Page:Alien Souls by Achmed Abdullah (1922).djvu/150

The Arab raised his thin, brown hands in a pious gesture.

"Is-subr miftah il-faraj!" ("Patience is the key of relief!") he muttered. And then Kurd and Arab smiled at each other through half-closed eyes, and the latter turned to the former and asked him to come with him to the next room, his little private laboratory. "I shall give you another lesson, my savage friend. Hand me down that leather case with the crystal-tipped needles—and the little box filled with the tiny green vials. Listen …"

And the Kurd inclined his great head, listening to the other's smooth, rapid words, occasionally asking a question when his primitive mind could not grasp the technical and scientific details, but sturdily bent on his task, until El-Touati declared himself satisfied.

"There is no danger?" asked Mohammed Yar. "You know, Haakim, I gave a most solemn oath."

"There is no danger. None whatsoever. Except"—he smiled—"to Aziza. For she may change the gentle hand of Zado for—"

"I shall beat her," said Mohammed Yar. "Then I shall kiss her red lips until they hurt. Then I shall beat her again. She will love me very much. She is a gypsy. …"

"And you—a Kurd!" laughed El-Touati, closing the little leather case, but not before the other had dipped a furtive hand into its contents.

The next day, and again the next, and every day the following week, Mohammed Yar called on Zado Krelekian. Moslem, thus believing in the sacredness and proprieties of married relations, he never inquired after Aziza, never as much as mentioned her