Swords From the Desert by Harold Lamb Page A

to the Greeks pounding on the house door. The hag and the peasant had roused, and I bade them pull down the bars of the stable yard and then seek safety over the wall-little it availed them, I fear. There was not time for the saddle.
    A Greek ran into the yard as I lifted the maiden to the back of Khutb.
    "Hold to my girdle and lower thy head!" So I sprang up, speaking to the gray horse and drawing tight the rein.
    Eh, he was a horse among many. Like an arrow from its string he darted through the gate in the fence, the Greek leaping aside. My erstwhile charger, the pot-bellied, cow-hoofed white stallion, would have taken an arrow's flight to plunge to full career. There was still a harder feat in store for Khutb.
    The spearmen were standing about the bridge and door, so I reined aside and put Khutb at the canal. Ha, that was a sight and a delight! He pricked his ears, shortened his stride, without swerve or check, and rose into the air-I gripping with knees and hand in his mane, for the girl, offbalance, clung heavily.
    Khutb landed daintily, with not a hand's breadth to spare. And then, once more, I urged him to trot and gallop, sweeping along the deserted path that led to the garden gate.
    A shout went up behind us, but the gate was far, and we had passed through before the Greeks stationed there could see our faces in that dim light.
    And so we rode forth into the alleys of Constantinople.
    To the khan of the Bokharians, where lay my rug and horse-the big white charger-I took my way, finding the inn deserted, or nearly so. The Muslimin had fled the city, and the Armenian linen workers, and the Syrian bath-men who frequented the khan, were out thieving and defending their thefts. It was also dark. I placed Irene in my compartment over the stable court and bade her sleep.
    To the dog of a Bokharian who had leered at our incoming I gave a piece of gold and a warning to hold his tongue, and then I groomed Khutb and fed him a little barley. Then I rubbed down the white charger without haste, and bridled him and waited for the coming of a man to serve me in the thing I planned to do.
    "YAllah! 0 madman-0 miscreant!"
    So cried Arbogastes when he ran into the courtyard seeking me, no longer drowsy but red with fear and haste.
    "What has come upon thee, my brother?" I saluted him.
    "Misfortune-calamity. Such calamity. And thou-breeder of woehatcher of evil-thou hast heaped all this upon my head!"
    In truth he lacked his plumed helmet, and his hair was disordered. In a breath he told me what had befallen him. The Greek who kept the tavern where he had lain in sleep, this dog of a Greek doubtless fearing the anger of the Domastikos, had wakened him and sent him forth, when Menas's men came seeking through the bazaar quarters. Arbogastes fled, not knowing what had happened-only hearing the curses heaped upon his name and mine by the searchers.
    "It was thy doing, Khalil," he howled. "Thou didst beguile me and send me from the garden, and steal away the girl from my lord, and the horse as well. It was all thy doing!"
    "By the eyes of , I did not plan it. It was to keep life in me I fled, on this horse."
    What need to swear to truth? Arbogastes merely raged the more and mustered courage to threaten.
    "No more tricks, Khalil! Did I not befriend thee and earn thee honor with Menas? A fox is not more deceitful than thee. Now am I dead and by torture, unless-give me the girl!"
    I rubbed down the stallion's flank with clean straw and thought for a moment, Arbogastes waxing bolder and fingering the sword he never meant to draw.
    "How many are searching for us?" I asked.
    "All! Every warrior and slave of the palace. Ten thousand. My lord Menas rides from street to street casting about for the wench, and all the blood hath left his face-nay there is enough spilled under his sword this night. His torches are in every corner. They will be in this quarter of the merchants in an hour."
    Verily, the Greek is a man of strange moods. That Menas should