arth."

"That is a long way, my friend."

"Yes, a long way, when one doesn't know which way to go."

"Ah, that is even longer. There are but two things which will take a man
like you so far as that--vengeance, or a woman."

Renwick smiled.

"I see that you are wise as well as clever. I go for both, Selim."

"A woman? Young?"

"Yes."

"Beautiful?"

"Yes."

"And the vengeance----"

"That shall be beautiful also."

Selim smoked his pipe solemnly and as Renwick hesitated,

"Will it please you to tell me more?" he asked.

Renwick deliberated.

"Yes. I am groping in the dark. And the darkness begins at Sarajevo. She
left there in the night--with _him_."

"Ah, a man! Of course."

"They fled by the Visegrader Gate and they came upon this road, past
this very house."

Selim shrugged.

"At night! It is a pity. I might have seen them but I sleep soundly."

"There are no other houses for a long distance in either direction. They
might have stopped here."

"But they did not!" And as Renwick gave up despairingly, "You see, I
worked very hard all last week and slept like a dead man."

"It was not last week," said Renwick gloomily, "almost two months
ago----"

"Ah, as to that----" and Selim shrugged again. "One has no recollection
of things that happened before the Hegira."

Of course it was hopeless. Renwick had only unraveled the thread to see
how far it would lead. Here it broke off, and so he relinquished it.
Rather wearily he sank back into his chair and gazed out of the window
into the sunset.

Selim's wife entered with a tray to take away the dishes. She wore no
_yashmak_, for Selim, though professing the Moslem faith, was somewhat
lax in carrying out its articles. He did not believe in running a good
thing into the ground, he said. So Zaidee came and went as she chose.

"I have been listening from the kitchen," she said with a smile. "It is
always a woman that makes the trouble, _nicht wahr_?"

"Then how can Paradise be Paradise?" grunted Selim.

"Thou wouldst get on poorly without us, just the same," said Zaidee
demurely.

"But I should not go to the ends of the earth, like Stefan, here."

"Thou! Thou dost not know the meaning of love. I wish I could help him."

"It is impossible," sneered Selim.

"But it is interesting," sighed Zaidee. "She went away with another
man--that is cruel!"

"Perhaps Stefan is better off than he knows," said Selim.

"Selim," said Zaidee with great solem