CHAPTER XLII
"SONS OF THE PROPHET, SLAY!"
The Olema shook an emphatic head of negation. "_Yafta Allah!_" heexclaimed, using the absolute, decisive formula of refusal in Arabbargaining. "This gold of ours is sacred. The angel Jibrail himselfstruck the Iron Mountains with his wing, at the same hour when theBlack Stone fell from Paradise, and caused the gold to gush out. It isnot earthly gold, but the gold of angels.
"Not one grain can be taken from El Barr. The curses of Jehannun, ofEblis, rest on Arab or _Ajam_ who dare attempt it. Surely, such a oneshall be put to the sword, and his soul in the bottom pits of Hellshall be taken by the feet and forelock and cast into the hottestflames! That soul shall eat of the fruit of the tree Al Zakkum, and bebranded forever with the treasure he did attempt to ravish from us!"
"Remember, great Olema, we did bring thee the Myzab and Kaukab elDurri, and the holy Black Stone!"
"I remember, White Sheik, and will reward thee, but not with gold!"The old man's face was stern, deep-lined, hard; his eyes had assumed adangerous glitter. "Thou hast a good tongue, but though it speak fromnow till the angel Al Sijil roll up all the scrolls of life, it shallnot avail.
"Ask some other thing; and remember, if thou dost try by any magicto remove even a sand-grain of this gold, the salt will be no longerbetween thee and me. This must be added to the two things I havealready told thee of, that would take away the salt!"
Narrowly the Master eyed him, then nodded. Huge though this rebuffhad been, and great as the loss must be, the Master realized the utterimpossibility of coming to any terms with Bara Miyan on a gold basis.All the fanaticism of these people would resist this, to the death.Even to insist further might precipitate a massacre. Therefore, likethe philosopher he was, he turned to other possibilities, consideringwhat was best to be done.
The Olema spoke again, pausing now and then as he puffed reflectivelyat his water-pipe. Said he:
"I will tell thee a great secret, O Frank. In this city lie the lostbooks of the Arwam (Greek) wise men and poets. When the Alexandrianlibrary was burned by Amrou, at Omar's order, the four thousand bathsof the city were heated for six months by ancient scrolls. I haveheard that ye Feringi have greatly mourned the loss of the Arwamlearning and poetry. Not all this treasure was lost, White Sheik!"
The Master started, peered at Bara Miyan and forgot to chew hissoothing khat leaves.
"And then--?" asked he.
"Some twenty thousand of the most precious parchments were privatelycarried by our _Sufis_ to Medina, and thence, after many years, toJannati Shahr. Here they still lie, in perfect form, clearly to beread. This is a treasure that would set the world of the Feringiablaze and make thee as a god among thy people. Ask this gift,O Frank, and it shall be granted thee! For the mere asking, thistreasure shall be thine!"
The Master shook his head. Deeply as he understood the incalculablevalue of the lost books of antiquity, he well knew that to offer hisLegion such a booty would be all in vain. Men who have suffered andbled, risked all, seen their comrades die, and even now stand inthe shadow of death--hoping some vast, tangible loot--are not propermaterial for discussion of literary values.
"_Yafta Allah!_" the Master exclaimed, with emphasis equal to theOlema's. "No, Bara Miyan, this cannot be."
"Our dancing and singing maidens are like a flame of Paradise. Theirenchantments make the heart of man glad with perpetual springtime.Choose, O Frank, two handmaids for thyself and for each of thy men,and let them be yours to go with you to your own country and to beyour chattels and your sweet delights!"
The eyes of "Captain Alden" narrowed with sudden, painful emotion asshe peered at the Master. With some smattering of Arabic, she may havecaught something of the sense of this offer. But the Master, unmovedby this second offer of Olema's, merely shook his head again, saying:
"No, Bara Miyan. Though thy women be fair as the dawn over the Sea ofOman, and soft-eyed as the gazelles in the oasis of the _Wady elWard_ (Vale of Flowers), not for us are they. We seek other rewards.Therefore will I ask thee still another question."
"Thy question shall be answered, O Frank!"
"Is it true that the Caliph el Walid, in Hegira 88, sent fortycamel-loads of cut jewels to Mecca?"
"That is true."
"And that, later, all those jewels were brought hither?"
"Even so! It is also true that two Franks in Hegira 550, digged atunnel into the Meccan treasury from a house they had hired in theguise of Egyptian _Hujjaj_. They were both beheaded, White Sheik, andtheir bodies were burned to ashes."
"No doubt," the Master answered, nonchalantly. "But they had broughtno rich gifts to the Meccans. Therefore, now speaking of these fortycamel-loads of cut jewels, O Bara Miyan--"
"It is in thy mind to ask for those, White Sheik?"
"Allah giveth thee two hearts, Bara Miyan, as well as the riches ofKarun. Surely, 'the generous man is Allah's friend,' and thy hand isnot tied up."[1]
[Footnote 1: "To have two hearts" (_dhu'kulbein_) signifies to beprudent, wise. Karun is the Arabic Croesus. "Thy hand is tied up" isequivalent to calling a man niggardly.]
The Olema, a quick decision gleaming in his eyes--though what thatdecision might be, who could tell?--put down the amber mouthpiece andwith an eloquent, lean hand gestured toward a silk-curtained doorwayat the right of the vast hall.
"Come with me, then, White Sheik!" said he, arising and beckoning hiswhite-robed sub-chiefs. He raised a finger in signal to the Maghrabis,though what the signal might mean, the Legionaries could not know."Come, with all thy men. And, by Allah! I will show thee the thingswhereof thou dost speak to me. I will show thee all these things--andothers!
"_Come_!"
In silence the Legionaries followed old Bara Miyan through thecurtained doorway; and after them came the sub-chiefs. The Maghrabistranglers, noiseless and bare-footed, fell in behind; a long ominousline of black human brutes, seeming hardly above the intellectuallevel of so many gorillas.
Stout-hearted as the Legionaries were, a kind of numbing oppressionwas closing in upon them. City battlements and double walls of innercitadel, then massive gates and now again more doors that closedbehind them, intervened between them and even the perilous liberty ofthe plain of El Barr. And, in addition to all this, some hundreds ofthousands of Arabs, waiting without, effectually surrounded them, andthe Maghrabi men cast their black shadow, threatening and ominous,over the already somber enough canvas.
A web, they all felt, was closing about them that only chance andboldness could unravel. Everything now hung on the word of an agedfanatic, who for any fancied breach of the Oath of Salt might deliverthem to slavery, torture, death.
"Remember, men," the Master warned his men as they penetrated thedim, golden-walled passage also lighted with sandal-oil_mash'als_--"remember the mercy-bullets. If it comes to war, none ofus must be taken prisoner!"
To the Olema he exclaimed, in suave tones:
"_Dakhilak, Ya Shayk!_ (Under thy protection, O Sheik!) Let not thelaws of hospitality or the Oath of Salt be forgotten!"
The Olema only smiled oddly, in the dim and perfumed obscurity of thepassageway, along which the slither of the many sandaled feet onthe gold pavement made a soft, creeping sound. Nothing more wassaid--except for some grumbled mouthings of Bohannan--during the nextfew minutes.
The passage seemed enormously long to the Master as, flanked byLeclair, "Captain Alden," and the major, he peered curiously at itssmooth, dull-yellow walls all chased with geometrical patterns pickedout in silver and copper, between the dull-hued tapestries, andbanded with long extracts from the Koran inlaid in Tumar characters ofmother-of-pearl.
Several turnings, and three flights of steps descending through thesolid gold "dyke" that ran down into the bowels of the earth noone could even guess how far, served still more to confuse theLegionaries' sense of direction and to increase their conviction that,in case of any outbreak of hostilities, they would find themselvestrapped more helplessly than rats in a cage.
It is no aspersion on their bravery to say that more than one amongthem had already begun inwardly to curse this wild-goose chaseinto Jannati Shahr. It all had now begun to assume absolutely theappearance of a well-formulated plan of treachery. Even the Mastergave recognition to this appearance, by saying again: "Be ready fora quick draw. But whatever you do, don't be the aggressor. Watch yourstep!"
The passage suddenly reached its end. Another heavy door of the yellowmetal swung back, and all issued into a hall even more vast than theone they had quitted.
No windows here admitted light. The air, though pure enough as fromsome hidden source of ventilation, hung dead and heavy. Not even thecensers, depending from the dim roof, far above, could freshen it;nor could the cressets' light make more than a kind of ghostly aurathrough the gloom.
By this dim half-illumination the Master beheld, there before him inthe middle of the tremendous golden pavement, a strange,pyramidal object rising four-square in the shape of an equilateraltriangle--just such a triangle as was formed by the locations ofMecca, Bab el Mandeb, and El Barr.
This pyramid, polished and elaborately engraved, towered some ninetyfeet above the floor. It was pierced by numbers of openings, like theentrances to galleries; and up the smooth face nearest the entrance tothe hall, a stairway about ten feet wide mounted toward the apex.
Completely finished all save the upper part, which still remainedtruncated, the golden pyramid gleamed dully in the vague light, athing of awe and wonder, grimly beautiful, fearsome to gaze up at. Forsome unknown reason, as the Legionaries grouped themselves about theirMaster, an uncanny influence seemed to emanate from this singularobject. All remained silent, as the Olema, an enigmatic smile on histhin, bearded lips, raised a hand toward the pyramid.
"This thing, O Frank, thou shouldst see," he remarked dryly. "Aboveall, the inner chambers. Wilt thou go with me?"
"I will go," the Master answered. "Lead the way!"
The Olema beckoned one of the Maghrabis, who delivered a torch of someclear-burning, resinous, and perfumed material into his hand.
"Come," bade the old man, and gestured toward the steps of gold.
Together, in silence, they mounted toward the dim, high-archedroof. From near the top, the Master, glancing down, could see thewhite-robed mass of the Arabs, the small, compact group of his ownmen; and, behind them all, the dim, black lines of the stranglers. Butalready the Olema was gesturing for him to enter the highest of thegalleries.
Into this, carved in the virgin metal, both made their way. Thetorchlight flung strange, wavering gleams on smooth walls niched withdark embrasures. At the further end of the passage, the Olema stopped.
"Here is a new trophy, just added to all that Allah hath placed in ourhands," said he, gravely. "There are some three-and-twenty places yetleft, to fill. Wilt thou see the new trophy?"
The Master nodded silently. Raising the torch, the Olema thrust itinto one of the embrasures. There the Master beheld a human skull.
The empty eye-sockets, peering out at him, seemed to hold a malevolentmalice. That the skull had been but freshly cleaned, was obvious.
"Abd el Rahman?" asked the Master.
"Yea, the Apostate," answered Bara Miyan. "At last, Allah hathdelivered him to us of El Barr."
"Thou hast used a heavy hand on the Apostate, O Sheik."
"We of Jannati Shahr do not anoint rats' heads with jasmine oil. Tellme, Frank, how many men hast thou?"
"Three-and-twenty, is it not so?"
"Yea, it is so. Tell me, Bara Miyan, this whole pyramid--"
"Skulls, yea."
"This is the Pyramid of Ayeshah that I have heard strange tales of?"the Master demanded, feeling even his hard nerves quiver.
"The Pyramid of Ayeshah."
"No myth, then, but reality," the Master commented, fascinated inspite of himself. "Even as the famous Tower of Skulls at Jerba, inTunis!"
"Thou hast said it, O Frank. Here be more than ten-score thousandskulls of the enemies of Islam, of blasphemers against the Prophet, ofthose who have penetrated the Empty Abodes, of those who have soughtto carry gold from El Barr. It is nearly done, this pyramid. But therestill remain three-and-twenty vacant places to be filled."
For a long minute, the eyes of the Master and of Bara Miyan met, insilence, with the torch-flare glinting strange lights from them. Thenthe Olema spoke.
"Hast thou seen enough?" demanded he.
"Mine eyes are filled."
"And dost thou still ask rewards of gold?"
"Nay, it is as I have already told thee; let the cut jewels of theCaliph el Walid suffice!"
"It is well spoken. Let us descend."
In silence, again, they left the gruesome gallery and went down thestairway with the Olema's torch leaving vague, fantastic wreaths ofodorous smoke curling up along the polished, dull-yellow slant of thepyramid. Back on the floor again, the Master said to his men:
"This pyramid is filled with skulls of men who have tried to carrygold from El Barr. For the present, we must dismiss gold from ourminds. Common prudence dictates that we abandon all idea of gold, takewhatever reward we can get, and leave this city at once.
"The gold is of no importance, whatever. On the way back over theouter foothills of the Iron Mountains, many outcrops of gold exist._Nissr_ can poise above some of these; and a few hours' labor willload her with all the gold we can carry. There can be no sense intrying to get any here. It would simply add to our peril.
"Everything is therefore quite satisfactory. But watch every move. Ifnothing breaks, in two hours from now we should be on our way. AgainI caution you all, keep silent and make no move without my orders. Theprize is at our very finger-tips. So long as we shed no blood and asnothing happens to the Myzab and the Black Stone, we are safe. Butremember--_be careful!_"
The Olema touched him on the elbow.
"Now," the old man asked, "now, O Frank, wouldst thou see the cutjewels of the Caliph el Walid?"
"Even so!"
"Come, then!" And Bara Miyan gestured toward another door that led, atthe left, out of the Chamber of the Pyramid.
Again the strange procession formed itself, as before, with thegorilla-like Maghrabi stranglers a rear guard. A few minutes throughstill another passage in the gold brought them to a door of ebony,banded with silver. No door of gold, it seemed, sufficed for thischamber they were about to enter. Stronger materials were needed here.
This door, like the others, swung silently on its massive hinges.
"Come, O Master of the fighting-men of Feringistan!" exclaimed theOlema. "In Allah's name, take of the gifts that I have already offeredthee, and then in peace depart!"
Before the Master could reply, a shuddering concussion shiveredthrough the solid gold all about them. The tremor of this shock, likethat of an earthquake, trembled the cressets on the walls and made thehuge ebony door, ajar into a dim-lighted hall, groan on its hinges.
Stupefied, Legionaries and Arabs alike, stared silently under thevague gleam of the torches.
Then, far and faint, as though coming along tortuous passages fromdistances above, a muffled concussion smote their ears. The shock ofthe air-wave was distinctly felt, eloquent of the catastrophe that ina second of time had shattered every plan and hope.
As if an echo of that thunderous, far explosion, a faint wailing ofvoices--echoing from very far above--drifted eerily along the passage;voices in blended rage and fear, in hate, agony, despair.
"God above--!" the major gulped. "Captain Alden" whipped her pistolfrom its holster, not a fraction of a second before the Master'sleaped into his hand. The torchlight flickered on Leclair'sservice-revolver, and was reflected on the guns of every Legionary.
"If that's the explosive," Bohannan cried, "faith, we're in for it!_Is_ it the explosive that's blown Hell out o' the Black Stone?"
A wild cry echoed down the passage. The Olema, his face suddenlydistorted with a passion of hate, snatched a pistol from beneath hisburnous.
"The dogs of Feri
ngistan have spat on all Islam!" he screamed, in ashrill, horrible voice. "The Black Stone is no more! Vengeance on theunbelieving dogs! _Allah il Allah!_ Kill, kill, and let no dog escape!
"Sons of the Prophet! Slay me these dogs! Kill!"
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