ran forward.

The soldiers thrust Yusef back. Mahommed Selim turned and whispered to
the sergeant.

"Backsheesh!" he said; "my grey Arab for a word with Yusef the ghaffir."

"Malaish!" said the sergeant; and the soldiers cleared a way for Yusef.

The palms of the men from Beni Souef met once, twice, thrice; they
touched their lips, their breasts, their foreheads, with their hands,
three times. Then Mahommed Selim fell upon the breast of Yusef and
embraced him. Doing so he whispered in his ear:

"In the name of Allah, tell Soada I died fighting the Dervishes!"

"So be it, in God's name!" said Yusef. "A safe journey to you, brother
of giants."

Next morning at sunrise, between two dom-palms, stood Mahommed Selim;
but scarce a handful of the soldiers sent to see him die laughed when
the rope was thrown over his head. For his story had gone abroad, and
it was said that he was mad--none but a madman would throw away his life
for a fellah woman. And was it not written that a madman was one beloved
of Allah, who had taken his spirit up into heaven, leaving only the
disordered body behind?

If, at the last moment, Mahommed Selim had but cried out: "I am mad;
with my eyes I have seen God!" no man would have touched the rope that
hanged him up that day.

But, according to the sacred custom, he only asked for a bowl of
water, drank it, said "Allah!" and bowed his head three times towards
Mecca--and bowed his head no more.

Before another quarter was added to the moon, Yusef, the drunken
ghaffir, at the door of Soada's hut in Beni Souef, told old Fatima
the most wonderful tale, how Mahommed Selim had died on his sheepskin,
having killed ten Dervishes with his own hand; and that a whole regiment
had attended his funeral.

This is to the credit of Yusef's account, that the last half of his
statement was no lie.

ON THE REEF OF NORMAN'S WOE

"It was the schooner Hesperus
That sailed the wintry sea;
And the skipper had taken his little daughter
To bear him company.
-------------------
Such was the wreck of the Hesperus
In the midnight and the snow!
Christ save us all from a death like this,
On the reef of Norman's woe!"

Only it was not the schooner Hesperus, and she did not sail the wintry
sea. It was the stern-wheeled tub Amenhotep, which churned her way up
and down the Nile, scraping over sand banks, butting the shores with
gaiety emba