第68章

Israel drew himself up to his full height and answered, "Madam, I would rather see her dead at my feet."Then Ben Aboo broke in and said, "Don't wag your tongue at your mistress, sir.""_Your_ mistress, Basha," said Israel; "not mine."At that word Katrina, with all her evil face aflame came sweeping down upon Israel, and struck him with her fan on the forehead.

He did not flinch or speak.The blow had burst the skin, and a drop of blood trickled over the temple on to the cheek.

There was a short deep pause.

Then the hard tension of silence was broken by a faint cry.

It came from behind, from the doorway; it was the voice of a girl.

In the blank stupor of the moment, every eye being on the two that stood in the midst, no one had observed until then that another had entered the patio.It was Naomi.How long she had been there no one knew, and how she had come unnoticed through the corridors out of the streets scarce any one--even when time sufficed to arrange the scattered thoughts of the Makhazni, the guard at the gate--could clearly tell.

She stood under the arch, with one hand at her breast, which heaved visibly with emotion, and the other hand stretched out to touch the open iron-clamped door, as if for help and guidance.

Her head was held up, her lips were apart, and her motionless blind eyes seemed to stare wildly.She had heard the hot words.She had heard the sound of the blow that followed them.Her father was smitten!

Her father! Her father! It was then that she uttered the cry.

All eyes turned to her.Quaking, reeling, almost falling, she came tottering down the patio.Soul and sense seemed to be struggling together in her blind face.What did it all mean?

What was happening? Her fixed eyes stared as if they must burst the bonds that bound them, and look and see, and know!

At that moment God wrought a mighty work, a wondrous change, such as He has brought to pass but twice or thrice since men were born blind into His world of light.In an instant, at a thought, by one spontaneous flash, as if the spirit of the girl tore down the dark curtains which had hung for seventeen years over the windows of her eyes, Naomi saw!

They all knew it at once.It seemed to them as if every feature of the girl's face had leapt into her eyes; as if the expression of her lips, her brow, her nostrils, had sprung to them: as if her face, so fair before, so full of quivering feeling, must have been nothing until then but a blank.Nay, but they seemed to see her now for the first time.This, only this, was she!

And to Naomi also, at that moment, it was almost as if she had been newly born into life.She was meeting the world at last face to face, eye to eye.Into her darkened chamber, that had never known the light, everything had entered at a blow--the white glare of the sun, the blue sky, the tiled patio, the faces of the Kaid and his wife and his soldiers, and of the old man also, with the unshed tears hanging on the fringe of his eyelid.She could not realise the marvel.

She did not know what vision was.She had not learned to see.

Her trembling soul had gone out from its dark chamber and met the mighty light in his mansion."Oh! oh!" she cried, and stood bewildered and helpless in the midst.The picture of the world seemed to be falling upon her, and she covered her eyes with her hands, that she might abolish it altogether.

Israel saw everything."Naomi!" he cried in a choking voice, and stretched out his hands to her.Then she uncovered her eyes, and looked, and paused and hesitated.

"Naomi!" he cried again, and made a step towards her.She covered her eyes once more that she might shut out the stranger they showed her, and only listen to the voice that she knew so well.Then she staggered into her father's arms.And Israel's heart was big, and he gathered her to his breast, and, turning towards the woman, he said, "Madam, we are in the hands of God.Look! See! He has sent His angel to protect His servant."Meantime, Ben Aboo was quaking with fear.He too, saw the finger of God in the wondrous thing which had come to pass.And, falling back on his maudlin mood, he muttered prayers beneath his breath, as he had done before when the human majesty, the Sultan Abd er-Rahman, was the object of his terror."O Giver of good to all! What is this?

Allah save us! Bismillah! Is it Allah or the Jinoon? Merciful!

Compassionate! Curses on them both! Allah! Allah!"The soldiers were affected by the fears of the Basha, and they huddled together in a group.But Katrina fell to laughing.

"Brava!" she cried."Brava! Oh! a brave imposture! What did I say long ago? Blind? No more blind than you were! But a pretty pretence!

Well acted! Very well acted! Brava! Brava!"Thus she laughed and mocked, and the Basha, hearing her, took shame of his crawling fears, and made a poor show of joining her.

Israel heard them, and for a moment, seeing how they made sport of Naomi, a fire was kindled in his anger that seemed to come up from the lowest hell.But he fought back the passion that was mastering him, and at the next instant the laughter had ceased, and Ben Aboo was saying--"Guards, take both of them.Set the man on an ass, and let the girl walk barefoot before him; and let a crier cry beside them, 'So shall it be done to every man who is an enemy of the Kaid, and to every woman who is a play-actor and a cheat!' Thus let them pass through the streets and through the people until they are come to a gate of the town, and then cast them forth from it like lepers and like dogs!"