"How do you know it?"
"I have written to your father."
"You have ... written ... to my father?"
"Yes," she said, still more firmly. "He will know everything before Ishmael arrives, and will act as he thinks best."
"Helena! Hel——"
But he was struck breathless both by what she said and by the relentless strength with which she said it. There was silence again for some moments, and once more the voice of Ishmael came from without—
"There are three holy books, O my brothers—the took of Moses and the Hebrew prophets, the book of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus, and the plain book of the Koran. In the first of these it is written: 'I know that my Redeemer liveth and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.'"
Gordon reached over to where Helena sat at the side of the table, with her eyes fixed steadfastly before her, and touching her arm he said in a whisper so low that he seemed to be afraid the very air would hear—
"Then ... then .... you are sending him to his death!"
She shuddered for an instant as if cut to the quick; then she braced herself up.