“That they should come to us?” interrupted the child with sparkling eyes. “Oh, they are all there! I saw the documents myself, when the chest was cleared out for old Horapollo, and to-morrow, quite early to-morrow, you shall have them.” Orion kissed her brow with glad haste; then, striking the wall of his cell with his fist, he waited till something had been withdrawn with a grating sound on the other side, and exclaimed:
“Good news, Nilus! The plans and lists are found: I shall have them to-morrow!”
“That is well!” replied the treasurer’s thin voice from the adjoining room. “We shall need something to comfort us! A prisoner has just been brought in for having attacked an Arab horseman in a riot in the market square. He tells me some dreadful news.”
“Concerning my betrothed?”
“Alas! yes, my lord.”
“Then I know it already,” replied the young man; and after exchanging a few words with his master with reference to the old man’s atrocious proposal, Nilus went on:
“My prison-mate tells me, too, that while he was in custody in the guard-house the Arabs were speaking of a messenger from the governor announcing his arrival at Medina, and also that he intended making only a short stay there. So we may expect his return before long.”
“Then he will have started long before the Kadi’s messenger can have arrived and laid the petition for pardon before the Khaliff!—We have no hope but in Amru; if only we could send information to him on his way....”
“He would certainly not tarry in Upper Egypt, but hasten his journey, or send on a plenipotentiary,” said the voice on the other side of the wall. “If we had but a trusty man to despatch! Our people are scattered to the four winds, and to hunt them up now....”
At this Mary’s childish tones broke in with: “I can find a messenger.”