those of his fellows. He also saw
that one or two of the dervishes watched the slight man covertly.

Five of the little group suddenly threw themselves upon the matting,
adding their bodies to the highway of bones and flesh. Then another and
another did the same, leaving three who, with the little man, made
a fanatical chorus. Now the three near the little man began to cut
themselves with steel and knives, and one set fire to his jibbeh and
began to chew the flames. Yet the faces of all three were turned towards
the little man, who did no more than shriek and gesticulate and sway his
body wildly up and down. He was tanned and ragged and bearded and
thin, and there was a weird brilliance in his eyes, which watched his
companions closely.

So fierce and frenzied were the actions of those with him, that the
attention of the Khedive was drawn; and Sadik, looking at his master,
saw that his eyes also were intently fixed on the little man. At that
instant the little man himself caught the eye of the Khedive, and Ismail
involuntarily dropped a hand upon his sword, for some gesture of this
dervish, some familiar turn of his body, startled him. Where had he
seen the gesture before? Who was this pilgrim who did not cut and wound
himself like his companions? Suddenly the three mad dervishes waved
their hands towards the matting and shrieked something into his ear.
The little man's eyes shot a look at the Khedive. Ismail's ferret eye
fastened on him, and a quick fear as of assassination crossed his face
as the small dervish ran forward with the other three to the lane of
human flesh, where there was still a gap to be filled, and the cry rose
up that the Sheikh of the Dosah had left his tent and was about to begin
his direful ride.

Sadik the Mouffetish saw the Khedive's face, and suddenly said in his
ear: "Shall my slave seize him, Highness whom God preserve?"

The Khedive did not reply, for at that moment he recognised the dervish;
and now he understood that Dicky Donovan had made the pilgrimage to
Mecca with the Mahmal caravan; that an infidel had desecrated the holy
city; and that his Englishman had lied to him. His first impulse was to
have Dicky seized and cast to the crowd, to be torn to pieces. Dicky's
eyes met his without wavering--a desperate yet resolute look--and Ismail
knew that the little man would sell his life dearly, if he had but half
a chance. He also saw in Dicky's eyes the old honesty, the fearless
straight