|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 101
Every means was employed to rally the Egyptian from his swoon. He bore
no external marks of injury, but there could be no doubt that he had
sustained a terrible shock, and possibly concussion of the brain; the
amount of the internal damages could not yet be estimated.--Meanwhile
the black cloud from the west was muttering drowsily overhead, and an
occasional lightning-flash dulled the mild radiance of the lamp. As
consciousness ebbed back to the patient, the storm increased, and the
trembling roll of heavy thunder drowned the first gasps of returning
life. Had that vast cloud come to shut out his soul from heaven, and
was its mighty voice uttering the sentence of his condemnation? The
air was thick with the inconsolable weeping of the rain, and gusty
sighs of wind drove its cold tear-drops against the window.
How was it with Manetho?--During the instant after the ladder had
given way and he was rushing through the air and clutching vainly at
the dark void, every faculty had violently expanded, so that he seemed
to see and think at every pore. The next instant his rudely battered
body refused to bear the soul's messages; light and knowledge sank
into bottomless darkness!
By and by--for aught he knew it might have been an eternity--a brief
gleam divided the night; then another, and others; he seemed to be
moving through air, upborne on a cloud. He strove to open his eyes,
and caught a glimpse of reeling walls,--of a figure,--figures. A deep
rumbling sound was in his ears, as of the rolling together of chaotic
rocks, gradually subsiding into stillness.
He felt no pain, only dreamy ease. He was resting softly on a bank of
flowers, in the heart of a summer's day. He was filled with peace and
love, and peace and love were around him. Some one was nestling beside
him; was it not the woman,--the bright-eyed, smiling gypsy with whom
he had plighted troth?--surely it was she.
"Salome,--Salome, are you here? Touch me,--lay your cheek by mine.
So,--give me your hand. I love you, my pretty pet,--your Manetho loves
you!"
The slow sentences ended. Nurse had laid her unsightly head beside his
on the pillow, and the two were happy in each other. O piteous,
revolting, solemn sight! Those faces, grief-smitten, old; long ago, in
passionate and lawless youth, they had perchance lain thus and
murmured loving words. And now for a moment they met and loved
again,--while death knocked at their chamber door!
But Balder had perceived a startling significance in Manetho's words.
He took Gnulemah by the hand and led her to the eastern window. A
flash greeted them, creating a momentary world, which started from the
womb of night, and vanished again before one could say "It is there!"
Then followed a long-drawn, intermittent rumble, as if the fragments
of the spectre world were tumbling avalanche-wise into chaos.
"I remember now about the dandelions," Balder said. "Was not Nurse
with us then?"
"Yes," answered Gnulemah; "and it was she and Hiero who took me from
you. But why does he call her Salome? and who is Manetho?"
Balder did not reply. He leant against the window-frame and gazed out
into the black storm. Knowing what he now did, it required no great
stretch of ingenuity to unravel Manetho's secret.--He turned to
Gnulemah, and, taking her in his arms, kissed her with a defiant kind
of ardor.
"What is it?" she whispered, clinging to him with a reflex of his own
unspoken emotion.
"We are safe!--But that man shall not die without hearing the truth,"
he added, sternly.
Again there was a dazzling lightning-flash, and the thunder seemed to
break at their very ears. By a quick, sinuous movement, Gnulemah freed
herself from his arm and looked at him with her grand eyes,--night-black,
lit each with a sparkling star. Her feminine intuition perceived a
change in him, though she could not fathom its cause. It jarred the
fineness of their mutual harmony.
"Our happiness should make others' greater," said she.
He looked into her eyes with a gaze so ardent that their lids drooped;
and the tone of his answer, though lover-like, had more of masculine
authority in it than she had yet heard from him.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|