The eagle and
the lion thus ensnared sought to release themselves, but only
ensnared themselves the more, while the cunning cheetah, versed
in the knowledge of the hunter's net, crept out from beneath the
meshes as his master raised them slightly, and with bleeding head
crawled to him for praise and relief.
Then the girl, flushed with delight at this double capture,
galloped to the spot, and in that instant she recognized in the
successful hunter her cousin the exile.
"Well snared, my Odhainat," she said, as, the first exclamation
of surprise over, she stood beside the brown-faced and sturdy
young hunter. "The Palmyrean leopard hath bravely trapped both
the Roman eagle and the Persian lion. See, is it not an omen from
the gods? Face valor with valor and craft with craft, O Odhainat!
Have you forgotten the vow in your father's palace full three
years ago?"
Forgotten it? Not he. And then he told Bath Zabbai how in all his
wanderings he had kept their vow in mind, and with that, too, her
other words of counsel, "Watch and Wait." He told her that, far
and wide, he was known to all the Arabs of the desert and the
Armenians of the hills, and how, from sheikh to camel-boy, the
tribes were ready to join with Palmyra against both Rome and
Persia.
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