Part 21 (1/2)
He flung her off iue!” he cried, and stalked out again, convinced froer he would be whelmed in a torrent of words
But her poison was shrewdly administered, and slowly did its work It abode in his mind to torture him with the doubts that were its very essence No reason, however well founded, that she e conduct could have been half so insidious as her suggestion that there was a reason It gave hi that he could not repel since it had no substance he could grapple with I of Sakr-el-Bahr hier awaited it with the ardent whole-hearted eagerness as of a father awaiting the co of a beloved son
Sakr-el-Bahr hihts perish one by one in the little town that straggled up the hillside before hiht, throwing sharp inky shadows of rustling date pal shafts of silver athwart the peaceful bay
His wound was healed and he was fully hio he had coht with the Dutchreater portion of the time since then Once only had he visited his captives He had risen froht to the cabin in the poop where Rosamund was confined He had found her pale and very wistful, but with her courage entirely unbroken
The Godolphins were a stiff-necked race, and Rosamund bore in her frail body the spirit of a man She looked up when he entered, started a little in surprise to see him at last, for it was the first time he stood before her since he had carried her off froo Then she had averted her eyes, and sat there, elbows on the table, as if carved of wood, as if blind to his presence and deaf to his words
To the expressions of regret--and they were sincere, for already he repented him his unpremeditated act so far as she was concerned--she returned no slightest answer, gave no sign indeed that she heard a word of it Baffled, he stood gnawing his lip a er welled up froain Next he had visited his brother, to consider in silence a ard, wild-eyed, unshorn wretch who shrank and cowered before hiuilt At last he returned to the deck, and there, as I have said, he spent the greater portion of the last three days of that strange voyage, reclining for the th froht as he paced under the ently by his English nahost had suddenly leapt up to greet hih who hailed him thus
”Come up,” he said And when the fellow stood before him on the poop--”I have told you already that here is no Sir Oliver I am Oliver-Reis or Sakr-el-Bahr, as you please, one of the Faithful of the Prophet's House
And nohat is your will?”
”Have I not served you faithfully and well?” quoth Captain Leigh
”Who has denied it?”
”None But neither has any acknowledged it When you lay wounded below it had been an easy thing for ht ha'
sailed these shi+ps into the ht so by God!”
”You'ld have been carved in pieces on the spot,” said Sakr-el-Bahr
”I ed the land and run the risk of capture and then claimed my liberation froalleys of his Catholic Majesty But there! I grant that you have dealt loyally by me You have kept your part of the bond I shall keep mine, never doubt it”
”I do not But your part of the bond was to send ain”
”Well?”
”The hell of it is that I know not where to find a home, I know not where home may be after all these years If ye send me forth, I shall become a wanderer of no account”
”What else am I to do with you?”
”Faith now I am as full weary of Christians and Christendoalley on which you toiled I aator ever sailed a shi+p fro and know the art of it upon the sea Can ye ade likethat 'renegade' is a word that depends upon which side you're on I'd prefer to say that I've a wish to be converted to the faith of Mahound”
”Converted to the faith of piracy and plunder and robbery upon the seas is what you mean,” said Sakr-el-Bahr
”Nay, now To that I should need no converting, for all that I were afore,” Captain Leigh ad than the Jolly Roger”