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Page 23
He loves intrigue!
So that, twenty-four hours later, Zulannah laughed shrilly when Qatim
the Ethiopian repeated all he had learned of the white man and the
white maid he presumably loved.
"Love!" she scoffed. "He has not met _me_!"
But in the weeks that followed no plot had succeeded, no device or
subtle invitation had lured the bird to the list, so that she beat
sharply upon a silver gong this night of the stars, upon which the
Ethiopian came running hastily to cast himself upon the ground at the
jewelled, henna'd feet.
"Get up," she said, kicking him upon the side of the head; whereupon he
rose, chalking up one more mark on his own particular slate of Life,
upon one side of which was written Desire and the other Revenge.
He stood six-foot-four in his loin-cloth, as black and glistening as a
polished ebony statue. The enormous hands at the end of great,
over-long arms almost touched his knees; the chest and shoulders and
abdomen were hard as iron, rippling with muscle under the oiled skin;
the feet were huge and pink of sole, and the animality of the man was
intensified by a certain gleam of intelligence somewhere in the
impassive negroid face.
The woman, took no notice of the magnificent physique; it neither
repulsed nor attracted her--he was a slave.
"Run and give orders that no one is admitted! Hasten!"
"Mistress, a great noble waits at-----"
"Desirest thou thy tongue split, thou black dog, that thou answerest
Zulannah? Haste thee, and return!"
And far into the night they talked, those two, planning death or
destruction, anything as long as it attained the desire of the woman
who, looking into the future, took no notice of the mountain of
disaster beside her in the shape of the Ethiopian who desired and hated
her with all the bestial passion of his race.
Then, just as far down in the east the sky lightened, she sat suddenly
upright and clapped her jewelled hands.
"Know'st thou the eunuch who guards the harem empty of women in the
palace of--ah! the barbarity of the name!--E'u Car-r-den Ali? He who
perchance would give one-half, nay, all of his great wealth in return
for the coal-blackness of thy odorous skin. There is to be held a big
entertainment within the walls of the white man's hotel, and soon. An
entertainment where the whites dance foolishly in foolish raiment,
disguised as that which they are not and with covered faces. What
easier than for me to obtain entry as one of them under my veils and
have speech with the man I love? And if he is as thou sayest, besotted
with love of this white girl, then will I use the man of barbarous name
as a tool to bring about that which I desire. Know'st thou the eunuch?"
"Mistress, he is my twin-brother."
"Twin of _thee_! Behold, did not thy mother die of fright, at sight of
such monstrosities?"
"Nay, mistress, there are six sons younger than thy slave, each one of
which could break thee in one hand."
Zulannah sprang to her feet and, seizing a short whip from a table,
smote the man again and again until his face ran blood.
"Thou vile brute, darest thou so to speak! Behold, this is but a
foretaste of what will befall thy black carcase before the hour is
spent."
"Call thy slaves, mistress; split my tongue; whip the soles from off my
feet, the flesh from my body, even to the bones, and thou shalt never
meet my twin-brother, who even now prepareth the great palace for the
coming of the"--he spat--"bird of different-coloured plumage."
And Zulannah, understanding that she must not overstep the limit if she
desired to attain her end, flung the whip full into the stolid,
indifferent face, and fled, raving obscenities, into the house.
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