"Desirest thou thy tongue split, thou black dog, that thou answerest
Zulannah? Haste thee, and return!"
And far into the night they talked, those two, planning death or destruction, anything as long as it attained the desire of the woman who, looking into the future, took no notice of the mountain of disaster beside her in the shape of the Ethiopian who desired and hated her with all the bestial passion of his race.
Then, just as far down in the east the sky lightened, she sat suddenly upright and clapped her jewelled hands.
"Know'st thou the eunuch who guards the harem empty of women in the palace of—ah! the barbarity of the name!—E'u Car-r-den Ali? He who perchance would give one-half, nay, all of his great wealth in return for the coal-blackness of thy odorous skin. There is to be held a big entertainment within the walls of the white man's hotel, and soon. An entertainment where the whites dance foolishly in foolish raiment, disguised as that which they are not and with covered faces. What easier than for me to obtain entry as one of them under my veils and have speech with the man I love? And if he is as thou sayest, besotted with love of this white girl, then will I use the man of barbarous name as a tool to bring about that which I desire. Know'st thou the eunuch?"
"Mistress, he is my twin-brother."
"Twin of thee! Behold, did not thy mother die of fright, at sight of such monstrosities?"
"Nay, mistress, there are six sons younger than thy slave, each one of which could break thee in one hand."
Zulannah sprang to her feet and, seizing a short whip from a table, smote the man again and again until his face ran blood.
"Thou vile brute, darest thou so to speak! Behold, this is but a foretaste of what will befall thy black carcase before the hour is spent."
"Call thy slaves, mistress; split my tongue; whip the soles from off my feet, the flesh from my body, even to the bones, and thou shalt never meet my twin-brother, who even now prepareth the great palace for the coming of the"—he spat—"bird of different-coloured plumage."