Ruark still pleaded with her, and she said in fair gentleness, ’Speak not of it now in the freshness of my grief!  Other times and seasons are there.  My soul is but newly widowed!’

Fierce was the eye of the Chief, and he sprang up, crying, ’By the life of my head, I know thy wiles and the reading of these delays:  but I’ll never leave thee, nor lose sight of thee, Bhanavar!  And think not to fly from me, thou subtle, brilliant Serpent! for thy track is my track, and thy condition my condition, and thy fate my fate.  By Allah! this is so.’

Then he strode from her swiftly, and called to his Arabs.  They had kindled a fire to roast the flesh of a buffalo, slaughtered by them from among a herd, and were laughing and singing beside the flames of the fire.  So by the direction of their Chief the Arabs brought slices of sweet buffalo-flesh to Bhanavar, with cakes of grain:  and Bhanavar ate alone, and drank from the waters before her.  Then they laid for her a couch within the cave, and the aching of her spirit was lulled, and she slept there a dreamless sleep till morning.

By the morning light Bhanavar looked abroad for the Chief, and he was nowhere by.  A pang of violent hope struck through her, and she pressed her bosom, praying he might have left her, and climbed the clefts and ledges of the mountain to search over the fair expanse of pasture beyond, for a trace of him departing.  The sun was on the heads of the heavy flowers, and a flood of gold down the gorges, and a delicate rose hue on the distant peaks and upper dells of snow, which were as a crown to the scene she surveyed; but no sight of Ruark had she.  And now she was beginning to rejoice, but on a sudden her eye caught far to east a glimpse of something in motion across an even slope of the lower hills leaning to the valley; and it was a herd that rushed forward, like a black torrent of the mountains flinging foam this way and that, and after the herd and at the sides of the herd she distinguished the white cloaks and scarfs and glittering steel of the Arabs of Ruark.  Presently she saw a horseman break from the rest, and race in a line toward her.  She knew this one for Ruark, and sighed and descended slowly to meet him.  The greeting of the Chief was sharp, his manner wild, and he said little ere he said, ’I will see thee under the light of the Jewel, so tie it in a band and set it on thy brow, Bhanavar!’

Her mouth was open to intercede with his desire, but his forehead became black as night, and he shouted in the thunder of his lion-voice, ’Do this!’

She took the Jewel from its warm bed in her bosom, and held it, and got together a band of green weeds, and set it in the middle of the band, and tied the band on her brow, and lifted her countenance to the Chief.  Ruark stood back from her and gazed on her; and he would have veiled his sight from her, but his hand fell.  Then the might of her loveliness seized Bhanavar likewise, and the full orbs of her eyes glowed on the Chief as on a mirror, and she moved her serpent figure scornfully, and smiled, saying, ’Is it well?’