Page:Marion Crawford - Khaled.djvu/121

 But Khaled bent his brow angrily and his eyes glowed like the coals of a camp fire which is almost extinguished, when the night wind blows suddenly over the ashes.

'I have spoken,' he said.

'And I have heard,' she answered. 'Let there be an end. But give me this woman to divert me with her broken speech.'

'I fear she will do you an injury of which you may not live,' said Khaled.

'What injury can she do me?' asked Zehowah in astonishment, not understanding him.

'She asked of your father the head of the Sultan of Haïl, whom she hated. And your father gave it to her.'

'Peace be upon him!' exclaimed Zehowah piously.

'Upon him peace. And when he would have married her, he died suddenly at the feasting. And now this Abdul Kerim, who was to have been her husband, is dead also, without sign, in the night, as a man stung by a serpent in his sleep. These are strange doings.'

'If you think she has done evil, let her be put to death,' said Zehowah. 'But the physician found no mark upon Abdul Kerim. By the hand of Allah he was taken.'

'Doubtless his fate was about his neck. But it is strange.'