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Title: A jest and a vengeance
Author: E. Hoffman Price
Release date: May 24, 2024 [eBook #73675]
Language: English
Original publication: Indianapolis, IN: Popular Fiction Publishing Company, 1929
Credits: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A JEST AND A VENGEANCE ***
A JEST and a VENGEANCE
By E. HOFFMANN PRICE
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Weird Tales September 1929.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
A bullet flattened itself against the chiseled arabesques of the wall
behind Sultan Schamas ad Din of Angor-lana, spattering him with bits of
lead and splinters of marble.
"Maksoud is a notoriously wretched marksman," observed the sultan as
he fingered the leaden slug which Amru, his white-haired wazir, had
retrieved from the tiled floor. "Still, with enough trials----"
The sultan thrust his cushions a sword's length to the right, and
moved just far enough to be secure against further rifle fire from the
minaret of the neighboring mosque.
"With enough trials," resumed Schamas ad Din, "Maksoud may not have to
wait for the British Resident to find a pretext to depose me."
"It might not have been the son of your brother," suggested Amru, as
he moved the fuming nargileh to the sultan's new position, and offered
him the carved jade stem. "There are several who have old grudges to
settle."
"Undoubtedly," agreed the sultan. "But who else would fire from the
mosque? And then miss such an easy mark!"
From afar came the throbbing of drums that muttered of revolt in the
mountains.
"Rebels without and assassins within! A luxurious little coffin, this
city which the Old Tiger and I built with our swords. Then with this
infidel Resident, and Maksoud, who can't wait for me to be deposed----"
The sultan coiled the tube of the nargileh about his wrist and drank
deeply of its white smoke. Then he achieved the smile he reserved for
occasions demanding the higher justice.
"By Allah and by Abaddon and by the honor of my beard! Resident or no
Resident, we will convince this Maksoud of his stupidity! Amru, call me
that old bandit of an Ismeddin!"
"At once, _saidi_?" queried the old wazir, as he bowed.
"No. Tonight. He's doubtless asleep now, after a hard evening's
discussion with some poorly guarded caravan."
* * * * *
The drumming in the mountains at last ceased. But late that night,
long after the outposts at Djeb el Azhár had been doubled, there came
another and a different drumming, this time from the palace itself:
very low, giving rather the sense of a massive vibration rather than of
sound. And this deep pulsing was picked up and relayed until it crept
into those very mountains where the tribesmen sharpened their curved
yataghans, stuffed their scarlet saddle-bags with grain, and awaited
the signal to descend and plunder, certain that they would not be
pursued beyond the Sultan's borders, and safe in the assurance that the
Resident was but waiting for a pretext to depose Schamas ad Din.
To one who lived in those mountains, and understood the code, the
deep-voiced, far-relayed drum spoke very clearly; so that, late as it
was, Ismeddin emerged from his cave, belted on a jeweled simitar that
gleamed frostily against his tattered, greasy garments, and picked his
way on foot along the hidden trails that led through the camps of the
revolting tribesmen and to the plains below.
The darvish had heard the signal, and knew that the son of the Old
Tiger was in need.
Ismeddin smiled as he heard the guttural chant of the rebels about
their guard fires. But as he approached their outposts, he picked his
way more warily, ceased smiling, muttered in his long beard something
about the exceeding unfairness of having to contend with mounted
sentries, and loosened the Ladder to Heaven in its scabbard....
* * * * *
Since the flat roof of the palace at Angor-lana was higher than any
building in the city, the sultan was passably secure against marksmen
addicted to royal targets, particularly in view of his being in an
angle of the parapet that could not be reached from the minaret of the
mosque. And thus it was that he reclined at ease in the shadow of a
striped canopy, sipping Shirazi wine to his heart's content and his
soul's damnation.
But peace and sultans are strangers. A captain of the guard clanked
into the Presence, saluted, and made his report: "_Saidi_, the troops
at Djeb el Azhár surprized and captured a detachment of the rebels. A
ragged old man riding a stolen horse led the outpost commander----"
"Ismeddin, by the Power and by the Splendor!" interrupted the sultan.
"Where are the prisoners? And Ismeddin?"
"In the hall of audience, _saidi_. Abdurrahman Khan, his son, and sixty
of their followers."
"Very good, Ismail," exulted the sultan. "We will pass sentence at
once. Announce me to the court."
The older lords of the court, stout, white-haired ruffians, companions
of the Old Tiger, knew well what the Old Tiger's son contemplated when
he appeared in the hall of audience. And the younger lords knew the
tradition, and beamed in anticipation of old glories revived.
Each of the two chief executioners had three assistants, standing a
pace to the left and three paces to the rear; and all were fingering
the hilts of their two-handed swords.
There would be notable dismemberments, and a surprizing scarcity of
rebels long before evening prayer. As for Abdurrahman Khan----
Old Ismeddin, ragged and grimy among the glittering captains, smiled as
he thought of an ancient score.
And then the Resident appeared to take his customary station at the
left of the throne. He whispered in the sultan's ear; but not even the
fan-bearers behind the throne could hear what he said.
The captains exulted at the great rage that flamed in the sultan's eyes
as he rose from the dais. But the captains gaped stupidly when the
sultan spoke.
"Take these sons of flat-nosed mothers back to their cells. I will deal
with them later."
The court dispersed.
The lords and ministers escorted the sultan to his apartments. The
brazen doors closed softly behind him, so that they did not see him
hurl his turban to the floor, did not hear his simitar clang against
the tiles, rebound, and clatter into a corner. Nor did they hear the
Resident, materialized at the height of the storm, expostulate: "But,
your Majesty, you may have them hanged, you know--have all of them
hanged, in public--roll of drums and all that. But one simply can't
have these dismemberings and impalings, you know. Barbarous, and
uncivilized, and all that."
Then the sultan, as he twice struck together his hands: "Amru, an
order: release the rebels! And to each, his own horse and a robe of
honor!"
The Resident endured the sultan's eye for a full moment, and admirably
concealed his alarm. Then he left the Presence, conscious of duty
well done, even if in the shadow of a bowstring with a running noose:
enraged princes do forget themselves, and the sanctity of Residents.
But Schamas ad Din issued no further orders. He and his nargileh fumed
and bubbled on the flat roof of the palace....
Then the calm voice of Ismeddin: "A thousand years, _saidi_."
"And to you, a thousand," returned the sultan, as he rose to greet his
old friend.
The darvish declined the honor of sharing the sultan's seat.
"Hard rocks are my cushions, _saidi_," he protested, as he squatted,
cross-legged, at the sultan's feet. But he accepted the stem of the
nargileh and solemnly inhaled its white fumes.
Amru set out fresh wine and withdrew; for that grimy wanderer from the
mountains was closer to the sultan even than an old and trusted wazir.
"I summoned you last night to help me devise a quiet and effective way
of dealing with my brother's son. Need I say that since Maksoud is a
friend of the Resident, I need help?"
"Therefore," replied the darvish, "you put me to the trouble of
stealing by night through the lines of the mountaineers." Then, smiling
a crooked smile, he continued, "And I am an old man, _saidi_----"
"And I," retorted the sultan, "am by this day's work an old woman!
That dog of an infidel! That friend of the rebels! The white-haired
companions of the Old Tiger pity the mockery that his son has become."
"It is indeed vain in these evil days to be a king," observed Ismeddin.
"Yet even a sultan should have his vengeance. And even Residents have
their limitations."
Ismeddin smiled thinly, and fingered the hilt of the Ladder to Heaven.
"It is beyond any sword, Ismeddin," mourned the sultan. "In the old
days one rode out of the mountains with a troop of horse. But now a
Resident stands behind my throne. Look what has happened to my old
enemy the Rajah of Lacra-kai, on whom be peace!"
The darvish shrugged his shoulders. "I was in the hall of audience. I
saw and I heard. And we two are powerless. But, _inschallah_! There is
yet much that can be done."
"Then let it be done--before I am deposed."
"You shall have your vengeance, _saidi_. There is one who is the master
of vengeances. The Lord of the World, who sits dreaming in the ruins of
Atlânaat."
The sultan shivered. "Why speak of Atlânaat? There is some slight merit
in living long enough to be deposed and end one's days in Feringhistan,
spending an annuity and being addressed as Majesty. Many have entered
Atlânaat in hopes of wisdom and loot, and have left without even hope
of forgetting what they have seen. Really, Ismeddin, that monstrous
citadel was built by devils, and Shaitan's little sister dances there
by moonlight."
"Devils?" retorted Ismeddin. "Built rather by pre-Adamite kings."
"As you will," conceded the sultan. "The distinction is purely
academic. Yet the fact remains that sane men find less and less reason
for visiting that fiend-haunted ruin. Once, a very long time ago, I saw
a very little. But that was entirely too much. And that music, and that
strange sweetness that drifts up from the depths...."
Again the sultan shivered.
"But I," countered Ismeddin, "have seen Atlânaat to its nethermost
foundations. And there and there only lies your vengeance, and a jest
such as the Old Tiger himself would have relished, if you can face the
Lord of the World and his counsel." The darvish leaped to his feet.
"_Saidi_, the Old Tiger would not have hesitated."
"Done, by Allah and by my beard!" swore the sultan. "Yet I know any
number of places I would rather visit, either by day or by night.
Nevertheless----"
"Let it then be nevertheless, my lord!"
The sultan twice clapped his hands.
Amru reappeared, and received orders: two horses at the Ispahan Gate,
an hour after evening prayer; horses meanly equipped and poorly
caparisoned.
But before Amru could leave, Ismeddin interposed: "A moment, oh father
of all wazirs!"
And then, to the sultan: "What is to be done must be done quickly. Let
Maksoud meet us at Atlânaat, so that the wisdom of the Lord of the
World will not have time to cool in our ears."
The sultan nodded, then spoke very briefly of four tongueless, black
mamelukes, and of Maksoud who was to accompany them; and this cavalcade
was to leave the city by a small gate which had no name.
* * * * *
An hour's ride from the Ispahan Gate brought Ismeddin and the sultan
to the edge of the jungle in whose depths brooded the foundations of
prodigious Atlânaat. They halted for a moment to gaze at the uncounted
domes and minarets that towered high above the jungle and muttered
secret words to the stars as they crept out one by one. Then Ismeddin
took the lead, the sultan following in his trace.
How strange, pondered the sultan, that he should ride alone in the
jungle, following a white blur that was the dirty _djellab_ of an
old man who was so entirely at home in unsavory places; and how much
stranger yet that he should step from his throne to seek aid from a
darvish who lived in a cavern and pitied the futility of kings.
Then the sultan thought of his vengeance, and wondered at the terrific
words the Lord of the World would speak....
The darvish finally halted at the edge of a clearing. Before them
loomed the incredible bulk of the outer walls of Atlânaat, walls that
had for ages mocked the age-old trees that sought to reach their
parapet.
"To our left, _saidi_," announced the darvish.
They skirted the wall until they came to a breach wide enough to admit
four horsemen abreast.
"Those who enter through the gate are seriously in error," commented
Ismeddin, as he picked his way among the gigantic blocks of rose
granite that still lay in the breach. "There is a sculptured hand on
the keystone of the arch...."
The moon had risen over the crests of the trees. Long shadows of
columns shattered at mid-height marched across the broad, paved avenue
that at the breach in the wall turned and led to the heart of the
citadel.
"My lord," began Ismeddin, as the sultan cleared the last block of
granite and drew up at his side, "we have not yet committed ourselves
to anything."
"Conceivably," admitted the sultan, "the ride back to Angor-lana by
moonlight would be pleasant. Yet Maksoud also would find it a pleasant
ride. But tell me," continued Schamas ad Din, "what advantage there
is in taking my vengeance here? It might be more odd and quaint than
anything I might devise at home; but in the end, there would be the
Resident----"
"Ah, but would there?" smiled Ismeddin. "The Lord of the World dreams
strange things. However, if you wish----"
Ismeddin wheeled his horse about.
"Not at all!" countered the sultan. "To the finish, then. And as for
this god and his playmate?"
"Even so, _saidi_."
The darvish led the way down the broad avenue. The sultan glanced once
at the sculptured columns, shuddered, and found a glance sufficient.
Then he smiled: for Maksoud would find Atlânaat not a bit more savory.
The avenue ended in a small court bounded by columns whose capitals
were on friendly terms with a single sultry-growing star that glared
evilly.... At the base of each pillar was an ornately chiseled
pedestal. On eleven of these pedestals, forming a crescent, were
life-sized images of bearded men, sitting cross-legged. The head of
each was bowed as in sleep; and each held in his left hand a curiously
carved scepter.
The sultan started at the sound of hoofs clicking on the pavement
behind them.
"Maksoud and his escort." And then, as the hoof-beats ceased: "They
fancy this place no more than you do, _saidi_."
The sultan scrutinized the cross-legged, bearded images.
"Strangely life-like," he observed.
"No," contradicted Ismeddin. "Not _strangely_ life-like. Rather it
would be strange were they otherwise. Nevertheless, seek the girl and
her sleeping master. She may tell you how to outwit the Resident and
dispose very neatly of Maksoud. But"--Ismeddin glanced again at the
disconcerting images--"she may offer a most unusual solution."
In the center of the court was a circular balustrade that guarded the
brink of a pit along whose walls spiraled a gently sloping runway down
which a man on horse or foot might easily make his way to the abysmal
depths that mocked the single star overhead.
"Advance boldly," counseled the darvish, "down the center, not rashly
close to the edge, nor timidly close to the wall. And in the meanwhile
I will be here with Maksoud, awaiting your return."
"My return? You are optimistic."
"But with reason," countered Ismeddin. "I myself was once there; and I
returned."
"If you are wrong, it will be the first time," conceded the sultan as
he began his descent.
"Ismeddin," reflected the sultan, "is doubtless right. And yet I would
rather be up there in the courtyard watching him pick his way down
and out of sight and into this playground of Shaitan's little sister.
Ismeddin would be quite in his element."
* * * * *
Darkness did not engulf him as quickly as he had expected. The
blackness receded as he descended, and the broad, white tiles gleamed
dully ahead of him, so that it was simple enough to keep to the middle
of the spiral runway.
From far above came the click-click of horses' hoofs.
The sultan smiled grimly at the thought of Maksoud awaiting a doom that
was to emerge from that black pit.
Down ... down ... turn after turn ... until finally the sultan was as
far beneath the court as the capitals of its encircling pillars were
above it. Then came the scarcely perceptible thump-thump of a drum, and
the thin wailing notes of a pipe. An overwhelming, poison sweetness
breathed from the blackness and enfolded him.
"By Allah and by Abaddon!" said the sultan to himself, as he paused and
half turned. "Vengeance is costly!"
He wiped his brow, and licked his lips; then resolutely advanced.
The spiraling path was curving in ever narrowing circles, vortex-like.
The perfume was now overwhelming.
At the bottom of the pit he found himself facing a low archway, that
opened into a vault pervaded by glowing vapors whose luminescence
throbbed to the cadence of those muttering drums and wailing pipes.
Then a gong sounded once: thinly, as the rustle of silk rather than
the resonance of bronze; and the rose-hued mists parted, revealing a
girl whose Babylonic eyes gazed through and past him as though he were
nebulous as the smoke-wisps of gauze that thinly veiled her loveliness.
A numbness crept over the sultan; all save those intent, sultry eyes
was blotted out of existence.
Then she spoke. "Welcome, son of the Old Tiger. You have done well. But
unaided you can go no farther."
The girl extended her slender arms and with serpentine passes and
gestures stroked his forehead; and then, stepping to his left side,
with her knuckles she rapped sharply here and there along his spine,
making the lost magic of far-off Tibet, whereby men become gods, and
gods become beasts.
Then in softly purring syllables she continued, "You can not cross the
threshold to enter the presence of the Lord of the World. Try and see
whether I am right."
The sultan sought to advance; but his feet were fixed to the tiles, and
a heaviness that forbade all movement possessed him.
Again that soft rippling voice: "You have become as immobile as those
eleven who were once kings. And with another pass I could weave about
you that silence from the ancient mountains, from which you could not
emerge until the end of all time...."
She faced him, regarded him intently, then continued: "But I shall
restore you and make you more agile than the fancies of those who eat
the plums that grow on the slopes of Mount Kaf."
Whereat she made passes and tapped him as she had done before.
"Now, Schamas ad Din, son of the Old Tiger, enter the presence of the
Lord of the World."
[Illustration: "Now, Schamas ad Din, enter the presence of the Lord of
the World."]
The sultan advanced, marveling that he could not feel the touch of
his feet on the floor. The sighing music ceased piping; and as the
rose-and-saffron-shot mists thinned and drew back and vanished, he
found himself in a circular vault on whose domed ceiling glittered
stars arranged in strange constellations; and the floor of the vault
was not tiled, but strewn with powdered cinnabar. In the center of the
vault was a low couch of grotesquely chiseled green basalt on which sat
an old man whose head was bowed in sleep.
"Son of the Old Tiger," said the incredible girl at the sultan's side,
"you are before the Lord of the World, he who built this prodigious
citadel the day he completed the creation of this and all other worlds.
He sleeps, and sleeping, dreams; and all things that seem to be are
but the figments of his dream; and those things whereof he ceases to
dream at that moment cease to be. For nothing is real, save it be the
illusion of him who sits here dreaming."
"Then who are you?" queried the sultan.
The girl smiled, and patted the twining, jeweled blackness of her hair.
"I also am illusion, and his masterwork."
"Then if all this be a dream, who and what am I?"
"You too are but one of his fancies; and when he ceases to picture
you----"
The sultan shuddered at the girl's gesture of dismissal; but he
resumed, "Then if he were to awaken?"
"All things," replied the girl, "would revert to that which existed
before he fell asleep. Even I would vanish, just as your dreams when
you awaken from them become as nothing."
The girl smiled at the dazed sultan, and continued, "But I shall not
and can not vanish, since he can not cease dreaming his most wondrous
vision. Nor can he awaken, since I have made his sleep eternal. He
ascribed to me all perfection; and thus I have the power which you
perceived in my greeting of you. And more than that: it is I who cast a
spell over him whose dream I am, so that through the boundless wastes
of time he can not awaken; and I can even now whisper in his ear that
which I wish him to dream, and straightway his visions create that
which I desire."
"Then," deduced the sultan after a long pause, "you are greater than
this Lord of the World whose fancy you are?"
The girl stared fixedly as a brooding fate. Then finally she spoke.
"There you have that which few men have ever known: that their illusion
transcends and finally conquers them--even as this god is the toy of
his own dream, and the prey of an old magic from Tibet."
The sultan gazed intently at the white-bearded Master of Illusion. Then
he laughed softly at the simple answer to an insoluble riddle. For a
dream, this girl was surprizingly human and reasonable....
"It seems," began the sultan, "that this ancient Lord of the World
endowed me with a touch of his own folly. For I have become the
plaything of this mad kingdom which the Old Tiger and I dreamed twenty
years ago as we sharpened our blades and rode out of the mountains. But
not being a god, I may escape my doom."
"And how might that be?" queried the girl.
Her left eyebrow rose ever so slightly. She nodded approvingly at
Schamas ad Din.
"You might," suggested the sultan, "whisper into his ear a thought I
might whisper into yours."
"In a word, _saidi_," said the girl, "you wish that mad kingdom of
yours made a bit more habitable for its ruler? You came seeking
vengeance, and end by wanting to recast your entire fate? But that
would be unreasonable; for then, in your own way, you would be greater
than this very Lord of the World, since even he is subject to me, his
dream."
"Wrong!" exclaimed the sultan. "By my beard, you are wrong! I seek
but a jest and a vengeance, and let dreams go where they will. Such a
vengeance as until a moment ago I had not contemplated or imagined."
"Even as I sought a vengeance and found a jest when I chanted this
Dreamer to sleep. _Saidi_, you are a man after my own heart; and your
fancy appeals to me. You please me exceedingly. And I think it could
be arranged. Yet listen well: in the end you must leave me, and take
your place among those who sit motionless in the courtyard above us.
The hour is at hand; for there is one here of whom I have for some time
been weary, and who will soon occupy the twelfth pedestal."
The girl paused, flung into a censer at the Dreamer's feet a handful of
incense, and resumed as she turned to face Schamas ad Din, "But think
well, Son of the Old Tiger. A lesser vengeance, and one such as you
contemplated when you sought me, could be bought much more cheaply....
So back to the courtyard and ponder with clear sky over your head. For
only that old rogue of an Ismeddin ever escaped the penalty...."
The girl smiled reminiscently and fondly, then continued, "And it is
no jesting matter, this sitting cross-legged on a pedestal when I
have tired of you. Nor would Maksoud find a cheaper vengeance at all
pleasant."
Yet her eyes belied the discouragement her lips spoke. The sultan
ceased comparing her to the women of Gurjestan and Tcherkess, for she
was incomparable. Even his jest and his vengeance were trifling....
The sultan disengaged himself from her perfumed embrace.
"Ismeddin is waiting."
And Schamas ad Din ascended the winding incline, smiling and stroking
his curled beard.
* * * * *
Ismeddin in the meanwhile had led Maksoud, still bound and gagged, and
his escort of black mamelukes into the courtyard.
"Father of many little pigs," murmured the darvish, "our lord the
Sultan has taken offense at your last display of wretched marksmanship.
And since none of his own fancies were worthy of you, he is even now
taking counsel with Abaddon of the Black Hands. I expect him any
moment, well advised and smiling. So be assured against anything as
commonplace as being sawed asunder between two planks."
The Africans had dismounted, and were taking from their packs all
manner of implements, as well as cords, flasks of oil, charcoal, and a
pair of small bellows. One of them set to work kindling a fire while
the other three deftly fitted together mortised and tenoned pieces
of dark, heavy wood, assembling a stout frame equipped with hooks,
manacles, and shackles.
"It is difficult to say what form the master's fancy will take,"
resumed Ismeddin, as he approvingly regarded the executioners at their
work. "But surely it will not be commonplace."
He picked up a keen, two-handed sword, tested its edge and balance.
"Very pretty. But you will have nothing to do with this."
Then, as he noted the four horses tethered to a column: "Ah! ... now
_that_, with certain variations, has real possibilities. You are quite
substantial, Maksoud ... but those horses are sturdy little beasts...."
Ismeddin stroked the neck of a savage Barbary stallion, and continued,
"But then, that also is swift. At the best, it lasts but a little over
a day, even with the nicest of workmanship," mused the old man.
Ismeddin deftly removed the gag from the prisoner's mouth.
"He can no more than banish me!" sputtered Maksoud. "The Resident would
depose him were I not to return. Old ape ... son of many pork-eating
fathers ... do you think all this parade of curious torments will kill
_me_ of fright? That is an old story. I myself once helped him----"
And Maksoud's laugh rang true.
"So?" Ismeddin smiled suavely. "Well, and I said that you would meet
none of these commonplace things. But supposing ... just supposing, as
food for thought, that we were to let you down into that black pit. You
have seen those who have played about these ruins----"
Ismeddin nodded to the black slaves, who advanced to remove the
prisoner from his horse.
"Not _that_, _saidi_," implored Maksoud.
"That, and more than that. You have seen those who lost their way in
these ruins. And you once laughed at what was left of one who finally
did find his way out."
The executioners, skilled as they were at handling tormented wretches,
kept their hold on Maksoud with difficulty.
And then the cool voice of the sultan, as he emerged from the pit:
"Well, Ismeddin, couldn't you wait for me? I heard his howling long
before I reached the surface."
"Mercy, O Magnificent! Not into that pit of Iblis!"
"The penalty of poor marksmanship, Maksoud," declared the sultan. "Had
you practised in private a few more days, I would not be here deciding
your fate."
He smiled and stroked his beard.
"And so you fancied being sultan, did you?" resumed Schamas ad Din.
"Those wild fancies are deplorable. Yussuf, here, has devised an
entertainment worthy of your bungling; but he shall save it for
another."
The chief of the black slaves looked up from his implements, and
grinned.
"That pit, master ... spare me that!"
"Well, and so be it, Maksoud ... ungrateful son of my brother. But
listen: I have devised a doom which will make that pit seem a childish
game, and the companions of the pit pleasant playmates. For those whom
these ruins have done to death and torment and madness have lived but a
month or two of frenzy. But what I have devised----"
He paused, ignoring the prisoner and his pleas. The sultan's smile
faded, and his features became drawn and thoughtful. He leaned against
the balustrade, and stared at those eleven all too life-like figures
squatting on their pedestals of chiseled stone.
The executioners were now supporting rather than holding fast the
prisoner. And they themselves, hardened as they were to applying fire
and steel, shifted uneasily, and licked their dry lips as they regarded
the sultan. And when he turned, they dropped their eyes to avoid his
eyes.
Still the sultan did not speak.
His presence was a smoldering doom.
Then a poison sweetness crept up from the mouth of the pit.
From its blacknesses emerged the figure of a bearded king, who solemnly
advanced with measured steps, as to the cadence of a slowly beaten drum.
The tongueless executioners dropped their implements, and made
horrible, choking grasps at speech.
But as if alone in a desert waste, the presence strode through the
group. His robe brushed Maksoud as he passed toward the other side of
the court, bearing in his left hand a strangely carved scepter, and
with his right hand stroking his long, curled beard.
Straight across the moon-bathed tiles, and to the twelfth pedestal;
and then with infinite care and deliberation, he seated himself
cross-legged after the fashion of those eleven all too life-like images.
Very faintly came the sound of a distant gong: not resonant as bronze,
but rather as the hissing of a serpent or the rustling of silk.
The sultan started. Then he looked Maksoud full in the eye, and smiled
that terrific smile of his father, the Old Tiger.
"Maksoud," he began, "you sought to be king before your day, and forgot
my friendship and favor. You could not wait for me to meet my doom on
the highroads of Allah. And I shall now punish you by giving you----"
The prisoner choked and gasped.
"Not that, _saidi_----"
"By giving you," continued the sultan, "that which you sought, so that
the fullness of possession shall corrode your soul worse than any
torment could corrode your body. You shall sit on my lofty throne and
publish the orders dictated by an infidel Resident. He shall thwart
your vengeances. He shall make a mockery of you, the last remnant of
the lordly estate of kings. You shall rule by words rather than by
swords."
The sultan drew his simitar.
"Your friends shall seek you with daggers in your gardens. Poison
shall lurk in your food and in your thoughts. Bungling marksmen shall
never quite attain the mark you will finally wish them to attain. Your
enemies will pity you."
The simitar flickered twice, and the stout cords fell from Maksoud's
wrists and ankles.
"To horse, Maksoud, and ride to your throne!"
The sultan sheathed his blade, advanced a pace down the spiral pathway
of darkness, then paused to listen to the hoof-beats of Maksoud's
cavalcade.
Old Ismeddin leaned over the balustrade.
"A moment, _saidi_! Let your first whisper in the girl's ear ask for
_two_ British Residents in Angor-lana."
And with a courtly salaam to the master, Ismeddin disappeared among the
ruins.
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