"The Serpent Belt," he gasped out in an undertone.
"Yes," I whispered in reply, "it is good to have lived even to have seen it. But what will he do with it?"
"Hush," said the sheik, "let us wait and see."
We were not left long in suspense as to forthcoming events, for no sooner did the seer expose the belt to view than, kissing it reverently, he clasped it round the waist of his goddess. Then, kneeling once more before her, he prayed aloud.
"To the Immortal Goddess," he said, "I, her servant, return that which in her worldly existence ever bore her to victory, and which, when she was taken to rule over the gods, remained behind to become the curse of the covetous inhabitants of the world. It was at thy command, Great Goddess-Queen, that I caused the last man who ever saw it to re-inter it in its abiding-place. It was at thy command that death afterwards came to him. It was at thy command that I, Raspul the seer, recovered it, and by none other than thyself, Sophana Great Goddess-Queen, was I appointed its guardian. The time has now, doubtless, come when it is meet that I should quit this world and pass into the service of the gods. For that reason I willingly obey the behest of my mistress, who ordereth that, through fire, the spirit of the Sacred Belt shall soar into the realms of the Great Unknown."
Much more he said, but he spoke in an undertone and we could only catch a word here and there. I now feared the worst. He was evidently going to destroy the Golden Girdle; and the thought that all my hopes of obtaining it were about to be dashed to the ground made me forget fatigue, hardship, fear, and everything else. I quietly drew my revolver, hardly knowing what I intended to do, but Faris saw the movement, and seized my wrist.
"Fool," said he, "would you murder a priest in the presence of his goddess, in her own temple? Tush! it were madness."
I knew that it would be so; yet, was I to stand by and see the whole object of my journey, the one thing that I imagined that I lived for, destroyed before my very eyes? There was the Golden Girdle almost within my grasp--barely twenty paces from me. I could see each serpent that composed it clearly outlined on the white figure of the goddess. One shot from my revolver would secure the treasure. But the sheik's grip brought me to my senses and saved me from being a murderer.
"Speak to him, then," I said, in a state of agitation. "Offer him a price for the Serpent Belt."
"It would be useless," answered Faris. "He is possessed, and cannot control his actions. See, he is preparing the fire which is to consume it."
The seer had already brought cakes of bitumen and charcoal, and had kindled a small but hot fire. With difficulty he placed a heavy iron vessel over it, and then, blowing on it through a hollow bamboo, watched the fuel ignite and grow red. Every now and then, he prostrated himself before the goddess, and besought her to give heat to the fire, which, it seemed to me, she must have done; for, before long the iron vessel began to glow, and was soon red hot. That the end was near I realised; and as Raspul, after examining the vessel carefully, moved towards the goddess, my hand again sought my revolver--but only again to be arrested by my companion.
[Illustration: "HE PROSTRATED HIMSELF BEFORE THE GODDESS, AND BESOUGHT HER TO GIVE HEAT TO THE FIRE"]
Then Raspul knelt, and began to unclasp the belt, while I held my breath. It was undone. The seer took it in his hands, turned it over, and fondled it. Great beads of perspiration stood out on my forehead as I saw the glitter of the golden serpents, which seemed to writhe and twist about as if alive. Faris grew impatient and, to my horror, stamped his foot on the ground.
Whether Raspul and his goddess heard that stamp no man can say; but, as if in response to it, there occurred the most fearful noise that has ever fallen on my ears. With a terrific crash, huge portions of the roof surrounding the hole rained down on the head of the unfortunate seer, who must have been instantly killed. Enormous masses of masonry hurtled on to the goddess, who, however, stood unmoved. At first, I imagined that the wrath of the gods had overtaken Faris and myself for my companion's thoughtless stamp, but why the faithful Raspul should have suffered I could not understand. All this, and many other thoughts, passed through my mind in the space of a second; for, no sooner did we see the seer stricken down than we forgot all dread of the consequences and rushed to his assistance. Yet, barely had we advanced a couple of steps into the actual temple, before another portion of the roof fell, and with it the lamp which provided the only light. Suddenly we heard a chorus of voices above us; and, looking up at the great gap in the roof, we could see that day was just dawning, and that a number of men were peering down into the temple.
"Stand quiet," said the sheik, softly. "Get your revolver ready, and we will fall on them when they enter. By their speech I take them for some of the twice-accursed Shammar."
Then, by the scanty light coming through the hole, we saw a rope lowered from above, and immediately a man descended to the ground. In another second he gave a shout, and before we realised what was taking place, he was swiftly hauled up again through the gaping roof. We waited for others to descend, but no others came. Presently, we heard a wild shout of exultation, and the sounds of many feet hurrying over the roof. Then all was quiet.
"What is it that has happened?" I asked the sheik, when I could find my tongue.
"Allah alone knows," said he. "It may be that the Shammar came to avenge their three friends whom the seer caused to perish by fire. They are satisfied, and have gone. But, come, there is light enough now, let us see if the unfortunate man is truly dead."
Over the pile of fallen masonry, in the fast growing light, we clambered to the spot where Raspul lay. There we found his body, with the life crushed out of it by great heaps of stone and brickwork. Close by stood the goddess, beautifully sculptured in white stone, but broken and chipped by the avalanche that had recently descended on it. Faris looked at the figure with a certain amount of reverence, then sat on some stones in silence--a silence which I, for my part, felt no inclination to break. I had passed through enough in the last few hours to desire nothing but quiet, so, sinking on to the ground, I endeavoured to collect my thoughts.
After a while, the sheik suddenly turned to me, and looked steadily into my face.
"You are a great magician," he said, "to have caused all this to happen.
I told you once that your magic could not prevail against that of Raspul. I spoke foolishly, for he lies dead before you."
"Sheik," I replied, vehemently, "I have denied to you that I am a magician. I swear it before my God, before Allah, and before the gods of the heathen. I have had no hand in these terrible events. I possess no power to work good or ill; and I beseech you to believe my words."
"Then I will believe you," he replied, holding out his hand and grasping mine; "for, under such circumstances as these, I doubt if any living man would dare to speak otherwise than truly. But what is done is done, and we cannot alter it. It was Raspul's fate to die thus, and from what we heard him say, he knew that he was to die soon. His spirit has doubtless gone whither he wished it to go, but he cannot have taken the Golden Serpents with him. That will be your reward for all that you have passed through."
It seemed to me that there would be something of sacrilege in taking the belt from the hands of the dead seer, lying at the feet of the image of his goddess. I did not like the idea of it--in fact my heart failed me.
I argued with myself on the folly of neglecting the opportunity now that it had come; but the longer I reflected the less inclined did I feel to have anything to do with the mysterious girdle. I brought to mind all that the sheik had told me of its strange history, and I remembered that so long as it remained wound round with silk it was harmless. Here with my own eyes I had seen a dire calamity follow the unwinding of the silk wrappings, and the exposure of the shining metal. Superstition had seized hold of me, and I dreaded to touch the thing. I confessed my misgivings to Faris, and I saw him smile.
"You are a Christian," he said, "yet you fear the wrath of the gods of the heathen! I myself will take the serpent belt, and if evil befalls me then I shall count it my fate. I do not want the belt, nor the money that it is worth, but if I can but obtain the shoe of Shahzadi, as a reward for sending it to the big house of which you spoke, then shall I go down to my grave in happiness."
He stepped across to the pile of rubbish under which Raspul was almost buried, and I felt impelled to follow. We looked on the ground among the debris, but could not see the object of our search. Removing the stones and bricks from the body of the seer, we placed it gently on a bench in one of the alcoves. The belt was not in his hand, as we imagined that it would have been; neither could we discover it anywhere near the spot where he had fallen. I became as excited as did the sheik, and together we removed the stones, and hunted everywhere for the lost treasure. At last we desisted, and looked at one another in bewilderment.
The Golden Girdle had disappeared.
CHAPTER X.
A DASH FOR FREEDOM.
"Possibly," I suggested, "the unfortunate seer flung the belt into the cauldron as he fell, and it was melted."
"No," said the sheik, "that he did not do. I saw the serpents glittering in his hand when he was on the ground. Besides, look, there is no melted gold in the cauldron."
That was certainly true; for, though the great iron vessel had been overturned, there was no sign of gold upon it, or anywhere on the ground about it.
Suddenly leaping to his feet, Faris swore a fearful oath.
"Fools that we have been!" he almost shrieked in his rage. "Fools, ten thousand times fools! That Shammar devil with the rope came to steal it, and he carried it off. I see it all now; and we let him escape! To think that I, Faris-ibn-Feyzul, should have been outwitted thus by my enemies!
I swear by yonder corpse," he continued, solemnly extending his hands, "that I will avenge the death of Raspul; that, so long as my life continues, I will war against the Shammar scoundrels who have done this thing. I will pursue them to the uttermost ends of the earth, though it may cost me my own life, and though it may cost my tribe the lives of all the fighting men. I have sworn it, and may the curse of the Golden Serpents, which is the curse of Sophana, the Great Queen, again harry the Shammar, as it did of yore."
The man's wrath was terrible to witness. I did my best to calm him; for, in reality, the disappearance of the girdle was rather a relief to me than otherwise; and, after a while, he became more reasonable, and suggested that I must be hungry. Under the circumstances it was a somewhat prosaic suggestion; but it was certainly a fortunate one, in that it recalled both of us to our senses. More dried dates furnished us with a meal; and, to our joy, we found, standing in a corner of the temple, some pots of water, of which we drank greedily. To sleep, or even rest, was out of the question, for neither of us wished to remain longer than necessary on the spot. How to get out of it was our next thought, and we simultaneously decided that our only possible way of escape would be by the hole in the roof. The idea of again attempting to enter the maze of tunnelled passages we never for a moment entertained; and we at once set about to discover a means by which we might reach the opening above us. The height of the centre of the dome was at least fifteen feet from the ground. We searched for a ladder, but could find none; we sought in vain for wood and cords out of which we might improvise one; and after each fruitless search I became more and more dejected. Things had been bad enough before; but now I saw before me a lengthy incarceration in this temple prison, if not even death by starvation. Yet, the sheik's courage never left him. He was impatient, certainly, at not being able to pursue his enemies forthwith; but he did not appear to think for a moment that there was any great difficulty in our way to freedom.
"Well," I asked at last, "what do you propose that we shall do?"
"Build a tower," replied Faris, laughing, "like that of the Birs Nimroud, until we reach the outer world. Then for our poor little horses; a long gallop home to our tents; and, before many days, with spear and sword against the Shammar."
I caught the sheik's enthusiasm when I realised that his plan was feasible; and we both set to work with a will to collect and arrange carefully the blocks of stone and brickwork that lay scattered about.
The goddess, we found, was firmly fixed in the ground, so around the figure we formed the foundation of our tower, and before long we had built up to the level of her head and had completely concealed her. Each of us in turn, like children, climbed to the top of the loose pile to see how high we were from the ground, and then continued to add stone after stone to the fast-growing heap. Occasionally we were delayed by a sudden collapse at the bottom; but we built up again rapidly, and at length came the time when, standing upright, I was able to place my fingers on the edge of the broken roof. It was a glorious moment, and I could almost sniff the desert air outside. The thought of being once more free sent a thrill through me, and I remembered a certain gymnastic feat at which I had excelled when at school. It occurred to me that I was confronted with the identical thing, the only difference being that in place of having to pull myself up over the edge of, and on to, a smooth wooden platform, I now had before me a rough, jagged edge of brickwork. It was worth the attempt, and I tried it.
Firmly, with both hands, I gripped the edge, and slowly I let my weight hang on my hands, when, horror of horrors, an immense portion of roof broke off, and fell with a crash to the ground. At the same moment I lost my balance, and though, fortunately, I kept my feet, my descent was so unpremeditated that I brought down half our loosely-built structure on my heels. Faris, standing at a little distance, could not make up his mind whether to laugh or be angry. Of one thing, however, both of us now became aware: it was improbable that the roof of the dome would support our weight, so loosened had the materials composing it become by the rough treatment it had received at the hands of the Shammar. Still, there remained the fact that we had heard people walking about on it with impunity, and this gave us hope; moreover, I had brought down such a huge sheet of the roof, that it was now broken away in one part almost to the wall that supported it. We soon made up our minds, therefore, that our tower would have to be built over again, and closer in to the side wall, so that, by breaking down another piece of the dome, we should be able to climb out over the actual top of the wall. How we laboured at the new tower! Hours passed before it had attained the required height; but, at last we were able to again reach the edge of the roof, when, with the greatest care, we pulled down the foot or two that remained between it and the wall top. Then we added to the height of our pile, until the happy moment came when the sheik, climbing slowly upwards, was able to rest his elbows on the wall, and haul himself up. I quickly followed; and there we two lay panting, and looking down with joyous eyes on the surrounding ruins and the boundless desert in the distance.
If I had had my way, I should have remained there for hours, and rested; but Faris was on his feet in a few minutes, and urged me to hurry after him, so that we might get to our horses, and start on our journey. When I come to think of it now, after a lapse of many months, I am astonished at the absurd confidence that we had, that we should find our horses where we had left them. I myself never gave the matter a thought; and if the sheik had any misgivings, he did not disclose them. As can be imagined, therefore, when we reached the spot where the hobbled horses had been left, and found that they had disappeared, our hearts sank. The sheik examined the ground in all directions, and soon broke it to me that the Shammar had carried off our horses; he was able to trace their footprints among those of the Shammar horses; and they had added insult to injury by breaking his spear in pieces and taking away the blade.
"I ought to have known that it would have been so," he said, almost in despair. "The Shammar dogs have again made fools of us."
"Never mind," I said, trying to treat the matter lightly; "we must walk."
"Walk!" he replied, derisively. "How think you we shall walk through that waterless waste, when even to ride through it is courting death?"
"Perhaps," I suggested, "Sedjur, finding us gone so long, will come to meet us."
"He may do so," said the sheik hopefully "In any case, we may as well die in the desert, as among these infernal ruins. So, come, let us walk."
I never in my life felt less inclined to start on a long tramp; and the knowledge that we had no water and nothing to carry it in, and no better food than a few dried dates, did not add to my spirits. However, I pulled myself together, and stepped out behind Faris, whose swinging pace was terrific. Towards sundown we approached the marsh through which we had ridden two days before, and to our astonishment saw, on the far side, a thin curl of smoke rising upwards.