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If thou refusest thou art afraid, and thy fear proveth that thou hast no faith in the magic treasure that dangles at thy girdle." There was a moment of deep silence. Then, from the crowd burst forth the cry of many voices: "Put it to the proof! Ben-Abid speaks well. Put it to the proof, and may Allah judge between them." Beneath the caked pigments on her face Halima had gone pale.
Not two hours after this conversation the cadi sent for Mahmoud and Mario, and with no less earnestness than Halima had unbosomed herself to Leonisa, the amorous graybeard opened his own to his two slaves, asking their advice as to what he should do to enjoy the Christian and cheat the Grand Signor, to whom she belonged, for he would sooner die a thousand deaths, than give her up to him.
"Well, tell me then," said Ricardo, "what you think of doing in our business. Whilst you were conducting Leonisa to Halima, a Venetian renegade who was in the pasha's tent, and who understands Turkish very well, explained to me all that had passed between them. Above all things, then, we must try to find some means of preventing Leonisa's being sent to the Grand Signor."
He put all his wealth on board it; Halima, too, left nothing of value behind her, and asked her husband to let her take her parents with her that they might see Constantinople. Halima entertained the same designs as Mahmoud and Ricardo; she intended, with their help, to seize the brigantine, but would not make this known to them until she found herself actually embarked.
And he struck his long fingers upon the goatskin of his instrument, while Kouïdah, the boy who played upon the little glasses and shook the tambourine of reeds, slipped forth to tell in the city what Ben-Abid had spoken. Halima was enraged when she heard of it, more especially as there were found many to believe Ben-Abid's words.
They now separated, Leonisa well pleased with Ricardo's modest behaviour, and he overjoyed at having heard from her lips words unmixed with harshness. Halima, meanwhile, had shut herself up in her room, and was praying to Mahomet for Leonisa's success in the commission she had given her.
At the sound of his call many women ran to their doors, some half dressed, some fully attired, like Jezebels of the great desert. "It is Ben-Abid!" went up the cry of many voices. "It is Ben-Abid, who laughs to scorn the power of the hedgehog's foot. It is the son of the camel with the swollen tongue. Halima, Halima, the child of the scorpion calls thee!"
"Fatma is sick," said Hadj, quickly. "It will not be Fatma." Hadj began suddenly to gesticulate with his thin, delicate hands and to look fiercely excited. "Halima is at the Fontaine Chaude," he cried. "Keltoum will be there." "She will not. Her foot is sick. She cannot dance. For a week she will not dance. I know it." "And Irena? Is she sick? Is she at the Hammam Salahine?"
The daughters begotten by the Fire-god, Tapa, went over to Skanda, who said to them, 'What can I do for you? Those girls replied, 'Do us this favour; by thy blessing, may we become the good and respected mothers of all the world! He replied, 'Be it so. And that liberal-minded being repeated again and again, 'Ye shall be divided into Siva and Asiva. And the mothers then departed, having first established Skanda's sonship, Kaki, Halima, Malini, Vrinhila, Arya, Palala and Vaimitra, these were the seven mothers of Sisu.
Meanwhile, Halima had declared her design to Mahmoud and Ricardo, who had signified their readiness to accomplish it when passing the Crosses of Alexandria, or entering the castles of Anatolia; but so intolerably did the cadi importune them, that they made up their minds to do so upon the first opportunity that offered.
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