"I will refresh thy memory," muttered the voice of Baber Khan. "A week ago we rode down the valley, with the riders of the Turkomans, behind Orkhan Bahadur, to take this city of Shahrazar from Shaibar Khan and his Uzbeks. Orkhan greatly desired this city, because somewhere in it he knew there was a great treasure—the treasure gathered long ago by Muhammad Shah, king of Khuwarezm. When the Mongols of Genghis Khan hunted the
"All this is well known to me," impatiently answered O'Donnell.
"Aye, for thou wert Shaibar Khan's slave!"
"A lie!" exclaimed O'Donnell, starting with amazement. "The Khan was my enemy—"
"Soho!" hissed the voice venomously. "Be still, thou!" The wire-edge just touched the skin of his throat, and a tiny trickle of blood started. "In a chamber below the palace we found Shaibar Khan dead, and with him Yar Akbar the Afridi, likewise dead. But nowhere was the treasure to be found. Nor has Orkhan Bahadur found it, though he is lord of Shahrazar.
"Now it was known that certain men had the care of the treasure in their hands, to guard it and protect it with their lives. They were twelve in number, and were called the
A glow dazzled O'Donnell; in it a great hairy hand snaked out of the dark and tore at the garments over his breast—wrenched out something that glimmered in the dull light. Breath hissed from between teeth in the dark about him. In the gnarled hand lay an oval of beaten gold, carved with a single cryptic character.
"You are the twelfth man!" accused Baber Khan. You were an
"I am no Uzbek!" snarled O'Donnell.
"Nay, but Shaibar Khan had men of many races among his ranks. You were found in the palace when we took the city, the only living fighting man in the palace. I have watched you closely, and today I spied the symbol among your garments."
O'Donnell cursed mentally for not having disposed of the damning emblem.
"I know nothing of the treasure," he said angrily. "This gaud I took from the neck of a man I slew in a dark alley." And that last was the truth.
"Thou art stubborn," muttered Baber Khan; "but the steel shall teach thee. Grip him!"
Fierce hands clamped over the American's mouth, and others held him hard, stretching him out. O'Donnell's body was a knot of wiry thews, but with his hands bound, and three hairy giants grasping him, he was helpless. He felt Baber Khan's fingers clutching at his ankle, lifting his foot; then the sharp agony of a knife point driving under the nail of his great toe. He set his teeth against the hurt, then it was withdrawn, and he felt blood trickling over his foot. The hand released his jaws.
"Where is the treasure?" hissed the savage voice out of the darkness.
"Let me up," mumbled O'Donnell. "I'll lead you to it."
A gusty sigh of satisfaction answered him. He was hauled to his feet.
"Lead on," Baber Khan directed. He did not promise O'Donnell his life in return for the secret of the treasure; the American knew that the treacherous Ghilzai had no intention of letting him live, in any event.
"We will go to the chamber in which was found the bodies of Shaibar Khan and Yar Akbar," said he, and with a satisfied grunt, they allowed him to lead the way, grasping his arms, with their knives at his ribs.
They went on down the stair, through a tapestried door and down a short corridor. This corridor, lighted by Baber's wavering torch, seemed to terminate against a blank marble wall. But all the palace knew its secret, since the invasion of the Turkomans, and the Ghilzai thrust against the wall with a burly shoulder. A section swung in, working on a pivot....
THE END
The 'Black Vulmea' Saga:
Table of Contents
Black Vulmea's Vengeance
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 1
Table of Contents
