Page:Selections from the Writings of Lord Dunsany.djvu/65

 memory — Once I went for a year without being flogged, and I remember my cleverness in contriving it — I have nothing else to remember.

KING ARGIMĒNĒS It is very terrible to have been a king.

ZARB But we have nothing who have no good memories in the past. It is not easy for us to hope for the future here.

KING ARGIMĒNĒS Have you any god?

ZARB We may not have a god because he might make us brave and we might kill our guards. He might make a miracle and give us swords.

KING ARGIMĒNĒS Ah, you have no hope then.

ZARB I have a little hope. Hush, and I will tell you a secret — The King's great dog is ill and like to die. They will throw him to us. We shall have beautiful bones then.

KING ARGIMĒNĒS Ah! Bones.

ZARB Yes. That is what I hope for. And have you no other hope? Do you not hope that your nation will arise some day and rescue you and cast off the king and hang him up by his thumbs from the palace gateway?

KING ARGIMĒNĒS No. I have no other hope, for my god was cast down in the temple and broken into three pieces on the day that they surprised us and took me sleeping. But will they throw