you it was all an accident," he retorted irritably. "There's
nothing more to it.... Hello, our horseman is coming this way
again!"

Grateful for the interruption to this ticklish excursion into his
sacred emotions, he jumped to his feet and went out to meet the man
who was riding slowly toward them, the two others in his train.
Burroughs went with him, and a brief parley followed.

"He says," Burroughs translated, "that these are his camels and he
is going to take them away. He says you stole them from him at
Assiout."

"That's right," Billy confirmed easily. "He can have 'em," and
Burroughs, vouchsafing no comment on this curious development, gave
the message to the Nubian. Then he turned again to Billy. "He wants:
the money for their hire."

"For their----! Of all the dad-blasted, iron-clad cheek! You just
tell him for me that he'll get his 'hire' all right if he hangs
around me. Tell him I'll have him arrested for molesting and robbing
travelers; and tell him to tell his master that if he shows his head
near an English girl again I'll have him hanged as high as
Haman--and shot to pieces while he swings! The infernal
scoundrel----"

Whatever work Burroughs made of this translation it sent the sullen,
inscrutable-looking fellow off in silence, his followers leading the
recovered camels.

"And may that be the last of them," said Billy B. Hill, in fervent
thanksgiving. "Except Kerissen. I've got to meet him again--just
once."

* * * * *

Perhaps it was the hairpins. Perhaps it was the bathed face and the
sleep-brightened eyes and the rearranged gown. But certainly
Burroughs stared in amazement at the slim little figure that issued
from the entrance, and a queer, a very queer confusion seized upon
him. Not even outrageous sunburn and pathetic blisters could hide
Arlee's young loveliness. They only added an utterly upsetting
tenderness to the beholder, and a most dangerous compassion.

And just as each man is smitten with madness after the manner of his
kind, so Burroughs, the taciturn, was struck into amazing
volubility. As they sat about a cracker box of a table at an early
supper, he became a perfect fount of information, pouring out to
this girl an account of his diggings that would have astounded any
of his intimates, and would surely have amazed Billy B. Hill if that
young man had been in a condition to notice his friend's
performances. But he was wrapped in a personal glo