Page:Alien Souls by Achmed Abdullah (1922).djvu/52

does me harm, may I be permitted a full measure of revenge. May I cause his hands to drop away, and his feet. May his life pass into the dark like a sheet of foam. …"

Beyond the garden, a little higher up, stretched the gray stone stables of the blooded horses. The hadji could hear the strangely human cry of a mare heavy with foal, a stallion's answering whinny.

He crossed the paddock toward the castle itself. It towered in massive outlines over a hundred feet high, built of rough granite and shiny quartz blocks set in concrete, swinging out in a great semicircle, its flanks resting upon the naked rock of the hills. Directly in front of him he saw a door, doubtless stolen generations ago during a raid into India. For it was made of a single, solid, age-darkened, adz-hewn teak slab, with dowels that fitted into a fretted ivory frame. No Afghan hand—clumsy except with martingale and tempered steel—had carved this door. No Afghan hand had fashioned the bossed, jewel-crusted silver plaque set in the center. But it was Afghan carelessness which had let the door warp, which had caused the delicate bayonet lock to crack away from the wood, leaving room for a narrow, nervous hand to slip inside and finger the bolt.

The hadji sucked in his breath. His fingers moved noiselessly. Another short jerk and the bolt would slide from its groove—

He stood quite still, his heart beating like a hammer.

Faint, from the other side of the door, came a rustle of silken garments, the noise of bare feet pattering away. The zenana, the women's quarter, doubtless, he thought; and there would be an old nurse about, with sharp ears and shrill, lusty tongue.