o discriminate with exactness; they are seldom heard in the
vocal and instrumental music of people who have not made a regular
study of the art. But as his ear became more habituated to the style,
the more it delighted him. He had seen the rapture on Abdul's face and
had heard the exclamations of "God approve thee!" "God preserve thee!"
from the _Omdeh_, many times before the knowledge came to him. He knew
that it was his own ignorance, and not the musicians' lack of skill,
which was to blame. Until now he had only been familiar with the music
of the Nile boatmen and the popular music of the people.

It was delicious, or so Abdul thought, to sit with his master and the
_Omdeh_ in the cool garden, under the shade of a fantastic arbour,
darkened by the leaves of oleanders and other semi-tropical trees, and
there listen to the songs of famous Arab singers, or to the music of
the _'ood_, or the _nay_, a picturesque native flute, made out of a
reed about half a yard in length, pierced with holes.

Sometimes story-tellers would arrive. One would begin his romance
early in the evening and it would not be nearly finished by bed-time,
which came late in the hot summer nights. The reciting of it was
broken by pleasant intervals for discussions, or for the sipping of
sweet syrups and cool native drinks. The romance always left off at a
thrilling point; sometimes it took three evenings to finish it.

Abdul lived in a condition of satisfaction only to be expressed by a
Moslem mind. As for Michael, he had never imagined that he could feel
himself so much at home and so closely in sympathy with purely native
life. He began it at the point in his convalescence when nothing
mattered; the path of least resistance was the only one which he could
take. He continued in it when he no longer desired to resist.

He had received no word from the Valley or from the outer world. He
felt that he was cut off and abandoned. Millicent had no doubt taken
pains to let Margaret know that she had been with him in the desert,
and what could he expect but that Freddy would be justly indignant?

But he was getting better every day. He had had no return of the fever
for some time. Whenever he felt fit to travel, he would go to the
Valley and see if he could discover anything of Freddy's whereabouts.
Of course, he could not stay there during the hot weather, but the
guards in charge of the excavation-site might be able to tell him where
he w