“Unfortunately I do,” the Raja replied.
CHAPTER XXVIII
The great wings beat nearer. The cruel bird-cry came again.
“You would kill us—?” Lucilla panted hoarsely.
“Not I, Madam; the clerical party,” Rukh said suavely. “And only if my brothers are executed. If not, I will merely demand your word of honor that what has passed between us shall never be mentioned to any human soul—and you shall go free.”
“But,” Major Crespin exclaimed, “if your brother assassins are hanged—as assuredly they will be—you will put us to death in cold blood!”
“Oh, not in cold blood, Major,” the Raja interjected, the edge of a laugh on his smooth, level voice. “There is nothing cold-blooded about the clerical party when ‘white goats,’ as their phrase goes, are to be sacrificed to the Goddess.”
“Does your Goddess demand the life of a woman?” Traherne asked it sternly, and his eyes were scalpels.
“Well,” the Raja of Rukh said with slow significance, “on that point she might not be too exacting. ‘On trouve avec le Ciel des accommodements.’ If Madam would be so gracious as to favor me with her—society—”
Lucilla Crespin gazed at him speechless, for a moment, then realized fully his meaning, and sprang up with a cry of rage and anger.