Part 46 (2/2)
”Nuitello, ”would be in favour of Asad No truly devout Musliainst the Basha, the representative of the Subliion Yet they are accustomed to obey thee, to leap at thy command, and so Asad hiuht”
Upon that he quitted Vigitello, and slowly, thoughtfully, returned to the poop-deck It was his hope--his only hope now--that Asad ht accept the proposal he had made him As the price of it he was fully prepared for the sacrifice of his own life, which it ain; to do so would be to argue doubt and anxiety and so to court refusal He must possess his soul in what patience he could If Asad persisted in his refusal undeterred by any fear of mutiny, then Sakr-el-Bahr knew not what course remained him to accomplish Rosamund's deliverance Proceed to stir up mutiny he dared not It was too desperate a throw In his own view it offered hihtest chance of success, and did it fail, then indeed all would be lost, himself destroyed, and Rosa a sword-edge His only chance of present immunity for himself and Rosamund lay in the confidence that Asad would dare no ression But that was only for the present, and at any ive the word to put about and steer for Barbary again; in no case could that be delayed beyond the plundering of the Spanish argosy He nourished the faint hope that in that coht--soht perhaps present itself, some unexpected way out of the present situation
He spent the night under the stars, stretched across the threshold of the curtained entrance to the poop-house,thus a barrier of his body whilst he slept, and himself watched over in his turn by his faithful Nubians who reuard He awakened when the first violet tints of daere in the east, and quietly dis the weary slaves to their rest, he kept watch alone thereafter Under the awning on the starboard quarter slept the Basha and his son, and near the
CHAPTER XIX THE MUTINEERS
Later that aleasse had awakened to life and such languidcrew, Sakr-el-Bahr went to visit Rosahtened and refreshed by sleep, and he brought her reassuringher with hopes which hi If her reception of him was not expressedly friendly, neither was it unfriendly She listened to the hopes he expressed of yet effecting her safe deliverance, and whilst she had no thanks to offer hi them as her absolute due, as the inadequate liquidation of the debt that lay between the al towards hiain some hours later, in the afternoon, by when his Nubians were onceher beyond the fact that their sentinel on the heights reported a sail to ard, beating up towards the island before the very gentle breeze that was blowing But the argosy they awaited was not yet in sight, and he confessed that certain proposals which he hadher in France had been rejected Still she need have no fear, he added pro the sudden alarm that quickened in her eyes A ould present itself He atching, and would miss no chance
”And if no chance should offer?” she asked hihtly al them all my life, and it would be odd if I should have lost the trick of it on my life's most important occasion”
This mention of his life led to a question from her
”How did you contrive the chance that has made you what you are?
Ithat the purport of that question ht be misunderstood, ”that has enabled you to beco story that,” he said ”I should weary you in the telling of it”
”No,” she replied, and shook her head, her clear eyes solelance ”You would not weary me Chances may be fehich to learn it”
”And you would learn it?” quoth he, and added, ”That you e me?”
”Perhaps,” she said, and her eyes fell
With bowed head he paced the length of the sain His desire was to do her will in this, which is natural enough--for if it is true that who knows all ive all, never could it have been truer than in the case of Sir Oliver Tressilian
So he told his tale Pacing there he related it at length, froalleys of Spain down to that hour in which aboard the Spanish vessel taken under Cape Spartel he had deter to his brother He told his story sireat a wealth of detail, yet he oone to place hi, was so profoundly listened with tears which she sought vainly to repress Yet he, pacing there, absorbed, with head bowed and eyes that never once strayed in her direction, saw none of this
”And so,” he said, when at last that odd narrative had reached its end, ”you knohat the forces were that drove ht have resisted and preferred to suffer death But I was not strong enough Or perhaps it is that stronger than myself was my desire to punish, to vent the bitter hatred into which my erstwhile love for Lionel was turned”
”And for me, too--as you have told me,” she added
”Not so,” he corrected her ”I hated you for your unfaith, andburnt unread the letter that I sent you by the hand of Pitt In doing that you contributed to the wrongs I was enduring, you destroyedrehabilitation, you doo
But I did not then knohat ample cause you had to believe me what I seemed I did not know that it was believed I had fled Therefore I forgive you freely a deed for which at one time I confess that I hated you, and which spurred ht at Arwenack when I went for Lionel”
”You mean that it was no part of your intent to have done so?” she asked hiether with him?” he asked ”I swear to God I had not premeditated that Indeed, it was done because not premeditated, for had I considered it, I do think I should have been proof against any such temptation It assailed me suddenly when I beheld you there with Lionel, and I succuh, I think”
”I think I can understand,” she ently, as if to comfort him, for quick pain had trembled in his voice