She faced him, and he suspected the venomous glance darted at him through her veil. Yet her voice when she spoke was cold. "In a moment thou"lt have no single doubt of it. But what of me?" The question was added in a quickening tone. "He must not find me here. He would kill me, I think."
"I am sure he would," Sakr-el-Bahr agreed. "Yet m.u.f.fled thus, who should recognize thee? Away, then, ere he comes. Take cover in the courtyard until he shall have pa.s.sed. Didst thou come alone?"
"Should I trust anyone with the knowledge that I had visited thee?" she asked, and he admired the strong Sicilian spirit in her that not all these years in the Basha"s hareem had sufficed to extinguish.
She moved quickly to the door, to pause again on the threshold.
"Thou"lt not relinquish her? Thou"lt not."
"Be at ease," he answered her, on so resolved a note that she departed satisfied.
CHAPTER XIII. IN THE SIGHT OF ALLAH
Sakr-el-Bahr stood lost in thought after she had gone. Again he weighed her every word and considered precisely how he should meet Asad, and how refuse him, if the Basha"s were indeed such an errand as Fenzileh had heralded.
Thus in silence he remained waiting for Ali or another to summon him to the presence of the Basha. Instead, however, when Ali entered it was actually to announce Asad-ed-Din, who followed immediately upon his heels, having insisted in his impatience upon being conducted straight to the presence of Sakr-el-Bahr.
"The peace of the Prophet upon thee, my son, was the Basha"s greeting.
"And upon thee, my lord." Sakr-el-Bahr salaamed. "My house is honoured."
With a gesture he dismissed Ali.
"I come to thee a suppliant," said Asad, advancing.
"A suppliant, thou? No need, my lord. I have no will that is not the echo of thine own."
The Basha"s questing eyes went beyond him and glowed as they rested upon Rosamund.
"I come in haste," he said, "like any callow lover, guided by my every instinct to the presence of her I seek--this Frankish pearl, this pen-faced captive of thy latest raid. I was away from the Kasbah when that pig Tsamanni returned thither from the sok; but when at last I learnt that he had failed to purchase her as I commanded, I could have wept for very grief. I feared at first that some merchant from the Sus might have bought her and departed; but when I heard--blessed be Allah!--that thou wert the buyer, I was comforted again. For thou"lt yield her up to me, my son."
He spoke with such confidence that Oliver had a difficulty in choosing the words that were to disillusion him. Therefore he stood in hesitancy a moment.
"I will make good thy, loss," Asad ran on. "Thou shalt have the sixteen hundred philips paid and another five hundred to console thee. Say that will content thee; for I boil with impatience."
Sakr-el-Bahr smiled grimly. "It is an impatience well known to me, my lord, where she is concerned," he answered slowly. "I boiled with it myself for five interminable years. To make an end of it I went a distant perilous voyage to England in a captured Frankish vessel. Thou didst not know, O Asad, else thou wouldst...."
"Bah!" broke in the Basha. "Thou"rt a huckster born. There is none like thee, Sakr-el-Bahr, in any game of wits. Well, well, name thine own price, strike thine own profit out of my impatience and let us have done."
"My lord," he said quietly, "it is not the profit that is in question.
She is not for sale."
Asad blinked at him, speechless, and slowly a faint colour crept into his sallow cheeks.
"Not... not for sale?" he echoed, faltering in his amazement.
"Not if thou offered me thy Bashalik as the price of her," was the solemn answer. Then more warmly, in a voice that held a note of intercession--"Ask anything else that is mine," he continued, "and gladly will I lay it at thy feet in earnest of my loyalty and love for thee."
"But I want nothing else." Asad"s tone was impatient, petulant almost.
"I want this slave."
"Then," replied Oliver, "I cast myself upon thy mercy and beseech thee to turn thine eyes elsewhere."