The King's Talisman — page 130: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE KINGS TALISMAN. 121 where they stood was moved noiselessly aside, and the king peeped cautiously forth. The slaves’ backs were both to- ward him, and with a bolder step Modad stepped forth from the arras and stood for a moment in their rear. He knew that he had not been seen, and lifting the drapery up he beckoned to some one behind it, and a stout trumpeter stepped forth and stood beside the king. As yet the mutes had not stirred, and at a sign from Modad the musician placed the trumpet to his mouth, and turning its muzzle full upon the ear of the suspected mute, he blew a_ blast that made the very walls of*the apartment tremble. ‘he sound died away, but not a muscle moved in the coun- tenance of the poor slave. The same marble stiffness re- mained, and the same stoicism dwelt upon his face. The trumpeter stepped back from whence he came, and the king moved out into the apartment; but though the strange ex- periment might have satisfied the most skeptical mind, yet the suspicion which had seized upon the king was not easily to be removed. Fear gives wings to the wildest of fancies, but in the breast of Modad not only the fears had good foundations, but even his fancies were not without substance. Encompassed as he was by dangers which hecould not see, and met at every turn by obstacles which he dreamed not of, while his most important secrets took wings and flew from him, it is no wonder that the slightest shadow should darken upon his soul—it is no wonder that mere feathers floating upon the sea of circumstance should appear to his distorted imagination like giants of portentous evil. Soon after the king had turned from watching the coun- tenance of his slave, the centurion for whom he had sent entered his presence. «© Ah, good Nabal,” Modad exclaimed, his mind turning instantly back to its subject of absorbing interest, “‘ you are in good season. Dost know where dwell the two censors, Moran and Velorus?’” Eomicbooks:.¢o 3