Page:Harold Lamb--The House of the Falcon.djvu/258

 

CHAPTER XXVI
AN HOUR AFTER DARK

It was some time before Edith remembered the crumpled paper concealed in her dress. Then she surveyed her surroundings cautiously. She was in the chamber on the first tier of the tower. An Alaman sat apathetically on the wooden steps over the aperture that led below.

The footfalls of the sentry guarding Donovan below reached her ears. The Englishman himself was not visible. Nor was Edith permitted to look down from the opening in the floor. Anxiously she felt for the bit of paper, drawing near to one of the embrasures.

The guard, leaning against his rifle, kept only an indifferent watch upon her as she slipped the paper into a fold of her scarf where she could see it, and smoothed out the wrinkles tenderly. It took some time before this careful maneuver revealed the whole of the missive to the girl. She saw a small square of worn paper closely written in pencil. Eagerly, with hearing attuned for the approach of Monsey or Abbas, she read:

Dearest Girl: It took hours to dissuade Iskander from launching an immediate assault on the castle. I won my point—a chance to get to you. The Sayaks will attack the night after I reach you. I had no other way of helping you but this. An hour after sunset, try to be at the eastern wall, nearest the cliff. Aravang will make the attempt at the cliff. He is

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