ead, or at least put him to death
as I shall show you how, and we will talk again."

When they heard this saying Wulf said to Godwin, in English:

"I think that we had best go; I do not like this company." But
Godwin made no answer.

As they stood silent thus, not knowing what to say, a man entered
through the door, and, throwing himself on his hands and knees,
crawled towards the cushion through the double line of
councillors or dais.

"Your report?" said Sinan in Arabic.

"Lord," answered the man, "I acquaint you that your will has been
done in the matter of the vessel." Then he went on speaking in a
low voice, so rapidly that the brethren could scarcely hear and
much less understand him.

Sinan listened, then said:

"Let the fedai enter and make his own report, bringing with him
his prisoners."

Now one of the dais, he who sat nearest the canopy, rose and
pointing towards the brethren, said.

"Touching these Franks, what is your will?"

The beady eyes, which seemed to search out their souls, fixed
themselves upon them and for a long while Sinan considered. They
trembled, knowing that he was passing some judgment concerning
them in his heart, and that on his next words much might
hang--even their lives.

"Let them stay here," he said at length. "I may have questions to
ask them."

For a time there was silence. Sinan, Lord of Death, seemed to be
lost in thought under the black shade of his canopy; the double
line of dais stared at nothingness across the passage way; the
giant guards stood still as statues; Masouda watched the brethren
from beneath her long eye-lashes, while the brethren watched the
sharp edge of the shadow of the canopy on the marble floor. They
strove to seem unconcerned, but their hearts were beating fast
within them who felt that great things were about to happen,
though what these might be they knew not.

So intense was the silence, so dreadful seemed that inhuman,
snake-like man, so strange his aged, passionless councillors, and
the place of council surrounded by a dizzy gulf, that fear took
hold of them like the fear of an evil dream. Godwin wondered if
Sinan could see the ring upon his breast, and what would happen
to him if he did see it; while Wulf longed to shout aloud, to do
anything that would break this deathly, sunlit quiet. To them
those minutes seemed like hours; indeed, for aught they knew,
they might have been hours.

At length there was a stir behind the brethre