Part 27 (1/2)

”It is Satan!” they shouted, ”Satan, who comes to drag the folk of Venice down to h.e.l.l. Kill him ere he lands. Kill him!”

Even Grey d.i.c.k went mad like a dog when he meets a ghost. His pale hair rose upon his head, his cold, quiet eyes started. He set an arrow on the string of the black bow, drew it to his ear and loosed at the figure on the p.o.o.p. But that arrow never left the string; it shattered to flinders where it was and fell tinkling to the marble floor. Only the barb of it turned and wounded Grey d.i.c.k in the chin, yes, and stuck there for a while, for his right arm was numbed so that he could not lift his hand to pull it forth.

”Truly, I have shot at the Fiend and hit that at which I did not aim,”

muttered Grey d.i.c.k, and sat himself down on a post of the quay to consider the matter. Only, as it seemed to him, he who stood on the p.o.o.p of the s.h.i.+p not ten yards away smiled a little.

Unheeding of the clamour, this man upon the p.o.o.p suddenly lifted the coil of rope and threw it sh.o.r.eward. It was a thick and heavy rope, with a noose at its end, so heavy that none would have believed that one mortal could handle it. Yet it shot from him till it stood out stiff as an iron bar. Yes, and the noose fell over one of the stone posts on the quay, and caught there. Now the rope grew straighter still, stretching and groaning like a thing in pain as it took the weight of the great, drifting s.h.i.+p. She stayed; she swung round slowly and ranged herself broadside on against the quay as a berthed s.h.i.+p does. Then down the ladder on her side came the Man. Deliberately he set his white-sandalled feet upon the quay, advanced a few paces into the full light of the bright moon and stood still as though to suffer himself to be seen of every eye.

Truly he was worth the seeing. Hugh noted his garments first, and particularly the head-dress, which caught his glance and held it, for never had he known such a one before. It was a cap fitting tight to the skull, only running across the crown of it was a stiff raised ridge, of leather perhaps, jagged and pointed something like the comb of a c.o.c.k.

This comb, of brilliant red, was surmounted at its highest point by a ball of black of the size of a small apple. The cap itself was yellow, except its lowest band, which stood out from it and was also black. In the centre of this band upon the forehead glowed a stone like a ruby.

Such was the head-dress. The broad shoulders beneath were covered with a cape of long and glossy fur blacker than coal, on to either shoulder of which drooped ear-rings made of rings of green stone which afterward Hugh came to know was jade. The cape of fur, which hung down to the knees and was set over a kind of surplice of yellow silk, was open in front, revealing its wearer's naked bosom that was clothed only with row upon row of round gems of the size of a hazel nut. These like the fur were black, but shone with a strange and l.u.s.trous sheen. The man's thick arms were naked, but on his hands he wore white leather gloves made without division like a sock, as though to match the white sandals on his feet.

This was the Man's attire. Now for him who wore it. He was tall, but not taller than are many other men; he was broad, but not broader than many other men, and yet he looked stronger than all the men in the world. On his brow, which was prominent, smooth black hair parted in the middle was plastered back as that of women sometimes is, making hard lines against the yellow skin below. He had very thin eyebrows that ran upward on either side of a bow-shaped wrinkle in the centre of his forehead.

The eyes beneath were small and pale--paler even than those of Grey d.i.c.k--yet their glance was like the points of thrusting swords.

With those little eyes alone he seemed to smile, for the rest of his countenance did not move. The nose was long and broad at the end with wide spreading nostrils and a deep furrow on either side. The mouth was thin-lipped and turned downward at the corners, and the chin was like a piece of iron, quite hairless, and lean as that of a man long dead.

There he stood like some wild vision of a dream, smiling with those small unblinking eyes that seemed to take in all present one by one.

There he stood in the moonlit silence, for the mob was quiet enough now for a little while, that yet was not silence because of a soughing noise which seemed to proceed from the air about his head.

Then suddenly the tumult broke out again with its cries of ”Kill the devil! Tear the wizard to pieces! Death is behind him! He brings death!

Kill, kill, kill!”

A score of knives flashed in the air, only this time Grey d.i.c.k set no arrow on his string. Their holders ran forward; then the Man lifted his hand, in which was no weapon, and they stopped.

Now he spoke in a low voice so cold that, to Hugh's excited fancy, the words seemed to tinkle like falling ice as one by one they came from his lips. He spoke in Italian--perfect Italian of Venice--and young Day, whose teeth where chattering with fear, translated his words.

”Is this your welcome to a stranger,” he said, ”the companions of whose voyage have unhappily met with misfortune?” Here with a faint motion of his fingerless glove he indicated the dead who lay all about the decks of that fatal s.h.i.+p. ”Would you, men of Venice, kill a poor, unarmed stranger who has travelled to visit you from the farthest East and seen much sorrow on his way?”

”Ay, we would, sorcerer!” shouted one. ”Our brothers were in that s.h.i.+p, which we know, and you have murdered them.”

”How did you learn Italian in the farthest East?” asked another.

Then for the second time, like hounds closing in on a stag at bay, they sprang toward him with their poised knives.

Again he lifted his hand, again the semi-circle halted as though it must, and again he spoke.

”Are there none here who will befriend a stranger in a strange land?

None who are ashamed to see a poor, unarmed stranger from the East done to death by these wolves who call themselves children of the white Christ of Mercy?”

Now Hugh touched d.i.c.k upon the shoulder.

”Rise and come,” he said, ”it is our fate”; and d.i.c.k obeyed.

Only after he had translated the Man's words, David fell down flat upon the quay and lay there.

They stepped to the yellow-capped Man and stood on each side of him, Hugh drawing his sword and d.i.c.k the battle-axe that he carried beneath his robe of silk.