All this time the Grand Vizier, Musa al Ghazi, had been standing a little to the rear of the group stroking his beard nervously and looking anxiously from one to the other. He seemed about to speak, when Khalid said to Alan with a courtesy which contrasted strongly with Olga’s contemptuous demeanour—
“I thank you, Prince of the Air. As matters stand I think that will be the most reasonable as well as the most convenient course. Though I am far from convinced that you are not mistaken, yet I can assure you that the best skill in my domains shall examine what you leave us. Musa!”
The old man turned pale as his master pronounced his name, and stepped forward with a visible agitation, which was by no means accounted for by the circumstances of the strange situation. Instead of waiting for Khalid’s commands he said as he made his obeisance before him—
“Commander of the Faithful, I am here; but before your Majesty bids me take these papers from the hands of Alan Arnold I would ask permission to say a word that must be said in private.”
“In private, Musa?” said Khalid, frowning slightly and passing his hand down his beard. “This is hardly a time for State secrets.”
“It is but my duty to my master that bids me speak,” replied the old man, again bending before him. “A moment will suffice for the speaking of what I have to say.”
Musa’s tone was so earnest and his anxiety so palpable, that Khalid without more ado made his excuses to the Tsarina and his unexpected guests and stepped aside out of earshot with his Vizier.
“Well, Musa, what is it that is so pressing and yet so private?” he asked, a trifle impatiently.
“My master,” replied the old minister, in a voice that now trembled with emotion, “there is no need to examine the calculations from Aeria. An hour before daybreak Hakem ben Amru, your chief astronomer at the observatory of Memphis, came to me and told me that he had completed his own calculations of the curve and period of the comet, and that, allowing for difference in longitude between our meridian and that of Aeria, the prediction from Mars will be fulfilled beyond all doubt at midnight on the 23rd of September.”
This was testimony which it was impossible for Khalid to question. Musa’s sincerity was beyond all question and Hakem ben Amru was the most renowned astronomer in the world outside Aeria. Khalid recoiled a pace as though he had been struck, and said in a voice hoarse with sudden emotion—