The King's Talisman — page 33: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

24 THE KINGS TALISMAN. beloved tutor. ‘‘He whocomes from Abdah Nazor needs no other passport to my confidence.” «¢Then,” resumed the eunuch, in a more confident man- ner, but still cautiously keeping his eyes and ears open for the detection of approaching danger, ‘‘I will inform you of all that has come to my knowledge. I know not that the king meditates evil against you, but, still, circumstances have conspired to make me think so.” «But, surely,” interrupted Noureddin, ‘‘ such cannot be the case, for until an hour since Modad never saw me, face to face, nor have I ever been——” ‘Hold, a moment, young sir—I will soon explain the matter to your understanding, and then you can judge for yourself. The king of Khaibar has threatened to march against our city, and even now he has an army prepared for that purpose, his only object being #0 possess himself of a portion of our wealth, of which he stands greatly in need. Modad dares not engage him.” ‘‘ Dares not engage him!” exclaimed Noureddin starting — from his seat upon the bed, while a flush of indignation mounted to his brow. ‘‘ Do you mean to say that our monarch dares not engage the dastard Khaibarite king —that Modad shrinks from the defense of his city?’ ‘““That is the truth, my young master; but I pray you speak not soloudly, or we shall be overheard.” ‘* But there must be some cause for this,” said the young man, in a lower tone; ‘‘or is the base tyrant a still baser coward?” ‘*Modad is most assuredly a coward,” returned the eunuch; ‘‘ but still there is a deeper cause than that for his fear of fighting the king of Khaibar, though he thinks that none save himself and Al-Bassa, his chief counselor and adviser, know of the fact. For two thousand years there has been in the possession of our monarchs a talisman, by the virtue of which they have ever been enabled to con- Eomicboo cS (E{e)