Adventure Magazine Cover — page 124: what you’re looking at

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

<< long as I eciaes thee honest in taking her to wife I respected that bond as became a good Moslem; but since ’tis manifest that it was no more ‘than a pretense, a mockery to serve some purpose hostile to myself, a - desecration of the Prophet’s Holy Law, I, - before whom this blasphemous marriage was performed, do pronounce it to be no ~ marriage. There is no need for thee to _ divorce her. She is no longer thine. She s is for any Moslem who can take her.” _. Sakr-el-Bahr laughed unpleasantly. “Such a Moslem,” he announced, “will - be nearer my sword than the Paradise of _ Mahomet.” ee - And on the words he stood HP,.08 if in 2h 4 token of his readiness. sy, “= ~ aS Reg 3 25 ane such as might scarce have been looked for in a man of his years. “Dost threaten?” he cried, his eyes aflash. 3 “Threaten?” sneered Sakr-el-Bahr. “I gage ___ And on that he turned, and stalked away down the gangway to the vessel’s waist. _____ There was no purpose in his going other than his perceiving that here argument were _ = worse than useless, and that the wiser course : = 3 were to withdraw at once, avoiding it and allowing his veiled threat to work upon the ; - Basha’s mind. ae 4 - Quivering with rage Asad watched his 3 _ departure. On the point of commanding _ him to return, he checked, fearing lest in his present mood Sakr-el-Bahr should flout his _ authority ‘and under the eyes of all refuse ____ him the obedience due. He knew that it is ee 3 a not good to command where we are not sure ____ of being obeyed or of being able to enforce _ obedience, that an authority once success- fully flouted is in itself half-shattered. = “Whilst still he hesitated, Marzak, who _ had also risen, caught him by the arm and poured into his ear hot, urgent arguments = = - enjoining him to yield to Sakr-el-Bahr’s 2 “Tt is the sure way,” he cried ifsistently. “Shall all be jeopardized for the sake of that __whey-faced daughter of perdition?. In the name of Shattan, let us be rid of her; set her ashore as he demands, as the price of peace between us and him, and in the security of 3 _ that peace let him be strangled when we _ come again to our moorings in Algiers. It is the sure way—the sure way!” Asad turned at last to look into that _ » handsome eager face. For a moment he was Asad rose with him in a bound of a vigor Adventure at a loss; then he had recourse to so plac, “Am I a coward that I-should refuse all ways but sure ones?” he demanded in a withering tone. “Or art thou a coward who can counsel none other?” “My anxiety is all for thee, O my father,” Marzak defended himself indignantly. ay doubt if it be safe to sleep, lest he should stir up mutiny in the night.” “Have no fear,” replied Asad. “Myself I have set the watch, and the officers are all trustworthy. Biskaine i is even now in the forecastle taking the feeling of the men. Soon we shall know precisely where we stand.” : “In thy place I would make sure. I would set a term to this danger of mutiny. I would accede to his demands concerning a woman, and settle afterward with him- se 33 “Abandon that Frankish pearl?” quoth Asad. Slowly he shook his head. “Nay, nay! She is a garden that shall yield me roses. Together we shall yet taste the sweet sherbet of Kansar, and she shall thank me for having led her into Paradise. Abandon that rosy-limbed loveliness!” He laughed softly on a note of exaltation, whilst in the gloom Marzak frowned, thinking of Fenzileh. “She is an infidel,” his son sternly’ re- minded him, “so forbidden thee by the Prophet. Wilt thou be as blind to that as to thine own peril?” Then his voice gathering vehemence and scorn as he proceeded: _ “She has gone naked of face through the streets of Algiers; she has been gaped at by the rabble in the sék; this loveliness of hers has been deflowered by the greedy gaze. of Jew and Moor and Turk; galley-slaves and negroes have feasted their eyes upon her unveiled beauty; one of thy captains hath owned her-his wife.” He laughed. “By Allah,-I do not know thee, O my father! Is this the woman thou wouldst take for thine own? This the woman for whose possession thou wouldst jeopardize thy life and perhaps the very Bashalik itself!”’ Asad clenched his hands until the nails. bit into his flesh. Every word his son had uttered had been as a lash to his soul. The truth of it was not to be contested. He was humiliated and shamed. Yet neither was he conquered of his madness, nor diverted from his course. Before he could make EO MICLOOOKS os