CHAPTER XII.
SAH-LUMA.
The new-comer thus enthusiastically welcomed bowed right and left, with a condescending air, in response to the general acclamation, and advancing to the spot where Theos stood, an enforced prisoner in the close grip of three or four able-bodied citizens, he said:
"What turbulence is here? By my faith! … when I heard the noise of quarrelsome contention jarring the sweetness of this nectarous noon, methought I was no longer in Al-Kyris, but rather in some western city of barbarians where music is but an unvalued name!"
And he smiled—a dazzling, child-like smile, half petulant, half-pleased—a smile of supreme self-consciousness as of one who knew his own resistless power to charm away all discord.
Several voices answered him in clamorous unison:
"A traitor, Sah-luma!" "A profane rebel!" … "An unbeliever!" … "A most insolent knave!"—"He refused homage to the High Priestess!" … "A renegade from the faith!"
"Now, by the Sacred Veil!" cried Sah-luma impatiently—"Think ye I can distinguish your jargon, when like ignorant boors ye talk all at once, tearing my ears to shreds with such unmelodious tongue-clatter! Whom have ye seized thus roughly? … Let him stand forth!"
At this command, the men who held Theos relaxed their grasp, and he, breathless and burning with indignation at the treatment he had received, shook himself quickly free of all restraint, and sprang forward, confronting his rescuer. There was a brief pause, during which the two surveyed each other with looks of mutual amazement. What mysterious indication of affinity did they read in one another's faces? … Why did they stand motionless, spell-bound and dumb for a while, eying half-admiringly, half-enviously, each other's personal appearance and bearing? …
Undoubtedly a curious, far-off resemblance existed between them,—yet it was a resemblance that had nothing whatever to do with the actual figure, mien, or countenance. It was that peculiar and often undefinable similarity of expression, which when noticed between two brothers who are otherwise totally unlike, instantly proclaims their relationship.