Page:Harold Lamb--The House of the Falcon.djvu/91

 have slain the rat of a Garhwali if I were not in earnest?"

"That was a blunder!"

"Now, by the prophet's beard," growled the Alaman, "how was I to know that the woman would be whisked away from under my eyes while I was attending to the affair of the dog of a Rawul Singh? Eh? I have not the eyes of a cat, so I did not see the cart drive up.

Monsey shrugged his shoulders.

"You blundered. I brought you to the palace in my carriage, so that you might seize this woman. You saw the girl and the soldier outside, in the roadway; you were a fool to slay the man before seeking Miss Rand." "Ah-h-h." Abbas Abad grinned. "Shall I, who am no man's fool, take a wolf cub from under the teeth of a grown wolf before striking down the stronger one? The Garhwali was active and swift as a snake."

"But you saw the woman put into the cart?"

"Aye."

"And the cart was that hired by Iskander ibn Tahir in the relay station?"

"Aye. likewise—for my ears are keen—I heard the Arab shout to his men." Abbas Abad paused to spit, then nodded with great self-approval. "Monsey, my friend, verily your luck is good. For lo—the woman is taken, and not by us. Now we have but to take her from those who hold her"—he laughed gleefully—"and Iskander, that dog of a desertman, he is a fox that I can trail. Maili barlik! (Everything is prosperous!)"

He leaned forward to slap the leg of his companion.