Page:Harold Lamb--The House of the Falcon.djvu/102

  philosopher who reads a woman's beauty as a priest reads an open book.

"Coward!" she had gasped. "Boor! Thug!"

She had stamped her stockinged foot and Iskander's dark face became a mask of stifled vindictiveness. The word "thug" in India has a meaning deeper than in our language and symbolizes something below human caste. It acted upon the Arab as acid upon water.

He had thrust the apparel he held about her bare shoulders. "Are you without shame, woman? Have I read you wrongly?"

She saw that he had given her a cloak with a hood to cover her hair—also a woman's veil for the lower portion of her face.

Edith had promptly torn off the offending articles. She had never seen the usually emotionless Arab so aroused. Fiery oaths fairly flew from his twisted lips, and his black eyes snapped furiously.

"Once you were a European madame," he observed, "Now, you are otherwise. You will obey me, and I command that you shall be robed in decency—thus. In the path we follow a woman covers her face—thus."

Whereupon Edith tossed the veil into the dying camp fire.

"And I will not—thus!"

With tightly clenched hands and rigid lips she faced Iskander, whose lean face darkened with anger. In his hand he held a knotted whip. At once he lifted the whip. Edith's eyes blazed. She did not shrink back, but looked full into the Arab's eyes. For a long second her gaze challenged him hotly, but his eyes did not soften.

Then came Aravang between them. The big