"What madness hath seized thee?" hissed a voice from beneath the veil of 27. "I spoke no word of thy wife—or of any woman."
"Wallahi! Thy memory is short as thy remaining life!" "'Tis thou shale lie cold under the moon tonight," was the answer."A hunted thing has teeth and claws!"
"Thou sayest well! Claws too long and sharp, therefore will I cut them for thee!" was Gissing's retort.
During this brief duologue all the silent-footed brethren had withdrawn, melting like flakes of soot from the spacious hall, but their rapid speech could be heard from all sides where the deep balconies ran round the four walls.
The lights went out with the swift suddenness of a blow, and only a red crescent moon, high in the central dome of the splendid roof, shed a portentous glow on the scene. The tall brother—spokesman for the evening, and chosen for that office by purely arbitrary method—now joined the two on the platform.
"I will recite the Rule, Brethren of the Black Camel!" He presented a revolver to Gissing. "Thou—the Hunter—receive this weapon. May thy aim be true if thy cause is just. Swear now to shoot only at the signal of the bell. . . swear by the Sacred Fires of thy oath, brother 901!"
"By the Red Fire of Eblis,
By the White Fire of Sun, Moon, and
Stars,
By the Fires of Love and Hate,
By the sacred undying Fire on the
Altar of Zoroaster—I swear!"
The spokesman turned to brother 27:
"This for thee, O Hunted One! This to warn the Hunter that his prey walks abroad to kill or be killed. Ring it when they dost hear my word of command. Swear now by thy oath to obey my voice!"
Brother 27 took the little brass bell from the tall Arab, and swore as Gissing had done.
"O Hunter!" went on the speaker, "only at the sound of the bell shalt thou shoot. Three times shall thy prey give warning of his nearness to thee. . . three times shall thy vengeance speak. But if thou dost fail to kill, then art thou proved a liar and accurst, and shalt die the death of the Seven Flames this night.
"O Hunted One!" continued the voice, "three times shalt thou sound thy bell at my word of command. May thy teeth and claws protea thee if thou art innocent!"
Taking Buzak by the arm, the spokesman led him to the west wall and withdrew, leaving the combatants facing each other across the length of the hall. In a brief time the voice sounded again from a balcony.
"The Moon sets! The Hunter and his prey are abroad in the darkness. Let the Hunt begin!"
The red crescent light blinked out, and the great hall was plunged into absolutely impenetrable darkness.
Time seemed to stand still. Not a
whisper, not a breath was audible.
The brethren might have been changed
into black marble, so profoundly still
were they, while in the hall below them
death stalked on noiseless foot.
As Gissing moved forward, the scented air seemed to be roaring past his ears with the booming fury of a New England blizzard; fiery comets flashed and whizzed before his straining eyes as he stared and stared into the hot thick blackness. His head felt like a balloon blown up to bursting-point and filled with scorching air, while his feet were heavy and cold and dragged at his ankles like bags of wet sand.
