n the darkness as he drew shut the door
and returned to the bound figure by the guarding black.

For a moment he stood silent, considering, while Yussuf looked up
with glistening-eyed intentness like an eager dog ready for the word
of attack.

Then in hasty Turkish the general gave his directions and the black
nodded and strode to a portiere, jerking it down, which he wrapped
about Ryder's helpless form.

Then he hoisted his burden over his huge shoulder and bore it on
after the general.

Across the great room they went and down the long stairs up which
that day a most complacent Hamdi Bey had escorted his just-glimpsed
bride.

Now at the bottom of the stairs a shadowy figure of a sleeping
eunuch was stretched.

Hamdi Bey spoke sharply, giving a quick order. The black scrambled
to his feet, yawned, nodded, and strode away into the main vestibule
and out into the garden to investigate a shadow which the general
had just reported, and when he was out of sight the general and
Yussuf, with his unwieldy burden, came quietly down the stairs and
turned back into a long, dark hall.

For a moment they paused outside a wide, many-columned banqueting
room, and there Hamdi Bey stood listening, straining attentive ears
for the faint sounds from the service quarters on the other side of
the room. He caught the guttural of a half inaudible voice, and the
wash of water and clink of a dish, showing that the belated work of
the reception was going draggingly on, but it was all far away and
invisible.

Satisfied he went on a few steps to a pointed door set in the heavy
stone. From a nail he took down a lantern of heavy, fretted brass
and lighted it, not without some difficulty, for his hands were
still trembling. Then he took from the black a cumbersome key which
he fitted into the lock and turned heavily.

Drawing back the door he motioned Yussuf ahead, and followed,
drawing the door shut. Down a steep, stone spiral stair they went,
and at the bottom, at the general's order, the black set Ryder down
from his shoulder and flung aside the portiere.

From its muffling folds Ryder looked out bewilderedly into the
darkness about him, illumined only by the yellow flare of the
ancient lantern. The general cautioned him to silence while Yussuf
knelt and untied the strip that bound his feet, then, his arms still
bound, he was ordered to march on before them.

This, he said to himself, as he silently obeyed that order, this
really