El-Râmi recollected himself, and, folding up the telegram, thrust it in his breast pocket.
“A poor monk who is travelling hither on a secret mission solicits my hospitality for the night”—he replied hurriedly—“That is all. He will be here to-morrow.”
Féraz stood silent, an incredulous smile in his fine eyes.
“Why should you stoop to deceive me, El-Râmi, my brother?” he said gently at last—“Surely it is not one of your ways to perfection? Why try to disguise the truth from me?—I am not of a treacherous nature. If I guess rightly, this ‘poor monk’ is the Supreme Head of the Brethren of the Cross, from whose mystic band you were dismissed for a breach of discipline. What harm is there in my knowing of this?”
El-Râmi’s hand clenched, and his eyes had that dark and terrible look in them that Féraz had learned to fear, but his voice was very calm.
“Who told you?” he asked.
“One of the monks at Cyprus long ago, when I went on your errand”—replied Féraz; “He spoke of your wisdom, your power, your brilliant faculties, in genuine regret that, all for some slight matter in which you would not bend your pride, you had lost touch with their various centres of action in all parts of the globe. He said no more than this,—and no more than this I know.”
“You know quite enough,”—said El-Râmi quietly—“If I have lost touch with their modes of work, I have gained insight beyond their reach. And,—I am sorry I did not at once say the truth to you—it is their chief leader who comes here to-morrow. No doubt,”—and he smiled with a sense of triumph—“no doubt he seeks for fresh knowledge, such as I alone can give him.”
“I thought,” said Féraz in a low half-awed tone,—“that he was one of those who are wise with the wisdom of the angels?”
“If there are angels!” said El-Râmi with a touch of scorn, “He is wise in faith alone—he believes and he imagines,—and there is no question as to the strange power he has obtained through the simplest means,—but I—I have no faith!—I seek to prove—I work to know,—and my power is as great as his, though it is won in a different way.”