Page:Weird Tales Volume 6 Number 3 (1925-09).djvu/37

Amru the Scribe Did Not Forget the Kindnesses of His Friend Mamoun el Idrisi

The old sultan sat in his palace at Angor-lana, reflectively stroked his white beard, and smiled as one who recollects an ancient jest. And it was a grim jest that he had in mind, for, though his lips curled in the shadow of a smile, his keen old eyes flamed ominously from beneath brows that, rising to points in the center like Saracenic arches, heightened the sinister expression of his leathery features.

A capricious tyrant was this old despot who pondered on the doom to inflict upon his favorite, Dhivalani, the Kashmiri bayadere, and her lover, Mamoun el Idrisi, the existence of whose illicit amour he had sensed with uncanny intuition. And so sure was he of their guilt that he devised punishment in advance of any confirmation of his suspicions; devised punishment, and awaited the arrival of Ismail, his chief wazir, who had been commissioned to trap the bayadere and her lover, Mamoun of the great house of Idris.

The sultan yawned, as might a tiger consumed with ennui, then settled back among the cushions of his dais. His smile widened; but the sinister light did not fade from his eyes.

"Read!" he commanded, addressing Amru the scribe, who sat at his master's feet.

"The spider spins her web in the palace of Cæsar," began Amru in his rich sonorous voice that time had not cracked, "and the owl stands watch in the tower of . . ."

"Enough!" snapped the sultan. "What news, Ismail?"

"A thousand years," greeted Ismail, bowing himself into the presence; "I have seized el Idrisi and Dhivalani."

"And who was the accomplice that has been smuggling Mamoun into the seraglio?"

"Saoud, the chief eunuch. He has just been sewed up in a bag and dropped into the river."

"Very good," commended the sultan. "Yes, it was just as I suspected. Mamoun has been swaggering about the court too proudly of late; Dhivalani has been entirely too vivacious; and Saoud has displayed more wealth than any honest eunuch could possibly accumulate. And so you trapped them? You did well, Ismail."

"My lord is an elephant of wisdom," observed the wazir, who was not blind to the sultan's pride in having so skilfully detected another palace intrigue. "And I, the least of his servants, have but acted upon his infallible judgment."

"Nevertheless, you did well. But tell me, Ismail, how shall we punish this Kashmiri and her lover?"

"Well . . . we might flay them alive and rub them with salt, or we might place them between planks and have them sawn asunder," suggested Ismail.