The King's Talisman — page 147: what you’re looking at

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

138 THE KINGS TALISMAN. ‘© Ah, Nabal,” the king exclaimed, ‘‘ you are prompt. Are the censors with you?” “They wait without, sire.” ‘‘T thank thee. Now, centurion, take all thy men, and command more, if you have need, and hasten to the temple of Taurus. Stare not at me in such surprise, for even that heathen pile contains within its bowels a nest of traitors. Bring them all hither—all of whom you may find there, and at the peril of your life, let not one escape. You will find Abdah Nazor, the old mountain dervise; a youth called Noureddin; twelve of my own Egyptian eunuchs, and may- hap a maiden. But what ails thee, Nabal?” ‘‘Nothing, sire,” replied the centurion, who had started at the king’s announcement; ‘‘ only I was surprised at the strangeness of the circumstance that the temple of Taurus should have been opened.” ‘“So you might well be,” returned Modad, not suspecting that the centurion had other cause for his emotions than that which he had named. ‘‘ Now go, Nabal, and see that you fail not in your mission. Remember, your head shall answer for it. As you go out, send the two censors hither, with four of the eunuchs who wait without.” Lhen turning to his two household officers, Ahab and Mizar, he bade them accompany the centurion, and ina few moments more the censors stood before him, The king turned his flashing eyes upon them, but the calm, mild - serenity of their countenances, and the grandeur of the up- right soul which shone forth from their mild, beaming eyes, startled him more than would have the erie: of one like himself. ‘‘ Worthy censors,” he at length said, with a spice of bit- ter irony in his tone, ‘‘ methinks I have caught you playing the Roman. There’s treason in your sacred temple!” ‘“We must wait your majesty’s explanation ere we answer _ to such a charge,” calmly replied Moran. €O EComichbooks