Page:Harold Lamb--The House of the Falcon.djvu/231

 questioned harshly, probing the open countenance of the white man.

"Desire for the white khanum brought him."

A murmur that was like a sigh answered Donovan. "A-a-h!" Iskander drew his scimitar and threw away the scabbard. "It was written. Oh, it was written. Now the pursuit of blood will be ended and the mirror of my honor will be cleansed"

"Proof!" said Mahmoud abruptly. "Dono-van Khan, we must know beyond a doubt. Have you proof of this thing?'

Donovan had played his card—had made his appeal to the Sayaks' longing for revenge. Yet Mahmoud and some others had not regained confidence in him. Glancing toward the door, he stilled the rising tumult with a quick command and pointed to the tall figure filling the entrance. Only a moment ago he had seen that for which he had been watching—the return of the Afghan messenger.

"Speak," he nodded at the warrior. "What did you learn at the bridge below the mosque? Where went the riders who entered Yakka Arik?"

"Dono-van Khan," the man growled, blinking at the light, "the Sayak guard at the bridge was slain when he opposed their flight. Yet the venerable hadji who was watching from the tower of the mosque saw the riders go, not across the bridge, but up the gorges toward"

"The Tower!" Donovan cut in crisply. "As I thought, the Vulture has taken flight to his empty nest. Mahmoud, who but he would do that?"

While the hakim meditated, the Afghan messenger spoke again.

"Dono-van Khan, the face of one of the riders was