A mighty uproar drowned the curse. The whole court rose as one man. The Câdi bounced to his feet, mouthing, gesticulating, a-tremble with rage and terror.
“Dog!” he yelled. “Be silent, madman! Pluck his tongue out, scourge him, flay him! Ho, you soldiers! Is it fear holds you there idle?”
At the taunt a dozen soldiers ran and seized on Hassan, who had stood his ground defiantly.
Not until the wretch was clearly powerless did Yûsuf Effendi venture to meet his eyes. The effect of that glance was magical. The fat and sleepy Câdi turned a maniac. He shrieked and shrieked again, in convulsions as if his robe had been poisoned.
CHAPTER XXIV
“They are impostors, robbers, murderers. They shall die, every one of them. They robbed me—me, the Câdi—of the moneys I had collected from my lands. Two of them. Two devils! I hold one: where is his brother? Aha, I see him. He skulks yonder. Bring forward that man of the thick beard—he who stoops behind the tall one. Bring him hither to beside his fellow. Hold fast his arms.”
Nesìb, the Thief, was dragged to the foot of the dais. He screamed for the pain such rough usage inflicted on his wounded legs; while Ali, withheld from following him, screamed yet more lustily. When the judge stooped down and deliberately spat in his face, Nesìb’s screams increased to a very death shriek, which was echoed of Ali in the crowd behind.
“O Allah! O crown of infamy! He bit my wrist, and now he spits on me. O woe! woe!”