Page:Harper's New Monthly Magazine - v109.djvu/363

Rh at Allah's heart, and twice Ahab countered him. And then, tiring of such boy's play, the Pilot sent the sword straight at Jethro's neck, which it pierced like cheese, and the Bowman fell dying on the grass, never having set his foot upon the stair.

But Marcus Marius, close behind, was a better swordsman, and Ahab lost three steps to draw the Roman's skill and learn his trickeries. Then Marcus too lost his short steel; but he rushed on like a wild bull, so that Ahab gave him the flat of the sword across the left temple, and he went down like dead wood to a chopper, and sprawled quivering on the stairs.

"Ho!" cried Elissa, "will ye let this sailor worst thee? Will ye have it said that ye gavest a merchantman a sword?" And in a lower tone she said, "Set on him all at once now, if ye dare it."

So they ran forward—Bildad, son of Micah, Thitmu the Egyptian, Ezra, and Malachi—they four, for Timon would not violate his honor even for Ibrahim's fortune; besides which he feared for himself should Ahab live.

And Bertha stayed very white by the gate, but said no word. But Ahab prayed to Baal and took the sword in both his hands, and when the four came up he swept them down in a single mighty stroke, so that two lay dead; and he killed the others with the sword as they lay upon the ground.

Then Timon came and knelt to Ahab, and he sent him to Elissa, who scorned him and said,

"And how will Ahab answer to the King—"

A cry from Bertha turned them, and she flung wide the gate. A King's courier passed, and as he passed said loudly: "This day the King putteth great honors upon Ahab the Pilot; and who seeketh Ahab's life or his lands, or hireth away his oarsmen, or doth harm unto his house, shall be tortured and killed as a felon; for Ahab the Pilot hath done much service to the state."

Ahab, the sword in sheath, stood briefly at the gateway, and Bertha leaned upon his shoulder, both looking to Elissa on the green below.

"I would thou, too, wert a man!" he said, and they went out, the Sword and Bertha and Ahab, and shut the garden gate.

But Elissa—

Rankyn considered it the part of good breeding not to see the quick intensity in Miss Cleveland's eyes.

"Come," he said.

They walked across the wind-swept asphalt to the tulip-beds.

"See," said Rankyn, generously, "how proud the red ones are. They stand in such stately self-possession in the middle of these hurrying things. Isn't that our car?"

But Miss Cleveland looked back toward the Sword of Ahab. "Tell me," she asked, soberly, "who was I when you knew me three thousand years ago ? Do you really believe—can you remember my name and all that?"

Rankyn held his hand up automatically to a Brookline motorman. "I can remember it all," he said. "Your name was Bertha, a Viking's daughter, and once my sword was yours."

Miss Cleveland laughed. The mood was wearing off. "It's so amusing," said she. "And was Bertha nice?"

Rankyn rose to it nobly. "For three thousand years," he answered, "she has been the most charming woman in the world."

"Fares!" called the conductor.