Part 17 (2/2)
”Come, my son!” he said, motioning him to dismount.
A tension broke. She lifted up her riding-whip and struck hard at him, struck with the concentrated strength of pa.s.sion and despair. He leaped aside, but the end of the lash reached him and left a staring weal of red upon his cheek.
He cursed aloud; he made as if he would spring at her.
A warning cry came from behind him; half a dozen revolver shots rang out upon the evening air.
Absalaam, sitting stark upon his stallion, covered by the revolvers which encircled him, had struck his spurs against his horse's flank. The fire in the animal's blood had responded in a great leap forward. Landon wheeled round to see, towering above him, man and horse, looming gigantic against the glare of the sunset. Instinctively, automatically, he threw up the muzzle of his own revolver, and fired full at the Moor's broad chest.
The other bullets flew wide, but that one, so near was the human target, had no room to miss. Absalaam fell limply, heavily from the saddle, fell at his mistress's feet. The horse tore past a dozen restraining hands into liberty.
There was shouting, confusion, the rattle of other shots. And then the voice of the brown _djelabed_ man thundered out high above the uproar.
”In G.o.d's name, Sidi, have haste. Four of them have fled into the thicket! G.o.d alone knows what help they may bring their fellows and how soon!”
And Landon, who had been flung to his knees in the dust, rose swiftly, without another word s.n.a.t.c.hed his son from the saddle, and led the way into the jungle.
In five short minutes he had come, conquered, and gone. He had won every trick, every trick! Claire pa.s.sed her hand across her brow as she stared at the huddle of wounded and--she shuddered in agony as the thought thrilled--perchance the dead! What lay within that ring of broken bodies--what? With white lips and fear-brimmed eyes she slipped from her saddle to see.
CHAPTER IX
AYLMER IS EXPLICIT
It seemed to Aylmer that the world into which he woke was one of stillness, of neutral tints, of intrinsic peace. There was a hint of suns.h.i.+ne diluted by the green hangings in front of the windows, but no more than a hint. There was a faint echo of the sound of falling water floating in with the light, but merely an echo. There was, in fact, but the slightest suggestion of life in his surroundings, and that came from the silently regular rise and fall of the bosom of the sleeping man who sat at his bedside. Aylmer blinked and stared in mild surprise, for the man was Daoud.
He moved restlessly under the sheets. Where was he? Into what unsought refuge had Fate flung him now?
His movement, slight as it was, aroused the Moor. With a little self-reproachful exclamation he stood up and leaned over the bed.
”Oh, Sidi!” he cried, ”it rejoices my heart to read the light of understanding in your eyes.”
Aylmer blinked again bewilderedly.
”Where am I and what do you here?” he asked.
”You are in Villa Eulalia, Sidi, and where should I be but in attendance on my lord?”
Astonishment lifted Aylmer into a weak attempt to rise. The Moor put a hand upon his shoulder and firmly pressed him back.
”Nay, Sidi,” he said respectfully. ”The German doctor lord expressly forbade that you should raise your head from the pillow till he had seen you again.”
Aylmer began to feel as if his wits as well as his body had been bludgeoned. Circ.u.mstances seemed to have leaped freakishly beyond his recollection.
”I was brought here when?” he asked.
”Yesterday, Sidi. Your brain was sorely smitten inside your skull, or so I understood the man of medicines. For fifteen hours you have lain as one feigning death, though breathing. Now you have come into the right of your senses again. This the medicine man also prophesied.”
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