Page:Weird Tales Volume 30 Number 02 (1937-08).djvu/77

have enough explaining to do when the great one returns on the morrow. Please do not force me to darken your chance of pardon with added tales of midnight ramblings."

I rose and shrugged my shoulders.

"You speak in riddles, Doctor Zola."

His dark eyes blazed hatred. "Do you take me for a fool, Monsieur? Do you think that I do not know of last night's journey? Bah! Why, there's not a slave in the castle unaware of it. Believe me when I say it is best for you to desist in that stubborn attitude and confess all. Of your companion we must not speak, but of yourself, we can and will. Come now, be sensible—where did you go, and why?"

With a thrill I realized our trip to Sheba's tomb was still unknown. At his first words I feared we had been skilfully shadowed by some black rider who reported his finding to the villainous Frenchman. This question, however, told of his ignorance as to our destination.

"Zola," I answered, "you are a devil! It was your lying tongue that caused the capture of the Terrys. The evidence given in the throneroom sent Barakoff to his awful death. It was by your orders that the attempt was made on my life in the Southampton fog, and now you wish to frighten me with threats. You, a spineless poltroon! Yes, that's what you are, a poltroon—a scheming coward, whose foul tongue will never harm another."

The physician leaped to his feet.

"You may think different!" he shouted. "You may think a great deal different, my precious Monsieur Bryant. Wait until I tell the Pharaoh of his three missing blacks."

My answer was a loud laugh of ridicule. Zola turned scarlet.

"I can make another charge," he cried. "Oh, mon Dieu, what a charge!"

"Make as few or as many as you wish," I taunted. "It's a lying throat that utters them. And now I will take my leave. The very air becomes sickened with your presence."

Turning, I strode from the gardens, leaving the Frenchman trembling with rage.

Inwardly, I had not felt the ease exhibited to Zola. His last threat could indeed be serious. Perhaps in some strange way he had learned of my love. Once that passion became known to the Pharaoh, it sealed my doom. I hurried to the elaborate rooms of the dark-eyed charmer.

The Princess of Egypt, sitting upright in her great bed by the open window, ate the breakfast served by the giant Zena.

"Zola!" I whispered hurriedly, as I strode to the bedside. "He has——"

"But you are up early, and alone in the gardens?" The Princess gave her musical laugh. "Luckily, I know the solitude and my powers of fascination, else I might become jealous and suspect another."

"Will you lis——"

"I have decided to take Zena with us," she continued airily. The huge black beamed and nodded happily at her words. "There is no good reason why he should be left behind, and the poor fellow worships me. I am always sure of his strength and devotion. I will find him indispensable. Besides, he possesses that greatest gift for a perfect slave—silence." Again she laughed gayly. "Shades of Osiris! the wonders of the new lands will doubtless leave him as speechless as the knives of Balkis' torturers did, thirty centuries ago."

Insistence and persuasion were ever lost on the Princess of Egypt. Not till