Slaves of Sleep Page 10

  Zongri was the first to give up. "Your thieving guards have stolen it!"

  "Sir, they are my personal, household troops. Not one man of them would stop at laying down his life for me. Besides," she added, "my officers here have been watching them like hawks and I have been watching the officers. There were not so many."

  "I demand that you search them all!" screamed Zongri.

  "It shall be done," said Ramus. "Major, tell off three officers to do the searching. The seal is too big to hide."

  The searching was quickly done by the process of patting the capes of all Marids without result.

  "And now the officers!" yelled Zongri.

  "Even that insult I shall permit," said Ramus, "though I beg their forgiveness at such an affront. Major, search them."

  The major, by the same process, did so and when he had finished, still without result, the voracious Zongri bellowed, "And now search the major!"

  That officer disdainfully stepped up to Zongri and let him足self be mauled, though his face had an expression as though he smelled something very bad.

  "Are you satisfied?" said Ramus, troubled into mildness.

  Zongri stared all about him, bewildered and growing angry to the point of insanity. Everyone in the room had been searched and the floor had practically been torn up and yet- With a sud足den growl, Zongri leaped at Jan.

  "You, you sniveling wretch!" cried Zongri. "You, the cause of all this! What have you done with that ring?"

  Two officers started to intervene but Tiger swept them back by throwing out his arms. "Search!"

  Zongri would have ripped the clothes from him shred by shred but the executioner was thoughtfully swinging his blade back and forth from the hilt and the glint of it slowed Zongri down. He searched Jan by the patting process employed before, but used now with such force that it almost broke Jan's ribs.

  "This," said Tiger, "in payment for saving the ingrate from being lion beef. Search and be damned!"

  Zongri ran out of pockets and patience at the same time and dealt Jan such a blow that he sent him skidding a full thirty feet across the glittering floor.

  "Boor!" cried Ramus. "Haven't you done enough already?"

  "It's a pretty show!" cried Tiger as Jan scrambled up. "I never saw a man work so hard to cover up a thing."

  "What?" said Ramus on high.

  "Why, 'tis plain as your horns, Your Royal Highness. The fellow dropped it into that well he calls a mouth and gulped it down like pastry. Wasn't I within an inch of him when he did it?"

  "What's this?" cried Ramus. "What's this? What's this?"

  "You lying fiend!" yelled Zongri, making ready to leap at Jan anew. "You filthy-tongued..."

  "Stop him!" ordered Ramus. "Ah, so that's the way it is, put足ting my most trusted troops to abuse to pull a shabby trick. You'll learn my might yet, you snake-tailed donkey! Guards, put those irons on him, I say, and throw him into the darkest dungeon we have to offer until he sees fit to give us back that ring."

  Zongri was swiftly overpowered despite his struggles and the irons rasped back into place.

  "What about me?" said Tiger truculently.

  "You!" roared Zongri. "Plenty about you! I'll hunt you down and rip out your throat if it takes me a thousand years to find you! You, you're doomed! Break your sentence, bah! It can't be done. Who including God can destroy knowledge once given or separate personalities once fused. You, root of all my misery, will meet me in the realm of Shaitan if not upon this land. Take me away!" he cried. "Take me away where I won't have to look at him!"

  The guard was most obliging and Tiger laughed gleefully to see him go. And when Zongri had vanished, Tiger faced the throne once more. "But that, Your Royal Highness, still solves nothing. I, begging your pardon, am a man of action. Do I live or do I die? It's all the same so long as it's definite!"

  Ramus leaned forward and spoke in a troubled voice. "Slave, your problem is not to be solved in a day. For the safety of my people I cannot let you free. For your service unto us I cannot have you killed unless you make it necessary. For the present until your fate can be decided, I must hold you in the tower. Guards, escort the gentleman to his quarters."

  A few minutes later the great metal door swung shut behind him and once more he was alone in the great room. But whereas before, Tiger had always died out instantly after action and Jan had shivered and shrunk from the next event, there was now a difference.

  It had grown dark long ago and someone had lighted an array of tapers in the diamond pendant candelabra. By their flickering lights Jan made a quick but thorough examination of the whole room, scouting all places where observers might be posted. Final足ly he yawned very elaborately, somewhat amazed at his histrionic powers. He pulled off his merchant sailor shirt and stepped out of his pants and then, clad only in his floppy-topped seaboots he stepped over to the candles and snuffed them out one by one, yawning the while.

  At last the room was dark except for the subdued light which rose up from the starry-lighted port. Jan crawled in between the silken sheets of the great bed, boots and all.

  And then, secure, he reached into the floppy top of the right one and pulled forth a thing which weighed at least a pound. Even in the darkness the Seal of Sulayman blazed and crackled.

  tiger?

  When the doze of an. instant faded him from one scene to another, Jan, not yet used to the thing, failed to realize what had happened to him. Strangely enough he had the sleepy sen足sation of one who has spent a night of snoring. And so, without opening his eyes, he contentedly fumbled under his pillow for the blazing Seal.

  It wasn't there.

  In an instant he was on the floor turning his bed covers seven ways at once, making dust and oddments of clothes, books and cockroaches fly as from a bomb explosion. He got down on his knees and frantically fumbled with no more result than losing some skin from his knuckles. Up he leaped and plunged into the bed anew, ripping and rending it until it flapped like a flag on its hinges.

  "What the hell's goin' on?" complained Diver. "You nuts or something?"

  That brought Jan into a realization of his whereabouts. He stopped stock still and then, like a cloud, the odor of disinfectant and unwashed feet and halitosis settled over him. Like a hum of bees the sounds of restless men came into his ears. Like a judg足ment he heard a bell tolling somewhere over the city, calling people to church.

  It was jail and it was Sunday.

  And the mighty Seal of Sulayman was somewhere far away, in another bed, clutched in quite another hand.

  Hopelessly Jan sank down upon the bunk.

  "Geez, I thought you was goin' nuts for a minute," said Diver. "Not that you ain't already," he added with a sniff. "Now pick up that junk and make the place look decent or I'll give you some足thing to think about."

  Jan glowered at his cellmate.

  "G'wan, snap into it," said Diver.

  For a moment more Jan stayed where he was and then a queer thing happened. With sudden alacrity he got up and made a great show of putting the cell in order. He had thrown things so far and so fast that they were now carpeting the place, scant though their number was. And Jan went at it with such a will that Diver was forced to stand up against the bars to get out of the way.

  It was done in an instant and Jan stood back. "How's that?"

  "Huh," said Diver, ambling back to his bunk and sitting down upon it.

  CRASH!

  The astounded pickpocket was jolted through and through as his bunk gave completely away and slammed him down on the floor. He bounced up and gave the iron a resounding kick which instantly brought a yelp of pain out of him. Holding his toe he went hopping around like a heron and swearing like a pirate. Presently he subsided and frowning terribly picked up his few belongings and then, kicking Jan's things out of the one remain足ing bunk, dropped his own upon it and took his seat there. He gave a growl as though daring Jan to do something about the theft but Jan quite cheerfully picked up his own goods from the floor and put th
em on the wrecked bed and then, to Diver's suspicious amazement, reconnected the chain hooks, making the "wreck" quite as good as new.

  "You done that on purpose," snarled Diver.

  "Me?" said Jan innocently. "Why, you took my bunk and that leaves yours, so now yours is mine."

  "Yeah, but this thing here isn't fit for a hog to sleep in!"

  "Then why should you object?" said Jan complacently.

  Diver eyed him doubtfully and seemed about to make a fight for it when breakfast appeared. Diver was much too interested in his stomach to put fighting before eating and so he snatched the tray under the door and put it on the table and, placing his arms guardingly about it, appeared on the verge of devouring it all himself.

  Jan sat watching him for several seconds and Diver began to relax, throwing a scornful grunt in Jan's direction. Diver got his muscles in working order, snapped his teeth a couple times experi足mentally and fell to.

  Jan still watched him. Two eggs vanished and the remaining two were about to follow the example of the first pair when Jan let out a startled exclamation.

  "Look out!"

  "What's wrong?" snarled Diver.

  "Why, good golly, you wouldn't want to eat that, would you?" And he advanced, placing his hand close to the plate to indicate something.

  Diver took his eyes off Jan and looked at the plate and there, squarely between the two eggs was the biggest cockroach he had ever seen! And not only that but only half of him was present.

  Diver clapped one hand over his mouth and the other over his stomach and his snaky eyes got big as dollars.

  "Quick!" said Jan. "I've heard they're poison as arsenic. Guard! Guard!"

  The officer, having distributed the last tray, came speeding back. "What's the matter with you two guys now?"

  "It's Diver!" said Jan urgently. "He's poisoned! Hurry, he may die even before you get him to the infirmary! Don't stand there gawking like an idiot! DO something!"

  Jan swiftly aided Diver to the now open door and the guard led the staggering pickpocket away. Diver still had his hands where he had first put them but now looked as green as a shark's belly. "What's up?" said the counterfeiter urgently.

  Jan yawned and watched Diver out of sight. Then he grinned. "It's something he thought he ate." And so saying he calmly sat down at the tray, chose clean tools and ate the ham and the toast and drank the coffee with very great relish. Tiger purred with contentment and the luxurious feeling which always followed a job well done.

  The feeling of well-being, however, did not last very long. Jan, recalling Alice's present, stripped down and prepared for a shave. All went well until he confronted himself in the glass. With a shock he beheld nobody but Jan Palmer.

  the secret of sleep

  He passed through the veil as one who pushes cobwebs from his face in an old deserted corridor, sleeping hardly at all, so great was his anxiety to discover if his treasure was still there. Though he knew he could never bring it into his land of waking, there were still many things to be done in his other world. And if he understood imperfectly how it was that he found himself a man within a man, he could nevertheless make the best of it.

  He stirred restively upon the great white silk expanse, strange足ly conscious of having been there all the night and of resting very poorly. But he was not greatly concerned and his strong body was not one to demand more than the scantest rest.

  His fingers shot under the pillow and he gripped a weighty circle of metal so hard that if his hands had not been those of a sailor, he could have cut himself severely upon the worn edge and the rough-cut stones.

  Anxiously he stared all about him, making certain that the room was untenanted save for himself. And then, to make sure because he was half afraid it wasn't true, he lifted the cover and eagerly inspected the ring anew.

  The Seal of Sulayman! The crossed triangles and the magic circle about them seemed to vibrate with a mighty power. Solo足mon the Wise, ruler of his world, mightiest monarch of all time! And he had worn this ring upon his hand and had thereby been wise and great and omnipotent. And what if he had destroyed its power for evil over humans? What if Zongri had made it pow足erless in turn against Ifrits? Was it not enough that it still brought all wisdom, that it struck away all locks and that, among other things, would reveal the hiding places of all the treasures of earth?

  And as he gloated over it a rattling at the door struck terror to his heart. The face of Tiger hardened and grew grim and his quick, clear eyes swept about him for a hiding place. But he had no time for that. He could only throw himself out of the bed and drop a white silk robe over him, concealing the seal in his sash.

  It took several seconds to remove the bolts from without and he had dropped back upon the bed and was just in the act of stretching when the door swung inward. Three Marid sentries stepped back and stared fixedly into space and then there came into view a woman who made Jan's every muscle grow taut with wonder.

  She paused on the threshold, looking up at him at his seat on the lofty bed. And, in turn, he looked down, unable to tear his gaze away from her.

  She was robed in the sheerest of golden silk which showed every curve of her voluptuous body. Her only jewels were a girdle and a cap of pearls which lay like a moon against the midnight of her hair. Her eyes were fathomless seas of jet, making the pallor of her lovely, somehow bold face all the more exquisite. She appeared as one sculped in alabaster and given, by some enchantment, the breath of life.

  It seemed to please her that he stared. With a small, amused smile she broke the spell by walking slowly forward with an ease not unlike flowing silk.

  Jan stood up as she mounted the steps and mechanically gave her a hand to help her over the last. She nodded her thanks and gracefully sat upon the edge of the bed, signifying that he too could be seated.

  He wondered wildly who she was and what she had to do with him. And he was not at all insensible to the hypnotic power of her eyes, which jangled with the hotness of the Seal of Sulayman, lying like a coal in his sash.

  "You wonder who I am," she said. He nodded.

  "And why I have come here?" Again he nodded.

  She laughed and indicated the Marids who were now closing and bolting the door again. "Those fools. I wonder that as little happens as there does in this palace. It is so very simple to order them about and pass them by..."

  "But they have orders that I am to speak to no one."

  She laughed musically. "Do they? How funny. And yet I, who have no earthly business here, can walk airily through their ranks and into your presence as if they were so many dolls." The cham足ber awakened at her renewed mirth and the small glasses on the shelf above the bed hummed in gay sympathy. "Ah, now, but I am not mocking you. One would hardly mock Tiger, would they? You wish to know why I came?"

  "Indeed I would, M'Lady."

  "How gruff! And, I might add, handsomely gruff. Mark it all to curiosity, my Tiger. All to that and nothing more-except perhaps a fear that you were very lonely shut up here in this awful place and everyone ordered not to speak to you at all. You were lonely, weren't you?"

  "Why... yes. Why shouldn't I be?" She reached out her hand and took down two crystal goblets and a tall-necked bottle of amber wine. She poured them full and then held them up to the light to give him the one which con足tained the most.

  "To the cheer of company," she toasted. He was very acutely aware of the danger here for she was the first human being he had seen about the palace and he well knew that a human would not be permitted to come here so easily, no matter her beauty. But when he saw that she drank, he politely sipped his answer to her toast. His caution was prompted more by Jan than Tiger for the wine was innocent compared to suddenly remembered beverages which went down with great authority.

  "I am here," she said finally, "with a good reason. Now am I more welcome?"

  "Welcome!" said Tiger abruptly. "If you've ever studied your lovely self in the most indifferent mirror, I wonder that you can still see. And
you talk about being welcome." He clinked his glass against hers and drank it down.

  With great difficulty Jan fought for the upper hand and again the Seal burned horribly against his side.

  "I am here," she said, "to counsel you for I am sure that in all the time you've found yourself in such a strange predicament not one of these thoughtless, witless Jinn have thought to ease your mind about it. Ifrits," she added, "are really very stupid people."

  "I have not found them so," said Jan.

  "No? But you have not talked to them so very much, then. For they truly are stupid. You have no idea!"

  "And what, may I ask, is your counsel?"

  "Anxious to be rid of me? How can that be? But I had heard on great authority that Tiger was a gallant fellow, not to be denied. But, then, I forget, you may be mixed now with some strange personality from outside our crude world and perhaps you have an icicle or two on your ears." She looked and only found the ring holes in the lobes.

  "Ah, a sailor indeed," she cried joyfully. "And what have you done with your gold hoops?"

  "I pawned them," said Tiger suddenly. "Pawned them to buy a dancing girl a veil. I didn't want it but she did. And how was I to know that she belonged by rights to a captain of infantry and that he would enter the hall just as I was presenting it? Ifou have no idea," he laughed, mimicking her.

  "Gold hoops for a dancing girl?" she said, prettily shocked. "How horribly wicked. And now you have neither dancing girl nor rings."

  At the mention of rings, Jan fought to the surface. But the lady had jumped up and was detaching two hoops of gold from her girdle which she instantly spread and fixed in his ears!

  "Now!" she cried. "Now you look like a true sailor."

  "I feel like a very stupid one," said Jan, discovering cunning in his being. "How is it that I am here, shut up in an observatory tower when reason dictates that I should be in the deepest dun足geon or else hanging on the highest gibbet in Tarbuton."