Page:The tragedy of the Korosko (IA tragedyofkorosko00doylrich).pdf/121

 said the lawyer. “If I had a paper and pencil I could throw it into shape in an instant, and the chief could rely upon its being perfectly correct and valid.”

But the Colonel’s Arabic was insufficient, and Mansoor himself was too maddened by fear to understand the offer which was being made for him. The negro looked a question at the chief, and then his long black arm swung upwards and his sword hissed over his shoulder. But the dragoman had screamed out something which arrested the blow, and which brought the chief and the lieutenant to his side with a new interest upon their swarthy faces. The others crowded in also, and formed a dense circle around the grovelling, pleading man.

The Colonel had not understood this sudden change, nor had the others fathomed the reason of it, but some instinct flashed it upon Stephens’s horrified perceptions.

“Oh, you villain!” he cried furiously. “Hold your tongue, you miserable creature! Be silent! Better die—a thousand times better die!”

But it was too late, and already they could all