Free Swords From the Desert by Harold Lamb Page A

in his stead. No men of Menas's household would enter the garden of the patriarch.
    "Be wary as to the wench," he grunted. "I go!"
    "Then say naught in the tavern of my watch in this place, or ill may befall thee, Arbogastes."
    He nodded-he could see that.
    So throughout the morning and until the sun began to sink past the dome of the church, I sat, sleeping a little, but rousing when the monks or the slaves of Irene came near the bridge. The girl I did not see, but the gray horse was led out and fed, and I knew that she was within.
    Then came Arbogastes, with lurching step and darkened face.
    "Ho, brother," he cried, "the gates of plunder are open! Hearken to the bells! Come, and let us take what we may."
    His purple cloak was gone, and his wallet likewise. In truth Arbogastes looked more like a wight plundered than a plunderer.
    "Eh, what has happened?" I asked.
    "The Franks have happened-may they taste of Eblis! So the tale runs in the bazaar. They drifted across from the Scutari shore this morning, with their horses in the palanders and the men-at-arms in the barges, all of them lashed to the oared galleys. They sounded trumpet and horn and made a landing near Galata, leaping into shallow water with their spears on their wrists, and leading forth their chargers from the great ships. The fools have taken Galata and set up a camp on the mainland."
    "And what of the Greeks?"
    Arbogastes curled his beard, which reeked more of musk than ever. The wine in his veins was singing a song, and he looked on the bare garden as if it were paradise.
    "Murtzuple is a wolf, and a wolf, 0 my brother, is not easily penned. He bath drawn back his hosts, behind the city wall. The Franks will break their spears on the wall, and when that has happened they will taste grief because they are separated from their ships and their brothers, the Venetians. Come, Khalil, this will be a night of nights!"
    The wine in him did not bind his tongue; it was not fitting to leave him thus in a place of prayer. And it did not suit me to forsake the garden then.
    "Where be the men of the Domastikos?"
    "Allah, am I an oracle that I should know?" The Persian scowled and yawned. "I think they will muster in the registan of Tiodore* at dawn."
    "Then go thou and sleep. I shall keep thy ward."
    "Nay, I must fare to the palace of the Domashitish-" he hiccoughed and blinked owlishly-"of the Domtishok, our master. 'Tis the hour for my waiting upon him with word of the Frank wench."
    "If that thou doest," I said, "thou wilt be slain and the skin taken from thy body and stuffed with straw and hung out upon the sea-wall." I had seen such bodies, blown hither and yon by the wind, and torn by crows' beaks.
    "Nay, why should Iny lord do that to me?"
    Now I had no wish to tell the stupid Persian what had befallen me in the palace.
    "Why did he choose thee in the beginning, instead of one of his servants? Why did he show favor to a bullock like thee? Because when thy task is done, and the girl is taken to him, he can then slit thy throat-lest any of the Nazarene priests remember having seen thee sitting at her gate."
    There was much truth in this, but Arbogastes saw it not.
    "No buffalo am I!" he growled. "I am a swordsman, a bahator."
    "Do you wish to be skinned?"
    Nay-
    "Then go and sleep. But first tell me the password."
    Arbogastes seemed not to hear, and he began to snore on his feet. I shook his shoulder.
    "The word-what is the password of the Greeks?"
    The wine and the drowsiness were heavy upon him and he only grunted until suddenly he found words.
    "Another cup!"
    Eh, there was little good in seeking the word of him. He staggered away up the path, and I sat down to think. The ache of hunger was in me, but I could not go to the Nazarene church and beg for food like a slave.
    It was then, a little after dusk, when all the monks had gone into the church, whither they were summoned by a great bell, that the barbarian girl Irene came and sat down by me.
    Between her hands