Kara Aziek

“ Life seemed too short to her impassioned heart for the complete enjoyment of so much happiness.—Never, indeed, did woman love like Kara Aziek: it must be remembered, however, that her attachment concentrated all the ardour of her nature; the habits of her country did not suffer the growth even of friendship ”

“ Wrung with grief, sick, pale, and languid, Kara Aziek could not have been seen by the man she wished to charm, at a moment more unfavourable for personal beauty; but there is a beauty of the soul, so transcending all mortal perfections, that it triumphs over deformity itself: that beauty now beamed from her tear-dimmed eyes and colourless cheek; it seemed to shed a glory round her, at once awaking love and veneration. Sebastian must have yielded to its sweet force, had not his heart been pledged to another. ”

“ Having fortunately encountered a Brazil-trader at Massignan and procured a passage in her to St. Salvador, he began now to make the attempt: Kara Aziek met his scrutiny with frankness and confidence. All other opinions she would have hoped and wished to find yield to his sounder reasoning; but over this im{180}portant point, the weakness of fond woman dared not usurp any influence. ”

“ He learnt in reply that Kara Aziek was the sole surviving child of the Almoçadem by a Portuguese lady who had been carried off by a set of those pirates, who frequently plundered the neighbouring coasts, and brought to Morocco: as she was scarcely passed childhood, El Hader had succeeded in persuading her to change her religion, and to become his wife, upon the condition that he never would marry any others ”

“ From the first you have been sentimental over your friendship with Katherine Moore. Kara first made a strong appeal to you when you were lonely and antagonistic toward your new life in a small New England town. This drew her closer to you than had you grown up together in ordinary girl fashion. Besides, you are romantic, Tory. You respond to the people who call forth that side of you. The mystery surrounding poor Kara has fascinated you. The fact that she knew nothing of her parents has made you feel that you could be more to her than had she enjoyed the family affection other girls receive. ”

“ Kara has had too much to bear. She has always made the best of the fact that she had no parents, no family! Cleverer and sweeter than anyone, she was found in a deserted house with no explanation as to why she had been left there.
“Kara found happiness in the life at the Gray House because everybody cared for her at the asylum and in the village. ”

“ The sight of the “hero” filled their hearts straightway with comfort; besides, as Azya was son of the terrible Tugai Bey, whose name had thundered through the Orient, all eyes were turned on him the more.
“The Poles reared him,” said they; “but he is the son of a lion; he bit them and returned to the Padishah’s service.”
The vizir himself wished to see him; and the “rising sun of war,” the young kaimakan, Kara Mustafa, enamoured of military glory and wild warriors, fell in love with him. Both inquired diligently of him concerning the Commonwealth, the hetman, the armies, and Kamenyets ”

“ It was against a wooden surface beneath the sleeve that his knuckles struck, and this view of the stranger's infirmity was confirmed when the other reached round with his right hand, took hold of the gloved left hand and thrust it into the pocket of his overcoat.
“Where is Kara?” growled the stranger.
“He will be back very shortly, sir,” said the urbane Fisher.
“Out, is he?” boomed the visitor. “Then I shan't wait. What the devil does he mean by being out? He's had three years to be out!”
“Mr. Kara expects you, sir. He told me he would be in at six o'clock at the latest.” ”

“ Kara folded the letter and inserted it in its envelope. He rang a bell on his table and the girl who had so filled T. X. with a sense of awe came from an adjoining room.
“You will see that this is delivered, Miss Holland.”
She inclined her head and stood waiting. Kara rose from his desk and began to pace the room.
“Do you know T. X. Meredith?” he asked suddenly.
“I have heard of him,” said the girl.
“A man with a singular mind,” said Kara; “a man against whom my favourite weapon would fail.”
She looked at him with interest in her eyes.
“What is your favourite weapon, Mr. Kara?” ”

“ Kara was a vain man, immensely conscious of his good looks, conscious of his wealth. He had behaved most handsomely, for not only had he accepted the apology, but he left nothing undone to show his desire to create a good impression upon the man who had so grossly insulted him. ”

“ He asked himself whether he should follow Kara's advice. In any circumstance it was not a pleasant thing to meet a ferocious little man who had threatened his life, and to meet him unarmed was tempting Providence. The whole thing was of course ridiculous, but it was ridiculous that he should have borrowed, and it was ridiculous that the borrowing should have been necessary, and yet he had speculated on the best of advice—it was Kara's advice. ”

“ Destroy thy foes!
Destroy them in thine ire!
Chorus
Destroy thy foes!
Destroy them in thine ire!
And lo! young Siduri hath disappeared,
And with the Zisi crowned she now appeared;
The corn-gods in a crescent round their queen,
She waves before the king her Nusku [3] green,
And sings with her sweet voice a joyful lay,
And all the Zisi join the chorus gay:
[4] A heifer of the corn am I,
Kara! Kara! [5]
Yoked with the kine we gayly fly,
Kara! Kara!
The ploughman's hand is strong and drives
The glowing soil, the meadow thrives!
Before the oxen
Sa-lum-mat-u na-si. ”

“ Kara rose from behind a big writing table, and came with a smile and a quick step to greet the visitor.
"This is a most unexpected pleasure," he said, and shook hands warmly.
T. X. had not seen him for a year and found very little change in this strange young man. He could not be more confident than he had been, nor bear himself with a more graceful carriage. Whatever social success he had achieved, it had not spoiled him, for his manner was as genial and easy as ever.
"I think that will do, Miss Holland," he said, turning to the girl who, with notebook in hand, stood by the desk. ”

“ I found a letter from the Greek, which had been addressed to Buenos Ayres, to await arrival, and then I remembered in a flash, how Kara had told me he had sent George Gathercole to South America to report upon possible gold formations. I was determined to kill Kara, and determined to kill him in such a way that I myself would cover every trace of my complicity.
“Even as he had planned my downfall, scheming every step and covering his trail, so did I plan to bring about his death that no suspicion should fall on me. ”

“ Let me enjoin you to take your revolver and at the first sign of any bloodthirsty intention on the part of my admirable compatriot, produce it and click it once or twice, you won't have to do more.”
Grace rose from the piano as Kara entered the little drawing-room and murmured a few conventional expressions of regret that the visitor's stay had been so short. That there was no sincerity in that regret Kara, for one, had no doubt. He was a man singularly free from illusions. ”

“ My enemies oppress me and cause me much sorrow; wherefore I am driven to appeal to my brother for aid.”
The eyes of the sheik sparkled.
“Already,” said he, “confusion has fallen upon Kāra’s foes; for they surely cannot escape the blight of Antar’s hatred!”{235}
“Then see how gratitude flows from my heart like a very cataract,” answered the other, with downcast eyes. “It is little that Kāra can do to repay such brotherly love; but the great sheik must distribute for me ten thousand piastres to his worthy poor, even on that day when my enemies are confounded.” ”

“ When she recovered consciousness she found herself lying on a plain stretcher bed. She sat up suddenly. Kara had gone and the door was closed. The cellar was dry and clean and its walls were enamelled white. Light was supplied by two electric lamps in the ceiling. There was a table and a chair and a small washstand, and air was evidently supplied through unseen ventilators. It was indeed a prison and no less, and in her first moments of panic she found herself wondering whether Kara had used this underground dungeon of his before for a similar purpose.
She examined the room carefully. ”

“ Kara looked up at the ceiling for inspiration.
“Four, no three months,” he corrected, “a very efficient young lady who came to me from one of the training establishments. Somewhat uncommunicative, better educated than most girls in her position—for example, she speaks and writes modern Greek fairly well.”
“A treasure!” suggested T. X.
“Unusually so,” said Kara. “She lives in Marylebone Road, 86a is the address. She has no friends, spends most of her evenings in her room, is eminently respectable and a little chilling in her attitude to her employer.” ”

“ And he lashed Kara across the back, again, and again, and again.
Kara stood there, and never made a move, and never uttered a sound.
“You are not hurting him!” cried the Ranee. “You are not trying to hurt him! He does not feel it! Give me the whip! Let me punish him.”
The Ranee sprang up from her couch, and seizing the whip from the hands of the servant, herself began to brutally lash the body of the unfortunate Kara. ”

“ Kanki, King of Kara, and his sons, Pèk-ku-chi, A-syu-chi, Ik-sya-ri, I-ra-ma-chyu, and I-mun-chi, fled to Pèkché, taking with them their subjects. Pèkché received them cordially, and Kwi-chön-chi, younger sister of the King of Kara, went to Great Wa and addressed the Empress, saying:—'Your majesty sent Sachihiko to attack Silla. But he has accepted beautiful women of Silla, and abandoned the invasion. On the contrary he has destroyed our country. My brothers and our people have all been driven into exile. ”

“ In her heart of hearts she did not doubt Kara's complicity in this medieval attempt to gain a wife, but of this adventure she had told her husband nothing. Until her marriage she was constantly receiving valuable presents which she as constantly returned to the only address she knew—Kara's estate at Lemazo. A few months after her marriage she had learned through the newspapers that this “leader of Greek society” had purchased a big house near Cadogan Square, and then, to her amazement and to her dismay, Kara had scraped an acquaintance with her husband even before the honeymoon was over. ”

“ Kara had the same arrangement in Albania, connecting the palazzo with the gendarme posts at Alesso. This much Hussein told me.
"That night I made a reconnaissance of the house and saw Kara's window was lit and at ten minutes past ten I rang the bell and I think it was then that I applied the test of the beard. Kara was in his room, the valet told me, and led the way upstairs. I had come prepared to deal with this valet for I had an especial reason for wishing that he should not be interrogated by the police. ”

“ The Imperial Envoy Kasone and his colleagues were accordingly unable to make the grant (XVII. 22.) openly. They retired to Ohoshima and sent a clerk specially, by whom the grant to Pu-yö [63] was effected. Owing to this, Kara allied itself to Silla [64] and bred hatred against Japan. The King of Kara married the King of Silla's daughter, who eventually had issue by him. When Silla first sent a daughter, 100 men were sent away with her as her escort. When they were received, they were dispersed throughout the districts of the country, and allowed to wear the Silla costume. ”

“ Then with a glance at her employer she swept from the room.
“I ought to have introduced you,” said Kara. “That was my secretary, Miss Holland. Rather a pretty girl, isn't she?”
“Very,” said T. X., recovering his breath.
“I like pretty things around me,” said Kara, and somehow the complacency of the remark annoyed the detective more than anything that Kara had ever said to him.
The Greek went to the mantlepiece, and taking down a silver cigarette box, opened and offered it to his visitor. Kara was wearing a grey lounge suit ”

“ It was impossible to connect Kara with the event. The motor car had been traced to Exeter, where it had been hired by a “foreign-looking gentleman,” but the chauffeur, whoever he was, had made good his escape. An inspection of Kara's hangars at Wembley showed that his two monoplanes had not been removed, and T. X. failed entirely to trace the owner of the machine he had seen flying over Dartmoor on the fatal morning. ”

“ The connection suddenly occurred to him, and yet Kara had not directly suggested that he should buy Roumanian gold shares, but had merely spoken glowingly of their prospects. He thought a moment, and then walked back slowly into the study, pulled open the drawer of his desk, took out the sinister little Browning, and slipped it into his pocket.
“I shan't be long, dear,” he said, and kissing the girl he strode out into the darkness.
Kara sat back in the luxurious depths of his car, humming a little tune, as the driver picked his way cautiously over the uncertain road. ”

“ But the unfortunate Zosia Boski was in his tent. Her life passed in low service, in shame and continual terror, for in Azya’s heart there was not a drop of pity for her. He simply tormented her because she was not Basia. She had, however, the sweetness and charm of a field flower; she had youth and beauty: therefore he sated himself with that beauty; but he kicked her for any cause, or flogged her white body with rods. In a worse hell she could not be, for she lived without hope. Her life had begun to bloom in Rashkoff, to bloom like spring with the flower of love for Pan Adam. ”

“ Of the ruffled silk of your hair, I dream, and the dreams are lies. But I love them, knowing no more Will ever be mine of you Aziza, my life's despair. I would burn for a thousand days, Aziza whom I adore, Be tortured, slain, in unheard of ways If you pitied the pain I bore. You pity! Your bright eyes, fastened on other things, Are keener to sting my soul, than scorpion stings! You are all that is lovely to me, All that is light, One white rose in a Desert of weariness. I only live in the night, The night, with its fair false dreams of you, You and your loveliness. ”