They played with a reserved dignity, announcing the throws in raucous voices.
Then, slowly, very slowly, I slipped the leash from the collar of the impatient little beast.
"Go, boy."
He leapt with a sharp yelp.
And what I had foreseen happened.
The first bound of King Hiram carried him into the midst of the white Tuareg, sowing confusion in the bodyguard. Another leap carried him into the shadow again. I made out vaguely the shaded opening of another corridor on the side of the room opposite where I was standing.
"There!" I thought.
The confusion in the room was indescribable, but noiseless. One realized the restraint which nearness to a great presence imposed upon the exasperated guards. The stakes and the dice-boxes had rolled in one direction, the copper cups, in the other.
Two of the Tuareg, doubled up with pain, were rubbing their ribs with low oaths.
I need not say that I profited by this silent confusion to glide into the room. I was now flattened against the wall of the second corridor, down which King Hiram had just disappeared.