The Scapegoat Part 23

Then, wheeling about once more to where Israel stood, he said in a voice of mockery, "Master, my lord, my Sultan, you came to resign your office?

But you shall do more than that. You shall resign your house as well, and all that's in it, and leave this town as a beggar."

Israel stood unmoved. "As you will," he said quietly.

"Where are the two women--the slaves?" asked Ben Aboo.

"At home," said Israel.

"They are mine, and I take them back," said Ben Aboo.

Israel's face quivered, and he seemed to be about to protest, but he only drew a longer breath, and said again, "As you will, Basha."

Ben Aboo's voice gathered vehemence at every fresh question. "Where is your money?" he cried; "the money that you have made out of my service--out of me--_my_ money--where is it?"

"Nowhere," said Israel.

"It's a lie--another lie!" cried Ben Aboo. "Oh yes, I've heard of your charities, master. They were meant to buy over my people, were they?

Were they? Were they, I ask?"

"So you say, Basha," said Israel.

"So I know!" cried Ben Aboo; "but all you had is not gone that way.

You're a fool, but not fool enough for that! Give up your keys--the keys of your house!"

Israel hesitated, and then said, "Let me return for a minute--it is all I ask."

At that the woman laughed hysterically. "Ah! he has something left after all!" she cried.

Israel turned his slow eyes upon her, and said, "Yes, madam, I _have_ something left--after all."

Paying no heed to the reply, Katrina cried to Ben Aboo again, saying, "El Arby, make him give up the key of that house. He has treasure there!"

"It is true, madam," said Israel; "it is true that I have a treasure there. My daughter--my little blind Naomi."

"Is that all?" cried Katrina and Ben Aboo together.

"It is all," said Israel, "but it is enough. Let me fetch her."

"Don't allow it!" cried Katrina.

Israel's face betrayed feeling. He was struggling to suppress it. "Make me homeless if you will," he said, "turn me like a beggar out of your town, but let me fetch my daughter."

"She'll not thank you," cried Katrina.

"She loves me," said Israel, "I am growing old, I am numbering the steps of death. I need her joyous young life beside me in my declining age.

Then, she is helpless, she is blind, she is my scapegoat, Basha, as I am yours, and no one save her father--"

"Ah! Ah! Ah!"

Israel had spoken warmly, and at the tender fibres of feeling that had been forced out of him at last the woman was laughing derisively. "Trust me," she cried, "I know what daughters are. Girls like better things.

No, I'll give her what will be more to her taste. She shall stay here with me."

Israel drew himself up to his full height and answered, "Madam, I would rather see her dead at my feet."

Then Ben Aboo broke in and said, "Don't wag your tongue at your mistress, sir."

"_Your_ mistress, Basha," said Israel; "not mine."

At that word Katrina, with all her evil face aflame came sweeping down upon Israel, and struck him with her fan on the forehead. He did not flinch or speak. The blow had burst the skin, and a drop of blood trickled over the temple on to the cheek. There was a short deep pause.

Then the hard tension of silence was broken by a faint cry. It came from behind, from the doorway; it was the voice of a girl.

In the blank stupor of the moment, every eye being on the two that stood in the midst, no one had observed until then that another had entered the patio. It was Naomi. How long she had been there no one knew, and how she had come unnoticed through the corridors out of the streets scarce any one--even when time sufficed to arrange the scattered thoughts of the Makhazni, the guard at the gate--could clearly tell. She stood under the arch, with one hand at her breast, which heaved visibly with emotion, and the other hand stretched out to touch the open iron-clamped door, as if for help and guidance. Her head was held up, her lips were apart, and her motionless blind eyes seemed to stare wildly. She had heard the hot words. She had heard the sound of the blow that followed them. Her father was smitten! Her father! Her father!

It was then that she uttered the cry. All eyes turned to her. Quaking, reeling, almost falling, she came tottering down the patio. Soul and sense seemed to be struggling together in her blind face. What did it all mean? What was happening? Her fixed eyes stared as if they must burst the bonds that bound them, and look and see, and know!

At that moment G.o.d wrought a mighty work, a wondrous change, such as He has brought to pa.s.s but twice or thrice since men were born blind into His world of light. In an instant, at a thought, by one spontaneous flash, as if the spirit of the girl tore down the dark curtains which had hung for seventeen years over the windows of her eyes, Naomi saw!

They all knew it at once. It seemed to them as if every feature of the girl's face had leapt into her eyes; as if the expression of her lips, her brow, her nostrils, had sprung to them: as if her face, so fair before, so full of quivering feeling, must have been nothing until then but a blank. Nay, but they seemed to see her now for the first time.

This, only this, was she!

And to Naomi also, at that moment, it was almost as if she had been newly born into life. She was meeting the world at last face to face, eye to eye. Into her darkened chamber, that had never known the light, everything had entered at a blow--the white glare of the sun, the blue sky, the tiled patio, the faces of the Kaid and his wife and his soldiers, and of the old man also, with the unshed tears hanging on the fringe of his eyelid. She could not realise the marvel. She did not know what vision was. She had not learned to see. Her trembling soul had gone out from its dark chamber and met the mighty light in his mansion. "Oh!

oh!" she cried, and stood bewildered and helpless in the midst. The picture of the world seemed to be falling upon her, and she covered her eyes with her hands, that she might abolish it altogether.

Israel saw everything. "Naomi!" he cried in a choking voice, and stretched out his hands to her. Then she uncovered her eyes, and looked, and paused and hesitated.

"Naomi!" he cried again, and made a step towards her. She covered her eyes once more that she might shut out the stranger they showed her, and only listen to the voice that she knew so well. Then she staggered into her father's arms. And Israel's heart was big, and he gathered her to his breast, and, turning towards the woman, he said, "Madam, we are in the hands of G.o.d. Look! See! He has sent His angel to protect His servant."

Meantime, Ben Aboo was quaking with fear. He too, saw the finger of G.o.d in the wondrous thing which had come to pa.s.s. And, falling back on his maudlin mood, he muttered prayers beneath his breath, as he had done before when the human majesty, the Sultan Abd er-Rahman, was the object of his terror. "O Giver of good to all! What is this? Allah save us!

Bismillah! Is it Allah or the Jinoon? Merciful! Compa.s.sionate! Curses on them both! Allah! Allah!"

The soldiers were affected by the fears of the Basha, and they huddled together in a group. But Katrina fell to laughing.

"Brava!" she cried. "Brava! Oh! a brave imposture! What did I say long ago? Blind? No more blind than you were! But a pretty pretence! Well acted! Very well acted! Brava! Brava!"

Thus she laughed and mocked, and the Basha, hearing her, took shame of his crawling fears, and made a poor show of joining her.

Israel heard them, and for a moment, seeing how they made sport of Naomi, a fire was kindled in his anger that seemed to come up from the lowest h.e.l.l. But he fought back the pa.s.sion that was mastering him, and at the next instant the laughter had ceased, and Ben Aboo was saying--

"Guards, take both of them. Set the man on an a.s.s, and let the girl walk barefoot before him; and let a crier cry beside them, 'So shall it be done to every man who is an enemy of the Kaid, and to every woman who is a play-actor and a cheat!' Thus let them pa.s.s through the streets and through the people until they are come to a gate of the town, and then cast them forth from it like lepers and like dogs!"

CHAPTER XIX

THE RAINBOW SIGN