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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4ca9bcf --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #66196 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/66196) diff --git a/old/66196-0.txt b/old/66196-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index dbf59a5..0000000 --- a/old/66196-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,3497 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Enchanted Crusade, by Geoff St. Reynard - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: The Enchanted Crusade - -Author: Geoff St. Reynard - -Release Date: September 1, 2021 [eBook #66196] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ENCHANTED CRUSADE *** - - - - - Saracen blades held no fear for Godwin; but - now he faced Mufaddal's sorcery with the fate of - the beautiful Ramizail--and England--resting upon - - The Enchanted Crusade - - By Geoff St. Reynard - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy - April 1953 - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - -Just as daybreak burst over the rim of the desert, the dying man heard -the crunch of horses' hooves on sand. He lifted his head and croaked as -loudly as collapsing lungs would let him, saying thrice over, "In the -name of God, help!" Then he pitched on his nose again and lay still, -unable to move so much as an eyelash. - -There was the grit of sand under the light tread of men, and a voice -said, "Name of all camels! What a collection of vulture-victuals this -one is!" - -"I doubt it was he cried out," said another voice. "He must have -been dead for a decade." This voice then rendered a belch of classic -proportions. "Damn those figs," it said. - -"If you will eat three pounds at a breakfast, Godwin love," said a -throaty feminine voice, all full of honey and laughter, "you must -expect some few repercussions." - -The dying man collected his will and the scraps of strength that were -left in his tortured body, and shoving at the sand with one arm managed -to roll over on his back. The horizon-cleared sun lanced sickeningly -across his eyeballs, adding one more pain to the thousand which beset -him. Three vague dark shapes bent above him. - -"By the very God, he lives! Give him a drink." - -Water, cool and terrible and yet incredibly wondrous to lips and -blackened gums that had tasted nothing save blood for what must surely -be centuries, dribbled down across his cheeks, ran into his mouth, -reached through his rasped throat for his belly. He gurgled and thought -he was drowning, and it seemed a splendid death. - -But he had something to say, something of such importance that it -had dragged him across this endless waste of hellish sand long after -a missionless man would have given up and died. He recollected the -message and blinked his nearly sightless eyes once or twice, and made -futile little motions toward a sitting position. A brawny arm at his -back tilted him upright. "Easy, man. You're all but dead. Don't strive -so. Die easily." - -"Godwin, you're a born diplomat," said the woman's voice. "Why don't -you come right out and tell him he looks like two coppers' worth of -dogmeat?" - -"Well, he does," Godwin said grimly. "No sense in lying to a chap who's -about to give up the spirit, Ramizail. No real man wants that." - -"Listen," croaked the dying one. "Who are you?" - -"Three adventurers," said the voice that had sworn by the very God. -It was an elderly voice but full of vigor. "Three homeless travelers -pledged to right wrongs and defeat hell's minions wherever they may be -found." - -"Thanks to the Holy Sepulcher," groaned the dying one. "Perhaps all may -be well." - -The man holding him up jerked with surprise. "Here," he said, with a -kind of tender roughness, "are you a Crusader, man? Are you a Frank?" - -"English," said he. "Sir Malcolm du Findley." He made a hideous -rattling noise but from somewhere deep in his soul the power came to -make him go on. "El Iskandariya. Big ship. Full of rats." - -"What's he burbling about?" asked the deep voice of Godwin. "Poor -devil's clean out of his head. Rats? Did rats do this to him?" - -"Rats are full of plague," said Sir Malcolm faintly. - -"Yes, yes," said the girl. "Ship full of rats, rats full of plague. Go -on." - -"Can a rat have the plague?" asked Godwin. - -"Well, can it?" asked the girl. "Mihrjan, answer me." - -A fourth voice, one like muted thunder over distant dunes, said, -"Assuredly, O Mistress of My Life, though 'tis not known generally by -men in this time." - -"He knows it, evidently," said the girl. "Do go on, Sir Malcolm. What -about these rats?" - -"Ship at El Iskandariya. Going to England, spread plague, decimate -whole country. No more Crusades. Saracen plot." - -"Now by God and by God, no Saracen stoops that low!" shouted the -elderly man. - -"Yes. Whole crew of them. Leader--" - -"Yes, man; the leader?" urged Godwin. - -"Mufaddal al Mamun. Big black-faced swine. His gang can do--anything. -Say they can wipe out nine-tenths of England with plague rats, then -France, Germany. No more Crusades." He widened his bloody-veined eyes -and retching, said, "Tell Richard! Get word to Richard! Got to sink -that ship, slay Mufaddal al Mamun! Slay his sorcerers! Promise!" - -"We promise," said Godwin. "Decimate England, eh? Plague-infested rats, -ha? My halidom! I think not!" - -Sir Malcolm, with a grimace that might have been a grin, collapsed in -upon himself and died, as peacefully as a man can when he has come -seventy miles on foot, over baking sand beneath a searing sun of brass, -with a third of his skin flayed off. - - - - - CHAPTER II - - -Godwin stood up. "Where's El Iskandariya?" he asked. - -El Sareuk rubbed his beard with one slim brown hand. "You call it -Alexandria. About twenty-five leagues west it lies, my great-thewed -friend, on the banks of the Mediterranean." - -The Lord Mohammed El Sareuk was a man of sixty, slightly built, -fanatic-faced, whose body always seemed on the point of disintegrating -from sheer concentration of energy. His boots were of red Cordovan -leather worked with gold thread; his clothing was blue silk and rose -samite, topped by the green turban of a Hadji; under the soft robes he -wore gold-washed Turkish light armor, and over the whole outfit a black -Bedouin burnous. He was weaponed well: from his girdle hung a Damascus -steel scimitar, and a beautiful gold-etched steel knife with a silver -hilt and a ruby in the pommel. Once this man had led a great harka in -the forces of Saladin; but love of Godwin had turned him to a rover, an -adventurer who called no tent his own and no man his peer save the tall -young Englishman he now addressed. - -"What is it, Godwin? Twenty-five leagues to Alexandria, or eighty-odd -to Richard the Lion Heart in Jaffa?" - -The girl spoke before Godwin could answer. "Oh, heavens, uncle 'tis the -twenty-five to the plague ship, without a doubt, because what would -Godwin want with a thousand Crusaders at his back when he can wade in -single-handed against an unknown number of enemies and grab the glory -all for himself? An Englishman won't fight if he can't fight against -odds, after all. Need you ask such a silly question?" - -The girl, now: as tall and lovely a piece as ever came from the union -of a crusading British knight and a Saracen lass who traced descent -from Solomon. Her eyes were violet, pure clear liquid violet such as -is seen once in a thousand years; her lips were sensuous, full and -red; her hair was a rainbow-flashing mass of ink-black curls. Of her -complexion nothing derogatory could be said, and of her full-breasted -figure even less. She wore copper and cream-colored robes of as fine -and yet tough silk as you might find anywhere in the world of 1191, -with a black turban to which she managed to give a jaunty and most -un-Moslem-like air. Once this girl had been a sorceress, and controlled -the entire tribe of djinn by virtue of a golden sigil and ring -bequeathed her by her mother; her home and heritage and much of her -power she had given up, to be a nomad and traipse about the world, all -for love of Godwin. - -This Godwin said now, "Ye gods! How can there be any question of -Alexandria or Jaffa?" He held up a big hard hand and ticked off points -on his fingers. "One: Dick, or Richard the Lion Nose, or whatever the -hell they call him, thinks I'm a madman. If I took him a tale of rats -with plague being shipped to England, he'd have me locked up for an -idiot, and I can hardly blame him. Two: it's a good eighty-five leagues -to Jaffa, and then more than a hundred from there back to Alexandria, -eating up God knows how many days, the way the Franks travel. We -three can do it from here in two days' time. There are decent people -in Alexandria who'll fight with us against any such hellish scheme, -surely. El Sareuk is a Hadji and has a certain reputation. Can't you -command help from the Arabs, old wolf?" - -"I can. He has the right of it, my dear." - -"Well, at least we can have Mihrjan's djinn transport us there -in comfort, and aid us in the squelching of this silly plot of -Mufaddal's," said the girl, wiping sweat off her patrician nose. - - * * * * * - -Godwin frowned. He tugged at his beard. "My dear, you know my -sentiments about the djinn. It's not knightly to use their supernatural -powers when all one's fighting is a pack of mortals. Besides, it takes -the fun out of adventuring. If a man can cry up a legion of ten-foot -bogies to do his bidding, how can he call himself a gentleman rover? -No, we'll not employ Mihrjan. Not that I have anything against you, -Mihrjan," he added hastily. - -A voice from the air beside them said, like an enormous drum finding -speech in its depths, "O Lord of Ten Thousand, I esteem thy principles -without flaw. Truly thou art a man among men, and would be a djinni -amongst djinn!" - -"Oh, pooh," said the girl, Ramizail. "If I hadn't given you the ring in -a rash moment of affection, Godwin, I'd lock it to the sigil and wish -you home in England this minute, you hulking wonderful stupid baby." - -Invisible Mihrjan chuckled, but made no other comment. Godwin said, -"Let's mount and ride. The horses are fresh and even over this -abominable sand we ought to make a good distance before sundown." - -"What of Sir Malcolm?" asked Ramizail. - -"What of him?" said Godwin. "I've laid him out properly. A Crusader -doesn't expect to be buried when there's work afoot. Come on, to -horse!" He went racing to his great Spanish charger and vaulted into -the saddle from behind, a trick left over from his Crusading days, when -he could do it in full weight of battle armor. - -And this Godwin, what of him? A man of thirty-one hard winters and -thirty-one baking summers that had leathered his skin and steeled -his sinews, while leaving his spirit boyish and irrepressible. A -tiger-muscled, blue-fire-eyed, yellow-bearded man, quick to rage, quick -to forgiveness, quick to gorge food and drink and quick to go hungry -when needs must. A man educated to horse and hound and every weapon, -bred to the saddle and the brawl, reckless and headstrong, generous and -full of brag and bounce. A man of six feet and four inches, weighing -sixteen stone, with scarce a thought in his handsome head but of war -and hunting and being a gentleman according to his lights, of loving -Ramizail and trotting happily over the world righting wrongs and -murdering villains and being Godwin, Godwin of England. - -And there was more to the man than all this, too, for had he not been -till this early winter of 1191 the King of England? - -It mattered little now, for Godwin was Godwin and no more. Not that -that was not quite enough! thought Ramizail, resignedly mounting her -bay palfrey. Sometimes it was a vast deal too much. She cast a glance -of affection at her affianced. She shook her lovely head. What a man! - - - - - CHAPTER III - - -Mufaddal al Mamun, a tall, bulky, brown-eyed, flat-nosed, dark-faced -hulk of a man, was eating his midday meal. It consisted of _ful_ beans -fried in _samn_, millet bread, onions, cucumbers, and hard-boiled -eggs, washed down with quarts of strong _buzah_, beer brewed from -fermented bread. It was a poor man's meal, but Mufaddal preferred to -eat the cheapest of foods, for he thought that it made him appear -fanatical and single-minded and self-sacrificing to his followers. As -a matter of fact, they merely thought him a tasteless slob. He held -the same warped opinion about his garments, and clad himself daily in -a gray _gallabiyah_, the gown-like dress of the fellahin, with long -loose cotton pants and a soiled green skullcap. His cohorts made jokes -about it and regarded him with distaste, for many of them were proud -Turks and high-blooded Bedouins, who took a ferocious pride in garbing -themselves as well as possible and eating the best provender available. -They followed him, however, because he was a wild terrible fighter, -because he was half-brother to three potent sorcerers, and because he -could think up much dirtier plots against the infidel hordes of the -Crusaders than any other Saracen alive. - -As he popped the last egg whole into his broad gash of a mouth, and -smashed it between great yellow snaggleteeth, wishing it were the -skull of Richard Coeur de Lion, one of his sorcerers came sliding in -the door. There was a cool wind blowing through the house from the -sea, which lay not more than thirty yards from its portals; but the -sorcerer's presence seemed to heat the breeze and taint it with the -stench of sulphur and brimstone. Mufaddal looked even more irritable -than usual. - -"What do you want, offspring of a leprous unwed camel?" - -"May you live a thousand years, Mufaddal, my brother." - -"This is a noble sentiment. Did you interrupt my eating--that is to -say, my meditation--to wish me long life, imbecile?" - -The sorcerer looked meditatively at his left forefinger, which turned -into a blue snake and hissed at the big dirty man across the laden -cloth. Mufaddal jumped and said hastily, "This, of course, is only my -rough manner of speaking, Heraj, and naturally you know you are my -favorite brother and may come in any time you like." - -"Yes. Well, I was going to say, Mufaddal, that complications are -lifting their ugly heads in this business of the plague ship." - -"What? Are the rats not loaded into the hold, and the job accomplished -with but seventeen fellahin bitten? Did we not slay the seventeen -before they could come near anyone? And is the ship not as sound as any -ship that sails the Mediterranean, having new sails and a new mast, and -her belly caulked no later than last month?" - -"Ah, very true," agreed Heraj. - -"Does every rat not carry at least one flea, cleverly infected with the -plague by your own subtle methods?" - -"Fleas and rats are as deadly as any Saracen blade, and the grisly -death they carry will spread far and wide when they are let off the -ship on the coasts of England." - -"And lastly, is all not in readiness to sail come the day after -tomorrow?" - -"True," said Heraj gloomily. "But we can't send it out before then, as -our chosen crew will not be assembled till that morning, especially the -far-experienced Nubian slave who is coming from Tripoli to guide the -ship on its perilous course; and by the wrath of Eblis, you and I may -not live to see the dawn of that day, near though you deem it!" - -"What are you talking about?" roared Mufaddal. - -"I just had a message from a friend who happens to be a hawk in his -present incarnation. He tells me that Godwin is coming." - -"This is terrible news indeed," said Mufaddal, fiercely mimicking the -sorcerer's worried tones. "I quake with fright. I throw myself on the -infinite mercy of Allah." He rose and flexed his arms, that were each -as thick as a youth's body. "Heraj, who in the name of the seven hells -is Godwin?" - -"You may well ask," said Heraj, even more gloomily than before. "Nobody -seems to know exactly. I can't get a line on his history before a month -ago, when he rode out of Jaffa in company with a renegade Saracen -chieftain called El Sareuk and a girl named Ramizail. But he's a brawny -young champion, whatever his antecedents, and his girl controls the -djinn." - - * * * * * - -Mufaddal sat down on the floor with vast violence. His dark face turned -purple. His yellow teeth showed in a grin of sudden terror. "I betake -me to Allah! _That_ Ramizail?" - -"Yes, that one. Well, this hawk says--" - -"Can you understand the hawk tongue?" - -"This one speaks Arabic. He's a fairly talented fellow, for a hawk. He -says that Godwin and the others are pledged to go rampaging over the -earth, righting wrongs, and they've heard of the plague ship and are on -their way to destroy it. And us, I suppose," added Heraj. - -"Name of forty goats," said Mufaddal worriedly. "I fear not this -Godwin, but the djinn...." He stared up at the sorcerer. "Can't you do -something to stop them? You and Pepi and Habu?" - -"What? You know my limitations, and I'm the strongest of the three. -I can do a lot, Mufaddal, but I can't combat djinn. The chief of -them, Mihrjan, even travels with this Ramizail wench, personally. She -controls him and his race by a sigil and ring that came down to her -from Solomon." - -"Curse it, Heraj, if this ship doesn't sail, England will continue to -send Crusaders to the East until they have conquered every inch of -desert and city! It's got to sail! How did these loathsome adventurers -hear of it?" - -"They happened across that Englishman who escaped us, Sir Malcolm du -Findley. The one that we started to flay last Thursday, before he -crawled out a window and treacherously disappeared." - -Mufaddal got off the floor. He hitched up his pants and retied the -string that held them around his muscular waist. "Heraj," he said -grimly, "I give you an hour to think of some way to stop them. Djinn or -no djinn, that ship sails!" - - - - - CHAPTER IV - - -By evening they had covered more than half the distance to Alexandria, -and Godwin was persuaded to halt for a few hours of rest, the horses -being weary with plunging through sand for such a long spell. "We'll -ride again with the moon's zenith," said Godwin, as he went about -picketing the horses. "Perhaps we can make the city by midday -tomorrow." - -Ramizail went off and stood by herself. "Mihrjan," she said softly. - -"I am here, Beloved of Allah." - -"Mihrjan, I'm sick of the same dreary food day after day. Godwin -maintains that gentlemen rovers should fare roughly, to toughen their -bodies. But I'm not a gentleman." - -"Assuredly thou art not," said the invisible djinni, respect and male -admiration nicely blended in his great voice. - -"Then spread me a real feast! I want _couscous_, with almond stuffing, -and wild rice, and some lemon juice, and certainly some white bread." - -"Thy will is sweet, Mistress." - -"Then oranges, and _asida_, and sugar. And about three gallons of -sherbet. And Mihrjan, do you remember the time you brought me that -confection out of a far time? The one you called silk chocolate?" - -"Milk chocolate, O Daughter of All Delights." - -"Bring me some of that, too. Put the meal on a damask cloth, with blue -gauze to wipe the mouth, and the vessels must all be of purest crystal -with gold rims." - -"To hear is to obey, Little Queen of My Tribe." - -"Be sure there's plenty for all of us, with a bowl of mice for Godwin's -falcon Yellow-eyes, and remember that my lord and master eats like -two-thirds of a regiment." - -"Give me but four minutes, Mistress, and you shall see it spread -beneath the trees of this oasis, beside the clear spring that bubbles -through the sand." - -She strolled back to her uncle and her betrothed, a secret smile on her -lips. In the specified four minutes a banquet popped into sight just -beside them. Godwin jumped. - -"What the devil!" - -"I'm hungry," said Ramizail, at once on the defensive. - -"Mihrjan!" said Godwin, glaring at her. "You had him do this. How often -must I tell you my sentiments concerning all this magic, witch-wench?" - -"Never again, Godwin dear, for I know them by heart." - -"Ramizail," he said angrily, his eyes sparkling blue, "this is going -to stop here and now. When you gave me the ring, and thus shared your -power over the djinn with me, you promised not to command Mihrjan to do -anything I didn't approve of." - -"Oh, well," grumbled the girl, "I'm hungry for real food!" - -"Ramizail, give me the sigil!" - -Her eyes blazed back at his. "Come and take it, you big oaf!" - -El Sareuk leaned against a date palm and smiled to himself. It was -always a toss-up as to which of these iron-willed people would win an -argument. Godwin strode over to the girl, upsetting a goblet of pale -pink sherbet with his foot, and took her by the shoulders. She hit him -on the nose. He turned her over and smacked her on her lightly-clad -bottom. She screeched and bit his leg. He dropped her on the sand and -sat on her. - -Mihrjan, invisible but no more than three feet from them, laughed -deeply. - -El Sareuk said to Yellow-eyes, the old peregrine falcon, who was -sitting on his shoulder watching the brawl, "Thy master has met, if not -his match, at least a very worthy foe!" - - * * * * * - -Godwin, after a great deal of fumbling, got hold of the sigil where it -hung on a chain round her neck, and opened the clasp and took it off. - -"Bully!" shrieked Ramizail. "Swaggering, bragging, girl-defeating -bully! Give me that back!" - -"Not a chance," said Godwin equably. He moved over and sat in the small -of her back. He locked the sigil into the ring he wore on his little -finger, and the designs of each caught the other and made a single lump -of gold. "Now," he said, "I control the djinn." - -"Have them transport me to the Isles of the Western Sea," said the girl -savagely, "or by the Crescent and Cross, Godwin, I'll murder you when I -get up!" - -"Nothing so drastic. Mihrjan!" - -"Yes, Lord?" - -"I control you now absolutely, don't I?" - -"Yes, Lord." - -"You follow us for love, I know, but we can't really command you unless -one of us holds both these baubles, isn't that so?" - -"'Tis so, one of a Hundred Monarchs, though thou knowest I would -answer any summons thou or my mistress made, Solomon's Seal or no. But -the sigil and ring are life's and death's powers over me." - -"Well, Mihrjan, you know my sentiments about the whole business, and -by the mass, I'm growing weary of these tricks of hers. She's always -having you save me when there's no need, and stepping in when I have a -chance at a fight, and making banquets, and showing off your magic as -if it were her own. So I want you to go away, Mihrjan." - -"Lord?" said the djinn, disturbed and bewildered. - -"Well, look, hang it all, I like you, I think you're a splendid chap, -really, but this magic gets on my nerves. Now go on away, go besiege a -castle, or throw an oyster fry, or take a wife, or something. We have -the sigil and ring if we really need you, old fellow, but meantime -please do go home. I'm sick of this soft living Ramizail forces on me -by your thaumaturgy." - -The djinni chuckled. "I see thy point, O King. I go. Remember that the -Seal calls me to you in an eye's winking if need arises." - -"It'll probably arise, if I know my luck, but I hope it won't. -Good-bye, old fellow." - -"Farewell, Master. Fare thee well, Moon of Incredible Beauty." There -was a swishing noise, a faint scent of attar touched their nostrils, -and the air rushed into a sudden-made vacuum beside them. The Moon of -Incredible Beauty said ferociously, "If you don't let me up, you son of -a jackal, I'll bite you in a vulnerable spot and you won't sit down for -a week." - -Godwin stood up. Ramizail rolled over and eyed him. There was malice in -the gaze, but Godwin only laughed. He tossed her the sigil. She hung it -round her neck. - -"I'll hide the ring, kitten, so you can't steal it when I'm asleep. Now -you're a plain woman, and by our lady, you'll stay that way!" - -"What about the banquet?" said she. "I'm surprised you didn't have him -take it back." - -"Ah well, a man does now and again grow tired of figs and biscuits and -water. We'll eat it. Just this once." - -They all sat down, El Sareuk gave thanks to Allah and Godwin to his -deity for the sumptuous repast, and they fell to. Yellow-eyes dipped -her scarred, notched beak into her bowl of plump mice, and emitted a -cry of pleasure. Everybody ate until four bellies well nigh burst with -good food. Then they rolled up in their rugs and went to sleep. - - - - - CHAPTER V - - -Heraj looked into his crystal ball. Absently he flung out his right -arm, which extended for seven feet and allowed the hand to grasp a -beaker of honey wine sitting on a taboret across the room. - -His eyes lit up greenly at what he saw in the ball. He tossed off the -wine and hared out of his apartments, through the room where fourteen -lieutenants of Mufaddal's force were playing at dice, and into his -master's sleeping room. Mufaddal sat up from his rugs and howled. - -"This damnable lack of privacy must cease! I--" Then he saw what his -half-brother was doing casually with his left foot, and subsided. "Yes, -Heraj? What is it?" - -"Listen, al Mamun. I put a thought in Godwin's head this -afternoon--just a suggestion, you know. He followed through -beautifully." - -"Good. Did he hang himself to a tree?" - -"No, no. I suggested he get rid of that djinni. He did. Then he hid -Solomon's ring, though where I don't know, and forgot where he hid it." - -"By Osman ibn Affar, that was well done! Your power over men's minds -astonishes even me, Heraj." The dark-faced fanatic was jubilant. - -"I didn't make him forget it, he did that on his own hook. He's -cooperative that way. He has a child's intellect." Heraj took a -sweetmeat out of his ear and ate it. "Now the djinni's gone, Allah -knows where, and won't come back till he's called by the sigil and -ring. And they haven't got the ring." - -"Oh, my brother," said Mufaddal, rubbing his hands together, "if you -have indeed put this Godwin at our mercy, I shall give you a racing -camel with a ruby-studded saddle!" - -"I have, I have. But never mind the camel, I want Richard for my -personal slave when we defeat the Crusaders." - -"Done!" barked the leader. "Now tell me, subtle one, what will you do -with Godwin?" - -Heraj regarded his fingernails, which turned into ten little pieces -of glass behind which miniature dancing girls performed various -interesting contortions. At last he said smugly, "I've done it, -Mufaddal. Just wait till that overgrown lout wakes up." He laughed. -"What a shock he's got coming!" - - - - - CHAPTER VI - - -Godwin rolled over, opened an eye, and smacked his lips. He always -awoke hungry. He scrabbled in the sand beside him until he found his -bag of dates, popped one into his mouth, and got up. He pushed a bare -toe against the backside of El Sareuk, who erupted with a startled -curse. Yellow-eyes woke at that and screamed, and Ramizail sat up. - -"Time to ride, old wolf," said Godwin. He went to the spring and drank -deep. Then he walked past it toward the horses. - -The horses were not there. He scowled, went through the palm trees, and -made as if to set foot on the desert sands beyond. - -The desert sands were not there. - -He fell to his knees. His eyes snapped wide. Two inches before him the -oasis came to an abrupt halt. There was nothing there but vacant space. -The desert was gone. Everything was gone. - -"What in the name of--" - -He bent over the edge of the oasis. A thousand feet below him the -desert shimmered coldly in the light of the stars. He could see their -horses, the three saddle beasts and the two pack animals, standing in -a knot with the Arabian camel they kept for emergencies. The creatures -looked like insects, so far below him they were. He drew back with a -gasp. - -"El Sareuk! Ramizail!" he shouted. "Take care! The oasis has floated -off its moorings!" - -They came running to his side. Ramizail gave a little cry. "Godwin, -darling! What's happened to us?" - -"Lord knows. We're marooned up here, it seems." He lay down at full -length and peered over the edge again. The oasis had indeed been torn -from its base, and the roots of the palms dangled below the round disc -of it, waving their filaments in the air. "By the rood," said Godwin, -"if this doesn't strain the imagination! Does it happen often, old one?" - -"Never to my knowledge before this night," said El Sareuk, running -a hand through his grizzled beard. "Now by Allah! The sorcerers of -Mufaddal have done this thing!" - -"The ring, Godwin," snapped Ramizail. She was all business, and no man -would have denied her anything in this sudden gust of her serious -intent, for when she put by her humor and her playfulness, she was a -force to be reckoned with. "We'll have to call up Mihrjan. None of your -vaunted swashbuckling will cope with this ensorcelment." - -"Yes, I suppose one must fight witchery with witchery, though it goes -against my knightly grain." He made as if to take the ring from his -finger. "Oh, I forgot. I hid it from you." - -"Stupid ox! Give it here." - -He groped in his silk and samite robes, then among the crevices of his -gold-washed steel mesh Cairo armor. At last he stared sheepishly at -her. "I forget what I did with it." - -"Oh, you bumbling Englishman!" She leaped to him and ran swift questing -fingers over his body. "It's big enough, it ought to make quite a lump. -Ninety-nine names of the true One! It isn't here. Did you hide it in -the sand?" - -"No," said Godwin, blushing with shame. "I put it where I'd always have -it near by. But I can't seem to recollect just where." - -She put her hands to her head. "You--you--" - -"Never mind," said Godwin. "I have an idea. If it doesn't work, you'll -have to pick me up with a spoon, but I think it will." - -He squared his broad shoulders and walked straight over the edge of the -high-floating oasis. - - - - - CHAPTER VII - - -Godwin turned and looked back at them. In the moon's light he was an -uncanny figure, standing on lofty immaterial nothingness. - -"Well," he said testily, "come on. Can't you see it's all right?" - -They gaped at him, eyes round as the declining moon. "How are you -accomplishing that, comrade?" asked the Saracen. - -"Accomplishing what? I'm only standing here." - -"Yes, but on air, for the love of Allah! How can you stand on air?" - -"I happen," said Godwin, distinctly and loudly, as though he were -speaking to an imbecile. "I happen to be standing on the sands of the -desert." - -"He's mad, my child," groaned El Sareuk. - -"If he is, he's doing as neat a job of being crazy as I ever saw," -retorted Ramizail. "Does his insanity affect the pull of the earth?" - -"Hmm," said the Hadji, "you're right. Well, let me join him in his -madness. But if I vanish abruptly, niece, do you go back and sit by -that spring until the oasis sinks of its own accord. I would not have -your lovely brains splattered over a league of hot sand." He walked -gingerly out to Godwin's side. "He's right, it's the desert!" he -shouted. - -She looked at the two of them, standing there in midair shaking hands -solemnly with each other. She grinned. "Of course, it's a mirage, -or a trick!" She went to them, treading on what seemed space, and -it turned to solid dunes beneath her sandals. She looked back, and -the oasis was there, settled firmly in the heart of the desert, with -sleepy Yellow-eyes just flying out of the trees. "A neat stunt," said -Ramizail. "Godwin, you're cleverer than I thought, and as brave as -forty lions, to have tried such a thing!" - -"A man takes his chances," said Godwin modestly. - -They mounted and rode off toward the west, toward El Iskandariya and -the ship full of rats, rats full of fleas, fleas full of bubonic -plague. As they went, Ramizail nagged at Godwin, and Godwin tried -unhappily to remember what he had done with the ring of Solomon. But he -could not do it. He patted himself all over, and even looked into his -Saracen-style helmet, which was a round shining steel cap surmounted -by the golden figure of a rampant lion and resting upon a headpiece of -soft white cloth that protected his neck from the sun; but he could not -discover it. All he remembered was that he had put it in a safe place, -a place that would never be farther from him than he could reach. - -As the moon touched the faraway dunes, the sun came up. Gilded sands -grew fiery beneath the hooves of their animals, and the _khamsin_, that -was like the breath of a devil drunk on hot mulled blood, arose to -torture them. - -A wide-breasted dune stretched before them. They topped the rise and -Ramizail gave a cry, while the men checked their steeds and glanced at -each other. "Another illusion?" asked Godwin. - -"Who can tell? There are more beasts in the desert than are known to -man," shrugged El Sareuk. - -In the hollow formed by four dunes' meeting stood an enormous lion, -all orange-red of hue, facing them with black mane bristling up like -the spines of a porcupine. The odd thing about it, the thing that made -it seem somewhat out of the ordinary even to men who had looked on a -thousand wonders in their time, was the pair of broad silver wings that -sprang from its shoulder blades and spread themselves high to left and -right. - -"Winged lion," said Ramizail. "No, I cannot call it to mind. I doubt -one's been seen before, at least in Egypt." - - * * * * * - -The lion growled, crouched, and launched itself through the air -straight at Godwin's head. El Sareuk shouted, "Allah defend us!" and -leaned over in the saddle to slash at it with his scimitar; while -Godwin hauled his fifty-pound broadsword from its leathern sheath and -flung the point swiftly up before his face. The lion, its gigantic -wings flapping like a vulture's, soared up and over him. Yellow-eyes -the falcon left his shoulder, giving vent to shrill wrath at this -horror of the desert. - -"Coming back! Diving!" roared the Hadji. Godwin flung himself from a -sitting start, straight over the head of his stallion. The extended -claws of the terrible beast grazed his back as he fell and ripped four -gashes in the silk of his outer robe. Yellow-eyes beat her wings about -the lion's head, trying to confuse and harry it. - -Still holding his weapon, Godwin of England rolled over on his back. -Flying sand had sprayed his face and a grain had lodged in his left -eye, making him squint and curse. The lion hovered over him, then -dropped like a boulder, ignoring the peregrine. Godwin twitched the -point of the sword upward and at the first prickling contact with its -belly the monster screeched and shot forward beyond him. - -El Sareuk made his horse leap, and stood by Godwin till he rose. "It's -coming back," he said. "You are its target, obviously, lad. 'Tis no -natural beast, I'll take oath on the Koran!" - -The winged red lion came rushing at Godwin, half on sand and half in -air, giving itself little pushes with its earth-touching paws. Godwin -half-knelt, waited till it was within striking range, then gave a -mighty slash with his iron sword. He missed, but the strange being, -startled, rose up. Godwin saw one massive hind leg coming straight at -him. He had no time to lift the broadsword again; neither could he drop -in time to avoid a crushing stroke of the leg. Quicker than thought he -let go his sword and flung his arms before him. - -The leg struck him on the chest, but to ease the force he had already -wrapped his swift arms about it. The lion beat its way upward, and -before he knew it Godwin, clinging like death to the hind leg, looked -down and found himself a hundred feet over the desert. El Sareuk's -astonished shout and Ramizail's piercing scream of terror came up to -him, dim and half-heard in the rushing wind of their passage. The -falcon followed, skirling her anger. - -The lion paused and writhed round on itself like a common bazaar cat -going after a louse. Godwin swung his body up and kicked it on the -nose. It coughed dismally as one sharp spur caught its tender snout and -gashed a bloody trench. It snapped at him again, its big teeth missing -by a fraction. Yellow-eyes thrust her beak at its eyes and it turned -from Godwin to bite out at her. - -Godwin tightened the grip of his left arm and let go with his right. He -drew his curved Persian dagger from its thonged sheath and judged his -blow. Then he struck. - -The lion, its neck slit from ear to gullet, spewed blood and uttered -a horrible gurgling bellow. Slowly it began to sink toward the earth. -Godwin risked a quick look down. His head reeled. He was still a good -eighty feet up. If the lion died too soon, he would be smashed to a -pulp beneath its dead weight. He had thought only of slaying the -thing, not of how he might land safely. He swore vividly. - -"This proves Ramizail's contention that I have a one-track brain!" The -winged beast drifted down in spirals, its hindquarters drooping, its -wings feebly beating the air, and its head jerking back and forth. -Godwin held his breath. It folded its wings and plummeted straight for -sickening yards, then making a last try at rising, extended the pinions -once more. Godwin saw that he was no more than ten feet off the ground. -He loosed his hold. The dunes came up with a rush to meet him and he -lit and rolled over. The lion above gave a final roar and crumpled, -smacking the sand a yard from Godwin's feet. The warrior arose and -wiped his forehead with a bloodied hand, as Yellow-eyes alit on his -shoulder, ruffling her feathers. - -"Whew! Lady, _that_ was no illusion." - -El Sareuk brought him his sword and charger, and mounting, he turned -its head again to the west. - - - - - CHAPTER VIII - - -About the time that Godwin and his friends were fording the Rosetta -Branch of the Nile, Heraj the sorcerer interrupted his leader again. - -"He riddled out the levitating oasis, Mufaddal, and he slew the winged -lion. I thought you'd like to know what sort of man is coming after -us." - -"If you had done your job at all well--" Mufaddal paused to thrust a -piece of millet bread into his maw, and his half-brother interrupted -him. - -"You know my limitations. Allah curse it, what man ever stood up -to the winged lion before today?" He took a piece of paper out of -Mufaddal's chin, or seemed to, at any rate, and read a few words that -were scribbled thereon. "Well, the dog is crossing the Rosetta now. -I have a horrible feeling he can't be stopped." Heraj sprinkled salt -on the scrap of paper and ate it meditatively. "Pepi wants to try the -rolling sands stunt. I suppose we may as well. But this Godwin ... by -the _schedim_, what an opponent! Djinn or no djinn, I like him not!" He -left, and Mufaddal, having lost his appetite, went off to inspect the -plague ship for the hundredth time that week. - -It was his own idea. He was as proud of it as of his skill at torturing -captured Crusaders, a score of whom languished now in his dungeon -awaiting his displeasure. The ship lay at the wharf, a black swift -vessel with dark lateen sails slanting high above her deck. A company -of Seljuk Turks and other Saracen allies stood about the dock, on guard -lest some ill-advised person attempt to board her. More were stationed -on the ship, and from beneath their feet in the sealed hold came the -frightful squeakings and squealings and multitudinous rustlings of -thousands upon thousands of great gray rats, imprisoned there to fight -and breed and die and wait their chance at sunlight again--sunlight -that Mufaddal devoutly hoped they would view on the shore of England. - -He massaged his hands together. What a picture it was! All these -beauties, scampering over England, biting people, infecting masses of -men and women, gnawing on children's feet, carrying the plague hither -and yon until the whole island lay gasping out its fading breath, -nine-tenths of its population covered with the applesized tumors -and hideous purple spots of bubonic. Then let them see who sent out -Crusaders! It would be Saracen hordes overrunning Britain, rather than -red-faced Englishmen defiling the Holy Land! - -Some six hundred and forty-eight years before, the plague had lashed -through Constantinople, and slain ten thousand souls in a day's space. -Say, conservatively, then, that ten thousand per day would die in -England. How many days would it take.... - -He went aboard, the better to hear the gibberings of his ghastly -phalanxes. The boards were hot under his bare feet. The grisly ravening -of the packed throngs of rats rose all about him, and in an ecstasy of -delight he knelt to lift a hatch cover, yearning to gaze on them once -more. - -"Lord!" A voice burst out behind him. "O Lord, do not open the hatch! -Think what thou doest!" - - * * * * * - -Mufaddal turned, to see a Mameluke, an ex-slave converted to Islam and -now a fine soldier, who was running toward him and waving his arms -excitedly. - -Mufaddal stood erect, a giant flat-nosed man of black face and blacker -heart. He kimboed his arms and hissed, "What is this you say, slave?" - -The Mameluke came to a halt before him. "O Lord, think if thou shouldst -allow even a single rat to escape! Thou might be bitten, and we should -have to drop thee into the sea!" - -Mufaddal reached out. Very slowly his hands went around the soldier's -neck, and the Mameluke was too startled to step backward. Mufaddal said -softly, "Shall I throttle you? Hmm. No. There lies no pleasure in the -strangling of a worm. Shall I heave you into the ocean, as you would -do with me should I be bitten? Bah! Too easy a death, and you might -be able to swim. Shall I drop you into the hold?" The Mameluke gave a -half-stifled howl. "I think I shall. The pets need nourishment. I can't -have them eating each other." - -He bent, still holding the gasping Mameluke by one clamped-tight fist, -and raised the hatch cover and propped it with his foot. Then he lifted -the soldier by his neck, swung him a little so that his flailing heels -kicked out behind, and lobbed him into the opening. There was a squashy -sort of splash, as the man fell full length upon a turbulent blanket -of milling, screaming rodents. At the same time there burst upon the -upper air a horrible carrion stench, like that of a charnel house a -hundred times augmented. The Mameluke gave a cry of pitiable terror, -and another, and then was still. Perhaps he fainted, or perhaps the -rats found his life in that instant. - -Mufaddal knelt above the hatchway, chuckling in his greasy beard. His -brown eyes lit with soft venomous delight. - -Suddenly there shot from the blackness of the hold a single enormous -rat, fascinated by the square of light and throwing all its nervous -energy into one superb attempt to gain the outer world. Mufaddal -quailed back in panic as it flew past his face and landed on the deck, -slithering and floundering in an effort to regain its balance after the -magnificent leap. - -Lest more of them make the try, he dropped the lid to the coamings. -He drew his scimitar. The rat, nearly blinded, jerked its blank gaze -from side to side. Slowly he advanced on it, weapon lifted. It saw him, -opened its evil mouth and squealed insane defiance. - -He made a swipe at it, it dodged and leaped upon him. Its tiny sharp -teeth met in his _gallabiyah_, and it swung from the cloth, snarling -like an angry cat. Frantic, he knocked it to the deck with the flat -of his sword, slicing off a small portion of his own belly in the -process. Then he smashed down the blade. It split the rat in two and -clove into the deck, so deeply that it took him three hearty tugs to -disengage it. - -Bleeding, cursing, and shaking with the after-effects of fear, he -stamped off the ship and across the dock to his house, where he called -his private surgeon to bind up the wound. He began to think about -Godwin, and eventually the Englishman and the rat became thoroughly -confused in his dark mind; so that his impersonal hatred for Godwin -became a very personal loathing and desire for vengeance. - - - - - CHAPTER IX - - -"Godwin dear," said Ramizail, in a voice which for her was small and -deferential indeed. - -"Yes?" he said. He had been dreaming in the saddle of battles he had -fought and brawls he would engage in. - -"Godwin, my own, I'm seasick." - -He stared across at her. El Sareuk said, "Niece, you were straddling a -pony before you could toddle! This is unworthy of you." - -"I don't care. I'm seasick." Her face was pale and beads of sweat stood -on her forehead. "I'm afraid I'm going to disgrace myself," she said, -and promptly did. - -Godwin started to laugh. Then he stopped, and put a hand tentatively -to his own belly. "El Sareuk," he said, "I don't feel so sprightly -myself." - -The Arab chieftain nodded. "You look like a poisoned camel, my friend. -What ails you?" - -"God knows. I too was almost born a-horseback. But, hang it, there's -something the matter with this steed. He keeps going buckety-clomp." - -"What?" - -"Buckety-clomp, that's what it feels like." - -El Sareuk said, "Now that you mention it, my own fellow has developed a -sort of stagger. Could they have drunk bad water?" - -"They drank what we drank. Damn," said Godwin miserably. "You know -what it is? It's some more sorcery. Those thrice-cursed warlocks of -Mufaddal's are up to something again. Mohammed, we'll never get there -at this rate." - -"Cheer up, thou stalwart smiter of satans," said El Sareuk. "Despite -their worst efforts, we've covered four-fifths of the distance already, -and 'tis no more than midday!" - -"I expected to be in Alexandria by now." - -"I cannot imagine what this trick may be that works on you," went on -the Saracen. "But luckily it leaves me untouched. As I am when in -the saddle no more than an extension of my horse, I am naturally not -susceptible to--" - -After a long pause, Godwin cleared his throat and said, "Susceptible to -what?" - -"Never mind," said El Sareuk sorrowfully, and his lean face was faintly -green. "I find that, after all, I am." - -They rode on grimly, until at last Ramizail said, "I'm sorry, I've got -to get off and rest a while. I'm _sick_." - -The two men thankfully reined in, and the party dismounted on the top -of a dune. They all sat down. Shortly Ramizail said, "It's no good. I -still feel awful. The desert's going up and down in front of my eyes." - -"I noticed the same phenomenon," said Godwin. - -"And I," agreed El Sareuk. "The sorcerers have poisoned us, surely." - -There was another silence. - -Godwin murmured, "That's curious." - -"What?" asked El Sareuk, who was striving with might and main not to -throw up. - -"Well, I was watching the horizon swell and sink, swell and sink, swell -and--" - -"For heaven's sake, shut up," groaned Ramizail. - -"And all of a sudden I noticed my horse doing the same thing." He -turned his face toward them. "I mean he was watching it too, nodding -his head. You know, it isn't just us. It's the land. It _is_ rising and -falling. The dunes are rolling like ocean waves." - - * * * * * - -Ramizail raised herself on her elbows and stared out across the sands. -"They are! We stopped atop a dune, now we're in a valley." She spat. -"If this isn't the messiest miracle ever worked, and the dirtiest, and -the foulest, then I am not the mistress of the djinn!" - -"What'll we do?" moaned Godwin. "How can you fight a shifting desert? -How can you make it lie down and be good?" - -El Sareuk stood up. Strong though he was, strong as so much whip-thong -and steel encased in leather, he could fight this nausea no more -effectively than a puppy might engage in warfare with an active -volcano. "Allah punishes me for sinful pride," he said, gagging. "Pride -in my horsemanship. I, who have been to Mecca, still to harbor pride!" -He shaded his eyes from the blazing sun, which was the only stable -object in sight. "The magic cannot stretch from edge to edge of the -desert, for such a thing is beyond the power of even the djinn." - -"Speaking of which, have you found that ring, Godwin?" queried Ramizail -with weak petulance. - -"No, let me be," said the tallow-faced Godwin. - -"I was going to say," continued El Sareuk, "that if we manage to -survive for the few miles, I think we will pass these rolling sands. -Can you stick on your horses?" - -"While I'm alive, I can ride," said Godwin, but without much conviction. - -"If you two can stand it, I can," nodded the girl. - -Yellow-eyes, huddled on the cantle of her master's saddle, croaked -out something that sounded like a blasphemy. The horses drooped -their heads, and the camel bubbled and wailed. They made a pitiful -group. But the humans mounted, and the falcon flew up, and the beasts -staggered forward. They would start to plow up a dune, and slowly like -a wave in slow motion, it would shift until they were heading down into -a valley. The horizon before them was a shifting, mutable line. Never -had any of them been so ill. They had all lost their breakfasts, and -seemed to be trying to recall the supper from night before last. Not a -one of them but would have been happy to lie down, could he have been -sure that he would die. But they pressed on, taking a weak courage from -each other. - -And at last El Sareuk, who in his way was stronger even than the -champion Godwin, blinked watery eyes and said, "We've passed it!" - -They lifted incredulous heads, and found it was true. The shifting -sands had stilled and the desert lay wrapped in its customary peace. - - - - - CHAPTER X - - -They were almost within sight of Alexandria before they found what they -were seeking. Then, just at the last possible moment, they sighted a -large cluster of the black tents of the Bedouins. "Await me here," said -El Sareuk urgently. "I shall collogue with these men and see whether I -cannot raise us an army." He galloped away to the encampment. - -Shortly there was a bustle and stir therein, and many small energetic -men of the Bedouin tribe came running toward the central tent, into -which El Sareuk had vanished. The Bedouins were a cheerful and healthy -lot, inured to hardship, habituated to a rough nomadic life. They -were short and lean, and often looked fragile, but they were fiery, -intractable fighters when aroused. - -When some time had passed, Ramizail said, "He will win them. You'll see -they'll be wild with desire to help us, and to avenge the soiled honor -of Islam. That's the tack he's using--how Mufaddal has betrayed the -dignity and integrity of the Moslem world by this fiendish trick of the -pest ship, and how these Bedouins can expunge the stain by following us -against his forces." - -"Can you do soothsaying without the help of Mihrjan?" asked Godwin -curiously. There was a great deal he did not know even yet about this -strange tall child of Solomon's line. - -"Oh, no. I'm just well acquainted with my uncle's ways of -thinking and speaking and acting. I've seen him whip a crowd of -assorted Saracens--Turks and Mamelukes and Arabs and Soldarii and -Turcomans--into such a frenzy of fanatical zeal that they attacked a -force nine times as large as their own, and cut it to ribbons. He's an -old spell-binder." - -And it turned out as she predicted, for quite soon El Sareuk came -riding toward them at the head of a gang of horsemen, some half a -hundred in all, waving their swords and bows over their heads. Godwin -knew instinctively what to do. He rose in his stirrups and threw up -his tremendous broadsword and howled in Arabic. "Death to all who -defile the name and honor of Islam!" Although he was a good Christian -knight this war-slogan did not seem inappropriate to him in the least; -and it pleased and flattered the Bedouins no end, for El Sareuk had -told them of this mighty-chested warrior who had dedicated himself to -wrong-righting and oppression-ending, leaving the Crusade to travel for -this purpose in company with an Arab prince and half-caste girl. They -answered his hail with lusty yells and riding up to him and Ramizail -they pressed upon them all manner of foods, roast lamb in palm leaves, -legs of fowl, delicacies of every sort, goats' milk for Godwin and -asses' milk for the woman. Greedily they ate and drank as they rode -west, and finished the last crumb as they sighted the outskirts of -Alexandria. - -"We'll ride straight in," said Godwin, now grim and businesslike. -"They're expecting us, so watch out for surprises. Their sorcerers have -told them we're coming, I'll wager my left eye upon it. We'll find out -which wharf the plague ship's moored to, and burn her to the water's -edge. Then we'll seek out this Mufaddal swine, and pin him by his ears -to an ant's nest!" - -His band gave an ululating shout, and the horses were booted into a -gallop. - -It was then about two hours before sunset. - -They rode down one of the principal streets, a rather dirty, narrow -thoroughfare, overhung by the houses on either side. Above the roofs -to their left they could see the pinnacle of Pompey's Pillar, the -towering column of red granite which had stood in Alexandria for eight -centuries. "'Twould be moored in the West Harbor, I think," said El -Sareuk, who knew the city to some extent. He nudged his horse slightly -into the lead and preceded the force through the heart of the place. - -Few signs of life were in evidence. The air was hushed, even the wind -off the sea had drawn back to avoid this silent city, and an atmosphere -of expectancy held the blindly staring buildings. Only an occasional -fellah or more substantial citizen would appear now and again, stare -for a moment at the intent horsemen, and disappear from sight like a -startled wild thing. Godwin tugged at his beard. They were not, as he -had predicted, wholly unexpected. Word had somehow flown through the -streets and bazaars of their coming, and of the imminent brawl. Perhaps -magic was at work, too, though he felt and saw nothing to indicate it. - -They approached the docks, catching glimpses of them at intervals in -the houses, and Godwin grew even more tense and watchful. Then, as he -and Ramizail and the chief of the Bedouins all abreast, with El Sareuk -four hand-breadths in advance, galloped round a turn, the attack was -launched upon them. - - * * * * * - -From the roof of a house on the corner a great net, like those used by -fishermen, was flung out, weighted and tossed by experienced hands; -it fell upon the four of them, an entangling, encumbering, maddening -enemy, knocking Ramizail out of the saddle, tipping Godwin's helmet -over his eyes, snaring all their drawn weapons and seeming to writhe -about them as though it were a sentient creature. Godwin shouted, "Use -your blades!" and began hacking away at the cords with his broadsword. -It was not the razor-keen instrument that El Sareuk's scimitar was, -however, and the old Saracen had to release him after cutting free -himself. Ramizail was dodging on hands and knees between the legs of -the terrified horses. The Bedouin leader yelled, "leave the beasts;" -and Godwin realized that they must. It would take minutes to slice the -net sufficiently to unscramble the steeds. He slid off his Spanish -charger, picked up Ramizail by the waist, dodged under a reaching fold -of the net and gained the free ground. - -Men were attacking from the mouth of every alley, Turks in Persian -armor with three-foot scimitars and little round shields, mercenary -Turcomans with stout short bows and fists full of arrows, Mamelukes -in yellow tunics carrying battle-axes. The Bedouins pirouetted their -horses to meet them. Some of the enemy were mounted, many on foot. -Battle-cries arose, and this was the strangest thing about the fight, -for both sides lifted the same cry, the howling chant of Islam: -"_Ul-ul-ul-ul-ul-ul-allah akbar! Allah il-al-lahu! Ul-ul-ul-ul-allah -akbar!_" - -Godwin, still carrying Ramizail, parried a vicious thrust by a -Seljuk Turk and swung his broadsword. A wave of terrible and utter -happiness swept through him. For this had Godwin of England been -born and trained. His blade smashed down through helmet and skull to -clunk dully on the neckpiece of the Turk's armor. Then he had jerked -it free and turned and driven it squarely into the back of a foeman -who was duelling with the dismounted El Sareuk. Again he whipped it -out, whirled it above his head and smashed its broad flat against the -bearded and grimacing face of a Turcoman. Blood and brains exploded -like seeds and pulp from a shattered pumpkin. Godwin roared gleefully. -Having cleared the space around him, he set Ramizail on her feet and -said, "Stand back to back with me, sweet. My halidom! This is something -like it!" - -She slammed her back against his. An etched-bladed knife was in her -capable hand, and she had the look of a ravening demon. - -El Sareuk, wiping his dripping scimitar on the _djelabie_ of a fallen -opponent, said, "Where's Yellow-eyes?" for he had grown very fond of -Godwin's battle-scarred old peregrine. - -"I don't know. Trust her to come safe through this!" And in a moment, -as Godwin engaged in swordplay with two Moslems, the falcon did indeed -slant down from the sky, to beat her wings fiercely in the eyes of one -of the enemy who was trying to slash at Ramizail under Godwin's arm. - -"Thou beauty!" said Godwin, dividing the blinded gentleman neatly at -the waist. "Thou cleaver of storm-clouds! Always art thou here when -Godwin has need of thee!" Only to his falcon and his horse did Godwin -speak in this affectionate fashion. It sometimes made Ramizail jealous. - -Many of their Bedouin allies had fallen to the arrows and swords of -the attackers. Now men appeared on the nearest roofs, armed with huge -slings and round stones. Mufaddal evidently desired to take prisoners, -and knowing that Godwin's forces would fight to the last man, had -chosen this way of stunning some of them. A flight of stones laid out -three-quarters of the remaining force, including El Sareuk; Godwin took -a couple on his shield--he was the prime target--and wished he had an -arbalest; he'd bring 'em down from those aeries! Then a rock caught him -at the base of the skull, and he groaned and buckled over and struck -the ground with a crash. Yellow-eyes fluttered up and hung over him, -screeching. Ramizail bent above him, crying out with horror. Then big -rough hands were on her, her knife was twitched away, and she was -hauled off, keening like a banshee, to the house of Mufaddal al Mamun. - - - - - CHAPTER XI - - -The black-faced slob who led the troops of the Saracens in Alexandria -was seated cross-legged on a rug, eating a bowlful of dry rice. He -squinted at Ramizail where she stood, defiant and tear-stained, across -the room from him. "Bring the slut here," said he. Two slaves dragged -her forward. They took their hands away when they had stationed her in -front of him; she immediately hit one of them in the eye and kicked -the other on the shin. Then she bent over and thrust a finger under -Mufaddal's nose. - -"Watch who you're calling a slut, you pig-eyed ape-visaged son of a -buck-toothed jackal!" she said in a low but quite audible snarl. "Do -you have any idea who I am?" - -He made as if to shrug, snatched her by the wrist and flung her prone -on the rug before him. "I know who you are, you viper mouthed hell hag. -You're Ramizail, who once controlled the djinn." - -"I still control them, you bat-eared offspring of a pock-marked toad." - -"Oh no you don't, you mildewed bowlegged harridan," said Mufaddal. -With the "bowlegged" epithet he went too far, as any student of women, -and especially of the vain Ramizail, could have told him. She rolled -over and smiled up at him and before he knew what she intended, her -teeth had met in the flesh of his calf. He leaped straight up with a -full-throated bawl of pain. - -She sat back and crossed her legs Moslem-fashion and said, "Now that -the pleasantries are done with, let me tell you that the chief of all -the djinn, y-clept Mihrjan would--and _could_--do anything for me. So -just watch your step, you greasy-handed scheming scum, or you'll find -yourself hanging by your--" - -"Mihrjan would indeed have done anything for you," said Mufaddal, -rolling up his cheap cotton trousers and dabbing at the blood on his -leg with a piece of the equally cheap rug, which he tore off for the -purpose. "But your friend Godwin sent Mihrjan away and told him to stay -till he was called. And now he's lost the ring of Solomon, and you're -helpless. Ouch!" he yipped as the rug rasped over his wound. "Well, -almost helpless. I suppose I'll have to have all your teeth pulled -before I make you my concubine." - -"Before you make me a concubine, you draff of the Cairo gutters, you'll -have to pull my teeth and draw my nails and hamstring me and break my -arms, and even then I'll _gum_ you to death!" she yelled. - -He regarded her out of the corner of his eye, and thought that perhaps -she was right, and that he should give up this idea. Certainly there -was always the chance that her djinni might come looking for her -against Godwin's orders; but he took a second look and decided the -djinni could go hang. She was as luscious a piece of loot as had come -his way in years. She was standing now, hands on hips. He motioned one -of the slaves up. - -"Let's see what she looks like under all those layers of drapery," he -said. - -The slave grinned, whipped out a knife, and before Ramizail could turn -he expertly ran its razor-honed blade up her back, within a millimeter -of her spine. Her robes fell forward, slit from waist to neck, and -she saved her modesty only by a quick grab at the front of them. -Whirling--and Ramizail when she wished could move like a tornado in a -hurry--she snatched the knife from his careless grasp, shifted it to -a comfortable position in her hand, and with a lightning stroke cut -the belt of his scarlet satin pantaloons. The slave clutched at them -desperately ... just too late. He turned to flee this demon-wench, the -trousers entangled his ankles, and he sprawled headlong across the -floor. The other slave came warily forward, groping out toward the girl. - -She menaced him with the knife. "Want to lose your pants too, little -man?" she asked. - - * * * * * - -He was a shy and sensitive soul at heart. He glanced at his trousers, -at the knife, turned pale, moaned, and dashed for the door. Ramizail -faced Mufaddal, who was nursing his calf and gaping appreciatively at -the slim brown back exposed by the slave's blade. - -"Turn around for a minute, al Mamun," she hissed, "while I fix my -robes. If you don't, the last thing you'll see will be this silver -sliver!" She flashed the knife within an inch of his popping orbs. He -hastily swiveled round and faced the wall. - -"One would think you were deficient in the body, and ashamed of it," he -growled. - -"If you would care to see just how extremely undeficient I am, you big -baboon," she said, slicing off the whole top of her cream-colored outer -robe and knotting it around her ample bosom in the form of a halter, -with the copper-hued gown caught beneath it to chastely cover her -diaphragm, "then you have only to snatch one peek over your shoulder. I -assure you it would give you a moment of supreme pleasure, immediately -before you died." A low estimation of her own attractions was never a -failing of Ramizail's. "And you would die, Mufaddal. They tell me a -sliced gullet can be painful. Do you want to find out?" - -"No," said Mufaddal sullenly, staring hard at the wall. What a -long-clawed cat from the alleys of Hell! he thought. Had she been less -beautiful, he would slay her in this instant. But he wanted her, and -without blemish or scar, so he sat motionless until she said, "All -right, turn around. But no more clever ideas from you, or I'll really -grow angry." She tucked the knife into her girdle as he pushed himself -around to face her. - -"Very well," he said, "I'll buy you. I respect your spirit, woman. -'Tis a trait I like in my women. How now, if I heaped your lap with -emeralds and nephrite jade?" - -"Green was never one of my favorite colors," said she, sitting down -comfortably across the rug from him. She cast about for a way to show -her absolute contempt, bethought herself of her playing cards which she -always carried with her, and drew the pack out of a purse she wore on -her girdle. - -"What are they?" he asked, intrigued in spite of himself, as she began -to lay them out on the rug. - -"Playing cards. My djinn brought them to me from a far future time. -They haven't even been invented yet," said she, studying the faces of -those upturned. - -"What does one do with them? Not that I care," he added, remembering -his carefully-built reputation for single-minded fanaticism. - -"One plays many games. I might teach you one, were you not as stupid as -a hog and as dull-witted as an aged camel." - -"I am as intelligent as you," yowled Mufaddal. Then, since she was a -mere woman, "More intelligent, blast your smirking face! Teach me a -game!" - -"The best one is called Poke Her," said Ramizail. "But to really play -properly, we need four people." - -Mufaddal threw a dish at the remaining slave, who was sitting in -a corner trying to repair his belt. "Go fetch me Heraj and Pepi," -he ordered. "Also bring some food. Something to munch on. And some -fermented-bread beer." The slave trotted out, gripping his ravished -pants. - -Presently the two sorcerers came in, Heraj very glum. "What's wrong -with you, lemon-lips?" asked Mufaddal. - -"What'd you do with Godwin and his crew?" asked Heraj. - -"You know very well." - -"Yes, I know. You threw them into the jail with those captured -Crusaders and the others. I don't like the risk, brother. You ought to -kill the whole lot of them now. You underestimate that big Englishman. -And the renegade El Sareuk is no babe, either." - -"The cell is as well guarded as a prince's _harim_," said Mufaddal. - -"Yes, but any man who can slay a winged lion is a match for fifty -seraglio guards. Kill 'em, I say. The plague ship sails with the early -morning tide. Why take unnecessary chances?" - -"I have several simple but pleasurable notions in mind for Godwin -and his misguided cohorts. Come here, I'll whisper one of them to -you." Heraj stalked over and bent down. Mufaddal sputtered wetly and -intimately in his ear. Presently the sorcerer began to grin. - -"Not bad. I guess it's worth the risk. I'll be extra cautious, anyway." -He sat down beside Mufaddal. He extracted a goblet of saffron-yellow -bubbling wine from his brother Pepi's yataghan pommel and drank it off. -"What did you call us in for?" he asked, gazing at Ramizail with the -expression of a starving vulture catching sight of a prime steak. - -"This wench has a game to teach me, and it needs four players. Go on, -girl," said Mufaddal, with as close an approach to amiability as was -possible for him to assume. - -Ramizail dealt out five cards apiece, having unobtrusively stacked the -deck, and began to teach them the exotic game of Poke Her. - - - - - CHAPTER XII - - -The dungeon of al Mamun was a squat brick square, with a flat clay -roof and tiny slit windows, erected at a little distance from the main -building of his establishment, between the wharf and the barracks that -housed his common soldiery. In its stinking, superheated confines now -lay a score of Crusaders, captured a month before while on detached -patrol duty from Richard's forces; twenty-seven Bedouins, the remains -of Godwin's army; fourteen assorted Saracens, in jail for one offense -or another against Mufaddal; El Sareuk and Godwin himself. - -There was barely enough floor space for each man of the sixty-three to -stand upright, or to sit, if he didn't mind jostling his neighbors. -Godwin was standing by a window looking out at the dock from which the -dark plague ship, a tall obscene blot against the descending moon, had -a quarter of an hour before set sail. El Sareuk was beside him, making -suggestions. - -"How if we all formed a kind of wedge, Godwin, and began battering the -door with the point? A few would be crushed, certainly, but the door -might be torn down." - -"Well, we'll try it, old wolf, if nothing better occurs to us." Godwin -leaned in the little embrasure, tugging fretfully at his blond beard. -"If I had my sword...!" He clanked his leg chains with anger; they had -chained him and El Sareuk and a couple of the brawnier Crusaders. Damn -all, he thought to himself. The ship is gone, what does it matter if we -get out or not? Except to save Ramizail, of course. If I could remember -what I did with that bloody ring! Mihrjan could sink that ship like an -oaken chip. - -And then, as the moon touched the far crest of the sea, the door opened -and a Mameluke thrust in his head. - -"Godwin! Godwin's wanted!" - -The prisoners all burst into raucous speech, invitations and curses. - -"Come and get him!" - -"Do venture within, jailer, and let us show thee something pretty!" - -"Enter, thou fuzz-bearded son of a dung heap, and fetch him!" - -Godwin pushed his way to the door. The Mameluke retreated behind it. -"Step out, Godwin," he said, nervously prodding the Englishman with his -sword. "Mufaddal wants you." - -Godwin grinned evilly, and stepped forth. The Mameluke, who Godwin -now saw had a file of soldiers at his back, slammed the door on the -execrations of the prisoners. "Come along," he growled. - -El Sareuk, watching from a window, saw Godwin disappear with a firm -step into the waning night, clinking his leg chains jauntily. - -For long he did not come back. The old Arab harangued the sixty-one men -who were left, urging that they forget their feuds and crusades and -band together against their captor; and they agreed whole-heartedly -with him, and fell to making plans for escape and vengeance. Not a man -of them but hated Mufaddal, and most of all for his loathsome scheme of -the plague ship. - -They all sat down, crowding up to one another in the heat and stench of -the prison, and made a narrow aisle through the center of the place so -that El Sareuk could pace up and down while he talked and gestured and -plotted, rattling the iron fetters on his legs. - -"If we can get out, and I say we can, even if we leave half our number -dead on the floor behind us, then we must make a dash for the house, -and pulverize this devil before he can concoct any more foul designs!" -he shouted. - -They all roared. The building seemed to quiver on its foundations. El -Sareuk smote his forehead. "Now by Allah and again by Allah! Is this -our answer? Remember the walls of Jericho, O Brothers!" - -They caught his meaning at once, and at the upswing of his hand every -man let loose a full-throated bellow. A Crusader edged into a corner -shouted, "The walls shuddered! The force of the sound shook them!" - -They repeated the clamor, and dirt from the roof sifted down over them. -For five minutes they raised a thunderous din, and might have gone on -doing so till the sun rose, had not the door drawn open just then. - -They all peered round, and a gorilla walked in. It was chained around -the ankles and had a quizzical expression on its broad flat face. - -They were brave men, but unarmed, and they all shrank away from it -with indrawn breath and small fearful cries. El Sareuk, pale, clutched -automatically for his absent scimitar. - -The door slammed. The gorilla scratched its head, leaned against the -jamb, and remarked in a loud disgusted voice, laden thick with English -accent, "What the hell is the matter with you white-livered ruffians? -You think I'm going to eat you?" - - - - - CHAPTER XIII - - -The gorilla stood by an embrasure, resting its elbows on the sill and -staring moodily off toward the wharf. The sky was growing light with -the approach of dawn. There is a small tide in the Mediterranean, much -smaller than those of the greater oceans. It had been running now for -nearly an hour. The pest ship, all sails spread, was hull down on the -horizon. - -The gorilla said gruffly, "El Sareuk, there is a sick void in my vitals -that makes the shifting sands appear a mild holiday by comparison! The -ship is gone--we've lost our fight to save England!" - -The Saracen scratched his beard. "You have fleas, friend, and you're -giving them to me.... Godwin, how did this terrible witchery come to -pass? I mean this new form of yours?" - -Godwin, the gorilla, grunted. "They hauled me into a room where the big -dish-faced swine, what's his name--" - -"Mufaddal." - -"Yes, Muffin-face or whatever. He was sitting on a blanket with two of -his sorcerers and Ramizail. She'd taught them one of her games with -those 'playing cards.' The senior sorcerer, Heraj, had won about a -bushel of assorted jewelry and gew-gaws, and Ramizail had stacks of -gold coins like a rampart in front of her. They were all bleary-eyed -with lack of sleep, but the game has such a hold that none of them, not -even Ramizail, stopped playing for full five minutes after I had been -brought in." - -"It must have been Poke Her. No game has such a fascination." - -"Yes. Then Muffin-face tipped Heraj a wink, and the camel's bastard -went into a trance or something, and the first thing I knew I was -scratching myself on the rump where a flea had bitten me. I imagined -he'd presented me with a plague of fleas, till I realized that I wasn't -scratching good armor, but bare hide with fur on it!" - -"What a horror!" said El Sareuk, shuddering. "The man must have Satan's -powers." - -Godwin's shaggy head nodded. "'Twas he made it possible for the pest -ship to be cargoed. Well, I looked myself over, and then knocked down -a guard and took his polished shield away from him. They all had their -swords out in a trice, but I only wanted to see my face in it. To -have attacked them then would only have meant throwing my life away -uselessly. I looked into the shield and--this is what I saw." He turned -the gorilla's sad-somber visage toward his friend. "Heraj exchanged -my body with this animal's, which it seems inhabits a savage jungle -country far down in Africa. So somewhere in a forest my own body walks -beneath the trees, clad in my robes and armor, thinking a wild beast's -thought!" - -"This Heraj must be powerful beyond thought!" - -"He said deprecatingly to his filthy master that he had his -limitations, but I cannot imagine them. What a bit of sorcery! Anyhow, -Mufaddal then bragged that he would make Ramizail his concubine, and -chain me to the bedchamber wall in the guise of a household pet. I had -all I could do to keep my fingers from his throat. But I bethought me -of Ramizail at the mercy of this pack of devils with me dead, and held -my rage. Then she came to me, unhindered by them, because they wanted -to see the spectacle of a maiden embracing a brute; and under cover of -her embrace, she slipped this into my hand, and I hid it under my fur." -He withdrew from his armpit the knife which Ramizail had taken from the -slave. - - * * * * * - -El Sareuk's lean face lit with a fanatic fire. "Why, we are weaponed, -then! And we have this body, which they've given you, like a crew of -imbeciles and village idiots, when its strength must equal that of ten -Godwins!" - -"Well, not that damn strong," said the gorilla reproachfully. "After -all, I was no weakling." - -"Yes, yes, but look here, friend; between the weapon and the new body, -can we not force an escape from this hole? Subdue the caitiffs, take a -ship and pursue the plague vessel! The thing is surely within our power -now!" - -The gorilla shook his head dully. "You are staring, old comrade, at the -work of this Heraj. Do you think he couldn't stop an attack by us with -a wave of one finger?" - -El Sareuk hissed fiercely, "Where's the Godwin I knew aforetime? Has -the magician exchanged your guts with some sheep's?" He clapped the -beast on the shoulder. "And see, I have bethought myself of something. -Ramizail never does anything without plan, and witty, clever plan at -that. She is playing cards with these magicians, true?" - -"They were back at their game before I'd been hauled out of the room." - -"I see her strategy as plain as though I had laid it myself! She has -found the chink in the sorcerer's armor. He is engrossed with the game, -to the exclusion of all else. We can make our break, and with any luck, -burst into that room before he knows something's amiss! Then one swift -twitch of your paw--forgive me, I mean your hand--and he's carrion!" - -The gorilla considered long. At last he said, "It's a slim chance, but -by the rood, we'll take it! Better a slim chance now than no chance -after they chain me to the harem wall. And 'tis a thought, that of -pursuing the plague ship. I had given up all hope when it left its -moorings. I never thought of another ship." - -"Your brains are addled by the change in form, or you'd have riddled it -all out before I did," said the Arab generously. "Now then, how shall -we go about it?" - -They talked in low voices for a few minutes. The day brightened beyond -the window. At last El Sareuk said, "That's it. The best possibility, I -think." - -"One other thing," said Godwin. "Around the knife when Ramizail gave it -to me was wrapped this." He showed the Saracen the sigil of Solomon, -the chain of which he had placed about his neck, with the seal hanging -down behind among his black fur. "What d'you make of that?" - -"Why, she hopes you'll find the ring, and if you have both, you can -call the djinn. Obviously the sigil is no good to her alone." - -"Fat chance I've got to find the ring," moaned the gorilla. "It's -jiggling around a jungle somewhere, a thousand miles south." - -"Yes. Ah well, we asked Allah for adventures when we left Jaffa for -a nomad life," said El Sareuk philosophically. "Though little did we -dream they'd come in battalions like this!" - - - - - CHAPTER XIV - - -The gorilla was as tall as Godwin had been in his proper form, four -inches over six feet. The Crusader standing on his shoulders was the -tallest of their lot, six feet two. His head came within a hand's -breadth of the roof. Balanced by a palm on the ceiling, he was digging -away at the baked clay with Ramizail's smuggled knife. - -The mob was singing. Once a guard had opened the door and bawled at -them to stop that infernal racket before they all had their throats -choked with dirt, but they had cursed at him so impressively that, -sword or no sword, he had retreated hastily and barred the door behind -him. The mob had gone on singing. The Crusaders had sung ditties of -England and home and beauty, with the Saracens humming and beating -time; then the Saracens had taken over with chants of Islam and Bedouin -love tunes, while the Crusaders accompanied them in muted bass choruses -of _hmm-hmm-hmms_. - -This din had effectively covered the scraping of the knife, which was -chipping away the old roof at a good clip. - -Now a bit of sunny sky showed through. The Crusader grinned, got a firm -purchase with his bare toes on Godwin's hairy shoulders, braced his -left hand above his head, hooked his right into the hole, and tugged -downward. A big chunk of brick fell on his upturned face. He shook his -blond head and chuckled. A trickle of blood ran into his mouth. Nothing -could have tasted sweeter. - -Gradually the hole widened, till at last it was the width of a man's -body and more. Godwin, the gorilla, said in Arabic, "Enough! Now onto -the roof, a dozen of you!" - -Swiftly they swarmed up over him as though he were a scaling ladder. -Slim Arab fought silently with big-bodied Englishman for the honor of -being in the vanguard. Then Godwin barked again, "Enough!" They drew -back, those who had not gone up through the hole, and he flexed his -knees and gave a tremendous spring. Ape's muscles and man's know-how -carried him straight upward; his paws caught the rim of the hole. Some -clay crumbled beneath his weight, which was more than six hundred -pounds. But sufficient held to give him a moment's grace. He hurled his -bullet head and huge shoulders into the gap, the clay wedged his belly -in for an instant, then he had burst through and was floundering on the -roof, chained legs still dangling within. El Sareuk's tough old hands -took him by the wrists and hauled. He was safe. - - * * * * * - -Crouching, he led his party to the edge of the flat roof, walking with -legs spread so his tight fetters would not clank. It was the landward -side of the prison, facing the barracks of Mufaddal's soldiery. Before -the barracks paraded two sentries. Below Godwin's gang were two more, -dungeon guards, one posted at each corner. The sun was brilliant on -their steel helmets as they stood silent, foreshortened by the height, -unconscious of any harm. - -Godwin singled out two of his men, pointed to their targets, and went -with his colleagues to the wall above the door. From here they could -see two more sentries at the other corners, and four stationed at the -door itself. He allotted Bedouins to the remaining corner guards, gave -a signal, and launched himself into the air with a war-cry that began -in his belly and strangled in his throat, so that for fear of alarming -the barracks guards all that emerged from his mouth was a sibilant -fierce hiss. Behind him his silent henchmen followed him off the roof. -Within the jail, the fifty-one men still prisoner were raising echoes -with a rousing drinking song imported from Germany. - -Godwin, as the gorilla, smashed down upon two guards who had been -sleepily cursing together the tyranny of their master Mufaddal. They -never knew what crushed them. - -The other guards, inundated by a wave of angry captives, died as -quietly; while the men at the corners did their work with practiced, -pitiless hands. Godwin skipped up to the corner of the jail and looked -toward the barracks, some seventy yards away. As he had hoped, the -two pacing sentries were oblivious of the slaughter. Their turns were -made toward the barracks, so that only by an accidental or inquisitive -turn of the head during their march would they take in the prison. He -glanced behind him. El Sareuk was unbarring the door, while others were -donning the distinctive chest armor and helmets and picking up the -weapons of the dead guards. Three of them shortly went off toward the -garrison building. They were all men who had formerly soldiered for -Mufaddal, and Godwin hoped they could carry through their masquerade -for the few seconds necessary to insure silence. - -They did. The sentries died with never an outcry. Two of Godwin's men -took up the pacing rounds. The others dragged the bodies down to the -prison. They were rolled into it, together with those who had preceded -them in death, and the dank stinking place now contained ten naked -corpses, where a scant ten minutes before had lain sixty-two men and a -gorilla. - -The gorilla now said to El Sareuk, who was opening shackles with a key -taken from the chief guard, "The biggest mistake Mufaddal ever made -was when he turned me into this monster and then sent me back to the -dungeon to frighten you fellows with his dark powers. We've broken his -jail, and now we'll break his house. And then, by God, I think we may -even break his plague ship!" - -"How? How?" asked the old Saracen fiercely. - -"No time now, old one. Let's make for the house." He stationed four -of his men at the corners and two before the door; these last two he -regretfully deprived of weapons, for an assault on Mufaddal's own -stronghold demanded at least four scimitars and a knife or so. Then he -led his grim-faced legion across the heated earth toward the palace. - - - - - CHAPTER XV - - -"El Sareuk, are you sure you want to do this?" Godwin said anxiously, -as he stood in the shadow of the building's north side and plucked -tufts of fur out in search of an elusive flea. "There's small danger, -true, but your dignity!" - -The Saracen turned on him the face of a natural-born but -long-frustrated thespian. "I would cut down the man who presumed to -keep me from it," he said loftily. - -"Very well. Be careful, venerable wolf. Remember that I don't know how -fast this hulking body can run." - -"I shall be as circumspect and as wily as the hungry small jackal." - -"Then go to it, and Godspeed!" - -El Sareuk peered round the corner of Mufaddal's house. The facade was a -hundred and fifty feet long, and the door was set in the very center, -with four Turcomans to guard it. He cleared his throat as though he -were going to give a speech, hiked up his robes, and went bounding out -to the dock, which ran parallel to the front of the house and a little -more than ten yards from it. - -The soldiers were chatting among themselves, and did not notice his -advent on the dock, nor whence he came. - -At once he began to croon, as if singing himself songs, and to leap -up and down, ruffling his rose samite and blue silken robes out like -broken wings, spreading his black Bedouin cloak by twirling as fast as -a dervish, all the time mowing and grinning like a demented thing. The -four turned from their conversation and stared at him. He appeared to -see them for the first time, and diving forward with his head down like -a battering ram, rocketed forward almost into their midst. - -Two of them drew scimitars, but one of the others said angrily, -"Seest thou not he is afflicted of Allah?" They put up their weapons, -shame-faced. - -He began to do a jig, little by little drawing away to the south so -that they wheeled to watch him. Over their shoulders he saw the blunt -skull of the gorilla poke round the corner. It was his last chance to -ham it up. He doubled over and gave his feet a flip and was standing -on his head, all the while singing a rather tuneless song of his own -composition, about the amours of a pascha, to drown out any noise that -Godwin might make. - -One of the men cried, "Look, brothers, look! He wears gold-washed armor -beneath his robes!" - -They drew their scimitars, for no idiot of the byways of Alexandria -wore the armor of a prince. - - * * * * * - -Godwin covered the seventy feet in six bounds. Two of the men he -clutched by an ear apiece and knocked their heads together, almost a -gesture in passing, a thing to be done without thinking. Before the -clang of their helmets had died away he was doing the same to the other -pair. His new frame was, as El Sareuk had said, far more potent even -than the human body which had stood up many a time to thirty opponents. -The quartet lay stretched on the ground, gray ooze and red blood -spilling from their broken skulls. - -And so he had eight scimitars, nine knives, and six sets of body armor, -together with six helmets. "Not so bad," said he, as his men stripped -the corpses. "Now for the house!" - -Those Saracens who were dressed as Mufaddal's men went first into -the house. Godwin followed, with El Sareuk (whose yen for acting was -now glutted) and the forty-seven others, the Crusaders and Bedouins, -treading on his heels. No one opposed them in the cool hall. - -Godwin considered. Then, "Fan out," he whispered loudly, so that they -all heard him, "and search the house. Slay all you find save women. El -Sareuk, pick two Englishmen and two Bedouins and come with me." - -Straight for the room of the card-players he went, his huge gray-black -body speeding like a falcon's flight, with the five behind having -trouble in keeping up with him. Through one room, in which five men sat -eating, he raged silently; and before their astonishment at seeing such -a brute appear in a civilized household would let them yell, they were -dead on the parquet floor. Scimitars dripped gore and the gorilla's -paws and thick trunk-like arms were spatted with it. Then they reached -the room they sought. - -Yes, they were still at the cards, even as he had hoped. Ramizail's -game had held them fascinated, though Mufaddal had had to send out -for more cash and gems half a dozen times. Surely, thought Godwin, -surveying them for one fleeting moment from the doorway, surely this -girl was as clever as the wisest sage in England! She had known that he -would make good use of the dagger she had smuggled and the hours she -had won him. - -Heraj, luckily, had his back to the door. Ramizail and Mufaddal himself -faced it. Pepi had retired to a corner to snore, while the third -sorcerer, Habu, had taken his place. - -Mufaddal was squinting at his hand. He had four aces, but if his usual -luck held, either Ramizail or Heraj would have a straight flush. Seven -times that night the accursed wench had taken a pot with a royal flush. -Seven times! It seemed to him a rather high number. He was becoming a -Poke Her fiend, nevertheless. - -He looked up to lay a bet, and froze as his eyes met the small fierce -orbs of the gorilla in the doorway. A coward would have screamed, but a -man of Mufaddal's boasted courage would have sprung over the heads of -the players to close with the beast. - -Mufaddal screamed. - - - - - CHAPTER XVI - - -Heraj uncoiled like a spring, his mind hastily flitting through mental -file cards for an appropriate spell against gorillas. He had no doubt -that it _was_ the gorilla. He was turning to check, and had just -decided on the brief but pithy incantation which sent victims to the -plains of Afghanistan, when a large firm paw smote him on the nape of -the neck, and the subsequent proceedings interested him no more. - -Habu clutched for his wand. He was a very minor warlock and needed a -wand to do anything more complicated than the three-shell trick. His -hand never reached the ebony stick. Godwin picked him up and threw him -contemptuously at the wall, which he hit so hard that his backbone was -telescoped into itself and some twenty-nine of his other bones were -fractured in more or less intricate ways. - -Pepi woke up, saw the tip of El Sareuk's sword held steadily at -the hollow of his throat, and closed his eyes as if he had been -sand-bagged. "One move of those lips, witch-man," said the old Arab -pleasantly, "one small spell begun, and you will be breathing through -several more orifices than nature intended." Pepi lay as silent and -motionless as a defunct stork, which he vaguely resembled. - -Mufaddal was waving his scimitar in arcs before him, bellowing for his -soldiers, calling on Allah to smite these heathen devils, and cursing -the magic of Heraj that had turned a plain man into this ghastly -demon-thing advancing on him. He had entirely forgotten that it had -been his idea to change Godwin to an animal for vengeance's sake. - -Ramizail lay on her back and drummed her heels on the floor and laughed -with delight at the spectacle of her beloved--and despite his present -shape, he _was_ her beloved--wading in amongst the enemy in such -headlong fashion. "Smear the big hellhound all over the wall, darling!" - -"Ramizail," said the gorilla, maneuvering for advantage, "that is not -ladylike. Get up off the floor and stop swearing." He then feinted -with one paw, caught the scimitar by the flats with the steel fingers -of his other, twitched it out of Mufaddal's horrified grasp, stepped up -to him and gave him a splendid uppercut on the point of the jaw. - -Mufaddal joined his sorcerers on the floor. - -"Now then," said Godwin, rubbing his paws briskly together, "fetch me -that necromancer, El Sareuk!" - -Pepi, milk-faced and shaking, was led into the center of the room. -Had he been Heraj, he could have mumbled a spell ventriloquially and -relegated them all to the top of a pyramid. Luckily he was not Heraj. - -Godwin regarded him for a moment. Pepi found that the direct gaze of -an angry gorilla is not a thing to put heart in a man. He gave a tiny -moan, almost a squeak. The gorilla expanded his chest, which measured -seventy inches, and said, "You're Pepi, if I recall correctly?" - -"Y-y-yes, O Magnificent One," said Pepi. - -"Pepi, I want you to transport me to the plague ship. Instanter." - -"Oh, I couldn't do that," said the bony wizard, turning if possible a -little paler than before. "I can only do small things, such as--" - -"Then I guess you may as well die too," said Godwin regretfully, and -reached out a paw. - -Pepi nearly collapsed. "Wait a m-m-m-m," he said. "I mean wait a -s-s-s-s. Maybe there's a way." - -"Think of it fast, scrawny one," said El Sareuk. - -"I'm thinking," said Pepi hurriedly. "I'm thinking." - - * * * * * - -Godwin just then gave a cry of pleasure. He had spied his broadsword -in its leather sheath, hanging on the wall above Mufaddal's inert form -like a trophy, together with his Saracen helmet and kite-shaped shield -and his curved Persian dagger. He bounded across and tore them down. - -"A chap may be given the lineaments of a gorgon," he said, buckling the -sword around his waist and clapping the helmet atop his round animal's -head, "but he still seems naked without his weapons. By heaven, I feel -better already! Now, Pepi, the method." - -"Well, look, O Superb and Generous Prince," stammered the sorcerer, "I -think I might work it with a carpet." - -"I fail to see your point, sirrah." - -"A flying carpet, O--" - -"Never mind the O's. What's a flying carpet?" - -"Not a very hard trick, really. You get on a carpet and say a certain -incantation, and you're flying." - -"How fast?" - -"As fast as you will it." - -"And you can do it? You can turn a carpet into a bird, as it were?" - -"I think I can," said Pepi doubtfully. "No, no," he added hastily as -Godwin flexed his biceps, "I'm sure I can." - -"Do it, then. El Sareuk, put your blade across his neck. At the -first out-of-the-ordinary thing that happens, except for the carpet's -enchanting, deprive him of his head." - -El Sareuk laid his scimitar to Pepi's throat with a warm smile. - -Pepi looked at a rolled-up Persian carpet in a corner of the room, the -only corner that did not seem to be jammed full of bodies. He muttered -something under his breath. The carpet slowly unrolled. - -"By the diamonded pillars of Hell!" gasped El Sareuk. "I believe he can -do it!" - -Pepi brightened up as his magic drifted the carpet across the floor -toward them. "If you will sit on it, O Magnificence, it will carry you -to the ship, be it so far as a hundred leagues to sea." - -"How do I work it?" asked the gorilla suspiciously. - -"Merely sit cross-legged upon it and think. It will speed or slow as -you desire. It is attuned to the wishes of the rider." - -"That's right," put in Ramizail. "I have ridden many a carpet, dear. -Nothing to it." - -Godwin tugged at his bare chin, where in happier times there had been -a yellow beard. He dropped his shield on the blue and red surface of -the carpet, which was now floating leisurely an inch off the floor. It -seemed solid enough. "Listen, old wolf," he said. "See you take care of -the girl till I come back." - -"Have I not done so for nineteen years?" asked El Sareuk reproachfully. - -"And send these lads out to fortify the house as well as possible. The -barracks will be sure to find out sooner or later that something's -amiss over here. I hope I'll be back in time to help you, when the -brawl erupts; but the ship's the important thing just now." - -"By Allah, it is! If we all die, 'twas in a worthy cause." - -"We won't," said Ramizail complacently. "I feel it in my bones." She -smiled at Godwin. "Good fortune, my dear." - -"Thanks. I'd ask you to kiss me, but I've seen this face. By the way," -said he to Pepi, at whose neck the blade of El Sareuk still pressed -lightly but insistently, "can you give me back my own body?" - -"Only Heraj could have done that," said Pepi wanly. - -"Damnation. Oh, well," said the gorilla, and without more ado climbed -onto the carpet and sat down. "Good-bye, all," he said. His short brow -furrowed. Great fangs bared briefly in a grin of concentration. Nothing -happened. - -"Give it t-t-time," yipped Pepi, as the Arab's sword just nudged his -throat. - -The carpet gave a preliminary lurch, like a horse testing its muscles -of an early morning, and then with a whoosh shot through the door and -disappeared. From the other rooms that lay between them and the front -of the house rose shouts of astonishment, as Godwin's forces observed -him sail past them, clawing madly at the front edge of the rocketing -carpet. - -At that moment Mufaddal gave a low groan, unheard by anyone there; and -Heraj the senior sorcerer opened his eyes and stared thoughtfully at -the ceiling. - - - - - CHAPTER XVII - - -Making a test flight on the blue and red carpet in the house was -tantamount to bestraddling a horse for the first time and having to -jump him over a series of rivers and log falls and then gallop along -a precipice edge, thought Godwin. He wished he had carried or led the -thing out of doors before he got aboard. He missed the first door jamb -by a fraction, canted over dangerously to skirt a startled Bedouin, -aimed for the second door and saw he was too far off the floor, ducked -his head just in time to escape a crack from the lintel, had the -almost overpowering urge to close his eyes and let himself be buttered -all over the ceiling, missed another door by a nice margin, grinned -proudly, and saw that the front door was shut fast. - -"Open it!" he bawled, something of the timbre of the gorilla in his -frantic voice. "Open it, you pygmy-brained nincompoop!" - -The Crusader on guard at the door flung it wide. It was an involuntary -reaction, not in any way due to Godwin's command; he merely meant to -dash through it himself. But carpet and gorilla slanted sidewise and -flew at him, he dropped prone with a screech that four hundred Saracen -foes would never have drawn from his lips, and the apparition sailed -over him at thirty miles an hour, the gorilla hanging on to the edge -for dear life. - -Outside, Godwin righted the carpet and sped across the docks and over -the Mediterranean. Now he took thought. He had controlled the carpet, -it seemed, more by the quick fears and desperate hopes of his mind, -than by any conscious direction of its flight. He would have to calm -down. He exercised his iron will to the utmost. The carpet gave a -couple of jerks, like a fractious horse being brought under control of -the reins, and settled down to a smooth straight course. He glanced -over his great hairy shoulder. The land of Egypt was receding rapidly -behind him. Below, the choppy waves were blue and green with white -caps, and the ocean looked extremely deep. - -"God and the Holy Sepulcher defend me!" gasped Godwin. He pushed down -on the carpet with an experimental finger. It gave slightly, but -appeared to be quite safe. He tried a banking turn and then another -which brought him to his straightaway course again. Courage returned -with a rush. He laughed deep in the enormous chest. "This is pleasant, -by my halidom!" he shouted. - -His shield had fallen off the carpet somewhere back in Mufaddal's -house. His sword was safe, as was the Persian dagger in its thong about -his neck, and his Saracen-style helmet. The sigil of Solomon was still -hung round his bull throat. - -He speeded up a trifle. The wind sang in his small flat ears. He shoved -his broad ugly muzzle forward, drinking in the rushing air. Never had -he known a sensation such as this. It made horses seem like snails. -He increased his velocity again. There was evidently no limit to the -acceleration possibilities. He nearly forgot his mission in the joy of -this stimulating experience. - - * * * * * - -He made the carpet swoop toward the sea, confident in his new-found -skill; it plunged like a diving eagle at the waves, which reached -hungrily up for it. "Tantivy, tantivy!" roared the great ape -deliriously. "Gone away! Lu wind 'em, boy!" At the last second he -skidded the carpet level and shot along above the surface, just -skimming the crests of the waves, laughing like a maniac. Then once -more he rose into the heavens and slammed forward, small sharp eyes now -searching the horizons for the dark blot of the plague ship, on its way -to England with a cargo of hideous all-conquering death. - -Shortly he sighted a sail. It might or might not be the vessel he -sought. He headed the carpet for it. It grew swiftly, until he was -circling over it at a height of perhaps two hundred feet. He slowed -the carpet till its motion was scarcely perceptible, until it finally -hovered motionless above the ship. Then he lay prone on his belly and -peered over the edge. - -In the windy upper air the carpet rocked just a trifle, as a cork rocks -on a pond caressed by a summer breeze. Godwin cocked an ear. From -the ship below came the horrid din of thousands of imprisoned rats, -squealing and keening and skirling their ghastly song of destruction. - -He had found the plague ship. He drew back and grinned. Now.... - -Canting off to a spot some distance to the port side, he dropped the -carpet, until it nearly touched the choppy sea, then aimed it at the -side of the ship. He reasoned that he would be less likely to be seen -if he came in at the level of the waves, rather than from above. There -might be some element of terror about his descent from the clouds, -but these men would be used enough to Heraj's spells to take a flying -carpet in stride. Surprise was what he needed on his side, and if he -could climb over the side without being seen, he might be able to -reconnoiter the deck for a moment before beginning his attack. - -He was then about two hundred feet from the vessel. - -Abruptly, without any warning, the carpet dropped out from under -him; crumpled, became a very ordinary red and blue carpet instead of -a magical winged steed, and hit the waves, where it floated for an -instant until his body struck it in falling; when it collapsed and sank -into the depths of the Mediterranean Sea. - -Some distance below, a forty-foot white shark, called also a man-eater, -peered eagerly up at the commotion. - - - - - CHAPTER XVIII - - -Heraj opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling. - -He had the grandfather of all headaches. He attempted to recall the -spell against headaches, but it eluded him. He tried several others, -but none of them would come out right. Evidently the blow at the base -of his skull had somewhat addled his memory. He closed his eyes and -resignedly waited for the thumping ache to pass. - -He heard shouts of fear in other rooms, and then after a minute or two -Pepi's voice nearby said plaintively, "Don't you think you might remove -that blade now?" - -Pepi was Heraj's favorite brother. He seemed to be in trouble. Heraj -made a valiant effort and rolled his head, ache and all, to one side, -opening his eyes as he did so. He saw the soles of Mufaddal's cheap -shoes, in the left one of which was a large hole with the dirty foot -showing through; disgustedly he swiveled his gaze and saw Habu, than -whom he had never seen anyone deader. - -He lifted his gaze and saw El Sareuk standing beside Pepi, one -arm about the sorcerer's shoulders holding him steady, the other -presenting a scimitar to the poor fellow's throat. - -Heraj worked through the spell of immobility in his mind. He felt he -had this one right. He flung it at El Sareuk. - -El Sareuk did not move a muscle. - -Heraj, uncertain that he had accomplished his purpose, glanced about -at the half dozen Crusaders and Bedouins who were in the room. He gave -them each a repetition of the spell. He enchanted Ramizail, who was -eating dates. Then he cautiously rose to his knees. - -No one moved, not even Pepi. - -"All right, boy," said Heraj, standing. "They're stuck." - -"So am I," groaned Pepi. - -His sound of sorrow was echoed by Mufaddal, who sat up and felt his jaw -tenderly. "Allah smite everybody," said Mufaddal. "Everybody!" - -"Move, Pepi," said Heraj encouragingly. "He's immobilized." - -"So am I, you lunkhead. Can't you see his arm and sword encircle my -neck?" - -"Oh," said Heraj. "Hum. Well. Can't you force back one of his arms?" - -"They're like stone. Ouch!" The edge of the scimitar had cut him a -little. "I tell you I don't dare move!" - -"Neither can I," said Heraj, holding his head. "My stars and -thaumaturgy, what a knock I took! Which wall fell on me?" - -"The gorilla fell on you," said Mufaddal spitefully, "and if you think -I'll turn a finger to aid either of you two fumble-handed fat-brained -cretins, you're badly mistaken. My jaw feels like a boil about to -burst." - -Heraj took a step and winced. "I can't do it, damn the pain, I can't -move for a minute." - -"I'm off balance," shrilled Pepi. "I can't stand here forever." - -"Look," moaned Heraj, really wanting to help him but unable to bear -the skull-cracking ache, "I'll take the spell off him for a tenth of a -second. You get ready to push with all your might on that arm. It'll -give you enough leeway. Ready?" - -"I'm pushing," said Pepi. - -"Here goes, then." - -El Sareuk had heard all this as he stood motionless with his sword at -the wizard's throat. He chuckled deep in his vitals, even though he -could not move so much as an eyelash. A whole tenth of a second, eh? - -Pepi was pushing with insane strength at the arm. Heraj took off the -spell and immediately put it back on. There was a swish, a grating -sound, and a dull squashing thunk. - -Pepi, a bumbler to the last, had pushed on the wrong arm. Indeed, he -had pressed so hard that El Sareuk in his new immobility now held it -straight before him. But the scimitar had been gripped in the capable -fist of the other arm. Pepi's head lay on the floor, an expression of -astonishment on its homely and now blood-bedabbled features. - -Heraj raised a howl of anguish. He did not know that at the instant -Pepi died, the flying carpet with Godwin aboard it, no longer supported -by Pepi's incantation, had fallen into the sea almost on top of the -man-eating shark. - - - - - CHAPTER XIX - - -Godwin was a strong swimmer, and the body he now inhabited was as -muscular as any in the world. After swallowing a pint of salt water and -thrashing about for a moment below the surface, he struck out toward -the plague ship. He was not sure what had happened, but he was afraid -it boded ill for his beloved and his friends. Nonetheless, he was glad -that the carpet had carried him at least this far. The destruction of -the vessel was their major problem and he felt superbly confident that -he could accomplish it. - -The heavy iron broadsword weighed him down, dangling stiff and -perpendicular from his waist; but he could not jettison it. It was -just as well, though, he thought, swimming with vigorous strokes, that -he had lost his shield before he left the land. Otherwise he would -regretfully have had to abandon it to the deep. That old shield had -been with him in many a tight spot. - -The white shark kept pace with him, some twelve feet below, looking -up at him and considering which portion of this strange hairy beast -might prove most succulent for an appetizer. At last it decided upon -a leg. It lifted and turned in the water, opening its terrible mouth -with row behind row of huge razor-sharp teeth that could tear a man in -two with one snap. Godwin fortunately had just thrust his head under -the surface as he brought an arm over and down, and saw the quick flash -of the white belly below him. Automatically he contracted his whole -body, hauling his legs up and then propelling himself forward with a -tremendous flailing of his long arms. The shark missed its snap. - -Godwin glanced at the ship and saw it was too far off for him to gain -its side before the huge fish had had several more tries at him. The -wind had sprung up, too, and the vessel was making away from him at a -good clip. Cursing, he turned in the water and shot down through its -depths, searching for the man-eater. - -A flicker of white showed off to his left; he twisted, waited, holding -his breath and thanking heaven for the capacious lungs of the gorilla. - -It came straight at him, revolving to bring its underslung mouth into -play. He maneuvered a foot to one side, and hurled himself upon it, -catching it by a pectoral fin. With every ounce of power the gorilla's -body could command, he tore at the fin. It ripped from the shark's -side, sluggishly, loosing a slow torrent of blood into the dark waters. - - * * * * * - -The man-eater writhed around toward him. He caught the jaws, upper and -lower, with both hands, and wrenched them apart. Even the terrible -potency of the shark's mouth could not withstand the strength of the -gorilla and the whole-hearted will to win of Godwin of England. The -hinges cracked and the lower jaw hung useless. - -Godwin backed off, shoving himself through the encumbering waters, even -his spacious lungs straining by now for air; but before he surfaced he -meant to finish this brute. He hauled out the iron broadsword from its -sheath, advanced once more toward the furiously thrashing white shark, -and thrust half a dozen times. Then he swam upward, leaving behind -him an ever-expanding blotch of blood and a quivering, twitching, -forty-foot piece of dead meat. - -The ship was far away. He sheathed the sword and set out to overhaul -her where she sailed serenely, dark sail spread, with her cargo of -obscene death. - -"Even Godwin in his proper form could never have caught her," he -thought to himself. "Heraj's baneful magic will win the day for England -yet!" - -Slowly he crept up on the ship. At last he reached out a paw and -touched the slimy wooden hull. He gave a little quiet laugh. Now! - -Dripping salt water, he hauled himself up the side. Cautiously his -blunt head in its steel helmet poked over the bulwarks. - -The vessel was fairly long for a lateen-rigger, with a low poop deck -and a high rail, the great triangular sail, with a pair of quite small -auxiliary sails, flapping merrily overhead, and the eternal quarrelsome -noise of the rats pervading all the air within a quarter mile. The -watch, four Mamelukes, were dicing on the poop. At the tiller lazed a -tall black Nubian slave, his loins wrapped in a bright orange cloth. -Godwin presumed a crew of about six more, who were probably below -in a portion of the hold shut off from the rats' quarters. Mufaddal -would want a good handful of men for a job like this. He envisaged -them loosing the rats in the seaports of England, likely at night, and -slipping away on the tide, leaving their gruesome messengers to spread -the bubonic plague far and wide. The picture gave him added strength -and determination; though God knew he had needed no more than already -boiled in his veins! - -As silently as he could make the cumbersome body move, he hoisted -himself over the rail. - -Then he stood erect, all six feet four of gray-black hideous-visaged -brute, drew the broadsword from its scabbard, set his thews for quick -action, and pounding his naked chest with his left paw, so that a -hollow drumming _boom-boom_ drowned for a moment even the racket of -the rats, he opened his saber-fanged maw and gave vent to a terrible -cataclysm of sound, an utterance wholly at variance with his usual -war-cry, which seemed to come not from his human spirit, but from the -body of the jungle beast--an ear-shattering, soul-searing mixture of -highpitched barks, raging shrieks, deep-bellied howls and half-joyous, -half-oddly-sad roars, roars which spoke of peaceful days beneath great -sheltering trees now left forever for the crash and thunder of grim yet -gratifying war. - -Godwin of England had come aboard. - - - - - CHAPTER XX - - -The Mamelukes were stunned. To say this is an understatement. They were -shaken, terrified, horror-struck, and a thousand more emotions--all -bad--filled their hearts than they could ever have catalogued. - -They were very brave men indeed, but they had never seen a gorilla, and -certainly never a gorilla that appeared out of the sea to stand waving -a Crusader's broadsword on their deck. As one man they stiffened, and -gaped, and were lost. For Godwin, with a somewhat shortened repetition -of his initial greeting, was bounding into their midst before they -could budge. - -One man died with the dice in his hand. Another lost his head before -he could recover his wits. A third put hand to hilt and was cloven -with a leer of terror still on his face. The fourth managed to get his -scimitar cleared. Precious little good it did him. It came from the -sheath only to clatter on the deck. - -The Nubian slave at the tiller was a different proposition. He was -as tall as Godwin, a thick-legged old warrior, with broken teeth and -scarred face to attest his many battles. Leaving his post, and catching -up a naked scimitar (that was easily six feet in length) as he passed -the rail where it had lain propped, he ran at Godwin full tilt, yelling -a battle slogan from his homeland far to the south. - -Godwin thrust out his blade to parry the first vicious swinging cut. -The swords clanged like hammer on anvil. The black was skillful. Godwin -had all he could do to keep the singing steel from his chest. He tried -a two-handed swipe, which the slave ducked blithely, and the scimitar -came licking in to draw a thin scarlet line across the gorilla's belly. -Half an inch further and Godwin's guts would have been spilt on the -sun-hot boards. - -Godwin's new reach, a stupendous one, was an advantage. In ferocity and -broadsword skill he was unbeatable, but a long scimitar was a terribly -formidable weapon in the hands of such a swordsman as his opposite -number. He parried, parried and cursed the fact that this tall grinning -half-naked black should keep him at bay so long. From the corner of -an eye he saw more Saracens emerging from a hatch up forward. It was -no time to stand and fight according to gentlemen's rules. He had a -job to do, and this Nubian might very well cry halt to that job. Given -equal weapons, Godwin would have dueled with him thus by the hour; but -now he needed quick victory. - -"Sorry about this," he grunted, in apology for the dirty trick he meant -to play. He did not need to play it. The Nubian fell back, eyes and -mouth starting wide. - -"It spoke!" he cried out, and flung down his scimitar. "Oh, Allah, it -spoke!" He turned and ran for the rail and dived over it like a man -fleeing the wrath of Eblis. Godwin could not help laughing. Evidently, -to this fellow's way of thinking, a gorilla that climbed out of the -sea and fought with a broadsword was acceptable, but one that did -these things and spoke in Arabic also was an intolerable wonder and a -thing to boggle the mind. There was a loud splash. Another foeman was -dispensed with. - -There were half a dozen coming up the deck toward him: his estimate of -the crew had been right. He saw two bowmen among them. Bad! He tucked -his broadsword into its sheath and bent his knees and leaped for the -yard of the lateen sail, caught it by both paws, hoisted himself like -a gymnast up and over and knelt on the yard, balancing by a palm on -the bellying sail. Carefully he got to his feet, which were prehensile -enough to grip the round yard and give him a feeling of confidence in -his balance. Commending his soul to his God, he ran straight down the -yard until he had reached the mast. Behind him four arrows had thunked -through the sail as the bowmen shot at the places they thought he might -be. - - * * * * * - -He shinnied up the mast, which was on the opposite side of the sail, -luckily, from the crew, and cautiously peered round it. Something out -on the ocean caught his gaze, and he saw it was a small black dot, -rapidly receding from the ship. The Nubian swordsman was still in a -hurry. - -The bowmen would be on his side of the sail in six jumps. The only -solution to his plight burst into Godwin's brain like a crossbow bolt -from the sky. He slid down the mast, came to a teeth-jolting stop -as his feet hit the yard, took the mast between both powerful paws -and shook it. It was stout, but thin compared with the masts used in -other rigs. Fangs bared with effort, hind feet curled and braced round -the yard, he exerted all the lusty power of the gorilla's arms, all -the brawn of the strapping torso, all the pent-up energy that roiled -and pulsed beneath the tough old hide. One mighty heave he gave, and -another, and a third. - -The mast complained, creaked like the nine-mile-high gate of Hell -opening, and splintered in two as if struck by lightning. - -Of all Godwin's feats of strength--and they were many--this was surely -the greatest. As the mast crashed downward, carrying the ripping sail -with it to the deck, he stood on the swaying yard and ostentatiously -dusted his hands together. Suppose it had been done by the body of a -jungle beast? Was he, Godwin, not inside it? - -The broken mast struck with a crash that shook the ship and brought a -chorus of piercing squeals from the imprisoned rats below. The yard -swung violently and its end thudded to the deck, so that Godwin was -knocked off balance and only saved himself by a quick kneeling and grab -with both paws. - -A large area of the main deck was covered by the collapsed dark sail, -beneath which struggled a number of formless lumps that were the crew. -Godwin picked himself up again and ran like a tightrope artist down the -slanted yard to the poop, where he leaped off and turned at bay, teeth -and claws and broadsword all bristling and ready. - -The bumps in the sail moved about futilely, hunting an exit. The -invisible rats made the air hideous with their unclean, abominable -rantings. - -The thing to do was go down and wade into those lumps with his sword. -It may not have been precisely a fair attack, but Godwin was not -absorbed with fairness at that time. He had taken two steps, the short -ferocious steps of the gorilla, when an archer found the edge of the -sail and rolled out from under it, an arrow nocked on his bow. He -sighted Godwin at once and the bowstring tightened. Lying on his back, -he took swift aim at the chest of the slavering horror on the poop deck. - - * * * * * - -There was no time to reach him, no barricade to dodge behind, and the -distance was too long to fling his sword accurately. Godwin jerked -his head round. A brazier of burning coals stood on a brass trivet at -his side. Quicker than thought he had caught up the pot of them and -in the same sidearm motion flung them down at the bowman. The man saw -them coming, let fly his arrow and tried to roll out of range. Several -coals took him in the face and neck. Seared and scorching flesh sent up -an acrid, nauseous stench as the poor wretch screamed with agony. His -arrow had gone wild by the slimmest of margins. - -The other archer emerged from the opposite edge of the sail, shaking -his head. He was bleeding from the nose and his eyesight had gone -slightly awry. He leaned on the bulwarks and rubbed a fist into his -eyes. He looked up and saw the gorilla coming at him over the crumpled, -heaving sail. - -He plucked an arrow from his belt and fitted it hastily to the string. -He did not understand in the slightest how this awful creature had -appeared aboard his ship, but it had fled once from his bow and so it -might be slain by a mere mortal. He was a Seljuk Turk, this archer, -proud and cruel and infinitely superstitious; he felt sure that Godwin -was a spirit of some kind, yet he knew that spirits may be slain and -all the odds seemed to be on his arrows. - -The first one twanged out from his short sturdy bow. - -Godwin saw it hurtle at his breast, and in his proper shape might only -have watched it strike him, for he had no shield and only the smallest -fraction of a second in which to take thought. But the gorilla's body -was made of faster muscles, quicker reflexes, than ever a knight -possessed. One arm flicked across his chest, and the arrow was caught -in flight, three inches before it would have buried itself feather-deep -in his thorax. - -The Turk, a second arrow already on the string, froze. Before he could -force action into his petrified hands, the gorilla was upon him. Great -black paws took him by throat and groin, he was lifted over the brute's -head, and the air whistled around him as the waves of the Mediterranean -reached up to assuage their age-old hunger for living flesh. - -Godwin watched him vanish into the sea. Weighted by his armor, he never -came up. Godwin grinned. - -Unnoticed behind him, the coals from the brazier had started a fire -in the fallen sail, a fire which was rapidly spreading in a score of -directions. - - - - - CHAPTER XXI - - -Godwin the gorilla bethought himself of the four men remaining under -the sail. He turned about and saw the fire, which was now licking up -fiercely. - -"God defend the right!" he gasped. "Here's a rare hazard!" - -Two men had succeeded in freeing themselves from the smothering -confines of the sail. They came at him warily, side-stepping the -flames, their curved Damascus blades at the ready. - -"Beast or Satan," shouted one, "prepare to perish!" - -"Ho ho," said Godwin throatily in Arabic, "you'll have to back that -threat with action, little man!" - -The fellow halted, turned a sickly green hue, and buckling at all his -joints pitched over in a dead faint. - -The other was affected in quite another fashion, and leaped toward -Godwin, scimitar flashing. - -Godwin yanked out his long sword and batted down the first attack. -The Saracen was a swift and elusive fencer. His point darted through -Godwin's guard and slashed a long wound down the biceps of his left -arm, laying bare the dark flesh for a moment before red gore covered it -and trickled out through the fur. - -Godwin yelled and swung his weapon in an arc, knocking off the other's -helmet and inflicting a nasty gash across his scalp. - -The Saracen stabbed straight. Godwin twisted his body sidewise, and -the keen blade cut through all but a thread or two of the belt that -held his scabbard. - -Before the enemy could recover from his lunge, Godwin brought his -wounded left arm over and down in a hammer blow. The doubled paw -caught the man exactly on the center of his skull, and he fell like an -arrow-pierced hare, kicked a time or two, and lay still. - -Two foemen remained beneath the sail. One of these had been knocked -unconscious and now lay smothering to death. The other, crippled by -the falling mast, was slowly dragging his broken body along in search -of the open air when the fire burst into crimson bloom about him. He -wailed like a tormented soul on a spit, broke his nails on the deck in -a mad endeavor to crawl to safety, and at last struck his forehead on -the coaming of a hatchway. - -Forgetting the rats below, he threw all his waning vitality into a -heave that sent the hatch cover up and flat on the deck. Then he pushed -himself over the edge and fell, to escape the flames among the ravenous -horde of great gray rodents. - - * * * * * - -In the frightful din of crackling flames, gibbering rats, and lapping -sea, Godwin never heard him scream at all. - -He stared narrowly around him now, scratching absent-mindedly for an -annoying flea in the small of his back, and saw that no one moved on -the deck of the plague ship. By good fortune, by the grace of God, and -by his own skill and brute force, he had obliterated the crew. Even the -men who had fainted had inhaled flame and died. Godwin stood alone on -the deck, while beneath him sounded the perpetual vociferant clamor of -the rats. - -The flames spreading dangerously close to his bare flat feet, he -skipped along the bulwarks and up to the poop, which was as yet -untouched by fire. Here he watched it eat out across the deck, -devouring sail and broken mast and at last portions of the deck itself. - -The heat in the hold became unbearable for the rats then, and they -began to fight savagely to get at the open hatchway, the sail above -which had burnt away. Their bodies piled up beneath its square of smoky -light, and the pile grew and grew.... - -Godwin in his gorilla body stared glumly at the flames. "What a way -to die," he growled aloud. "What an end for Godwin, who was once king -of all broad England! Look at the damned water; probably a million -hogsheads of it within spitting distance. Look at the damned fire. Look -at the two of them, and here am I, who can't begin to bring the one to -the other until the ship sinks under me! What a finish!" - -For the first time in his life he felt total despair. He had saved his -home country, aye, but it was not likely that his deed would go down in -song and story, for El Sareuk and Ramizail and the others were in all -probability dying at this very moment under the swords of Mufaddal's -three hundred scum. If only, he thought, one small ballad might be -written about this geste! - -He stiffened the gorilla's backbone and put such selfish wishes behind -him. He _had_ saved England, whether anyone ever heard of it or not. -That was worth dying for! That was even, God save the mark, worth -Ramizail's death or enslavement as a concubine! Much as he loved the -wench, the population of England outweighed her in the end. - -If there were but some chance at survival. If only there were a small -cockleshell of a boat he could put off in, even the material for a -makeshift raft. But there was nothing, nothing but the sea and the sky -and the ship in flames, and the raging rats below him. - -The sky! What now, if stout old Mihrjan the djinni were to come -swooping down out of that clear hot sky! - -But no, Godwin must needs relegate Mihrjan to other parts, must forbid -him by the Seal to follow them, because of stubborn pride and petty -resentment against Ramizail's harmless tricks! - -His wound hurt him. He felt the gorilla's body yearning to tend it, -to lick it clean and start the healing processes. For a moment he was -disgusted at the idea, and then hopeless, for what did it matter if the -wound began to heal, when he was doomed to a terrible death by fire or -water? But the instincts of his body would not be denied. - -With a long sigh, Godwin of England sat down on the rough planks of the -poop and began to lick his torn biceps with a rasping tongue. - -Simultaneously with his seating himself, the first rat clambered up the -pile of torn corpses and launched itself out of the hatchway and onto -the deck. - - - - - CHAPTER XXII - - -"Well," said Mufaddal, who was eating a hard-boiled egg in a sloppy -manner, "did you get to the barracks?" - -Heraj picked up a cold towel from the air near his knees and wrapped it -around his head. "I did. Wow! I had to cast immobility spells on two -more of these devilish Crusaders, who were stationed at the back door. -But I made it to the barracks. The soldiers are even now deploying -around the palace. Oosh! What an ache!" - -"I don't see why you can't collect yourself and put the whole pack of -them under a spell," said Mufaddal irritably. - -"I've told you and told you, I have a headache, that's why I can't -do it, curse you," said Heraj. "I have all I can do to keep the ones -in this room and those two back there motionless. I have to keep -concentrating and it hurts like seven devils in my brain. Then I've -flung a force wall around this room, so no one can get in or out -except myself, and _that_ takes concentration. I tell you, I never went -through anything like it. All I can recall are these two spells and -the one for curdling milk. I could no more bewitch all these benighted -villains than I could--could fly to the moon." - -"Incidentally, did you find the gorilla? Godwin?" - -"No I didn't, and I hope I never do. I don't want to come within range -of those ham-sized fists again, not even with a legion of fiends at my -back." - -"Is he still a gorilla, if he's alive, I mean? Or did he switch back -when you swooned away?" - -"No, he's a gorilla. That's a different sort of spell from force walls -and immobility. But to hell with Godwin. I want to nurse this lump. And -you're confusing me, too. My spells are wobbling. I just saw El Sareuk -there move a good half inch. If you want those swine kept alive for -torture and other pleasantries, I've got to concentrate. Oh, my newts -and bat-wings! I shall die!" He went over and collapsed in a corner, -where he stared moodily at the corpses of his two brothers and mumbled -to himself. - -Mufaddal peered out the window. It was too small to negotiate, but wide -enough to command a partial view of the back grounds. He saw a dozen -of his men go dashing from the shelter of one outbuilding to that of -another. - -"In a minute or two," he said confidently, "in a very few minutes, by -Allah, these renegades and infidels will see what a real besieging is -like!" - -And at the thought, he stroked his greasy beard and crinkled up his -soft brown eyes, and giggled like a maniac. - - - - - CHAPTER XXIII - - -Godwin looked up from his wound-cleansing. He had had a glimpse of a -gray shape scuttling across a field of crimson flame. He stared, and -saw a score of large rats eyeing him from the lower deck. He bounded -to his feet, thick gorilla toes and fingers curling with a fear that -no amount of bravery could still. The plague! The ravishing, filthy, -obscene plague! Even from a flaming ship in the midst of a waste of -waters, there might be some escape at the last moment: but from the -bite of one of these rats would come a foul death that nothing could -turn aside, not even the djinn themselves! - -He canvassed the poop. No high pedestals on which a man (or a great -ape) might perch, no protective armor of any description to foil the -attack of the rats. Here he stood, alone, armed with a broadsword and -a dagger, a helmet and a golden sigil. There was but a single chance. -He might squat on the bulwarks at the very stern, for they were high -and would give him the advantage of being a little above his squealing -enemies. He leaped and balanced and squatted, and his naked iron -broadsword hung down between his bent knees as he awaited their first -move. - -This was not long in coming. The poop was the only part of the ship -which was not being ravaged by fire. The rats headed for its temporary -safety. As they poured over it, a repulsive and horrible crew, snapping -and snarling at one another, their fangs yellow as amber slivers, their -hides mangy and often showing the first signs of plague, the leaders -spied Godwin roosting unhappily on the rail. They halted, considered, -twitched their whiskers, and then made for him. He was meat. - -The first rank charged in and were slain eight at a blow, by the -sweeping sword. The second rank fared likewise. The rats drew back and -stared beadily at him. He could fairly hear their odious, menacing -thoughts. He waited. A gigantic rodent, half its fur gone in some -hideous battle below decks, came flying at him. The perfect reflexes -of the gorilla flicked the sword out and spitted the beast through the -guts. It hung on the sword, squirming and piping weakly, as Godwin -whipped the blade back and forth and clove the small skulls of a dozen -more. - -A myriad of the grisly horde came tumbling up to the poop deck. Godwin -was now mangling and mutilating constantly, as more rats poured upon -him. Some of the devils were already feasting on their defunct cousins. - -And so, for minutes that dragged like weeks, Godwin of England fought -off the rats, and waited without hope for the inevitable end, when even -his mighty muscles should grow weary and his eye become slow, and at -last they should reach him. - -A close-packed group of them attacked him from the right, and some of -them even leaped upon the rail and came at him. He flailed his sword -frantically into the brown of them, sending them slithering along the -deck, knocking them into the sea, or spoiling them where they stood by -messy divisions and squashings. Then a legion came from the left, and -he leaped up to his feet and balanced precariously on the bulwarks as -he bent and swiped back and forth. - - * * * * * - -The closest any of them had come yet was in this moment, when three -great bullies of rats, all fat and evil and ugly, leaped upon his -swaying leathern scabbard and clung there. They might have crept up -it and bitten him before he could slay them, except for the fortunate -stab of the late Saracen fencer, which had all but severed his sword -belt. The last few strands parted now, and the sheath fell to the deck, -carrying rats and belt with it. - -Something rolled out of the sheath and made a small metallic sound as -it struck the overturned brazier. Godwin risked a glance at it. It -gleamed dull yellow in the sunlight. - -"By the rood, mass, book and candle!" yelled Godwin, startling the rats -so that they drew back in haste, "the ring of Solomon! So _that's_ -where I put it! In the bloody scabbard! Of course, I remember. -Someplace where 'twould be always near my hand!" - -Nothing, not ten thousand times as many rats, could have kept him from -that ring. He leaped from the rail, half-squatting to bring his sword -hand near the deck, and the blade was a flaming scythe in his grip. It -mowed down rats by dozens, by scores, by hundreds as they came crowding -at him. They leaped, and the point shot up and down more swiftly than -the eye could command, and they had died in mid-jump. They crouched in -at him, and the tops of their heads were torn off or jellied by the -sweeping broadsword. Then they drew back, for a rat is intelligent, -and even their hunger was not enough to force them out against that -invincible weapon without some thought on the matter. - -In the few seconds' respite Godwin leaped, scooped up the ring, dived -back to his seat on the rail. The rats came forward once more. With -his left hand he locked the ring to the sigil on its chain about his -neck, and in a voice of joyous thunder he shouted, "Mihrjan! I cry up -Mihrjan!" - -Spang in the midst of the rats, shod with sandals of blue-white fire -so that the gruesome beings scrambled back from his vicinity, appeared -the ten-foot form of Mihrjan the djinni, turbanned with ivory silk, -pantalooned with lustrous purple velvet, and exuding an aroma of attar -of roses. - -He salaamed deeply. - -"The Lord of My Life," said Mihrjan sonorously, as the rats retreated -down the poop deck, "would seem to have need of my humble services. I -am his to command!" - - - - - CHAPTER XXIV - - -Godwin the gorilla sighed. He had never uttered a more fervent and -thankful sound in all his life. "Mihrjan," he said, "I must say, yes, -by gad, I will say, I'm glad to see you." - -Mihrjan cast a look about him. "Thy sentiments are understated, Lord. -It is a trait of thy race." - -"Yes, well, never mind that. Look here, can you get rid of these damned -slimy things? My arm's weary with swatting 'em." - -The djinni gestured; a wind arose and swept along the poop, and the -rats were tumbled down onto the main deck, where they commenced to -brawl among themselves again, on the edge of the fire. - -"And see here, while I think of it, there's a black fellow swimming out -there somewhere. Can you see if he's still at it, or has he sunk?" - -Mihrjan vanished and returned before the air could rush into the -vacuum his passing had created. "He swims, Master, but weakly." - -"Well, he's a good chap, albeit misguided into serving under that lousy -Mufaddal beggar. He's one of the best swordsmen I ever faced. Can you -transport him home to Nubia?" - -Mihrjan grinned. "It is done." - -"Good. I felt rotten about him. Poor devil jumped overboard because I -spoke to him. Which brings up this: can you make me myself again? That -is to say, take this ape's body back where Heraj got it, and give me my -own?" - -Mihrjan scowled. His mind seemed to be wandering among far countries. -At last he said, brightening, "I see how 'twas done. I can undo it." - -"Then by all means--" Godwin found that the paw with which he was -gesticulating had become a strong brown hand, a bit grubby, perhaps, -but still his own natural hand. He stared down. His robe and armor were -in tatters. They had evidently seen some life and hard times in the -jungle. The body appeared to be whole, however, and tingled pleasantly -as Godwin's personality took it over once more. - -Mihrjan said, "Suitable raiment is in order," and Godwin was wearing -white samite and sky-blue silk over gold-washed armor of meshed steel. -His broadsword hung in a new scabbard, bedecked with gauze, and his -beard and hair were freshly cut and combed. His skin felt clean, and -seemed to have been bathed within the hour. - -"What a talent you have there, Mihrjan, old fellow," he said -admiringly. "May heaven beshrew me if I ever part with you again." - -"'Tis wise to allow me to stay within call." The djinni frowned. "And -my mistress, O King? She is safe?" - -"I hope so, but I left her quite a while back. Had to sink this ship, -you know. It was going to England with a cargo of plague. Oh, you know -that, you were there when we found Sir Malcolm. We'd better get back -to Mufaddal's palace at once, Mihrjan. Just one more request: will you -sink this pest ship for me?" - -"It already sinks of its own accord, My Lord." And indeed, the deck was -slanting beneath their feet. Down at the bow the rats were huddled, -quarreling and fighting among themselves and making their revolting -chorus rise up to foul the heavens. - -"Good. Then let's go." - -Mihrjan placed a hand under his elbow, and suddenly they were five -hundred feet above the Mediterranean, looking down at the ship which -Mufaddal had fondly hoped would be the death of the British nation. -Even up here Godwin fancied he could hear the final squeals and -horrible wailing shrieks of the cargo of great gray rats. Then Mihrjan -headed landward, and the plague ship disappeared behind. - - - - - CHAPTER XXV - - -They stood together in Mufaddal's private chamber. The spell of -immobility had been transferred to the dark-faced Mufaddal and his -chief sorcerer, while Ramizail and El Sareuk with their allies the -Bedouins and captured Crusaders were free to move where they chose. -They clustered now about the ten-foot djinni. - -"What of my eight men at the prison and barracks?" asked Godwin. - -Mihrjan said, "Slain, O King, cut down by surprise without a chance to -defend themselves." - -"Damn. And my falcon, Yellow-eyes?" - -"She perches on a roof-top in the heart of Alexandria, watching -anxiously for a sight of thee." - -"Bring her here, please." - -The old bird, looking rather wind-blown and surprised, appeared on -Godwin's mailed shoulder. She thrust her notched beak into his ear -affectionately, and he said with fervor, "Ah, _thou_!" - -"And now, O Master of My Being, shall I vanquish the foemen without -the house by a whirlwind from the plains of Hell, or lightning from -the clouds? Shall I bubble their eyes from their heads with gouts of -searing flame?" asked the djinni fiercely. - -"No, man, no! We'll beat 'em in fair fight. Only keep this Heraj's -magic cancelled out, send him and Mufaddal out there now, and give me -a hundred more allies." - -"That will still be two to one against thee," said Mihrjan, as the pair -of plotters vanished. - -"Naturally. More fun. And don't bring me a hundred of the djinn, -either, but a hundred desert fighters or good tough Frankish champions. -And see my other lads are weaponed properly." - -"They await your orders in the forepart of the house," said Mihrjan -resignedly. - -"Then I'm off. El Sareuk, ready? Mihrjan, keep that fire-eating woman -of mine out of the thick of things, will you? Come on, boys, up and at -'em!" He charged out toward the front door. - -Mihrjan said to Ramizail, understanding her nature as well as she did -herself, "Wouldst watch the battle, little one?" - -"Oh, yes, Mihrjan, yes!" - -"Then come." He gathered her in his monstrous, tender arms, and flying -upward, caused their atoms to pass between those of the clay and -timber, so that in a wink they were high above the earth, and hovered -there comfortably, peering down on the tiny figures of Mufaddal's -soldiers deploying around the house. Two standing by themselves and -pointing this way and that with shouts unintelligible at this height, -were the black-visaged Mufaddal himself, and his one-time potent -sorcerer Heraj. - -From the door issued a running warrior, who at once engaged six men -in dazzling swordplay; behind him came others, many others, until a -hundred and fifty-five men had emerged. Hand-to-hand combats were -joined all over the grounds. Ramizail cried out with delight. - - * * * * * - -It was like observing two bands of toy soldiers endowed with the -power to move and fight and maneuver. Both the girl and the djinni -were enthralled. Godwin's force fanned out, coalesced, drove through -Mufaddal's ranks and turned and came back and drove again, till the -enemy broke and fled in hapless confusion. The Crusaders and Bedouins -pursued them, hacking them down from behind, forcing them to stand -and die in little knots. Two who fled toward the dock, casting away -their weapons, Mihrjan pointed out as Mufaddal and Heraj. After them -bounded a great figure in white, sky-blue, and gold, flourishing a long -sword above its head. "Godwin!" said Ramizail, biting her nails with -excitement. "Oh, Mihrjan, go lower! I want to see!" - -The djinni sank until their feet were no more than ten yards from the -wharf. There they drifted along above the pursued pair. - -Mufaddal panted out, "Only chance! Under the dock!" - -Heraj gasped, "We might stand and fight him," with no conviction in his -voice at all. - -"Ha," said Mufaddal, and with one desperate leap plunged off the wharf -into the sea. Heraj was one step behind him. Godwin came to the edge -and halted, baffled. Their heads did not show above the water. - -"Mihrjan," whispered Ramizail, "they'll escape!" - -"Observe," said the djinni equably. He gestured with a finger, and -a section of the dock became transparent to her gaze. Beneath it, -Heraj and his master were clambering up, dripping, onto a shelf of -boards some twelve feet from the outer edge of the wharf. Godwin still -scratched his head in bafflement. Obviously he could not see through -the pier as she could. - -The two conspirators crouched there, watching the sea apprehensively. -"Now look," said Mihrjan. Ramizail, staring intent, saw a gray snout -poke up into view behind them, followed by a multitude more. "Rats!" -she breathed. - -"Aye, rats. All those who live beneath the wharf, mistress, called here -by the scent of their dinner." - -It was as though the lead rat had given a signal. In a trice the -legions of furred ghastly beings had poured over the two squatting men. - -Screams of pain and horror came up through the boards of the upper -dock. Heraj straightened as though to stand, cracked his head on the -wharf, and sank down, half-conscious, into the midst of the swarming -rodents. He gurgled and flung his arms in the air as their small sharp -unclean teeth found his throat, his belly, his eyes. - -Mufaddal flung himself into the water. His _gallabiyah_ snagged on a -projection, and held him fast, thrashing and squalling, only his head -above water. For a wonder, the cheap cloth did not give way. The rats -leaped down onto his head, slipping into the water, swimming back to -tear at his face, perching on his bare head and clawing insanely at his -scalp. And so, held helpless by the clutch of chance, Mufaddal died as -hideous a death as anyone might have wished him. - - * * * * * - -El Sareuk came up to Godwin. "What were those fearful sounds just now, -companion?" he asked, wiping the sweat of honest battle from his lean -bearded face. - -"Mufaddal and Heraj, I take it, though how and where they died I can't -tell." - -Mihrjan settled to earth with Ramizail in his arms. "Lords," he boomed, -setting the girl on her feet, "they perished in a niche beneath the -wharf, as they should have perished, shut from the light of day, with -the teeth of their own evil minions fastened in their gullets. Now is -the stain they put upon Islam cleansed with a vengeance." - -"By gad," said Godwin, as Yellow-eyes fluttered down to perch on his -shoulder, "then it's finished, and as neat a case of poetic justice -as ever came my way." He looked about him. Mihrjan had on his own -initiative sent the Bedouins and Crusaders back to their own places. -Only corpses met his eye. "To horse, friends!" he bellowed gleefully. -"This battle's done, and there are a power and lashing of wrongs left -in the world to be righted!" - -"Oh, heavens," groaned Ramizail. "Don't you even want to rest a week or -two, swashbuckler?" - -"Rest is for the dead and the aged, witch-wench." - -El Sareuk nodded fiercely. "The work for willing swords is never done, -lass." - -Ramizail rolled up her beautiful eyes and shrugged, a slight smile of -resignation on her full lips. Mihrjan pointed out their horses, saddled -and champing at a little distance. "O Lord of My Life, I know a wrong -in Egypt that needs four, or it might be eight, strong hands," said he. - -"We are in Egypt, by coincidence," said Ramizail. - -"This Egypt lies three thousand years in the past," said Mihrjan. - -"Can you transport us back?" asked Godwin eagerly. - -"Assuredly, Sire." - -"Well then, let's go!" he roared. He put an arm over the shoulder of -El Sareuk and another about the slim waist of Ramizail, and ran them -toward the horses. And Mihrjan's great laugh of fierce pleasure boomed -thunderously through the desert air.... - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ENCHANTED CRUSADE *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, -and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following -the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use -of the Project Gutenberg trademark. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online -at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Enchanted Crusade</p> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Geoff St. Reynard</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: September 1, 2021 [eBook #66196]</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net</div> - -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ENCHANTED CRUSADE ***</div> - -<div class="figcenter x-ebookmaker-drop"> - <img src="images/illusc.jpg" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="titlepage"> - -<p>Saracen blades held no fear for Godwin; but<br /> -now he faced Mufaddal's sorcery with the fate of<br /> -the beautiful Ramizail—and England—resting upon</p> - -<h1>The Enchanted Crusade</h1> - -<h2>By Geoff St. Reynard</h2> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy<br /> -April 1953<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>Just as daybreak burst over the rim of the desert, the dying man heard -the crunch of horses' hooves on sand. He lifted his head and croaked as -loudly as collapsing lungs would let him, saying thrice over, "In the -name of God, help!" Then he pitched on his nose again and lay still, -unable to move so much as an eyelash.</p> - -<p>There was the grit of sand under the light tread of men, and a voice -said, "Name of all camels! What a collection of vulture-victuals this -one is!"</p> - -<p>"I doubt it was he cried out," said another voice. "He must have -been dead for a decade." This voice then rendered a belch of classic -proportions. "Damn those figs," it said.</p> - -<p>"If you will eat three pounds at a breakfast, Godwin love," said a -throaty feminine voice, all full of honey and laughter, "you must -expect some few repercussions."</p> - -<p>The dying man collected his will and the scraps of strength that were -left in his tortured body, and shoving at the sand with one arm managed -to roll over on his back. The horizon-cleared sun lanced sickeningly -across his eyeballs, adding one more pain to the thousand which beset -him. Three vague dark shapes bent above him.</p> - -<p>"By the very God, he lives! Give him a drink."</p> - -<p>Water, cool and terrible and yet incredibly wondrous to lips and -blackened gums that had tasted nothing save blood for what must surely -be centuries, dribbled down across his cheeks, ran into his mouth, -reached through his rasped throat for his belly. He gurgled and thought -he was drowning, and it seemed a splendid death.</p> - -<p>But he had something to say, something of such importance that it -had dragged him across this endless waste of hellish sand long after -a missionless man would have given up and died. He recollected the -message and blinked his nearly sightless eyes once or twice, and made -futile little motions toward a sitting position. A brawny arm at his -back tilted him upright. "Easy, man. You're all but dead. Don't strive -so. Die easily."</p> - -<p>"Godwin, you're a born diplomat," said the woman's voice. "Why don't -you come right out and tell him he looks like two coppers' worth of -dogmeat?"</p> - -<p>"Well, he does," Godwin said grimly. "No sense in lying to a chap who's -about to give up the spirit, Ramizail. No real man wants that."</p> - -<p>"Listen," croaked the dying one. "Who are you?"</p> - -<p>"Three adventurers," said the voice that had sworn by the very God. -It was an elderly voice but full of vigor. "Three homeless travelers -pledged to right wrongs and defeat hell's minions wherever they may be -found."</p> - -<p>"Thanks to the Holy Sepulcher," groaned the dying one. "Perhaps all may -be well."</p> - -<p>The man holding him up jerked with surprise. "Here," he said, with a -kind of tender roughness, "are you a Crusader, man? Are you a Frank?"</p> - -<p>"English," said he. "Sir Malcolm du Findley." He made a hideous -rattling noise but from somewhere deep in his soul the power came to -make him go on. "El Iskandariya. Big ship. Full of rats."</p> - -<p>"What's he burbling about?" asked the deep voice of Godwin. "Poor -devil's clean out of his head. Rats? Did rats do this to him?"</p> - -<p>"Rats are full of plague," said Sir Malcolm faintly.</p> - -<p>"Yes, yes," said the girl. "Ship full of rats, rats full of plague. Go -on."</p> - -<p>"Can a rat have the plague?" asked Godwin.</p> - -<p>"Well, can it?" asked the girl. "Mihrjan, answer me."</p> - -<p>A fourth voice, one like muted thunder over distant dunes, said, -"Assuredly, O Mistress of My Life, though 'tis not known generally by -men in this time."</p> - -<p>"He knows it, evidently," said the girl. "Do go on, Sir Malcolm. What -about these rats?"</p> - -<p>"Ship at El Iskandariya. Going to England, spread plague, decimate -whole country. No more Crusades. Saracen plot."</p> - -<p>"Now by God and by God, no Saracen stoops that low!" shouted the -elderly man.</p> - -<p>"Yes. Whole crew of them. Leader—"</p> - -<p>"Yes, man; the leader?" urged Godwin.</p> - -<p>"Mufaddal al Mamun. Big black-faced swine. His gang can do—anything. -Say they can wipe out nine-tenths of England with plague rats, then -France, Germany. No more Crusades." He widened his bloody-veined eyes -and retching, said, "Tell Richard! Get word to Richard! Got to sink -that ship, slay Mufaddal al Mamun! Slay his sorcerers! Promise!"</p> - -<p>"We promise," said Godwin. "Decimate England, eh? Plague-infested rats, -ha? My halidom! I think not!"</p> - -<p>Sir Malcolm, with a grimace that might have been a grin, collapsed in -upon himself and died, as peacefully as a man can when he has come -seventy miles on foot, over baking sand beneath a searing sun of brass, -with a third of his skin flayed off.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER II</p> - - -<p>Godwin stood up. "Where's El Iskandariya?" he asked.</p> - -<p>El Sareuk rubbed his beard with one slim brown hand. "You call it -Alexandria. About twenty-five leagues west it lies, my great-thewed -friend, on the banks of the Mediterranean."</p> - -<p>The Lord Mohammed El Sareuk was a man of sixty, slightly built, -fanatic-faced, whose body always seemed on the point of disintegrating -from sheer concentration of energy. His boots were of red Cordovan -leather worked with gold thread; his clothing was blue silk and rose -samite, topped by the green turban of a Hadji; under the soft robes he -wore gold-washed Turkish light armor, and over the whole outfit a black -Bedouin burnous. He was weaponed well: from his girdle hung a Damascus -steel scimitar, and a beautiful gold-etched steel knife with a silver -hilt and a ruby in the pommel. Once this man had led a great harka in -the forces of Saladin; but love of Godwin had turned him to a rover, an -adventurer who called no tent his own and no man his peer save the tall -young Englishman he now addressed.</p> - -<p>"What is it, Godwin? Twenty-five leagues to Alexandria, or eighty-odd -to Richard the Lion Heart in Jaffa?"</p> - -<p>The girl spoke before Godwin could answer. "Oh, heavens, uncle 'tis the -twenty-five to the plague ship, without a doubt, because what would -Godwin want with a thousand Crusaders at his back when he can wade in -single-handed against an unknown number of enemies and grab the glory -all for himself? An Englishman won't fight if he can't fight against -odds, after all. Need you ask such a silly question?"</p> - -<p>The girl, now: as tall and lovely a piece as ever came from the union -of a crusading British knight and a Saracen lass who traced descent -from Solomon. Her eyes were violet, pure clear liquid violet such as -is seen once in a thousand years; her lips were sensuous, full and -red; her hair was a rainbow-flashing mass of ink-black curls. Of her -complexion nothing derogatory could be said, and of her full-breasted -figure even less. She wore copper and cream-colored robes of as fine -and yet tough silk as you might find anywhere in the world of 1191, -with a black turban to which she managed to give a jaunty and most -un-Moslem-like air. Once this girl had been a sorceress, and controlled -the entire tribe of djinn by virtue of a golden sigil and ring -bequeathed her by her mother; her home and heritage and much of her -power she had given up, to be a nomad and traipse about the world, all -for love of Godwin.</p> - -<p>This Godwin said now, "Ye gods! How can there be any question of -Alexandria or Jaffa?" He held up a big hard hand and ticked off points -on his fingers. "One: Dick, or Richard the Lion Nose, or whatever the -hell they call him, thinks I'm a madman. If I took him a tale of rats -with plague being shipped to England, he'd have me locked up for an -idiot, and I can hardly blame him. Two: it's a good eighty-five leagues -to Jaffa, and then more than a hundred from there back to Alexandria, -eating up God knows how many days, the way the Franks travel. We -three can do it from here in two days' time. There are decent people -in Alexandria who'll fight with us against any such hellish scheme, -surely. El Sareuk is a Hadji and has a certain reputation. Can't you -command help from the Arabs, old wolf?"</p> - -<p>"I can. He has the right of it, my dear."</p> - -<p>"Well, at least we can have Mihrjan's djinn transport us there -in comfort, and aid us in the squelching of this silly plot of -Mufaddal's," said the girl, wiping sweat off her patrician nose.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Godwin frowned. He tugged at his beard. "My dear, you know my -sentiments about the djinn. It's not knightly to use their supernatural -powers when all one's fighting is a pack of mortals. Besides, it takes -the fun out of adventuring. If a man can cry up a legion of ten-foot -bogies to do his bidding, how can he call himself a gentleman rover? -No, we'll not employ Mihrjan. Not that I have anything against you, -Mihrjan," he added hastily.</p> - -<p>A voice from the air beside them said, like an enormous drum finding -speech in its depths, "O Lord of Ten Thousand, I esteem thy principles -without flaw. Truly thou art a man among men, and would be a djinni -amongst djinn!"</p> - -<p>"Oh, pooh," said the girl, Ramizail. "If I hadn't given you the ring in -a rash moment of affection, Godwin, I'd lock it to the sigil and wish -you home in England this minute, you hulking wonderful stupid baby."</p> - -<p>Invisible Mihrjan chuckled, but made no other comment. Godwin said, -"Let's mount and ride. The horses are fresh and even over this -abominable sand we ought to make a good distance before sundown."</p> - -<p>"What of Sir Malcolm?" asked Ramizail.</p> - -<p>"What of him?" said Godwin. "I've laid him out properly. A Crusader -doesn't expect to be buried when there's work afoot. Come on, to -horse!" He went racing to his great Spanish charger and vaulted into -the saddle from behind, a trick left over from his Crusading days, when -he could do it in full weight of battle armor.</p> - -<p>And this Godwin, what of him? A man of thirty-one hard winters and -thirty-one baking summers that had leathered his skin and steeled -his sinews, while leaving his spirit boyish and irrepressible. A -tiger-muscled, blue-fire-eyed, yellow-bearded man, quick to rage, quick -to forgiveness, quick to gorge food and drink and quick to go hungry -when needs must. A man educated to horse and hound and every weapon, -bred to the saddle and the brawl, reckless and headstrong, generous and -full of brag and bounce. A man of six feet and four inches, weighing -sixteen stone, with scarce a thought in his handsome head but of war -and hunting and being a gentleman according to his lights, of loving -Ramizail and trotting happily over the world righting wrongs and -murdering villains and being Godwin, Godwin of England.</p> - -<p>And there was more to the man than all this, too, for had he not been -till this early winter of 1191 the King of England?</p> - -<p>It mattered little now, for Godwin was Godwin and no more. Not that -that was not quite enough! thought Ramizail, resignedly mounting her -bay palfrey. Sometimes it was a vast deal too much. She cast a glance -of affection at her affianced. She shook her lovely head. What a man!</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER III</p> - - -<p>Mufaddal al Mamun, a tall, bulky, brown-eyed, flat-nosed, dark-faced -hulk of a man, was eating his midday meal. It consisted of <i>ful</i> beans -fried in <i>samn</i>, millet bread, onions, cucumbers, and hard-boiled -eggs, washed down with quarts of strong <i>buzah</i>, beer brewed from -fermented bread. It was a poor man's meal, but Mufaddal preferred to -eat the cheapest of foods, for he thought that it made him appear -fanatical and single-minded and self-sacrificing to his followers. As -a matter of fact, they merely thought him a tasteless slob. He held -the same warped opinion about his garments, and clad himself daily in -a gray <i>gallabiyah</i>, the gown-like dress of the fellahin, with long -loose cotton pants and a soiled green skullcap. His cohorts made jokes -about it and regarded him with distaste, for many of them were proud -Turks and high-blooded Bedouins, who took a ferocious pride in garbing -themselves as well as possible and eating the best provender available. -They followed him, however, because he was a wild terrible fighter, -because he was half-brother to three potent sorcerers, and because he -could think up much dirtier plots against the infidel hordes of the -Crusaders than any other Saracen alive.</p> - -<p>As he popped the last egg whole into his broad gash of a mouth, and -smashed it between great yellow snaggleteeth, wishing it were the -skull of Richard Coeur de Lion, one of his sorcerers came sliding in -the door. There was a cool wind blowing through the house from the -sea, which lay not more than thirty yards from its portals; but the -sorcerer's presence seemed to heat the breeze and taint it with the -stench of sulphur and brimstone. Mufaddal looked even more irritable -than usual.</p> - -<p>"What do you want, offspring of a leprous unwed camel?"</p> - -<p>"May you live a thousand years, Mufaddal, my brother."</p> - -<p>"This is a noble sentiment. Did you interrupt my eating—that is to -say, my meditation—to wish me long life, imbecile?"</p> - -<p>The sorcerer looked meditatively at his left forefinger, which turned -into a blue snake and hissed at the big dirty man across the laden -cloth. Mufaddal jumped and said hastily, "This, of course, is only my -rough manner of speaking, Heraj, and naturally you know you are my -favorite brother and may come in any time you like."</p> - -<p>"Yes. Well, I was going to say, Mufaddal, that complications are -lifting their ugly heads in this business of the plague ship."</p> - -<p>"What? Are the rats not loaded into the hold, and the job accomplished -with but seventeen fellahin bitten? Did we not slay the seventeen -before they could come near anyone? And is the ship not as sound as any -ship that sails the Mediterranean, having new sails and a new mast, and -her belly caulked no later than last month?"</p> - -<p>"Ah, very true," agreed Heraj.</p> - -<p>"Does every rat not carry at least one flea, cleverly infected with the -plague by your own subtle methods?"</p> - -<p>"Fleas and rats are as deadly as any Saracen blade, and the grisly -death they carry will spread far and wide when they are let off the -ship on the coasts of England."</p> - -<p>"And lastly, is all not in readiness to sail come the day after -tomorrow?"</p> - -<p>"True," said Heraj gloomily. "But we can't send it out before then, as -our chosen crew will not be assembled till that morning, especially the -far-experienced Nubian slave who is coming from Tripoli to guide the -ship on its perilous course; and by the wrath of Eblis, you and I may -not live to see the dawn of that day, near though you deem it!"</p> - -<p>"What are you talking about?" roared Mufaddal.</p> - -<p>"I just had a message from a friend who happens to be a hawk in his -present incarnation. He tells me that Godwin is coming."</p> - -<p>"This is terrible news indeed," said Mufaddal, fiercely mimicking the -sorcerer's worried tones. "I quake with fright. I throw myself on the -infinite mercy of Allah." He rose and flexed his arms, that were each -as thick as a youth's body. "Heraj, who in the name of the seven hells -is Godwin?"</p> - -<p>"You may well ask," said Heraj, even more gloomily than before. "Nobody -seems to know exactly. I can't get a line on his history before a month -ago, when he rode out of Jaffa in company with a renegade Saracen -chieftain called El Sareuk and a girl named Ramizail. But he's a brawny -young champion, whatever his antecedents, and his girl controls the -djinn."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Mufaddal sat down on the floor with vast violence. His dark face turned -purple. His yellow teeth showed in a grin of sudden terror. "I betake -me to Allah! <i>That</i> Ramizail?"</p> - -<p>"Yes, that one. Well, this hawk says—"</p> - -<p>"Can you understand the hawk tongue?"</p> - -<p>"This one speaks Arabic. He's a fairly talented fellow, for a hawk. He -says that Godwin and the others are pledged to go rampaging over the -earth, righting wrongs, and they've heard of the plague ship and are on -their way to destroy it. And us, I suppose," added Heraj.</p> - -<p>"Name of forty goats," said Mufaddal worriedly. "I fear not this -Godwin, but the djinn...." He stared up at the sorcerer. "Can't you do -something to stop them? You and Pepi and Habu?"</p> - -<p>"What? You know my limitations, and I'm the strongest of the three. -I can do a lot, Mufaddal, but I can't combat djinn. The chief of -them, Mihrjan, even travels with this Ramizail wench, personally. She -controls him and his race by a sigil and ring that came down to her -from Solomon."</p> - -<p>"Curse it, Heraj, if this ship doesn't sail, England will continue to -send Crusaders to the East until they have conquered every inch of -desert and city! It's got to sail! How did these loathsome adventurers -hear of it?"</p> - -<p>"They happened across that Englishman who escaped us, Sir Malcolm du -Findley. The one that we started to flay last Thursday, before he -crawled out a window and treacherously disappeared."</p> - -<p>Mufaddal got off the floor. He hitched up his pants and retied the -string that held them around his muscular waist. "Heraj," he said -grimly, "I give you an hour to think of some way to stop them. Djinn or -no djinn, that ship sails!"</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER IV</p> - - -<p>By evening they had covered more than half the distance to Alexandria, -and Godwin was persuaded to halt for a few hours of rest, the horses -being weary with plunging through sand for such a long spell. "We'll -ride again with the moon's zenith," said Godwin, as he went about -picketing the horses. "Perhaps we can make the city by midday -tomorrow."</p> - -<p>Ramizail went off and stood by herself. "Mihrjan," she said softly.</p> - -<p>"I am here, Beloved of Allah."</p> - -<p>"Mihrjan, I'm sick of the same dreary food day after day. Godwin -maintains that gentlemen rovers should fare roughly, to toughen their -bodies. But I'm not a gentleman."</p> - -<p>"Assuredly thou art not," said the invisible djinni, respect and male -admiration nicely blended in his great voice.</p> - -<p>"Then spread me a real feast! I want <i>couscous</i>, with almond stuffing, -and wild rice, and some lemon juice, and certainly some white bread."</p> - -<p>"Thy will is sweet, Mistress."</p> - -<p>"Then oranges, and <i>asida</i>, and sugar. And about three gallons of -sherbet. And Mihrjan, do you remember the time you brought me that -confection out of a far time? The one you called silk chocolate?"</p> - -<p>"Milk chocolate, O Daughter of All Delights."</p> - -<p>"Bring me some of that, too. Put the meal on a damask cloth, with blue -gauze to wipe the mouth, and the vessels must all be of purest crystal -with gold rims."</p> - -<p>"To hear is to obey, Little Queen of My Tribe."</p> - -<p>"Be sure there's plenty for all of us, with a bowl of mice for Godwin's -falcon Yellow-eyes, and remember that my lord and master eats like -two-thirds of a regiment."</p> - -<p>"Give me but four minutes, Mistress, and you shall see it spread -beneath the trees of this oasis, beside the clear spring that bubbles -through the sand."</p> - -<p>She strolled back to her uncle and her betrothed, a secret smile on her -lips. In the specified four minutes a banquet popped into sight just -beside them. Godwin jumped.</p> - -<p>"What the devil!"</p> - -<p>"I'm hungry," said Ramizail, at once on the defensive.</p> - -<p>"Mihrjan!" said Godwin, glaring at her. "You had him do this. How often -must I tell you my sentiments concerning all this magic, witch-wench?"</p> - -<p>"Never again, Godwin dear, for I know them by heart."</p> - -<p>"Ramizail," he said angrily, his eyes sparkling blue, "this is going -to stop here and now. When you gave me the ring, and thus shared your -power over the djinn with me, you promised not to command Mihrjan to do -anything I didn't approve of."</p> - -<p>"Oh, well," grumbled the girl, "I'm hungry for real food!"</p> - -<p>"Ramizail, give me the sigil!"</p> - -<p>Her eyes blazed back at his. "Come and take it, you big oaf!"</p> - -<p>El Sareuk leaned against a date palm and smiled to himself. It was -always a toss-up as to which of these iron-willed people would win an -argument. Godwin strode over to the girl, upsetting a goblet of pale -pink sherbet with his foot, and took her by the shoulders. She hit him -on the nose. He turned her over and smacked her on her lightly-clad -bottom. She screeched and bit his leg. He dropped her on the sand and -sat on her.</p> - -<p>Mihrjan, invisible but no more than three feet from them, laughed -deeply.</p> - -<p>El Sareuk said to Yellow-eyes, the old peregrine falcon, who was -sitting on his shoulder watching the brawl, "Thy master has met, if not -his match, at least a very worthy foe!"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Godwin, after a great deal of fumbling, got hold of the sigil where it -hung on a chain round her neck, and opened the clasp and took it off.</p> - -<p>"Bully!" shrieked Ramizail. "Swaggering, bragging, girl-defeating -bully! Give me that back!"</p> - -<p>"Not a chance," said Godwin equably. He moved over and sat in the small -of her back. He locked the sigil into the ring he wore on his little -finger, and the designs of each caught the other and made a single lump -of gold. "Now," he said, "I control the djinn."</p> - -<p>"Have them transport me to the Isles of the Western Sea," said the girl -savagely, "or by the Crescent and Cross, Godwin, I'll murder you when I -get up!"</p> - -<p>"Nothing so drastic. Mihrjan!"</p> - -<p>"Yes, Lord?"</p> - -<p>"I control you now absolutely, don't I?"</p> - -<p>"Yes, Lord."</p> - -<p>"You follow us for love, I know, but we can't really command you unless -one of us holds both these baubles, isn't that so?"</p> - -<p>"'Tis so, one of a Hundred Monarchs, though thou knowest I would -answer any summons thou or my mistress made, Solomon's Seal or no. But -the sigil and ring are life's and death's powers over me."</p> - -<p>"Well, Mihrjan, you know my sentiments about the whole business, and -by the mass, I'm growing weary of these tricks of hers. She's always -having you save me when there's no need, and stepping in when I have a -chance at a fight, and making banquets, and showing off your magic as -if it were her own. So I want you to go away, Mihrjan."</p> - -<p>"Lord?" said the djinn, disturbed and bewildered.</p> - -<p>"Well, look, hang it all, I like you, I think you're a splendid chap, -really, but this magic gets on my nerves. Now go on away, go besiege a -castle, or throw an oyster fry, or take a wife, or something. We have -the sigil and ring if we really need you, old fellow, but meantime -please do go home. I'm sick of this soft living Ramizail forces on me -by your thaumaturgy."</p> - -<p>The djinni chuckled. "I see thy point, O King. I go. Remember that the -Seal calls me to you in an eye's winking if need arises."</p> - -<p>"It'll probably arise, if I know my luck, but I hope it won't. -Good-bye, old fellow."</p> - -<p>"Farewell, Master. Fare thee well, Moon of Incredible Beauty." There -was a swishing noise, a faint scent of attar touched their nostrils, -and the air rushed into a sudden-made vacuum beside them. The Moon of -Incredible Beauty said ferociously, "If you don't let me up, you son of -a jackal, I'll bite you in a vulnerable spot and you won't sit down for -a week."</p> - -<p>Godwin stood up. Ramizail rolled over and eyed him. There was malice in -the gaze, but Godwin only laughed. He tossed her the sigil. She hung it -round her neck.</p> - -<p>"I'll hide the ring, kitten, so you can't steal it when I'm asleep. Now -you're a plain woman, and by our lady, you'll stay that way!"</p> - -<p>"What about the banquet?" said she. "I'm surprised you didn't have him -take it back."</p> - -<p>"Ah well, a man does now and again grow tired of figs and biscuits and -water. We'll eat it. Just this once."</p> - -<p>They all sat down, El Sareuk gave thanks to Allah and Godwin to his -deity for the sumptuous repast, and they fell to. Yellow-eyes dipped -her scarred, notched beak into her bowl of plump mice, and emitted a -cry of pleasure. Everybody ate until four bellies well nigh burst with -good food. Then they rolled up in their rugs and went to sleep.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER V</p> - - -<p>Heraj looked into his crystal ball. Absently he flung out his right -arm, which extended for seven feet and allowed the hand to grasp a -beaker of honey wine sitting on a taboret across the room.</p> - -<p>His eyes lit up greenly at what he saw in the ball. He tossed off the -wine and hared out of his apartments, through the room where fourteen -lieutenants of Mufaddal's force were playing at dice, and into his -master's sleeping room. Mufaddal sat up from his rugs and howled.</p> - -<p>"This damnable lack of privacy must cease! I—" Then he saw what his -half-brother was doing casually with his left foot, and subsided. "Yes, -Heraj? What is it?"</p> - -<p>"Listen, al Mamun. I put a thought in Godwin's head this -afternoon—just a suggestion, you know. He followed through -beautifully."</p> - -<p>"Good. Did he hang himself to a tree?"</p> - -<p>"No, no. I suggested he get rid of that djinni. He did. Then he hid -Solomon's ring, though where I don't know, and forgot where he hid it."</p> - -<p>"By Osman ibn Affar, that was well done! Your power over men's minds -astonishes even me, Heraj." The dark-faced fanatic was jubilant.</p> - -<p>"I didn't make him forget it, he did that on his own hook. He's -cooperative that way. He has a child's intellect." Heraj took a -sweetmeat out of his ear and ate it. "Now the djinni's gone, Allah -knows where, and won't come back till he's called by the sigil and -ring. And they haven't got the ring."</p> - -<p>"Oh, my brother," said Mufaddal, rubbing his hands together, "if you -have indeed put this Godwin at our mercy, I shall give you a racing -camel with a ruby-studded saddle!"</p> - -<p>"I have, I have. But never mind the camel, I want Richard for my -personal slave when we defeat the Crusaders."</p> - -<p>"Done!" barked the leader. "Now tell me, subtle one, what will you do -with Godwin?"</p> - -<p>Heraj regarded his fingernails, which turned into ten little pieces -of glass behind which miniature dancing girls performed various -interesting contortions. At last he said smugly, "I've done it, -Mufaddal. Just wait till that overgrown lout wakes up." He laughed. -"What a shock he's got coming!"</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER VI</p> - - -<p>Godwin rolled over, opened an eye, and smacked his lips. He always -awoke hungry. He scrabbled in the sand beside him until he found his -bag of dates, popped one into his mouth, and got up. He pushed a bare -toe against the backside of El Sareuk, who erupted with a startled -curse. Yellow-eyes woke at that and screamed, and Ramizail sat up.</p> - -<p>"Time to ride, old wolf," said Godwin. He went to the spring and drank -deep. Then he walked past it toward the horses.</p> - -<p>The horses were not there. He scowled, went through the palm trees, and -made as if to set foot on the desert sands beyond.</p> - -<p>The desert sands were not there.</p> - -<p>He fell to his knees. His eyes snapped wide. Two inches before him the -oasis came to an abrupt halt. There was nothing there but vacant space. -The desert was gone. Everything was gone.</p> - -<p>"What in the name of—"</p> - -<p>He bent over the edge of the oasis. A thousand feet below him the -desert shimmered coldly in the light of the stars. He could see their -horses, the three saddle beasts and the two pack animals, standing in -a knot with the Arabian camel they kept for emergencies. The creatures -looked like insects, so far below him they were. He drew back with a -gasp.</p> - -<p>"El Sareuk! Ramizail!" he shouted. "Take care! The oasis has floated -off its moorings!"</p> - -<p>They came running to his side. Ramizail gave a little cry. "Godwin, -darling! What's happened to us?"</p> - -<p>"Lord knows. We're marooned up here, it seems." He lay down at full -length and peered over the edge again. The oasis had indeed been torn -from its base, and the roots of the palms dangled below the round disc -of it, waving their filaments in the air. "By the rood," said Godwin, -"if this doesn't strain the imagination! Does it happen often, old one?"</p> - -<p>"Never to my knowledge before this night," said El Sareuk, running -a hand through his grizzled beard. "Now by Allah! The sorcerers of -Mufaddal have done this thing!"</p> - -<p>"The ring, Godwin," snapped Ramizail. She was all business, and no man -would have denied her anything in this sudden gust of her serious -intent, for when she put by her humor and her playfulness, she was a -force to be reckoned with. "We'll have to call up Mihrjan. None of your -vaunted swashbuckling will cope with this ensorcelment."</p> - -<p>"Yes, I suppose one must fight witchery with witchery, though it goes -against my knightly grain." He made as if to take the ring from his -finger. "Oh, I forgot. I hid it from you."</p> - -<p>"Stupid ox! Give it here."</p> - -<p>He groped in his silk and samite robes, then among the crevices of his -gold-washed steel mesh Cairo armor. At last he stared sheepishly at -her. "I forget what I did with it."</p> - -<p>"Oh, you bumbling Englishman!" She leaped to him and ran swift questing -fingers over his body. "It's big enough, it ought to make quite a lump. -Ninety-nine names of the true One! It isn't here. Did you hide it in -the sand?"</p> - -<p>"No," said Godwin, blushing with shame. "I put it where I'd always have -it near by. But I can't seem to recollect just where."</p> - -<p>She put her hands to her head. "You—you—"</p> - -<p>"Never mind," said Godwin. "I have an idea. If it doesn't work, you'll -have to pick me up with a spoon, but I think it will."</p> - -<p>He squared his broad shoulders and walked straight over the edge of the -high-floating oasis.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER VII</p> - - -<p>Godwin turned and looked back at them. In the moon's light he was an -uncanny figure, standing on lofty immaterial nothingness.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus2.jpg" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>"Well," he said testily, "come on. Can't you see it's all right?"</p> - -<p>They gaped at him, eyes round as the declining moon. "How are you -accomplishing that, comrade?" asked the Saracen.</p> - -<p>"Accomplishing what? I'm only standing here."</p> - -<p>"Yes, but on air, for the love of Allah! How can you stand on air?"</p> - -<p>"I happen," said Godwin, distinctly and loudly, as though he were -speaking to an imbecile. "I happen to be standing on the sands of the -desert."</p> - -<p>"He's mad, my child," groaned El Sareuk.</p> - -<p>"If he is, he's doing as neat a job of being crazy as I ever saw," -retorted Ramizail. "Does his insanity affect the pull of the earth?"</p> - -<p>"Hmm," said the Hadji, "you're right. Well, let me join him in his -madness. But if I vanish abruptly, niece, do you go back and sit by -that spring until the oasis sinks of its own accord. I would not have -your lovely brains splattered over a league of hot sand." He walked -gingerly out to Godwin's side. "He's right, it's the desert!" he -shouted.</p> - -<p>She looked at the two of them, standing there in midair shaking hands -solemnly with each other. She grinned. "Of course, it's a mirage, -or a trick!" She went to them, treading on what seemed space, and -it turned to solid dunes beneath her sandals. She looked back, and -the oasis was there, settled firmly in the heart of the desert, with -sleepy Yellow-eyes just flying out of the trees. "A neat stunt," said -Ramizail. "Godwin, you're cleverer than I thought, and as brave as -forty lions, to have tried such a thing!"</p> - -<p>"A man takes his chances," said Godwin modestly.</p> - -<p>They mounted and rode off toward the west, toward El Iskandariya and -the ship full of rats, rats full of fleas, fleas full of bubonic -plague. As they went, Ramizail nagged at Godwin, and Godwin tried -unhappily to remember what he had done with the ring of Solomon. But he -could not do it. He patted himself all over, and even looked into his -Saracen-style helmet, which was a round shining steel cap surmounted -by the golden figure of a rampant lion and resting upon a headpiece of -soft white cloth that protected his neck from the sun; but he could not -discover it. All he remembered was that he had put it in a safe place, -a place that would never be farther from him than he could reach.</p> - -<p>As the moon touched the faraway dunes, the sun came up. Gilded sands -grew fiery beneath the hooves of their animals, and the <i>khamsin</i>, that -was like the breath of a devil drunk on hot mulled blood, arose to -torture them.</p> - -<p>A wide-breasted dune stretched before them. They topped the rise and -Ramizail gave a cry, while the men checked their steeds and glanced at -each other. "Another illusion?" asked Godwin.</p> - -<p>"Who can tell? There are more beasts in the desert than are known to -man," shrugged El Sareuk.</p> - -<p>In the hollow formed by four dunes' meeting stood an enormous lion, -all orange-red of hue, facing them with black mane bristling up like -the spines of a porcupine. The odd thing about it, the thing that made -it seem somewhat out of the ordinary even to men who had looked on a -thousand wonders in their time, was the pair of broad silver wings that -sprang from its shoulder blades and spread themselves high to left and -right.</p> - -<p>"Winged lion," said Ramizail. "No, I cannot call it to mind. I doubt -one's been seen before, at least in Egypt."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The lion growled, crouched, and launched itself through the air -straight at Godwin's head. El Sareuk shouted, "Allah defend us!" and -leaned over in the saddle to slash at it with his scimitar; while -Godwin hauled his fifty-pound broadsword from its leathern sheath and -flung the point swiftly up before his face. The lion, its gigantic -wings flapping like a vulture's, soared up and over him. Yellow-eyes -the falcon left his shoulder, giving vent to shrill wrath at this -horror of the desert.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus1.jpg" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>"Coming back! Diving!" roared the Hadji. Godwin flung himself from a -sitting start, straight over the head of his stallion. The extended -claws of the terrible beast grazed his back as he fell and ripped four -gashes in the silk of his outer robe. Yellow-eyes beat her wings about -the lion's head, trying to confuse and harry it.</p> - -<p>Still holding his weapon, Godwin of England rolled over on his back. -Flying sand had sprayed his face and a grain had lodged in his left -eye, making him squint and curse. The lion hovered over him, then -dropped like a boulder, ignoring the peregrine. Godwin twitched the -point of the sword upward and at the first prickling contact with its -belly the monster screeched and shot forward beyond him.</p> - -<p>El Sareuk made his horse leap, and stood by Godwin till he rose. "It's -coming back," he said. "You are its target, obviously, lad. 'Tis no -natural beast, I'll take oath on the Koran!"</p> - -<p>The winged red lion came rushing at Godwin, half on sand and half in -air, giving itself little pushes with its earth-touching paws. Godwin -half-knelt, waited till it was within striking range, then gave a -mighty slash with his iron sword. He missed, but the strange being, -startled, rose up. Godwin saw one massive hind leg coming straight at -him. He had no time to lift the broadsword again; neither could he drop -in time to avoid a crushing stroke of the leg. Quicker than thought he -let go his sword and flung his arms before him.</p> - -<p>The leg struck him on the chest, but to ease the force he had already -wrapped his swift arms about it. The lion beat its way upward, and -before he knew it Godwin, clinging like death to the hind leg, looked -down and found himself a hundred feet over the desert. El Sareuk's -astonished shout and Ramizail's piercing scream of terror came up to -him, dim and half-heard in the rushing wind of their passage. The -falcon followed, skirling her anger.</p> - -<p>The lion paused and writhed round on itself like a common bazaar cat -going after a louse. Godwin swung his body up and kicked it on the -nose. It coughed dismally as one sharp spur caught its tender snout and -gashed a bloody trench. It snapped at him again, its big teeth missing -by a fraction. Yellow-eyes thrust her beak at its eyes and it turned -from Godwin to bite out at her.</p> - -<p>Godwin tightened the grip of his left arm and let go with his right. He -drew his curved Persian dagger from its thonged sheath and judged his -blow. Then he struck.</p> - -<p>The lion, its neck slit from ear to gullet, spewed blood and uttered -a horrible gurgling bellow. Slowly it began to sink toward the earth. -Godwin risked a quick look down. His head reeled. He was still a good -eighty feet up. If the lion died too soon, he would be smashed to a -pulp beneath its dead weight. He had thought only of slaying the -thing, not of how he might land safely. He swore vividly.</p> - -<p>"This proves Ramizail's contention that I have a one-track brain!" The -winged beast drifted down in spirals, its hindquarters drooping, its -wings feebly beating the air, and its head jerking back and forth. -Godwin held his breath. It folded its wings and plummeted straight for -sickening yards, then making a last try at rising, extended the pinions -once more. Godwin saw that he was no more than ten feet off the ground. -He loosed his hold. The dunes came up with a rush to meet him and he -lit and rolled over. The lion above gave a final roar and crumpled, -smacking the sand a yard from Godwin's feet. The warrior arose and -wiped his forehead with a bloodied hand, as Yellow-eyes alit on his -shoulder, ruffling her feathers.</p> - -<p>"Whew! Lady, <i>that</i> was no illusion."</p> - -<p>El Sareuk brought him his sword and charger, and mounting, he turned -its head again to the west.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER VIII</p> - - -<p>About the time that Godwin and his friends were fording the Rosetta -Branch of the Nile, Heraj the sorcerer interrupted his leader again.</p> - -<p>"He riddled out the levitating oasis, Mufaddal, and he slew the winged -lion. I thought you'd like to know what sort of man is coming after -us."</p> - -<p>"If you had done your job at all well—" Mufaddal paused to thrust a -piece of millet bread into his maw, and his half-brother interrupted -him.</p> - -<p>"You know my limitations. Allah curse it, what man ever stood up -to the winged lion before today?" He took a piece of paper out of -Mufaddal's chin, or seemed to, at any rate, and read a few words that -were scribbled thereon. "Well, the dog is crossing the Rosetta now. -I have a horrible feeling he can't be stopped." Heraj sprinkled salt -on the scrap of paper and ate it meditatively. "Pepi wants to try the -rolling sands stunt. I suppose we may as well. But this Godwin ... by -the <i>schedim</i>, what an opponent! Djinn or no djinn, I like him not!" He -left, and Mufaddal, having lost his appetite, went off to inspect the -plague ship for the hundredth time that week.</p> - -<p>It was his own idea. He was as proud of it as of his skill at torturing -captured Crusaders, a score of whom languished now in his dungeon -awaiting his displeasure. The ship lay at the wharf, a black swift -vessel with dark lateen sails slanting high above her deck. A company -of Seljuk Turks and other Saracen allies stood about the dock, on guard -lest some ill-advised person attempt to board her. More were stationed -on the ship, and from beneath their feet in the sealed hold came the -frightful squeakings and squealings and multitudinous rustlings of -thousands upon thousands of great gray rats, imprisoned there to fight -and breed and die and wait their chance at sunlight again—sunlight -that Mufaddal devoutly hoped they would view on the shore of England.</p> - -<p>He massaged his hands together. What a picture it was! All these -beauties, scampering over England, biting people, infecting masses of -men and women, gnawing on children's feet, carrying the plague hither -and yon until the whole island lay gasping out its fading breath, -nine-tenths of its population covered with the applesized tumors -and hideous purple spots of bubonic. Then let them see who sent out -Crusaders! It would be Saracen hordes overrunning Britain, rather than -red-faced Englishmen defiling the Holy Land!</p> - -<p>Some six hundred and forty-eight years before, the plague had lashed -through Constantinople, and slain ten thousand souls in a day's space. -Say, conservatively, then, that ten thousand per day would die in -England. How many days would it take....</p> - -<p>He went aboard, the better to hear the gibberings of his ghastly -phalanxes. The boards were hot under his bare feet. The grisly ravening -of the packed throngs of rats rose all about him, and in an ecstasy of -delight he knelt to lift a hatch cover, yearning to gaze on them once -more.</p> - -<p>"Lord!" A voice burst out behind him. "O Lord, do not open the hatch! -Think what thou doest!"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Mufaddal turned, to see a Mameluke, an ex-slave converted to Islam and -now a fine soldier, who was running toward him and waving his arms -excitedly.</p> - -<p>Mufaddal stood erect, a giant flat-nosed man of black face and blacker -heart. He kimboed his arms and hissed, "What is this you say, slave?"</p> - -<p>The Mameluke came to a halt before him. "O Lord, think if thou shouldst -allow even a single rat to escape! Thou might be bitten, and we should -have to drop thee into the sea!"</p> - -<p>Mufaddal reached out. Very slowly his hands went around the soldier's -neck, and the Mameluke was too startled to step backward. Mufaddal said -softly, "Shall I throttle you? Hmm. No. There lies no pleasure in the -strangling of a worm. Shall I heave you into the ocean, as you would -do with me should I be bitten? Bah! Too easy a death, and you might -be able to swim. Shall I drop you into the hold?" The Mameluke gave a -half-stifled howl. "I think I shall. The pets need nourishment. I can't -have them eating each other."</p> - -<p>He bent, still holding the gasping Mameluke by one clamped-tight fist, -and raised the hatch cover and propped it with his foot. Then he lifted -the soldier by his neck, swung him a little so that his flailing heels -kicked out behind, and lobbed him into the opening. There was a squashy -sort of splash, as the man fell full length upon a turbulent blanket -of milling, screaming rodents. At the same time there burst upon the -upper air a horrible carrion stench, like that of a charnel house a -hundred times augmented. The Mameluke gave a cry of pitiable terror, -and another, and then was still. Perhaps he fainted, or perhaps the -rats found his life in that instant.</p> - -<p>Mufaddal knelt above the hatchway, chuckling in his greasy beard. His -brown eyes lit with soft venomous delight.</p> - -<p>Suddenly there shot from the blackness of the hold a single enormous -rat, fascinated by the square of light and throwing all its nervous -energy into one superb attempt to gain the outer world. Mufaddal -quailed back in panic as it flew past his face and landed on the deck, -slithering and floundering in an effort to regain its balance after the -magnificent leap.</p> - -<p>Lest more of them make the try, he dropped the lid to the coamings. -He drew his scimitar. The rat, nearly blinded, jerked its blank gaze -from side to side. Slowly he advanced on it, weapon lifted. It saw him, -opened its evil mouth and squealed insane defiance.</p> - -<p>He made a swipe at it, it dodged and leaped upon him. Its tiny sharp -teeth met in his <i>gallabiyah</i>, and it swung from the cloth, snarling -like an angry cat. Frantic, he knocked it to the deck with the flat -of his sword, slicing off a small portion of his own belly in the -process. Then he smashed down the blade. It split the rat in two and -clove into the deck, so deeply that it took him three hearty tugs to -disengage it.</p> - -<p>Bleeding, cursing, and shaking with the after-effects of fear, he -stamped off the ship and across the dock to his house, where he called -his private surgeon to bind up the wound. He began to think about -Godwin, and eventually the Englishman and the rat became thoroughly -confused in his dark mind; so that his impersonal hatred for Godwin -became a very personal loathing and desire for vengeance.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER IX</p> - - -<p>"Godwin dear," said Ramizail, in a voice which for her was small and -deferential indeed.</p> - -<p>"Yes?" he said. He had been dreaming in the saddle of battles he had -fought and brawls he would engage in.</p> - -<p>"Godwin, my own, I'm seasick."</p> - -<p>He stared across at her. El Sareuk said, "Niece, you were straddling a -pony before you could toddle! This is unworthy of you."</p> - -<p>"I don't care. I'm seasick." Her face was pale and beads of sweat stood -on her forehead. "I'm afraid I'm going to disgrace myself," she said, -and promptly did.</p> - -<p>Godwin started to laugh. Then he stopped, and put a hand tentatively -to his own belly. "El Sareuk," he said, "I don't feel so sprightly -myself."</p> - -<p>The Arab chieftain nodded. "You look like a poisoned camel, my friend. -What ails you?"</p> - -<p>"God knows. I too was almost born a-horseback. But, hang it, there's -something the matter with this steed. He keeps going buckety-clomp."</p> - -<p>"What?"</p> - -<p>"Buckety-clomp, that's what it feels like."</p> - -<p>El Sareuk said, "Now that you mention it, my own fellow has developed a -sort of stagger. Could they have drunk bad water?"</p> - -<p>"They drank what we drank. Damn," said Godwin miserably. "You know -what it is? It's some more sorcery. Those thrice-cursed warlocks of -Mufaddal's are up to something again. Mohammed, we'll never get there -at this rate."</p> - -<p>"Cheer up, thou stalwart smiter of satans," said El Sareuk. "Despite -their worst efforts, we've covered four-fifths of the distance already, -and 'tis no more than midday!"</p> - -<p>"I expected to be in Alexandria by now."</p> - -<p>"I cannot imagine what this trick may be that works on you," went on -the Saracen. "But luckily it leaves me untouched. As I am when in -the saddle no more than an extension of my horse, I am naturally not -susceptible to—"</p> - -<p>After a long pause, Godwin cleared his throat and said, "Susceptible to -what?"</p> - -<p>"Never mind," said El Sareuk sorrowfully, and his lean face was faintly -green. "I find that, after all, I am."</p> - -<p>They rode on grimly, until at last Ramizail said, "I'm sorry, I've got -to get off and rest a while. I'm <i>sick</i>."</p> - -<p>The two men thankfully reined in, and the party dismounted on the top -of a dune. They all sat down. Shortly Ramizail said, "It's no good. I -still feel awful. The desert's going up and down in front of my eyes."</p> - -<p>"I noticed the same phenomenon," said Godwin.</p> - -<p>"And I," agreed El Sareuk. "The sorcerers have poisoned us, surely."</p> - -<p>There was another silence.</p> - -<p>Godwin murmured, "That's curious."</p> - -<p>"What?" asked El Sareuk, who was striving with might and main not to -throw up.</p> - -<p>"Well, I was watching the horizon swell and sink, swell and sink, swell -and—"</p> - -<p>"For heaven's sake, shut up," groaned Ramizail.</p> - -<p>"And all of a sudden I noticed my horse doing the same thing." He -turned his face toward them. "I mean he was watching it too, nodding -his head. You know, it isn't just us. It's the land. It <i>is</i> rising and -falling. The dunes are rolling like ocean waves."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Ramizail raised herself on her elbows and stared out across the sands. -"They are! We stopped atop a dune, now we're in a valley." She spat. -"If this isn't the messiest miracle ever worked, and the dirtiest, and -the foulest, then I am not the mistress of the djinn!"</p> - -<p>"What'll we do?" moaned Godwin. "How can you fight a shifting desert? -How can you make it lie down and be good?"</p> - -<p>El Sareuk stood up. Strong though he was, strong as so much whip-thong -and steel encased in leather, he could fight this nausea no more -effectively than a puppy might engage in warfare with an active -volcano. "Allah punishes me for sinful pride," he said, gagging. "Pride -in my horsemanship. I, who have been to Mecca, still to harbor pride!" -He shaded his eyes from the blazing sun, which was the only stable -object in sight. "The magic cannot stretch from edge to edge of the -desert, for such a thing is beyond the power of even the djinn."</p> - -<p>"Speaking of which, have you found that ring, Godwin?" queried Ramizail -with weak petulance.</p> - -<p>"No, let me be," said the tallow-faced Godwin.</p> - -<p>"I was going to say," continued El Sareuk, "that if we manage to -survive for the few miles, I think we will pass these rolling sands. -Can you stick on your horses?"</p> - -<p>"While I'm alive, I can ride," said Godwin, but without much conviction.</p> - -<p>"If you two can stand it, I can," nodded the girl.</p> - -<p>Yellow-eyes, huddled on the cantle of her master's saddle, croaked -out something that sounded like a blasphemy. The horses drooped -their heads, and the camel bubbled and wailed. They made a pitiful -group. But the humans mounted, and the falcon flew up, and the beasts -staggered forward. They would start to plow up a dune, and slowly like -a wave in slow motion, it would shift until they were heading down into -a valley. The horizon before them was a shifting, mutable line. Never -had any of them been so ill. They had all lost their breakfasts, and -seemed to be trying to recall the supper from night before last. Not a -one of them but would have been happy to lie down, could he have been -sure that he would die. But they pressed on, taking a weak courage from -each other.</p> - -<p>And at last El Sareuk, who in his way was stronger even than the -champion Godwin, blinked watery eyes and said, "We've passed it!"</p> - -<p>They lifted incredulous heads, and found it was true. The shifting -sands had stilled and the desert lay wrapped in its customary peace.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER X</p> - - -<p>They were almost within sight of Alexandria before they found what they -were seeking. Then, just at the last possible moment, they sighted a -large cluster of the black tents of the Bedouins. "Await me here," said -El Sareuk urgently. "I shall collogue with these men and see whether I -cannot raise us an army." He galloped away to the encampment.</p> - -<p>Shortly there was a bustle and stir therein, and many small energetic -men of the Bedouin tribe came running toward the central tent, into -which El Sareuk had vanished. The Bedouins were a cheerful and healthy -lot, inured to hardship, habituated to a rough nomadic life. They -were short and lean, and often looked fragile, but they were fiery, -intractable fighters when aroused.</p> - -<p>When some time had passed, Ramizail said, "He will win them. You'll see -they'll be wild with desire to help us, and to avenge the soiled honor -of Islam. That's the tack he's using—how Mufaddal has betrayed the -dignity and integrity of the Moslem world by this fiendish trick of the -pest ship, and how these Bedouins can expunge the stain by following us -against his forces."</p> - -<p>"Can you do soothsaying without the help of Mihrjan?" asked Godwin -curiously. There was a great deal he did not know even yet about this -strange tall child of Solomon's line.</p> - -<p>"Oh, no. I'm just well acquainted with my uncle's ways of -thinking and speaking and acting. I've seen him whip a crowd of -assorted Saracens—Turks and Mamelukes and Arabs and Soldarii and -Turcomans—into such a frenzy of fanatical zeal that they attacked a -force nine times as large as their own, and cut it to ribbons. He's an -old spell-binder."</p> - -<p>And it turned out as she predicted, for quite soon El Sareuk came -riding toward them at the head of a gang of horsemen, some half a -hundred in all, waving their swords and bows over their heads. Godwin -knew instinctively what to do. He rose in his stirrups and threw up -his tremendous broadsword and howled in Arabic. "Death to all who -defile the name and honor of Islam!" Although he was a good Christian -knight this war-slogan did not seem inappropriate to him in the least; -and it pleased and flattered the Bedouins no end, for El Sareuk had -told them of this mighty-chested warrior who had dedicated himself to -wrong-righting and oppression-ending, leaving the Crusade to travel for -this purpose in company with an Arab prince and half-caste girl. They -answered his hail with lusty yells and riding up to him and Ramizail -they pressed upon them all manner of foods, roast lamb in palm leaves, -legs of fowl, delicacies of every sort, goats' milk for Godwin and -asses' milk for the woman. Greedily they ate and drank as they rode -west, and finished the last crumb as they sighted the outskirts of -Alexandria.</p> - -<p>"We'll ride straight in," said Godwin, now grim and businesslike. -"They're expecting us, so watch out for surprises. Their sorcerers have -told them we're coming, I'll wager my left eye upon it. We'll find out -which wharf the plague ship's moored to, and burn her to the water's -edge. Then we'll seek out this Mufaddal swine, and pin him by his ears -to an ant's nest!"</p> - -<p>His band gave an ululating shout, and the horses were booted into a -gallop.</p> - -<p>It was then about two hours before sunset.</p> - -<p>They rode down one of the principal streets, a rather dirty, narrow -thoroughfare, overhung by the houses on either side. Above the roofs -to their left they could see the pinnacle of Pompey's Pillar, the -towering column of red granite which had stood in Alexandria for eight -centuries. "'Twould be moored in the West Harbor, I think," said El -Sareuk, who knew the city to some extent. He nudged his horse slightly -into the lead and preceded the force through the heart of the place.</p> - -<p>Few signs of life were in evidence. The air was hushed, even the wind -off the sea had drawn back to avoid this silent city, and an atmosphere -of expectancy held the blindly staring buildings. Only an occasional -fellah or more substantial citizen would appear now and again, stare -for a moment at the intent horsemen, and disappear from sight like a -startled wild thing. Godwin tugged at his beard. They were not, as he -had predicted, wholly unexpected. Word had somehow flown through the -streets and bazaars of their coming, and of the imminent brawl. Perhaps -magic was at work, too, though he felt and saw nothing to indicate it.</p> - -<p>They approached the docks, catching glimpses of them at intervals in -the houses, and Godwin grew even more tense and watchful. Then, as he -and Ramizail and the chief of the Bedouins all abreast, with El Sareuk -four hand-breadths in advance, galloped round a turn, the attack was -launched upon them.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>From the roof of a house on the corner a great net, like those used by -fishermen, was flung out, weighted and tossed by experienced hands; -it fell upon the four of them, an entangling, encumbering, maddening -enemy, knocking Ramizail out of the saddle, tipping Godwin's helmet -over his eyes, snaring all their drawn weapons and seeming to writhe -about them as though it were a sentient creature. Godwin shouted, "Use -your blades!" and began hacking away at the cords with his broadsword. -It was not the razor-keen instrument that El Sareuk's scimitar was, -however, and the old Saracen had to release him after cutting free -himself. Ramizail was dodging on hands and knees between the legs of -the terrified horses. The Bedouin leader yelled, "leave the beasts;" -and Godwin realized that they must. It would take minutes to slice the -net sufficiently to unscramble the steeds. He slid off his Spanish -charger, picked up Ramizail by the waist, dodged under a reaching fold -of the net and gained the free ground.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus3.jpg" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>Men were attacking from the mouth of every alley, Turks in Persian -armor with three-foot scimitars and little round shields, mercenary -Turcomans with stout short bows and fists full of arrows, Mamelukes -in yellow tunics carrying battle-axes. The Bedouins pirouetted their -horses to meet them. Some of the enemy were mounted, many on foot. -Battle-cries arose, and this was the strangest thing about the fight, -for both sides lifted the same cry, the howling chant of Islam: -"<i>Ul-ul-ul-ul-ul-ul-allah akbar! Allah il-al-lahu! Ul-ul-ul-ul-allah -akbar!</i>"</p> - -<p>Godwin, still carrying Ramizail, parried a vicious thrust by a -Seljuk Turk and swung his broadsword. A wave of terrible and utter -happiness swept through him. For this had Godwin of England been -born and trained. His blade smashed down through helmet and skull to -clunk dully on the neckpiece of the Turk's armor. Then he had jerked -it free and turned and driven it squarely into the back of a foeman -who was duelling with the dismounted El Sareuk. Again he whipped it -out, whirled it above his head and smashed its broad flat against the -bearded and grimacing face of a Turcoman. Blood and brains exploded -like seeds and pulp from a shattered pumpkin. Godwin roared gleefully. -Having cleared the space around him, he set Ramizail on her feet and -said, "Stand back to back with me, sweet. My halidom! This is something -like it!"</p> - -<p>She slammed her back against his. An etched-bladed knife was in her -capable hand, and she had the look of a ravening demon.</p> - -<p>El Sareuk, wiping his dripping scimitar on the <i>djelabie</i> of a fallen -opponent, said, "Where's Yellow-eyes?" for he had grown very fond of -Godwin's battle-scarred old peregrine.</p> - -<p>"I don't know. Trust her to come safe through this!" And in a moment, -as Godwin engaged in swordplay with two Moslems, the falcon did indeed -slant down from the sky, to beat her wings fiercely in the eyes of one -of the enemy who was trying to slash at Ramizail under Godwin's arm.</p> - -<p>"Thou beauty!" said Godwin, dividing the blinded gentleman neatly at -the waist. "Thou cleaver of storm-clouds! Always art thou here when -Godwin has need of thee!" Only to his falcon and his horse did Godwin -speak in this affectionate fashion. It sometimes made Ramizail jealous.</p> - -<p>Many of their Bedouin allies had fallen to the arrows and swords of -the attackers. Now men appeared on the nearest roofs, armed with huge -slings and round stones. Mufaddal evidently desired to take prisoners, -and knowing that Godwin's forces would fight to the last man, had -chosen this way of stunning some of them. A flight of stones laid out -three-quarters of the remaining force, including El Sareuk; Godwin took -a couple on his shield—he was the prime target—and wished he had an -arbalest; he'd bring 'em down from those aeries! Then a rock caught him -at the base of the skull, and he groaned and buckled over and struck -the ground with a crash. Yellow-eyes fluttered up and hung over him, -screeching. Ramizail bent above him, crying out with horror. Then big -rough hands were on her, her knife was twitched away, and she was -hauled off, keening like a banshee, to the house of Mufaddal al Mamun.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER XI</p> - - -<p>The black-faced slob who led the troops of the Saracens in Alexandria -was seated cross-legged on a rug, eating a bowlful of dry rice. He -squinted at Ramizail where she stood, defiant and tear-stained, across -the room from him. "Bring the slut here," said he. Two slaves dragged -her forward. They took their hands away when they had stationed her in -front of him; she immediately hit one of them in the eye and kicked -the other on the shin. Then she bent over and thrust a finger under -Mufaddal's nose.</p> - -<p>"Watch who you're calling a slut, you pig-eyed ape-visaged son of a -buck-toothed jackal!" she said in a low but quite audible snarl. "Do -you have any idea who I am?"</p> - -<p>He made as if to shrug, snatched her by the wrist and flung her prone -on the rug before him. "I know who you are, you viper mouthed hell hag. -You're Ramizail, who once controlled the djinn."</p> - -<p>"I still control them, you bat-eared offspring of a pock-marked toad."</p> - -<p>"Oh no you don't, you mildewed bowlegged harridan," said Mufaddal. -With the "bowlegged" epithet he went too far, as any student of women, -and especially of the vain Ramizail, could have told him. She rolled -over and smiled up at him and before he knew what she intended, her -teeth had met in the flesh of his calf. He leaped straight up with a -full-throated bawl of pain.</p> - -<p>She sat back and crossed her legs Moslem-fashion and said, "Now that -the pleasantries are done with, let me tell you that the chief of all -the djinn, y-clept Mihrjan would—and <i>could</i>—do anything for me. So -just watch your step, you greasy-handed scheming scum, or you'll find -yourself hanging by your—"</p> - -<p>"Mihrjan would indeed have done anything for you," said Mufaddal, -rolling up his cheap cotton trousers and dabbing at the blood on his -leg with a piece of the equally cheap rug, which he tore off for the -purpose. "But your friend Godwin sent Mihrjan away and told him to stay -till he was called. And now he's lost the ring of Solomon, and you're -helpless. Ouch!" he yipped as the rug rasped over his wound. "Well, -almost helpless. I suppose I'll have to have all your teeth pulled -before I make you my concubine."</p> - -<p>"Before you make me a concubine, you draff of the Cairo gutters, you'll -have to pull my teeth and draw my nails and hamstring me and break my -arms, and even then I'll <i>gum</i> you to death!" she yelled.</p> - -<p>He regarded her out of the corner of his eye, and thought that perhaps -she was right, and that he should give up this idea. Certainly there -was always the chance that her djinni might come looking for her -against Godwin's orders; but he took a second look and decided the -djinni could go hang. She was as luscious a piece of loot as had come -his way in years. She was standing now, hands on hips. He motioned one -of the slaves up.</p> - -<p>"Let's see what she looks like under all those layers of drapery," he -said.</p> - -<p>The slave grinned, whipped out a knife, and before Ramizail could turn -he expertly ran its razor-honed blade up her back, within a millimeter -of her spine. Her robes fell forward, slit from waist to neck, and -she saved her modesty only by a quick grab at the front of them. -Whirling—and Ramizail when she wished could move like a tornado in a -hurry—she snatched the knife from his careless grasp, shifted it to -a comfortable position in her hand, and with a lightning stroke cut -the belt of his scarlet satin pantaloons. The slave clutched at them -desperately ... just too late. He turned to flee this demon-wench, the -trousers entangled his ankles, and he sprawled headlong across the -floor. The other slave came warily forward, groping out toward the girl.</p> - -<p>She menaced him with the knife. "Want to lose your pants too, little -man?" she asked.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He was a shy and sensitive soul at heart. He glanced at his trousers, -at the knife, turned pale, moaned, and dashed for the door. Ramizail -faced Mufaddal, who was nursing his calf and gaping appreciatively at -the slim brown back exposed by the slave's blade.</p> - -<p>"Turn around for a minute, al Mamun," she hissed, "while I fix my -robes. If you don't, the last thing you'll see will be this silver -sliver!" She flashed the knife within an inch of his popping orbs. He -hastily swiveled round and faced the wall.</p> - -<p>"One would think you were deficient in the body, and ashamed of it," he -growled.</p> - -<p>"If you would care to see just how extremely undeficient I am, you big -baboon," she said, slicing off the whole top of her cream-colored outer -robe and knotting it around her ample bosom in the form of a halter, -with the copper-hued gown caught beneath it to chastely cover her -diaphragm, "then you have only to snatch one peek over your shoulder. I -assure you it would give you a moment of supreme pleasure, immediately -before you died." A low estimation of her own attractions was never a -failing of Ramizail's. "And you would die, Mufaddal. They tell me a -sliced gullet can be painful. Do you want to find out?"</p> - -<p>"No," said Mufaddal sullenly, staring hard at the wall. What a -long-clawed cat from the alleys of Hell! he thought. Had she been less -beautiful, he would slay her in this instant. But he wanted her, and -without blemish or scar, so he sat motionless until she said, "All -right, turn around. But no more clever ideas from you, or I'll really -grow angry." She tucked the knife into her girdle as he pushed himself -around to face her.</p> - -<p>"Very well," he said, "I'll buy you. I respect your spirit, woman. -'Tis a trait I like in my women. How now, if I heaped your lap with -emeralds and nephrite jade?"</p> - -<p>"Green was never one of my favorite colors," said she, sitting down -comfortably across the rug from him. She cast about for a way to show -her absolute contempt, bethought herself of her playing cards which she -always carried with her, and drew the pack out of a purse she wore on -her girdle.</p> - -<p>"What are they?" he asked, intrigued in spite of himself, as she began -to lay them out on the rug.</p> - -<p>"Playing cards. My djinn brought them to me from a far future time. -They haven't even been invented yet," said she, studying the faces of -those upturned.</p> - -<p>"What does one do with them? Not that I care," he added, remembering -his carefully-built reputation for single-minded fanaticism.</p> - -<p>"One plays many games. I might teach you one, were you not as stupid as -a hog and as dull-witted as an aged camel."</p> - -<p>"I am as intelligent as you," yowled Mufaddal. Then, since she was a -mere woman, "More intelligent, blast your smirking face! Teach me a -game!"</p> - -<p>"The best one is called Poke Her," said Ramizail. "But to really play -properly, we need four people."</p> - -<p>Mufaddal threw a dish at the remaining slave, who was sitting in -a corner trying to repair his belt. "Go fetch me Heraj and Pepi," -he ordered. "Also bring some food. Something to munch on. And some -fermented-bread beer." The slave trotted out, gripping his ravished -pants.</p> - -<p>Presently the two sorcerers came in, Heraj very glum. "What's wrong -with you, lemon-lips?" asked Mufaddal.</p> - -<p>"What'd you do with Godwin and his crew?" asked Heraj.</p> - -<p>"You know very well."</p> - -<p>"Yes, I know. You threw them into the jail with those captured -Crusaders and the others. I don't like the risk, brother. You ought to -kill the whole lot of them now. You underestimate that big Englishman. -And the renegade El Sareuk is no babe, either."</p> - -<p>"The cell is as well guarded as a prince's <i>harim</i>," said Mufaddal.</p> - -<p>"Yes, but any man who can slay a winged lion is a match for fifty -seraglio guards. Kill 'em, I say. The plague ship sails with the early -morning tide. Why take unnecessary chances?"</p> - -<p>"I have several simple but pleasurable notions in mind for Godwin -and his misguided cohorts. Come here, I'll whisper one of them to -you." Heraj stalked over and bent down. Mufaddal sputtered wetly and -intimately in his ear. Presently the sorcerer began to grin.</p> - -<p>"Not bad. I guess it's worth the risk. I'll be extra cautious, anyway." -He sat down beside Mufaddal. He extracted a goblet of saffron-yellow -bubbling wine from his brother Pepi's yataghan pommel and drank it off. -"What did you call us in for?" he asked, gazing at Ramizail with the -expression of a starving vulture catching sight of a prime steak.</p> - -<p>"This wench has a game to teach me, and it needs four players. Go on, -girl," said Mufaddal, with as close an approach to amiability as was -possible for him to assume.</p> - -<p>Ramizail dealt out five cards apiece, having unobtrusively stacked the -deck, and began to teach them the exotic game of Poke Her.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER XII</p> - - -<p>The dungeon of al Mamun was a squat brick square, with a flat clay -roof and tiny slit windows, erected at a little distance from the main -building of his establishment, between the wharf and the barracks that -housed his common soldiery. In its stinking, superheated confines now -lay a score of Crusaders, captured a month before while on detached -patrol duty from Richard's forces; twenty-seven Bedouins, the remains -of Godwin's army; fourteen assorted Saracens, in jail for one offense -or another against Mufaddal; El Sareuk and Godwin himself.</p> - -<p>There was barely enough floor space for each man of the sixty-three to -stand upright, or to sit, if he didn't mind jostling his neighbors. -Godwin was standing by a window looking out at the dock from which the -dark plague ship, a tall obscene blot against the descending moon, had -a quarter of an hour before set sail. El Sareuk was beside him, making -suggestions.</p> - -<p>"How if we all formed a kind of wedge, Godwin, and began battering the -door with the point? A few would be crushed, certainly, but the door -might be torn down."</p> - -<p>"Well, we'll try it, old wolf, if nothing better occurs to us." Godwin -leaned in the little embrasure, tugging fretfully at his blond beard. -"If I had my sword...!" He clanked his leg chains with anger; they had -chained him and El Sareuk and a couple of the brawnier Crusaders. Damn -all, he thought to himself. The ship is gone, what does it matter if we -get out or not? Except to save Ramizail, of course. If I could remember -what I did with that bloody ring! Mihrjan could sink that ship like an -oaken chip.</p> - -<p>And then, as the moon touched the far crest of the sea, the door opened -and a Mameluke thrust in his head.</p> - -<p>"Godwin! Godwin's wanted!"</p> - -<p>The prisoners all burst into raucous speech, invitations and curses.</p> - -<p>"Come and get him!"</p> - -<p>"Do venture within, jailer, and let us show thee something pretty!"</p> - -<p>"Enter, thou fuzz-bearded son of a dung heap, and fetch him!"</p> - -<p>Godwin pushed his way to the door. The Mameluke retreated behind it. -"Step out, Godwin," he said, nervously prodding the Englishman with his -sword. "Mufaddal wants you."</p> - -<p>Godwin grinned evilly, and stepped forth. The Mameluke, who Godwin -now saw had a file of soldiers at his back, slammed the door on the -execrations of the prisoners. "Come along," he growled.</p> - -<p>El Sareuk, watching from a window, saw Godwin disappear with a firm -step into the waning night, clinking his leg chains jauntily.</p> - -<p>For long he did not come back. The old Arab harangued the sixty-one men -who were left, urging that they forget their feuds and crusades and -band together against their captor; and they agreed whole-heartedly -with him, and fell to making plans for escape and vengeance. Not a man -of them but hated Mufaddal, and most of all for his loathsome scheme of -the plague ship.</p> - -<p>They all sat down, crowding up to one another in the heat and stench of -the prison, and made a narrow aisle through the center of the place so -that El Sareuk could pace up and down while he talked and gestured and -plotted, rattling the iron fetters on his legs.</p> - -<p>"If we can get out, and I say we can, even if we leave half our number -dead on the floor behind us, then we must make a dash for the house, -and pulverize this devil before he can concoct any more foul designs!" -he shouted.</p> - -<p>They all roared. The building seemed to quiver on its foundations. El -Sareuk smote his forehead. "Now by Allah and again by Allah! Is this -our answer? Remember the walls of Jericho, O Brothers!"</p> - -<p>They caught his meaning at once, and at the upswing of his hand every -man let loose a full-throated bellow. A Crusader edged into a corner -shouted, "The walls shuddered! The force of the sound shook them!"</p> - -<p>They repeated the clamor, and dirt from the roof sifted down over them. -For five minutes they raised a thunderous din, and might have gone on -doing so till the sun rose, had not the door drawn open just then.</p> - -<p>They all peered round, and a gorilla walked in. It was chained around -the ankles and had a quizzical expression on its broad flat face.</p> - -<p>They were brave men, but unarmed, and they all shrank away from it -with indrawn breath and small fearful cries. El Sareuk, pale, clutched -automatically for his absent scimitar.</p> - -<p>The door slammed. The gorilla scratched its head, leaned against the -jamb, and remarked in a loud disgusted voice, laden thick with English -accent, "What the hell is the matter with you white-livered ruffians? -You think I'm going to eat you?"</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER XIII</p> - - -<p>The gorilla stood by an embrasure, resting its elbows on the sill and -staring moodily off toward the wharf. The sky was growing light with -the approach of dawn. There is a small tide in the Mediterranean, much -smaller than those of the greater oceans. It had been running now for -nearly an hour. The pest ship, all sails spread, was hull down on the -horizon.</p> - -<p>The gorilla said gruffly, "El Sareuk, there is a sick void in my vitals -that makes the shifting sands appear a mild holiday by comparison! The -ship is gone—we've lost our fight to save England!"</p> - -<p>The Saracen scratched his beard. "You have fleas, friend, and you're -giving them to me.... Godwin, how did this terrible witchery come to -pass? I mean this new form of yours?"</p> - -<p>Godwin, the gorilla, grunted. "They hauled me into a room where the big -dish-faced swine, what's his name—"</p> - -<p>"Mufaddal."</p> - -<p>"Yes, Muffin-face or whatever. He was sitting on a blanket with two of -his sorcerers and Ramizail. She'd taught them one of her games with -those 'playing cards.' The senior sorcerer, Heraj, had won about a -bushel of assorted jewelry and gew-gaws, and Ramizail had stacks of -gold coins like a rampart in front of her. They were all bleary-eyed -with lack of sleep, but the game has such a hold that none of them, not -even Ramizail, stopped playing for full five minutes after I had been -brought in."</p> - -<p>"It must have been Poke Her. No game has such a fascination."</p> - -<p>"Yes. Then Muffin-face tipped Heraj a wink, and the camel's bastard -went into a trance or something, and the first thing I knew I was -scratching myself on the rump where a flea had bitten me. I imagined -he'd presented me with a plague of fleas, till I realized that I wasn't -scratching good armor, but bare hide with fur on it!"</p> - -<p>"What a horror!" said El Sareuk, shuddering. "The man must have Satan's -powers."</p> - -<p>Godwin's shaggy head nodded. "'Twas he made it possible for the pest -ship to be cargoed. Well, I looked myself over, and then knocked down -a guard and took his polished shield away from him. They all had their -swords out in a trice, but I only wanted to see my face in it. To -have attacked them then would only have meant throwing my life away -uselessly. I looked into the shield and—this is what I saw." He turned -the gorilla's sad-somber visage toward his friend. "Heraj exchanged -my body with this animal's, which it seems inhabits a savage jungle -country far down in Africa. So somewhere in a forest my own body walks -beneath the trees, clad in my robes and armor, thinking a wild beast's -thought!"</p> - -<p>"This Heraj must be powerful beyond thought!"</p> - -<p>"He said deprecatingly to his filthy master that he had his -limitations, but I cannot imagine them. What a bit of sorcery! Anyhow, -Mufaddal then bragged that he would make Ramizail his concubine, and -chain me to the bedchamber wall in the guise of a household pet. I had -all I could do to keep my fingers from his throat. But I bethought me -of Ramizail at the mercy of this pack of devils with me dead, and held -my rage. Then she came to me, unhindered by them, because they wanted -to see the spectacle of a maiden embracing a brute; and under cover of -her embrace, she slipped this into my hand, and I hid it under my fur." -He withdrew from his armpit the knife which Ramizail had taken from the -slave.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>El Sareuk's lean face lit with a fanatic fire. "Why, we are weaponed, -then! And we have this body, which they've given you, like a crew of -imbeciles and village idiots, when its strength must equal that of ten -Godwins!"</p> - -<p>"Well, not that damn strong," said the gorilla reproachfully. "After -all, I was no weakling."</p> - -<p>"Yes, yes, but look here, friend; between the weapon and the new body, -can we not force an escape from this hole? Subdue the caitiffs, take a -ship and pursue the plague vessel! The thing is surely within our power -now!"</p> - -<p>The gorilla shook his head dully. "You are staring, old comrade, at the -work of this Heraj. Do you think he couldn't stop an attack by us with -a wave of one finger?"</p> - -<p>El Sareuk hissed fiercely, "Where's the Godwin I knew aforetime? Has -the magician exchanged your guts with some sheep's?" He clapped the -beast on the shoulder. "And see, I have bethought myself of something. -Ramizail never does anything without plan, and witty, clever plan at -that. She is playing cards with these magicians, true?"</p> - -<p>"They were back at their game before I'd been hauled out of the room."</p> - -<p>"I see her strategy as plain as though I had laid it myself! She has -found the chink in the sorcerer's armor. He is engrossed with the game, -to the exclusion of all else. We can make our break, and with any luck, -burst into that room before he knows something's amiss! Then one swift -twitch of your paw—forgive me, I mean your hand—and he's carrion!"</p> - -<p>The gorilla considered long. At last he said, "It's a slim chance, but -by the rood, we'll take it! Better a slim chance now than no chance -after they chain me to the harem wall. And 'tis a thought, that of -pursuing the plague ship. I had given up all hope when it left its -moorings. I never thought of another ship."</p> - -<p>"Your brains are addled by the change in form, or you'd have riddled it -all out before I did," said the Arab generously. "Now then, how shall -we go about it?"</p> - -<p>They talked in low voices for a few minutes. The day brightened beyond -the window. At last El Sareuk said, "That's it. The best possibility, I -think."</p> - -<p>"One other thing," said Godwin. "Around the knife when Ramizail gave it -to me was wrapped this." He showed the Saracen the sigil of Solomon, -the chain of which he had placed about his neck, with the seal hanging -down behind among his black fur. "What d'you make of that?"</p> - -<p>"Why, she hopes you'll find the ring, and if you have both, you can -call the djinn. Obviously the sigil is no good to her alone."</p> - -<p>"Fat chance I've got to find the ring," moaned the gorilla. "It's -jiggling around a jungle somewhere, a thousand miles south."</p> - -<p>"Yes. Ah well, we asked Allah for adventures when we left Jaffa for -a nomad life," said El Sareuk philosophically. "Though little did we -dream they'd come in battalions like this!"</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER XIV</p> - - -<p>The gorilla was as tall as Godwin had been in his proper form, four -inches over six feet. The Crusader standing on his shoulders was the -tallest of their lot, six feet two. His head came within a hand's -breadth of the roof. Balanced by a palm on the ceiling, he was digging -away at the baked clay with Ramizail's smuggled knife.</p> - -<p>The mob was singing. Once a guard had opened the door and bawled at -them to stop that infernal racket before they all had their throats -choked with dirt, but they had cursed at him so impressively that, -sword or no sword, he had retreated hastily and barred the door behind -him. The mob had gone on singing. The Crusaders had sung ditties of -England and home and beauty, with the Saracens humming and beating -time; then the Saracens had taken over with chants of Islam and Bedouin -love tunes, while the Crusaders accompanied them in muted bass choruses -of <i>hmm-hmm-hmms</i>.</p> - -<p>This din had effectively covered the scraping of the knife, which was -chipping away the old roof at a good clip.</p> - -<p>Now a bit of sunny sky showed through. The Crusader grinned, got a firm -purchase with his bare toes on Godwin's hairy shoulders, braced his -left hand above his head, hooked his right into the hole, and tugged -downward. A big chunk of brick fell on his upturned face. He shook his -blond head and chuckled. A trickle of blood ran into his mouth. Nothing -could have tasted sweeter.</p> - -<p>Gradually the hole widened, till at last it was the width of a man's -body and more. Godwin, the gorilla, said in Arabic, "Enough! Now onto -the roof, a dozen of you!"</p> - -<p>Swiftly they swarmed up over him as though he were a scaling ladder. -Slim Arab fought silently with big-bodied Englishman for the honor of -being in the vanguard. Then Godwin barked again, "Enough!" They drew -back, those who had not gone up through the hole, and he flexed his -knees and gave a tremendous spring. Ape's muscles and man's know-how -carried him straight upward; his paws caught the rim of the hole. Some -clay crumbled beneath his weight, which was more than six hundred -pounds. But sufficient held to give him a moment's grace. He hurled his -bullet head and huge shoulders into the gap, the clay wedged his belly -in for an instant, then he had burst through and was floundering on the -roof, chained legs still dangling within. El Sareuk's tough old hands -took him by the wrists and hauled. He was safe.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Crouching, he led his party to the edge of the flat roof, walking with -legs spread so his tight fetters would not clank. It was the landward -side of the prison, facing the barracks of Mufaddal's soldiery. Before -the barracks paraded two sentries. Below Godwin's gang were two more, -dungeon guards, one posted at each corner. The sun was brilliant on -their steel helmets as they stood silent, foreshortened by the height, -unconscious of any harm.</p> - -<p>Godwin singled out two of his men, pointed to their targets, and went -with his colleagues to the wall above the door. From here they could -see two more sentries at the other corners, and four stationed at the -door itself. He allotted Bedouins to the remaining corner guards, gave -a signal, and launched himself into the air with a war-cry that began -in his belly and strangled in his throat, so that for fear of alarming -the barracks guards all that emerged from his mouth was a sibilant -fierce hiss. Behind him his silent henchmen followed him off the roof. -Within the jail, the fifty-one men still prisoner were raising echoes -with a rousing drinking song imported from Germany.</p> - -<p>Godwin, as the gorilla, smashed down upon two guards who had been -sleepily cursing together the tyranny of their master Mufaddal. They -never knew what crushed them.</p> - -<p>The other guards, inundated by a wave of angry captives, died as -quietly; while the men at the corners did their work with practiced, -pitiless hands. Godwin skipped up to the corner of the jail and looked -toward the barracks, some seventy yards away. As he had hoped, the -two pacing sentries were oblivious of the slaughter. Their turns were -made toward the barracks, so that only by an accidental or inquisitive -turn of the head during their march would they take in the prison. He -glanced behind him. El Sareuk was unbarring the door, while others were -donning the distinctive chest armor and helmets and picking up the -weapons of the dead guards. Three of them shortly went off toward the -garrison building. They were all men who had formerly soldiered for -Mufaddal, and Godwin hoped they could carry through their masquerade -for the few seconds necessary to insure silence.</p> - -<p>They did. The sentries died with never an outcry. Two of Godwin's men -took up the pacing rounds. The others dragged the bodies down to the -prison. They were rolled into it, together with those who had preceded -them in death, and the dank stinking place now contained ten naked -corpses, where a scant ten minutes before had lain sixty-two men and a -gorilla.</p> - -<p>The gorilla now said to El Sareuk, who was opening shackles with a key -taken from the chief guard, "The biggest mistake Mufaddal ever made -was when he turned me into this monster and then sent me back to the -dungeon to frighten you fellows with his dark powers. We've broken his -jail, and now we'll break his house. And then, by God, I think we may -even break his plague ship!"</p> - -<p>"How? How?" asked the old Saracen fiercely.</p> - -<p>"No time now, old one. Let's make for the house." He stationed four -of his men at the corners and two before the door; these last two he -regretfully deprived of weapons, for an assault on Mufaddal's own -stronghold demanded at least four scimitars and a knife or so. Then he -led his grim-faced legion across the heated earth toward the palace.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER XV</p> - - -<p>"El Sareuk, are you sure you want to do this?" Godwin said anxiously, -as he stood in the shadow of the building's north side and plucked -tufts of fur out in search of an elusive flea. "There's small danger, -true, but your dignity!"</p> - -<p>The Saracen turned on him the face of a natural-born but -long-frustrated thespian. "I would cut down the man who presumed to -keep me from it," he said loftily.</p> - -<p>"Very well. Be careful, venerable wolf. Remember that I don't know how -fast this hulking body can run."</p> - -<p>"I shall be as circumspect and as wily as the hungry small jackal."</p> - -<p>"Then go to it, and Godspeed!"</p> - -<p>El Sareuk peered round the corner of Mufaddal's house. The facade was a -hundred and fifty feet long, and the door was set in the very center, -with four Turcomans to guard it. He cleared his throat as though he -were going to give a speech, hiked up his robes, and went bounding out -to the dock, which ran parallel to the front of the house and a little -more than ten yards from it.</p> - -<p>The soldiers were chatting among themselves, and did not notice his -advent on the dock, nor whence he came.</p> - -<p>At once he began to croon, as if singing himself songs, and to leap -up and down, ruffling his rose samite and blue silken robes out like -broken wings, spreading his black Bedouin cloak by twirling as fast as -a dervish, all the time mowing and grinning like a demented thing. The -four turned from their conversation and stared at him. He appeared to -see them for the first time, and diving forward with his head down like -a battering ram, rocketed forward almost into their midst.</p> - -<p>Two of them drew scimitars, but one of the others said angrily, -"Seest thou not he is afflicted of Allah?" They put up their weapons, -shame-faced.</p> - -<p>He began to do a jig, little by little drawing away to the south so -that they wheeled to watch him. Over their shoulders he saw the blunt -skull of the gorilla poke round the corner. It was his last chance to -ham it up. He doubled over and gave his feet a flip and was standing -on his head, all the while singing a rather tuneless song of his own -composition, about the amours of a pascha, to drown out any noise that -Godwin might make.</p> - -<p>One of the men cried, "Look, brothers, look! He wears gold-washed armor -beneath his robes!"</p> - -<p>They drew their scimitars, for no idiot of the byways of Alexandria -wore the armor of a prince.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Godwin covered the seventy feet in six bounds. Two of the men he -clutched by an ear apiece and knocked their heads together, almost a -gesture in passing, a thing to be done without thinking. Before the -clang of their helmets had died away he was doing the same to the other -pair. His new frame was, as El Sareuk had said, far more potent even -than the human body which had stood up many a time to thirty opponents. -The quartet lay stretched on the ground, gray ooze and red blood -spilling from their broken skulls.</p> - -<p>And so he had eight scimitars, nine knives, and six sets of body armor, -together with six helmets. "Not so bad," said he, as his men stripped -the corpses. "Now for the house!"</p> - -<p>Those Saracens who were dressed as Mufaddal's men went first into -the house. Godwin followed, with El Sareuk (whose yen for acting was -now glutted) and the forty-seven others, the Crusaders and Bedouins, -treading on his heels. No one opposed them in the cool hall.</p> - -<p>Godwin considered. Then, "Fan out," he whispered loudly, so that they -all heard him, "and search the house. Slay all you find save women. El -Sareuk, pick two Englishmen and two Bedouins and come with me."</p> - -<p>Straight for the room of the card-players he went, his huge gray-black -body speeding like a falcon's flight, with the five behind having -trouble in keeping up with him. Through one room, in which five men sat -eating, he raged silently; and before their astonishment at seeing such -a brute appear in a civilized household would let them yell, they were -dead on the parquet floor. Scimitars dripped gore and the gorilla's -paws and thick trunk-like arms were spatted with it. Then they reached -the room they sought.</p> - -<p>Yes, they were still at the cards, even as he had hoped. Ramizail's -game had held them fascinated, though Mufaddal had had to send out -for more cash and gems half a dozen times. Surely, thought Godwin, -surveying them for one fleeting moment from the doorway, surely this -girl was as clever as the wisest sage in England! She had known that he -would make good use of the dagger she had smuggled and the hours she -had won him.</p> - -<p>Heraj, luckily, had his back to the door. Ramizail and Mufaddal himself -faced it. Pepi had retired to a corner to snore, while the third -sorcerer, Habu, had taken his place.</p> - -<p>Mufaddal was squinting at his hand. He had four aces, but if his usual -luck held, either Ramizail or Heraj would have a straight flush. Seven -times that night the accursed wench had taken a pot with a royal flush. -Seven times! It seemed to him a rather high number. He was becoming a -Poke Her fiend, nevertheless.</p> - -<p>He looked up to lay a bet, and froze as his eyes met the small fierce -orbs of the gorilla in the doorway. A coward would have screamed, but a -man of Mufaddal's boasted courage would have sprung over the heads of -the players to close with the beast.</p> - -<p>Mufaddal screamed.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER XVI</p> - - -<p>Heraj uncoiled like a spring, his mind hastily flitting through mental -file cards for an appropriate spell against gorillas. He had no doubt -that it <i>was</i> the gorilla. He was turning to check, and had just -decided on the brief but pithy incantation which sent victims to the -plains of Afghanistan, when a large firm paw smote him on the nape of -the neck, and the subsequent proceedings interested him no more.</p> - -<p>Habu clutched for his wand. He was a very minor warlock and needed a -wand to do anything more complicated than the three-shell trick. His -hand never reached the ebony stick. Godwin picked him up and threw him -contemptuously at the wall, which he hit so hard that his backbone was -telescoped into itself and some twenty-nine of his other bones were -fractured in more or less intricate ways.</p> - -<p>Pepi woke up, saw the tip of El Sareuk's sword held steadily at -the hollow of his throat, and closed his eyes as if he had been -sand-bagged. "One move of those lips, witch-man," said the old Arab -pleasantly, "one small spell begun, and you will be breathing through -several more orifices than nature intended." Pepi lay as silent and -motionless as a defunct stork, which he vaguely resembled.</p> - -<p>Mufaddal was waving his scimitar in arcs before him, bellowing for his -soldiers, calling on Allah to smite these heathen devils, and cursing -the magic of Heraj that had turned a plain man into this ghastly -demon-thing advancing on him. He had entirely forgotten that it had -been his idea to change Godwin to an animal for vengeance's sake.</p> - -<p>Ramizail lay on her back and drummed her heels on the floor and laughed -with delight at the spectacle of her beloved—and despite his present -shape, he <i>was</i> her beloved—wading in amongst the enemy in such -headlong fashion. "Smear the big hellhound all over the wall, darling!"</p> - -<p>"Ramizail," said the gorilla, maneuvering for advantage, "that is not -ladylike. Get up off the floor and stop swearing." He then feinted -with one paw, caught the scimitar by the flats with the steel fingers -of his other, twitched it out of Mufaddal's horrified grasp, stepped up -to him and gave him a splendid uppercut on the point of the jaw.</p> - -<p>Mufaddal joined his sorcerers on the floor.</p> - -<p>"Now then," said Godwin, rubbing his paws briskly together, "fetch me -that necromancer, El Sareuk!"</p> - -<p>Pepi, milk-faced and shaking, was led into the center of the room. -Had he been Heraj, he could have mumbled a spell ventriloquially and -relegated them all to the top of a pyramid. Luckily he was not Heraj.</p> - -<p>Godwin regarded him for a moment. Pepi found that the direct gaze of -an angry gorilla is not a thing to put heart in a man. He gave a tiny -moan, almost a squeak. The gorilla expanded his chest, which measured -seventy inches, and said, "You're Pepi, if I recall correctly?"</p> - -<p>"Y-y-yes, O Magnificent One," said Pepi.</p> - -<p>"Pepi, I want you to transport me to the plague ship. Instanter."</p> - -<p>"Oh, I couldn't do that," said the bony wizard, turning if possible a -little paler than before. "I can only do small things, such as—"</p> - -<p>"Then I guess you may as well die too," said Godwin regretfully, and -reached out a paw.</p> - -<p>Pepi nearly collapsed. "Wait a m-m-m-m," he said. "I mean wait a -s-s-s-s. Maybe there's a way."</p> - -<p>"Think of it fast, scrawny one," said El Sareuk.</p> - -<p>"I'm thinking," said Pepi hurriedly. "I'm thinking."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Godwin just then gave a cry of pleasure. He had spied his broadsword -in its leather sheath, hanging on the wall above Mufaddal's inert form -like a trophy, together with his Saracen helmet and kite-shaped shield -and his curved Persian dagger. He bounded across and tore them down.</p> - -<p>"A chap may be given the lineaments of a gorgon," he said, buckling the -sword around his waist and clapping the helmet atop his round animal's -head, "but he still seems naked without his weapons. By heaven, I feel -better already! Now, Pepi, the method."</p> - -<p>"Well, look, O Superb and Generous Prince," stammered the sorcerer, "I -think I might work it with a carpet."</p> - -<p>"I fail to see your point, sirrah."</p> - -<p>"A flying carpet, O—"</p> - -<p>"Never mind the O's. What's a flying carpet?"</p> - -<p>"Not a very hard trick, really. You get on a carpet and say a certain -incantation, and you're flying."</p> - -<p>"How fast?"</p> - -<p>"As fast as you will it."</p> - -<p>"And you can do it? You can turn a carpet into a bird, as it were?"</p> - -<p>"I think I can," said Pepi doubtfully. "No, no," he added hastily as -Godwin flexed his biceps, "I'm sure I can."</p> - -<p>"Do it, then. El Sareuk, put your blade across his neck. At the -first out-of-the-ordinary thing that happens, except for the carpet's -enchanting, deprive him of his head."</p> - -<p>El Sareuk laid his scimitar to Pepi's throat with a warm smile.</p> - -<p>Pepi looked at a rolled-up Persian carpet in a corner of the room, the -only corner that did not seem to be jammed full of bodies. He muttered -something under his breath. The carpet slowly unrolled.</p> - -<p>"By the diamonded pillars of Hell!" gasped El Sareuk. "I believe he can -do it!"</p> - -<p>Pepi brightened up as his magic drifted the carpet across the floor -toward them. "If you will sit on it, O Magnificence, it will carry you -to the ship, be it so far as a hundred leagues to sea."</p> - -<p>"How do I work it?" asked the gorilla suspiciously.</p> - -<p>"Merely sit cross-legged upon it and think. It will speed or slow as -you desire. It is attuned to the wishes of the rider."</p> - -<p>"That's right," put in Ramizail. "I have ridden many a carpet, dear. -Nothing to it."</p> - -<p>Godwin tugged at his bare chin, where in happier times there had been -a yellow beard. He dropped his shield on the blue and red surface of -the carpet, which was now floating leisurely an inch off the floor. It -seemed solid enough. "Listen, old wolf," he said. "See you take care of -the girl till I come back."</p> - -<p>"Have I not done so for nineteen years?" asked El Sareuk reproachfully.</p> - -<p>"And send these lads out to fortify the house as well as possible. The -barracks will be sure to find out sooner or later that something's -amiss over here. I hope I'll be back in time to help you, when the -brawl erupts; but the ship's the important thing just now."</p> - -<p>"By Allah, it is! If we all die, 'twas in a worthy cause."</p> - -<p>"We won't," said Ramizail complacently. "I feel it in my bones." She -smiled at Godwin. "Good fortune, my dear."</p> - -<p>"Thanks. I'd ask you to kiss me, but I've seen this face. By the way," -said he to Pepi, at whose neck the blade of El Sareuk still pressed -lightly but insistently, "can you give me back my own body?"</p> - -<p>"Only Heraj could have done that," said Pepi wanly.</p> - -<p>"Damnation. Oh, well," said the gorilla, and without more ado climbed -onto the carpet and sat down. "Good-bye, all," he said. His short brow -furrowed. Great fangs bared briefly in a grin of concentration. Nothing -happened.</p> - -<p>"Give it t-t-time," yipped Pepi, as the Arab's sword just nudged his -throat.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus4.jpg" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>The carpet gave a preliminary lurch, like a horse testing its muscles -of an early morning, and then with a whoosh shot through the door and -disappeared. From the other rooms that lay between them and the front -of the house rose shouts of astonishment, as Godwin's forces observed -him sail past them, clawing madly at the front edge of the rocketing -carpet.</p> - -<p>At that moment Mufaddal gave a low groan, unheard by anyone there; and -Heraj the senior sorcerer opened his eyes and stared thoughtfully at -the ceiling.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER XVII</p> - - -<p>Making a test flight on the blue and red carpet in the house was -tantamount to bestraddling a horse for the first time and having to -jump him over a series of rivers and log falls and then gallop along -a precipice edge, thought Godwin. He wished he had carried or led the -thing out of doors before he got aboard. He missed the first door jamb -by a fraction, canted over dangerously to skirt a startled Bedouin, -aimed for the second door and saw he was too far off the floor, ducked -his head just in time to escape a crack from the lintel, had the -almost overpowering urge to close his eyes and let himself be buttered -all over the ceiling, missed another door by a nice margin, grinned -proudly, and saw that the front door was shut fast.</p> - -<p>"Open it!" he bawled, something of the timbre of the gorilla in his -frantic voice. "Open it, you pygmy-brained nincompoop!"</p> - -<p>The Crusader on guard at the door flung it wide. It was an involuntary -reaction, not in any way due to Godwin's command; he merely meant to -dash through it himself. But carpet and gorilla slanted sidewise and -flew at him, he dropped prone with a screech that four hundred Saracen -foes would never have drawn from his lips, and the apparition sailed -over him at thirty miles an hour, the gorilla hanging on to the edge -for dear life.</p> - -<p>Outside, Godwin righted the carpet and sped across the docks and over -the Mediterranean. Now he took thought. He had controlled the carpet, -it seemed, more by the quick fears and desperate hopes of his mind, -than by any conscious direction of its flight. He would have to calm -down. He exercised his iron will to the utmost. The carpet gave a -couple of jerks, like a fractious horse being brought under control of -the reins, and settled down to a smooth straight course. He glanced -over his great hairy shoulder. The land of Egypt was receding rapidly -behind him. Below, the choppy waves were blue and green with white -caps, and the ocean looked extremely deep.</p> - -<p>"God and the Holy Sepulcher defend me!" gasped Godwin. He pushed down -on the carpet with an experimental finger. It gave slightly, but -appeared to be quite safe. He tried a banking turn and then another -which brought him to his straightaway course again. Courage returned -with a rush. He laughed deep in the enormous chest. "This is pleasant, -by my halidom!" he shouted.</p> - -<p>His shield had fallen off the carpet somewhere back in Mufaddal's -house. His sword was safe, as was the Persian dagger in its thong about -his neck, and his Saracen-style helmet. The sigil of Solomon was still -hung round his bull throat.</p> - -<p>He speeded up a trifle. The wind sang in his small flat ears. He shoved -his broad ugly muzzle forward, drinking in the rushing air. Never had -he known a sensation such as this. It made horses seem like snails. -He increased his velocity again. There was evidently no limit to the -acceleration possibilities. He nearly forgot his mission in the joy of -this stimulating experience.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He made the carpet swoop toward the sea, confident in his new-found -skill; it plunged like a diving eagle at the waves, which reached -hungrily up for it. "Tantivy, tantivy!" roared the great ape -deliriously. "Gone away! Lu wind 'em, boy!" At the last second he -skidded the carpet level and shot along above the surface, just -skimming the crests of the waves, laughing like a maniac. Then once -more he rose into the heavens and slammed forward, small sharp eyes now -searching the horizons for the dark blot of the plague ship, on its way -to England with a cargo of hideous all-conquering death.</p> - -<p>Shortly he sighted a sail. It might or might not be the vessel he -sought. He headed the carpet for it. It grew swiftly, until he was -circling over it at a height of perhaps two hundred feet. He slowed -the carpet till its motion was scarcely perceptible, until it finally -hovered motionless above the ship. Then he lay prone on his belly and -peered over the edge.</p> - -<p>In the windy upper air the carpet rocked just a trifle, as a cork rocks -on a pond caressed by a summer breeze. Godwin cocked an ear. From -the ship below came the horrid din of thousands of imprisoned rats, -squealing and keening and skirling their ghastly song of destruction.</p> - -<p>He had found the plague ship. He drew back and grinned. Now....</p> - -<p>Canting off to a spot some distance to the port side, he dropped the -carpet, until it nearly touched the choppy sea, then aimed it at the -side of the ship. He reasoned that he would be less likely to be seen -if he came in at the level of the waves, rather than from above. There -might be some element of terror about his descent from the clouds, -but these men would be used enough to Heraj's spells to take a flying -carpet in stride. Surprise was what he needed on his side, and if he -could climb over the side without being seen, he might be able to -reconnoiter the deck for a moment before beginning his attack.</p> - -<p>He was then about two hundred feet from the vessel.</p> - -<p>Abruptly, without any warning, the carpet dropped out from under -him; crumpled, became a very ordinary red and blue carpet instead of -a magical winged steed, and hit the waves, where it floated for an -instant until his body struck it in falling; when it collapsed and sank -into the depths of the Mediterranean Sea.</p> - -<p>Some distance below, a forty-foot white shark, called also a man-eater, -peered eagerly up at the commotion.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER XVIII</p> - - -<p>Heraj opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling.</p> - -<p>He had the grandfather of all headaches. He attempted to recall the -spell against headaches, but it eluded him. He tried several others, -but none of them would come out right. Evidently the blow at the base -of his skull had somewhat addled his memory. He closed his eyes and -resignedly waited for the thumping ache to pass.</p> - -<p>He heard shouts of fear in other rooms, and then after a minute or two -Pepi's voice nearby said plaintively, "Don't you think you might remove -that blade now?"</p> - -<p>Pepi was Heraj's favorite brother. He seemed to be in trouble. Heraj -made a valiant effort and rolled his head, ache and all, to one side, -opening his eyes as he did so. He saw the soles of Mufaddal's cheap -shoes, in the left one of which was a large hole with the dirty foot -showing through; disgustedly he swiveled his gaze and saw Habu, than -whom he had never seen anyone deader.</p> - -<p>He lifted his gaze and saw El Sareuk standing beside Pepi, one -arm about the sorcerer's shoulders holding him steady, the other -presenting a scimitar to the poor fellow's throat.</p> - -<p>Heraj worked through the spell of immobility in his mind. He felt he -had this one right. He flung it at El Sareuk.</p> - -<p>El Sareuk did not move a muscle.</p> - -<p>Heraj, uncertain that he had accomplished his purpose, glanced about -at the half dozen Crusaders and Bedouins who were in the room. He gave -them each a repetition of the spell. He enchanted Ramizail, who was -eating dates. Then he cautiously rose to his knees.</p> - -<p>No one moved, not even Pepi.</p> - -<p>"All right, boy," said Heraj, standing. "They're stuck."</p> - -<p>"So am I," groaned Pepi.</p> - -<p>His sound of sorrow was echoed by Mufaddal, who sat up and felt his jaw -tenderly. "Allah smite everybody," said Mufaddal. "Everybody!"</p> - -<p>"Move, Pepi," said Heraj encouragingly. "He's immobilized."</p> - -<p>"So am I, you lunkhead. Can't you see his arm and sword encircle my -neck?"</p> - -<p>"Oh," said Heraj. "Hum. Well. Can't you force back one of his arms?"</p> - -<p>"They're like stone. Ouch!" The edge of the scimitar had cut him a -little. "I tell you I don't dare move!"</p> - -<p>"Neither can I," said Heraj, holding his head. "My stars and -thaumaturgy, what a knock I took! Which wall fell on me?"</p> - -<p>"The gorilla fell on you," said Mufaddal spitefully, "and if you think -I'll turn a finger to aid either of you two fumble-handed fat-brained -cretins, you're badly mistaken. My jaw feels like a boil about to -burst."</p> - -<p>Heraj took a step and winced. "I can't do it, damn the pain, I can't -move for a minute."</p> - -<p>"I'm off balance," shrilled Pepi. "I can't stand here forever."</p> - -<p>"Look," moaned Heraj, really wanting to help him but unable to bear -the skull-cracking ache, "I'll take the spell off him for a tenth of a -second. You get ready to push with all your might on that arm. It'll -give you enough leeway. Ready?"</p> - -<p>"I'm pushing," said Pepi.</p> - -<p>"Here goes, then."</p> - -<p>El Sareuk had heard all this as he stood motionless with his sword at -the wizard's throat. He chuckled deep in his vitals, even though he -could not move so much as an eyelash. A whole tenth of a second, eh?</p> - -<p>Pepi was pushing with insane strength at the arm. Heraj took off the -spell and immediately put it back on. There was a swish, a grating -sound, and a dull squashing thunk.</p> - -<p>Pepi, a bumbler to the last, had pushed on the wrong arm. Indeed, he -had pressed so hard that El Sareuk in his new immobility now held it -straight before him. But the scimitar had been gripped in the capable -fist of the other arm. Pepi's head lay on the floor, an expression of -astonishment on its homely and now blood-bedabbled features.</p> - -<p>Heraj raised a howl of anguish. He did not know that at the instant -Pepi died, the flying carpet with Godwin aboard it, no longer supported -by Pepi's incantation, had fallen into the sea almost on top of the -man-eating shark.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER XIX</p> - - -<p>Godwin was a strong swimmer, and the body he now inhabited was as -muscular as any in the world. After swallowing a pint of salt water and -thrashing about for a moment below the surface, he struck out toward -the plague ship. He was not sure what had happened, but he was afraid -it boded ill for his beloved and his friends. Nonetheless, he was glad -that the carpet had carried him at least this far. The destruction of -the vessel was their major problem and he felt superbly confident that -he could accomplish it.</p> - -<p>The heavy iron broadsword weighed him down, dangling stiff and -perpendicular from his waist; but he could not jettison it. It was -just as well, though, he thought, swimming with vigorous strokes, that -he had lost his shield before he left the land. Otherwise he would -regretfully have had to abandon it to the deep. That old shield had -been with him in many a tight spot.</p> - -<p>The white shark kept pace with him, some twelve feet below, looking -up at him and considering which portion of this strange hairy beast -might prove most succulent for an appetizer. At last it decided upon -a leg. It lifted and turned in the water, opening its terrible mouth -with row behind row of huge razor-sharp teeth that could tear a man in -two with one snap. Godwin fortunately had just thrust his head under -the surface as he brought an arm over and down, and saw the quick flash -of the white belly below him. Automatically he contracted his whole -body, hauling his legs up and then propelling himself forward with a -tremendous flailing of his long arms. The shark missed its snap.</p> - -<p>Godwin glanced at the ship and saw it was too far off for him to gain -its side before the huge fish had had several more tries at him. The -wind had sprung up, too, and the vessel was making away from him at a -good clip. Cursing, he turned in the water and shot down through its -depths, searching for the man-eater.</p> - -<p>A flicker of white showed off to his left; he twisted, waited, holding -his breath and thanking heaven for the capacious lungs of the gorilla.</p> - -<p>It came straight at him, revolving to bring its underslung mouth into -play. He maneuvered a foot to one side, and hurled himself upon it, -catching it by a pectoral fin. With every ounce of power the gorilla's -body could command, he tore at the fin. It ripped from the shark's -side, sluggishly, loosing a slow torrent of blood into the dark waters.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The man-eater writhed around toward him. He caught the jaws, upper and -lower, with both hands, and wrenched them apart. Even the terrible -potency of the shark's mouth could not withstand the strength of the -gorilla and the whole-hearted will to win of Godwin of England. The -hinges cracked and the lower jaw hung useless.</p> - -<p>Godwin backed off, shoving himself through the encumbering waters, even -his spacious lungs straining by now for air; but before he surfaced he -meant to finish this brute. He hauled out the iron broadsword from its -sheath, advanced once more toward the furiously thrashing white shark, -and thrust half a dozen times. Then he swam upward, leaving behind -him an ever-expanding blotch of blood and a quivering, twitching, -forty-foot piece of dead meat.</p> - -<p>The ship was far away. He sheathed the sword and set out to overhaul -her where she sailed serenely, dark sail spread, with her cargo of -obscene death.</p> - -<p>"Even Godwin in his proper form could never have caught her," he -thought to himself. "Heraj's baneful magic will win the day for England -yet!"</p> - -<p>Slowly he crept up on the ship. At last he reached out a paw and -touched the slimy wooden hull. He gave a little quiet laugh. Now!</p> - -<p>Dripping salt water, he hauled himself up the side. Cautiously his -blunt head in its steel helmet poked over the bulwarks.</p> - -<p>The vessel was fairly long for a lateen-rigger, with a low poop deck -and a high rail, the great triangular sail, with a pair of quite small -auxiliary sails, flapping merrily overhead, and the eternal quarrelsome -noise of the rats pervading all the air within a quarter mile. The -watch, four Mamelukes, were dicing on the poop. At the tiller lazed a -tall black Nubian slave, his loins wrapped in a bright orange cloth. -Godwin presumed a crew of about six more, who were probably below -in a portion of the hold shut off from the rats' quarters. Mufaddal -would want a good handful of men for a job like this. He envisaged -them loosing the rats in the seaports of England, likely at night, and -slipping away on the tide, leaving their gruesome messengers to spread -the bubonic plague far and wide. The picture gave him added strength -and determination; though God knew he had needed no more than already -boiled in his veins!</p> - -<p>As silently as he could make the cumbersome body move, he hoisted -himself over the rail.</p> - -<p>Then he stood erect, all six feet four of gray-black hideous-visaged -brute, drew the broadsword from its scabbard, set his thews for quick -action, and pounding his naked chest with his left paw, so that a -hollow drumming <i>boom-boom</i> drowned for a moment even the racket of -the rats, he opened his saber-fanged maw and gave vent to a terrible -cataclysm of sound, an utterance wholly at variance with his usual -war-cry, which seemed to come not from his human spirit, but from the -body of the jungle beast—an ear-shattering, soul-searing mixture of -highpitched barks, raging shrieks, deep-bellied howls and half-joyous, -half-oddly-sad roars, roars which spoke of peaceful days beneath great -sheltering trees now left forever for the crash and thunder of grim yet -gratifying war.</p> - -<p>Godwin of England had come aboard.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER XX</p> - - -<p>The Mamelukes were stunned. To say this is an understatement. They were -shaken, terrified, horror-struck, and a thousand more emotions—all -bad—filled their hearts than they could ever have catalogued.</p> - -<p>They were very brave men indeed, but they had never seen a gorilla, and -certainly never a gorilla that appeared out of the sea to stand waving -a Crusader's broadsword on their deck. As one man they stiffened, and -gaped, and were lost. For Godwin, with a somewhat shortened repetition -of his initial greeting, was bounding into their midst before they -could budge.</p> - -<p>One man died with the dice in his hand. Another lost his head before -he could recover his wits. A third put hand to hilt and was cloven -with a leer of terror still on his face. The fourth managed to get his -scimitar cleared. Precious little good it did him. It came from the -sheath only to clatter on the deck.</p> - -<p>The Nubian slave at the tiller was a different proposition. He was -as tall as Godwin, a thick-legged old warrior, with broken teeth and -scarred face to attest his many battles. Leaving his post, and catching -up a naked scimitar (that was easily six feet in length) as he passed -the rail where it had lain propped, he ran at Godwin full tilt, yelling -a battle slogan from his homeland far to the south.</p> - -<p>Godwin thrust out his blade to parry the first vicious swinging cut. -The swords clanged like hammer on anvil. The black was skillful. Godwin -had all he could do to keep the singing steel from his chest. He tried -a two-handed swipe, which the slave ducked blithely, and the scimitar -came licking in to draw a thin scarlet line across the gorilla's belly. -Half an inch further and Godwin's guts would have been spilt on the -sun-hot boards.</p> - -<p>Godwin's new reach, a stupendous one, was an advantage. In ferocity and -broadsword skill he was unbeatable, but a long scimitar was a terribly -formidable weapon in the hands of such a swordsman as his opposite -number. He parried, parried and cursed the fact that this tall grinning -half-naked black should keep him at bay so long. From the corner of -an eye he saw more Saracens emerging from a hatch up forward. It was -no time to stand and fight according to gentlemen's rules. He had a -job to do, and this Nubian might very well cry halt to that job. Given -equal weapons, Godwin would have dueled with him thus by the hour; but -now he needed quick victory.</p> - -<p>"Sorry about this," he grunted, in apology for the dirty trick he meant -to play. He did not need to play it. The Nubian fell back, eyes and -mouth starting wide.</p> - -<p>"It spoke!" he cried out, and flung down his scimitar. "Oh, Allah, it -spoke!" He turned and ran for the rail and dived over it like a man -fleeing the wrath of Eblis. Godwin could not help laughing. Evidently, -to this fellow's way of thinking, a gorilla that climbed out of the -sea and fought with a broadsword was acceptable, but one that did -these things and spoke in Arabic also was an intolerable wonder and a -thing to boggle the mind. There was a loud splash. Another foeman was -dispensed with.</p> - -<p>There were half a dozen coming up the deck toward him: his estimate of -the crew had been right. He saw two bowmen among them. Bad! He tucked -his broadsword into its sheath and bent his knees and leaped for the -yard of the lateen sail, caught it by both paws, hoisted himself like -a gymnast up and over and knelt on the yard, balancing by a palm on -the bellying sail. Carefully he got to his feet, which were prehensile -enough to grip the round yard and give him a feeling of confidence in -his balance. Commending his soul to his God, he ran straight down the -yard until he had reached the mast. Behind him four arrows had thunked -through the sail as the bowmen shot at the places they thought he might -be.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He shinnied up the mast, which was on the opposite side of the sail, -luckily, from the crew, and cautiously peered round it. Something out -on the ocean caught his gaze, and he saw it was a small black dot, -rapidly receding from the ship. The Nubian swordsman was still in a -hurry.</p> - -<p>The bowmen would be on his side of the sail in six jumps. The only -solution to his plight burst into Godwin's brain like a crossbow bolt -from the sky. He slid down the mast, came to a teeth-jolting stop -as his feet hit the yard, took the mast between both powerful paws -and shook it. It was stout, but thin compared with the masts used in -other rigs. Fangs bared with effort, hind feet curled and braced round -the yard, he exerted all the lusty power of the gorilla's arms, all -the brawn of the strapping torso, all the pent-up energy that roiled -and pulsed beneath the tough old hide. One mighty heave he gave, and -another, and a third.</p> - -<p>The mast complained, creaked like the nine-mile-high gate of Hell -opening, and splintered in two as if struck by lightning.</p> - -<p>Of all Godwin's feats of strength—and they were many—this was surely -the greatest. As the mast crashed downward, carrying the ripping sail -with it to the deck, he stood on the swaying yard and ostentatiously -dusted his hands together. Suppose it had been done by the body of a -jungle beast? Was he, Godwin, not inside it?</p> - -<p>The broken mast struck with a crash that shook the ship and brought a -chorus of piercing squeals from the imprisoned rats below. The yard -swung violently and its end thudded to the deck, so that Godwin was -knocked off balance and only saved himself by a quick kneeling and grab -with both paws.</p> - -<p>A large area of the main deck was covered by the collapsed dark sail, -beneath which struggled a number of formless lumps that were the crew. -Godwin picked himself up again and ran like a tightrope artist down the -slanted yard to the poop, where he leaped off and turned at bay, teeth -and claws and broadsword all bristling and ready.</p> - -<p>The bumps in the sail moved about futilely, hunting an exit. The -invisible rats made the air hideous with their unclean, abominable -rantings.</p> - -<p>The thing to do was go down and wade into those lumps with his sword. -It may not have been precisely a fair attack, but Godwin was not -absorbed with fairness at that time. He had taken two steps, the short -ferocious steps of the gorilla, when an archer found the edge of the -sail and rolled out from under it, an arrow nocked on his bow. He -sighted Godwin at once and the bowstring tightened. Lying on his back, -he took swift aim at the chest of the slavering horror on the poop deck.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>There was no time to reach him, no barricade to dodge behind, and the -distance was too long to fling his sword accurately. Godwin jerked -his head round. A brazier of burning coals stood on a brass trivet at -his side. Quicker than thought he had caught up the pot of them and -in the same sidearm motion flung them down at the bowman. The man saw -them coming, let fly his arrow and tried to roll out of range. Several -coals took him in the face and neck. Seared and scorching flesh sent up -an acrid, nauseous stench as the poor wretch screamed with agony. His -arrow had gone wild by the slimmest of margins.</p> - -<p>The other archer emerged from the opposite edge of the sail, shaking -his head. He was bleeding from the nose and his eyesight had gone -slightly awry. He leaned on the bulwarks and rubbed a fist into his -eyes. He looked up and saw the gorilla coming at him over the crumpled, -heaving sail.</p> - -<p>He plucked an arrow from his belt and fitted it hastily to the string. -He did not understand in the slightest how this awful creature had -appeared aboard his ship, but it had fled once from his bow and so it -might be slain by a mere mortal. He was a Seljuk Turk, this archer, -proud and cruel and infinitely superstitious; he felt sure that Godwin -was a spirit of some kind, yet he knew that spirits may be slain and -all the odds seemed to be on his arrows.</p> - -<p>The first one twanged out from his short sturdy bow.</p> - -<p>Godwin saw it hurtle at his breast, and in his proper shape might only -have watched it strike him, for he had no shield and only the smallest -fraction of a second in which to take thought. But the gorilla's body -was made of faster muscles, quicker reflexes, than ever a knight -possessed. One arm flicked across his chest, and the arrow was caught -in flight, three inches before it would have buried itself feather-deep -in his thorax.</p> - -<p>The Turk, a second arrow already on the string, froze. Before he could -force action into his petrified hands, the gorilla was upon him. Great -black paws took him by throat and groin, he was lifted over the brute's -head, and the air whistled around him as the waves of the Mediterranean -reached up to assuage their age-old hunger for living flesh.</p> - -<p>Godwin watched him vanish into the sea. Weighted by his armor, he never -came up. Godwin grinned.</p> - -<p>Unnoticed behind him, the coals from the brazier had started a fire -in the fallen sail, a fire which was rapidly spreading in a score of -directions.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER XXI</p> - - -<p>Godwin the gorilla bethought himself of the four men remaining under -the sail. He turned about and saw the fire, which was now licking up -fiercely.</p> - -<p>"God defend the right!" he gasped. "Here's a rare hazard!"</p> - -<p>Two men had succeeded in freeing themselves from the smothering -confines of the sail. They came at him warily, side-stepping the -flames, their curved Damascus blades at the ready.</p> - -<p>"Beast or Satan," shouted one, "prepare to perish!"</p> - -<p>"Ho ho," said Godwin throatily in Arabic, "you'll have to back that -threat with action, little man!"</p> - -<p>The fellow halted, turned a sickly green hue, and buckling at all his -joints pitched over in a dead faint.</p> - -<p>The other was affected in quite another fashion, and leaped toward -Godwin, scimitar flashing.</p> - -<p>Godwin yanked out his long sword and batted down the first attack. -The Saracen was a swift and elusive fencer. His point darted through -Godwin's guard and slashed a long wound down the biceps of his left -arm, laying bare the dark flesh for a moment before red gore covered it -and trickled out through the fur.</p> - -<p>Godwin yelled and swung his weapon in an arc, knocking off the other's -helmet and inflicting a nasty gash across his scalp.</p> - -<p>The Saracen stabbed straight. Godwin twisted his body sidewise, and -the keen blade cut through all but a thread or two of the belt that -held his scabbard.</p> - -<p>Before the enemy could recover from his lunge, Godwin brought his -wounded left arm over and down in a hammer blow. The doubled paw -caught the man exactly on the center of his skull, and he fell like an -arrow-pierced hare, kicked a time or two, and lay still.</p> - -<p>Two foemen remained beneath the sail. One of these had been knocked -unconscious and now lay smothering to death. The other, crippled by -the falling mast, was slowly dragging his broken body along in search -of the open air when the fire burst into crimson bloom about him. He -wailed like a tormented soul on a spit, broke his nails on the deck in -a mad endeavor to crawl to safety, and at last struck his forehead on -the coaming of a hatchway.</p> - -<p>Forgetting the rats below, he threw all his waning vitality into a -heave that sent the hatch cover up and flat on the deck. Then he pushed -himself over the edge and fell, to escape the flames among the ravenous -horde of great gray rodents.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>In the frightful din of crackling flames, gibbering rats, and lapping -sea, Godwin never heard him scream at all.</p> - -<p>He stared narrowly around him now, scratching absent-mindedly for an -annoying flea in the small of his back, and saw that no one moved on -the deck of the plague ship. By good fortune, by the grace of God, and -by his own skill and brute force, he had obliterated the crew. Even the -men who had fainted had inhaled flame and died. Godwin stood alone on -the deck, while beneath him sounded the perpetual vociferant clamor of -the rats.</p> - -<p>The flames spreading dangerously close to his bare flat feet, he -skipped along the bulwarks and up to the poop, which was as yet -untouched by fire. Here he watched it eat out across the deck, -devouring sail and broken mast and at last portions of the deck itself.</p> - -<p>The heat in the hold became unbearable for the rats then, and they -began to fight savagely to get at the open hatchway, the sail above -which had burnt away. Their bodies piled up beneath its square of smoky -light, and the pile grew and grew....</p> - -<p>Godwin in his gorilla body stared glumly at the flames. "What a way -to die," he growled aloud. "What an end for Godwin, who was once king -of all broad England! Look at the damned water; probably a million -hogsheads of it within spitting distance. Look at the damned fire. Look -at the two of them, and here am I, who can't begin to bring the one to -the other until the ship sinks under me! What a finish!"</p> - -<p>For the first time in his life he felt total despair. He had saved his -home country, aye, but it was not likely that his deed would go down in -song and story, for El Sareuk and Ramizail and the others were in all -probability dying at this very moment under the swords of Mufaddal's -three hundred scum. If only, he thought, one small ballad might be -written about this geste!</p> - -<p>He stiffened the gorilla's backbone and put such selfish wishes behind -him. He <i>had</i> saved England, whether anyone ever heard of it or not. -That was worth dying for! That was even, God save the mark, worth -Ramizail's death or enslavement as a concubine! Much as he loved the -wench, the population of England outweighed her in the end.</p> - -<p>If there were but some chance at survival. If only there were a small -cockleshell of a boat he could put off in, even the material for a -makeshift raft. But there was nothing, nothing but the sea and the sky -and the ship in flames, and the raging rats below him.</p> - -<p>The sky! What now, if stout old Mihrjan the djinni were to come -swooping down out of that clear hot sky!</p> - -<p>But no, Godwin must needs relegate Mihrjan to other parts, must forbid -him by the Seal to follow them, because of stubborn pride and petty -resentment against Ramizail's harmless tricks!</p> - -<p>His wound hurt him. He felt the gorilla's body yearning to tend it, -to lick it clean and start the healing processes. For a moment he was -disgusted at the idea, and then hopeless, for what did it matter if the -wound began to heal, when he was doomed to a terrible death by fire or -water? But the instincts of his body would not be denied.</p> - -<p>With a long sigh, Godwin of England sat down on the rough planks of the -poop and began to lick his torn biceps with a rasping tongue.</p> - -<p>Simultaneously with his seating himself, the first rat clambered up the -pile of torn corpses and launched itself out of the hatchway and onto -the deck.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER XXII</p> - - -<p>"Well," said Mufaddal, who was eating a hard-boiled egg in a sloppy -manner, "did you get to the barracks?"</p> - -<p>Heraj picked up a cold towel from the air near his knees and wrapped it -around his head. "I did. Wow! I had to cast immobility spells on two -more of these devilish Crusaders, who were stationed at the back door. -But I made it to the barracks. The soldiers are even now deploying -around the palace. Oosh! What an ache!"</p> - -<p>"I don't see why you can't collect yourself and put the whole pack of -them under a spell," said Mufaddal irritably.</p> - -<p>"I've told you and told you, I have a headache, that's why I can't -do it, curse you," said Heraj. "I have all I can do to keep the ones -in this room and those two back there motionless. I have to keep -concentrating and it hurts like seven devils in my brain. Then I've -flung a force wall around this room, so no one can get in or out -except myself, and <i>that</i> takes concentration. I tell you, I never went -through anything like it. All I can recall are these two spells and -the one for curdling milk. I could no more bewitch all these benighted -villains than I could—could fly to the moon."</p> - -<p>"Incidentally, did you find the gorilla? Godwin?"</p> - -<p>"No I didn't, and I hope I never do. I don't want to come within range -of those ham-sized fists again, not even with a legion of fiends at my -back."</p> - -<p>"Is he still a gorilla, if he's alive, I mean? Or did he switch back -when you swooned away?"</p> - -<p>"No, he's a gorilla. That's a different sort of spell from force walls -and immobility. But to hell with Godwin. I want to nurse this lump. And -you're confusing me, too. My spells are wobbling. I just saw El Sareuk -there move a good half inch. If you want those swine kept alive for -torture and other pleasantries, I've got to concentrate. Oh, my newts -and bat-wings! I shall die!" He went over and collapsed in a corner, -where he stared moodily at the corpses of his two brothers and mumbled -to himself.</p> - -<p>Mufaddal peered out the window. It was too small to negotiate, but wide -enough to command a partial view of the back grounds. He saw a dozen -of his men go dashing from the shelter of one outbuilding to that of -another.</p> - -<p>"In a minute or two," he said confidently, "in a very few minutes, by -Allah, these renegades and infidels will see what a real besieging is -like!"</p> - -<p>And at the thought, he stroked his greasy beard and crinkled up his -soft brown eyes, and giggled like a maniac.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER XXIII</p> - - -<p>Godwin looked up from his wound-cleansing. He had had a glimpse of a -gray shape scuttling across a field of crimson flame. He stared, and -saw a score of large rats eyeing him from the lower deck. He bounded -to his feet, thick gorilla toes and fingers curling with a fear that -no amount of bravery could still. The plague! The ravishing, filthy, -obscene plague! Even from a flaming ship in the midst of a waste of -waters, there might be some escape at the last moment: but from the -bite of one of these rats would come a foul death that nothing could -turn aside, not even the djinn themselves!</p> - -<p>He canvassed the poop. No high pedestals on which a man (or a great -ape) might perch, no protective armor of any description to foil the -attack of the rats. Here he stood, alone, armed with a broadsword and -a dagger, a helmet and a golden sigil. There was but a single chance. -He might squat on the bulwarks at the very stern, for they were high -and would give him the advantage of being a little above his squealing -enemies. He leaped and balanced and squatted, and his naked iron -broadsword hung down between his bent knees as he awaited their first -move.</p> - -<p>This was not long in coming. The poop was the only part of the ship -which was not being ravaged by fire. The rats headed for its temporary -safety. As they poured over it, a repulsive and horrible crew, snapping -and snarling at one another, their fangs yellow as amber slivers, their -hides mangy and often showing the first signs of plague, the leaders -spied Godwin roosting unhappily on the rail. They halted, considered, -twitched their whiskers, and then made for him. He was meat.</p> - -<p>The first rank charged in and were slain eight at a blow, by the -sweeping sword. The second rank fared likewise. The rats drew back and -stared beadily at him. He could fairly hear their odious, menacing -thoughts. He waited. A gigantic rodent, half its fur gone in some -hideous battle below decks, came flying at him. The perfect reflexes -of the gorilla flicked the sword out and spitted the beast through the -guts. It hung on the sword, squirming and piping weakly, as Godwin -whipped the blade back and forth and clove the small skulls of a dozen -more.</p> - -<p>A myriad of the grisly horde came tumbling up to the poop deck. Godwin -was now mangling and mutilating constantly, as more rats poured upon -him. Some of the devils were already feasting on their defunct cousins.</p> - -<p>And so, for minutes that dragged like weeks, Godwin of England fought -off the rats, and waited without hope for the inevitable end, when even -his mighty muscles should grow weary and his eye become slow, and at -last they should reach him.</p> - -<p>A close-packed group of them attacked him from the right, and some of -them even leaped upon the rail and came at him. He flailed his sword -frantically into the brown of them, sending them slithering along the -deck, knocking them into the sea, or spoiling them where they stood by -messy divisions and squashings. Then a legion came from the left, and -he leaped up to his feet and balanced precariously on the bulwarks as -he bent and swiped back and forth.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The closest any of them had come yet was in this moment, when three -great bullies of rats, all fat and evil and ugly, leaped upon his -swaying leathern scabbard and clung there. They might have crept up -it and bitten him before he could slay them, except for the fortunate -stab of the late Saracen fencer, which had all but severed his sword -belt. The last few strands parted now, and the sheath fell to the deck, -carrying rats and belt with it.</p> - -<p>Something rolled out of the sheath and made a small metallic sound as -it struck the overturned brazier. Godwin risked a glance at it. It -gleamed dull yellow in the sunlight.</p> - -<p>"By the rood, mass, book and candle!" yelled Godwin, startling the rats -so that they drew back in haste, "the ring of Solomon! So <i>that's</i> -where I put it! In the bloody scabbard! Of course, I remember. -Someplace where 'twould be always near my hand!"</p> - -<p>Nothing, not ten thousand times as many rats, could have kept him from -that ring. He leaped from the rail, half-squatting to bring his sword -hand near the deck, and the blade was a flaming scythe in his grip. It -mowed down rats by dozens, by scores, by hundreds as they came crowding -at him. They leaped, and the point shot up and down more swiftly than -the eye could command, and they had died in mid-jump. They crouched in -at him, and the tops of their heads were torn off or jellied by the -sweeping broadsword. Then they drew back, for a rat is intelligent, -and even their hunger was not enough to force them out against that -invincible weapon without some thought on the matter.</p> - -<p>In the few seconds' respite Godwin leaped, scooped up the ring, dived -back to his seat on the rail. The rats came forward once more. With -his left hand he locked the ring to the sigil on its chain about his -neck, and in a voice of joyous thunder he shouted, "Mihrjan! I cry up -Mihrjan!"</p> - -<p>Spang in the midst of the rats, shod with sandals of blue-white fire -so that the gruesome beings scrambled back from his vicinity, appeared -the ten-foot form of Mihrjan the djinni, turbanned with ivory silk, -pantalooned with lustrous purple velvet, and exuding an aroma of attar -of roses.</p> - -<p>He salaamed deeply.</p> - -<p>"The Lord of My Life," said Mihrjan sonorously, as the rats retreated -down the poop deck, "would seem to have need of my humble services. I -am his to command!"</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER XXIV</p> - - -<p>Godwin the gorilla sighed. He had never uttered a more fervent and -thankful sound in all his life. "Mihrjan," he said, "I must say, yes, -by gad, I will say, I'm glad to see you."</p> - -<p>Mihrjan cast a look about him. "Thy sentiments are understated, Lord. -It is a trait of thy race."</p> - -<p>"Yes, well, never mind that. Look here, can you get rid of these damned -slimy things? My arm's weary with swatting 'em."</p> - -<p>The djinni gestured; a wind arose and swept along the poop, and the -rats were tumbled down onto the main deck, where they commenced to -brawl among themselves again, on the edge of the fire.</p> - -<p>"And see here, while I think of it, there's a black fellow swimming out -there somewhere. Can you see if he's still at it, or has he sunk?"</p> - -<p>Mihrjan vanished and returned before the air could rush into the -vacuum his passing had created. "He swims, Master, but weakly."</p> - -<p>"Well, he's a good chap, albeit misguided into serving under that lousy -Mufaddal beggar. He's one of the best swordsmen I ever faced. Can you -transport him home to Nubia?"</p> - -<p>Mihrjan grinned. "It is done."</p> - -<p>"Good. I felt rotten about him. Poor devil jumped overboard because I -spoke to him. Which brings up this: can you make me myself again? That -is to say, take this ape's body back where Heraj got it, and give me my -own?"</p> - -<p>Mihrjan scowled. His mind seemed to be wandering among far countries. -At last he said, brightening, "I see how 'twas done. I can undo it."</p> - -<p>"Then by all means—" Godwin found that the paw with which he was -gesticulating had become a strong brown hand, a bit grubby, perhaps, -but still his own natural hand. He stared down. His robe and armor were -in tatters. They had evidently seen some life and hard times in the -jungle. The body appeared to be whole, however, and tingled pleasantly -as Godwin's personality took it over once more.</p> - -<p>Mihrjan said, "Suitable raiment is in order," and Godwin was wearing -white samite and sky-blue silk over gold-washed armor of meshed steel. -His broadsword hung in a new scabbard, bedecked with gauze, and his -beard and hair were freshly cut and combed. His skin felt clean, and -seemed to have been bathed within the hour.</p> - -<p>"What a talent you have there, Mihrjan, old fellow," he said -admiringly. "May heaven beshrew me if I ever part with you again."</p> - -<p>"'Tis wise to allow me to stay within call." The djinni frowned. "And -my mistress, O King? She is safe?"</p> - -<p>"I hope so, but I left her quite a while back. Had to sink this ship, -you know. It was going to England with a cargo of plague. Oh, you know -that, you were there when we found Sir Malcolm. We'd better get back -to Mufaddal's palace at once, Mihrjan. Just one more request: will you -sink this pest ship for me?"</p> - -<p>"It already sinks of its own accord, My Lord." And indeed, the deck was -slanting beneath their feet. Down at the bow the rats were huddled, -quarreling and fighting among themselves and making their revolting -chorus rise up to foul the heavens.</p> - -<p>"Good. Then let's go."</p> - -<p>Mihrjan placed a hand under his elbow, and suddenly they were five -hundred feet above the Mediterranean, looking down at the ship which -Mufaddal had fondly hoped would be the death of the British nation. -Even up here Godwin fancied he could hear the final squeals and -horrible wailing shrieks of the cargo of great gray rats. Then Mihrjan -headed landward, and the plague ship disappeared behind.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER XXV</p> - - -<p>They stood together in Mufaddal's private chamber. The spell of -immobility had been transferred to the dark-faced Mufaddal and his -chief sorcerer, while Ramizail and El Sareuk with their allies the -Bedouins and captured Crusaders were free to move where they chose. -They clustered now about the ten-foot djinni.</p> - -<p>"What of my eight men at the prison and barracks?" asked Godwin.</p> - -<p>Mihrjan said, "Slain, O King, cut down by surprise without a chance to -defend themselves."</p> - -<p>"Damn. And my falcon, Yellow-eyes?"</p> - -<p>"She perches on a roof-top in the heart of Alexandria, watching -anxiously for a sight of thee."</p> - -<p>"Bring her here, please."</p> - -<p>The old bird, looking rather wind-blown and surprised, appeared on -Godwin's mailed shoulder. She thrust her notched beak into his ear -affectionately, and he said with fervor, "Ah, <i>thou</i>!"</p> - -<p>"And now, O Master of My Being, shall I vanquish the foemen without -the house by a whirlwind from the plains of Hell, or lightning from -the clouds? Shall I bubble their eyes from their heads with gouts of -searing flame?" asked the djinni fiercely.</p> - -<p>"No, man, no! We'll beat 'em in fair fight. Only keep this Heraj's -magic cancelled out, send him and Mufaddal out there now, and give me -a hundred more allies."</p> - -<p>"That will still be two to one against thee," said Mihrjan, as the pair -of plotters vanished.</p> - -<p>"Naturally. More fun. And don't bring me a hundred of the djinn, -either, but a hundred desert fighters or good tough Frankish champions. -And see my other lads are weaponed properly."</p> - -<p>"They await your orders in the forepart of the house," said Mihrjan -resignedly.</p> - -<p>"Then I'm off. El Sareuk, ready? Mihrjan, keep that fire-eating woman -of mine out of the thick of things, will you? Come on, boys, up and at -'em!" He charged out toward the front door.</p> - -<p>Mihrjan said to Ramizail, understanding her nature as well as she did -herself, "Wouldst watch the battle, little one?"</p> - -<p>"Oh, yes, Mihrjan, yes!"</p> - -<p>"Then come." He gathered her in his monstrous, tender arms, and flying -upward, caused their atoms to pass between those of the clay and -timber, so that in a wink they were high above the earth, and hovered -there comfortably, peering down on the tiny figures of Mufaddal's -soldiers deploying around the house. Two standing by themselves and -pointing this way and that with shouts unintelligible at this height, -were the black-visaged Mufaddal himself, and his one-time potent -sorcerer Heraj.</p> - -<p>From the door issued a running warrior, who at once engaged six men -in dazzling swordplay; behind him came others, many others, until a -hundred and fifty-five men had emerged. Hand-to-hand combats were -joined all over the grounds. Ramizail cried out with delight.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>It was like observing two bands of toy soldiers endowed with the -power to move and fight and maneuver. Both the girl and the djinni -were enthralled. Godwin's force fanned out, coalesced, drove through -Mufaddal's ranks and turned and came back and drove again, till the -enemy broke and fled in hapless confusion. The Crusaders and Bedouins -pursued them, hacking them down from behind, forcing them to stand -and die in little knots. Two who fled toward the dock, casting away -their weapons, Mihrjan pointed out as Mufaddal and Heraj. After them -bounded a great figure in white, sky-blue, and gold, flourishing a long -sword above its head. "Godwin!" said Ramizail, biting her nails with -excitement. "Oh, Mihrjan, go lower! I want to see!"</p> - -<p>The djinni sank until their feet were no more than ten yards from the -wharf. There they drifted along above the pursued pair.</p> - -<p>Mufaddal panted out, "Only chance! Under the dock!"</p> - -<p>Heraj gasped, "We might stand and fight him," with no conviction in his -voice at all.</p> - -<p>"Ha," said Mufaddal, and with one desperate leap plunged off the wharf -into the sea. Heraj was one step behind him. Godwin came to the edge -and halted, baffled. Their heads did not show above the water.</p> - -<p>"Mihrjan," whispered Ramizail, "they'll escape!"</p> - -<p>"Observe," said the djinni equably. He gestured with a finger, and -a section of the dock became transparent to her gaze. Beneath it, -Heraj and his master were clambering up, dripping, onto a shelf of -boards some twelve feet from the outer edge of the wharf. Godwin still -scratched his head in bafflement. Obviously he could not see through -the pier as she could.</p> - -<p>The two conspirators crouched there, watching the sea apprehensively. -"Now look," said Mihrjan. Ramizail, staring intent, saw a gray snout -poke up into view behind them, followed by a multitude more. "Rats!" -she breathed.</p> - -<p>"Aye, rats. All those who live beneath the wharf, mistress, called here -by the scent of their dinner."</p> - -<p>It was as though the lead rat had given a signal. In a trice the -legions of furred ghastly beings had poured over the two squatting men.</p> - -<p>Screams of pain and horror came up through the boards of the upper -dock. Heraj straightened as though to stand, cracked his head on the -wharf, and sank down, half-conscious, into the midst of the swarming -rodents. He gurgled and flung his arms in the air as their small sharp -unclean teeth found his throat, his belly, his eyes.</p> - -<p>Mufaddal flung himself into the water. His <i>gallabiyah</i> snagged on a -projection, and held him fast, thrashing and squalling, only his head -above water. For a wonder, the cheap cloth did not give way. The rats -leaped down onto his head, slipping into the water, swimming back to -tear at his face, perching on his bare head and clawing insanely at his -scalp. And so, held helpless by the clutch of chance, Mufaddal died as -hideous a death as anyone might have wished him.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>El Sareuk came up to Godwin. "What were those fearful sounds just now, -companion?" he asked, wiping the sweat of honest battle from his lean -bearded face.</p> - -<p>"Mufaddal and Heraj, I take it, though how and where they died I can't -tell."</p> - -<p>Mihrjan settled to earth with Ramizail in his arms. "Lords," he boomed, -setting the girl on her feet, "they perished in a niche beneath the -wharf, as they should have perished, shut from the light of day, with -the teeth of their own evil minions fastened in their gullets. Now is -the stain they put upon Islam cleansed with a vengeance."</p> - -<p>"By gad," said Godwin, as Yellow-eyes fluttered down to perch on his -shoulder, "then it's finished, and as neat a case of poetic justice -as ever came my way." He looked about him. Mihrjan had on his own -initiative sent the Bedouins and Crusaders back to their own places. -Only corpses met his eye. "To horse, friends!" he bellowed gleefully. -"This battle's done, and there are a power and lashing of wrongs left -in the world to be righted!"</p> - -<p>"Oh, heavens," groaned Ramizail. "Don't you even want to rest a week or -two, swashbuckler?"</p> - -<p>"Rest is for the dead and the aged, witch-wench."</p> - -<p>El Sareuk nodded fiercely. "The work for willing swords is never done, -lass."</p> - -<p>Ramizail rolled up her beautiful eyes and shrugged, a slight smile of -resignation on her full lips. Mihrjan pointed out their horses, saddled -and champing at a little distance. "O Lord of My Life, I know a wrong -in Egypt that needs four, or it might be eight, strong hands," said he.</p> - -<p>"We are in Egypt, by coincidence," said Ramizail.</p> - -<p>"This Egypt lies three thousand years in the past," said Mihrjan.</p> - -<p>"Can you transport us back?" asked Godwin eagerly.</p> - -<p>"Assuredly, Sire."</p> - -<p>"Well then, let's go!" he roared. He put an arm over the shoulder of -El Sareuk and another about the slim waist of Ramizail, and ran them -toward the horses. And Mihrjan's great laugh of fierce pleasure boomed -thunderously through the desert air....</p> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ENCHANTED CRUSADE ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ -concept and trademark. 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