"I cannot say," he replied. "It might have been some scheme on the part of Sahib Voski. When we got back to our room in London we were both dreadfully ill. For days I lie, and when I get better they tell me my poor friend is dead and buried.
"Then I understood why Voski Sahib smile and smile in that strange way. It was witchcraft, perhaps, or some devil we do not know in the East—but there is the stone."
The princess was regarding the shining stone with a besotted enthusiasm that seemed grotesquely out of place with her dress and surroundings. Perhaps this suddenly flashed upon her, for she carefully locked up the stone.
"You have done well, Ben Heer," she said, "and shall not go unrewarded. The worst part of our task is over, the rest is easy."
"Then the princess goes not back to Lassa?" Ben Heer asked.
"Oh, not yet, not yet. Not till they are destroyed, root and branch to the smallest twig on the tree. I have not spared myself and I am not going to spare others. Yet there remain those of the accursed race yonder, the Ravenspurs. They know too much, they have that which I require. I will kill them off—they shall die——"
"As my mistress slew her husband when his life was of no more value to her?"
"Ah, so you know that. You would not reproach me, Ben Heer?"
"Does the slave reproach the master who keeps his carcass from the kennel?" Ben Heer asked, as he bowed low. "My mistress was right; her hands were washed whiter than the snow in the blood of the Christian. It was well; it was just."
"Then you shall help me, for there is much to be done. Take this ring. Place it on your finger and go to the others. They are outside waiting. Give them the call, thus."