Page:The Mating of the Blades.djvu/156

 King's Highway,” on which Tamerlanistan depended for a great deal of its foreign trade; and now it appeared that the governor, instead of using his soldiers and police against the raiders, was sharing in their enterprise, including the profits.

The regent had sent a summons to the governor to present himself immediately at the court of Tamerlanistan.

But Abderrahman Yahiah Khan, guessing, and rightly, that his arrival at court would be practically simultaneous with his beheading, had decided to do nothing of the kind, and had instead sent an insulting message, which said:

It was the calm insolence, the serene brutality of the message which brought Hector up standing.

Not that he was the least bit in love with Aziza Nurmahal; for he loved Jane Warburton, and his instincts