Sinbad and The Eye of the Tiger Read Online Free PDF Page A

He looked around warily. “How did you . . .?”
    She came to his side and touched his arm. “Praise to Allah that I found you! I must talk to you—”
    Sinbad looked back at the tumbled pyramid of logs. He thought he saw a stirring in the logs. “Not here . . . not now . . .” he said, pointing with his bloodied blade at the fallen timber.
    He gasped as he saw a hooded figure at the land end of the quay, emerging from the darkness. There was a feeling of incredible malevolence about the hooded shape. No stranger to fear, yet a man who preferred to fight what he knew, Sinbad muttered to Farah, “And no going back that way!” He swept her into his arms and she cried out in surprise. “Come with me!” he said and leaped from the quay.
    Farah cried out but her voice was stifled by the water as they hit with a great splash. Sinbad started swimming at once, tugging the girl after him, but she started to swim herself and they splashed through the moonlit waters toward the small boat, which had stopped moving away and was waiting for them.
    On the quay the figure of the hooded witch stopped moving, and from under the hood there flashed the flickering of twin fires.
    Aboo-seer, Hassan, and Maroof helped Sinbad and Princess Farah aboard. The other sailors began rowing at once, their mood caught from the fiery atmosphere of Hassan and Aboo-seer. Farah was breathless and frightened, her thin silken clothes hanging in drenched rags and her long dark hair plastered against her head and shoulders. Her yashmak was gone, but she made no effort to veil her face again.
    “What—by all the devils in Hell —were those creatures?” Hassan grumbled.
    Aboo-seer blew out his cheeks in an explosive gesture. “Spirits of Evil!” he spat. “Hope you never find out!”
    Maroof peered back at the shore, his dark face unreadable in the night. “Ghouls conjured by a witch!”
    Sinbad peered back through the deepening midnight gloom at the quay. The moon had gone behind a cloud and the shore was dark, with only flickerings of fire from the burning tent. The tent city, so recently filled with music and laughter, was dark and quiet.
    “We will make for the open sea as soon as we are aboard,” he said grimly.
    “But the shoals?” Hassan said, always aware of the dangers of low tides.
    “We shall risk them,” Sinbad said with a hard voice. He looked up. The clouds were moving across the face of the moon and would soon be past. “The moon will show us the channel.”
    Aboo-seer grunted. “Better shoals than ghouls that pick up fire in their bare hands!” A shiver of superstitious fear trembled his brawny shoulders and he glared from under his heavy brows at the receding shoreline. Another shiver twitched his muscles. There was movement at the end of the quay. A stray beam of moonlight revealed a hooded figure, standing quietly, looking out at them.
    On the mossy stones of the jetty the hooded figure of the mysterious woman stood with a kind of tense stillness. Again, it might have been a curious reflection of the growing moonlight, or something else unknown, but her eyes blazed with hate and anger, fiery almonds of light within the shadows of the hood.

CHAPTER 3
    S inbad’s crew helped them aboard, eager to know what had happened, but Sinbad gave them only the most cursory of explanations. Then his voice thundered across the deck. “Hoist the mainsail! Raise the anchor!” The men set swiftly to work as Aboo-seer repeated the order.
    “Hoist the mainsail! Look alive!”
    Sinbad took the Princess Farah’s arm. “I’ll see to the Princess,” he said and led her below. He paused as she descended the steps to the cabins. He looked back, and the dark figure was still at the end of the quay.
    On the moonlit waters of the bay Sinbad’s ship turned into the wind and moved gracefully and almost silently toward the entrance to the harbor.
    The ship swayed and bobbed, causing some of the cargo in the hold to shift. Timbers creaked and the