but you shall not.
You know that rest is his one chance, and you'd take it away. I won't
have it so. He stays here, and I stay with him."

"Stay and be damned," Stanton bawled.

The men sitting by the distant fire heard the angry roar, and some
jumped to their feet, expecting an alarm.

"Stay and be damned, and may the vultures pick the flesh off your
lover's bones, while the sheikh takes you to his harem. He's welcome to
you," Stanton finished.

Before the words were out Max leaped at the Chief's throat. All the
advantage of youth was his, against the other's bulk; but as he sprang
Ahmara bounded on him from behind, winding her arms around his body and
throwing on him all her weight. It made him stagger, and, snatching up
the heavy campstool on which he had been sitting, Stanton struck Max
with it on the head. Weakened already by the anguish in the torn nerves
of his hand (most painful centre for a wound in all the body), Max fell
like a log, and lay unconscious while Ahmara wriggled herself free.

"He asked for that, and now he's got it," said Stanton, panting. "Serve
him right, and nobody will blame me if he's dead. But he isn't, no fear!
Fellows like him belong to the leopard tribe, and have as many lives as
a cat. Good girl, Ahmara, many thanks."

And without another glance toward Max, beside whom Sanda was on her
knees, Stanton threw the campstool into the tent and yelled to the men
by the fire. He called the names of two who were his special servants,
but most of the band followed, knowing from the roar of rage and the one
sharp cry in a woman's voice that something important had happened.

Stanton was glad when he saw the dark crowd troop toward him, though in
his first flush of excitement he had not thought to summon every one.

"Come on, all of you!" he shouted. "Now halt! You see the man lying
there--at my feet, where he belongs. He was my trusted lieutenant, but
he took too much upon himself. I knocked him down for insubordination.
He doesn't go farther with the caravan. And we start in five hours. Zaid
and Mahmoud, put this carrion out of my sight. I've shown you all what
happens when black or white men disobey my orders."

No one came forward. From her knees beside Max Sanda rose up slim and
straight and stood facing the Arabs and negroes.

"Men," she cried to them, "I've done my best for you. I've defended you,
when I could, from injustice. When you have been sick with fevers or
with wounds I