He listened attentively to his sister's brief, fond description, and then pushed the plates from before him.
"Can you give me something to drink now?" he asked, in a strained, unsteady voice. She brought him a bottle of wine from the cupboard and he swallowed some, very sparingly. It brought a little colour back into his ashen face.
"I'll eat some more in a minute or two," he muttered, and sank back into his chair, and sighed. And there he sat, still and silent, while the big grandfather's clock in its corner ticked away an eternity of suspense.
"And so it's—her!" he whispered to himself, and looked up at his sister again as if he had been unaware of her company.
"Listen, Janet," said he then, in a stronger voice, "and I'll tell you something of what I owe Dove.
"When I had to flee this country, at the time of Lord St. Just's death, I took to the sea for a while, and, knocking about the world, I chanced across Dove and his ship—the old Fer de Lance it was then. And I signed on with him—it was in San Thomé—for reasons that don't matter now. But he and I soon fell foul of each other—for reasons that don't matter either—and what d'ye think he did to get rid of me! He set me ashore, on the African coast, alone—to die in the desert there."
A dangerous light was beginning to burn in his sunken eyes. He had set his two twitching hands on the table, was leaning forward.
"But—I didn't die, after all, you see," he said. "I didn't die then, Janet. I'm not dead yet.
"It would only weary you to hear all that happened to me before I came into my kingdom. For I was as good as a king there, Janet, and—
"No, I'm not mad, though I might well be after all I've suffered through—him. It was a kingdom I'd made for myself before he came my way again. From Tripoli to the Susa, my word was all but law, and there was scarcely a tribe but paid me tribute. The Sultan of Morocco himself would send me presents when I passed by. I've fought and beaten the French, time and again, in country they claim for their own. They knew the Emir El Farish, Janet, although you think that it's raving I am.