“Quick, Excellency!” said Yussuf, when Helen cried out at the terrible scene. “There is no time to lose upon sympathy. That stroke of the dagger did but remove one who was but a little better than a beast and a little less evil than she who blinded me. Spill not thy heart’s blood for such, but hasten, in the name of Allah, hasten to the white man, who even now is in the hands of the she-devil and my brethren, who know not what they do.”
“White man! What white man?”
Helen walked close to Yussuf and stared up into his sightless face.
“White man!” she whispered, her face ashen through the tumult of her heart. “What white man? In God’s name, in the name of Allah, tell me! Is it—is it——”
Yussuf caught her and shook her as she reeled up against him.
“Thou art brave, white woman; be not a coward now, when thy man waits for thee, surrounded by those who, inflamed with forbidden wine, will strike him down for a misplaced word. It is this wise. In the few words time and Fate allow me——”
Helen turned to “His Eyes,” who stood beside her, smiling and nodding his head, whilst the blind man talked. Then she placed her hand in Yussuf’s.
“ ... rush not in, Excellency,” finished Yussuf as they moved towards the door. “Listen to the words of the old man with the white hair and venerable beard. Wait until the thoughts of my brethren are fixed upon the white man, then—then do as Allah the Merciful bids thee, and may His blessing rest upon thee and thine throughout all time. I shall be within the Hall, likewise ‘Mine Eyes,’ when he has well hid the body of yon slave and has finished the task I have set him.”
Yussuf’s sandalled feet made no sound, the noise of Helen’s boots upon the rocks was deadened by the shouting from above as they sped like deer up the steep, deserted steps to the doorway of the Hall of Judgment. With finger upon lips Yussuf slipped in unnoticed, leaving Helen in the shadows, staring across the great chamber to the dais, where sat Zarah, in all her barbaric loveliness, with Ralph Trenchard beside her.