readily make my peace with the Russians, than through the powerless
Ammalat--that you would soon be removed in some way or other, and that
there was nothing to be feared from your rivalry. I suspected still
more, and learned more than I suspected. To-day I stopped the Shamkhal's
nouker, to whom the negotiations with Verkhoffsky were entrusted, and
extracted from him, by torture, that the Shamkhal offers a thousand
ducats to get rid of you. Verkhoffsky hesitates, and wishes only to send
you to Siberia for ever. The affair is not yet decided; but to-morrow
the detachment retires to their quarters, and they have resolved to meet
at your house in Bouinaki, to bargain about your blood. They will forge
denunciations and charges--they will poison you at your own table, and
cover you with chains of iron, promising you mountains of gold." It was
painful to see Ammalat during this dreadful speech. Every word, like
red-hot iron, plunged into his heart; all within him that was noble,
grand, or consoling, took fire at once, and turned into ashes. Every
thing in which he had so long and so trustingly confided, fell to
pieces, and shrivelled up in the flame of indignation. Several times he
tried to speak, but the words died away in a sickly gasp; and at last
the wild beast which Verkhoffsky had tamed, which Ammalat had lulled to
sleep, burst from his chain: a flood of curses and menaces poured from
the lips of the furious Bek. "Revenge, revenge!" he cried, "merciless
revenge, and woe to the hypocrites!"

"This is the first word worthy of you," said the Khan, concealing the
joy of success; "long enough have you crept like a serpent, laying your
head under the feet of the Russians! 'Tis time to soar like an eagle to
the clouds; to look down from on high upon the enemy who cannot reach
you with their arrows. Repay treachery with treachery, death with
death!"

"Then death and ruin be to the Shamkhal, the robber of my liberty; and
ruin be to Abdoul Mousselin, who dared to stretch forth his hand to my
treasure!"

"The Shamkhal? His son--his family? Are they worthy of your first
exploits? They are all but little loved by the Tarkovetzes; and if we
attack the Shamkhal, they will give up his whole family with their own
hands. No, Ammalat, you must aim your first blow next to you; you must
destroy your chief enemy; you must kill Verkhoffsky."

"Verkhoffsky!" exclaimed Ammalat, stepping back.... "Yes!.... he is my
enemy; but he was my frie