Tell
me, Frank, how many men hast thou?"
"Three-and-twenty, is it not so?"
"Yea, it is so. Tell me, Bara Miyan, this whole pyramid--"
"Skulls, yea."
"This is the Pyramid of Ayeshah that I have heard strange tales of?"
the Master demanded, feeling even his hard nerves quiver.
"The Pyramid of Ayeshah."
"No myth, then, but reality," the Master commented, fascinated in
spite of himself. "Even as the famous Tower of Skulls at Jerba, in
Tunis!"
"Thou hast said it, O Frank. Here be more than ten-score thousand
skulls of the enemies of Islam, of blasphemers against the Prophet, of
those who have penetrated the Empty Abodes, of those who have sought
to carry gold from El Barr. It is nearly done, this pyramid. But there
still remain three-and-twenty vacant places to be filled."
For a long minute, the eyes of the Master and of Bara Miyan met, in
silence, with the torch-flare glinting strange lights from them. Then
the Olema spoke.
"Hast thou seen enough?" demanded he.
"Mine eyes are filled."
"And dost thou still ask rewards of gold?"
"Nay, it is as I have already told thee; let the cut jewels of the
Caliph el Walid suffice!"
"It is well spoken.
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