ton excitedly.

"Be not alarmed, excellency," said Yussuf respectfully, his commanding
authoritative manner gone. "If the young effendi had been bitten he
would not look and speak like this."

"He is quite right," said Mr Burne, who was looking very pale, and who
had been watching anxiously all through this scene. "But was it a
poisonous snake?"

"One of the worst we have, effendi," said Yussuf, stooping to pick up
the broad flat head of the reptile, and showing all in turn that two
keen little fangs were there in the front, looking exactly like a couple
of points of glass.

"Yes," said the professor, "as far as I understand natural history,
these are poison fangs. Bury the dangerous little thing, or crush it
into the earth, Yussuf."

The guide took a stone and turned it over--a great fragment, weighing
probably a hundred pounds--and then all started away, for there was an
asp curled up beneath, ready to raise its head menacingly, but only to
be crushed down again as Yussuf let the stone fall.

"Try another," said the professor, and a fresh fragment was raised, to
be found tenantless. Beneath this the head of the poisonous reptile was
thrown, the stone dropped back in its place; and, sufficient time having
been spent in the old amphitheatre, they returned to the Turk's house to
get their horses and ride off to see the ruins across the stream where
the djins and evil spirits had their homes.

The horses were waiting when they got back, and the village seemed
empty; for the people were away for the most part in their fields and
gardens. Their host would have had them partake of coffee again, and a
pipe, but the professor was anxious to get over to the ruins, what he
had seen having whetted his appetite; so, after paying the man liberally
for everything they had had, they mounted.

Quite a change had come over their unwilling host of the previous night,
for as he held Mr Preston's rein he whispered:

"Ask the great effendi with the yellow turban to forgive thy servant his
treatment last night."

"What does he say, Yussuf?" asked Mr Preston; and Yussuf, as
interpreter, had to announce that if the effendis were that way again
their host would be glad to entertain them, for his house was theirs and
all he had whether they paid or no.

"And tell the effendis to beware," he whispered; "there are djins and
evil spirits among the old mosques, and houses, and tombs; and there are
evil men--robbers, who slay and