Page:Captain of the Polestar.djvu/321

 Rh the early sacrifice was over, I hurried to her house. A frightened slave met me upon the steps. Her mistress was ill, she said, very ill. In a frenzy I broke my way through the attendants, and rushed through hall and corridor to my Atma's chamber. She lay upon her couch, her head high upon the pillow, with a pallid face and a glazed eye. On her forehead there blazed a single angry purple patch. I knew that hell-mark of old. It was the scar of the white plague, the sign-manual of death.

"Why should I speak of that terrible time? For months I was mad, fevered, delirious, and yet I could not die. Never did an Arab thirst after the sweet wells as I longed after death. Could poison or steel have shortened the thread of my existence, I should soon have rejoined my love in the land with the narrow portal.  I tried, but it was of no avail.  The accursed influence was too strong upon me.  One night as I lay upon my couch, weak and weary, Parmes, the priest of Thoth, came to my chamber.  He stood in the circle of the lamplight, and he looked down upon me with eyes which were bright with a mad joy.

"`Why did you let the maiden die?' he asked; `why did you not strengthen her as you strengthened me?'

"`I was too late,' I answered. `But I had forgot.  You also loved her.  You are my fellow in misfortune.  Is it not terrible to think of the centuries which must pass ere we look upon her again?  Fools, fools, that we were to take death to be our enemy!'