ness of the proceedings. The book meant money, that was all he
knew; so he slipped it into his loin-cloth as had been his rather
distressing habit when handed a bundle of notes by the bank-clerk who,
with his co-workers, had never tired of gazing at the gigantic creature
in white shorts, crimson tunic, huge turban and rattling scimitar.

He gave no thought to the dead body on the filthy straw; that he knew
he could carry under his arm and drop into the Nile when the bazaar
slept; but he pulled hard at his curly hair as a plan germinated in the
sluggish convolutions of his brain.

It was a very vague and a very childlike plan, but too much could not
be expected from one who had been conceived, born and bred on the
animal plane.

After an hour's pondering it, however, took a fairly definite outline.

When the sun had warmed the cool wind of night he would hide the body
under the straw and visit his eunuch twin, who had really been the
cause of the disaster. His silence would have to be bought. Of course
it would have been better to have broken his neck at once, but it was
too late now, so there was no use in worrying! Then he would go
terrorise the servants, giving them to understand that he had been left
in charge in his mistress's absence; he would remain in charge until he
had acquired enough money to buy the coal-black little Venus who worked
in the Shoemakers Bazaar; after that he would creep away with her and
return to his own village further down the Nile.

And because, perhaps, of the childishness of the plan it succeeded up
to a certain point.

He found his eunuch brother, who was the only one besides his master
and himself to know that the dancer had been Zulannah, in the grip of
such terror and physical pain as to be almost imbecile, though a look
of cunning had shone for a moment in his bloodshot eyes when Qatim had
inadvertently let drop a hint as to the accumulated riches in his hovel.

Anyway, they came to an understanding which ensured the eunuch's
silence at the price of so much good money, paid in instalments.

Qatim had no intention of holding to his side of the agreement, nor his
brother to his--as is the way of such breed of Oriental.

Then, just as he was, clad only in loin-cloth and with whip in hand,
the gigantic brute strode to the House of Zulannah. Ensued a turbulent
hour, at the end of which he remained acknowledged master of the house
and inmates until the return of the mistress,