For an instant all was darkness, fraught with fear; then the man rose, gasping, clutching at the boat. A spear's length away he spied a foaming swirl, where Semiramis flung high her arms and disappeared.
Then the river again took up its droning hymn; the sentries called from the distant battlements; a dog's head rode the waves as it pointed to the westward shore, and a boat went spinning down the Tigris, while Kishra clung in terror to its slippery keel.
CHAPTER XX
THE FLIGHT
"Ho, Huzim!" called Semiramis, as she gained a footing on the river mud and splashed through the shallows where the lilies grew; and Huzim, with a cry of greeting, stretched forth his hands to draw her up upon the bank.
"Art safe?" he asked. "No hurt hath come to thee? Of a truth I rejoiced at the voice of Habal, yet close upon it came a sound of tumult, and my strength forsook me utterly. See, mistress, I tremble still, for the night hath brought a terror to my heart."
In his joy the faithful servant, who would have dared the anger of the gods themselves to shield Semiramis, sank down and clasped her knees, to weep as a child might weep.
"Nay," laughed the woman, with a gentle hand upon his straight black locks, "'twas naught indeed save a plunge and a joyous swim, for the waters thronged about me with the kisses of old, remembered friends. Up, Huzim! Bear Habal in your arms, for his leg hath received a hurt, poor beast. And hasten! Yon apish eunuch whirling down the stream may arise an outcry, bringing a troop of horse upon our trail."
The Indian arose, and raising Habal as his mistress bade him, strode forward through the darkness, while she, in the joy of freedom, walked happily at his side, wringing the water from her wet simar and whispering of all which had come to pass. For a league they journeyed westward till they came to a hillock crowned by trees, and here the Indian bade his mistress wait, while he, himself, went onward to secure their steeds which waited in a secret place in the wooded lands beyond.
"Keep watch," he urged, then filled his lungs with a hopeful breath and vanished in the gloom.