The Maids of Paradise Part 60

PART THIRD

XVIII

A GUEST-CHAMBER

A light was shining in my eyes and I was talking excitedly; that and the odor of brandy I remember--and something else, a steady roaring in my ears; then darkness, out of which came a voice, empty, meaningless, finally soundless.

After a while I realized that I was in pain; that, at intervals, somebody forced morsels of ice between my lips; that the darkness around me had turned grayer.

Time played tricks on me; centuries pa.s.sed steadily, year following year--long years they were, too, with endless spring-tides, summers, autumns, winters, each with full complement of months, and every month crowded with days. s.p.a.ce, illimitable s.p.a.ce, surrounded me--skyless, starless s.p.a.ce. And through its terrific silence I heard a clock ticking seconds of time.

Years and years later a yellow star rose and stood still before my open eyes; and after a long while I saw it was the flame of a candle: and somebody spoke my name.

"I know you, Speed," I said, drowsily.

"You are all right, Scarlett?"

"Yes,... all right."

"Does the candle-light pain you?"

"No;... do they contract?"

"A little.... Yes, I am sure the pupils of your eyes are contracting.

Don't talk."

"No;... then it was concussion of the brain?"

"Yes;... the shock is pa.s.sing.... Don't talk."

Time moved on again; s.p.a.ce slowly contracted into a symmetrical shape, set with little points of light; sleep and fatigue alternated with glimmers of reason, which finally grew into a faint but steady intelligence. And, very delicately, memory stirred in a slumbering brain.

Reason and memory were mine again, frail toys for a stricken man, so frail I dared not, for a time, use them for my amus.e.m.e.nt--and one of them was broken, too--memory!--broken short at the moment when full in my face I had felt the hot, fetid breath of a lion.

"Speed!"

"Yes; I am here."

"What time is it?"

I heard the click of his hunting-case. "Eleven o'clock."

"What day?"

"Sat.u.r.day."

"When--" I hesitated. I was afraid.

"Well?" he asked, quietly.

"When was I hurt? Many days ago--many weeks?"

"You were hurt at half-past three this afternoon."

I tried to comprehend; I could not, and after a while I gave up my feeble grasp on time.

"What is that roaring sound?" I asked. "Not drums? Not my lions?"

"It is the sea."

"So near?"

"Very near."

I turned my head on the white pillow. "Where is this bed? Where is this room?"

"Shall I tell you?"

I was silent, struggling with memory.

"Tell me," I said. "Whose bed is this?"

"It is hers."

The candle-flame glimmered before my wide-open eyes once more, and--

"Oh, you are all right," he muttered, then leaned heavily against the bedside, dropping his arms on the coverlet.

"It was a close call--a close call!" he said, hoa.r.s.ely. "We thought it was ended.... They were all over you--Empress dragged you; but they all crowded in too close--they blocked each other, you see;... and we used the irons.... Your left arm lay close to the cage door and ... we got you away from them, and ... it's all right now--it's all right--"

He broke down, head buried in his arms. I moved my left hand across the sheets so that it rested on his elbow. He lay there, gulping for a while; I could not see him very clearly, for the muscles that controlled my eyes were still slightly paralyzed from the shock of the blow that Empress Khatoun had dealt me.

"It's all very well," he stammered, with a trace of resentment in his quavering voice--"it's all very well for people who are used to the filthy beasts; but I tell you, Scarlett, it sickened me. I'm no coward, as men go, but I was afraid--I was terrified!"

"Yet you dragged me out," I said.

"Who told you that? How could you know--"

"It was not necessary to tell me. You said, '_We_ got you away'; but I know it was you, Speed, because it was like you. Look at me! Am I well enough to dress?"

He raised a haggard face to mine. "You know best," he said. "They tore your coat off, and one of them ripped your riding-boot from top to sole; but the blow Empress struck you is your only hurt, and she all but missed you at that. Had she hit you fairly--but, oh, h.e.l.l! Do you want to get up?"

I said I would in a moment,... and that is all I remember that night, all I remember clearly, though it seems to me that once I heard drums beating in the distance; and perhaps I did.