“To serve thee I will lay down my life--I will blow it from me as the wind bloweth the cotton flower. Have I not spoken thus since the Feast of Beiram, now two years gone?” Dicky lowered his voice. “Both Mustapha Bey, that son of the he-wolf Selamlik Pasha, still follow the carriage of the Khedive’s favourite, and hang about the walls, and seek to corrupt thee with gold, Mahommed Mizraim?” “Saadat el basha, but for thy word to wait, the Khedive had been told long since.” “It is the sport to strike when the sword cuts with the longest arm, O son of Egypt!” The face of Mizraim was ugly with the unnatural cruelty of an unnatural man. “Is the time at hand, saadat el basha?” “You hate Selamlik Pasha?” “As the lion the jackal.” Dicky would have laughed in scorn if he might have dared--this being to class himself with lions! But the time was not fit for laughter. “And the son of Selamlik Pasha, the vile Mustapha Bey?” he asked. “I would grind him like corn between the stones! Hath he not sent messages by the women of the bazaar to the harem of my royal master, to whom God give glory in heaven? Hath he not sought to enter the harem as a weasel crawls under a wall? Hath he not sought to steal what I hoard by a mighty hand and the eye of an eagle for Ismail the Great? Shall I love him more than the dog that tears the throat of a gazelle?” The gesture of cruelty he made was disgusting to the eyes of Dicky Donovan, but he had in his mind the peril to Sowerby, and he nodded his head in careless approval, as it were. “Then, Mizraim, thou son of secrecy and keeper of the door, take heed to what I say, and for thine honour and my need do as I will. Thou shalt to-night admit Mustapha Bey to the harem--at the hour of nine o’clock!” “Saadat el basha!” The eunuch’s face was sickly in its terrified wonder. “Even so. At nine.” “But, saadat--” “Bring him secretly, even to the door of the favourite’s room; then, have him seized and carried to a safe place till I send for him.” “Ah, saadat el basha--” The lean face of the creature smiled, and the smile was not nice to see. “Let no harm be done him, but await my messenger, Mahommed Yeleb, and whatsoever he bids you to do, do it; for I speak.” “Ah, saadat el basha, you would strike Selamlik Pasha so--the great beast, the black river pig, the serpent of the slime...!” “You will do this thing, Mizraim?” “I shall lure him, as the mirage the pilgrim. With joy I will do this, and a hundred times more.” “Even if I asked of thee the keys of the harem?” asked Dicky grimly. “Effendi, thou wouldst not ask. All the world knows thee. For thee the harem hath no lure. Thou goest not by dark ways to deeds for thine own self. Thou hast honour. Ismail himself would not fear thee.” “See, thou master of many, squeak not thy voice so high. Ismail will take thy head and mine, if he discovers to-night’s business. Go then with a soft tread, Mizraim. Let thy hand be quick on his mouth, and beware that no one sees!” III