King's Highway,” on which Tamerlanistan depended for a great deal of its foreign trade; and now it appeared that the governor, instead of using his soldiers and police against the raiders, was sharing in their enterprise, including the profits.
The regent had sent a summons to the governor to present himself immediately at the court of Tamerlanistan.
But Abderrahman Yahiah Khan, guessing, and rightly, that his arrival at court would be practically simultaneous with his beheading, had decided to do nothing of the kind, and had instead sent an insulting message, which said:
“I shall remain here and wax fat until thy mistress returns, O Wahab al-Shaitan.
"Then I shall proceed to the capital in state, followed by my armed men, and shall claim Aziza Nurmahal as my bride.
"For desire for her is in my nostrils. She is blooming and golden as the sun at dawn, with hair black as the midnight shades, with Paradise in her eyes, her bosom a white enchantment, her lips like the crimson asoka flower, and her lithe form swaying like the tamarisk when the soft wind blows sweetly, sweetly from the purple hills of Nijd.
“Let her be ready for my coming, and instruct Ayesha Zemzem, that toothless old hag, to have the bridal robe of emerald green—as the mantle of the blessed Prophet Mohammed, on whom Peace!
“For green is my favorite color, and in this, as in all other matters, I brook no master except my will.”
It was the calm insolence, the serene brutality of the message which brought Hector up standing.
Not that he was the least bit in love with Aziza Nurmahal; for he loved Jane Warburton, and his instincts
