Part 46 (1/2)
”You have heard the echo? Yes, I know you heard the echo Hear it again!”
She raised her head and howled like a wolf-like a lone wolf that has found no quarry-er There was a pause of nearly a minute Then in the hideous darkness a phantowolves at ould be a sluhastlier than if it had been real, the chorus wailed and ululated back and forth along i down into earth's bowels as if the last of a phanto to be waited for
When it ceased at last King eating
”Nor ahter
She led him down the steps, and at the foot told him to put on his slippers, as if he were a child Then, hurrying as if those opal eyes of hers were indifferent to dark or daylight, she picked her way a a floor that was only sh by two or three tiether
When he looked back there was no sign of red lights behind hiht in front and a whiff of the cool fresh air that presages the dawn!
She led hi thousands of feet above the hoe less than six feet wide, less than twenty long, tilted back toward the cliff There they sat, watching the stars And there they saw the dawn co looks down into Khinjan hours after the sun has risen, because the precipices shut it out But the peaks on every side are very beacons of the range at the earliest peep of dawn In silence they watched day's herald touch the peaks with rosy jeweled fingers-she waiting as if she expected thespeak
It was cold She caled close to him, and it was so they watched the sparkle of dawn's jewels die and the peaks grow gray again, she with an arolden hair blown past his face
”Of what are you thinking?” she asked him at last
”Of India, Princess”
”What of India?”
”She lies helpless”
”Ah! You love India?”
”Yes”
”You shall love me better! You shall love me better than your life! Then, for love of me, you shall own the India you think you love! This letter shall go!” She tapped her bosom ”It is best to cut you off froot up and stood in the gap, sly, framed in the darkness of the cave behind
”I understand!” she said ”You think you are my enemy Love and hate never lived side by side You shall see!”
Then in an instant she was gone, backward into the dark He sat and waited for her, cross-legged on the ledge As daylight began to filter doard he could di of a world; he sat staring at it, trying to formulate a plan, until it dawned on hiot up and stepped through the gap, too
”Princess!” he called Then louder, ”Princess!”
When the echo of his own voice died, it was as if the ghoul who made the echoes had taken shape A beard-red eye-rims-and a hook nose came out of the dark, and Ismail bared yellow teeth
”Come!” he said ”Come, little hakim!”
Chapter XV