"S-h-h-h! Have a care," the Syrian cautioned, with a finger against her lip; "the fox is listening, perchance. Keep watch, Memetis, lest he steal upon us suddenly."
Kishra grinned from his covert in the pond, but gave no sign; then Semiramis drew from her bosom the little fish of malachite which was bought from the merchant of Phoenicia.
"Of a truth," said she, "the messenger hath been found, and under Kishra's very nose. Two nights he waiteth in the street below, till I give him warning by a night-bird's cry and cast this trinket from the garden wall. See! I have marked it with a secret sign, for proof to my lord in Bactria that the runner speaketh truth."
"Ah!" sighed Sozana. "And, seeing it, he will come to thee?"
"Aye," returned Semiramis, with a smile of joy, "as fast as Scimitar can bear him on his way. Upon his coming, then will I escape from Nineveh, and with my dear lord cross the Tigris, where we dig our buried treasure from the earth, and—"
"Treasure!" cried Memetis. "Nay, of this thou has spoken naught before."
"Hush!" begged Semiramis, clutching at his arm. "Methought I marked a movement in the shrubbery. Go see, Memetis, for Kishra would give an eye to learn of what I tell."
The Egyptian rose and beat about the undergrowth, but found no sign of him who watched, for the eunuch lay as a dead man in the pond, scarce breathing, though his heart was pounding in his breast. A treasure! This, then, was why the plotters whispered secretly. Fools! The fox's teeth, perchance, might sink beneath the feathers when he snapped.
"'Tis naught," the Egyptian made report, as he came once more to the garden-seat. "Say on, Shammuramat, for none can overhear."
"Mayhap," the Syrian laughed, "it were wiser that I held my tongue, yet ye who love me will ever be discreet. When we journeyed from Azapah to the court of Ninus, I bore a store of jewels in a leathern sack; and, knowing not if the King would smile or frown, I buried it on the river's further bank against a time of need. Ah, Sozana, thou who loveth gems, shouldst look upon this store! There are pearls from India, rubies from beyond the Sea of the Setting Sun, blue girasols and the opals of the Nile, zircons gleaming as the eyes of Bêlit shine, amethysts, and corals carven in the forms of birds and beasts. Tyre, Sidon, and the far off Heliopolis have helped to heap this hoard. With half a kingdom might be bought, yet now it lyeth hidden in a bed of river mud."