第68章

Next second her tall and willowy form was staggering back across the room, as though she had been shot or stabbed, staggering back till at last she struck the cavern wall and then there burst from her lips the most awful and unearthly scream that I ever heard in all my life.

"What is it, Ayesha?" I cried."Is he dead?"_i_ She _i_ turned, and sprang towards me like a tigress."Thou dog!" she said, in her terrible whisper, which sounded like the hiss of a snake, "why didst thou hide this from me?" And she stretched out her arm, and I thought that she was about to slay me.

"What?" I ejaculated, in the most lively terror;"what?"

"Ah!" she said, "perchance thou didst not know.Learn, my Holly, learn: there liesthere lies my lost Kallikrates.Kallikrates, who has come back to me at last, as I knew he would, as I knew he would;" and she began to sob and to laugh, and generally to conduct herself like any other lady who is a little upset, murmuring "Kallikrates, Kallikrates!""Nonsense," thought I to myself, but I did not like to say it; and, indeed, at that moment I was thinking of Leo's life, having forgotten everything else in that terrible anxiety.What I feared now was that he should die while she was "carrying on.""Unless thou art able to help him, Ayesha," I put in, by way of a reminder, "thy Kallikrates will soon be far beyond thy calling.Surely he dieth even now.""True," she said, with a start."Oh, why did I not come before! I am unnervedmy hand trembles, even mineand yet it is very easy.Here, thou Holly, take this phial," and she produced a tiny jar of pottery from the folds of her garment, "and pour the liquid in it down his throat.It will cure him if he be not dead.Swift, now! Swift! The man dies!"I glanced towards him; it was true enough, Leo was in his death-struggle.I saw his poor face turning ashen, and heard the breath begin to rattle in his throat.

The phial was stoppered with a little piece of wood.Idrew it with my teeth, and a drop of the fluid within flew out upon my tongue.It had a sweet flavor, and for a second made my head swim, and a mist gather before my eyes, but happily the effect passed away as swiftly as it had arisen.

When I reached Leo's side he was plainly expiringhis golden head was slowly turning from side to side, and his mouth was slightly open.I called to Ayesha to hold his head, and this she managed to do, though the woman was quivering from head to foot, like an aspen-leaf or a startled horse.Then, forcing the jaw a little more open, I poured the contents of the phial into his mouth.Instantly a little vapor arose from it, as happens when one disturbs nitric acid, and this sight did not increase my hopes, already faint enough, of the efficacy of the treatment.

One thing, however, was certain, the death-throes ceasedat first I thought because he had got beyond them, and crossed the awful river.His face turned to a livid pallor, and his heart-beats, which had been feeble enough before, seemed to die away altogetheronly the eyelid still twitched a little.In my doubt Ilooked up at Ayesha, whose head wrapping had slipped back in her excitement when she went reeling across the room._i_ She _i_ was still holding Leo's head, and, with a face as pale as his own, watching his countenance with such an expression of agonized anxiety as I have never seen before.Clearly she did not know if he would live or die.Five minutes slowly passed, and I saw that she was abandoning hope; her lovely oval face seemed to fall in and grow visibly thinner beneath the pressure of a mental agony whose pencil drew black lines about the hollows of her eyes.