But going through the garden he had to pass the arbour, and at sight of that loved spot a wave of tender memories swept over him, and in pity of Helena’s position he wanted to return. She would be in her father’s room by this time, standing over his dead body and alone in her great grief. "I will go back," he thought. "She has no one else. She may curse me, but I cannot leave her alone. I will go back—I will—I must!" That was what his soul was saying to itself, but at the same time his body was carrying him away—through the open gate and across the deserted square, swiftly, stealthily, like a criminal leaving the scene of his crime. The day was now gone, the twilight was deep, and as he passed under the outer port of the Citadel in the dead silence of the unquickened air, a voice like that of an accusing angel, telling of judgment to come, fell upon his ear. It was the voice of the last of the muezzin on the minaret of the Mohammed Mosque calling to evening prayer—"God is Most Great! God is Most Great!" [Illustration: Music fragment] END OF FIRST BOOK *SECOND BOOK* THE SHADOW OF THE SWORD *CHAPTER I* When Helena had left the General and Ishmael Ameer together, the signs she knew so well of illness in her father’s face suggested that she should run at once for the Medical Officer. One moment she stood in the room adjoining the General’s office, listening to the muffled rumble that came from the other side of the wall, the short snap of her father’s impatient voice and the deep boom of the Egyptian’s, and then she hurried into the outer passages to pin on her hat. There she met the General’s Aide-de-camp, who, seeing her excitement, asked if there was anything he could do for her, but she answered "No," and then— "Yes, I think you might go over to the Colonel" (meaning the Colonel commanding the Citadel) "and tell him this man is here with a crowd of his followers." "He must know it already, but I’ll go with pleasure," said the young Lieutenant. At the next moment there were three hasty beats on the General’s bell, followed by a summons from the General’s soldier servant, but the Aide-de-camp had disappeared. Helena went out by the back of the house, and seeing her cook and the black boy as she passed the kitchen quarters an impulse came to her to send somebody else on her errand, lest anything should happen in her absence; but telling herself that nobody but herself and the Doctor must know the secret of her father’s condition, she hurried along. Her way was through the unoccupied courts of the old palace, down a flight of long steps, through an old gateway whereof the iron-clamped door always stood open, across a disused drawbridge, and so on to the open parade-ground. The Army Surgeon’s quarters were on the farther side of it, and never before had it seemed so broad.