llahi sabbila!"

Rocking his body backwards and forwards and dwelling sonorously on each
vowel, the holy man seemed the incarnation of Muslim piety; but as the
two conspirators passed him with scarce a glance, and made their way to
a small gate leading into the great garden bordering on the Nile, his
eyes watched them sharply. When they had passed through, he turned
towards the windows of the harem, still chanting. For a long time he
chanted. An occasional servant came and went, but his voice ceased not,
and he kept his eyes fixed ever on the harem windows.

At last his watching had its reward. Something fluttered from a window
to the ground. Still chanting, he rose and began walking round the great
court-yard. Twice he went round, still chanting, but the third time he
stooped to pick up a little strip of linen which had fallen from the
window, and concealed it in his sleeve. Presently he seated himself
again, and, still chanting, spread out the linen in his palm and read
the characters upon it. For an instant there was a jerkiness to the
voice, and then it droned on resonantly again. Now the eyes of the holy
man were fixed on the great gates through which strangers entered, and
he was seated in the way which any one must take who came to the palace
doors.

It was almost dark, when he saw the bowab, after repeated knocking,
sleepily and grudgingly open the gates to admit a visitor. There seemed
to be a moment's hesitation on the bowab's part, but he was presently
assured by something the visitor showed him, and the latter made his way
deliberately to the palace doors. As the visitor neared the holy man,
who chanted on monotonously, he was suddenly startled to hear between
the long-drawn syllables the quick words in Arabic:

"Beware, Saadat! See, I am Mahommed Hassan, thy servant! At midnight
they surround Kaid's palace--Achmet and Higli--and kill the Prince
Pasha. Return, Saadat. Harrik will kill thee."

David made no sign, but with a swift word to the faithful Mahommed
Hassan, passed on, and was presently admitted to the palace. As the
doors closed behind him, he would hear the voice of the holy man still
chanting: "Waladalleen--Ameen-Ameen! Waladalleen--Ameen!"

The voice followed him, fainter and fainter, as he passed through the
great bare corridors with the thick carpets on which the footsteps made
no sound, until it came, soft and undefined, as it were from a great
distance. Then suddenly there fell upon him