Max alone wondered at the great tent, whose many different
compartments sheltered the Agha, his whole family, and servants brought
from Djazerta. As the caravan wound nearer to watching eyes, another
tent, not so big, but new and brilliant of colour, separated itself from
the vast bulk of the _tente sultane_.

"What is that?" Max asked Manoeel, who rode beside him as interpreter,
his dark-stained face almost covered by the white folds of his woollen
hood, the fire of his young eyes dimmed and aged by a pair of cheap,
silver-rimmed spectacles such as elderly Arabs wear.

"The Agha must have ordered that new tent to be set up for Tahar,"
Manoeel answered gruffly; and Max guessed from the sharpening of his tone
and the brevity of his explanation that this was the desert dwelling
appointed for the bridegroom when he should take his bride.

In the boldness of their plan lay its hope of success; for though Ben
Raana's suspicions were on the alert he would not expect the banished
lover to ride brazenly up to his tent, side by side with a soldier
messenger from Colonel DeLisle. There was an instant of suspense after
the corporal on leave and his Arab interpreter were received by the Agha
in a reception-room whose walls were red woollen draperies; but it was
scarcely longer than a heartbeat. Ben Raana had just come out from
another room beyond, where, the curtains falling apart, several guests
in the high turbans of desert dignitaries could be seen seated on
cushions and waited upon by Soudanese men who were serving a meal.

The Agha scarcely glanced at Max's companion, the dark, spectacled Arab,
but announcing in French that no interpreter would be needed, he clapped
his hands to summon a servant. One of the black men lifted the red
curtains higher and came in, received instructions as to the
interpreter's entertainment, and led him away. Max could hardly keep
back a sigh of relief, for that had been a bad moment. Now it was over,
and with it his personal responsibility in his friend's adventure. It
had been agreed between them that Colonel DeLisle's messenger to Ben
Raana should have no further hand in the plot against the Agha. The rest
was for Manoeel alone, unless at the end help should be necessary (and
possible) for Ourieda's rescue.

Max delivered a letter from DeLisle, and the Agha read it slowly
through. Then he raised his eyes and fixed them upon the Legionnaire as
if wondering how far he might be in his colonel's