Hitherto all have respected this boundary, and no one has
dared to cross it; may the good spirits pardon the young man for
venturing to do so now! He is in the garden of the harem. It is
certainly dangerous to enter it, and, if the eunuchs should discover
him there, they would seize him. But, fortunately, he is the
tschorbadji's son, and that will protect him. He is on his father's
property. He walks onward, no longer painfully; he no longer feels
that his breast hurts him; he is only thinking of his friend; he can
perhaps discover something for him, perhaps something for him. He
now stands still and listens. In the distance he hears the reports
of the pistol.
"Ah, Mohammed is warned! He has been aroused from his sweet repose,
and will come to me."
But he must know what all this disturbance and running about means.
Osman has approached close to the harem, and stands at the iron gate
that opens into the court-yard. He stands there for a moment and
listens, and then crosses the court-yard and looks toward the door
in the wall that opens into the street. All is still in the house,
as in the yard; but now he hears a noise at the door that opens into
the vestibule of the building. It is opened, and two dark figures
appear, and descend the steps into the yard. They are carrying
something; it looks like a cot; it is a cot covered with white
sheets, but it is empty.
Pages:
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319