Part 37 (1/2)

Asad scowled upon hi back his head

”Alas!” said Sakr-el-Bahr

There fell a pause Darker and darker grew the countenance of Asad, fiercer glowed the eyes he bent upon his lieutenant ”I see,” he said at last, with a calm so oddly at variance with his looks as to be sinister

”I see It seems that there is more truth in Fenzileh than I suspected

So!” He considered the corsair aeyes

Then he addressed hier

”Bethink thee, Sakr-el-Bahr, of what thou art, of what I have made thee

Bethink thee of all the bounty these hands have lavished on thee Thou art iers there is none above thee saveI ask of thee? Truly is it written 'Ungrateful is Man'”

”Didst thou know,” began Sakr-el-Bahr, ”all that is involved for me in this”

”I neither know nor care,” Asad cut in ”Whatever it ainst er for cajolery He set a hand upon Sakr-el-Bahr's stalwart shoulder ”Coenerously with thee out of enerous,that ever thou didst ask me for her”

”Dost still refuse?” The voice, honeyed an instant ago, rang harsh again ”Take care how far thou strain my patience Even as I have raised thee froain Even as I broke the shackles that chained thee to the rowers' bench, so can I rivet them on thee anew”

”All this canst thou do,” Sakr-el-Bahr agreed ”And since, knowing it, I still hold to what is doubly ht of capture and of purchase--thou hty are my reasons Be merciful, then, Asad”

”Must I take her by force in spite of thee?” roared the Basha

Sakr-el-Bahr stiffened He threw back his head and looked the Basha squarely in the eyes

”Whilst I live, not even that ! Wilt thou resist enerous and unjust as to compel thy servant to a course so hateful”

Asad sneered ”Is that thy last word?” he des else I a hilance baleful Then deliberately, as one who has taken his resolve, he strode to the door

On the threshold he paused and turned again ”Wait!” he said, and on that threatening word departed

Sakr-el-Bahr re the interview, then with a shrug he turned He met Rosamund's eyes fixed intently upon him, and invested with a look he could not read He found himself unable to meet it, and he turned away It was inevitable that in such a moment the earlier stab of remorse should be repeated He had overreached himself indeed Despair settled down upon hi he had done, which seeuish he als for Rosa her as he had supposed, his love for her had not yet been slain, else surely he should not be tortured now by the thought of her beco Asad's prey If he hated her, indeed, as he had supposed, he would have surrendered her and gloated

He wondered was his present frame of mind purely the result of his discovery that the appearances against hi as to justify her conviction that he was her brother's slayer

And then her voice, crisp and steady, cut into his torture of consideration

”Why did you deny hiain to face her, aasped