reck somewhere."

"Ye know the way by which I came," continued Abdalla loudly. "Nothing
is hid from you. I came near to the person of the Prince, whom God make
wise while yet the stars of his life give light! In the palace of Abdin
none was preferred before me. I was much in the sun, and mine eyes were
dazzled. Yet in season I spake the truth, and for you I laboured. But
not as one hath a life to give and seeks to give it. For the dazzle
that was in mine eyes hid from me the fulness of your trials. But an
end there was to these things. She came to the palace a
slave-Noor-ala-Noor.... Nay, nay, be silent still, my brothers. Her soul
was the soul of one born free. On her lips was wisdom. In her heart was
truth like a flaming sword. To the Prince she spoke not as a slave to a
slave, but in high level terms. He would have married her, but her life
lay in the hollow of her hand, and the hand was a hand to open and shut
according as the soul willed. She was ready to close it so that none
save Allah might open it again. Then in anger the Prince would have
given her to his bowab at the gates, or to the Nile, after the manner of
a Turk or a Persian tyrant--may God purge him of his loathsomeness...!"

He paused, as though choking with passion and grief, and waved a hand
over the crowd in agitated command.

"Here's the old sore open at last--which way now?" said Dicky in a
whisper. "It's the toss of a penny where he'll pull up. As I thought ...
'Sh!" he added as Renshaw was about to speak.

Abdalla continued. "Then did I stretch forth my hand, and, because I
loved her, a slave with the freedom of God in her soul and on her face,
I said, 'Come with me,' and behold! she came, without a word, for our
souls spake to each other, as it was in the olden world, ere the hearts
of men were darkened. I, an Egyptian of a despised and down-trodden
land, where all men save the rich are slaves, and the rich go in the
fear of their lives; she, a woman from afar, of that ancient tribe
who conquered Egypt long ago--we went forth from the palace alone
and penniless. He, the Prince, dared not follow to do me harm, for my
father's father ye knew, and my father ye knew, and me ye knew since I
came into the world, and in all that we had ye shared while yet we had
to give; yea, and he feared ye. We lived among ye, poor as ye are poor,
yet rich for that Egypt was no poorer because of us." He waved his hand
as though to still the storm he was raising...