the shoulders of four Nubian slaves, and, arrived at
the great house, summoned her special bodyguard, Qatim the Ethiopian;
and for acquiring information down to the smallest detail about some
special individual there is, surely, no detective agency on earth to
compare to one ordinary, native servant.

He loves intrigue!

So that, twenty-four hours later, Zulannah laughed shrilly when Qatim
the Ethiopian repeated all he had learned of the white man and the
white maid he presumably loved.

"Love!" she scoffed. "He has not met _me_!"

But in the weeks that followed no plot had succeeded, no device or
subtle invitation had lured the bird to the list, so that she beat
sharply upon a silver gong this night of the stars, upon which the
Ethiopian came running hastily to cast himself upon the ground at the
jewelled, henna'd feet.

"Get up," she said, kicking him upon the side of the head; whereupon he
rose, chalking up one more mark on his own particular slate of Life,
upon one side of which was written Desire and the other Revenge.

He stood six-foot-four in his loin-cloth, as black and glistening as a
polished ebony statue. The enormous hands at the end of great,
over-long arms almost touched his knees; the chest and shoulders and
abdomen were hard as iron, rippling with muscle under the oiled skin;
the feet were huge and pink of sole, and the animality of the man was
intensified by a certain gleam of intelligence somewhere in the
impassive negroid face.

The woman, took no notice of the magnificent physique; it neither
repulsed nor attracted her--he was a slave.

"Run and give orders that no one is admitted! Hasten!"

"Mistress, a great noble waits at-----"

"Desirest thou thy tongue split, thou black dog, that thou answerest
Zulannah? Haste thee, and return!"

And far into the night they talked, those two, planning death or
destruction, anything as long as it attained the desire of the woman
who, looking into the future, took no notice of the mountain of
disaster beside her in the shape of the Ethiopian who desired and hated
her with all the bestial passion of his race.

Then, just as far down in the east the sky lightened, she sat suddenly
upright and clapped her jewelled hands.

"Know'st thou the eunuch who guards the harem empty of women in the
palace of--ah! the barbarity of the name!--E'u Car-r-den Ali? He who
perchance would give one-half, nay, all of his great wealth in return
for the coal-blackn