Page:Harold Lamb--The House of the Falcon.djvu/248

 friend," he called over his shoulder to Edith and disappeared. She heard him mutter something about his "holy luck." Abbas drew nearer her.

The girl stared at Donovan in utter dismay. He had looked up coolly at the tower, but appeared not to recognize her. The guards had halted him a few paces from the ditch. She wanted to call to him, to warn him. But she feared—not for herself—that it would be fatal. Presently Monsey appeared, going down the entrance steps. She watched him join the group and search his visitor for weapons. After a moment Donovan drew a handkerchief from his pocket and one of the men secured it about his eyes. Then Monsey guided the blindfolded man up the steps, across the courtyard where the awakened natives stared at them curiously, and into the Kurgan hold.

An explanation of Donovan's appearance flashed upon her. He had reasoned that Monsey would not know him; perhaps, even, her protector was unaware that Monsey was in the castle. He must have hoped that Abbas and his men would not connect the arrival of a well-dressed Englishman with the Sayaks.

And she had unwittingly revealed the identity of the white man at Yakka Arik to Monsey. Knowing the Russian, she understood how great was the peril into which Donovan had walked unarmed. Her heart told her why he had come.

It all seemed perfectly hopeless to Edith. She had been comforting herself throughout the night with the thought that Donovan, somehow, would manage to aid her. Abbas signed to her.

"You come," he grinned. "Don' you talk. No, by God!"