for I have sharp ears and a long arm. You know
how things are between me and the lady Elissa and her father Sakon and
the city which he governs. They stand thus: Unless within eight days
she is given to me in marriage, I have sworn that I will make war upon
Zimboe. Ay, and I will make it, for, filled with hate for the white man,
already the great tribes are gathering to my banners in ten armies, each
of them ten thousand strong. Once let them march beneath yonder walls,
and before they leave it Zimboe, city of gold, shall be nothing but a
heap of ruins, and a habitation of the dead. Such shall be my vengeance;
but I seek love more than vengeance, for what will it avail me to
butcher all that people of traders if--as well may chance in the
accidents of war--I lose her whom I desire, whose beauty shall be my
crown of crowns, and whose mind shall make me great indeed?

"Therefore, Metem, if may be, I would win her without war; let the war
come afterwards, as come it must, for the time is ripe. And though she
turned from me, this I should have done, had it not been for yonder
prince Aziel, whom she met in a strange fashion, and straightway learned
to love. Now the thing is more difficult. Nay, while the prince Aziel
can take her to wife it is well-nigh impossible, since no threats of war
or ruin can turn a woman's heart from him she seeks--to him she flies.
Therefore, I ask you----"

"Your pardon, King," Metem broke in, "I see that you, like your rival,
are so besotted with the beauty of this girl, that in all with which she
has to do you have lost the rule of your own reason. I would save you
perchance from saying words to which I do not wish to listen, and when
you find a quiet mind again, that you may regret having spoken. If you
were about to require of me that I should cause or be privy to the death
of the prince Aziel, you would require it in vain; yes, even if you
were willing to pay me gold in mountains, and gems in camel loads. With
murder I will have nothing to do; moreover, the prince, your rival, is
my friend and master, and I will not harm him. Further, I may tell you
that after the adventure of last night none will be able to come near
him to hurt a hair of his head, seeing that through daylight and through
darkness he is guarded by two men."

"With a woman's body to set before him as a shield," said Ithobal
bitterly. "But you speak too fast; I was not about to ask you to kill
this man, or even to procure h