The Weavers: a tale of England and Egypt of fifty years ago - Volume 1

night's events, or were scouring the bazaars for ears into which to pour the tale of how David was exalted and Nahoum was brought low; how, b

ace with a face frozen white, as though it was he that had met debacle, while Nahou

sed them with a sense of power. He had prompted old Diaz Pasha to speak of him as a reincarnation, so separate and withdrawn he seemed at the end of the evening, yet with an uncanny mastery in his dark brown eyes. One of the Ulema, or holy men, present had said in reply to Diaz: "It is the look of one who hath walked wi

t against the West," murmur

unheard by Diaz; and, with a word to his coachman, w

apped in the same way. Presently the door opened, and he stepped inside. The lean, dark figur

llency, and the night give thee sleep," sa

cold, and thy joys increase," respon

ful dweller in the between-worlds; to Nahoum it was part of a life which was all ritual and i

thee at last, Miz

la

fore. To-night I must se

ew themselves against his breast

athe in sweat for thee, who hath given with o

service once

on thy masts my feet found rest. Behold,

e of the corner, there am I from dark to dark and from dawn to dawn, pasha." Suddenly he swept his hand low to the ground and a ghastly sort of sm

e flashed before his mind the scene of death in which his own father had lain, butchered l

earn why I have nee

own doom. Then of David and the girl, and the dead body he had seen; of the escape of the girl, of David

o the Oriental mind. Mizraim had seen removal follow upon removal, and the dark Nile flowed on gloomily, silently, faithful to the helpless ones tossed i

lies dead,

brot

rgat

mad man ever. The other madman was in the ne

closely. He found the slight wound on the temple, then took the candle from Nahoum and held it close to the corner of the marble pedestal. A faint stain of blood was there. Again he examined the body, and r

." He looked inquiringly at Nahoum. "As a weasel hath

him? What proof have I, save the testimony of mine own eyes? Egypt would laugh at that. Is it the time, while yet the singers are beneath the windows, to assail

his from Kaid, O thou

strong. If Kaid knew of this tonight, I should be a prisoner before cockcrow. What claims has a prisoner? Kaid would be in

pierces the earth. What is there t

hsome sort of gratitude. He was willing to pay in kind; but what Oriental ever paid

thine to spill upon the ground, a scar

"For backsheesh, thy

a mongrel terrier's. He caught the sleeve of Na

ent of a bond, the one virtue rarely found in the Oriental. Nothing else had he, but of all men in Egypt he was t

re now to do

wilt drive him"-he pointed to the body-"to his palace, seated in the carriage as though he were alive. There is a secret entrance. The bowab of the gate will show the way; I know it not. But who

can smooth it fro

shall be in possession. All that is his shall be mine, for at once the men of law shall be summoned, an

and the bowab, an

forbidden ground, or in design upon it? Would it be strange to the bowab or the slave that he should return with thee stark and still? They would but count it mercy of Kaid that he was not given to the serpents of the Nile.

he breath of man is his life. I w

n his carriage beside Mizraim the Chief Eunuch-sitting upright, st