“Malec hath already set his curse upon thee,” she said, “and by each murder thou committest so thou createst for thyself a fresh torture in Al-Hâwiyat, where thy food will be offal and thou wilt slake thy thirst with boiling pitch. True, I have fallen captive into thine hands, having journeyed to Tilouat to see my father’s mother who was dying; but thinkest thou that I fear thee? No!” she added with flashing eyes. “Though the people dread thee as the great and powerful Chief, I despise thee and all thy miserable parasites. If thou smitest off mine hands, it is but the same punishment as thou hast meted out to others of my sex. Thou art, after all, a mere coward who maketh war upon women.”
“Silence, jade!” he cried, in a tumult of passion, and, turning to the men beside him, commanded: “Take her away, secure her alone till dawn, and then let her hands be struck off and brought to me.”
Roughly the men dragged her away, but ere she went she cast at us a look of haughty scornfulness, and, shrugging her shoulders, treated this terrible mandate with ineffable disdain.
“The jade’s hands shall be sent to her father, the Cadi, as a souvenir of the interest he taketh in my welfare,” the Sheikh muttered aloud. “Her tongue will never again utter rebuke or insult. Verily, Allah hath delivered her into my hands a weapon to use against mine enemies.”
I uttered eager words of intercession, pointing out the cruelty of taking her young life, but he only laughed derisively, and I was compelled to sit beside him while the other captives were questioned and inspected.
That night I sought repose in a shed that had been erected in a portion of the ruins, but found sleep impossible. The defiantly beautiful face of the young girl who was to die at dawn kept recurring to me with tantalising vividness, and at length I rose, determined if possible to save her. Noiselessly I crept out, my footsteps muffled by the sand, saddled one of Abdul-Melik’s own horses, and without attracting the notice of either sentry on duty at each end of the encampment, I entered the ruin where, confined to an iron ring in the masonry by a leathern band, she crouched silent and thoughtful.
“Fi amâni-illah!” I whispered, as I approached. “I come to have speech with thee, and assist thee to escape.”
“Art thou a friend?” she inquired, struggling to her feet and peering at me in the gloom.
“Yes, one who is determined that the outlaw’s command shall never be executed,” and taking the jambiyah from my girdle, I severed the thongs that confined her hands and ankles, and next second she was free.
Briefly I explained how I had saddled a fleet horse and placed a saddle-bag with food upon it.