his murderer, the affair would not have interested me," she finished with a scornful little smile.
Four steps, I said, separated me from Antinea. I sprang forward. But, before I reached her, I was struck to the floor.
King Hiram had leapt at my throat.
At the same moment I heard the calm, haughty voice of Antinea:
"Call the men," she commanded.
A second later I was released from the leopard's clutch. The six white Tuareg had surrounded me and were trying to bind me.
I am fairly strong and quick. I was on my feet in a second. One of my enemies lay on the floor, ten feet away, felled by a well-placed blow on the jaw. Another was gasping under my knee. That was the last time I saw Antinea. She stood erect, both hands resting on her ebony scepter, watching the struggle with a smile of contemptuous interest.
Suddenly I gave a loud cry and loosed the hold I had on my victim. A cracking in my left arm: one of the Tuareg had seized it and twisted until my shoulder was dislocated.
When I completely lost consciousness, I was being carried down the corridor by two white phantoms, so bound that I could not move a muscle.
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Footnotes
256:1 Gabrielle d’Annunzio: Les Vierges aux Rochers. Cf. The Revue des Deux Mondes of October 15, 1896; page 867.
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