“Zaida!” A change passed over Kaid’s face.
“Speak! Thou hast news of her? She is gone?” Briefly David told him how Zaida was found upon her sister’s grave. Kaid’s face was turned away as he listened.
“She spoke no word of me?” Kaid said at last. “To whom should she speak?” David asked gently. “But the amulet thou gavest her, set with one red jewel, it was clasped in her hand in death.”
Suddenly Kaid’s anger blazed. “Now shall Achmet die,” he burst out. “His hands and feet shall be burnt off, and he shall be thrown to the vultures.”
“The Place of the Lepers is sacred even from thee, Effendina,” answered David gravely. “Yet Achmet shall die even as Harrik died. He shall die for Egypt and for thee, Effendina.”
Swiftly he drew the picture of Achmet at the monastery in the desert. “I have done the unlawful thing, Effendina,” he said at last, “but thou wilt make it lawful. He hath died a thousand deaths—all save one.”
“Be it so,” answered Kaid gloomily, after a moment; then his face lighted with cynical pleasure as he scanned once more the faces of the crowd before him. At last his eyes fastened on Nahoum. He turned to David.
“Thou dost still desire Nahoum in his office?” he asked keenly.
A troubled look came into David’s eyes, then it cleared away, and he said firmly: “For six years we have worked together, Effendina. I am surety for his loyalty to thee.”
“And his loyalty to thee?”