Page:Alien Souls by Achmed Abdullah (1922).djvu/224

then brushed out with an abandon of throbbing cadences, like tiny, drifting ghosts of spring tinkling their girdle gems of fretted jade.

"I love you," he sang. "Daily my love for you echoes through the vaulted halls of my dreams, my life; echoes in smiles and tears and hopes of fulfillment. Daily the thought of you comes to me with flute songs and flowers. Daily I launch the boat of my desire on the lilied pond of your soul. Daily I seek you in the whirling smoke of the poppies. …"

He paused.

Skillfully, between thumb and second finger, he twanged the third string. The note trembled as on the brink of an abyss. It sobbed like a flame in the meeting of winds. Then it blew clear into a high rush of ecstasy, and he sang again:

"Daily I have sought you in the whirling smoke of the poppies. Hayah, my bride! And to-day I have found you—found you."

Again he paused.

An overpowering desire tore across him burningly. In a back cell of his brain, he caught the whispered fragment of some enormous truth; saw, with the eyes of his body, the opium fumes pointing with dreamy, blue fingers; saw, with the eyes of his soul, the Plum Blossom's starry little face.

"To-day I have found you," he sang; and again he twanged the third cord between thumb and second finger.

It trembled. The clear note rose, then broke a little. And he bent over the lute and pulled the cord taut.

It sobbed protestingly. There was a tiny snap. Then, suddenly, the cord broke, with a jarring ring.