. I can hardly ask you to make the sacrifice which I
would cheerfully endure; and therefore it seems to me that we have only
one course--to march under the forks.'

'With submission,' said Baroni, 'I cannot agree with any of your
lordship's propositions. You take an extreme view of our case. Extreme
views are never just; something always turns up which disturbs
the calculations formed upon their decided data. This something is
circumstance. Circumstance has decided every crisis which I have
experienced, and not the primitive facts on which we have consulted.
Rest assured that circumstance will clear us now.'

'I see no room, in our situation, for the accidents on which you rely,'
said Tancred. 'Circumstance, as you call it, is the creature of cities,
where the action of a multitude, influenced by different motives,
produces innumerable and ever-changing combinations; but we are in the
desert. The great Sheikh will never change his mind any more than his
habits of life, which are the same as his ancestors pursued thousands of
years ago; and, for an identical reason, he is isolated and superior to
all influences.'

'Something always turns up,' said Baroni.

'It seems to me that we are in a _cul-de-sac_,' said Tancred.

'There is always an outlet; one can escape from a _cul-de-sac_ by a
window.'

'Do you think it would be advisable to consult the master of this tent?'
said Tancred, in a lower tone. 'He is very friendly.'

'The Emir Fakredeen,' said Baroni.

'Is that his name?'

'So I learnt last night. He is a prince of the house of Shehaab; a great
house, but fallen.'

'He is a Christian,' said Tancred, earnestly.

'Is he?' said Baroni carelessly; 'I have known a good many Shehaabs, and
if you will tell me their company, I will tell you their creed.'

'He might give us some advice.'

'No doubt of it, my lord; if advice could break our chains, we should
soon be free; but in these countries my only confidant is my camel.
Assuming that this affair is to end in a ransom, what we want now is to
change the impressions of the great Sheikh respecting your wealth. This
can only be done from the same spot where the original ideas emanated.
I must induce him to permit me to accompany his messenger to Besso. This
mission will take time, and he who gains time gains everything, as M.
de Sidonia said to me when the savages were going to burn us alive, and
there came on a thunder-storm which extinguished their fagots.'