Harold Lamb

“ Hassan sought out a corner as far as possible from the sick men, and Michael watched Demid stagger up and lie down beside him.
A drunken Arab and another leper with a boy for guide aroused no interest in the unfortunate people of the well, and no questions were put to the three.
Demid waited until Michael had eaten a little, and then rolled over to whisper: “Sleep will help you, for you are weary. Yet hearken first to what is to be done. The fight at the stake can not change my plans because Lali acts with us, and we may not get word to her before night.” ”

“ For a brief moment the Cossack and the cavalier stood alone by the stake, but already men were recovering from their amazement and rising to their feet under the trees. Sidi Ahmad, the clever, had indulged his whim to test Demid a trifle too far, and the Cossack knew how to use the minute of time that was worth more than the treasure of Sidi Ahmad to him.
“Can you stick to a horse’s back?” he cried at Michael who was stumbling toward him. “Grapple the mane, but stick!” ”

“ OLD is Aleppo, mother of cities and father of thieves. Time has brought to its streets in turn the changing peoples of the earth, the Indian, the Parsi, the triumphant Israelite—saints and pharisees, princes and lepers—and the conquering Moslem. Each built upon the ruins of the other, and made of the city a labyrinth where alleys ran underground and bathing wells were the cisterns of former palaces. And where the caravans came, thither came the thieves.
Hither had come the old Arab who had stolen Michael of Rohan, and the boy Hassan, the Arab’s son. ”

“ This struck Michael as strangely ridiculous.
“Two swords—and one man—one sword too many, i’faith!”
He wagged his head, and a chuckle arose in his throat. The guards looked at him askance, and a mameluke, in a fur-tipped khalat strolled over to stare his fill at the victim of the maut ahmar.
“A comely dog,” the dark-faced warrior from Egypt muttered, caressing a gold chain at his throat, “but too lean in the limb—his bones will crack like a chicken’s. I have seen——”
He confided, low-voiced, to one of the Turks what he had seen in the way of torture visited upon other Nazarenes. ”

“ Many within the palace will have their eyes on the festival—on the lamps, and their ears will heed the kettledrums and pipes.”
“Even so, what if Lali whispers one word to Sidi Ahmad——”
“She could not go back to her people. The girl has a spirit of flame, there is nothing she will not dare. Besides, she has a longing to go back to her tribe. We will see.”
And Demid, in a whisper, told Michael what he must do to aid him. ”

“ It is not fitting to put the hand of violence upon the beard of age—Ai, spare the boy, O captain of men!” Hassan had started to knife Michael in the ribs and Demid bruised the lad’s wrist with a backward slap of his simitar. “Verily, the youth is of tender years, and without guile. ”

“ If you betray us I will cut his body open and lay him out by the butchers’ quarter where the dogs will——”
“Ai-a! Allah prosper thee, harm him not, and the master of the Wolf’s Ear can not make me speak. ”

“ Here and there negroes placed trays of sherbet and sweetmeats before the watchers, and Michael heard voices crying wagers—how long would he endure before crying out. Beyond the low line of foliage, he beheld again the white minarets, the gold and purple domes of the Moslem city, and, like an echo upon the breeze came the faint cry of the caller-to-prayer:
“Allah is the only god ”

“ Demid however, loitered along and stopped to buy some dates and rice for Michael. When Hassan came up, leading the supposedly sick man, Demid whispered to the boy to show the way to the Gate of Victory. And Hassan gave proof that the byways of Aleppo were well known to him. ”