Laughing Bill Hyde and Other Stories by Rex Ellingwood Beach
page 343 of 350 (98%)
page 343 of 350 (98%)
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tongue gave forth no Latin, but repeated o'er and o'er her parting
promise: "There you will find music made flesh and flesh made music." He realized that the foul fiend had him by the throat, and undertook to cast him off; but all the time he knew that when the moon came, bringing with it the cadence of a song, he would go, even though his going led to perdition. And go he did, groveling in his misery. His sandals spurned the rocky path when he heard the voice of Zahra sighing through the branches; then, when he had reached the castle wall, he saw her bending toward him from the balcony above. "I come to you," she whispered; and an instant later her form showed white against the blackness of the low stone door in front of him. There, in the gloom, for one brief instant, her yielding body met his, her hands reached upward and drew his face down to her own; then out from his hungry arms she glided, and with rippling laughter fled into the blackness. "Zahra!" he cried. "Come!" she whispered, and when he hesitated, "Do you fear to follow?" "Zahra!" he repeated; but his voice was strange, and he tore at the cloth that bound his throat, stumbling after her, guided only by her voice. Always she was just beyond his reach; always she eluded him; yet never did he lose the perfume of her presence nor the rustle of her silken |
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