menagerie not a thousand feet away. He could hear the
distant roaring now, and his eyes glittered. The Christian to the wild
beasts! That at least before the end. A Muslim would win heaven by
sending a Christian to hell.

Achmet--Higli! No others knew. The light of a fateful fanaticism was in
his eyes. David read him as an open book, and saw the madness come upon
him.

"Neither Higli, nor Achmet, nor any of thy fellow-conspirators has
betrayed thee," David said. "God has other voices to whisper the truth
than those who share thy crimes. I have ears, and the air is full of
voices."

Harrik stared at him. Was this Inglesi, then, with the grey coat,
buttoned to the chin, and the broad black hat which remained on his head
unlike the custom of the English--was he one of those who saw visions
and dreamed dreams, even as himself! Had he not heard last night a voice
whisper through the dark "Harrik, Harrik, flee to the desert! The lions
are loosed upon thee!" Had he not risen with the voice still in his ears
and fled to the harem, seeking Zaida, she who had never cringed before
him, whose beauty he had conquered, but whose face turned from him when
he would lay his lips on hers? And, as he fled, had he not heard, as it
were, footsteps lightly following him--or were they going before him?
Finding Zaida, had he not told her of the voice, and had she not said:
"In the desert all men are safe--safe from themselves and safe from
others; from their own acts and from the acts of others"? Were the
lions, then, loosed upon him? Had he been betrayed?

Suddenly the thought flashed into his mind that his challenger would not
have thrust himself into danger, given himself to the mouth of the Pit,
if violence were intended. There was that inside his robe, than which
lightning would not be more quick to slay. Had he not been a hunter of
repute? Had he not been in deadly peril with wild beasts, and was he
not quicker than they? This man before him was like no other he had ever
met. Did voices speak to him? Were there, then, among the Christians
such holy men as among the Muslims, who saw things before they happened,
and read the human mind? Were there sorcerers among them, as among the
Arabs?

In any case his treason was known. What were to be the consequences?
Diamond-dust in his coffee? To be dropped into the Nile like a dog?
To be smothered in his sleep?--For who could be trusted among all his
slaves and retainers when it was known he